Small, rural school divisions across Virginia continue to face declining student enrollments, difficulty competing for high-quality teachers, inadequate facility and capital projects funding and pressure from unfunded mandates at both state and federal levels, placing them at a significant financial disadvantage with larger and more affluent school divisions.
Areas of Focus
Teacher Recruitment and Retention
Enrollment Loss
School Construction Funding
Increasing At-Risk Add-ons
All In Tutoring Conference
We are so excited to release registration information for COSARS' Summit on High Intensity Tutoring presented by ZEARN. We are thankful for Virginia Ed Strategies, the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center, and all the sponsors you see at the bottom of this email for making this conference come together so quickly. Although the focus of the Summit will be High Intensity Tutoring, we will also have breakout sessions related to all aspects of ALL In Virginia; chronic absenteeism, the Virginia Literacy Act and High Intensity Tutoring. Central Office Instructional Leaders and Building Level Instructional Leaders will benefit from this jam packed day of learning!
Please remember that you can use funds from the Flexible Funding category that was just approved in the State Budget to pay for registration. Registration is $150 per person or you can register a team of 10 for $750. The Summit will offer practical suggestions from schools that have already implemented High Intensity Tutoring, as well as the leading national expert on the topic, an overview of Virginia's playbook, a presentation from Zearn who won the State RFP for Math Tutoring support, a robust panel discussion about the challenges of this model and how to overcome those challenges. At 2:00, we will put an exclamation point on our day with breakout sessions that will allow you to interact with your colleagues and a moderator to discuss individual topics that are pertinent to you. Be sure to have your team divide and conquer during the breakout sessions to ensure the most bang for your buck!
You will see the schedule listed on the registration form. We tried to squeeze everything in from 9:00-3:00 so building leaders could start and end their day without missing this opportunity. Be sure to pack a lunch or order something in for your team because we will not take an official break for lunch.
Proposed Coalition of Small and Rural Schools Legislative Priorities for 2024
- Continue to protect the At-Risk Add On and fund more items with this methodology.
- Continue to fund the School Construction Program
- Protect students and improve absenteeism by adding "Educational Neglect" to the Code.
- Virginia defines abuse and neglect a little differently than most states. Whereas most states clump different types of neglect into one basket, like this example from South Dakota "Whose parent, guardian, or custodian fails or refuses to provide proper or necessary subsistence, supervision, education, medical care, or any other care necessary for the child’s health, guidance, or well-being;", Virginia separates abuse in neglect into separate categories; physical, mental, and sexual (see this link 22VAC40-705-30. Types of abuse and neglect.)
- We can easily add a section to 22VAC40-705-30 that would cover educational neglect. The very simple addition could look like this:
- E. Educational neglect occurs when the child's caretaker permits chronic truancy (defined as 10% of the school year - 18 days per year or 9 days per semester), fails to homeschool, register, or enroll a child of mandatory school age, or fails to allow or obtain recommended remedial educational services or services provided by the child's IEP, without reasonable cause.
- Improve resources and financial support to ensure students have access to adequate mental/behavioral health services.
- Teacher Recruitment and Retention
- make pay competitive with border States
- allow teachers who drive buses to count that income as creditable compensation with VRS
Previous Conferences
Videos from Summit
School Construction and Modernization Legislative Panel - Senator McClellan, Senator Dunnavant, Delegate O'Quinn, and Delegate Hurst Moderated by Carol Cash
Impact on New School Facility on Rural Communities Panel Discussion - Haydee Robinson, Dashan Turner, Paul Nichols, and Kevin Siers Moderated by Kristy Midgette
Previous Advocacy
Virginia’s Moonshot Moment to Modernize Schools
Lawmakers have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to modernize our school infrastructure with one-time discretionary funding from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund. Read the fact sheet below to find out more.
School Infrastructure and Federal Funding Facts
Resolution to Support an Increase in State Funding for Small and Rural School Divisions
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