Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates in the District DC Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG) 2020-21 Deadline Extended: OSSE is extending the deadline for applicants to complete the DCTAG application and submit all supporting documentation from Thursday, July 23,2020 to Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. View guidance on OSSE's website.
The DCTAG application opened Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020 for the 2020-21 academic year, which includes the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters. Applicants must submit certain supporting documentation to prove domicile in the District of Columbia. A prior year Certified D-40 Tax Return from the DC Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) is a commonly used document to demonstrate domicile.
In response to coronavirus (COVID-19), Mayor Bowser and OTR extended the District of Columbia’s tax filing deadline from April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020. OSSE’s extension of the DCTAG application deadline to Sept. 7, 2020 will allow families taking advantage of the extended tax filing deadline to use the Certified D-40 Tax Return to demonstrate domicile for DCTAG. Also, DCTAG has been allowed to make an exception to accept non certified D-40 taxes for the 2020-21 school year only. For students who are planning to apply for DCTAG for the 2021-22 school year, the certified 2019 D-40 and the certified 2020 D-40 will be required.
For more information, please visit the DCTAG website.
OSSE Guidance: For access to all COVID-19-related published guidance from OSSE, please visit OSSE's website.
For resources and information about the District of Columbia Government’s coronavirus (COVID-19) response and recovery efforts, please visit coronavirus.dc.gov.
My School DC Post-Lottery Application Period is Open
Families can complete a post-lottery application with My School DC today if they seek a public school option (DCPS or charter) for the 2020-21 school year. This includes families who missed the lottery application deadlines, recently moved to the District, applied in the lottery and want to add schools to their children’s applications, or are waitlisted at all the options they applied to in the lottery. Completing a post-lottery application adds a child to a school’s waitlist below lottery applicants, unless they qualify for a lottery preference (e.g., sibling preference). More here. For a list of schools with short waitlists, visit the My School DC website, or begin a school search with the School Finder. The My School DC Hotline is available Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. to support families through the process: (202) 888-6336 or Info.Myschooldc@dc.gov.
School Finance Data Available on the DC School Report Card
I am excited to share an update to the DC School Report Card: All school and LEA pages on the report card now include per-pupil spending data from the 2018-19 school year. States are required to report these data under a new requirement in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). As you may remember, OSSE collected financial expenditure data from every LEA earlier this year.
Until this point, actual spending data for each public school in the District was not publicly available. Reporting school- and LEA-level spending is another step toward providing a more transparent, equitable District of Columbia education system, with students at the center of critical decision-making. We hope that these data will help you center discussions with your staff and school community about how you are currently allocating resources and how you plan to in the future.
We created a School Finance brochure to help you understand and explain these data. For those of you who want to conduct more in-depth analyses, a new school finance data file is available alongside the other report data files. We also published on our website each LEA’s centralized expenditure methodology template. This template explains how multi-site LEAs allocated their centralized expenditures to the school-level.
Summer 2020 Virtual PD Sessions for DC Educators
OSSE's Division of Teaching and Learning (TAL) is offering a robust Summer 2020 PD Series, all of which will be hosted through virtual platforms. Our summer series includes a diverse range of content topics, but a common theme of preparing educators to meet the needs of students this fall, whether that be inside the walls of a classroom, through distance learning, or a blended learning model.
Who Can Attend? Sessions are open to all educators serving in public and public charters schools in the District. Most courses will provide OSSE professional learning units (PLUs). Please reference the individual course descriptions for more details on PLU requirements, target audience, and session objectives.
How Do I Register? Beginning this summer, and moving forward into the fall, all OSSE TAL PD trainings will be advertised and open for registration within the OSSE Training Registration app in QuickBase. To view a list of all Summer 2020 PD sessions, please view the June 2020 TAL PD Bulletin. For questions, please contact the relevant member of the TAL PD Team.
OSSE School-Based Professional Learning Partnership Application
Research shows that ongoing job-embedded professional learning has the greatest impact on improving student outcomes. In order to support the District’s school communities in building professional learning systems, OSSE’s Division of Teaching and Learning (TAL) invites school-based leaders to apply for a year-long professional learning experience of up to five full days on a particular focal area. In this partnership:
School-based leaders apply for a professional learning series for their staff in a particular focal area.
The professional learning series will be scheduled to occur throughout the year, for up to five full days.
Sessions will take place in person at the school or virtually, as needed.
If selected, school-based leaders will:
Work with TAL to schedule sessions for the year;
Ensure staff participate in each session and complete survey evaluations;
Help collect observational data on implementation of learning objectives; and
Oversee staff applying new practices between professional learning sessions, with support from TAL.
LEA or school leadership approval is required to participate in the program. If a large number of applications is received, selections will be based on school need and TAL capacity. Apply by Thursday, July 2, 2020. For questions, contact Jenye Fletcher at Jenye.Fletcher@dc.gov.
Implementing the DC Early Learning Standards Training-of-Trainers Session
DC Child Care Connections (DC CCC) is offering a training-of-trainers session unpacking the newly updated DC Early Learning Standards (DC ELS). This in-depth, interactive training will describe the purpose and procedures for effectively introducing the DC ELS. It will also offer techniques and resources to support educators in implementing the DC ELS in their classrooms.
This is a six-hour training conducted via webinar. Upon completion of this training and assessment results showing at least 80 percent mastery of the training content, participants will be certified to train on the DC ELS and will receive a certificate. If the participant is a certified trainer through the Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s (OSSE) Trainer Approval Program (TAP), the DC ELS certification will be added to their TAP records on file as well as added to their entry in the Professional Development Information System (PDIS) trainer list. Webinar dates are below:
Option One
Modules One and Two: Monday, July 6, 2020, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Option Two
Module One: Thursday, July 9, 2020, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Module Two: Friday, July 10, 2020, 1-4 p.m.
Option Three
Module One: Monday, July 27, 2020, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Module Two: Thursday, July 30, 2020, 9 a.m.-12 p.m.
Registration for this training is by invitation only and limited to one trainer per DC Public School or DC Public Charter School campus. For more information or questions, please contact DC CCC at OSSE.DCchildcareconnections@dc.gov.
Reimagining Schools through Reopening: Instructional Planning Support Cohort Instruction Partners will be offering reopening and recovery instructional planning support to a cohort of interested school leaders in DC for the 2020-21 school year. The series “Reimagining Schools through Reopening” is divided into two parts: five summer sessions in July 2020 open to all DC school leaders, and an invite-only monthly professional learning community (PLC) during the 2020-21 school year to reconnect on learning and assess national learning trends anchored in leading through the pandemic. The intended audience is Chief Academic Officers (CAOs) or their equivalents leading academic programming at the LEA level. This support will most benefit LEAs who can participate consistently for the duration of the PLC cohort experience rather than for individual webinars or meetings. View additional details, including summer session descriptions and the PLC scope and sequence.
For LEAs that are interested but may have additional questions, Instruction Partners will be holding a 30-minute info session the week of July 6-10, 2020 (date TBD). To RSVP for the info session, please contact Annette Thacker-Bartlett at Annette.Thacker@dc.gov. Attendance at an info session is not required for participation in the series. The summer series will take place virtually on July 15, 17, 22, 24, and 29, from 10-11 a.m. on each day. Register
Listening, Learning and Leading Series: School Leaders Aspiring Together for a Strong Re-entry
The District of Columbia is looking ahead to a school year that will be unlike any we have experienced before. This will be a tremendous undertaking for school leaders, who are tasked with re-envisioning educational delivery models in a span of weeks while ensuring that the educational experience for all students is consistent across different settings and transitions between them are seamless. Recognizing that schools across the District have many common areas where problem solving is critical, OSSE will convene the Listening, Learning and Leading Series to provide a space for school leaders to share challenges, ideas, and potential solutions around school re-entry.
This series will take place in a virtual meeting format on each Tuesday in July 2020, 9-10 a.m. OSSE staff will act as the convener and facilitator of these sessions, but the primary focus will be on peer-to-peer sharing between school leaders, as we aspire together to have the strongest possible start to the new school year. The first session will take place on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, 9-10 a.m. and will focus on the question: “Which online learning tools provide schools with the most functionality in a hybrid learning environment?” Subsequent session topics will be determined based on participant interest and input.
To RSVP for any of the July sessions, please complete this online registration form,which also provides a space for participants to share additional topics of interest they are grappling with, and would like to discuss in future sessions. School leaders may invite relevant members of their leadership team to participate as well. For questions, please contact Annette Thacker-Bartlett at Annette.Thacker@dc.gov or Shavonne Gibson at Shavonne.Gibson@dc.gov.
Trauma Informed Responses to School Re-entry & School-Focused Consultation Sessions
OSSE, in collaboration with InSite Solutions, will host virtual trauma-informed care trainings tailored to school-based educators and staff. Given the impact of COVID-19 on the educational system, re-entry to school this fall is anticipated to be a challenge for many educators. This seminar will apply brain-based and trauma-informed principles and practices to inform the re-entry process for educators. Each school that participates in the training will receive an opportunity (subject to availability of hours) to complete a case consultation session with InSite Solutions. The consultation session is designed to support sustainability in competency areas around school-focused trauma-informed care. Register today for an upcoming three-hour session: Tuesday, July 7, Thursday, July 16, or Thursday, Aug. 13.
LEA English Learner Coordinator 2020-21 School Year Kickoff Series
OSSE is offering a virtual summer series that will provide guidance, strategies and tools for assessing and supporting English learner (EL) students’ needs following emergency remote learning in spring 2020. These actionable strategies and tools are grounded in recently released US Department of Education guidance, state policy, and OSSE’s foundational principles and vision for success for the District's EL students. They can be used to inform schools' plans to specifically address EL students' needs and growth. Each session will be interactive and solutions-oriented, with opportunities for participants to problem-solve and share their own practices and goals for supporting EL students' success in the coming school year.
New LEA English Learner Coordinator Orientation:Wednesday, July 15, 2-4 p.m.Register
Re-Entry to the 2020-21 School Year: Strategies and Tools for Supporting English Learners
Part 1: Value English Learners’ Cultural and Linguistic Backgrounds,Tuesday, July 21, 10-11:30 a.m.Register
Part 2: Partner with English Learners’ Families,Tuesday, July 28, 1-2:30 p.m.Register
Part 3: Provide Language Development and Academic Instruction Programs to English Learners,Wednesday, Aug. 5, 10-11:30 a.m.Register
Part 4: Use Multiple Data Sources to Support English Learner Students and Programs, Thursday, Aug. 13, 10-11:30 a.m.Register
Facilities Financing Available for Public Charter Schools
The Office of Public Charter School Financing and Support (OPCSFS) has funding available for the construction, renovation, expansion, and acquisition of public charter schools. Eligible projects can obtain up to a $2 million direct loan for a maximum five-year term. Beginning Wednesday, July 1, 2020, through the end of the calendar year, direct loans will be available at an interest rate of 1.00 percent for the term of the direct loan. Credit enhancements in the form of debt guarantees or lease guarantees are available up to $1 million.
For guidance on eligibility, process, and submission requirements for a direct loan or credit enhancement financing, please contact Darryl Brantley at Darryl.Brantley@dc.gov.
Funding Opportunity: CTE Certification Program Grant
OSSE is pleased to announce a funding opportunity for the Career and Technical Education (CTE) certification. The CTE Certification Program Grant is open to all public high schools located in the District of Columbia and to the University of the District of Columbia Community College (UDC-CC). The purpose of the CTE Certification Program is to (1) increase the number of students who earn industry certification within high-wage and high-demand fields, and (2) to provide employers with qualified District resident applicants as vacancies arise. Specifically, the funding supports District students who have participated in CTE priority programs of study but might not be able to take the associated exam because of financial hardship. The total available funding for this grant is $140,000. The period of performance for this grant Oct. 1, 2020 through Sept. 30, 2021. The CTE Certification Program Grant application will be released on Thursday, July 9, 2020.
Interested applicants must attend the virtual pre-application conference which will be held on Tuesday, June 30, 2020. Recommended attendees are the individuals responsible for completing the grant application and the individual who will be responsible for submitting reimbursement requests. Please note that absence from this conference will make an applicant ineligible. To attend, please RSVP via this link.Applicants should be prepared to submit a notice of intent to apply, along with their projected funding request by Monday, July 6, 2020. For more information or questions, please contact Simone García at (202) 727-4312 or Simone.Garcia@dc.gov.
OSSE will continue to update and redistribute these resources quarterly. If you have a question not addressed in these resources, please contact OSSE Communications at OSSE.Communications@dc.gov.
Subscribe to LEA Look Forward
To subscribe to OSSE's LEA Look Forward, please contact OSSE Communications at OSSE.Communications@dc.gov and provide your first name, last name, and email address.
