Committee told DESE competency-determination policy will require moving handbook details into policy

Officials told the committee that DESE is updating competency-determination requirements and that Marblehead will need to incorporate course-completion and graduation requirements into official policy rather than only in handbooks. Liz Lafond said the draft competency determination framework from DESE will be provided as a framework to districts and that “DESE is requiring that level of detail in this policy,” meaning districts will have to move language that has previously lived in handbooks into the policy manual. Committee members were told the district will need to draft and pass competency-determination policy before the statutory deadline: "It will definitely be before you all need to turn in your CD policies in November," Liz said. She advised the committee to gather curriculum-level course completion language and work with school handbooks to make the policy clear where the competencies are documented. Members discussed assigning the work to the policy subcommittee and flagged this item as a higher-priority change than routine housekeeping because DESE deadlines and MGL language may create mandatory requirements for the district to meet by the fall submission date. The committee asked administrative staff to provide the district’s current course and graduation language so it can be moved into the policy format recommended by DESE.