Category Archives: Resources

Resources

Supporting undocumented students & families after DACA decision

6 Sep
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mother and child at door
In light of the Trump Administration’s announcement to suspend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly known as DACA, school board members are encouraged to remember that despite changes to federal policy, school districts’ and board members’ responsibility to serve all students remains unchanged. “The President’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is a disheartening development with serious implications for more than 200,000 Californians, most of them children and young adults,” said CSBA President Susan...

Stop Holding School Bond Funds Hostage And Start Supporting Students

11 Aug
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construction site
by CSBA President Susan Henry If we want our students to achieve, we must first create conditions that are conducive to success. California voters honored this principle in the November 2016 election when, over the objections of Gov. Jerry Brown, they approved $9 billion in school construction bonds, with $7 billion earmarked for K-12 schools. More than 55 percent of voters cast their ballots for Proposition 51, an important down payment on the investment needed for safe, healthy schools that...

Rural education report reveals both achievement and need

21 Jun
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Some may assume that rural schools are the small minority, but the numbers don’t lie — more than one in four of the nation’s public schools can be categorized as rural, and almost one in six American students live in a rural area. California is home to one of the nation’s highest percentages of small rural districts and America’s 16th largest absolute rural student enrollment. California schools also serve the largest percentage of rural English learner students in the nation...

Finding meaning in California’s constitutional guarantee of education

5 Aug
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by Keith Bray All children can succeed, but not all children have equal opportunity to do so. A child’s background and social station continue to play an inordinate role in his or her scholastic outcomes, both in California and across the nation. Schools, given the right circumstances, have the ability to disrupt this pattern of inequality, but may only do so if they are adequately and equitably resourced. In Robles-Wong v. California,(2016) 246 Cal. App. 4th 896, the California School...

New Adult Education Program Benefits District Students

26 Oct
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by Alan Helfman School districts looking to leverage student success would be well-advised to look to $525 million on the table. The funds are from the California’s Adult Education Block Grant. This grant provides significant discretion for local planning and implementation as part of the Local Control Funding Formula and is intended to help restore and grow the adult education system. This new grant program focuses on education and workforce preparation. The program also reinforces the state’s overall effort to...

Minding the DROPS: Water conservation projects teach awareness at schools

22 Jun
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by Renee Cashmere As a first and second grader in the Bay Area in 1976-77, an epic drought made impressions upon me that have lasted a lifetime. Even before the more recent drought began, I remembered the conservation rules all Californian’s were required to follow back then. We flushed our toilets with a bucket of water filled from the bathtub, washed our hands in a filled bathroom sink that was changed only once a day, and had timed showers. Conservation and a...

Schools have a role in helping children get health insurance

8 Oct
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CSBA is partnering with The Children’s Partnership “All In” campaign to help schools get information out to families and employees about the new affordable health coverage opportunities. Covered California, California’s new health insurance marketplace, opened on Oct. 1 and offers ways for millions of Californians to obtain health coverage, including health and dental coverage for children....

Summer learning matters, educators and business partners agree

24 Jun
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Summer Matters at the state Capitol 2013
Busloads of students from around the state joined state education, business and legislative leaders at the state Capitol June 20 for the kickoff of the Summer Matters campaign to boost summer learning. “We’re gonna rock with summer learning this year,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson told the crowd of students assembled in front of the North steps of the Capitol, ready for the fun, literacy-themed activities to take place throughout Capitol Park after the rally....

Membership shows strength in numbers

14 Jun
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California School Boards Association logo; www.csba.org
CSBA exists for and because of its members. Members rely on us to advocate for them, coordinate their advocacy, provide governance training, inform them and support them in ways that no other educational organization can match. At the same time, CSBA relies on members’ continued dues support and participation....