On March 22, 2024, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona sent a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) informing schools that âthere is still more work to doâ to address chronic student absenteeism as the 2024-25 approaches.
Thus far, many school districts have increased home visits and utilized dashboards to effectively track attendance.
In his letter, Sec. Cardona urged schools to use accountability systems to measure chronic absenteeism to identify schools for support and improvement. He also enjoined each state to commit to helping students attend and engage in school daily, ensure more students attend regularly for the rest of the 2023-24 school year, and to lay a foundation now for more progress in the 2024-25 school year.
Click here to access the DCL.
Category: Federal Government Actions
Due to Miscalculation of Data, FAFSA Forms Corrections are Now the Latest Delay (March 28, 2024)
On March 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) announced that the ability for students to make updates and corrections to their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms in the first half of April. This is another delay in a process that has been rife with delays and technical issues.
In advance of that implementation, USDE will provide detailed information to partners, students, and families on how to correct the most common FAFSA form errors including no signatures and selecting âyesâ to applying for unsubsidized loans only (Question 8).
The reason for this most recent delay is due to a recently identified a vendor issue that was incorrectly calculating the Student Aid Index for records of dependent students with assets. That issue has now been resolved.
To date, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) has processed more than 4.3 million FAFSA forms and delivered ISIRs to the majority of schools, states, and designated scholarship organizations.
Click here for more information from the USDE.
USDE, HHS, and PaTTAN Provide Student Discipline and Inclusion Guidance to LEAs (March 25, 2024)
On March 25, 2024, Bureau of Special Education Director Carole L. Clancy sent a PENN*LINK message to all LEAs with the subject line Recent Guidance issued by the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and PaTTAN. That message states that, for the 2023-24 school year, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), Bureau of Special Education (BSE) is sharing updated links to recent guidance issued by the U.S. Departments of Education (USDE) and Health and Human Services (HHS). The links below will cover the topics of discipline provisions for students with disabilities as set forth in the Individuals with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), inclusion of students with disabilities in early childhood programs, general supervision responsibilities, student discipline under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, military-connected children with disabilities and Intervener Services. These links are provided for review.
- https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/qa-addressing-the-needs-of-children-with-disabilities-and-idea-discipline-provisions.pdf
- https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/policy-statement-on-inclusion-11-28-2023.pdf
- https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/Guidance_on_State_General_Supervision_Responsibilities_under_Parts_B_and_C_of_IDEA-07-24-2023.pdf
- https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/504-discipline-guidance.pdf
- https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/Letter-to-State-Directors-of-Special-ED-Military-Connected-Children-with-Disabilities-11-09-2023.pdf
- https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/DCL-on-Myths-and-Facts-Surrounding-Assistive-Technology-Devices-01-22-2024.pdf
- https://sites.ed.gov/idea/files/Myths-and-Facts-Surrounding-Assistive-Technology-Devices-01-22-2024.pdf
- https://www.pattan.net/Disabilities/Deaf-Blind/Interveners
For additional information, please visit the following sites.
- https://www.ed.gov/
- https://www.hhs.gov/ocr/index.html
- https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/index.html
For questions about the recent guidance, please email Tim Krushinski [email protected].
USDE FY2024 Budget is Finally Approved (March 24, 2024)
On March 23, 2024, President Joe Biden signed the FY 2024 budget for the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and other agencies. This signing followed the March 22nd approval by the House and Senate.
Under the approved budget, the USDE receives $79.1 billion for FY 2024, which is $500 million less than was received for FY 2023. The agreement comes more than six months after the Oct. 1, 2023 deadline to finalize the FY 2024 budget appropriations for the USDE and several other agencies.
For the USDE, Title I and state grants for special education services each receive a $20 million increase over FY 2023 allocations and avoids a Republican-led proposal recommending an 80% cut in Title I funding.
For more from K-12 Dive, click here.
Raising the Bar for Childrenâs Mental Health (March 21, 2024)
On Monday, April 1, 2024 from 2:00-4:30 p.m. EST, The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) in partnership with the Center for Medicaid Services (CMS) Health and Human Services (HHS), will convene state and local government leaders virtually to discuss investing in childrenâs mental health and well-being. The convening will feature schools, districts, and states that are successfully providing school-based services and are investing in building schoolsâ capacity to support student mental health. It will also raise the issue of sustainability and discuss resources available to ensure states are positioned to utilize Medicaid funds to sustain these efforts long-term.
The webinar is open to the public and anyone can attend. However, on April 2nd, USDE and CMS are offering SEA and SMA teams an opportunity to receive technical assistance and discuss school-based services in their state. This unique opportunity is not always available to states, so interested parties are encouraged to take advantage and indicate through registration if they are interested in being considered for this opportunity and a USDE team will follow up.
Sign up by clicking HERE TO REGISTER.