Dear Superintendents,
There are a few updates and several memos this week as we all prepare and meet the challenges of the 2021-22 school year. I ask that you preview the memos prior to the public release on Monday and distribute them to the intended audience, e.g. CTE teacher orientation goes to teachers, principals, and CTE coordinators.
- Safe To Tell Wyoming released data for the 2020-21 schoolyear. Over 1200 reports were made during the school year with suicide threats at the top.
- The American Camp Association shares their lessons learned from hosting kids at summer camp in a blogpost 5 Things Camp Professionals Want to Tell School Administrators about Our Kids Right Now, drawing on lessons camps learned through Summer 2021 that may be helpful to educators this fall.
- Learning Heroes launched and released Team Up for Success along with National PTA and Univision. It is an ongoing series of parent communications highlighting free research-based tools and resources throughout the year.
Finally, the U.S. Senate approved a major bipartisan infrastructure package by a vote of 69-30 this week. The legislation approved does not have a strong focus on K-12 education but there are a number of education-related provisions included that I’ll be keeping my eye on (especially broadband):
- $500 million to support energy-efficiency improvements and renewable energy improvements at public school facilities;
- $500 million to support increasing transportation energy efficiency for school buses and mass transit, in addition to other vehicles;
- $200 million to support voluntary testing or compliance monitoring for and remediation of lead contamination in drinking water at schools and child care programs;
- $5 billion (FY22-FY26) to support a Clean School Bus Program;
- $42.45 billion to establish a Broadband Access, Equity and Deployment program (not education-specific, but major implications for K-12 students and families).
Memos to be released today:
