The NC Charter Schools Advisory Board will meet remotely Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 7 and 8, at 9 a.m. both days, for its regular monthly meeting. The agenda for this meeting is available online. The meeting will be live streamed.
On Monday, December 7, DTL will be holding two Q&A webinars for the GPA and Grade Scale Automation. Details regarding these changes can be found in the 2021-2022 GPA and Grade Scale Automation memo. During this Q&A we will be reviewing the changes for the upcoming 2021-2022 school year within PowerSchool as well as providing an opportunity for LEAs and charter schools to ask any questions or concerns regarding any of these changes.
If you have any questions or concerns prior to this meeting please email brandon.young@dpi.nc.gov.
Digital Content & Canvas Grant Applications - Now Open!
Digital Teaching and Learning held an information webinar regarding PRC 165 (Digital Content) and PRC 166 (Canvas), on Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. Grant applications are now open for both PRC's and due by 5pm on Friday, December 11, 2020.
Target audience: Board members from charter schools that are opening in 2021, as well as acceleration applicants, are required to attend 5 virtual Planning Year Sessions from September to March; this year we have spaced the sessions out more throughout the year. Schools in a delay year are not required to attend but are welcome to. The school leader and some of the board members are also required to attend the New Charter School Leaders Institute in June 2021. As a customer service, the Office of Charter Schools continues to open up these sessions to all charter schools; however, the target audience is new school leaders and baords. 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.
To help recap important news of the week, we are pleased to bring you the NCDPI COVID-19 WEEKLY TOP TEN. The link does not change. New content is added to the top of the document weekly.
*Note, due to the holiday, there will not be a Top Ten issued next week.
Here’s a preview:
10. General Information and Resources-Public Records Requests 9. Digital Content & Canvas Grant Applications - Now Open! 8. Reminder-NCStar Student Success Comprehensive Plan Report Submission Due Tomorrow-December 4th 7. Second Round of DLI Grant Opportunity 6. Join us for the Cultural Arts LIVE Conference-December 15th and 16th 5. Extra Credit Grant Deadline Extension 4. NCDHHS Webinar Recording & Slide Deck 12.1.20 3. EDDIE Review-Help ensure we have the most up to date contact information! 2. Holiday Card Drive 2020 (Deadline-Friday, December 11, 2020) 1. NCDHHS Update: Language to Support Masking Guidance Change Bonus: Important-Digital Content Funding Applications From the field...US Department of Ed announces the 2020 CubeSat Mission Finalist
Please note that the state COVID WEEKLY TOP TEN is not compiled with charter schools primarily in mind, or written by OCS. Charter schools retain flexibility by law, including but not limited to the issuance of emergency leave. If you ever have any uncertainty about a requirement, please reach out to the Office of Charter Schools.
Application now open - COVID-19 Testing Pilot K-12 Public Schools
Dear education and health partners,
We are excited to share that North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) opened the application process for its pilot program to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing in K-12 public schools to quickly identify students and staff who may have COVID-19 to help slow the spread of the virus.
To participate in the pilot, a school or school partner organization that wishes to perform testing must be able to meet certain requirements, including: the ability to obtain parental/guardian consent prior to testing, maintain adequate supplies of personal protective equipment, have trained personnel to administer tests, and report test results to state and local public health agencies. Local education agencies can identify individual schools in their jurisdictions that are interested and able to meet these requirements.
A local education agency must work with their local health department to complete a readiness checklist and submit a pilot application to NCDHHS.
Pilot applications are due December 8, 2020. NCDHHS will deliver the rapid tests to pilot sites at no cost to the sites as soon as December 14, 2020.
Questions? Applicants should direct questions about the K-12 COVID-19 antigen testing pilot application process to StrongSchoolsNC@dhhs.nc.govwith the subject line “COVID Testing Pilot Question.”
Thank you so much for all that you do for our kids, their families, our educators, and our communities.
The requirements to submit a certification of immunization and a school health assessment will be reinstated on December 1, 2020. The 30-day grace period will end December 30, 2020,or 30 calendar days from the child’s first date of attendance, whichever is later, after which point a student would have to be excluded from in-person and remote learning until compliant with requirements. Schools will have until February 1, 2021 to file annual immunization reports.
Reminder: PowerSchool IPT Certification in February 2021
The Home Base Team will be offering a virtual IPT certification training from February 1-5, 2021. This training will span five full days. Participants will have 90 days to take and pass the certification test after training. Each PSU is allowed a certain number of technical contacts based on their ADM. If you are unsure of your current technical contacts, please contact PowerSchool Support at 1-855-339-4790.
NCDPI has created an IPT FAQ document to help answer questions you may have. Please review this document for frequently asked questions about the training and certification.
Those who can attend the DPI offered IPT Training include:
Anyone replacing a previous technical contact from their allotted number.
A local charter school employee who is not employed by a data management company.
Those who cannot attend this training are:
Charter school data management company employees
PSUs wanting additional technical contacts above their desired allocation
Anyone who has attended training previously and failed the certification test.
Note: Anyone who is not eligible for this training will need to arrange training and/or certification directly through the vendor, PowerSchool, and cover the cost incurred. To do so, please reach out to the PowerSchool training team, training@powerschool.com.
Those who are eligible for this training session, please fill out the registration form.
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Thank you,
Yolanda Wilson NC Department of Public Instruction Digital Teaching and Learning
Please see the attached memo, K-3 Formative and Diagnostic Assessment Data Sharing, from Deputy Superintendent, Dr. David Stegall and Director of K-3 Literacy, Dr. Tara Galloway.
As outlined in the attached memo, K–3 Formative and Diagnostic Assessment Data Sharing, public school units (PSU) are required to submit student assessment data from the selected Read to Achieve diagnostic assessments for K–3rd grade students. The suggested method for this data collection is submission of the data by the vendor. If PSUs choose to provide the data to NCDPI instead, the attached directions should be used.
Direct any questions concerning the assessment data to your NCDPI K-3 Literacy Consultant. Direct any questions about processing the data files to your Regional Accountability Coordinator.
Review the COVID Allotment Policy manual 2020-21, which reflects which COVID PRCs charters are eligible.
If you have COVID funding questions, please contact Sue Holly at susan.holly@dpi.nc.gov.
Action Needed: Funds for Digital Content
Greetings Technology Directors,
As part of the Coronavirus Relief Funds, NC DPI directed $10.8 million to be allocated to all PSUs to fund digital content.
Due to the nature of these funds, each PSU must apply to accept or decline the funding. To date, 48 of the 340 PSUs (LEAs & Charters) have completed the application to claim or deny their portion of funds.
The application is set to close on December 11 to allow us to drop funds in late January 2021. These funds expire on September 30, 2022.
If you or your designee have not yet accepted or declined, please do so by December 11, 2020.
Opportunity for EL Program Coordinators, Lead Teachers, and Testing Coordinators to participate in ACCESS for ELLs Roundtable Discussions
We are pleased to announce the ACCESS for ELLs Roundtable Discussions. These roundtables are hosted by EL Program coordinators and Testing coordinators across the state to share ideas, ask questions, find answers, and discuss ways we can safely and successfully administer ACCESS for ELLs and Alternate ACCESS for ELLS assessments.
Our topics in these sessions will include discussions around preparing for the testing window, testing locations, communication with parent/family caregivers, student transportation, and other relevant information.
Please register for the session that reflects your school’s characteristics (e.g. a small population or a large population of ELs) - Space is limited.
Memo: The 2021 Session of the North Carolina Governor's School
Superintendents and Charter School Leaders,
Please review the below memo, The 2021 Session of the North Carolina Governor's School, from Dr. Beverly Emory, executive director of the Leandro Implementation, and Sherry Thomas, director of the Exceptional Children Divison.
Tip Sheet: Related Service Support Descriptions (RSSD) The EC Division has received questions regarding how to document supplemental aids and supports that were previously included on a separate stand-alone form, RSSD, prior to the implementation of ECATS and the new EC forms. While this information was previously provided at the May 2017 Regional Director’s Meeting, it is appropriate to update the information and re-release in a Tip Sheet. Please see the updated version attached.
We have been receiving inquiries about the 2021-2022 school calendar. As a reminder, the remote learning days were required in law for the 2020-21 school calendar year only. We will wait for the General Assembly session starting January to see if they make changes to the requirements for the 2021-22 school calendar.
Professional Learning, RTO, and Renewals Newsletters
Whom Should I Contact at the Office of Charter Schools?
Please note that response times to voicemails left on our phones will be much slower than usual due to the COVID-19 response efforts. Sending us an email is ideal. Clicking the link on our names will bring up an automatic email prompt. Thank you!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – EDDIE is the
authoritative source for NC public school numbers and demographic information, is used by multiple NCDPI technology systems including: Accountability, PowerSchool, NC School Report Cards, and is used to meet federal reporting requirements.LEAs and charter
schools are responsible for ensuring their data in EDDIE are complete, accurate, and current. EDDIE is located at: http://apps.schools.nc.gov/eddie
Reminder: PowerSchool IPT Certification in February 2021
