##VIDEO ID:ibb23mg5vIw## struggled to comfort her and to explain uh she was not expain a conversation that tore at my heart in the days that followed my mental anguish was comparable if not worse than what I experienced during the combat deployment to Iraq uh I tried to be brave for her smiling through the pain uh and assuring her that no more bobos would happen again I coaster through a forensic forensic photographs uh of her private parts a task no parent should ever have to face in that exam exam room as I gathered items that would later become a makeship comfort toy with two tongue depressors She made a little stick figure uh she hung on for that for about two beets uh she made a comfort tour we Nam it for reminiscent of the one in Toy Story uh I was left questioning how I'd fail to protect my child we sent our child to a private school we spent tens of thousands of dollars um after the sexual assault we turned to the very system uh designated to safeguard our children only to find them fragmented apathetic and entirely inadequate the Jeff Paris Sheriff's Department initially refused to in investigate stating that this was a matter of the Department of Child and Family Services and the school DCFS then declared uh it's a Law Enforcement issue and sent the case back to the Sheriff's Department which continued to risk their invol uh resist involvement citing my daughter's age because there's under 10 there's no need to charge uh um deciding her age as a barrier to investigate it took aniz and two weeks to get the jpso to investigate uh and during which uh evidence and accountability were lost before any action was taken uh when the school was notified they took seven days to meet with us uh their so-called investigation was conducted by two untrained administrators who admittedly never dealt with a sexual assault investigation before uh they dismissed my daughter's sexual assault as serious allegations that they don't find credible remember she came home with a significant amount of blood in her other wear uh to make matters worse the school refused to inform the other child's parents claiming it would be devastating for his family if it was not true uh but what about our family what about the safety of my three-year-old daughter what about all the children who attend these schools uh and I'm going to break from this for a second uh so you know my wife I have resources I've been at this for 8 months this happened back in March I want you guys all think about the single mom that has to attend appointments find counselors or pay rent most people would have given up after the first two weeks after jpso um didn't do it I've been burning my leave days to attend Senate hearings to come to this meeting here and front of all these great minds to see how we can fix this problem but I want you guys to think about the single parent who doesn't have the resources my wife and I have uh and that's one of the reasons why we're here and we're doing this because nobody should go through and nobody should have to deal with and be treated like we've been treated through the situation uh the most egregious failure came from the Louisiana Department of Education their interpretation of bulletin 137 is simply not supported uh by the law a straightforward reading of section 301 makes it clear that any pre kindergarten program uh operated by a private school serving children kindergarten and above and where all children have not reached the age of three by September 30th of the current school year must be licensed say it again they must be licensed uh he France for example operates as a single campus uh and a school with the same principle same staff same LLC um same admissions process section 301c regarding uh the exemptions is equally equally clear k France is not exempt and must apply licensing requirements section 303 references the this point uh by stating that while a non-public school serving children in kindergarten and above are generally exempt from this prision of bulletin 137 that exemption does not apply to a school serging uh serving children under the age of three so the early child's have program the two-year-olds right they have two-year-olds on that campus uh nowhere in the law does it say or in bulletin 137 does it say that we can segment portions of the school out and have unlic um uh there's no provision in the law that allows schools to wall off a portion of the campus serving our most vulnerable children while exempting the rest the Department's uh incorrect interpretation of bulletin 137 means that many programs if not all programs 3K 3 and four programs um are operating outside of any meaningful uh regulation and oversight um how many such programs exist without regulation circumvents uh established guidelines by splitting operations between licensed and unlicensed programs so what they would do is in the three and above classes they would take an assistant when they were out of uh ratio in the licensed portion they'd pull an assistant and they'd leave 15 threeyear olds with one person all day um so [Music] establish uh by splitting operations between licensed and unlicensed progr who's held accountable how can it be acceptable for a school with vulnerable pressable children to function without proper safeguards who is responsible for holding all schools accountable for our children's safety the answer provided to me by the Department's Department of Education Cleveland unit was shocking I was told told that the department had no Authority um they analized my request to investigate to asking them to investigate a theft at a grocery store this tragedy was entirely avoidable had the school followed basic safety procedures delineated in bulletin 137 maintaining proper student teacher ratios ensuring constant supervision during bathroom breaks designated safe and monitor bathrooms um and implementing clear reporting proceded my daughter's trauma could have been prevented in this instance Kio France acknowledged that it permitted three-year-olds uh to use a gymnasium bathroom unsupervised blatantly ignored student to teacher ratios further when I uh provided the school principal with blls in 137 and their required teacher student ratios their response via email was essentially that we're not subject to the Department of Education reg uh regulations uh and that they have full confidence that one teacher or assistant could safely supervise up to 153 old hello today I stand before you not as a soldier but as a a father desperate for change I implore this committee to reevaluate the regulations or lack thereof that allow schools to operate in dangerous regulatory gaps we must close these loopholes enforce proper licensing and ensure that every school is held accountable uh for the safety and well-being uh of the children they serve our children deserve a safe environment no family should be forced to endure um the heartbreaking trauma that mine has suffered I trust that uh you'll share this conviction and will'll work tirelessly to implement the changes necessary to protect our future Generations sadly today it does not appear that department of education has taken any formal action or done a formal investigation thank you for your time uh and your commitment for to ensuring the safety of our children if anyone has questions more than happy to answer them I just want to that youring and we've gotten a lot of a lot of thoughts and prayers um and unfortunately that's not it's not we need we need to be about action now we need to fix this um I think our suggestion is forming that work group and trying to get our people together as soon as possible to make some recommendations to us so that we can make those recommendations to Department I the mechanism is already place with bulletin 137 U putting it under in 741 I mean should we interpret things differently you already have a mechanism in place right you already have their Early Childhood uh Department here they already go and inspect schools uh they're all familiar with the requirements for designated bathrooms um this in in the bulletin 741 okay so there is a in bulletin 741 there is a ratio all right what's the consquence if we don't follow it who do we call who's the enforcement you already have the Department of Education already has that mechanism in place three and fouryear olds should be under Early Childhood I can only speak cents that we all have in our seven dases rules and regulations safe environment and we we hold to it very firmly and I'm not trying to down the school where your children were but I can promise you in any of our schools that would have been dealt with immediately and different and I hope it would and I hope that maybe bringing some of our people on this subcommittee yes that some of our practice and the policy oh polic we already have them in place right but it's it needs to be across the board it's amazing you're doing a great job um but not everybody's a good actor my my children's school was bought out by a corporation they're for-profit school um they were bought out by a corporation that boasts about 880,000 students in 24 different countries they come in they buy up these smaller schools they bring in their leadership they're there to make money um and if you're in education to make money you pick the wrong profession right when you run your school as lean as possible and you're not providing substitutes I think everybody in this room can agree that 13 or 14 to 15 3 year-old in a classroom and the reason I complained originally was because I thought concussion broken bone something I never thought this never thought that I'd be here in front of you guys uh I never thought it would take eight months to get somebody to do something um you know it's it's been a very this house has been great uh you know but there's definitely some gaps be filed and somebody needs to do something and moving forward hopefully that will be Place say our Catholic schools especially all of us we have a I have a very hard HR safe environment person who ask these questions all the time this would not just stay at the local level Bishop's office and everybody else so um that would not but that's how not just that but like right now as you speak my ELC directors are in professional development right with my staff member who's in charge of LC safety um curriculum like there are a number of things that we address with them and they understand how the accountability works so I think those are the types of things that thank you very okay our next meeting is uh March 18th question can you um or somebody is that you reach out to us so that we can set up okay thank you all very much Mar --------- ##VIDEO ID:NBtKT_52240## year in meganp Department super you have got your minutes so I need to so our first item on the agenda is um state and federal funding matters Sor table thank you so much I need a motion to receive I'll it's fine I got it I'll go ahead and kick off here my name is Caleb Mo Deputy Chief of Staff of the office of school choice here at the department our office is administering the Louisiana Gator opportunity program um been happy to engage with many of on this and ask add first you see here this is for our email sign up list I believe we have a good bit of people already signed up this is schools families we try to put information for everyone on this list so I definitely encourage so uh today's objectives what we'll cover we'll go over general program information like eligibility uh how prioritization of students will work in process um a little bit about the student funding uh School participation requirements um helpful information for families and what they should provide when they apply for LA Gator um talk about school application process uh next steps and then move to a Q&A so what is Ina Nessa is a education savings account or education scholarship account program um and it's generally more flexible for families schools um seeking to give school choice opportunities for children ums FS an account for the families to use so the families will be able to log into an account they'll see an amount of money at the top along with the amount of money they're able to spend that quarter and they can use that for a host of eligible education expenses whether that's attending a non-public school fulltime receiving services or individual courses from a non-public school uh courses from a traditional public or public charter school or a whole host of other kinds of service providers um each state offers esas so if you uh each state that offers esas offers them in a bit different way they'll call them different things so there's a few State specific things that we'll kind of outline here too that are unique to the Louisiana laa program um so our program was uh it's act one of the 2024 legislative session uh this established LA Gator program um it will provide funding to families and students um not enrolled in public school so students in LA Gator can be receiving services or a course from a local public school but they cannot be enrolled full time they officially enrolled in any way actually after their participating public school um initial participation in this program um is based on a few unique qualifications um that does equal to about 90% of all students in Louisiana and even phase one um but then that will raise uh to phase two and phase three which will eventually be Universal eligibility so all children in Louisiana in phase three will be eligible phase changes are really dependent on the appropriation for the program so depending on how much Mone the legis aside this year in the session is how many of the phases will be able to make uh make it through so if all students are prioritized eligible in Phase One or funded will then move to phase two which uh expands the income eligibility for students who are currently in a non-public school uh families will apply on March 1st 2025 is when that application will open um that will remain open for a little while and it will have to close for a period for us to prioritize applicants um and may reopen in case there additional funds available so uh this program will replace the Louisiana scholarship program commonly known as theal program here in the city um so we're trying to make it as easy for families to move from the LSP program into the laor program we engaged with them in various ways and we'll hear about a little bit later in the presentation um but all LSP schools they will not have to go through a separate application approval process to participa in laat so what we did is we took all schools that were approved in the 25 26 Bessie Brum do application and we use that um in accordance with the policy as the eligibility criteria so we have obiously uh the program administrator for the LA Gator program build profiles for the schools and then we send out information for the schools to claim their profiles uh so they all should have profiles ready to go on the Odyssey website um and then they should receive emails usually the principal and maybe a secondary contact that we have on file to claim that profile from the elated program Uh current LSP low income special education of current LSP or La G students will be prioritized in Phase One all other students will then be prioritized after that okay special educ are already on LSP uh so these will be so under LSP uh a student receives first priority in the program so um after that LSP uh priority in within phase one um LSP students first then after that receiving equal prioritization would be um low income families 250% poverty um and special education families so those with an Ida identify disability with an evaluation of the system but those families still have to the requirement as well uh they will they will um they will still need to meet one of the other requirements so uh being a student with a disability under idea is a prioritization but it's not within itself an eligibility criteria so we'll have a chart uh later on that kind of covers that specific scenario uh so here are some Milestones here we actually important that one of these we are ahead of schedule on um December registration opens for nonpublic schools to participate in LA Gator um we're very happy to uh to say that once the state board approved the schools um obviously the program administrator was ready to have schools claiming their accounts within seven working days so that's a very quick turnaround for an education savings account program so we're very pleased with the results there and uh we've heard great things from the schools about support that they've received uh throughout the application process so far January we've launched a pre-screener tool that will be available on our website shortly um the tool has been developed we're just getting it launched on our website it's available through Odyssey um but this will be for families to go through and see if they're eligible for the LA program it's not the application itself but with the application not necessarily uh not being ready until March 1st we want families to have an opportunity to go online and see uh yes or no would you be eligible uh February 2025 so we've actually moved uh pretty quickly on this families information that are currently in the LSP um about what participation in LA Gator looks like so we did a webinar specifically for LSP families that we sent out January 27th um that provides all the information they need on things that they should have documents to upload criteria participate we really wanted to let them know that they are the first eligible first prioritized student group in this program there's just a few things they'll have to do first because it operates differently than how the LSP program works uh March 1 again that's our opening date for families in the late spring 2025 of course dependent on state appropriation um we'll start being able to determine how many students will be able to be in the program for live be will to be online us that yeah absolutely would be happy to that answer any questions that families have um we can work together on schedule something like that I'll make sure that um so first of course or our LSP students that is the first eligible um students entering kindergarten are also eligible for this program um if a student was enrolled in a public school uh during both counts in the previous school year they'll be eligible and then from a family income uh at or below 250% of the federal poty L after eligibility you'll we priation here are some examples of students that will be eligible for La won be a few specific examples like to call out so we have Jaden here LSB student eligible Sally private school student but at 250% of the federal poverty line family income so eligible under that y ising kindergarten 500% at the federal poverty level but that is eligible foring Kinder private who qualifies fora um it's important to note that this student is not deemed eligible because that is a prioritization in the program um so the student would have to one of the eligibility criteria first and then would be prioritized based on that Ash a public school student qualif eligible as a private public school student and also prior um Isaiah public school student and 500% of poverty line also eligible as a public school student and then we have Greg K2 private student at 350% of the federal poty guidelines um this student is not eligible under this qualifiers but when we move to phase two that student will become eligible because the number goes up from 250 to 400% of the federal property again I won't go through all of this in detail because we kind of walk through that with the last but uh this is a breakdown of the prioritization and explains the students from the previous slides how they'll be priori theam so students participating in the LSP during the 2425 school year will maintain the same award um upon joining LA Gator uh this award will be renewed annually until they reach a terminal grade or they uh graduate in the program uh or whenever they leave their participating school so at that point they would default whatever rate they qualify for outside of their LSP rate unlike in the LSP program this is a very key difference um in the LSP program as I'm sure many of you are familiar with a school will open a certain amount of seats then they'll set a tuition rate if that tuition rate is okay from a state perspective then um students apply students go to that school and it's accepted tuition rate um the the schools cannot charge students anything um greater than that amount they can charge any additional uh fees or things like that in L it's just a flat rate um important to note here in the elator program um if your school tuition is higher or lower that is um not that does not impact the gat that the account will be funded at so if a student is at the federal property guidelines for their family they'll receive around two I think it's 7500 uh in their account um that is what they'll receive because of their qualifiers that doesn't have a bearing on the tuition of the school so if School tuition is lower than that the student will be able to pay with their Gator account and then they can use the additional funding for um supplies additional Services anything that the parent might de necessary um but if the tuition is above that amount the will resp for the differ so it's very important to communicate to families um what the school tuition is and how that impacts their gatoring out um so participation in multiple programs is prohibited in the lator program so we'll see here a student in a home study program approved by the state board um a student in a home study program that's registered as a non-public not- seeking board approval um the course Choice program uh the school choice program for students with uh specific exceptionalities um these can act with participation in LA Gator so if a student is going to be an LA Gator student they cannot be in one of these programs I'll also call out um so those are prohibited in the LA Gator statute itself finally the tuition donation tax credit program um with the school Tuition Organization seos um that is also prohibited but it's not in the gator uh statute it's actually in the tax credit program statute that prohibits those two yes so a or red T of the say Nows they're um if a student is in that program they're not to be allat they have to be in one or the other ask you about homeschool students um okay all hes school students have to register with the state so how does those first two lines affect that so this would be um if they're currently in a in a home study program so uh in one of two forms they have an approved home study program for the State Board uh which carries certain requirements or they're registered as a nonpublic not- seeking board approval um they can do an laor what's kind of a home based education so the parent can choose to educate the child at home they just can't also be in one of these home stud programs so it wouldn't necessarily be home study as it's known in state wall but if a student chooses to enroll in LA Gator and the parent pursues a homebased education um it could look very similar to a home study program it just they wouldn't have sent in the official documentation uh to the state you would instead have their application as alligator student so um I don't understand that what is the difference between a like I'm homeschooling my child at home versus a home study program approved by the state board because I have to register my kid I have to let the department of bed know Houston is being homeschooled right absolutely so what is how do you distinguish between home study program approved by the board registered with the department or just me as parents saying I'm schol absolutely so um for uh I believe treny purposes like we have to have something on file public not seeking board approval or the approved homey application so um dependent on which one of those two the parent would choose um we would have something on file just letting us know that um a child's being educated there that child specifically is receiving an education so they're they're good in our systems um this would be a parent could do something very similar to whatever uh their education looks like in either of those two but if they choose to do it in Gator um every year the family would send us a letter um or an application for their own study program um and if they want to participate in LA Gator they could have done that in the previous year if they meet the other eligibility criteria they just wouldn't send that letter um so they would be pursuing something similar through elator um from a home based education so they could still use elator to um potentially buy curriculum Services take courses at various schools um but they just wouldn't send in the application they would normally send in every year because we would have their records as an LA Gator family instead of them being a hom study program so these really important as distinctions in the law is is there is there going to be a tab on the website for hom school students to Route them to LA Gator versus being registered with the state there'll be uh links throughout a lot of our website uh and it's been newly redesigned so apologies if any of this is incorrect or out of date but um what we try to do is make sure um we organize these as school choice as a topic generally so we make sure that um all forms of school choice are in one place together so a family would see um if they select information about home study there'll be tabs to the side of all the other choice programs as well so they'll kind of have no matter what route they choose they'll be tabs around uh to let them know of the other programs and anything similar all right so this is just an illustration for the student funding amounts uh student funding an LA Gator is determined by the students's criteria their eligibility criteria I'll start with the highest number of special education uh students will be based on a tiered system that uh We've developed the tiered system accounts for things like the individual disability of each student um and their family income so a family with the highest tiered um disability identified under your idea and a family that's low income would receive the highest amount up to this I think it's 152,000 amount so um it tiers uh there really six different levels depending on in and identify disability um that would get up to that 15,000 mbers uh then we have the students at the below 250% of the federal property guidelines they receive around 7500 a little bit higher than that then all other students would be eligible for around $52,000 each year and of course these are based on percentages of the uh State per uh per people mfp funding um they're not not Rel any other way besides just an illustrative number um but these will change year by year by what the mfp is so it'll always be in law as a percentage um not a fixed rigid number um so this is how schools can determine if they're eligible to be an LA Gator school um there are other ways to participate in LA Gator if you're a school but this is how to participate as a um get trying to not get too technical as a participating school so your school is offering everything is enrolled full timeing everything from your school if you're meeting these criteria um bie grun approved by Bessie as one of the different uh forms of accredited approved schools in the uh Bessie approval process um a nonpublic school may be deemed ineligible uh for a few different reasons they could be um in violation of the terms or out of compliance with the terms in the statute or to finalize speci rules um they would need to adhere to tenants and publish disciplinary procedures before expelling St um complying with applicable state laws rules governing health and safety of students while attending on public schools um any previous determination so if the school has been found um ineligible to participate in the Louisana scholarship program they will remain ineligible to participate in laat and then Nonie approved schools are ineligible to participate in this way in the program I won't go through all of this I just wanted to call out a few things with this um so this is what's a part of the application for schools simpler than it looks um schools already have their best approved um that covers most of these things over here and a lot of over here um that's completely covered in their vessie approval process so once they've made it through that process we just build the account it's a lot easier for schools and this would make it uh seen uh we do want to call out for certain uh schools I know we've been asked about this a lot a school is not required uh to alter its Creed practices admission policy or curriculum to accept payments from an Esa or from our ESA here in Louisiana a lot of schools have asked about religious affiliations certain curricula things like that as long as you meet these other requirements there's no requirement to change that uh fiscal sness check I will call out schools receiving more than $100,000 of account funds in a given year will be required to do one of these three things including um evidence of operating for at least three school years or one of these other two items uh from a professional saying that the school is Fally sound and then all LSB schools of course we put them directly in the progam um so required information I'm going to cover this um this is what's been done through the uh approval process and then additional information um the norm reference test that the school will choose to administer um and then projected capacity that just helps us understand um the demand and things like that what the supply will be for the program um projected capacity has no bearing on how many students the school actually accepts uh record maintain that could be subject to audit um annual tuition fees schedule and then Pro of uh building compliance uh anything like that um we recommend that you keep that um because they're Associated requirements for schools with these um we will not collect these from a department perspective these will not be something that you upload on the Odyssey platform um but there could be questions regarding this because of program compliance and then proof of fiscal soundness is dependent on the school's amount of M received so quickly this is what the school uh process looks like the school uh builds a profile of Odyssey um they claim their profile complete registration uh they connect their bank with stripe uh so Odyssey uses stripe a very well-known reputable um International banking institution uh online um schools confirm or denies student enrollment so students will select their school and then the school on their end will actually say yes the student has come and applied we deem them good or no the student did not apply to us or we deem them ineligible for our school based on our admissions criteria as a school um and then if they confirm them the school will set the tuition the parent will go in and confirm that tuition amount um and then schools will receive their uh payments quarterly um schools can operate as a school or as a service provider but they will need to apply individually as each so I won't go through the the differences there but uh the the key changes would be if the school wants to offer just one course or one service on the Odyssey platform they would also need to apply as a service provider in addition to their school application yes in regard to that service provider a number of our elementary schools provide after school care and school care I so does that mean the school needs to register as a provider because they do that absolutely so if that's not part of their if they're a participating school and they don't offer that as a part of their General tuition and fee payments if that's something that's in addition they need to also go in as a service provider and then families could select them from that menu as well is that already available because they uh we have not launched the vendor application uh yet we do anticipate that to be done uh this week but uh we're making some final touches and that should be and once that opens um that application will actually never close that will remain AA rolling basis so um that's not timed down in any way um it's approved on an individual basis I have a question about that um if a school offers like occupational therapist or fiscal therapist as part of the school embedded for their special ed that would be considered a vendor as well too absolutely that be that'll be they'll be Dro down application where um and it'll kind of follow a tree of things like they might select um services and th and then they'll go in and kind of determine which one if you're offering something like that you will be required as a service provider to upload um any licenses um that are related to whatever they select is their service offering um so there will be that there's a list of dat stations for everything that they're different by application tide um but really for program compliance and safety they have to upload certain documents relative to whatever um their that causes another question to be for right now our public school system provides particularly in our in our in our schools my question is will they continue to do that number one foror students especially and if so will they be considered a service provider at that point we don't pay anything right now as far as the I knew that the um the leas the public school goverment authorities are able to go on and apply as a service provider can do that um as far as if they're required to provide the services to the non-public school for Gator students um I'm not 100% sure I could get back with an answer specifically to that question um but I do know that public school governing authorities they can participate as a service provider um and then um students in LA Gator uh going to a nonpublic viness participating the school doesn't have to um increase their service offerings um I believe the language just says what the school is already offering with minor adjustments is that currently that service is provided at no charge to our parents the want to make sure that now because they can register service if that qualifies under IA rather than them saying we're going to charge for that is my understanding if they qualify for the services under ID they will continue I like your me too but I'll absolutely I I'll be happy to get clarification and then uh any questions that we receive even even in this meeting um we'll make also available on our on our website frequently asked questions so we'll send that out directly as well we'll uh actually move through this fairly quickly um we've reopened the besie brunold da approval cycle um that we opened late January will close February 13 uh schools that seek to apply in this cycle uh and we're offering this specifically we know schools found out a little bit later that uh this may be a requirement to participate in LA Gator so we've had schools that were interested um so we've reopened this for those schools and any other school seeking to get approval um they will go to our March bie meeting so they will technically be approved after the LA Gator student application launches um but they'll still be able to be put on the marketplace very quickly um for students still seeking to apply um to the schools and we are clarifying we've had a little bit of confusion around whether schools will need to apply again um if your school is on the the list that was just approved by Bessie in December which is available on our website uh thank you to Megan and team for getting that uh up schools will be able to see that and if they're on that list they know they won't need to apply again um any schools already approved for this upcoming year they do not need to apply again this is only for new schools all right um next steps we'll cover uh if uh needed and on our website I'm happy to have individual meetings or discussions about these things um approved assessments so Bessie approved a list of nor refer in addition to the state test uh and that's on our website um that students can use to be in compliance with program requirements um reporting monitoring um what fund transfer actually looks like more information will be on our website about that um qualifi educational expenses uh especially for our vendor application um transfers withdrawals and then uh early reservation payments all right happy to answer any questions yes sir thank you for a very detailed report just a couple of questions um I recently reached out to Odyssey to determine if there was any way that that we could check from the superintendent's office make sure that each school was properly signed up and um I've been unable to do that I just didn't know if there was some Avenue in which I could make sure that everyone was properly um properly signed up and the strike pce was was fixed that's um that's my first question do you know of any uh way that we can determine from the superintendent level that everyone could other than asking you know to to actually verify that all of this has been done correctly absolutely so I think the uh a few different Avenues there um I'm happy to take uh that directly um and and check against our system um Odyssey should be able to uh if asked they might just need um some kind of like proof uh to know that they're giving information to someone associated with the school um I also schools can add um as many other account feates as needed um so you might be able to um as uh a dases or as a system um have another account user added uh to view what's happening there I'm not sure if they have different levels of um you know whether you can edit things on the profile or view um I'll direct that question obviously as well and get additional guidance but um I know that we can inquire specifically obsy should be able to also inquire they just might need uh proof that you're the school to get that done okay a second question um thank you for uh the uh letter that that uh was shared with us um uh in regard to the letter that was sent to the Louisiana scholarship program students because uh that just helps us communicate that further with them so we appreciate uh the letter that was sent from ldoe to uh to our current scholarship recipients um my question here is concerning additional prompting additional families to apply so we believe that our prek4 students we've already constructed a letter to to to send out to to all of our prek4 students to apply however we're reluctant to to send out a letter of encouragement to all other students you know for fear of creating false hopes or for fear of I mean I I just don't know if they will be there will be fing available um you know for you know a seventh grader who's currently in Catholic School whose family is at 228 of the federal poverty level and so I any recommendations on that um no wish wish we could provide more information there of course everything is legislative appropriation dependent um we've really put a heavy emphasis on advertisement um and really information to the scholarship program families because um you know they're the losing a program and and need first priority to move over to the new system um as far as advice I think communicating to All Families um regardless and maybe prioritizing that based on the priorities in the program um because we'll know that within that eligibility um even in Phase One um students will be prioritized in the SE order um so it may be helpful to communicate based on that I know that kind of follows what we put out from the Department as um we look at which students are going to be eligible and prioritized first and make sure that they have the information applications thank you last it's just not a question but I just wanted know my concern about the of the July date of you know you know final settlements you know currently you know we are in returning student registration now in our schools so this is underway right now on the 17th of February we'll begin with new student registration in in our cycle you know we just bu budgets for the 25 26 school year and so our process is well underway and and I'm I'm just a little bit concerned that um you know we have some schools that are in very high demand and have waiting lists but yet we did we would like to offer this as an opportunity you know for our families who do fall um in you know and under 250% of the federal poverty um level so so the July date expresses a little bit of concern uh to me and I'm sure I'm speaking for my colleagues right here just to make sure that that's that's noted that if we have any hiccups to where this goes beyond this is going to be could be perilous could be actually so we just want to make sure that that we know that that July is really the end the TDC program does their uh work the final work in July and and and it does present problems when people are not awarded in the ninth hour and as a Catholic school we try to work it out as best we can but we're not 100% successful and we're concerned that if we have to work out a large number of students who think they're going to be going to be getting this but it's not settled until July so just want to express that for the minutes abolutely respond briefly um what we're doing on our end of course things are are really determined by the statute itself and when the state budget gets approved but what we can do on our end is prepare um for when that happens we're making sure that schools are connected with stri we're making sure that they understand how Financial payments will be made to the schools and things like that so um you have our commitment that we'll be doing everything we can to make sure that as soon as we know what that numberers going to be as soon as we have that funding um that's going to go where it needs to go and we'll make those determinations as fast odyy um they're they're building everything out now to make sure that that's as smooth of a process as possible and communicating the schools um at least what that will look like for them so they can make their determinations based on that um and and do our build out based on what is the the fastest we can get things really do an information thank you Mr Question um should be uh opening this week it'll be on our website the LA gator. la.gov is where pretty much everything will be sorry for not shouting that out earlier um our Communications team has put together a wonderful resource um where you'll find policy procedure frequently asked questions um a dedicated phone number dedicated email address for all elator questions um at lat. la.gov I should have asked you this no problem but processing as you said on the slide we talked about the um Louisiana scholarship program funding I there are two things I want to double check with you to make sure so these students are applying now to Gator their option if they no longer qualify financially are they still top priority as a former LSP student um no matter no matter what characteristics have change they will be eligible and prior prioritized as a former LSP student so as long as they participated in the Louisiana scholarship program for the previous school year they will be in that um that criteria so their income will be checked but it's not going to be checked because of their participation that's just checked generally um because we use a connection with the Department of Revenue um and that verifies both income and residency so we'll check that anyway but that not going to be a determination we have a list of the scholarship program students the program administrator will check against L and if they're on that list they're going to be eligible in prioritize does not matter at this irrelevant to the to that determin other question you also said that they're going to be receiving the same funding amount so is that the same funding amount that they received through this state scholarship program and not according to the gator allocations if they're remaining in their uh in their LSP school um they will receive the same funding amount they received in the previous school year so that's the same if they remain in the same school yes if they transfer to another school or they're going to high school what happens we're still working on the the the specific details of that oh no no problem at all um we're still working on the specifics of that I know that there are many considerations and I wouldn't want to speak for um everyone on our team on that because I know that there are lots of considerations based on funding timelines um the appropriation itself and and kind of what that looks like um but that is something that we're aware of and we're working through right now and and hope to have guidance out very soon long so as a followup said um I have a school that their tuition is let's say 6,900 currently they may only receive 6500 from LSB those children continuing in that program under Gator technically should be eligible for up to 7500 are they going to get the 7500 so that their families can or are they going to only get the 6500 because my understanding was that we have some schools that have never charged CH so they've received more than the typical school that has tuition that they were going to receive that higher award if they continue in their school I did my understanding was not that it was going to affect the other kids by receive them receiving less money than the 7500 so the way uh the way I understand it I think it's just based the uh how the statute itself is written is that um if a student is an LSP student and they're continuing their scholarship program school they shall be awarded an amount equal to um i' of course want to check that uh through ld's Council but um the way I understand it by it being a shall remain at that amount is regardless of what the uh the LA Gator appropriation um dependent amount is 7500 or based on their eligibility criteria um I think if they're remaining at the same school um and they're a former LSP student the laws in a way that would say that they remain at the amount that they were in previously even if the tuition um increases at that same school or they they may qualify for a higher amount otherwise um the way that the the policy is written was that they will remain at their LSP funding amount that's a game CH that's not good not good at all okay okay moving right along with new business um consideration update report provided by hello everybody good morning thank you today I will share with you updates from our LD titles to and four work gr the federal support and granty relations ldo e sdaa titles 2 and four work group members have been meeting and we've had Statewide webinars we've even had a followup session since then and we looked at what were the overall suggestions in our followup state wide meeting the private schools who participated were very pleased with what the work group came up with we had over 90 nonpublic schools participate and many expressed from the RoR that it was informative also it Peak their interest to be more involved but a you made this statement that I thought was important a Express appreciation for Statewide Outreach and also allowing the nonpublic schools to have a voice and for us to listen to them the office of federal support and grantee relations responded to any questions that came through during the initial phase as well as the followup sessions and of course we will continue to do that trauma kits some of you receive your trauma kits today I have to get Dr Houston hers the trauma kits were a part of the ldo sea title for services one of the things that was asked for on the call or on the Statewide call was a lot of stem a lot of things in terms of health and safety so when this opportunity became available we were like perfect but what we wanted to do was not only give it to each of our private schools theyed depending on the amount of students that they had either two large kids so many small kids but enough so that it would service the school if there was a crisis but we also didn't want to leave you all out in case you had a crisis so that is why you receiving the kit today of course the nonpublic and the public schools who have just been so great with helping us support our nonpublic wanted to know and how do I get more of these so as shared with them you can purchase them through the title for Equitable Services Under safe and healthy the Le and the UN busman as I stated are assisting the nonpublic schools with any of the program objectives intended outcomes measures of Effectiveness that they need to do anything with the Grant application be that title one two or four because it is very very important that we keep those lines of communication open one of the activities that I'm supposed to present to you prior to it happening was the Flying classro this is the stem project one of the things expressed during the initial State wives consultation as well as the followup was emphasis on St professional development for teachers as well well we had the flying classroom and the flying classroom was our first what the work group identified as a major project having a Statewide nonpublic Educators collaborative we were able to connect with the flying classroom through our own Federal programs person Kenya Jenkins who knew about this and made contact because it fit exactly what they were asking for and did the Outreach and of course they agreed so the next meeting you're going to see pictures and maybe a few videos and other feedback from the program but it was held January 27th and 28th also with that it gave a chance not only for a unique professional development session but the face Toof face contact and they were really involved they enjoyed it but more importantly they were like can we have more of this can we figure out a way where we can do it at our school or within our dasis or our private schools hey can we get together with the leas and collaborate I said yes you all are reading my mind because that's what we want you to do even if you guys as a group wanted to look at something to collaborate on now you can go to the Flying classroom right there to get a peek at what was going on and what was presented you will see that learning opportunity and I can tell you that when you look at it you will realize that crosses so many genres in terms of not just the students but in terms of professional development because if you have high schools it is also a great program for looking at Career and Technical Training looking at our little ones to get them engaged in science and aerodynamics it was just an awesome experience and everybody walked out saying they really did enjoy it and you have three people that are coming to you because they liked it so much because they already doing something with aerodynamics at their schools we are yeah we have um we have some Partnerships with NASA and Mishu because we're doing Aerospace a focus because where we're located and we have a region into this for a few years so two of the main guys were there and so they spoke to him and they're gungho so that brings me to braing and blending of your title Equitable Services [Music] allocations just what I just got through sharing about how you can get together within your dasis within your organizations cross organizations as well as working even with your leas because a few leas have even shared hey what if the private schools and the public schools got together to do some of this is that okay it is it just depends on what people want to do but what I want to share with you regarding this is is that your allocations can be braided or blender let's talk about the difference when I blend something I want you to imagine if you close your eyes a minute that you're playing with paint and you have some yellow paint and you have some blue pain now you're going to stir it and mix it up and what do you get green that's bled I have a question for you can you separate it back to yellow and blue no you can't so when you blend your funs they are together it's solid that's it you can't go back out and separate two out of one and four out of two or whichever way but it does work but those funds would have to go to a particular allocation to provide whatever serves so now I want you to imagine you have three pieces of yarn a red a blue and a yellow remember when you were little and you're learning how to bread hair ladies and guys you all don't want to see it but you all know you us to hair and your aunt's hair so as you're doing that and you're connecting those pieces of yarn what is it about that that you can do that you couldn't do to their pain you can write you can SE rate the pieces which means that those funds that allocation remains in that category and I just say hey I'm going to use 2,000 of title 2 to help with this project and I'm going to use 4,000 to help with the project but it will stay in the budget area where it is and we just Brave those forms to help help us put on whatever professional development or whatever learning activity for the children and you already know if you're interested in investigating or trying that out you just have to reach out to me but the leas are willing to because some of them are starting to do that as well so overall in 2025 we want to get creative and more engaged with our learning opportunities not just for our students you guys but also for our teachers and for you too because it benefits you as well these learning opportunities are open to those who want to participate any questions discuss yes question um AI is a big thing for us right now um we're probably going to contract with educate um a provider for PD and um support for our leaders and our teachers okay um so I wanted to put that out there to see if there's any possibility of maybe connecting you guys with ala so that y'all can see what what he has to offer there's a he has a huge Library already that exists on technology he does technology and education and a bunch of other stuff so I wanted to share that and two um the state the national meeting for the state C directors will be in New Orleans this summer okay July 13th through the 16th I just sent you an email to save the date okay um but we'll be posting them okay um and I'll also be reaching out to you with some other okay and I'll definitely put that on my calendar thank you anyone else Ed thank you yeah we'll work it out I don't set that date for that national meeting but moving on with our um agenda 4.2 update regarding criminal background check requirements I need a motion to receive Carol I'm Paula the director of educator backgrounded here in the department thank you for inviting me to provide a reported an update on the process of criminal background checks for certification you got Wes that's all right I like wolves I was a teacher I love woles so we we've talked about this a little bit in the past I've presented to you on this previously but we have more specifics and uh we have a bit of uh information that is U sent to you through our colleagues at the Louisiana State Police as well so fingerprint based uh criminal background checks are required for employment in all school systems that's non public Charters and that is directed in the Louisiana revised Statute 1715 in that Revis statute it also defines what an employee is it goes into detail it includes your teachers your bus drivers and on and on and on including contracted employees as well that's one area that we tend to Overlook so take a look at that I have linked the uh law there in the presentation so you can review it in detail with your legal counsel if needed um there is uh Louisiana revised Statute 15 [Music] 5871 it requires all background checks for school employment to be conducted through the Louisiana state police's Bureau of Criminal Identification and information and that's important because the state police notified me that there are school systems out there using perhaps a third party company for background checks non finger uh non fingerprint based background checks and so they wanted me to convey to you that in accordance with the law it needs to be a fingerprint based background check run through the Louisiana state police's system so that was from our friends at the State Police another thing you may want to note is that um if you need help obtaining authorization to send individuals for those cbcs through the state police I can put you in contact with that person at the State Police they can get you set up with your own service code and get things rolling for you if you've not already done so so now something separate a criminal background check for certification completely different from that which is done for employment this is put in place due to a law Louisiana revised Statute 1789 and it states that before we can issue a certificate renew Advance modify that certificate it requires that the Louisiana Department of Education a criminal background check cleared and reviewed for that person what we've been doing is any application that was submitted before January 1st it is being processed without the CBC because it's prior to the Law's implementation date if an application for certification is submitted after January 1st we will take a look in our files and see do we already have one on file if we do we move that certificate appliation certification application onto our certification staff of processing if we don't we respond and we let the stakeholder the person who submitted the application we let them know hey we don't have a CBC on file here's our educator fingerprinting packet please go to ideno uh website register and schedule your fingerprinting once that is done that fingerprint uh or CBC is returned to us within approximately 2 to hours it's very very quick my staff retrieves those daily we take those and we do a line by line review to ensure there are no disqualifying convictions and then we issue what's called a clear credential so it's an outward facing uh like data point on the certification record that is like the golden standard it is what we want every educator in the state of Louisiana who is certified to have appearing on their license it tells the public hey they've undergone the background check they've been vetted and the state police will also send us rra backs for those meaning if there's a subsequent arrest or charge that uh report is automated automatically run again and sent to us then we can monitor those things and take action if needed that uh credential clearance by the way when you see it online it doesn't expire it's only a data point it's not a certificate in of itself so we have uh when we when I presented the last time we were looking at a fee for the Department to review that CBC once we received it I'm happy to let you know that through some of the collaborative efforts here at the department with the financial office with the technology office and our leadership we have been able to eliminate that $25 fee we had intended on uh collecting it by way of a credential clearance application that is no longer needed the applicant simply will apply for certification just like they always have we'll check our records no fee for the CBC now your fees for certification will remain the same and the fee that is collected by identigo at the point of fingerprinting that is the same it's about $55 here in the state of Louisiana if they do it out of state it cost a bit more and if they are insistent on doing hard card fingerprinting that is an option we discourage it though because the quality and the turnaround time is slow so moving forward all applicants need to do apply for certification we can tell them yes you have one or no you don't have a CBC and we process them through um I frequently have been receiving questions about can they do do they have to wait to apply for certification before they go get fingerprinting and get the clear credential the answer is no late in 2024 the state police notified us that the consent portion of an individual sharing their CBC with us is collected at the time they are printed therefore we don't have to make them wait so I went and did it you can see it on my certification record we also have um I think to date we've issued about since January 1st we've issued approximately 300 of these so take a look if you're interested and have a certificate and wish to have that clear credential go get fingerprinted and we'll add it to the certificate do we have any questions yes ma'am so we fingerprint in our office and we are connected with the the state police so we we have our we fingerprint to be hired we also check selection.com so we have both right we have people who are hired they're just hired they have a clear background check they go to get their certification either applying for ini certification or um renewal or whatever that we're being told they're according to my staff member their applications are being declined and return back to us because they haven't been fingerprinted by you all so then we have to make them get fingerprinted again and pay another $55 fee that's not right like I mean so they pay to be fingerprinted to be hire cuz I can't hire them without a fingerprint then you make them pay again to get fingerprint it to be certified why because the FBI why can't we share it we can't we can't share cbcs it's against the federal law I did that cjis training but that's stupid like to make those people5 so let me tell you right so let me tell you what our legislators have done they have put a um a piece in the law that states eventually eventually this is all new an employer can rely on the educator certificate not for us for the dases we're never going to not and I completely agree with that I think that's best practices but I have to let you know it is a there is in the law an allowance that that can be and look we're encouraging employers to do it because sometimes employers May set a higher standard of hiring than what we are for certification if you see an arrest on there we don't do anything about an arrest we only do things about convictions you as an employer if someone's been arrested you need to know about what's going on with that employee so I appreciate that we run we rerun them as well and we your fingerprint as well so ours is once and done they will never have to get it again again for the Department of Ed in terms of clear cred but that's to the same point so they're so they gave us a code for our people to use so if someone comes to us and they need to fix for certification they gave us a code that we would use so that the the information goes directly to you all but we don't have access to it is what they're telling us right now correct we can only access the results when we use our site code yes and there only one code that can be used per fingerprint correct because the service code is is almost like a score recipient code with act it tells the system who to send it to and it identifies thepose ISS two separate purposes two separate codes two separate so there is nothing at all that we can do these people have to just continue to pay for duplicate finger it's why the law was put into place actually it was because for a couple of reasons one schools and school systems weren't doing always doing the background checks as as directed in the in the law and so we wanted our certificates to say something more than just they've met educational requirements we want the certificant to say we've vetted their criminal background check as well and this is something that we see going on Nationwide you look up the teacher now I'm not saying it's a bad thing right I just wish there was a way that the employer and the state could share the access to that person like that person signs off to say I give the arch Das of New Orleans I give the state of Louisiana Department of Ed permission to to access my credential my fingerprint my criminal background check whatever so that we so that we don't have to tax them additional money I totally sympathize with you and we argued with the state police for three years 3 years the state police was audited um and it was found were audited okay so it was found that we were using cbcs for multiple purposes and we can't do that so I know it makes no sense sometimes but it is what the law is PA want to explain what we're doing with our Public Schools who have the machines as well they're just running it twice yes sure so if you have your own identico ideia fingerprinting machine and the only nonpublic that I saw list on the state police's report was the dasis of new orle so so they didn't have y'all's name on the list but let me tell you what that yeah so if you have what they call an enroll your own workstation EO you might have to get the the machine have to don't look at me or you don't, I'm on my way out so if you don't have the machine you simply give the packet to the the fingerprinting packet to the individual and say go schedule online put in your ZIP code it'll locate places where they can schedule reps nearest them if it is a school system with their own EO then what the educator does they still go online register for printing under our service code but instead of the ZIP code nearest them they put in your location code oh so they can do that yes still not sharing it's still still two cbcs but they can do it ince instead of scrambling to schedule outwardly oh so they're still being charged twice yes it's just a more convenient location now I had a uh traditional Lea notifi me that it was less than $55 when they printed them at their machine I don't know if that was due in part to like tax rates in different geographical areas I don't know why but it wasn't it was not significant it may have been four or five dollar difference but that fluctuates to the state police put an alert out at the end of December hey we're going up $5 the technology fee right right so can I just ask a question about your recommendation for time frame if we want to establish a policy where our teachers who prior to submitting their paperwork for certification they're going to go through our dedo get it done are we looking like if we if we relatively check like within a week to see if that's CBC yes okay establish yeah right now the volume is picking up but we have hired staff trained them how to read and review the cdcs and issue those C CC's the clear credential nodes within a day or two our is our turnaround right now there is a 3% rejection rate on fingerprinting that's what the state is indicated if one is printed and it is rejected for whatever reason it wasn't a good print the applicant is alerted via an email and they're told hey the prints didn't take you need to resched they will not charge them again they simply provide a code they reschedule the inconvenience of rescheduling is the for for many of us I know for me I had to go get printed twice CU mine were rejected and I've asked them is there anything we can do to make sure they don't get rejected and they said it just happens but it's we're say seeing it at a rate of about 5% so far but you know our subset of uh applicants is small right now you you stated that they submit the application prior to applying for the CBC and so will that not get kicked back until they have that it may so the state Poli ECE has allowed us to give way a 5year period to use any existing CBC that we have on file now keep in mind for 30 years there was a law that allowed us the department to just receive a copy of a CBC if you if you have that is no more we can and so if we have one and our Legal Office is informed us if we already have one it's less than 5 years old on file then we're okay eventually they'll have to go anyway and most or collectors of things and love to see that clear credential on their license so um if we have them and that was our way of saying you know if if you've done one within the last 5 years and it got to the department we don't want you to have to pay immediately for another let's wait another three or four years before we make you go do again we also were conscientious about flooding the identic those stations as well and our office and our office yeah it's me and five me and five that's it and then I use Christy staff on the certification uh side too it's been helpful any other questions that wasn't so bad thank you need blood control thank you very much um moving right along consideration good morning I am happy to be here uh as a member of the teacher leader Summit leadership team just to share a little bit information with you so our teacher leader Summit is going to be held a little bit later than we typically du this year due to an issue with the convention center uh the dates for the teacher leader Summit are June 10th through 12th um and it will be held in New Orleans and the theme this year is a new story for Louisiana education I did want to share with you one of the um perks that we have put in place to encourage our non