State: Oklahoma

Policy Abs.: Alternative Education

The state puts technology-based lesson plans on its Web

State grants

Surcharges on all telephone lines

Settlement with Southwestern Bell over rate overcharges.

Policy Adm.: Oklahoma State Dept of Education

Oklahoma State Legislature

Policy: Alternative education is designed to help students who do not succeed in the traditional setting of a classroom. It is a one-year grant.

• High Challenge This program is for schools that want to serve a population of students who are considered to be high challenge. Small School Cooperative, this program is offered for districts below 800 ADA. It allows small districts to coop teachers in the areas of math, science, foreign language, computer education, visual art or music.
• Arts in Education This program is designed to provide students from K-12 access to all the arts, including music, visual art, drama and dance.
• Community Education Community Education is a concept that brings community members to the schools and links needs and resources to enhance the education of the community.
• Oklahoma Parents as Teachers (OPAT) Oklahoma statute supports all school districts having a parent education program. OPAT links schools to families and serves those with children birth to age three. The program is designed to provide parents an opportunity to enhance their child's development in all areas: learning, intelligence, social and emotional, and physical.

The state puts technology-based lesson plans on its Web site and hosts chat rooms to help teachers integrate technology into the classroom.

They are using TLCF grants for Project Aurora, an effort to allow students on-line access to data on Oklahoma's geography. Students are currently collecting the data and putting it on the Web.

The state legislature passed a bill last year that would offer all schools the

technical capacity to connect to the state network; the bill has not implemented.

In FY 98, Oklahoma spent $1M to establish teacher-training centers for technology. The money came from a program that places surcharges on all telephone lines in the state.

In FY 99, the state plans to earmark $16.8M for technology from its general fund. In FY 98 and FY 99, the state also distributed $1M annually to schools for distance learning. The money resulted from a settlement with Southwestern Bell over rate overcharges.

Reimbursement conditions: NA

Individual Reimbursement condition: NA

Contact: Phil Applegate
State Education Agency Technology Contact:
Phone: 405-521-3994
e-mail: phil_applegate@mail.sde.state.ok.us
State Education Agency Web Site: sde.state.ok.us
Number of Students: 625,011
Number of Teachers: 39,809