Two Students Share Personal Stories; Five Awards Given

DOVER – Media are invited to join Lt. Governor Matt Denn as he presents awards at the 20th Annual Outstanding Adult and Family Literacy Achievement and Service Awards on Friday, April 13th. Held in the Senate Chamber at Legislative Hall, the event is a wonderful opportunity for individuals working in the adult education community to be recognized for their important work. The ceremony is hosted by the Interagency Council on Adult Literacy (ICAL).

The purpose of the event is to highlight the achievement of individuals, organizations and businesses committed to adult literacy over the past year and to highlight the good work being done in the adult education community at the present time. Representatives of adult education programs from around the State, members of ICAL, students of the program and their families will be in attendance. In addition, two students will share their experiences in adult education programs and how their lives have been impacted.

These two students, Luis Ortiz and Mamie Jackson, have led very different lives and have different stories to tell. However, both of their lives have been changed drastically because of the adult education classes offered in the state. One of them recently became a business owner and the other dreams of going to college and becoming an entrepreneur.

Five awards will also be given to recognize the following groups and individuals for their participation and support in leading the effort on adult literacy:

• Organization
• Program
• Staff
• Volunteer
• Thomas M. Baker Service to Literacy Award

Lt. Gov. Denn and Maureen Whelan, the State Director of Adult Education, will present the awards, which will be revealed at the ceremony.

Friday, April 13, 2012
10:30am – 11:30am
Legislative Hall, Senate Chamber
Dover

Speaks to 4th Graders at Sunnyside Elementary about Democracy
Provides Remarks to Early Childhood Professionals Conference
Welcomes State of Wyoming Main Street Program to Dover

DOVER – On Friday, March 30th, Lt. Governor Matt Denn will be in Kent County.

Lt. Governor Denn will start his day by speaking to fourth grade students at Sunnyside Elementary School about democracy. In their current lesson, students are learning about civic responsibility and parliamentary procedure. In preparation for the Lt. Governor’s visit, the students have all been preparing questions they would like him to answer about being Lt. Governor and why democracy is important.

Lt. Governor Denn will then address the Early Childhood Professionals Conference. This year, the Delaware Association for the Education of Young Children and the Delaware Head Start Association have collaborated in merging their annual conferences together to bring together the best early childhood education trainers in the field.

Lt. Governor Denn will welcome the State of Wyoming Main Street program on behalf of the State of Delaware. Each year, the State of Wyoming Main Street program tours Main Street towns/cities across the country in conjunction with their annual meeting. This year, since the conference is in Baltimore, they are visiting Dover and Rehoboth Beach. Wyoming Main Street is the state-level coordinating entity that promotes and manages the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street program within the state of Wyoming. Wyoming Main Street’s purpose is to assist Wyoming communities of various sizes and resource-levels with their downtown revitalization efforts.

Friday, March 30, 2012

10:00am – 11:00am Visit to Sunnyside Elementary School
123 Rabbit Chase Road
Smyrna

11:45am – 12:45pm Early Childhood Professionals Conference
Delaware Tech-Terry Campus
Building 700 Education and Technology Building
Route 13 and Scarborough Road
Dover

3:15pm – 3:30pm Welcomes the State of Wyoming Main Street Program
Public Archives Building
121 Duke of York Street
Dover

WILMINGTON – Lt. Governor Matt Denn and Attorney General Beau Biden announced a plan today to put in place an effective statewide policy to combat cyberbullying in Delaware’s schools.  The plan includes statewide public hearings to gather information to be used in developing the cyberbullying policy, and legislation designed to help school districts enforce the new policy.

The Lt. Governor and Attorney General’s plan consists of four steps:

1. Statewide public hearings in April to gather factual evidence from school administrators and parents about the type of off-campus activity causing disruption in our schools.
2. The drafting of a statewide cyberbullying policy based upon the evidence gathered at the hearings.
3. Issuance of a regulation by the state’s Department of Education requiring adoption of the statewide cyberbullying policy by public school districts and charter schools.
4. A new state law that will allow the Attorney General’s office to defend school districts and charter schools if their good faith enforcement of the statewide cyberbullying policy is subject to legal challenge.

“We need to fight cyberbullying aggressively but also thoughtfully,” said Lt. Governor Denn.  “Around the country, schools have been sued when trying to enforce cyberbullying policies – and even here in Delaware, the one school district that attempted to implement a cyberbullying policy was threatened with litigation.  This approach, where we gather the facts first, write a policy based on those facts, and then stand behind the policy with the full force of our Attorney General’s office, will give us the best chance to deal with this growing problem.”

“Thanks to constant communication and social networking, there is no such thing as a ‘schoolyard bully’ anymore,” saidAttorney General Biden. “Kids who face bullies face them all the time – at home, at school, and everywhere in between. For schools to be the safe places that children deserve, they must be able to effectively fight bullying that may originate off school grounds, but follows its victims 24 hours a day.”

The legislation necessary for implementation of this plan will be introduced in the Senate this week by Senator David Sokola, and will be sponsored in the House of Representatives by Representative Terry Schooley.  Senator Sokola and Representative Schooley are the chairs of their chambers’ respective education committees, and the prime sponsors of companion legislation they introduced with the Lt. Governor and Attorney General earlier this month addressing the reporting of bullying incidents.

“A lot of the kinds of controls that have worked in other media haven’t been as effective in the on-line world because of instantaneous and permanent nature but we know some things have worked,” said Sen. David Sokola, D-Newark, the bill’s leading sponsor. “And we can’t give up; we need to look at what’s being done to successfully curb cyberbullying elsewhere and use it here.”

“In this age of technology, young people use many different forms of social media, computers and cell phones to communicate and publicly post information,” said Rep. Terry Schooley, D-Newark. “Unfortunately, these means of communication can be used to bully other young people in a more public way than previous generations could ever imagine. By introducing this legislation, we are trying to stay ahead of the curve and protect our children and grandchildren from cyber-bullying and let people know that bullying in any form is wrong and should not be tolerated.”

Hearing dates, times, and locations for the statewide public hearings follow. They are open to the public, with school administrators being asked to testify first to share firsthand experiences. Written input is also welcome and may be emailed to emily.cunningham@delaware.gov.

New Castle County
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
10:30am – 12:30pm
Carvel State Office Building – auditorium
820 N. French Street
Wilmington

Sussex County
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
5:00pm – 7:00pm
Sussex County Administrative Building
2 The Circle
Georgetown

Kent County
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
11:30am – 1:30pm
Kent County Levy Court Chamber
555 Bay Road
Dover

Dover – Gov. Jack Markell continued the state’s efforts to put quality teachers in Delaware classrooms, signing two pieces of legislation extending successful teacher recruitment initiatives.

SB 164, sponsored by Sen. Dave Sokola and Rep. Terry Schooley, gives school districts confidence to offer jobs earlier in the year to quality teachers, extending the program another two years. HB 239, also sponsored by Rep. Schooley and Sen. Sokola, extends for three years the state’s authorization in the Teach For America program, offering incentives to place some of the country’s brightest college graduates in the toughest schools.

“We’re fully committed to making our public schools stronger. The most important factor in great schools is great teachers,” Gov. Markell said. “U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is in town tomorrow to take a hard look at how our state is doing in the two years since we won Race to the Top. These bills are further evidence that when it comes to recruiting top talent, we are serious.”

Estimated unit count: As a result of a Teacher Hiring Task Force created by Lt. Governor Matt Denn and Sen. Sokola, legislation signed into law in 2011 allowed Delaware to become competitive with surrounding states in hiring teachers earlier in the year than previously allowed because of the state unit counts.

While the official unit count used to authorize state funding for teachers does not occur until fall, SB 164 extends an ‘estimated unit count’ for the state’s school districts in April of each school year, with school districts guaranteed to receive at least 98 percent of the funds for paying teachers calculated at that earlier point. This estimated unit count allows school districts to have greater confidence in the amount of state funding that they will receive to pay new teachers, and therefore extend earlier hiring offers.

A state Department of Education report on the estimated unit count said that 460 new teachers were hired earlier in 2011 than they would have been otherwise. With regards to its accuracy, the estimated unit count on May 10, 2011 was 8359 and the actual count on September 30, 2011 was 8403.55.

“I am proud to have played a role in this process,” Lt. Governor Denn said of SB 164. “The two-year extension is really going to make a difference in our schools. Hiring teachers as early as possible means they are integrated into the school team, can get their classrooms set up and start focusing on the job of educating instead of waiting on a job in education.”

Teach for America: In April 2009, the General Assembly passed and the Governor signed legislation establishing the Teach for America program in Delaware. TFA is an alternative route to teacher certification program that takes top performing college graduates and places them in challenging schools for two years in return for help with their loans or future education. Some research has shown that Teach for America teachers can have a positive effect on student performance.

Since 2009, there have been more than 60 Teach for America teachers placed in Delaware schools, contributing to the education of approximately 3,000 students. Currently, there are 46 TFA teachers working in 18 Delaware schools in three districts and six charter schools.

HB 239 extends TFA authorization in Delaware for another three years, keeping TFA available as a path towards teaching.

“Delaware has a lot of reasons to be proud of the hard work being done by our public school teachers,” said Sen. Sokola, who chairs the Senate education committee and sponsored both the original early recruiting bill and the extension. “Extending both of these bills makes a lot of sense because it gives us a chance to better evaluate how they’re doing at helping our school seek out and recruit the best teaching talent.”

“These bills give us a couple more tools in the toolbox as we deal with education reform in attracting more young, dedicated people into the field of education,” said Rep. Schooley, who chairs the House Education Committee. “The sunset on the TFA bill allows us to do more analysis on the long-term viability of the program.”

Recommendations Focus on Prevention and Treatment of Child Sex Abuse

DOVER – A special committee charged by the General Assembly with assessing child mental health services in Kent and Sussex County, with a focus on child victims of sexual assault, delivered its findings and recommendations today. The recommendations include the recruitment of new mental health professionals to Sussex County, training for clinicians in detection and treatment of trauma in children, and improved case management of mental health services for children.

The committee, formed by House Joint Resolution #7 in August, 2011, was chaired by Lieutenant Governor Matthew Denn and included input from social service and law enforcement agencies, school district officials, legislators, child mental health experts, and advocates for children with disabilities.

“The recommendations we are making today are targeted, specific, and manageable,” said Lieutenant Governor Denn. “The result if these recommendations are implemented will be more prompt and effective mental health services for all children in Kent and Sussex County, and quicker and more effective intervention for children who are the victims of sexual abuse.”

The recommendations include:

• Specific recommendations for recruitment of two new child psychiatrists to Sussex County, and recommendations for a new collaborative service approach for those psychiatrists with family doctors and pediatricians.
• A recommendation for new training for mental health professionals working with children in Kent and Sussex Counties, focused on early detection and treatment of trauma.
• Recommendations regarding secure funding for the Children’s Advocacy Center’s case managers, and creation of a Kent/Sussex County case manager for child trauma victims who are not treated through the Children’s Advocacy Center.
• A request for a formal review of the child mental health networks made available by the state’s private and public health insurance carriers, to ensure that those networks are large enough that children are not being subjected to unreasonable travel or waiting periods for mental health services.

A full list of the committee’s recommendations is included in the attached report, which includes a summary of recommendations.

Throughout the committee’s recommendations, it emphasizes the importance of providing services targeted at Kent and Sussex County’s growing Spanish-speaking community.

“I would like to thank the members of this study group for the time they invested in preparing this report,” Lieutenant Governor Denn said. “Through a great deal of collaboration and hard work, they prepared a comprehensive and thoughtful set of recommendations in a very short period of time.”