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  • How California can transform math education for English learners

    How California can transform math education for English learners


    Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education

    In California and across the country, English learners are too frequently an afterthought.

    Though they are one of the largest student groups — California has more than 1 million students who are learning English as a second language, and that number is growing — their academic performance has barely budged over the last two decades. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 4% of English learners are proficient in eighth grade math, compared with 29% of non-English learners. Furthermore, NAEP reading scores revealed that only 10% of fourth grade English learners are proficient in reading, compared to 37% of non-English learners in the same grade.

    There are many reasons for this. But one of the most important is also one of the most fundamental: The textbooks and other instructional materials used in classrooms every day are typically not written with English learners in mind. While these textbooks may be rigorous and aligned with state standards, they lack the cultural relevance and language support necessary for students who are learning English. Teachers know this to be true. A survey found that 82% of teachers believe their current materials either somewhat or not at all reflect the needed academic rigor for English learners.

    Fortunately, California has an opportunity to start making this right. Next year, our State Board of Education will release its first math adoption list of state-approved curricula since 2014 — recommending math instructional materials that state education leaders believe align with California’s revised math framework. While some California districts have already started or completed their selection process, many districts in the state will soon choose a new math curriculum from that list.

    There is a common misconception that mathematical concepts transcend linguistic differences, so the needs of English learners shouldn’t be a concern. However, the reality is that language is critical for math instruction — and so math instruction materials that incorporate language support can help all learners. If the state recommends materials that center on the needs of English learners — and districts ultimately purchase and adopt them — we can make significant progress toward making our math curriculum more accessible for all students.

    Curriculum adoption may feel technical and esoteric, but it is essential to promote equity — especially for English learners. High-quality instructional materials serve as a “floor” for instruction, providing teachers with the materials they need to connect with every student in their classroom. 

    Unfortunately, our classrooms — especially those serving English learners — too often fail to reach that floor. A recent report from the Center for Education Market Dynamics revealed that California districts with greater percentages of English learners are the least likely to have adopted a new math curriculum. Many of those districts are waiting for the state adoption list before moving forward. This means that the adoption — and the curricula ultimately selected by districts — will have a dramatic effect on the academic experience of English learners, in particular.

    How can we get this process right? While California provides a list of state-approved curricula, it does not review instructional materials for specific populations, including English learners. This means districts and counties must figure out which math curriculum is most supportive of English learners. State leaders should provide guidance and resources to county offices of education so that districts are well positioned to run their own adoption processes. To support these efforts, California created math criteria that feature guides for how curriculum should support language and English learners. Districts should then base their curriculum selection on clear, research-based criteria focused on meeting the needs of all learners.

    Many districts in California and across the country are facing fiscal challenges due to the expiration of federal Covid-relief (ESSER) funding, declining student enrollment and other factors. This is likely to reduce the resources districts can target to the needs of English learners and other marginalized groups. 

    But selection and adoption of instructional materials is likely already in district budgets — and so, by picking an inclusive curriculum, district leaders can make significant headway on equity without significant additional investment. After all, it will always be more resource-intensive and less effective to supplement or modify curriculum after the fact.

    Additionally, teachers currently spend their own money on supplemental materials to fill gaps in existing curricula, a trend that is both unsustainable and inequitable. By adopting inclusive materials and ensuring teachers are supported in implementing those materials, districts will reduce these additional costs and provide a more cohesive and effective learning experience for all students.

    We are proud to say that California’s math vision is strong and there are many possibilities in terms of changing the way instruction happens in the classroom. It’s time to ensure that districts act wisely in their curriculum adoption. 

    School districts with high English learner populations need to come together and demand better options for our students. We have a chance to set the tone for the rest of the nation in developing and adopting instructional materials that truly support all students.

    It is time to invest in adopting educational resources that reflect our state’s — and our country’s — wonderfully diverse student population. 

    •••

    Crystal Gonzales is the founder and executive director of the English Learners Success Forum. Martha Hernandez is the executive director of Californians Together.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • California needs high-quality instructional materials to support teachers, boost math learning

    California needs high-quality instructional materials to support teachers, boost math learning


    Credit: Andrew Reed / EdSource

    As a former math teacher, every Teacher Appreciation Week reminds me of the math-themed gifts I received from students — from a personalized calculator to a coffee mug adorned with equations.

    As I reflect on my time teaching, I realize that alongside these gifts, what would have empowered me most as a math teacher was consistent access to a high-quality curriculum: one that is content-rich, enables each and every student to deeply understand and apply math in meaningful ways, and supports — not replaces — teachers’ professional judgment.

    Research shows that high-quality instructional materials, together with teacher professional learning aligned to them, are a potent combination to help teachers improve math outcomes for students. Plus, high-quality materials save teachers precious time, as teachers spend an average of seven hours per week searching for or creating their own materials.

    Ensuring access to high-quality instructional materials aligns with the California Mathematics Council (CMC) mission to support and empower a thriving mathematics community dedicated to fostering effective teaching and learning for every student in California. We believe that mathematical thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving are critical to students’ future success and to our state economy.

    We also know that California students and educators have incredible strengths and potential. I have seen firsthand how students and educators thrive when given opportunities to engage with authentic, relevant math content. Unfortunately, though, the most recent Nation’s Report Card shows that California students’ math achievement lags behind national averages and remains below pre-pandemic levels.

    Moreover, California trails the nation in how our education leaders understand, identify and use high-quality instructional materials to boost math learning. A recent poll from Gallup found that only 11% of California’s district leaders and school principals are very familiar with high-quality instructional materials, compared to 20% of their peers nationally. Similarly, only 13% of California leaders said their district had an official definition of high-quality instructional materials — significantly lower than the 25% of leaders nationally who said the same. And only 11% of the leaders in our state say all the math professional learning in their school or district is aligned with their math curriculum, compared to 22% nationally.

    For high-quality instructional materials to empower teachers to unleash their care, creativity, and knowledge in supporting students’ math learning, California must have a stronger and clearer vision of what constitutes quality in curriculum. This should start at the state level, as Gallup found that more than three in four California district leaders and principals say they look to state guidelines when deciding whether a curriculum is high-quality.

    Fortunately, state leaders have an imminent and critical opportunity to lead with a clear definition of quality. This summer, the state will engage teacher-reviewers to evaluate and select instructional materials to include on the state list of recommended math curricula. In advance of the review process, the state’s Instructional Quality Commission should define ‘high quality’ in math curricula and ensure that all of the recommended materials meet this definition. The recommended materials should also align with state standards and include the instructional strategies reflected in the 2023 California Math Framework to promote every student’s access to grade-level content.

    Also at the state level, leaders should provide professional learning to support the implementation of these materials and allow teachers to lead this work with integrity and impact. Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated $250 million for math coaches in the budget he proposed in January. It is critical that the Legislature acts on the governor’s proposal and continues to invest in math teachers’ development, including through professional learning and coaching aligned with high-quality materials.

    District leaders must also clearly define what high-quality materials mean in their context and use this definition to guide their district’s math materials selection process. This definition from a coalition of organizations committed to high-quality math materials offers more guidance for district leaders as they define their vision.

    For both our students and our state to thrive, we must ensure our teachers have high-quality materials to foster achievement and joyful experiences in math. Let’s appreciate California’s teachers — during this Teacher Appreciation Week and every week — by equipping them with the high-quality resources they deserve as they do the indispensable work of nurturing the mathematical understanding of each and every student.

    •••

    Ma Bernadette Andres-Salgarino is the president of the California Mathematics Council. She is also the assistant director of iSTEAM at the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Joyce Vance: Good News! It’s Working!

    Joyce Vance: Good News! It’s Working!


    Veteran prosecutor Joyce Vance shared some good news: the nomination of Ed Martin to be U.S. Attorney in DC is hanging by a thread and may be dead. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina interviewed Martin and said he would vote no in the Senate Judiciary Committee because Martin supported the January 6 insurrectionists, even those who assaulted police officers. Since the split on the committee is 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats, Martin’s nomination would not get to the Senate floor. If you live in North Carolina, please call Senator Tillis and thank him.

    Vance writes:

    Last night, I wrote to you about Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee to be the United States Attorney in Washington, D.C.. Martin, until quite recently, used the handle “Eagle Ed Martin” on Twitter, a reference to his days working for Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum. Apparently, someone mentioned to him during the last month that the handle wasn’t appropriate for a U.S. Attorney hopeful.

    But no whisper in the ear could fix Martin’s other flaws, from utter lack of qualifications and knowledge about how to do the job to flagrant ties to people known for their open antisemitism. Last night, I suggested we all needed to be in touch with our senators on the Martin nomination. Although we still need to do that, the message is different now. That’s because North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, made it known that he won’t support Martin. 

    Before Martin goes to the floor of the Senate for a confirmation vote, he has to make it out of committee. And that’s unlikely to happen now. The Senate Judiciary Committee is made up of 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. All of the Democrats oppose Martin. With Tillis abandoning him, the best Martin could do is 11-11, and a nominee who receives a tie vote doesn’t advance. For all practical purposes, the outcome of that vote will be a death knell for his nomination.

    Martin may end up rewarded for his loyal service to Trump and Musk with another plum job, one that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate the moment and the fact that it looks like he won’t be the top law enforcement officer in the District of Columbia. Defeating Martin’s nomination wasn’t a foregone conclusion—far from it. It took lots of research, lots of conversation, and lots of hard work by a lot of people. You never know which issue, or even which call or letter, is going to be the last straw. What matters is that Trump and his plans are not inevitable, and it makes a difference when all of us push back against the horrible as hard as we can.

    Tillis told reporters this morning that he is unable to support Martin because of Martin’s support for defendants convicted of committing crimes in connection with January 6. He is certain to face a sustained backlash from MAGA’s inner circle, so if he’s your senator, make sure you thank him, and if your senator is on the Judiciary Committee (that’s Grassley, Graham, Cornyn, Lee, Cruz, Hawley, Tillis, Kennedy, Blackburn, Schmitt, Britt, and Moody on the Republican side and Durbin, Whitehouse, Klobuchar, Coons, Blumenthal, Hirono, Booker, Padilla, Welch, and Schiff for the Democrats) this is a good time to reach out and either thank them for opposing or encourage them to show a little backbone and follow Tillis’ lead. Martin, after all, supports the people who overran the Capitol, threatening these folks and their staff. He is the least qualified selection I can recall seeing to lead a U.S. Attorney’s office, even edging out Trump’s former attorney Alina Habba, the New Jersey nominee, who should be rejected as well. This is a very big win for pro-democracy forces.

    There was also a win on a very different front, one that didn’t get a lot of national attention. Trump’s efforts to cut staff and funding at national parks have garnered a lot of attention in the protests that have cropped up across the country. Many protests have taken place at the parks themselves, notably at Yosemite, where staff unfurled an upside-down American flag atop El Capitan to signal distress. On March 1, people protested at all 433 sites in the national park system—the 63 national parks and additional sites like monuments and historic places. Americans, it turns out, love their national parks.

    Despite that, the Trump administration continues to keep them on the chopping block. Last week, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration had suspended all air-quality monitoring at national parks, stating that “The Interior Department, which includes the National Park Service, issued stop-work orders last week to the two contractors running the program, the email shows.”

    The reporting provided detail that makes it clear this is a serious matter:

    • Data was being collected on ozone and particulate matter and being used in connection with requests to grant permits to industrial facilities like power plants and oil refineries in close proximity to the parks.
    • The pollutants data was being collected on are “linked to a range of adverse health effects,” including “heart attacks, strokes, asthma attacks and premature death.”
    • One goal of the program is “to curb regional haze,” which has “reduced visibility at scenic viewpoints in parks nationwide” over the past few decades.

    Park Service employees pushed back and demanded that monitoring continue. They pointed out that states lack the equipment and resources to monitor and that without federal monitoring, they would be flying blind. It’s part and parcel of discontinuing environmental justice work at the Justice Department. Data makes it possible to protect the environment and the people who live in it. Trump is creating a permissive environment for business—when you can’t document the consequences of a new plant permit, for instance, it’s hard to oppose it.

    But today, Washington Post reporter Teddy Amenabar posted on social media that “After The Post’s article was published, a Park Service spokesperson said the stop-work orders would be reversed and that ‘contractors will be notified immediately.’” Whether it’s traditional media, new media, protests, or our communications with our elected officials, it’s clear that none of what Trump wants to do is inevitable. Sunlight continues to act as a disinfectant. Government employees need public support right now, especially as many of them continue to bravely do the right thing, whether it’s federal prosecutors or park rangers. They richly deserve our support.

    So if you’ve been questioning whether what you’re doing matters, it does. The signs you make, the protests you go to, the letters and calls you make to elected officials, your efforts to share information (like this newsletter) with people—all of these efforts matter. It all adds up, small victories and large ones.

    Speaking of big ones, Donald Trump appears to have knowingly lied when he invoked the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) in order to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang. In his proclamation, he said, “TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking. TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States.”

    Not so fast. An intelligence community memo was partially declassified yesterday, two weeks after a FOIA request was made for it—that’s lightning speed in the world of FOIA, where requests can drag on for years. The memo contradicts Trump’s claimed basis for invoking the AEA. Hat tip to my friend Ryan Goodman, whose new Substack is great if you haven’t seen it already, for highlighting the parts of the memo that contradict Trump’s claim that TdA is mounting an invasion of the U.S. on behalf of Venezuela’s government.

    Someone involved in responding to FOIA requestsseems to have been highly motivated to make sure the American people have access to the truth. Win.

    It’s not clear how or whether this will impact ongoing litigation. Judges largely defer to presidential assessments of this nature under the political questions doctrine. We don’t know if this revelation will have any impact in court, although there should be some ambit, even if it’s small, for courts to reject presidential assessments that run entirely contrary to the facts. But in the court of public opinion, where facts still matter, here are some facts, from the people who know the subject best.

    Finally for tonight, the North Carolina Supreme Court race that we’ve been following so carefully since last November seems to finally be over, and Allison Riggs, the Democrat who won the race, will now be declared the winner per an order issued by a federal judge who is a Trump appointee. Two recounts confirmed Riggs’ victory, but the disgruntled loser challenged it nonetheless. He tried to convince courts to disallow ballots cast by North Carolina voters who complied with all of the rules for voting by changing the rules about what ballots could be counted after the fact. He could still appeal this ruling, but it is a solid decision and unlikely to be reversed on appeal. The bottom line democratic principle is that you don’t get to move the goal posts to secure a victory. Didn’t work for Trump, and it didn’t work in North Carolina. Chalk another one up for the rule of law.

    Whether it’s lawsuits or your letters, engaged citizens get results. We have a long way to go, but take heart; we are making progress. We can get there. Every little step forward adds to the tally in favor of democracy.

    We’re in this together,

    Joyce



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  • ‘Academic probation’ sends message to students that college isn’t for them, research says

    ‘Academic probation’ sends message to students that college isn’t for them, research says


    Students at Fresno City College

    Credit: Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource

    When a college student’s GPA dips below 2.0 — lower than a C average — schools often send a notice meant to serve as a wake-up call: Improve your grades or risk losing financial aid and being kicked out of college.

    But the way that universities and colleges deliver this wake-up call could be backfiring and pushing students to give up on higher education altogether, according to new research. 

    That’s what California Competes, a nonpartisan policy and research organization, concluded in a recent report on “academic probation.” The policy report was born out of a study that relied on interviews with over 50 “comebackers” — students who returned to higher education years after stopping out — from Shasta College and Sacramento State.

    Academic probation wasn’t on the radar of researchers until the comebackers, brought on to co-design the study, raised academic probation as a serious issue that led many students to give up on their studies. 

    Su Jin Gatlin Jez

    “I was very surprised that this came up from the students, but this is why we center students in our work,” said Su Jin Jez, California Competes CEO, in an interview with EdSource.

    Jez said students perceived being put on academic probation as a message that they aren’t cut out for higher education, not as a wake-up call. This was especially true when an automated notice did not offer clear next steps for a student to begin to turn their academic career around.

    This is an issue that affects a lot of students. One national study by the Center for Analysis and Postsecondary Education and Employment found that 1 in 5 first-year students on Pell Grants were at risk of losing their grants due to low GPAs. But there’s no California-specific data about these students — something California Competes would like to see changed.

    Laura Bernhard

    The organization calls on the state to create a task force to examine academic probation policies at California public universities and promote practices that will help students. It also calls on each of the state’s higher education segments — community colleges, the CSUs and the UCs — to address this issue. That is happening already. 

    “There is interest. There’s growing recognition of the need to make these changes,” said California Competes senior researcher Laura Bernhard. “I think that’s exciting.”

    Bernhard acknowledges it can be tough to roll out sweeping policy changes in a higher education system as decentralized as California’s, but there are signs of progress. During the study, the University of California announced that it would be following one of the study’s recommendations: calling it “academic notice” rather than academic probation, a phrase that makes getting D’s or F’s sound like a crime.

    In this Q&A, Jez and Bernhard detail what they have learned in their research and, specifically, what they want to see happen in California. It has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

    What typically happens when a student’s GPA drops below 2.0?

    Bernhard: Most schools use an automated system where a student will receive a form email notifying them of this status. Campus policies vary. California Community Colleges are required to notify students when their GPA falls under this threshold.

    There is not a systemwide process, which is one of the things we wanted to flag. So the student experience varies pretty widely. It’s also going to vary based on if they’re in a targeted program that receives specialized advising, such as student athletes or people who are in an honors college, but in a lot of ways it’s left to the student. I don’t think we do a lot.

    What is the problem with telling a student they are on academic probation?

    Bernhard: The first, perhaps the most obvious one, would be the link to the carceral system. That can be very triggering for many people.

    One of our institutional partners was reviewing their website about academic probation, and she was taken aback by the language. After they are given notice, the first image students see is a cop holding a stop sign saying, “You’re on probation.” She was horrified. Then she remembered 20 years ago, she was one of the people who helped write that policy. It was just a real moment of, “Oh goodness, what have we done?”

    Jez: I think previously there wasn’t a lot of concern about a letter with that kind of language because people assume students were on academic probation because they couldn’t hack it. Because they truly weren’t college material. They couldn’t handle the coursework. 

    Fast-forward to today, there’s a growing understanding that students can be academically capable and excellent — and still not be getting good grades. There are all of these factors in students’ lives that impact their academic performance. Institutions want to figure out how they can help students navigate those sorts of life circumstances, so that they can succeed in the classroom. For that reason, institutions are really wanting to make sure they have the right tone in these letters.

    So are some of these assumptions based on an outdated vision of who a college student is?

    Jez: Traditionally, we’ve had a student who is full-time focused on academic studies. You wouldn’t think of life outside of school being a major factor for them. So if they weren’t performing academically, it was because there was some academic shortcoming. 

    But now most students have heavy workloads, particularly at community colleges and the CSUs. Over 400,000 students in California have children. It’s just a very different student. I think we’re beginning to tackle our policies one by one as we look back and sort of realize they don’t work anymore. 

    Besides that phrase “academic probation,” what are some other problems with those automated notices sent to students when their GPA dips?

    Bernhard: Usually just the length. It’s long, it’s verbose, it’s wordy, it’s complex. There’s jargon. It’s not clear what steps I need to take. It’s not clear who I need to reach out to. It’s not personal. It can tend to use deficit-minded language: “You’ve done something bad; you are on probation; you are in trouble.”

    Instead, things can really be flipped. It can be short; it can be clear. It can be: ‘This is temporary. This is a setback. This happens to a lot of people. We all struggle sometimes.” We can normalize this behavior. ‘These things happen sometimes. It’s out of our control and here are the steps you can take. We care about you as our person. Please talk to us. Reach out.”

    I think a lot of colleges have also realized that, in addition to sending an email, we can text, we can call, we can have tables on campus. We can have an academic event with more personal outreach, which we realize is bandwidth-heavy. But sometimes that makes a huge difference for people. 

    This policy analysis mentions that nationally, 1 out of 5 first-time college students receiving Pell Grants end up with a GPA below a 2.0. Is there any statewide data on that?

    Bernhard: I think that’s one of the biggest issues. It’s not a publicly shared data point in most cases. It’s usually within an institution. It’s hard to get good, comprehensive, systemwide statewide information about students who have a certain GPA. We obviously believe in the power of data, so that is something we would love to be able to collect and analyze.

    Jez: I would love to see that, as the launch of the Cradle-to-Career data system happens, we have students’ GPA information.

    Is there any kind of pushback to these changes you’re suggesting? What’s the attitude among campus leaders?

    Jez: Across the three systems, I will say that there’s a growing recognition that this is a really critical issue that needs improvement. And so we’re seeing attention to this at the systemwide level. 

    At the campus level, there are a number of campuses that are just picking it up and sprinting with it. In many ways, our work has been thinking about how we get a more consistent, comprehensive approach, so we can pick up on campuses leading the way, learn from what they’re doing, and then sort of broaden it across the system. So the systems are all in and then the campuses are in. 

    You’re calling for a statewide task force. Why would that be helpful?

    Jez: Unlike literally every other state in our country, we don’t have a coordinating entity that would be thinking about these issues statewide, centering the student and the students who are attending multiple institutions. It’s critical, then, that we pull it together — in these more ad hoc ways, sadly — to be able to address this. 

    We are hopeful that there will be a proposal in the next 12 months, maybe even the next two or three months, that will tackle this.

    Was there anything that surprised you as you researched this issue?

    Bernhard: I think we could have named 17 other things that we think would have led people to stop out and make returning to complete their degree more difficult. I don’t think academic probation would necessarily have been on that list. 

    The other thing I just really wanted to tout is that this feels, to me, like a relatively easy win. It’s essentially free. It feels small, but it could be incredibly impactful for students. There really hasn’t been pushback, because it just feels very common-sense. Now it’s just like, “Great, how do we get momentum, take action and make this change statewide?” I feel like in a year when we’re sort of feeling financially constrained, I think we should take the win. 

    A lot of what you’re talking about and pushing for is systemic change, but I want to close by asking you what your message would be to students on academic notice or probation right now.

    Jez: When we’ve done previous research and we’ve talked about academic probation, what we hear from faculty and staff is they really saw it as an early warning sign, like “Hey, pay attention.” And then what we heard from students was the opposite. It was more like “You don’t belong, you’re not college material.” 

    So I think that a student should know that this status doesn’t mean you’re not college material and you don’t belong and you can’t do it. I think of it more like a wake-up call. Obviously, there are some students where some sort of crisis happens in their life, and they need to get through that moment and then get back on track. And when they hit that crisis, it’s really important to reach out to their institution because they can take incompletes or withdraw or there are other strategies that make it so that this doesn’t have an impact on their GPA.

    If it’s something that’s sort of like a bigger issue where they’re having to work full time and trying to figure out how they balance their studies, reach out to your institution. There are also a number of community-based organizations that can support students. Also, many struggles aren’t visible, but students are far from alone in grappling with this. In many ways, it is a very normal experience. Students can successfully, absolutely make it out of this temporary status. 

    It’s really like the institution’s obligation to help the student. It is not like, “Go figure it out, student.” The institution needs to help figure out with the student, “How do we support you to success?

    My last recommendation is a general customer service one. If you call customer service and the person’s not helpful, I wouldn’t try to convince that person how they should help you. Sometimes, you just hang up and find someone else. Our institutions are pretty big, so there are lots of people. Find a person that can get to your issue and that’s willing to help.





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  • Nature’s classroom: Why preschoolers need more time outdoors 

    Nature’s classroom: Why preschoolers need more time outdoors 


    Trees are teaching tools at the Berkeley Forest School. Credit: Courtesy of the Berkeley Forest School

    At a forest school, the roof is the bright blue sky, a cluster of ladybugs flying through the air can turn into a science lesson and the fog lingering on your face becomes an example of the water cycle.

    Learning amid the leaves is the core of the curriculum in outdoor early learning programs, which often focus on children aged 3 to 5. Mother Nature provides the classroom where the littlest learners can dig up snake skins, bury treasure maps and climb trees, steeping in the myriad wonders of life.

    Yet, that’s the exception to the rule these days, as many preschool children spend too much time indoors huddled around screens. Despite the fact that time in nature increases opportunities for play and exercise, boosting children’s health and development and reducing hyperactivity — the bane of our short-attention span era — most American preschoolers don’t get enough time outdoors, according to a new national report from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).  

    “Outdoor nature-based learning is vital for young children’s health, development, and education,” according to the report, which was written by W. Steven Barnett, the institute’s senior co-director and founder, and Kate Hodges, an early childhood education policy specialist. “Increased screen time and reduced exposure to nature are linked to serious health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, hyperactivity, stress, asthma, and allergies.”

    Sharpening a sense of stillness, calm and focus is easier for children in a natural setting, experts say. Amid the post-pandemic rise in child behavioral issues, some suggest that outdoor education might be an antidote to shattered attention spans and frayed nerves. 

     “The kids are play-deprived,” said Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of Timbernook, a research-backed therapeutic play program. “Once they dive deep into the play, they calm down. It’s very interesting to watch. Being outside also helps you get you into an alert state of mind, which is ideal for the brain.”

    Giving children enough time for free play, experts say, may make it easier for them to sit quietly at their desk later. As with many aspects of the educational system, the risks of getting stuck too long indoors are elevated for low-income students, according to the institute’s report. 

    “These issues are particularly concerning for low-income children who often have limited access to safe outdoor spaces. By prioritizing nature-based learning in early childhood programs, states can help mitigate these health risks.”

    Hanscom notes that in an attempt to keep kids safe, we may have unwittingly put them in a new kind of danger. Some of the children she works with now require the kind of physical therapy, particularly balance and flow exercises, that were previously reserved for the geriatric. We force children to sit still at an age when they are built to move, she says, which has hampered their development.

    “Their neurological system is not developing properly,” Hanscom said. “We’re overly restricting children’s ability to move and play in pretty profound ways, and we’re actually causing harm to their development now. They’re literally falling out of the chairs and they’re having trouble paying attention, and they’re becoming more and more clumsy in their environment.”

    The lack of nature exposure in many kindergarten programs is ironic given that the term originated with visionary 19th century educator Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten movement, “who believed that children are like flowers and need care and cultivation to grow and blossom, hence the name,” notes Barnett. Froebel’s original program featured an actual garden in which children each tended to their own plots.

    “Learning through nature was an important part of the program,” said Barnett. “Froebel also emphasized the preparation of highly proficient teachers, so it was not just the outdoor/nature aspect that has been lost.” 

    Rethinking the preschool experience to include the myriad wonders of the natural world is part of the purpose of the report. There is much to be learned from stomping through puddles, scrambling over fallen logs and digging in the dirt with sticks, some say.  

    Students explore at the Berkeley Forest School. Credit: Courtesy of the Berkeley Forest School

    “Considering that many preschool children attend for at least four to six hours per day, leaders should consider whether 30-60 minutes of outdoor time is sufficient,” said Barnett. “Many lessons can also be learned from forest or outdoor preschools in which children interact with a natural landscape and spend the entire preschool day outside.”

    Rooted in the Scandinavian education tradition, forest schools got a huge boost in popularity during the pandemic as a safe way to keep learning going even when buildings were closed. There are roughly 800 nature preschools in the U.S., a 200% increase since 2017, according to a survey by the Natural Start Alliance. 

    Science has long suggested that children’s mental and academic health can be buttressed by increasing exposure to nature while decreasing time online. One report, which distilled the results of 186 studies, noted that most researchers find that time spent in nature contributes to both psychological stability and academic agility. Time spent gazing at glowing screens, meanwhile, has often been associated with poor outcomes, including increased mental illness and diminished cognition. That should not come as a surprise, experts suggest.

    “Natural spaces are the context the human body has evolved in,” said Lia Grippo, founder of Wild Roots Forest School in Santa Barbara. “Our bodies expect variations in light, air temperature and movement, sights and sounds far and near, uneven terrain, space for a plethora of movements, and a host of life around us, doing what life does. When these expectations are met, we tend to be alert and relaxed. This is the state we learn best in.”

    More outdoor time has also been associated with better executive functioning. One study of 562 Norwegian preschoolers found a link between time spent outdoors and sharpened executive functioning, which includes attention and short-term memory. That study also found a connection between too much time indoors and hyperactivity symptoms. 

    “Outdoor and nature-based preschool activities contribute to children’s health development directly, support more complex play,” said Barnett, “and offer a teaching tool for children to learn about nature and the environment.”

    When Grippo taught at a traditional preschool, she tried hard to get the children outside into green spaces for playtime. She noticed that a lot of behavioral issues disappeared when the little ones were playing in meadows or woodlands. The children were quickly soothed by the pleasures of the natural playground, she said. 

    “Over time, this pattern became painfully clear,” said Grippo, who learned to forage in the woods as a child in Latvia. “Many of the problems I was working with were in fact problems of the environment rather than the children. Over the next few years, I spent more and more time in natural settings with the children until I finally abandoned the indoor space all together. It was the children who showed me what they needed.”

    Anything children encounter in nature can become a springboard to learning, some say. A dead bug can spark a discussion about the circle of life. A muddy stream becomes an art studio for a clay-based art project. A stack of sticks can be the raw material to build a fort in the forest.

     “Young children need a tremendous amount of movement in order to develop the capacity for stillness,” said Grippo, president of the California Association of Forest Schools. “They need an environment that offers a rich diversity of experiences with a healthy blend of predictability and novelty, in order to incorporate new information and understanding.  They need to feel a part of a large family, larger than just the human family. Nature provides for all of these needs.”

    The classroom is outside at many forest schools.
    credit: Berkeley Forest School

    Boosting opportunities for exploration and free play is just one reason that the National Institute for Early Education Research report argues that little children need more outdoor time. Play, some experts suggest, may well be characterized as the superpower of the young. A growing body of research suggests that play may even be a way to help close the achievement gap.

    “Just one of the many important reasons for increasing preschoolers’ time in natural spaces is that it improves the amount and quality of young children’s play,” said Barnett. “Research suggests that additional guidance and funding to support outdoor, nature-based learning in preschool settings could lead to positive early childhood educational experiences and cognitive, physical and social-emotional benefits for young learners.”

    For the record, California fares better than many states because it requires some outdoor time in its subsidized preschool program, the report suggests, but it fares less well in terms of supporting nature-based schools in general. 

    “California is among the states with stronger policies because it requires outdoor time every day for a substantial portion of the day, sets standards for air quality for children’s outdoor time, and requires preschool programs to have outdoor space,” said Barnett. “However, it is not one of the leaders with policies specific to outdoor and nature-based programs, which do not always fit well into the usual regulations for preschool and child care programs.”

    While California has more outdoor schools than most states, it should be noted that most forest schools aren’t licensed in the Golden State because they often do not have a permanent indoor venue. Washington became the first state to license outdoor preschools in 2019. There are roughly 80 such schools in California, according to the California Association of Forest Schools.

    Given its storied roots and the exhaustive research proving its efficacy, why has outdoor education struggled to take root in the American educational system? Why do many assume that schooling should be dominated by fluorescent lighting, asphalt and edtech? 

    outdoor school
    Students at the Berkeley Forest School have story time by the bay.
    Credit: Courtesy of the Berkeley Forest School

    “Inadequate funding explains a lot,” said Barnett. “We don’t invest in preschool teachers and, as a result, many do not have the knowledge and skills needed. Legal worries probably make it seem risky. Public programs tend to be built as cheaply as possible with no consideration for beauty or nature. Even for older children, it is hard to tell the difference between schools and prisons when they are being built.” 

    While some teachers can’t wait for the latest ed-tech breakthrough to engage their students, others point to the majesty of the natural world and its ability to spark our curiosity. 

    “Nothing I can do as an educator can begin to approximate the depth and breadth of what the natural world has to offer,” said Grippo. “Nature teaches us to pay attention,  expand awareness,  move with aliveness and agility, respond to our environment, experience awe, gratitude and love, develop fortitude, make mistakes and try again, and all in a space that makes the body healthier, happier, and smarter.”





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  • Nonprofits should help improve student voter turnout | EdSource

    Nonprofits should help improve student voter turnout | EdSource


    Photo: Andrew Reed/EdSource

    Every election cycle we hear about the challenges of getting certain groups of people to vote. This is particularly true of younger and more diverse voters who typically vote at rates well below other groups.

    Often, the disconnect between these voters and the ballot box is caused by structural barriers; sometimes it has more to do with an absence of prioritization by candidates and campaign strategists.

    Low turnout among younger and more multicultural voters not only reflects the troubled state of our democracy, but it also it stifles progress toward a society and economy that is more representative and more responsive to the needs of 21st century America. When these groups do turn out to vote, they tend to support more forward-looking policy positions that would help people and communities in need to achieve far greater economic security, including increased public investment in child care, education, affordable housing, and accessible transportation. When they don’t vote in proportion to their eligibility and interests, our democracy and societal well-being are the poorer for it.

    Recognizing this, California cities like Oakland and Berkeley are beginning to support efforts to engage high school student voters as young as 16 and 17 years old, by enabling them to register and vote in local school board elections, beginning this fall. Other California cities should follow suit.

    We know that voting is a habit. Once people start voting regularly, they continue to do so. Increasing voter turnout in the short run is essential to establish regular voting habits in the long run. In our current system, political campaigns are often tasked to lead get-out-the vote efforts by default, but campaigns are temporary and focused on winning elections, not stewarding a healthy democratic system. They are not designed to spend a lot of time and resources on hard-to-reach and hard-to-mobilize voters because the cost of turning out a likely voter is cheaper than the cost of turning out an unlikely voter.

    Elections are all about who gets the most votes, and campaigns focus on the cheapest and easiest ways to get there. For that reason, low-propensity voters, like eligible high school and college students, are largely ignored. This is where nonprofit organizations can step in.

    We’re seeing nonprofits playing an increasingly vital role in student’s lives — starting with out-of-school services like after-school programs, club sports, arts (like theater and dance), and camp activities. More and more now, nonprofits are involved with curricular support in areas where districts are short-staffed or just don’t have solid programs in specific areas of work (sometimes even embedding in the school-day offerings). Then, of course, there are myriad field trips and specific academic add-ons that are run by nonprofits in partnership with districts.

    Research shows that turnout rates increase significantly when voters are encouraged to vote by nonprofit leaders they have relationships with, in a nonpartisan and active way. This kind of nonprofit engagement has been shown to make particularly significant improvements in turnout rates for young voters, voters of color and low-income voters.

    Once turnout rates improve, campaigns start giving that category of voters more attention. This attention in turn engages voters further and encourages even higher turnout rates, creating a kind of virtuous engagement cycle. Census data indicates that about 80% of people who register to vote in a presidential election year actually go out and vote. This makes the next few weeks crucial for increasing turnout and creating new habitual voters during the 2024 cycle.

    Recent research by political scientists and advocacy groups like NonprofitVOTE confirms that there are two things that nonprofits can do to increase voter turnout among their clients: Get them registered and then remind them to vote with a message that their vote matters and can make a difference. The message that “you matter” works a lot better in turning out disengaged youth voters than a policy message.

    This is likely because they often assume that their vote will not have an impact on the election outcomes, so when a trusted source contacts them and tells them that their vote is important, it resonates.

    So if your nonprofit can only do one thing this election season, make sure you encourage all eligible voters in your communities to get out and vote. Hearing from you that their voices are important can make a huge difference.

    •••

    Robb Smith is a political consultant, voting rights lawyer, and the author of the Margin of Error blog, a newsletter for progressives on polling, campaigns and election law. 

    Henry A. J. Ramos is a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School. They are co-authors of “Promoting Nonpartisan Multicultural Youth Get-Out-The-Vote Activities: A Guide for California Nonprofit Organizations,” produced by the California Explorations Project of The Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Wellness coaches take on youth mental health problem in rural California

    Wellness coaches take on youth mental health problem in rural California


    Students work on homework during an after-school program in Chico, the largest city in Butte County. (File photo)

    Credit: Julie Leopo / EdSource

    At 14, Charlotte Peery dropped out of high school. 

    “I was one of those silent sufferers,” Peery said. “I was battling with addiction, and once I finally decided I couldn’t go to school anymore, there wasn’t anyone around to say, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do’.” 

    It took another four years for Peery, raised in rural Tehama County, to return to school and enroll in an alternative education program. There, she met a counselor who provided the academic guidance and mental health counseling she needed to graduate from high school. Peery has since started earning her bachelor’s degree in social work and has become one of Tehama County schools’ first certified wellness coaches. 

    “When I had the opportunity to apply to be a wellness coach — it was everything I’ve always wanted to do — to provide the kind of support that I lacked when I needed it most,” Peery said.

    As an entry-level wellness coach, Peery provides students with nonclinical support such as quick check-ins, screenings, referrals to specialists, structured mental health curriculum and outreach to their families. 

    Peery’s role is part of the state’s $4.6 billion Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, for which the Department of Health Care Access and Information received $278 million to recruit, train and certify a diverse slate of mental health support personnel, known as certified wellness coaches, for schools and community-based organizations. Since February 2024, the department has hired over 2,000 certified wellness coaches. 

    “The wellness coach program helped define what coping skills and home-to-school services I could focus on,” said Jacque Thomas, who serves as a certified wellness coach II and is able to provide more in-depth services to students, such as individual 30-minute sessions focused on coping skills, goal-setting and life skills. 

    According to a 2021 study, 45% of California youth between the ages of 12 and 17 reported having struggled recently with mental health issues. The overall suicide rate in Tehama and neighboring counties is more than twice the state average, and according to a 2017-2019 survey, more than a third of 11th graders in Tehama County reported feelings of depression.  

    Research shows that children ages 2 to 8 in rural communities consistently have higher rates of mental, behavioral and developmental disorders than children in urban communities, largely due to financial difficulties and geographic isolation. Students in Tehama County tend to start struggling with mental health issues at a younger age, said Savannah Kenyon, a parent to a fourth grader and an education behavior assistant at Red Bluff High School. 

    “Our neighbors could be acres and acres away, and we don’t know them by name — so there’s a lot less socializing,” Kenyon said. “A lot of our students also come from a family of addiction or have to be the providers for their families.” 

    In Tehama County, nearly 1 in 5 children, and a third of children under the age of 5, live below the poverty line. The county also ranks sixth in California for the number of children who have experienced two or more adverse childhood events, such as abuse, neglect, substance use or mental health problems, known to have lasting impacts on health and well-being. 

    “It’s hard to see our children dealing with adult problems, and as a result, adult mental health problems, way younger,” Kenyon said. 

    Wellness coaches like Thomas and Peery try to understand students’ needs as they evolve. Thomas said that in the past school year, they saw an increase in students referred for substance use intervention, mirroring troubling rates of adolescent drug use and fatalities in the U.S.

    In response to the increase in referrals, Thomas and Peery decided to become trained in Mindfully Based Substance Abuse Treatment, a program focused on building emotional awareness and examining cravings and triggers in youth substance use. In the process, they also learned about students dealing with unhealthy relationships or domestic violence at home. In response, Peery developed and ran a 16-week curriculum in three schools and a juvenile detention center, teaching students how to identify and respond to issues like abuse and family trauma.  

    Charlotte Peery, certified wellness coach I in Tehama County.

    Peery is often the first point of contact for a student struggling with mental health issues. On paper, her job spans the next two or three steps in the process — a mental health screening, a mindfulness and stress reduction session, or a referral to a specialist. But in practice, she hopes to strengthen the long-term network of care available to students. She has partnered with the Tehama County Department of Behavioral Health, which provides substance use recovery treatment, and Empower Tehama, which helps victims of domestic violence, for example. 

    “I’m making connections with drug and alcohol counselors and becoming more aware of which clinicians are accepting new clients once students transition out of our program,” Peery said. “To have that open communication, I’ve seen a huge shift in the way all of our partners are working together.” 

    School-based support is likely the most effective way to reach Tehama County students in need, she said, because most families cannot easily access major services, in part due to a disproportionate shortage of mental health providers, 

    “We’ve been able to provide more services to the farthest outreaches of our community and helped build rapport with every school,” Thomas said. “We go out to all 33 schools in the county to provide check-ins and open up the doors for our clinicians to meet with high-need students.” 

    Early intervention matters 

    After her daughter’s school shut down at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, just as she was starting transitional kindergarten, Kenyon noticed that her daughter was missing some key developmental milestones. 

    “We were realizing that the kids were not socializing at some of their peak times when they should be learning social skills,” Kenyon said. “I knew at an early age that she was going to be struggling with her ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), so we knew that starting young was going to be the best way to help her in the long run.”

    Early intervention for Kenyon’s daughter began with a screening and diagnosis of ADHD. From there, she said, her daughter’s counselor and teacher helped with little things like — motivating her through action-oriented feedback on her work, or teaching her mindful, deep breathing when she feels anxious — that allowed her daughter to handle emotional distress as well as social expression and inattentiveness in the classroom on a day-by-day basis.   

    “We’re always having open communication with the counselor or teacher. Being able to tell them, ‘We struggled last night, so she might be a little tired today; she might be a little bit emotional,’ has been imperative to her success,” Kenyon said. 

    Research shows that early, multidisciplinary interventions, such as a combination of school-based programs and family support initiatives, significantly reduce the risk of carrying mental health disorders into adulthood. 

    School shutdowns during the pandemic compounded the youth mental health crisis in California. About 65% of young people with depression did not receive treatment during the pandemic, while the rate of suicide among adolescents rose by 20%. 

    “We saw heightened anxiety, depression and delays in social development for students that had gone longer without intervention than they typically would have if they were on a school campus,” said JoNell Wallace, school mental health and wellness team coordinator at the Tehama County Department of Education. “We’re now starting interventions in third or fourth grade that we would’ve caught in second grade.” 

    Jacque Thomas, certified wellness coach II in Tehama County.

    Despite the additional support, Thomas said she has been flooded with students approaching her for help (“which is amazing,” she adds) and that students’ needs in Tehama County are still outpacing available staff and services at schools. She frequently eats in her car on the way to a counseling session, or sometimes skips lunch altogether, to fit another student into her schedule. 

     “You start to get stretched thin, and I don’t want any one student to have to be on a waitlist,” Thomas said.

    Understaffing has also underscored the weaknesses of the referral system, a process through which schools assess students and refer them to wellness coaches, depending on the level of support they need. Schools do not always connect students to the support they need because of how time-consuming referrals can be.

    “I think schools would much rather prefer it if we were on site,” Thomas said. “And that’s the goal — that more schools are qualified to have more wellness coaches, so their referral process will be in-house, and those services can start happening with a lesser barrier.”

    There will be some relief starting this fall, when five additional certified wellness coaches will be placed at elementary and middle schools in Tehama County. Kenyon said the expanded service is a win for students like her daughter. 

    “She used to hide under the table if she got any type of feedback or if she felt like she had done something wrong,” Kenyon said. “But she hasn’t done it this entire year, which is such a big change from how she would try and escape her feelings.”

    Now, with help from her counselors, coaches and teachers, her daughter comes home excited to talk about her day, feeling more confident and self-assured. 

    “Knowing that she’s coping, and for me to have help beyond just parental help — I know she’s a hundred percent supported through these programs,” Kenyon said.





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  • What schools should know about the liability insurance crisis in foster care

    What schools should know about the liability insurance crisis in foster care


    Koinonia Family Services is one of the foster family agencies that received a letter of nonrenewal. Their policy expires in 2025.

    Credit: Ourpromiseca/Instagram

    A seismic disruption of the foster system is underway in California, with no clear solution in sight for the 9,000 school-aged children whose lives and schooling may be severely impacted.

    Most foster family agencies in California either lost liability insurance coverage on Sept. 30 or will lose it once their current policies end after their insurer pulled out of the market.

    “A blanket non-renewal would cause a collapse of the California foster family system,” the company, Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California, acknowledged recently.

    The agencies cannot remain open without liability insurance, and few companies offer the required coverage for the agencies, which manage thousands of foster families caring for roughly 9,000 foster children statewide.

    Some agencies that managed to acquire coverage in recent weeks complained that the premiums are exponentially higher than what they paid previously.

    The insurance crisis currently affects only the foster families managed through the state’s more than 200 agencies, not those managed by their local counties. The impact may be far-reaching, however, especially if counties have to take on a significant number of foster families from agencies.

    Families are screened and certified to foster in two ways: directly by their local counties or through private nonprofits that counties contract with called foster family agencies.

    No matter how a foster care family obtains its certification, it must retain insurance to protect against potential liabilities.

    As agencies decide on their next steps, advocates say educators should keep in mind that some of their students might be part of the foster youth at risk of being displaced from their homes.

    This guide explains how the crisis occurred, what it means for foster youth, and what school staff can consider as it unfolds.

    What do foster family agencies do?

    Agencies are known for providing 24/7 support to foster families, which can include, but is not limited to:

    • Training foster families to advocate for children’s educational rights, such as establishing individualized education plans
    • Facilitating reunification visits between the foster youth and their biological family
    • Providing tutoring services
    • Providing transportation to and from extracurricular activities that the foster parent might not be able to work into their schedule
    • Supporting foster families as they become mentors for biological parents reunified with their child

    Families fostering through agencies often expect to receive a higher degree of support than a county might be able to offer.

    Why is this happening?
    Nonprofit Insurance Alliance of California previously insured 90% of foster family agencies in California, but they issued letters of nonrenewal to all of those agencies in late August.

    The company said foster family agencies are “uninsurable” because they are “being set up as scapegoats” and “held accountable for the wrongful acts of others beyond their scope of control” in cases where children are harmed.

    The nonrenewal letters came less than a year after a jury awarded $24.8 million in December to three siblings who were sexually abused in a foster home certified by a Northern California foster family agency that failed to complete many of the required screenings and assessments prior to placing children in the home.

    The nonprofit insurance alliance insured the agency and initially rejected multiple settlement offers from the three siblings. The insurer instead took the case to trial, where the jury awarded a settlement higher than the siblings’ initial offers.

    The non-renewal decision also came after recent legislation extended the statute of limitations for reporting child sexual assault and provided a three-year window for victims to sue in cases where the statute of limitations had expired. The changes also allowed for damages to be tripled in certain cases.

    Who is impacted by the insurance challenge?

    The challenge affects foster youth and families whose lives are in limbo as their agencies confront the issue, agencies that are ending services in the face of sudden increased insurance costs, counties that might be managing greater caseloads amid their own staff shortages as foster families potentially transfer under their care, and the people whose jobs might be on the line if foster cases are transferred from agencies.

    Roughly 9,000 youth out of over 41,000 total foster youth in California live with families overseen by agencies.

    They are some of the highest-needs children and teens within the foster system, said Christine Stoner-Mertz, CEO of California Alliance of Child and Family Services, which represents foster family agencies. Many are medically fragile, identify as LGBTQ+, are older and sometimes have other teenage siblings, or they have significant behavioral challenges.

    The families who foster them are burdened with uncertainty as they figure out if their agency will remain open and if their foster children will remain in their homes.

    Counties are verifying the scope of the problem, at times transferring families into the county foster system to avoid displacing children. They are checking in with local agencies to ascertain if they received a notice of non-renewal and how long their policies are in effect, said Eileen Cubanski, interim executive director of County Welfare Directors Association of California.

    But counties are rife with problems as it is, with shortages of staff and foster homes.

    Tiffany Sickler, executive director of a foster family agency called Koinonia Family Services, received a notice of non-renewal, but their policy doesn’t expire until next year.

    Even so, some of her agency’s families have transferred to counties, believing that is their only option for keeping their foster children at home.

    Agencies sustain themselves by taking on foster cases; losing a foster family leads to a reduction in revenue and caseloads. If this continues, Sickler said it could ultimately lead to staff layoffs.

    What happens to foster youth?

    Many children’s lives are expected to be disrupted, particularly those whose agencies are shuttering or losing coverage before they can transfer families to counties or another agency.

    In those cases, foster youth might be moved to placements far from their schools of origin, requiring them to transfer and lose connections they may have developed at school.

    Some may be moved to placements that allow them to remain at their school of origin, but advocates say the disruption in their home lives is likely to impact their education.

    “If you’re worried about where you’re going to sleep, how well do you show up? Even if you’re physically present, how well do you show up to learn in the classroom?” said Cubanski. “It’s those added traumas and stressors, I think, that really play a significant role in the educational trajectory of these youth.”

    Some agencies whose insurance policies ended Sept. 30 got coverage with other companies. In such cases, foster youth remain in their current homes with no disruptions. But agencies are reporting increased premiums anywhere between 30% to 400% from their previous coverage.

    “Many (agencies) are saying, ‘We don’t know exactly how we’re going to get the money, but we’re going to do this at least for a year’ in hopes that maybe there’s a broader solution that gets put in place to keep kids and families stable,” said Stoner-Mertz. “At this moment, that’s the best case scenario because people are concerned about kids’ stability on a very broad level, and certainly education is a component of that.”

    Advocates are hopeful that some relief might come their way via the state. The state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, issued a notice in August “encouraging all property and casualty insurance companies licensed or doing business in California” to offer the coverage that agencies need, but it remains unclear how many companies have heeded the call.

    “What we need is the state to really step in to really stabilize the market,” said Stoner-Mertz, who said her organization is discussing solutions with the Department of Social Services and the Department of Insurance.

    What should educators know?

    Advocates say educators and school staff are likely unaware that foster youth may be displaced due to the insurance crisis. They suggest checking in with youth and their foster families to better understand what might be happening with their placements.

    On a larger scale, advocates are looking to build a coalition to focus on the insurance issues — and they are hoping that schools will join.

    That’s because “schools are facing this exact same problem” of insurers seeking to exit their market due to increased settlements related to child sexual abuse cases, according to Stoner-Mertz and Adrienne Shilton, vice president of public policy and strategy at the California Alliance of Child and Family Services.

    “It’s a huge issue far beyond these very niche organizations,” Stoner-Mertz said.

    The starting point would be to ensure children are not hurt, she added. If they are hurt, they should have their day in court.

    In that process, Stoner-Mertz said the challenge for a coalition would be: “How do we ensure that they’re getting their needs met and that there are systems that are not destroyed in the process that they also need?” she asked.

    Can families transfer to their local county or another agency?

    They can, but one challenge with transferring to counties is that the families certified through agencies are accustomed to a higher level of support, said Shilton.

    Additionally, agencies can work with families who live across the state, making transfers more complex than they may initially appear.

    Stoner-Mertz provided the following example: Some families have foster children from different counties. If that family transferred from an agency to a county, “then how does that get sorted out in terms of what county takes on that placement?”

    Advocates also have significant concerns about counties’ capacity to take on a currently undetermined number of youth and families.

    “It’s a big lift for some counties. … We’ve certainly heard from LA that they are not equipped to take on the number of families that could potentially end up having to be transferred,” Stoner-Mertz said.

    Advocates say staffing shortages play a role in that diminished capacity, but often, there is also a difference in philosophy.

    County child welfare programs are “very child-only focused” and agencies are family-focused, said Sickler, meaning that counties often provide services solely for children, while agencies often provide services for the entire foster family.

    “You can’t just leave the foster families kind of out in the wind and just offer services and programs to the kids that are in their home,” said Sickler, whose agency works with families across 11 California counties. “You have to support the family — I mean, if you want a successful outcome anyway.”

    Families can also transfer between agencies, a process recently streamlined by legislation.

    Assembly Bill 2496 was initially championed by the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California. Its original text included provisions that limited the insurer’s liability, which advocates said deteriorated victims’ rights to sue.

    The bill’s text was amended at the eleventh hour, removing the provisions and instead streamlining the transfer of families between agencies by removing administrative burdens.

    The company responded to the amended bill by announcing the non-renewals and stating that “foster family agencies are being set up as scapegoats” in claims of child abuse.

    They also announced they will immediately terminate coverage, rather than non-renew, of agencies that take families from an agency utilizing the new streamlined process.

    The bill will “substantially increase the risk to California FFAs and the children they serve,” the company wrote in the announcement, stating that the bill allows for “transfers with a less-rigorous vetting process.”

    The announcement threw a wrench into an already complex series of events, advocates said. “Frankly, what has been the bigger burden has been the insurer itself,” said Cubanski.

    “They’ve asserted that the bill makes those families riskier, makes the children less safe,” she continued. “I cannot vehemently enough object to that characterization. It really is about trying to streamline some of the administrative paperwork burden — there is nothing different about the risk or the level of safety of these families.”

    A previous version of the story incorrectly noted that the non-renewal decision came after “recent judicial changes” and misquoted the insurance company regarding the agencies’ insurability. The story has been updated to reflect that the non-renewal decision came after recent legislation signed into law in 2019 and to correct the company’s statement on agencies being “uninsurable.”





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  • We must dig deeper to see which students are most vulnerable to bullying

    We must dig deeper to see which students are most vulnerable to bullying


    Credit: Pexels

    Bullying against California’s Asian American and Pacific Islander youth remains stubbornly high — affecting nearly 1 in 5 ninth and 11th graders, just above the statewide rate for all students.

    But we’re missing a big part of the problem if we continue to lump all Asian American students into a catch-all group. We’re not seeing which ethnic subgroups are most vulnerable. And what we can’t see, we can’t solve.

    We recently disaggregated statewide bullying data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, collected annually between 2015 and 2021, to see what might be hiding in plain sight within our state’s 10 Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups. What we saw in the data was troubling.

    Nearly 1 in 3 Cambodian ninth and 11th graders were bullied based on their identity including race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. This is 1.5 times the overall Asian American and Pacific Islander rate. Hmong, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Laotian youth experience similarly higher rates. If we aggregated these groups into a catch-all group, their elevated risks would disappear from sight.

    In another concerning trend for each of these ethnic groups, bullying rates initially declined between 2019 and 2020, but rebounded by 2021, often exceeding pre-pandemic levels. However, we don’t see this pattern for Asian American and Pacific Islander students as a whole. These rebounds are all the more critical to address because they may exacerbate the educational impacts of the pandemic. Research shows that bullying can erode academic achievement, increase absences and reduce mental health.

    There is some good news in the data. We saw reductions in bullying if students had supportive adults and stronger connections at school. We also discovered several school districts that provided resources specifically tailored to Asian American and Pacific Islander students and their families. For example, the San Francisco Unified School District’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Resource Guide addresses anti-Asian racism and offers lesson plans and curriculum that uplifts the experiences and contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the state.

    Based on our work, we recommend two starting points for schools and districts aiming to prevent and address bullying.

    First, schools serving Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth must figure out what is happening in these groups. If the statewide findings mirror local trends, then schools and districts should assess what kinds of anti-bullying resources are being channeled to these youth. Resources could include specific materials and outreach strategies tailored — culturally and linguistically — to students and families from specific Asian American and Pacific Islander groups.

    Second, schools need to assess how they are creating inclusive and welcoming environments where students can form strong connections with supportive adults. Enhancing the school climate benefits not only Asian American students, but all students.

    We know that schools are continually asked to do more with less. So we recommend that schools take stock of what they are already doing to build stronger connections rather than create something new requiring an entirely new set of resources.

    Many schools strengthen teacher-student connections through existing schoolwide programs, like Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports alongside curricula to support social and emotional well-being. Figuring out where there’s room for improvement within those existing programs is a step in the right direction. Schools should also evaluate how effective they are in intentionally building more positive connections for Asian American and Pacific Islander students.

    Making schools more inclusive so that bullying is an exception, and not the norm, will require dismantling monolithic assumptions we hold of Asian American and Pacific Islander youth, digging deeper into subgroup data, and devising ways to deepen meaningful connections with our students. Such an approach will also help ensure we more fully recognize the diversity and humanity of these young people across our state.

    •••

    Kevin Gee, Ed.D., is professor at the UC Davis School of Education and a faculty research affiliate with the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research. 
    North Cooc, Ed.D., is an associate professor of special education at the University of Texas at Austin.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • We must dig deeper to see which students are most vulnerable to bullying

    We must dig deeper to see which students are most vulnerable to bullying


    Credit: Pexels

    Bullying against California’s Asian American and Pacific Islander youth remains stubbornly high — affecting nearly 1 in 5 ninth and 11th graders, just above the statewide rate for all students.

    But we’re missing a big part of the problem if we continue to lump all Asian American students into a catch-all group. We’re not seeing which ethnic subgroups are most vulnerable. And what we can’t see, we can’t solve.

    We recently disaggregated statewide bullying data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, collected annually between 2015 and 2021, to see what might be hiding in plain sight within our state’s 10 Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups. What we saw in the data was troubling.

    Nearly 1 in 3 Cambodian ninth and 11th graders were bullied based on their identity including race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. This is 1.5 times the overall Asian American and Pacific Islander rate. Hmong, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Laotian youth experience similarly higher rates. If we aggregated these groups into a catch-all group, their elevated risks would disappear from sight.

    In another concerning trend for each of these ethnic groups, bullying rates initially declined between 2019 and 2020, but rebounded by 2021, often exceeding pre-pandemic levels. However, we don’t see this pattern for Asian American and Pacific Islander students as a whole. These rebounds are all the more critical to address because they may exacerbate the educational impacts of the pandemic. Research shows that bullying can erode academic achievement, increase absences and reduce mental health.

    There is some good news in the data. We saw reductions in bullying if students had supportive adults and stronger connections at school. We also discovered several school districts that provided resources specifically tailored to Asian American and Pacific Islander students and their families. For example, the San Francisco Unified School District’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Resource Guide addresses anti-Asian racism and offers lesson plans and curriculum that uplifts the experiences and contributions of Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the state.

    Based on our work, we recommend two starting points for schools and districts aiming to prevent and address bullying.

    First, schools serving Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander youth must figure out what is happening in these groups. If the statewide findings mirror local trends, then schools and districts should assess what kinds of anti-bullying resources are being channeled to these youth. Resources could include specific materials and outreach strategies tailored — culturally and linguistically — to students and families from specific Asian American and Pacific Islander groups.

    Second, schools need to assess how they are creating inclusive and welcoming environments where students can form strong connections with supportive adults. Enhancing the school climate benefits not only Asian American students, but all students.

    We know that schools are continually asked to do more with less. So we recommend that schools take stock of what they are already doing to build stronger connections rather than create something new requiring an entirely new set of resources.

    Many schools strengthen teacher-student connections through existing schoolwide programs, like Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports alongside curricula to support social and emotional well-being. Figuring out where there’s room for improvement within those existing programs is a step in the right direction. Schools should also evaluate how effective they are in intentionally building more positive connections for Asian American and Pacific Islander students.

    Making schools more inclusive so that bullying is an exception, and not the norm, will require dismantling monolithic assumptions we hold of Asian American and Pacific Islander youth, digging deeper into subgroup data, and devising ways to deepen meaningful connections with our students. Such an approach will also help ensure we more fully recognize the diversity and humanity of these young people across our state.

    •••

    Kevin Gee, Ed.D., is professor at the UC Davis School of Education and a faculty research affiliate with the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research. 
    North Cooc, Ed.D., is an associate professor of special education at the University of Texas at Austin.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the authors. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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