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The Ohio Attendance Taskforce announced its recommendations to improve school attendance and reduce chronic absence. These recommendations are intended to help schools and districts implement effective prevention and early intervention strategies to improve attendance and decrease chronic absenteeism. Chronic absence is defined in Ohio as a student missing 10% or more of school hours. In the 2022-2023 school year, Ohio’s chronic absence rate was 26.8%, meaning more than 615,000 students in the state were chronically absent. To read the taskforce recommendations, please visit …

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House Bill 33 of the 135th General Assembly included several legislative changes impacting the Ohio Department of Education and State Board of Education. During the first week in October, the Department of Education will be renamed the Department of Education and Workforce and will become a cabinet-level agency reporting to the Governor of Ohio. Further, the legislation created a new agency, the Department of Children and Youth, to provide services more efficiently to children and their families in the areas of prevention, early education and support.
 
The current powers and…

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House Bill 33 of the 135th General Assembly included several legislative changes to the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. Information about the most significant changes to the Third Grade Reading Guarantee is available below. 

PROMOTION OF 2022-2023 SCHOOL YEAR THIRD GRADE STUDENTS

Under House Bill 33 of the 135th General Assembly, any district, community school, STEM school or chartered nonpublic school that would have retained students who did not meet the promotion score on Ohio’s State Test for grade 3 English language arts during…

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In April, Ohio and the nation will celebrate the Month of the Military Child, a time to recognize the sacrifices that military service members and their families make for the security and safety of the nation. Click the link above to access information on the provisions granted to military children and their families by The Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children and for resources on how districts might celebrate their military families…

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The Ohio Department of Education, Ohio School Safety Center and Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services collaborated to develop Ohio’s Comprehensive School Safety Framework using Ohio’s Whole Child Framework as a guide for the collaborative approach.

The school safety framework outlines recommended strategies for schools and considers programs and initiatives that schools already have in place.…

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The Consortium of State School Boards Associations (COSSBA) is very excited to announce that…

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Family literacy can look very different from one household to another. There is no “right” way for families to embrace literacy practices such as reading, writing, speaking, singing, and listening. Family literacy has moved beyond filling out reading logs and setting the timer for 20 minutes. Instead, practicing the principles of literacy can include:

  • Playing a word game like Scrabble
  • Listening to a favorite musical artist and singing along
  • Visiting a museum and talking about the best parts of the exhibit
  • Telling favorite family memories while others…
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Francesca Gino, Maryam Kouchaki and Tiziana Casciaro recently wrote in the Harvard Business Review that networking is a necessity and a mountain of research shows that professional networks lead to among other things: broader and deeper knowledge, improved capacity to innovate, improved work quality and increased job satisfaction.

As we work to network with community members and district personnel, here are 8 essential ingredients that Fullan and Rincon-Gallardo assert as necessary for effective networks and collaboration.

  1. Develop high-trust relationships
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The Ohio Department of Education will open nominations for the Recognizing Inspirational School Employees (RISE) Award Sept. 1. The RISE Award honors classified school employees who provide exemplary service to their schools, students, colleagues and communities. The Ohio Department of Education will accept nominations for the award Sept. 1-30. Congress created the award in 2019 and the U.S. Department of Education oversees the program.

Find out more about this award and previous Ohio awardees…

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September is Attendance Awareness Month, which is a nationwide recognition of the connection between regular school attendance and academic achievement. This month recognizes the importance of mobilizing schools, partners and communities to promote regular attendance by developing tiered strategies and personalized interventions to reduce chronic absence. 
 
Many Ohio K-12 students continue to face barriers that result in chronic absenteeism. The start of the academic year presents an opportunity for districts and schools to support the needs of their students…