Let’s be honest: many of us don’t use our Yondr pouches.
In the age of social media and being chronically online, smartphones have become extensions of our bodies and Los Angeles Unified’s attempt to minimize classroom distractions through the Yondr phone ban has sparked considerable debate.
While the intention behind locking away devices is commendable, the execution has been less than effective, calling into question the practicality of such measures.
We’ve all seen them, the gray and green pouches with magnetic locks. The Yondr pouches, designed to lock students’ phones during school hours, have faced significant challenges. Despite their widespread adoption, many students have found ways to bypass the system.
Students have hacked the pouches, purchased their own magnets, banged them against tables, used fake phones or have simply avoided using them altogether. Not only does this undermine the policy’s effectiveness, but it also highlights a glaring oversight in anticipating student ingenuity.
LAUSD spent no small amount on this program, allocating around seven million dollars for equipment to enforce the policy, with about 80% of eligible middle and high schools opting for Yondr pouches.
Funds that could have gone to hiring new teachers, improving facilities or enhancing school meals were blown on pouches that many students don’t even use.
While the benefits of reducing distractions is clear, the practicality of such bans remains questionable.
The effectiveness of the pouches relies heavily on constant administrative enforcement and student integrity. Overpowering cell phone addictions, student opposition to the phone ban and the inability of administrators to constantly breathe down our necks have diminished compliance with the policy.
Investing in education staff, infrastructure and student welfare programs might have yielded more tangible benefits than attempting to enforce a policy that students are adept at undermining.
Banning phones is not inherently flawed. In fact, it aims to foster a more focused and interactive learning environment. However, the district’s Yondr approach has been unrealistic and financially imprudent.
A more practical strategy, such as creating phone-free zones in classrooms and study areas while allowing usage during lunch or passing periods, would be a more feasible solution. Though no system is perfect, a more flexible structure can reduce the temptation to sneak phones out during class.
Technology is inescapable. Rather than waging an unwinnable war against phones, LAUSD should lead the way in creating a more balanced approach, one that truly prepares students for success in the real world.
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This commentary was originally published in the Mirror, Van Nuys High School’s student-run journalism publication.
Abigail Kim is a 10th grader at Los Angeles Unified’s Van Nuys High School and is a staff writer for The Mirror’sopinion section.
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.
What are your mornings like in the classroom? Are kids being crazy, are you scrambling to get lunch counts done and attendance taken, are your kids doing morning work, are they interrupting you with questions about their morning work or not completing it at all? These are all problems I had in my classroom up until last year. I implemented morning bins/tubs for morning activities for students. These morning activities for students are not always educational. They are fun creative tubs to get kids settled and ready for the day. This gives them time to interact with others, learn through play, and get themselves ready for the day.
What are Morning Tubs?
Morning tubs or bins are quick, easy, and creative morning activities for students to work on during the morning. There are no completion papers or work that they need to show you. It is a time for them to interact with peers, talk about their day, and engage in meaningful play and learning. I have between 3-5 tubs set out the in the morning. Students can switch tubs whenever they want. Some can be educational games and activities but they don’t have to be. Morning bins give you the freedom to have a stress free morning. It gives you time to address all the needs and paperwork of the classroom. Your class will not be interrupting you, but instead be busy with their morning activities for students learning how to talk and work together with others.
Favorite Morning Activities for Students – Morning Tub Ideas
So what goes in the morning bins or tubs? Here are some of my favorite ideas:
Drawing papers, markers, stampers, crayons. This allows your artists to get their creativity on paper 1st thing in the morning.
Tangrams- I have large floor tangrams that my students love to build with. I also have the smaller ones. My students always love building or making pictures with them.
CVC word games. My kids always love the game pop. We play this with a variety of different words and seasonally pictures. ***Link with centers** or dessert tubs.
Letter cubes or magnetic letters. Students can build words- real or nonsense.
BrainQuest Cards. Students love learning about all different fun facts.
Sequence. I have a ABC sequence game and other ones that follow our phonics skills.
Dominoes. Student can build, add together, or make a pattern.
Connecting links and cubes. The possibilities are endless.
Plastic coins, fake money, and a cash register. Students will play store. They love learning about money and are fascinated in learning how they buy things at the store.
Whiteboard and markers. Math problems, stories, drawings, or word practice. Students will enjoy this time with their boards.
Coloring pages
Nature/ Science Bin. I include items for the season or our science unit. I add magnifying glasses and paper to make observations and record their scientific findings.
Playing Cards- Students can play go-fish, War, addition games, or just build with the cards.
Geoboards
Lace Letters and Numbers: Great for beginning of 1st grade and Kindergarten! The fine motor skills are great practice and allow students to learn how letters and numbers are formed. The lacing also helps with learning to tie shoes.
Puzzles
Kynex or Legos
Word Jenga: I wrote sight words on the Jenga pieces. Students flip a card and have to read the word, find the word, and remove that piece.
ANYTHING fun and engaging!
The Goal for Morning Activities for Students
The goal is not for students to learn something new. This time is for students to bond with their peers, build relationships, problem solve, and work together. I am a firm believer in learning through play and these activities are great. They can be educational along with fun morning activities for students. The main goal in my classroom is that my students are building relationships with others, engaging in conversations, and having fun. It’s the perfect way to start the day.
Where to Get These Materials?
There are many items on Amazon and Lakeshore along with many other teacher stores. Not ready to foot a big bill? I have had great success with using Donor’s Choose website.
Teaching Nursing Students to Think Clinically with Realistic Instructional Tools
Tim Bristol
By Tim Bristol, director of strategic planning, NurseThink, Wolters Kluwer Health.
The ever-worsening nursing shortage is taking the United States by storm, with nearly 800,000 nurses planning to leave their roles or retire by 2027. Unfortunately, nursing education is not immune to this crisis.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports that 8.8% of faculty positions are vacant at U.S. nursing schools and additional positions would need to be created to meet student demand. Without enough faculty, this has a serious impact on the capacity and effectiveness of nursing education programs as nursing schools are already being forced to turn away qualified applicants. Fortunately, while faculty shortages won’t be solved overnight, advancements in instructional technology can help fill the gap.
One key challenge facing nursing education is that the curriculum is not set up to teach students in a way that mirrors real-world practice. While new nurses today will often face greater challenges – and often higher caseloads – than ever before, nursing students are not being adequately trained to face this reality. In many ways, today’s nursing classrooms look no different than the classrooms students may have encountered in 1993. But a lecture hall looks very different than the chaotic hospital setting new nurses will actually experience. To help ensure students build skills and engage in clinical judgement, even if faculty numbers are limited, incorporating electronic health records and virtual simulation into their daily education can make a major difference.
Electronic health records are not optional
While electronic health record (EHR) systems are a highly discussed technology across the healthcare landscape, they have been shown to reduce errors and lower medical costs. Needless to say, EHRs are here to stay across healthcare and something that care teams need to use, every day. However, they can only positively impact healthcare as a whole if nurses are trained to use them effectively and efficiently before they encounter them in clinical practice.
It’s important for faculty to understand how easy it is to implement EHRs into the daily classroom experience. Students could simply login to a basic, blank EHR and enter data based on a case study or challenge given by their instructor. For example, students could be tasked with entering a blood pressure reading that would indicate that they should hold (not give) a patient medication to lower their blood pressure. When faculty allow students to experience this type of activity, they are learning in the same way in which they will be using EHRs in practice. This is something that could easily be incorporated into nursing classrooms, even in a lecture hall of 100+ students.
The virtual world makes simulation accessible
Virtual simulations are increasingly demonstrating value for nursing education, helping students feel engaged and better retain what they’ve learned. By incorporating simulation on a weekly or daily basis into the curriculum, this lets learners dive deep into patient scenarios, allowing them to truly learn about nursing in a way not easily replicated with most other learning strategies. Up until recently, one major challenge was that many simulation tools are inaccessible to aspiring nurses, due to the cost and complexities involved.
The virtual simulation (vSim) world is now comprised of technology that is easily understood and usable by faculty in all environments. Computer requirements for vSim tools that resemble realistic patient scenarios are such that nursing students can easily use these programs on even the most basic of computers. While the technologies available and their complexities differ, these vSim programs are very realistic and allow students to practice high-level decision making in scenarios they wouldn’t likely encounter as part of their clinicals.
Within the virtual world, the realism of simulation is now accessible to all students. The next step is to make sure nursing faculty realize how critical these tools are. While an instructor might struggle to fit vSim into class time, the reality is that students can often learn more in 30 minutes of simulation than they could in a 2-hour lecture.
Bringing the nursing classroom into the future
The future of the nursing profession and healthcare really is in the hands of all nursing programs. Overall, what’s paramount here is that nursing students learn in the same way in which they will use that information at the bedside. This requires getting them comfortable with entering information into EHRs and practicing with realistic patient simulations on a weekly if not daily basis. Thanks to technological advancements in recent years, these tools are increasingly accessible, and we must prioritize training educators on how these tools can be easily adopted in their classrooms to ensure the next generation of nurses are practice ready.
Students in high school now have already lived through two global economic crises, and live in a world that is literally burning at a record rate. They must handle all of this while also coping with the normal chaotic ups and downs of adolescence can be overwhelming. Into this maelstrom, students are supposed to shuttle from Geometry to Social Studies and maintain focus on their studies.
The chaos of the post-pandemic world only adds to difficulties, as it has seen an increase in an already rising percentage of students dealing with mental health problems.
Some of these problems arose in part due to the remote and hybrid learning necessitated by the global pandemic. While undoubtedly better than no learning, students are still recovering from that ‘learning loss.’ Furthermore, the social cost of such extended isolation cannot be fully understood as it has no modern point of comparison. In order to put students back on track, and best position them to succeed in the future, any solution must take into account both the mental and the educational barriers our students face.
Fortunately, just as remote learning software mitigated the damage, proper investment in and uptake of available technology can put student learning back where it needs to be.
After the pandemic many school districts transitioned into hybrid learning systems, and educators had access to information about different learning styles previously unavailable. During and after the pandemic, Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled learning allowed educators to create personalized and inclusive learning for their students, progress that we must continue to build on.
Elements of the remote and hybrid learning implemented during the pandemic must be replicated because without embracing the available technological resources, we are not giving our students the learning opportunities they deserve. Effective teaching must include any and all available resources to support students dealing with ADHD and other mental health issues, or anything else that may impact their learning experience. The increased use of educational technology (EdTech) has a long way to go to meet the need, with 71% of students strongly agreeing that EdTech helps them engage with course materials. Greater access to EdTech helps broaden access and equalize student learning, while AI-enabled platforms can maximize the benefit those students receive.
When it comes to the benefits of AI-enabled EdTech, we cannot forget the impact the pandemic had on teachers as well. The very people responsible for our students and their learning outcomes feel overstressed and overworked, a situation that can only harm the education our students receive. Fortunately many of the same benefits to students enable teachers to perform better as well. With AI platforms able to assist with note-taking, students can pay closer attention in class. This not only helps students struggling with ADHD but those who are hard of hearing, those with reading disorders, or the visually impaired.
Better able to focus on the lesson, AI can then tailor student learning on the very lesson they just sat through. Furthermore, over time, AI platforms will learn about the learning style of students, tailoring advice and assistance on an individualized basis. Students from all ages and backgrounds can benefit, as it enables them to learn in ways that work best for them.
Properly implemented AI will learn from the student just as the student learns from the software. This will lead to more inclusive and cohesive learning, able to cater to every students’ needs. By easing access to learning, and helping tailor learning assistance on an individual basis, AI can relieve the stressors burdens that contribute to poor mental health among students. This, in turn, makes it easier for students to learn, a cycle that can not only erode pandemic learning loss, but help students get ahead.
EdTech and AI software are helping students all around the country, indeed all around the world, at this very moment. My team and I are proud to say we have helped over 250,000 students around the country combat mental health problems to improve learning outcomes. But that is not enough, that number does not even scratch the surface of what AI enabled EdTech can do for learning outcomes. Reducing the burden on our teachers, improving access to learning, and removing mental health barriers will foster a sustainable system of excellence.
By taking the lessons of the pandemic and applying them to today, we can best prepare our students for the future. Not only will AI systems help them in the short-term, but increased AI fluency and comfort with accepting new and emerging technologies will prepare them to be ready to take full advantage of the next advancement as we move deeper into the Digital Era.
Coming up with solutions to the transportation problems of homeless students would go a long way toward reducing chronic absenteeism, advocates say.
Credit: KATE SEQUEIRA/EDSOURCE
A quiet place to complete homework, free and stable transportation options, and not immediately being penalized for missed work are among the things that Te’yana Brown said could have helped her as she faced homelessness at different points between elementary and high school.
Instead, Brown spent most mornings trying to figure out how to get to her high school. Sometimes, a family member could drive her the 45 minutes to an hour to school, while on other days she took the bus. She missed so much school at one point that she was deemed chronically absent, meaning she’d missed at least 10% of the school year.
“I think they knew periodically because I would always have absences or I would always be tardy, but I don’t think they were really concerned because, either way, I usually got my work done,” Brown responded in a recent interview to a question about whether her school knew she was experiencing homelessness. “I guess they didn’t really want to make me feel bad about it, but I wish they would have provided a little bit more resources.”
Te’yana Brown was awarded a scholarship from SchoolHouse Connection, a national homeless advocacy organization that addresses how schools can increase attendance among students experiencing homelessness.
Brown was far from the only one finding it difficult to get to school as a student experiencing homelessness: Of the more than 246,000 homeless students in California during the 2022-23 school year, 40% were chronically absent, according to data analysis by SchoolHouse Connection and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan.
To prevent experiences like Brown’s is the reason for a new partnership between Attendance Works, a nonprofit aimed at boosting school attendance, and SchoolHouse Connection, a national homeless advocacy organization, to address how schools can increase attendance among students experiencing homelessness.
A federal law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, was implemented decades ago to ensure homeless students are identified and supported. If a homeless student falls through the cracks, they miss out on services that could help them stay in school, even if their housing situation remains tenuous.
The two organizations spent months analyzing data and interviewing districts nationwide to understand how to bring homeless students back to school.
“There’s a way in which all of McKinney-Vento is about attendance. The entire effort is about increasing attendance, as well as supporting success,” said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection.
Among the top strategies they gathered are training school staff to identify whether a student might be homeless, working together across school departments to avoid penalizing students for challenges arising from homelessness, and focusing on transportation access.
Some specific examples of districts taking homeless students’ needs into account include a county in Virginia that coordinated bus routes to motels where homeless students were living. Students admitted to being embarrassed when their classmates would see where they lived, so the bus schedule was changed to make the motels the first stop each morning and the last stop after school.
In Fresno, a team of school officials at Coalinga-Huron Unified School District meets weekly to review academics, attendance and other factors related to homeless students’ education and then take steps to support those students through that week.
While identification of homelessness is required under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the people doing this work at schools are often understaffed and underfunded. Usually, they have to gather funding from sources unrelated to McKinney-Vento to comply with the law.
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth grant is a steady stream of funding targeted at this student population, but at $129 million nationwide, it does not reach all schools that enroll students experiencing homelessness. During the 2022-23 school year, for example, California received $14.6 million to support the educational needs of homeless students, but it reached only 127 of the state’s more than 2,000 districts. The year prior, California received $13.2 million in competitive grants that went to 136 districts.
A significant amount of federal pandemic recovery funds set aside for homeless students was also available starting in March 2021 — over $98 million that went to 92% of California’s school districts, though that was one-time funding.
A federal Department of Education study published this year found that local educational agencies that received those pandemic recovery funds saw a decrease of 5 percentage points in homeless students’ chronic absenteeism rate.
The study attributed this national trend to schools’ access to increased funding. Duffield pointed out that these decreases occurred even as student homelessness rose over the same period.
Brown was eventually able to get to school consistently and is now in her second year at Pitzer College, a private institution that is part of the Claremont Colleges in Southern California, studying management engineering on a full-ride scholarship.
Her path there, however, required transferring to a high school that offered her flexibility in managing her schoolwork and provided resources that helped her focus on school even as she looked for stable housing.
Brown’s story is not uncommon
Te’yana Brown speaks at her high school graduation.
Brown was never identified as homeless in high school despite showing signs that her basic needs were not being met, including being chronically absent and missing school assignments despite generally maintaining good grades.
She struggled academically in the first two years of high school, a time in which she and her family were doubling up with other families, eventually moving between motels. She said she didn’t receive resources outside of what all other students were offered, such as referring families to social services programs like CalWorks.
But her educational experience and her college aspirations changed when she transferred to a school that offered her more flexibility and support. Brown had started working part time at a Goodwill store at age 15, but she stayed on top of her academics because her new school was a hybrid program that required in-person classes only twice a week.
“Not all students have the flexibility to go to school eight hours a day,” Brown said. ”That can be really challenging when it comes to students from underserved communities.”
At her new school in the Pasadena area of Los Angeles, Brown had 24-hour access to tutoring platforms, regular check-ins with her teachers and academic counselor, and a college preparatory program that included university tours.
“I had a lot of other tasks that I needed to do, whether it be research for my family or working to actually support myself,” she said.
The research that Brown referred to was the time she spent searching for affordable housing for herself, her mother, and her sister.
Once Brown got into college and moved to on-campus housing, she turned to figuring out how her mother and sister could remain stable.
“It was really stressful because I had a lot of worry about how my family was going to survive. It really hurt my heart if I was able to go to college and have a roof over my head but they didn’t have a place of their own,” said Brown.
Brown’s sense of responsibility has permeated her academic life, her college application process, and her decisions now as a college student. For example, when she got an Amazon scholarship that included a housing stipend and a monthly salary, she saved most of her pay for a down payment on a home for her family.
Advocates say efforts to increase attendance will continue to fail if homeless students are not the central focus. Just last week, Fresno Unified’s school board voted to provide rental subsidies to 10 unhoused families with kids who were were chronically absent. This is the type of strategy that the partnership between Attendance Works and SchoolHouse Connection aims to highlight and help expand.
“If we’re devising strategies but we’re not paying attention to the specific circumstances of the youth who have the highest chronic absence rates and some really unique barriers,” Duffield said, “then those overall attendance efforts aren’t going to be successful.”
I am a daughter of Mexican immigrants, born in the United States. Spanish is my first language. When I entered school, the language barrier was overwhelming. I see my story in the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) numbers. The report unveiled troubling trends in math performance, especially among English learners, underscoring the urgency of addressing this critical area.
As a young Spanish speaker still learning English, I sat in the back of the classroom, feeling lost while my classmates actively participated. Contrary to what my parents taught my siblings and me, in school our linguistic background was considered a disadvantage, rather than an asset. I was a bright student with a father who was great with numbers without a calculator. Though my parents had only a second-grade education, they ensured my siblings and I could do math well. Yet, at school the perception was that because I didn’t know English, I couldn’t comprehend the content in other subjects either.
Though my parents encouraged us to embrace learning, education and our cultural roots through our language, I struggled with my identity and found it challenging to express myself in English. The class instruction did not support my need to learn English while also helping me grasp rigorous content.
As California confronts its educational challenges, a critical concern has emerged: the need for math instruction and a math curriculum that is accessible and meets the needs of all students, especially English learners.
The National NAEP data indicates a concerning trend in math scores for both native English speakers and English learners showing a national decline in math scores for 4th and 8th graders, with 40% of 4th graders and only 28% of 8th graders achieving proficiency. Among Grade 8 math scores, English learners in the lowest percentile group experienced a six-point drop, widening the achievement gap with non-English learners, who only decreased by two points. In California, where nearly one out of every five students is learning English as a second language, it’s even more urgent that we address this crisis.
Teacher voices and research consistently show that effective instructional materials are crucial. The California Math Framework adopted in 2023 specifically underscored that sense-making in mathematics is intricately linked to language development. It is critical for any math curriculum we choose to support all students in developing the skills needed to excel in mathematics.
This is a critical moment for California as it is currently in the process of adopting math materials for 2026, which could significantly influence students’ achievement for years to come. The curriculum materials needed to change future outcomes are being selected now, and educators can demand high-quality instructional materials that are designed to support the needs of English learners.
Education leaders play a pivotal role in this adoption process. We must advocate fiercely for the best interests of our students, especially English learners, to ensure they receive the education they deserve. Collaboration with educators, parents, and the community is crucial to ensure that we make informed decisions that cater to the diverse needs of our students.
As California’s education leaders, we play a pivotal role, and there are specific actions that we can take to drive change.
Learn what high-quality materials for English learners look like. It’s vital to recognize what makes instructional materials effective. They should be culturally responsive, linguistically suitable and engaging, helping students access content while promoting language development.
Include representation of interest in committees. Ensuring voices are present in decision-making, like curriculum committees, fosters inclusivity. Engaging families and communities provides insights that create a more equitable educational environment.
Get involved now in curriculum adoption. Participating in the curriculum selection process enables educators to advocate for materials that support English learners. District leaders, school board members, educators and parents all have a role to play here.
Shift mindsets about materials together with professional learning. Changing educator perceptions and recognizing that traditional materials may not meet the diverse needs of English learners encourages innovative teaching strategies.
If we fail to address the specific needs of the 1.1 million English learners in California’s K-12 schools, we risk perpetuating systemic inequalities, which broadens the achievement gap. The California Math Framework explicitly calls for the integration of language and content. California has an opportunity to make better curriculum choices that benefit all students and significantly improve the educational experience for English learners.
By implementing these strategies, education leaders can foster change and a sustainable education process for English learners. Our children deserve nothing less.
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.
As California schools continue their post-pandemic recovery, a troubling pattern has emerged: High schoolers aren’t showing up.
Recent midyear attendance data reveals that while elementary school attendance has improved significantly, high school chronic absenteeism remains stubbornly high.
Nationally and in California, chronic absenteeism numbers tell a concerning story about older students. While California’s average chronic absence rate, based on the sample in the new report, fell to 20.46% (down from 29.04% in 2022-23), high school students continue to struggle.
Over 28% of California high school seniors included in the report have been chronically absent this school year. We must rethink approaches to engaging older students to improve high school attendance.
When students miss school, they miss more than just instruction. They miss opportunities to connect with supportive adults and peers — connections directly linked to academic success and well-being.
Research from YouthTruth, which surveys elementary, middle and high school students, reveals that only 40% of high school students feel they belong at school, compared with 47% of middle schoolers. Only 22% of high school students report that their teachers understand their lives outside school — the lowest percentage since before the pandemic.
Traditional attendance approaches that work for elementary students don’t resonate with teenagers navigating complex social pressures, growing independence, and increasing responsibilities. Many high school students juggle jobs, family care duties and mental health challenges that are not as prevalent in younger grades.
The California Safe and Supportive Schools initiative identifies school connectedness as fundamental to attendance. When high schoolers have even one strong connection with a teacher or staff member who understands their life beyond academics, attendance improves dramatically. Schools can implement connection mapping to identify which students could benefit from more connections.
Schools can also leverage peer influence. According to YouthTruth, 68% of high school students want to help improve their communities, but only 30% report having opportunities to create positive change. Student-led attendance initiatives consistently outperform adult-directed programs. For example, a peer-led “attendance influencer” program has an impact exceeding what other systems can achieve.
Educators must also seek to understand and address the specific attendance barriers older students face. Many chronically absent teens are helping to support their families, caring for siblings or facing transportation limitations. Flexible scheduling options, transportation assistance and partnerships with local employers can help address these obstacles.
Communication must shift from punitive to supportive to effectively reach students and families. A recent K-12 family survey revealed that more than 71% of families want messages celebrating good attendance or improvements to share with their child, while only 37% of respondents reported receiving regular communication about steps they can take to improve attendance. Schools that successfully address absenteeism use data to identify patterns and engage students and families in collaborative solutions-finding rather than blame.
Finally, we must address the mental health component of attendance. Nearly halfof all California students (48%) cite depression, stress or anxiety as obstacles to learning — yet only 41% of students nationally report having an adult at school to talk to.
This “support gap” is particularly pronounced among at-risk student populations. About 77% of LGBTQ+ students cite mental health challenges as barriers to learning, compared with 41% of their peers. While 46% of white students report having an adult at school they can talk to, the percentage is significantly lower for other racial groups, between 37-44%.
The good news? When targeted strategies are implemented, improvement can happen quickly. Effective approaches to building a culture of belonging include:
Teacher-student connection time: Brief but regular one-on-one check-ins to understand students’ lives outside school.
Student voice channels: Creating opportunities for students to provide feedback and lead attendance initiatives that resonate with peers.
Positive communication: Shifting from absence-focused messages to celebrating improvements and recognizing attendance gains.
Data-driven intervention: Using integrated attendance, academic and behavioral data to identify early warning signs and track what works.
As California continues to invest in attendance improvement, we must tailor our approaches to different grade levels. Our high schoolers don’t want automated calls or perfect attendance certificates. They need meaningful connections, relevant engagement and practical support for real-life barriers.
California’s future leaders walk our high school hallways — when they show up. Meeting these students where they are isn’t just good policy, it’s our obligation to the next generation of leaders, innovators and citizens.
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Kara Stern is director of education and engagement at SchoolStatus, a company that provides school districts with data tools and communication support for student engagement.
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.
This story has been updated with additional information on visa terminations at UC Riverside.
California campuses are searching for answers after dozens of international students had their visas terminated in recent days, a worrying trend for the state’s public colleges and universities, which enroll tens of thousands of international students and depend on the millions of dollars in tuition revenue they provide.
Concerns are also growing that the visa actions could result in a sizable number of international students choosing not to attend U.S. colleges in the fall.
Across the University of California’s 10 campuses, California State University’s 23 campuses and the state’s 116 community colleges, more than 80 current and former students have had their F-1 visas terminated, a number that could grow. In most cases, campus officials said the federal government, under new Trump administration policies, terminated the visas without explanation.
The cancellations are especially concerning to UC and CSU because the two systems combine to enroll about 50,000 international students, who make up significant enrollments in many graduate programs and pay tuition at much higher rates than California resident students. Including private universities, there are 154,000 international students in California, according to data from the SEVIS Data Mapping Tool, accounting for about 14% of all international college students in the U.S. and the most of any state.
The timing of the terminations is also concerning: Many prospective international students are currently deciding where they will attend in the fall, said Bernie Burrola, the vice president for international, community and economic engagement at the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU).
Burrola added that he’s worried there could be a chilling effect on international student enrollments.
“Students spend quite a bit of money when they come to university. Do they want to invest that time and money and then get a visa termination? I’m sure that calculus is happening around the world right now, with students weighing their options between a U.S. higher education and that of another country,” he said.
According to experts monitoring the terminations nationally, it’s possible the students had an infraction with law enforcement, even something as minor as a traffic violation. Nationally, there have also been reports that students are being targeted for involvement in pro-Palestinian protests.
The State Department, which handles student visas, did not return a request for comment Monday.
In recent interviews, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the federal government will not cancel the “overwhelming majority of student visas” but is targeting students it believes “are supportive of movements that run counter to the foreign policy of the United States.” He also acknowledged that the government is also pursuing terminations that “are unrelated to any protests and are just having to do with potential criminal activity.”
Visas have been terminated for current or former students from at least seven UC and CSU campuses and one community college:
Six students and six recent graduates at UCLA
Seven students and five recent graduates at UC Davis
Five students at UC San Diego
Four students and two recent graduates at UC Berkeley
Three students at UC Santa Cruz
Two students and four recent graduates at UC Riverside
One student at San Diego State
An undisclosed number of students at San Jose State
Six students at Santa Monica College
In total, a CSU systemwide spokesperson said the visas of 32 students had been revoked as of Monday, but did not disclose which specific campuses were affected.
Four students and two recent graduates at Stanford University have also had their visas terminated,showing the actions are also occurring at private institutions.
“We reiterate our strong support for all international students and scholars,” UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive said in a message to her campus. “UC Santa Cruz is enriched by the contributions of our international community members, and we are fortunate to research, teach, and learn with and from such outstanding students and scholars.”
In fall 2024, the UC system enrolled about 35,000 international students, or about 11.5% of all students. About 20,000 were undergraduates and 15,000 were graduate students. CSU, in fall 2024, enrolled 13,718 international students, or about 3% of that semester’s enrollment. Of those students, 5,765 were graduate students.
Across California’s 116-campus community college system, 14,533 students had a student visa in fall 2024, or about 1% of the student body.
UC and CSU receive significant tuition revenue from international students, who are charged a nonresident supplemental tuition fee on top of the base tuition that is also charged to in-state students. During the 2022-23 academic year, UC received $1.1 billion in revenue from nonresident supplemental tuition charged to nonresidents, which includes both out-of-state and international students. CSU likely receives tens of millions of dollars annually in tuition from out-of-state students.
Concerns about that tuition revenue come as the universities also worry about federal threats to withhold funds for research and other purposes and a possible reduction in state dollars for UC and CSU because of budget constraints.
Higher education experts emphasized, though, that universities stand to lose more than just tuition revenue if international students choose not to attend. Burrola, the APLU vice president, noted that many graduate programs are “heavily dependent on international students” and that certain departments would be in jeopardy without those students, who often add value by working as teaching assistants leading discussion sections and being deeply involved in research.
Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education,an important lobby group for higher education, said it is “important for a host of reasons” that the United States remain a top destination for international students, “from the positive impact they make on our economy and cultural vibrancy to the way so many become ambassadors for the value of a U.S. education and our way of life.”
“It is important for international students to be treated fairly and afforded due process. It would be detrimental to the United States, both from an economic and academic standpoint, to chill the willingness of prospective international students to come here,” he said.
In most cases, students at UC and CSU who had their visas terminated were not given explanations. Officials at UC Davis, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, and CSU officials at San Diego State said the federal government didn’t explain the rationale behind the terminations. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk offered some clarity, saying the termination notices at that campus “indicate that all terminations were due to violations of the terms of the individuals’ visa programs.”
The Associated Press reported that some students across the country have been targeted over pro-Palestinian activism, criminal infractions or even things as minor as a traffic violation.
Burrola said an emerging theme nationally is that students who received terminations might have “some kind of infraction” with law enforcement, sometimes minor ones. He added, though, that his understanding is based only on anecdotal reports and that APLU is seeking further clarification from the federal government. He said the group sent a letter to Secretary of State Rubio asking for a meeting “to better understand why this is happening.”
Mitchell of the American Council on Education penned a similar letter to Rubio and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, requesting a briefing on the terminations.
“Recent actions have contributed to uncertainty and impedes the ability of our institutions to best advise international students and scholars,” Mitchell wrote. “It is important institutions are in a position to reassure international students so they can continue to make exceptional contributions to their campuses, communities, and the nation.”
