Wnited States Senate WASHINGTON, DC 20510 February 18, 2016 ‘The Honorable John King Acting Secretary USS. Department of Education 400 Maryland Ave SW Washington, DC 20202 Dear Acting Secretary Kin, We write to you regarding passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and implementation of our bipartisan amendment supporting local governance. We appreciate the work you have done so far to implement this major overhaul of federal education policy, and look forward to collaborating with you further as we continue this work. ‘During the drafting of ESSA, we worked together as a bipartisan group to strengthen the role of local voices in federal processes, and our amendment was adopted as Section 8541 of ESSA. Among other things, our amendment requires the Department to consider input from local stakeholders before issuing non-regulatory guidance. As you implement this section of ESSA, we respectfully ask you to consider the following questions and suggestions: ‘© What concrete steps does the Department plan to take to seek input, to make local stakeholders aware of their ability to offer input, and to incorporate this input in final guidance? © What measures will the Department use to ensure the diversity of the local stakeholders consulted? We urge you to ensure that the stakeholders consulted are geographically diverse, including those from rural, not just suburban and urban areas. + Finally, itis vital that the Department gathers input from various professional perspectives to ensure the effectiveness of non-regulatory guidance. As you implement this provision of ESSA, we encourage you to engage with, at a minimum, local school boards, school administrators, and teachers. ESSA represents a major step forward towards greater local involvement in federal education policy. With this amendment, it is our goal to create a better, healthier, more robust dialog between the folks on the ground and the Department. ‘That is winy itis vital to carefully and fully implement our amendment to ESSA, We look forward to your response and stand ready to assist you in this matter. Sincerely, CGP ap Jon Tester Deb Fischer ‘Angué King