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Betsy DeVos: All ESSA Plans Are In, Complete, and Ready for Review

By Alyson Klein — October 17, 2017 1 min read
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All 50 states and the District of Columbia have now submitted their plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act, and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team are ready to examine the dozens of plans submitted by the second deadline last month.

Thirty-four states and Puerto Rico turned in their ESSA plans in September and October. (The official deadline for submitting plans was September 18, but hurricane-ravaged Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas got extensions). And all of those plans have now been deemed “complete” by the feds. That means the plans aren’t missing key details, at least according to the department’s initial review.

And some states—who turned in their plans in the spring—have already gotten the thumbs-up from the department. That group includes Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont.

Colorado and Michigan also submitted their plans last spring. After getting feedback from the department, Colorado asked for extra time to revamp its plan. And department officials weren’t sure Michigan’s plan was detailed enough to review. So that one is a cliff-hanger.

Here’s a handy map that breaks all of this down:

What’s in all these ESSA plans? We’ve got an explainer tracking some big picture trends on goals, indicators, opt-outs, and all sorts of other wonky goodness here.