Before proposing new legislation related to the use of seclusion and restraint, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has released a new report on their use in schools. While federal regulations govern the use of seclusion and restraint elsewhere (hospitals, psychiatric facilities, nursing homes, etc.), there is no such regulation in schools. The report points out that using these practices in schools provides no educational benefits and proposes discontinuing seclusion and limiting the use of restraints to emergency situations only. (The term seclusion does not include the use of timeout as a calming technique that is monitored and provided in an unlocked setting.) Read the report to learn of other proposals for the legislation here.

Special Education Directors,

We wanted to make you aware that the message below was sent on behalf of the Superintendent to teachers and administrators statewide.

ESA Letter

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) has posted sample test items on the testing platform students will use when taking the field test later this spring. Read the online tutorials first to see how to navigate through the test, how to use the computer-based tools, and how to access the accessibility features. Students can become comfortable with the computer functions that will be available on the field test—drag-and-drop, multiple selection, text highlighting, and an equation builder. The items are similar to the types of items students will see on the test in spring 2015. The sample items are available at www.parcconline.org/computer-based-samples.

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) will be hosting a first-time summit for school practitioners on March 21–22, 2014, dedicated to developing practical strategies for alternatives to suspension and restorative practices for schools such as reducing violence and bullying, restoring relationships, and repairing harm. This summit comes after the release of  the January 8 Civil Rights Data Collection, an analysis of new data on access to college, teacher equity, retention, access to pre-K programs, discipline, and other differences that underlie opportunity gaps in education. The summit, Restorative Practices in School Settings, will be held in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Court Hotel. Registration is $75 per person and is nonrefundable. District teams of superintendents, administrators, educators, support personnel, and school-based mental health professionals are encouraged to attend. To register, go to http://go.aft.org/summit2014.

In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) formed a collaborative project—the Supportive School Discipline Initiative (SSDI)—to address schools’ discipline practices. SSDI has just released a guidance package to assist states and schools in improving school climate and discipline practices to ensure that schools are welcoming and safe, yet maintain fair, nondiscriminatory policies for misbehavior. The components, including a guidance letter, the guiding principles of the action steps, a directory of resources, and a collection of school discipline laws, are located at www.ed.gov/school-discipline.

At this same website, you can sign up to receive an e-Digest for Supportive School Discipline. It includes research summaries, examples of effective practices, announcements, and relevant upcoming events, such as the webinar series. The webinar series explores topics, including current school discipline philosophies; truancy and absenteeism; the role of school resource officers (SROs); the importance of youth, family, and community engagement; and the need for professional development for all stakeholders. To register for the January15th installment of the Supportive School Discipline Webinar Series, which will overview the resource package, go to http://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/events/webinar/overview-school-discipline-guidance-package.

Monday night (January 13th) the House and Senate Appropriators unveiled an omnibus funding bill that would finalize federal funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2014 (FFY 2014). A letter announcing the news is linked here. The bill increases spending in most programs to near pre-sequestration levels; most education programs are slated for greater appropriations than pre-sequestration amounts, but not all are greater than FFY 2013 or FFYY 2012 amounts. See the table of educational appropriations prepared by the education funding committee. See the table of subcommittee allocations.

Special education state grants will increase by nearly $500 million over final FY 2013 funding, but don’t reach FFY 2012 amounts. Although the proposed preschool development grant was not included in the bill, Race to the Top now includes competitive grant funding for developing or expanding preschool programs. For a summary of the bill, go to http://democrats.appropriations.house.gov/top-news/summary-of-omnibus-appropriations-act/.

In response to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) proposal for data collection for school years 2014–2015 and 2015–2016, the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) has submitted a letter during the second comment period. The letter, which is appreciative of OCR’s adding back questions about highly qualified teachers, also expresses concern over the burden on schools to collect the data. The NASDSE letter is linked.

To help prevent civil rights violations, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) collects and samples data concerning civil rights at the school and district levels. OCR has recently released new information to delineate where schools and districts are making great progress and where they are lagging. The state and national data is based on a sample collection of data from 7,000 districts and 72,000 schools from the 2009–2010 school year. The technical notes provide some caveats and considerations users should consider when using the data. This information is in addition to the earlier released school- and district-level data and a document analyzing some of the same sample data.