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A bill aimed at preventing students from languishing in alternative schools is on its way to the governor, after passing its last hurdle in the Legislature on Tuesday.
County-run community schools and district-run community day schools are meant to be a temporary rehabilitative placement for expelled and truant students, not a permanent placement, said supporters of Senate Bill 744, introduced by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Long Beach. Yet students and families say they often are kept in the schools for extended periods of time without clear guidelines for returning to traditional campuses.
The bill would revise current law to provide a number of safeguards against the misuse of these schools. Some of those safeguards include:
The system has enrolled more in-state residents, but not enough to meet targets set by the state.
Two prominent organizations say the proposal would dismantle progress made to improve reading instruction for those students.
Fresno City College professor Tom Boroujeni is unable to fulfill his duties as academic senate president while on leave, the latest update reads.
This is a continuing EdSource series on proven innovations in higher education that relate to the problems facing California’s higher education systems.
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el 11 years ago11 years ago
This confuses me a little and I'd be interested in some background to go with it. It appears that this is meant to combat misuse of continuation schools - what kind of misuse is being seen that requires legislation? It was my understanding that these schools are exactly where expelled kids are supposed to go. If they aren't to go there permanently, where is an appropriate placement for expelled kids? Is the intent that expulsions be reversed … Read More
This confuses me a little and I’d be interested in some background to go with it.
It appears that this is meant to combat misuse of continuation schools – what kind of misuse is being seen that requires legislation?
It was my understanding that these schools are exactly where expelled kids are supposed to go. If they aren’t to go there permanently, where is an appropriate placement for expelled kids? Is the intent that expulsions be reversed or is the intent that some other school take the student?
The line to bar the placement for homeless kids I assume is meant to keep kids from being placed there because they are homeless, rather than to prevent kids who are appropriately or voluntarily placed in a continuation school who happen to be homeless from being placed there.
I definitely think meeting kids’ needs has to be a priority. In my area, that’s why we use them – because kids have needs for credit recovery or other special schedules that the regular school doesn’t accommodate. Continuation schools are supposed to exist to meet actual needs, not as a warehouse for undesirables. With more access to online learning, there’s no reason they have to be an academic wasteland for kids who are more academically able.
I would caution anyone working on this bill to make certain they’re not cutting off options for schools and students in areas different than their assumptions – where high schools are few and far between, for example.