Information provided by: NSBA National School Board Association for benefit of MASB Michigan Associa

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Information provided byNSBA National School
Board Associationfor benefit of MASB Michigan
Association of School BoardsFRN Federal
Relations Network Support provided by South
Redford School District andWCASB Wayne County
Association of School Boards
Discussion Points with Federal Lawmakers
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Representatives Aides
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NSBAsLegislative Priorities

• NCLB and its Reauthorization
• Recommendations to improve NCLB - HR 648
• Increased Funding - Title I IDEA
• Medicaid Reimbursement
• Strengthening Teacher Quality
• Michigan Specific Federal Funding Priorities

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NCLB

• The No Child Left Behind Act signed was into law
  on January 8, 2002.
• This new law (NCLB) reauthorized the Elementary
  and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which was
  first enacted in 1965.
• The NCLB Law is scheduled to be reauthorized in
  2008.

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NCLB Requires States to

• Establish Rigorous Academic Standards.
• Conduct annual assessments at specific grade
  levels with a 95 participation rate.
• Implement a comprehensive accountability system
  that includes extensive data collection and
  public reporting on student and school
  performance.

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NCLB Requires States to

• Direct formal sanctions against Title I schools
  and school districts for failing to meet
  proficiency targets in reading and math.
• Establish new qualification requirements for
  teachers and paraprofessionals beyond the
  standards previously established by many states.

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NCLB provides discretion to

• Establish content and performance standards.
• Select and operate assessment programs.
• Establish requirements to monitor and report the
  academic performance of groups of students who
  traditionally had not been performing at desired
  levels.

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NSBAs PrioritiesESEA/NCLB Reauthorization

• Incorporate the provisions contained in HR
  648
• These provisions were developed based on
  recommendations from local school boards across
  the nation.
• Broad Priority Areas of Concern
• Assessments
• Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) Measurements
• Sanctions

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Assessments

• NSBA does not propose mandates but would
  provide States the option to implement the
  following provisions in their state plan(s)
• Allow local school districts to implement
  alternate assessments or individual measurements
  of progress based on making specific gains toward
  meeting proficiency for up to three years for
  students with limited English proficiency .

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Assessments

• Individualized Education Program (IEP) would
  determine assessments appropriate for students
  with disabilities. The assessment results would
  be used to calculate AYP as long as the number of
  students does not exceed 3 of the total student
  enrollment tested, each grade and each specific
  subject.
• Count the higher score achieved by a student who
  is assessed more than once prior to the start of
  the next school year.

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Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)

• Credit schools for the progress students make
  from one year to the next in meeting state
  standards. (growth and/or value added models)
• Students belonging to multiple subgroups should
  be counted in each group as a equal fraction
  totaling one student toward AYP.

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Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)

• Identify schools as meeting the AYP target as
  long as the total number of students in the
  subgroup(s) failing to meet their AYP targets
  does not exceed 10 of the total number of
  students counted for the specific assessment
  NOT to be applied to the same subgroup for same
  subject in two consecutive years.

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Sanctions

• Schools and School Districts would only be
  required to apply federal sanctions when the same
  subgroup fails to make AYP in the same subject
  for 2 consecutive years or more.

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Sanctions

• States would be authorized to limit the use of
  restructuring to schools and school districts
  where the number of students belonging to
  subgroups that failed to meet the AYP targets and
  who were themselves unsuccessful in scoring
  proficient or above totaled at least 35 of the
  total student enrollment.

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Sanctions

• School choice and supplemental educational
  services should be available only to those
  students that belonged to a subgroup that failed
  to meet its AYP target and were themselves
  unsuccessful in scoring at proficient or above.

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ESEA/NCLB Reauthorization

• It is imperative that the reauthorization of
  ESEA/NCLB is completed before Congress adjourns
  in December 2008.
• Failure to reauthorize ESEA/NCLB during this
  110th Congress will be devastating to our public
  schools and have the potential to adversely
  impact public opinion regarding local schools.

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ESEA/NCLB Reauthorization

• States and local school districts will continue
  to be subject to many flawed requirements of the
  law.
• This would mean another two or three school years
  of an increasingly rising AYP bar and progression
  of sanctions that will expand the number of
  schools that will be identified as failing as
  well as the cost of unnecessary actions that
  schools will be required to implement.

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FEDERAL FUNDING FOR EDUCATION

• Title I grants (which is the main source of
  federal funding for No Child Left Behind NCLB
  Act) and special education funding under
  Individuals With Disabilities Education Act
  (IDEA) are the two largest programs and main
  sources of federal funding to schools, but they
  also operate as mandates.

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FEDERAL FUNDING FOR EDUCATION

• Congress and the Administration enacted laws
  intended to foster higher levels of school
  performance and academic achievement.
• Congress has not funded laws to the levels it
  authorized when it created the programs thereby
  shifting a greater portion of the costs to school
  districts and states.

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FEDERAL FUNDING FOR EDUCATION

• NSBA supports the provisions of adequate
  funding and efficient procedures for financing
  federal public education programs.
• Fully fund mandated public education programs as
  a top priority in adopting the federal budget and
  fully fund all federal public education programs.

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FEDERAL FUNDING FOR EDUCATION

• Meet the funding levels authorized as part of
  NCLB
• Oppose general budget reductions that circumvent
  Congresss responsibility to set funding
  priorities among government functions.
• Congress to provide an increase of at least 2.5
  billion for Title I and IDEA for FY 2009.

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Title One Grants for Disadvantaged Students
Authorization vs. Appropriation
(in billions)

• Cumulative shortfall between authorized funding
  levels under NCLB and actual appropriations for
  FY 2003 to FY 2008 40.5 billion. The
  authorized level for FY 2008 is pending
  reauthorization of NCLB. Compiled by NSBA (1/08)

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IDEA (Part B) Grants
Authorization vs. Appropriation
(in billions)
In 2004, Congress reauthorized the Individuals
With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and
amended the authorization schedule thereby,
lowering the authorized levels in an effort to
enact a reasonable glide path towards full
funding of the federal share of costs per
student for special education (40 of the
National Average per Pupil Expenditure, which is
currently 9,969 for the 2007-2008 school year).
The cumulative shortfall between authorized
funding levels and actual appropriations for FY
2003-FY 2008 40.9 billion. The appropriations
process for FY 2009 is currently
underway. Compiled by NSBA (1/08)
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School Based Medicaid Reimbursement

• Under the Medicare Catastrophic Act of 1988,
  school districts are allowed to receive payments
  from Medicaid for health services delivered to
  Medicaid-eligible children with disabilities who
  may need diagnostic, preventative,
  rehabilitative, and transportation services.

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School Based Medicaid Reimbursement

• Schools Districts may also claim reimbursement
  for the administrative costs of providing
  school-based Medicaid services such as outreach
  for enrollment purposes and coordination and/or
  monitoring of medical care.

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School Based Medicaid Reimbursement

• Presidents FY 2008 budget proposal would
  prohibit federal reimbursement for IDEA-related
  school-based administration and transportation
  costs for Medicaid-eligible students.
• Office of Management and Budget estimates that
  the proposed action will save the federal
  government (and shift the cost to school
  districts) approx. 635 million in FY 2008 and
  3.65 billion over the next 5 years.

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School Based Medicaid Reimbursement

• NSBA believes that schools play a key roll in
  identifying children for Medicaid reimbursement
  and connecting them to needed services in schools
  and the community.
• NSBA supports efforts to block Centers for
  Medicare and Medicaid and Services (CMS) from
  prohibiting school districts from claiming
  federal reimbursement for services provided.

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School Based Medicaid Reimbursement

• The loss of administrative and transportation
  reimbursement would hurt school districts
  efforts to provide needed health services,
  resulting in eligible children not being
  identified and/or receiving services in a timely
  manner.

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Strengthening Teacher Quality

• Research indicates no other school related factor
  has a greater impact on student achievement than
  the ability of the teacher.
• Congress should assist districts and states in
  recruiting and retaining qualified and effective
  teachers through federal incentives and funding,
  with a specific focus on hard-to-staff schools
  and subjects with shortages (math, science, and
  special education).

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Strengthening Teacher Quality

• Congress should improve the Highly Qualified
  Teacher provisions by streamlining existing
  requirements and incorporating practical
  flexibility for special education and rural
  teachers of multiple core subjects.
• Congress should assist in broadening the pool of
  new and effective teacher candidates by
  supporting alternative certification programs
  that help to increase the number of minority
  teachers as well as mid-career professionals.

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Strengthening Teacher Quality

• Congress should strengthen teacher preparation
  programs (traditional and alternative) to ensure
  alignment with NCLB requirements, state academic
  standards and foster increased accountability for
  the quality and preparation of program graduates.
• Congress should help facilitate and disseminate
  quality research and best practices on effective
  teaching.

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Strengthening Teacher Quality

• Both the House and Senate education committees
  have yet to act on NCLB reauthorization, leaving
  changes to the highly qualified provisions, as
  well as comprehensive professional development
  assistance unfinished.

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Michigan Specific Federal Funding Priorities

• NCLB Fix it and Fund it! Fix provisions
  regarding assessments, AYP measurements, and
  sanctions, especially
• Amend the definitions and calculations for
  subgroups.
• Improve and make flexible the highly qualified
  teacher requirements.
• Hold review and oversight hearings on NCLB for
  present future changes.

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Michigan Specific Federal Funding Priorities

• MEDICAID Oppose proposed cuts in Medicaid
  funding for vital school based services support
  the Protecting Childrens Health in Schools Act
  to firmly establish the School Based Services
  program in statute.
• PRESCHOOL Create and fund a new grant program to
  develop, expand and sustain voluntary, quality
  preschool programs for participating children,
  especially 3 and 4 year olds.

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Michigan Specific Federal Funding Priorities

• TITLE I FORMULA Reform the Title I allocation
  system to achieve fairness.
• FUNDING, FUNDING Increase federal funding levels
  for all education programs, especially for Title
  I and IDEA.