K-12 and Afterschool Provider Customers: ESSA
Final Regulations Posted Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
The bipartisan law and these regulations give states and districts the opportunity to move beyond No Child Left Behind’s reliance on a limited range of metrics and punitive “pass/fail” labels for schools, and use their planning and accountability processes to reimagine and redefine what a high-quality education should mean for their students. To that end, the final regulations clarify ESSA’s statutory language by ensuring that accountability systems use multiple measures of school success, including academic outcomes, student progress, and school quality, thereby reinforcing that all students deserve a high-quality and well-rounded education that will prepare them for success. The final regulations also build on ESSA’s flexibility around school improvement and intervention by providing further support for locally designed solutions to improve struggling schools, and a clear role for parents, families, educators, and stakeholders to meaningfully share in the implementation process. Lastly, the final regulations uphold the strong civil rights legacy of the law by including all students and historically underserved subgroups in accountability decisions, ensuring meaningful action where whole schools or groups of students are falling behind, and providing clear and transparent information on critical measures of school progress and equity.
These regulations are effective January 30, 2017.
Finally, regarding highly-qualified teacher requirements, the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, eliminates the highly-qualified teacher requirements under the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA.28 Under title I of the ESEA, as amended by the ESSA, the SEA is required to ensure that all teachers and paraprofessionals working in a program supported with funds under title I meet applicable State certification and licensure requirements, including any requirements or certification obtained through alternative routes to certification.
Changes: None
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/essafactsheet1127.pdf
The details of how this newly approved Act will be implemented in California have not been announced yet but the previous American Federation of Teachers opinion are:
Q: How are paraprofessionals handled in ESSA? Are certification requirements maintained? Are there professional development opportunities?
A: Paraprofessional certification requirements, which help prevent school districts from hiring paraprofessionals with little educational experience or professional training, are maintained under ESSA.
ESSA ensures that paraprofessionals are included in the list of stakeholders who must be consulted in the development of the state and local plans in Title II, and the local plans under Title I, including the operation of a targeted assistance school program. There is also language that expands professional development opportunities for paraprofessionals, including how a state can establish, expand or improve pathways for paraprofessionals to earn a teacher certification.