On Tuesday, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in Carson v. Makin that the State of Maine’s refusal to provide funds for students to attend schools that provide religious instruction violates the Constitution. See the Statement from CAPE Executive Director Michael Schuttloffel:

"Today’s ruling is a great victory for parents – not just in Maine but across the country – who want to be able to choose what kind of education their children receive, including a religious education. It is also another important blow against state Blaine amendments, which were born out of very ugly anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant bigotry and now appear to be on life support, a long overdue development."

The MANS Education Conference and Expo brings together school leaders, teachers, and staff from member schools across the state. Enjoy two days of professional development, sharing with colleagues, and the unique opportunity for fellowship with the Catholic, Lutheran Schools - Missouri Synod, and Christian Schools International communities in Michigan.

Registration for Summer Connect gives you access to the sessions through March 2023. Participate when you can or watch a session multiple times.

Registration is $125.00 and includes access to the virtual platform through March 2023. State Continuing Education Clock Hours will be provided.

Principals and school boards are invited to nominate your outstanding administrative assistant for the Michigan Association of Non-public Schools (MANS) Faith-Based Office Professional Award. This award recognizes school office professionals who are faith-filled ambassadors for their schools, create efficiencies that streamline daily tasks, understand their broader ministry, have a willingness to take on new challenges and tasks, and develop respectful relationships with parents, students, and staff.

Nominations are peer-reviewed, and awardees will be recognized at the 2022 Creating Pathways Toward School Success retreat. Recipients of the award will receive complimentary registration for the retreat in recognition of their achievement.The deadline for 2022 nominations is July 5, 2022.

The June 2022 Child Nutrition Programs (CNP) Bulletin No. 42 was released this week. Click to link below to see the latest updates for CNP.

Before you enjoy a bit of downtime this summer, don't forget to complete the Intent to Participate form link below. With the inception of online SCECH processing, each year has become a little easier than the year before and it is our goal to continue this trend!

Want to participate in 2022-2023 SCECH Processing? Please complete this Intent to Participate form and your school will be set up this summer with your own Google folder and spreadsheet. Instructions on this process will be delivered via email early in the 2022-23 school year.

Thank you all for your hard work in 2021-2022 recording your educators well-deserved SCECHs!

The Michigan Association of Non-public Schools (MANS) invites you to submit nominations for the 2022 MANS Faith-Based Educator Award. This award is one of five awards that recognize excellence in education in MANS member schools. Award winners demonstrate the very best in faith-based education and are leaders in the field. Educators may be nominated by administrators using the electronic submission below. The deadline for submission is June 30, 2022.

Signatures continue to be collected for a few more weeks, at which time it is expected that there will be enough extra signatures to survive any challenges. Petition drives always have signatures that are disqualified for a number of reasons, which is why a large number of “extras” beyond the minimum requirement of 340,000 are collected. Therefore, this petition drive, and several others for that matter, did not turn in signatures last week as originally planned. LMKL expects to reach a sufficient number of signatures by the end of the month, at which time the petition forms will be submitted to the State.

Depending on when the Secretary of State certifies the signatures, it is still possible for the legislature to act yet this calendar year. Once again, the governor would not need to sign these bills to have them become law. If not certified by the end of the year, the legislature that takes office in January 2023 would have the option to pass the two bills promoted by the petition drive. Should they choose not to act, the measures would go to the 2024 fall ballot.

If you still have petition signatures to turn in, please send them to:

Please remember:

Thank you for your excellent work on this important effort.

Round 3 applications are currently being reviewed. You should receive either an approval of your application or a request to make adjustments sometime over the next several days.

MDE did not want to overlap the two funding sources (EANS I and II) and is anticipating a mid-to-late June opening of the EANS II process. 

In February 2022, the CISA School Safety Task Force released the K-12 School Security Guide Suite, a set of products designed to inform safety and physical security planning for the range of kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) schools across the United States. Developed in partnership with the RAND Corporation, the K-12 School Security Guide Suite is comprised of the CISA K-12 School Security Guide (3rd Edition) and accompanying School Security Assessment Tool (SSAT).  

EGLE has information concerning the risks of water stagnation and guidance on maintaining the quality of drinking water within your facilities. For more information on the School Drinking Water Program, please visit Michigan.gov/SchoolWater.

The Zelelman Holocaust Center invites educators to attend its Summer Professional Development Academy from August 1–4, 2022. This professional learning opportunity is a follow up to the Remembering the Holocaust Series hosted by the and MDE. Spots are limited, so save your seat today! All sessions are free to Michigan educators. For more information and/or to register online, click here.  

Students reading below grade level? Beyond Basics delivers data-driven literacy solutions—90% of students in the program achieve grade-level movement in an average of six weeks.

Teacher Appreciation Week is just a few weeks away, and the Meemic Foundation is eager to help you CELEBRATE your teachers and staff! They also want to ensure you and your staff are looped into the monthly grant opportunities available through our Meemic Foundation, a nonprofit started in 1992 by Meemic.

Did you know that our local Meemic Agents are also Meemic Foundation Advocates? Simply give them a call today. They can help you plan a celebration for your staff, as well as drop-in now for an in-school visit to share valuable information about Meemic and our Foundation.

You can find your local Meemic Agent’s contact information at Meemic.com/Agent or send an inquiry email to Appreciation@Meemic.com with your school’s contact information. 

Friendzy provides low burden turn-key SEL for students K-8th grade. The Friendzy program teaches SEL skills one time a week for 20-40 minutes using low-burden, turn-key social-emotional learning tools and resources including:

It’s not too late to take advantage of your EANS (Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools) funding! Help your students reduce summer and COVID learning loss and prepare them to start the new school year on the right foot with Catapult Learning’s COVID Recovery services. Catapult's established solutions for non-public schools as well as our COVID Recovery Program combine to meet the academic and social-emotional needs of students, families, and school communities. Best of all, our programs can be customized to fit the unique needs of your school.

Click here to learn more about EANS funding and how Catapult Learning can help you invest in your students.

With support from the state of Michigan, the most comprehensive mental health and prevention education program and social emotional learning (SEL) programming is now available to schools and districts at no cost! This highly customizable, scaffolded curriculum contains more than 1,000 lessons that address real issues that K-12 students encounter every day. Administrators can utilize free data reporting to see the real-time effectiveness of the SEL and mental health lessons.