Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

1. Attend ESSA Webinar on Monday, September 12^th 2016 to learn more;
2. Attend a Listening Tour meeting hosted by IDOE;
3. Submit public comments.

Every Student Succeeds Act Webinar

Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2565866891087432450

Please join Down Syndrome Indiana as they host Ricki Sabia, Senior Education Policy Advisor for the National Down Syndrome Congress as she talks about the importance of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and explains what it means to our children.

1. Learn about the important impact this could have on our school age children;

2. What makes this different than No Child Left Behind;

The final accountability regulations should include:

• Alternate Achievement Standards – a clear link between alternate assessments and enrolled grade content in any reference to achievement standards
• Meaningful stakeholder consultation – a requirement for membership from the disability community on State and LEA plan development committees and outreach to disability groups regarding other stakeholder input opportunities
• Consistently underperforming subgroups – a requirement that States use a definition for “consistently underperforming subgroup” that keeps the bar for achievement high, is not based on a comparison to other students, and has a two-year time frame
• Transition from targeted to comprehensive support and improvement – a change to the regulations that will require, or at least encourage, States to identify schools with consistently underperforming subgroups for comprehensive support and improvement after three years, instead of keeping them indefinitely in targeted support and improvement
• Funding for support and improvement – a better balance in the funding levels that schools get when they are identified for targeted support and improvement as compared to the much larger amount schools get when they are identified for comprehensive support and improvement
• 95% participation rate rule for assessments – options for how States can factor in a failure to meet the 95% participation rate requirement that are stronger than most of those in the proposed regulations
• Minimum subgroup size (n-size) – a requirement that States must justify their n- size if it will be greater than 10 to help ensure that schools have to count their disability subgroup unless it has fewer than 10 students with disabilities.
• Diploma definition – clarification that a diploma based on a student meeting his or her IEP goals, will not be considered a regular high school diploma, even if those goals are based on the grade-level State content standards
• Reduction of Segregation of students with disabilities – the addition of “the segregation of students with disabilities in separate classes and schools” to the list of school practices that should be reduced in order to improve school environments and post-school outcomes