Updates from MDE: 03-26-2021

department of education

March 26, 2021

Updates in this email:

MDE Announces New Members of Executive Team

Incoming Education Commissioner Dr. Heather Mueller has named new members to the Minnesota Department of Education’s Executive Team, including the director of the new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Center at MDE. Read the announcement.

Federal Funds Update

Round 1 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 (CARES)

  • About 25% of these funds have been drawn so far.
  • The next deadline is May 1, 2021 to get your application approved if you haven’t already and you plan to spend these funds going forward.

Round 2 Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 (CRRSA)

The Legislative Audit Commission (LAC) has released the remaining Round 2 funds. On Monday, MDE sent a message to school leaders about the funding. View the email message.

See below for important information about summer funding.

Round 3 American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP)

Minnesota is estimated to receive $1.3 billion for schools.

There are specific requirements related to addressing learning loss, summer enrichment and after school programs. We are waiting for additional clarification from the federal government on how these areas are being defined.

  • The bill was signed in to law on March 11, 2021.
  • We submitted our spending authority request to the MN Legislative Advisory Commission (LAC) on March 19, 2021.
  • They have 20 days to approve or request additional information.
  • After April 9, we anticipate having additional information available.
  • This funds will be available until 9/30/2024.

Information Needed by April 23: Summer Programming

MDE has approval to allocate federal funding to districts and charter schools to expand and enhance summer programs. Schools offering in-person state approved programming qualify. Funding can be used in the following ways:

  • To hire more staff in order to offer expanded eligibility to all students for summer learning and enrichment.
  • To enhance the effectiveness of programs by allowing smaller class sizes.
  • To expand programming: offering more hours per day or by increasing the number of days.
  • To offer enrichment that supports the academic portion of the program by partnering with community organizations.
  • To provide student transportation to and from summer programs.
  • To purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff providing direct support services.

Initial estimates indicate that the allocations will equate to approximately $4 per student membership hour. The program will submit final student enrollment at the end of the program in order to determine total membership hours. A membership hour is every hour a student is enrolled in the program. In order to estimate how many hours of summer programming there might be, and to allow us to provide a partial payment based on this information, superintendents and charter school directors (or a designee) must complete the Summer Program Planning Form by April 23, 2021.

For more information, contact Mary Barrie, mary.barrie@state.mn.us or Sally Reynolds at sally.reynolds@state.mn.us.

USDA Waivers Extended

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service recently released a Child Nutrition Waiver Update, which includes several waiver extensions for the Summer Food Service Program, the National School Lunch Program, and the NSLP Seamless Summer Option. School Nutrition Directors have received additional information from MDE on these waivers.

Reminder: Accountability Waiver Public Comment

In response to an opportunity from the U.S. Department of Education, Minnesota is submitting a waiver for the accountability sections of its ESSA state plan. Under this waiver, Minnesota will still collect and report data on student learning. However, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on data collection and usability, data collected during the 2020-21 school year will not be used for accountability purposes.

The draft of Minnesota’s waiver is available for public comment Monday, March 22, 2021 through Tuesday, March 30, 2021Read the waiver. Comments can be submitted via email to mde.essa@state.mn.us.

Please share this information with your communities.

Training Opportunities, Important Dates and Announcements

Due March 26: Apply to Host Summer AmeriCorps Members

In response to COVID-19 and the need for more student and family support, the Minnesota Alliance with Youth will be offering summer AmeriCorps members

These Emergency Response Initiative (ERI) AmeriCorps members will serve for 300 hours between June 6th through August 14th. Organizations and schools who wish to host will receive members at a full scholarship.

Alliance ERI members will provide holistic support to students and families this summer. Priority areas include:

  • Student enrichment support 
  • Housing
  • Food security  

Complete the short host site application: Summer AmeriCorps Host Site Application which is due March 26. Sites may request multiple members. 

More information on how AmeriCorps support can be found at www.serveminnesota.org and questions can be submitted to response@servetogrow.org.

Bilingual and Multilingual Seals Awards 

The Minnesota Bilingual Seals Program is an excellent tool to recognize our multilingual learners’ linguistic and cultural assets.  It provides an opportunity to earn credit at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, making college pathway as a realistic goal for many of our multilingual learners. This year, for the first time, assessments for Dakota and Ojibwe are fully available. Amharic is another new language added on the list of languages in which the awards are available.

The guidelines for the Bilingual Seals Implementation for Spring 2021 has been just posted on the Minnesota Bilingual Seals Program webpage.

This document contains some important information regarding 2021 IBDP exams, 2021 AP exams, remote-proctoring, and training sessions for Bilingual Seals Assessments through Extempore for languages, Amharic, Dakota/Lakota, Hmong, Karen, Ojibwe, Oromo, Somali, Tamil, and Vietnamese.

Contact: mde.worldlang@state.mn.us

Flexible Learning Year Application Deadline Extended

This winter, school districts and charter schools have undertaken the unprecedented task of moving from distance learning, and hybrid learning, back to in-person learning. As a result, MDE acknowledges that school districts may not have had an opportunity to prioritize completion of their Flexible Learning Year (FLY) applications. Therefore, MDE will be extending the application deadline for FLY programs to the end of day on April 30, 2021. Districts will be notified whether their application is approved within 45 days of receipt of the application. For more information about Flexible Learning Year programs and to apply, please visit the MDE website here: https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/ltopt/.

If you have questions about FLY or the FLY application process, please contact Cindy Jackson at cindy.s.jackson@state.mn.us. Please note, Ms. Jackson is partially redeployed to the Minnesota Department of Health so her ability to respond may be slightly delayed.