Support for ESSA - not as simple as you think

This week has been identified as the #OTWeekOfAction by the American Occupational Therapy Association.  They are encouraging member actions on a number of policy initiatives; however, as noted in the previous blog post, it is important for occupational therapists to independently assess the nature of these proposals before blindly writing letters of support to Congress.Individuals may learn that they agree with the positions of the professional association or they may learn that they disagree. Today ' s topic is the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which is an important law for pediatric practitioners to be aware of.  The act was signed into law in December 2015 and its purpose is to replace the No Child Left Behind Act.  ESSA has new requirements for accountability and transparency in school operations and includes mandates for low performing schools.  It continues the NCLB testing regime and mandates 95% participation in testing for grades 3-8.  However, only 1% of all students can be given alternative tests (around 10% of all special ed students).  Large new block grants are proposed for a range of new policy initiatives and mandates.The problem is that much of this is unfunded by the federal government and represents new mandates for local school districts that are already burdened under local property tax caps.  Additionally, there is no ' portability ' in funding that would allow the money to ' follow ' students into charter or p...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Health Tags: OT practice policy school-based practice Source Type: blogs