Policy News You Can Use: September 2017
How legislation and policy changes affect children's well-being
Image
Read about exciting new developments at Committee for Children at the end of this Policy Newsletter.
Federal
Who Decides About Teachers' Professional Development?

 
According to a recent survey, teachers have very little say over their professional development. In fact, teachers' desires for professional development opportunities are more in line with the definition from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) than with what they actually receive. The current three month budget agreement (see below) preserves teacher quality state grants at the FY 2017 level and offers an opportunity to redefine the type of development provided. Read more about the survey and ESSA definition here  and listen to this webinar: "How Investing in Teacher and Leader Professional Development Can Support Student Success."
Congress Is Back in Action
  


After the Labor Day weekend, negotiations between the President and House and Senate leadership produced an agreement to extend the current budget and debt limit until December 8, 2017, (which takes us into the first three months of the new 2018 fiscal year [FY]) and adds billions of dollars of aid to help victims of Hurricane Harvey. This three-month delay is intended to allow Congress to complete its work on the FY 2018 budget and appropriations process. In addition, many hope it will also allow time to tackle other issues such as undocumented youth whose parents brought them to the United States as children, and tax and health care reform. In July 2017, the White House released a general  set of principles around tax reform that  if adopted , could affect the amount of revenue available to schools and the amount that teachers regularly spend on classroom supplies.
New Report on Children

" America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2017 ," produced by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, presents 41 indicators of children's lives in 7 key areas. The report documents: the increase in racial and ethnic diversity in the United States (with less than half of all children projected to be White, non-Hispanic by 2020), a dramatic decline from 1993 to 2015 in the percentage of children not covered by health insurance, lower math and reading scores in 2015 than in 2013, and many more highlights that have implications for educators and schools.
Detention for Skipping School

 
Absenteeism is a huge problem in American schools with over 7 million students nationwide considered chronically absent. There are a number of effective ways that states and localities have addressed absenteeism but locking kids up in juvenile detention is not one of them. Both the House and Senate have passed bills that would overhaul the juvenile justice system and generally prevent juveniles from being incarcerated for skipping school. Find out more about chronic absenteeism in this September 2017 report, "  Portraits of Change: Aligning School and Community Resources to Reduce Chronic Absence ." The report provides national and state analyses of chronic absence and discusses the implications for state and local action.
Social-Emotional Learning Research Confirms Positive Outcomes

In June 2017, Penn State University and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a report showing that social-emotional skills in childhood improve the long term economic and well-being of children. Read the report  here   and view this blog post  Can Learning Social Skills in School Pay Off Beyond the Classroom?


School Improvement Hinges on Access to Student Data

Organizing and managing the large amount of data collected on students could help researchers, policy makers, and districts better plan, design, and implement school programs. According to an Education Week commentary, the approach is clear: "States should aim to collect and disseminate first-rate educational data" before the threat oflitigation. Read here about how having access to data can help improve schools and professional development.
Image
Local
Committee for Children's Response to Events in Charlottesville

Read  what Joan Cole Duffell, executive director of Committee for Children, wrote in response to the events in Charlottesville where she encourages us all to "start from a place of empathy and kindness, not fear and hate."


Image
Other Resources
  • Join us on September 27, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern for a Twitter chat to Break Down Bullying co-hosted by Committee for Children, MomsRising, and Anne Collier, founder of icanhelp.org. Use the hashtag #BullyingFacts to follow along.
  • This collection of fact sheets about ESSA from The Education Trust includes: an overview, standards, assessments, accountability, public reporting, teachers and school leaders, and funding.
  • ReadyNation has launched a Brain Science Speakers Bureau that offers qualified experts (without a speaker's fee) for presentations on the importance of early brain development and the need to support investments in early childhood. Request a speaker here or apply to become a speaker here.
Has this email been forwarded to you?

Click here to subscribe to Committee for Children's policy newsletter and receive our updates directly in your inbox.
Image
Image
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]
Image
Image
800-634-4449
206-343-1223