Congress
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed House Resolution 748, the CARES Act, that President Donald Trump is expected to sign into law. The legislation contains several education-related items, including:
- $13.5 billion for elementary and secondary education, received through formula grants to states, at least 90% of which must support local educational agencies’ coronavirus-response activities. Funds will be distributed to states using the Every Student Succeeds Act Title II-A formula.
- $3 billion to governors in each state to allocate at their discretion for emergency support grants to local educational agencies that the state educational agency identifies as most significantly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
New law
Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law House Bill 197 in response to the COVID-19 public health crisis. The bill contains several education-related issues, including a freeze to EdChoice eligibility at the 2019-2020 eligibility list; moving the March 17 primary election date to April 28; waiving state testing for the 2019-2020 school year; authorizing boards of education to use electronic communication for in-person meetings; and providing local flexibility for graduation requirements, teacher evaluations and more. Click here for a synopsis of the bill.
Ohio Department of Education
The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) released updated information to help districts continue to serve students with disabilities, school nutrition programs and the third-grade-reading guarantee. Click here to view additional information released by ODE.
Posted by Nicole Piscitani on 3/27/2020