CHELMSFORD — Police will increase their presence at Chelmsford High School this coming week after a threat was discovered written on a student bathroom wall on Friday morning.
The threat on the wall comes a day after school officials received information about a student who allegedly wanted to harm the school community. In both instances, investigations determined the threats were not credible.
In a message to the Chelmsford community on Friday, Principal Stephen Murray stated that the investigation into the threat found on the bathroom wall, which included “a threat of future harm” to the school, is ongoing. However, since there was no immediate threat to the school community, he added “students remained on their current class schedule, and it was business as usual.”
“At the end of the school day,” Murray said, “I made an announcement to our school community to inform them about the situation, that we were taking steps to investigate the incident, and how they could help by contacting an adult in the building if they have any information. I also reminded the school community about the importance of safety and security and commended the students who came forward quickly to alert our administration of this future threat. When speaking with your children, I ask that you please support our ‘See Something, Say Something’ message to help us in keeping Chelmsford High School safe for all.”
Murray reiterated that authorities “have not found evidence that lends any validity to the threat.”
“You may have noticed a police presence at the school drop-off this morning,” Murray added. “We partner closely with the Chelmsford Police Department to keep our schools safe, and you will also notice an increase in police presence at our school next week, similar to how they supported us today with that presence. We appreciate and are grateful for the partnership with the Chelmsford Police Department to keep our school community safe.”
Murray also released a note to the public on Thursday after school officials learned “about a student allegedly wanting to harm our school community.”
In the note, Murray emphasized that each threat is taken seriously. As he did following Friday’s discovery, Murray stated that the Chelmsford Police were contacted and conducted an investigation, ultimately determining there was no credible threat.
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I’m excited. My 8-year-old grandson Luca has taken up cross country running and I’m looking forward to joining him on training runs and local 5K races. We’ve already got one booked for October. As one who didn’t discover the physical and therapeutic benefits of running until college, my vision is that Luca develops a healthy habit that he can sustain well into adulthood.
I’m equally excited about the opportunity to be a supportive and positive voice, a thought that motivates me to keep up my own running regimen and healthy behavior. Boosting my thrill is research describing the importance of male role models for boys and the positive impact produced by loving fathers and grandfathers.
Yet, with all this positivity, my thinking is tempered by a rapidly emerging consensus that boys today are at risk. It’s a point with implications for not only grandfathers, but fathers, uncles, stepdads, foster fathers, coaches, teachers and any man in a position to make a positive contribution to the life of a young man.
Turns out, my personal interest in bonding with Luca in a new way comes at a time when the well-being of boys is being labeled a crisis. To me, this represents a call to action for men of all ages to do our part to help shape the future of the boys in our lives. It’s a call that can impact boys while conveying benefits to the men who get engaged.
Defining the educational crisis boys are facing
According to the American Institute for Boys and Men, boys are struggling at school and have fallen well behind girls in academic achievement. There is a 14% gap in school readiness between boys and girls at age 5. Boys have lower grade point averages than girls throughout their K-12 educations. Boys are less likely to take advanced-placement courses and less likely to graduate high school. Women make up the majority of students on America’s college campuses, a gap of 15% between young men and women.
It gets worse. AIBM also notes that in the average school district, boys are almost a grade level behind girls in English language arts (there is no gap in Math), and that the risk of suicide is four times higher for boys and young men than their female peers — and has risen by 40% among younger men since 2010. The severity of this problem prompted Melinda French Gates to announce funding for AIBM earlier this year as part of a gender equality initiative to better help boys achieve as highly as girls.
Provided Image/Louis Bezich
Louis Bezich with his grandson Luca.
Beyond educational achievement and suicide statistics, the difference between boys and girls has additional implications for a boy’s health and well-being. The American Psychological Association says that “the implications of the disparities between boys and girls are huge. Doing poorly at school is strongly associated with major challenges later in life, including addiction, mental and physical health problems, and involvement with the criminal justice system — problems that also have ripple effects on society at large.”
A piece published in the Columbia Political Reviewin 2021 suggested the poor state of U.S. boys can be traced to the American educational system, which perpetuates gender norms that overlook the harm that they inflict on boys. Predominant among these stereotypes is that boys misbehave more. That has translated into a number of concerning outcomes which constitute the crisis.
The outcomes, the article states, include a high rate of failing grades, boys comprising the majority of students labeled as learning disabled, and a dropout rate 40% more frequent than girls. All of this because boys have a propensity to misbehave and consequently are more likely to be punished and receive harsher treatment. Further complicating the gender disparity is a creativity crisis in which girls outperform boys in schools that overvalue obedience and disincentivize creativity, because social norms categorize girls as more submissive.
The article concludes that children are being groomed to be submissive to authority rather than developing independent thought. Further, it argues that this culture of obedience has doubled the rate of ADHD diagnosis in boys. A failure to accommodate students with behavioral problems has resulted in misdiagnosed boys placed in decelerated learning environments.
Potential solutions to the crisis
Richard Reeves, a scholar at the Brookings Institute, is the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men and the author of “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It.” He believes that gender gaps exist between boys and girls (and men and women) in both directions, and that efforts at gender equality should extend to boys and men.
Reeves believes that there are specific actions that educators can take to close the gap between boys and girls. They include “redshirting” boys by having them start school a year later than girls, recruiting more men (especially African American men) as teachers, and generally getting more men into female-dominated jobs in health, education, administration and literacy while continuing to increase women’s participation in STEM fields.
The American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Boys in School echoes Reeves’ thoughts on redshirting and offers additional school-based initiatives to advance the wellbeing of boys including hands-on interactive instructional methods, more recess-type breaks in the day for kids to be kids, talking to boys about how they interact with friends, and developing listening and relationship building skills.
A call to action
I’ve given you the insights of experts on the crisis facing boys today. They are extensive and while I haven’t explored the extension of these conditions into adult males (a subject for a future column), they are equally troubling and present a completing argument to act immediately to stop the growth of these problems among boys.
While our educational systems carry a big burden to change the culture of education that has fostered this crisis, we as parents, grandparents and male stakeholders can play a role in this equation as role models providing a positive influence and as advocates that recognize the challenges boys face and push for change.
To bring this discussion back to the personal perspective from which it started, think about the boys in your life. Find a way, whether through sports or other activities to create a bond and see how they’re doing. Don’t assume all is OK because they say so.
No, I’m not suggesting that you act like a drill sergeant to probe and push for a download of the child’s life. Just try to get to know them a little better and see where it takes you. It might just be the best thing you did for them — and yourself.
Chris Stanislawski didn’t read much in his middle school English classes, but it never felt necessary. Students were given detailed chapter summaries for every novel they discussed, and teachers played audio of the books during class.
Much of the reading material at Garden City Middle School in Long Island was either abridged books, or online texts and printouts, he said.
“When you’re given a summary of the book telling you what you’re about to read in baby form, it kind of just ruins the whole story for you,” said Chris, 14. “Like, what’s the point of actually reading?”
In many English classrooms across America, assignments to read full-length novels are becoming less common. Some teachers focus instead on selected passages — a concession to perceptions of shorter attention spans, pressure to prepare for standardized tests and a sense that short-form content will prepare students for the modern, digital world.
The National Council of Teachers of English acknowledged the shift in a 2022 statement on media education, saying: “The time has come to decenter book reading and essay-writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.”
The idea is not to remove books but to teach media literacy and add other texts that feel relevant to students, said Seth French, one of the statement’s co-authors. In the English class he taught before becoming a dean last year at Bentonville High School in Arkansas, students engaged with plays, poetry and articles but read just one book together as a class.
“At the end of the day, a lot of our students are not interested in some of these texts that they didn’t have a choice in,” he said.
The emphasis on shorter, digital texts does not sit well with everyone.
Deep reading is essential to strengthen circuits in the brain tied to critical thinking skills, background knowledge — and, most of all, empathy, said Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist at UCLA specializing in dyslexia research.
“We must give our young an opportunity to understand who others are, not through little snapshots, but through immersion into the lives and thoughts and feelings of others,” Wolf said.
At Garden City Middle School, students are required to read several books in their entirety each year, including “Of Mice and Men” and “Romeo and Juliet,” Principal Matthew Samuelson said. Audio versions and summaries are provided as extra resources, he said.
For Chris, who has dyslexia, the audio didn’t make the reading feel more accessible. He just felt bored. He switched this fall to a Catholic school, which his mother feels will prepare him better for college.
Even outside school, students are reading less
There’s little data on how many books are assigned by schools. But in general, students are reading less. Federal data from last year shows only 14% of young teens say they read for fun daily, compared with 27% in 2012.
Teachers say the slide has its roots in the COVID-19 crisis.
“There was a trend, it happened when COVID hit, to stop reading full-length novels because students were in trauma; we were in a pandemic. The problem is we haven’t quite come back from that,” said Kristy Acevedo, who teaches English at a vocational high school in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
This year, she said she won’t accept that students are too distracted to read. She plans to teach time-management strategies and to use only paper and pencils for most of class time.
Other teachers say the trend stems from standardized testing and the influence of education technology. Digital platforms can deliver a complete English curriculum, with thousands of short passages aligned to state standards — all without having to assign an actual book.
“If admins and school districts are judged by their test scores, how are they going to improve their test scores? They’re going to mirror the test as much as possible,” said Karl Ubelhoer, a middle school special education teacher in Tabernacle, New Jersey.
For some students, it’s a struggle to read at all. Only around a third of fourth and eighth graders reached reading proficiency in the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, down significantly from 2019.
Leah van Belle, executive director of the Detroit literacy coalition 313Reads, said when her son read “Peter Pan” in late elementary school, it was too hard for most kids in the class. She laments that Detroit feels like “a book desert.” Her son’s school doesn’t even have a library.
Still, she said it makes sense for English classes to focus on shorter texts.
“As an adult, if I want to learn about a topic and research it, be it personal or professional, I’m using interactive digital text to do that,” she said.
Teachers fit books in with other ‘spinning plates’
Even in well-resourced schools, one thing is always in short supply: time.
Terri White, a teacher at South Windsor High School in Connecticut, no longer makes her honors ninth-grade English class read all of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” She assigns about a third of the book and a synopsis of the rest. They have to move on quickly because of pressure for teachers to cram more into the curriculum, she said.
“It’s like spinning plates, you know what I mean? Like it’s a circus,” she said.
She also assigns less homework because kids’ schedules are so packed with sports, clubs and other activities.
“I maintain rigor. But I’m more about helping students become stronger and more critical readers, writers and thinkers, while taking their social-emotional well-being into account,” she said.
In the long run, the synopsis approach harms students’ critical thinking skills, said Alden Jones, a literature professor at Emerson College in Boston. She assigns fewer books than she once did and gives more quizzes to make sure students do the reading.
“We don’t value the thinking time that we used to have. It’s all time we could be on our phone accomplishing tasks,” she said.
Will Higgins, an English teacher at Dartmouth High School in Massachusetts, said he still believes in teaching the classics, but demands on students’ time have made it necessary to cut back.
“We haven’t given up on ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ We haven’t given up on ‘Hamlet’ or ‘The Great Gatsby,’″ Higgins said. But he said they have given up assigning others like “A Tale of Two Cities.”
His school has had success encouraging reading through student-directed book clubs, where small groups pick a book and discuss it together. Contemporary authors like John Green and Jason Reynolds have been a big hit.
“It’s funny,” he said. “Many students are saying that it’s the first time in a long time they’ve read a full book.”
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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Huddling for safety in classrooms as gunfire rang out, students at Apalachee High School texted or called their parents to let them know what was happening and send what they thought could be their final messages. One student texted her mother to say she loved her, adding, “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter.”
The Georgia school shooting that left four dead and nine injured last week was every parent’s worst nightmare, and one that highlights potential downsides to efforts among states, school districts and federal lawmakers to ban or restrict access to cellphones in classrooms.
The moves to restrict phone use in schools have been driven by concerns about the impact screentime has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom. But those opposed to the bans say they cut off a lifeline parents have to make sure their children are safe during school shootings or other emergencies.
“The fact of the matter is parents and families cannot rely on schools to effectively communicate with us in times of emergency, and this has happened time and again,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, an education advocacy group. “There’s a whole host of reasons why parents are deeply concerned about whether or not they’re going to get timely information about whether or not their kids are safe.”
Nationally, 77% of U.S. schools say they prohibit cellphones at school for non-academic use, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But that number is misleading. It does not mean students are following those bans or all those schools are enforcing them.
The restrictions have been trumpeted by both Republican and Democratic governors who rarely agree on other issues.
In Arkansas, GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched a program for school districts to apply for grants to purchase pouches for students to keep their phones in during the school day. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged school districts to restrict cellphone use and is weighing whether to sign legislation that would require schools to enact restrictions.
“I’d hate to see another school shooting be the reason that we bring TVs into the classroom and then disrupt our children’s education,” Newsom said Friday. “Because, in essence, that’s what a cellphone is equivalent to — bringing a TV into the classroom and disrupting the ability to get quality academic time.”
But for many students caught in the Apalachee shooting, having access to their phones was the only way they could communicate with loved ones during moments they feared could be their last.
“I love you. I love you so much. Ma I love you,” Junior Julie Sandoval texted her mother. “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter. I love you.”
Nearby, Sandoval said, another student was on the phone telling their mother, “They’re shooting up the school! They’re shooting up the school!”
But advocates of school phone restrictions warn that allowing access to phones during shootings or other emergencies could put students in even more danger.
“What’s even more important to me is their safety,” said Kim Whitman, co-founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement, a group that advocates for schools to adopt policies keeping cellphones off and away from students. “If my child was on the phone with me and they missed guidance from the teacher because they were distracted by their phone and they weren’t safe, that’s a worse scenario in my mind.”
Whitman said she understands the concerns about keeping parents informed and that’s why a key part for any phone-free school is being proactive in communicating about emergencies.
Balancing safety and parents’ concerns guided a cellphone ban at Grand Island Senior High, the largest high school in Nebraska, which rolled out a new policy in January that requires students to keep phones out of sight and in their bags or pockets, silenced or off during school hours.
“One of the essential questions that parents asked us was, ‘What if Sally or Johnny doesn’t have their phone if, God forbid, an active shooting happens or there is some sort of crisis in the building?’” said Jeff Gilbertson, the school’s then-principal who now runs leadership training at the state Board of Education.
But the school does lockdown training to remind students of the dangers that phones can cause during emergencies.
“We coach our kids to keep phones silenced. You don’t want to be talking on the phone when we’re in lockdown, because that would reveal your location to an active shooter,” he said.
Students in other school shootings have used cellphones to alert authorities or their parents. During the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 21 people, a fourth-grader begged for help in a series of 911 calls. Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, sent parents and posted chilling videos during the 2018 shooting that killed 17 people.
The Apalachee school shooting was a painful reminder for Brandi Scire of why she got a cellphone for her daughter, now a high school sophomore in Broward County, Florida. Both her children went to schools nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during that mass shooting.
Scire’s son’s school was on lockdown and thought it was a drill until she texted him on his phone. Scire purchased a cellphone for her daughter the following year because of that.
Broward County schools now require students to keep their phones stored away and in airplane mode, but Scire has told her daughter to keep her phone on and with her.
“It’s not about me texting my daughter during regular school or anything like that,” Scire said. “It’s a safety measure and I’m sorry, I cannot let that go.”
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This story was updated to correct that the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, happened in 2022, not 2020.
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Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Winder, Georgia, Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California, and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed to this report.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — A Florida Panhandle high school football player has died after collapsing during a game, officials said.
Port St. Joe High School wide receiver Chance Gainer collapsed during Friday night’s game at Liberty High School. The 18-year-old senior was rushed to the hospital, but died, Gulf County School Superintendent Jim Norton told WJHG-TV.
Gainer was an honors student and had recently visited Vanderbilt University to discuss attending there, Norton said.
Gainer “had world-class speed, but more importantly, had a world-class personality,” Norton said.
Friday’s game was canceled after Gainer’s collapse and Port St. Joe’s game next week has also been canceled.
The National Federation of State High School Associations said last week that six high school players had died within the past month, four of them from heart issues and two from being hit.
WINDER, Ga. — The teen charged with opening fire at a Georgia high school was interviewed by police more than a year ago as they looked into online posts threatening a school shooting, but investigators did not have enough evidence for an arrest, officials said.
The 14-year-old suspect has been charged as an adult in the shooting Wednesday outside Atlanta that killed four people and wounded nine. He is accused of using an assault-style rifle to kill two students and two teachers in the hallway outside his algebra classroom, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey told a news conference.
It was the latest among dozens of school shootings across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas. The classroom killings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to active-shooter drills. But there has been little change to national gun laws.
Classes were canceled Thursday at Apalachee High School, though some people came to pay respects by leaving flowers around the flagpole and kneeling in the grass with heads bowed. Among them was Linda Carter, who lives nearby. Though she has no children attending the school, Carter said the rampage left her angry and hurting.
“I’m upset, I’m crying constantly,” Carter said. “These kids shouldn’t have lost their lives. These parents, these adults, these teachers should not have lost their lives yesterday.”
When the suspect slipped out of class Wednesday, Lyela Sayarath figured her quiet classmate who recently transferred was skipping school again. But he returned later and wanted back into the room. Some students went to open the locked door but instead backed away.
“I’m guessing they saw something, but for some reason, they didn’t open the door,” Sayarath said.
The teen then turned the gun on people in a hallway, authorities said.
He has been charged in the deaths of students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Christina Irimie, 53, Hosey said. The teen was to be taken Thursday to a regional youth detention facility.
When the teen was not allowed back into his classroom, Sayarath said she heard a barrage of gunshots.
“It was about 10 or 15 of them at once, back to back,” she said.
The math students fell to the floor and crawled around, looking for a safe corner to hide.
Two school resource officers encountered the shooter within minutes of a report that shots had been fired, Hosey said. The teen immediately surrendered and was taken into custody.
At least nine other people — eight students and one teacher at the school in Winder — were taken to hospitals. All were expected to survive, Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said. Authorities were still looking into how the teen obtained the gun and got it into the school with about 1,900 students in a rapidly developing area on the edge of metro Atlanta’s ever-expanding sprawl.
“All the students that had to watch their teachers and their fellow classmates die, the ones that had to walk out of the school limping, that looked traumatized,” Sayarath said.
It was the 30th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as events in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.
The teen had been interviewed after the FBI received anonymous tips in May 2023 about online threats to commit an unspecified school shooting, the agency said in a statement.
The FBI narrowed the threats down and referred to the case to the sheriff’s department in Jackson County, which is adjacent to Barrow County.
The sheriff’s office interviewed the then-13-year-old and his father, who said there were hunting guns in the house but the teen did not have unsupervised access to them. The teen also denied making any online threats.
The sheriff’s office alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the teen, but there was no probable cause for arrest or additional action, the FBI said.
Hosey said the state Division of Family and Children’s Services also had previous contact with the teen and will investigate whether that has any connection with the shooting. Local news outlets reported that the teen’s family home in Bethlehem, Georgia, was searched Wednesday.
On Wednesday evening, hundreds gathered in Jug Tavern Park in downtown Winder for a vigil. Volunteers handed out candles. Some knelt as a Methodist minister led the crowd in prayer after a Barrow County commissioner read a Jewish prayer of mourning.
Christopher Vasquez, 15, said he attended the vigil because he needed to feel grounded and be in a safe place.
He was in band practice when the lockdown order was issued. He said it felt like a regular drill as students lined up to hide in the band closet.
“Once we heard banging at the door and the SWAT (team) came to take us out, that’s when I knew that it was serious,” he said. “I just started shaking and crying.”
He finally settled down once he was at the football stadium. “I just was praying that everyone I love was safe,” he said.
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Associated Press journalists Sharon Johnson, Mike Stewart and Erik Verduzco in Winder; Beatrice Dupuy in New York; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia; Charlotte Kramon, Kate Brumback and Jeff Martin in Atlanta; and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report.
Colorado voters are set to weigh in on ballot questions related to abortion rights, veterinary services, mountain lion trophy hunting and an overhaul of the state’s election system in November.
The deadline to finalize the state’s ballot is coming Friday, but all of the citizen initiatives — meaning ballot questions pursued by members of the public, rather than the legislature — were finalized late last week. State election officials certified that the final ones had received enough petition signatures after clearing earlier regulatory hurdles.
Nine ballot measures from the public have been approved. But two of those — the property tax-related initiatives 50 and 108 — are both set to be withdrawn by sponsors as part of negotiations with the governor’s office and the state legislature, which on Thursday passed another property tax relief bill at the end of a special session.
Since 2014, Denver Public Schools has seen sharply declining enrollment, leading to several school closures.
Denver Public Schools buses parked in a lot off Federal Boulevard. July 17, 2024.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Denver families will know on Nov. 7 which DPS schools are recommended for closure or consolidation due to declining enrollment.
Then, they’ll have just two weeks to provide feedback.
The Denver Board of Education will vote on Superintendent Alex Marrero’s recommendations on Nov. 21, according to an updated timeline presented to board members Thursday night.
Why so short a timeline?
Originally, the district’s closure policy would have meant an October recommendation followed by a month to gather input from the community.
But Denver Public Schools officials argued that accurate enrollment numbers wouldn’t be ready until after the state-required official October count of students.
There will be some changes to weigh in before that late-November deadline. Ahead of Nov. 21, the district will host a series of meetings to provide information about declining enrollment and gather feedback before a final decision is made.
Why does DPS need to close schools?
Since 2014, Denver Public Schools has seen sharply declining enrollment, especially at the elementary level, according to a district strategic analysis.
Low birth rates and rapidly increasing housing prices are fueling the declines, with the district expecting to lose another 6,000 students by 2028.
Enrollment is declining the most in Denver’s central, southwest and northwest neighborhoods.
Some parts of the city however, such as the far northeast and northern Central Park neighborhoods, have had increases in students.
Marrero told board members there is a financial burden and inability to serve students equitably because of declining enrollment that is “untenable.” DPS officials say students in small schools don’t have access to the same academic and social support that is available at larger schools.
“I am confident that if we had more scholars with more adult support, more resources, we would have seen even larger gains,” Marrero said, referring to recently released test scores.
School closures are painful and emotional events that often generate strong pushback because many families view their schools as community centers.
Last year, the school board voted to close two elementary schools — Fairview Elementary and Math and Science Leadership Academy — and a middle school, Denver Discovery School.
How will the district decide which schools to close?
For example, the financial viability of the school and when possible, ensuring school consolidations “prevent further segregation” based on language, race or economic status.
The superintendent can’t use standardized test scores as the “sole” condition for consolidation, and he should avoid consolidating one school with another that is more than two miles away.
How can I weigh in on school closures?
Beginning the week of Sept. 23 through Oct. 18, the district will host six regional meetings (in-person and virtual) at several DPS high schools to discuss enrollment trends and implications of school closures.
The public can also provide input at those meetings, although they won’t know if their particular school will be on the list.
There will also be surveys and feedback forms available online.
Marrero said he’ll incorporate community feedback and data analysis into his decision. But once his recommendations are made publicly on Nov. 7, the decisions appear to be final.
“Our team is being incredibly diligent on our methodology when we produce a list … we’re not going to be convinced otherwise. We’ve made the decision based on data and what’s best for the district,” he said.
After the board vote on Nov. 21, the district will work with students, families and staff over the rest of the school year to plan for school consolidation and student transitions.
“Nobody wants their school closed,” board member Scott Esserman said. “It’s going to be hard, it’s going to be painful and it’s necessary.”
Austin, TX —Literacy First, a program from The University of Texas at Austin’s Charles A. Dana Center dedicated to improving literacy outcomes for young learners, is excited to announce its expansion beyond Central Texas. In partnership with Chattanooga 2.0, Literacy First piloted its evidence-based tutoring program in Chattanooga, TN, during the 2023–2024 school year.
The Literacy First tutoring model supports children at Title I schools in grades K-2, providing personalized literacy instruction to address individual needs. Through high-impact, one-to-one tutoring during the school day, they close gaps in literacy skills and set students on a path to excel in school and life as they learn to read.
Literacy First successfully piloted its program with first and second grade students at East Side Elementary. This marks the first time Literacy First has replicated its tutoring program outside of Central Texas. The positive impact on student literacy outcomes was evident, with over half of students in the pilot program reaching or nearing grade-level reading standards by the end of the school year, motivating the district to expand the services offered.
For the 2024–2025 school year, Literacy First, in partnership with both Chattanooga 2.0 and Hamilton County Schools, will extend the program to include 11 additional elementary school campuses and two District Lead Coaches. This expansion is part of Literacy First’s gradual release Capacity Building Model, where their expert staff trains and supports district staff and paraprofessional tutors over several years. The goal of this model is for the partner schools and organizations to implement the program independently with reduced support from Literacy First over time.
“We are thrilled to bring our proven tutoring model to Chattanooga and collaborate with partners dedicated to creating opportunities for all children to build a strong educational foundation in reading,” Literacy First Director, Dr. Claire Hagen Alvarado stated.
Chattanooga 2.0 Director of Literacy and Student Strategy, Brandon Hubbard-Heitz added, “Literacy First’s tutoring model is a key strategy in Chattanooga 2.0’s effort to build a robust and aligned system of literacy supports for children beginning from birth at home, in school, and across the community. We were excited to launch the model in Hamilton County Schools and are even more excited to see the model’s expanded impact on K-2 students across the county.”
Reading is essential to success in every academic discipline, which is why it was important to us to see Literacy First scale up as a tool to support students who need a little extra help,” says Dr. Justin Robertson, Superintendent of Hamilton County Schools. “I am excited about the partnership with multiple community partners to provide tutoring that will make a real impact in both the short and long term.”
For more information about Literacy First and their mission, visit www.literacyfirst.org.
About Literacy First
Literacy First teaches young children how to read, equipping them to excel in life and realize their dreams. Since 1994, Literacy First has partnered with public, Title I schools and community organizations to provide intensive and effective literacy tutoring in English and Spanish to K-2 students. Literacy First is an outreach program of the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Learn more at www.literacyfirst.org.
About Chattanooga 2.0
Chattanooga 2.0 was established in 2016 and is a small nonprofit that works to change systems in order to impact generational changes in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, TN. The ultimate goal is to improve economic opportunity and quality of life — and Chattanooga 2.0 believes education attainment is the first step. From early childhood education to the attainment of a thriving wage career, the small team leads initiatives to remove systemic barriers and provide intentional supports to children, students, and their families. Chattanooga 2.0 convenes and leads community groups such as Early Matters, Great Teachers Great Leaders, the Out of School Time Alliance, and the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Children’s Cabinet. For more information visit www.chatt2.org.
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Drivers passing through school zones in Howard County in Maryland this week will see some extra police cars, cameras and new lighted stop signs to help keep students safe as they head back to class.
Drivers passing through school zones in Howard County, Maryland, this week will see some extra police cars, cameras and new lighted stop signs to help keep students safe as they head back to class.
The extra enforcement is part of an annual plan called Helping Arriving Students Through Enforcement, or H.A.S.T.E., to keep the roads around schools safer for students, parents and children.
Additional police officers will be on roadways around schools in Howard County for the first three weeks of the new school year.
“Officers will focus on drivers who are speeding, failing to stop for pedestrians or driving distracted in those areas,” Howard County police said in a news release. “They also will be checking for seat belt and child safety seat use to ensure all occupants are properly restrained.”
Additionally, police officers are reminding drivers that the county’s school buses have cameras on the outside to catch vehicles from passing buses illegally. A fine for that is $250 in the county.
Getting caught by the speed cameras in school zones will cost drivers a $40 fine. The county posts where those speed cameras are and where they are moved online.
The crossing guards on roads surrounding the schools will also be a little easier to see. They will be provided lighted stop signs using funds that were collected from fines through HCPD’s Automated Enforcement programs.
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Whether you’re an incoming freshman or returning to dorm life, picking the right stuff for college can be tough. On one hand, you want to have quality gear that won’t let you down by midterms. On the other, the inevitability of crushing debt looms in the years to come, so you want to be frugal wherever possible.
This guide is filled with all the stuff you might need: an affordable (but capable) laptop, a versatile backpack, coffee gear, audio gadgets, and fun tech to make dorm life more livable. You don’t need every single item in this list, so spend only where you think is necessary.
Updated August 2024: We’ve added new products for the new school year.
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MEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste missed so much school he had to repeat his freshman year at Medford High outside Boston. At school, “you do the same thing every day,” said Jean-Baptiste, who was absent 30 days his first year. “That gets very frustrating.”
Then his principal did something nearly unheard of: She let students play organized sports during lunch — if they attended all their classes. In other words, she offered high schoolers recess.
“It gave me something to look forward to,” said Jean-Baptiste, 16. The following year, he cut his absences in half. Schoolwide, the share of chronically absent students declined from 35% in March 2023 to 23% in March 2024 — one of the steepest declines among Massachusetts high schools.
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, of Medford, Mass., poses for a photo at Medford High School, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Years after COVID-19 upended American schooling, nearly every state is still struggling with attendance, according to data collected by The Associated Press and Stanford University educational economist Thomas Dee.
Roughly one in four students in the 2022-23 school year remained chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10% of the school year. That represents about 12 million children in the 42 states and Washington, D.C., where data is available.
Before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school.
Society may have largely moved on from COVID, but schools say they’re still battling the effects of pandemic school closures. After as much as a year at home, school for many kids has felt overwhelming, boring or socially stressful. More than ever, kids and parents are deciding it’s OK to stay home, which makes catching up even harder.
In all but one state, Arkansas, absence rates remain higher than pre-pandemic. Still, the problem appears to have passed its peak; almost every state saw absenteeism improve at least slightly from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
Schools are working to identify students with slipping attendance, then providing help. They’re working to close communication gaps with parents, who often aren’t aware their child is missing so much school or why it’s problematic.
So far, the solutions that appear to be helping are simple — like letters to parents that compare a child’s attendance with peers. But to make more progress, experts say, schools must get creative to address their students’ needs.
Caring adults — and incentives
In Oakland, California, chronic absenteeism skyrocketed from 29% pre-pandemic to 53% in 2022-23 across district and charter schools. Officials asked students what would convince them to come to class.
Money, they replied, and a mentor.
A grant-funded program launched in spring 2023 paid 45 students $50 weekly for perfect attendance. Students also checked in daily with an assigned adult and completed weekly mental health assessments.
Paying students isn’t a permanent or sustainable fix, said Zaia Vera, the district’s head of social-emotional learning.
But many absent students lacked stable housing or were helping to support their families. “The money is the hook that got them in the door,” Vera said.
More than 60% improved their attendance after taking part, Vera said. The program is expected to continue, along with district-wide efforts aimed at creating a sense of belonging. Oakland’s African American Male Achievement project, for example, pairs Black students with Black teachers who offer support.
Kids who identify with their educators are more likely to attend school, said Michael Gottfried, a University of Pennsylvania professor. According to one study led by Gottfried, California students felt “it’s important for me to see someone who’s like me early on, first thing in the day,” he said.
A caring teacher made a difference for Golden Tachiquin, 18, who graduated from Oakland’s Skyline High School this spring. When she started 10th grade after a remote freshman year, she felt lost and anxious. She later realized these feelings caused the nausea and dizziness that kept her home sick. She was absent at least 25 days that year.
But she bonded with an Afro-Latina teacher who understood her culturally and made Tachiquin, a straight-A student, feel her poor attendance didn’t define her.
“I didn’t dread going to her class,” Tachiquin said.
Another teacher had the opposite effect. “She would say, ‘Wow, guess who decided to come today?’ ” Tachiquin recalled. “I started skipping her class even more.”
In Massachusetts, Medford High School requires administrators to greet and talk with students each morning, especially those with a history of missing school.
But the lunchtime gym sessions have been the biggest driver of improved attendance, Principal Marta Cabral said. High schoolers need freedom and an opportunity to move their bodies, she said. “They’re here for seven hours a day. They should have a little fun.”
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, poses for a photo at Medford High School, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, poses at Medford High School, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Flerentin “Flex” Jean-Baptiste, 16, works on an assignment at Medford High School, Aug. 2, 2024, in Medford. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Stubborn circumstances
Chronically absent students are at higher risk of illiteracy and eventually dropping out. They also miss the meals, counseling and socialization provided at school.
In Alaska, 45% of students missed significant school last year. In Amy Lloyd’s high school classes in Juneau, some families now treat attendance as optional. Last term, several of her English students missed school for vacations.
“I don’t really know how to reset the expectation that was crushed when we sat in front of the computer for that year,” Lloyd said.
Emotional and behavioral problems also have kept kids home from school. Research shared exclusively with AP found absenteeism and poor mental health are “interconnected,” said University of Southern California professor Morgan Polikoff.
For example, in the USC study, almost a quarter of chronically absent kids had high levels of emotional or behavioral problems, according to a parent questionnaire, compared with just 7% of kids with good attendance. Emotional symptoms among teen girls were especially linked with missing school.
How sick is too sick?
When chronic absence surged to around 50% in Fresno, California, officials realized they had to remedy pandemic-era mindsets about keeping kids home sick.
“Unless your student has a fever or threw up in the last 24 hours, you are coming to school. That’s what we want,” said Abigail Arii, director of student support services.
Often, said Noreida Perez, who oversees attendance, parents aren’t aware physical symptoms can point to mental health struggles — such as when a child doesn’t feel up to leaving their bedroom.
More than a dozen states now let students take mental health days as excused absences. But staying home can become a vicious cycle, said Hedy Chang, of Attendance Works, which works with schools on absenteeism.
“If you continue to stay home from school, you feel more disengaged,” she said. “You get farther behind.”
Changing the culture around sick days is only part of the problem.
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, in Fresno, Calif., Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, shown in her home getting ready to start her day in Fresno, Calif., Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
At Fresno’s Fort Miller Middle School, where half the students were chronically absent, two reasons kept coming up: dirty laundry and no transportation. The school bought a washer and dryer for families’ use, along with a Chevy Suburban to pick up students who missed the bus. Overall, Fresno’s chronic absenteeism improved to 35% in 2022-23.
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, missed the school bus about once a week and would call for rides in the Suburban.
“I don’t have a car; my parents couldn’t drive me to school,” Gonzalez said. “Getting that ride made a big difference.”
Melinda Gonzalez, 14, poses at Fresno High School where she’ll be a freshman in Fresno, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian)
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Becky Bohrer contributed reporting from Juneau, Alaska.
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom sent letters Tuesday to school districts, urging them to restrict students’ use of smartphones on campus — a move that comes amid an ongoing nationwide debate about the mental health impacts of social media on teens and young children.
In South Carolina, the State Board of Education took up guidelines to tell local districts to ban cellphone use during class time, but postponed a final vote until next month to take more time to craft the proposal.
The efforts mark a broader push by officials in Utah, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere to try to limit cellphone use in schools in order to reduce distractions in the classroom.
But progress can be challenging. Cellphone bans are already in place at many schools. But they aren’t always enforced, and students often find ways to bend the rules, like hiding phones on their laps. Some parents have expressed concerns that bans could cut them off from their kids if there is an emergency.
Districts should “act now” to help students focus at school by restricting their smartphone use, Newsom said in the letter. He also cited risks to the well-being of young people, a subject which garnered renewed attention in June after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms.
“Every classroom should be a place of focus, learning, and growth,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in his letter. “Working together, educators, administrators, and parents can create an environment where students are fully engaged in their education, free from the distractions on the phones and pressures of social media.”
Newsom said earlier this summer that he was planning to address student smartphone use, and his letter says he is working on it with the state Legislature. Tuesday’s announcement is not a mandate but nudges districts to act.
Newsom signed a law in 2019 granting districts the authority to regulate student smartphone access during school hours.
The debate over banning cellphones in schools to improve academic outcomes is not new. But officials often resort to bans as a solution rather than find ways to integrate digital devices as tools for learning, said Antero Garcia, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.
“What I’m struck by is society’s inability to kind of move forward and find other kinds of solutions other than perpetually going back to this ‘Should we ban devices?’ conversation as the primary solution to something that hasn’t worked,” Garcia said.
“Suggesting curtailing cellphone use in schools is a great thing to say,” he added. “What that means for the middle school teacher come next week when many schools start is a very different picture.”
But some parents say banning cellphones would help their kids focus during class. Jessica French, a parent of a 16-year old and a 12-year-old living in the Northern California town of Palo Cedro, said her son has played games on a classmate’s phone while at school, further distracting him from learning. There should be a statewide ban on phones in class, she said.
Nathalie Hrizi, a parent and teacher in San Francisco, said phone bans can help minimize distractions in class and that parents would still be able to get in touch with their children if needed by calling the school.
Some schools and districts in California have already taken action. Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the nation with more than 500,000 students, recently passed a ban on student cellphone use during school hours that is set to take effect in January. District staff are working out how to implement the policy, but the goal is to avoid the onus of enforcing it to fall on teachers, school board Member Nick Melvoin said in a statement.
Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, said decisions about student device access “are very specific to certain schools and certain communities” and should “be made at a local level.”
It’s important to limit distractions in class, but cellphone bans that don’t have parameters could burden some students who are learning English as a second language, said Laurie Miles, a spokesperson for the California Association for Bilingual Education. For example, some teachers allow phones in class for help with translation, she said.
South Carolina lawmakers this summer passed a one-year rule in the state budget requiring schools to ban student cellphone use or lose state funding. The schools have until the start of 2025 to get their specific rules and punishments for breaking them in place. Lawmakers will either have to make the cellphone-free requirement permanent or pass another proposal forcing school districts to keep the rule to continue getting state money.
The state school board rushed to get the proposal together so districts would have time to tailor their own rules around the state guidelines.
But Chairman David O’Shields said Tuesday there was no need to rush and give the districts “runny eggs” when a little more time could be spent working on the rules, getting more input from teachers, parents and administrators.
“Let’s get these eggs right. I want a good omelet,” O’Shields said. He added that he didn’t want the rules to cause a situation where students “might take a suspended day” as punishment for not following the policy “when they need to be in the classroom.”
There are questions about whether to ban cellphones during bus rides or field trips or only during class time.
A brief survey of South Carolina teachers in May showed 92% supported limiting cellphone access in classrooms and 55% wanted a total ban. The survey from Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver also found 83% of teachers think cellphones are a daily distraction to learning, the Education Department wrote in a memo to the board.
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Associated Press writer Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report from West Columbia, South Carolina, and video journalist Terry Chea contributed from San Francisco. Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California and South Carolina could become the next states to limit cellphone use in schools, with state officials planning to take up the issue Tuesday.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is sending letters to school districts, urging them to restrict students’ use of smartphones on campus. And the South Carolina State Board of Education is expected to approve guidelines Tuesday on limiting student phone access.
The efforts mark a broader push by officials in Utah, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere to try to limit cellphone use in schools in order to reduce distractions in the classroom — and address the impacts of social media on the mental health of children and teens.
Districts should “act now” to help students focus at school by restricting their smartphone use, Newsom said in the letter. He also cited risks to the well-being of young people, a subject which garnered renewed attention in June after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms.
“Every classroom should be a place of focus, learning, and growth,” the Democrat said in his letter. “Working together, educators, administrators, and parents can create an environment where students are fully engaged in their education, free from the distractions on the phones and pressures of social media.”
Newsom said earlier this summer that he was planning to address student smartphone use, and his letter says he is working on it with the state Legislature. Tuesday’s announcement is not a mandate but nudges districts to act.
Newsom signed a law in 2019 granting districts the authority to regulate student smartphone access during school hours.
The debate over banning cellphones in schools to improve academic outcomes is not new. But officials often resort to bans as a solution rather than find ways to integrate digital devices as tools for learning, said Antero Garcia, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.
“What I’m struck by is society’s inability to kind of move forward and find other kinds of solutions other than perpetually going back to this ‘Should we ban devices?’ conversation as the primary solution to something that hasn’t worked,” Garcia said.
“Suggesting curtailing cellphone use in schools is a great thing to say,” he added. “What that means for the middle school teacher come next week when many schools start is a very different picture.”
Some schools and districts in California have already taken action. The Santa Barbara Unified and Los Angeles Unified school districts passed bans on student cellphone use in recent years.
But some school board advocates say the state should not go further by passing a blanket ban on cellphone use. That decision should be left up to districts, said Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California School Boards Association.
“Cellphone usage and social media usage on campus is certainly a serious issue and one that deserves a close examination,” Flint said. “But those decisions are very specific to certain schools and certain communities, and they need to be made at a local level.”
There is no cure-all for protecting students from the risks posed by smartphones, but the state is “opening up a conversation” on how districts could act, said David Goldberg, president of the California Teachers Association.
“It makes sense for us as adults to be looking and trying to take care of students and allow them to have safe spaces to learn,” he said. “How we do it is also very important — that we make sure that we bring students into these conversations and educators into these conversations.”
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Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna
DALLAS — As shots rang out in the hallways and classrooms of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, one of the terrified teachers who frantically dialed 911 described “a lot, a whole lot of gunshots,” while another sobbed into the phone as a dispatcher urged her to stay quiet.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” the first teacher cried before hanging up.
Those calls, along with bodycam footage and surveillance videos, were included in a massive collection of audio and video recordings released by officials of the city of Uvalde on Saturday after a prolonged legal fight. The Associated Press and other news organizations brought a lawsuit after the officials initially refused to publicly release the information from one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.
One of the first calls police received on the morning of May 24, 2022, came from a woman who called 911 to report that a pickup truck had crashed into a ditch and that the occupant had run onto the school campus.
“Oh my God, they have a gun,” she said.
In a 911 call a few minutes later, a man screams: “He’s shooting at the kids! Get back!”
“He’s inside the school! He’s inside the school,” he yells as the screams of others can also be heard.
“Oh my God in the name of Jesus. He’s inside the school shooting at the kids,” he says.
The delayed law enforcement response to the shooting — nearly 400 officers waited more than 70 minutes before confronting the gunman in a classroom filled with dead and wounded children and teachers — has been widely condemned as a massive failure.
The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was fatally shot by authorities at 12:50 p.m. He had entered the school at 11:33 a.m., officials said.
Just before arriving at the school, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at her home. He then took a pickup from the home and drove to the school.
Ramos’ distraught uncle made several 911 calls begging to be put through so he could try to get his nephew to stop shooting.
“Maybe he could listen to me because he does listen to me, everything I tell him he does listen to me,” the man, who identified himself as Armando Ramos, said on the 911 call. “Maybe he could stand down or do something to turn himself in,” Ramos said, his voice cracking.
He said his nephew, who had been with him at his house the night before, stayed with him in his bedroom all night, and told him that he was upset because his grandmother was “bugging” him.
“Oh my God, please, please, don’t do nothing stupid,” the man says on the call. “I think he’s shooting kids.”
But the offer arrived too late, coming just around the time that the shooting had ended and law enforcement officers killed Salvador Ramos.
Multiple federal and state investigations into the slow law enforcement response laid bare cascading problems in training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers in the South Texas city of about 15,000 people 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of San Antonio. Families of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow police response.
Brett Cross’ 10-year-old nephew, Uziyah Garcia, was among those killed. Cross, who was raising the boy as a son, was angered relatives weren’t told the records were being released and that it took so long for them to be made public.
“If we thought we could get anything we wanted, we’d ask for a time machine to go back in time and save our children but we can’t, so all we are asking for is for justice, accountability and transparency, and they refuse to give this to us,” he said. “This small, simple ask that I feel that we are due.”
Just before officers finally breached the classroom, one officer can be heard on a body camera expressing concern about friendly fire.
“I’m kind of worried about blue on blue,” an officer said. “There are so many rifles in here.”
The classroom breach was followed by about five to six seconds of gunfire. Officers rushed forward as someone shouted, “Watch the kids! Watch the kids! Watch the kids!”
Less than a minute into the chaos, someone shouted, ”“Where’s the suspect?” Someone else immediately answered, “He’s dead!”
The police response included nearly 150 U.S. Border Patrol agents and 91 state police officials, as well as school and city police. While dozens of officers stood in the hallway trying to figure out what to do, students inside the classroom called 911 on cellphones, begging for help, and desperate parents who had gathered outside the building pleaded with officers to go in. A tactical team eventually entered the classroom and killed the shooter.
Previously released video from school cameras showed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, waiting in the hallway.
A report commissioned by the city, however, defended the actions of local police, saying officers showed “immeasurable strength” and “level-headed thinking” as they faced fire from the shooter and refrained from firing into a darkened classroom.
As Colorado’s universal preschool program moves into its second school year this month, officials are hoping to leave its rocky rollout in the rearview mirror.
By the end of July, more than 31,000 4-year-olds matched with state-funded preschool providers for the coming year, according to the most recent data for the core program from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. Most will receive up to 15 hours of free classtime per week, though about 11,100 of them — about 3,000 more than last year — are expected to qualify for 30 hours each week, after state officials expanded eligibility criteria for the extra class time.
The number of providers participating in the program — in-home day cares, private practices, religious schools and public schools — has grown by about 150, to more than 2,000 statewide for this school year, Universal Preschool Program Director Dawn Odean said.
Taken together, that data points to the year-two stabilization of a program whose inaugural year, hiccups and all, was akin to “building the plane as we were flying it,” Odean said.
Colorado’s program was officially born in April 2022, when Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill to create it and the new Colorado Department of Early Childhood. The program was set for a fall 2023 launch. That left about 16 months to stand up the department, bring about 1,800 participating providers into the new system and sign up tens of thousands of families.
But entering year two of the $344 million program, Odean and local coordinating organizations are hopeful the initial struggles were growing pains associated with its launch. Department officials expect to meet or surpass last year’s sign-up numbers soon, and they hope to see enrollment increase by up to 5%.
“In a nutshell, I’ll tell you things are much better,” said Elsa Holguín, president and CEO of the Denver Preschool Program. It’s one of the local coordinating organizations, or LCOs, that act as a link between the state department and on-the-ground providers. “Things have gotten better for the families, things have improved for the child care providers and things have improved for the LCOs.”
But, she added, there’s always room for refinement.
“Are we where we need to be? No. We still have some work to do across the spectrum,” Holguín said.
The rollout of year two is still underway, with parents now able to walk through local providers’ doors to sign up for free preschool, space permitting, rather than being required to apply online. The full enrollment figures for this year won’t be available until the fall.
Aleia Medina, 5, second from right, and classmates attend a morning class with Rosario Ortiz at the Early Excellence Program of Denver on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Adapting to last year’s high enrollment
Ahead of last year’s launch, expectations for the first year began shifting about as soon as public planning for it began.
A promise of 10 hours a week of free classtime for all preschoolers turned into 15, with some students qualifying for double that time — considered full-day schooling — based on family circumstances. But months later, officials raised the threshold to qualify for 30 hours as overall enrollment rates shot up about 20% higher than expected, leaving some families feeling like the rug was yanked out from under them.
Initially, the state had planned to offer extra time to children deemed at risk if they qualified under an eligibility category — by having an individualized education plan, being a dual-language learner, coming from a low-income family or being in foster care.
When demand outpaced expectations, state officials changed the criteria to add base household income limits, at a middle-class level, as an additional qualification. Students still had to qualify under at least one other factor.
Meanwhile, providers and families were chafing at a confusing enrollment process that drew critical attention from state lawmakers.
But officials point to a number of under-the-hood changes since then to smooth out operations.
Voters in November approved a ballot measure last fall that allowed the state to keep $23.7 million in excess tobacco tax proceeds that help pay for the program. Officials expanded the criteria for 30 hours of free classtime to include all families who are at or below the federal poverty line, expanding access to some 3,000 more children. And the state streamlined enrollment processes to smooth out some of those first-year wrinkles.
“We’re ecstatic with year one as far as the number of children served and the number of providers participating — but (we) certainly knew that we stood up the program, and the process to enroll and register, in a fairly compressed timeline, which created some challenges,” said Odean, the state’s preschool program director, in an interview this week.
She also acknowledged the legal battles that played out in the first year.
A group of school districts had sued over the rollout, claiming that it hurt students with special needs and left school districts in a lurch. A judge ruled in July that the districts lacked standing to sue, while also acknowledging the “headaches” they faced, according to Chalkbeat.
In a separate January lawsuit, two Catholic schools sued over a nondiscrimination clause for preschool providers. That suit was largely rejected, but not before the state removed the nondiscrimination clause. About 40 religious schools are registered as universal preschool providers in the state this school year.
Odean said she couldn’t comment on the particulars of the lawsuits, but she appreciated the conversations they spurred about how to make sure families get the preschool they want — even if she wished they didn’t take the form of litigation.
Hunter Fridley, 4, counts the number of classmates during a morning class with Rosario Ortiz at the Early Excellence Program of Denver on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Private providers’ low enrollments “concerning”
When it came to preparing for school this year, Holguín, the Denver Preschool Program’s CEO, said preregistration for families and other changes to enrollment, in particular, “changed our world” by making it easier to connect them with preschool providers.
Diane Smith, director of the Douglas County Early Childhood Council, another LCO, likewise said the state’s program is better positioned this year “in many ways” — though it’s still too early to make a definitive call.
She still identified a number of focus areas for the future, including a desire for more lead time between announced changes to the program and when they’re implemented, along with more predictable, consistent funding for providers. And, of course, the unending work of making sure every family that wants to participate knows about the program and how to enroll in it.
In short, the first-year growing pains haven’t quite waned, Smith said, even as she excitedly reports that more providers have signed up to provide universal preschool in her area.
“Some people are bigger worriers than I am,” Smith said. “I’m the type who says ‘Yes, this is a little bit of a challenge, but I think intentions are always good.’ We’re looking to move forward and we have.”
Dawn Alexander, executive director of the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado, which advocates for private preschool providers, warned that some of her members were starting to fret about “concerning” lowearly enrollment numbers — though she, too, cautioned that it was too early to raise a red flag.
Many families seem to be choosing school districts’ programs for their 4-year-olds, Alexander said, meaning that private preschools lose out on those enrollments. The older, less care-intensive preschool children help round out the rosters of many facilities that also provide day care for infants and toddlers, she said. Losing those populations can put their entire business at risk.
That, coupled with other strains associated with tight margins and fluctuating enrollment, add up for providers, she said. Many staffed up based on expected enrollment — and corresponding state funding — that’s so far not materialized, she said. She and other private providers raised similar concerns last year.
“You get too many frustrations and you go, ‘I’m out,’ ” Alexander said. “And you don’t want private providers to opt out of the system. It’s critical they be a significant part of it.”
Odean said there was still work being done around funding, including how to make it easier for families to qualify for — and providers to benefit from — the myriad state and federal preschool assistance programs.
There’s also a balance to strike between stable, predictable funding and ways to allow it to fluctuate so it meets current needs, she said. A smoother year two will make it easier for officials to be intentional about steps forward, she said.
“Things change, communities change — and so we have to continue to be responsive,” Odean said. “We just want to have some clear processes in place where we’re continuing to hear from families and providers, and we have a stable system and environment … so we can continue to improve.”
REX, Ga. — The third-grade students at Roberta T. Smith Elementary School had only a few days until summer vacation, and an hour until lunch, but there was no struggle to focus as they filed into the classroom. They were ready for one of their favorite parts of the day.
The children closed their eyes and traced their thumbs from their foreheads to their hearts as a pre-recorded voice led them through an exercise called the shark fin, part of the classroom’s regular meditation routine.
“Listen to the chimes,” said the teacher, Kim Franklin. “Remember to breathe.”
Schools across the U.S. have been introducing yoga, meditation and mindfulness exercises to help students manage stress and emotions. As the depths of student struggles with mental health became clear in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year endorsed schools’ use of the practices.
Research has found school-based mindfulness programs can help, especially in low-income communities where students face high levels of stress or trauma.
The mindfulness program reached Smith Elementary through a contract with the school system, Clayton County Public Schools, where two-thirds of the students are Black.
GreenLight Fund Atlanta, a network that matches communities with local nonprofits, helps Georgia school systems pay for the mindfulness program provided by Inner Explorer, an audio platform.
Joli Cooper, GreenLight Fund Atlanta’s executive director, said it was important to the group to support an organization that is accessible and relevant for communities of color in the Greater Atlanta area.
Children nationwide struggled with the effects of isolation and remote learning as they returned from the pandemic school closures. The CDC in 2023 reported more than a third of students were affected by feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness. The agency recommended schools use mindfulness practices to help students manage emotions.
“We know that our teenagers and adolescents have really strained in their mental health,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen told The Associated Press. “There are real skills that we can give our teens to make sure that they are coping with some big emotions.”
Approaches to mindfulness represent a form of social-emotional learning, which has become a political flashpoint with many conservatives who say schools use it to promote progressive ideas about race, gender and sexuality.
But advocates say the programming brings much-needed attention to students’ well-being.
“When you look at the numbers, unfortunately, in Georgia, the number of children of color with suicidal thoughts and success is quite high,” Cooper said. “When you look at the number of psychologists available for these children, there are not enough psychologists of color.”
Black youth have the fastest-growing suicide rate among racial groups, according to CDC statistics. Between 2007 and 2020, the suicide rate among Black children and teens ages 10 to 17 increased by 144%.
“It’s a stigma with being able to say you’re not OK and needing help, and having the ability to ask for help,” said Tolana Griggs, Smith Elementary’s assistant principal. “With our diverse school community and wanting to be more aware of our students, how different cultures feel and how different cultures react to things, it’s important to be all-inclusive with everything we do.”
The Inner Explorer program guides students and teachers through five-to-10-minute sessions of breathing, meditating and reflecting several times a day. The program also is used at Atlanta Public Schools and over 100 other districts across the country.
Teachers and administrators say they have noticed a difference in their students since they’ve incorporated mindfulness into their routine. For Aniyah Woods, 9, the program has helped her “calm down” and “not stress anymore.”
“I love myself how I am, but Inner Explorer just helps me feel more like myself,” Aniyah said.
Malachi Smith, 9, has used his exercises at home, with his father helping to guide him through meditation.
“You can relax yourself with the shark fin, and when I calm myself down, I realize I am an excellent scholar,” Malachi said.
After Franklin’s class finished their meditation, they shared how they were feeling.
“Relaxed,” one student said.
Aniyah raised her hand.
“It made me feel peaceful,” she said.
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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Greenville County Schools start on Thursday, August 8th, 2024- are you ready? We’ve put together a great list of back to school tips to ensure your kids’ school year gets off to a great start! We hope these tips from a teacher help your family get off on the right foot this year!
Are you ready for the first day of school? It’s that time!! I know, I know, you’re a hot mess of super sad to see them go back but very glad for a little extra quiet time. Here are a few tips to make sure everyone in the family is ready. ~Andrea Beam, KAG Contributor
Be prepared
The best way to be sure you and they feel comfortable is to have the necessary supplies. Supplies are easy to check off the list as you get them and you know just how awesome it feels to check things off the to do list! Be sure to think of the things the teacher doesn’t have down- lunchbox, bookbag, Kleenex (for you), extras for your house (you’ll need notebook paper for homework)…things like that.
Give it time
You and your child will both need time to adjust to the new schedule, teacher, and routines. Be patient with them and give yourself room for mistakes (theirs and yours). Build in a few extra minutes if you’re at a new school because, inevitably, you’ll start driving the same direction you’ve gone before and have to turn around. (Not that I’ve done anything like this before…)
Touch base with the teacher
Your child’s teacher wants to hear from you! Not all the time, naturally, but trust me- I love when a parent checks in to be sure there aren’t things on my wish list that I need or checks to see if there’s anything I need prayed over. Letting the teacher know you care about more than just the grade she’ll give will warm her heart!
Be sure you’ve signed up
Sign up for everything as early as possible. Join PTA, even if you can’t volunteer time. (It helps your child’s class win a prize.) Sign up to volunteer if you can- we need help! Get your kids registered for any programs you’d like them to participate in, such as Good News Club, after school, etc.
Take pictures for just you
Yes- post away with the first-day pictures, but be sure to take some personal ones just for you, like the kids brushing teeth and hair while getting ready or the oatmeal faces that laugh at breakfast. Those are really the memories we love anyway, right?!
Enjoy the school year. You’ll do great and they’ll be fine! (I say that to you as well as to myself!) Happy new year!!!
What’s your best tip for being ready for the new school year?
Looking for more parenting tips, tricks, and content to help you? Check out our Parenting Hub.
NAPERVILLE, Ill. /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ —Metrasens, a leading provider of advanced detection systems for security and safety applications, today announced its ongoing strategic partnerships with K-12 public school districts across the United States. By addressing the critical issue of extracurricular event safety, Metrasens solidifies its position as a leader in school safety and the go-to partner for enhancing security at campus events.
In today’s dynamic security landscape within educational settings, ensuring safety during extracurricular events has become a top priority for school administrators and athletic directors nationwide. According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, there has been a concerning increase in shooting incidents at these events. From 2022 to 2023 alone, there was a 50% rise in K-12 school shootings during school events, and a staggering 300% increase from 2019 to 2023.
“School districts adopting safety and security partners like Metrasens are taking practical steps in prioritizing school safety,” stated Ryan Petty, Florida State Board of Education member and father of Alaina Petty, a victim of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Post this
Ryan Petty, Florida State Board of Education member and father of Alaina Petty, a victim of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, emphasizes the importance of proactive safety measures. “Schools can, and should continue to take practical steps towards building a safer environment for students on campuses, not only during school hours, but also during extracurricular events,” said Petty. “School districts adopting safety and security partners like Metrasens are taking practical steps in prioritizing school safety.”
Recognizing this critical issue, Metrasens has been chosen by public schools nationwide as a strategic partner in enhancing extracurricular event safety and addressing related challenges, such as the prevalence of vaping on campuses. With 300 systems deployed across more than 30 school districts and 200 individual schools, Metrasens is at the forefront of safeguarding students and staff and prioritizing compliance.
Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) selected Metrasens to bolster safety measures for graduation ceremonies and extracurricular events. Daniel Garcia, Safety & Security Executive Director at Fort Worth ISD stated: “With regards to Fort Worth ISD graduations and other ceremonies, it’s paramount that students, faculty, and visiting families feel assured and confident as they come together to commemorate these special occasions. As we open our facilities to families, it’s essential to offer reassurance that Metrasens Ultra systems provide a completely safe solution for all members of our school community.”
In Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) independent school district in Oklahoma, Metrasens’ state-of-the-art security screening systems bolster safety protocols across 77 learning communities.
Dr. Matthias Wicks, former Chief of Police at Tulsa Public Schools, emphasized the district’s unwavering commitment to securing all facilities and events, stating: “To accomplish our safety goals, we deployed Metrasens Ultra technologies and steadfast safety protocols to protect the well-being of everyone in attendance at our extracurricular events.”
Similarly, Moore Public Schools (MPS), Oklahoma’s fourth-largest public school district, collaborated with Metrasens to bolster safety measures across 35 campus sites and large venues. Embracing a proactive stance towards safety, MPS integrated Metrasens Ultra detection systems to maintain the highest security standards. Dustin Horstkoetter, MPS Safety and Security Director, commended Metrasens for its unmatched reliability and quality, affirming, “the reliability and quality of Metrasens solutions are incomparable.”
Further solidifying its position as a leader in school security, Barberton High School (BHS), situated within Ohio’s Barberton City School District, chose Metrasens as a pivotal partner in its proactive approach to campus security. Recognizing the need to enhance security protocols in light of recent incidents targeting schools nationwide, BHS aimed to stay ahead of potential risks and ensure the safety of its students and staff through this partnership.
“We believe having another layer of security that is non-intrusive and is safe to use is a logical step forward,” said Jeff Ramnytz, Superintendent of Barberton City Schools. “We highly recommend Metrasens to other school districts seeking to enhance their security measures.”
“Extracurricular events such as football games, basketball tournaments, and other school activities often attract individuals from inside as well as outside the immediate community, presenting unique security challenges,” said Todd Hokunson, Chief Commercial Officer at Metrasens. “In response to these concerns, Metrasens is committed to shaping the safety landscape in educational environments through innovative solutions and strategic partnerships.”
These key partnerships underscore Metrasens’ dedication to providing innovative solutions that prioritize safety and compliance in educational settings. As administrators and safety directors continue to navigate evolving security challenges, whether securing extracurricular school activities or addressing the growing issue of vape usage on campus, Metrasens remains steadfast in its mission to empower educators and protect students, ensuring a secure environment conducive to learning and growth.
About Metrasens Metrasens is the world’s leading provider of advanced magnetic detection technologies. With a technology center and manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom, a North American sales and customer service hub in Chicago and a global network of distributors, the company’s innovative products are designed to address deficiencies in conventional screening methods and make the world safer and more secure. Metrasens’ mission is to take cutting-edge science from the laboratory and use it to create revolutionary, award-winning products that meet the distinct and diverse security needs of its customers. Metrasens’ core technologies have a wide range of real-world applications, embodied by solutions that are easy to adopt and simple to use.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
The state of California on Tuesday will introduce a new plan to bring more teachers to the state: housing built on land owned by school districts.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond on Tuesday will propose a plan to build affordable housing for teachers and staff like custodians and food service workers on land already owned by school districts.
California school districts own about 75,000 acres of developable land that could be used for 2.3 million housing units.
Bob Redell has the full report in the video above.
