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Policy News You Can Use: October 2016
How legislation and policy changes affect children's well-being
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US House and Senate members left Washington, DC, on September 28 and will not be back in town until after the elections. Before leaving, they did reach agreement on a short-term funding bill that would support federal operations--minus a 0.496% cut to all programs--through December 9.
Discussions leading to adoption of a yearlong spending plan, as well as passage of legislation such as the career and technical education reauthorization, will begin again in November.
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Committee for Children and Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) co-sponsored a successful congressional briefing on "Why Social and Emotional Learning and Employability Skills Should be Prioritized in Education." Read all about in our blog
SEL Builds a Stronger Workforce.
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On September 27, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released non-regulatory
guidance for Title II, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The guidance reminds states and districts to do outreach in the community when figuring out how to use their Title II funds and outlines methods for how they can focus on educator equity, development, and evaluation. Additionally, it describes changes to the way Title II ESSA money flows. Go
here for more information or
listen to a video chat with Secretary King
here
.
Additionally, ED also released guidance on Title I describing how Districts/Local Education Agencies (LEAs) can operate one of two types of programs
-targeted assistance
or schoolwide programs. The former is tailored towards specific programs and the latter is comprehensive and can be used to upgrade the entire educational program of a school.
School-wide program funding can be used for career and technical education (CTE) programs, school climate improvement, social-emotional learning, and more once a comprehensive needs assessment and schoolwide plan is completed. For more information, go
here.
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October is National Bullying Prevention Month
Bullying creates fear and intimidation, as well as a threatening environment that can lead to disruption and violence. A
recent survey commissioned by the
Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
found that the most common reported reasons for bullying or harassment in middle school and high school were body size/appearance, actual/perceived sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, academic ability, and how masculine or feminine they are. In addition, almost three-quarters of surveyed students reported "personally experiencing some type of peer victimization in the past school year."
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The Aspen Institute has created a National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development to translate social and emotional learning research into practice. Learn more about the co-chairs--
John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable and former three-term governor of Michigan
, Linda Darling-Hammond
,
president of the Learning Policy Institute, and Tim Shriver, chairman of the Chicago-based nonprofit the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning--vision and what they hope to accomplish. Read about the Commission
here.
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You can participate in a CASEL convened Work Group to Establish Practical Social-Emotional Competence Assessments of Preschool to High School Students. This a collaborative effort that already involves more than 30 leading practitioners and researchers in the fields of pre/K-12 education, assessment, and SEL. The effort has four main goals: provide timely information about selection and use of social-emotional competence assessments; align frameworks and show how they relate to each other; disseminate key design principles for creating SEL performance measures; and coordinate ongoing efforts in the field of SEL assessment. If you would like to become part of the Collaborators Network for the last goal, click
here.
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County Releases Best Start for Children
On September 19, the Metropolitan King County Council unanimously approved the plan for funding programs that will be part of the Best Starts for Kids (BSK) initiative. Read about the implementation plan and its three key results
here
.
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Conferences and Webinars:
The first ever conference targeting federal, state, and local leaders from 14 states and the District of Columbia was convened by the White House on September 19 to address trauma-informed approaches in schools. Read about the forum and listen to the session
here
.
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View Committee for Children's September 20 webinar, "Making Social-Emotional Lear
ning Meaningful, Measurable and Achievable Under ESSA" sponsored by Education Week
here
.
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Futures without Violence released:
- Futures Without Violence ESSA Funding Guide, which provides states and school districts with an inventory of how they can use the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the funding it provides to support positive school climates, and respond to the needs of children suffering from exposure to violence and the effects of trauma.
Two reports from California's CORE Districts:
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Want to know how SEL is done on the high school level? Watch
this video
from Austin School district.
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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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