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

The good news is that K–12 got all the dollars they needed and more. The bad news is that April Fool’s Day ran long. Most of the policy and fiscal bills are moving to their respective Rules Committees where they may then move to floor action. Lurking in the background are the two proposed budgets with the fiscal leaders of both houses beginning to discuss compromise and agreement. Floor action, opposite house reaction, and debates are occurring to move bills out of the opposite house by their April 11th deadline. Budget negotiations are going on behind closed doors as adjournment will occur on April 25th.

On March 18, 2021, the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the Cispus Learning Center came together in the mountains of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to partner and build for the future. We believe knowledge is power and when you build emotion into a hands-on experience, it will stay with you forever. We hope to pass down the message that we are more than people, but also caretakers of the land.

I love the later sunsets, the blooming flowers (even though it brings out my husband's allergies), the birds in the morning, smell of fresh bark, and evenings on my deck. All of those signs of the changing season make me smile. However, April brings with it a new level of exhaustion for educators. Sprinkle in the constant changes due to the pandemic this year and well its a constant game of real life "FLOOR IS LAVA". I know you are fatigued and I want to recognize the FACT you are awesome.

Not too long ago, this School Safety blog for April was well underway. It was going to focus on two bills currently moving thru the legislature: ESHB 1214, which revises requirements around SROs and other school safety personnel, and SHB 1484 concerning the school mapping requirements. However, other issues arose and, although quite different, seemed to roll together. The issues which I am referring to are the reopening of schools, youth behavioral and mental health issues, and the reappearance of mass shootings. The links here will take you to excellent resources and various pages of the OSPI website.

It was a busy, busy week in the Legislature with committees having to pass policy bills out by today, Friday, March 26. Several bills were changed significantly by the opposite house, particularly SB 5044 – related to professional learning on topics of equity and cultural competency – and SB 5265, which creates a bridge year program for an additional year of high school. In addition to work on policy bills, both the Senate and the House released their operating, supplemental, capital, and transportation budgets. Next week will be busy as fiscal committees have to meet the deadline of Friday, April 2 to pass bills out of these committees.

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

Committees continued meeting primarily to move bills out of their respective committees while concurrently, the majority party in each house released their budget proposals as the week ended. The policy cut-off for bills was Friday, March 26th; the fiscal one will be the following Friday, April 2nd. Bills are stacking up for scheduling on floor calendars. Further activities will begin to focus on floor action, negotiations and compromises aiming toward an attempt to end on time on April 25th.

We reached the one-year anniversary of school closures to in-person learning this past week, and work continues to get all school buildings open once again. The ever-changing requirements and guidance for our schools keeps coming, among them being Governor Inslee’s announcement last Friday that requires all school districts to provide all K–12 students with the opportunity to receive at least two days per week of in-person learning no later than April 19. OSPI published a Q&A document that you may find helpful.

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

Public hearing and Executive Sessions continued this week as legislators dealt with various bills received from the opposite chamber. In fact, it appears that committees have sped up bills passing from Executive Sessions. This pattern will continue until the deadlines come and go for bills to have cleared policy (March 26th) and fiscal (April 2nd) committees.

After this Tuesday’s bill cutoff, the surviving bills switched houses and the committee hearing process started up again. This week and next week’s schedule of bill hearings are listed below. Work on the supplemental, operating, and capital budgets continues. The state’s budget outlook seems to look better each month and a third round of federal funding is on its way. But our work for stable education funding is far from over. The next major revenue forecast will be released at the March 17th meeting of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council and the Senate and the House will release their budgets shortly thereafter. Our job is to keep telling our stories about what financial support we need from the state to educate each and every student safely.

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

Invasive what? At first, it seems like just a cool new pet or fun hobby accessory to add to the house. But sometimes exotic pets or pet accessories that are native to other countries can be destructive here in Washington state. For instance, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a notice this week about invasive zebra mussels that are not native to Washington but are hitching a ride on "Betta Buddy" brand moss balls that people frequently use in aquariums. The moss balls and accompanying zebra mussels become a problem when aquarium owners dump out their tank water and the zebra mussels go down the drain with it and into our environment.

This second half of session is just a repeat of the first half except each house is hearing the bills that passed the opposing chamber. And the process starts with committee hearings and as Milton Berle once said, “a committee is a group that keeps minutes and loses hours.”

As we approach the final quarter of this historic and challenging school year, principals across Washington are navigating remote, hybrid, and modified in-person learning environments for students, educators, and families. We've helped assemble a panel of principals to join the League of Education Voters for one of their lunchtime "LEVinars."

This week was all about floor action in both the House and the Senate. Listening to the discussion among legislators as they discuss bills and potential amendments - even on Zoom - can be very insightful. Legislators are working hard to get bills passed by their next deadline of March 9th when they have to be passed out of each house to stay alive.

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

Debates and voting also known as ‘Floor’ action have continued throughout the week. The pattern seems to be that for every three or four bills a chamber passes with bipartisan support, they then debate for hours on a controversial bill which ends with a partisan vote (28/21 or 57/41).

In this edition of AWSP News, we discuss state testing, addressing the mental health needs of your students, staff and community, some virtual “Retirement Readiness” seminars from our friends at Veba, a new OSPI sponsored statewide survey for students in grades 6-12, two new statewide networks for rural principals, a budget request of $10 Million to send up to 20,000 students to Outdoor School, the difficult yet necessary decision not to hold our 2021 in-person summer programs on our campuses, our US Senate Youth Program Washington winners, and a chance to serve a two-year term on the AWSL Student Voice & Advisory Council.