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CBS News
02-07-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Michigan lawmakers miss July 1 deadline to pass state budget. How will it impact schools?
Michigan lawmakers missed their own legally mandated July 1 deadline to pass the state's budget for the next fiscal year. For many government departments, the delay is a pain, but there's a more pressing impact for schools. Districts across the state do not have a clear view of the funding coming from the Michigan government. Despite that uncertainty, budget and education experts said classes will begin as scheduled this fall, but certain programs could be on the chopping block. "It's a challenging situation for school districts," said Jason Helsen, the associate executive director of business and finance with the Michigan School Business Officials. Normally, state lawmakers can finalize their budget and get it to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk for her signature by their deadline, but that didn't happen this time around. "It's not unusual that the district would have to make some decisions about what they estimate the state funding might look like, but certainly feeling like we're not close to having a deal and we're sitting here on July 2 is pretty disappointing," Helsen said. Helsen noted the state budget isn't the only uncertainty for school districts. Federal funding, already allocated by Congress for things like before and after-school programs, money for English learners and funding for academic support, won't be released by the U.S. Department of Education, according to an announcement earlier this week. "We very well may see districts having to make some reductions in order to account for that loss of revenue," Helsen said. Doug Pratt with the Michigan Education Association said it's too early to tell what changes will need to be made in schools because of funding. "What we need to focus on right now is making sure that money that's available to help bring education funding in Michigan up, uh, to support student needs, doesn't get diverted elsewhere," he said. Pratt said he's hopeful lawmakers will be able to agree in the coming weeks. "Is there uncertainty? Sure. Are there opportunities ahead to get this finished? We believe with real negotiation in Lansing that can happen and happen quickly," he said.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Districts share positive signs after special education for young children shifted to schools
Schools in the state's initial cohort have identified more young students with needs and are working with parents and specialists to meet them. (Photo by Getty Images) Timothy Tweedie, superintendent and principal of the Veazie Community School, said he'd seen an uptick in students entering the kindergarten with unmet special education needs in recent years, and wanted to get a jump on addressing that. So last year, the school became part of the first cohort of districts to take over responsibility for providing special education services to preschoolers with disabilities, as the state began its process to implement that change broadly over the next four years. Tweedie shared his experience during a presentation to the Education Committee Wednesday about the changes with Child Development Services, the quasi-independent agency that in recent years was failing to meet many young students' special education needs. In response, the state passed a law last session shifting the responsibility of identifying and educating children between the ages of 3 and 5 away from CDS and to individual districts. 'Some of our earliest learners were not receiving the services that they really needed before they were school age, and so we're playing catch up with several students,' said Tweedie, whose district is among 17 now working with the Maine Department of Education to implement those changes. Students' progress in these district-run programs has exceeded expectations, said Debrajean Scheibel, the special education director at Veazie Community School. The 163-student school was anticipating three preschoolers with Individualized Education Programs, designed to meet the needs of special education students under federal law, but nine students eventually signed up. 'The most amazing thing for us is the parents of these early childhood children are so grateful that they are finally getting services,' Scheibel said. 'They don't wait a month, three months, or maybe a year.' 'They are getting the evaluations completed in a timely manner, and we have staff that can provide the services today.' Because of staffing challenges and other issues, CDS was struggling to meet its legal obligation to provide services for young students with disabilities before they entered school, creating an increasing number of kindergarteners with unmet needs. Many parents of young children were waiting on waitlists for months or years to get services, even after being identified by doctors as needing special education. The agency's system was 'problematic,' according to Sandy Flacke, deputy director for the Office of Special Services within the Maine Department of Education, which advocated to shift that role to districts. Families of young children say state failing to provide special education support The first cohort included districts from Aroostook to York counties, although none of the state's largest districts were part of the initial group. The department met with districts weekly to develop a plan to follow in collaboration with CDS, which still has some involvement, according to the update. The law gives the state until 2028 to transfer all responsibility to districts. In the meantime, CDS will keep filling in gaps as more districts roll out these services. According to Flacke as well as associate commissioner of public education Megan Welter, the first cohort has seen significant progress and the second, which is starting this year, will build on that with larger districts participating. At the start of the 2045-25 school year, there were 153 children with Individualized Education Programs across all 17 cohort districts, and according to the most recent count, that number is now 309. That means schools have identified more young students with needs and are working with parents and specialists to meet them. The department has developed a funding formula, established to cover 100% of costs at the state level, which has kept up with increasing enrollment. The department told lawmakers they've also established parental advisory committees to provide feedback on the shift so far, which will help with the addition of the next cohort and is offering technical support to districts. Scott Reuning, director of special services at MSAD 35, which serves Eliot and South Berwick, said even before joining the first cohort his district had a strong PreK program with staff experienced in offering special education services. Like Veazie, the district got more students than expected, with 55 current students and four more referred to PreK special education services. 'Once our parents got wind of the school district providing the services, the frustration that people had experienced before was removed, and so the referrals are coming more quickly. I didn't anticipate that,' he said. But the program is going well, and the results are evident, Reuning said. 'When I see a student with a significant disability walk into a building in September and not be able to function, and a month later they're making progress, that is nice to see, and especially at such a young age.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
NJ high school graduation rates rose in 2024, while absenteeism dipped
New Jersey's high school graduation rates ticked up a hair, and student behavior and participation in course offerings are trending upward — a cause for some optimism after years of impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic — according to data from the 2023-24 academic year released by the state Department of Education on Wednesday. But while high school graduation rates are on the rise, and the number of 11th and 12th graders meeting benchmarks in advanced college-level classes has increased, large gaps remain in these areas for low-income and other vulnerable student groups. A slideshow discussing discipline, absenteeism and graduation rates was well received and triggered few questions from the 13-member State Board of Education during a presentation by department presentation did not include test and assessment data, which, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national test conducted every two years, showed drops in reading proficiency among eighth graders to 38% from 42%. New Jersey ranks higher than other states, but its performance on the NAEP was "objectively lackluster," said Paula White of JerseyCan, a K-12 watchdog organization. New Jersey's four-year high school graduation rate last year was 91.3% — the highest rate since 2011, officials said. The five-year graduation rate was 92.6% and has stayed stable. These numbers are calculated under state guidelines, which include students with Individualized Education Programs who may graduate using requirements that are different from those of general education students. Federal guidelines require graduation calculations to omit students with IEPs. Four-year graduation rates for low-income and multilingual learners have steadily increased since 2011, reaching their highest in 2024, the state said. The four-year graduation rate among economically disadvantaged students in 2024 was 87.1%, up from 86.6% in 2023 and 85.4% the year before. Students whose native language is not English also showed strong growth — with a four-year graduation rate of 78.9% in 2024, up from 73.6% in 2023 and 71.9% in 2022. State officials said they were working to improve career-readiness programs in schools to give graduating seniors training in industry-specific areas, such as information technology, business administration and tourism, for entry into the job market right after school. These programs culminate with a student earning an Industry Valued Credential — a recognized degree, diploma, certificate or certification awarded for an occupation. The state offers 129 credentials in 13 career clusters. Interest in these programs has been on the rise, officials said — about 9,600 students received one or more credentials in 2024, up from 7,600 students the year before. The industry credentialing was the result of a 'close collaboration' with the state Department of Labor & Workforce Development and is 'based on where the industry is in New Jersey, so that students coming out of high schools are prepared to go into the workforce right out of high school,' said Kevin Dehmer, the state education commissioner. State news: Six-figure salary needed to buy a home in 30 states. This is how much you'll need in NJ More students took dual enrollment courses for college credit in 2024 than in 2023. The number went up to 26.9% from 24%, or 7,600 more students. Lower-income students had a much smaller participation rate, with 20.2% taking these courses in 2024. Interest in college-level classes — Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate — has remained consistent. New Jersey had the highest percentage nationwide of high schools offering five or more AP courses, at 86.9%, officials said. In the 2023-24 school year, more than 60% of schools had a chronic absenteeism rate higher than 10.6%, compared with 32% of schools in the 2018-19 school year, before the pandemic hit. Chronic absenteeism data refers to students who miss more than 10% of a 180-day school year. This year, the statewide average for the number of students who were chronically absent was 14.9%, compared with 16.7% last year, 18.1% the year before, and 10.6% in 2018-19. Chronic absenteeism spiked after the pandemic and still has not come back to pre-pandemic levels, both nationally and statewide. Superintendents were offered resources at the county level to help develop action plans to address absenteeism over 10%, officials said. The highest absenteeism rates were among homeless, disabled, foster and economically disadvantaged students. Discipline data showed that fewer students received suspensions last year, with the number of in-school suspensions increasing and out-of-school suspensions decreasing. One of the more challenging outcomes of the pandemic was an increase in disruptive behavior in classrooms, as teachers reported higher anxiety among students. This article originally appeared on NJ high school graduation rates rose in 2024, absenteeism dipped
