Category: News

Office Hours for Act 13 & the FRCPP (August 14, 2026)

Act 13 Office Hours provide guidance and support on implementing Act 13 Educator Effectiveness requirements and processes. Each session provides answers to frequently asked questions and includes an open forum for participants to ask additional questions. To view the schedule of Act 13 Office Hours for the 2026-27 school year and to register, visit the Educator Effectiveness page on the SAS website under the Office Hours tab.

The Future Ready Comprehensive Planning Portal (FRCPP) Office Hours is an open session for attendees to ask questions about the plans and reports housed within FRCPP. Sessions are held the first Wednesday of the month from 2:30–3:30pm virtually via Microsoft Teams. After logging into the FRCPP through MyPDESuite, the passcode and meeting ID for these sessions can be found in the bottom left corner of FRCPP’s home screen.

USDE to End Disparate Impact Investigations (August 14, 2026)

School districts and states under federal investigation from the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) may soon see their cases narrowed or dropped as a result of the USDE’s recent announcement that it was formally walking back some systemic race-based discrimination investigations. The types of cases most likely to be affected were investigated by the Biden and Obama administrations under the disparate impact legal theory, which targets policies or practices that are neutral on their face but harm Black or other historically marginalized student groups in practice. The most common issue that has been targeted for investigation is how and whether schools equitably allocate their limited resources. Often, in those cases, school districts are often unintentionally acting in ways that result in disparate impact.

Disparate impact is a legal theory often used to reform policies and practices that unintentionally and disproportionately prevented students of color from accessing education, including issues involving discipline, access to advanced coursework and gifted programs, ability grouping and tracking, and school assignment and attendance boundaries

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Suit Filed Over USDE Professional Degree Definition (August 13, 2026)

On August 11, 2026, a coalition of unions, including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), sued the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) over its regulatory definition of a “professional degree,” which excludes education graduate programs. The suit alleges that the omission of education graduate programs will make it more difficult and less attractive for students to enter the teaching profession.

In fact, students in advanced degree programs considered “professional” by the USDE are able to take out up to $200,000 in federal student loans. Education graduate students, and others pursuing fields excluded from the designation are capped at $100,000.

The lawsuit follows a federal judge’s June 2026 order from a temporarily blocking the USDE’s professional degree definition. Subsequently, as a result of that court order, the USDE expanded its list of professional degree programs to include nursing, physical therapy, athletic training and occupational therapy as of July 10th. However, education graduate programs have remained excluded.

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Schools Must Be Aware of Mental Well-Being of Students in Military Families (August 12, 2026)

Students, particularly those adolescents in military families face, unique issues, such as frequent moves and parental deployments, that can present barriers to learning. In fact, a survey released on August 10, 2026 by the National Military Family Association (NMFA) shows 22% of teens in military families reported low mental well-being, nearly 30% reported thoughts of self-harm within the previous six months, and 16% said they had harmed themselves at least once during that time period. Also, about 2% of the approximately 800 respondents reported making a suicide plan in the prior three months.

In addition, teens living in military families also have faced food insecurity at higher rates than their civilian peers for five consecutive years, according to NMFA’s findings. Slightly over one-third of respondents reported some level of food insecurity in the previous month, which exceeds the 20% rate reported in 2023 for military families overall.

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Kids Online Safety Act Clears Key Senate Panel with Bipartisan Support (August 12, 2026)

On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee advanced four key children’s online safety bills. Those bills now head to the Senate floor for a vote.

One of the bills, the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), addresses how to best protect youth online, particularly pertaining to social media and artificial intelligence. Pressure has mounted as both concerns and litigation over the mental health risks to children and teens have become areas of great concern. 

The other bills approved for advancement include the Youth AI Privacy Act; the Children’s Health, Advancement, Trust, Boundaries, and Oversight in Technology Act; and the Children’s Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act.

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