August

10, 2018

Electronic Mail: Commissioner@fldoe.org

Pam Stewart
Commissioner
Florida Department of Education
325 West Gaines Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400

Dear Commissioner Stewart,

As you know, we Floridians strive for excellence in education. We believe that all students in
Florida have a right to an education that prepares them to be college and career ready upon
graduation. Yet, Florida is the only state still waiting for federal approval of its plan to
implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). We are writing you today to urge you to
make the changes to the Florida plan requested in our letter on September 15, 2017 and
further reinforced in the feedback Florida received from the U.S. Department of Education
on December 19, 2017. Our state’s plan must be revised to fully comply with the ESSA
requirements as adopted by Congress, and to support all of the children in our state.
Currently, the plan excludes critical protections for English learners, students with
disabilities, students of color, and low-income students that will widen achievement gaps
instead of closing them.

As federal law requires, Florida's plan still needs to do the following to hold educators
accountable under ESSA:

• Disaggregate student performance by including calculations for subgroups of students

(all major racial and ethnic groups, students with disabilities, low-income students and
English learners) in the accountability system.
• Include English language proficiency as an indicator in the accountability system.
• Make native language assessments in the content areas available.
• Include all students, subgroups, schools, districts, assessments, rewards, support
and sanctions in Florida's single statewide A-F accountability system.

Since the State of Florida began the ESSA plan writing process in the summer of 2016, our
organizations have submitted public comments and tried on numerous occasions to work
with your department to ensure that the plan includes the abovementioned elements
thereby fully complying with ESSA and supporting our children’s success.

Despite feedback from the U.S. Department of Education (USED) and requests from local
stakeholders, Florida’s plan still does not address key ESSA provisions. We feel that the
FLDOE has ignored input from numerous stakeholders and defied compliance with ESSA at
every step of the plan writing process:

• Summer of 2017 – FLDOE made public but never submitted a set of proposed
waiver requests.
• September 20, 2017 – FLDOE submitted the Florida ESSA plan to USED.
 • December 19, 2017 – USED sent Florida an interim feedback letter that outlined the
ways in which Florida's submitted plan does not meet all applicable statutory and
regulatory requirements.
• April 20, 2018 – FLDOE resubmitted the Florida ESSA plan to USED but still failed to
fully comply with federal law. Most notably, the revised plan created a wholly
separate "federal index" outside of its A-F accountability system.
• June 5, 2018 – The USED sent the FLDOE a letter asking for a status update on
submitting "a revised consolidated State plan that meets all requirements of the
ESEA and the McKinney-Vento Act."

As of today, the State of Florida has yet to submit a plan that fully complies with ESSA.
Starting next week, Florida’s children will go back to school, yet its schools and students will
be graded under an accountability system that fails to comply with ESSA. Full compliance
with ESSA will ensure accountability for the educational success of all students and that
problems will not be ignored or swept out of sight.
Thoughtful collaboration between state and local stakeholders can result in a state plan that
will benefit all children. This is the best means possible to ensure the plan reflects the needs
of all Florida students regardless of zip code. We still stand at the ready to offer our
expertise to the FLDOE as it revises its plan to comply with ESSA. It is never too late to do
right by our students, which is why we are again requesting a meeting with your
department to assist in bringing Florida’s ESSA plan across the finish line so that it can be
implemented as soon as possible.

We look forward to hearing back from your office on possible dates where we can all meet
and put Florida’s future leaders on the path to academic success.

Sincerely,

Mari Corugedo, State Director
LULAC Florida

Jared Nordlund, Florida Senior Strategist
UnidosUS

cc:
Sen. Galvano Sen. Taddeo
Sen. Hukill Rep. Oliva
Sen. Mayfield Rep. Asencio
Sen. Passidomo Rep. Cortes
Sen. Simmons Rep. Jones
Sen. Simpson Rep. Mercado
Sen. Thurston, Jr. Rep. Plasencia
Sen. Torres Rep. Renner
Sen. Rodriguez Rep. Sullivan