Communication

The 63rd annual United States Senate Youth Program Washington Week is being planned to be held in person in Washington, D.C. March 1–8, 2025. The national deadline for all states to submit their delegate selections is December 1, 2024. Two student leaders from each state, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense Education Activity will spend a week in Washington experiencing their national government in action. Students must be actively serving in high-level elected or appointed leadership positions to qualify to apply.

Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) Child Nutrition Programs are expected to be administered in accordance with all statutory and regulatory requirements; waivers to the requirements are exceptions. However, Section 12(l) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (NSLA), 42 U.S.C. 1760(l), provides USDA authority to waive requirements for State agencies or eligible service providers under certain circumstances.

The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) has scheduled certain special education records to be destroyed for February 27, 2024. Records to be destroyed pertain to special education Written State Complaints, mediations, and due process hearing requests filed between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018.

The Department is promoting Statewide Parent Engagement Month in October. It is intended as a community effort—a time for schools, businesses, community agencies, churches, and government to turn their attention to the significant role of parents in the education of their children.

Child Nutrition Programs (CNPs) are expected to be administered according to all statutory and regulatory requirements; waivers to the requirements are exceptions. However, Section 12(1) of the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act (NSLA), 42 U.S.C. 1760(1), provides authority for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to waive requirements for state agencies or eligible service providers under certain circumstances

This letter is in response to Alabama State Department of Education’s (ALSDE) February 16, 2023, request to provide non-congregate meal service in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Summer Food Service Program
(SFSP) and the NSLP Seamless Summer Option (SSO) when congregate meal service operations are limited due to natural disasters, unscheduled major building repairs, court orders relating to school safety or other issues, labor-management disputes, or, when approved by the State agency, for a similar unanticipated cause.