NCDPI Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates
NC Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Charter School Questionnaire - Final Reminder
NC Department of Transportation is in the process of gathering time sensitive information regarding all road improvements and associated expenditures located adjacent to school campuses.
Please complete the attached questionnaire on or before December 8, 2017 and return to OCS at ocs@dpi.nc.gov.
Attachment: NCDOT Road Improvement Questionnaire
Training Opportunity
Board members from charter schools that are opening in 2018 are required to attend 5 face-to-face Planning Year Sessions from September to January. The school leader and some of the board members are also required to attend the New Charter School Leaders Institute in June.
As a customer service, the Office of Charter Schools continues to open up these sessions to all charter schools. If you have a new school leader and/or a new board member interested in attending any of the sessions, he or she must register to attend. Please note the schedule below:
Registration is now closed for the December session.
For questions, please contact Dr. Kebbler Williams at kebbler.williams@dpi.nc.gov.
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Charter Schools Transportation Grant Opportunity - Reminder
2.5 million dollars was provided to the NC Department of Public Instruction to establish a Charter School Transportation Grant Program for the 2017-18 school year.
The purpose of the Charter School Transportation Grant pilot program is to reimburse a charter school that has a student enrollment of at least fifty percent (50%) of its students residing in households with an income level not in excess of the amount required for a student to qualify for the federal free or reduced price lunch program.
The Letter of Intent was the first step in the established process and was due September 1, 2017. Attached is the Letter of Intent for any school who did not complete initially and the Grant Application which is due December 31, 2017.
Contact ocs@dpi.nc.gov with questions or concerns.
Attachments:
2017-18 Transportation Grant Letter of Intent
Charter Schools Transportation Grant Application
 Community School of Davidson to Host its Fresh Take Conference
January 25, 2018 is this year’s Fresh Take: Strategies for Student Success conference in Davidson, NC. We are excited to present our 6th conference for teacher by teachers. Each session, as you will see on the list below, honors and encourages those in the honored profession of education.
The keynote address will be presented by Dr. Lacretia Berry will address the fact that if we want multi-ethnic communities where bias is not attached to skin tone and race does not matter, we must get good at educating and engaging our children and students. She will also speak about educator’s responsibly to normalize conscious conversations about skin tone and race, and how to empower students to be competent, comfortable, and courageous as they navigate our hyper-racialized society and seek ways to bring healing and change.
Information about Fresh Take and a link to register to attend the conference can be found on the Fresh Take website.
Early bird rate is still available until December 15: individual registration is $75 or $325 for a group of five attendees ($65pp). Registration includes breakfast, lunch, a swag bag, t-shirt, and snack. CPU certificates will be available at the end of the conference.
Join us to celebrate the profession of education and learn from one another.
Fresh Take website: http://thefront5.wixsite.com/freshtake.
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NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) Updates
PRC 118 for
Related Service Retention & Autism Coaching Teams
Please see attached regarding funding for related
services retention, professional learning and Autism Coaching Teams.
If you have any questions, please contact the
appropriate consultant for your region.
Attachment: Memo-PRC+118+Related+Serv-AU_2017.pdf
 Correcting
Invalid Account Codes (Charter Schools Only)
As DPI prepares for School Business Modernization, we anticipate
implementing a change to the Monthly Financial Report (MFR) process, beginning
in the 2018 calendar year.
The
new process will involve NCDPI dropping all invalid account codes prior to
posting the MFR totals. The zero-out process and per pupil process will not
recognize any expenditure posted to an invalid account code. You must use
only valid account codes.
When
a charter school corrects the expenditure account code on their General Ledger
to a valid account code, the MFR file will reflect the change the following
month. The corrected account code will then post to Management Sciences America
(MSA).
As
part of the current monthly data file process, NCDPI includes a list of the
invalid codes in the Monitoring Letter. In anticipation of the new process, any
charter school with invalid codes should correct them as soon as possible.
Please
contact Roxane Bernard at roxane.bernard@dpi.nc.gov
should you have any questions about the process of clearing the invalid account
codes.
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Specific Learning Disabled (SLD) Eligibility Guidance Update
SLD Eligibility Guidance for the evaluation and identification of specific
learning disabilities for policy effective July 1, 2020 has been updated.
This update includes links to the SLD Fact Sheets and videos which provide an
provide an overview of each of the five criteria for eligibility.
The guidance is located on the NC DPI MTSS livebinder located here.
Connecting Communities
of Education Stakeholders Conference News
Early Bird
Registration Opens Dec. 15
Early bird registration for
the 2018 Connecting Communities of Education Stakeholders (CCES)
conference opens Dec. 15.
Teachers, student services
personnel, principals, superintendents, parents, school administrators, and
community and business representatives are encouraged to attend. Take advantage
of new registration options that provide additional flexibility for schools and
districts.
Visit the CCES conference website Dec. 15 to register and learn
more about this exciting professional development and networking opportunity.
Nominations for
Champions for Student Success Closes Jan. 5
As a reminder, Jan. 5
is the deadline to nominate a deserving teacher, administrator, support staff
member or volunteer for the Champion for Student Success award.
The success of the Connecting
Communities of Education Stakeholders (CCES) conference is based on the
connection of innovative stakeholders sharing diverse thoughts, skills and
solutions. It’s important to honor individuals who do this daily.
A complete description of the
selection process, nomination criteria and application process can be found on
the CCES website.
2017 Report on
Education Legislation Online
NCDPI’s 2017 Report on Education Legislation is
available online for you to review and share. The report chronicles and
summarizes all of the 2017 Session Laws (including relevant budget provisions
and policy) that relate to K-12 public education in the state
If you prefer printed copies,
please visit the NCDPI Publications Sales website or call 919.807.3470.
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Council on Educational Services for Exceptional Children to Meet
The Council on Educational Services for Exceptional Children (CESEC) will
meet Wednesday, Dec. 13, from 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., in the 7th
Floor Board Room, Education Building, 301 N. Wilmington Street, Raleigh.
The agenda for this meeting is attached. The meeting will be audio
streamed for those who cannot attend.
The purpose of the CESEC – as established in the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) federal regulations in §§
300.167-300.169 and the North Carolina General Statutes in §115C-121 – is to
advise the State Board of Education with respect to:
* the unmet needs of children with special needs and in developing and
implementing policies related to the coordination of services for disabled
students;
* developing evaluations and reporting on data; and
* developing corrective action plans to address findings in federal monitoring
comments.
If you have any questions regarding this meeting, please contact NCDPI
Communication and Information Services at 919.807.3450.
 Professional Learning Opportunity
Please see attached flyer providing information regarding regional
professional learning opportunities for Explicit Instruction: An Essential
Component of Specially Designed Instruction.
Attachment: Explicit+Instruction+Flyer+%281%29.pdf
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Deaf-Blind
Professional Learning
Please see attached announcement of upcoming
professional learning, Empowerment Through Touch: Haptic
Training.
If you have any questions, please contact Dottie
Snyder (Dorothy.snyder@dpi.nc.gov)
or Sandra Warren (warrens@ecu.edu).
Attachment: Memo-Haptic+Training.pdf
2018-19 School
Year Course Codes Now Available
New Courses
The new 2018-19 School Year course codes are
now available for scheduling in PowerSchool and the Master List can be viewed
at: http://www.nc-sis.org/courses.html.
The new
course list includes additional Cambridge courses, CTE local course options
(LCO), and elective OCS/ECS high school courses. Additionally, the following EC
elective courses have been added for the current school year:
·
North
Carolina Elective Health, Safety, and Independent Living (9390AX0)
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North
Carolina Vocational Preparation (9391AX0)
 Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)
As the Charter Leadership teams begin to facilitate
MTSS implementation, they must examine belief systems in their schools.
Four overarching questions
need to be addressed in order to plan for installation:
● Do
ALL staff believe all subgroups can reach proficiency with current academic and
behavior standards?
● Do
ALL staff believe that Core Instruction (Tier I) in reading, math, and behavior
can be effective for our students?
● Do
ALL staff understand the purpose of supplemental instruction (Tier II) is to
add to core in order to ensure students achieve grade level benchmarks ?
● Do
staff believe that in addition to receiving core and supplemental supports,
that intensive instruction (Tier III) can ensure students are growing toward
achieving grade level benchmarks?
How would your staff answer
these questions? How do the existing beliefs in your school square with these
fundamental beliefs?
Thank you for engaging in school
improvement with the support of the Division of Integrated
Academic and Behavior Systems. You have a vital role as a
member of the MTSS Leadership Team to guide and support sustainable
implementation grounded in systems change. More information on teaming
structures in a Multi-Tiered System of Support is found on our wiki. Information on Cohort involvement is
available here.
Contact Amy Jablonski at Amy.Jablonski@dpi.nc.gov for more information.
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Charter Schools In The News
Some
School Districts Balk at Charter Schools. This One Embraces Them.
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