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Little-known academic renewal policy offers students a second chance

Los Angeles City College

Credit: Larry Gordon / EdSource

The most stressful time in most people’s academic careers is their first year of college. The transition from the routine of high school is suddenly over.

An entirely new level of freedom is afforded to us, and quite frankly, even that can be overwhelming. You might suddenly miss a class or two and no one will phone your home, and it’s enticing to view college as a chance to catch up on socializing. All this can cause students — especially those in community colleges where material isn’t always as rigorous — to make the mistake of not putting adequate effort into education the way they should.

So, what happens when students hit a snag in the road during their collegiate start?

For myself, there was something else that affected my ability to put my best foot forward in classes. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis just as I began my next chapter in my educational journey. I couldn’t help but feel like my world was crashing down.

This illness can create frustrating pain at times we cannot predict. Attending classes, much less focusing on the material, sometimes felt impossible. My grades faltered as I tried to manage my social life, treat my illness and balance a full load of classes.

My first few semesters in community college featured the dreaded W, or withdrawal, and even a pair of F’s. I immediately knew transferring was unlikely, so I decided to take some time off. Maybe college wasn’t for me. I was forced to put dreams aside and try to find work; and given the price of medication and doctor visits, it wasn’t a bad idea. So I dropped out, and for a time I thought I’d never have a chance to earn a degree.

Then came the Covid pandemic, and with it, work and school from home.

The opportunity to take online courses was enticing, even though I assumed transferring was out of the question given my academic record.

I decided to email an adviser at my local community college, just to see what could be done to transfer despite my less-than-stellar transcripts.

To my surprise, I learned about the little-known academic renewal policy. It allows community college students who have taken two years off to apply to have a limited number of units cleared from their GPA. It will remain on their records to give potential four-year universities a fuller picture of their efforts, but if you can return to classes and start hitting the ball out of the park, there is a chance to rebuild your academic career.

According to the California Community Colleges, academic renewal was first introduced in 2008.

It gives students a chance to petition to have D’s and F’s removed from their GPAs, but they must first earn a certain level of passing grades to start the process.

Ultimately, the work still must be done by the student. You are not guaranteed success by wiping a few W’s and F’s from your GPA, but the opportunity to have a second chance in education can uplift those who face illnesses, economic hardships or other unforeseen circumstances.

Your first semester in college should not follow you forever. And thankfully, the state’s community college system understands this.

When I filled out the academic renewal application with my adviser, I didn’t expect much. But to my surprise, they were very helpful in ensuring that my plan to take the appropriate courses to transfer to colleges of my choice was possible.

What followed were four semesters of the hardest work I have ever put in. I came back as a student on a mission to attend class as often as possible, ask questions to professors, get involved in study groups and even be a teaching assistant. My illness had thankfully gone into remission, and for once I felt like I could be a student.

Thanks to my advisers, professors and fellow students, I transferred to my dream university.

However, I do wish this renewal process were more widely advertised because not all students who have initial struggles in their academic careers will reach out to advisers. Community colleges can and should find better ways to ensure students understand there are second chances through what appears to be a little-known process.

Students across the state should know about academic renewal. It can be the difference between giving up on getting a degree or achieving your goals.

•••

Joshua Picazo is majoring in media studies at UC Berkeley and is a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

The opinions expressed in this piece 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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16/06/2025
California’s Youth Job Corps offers a second chance at career, higher education

Rubicon Landscape Group, which has a community beautification program in the city of Richmond, hires California Volunteers’ Youth Job Corps service members.

Credit: Courtesy of Ebony Richardson/Rubicon Landscape Group

One of Kaelyn Carter’s ongoing challenges these days is working early hours as a landscaper through the cold, often rainy San Francisco Bay Area weather — a world away from the stagnation he remembers feeling when he first arrived in California less than two years ago.

Then, Carter had just been released from prison after three years of incarceration in Virginia, where he was born. He had made his way to California, which he heard might have more job opportunities.

He’d tried working, but he’d run into more trouble and once again had a warrant out for his arrest. So he turned himself in.

That decision led to significant changes in his life, he said, because his probation officer connected him with his current workplace, which is part job and part rehabilitation program.

The job is with Rubicon Landscape Group, a landscaping company in the city of Richmond that has multiple branches, including a Reentry Success Center which offers a structured 18-week vocational training program where young adults under age 30 who’ve been impacted by the justice system learn about horticulture and landscaping.

Working at Rubicon, Carter said, offered him a community and the means to provide for himself and rebuild his life.

Kaelyn Carter, right, works is part of a community beautification program in the city of Richmond as a service member with California Volunteers’ Youth Job Corps.
Credit: Courtesy of Ebony Richardson/Rubicon Landscape Group

“It feels comfortable to be able to provide, to buy stuff that you need, (like) hygiene products. You don’t have to go and ask someone to do it for you. You can just go and get it yourself,” he said, and “being able to go to work every day and see a check or some kind of payment at the end of the week, it’s comfortable.”

The program is part of a larger state effort led by California Volunteers, called the #CaliforniansForAll Youth Jobs Corps, that provides employment opportunities for Californians ages 16 to 30.

Job placements for service members range from a few months to about a year, a timeline that’s set by each participating city or county depending on the region’s needs. The idea is to create a pathway to careers that may have been previously out of reach for them.

Priority consideration is offered to youth who are in, or transitioning from, foster care, or have been justice system-involved, or in the mental health or substance abuse system. Participants must also be low-income, unemployed and not enrolled in school. They must also not have participated in an AmeriCorps program.

Out of over 8,000 total service members to date, about 400 were either in foster care or transitioning out of it, and 702 have identified as justice-involved.

The #CaliforniansForAll project includes other service programs, such as College Corps, which in its first year included 3,250 students from 46 California community colleges and state universities.

While the Youth Job Corps prioritizes young people who may not be on a college track, it encourages them to pursue higher education.

“That’s a goal of the program, and it’s why we focused on those populations,” said Josh Fryday, chief service officer of California Volunteers. “The idea here is creating an opportunity for our young people to serve their community, to make a difference, stabilize them, and then get them on the path to a successful career, which we hope higher education is part of for many of them.”

Service members are paid at least the state hourly minimum wage, now $16, but their city or county of residence can increase their wages.

The corps launched in 2022 with $185 million in state funding, with $78.1 million in ongoing funding approved in the 2023-24 state budget.

Since then, about 8,000 young people have worked in nearly 30 cities and counties that applied to join the list of participating locations, which range from Nevada County to the city of South Gate in Los Angeles County to the city of San Bernardino and more in between.

Each location either hires the service member directly or works with local community-based organizations that provide connections to careers in city government, climate efforts such as fire mitigation, community beautification by way of landscaping, and more.

“We really wanted to provide a lot of flexibility for local communities to decide how they were going to engage young people, depending on the needs of the community and what was appropriate for that area,” said Fryday.

For example, most of the service members in the Los Angeles County city of Maywood were high school seniors or in their early college years, and one was a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

These participants were given the flexibility to choose placement in a career they were interested in pursuing. Their interests ranged from working at City Hall — which is where the college graduate was placed — to the local YMCA. Even some neighboring cities benefited from this flexibility: a service member worked at a technology center in the next-door city of Bell, which is not on the list of participating locations.

Maywood, one of the most densely populated cities in the state, is home to a predominantly low-income and immigrant population that most often commutes to work in other regions of Los Angeles County. But at the end of their Youth Job Corps service time, many of the city’s service members were offered full-time jobs in their community.

“The pay is helpful, the exposure they appreciate, but what I hear that, just to me, is so incredible and inspiring is when they say, ‘I just never thought I had something positive to contribute to my community. I never thought that I had something of value where I could give back, and I could lift up the community I love while also supporting my family at the same time,’” Fryday said. “I remember hearing that specifically in Maywood.”

It’s a sentiment also shared by Carter in Richmond.

“It might sound crazy, but Rubicon has been basically a safe haven for me because it helped me with dealing with … I want to say poverty, if that makes sense,” said Carter, now 29.
His job also helps him address his depression. Rubicon’s wraparound services — such as mental health support, resume workshops — help with housing and transportation, and working with plants helps him feel more grounded, Carter said.

All Youth Job Corps service members at Carter’s job with Rubicon are justice-impacted, which has given him a community of others with similar life experiences.

“This cohort, they just really lean on each other a lot,” said Ebony Richardson, a reentry coach with Rubicon. “I feel like they look out for each other as a whole, and it shows in the work they are doing.”

This community and support is part of what has kept Carter working at Rubicon, rather than returning to the life that led to his incarceration.

“It helped me build structure as far as my character, as far as my work skills,” he said. “It’s really a rehabilitation program basically for those who need a second chance.”

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11/06/2025
Summer school offers new teachers a chance to experiment

Courtesy: Kati Begen

Are you a new teacher? If you can, teach summer school!

No, your district did not pay me to say this; there is a method to my madness. Summer school gets a bad rap. Its portrayal in movies doesn’t help either. It’s not just a sweaty classroom full of students who are defiant and rude. In my experience, these are students who just need to fix the mistakes they made in the school year. Summer school should be seen as an opportunity for students and teachers. Teaching summer school can be an extremely beneficial choice, especially for new teachers.

When I was a new teacher, I found volunteering to teach summer school provided me unique opportunities to experiment. In summer school, you can:

Play around with instructional strategies: In the world of teaching, there is a visceral fear of your lesson “bombing.” This fear is what often keeps us from trying new things. During summer school, you have a little more grace. Typically, the classes are smaller, students come in with some background knowledge (if it’s credit recovery, they have already taken the class), and summer school just has a different feel to it. Have you wanted to try an A-B text edit (where students have two different copies of the same article and must decide which words are correctly used)? Socratic seminar? Maybe a specific lab? Doodle notes?

Try it now! Get feedback from the students and see if there is something you need to change. Then, write down notes on how the new strategies fared in the summer school setting. Once the new school year comes around, you have a list of strategies you have vetted and that work.

Try new classroom management strategies: I have taught primarily in middle and high school. Even though middle and high school students are close in age, they require different management strategies.

Surprisingly, my high school students love ClassDojo, a classroom management tool/app, despite its typical audience being elementary school students. I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t tried it with my summer school students. Do you want to try flexible seating? Fun claps for an attention signal? Student shout-out wall? Try it during summer school.

If you teach secondary school, you only see your students for one period a day during the school year. In summer school, you see the same group of students for the whole day. You now have the advantage that elementary teachers have. You can try a strategy, work out any kinks with it, and implement it in your class come fall.

Try out a new grade level: When I began teaching, I was fully invested in staying in the middle school world. When the opportunity arose for me to teach a high school class over the summer, I was scared. It seemed like a different beast. Ultimately, I ended up loving teaching high school, and a few years later, I moved up to teaching high school freshmen. This shift wouldn’t have come if I hadn’t tried it out during the summer session. So often, we find our niche and stay there. This is a nice, comfortable place if that is what you are looking for. Sometimes, we want change. Often, we see good teachers leave the profession. I wonder if they might have stayed if they had just tried a different grade level.

I can’t speak for all school districts, but in my experience, summer school made me a better teacher. There are different opportunities out there as well. Maybe you only teach one session? Can you try a different content area? Different school site or even district? There are even online summer schools. The opportunities are as endless as is the potential growth you can acquire.

Teaching can be extremely difficult, so try something new to bring the spark back into your career!

•••

Kati Begen is a high school biology teacher, doctoral candidate and author of “Thriving During Your First Year of Teaching.”

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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23/05/2025
Waiting for financial aid offers creates problems for California students

Sierra Community College in Rocklin.

Credit: Sierra College / Flickr

This summer was filled with stress for Leslie Valdovinos as she awaited her financial aid offer letter for her fourth year at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

“I don’t have a backup plan in case I can’t rely on financial aid,” Valdovinos said. “Financial aid is the only plan that I have.”

Leslie Valdovinos

Widespread problems with the revamped Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) caused unprecedented difficulties with the application resulting in delays in college decisions and making it particularly hard for the many “mixed-status” students in California — students who have at least one parent without a Social Security number — to complete the form. Students are still experiencing delays in getting their financial aid information.

“It’s very stressful because tuition is going up, and I’m not sure how my financial situation is going to look like for this school year,” Valdovinos said.

Valdovinos finally received her financial aid offer letter on Aug. 8, but many are still waiting. As of May, 28% of students nationwide had not received their financial aid offer, according to a survey done by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Some students have been able to get scholarships to help cover the costs of school. Azul Hernandez, an incoming freshman at California State University, San Bernardino has gotten help from local scholarships.

“Right now, I am able to cover my tuition for this year through local scholarships that I was awarded but am still fighting to get aid to help cover the years to come and other fees like books,” Hernandez said.

California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) has started offering a $4,000 “backup” scholarship to support low-income students whose financial aid is delayed. The money is aimed at low-income California residents.

“This initiative comes as a response to the challenges posed by FAFSA delays, with CSUMB committing to support its community by ensuring no student is left behind due to procedural setbacks. The scholarship is designed to provide immediate relief to students who are still awaiting federal and state aid decisions,” said a notice announcing the program.

While some students might be able to make it through the school year without financial aid, many will not be able to continue with school if they do not get their financial aid offer in time.

Jonathan Ramirez is supposed to start his first year at Victor Valley College in a few weeks but has not yet received his financial aid letter.

“I’m kind of worried because, you know, I don’t really have that much money, and I kind of want that money because I want to keep going to college and get a career and stuff. Without (financial aid) I don’t think I’ll be able to,” Ramirez said.

If he doesn’t receive his financial aid and has to drop out of school, Ramirez said he plans on going to a trade school or start working to save up money.

With the decline of completed FAFSA forms across the state, Ashish Vaidya, president and CEO of Growing Inland Achievement, is concerned that fewer students will be able to attend college. Through Aug. 2, 49% or 298,026 members of the Class of 2024 completed an application. That’s 30, 550 fewer than 2023.

Vaidya described this year’s rollout of the FAFSA as having “a catastrophic impact on the students, especially in the Inland Empire,” referring to a feared drop in the number of students who would attend college.

Growing Inland Achievement (GIA) is a nonprofit organization working toward education and economic equity in the Inland Empire, which is made up of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. GIA supports students through the financial aid process with workshops, step-by-step guides and digital resources to help students be successful.

“This is an all-hands-on-deck sort of approach,” Vaidya said.

Other organizations, such as uAspire, a nonprofit that focuses on supporting students with the financial aid process, work with students directly with free one-on-one advice and financial aid workshops.

Valdovinos took advantage of the workshops and tutorials provided by her school, though she found the one-on-one attention the most helpful because it was so personalized.

“(The tutorials) gave a nice guideline of what was going on, but I think because me and my brother’s and my sister’s applications were different, it was very frustrating because it didn’t really have all of our personal situations accounted for,” she said.

Valdovinos said she hopes next year’s application will include “more detailed and accessible explanations for each section of the FAFSA, including examples and FAQs of all the possible scenarios that may come up,” which she said would help reduce confusion.

Typically, as has been the process for decades, high school seniors and community college transfer students would begin completing the FAFSA in October to meet California’s March priority deadline for access to state aid like the Cal Grant. During that period, those students would submit applications to the colleges and universities that they’re seeking admission to, so they would have their offer letters by early spring. The traditional timing allowed financial aid offices to send details about grants, loans and scholarships to students around March and April, in time for them to make a decision on the college they plan to attend in the fall.

But this year’s repeated FAFSA disruptions means colleges haven’t been able to send out aid awards, either because students have had trouble applying, the department has miscalculated some students’ aid, or colleges haven’t received any aid information from the department. Each award letter sent by colleges to their admitted students that complete a financial aid application is customized with a combination of federal, state and institutional grants, loans and scholarships.

On Aug. 7, the Department of Education announced that the 2024-25 FAFSA will once again be delayed as the Federal Student Aid office works to identify and correct problems in the form. The new form will have a phased rollout, opening on Oct. 1 for testing, then launching on Dec. 1 with full functionality, “including submission and back-end processing at the same time.”

“When they roll out the new FAFSA for the following year, you know, it will be a much improved process if you don’t have the glitches and the hiccups that we faced this past year,” Vaidya said. “So we’re hopeful about that; however, we’re not going to rest on our laurels.”

GIA plans to amp up efforts this coming year to reach more students and get out the message that “college is for everyone.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona promised changes for next year’s FAFSA.

“Following a challenging 2024-25 FAFSA cycle, the Department listened carefully to the input of students, families, and higher education institutions, made substantial changes to leadership and operations at Federal Student Aid, and is taking a new approach this year that will significantly improve the FAFSA experience,” he said.

Ashley Bolter, a recent graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, is a member of EdSource’s California Student Journalism Corps.

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17/05/2025
Head Start offers path to success for children, families

Malaya Peterkin and other preschoolers sat in bright blue chairs around a table on a recent afternoon, listening raptly to teacher Rachel Cepeda read a book about butterflies. Afterward, the children created butterfly-themed pieces of art.

Malaya, age 5, attends the Head Start program at the Sharon Geese Early Learning Center in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood of Sacramento. Her mother, Timeisha Seymore, is confident her daughter will be prepared for kindergarten next school year.

“She hasn’t started kindergarten yet, and she can already read,” Seymore said. “My son is doing math already. He’s 4. … You know, they are learning, they are bringing these tools, and we are just ecstatic about it.”

The children also learn science and, because of the diverse teacher workforce, languages that include Spanish and Mandarin, Seymore said.

Malaya Peterkin, 5, listens as Rachel Cepeda reads aloud at the Sharon Neese Early Learning Center in Sacramento on April 23, 2025.
Credit: Randall Benton / EdSource

Seymore is among the many low-income parents who count on Head Start to prepare their children for kindergarten and to care for them while they work. The program, run locally by schools and nonprofit organizations, serves more than 750,000 children nationwide from birth to 5 years old.

Now, Head Start parents, teachers and other supporters are worried that potential cuts during federal budget negotiations could either reduce the number of children who can attend the program or eliminate it.

Program is more than child care

Students in the Head Start program, operated by the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), spend their days learning through play in brightly colored classrooms filled with books, blocks, toys and games. Children on tricycles zoom around the fenced playground, play in a giant sandbox or climb on a jungle gym under the watchful eyes of school staff during recess.

“It’s an amazing place,” Seymore said. “I love Head Start. My family would not be the same without Head Start.”

The Sharon Neese Early Learning Center’s program serves 60 preschool students and 29 toddlers. It is one of more than 100 Head Start programs, serving a total of 4,400 students, that SETA operates at schools and other community sites in the Sacramento region.

Head Start not only teaches children foundational math and reading skills, they receive healthy meals, referrals to dental and medical services, and behavioral support, said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California.

Head Start teachers, who work with students as young as 18 months, sometimes potty-train the children, teach them to wash their hands, how to eat healthy foods and how to take care of their bodies, said Annabel Stofer, who has been a teacher in the Sacramento program for 23 years.

Annabel Stofer, a 23-year Head Start teacher in Sacramento, says the federal program provides much more than quality child care. “We also support the family and the students to reach their potential, to connect them with resources, referrals, services that their children may need,” Stopher says.
Credit: Randall Benton / EdSource

“Head Start is not just a great place for high-quality child care, we also support the family and the students to reach their potential, to connect them with resources, referrals, services that their children may need that they might not even know about,” Stofer said.

Head Start serves children in deep poverty

Head Start started in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. It serves children who are homeless, in foster care, on public assistance or whose family income is below the federal poverty level — currently $32,150 annually for a family of four. A limited number of students from families with slightly higher incomes are eligible if space allows.

“In a family living in deep poverty, parents are focused on, how am I going to pay rent, how am I going to buy food,” Cottrill said. “They don’t have much capability to focus on A, B, C’s and 1, 2, 3’s.”

Early Head Start programs enroll children before they are born, allowing their mothers access to prenatal services and home visits. After the child’s birth, Head Start staff screen the baby for developmental delays. Children as young as 18 months can take part in Early Head Start classroom-based programs for toddlers.

Jackie Stephens had a home visit from a Head Start worker the morning she spoke to EdSource. The worker checked on her newborn son, Elijah, and offered lactation support. Stephens has been struggling to get Elijah to breastfeed. She tried to schedule an appointment with her medical provider but was told she would have to wait a week.

“Head Start is about children,” a teary-eyed Stephens said as she discussed the possible funding cuts. “I get the funding part, and I understand, I truly do. But you have to look at the bigger picture — on the effect that it’s having on these children, that it’s helping these parents who are trying to work, who are trying to do better for their family. For something to be ripped apart because of money, it just doesn’t seem right to me. … I pray that it doesn’t happen.”

Parents are involved

Family engagement is important at Head Start. Parents are involved at every level of the organization, including as members of the National Head Start board.

Teachers meet with parents throughout the year to ensure families aren’t in need of services and to develop educational plans for students. They also help families with their child’s transition to kindergarten — helping them navigate immunization and medical requirements and registration, Stofer said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r6on2Twj0s

“We’re a family,” she said. “… I consider these children my grandchildren, too. I have three of my own. But these children are equally as important to me emotionally.”

Stofer finds it difficult to believe the program, in existence for 60 years, could be gone in one presidential administration.

“I can’t even imagine a world without Head Start,” she said.

What could replace Head Start?

If Head Start funding is cut, preschool-age students could be eligible for the California State Preschool Program, which enrolls children beginning at age 3, and transitional kindergarten (TK), which enrolls them at age 4.

But Head Start supporters say TK doesn’t offer all the services that low-income families need and that its shorter day isn’t long enough for working families. Head Start programs are generally available at least six hours a day.

About 75% of all Head Start programs also operate California State Preschool programs at their site with similar services and hours. Early childhood education programs often weave funding from both Head Start and the California State Preschool programs to provide or expand services to all their students.

But the state isn’t expected to increase funding for additional seats in the California State Preschool Program in the near future, Cottrill said. That means that while early childhood education programs might remain open if Head Start funds are cut, they may have to close centers or eliminate seats, she said.

California program meets local needs

California’s Head Start program is unique in that it is designed to meet local needs, Cottrill said. There are Head Start programs in homeless shelters, at schools, in community centers and in private homes.

Map: Head Start programs across California

Use the map to explore current Head Start programs across the state, including their status and capacity.

“One of my favorite examples is that we have a preschool program that is kitty-corner from a library, so they take the parents to the library, and they help them get their library card and access everything that the library has to offer,” Cottrill said. “So, really, it’s about uplifting the entire family.”

In rural areas of the state, Head Start staff make home visits, offering curriculum to parents and helping them understand their child’s development.

Cottrill is hopeful that Head Start will survive upcoming budget negotiations in Washington.

“What a tragedy it would be to end the program after 60 years of supporting the American Dream,” Cottrill said. “That’s really what we’re talking about, right? This program builds that. It sets people up on a path for success when they did not have it before.”

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15/05/2025
Los Angeles’s climate crisis offers a blueprint for California’s schools
Freestyle Academy in Mountain View, California uses energy-efficient lighting, water-saving fixtures, solar panels, and eco-friendly materials. Native plants are also incorporated into the outdoor environments.

Credit: Tim Maloney, Technical Imagery Studios and Quattrocchi Kwok Architects
Top Takeaways

Climate disasters already impacting schools will continue to worsen.

LAUSD is investing in fire-resistant building materials, schoolyard greening projects, and modern heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

California needs a state master plan for climate-resilient schools.
When Los Angeles teachers welcomed students back to school in January, they couldn’t have imagined what lay ahead. Within days, climate-fueled wildfires would tear through Altadena, Pasadena and the Palisades, destroying or damaging twelve schools and disrupting education for more than 600,000 students across the region.

Unfortunately, in the years to come, the climate disasters that are already impacting our schools will worsen. In California, our leaders have the power to chart our own path to healthier, more climate-resilient school buildings — with or without federal support.

The LA fires provide a stark reminder of how unprepared many of California’s schools are for climate change. Beyond lacking fire-resistant building materials that could have mitigated damage, schools also lack necessities: cooling systems for heat waves and air filtration systems for smoke. Lack of cooling is a statewide challenge — between 15% and 20% of California’s K-12 public schools have no functioning air conditioning at all, and another 10% need major repairs to or replacement of their heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

But out of this crisis, solutions are emerging. Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), our nation’s second-biggest school district, is turning crisis into opportunity. Instead of simply rebuilding damaged schools, the district is creating a blueprint for climate resilience that should inspire educational leaders across California.

The district is investing in fire-resistant building materials, schoolyard greening projects, and modern HVAC systems to combat increasingly frequent heat waves and filter wildfire smoke and pollutants. While some initiatives were already underway prior to the fires, new investments will be supported by the district’s $9 billion bond that Los Angeles voters approved in November and Proposition 2, the state school infrastructure bond also approved by voters last year. For the first time, the Legislature explicitly allowed districts to use this funding to create safer outdoor learning environments, strengthen vulnerable infrastructure, and advance state energy goals.

LAUSD’s progress is encouraging, but California can’t afford to wait for a district-by-district approach to climate resilience. California needs immediate statewide action to protect all students. Two key steps are essential:

First, we need better state planning and coordination. California currently spends billions annually on school infrastructure, but much of this funding isn’t aligned with climate resilience, indoor air quality, or emissions reduction goals. By allocating $10 million to the California Department of Education to build local capacity and provide regional support through county offices of education, we will build necessary support systems to assist school districts in planning for climate-resilient campuses.

California has already wasted precious time. For two years, we’ve worked with the Legislature on a proposal for a state master plan for climate-resilient schools, only to face Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto twice over cost concerns, despite strong bipartisan support and a moderate cost of $10 million. This delay puts our children’s safety at risk. This year, we must finally get it done.

Second, districts need comprehensive facilities master plans that address indoor air quality, climate resilience, and cost-effective electrification. Students need a California where every school district is armed with a detailed blueprint for creating climate-resilient facilities, and has the support and funding they need to implement these plans. Implementation guidelines for Proposition 2 are being developed now and should include guidance for school districts to develop these plans with climate readiness at the core. State leaders could also prioritize and leverage Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds administered by the California Air Resources Board, a program that collects money from the state’s cap-and-trade initiative to invest in projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to support much-needed HVAC upgrades and nudge districts to choose modern electric technologies.

A previous generation of state leaders made sure schools could keep our children safe in an earthquake — it’s time to do the same for the threats posed by extreme heat and weather. No school district should be investing state or local dollars in their facilities without considering current and long-term local climate impacts.

•••

Jonathan Klein is the CEO and co-founder of UndauntedK12, a national nonprofit working to ensure that every student has the opportunity to attend a safe, healthy and resilient school.
Andra Yeghoian is the chief innovation officer of Ten Strands, a San Francisco-based nonprofit whose mission is to build and strengthen the partnerships and strategies that bring environmental literacy to all California’s students.

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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17/04/2025