BASA Member Update 2.28.2020

BASA Member Update February 28, 2020

1. Hot Topics

• Don’t Pay For That School Bus (YET)! • State Legislative Conference • Ohio’s State Testing Vendor Has A New Name

• Business Advisory Councils Must Publish Joint Statement By March 1 • The 2020 U.S. Armed Forces Career Commitment Ceremony for Ohio’s high school students

2. Bricker Brief: OCR’s Civil Rights Initiative 02.27.2020

HOT TOPICS

Don’t Pay For That School Bus (YET)! House Bill 166, the budget bill, provides $20 million for school districts to purchase school buses. Using these funds to help address the aging Ohio school bus fleet, ODE, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, will be implementing a School Bus Purchase Program for the 2020-2021 school year. Information on districts that qualify for funding will be issued by ODE on or before March 20, 2020. If districts have ordered a bus (or buses), they can apply forthcoming funds to that purchase if they have not already applied any payment to the new purchase(s). It is advised that, if possible, districts wait until ODE comes out with their guidance on or before March 20 to determine whether they will be receiving funds that can be applied to a current or future order. State Legislative Conference The annual State Legislative Conference will be held on Wednesday, March 18 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Cost is $145/person. The conference will be held at the Sheraton Columbus at Capitol Square and includes lunch. The 2020 State Legislative Conference provides school board members, administrators, and treasurers a great venue to meet with their state legislators and discuss issues impacting public education. It is a golden opportunity to get the message out on the importance of investing in a strong public school system and putting a local face on these issues. During the morning session, school district leaders will hear briefings on proposed legislation that can be used in discussions with their legislators later that day. Attendees also will hear from legislative leaders about their respective views on public education and other legislative priorities. Attendees are urged to schedule office appointments between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to meet individually with their legislators and aides following the luncheon. We also encourage you to extend a personal invitation to them to attend the luncheon. To register Visit www.ohioschoolboards.org/workshops or email Laurie Miller at Lmiller@ ohioschoolboards.org.

Ohio’s State Testing Vendor Has A New Name Cambium Learning Group completed its acquisition of the assessment division of the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in January. AIR Assessment, now called Cambium Assessment, Inc., will retain the testing applications used in 26 states, including Ohio. There will be no changes to the Ohio assessments delivered by Cambium Assessment. Department staff and Ohio stakeholders will continue to work with the same program management team. Business Advisory Councils Must Publish Joint Statement By March 1 Ohio law requires each district’s business advisory council and board of education or educational service center governing board to issue a joint statement by March 1 each year to report progress on work outlined in the business advisory council’s plan for that year. The statement also must summarize actions taken and actions pending and specify how the council and board have fulfilled their responsibilities under the law. The joint statement should be posted publicly on a webpage dedicated to the business advisory council’s work or in a prominent location on an existing webpage to ensure the statement is accessible to the public for review.

The 2020 U.S. Armed Forces Career Commitment Ceremony for Ohio’s high school students

Honor, tradition and service are the hallmarks the members of the U.S. military live by each day, and Ohioans have made countless storied contributions to our nation’s history. Ohio continues this legacy at the All-Ohio United States Armed Forces Career Commitment Celebration. Review the 2020 Invite: http://education.ohio.gov/Media/Ed-Connection/Feb-3-2020/Armed-Forces-Career-

Commitment-Ceremony-for-Ohio-h Register to Attend 2020 Ceremony: https://extrastep.regfox.com/career-commitment-celebration-2020

Bricker Brief

FEBRUARY 27, 2020

Civil Rights Initiative to Combat Sexual Assault in K-12 Public Schools – U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (Feb. 26, 2020)

The announcement identifies OCR’s recent resolution agreement with Chicago Public Schools concerning sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints as illustrating “the systemic and significant deficiencies that require OCR’s intentional and focused examination.” The U.S. Department of Education will also be publishing a “Pass the Trash” study to examine measures states and school districts have taken to prevent educators who have engaged in sexual misconduct with students frombeing employed by other districts. Section 8546 of the Every Student Succeeds Act prohibits state education agencies, schools, and school employees from assisting a school employee in obtaining a new job if the employee engaged in sexual misconduct involving a minor or student. Districts should review their Title IX policies to ensure that district personnel, students, and parents know how to report concerns and that district administrators responsible for disciplinary investigations are trained to recognize when Title IX investigations are required. Please note: Bricker Briefs are provided to BASA members as an informational service courtesy of the law firm of Bricker & Eckler LLP, a BASA Premier Partner. They are not intended to serve as a legal opinion with respect to any specific person or factual situation.

Citing a “troubling rise” in the number of sexual assaults in K-12 schools, the U.S. Department of Education announced a new Title IX enforcement initiative to be led by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to “strengthen the ability of schools to respond to all incidents of sexual harassment and assault.” Title IX requires school districts to respond promptly and equitably to both student-on- student and staff-on-student allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Districts must take steps to eliminate the harassment, prevent its recurrence and remedy its effects. OCR’s sexual assault initiative will include: • Compliance Reviews to examine how sexual assault cases are handled under Title IX (including incidents involving teachers and staff). • Public Awareness and Support to raise awareness of sexual assault in K-12 schools. • DataQualityReviews of sexual assault/offenses data submitted by school districts through the Civil Rights Data Collection to ensure incidents of sexual assault and sexual offenses are accurately recorded and reported. • Proposed CRDC Data Collection : OCR has proposed to collect more detailed sexual assault data, including data on incidents perpetuated by school staff or personnel.

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