|
Monitoring Visits Postponed
To promote social distancing measures and help combat COVID-19, the Kentucky Department of Education's N&D Program has temporarily postponed scheduled monitoring visits. Please let us know how we can support you and the youth you serve during this time.
Needs Assessments and Data
Needs assessments can be conducted for a variety of reasons and at different levels by the state educational agency (SEA), state agency, local educational agency (LEA) or facility (according to the Title I, Part D, Program Administration Planning Toolkit). They can focus on a single area of interest (e.g., transition) or take a broader perspective to identify gaps throughout a system.
The needs assessment should be completed annually, either as a whole or individualized for each student. The document should be kept on file at the facility and sent to the state agency or LEA – depending on subpart – to be kept on file there as well.
Student data should be reviewed a minimum of three times a year (beginning, middle and end) to ensure the educational program needs are being evaluated and to determine any necessary changes.
The needs assessments will be submitted to the Kentucky Department of Education with the application, through GMAP. There is a needs assessment template on the Title I, Part D webpage if you do not have a tool to use. For more information, contact your state coordinators.
Transition
One of the most critical pieces of an effective Title I, Part D program is having an intentional process that supports students as they transition from your facility back into their school and community. The National Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Neglected or Delinquent Children and Youth (NDTAC) recently held a webinar to help ensure your program is intentionally and effectively supporting student transition.
NDTAC’s webinar featured an innovative and effective transition program utilized by Washington state. The program has created positive outcomes for students and utilizes a mission-driven case management model.
Washington uses Title I, Part D, Subpart 1 and 2 funding to focus on transitional services that provide students with education advocates. These advocates provide tiered support and help monitor and support students in areas such as: attendance, grades, peer involvement, overcoming barriers, staying and engaging in school, navigating school and vocational programs, as well as soft skills like communication, conflict resolution, restorative justice, career coaching, securing employment and utilizing hope theory.
One of the education advocates discussed how she focuses on helping students set and achieve short-term goals (which students choose) to gain confidence. She also described how a large part of the educational advocate role is ensuring students’ basic needs are met – such as acquiring social and mental health services – because if their basic needs aren’t met, they can’t meet the transition success goals. For more details, reference Washington’s Transition Program Manual (see Section C).
Additionally, one of the most useful resources for many Title I, Part D coordinators is NDTAC’s Transition Toolkit 3.0. This resource provides strategies, practices and documents on transition to enable administrators and service providers to provide high-quality transition services for youth moving into, through and out of education programs within the juvenile justice system. The strategies include facility-centered, youth-centered, family-centered and community/systems-centered activities across all four stages of transition.
Title I, Part D Nonregulatory Guidance 2006
(Although issued under No Child Left Behind, the U.S. Department of Education still considers this a valid resource, unless otherwise stated within.)
R-1. What are the program evaluation requirements for Subpart 1 and 2 programs?
Each state agency or local education agency (LEA) that conducts a program for children and youth who are neglected, delinquent or at-risk under Subparts 1 and 2 must evaluate the program, disaggregating data on participation by gender, race, ethnicity and age, not less than once every three years to determine the program’s effect on the ability of participants to:
-
Maintain and improve educational achievement;
-
Accrue school credits that meet state requirements for grade promotion and secondary school graduation;
-
Make the transition to a regular program or other education program operated by an LEA;
-
Complete secondary school (or secondary school equivalency requirements); and
-
Obtain employment after leaving the correctional facility or institution for neglected or delinquent children and youth and, as appropriate, participate in postsecondary education and job training.
In conducting each evaluation, a state agency or LEA shall use multiple and appropriate measures of student progress.
Each state agency and LEA must:
-
Submit evaluation results to the state education agency and the U.S. Department of Education; and
-
Use the results of evaluations to plan and improve subsequent programs for participating children and youth.
Part D programs should be designed with the expectation that children and youth will have the opportunity to meet the same challenging state academic content and academic achievement standards that all children in the state are expected to meet. To the extent feasible, evaluations should be tied to the standards and assessment system that the state or school district has developed for all children.
|
