California education news: What’s the latest?

River Valley High School is forfeiting its next varsity football game after team members were recorded participating in a “slave auction.” Yuba City Unified School District has launched an investigation into the incident to determine which students were involved, according to the Sacramento Bee. 

The California Interscholastic Federation leaves it up to the school administrations to deal with repercussions for such incidents. River Valley High School is the second school in the region to deal with problems of conduct, following a school in Amador County Unified School District, which had its football season canceled. The district is investigating a social media group chat with racial undertones involving players.

Schools across Los Angeles County are participating in an $18-million state grant over the next four years in a push to connect underrepresented students with careers in health and technology. Five California State University campuses in the region will be a part of the LA Region K-16 Collaborative grant and will receive $3 million in grant money, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. 

The schools involved will have to meet specific goals across the four-year period to ensure accountability as they work toward building pathways and setting up resources. The funding, facilitated by local nonprofit UNITE-LA, is meant to address both education and workforce gaps fueled by inequities and racism.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill proposing the removal of lead from water at schools and state buildings, calling it too broad and raising concerns about cost. Senate Bill 1144, introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, on behalf of the California State Pipe Trades Council, passed easily through the Legislature but faced opposition from some school organizations over concerns about the unfunded costs of the bill.

The bill would have required school districts to put together water efficiency and quality assessment reports outlining lead levels in each building. Fixtures and appliances that didn’t meet the standards would have had to be replaced, including lead pipes, depending on the state funding. Lead is known to be highly toxic and harmful to children’s health and cognitive development.

“The Board regulates water systems; however, oversight of internal plumbing at the individual building level is not a function of the Board,” Newsom wrote in the veto message. “Developing new expertise to adequately implement this bill and develop regulations would require significant new staff and resources.”

Opposition to the bill included groups such as the Association of California School Administrators, the California Association of School Business Officials and Los Angeles Unified. Those in favor of it included the California Federation of Teachers, the California Teachers Association and the California Water Association.

As many as 800,000 student loan borrowers may not get the debt relief initially promised, after the Biden administration  scaled back which loans are eligible for forgiveness, rewriting guidelines this week, NPR reported.

Initially, borrowers whose loans were held by private lenders but guaranteed by the government could consolidate the loans into federal Direct Loans to qualify for the debt-relief plan. That included Federal Family Education Loans, which were common until the FFEL program ended in 2010.

But as of Thursday, according to NPR, the Department of Education “quietly changed that language.”

The guidance now says, “As of Sept. 29, 2022, borrowers with federal student loans not held by ED cannot obtain one-time debt relief by consolidating those loans into Direct Loans.”

A Department of Education spokesperson said borrowers who applied to consolidate their loans into Direct Loans before Sept. 29 will still be eligible for the debt relief.

The changing guidelines come after a lawsuit has been filed arguing debt forgiveness would hurt loan servicers, though the Education Department did not specify why the change was made.

President Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, announced in August, would relieve up to $10,000 for borrowers with incomes at $125,000 or less, or relieve up to $20,000 if the borrower received a Pell Grant while in college.

Come Jan. 1 2024, California schools will have to serve only food grown in the United Sates unless its costs more than 25% of imported products under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Senate Bill 490, sponsored by Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, requires California public institutions, including schools, to budget for and purchase domestic-made foods, the Sacramento Bee reported. Caballero has said the state’s allocated $611.8 million to help school districts cover the extra cost, according to the newspaper. A spokesperson for the senator told the Bee the law does not contain an enforcement provision and schools will be asked to comply with it on an honor code.

The governor said in a signing  statement that the “Buy American policy will benefit the California agricultural industry and agricultural workers, as well as the students and teachers consuming these meals in our schools.”

A spokesman for the California School Boards Association told the Bee that school-district meal costs have increased because of the state’s new Universal Meal System and that district’s may need additional funding.

California is considering making flag football a school sport for girls, the Associated Press reported.

The southern section of the California Interscholastic Federation is expected to vote Thursday on making it an official girls’ high school sport. If approved, the state federation — which governs interscholastic sports in California — would take it up next month with a goal of making it an official sport for the 2023-24 school year, according to the news service.

Flag football already is a sanctioned high school girls’ sport in states including Alabama and Nevada. And it was added as a collegiate sport by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, with colleges in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, and elsewhere fielding teams.

Elsa Morin ,17, a senior at Redondo Union High School in Los Angeles County told the A.P. that “something about football just gets me really excited. I’ve always just wanted to play.”

Los Angeles Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles have reached an agreement to move the district’s optional acceleration days to school breaks, following protest from the teacher’s union. UTLA members are set to vote to ratify the decision by Tuesday, which would shift the acceleration days to the first two days of both winter and spring breaks.

The changes to the calendar also come as UTLA continues its contract negotiations with LAUSD, the first with Alberto Carvalho as superintendent. 

UTLA filed a complaint against the district last month saying the district did not engage with its labor partners when it decided to extend the school year, calling it a promotional stunt. The district introduced the optional four additional days to the academic calendar in April, calling them a way to address the learning loss brought on by the pandemic by ensuring students receive time for extra support. 

The acceleration days were initially set to take place on Wednesdays throughout the school year. UTLA members, along with some student groups, were planning to boycott the first one in October, opting instead to hold a rally around their platform.

“The truth is four optional school days that create disruptions during the school year would not positively impact student learning as much as investing in smaller class sizes, increased mental health supports and robust extracurricular activities,” said UTLA member and teacher Phylis Hoffman in a UTLA press release. 

Teachers that work the optional days will be compensated at their regular salary rate. The move to adjust the calendar would also make the last day of school earlier, after the initially chosen days had pushed back the end of the school year.

Carvalho commented on the new acceleration day plan on Twitter, saying the most important thing was to prioritize students.

“Differing perspectives may sometimes keep children from the best they should get but fair alternatives can always be negotiated,” Carvalho wrote Wednesday. “A win is only a win if kids, too, are winners.”

A conservative legal group has filed a lawsuit to stop President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars of student debt, according to the New York Times.

The federal plan would cancel $10,000 of student debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year and another $10,000 for borrowers who were eligible for a Pell Grant.

The Congressional Budget Office has said the plan may cost $400 billion.

A Pacific Legal Foundation complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, calls the plan an end-around the Congress with untold economic impacts.

In order to challenge the plan, opponents must have a plaintiff who can claim they would be harmed by it. This case hinges on a plaintiff who claims he may have to pay $1,000 in additional taxes if his loan is forgiven through the federal program. He is seeking forgiveness for his college debt through another program that would eliminate his debt without taxing it, according to the New York Times.

The Biden program prevents federal taxes from being levied against student debt relief, but states may choose to tax it.

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond will hold a virtual town hall meeting for parents of public school students from 6 to 7:30 p.m. tonight.

Parents can talk about their experiences with public education and hear about the California Department of Education’s efforts to improve health and safety, literacy and enrollment, according to a news release from the department. 

The event will be translated into Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese and Tagalog. American Sign Language interpretation also will be provided.

The town hall will be available on Facebook or Zoom.

Three more baccalaureate programs have been approved at California community colleges, the college system announced.

Bachelor’s degrees in respiratory care at El Camino College, automotive technology management at De Anza College and research laboratory technology at Bakersfield College recently received full approval. Additionally, six other programs have received provisional approval but still must receive approval from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.

The expansion of baccalaureate programs at California’s community colleges stems from Assembly Bill 927, a law signed in 2021 expanding a 2014 pilot program that created bachelor’s degrees at 15 community colleges. The new law allows the community college system to add up to 30 baccalaureate programs each year.

The six programs that have received provisional approval include: respiratory care programs at Crafton Hills and Foothill Colleges; histotechnology at Mt. San Antonio College; ecosystem restoration at Feather River College; cyber defense and analysis at San Diego City College; and biomanufacturing at Moorpark College. In addition to needing approval from the accrediting commission, the latter three programs also must still be approved by the University of California and California State University, which sign off on the degrees.

Once the programs are approved by UC, CSU and the accrediting commission, the community college system’s board president, currently Pamela Haynes, gives final approval. The full board previously delegated the board president the authority to give that approval.

Los Angeles Unified is pushing forward efforts to provide more green spaces across its campuses, as schools continue to feel the impact of recent heat waves. Dozens of community members spoke in favor of the resolution at Tuesday’s board meeting, some pointing to the high temperatures asphalt has reached during hot periods of the year. 

The resolution, introduced by board president Kelly Gonez, aims for 30% of school campuses to be covered in green space by 2035. Currently 16% of schools in the district meet that recommendation made by LAUSD’s greening program. Schools like El Sereno Elementary and Vanalden Elementary, for example, have less than 5% green space at their school sites, alongside many others across the district.

“We need a cohesive system-wide plan to urgently drive greening efforts throughout our district, starting with our most impacted schools,” Gonez said at the board meeting.

The superintendent has 150 days to put together a plan to reach this goal to invest in more green spaces. Schools with the least access and evaluated as most affected by extreme heat according the district’s Greening Index will be prioritized first. The Greening Index was put together by LAUSD to identify levels of need. 

The district will also work to identify funding for the projects by way of bonds, the general fund and grants.

All 23 California State University campuses will start accepting applications for fall 2023 admission on Oct. 1. Students have until Nov. 30 to apply at calstate.edu/apply.

The application fee is $70 per university, however, students can also apply for fee waivers for up to four campuses.

“In the true spirit of the CSU’s mission to provide an affordable and accessible education, thousands of new seats will be available across the 23 universities this coming fall for incoming first-year and transfer students,” said April Grommo, CSU’s assistant vice chancellor for Enrollment Management Services. “There is no better time to enroll at the CSU, as we have ramped up student success services and redoubled our efforts to guide current, new and prospective students toward obtaining their college degree.”

The campus will be able to enroll an additional 10,000 students next fall with $81 million in new funding for enrollment growth given by the state this summer in the 2022-23 budget agreement.

President Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student debt for borrowers may cost $400 billion, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday.

The president’s plan cancels $10,000 in student debt for borrowers making less than $125,000. Borrowers who received Pell Grants will be eligible to have another $10,000 canceled.

The White House said in a statement Monday that the plan will bring relief to struggling borrowers and noted that the CBO’s estimate of costs in the first year of cancellation — $21 billion — is lower than the Biden administration’s $24 billion estimate, according to PBS.

Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chuck Schumer of New York, who both advocated for debt cancellation, said in a statement Monday that they “don’t agree with all of C.B.O.’s assumptions that underlie this analysis.”

“But it is clear the pandemic payment pause and student debt cancellation are policies that demonstrate how government can and should invest in working people, not the wealthy and billionaire corporations,” they added.

The CBO also cautioned that its estimates are “highly uncertain.” Still, Republican critics of debt cancellation quickly cited the report as evidence that Biden’s plan is too costly.

“Every American should be outraged by the president’s cynical ploy and by the real cost it places on those who stand to benefit the least,” said Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, according to The New York Times.

UCLA is buying two properties from Marymount California University in San Pedro and Rancho Palos Verdes, the university announced Tuesday.

By acquiring the new sites, UCLA estimates it will be able to add about 1,000 additional students. The new students could help UCLA meet soaring demand from prospective students.

“UCLA has been a crucial nexus of education, research and public service within Los Angeles for more than 100 years,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement. “As demand for our academic offerings continues to grow, this acquisition will allow us to expand student access.”

Marymount California University closed earlier this year because of rising costs and declining enrollment. The university’s president, Brian Marcotte, said in a statement that the university chose to sell to UCLA because of its “long track record of educational excellence.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will bring state investment to the University of California’s two most diverse campuses, Merced and Riverside, with the goal of boosting the state’s inland economy and fighting climate change.

AB 2046 requires the Legislature to allot an unspecified amount of money to expand the two campuses, with a focus on capital projects and research initiatives that address climate change, sustainable agriculture, clean technology, air pollution and other environmental topics.

Sponsored by Assemblymembers Jose Medina, D-Riverside, and Adam Gray, D-Merced, the bill is intended to boost the profile of both universities and spur economic growth in the Inland Empire and Central Valley, which are among the state’s most low-income regions and most affected by environmental challenges.

Genentech, the biotechnology giant, announced Monday it would invest $10 million in a nationwide K-12 school STEM program that originated in South San Francisco schools.

The program, Futurelab+, includes biotechnology curriculum that fits into existing state science standards, training for teachers and a volunteer program that matches biotech professionals with classrooms. The goal is to boost achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics among low-income students and groups that are underrepresented in the biotechnology field.

Genentech, which is based in South San Francisco, launched Futurelab+ in South San Francisco Unified in 2015. The program, which has so far reached more than 8,000 students, will expand nationally with the new funding. Genentech hopes it will reach 2 million students by 2026.

About 90% of student loan relief is expected to go to those earning less than $75,000 a year, according to a White House fact sheet. Larger states like California and Texas are set to receive the largest portion of forgiveness.

In California, which has the largest number of student debt holders, more than 3.5 million individuals with student debt are eligible for up to $10,000 in debt relief. The state is also home to 2.3 individuals who received the Pell Grant and will be eligible for up to $20,000 in debt relief. The state with the fewest eligible student debt holders is Wyoming, which is home to nearly 50,000 eligible individuals.

Individuals are awaiting the release of the application, which is expected to be up in early October. The Department of Education recommends that applicants apply before Nov. 15 to ensure they receive the debt forgiveness before payments restart in January.

Los Angeles Unified will pay $9.5 million to the family of a 12-year-old who died after running laps in P.E., according to the Los Angeles Times. 

The settlement comes after the family, whose son attended Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes, filed a lawsuit against the district in March 2019. The lawsuit alleged LAUSD did not take appropriate measures to save their son’s life.

The boy died in March 2018 after running laps around the school track. He laid down after running four, and though both P.E. teachers saw the boy was unconscious but breathing, neither performed CPR or used the automated external defibrillator, and there was a delay in calling 911. The boy died in the hospital.

Los Angeles Unified will provide schools with the opioid overdose treatment naloxone following several overdoses among students this school year. Nine students have overdosed across the district, including one 15-year-old who died last week.

With support from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, LAUSD is distributing the naloxone units across its schools at no cost, beginning first with middle and high schools. Naloxone, known also as Narcan, can temporarily reverse overdose effects and will be distributed in nasal spray form, which Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said will make it easy to use if needed. School police officers will also have the drug on hand.

“We are experiencing a devastating epidemic,” Carvalho said at a press conference Thursday. “While we talk about fentanyl or the many variations of fentanyl, there is an abundance of drugs that students are having ready access to. But there are solutions.”

The LAUSD community has been processing the death of Melanie Ramos, 15, who died on campus at Bernstein High School last week after taking a pill she bought from another student laced with fentanyl, a powerful opioid that can be lethal in small doses. Seven of the nine cases of overdose reported by officials occurred at the Bernstein campus and Hollywood High School.

Fentanyl overdoses have been on the increase since prior to the pandemic, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. It’s become increasingly common for pills to be laced with fentanyl.

As the district continues to hone in on the issue, it has formed a task force to take a deeper look at the data and pinpoint which areas of the district have been disproportionately affected. Carvalho said the district now has an idea of what those areas are but will wait to connect with the communities first before officially announcing the patterns. LAUSD will work further with Los Angeles School Police and the Los Angeles Police Department to address safety.

Aside from taking measures to respond to use, the district is also working toward prevention. It is launching peer-to-peer counseling for students to spread knowledge of the impact of drug use. Students will receive training from the Health Information Project, which focuses on providing health education through that model. 

The district will also offer courses on drug use and impact through its Family Academy beginning next week. Courses will tackle the issue through several aspects, including effects and signs of usage as well as the mental health impact. LAUSD is also launching its Make a Choice campaign across social media, posters and messaging to grow awareness.

A teachers strike could be coming to the Valley of the Moon, in Sonoma County, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported.

More than 95% of the members of Valley of the Moon Teachers Association voted on Tuesday to strike, if needed, after impasse mediation over salary negotiations with Sonoma Valley Union School District was unsuccessful, the newspaper reported.

“With a catastrophic teacher shortage facing our profession and after two horrific years of pandemic that were met with sacrifice and flexibility, the district’s actions toward teachers are unnecessary and disrespectful,” Bernadette Weissman, VMTA bargaining chair and a history teacher at Sonoma Valley High School, said in a statement, according to the newspaper.

The union and SVUSD have been some $2.9 million apart as they negotiate increasing teacher salaries and benefits for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years.

School districts continue to lack detailed plans for how they will improve education for English learners, according to a new report from Californians Together and the Center for Equity for English Learners at Loyola Marymount University.

The report is based on an analysis of the Local Control Accountability Plans for 2021-24 from 26 public school districts that serve either high percentages or high numbers of English learners. The analysis was conducted by a team of educators, researchers and advocates from across the state, and is the fourth published by Californians Together. The group also analyzed LCAPS in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

“These findings reveal that nine years into Local Control Funding Formula, seven years of LCAP implementation, and two years after the exacerbation of systemic inequities by the devastating effects of the pandemic, the search for equity continues to mirror the search for “a needle in a haystack,” stated Magaly Lavadenz, one of the authors of the report, in a news release.

The report finds that many districts did not go into detail about how they would serve English learners. Many did mention subgroups of English learners, such as long-term English learners and newcomer students, but did not describe in detail how they would serve these subgroups differently.

In addition, the analysis found that most districts did not set goals to close achievement gaps for English learners. For example, districts set out goals to decrease the high school dropout rate by the same percentage for all students, despite the fact that English learners drop out at a much higher rate than all students.

The lack of a systematic approach to professional development for teachers of English learners was also a key finding of the report.

The authors recommend that the state begin to require districts to identify differentiated goals for English learners and other groups, to close achievement gaps. In addition, they recommend that county offices of education make sure staff with expertise in English learners review district LCAPs and closely monitor districts’ goals.

At least seven teenagers, including a high school student who died last week, have overdosed in Los Angeles in the last month after taking pills possibly laced with fentanyl, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The latest overdose occurred Saturday morning, when a 15-year-old student from STEM Academy of Hollywood was found unconscious by his mother in their Hollywood residence, LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the newspaper.

Police said they are investigating whether the most recent overdose was connected to the drugs that killed 15-year-old Melanie Ramos, a student at Bernstein High School, which is part of STEM Academy, on Sept. 13.

Moore confirmed that 10 pills that police took into custody last week during the arrest of a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of manslaughter tested positive for fentanyl. He described them as “crude blue M30 pills” believed to be counterfeits containing fentanyl and are produced by illicit labs as a substitute for Percocet, a pain reliever that contains the opioid oxycodone.

“It speaks to the impurities of street narcotics,” Moore said. “Fentanyl is a very dangerous drug, and this dosage can range from being a painkiller to a depressant to death.”

The San Francisco Unified school board voted Tuesday night to suspend a plan to add two Muslim holidays to the school calendar until staff can study how to best recognize the cultural holidays of all students and recommend changes to the academic calendar.

In August, the board voted to add Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays, but that decision faced backlash, including the threat of a lawsuit by an attorney who argued that the initial resolution violated the Brown Act. The resolution also faced criticism from Jewish parents who noted that the district doesn’t recognize any Jewish holidays.

The holidays would have been recognized beginning next school year.

“Tolerance, inclusiveness, and respect for all people, cultures, and religious and spiritual beliefs are fundamental values championed by the San Franciscan community at all levels,” said Superintendent Matt Wayne. “The resolution will set in motion a process in place to ensure that we are living up to our values and including SFUSD’s diverse students and families.”

The recommendations are expected to be presented to the board no later than Jan. 31 so that they can be included in the 2023-24 school calendar.

Los Angeles Unified School District has received a ransom demand from the hackers who targeted its data system and disrupted its website on Sep. 3.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho would not disclose the amount the hackers demanded or elaborate on the data they claimed to have in their possession, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“We can confirm that there was a demand made,” Carvalho told the Times. “There has been no response to the demand.”

Social security numbers and other personal employee information were not compromised in the cyberattack, according to district officials. They aren’t as certain about student information like grades, schedules and discipline records.

Hackers often threaten to post the information they claim to have obtained online if their demands aren’t met.

The district is working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department and other experts and is following their guidance, according to the Times.

San Francisco Unified’s school board on Tuesday plans to reconsider a recent decision to add two Muslim holidays to its instructional calendar, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In August, the board voted to add Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as school holidays, but that decision faced backlash, including the threat of a lawsuit by an attorney who argued that the initial resolution violated the Brown Act. The resolution also faced criticism from Jewish parents who noted that the district doesn’t recognize any Jewish holidays, according to the Chronicle.

Wassim Hage, community organizer with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, told the Chronicle in August that he was “so happy to see this, it’s really wonderful to feel seen by the district” after the resolution to add the holidays was adopted.

But on Tuesday, the board will vote on a new resolution that would suspend the adoption of those holidays and instead require the district to conduct an analysis to create best practices for “how and when to determine what holidays” should be added to the school calendar.

The Paramount Unified School District is switching from an at-large system for electing school board members to a by-district voting system, the Press-Telegram reported.

With the change, the Los Angeles County-based district will join many other large districts with distinct voting districts for each of its school board members. Under the at-large voting system, everyone living in the district’s boundaries can vote for each school board seat. But under the new system, voters will only be able to vote for the school board seat representing the specific area of the district where they reside.

Many other districts already use the by-district voting system, including Los Angeles County’s two largest school districts, Long Beach Unified and Los Angeles Unified.

“It’s important to have representation from our diverse school district,” Paramount Unified board member Eddie Cruz said told the Press-Telegram. “This is an opportunity for individuals to take ownership of their school community.”

Retroactive raises for teachers and paraeducators, more time for class preparation and dedicated substitutes assigned to specific schools are among the agreements reached over the weekend between San Francisco Unified and its teachers union.

According to the agreement, elementary teachers will have 195 minutes of preparation time per week. High school and middle school teachers will get one class period a day for preparation time, plus an additional 30 minutes per week.

Also, the district agreed to assign a full-time substitute teacher to certain schools. When no teachers are absent, the school’s administrator will assign the substitute other duties.

The agreement, hammered out by the district and United Educators of San Francisco, now heads to the board for final approval, likely in October.

“This agreement is an important investment in our educators and an important step for SFUSD to attract and retain talented professionals,” said SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne. “I want to thank our educators who continue to teach and nurture students every day in SFUSD schools and classrooms. We are committed to working with our labor partners to cultivate a vibrant education workforce and partnering on efforts to sustain these investments.”

“This agreement is one step in a series to ensure educators are able to stay in SFUSD. We are glad we could come to agreement in the fall on this year’s much-needed raise, as it will immediately impact UESF members and their families,” said union President Cassondra Curiel.

A Fresno County elementary district that’s been plagued by high staff turnover, low test scores and discontent among parents has hired its fourth superintendent since December 2021 to try to bring stability to the troubled district, the Fresno Bee reported.

West Park Elementary, southwest of Fresno, hired Brian Clark, a first-time superintendent with 24 years’ experience in education. Clark, who grew up in Fresno, said he was eager to lead the 600-student district.

“I am so happy and feel so blessed to have received the opportunity,” he told the Bee’s Ed Lab. “There’s so much positive here. There’s so many great students here and some fantastic educators. I just want an opportunity to help bring things to a place where we all can be extremely, extremely proud. I believe that’s possible.”

Clark takes over from interim Superintendent Darrell Yates, who replaced Regina Diaz. The board fired Diaz shortly after she was hired in early 2022. Diaz replaced Ralph Vigil, whom the board fired in December 2021 after 15 years on the job.

The number of book bans and restrictions in U.S. libraries, schools and universities is on track to set a new record this year, according to data released Friday by the American Library Association.

In the first eight months of 2022, the association documented 681 attempts to ban or restrict library books, with 1,651 unique titles targeted. In 2021, the association reported 729 restrictions or bans, the highest number since the association began tracking the figure 20 years ago.

“The unprecedented number of challenges we’re seeing already this year reflects coordinated, national efforts to silence marginalized or historically underrepresented voices and deprive all of us — young people, in particular — of the chance to explore a world beyond the confines of personal experience,” said ALA President Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada. “Librarians develop collections and resources that make knowledge and ideas widely available, so people and families are free to choose what to read. Though it’s natural that we want to protect young people from some of life’s more difficult realities, the truth is that banning books does nothing to protect them from dealing with tough issues. Instead, it denies young people resources that can help them deal with the challenges that confront them.”

“The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, “The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie and “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson are among the most commonly banned books.

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed this week a bill that would have let California students ride public transit for free, according to LAist.

Assembly Bill 1919, which had bipartisan support, would have established the five-year Youth Transit Pass Pilot Program. Caltrans would have run the program, managing grants to transit agencies that applied for funding.

K-12 students, along with students enrolled in state community colleges, California State University, or the University of California systems would have been eligible, LAist reported.

Newsom said the bill was too costly.

“…the bill requires the creation of a new grant program that was not funded in the budget,” Newsom wrote in a letter after the veto. “Bills with significant fiscal impact, such as this measure, should be considered and accounted for as part of the annual budget process.”

Two teen boys were arrested on Thursday after a 15-year-old girl fatally overdosed on fentanyl-laced pills in a bathroom at Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood, The Los Angeles Times reported.

One of the boys, a 15-year-old, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after allegedly selling the pills to two girls. The other boy, a 16-year-old, is accused of selling narcotics, according to the Times.

Police say the girls believed they were being sold Percocet, and crushed and snorted the pills sometime between 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the bathroom. Paramedics found the deceased girl, identified as Melanie Ramos, around 9 p.m. The other girl was taken to the hospital.

Over the last three weeks, at least six Los Angeles Unified students have been involved in drug use, according to the Times, “some resulting in overdose, some resulting in students being transported to a medical facility, some being immediately released to the parents,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

Pivot Learning, an Oakland-based national nonprofit that works with over 100 California districts on improving classroom instruction in literacy and math, announced this week it is merging with UnboundEd, a national nonprofit that does complementary school improvement work.

The merger, which will operate under the UnboundEd name, will become “the largest K-12 educator development organization in the country with an explicit focus on equity in teaching and learning for underserved students,” Pivot and UnboundEd said in a joint release.  Lacey Robinson, UnboundEd’s CEO, will become the new organization’s CEO.  Arun Ramanathan, Pivot’s CEO will become a senior adviser helping to oversee the transition.

No jobs will be cut among Pivot’s 50 full-time employees and several hundred part-time teacher coaches located across the nation, Ramanathan said. Instead, he foresees “rapid growth and deepening impact” of the new organization.

“I’m excited at the prospect of being able to scale up and share the work we have been doing,” he said with the goal 300,000 teachers and leaders in districts serving over five million students in all 50 states.

CORE Learning, the reading and math professional development subsidiary of Pivot Learning, will continue with the new UnboundEd.

Pivot Learning’s focus has been improving literacy and math results, especially in high need schools and communities. Its partnerships include the Sacramento Office of Education’s work improving early literacy of the 72 schools selected for improvement under a settlement in the Ella T vs the State of California lawsuit brought by Public Counsel.

Ramanathan said Pivot Learning and UnboundEd have been discussing combining over the past year, and growing inequalities during the pandemic heightened the interest. The two organizations first worked together in Stockton Unified.

UnboundEd provided with Stockton’s teachers and administrators with five days of immersive training in literacy and math instruction during its national Standards Institute; Pivot followed up with district and school-level professional development and curriculum implementation support. The combination served as a model for the two organizations’ collaboration and a catalyst for the merger, Ramanathan said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation that would have capped how much low-income families would have to pay for child care. 

The Affordable Child Care Family Fees Act would have prohibited family fees from exceeding 1% of the family’s monthly income and prevented a family with a monthly income below 75% of the state median from being assessed any family fee. Sponsored by Assemblymember Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-Colton, the legislation would have waived family fees for all families through 2023.

While agreeing with the spirit of the bill, the governor cited budget concerns in his veto message. 

“While the intent of this bill is consistent with our previous budget actions, it creates costs in the tens of millions of dollars not currently accounted for in the state’s fiscal plan. With our state facing lower-than-expected revenues over the first few months of this fiscal year, it is important to remain disciplined when it comes to spending, particularly spending that is ongoing.”

A $14 million payroll system that failed to pay hundreds of teachers and staff at San Francisco Unified School District on time or not at all will cost at least another $2.8 million to fix, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

The EMPower payroll system has been full of bugs and problems since it launched in January. SFUSD trustees voted Wednesday to spend more than $2.8 million to repair it.

Teachers and other workers have cited the payroll fiasco as a reason for leaving the district. In one case, a principal wrote a personal check for $4,500 to a teacher to help cover her rent until the district paid her for the month. Others have staged sit-ins at the district office to protest the problems, the Chronicle reported.

“Despite tireless work from our team, we haven’t been able to get out in front of the problem,” said Superintendent Matt Wayne, in a statement Wednesday morning. “We have to be able to pay people the right amount, on time. It’s time to take a different course and tackle this problem head-on with added expertise and capacity. We need to fully understand the technical issues causing mistakes, have a road map to fix them, and have the people power to make the changes and set us up for long-term success.”

A consultant hired by the district is expected to determine whether the EMPower system is a flawed product in terms of the district’s needs or whether it’s an internal issue related to using the technology.

A high school dedicated to creating a pipeline of diverse workers for Hollywood production crews and backed by the actor George Clooney has opened, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Roybal School of Film and Television Production Magnet opened last month with 150 ninth- and 10th-grade students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

It is housed within the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center in downtown Los Angeles and is designed to draw students from underrepresented backgrounds who are interested in entertainment but may lack the opportunity to break into well-paid union jobs such as camera operators, set decorators and makeup artists.

“It’s like training to be a doctor. You’re going to learn a trade [and] if you work and get good at your trade, there will be jobs for you,” Clooney told the newspaper in an interview. “We’re in desperate need of workers.”

Clooney and other celebrities,  joined LAUSD superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho at a press event Wednesday to mark the school’s debut.

An assistant football coach at Vallejo High School is in stable condition after he was injured in a shooting Tuesday after school, the East Bay Times reported.

The newspaper identified the coach as Joe Pastrana, defensive coordinator of the school’s football team and a 2009 alumni of the school. Pastrana was breaking up a fight in front of the school just as classes ended for the day when he was shot by a suspect in a black Audi, the newspaper reported. The suspect is not a student, a school official said.

District staff placed the school on lockdown following the incident and provided mental health support for students. About 200 students were on campus at the time, including students attending a college fair.

Vallejo Police Chief Shawny Williams said Pastrana acted heroically, possibly saving the lives of nearby students.

“This is a very courageous staff member that potentially saved another child’s life or multiple people’s lives,” Williams said, the newspaper reported. “It’s a tragedy anytime there is a shooting anywhere near a school. This is a senseless act of violence committed by some individuals who do not value human life. … Enough is enough. It’s a sad day anyone is shot in front of our children at school where they should feel safe.”

Cathy Parker, county superintendent of Tuolumne County in the Sierra foothills, will leave her post two months before her term ends in early 2023, the Union Democrat reported.

Parker, who lost her bid for re-election in June, has worked in education for 25 years. The county Board of Education appointed Diana Harford, deputy superintendent, to lead the office until Zack Abernathy, a Sonora High math teacher who narrowly defeated Parker, is sworn in on Jan. 2.

Parker’s last day will be Oct. 31.

“I hate to see Cathy go. She’s one of the smartest people in education, but I’m excited she’s built a team and support that will transition well into the next administration,” Casey Littleton, president of the county school board, told the newspaper.

Six centers in California that provide services to parents of students with disabilities will get additional grant funding after playing a key role in helping families during the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday.

The Parent Training and Information Centers, among a network of 65 nationwide, help parents navigate the special education system and connect to services that address students’ academic, behavioral, emotional, mental health and social needs.

In California, the centers that will receive extra funding are Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley; Exceptional Parents Unlimited in Fresno; Matrix Parent Network and Resource Center in Novato; Parents Helping Parents in San Jose; Support for Families of Children with Disabilities in San Francisco; and TASK, which serves most of Southern California.

“Parents are critical partners in our school communities,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said. “With these new grant funds, the Department of Education is continuing our strong support of the essential partnership between parents of students with disabilities and local schools. Parents, families, and caregivers must be equipped with the quality information they need to advocate for their child and deeply engage in their child’s education. That is truer now more than ever, especially as we know the pandemic impacted students with disabilities in profound ways. These funds will help to ensure students with disabilities are on the road to success.”

San Francisco Unified’s school board is poorly received by the public despite a February recall that put much new blood on the board, with 48% of San Francisco residents saying the seven-member body is doing a poor job, according to a new poll.

In a San Francisco Chronicle poll, 48% of respondents said the board over the past three years has done a poor or very poor job making San Francisco a better place to live. Just 11% of respondents said the board has done a good or excellent job. The poll surveyed a random sample of 1,653 San Francisco residents, according to the Chronicle.

The poll was conducted from June 27 to July 11. In February, voters recalled three members of the school board from office, and Mayor London Breed has since replaced them.

“We must regain the trust of our community,” board President Jenny Lam told the Chronicle. “The city deserves a Board of Education that operates effectively and consistently prioritizes improving student outcomes.”

The city of Palm Springs has sued the College of the Desert, accusing the community college of not complying with the California Public Records Act.

Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Middleton said during a news conference Monday that the city has made repeated requests for records regarding land use decisions from the college, only to be met with a “slow and incomplete response,” according to the Desert Sun. 

In April, The Desert Sun reported that COD had discussed nearly 40 Coachella Valley properties during closed sessions of its previous six monthly meetings without disclosing the college’s interest in the properties or providing any details about the real estate except a parcel number.

“Instead of responding to the requests in a manner required by law, COD has continued a pattern of stonewalling, evasion and delay,” she said.

Nicholas Robles, a spokesman for the college, defended the college in a statement to the Desert Sun, saying that the college plans to comply with the requests made by the city but added that doing so is time-consuming.

“The College has received several separate letters seeking different documents. Just one of the City’s requests, for example, includes sixty-seven categories of documents, and therefore requires the College to search multiple locations for potential documents, review the documents to determine if they are responsive, assess whether they should be released pursuant to the California Government Code, and then prepare them for production,” Robles said.

Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, until recently Los Angeles Unified’s chief academic officer, is the State Board of Education’s newest member.

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Yoshimoto-Towery, 51, late last month, in time for her first board meeting this week. She fills the last opening on the 11-member board.

This month, Yoshimoto-Towery assumed her position as executive director of the UC/CSU California Collaborative for Neurodiversity and Learning, a new organization located at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies that the Legislature established in 2019 with $6 million in funding. It will bring together experts from the University of California and the California State University with a focus on literacy in general, and initially on dyslexia and other needs requiring early intervention. The collaborative will translate research  to provide training and guidance for classroom teachers, Yoshimoto-Towery said.

Before becoming L.A. Unified’s chief academic officer in 2019, she worked in various positions in the district, including director of Instructional Operations, instructional director, school principal, literacy coach, teacher and as a paraprofessional.

She said that she looks forward to seeing how the state board can help integrate new state investments in universal transitional kindergarten, expanded learning opportunities, community schools, teacher recruitment and development  and student mental health.

“Coordinated well, those are exceptional opportunities for districts,” she said. “When we center our work around the lived experiences of our families, students, and educators, we can support what works best and what makes the most sense in terms of implementation.”

The Legislature must confirm Yoshimoto-Towery’s appointment.

She is the last nominee that Newsom named this year to fill four openings. The others are Brenda Lewis, who retired last year associate superintendent of Kern High School District; Sharon Olken, executive director of Gateway Public Schools in San Francisco; and Gabriela Orozco Gonzalez, an elementary school teacher who has taught in Montebello Unified for more than 20 years.

Three California teacher preparation programs will share in $25.8 million of federal funding to recruit, prepare and retain teachers, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The department announced 22 new five-year Teacher Quality Partnership grants on Monday. In California, National University received a $1.96 million grant, Alder Graduate School a $1.31 million grant and Reach University a $1.35 million grant.

The Teacher Quality Partnership grant program funds teacher preparation programs in high-need communities and teaching residency programs for individuals who are new to teaching.

“At the U.S. Department of Education, we recognize the value of supporting our nation’s educators, and we have a responsibility to providing resources and opportunities that promote a diverse educator workforce,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “These programs help prepare, place, develop, and retain effective teachers and leaders in our schools and classrooms. Our students need quality educators now more than ever to address their academic and mental health needs.”

The father of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan, has added his voice to the dozens of journalism organizations calling on Los Angeles Unified to rescind the three-day suspension of a journalism adviser at a school named after his son, according to the Orange County Register.

Adviser Adriana Chavira refused to remove the name of an unvaccinated librarian from a news article in the student-run publication at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Lake Balboa. In November, the Pearl Post reported that the library was closed because teacher-librarian Greta Enszer was not following the district’s vaccine mandate.

“I don’t want her to face any disciplinary action for allowing her students to tell the truth,” Judea Pearl said of Chavira. “I only want what’s best for the students and the school, which is why I hope they will reconsider this decision.”

Childhood poverty dropped 59% in the United States since 1993, with rates decreasing in every state, according to new research.

Thirty years ago about 28% of the country’s children were poor, meaning their families’ income did not meet all their basic needs, according to the New York Times, which collaborated with Child Trends on the study. By 2019, that number had fallen to about 11%.

The decline in childhood poverty has come as federal spending on low-income children has almost doubled. Lower unemployment and an increase in state-level minimum wage also have helped improve the lives of children, according to the research.

Despite the decline in poverty, more than 8 million children still live in families that don’t have the income to meet their basic needs.

At least 13 California school districts in six counties have closed schools this week because they are either in the path of a wildfire or smoke from a fire has made it unhealthy to hold classes.

 The school closures have impacted more than 90,500 students in 119 schools, according to Tim Taylor, executive director of the Small School District Association.

Seven of those districts are in Riverside County where the Fairview Fire has burned more than 27,000 acres and is only 5% contained.

Two school districts – Temecula Valley Unified and Hemet Unified – are threatened by the fire, while Nuview Union School District, Romoland Elementary School District, Menifee Union School District, Paris Elementary School District and Paris Union High School District are closed because of poor air quality, according to Kindra Britt, director of Communications for the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association.

The Riverside County closures are impacting 66,239 students at 106 schools, Britt said.

To make matters worse, parts of the county may be subject to public power shutoffs because of  Tropical Storm Kay, which is expected to move into the area today. The storm could bring heavy rains, high winds and the possibility of flash floods.

School leaders also are concerned that the heavy rain, following a fire, may cause mudslides, Britt said.

In El Dorado County the Mosquito Fire has damaged Otter Creek School, a tiny one-teacher school in Volcanoville. The playground was burned, but the structure is still standing,  said Black Oak Mine Superintendent Jeremy Meyers. Firefighters set a perimeter up around the  schoolhouse to protect it as the fire raged through the area yesterday afternoon, he said. 

The K-8 school, with 18 students, has been designated a Necessary Small School by the state. Schools are given that designation because it would be a hardship for the students in that community to travel to other schools because of distance or because the roads are impassable in some weather. 

Myers is expected to get a better idea of the damage when the fire is over. It’s possible that students may have to travel to Georgetown Elementary to attend school until repairs can be made, he said.

The six other schools in the district are also closed, with Georgetown Elementary School being used as the incident command center for the fire and Golden Sierra High School, also in Georgetown, now the Red Cross command center, Myers said. All the schools are in a mandatory evacuation area, except Northside STEAM School in Cool, which is in an evacuation warning area. The Cool school, a K-6, was closed midday Thursday because of the unhealthy air quality. 

The Mosquito Fire, which started Tuesday morning, had burned almost 30,000  acres by 1:30 p.m. today in both El Dorado and Placer counties. It was 0% contained at that time.

In Placer County both the Foresthill Elementary and Foresthill High School districts – both single school districts – have been closed since Wednesday because of the Mosquito Fire, Britt said.

Although there have been no reports of fire damage at the schools, school leaders won’t be able to assess the amount of smoke damage until the fire danger is over, she said. They are working on a long-term plan in case the schools aren’t able to reopen immediately.

Chawanakee Unified School District in Madera County also closed schools this week because of the proximity of the Fork Fire, which has burned 819 acres since it ignited Wednesday.

Bear Valley Unified in San Bernardino County closed all but one of its seven schools midweek after the Radford Fire caused area evacuations.

There is some good news. Siskiyou County, which had three schools closed because of the Mill Fire, has been able to reopen all but Weed High School, Britt said. The high school is expected to reopen Monday.

The Mill Fire, which appears to have started at or near a local mill on Sept. 2, raged through a nearby neighborhood killing two people, injuring three others and destroying 117 homes and businesses, according to CalFire. Almost 4,000 acres have burned. 

The state provided the schools with generators and food to help them reopen, Britt said.

Los Angeles Unified released standardized test results for the first time since the pandemic began, giving a look into how the last few years have shaped learning in the state.

Both English and math scores dropped on the state’s Smarter Balanced Assessment test in LAUSD.

In English Language Arts, the percentage of LAUSD students who met or exceeded standards decreased in every grade level except for 8th grade, compared to 2018-2019 scores, the results showed. Eighth graders who met or exceeded standards increased by .47 percentage points, to 41.67%.

The sharpest drop was seen in 11th graders, who dropped by 7.10 percentage points, and third graders, by 4.55 percentage points, and grade four, by 3.98 percentage points.

Two student groups showed an increase compared to before the pandemic: students with disabilities who met or exceeded standards rose by by .30 percentage points, and Asian students by .98.

Overall, the percentage of students who met or exceeded English Language Arts standards dropped by 2.26 percentage points, to 41.67%.

In math, overall scores dropped by 5.03 percentage points, from 33.50 to 28.47%, the district found.

The greatest decrease in math was in 11th grade, which dropped 9.73 percentage points from 28.61 to 18.88%, followed by 8th grade at 5.83 percentage points, and sixth grade, which dropped 5.73 percentage points.

No student group saw an increase in students meeting or exceeding math standards.

The state will release official results this fall.

The district says its 2022-2026 strategic plan includes targeted support and instruction.

“As anticipated, the preliminary state assessment results illustrate that there is no substitute for in-person instruction,” Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said.

“Los Angeles Unified is proactively addressing the decline in achievement performance, particularly in English language arts and mathematics, at all grade levels,” he said. “We are working collaboratively to accelerate and realize the learning potential of every student, bolstering important support systems including instructional, mental health, and community supports to meet the needs of our students…”

Leaders at GPSN, a nonprofit aimed at improving public education in Los Angeles, said they were concerned the district didn’t release school or community-specific data.

“We believe more detailed student-level data will show what we all know,” said managing director Ana Teresa Dahan, “(that) some communities and their students were hit harder by the pandemic. We also know those behind pre-pandemic are taking longer to recover than those who were at grade level pre-pandemic.”

“While this data does not yet allow us to investigate how specific vulnerable student groups performed, based on other national data, we will likely see that students who are Latino, Black, living in poverty, and those who were already academically behind before the pandemic, fell further behind their peers,” GPSN said in a statement.

“The district must now begin to make more targeted investments to accelerate learning for these groups of students who have been most harmed by the pandemic and other historical inequities.”

Low-income families in California who receive discounted internet service may see their rates raise if a new rule from the California Public Utilities Commission goes into effect, according to reporting from CalMatters.

Households have been able to stack state and federal subsidies from the Lifeline program to buy internet and phone services during the pandemic, but under the new rule, they could lose their state discounts.

Low-income California households who qualify for federal help to pay for phone and internet service under would only be able to stack two of the discounts for a total of $39.25 a month, according to CalMatters.

Lifeline customers were worried their families could suffer after the change.

“My kids need phones and tablets to keep up in school and complete their homework,” Kristin Morris of Mission Viejo wrote. “By limiting the service plans available to low-income folks — you are making the problem worse for us, not better.”

About 1.7 million residents are enrolled in California’s Lifeline program.

The former principal of a Fresno elementary school who has been accused of willful cruelty to a child has been placed on administrative leave from his new job, The Fresno Bee reported.

Brian Vollhardt resigned from Wolters Elementary School after shoving a special needs child on June 7, according to police and school officials, who released video showing the incident.

Vollhardt was then hired as a vice principal at Tranquillity High School in the Golden Plains Unified School District on the west side of the Central Valley. It is believed the district did not call for a reference check from Fresno Unified before hiring him, Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson told reporters during a news conference Thursday.

Golden Plains officials said they were not aware of the incident at Wolters Elementary. According to The Bee, a personnel complaint alleges Vollhart and the boy had been in another altercation 11 days before the one caught on video, where Vollhardt blocked the boy from leaving class, forcing him to the ground and putting his knee to his back for between two and four minutes. That incident is still under investigation, school officials said.

Vollhardt’s Level II Education Specialist Instruction Credential, which allows him to provide services to children with autism, was still valid as of Thursday.

The adviser of the student newspaper at a Los Angeles High School is facing a three-day unpaid suspension from her job after refusing to remove the name of an unvaccinated school librarian from a story published by student journalists, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

In November, the award-winning student-run news website of Daniel Pearl Magnet High School in Lake Balboa, the Pearl Post, published a story naming a librarian who had refused to comply with the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. The school is named for the slain journalist Daniel Pearl.

In December, the librarian asked Post adviser Adriana Chavira, a former journalist, to remove her name from the story, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which prevents medical professionals from revealing patients’ records without their consent. Chavira declined. The students found the librarian’s name newsworthy because the school library was closed during her absence.

Last week, she was issued a three-day, unpaid suspension.

“It’s definitely frustrating and disappointing,” Chavira, who is appealing the suspension, told the Times “I love journalism. I like the work I do. I love the school. I mean, I could not imagine working out anywhere else.”

Students relied on legal advice from the Student Press Law Center that the paper was within its First Amendment rights to publish the name.