Category: Newsroom Articles

Online Bullying Reporting Program Available to Maine’s Schools Through Optania

Optania has created an online bullying reporting program that is aligned with Maine DOE’s model bullying policy and procedures.  Click here to check out the demonstration.

This online program allows students, parents and others to report allegations of bullying 24/7, with the allegation report (JICK-E1) being sent to pre-determined school staff (ie. principal, assistant principal, school guidance counselor, social worker, superintendent) who will then initiate the investigation procedure using an electronic form (JICK-E2).  The program also includes the remediation form (JICK-E3).  In addition, using artificial intelligence, students can create their own Safety Plan in the moments after reporting an allegation of bullying so they don’t have to wait until the next school day when they can meet with a school staff member.

To learn more about Optania, attend a free, live informational webinar this week.

Sessions are 1 hour in length and will give an in-depth overview of Optania and allow time for questions and comments.

Click on the Zoom link on a day and time that works for your schedule.  There is no need to sign-up or RSVP to this email to attend.

Bullying reporting made easy with Optania (pdf)

Further questions or information about future webinars can be sent to Sarah Adkins, Student Assistance Coordinator at sarah.adkins@maine.gov or by calling her at 207-624-6685

Report of Adult Education (EF-M-39B) – opened December 1st, due by January 15, 2019

Starting on December 1, the EF-M-39 Report of Adult Education opened for submissions through the NEO Student Data Module. The report is a resident-based aggregate count of students aged 16 to 20 who live within the boundaries of a school administrative unit (SAU), are no longer enrolled in regular education classes, and are taking academic courses through a Maine Adult Education program, but not necessarily through the SAU in which they reside.

School Administrative Units are asked to report the number of students, the number of courses and credits taken.

Who Needs to Report:

All public SAUs, excluding public charter schools, must complete the report, even if there are no pupils to report. Please note that the individual SAU member entities of AOSs and school unions must report separately. SAUs whose students attend a regional Adult Education programs must report the number of resident students who attend the regional Adult Education program.

  • EF-M-39B: Opened on December 1, 2018
  • Due by January 15, 2019

To Complete the Form: Go to:
https://neo.maine.gov/DOE/NEO/studentdata

Once logged in to the NEO system navigate to Student Data, if you do not have NEO credentials please have your Superintendent submit a NEO Access Request Form to the Maine DOE Data HelpDesk.

  1. Enter the total number of students (between the ages of 16-20) enrolled in adult education
  2. Enter the total number of courses
  3. Enter the total number of credits

The Data Collection and Reporting (DC&R) Calendar lists all reports due to Maine DOE.

The accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the data sent for this report has a direct correlation to the subsidy that your SAU may receive.

Questions: Contact the MEDMS Helpdesk at (207) 624-6896 or medms.helpdesk@maine.gov or Trevor Burns at (207) 624-6678 or trevor.r.burns@maine.gov

Reminder to Complete Dropout Certification

This is a general reminder that dropout reporting is due on Friday, December 14th. All public schools that contain any grades 7 through 12 are required to complete this report. Please start working on these reports as soon as possible in order to give the DOE and yourselves time to make any corrections/changes to the dropout reports before it is too late. Below you can find a link to the directions.

Dropout Reporting Directions (PDF)

Please note the following: Once you have finished completing your reports by clicking the ‘Completed’ button on each report, you will need to hit the “Submit to DOE” button in order for us to know your report is ready for approval. Otherwise, it will be seen as not finished.

If there is an error you cannot correct with an edit to the students last exit status, please contact either the helpdesk (medms.helpdesk@maine.gov 207-624-6896) or Trevor Burns (Trevor.R.Burns@maine.gov 207-624-6678) instead of leaving comments on the student. These comments can be missed and won’t be seen unless the report has already been submitted to the DOE, where we will assume all has checked out on your end.

Join Maine DOE for the 2019 Read to ME Campaign

For the past 3 years, Mainers have strongly engaged in the Maine Department of Education’s Read to ME Challenge.  We are pleased to announce that Read to ME will launch for its 4th year.  This simple but powerful campaign challenges adults to read to children for 15 minutes, to capture that reading episode via a photo and then post it on social media to challenge others to do the same.  Hundreds of Maine schools, community literacy teams and other literacy related organizations have partnered in the annual campaigns and the Maine DOE is hoping that even more organizations will partner in the 2019 campaign scheduled to kick off the first week of February.

Reading aloud to children is one of the most cost effective and highly beneficial methods of building children’s literate abilities. The simple act of reading aloud to a child 15 minutes a day for five years results in 27,375 minutes of language exposure which can put children on the path to high literacy achievement.  Reading aloud exposes children to the world around them, helps them see reading as an enjoyable and valuable activity and often strengthens bonds with trusted adults.

We invite your school or organization to join the challenge and to encourage community members to do the same. The collective voice of many key partners, leaders and those in respected positions will send a clear message about the vital importance reading to children plays in the social and economic well-being of Maine.   Maine DOE also encourages partners to be creative and to use this opportunity to enhance ongoing literacy education outreach efforts.

If your organization is willing and able to promote the Read to ME Challenge, please follow this link to provide us with your contact information: Read to ME Challenge Partner 2019. Read to ME Challenge resources, including a guidance document, public service announcements, fliers and a list of engaging ways to incorporate the challenge are available on the Read to ME webpage.

Thanks for your consideration of this opportunity, and don’t hesitate to contact danielle.m.saucier@maine.gov  (624-6702) with any questions.

New District Human Resource Role Available in Online Certification System

The Maine Department of Education is excited to announce the availability of a new district human resource role in the state’s online educator certification system. The new role in MEIS (Maine Educator Information System) can be requested for district human resource staff by the superintendent.

This new role will provide the user the ability to view the districts certification (violations) report as well as any district employees up for a credential. Prior to granting this role, the staff member will need to create an account for themselves (if they do not already have one) in MEIS.

Once a staff member has created an account and has been granted the district human resource role, instructions on navigating to the certification report will be sent to the user via email.

Contact the Maine DOE Helpdesk for additional help.

 

Materials from Presentation About ESSA & Report Cards

The Maine Department of Education held a presentation on Monday, December 10 about the details of Maine’s Model of School Support under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which includes the release of the new, user-friendly, public Report Cards in early January. Below is a link to the PowerPoint Presentation, in addition to all of the handouts from the presentation.

Further questions about Maine’s ESSA Plan, Maine’s Model of School Support, and the Report Cards should be directed to Acting Director of Learning Systems, Janette Kirk Janette.Kirk@maine.gov or ESEA Federal Programs & School Turnaround Director Chelsey Fortin-Trimble Chelsey.A.Fortin@maine.gov.

School Safety and Security Bulletin: Emergency Operations Planning

Throughout the 2018- 2019 school year, the Maine Department of Education, State Fire Marshal’s Office, Department of Health and Human Services, Maine State Police, Maine Sheriffs Association, Maine Chiefs of Police Association, and the Maine Emergency Management Agency will provide tips and resource information to Maine schools to help provide some guidance for identifying signs and preventing school violence.

School Safety and Security Bulletin  – December 2018

Further questions and inquiries can be send to Pat Hinckley, Maine DOE Transportation and Facilities Administrator at pat.hinckley@maine.gov.

Withdrawal of Proposed Changes to Chapter 101 MUSER

The Maine Department of Education’s Office of Special Services has reviewed comments made to the proposed changes to Chapter 101: Maine Unified Special Education Regulations (MUSER) Birth to Twenty and has decided to withdraw the proposed changes at this time.

Some proposed changes will need to be reconsidered based on comments from the field. Other proposed changes will be pursued, with some refinements, in the future.

Since time does not allow for additional changes, a public review and comment period, and provisional adoption and submittal to the Legislature by the second Friday in January, the Department has decided to withdraw the proposed changes to Chapter 101.

All of the comments submitted will be retained and the Department will continue to work on what we believe to be improvements to the rule, with the goal of beginning a new rulemaking process next summer.

The Maine DOE’s Office of Special Services would like to thank the individuals who attended the public hearing and/or submitted written comments on the proposed rule.

For further information please contact the Maine Department of Education’s Office of Special Services at 624-6676.

 

Ensuring Local Data Systems are Configured Properly For State Reporting #WhyDataMatters

Schools and districts use a wide range of different data systems to report required data to the Maine Department of Education (DOE), in addition to meeting their own diverse data needs. Because of this, data systems are highly configurable. It is very important for schools and districts to understand how their own systems are set up to ensure that their data is reported correctly to Maine DOE.

The Department has become aware of instances where a school’s data was unintentionally not reported correctly for a number of reasons and ends up surfacing significant issues in an unexpected way. It is important to understand that because local school units have their own data systems, configuration issues will need to be investigated and found at the local level.

Here is an example of a configuration issue, brought to the Department’s attention recently, that was found and fixed by a local school unit: Incorrect coding of dismissal (even within 5 minutes of the end of the day, for example) led to students being counted as absent. Customizing the local system, in this case Powerschool, fixed the issue and decreased the district’s ADA% absent.

Scheduling and attendance configuration issues affecting attendance reporting have also been discovered by districts using Infinite Campus.

The Department encourages School Administrative Units to work with local vendors to ensure that the settings and configurations of your local system are aligned correctly for state reporting.

For further questions about reporting, please contact the Maine DOE Helpdesk at medms.helpdesk@maine.gov.

Regional School Calendars Due May 3, 2019

School administrative units and private schools approved for tuition purposes are expected to establish regional school calendars, in coordination with their local secondary career and technical education school, by May 3, 2019.

The Legislature enacted that requirement as part of Public Law 2011, Chapter 686, which expands access to career and technical education in Maine and ensures that students completing career and technical education (CTE) coursework have greater access to post-secondary opportunities. Specifically, the law addresses scheduling conflicts that pose barriers to students by requiring that those school districts and private schools approved for tuition purposes that share a CTE school adopt a regional school calendar with no more than five dissimilar days. Furthermore, implementation of the law is intended to promote collaboration among local school administrative units that may benefit other forms of inter-administrative unit collaboration beyond CTE.  The law became effective Aug. 30, 2012, and establishing the regional calendar is a condition for eligibility for state subsidy.

For school year 2019-20, both regional school calendars and individual calendars for each school administrative unit must be submitted by the director of the local CTE Center/Region to the Department of Education no later than May 3, 2019 for a decision on approval by June 7, 2019. Guidance and templates can be accessed electronically at www.maine.gov/doe/regionalcalendar/.

Given the coordination required for fulfillment of this law, the Maine DOE recommends that school districts initiate discussions as soon as possible, including representatives from all affected secondary schools and their associated career and technical education center or region.

For more information including guidance, instructions, templates, a waiver process, and a link to the complete law, please visit www.maine.gov/doe/regionalcalendar/.  Further questions should be directed to Doug Robertson doug.robertson@maine.gov / 624-6744 or Dwight Littlefield dwight.a.littlefield@maine.gov / 624-6721.