Though it was another relatively quiet week for Congress since both Chambers were out of session, several announcements from the Department of Education were released last week. In addition, on Friday, President Biden proposed a $1.5 trillion annual budget for 2022 fiscal year, including an increase to non-defense spending for governmental agencies such as the Department of Education, which would see a 40.8% increase from the current funding levels under the proposal (which did not provide detailed funding levels for all programs like Perkins). Here some other notes from the week:
- Department of Education Releases Second Volume of its COVID-19 Handbook: On April 9, the Department of Education released its second volume of COVID guidance, the COVID-19 Handbook, Volume 2: Roadmap to Reopening Safely and Meeting All Students' Needs. In this volume, the Department provides additional strategies for reopening schools for in-person learning, and recommendations for promoting equity by addressing opportunity gaps that were exacerbated by the pandemic. It also provides strategies to address the social, emotional, mental-health and academic impacts of the pandemic on students, educators and staff. Following the release, Sec. Cardona held a roundtable discussion with students and parents on the impact of the pandemic.
- Department of Education Announces More Political Appointees: More political appointees were announced by the Department of Education. Among these political appointees, Amy Loyd was announced as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Strategic Initiatives for the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE). Read our full blog post here.
- Department of Education Begins Issuing ESSA Testing-related Waivers: The Department of Education issued a number of responses this week to state requests for waivers related to the statewide academic assessments required under ESSA. Waivers granted generally related to timing of assessments, participation and accountability, and for the most part the Department has not supported states efforts to cancel test completely. State ESSA waivers will have a future impact on the availability and quality of data for reporting on student academic achievement under Perkins as well. Copies of waiver responses can be found here.
- National Groups Support the College Transparency Act: On April 5, ACTE joined 147 education-related groups, including members and partners of the Postsecondary Data Collaborative and National Skills Coalition, to send a letter in support of the College Transparency Act. The College Transparency Act is a bipartisan legislative proposal which would modernize the postsecondary reporting system to ensure students and families have clear and concise information as learners consider higher education opportunities.
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