TAKE ACTION on AUGUST 31!
SSWAA has asked all School Social Workers to participate with the ESSA-Title IV Coalition – 60+ national organizations – for a National Day of Action on August 31, 2017. We are advocating for full funding of the Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) grant program (Title IV, Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA). This block grant will allow schools and districts to support well-rounded education programs, safe and healthy schools – including school mental health services, and effective use of technology. See easy ways YOU can participate.
Read more details below:
SSWAA Government Relations Director Myrna Mandlawitz is spending a good deal of time these days lobbying for funding for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) block grant – Title IV, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Since the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling program (ESSCP) was eliminated as a discrete competitive grant, Title IV is where school mental services are mostly found now in the law. The ESSCP was the only specific federal grant that went directly to school districts to hire school social workers, school counselors, and school psychologists.
There are a couple of big problems with Title IV-A. First, it’s a big block grant that includes a wide array of allowable uses of funds among which school districts will be able to choose, including school mental health. It also includes physical health and education, the arts, computers and technology, school health and safety, and pretty much everything that goes into addressing the “whole child.”
The even bigger problem is funding. The authorized funding level for SSAE – the level at which the program could be funded – is $1.65 billion. Funds are supposed to flow based on the Title I funding formula to states, which in turn would send each school district its share, also based on the formula. However, Congress appropriated only $400 million for the current federal fiscal year (FY 2017) – funds which will be used by districts for School Year 2017-18. Because the total amount for Title IV-A is so small, Congress also said that, instead of states sending money to every school district by formula, states could allow local districts to compete for funds for this year only. This means districts with the capacity to write grant applications will once again have an edge over others. In other words, not every district would receive money, which negates Congress’s intent in designing the program. (To view the corresponding infographic, click here.)
Now Congress is working on funding for FY 2018 (School Year 2018-19). The House Appropriations Committee has passed a bill that would provide only $500 million for the Title IV block grant. We’re now working to try to get the Senate Appropriations Committee to put more money into its bill, ultimately expecting the two chambers to compromise somewhere in the middle. SSWAA has supported the Title IV Coalition – a group of 60+ national organizations – in its request for a minimum of $700 million, in order for the program even to be viable.
Participants in the SSWAA Summer Leadership/Legislative Institute in July visited their House and Senate members and pushed for the $700 million level. The Coalition is holding a Day of Action on August 31, hoping to get as many members from our 60 organizations as possible to write, tweet, and call their members of Congress. See ways to take action.
Myrna Mandlawitz, Director of Government Relations
School Social Work Association of America
Join School Social Workers around the country and
TAKE ACTION on AUGUST 31!