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School funding will be focus, source of contention, of Brown’s revised budget
Democrats in the Legislature may find themselves at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on two issues that will factor large when Brown reveals his revised state budget Tuesday: how to spend billions in unanticipated revenue and how to reshape Brown’s sweeping plan for funding K-12 education. As of now, the state is on target to collect $4.5 billion more than expected in personal income taxes, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office. Democratic leaders in the Legislature … Read entire article »
Filed under: Equity issues, Featured, Foster care, Funding and Taxation, Poverty, Poverty, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Brown details how to hold districts accountable under funding reform
Responding to criticism that he is offering flexibility without accountability, Gov. Jerry Brown has offered up specifics on how he would hold school districts responsible for extra money he is proposing to give them for high-needs children under his proposed sweeping reforms of how California schools are funded. Under his plan: Districts and charter schools would be required to write or update an annual “local control and accountability plan” spelling out how the additional dollars would be used … Read entire article »
Filed under: Categorical Funding, English learners, Equity issues, Featured, Foster care, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Parents, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Site Councils, State Board of Education, State Budget, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Time for a statewide database to better serve foster youth
California has been a national leader in passing state legislation to improve educational outcomes for foster youth and in recognizing the importance of sharing education data. Now, with the passage of the federal Uninterrupted Scholars Act and Governor Brown’s focus on the education needs of foster youth, the time is right for California to support the use of a statewide foster youth education database. We are in a unique position to serve more foster youth … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Foster care
Advocates worry foster youth will be left behind under Brown’s budget
Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal is worrying advocates of foster youth, who are afraid that these children could be left behind in the governor’s push to overhaul the state’s school finance system. Under the governor’s proposed “local control funding formula,” districts would get at least 35 percent more dollars – about $2,400 per child – for educating their share of the state’s English learners, low-income children, and the approximately 42,000 school-age foster students. Districts would have … Read entire article »
Filed under: Categorical Funding, Foster care, Funding and Taxation, High School Completion, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Poverty, Reporting & Analysis, Students, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Foster youth to benefit from broader access to school records
(Update: The Uninterrupted Scholars Act was signed into law by President Obama on Jan. 14, 2013) The Uninterrupted Scholars Act, which sits on President Obama’s desk awaiting signature, marks another important step on the longer road to increased educational opportunity for students in foster care. The act will amend the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to ease child welfare agencies’ access to foster children’s student records. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who as the most senior Democrat on … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Foster care, Special Needs
Elk Grove sharply reduces suspensions of foster youth
Elk Grove Unified has dramatically reduced suspensions and expulsions of foster youth by applying the principles of the recently passed law, Assembly Bill 1909, long before the bill was written. The new law, which goes into effect in January, requires districts to notify social workers when a foster child enters one of their schools and to contact the child’s attorney if he or she faces a possible expulsion hearing. Unlike most children, foster children generally lack … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discipline, Featured, Foster care, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Reporting & Analysis, Students
Student discipline laws, though weakened, still will have an impact
Advocates for changing punitive school discipline policies that are disproportionately affecting African American and Latino students can claim at least a partial victory at the end of this year’s legislative session, with five bills signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown last month that raise awareness and pave the way for alternative approaches to out-of-school suspensions and expulsions. However, the governor vetoed two of the strongest measures that potentially would have reduced the 700,000 suspensions given … Read entire article »
Filed under: Absence, Truancy, Discipline, Equity issues, Foster care, K-12 Challenges, Interventions, Legislature, Bills, Race, Ethnicity, Reporting & Analysis, Students
Keep Foster Youth Services out of governor’s funding formula
March 10th, 2013 | 2 Comments | By Maya Cooper / commentary
Governor Jerry Brown’s new funding formula for education threatens to leave more than 40,000 school-age foster children in California without the essential support they need to succeed in school. The governor’s proposed budget eliminates 47 of 62 “categorical” education programs, including California’s Foster Youth Services program. Local Foster Youth Services programs operate primarily through county offices of education to better coordinate with the other county agencies serving foster children. These programs work with current and former … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Featured, Foster care, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)