The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA),  supported by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was  signed into law on December 10 by President Obama. This law reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), which provides funding to improve education for low-income children. As you know, private school students and their teachers are able to benefit from this funding. However, under the most recent version of the law, known as No Child Left Behind, private school students were not receiving their equitable share of federal funding. ESSA fixes this.

 

Below are some preliminary resources on ESSA that highlight details the Catholic school community should be aware of:

Our office will continue to stay in touch about the new law as the Department of Education produces rules and guidance to implement the law.

Please feel free to reach out to our office for assistance in tracking down further information or in answering specific questions about the new federal law. My email is GDolan@USCCB.org and direct line is 202-541-3148.

 

A Blessed Advent and a Merry Christmas to you,

 

Greg Dolan

Associate Director of Public Policy

 

*PS - If you know of others who should be receiving this information (principals, administrators, teachers, etc.) please forward this link to join or the entire email to them. We want to make sure every school has the information they need about federal policy and the knowledge they can reach out to us at any time.