Category: Federal Government Actions

PDE Memo: LEAs Must Meet Federal Special Ed Reporting Requirement (May 25, 2024)

On May 22, 2024, PDA Bureau of Special Ed. Director Carole L. Clancy messaged all LEAs via PennLink. Her message, Local Educational Agency Special Education Data Reports Online. advised LEAs that under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA), every state must report annually to the public on the performance of each local educational agency (LEA) on the targets established in the State Performance Plan. This year states are required to report 2022-23 performance on the following State Performance Plan indicators for school-age students with disabilities: Graduation Rates; Dropout Rates; Participation and Performance on Statewide Assessments; Suspension Rates; Educational Environments; School-Facilitated Parent Involvement; Disproportionate Representation by Race/Ethnicity Receiving Special Education; Disproportionate Representation by Race/Ethnicity in Specific Disability Categories; Timelines for Initial Evaluation; Individual Education Program Secondary Transition Goals and Services; and Post-School Outcomes.

At the beginning of May 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) provided LEAs with an opportunity to preview these reports prior to going live to the public. The reports are now posted and available for public review at the Special Education Data Reporting (formerly PennData) website, (https://penndata.hbg.psu.edu/Public-Reporting/SEDR-Report-Dashboard). Please select your LEA from the drop-down list.

PDE thanks LEAs for their cooperation and assistance in meeting this federal reporting requirement.

DOJ Final Rule Aims to Ensure Disabled People have Accessibility to Website and Mobile Apps (May 7, 2024)

On April 8, 2024, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a federal rule to ensure web content and mobile apps are accessible for people with disabilities. The update to regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were subsequently published on April 24th by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The update calls for all state and local governments to verify that their web content is accessible for those with vision, hearing, cognitive, and manual dexterity disabilities. To do so will require public K-12 and higher education institutions to do a thorough inventory of their digital materials, including mobile apps and social media postings, to make sure they are in compliance.

Presently, students, staff, and parents who are deaf may be not be able to access information in web videos and other digital presentations lacking captions. Similarly, those with low vision might not be able to read websites or mobile apps that do not allow text to be resized or provide enough contrast. Likewise, people with limited manual dexterity or vision disabilities who use assistive technology can find it difficult to access sites that do not support keyboard alternatives for mouse commands. To that end, the new DOJ rule aims to make sure that no person is denied access to government services, programs, or activities because of their disability.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.

USDA Issues Final Rule on Updated School Meal Nutrition Standards (April 28, 2024)

On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its final ruleĀ updating nutrition standards for school mealsĀ that requires gradual limits on added sugars and slight reductions for sodium for breakfasts and lunches to be in place by the fall of 2027.

The new school meal nutrition standards are part of the Biden administrationā€™s steps to improve childrenā€™s health as included in theĀ National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health.

According to the USDA, on a daily basis K-12 schools serve breakfast and lunch to almost 30 million children.

For more from K-12 Dive,Ā click here.

Breaking News: Final Title IX Rule Issued This Morning (April 19, 2024)

From K-12 Dive

Today, April 19, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) issued its long-awaited Title IX rule, which for the first time enshrines protections for LGBTQI+ students and employees, as well as pregnant students and employees,under the civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.Ā 

ā€œNo one should have to give up their dreams of attending or finishing school because theyā€™re pregnant,ā€ said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a press briefing late Thursday. ā€œNo one should face bullying or discrimination just because of who they are or who they love. Sadly, this happens all too often.ā€

Among other changes, the new rule defines sex-based harassment as including harassment based on sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy and related conditions, and gender identity and sexual orientation.  It cements federal protections for LGTBQI+ students and employees that have swung between administrations for over a decade.

The new regulations also:

  • Require that schools assume an accused student is innocent at the outset of an investigation.
  • Give schools the ability to offer an informal resolution process, except in cases of student allegations against employees. 
  • Require schools to provide breastfeeding rooms for students and employees.
  • Protect students and employees with medical conditions related to, or who are recovering from, termination of pregnancy. 
  • Revive the single-investigator model, which allows an individual to serve as both the case decision-maker and Title IX investigator.
  • Provide more discretion to schools and colleges to tailor Title IX policies based on their size, age of students, and administrative structures. 
  • Make questioning at live hearings optional for colleges and universities.
  • Have institutions largely rely on the ā€œpreponderance of the evidenceā€ standard often used in civil lawsuits, making optional the ā€œclear and convincingā€ standard.

The ruleā€™s anticipated changes were expected to largely overhaul higher education requirements under the 2020 regulations put in place by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and make lesser tweaks to K-12 portions of the rule.Ā 

For more details from K-12 Dive, click here.

Billing Concerns Delay Proposed School-based Medicaid Rule (April 13, 2024)

Concerns over negative impacts to studentsā€™ out-of-school public insurance benefits appear to be delaying the release of a U.S. Department of Education (USDE) final rule that is supposed to ease the process of obtaining parental consent for Medicaid school-based health services. While some worry that childrenā€™s school-based services can adversely affect outside services, there appears to be no concrete examples of such. In fact, parental consent forms allowing for school-based Medicaid billing explicitly state that such permissions will not affect lifetime coverage or any other insured benefits.

However, last August 26th organizations said in a letter to the USDE that, ā€œParents are routinely informed, sometimes even after services in other settings have already been rendered, that the Medicaid agency has deemed them duplicative with school-based services and their coverage is denied.ā€

The final rule was expected to be released in January and there is still no release date in sight.

For more from K-12 Dive, click here.