State Board: Leaders address immensely challenging times; criteria approved for Seal of Civic Engagement

State education leaders opened Thursday, Sept. 10’s State Board of Education meeting by pledging their support for K–12 schools and communities across the state and recognizing the heroic work of local educational agencies in a monumentally challenging school year. While the scramble continues to close […]

CDE webinar offers insights into new guidance, fields key COVID questions

A Sept. 9 California Department of Education webinar drawing 1,300 attendees provided local educational agencies with clarity on updated guidance for in-person, small group instruction, as well as a deeper dive into the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and its impacts on K–12 schools. Officials […]

COVID-19 has chilling effect on vaccination rates for other diseases

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccination dose orders declined from mid-March, the beginning of the emergency declaration due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to mid-April by 2.5 million compared to previous years. In a report issued May 18, the agency wrote, “The […]

Federal legislation proposes free meals for all children, extension of waivers

New federal legislation would allow all children to access breakfast, lunch and after-school snack programs either in school or through “grab and go” and delivery options during the 2020–21 school year. House Committee on Education and Labor Chairman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.) introduced the […]

Pressure to close digital divide gains urgency; learning loss funds one piece of the puzzle

State officials are calling California’s digital divide an “all-hands-on-deck situation” considering the very short time available to equip 700,000 students with computing devices and another 300,000 with hotspots to connect to the internet. The matter — the focus of the California Department of Education’s Closing […]

New study finds Obama-era school meal policy contributes to decline in obesity rates for children in poverty

A new study examining the effect of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act on children found that, since the policy was enacted in the 2012–13 school year, obesity rates for children in poverty decreased by 47 percent. While the study in Health Affairs, “Impact Of The […]

State introduces school reopening regulations, requires masks for students in grades 3-12

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, July 17, unveiled new guidelines mandating that all California schools in counties on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list begin the school year solely with distance learning and must meet strict criteria in order to open campuses. As of today, 32 […]

A conversation with: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, California Surgeon General

Prior to being named California’s first surgeon general in 2019, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris worked as a pediatrician in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. There, she founded and became CEO of a clinic focused on addressing the community’s health disparities. Much of her […]