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(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education will be seeking public comment on an addendum to Kentucky’s ESEA Consolidated State Plan to implement the requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act.
The addendum is meant to address the extraordinary situations of the extended and widespread school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This relief, as well as the continued implications of COVID-19, impact how each SEA will implement its ESEA Consolidated State Plan during the 2020-2021 school year. To help SEAS, the department has created a streamlined process (called the COVID-19 State Plan Addendum) for an SEA to amend its ESEA Consolidated State Plan to account for one-year changes to how the SEA will hold schools accountable for the 2020-2021 school year.
Through this addendum, Kentucky is requesting to revise its long-term goals by shifting the timeline forward by one academic year for Academic Achievement, Graduation Rate and Progress in Achieving English Language Proficiency. As required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), long-term goals and measures of interim progress must be established and reported. The original timelines for reporting progress toward these goals were included in Kentucky’s ESSA Consolidated State Plan.
The long-term goals and measures of interim progress were established for improved academic achievement, as measured by proficiency (percentage of students scoring Proficient and higher on statewide reading and mathematics assessments); improved graduation rates, as measured by an adjusted cohort for all students and for each group of students; and to reduce the percentage of English learners who score lower than the level necessary to be declared English language proficient or who make progress less than being on track to be proficient. If this request is granted, Kentucky will not report progress on these long-term goals and measures of interim progress for the 2020-2021 school year. Reporting toward these goals would be scheduled to resume in the 2021-2022 school year.
Kentucky also is requesting to revise its timeline for identifying schools for Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) and Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) status. Kentucky seeks to shift these identifications forward by one-year. ATSI and CSI schools will next be identified in the fall of 2022 based on data from the 2021-2022 school year.
Additionally, Kentucky is seeking flexibility from USED regarding the timeline for exiting schools identified as ATSI and CSI. Under this flexibility, Kentucky will not count the 2019-2020 school year toward the three year exit timeline, giving schools an additional year to exit the status before triggering the next phase of school improvement. When it is available, Kentucky will seek flexibility from the identification and exit requirements for schools identified for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI).
The full addendum can be accessed online on the Kentucky Department of Education’s website.
All amendment requests must be submitted to USED by Feb. 1, 2021, in order for the department to determine whether a requested amendment complies with all applicable statutory and regulatory requirements in time for the state to implement changes to its accountability system for determinations in fall 2021 based on data from the 2020-2021 school year.
The public comment period will be held from Tuesday, Jan. 19, to Friday, Jan. 22. Public comments on the addendum to Kentucky’s state plan must be received by 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 22. Comments may be emailed to kdecommunications@education.ky.gov or submitted to Todd Allen, General Counsel, Kentucky Department of Education, 300 Sower Blvd, 5th Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601. You also may submit comments via fax at (502) 564-9321. All comments that are received during the window will be considered before submission of the addendum to USED.
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