Frisco ISD Government Affairs - Intergovernmental Relations

Intergovernmental Relations

On March 6, 2023, Frisco ISD sent a letter co-signed by 250 school districts and education organizations from across the state, asking the Texas Education Agency to pause its planned “refresh” of the A-F Accountability System which would retroactively increase the bar for College, Career and Military Readiness by 47%.

On March 2, 2022, Frisco ISD received a letter from Representative Jared Patterson, who represents the Denton County portion of Frisco ISD, and 26 other members of the Texas House of Representative. The letter, also sent to districts throughout the state, requested that Frisco ISD sign a pledge not to do business with vendors who sell pornography to schools.
On March 16, 2022, Frisco ISD responded to the letter describing Frisco ISD's policies and procedures for evaluating, selecting, and reviewing objections to, library books. The letter also affirmed Frisco ISD's commitment to ensuring that pornography is not available in Frisco ISD schools.

On June 30, 2021, Frisco ISD sent a letter to state leaders to provide additional context in response to the Texas Education Agency's statements regarding STAAR results and virtual learning. While the TEA suggested that the performance of students who learned virtually lagged behind the performance of students who learned in person, the data provided by TEA has a number of limitations and does not support a conclusion that virtual instruction resulted in lower STAAR performance. In Frisco ISD, virtual learners performed as well or better than in-person learners in all but one subject.
On June 16, 2021, Frisco ISD sent a letter, co-signed by 32 school districts and education organizations from across the state, asking Texas Governor Greg Abbott to place online learning on the agenda of any special session called prior to the 88th Legislative Session.
On May 14, 2021, Frisco ISD sent a letter, co-signed by 45 school districts and education organizations from across the state, asking leaders of the Texas Senate to advance legislation that would expand online learning in Texas and provide full funding to districts that choose to make these opportunities available to students.

On March 14, 2020, Frisco ISD, together with 61 other school districts sent a letter to Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath urging them to cancel the STAAR administration for the 2019-2020 school year. This letter was prompted by initial guidance from the TEA that STAAR would continue as planned, though potentially in an alternative format. The signatory districts urged the Governor and Commissioner to allow districts to focus on student safety and instruction rather than on attempting to find an alternative way to administer state standardized testing.
Also on March 14, 2020, the same group of 61 school districts sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos urging her to waive federal testing requirements. In the past, Texas has been concerned with cancelling STAAR as it can jeopardize federal funding of schools. As a result, the signatory districts implored Secretary DeVos to waive federal testing requirements so that federal funding of school districts in Texas remains secure.
On March 16, 2020, Governor Abbott announced that he was waiving STAAR requirements for the 2019-2020 school year and that the state would be seeking a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education of federal testing requirements. In response, 61 districts sent a letter thanking Governor Abbott for his leadership and action on this issue and supporting efforts to obtain a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.