Supporting excellence

Supporting excellence
Posted on 08/21/2019
Large group of educational staff membersNEWESD supports educational excellence by delivering essential, cooperative services to schools & learning communities.

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NorthEast Washington Educational Service District 101 supports educational excellence by delivering essential, cooperative services to schools and other learning communities.

Educational Service District 101 fosters a culture of high expectations, support, and cooperation internally and externally that is valued by the State Legislature, OSPI, SBE, our customers and the general public. We obtain and utilize resources that enable us to research, develop and deliver innovative services that ensure equitable opportunities for student success.

We work diligently to meet four important commitments:
  • We assist schools and other learning communities in preparing students for success.
  • We maintain strong, supportive, mutually beneficial relationships with school districts, schools and other educational partners.
  • We provide quality service and value.
  • We blend entrepreneurial imagination and public service commitment.
External communication with the districts, schools and learning communities we serve is vital to our work and mission, as is internal communication with NEWESD 101 staff. We seek to design programs and services that meet the needs of our clients and to increase awareness of these services and programs and their benefits and value.

Service is the heart of our work and our key strategic focus. We constantly strive to develop, improve and deliver quality, innovative and effective services to member school districts, schools and learning communities.

Dedicated to the fulfillment of our mission to support educational excellence for all children throughout our service region, NEWESD 101 endeavors to assure consistent and stable funding for valuable programs and services.


History of ESDs
Washington’s nine ESDs have evolved from a system that began as 39 individual county offices of education. A series of consolidations and name changes between 1969-1977 ultimately yielded a statewide system of nine regional ESDs. Subsequent legislative studies in 1982 and 1995 commended the ESDs for providing affordable, high-quality service to schools.

NEWESD 101 provides cooperative services to 59 public school districts and 45 state-approved private schools in seven counties of Eastern Washington – Adams, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens and Whitman.

NEWESD 101 is the state’s largest ESD in the number of districts served, counties served and geographic region served (13,998 square miles). All told, the region counts nearly 98,000 K-12 students and 265 individual school buildings.


Statutory Mandate
Chapter 28A.310 RCW
It shall be the intent and purpose of this chapter to establish educational service districts as regional agencies which are intended to:
  • 1. Provide cooperative and informational services to local school districts;
  • 2. Assist the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and the State Board of Education (SBE) in the performance of their respective statutory or constitutional duties; and
  • 3. Provide services to school districts and to the school for the deaf and the school for the blind to assure equal educational opportunities.