AWSP Blog

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.