Commissioner's Update
December 9, 2008

Dear Superintendents and Leaders of Charter Schools and Collaboratives:

In this Update I have five announcements and eight items for your review.

Federal Guidance on Student Health Records

The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have issued "Joint Guidance on the Application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to Student Health Records." The guidance document explains how FERPA (the federal law on student records) and HIPAA (the federal law protecting the privacy of health records) apply to health records that schools maintain on students. It clarifies that the HIPAA privacy rules do not apply to student health records maintained by elementary and secondary schools that are subject to FERPA. All public schools, as well as nonpublic schools that receive federal education funds, are subject to FERPA. Massachusetts school officials may be more familiar with our state Student Records Regulations which are consistent with FERPA.

The federal guidance document, which is in Q&A form, is posted at: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/doc/ferpa-hippa-guidance.pdf . It addresses questions about access and disclosure as well as other matters relating to student health records. School administrators, nurses, and guidance and counseling staff should find it helpful.

Ballot Question 2: "An Act Establishing A Sensible State Marijuana Policy"

The Department has received questions about the possible impact of Ballot Question 2, An Act Establishing A Sensible State Marijuana Policy, on schools' disciplinary authority. Question 2, which the voters passed on November 4, 2008, replaces the criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties to be enforced by issuing citations, and excludes information regarding this civil offense from the state's criminal record information system. The text of Question 2 is available on-line at: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ele08/ballot_questions_08/quest_2.htm.

Question 2 is not yet in effect. The Attorney General has advised that it becomes effective 30 days after the Secretary of State presents the election results to the Governor and Governor's Council and they make an official determination that Question 2 has passed. The Governor's Council met on December 2, 2008 and certified the election results, which means that the new law will take effect on January 2, 2009. Until that time, the current law remains in effect and possession of any amount of marijuana is still a criminal offense in Massachusetts.

The text of Question 2 does not address or refer to public elementary and secondary schools. We are consulting with the Attorney General's Office, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, and other relevant parties to clarify the impact, if any, of Question 2 on school officials' authority to discipline students for marijuana possession or use. We will issue more detailed guidance on this topic as soon as possible. In the meantime, we recommend that schools maintain their usual practices and procedures in regard to disciplinary matters.

New Amendment to State Special Education Law (An Act Providing Access to Information for Parents): ESE Guidance Forthcoming

A recent amendment to the state special education law, relating to parents and their designated independent evaluators and educational consultants observing education programs, takes effect on January 8, 2009. The new law, chapter 363 of the acts of 2008, http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw08/sl080363.htm, adds the following three sentences to Gen. Laws c. 71B, section 3:

To insure that parents can participate fully and effectively with school personnel in the consideration and development of appropriate educational programs for their child, a school committee shall, upon request by a parent, provide timely access to parents and parent-designated independent evaluators and educational consultants for observations of a child's current program and of any program proposed for the child, including both academic and non-academic components of any such program. Parents and their designees shall be afforded access of sufficient duration and extent to enable them to evaluate a child's performance in a current program and the ability of a proposed program to enable such child to make effective progress. School committees shall impose no conditions or restrictions on such observations except those necessary to ensure the safety of children in a program or the integrity of the program while under observation or to protect children in the program from disclosure by an observer of confidential and personally identifiable information in the event such information is obtained in the course of an observation by a parent or a designee.

The Department will provide guidance to assist you and your school committees in reviewing local policies and procedures to be sure they are consistent with the new law. We are convening a group of stakeholders this month to advise us in developing this guidance, which we expect to post shortly.

EPIMS Data Collection News

The first EPIMS state-wide collection was successfully completed last year with 100% district participation. The SY2009 collection is underway with one third of the districts in process and several have certified the collection. The status of the collection can be viewed on our website at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/infoservices/data/epims/report.aspx.

Thank you to all of you who have begun this important task. The due date for the 2009 EPIMS collection is January 22, 2009. If your district needs additional time we will be accepting extension requests from the Superintendent for January 29, 2009. Please fax the request to the Data Collection office at 781-338-6850. If your staff needs assistance or has any questions please contact the Data Collection office at 781-338-3282.

Year 2 Verizon Foundation Grant for the Massachusetts Thinkfinity Partnership Program

I am pleased to report that the Verizon Foundation has recently provided $65,000, for a total of $130,000 over the past year, to support the Massachusetts Thinkfinity Partnership Program. This program provides professional development opportunities to classroom and pre-service teachers statewide through onsite and online training, resources to create a Massachusetts network of Thinkfinity trainers, and a mechanism to ensure that Thinkfinity resources are aligned with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.

The Thinkfinity website offers resources to improve student achievement across eight academic disciplines, from science to English to mathematics. It is designed to help teachers gain access to lesson plans, interactives, primary sources, references and other authoritative resources that can be searched by grade level, keyword, subject, or resource type.

Content for the Thinkfinity website is provided through partnerships between the Verizon Foundation and 11 of the nation's leading organizations in the fields of education and literacy:

• American Association for the Advancement of Science,
• International Reading Association,
• John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,
• National Center for Family Literacy,
• National Council on Economic Education,
• National Endowment for the Humanities,
• National Council of Teachers of English,
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics,
• National Geographic Society,
• ProLiteracy Worldwide,
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

To make the website even more valuable to teachers, students and parents, Thinkfinity has recently made several enhancements and improvements, including:

• Addition of 500 new resources,
• Individual portals to allow users to search for resources targeted to educators, students, parents, or after-school programs,
• A dynamic new look,
• A simple, more comprehensive search engine,
• Ability to search for resources tailored to individual state standards.

Items Posted at www.doe.mass.edu:

1. Notice Of Public Comment on Proposed Amendments to the Vocational Technical Education Regulations
   [ No longer available ]
2. Proposed Amendments to the Vocational Technical Education Regulations (Educator Licenses), 603 CMR 4.00
   [ No longer available ]
3. Massachusetts Child AMBER Alert Program
4. The Advanced Placement Exam Fee Subsidy Program
5. 2009-2010 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year Program
6. Updated Information about the Winter 2008-2009 ADP Algebra II End-of-Course Exam
   [ No longer available ]
7. 2009 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching
8. Big Yellow School Bus Program

Sincerely,

Mitchell D. Chester, Ed.D.
Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education