The SCSC was thrilled to host its first in-person governance training session since February 2020. This one-day training was held on November 11th at Callaway Gardens and was filled with informative sessions designed to assist attendees with improving their oversight obligations and meeting their annual governance training requirement for FY22. SCSC staff enjoyed meeting and interacting with new and returning board members in addition to hearing ways that school governing boards are tackling pivotal issues at their schools. The next in-person training session is scheduled for February 9, 2022. 

The SCSC held its November board meeting on November 17, 2021. At the November meeting, the SCSC board adopted two items: The SCSC 2022 board meeting calendar and the extension of the remote learning waiver.

The 2022 board meeting calendar can be found on the SCSC meeting page.

The extended remote learning waiver will allow:

The waiver will NOT allow schools or students to waive accountability or assessment requirements. In other words, the SCSC will continue to hold all state charter schools to the same academic performance expectations, regardless of instructional model.

More information regarding the extension of the remote learning waiver will be sent directly to SCSC schools.

The next SCSC monthly board meeting is scheduled for January 26, 2022, at 10 AM. A list of upcoming meetings for 2022 can be found on the meetings page of the SCSC website.

This year, the SCSC will be offering Governance Training opportunities in two parts. The first will be through a live, in-person session and the second will be a live session held virtually. The first virtual session will be held on December 7th. In order to fully participate in SCSC training, board members should plan to attend one of the in-person session dates as well as one of the live virtual sessions.

Please see the trainings page on the SCSC’s website for more details.

The SCSC will host an in-person, half-day training to help new schools plan for staffing and hiring as well as student recruitment. The training will be held on January 19, 2022.

Please see the trainings page on the SCSC’s website for more details.

The SCSC held its first in-person governance training for FY22. Please see below to review the materials presented.

Coweta Charter Academy students celebrated Thanksgiving with a week of fun-filled activities! Kindergarten classes shared a meal together for their Friendsgiving Feast, 1st grade finished their Thanksgiving book, Junie B. Jones's "Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten", and had a meal based on their reading and 3rd grade learned Indigenous American culture including food and clothing making.

The Georgia Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire has shared important information about their new platform for reporting fire drills, severe weather drills, and lockdown drills. Please remember that fire drills must be conducted each month and reported online to the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner. During the months of November and February of each school year, the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner requires a severe weather drill instead of a fire drill, which also must be reported online in the same manner as the fire drills. All drills not reported as of October 28, 2021, will need to be reported in the new system. Please see below for additional information regarding the State School Emergency Drill Reporting System. If you have questions about the new reporting system please contact Amanda Jones at ajones@oci.ga.gov. 

Please follow the following steps to start reporting in the new system:

Create a new account 

How to add your school to your account 

How to report your drills 

Please email the Safety Fire Education Team with any questions. Their contact information is listed below.

GaDOE's new statewide professional learning platform, Georgia Learns, is currently migrating courses from the current in-house Professional Learning (PL) application with complete migration planned for January 2022. Georgia Learns provides quality professional learning courses for LEA staff. Staff may access Professional Learning through the PL tab/file within SLDS. Read the instructions on how to access the PL courses. 

In September 2021, notifications went out stating the GA Star Climate Rating will not be calculated this academic year; however, the Georgia Student Health Survey will be administered. The links are being finalized and will be sent out in November. The surveys are voluntary this year but we STRONGLY encourage participation as the results may provide important information for continuous improvement and understanding of the supports students may need at this time.

Parent Consent: Please note that the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) requires that the student survey be made available for review by parents/guardians. Therefore, copies of the student survey may be reproduced and made available to parents or other parties upon request. Also, schools must notify parents/guardians about the survey and give them the option to opt-out if so desired. The Georgia Department of Education approves “passive” parental consent on the Georgia Student Health Survey which allows parents to “opt-out” of survey participation by returning signed consent forms to the school. Passive consent letters and survey questions are always available on our GSHS webpage.

Three documents are linked below regarding the Free Care Nursing Services Expansion. These documents include links to recordings, slide decks and Q&A. As a reminder, all LEAs are required to complete the Free Care Nursing Services Expansion Webinar and Attestation form in order to submit claims for free care nursing services. Please make sure to submit the Attestation Form via the DCH school nursing mailbox at ciss.schoolnursingservices@dch.ga.gov by December 1, 2021. Please contact gatraining@pcgus.com with any questions.

Make plans to join the Georgia Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency and the Georgia Department of Education Office of Whole Child Supports on June 21-23, 2022 for the 2022 Georgia School Safety & Homeland Security Conference. The conference will be held at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center and will feature sessions on a wide range of topics including cyber security and HB 156 Reporting, threat assessment training, social media threats and updates to the school safety plan template. Click this link to sign up for more information! Please contact schoolsafety@doe.k12.ga.us with any questions.

On March 26, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education approved Georgia’s waiver of several accountability, school identification, and report card requirements. (For more information about the waiver, please review the 2021 Accountability Waiver FAQ 3.29.21.) Though there will be no 2021 CCRPI summary score for the state, school districts, or schools, some CCRPI-related data, such as achievement rates, participation rates, and graduation rates, for example, will still be calculated and publicly reported by Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE).

Due to this, GaDOE is providing schools and districts with a valuable accountability resource – the Live Data Verification tool. The Live Data Verification tool, available now in the CCRPI portal with demographic and attendance data and provides summary data from Student Record that updates nightly as your district updates the data. Additional Student Record data (such as students in the 2021 4-year graduation cohort) and data from Student Class data will populate in the tool in May. This tool will assist district staff and principals in verifying the accuracy of the data submitted in Student Record and Student Class before the data collections close. The accuracy of such data is critical to accurate accountability reporting.

View the user guide at your convenience.The user guide, training webinar, and webinar PPT handout for this tool are also available for download on the MyGaDOE portal.

To access the Live Data Verification tool, log on to the MyGaDOE portal, click on the CCRPI link, and then choose Live Data Verification. For help accessing the portal and with any functionality issues, contact the GaDOE Information Systems Customer Support Center at 1-800-869-1011 or dticket@doe.k12.ga.us. Contact the GaDOE accountability specialist assigned to assist your district with questions regarding the data.

The Georgia Department of Education released its latest professional learning catalog. The catalog is available at the link here Professional Learning Catalog from the Georgia Department of Education. 

REGISTER NOW for GCSA’s Financial Management Certification Program. You can still sign up for five of the six remaining courses! GCSA will offer any courses that you miss during our spring semester. This year’s program is offered virtually, and each course is split into two, four-hour sessions in the same week.

The deadline for the Annual Survey of Local Institutions for Neglected and Delinquent Children (N&D) is quickly approaching. LEAs should submit their N&D survey no later than December 3, 2021. As outlined in section 1124. [20 U.S.C. 6333] of ESEA, the importance of submitting annual surveys is to support children and youth who reside in local and state institutions. LEAs should partner with their local N&D facilities to have meaningful consultations that address the educational wellbeing of their students. The directions and facility form can be found on the GaDOE website and can be accessed here.

Upcoming Events 

Meeting information and access can be found on the Year-at-a-Glance calendar.

The SCSC is seeking candidates for a Charter Development Program Coordinator and Administrative Assistant to join our team.