On Thursday, June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or DACA. While this is a huge win for DACA recipients, it is still possible that the Trump administration could try again, using different legal arguments.

TransACT hosts as Carol Salva presents "Success for SLIFE!" A webinar that shares strategies and techniques for creating success with a a sub-population of ELs, S(L)IFE students, and offers techniques that allow for capitalization on promising trends for educating this already at-risk group of students. This webinar was recorded on Tuesday May 19th, at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET. 

COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus, has shuttered schools across the nation and forced the education of students to move to an online or distance learning methodology, endangering equitable access to educational programs for many students, especially English learners. This pandemic has caused disruptions in many areas, including meeting compliance requirements related to communicating with parents found in federal education laws, including the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

The onset of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused school closures across the nation. The response for many districts is a move to an online or distance learning environment, but the elimination of face-to-face interaction between teachers and students is creating new challenges in parent communications and exacerbating gaps in equitable access for all students, especially those that do not have access to laptops and those that are English Learners.

On April 15, 2019, TransACT published a letter to help states and districts communicate about the federal Public Charge Policy Final Rule. This letter about the changes to the Public Charge regulations is no longer needed because the Department of Justice has canceled those changes.

TransACT Communications, a leader in providing school districts and State Departments of Education with guidance and resources to support authentic family engagement in compliance with federal law, also provides resources for parent communication related to pertinent, urgent current events.  Our “Free Public Letters” are available to educators, regardless of their subscription status with TransACT^® ParentNotices. 

(Seattle, WA, February 21, 2020) TransACT Communications, LLC (“TransACT”), a leading SaaS provider of engagement, compliance and payment solutions for the education market, has received a strategic growth investment from the Polaris Growth Fund (“PGF”). PGF is a software-focused, specialized affiliate fund of Polaris Partners, a Boston-based private investment firm with two decades of technology investing experience.

This blog was published in 2020 but was updated on May 25th, 2023.

Parent engagement software is modernizing how administrators manage school-to-home communications while remaining compliant with federal and civil rights laws.

Rather than developing required notifications and forms individually and translating each one every time, there is an amendment or update, administrators can use parent engagement software systems to send out translated notifications and comply with federal requirements and civil rights laws.

TransACT® ParentNotices is a software subscription to pre-translated federally required (or recommended) parent notifications and online collections of multi-language parent-school communications. ParentNotices is aligned with federal requirements, supports teachers in creating an inclusive communication strategy for all students, and keeps schools prepared in the event of a monitoring visit. 

Just before the holidays, the US Congress passed, and Trump signed an appropriations bill into law that funds education for the 2020-2021 school year. The funding for education includes increases for many programs with a $1.3 Billion increase overall. School districts that receive Title I, Title III, or other federal education program funding will likely see an increase in per-pupil funding in the 20-21 school year. More information about funding levels for specific programs can be found in this Education Week article.

TransACT’s Parent Notices team looks forward to the National ESEA Conference every year. It gives us the opportunity to meet with and learn more about our current customers as well as stay up to date on the topics that are at the forefront for educators working in ESEA (ESSA) programs across the country. We’ve poured over the schedule and wanted to provide you with some presentations that we think would be worth checking out at the National Association of ESEA State Program Administrator's Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, February 4-7, 2020. 

In 2004, the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS) set out to create a framework for measurement and analysis in school district operations and to help district business leaders think strategically about how to improve processes, conserve resources, and positively impact student achievement while managing the school district budget. In conjunction with TransACT, CGCS founded the ActPoint® KPI Project. For more than a decade, districts nationwide piloted the KPIs, and results are compared annually.