SCHOOL FACILITIES AND DECLINING ENROLLMENT AD HOC COMMITTEE REPORT By Ray Gaer
On Wednesday, I attended the ABCUSD School Facilities and Declining Enrollment Committee meeting to discuss not only the criteria that the committee has used to make recommendations but on next steps for discussion. This committee is reviewing data for all district school site facilities, enrollment, demographics, location, and other factors to make a recommendation to the board on possible site(s) that could be “repurposed.” At the bottom of this article, you will find key documents used by the committee and notes from the November meeting.
This eleven-member ad hoc committee only recommends to the school board based on data points.
The ABCUSD School Board would ultimately make the final decision on any possible facility changes. Those decisions would happen around May 2024. The public has been notified of the meetings but I anticipate there will be more interest now that there is a focus on specific schools. In the end, the school board may decide not to close/repurpose any schools, but this school board desired to create this committee to have these committee discussions, which are open to the public.
Since April 2023, the Committee has debated what data would be preliminarily used to create a list of school facilities that would need more enrollment/facility data points. Last month, just prior to the Thanksgiving break, there was some discussion and direction from the committee chair on choosing a number of schools to be on the preliminary list for further evaluation. This list would most likely not be the only group of schools to be examined, but there is also no direction from the school board on the specific number of schools to include in the committee’s recommendations. I wish there was more specific information about what the board was looking for and the specific number of sites they would like in the recommendation, but there is not.
The criteria that were used to create an initial list of schools for more examination were in the following categories: the number of classrooms, current capacity of the school, the current enrollment, the capacity of the school as a percentage, the percent of students transferred into the school, the percentage of students transferring out of the school, the number of resident students. In addition, some less significant factors were also considered such as the amount of Measure BB monies, the trustee area, the number of portable classrooms, and the type of housing. Based on these factors, the committee members created a preliminary list of six schools (in alphabetical order) Aloha, Furgeson, Hawaiian, Juarez, Kennedy, and Willow.
If you look at the location of the schools on this list you can see quickly that they are grouped too closely together. It would not be prudent to close Aloha, Furgeson, and Willow because students in those neighborhoods have to go somewhere so it would not make sense to the community at large. However, discussing the impact of each individual school site will be the next step for the committee. This is why I think that there may be additional schools to be examined in the upcoming monthly committee meetings.
As the ABCFT representative, I am advocating during the meetings for alternate solutions such as changing the number of school-of-choice seats to balance out schools or other ways to redistribute students to schools that have faced the biggest declines in enrollment due to school-of-choice as well as declining enrollment overall.
In the end, if in fact, the ABC School Board decides to close a school or schools then ABCFT will do everything in its power to create a transition for teachers that meets their needs and treats them with the dignity they deserve. This could mean a lot of things such as advocating for teachers to have choices of placement, teacher preferences, placement protections (the contractual language we have for involuntary transfers makes teachers ineligible for additional moves for three years), paid time for moving classroom materials, and ensuring that new classrooms settings are ready before students arrive. I have no doubt in my mind that Superintendent Dr. Zietlow will be thoughtful about the relocation of teachers if we do face any teacher movement due to school closings. Please remember that these conversations are not final decisions and that the board and district administration have already stated to the employees and public that there would be NO CHANGES for next year. At the earliest, MAYBE the school board would make a decision that would impact the 2025-2026 school year.
Staying informed is about being proactive. If you would like to attend these public meetings and speak about your concerns, I encourage you to come to the District Board Room on Wednesday, January 17th at 6 p.m. Thank you in advance for your comments, the committee and the board members in attendance need to hear your concerns.
Committee meeting minutes from November 15, 2023
Criteria used to create the preliminary list of schools to do further research on
Committee member recommendations
ABC Demographic Report from January 2023
MEMBER-ONLY RESOURCES- Student Debt Clinic
AFT Student Debt Clinic – Dec. 19
With the end of the year fast approaching, do you have questions about how to manage your student debt? The AFT is hosting virtual student debt clinic on Dec. 19 at 4:00 p.m. PT to help members learn more about Public Service Loan Forgiveness, income-driven repayment plans and more. Register here.
Student loan debt erased for 3.6 million borrowers
According to NPR, millions of borrowers have received student loan forgiveness, the U.S. Department of Education announced recently, after flaws and mismanagement were discovered through income-driven repayment plans.
The Biden administration has approved an additional $4.8bn in federal student loan debt cancellation for approximately 80,000 borrowers. This brings the total approved debt cancellation to $132bn for 3.6m borrowers. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona stated that this relief is historic and no other administration has come close to providing such relief. The latest round of relief is a result of fixes to the income-driven repayment plan and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The Education Department has also canceled $11.7bn for borrowers with disabilities and $22.5bn for borrowers who were cheated by their schools or experienced sudden closures.
https://edsource.org/updates/student-loan-debt-erased-for-3-6-million-borrowers
ACADEMIC SERVICES UPDATE
This month’s academic service update is vital for all teachers. We hope you will take a moment to look at this monthly report, which discusses changes in academic services that could impact your classroom. This document provides the union with a means of giving the District feedback on the many programs or changes they are proposing at any time. Without your feedback or questions on these changes, it is harder for ABCFT to slow down and modify the district’s neverending rollout of new projects. Please submit your comments and questions to the appropriate ABCFT liaison.
For Elementary curricular issues, please email Megan at Megan.Mitchell@abcusd.us and for Secondary curricular issues, please email Catherine at Catherine.Pascual@abcusd.us if you have any questions or concerns.
Click Here For This Month’s Full Report
ABCFT PRESIDENT’S REPORT - Ray Gaer
Consistent and regular communication is a union’s most important tool for advocating for its members at the bargaining table. Every conversation with members is focused on the end result of negotiating for the future prosperity and well-being of ALL ABCFT members. This weekly report informs members about issues impacting their working/learning conditions and mental well-being. Our work as a Union is a larger conversation, and united, we make the YOUnion.
“ Most of us have the sense of allowing ourselves to feel the feels; if I suppress the feelings, they will last longer, but allowing myself to feel the feels is part of the solution. If you're trying to suppress feelings, it's not good….they are signals. That’s all they are.” From a podcast with Simon Sinek, who describes his post-pandemic transition.
Next week, like all of you, I will be jumping out of my skin in anticipation of having a good number of days to relax and spend time with family, friends, and ourselves. Because I won’t be so reflective next week, I wanted to take this opportunity to be reflective but also to take account of where we are as educators in ABC. 2023 marks a number of changes and challenges that we have faced and overcome, and what we learned from the pandemic is that it all impacts our emotional fitness (I’m trying this out instead of saying emotional health). The impact of having different grading periods this year that are different from anything calendar in ABC is a huge emotional and structural change too.
The looming specter of not knowing what information is coming out of the Facilities Committee about possible school “repurposing” is sending a wave of anxiety for many people. No concrete decisions have been made, but even the talk about being on a list of schools to examine deeper, I’m sure, is crushing for a number of teachers and nurses. One site representative of one of those schools on the list clearly communicated in her email to me the varied emotions of confusion, anger, disappointment, and despair about her school being on this list. These feelings are real and she had a wonderful suggestion of how to provide support to those schools on the list. She encouraged me to sit with each of those staff members to hear from them about their concerns, and I plan on doing that as soon as we return from break. One of the things that Simon Sinek speaks about in his interview is about creating a space for people to talk, not to fix it, but to “sit in the mud” with them. Their feelings are real, just as my anxiety, anger, despair, confusion, and disappointment are natural when I sit in those Facilities Committee meetings.
I will be visiting those staffs or members that are affected so we can sit together. Sure, there will be some helpful discussions about the process, but more importantly, it will be about feeling the feelings no matter what those feelings are. It’s the only way we can work through this together. I want all of us to be in touch with those emotions because I want the administration and the school board to experience and see how we are all feeling with just the talk of something happening. A possible change of this magnitude is more trauma on top of our already difficult jobs.
As you may already know, the ABC Federation of Teachers finally moved to our newest workspace during the week before the Thanksgiving break. The office still looks like we haven’t moved in but I know that we have a lease for five years, and there is some sense of stability. If you recall, the movement of our office was fast and distressing. In June of 2023, our landlord of ten years said we had 30 days to vacate because his firm was taking over the office (he is downsizing and we were just tenants to him). Tanya and I went through the exact emotions that many of you might be feeling about the possibility of leaving your school. The emotions released are strong because a forced change in circumstances is never easy. Being in limbo for five months took its toll on us but what gave us hope and a light at the tunnel was when we knew that we had someplace to land. A new place to call the union hall. A place to meet our colleagues and friends….much like a school site.
My job will be to give you that space and time to feel those feelings, not to fix your feelings but to hear you out and to be there for you….even if the school board decides not to do anything, Tanya, Ruben, the Executive Board, and Site representatives will be there to listen and help.
Thanks to those who came to the YOUnion Social yesterday to share some stories and laughs. Tanya missed out on some excellent baking conversations as we moved from topic to topic. It’s great to just be humans enjoying each other. I hope to see more of you at the next gathering in January. Cheers!
In YOUnity,
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
Follow AFT President Randi Weingarten: http://twitter.com/rweingarten
----- NEWS STORY HIGHLIGHT-----
L.A. Schools announces hiring freeze and potential closures
With pandemic-era federal funding set to expire in September 2024, Los Angeles USD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has announced a hiring freeze and potential school closures. Roughly 1,800 staff members across the district are funded by one-time federal funds and may not be replaced once they leave the district. "It certainly is a tool in the toolbox," Carvalho told the L.A. Schools Report, speaking to potential closures or consolidation. "But it’s one that is used as a measure of last resort, and we are nowhere near that point."
EdSource Los Angeles Daily News
----- NATIONAL NEWS -----
Ed. Dept. publishes new deadlines for Title IX and other regulations
The Education Department now plans to issue both of its final Title IX rules by March 2024, almost a year after its original May 2023 goal. If published by its new deadline, the rules would come five months after they were delayed a second time in October 2023. Educators, parents, students, and advocates are eagerly awaiting the first major update in four decades to regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which will impact requirements in K-12 for how schools accommodate students with disabilities. The Education Department first announced in 2022 it was taking a fresh look at the rules. A proposed rule was originally scheduled to be published in August, and the most recent regulatory agenda said the Department expected a November publication, but it appears the wait will last a bit longer. Another proposed rule, regulating how states can pilot innovative assessments as an alternative to their current summative assessments and testing used for accountability was anticipated this past August, but has now been pushed to October 2024.
Millions of students chronically absent in 2021
A new analysis reveals a staggering increase in chronically absent students during the 2021 academic year. The analysis, from Attendance Works and the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, looked at federal data that found more than 14m chronically absent students during the 2021-22 academic year, an increase of nearly 7m students compared to 2017-18. Chronic absenteeism in suburban and rural school districts jumped to 5.1m and 2.5m students respectively in 2021-22, a 46% and 47% increase compared to 2.8m and 1.4m in 2017-18. Schools in cities experienced an increase of 44% and districts in towns jumped by 42%. Although the attendance trend affected students of all ethnic backgrounds, Latino students took the brunt of the declines, increasing from nearly 2.4m in 2017-18 to 5m in 2021-22, a 53% jump. Pacific Islander students saw the second biggest jump (46%), white students by 39%, Black students by 36%, and Native American students by 29%.
Florida A.G. defends removal of books in public schools
Florida's Attorney General, Ashley Moody, has defended the government's authority to remove books from public-school libraries. In a legal brief addressing a lawsuit against the Escambia County School District, Moody argued that public school libraries are a forum for government and therefore books can be removed if deemed inappropriate. The lawsuit, filed by book publisher Penguin Random House and PEN America Center, challenges the decisions of the school district and the Escambia County School Board to restrict and remove books from libraries. Moody contends that viewpoint-based educational choices are constitutionally permissible because public school libraries convey the government's message. The lawsuit also highlights the removal of books in Lake County School District, where First Amendment rights were allegedly violated.
States cut education spending amid pandemic uncertainty
States scaled back pre-K-12 education funding during the 2020-21 school year to levels not seen since the 2008 recession, according to a new report by the Education Law Center (ELC). In looking at variations in state spending, ELC found that some states, such as Colorado and Hawaii, significantly reduced the total amount of state and local revenue allocated to districts. Other states, like Illinois and New Jersey, didn’t implement planned funding increases. Danielle Farrie, ELC research director and co-author of the report, said one of the big takeaways from this year’s annual report is that state funding still shows disparities in equitable and adequate funding, both between states and among school districts within states. For example, the research showed that among some states, such as Utah, Delaware, and Minnesota, per-pupil funding in high-poverty districts is 30% higher than in low-poverty districts. While in some other states, like Oregon and Nevada, high-poverty districts received 30% less per pupil than low-poverty districts. As states start planning for fiscal year 2025 and as funds run out from the federal COVID-19 emergency payments, ELC urges policymakers to prioritize education funding in an effort to sustain pandemic-era investments in schools.
----- STATE NEWS -----
California Center on Teaching Careers welcomes federal training grant
The U.S. Department of Education has awarded the California Center on Teaching Careers $8m to address workforce shortages in Tulare County. The funds will be used for professional learning, career advancement pathways, and the development of a compensation system that prioritizes the recruitment, selection, placement, development, and retention of educators. The program, which will launch in spring 2024, aims to provide exceptional educators for every child in Visalia Unified. Robyn Narahara-Correia, the district's director of educator support and induction, says: "We believe this is strong momentum in increasing our educators' access to excellent mentors and our students' access to excellent educators."
California superintendents see soaring salaries and better perks
Superintendent salaries in California have seen a significant increase in the last decade, with some districts experiencing growth of over 60%. The high salaries are necessary to attract and retain qualified candidates for the challenging role. However, fewer experienced candidates are interested in applying for superintendent positions, citing the changing and difficult nature of the job. The median annual salary for superintendents nationwide is $156,468, with pay increasing in districts with higher enrollment. In California, superintendents in unified districts with 10,000 to 20,000 students earned an average yearly salary of $278,268, while those in districts with 20,000 or more students averaged $319,443. The article highlights the salaries and benefits of specific superintendents, including Alberto Carvalho of Los Angeles Unified and Christopher Hoffman of Elk Grove. The issue of superintendent compensation has drawn attention, with some advocating for more regulation and others emphasizing the importance of competitive salaries and reasonable benefits.
----- DISTRICTS -----
Portland Schools superintendent resigns
Guadalupe Guerrero, superintendent of Portland Public Schools in Oregon, has announced his resignation effective mid-February. Guerrero, the first Latino superintendent in the district's history, leaves behind a more stable school district than when he arrived in 2017. While he highlighted achievements such as new curriculum rollouts, expanded arts programming, and investments in student mental health, Guerrero acknowledged that the district's capacity-building work has yet to deliver significant results for students of color. The board had set academic targets for students of color, but Guerrero fell short in most areas. Guerrero's departure comes after a turbulent tenure marked by a teachers' strike, criticism over senior administrator turnover, and tensions with the school board.
S.F. schools likely to cut 900 jobs as district faces $400 million deficit
San Francisco schools are facing a massive deficit created by years of overspending as well as recent raises, leaving the district with no choice but to cut staffing by more than 900 already vacant positions, according to district officials.
Superintendent Matt Wayne gave the school board the big budget picture Tuesday evening and the current outlook is ugly.
Without taking drastic action to address spending, the board would face a $421 million deficit by the 2025-2026 school year, equaling more than a third of the current $1.2 billion budget.
The proposed staffing cuts would eliminate almost a tenth of the 10,000 staff positions in the 47,000-student district.
The school board is expected to tell state education officials this week that at this point, the district may not be able to meet all of its financial obligations through 2026.
“We need to make some aggressive changes to how we operate as a district to balance the budget,” school board President Kevine Boggess told the Chronicle.
here’s still a “big hill to climb” to get there and folks should be wondering how to get rid of that $421 million deficit, said one of the experts, Elliott Duchon.
“It’s very serious,” he said of the massive deficit predicted. “I think the worry comes in with what they have to do in the next two years so that gets down to zero, really.”
Eliminating vacant positions is perhaps the easiest step in a long process, he said.
In addition to a budget wake-up call Tuesday, Wayne outlined what it will take to balance the budget, although closing and merging schools is not on the list at the moment. It’s unclear whether layoffs will become part of the plan in the coming months.
More teachers, students absent from classes as hundreds rally for campus safety in Santa Rosa
Close to 200 people participated in another round of school safety demonstrations at Santa Rosa’s two largest high schools Monday, with many Montgomery High School teachers and students calling out sick. Twenty-seven Montgomery High teachers called out sick and 6 classified staff, according to district spokesperson Vanessa Wedderburn. Numbers were not available late Monday for Montgomery students or for absences at Santa Rosa High, where about three dozen demonstrators also gathered early Monday.
The protests come amid a districtwide upheaval about school safety, fueled most recently by a Thursday lockdown at Slater Middle School — Montgomery’s feeder middle school — in which three students were arrested, and a knife attack at Santa Rosa High School two weeks ago.
Over the weekend, the district announced it was reinstating campus officers at all SRCS high schools for the next two weeks out of an “abundance of caution,” district spokesperson Vanessa Wedderburn wrote in a statement.
----- WORKFORCE ----
California program boosts special education teacher recruitment and retention
A four-year California program to help school districts recruit, train, and retain special education teachers has been a success, according to a report from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The program, funded by a $50m grant, has resulted in 82% of teacher candidates being hired or on track to be hired as special education teachers. The funds have been used for tuition, stipends, signing bonuses, and to reduce student debt. The program has also supported the preparation of mentor teachers and the creation of professional learning communities. Despite the grant, teacher turnover remained consistent, but districts were able to fill vacancies with fully credentialed teachers instead of relying on emergency-style credentials. The report highlights the positive impact of the program in addressing the shortage of special education teachers in California.
Report recommends solutions to retain teachers in Arizona
A new report on teacher retention in Arizona highlights the need for higher salaries, reduced workload, and better support from administrators. The report, which echoes long-standing recommendations, reveals that low pay, lack of support, and burnout are driving teachers away from the profession. In September, over 2,000 teaching positions in Arizona were vacant, and nearly 4,000 were filled by teachers without full credentials. Gov. Katie Hobbs' Educator Retention initiative aims to address these issues. The report emphasizes the urgency of implementing effective strategies to retain teachers and improve the quality of education in the state.
Salaries, benefits increase as school superintendents become harder to find
Superintendent candidates are in the driver’s seat in California, where openings are plenty and fewer veteran candidates are interested. The result is higher salaries, better perks and less experience required.
Superintendent pay in California has skyrocketed in the last decade, with salaries in some districts growing more than 60%, according to an EdSource analysis of 53 California superintendent contracts.
Contracts show salaries that range from $130,000 in rural McKinleyville in Humboldt County, where Julie Giannini-Previde leads a district of 928 students, to $441,092 in suburban Elk Grove, near Sacramento, where Christopher Hoffman is at the helm of a district of 63,000 students.
Districts must pay a good salary to attract and retain qualified superintendents, said Nancy Chaires Espinoza, Elk Grove Unified school board president. Even with good salaries, some qualified people aren’t interested in applying for superintendent positions, she said.
“It’s really hard to recruit and retain superintendents because the job has changed, and the job of superintendent has become much more difficult, given the political environment,” she said.
A survey of 2,443 superintendents nationwide by the School Superintendents Association showed a median annual salary of $156,468 last school year, with pay increasing at districts with higher enrollment. No comparative salary data is available for California, although the California Department of Education has salary information for 2021-22. That year, superintendents in unified districts with 10,000 to 20,000 students earned an average yearly salary of $278,268 and superintendents in districts with 20,000 or more students averaged $319,443 a year.https://edsource.org/2023/salaries-benefits-increase-as-school-superintendents-become-harder-to-find/702156?_gl=1*1sw4zes*_ga*MTEzODg0NDEzMi4xNjk4MjYyMjI3*_ga_475QR6J62K*MTcwMjMxNDk0MC40Ny4xLjE3MDIzMTQ5NDcuNTMuMC4w
California teacher credentialing agency working to expand
Thousands of teachers in California could be added to the state's workforce next school year due to a decision by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The decision allows teacher candidates who come within -1.0 standard error of measurement of passing the California Teaching Performance Assessment or the edTPA to earn a preliminary credential. The commission's decision aims to expand the ways in which candidates can demonstrate their readiness to begin teaching. The decision is based on a report that revealed that a majority of teacher candidates who failed performance assessments in the last five years were extremely close to passing. A work group will also convene to study and make recommendations on how to improve all three of the state's performance assessments.
----- CLASSROOM -----
LGBTQ+ community opposes Temecula Valley Unified's social policies
California Attorney General Rob Bonta is supporting a motion to prevent the Temecula Valley Unified School District from implementing policies that censor instruction about race and gender, as well as policies that require employees to notify parents if their child shows signs of being transgender. The lawsuit against the school district was filed by Public Counsel and Ballard Spahr LLP on behalf of parents, teachers, the teacher's union, and students. The hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction will take place on January 24. This marks the first time in recent history that the state has intervened in litigation to curb ideological censorship in the classroom. The lawsuit comes after the school board's conservative majority banned critical race theory, temporarily removed the Social Studies Curriculum Social Studies Alive! from shelves, and passed a policy requiring school officials to notify parents of transgender students.
----- LEGAL -----
Teachers Found To Be Posting On Adult Websites
At a small rural Missouri high school, two English teachers were discovered to be posting adult content on OnlyFans, a subscription-based website known for sexually explicit content. Reports on the issue note that Victoria Triece sued Orange County Public Schools earlier this year, alleging she was forbidden to volunteer at her son's Florida elementary school because she posts on OnlyFans. Her attorney, Mark NeJame, asked “When you start getting the moral police involved in it, where does it stop? At what point does the school have the right to intervene in one's private life?”.
Local10 Midfloridanewspapers NBC Miami
California A.G. supports lawsuit against school district's policies
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has submitted an amicus curiae supporting a lawsuit against the Temecula Valley Unified School District's policies. The lawsuit challenges the district's requirement of parental notification for students wishing to be called by a different name or use facilities not consistent with their gender listed in school records, as well as the ban on teaching elements of critical race theory. Bonta argues that the parental notification policy violates students' rights to equal protection and privacy under California law. He also claims that the ban on teaching critical race theory limits students' ability to learn about diverse perspectives and is in violation of AB 1078, which bans school boards from prohibiting materials with inclusive perspectives. The lawsuit aims to address the alleged violations and protect the rights of transgender and gender nonconforming students.
Former student awarded $25m in school abuse case
Jurors have awarded $25 million to a former Santa Barbara Unified School District student who was abused by an assistant coach later convicted of felony sex crimes involving other boys. The school district had repeatedly ignored warnings about the abuser, Justin Sell, who worked as a coach and security guard at Goleta's Dos Pueblos High School. The jury found that the school district was liable for 80% of the damages suffered by the boy. Sell was also accused of grooming and sexually abusing two other Dos Pueblos students, who are also suing the district. The school district issued a statement noting that the abuse happened years ago. "The school district deeply empathizes with any student who finds themselves in a vulnerable position in a school environment where children should feel safe," the district said. The jury recognized the lifelong harm that childhood sexual abuse inflicts on its victims," said attorney Natalie Weatherford.
Florida school fined over transgender student's participation in girls volleyball
Florida's Monarch High School has been fined $16,500 and placed on probation for 11 months by the Florida High School Athletic Association after a transgender student played on the girls volleyball team, violating a controversial law enacted by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature. The law, known as "The Fairness in Women's Sports Act," prohibits transgender girls and women from participating in public school teams intended for female athletes. The student, a 10th grader, was removed from the team after an anonymous tipster reported her participation. The association also barred her from participating in boys sports for 11 months. State Education Commissioner Manny Diaz praised the association's action, stating that Florida passed legislation to protect girls' sports. The school district is currently conducting its own investigation and has 10 days to appeal the association's ruling. Monarch High's principal and athletic director have been ordered to attend rules compliance seminars, and the school must host an on-campus seminar for staff.
The Baltimore Sun
----- HEALTH & WELLBEING -----
Teen suicide rates reach alarming lows in L.A. county
The median age for teen suicide in Los Angeles County has dropped to 16, the youngest ever. Suicide rates among children have been increasing, with theories including the impact of social media, access to guns, and hormonal contraceptives. The rate among Black and Asian youths is now higher than among white ones. The academic calendar seems to play a role, as suicides are more likely to occur during the school year. However, the systems meant to help children in crisis have been left to atrophy, with a lack of psychiatric beds and pediatric psychiatrists. Involuntary hospitalizations for suicidal teens are traumatic and expensive, leading to a "fail first" model. Schools often struggle to address suicide prevention and postvention effectively, and social media fuels contagion. Private schools, like Harvard-Westlake, have faced clusters of suicides, but their prevention efforts are not mandated by state law. The surge in eating disorders among girls, fueled by social media, also increases their risk of suicide. Friends of deceased teens often learn about their deaths through social media, leading to glamorization and increased risk. It is crucial to have open conversations about suicide and provide better mental health support for children.
-----CHARTER SCHOOLS -----
Charter schools face legal challenges in multiple states
Three decades after the first public charter school opened, debates and legal battles over their operation continue across the country. In Kentucky, a judge has declared the state's charter school funding law unconstitutional, while similar litigation is unfolding in Montana. Oklahoma is facing a legal dispute over whether to allow a religious charter school to open. The proliferation of charter schools has raised concerns about their impact on public education. The funding of private schools, including charters, has become a contentious issue, with some arguing that they violate constitutional bans on public funding for private education. The future of charter schools is uncertain as legal challenges persist and the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority could potentially rule on the matter soon.
Charter school enrollment climbing
Over the past four school years, charter schools have enrolled over 300,000 new students for an overall growth of 9%, according to a report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. The group looked at data from the 2019-20 through 2022-23 school years and found that in 40 of the 42 states studied, charter school enrollment increased, ranging from 35 students in both Virginia and Wyoming, to 67,148 students in Texas. A closer look at the data finds Hispanic students made up about half of the overall charter school enrollment growth and represent a nearly 14% increase in 26 states between the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years. Black student enrollment grew by 6%, while White student enrollment rose by 1.6% in those years. In some places, including Pennsylvania and Oklahoma, charter school enrollment is “rightsizing” after spiking in the 2020-21 school year largely due to enrollment in virtual charter schools during the pandemic. Since campuses have opened for in-person learning, charter school enrollment in these places has leveled off. Traditional public schools, on the other hand, lost 1.5m students between the 2019-20 and 2022-23 school years.
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