Resources

Michigan Revised School Code (RSC)
The Michigan Revised School Code is the statutory reference for all public school law in Michigan. In addition to many other provisions, it contains provisions governing School Boards, public school academies, schools of excellence, and urban high school academies.

Open Meetings Act (OMA)
The OMA promotes public access to issues/decisions of public concern and ensures that meetings of a public body are conducted in public.

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
The FOIA promotes public access to school-related documents. To the extent that a school does not publish information on its website, the public is able to access public documents through a FOIA request.

Michigan’s Bullying Statute
Bullying is disciplined in Michigan like other gross misdemeanors. While the bullying statute does not address specific discipline, it adds investigation and reporting requirements.

Michigan Department of Education (MDE)
The MDE is an excellent source of information for schools. It is also the best place to access school-specific data.

Michigan Top to Bottom School Rankings
MDE publishes this list annually, ranking public schools based on student proficiency. This list does not take into account student growth or the unique socio-economic context of the students served by the school. To get a report that does take the context into account, check out The Michigan Public High School Context and Performance Report Card or the Michigan Public Elementary and Middles School Context and Performance Database published by the Mackinac Center.

Michigan Association of School Administrators (MASA)
MASA’s mission is to shape a vision for K-12 education in Michigan that responds to the needs of schools and students preparing for success in today’s environment and tomorrow’s future.

Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB)
The mission of the MASB is to provide quality educational leadership services to all Michigan boards of education, and to advocate for student achievement and public education. MASB offers several books and publications that are invaluable for school board members.

Michigan Association of Public School Academies (MAPSA)
MAPSA provides leadership to advance quality and promote choice in education through chartered public schools and their supporters. It is an excellent resource for charter school boards.

Michigan Legislature
We recommend that you discuss Michigan law with your attorney, but sometimes it is helpful simply to know where to access the law.

U.S. Department of Education – FERPA (USDE)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. FERPA also gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records.

Michigan State Board of Education
The MDE site for the State Board of Education provides the public with agendas, minutes, policies, press releases, and other matters of interest to public schools and their boards.

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)
The USDE’s OSERS works to achieve full integration and participation in society of people with disabilities by ensuring equal opportunity and access to, and excellence in, education, employment and community living. OSERS provides a wide array of supports to parents and schools in three main areas: special education, vocational rehabilitation and research.

Individuals with Disability Act (IDEA)
The USDE created this site to provide a “one-stop shop” for resources related to IDEA and its implementing regulations.

U.S. Department of Education – Stop Bullying website
Stopbullying.com is a federal government website designed to provide parents, educators, communities, and children with resources to deal with the issue of bullying.

Parent Dashboard – Mischooldata.org
The Mischooldata.org website has a parent dashboard for school transparency. The dashboard provides school-level information pertaining to student data (performance, progress, graduation, and college and career readiness information) as well as staff data. It will eventually have student behavior data as well.