Here’s a quick look at the news from last week (June 18-22) in Washington.

ADMINISTRATION
The Administration announced last week that it will stop deporting some young undocumented immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security will exercise “prosecutorial discretion” for low priority cases, such as immigrants who were brought to the country as children and have not been convicted of any offenses.. The action will allow them to get deportation proceedings deferred for two years, and seek work permits. It is unlikely the DREAM Act will be considered because of this action by the President.

The National Center for Education Statistics released the results of the 2009 NAEP Science in Action Assessment.

The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) will hold a two day meeting (Federal Register meeting notice) this week on Monday and Tuesday in Alexandria, VA, to review accrediting agencies.

HOUSE
House Speaker Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. Lieberman (I-CT) announced last week that they have reached a deal with the Obama Administration over the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, raising the cap on the number of scholarships that can be issued. The Administration is said to have increased the cap by 85 students, to 1,700 total. However, the Department also indicated that this action does not signal a change in the Administration’s overall position on private school vouchers.

The GAO released a report last week titled “Charter Schools: Additional Federal Attention Needed to Help Protect Access for Students with Disabilities.” The report examined how many disabled students are served by charter schools as compared with traditional public schools — about 8 percent of the students at charter schools are disabled and require special services, compared with 11 percent of students in traditional public schools.

SENATE
Discussions are continuing behind the scenes to resolve the one year student loan interest rate hike with the goal of reaching an agreement before the end of this week.

APPROPRIATIONS/BUDGET
The House Labor, HHS, Education Subcommittee is still working toward marking up FY 2013 appropriations legislation in the near future, but the markup is not likely to happen before the July 4 recess.