Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced today that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has given final approval to Texas’s plan to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the federal education law that replaced No Child Left Behind.

The final approval bookends a years long process to implement the legislation at first the federal level and then at the state level. Most recently, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) submitted its revised ESSA plan based on feedback received from the U.S. Department of Education (ED). A full, high-level recap of the process beginning with passage of the new law in December 2015 can be found here.

In TEA’s press release relaying ED’s final approval of the plan, Commissioner Morath said the plan “reflects a commitment to reinforcing public education outcomes for more than five million schoolchildren while continuing to strengthen the economic future of Texas.” Read the full press release here.

Secretary DeVos, among other national leaders and advocates, has been critical of states’ plans in light of the lack of creativity, but plans have largely been approved without extensive revisions required to further innovation and creativity.

To read the final plan or learn more about the Texas ESSA plan and related content, visit TEA’s ESSA web page.