ODSS Legislative Goals 2022-23
1. Funding
FUNDING - ODSS will:
- Support an increase in teacher, including related service providers, and support employee salaries, as well as operational costs with sustainable funding sources.
- Support funding to incentivize retirees and certified teachers to return to teaching.
- Oppose unfunded mandates and any attempts to divert public funds to non-public schools.
- Oppose any attempts to reduce local funding sources.
- Support a full-time virtual student weight that more accurately reflects costs to educate virtual students.
2. Accountability
ACCOUNTABILITY - ODSS will:
- Support the continued development and implementation of research-based accountability measures with multi-criteria indicators of student growth.
- Support equal accountability for all schools receiving public dollars.
- Support changing the composition and appointment process to the State Board of Education as recommended in the LOFT Report (June, 2022).
- Support reducing bureaucratic regulations not required by law.
3. Employees
EMPLOYEES - ODSS will:
- Support legislation to address the current teacher, including related service provider, and support staff shortage.
- Support the elimination of barriers to allow retired teachers to re-enter the classroom upon retirement without restrictions or additional costs to school districts.
- Support the elimination of barriers to address the bus driver shortage.
4. Local Concerns
5. Federal
6. Academics
ACADEMICS - ODSS will:
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Support a plan to sustain innovative learning initiatives implemented with recent investments of new money, provided during the pandemic.
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Support the elimination of barriers and support college and career pathway programs, concurrent enrollment, and dual credit options.
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Support broadband access for all students.
Priorities for the State Dept. of Education and Other State Agencies
- Take effective and immediate action designed to help school districts attract and retain qualified
- special education teachers and Level 2 paraprofessionals and
- related service providers, such as speech-language pathologists, physical and occupational therapists, school psychologists, behavior consultants/specialists and educational interpreters for students who are deaf or hearing impaired
- Offer frequent, free/low-cost, easily accessible and optional training (online and/or throughout different regions of the state) about different types of disabilities/impairments, similar to the OHI and other registry trainings OSDE previously offered
- Create additional paths to training and certification for teachers of students with visual and/or hearing impairments and for orientation and mobility specialists
- Provide frequent, free/low-cost, easily accessible training (online and/or throughout different regions of the state) designed to help school staff members at all levels work more effectively with students who have significant emotional and/or behavioral issues that impede learning
- Collaborate with institutions of higher education to enable appropriately trained graduate students to provide free/low-cost assistance and coaching to school personnel working with students who have significant emotional and/or behavioral issues that impede learning, with the goal of improving outcomes for those students and building school capacity. SDE’s Memorandum of Understanding with UCO should be expanded to include other universities, as appropriate, to reach more schools and students
- Provide more and varied frequent, free/low-cost, easily accessible training designed to help school staff members at all levels across a broad range of disability-related issues, including selecting and providing appropriate accommodations/supports for students with all sorts of impairments in the general education setting
- Collaborate (via inter-agency agreement or otherwise) to provide free/low-cost therapeutic services or links to such services for students with mental health issues
- Continue to collaborate with the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the Governor’s Office and others to eliminate obstacles to district billing/payment for services deemed necessary by student IEP teams
- Continue efforts to ensure appropriate assessment of students with disabilities, especially students with the most significant cognitive impairments
- Reduce/combine special education paperwork and other requirements to minimize teacher time away from instruction
- Anticipate, prepare for and promptly and effectively address impediments to prompt access to accurate student records and information maintained on EdPlan, the WAVE and other student data systems, including but not limited to the impediments that historically arise near the beginning of each school year and interfere with the prompt transmission of student records and information to students’ school sites
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