Given the inability of the U.S. House of Representatives to move forward with either FY24 appropriations or a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded, it is looking more and more like a government shutdown is going to happen at the end of the day, September 30, 2023. While the exact effects on education are impossible to predict, we do know some things about what will happen if the U.S. Government shuts down. And the longer the shutdown lasts, the more significant the potential impacts on education and the U.S. economy. 

An increasing number of Afghan and Ukrainian families are entering U.S. school districts as immigrants and refugees. Integrating these newcomers poses unique challenges, among them the critical task of effective communication between the school and parents. Communication is a cornerstone for student success; however, language barriers often act as a stumbling block for meaningful interaction with parents from non-English speaking backgrounds. 

As our student body becomes increasingly diverse, there is no better time to take a proactive approach to parent communication, especially in their own languages.

TransACT ParentNotices, in collaboration with some states and districts, has translated its ESSA and General Education ParentNotices Collections into Dari, Pashto, and Ukrainian, the languages of recent refugee populations. The following ParentNotices Collections have been updated:

Published on June 16, 2023 and updated on November 9, 2023

How the Debt Ceiling Deal Could Impact Future Federal Education Funding

The U.S. Congress passed, and President Biden signed legislation to avoid defaulting on the U.S. government’s loans. Congress nearly failed to raise the debt limit, which is the amount of money the government can borrow. The U.S. actually reached the debt limit in March; however, the U.S. Treasury had been doing some fiscal juggling to avoid defaulting on the U.S. debt. If the U.S. were to have defaulted on its debt (not pay its bills), it could have had a devastating impact on both the U.S. and the world economy.

In this blog post, you will find everything related to TransACT's ParentNotices and our ESSA ParentNotices Collection. Find all of the monthly updates below:

It can be overwhelming for a homeless liaison to manage their workload without knowing which students are eligible for McKinney-Vento support.

The COVID-19 pandemic added to the challenges that homeless liaisons face on a daily basis. With students attending school irregularly, it became incrementally more difficult to provide them with the necessary services for which they were eligible.

In the webinar “Making a Positive Impact on McKinney-Vento Qualified Students” presented on May 4, TransACT's Phillip Smith was joined by Debbie DiAnni, McKinney-Vento Liaison for the School City of Hammond, and Heidi Reang, District Homeless Liaison with Oregon’s Tigard-Tualatin School District. Together they discussed practical approaches to meeting common challenges associated with tracking McKinney-Vento students and how they've successfully leveraged technology to overcome these challenges. 

When the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was signed into law on December 10, 2015, it included changes to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. One of those changes required every School District to appoint a District Homeless Liaison.  

What Is ESSER Funding? 

Published on December 22, 2022 and updated on May 8, 2024.

ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funding is the portion of funding from the three COVID-19 relief funding laws designated to help address educational issues arising from the pandemic.

As an education professional, we understand that you are committed to communicating effectively with your students and their families to support student success. Not only that, you’re aware of the legal obligations of presenting information in a language that all parents understand, including the parents of English learner (EL) students. After all, your goal is to build trust, share information, and show that you care about all students in your district  — regardless of which language they speak.

Educators and the news media pay a lot of attention to our current teacher shortage crisis. One of the oft-cited reasons relates to teacher pay. While not the entire solution, having teacher pay be commensurate with their education level would be a step in the right direction.