The U.S. Department of Education (USED) awarded nearly $400 million in federal grants to support and expand charter schools in States and districts. The grants are part of the Charter Schools Program under USED's Office of Innovation and Improvement. These funds were part of the FY 2018 funding package that was passed by the U.S. Congress in the spring of this year.

The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (NAESPA) is holding the 2019 National ESEA Conference (formerly the National Title I Conference) in Kansas City, MO, January 30 – February 2.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) issued guidance related to student privacy associated with administering college admissions exams. The guidance addresses concerns that arise due to some State Education Agencies (SEAs) and Local Education Agencies (LEAs or school districts) that have begun paying for and registering students for college admissions exams (ACT and SAT) rather than students or their parents registering themselves directly. This trend is due to the use of these tests to meet the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) assessment requirements.

To help with Parent and Family Engagement requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and to meet the Civil Rights obligations of schools in working with Limited English Proficient (LEP) families and English Learner (EL) students across the state of Indiana, leaders in the Indiana Department of Education are partnering with TransACT^® Parent Notices. The new partnership, which started in June of 2018, provides all 467 local education agencies representing thousands of schools and teachers with unlimited access to expertly written parent notifications that meet legal requirements and guidance on required audiences, and recommended timelines.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has posted "A Parent Guide to State and Local Report Cards" on the U.S. Department of Education's (USED) website. 

The School Support and Improvement ESSA RoadMap is now available.

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) announced the release of the document, "Understanding the Every Student Succeeds: A Parent Guide to the Nation's Landmark Education Law" on October 4, 2018. The announcement describes this guide as "a parent and guardian-friendly guide to the important flexibilities in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)." When TransACT drafted its ESSA notices, they were written using the guidelines of the Plain Writing Act of 2010. According to the USED announcement, this parent guide was also written following those guidelines.

Proactive schools and school districts are finding and using all means available to communicate with parents, including English learner (EL) students and parents with limited English proficiency (LEP). In an article from District Administration titled “Tech: A language translator allows districts to reach out to ELLs”, a number of creative and innovative solutions are discussed. This includes the use of machine translation (computer-assisted translation) tools, such as Google Translate.

This blog has been modified from its original version, which appeared in the Ellevation blog. 

"Parent Notifications Summary, Checklist & Timelines" is a resource to help educators identify the important parent notification distribution, timelines, and responsibilities. This document is provided to TransACT ParentNotices customers with an active subscription to the ESEA (ESSA) ParentNotices Collection. In August of 2018, this resource was updated with a new title and guidance.