# data[].attributes.headline
#12. Personal Connection to the Legal and Ethical Standards

# data[].attributes.subject
#12. Personal Connection to the Legal and Ethical Standards

# data[].attributes.body
This project allowed me to see the backside to the opportunities I was afforded in my educational journey. From the legal standpoint, there were many that came before me that were a part of the "pavement" that lead to laws, statutes, and codes that allow for me and other students to have school choice. From an ethical standpoint, as educators/counselors it is our job to do what is best for students and sometimes that means the student we love moving to an environment that is better suited for them. and sets them up for the greatest amount of success.

# data[].attributes.body
B.1(b): "Respect the rights and responsibilities of custodial and
noncustodial parents/guardians and, as appropriate, establish
a collaborative relationship with parents/guardians to facilitate
students’ maximum development." (ASCA, 2016). This ethical standard states that school counselors must respect the right of the parents, which includes possibly moving their child to another campus. A school counselor could best support the parents and students by arranging a meeting with the counselor of the new campus to provide a clear and smooth transition for the family and set the student up for success.

American School Counselor Association. (2016). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. Retrieved from https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf

# data[].attributes.body
Lubbock ISD has a transfer policy for the students of the district. Parents may complete transfer request forms for their students to attend a school outside of their attendance zone. The policy does have certain stipulations regarding the student's transfer.
Lubbock ISD. 2020. Lubbock isd school board policy: admissions intradistrict transfers and classroom assignments. Lubbock ISD School Board Policy.

# data[].attributes.body
1866: The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution - Constitutional Law.
-This amendment made it to where people within the United States had the right to obtain an education without interference from the state government (U.S. Const. Amend. XIV).
-The state cannot dictate where a student attends school
-The state must provide a system where every student has the opportunity to receive a free and high-quality public eduation

# data[].attributes.body
1954: Brown vs. Board of Education - Judicial Law.
-The ruling from this monumental court case found that segregation was unconstitutional in public schooling (Brown v. Board, 1954).
-Students were not denied entry to a school based on their race
-Teachers were not denied a job based on their race
-One of the major foundation points for the fight for equality for students

# data[].attributes.headline
#13. Bulleted List of Recommendations/Best Practices for Compliance

# data[].attributes.subject
#13. Bulleted List of Recommendations/Best Practices for Compliance

# data[].attributes.body
-Support the parent(s) in their decision
-Do not let personal feelings about the new campus interfere with your professional obligation to the parent and student
-It is not the job of the educator/counselor to impose their opinions on the family in an attempt to coerce them to not transfer
-Ensure parents have reliable and relevant information on all available options they have regarding their child's education
-If a student transfers to your campus, regardless of their background, they have the legal right to be at your campus and should not be treated differently
-There are rules/policies/laws at local, state, and federal levels stating that families have the right to choose the school/program that best serves the needs of their child

# data[].attributes.body
My professional perspective is that school choice is important for families to understand so that students receive the educational experience that is best for them. My field of education is professional school counseling. The topic of this Legal Guide is school choice; parents/students having the ability to choose the school in which they attend. The intended audience of this Legal Guide is any parent interested/concerned in them having a choice in which school their child will attend.  I chose this topic because I was able to benefit from the ability to choose the school/program that was best for me and my educational journey.

# data[].attributes.body
(19 TAC § 247.2.) Educators’ Code of Ethics, 19 Tex. Admin. Code § 247.2. This section/rule discusses what is expected from teachers working in the state of Texas.
-States that teachers will not intentionally deceive people of the district's or state's policies such as parents/students having the right to choose what school they wish to attend.
-It is not the teachers job to twist the policy to stop a student from leaving their school, their job is to follow and abide by set policies.
-Teachers should support students and their families in the best way that they can.

# data[].attributes.body
Texas Education Code Chapter 25b §25.033 - Statutory Law. This statute made it to where parents could have their child transferred from one school to another within the school district (2 TEC §25.033(1)).
- Families can apply for a transfer/voucher within their school district
- Bullying can play a factor in school transfer for a student

# data[].attributes.body
-pandemic allowed more funding to fuel school choice
-varied state to state
-mostly charter schools benefited from funding
-"Education is not one size fits all"
-whether it's controversial, parents have the right to choose what is best for their child's education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
He used part of the windfall to further his goal of offering school choice options for parents, sending millions to charter schools that operate without traditional public oversight. That included funneling more than $4 million to new charters that are not scheduled to open until at least next year.

It was an easy way for the Republican governor to advance a long-held priority. For Lee and some other GOP governors, the discretionary money was a chance to sidestep their state legislatures and advance school choice, which typically involves funding charter schools or offering vouchers so parents can use taxpayer money to pay private school tuition.

Teachers unions and other critics view the efforts as a way to siphon money away from traditional public schools.

"This feels like he's taking advantage of the pandemic and the pandemic relief to further his ideological goal of defunding the traditional public schools," said state Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat and retired teacher.

In a series of bills since the COVID-19 outbreak began last year, Congress has allocated $190 billion to help public and private schools weather the pandemic. Although there is no centralized way to see how districts and private schools are spending the aid, The Associated Press tracked most of that money to determine how much was received by virtually every school district in the country and to analyze the ways governors distributed the assistance they were free to dole out as they wished.

In the initial wave of funding, governors were given $3 billion with few strings attached but the expectation that it be used to help schools and colleges "most significantly impacted by coronavirus."

They used that money in a variety of ways: New Jersey supported colleges. Oregon used it to make sure even tiny rural districts received minimum amounts of aid. States including Indiana and Colorado established competitive grant programs for school districts.

This week, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced he was using a separate pot of federal pandemic aid to create a $10 million grant initiative similar to the state's existing private school voucher program. It was the Republican governor's latest attempt to push back against public school districts that are defying a state ban on mask mandates. The funding allows grants up to $7,000 per student if their public school requires masks, orders quarantines due to COVID-19 exposure or gives different treatment to vaccinated students.

In Tennessee, Lee has long been an advocate of launching more charter schools -- institutions that are publicly funded but operate outside traditional school districts. In a feature that appeals to many conservatives, they usually do not have unionized teachers.

Of the nearly $64 million in discretionary pandemic education money that came to his office, Lee dedicated $10 million to charters. The governor used it to make sure every charter received some aid and to help existing schools add grades. He reserved a chunk of it - $4.4 million - to help launch new charters, none of which is scheduled to welcome students until at least 2022.

Lee spokeswoman Casey Black did not directly respond to a question from the AP about funding for charter schools that are not yet open but said the use of the money would help provide families with access to a high-quality education. Brian Blackley, a spokesman for Lee's state Department of Education, said the charter school funding is meant to give families more options.

"Education is not one size fits all, and the pandemic showed us just how important it is to provide families with better access to high-quality school options," he said in an email.

Beth Brown, president of the Tennessee Education Association, criticized the spending.

"Using pandemic relief money to open new charter schools is an insult to the public school teachers who have worked tirelessly since March 2020 to keep public schools open," said Brown, a high school English teacher in rural Grundy County.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat who serves as chair of the House Labor and Education Committee, said the federal money was not intended to be used that way.

"The 5% or 10% that end up in charters may or may not improve their education situation," he said. "It's hard to make an argument that reducing the money available to public schools helps the 90% to 95% of those who are in public schools."

Oklahoma's GOP governor, Kevin Stitt, used $10 million of the nearly $40 million in his governor-controlled fund to create a stay-in-school program that funded scholarships for lower-income students who already attend private schools.

The state education secretary, Ryan Walters, said the state was hearing from parents who lost income early in the pandemic and could not keep paying private-school tuition.

"Moving them in the middle of a pandemic to a brand-new school would create even more trauma for them," he said.

Most Oklahoma private schools are religious. One exception is Positive Tomorrows, an Oklahoma City school exclusively for students in families experiencing homelessness.

The school usually costs around $3 million a year to run, with many expenses paid through donations. It got about $350,000 from Stitt's program, plus another $250,000 in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans from the federal government to keep paying teachers and staff. Public schools did not have access to the forgivable loans.

"Because of the role that we serve, I think we deserve some government funding," said Susan Agel, president of the school. "This is a kind of thing that I'd really like to see more of, particularly for our school."

State Rep. Jacob Rosecrants, a Democrat who was a public school teacher until he was elected in 2017, said there are still major needs in public schools that should be met before taxpayer money is considered for private schools.

"If you want to go to a private school, you have that choice," he said. "You're private for a reason."

Governors in Florida and New Hampshire also used portions of their discretionary money for private-school scholarship programs.

A South Carolina program championed by GOP Gov. Henry McMaster was larger - $32 million - and scholarships were planned for students who were not already in private schools. But the scholarships were never awarded because the program was blocked unanimously by the state Supreme Court.

Shaunette Parker, board chairwoman for the Second Baptist Christian Preparatory School in Aiken, said McMaster's proposal could have been a toehold for establishing a broader voucher program in South Carolina, something that has never been adopted in the Legislature.

"We were hoping the success of that one-year funding would have shown people how this wasn't going to create a mass exodus of the public schools," Parker said. "It would have improved education all around."

After the court rejected McMaster's effort, he redirected the money to other programs, including launching regional computer labs, boosting technical colleges, funding summer and extended-day programs for 4-year-olds - and helping helping public charter schools where enrollments have risen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Some governors use federal virus aid to expand school choice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
He used part of the windfall to further his goal of offering school choice options for parents, sending millions to charter schools that operate without traditional public oversight. That included funneling more than $4 million to new charters that are not scheduled to open until at least next year.

# data[].attributes.body
-school choice provides equity for students
-school choice is trending towards people choosing for programs/courses more so than whole campuses
-creates personalized learning experience for each student
-school records could be a roadblock
-parents need relevant information as to what programs are available and the data reports from students who chose similar pathways

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The battle lines have long been drawn, but the context in which educators debate school choice is likely to shift in the coming years. As schools catch up with higher education in using new technologies to reshape how and where we learn, hopefully we will see fewer skirmishes depicting opponents of school choice as "flat Earthers" or proponents as enemies of public schools. Instead, educators and policymakers finally will have to address fundamental challenges in giving every student an equal opportunity to reach his or her full potential.

Our educational system has always offered choice for some, in the form of private schools. Today, some sort of public school choice has become a reality nationwide. At the same time as public charter school enrollment has skyrocketed-tripling between 2005 and 2016 to exceed 3 million-traditional districts have relaxed once-rigid attendance boundaries and created magnet and special-interest schools to better address the needs and aspirations of individual students. In fact, more students attend traditional public magnet schools than charter schools. While both charter and traditional schools have a long way to go before they meet public education's promise of providing a high-quality education for every child, it is hard to argue against broadening the opportunities available to students, particularly those who have traditionally been underserved by public schools and unable to access private schools.

At the same time, research has consistently shown that school choice-whether through private school vouchers or lotteries for public charter schools and specialized district schools-still disproportionately benefits better-off students. Where students live still largely determines their options, given the cost and time of transportation, policies that bar cross-district choice, financial constraints, and barriers that prevent parents from learning about the options available to their families.

However, the current school choice debate over access and equity fundamentally misses where choice is headed.

We believe that in the not-so-distant future, choice will not primarily be focused on families and students selecting the particular school that best fits their needs. Instead, parents and students will create a customized educational experience from a menu of options that ultimately will become granular down to the course level. A high school student, for example, might be able to enroll and participate in sports or extracurricular activities at the neighborhood public school, yet travel to a nearby magnet or charter school to take advanced math or science classes-all while taking online foreign language courses or completing college-level coursework with students from around the country.

This approach, while a dramatic shift from how schools are run today, represents a powerful way to meet the imperative of personalizing education for each student. It is already increasingly common in higher education, where consortia collaborate on blended learning offerings and students patch together courses and competencies across a number of providers. And in K-12, the idea that students are not anchored in one school setting is becoming a reality in both affluent suburban school systems and progressive urban districts that offer part-day programs that allow students to take courses in multiple schools.

The proliferation of online learning models soon will extend these options to rural areas, where school choice has been constrained by physical distance. In short, the conversation about school choice soon will shift from buildings to programs-and more often than not, multiple programs for each student.

This shift is being driven not by policy or politics, but by improvements in technology and by the desires of large numbers of parents. It will require an equal shift in the mindset of school leaders and policymakers to ensure that these new opportunities are available to all students, particularly those who need it the most. Among the issues these leaders will have to confront:

* Eliminating roadblocks to physical school choice. Funding for choice programs must include viable transportation options for students and foster cross-sector collaboration with regional transit agencies and paratransit options, which supplement public transportation for individuals with disabilities. Policymakers also must continue efforts to eliminate barriers that prevent students from attending classes in schools in an adjoining city or county that better fit their needs.

* Managing student records. If students take courses from a range of schools and providers, the question of who manages the credentials will become critical. This issue has already complicated efforts in postsecondary education to better manage stackable credentials-a sequence of certificates, certifications, licenses, badges, apprenticeships, and other credentials that can be accumulated over time and move an individual along a career pathway or up a career ladder. New efforts, supported by the Lumina Foundation and others, are working to connect different kinds of credentials that are likely to reshape how employers hire and how colleges recognize and reward students in higher education. The demand for these approaches will intensify as competency-based education and micro-credentialing proliferate.

Ultimately, we believe each student in both K-12 and higher education will have his or her own "digital backpack" that contains all information about the coursework, credentials, and innovative educational experiences he or she has completed. Policymakers will have to work with technology providers to create an environment where the need for the free exchange of information among schools and providers is balanced with concerns about student privacy.

* Improving parent access to information. Even in cities with a variety of options, parents say that they lack quality data to make good decisions. Ensuring that all parents have access to accurate, unbiased, and easily understandable information about educational options will only become more important as parents look beyond schools to nontraditional providers and technology-based options for their children.

As education offerings and their providers become differentiated moving forward, it will be even more difficult to make apples-to-apples comparisons of quality, making it all the more important that all parents have common-sense, plain-English explanations of each offering. Accreditation may ultimately provide an assurance of a baseline of quality that can guide parents as they weigh disparate options that best fit their child's individual needs.

This transition will be challenging and complex, but parent and student demand is already driving these shifts, requiring policymakers, educators, and parents alike to advocate that all students will have access to the broadening menu of options that can ensure that their education will be the best possible fit for their needs.

Can our evolving educational ecosystem provide this rich spectrum of choices on its own? If not, how can policymakers ensure they are available to all students? That is the question that will shape the future of school choice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How School Choice Is About to Fundamentally Change (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The battle lines have long been drawn, but the context in which educators debate school choice is likely to shift in the coming years. As schools catch up with higher education in using new technologies to reshape how and where we learn, hopefully we will see fewer skirmishes depicting opponents of school choice as "flat Earthers" or proponents as enemies of public schools.

# data[].attributes.body
National School Boards Association: This link takes you to a PDF providing additional information and statistics on school choice. The report describes how school choice is a major component in the educational journey of both the parent and student and provides information to aid in this decision making process.

Center for Public Education. (2017). School choice: what the research says. National School Boards Association.

# data[].attributes.body
I interviewed Carrianne Faulkenberry, the school counselor at Roscoe Wilson Elementary in Lubbock, TX. The school Mrs. Faulkenberry works at is actually a school lots of families within our school district transfer in to so I figured she would be a perfect person to interview regarding school choice. Mrs. Faulkenberry made it clear that knowing and understanding the current laws regarding school counseling and a student's education is crucial to a school counseling program. A school counselor has to know what is allowed for students and their parents when it comes to the role they have in the decision-making in their child's education. Mrs. Faulkenberry said it can be hard to keep up with all of the different laws/policies/statutes/rules when it comes to the counseling profession so creating a guide such as this one is a good resource to be able to refer back to as the years go on. Mrs. Faulkenberry noted that following current court cases regarding certain issues, such as school choice, is another way to ensure you are staying up to date on best practices. Another thing Mrs. Faulkenberry kept saying was, "counseling can be a very tough and emotional job but, to see a student find success on the other side of an issue makes it all worth it in the end." Mrs. Faulkenberry said that the following things were important when it comes to school choice: 1. Always keep the student's best interest in mind regardless of your personal feelings toward the transfer, 2. Ensure that the student's and their parents are well informed of the policies regarding transfers and programs they are interested in, and 3. If your opinion is asked for, make sure you remain professional and keep your personal biases out of the conversation. Mrs. Faulkenberry and I discussed how the "virtual school" option rocked the educational world. Last year, students were able to choose from regular face-to-face instruction and participate in school virtually through Google meet and Google classroom. We talked about how it will be interesting to see if families fight for more options to receive this type of instruction rather than attending "normal" school. We both believe that face-to-face instruction is hard to beat but again, the families have the right to choose which education style is best for their children when available.

# data[].attributes.body
-American School Counselor Association. (2016). ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. Retrieved from https://www.schoolcounselor.org/asca/media/asca/Ethics/EthicalStandards2016.pdf
-Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 (1954).
-Center for Public Education. (2017). School choice: what the research says. National School Boards Association.
-Educators’ Code of Ethics, 19 Tex. Admin. Code § 247.2
-Elgart, M.A. & Wheelan, B.S. (2018). How school choice is about to fundamentally change. EducationWeek.
-Lubbock ISD. 2020. Lubbock isd school board policy: admissions intradistrict transfers and classroom assignments. Lubbock ISD School Board Policy.
-Mulvihill, G. (2021). Some governors use federal virus aid to expand school choice. abc News.
-Texas Education Code Chapter 25b §25.033
-U.S. Const. Amend. XIV