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  • The NYS Board of Regents conducted their monthly meeting on Monday, April 11th, and Tuesday, April 12th. Chancellor Lester Young began the meeting with a moment of silence as a tribute to Regent Beverly Ouderkirk who passed away on March 23rd. Regent Ouderkirk joined the Board in 2015 and will be remembered for her ability to keep difficult discussions grounded toward staying focused on the best interests of children.

Chancellor Young also welcomed newly appointed Regent, Shino Tanikawa (NYC), to the Board.

  • The Board was updated on the 2022-2023 enacted NYS Budget which was recently passed by the legislature. Chief Financial Officer Phyllis Morris compared final budget allocations with the amounts originally proposed by the Board of Regents and highlighted areas that were fully funded and those areas that were not. Key items receiving increased funding included $125 million for Pre-Kindergarten expansion, and $100 million for Mental Health Grants.

Several Board members expressed frustration that the $2 million requested to sustain the NYS Summer School for the Arts was not approved.

A complete summary of the items included in the discussion can be found in the link below.

2022-2023 Enacted Budget Update

  • The Board was updated on progress with implementation of the Next Generation Learning Standards in ELA, Math and Science. NYSED staff reviewed the implementation timelines and presented a summary of instructional resources currently available to the field.

Representatives from several of the collaborative partners working on the project presented examples of work that has been done in each of the subject areas. Full implementation of the new standards is targeted for the 2022-2023 school year.

More specific information on the presentation is included in the link below.

Standards Implementation Update

  • NYSED Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs, Emily DeSantis, updated the Board on the progress of the Graduation Measures Initiative. Regional meetings to gather stakeholder feedback were recently completed, including a session with representatives from Higher Education and Business and a Student Forum which included approximately 130 participants.

Samples of questions that were used during the meetings were shared along with examples of how responses were collected and processed.

The next steps include a review and analysis of the feedback that was collected during the 30 regional meetings and the selection of the Blue Ribbon Committee, which is scheduled to begin their work in the Fall 2022.

More specific information can be found in the link below.

Graduation Measures Initiative Update

  • The Board discussed several proposed amendments related to more clearly defining the expectations for delivery of remote instruction during emergency conditions when schools are closed.
  1. NYSED is proposing to permanently adopt the snow day pilot which has been available to schools during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. The program allowed school districts to provide remote instruction on those days when schools were closed due to a weather emergency, and count the instructional day toward the required number of school days. Districts will still have the option of whether to participate in snow day remote instruction.

 

  1. To improve consistency with remote instruction, NYSED is proposing that School-wide Safety Plans be required to include detailed information for how remote instruction will be delivered. Plans will need to include:

 

  1. A Framework for how remote lessons will be taught.
  2. How districts will ensure the availability of computing devices and internet access to students.
  3. Provisions for students receiving special education services.
  4. The expectations for time spent in different remote modalities.

If approved, the amendment would go into effect for the 2023-2024 school year.

  1. NYSED also proposes to better clarify the term “remote instruction” so that the definition more specifically identifies the various ways remote instruction may be delivered. This amendment would also provide more clarity to the requirement that, in all cases, remote instruction includes substantive teacher-student interaction with an appropriately certified teacher.

It is anticipated that the proposed changes will be presented for final adoption at the July 2022 Board meeting after the expiration of the 60-day public comment period.

Specific details of the proposed amendments can be found in the link below.

Proposed Amendments

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