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Elementary & Secondary Education Act Waiver

Current Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Website

Archived ESEA Waiver information is below.

2015 Waiver Renewal

The United States Department of Education renewed approval of Florida’s ESEA Flexibility request on August 21, 2015. This renewal extends Florida’s ESEA Flexibility Waiver through the end of the 2015-16 school year. View renewal request (PDF).

The amended application includes several changes to reflect Florida’s current direction. The application is revised to include Florida’s implementation of the Florida Standards and our high quality assessment to measure student’s mastery of the standards. The application is also amended to reflect additional information about Florida’s new school grading system and to reflect updated student performance information. The application also includes information about a new designation that A schools may earn when they close achievement gaps among subgroups.

Finally, the revised flexibility application includes language that revises the provisions related to Priority and Focus Schools and is updated to reflect the current processes related to differentiated accountability.

In addition, other provisions throughout the application are updated to reflect current practice.

Florida's Flexibility Request

From U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan - Sept. 23, 2011: Many of our reform efforts to help students were not anticipated when the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was enacted. While NCLB helped states and district increase the accountability for groups of high-need students, it inadvertently encouraged some states to set low academic standards, failed to recognize or reward growth in student learning, and did little to elevate the teaching profession or recognize the most effective teachers. Instead of fostering progress and accelerating academic improvement, many NCLB requirements have unintentionally become barriers to state and local implementation of reforms designed to raise academic achievement.

This web page contains various resources and documents that will provide you with more information about the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the various deadlines associated with the waiver application.

Commissioner's Taskforce on Inclusion and Accountability

You'll find more information on our website related to potential changes in school accountability, including a link to resources from a Board of Education workshop about school grades under different scenarios and information from the February 28 board meeting where the board took action on the flexibility waiver.

Links: