Well, it’s that time of the year again. Legislative session. April 10 will kick off the 2017 Regular Session and LAPCS will be at the Capitol. We expect much of the focus to continue to be on the State’s budget woes, but we certainly will track any legislation that will impact public schools, including the MFP resolution.
Charter School Week will be in May and more information will be coming to your email box soon. Our goal this year is to turn out someone from every single charter school in the state. We packed both the House and Senate Education Committees last session, providing effective and high impact testimony on a variety of bills. You may RSVP HERE for Louisiana Charter Schools Week at the Capitol.
BESE meets Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Their agenda includes a required report on the At-Risk students and students with disabilities percentages for charter schools across the state. LaCAN, a Special Education advocates organization have put out a call to action to their community calling for people to let BESE members know that they want action taken against charters not meeting the law. You can see that Report on School Performance here. LAPCS encourages you to message to your BESE member about your school and the work you’re doing to ensure that all students have access to your school and more importantly, have access to the programs they need. BESE email addresses are here.
Finally, you can expect lots more discussion on the LDE report for the House and Senate Education Committees on student fees. We anticipate based on the findings of that report BESE an/or the state legislature will ask all schools to adopt reasonable policies regarding student fees for classes, materials, extracurricular activities and school trips.
Caroline Roemer Executive Director