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Federal Update

  • Home>
  • Federal Update
  • 2018 Federal Budget is Mixed Bag
  • Significant Action Around School Safety and Discipline
  • Changes Loom for School Discipline Guidance
  • NAEP Scores Released
  • Teacher Strikes Grow Across Several States
  • Archive
    • 2018 Federal Budget & School Safety and Discipline
    • Continued School Closures in Puerto Rico; Questions About Federal Enforcement of ESSA
    • DACA Set to End, US ED Reviewing Regulations, ESSA State Plan Deadline
    • DACA Threatened, Uncertainty Around ESSA & Testing
    • English Learners and US ED
    • Innovative Assessments Under ESSA
    • Leadership at US ED; State ESSA Plans
    • Net Neutrality; State ESSA Plans
    • New Federal Data Examines Discipline and Desegregation
    • Perkins V: Career Training or Academic Off-Ramp?
    • Proposed Rule Threatens Access to Food and Medical Care for Immigrant Children
    • Puerto Rico in Crisis; Changes to Title IX Regulation
    • School Discipline, Teachers Strike, NAEP Scores
    • School Discipline, Teachers Strike, NAEP Scores
    • School Safety Commission Nears End
    • State ESSA Plans & School Discipline
    • States Challenge ESSA Provisions on English Learners
    • Testing and State Accountability for Students with Disabilities
    • The Education Record of Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
    • The Federal School Safety Commission and School Discipline
    • The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations for English Learners
    • The Supreme Court and Education: The Present, the Past, and the Future
    • Title IX: Supreme Court, US ED, and Sexual Misconduct Investigations
    • Trauma on the Border
    • US ED Rescinds Guidance on Special Education
    • Weighted Student Funding Pilot Program
    • What Democratic Control of the House Means for Education
    • What States’ ESSA Non-Compliance Means for Underserved Student Groups
    • What We Stand For


This Newsbrief gives our sense of important and timely federal educational news within the following process and 
protest context: 
To advance educational excellence and equity, we must prioritize the needs of our most vulnerable students and communities. To accomplish this goal, we need clear processes for the development of policy, and we need to take into account opposition to current and proposed policies and practices — protest — as a healthy part of those processes.  

Federal Update

The Federal School Safety Commission and School Discipline

December 21, 2018

The Issue

Earlier this week, the Federal Commission on School Safety released its final report. The Safety Commission was created by the Trump administration in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

President Trump designated United States Department of Education (US ED) Secretary Betsy DeVos as the leader of the Safety Commission and charged the commission with “quickly providing meaningful and actionable recommendations to keep students safe at school,” and examining the repeal of the Obama Administration’s “Rethinking Discipline” policies.

The “Rethinking Discipline” set of policies were developed by US ED and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to improve school climates and school discipline practices and reduce unnecessary out of school suspensions and expulsions. As was widely expected, among the Commission’s recommendations was the rescission of the “Rethinking Discipline” guidance.

 

The Process

The Federal Commission on School Safety met for the first time on March 28, 2018, in a session that was closed to press and to the public. The entire membership of the commission was comprised of members of the President’s cabinet: Secretary DeVos, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, who filled the position of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The commission had no members that represented parents, teachers, schools, states, or civil rights groups.

The Safety Commission’s website indicates that it held 14 meetings, though not all were open to the public. The commission held its final public listening session on August 28, 2018. Among the topics considered by the commission were:

  • Meeting with experts and survivors of mass shootings

  • Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

  • The ecology of schools: fostering a culture of human flourishing and developing character

  • Curating a healthier & safer approach: issues of mental health and counseling for our young

  • Transforming school climate and culture to meet the behavioral needs of students

  • Proactively protecting our schools

  • Creating a “Citadel of Learning”: new tools to secure our schools, inside and out

  • Best practices for school building safety

Practically speaking, the Commission’s recommendations are suggestions and do not by themselves change federal policy. To rescind the Rethinking Discipline guidance, US ED will need to affirmatively do so.

Because “Rethinking Discipline” is guidance, not a regulation or a law, US ED may rescind the guidance unilaterally, and at any time.

Learn More

  • Christopher Edley, Jr., and Linda Darling-Hammond: Just as Schools were Becoming Safer, Trump ‘Safety’ Commission Likely to Halt Progress (The Hill, December 12)

  • NASBE Statement on Federal Commission on School Safety Report (National Association of State Boards of Education, December 18)

  • Trump School Safety Group Goes after Obama Civil Rights Policy, not Guns (Politico, December 18)

  • Trump’s School-Safety Commission’s Strange Focus on Discipline (the Atlantic, December 18)

Be a Part of the Process

  • Get Informed

    • Read the Safety Commission’s final report

    • Read the Opportunity Institute’s blog series on the Safety Commission.

  • Take Action

    • Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-2311 to speak with your members of Congress about US ED’s policies regarding school discipline and school safety.

  • Take Local Action

    • The decision to create a commission focused on school safety was one replicated in a number of states, including Pennsylvania, Indiana, Arkansas, Utah, and Florida. Contact your state educational agency (SEA) and/or your state board of education and your local school board about related efforts where you live.

    • Convene a meeting in your school or district around school discipline and school safety.

More Resources & Tools on Federal Update

Letters to US ED
02/28/2017

Letters to US ED partnersforeac-k8

In an effort to participate in state and national efforts around ESSA implementation, Partner for has made an effort to make both our opinion and our advice publicly available. To the extent useful, Partners for has taken several opportunities to submit formal comments.

To that end, learn more >

Posted in Accountability & Governance, Engagement, ESSA, National Work, Public Comment

The District Guide to ESSA and the Importance of Meaningful Engagement: Participation, Preparation, and What Comes Next
12/11/2016

The District Guide to ESSA and the Importance of Meaningful Engagement: Participation, Preparation, and What Comes Next partnersforeac-k8

Partners for and our state Partners have collaborated to produce A District Guide to ESSA and the Importance of Stakeholder Engagement – a guide to support districts and schools as they participate in state-level decision-making, and begin to prepare for what learn more >

Posted in Engagement, ESSA, National Work, Papers/Briefs, Publication

A Handbook for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement
06/30/2016

A Handbook for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement partnersforeac-k8

The SEA Handbook is a comprehensive tool designed to be used by all states to assess current stakeholder engagement efforts and further develop their engagement strategies. A Handbook for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement: A Tool to Support State Education Agencies in Planning and Implementation of ESSA was learn more >

Posted in Early Childhood Education, Engagement, ESSA, National Work, Publication

“In Consultation With…” The Case for Meaningful Engagement
06/20/2016

“In Consultation With…” The Case for Meaningful Engagement partnersforeac-k8

Written to accompany the SEA Handbook for Meaningful Engagement, this document examines why the stakes are high, why equity MUST drive accountability—and ESSA— decisions, and how an examination of stakeholder engagement promising practices and cautionary tales can help illustrate the need for efforts to learn more >

Posted in Engagement, ESSA, National Work, Papers/Briefs, Publication

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