Every Student Succeeds Act And More

Edgar ZazuetaDirector of Governmental Relations

CASCWA Southern Section Topical ForumFebruary 5, 2016

What We Will Cover Today

• Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

• State Budget

• Legislation

• ACSA membership

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Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

• Returns more control to the state and school districts for the education of their students

• Significantly reduces the legal authority of the U.S. Secretary of Education

• Takes effect in the 2017-18 school year and is authorized for 4-years

• Ends mandate on teacher evaluations• Consolidates School Improvement Grants into a larger

Title I block grant• Eliminates Highly Qualified designation – states no longer

required to ensure special education teachers are highly qualified

• Teachers must meet applicable certification and licensing requirements

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Standards, Assessment and Accountability

• Maintains annual assessment for every student in grades 3-8 in math and English Language Arts

• Annual assessment once in high school• 3 assessments in science (one-per-grade span)• Accountability of ELL students moved from Title III to

Title I• Gives states 2-options to address ELL students:

1. Continue current law including ELL test scores after they have been in the country for one year; or

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Standards, Assessment and Accountability

2. New option to increase efforts over a 3-year span• Year 1: states can have all ELL students take the

assessments and publicly report the results but not count toward or against a school’s rating

• Year 2: State would incorporate ELL results in both math and reading

• Year 3: ELL proficiency scores would be treated the same as non-English learners. English learners in the country for less than one year would be exempt

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Standards, Assessment and Accountability

• Adds migrant status as a category that must be disaggregated along with race, economically disadvantaged, and children with disabilities

• ELLs may be included in migrant status for assessment purposes for no more than 4-years

• Alternative Assessment: Capped at 1% at the state level for most significant cognitive disabilities

• Allows local IEP teams to make the determination on an individual basis as driven by IDEA. Expressly prohibits the Secretary of Education and the state from forcing a cap on the LEA

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Standards, Assessment and Accountability

• LEAs will have an alternative assessment rate determined by need

• State is responsible for monitoring LEAs• State can pursue waiver if state rate is over 1%• Allows states to set a target limit on total amount of

time devoted to test taking• Maintains 95% testing opt-out but states are allowed

to craft their own opt-out laws• State and LEAs determine when schools miss target• States account for low testing rates in accountability

plans but have latitude on how to account for it7

Standards, Assessment and Accountability

• Mirrors much of California’s LCFF and LCAP• Eliminates AYP and replaces with state assurance

that it adopted challenging academic content standards and aligned academic achievement standards in math, reading or language arts, science, and college and career readiness

• Establishes at least 3-levels of achievement to be used by state, LEA and schools

• Ensures standards apply to all public schools and students

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Standards, Assessment and Accountability

• Local accountability plans must be developed in consultation with teachers, principals and paraprofessionals

• Plan builds on state-led innovation using multiple measures beyond test scores such as school quality, student engagement, school climate and safety

• States must identify lowest 5% of Title I schools for support and improvement

• High schools with graduation rate under 67% is one measurement

• States develop exit criteria – no federally prescribed turn-around models

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Standards, Assessment and Accountability

• Comprehensive Support and Improvement– State notifies an LEA of any schools identified– LEA oversees local development and implementation of

comprehensive support and improvement plan– LEA may provide all students enrolled in the school with

option to transfer to another public school• Targeted Support and Improvement

– State notifies LEAs of schools that have student subgroups consistently underperforming

– LEA notifies school of identification– Schools must develop and implement a targeted support

and improvement plan for each subgroup– Plan must include evidence-based interventions approved

by the LEA 10

Title II

• State must allocate 95% of funds to LEAs• Provides professional development resources to states

and school districts to support teachers, principals and other educators

• Funds used to:– build educator and leader capacity to improve student

achievement, – improve quality and effectiveness of teachers and

administrators, – increase number of teachers and administrators effective in

improving student academic achievement, and – provide low-income and minority students greater access to

effective teachers and administrators11

Title III

Biggest change, accountability for English Language Learners has been moved to Title I

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Title IV

• Provides grants to increase capacity of states, LEAs, schools and local community to provide students with a well-rounded education, to improve school conditions for learning, to improve the use of technology to improve academic achievement

• Funds can be used for many things including activities to foster safe, healthy supportive and drug free environments

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Title IV

• Renames Parental Information and Resource Centers to Family Engagement Center to strengthen partnerships between parents, teachers, school leaders, administrators and other school personnel in meeting educational needs of children and fostering greater parental engagement

• Awards 5-year competitive grants to support Promise Neighborhoods and full service community schools

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Title IX

• Places greater emphasis on identifying homeless children and youth, improving collaboration and information sharing among federal and state agencies, providing greater school stability and protections for homeless youth and parents

• Reimbursement of additional transportation costs are assumed by LEA only if they are being reimbursed by the child welfare agency, agreed to share the costs with child welfare or if the district decides to cover the costs

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Title IX

• Establishes a new preschool development program to be administered by the Health and Human Services Department in conjunction with the Education Department in addition to Head Start and Child Care Development Block Grants

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ESSA Transition

• Waivers end August 1, 2016• States must continue current interventions during the

transition• California will be given flexibility in the 2016-17

school year:– May but not required to ensure LEAs are providing

supplemental education services, public school choice and related notification to parents

– States that do not enforce this must develop a transition plan to ensure affected students have adequate alternate supports

– Additional guidance from DOE soon17

ESSA Transition

• Competitive grants funded like ESEA until October 1, 2016

• 2015 teacher equity plans are in effect through 2016-17 with same reporting requirements

• Continues State Plans to Ensure Equitable Access to Excellent Educators ensuring minority students are not taught at higher rates by inexperienced or unqualified teachers

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ESSA Transition

• SPI Torlakson and State Board of Education (SBE) President Kirst, sent joint letter seeking waiver to:– Allow districts flexibility to use funds currently spent on

supplemental education services for other high quality programs designed by the district; AND

– To waive provisions of AYP so no new schools are required to be identified before ESSA takes effect. DOE has yet to respond

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State Budget

• $71.6 billion to k-12 education• $2.8 billion towards LCFF implementation• Closes 49.08% of remaining gap• LCFF: Increase of $1.7 million to county offices to

support COLA• Increased funding necessary to meet the minimum

guarantee– 2015-16: $69.2 billion ($800 million increase)– 2014-15: $66.7 billion ($400 million increase)

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One-Time Funding

• $1.28 billion ($4.9 billion over 3 years) fully discretionary one-time funding to school districts, county offices, and charter schools

• Funds received will directly offset any unreimbursed state mandate claims, but all LEAs receive fund regardless of mandate claims

• Approximately $1.6 billion remains in mandate backlog

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Early Education Block Grant

• $1.65 billion for new block grant• State Preschool Program ($885 million)• Transitional Kindergarten ($725 million)• Preschool Quality Rating and Improvement System

($50 million)• Hold Harmless to ensure each LEA receives a

minimum amount

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Legislation of Interest

• SB 460 (Allen): ACSA co-sponsored bill which enables LEAs to receive a percentage of LCFF supplemental concentration grant funding for two fiscal years after ELL students are reclassified– Requires an LEA in it’s LCAP to account for “any

specialized programs or services provided to pupils re-designated as Fluent English proficient in order for them to maintain proficiency in English and access the common core academic content standards.”

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Legislation of Interest

• SB 884 (Beall): Spot bill to enact legislation relating to mental health services to pupils with exceptional needs

• AB 1576 (Eggman): Spot bill to enact legislation that would utilize school-based mental health services to address the mental health needs of students

• SB 1644 (Bonta): Extends Early Mental Health Intervention and Prevention Services of Children Act to include preschool program held at an elementary school and transitional kindergarten

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Legislation of Interest

• State SARB Recommendation requiring charter schools appoint a Supervisor of Attendance and clarifies role of all Supervisors of Attendance

• Targeted funding for professional development to address alternative discipline (Jones-Sawyer)

• ACSA hosting meeting with civil rights and education groups to determine priority for $

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ACSA Membership

• Thank you to current ACSA members• Mentoring• Professional and Legal Assistance• Enhanced Professional Liability Coverage• Professional Development• Proactive Advocacy • Leadership Opportunities• We need your knowledge and leadership to help

ACSA members and to influence legislation• Contact ACSA Member Services at

memberservices@acsa.org or call 800-608-ACSA26

Questions?

Edgar ZazuetaDirector of Policy and Governmental Relations

ezazueta@acsa.org (800) 608-2272

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