December 11, 2018

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finalized updated rules from the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act altering requirements related to milk, whole grains, and sodium. The new regulations will take effect on July 1, 2019. The Department's changes represent official action on a plan that was announced by the Secretary of Agriculture in May 2017. Under the new rules, schools will be able to offer students flavored one-percent milk (not just unflavored skim milk), reduce the current 100 percent whole grain requirement to 50 percent - ending the exemption process that some school districts utilized when having trouble meeting the 100 percent requirement and,  maintain the current Target 1 sodium level until 2024. The updated regulations can be viewed at the link below.

• Updated USDA School Nutrition Regulations

December 3, 2018

The New York State Police and New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) have recently developed a workshop available to school districts entitled School Violence: Incident Prevention and Response. The program, which is intended for school staff and administrators, will provide information regarding school climate, threat assessments and guided response in the occurrence of an act of violence on school property.

School districts can request the training through the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services (DHSES) or the State Police.

Additional information, including contact information for the coordinating organizations, is available below.

November 20, 2018

Earlier this year, the legislature passed a bill that, if enacted, would make a targeted adjustment to the state's property tax cap by incorporating a school district's BOCES capital expenditures as part of its capital exclusion. Currently, only district capital expenditures are excluded from the tax cap calculation, despite the fact that BOCES are wholly dependent on their component districts for funding.

Similar legislation was passed in 2017, but was vetoed by the Governor who cited concerns that some BOCES capital projects are not directly approved by the voters and can present unintended consequences to the taxpayer.

November 12, 2018

Earlier last week, voters cast their ballots for representatives at the local, state and federal level.

No major surprises occurred in the statewide races, with Governor Cuomo, Lt. Governor Hochul, Comptroller DiNapoli and Senator Gillibrand all securing re-election. New York does have a new Attorney General, with Tisch James, former NYC Public Advocate filling the vacancy caused by Eric Schneiderman's resignation earlier this year. 

October 29, 2018

Delegates at the 2018 Annual Business Meeting engaged in significant debate on a number of issues. This year, the delegates were presented twenty resolutions, nineteen of which were adopted. In addition the delegates elected NYSSBA officers for 2019.

These positions will remain in effect for five years, unless they are rescinded or achieved sooner. As a result, the NYSSBA Governmental Relations team will work toward advancing those proposals that would require legislative change to be implemented.

October 18, 2018

Last week, NYSSBA, alongside fellow education advocates, school districts, municipal groups and their members formed the Coalition for the Charitable Contribution Deduction (3CD) for the purpose of providing comments to the U.S. Treasury Department and IRS regarding the August 23 proposed regulations governing tax deductibility of charitable giving. The proposed regulations would in most cases deny a full charitable deduction to a taxpayer who makes a contribution to a charitable fund and subsequently receives a state or local tax credit.

October 10, 2018

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires that, beginning with the 2018-19 school year, State Report cards must include: specific, per-pupil expenditures of federal, state and local funds. This includes actual personnel expenditures and actual non-personnel expenditures of federal, state and local funds, disaggregated by source of funds.

The first of these reports will be required for the 2018-19 school - year. Those reports will be on actual expenditures and are expected to be due by December 2019.

The State Education Department is hosting a series of regional meetings across the state with community stakeholders including school district leaders, board members and parents to discuss the financial reports required by ESSA.

September 27, 2018

NYSSBA Annual Business Meeting
Saturday, October 27^th - 8:00 a.m.
Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, The New York Ballroom

Below you will find a link to the 2018 Voting Delegates' Guide for the Annual Business Meeting.  This guide contains the report of the Resolutions Committee as well as amendments and rebuttals received by the September 21 deadline.

• 2018 Voting Delegates' Guide

September 24, 2018

Last week, Ed Trust-NY launched an online tool analyzing data on building level per-pupil allocation reports that 76 school districts were required to submit to the state by the start of the school year. You can access this data tool as well as the original reports at the links below.

• Ed Trust - NY School Funding Transparency Tool
• NYS DOB School Funding Transparency Forms

September 17, 2018

Late last week, the committees responsible for negotiating the federal education spending package released their committee report. While this spending plan still needs final legislative approval in both houses before going to the President for approval, it is unlikely the agreed upon  levels will change much. This deal was reached as NYSSBA was reaching the end of 6 weeks of federal advocacy on many topics, including the federal spending plan. Additional analysis is underway but initial reports indicate the following is included in the deal: