CDE releases portions of ESSA Plan
(Calif.) California schools with only a quarter of their students coming from low-income households would be allowed to spend federal Title I money on schoolwide programs, under a waiver process pending before the state board of education.
The Every Student Succeeds Act, adopted by Congress last year, gives authority to states to decide how to evaluate Title I schoolwide programs as long as the system takes “into account how a schoolwide program will best serve the needs of the students in the school in improving academic achievement and other factors.”
The plan waiver process designed by the California Department of Education would allow schools to apply for the flexibility if one or more conditions exist on campus:
- At least 25 percent or more students come from low income families.
- Graduation rate is below state average.
- School Site Council recommends that a SWP is the best way to serve the student population.
- At least 30 percent or more of the student population are English learners.
- School resides in high crime or gang-impacted community.
- School has been identified for comprehensive or targeted support.
- School has been identified in the lowest 5 percent of low performing schools
The proposed waiver criteria would provide a lot of spending flexibility to a large percentage of California schools – freedom that they didn’t enjoy under the No Child Left Behind Act. The restriction on such spending, before the ESSA, however, was that at least 40 percent or more of the students attending that school must come from low-income households.
The new waiver policy is included in a draft of California’s ESSA State Plan, portions of which were released in advance of next week’s state board meeting.
The ESSA Plan, which under federal law is now scheduled to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in July, sets up what might be another year of transition for K-12 schools before they are fully aligned with the new law.
Among the elements of the ESSA plan made public are details of how schools can apply for a waiver to allow flexibility in spending Title I money for all students; explanation of how California will conduct statewide assessments of English learners; and new standards for entrance and exit procedures for English learners.
Congress included in ESSA a mandate that states need to have new school accountability systems up CDE releases portions of ESSA Plan :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet: