Greetings from the SSWAA Legislative Committee:

We wanted to provide you with a quarterly update regarding the work of SSWAA's Legislative Committee. As you know this year has truly kept us extremely busy in our advocacy efforts. We recognize and appreciate your willingness to take a few moments in your day to respond to the numerous action alerts that we have sent requiring an urgent response. Our mission as always is to ensure equitable supports and resources for children, youth and families as well as to stand up against oppression of any kind. Thank you for making your voices heard!

Much of our work as a Legislative Committee this year has been responding to legislation such as Tax Reform, Health Insurance Reform, CHIP, DACA, etc. and building national advocacy efforts to ensure our school social work voice and expertise is at the table. We have also been empowering states to build their advocacy efforts on a state level as well. North Carolina, Kansas, New Mexico, Alaska, Washington, Nevada, Georgia and others have engaged members within their states to organize and advocate for the value of our profession and needs of their students through activities such as planning and hosting a Day at their State Capitol, advocating for more SSW positions or developing a state school social work organization. We want to hear about your macro advocacy efforts so we can publicize this on our SSWAA Facebook page!

In addition, Myrna participates in a number of national coalitions on SSWAA's behalf, and in the current environment where policies are changing rapidly, these groups are more important than ever. Following are just some of the groups in which she is involved and issues those groups are addressing.

1.Committee for Education Funding (CEF, ): A coalition of close to 120 national organizations, CEF focuses on increasing the federal investment in education. The group is engaged in a campaign – "5¢ Makes Sense for Education" – working to increase the current investment of 2¢ of every federal dollar for education to 5¢. CEF members representing pre-K through adult education and education-related programs help policymakers understand the need for increased funding by putting a face to the beneficiaries of federal education programs and describing the continuing need in communities across the country. We are also engaged in the tax reform debate, focused on the negative impact to education that will very likely occur with a sharp increase in the federal deficit.

2.National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE, ): SSWAA has released a strong statement supporting the use public funds only for public education. NCPE is dedicated to this same stance. With the concern over the very small federal investment in education, the more than 50 national education, civil rights and religious organizations in NCPE have been kept very busy with the new Administration's strong push to provide a variety of private school voucher mechanisms. The latest attempt is through the tax reform bills, both of which now include a provision allowing families to use 529 college savings plans for K-12 tuition at private and sectarian schools, and, in the Senate bill, for education expenses for homeschooled students.

3.Public Service Loan Forgiveness Coalition (PSLF): This new coalition led by Equal Justice Works is engaged in saving the PSLF program, which is available to school social workers and other educators. The program is in serious jeopardy. Just this past week the House Education and Workforce Committee introduced a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act which eliminates PSLF and consolidates other federal student financial aid programs into a "one grant, one loan, one work study" model.

4.NDD United ( NDD – nondefense discretionary – are all federal programs whose spending is controlled by the annual appropriations (funding) process, as opposed to mandatory, or entitlement, programs (Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, some child care, and some Pell Grant funds, etc.) which are not subject to that annual process. This coalition is working to keep parity in funding between NDD and Defense programs and to increase the total NDD spending, as well. NDD includes education, health, social services, environment, transportation, and all the rest of the federal agencies.

Issues under discussion in other ongoing coalitions (see previous quarterly reports for coalition descriptions) include:

  • Preserving health care for all citizens, including particularly Medicaid and CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program) which fund mental health and other health-related services in schools, as well as providing regular health care for children.
  • Raising the appropriation level for the Title IV-A block grant under the Every Student Succeeds Act, so every school district will receive adequate funding. Title IV-A funds can be used for school mental health services, replacing the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling program and other competitive grants with a large block grant covering safe and healthy students, well-round education, and education technology.
  • Efforts to "repeal, replace, or modify" federal regulations. SSWAA responded to a request for comments from the US Department of Education on this issue, stating regulations on the IDEA and ESSA should remain in their current form.
  • Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act (HEA). In addition to the challenges to the PSLF and other student financial aid, SSWAA will also be working on the House bill's elimination of Title II – grants for teacher and administrator preparation, as well as recruitment and retention activities. We have worked for a number of years through the National Alliance of Specialized Instructional Support Personnel (NASISP) on expanding Title II to include SISP. HEA also includes a definition and use of universal design for learning, which we will work to retain.

Furthermore, SSWAA joined other national organizations in signing the following letters to Congress and the Department of Education:

  • Letter to Dept. of Education from the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Education Task Force urging no "repeal, replace, or modify" of current education regulations.
  • Letter to Congress from national child and youth advocate organizations urging immediate passage of the Dream Act of 2017, which would provide lawful status and a clear path to citizenship to certain immigrant youth and young adults who came to the United States as children, including recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
  • Letter to Congress from the Save Medicaid in Schools Coalition urging immediate extension of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
  • Letter to Congress from the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG) expressing opposition to a new Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ) proposal aimed at repealing and replacing major portions of the Affordable Care Act.
  • Letter to Dept of Education from the National Coalition for Public Education commenting on the Secretary of Education's proposed discretionary grant priorities.
  • Letter to the House Education Committee from the CCD Education Task Force regarding principles for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.
  • Letter to Senate Education Committee from MHLG regarding proposed efforts to stabilize the health insurance market and the effects on children and adults with mental health challenge.

As you can see, SSWAA is working diligently on behalf of our members, students and families. However, we cannot do this work alone. Please continue to respond to and pass along action alerts to your members. It is helpful for us to know if you receive any contact from your elected officials in response to the action alerts, please let us know. We would also like to know when your state advocacy days are scheduled. If you have any questions or would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact either Myrna or myself! Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Christy McCoy MSW LICSWMyrna Mandlwitz

SSWAA Legislative Chair SSWAA Government Relations Specialist

School Social Work Association of America

P.O. Box 3068

London, Kentucky 40743