ESEA State Ombudsman Hub Summary

Hub Description: In collaboration with the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the State Support Network (Network), the Office of Nonpublic Education launched a new online environment in which state ombudsmen can collaborate. This space, housed within the Network website, offers a password-protected environment for state ombudsmen to engage with peers in other states, access tools and resources, and share best practices.  Leveraging the power of existing networks and communities of state education professionals, this Hub established an environment for collaboration and technical assistance to aid ombudsmen as they execute their important role with in state educational agencies.

Participating SEAs: Hub activities were open to all ombudsmen.

Hub Duration: The Ombudsman Hub launched in fall 2018 and currently remains open to all state ombudsmen. Hub activities were facilitated between January and May 2019.

Hub Activities

The activities below occurred within the Hub’s password protected environment. While the webinar recordings are made available, other activities are described only so as not to make public individual contributions from participating Hub members.

Resources

Asynchronous Virtual Activities

Tools for Engaging Stakeholders Online

This resource documents several tools that state ombudsmen can use to interact virtually with key stakeholders across their states. The first set of tools shared are designed to enliven presentations by adding innovation and interaction. The second set are tools that can increase skill to use social media as a communication and networking mechanism. The third set are platforms that can be used to build websites and online community environments without knowledge of coding and web development.

Build Your Own Toolkit

This activity was designed to allow ombudsmen to “crowd-source” a “starter kit” of tools and resources that a new ombudsman could reference when he/she starts the job.

The activity was broken down into two parts. In the first part, ombudsmen submitted ideas for a list of subtopics and/or required tasks, aligned to an initial list of five high-level topics, for which an ombudsman would benefit from a tool or a resource. Those high-level topics were:

• Consultation
• Monitoring
• Enforcing Equitable Services
• Dispute Processes
• Funding

In the second part of the activity, ombudsmen entered subtopics or required tasks aligned to the topics listed by replying to the post. The final list of subtopics was as follows:

Consultation	Monitoring	Enforcing Equitable Services	Dispute	Funding
New equitable services cycle timeline Initial contact letter Tools to identify private schools Intent to participate form Title I, Part A low-income counting (household income, address/grade level) survey form Consultation checklist Equitable services plan, including private school affirmation of consultation with right to disagree Affirmation of consultation and agreement form Needs assessment for Titles II and IV Title I program design/non-public plan Meaningful consultation forms for initial and ongoing consultations	Tool to collect evidence of Diligent Search Evidence of initial contact letters sent and corresponding private school responses Evidence of additional contact attempts if private school did not respond Evidence of consultation culminating in equitable services plan with written affirmation/disagreement signed by private school representative, filed with SEA	Evidence of program implementation, including responsiveness to private school concerns (by LEA and by ombudsman) Evidence of program evaluations	Written dispute procedure that supports due process Dispute or claim form Plan (for use during the dispute process) to address disputed transfers Affirmation of  consultation for transfers with right to dispute	Evidence of program implementation including responsiveness to private school concerns (by LEA and by ombudsman Example processes for establishing equitable shares Oversight of administrative cost assignment Notice of allocation for private schools/communication tools for advising private schools on their equitable shares Carryover forms or processes

Hub Discussion Board

Several state ombudsmen posted their own discussion posts on the Hub discussion board, where they were viewed and responded to by peers. Topics included but were not limited to:

• Bypass procedures
• Title I considerations
• Title III calculations for nonpublic schools
• Transferability
• Working with different types of nonpublic schools