Policy News You Can Use: August 2016
How legislation and policy changes affect children's well-being
If I Knew Then: Send Us Your Story

Looking back at your own elementary education, what is the one skill you learned that has served you best in the workplace? Alternatively, is there a skill you use in the workplace that you wish you had been taught in elementary school but weren't?

Send us your story, and you may be featured in an upcoming Committee for Children policy newsletter. Email Carol Wood: [email protected]
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Federal
Promising Mindset Research from Stanford
Growth Mindset Research
Researchers at Stanford have been discovering more about the benefits of different mindsets. While much is known about the benefits of a growth mindset,  another  has been identified: having a growth mindset can serve as a protective factor for children growing up in poverty. Other Stanford researchers recently  published findings about mindset and middle school teachers. They found that when teachers were exposed to a simple intervention encouraging them to approach discipline with an empathic mindset the number of suspensions were cut in half! Given that being suspended even once can put students on a  negative life trajectory;  and that black students are suspended more frequently than white students, this intervention offers a promising solution to highly disproportionate rates .
Governors ESSA Comments
Governors in the U.S. feel the draft regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Education for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) need more state and local flexibility, and they name nonacademic accountability indicators (like SEL) and summative accountability scores as  some areas of concern . However, a recent article expresses support for measuring students' noncognitive skills. Watch for an Edweek-sponsored webinar in September on how SEL can be implemented and assessed in your school district and read this article on how states can design systems to advance equity and opportunity under ESSA.

Want to know the specific areas of ESSA that allow for funding of social-emotional curricula and training? ASCD has created this resource to guide educators through the complex language of the law.
Recess
Congress is on recess until September 6 . Before leaving Washington , the House and Senate Appropriations Committees managed to pass all 12 annual spending bills. This means that while the members are gone, staff can start negotiating a spending bill that covers multiple agencies and would be enacted sometime after elections are decided. In the meantime, Congress will have to put in place a short-term fix, or Continuing Resolution, starting at the beginning of the federal fiscal year, October 1.
State
Collaborating States Initiative Grantees Announced
Collaborating States Initiative
On July 8, CASEL announced the recipients of its two-year Collaborating States Initiative  (CSI) supported in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. CSI is a partnership of states working on the development of policies, learning standards, and guidelines to support statewide implementation of social-emotional learning (SEL). Recipients include: California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington. A larger group of 11 additional states and one territory will also have access to resources emerging from the CSI and eventually will be invited to participate in a broader community of practice for state teams. You can read more about the initiative here.
Top 5 Policy Issues in Each State
Legislatures across the nation have passed close to 20,000 bills this year. Find out in this  report , prepared by CQ Roll Call with the help of media outlets in each state, what top issues your state's elected representatives have been busy debating. Education was identified as a top issue in a majority of states, which reinforces the results of a new study that shows education is a top political issues for young people.
Atlanta's Superintendent Posts Open Letter to Obama Administration
Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, wrote an open letter to President Obama emphasizing the need for social-emotional learning in schools across the nation, with a focus on urban and low income areas. In the letter, she outlines a proposed solution to further the incorporation of SEL in schools, calling out the Department of Education to pioneer the movement. Carstarphen uses  Atlanta Public Schools' SEL success  as a strong example of how the use of simple empathy training can be a key component in a school district's "turnaround strategy" as well as reversing historical injustices. Read the full letter  here .
Things You Can Do in August:
Founded in 1978, Committee for Children is a global nonprofit dedicated to fostering the safety and well-being of children through education and advocacy. We work on the federal, state, and local level to prevent bullying, violence, and child abuse and to encourage teaching social-emotional skills to children and youth. These newsletters will help you learn the latest news affecting our priorities as well as opportunities to advocate for change.
  
Please forward this newsletter to other colleagues who are interested in these topics. And feel free to submit timely news on these topics from your state or region. I look forward to your feedback!
  
Carol Wood, Advocacy Specialist
[email protected]
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