Maine DOE Update – September 7, 2017

From the Maine Department of Education

Notices and Reporting Items

Professional Development Opportunities

More Notices | Administrative Letters | Reporting Calendar

News & Views

Opportunities for Regionalization

As part of Maine’s plan for putting students first, the Maine Department of Education is focused on improving educational services and increasing student achievement through innovative regional partnerships. | More

Educational programing on Constitution Day

On September 17, the nation celebrates Constitution Day. Per Constitution and Citizenship Day legislation passed by the United States Congress in 2005, “Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.” | More

Schoolwide Programs and Consolidation of Funds

To facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities in schoolwide programs, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its implementing regulations  allow school administrative units (SAUs) to use a portion of the funds they receive under Part B of IDEA to fund schoolwide programs. In accordance with Title I, Part A, as amended by ESSA, schoolwide programs are comprehensive reform strategies aimed at raising the achievement levels of all students. |More

Fostering Music and Movement in Early Childhood Classrooms

The Maine Department of Education invites you to be part of a brand new professional development opportunity, “Fostering Music and Movement in Early Childhood Classrooms”. Early Childhood Specialist, Sue Reed, and Visual and Performing Arts Specialist, Beth Lambert, are looking for teachers who want to energize their teaching and learning through focusing on music and movement in the public preschool classroom.  Applicants must apply in teams of two: one Public Preschool teacher and one music or performing arts teacher from the same district. The music/performing arts teacher must currently teach at the elementary level. |More

Learning Through Technology Update

The Learning Through Technology Team at the Maine Department of Education is committed to helping teachers integrate technology into their classrooms in a way that improves student learning outcomes and achievement. We have three new ways to engage with educators this year that are designed to gather input and build capacity. |More

More Dispatches | Press Releases | Priority Notices

Latest DOE Career/Project Opportunities

Fostering Music and Movement in Early Childhood Classrooms

The Maine Department of Education invites you to be part of a brand new professional development opportunity, “Fostering Music and Movement in Early Childhood Classrooms”. Early Childhood Specialist, Sue Reed, and Visual and Performing Arts Specialist, Beth Lambert, are looking for teachers who want to energize their teaching and learning through focusing on music and movement in the public preschool classroom.  Applicants must apply in teams of two: one Public Preschool teacher and one music or performing arts teacher from the same district. The music/performing arts teacher must currently teach at the elementary level.

Under the expertise of Early Childhood facilitator, Ellie Libby, and Early Childhood Arts facilitator, Judy Fricke, teams will work on building a collaborative partnership to ensure that preschool students receive a musical and movement filled learning experience. Public preschool teachers will learn the research as to why music and movement is important in a preschool classroom and how it encompasses Maine’s Early Learning and Development Standards and how to include music and movement into their daily routines. Music and performing arts teachers will learn developmentally appropriate pedagogical approaches to teaching music and movement to our youngest learners. Teams will be expected to practice new pedagogy in between sessions and document their experience. As a culmination of their work, participants will create a presentation to share with their school community.

The training is free and each team selected will receive $650 worth of equipment and supplies for their classroom. The cohort will meet at Educare in Waterville on October 17th, January 10th, March 6th, and May 15th 8:30-3pm.

If you are interested in participating fill out an application. Only one application is necessary per team. If you have any questions contact Visual and Performing Arts Specialist, Beth Lambert at beth.lambert@maine.gov or Early Childhood Specialist, Sue Reed at susan.d.reed@maine.gov.

Educational programing on Constitution Day

On September 17, the nation celebrates Constitution Day. Per Constitution and Citizenship Day legislation passed by the United States Congress in 2005, “Each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.”

This year, September 17 falls on a Sunday, so the Constitutional programming should take place on Monday, September 18, as it is the “adjacent weekday”.

For more information about the history of Constitution and Citizenship Day check visit the Library of Congress website. For additional resources visit the Maine DOE – Social Studies resources page or contact Joe Schmidt, Social Studies Specialist for the Maine Department of Education at (207) 624-6828 or joe.schmidt@maine.gov.

 

Maine DOE Update – August 31, 2017

From the Maine Department of Education

Notices and Reporting Items

Professional Development Opportunities

More Notices | Administrative Letters | Reporting Calendar

News & Views

Maine DOE welcomes educators and students back to school

As many Maine schools welcome students back on campus and into the classroom over the coming weeks, the Maine Department of Education would like to wish every student and educator an exhilarating start to the 2017 – 2018 school year. | More

Update on launch of Synergy and new student IDs

Progress is continuing toward the full release of Synergy and much work is being done behind the scenes.  Although we are still not ready to release the full product, we do now have the ability to search for and generate new student IDs for districts.  In the future, this will be a process done by individual districts but in the interest of time and the urgency of having IDs for students, the help desk will run the files for districts and return a file with the IDs. |More

Revisions to Chapter 101 – Maine Unified Special Education Regulations Birth to Twenty

The revised Chapter 101 – Maine Unified Special Education Regulations Birth to Twenty (MUSER) and the changes that became effective on 8/25/17 can be found at the following.| More

Substantial Changes to the October EF-S-05 Special Education Child Count Parts I and II

EF-S-05 Part I, Special Education Child Count, Due Oct 31, 2017: As in previous years, Special Education Directors will be required to verify the Special Education Students for Federal Count between October 1 and October 15 and certify the accuracy of the report using the Special Education Federal Count Certification between October 16 and October 31. However, this year the federal count and certification will be in NEO.| More

Workshops to support SAT

The Maine Department of Education and College Board are pleased to provide Maine educators with three opportunities to learn more about the updated SAT and tools available to inform instruction. College Board will present its annual Fall Counselor Workshop to share updates, tools, tips and resources to support students as they move along the college and career path. | More

Public Preschool Funding 2018-19

The Maine State Legislature has provided start-up funding in FY19 state budget for public school districts to begin new or expand preschool classrooms. | More

Maine DOE Literacy Links newsletter is now available as a blog

As the dog days of summer come to an end and the new school year begins, we look forward to continuing what we have begun and making a few changes. | More

More Dispatches | Press Releases | Priority Notices

Latest DOE Career/Project Opportunities

Revisions to Chapter 101 – Maine Unified Special Education Regulations Birth to Twenty

The revised Chapter 101 – Maine Unified Special Education Regulations Birth to Twenty (MUSER) and the changes that became effective on 8/25/17 can be found at the following link:  http://maine.gov/doe/specialed/laws/documents/Chapter101August272017final.pdf

The enacted revisions amend Section Vii.2.L(2), which concerns the determination by the Individualized Educational Program Team, referred to as “the IEP Team” of the existence of a specific learning disability using a pattern of appropriate assessments by:

  • Inserting the requirement that the general education interventions under Section III of the rule must be included in the data collected by the IEP Team when the team uses a process based on the child’s response to scientific, research-based intervention; and
  • Omits the limitation that the psychological processing data from standardized measures to identify contributing factors must be considered only as available and as determined to be relevant by the child’s IEP team.

Questions may be directed to Janice E. Breton, State Director of Special Services, Birth to 20 at 624-6676 or at Janice.breton@maine.gov.

Substantial Changes to the October EF-S-05 Special Education Child Count Parts I and II

EF-S-05 Part I, Special Education Child Count, Due Oct 31, 2017: As in previous years, Special Education Directors will be required to verify the Special Education Students for Federal Count between October 1 and October 15 and certify the accuracy of the report using the Special Education Federal Count Certification between October 16 and October 31. However, this year the federal count and certification will be in NEO. Additionally, SAUs will no longer send a copy of the certification form to DOE – the certification process will be electronic and will require certification by the Special Education Director and the Superintendent. The report will be located under the student data link within NEO. The Special Education Director and the Superintendent will certify the data for Special Education counts and the EPS counts on the same report. The refresh of the data, after the 15th, will now be completed by the SAU’s data person, Special Education Director, or the Superintendent by clicking a refresh button. If you have trouble logging into NEO, contact the help desk at 207-624-6896. Instructions for the verification and completion of the EF-S-05 Part 1 and a link to the reports (link to NEO) will be posted in DC&R in the coming weeks.

EF-S-05 Part II, Special Education Personnel Employed, Contracted, and Needed: All teachers, staff, administrators, and contractors should be entered into NEO and verified as accurate by October 15. For special education teachers and related services personnel who serve students with disabilities, NEO contains a field in which the full time equivalency (FTE) of the special education position should be entered and a field to indicate whether a special education teacher is highly qualified and whether an education technician is qualified. Although the data should be entered into NEO and verified as accurate by October 15, certification of the EF-S-05 Part II will not occur in October. It will occur at a later date to be determined. An announcement of the due date and instructions for certifying the EF-S-05 Part II will be forthcoming.

For questions about the EF-S-05 Part I and II, contact Sheryl Banden at sheryl.banden@maine.gov or 207-624-6658 or Shawn Collier at shawn.collier@maine.gov or 207-624-6615. For questions about NEO, contact the Maine DOE Help Desk at MEDMS.Helpdesk@maine.gov or 207-624-6896. For EPS questions, contact Travis Wood at travis.wood@maine.gov or 207-624-6742.

Update on launch of Synergy and new student IDs

Progress is continuing toward the full release of Synergy and much work is being done behind the scenes.  Although we are still not ready to release the full product, we do now have the ability to search for and generate new student IDs for districts.  In the future, this will be a process done by individual districts but in the interest of time and the urgency of having IDs for students, the help desk will run the files for districts and return a file with the IDs.

To have IDs searched and generated,

  1. Download the New State ID Request file.
  2. Using either the extract provided by your SIS vendor, or creating your own file using the data available to you and the upload template, create a newstatestudentid csv file.
  3. Request a secure email from the helpdesk medms.helpdesk@maine.gov .
  4. Reply to the secure email attaching the file created in Step 2.
  5. Helpdesk staff will process the file and return the student ID results to you via secure email.

Please continue to check the Maine DOE Newsroom communications via the Maine DOE Update for further communications.  We appreciate your patience.

Maine DOE welcomes educators and students back to school

As many Maine schools welcome students back on campus and into the classroom over the coming weeks, the Maine Department of Education would like to wish every student and educator an exhilarating start to the 2017 – 2018 school year.

We hope the coming year is filled with new aspirations, fascinating challenges, and exciting learning.

For more information about how Maine DOE can support educators and students please visit the following links or contact the Department at (207) 624-6600.

Students: http://www.maine.gov/doe/students/

Teachers: http://www.maine.gov/doe/teachers/

Click here to sign up to receive Maine DOE news.

Public Preschool Funding 2018-19

The Maine State Legislature has provided start-up funding in FY19 state budget for public school districts to begin new or expand preschool classrooms.

The Maine Department of Education requires information from school districts anticipating starting new or expanding current public preschool programs in 2018-19.  Expanded programs are those in SAUs that currently run approved public preschool(s) and want to add another classroom(s).

In order to be included in the state start-up preschool funding count, you must complete this survey NO LATER than Tuesday, October 31, 2017. 

Please estimate high for anticipated preschool enrollment so that the Maine DOE may budget accordingly. Prek counts may not exceed district kindergarten enrollment as of October 1, 2017.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PreKStart-upFunds

This survey is only meant to capture the level of interest in accessing funding provided by the Legislature and does not guarantee funding.

For more information please contact Sue Reed at 624-6632 or  susan.d.reed@maine.gov

Maine DOE Literacy Links newsletter is now available as a blog

As the dog days of summer come to an end and the new school year begins, we look forward to continuing what we have begun and making a few changes.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes for the Maine DOE English Language Arts (ELA) team is moving their newsletter, Literacy Links, from a static document to a blog format. We will still provide the same essential elements: a feature article, relative resources, suggestions for children’s and adolescent literature, as well as a link to news and events. The blog format allows for discussion to continue in the form of comments. It also gives us some flexibility in presentation as it is easier to embed video or other media.

Please check out the Literacy Links Blog at https://maineliteracylinks.wordpress.com/. You can still access the archives of all the past newsletters at this site as well.

Topics we will address this year include;

  • Text complexity: why it matters
  • Assessment: reading, evidence, complexity
  • Assessment: writing, evidence, language
  • Language standards and disciplinary literacy
  • Text Sets: why and how to use multiple texts

For further questions about Literacy Links please contact, Morgan Dunton English Language Arts Specialist morgan.dunton@maine.gov or Lee Anne Larsen Literacy Specialist leeann.larsen@maine.gov.