Declaration Broward County, NAACP et al. v. DeVos, No. 1:20-cv-01996 (D.D.C.), Doc. 36-3 (August 11, 2020)
Summary
Daniel Gohl, Chief Academic Officer for Broward County Public Schools (BCPS), declares in support of the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunctive relief, or in the alternative, for summary judgment in a case against Secretary of Education Elisabeth D. "Betsy" DeVos and the United States Department of Education. The declaration states that BCPS has 327 public elementary and secondary schools and a total enrollment of 267,970 students. It states that BCPS anticipates receiving $61,979,755 from the CARES Act Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Fund and $5,722,118 from the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund. It says BCPS has chosen Option 1 under the Rule for equitable services funding but would be harmed by both options.
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“Declaration Broward County, NAACP et al. v. DeVos, No. 1:20-cv-01996 (D.D.C.), Doc. 36-3 (August 11, 2020).”
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Case 1:20-cv-01996-DLF Document 36-3 Filed 08/11/20 Page 1 of 6
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE Case No. 1:20-cv-01996 (DLF)
(NAACP), et al.,
Plaintiffs,
vs.
ELISABETH “BETSY” D. DEVOS, in her official
capacity as the United States Secretary of Education,
and the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION,
Defendants.
DECLARATION OF DANIEL GOHL IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR
PRELIMINARY INJUNCTIVE RELIEF, OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE, FOR
SUMMARY JUDGMENT
1. My name is Daniel Gohl. I am the Chief Academic Officer for Broward County
Public Schools (“Broward” or “BCPS”), the public school district in Broward County, Florida. I
have held this position for five years. Prior to my current role, I was the Chief Academic Officer
for the Houston Independent School District in Houston, Texas. BCPS is the local education
agency (“LEA”) for Broward County, Florida. BCPS is a plaintiff in this lawsuit against
Secretary of Education Elisabeth D. “Betsy” DeVos (the “Secretary”) and the United States
Department of Education (the “Department”) challenging the Department’s interim final rule
issued July 1, 2020 entitled CARES Act Programs; Equitable Services to Students and Teachers
in Non-Public Schools, 85 Fed. Reg. 39,479 (the “Rule”), and corresponding federal regulations,
see generally 34 C.F.R. § 76.665.
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2. BCPS’s principal address is 600 SE 3rd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301.
BCPS’s telephone number is (754) 321-0000.
3. I have compiled the information in the statements set forth below through
personal knowledge, consultation with BCPS personnel, and review of relevant documents and
databases. I have also familiarized myself with the Rule and its impact on BCPS’s schools and
students.
4. BCPS has 327 public elementary and secondary schools and a total enrollment of
267,970 students. BCPS is the sixth-largest school district in the country and the second-largest
in the State of Florida. The BCPS student population is 39.4% Black, 31.6% Hispanic/Latinx,
22.2% White, and 3.6% Asian. Among BCPS students, 60.8% qualify for free or reduced-price
lunch, 11.4% are English Language Leaners, and 13.9% are students with disabilities.
5. BCPS has 199 Title I schools. The total enrollment in the district’s Title I schools
is 134,290 students.
6. There are 42,606 private-school students who reside in Broward County. Only
6,221 of those students are low-income for the purposes of calculating the set-aside for equitable
services pursuant to Title I.
7. BCPS anticipates receiving $61,979,755 from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security Act’s (“CARES Act”) Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief
(“ESSER”) Fund. BCPS anticipates receiving $5,722,118 from the Governor’s Emergency
Education Relief (“GEER”) Fund under the CARES Act.
8. BCPS intended to use CARES Act funds on the following resources, programs,
and staff: Saturday support services for students, online academic support and tutoring programs,
and technical support and technological devices for students across the districts, including
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devices, mobile hot-spots, and developmentally appropriate touch-screen devices for our younger
students.
9. Under the Rule, BCPS must choose one of two options for the calculation of
equitable services funding for private-school students. Under Option 1, the district must set
aside a share of its CARES Act funding for equitable services proportionate to the total number
of private-school students residing in the district rather than the proportion of low-income
private-school students. Under Option 2, the district can calculate its equitable services funding
based on the proportion of low-income private-school students but then faces onerous restrictions
on the use of its CARES Act funding. Specifically, the district may not use that funding in any
non-Title I schools and must follow the “supplement, not supplant” rule. BCPS has chosen
Option 1, but would be harmed by both options.
10. If BCPS chose Option 1, it would be unable to afford the following resources and
programs which it planned to purchase before COVID-related budget cuts: procurement of
developmentally appropriate touchpad tablets for students in grades kindergarten through
second; supplemental instructional support programs for students in grades K-12; and Saturday
support services for students, which includes both supplies as well as overhead and staffing.
11. If BCPS chose Option 2, the district would be unable to afford the following in its
non-Title I schools because of the Title I-only restriction: cleaning supplies and personal
protective equipment (“PPE”).
12. Loss of the above programs, services, and staff will have a significant negative
effect on the district and its students while a decision on the merits in this litigation is pending.
Students have been out of the traditional classroom for months. Even though teachers and
administrators worked hard to make distance learning successful, it is not a perfect substitute for
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face-to-face learning, especially for the primary grades. It would be detrimental to students and
learning to put a hold on the above programs while waiting for a decision on the merits. The
district has been planning to provide quality teaching and learning since the beginning of the
pandemic. It is essential that we have the technology software when school begins so that we
can get students on the right track early. Even if this injunction is not granted until the first week
of September (at minimum), students will have already been harmed by attending school for
approximately two weeks in a digital environment that does not have enough resources to make
those students as successful and empowered as possible.
13. If the use of ESSER funds is delayed, students will be irreparably harmed by not
being able to access the resources that could be available to them and to which they are entitled
under the language of the CARES Act. Under Option 1, students across the district will suffer
beginning the first day of the school year, because the district will be forced to forgo the above-
mentioned programs and options in order to fund increased equitable services to private schools
and to ensure their budgets do not run out by the end of the year. Even if that funding
requirement is later removed, and BCPS purchases some of the above-mentioned services for the
remainder of the school-year, students will lose days of instruction where they did not receive
these services. Those days cannot be made up, and the harm to those students cannot be
mitigated. Additionally, the harm those students would suffer would be cumulative; their loss of
learning will persist throughout the remainder of the school year and into subsequent years of
enrollment for public school students.
14. Under Option 2, the district would not be permitted to spend CARES Act funds in
non-Title I schools. As a result, students will lose valuable learning time that cannot be
recaptured. Delaying support services for high-need disengaged students in our non-Title I
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schools would also mean that for months, we would be unable to ensure that our students most
at-risk of learning loss are accessing education. If the rule was revoked and the supplement not
supplant requirement was removed midway through the school year, not only would these
services be unavailable for the beginning of the school year, but they would be unavailable for
approximately 60% of the instructional year prior to the commencement of the State testing
window in the first week of May 2021. There are only 180 days in an instructional year, and
each day without access to the resources not only denies students the needed resources but adds
to the students’ future need to complete all of the additional supplemental learning and supports
in a shorter timeframe.
15. There is also an administrative burden on BCPS associated with using a new
calculation method for equitable services and then trying to figure out how to provide services to
all private-school students. Under Option 1, the district now is in charge of procurement and
oversight of technology being distributed, monitored and maintained at private schools all over
the district, with many of whom the district did not already have a prior relationship. This will
include processing orders, long-term inventory monitoring, audit control functions, and
additional staff time. As previously mentioned, the Rule forces the department to provide
services to 36,000 more, typically affluent, students than the district would already be
responsible for serving—those low-income students in private schools. The cumulative number
of 36,000 students is larger than many school districts in Florida and nationwide, and the cost of
providing services to them—and the cost of figuring out how to provide services to them—is
enormous. The administrative burden of procurement and oversight because of this massive sea
change imposed on the district is significant. Once those initial expense are spent, they not
reimbursable, even if the Rule is later vacated.
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16. The application process itself placed a burden on BCPS because the district was
required to work with significantly more private schools than normal to figure out what the needs
of those schools were.
17. Using CARES Act funds only for Title I schools will also impose an
administrative burden on BCPS. BCPS would have the burden of overseeing the 199 Title I
schools to ensure that the funding was spent strictly in a way that only supplements, not
supplants, current expenditures.
18. For BCPS, were it not for the Rule, the district would be able to provide more
needed services to low-income students, English Language Leaners, students with disabilities,
and homeless students.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on
August 11, 2020.
______________________________
DANIEL GOHL
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