At a special Board Meeting today, the State Board of Education adopted emergency rules that allow school districts to apply for greater flexibility in awarding a diploma to high school seniors impacted by closures.

The Seattle Times had a nice Q&A with Ross Hunter, Secretary of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). Even the best of times, managing the child welfare system is a difficult and complicated job. Learn more about how DCYF is operating and investigating during this period of social distancing.

Schools have been directed to support child care service for certain families in need. This new responsibility is nuanced, complicated and has pushed systems into very new territory. AWSP has assembled an expert panel of state, regional, district and community partners with the intent to provide guidance, resources and advice.

Pensions, Health Care, SEBB, PEBB, Other… The legislative session has concluded, the Governor has acted, and now as the show goes on, districts have to adjust.

In this special edition of AWSP News, we discuss our daily updated website, our weekly Zoom Office Hours for open discussion, Q & A, virtual hugs and principal therapy, National Assistant Principals Week, a Zoom meeting about high school graduation, a webinar on child care, maintaining equitable systems for student-learning during the COVID shut down, and updates to the 2020 Resources page on the AWSL website.

OSPI is partnering with the public televisions across our state. Beginning this week, your local public television station is offering educational programming for students in grades 6 – 12 from 9:00am – 2:00pm daily.

With the closure of our brick and mortar school buildings due to the coronavirus, access to the internet is becoming a necessity for all students. However, statistics at the Federal Communications Commission suggest that one in three households has no broadband access. As this article from The Verge states, “living with the coronavirus is going to reveal hard truths about the digital divide.” State and federal efforts are underway to change this.

We are quickly approaching the release of the State Board of Education (SBE) draft rules around the waiver process and potential graduation credit adjustments. According to the SBE timeline the draft is to be released on Wednesday, April 1st with the comment period ending Friday, April 3rd. This is a very quick turnaround and we want to make sure our collective voice is heard around the draft rules.

Come join us for our virtual office hours. Every Friday, at least for the foreseeable future, we'll be hanging out in Zoom. We'll start by providing new updates, we'll answer questions, and then we'll turn it over to you to share stories, successes, challenges, and learn from each other. We hope to see you there.

A long gaze outside and the certainty that normalcy is not soon. AWSP learning centers suggest you take a walk to your backyard. Time to get comfortable with what you see and explore the great potential.

Message from Washington State Superintendent Chris Reykdal to educators, parents, students, & seniors.

The team at Jostens went through the Harbor library and pulled the best 9 episodes addressing social and emotional wellbeing that are applicable to middle and high school. They actually screened these with some upper elementary students and believe they are applicable for that age group as well.

In this unique edition of AWSP News, we discuss some of the impacts COVID-19 is having on AWSP, an opportunity to work on your professional learning, and what is NOT being cancelled.

Our KPA Executive board got together last night to reflect on what strong leadership looks like in a pandemic. In times of crisis, it is even more important to think reflectively about our practice and how we are using our systems intelligence, personal intelligence, and social intelligence as we navigate the contexts around us. Below are some “leadership moves” that you might consider as we move forward.

The State Legislature passed a new law (EHB 2965) supporting the state's response to the novel coronavirus. This law includes a provision (see Section 10) that allows the State Board of Education to grant an emergency waiver to local education agencies (e.g., school districts, etc.) and private schools.

In 2019, 16% of companies exclusively hired remote remote workers. In 2020, nobody could foresee the huge numbers of employees forced into working from home. Remote work has some clear benefits, but how do you adjust and adapt when your job is running a school full of adults and students? We’ve got more than just some bad puns for you. See if you can envision any of these tools or resources help bring your team together.

When the requirement for comprehensive school and district safety plans was first written into law nearly 20 years ago, the legislature had some very insightful comments on the need for such plans.

In this unique edition of AWSP News, we discuss some of the impacts COVID-19 is having on AWSP, an opportunity to work on your professional learning, and what is NOT being cancelled.

With the spread of the Coronavirus and the tremendous impact it’s having across our state, we know you have a ton of questions. First, what does the Coronavirus COVID-19 mean for AWSP? Just because all our districts are closing doesn’t mean all your troubles go away too. AWSP staff has always been a phone call or email away when you are in need, and this closure will not change our response time to you. Our office will continue to operate on your behalf. Some of us will continue to come into the office, some of us will be working from home, but all of us will still be available to serve you.

Sine Die occurred and the 66th Legislature has concluded. The last act is the Governor’s responses to the various legislative proposals that have delivered to his office. Once his ‘singing’ is done, attention will shift to the upcoming national and local election. There will be a more complete ‘End of Session’ summary to follow, but this is just an update on some selected bills.