California education news: What’s the latest?

Few counties in California have accurately written policies for incarcerated youth to follow if they are eligible to vote, according to a new report from the Youth Law Center.

Just 16 out of 40 counties that responded to records requests from the Youth Law Center had written policies, and only 2 of those counties’ policies were fully accurate. The inaccuracies found in all other counties’ policies included failing to state the probation department’s legal obligation to youth voter registration, misstating voting eligibility for incarceration youth, and “legal errors related to voting procedures.”

“With the recent changes in California’s juvenile justice system and the subsequent increase in the number of voting-age youth held in county juvenile facilities, it is imperative that counties take steps to ensure that justice-impacted youth are afforded their fundamental right to vote,” wrote the report authors. “As this report has underscored, voting access for this population is not only a matter of legal obligation but also a crucial step towards fostering civic engagement and empowerment among young voters.”

Several counties were also found to be utilizing policies that were purchased from a private company using public funds. Many of those policies were “legally deficient,” according to the report. Fresno was one of the few counties that had purchased a policy from that company, but then “made extensive additions” that made the policy thorough and accurate.

The report recommended increased youth voter registration could offer with support from state agencies – such as the Secretary of State, Office of Youth and Community Restoration, and the Board of State and Community Corrections – in the form of technical assistance, a state legal assessment of current voting and voter registration policies in both adult and juvenile facilities, and partnerships between county probation departments and their local Department of Elections plus with local community organizations.

The report also included a sample voting rights policy that could be implemented in juvenile facilities.

Columbia University officials, including the university’s president, testified Wednesday before a House committee, telling lawmakers that they are working to extinguish antisemitism on their campus.

“Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly,” Columbia President Nemat Shafik said during her opening remarks.

Another official, Claire Shipman, co-chair of Columbia’s board of trustees, told the lawmakers that the university has “a moral crisis on our campus.”

The remarks stood in contrast to testimony given last year by the presidents of Harvard and Penn, who were criticized for not forcefully condemning antisemitism on their campuses.

Some members of Columbia’s campus community, however, were disappointed by Shafik’s testimony. Sheldon Pollock, a retired professor at Columbia who leads the campus chapter of the American Association of University Professors, told The New York Times that Shafik was ““bulldozed and bullied” into saying things she may end up regretting.

“What happened to the idea of academic freedom? I don’t think that phrase was used even once,” Pollock said, according to the Times.

A group of Spanish-speaking mothers, largely monolingual, have created a group dedicated to advocating for improved student achievement across the Sacramento City Unified School District, the Sacramento Bee reported. 

The group is named comité de padres, which means parents committee, and came together thanks to a grant for community schools. 

Lucero Soto, a community organizer with Sacramento Act, emphasized to the Sacramento Bee that parental engagement is especially challenging for communities of color and that they are often kept out of educational realms because of systemic barriers, including language access. 

“They (families) don’t really know their role or power,” Soto told the Bee. 

“We just created a safe space for them,” Soto told the Bee. “And I think that’s what is lacking in our schools.”

The group meets monthly and is hosted by Sacramento Act. During the meetings, the parents can provide advice to one another and empower each other to become stronger leaders in education. 

The San Diego Unified School District has approved an affordable housing project on extra school property, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Under the project, the former campus of Central Elementary School, located in City Heights, will now include 327 units that are rent restricted — 270 of which will be reserved for families and individuals. The remaining units will be set aside for seniors.

This is the second housing project the district has taken on, but the first where all of the units are rent restricted, the Union Tribune reported.

The housing projects are part of a larger effort to keep students and families from being priced out of San Diego Unified, while also generating revenue for the district.

In addition to housing, the project will also include space for Fern Street Circus, a performing arts group, as well as a farmers market.

“It’s really exciting we’re moving in this direction,” trustee Sharon Whitehurst-Payne told the Union-Tribune. “Hopefully we can help the city with more housing.”

California has made progress towards the goal of achieving universal preschool, according to a national report that ranks state-funded preschool programs. California now ranks 16th in the nation in preschool enrollment for 4-year-olds and 15th for 3-year-olds across the transitional kindergarten (TK) and California State Preschool Program (CSPP) programs. That’s up from ranking 18th for 4-year-old access and 16th for 3-year-old access last year.

California now serves 38% of the state’s 4-year-olds and 9% of 3-year-olds in state-funded preschool, for a total combined enrollment of 209,081, according to the 2023 State of Preschool Yearbook, an annual report card on state-subsidized early education published by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. 

“Universal preschool is a huge undertaking in the nation’s most populous state, and California’s efforts and commitment are fundamentally changing education in the Golden State,” said Steven W. Barnett, NIEER’s senior co-director and founder in a release. “To fulfill the promise of a better education for all children, California must ensure funding remains adequate to provide high-quality preschool, pay teachers well, ensure small class sizes, and full-day programs as programs are expanded to serve families.”  

The state increased preschool funding by nearly $1 billion, and this increase notably represents 71% of the entire national growth in preschool spending, according to the report. State spending per child averaged $15,305 in 2022-2023, up $2,258 from 2021-2022.

However, it should be noted that quality remains an issue. Although the state’s preschool program meets six of the report’s 10 benchmarks for a high-quality offering, the transitional kindergarten program, a bridge between preschool and kindergarten which began during the 2012-2013 year and is now being expanded to all 4-year-olds, only meets three of them. That’s still an improvement from 2019, when the TK program only met two of the standards.

“It is worrisome that TK only meets 3 benchmarks given that the program reaches more than 100,000 children,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, an assistant research professor at NIEER. “The state is also working hard to set policies for quality, so we hope it will meet more benchmarks going forward.” 

The need for smaller class sizes and specialized teacher training to meet the specific developmental needs of the youngest learners are among the key reasons for concern.

“Class size is a major concern because of the evidence about how much it matters,” added Barnett. “However, because these policies are subject to local control and vary by district, the biggest concern is not that the program overall is lacking but that some children will have large class sizes while others have smaller class sizes. Also, there is rigorous evidence that TK has positive effects, which offers some reassurance. Of course, it is likely that the program would be even more effective if it adopted the California State Preschool ratio requirements and developed a comprehensive system for continuous improvement.” 

A kindergartner got suspended for pulling his pants down at recess. A second grader was suspended after he got mad and ran out of the building. A third grader got suspended because she yelled about not being allowed to have cookies.

Elementary school students are often punished for developmentally typical behavior, experts say, Hechinger reported. Even upsetting behaviors like kicking or punching can be a matter of young children figuring out how to regulate their emotions and how to behave in class. 

“Over time, it erodes children’s sense of safety,” said Iheoma Iruka, a professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Hechinger reported. “It erodes their relationship with teachers.”

Many experts fear such early suspensions, which can cause lasting harm, may be commonplace. A Hechinger analysis of school discipline data found widespread use of suspensions for students of all ages for ill-defined, subjective categories of misbehavior, such as disorderly conduct, defiance and insubordination. State reports from 2017 to 2022 cited these categories as a reason for suspension or expulsion more than 2.8 million times.

Two California high schools are among the recipients of grants from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Initiative, which include college and training scholarships and classroom resource grants. The program is part of the push by the American Theatre Wing (the force behind the Tony Awards) to help under-resourced students continue their arts education. Webber is a famed musical theater impresario known for iconic hits such as “Phantom of the Opera,”  “Cats” and “Evita.” 

Canyon Hills High School in San Diego and Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova were selected to take part in the program. One California student, Olivia Zenetis, was also tapped for a grant. Since it began in 2016, the initiative has awarded roughly $3.5 million to more than 250 recipients in 34 states.

“This is such a special initiative for us at the Wing,” says Wing President and CEO Heather Hitchens in a statement. “From repairing Albert Hill Middle School’s auditorium’s audio system so that productions can once again be amplified, to the creation of a set-design apprenticeship between Camden Repertory Theater and Creative Arts High School in New Jersey, the needs are specific and varied, and the results are real … education is being enhanced as is the pipeline to careers in the theater industry.”

Oakland Reach, a parent advocacy group, and the Oakland Unified School District are once again teaming up to grapple with an academic crisis. After making headway with its community-based literacy tutors, Reach has created a math tutoring project modeled after its successful reading program,  The 74 reported.

MathBOOST, which began last fall with six trained parent and caregiver tutors, plans to expand to more than 20 tutors in 11 schools next year.

“We really want our kids to be algebra-ready by the time that they enter middle school and high school,” said Alicia Arenas, the district’s director of elementary instruction, The 74 reported. “And the teachers bring up the great math progress they’re seeing from students who work with the math tutors.”

Children across the country have long struggled in math, and matters were made far worse by the pandemic. Only 19% of Oakland sixth graders scored proficient on the 2022-23 state math assessments. High school students fared even worse, with just 14.11% of 11th graders hitting that benchmark.  

Citing safety concerns, USC canceled the speech of its valedictorian for the first time in its history.

In a letter to the USC community sent Monday evening, provost Andrew Guzman explained that undergraduate Asna Tabbasum will not deliver her valedictory speech, writing that “tradition must give way to safety.”

Guzman wrote that the selection of Tabbasum, a South Asian-American Muslim woman, has “taken on an alarming tenor” to the point of “creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement.”

The Daily Trojan noted that the cancellation came less than a week after pro-Israel groups accused Tabassum of promoting anti-Zionism and anti-semitism. Trojans for Israel published a statement demanding that USC reconsider their valedictorian selection. It stated that Tabassum called Zionism a “racist settler-colonial ideology” and called for the abolishment of Israel.

Tassabum said in a statement that she was not aware of any specific safety threats against her or the university, which makes her doubt that the decision to revoke her invitation was really about safety. She said her request for details about threats was denied.

“I am not surprised by those who attempt to propagate hatred,” she wrote. “I am surprised that my own university—my home for four years—has abandoned me.”

Tassabum is a biomedical engineering with a minor in resistance to genocide. She wrote that she was hoping to deliver a “message of hope” in her speech.

“By canceling my speech, USC is only caving to fear and rewarding hatred,” Tassabum wrote.

The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) called the attacks on Tassabum “dishonest and defamatory” and “thinly-veiled manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism,” in a statement. CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush called USC’s decision “cowardly” and demanded the university reverse course.

Free speech advocacy group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) called USC’s decision “an utterly transparent attempt at censorship.”

An agreement between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature that will reduce the state’s budget shortfall by $17.3 billion also will mean less money for school facilities.

The agreement, signed April 4, cuts the state School Facility Aid Program by $500 million, reducing the funding from $875 million to $375 million. The program provides funds to school districts for school construction, deferred maintenance and emergency repairs.

The new agreement also delays $550 million in facilities grants for preschool, transitional kindergarten and full-day kindergarten until 2025-26. Districts can apply for funds through the program to build classrooms or retrofit existing facilities for preschool, TK or kindergarten classes.

The agreement also defers $499.1 million in funding to the University of California and California State University, and reduces funding for the UCLA Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy Project by $300 million.

The Murrieta Valley Unified School District will no longer enforce a policy that requires teachers and other school staff to notify parents if their children identify as transgender.

Last week, the California Department of Education ordered the district to stop enforcing the policy after an investigation found it to be illegal because it singled out and adversely impacted one group of students, according to Patch. Two days later, on April 12, the district sent emails to parents to notify them the policy would not be enforced, according to the article.

The district has 30 days from the date of the order to ask that the CDE finding be reconsidered.

The investigation by the state was launched after Murrieta Valley Unified’s school board passed a policy last August that required parents and guardians to be notified in writing, within three days of learning, if their child asks to be identified with a gender or name different from what was assigned at birth and if their child uses a bathroom or participates in activities that do not align with the gender provided on their student record.

The policy had previously been passed by the Chino Valley Unified school board on July 20.

Supporters of a proposed November ballot initiative that would require schools in California to notify parents if a child changes their gender identity are suing the state, the Los Angeles Times reported.

According to the Times, supporters of the proposition wanted the proposed ballot initiative to be called “Protect Kids of California Act” but Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office chose “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth” — the name signature gatherers must use. 

Supporters are arguing the state’s description of the proposed bill is hindering their efforts to gather signatures and claim the initiative was “branded with a misleading, false, and prejudicial title,” the news organization reported. May 28 is the deadline to submit signatures.

A hearing is scheduled for Friday.

Orange County Superintendent Al Mijares hasn’t been to a public school board meeting in more than a year because of medical issues, Voice of OC reported. 

People have been starting to question why nothing has been publicly disclosed, according to Voice. Mijares stopped attending county board of education meetings at the end of 2022, and he hasn’t been in the office since August 2023. 

Mijares is planning to return from medical leave in August, Voice reported, and it was never formally announced. A letter was sent to the staff in March 2023 that said he had medical complications.

Mijares’ annual salary is nearly $400,000 before benefits.

The Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, representing around 1,100 school employees, joined environmental and social justice groups in a lawsuit against Monterey County, the Los Angeles Times reported. 

Statewide, children in Monterey County are most likely to attend schools near fields with toxic pesticides, state health officials have reported. According to the Times, the April 4 lawsuit says that county officials and state pesticide regulators disregarded children’s health by allowing several farms to use restricted chemicals near three elementary and middle schools – all serving mostly Latino students. 

There are six farms using toxic chemicals near Ohlone Elementary School, Hall District Elementary School and Pajaro Middle School, which also have on-site daycare programs, the Times reported. 

According to the Times’ report, the chemicals are injected into the soil, followed by a plastic tarp being placed over the field for at least a week. The tarps covering the fields during fumigation sometimes come loose or have holes, causing the pesticides to endanger children. 

“It’s environmental racism,” said Yanely Martinez, a Greenfield city council member and organizer for Safe Ag Safe Schools, one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs. “These are communities of people of color. These are the communities of farmworkers that are putting food on the table. The families are being silently killed.”

A recent event at Aliso Viejo Middle School in Capistrano Unified, where a student used artificial intelligence software to create a nude photo of a 13-year-old girl by putting the girl’s face on another body,  illustrates how unprepared schools are for the rise in AI manipulation of student photos, the Orange County Register reported.  

According to the Register, the school district didn’t reach out to the girl’s stepmom until she filed a complaint more than a week after the incident, which she said was handled poorly.  The district’s investigation found that the student created AI-generated images of multiple student victims and another student shared the photos; Capistrano Unified said the students faced “disciplinary consequences,” which may have included suspension. 

What happened in Capistrano Unified is not the first such incident, the Orange County Register reported. In April, Laguna Beach High School was investigating the use of AI tools to create nude photos of students, and in March, five Beverly Hills middle school students were expelled for it. 

Experts told the Register that AI-generated sexual harassment and bullying could be occurring on most school campuses. 

“If a parent called me and asked, ‘What do I do?’ the first thing you do is go to your school district,” said Rebecca Delfino, an expert on “the intersection of the law and current events and emergencies.” “Most school districts have codes of conduct related to the behavior of their students, and they’re typically broad enough to address what would be considered harassment.”

But much like most states, California doesn’t have laws banning the use of inappropriate AI-generated images, according to the Register. 

“We’re way behind the curve,” John Pizzuro, a former police officer who led New Jersey’s task force on internet crimes against children, told the Register. “There is no regulation, policy or procedure on this.”

Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles County will remain open after a vote Thursday by the state’s corrections oversight board.

Youth advocates and family of incarcerated youth expressed concern after the decision was made, according to reporting by LAist. Some cited that the Board of State and Community Corrections deemed this facility “unsuitable for the confinement of juveniles” just two months ago.

That decision of unsuitability by the board was made in February after a series of site inspections found that youth were routinely late to class, that the county’s probation department did not meet the minimum staffing levels in the facilities, and that there was inconsistent availability of recreational and rehabilitation programs. They also found a lack of complete fire safety plans, safety checks within required timeframes, room confinement documentation, trainings among all probation staff regarding use of force, and more.

Linda Penner, the board’s chair, said Thursday that they were deciding to keep Los Padrinos open because the L.A. County Probation department “appears to have remedied the outstanding items of non-compliance.”

Incarcerated youth were transferred to Los Padrinos less than a year ago after other facilities in the county were shut down after similarly deemed “unsuitable for the confinement of minors.” Los Padrinos was re-opened, given that it had been previously shut down in 2019 after abuse allegations.

But many of the same issues with non-compliance that led to the closures of other county facilities quickly surfaced at Los Padrinos, plus accounts of high levels of violence, drug abuse, and an escape attempt, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

An assembly bill targeting book bans in public libraries, the California Freedom to Read Act, passed the education committee yesterday.

Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, introduced AB 1825. The bill prohibits public libraries from banning books or other materials because of the topic or content of the book — including sexual content, unless it qualifies as “obscene.” It explicitly prohibits book bans that discriminate on the the basis of race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, political affiliation or socioeconomic status.

“Book banning proponents are disproportionately targeting materials containing the voices and lived experiences of LGBTQ and communities of color,” Muratsuchi said in a statement. “We need to fight this movement to ensure that Californians have access to books that offer diverse perspectives from people of all backgrounds, ideas, and beliefs.”

Seven of the top 10 most-banned books last year had LGBTQ themes, including the most banned book, “Gender Queer: A Memoir” by Maia Koabe.

The book banning movement took hold in schools — both libraries and the textbook approval process. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill last year to counter book censorship in schools.

But the American Library Association, a supporter of AB 1825, said that books bans rose dramatically during 2023. The organization said the number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% since 2022, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023.

Last year there were 52 attempts to challenge 98 titles in California in both schools and public libraries, compared to 32 attempts to ban 87 titles in 2022. There were challenges at public libraries in both Huntington Beach and Fresno County.

“The recent call by some to limit access to books does more than suppress the subject matter — it also disregards the lived experiences and identities of authors and readers,” said Cynthia Valencia, a legislative advocate for ACLU California Action, which supports the bill. “We must protect the fundamental First Amendment right of access to diverse and inclusive information at our public libraries.”

Two community colleges in the San Joaquin Valley have been selected to be part of a program that helps to transform colleges through coaching in leadership and teaching. 

Achieving the Dream (ATD) announced on Thursday the eight community colleges in the country that will be part of its 2024 cohort, including Clovis and Madera community colleges. 

“These institutions, like all the institutions in the ATD Network, recognize the vital role community colleges play in advancing both the socio-economic mobility of their students as individuals and the overall well-being of entire communities,” CEO Karen A. Stout said in a statement. “ATD’s commitment to equity is the foundation for the significant, transformative shifts that our Network colleges undergo, ultimately benefiting the broader populations they serve.”

According to the announcement, the colleges will be part of a three-year program in which they will work with ATD’s expert coaches to focus on equity, data, teaching and learning, leadership, community partnerships and student support.

Eight colleges across the country were selected to be part of the newest cohort. ATD works with more than 300 other community colleges across the country.

Harvard University will require applicants to take standardized tests once again after making the choice optional during the pandemic, The Washington Post reported.

On Thursday the Ivy League university announced those applying for fall 2025 admission must submit ACT or SAT scores, according to The Post. University officials cited research from Harvard professors who used data from hundreds of universities to explore socioeconomic diversity and admissions.

Critics have said standardized tests create barriers for disadvantaged students, and many universities made tests optional. Harvard professors found standardized tests aren’t an unbiased way to measure applicants and wealthier families often have more access to test prep. 

“But the data reveal that other measures — recommendation letters, extracurriculars, essays — are even more prone to such biases,” researcher Raj Chetty said in a statement. “Considering standardized test scores is likely to make the admissions process at Harvard more meritocratic while increasing socioeconomic diversity.”

Dartmouth, Yale and Brown universities have all announced similar changes to reinstate ACT and SAT scores during admissions.

Fresno Unified School District board members will consider both internal and external candidates in the search for a new superintendent, board President Susan Wittrup announced following closed-session deliberation on Wednesday. The process to name the next leader of California’s third-largest school system will also include community participation, Wittrup said.

The specifics of the discussion and how board members voted — something the public often wants to know — is confidential as the decision is not a final action.

Board member Keshia Thomas was absent from the meeting.

Superintendent Bob Nelson announced his resignation on Jan. 22; his last day is July 31, which left the school board about six months to find his replacement.

During a March 20 closed-session meeting, the school board decided to interview internal candidates before deciding how to proceed with the hiring process. Details of the 4-3 decision were leaked to the media, instigating community anger that pushed the board to reverse course and postpone the scheduled interviews in a 5-2 vote on April 3.

So far, the search process has been engulfed in community angst about an alleged lack of transparency and accusations that the process had been tainted by politics. District employees at the center of the search even faced racial harassment and threats.

The April 3 decision to pause the search as well as Wednesday’s vote to include internal and external candidates moving forward was compelled by community pressure to make the process more transparent and include the community.

“This choice is significant because, despite pockets of excellence and the tireless work of educators and school staff, Fresno Unified’s long standing systemic failures often result in students not reaching their full potential and teachers feeling overworked and undervalued,” a group of Fresno leaders, including elected officials and community leaders, wrote in a letter, urging the school board to conduct a “thorough, thoughtful and transparent national search.”

The leaders included: state Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, City Council members Miguel Arias and Mike Karbassi, Fresno Teachers Association President Manuel Bonilla, Fresno Unified parent Sandra Celedon, retired judge Robert H. Oliver, Granville Homes CEO Darius Assemi, former school board President Brooke Ashjian and community advocate Debbie Darden.

“I’m really looking at this opportunity for this community and for all of us to join hands and pick the very best, qualified superintendent to lead our district,” said Wittrup, the only board member to address the search in her trustee comments at Wednesday’s meeting. “We cannot allow fragmented, competing interests to continue to play bumper cars. We have to join together… and follow the process.”

Additional updates, including a timeline of the process, will be provided at later board meetings. Trustees meet again on April 24 for a regularly scheduled meeting and on April 29 for a board workshop.

A bill in the California state legislature would allow public California colleges and universities to hire undocumented students.

The bill, Assembly Bill 2586, was introduced by Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-Chula Vista, after the University of California Board of Regents decided to table a similar policy for the UC system, citing possible legal ramifications.

A coalition of undocumented students and legal scholars had been urging UC to allow the hiring of undocumented students, arguing that state entities are exempt from a 1986 federal statute banning the hiring of immigrants without legal status.

“This bill will put an end to the separate-but-equal educational system that still operates in California’s university systems. As AB 2586 recognizes, the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges have the legal authority to hire any of their students, regardless of immigration status,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, faculty co-director at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, in a press release.

Many undocumented students in higher education are unable to apply for work permits under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, after the federal government stopped accepting new applications in 2017.

Without work permits, undocumented students are unable to hold work study jobs, paid internships, graduate student researcher and teaching assistant positions, like other students.

“We’ll keep pushing until AB 2586 is fully realized, ensuring we receive opportunities equal to those of our fellow students,” said Jeffry Umaña Muñoz, UCLA undergraduate student and organizer with the Undocumented Student-Led Network, in the press release. “Every day, thousands of undocumented students like myself battle financial, housing, and food insecurity. Our aspirations for education and career advancement are hindered by unfair restrictions on educational employment opportunities.”

A few years back, officials at Palo Alto Unified realized that one district high school was giving out far fewer D’s and F’s than previously, instead giving out second chances for a better grade. However, they were disproportionately giving it to white and Asian American students while black and brown students were still getting D’s and F’s, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 

“It was glaring,” said Superintendent Don Austin. “That really spoke to who was getting the opportunity for more time and second chances.”

It was unacceptable and indefensible, he said, and the district set out to rectify the issue, starting a wider discussion over what grading means to students, teachers and parents, as well as college admission officers. 

Given concerns over grade inflation, racial inequities on report cards and whether an A should mean mastery of the material, this has become a national debate over grading and standards.

“The most consistent thing about grading is inconsistency,” Austin said, as the San Francisco Chronicle reported. One of the biggest issues in grading at Palo Alto Unified is that teachers dole out A’s so generously that it constitutes 70% of all grades on high school student report cards. 

Read more from EdSource: Why some California school districts are changing how students earn grades

President Biden attended a rally with care workers Tuesday, during which he touted his administration’s efforts to expand access to child care and also discussed an effort to increase staffing standards in nursing homes.

“You’re the heroes to so many individuals. You really are. And you represent so many people who do it and do it out of love and concern, not because of the pay, because they’re not getting the pay they need,” Biden said at the Washington, D.C. event, as the Hill reported.

“As your president, I’m here with a simple message. I give you my word, I have your back,” he said at the rally, which was hosted by Care Can’t Wait Action, a coalition of groups focused on expanding access to child care, paid family and medical leave and home-based services. Representatives from the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, AARP and National Domestic Workers Alliance attended.

The president also referred to the American Rescue Plan, which he said helped keep 225,000 child care centers open as the country grappled with the pandemic. The legislation also expanded the child care tax credit and helped cut child poverty, Biden said.

Biden last year signed an executive order to raise pay for care workers, support family caregivers and expand affordable care options through 50 directives to federal agencies. 

The president said that care workers are predominantly women, women of color and immigrants “who are overworked, overlooked and underpaid. It’s not enough just to praise them for all they’re doing, we have to pay them,” as the Hill reported.

The California Student Aid Commission announced Tuesday that they will offer an alternative financial aid application option for students who are U.S. citizens but have at least one parent without a Social Security number.

These students will use the California Dream Act Application to apply for financial aid to attend a University of California, California State University or California Community Colleges campus.

In recent months, the new online Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has been plagued with delays and problems. U.S. citizens from mixed-status families have faced logistical challenges with the new application. Although the U.S. Department of Education said these issues had been fixed for students from mixed-status families, some have continued to face problems.

All students have until May 2 to complete a Dream Act application or FAFSA to meet California’s priority deadline.

Newly proposed legislation authored by state Sen. Henry Stern would establish an Office of Civil Rights at the California Department of Education.

The office would investigate complaints and report on the frequency of incidents of  discrimination, harassment, intimidation and bullying at school districts, county offices of education and charter schools, and provide recommendations to the department, according to a news release from the California Department of Education.

According to Senate Bill 1421, hate crimes increased by 20% in 2022. The California Department of Education is overburdened with complaints, meaning many can not be investigated immediately.

 “I am driven by a profound commitment to the safety and well-being of our children in schools. This bill embodies our collective promise to shield our children from harm and equip them with the knowledge to confront the shadows of history,” Stern, a Democrat from Los Angeles, said in a statement. “It’s a testament to our unwavering dedication to the safety, protection, and enlightenment of the next generation.” 

On Monday, Stern, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, Sen. Susan Rubio and representatives from the Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California and Anti-Defamation League held a news conference to announce their support of the bill.

“As an educator and a father, I know how critical it is for every child to feel not only safe in their identity, but proud of their identity at school. That’s why I have been at the forefront of protecting our LGBTQ+ students,” Thurmond said in a statement. “It’s our priority to engage directly with every report of antisemitism that our office has received. That is why we must establish a clear avenue so that all students and families are able to access support and resolution when they experience harm at school for being who they are.” 

The American Federation of Teachers launched an advertising campaign today to promote community schools.

The teachers union is airing 30-second television and online ads in English and Spanish in the Boston, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., media markets throughout April. Union president Randi Weingarten will also be visiting states to promote converting schools to community schools.

Community schools provide services from student health care to after school tutoring to food pantries. California already has embarked on a massive undertaking to convert several thousand schools in low-income neighborhoods into centers of community life and providers of services for families as well as students. In 2021, the Legislature appropriated $3 billion for community schools, which will be funded through grants through 2027-28. 

“While others divide, community schools are one of the most effective strategies we have to help students and their families thrive,” Weingarten said. “Successful community schools become a vibrant hub of social services that are often in short supply elsewhere. By wrapping services around public schools, we can partner with families to create a safe, welcoming environment that celebrates students and encourages them to come to school and not only dream their dreams but achieve them.”

Promoting community schools is part of the AFT’s multiyear, multimillion-dollar Real Solutions for Kids and Communities campaign, unveiled in July. 

President Joe Biden on Monday announced a new student debt relief plan that would reduce the amount owed for 25 million borrowers and completely wipe away the debt of more than four million borrowers.

The plan, which is likely to face legal challenges, will start to roll out this fall and provide up to $20,000 in interest relief for borrowers who owe more than they originally borrowed due to interest. The plan would also help borrowers who have been paying for more than 20 years; individuals who are facing economic hardship; and borrowers who are already eligible for forgiveness but haven’t enrolled.

“Today, too many Americans, especially young people, are saddled with unsustainable debts in exchange for a college degree,” Biden said Monday during remarks in Wisconsin.

Since Biden took office, his administration has approved $146 billion in student debt relief for 4 million Americans through a number of executive actions. The plan he announced Monday is his most significant attempt at large-scale student debt relief since last summer, when the Supreme Court blocked his plan to cancel more than $400 billion in student debt for about 43 million borrowers.

Several schools, including many in the Central San Joaquin Valley, are using Monday’s rare solar eclipse – when the moon passes between the Earth and sun – as a learning experience for students. 

Red Bank Elementary is one of several Clovis Unified schools that will be educating students about the natural occurrence, the school district said in a media release emailed to EdSource. 

All Red Bank Elementary staff and students will have safe solar glasses to view the eclipse  around 11:10 am, as David McGee, a visitor from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), narrates the event. 

For the event, the school also coined Monday as a “Shine Bright” dress-up day, a kudos to the sun, with the parent-teacher club set to provide moon pies, as a nod to the moon, the media release said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would reprocess all federal-aid applications based on feedback from colleges, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. 

In late March, higher education institutions learned that many FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) forms contained inaccurate information, leading the education department last week to, at first, say it would reprocess forms with errors. By Thursday, the education department reversed that decision, saying it would reprocess all forms. 

Although financial aid offices have applauded Thursday’s decision, other factors caused by the reprocessing continue to trouble colleges. 

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, colleges can choose whether to use the original form with inaccurate data or the corrected, reprocessed application to create financial aid offers. 

“… they added this little caveat that, if you want to use bad information you already have, go ahead and do it, because it’s important to get offers in the hands of students,” said Nick Prewett, executive director of financial aid and scholarship services at Stony Brook University in New York. “That’s like one step forward, two steps back.” 

Colleges, according to reporting by The Chronicle of Higher Education, also question whether those who use the original forms will be penalized for basing aid packages off of possibly inaccurate information and how it impacts colleges and families who must wait on the reprocessed data. 

These latest issues around the FAFSA reveal two competing concerns among colleges, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported: providing offers as soon as possible or ensuring accuracy and fairness in the financial aid process.

After 20 years, Michele Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit higher education advocacy organization, will be stepping down from the role on June 30.

She will be replaced by Jessie Ryan, executive vice president of the organization, effective July 1.

During her time with the Campaign, Siqueiros worked with state leaders to create a new funding formula for the state’s community college system, reform college transfer and end remedial education.

“I am incredibly proud of the impact our work at the Campaign for College Opportunity has had for California students, from expanding access to college, strengthening pathways, protecting financial aid, to increasing student success with an unapologetic focus on addressing racial inequities,” Siqueiros said. “I have had the even bigger fortune of seeing that work bear fruit alongside Jessie Ryan. There is no one better poised to take the Campaign to the next level. As her biggest fan, a loyal friend, and forever partner in this work, I can’t wait to see what she does next.”

Merced County’s Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Overcomers, an organization that addresses the effects of childhood trauma, received funding to purchase The Lisa Project, a multisensory exhibit that raises awareness about child abuse, the organization announced in a Thursday media release emailed to EdSource. 

The exhibit, condensed into a traveling showcase, was shown temporarily in Merced County in August to garner funding for a permanent full-scale space. 

Created by the nonprofit organization The Lisa Project, the exhibit raises awareness, increases prevention and provides education about child abuse through multimedia installations and audio narration that depict what child abuse looks like in various situations.  

“This initiative aims to raise awareness about the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and provide resources for individuals and families affected by the trauma of abuse,” ACE Overcomers said about funding from The Central Valley Opportunity Fund, which supports innovative projects that address critical needs in the community. 

ACE Overcomers, the Merced County Office of Education and Adverse Childhood Experiences Informed Network of Care, all of which collaborated in the temporary showing of the exhibit, will offer The Lisa Project for Merced County and surrounding communities. 

ACE Overcomers, according to the release, plans to mobilize The Lisa Project by placing it at locations throughout Merced County, including high schools, child development centers, colleges and community centers over the next five years.

Selma Unified, a nearly 6,000-student district in southeast Fresno County of the central San Joaquin Valley, has created a social-emotional support group for newcomer students, or students who are immigrants in their first year of schooling in the United States, according to the district’s lead mental health clinician, Kristy Rangel. 

“The group nurtures . . . students who are navigating new cultural landscapes and social norms without much support,” Rangel told EdSource in an email.   The created “safe space” allows  “students to connect with an adult and other students with similar backgrounds,” Rangel said. 

The school district has introduced several measures within the last decade to improve students’ mental health.  Its therapy dogs Jeter and Scout have played a lead role in Selma Unified’s push to destigmatize mental health issues and provide services, including support for newcomer students. 

For example, with Scout, the support groups implement lessons on communication skills. 

“Scout demonstrates to students that although she can’t speak,” Rangel said, “she can still communicate, identify and express her needs, emotions and wants.”

A suspended Stanford lecturer sued the university for wrongful termination Wednesday, following a controversial lesson on colonization given three days after Hamas invaded Israel in October, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 

Ameer Hasan Loggins’ contract expired in March and wasn’t renewed, according to the Chronicle. He was suspended after the lesson pending an investigation. His lesson, which was taught on Oct. 10, was called deeply offensive by some Jewish students, but others didn’t have issues with it. 

The lawsuit says that because Loggins is Black and Muslim he was discriminated against and it’s the reason Stanford’s administrators suspended him and posted updates about his work status on campus, the Chronicle reported. Those actions were discriminatory because administrators “do not publicly confirm personnel actions taken against Caucasian, Jewish and non-Muslim employees,” according to the lawsuit.

A postdoctoral researcher is also accused of slander and defamation, the Chronicle reported. The lawsuit cites a Stanford Daily article that says a student worker told a congressional committee in March that Loggins was one of Stanford’s “most racist faculty members.”

According to the Chronicle, Loggins received death threats and has been called the “n” word more than 100 times.

Applications for student board member positions on the California State Board of Education are currently being accepted for the 2025-26 school year. 

According to a statement from the state board, any California high school resident enrolled in public school can apply but must be a senior and in good standing by the 2025-26 school year. Those chosen will participate in a statewide student leader conference from Nov. 10-13 in Sacramento that the board will pay for.

Student board members will also receive a $100 stipend for each day of official business, and expenses for travel, lodging, and meals will be covered, the statement said.

Student board members are required to attend at least two regular board meetings every other month in Sacramento, go to a one-day orientation, and set aside time to review agendas, which may include consultation with board staff for background information. Student board members will also attend advisory group meetings, student meetings, workshops and conferences. The deadline to apply is Sept. 24 at 5 p.m. For more information go here.

California’s community colleges, since fall 2021, have distributed more than $5 million to fraudulent students, who are often bots, CalMatters reported. CalMatters cited monthly reports that the colleges must submit to the statewide chancellor’s office.

On top of the federal aid, colleges also said they have distributed almost $1.5 million in state and local aid to the fraudsters, according to CalMatters.

The community college system has been dealing with fake students since at least 2021, when suspected scammers began submitting phony applications with the goal of obtaining federal aid or Covid-19 relief grants.

Just this past January, 25% of the system’s applicants were suspected to be fraudulent, a state chancellor’s office official told CalMatters.

Todd Coston, an associate vice chancellor with the Kern Community College District, told CalMatters that the problem “is getting significantly worse” and that the number of bots “spiked like crazy” within the last year.

Administrators at Laguna Beach High School have launched an investigation into a series of “inappropriate” images created using artificial intelligence, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The images were allegedly created by a student, and it is unknown how many were involved. The nature of the images and the methods of distribution also remain unclear, the Times reported. 

According to an email sent to parents on March 25 by principal Jason Allemann, the school is “taking steps to investigate and directly address this issue with those involved, while also using this situation as a teachable moment for our students, reinforcing the importance of responsible behavior and mutual respect.”

The investigation is also being aided by the Laguna Beach Police Department, who declined to provide the Times with details because the case involves minors. 

“It is a very challenging space and the technological advancements and capabilities are occurring at a very rapid pace, which makes it all the more challenging to wrap one’s head around,” Amy Mitchell, the executive director of the Center for News, Technology and Innovation, told the Times.

It is also unclear what kind of discipline the students will face, but the district said incidents are “handled on a case-by-case basis considering the individual circumstances of the situation.”

 The school is also planning panel discussions surrounding AI-generated content. 

“In our small community, these incidents can have a far-reaching impact on our campus culture,” Allemann wrote to the Times. “These actions not only compromise individual dignity but also undermine the positive and supportive environment we aim to foster at LBHS.”

More than 80% of 1,000 surveyed Los Angeles County voters, parents and students showed support for trade classes that can prepare students for careers — and expressed that the skills are valuable irrespective of whether a student opts to attend college, The 74 reported. 

Commissioned by Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, the poll specifically focused on students and parents who come from “backgrounds disproportionately impacted by inequities in our education system.” 

The poll was conducted by Evitarus, a research firm that surveyed 400 registered voters, 495 parents of public school students and 258 students. 

Across the 80 school districts in the greater region, less than 20% of public high schools offer trade programs. The availability of trade classes has also dwindled in the past 25 to 30 years, and those that remain are seen as critical only for students who do not plan to attend college, The 74 reported. 

In the poll, however, 70% of respondents said they believe trade skills can help prepare students for futures in higher education. 

“Young people in the focus group really spoke about wanting to work in a career where it’s improving their community, and they spoke very eloquently about driving around and seeing these big projects going up and how they know that’s that’s to better their community, and they want to be part of that,” Belen Vargas, the senior director of Los Angeles County programs at Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, told The 74. 

The processing of forms for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program will be paused between May and July to allow the U.S. Department of Education to make updates to its system.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a federal program to erase student loans for people who work for the government or a nonprofit organization, after they have made 120 student loan payments over 10 years.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness forms can still be submitted to at StudentAid.gov during the pause, but they won’t be processed until July. Any payments made during the pause that are forgiven will be refunded or applied to other outstanding federal student loans.

The Fresno Unified school board will not be looking outside the district to replace Superintendent Bob Nelson, who will leave the district July 31 to accept a tenure-track position at California State University, Fresno.

The school board will hold closed-door interviews for the position at a special board meeting April 3, according to the Fresno Bee. They will only interview internal candidates.

Public comment will be taken before the meeting.

Board President Susan Wittrup was among the trustees who voted against closed interviews with only internal candidates. She is planning a press conference this week to address the need for an “open and transparent search,” according to the article. 

Educators can apply to live in a San Francisco affordable housing project beginning tomorrow, KQED reported. 

The Shirley Chisholm Village is the first of its kind and will be geared toward supporting educators and city employees. It is specifically home to 135 units — 100% of which are considered affordable housing. 

“People who work in San Francisco should be able to afford to live here, especially our teachers who are critical to our community,” said Mayor London Breed in a statement Monday morning, KQED reported.

“Shirley Chisholm Village is an example of our work in action to address that issue.”

LAUSD’s primary election results have now been certified by the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The District 1 race is not over. In November, Sherlett Hendy Newbill — who garnered 25.73% of the vote — will have to run against Khallid Al-Alim, who received 20.14% of votes.

Current board vice president Scott Schmerelson is currently in the lead for District 3 and received 44.55% of votes. In November, he will face off against Dan Chang, who received 29.02% of votes.

November’s District 5 race — to replace current board president Jackie Goldberg as she seeks retirement — will be between Karla Griego, who garnered 36.72% of votes, and Graciela Ortiz, who received 28.76%.

In District 7, current board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin earned the support of 55.91% of voters and was reelected.

Fresno Unified School District has spent at least $94,000 in the past two school years to implement 5 Star Students, an app that tracks student tardiness and hall passes, including bathroom breaks, The Fresno Bee reported. 

The effectiveness of the app, which is being enacted in different phases at different schools, depends on a school’s collective efforts to enforce the rules, The Bee reported.

At Edison High, for example, the school hasn’t been able to consistently use the app because the school lacks enough computers across campus. 

But Hoover High School staff consider it essential in managing the campus. 

“Let’s just say you’re having issues with each other or you always like to go out at the same time, there’s a system where I can put both of your names in,” Hoover High School principal Courtney Curtis told The Bee. “You two tried to scan out at the same time; it will tell (you) that you have to wait, so we don’t have the same groups of students that are always meeting out.”

Educators at other schools told The Bee that the app doesn’t address the educational problems students face. 

“I don’t think you need an app,” Roosevelt High School teacher Marisa Rodriguez said. “It takes building relationships, maybe having more counselors on our campuses, more social workers or psychologists, but yes, it’s cheaper to implement the app and prove how deviant this kid has been.”

In Orange Unified’s first successful recall effort since 2001, voters ousted board members Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma from office this month, the Voice of Orange County reported this week. The results were certified Tuesday. 

About 53% of voters said yes to remove Miner, and 54% said yes to recall Ledesma in the March 5 primary, according to results from the Orange County Registrar of Voters; all ballots have been processed. 

Parents and teachers sought a recall in January 2023 after Superintendent Gunn Marie Hansen was fired, the Voice of Orange County reported. Overtime, the recalls gained more support as Miner and Ledesma backed a transgender notification policy, a ban on the LGBTQ+ flag flying on district flagpoles and a temporary suspension of a digital library app over concerns of age-inappropriate books. 

With the successful recalls, the school board must decide between appointing people to fill the two vacancies until the November election, calling a special election to fill the seats or waiting until November for the regular election, the Voice of Orange County reported. 

The California State University system is one of five institutions to receive a grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Affirming Multivocal Humanities initiative to expand ethnic studies programs.

The foundation awarded the system $1.5 million, which will go to existing programs and to develop new ones by adding degree concentrations, creating blended bachelor’s-master’s degree programs, and establishing transfer pathways.

The chancellor’s office also will host a convention of ethnic, gender and sexuality studies faculty from across the system to determine how the grant money will be distributed.

The Murrieta Valley Unified School District board on Thursday night will consider rescinding and reworking its policy requiring school officials to notify parents if their child shows signs of being transgender, The Press-Enterprise reported. 

The item was placed on the agenda “for consideration recognizing the well-publicized actions and challenges related to this specific board policy in districts throughout California,” according to an email statement from the district. 

The statement added that “the district regularly reviews and updates its policies to comply with current law or district circumstances,” The Press Enterprise reported. 

President Paul Diffley, however, told the news organization that revising the policy could make it more likely to withstand legal challenges. He added that he plans to propose tabling the item this evening. 

“We need to go back and revisit it for one meeting,” he said. “I want to make sure we do the best that we can do.”

Earlier this month, Chino Valley Unified revamped its version of the policy — also intended to give it a stronger case in court. 

Diffley said both districts share the same lawyers and that changing the policy’s language came as advice from one of the attorneys. 

“I can’t justify doing that at this point because that’s pencil and paper and crayon money,” he told The Press Enterprise.

As a result of declining enrollments and budget shortages, DCP Alum Rock High School, a small charter school with roughly 200 students, will close its doors this summer, the Mercury News reported. 

“I know once the board said ‘yes, we recommend closing it,’ we took a breath … and once we walked out that door, it was just (a blow),” Madison Christian Sumpter, a junior at Downtown College Prep Alum Rock High School, told the Mercury News. 

Since the 2019-20 academic year, when the Covid-19 pandemic shook California school systems, DCP Alum Rock High School’s enrollment has decreased by 30%. 

To create a balanced budget, school administrators said they would have to eliminate nearly half of its staff.

Meanwhile, DCP’s CEO, Pete Settelmayer, told the Mercury News that the school’s 205 students did not lead to enough state revenue to support all of their services. Their deficit, he said, was between $1.5 million to $1.7 million. 

“We had to start asking ourselves, at what point are we doing a disservice to our students?” he told The Mercury News. 

“It’s not just about numbers. We know that when you close a school, it’s a community, it’s a family. That’s hard. It’s the last thing anyone wants to do. But the flip side is, am I going to be able to provide them with a place that will serve all of their needs?”

The community has responded negatively to the decision — and juniors Gracie Jaqueline Lopez and Sumpter initiated a petition to help the school remain open. 

“The reason I chose to come to (DCP Alum Rock High School) is because we’re a small community and a community that treats each other like family,” Lopez said in a YouTube video encouraging the community to sign the petition, according to the Mercury News. 

“You’re not going to find teachers anywhere else that have this much dedication to their students. Especially when I lost someone very special to me, my teacher and the staff members all came together and supported me.”

The California State University board of trustees announced Wednesday that Britt Rios-Ellis would serve as the next president of Stanislaus State.

Rios-Ellis is currently a provost and executive vice president of academic affairs at Oakland University, a public institution in Michigan. At Stanislaus State, she is replacing interim President Susan Borrego, who has held the position since Ellen Junn’s retirement in 2023.

“I am both honored and humbled to serve this outstanding university alongside the talented faculty, staff, administrators and students at Stanislaus State, and to be the first new president selected under the leadership of Chancellor Mildred García,” said Rios-Ellis. “I am eager to get to know the Turlock and Stockton communities and work together to ensure that the positive impact of our students’ and the university’s overall success is felt profoundly throughout the region.”

Prior to her work in Michigan, Rios-Ellis was dean of the College of Health Sciences and Human Service at CSU Monterey Bay from 2014 to 2020. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish, a master’s degree in health and fitness management, and a doctoral degree in community health, all from the University of Oregon.

Rios-Ellis’s presidency will begin July 1.

The proposed child tax credit, part of a bipartisan tax package the passed the U.S. House in January, is projected to help 16 million children living in poverty, but hopes are now dimming that it will make it through the Senate, as The 74 reported. 

This expanded child tax credit, which would apply to 2023 taxes being filed this spring, is not as generous as one Congress passed in 2021, which expired. Still, experts say it would help fight child poverty, which has spiked since the larger pandemic benefit ran out just as inflation hit families hard on rising costs from housing to child care. 

“I think this is the best chance we have of passing the tax package this year,” said Elyssa Schmier, a vice president for government relations with MomsRising, an advocacy group, as The 74 reported.  “We hear from families every day that are struggling to afford child care, medicine for their children, groceries and rent.”

Conservatives have objected to key parts of the bill, which is now stalled in the Senate. 

The child care crisis got a bit of relief in the latest funding bill approved by the White House, which contains a $1 billion increase for early learning and child care programs, as Marketplace reported. 

The funding includes an additional $275 million for the Head Start program and $725 million for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, a roughly 30% increase.

“One way that states might choose to use this increased funding is to increase subsidy eligibility thresholds,” said Susan Gale Perry, CEO of the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America, as Marketplace reported. “More families would have access to help paying for child care. It may also be used for things like improving the rates that states pay for child care providers.”

Because even after that bump, programs will only serve a fraction of eligible families, according to Sarah Rittling, who runs the First Five Years Fund, a D.C.-based children’s advocacy group. Through Child Care and Development Block Grants to states, for example, she said,  “14% of eligible families are served with the $8 billion-plus that we have.”

Through Head Start, which helps low income children, “we’re serving roughly 36% of eligible families and 11% of eligible families in early Head Start, so we have our work cut out for us,” said Rittling.

Still, advocates are calling this a win, given the extremely contentious atmosphere and budget woes that put pressure on the final appropriations agreement.