e e e e e e e e e e good
afternoon like to welcome everyone to the Louisiana Board of Elementary and secondary educ superintendent advisory council meeting I'm going to open up with a few reminders if you'd like to make a comment please pick up a card from Miss Lon fing R uh all council
members please speak clearly into your microphones and make sure your microphone is on and at this time we will turn it over uh to miss Leon for call Dr Dr bomy not present Mr Burton present
present Mr Cole not present Mr B is not present Mr Corley is not present Dr Eloy not present Dr F present here Dr
Gray here here Mr G here Mr jobby is not present Mr Jones here Dr Joseph here Mr Martin here Dr wling here Mr Powell here
miss dly not present Dr Stokes here here M strong is not present Mr tou not present Dr vitri is not present Dr waron and Dr
W we have a thank you I just like to make a note I know the last few meetings have been moved TimeWise I think that's been a challenge for some attendance attend attend this meeting I'd also like to give special recognition I believe our president our VI president Mr Morris is
in attendance as well as uh Mr Appel thank you for your attendance with that said uh can I entertain a Moval for the approval of minutes from November 8 2024 secondry U first by Dr Gray second
by Mr G all in favor please say signify by saying I that motion car carries the minutes are approved uh we will move to agenda item 3.1 consideration of revisions to bulletins regarding kindergarten
screams that said I'll turn over to our state superintendent okay I entertain a motion to receive the update kindergarten second Mr G second by Dr J thank you yeah thank you sir uh thanks
for everyone uh being here today glad to see you had the opp be in some of your systems last week uh and uh had some great conversations and was really a firming visit around a number of different areas uh had great conversations around differentiated pay
uh and some of the uh systems that are using that for uh math some for special education some for merit uh so you know for me having pushed in on that uh for several years now was it was great to hear some of those conversations um also
some of the work around tutoring that we were hearing about was was fantastic and I'm excited about what you guys are doing there in year one kind of at at scale there year one uh and you know thinking about what year two could look like was excited about some of the
workplace learning conversations that we had and would also acknowledge Bessie for the tour that they're doing around the state kind of talking about that and raising awareness so lots of uh lots of exciting moving pieces right now uh in a in a very hard work which is the field of education so thank you all for all
that you um do um we've had ongoing conversation around assessments for um some period of time and as I've been very candid with with you all I do think that Louisiana students um take too many
tests um but I also believe that tests are really important so that we can understand where students are and it can help drive both um policy decisions but some degree instructional decisions and so we as I've used the same term I think
we have to be surgical in the way in which we approach testing reductions so that we get good information still but that that students aren't um excessively uh testing there's also no doubt that uh Louisiana provides more assessments than
most other states and that's that's no secret there none none of us none of us created this particular situation it is what it is um but we're trying to be Surgical in the way in which we uh roll through that um we announced a few
months back that this particular leap test uh this particular testing session that's coming up we would be able to reduce the amount of questions the amount of time that students take testing by about 25 20 to 30% and
someone in the Press I don't know who said well that's just a Band-Aid uh I thought they would say good job Dr BR they keep going but that's not what we heard uh but so this upcoming leap cycle uh there will be that reduction we had to be comfortable and we had to work
with psychometricians to to know that if we did indeed reduce the amount of test questions that we could still get reliable and valid information we can and so this cycle you'll have that reduction um we're going to be uh announcing additional reductions in in
due time uh some of that will will come sooner than later as we work through this but the the purpose of today's agenda item uh is dealing with this is the kinderart screener yeah is the the kindergarten screener and so as you know
kindergarteners haveit take the uh kindergarten uh screener um now Kinders are also taking the uh the literacy screener they'll be taking the the math screener my preference would be that we would align our our efforts and just
focus in terms of readiness on uh the academic content of of reading and math and whether or not that's those kids are developmentally appropriate um in terms of Readiness there and so what we intend to do and we've already taken this to a
council dealing with Early childood Education is remove that kindergarten Readiness screener that that teachers are having to give to to kindergarteners so that would be one additional assessment that that we would be removing uh we think we can do that and
feel comfortable because of the literacy screener that's in place we think that's going to give us good information and the math screener that comes into place next year so wanted to just um provide information on that ask the towns is want to give some more information but that's like the the the rationale one it
will reduce testing but two it will create more of a focus on academic content for K12 Learners as opposed to other layers of of of content so I actually want to provide some additional information there he um you handled most of what I was going to share so thank
you for that um just wanted to point out um the progress being made in reading and we're so excited about that just wanted to make sure that we eliminate barriers where we can to help everyone focus on what um what it's really going to help Propel our students forward and make them Le readers so they can be
leaders as they get older um so again reducing that that kindergarten assessment at the beginning for the kindergarten Readiness career will keep in the literacy and then add in the numeracy um and I think one really important thing to that that we've had in mind as we' thought about this is that this is a
screener this literacy Andy screener with a response if if it returns um a finding that the student is below level there something that happens and the school knows what to do and the teachers know what to do and there are interventions in place and then we check to see whether those interventions are
working and adjust them is needed and there there there's a system in place to respond whenever um it the screener shows that a student needs additional support so we really want to capitalize on that make sure that teachers have time at the beginning of the year to conduct that to make those plans and be
able to respond for assessment so that more students can be ready for lesson one on day one um I think one important um one important point that I want to call out as well is just the the the heroic work that kindergarten teachers are doing the amount of progress that we
see them make from the beginning of the year in kindergarten to the middle to the end of the year I think this year we had to 20 percentage points of students who were below proficiency at the beginning of the year and then increased to proficiency at the middle of the year and that's really huge so where can we help facilitate that work um where can
we provide some more information even for our early childhood leaders they've been really interested and um in calling attention to this and seeing where they can support and having more students maybe who come into kindergarten knowing their letters understanding that that
you know the namic segmentation a little bit um can support your teachers in doing that that work they doing so well so just wanted to um bring all that to your attention and have take questions okay we'll open it up to the U to the committee any comments questions
from Miss towns or Dr Ran So So if you were moving this the kindergarten screener then when would the two other screeners be um administered so those what will happen at the beginning of the year and what we're really doing is we're saying that the kindergarten screener is the
literacy screener the numeracy screener that screening for literacy and numeracy constitutes that beginning of kindergarten Readiness assessment that we need to do this towns in regard to that especially with the screen of the beginning middle and end uh I believe and I'm not a kindergarten teacher but
do they not create the academic support plans after the beginning of the year screener and would it not make sense these are kindergart students right to allow for that academic support plan to be made after the middle of the Year screener instead of the beginning
to save time from that standpoint I'm really glad that you read that plan so if you remember um that the number of individual plans that we were accumulating was growing and it got to where you could have five different individual plans for one student and it
sounded like there was some work being done that was maybe redundant causing just extra paperwork without cause necessarily so the idual academic support plan is meant to be kind of an umbrella plan like Legos if you've got a child who needs some extra reading support let's put reading in the plan
they need extra math support let's put math in the plan and that that that individual academic support plan wasn't meant to have to do all of these Pages for one student it just meant whatever components of an individual student plan you needed the the paper was there to to hold those those building blocks of that
plan so the thought is at the beginning of the year you know students come in on all different levels I know un challenge for for me was always figuring out are all the kids ready for lesson one on day one if they're not what do I need to do to catch them up so they can access that instruction and um and getting that
beginning of the year information is so important just to see where do I need to customize and differentiate and so it really is important to get that that diagnostic almost at the beginning of the year where are we where do we need to start from um how do I need to plan
for instruction assuming that all my students aren't ready for lesson one day one and we get them caught up so they can access that as quickly as possible yeah and I don't I'm not discrediting of course we need discre I mean that determines what support you have for those students but it's the
actual making the plan right off the bat right after the first I understand you're talking about should that should that particular process be delayed until maybe mid year correct yeah and and I think that's something that we can have ear discussion around happy to engage in
that we'll Dr chass on conversation about that it's a reasonable question start next school year yes and you have so the literacy screener will be
the dble so the same one that we've already have in place and then more information will come out soon about about num Mery the first official year num Mercy has to be in place is 26 27 um so and we'll have more information coming out about it but I think at our next I think we talked about our next
site meeting introducing more information around the numeracy screener to get out in front of that as early as we can like we did the literacy hey any other comments from superintendent do we have any public comment public comment I just want to commend the department for looking at
this because that the D DP K screen really wasn't used in a way that was really facilitating to me growth for kindergarten so I Comm you guys for do that so appreciate that very much yeah and likewise I think the the information
no I don't think I know I know the information you guys are gathering um from from students through their literacy screeners I am seeing your teachers engage with that and make construction decisions so that that
working so is there um A Wish by the committee to possibly endorse this particular it changes to ement by Mr second second by Mr buron
all in favor sign saying I any oppos okay so that motion is endorsed by the superintendent advisory Council okay next agenda item uh bulletin 741 Louisiana handbook oh
sorry uh consideration of an update regarding the Court's Choice program can I entertain a motion to receive a presentation Mr poell second second by Miss Dr Walker
all in favor well no just receives yes sir I think um I think this was Senator Rick Edmond's bill from last legislative session um that was passed and it made some uh some shifts and some adjustments and some additional allowables under the
for Choice model U so Dr Singleton is going to give some updates on this good afternoon everyone so this is actually the legislation that was put in place as a result of Rick Edmund's bill um update
was updated July 1 2025 and so we're going to just kind of go through those policy updates as it appears in the new bulletin so act 91 of the 2024 legislative session provided updates to the cour choice program those changes in
policy included system school system responsibilities and parental Choice enhancements funding priorities have been updated ensuring access to Tops align coursework fast forward pathways high quality Career and Technical
education academic recovery and test preparation the statute also included opportunities for parents to have a parents to have more Choice with regards to course work being provided to their students in course Choice as a result there were some key
school system responsibilities and some key parental enhan enhancements first off the policy includes updates requiring written permission from parents or guarding to enroll students in a course while obtaining that written permission this
is also a time for the school to Ure the courses that are being selected are academically appropriate and based on the academic and career goals of the student school systems are also required to inform parents of the opportunity to utilize course choice and their right to
select a course provider finally schools systems should provide guidance to help parents and Guardians understand which courses align to the academic and career goals of the student to ensure an ontime graduation there are also some parental
enhancements included in the policy and a lot of these are kind of repeated in the fact that parents are to be consulted when it comes time for a student to be enrolled in a course we should be providing a detailed description of course choice so that parents understand the funding
prioritization they should be parents should be involved in selection of courses and they should be a key component of the decision making process and finally the funding prioritization so this takes into account the agency goals ensuring
students that are students participating in course Choice C coursework are exiting high school with coursework that meets their academic and or career goals so first off courses should be offered to students who are seniors who are
require a tops Topson line course to graduate or coursework that is not readily available at the school then students in need of required coursework to complete an associate degree in a fast forward pathway or a certificate of technical studies aligned to high wage
high demand jobs or work-based learning students needing access to Tops align course credit students at a c or u a school providing access to high quality academic content aligned to graduation
requirements or high quality Career and Technical content aligned to Louisiana IBC State Focus list which can also be offered as recovery credit access to coursework to increase success on nationally recognized assessments ACT
SAT CLT or keys or asab and finally other priorities as designated by the local school system approved by ldoe and included in the locally adopted people dire plan prior to the enrollment process all of this information was
actually released today as the bulletin was up um came off with notes of intent today so we have updated our website so you can see all of this information on the website we have uh resources for parents and school systems
so that you all can see all of this information we'll have a couple of webinars coming up a press press release will be released in the next couple of days as well at our CWA and jump a fast forward convention we'll have a session there we'll have sessions at teacher leader Summit so there are a lot of
resources that are available to you all at the school system level as well as information that you can share with parents regarding the updates to this particular program okay any questions or comments by the committee I'm trying to understand so I'm looking
at what the enrollment priorities are and it seems like that's what we all do on a regular basis I'm not understanding why the need for this if this is something that's already in place or am I just taking for granted that everybody
does not do this well some of the um some school systems do utilize the funding for test prep more so than focus on course for test Ally to what the students student needs to graduate or
meet tops so this just allows it puts it it's more explicit for our school citizens to know how we want them to utilize this particular funding for those students and it also gives the choice for parents to make sure that they're involved can you tell me a
little bit more about the provider piece and so if if we have course choice and we have these are our options and we get with the parent the parent says I don't want you to be provider of that particular course MIT interpreters that they have an option to provide someone
else to offer that so the court we do have some course providers that have already been approved by the Departments and so because one key component is is the parent permission as well as we have to make sure that the course work is
academically appropriate for the student so if the school determines that a student should not be enrolled in German to because they took uh Spanish one then the school system can deny that particular enrollment because it's not
meeting the needs of the students and so they should only be enrolled in the course the approved course providers that we have so if it's a course provider that's not in the approved list that's not something that the parent can demand that you all inv go them in through course choice and I think last year when this bill was in um when this
bill was being heard in committee I think the association's position and don't want to speak for Mr fa Mr here but it was making sure that the the school counselor and the system had the ability to to navigate that with the parent and make sure that the the choice
was aligned with the pathway um I think that's accurate just want to just again forgive my ignorance so if there's a conflict between what the parent wants versus what we recommend who
WIS nobody want but nobody wins that means both party loses so something is going to have to bend at some particular point I I think the the the point I'm trying to the reason why I'm asking for this clarification because we are the
professional experts when it comes to trying to guide kids into that particular direction and I think that parents do have the ability to weigh in on those particular options but just what if the parents understanding of what it is is not
what's best for the child and we have a little bit more evidence that can support that particular position that's why I ask who wins if we don't find that then we can really become get to a point where we'll have a St St me between the school and the parent so I'm just trying to figure out what happens when that
happens cuz it's going to happen I just want to yeah absolutely understand so you're going to want to look at three key things as you navigate through that discussion you're going to want to look at course misalignment is this a course
that is aligned to the students established GPA right um I'm I'm sorry igp um so that's the first and so that those igp discussions become very important when thinking about it through this lines so one it's going to be the misalignment so if the parent wants
something for the student that isn't aligned to their goals that's where that discussion happens the next will be academic appropriateness um in thinking through like du enrollment does that student meet the prerequisites do they have the qualifying um scores on tests to do that
so that'll be the second area and then the third is going to be the prioritization right so if you're expending all your funds within priority number one and two and as parent is trying to gain access through priority six you've expended your funds through
those top two priorities and your funds will be expended by the time you're able to get to Priority 6 so that's kind of how you can navigate through those three lenses the discussions with the parent so if I can make a comparison we can use this as like kind of the SL process for teachers Whoever has the Prof of
evidence wins that argument would that be accurate yeah yeah okay yeah that's all need to know I mean I I I would also use this as an opportunity with parents to draw them into the system more further engage them
um which I think would be a positive so it's and I think that you're 100% correct in in that regard and it does gives us a a a new Avenue to engage parents in conversations about what their kids need and almost forces them to engage a
little bit more it's going to be the 5% that's going to come in and all I'm trying to do is just accommodate to whereas we have a a process in place to where and even though it's only the 5% that creates majority of the problem they can commere a whole lot of time and so the better we understand this process
and what our safeguards are we can keep that to a minimum to where it's a 5% it takes up only 5% of the time so I just want to meet that clear and we can we can look between here and bie and we can get u stand we look from a policy perspective and see you know do we need to add any
clarifying that okay any other comments councel no public comment so we will move to the next agenda 3.3 consideration of an update regarding third grade retention and promotion
motion to receive the update second by Miss Walker I mean we just are um continuing just to provide uh attention and highlight uh this particular piece of legislation that passed a couple of years ago because this is going to be
the first cohort where this hit is um and so we just want to make sure that everybody's at a good a good place in terms of implementation of of the law see if there are any additional supports you need see if there are any communication templates that you need so we just want to use this opportunity
once again uh for you all but also for the general public to highlight the third grade promotion law um and all the different elements that go into that so Dr sh make that thank you Dr good afternoon everyone
so just a few reminders about the third grade retention policy that does go into effect for this year's current third graders um just wanted to remind you all that there is that list in the policy that pretty long list of good cause exemptions so I think that's really important to be paying attention to right now make sure that your team
really understands your school leaders really understands what those good cause exemptions are what they look like um those are things like English Learners who have been in our country less than two years students with a diagnosis of dyslexia um students to have an IEP with
previous retention or they have an IEP and the screeners de to not be appropriate um as an assessment for them if a student has received two years of documented intensive intervention if they score leak Mastery in ela in third grade or if they were retained
previously so those are all um the good cause exemptions that are listed out in that policy so just to make sure everyone on your team has a good understanding of those as you move forward through the next few months and and navigate this newc um but it does prohibit the promotion to
fourth grade um of certain students um who are falling well below on the screener that lowest level on the screener for end of year and just a reminder you all should have received an updated um calendar for that screener um
that it'll take place um before the end of the year then right at the end of the year and then once more during the summer month so three windows for that screening that those students will receive three opportunities to repeat um the end of year third grade screener to
try to advance their score as you all work to provide interventions um in between each screener Administration so just a few thoughts on um what happens between now and that point you all have your middle of thee
data so you know who these kids are um you have have a number right now in your system um so as I've been traveling the state and talking to superintendent that's been my question is how many of your third graders were well below on middle of the Year what's your plan for them right now in the spring what's your
plan after um after you take that end of year first Administration as you identify those students I think it's also really important to keep an eye on students who are in that Below achievement range as well um to ensure that they don't slip into the well below by the end of the year especially if
these are students that you have your eye on maybe um because of attendance maybe for things like Behavior they're missing class at times so those are things to just really keep an eye on for those kids who are both in the below and the well below um ensure that progress
monitoring is happening weekly is our literacy team's recommendation um in mclass that they're doing that progress monitoring every week for those well below students and perhaps the below as well or at least a portion of them verify that all of your families have
received middle of year reports and communication that is in the policy and especially important for these students um who are falled into the well below category that you're ensuring that those daily targeted small group interventions are happening and maybe take a look at what
remaining funds you have we've actually you know had conversations with a few a few school systems who say I have money left what happens with it spend it spend it on tutoring please spend it on tutoring um spend it on tutoring students who are in that well below category and then prepare for what your
summer learning opportunities can look like for these students what's going to happen um in April after you give that end of year and then may before you send them out the door and then what happens to the ones that you call back in um in the summer before that third
Administration and that concludes my update I'm Happ to answer any questions I'm going to ask again we talked about this and corresponded for one of the provisions in 17241
c1e is a Bessie approved alternate assessment for the purpose of this I received an email that week was that I haven't seen where Bessie hased that to be the alterate screener
nor do I think it's appropriate as it's a standardized criterian referenced assessment that is not correlated or aligned in any way to a read assessment for the purpose that dibles is used
for we we have no different response to you today Dr um that is that is the alternate assessment that we have right now uh I'm happy to further conversation with besie and see if they want to add
an additional uh alternate assessment but you know we have not had a desire to add an additional alternate assessment we believe that U this process meets the definition of the
law but I I understand that you do not and you have been very clear about that well the clock is ticking on this and we've got a group of kids that are going to be the ones that are would be subject to the ramifications behind it and the
first time I asked this question was at the teacher leita Summit in May of last year which is knocking on a year with this now the law requires besty to approve an alternate assessment I don't think they've done
that at least I've never seen it on any agenda where it's even been addressed devils at the end of third grade is going to give us a number of oral reading fluency and takes no consideration at
all into comprehension Devils has an assessment that's called maze that does take comprehension into a into consideration you got a kid that is two or three words
a minute lower than what that number is that's the magic number they could be reading at a 98% comprehension level and then we're going to have to have them repeat the third grade I'm asking again that that be
considered because that is a reality for kids and although the idea behind the statute is to ensure that kids are reading on level before they hit the fourth grade we all know what the ramification can be for third graders
who don't there's also statistics regarding Dropout rates for kids who are retained at those young ages and if we're going to implement this type of of system we need to have a
safeguard in place for kids who don't fall into all of those other categories where they have to have a label attached to them and take comprehension into consideration and not just the number of words words that they can pronounce in a
set amount of time of 60 seconds or 90 seconds or whatever that magic number of seconds may be there's a lot of kids that's going to pass that that can pronounce words at a rate that they've been
practicing pretty much now since first grade but yet the comprehension may not be there but kids who are comprehend are comprehending that's not meing that magic speed they're going to end up being retained
well I think that's where the the alternate of if the student is successful on leap then that advances them into the next into the fourth grade I'm just going to say for the last time it's not Apples to Apples with
those two assessments and if leap was meant to be that then shouldn't be given dibles for this purpose then Le to determine whether or not they move on to the next R level Apples to Apples if it were Apples to Apples there would be no need for an alternate test because you already have the apples so
um I mean that is that is the way in in which we have decided to to progress through this um I'm happy to have additional conversation with Bessie I will absolutely do that to see if they want to identify an additional test um but that's just where we are at this
point um okay so I have a couple I am not an expert on dibles and this really came up yesterday in our principal meeting so I'll Stam through this I understand it enough but I just want to make sure the part of the challenge is I mean everybody probably understands I me I
know yall do but so it's basically three tests that are a minute Tim and then there's a three minute maze test and um right now we have 59 students in our third grade who are showing well below um but they have asbs or averages common
assessments a high quality instructional you know materials good teachers and they're not going to hit any of these options um there's so there's so much discrepancy in this when you look on the devil's website it it says that uh I
mean it says no test is ever 100% reliable and accurate and moreover no single test should drive high stakes decisions it certainly should be a part of the decision I don't think anybody argues that but but we're getting into a position where just for instance I give you an example with our e students they
have an accommodation for an extra minute and so those kids are scoring at Benchmark or higher because the one minute on these nonsense words what happens is these kids with comprehension who who do comprehend they struggle on the nonsense words and so yesterday
we're having the discussion with not principal she says okay so for the next month do we take 30 minutes away from La instruction to teach these kids how to take this test and not worry about the leap and and I'll go back like I mean doc Dr chasson and them have done a
awesome job with the regional uh deals that has been great for us and the coherence piece for us as a district is critical and that's something we're going to really be focusing on WE the coherence piece this does not fit the coherence piece of what we're
talking about I know it was the law and we have to follow it leap is very different from De so it's it's causing confusion for the principles I I'm not complaining I just we we need help on this and there there there's a disconnect for the teachers in
terms of how to prepare them for dibles how to prepare for leap what what do we want to prepare them for obviously to do well on both of them but um I we just asking for help we we have you know 59 kids who s in this role and I do hope that they score Master advance and will
and be able to be promoted but but shouldn't this be a data point this very short small snippet of the year when they're getting all of this you know they have the high quality instructional materials and these teachers and we're doing hosis tutoring the question is for
these 59 kids we I mean we we need to start teaching them to take this nibles test to pass to fourth grade and then whatever happens on Le happens I mean that's the that's the challenge that we're facing I'm not complaining we're I'm asking for how do what do I tell my
principal and what do I tell my teachers this situation but yeah I mean I think I think first of all nonsense is nonsense words are about the C so if and I you know I am not a reading specialist but I think that if students can't decode then
yes it's worth you know tutoring or other intervention type opportunities to teach them how to decod so I I would not I would not suggest a there is a problem if you were providing additional time to help students understand how to code I I don't think it's that simple
explaining it like that but I I'm I'm not a reading instructor I'm not a I I I can't I'm not going to debate on what they should or shouldn't do because I don't know the answers to that it's just a coherence piece we talked about coherence in our district these tests are not coherent it is not these third
graders are already they they test to The Hil I know youall know that and that's something we'll work on but we just we're we're trying to we're we're working hard pushing these kids trying to do our very best to prepare them not for the leap but to do well in
the leap this is throwing a wrench in there we are doing High dos to stud and we're working on we have awesome teachers we're working hard we're going to continue to do it the question is I guess we need to adjust our our tact on this thing to make sure that we don't
have 59 you know solid kids who are retained maybe they won't make a master maybe they make a basic on the ELA should they be retained though in that regard that's the question well number one not a person in this room authored the bill not a person in this room voted
on the bill and none of us signed it uh that worked its way through a legislative process and for that specific reason some people will say well it should have been first grade not third grade that was a debate that happened both publicly and privately some people say well it should have been leap not the Springer that was a debate
that happened both publicly and privately I had thoughts around all of those things and some of those suggest were considered and others were not but this is the way in which the sausage was made and this is where it landed um I I am not in favor of of of continuing a
process of socially promoting children who aren't ready for what's next and I'm not suggesting you are either I know you well enough to to believe that to be true um and whatever supports additional supports you need from us let us know we want to we want to be helpful we we'll
you know come to the system we whatever additional resources you want us to help develop will be there um but this is the reason why we've had this conversation for two or 3 years now because this is going to be the first year of impact um for this particular group of
students I would not have I could not have supported at all several years ago saying we're going to have a a policy or a law that prevents children from uh promoting but I know what you're doing now in K3 and K3 looks very different
today than B 5 years ago and so I don't have the hesitations that I would have had 5 years ago because of what I'm seeing you doing in your schools so is it that easy if it's a decod issue and and we need to work on that I don't know I'm not going to argue that with you um
but if it is about decoding I would suggest yeah we need to spend time on that can I add this too I I think with the science for reading instruction going in I do think we're going to see an improvement in this area these third graders they're on the cusp of of these the full integration of the science of
reading it's there is a disconnect on this and I'm not going to ask yall do y all I mean can you sit there and say I'm not going to ask you this but I'd love to say can you sit there and say this is best for kids again with the system coherence everything all of our vision
should be built around student growth you know what the student instruction you know how how they're growing this feels like this is not coherent in terms of what are we doing what are we trying to do do there's just this disconnect between what what are you what are you
suggesting is not coherent when you look at what students are tested on with the leap versus Dibbles um they're they're different they're they're assessing different pieces Ian even when you look at the Maze and my teachers I mean my principles again I'm not I couldn't tell
you what the maze look like if it if you put it in front of me but um my understanding is it's a it's a weird sort of comprehens it's different than other styles of doing it um we we just we need coherence and and testing and everything across the board I know
that's a big picture I know those are things y'all are working on but and I know we didn't y'all didn't pass the Bill all these things but but we're in the position and you know it's fine we'll figure it out we'll pull from here and put there I mean whatever we have to
do but again let's create the best thing for our kids and and I know we're moving there I know we're trying to do that but this this is frustrating to are to the principals and teachers that's why I'm bringing it I mean you I I feel better after you hear after hearing you articulate it that way because that's
just a function of the way in which the law was written I mean that that's not something that the literacy he team did or anything I mean it is the the the screener for uh the dble screener is not the lead test you know they they are not
the same thing and there were discussions legislatively about why is it going to be the screener why should why would it just not be the leap test I mean th those destructions happen at the end of the day this is you know this is where it landed and so that's why I'm
saying whatever we can do to help with the instructional supports or or PD that you need let us know but I I can't I can't go and say well we're not going to we're not going to do this anymore you know it it's a law and frankly I think
it's a good one because I think that we have we have passed students on uh for too long that haven't been ready to ex access properly grade level content in fourth grade and we've done a disservice to kids by passing them along um and so
whatever you know whatever we can do to further refine and make it better we want to do so kind of a combination of what and said I think one of our concerns that we've had in spe and members of my team have reached out to you we had this conversation has there been study of how
many of the students who performed well below on the screener at the end of last year but then when we got the relief results they scored Mastery I know we had that uh in our par for a number of students and we we forced all these students to go to summer school to get
their leap results you know a few weeks later and say not bad you know because of the screener that we used I mean not the Summers school bad for anybody I mean they they sure benefited from it but I think if I mean just because because it's written in the law the way it is right now doesn't mean we can't
bring some potential revisions to it so I mean I think if if we all have enough good information about what the impact is having versus what the uh what the actual impact is having versus the intended impact because I mean philosophically I think we're all on the same page because we don't need to be socially promoted stud who don't know
how to read we're we're all there but to to Dr F's point the coherence between the actual practice is is it's a valid point and so um has anybody run that type of report that you're aware of Dr chess is that something that we could request yeah I don't have that
information in front of me superintendent but I do want to just clarify and then then affirm a few things superintendent Fountain um you know what dibles is is meant to screen for it is meant to screen and indicate if a student is at risk for reading difficulties as they progress through
the remainder of their school life so it is supposed to be an indication of there is a high risk and especially when you get to that wellow category well below is is low that score is very low if you take a look across the battery of the screener um and so it indicates it sends
up this red flag that this student is certainly at a high risk for having reading difficulties throughout their the their educational Journey um and so I wanted to clarify that about dibles but I also wanted to affirm superintendent found two things that you said one is that you said 59 students
you know your number and that I think is so important to begin with that to have system leaders and school leaders knowing right now at this point in the school we know who these students are we know what kind of focus and attention we need to give them um and I think that's a part of the policy to begin with
before you even get to their attention phase that is what was meant to drive in this policy was to give these children um just this special attention that they need before they matriculate into fourth grade um and so I think knowing them you also talked about changing the schedule
um I wouldn't recommend pulling them out of any core instruction but I absolutely recomend get creative this is the time if you have those students who scored well below in the middle of the Year absolutely take a look at those student schedules and say how can we just squeeze every minute of instructional
time out of their day to do anything we can to make sure that we get these kids on track before they take their end of year um so I I think that's a great idea I would not steal from any core time especially not Ela core time um but I would be looking at each student
schedule and saying what can I do for these kids how can I prioritize them um between now and the end of your Administration so I just wanted to affirm some of those things that you said because I I think they were really strong and Jenna's been quizzing superintendent on our road trip about how many kids they
have so you pass I don't think you'll have 59 at eii I agree but I don't know what we'll give for that that's that's my point third grade is no I mean everybody knows that in terms
of their testing and it's just it's it's so much and the the principles and the teachers that's when when get when when you feel their their angst and the just sort of the overwhelm on that that's the hard part for us and I'm look I want to let the teachers teach and do all those things and I and I feel like some of
these things add um you know just just to heighten the stress I mean teach is a great job it's a challenging job we know it we we will I mean we we'll figure this out but um you know I I'm just passing on with my you know what I'm what I'm hearing from my people and I
just like to share um you know representative wvin vber had their their K12 education task force some of the same discussions came up then and I know from their report that was given last week they're very interested in obviously collaborating with with bie
and the state department to overcome some of those concerns that they have reported on this was one of the the points of discussion so I know our organization looks forward to continuing those discussions on some minor tweaks where the challenges May rest from that
standpoint um the other point I'd like to make is I was provided a letter from um superintendent Williams of Veron Parish said he just wanted me to to um read for the for the uh the sake of the department in Bessie just to his student
enrollment his student enrollment obviousy is um a high percentage of military students in consideration of the good cause exemption Dr chass you were you were speaking of U I'm not as familiar with this but out of respect for him and him sending this to be part
of this meeting I just like to read part of it uh the 20242 Vernon Parish enrollment includes 21% of K12 military students it's 1500 students of the total military enrollment prek4 population is 23% these students come from all over the world
have been taught by different curriculum approaches and many cases come with not only a dis in reading but also in linguistics and language deficits given these considerations we assert that it's in the best interest of students of military families uh for our Louisiana Elementary secondary board of education
to expedite a waiver of grade three good college exemptions for this particular school year 2425 school year on behalf of earn parent students and families thank you for concertive requests and I'll just submit this uh Dr B I guess to yourself or maybe Mr Walker to Mr Walker
just for consideration I have a I I just have a hard time believing that 2third of Louisiana kids are not reading proficiently you know and and I just have a hard time believing that the the students that have been discussed
here in the well below category at scale are proficient readers I'm not saying you said that but when 23ds of the kids are not proficient readers in the state of Louisiana in fourth grade or or eighth grade
it it's hard for me to register that well those kids on dibles that are well below in the third grade they're they're really they're really pretty good readers you know doesn't make sense to me um so I I I I understand the frustration
there's a lot to do in a classroom and I think we ought to be doing more to help teachers uh and I understand that you know this test is not that test but I just I just don't know that I have that level of concern that we're going to
misidentify mass numbers of children that are actually proficient readers because they're well below on the devil Springer so I I just struggle with that let's let's have more conversation with that later really am interested in that
conversation and I think i' like had to Mr Mort I don't think that's what probably Dr or Dr F saying probably no I know that's not but um you know when you look at other metrics and every test is different test obviously different
skills when you think about the N right that we're so high on for our fourth grade readers you're right 75% of can right we're making such achievements in those areas and that test test not just flu obviously fluency but comprehension as well I can't compare the two tests obviously we don't know all the students
that were test but I think that within itself brings up a very valid point of where we're growing as a state relative fourth grade reading but we're applying one metric for promotion I agree with the content but I think there are other for one student to to remain back that's
a that's a that's a big um that's a big care load to carer for some families when they feel their child and and maybe the school does as well based on the comprehension not just the speed fluency and I'm just in general I'm not turn it over to well that's the psychological
point that was raised around should it be first grade or should it be third grade you know agree because I said first but I had my thoughts from yes definitely first so U different topic same same genre um
we're approaching this by using a lot of um high doses tutoring and we've seen a lot of success with high doses tutoring um the the ask for me of Bessie um is if Bessie could petition the the state legislative body to free up retired
teachers to um earn a greater percentage of their retirement income providing high doses tutoring I have my best tutors have been retired Educators who won't be eligible to be hired at all next school year because we actually
maximize their earnings potential in year 24 and already in year 25 when the school year ends um I'm looking at Dr chasson because one of these Services the school that our kids it's in um and and this is a challenge that's just an arbit roadblock that we've built for
oursel um so if if we can petition the legislative body to free up and recognize that people providing high dosage tutoring are really not that different than teachers of critical shortage need and and freeing that up would be a big savings for us we will uh we'll pass that on to the legislative
Committee of best and I just like to add to that is that really helps with some of the challenges so should be vendoring vend the vendors some of the challenges associate that our teachers are retired teachers no our assistance no our kids
processes totally agree this thank you for br any other comment from the council is there any public comment okay that moves us to our next
agenda item uh 3.4 consideration of an update report regarding tutoring data collection reporting and onsite monitoring can I get a motion to Dr gr second Dr Joseph all fav yeah so good news here we just
watched the um Governor's executive uh budget presentation for the upcoming year uh and as a um opening bid uh in the in the D's budget I want to thank uh Dr sa Kum who is here representing the governor in that opening bid uh there is
the $30 million included for the high dist Tor again so we're really thankful to see that in there so that's really good news um and at this point Dr Chon I know you want to give a report on where we are with this right now and talk about two um some of the changes we're
making to consolidate plans and put kids in a position where they can begin to Services earlier next year I know that because it was a brand new law and there was stuff to sort out um some some places didn't get start till November December some even after the turn of the year I me but our goal
this year is to um U to be able to start earlier because I know like how critical in a school August September and October are academically so we want to make sure that we're able to have plans in place earlier and also Consolidated plans so they're not multiple
plans so just a few notes as we as we close out this year of tutoring um there is a good bit of data to be collected um according to the legislation if y'all have actually read through the high dosage tutoring legislation it's it's not just a one pag or it's quite a few
pages and there's a good portion of that that talks about uh the data and the reporting that we are responsible for and so in return that we need to collect from you all so um that'll be done in a few different ways but one way is through some fiscal reporting um that we
requesting through egms and so we're doing this on a quarterly basis so we're current ly um in the quarter one and Quarter Two reporting cycle you're reporting to us uh any tutoring that you paid for August through December right now through egms and then you will
subsequently report for quarter 3 and quarter 4 and just a reminder that the funds for the high dosage tutoring allocation can only be used for two expenses salary and benefits for full or part-time um laa staff or for you to
contract with an external tutoring provid who appears on uh our Department's vendor guide so thank you all for that um fiscal reporting I think it's going to be really important as we head into session um just for us to be able to demonstrate that we have a high level of
confidence that this money has been spent first of all and then it will be spent by the end of the fiscal year um to show that you know every dollar of that $30 million appropriation is needed for tutoring but then also that there's a high level of confidence that the money went where needed to go through
this reporting so I thank everyone for contributing to that reporting I think it's going to be very important as we enter legislative session and there's a lot of discussion um about the executive budget and that $30 million domain and and you guys have done so well on this I mean we've been out there we've seen it
and uh it's really fun to watch um and I know you've had to struggle with which vendor is year which one's good and this vendor had to perform and this one did and that'll all be better next year because of your experiences but I really I've done so so well this and I'm thankful for it yeah we've been in over
35 school systems specifically for high dosage tutoring um on-site monitoring which has been fantastic it really has been a joy to see the high quality of this of the tutoring programs that you've been able to stand up over this year so I want to just encourage you all
we're going to continue to do that on-site monitoring over the next coming months through um through the end of the year so we'll reach out to you if we're looking to do that in your system but I want to encourage all of you to um have your teams use this self assessment
checklist I think it's really a helpful tool that all of you can use with your team to go out and assess the quality of your tutoring programs and that was a great time to do this do this prior to testing um you know when your your school's kind of get into that testing
mode when you're still doing a lot of tutoring now is a great time to go out and use the self assessment checklist really monitor the quality of what's happening um this is a lot of money and a lot of time and effort um that we have spent this year on tutoring and all of
you have spent this year on tutoring and so make sure that it's worth it that what's happening during that high dosage tutoring time is really high quality and going to have a an important impact on student learning um so use that checklist and then as you do that audit your current tutoring programs and think
what changes do we need to see for next year um are there some things that we want to do differently um is there a different vendor that we want to contract with is there a different way that we need to use our current staff or retired staff so now's a great time to be thinking about all of
that one last piece of reporting here is that by the end of this year and we've been communicating this with your data managers another really important piece of the reporting that we are responsible for to the legislature um is attendance data for tutoring so we've communicated
this with data managers but this will be done through edling so there's the reporting that was done to edms and then the attendance reporting that is upcoming uh in edlink 360 so I just wanted to call your attention to that as well but your data managers have been have received that
communication um and finally Dr Brumley spoke earlier about how we are pushing up the timeline for planning so over the next few months um you will be asked to plan during this spring semester for next year's tutoring implementation we
will ask you to use your numbers from this year's data as a projection and then at the beginning of next year we'll ask you to update your numbers and your data in egms but we'll ask you to use this year's data as a projection and really think through how can I
strengthen my tutoring programs for next year what will this look like in our schools um so I want to just encourage you all to get out in your schools and see the tutoring right now see what's working what's not and then build strong plans moving into next year um we've
also had a few school systems mention to us reach out to us let us know that whether they're really satisfied with a vendor on the vendor guide or maybe not so much um so we'd love to hear from you about the vendors if there's someone you're really happy with for a
particular reason you think they're doing a job a really good job um in a certain area let us know and then um similarly let us know if there are vendors who you have some concerns about or who haven't um you know upheld their end of the contract contct for you that
you've maybe had difficulties with we want to make sure that that vendor guide is very accurate um and it is supposed to be a high quality tutoring vendor guide we want to make sure that it stays that way and you know we selected these vendors through an RFA process and at
the end of the day an RFA process is on paper and you've now experienced those tutoring providers in real life which is very different from what they can submit to us on paper um so we want to know your concerns and your experiences about those centors as we move forward so you can always feel free to to send that to
me or to send that to our our tutoring inbox tutoring la.gov and that concludes this update happy to answer any questions okay Council are there any questions yes sir go ahead I'm
sorry I'm aware that the LD is doing some monitoring of the touring processes that are happening in our school systems I know it might be early on but have been able to Gan finding from the monitoring at this point um we have I think for the most
part we're seeing some really some really strong implementation um we've still seen some spots where um some schools are struggling somewhat scheduling um and maybe they're dipping into into core time a little more than we would like to
see um students are missing out maybe on some science and social studies to receive um some Ela Andor math tutoring so we've seen some of that that we've tried to support in adjusting schedules um but really I'll say these on-site these are on-site monitoring visits but
we also consider them support visits we've trained our team on how to conduct these and it's not just about going in and checking boxes but also having these de brief conversations where we were're able to talk with you about strengthening your plan um I think for the most part we've seen
a lot of really good materials being used we see people really sticking to um the materials that are in your plans that are outlined in the template um that we've encouraged you all to use um so I think materials wise for the most part we've seen people using really good
materials during tutoring um at times I think a missing piece sometimes that we've seen has been um that lack of coherence superintendent Fountain maybe sometimes the the tutoring the tutors not talking enough with the core instructors um but for the most part
we've seen really really good quality implementation um and really smaller pieces that can be strengthened over time for more impact we'll share with you that your people in the field the network team are reaching out directly to superintendents
like myself and they're giving us updates on what's Happening so as more data is collected we really look forward to having more conversations on that it's very any other Council comment just like to add before we open up to the public comment um in kind of
to Mr Jones's question I was going to ask this question is what do you see as the biggest challenge that sounds like the scheduling is one um from 35 school systems what are some of the other challenges so some internal challenges we've had with the number of of students
per group and if that's come up and is there any to to possibly work with the legislators because you have to change there U from that stand Point anything else you have as far as the challenges she she mentioned uh scheduling which I think is um I think it's been sorted out
but probably there are places where that's still a challenge the other thing is just finding um if you're not using your own staff finding the vendor that fits for you and and your kids because you know we'll have we'll have a conversation happened just last week
we'll have a conversation someone in El share that so and so vendor is fantastic it's the best vendor they've ever seen and then we'll go you know 50 mil down the road and they'll say so and so vendor's awful it's the same one and I'm like how how can these two how can this
be true um but it's just a matter of finding people that work best uh for you so I I would say steding and then the vendor I don't know if you want to add anything else yeah I'm just finding the two do and I think um superintendent Martin raised a question that we've received a few times already um we've
had some internal conversations about because that's absolutely a challenge that we've heard is um either you as a Lea or the tutoring vendor trying to um utilize retired Educators and and coming up with a barrier there with retirement one other somewhat related
item I want to share with you all it because I think it relates to tuing with the um revised accountability model with the um the section on the growth with the bottom 25% um you're you're going to see obviously over out there um with
tutoring but one of the things I want to mention is what what our intent is is for July to be able to provide you the actual listing of of students that would apply for that the upcoming school year so uh in fact we want to we want to give
you a buffer so we're looking at probably giving you the bottom 30 30% of achievers um as opposed to the 25 and so before you even go into the year uh you know the names of those children you know the names of the ones that you have to move both because it's the right
thing to do but also because of the the accountability impact so just know that's what we're shooting for July and we're trying to give you the um 30% yes for the for the for the all the grades that are yeah I just going to add on the you
know talking about all the coherence piece we we had a great presentation from from this sped Department yesterday about Playbook awesome presentation did a great job there is some there's some incoherent issues in terms of like when you look at tutoring sizes because in the Playbook it says that a quality
instructor a 5 to1 ratio is as good I mean the research shows that that's as good as want potentially and then there's other things about group sizes so I would say man maybe it would be worth you know just looking at the you know the group sizes um in terms of what
what is best for kids and I don't know that there's an arbitrary number that you can settle on maybe there's other factors into it but I think it's worth the conversation around that as well in terms of line one to add the Playbook is a is a department generated develop
document and that number is a legislatively required coherence I'm just kidding I'm just going back I'm telling you it's changing my world what what we did but that's all everything I'm doing now is about our coherence well I I'll mention it again
but that K12 committee they seem very interested in working with all parties so to me these are very simple things that we can work together with for our kids so I'll say that and then to Dr brom's point with the identification of the lowest 25% that is one of the
challenges I think a lot of system is in preparation for next year so I do appreciate you trying to get that out ahead of of uh time as well as o chat on the the flexibility with the dates for the end of the year uh deing phenomenal
uh but I would say that many systems and I know we're doing the internally in St Charles are are um trying to have some type of say say at summer school Whatever May call differently than what we've done in the past targeting trying to Target our
those 25% as well as our e population so the early as we can identify those kids accurately through the accountability measures the better it is I think for everyone which performance what are you to use to identify
those you have that information or we need to follow with Thomas on that follow okay any more comment on the council okay we do have um two persons for public comment we have our best president Mr Ronnie Morris
sir and Mr Michael with the Louisiana Association School attend will be next to Mr thank you uh just wanted to acknowledge the the focus on this area we've all all celebrating the wins but I really appreciate superintendent Bromley is coming on several occasions now that
we're really proud of our progress but we realize that there's a lot of untapped opportunity out there so a lot more work to be done but with the focus that you guys have on on this topic uh know we can continue to progress so I was really encouraged by um the focus on
where some of those remaining opportunities are looking at the the monitoring and what are we learning from that and uh you know the quality of the monitoring and how we these tests and so forth but one thing I didn't hear any discussion on I'm really interested in I
talked to representative W yesterday at a different event and I know he's doing some work on different engagement uh so I haven't heard any discussion on that I was really interested if the superintendent had any feedback on parent engagement you know what what efforts they put in that space what kind of feedback they could offer and then
also from the Department uh when we' expect to hear a report from representative W's organization on that topic because I know that's their focus and then anything that you may have garnered to date on that topic that you could share if I could just respond uh Mr War
we appreciate that perhaps we could have that as an agenda item for the next next meeting so that we can maybe gather some engagement opportunities that are that our systems but know that obviously is probably number one challenge we all experience in our systems is the lack of peral Engagement so I know different
systems do many things I just didn't know if you wanted that right now or provide an opportunity maybe we could gather some information to bring back to this commit I'm just interested in you know sharing the information where would be of best use whether that's now or as soon as possible um you know we we just
like to recognize that as Focus area as well and you know what are we doing to engage our parents what can we do better uh and again Leverage The learnings throughout the state whatever's appropriate our um uh parent engagement task force I
think the next meeting for March 24 the last one we had the canel 9 next one is I'm happy to share that some of the things that we've done in Rapid spish Mr Morris is made sure that we've met with
every parent every school was met with every parent to get their signature on the documentation citing the new law citing that they understand that if my child still scores at this level by the end of the year this is the what will happen the consequences but here's what we're doing at the school building level
to help uh close the learning Gap and here's some things that you can do at home to help with that and so so far that seems to be working fairly well and also we just had our spring parent teacher conferences where we put a lot more um emphasis on we're tracking our
participation in a way like we've never done it before and have seen an increase from Fall to spring on exactly how many parents are actively participating in those conferences uh we still have to figure out some good levers for how do you measure engagement and at home
learning exercises with that but um again maybe to Dr Chon's point one of the things that happens intended con quences with policy changes and Law changes like this is it's it's it's causing us to really reach out in ways and and uh create those Partnerships
true Partnerships with home and not just these you know one or or sometimes two-way Communications but but actual Partnerships so it's been good thank you for sharing yeah and I just like to share too you know um obviously there's a distri engagement in communication I think the communication
piece is there on system's behalf but the engagement is a little bit difficulty at times know all of us probably had either completed or reach completed parent teacher conferences and we employ a um a data management system that provides direct text messages to
parents so we've been communicating from that standpoint as well as uh parent teacher conferences and then really a variety of stakeholder groups that have direct connections to our families it's another oportunity Bas groups uh is is you know an Avenue that we've taken to
reach some of those heart reach fames as well um but I I would say it still is the biggest challenge is engaging because we can communicate what we want but unless they're at the table truly communicating back and forth is is one of the biggest challenges well thank you for sharing and I know uh B's really
interested to hear from parents as well so any feedback that you can share from parents as far as you know what's working for them you know what additional supports they would request you know we'd love to hear about that as well thank you Mr f one sh I just wanted
to share that several superintendents that reached out to me and there one of two issues number one the pup teacher ratio for some of the smaller outline districts it's real hard to get that one
teacher even though it's you know 4 to one it's it's been a challenge and then number two the differences in the online providers it's a it's a mixed bag some
is as you mentioned some districts are very satisfied with one and it all depends on the person that's providing the tutoring and how they coordinate with the classroom teacher and their background so we just need to look at
that to make sure if we're going to go more to online tutoring because of the Personnel issues that it is something that can be of benefit to students okay with no further public comment
we'll move to the next agenda item 3.5 consideration of an update report regarding mobile telecommunications policy and entertain a motion to proceed Dr Joseph first Mr Joseph second all favor say I I'm going to try and handle this one
um without Ashley having to come up we'll see um so this one uh is relative to cell phones in schools you know whenever we um work with teachers last year this was their number one concern was the distractions that cell phones were
causing in in classrooms um quite consistently in conversations with teachers this was the primary concern that they shared uh legislation passed that prohibited um cell phones being on and and used during the instructional
day I think it's really good I'm glad that it happened I also think that um a lot of the push back that I was anticipating you all facing you didn't face because I think you did a really good job of communication with families
uh which was helpful um but I think the um the law Andor policy provides that you have to submit to us by March uh 1st your plan uh on telecommunication and so some of the things that have to be included on that
are the definition of instructional day including start and end times I know some of you were saying like the instructional day is 7:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. period some of you were saying instructional day is while the teachers engage in the instruction from that first Bell to endbell so you have Jal
flexibilities there um how is the policy applicable to school sponsored events during the instructional day um the means by which a parent can communicate with the student uh prohibition of use onol issue devices for person personal
social use and then what are you doing in terms of consequences for individuals that that violate um the sing phone policy I I hope that this is going well for you all um the superintendent teacher Council that I have on multiple
occasions and they represent 20 different school systems probably they've been very complimentary of the way that it's going in your systems but what I you know what I try to tell people is you know it it is state law and we support it Bessie supports it um
but if you're going to if you're going to have a Prohibition against a cell phone that's going to work you have to support it and your principles have to enforce it because no one in Baton Rouge can come and enforce your cell on policy for you so uh the teachers on my
advisory Council were very complimentary and they said you know kids are talking to each other at lunch they're not texting each other you know one teacher said I'm having to plan for more content because I'm getting through more content now because of the distractions of the cell phone aren't there so we're just uh
I guess using this particular uh agenda item as a reminder that you have to submit your policy To Us by March the 1st and also so just in terms of the best practice if you have anything you want to share across the group of what's working and what's not working great
opportunity for you to do that um before we open up to to the rest of the council just because I did review the law prior to the meeting and I know reached out to me um relative to where that requirement was stated in the law
because it's not stated in the enrolled version of the law so want to I hope we get clarification on that because I couldn't I couldn't find it maybe somebody else could have uh found it and I know since first of all we appreciate the law because it gives us an opportunity to get to to put some teeth
behind uh the law itself but also you know in hearing the representative that actually promoted this bill I actually heard on WWL when this bill originally was passed uh on some of the the language that was contained in the law
was purposely done to allow systems some flexibility in the implementation of of the law um and in in doing so I think some systems have done things in different ways with the intent to make it much stricter to have cell phones
during the instructional day or instructional periods so I guess first where is it actually written in the law that I didn't see unless there's some amended copy that that I don't have I may pull the wrong one and then um secondly I guess what is what is the
intent of that you know are we hearing that from a system level because I haven't heard the concerns I guess from system levels I did hear that come up during a K12 kind a K12 study group you know we talk about let teachers teach with is yeah absolutely but we also need
to let our systems lead right our system leaders lead as well so just a couple questions and then I'll certainly open it up for additional comments I believe that um I believe that that provision is in the and Mr Walker's looked up I believe that provision is in the policy
that B has to promulgate the rule that the the statute pres confirm so it was not in the law no I think it's in the promation of the rules at best Mr Walker's checking did you have a second question for
me well was kind of all tied to those things so what I guess what is the purpose what is I mean are you hearing things that are that are different than I guess what some of us are hearing relative to the implementation of a poli no I mean I'm I'm only hearing well not only I'm mostly hearing positive um and
it was important for us to to try to provide as much flexibility as we could but at the same time You' be able to say it's state law um I've I've I've spoken with teenagers and have asked them you know are you using your phone they're like no and I'm like are you you're telling me the truth and no it's state
law so just being able to say that I think carries some additional weight even to the kids now I just want to say one thing love the law it's worked beautifully for us I I me we we use forth who I know
some of the districts do so we did pass an update back in September but it did not include everything because I think um this this bulletin was updated in January so we we're going to go I mean I have no problems with that in these things we're going to go back and add them but with my board schedule I can't
have it by the first I mean that's really just a logistical piece but I I guess and I send an email to that I'm going to turn into one we have I guess and then as we update this then I'll send the updated one I mean I don't know because I me everything's fine but that's just a logistical piece of getting it turned
into the LD so one I think Bessie when they pass this was probably probably August or October but I'm not sending the policy police to so around March 1 I was going to request
telecomunications funding if he doesn't so to answer your question um it is in section of as the PowerPoint says 11:41 um and it is the actually the last provision in the the Bessie policy and
that policy did become effective January 2025 so it is as we speak brand new so you probably wouldn't had a copy of but it does say March 1 so I guess that's what kind of threw some superintendent this but something like
wait what let's go back and and I'll just I'll be very open and honest we including as part of our code of conduct which is section kind of section it's not an actual policy procedure so with that beat the with that beat the same requirement we W to do nothing but work
with you on this okay thank you that's good um so I just want to call this to everyone's attention I'm sure you all you all deal with it um parents have to deal with it I know and I'm asking maybe that the state department can provide
some guidance around mental health with cell phones because some kids really are addicted to the phone they refuse to give up the phone they it's like it's a it's a part of their bodies now you know it's like they
it's like it's everything in life is on the phone and it's I believe like for some kids it's a real addiction is there something that you all can provide us or maybe help us provide some dience or some kind of uh framework around
assisting kids assisting families uh with this problem we will um we'll reach out to our partners at LDH um Louisiana Department of Health and see um if they've had they're the medical professionals and both from a social
scientist counseling and physical if they have any um resources or background on this and because I I don't have that resource but happy to have a conversation with LH about the other Council
comment public comment I'll entertain a motion for poos next meeting is on March 7th at 10:00 a.m. just we be move back to the morning um and can I entertain a motion to Barton all say hi have a great
morning thank you e e e e e e e e