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Helping out our statehouse team with coverage of the Senate Education committee's meeting. Now discussing SB 51 to require the KS Dept. of Ed and the Dept. for Children and Families to compile a yearly report card for foster students in the state system #ksleg #ksed
The bill passed both chambers in 2020 but was vetoed by Gov. Kelly. Kelly later issued an EO requiring the same kind of report from the two state departments #ksleg #ksed
Now hearing from a Kansas Appleseed representative in support of the bill. Per the rep
-Fewer than 17% of foster children attend the same school as they did prior to their entry into the system
-Only 16% of foster care students who age out of system actually graduate #ksleg #ksed
-Fewer than 17% of foster children attend the same school as they did prior to their entry into the system
-Only 16% of foster care students who age out of system actually graduate #ksleg #ksed
Linda Kline, deputy director of permanency at @DCFKansas, says the department supports the effort to enshrine the report card requirement as law, rather than by executive order that could be rescinded easily by future governors. #ksleg #ksed
Kind of difficult to hear @tallman_mark of KASB, but the gist of what I heard him say was that the school board association also stands in favor of the bill. #ksleg #ksed
Committee members will get a copy of this last year's report card, which includes data on grade advancement, graduation, suspensions/expulsions, test scores, etc. #ksleg #ksed
Interesting question from the committee: what does a yearly report card actually say about foster students, especially ones who might be dealing with the worst years in their lives, and any associated academic declines?
A DCF rep says both DCF and KSDE are learning about what this reporting process would look like and what it would show. Might take a while to set a baseline of what might be "normal" data for foster kids.
That report would be due by Jan. 15 each year but would reflect data for the previous school year, in essence giving staff sevenish months to prepare it.
Moving on to additional action on a SB 61 - a bill that would expand a scholarship/school voucher program to more schools in KS. Committee just failed an amendment that would require KSDE to publish info on qualified schools receiving the scholarship dollars
Committee fails another amendment from Sen. Sykes that would have changed the definition of eligible students in the bill to include students receiving at-risk services #ksleg #ksed
New amendment to strike out language to make it so that the school voucher bill would only cover schools accredited by KSDE, not any other national/regional accrediting group. Most receiving funds are KSDE accredited, but a handful aren't #ksleg #ksed
KSDE does accredit some national/level organizations, but that does not mean that the schools accredited by those orgs are necessarily accredited by KSDE #ksleg #ksed
Amendment by Sen. Sykes fails. Sen. Pettey introduces amendemt to reduce the program cap from $10M to $5M and include a sunset after 5 years to review program performance. As I recall, the program comes nowhere near its $10M cap rn, but could get there w/ expansion
#ksleg #ksed
#ksleg #ksed
While the school voucher/scholarship program does not directly take away from public school funding, the tax credit program does reduce state tax revenue. Opps argue that could then easily turn into reductions for a K-12 system already battling for increased funding #ksleg #ksed
Amendment apparently failed. Now onto final action on SB 61.
*final action to move favorably out of committee
Bill passed favorably out of committee, with Sens. Pettey, Sykes and Dietrich opposed. Dietrich, a former USD 437 superintendent, broke w/ other Republicans to vote against the bill, which has been roundly criticized by public ed advocates. #ksleg #ksed
Probably should have posted this earlier in the thread, but here's a primer from me and @AndrewBahl about the school choice bill, what it would do, and why most public education advocates are against it #ksed #ksleg https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/state/2021/01/28/kansas-school-voucher-program-expansion-private-catholic-schools-choice/6673465002/
