student at a school of their choice, including religious and nonreligious schools. Eligibility hinges on low income level.


in America Survey ED Choice (formerly the Friedman Foundation) has produced their annual survey on schooling in America. This year, the focus of the survey was Millennial perspectives on K–12 education and school choice.


Born between 1981 and 1997, Millennials are approximately 75 million strong (http://www.pewresearch. org/fact-tank/2016/04/25/millennials-overtake- baby-boomers/), and the percentage of Millennials that make up America’s school parent population is set to grow exponentially (http://www.millennialmarketing. com/2013/07/new-research-the-millennial-generation- becomes-parents/) over the next 10 years.


As part of a 2016 Schooling in America Survey, they oversampled Millennials in an effort to better understand where this generation of current and future school parents compares with others (and the national average) on K–12 education policies. This is also the first year they asked parents specific questions about the lengths to which they’ve gone for their children’s education.


At Issue Child-On-Child Sexual Abuse: The Often Forgotten


Reportable Offense Suzanne Bogdan Reprinted with permission from Fisher Phillips Education Update (No.4, October 2016).


Most states, including Florida, have updated their child abuse reporting requirements to include child-on- child sexual abuse, often referred to as juvenile abuse. Typically these provisions are fairly comprehensive and include any sexual behavior by a child toward another child which occurs without consent, without equality (lacking the same level of power in the relationship), or as a result of coercion.


This can include making obscene phone calls, the showing or taking of lewd photographs, or varying degrees of direct sexual contact, such as fondling, digital penetration, rape, and various other sexually aggressive acts. Sometimes the relative ages of the children are qualifiers.


Schools that do not regularly update their child abuse policies or train their employees may find their employee responsiveness to the reporting requirements is lacking. Many schools have found out through embarrassing media scrutiny that reportable events went unreported. In addition to the public relations concerns, employees who fail to report abuse can be criminally charged in most states.


© 2016 by the Association of Christian Schools International Individual Obligation to Report


The other issue to be addressed, at least in annual training, is the employee’s individual obligation to report abuse. In most states, a school can no longer require that the employee first report the abuse to the head of school or an administrator. Rather, today, most state laws make clear that the employee has an individual obligation as a mandatory reporter to report abuse by calling a hotline number or making an online report.


Schools can certainly remind employees that they are free to seek assistance through an appropriate administrator at the school. After all, the concept of reporting abuse to a governmental agency could be a daunting and downright scary experience, and schools should provide support for any employee who requests it.


Some schools also require action by any employee who initially considers a matter to be reportable as child abuse but then independently decides it is not. These employees are often instructed to seek out an


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You can find the complete results at https://www. edchoice.org/blog/breaking-down-our-2016-schooling- in-america-survey/.


ED Choice—2016 Schooling Nevada’s Education


Savings Account Program In light of the Nevada Supreme Court’s September 29 ruling that the legislature did not adequately appropriate funding for their best-in-the-nation education savings account (ESA) program, Attorney General Adam Laxalt, State Treasurer Dan Schwartz, Sen. Scott Hammond, state legislators, numerous state and community leaders, and hundreds of parents urged Gov. Brian Sandoval to include ESA funding in the October special session called to enable the building of an NFL stadium and expansive convention center in Las Vegas. Gov. Sandoval declined their request, citing uncertainties with the constitutionality of funding alternatives. However, the governor did ask Sen. Hammond to lead a small working group dedicated to creating a new funding solution for Nevada’s ESA. The ESA funding solution the committee develops will be presented for inclusion in Gov. Sandoval’s final budget recommendations for the legislature’s 2017 general session.


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