OCS is hiring!
If you are passionate about school choice and want to help educators across the state, consider joining the Office of Charter Schools. With over 200 schools in the state and growing, we stay busy and engaged, providing guidance and support. As a member of our diverse and passionate team, you will have ample opportunity for personal and professional growth, as a team player committed to expanding opportunities for future generations.
Applications are being accepted now through September 1st. Read more and apply through this link.
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Premium Library / Educational Impact Webinar Aug. 31
Is your district searching to purchase Professional Development to grow impactful educators?
Join NCDPI & PowerSchool on Aug. 31, 2022 from 1:30-2:30pm EST as we demonstrate Premium Library in NCEES with a focus on Educational Impact courses. EI has over 300 courses to choose from and they will be working with districts on reduced pricing for bundled purchases
Join to learn more and ask any question!
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Premium Library allows you to easily search, purchase, assign, and track PD within the NC Educator Effectiveness System.
- Premium Library 1-pager
- Requires NCEES District Administrator to view Premium Library in System Administration > Premium Library.
- Requires Home Base Opt-In to manage PL courses in a PD Office, in the online tool.
Webinar presented by Sean Vair, PS Sr. Educational Impact Consultant; Cami Narron, NCDPI NCEES Product Manager and Educational Impact representatives. It will be recorded for future viewing and sharing.
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DUE SEPTEMBER 15: 2022 School Mental Health Policy Report
Dear Charter School Leaders,
All charter schools are required to report their progress on meeting the guidelines set forth by the NC State Board of Education's SHLT-003:School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) Policy. We have included the required reporting questions in the Healthy Active Children's (HAC) policy report, and you will be able to complete your report online. In the online reporting portal, you will indicate that you are a charter school, and you will be directed to the SBMH policy questions. To make it easier for you to assemble your report information prior to going online, a Word version of the online survey is linked. Please complete the online survey to submit your report.
The information needed to complete the SBMH progress report will come from your School Mental Health Improvement Plan, which is required to upload and must include the mental health training program and suicide risk referral protocol.
Please note the deadline to complete the HAC Progress Report / School Mental Health Policy Report is September 15, 2022.
You can access the reporting portal through the link below.
If you have questions or challenges in completing this online survey, please contact Les Spell at Les.Spell@dpi.nc.gov.
We appreciate the time and energy spent in completing this report and look forward to reading each submission. The Healthy Active Children Report / School Mental Health Policy Report is a valuable tool in efforts to provide quality school health systems that will raise academic achievement and promote physical and mental health among North Carolina’s schoolchildren.
Thanks for all you do.
Les
Les Spell
Data & Policy Consultant
Division of Academic Standards
NC Department of Public Instruction
(W) 984-236-2815
Les.Spell@dpi.nc.gov
School Business – August Updates
July 2022 MFR Data
Due to a posting issue, July 2022 State and Federal expenditures doubled on DPI books. This doubled expenditure postings impacted your July 2022 zero-out resulting in charters receiving more cash certifications during the zero-out processing.
Your charter does not have to adjust your July expenditures. However, during the August data file processing, DPI ledger balances will correctly adjust to record Year-to-Date expenditures as of August 31, 2022.
We also suggest you not request additional state or federal cash if you do not need to. The last date to request federal cash with a Funds Requirement Date (FRD) of August 31, 2022, is Thursday, August 25, 2022, and the last date to request state cash with an FRD of August 31, 2022, is Friday, August 26, 2022.
If you have questions, contact Roxane Bernard at roxane.bernard@dpi.nc.gov.
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Confirmation of Funds for Annual Financial Statement Audits by CPA firms
DPI is providing the appropriate reports to your independent auditors via the internet. These reports for FY22 are now posted in a public application at: http://apps.schools.nc.gov/auditorconfirmationreports (Annual Reports).
Please direct your independent auditor to the site provided.
Please contact Roxane Bernard at roxane.bernard@dpi.nc.gov with any questions.
IRS Travel Rate Update
The IRS standard mileage rate set by the Internal Revenue Service is 62.5 cents per mile
effective July 1, 2022.
Please review the Memorandum from State Budget Director Charles Perusse regarding
Change in IRS Mileage Rates Effective July 1, 2022.
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School Business – August 19, 2022
The FBS website continues to be updated with COVID-19 policies and information related to School Business, as well as our ongoing operations. Please check the FBS homepage regularly for updates. New Posts:
REMINDER – ESSER I and GEER Grants Expire September 30, 2022
As a reminder, the period of performance for the ESSER I and GEER Grants (PRCs 163-170) ends on September 30, 2022. School Business will be sending out 45 day warning letters for the grants in the next two weeks. Please ensure that you are expending these grants funds timely in an effort to avoid reversion of these important, pandemic-related emergency funds.
UPDATE – Federal Liquidation Period Change for ESSER I/GEER Grants
School Business confirmed this week with the U.S. Department of Education that the liquidation period for the ESSER I and GEER grants (PRCs 163-170) is 120 days rather than the previous 90 days. As such, PSUs will have until January 31, 2023 to liquidate all encumbrances for the ESSER I and GEER grants; final reversions for the funds will not be processed until February 2023.
First Installments for Certain Federal Programs
Because DPI only receives a portion of certain Federal grants on July 1 (with the remained provided to DPI after October 1), School Allotments will be issuing first installments for the following Federal grant programs:
- Title I, Part A (PRC 050)
- Title II, Part A (PRC 103)
- IDEA 611 Grants to States (PRC 060)
- CTE Federal Program Support (PRC 017)
For these programs, do not be alarmed if your initial allotment is less than the planning allotment you had received in the Spring; a second installment will be provided later in the Fall, with the final installment provided after DPI completes adjustments for new and growing charter schools. Other programs will receive full allotments after School Allotments is notified of application approvals.
School Business will begin making first installment allotments for these programs to PSUs with approved applications starting in the next few weeks.
Allotments Update
The Allotments Section has posted the School Technology Carryover in PRC 015 for the LEAs. There are other minor allotments that pertain to a select group of PSUs. You can find the information in the Allotment system under Revision 7.
We will post PRC 071 – Supplemental Funds for Teacher Compensation next week and will notify the Finance Officer when that has posted. We will also post the FAQ related to PRC 071 funding for your reference and the worksheet that will reflect the maximum allowed per teacher under What's New on our website at that time. Reminder that the IPSs receive their allocation in their primary state funding program report code (PRC 036 or PRC 038). You will be able to find that information in the Allotments system under Revision 8, after it is posted.
Next week (by Aug 24th) we will also be processing the new School Technology funding and any Federal Initial Allotments that have approvals. Currently that will be for PRCs 017, 049, 060, 070, and 103. You will be able to find that information in the Allotments system under Revision 9, after it is posted.
If you have any questions, please contract Kristie Weber at kristie.weber@dpi.nc.gov.
Updated School Attendance Guidelines
Please see the attached excerpt from the SASA Manual (Student Accounting and Student Attendance). This is a draft until it is approved by the SBE in October, however, please use this guidance as you begin school this year.
Of special note is the appropriate use of the 1-R code related to remote instruction vs. your normal attendance codes for schools. Please also see section related to the use of the 1-D code.
This is posted under the What’s New section.
Reminders
PSBCF, PSBRRF, and NBPSCF Lottery Distribution Requests are due August 25, 2022
Details are in the August 5, 2022 newsletter *
Safer Schools Grants will close August 30, 2022
Details are in the August 12, 2022 newsletter *
NBPSCF Capital Grants application is due September 1, 2022
Details are in the August 5, 2022 newsletter *
* View prior newsletters online: Newsletters and Guidance | NC DPI
Have questions about student health requirements? Counseling? Healthy schools in general? The NC Healthy Schools staff can help …
Sarah Blanton, Healthy Schools Consultant
Kisha Bryant, School Counseling Consultant
Ellen Essick, Section Chief
Burt Jenkins, Healthful Living / Athletics Consultant
Pachovia Lovett, School Social Work Consultant
Lillian Pinto, Reproductive Health Consultant
Susanne Schmal, School Health Partnerships & Policy Consultant
Les Spell, Data and Policy Consultant
Reminder: Coding Read-to-Achieve Reading Retained Students
Students who are still non-proficient after summer reading camp need to be coded as Reading Retained in PowerSchool. It is imperative that this is completed ASAP.
Students who transfer between districts and remain non-proficient after summer reading camp will not get the label from the previous district in the Transfer Student Record process. Students must have this label to access the Amplify platform. Therefore, this data entry should be completed no later than August 29, 2022.
DPI will notify you when the archival process and the pulling of twice retained students will take place later. DPI will also run a script to remove labels from students in grades 5 and higher one last time prior to archiving the data. Labels entered for the current year should not be removed by PSUs until notification has been sent that this data has been properly archived.
The Home Base Team has created a QRD, "Coding Read-to-Achieve Reading Retained Students", to assist PSUs with properly coding the "Read Retain" label in PowerSchool for students under Read-to-Achieve. This document also contains links to additional resources that provide background legislative information and FAQs.
If you have questions pertaining to this process, please contact your Early Literacy Consultant.
OCR/CRDC - SY2022-2023 - CRDC Contacts in EDDIE
Dear Coordinators,
Please share with other staff as appropriate. Read this message carefully.
The Office of Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) will be conducted in the 2022-2023 school year. Data for the collection is from the previous year (School Year 2021-2022).
To date, the Federal government has not published an official start date. The NCDPI will notify PSUs once an announcement has been made.
Note: PSUs which were not open in the school year 2021-2022 are not required to participate in this collection.
CRDC Contacts in EDDIE
This week, NCDPI will make the following updates to the EDDIE system to prepare for communications regarding the coming collection:
· All past Office of Civil Rights Coordinator contacts have been deleted from the EDDIE system.
· The EDDIE Staff Role name has been updated from ‘Office of Civil Rights Coordinator’ to ‘CRDC Coordinator’.
· PSUs may record up to two CRDC Coordinator staff roles only.
Beginning August 8, 2022, please record two staff members who have been identified as the CRDC Coordinator. These staff will be the technical contacts for the CRDC.
PSUs are also strongly advised to verify or update the Student Information Coordinator contact in the EDDIE system.
CRDC Coordinator Responsibilities:
1. Serve as the technical contacts
2. Review data collected by NCDPI on behalf of the PSUs before the federal submission
3. Add and correct data in the CRDC Federal Submission Tool
4. Certify the data collection in the CRDC Federal Submission Tool
Instructions for creating Staff Entries (Roles) in EDDIE are in the Help Using EDDIE section of the NCDPI website.
Please contact Terra Dominguez at terra.dominguez@dpi.nc.gov with any questions you may have.
Discipline, Dropout, and ALPS data coordinator contact information
DISCIPLINE DATA
With the start of the 2022-2023 school year, NCDPI would like to make sure that we have the most accurate contact information for your PSU’s discipline data coordinator.
ALTERNATIVE LEARNING PROGRAMS & SCHOOLS (ALPS)
With the start of the 2022-2023 school year, NCDPI would like to make sure that we have the most accurate contact information for your PSU’s ALPS data coordinator.
With the start of the 2022-2023 school year, NCDPI would like to make sure that we have the most accurate contact information for your PSU’s dropout data coordinator.
The NC Digital Learning & Media Inventory (DLMI) is due Sep 30, 2022.
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All PSUs (LEA, Charter, Lab, Regional) must complete the DLMI annually.
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Remember that this data feeds into the NC School Report Card, the Office of Civil Rights Report, and the new Digital Dashboard required by legislation.
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For your data to be on this year’s School Report Card, it MUST be input into the DLMI system by the Sept 30 deadline because we must submit the SRC data the following week.
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Charter, Regional, Lab schools must complete the PSU level as well as the School level, therefore need to request PSU admin access.
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Please see the 2022 NCDLMI Training Deck for directions and links.
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Contact your regional consultant for further assistance.
Register for Fall Literacy Instruction Standards (LIS) PD!
To assist districts and schools in implementing the Literacy Instruction Standards (LIS), the NCDPI ELA Team will provide regional train-the-trainer sessions for instructional leaders that include:
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Building a deeper understanding of the LIS and practices
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Utilizing the "Literacy Look-Fors" tool to observe and coach
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Planning next steps for improving literacy in their PSU
We are inviting up to 3-5 leaders per charter to attend. Suggested participants:
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K-12 representation; Vertical representation
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Content area representation
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Instructional leaders who will support/provide PD locally
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Literacy and/or Instructional Coaches
The charter session will take place October 5th from 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM.
The NCDPI ELA Team encourages charter teams to work with their school leadership to ensure registration accurately reflects needed charter representation. While each team member should register separately, charter leaders should follow up with their team members to ensure individual registrations are completed.
Register for your session!
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To learn more about the support the ELA Team will provide for the 22-23 school year, view our public-facing timeline. If you have any questions, please let us know!
Thanks,
Stacy Daniel, Ed.D. Section Chief for ELA & Languages English Language Arts and Languages Office of Academic Standards NC Department of Public Instruction P: (984) 236-2829 stacy.daniel@dpi.nc.gov
Important MEMOs:
MEMO: 2022–23 Annual Testing Program and Accountability Requirements
Thoroughly read the linked memo, 2022–23 Annual Testing Program and Accountability Requirements, from Dr. Michael Maher and Dr. Tammy Howard.
Some important resources from our DPI partners working in School Mental Health and Counseling.
988 Is Now Live!
988 offers 24/7 access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing mental health-related distress. That could be:
- Thoughts of suicide
- Mental health or substance use crisis, or
- Any other kind of emotion distress
People can call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for themselves or if they are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support.
988 serves as a universal entry point so that no matter where you live in the United States, you can reach a trained crisis counselor who can help.
Printable PDF handouts in English and Spanish explain the basics about 988.
More about 988
Year Two PSU Q&A
Will we need to submit our SMH plan this year?
- Yes, you will be required to report to DPI by September 15th, 2022. The reporting portal is now open, and only one contact per PSU will have access to the reporting portal. You will answer the reporting questions as part of the Healthy Active Children's Report, the same as last year (charters bypass the HAC portions and only complete the SMH report). You will also upload a copy of your SMH plan.
- New charter schools opening this school year will need to report to DPI and submit their plan.
Has anything changed about what we are required to do?
- There are no major changes. You will notice on the reporting page that we have added questions about prior years' compliance. These are based on the 2021-2022 school year.
- Your plans do not have to change. You can upload the same plan as long as it is still what you plan to use. You also can make any adjustment and changes to your plan prior to submitting. You must include your detailed training plan and suicide risk protocol and ensure it is up-to-date.
- You will see the requirements for abuse and neglect resources that are now included in the School Mental Health Policy. These materials must be distributed at the beginning of each school year.
What does the 2-hour subsequent training have to include?
- The 2-hr refresher addresses at least 2 of 6 MH training program areas, and on even-numbered years, 2 hours of sex trafficking and child sex abuse content must be provided.
- The 6-hr initial training (for new employees) must address all 6 areas, regardless of year.
Where do I find all the SMH Policy materials?
Questions can be sent to pachovia.lovett@dpi.nc.gov
URGENT-Office Hours Re: Mental and Behavioral Health Funding and Support Opportunities
Join the NC Healthy Schools Team, along with the NC Division of Child and Family Well-Being team members from DHHS, in August Office Hours to share more about these opportunities and address questions. To join a meeting, on the date, use the links below.
August 23rd, 3 - 4 pm
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer or mobile app
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 222 398 408 154 Passcode: UNzGgi
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EC ANNOUNCEMENTS |
Please review the attached EC Division communication updates and Guidance.
Calling ALL EL Data Stakeholders!
Are you relatively new to English Learner (EL) identification, EL Data in PowerSchool, the Home Language Survey process, and other critical elements for EL data? In that case, register now for the upcoming session. We recommend this for anyone with less than three years of working with multilingual learners, EL data, and PowerSchool.
September 12th from 9:00 - 11:30 am - Registration
New DOE Guidance:
Office of Charter Schools (OCS) Updates
Planning Year 22-23 newsletter announcement and September registration for applicant schools:
Planning Year Calendar 2022-2023
The Office of Charter Schools is pleased to release the dates for the 2022-2023 Planning Year Professional Development calendar. All schools (boards and school leaders) in the Ready to Open process are required to attend five (5) planning year sessions as well as the New Charter Leaders Institute in June, 2023, as part of the successful completion of the Ready to Open and Planning Year process. Registration is for Planning Year/RTO schools only.
2023 Burroughs Wellcome Fund NC Teacher of the Year Nomination Process
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund NC Teacher of the Year is recognized at the school, regional, and statewide levels. Individual public charter schools nominate a Teacher of the Year who participates in a selection process facilitated by the Office of Charter Schools at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Once the charter school nomination processes are completed, the teacher finalists vie as one of the state’s nine Regional Teachers of the Year. [The state is divided into eight geographical regions and NC Charter Schools are clustered together to form the ninth region of the state. The Charter School Teacher of the Year joins the Regional Teachers of the Year team as a finalist for the state Teacher of the Year]. This selection process is facilitated in each region by Regional Education Facilitators. If you need additional information please reach out to your Regional Educator Facilitator or Dr. Sonja Brown at Sonja.Brown@dpi.nc.gov Please remember to nominate your school's Teacher of the Year.
 The NC ACCESS Program is offering two amazing (and FREE) development opportunities for charter school leaders and teachers during the 2022-23 school year. Visit ncaccessprogram.com/learn for more information.
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Science of Reading (LETRS) Training for 200 teachers and 100 administrators. NC ACCESS is partnering with Lexia Learning to provide the same LETRS training that the state is offering to traditional public schools.
- The ACCESS Fellowship for 100 charter school leaders. To-date, this intensive development institute has only been available to NC ACCESS subgrantees. This year, it is open to all. Apply today!
NC ACCESS Aspiring Minority School Leaders Program
Are you looking for School Leaders?
The North Carolina Advancing Charter Collaboration and Excellence for Student Success (NC ACCESS) grant program in the Office of Charter Schools was excited to embark on the Aspiring Minority School Leaders Program in collaboration with Appalachian State University. The Aspiring Minority School Leaders Program was designed to recruit, support, and build a pipeline of minority school leaders prepared to meet the challenges of leading schools. North Carolina charter schools will benefit by having access to a cohort of school leaders of color and women who are exceptionally trained, ready to be part of innovative school reform initiatives, and ready to move into leadership positions with strengthened organizational and instructional leadership skills.
We are proud to announce that we have twelve completers from the program. All have a Master’s Degree and years of school-based experience. If you are actively looking to fill certified school leadership positions, please send your listing to Dr. Barbara O’Neal in the Office of Charter Schools at barbara.oneal@dpi.nc.gov. I will send your position notices to the program completers.
Note: This special effort to inform this group of twelve does not replace the normal process of sending open positions notices to the OCS Newsletter, please continue to send them your position notices. Questions, please feel free to contact me at the same email address.
Other Resources from DPI
Charter School Job Postings
If you have current teaching/leadership positions open and wish to share them in this newsletter, reach out to Joseph.Letterio@dpi.nc.gov and provide a link to the posting/s.
Whom Should I Contact at the Office of Charter Schools?
OCS Main Number: (984) 236-2700 / Email: ocs@dpi.nc.gov
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