The United States Senate Youth Program (USSYP) announces that high school students Ms. Ailani Savannah Baldwin and Ms. Khanh Le Doan will join Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell in representing Washington during the 59th annual USSYP Washington Week, to be held March 14 — 17, 2021. Ailani Baldwin of Vancouver and Khanh Doan of Everett were selected from among the state’s top student leaders to be part of the 104 national student delegation who will each also receive a $10,000 college scholarship for undergraduate study. Due to the pandemic, the 2021 program will break ground as the first-ever fully virtual Washington Week, and is designed to be a highly interactive and exciting education and leadership forum for the nation’s most outstanding student leaders.

The focus was definitely on fiscal committees this week as legislators work to meet the next significant cut-off date of this legislative session on Monday, February 22. By the end of that day, bills need to be passed out of the House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees in each house of origin. Some of these committees will meet on Saturday to continue this work.

Weekly special education and Section 504 resources from Abby Bowers, Capital Region ESD 113's Director of Special Programs.

The deadline for policy bills has come and gone, and the deadline for fiscal bills is imminent. Both Houses will now focus on ‘floor’ action, or in this case ‘zoom’ action. Simply stated, at this point, bills will have either been moved out of the policy and fiscal by end of day, Feb. 22nd, moved out of the respective Rules Committee, placed on the floor calendar awaiting action, passed by the bodies, and sent to the opposite house by the March 9th or they are ‘dead’. The cycle then repeats in the opposite chamber.

In this edition of AWSP News, we discuss how much we love and appreciate you, some incredible professional learning opportunities, connecting with your own principal network, our Turn Up the Volume on Student Voice virtual series, a two-year term on the AWSL Student Voice & Advisory Council, AWSL's dynamic bilingual (English-Spanish) program, La Chispa, the 2021-22 Intern Grant Application, and a thank you to all of you who’ve donated to our Cispus Forever campaign.

Many working families with school-age children experienced an increased need for childcare during remote learning. This is especially true for essential workers. Our state depends on childcare and youth development programs so that its workforce can meet the needs of Washingtonians during these challenging times and help keep our economy afloat. The difficult decisions districts had to make about return-to-school schedules have a direct effect on local childcare and youth development programs. During COVID 19, childcare and youth development programs across the state adapted to accommodate children who would typically be in school in person. They changed schedules, purchased special equipment for remote learning, and took on new health and safety practices to support students and families amid a pandemic.

We’ve had a great advocacy week thanks to so many of our AWSP members reaching out to meet with their legislators. I have enjoyed the Zoom meetings and email exchanges as principals have been getting prepped for these important conversations and I’ve been able to Zoom into several regional meetings to share a legislative update. Our voice is always needed across the state to help those creating policy ensure that the right decisions are being made for students. If you have specific questions or want to get involved with advocacy, let me know.

Weekly special education and Section 504 resources from Abby Bowers, Capital Region ESD 113's Director of Special Programs.

“What campaigns are for is weeding out the people who, for one way or another, weren’t making it for the long haul.” ~ Calvin Trilling. Substitute the word “bills” for “people” and the current legislative process is summarized. As cut-offs happen, bills ‘die’ (with the caveat that any bill can be resurrected at the legislature’s will). They don’t make it for the long haul. Lobbying, (campaigning) is the primary vehicle for either ‘killing’ a bill or keeping it alive. That is why contact with legislators throughout the session is so critical.

Each week of this session has brought a slew of new bills, ideas, and conversation related to education funding and policy. In addition, there is an incredible amount of new information each week related to health and safety practices for reopening schools released by OSPI, the Department of Health, and the Governor’s Office. Hang in there and know that you are not alone with this onslaught of information. Reach out if you have questions or need clarification on anything.

Legislators propose policies and budget dollars. Sessions, also, often focus on main themes. This year’s focus issues are Budget, Covid–19, Equity (Racial and Police-related) and Climate issues. “Education” is woven throughout most of these, and often acts in one area have consequences in another. Thus, it’s tricky.

Weekly special education and Section 504 resources from Abby Bowers, Capital Region ESD 113's Director of Special Programs.

2020 was rough. Pretty sure I’m pointing out the obvious, but it feels good to acknowledge out loud and quite publicly that it was a tough year. What makes a year like 2020 even harder is when we find ourselves in leadership positions. As leaders, we are called to be strong, resilient, stoic, positive, and hopeful through all the peaks and valleys of leadership. During my time as a principal, I quickly learned that my physical, emotional, and spiritual health took a backseat to everyone else. I spent most of my days (and nights) monitoring, nurturing, and encouraging all those within my purview. I had no idea about the amount of mental health counseling I would be doing as a principal on a daily basis. Despite a super long learning curve about human behavior, I did quickly become an expert at internalizing all of my emotions, struggles, stresses, and anxiety in order to attempt to be a smiling, joyful, and positive face for everyone else. Well, guess what? That’s not healthy and is not realistic.

The first of five in the “P” series, this video targets one of the biggest barriers to inclusive education - mindset. This video will encourage you to reflect on your own assumptions about disability and start to take action to disrupt the ableist structures in education by taking a very important first step... presuming competence in all students.

Teachers and principals were happy to hear from Cispus, AWSL, and AWSP the last couple weeks. Our team delivered adventure backpacks to the teachers and principals pictured above: Dan Garry, teacher at Washington Elementary; Kira Duncan, teacher, and Shannon Richards, principal, at Oakville Elementary; and Amy Dunnagan, principal at Mossyrock Elementary. Other recipients include Wade Iseminger, teacher in Ocosta SD, and Todd Graves, principal in Ridgefield SD.

In this episode of AWSP News, we discuss some terrific professional development from world class inclusionary practices experts, tons of great free classes and resources for you to check out our Learning Management System, AWSL’s “I Am, We Are” Martin Luther King Day assembly, our Advocacy efforts and our Legislative Update newsletter, the 2021-22 Intern Grant Application, and a new collaborative workshop, “Turn Up The Volume On Student Voice.”

Week three of the legislative session ended today. We saw some of the first floor action this week with several critical bills passing the House and Senate floors. Both houses promised these “early action” bills. One of them is HB 1121, which is the graduation waiver bill. The other is SB 5044 which would add equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism to existing cultural competency standards and training for school board directors, district staff, and school staff on one of three state funded professional days.

Remember COVID? It is obviously not over yet. The depth, breadth, and duration of the pandemic is something that we had not experienced before. Now, there are hopeful signs among the dire statistics, and more and more schools will be reopening over the coming days, weeks and months. 2020 was a traumatic, tumultuous year. 2021 began that way, as well. There has been a lot of turmoil across the country. The January 6, 2021 saw a violent breach of the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. The National Terrorism Advisory System has noted increased and ongoing threats of violence across the country.

In 1866, The United States Congress enacted six segregated regiments which became four all-black regiment. They managed the western frontier after the Civil War. The four regiments were The 9th and 10th Calvary and the 24th and 25thInfantry. They were named “Buffalo Soldiers."

Weekly special education and Section 504 resources from Abby Bowers, Capital Region ESD 113's Director of Special Programs.