Regents Meeting Recap

Regents Approve Waiver to 180-Day Requirement for Certain School Districts

The Regents approved a proposed amendment to Section 175.5 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education to provide a waiver for up to four school years (2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and/or 2021-2022) for certain school districts that cannot meet the minimum instructional hours because of safety and/or scheduling issues.

School Safety Plans

The Regents approved regulations relating to school safety plans. The regulations implement changes included in Chapter 59 of the Laws of 2019 and respond to concerns raised by the State Comptroller relating to the Department’s oversight of school district emergency planning. The legislation and regulation respond to concerns about the disproportionate number of arrests made of students in schools with law enforcement personnel.

The 2019-20 Enacted State Budget included amendments to Education Law §2801-a to require that school districts and charter schools adopt a written contract or memorandum of understanding that is developed with stakeholder input, that defines the relationship between a school district or charter school, school personnel, students, visitors, law enforcement, and public or private security personnel. The written contract or memorandum of understanding must clearly delegate the role of school discipline to school administration and be consistent with the code of conduct. Such contract or MOU is required to be incorporated and published as part of the school district safety plan. The amendments became effective on July 1, 2019. 

Regents Approve APPR Regulations

The Regents approved regulations to implement changes in the 2019-20 Enacted Budget relating to Education Law §3012- d, which governs annual teacher and principal evaluations. The key changes include: 

• Required Student Performance Measures 

  • Eliminates the requirement to use the State Growth Model for teachers of grades 4-8, building principals covering those grade levels, and high school principals (all of grades 9-12). 

    • All educators would instead have a Student Learning Objective (SLO). 

  • Eliminates the requirement that State-created or administered assessments be used as the evidence for SLOs where they exist. 

  • The selection and use of the assessment(s) for an educator’s SLO is now subject to collective bargaining, rather than district determined.

• Optional Student Performance Measures 

  • Eliminates the requirement that optional student performance measures be based either on a second State-provided growth score or a growth score based on a supplemental assessment that uses a State-provided or approved statistical growth model. 

  • Where a school district collectively bargains to use optional student performance measures, the statutory amendments also eliminate the existing requirement that an educator receive a rating of Ineffective on their overall evaluation if their Student Performance Category rating is Ineffective.

Regents Discuss 2020-21 State Aid Proposal

The State Aid Subcommittee discussed plans for the Regents’ 2020-21 State Aid Proposal. While there was no mention of specific increases or requests, the conversation was structured around three broad questions:

• Should the Regents recommend a process for reviewing the Foundation Aid formula?

• Should the Regents continue to include setasides in their proposal?

• Should the Regents call for improved technical financial assistance to support school district management?

The subcommittee did not reach any consensus on these points but were open to updating the Foundation Aid formula to improve its accuracy and redesign it in ways that would be more comprehensible to the general public. 

Regents Appoint Deputy Counsel

The Board of Regents appointed Shannon Tahoe as Deputy Counsel for the State Education Department. Ms Tahoe has worked in the Office of Counsel for 10 years and has served as Assistant Counsel since 2011.

Data Security and Privacy Regulations Discussed

At their October meeting, the Regents discussed regulations to implement Education Law section 2-D relating to protecting personally identifiable student, teacher and principal information. The proposed Part 121 of the Commissioner’s regulations provides educational agencies until July 1, 2020 to adopt and publish a data security and privacy policy. For more information see here.

The regulations also:

• Clarify the complaint process

• Clarify the requirements of the data security and privacy plan

  • Ensure that any contract with a third-party contractor includes the third-party contractor’s data security and privacy plan that is accepted by the educational agency

  • The plan will outline how the third-party contractor will implement all requirements of the life of the requirement

  • Specify safeguards to protect personally identifiable information that the third party contractor will receive under the contract

  • Demonstrates that it complies with supplemental information required by Section 121.3(c) to identify the purposes for which personally identifiable information will be used, the duration of the contract and what will happen to the data when the contract expires, how an individual can challenge the accuracy of the data, where the data will be stored and security protections taken, how the data will be protected using encryption, and that each educational agency shall publish on its website this supplement or other written agreement with a third-party contractor that will receive personally identifiable information.

  • Specify how the third-party contactor will manage data security and privacy breaches and unauthorized disclosures.

  • Describe whether, how and when data will be returned to the educational agency, transitioned to a successor contractor, or deleted or destroyed.

• Clarifies what should be included as part of annual data privacy and security awareness training.

• Clarifies restrictions on the use of disclosure of personally identifiable information by third party contractors.

• Requires educational agencies to verify that only authorized individuals inspect and review student data.

• Clarifies the authority of the Chief Privacy Officer.

Graduation Measures in New York State

The Board of Regents is conducting a review of graduation requirements in New York State. They seek to answer the following questions.

1. What do we want our children to know and to be able to do before they graduate? 

2. How do we want them to demonstrate such knowledge and skills? 

3. To what degree does requiring passage of Regents exams improve student achievement, graduation rates and college readiness? 
   

4. What other measures of achievement (e.g., capstone projects, alternative assessments or engagement in civic and community activities) could serve as indicators of high school completion? 
   

5. How can measures of achievement accurately reflect the skills and knowledge of our special populations, such as students with disabilities and English language learners?

The Regents and Department will gather information, including a review of research and practices in other states, and engage educational associations, organizations and research agencies, in a series of regional meetings in each judicial district this winter. Following this a Blue Ribbon Commission will be appointed and charged with developing recommendations from March 2020 to Spring 2021, to be presented to the Regents in Fall 2021.