**NEWS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY
RELEVANT TO THE CENTER'S FOCUS
Keep up with the National Initiative for Transforming Student and Learning Supports.
For details and for free access to the new work entitled: Transforming Student and Learning Supports: Developing a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System,
see http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/newinitiative.html
Policy director shares Biden's 5-step education agenda.
Biden's five-part plan for getting schools up and running again begins with
giving local school officials the latitude to do what's best for their
unique situations while still providing federal guidance, Stef Feldman [Joe
Biden's national policy director] said. He would mandate nationwide mask use
and contact tracing to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and would
provide emergency funding for schools -- through the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, the Stafford Act and, ideally, emergency congressional
authorizations -- to help with pandemic-related teacher shortages, class
sizes, ventilation improvements and more. He also intends to address the
quality of remote learning and provide ideas and resources for coping with
the knowledge gap created by the disruption. Ultimately, she said, Biden
wants to provide something schools have not had from the federal government
during the pandemic: "clear, simple guidance that is executable." ...
Feldman noted that the presumptive president-elect has long been a Title IX
advocate and thus would reverse many of President Donald Trump's executive
orders that disenfranchised students experiencing sexual assault and from
transgender students. The goal, she said, is safe spaces for all students,
both in K-12 and on college campuses. ...
General funding for education also is on Biden's priority list, Feldman
said, and he plans to help delete disparities between wealthy and low-income
districts by tripling the current $15 billion for Title I schools, who first
would use the money to add pre-K and ensure "robust" curriculum across
schools. Increased teacher pay, money toward professional development and
assistance with student loans for teachers also will be in the works.
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2020/11/policy-director-biden-education-agenda-includes-pandemic-mental-health?utm_source=brief
Supporting students on 504 plans during remote learning The
coronavirus pandemic and remote instruction have been particularly
challenging for students on 504 plans, part of the Rehabilitation Act and
the Americans with Disabilities Act.
https://www.smartbrief.com/original/2020/11/supporting-students-504-plans-during-remote-learning?utm_source=brief
Civil Rights Data Collection covering the 2017-18 school year showed restraint, seclusion, sexual assault on the rise
>Students with disabilities were disproportionately restrained and secluded
>K-12 sexual violence increased 55%
https://www.educationdive.com/news/education-civil-rights-data-release-takeaways/587339/
English-language learners, homeless and disabled students and children in foster care have had the most trouble accessing school.
As many as 3 million of the country's most marginalized students may not have returned to school - online or in-person - since the COVID closures in March, a new analysis suggests. English language learners, homeless and disabled students, and children in foster care are among the groups that have had the most trouble accessing school since the pandemic began, according to the "Missing in the Margins" report by Bellwether Education Partners.
https://districtadministration.com/3-millions-students-miss-school-absences-attendance/
Why post-COVID-19 U.S. education will be even less like it used to be than you think Quotes Geoff Spencer, writing for Microsoft, as saying “the push for major changes was already underway before the pandemic struck and that they will go far beyond just online lessons at home.” He proposes a general shift away from a teaching culture to what he calls “a learning culture,” where, more often, the teacher will act remotely as a one-on-one facilitator helping students with particular learning needs as they progress through AI-enhanced learning processes where interaction is already built into the learning programs.
https://exclusive.multibriefs.com/content/why-post-covid-19-u.s.-education-will-be-even-less-like-it-used-to-be-than/education
How U.S. Schools Punish Black Kids. When it comes to who gets punished - and removed - from the classroom, the U.S. doesn't treat all students equally. Black students are suspended and expelled far more frequently than their white classmates, often for the same or similar offenses. As a result, Black kids are missing weeks of school each year because of unfair discipline policies.
https://www.vox.com/videos/21507661/school-discipline-race-black-students
Ill. district creates online counseling resources.
Social workers in a school district in Plainfield, Ill., created a "calming
room," a virtual space that students learning remotely can visit to find
resources such as meditations, music and crisis hotlines. The social workers
hope to expose students to mental health resources that they might not know
are available in lieu of face-to-face meetings.
From Patch:
https://patch.com/illinois/plainfield/district-202-social-workers-create-online-counseling-resources
Will the Students Who Didn't Show Up for Online Class This
Spring Go Missing Forever? With nearly 14,000 school districts
nationally, the whereabouts of countless students are unknown, and some may
never reenroll, administrators say. hechingerreport.org
http://send.aasa.org/link.cfm?r=3BqOQfrX9YAJIyexVDipIQ~~&pe=pAS0Z3t34sxlX9gfWoDvdZzd5Kq3UifZ-h_knVO7uQ6yXAjeS4_9ss6TxyrNtLg63cV_Gc-pky2s4mWNlCUavQ~~&t=bdutAjCFgt1urQuXfZgFAw~~
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)
2019 Results Available Now
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/
5 Financial Issues Schools Will Face Due to the Coronavirus-Induced Recession
If the economic downturn is like the Great Recession, administrators will be challenged by smaller budgets, layoff decisions and more in coming years. |https://www.educationdive.com/news/5-financial-issues-schools-will-face-due-to-the-coronavirus-induced-recessi/583054/?utm_source=ECS+Subscribers&utm_campaign=03647fdb6c-ED_CLIPS_08_24_2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a2b00b930-03647fdb6c-53599575
Teachers’ Concerns Mounting as the School Year Kicks Off
https://ednote.ecs.org/teachers-concerns-mounting-as-the-school-year-kicks-off/?utm_source=ECS+Subscribers&utm_campaign=70634a36d6-Ed_Note_Daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a2b00b930-70634a36d6-53599575 Students have their own demands for school reopening.
Mental health support, better remote instruction and a focus on vulnerable students
Students nationwide are testifying before school boards and sharing their opinions with lawmakers about the upcoming school year. While students say they are eager to return to in-person learning, they are looking for mental health support and improvements to remote instruction.
Full Story: The Hechinger Report (8/22)
https://hechingerreport.org/students-have-their-own-demands-for-school-reopening/
Supporting Families and Child Care Providers during the Pandemic with a Focus on Equity
https://www.childtrends.org/publications/supporting-families-child-care-providers-during-pandemic-with-focus-equity
Education Researchers Come Together on What Schools Need Now -
Starting With More Money. Nearly 200 education researchers,
including some who disagree fiercely on policy issues, have united around a
set of recommendations for helping America's schools navigate the current
crisis. The document highlights the widespread agreement among experts on
what schools need at this moment, and offers a research-informed roadmap for
policymakers looking to address the cascading effects of the pandemic on
schools.
https://www.chalkbeat.org/2020/7/23/21336306/education-researchers-schools-budget-pandemic-letter-recommendations?utm_source=ECS+Subscribers&utm_campaign=2598557429-ED_CLIPS_07_24_2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a2b00b930-2598557429-53599575
Budgets put limits on social distancing options for schools.
Many schools find themselves overwhelmed by the potential expenses
that would come with operating under pandemic-induced social distancing
guidelines. ... In Hartford, Connecticut, Superintendent Leslie
Torres-Rodriguez shudders at the thought of how to afford a scenario where
each teacher had dramatically fewer students. In some grades, she said, she
has individual teachers with as many as 27 students in their classrooms. In
Hartford, which has 14.7 students per teacher, the district serves many
high-poverty communities and also brings in thousands of students from 60
other towns through school-choice programs. The superintendent said the
challenges associated with reopening are so severe, it may be time to come
up with entirely new models for instruction.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/budgets-put-limits-social-distancing-options-schools-71403097?cid=clicksource_4380645_7_heads_posts_card_hed
Virginia program looks to help new teachers as state works to
address teacher shortage. The Virginia Department of Education is
partnering with James Madison University's College of Education to create a
program, dubbed the "Virginia New Teacher Support Program," to give coaching
and professional development to first- and second-year teachers. The program
will match first- and second-year teachers with an instructional coach. That
coach will give the new teachers advice on instructional planning, student
assessment and professionalism...The program, which has no cost to teachers,
schools or school systems, is paid for through a $200,000 federal grant
under the Every Student Succeeds Act
https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/virginia-program-looks-to-help-new-teachers-as-state-works-to-address-teacher-shortage/article_4697fa77-8c03-5139-b53f-e9cf36f85f1c.html
Amid pandemic, fewer students seek federal aid for college.
The number of high school seniors applying for U.S. federal college aid
plunged in the weeks following the sudden closure of school buildings this
spring — a time when students were cut off from school counselors, and
families hit with financial setbacks were reconsidering plans for higher
education. In the first weeks of the pandemic, the number of new
applications fell by nearly half compared to last year’s levels, fueled by a
decline among students at low-income schools, according to an Associated
Press analysis.
https://www.richmond.com/ap/national/amid-pandemic-fewer-students-seek-federal-aid-for-college/article_b337efbe-3e36-5d11-af88-f5f15e2d433e.html
Back to School? Any NYC Family Can Opt for Full-Time Remote
Learning This Fall. New York City families will be able to keep
their children home this fall and opt for a full remote school schedule
regardless of medical need, education department officials said [last]
Thursday… Allowing a full-time remote option is welcome news for families
who are nervous about sending students back to buildings in the fall… But it
could also exacerbate inequalities already rampant in the public school
system, with more affluent families hiring tutors or otherwise supplementing
schoolwork for children remaining home.
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2020/7/2/21311569/nyc-opt-for-full-time-remote-learning?utm_source=ECS+Subscribers&utm_campaign=1691ad6d5c-ED_CLIPS_07_07_2020&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1a2b00b930-1691ad6d5c-53599575
A decade of research on the rich-poor divide in education.
Researchers shine light on education inequities.
School
segregation by income is worsening in the US, according to research by Sean
Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford University. Reardon asserts that efforts
to develop "high-quality schools at scale under conditions of concentrated
poverty" have been ineffective, so the "implication is that you have got to
address segregation."
https://hechingerreport.org/a-decade-of-research-on-the-rich-poor-divide-in-education/
Teachers' union wants district's police unit disbanded .The
board of United Teachers Los Angeles has voted to call for dismantling the
Los Angeles School Police Department, a shift sparked by protests after the
killing of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota. To become the
official position of the group, union members also must support disbanding
one of the largest school police forces in the country
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/mAljCNzxBksitzmIfEabiAfCngVy?format=multipart
Labeling kids with mild disabilities can backfire, study finds.
For students with mild symptoms of disabilities, such as
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a diagnosis can do more harm than
good, according to a study by Jayanti Owens, a Brown University sociologist.
Owens' study shows that students without an ADHD diagnosis, who showed
similar symptoms, had better behavioral and reading scores from teachers,
than their peers diagnosed
https://hechingerreport.org/study-questions-educational-benefits-of-labeling-kids-with-mild-forms-of-adhd/
Child Poverty. Data released today by the U.S. Census
Bureau illustrates the failure of our government to lead on child poverty,
which remains higher in the United States than in nearly all similarly
developed countries. The U.S. Census Bureau found that 16.2 percent of
children (11.9 million) were living in poverty in 2018 and that children are
54.4 percent more likely to live in poverty than adults.
The National Academy of Sciences' landmark study on child poverty released
in February 2019 makes clear that we have the tools to eradicate child
poverty. All that is needed is the political will to deploy them. The study,
called A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, outlines policy and program
changes that, if implemented, would reduce child poverty by half within a
decade (
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/dbasse/bcyf/reducing_child_poverty/index.htm
).
Progress is possible. It is time to act. The U.S.
Child Poverty Action Group, a partnership of child-focused organizations
dedicated to eradicating child poverty, recently launched End Child Poverty
US, a campaign to cut child poverty in half within a decade by setting a
national target. Similar approaches in peer countries have proven the impact
of targets. The United Kingdom cut its child poverty rate in half between
1999 and 2009 and Canada is on track to cut its child poverty rate in half
in less than a decade after establishing an expanded child allowance in
2016.
Nation's schools serving more students under IDEA
A New federal data shows that there are more children in special education and they are accounting for a greater percentage of public school students across the country. For the 2017-2018 school year, there were 7 million students ages 3 to 21 receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These students represented 14 percent of all kids attending public schools. The figures come from an annual report by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics that offers a snapshot of
what's happening in American education see
https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2019/06/06/nations-schools-more-idea/26733/
FOR THE LATEST FROM OUR CENTER, GO TO
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/review.htm
September is
National Suicide Prevention Month -- See
the resource links at http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/qf/p3002_02.htm
Also access other news stories relevant to improving addressing barriers to learning through links at
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/whatsnew/linkstolatest.htm
We draw on a variety of standard sources to amass the above items
(e.g., ECS e-clip at
http://www.ecs.org/e-clips)
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