TransACT Blog

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) has released a new Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that pulls together information regarding the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and how that law relates to school safety. The FERPA FAQ guidance came not long after they released their 2018 Student Privacy Guidance.

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The National Council of State Title III Directors (soon re-branding to the National Association of English Learner Program Administrators) held a council meeting and professional development conference in Coronado Springs, Florida on March 6, 2019. NCSTIIID's professional development purposes include ensuring that members are knowledgeable of effective administration of national and state programs for the education of EL students and ensuring that members are knowledgeable of the laws governing the administration of language development programs.

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TransACT Communications ( transact.com) has partnered with RightLabs, Inc ( www.rightlabs.com), a leader in K-12 and collegiate online form and fees software. RightLabs has over 10 years of experience in developing online registration and parent engagement forms that enable parents to manage their students’ activities and also support the district in compliance, reporting, and streamlining processes. Working together, TransACT and RightLabs are proud to offer educators of all levels a single platform to securely manage forms, fees, and engagement with simplicity.

“Joining teams with TransACT allows us to reach more schools in the United States and bring more form functionality to our Canadian customers. We are thrilled for the opportunities that this partnership has already provided for existing customers, and are looking forward to taking on more projects to increase our service offerings to help more organizations and communities.” - Dave Bodnarchuk, Founder and President, RightLabs, Inc

"We are excited to welcome RightLabs to the TransACT family, and to be able to partner in providing customers with the industry-leading solution automating workflow across departments to deliver mobile-centric notifications and fee payment functionality to parents. Dave and the RightLabs team have been providing outstanding software services to schools for over 10 years, and we found a strong alignment between our respective missions and customers to provide educators at all levels of the education system with cost-effective software that supports streamlined, compliant parent engagement and reduces bureaucratic burden on education agencies. In our work together, TransACT and RightLabs clients will see increased capabilities within their products and a continued focus on exceptional consultative support and service.” - Alex Jarzebowicz, President & CEO, TransACT Communications, LLC.

RightLabs is the creator of ActivityRight, the all-in-one platform for mobile-friendly, cashless and compliant parent engagement. Watch this short video to see how easy we have made activity communications, fees, and payments for parents, teachers and district administrators.  Read More

In 2016 the Obama administration drafted ESSA Title I Supplement not Supplant regulations, which were later withdrawn just before the transition to the Trump administration. If the Obama era regulations had gone into effect and they were later rescinded by the Trump administration, according to the law that allows regulations to be rescinded, the Trump administration would have been prohibited from issuing new regulations on this topic. Now, two years later, USED has posted Supplement not Supplant Guidance for public comment .

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There are an increasing number of resources available that address the changes in education requirements for students in Foster Care made by the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). At the 2018 annual conference hosted by the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY), where for the past two years I have had the privilege of presenting, I focused my presentation on these changes.

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The National ESEA Conference (formerly the National Title I Conference) was held January 30 - February 2, 2019. The change to this conference having a more comprehensive approach to ESEA programs does not mean that presentations related to Title I programs are less important. The move was intended to promote more collaboration between Title I and other programs.

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English Learners are an integral population and a large focus of the National ESEA Conference (formerly the National Title I Conference), as they were before the conference was re-branded. While the comprehensive approach boasts content that serves more populations and Title Programs, there are still many presentations that focus on ELs. This includes my presentation, ESSA Title I EL Requirements for All Title I Funded Districts, Wednesday, Jan. 30th at 11:30am.

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The changing landscape of education that is the result of the re-authorization of ESEA as ESSA is a topic that will be widely covered at this year's National ESEA Conference (formerly National Title I Conference).

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There are increasingly more resources for administrators who make students experiencing homelessness a priority demographic for their schools and districts. At the National ESEA Conference in January, there were presentations with this focus as well.

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The U.S. Department of Education (USED) posted new guidance related to the ESSA requirements for English Learners (ELs) on its website yesterday (January 10, 2019). This guidance is essential as it provides clarity and puts explicitly into writing answers to some of the remaining questions surrounding the implementation of ESSA for educators.

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