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Dear Colleagues,
Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) meeting in my new role as commissioner. We were fortunate to have Kentucky State University host us at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm.
Numerous topics were discussed but as many of you know by now, developing a new assessment and accountability system is a top priority of mine, along with the work of the Kentucky United We Learn Council. The council's work was presented during the meeting and I want to share a few takeaways on what the councilmembers have done so far to achieve their moonshot.
The council has been gathering input from advisory councils, stakeholder groups and school leaders since the beginning of July on different prototypes. Following the council’s convening in July, a new prototype is in development, which involves questions for input during the study phase of the process to arrive at our moonshot. We will be providing more information on the study phase in the near future.
One option for this new prototype is to implement it in phases: the vibrant learning experiences indicator would be established as the state accountability system expands to include additional school quality domains. Leaders would then work towards full implementation of a state accountability system that prioritizes feedback and continuous improvement.
All of this work on our prototypes will lead to a proposal for the Kentucky General Assembly to consider as early as the 2026 regular legislative session.
Being a part of this transformation that we are bringing about for the state of Kentucky and its educational system excites me. By working together, we can build that type of accountability system that lifts our students up and lifts our communities through vibrant learning experiences, innovation and collaboration with our communities. We have a responsibility to give that to our students.
KBE members also shared their goals and priorities for me as I work through this first year as commissioner during the board meeting. Although we’re still working on what I will be evaluated on, I wanted to share with you some of these priorities that were discussed and how I plan to hold myself accountable.
Some of those characteristics were accelerating and articulating the Kentucky United We Learn vision, continuing to build a positive relationship with legislators in the Kentucky General Assembly, and building relationships with not only superintendents but everyone in education, from students to families to faculty and staff.
In the past several weeks, I have been to the Capitol multiple times to encourage a positive relationship between lawmakers and the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). I have extended invitations to work with and alongside KDE and will continue to be transparent about our goals when it comes to education. We had multiple legislators involved in the Kentucky United We Learn Council’s last convening, which was a great opportunity for us to show the power of coming together.
I have been out to many of your school districts and co-ops and was honored to be a keynote speaker for the school kickoff in Shelby County last week and in Bourbon County today. I am also scheduled for a tour of Murray Independent, Livingston County, Union County, Christian County, and others in weeks to come. I appreciate all of your invitations, and these visits have given me opportunities to interact and learn about your achievements as a district.
My schedule has been very busy, but I assure you I will continue to make time for you to approach me and share your concerns and visions with me.
As your commissioner, these discussions have given me a lot to strive for, but I also want to take this chance to thank you for everything that you do for your students, staff, families and communities. I am thankful for your support as we collaborate to provide Kentucky students the chance to dream, to persist and to succeed.
As always, thank you for being …
All In,
Robbie Fletcher
Commissioner of Education
2024-2025 Comprehensive Improvement Planning for Districts and Schools
Improvement planning for the 2024-2025 academic year is underway. A collaborative process involving multiple stakeholders is essential to identifying priority needs and the resources and actions to best address them.
The process and timeline for comprehensive school and district improvement planning outlined in 703 KAR 5:225 remain unchanged as outlined on the Comprehensive Improvement Planning webpage. While comprehensive improvement planning is a continuous process and plans may be reviewed and revised at any time, the timeline identifies the diagnostics included in each phase of the planning process and their statutory due dates.
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) continues to utilize the Cognia Continuous Improvement Platform (CIP), and the 2024-2025 diagnostics are now available. Schools and districts must annually review, revise and develop an improvement plan and therefore must complete new diagnostics.
When creating and completing your diagnostics within the CIP, please ensure that the user works within the correct dashboard (district or school) and creates the correct level of diagnostic (system or school). While there are no new diagnostics this year, minor revisions have been made. Please be sure to choose the current year’s version.
2024-2025 will also be a transition year for trauma-informed plans. Pursuant to KRS 158.4416, each local board of education must develop a plan for implementing a trauma-informed approach in its schools.
Senate Bill 2 requires that the trauma-informed plans be reviewed and updated annually, incorporated into the annual Comprehensive District Improvement Plan (CDIP) and submitted to KDE. This process should be included as part of your improvement planning.
Districts are strongly encouraged to use the template developed by KDE to ensure their trauma-informed plans address all the required components identified in KRS 158.4416. More information on requirements as well as the Trauma-Informed Toolkit can be found on KDE's Trauma-Informed Practices website.
A survey, due Nov. 1, will serve as a temporary collection for 2024-2025 school year and the plan will be incorporated into the CDIP process in the Cognia platform for the 2025-2026 school year. For more information, please contact Christina Weeter, division director in the KDE Office of Continuous Improvement.
We hope you will join us for the Continuous Improvement Summit on Sept. 23-24 at the Central Bank Center in Lexington to learn more about improvement planning and continuous improvement.
For additional information about the CIP, contact Veronica Boller. For more information regarding improvement planning, visit the Comprehensive Improvement Planning webpage.
School Report Card Collector/Approval Tool Coming Soon
Sept. 16 is the tentative date for opening the School Report Card (SRC) collection and approval tool for districts. Districts should plan to be SRC-ready when the tool opens. Start now by:
- Verifying that the appropriate contacts are defined in the Web Security Administrator (WSA) system, viewable in the Open House directory. Each user must also have an active web application user account. Specifics on default user roles and how to set up users for SRC access are available in the Instructions for Accessing School Report Card.
- Reviewing the data reports to verify the accuracy of data in Infinite Campus and other systems, before the data is loaded to the SRC for validation. The Quality Assurance (QA) Worksheet includes a list of data reported in the SRC Suite along with QA tools available to use for verification.
- Gathering data to enter into the SRC collector system. The SRC Collector Items document details information on each collector item, including the School Profile Report. The window for entering data for the School Profile Report is short this year due to the new SRC vendor. Remember this report must be printed, signed and available in the local board office. Having this information ready before the opening will help ensure everything gets done on time.
The collector and approval tool will be different for 2024 than it has been in previous years, but we expect the process to be similar. AnLar is the new vendor and the Bright Bytes platform is no longer used. More information will be shared on the new tool as it becomes available.
As a reminder, the School Report Card suite consists of three important components: Open House/SRC datasets, the public SRC dashboard created by AnLar, and the Infinite Campus Parent and Student Portal. All components have valuable information available for schools, families and communities.
The tentative SRC Suite timeline is provided below:
- July/August: Campus portal opens to students and families with real-time data specific to their student(s).
- September 16: AnLar Collection/Approval tool opens for district data entry and validation.
- October 1: School Profile Reports should be available in the local board office with signatures of School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) councilmembers, principal and superintendent per KRS 158.6453 section 20(b).
- October 1: Embargoed Assessment and Accountability data will be available to districts for download and media release.
- October 3: Assessment and Accountability data sets will be published in the Open House/SRC datasets and available for download from the public site.
- November 20: Public release of SRC data in new AnLar-created dashboard view.
The Safe Schools data validation period has ended, and the safety data will be provided to the Center for School Safety and Office of Education Accountability by Aug. 30, per KRS 158.444.
School Report Card Resources
The School Report Card Resources webpage will continue to be used as a central repository for communications and resources. The SRC timeline, resources and all SRC communications will be posted to this webpage.
U.S. Department of Education Announces Schedule and New Process to Launch 2025-2026 FAFSA Form
The U.S. Department of Education (USED) announced that the 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will be launched through a new process. Starting Oct. 1, USED will release the 2025-2026 FAFSA form for testing with a limited set of students and institutions. USED will make the application available to all students on or before Dec. 1. This process is informed by conversations and feedback from thousands of students, institutions, and other stakeholders.
USED will invite volunteers to participate in the testing period, and over time will make the form available to an increasing number of participants, starting with hundreds and expanding to tens of thousands of applicants. This process will allow USED to test and resolve issues before making the form available to all students and contributors. Using this approach, USED will launch full functionality, including submission and back-end processing at the same time.
The goal of the phased rollout of the 2025-2026 FAFSA form, consistent with software industry best practices, is to work with limited groups of users to identify and resolve the kind of system errors that can derail millions of students and contributors and thousands of colleges. A phased rollout will also allow USED to incorporate user feedback to ensure the application’s instructions are clear and easy-to-use for students and contributors and provide resources for the community that supports students and families.
Throughout the testing period, USED will share regular updates with students, families and a broad range of community stakeholders to make sure they clearly understand our progress. This will also boost confidence among students and families, institutions, state agencies, and other partners and stakeholders.
Moreover, USED will continue to seek feedback from our partners through August listening sessions and a new formal request for information that will be released next week. USED will publish more about what it has learned through these engagements, including releasing a new roadmap with additional tools for students and families, counselors, institutions and other partners planning for a successful 2025-2026 FAFSA season.
In the coming weeks, USED will release more information about how this testing period will work. Our top priority is ensuring students have access to the maximum federal financial aid possible to reach their education goals, and we are working tirelessly to ensure students and our partners have a smooth experience with the 2025-2026 FAFSA form.
Pertussis Cases Continue to Rise in Kentucky
On July 17, the Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH) alerted Kentuckians that pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is increasing across the Commonwealth. As of last week, Kentucky health officials have identified 176 cases of pertussis, with the majority of cases occurring in school-aged children.
Whooping cough is a highly-contagious respiratory illness. Symptoms can vary for people based on their age and vaccination status, but typically begin with a runny or congested nose and mild coughing. After one to two weeks, the cough can progress to rapid, violent coughing fits that can cause the “whooping” sound, vomiting and labored breathing. Babies younger than 1 year old are at greatest risk of getting whooping cough and having severe complications from it.
Whooping cough spreads easily from person to person through the air. People can spread the bacteria from the start of symptoms and for at least two weeks after coughing begins. Some people have mild symptoms and don't know they have whooping cough, but they can still spread.
Outbreaks of pertussis can occur in schools. Individuals diagnosed with pertussis should be excluded from school until they have completed five days of antibiotics.
Anyone can get pertussis, however, people with pre-existing health conditions that may be worsened by pertussis are at high risk for developing a severe infection. Young infants are at highest risk for severe disease and death.
The best protection against severe illness is vaccination. There are vaccines that protect against pertussis (DTaP for children and Tdap for adolescents and adults).
Most people are vaccinated against pertussis, though immunity from both vaccine and infection decrease over time.
- Per 902 KAR 2:060, five doses of DTaP are required by the ages of 5-6 for school entry. A booster dose of Tdap is also required for children 11-12 years old.
- Tdap boosters are recommended for pregnant women during each pregnancy.
- Tdap boosters are recommended for all adults.
School personnel should be aware of pertussis and have a conversation with their local healthcare provider to ensure they are up to date with recommended vaccinations, including Tdap, COVID-19 and influenza.
These vaccines can also be obtained at many healthcare clinics, the local health department, and many pharmacies.
Additional information and resources as children go back to school can be found on the Back to School Outreach Toolkit and on the KDPH pertussis website. Further questions should be directed to Amy Herrington at the Department for Public Health, Immunization Branch.
Success Stories of Effective Partnerships with Families
During its 2023 term, Family Partnership Council (FPC) members conducted an in-depth analysis of the latest research on family partnerships and collaborated to create the Family Partnership Council’s recommendations to the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE).
These recommendations would:
- Support every school’s effort to form effective partnerships;
- Promote greater alignment of KDE’s and outside organizations’ family partnership initiatives; and
- Set the goals of the FPC for the next two years.
One of the four recommendations noted that KDE should encourage districts and schools to develop local web pages that include more robust relationship-building and communication metrics regarding meaningful family and community engagement. KDE is seeking to fulfill this recommendation by highlighting districts and schools that are doing family partnerships well and what they are doing with a special focus on innovative practices.
KDE is encouraging all Kentucky districts and schools to utilize the Success Stories of Effective Partnerships with Families form to share their stories of creating trusting relationships with families as partners that are making a positive impact for both students and families. Stories will be shared as a resource and inspiration to other schools across the Commonwealth as we seek innovative and successful ways to partner with our parents, families and our communities.
To learn more about the FPC, please visit the Family Partnership Council website.
ESSA Schoolwide Flexibility
Section 1114(a)(1)(B) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers flexibility for the operation of schoolwide programs in schools that don’t meet the poverty threshold required in Section 1114(a)(1)(A). This threshold is typically set at 40%. However, flexibility is offered as follows:
- A school that serves an eligible school attendance area in which fewer than 40% of the children are from low-income families, or a school for which fewer than 40% of the children enrolled in the school are from such families, may operate a schoolwide program under this section if the school receives a waiver from the state educational agency to do so, after taking into account how a schoolwide program will best serve the needs of the students in the school served under this part in improving academic achievement and other factors.
With approval, the school would have to meet all requirements under ESSA Section 1114.
To request this flexibility, a district must apply on behalf of a school. The request must:
- Describe that the district requests the flexibility;
- Address how the schoolwide program will best serve the needs of students in the school in improving academic achievement and other factors;
- Be written on the district’s letterhead; and
- Include the signature of the superintendent or their designee.
Please note, districts that have been approved for this flexibility in the past do not need to request it again and may continue to operate schoolwide programs in those approved schools as long as they remain eligible for services as outlined in ESSA Section 1113. Those districts must maintain documentation of the original approval.
Flexibility requests and questions may be emailed to David Millanti or mailed to David Millanti, Assistant Director, Division of School and Program Improvement, 300 Sower Blvd., 5th Floor, Frankfort, KY 40601.
National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program and Application for Category 1, 2 and 3
The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (NAESPA) – formerly the National Title I Association – selects examples of superior, federally-funded school programs for national recognition through the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program.
Each year, states can identify up to two Distinguished ESEA Schools in three possible categories:
- Category 1: Exceptional student performance and academic growth for two or more consecutive years.
- Category 2: Closing the achievement gap between student groups for two or more consecutive years.
- Category 3: Excellence in serving special populations of students (e.g., homeless, migrant, English Learners, etc.).
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is now accepting applications for schools for Categories 1, 2 and 3. Schools may apply for recognition in only one category, and anyone interested in applying should fill out the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program application. The application must be signed by the school principal and district superintendent and submitted by the deadline of Aug. 15.
If selected as a finalist, KDE staff will conduct a site visit to interview the principal and selected staff.
Declaration of Participation Updates
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) recently notified districts about upcoming changes to the Declaration of Participation data collection.
Through this process, data is collected to identify the number of students enrolled in private and home schools within the district’s boundaries. The data is also used to facilitate the calculation of the following federal program allocations: Title II, Part A: Supporting Effective Instruction; Title III, Part A: Language Instruction for English Learners and Immigrant Students; Title IV, Part A: Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants; and IDEA-B: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
To recap, this work has moved to the Division of School and Program Improvement in the KDE Office of Continuous Improvement and Support with the goal of improving data collection efficiency. Please review the Declaration of Participation website and its resources. Please note, the link is a new URL with updated resources, so you may need to update bookmarks.
KDE anticipates the declaration will open in early October this year in the Grant Management Application and Planning (GMAP) system with a due date in mid-December. Please be aware this is much earlier than usual.
Although data is to be collected for the last day of the second month of the 2024-2025 school year, districts may begin communicating with private and home schools about the earlier collection to keep them informed and begin distributing the Private Non-Profit and Home Schools Assurance Form to ensure they are prepared to submit timely data.
Please reach out to Amanda Reifsnyder, David Millanti, Neil Watts, or Windy Spalding if you have general questions about the data collection process. If you have specific programmatic or GMAP questions, please reach out to the following KDE staff.
- Title II-A: Dana Kelly, (502) 564-1479, ext. 4502
- Title III, English Learner/Immigrant: Kaiman Triplett, (502) 564-4970, ext. 4089
- Title IV-A: Lee Bowling, 502-564-4772, ext. 4035
- IDEA-B: Karla Miller, 502-564-4970, ext. 4155
- GMAP Technical Assistance: Thelma Hawkins, (502) 564-1979, ext. 4361
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