The 79-page “Family Insights” report found LAUSD families saw improvements in their schools in the past year, with support for leadership of the nation’s second-largest district increasing significantly.

The 2025 version of the annual poll, published by the L.A.-based nonprofit education advocacy group , found nearly three-quarters of families approve of both Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and the LAUSD school board, ratings that exceeded those of last year. 

Its findings were based on surveys of more than 500 LAUSD families conducted in the fall and again in February.

Most families gave their schools a “B” grade overall, GPSN Executive Vice President Ana Teresa Dahan said in an interview, acknowledging the positive direction of their kids’ education, while also seeing the need for more growth in certain areas.

“We have had some big crises happening, and I think families are generally happy with how the district has responded to those crises,” said Dahan of the poll’s results. 

“Families think that their kids are doing well in school,” she added. 

A published earlier this year by GPSN found LAUSD at a critical turning point, with fresh obstacles from the , changes in federal aid and new policies under the Trump administration, including immigration crackdowns, causing stiff headwinds for the district.

The GPSN poll found 63% of families thought LAUSD students and their own children were performing at the right level or above in reading and math, up from 54% last year.  

Almost 90% of parents rated instruction at their child’s school positively on this year’s report. 

Just over half of families surveyed in the poll said kids’ emotional and mental health needs have become the top priority in public education. Parents said they want schools to provide mental health services, such as counseling, both during and outside the instructional day.

More than half of families surveyed — 55% — said they did not feel adequately represented in district policy decisions, although that figure improved from last year when just 34% felt well-represented.

The poll found a majority of LAUSD families value high-quality teaching and instruction, and nearly half of parents also identify free home internet and high-quality tutoring as their top three priorities.

LAUSD students made gains in their scores on the district’s most recent state reading and math exams, but most kids in the district still . LAUSD made progress on federal assessments released this year but .  

In a written response to the GPSN report, a LAUSD spokesperson said the district is receiving good feedback from parents, and school officials are committed to better listening to families.

“Los Angeles Unified is proud that a majority of parents in a recent GPSN survey expressed satisfaction with their schools,” a district spokesperson said in a statement. “This continued growth in parent confidence affirms the hard work of our educators and staff.” 

Today I sit on the sidelines, but with a heart tilted toward young people.

It seems that every day there is a wave of fresh cuts at federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education. I personally know a reading specialist who will not be able to return to her position next year because of these decisions. The cuts keep coming, and they will affect the education that schools are able to provide.

With each announcement, my stomach churns. Staff layoffs will be debilitating. I am also concerned that the proposed closure of the will reduce or severely limit access to vital support for students.

As a mother, a retired school nurse, and a woman of faith, I am pleading with elected leaders to invest in children — including our most vulnerable. Investing looks like ensuring that students and educators have what they need to thrive. It looks like maintaining consistent standards for the education of young people.

The Education Department is responsible for ensuring that schools meet the needs of neurodivergent students and those who need extra support to succeed academically. It also holds schools accountable for providing services to students of all ages and abilities. Shuttering the department means not only widening the achievement gap, but pushing children and young people into the cracks.

Our nation cannot thrive if we continue to perpetuate a system in which some students receive a quality education and others do not. Further, any family can find themselves in need of support, whether it’s for their child’s physical, mental or special education needs. Education in America should mean that regardless of where you come from or what you need, you will have an opportunity to have your needs met.

Moreover, if the federal agency  is fully dissolved, the responsibilities for mandating services and providing expertise will fall to the states. Every state operates differently, has different priorities and different challenges. Educational services may become wildly inconsistent. Students in Colorado could receive vastly different services than students in, say, Utah.

No essential service —which helps children, families and communities — should exist in a state of uncertainty. When faced with budgetary challenges or limited oversight, I fear that some schools may consider special education services and student accommodations as disposable.

Though I am no longer in schools, I am now the national president of United Women in Faith. Among our many campaigns for justice is a fight against “school pushout.” Pushout occurs through a patchwork of policies that disproportionately funnels children of color, children with disabilities, and students identifying as LGBTQ from the classroom into the criminal justice system.

Currently, it is estimated that for students with disabilities is about 40%, which is twice that of their peers without disabilities. Far too often, students with disabilities are unfairly maligned and funneled into the criminal justice system. 

We need a functioning Department of Education to ensure that preventative services and those provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) give children their best chance to succeed and not end up as just another statistic. I, along with my sisters at , will keep pushing for education justice, but this is not our fight alone. Everyone has a role to play to ensure students get what they need in schools.

Children are our future, and their education shouldn’t be an option or an afterthought.

Texas is clawing back more than $607 million per year in federal funding for special education services, a move local school district officials say will likely worsen already strained budgets for students with disabilities.

The School Health and Related Services (SHARS) program provides hundreds of school districts critical funding for special education services, reimbursing them for counseling, nursing, therapy and transportation services provided to Medicaid-eligible children.

More than 775,000 students receive special education services in Texas, according to the Texas Education Agency. It is not as clear how many of them are eligible for Medicaid, though school district officials say many of the kids who directly benefit from SHARS come from low-income families.

But in the last year, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which manages the program at the state level, began imposing strict limitations on the types of services for which school districts are able to request federal reimbursement. The changes have accumulated into a $607 million slashing to the money school districts typically expect to receive under SHARS per year, according to health agency estimates.

Bewildered by the sudden changes, school district officials and special education advocates say little has been communicated about why these drastic changes are happening.

“We’re seeing an increased number of students that need more and more individualized care,” said Katie Abbott, special education director for a coalition of six East Texas school districts. “And yet, what are we doing?”

In response to their concerns, Texas has blamed the feds.

A found that Texas was improperly billing for services not allowable under the SHARS program. The report concluded the state would need to return almost $19 million, a fraction of the $607 million currently being left behind. It also required that the Texas health commission work to ensure it was complying with federal guidelines.

Afterwards, the commission submitted “every possible denial and request for the opinion to be overturned” but was unsuccessful, the agency told The Texas Tribune. The recent changes reflected an attempt to bring the state back into compliance, according to the commission.

But federal appeals officers, last year, said Texas produced “nothing at all” to dispute investigators’ findings that the state billed for unallowable services. The ruling also condemns the state for attempting to submit evidence after the deadline to do so had already passed.

Further, federal officials dispute the notion that Texas is being required to make certain changes to the SHARS program. In a statement to the Tribune, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made clear that as long as states work within “broad federal parameters,” they have autonomy to make decisions about their programs.

School district officials say Texas has resorted to overcorrecting problems identified by the audit, flouting expectations from the federal government that the state administers the program using the least restrictive means possible.

Many school districts are formally appealing the funding cuts with the state, while other rural districts have decided to exit the SHARS program altogether because of the administrative burden recent changes have created. Those that remain are holding out hope that lawmakers will decide in next year’s legislative session to help fill the financial gaps left in special education services — a lofty expectation for a state with a poor track record in both and .

“We’re talking about our most vulnerable kids,” said Karlyn Keller, division director of Student Solutions and School Medicaid Services for the Texas Association of School Boards. “We can’t afford to continue to make these huge clawbacks in funding when we’ve got kids that need the service.”

‘Faces of kids’

With the slashing to SHARS funding, the Texas Education Agency estimates the deficit between school districts’ special education expenses and revenue from federal and state money will grow to roughly $1.7 billion per year.

Students with disabilities make up a little less than 10% of the Shiner school district’s 700 student population. Factoring in the recent changes to the SHARS program, the rural school district located east of San Antonio can expect to lose more than $79,000, according to state health agency data.

Superintendent Alex Remschel says the loss will eventually hurt the Shiner school district’s ability to recruit and retain personnel who work to administer the one-on-one, small group special education services their students need. The district currently has three special education teachers and about a half-dozen aides who support them in the classroom. The district shares special education resources with eight other districts as part of a cooperative, which Remschel said had to dip into its fund balance this year to fill the gaps left by the SHARS reductions.

“When I look at the dollars that we have, I see faces of kids,” Remschel said. “And I don’t think that the people that are making these decisions see the faces of kids and how kids are impacted, and that’s what tears at my heart the most.”

Jason Appelt, executive director of the special education cooperative the Shiner school district is a member of, questions Texas’ decision not to take full advantage of the money being provided by the federal government. In total, the special education cooperative’s nine rural districts work with about 900 students.

In previous years, the group received about $1 million in SHARS funding, Appelt said, a number that has since been cut in half. SHARS revenue makes up nearly a fifth of the cooperative’s budget.

“We didn’t have any way to plan for this,” Appelt said. “Our districts are very fiscally conservatively minded. So if something doesn’t change with this, it’s gonna be really tough on all these districts, because there’s not too many other places to cut from.”

Larger and wealthier school districts also say they are feeling the effects of changes to the SHARS program. Of the Katy school district’s approximately 96,000 student population, nearly 18% receive special education services, said Gwen Coffey, the assistant superintendent for special education. The district will experience a cut of almost $8 million, according to the state.

Coffey also said the health commission has made participation in the program more difficult in recent years with constant “changing and shifting and adjusting,” resulting in more documentation and paperwork for staff whose workloads are already full. She said the agency does not seem to understand exactly what it’s asking of school districts.

On Oct. 1, for example, the state health agency overhauled the way school districts can bill for personal care services provided to students in a group setting — like bathing, dressing and feeding — which districts interpret as requiring second-by-second documentation of how and when they’re assisting students. Districts say the change is not feasible considering instructors typically are busy with helping multiple children at once.

“I think the bigger question that we all have is, why? Why is it being changed? What’s the purpose?” Coffey said. “Because if the purpose of the Health and Human Services Commission is to ensure that funding and services are being delivered to those students who require them right in a timely and efficient manner, then how does this accomplish that?”

Succumbing to fear

Kami Finger, who serves as assistant superintendent for school support and special services at the Lubbock school district, said ongoing cuts and changes to the SHARS program indicate a “cultural issue” in Texas where instead of maximizing reimbursement dollars available to the state, the state health agency is succumbing to fear because of the federal audit.

“We’re too fearful that we’re not going to do it the right way to begin with,” said Finger, whose district is losing more than $5.4 million from the funding cuts, according to state estimates. “All of that’s coming together at the same time, creating this very precarious situation for district administrators to make decisions about what least effective programs and services we may have to strategically abandon as a result of that.”

The was conducted from October 2010 through September 2011 and zeroed in on the Austin and Dallas school districts. It concluded that overbilling occurred because Texas “did not always follow its policies and procedures to ensure that the costs claimed for direct medical services were accurate and supported.”

In an appeal decision issued last October, federal officials further concluded that Texas had “multiple opportunities” during the process to present evidence disputing investigators’ earlier findings but failed to do so — until after the time to submit evidence had expired.

“The Board therefore will not reconsider its decision to address an issue that could have been but was not raised earlier,” one part of the ruling states.

MSB School Services is a vendor that provides consulting and support to roughly half of participating school districts in the Texas SHARS program and has also worked with schools in other states administering the program.

While acknowledging there were problems with the program as identified in the audit, Tabbatha Callaway, CEO of MSB School Services, said she has yet to see any documentation from the state suggesting that Texas was required to make funding cuts as drastic as it has. Instead, she said, the health commission has done “a phenomenal job of, at this point, making this seem hard and complicated.”

She also said Texas school districts possess the documentation that likely would have helped the state in its response to the audit. But she said the commission has not taken steps to work with school districts.

“We’ve tried really hard to get them to meet with us, have conversations, figure out what’s going on, and we haven’t been able to gain the traction necessary to understand the issues,” Callaway said. “What I can say is that there are solutions to recover these dollars, and they need to be looked at.”

The state health agency said in a statement it is working with state education officials to ensure school districts are up to date on SHARS and conducts annual meetings and training to ensure awareness. In working to identify “a greater need” for transparency and support, the agency said it recently created a Medicaid resource and training team for participating SHARS districts.

However, with drastic changes having already gone into effect, many school district officials are reconsidering whether participating in the program is worth it, while some rural school districts that didn’t receive significant funding from SHARS are dropping out, said Keller of the Texas Association of School Boards.

“If you’re counting on these kinds of programs to help you fund and then they go away after the fact, then you’re left in very dire straits,” Keller said. “They’re just making the decision that they’re not going to participate. They’d rather have to figure it out and know that they have the funding than guess and then be caught short.”

Legislative intervention

School districts and special education advocates are still holding out hope the Legislature will step up by increasing funding for special education services and to a special education funding model based on the individual needs of a student rather than how much time a child spends in a special education setting. This could help school districts cover some of the personal care services students need, advocates say.

But increases to public school funding have been difficult to come by in the last year as those dollars have been wrapped up in Gov. ’s for a school voucher program, which would allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to fund their children’s private school tuition.

Texas also has a poor track record in administering federally mandated special education services. The state was previously fined for slashing funding for students with disabilities in a way that violated the Individual with Disabilities Education Act. Later, federal officials that Texas failed to prove it did enough to overhaul its special education system.

Neither the political terrain nor the state’s recent history with special education has stopped advocates from trying to be optimistic, however.

“I feel like special education funding is one of the very few, if not the only thing in education policy that all of the legislators agree on,” said Andrea Chevalier, director of Governmental Relations for the Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education.

Rep. , the Democrat vice chair of the House budget committee, said after a recent legislative hearing where state health officials explained their rationale for changes to the program, she is working with other legislators to determine whether the state is “over-course correcting” in a way that further harms school district funding.

She is also advocating for more communication and transparency, as well as making sure school districts aren’t losing out on dollars while they’re appealing the state health agency’s decision to cut funding.

Katie Abbott, special education director for the coalition of six rural East Texas school districts that share special education resources, said more funding “would be very much appreciated,” but the services that SHARS has helped schools fund are still required — with or without the additional help.

“We’re passionate about what we do for kids, so I don’t see services stopping,” Abbott said. “It’s just squeezing blood out of a turnip to figure out how to make that happen.”

Disclosure: Texas Association of School Boards has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete .

This article originally appeared in , is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

The El Paso Independent School District is planning to close or consolidate schools — which the district calls “sunsetting campuses” — by the 2025-26 school year as it braces for continued declining enrollment.

EPISD Superintendent Diana Sayavedra on Wednesday announced the district is evaluating programs, resources and facilities and will present recommendations to the Board of Trustees in late fall.

The district will hold a series of this month to introduce their restructuring plans and gather public input.

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In an interview with El Paso Matters, said the district still doesn’t know how many or which of its 76 campuses could be affected but noted it does not plan to close any high schools at this point.

“If we don’t begin to have that conversation and make those difficult decisions, we will find ourselves in a crisis,” Sayavedra told El Paso Matters. “So before we get there, we’re giving ourselves a good runway to partner with the community so that our decisions are informed.”

EPISD enrollment declines

The superintendent of El Paso’s largest school district said the change is needed due to declining enrollment that she expects to continue falling in the coming years.

EPISD’s enrollment has declined by 20% since the 2013-14 school year, according to the Texas Education Agency. The district currently has fewer than 50,000 students for the first time since the 1960s.

“Over the next 10 years, we stand to lose additional students. Because our birth rates and the birth rates nationally are showing that we’re graduating more students from school systems than there are children being born,” Sayavedra said.

The number of children born to El Paso County residents declined by 21% between 2013 and 2023, according to state data provided to El Paso Matters. Nationally, the number of births declined by 9% in the same period.

Elementary schools are the first affected by declining birth rates. nine elementary schools between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 school years. The declines then ripple through to middle schools and high schools over the years.

Sayavedra said she expects the district’s enrollment to settle between 36,000 and 42,000 students. That would take the district’s enrollment back to where it was in the 1950s, according to newspaper reports from that period.

El Paso ISD budget, teacher pay

As enrollment declines, Sayavedra said the district will likely have to tighten its budget and possibly forego raises for its teachers and other employees in the coming school year.

“I don’t foresee that we can give a significant compensation increase, if any at all. But what I can share with you is that I’m going to bring a balanced budget to the board,” Sayavedra said. “We’re not at a point where we’re having to make significant staffing cuts because we’ve been very conservative and very fruitful and very strategic about our budget development process.”

She said the district plans to maintain its fund balance at 75 days or higher and keeps its employee’s insurance premiums the same.

Trustees for El Paso’s two other largest school districts, the and Ysleta Independent School Districts, have also said they may not be able to give employees raises in the 2024-25 school year.

During an April board meeting, SISD trustees discussed possibly reducing its employee health plan contributions as it deals with a $33 million deficit.

The future of EPISD high schools

Though Sayavedra said EPISD does not currently plan to close any high schools in the district, many have also seen declines in enrollment.

Since the 2013-14 school year, enrollment dropped by over 43% at Irvin High School, 27% at Austin High School, and 21% at Andress High School.

Among EPISD’s 10 traditional high schools, El Paso and Franklin were the only ones to see their enrollment increase during that time, by 31% and under 9%, respectively.

2025 bond election plans

The district also plans to bring a bond election to voters in November 2025 to upgrade heating and cooling systems throughout the district, improve security and potentially pay for upgrades or the construction of new consolidated school campuses.

Sayavedra said changes would need to be made even without a bond.

“If we were to sunset a campus, and families are going to transition to another campus, with a bond there may be opportunities for us to update that facility so that it’s a healthier learning environment for children. But if we’re not able to pass a bond, at the very least what we will be able to offer is program expansion for the receiving campus,” Sayavedra said.

What’s next in school closure plan?

A series of will be held this month to gather input from the community. Over the summer, the district will develop preliminary criteria for school consolidations and closures.

The criteria will be shared with the community by early fall, and the district will conduct a preliminary analysis of campuses, including which schools require facility improvements or have opportunities to implement or expand programs.

Recommendations will be presented in late fall to the EPISD school board, which will vote on which schools to close or consolidate.

Timeline:

May 2024: 10 feeder pattern community meetings

Summer 2024: EPISD reviews feedback; begins developing preliminary criteria for school consolidations, closures

Early fall 2024: Criteria shared with the community; begins preliminary analysis of campuses, including which schools require facility improvements or have opportunities to implement or expand programs; more community meetings

Late fall 2024: EPISD presents recommendations to the Board of Trustees.

2025-26 school year: School consolidations, closures implemented

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

But there’s another annual observance this month dedicated specifically to celebrating women working in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers — while also acknowledging there’s still a long way to go. 

began as a grassroots movement in 2016, started by a group of female meteorologists to celebrate female STEM pioneers, those active in the field and the next generation of female scientists on March 14.

March 14 marks Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical symbol pi. by physicist Larry Shaw, March 14 was selected because the numerical date represents the first three digits of pi (3.14) — and also happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday.  

It wasn’t until 2009 that Pi Day became an official holiday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation. But almost 40 years after Pi Day was born, women in STEM and their allies are asking for more diversity in the field.

All it took was a who planned to wear the same purple dress on Pi Day in 2016 and 2017, garnering viral attention as well as the opportunity to drive the Pi Day conversation to the underrepresentation of women in STEM.

This Pi Day (3.14) the ladies at AccuWeather are wearing the same dress to promote more women in STEM: Science Technology Engineering & Math

— Cam Tran WESH (@CamTranTV)

While MIT that the gender gap in STEM careers remains significant, with women accounting for only 28% of the field in 2023, Edutopia that female visibility in the field is increasing, with nearly 58% of young girls drawing a picture of a scientist who looks like them in 2016 — when #DressForSTEM was launched — compared to 1% when the study was first conducted in the 1960s. 

Today, in 2024, #DressForSTEM still stands: Those who participate in the initiative wear purple and create social media posts with the hashtag #DressForSTEM on March 14.

We’ve chosen to go a step further and celebrate by presenting photographic proof of the ongoing contributions women have made to STEM.

As Connecticut celebrates the opening of four new centers designed to meet children’s urgent behavioral health needs, some fear that a lack of recurring state funding means the program’s future is unsteady.

The four  established as part of  were launched using one-time dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act. Advocates say in order to operate long-term, the programs will need recurring money from the state.

Lawmakers plan to examine new funding mechanisms in the coming legislative session, and state agencies are working together to discern the best ways to bill Medicaid to cover the cost of running the crisis centers.

“Let’s be real about what this work takes,” said Sarah Eagan, Connecticut’s child advocate. “One is the UCCs cannot have one-time funding. There has to be a sustainable funding plan.”

In addition to long-term funding, officials are also working to get the word out to ensure that schools and emergency services know when to take a child to the crisis center rather than the emergency department.

The launch of the services, Eagan said, is still a cause for celebration. Children nationwide have reported more problems with behavioral health such as eating disorders, substance abuse, depression and anxiety in recent years, and the crisis centers are designed to help them quickly.

The urgent crisis centers are part of a law passed in 2022 as lawmakers pushed to address reports of increasing mental health problems among children during the COVID-19 pandemic. The centers are designed as walk-in outpatient clinics for kids who are having behavioral health crises such as thoughts of suicide or self-harm, depression, anxiety or out-of-control behavior, among other mental health issues.

There are four in Connecticut, at  in Hartford,  in New Haven,  in New London and  in Waterbury.

Startup and implementation of the centers cost $1.7 million in ARPA dollars, said Melanie Sparks, chief fiscal officer at the Department of Children and Families.

The two larger facilities cost about $4.2 million per year to operate, and the smaller two cost about $2.6 million per year to operate, Sparks said.

The department anticipates that ARPA funding will last through June 2024. DCF is working with the Department of Social Services to determine what new Medicaid billing codes could apply to the services offered at the centers.

Some services are already billable, Sparks said.

Three of the four centers are licensed as behavioral health outpatient clinics and can use the state’s fee system, according to an emailed statement from DSS spokesperson Giovanni Pinto. 

“That being said, we need to add a few more billing codes to align with the model. For example, in outpatient there is no nurse assessment,” Pinto said. “In the UCC, a nurse does an assessment, so we need to add a nursing assessment code.”

The change to the billing codes in Connecticut would require legislative approval.

Sparks added that the state is still conducting an analysis to see whether the billing would cover the entire cost of the crisis center’s operation.

“It’s really hard to analyze that before the programs are operational,” Sparks said. “This is a new service model to the state of Connecticut.”

The Village in Hartford had its . The programs are accepting patients. The Village has treated about nine children, officials said in an interview Wednesday.

Rep. Tammy Exum, D-West Hartford, said in an interview that she’s working with other lawmakers to determine potential sources of funding for the centers. She hopes to have a sustainable system of mental health care that offers community-based support for kids.

She said she doesn’t want it to be “reactive” and hopes lawmakers can create policy to support a system that’s ready for anything — another pandemic, for example. She and Sen. Ceci Maher, D-Wilton, co-chair the newly formed together.

“They’re rolling out,” Exum said. “We’re excited to be able to roll them out, but we need to be able to fund them.” 

Maher said children’s mental health continues to be a priority for the legislature. Maher is co-chair of the Committee on Children.

“Obviously it is really important to make sure that this isn’t just a one-time fund, so we’re certainly going to be working with the chairs of appropriations,” Maher said. “It’s just getting everyone on board.”

Hector Glynn, chief operating officer at The Village, said he thinks lawmakers are supportive and his staff are working to get the word out to show that the program is being utilized.

“I think [House Speaker Matthew] Ritter iterated that there’s still a lot of work to be done to ensure that the funding is stable for these programs beyond this fiscal year,” Glynn said.

Mental health service providers are giving the state certain data on the centers’ operations — who is coming into the clinics, barriers to access to service and what kinds of problems people come in with, among other measures, said Frank Gregory, administrator of children’s behavioral health community service system at DCF.

DCF has also partnered with the Department of Public Health to get the word out to emergency services about the urgent crisis centers.

“Kids come to the emergency department primarily in ambulances,” Eagan said. “Yes, from school or home, but they’re coming to hospitals by ambulance.”

In 2021, physicians reported that children with mental health needs were . The kids often had to wait hours for care.

The public health agency is working to revise its protocols so that ambulances can take children to the crisis centers rather than emergency rooms, although some providers are already working with local emergency services to put those protocols in place, Gregory said.

DCF is also working to ensure schools know about the urgent crisis centers by communicating with the state Department of Education and , Gregory said.

The Village is working with local mental health providers and schools to ensure community members know about their services, said Amy Samela, vice president of residential programs at The Village.

She added that local partnerships also help ensure that kids are able to get care in the community after their visits to an urgent crisis center.

Community care was another of Eagan’s concerns, as many families have reported difficulty accessing local care or being stuck on waiting lists for mental health treatment in recent years.

“It’s good, but we have a lot of work to do,” Eagan said.

The Village is also opening a subacute crisis stabilization unit with 10 beds in the fall. They’re aiming to open next month. The new unit will be another place that kids who visit the urgent crisis center can go if they need to stay longer to get the treatment they need, Samela said.

The Village also plans to call families every day after a visit to the urgent crisis center to see how they’re doing until they’re settled in with the next level of services, Samela added.

“We really want to keep kids in the community, out of facilities, out of hospitals,” Samela said. “Kids are in crisis. There’s no doubt about it.”

This story was originally published on 

Oregon’s pandemic home-schooling boom is beginning to cool off, new state data shows.

The number of students taught at home this year is down about 7.5% from last year in 14 of the state’s 19 Education Service Districts that responded to Capital Chronicle data requests and that track total home-school enrollment at the beginning of the school year. Parents who choose to home-school their kids must report their intent to do so with one of the state’s 19 regional districts, which cover all 197 school districts in the state. The service districts coordinate certain services and resources that are more cost-effective to share between multiple districts.

Home-school enrollment among those districts is still about 40% higher today than it was in 2019, before the pandemic moved classes online for over a year.

Parents don’t have to report why they are choosing to home school when they register, but Rosalyn Newhouse, a volunteer with the Oregon Homeschool Education Network, said many members of the group’s Facebook page have discussed why they haven’t sent their kids back to school.

“People who became involuntary home-schoolers during the pandemic said, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize my kid was under so much stress,’” Newhouse said. “A lot of parents are saying, ‘Actually, this has worked out really well for us and we’re going to stick with it.’”

Between 2019 and 2020, the number of students registering for home schooling in Oregon shot up about 71%, from just over 18,000 to more than 31,000.

It was part of a nationwide trend. Between the spring of 2019 and the fall of 2020, the number of students registered for home schooling across the country doubled, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Among Black and African American students, the number taught at home quintupled.

Data from 18 states analyzed recently by The Associated Press shows a slight decline in home-schooled numbers since the pandemic, about 17%, but not a return to pre-pandemic levels.

In six of the 14 districts the Capital Chronicle reviewed, the number of home-schoolers is still up 30% or more from pre-pandemic levels. In two districts — the Columbia Gorge and South Coast — the number enrolled today has sunk below pre-pandemic levels.

In Oregon, the numbers have increased the most in the most populous districts.

In the Multnomah Educational Service District, which oversees Centennial, David Douglas, Parkrose, Corbett, Gresham-Barlow, Portland Public and the Riverdale school districts, the number of home-schoolers is up about 2% this year, and remains up about 422% from pre-pandemic levels.

In 2019, 725 students in the Multnomah district were enrolled in home school. Today, about 3,800 are — nearly 4% of the district’s estimated 100,000 students.

Newhouse said the numbers tend to be highest in counties such as Washington and Multnomah where parents have more resources for home schooling.

“Where the populations are larger, there are more opportunities to hook up with other home-schoolers, so it’s easier to form a community,” she said.

Home-schooled students still make up a relatively small portion of the overall student population in the state. Even with the boom in 2020, the number enrolled in home schooling was about 5% of the state’s total student population.

Home schooling in Oregon involves little oversight. The Oregon Department of Education recommends content standards and a framework for teaching at home on its website, but parents aren’t required to use it. Students need test for comprehension in major subject areas at grades three, five, eight, and 10. When it comes to earning a diploma at graduation, it’s up to local high schools to decide whether to award one.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on and .

As a Michigan teen  students in a December 2021 attack, America was learning of yet another school shooting. This time, it was a performance arts high school in St. Louis, where a former student opened fire,  others before dying in a shootout with police.

The fact that yet another school shooting took place within hours of a gunman in a separate case appearing in court underscores how often these events take place in the U.S. As criminologists who have  to log all school shootings in the U.S., we know that deadly school gun violence in America in now a regular occurrence – with incidents only becoming more frequent and deadlier.

Our records show that seven more people died in  between 2018 and 2022 – a total of 52 – than in the previous 18 years combined since the  1999 Columbine High School massacre.

Since the February 2018  in Florida, moreover, more than  at U.S. schools on  and in classrooms, hallways, cafeterias and parking lots.

Many of these shootings were not the mass killing events that schools typically drill for. Rather, they were an extension of .

More frequent and deadlier

There have been shootings at U.S. schools almost , but in 2021 there were a record 250 shooting incidents – including any occurrence of a , be it related to suicides, accidental shootings, gang-related violence or incidents at after-hours school events.

That’s double the annual number of shooting incidents recorded in the previous three years – in both 2018 and 2019, 119 shootings were logged, and there were 114 incidents in 2020.

With more than two months left, 2022 is already the worst year on record. As of Oct. 24, there have been  â€“ passing the 250 total for all of 2021.

Many of these incidents have been simple disputes turned deadly because teenagers came to school angry and armed. At East High in Des Moines, Iowa, in March 2022, for example, six teens allegedly fired 42 shots in an incident that took place during school dismissal time. The  and critically injured two female bystanders. The district attorney described the case as one of the most  their office has ever conducted, partly because six handguns were used.

At Miami Gardens High in Florida that same month, two teens  sprayed more than 100 rounds with a rifle and handgun modified for fully automatic fire. They targeted a student standing in front of the school, but bullets penetrated the building,  sitting inside.

A similar situation  in October. A lunchtime dispute among students allegedly turned into a targeted shooting after a football scrimmage.  are believed to have fired 60 shots at five classmates leaving the game, killing a 15-year-old.

In each of these cases, multiple student shooters fired dozens of shots.

The tally for 2022 also includes incidents involving lone shooters.

In April, a  and six semiautomatic rifles fired from a fifth-floor window overlooking the Edmund Burke School in Washington, D.C. at dismissal. A , parent, school security officer and bystander were wounded before the shooter died by suicide.

Threats, hoaxes and false alarms

The increase in shootings in and around school buildings has many parents, students and teachers on edge. An October 2022 Pew Research survey found that  report being “very worried” or “extremely worried” about a shooting at their child’s school.

Aside from the near daily occurrences of actual school shootings, there are also the near misses and false alarms that only add to the heightened sense of threat.

In September, a potential attack was averted in Houston when police got a tip that a  and shoot students who were trapped inside. The following day near Dallas, another tip sent police scrambling to stop a vehicle on the way to a high school homecoming football game.  and planned to commit a mass shooting at the stadium, it is alleged.

There have also been  of false reports of shootings this year. Hoaxes, , even a viral  have sent schools across the nation into lockdown. Dozens, possibly hundreds, of these threats are , but police have no choice but to respond.

People are so much on edge that a  at one California school in September led to an active shooter response from police. The sound of a  in August caused thousands of people to flee an Arkansas high school football stadium for fear of being shot. A  caused a code red lockdown and parents to rush to a Florida high school.

A better way?

The rising annual tally of school shootings has occurred despite enhanced school security in the . Metal detectors, clear backpacks, bulletproof chalkboards, lockdown apps, automatic door locks and cameras have not stopped the rise in school shootings. In fact, the May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, provides a case study in  across the school safety enterprise.

Federal  passed in the wake of Uvalde will provide districts with money to hire additional school social workers, or pay for better communication mechanisms in school buildings to address the  of violence missed in .

It is aimed at better identifying and helping at-risk students before they turn to violence. However, another area that needs attention is students’ ready access to firearms.

Some school shooters, , are young adults old enough to get their guns legally from gun stores, prompting questions over whether some states need to reconsider a minimum age for firearms sales.

Meanwhile, most , making safe storage of firearms a public health priority.

But many children get their guns from the streets. Preventing weapons from getting into the hands of potential school shooters will require police and policymakers to devote resources toward cracking down on straw purchasers – those who buy firearms for someone else – and getting stolen weapons,  and guns modified with  to make them fully automatic off the streets.

Such measures could be what it takes to stop the tragic normalization of school shootings.

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

The state will spend more than $1 million to help more students of color and adult learners graduate from colleges in eastern Oregon.

Gov. Kate Brown announced last week that the state will spend $1.6 million to launch an initiative called “Moon Shot for Equity” at Eastern Oregon University, Treasure Valley Community College and Blue Mountain Community College. The money comes from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, a pot of federal Covid relief money that she controls.

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It’s part of a from a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, EAB, that aims to close gaps in degree attainment. The program includes simplifying college registration, setting up clear course maps to reduce the amount of time and money spent seeking a degree and making it easier to transfer credits.

“Every student in Oregon, no matter who they are or where they come from, deserves equitable access to higher education,” Brown said in a statement. “We must invest and innovate to break down the barriers that have kept too many Oregonians from succeeding in higher education.”

In Oregon, more than half of Asian-American adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and nearly two-thirds have at least an associate’s degree, according to the state’s . More than half the state’s population of white adults and nearly half the state’s Black adults have at least an associate’s degree.

But only 15% of Hispanic adults have a bachelor’s degree, while another 15% have completed an associate’s degree or certificate. Native American and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders have similarly low levels of post-high-school education, with 35% of Native Americans and 40% of Pacific Islanders achieving an associate’s degree or higher.

Eastern Oregon University has almost 2,900 students who take classes in person in La Grande or through online degree programs. Close to 70% of its students are white, with Latino students making up the next largest group.

Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario and Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton both offer associate’s degrees and transfer programs to a mix of full-time and part-time students. Both serve majority-white populations.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on and .

A broad-based group of political, business and immigration leaders rallied last week to drum up support for Proposition 308, the ballot initiative that would guarantee in-state tuition for any Arizona high school graduate, regardless of citizenship status.

With an estimated 2,000 undocumented students graduating from Arizona high schools every year, backers of the  campaign said it’s just “smart policy” to remove obstacles to their education.

“Some people might not agree, so we are also saying let’s do the right thing from an economic standpoint for our state as well.” said Paul J. Luna, president and CEO of Helios Education Foundation. “These students being educated is going to be a greater contributor to the success of our state.”

At least  currently allow state residents who are undocumented to pay in-state tuition at state colleges, but Arizona is not one of them. State residents voted overwhelmingly in the other direction in 2006, approving Proposition 300 by a 71-29 percent margin.

 denied in-state college tuition, financial aid and state-subsidized child care to anyone without legal status.

 gives voters a chance to reverse course this fall. If approved, it would allow anyone who graduated from an Arizona high school, after having attended in-person for at least two years, to get in-state tuition regardless of their immigration status.

The initiative was with a handful of Republican votes. Because it was sent to voters as a ballot initiative, it was not subject to veto by the governor.

The Yes on 308 coalition that launched July 6 included business groups, civic leaders, education groups and elected officials from both parties.

Mesa Mayor John Giles said at the kickoff that it is “very anti-intuitive to try and strengthen our workforce, at the same time putting up barriers to these great young Americans who are very anxious to participate in that American dream.”

Giles, a Republican, said approving Proposition 308 would “remove unfair obstacles standing in the way of these kids’ dreams.”

That theme was echoed by others at the event, who said investing in undocumented students would be investing in the future of the state.

“They are an asset, they’ve earned it and I think we should all support them and vote yes on Proposition 308,” said David Adame, president and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa, of recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals protection.

Adame said that one DACA recipient in five is trying to get a higher education. He also boasted about how undocumented immigrants have contributed to the economy in the 10 years since DACA was enacted.

“They have contributed in their current jobs over $25 million to Medicare and the Social Security system,” he said at the campaign launch.

While it cannot grant in-state tuition to Dreamers, the Arizona Board of Regents has given them a slight break on tuition over out-of-state students. Undocumented residents who graduated from an Arizona high school currently  of the in-state rate at one of the the state’s three public universities.

That can still be steep for undocumented students: Aliento, a DACA advocacy group,  that undocumented Arizona students would pay about $16,500 a year in tuition compared to more than $11,000 for other in-state students.

Luna said that means many students “based on their immigration status are forced to pay higher tuition which for many is unattainable.”

“We want to make sure that these students have an opportunity that these students pay in-state tuition,” Luna said.

If approved by voters, Proposition 308 would take effect next spring. Giles said it is the right thing to do.

“They’ve been educated in our schools, raised in our churches, they play on our kids’ Little League teams and given back to our communities and help build our state’s economy in countless ways,” he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on and .

In another blow to state Democrats’ lofty 2020 ambitions, Republicans have retained their majorities in the Arizona state legislature. After narrowly missing their chance to flip both the state Senate and House of Representatives, the Democrats have chosen new caucus leaders in each chamber.

National Democrats had hoped to make serious inroads in the state legislative ranks this year, eyeing closely divided capitals around the country. But their efforts to win unified control over states like Minnesota and North Carolina, or at least disrupt Republican dominance in a major state like Texas, all crashed last Tuesday. Though such races generate far less media coverage than presidential or congressional campaigns, their outcomes hold disproportionate influence over issues of K-12 funding, accountability, and school choice, which are nearly all determined far from Washington, D.C.

Arizona was thought to be the best target for Democrats hungry to gain more control over state-level policymaking. Just two seats in the House, and three in the Senate, separated the party from building new majorities in Phoenix, a feat they haven’t managed since the early 1990s. After years relegated to minority status, they have been powerless to slow the state’s huge and controversial expansion of education savings accounts, a means of school choice that provides families with funds that can be applied to private school tuition. .

But while several races remained close in the days following Election Night, it gradually became clear that victory had eluded them again. Democrats netted zero new seats in the House, ousting one GOP incumbent while losing one of their own. In the Senate, they still have a strong chance of capturing one seat thanks to the strong campaign of Christine Marsh, the 2016 Arizona Teacher of the Year.

Marsh made her political debut in 2018 after participating in the Red for Ed walkouts over teacher pay. In an interview that year with Âé¶čŸ«Æ·, Marsh said that the precipitous surge in teacher activism was “the effect of decisions the governor and our legislature have made for a very long time — a couple of decades, but culminating in the last year or two. We’ve gotten to the end, where the last couple of straws have broken the camel’s back.”

Though she fell short of defeating incumbent Sen. Kate Brophy McGee by less than 300 votes that November, she currently maintains a 500-vote lead with over 74 percent of ballots reported. In another victory for teacher activists and their allies, the Invest in Education Act — a ballot measure proposing to generate more education funding by raising taxes on high earners — also won passage last Tuesday.

2020’s KEY EDUCATION VOTES: See our full coverage of the 46 races that could reshape America’s schools following Election Day — and get the latest updates on state policies and students’ challenges during the pandemic by signing up for Âé¶čŸ«Æ· Newsletter.

The regulations, which go into effect in August, make , the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. Among them, institutions will be allowed to choose the legal standard that officials should use while investigating complaints. The rule, first proposed in November 2018, generally requires more evidence to determine whether sexual misconduct occurred and limits the situations in which institutions are required to act. The changes also narrow the definition of sexual harassment, requiring schools to intervene only if an incident is “so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” that it denies a student access to an education.

The changes recognize that “we can continue to combat sexual misconduct without abandoning our values,” DeVos said on a call with reporters. Though sexual assault is often seen as primarily a higher education issue, DeVos emphasized the rule’s importance to K-12 students and its role in combating incidents involving school staff. “We are making sure our youngest students — who often get overlooked in discussions of this topic — are no more forgotten.”

Though the rule has stirred a fierce debate among policymakers and advocates for more than a year, the timing of its release — while campuses nationwide are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic — has been criticized by Democrats and women’s rights groups. But DeVos, who called COVID-19 the “invisible viral enemy,” said the time for change is now, while students are away from campuses.

“Civil rights really can’t wait, and students’ cases continue to be decided” despite the campus closures, she said. “We’ve been working on this for more than two years, so it’s not a surprise to institutions that it was coming.”

But Reps. Bobby Scott and Jerrold Nadler, both Democrats, accused the department of pushing through the rule “instead of focusing on helping students, educators and institutions cope” with the pandemic. Meanwhile, the rule “creates new barriers to justice” for survivors while creating a burden of proof that is more stringent than is standard for civil rights laws “and will be particularly difficult to meet given the nature of many sexual misconduct cases.” Scott is chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, and Nadler serves as House Judiciary Committee chairman.

The new rule has been a top priority for DeVos since she took the helm at the department and could become a defining part of her legacy as education secretary. In 2017, DeVos rescinded Obama-era guidance on the issue, which called on schools to better investigate sexual violence reports and required educators to use a “preponderance of the evidence” standard in investigations, rather than a higher “clear and convincing” standard. The news comes less than a week after Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president and the vice president during the Obama administration, that he sexually assaulted a former Senate staffer in the early 1990s, saying that the alleged attack “never happened.” More than two dozen women have of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1970s — allegations he denies.

Under the new rule, schools are allowed to choose between the two evidentiary standards so long as the approach is applied across all cases. It also requires colleges to hold live hearings where students accused of misconduct are allowed to submit, cross-examine and challenge evidence. Such hearings aren’t required at the K-12 level. While women’s rights groups argue that the rule could stifle victims’ willingness to come forward with complaints, DeVos has highlighted a need to protect the due-process rights of those accused of misconduct.

The Obama-era guidance “simply was not working,” DeVos said. “It was a failed approach; we had kangaroo courts and an unreliable process.”

Though the new rule is largely unchanged from draft regulations proposed in late 2018, DeVos said officials made several modifications that reflect public feedback. After the proposed regulations were released, the department received more than 120,000 formal comments.

Under the final rule, K-12 school officials are required to respond if any school employee is given notice of sexual harassment. That’s a critical departure from the draft regulations, which sought to narrow the group of school officials responsible for responding to misconduct allegations. Responding to questions from Âé¶čŸ«Æ·, DeVos said it was important for the department to consider the role age plays in how students report misconduct to school officials. Kenneth Marcus, the department’s assistant secretary for civil rights, elaborated on the point, noting that younger children “may not know who to go to” with complaints.

“We want to make it clear that if a student or a parent reports a problem of this sort to any elementary or secondary school employee, this will be considered notice to the school as a whole,” Marcus said. “That includes teachers as well as principals. It includes bus drivers and cafeteria workers and guidance counselors.”

Among those who cheered the rule was Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Senate education committee chairman, who said the rule will help schools better understand their responsibilities under the law. They also offer a fair approach for victims and students accused of misconduct, he said in a statement.

“The rule ensures victims get the support they need to change classes or dorms if they allege they have been sexually assaulted or sexually harassed and the rule ensures the victim and the accused get a fair hearing to resolve such allegations,” Alexander said.

Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said in a statement that the rule is a victory for free speech and due-process rights because it offers students a presumption of innocence.

Advocates for sexual misconduct survivors, however, were quick to attack the final regulations.

Arthur Evans, CEO of the American Psychological Association, said in a statement that the rule “lacks the foundation of psychological research and science needed to address acts of sexual misconduct.” Evans took aim at the department for creating an “adversarial system of resolving complaints similar to legal proceedings” and for making school officials responsible only for complaints that occur on their property or during school events such as field trips and academic conferences.

The nonprofit Stop Sexual Assault in Schools announced a plan to “undertake a court challenge to ensure that K-12 students have fair and effective Title IX guidance.” The group has been critical of the regulations since the draft rule was first released. The new rule could make it more difficult for students to come forward and report allegations to school officials, the group said in a news release. The National Women’s Law Center also threatened a lawsuit, accusing DeVos of being “dead set on making schools more dangerous for everyone — even during a global pandemic.”

But DeVos said the new rule offers a level playing field for everyone.

“I’m a mother and a grandmother, of girls and of boys,” she said. “My insistence as we went through this process was that we develop a rule that meaningfully addresses sexual misconduct and treats all students fairly.”

The news site Axios explored how COVID-19 has widened that aspect of the digital divide during a series of three quick-fire, virtual interviews Thursday with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and Khan Academy founder and CEO Sal Khan.

“There’s no way that [online] education is the same as being physically located in a building,” said Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei during the livestreamed . “Then you think about those kids who don’t have [the] technology 
 it might be a lost year of education. I think that’s sobering 
 There’s still a lot of communities out there in rural America and inner cities that don’t have that type of connectivity.”

Some 15 percent of American homes with school-age kids don’t have a high-speed internet connection, according to the , and low-income, black and Hispanic children are disproportionately affected. Kids living in low-income households are about five times as likely to lack a high-speed internet connection as their counterparts in middle-income homes.

The were conducted by Kim Hart, who covers cities and tech for Axios, and the event was sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation. Here are some highlights from the three conversations.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai

Ajit Pai and his FCC colleagues have faced mounting pressure from members of Congress and education leaders — including former U.S. secretary of education Arne Duncan — to remove the barriers still preventing some low-income families from accessing the internet.

“More than a month into this crisis, we have seen no movement from the administration on these relatively simple changes,” Duncan wrote in an in The Washington Post. “But there is still a chance for Pai and this administration to show that when they say they want to keep Americans connected, they truly mean all Americans.”

While the commission has taken some steps, including encouraging broadband providers to sign the , which asks, among other things, that companies waive late fees incurred due to economic circumstances related to the coronavirus, advocates are asking that the FCC take further action now.

Pai has yet to do two important things, according to education advocates and school leaders. He could update the Keep Americans Connected Pledge so that internet providers commit to waiving families’ prior debts, which are currently stopping some of the country’s poorest students from accessing free Wi-Fi programs. An online petition addressed to Pai demanding as much has 13,000 signatures.

The chairman could also let schools and libraries use the billions of dollars already set aside through the FCC’s to buy Wi-Fi hotspots and devices for families that don’t have internet.

When asked by Hart to grade the FCC on how it’s doing in terms of closing the digital divide, he defended the commission, saying that it has “made substantial progress” on that issue over the past three years. He later cited a step that he took early in the pandemic: relaxing the “gift rules,” which prohibited service providers from offering — and school districts from accepting— free Wi-Fi and devices.

Pai made no mention of internet providers waiving low-income families’ prior debts, and he said that FCC regulations prohibit him from opening up the E-Rate money, though Duncan and other leaders maintain that doing so falls within the agency’s purview.

While Pai acknowledged the importance of bridging the digital divide, he spent most of his time touting longer-term internet access programs the FCC was working on prior to the pandemic’s arrival, like the , a $20 billion investment to expand broadband in rural communities, which has yet to kick off.

“While a number of preexisting broadband programs, such as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, will help close the broadband gap in the long term, I encourage you to take action that can enable expanded coverage now,” Senator Mark Warner Pai in a letter he sent last week.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly

Kelly has spent most of her career making education a top priority. She spent 14 years as a state senator pushing to restore funding for public education throughout her state, and under her tenure as governor, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that school funding

The Kansas Association of School Boards recently Pai, himself a Kansas native, to open up E-rate funds for low-income students at home. During her interview with Axios, Kelly didn’t press on that request, instead bringing up a broadband expansion strategy that her administration had been developing before the coronavirus struck, which the feds had been helping to fund.

“We used whatever we could,” she said of the federal contribution. “That’s something we will use in our broadband strategy going forward. In the meantime, we’ve had some great partners step up to help.”

Kelly was the first governor in the country to through the end of the school year last month, a decision that at the time drew some controversy. But that early call won her time, she said, which she used to get input from educators and create a sense of solidarity among her leadership team. At the time, schools were halfway through spring break.

After extending vacation for another week, Kelly said, she convened 40 teachers virtually, along with administrators and counselors, to create a game plan. The choice to shutter school buildings for the year also eased families’ minds about what was to come, she says. “We wanted to give our parents, children and teachers certainty about what was going to happen.”

When it came to planning the support that families would need while kids were away from school, Kelly said she and her team brainstormed holistically. They took action to help families not only with their kids’ academics but also with basic needs like child care — particularly for frontline workers — and food. The state got a waiver from the Department of Agriculture, allowing it to extend the school nutrition program to include feeding children from 1 to 18, regardless of their free or reduced-price lunch status.

Like other states, Kansas faces looming budget shortages; revenue estimates show that it’s looking at a $1 billion hole over the next two fiscal years, Kelly said. While Kelly told Hart that she hasn’t ruled out making cuts to state programs if necessary, she’s hoping that the federal government will step in.

“We know it’s likely [they’ll] provide a stimulus package for state and local governments, and we’re waiting to see what that looks like, and how we can use it to fill some of the budget shortfalls we’re experiencing,” she said. “I will work like the devil to continue to fund our schools. I consider education an essential service 
 I will do everything I can to make sure they have adequate resources to continue to serve our kids.”

Kelly told Axios it’s “way too early to call” if Kansas schools will reopen this fall. That’s partly because she’s already anticipating the second wave of coronavirus, which could arrive around that time.

“We’ll do dual planning,” she said. “Planning to open, and planning to have [schools] shut.”

Khan Academy founder and CEO Sal Khan

Sal Khan founded Khan Academy in 2008 after the lessons that he created to tutor his cousins started to gain attention. The nonprofit offers free online lessons and quizzes, and it has historically focused on math, an area where American students are .

Since the pandemic, Khan Academy has seen users increase threefold, and Khan said he has made more resources available to help them, including shutdown-specific for students in different age groups.

“We set it up, so what could a day look like for students,” Khan said. “And not just the academic part of it, but also how do we make sure they get enough physical exercise, how do we make sure they have enough time for play?”

The schedules were so well received that parents and teachers started asking for more, and Khan released free week-by-week math for third grade through Algebra II.

Although Khan reiterated the importance of connectivity in his Axios interview — “In order for Khan Academy to do its work, you do need online access. That’s step one” — like Kelly, he didn’t focus on the federal government’s responsibility to deliver it. Instead, he praised the districts and telecom companies that have distributed laptops and expanded broadband access in support of students.

Khan highlighted a done recently by one of his partners, the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), which found major impacts on students from school closures during the coronavirus, especially in math. The research indicates that when students head back to school next fall, overall they are likely to retain about 70 percent of this year’s gains in reading, compared with a typical school year, and less than 50 percent in math.

Khan says that parents who are feeling overwhelmed — as many have — should aim for half an hour a day of the basics with their kids.

“If, at a minimum, you can focus on the basics—the math, the reading, the writing — that’s a start,” he said. “And then you can layer more on top of that.”

Disclosure: The Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to Âé¶čŸ«Æ·.

A national following, a tsunami of early votes and an eleventh-hour social media appeal by Beyonce: In the end, none of it was enough to push Rep. Beto O’Rourke past incumbent Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. With more than 80 percent of votes tallied, called the race about an hour after polls closed in much of the state.

Republican Cruz held onto his seat with 51 percent of the vote, the network reported, with O’Rourke winning more than 48 percent. The margin was narrower than most of the polls, which consistently showed Cruz with a small but comfortable lead.

And more.

— Alejandra Matos (@amatos12)

Education was one of many arenas in which the candidates had starkly contrasting positions. Cruz favors arming teachers, supports private school vouchers and was a sharp critic of the Obama administration’s inclusion of LGBT students in its enforcement of federal civil rights laws.

On the campaign trail, O’Rourke called for fixing Texas’ notoriously hobbled school funding system, for shoring up teacher retirement benefits and for keeping public dollars out of private education. He did not talk about his wife’s work starting and running a public charter school and pushing for dramatic increases in the quality of education in El Paso, where the couple live.

Whether either candidate would have much influence over K-12 education policy in the Senate was irrelevant, according to political scientists. What mattered was how each talked about the issues, signaling something broader about their values to voters: in Cruz’s case, small government and fiscal restraint, in O’Rourke’s economic opportunity.

(Check out what’s going on in congressional races across the country on Âé¶čŸ«Æ·â€™s liveblog.)

O’Rourke also pledged not to take campaign funds from political action committees, forcing him to raise a war chest from small, individual donations. Educators — many from outside Texas — were among his top contributors.

In the runup to Janus vs. AFSCME, the Supreme Court’s decision striking down union agency fees earlier this year, the National Education Association-affiliated Texas State Teachers Association endorsed O’Rourke despite his wife’s work with charter schools and its El Paso affiliate’s campaign to halt the work of Choose to Excel, the education arm of the Council on Regional Economic Expansion and Educational Development, which is headed by Amy O’Rourke.

Had O’Rourke won, it would have been the first time in 24 years that a Democrat was elected to statewide office in Texas. Within minutes of Cruz claiming victory, pundits were crediting O’Rourke with sparking a Democratic revival in Texas and speculating about his political future.

Will Beto O’Rourke run for president in 2020? Defeat to Ted Cruz increases odds of run against Trump

— Newsweek (@Newsweek)

EDlection2018: This is one of several dozen races  that could go on to influence state or federal education policy. Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox; sign up for Âé¶čŸ«Æ· Newsletter.