Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
ESSA, Early Childhood providers & LEAs: Collaboration Resources
President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law on December 10, 2015.
ESSA includes provisions that will help to ensure success for students and schools. Below are just a few. The law:
- Advances equity by upholding critical protections for America’s disadvantaged and high-need students.
- Requires—for the first time—that all students in America be taught to high academic standards that will prepare them to succeed in college and careers.
- Ensures that vital information is provided to educators, families, students, and communities through annual statewide assessments that measure students’ progress toward those high standards.
- Helps to support and grow local innovations—including evidence-based and place-based interventions developed by local leaders and educators.
- Sustains and expands this administration’s historic investments in increasing access to high-quality preschool.
- Maintains an expectation that there will be accountability and action to effect positive change in our lowest-performing schools, where groups of students are not making progress, and where graduation rates are low over extended periods of time.
The California Head Start State Collaboration Office
Because Head Start is a federal-to-local funding program, Collaboration Office grants were developed to create a visible presence for Head Start at the state level and to assist in the development of multiagency and public-private partnerships among Head Start and other interested stakeholders. The CHSSCO is housed in the California Department of Social Services.
ESSA Resources
- New Early Childhood Coordination Requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA): A Toolkit for State and Local Educational Agencies, Head Start Programs, and the Early Childhood Field (Dec 2017)
- Early Learning Provisions of the Every Child Succeeds Act (February 2016)
- State Plan for ESSA (Jan 2022) LEAs may find these sections particularly helpful:
- Coordination requirements for LEAs and Head Start programs in ESSA and the Head Start Act (pp. 14-16)
- LEA Activities to Support Effective Coordination Agreements with Head Start and Other Early Childhood Programs (pp. 20-23) (See also Appendix F pp. 47-52)
- Samples MOUs
- Appendix G (pp. 53-87)
- Find Head Start Programs in California– Our interactive map shows the location of every Head Start program in California.
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