good morning everyone welcome with all the people who are here today i just want you to know there's no team cake sorry sorry y'all missed out those of you who are joining us um this time I'd like to um have the roll call please dr
baker here miss Jassel here dr davis here miss Gazalo here dr houston present miss Anna here miss Moise is not present miss Patrick here sister Carol present williams here miss Williams here great
thanks very much now we'd like to have the guests around the room introduce themselves maybe we can start with Sylvia sia Davis superintendent Kimelli Dasis of Baton Rouge director of government programs
and compliance emily Bizigar Dascese of Home PreK4 teacher nicole Jefferson Arch Dascese of New Orleans karen Pow Louisiana Department of Education Office of Early Childhood barry Carter assistant superintendent
Office of Early Childhood nikki Landry executive director of policy with the department and I'm Ashley Town deputy chief of policy here at the department lando Hutchinson the certification specialist with the L christy director of certification
arthur Joe Ferion Department of Education uh Deputy Assistant Superintendent Educator Talent and Workforce Development tamaris Walker Bessie executive director keith Lier Office of School Choice Department of Ed kevin Burke in Bessie
District 7 which includes Dascese of Lake Charles and Lafayette and product of 12 years of Catholic school you got gray hair melanie Mayu I'm with federal support kenya Jenkins uh division of federal
support grantee relations director of federal support good morning state [Music] good morning tony Liji executive legal counsel for the department morning caleb
Moore deputy chief of staff from the choice of Good morning vicky Silus policy fellow Louisiana Department of Education jermaine Gillson Assistant Superintendent Office of School Choice good morning sabre King Governor's Education Policy Advisor State of
Louisiana hi Aaron Benderly with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy good morning Sandy Holloway Bessie District 3 which is Southeast Louisiana and the Homa Tivido Dascese Area good morning Simon Shawine bessie
appointed by the governor at large so I I love to tell people I represent everyone thank you and Judy Armstrong Bessie uh at large member representing nonpubliclix great thanks to all of you for being here so now um I need to
um approval for the minutes you all should have read the minutes that were sent dr houston Mr carol second all in favor okay moving right along um our first item on the agenda is Mr caleb Moore consideration and update report
regarding LA Gator so I need a motion to receive a report Kimberly second by Dr morning Caleb good morning morning thank you all for having me uh very excited to share with you some uh very good
information about the LA Gator program uh so what we'll go through today is a little bit about the Louisiana scholarship program schools and family engagement on LA Gator a little bit about our public engagement generally in communications we've done on the program uh a little bit on the support information that we've shared a few
times and then uh the program participation information for uh where we're at in the program for now uh so first we're working to support the Louisiana scholarship program schools and families as they transition to LA Gator uh as it sits right now about 63 or 64% of the scholarship program
students have um applied and been marked eligible for LA Gator uh what we're going to do moving forward is we're actually going to share rosters securely with schools uh to let them know on a weekly basis um how many of their students have and have not registered for LA game so they can actually target
uh their outreach one-on-one to to families uh as many of you joined and were aware we had a webinar for the uh LSP families that was recorded Monday January 27th uh it was basic information about what they need to do what they need to have ready um their transition into the Gator program and we had all
the questions that were received there uh answered and made available on our FAQ website laggator.la.gov uh and that was sent to LSP schools and LSP families as well uh I won't go through all these this is uh some information about our email outreach that goes out on a weekly
basis to LSP schools and families as you'll see here there's around 4,000 emails generally sent every week uh our open rates stick around 70 to 80% which is incredible for email marketing campaigns so we're very excited to see that uh the family and school interest is very high for this
program uh public engagement opportunities uh we'll go through the list here of some engagements that we've had generally with the public that we've been invited to or joined to present on uh with the association of public charter schools at a conference session uh as many of you joined at Choice had an LA Gator implementation summit uh the
Louisiana scholarship program webinar non-public monthly calls non-public council as we're doing today um communication with the LCTCS community and technical college system uh supplemental course academy uh some of the dascese from around the state um and then support meetings with the top 10
LSP schools by enrollment uh other public uh engagement we've done we have a newsletter that goes out to the general public i think we're around 4,000 a little bit more uh subscribers uh this generally goes out on a weekly basis we'll have some more information about March uh communication
toolkits application and things like that and again we have a very high 60 to 80% uh open rate which again is amazing for email marketing uh this is some of our social media we're doing both uh boosted social media posts around the state uh highlighting the application uh
some of it focuses on generally what an ESA is what you can use an ESA for uh then information about applying for the alligator program um this is the LA Gator support information we've shared i want to continue to emphasize laggator.la.gov uh that's the the key
point for all the policies program updates and application links for families and vendors uh obviously support is available by phone uh email instant chat or uh support ticket on their website uh so our milestones here we are now in March the student family
application did open on March 1st uh parents will be selecting their schools and schools will be verifying tuition and working with families in the interim even while the application is still open uh so that is the next step for schools right now we'll be doing some additional communications to highlight what that looks like uh and the importance of that
uh the student family application closes on April 15th uh and again that verification process between schools and families will still be ongoing at that point uh schools will be confirming enrollments setting tuition throughout June parents will go in and confirm those tuition amounts um and then we
estimate sometime in early July subject to legislative appropriation uh this program will be funded at that point any students that are marked eligible that are prioritized and funded their status will change to um I believe it's eligible or active or something like that but schools will see um right now
they can go in and see that students are either eligible ineligible or pending in their cues uh they will eventually see which students are funded so that will change status for them and then uh the mark the marketplace on Odyssey will be opening as accounts are funded as well uh so I actually have a
little bit more up-to-date information this was as of March 10th but uh today I'll share with you that um on the first day we received 6,000 applications uh we have 28 days until the application closes right now we have 22,459 student applications in of those
19,629 are eligible applications um around 3600 or 64% of the scholarship program students uh have been uh they have been registered and eligible for the program uh 257 nonpublic schools are
participating and we have uh 143 service providers uh registered for the program uh so with that um happy to take any questions on this um appreciate the opportunity to share information about the program with you all yes sir is the window still open for
service providers to register yes ma'am absolutely so the service provider application uh once that open that will remain open we'll never close that uh so we review those on an ongoing basis um we're still going through a bulk of those i think we have around the same amount in the review queue as we have
that are already approved um but we'll hopefully be getting those uh approved as fast as we can caleb I want to say thank you on behalf of all the students and teachers and families in the state of Louisiana you have been phenomenal your response was your response i know we're all figuring out out as we
go but you have been phenomenal thank you i do want to ask a question about service provider so in the literature that was provided it said clear that uniforms would be u considered um however when we uploaded our uniform provider it was not it's not allowed but
I was told that we could sell uniforms at the school um I'm I'm happy to sell lots of things at our school but uniforms will not be one of them so how will we work that out with our families so uh that is actually something that's under review by our team right now we're trying to as always with anything in this program we're trying to reiterate
and make sure that this works best for for families and for school service providers um we don't have exact guidance on what that looks like at this point but I'm happy to follow up with everyone on the council as we work through that um I think we really wanted to make sure that the family application was you know it launched well the families knew what they needed to do now
we're really moving into that um how can we improve the service provider uh portion of that so more communications on uniforms specifically uh uniforms may be allowed going forward before the window closes we're we're working on the allowability to have the uh the uniform vendors as well um there's there's a few
things that are are still questions for us but um we we do know that schools will be able to if they choose to uh to work out an arrangement where they do sell the uniforms we know that that's going to be okay but uh we're currently working on what the mechanics look like of the uniform vendors uh on the
marketplace thank you Caleb i also want to um you know follow uh with this is Patrick uh said and thank you as well just publicly Caleb answered my phone call on Saturday March 1st at about 10:00 a.m and I greatly
appreciate it thank you for the timeline it appears that when we identify the challenges in our non-public schools the timeline appears to work very well for us the the challenge that we are faced
with um is comes in July because as far as the registration of of students and and how tuition will be paid the hay is usually in the barn so to speak uh once we get to July of course we have payment plans for students but but we usually
already begin making payments in July so the challenge that we're going to have to figure out on our end is how are we going to allow these people to continue which of course we will but then but then come into some type of
accounting policy where we reduce tuition and allow them to continue i know in our dascese we scheduled a a meeting of our financial people on April 10th to try to give some clarity to that but just so uh you and
your office and others you collaborate with will know that that is the challenge for us in non-public schools is making sure that we can figure a smooth transition absolutely appreciate you know because our teachers and everyone deserve to be
paid and on time and we are on a tight budget um everyone I can assure you so that those are the challenges i appreciate that information i know that this is very different than what schools have been doing already so we're willing to join any any calls any meetings um we can have Odyssey uh join in on those as
well to kind of work through what that looks like what funding um you know I think you know we're getting that point now where the mechanics of that are getting figured out so we're happy to communicate uh as much as we know as soon as we know it and then work uh to determine how to do it better uh moving forward so I appreciate that thank you
so much thank you has anyone uh found the crystal ball to figure out what the funding was going to look like i do not believe so i believe the governor has in his budget request requested around $93 million uh for the program uh but I I do not have the crystal ball unfortunately on the answer
to that question oh I do any further discussion thank you very much Caleb for all that you do for all of us and all the others that you're doing for um so young and energetic you haven't turned gray yet
so hopefully you'll be a few years before you do um okay moving right along i need um new business consideration excuse me of update report provided by our non-schools up budsman
Miss I need a motion to receive Lisa Patrick second Dr baker greetings everybody morning we have got off to a great start with our nonpublic LDOE
SA titles two and four educator collaborative this is one of the things that our work group said they wanted and when we did the webinars to get input from across the state of nonpublic
schools and programs we wanted to be sure that whatever we were bringing in or we were trying to do was definitely items and activities that
everybody requested stem was hot the STEM programs STEM related activities were one of the highlights and we had the opportunity to bring in Captain Barington with his flying
classroom though it is based on aerodynamics and also in terms of working with students from all backgrounds one of the things that he
does do is he will personalize the activities so that it meets the needs of the group he is working with so when he came everybody got a chance to participate in our pellets who remembers
our pellets either from your classroom days or as a teacher the discovery of what is and I know that you do because we used to do those right and something that was quite interesting called green
towers they're sustainable cities and it is combining water sources along with growing plants which in turns will help purify and clean the air this is one of the pictures and I highlighted this one
because as you can see her partner is steady uh working on the palette to find out does she have a mouse does she have a rat does she have a bird or what is in there and the other one as she covers her eyes is looking but as you can see
from the picture everybody was very very involved also one of the other things that we want to be sure that we are doing and the ELEAs are helping us tremendously and we need your support as well is to encourage attendance at
conferences for professional growth and also ways to close learning gaps and give a chance to network with other other educators just know that titles two and four allocations can be used and
if that private school teacher is a teacher of one of our private school children who participate in the title one program if there is enough allocation they can too use some of that
to also attend professional development and the other thing that I want to express is so can you that's what title two is for you as the leaders also need to take advantage of that and if we ever
need to brainstorm and figure out how to make something happen you know just to call me again budgets carry over updates and reminders is here this is March we're
getting ready to roll into April your private schools are going to start telling you "Hey the LEA is saying their fiscal deadline is April 15th but I need to do this that or the other or something is going on what do I do?" We
need to have that discussion because April 15th does not mean the end that is when the LEAs are trying to get everything that they need for that budget for the end of the fiscal year we know that the program and the grant year
ends in September however we want to try to avoid any rollover or carryover if needed if it is significant and it needs to be then your private schools will complete that carryover form and we will
move from there so what are extenduating circumstances as we used to call it that are now called what unforeseen circumstances that could cause an issue of a rollover or carryover it could be a
delay in consultation or turnover in the LEA or the private school officials an unexpected budget or procurement challenge not having qualified people on time so you started the program late lower cost than expected you ordered
something it was supposed to be at $2,000 and it came in,500 also changes with a vendor for professional development could be they could not get there or the weather or something happened or you had to make a
change within the school activities and debt also we're looking at changes with professional development and attendance and travel and what that simply means is this 10 people were supposed to go only
six went well then that leaves a nice chunk that we want to definitely try to take care of and of course any natural or public disasters emergencies weather so to speak this chart is something
that we want each of you to keep handy and we are encouraging the LEAS to also have our private school administrators keep this chart handy because it gives a very nice quick flow overview about
carryover when you can what you can do if it's redistributed does it go back to the nonpublic public school or is it something that has to be redistributed to both public and non-public and in the
case of title 2 and four thus far with the United States Department of Education two and four does go back to the large pot for public and non-public unless there was a reason
why that was on the previous chart that that obligation could not be met keeping in mind that title one is for the school district the LEA to use to provide your students who are eligible for
services with their allocation so that means the LEA is in charge of that allocation along with your what input considerable input and that should be ongoing not just at the beginning of the
consultation period but throughout when you have your budget meeting you can talk about programming when you're having your programming meeting you can talk about budgets that is all encompasses there is a carryover form and it has
been sent to each of you the only thing that was changed on it was the unforeseen taking out the circumstances and this is something as we say that we do toward the end and you should be having those meetings but I do want
everyone to start being creative in terms of grading and allocations for services because so much can be done to ensure that the allocations for that particular school year have actually
been expended if we would do a little of that juggling so the LEAs have been working with the private schools some of the private schools are really coming up with some great ideas and we just want to continue in that vein not just in
terms of the allocations at the school site but even our allocations with our LDLE SCA titles to and four that are statewide so creative collaboration is
where I want us to focus new horizon for SCA titles two and [Music] four sessions that are coming up and you can share this and we hope to have people to sign up small group
instruction AI in the classroom to support teachers and students disagregating student data to crew make sure that the academic increases in terms of their achievement and not just
with the achievement of the students but also the teachers techniques strategies and skills resilient Leadership Catapult PPD sessions for educators and we are looking to partner with our own
department in reference to the LDOE Hannity Professional Learning Resource Library yes um how are the decisions made as to Yes as to what we're doing i know the work
group had um input and they kind of came up with ideas for the sessions etc etc but how do how do you all decide like finalize what's happening with our consultation from
this group the consultation from this group as you know any idea that you present to us or what have you that is taken into consideration that is also shared with the work group also when we
have our statewide meetings that are the webinars that's also your time to also offer suggestions make statements even if you email me something right i know we I saw some of
the stuff we had been right and as a matter of fact and I don't think you would mind me saying this no not at all um when Catapult reached out to me that was a connection between the two of us also asking to see what do they have and
making that contact so they have sent some information but what we have to be sure is is that each vendor or consultant is approved by our state to
provide services to us so all of this comes from the workg groupoup manual so when those messages and emails come out about participating in the statewide webinars to give your input I need all of you to
participate and have your people to join and many of you do that because that's what it's from and then we look at it and see what is being asked we even ask for vendors we even ask for suggestions we take that back to the workg group and
then from there we start making contact with people and so as we make contact with people they'll say I can be available or I can't be available right now so what you saw on the screen with that selection are people who have
stated to us we can be available from now until the beginning of next year now we have a few others they're kind of on the back burner because they're trying to figure out what can they do if they
can participate so any suggestions any suggestions please send it forward and thank you all for everything that you're doing to encourage this as well as participation for the teacher leader we are having more participation the
registration still is at the same price and what we're finding is some of our LEAs and the private schools are actually talking about connecting with each other at teacher leader so thank you thank you last question yes when do
we get allocations for next year your allocations for next year are already happening okay and the LEAS are meeting with the private schools cuz this is consultation time the sea part the sea
part will be coming to you all real soon so that you will know what's there and what needs to be done we will work with finance department on that okay yes Mr uh good morning everyone i just wanted
to uh add as you all know the Congress met last week and they met their deadline and there's continuing resolutions so Ed was waiting on that meeting to happen so that they can determine the funding level but we have
not states have not officially received what those uh preliminary allocations are going to be but they do have of course the deadline of July one before but at this moment valuable to discuss the situation that we have in our LEA with other schools is
that something that's happening across the state or you think it's just specific to it's specific it's specific to just a few very few eleas um a few a few people are
using the state of the country in terms of services as a way to say allocations cannot be used yes you are to use your allocations and we will take care of that the current allocation the current one we were told that funds have been
frozen because of the president's freeze on the federal spending that we were told we could not participate and use the money that we have for this year moving forward for titles one two and four and I asked Daffany before the meeting I said "When are the funds going to be released i've got lots of things
other than the title one teachers who were on contract everything else has been frozen." And she said "That's not true." So I thought that might be beneficial for the rest of you if you've been told the same thing by your local you know your LEA there's a misunderstanding apparently so no it's
just in a couple of places and those will want to have been rectified and yours will be as of today thank you thank you somebody else had their hands up yes yes probably shouldn't even ask this because I should know the teacher
leader registration i really haven't seen that in the past i've kind of simated that out where would where would we find that that is on the website but it's also through the LEA and I'll make sure that you have that information today but
it is on the website i I'll find it and just send it on over yeah it is it is but I guess I haven't yet anybody else any further discussion thank you very much
i have a half second so just a reminder that the teacher leader summit early bird price will remain the price that you all will pay throughout the registration period thanks
we'll remind okay moving right along um 4.2 consideration of an update report regarding certification policy adopted as final rule i need a motion to receive mr carol good morning it's good to see y'all
today um we're talking today about policy that we brought to you back in the fall that was proposed um it became final rule on February 20th so we just wanted to bring it back in front of you so that you were aware of the the things that changed in
policy so um the things that you see on the slide educational leader certification out of state administration computer science and STEM um a regular computer science well computer science and STEM for 1 to five um computer science for 6 to 12
monastery updates to temporary employment permits and pra practice exams all of those things were brought to Bessie and approved in October and were final rule in February so just to talk through high level a few of the things that changed um there were some
changes to educational leader certification uh what we did was we moved the the competencies the educational leader competencies from bulletin 125 to a new bulletin that's going to house the teacher competencies and the leader competencies that is now
bulletin 146 um the new performance expectations um are shifted around a little bit since they were all developed what was in 125 and what's in currently in 146 were all developed with national educational leader standards there's not a significant change in the meat of the
policy but it shifted around to align with our new evaluation rubric for leaders to make it simpler for our leaders to um you know see the connection between what we expect as far as performance expectations and then how they're going to be evaluated um in the
evaluation system um so what this does is this means that those educators that you may have that are doing that portfolio pathway that 240 clock hour portfolio which was aligned to bulletin 125 you know it's an actionbased um option where they provide
evidence of experiences that they're doing these expectations that were in 125 they're now aligned to 146 so anybody submitting an application for educational leader with that 240 clock hour portfolio after February 20th we'll be looking at it to align with bulletin
146 um we will not be saying okay because this was in 125 previously any previously awarded hours you don't get those we're not doing that um because they're so closely aligned anything that they've earned already towards it would still count we'll just have to figure out what's left that they have to
fulfill in the 146 some other changes to educational leadership were um our new newest pathway the alternate pathway 4 which is the principal boot camp that our division also puts on um we changed some things um tightening up the language
there was um language that said just a master's degree in these areas we broaden that to have graduate degrees so anything higher than a master's degree would also be applicable for this pathway um we also put it um in policy
to allow it to have a pathway for advancement um it is now a 5-year non-renewable pathway or certificate for serving as a school level leader um in addition to that we created a pathway
for advancement um so there's always a pathway for advanced if they were already a teacher and they had the three years of successful teaching experience um to move to that EDL2 well we've created a new option to where if they are someone coming from outside of
education like a military officer that has no teaching experience um they didn't have a pathway moving forward previously we have rectified that and so um any leader serving on this certificate that doesn't have that school or teaching experience prior to
once they serve as a school level leader for 5 years and get um effective evaluations they have a path forward to that EDL2 now any of the teachers that already um have the experience that might have fit under this pathway still
have their regular pathway forward after their three years of successful experience as a leader they can move forward to that EL2 um so if some of you are thinking of um you know recruiting folks um into this pathway there's now a
path forward some other updates that we did were for some of our other administrative certificates um and these were all done to align with law um both federal regulation and our state
legislation so one of them is the out ofstate principal the out ofstate principal one um we put in some provisions to where if they have a valid certificate to serve as a principal they can be issued that OSP1 previously um
they did have to have experience as a principal to be able to be issued that certificate that is no longer required if they have a valid certificate now if they have a certificate that is not valid they can be issued the OSP1 with
verification of at least one year of um successful experience as an assistant principal or principal within the last 5 years of application to us um now for those that don't have the experience um they can be issued a one-year
non-renewable OSP certificate to get that experience and then um if they earn an effective rating then they can move on to that um 5-year OSP1 so some things to align with legislation but also some
things to clean up the pieces that were not addressed in legislation what if it's not valid what if I don't have the experience we put some things into policy to address those um the OSP2 to align with legislation um we do have they do have to have at least
three years of successful experience as a principal or assistant principal and to move to this they also have to have that practice exam and that is to align as I said with um legislation now if they have a minimum of four years of outofstate principal experience um they
could be exempt from that particular exam and then the out ofstate superintendent in addition to the other requirements that were already in policy they now have to um take that practice exam for the Louisiana superintendent again to align with law um that was
revamped computer science so we have a new area um and this is in response to the computer science was it commission task force something one of those um and um there is a new area so computer science and STEM grades K to 5 um
completely new area there are several options to meet this particular add-on um of course just like with other add-ons they can have the semester 21 semester hours in the content area they can do that um but in addition to that we've added ed and adopted a new
computer science and STEM exam for the elementary area so they can add it with the exam as well or they can also add it with uh a Bessie approved microcredential um computer science and STEM training program now the caveat to this is our STEM team is still working
on that training program and we don't expect any of those micro credentials to be available until the fall of 25 and the fall of 26 for the different areas um so we're ahead of policy or ahead of things in policy certifi for
certification for once instead of behind so we're ready for it when they have the credential ready they'll be able to get that um then of course because it's elementary they still have to get that elementary PLT um and then to align with our literacy legislation they have to have the nine semester hours of teaching
of reading and that um teaching of reading exam so that's for the elementary for the 6 to2 area we already had the 21 semester hours in place but we adopted the computer science exam and
um there's that new um micro credential available um so the computer science practice is available um as an option for educators in an an initial program also again with the micro credential
it's not ready yet either um but we're ahead of the game a little bit when it is ready they'll be able to add it on with that micro credential uh monastery teacher certification you know we've had a monatory task force and historical
policy was it was non-public monastery um then you can have the endorsement this and that and separated versus which area you're going to serve in what we did was we removed that non-public terminology from the um ancillary and
from the endorsement area so it authorizes service in any bestie approved school we also align some things to legislation um to allow the training programs that are approved um as long as they're accredited by MTI then we can use those training programs
we had some conversations with the monatory task force about what we had in our programming not exactly matching the training that was received um and so we're updating the levels um to align with that and then of course we had to
um add the literacy requirements um to align with legislation and this shows here for the different areas the semester hours that are required um according to which area that it is and they'll also if they're ages up to age nine they'll also have to have that
teaching of reading exam this is just a reminder that beginning in February of this year we brought brought on I say she they've been working for a while but we have brought them on to the office hours duty rotation and so for office hours you
might receive a phone call from someone with any of the area codes listed in the state of Louisiana we have staff members that have phone numbers from all over the state and so if you're scheduled an office hours appointment please answer the phone from any of those areas during
your designated time um because there's some new folks assisting with that um and then here on the on the slide we just have the reminder of how you can do that um and the reminder that while our team has grown and we do have the capacity um to to be able to provide
this privilege to you all as you know HR school system representatives and preparation providers we don't have the capacity yet to be able to offer this to educators so please don't share that link out um with educators or have them on a call um educators if I'm going to
be completely honest tend to just want to argue that it's not about problem solving so we we respectfully ask that you not include them on the call or share the link the next piece you know we've been talking about um the revamp of our system for quite some time we did our
phase one back in the fall which was the question submission um portal um phase two is under development and we hope to be able to launch it second quarter of this year um and we have some really really exciting things that we are going
to give you a sneak peek at today um just to let you know we do plan to have a small pilot before we roll it out full force so we may be reaching out to some of you um to participate in that and give us some feedback on and we'll take some feedback from you um today on a few
things um but right now I am going to turn it over to Lana Hutchinson our lead specialist she is um key personnel in getting this system up off the ground thank you Christie good morning everybody
we are very excited to give you just a little peek at what we're working on for the new application system uh this is not meant to be training no need to take notes and expect to be able to it's not even available for you to use but we will be having lots of sessions other
monthly webinars documentation that we'll create with how-to guides and things like that before we actually go live but we would like to show you a little bit about the direction we're taking and some things that we're really excited to make available to all of you i'd like to start by talking about the
features that are important to our HR folks our personnel management people that are dealing with applications and keeping track of certifications every day one of the tools that will be available is a a list of all your certifications even our non-public folks
you'll be able to create we are creating the locations and then you'll be able to tie your educators to your location so that you can go view a list of all of your educators do you see right there those little red circles or ovals there
those are warnings that a certificate is expiring soon so it'll give you an option to just kind of quickly scroll through see who you need to maybe reach out to to get them started on dealing with their certification issues those little blue arrows on the
left side will let you click through to more specifics about any particular educator with a warning showing or just somebody that you want to just look more closely at what they have on their certification record when you do drill down using the blue
arrows into a particular certificate you'll be able there's a filter even on the top of each column it looks like a little funnel you can even click on that filter to find somebody specific if there if you have particular questions about that one particular educator but
you'll be able to click through some of their details and then um if they need to do something request a renewal or a higher level certificate you can click that send start application request and it will let you choose which application
they need to use add a message there whatever you want to ask them to do and then send that request directly to that educator through the system with a link to the application that they need to start to make the request to renew their certificate or advance to a higher
certificate then there's another picture of that little filter button circled there on the left that lets you search for individual people directly when people have started that application then they'll fill out their portions upload their IDs themselves you don't
have to be collecting those anymore um put in all their contact information fill out the professional conduct form indicate what sort of requests they want to make all that stuff when they finished their portion you will get a return that we're call the system calls them requested actions so you'll get a
return a message that says they're ready for you to do your part and then you'll go into the requested actions locate the application you can review what they've done double check anything they've uploaded make sure they've done what they're supposed to do and then you can do the HR portions whether it's
verifying experience checking the request and making like with some things like the non-public temporary certificates you'll need to tell us what area they're teaching in some things like that whatever it is we need our HR folks to verify that will be on your own special
form applicants cannot modify anything in the HR section with one exception which I'll get to in a second and then HR folks can't modify anything in the applicant section once each person that's involved in the application signs their section that section's fully
locked so no further edits can be made um so it it creates a really nice kind of digital flow so rather than emailing all these sensitive documents like that have social security numbers and other PII on them um it'll all happen through
the Louisiana Educator Certification Portal um you'll be able to go to any you see that first one on the left side there says application started and if you click the blue arrow next to a started application it'll show you the different forms and those little triangles will tell you which ones have
been done which ones still need to be done and then there's even a link there to go to directly to the application itself review everything that's been input there and review it now one of the places and I mentioned that there was one exception to the the
educator can't fill stuff out one of the places that we have some questions for our HR folks about is first on the point about who starts an application so I talked just quickly through how you would be able to go through find them
and send them a request to start the application historically many those of you that work with certification applications know there are certain application packets that are only available to HR personnel and we've done that over the years because when we had them publicly available to everyone
educators would just send them straight to us we can't do anything it was encumbering a lot of our time to have to respond and go back and forth with them so we put those behind your login because they have to go through you to get that done this system's going to take away our concerns around that because if it
is publicly available and they start to fill it out they can't ever get it to us without somebody signing that HR section so we're not going to get bombarded with people coming straight to us but if we make them publicly available you might be bombarded with people you have no
idea who they are where they came from that just decide they want to work for the school within the dascese or one of the independent schools and just send you an application when you don't know who these people are or why they're applying through you to do something so
uh we wanted to get some feedback from you guys on how you feel about having those applications pros and cons if they're out there you don't have to send them that request they can just go get it started for themselves if they do reach out to you you could just say "Go right over there and hit the plus sign
and get it done." But cons you might be the ones that get all those extra requests that we used to get so um some of the application types that we're considering um I don't know how Christy you want to count the votes but I have
my pen ready all right so I guess we can go like by show of hands one of the big ones that has our most high volume application is the renewal or higher certificate for the level one two and three teaching certificates so just if any of you that work with the
certification applications how many of you would like to only get those if you have sent them that start application request we start the process yes you go through the through the portal and say start this application and that's the only way your educators can get to that
application thinking nuts and bolts of it how would we would we be notified if they started it on their own you know I'm just thinking about the breakdown and communication the way it is set up now I think it would be better if it came from us initially and we know to watch for their part of the process being complete and then we would go in
and finish our part of the process so I do think that's probably best so we're all on the same page with the start and end date of the application process if it were publicly available the only way you'd know is when you got this action request for you to go do something to the application right for somebody that
maybe you didn't know that they needed to do that didn't think and and and from our experience many times you'll look at them and go "Why are you even sending me this your certificate's good for three more years." or why are you you know you'll find
that people our teachers don't always know when it's the right time to start or what the right thing to start is which is certainly a good place for you guys to be kind of the guides for them on that um so how many folks would really prefer for them to just be out
there so they can start them on their own and you'll take care of them when they send you requests to do anything so we got no strong votes for that problem is that leaves us where we already are that they get sent back to us because sometimes principles think
they can sign sometimes they can go find just anybody to sign them and so the system's going to control for all that only the f only you guys only the folks that we authorize as the people who can sign them will even get it so they won't
be able to send it to their principal they won't be able to send it to their buddy that's the assistant principal or their teacher in the next room with the person in our office of the teacher there's no middle people correct yes for the HR port between the applicant and the HR portions the applicant will fill
out their portions and then they will tag your system or your independent school whichever to as their HR and it will come to only the people that you and our office have authorized as the people who can verify that information so it's also going to control for lots
of other incomplete things where we were having lots of back and forth because things were missing from applications fields weren't signed it'll control for um we can do updates to these applications real time on the fly so when policy changes we can change the
application so no more that you're using the wrong revision we had to update all the packets none of that stuff we'll just update it here and then anyone that starts an application they're going to get the most current version every time and I think it sounds the teacher
preparation providers will also have a part in this yes preparation providers will also be authorized for their preparation portion so when they're um requesting practitioner licenses reg resident teacher the initial license those will be initiated only by
preparation providers that's that's an important one where their candidates there's they're still baby teachers they need their providers to guide them through and start that application at the appropriate time for the ed for them to start their pro process practitioner license and initial will also have HR
portions so if you're hosting residents or practitioners there will be a portion in those applications when the provider applicant fills out their part the provider fills out that their part then things like the intent to employ the mentor uh verification that sort of
stuff will come to you as a requested action as well when those providers have it when everybody else has done their parts and then you'll verify that those people did serve with you they were mentored um all that sort of information so we can make sure folks are properly
certified so we appreciate your input on that piece about the uh what applications are submitted by you this is just kind of a highle screenshot of what the screen will look like for the educators when they log into their
educator portal they'll have a whole big list of the applications there it'll tell them how much each one is right there little description what it can be used for and they'll click the plus sign to go to the application itself this is just one example of one
of the applications as it's being designed they're going to fill out the actual application itself right there in the portal no more paper PDFs things going around there are still a couple forms that we're likely going to need to leave as a PDF because routing them
electronically is not doable at this time or would really push out our go live date things like the mentor attestation there's no easy way technologically right now for that mentor attestation to go to the mentor mentors aren't there's there's thousands
of them and they're not authorized representatives of the school system or something like that like we can do with prep providers and HR folks so the mentor attestation itself will likely still be a PDF document that gets signed it doesn't have any P PII on it and it
would then be returned to the HR office to be uploaded with your verification that they served their residency with your system um but most all of most all of the forms um will be here with very few exceptions like that we have this great ability to create these help pages
this information on the right side of that screen are help pages that we are working on i will admit initially when we first go live it'll probably be hit and miss on where there are good help pages and where there's not there's a lot of them to write so many of them to
write but we're working on it and we can give step-by-step instructions for that particular form different ones on every form all throughout the process where we feel like they're needed and again we can update these on the fly so if we're finding that people are struggling with one part or another we can go in and
update that help page at any time so they'll make their requests here this happens to be the applicants section of this particular packet and again when they get to the end of their point and they hit sign to sign off that they're done they are prompted who's your where
are you a point and they'll choose you from the list and you'll get an action for you to go in and do your part so one of the PE key pieces that we have HR folks fill out as many of you who work with certification know is the experience verification form uh there are a lot of requests where the really
the only thing we need to from you is verification that they are employed with you and and their teaching experience so we can determine their qualifications this is the one exception I mentioned that we are currently designing to allow educators to be able
to contribute to not to finish but to contribute to so it's currently being designed so that the educator when they fill out their portion they can also go into if you see on the left side it says applicant section and then HR section they can go into the HR section click on
the experience verification and go ahead and add some stuff they can't sign off on it they can't lock it and verify it but if they do that then when it gets to you it's already kind of partially completed so that you can review it see if what they've added there is accurate
matches your records and what you verified one of the other cool things that'll show here um for your educators that have previously served in public systems or any school that's reporting through the um previously the PEP
employment reporting system now at link 360 I believe is where they report it um if they've been reporting through those state systems that experience as it was reported will show at the top of the screen and list out all those years that were have already been reported there will be a little button that you can say
"Yeah that all looks good to me import." And it'll just import that into the experience verification so it doesn't all have to be retyped um my experience with what's been reported in there it's not crazy accurate but if in some cases it's really good and you'll be able to pull
it in sometimes you'll look at it and say "This is a mess nobody It's not even worth copying it in." But you do have a little add new record button there you can add whatever years you want to verify years in a non-public will need to be added manually as most non-publiclix aren't reporting through
those systems yet but you will be able to have a little assistance through that feature between what the educator added and what you can import we're hoping this will be a little bit easier on you guys anyway so you'll go through and add that additional information but we do also want to ask
for you here we've had different conversations with different HR offices and they have different feelings on the subject of verifying that experience some people under with our current system with the PDF tell their educators to fill it out so they can just review and verify some
tell them not to touch that form that that should will only be verified by HR they want to fill it out themselves so that they're confident everything is on there is something they can actually verify for themselves so we want to see another show of hands there how many of you would prefer for the educator to be
able to contribute to this with your review [Music] say that again how many would would you prefer for the educator to be able to contribute to the experience verification form enter some information
on it that would then when it comes to you it's already got that information entered for you to review would not be considered verified until we verified correct they won't be able to sign off on it or do anything to it and once you sign off on it they won't
be able to edit it any further they can just only before you have done anything to it and I would ask if there be some explicit instructions about how the years of experience have to be within the terms of the certificate because that's a problem we see quite
frequently oh way go within years yeah that's also like you said that we do have a lot of teachers that want to find this expire in seven months and not only in September but I haven't finished this year that's my third year so I think
those things need to be explicitly stated which I'm sure they probably are right yeah no that's great we haven't yet worked on the help page for the experience form that's really good feedback to think about how we can communicate some of those things what it's important to include and what it's
not i don't need to know what you were doing in 1990 in almost every case like I'm concerned about what's going on now but um we can definitely think about how we can make that clear on this page and and see if it helps with the information that we get so anybody that would really
strongly prefer that the educators not be able to touch this form that it only be completed by HR that seems like a pretty rousing vote for letting them put it in as long as they can't verify it so then the last thing that we wanted to
just kind of show you we know that um when you get to this well let me finish the process after you've signed your portions assuming preparation is not involved in the application if they are sometimes it'll be you first sometimes it'll be them first but once all parties have signed and verified all their
sections the applicant will then get a notice that the application is ready to submit and they will need to return to the application and go to the checkout on the left side there and like an Amazon card it's going to tell them exactly how much they need to pay they'll put in their payment
information they won't be able to pay 500 instead of 50 they won't be able to pay $5 instead of 50 they'll they'll be told that'll just put the amount in for them they'll put in their credit card information the correct amount will be paid there will not initially we're
going to have to have an option to let people bypass the auto the being forced to the payment site because there will be people who already paid before we make the switch and we're going to have to have an option but in general once we get past that initial phase there won't be a way for them to submit it to us
without the payment all the things that we often have a little too much back and forth about um because documents are missing they'll just be sent there as soon as they make their payment and confirm that submission it will open a case that will be available on
teach.net under status of a certification application you'll see that case there immediately and then when it gets assigned to a specialist it will be uh processed and that feedback provided in the fairly similar to the same manner that we already do although
we are working on communication streams through this system that will notify all parties involved when the application has been submitted so HR the educator and the prep provider if if all three are involved and then also notify all
parties involved when we issue the feedback whatever it is rather than it coming to you and then you have to share that with the educator we're working to make sure that goes to everybody so that everybody will have it at any point during the process there's
also application review there on the left side and that will let you pull up this kind of what the although they look like web forms when you're filling them out once they've been signed it creates this nice pretty PDF form with all the information that was selected and entered uh at the end of this PDF for
all the documents that are attached so if the educators added transcripts and copies of their IDs and practice scores and all that sort of stuff all those are doc documents are lined up in a nice neat row and then there is an export to PDF for those of you that prefer to keep
a copy of applications as they come through your office once you've signed your parts just go to application review export to PDF it'll roll it all up into one nice file for you to save it wherever you prefer to save it can I ask a quick question of course i
didn't see anything um specific to fingerprints um on the help side i know recently we've really struggled with the new requirement apparently with um teacher certification and renewal so that's never been in a situation before but we were told and then there was some confusion on the prints go to the
dascese and the prints go to the LDOE so I wonder if I think that would be a nice addition to explain that if the process has changed to have that in the help notes then a link for them to register for print and be sent to the LDOE yeah what it will actually what the system will actually do um especially since
that's so new but we were really hopeful we had a lot of technology delay so we would get this rolled out at the same time as the CDC process because what this will do is it will check when they when an educator logs in and tries to go
start an application whether you've sent them the prompt to start the application or they've gone on their own to the list to try to do it it's going to check first and see if they have a CDC on file that's less than 5 years old or that clear credential already issued if they
do not the only thing they will see they will not see any applications available to start the only thing they will see is a document that tells them to go get their fingerprints so it'll have all that expl explained code to use where to go do it that sort of stuff right there
and that's that's all they'll have access to until their clear credential is issued once that clear credential is issued then the applications will be listed there and they can start whatever it is they want so much better it will definitely improve the flow of that criminal background check process and
making sure they're notified and is that is that the school payment or a person payment for that certification for the fingerprinting that would be a local decision um typically the educators pay it in my understanding they because
that's paid directly to Identico um but if you want to pay it have the funds to pay it there we don't some of our schools reimburse the teachers for we do we pay for all the for for hiring
we pay for all the background checks but it's up to each individual school if they want to go additionally and pay for the upgrade that would be up to them because that goes directly to the state department any other questions
yes this not a question just a comment i feel like Simeon and Anna that God allowed me to see this before I died this is amazing yes for those of us who have been through the den papers like I still remember this this is great something that we've done that has helped in our dascese dr
williams has one assistant so they are a twoerson show in the office and do an amazing job but before our teachers check out in May and everybody's ready to go it's on their checklist will your certification expire in the fall they have to go to it while we're in the
final meeting print it okay it give us a copy and then we give all of those all of our schools are doing that to his assistant Andrea so she has the summer to work on the fall ones then the first day of school in August at orientation we go back to that will your certifications expire in this expire in
the spring yes or no and we give all of those to her at that time and she has the ball so that has helped because we had teachers coming in and out too i didn't realize it expired last week or in a week so now we're a semester ahead which has really helped us and for their
sake too in that office but this this is incredible so at the school level it's like checkout list their checkout list yes at the school level and then again yes enjoy your summer but tell us if
your certification will come before you so that helped and then it's slower in the summer so it allows all of us time to get that paperwork together so then I think this probably about the end of the certification piece we just like to remind everybody about the certification monthly calls if
you're not attending those we encourage you to do so um there's a Zoom link for this that starts for the 24-25 school year you can find that on the school system support calendar to find all the dates um but the upcoming meetings will
be April 28th May 19th June 16th June 21 July 21st and we go over all this sort of stuff on those monthly calls so when this goes live absolutely absolutely because will pass out this I mean it's wonderful but
hopefully she will she will appreciate the changes absolutely but that's going to you know instead of the goal was first order but we're only got a couple weeks left so it'll be we're really hoping it'll be sometimes working out the lab kind of technical details and getting everything
written and designed but we're making good progress total not just the pilot right so we'll have a pilot hopefully in a few weeks we will be looking for volunteers that are willing to test it out with us
as I think Dr joe Freon can I give him your email address if you don't already have it he's arthur.la.gov he's taking volunteers we are looking to get folks from big systems small systems single schools good technical skills bad technical
skills we want to get all kind of the whole experience and testers from all types of backgrounds so that we can make sure it's working as expected and We'll have a few training sessions for the testers but we also kind of want to
see what happens when folks don't get a lot of guidance because it should be we hope user friendly enough that beyond some of the kind of advanced HR features type stuff but just the general processes are easy enough that anybody who chooses to go try to
submit an application can do so without a whole lot of trouble so we will thank you all as Michael to the certification in my office um he is grateful for all that you all do to support us and to help us make this as
smooth as possible but he is going to be like in hall singing your praises when he sees all of this so thank you for everything we're excited any further i just have one certification question is there a list is there data available to
us to see the number of people certified to teach computer science as of today we can get that well I have to pull in a note okay because we're right now we're starting the conversation but I don't have one from anyone on my current
faculty remotely interested in teaching it and so I think that will help with you know when we have conversations with legislators about the teachers to teach it but just that that would be great i'll send it to our native team to you okay
okay our last item on the agenda um consideration of revisions to post in 741 non-public Louisiana handbook non-public school administrators regarding the health and safety of children attending non-public school pre kindergarten programs i need a motion to
receive a report second Kimberly and Mr carol second good morning good morning everyone good morning so um little update from last time last time I shared with you all um just the initial starting point for the
conversation there was some concern that the policy for three-year-olds and non-public pre kindergarten programs most of it hadn't been updated since like 2012 and there were some situations that occurred that were really um bringing to light some questions about is the policy what it should be or is it
time to look back at it so um you all um decided to to recommend members for our working group to look at that with us you sent us some really great recommendations so thank you they engaged um for hours on end talking through all these really detailed
specifications and it was great because you could tell they were really in the work they had done it for a long time and so we appreciate you sharing them with us um for that perspective um they met a couple of times they um in that first meeting they looked through some revisions that our team put together
just trying to see some um common sense initial steps that shouldn't be overly cumbersome for schools but could um protect safety of children and so those went to Bessie um in March we did share those with your chairs um and then
things like updating mandatory reporter um requirement language in there to make sure it's clear that who who that applies to um requiring the training for mandatory reporters it's already required annually but just making sure that it's clear that that training is required um as well as updating some
other training requirements for teachers initially and then um aligning that language with um or updating some language regarding bullying prevention related to some questions that we had from stakeholders about information that it seems like wasn't really clear to um
to parents about or maybe to schools about what should be required in bullying policy you know we've been back and forth on the bullying policy a little bit so we didn't put information in there about how those policies should read but just those topics that should be addressed in local nonpublic bullying policy to keep it in compliance with the
statute there question um we had a question came to us yesterday from our legal council is CHC 603.1 saying that our staff have to participate in the state mandated report training or can we do our own as we do with all our So this
one makes it sound like you have to participate in the states but then further down in 609 it says that you can make your own that's equivalent and so we've been telling people that that either of those is okay as long as you have um on file that documentation that they've completed it and the list of
employees who haven't completed it the way it's worded and then making sure that that happens every year during those summer months it's like June 1 to August 31 that they have to complete that um so and then a few other things related to supervision that are probably common
sense most of the people um on that working group said "Well of course we do this already who doesn't do this?" And so um they felt like it wouldn't be burdensome to schools to go ahead and put those things in place um and just make sure that it was clear so then they also
um took bulletin 137 which is the regulations for licensing and early childhood programs and they looked through all of those yes thank you this is the remainder of the topics that were addressed in my um and they looked
through all of those to see um to see which of those would be reasonable to consider applying to non-public schools as well and so you know bulletin 137 is really long it's really big there lots of regulations in there and so they took a lot of time
looking through all of those and saying um is this reasonable would it be overly cumbersome we do this this way at our school oh this would be really hard to do at at at this school you know they really talked to all those different requirements like that and so they came up with um several topics that they did
decide to recommend to address um updating some definitions a lot about um written policies like things that should be addressed locally either some requirements that should be part of that policy or some decisions locally that should be made and written down and communicated out um and then some things
about health and safety food nutrition care of children so um I don't know if y'all had y'all had this draft in your materials that came to you i don't know if you had time to go through and review it at all but
um we did really appreciate again their expertise and the level of detailed conversation that they provided to all of it next steps for where this is right now um you know they wanted to report back to you all here's what they found here's what they they talked about
here's what they would recommend one thing they said is they would recommend applying these requirements to four-year-old programs as well um so we told them that we would share that with you as well um and then next steps are kind of the will of the council so
really eager to hear if y'all had any um perspectives from that that leader viewpoint um other things that should be changed i feel like I didn't have enough time to review this and just going back to my people who are the work group i
have an email this morning at 851 um that there they have some concerns and read because they haven't received the whole chapter with the recent re revisions that happened in March that were presented to Bessie in addition to
the proposed changes like they want to see and system want to see like the entire thing together and one of the challenges is that you know because our programs are under bestie under the school
like that's those are the policies of the school and now we're singling out three-year-old programs as if they're a part of licensing or a part of a separate subgroup but they're not and then I'm just confused because we're reviewing the whole thing and the whole
point I thought of the emphasis was the bathroom policy and I don't see anything bathroom related and I haven't seen anything related on again not seeing the whole thing right i
just a little So I'm hearing from you it would be helpful to have a document that has all of Chapter 30 with the newly approved revisions in there and then also these proposed things in so people could see what the whole thing would like to send that to that work group as
well because that's what a lot of people are asking for so I'm sure if they're asking then everybody see it and two if y'all know you know I felt like we had really great representation from lots of different types of schools but nonpublic schools look really different from one to the next you know so if you know of
some other schools that we should get feedback from or that they would you know be willing to just at least look at the draft and give us feedback still a draft yes ma'am and so um so yeah we can prepare that and send that to y'all in the work group and then you can share it around with whomever else or connect
them with us i love my early childhood directors to lay their eyes on it right and I think it does make a difference if we're talking about the additional prek for the program because that's a larger and complicit sure
the example that the work group gave as they when they recommended that because this what this came up from them is if it's a requirement to be potty trained before entering the school and so if you think that's reasonable to have there we could keep it or if you think you would like to have that but maybe some more
clarity about certain requirements that might be listed and leave other ones that don't have to be listed or you know open to whatever your thoughts are on that so you're not saying it's a policy recommendation that they be potty trained but it it has to be disclosed
and listed we do it oh yeah that was that was the topic they were talking about otherwise we have some Why do we just do threey old and not three and four i just didn't understand here so the statute requires
Bessie in consultation with NPSC to have policies in place to protect the safety of three-year-old children in pre kindergarten programs like that's what the requirement is and so I think when that was first put in place in 2012 or so it was oh here are the things for three-year-old programs but the work group really felt like all those things were reasonable to apply to
four-year-olds and pre kindergarten programs as well so if that's something that y'all would recommend you know we could look at doing that too um so y'all do y'all want to add anything to um so we we felt like our prek3 programs
are pretty similar to our prek4 program so that's why we felt like we could mimic most of the the things that we had or revol should I say um and we we can put together that that draft and we'll note somewhere on there
too that you you know the policy approved in March won't be final until you know as early as July 20th and so we'll mark that on the on the document too like this is the part that's pending and then this is the part that's proposed um and then would y'all like an
opportunity so y'all the next meeting is in July I think would y'all like another opportunity to see it then and come back okay and that gives us some time too if you have other ideas for schools that we should engage or systems or parts of the state or like whoever else that you
think we should we should engage too or um if you have something like another bigger topic that you'd like us to engage the work group around um we can ask that if they'd be willing to spend some more time with us so if you think of that you can send that our way our our way as well so if we have schools
that would like you to feedback do I just send that to you sure that'd be great if you want to email education policy la.gov we can set up oh yeah actually if you want to send it to Shannon yeah and so if it's an individual school that you want to maybe
like get the draft to them and they can set up some one-on-one time with us to talk through we can do that as well or if you just want to include them if the work group meets again we can do that i think I would just like the individual schools that you just to directly give you the right absolutely thanks to you
and the committee and I think it's better to go back to the drawing board and then we meet again on July the 15th so that gives you time yes absolutely yeah anybody on the same page like we've got time to put that together and we can bring back
um will bring back that compile draft of all the things and then a change is drafted to you as a result of any feedback you get between any further um discussion thank you very much thank you thank you uh we have public comment Dr bley
good morning thank you for the opportunity to address this item on the agenda um I appreciate the work of the department and the work group for certainly addressing health and safety um issues involving three-year-olds that's very important um I guess before
I get into specifics um again my name is Aaron Bendley with the Pelican Institute um as many of you know we tend to weigh in on a lot of issues related to K through2 education policy um and educational freedom for families but we also work a lot on regulatory issues
with the state um at the state level and the federal uh levels um frankly addressing cases where possibly government can can become a little um excessive at times in its regulation of private entities and that certainly includes private schools um my
understanding at this moment in time is that this is a policy that is officially going through the rulemaking process now so unless anything happens this is the version that will go into final rule it was adopted last week by Bessie as
notice of intent so now we enter that official public comment process um so I I will admit I was not at the Bessie meeting last week and wasn't able to share my concerns or thoughts at that time i was um recovering from a surgery and not allowed to leave my house yet
but I appreciate that this is on the agenda today so I get to come and and express some comments um and in full disclosure I may do that through the form formal public comment process as well um there's a lot of good in here a lot of very good intentions about keeping kids safe and we appreciate that
that is a proper role of government to address health and safety for little kids uh my caution would be um areas that seem to go outside of that priority um and I think through the process and and look that the tendency is there to look at something and say "Oh this isn't
a big deal we do this already." But but do all private schools do these things already i don't know um you know the requirement in here about outdoor play space shall be available through a direct exit from the facility
into the outdoor play space i have no idea if that may require some additional construction to meet that requirement for some smaller private schools i don't know if a survey has been done to ascertain that that's a question that I would raise um someone yesterday was
asking me about in this on the first page having to disclose the admissions policy and that shall include admissions criteria that person read it not as what are the eligibility criteria to be selected into the program but do we have
to disclose internally how we make those selection criteria and could that subject us to a subject us to a lawsuit if we deny someone and someone says "Well that's not exactly what was described on your website and your
criteria." So again I um I'm here to just maybe urge everyone to spend a little more time with this draft it is still going through the process now have your early childhood directors look at it talk to your peers around the state um have your attorneys look at it there
may be a need and and there's an opportunity now to maybe tighten some things up and address some areas that maybe introduce a little more government regulation than maybe we would like beyond things that are essential to health and safety so again thank you for
the opportunity to speak i know we take these matters very seriously um there was a comment about possibly applying these to four-year-olds and again there's a lot in here that I think some people would argue that's common sense but I I'm here to also remind you the
law does not require the state to be involved in the regulation of your 4-year-old programs be careful when you invite uh additional government regulation that may seem oh it's okay it's common sense at this point and then when you need to change something later you can't because
you have enshrined things into regulations that have the full force and effect of law so just be cautious in that thank you very much okay gang we have 10 weeks of school left hallelujah i am
take some deep breaths um thanks to all of you who are here today and um we meet again on July the 15th um so at this point um meeting is can all members