Michael Litke, Principal, Naubuc School

The following recap of September 2016 developments in Washington was prepared by Michael Litke, CAS-NAESP Federal Relations Coordinator.

TOP NOTES OF THE WEEK

• Stop-gap Budget Measure Passed by Congress – Congress reconvened the first week of September, after the seven-week August recess, and then quickly adjourned Thursday night to head home until November 15. While they did not pass a budget bill for the new FY 2017, a Continuing Resolution (CR) or stop-gap measure was passed to keep the government running until December 9.

• ESSA Implementation – On October 10th and 24th NAESP will be holding an “open mic” session with state leaders representing Pre-K-8 education to hear how states’ ESSA planning and implementation process is going.

• October is National Principals Month – NAESP and NASSP are very excited to celebrate the role of principals and their successes leading schools. As part of the month’s activities (which you can check out at www.principalsmonth.org), they are once again pleased to share that U.S. Department of Education (USDE) will be supporting the annual Principal Shadowing Week event. This year, USDE will be focusing on “Leveraging Leadership for Sustainable Change” and connecting policy and senior level officials to actual professional practice in schools.

• U.S. Department of Education working on Teacher Preparation Rules – Earlier this year, the USDE issued a supplemental notice of proposed rule making, which continues a multi-year effort to revise regulations regarding teacher preparation programs. This supplemental notice requested clarification on “State reporting requirements that would affect teacher preparation programs provided through distance education and TEACH Grant eligibility for students enrolled in teacher preparation programs provided through distance education.” NAESP expects the department to publish the rule within the next few weeks.