ABCFT - YOUnionews - June 26, 2020
STAY INFORMED
ABCFT continues to work with the district at the negotiating table and with our PAL partners around the reopening of schools since it is has not yet been determined how schools will be reopening in August. ABCFT is asking members to stay informed about these changes over the summer. Here are ways you can stay engaged:
ABCFT SOS Task Force Virtual Presentation: June 30th 3:00 - 4:30 pm. Zoom meeting information has been emailed to all members.
ABC School Board Study Session: July 7th at 6:00 pm. The purpose of this study session is for the board to hear recommendations about reopening of schools. Meeting information will be shared when it’s available.
ABCFT YOUnionews: July 10th and August 7th. Special summer editions of YOUnionews will be sent after Executive Board and Rep Council meetings.
ABCFT Virtual YOUnion Chat: August 18th 3:30-5:00 pm. We will continue with YOUnion Chats each Tuesday of School Board meetings from 3:30-5:00 pm.
KEEPING YOU INFORMED-STATE BUDGET UPDATE
This week the California legislature and the Governor agreed on a final State budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The ABCFT Bargaining team is currently attending budget analysis workshops and gathering information from the California Federation of Teachers on how the budget changes will impact ABC. In addition, negotiations concerning the opening of school and working conditions will resume on Monday and will hopefully be concluded by July 7th. The ABCFT Negotiations team hopes to have more details on July 10.
In California budget deal, no cuts for K-12 but billions in late payments to schools
Layoff protections for teachers and some but not all school employees
Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced Monday that they have reached an agreement on the 2020-21 budget that will preserve spending for K-12 schools and community colleges at current levels but potentially could result in funding cuts of nearly $1 billion combined for the University of California and California State University.
The budget will also provide language that will prevent the layoffs of teachers and many other school employees over the next year — actions that unions representing teachers and other employees, known as classified workers, had strongly lobbied for. These protected employees will include bus drivers, custodians and nutrition workers but not classroom aides.
While not the increase that Newsom had sought in his pre-COVID-19 budget in January, there should be enough funding to assure the reopening of school this fall, Newsom said at a press conference Monday. “I think the funding will substantially exist,” he said. “We think a lot of that anxiety is mitigated.”
TEACHER LEADERS PROGRAM by Tanya Golden
In collaboration with our national affiliate, AFT we are honored to offer the ABCFT Teacher Leaders Program for the 2020-21 school year. Below are the details regarding this national program as well as the online application process. Below are the details regarding this national program as well as the online application process.
These attachments offer highlights of the program:
Applications are due by Tuesday, June 30, 2020
MEMBER RESOURCES
AFT Share My Lesson Summer Learning is offering a series of free webinars and PreK-12 activities for ABCFT members. They will be held each Thursday from June 25 to July 23. Click here to register
Member Voices - We Want to Hear from YOU
YOU are a vital part and voice of the YOUnion. ABCFT leadership wants to know what is on your mind. Do you still have unanswered questions? Still unsure about remote learning, contact language, salary, negotiations, evaluations or anything else related to our current working conditions, click this link here. All questions will be anonymous. For universal issues, we will address the answers here each week.
Week of June 26, 2020
- I have a major problem with the fact that the union and the district are being political. Showing all this support for one party is wrong on so many levels and is why I have considered leaving the union. I almost did over ten years ago and now I remember why. Politics do not have a place in our classrooms and this constant support of only one political party is giving teachers basically permission to push their political beliefs on students, well as long as they are on the right (left) side. My students do not ever know what my political party is or my personal beliefs about politics as it should be. BLM any way you look at it IS POLITICAL and so is DACA. The complete disregard for the fact that some union members do not support is showing a clear bias. We need to do better. Our students should not be in any way influenced by anyone in authority as far as political ideologies go. Our job is to educate using facts, not opinions.
Thank you for writing us your thoughts on this topic. ABCFT is extremely sensitive about political issues and the great variety of political topics that surround us. We will continue to be sensitive to political beliefs going forward. However, as educators we need to recognize the systemic racism and inequities that occurs within our society and it is the role of educators to not only teach how to be culturally responsive but to model it as well. Here is a timely resource from AFT’s Share My Lesson, 13 anti-racist reading list for children and adults.
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with the membership is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and wellbeing of ABCFT members. The purpose of this weekly report is to keep the membership informed about issues that impact their working/learning conditions and their mental wellbeing. Together we make the YOUnion.
Wow, don’t neglect your twitter or Facebook feeds for too long or you’ll miss something historical. If we’ve learned anything over the past couple of years its that we cannot control everything and that we need to take in the news in smaller bits. Binge watching the news is not a good mental health choice at this point so more and more of us are turning to summary emails, YouTube clips, and other news resources that help to decrease the time we spend reading the news. My favorites for condensed news right now are Axios PM, the McGraw Hill Principal News, and the New York Times. Each of these are free and they send daily emails that make reading easy to digest. As a history major in college, I always enjoyed history because it was almost pastoral and leisurely in pace, but the past 6 months on Earth have been moving at lightning speed. I hope that the ABCFT weekly newsletter will continue to be a consistent source of news for you in the future.
I wish that I could tell you all the answers about next year so we could all enjoy some peace of mind during our much needed break. We don’t have all the answers on what school will look like yet and even when school starts there will be unknowns and adjustments that will need to be made. However, I do want to assure you that as a District we are working tirelessly to find answers to all of your questions. Just this week, the District’s Task Force for opening schools gave its final presentations and we hope to receive the final Q&A documents from this shortly so that we can share them with you on July 10. In addition, ABCFT will be finishing our SOS (Safely Opening Schools) Task Force on Tuesday and all members will have an opportunity to hear the results of this 50+ member committee (ABCFT SOS Task Force Virtual Presentation: June 30th 3:00 - 4:30 pm. Zoom meeting information has been emailed to all members.) The school board will be meeting to discuss models for opening school on July 7th and we encourage you to listen to that particular meeting.
I hope everyone is staying safe and that you are taking some time to relax or clean or just do anything else other than school related activities. For those of you teaching Summer school, I hope that you are able to also decompress throughout your week. Your readership and your guidance during this unprecedented time have been a lifeline for myself and all of the ABCFT Leadership. Hang in there, answers will be forthcoming soon but most importantly do something that makes you happy.
In Unity,
Ray Gaer
President, ABCFT
CALIFORNIA FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
The latest CFT articles and news stories can be found here on the PreK12 news feed on the CFT.org website.
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS
Randi’s June New York Times column is attached. This month, she focuses on the racism built into virtually every system in the United States. Bias is evident in underfunded schools, inadequate healthcare, voter suppression, unemployment, discriminatory policing and mass incarceration. Randi also notes that demands for change, evident in weeks of overwhelmingly peaceful protests against racial injustice in all 50 states, are leading to results.
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
Poll: 54% Of Americans Uncomfortable With Reopening K-12 Schools
Politico (6/24, Perez) reports the latest Politico/Morning Consult poll found that a “combined 54 percent of American voters said they are somewhat uncomfortable or very uncomfortable with reopening K-12 schools for the beginning of the coming school year.” Additionally, 58 percent of voters “said they’re uncomfortable with reopening day care centers,” and 48 percent of voters “said they were very or somewhat uncomfortable with reopening colleges and universities.” The results show an increase since mid-May, when 41 percent of Americans “said then it was a bad idea for K-12 schools,” 44 percent were pessimistic about reopening day care centers, and 38 percent opposed college students returning to campus. The online survey of close to 2,000 registered voters was conducted from June 19-21, and has a margin of error of ±2
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Many Districts “Overwhelmed” By Social Distancing Expenses
The AP (6/23, Catalini, Melia) reports the “vast majority” of school districts have not announced when they will resume in-person instruction. This may be because the “trajectory of the outbreak remains uncertain, and many are waiting on direction from their states.” Many districts have started “developing plans for at least some distance learning, and budgets are one of the factors that could determine how much they do from afar.” A problem is that districts are “finding themselves overwhelmed by the potential expenses that would come with operating under social distancing guidelines: protective equipment, staff for smaller classrooms, and additional transportation to keep students spread out on bus rides.” One study estimates it will cost the average school district $1.8 million to make social distancing possible.
US Schools Will Need As Much As $245 Billion To Safely Reopen, Head Of Safety Council Says
U.S. News & World Report (6/24, Camera) reports that US schools “will need as much as $245 billion in additional federal support to safely reopen in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a new estimate from the Council of Chief State School Officers shows.” The cost “estimate – the biggest yet from a national education organization – represents a sobering recognition from red and blue states alike that a major federal bailout is needed in order to reopen for 55 million children whose schools shuttered in March.” In a letter to Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who requested the estimate earlier this month, CCSSO Executive Director Carissa Moffat Miller wrote, “While the amount of federal funding that is necessary to successfully and safely reopen schools and keep K-12 education budgets whole in the coming year is substantial, it is an essential investment in the nation’s ongoing economic recovery and future competitiveness.”
Experts Testify In House Hearing That Education Cuts Will Disproportionately Impact Low-Income Districts
Education Dive (6/23, Modan) reports lawmakers in a House Education and Labor Committee hearing Monday “predicted the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could widen racial funding gaps between wealthy and low-income public school districts.” Committee members cited reports suggesting public schools “already have a $23 billion racial funding gap between districts serving predominantly students of color compared to districts with a majority of white students.” The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projects states will face a $615 billion revenue shortfall over the next three years because of the pandemic. Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) said, “While wealthier districts can fall back on property tax revenue, low-income public school districts will have to continue to rely heavily on state funding.” Additionally, reopening schools will “likely be easier for wealthier districts with infrastructure in place to take health and safety precautions, as well as provide continuity during hybrid learning.”
Inside Higher Ed (6/23, Murakami) reports Scott said Latino and Black students are projected to lose nine and 10 months of learning, respectively, compared to six months for white students. Lawmakers also expressed concern “that as the recession forces more students to leave or forgo college, existing disparities would worsen.” During his testimony, former Education Secretary John B. King Jr. “called for Congress to forgive some student debt and to double the award size of Pell Grants.” King echoed the worry that low-income students and students of color “are more likely to be negatively impacted by loss of employment, changes in their family’s financial situation.” He said, “We need to make sure college is affordable to all students.”
New guidelines on how schools can spend federal aid
Betsy DeVos appears to have stepped back from her position that states must share a larger percentage of their pandemic relief funding with private schools. While her critics fear that the education secretary is trying to strong-arm states into giving private schools more of the available funding than Congress intended, DeVos on Thursday said school districts may distribute aid money to private schools based on the number of poor students they serve, but must then restrict their own spending of federal cash to the benefit of their own poor students. “We are leaving them an option to only serve low-income children,” comments Jim Blew, assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development at the Education Department. In April, DeVos said that in allocating money for the private schools, school districts should use a calculation that takes into account the total number of students private schools serve, not just the number of poor students attending.
Biden proposes full federal funding for special education
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has called for full federal funding of special education. Currently, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, enacted in 1975, guarantees students with disabilities the right to a free public education appropriate to their needs. The law requires that the federal government cover 40% of the cost, and states, counties and school districts pay the remaining 60%. The extra money would give schools leeway in their budgets for other programs, and improve special education offerings in districts that have struggled to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Biden is also calling for a tripling of Title I school funding for low-income students, dedicated recruitment and training programs for special education teachers, and discipline reform, including a ban on seclusion and more restrictions on the use of restraint.
----- STATE NEWS -----
State Schools Super: Police officers needed on some campuses
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said yesterday that, although his office is working to re-imagine the role of police officers at California’s 10,000 public schools, some schools will still need police on campus to protect students’ safety against threats such as shootings or bomb threats. “As a former school board member, I spent four years working very closely with school resource officers,” Thurmond said. “But I’ve already seen data that shows when there’s police on campus, this results in more suspensions and arrests, particularly for African American students and other students of color.” Thurmond, who is California's only Black statewide elected official, said schools that still need a police presence would get officers who choose to be there and who have been trained on implicit bias. He said officers won't be assigned to campuses. Following his comments, the Oakland USD board unanimously voted to dismantle the district’s police department, capping a campaign started in 2011 by the Black Organizing Project, after an Oakland school police officer fatally shot 20-year-old Raheim Brown outside a school dance.
California budget deal: no cuts for K-12
Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced Monday that they have reached an agreement on the 2020-21 budget that will preserve spending for K-12 schools and community colleges at current levels. The budget will also provide language that will prevent the layoffs of teachers and many other school employees over the next year, actions that unions representing teachers and other employees, known as classified workers, had strongly lobbied for. To help with reopening costs, Newsom agreed to add $1bn in one-time federal dollars under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and to distribute the money to more districts to address learning lost during school closures. The total CARES Act funding for K-12 will rise from $6bn to $7bn. Under deferrals, which former Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature used to get schools through the Great Recession, school districts can spend more than they’ll be funded for, with the understanding they will receive full payment in the following fiscal year, 2021-22.
California Lawmakers Reach Agreement On Budget
EdSource (6/22, Fensterwald) reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced Monday “that they have reached an agreement on the 2020-21 budget that will preserve spending for K-12 schools and community colleges at current levels but potentially could result in funding cuts of nearly $1 billion combined for the University of California and California State University.” The budget will include language that will prevent the layoffs of teachers and school employees over the next year. Newsom agreed to distribute $1 billion in one-time CARES Act funding “to more districts to address learning lost during school closures.” EdSource notes the passage of the HEROES Act by Congress will “determine whether UC’s and CSU’s budgets will be cut significantly”
California School Districts Consider Severing Ties With Police
The San Francisco Chronicle (6/21, Tucker) reports the recent protests against police brutality “have pushed education officials in the Bay Area and across the country to eliminate agreements with police.” To date, Oakland, San Francisco, West Contra Costa, and Los Angeles are among districts “moving to sever ties with police in response to calls for reform and to redirect funding spent on law enforcement.” But even if districts cut ties with law enforcement, “that will not eliminate police – or racial bias – from school grounds.” Education leaders and activists say “creating change for children of color in schools would not only require eliminating police departments, but addressing the disproportionate suspension rate of Black and brown students in virtually every school.”
In an editorial, the Los Angeles (CA) Times (6/21) says school leaders “should be open-minded yet cautious about their next moves.” Uniformed police “can be an intimidating sight” in schools and can make some students – particularly Black and Latino students – “feel as though they are constantly under suspicion.” With that said, “some students like the security.” The Times contends that “completely dismantling school police forces could be a mistake,” but LA Unified “should examine whether it needs all of its 344 armed and 95 unarmed officers, or whether a smaller number of roving officers would do, with the money used toward more counselors and social services.”
Organizers Undeterred By Chicago Mayor’s Decision To Not Scrap School Police Program. Chalkbeat (6/19) reported for the “first time in years, it looked like the movement to remove police officers from Chicago’s public schools was gaining momentum.” But on Friday, the “ordinance had stalled, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot had again said she would not end the school police program, instead leaving it to school councils to make the decision on a school-by-school basis.” Organizers say they are “not deterred” even though there have been “few concrete gains” in Chicago. Maria Degillo, coordinator of Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, is “no stranger to the long-haul challenges of making change in Chicago.” And VOYCE, with a “coalition of others, has a two-pronged strategy to remove police officers from schools in Chicago.”
Minnesota Districts Reassess Police In Schools. The Minneapolis Star Tribune (6/21, Faircloth, Lonetree) reports the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has “reignited the debate over the presence of officers in schools.” Critics “have long voiced concern over how they treat students of color, saying their presence criminalizes student behavior;” supporters say school officers can “serve as mentors and even counselors to students, in addition to a first line of defense in the event of an emergency.” Several Minnesota districts “have revisited their contracts with police in recent weeks, but none except Minneapolis and Winona have taken such action.” Meanwhile, some large districts, including Anoka-Hennepin, “have elected to continue with SROs in 2020-21 but are taking steps to ensure officers better understand students’ needs.”
ACLU Urges Missouri Schools To Remove Resource Officers. The AP (6/21) reports American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri is circulating a letter asking school administrators “in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas” to remove police officers from schools. The organization “cites research that shows strict disciplinary practices in schools often target black males and set those children up for negative interactions with law enforcement and incarceration later on.” The ACLU also “says money spent on school resource officers should instead go to the social-emotional needs of children, such as by hiring more social workers and counselors.”
California to ease teaching credential requirements
A new California budget prepared by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators over several weeks makes it easier for teacher candidates affected by coronavirus-related school and test center closures to complete credential and permit requirements. The budget gives teacher candidates who have passed a test required for a credential or permit 11 years to complete other requirements and to be issued the document. Currently, teachers have 10 years to earn a credential or permit after passing a required test. The provision expires on June 30, 2021. The budget also extends the 60-day period teacher candidates can submit information missing from applications to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to 120 days.
----- DISTRICTS -----
California schools see declines in suspensions for minor offenses
California schools have seen sharp declines in suspensions for disruption or defiance since the 2011-12 school year, and that trend has not been offset by increases in suspension for other reasons, according to a new analysis of California data from The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California Los Angeles’ Civil Rights Project. The report also shows racial gaps in suspensions have narrowed and that suspensions and “the resulting days of lost instruction” have dropped the most for Black students. For districts that did report referrals to police - required by the U.S. Department of Education’s 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection - Los Angeles USD had a higher rate of referrals (1.46) per 100 students than it did in 2011-12 (.58). But for the 2017-18 CRCD, which has not yet been published, the rate has fallen to .79.
Capistrano Unified plans to lay off 88 employees
Capistrano USD officials expect to lay off 88 of its nearly 4,500 employees, as they seek to address a potential $35m cut in funding from the state for the next year. The district is proposing to eliminate 57 preschool instructional assistant positions as well as 10 preschool teachers. Other positions affected include staff providing mental and behavioral health services. The district chose to lay off preschool staff because the early instruction is funded by a separate revenue source from the state. If that revenue source is cut, the district would need to use money from its general fund to cover the cost, which it can ill afford, spokesman Ryan Burris said.
California Districts Move To Rename Schools Linked To Racist History
EdSource (6/19, Jones) reported on the trend of California communities opting to rename local schools “that some say glorify a racist and painful past.” The Berkeley school board recently voted to “change the names of Washington and Jefferson elementary schools because both men — like many early American presidents — owned slaves.” In Long Beach, “a petition is circulating to change the name of Woodrow Wilson High School because the former president was a segregationist and held racist views about black people.” During his Tuesday press conference, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond gave his support for districts that are dropping racially charged or insensitive school names. He said, “When we have institutions — not just schools — named after Confederate leaders, or those who perpetuated racism and lynchings and hate, that exacerbates feelings of race in this country.”
Los Angeles School Board Unable To Agree On Proposal To Defund Or Reform School Police
The Los Angeles Times (6/23) reports a “deeply divided” Los Angeles school board on Tuesday could not agree on proposed reforms to school police, “effectively leaving the matter to a task force created by Supt. Austin Beutner.” The lack of consensus “capped a day of intense passions as students and activist groups called for terminating the department and using its $70 million annual budget for other student needs, especially those that would benefit Black students.” Board member Monica Garcia brought forward the “most aggressive” proposal to phase out funding for school police over the next four years, but only one other board member concurred. The proposal that “seemed to have the best chance of passing was from Jackie Goldberg,” which would have “banned the use of pepper spray, cut the police budget by $20 million and imposed a hiring freeze, among other provisions.” Ultimately, no proposal “added up to the necessary four-vote majority.”
The AP (6/24) reports the board “heard nearly 12 hours of public comment, with most speakers calling for reducing or eliminating the force of about 460 officers. Critics have said Black and other minority students are disproportionately singled out for arrests by campus police.”
----- CLASSROOM -----
Teachers Express Concerns About Wearing Masks In Class
Education Week (6/24, Will) reports the CDC has recommended that all school employees wear masks, “and many school and district leaders are incorporating that guidance into their reopening plans.” Most teachers say they understand the safety rationale, but “the prospect of wearing a mask while teaching still feels daunting for many.” For example, they worry if masks will be too hot or be comfortable enough to teach and talk for up to eight hours. Furthermore, students who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have autistic disorders “will be more heavily affected by not being able to see their teachers’ faces.” Likewise, English-language learners “tend to watch their teachers’ mouths closely to distinguish between words or sounds that are similar.”
COVID learning loss: U.S. schools choosing not to hold students back
Superintendents in several big city school districts have said they will not be holding students back a grade based on their academic performance during the school closure period. “The spring was really a hold-harmless period for kids across the country, and specifically for big city school districts,” said Raymond Hart, the director of research for the Council of the Great City Schools. “Most are promoting students to the next grade level, with the understanding that beginning to teach grade level standards next year will involve going back and shoring up past learning.” District leaders who have chosen to avoid retention cite evidence that it doesn’t improve outcomes, and argue that holding large groups of students back will disproportionately hurt students of color and students from low-income families. “There’s just so much you can put on kids and teachers who are dealing with a lot of trauma right now,” said Brenda Cassellius, the superintendent of Boston Public Schools. Her district has built multi-tiered systems of supports into its remote learning plan, in attempts to minimize learning loss during the closures. About 15,000 of the district’s 53,000 students require academic interventions during this period and have personalized success plans, which will be handed over to their next school year’s teacher.
----- SPORTS -----
High Schools Athletes Begin Summer Workouts As States Report New Coronavirus Cases
The AP (6/22, Vertuno) reports some high schools are “now letting high school athletes return for summer workouts before teachers have even figured out how they are going to hold classroom instruction.” In locations like Texas and Florida, “strength and conditioning sessions are bringing thousands of athletes to school for workouts, even while those states are seeing record numbers of new cases and hospitalizations since Memorial Day.” These summer workouts require “regular sanitizing of equipment, space limits between athletes, and symptom and temperature checks before arrival.” But as “tens of thousands of high school athletes are working out or playing games,” their return is “raising questions of whether it is too soon and too risky.”
High schools pushing for fall football
High school athletes nationwide are desperate to return to the field this fall and some schools are pushing hard to make sure that they are ready to welcome back their "star players" from the coronavirus lockdowns. In places like Texas and Florida, where the “Friday Night Lights” culture of high school football runs deep, strength and conditioning sessions are bringing thousands of athletes to school for workouts, despite those states seeing record numbers of new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Charles Breithaupt, executive director of the University Interscholastic League, which oversees more than 1,300 schools with nearly 170,000 football players each fall, asserts: "Texas high schools played football during World War I, the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak, World War II, the weekend after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."
----- LEGAL -----
Trump Administration Supports Idaho Transgender Athletes Ban
The AP (6/19, Ridler) reported the Trump Administration gave its support to a recently passed Idaho law banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports. A court filing submitted by the Department of Justice said the federal judge considering a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and Legal Voice women’s group challenging the ban should conclude that the law does not violate the US Constitution. Supporters of the law “cite Title IX as a legal defense to the new law, but the lawsuit contends that the new law is a violation of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in education.” The plaintiffs contend the “the law violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because it is discriminatory.”
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Helping staff and students deal with suicide in a pandemic
The pandemic has presented distinct challenges to schools in both preventing and responding to student suicides, which are the second leading cause of death among 10- to 19-year-olds in the United States. Surveys of students conducted by the nonprofit groups Common Sense Media and America’s Promise Alliance have found that the pandemic has been hard on teenagers’ mental health, and that it’s disproportionately affected black, Latino, and Asian youth. Suicide rates among teens have already risen dramatically over the past decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2007-2017, the suicide rate among 15- to 17-year-olds has increased by 76% to nearly 12 deaths per 100,000. It nearly tripled for 10- to 14-year-olds to 2.5 deaths per 100,000, following periods of stability and even declining rates in the early 2000s. Remote learning has made it harder for teachers to spot warning signs in teenagers, making it imperative for schools to adapt their suicide prevention and response plans to include telehealth and other virtual service delivery platforms, according to the National Association of School Psychologists. In Sacramento, California, where two students died by suicide in April, Natomas USD provided parents with tips on how to talk to their kids about suicide and the additional stressors from the pandemic. It also launched a dedicated website with social emotional resources, where parents and students can request a call from the school psychologist, and is using a social media monitoring service that alerts school officials should a student search or post something relating to harming themselves. “I do really believe by us communicating and being open about it … has probably saved lives,” said Superintendent Chris Evans. “And that was because we chose not to let [the suicides] just go quietly, but to let people know that they are not alone.”
----- HIGHER EDUCATION -----
Click the picture for a Full scale versions of these important infographics
NTA Life Insurance - An ABCFT Sponsor
About three years ago ABCFT started a working relationship with National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company. Throughout our partnership, NTA has been supportive of ABCFT activities by sponsorship and prizes for our various events. This organization specializes in providing insurance for educators across the nation. We have been provided both data and member testimonials about how pleased they have been with the NTA products and the opportunity to look at alternatives to the district insurance choice.
To All Members of the ABC Federation of Teachers,
National Teacher Associates (NTA) is committed in our efforts to helping educators through tough times. It’s what we do. After all…in our eyes you are the heart and soul of our communities.
Protecting you and your families has been our goal for over 45 years. Despite the current global pandemic, we are not about to slow down now. We know that many of you have had our programs for years and sometimes forget the intricacies of how they work. NTA wants to help facilitate any possible claims for now and in the future. Fortunately, all claims and reviews can be done by phone and on-line. I personally want to offer my services to guide you in the right direction with your NTA benefits.
We also apologize for not being able to finish the open enrollment for those of you who wanted to get our protection. We are still able to help by extending our enrollment window for the near future. Again, this can be done over the phone, email, or on-line.
Please contact Leann Blaisdell at any time either by phone or email.
562-822-5004
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