1. Chief School Officers
January 2019 State Updates

2. Special Education Update
Chris Suriano (Assistant Commissioner for Special Education) reviewed the restructuring of the Office of Special Education (OSE) with the DS’s and the manner in which this affects the new RFP’s (for former RSE-TASC, SESIS, PBIS and ECDC)
The change in the Office of Special Education was designed to improve the ways that students with disabilities are supported and will be markedly different (SEQA and other regulatory bodies in particular).
The reorganization is a complete restructuring of the special education organization at SED. This will effect how they monitor and assist districts beginning immediately.
More to come when we get a new OSE organizational chart.

3. Substantial Equivalency
Training on Substantial Equivalency will be held in our region on a date to be determined.
Anyone who will be participating in the review process should participate in the training.

4. Curriculum and Instruction
Civic readiness initiative: A civic readiness task force has been working on defining civic readiness, creating criteria for a seal of civic readiness, exploring capstone projects, and exploring the concept of creating a designation for districts that provide exemplary programming.
An editable format Next Generation Leadership Standards roadmap has been posted so that districts may use it to record progress. The Road map can be found at pdf
New toolkits for professional development have been published on standards and the instructional cycle and on establishing a standards-based IEP. They can be found at iep.pdf
New high school science course maps are being developed and will be used to develop regents exams and course guidance. A timeline for new science assessments was also posted. They can be found at resources
High school guidance resources on multiple pathways and CDOS are also available. They can be found at implementation-resources-available

5. Teacher and Principal Evaluation
The bill that was proposed last year on APPR was passed by the Assembly §783 and Senate § The full text of the proposed legislation contained in the bill can be found here:
It has been signed by the Governor.
A summary of the Bills provisions is as follows:

6. NYS SENATE SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the bill would establish a new subdivision 16 of section 3012-d of the Education Law to make the use of state-created or administered tests optional instead of mandatory. This includes all state created or administered tests including the grades three through eight English language arts and mathematics state tests and the high school Regents examinations. Additionally, the Commissioner would be required to promulgate regulations for alternative assessments that may be used to determine a teacher or principal's evaluation in place of the state- created or administered tests. The selection and use of an assessment in a teacher or principal's evaluation must be subject to collective bargaining. Furthermore, this section allows school districts to keep their current APPR plans until a successor plan is negotiated and entered into, ensuring districts do not lose their state aid increases.
Section 2 of the bill modifies subdivision 4 of section 3012-d of the Education Law to eliminate the use of the state-provided growth model in a teacher or principal's evaluation. All teachers would be required to have a student learning objective (SLO) consistent with a goal-setting process determined or developed by the Commissioner as the first subcomponent for the student performance category.
Section 3 of the bill modifies subdivision 5 of section 3012-d of the Education Law to eliminate certain rules pertaining to state-created or administered tests used to determine a teacher or principal's overall rating.
Section 4 of the bill modifies subdivision 7 of section 3012-d of the Education Law to eliminate certain rules pertaining to state-created or administered tests used to determine a teacher or principal's overall rating.
Section 5 of the bill modifies subdivision 10 of section 3012-d of the Education Law to provide conforming language.
Section 6 of the bill makes permanent provisions prohibiting state-administered grades 3 through 8 standardized English language arts or mathematics assessments scores to be included on a student's permanent record.
Section 7 of the bill provides the effective date as immediately.

7. Professional Development (Learning) Plan Regulations
Amendments were made to the proposed regulation on Professional Learning Plans in response to the comments received. As a result, the proposed regulation is going back out for public comment this month for another 30 days.
The amendments added language to the CTLE component that would extend the number of hours that a mentor could receive for mentoring a first year teacher to 30 and for a student teacher to 25 (Currently 25 and 15 respectively).
The provision that disallowed receiving both a stipend from the college for supervising student teachers and CTLE hours was removed.
Changes were also made in the area of allowing some members of the professional development teams to not attend all meetings.

8. Substitute Teacher Regulations
After a significant amount of discussion at the BOR meeting the item on substitute teaching was not voted on.
The Commissioner indicated that this item will be held until more discussions are held with Board of Regents members.
There is a lack of understanding on the part of many members of the Board of Regents on how substitutes are hired and used in schools outside of NYC and the other Big 4.
The Commissioner indicated that if a district has an issue of health and safety because of the lack of a substitutethe DS should contact the Commissioner to talk about a potential solution.

9. Education Law 2D Regulations
The regulations on Education 2D are out for comment and the Commissioner urged everyone to review the regulations and provide comments. The power point and regulations can be found here
There are multiple that implications of these regulations for school districts and BOCES that Superintendents etc. have to understand.
The Commissioner asked that staff in the component districts read the regulations and respond to them. You can respond to the 2D regulations at and the notice of public comment can be found at
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10. 180 Day Calendar
Brian Cechnicki reviewed the changes to the spreadsheet and the website. You have all seen the model calendar as we piloted it from
He suggested that all districts should start using the spreadsheet as it may need to be submitted to SAMS starting this year.
If you have not already done so Please make sure that check calendars to ensure that they meet the requirements.
Superintendents will need to sign off that they are in compliance and that signing off on it knowing that you are not in compliance is a Part 83 offense