PRESS RELEASE
1-10-18 - The Minnesota Department of Education announced today that the U.S. Department of Education has approved Minnesota’s plan to implement the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Minnesota’s state plan places equity at its foundation, and outlines the values, goals and strategies—established through two years of public input, at more than 300 public meetings—that will guide the state’s public school system going forward.
Read full press release.
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ACTION ITEMS
Minnesota Statutes require the commissioner of education to “…review all education-related mandates in state law and rule once every four years to determine which fail to adequately promote public education in the state.”
MDE would like your help identifying the following:
- Mandates that should be repealed because they do not promote public education.
- Mandates that you considered unfunded.
- Mandates that are duplicative.
Please help us identify these mandates by completing a short survey by January 19.
For a reference on education-related mandates, please review the reporting calendar. You may also email your responses to Kate Lynn Snyder.
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To determine a student's McKinney-Vento eligibility, school districts and charter schools must determine whether a student's living arrangement meets the McKinney-Vento definition of homeless. The term homeless is broadly defined by the McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program. In general, homelessness is defined as a lack of fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence, or in the case of unaccompanied youth, the lack of a safe and stable living environment. Under the McKinney-Vento Act, each district must assign a district homeless liaison. The district homeless liaison is charged with ensuring that homeless children and youth are identified by school personnel through outreach and coordination activities with other entities and agencies [42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(6)(A)(i)].
Verify your district homeless liaison information in MDE-ORG.
Work with your district’s site verification coordinator to update your information. Questions regarding McKinney-Vento eligibility, rights, or services should be directed to Roberto Reyes at 651-582-8302.
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Please read the January 10, 2018, memo titled Special Education Statewide Average Expenditures Fiscal Year 2017. This memo explains calculations for fiscal year 2017 statewide average special education expenditures, per December 1 child count, by primary disability area.
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ITEM OF INTEREST
Superintendents and charter school leaders are invited to participate in this monthly audio conference call hosted by Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. The next call is scheduled for Wednesday, January 17, 9:30-10:30 a.m. A notice providing dial-in instructions will be sent prior to the call. Comments to offer and/or questions you would like to ask are encouraged.
Conference call schedule: February 21, March 21, April 18 and May 16. All calls are from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.
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Paraprofessional Recognition Week is set for January 22-26. There are over 20,000 paraprofessionals in Minnesota working hard every day to make sure every child has the education they need to succeed in school and life. Thank them for their hard work by recognizing their efforts and contributions. Check our website next week for ideas and recognition certificates for the paraprofessionals in your school.
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TRAININGS
2017-18 Updates to the State Course Classifications
The Minnesota Common Course Catalogue (MCCC) is a mandatory data collection of Local Education Agencies’ (LEA) course classifications to the state of Minnesota. To keep current with new federal course classifications and additional reporting needs, updates have been made to MCCC data collection for the 2017-18 school year. While the data is collected during the 2017-18 school year the data submission is due date March 2019.
The updated documentation for the new course classifications have been posted on the MCCC webpage under the new section titled “K-12 Documents New for 2017-18 Reporting” lists the updated documents. Listed below are the specific updates being implemented. Please review this information and share with the staff involved with compiling and entering the MCCC data. Please contact Karen Millette, MCCC Project Manager, at 651-582-8632 for assistance.
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