Leveraging Every Student Succeeds Act $$ to Support the Whole Child

Tomorrow, Liz Thorne and I will be headed to our first ESEA Conference in Kansas City. The National ESEA Conference is an annual project of the National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators and the largest conference focused on federal education programs for disadvantaged students. The Conference emphasizes the critical nature of doing what’s right and what’s needed today – to help every child succeed and achieve at high levels.

Our workshop proposal, Leveraging Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) Dollars to Support the Whole Child was accepted in a 90 minute slot on Wednesday from 11:30-1pm. Our workshop will bring participants through engaging activities including understanding ASCDs Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child framework, reviewing our analyses of each states’s ESSA plans through the lens of the whole child & school health & finally provide participant’s with success stories at the state and local level on how State Education Agencies and local districts have supported the whole child using ESSA funding. Some of these stories include:

• Using Title IV dollars to purchase comprehensive health education curricula such as ETRs HealthSmart;

• Using Title II dollars to send teachers to the SHAPE America National Convention for professional development for physical education, health education, recreation and dance; and

• Using Title IV dollars to implement a pilot mental health initiative in 10 elementary schools.

We are looking forward to learning more from our peers in the field in how more districts and schools can support the whole child and leverage federal program funds to do it!