July 2020 School Leader Update Available

The July 2020 School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education is available.

New DE Guidance: Open Enrollment, Early Literacy Implementation, Proficiency for Senior Year Plus Program

Open Enrollment: The Iowa Department of Education is releasing new open enrollment guidance and an application form in accordance to Senate File 2310. This law extends the open enrollment deadline for the 2020-21 school year to July 15 for parents, guardians and caregivers to apply to open enroll a student at an approved online public school in certain circumstances where the student, or a person who resides with the student, has a significant health condition that may increase the risk of COVID-19. This guidance and form are only for use during the 2020-21 school year.

Early Literacy: The Iowa Department of Education is releasing new guidance on early literacy implementation. This guidance revises and extends the fall, winter and spring screening windows for 2020-21 and addresses remote assessment considerations, staff training, screening and progress monitoring recommendations, and interpretation of assessment results. It also introduces a new data collection in CASA for schools and districts to indicate their 2020-21 default literacy assessments. This data collection is due July 31.

Proficiency for Senior Year Plus Program: The Iowa Department of Education is releasing new guidance addressing the determination of proficiency for Senior Year Plus Programs. This guidance outlines alternatives for determining proficiency for purposes of accessing Senior Year Plus programming since performance results from the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP) are not available for the 2019-20 school year. The requirement to administer federally required assessments, including the ISASP, was waived for the 2019-20 school year in light of COVID-19-related school closures. This guidance document will be added to the COVID-19 Guidance and Information page and on the DE’s Senior Year Plus page on their website. All current guidance from the Iowa Department of Education can be found on the COVID-19 page. 

The DE will continue to keep you informed of any new updates. All current guidance is included on the COVID-19 Guidance and Information page on their website and all tools, supports and resources to assist in the development of Return-to-Learn plans can be found on their Return-to-Learn Google site. In addition, recordings of the previous Zoom sessions can be found on their YouTube channel or on their COVID-19 Webinar Recordings for PK-12 School Administrators in Iowa webpage (along with PowerPoint slides as applicable).

DE Provides Canvas LMS to All Iowa Schools at No Cost

The Iowa Department of Education will provide all Iowa public school districts, nonpublic schools and homeschool students with access to the Canvas Learning Management System for one year — at no cost to schools or families. This system will provide teachers and students the capability to participate in high-quality digital teaching and learning environments in Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Using federal CARES Act dollars, the Department will make use of the State's existing contract with Instructure (Canvas' parent company) to make the Canvas platform available statewide. We are moving as quickly as possible to work out the operational details with Canvas, and will keep you informed as details emerge.

Canvas is in the process of creating an Iowa-specific information web page that we will share as soon as it is available to provide additional details on the capabilities of the platform. In the meantime, Canvas’s K-12 video provides an overview for teachers on how the system is easy to use and easy for teachers to implement with their students. The Department will be sending out a survey via the CASA system to inquire about your district/school's interest in using Canvas and the number of users who will participate.