On November 9, 2021, the National Alliance of Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (NASISP) sent a letter to Congress urging the swift passage of a Labor-HHS-Ed FY 2022 Appropriations bill, which contains historic investment and long overdue increases for public education. As a member of the alliance, NAPSA proudly signed on to the letter, which was sent to  Sen. Patrick Leahy, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair;  Sen. Richard Shelby, Vice Chair; Sen. Patty Murray; and Sen. Roy Blunt.

The letter states that “[w]e (NASISP) believe the federal government has a responsibility to make meaningful investments in programs that help ensure all students have access to the academic, social-emotional, and mental and behavioral health services they need to thrive. We are grateful for the significant investments Congress provided to our public education system to help schools, students, and families recover from the impact of COVID-19. However, those investments are no substitute for long term, predictable federal investments in key education programs that states rely on to serve their students. The passage of a year long CR would be devastating to our students, and further delay in the passage of FY 2022 appropriations inhibits states and LEAs from engaging in meaning financial planning to address the needs of their school community. We urge Congress to fulfill its responsibility and pass an FY 2022 appropriations bill as soon as possible with [the requested] funding levels.”

Those levels are as follows:

ESEA

-Title I-A (ESSA) Education for the Disadvantaged. Requested: Minimum $36.7B.

-Title II-A (ESSA) Supporting Effective Instruction. Requested: Minimum$2.3B.

-Title IV-A (ESSA) Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants. Requested: Minimum $2.0B.

OSERS

-Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B, Grants to States. Requested: Minimum $15.5B.

-IDEA Part B Preschool Grants. Requested: $598M.

-Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part C, Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities, $732.2M.

-State Personnel Development. Requested: Minimum of $42M.

-Personnel Development to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities: $300M.

NOTE: PAPSA is a state affiliate of NAPSA and in turn benefits from the advocacy efforts of both NAPSA and NASISP.

The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have released Supporting Students at Risk of Self-Harm in the Era of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than a year of loss, isolation, and uncertainty for many people, including students, across the country. For some students, these stressors may have caused a mental health disability to worsen. Others may be experiencing mental health disabilities for the first time. In some situations, there may be a risk that a student will engage in self-harm or consider suicide. A student with a condition such as anxiety, depression, or a substance use disorder can have a mental health disability. Students with mental health disabilities are protected by Federal civil rights laws, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). These laws require K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions to provide students with an equal opportunity to learn, free from discrimination, including during public health crises. Section 504 and the ADA require schools and postsecondary institutions to make decisions about how to respond to students at risk of self-harm based on an assessment of each student’s circumstances rather than on fears, generalizations, or stereotypes about mental illness. In making these decisions, schools and postsecondary institutions generally must provide students who have mental health disabilities with reasonable modifications to school policies, practices, and procedures, as appropriate for an individual student. Public elementary and secondary schools must also provide students with disabilities a free appropriate public education, also known as FAPE, after an evaluation, as described in the Section 504 regulations. When schools and postsecondary institutions do not meet these responsibilities, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (CRT) can help by enforcing these Federal laws that protect students from discrimination based on disability.

Examples of the kinds of incidents OCR and CRT can investigate are:
-A middle school student with autism has been experiencing bullying related to her disabilities by classmates at school. The student’s homeroom teacher has noticed the student seems depressed and withdrawn, and the student confides in the teacher that she can’t take it anymore and is considering ending her life. Instead of calling the student’s parents and contacting the school counselor, the teacher calls the school resource officer, who handcuffs the student and takes her to the hospital.
-A public school student has developed severe depression for the first time during the pandemic. Their parent tells the school principal. Despite the school’s Section 504 FAPE obligation to evaluate any student who needs or is believed to need special education or related services because of a disability, the principal does not refer the student for evaluation. Instead, the principal says that all students are struggling because of the pandemic and suggests that the parent should hire a private tutor and find a psychologist for the student.

To access the government website on this topic, click here.

The U.S. Department of Education (USDE), along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have launched a new COVID-19 data dashboard to track the impact of the pandemic on K-12 programs. Included on the dashboard are location data on pediatric COVID-19 cases, youth vaccination rates, and numbers on schools that are operating in-person, hybrid or remote with data updated each week.

For more from the USDE, click here.

On Friday, October 29, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in children aged 5-11. The FDA approval is a huge step towards vaccinations for children in that age group and was based on data showing the a smaller dose of the vaccine to have a  90.7% efficacy rate  of effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 for children 5-11 years old.

The next procedural step will see officials from the Centers for Disease Control of Prevention (CDC) meeting this week to consider recommending the vaccine for use with such children and to issue guidance for vaccine distribution, outreach and resources.. CDC approval would then allow the vaccination process to begin.

As a result, school systems across the country are in various stages of planning for a potential rollout, including hosting vaccine clinics on campus, hiring additional staff, issuing communications to families, and handling parental permissions for students to get a shot.

The FDA panel recommended a two-shot regime of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for elementary-aged students. Each dose would be one-third the amount of an adult shot.

At this point, vaccines for 5-11 year-olds would likely be available within the in early November, which would allow children to be fully immunized by the winter holidays if they follow the two-dose regime spaced 21 days apart.

Sources include the FDA and BioPharma Dive.