Category: Government Actions

Stem Sends Memo Regarding Participation in State Assessments

FROM: Matthew Stem, Deputy Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

RE: Participation in the State Assessments and Parental/Guardian Rights Afforded Under Chapter 4 and Accountability Under ESSA

Date: March 5, 2018

As we approach the PSSA and spring Keystone testing windows, I would like to remind all LEAs about requirements for participation in the state assessments. The United States Department of Education (ED) continues to require participation of all students; however, in recognition of special circumstances, ED provides some flexibility for five percent non-participation. This five percent flexibility is important to Pennsylvania, as Chapter 4 regulations allow parents/guardians to have their children excused from testing due to a conflict with religious belief. Though Pennsylvania regulations permit this excusal, ED does not recognize this as an allowable reason for non-participation and all students who do not participate due to the allowance in Chapter 4 will have a negative impact on an LEA’s/school’s participation rate, and potentially achievement rate as well. (For more information, please view the webinar: https://youtu.be/kPIWKVDkqII ). The provision in Chapter 4 specifically says,

§ 4.4 General Policies.

(d) School entities shall adopt policies to assure that parents or guardians have the following:

(4) The right to review a State assessment in the school entity during the convenient hours for parents and guardians, at least 2 weeks prior to their admijn9istration, to determine whether a Sate assessment conflicts with their religious belief. To protect the validity and integrity of the State assessments, each school entity shall have in place procedures to be followed when parents or guardians request to view any state assessment. Procedures must be consistent with guidance provided by the Department in its assessment administration instructions. If upon inspection of a State assessment parents or guardians find the assessment to be in conflict with their religious belief and wish their students to be excused from the assessment, the right of the parents or guardians will not be denied upon written request that states the objection to the applicable school district superintendent, charter school chief executive officer or AVTS director.

Parents/guardians are not to be denied their right to have their children excused if they follow proper protocol. Parents/guardians must sign a confidentiality agreement form prior to reviewing the assessment. After reviewing the assessment, parents/guardians must state in writing to the superintendent, CEO, or AVTS director that they wish to have their child(ren) excused from the assessment due to a conflict with religious belief. The specific conflict does not need to be stated; simply that it is a conflict with religious belief.

LEAs and schools are encouraged to seek 100 percent participation in the assessments, but please be reminded of parents’/guardians’ rights under Chapter 4.

DeVos Proposes 2019 USDE Budget and Clarifies USDE Stance on Transgender Bathroom Use

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have released their proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year, which channels more than $1 billion to be spent on private school vouchers and other school choice plans. The budget proposal also calls for cutting $3.6 billion from the USDE by eliminating a total of 29 discretionary programs, including federal funding for some after-school programming for needy children; eliminating funding for the $2 billion Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants Program (Title II, Part A) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as well as the $1.2 billion 21st Century Community Learning Centers program (21st CCLC, Title IV, Part B) of the ESSA; professional development for teachers; Special Olympics; and a grant program for college students with exceptional financial need. The budget proposes the deepest funding cuts to the USDE since the Reagan administration was in office. Last year, USDE rolled back steps taken by the Obama administration that protected transgender students when it came to the right of transgender students to use the restroom at school that corresponds with their gender identity. Now the USDE, under the leadership of DeVos, has stated that it will not hear complaints about or take action on the right of transgender boys or girls to use the school restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Recently, USDE had dismissed several discrimination cases regarding transgender student bathroom use. The reasoning now used by the USDE is that Title IX does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Similarly, access to accommodations such as restrooms, or presumably locker rooms, based on the sex of the student and not gender identity is also not considered a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX. Opponents to this position claim that this new policy statement is contrary to court rulings on these issues which have stated that denying transgender students appropriate bathroom access in accordance with their gender identity is a violation of Title IX.

Gov. Wolf’s Budget Proposes Increased Ed Funding

On Tuesday, February 6, 2018,  Governor Wolf delivered his state budget address to the PA General Assembly. His proposal contained a 3.1% increase over last year. The $32.9 billion proposed budget is supportive of education, highlighted by an increase in basic subsidy and special education line items; an increased investment in both career and technical education and workforce development initiatives; and an increase in funding for early childhood programs. The proposal has no major cuts in education. In fact, most other education programs would receive either an increase in funding or would be level-funded. The budget proposal is devoid of any broad-based new taxes. However, seeking to bolster revenue, the governor called for the passage of a severance tax, in addition to maintaining the existing impact fee. Finally, despite the $989.8 million increase in education, public schools will still be facing significant cost increases in employee pensions and special education.

PDE Releases Tentative Schedule for Data Summit

The Pennsylvania Department of Education Office of Data Quality has released a tentative schedule for the 2018 PDE Data Summit March 25-28. The agenda can be found as an attachment in the registration link https://teampa.com/datasummit or on the PDE Data Summit webpage. Education entities are advised to distribute to data and IT staff and managers, Business Managers, Technology Directors, Curriculum Coordinators, EL Coordinators, Child Accounting Coordinators, Special Education Coordinators, or any other interested parties. The Hershey Lodge Reservation Link: https://aws.passkey.com/go/DATASUMMIT2018. Those with questions are asked to reach out directly to Adrian Huber at [email protected].

Congress Extends CHIP Funding for Six More Years

The three-day government shutdown ended with Congress voting to approve a short-term bill that will fund federal operations through February 8, 2018. It will also fully fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through fiscal year 2023. President Trump quickly signed the continuing resolution (CR) into law on the evening of Monday, January 22, 2018. The CHIP program, which provides coverage to children in families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance, had seen its funding technically expire back on October 1, 2017, although a temporary spending bill in December kept the program going through March 2018 maintaining coverage for an estimated nine million children. Nonetheless, more than 20 states were looking at CHIP funding shortfalls by the end of January 2018. Although CHIP is saved for six more years, the CR neglected to extend funding for Community Health Centers, which are also seeing their funding running out.