ODSS Legislative Goals
ODSS Legislative Goals 2025-26
2025-26 ODSS Legislative Goals
ACADEMICS: ODSS will:
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Support a plan for investment in innovative learning initiatives, including but not limited to those that effectively address challenging student behavior, to improve outcomes in reading and math and other academic areas for all students.
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Continue to support modernized graduation requirements and the elimination of barriers to support flexible college and career pathway programs, including concurrent enrollment, dual credit options, and career tech opportunities.
FUNDING: ODSS will:
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Support increased investments in operational costs to fund important innovations for students and to keep up with inflation and increased property insurance costs.
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Support teacher, related service provider, and support employee salaries with the goal of reaching the regional average for per pupil funding and increasing starting salaries for new teachers.
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Oppose unfunded mandates and any attempts to divert public funds to non-public schools.
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Oppose any attempts to reduce local funding sources, without replacing those funds at the state level.
ACCOUNTABILITY: ODSS will:
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Support efforts to streamline the accreditation process in statute to assure support to districts while reducing redundant reporting.
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Support the continued development and implementation of research-based curriculum materials and accountability measures with multi-criteria indicators of student growth.
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Support equal accountability for all schools receiving public dollars.
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Support reducing bureaucratic regulations and oppose administrative rules not supported by law.
EMPLOYEES: ODSS will:
- Support legislation to address the current teacher, 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.
LOCAL CONCERNS: ODSS will:
- Oppose any legislation that removes educational decisions from locally elected Boards of Education.
- Oppose the expansion of charter schools without input from local boards of education or local community support.
FEDERAL: ODSS will:
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Support efforts to maximize and work against reductions to Oklahoma federal education funds.
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Support work with the legislature to establish guardrails to protect federal funding for districts with the potential of federal funds disbursements through state block grants.
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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