National Charter Schools Week, May 4-10, celebrates our nation's attention on charter schools successfully closing the achievement gap for all students. The Charter Schools Program and the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools encourages charter schools and their families to celebrate their accomplishments and share their achievements during this special week.
The Center for Education Reform's Charter Connection provides some great ideas to kick-off the week and fun activities to plan. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has put together a toolkit and a variety of visual promotional elements to help begin planning for this national event. The National Alliance is also encouraging all charter schools to participate in an exciting video campaign. Videotape a special event at your school and post this on YouTube. Make sure you use the "charter school" and "charter schools" tag so your video is found in search results.
Need help? As a member of OAPCS, we would be delighted to assist your school in the taping of an event or regular interaction with students*. Videos are great promotional pieces, not just during National Charter Schools Week, but all year to open the eyes of the public to what charter schools are all about. Contact Kelly Woodard-Doty to check availability and to receive further details.
*OAPCS reserves the right to use video content in its own promotional pieces.
In our last edition of Insight Online, we asked you to test your knowledge of charter law. How did you do? Test your charter law knowledge: Based on the law description, are charter schools exempt or not exempt?
1. Requirements related to the provision of life, health, accident and legal insurance benefits for school district employees Exempt
2. Check writing and deposit requirements related to school treasures Exempt
3. Requirements on retention of school records and establishing a records commission Exempt
Did you pass the test? If you did, great job! If not, as a member of OAPCS, you will have access to the recorded Charter Law 101 Webinar that will be posted to the member-only section of our Web site.
Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools Fifth Third Center 21 E. State Street, Suite 940 Columbus, Ohio 43215 Office: (614) 744-2266 Fax: (614) 744-2255 www.oapcs.org
Heads Up To School Leaders: U.S. Department of Education Seeks Input on New FERPA Rules
New Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations have been proposed by the U.S. Department of Education to implement the USA Patriot Act and the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, and as a result of two 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decisions (Owasso Independent School District v. Falvo and Gonzaga University v. Doe).
Diverse events and circumstances such as the USA Patriot Act, concerns about terrorists and immigration, the carnage at West Virginia Tech, and valued-added testing have led to recommendations for changes to FERPA by the current secretary of education, recommendations that will impact schools and families at the pre-collegiate and collegiate levels with the possible weakening of FERPA's privacy protections.
The Federal Register is the federal vehicle for communicating about federal legislation and federal rule making. In the March 24th 2008 edition there was a request for comments about the education secretary's FERPA recommendations which have to be responded to by May 8th, 2008. These recommendation may or may not affect things such as access to students' SSNs, student ID numbers, directories, student and faculty emails, student passwords into school systems, student records (or what constitutes "student records"), what constitutes legitimate "educational interests," etc.
This is the kind of regulatory change that can easily be missed and that school leaders will want to know about for two essential reasons:
1. The link provides an opportunity for comment. This is your opportunity to impact federal decision making with regards to this important set of privacy issues relative to your school, your families and your students. 2. As school leaders, you want to be informed about these potential changes so that you can explain to your parents, teachers, staff and Board members what's at stake and ultimately what may change. The proposed regulations purportedly respond to changes in information technology and address other issues identified through the Department of Education's experience administering FERPA, including the need to clarify how post-secondary institutions may share information with parents and others in light of the tragic events at Virginia Tech in 2007.
