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Dear Colleagues:
In what has become an all-too-common occurrence, Kentucky once again experienced severe weather last week with the storms that moved across the Commonwealth last Friday.
Many of you either called off school on Friday or declared it a non-traditional instruction day due to the exceptionally high wind gusts that we experienced. I know making those types of decisions can be difficult and sometimes opens you up to criticism. I just want to thank you for everything you do for your students and the dedication you have to making choices in the best interest of your students.
There are several school districts still closed this morning due to storm damage or lack of power, including those in Fayette and Jefferson County. Please know that we are here to work with you as recovery gets underway.
In a 1 p.m. call Monday with Kentucky Emergency Management (KYEM), they reported they had not received any official reports of damage. This is why it is important to follow the instructions you received in an email from the department on Sunday. The Kentucky Department of Education has been asked by KYEM to provide the following information and guidance relative to the storms of Friday, March 3, 2023:
- Districts should assess all damages (including an estimate of associated costs) and report the information to their county’s emergency management director. The county director will submit the damages to KYEM.
- Districts are encouraged to maintain detailed records regarding any and all expenses associated with damages, employee response efforts, debris removal, temporary repairs and permanent repairs.
- Districts should locate applicable insurance policies for FEMA inspection.
- Districts may have sustained damages to facilities not normally covered by insurance such as ball field, fences, etc. Those also need to be reported.
- Maintain contact with the county emergency management director for awareness of FEMA activities.
- Districts needing specific guidance can contact KYEM at help@ky-em.org.
Kind regards,
Jason E. Glass, Ed.D.
Commissioner and Chief Learner
Severe Weather and ACT Testing
With widespread wind damage, large hail and flash flooding over the weekend, severe weather has once again touched the state. The Kentucky Department of Education and ACT recognize the severe weather may have impacted schools and students negatively. As such, some schools may need to adjust the previously scheduled ACT test dates.
With online testing, schools can quickly alter their testing dates in just a few steps. In today’s Monday DAC Email, district assessment coordinators (DACs) will receive specific instructions to make any needed changes. Schools not impacted can continue as scheduled.
For more information or questions, please contact Shara Savage.
Applications Being Accepted for Developing a High-Quality Local Science Curriculum Pilot
According to research, schools that demonstrate increased curricular coherence also show marked improvements in student outcomes (Newmann, Smith, Allensworth and Bryk, 2001). The first step in creating curricular coherence is to translate the standards into a local curriculum anchored in high-quality instructional resources (HQIRs).
While the Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS) establish what students must know and be able to do, the district is responsible for developing a curriculum that addresses how learning experiences are to be designed and for selecting the HQIRs that will assist student learning.
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is seeking the participation of up to nine districts and 27 schools, representative of eight regional cooperatives, to implement the Curriculum Development Process as they develop their local science curriculum. This would account for the participation of 2-3 schools per district. This will be a two-year pilot that will begin in the fall of 2023 and end in the summer of 2025.
The pilot will focus on supporting local implementation of the four phases of the Curriculum Development Process outlined in the Kentucky Model Curriculum Framework. Detailed information for each year of the pilot is below.
The application process will consist of answering a few questions and uploading artifacts. The application will be open through April 28, 2023. Districts and schools will be notified of acceptance on or around May 15.
More information including application instructions is available in the Developing a High-Quality Local Curriculum Pilot Application document.
For more information, email KDE professional learning coordinators Misty Higgins or Fox DeMoisey.
Highlights from the 2022 Counselor and School-Based Mental Health Provider Report
KRS 158.4416, (3)(e) requires that school counselor and school-based mental health providers’ use of time, activities, position held, funding, placement in the district and certification held be reported annually by superintendents. The following includes the 2022 highlights from the statewide reports that were submitted from 100% of Kentucky’s districts.
School Counselor Use of Time Highlights:
- 73% of funding for school counselors comes from local resources, with 16% coming from state funds.
- 72% of school counselor activities served in “appropriate” ways, with 28% of time spent on “inappropriate” activities.
- The most reported “inappropriate” activities school counselors have include building a master schedule, chairing special education and 504 meetings, supervising common areas, maintaining records and serving as the building assessment coordinator.
Kentucky’s recommendations on the percentage of time counselors should be using for “direct” student services – based upon KRS 158.4416 – is 60%. Only 49% of time was reported by school counselors in direct services for students, including large group instruction, small group and individual counseling. The remainder of the school counselors’ time is spent on “indirect” services, which includes meetings held on behalf of students, and “other” services such as data analysis, program planning or school functioning tasks.
Anecdotally, student feedback indicated access to school counselors is minimal. Many students are waiting weeks to months before seeing a school counselor. Students have recommended school counselors being assigned roles that would allow them to have more direct services to see students individually, within a small group or large group.
In addition to the student feedback, the School Security Marshal Report showed a school counselor is employed in 93% of Kentucky schools, with 56% of the counselors not being able to meet the Kentucky recommended student to counselor ratio of 1:250. Currently, the average ratio is 1 school counselor to 348 students.
Next steps:
- Consider allocations for school counselors and school-based mental health providers to allow student access to these professionals.
- Examine the role of the school counselor and the assigned tasks to determine their time with students versus time spent on “inappropriate” tasks based on collaborative conversations between school counselors and stakeholders.
- Consider supports the district may need in order to continue growth toward meeting student needs based on school counselor recommendations from Kentucky.
School-Based Mental Health Provider Use of Time Highlights:
School-based mental health providers include school psychologists, school-based mental health therapists and social workers. Most of the survey participants selected Other Qualified Mental Health Providers, indicating they had a degree or certification in counseling, psychology or social work.
School-based mental health service providers may serve one or many schools, depending on the number of students within a school building and the district’s resources. In this survey, 65% of school-based mental health service providers reported that they spent their time at one building and 35% worked with multiple sites.
For the tasks assigned to the mental health providers, this report found:
- 31% of their time is spent in direct services by individually counseling students, with 14% of time spent consulting with stakeholders for student needs at all building levels as an indirect service.
- Minimal time (between 2% and 8%) was spent on other tasks, including assisting in crisis situations, creating behavior intervention plans, collaborating with school counselors, coordinating small group counseling, referral to resources for families, teaching large group classes and training families and/or staff.
- School social workers and psychologists spent more time consulting on behalf of students, whereas “other qualified school-based mental health providers” spent the most time individually counseling students.
- School social workers spent more time than the other providers referring resources to families and school psychologists spent more time serving on school-based teams than other providers.
Next steps:
- Examine the role of the school-based mental health providers, including state and national recommendations for their ratio of provider to students and appropriate activities they are assigned daily.
- Determine if the collaboration between the school-based mental health providers and school counselors enhances services for all students, including access to the school-based mental providers for students.
- Consider if the training and funding matches the role of the school-based mental health provider.
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