Important Information Regarding the Implementation of SES for the 2009-10 School Year
| To: | District Administrators of Supplemental Educational Services (SES) and Approved SES Providers |
| From: | John Desses, State SES Coordinator |
| Date: | August 4, 2009 |
During the 2008-09 school year I had the opportunity with colleagues from the Department to visit school districts, observe supplemental services provided to students, and interview supplemental educational services (SES) program administrators and SES tutors. I provided assistance on guidelines and regulations, resolved disputes, and addressed complaints from district administrators, SES providers, and parents.
To fulfill requirements and to gather information on the effectiveness of the SES program, earlier this year the Department asked Title I directors and school principals to respond to "satisfaction surveys" and provide information on school participation and other relevant information about SES. Copies of these surveys along with the FY09 monitoring and evaluation instruments will be posted the Department's website at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/monitoring.html.
Based on the above mentioned activities, I would like to bring to your attention the following reminders and recommendations regarding SES:
Parent/Guardian Notifications
In many cases districts know now which Title I schools will remain identified for improvement (year 2), corrective action, or restructuring and thus will be required to offer SES to the parents/guardians of all low income children in the school. The parents of eligible students in those schools must be informed in writing sufficiently in advance of, but no later than 14 calendar days before, the start of the school year. To assist you in preparing these notifications, the Department will post a list of schools open in the 2008-09 school year that will be required or may be required to offer school choice or SES in the 2009-10 school year. This list will be posted to the Department's SES headlines at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/.
The parents/guardians of children attending schools which the district is not certain will be required to offer SES in the 2009-10 school year must receive this information no later than the start of the school year. We plan to notify districts of preliminary 2009 adequate yearly progress (AYP) determinations during the third week of August.
Sample parent/guardian communications are posted to the Department's website at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/resources.html.
Accessibility of Services
As you know, districts with Title I schools identified for improvement (year 2), corrective action, or restructuring are required to reserve the equivalent of 20 percent of their Title I allocation on choice-related transportation and SES. During the year, the district may find that it needed less than the reserved amount and wish to amend its FY10 Title I grant to use these unexpended amounts for other allowable activities. In order for the Department to approve the district's amendment request to reallocate any unexpended funds, you have to document that you have met all of the below requirements:
Partner, to the extent practicable, with outside groups, such as faith-based organizations, other community-based organizations, and business groups, to help inform eligible students and their families of the opportunities to transfer or to receive SES. Ensure that eligible students and their parents have a genuine opportunity to sign up for school choice or to obtain SES, including by: (a) providing timely, accurate notice to all parents, including parents of English language learners and students with disabilities; (b) ensuring that sign-up forms for SES are distributed directly to all eligible students and their parents and are made widely available and accessible through broad means of dissemination, such as open houses, the Internet, other media, and communications through public agencies serving eligible students and their families; and (c) providing a minimum of two enrollment windows, at separate points in the school year, that are of sufficient length to enable parents of eligible students to make informed decisions about requesting SES and selecting a provider. Districts are encouraged, however, to have a continuous enrollment period; as such, these districts may notify the Department after several months of open enrollment. Ensure that eligible SES providers are given access to school facilities, using a fair, open, and objective process, on the same basis and terms as are available to other groups that seek access to school facilities.
We would not expect the district to notify the Department of its intention to amend its FY10 Title I grant to use funds reserved for choice-related transportation and SES for other allowable activities prior to March 2010.
The Department has included additional language on the Title I, Part A Amendment Request Form (Form AM 1) requiring the district to certify that it has met the above requirements if it intends to spend a portion of its 20 percent obligation for other allowable activities. For more information on these requirements, refer to Part L of the Federal Non-Regulatory Guidance on Supplemental Educational Services   .
Equity and Access
If requested by parents, the district must assist parents/guardians in the selection of a provider. However, parents/guardians are not required to accept the district's recommendation of an SES provider. I received complaints from parents and providers that the school principals were selecting providers on behalf of the parents or did not provide equal access to all providers in the building.
Service Delivery
I am attaching the hourly fees for individual and group instruction for all approved SES providers. District administrators should divide their own per pupil allocation by the hourly rates of the SES providers to determine the number of hours that each provider may offer to students. This information should be disseminated to parents/guardians to assist them in the selection of SES providers. SES provider rates and district per pupil amounts will be posted to the Department's website at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/resources.html. The agreement/contract between the district and the provider should be finalized prior to the beginning of the school year. For more information on what should be included in these agreements, refer to the FY09 SES District Monitoring Instrument at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/monitoring.html and the Federal Non-Regulatory Guidance on Supplemental Educational Services . Sample agreements/contracts are posted to the Department's website at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/resources.html. The agreement/contract between the district and the provider must contain a provision for terminating the agreement if the provider fails to implement the student's individual student learning plan. Moreover, district administrators may include in their contracts with providers administrative provisions dealing with such issues as the fees charged to providers for the use of school facilities, the frequency of payments to providers, and whether payments will be based, in whole or in part, on student attendance. Sample agreements and examples of student enrollment policies are posted to the Department's website at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/resources.html. SES providers should provide district administrators with a list of the employees who have passed criminal offender record information (CORI) checks. Approved providers are required to conduct CORI checks on all staff members who work with students on an annual basis. No employee of the organization may provide services to students or have any contact with students (either directly or indirectly) who have not passed a CORI check. For more information on CORI checks, see pages 71-73 of the Department's Integrated Federal and State Guidance at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/providers.html. Individual student learning plans must contain specific achievement goals for the student and be developed in consultation with the student's parents, a district representative, and the provider. Review of documentation and interviews with district administrators and SES providers indicated that:
Individual student learning plans were not always tailored to the learning needs of individual students or aligned to State and local academic standards. Moreover, the plans often contained multiple goals that were unlikely to be met during the school year. Individual student learning plans were not always approved in advance by parents or district administrators. Progress reports were not always communicated to parents/guardians, district administrators, and school principals. Moreover, the data contained in progress reports were not always quantifiable and did not indicate students' progress based on objective measures.
Providers should be able to document, based on objective criteria, the progress of individual students and groups of students using assessments.
SES providers should plan to provide at least 25 hours of services to students. They should adjust their per pupil amounts to accommodate this minimum number of hours and inform the Department of any changes to the hourly rate, as necessary. Districts should accommodate SES providers to meet this requirement by extending the period of the tutorial services provided, as the provision of services less than 25 hours in duration is unlikely to improve a student's academic achievement. SES providers must meet all applicable health, safety, and civil rights laws on federal, state, and local levels, for both students and staff members, including all necessary occupancy licenses and permits, and including compliance with IDEA and ADA. For example, I have serious reservations about the provision of services in the adults' area of the public library. Moreover, the site(s) where students receive SES must have documented plans in place for emergency medical situations, evacuations, and ambulance and poison calls. SES providers may not deliver services in a private residence other than that of the student, and not without the student's parent/guardian present. Moreover, these services should occur no later than 7:00 p.m. SES providers may not group students for instructional purposes that are more than three (3) grades apart. SES providers must have procedures for the evaluation and oversight of all instructional staff, and policies of contact to ensure compliance with SES regulations and guidelines. SES providers may not change academic subjects, curricula or fees without prior approval of the Department. A local school district may not impose requirements that relate to the design of a provider's educational program; doing so would undermine the states authority to approve providers. The involvement of districts in program designs is not provided for in the statute or regulations. Under no circumstances should a district refuse to offer any provider on the State-approved list as an option to parents because of program design concerns. If the district has specific concerns regarding a provider's program design, it should convey those concerns to the Department.
Data Collection and Reporting
SES providers should maintain accurate records of their expenditures that are incurred with their minority or female business partners. All copies of invoices will be submitted to the Department as a condition of renewal of the SES contracts. District administrators and SES providers are required to maintain records on SES participation and submit these data to the Department at the end of the program year.
District administrators should have a means of collecting the following information for each student served: the name of the provider(s) who provided services to the student during the school year, the subject area(s) in which services were provided, the number of hours of tutorial services completed, the total amount billed, the rate type (whether group or individual), and the starting and ending date of services. In addition to the above information, SES providers should have a means of collecting, for each student served, the following: the location of services (e.g., the student's home, the student's school, a community site, the provider's company site, etc.), the names of the assessment instruments used to track student progress, pre-and post-assessment results, and whether the student reached the specific achievement goals developed in consultation with the student's parents and the provider. Released in January 2009, the Federal Non-Regulatory Guidance on Supplemental Educational Services now requires the district to prominently display on its website, in a timely manner to ensure that parents have current information:
Beginning with data for the 2007-2008 school year and for each subsequent school year, the number of students who were eligible for and the number of students who participated in SES; and For the current school year, the list of providers approved by the state to serve in the district and the locations where services are provided.
To assist districts in complying with the first requirement, the Department has posted data on the number of students in each district who were eligible for and participated in Title I / school choice and SES in Massachusetts public schools during the 2007-08 school year. These data are available at http://www.doe.mass.edu/ses/resources.html.Please post the information for your district on your district's website prior to the beginning of the 2009-10 school year.
Districts may comply with the second requirement by posting a link to the list of providers approved to serve your district as follows:
Go to the Department's "Find a Provider" page: http://www.doe.mass.edu/ses/search.asp Select the name of your district from the drop-down menu. A list of providers will appear. Make a link on your website to this page. For example, the website address for the list of approved providers for the Boston Public Schools is posted at: www.doe.mass.edu/ses/results.asp?DistrictCode=00350000&Keyword=&mode=search. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) has a responsibility, through its approval and monitoring processes, to ensure that that high-quality services are delivered. Copies of the District and SES Provider Monitoring Instruments from FY09 are posted to the Department's website at www.doe.mass.edu/ses/monitoring.html. Please use these materials as a reference to implement your program in fulfillment of the requirements as an SES provider or district administrator. As a reminder, all SES providers are required to adhere to the Assurances and Certification as a condition of their contract with the Department to remain on the Approved List of SES Providers. Please take the time to review these statements, located on pages 22 and 23 of the SES application posted to www.doe.mass.edu/ses/providers.html.
Please feel free to contact me for any assistance or guidance on the above suggestions and recommendations: (781-338-6328 / sesproviders@doe.mass.edu)
last updated: August 10, 2009
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