 Important Bird Flu Update for School Leaders
Bird flu (H5N1) has been found in wild birds and poultry in the DMV, but no cases have been reported in DC. The risk to people is low, but staff and students who handle birds or contaminated surfaces should take precautions. This H5N1 bird flu virus has the potential to affect students and school staff that come in close contact with infected birds or contaminated surfaces. Currently, human transmission is rare, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not identified any human-to-human transmission in the US.
✔ Share guidance with staff handling birds, nests, or contaminated areas (e.g., custodial, maintenance, and chicken program staff).
✔ Remind students and staff to avoid handling wild birds or their nests without proper personal protective equipment (PPE), including while on school grounds and environmental field trips.
✔ Promote hygiene—encourage frequent handwashing and avoid touching wild birds.
✔ Report concerns—notify DC Health if you see three or more sick or dead birds on school grounds.
✔ Monitor health—staff with possible exposure and flu-like symptoms should isolate and contact DC Health. See more here: symptoms of bird flu
Please review and share this guidance with school staff who may encounter birds or contaminated surfaces, including maintenance, groundskeeping or custodial staff who may encounter nesting or dead wild birds (including bird feathers and bird droppings) and school staff who manage an approved school chicken program used for educational purposes (see here how bird flu can spread via a chicken program). As a reminder, if your school has a school chicken program, it must be approved annually by DC Health (see more information here).
Immediately report any signs of sick or dead wild birds (three or more) or chickens on school grounds to DC Health.
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*New* The District of Columbia Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG) and Mayor’s Scholars Undergraduate Program Applications are open!
The DCTAG and Mayor’s Scholars applications opened on Feb. 3 and will close on Aug. 15, 2025, at 3 p.m. Click here to see the recent press release and learn more about these exciting opportunities for students to achieve their postsecondary education goals!
DCTAG pays the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition for DC students. Students can receive up to $10,000 toward tuition annually at public colleges nationwide and up to $2,500 toward tuition at private colleges in DC and private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Interested students can apply for DCTAG through the DC OneApp at dconeapp.dc.gov.
The Mayor’s Scholars Undergraduate Program is a locally funded program that provides need-based assistance for eligible students earning their first associate or bachelor’s degree. Both incoming and current college students are eligible for this award program. Applicants must re-apply to the Mayor’s Scholars program each year. The 2025-26 application is available in OSSE’s Application for Postsecondary Studies (APS).
Course Catalog Data Collection – IDS Process Reopen until Feb. 21 for Data Errors (reminder)
All LEAs should have mapped their Student and Section Course Data Collection data in the LEA Data Mapping Tool as of Nov. 8, 2024
Unified Data Errors (UDEs) related to this data are now in the 2024-25 school year (SY2024-25) Unified Data Errors Qlik application. If there are UDEs that need to be resolved by resubmitting Course Catalog data, the Integrated Data Submission (IDS) process for the Course Catalog Collection data will be reopened for resubmission from Feb. 10 through Feb. 21 at 5 p.m. Please note that the new submission will completely overwrite previous submissions, so the entire spreadsheet of Course Catalog data will need to be resubmitted, not just changes.
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he UDEs for course information for students who attend nonpublic schools, Average Number of Sessions per Week, and Average Minutes per Week has been released.
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OSSE Secondary Transition Compliance Webinar - Feb. 26 (reminder)
In collaboration with WestEd, OSSE will host the 2024-25 school year secondary transition compliance webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 10 a.m. During this webinar, OSSE will provide guidance for both new and seasoned secondary transition specialists and LEA special education points of contact (LEA SPED POCs) on strategies to achieve 100 percent secondary transition compliance. This training will also provide an overview of how secondary transition professionals can prepare for upcoming secondary transition monitoring, as well as best practices to support high-quality, compliant secondary transition planning year-over-year.
While this event is optional for secondary transition specialists and LEA SPED POCs, participation is strongly encouraged. Please register for the webinar here.
If you have any questions about this webinar, please contact LaShonda Wilson Carter at LaShonda.Wilson@dc.gov.
ARROW GO! Award Program - Applications Close Feb. 21 (reminder)
The Advancing the Recruitment and Retention of Our Workforce (ARROW) GO! Award Program provides funding for eligible District of Columbia school-based behavioral health providers to participate in national in-person learning opportunities. Current opportunities are available for school social workers to attend the 2025 National School Social Work Conference in Atlanta, GA on April 9–12. The application window is Monday, Feb 3 to Friday, Feb. 21 and can be accessed HERE.
Eligible applicants will receive $2,250 to attend the 2025 National School Social Work Conference, and must be a licensed social worker (LICSW or LGSW) employed by:
- a DC public or public charter school serving pre-K 3 through grade 12,
- a community-based organization (CBO) that participates in the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) School-Based Behavioral Health Expansion, or
- DBH’s School-Based Mental Health Program.
Future opportunities for the ARROW Go! Award Program include the Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health and the National Association of School Psychologists 2025 Annual Convention (pending funding approval), with more information to come. Selected applicants may attend only one opportunity between April 2025 and February 2026.
For more information about the ARROW GO! Award Program and eligibility requirements, click here. For questions about the ARROW GO! Award Program, please contact OSSE.HYDT@dc.gov.
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*New* Local and Values-Based Purchasing Pilot Grant (LVPP) Applications - Deadline March 18
The competitive grant application for the fiscal year 2025 (FY25) Local and Values-Based Purchasing Pilot Grant (LVPP) was made available on Jan. 31, 2025, in the Enterprise Grants Management System (EGMS). This grant opportunity is available to public and public charter schools that currently participate in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and early childhood education (ECE) facilities that are currently licensed by OSSE and participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). The overall goal of the LVPP grant is to build the capacity of child nutrition programs (CNP) to increase the quantity, variety and/or frequency of local foods served and increase the use of values-based procurement methods in purchasing locally sourced and unprocessed foods. This grant opportunity provides three funding tracks for applicants. Eligible ECE facilities and public and public charter schools may apply for tracks 1 and/or 2. Community-based organization (CBO) applicants may apply under track 3.
- Track 1: Eligible CNP applicants can apply to receive an additional 20-cent reimbursement incentive for serving locally grown/raised and unprocessed meal components in addition to the existing Healthy Schools Act (HSA) and Healthy Tots Act (HTA) 5-cent local incentive.
- Track 2: Eligible CNP applicants can apply to receive funding to purchase small kitchen equipment that can be used to process or cook local foods.
- Track 3: Eligible CBO applicants can apply for funding to provide technical assistance (TA) on local and values-based procurement to ECE facilities and public and public charter schools in DC operating CNPs as well as the food service management companies (FSMC) or school meal vendors under contract.
The deadline to submit applications is Tuesday, March 18. The award period for these grants is March 31 through Sept. 30, 2025.
For questions or additional information about the LVPP grant application, contact Melissa Gurevitch, Farm to School Program Specialist, at Melissa.Gurevitch@dc.gov.
2025 Extended School Year (ESY) Certification Deadline May 5 (reminder)
The deadline for summer ESY certification is Monday, May 5. LEAs must submit required data consistent with the 2025 ESY Preparation Guide, which spells out more details, requirements and deadlines. LEAs are also encouraged to review OSSE’s Policy Bulletin: Extended School Year (ESY) Services (Updated August 2023) guidance regarding LEA responsibilities and documentation requirements for ESY eligibility determinations and service provision for eligible students with disabilities. For questions about ESY, required tasks, or data systems, please refer to the points of contact provided in the memorandum.
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