Headlines
FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.
Nov 24, 2021
Nearly two months later, the announcement is just that: an announcement. Now local school leaders who would be in the position of enforcing a potential mandate in Kern County have bemoaned the lack of information they've received from the state.
Nov 24, 2021
A California Interscholastic Federation appeal panel will not return a regional basketball championship title to Coronado High School that was revoked following the school’s infamous June tortilla incident.
Nov 24, 2021
Three Stanislaus County schools are changing the way they offer special education in order to keep those students in classrooms with their nondisabled peers for more of the school day.
Nov 24, 2021
The board members of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District had even turned to the trusted pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica, copying the entry for critical race theory into a public resolution that could become the legal policy of the district.
Nov 24, 2021
California’s landmark funding reform law needs to be fixed to help meet its promise of raising the achievement of underperforming student groups, conclude two recently published research studies.
Nov 23, 2021
Chico Unified School District is currently experiencing a food shortage because of impacts from the national food shortage. There is currently enough food for all of the students, but there aren’t as many options as there were before, according to Vince Enserro, Chico Unified School District director of nutrition.
Nov 23, 2021
A focus on education helped Republicans secure victory in Virginia earlier this month, a state that, a year earlier, had swung for Democrat Joe Biden by more than 10 points.
Nov 23, 2021
Enough people in the state remain unvaccinated that school districts, prison officials and private employers are urging flexibility. Otherwise, they say they’ll be understaffed.
Nov 23, 2021
A viral video that showed a math teacher hopping around her classroom in a mock Native American headdress spread outrage not just in Southern California, but across the country.
Nov 23, 2021
Close to 80% of students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are on track to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, school district officials announced Monday.
Nov 22, 2021
Lillian Maldonado French is going to retire as superintendent of Mountain View School District, which has six schools in El Monte and two in South El Monte, at the end of December after 12 1/2 years at the helm.
Nov 22, 2021
The Etiwanda School District Board of Trustees voted in support of a wider range of exemptions to a state mandate requiring staff and students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a resolution approved by the board on Thursday, Nov. 18.
Nov 22, 2021
The Paradise Unified School District on Tuesday night unanimously passed a resolution asking for Gov. Gavin Newsom to reconsider his COVID-19 mandate that requires all educational employees to get the jab in order to maintain their employment.
Nov 22, 2021
A former Bristow Middle School student says he was grabbed by the hood of his sweater and dragged to his seat by a substitute teacher in 2019, according to a lawsuit that alleges the student was singled out for being Black.
Nov 22, 2021
Although students have until Jan. 10 to become fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to comply with a Los Angeles Unified mandate, school district officials are telling families their children should get their first shot by this Sunday, ahead of the upcoming holiday season.
Nov 22, 2021
Ontario-Montclair School District’s superintendent took out a line of credit against a town house the district helped him buy and racked up nearly $100,000 in new debt against the property.
Nov 22, 2021
Some California school districts, in an effort to get ahead of California Covid-19 vaccine mandate deadlines and reduce already dire staffing shortages, are paying teachers and other staff to get their Covid-19 vaccinations.
Nov 22, 2021
Education officials in Placer, El Dorado and Yuba counties recently sent letters to Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state leaders, urging them to maintain exemptions for the student COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Nov 22, 2021
In the push to help more students thrive in science, tech, engineering and math, California is working to change the way its schools teach math. But the suggested new framework has sparked widespread criticism.
Nov 22, 2021
A $26.6 million city loan to San Francisco’s school district would be forgiven under legislation proposed by Mayor London Breed, but only if the school board comes up with a comprehensive plan to get its budget under control.
Nov 22, 2021
This was supposed to be a recovery year for schools and for students. But lack of substitute teachers, frequent student absences are hampering academic and mental health recovery, teachers say
Nov 19, 2021
As the number of young people in California continues to drop, “save our schools” has become an increasingly common rallying cry among parents in communities facing the prospect of shutting some of their campuses.
Nov 19, 2021
Paso Robles High School students’ efforts to honor veterans were “disrupted by a very poor choice to include a profane flag,” the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District said in a news release Wednesday.
Nov 19, 2021
The Chico Unified School District board of trustees unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday that called for state officials to honor exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine for students and staff.
Nov 19, 2021
School officials report cases to the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency. The county’s dashboard shows cases confirmed in school settings declined to 102, from about 270 in mid-October and from 370 in mid-September.
Nov 19, 2021
Hayward Unified this week became the second Bay Area school district in the past month to make the wrenching decision to close two schools because of declining enrollment.
Nov 19, 2021
Some California school leaders are urging lawmakers to preserve Covid vaccine exemptions for students, warning of a logistical nightmare that could push thousands of children out of classrooms.
Nov 19, 2021
The Los Angeles Unified School District is making tweaks to its coronavirus protocols and is pushing new strategies to persuade more students to get vaccinated before critical deadlines.
Nov 19, 2021
After an outcry from dozens of students, as well as faculty and state lawmakers, an attempt by two Chino Valley Unified school board members to challenge state law with an anti-transgender policy failed Thursday night.
Nov 18, 2021
Whittier School District’s Board of Education voted on Tuesday, Nov. 16 to hire Brea-Olinda Unified School District Superintendent Brad Mason as its new top boss.
Nov 18, 2021
Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified school board members spent Tuesday night making additions and changes to a proposed ban on the teaching of critical race theory in the district’s schools, but appear set to put it in place once it is ready.
Nov 18, 2021
In Sacramento, embracing the new requirement may be relatively easy: Several school districts in the area have for years been teaching ethnic studies courses.
Nov 18, 2021
Turlock Unified School District trustees asked students to leave their board meeting on Tuesday evening because some adults refused to wear masks.
Nov 18, 2021
With just days left before a deadline for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District to receive their first COVID-19 vaccine dose, the nation’s second-largest K-12 system is ramping up efforts to get more shots into children’s arms.
Nov 18, 2021
San Francisco schools will get $123.4 million collected from property owners that has been frozen for three years while the state’s courts decided whether the parcel tax was legally authorized by voters.
Nov 18, 2021
The state Legislative Analyst’s Office is projecting a double-digit increase in billions of dollars and percentages in 2022-23 in education funding under Proposition 98.
Nov 17, 2021
The Bakersfield City School District announced a new voluntary COVID-19 testing plan on Tuesday night. Superintendent Mark Luque said the plan — sometimes referred to as “test-to-stay” — will prevent absences, which will prevent disruption to students.
Nov 17, 2021
On Nov. 5, Scotts Valley USD Board President Tammi Bennett called a special meeting to consider approving a resolution, which states there won’t be exclusion or disciplinary measures for students who don’t wear a mask at SVUSD. The resolution passed on Nov. 8, with three board members voting to adopt the policy and two abstaining.
Nov 17, 2021
Four months after Pomona Unified officials removed law enforcement from schools, police are heading back to campuses after a majority of city leaders voted Monday, Nov. 15, in support of the move.
Nov 17, 2021
In the past five years, enrollment at public schools across the state has fallen by more than 230,000 students, a trend that’s likely to continue, according to new data from the California Department of Finance.
Nov 17, 2021
The incentive program, already underway, is part of a broad-based effort to boost vaccination rates by Nov. 21, the school district’s self-imposed deadline for students 12 and older to receive the first of two doses.
Nov 17, 2021
Has the district's unusual board governing structure blurred the lines between board member and superintendent and contributed to the steady churn in district leadership?
Nov 17, 2021
Los Angeles Unified officials are planning to relax some of the school district’s health-and-safety protocols next semester, including policies regarding who must undergo weekly COVID-19 testing and who can remove their masks outdoors.
Nov 16, 2021
School officials throughout Kern County are reporting a majority of employees are in compliance; however, a few are still on unpaid leave due to noncompliance with the state mandate.
Nov 16, 2021
Vandals trashed two classrooms at Oceano Elementary School before lessons started on Monday morning, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage.
Nov 16, 2021
In a repeat of last month’s statewide-coordinated walkouts, parents throughout Southern California kept their children home from school on Monday to protest COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
Nov 16, 2021
California schools next month will wrap up their fourth semester amid the coronavirus pandemic. Children ages 5 to 11 soon will have to get vaccines to attend.
Nov 16, 2021
The so-called equitable grading practices teacher Jeff Kleiner began using in 2019 are spreading across the country as districts search for ways to support students and close racial and economic gaps in academic achievement.
Nov 16, 2021
The results of the Nov. 9 vote were revealed during a Wednesday town hall ahead of a scheduled Anaheim Union High School District Board of Trustees meeting that will address the students’ recommendation next month.
Nov 16, 2021
With the deadline looming, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Unified said Monday evening, that “a few” staffers still had until the end of the day to submit their documentation of being vaccinated.
Nov 16, 2021
Native American leaders and state lawmakers from the Inland Empire offered ideas to educators for preventing another classroom incident like the one at a Riverside high school that produced a viral video and sparked widespread outrage.
Nov 16, 2021
West Contra Costa Unified is looking at the sources of conflict and misbehavior on campus, then teaching students the social and emotional skills they may need to avoid violence.
Nov 16, 2021
Members of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified school board will consider a resolution Tuesday to prevent critical race theory from being taught anywhere in the district.
Nov 15, 2021
A handful of Northern California school districts have said they will defy the governor’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students, despite the resulting loss of millions in state funding for violating the law.
Nov 15, 2021
Leaflets in both English and Spanish were distributed on cars in Sacramento last weekend urging parents to reconsider vaccinating their children against COVID-19. And some parents feel they are targeting the Latino community.
Nov 15, 2021
A San Diego County judge dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the state’s school mask mandate, saying Gov. Gavin Newsom has the legal authority to enforce universal masking.
Nov 15, 2021
As the number of young people in California continues to drop, “save our schools” has become an increasingly common rallying cry among parents in communities facing the prospect of shutting some of their campuses.
Nov 15, 2021
Costing $390 billion, the proposal would provide universal preschool access for 3- and 4-year-old children — the largest expansion of free education since public high school was added about 100 years ago.
Nov 15, 2021
San Diego County’s largest school districts are spending their hundreds of millions in COVID aid dollars on everything from pay raises for substitute teachers to Chromebooks for kids.
Nov 15, 2021
The superintendent of the Ontario-Montclair School District has become California’s highest paid K-12 administrator for three years in a row through a series of opaque perks.
Nov 15, 2021
All of this money presents a unique opportunity to meet the needs of students most impacted by the pandemic, said Liz Guillen, legislative advocate for the nonprofit law firm Public Advocates.
Nov 12, 2021
Little has made appearances at local board meetings, including the Bakersfield City and Kern High school districts, speaking against both masking mandates and more recently COVID-19 vaccination mandates in schools.
Nov 12, 2021
Less than three weeks after hundreds of community members gathered to hear students speak about the bullying and hate they’d endured for being LGBTQ youth at Paso Robles High School, the school district announced a set of powerful goals it hopes to implement by the end of this academic year.
Nov 12, 2021
The Monterey County Office of Education board of trustees voted unanimously to appoint Annette Yee Steck, a longtime financial advisor and previous Carmel Unified School District board member, to fill its open seat at the board’s regular meeting Wednesday morning.
Nov 12, 2021
Hacienda La Puente Unified School District’s ongoing district-wide classroom modernization project will cost more than the initial $148 million in bonds voters OK’d for the massive undertaking in 2016 by passing Measure BB.
Nov 12, 2021
Some children were excited to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday afternoon, while others still had tears and fear of the quick shot in the arm. But for Venus Basaee, 6, who didn’t cry, getting the shot was a positive event. Venus said she doesn’t want to get COVID-19 and is ready to tell their friends to get vaccinated.
Nov 12, 2021
It’s one of the first steps in the process to divvy up the San Diego Unified School Board’s five trustee seats among the school district that contains more than 1 million people after the 2020 U.S. Census.
Nov 12, 2021
West Campus High School Vice Principal Elysse Versher talks on Nov. 10, 2021, about being targeted in social media posts and on-campus vandalism with a racial slur.
Nov 12, 2021
School districts in the Coachella Valley are holding a number of vaccination clinics geared toward little ones after the pediatric vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nov 12, 2021
Last month, the Buchanan High School senior who prefers “they/them” pronouns was booed and heckled by adults for advocating for mask mandates and other coronavirus safety precautions on Clovis school campuses.
Nov 10, 2021
Tamalpais Union High School District administrators said they have seen some academic progress since the start of remote instruction in the pandemic, but they are tracking a reported rise in students seeking mental health services.
Nov 10, 2021
As some California parents scramble for ways around a new Covid-19 vaccine mandate for schools, the state is increasingly scrutinizing doctors issuing suspicious medical exemptions.
Nov 10, 2021
The vote is also taking place amid Native American Heritage Month and pushback from community members and some of Orange County’s indigenous residents who say the mascot is a racist symbol.
Nov 10, 2021
San Diego Unified’s new Mission Valley school will be named Nipaquay Elementary, after a Kumeyaay village that existed in the area long before Spanish colonization.
Nov 10, 2021
The Riverside school board plans to meet with three prominent state lawmakers from the Inland Empire next week to chart an educational path that is more sensitive to Native American students.
Nov 10, 2021
Scott Kuykendall, superintendent of schools in Stanislaus County, said Tuesday he will petition the state asking that COVID-19 vaccinations be a recommendation but not required for students and staff in schools.
Nov 10, 2021
This is no regular history class. It’s an example of what’s ahead for every California high school student who will be required by 2030 to take an ethnic studies class to graduate.
Nov 10, 2021
Students in Los Angeles public schools said they have suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic and expressed a “non-negotiable” need for academic success: mental wellness.
Nov 10, 2021
A Ventura County middle school history teacher was removed from her position after she was captured on video delivering a conspiracy-laden tirade against vaccinations and the family of President Biden during class.
Nov 09, 2021
The suit, filed by the group Let Them Breathe, is asking that a judge grant an injunction that would keep the state from enforcing a mask mandate for K-12 students.
Nov 09, 2021
On Wednesday, the Fresno Unified School Board announced the final members of their committee, which will develop recommendations on a process for changing the names of schools and mascots.
Nov 09, 2021
When Rahmatullah, Huma and their children arrived at Ethel I. Baker Elementary on Monday morning, the school’s announcement board had a message: “Welcome Back Pakiza, Raihan and Faizan!”
Nov 09, 2021
Riverside educators have announced steps they have taken to confront a North High School teacher’s dressing up as a Native American and acting out a mock chant while teaching a math class.
Nov 09, 2021
Some of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s youngest learners received their first coronavirus vaccine dose on Monday, Nov. 8, as the nation’s second-largest school district rolled out its vaccination program to children ages 5 to 11.
Nov 09, 2021
Already faced with at least two lawsuits over its coronavirus-related student vaccination mandate, the Los Angeles Unified School District is now being sued over a similar requirement for employees to get their COVID-19 shots.
Nov 09, 2021
The changes teacher Joshua Moreno embraced are part of a growing trend in which educators are moving away from traditional point-driven grading systems, aiming to close large academic gaps among racial, ethnic and economic groups.
Nov 09, 2021
Many fewer students are taking the SAT or its rival ACT, counselors say. Of those who do take the tests, more will not submit their scores if they are not happy with them.
Nov 08, 2021
Enrollment in Monterey Peninsula Unified has been steadily falling since 2011, with the district losing 10% of its population through the 10 years. And while bleak ideas such as closing schools were floated – and may have been on their way even before the pandemic – the health crisis affirmed that hard decisions needed to be made before the district hit a point of no return.
Nov 08, 2021
Federal approval of vaccines for 5- to 11-year-olds last week marked a turning point in the pandemic, with all school-aged children now able to get the shots. So how much longer are kids going to have to wear masks at school?
Nov 08, 2021
School board meetings across the country and in Orange County are becoming increasingly heated as debates rage on polarizing issues like mask mandates and ethnic studies courses.
Nov 08, 2021
With some Bay Area school districts requiring students to get COVID-19 shots to return to class, Black students are being vaccinated at rates far below their peers.
Nov 08, 2021
San Diego Unified School District announced Friday evening that it planned to recommend making school attendance optional on Nov. 12, allowing anyone who wants to take a mental health day to do so.
Nov 08, 2021
State officials must act immediately to provide distance learning that is comparable to last year for students with disabilities and also adequate to their overall needs, a judge has ordered.
Nov 08, 2021
Amid calls for schools to diversify their teaching staffs, some are saying those efforts should extend beyond the classroom — to the counseling office.
Nov 05, 2021
After much discussion and comments, the board of trustees voted to extend the district-wide COVID-19 testing to students who are in a modified quarantine.
Nov 05, 2021
A California middle school teacher has been disciplined after telling students that Donald Trump is still president, COVID vaccines are frightening and Hunter Biden was doing deals in Ukraine and China.
Nov 05, 2021
Schools in the Sacramento region have seen far fewer COVID-19 cases in recent weeks compared to the start of the school year, according to data dashboards.
Nov 05, 2021
Los Angeles Unified School District coaches will receive their first increase in coaching stipend salaries in more than 20 years beginning with the 2021-22 school year.
Nov 05, 2021
Prompted in part by a recent shooting near a campus, the board has reversed course and brought back police, saying that student safety is paramount.
Nov 05, 2021
For Nawf Abuelgasim, an eighth grader at AIMS College Prep Middle School in Oakland, the best thing about her year in online learning exile may have been the dress code.
Nov 05, 2021
Proposed guidelines in the state would de-emphasize calculus, reject the idea that some children are naturally gifted and build a connection to social justice. Critics say math shouldn’t be political.
Nov 05, 2021
The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently gave the green light to vaccinate children ages 5 to 11 for COVID-1.
Nov 04, 2021
The Lucia Mar Unified School District board of trustees voted during a special meeting Tuesday evening on how it will replace a trustee who recently died.
Nov 04, 2021
The Pacific Grove Unified Board of Trustees voted to release the teacher at a special board meeting Monday night following an investigation by the district’s legal counsel.
Nov 04, 2021
For the second time in a month, Addicott Elementary School has shut down classrooms due to coronavirus concerns. Fresno Unified spokesperson Nikki Henry confirmed the small school of about 50 students with special needs would remain shuttered until at least Monday.
Nov 04, 2021
After over three hours in closed session Wednesday evening, the Fresno Unified School Board handed Superintendent Bob Nelson a positive evaluation. Trustees voted 5-1 in support of the positive evaluation, with Trustee Terry Slatic casting the lone “no” vote.
Nov 04, 2021
Oceanside Unified School District’s board of trustees voted Tuesday against a proposal to close and consolidate several schools, in response to an outcry and protests from parents whose children would have lost their neighborhood campuses.
Nov 04, 2021
The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Tuesday it will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines to children ages 5 to 11 next week, though it’s not currently requiring students in this age group to get the shots.
Nov 04, 2021
Hundreds of high school students marched on Wednesday to protest what they described as a failure by district administrators to address sexual assault, harassment and abuse complaints against fellow students and some teachers.
Nov 04, 2021
California schools, flush with state and federal funding for summer programs, expanded their offerings this past summer to include more students, and attracted them with innovative enrichment classes.
Nov 04, 2021
With this week’s approval of a Covid vaccine for children, California schools and parents began looking ahead to a new era — one that might mean fewer mask and testing requirements, but one where deep ideological divisions remain.
Nov 03, 2021
Tamalpais Union High School District administrators are offering veteran teachers an incentive program to retire early.
Nov 03, 2021
Nearly 350,000 California students face an imminent choice: Get vaccinated for Covid-19 or stay home. The state has already moved aggressively by mandating teacher vaccines and indoor masks beyond other states.
Nov 03, 2021
Following Friday’s 106-0 football game and media fallout, Inglewood principal Debbie Tate issued an apology Monday to the Morningside High community. The game caused a media storm over the weekend and became a national story.
Nov 03, 2021
Depleted public schools arts programs would get a huge boost under a proposed statewide ballot initiative put together by former L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner — with A-list endorsements from entertainment and music industry figures including Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine, will.i.am, and Issa Rae.
Nov 03, 2021
Hundreds of San Francisco high school students walked out of classes Tuesday morning to voice concerns about what they say is a climate that too often ignores sexual harassment and assaults.
Nov 03, 2021
A San Francisco Unified School District plan on how to strip $125 million from its budget drew criticism and significant questions Tuesday from teachers, families and school board members, with concerns focused on proposed cuts to classrooms.
Nov 02, 2021
Community members and pastors from local churches filled the Kern High School District's board meeting room Monday night to speak out against the district's implementation of state policies, particularly involving transgender students and COVID-19 mandates.
Nov 02, 2021
Several campuses in the Corona-Norco Unified School District, such as Garretson Elementary School in Corona, offer vending machines with books. The goal, officials said, is to inspire children to create their own home libraries.
Nov 02, 2021
When school began in August, teacher Debra Thompson at Northmead Elementary School in Patterson said her kindergarten students couldn’t recognize their names or hold a pencil. Most of them could identify only one or two letters.
Nov 02, 2021
A judge has denied a temporary restraining order sought by two nonprofit groups representing parents of nearly 1,500 Los Angeles Unified students who oppose the LAUSD’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate on grounds such decisions should be left to the state Department of Public Health.
Nov 02, 2021
The future of an elementary school that’s been serving families in South Central Los Angeles for more than a century appears uncertain after this academic year due to declining enrollment, while a charter school on the same campus — whose enrollment has been growing — sets its sights on expanding.
Nov 02, 2021
Faced with the choice of cutting $125 million or a state takeover, San Francisco school district officials have come up with a plan to balance the budget, one that would hit classrooms hard and eliminate funding for long-standing student programs.
Nov 01, 2021
In August, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a state requirement that all teachers and staff in K-12 public and private schools in California get fully vaccinated by Oct. 15 or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. While some districts across the state are still struggling to meet this mandate, Monterey County schools have risen to the challenge.
Nov 01, 2021
A decision by a student to wear a KKK costume to Pittsburg High School has outraged many parents and students. It happened Wednesday on the same day the school held a costume contest.
Nov 01, 2021
Two months since the first reports that dozens of California kids were stranded in Afghanistan, a growing number of students from the Sacramento area are returning home.
Nov 01, 2021
Nearly 50 students at her daughter Lexi’s school were protesting the state’s mask mandate by attending class maskless. One supportive teacher who also removed his mask was placed on administrative leave.
Nov 01, 2021
Kate Moody and Matt Jarrett, teachers at Steindorf STEAM Magnet School, are helping save monarch butterflies with the help of their second-grade students. They began the effort about four years ago as part of a project-based learning program.
Nov 01, 2021
Global shortages affecting all industries present a “golden opportunity” for Patterson Joint Unified School District to demonstrate how its Supply Chain and Logistics program can lead to well-paying, stable jobs in a crucial industry.
Nov 01, 2021
In February 2008 a small group of community activists formed the Black Parallel School Board to advocate for Black students in the Sacramento City Unified School District.
Oct 29, 2021
Pomona Unified school board members have voted unanimously to bring police back to campuses, three months after they removed law enforcement from school grounds.
Oct 29, 2021
The Muslim-American community continues facing hate in California classrooms, according to the 2021 bullying report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Oct 29, 2021
Speaking in an online town hall on Thursday afternoon, Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson made his first public comment about the Fresno teacher’s union’s plans to file grievances against the district.
Oct 29, 2021
Oceanside Unified School District’s recently unveiled proposal to close, consolidate and modernize four schools has caused an uproar among parents, teachers and community members in recent weeks.
Oct 29, 2021
Jamal Y. Speakes Sr., Hovik Saponghian, Angela Karapetyan and Nadine Jackson paid a price for holding to personal beliefs in the face of public-health policy mandates and experts who cite strong evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
Oct 29, 2021
California’s school vaccine mandate is moving closer to reality with the imminent approval of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. But regulations around the mandate have left many confused.
Oct 29, 2021
Hundreds of thousands of California children could lose pandemic food benefits if their caretakers don’t spend the money, a new state audit found, and the California Department of Social Services is in a race to find those families.
Oct 29, 2021
Oakland schools will require all students 12 and older to be vaccinated for COVID-19 by Jan. 1, joining several other California districts in mandating the shots despite a lack of full federal approval.
Oct 29, 2021
Seven employees from Granada Hills Charter who were fired this week for refusing to get their COVID-19 shots are believed to be the first public school employees in California to lose their jobs over such vaccination mandates.
Oct 28, 2021
This week the Bakersfield City School District kicked off the process of redrawing its school boundaries.
Oct 28, 2021
The state Assembly Education Committee and Select Committee on Native American Affairs met with educators and tribal leaders Wednesday for a joint informational hearing on improving Native American curriculum and student achievement in California schools.
Oct 28, 2021
Unsatisfied with the most recent salary increase offered by the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District, teachers picketed before Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting.
Oct 28, 2021
The 2021 campaign raised $700,000. The money is allocated on an equal per-student basis to all Marin public school foundations.
Oct 28, 2021
There are calls for the Los Alamitos Unified School District Board of Education president to resign after she was captured on a “hot mic” uttering a disparaging comment against a parent at Tuesday’s board meeting.
Oct 28, 2021
According to current state regulations, only parents of students in close contact with the infected student (within 6-feet for more than 15 minutes) must be notified.
Oct 28, 2021
Local school districts throughout Orange County are wrestling with another debate, this time it’s centered around an expected vaccine mandate for all school children once the shots are fully approved by federal officials.
Oct 28, 2021
State public health officials say schools throughout Orange County and the state could become vaccination sites for children five years and older next month as the Food and Drug Administration is expected to grant an emergency use authorization for the shots.
Oct 28, 2021
Most education officials don’t think of public schools as a product to sell, but just like brands of fast food, sports drinks or sneakers, districts have billion-dollar budgets and compete in a crowded marketplace.
Oct 28, 2021
In the new report, “Renewing Our Promise,” the Californians Together coalition finds that the numbers and percentage of long-term English learners have decreased, from 52% to 46% in 2019-20, the last year for which data is available.
Oct 27, 2021
The majority of teachers and school staff members in Kern County have complied with a state mandate that took effect Oct. 15 that requires them to either prove they have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or take weekly tests.
Oct 27, 2021
More than half of the staff in charter schools and school districts in the north state were vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Oct. 12, three days before California's requirement that all employees at schools be inoculated or face weekly testing.
Oct 27, 2021
There will be no vaccine mandate for students in East Whittier City School District for now, its superintendent told protesting parents at its Monday, Oct. 25 Board of Education meeting
Oct 27, 2021
At their special Board meeting Monday, the Humboldt County Board of Education appointed Michael Davies-Hughes to serve the remainder of Dr. Chris Hartley’s term as Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools, through January 2023.
Oct 27, 2021
Fresno’s Central Unified School Board on Tuesday launched a new committee to examine “the appropriateness of school names and mascots. Central Unified trustees voted to form a committee last month.
Oct 27, 2021
The San Diego Unified School Board approved a plan Tuesday to spend hundreds of millions in COVID aid dollars on substitute teachers, custodians, bus drivers, nurses and counselors as well as in several other areas.
Oct 27, 2021
The Los Angeles Unified school board on Tuesday, Oct. 26, adopted a plan for spending approximately $2.57 billion in additional COVID-19 pandemic relief funding from the federal government.
Oct 27, 2021
An Oct. 31 COVID-19 vaccine deadline could force thousands of high school athletes and musicians to the sidelines in the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials confirmed on Monday.
Oct 27, 2021
A growing number of California students are participating in dual enrollment courses — college classes taken while still in high school. But making dual enrollment courses equitable and accessible to even more students hinges on a variety of factors.
Oct 26, 2021
At least a dozen Marin schools were closed Monday because of power outages, flooding, downed trees, water intrusion in school buildings or other storm-related impacts.
Oct 26, 2021
A Scripps Ranch High School student has sued San Diego Unified School District in federal court, arguing that the new student vaccine mandate constitutes religious discrimination.
Oct 26, 2021
Fighting against critical race theory has become a rallying cry for activist candidates in the Nov. 2 elections all over the country who take issue with how schools have addressed diversity and inclusion.
Oct 26, 2021
After spending years in the classroom, Jessica Reid Sliwerski decided to tap into her experience as an elementary school teacher and principal to teach as many kids as possible to read using a science-based methodology.
Oct 25, 2021
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the Kern County Sheriff's Office has requested to cancel its contracts with school districts where deputies serve as school resource officers due to understaffing.
Oct 25, 2021
The initiative, backed by longtime education reform advocates, could set up legal battles with the state’s teachers unions and school districts. It would give parents more power to challenge policies they regard as problematic for the kids’ schooling.
Oct 25, 2021
Clovis Unified School Board President Steven Fogg said he would work to ensure all speakers at school board meetings feel safe, following an incident Wednesday when adults in the crowd booed a high school student.
Oct 25, 2021
Next school year, all California middle schools will start no earlier than 8 a.m. and high schools no earlier than 8:30 a.m. At Modesto City Schools, the logistics of transporting thousands of students means elementary school bell schedules must shift, too.
Oct 25, 2021
Armed officers remain entrenched at school campuses across Southern California despite public outcry in the wake of a fatal shooting in Long Beach by a school safety officer and opposition unleashed by the 2020 killing of George Floyd.
Oct 25, 2021
Opponents of the San Francisco school board’s decision to end merit-based admissions at Lowell High School sought an injunction on Saturday in their efforts to reverse the changes.
Oct 22, 2021
David Lopez didn't need to explain his growing frustration against public schools to the small crowd gathered in a Canyon Hills Assembly of God hall.
Oct 22, 2021
A Clovis student was booed and jeered by adults Wednesday while trying to tell the school board that their compromised immune system makes them more vulnerable to a bad outcome from a coronavirus infection.
Oct 22, 2021
The event came days after homophobic incidents at the school made international headlines.
Oct 22, 2021
The Los Angeles Unified School District said on Thursday, Oct. 21, that its search for a permanent superintendent has entered a “new phase” with the release of a community engagement report detailing the opinions of some 30,000 students, parents, staff and community members on what they’re looking for in a new district leader.
Oct 22, 2021
Community leaders, educators and former North High students blasted the teacher’s behavior as racially insensitive.
Oct 22, 2021
View Park Preparatory High closed its campus to students this week due to a coronavirus outbreak, and is believed to be the first school in Los Angeles County to reclose because of the pandemic since the 2021-22 school year began.
Oct 21, 2021
Leaders at Modesto City Schools on Monday shared data revealing how the COVID-19 pandemic affected students’ academic performance.
Oct 21, 2021
For months, educators have been warning about the devastating effects the pandemic and school closures would have on student academic progress. But a first-of-its-kind Los Angeles Times analysis of data offers a particularly alarming assessment of the impact on L.A. students.
Oct 21, 2021
Coronavirus infections led to the shutdown this week of a campus in Los Angeles County, the first such closure since school opened in the fall — and a situation that also led to the quarantine of a rival high school football team.
Oct 21, 2021
Los Angeles Unified has approved accommodations for approximately 1,500 employees seeking a medical or religious exemption to the district’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for staff, the district reported on Wednesday, Oct. 20.
Oct 21, 2021
California might have to forfeit tens of millions of dollars in pandemic relief money meant for schools if the department in charge of distributing funds does not strengthen its oversight of spending, a state auditor says.
Oct 21, 2021
The district board has approved a $50,000, five-month contract with San Diego-based Target River Marketing.
Oct 21, 2021
Substitute teachers who are eligible to work in Marin schools are being wooed with higher pay and even waivers on state exams amid a steep shortage of stand-ins.
Oct 21, 2021
A group of about 100 mask and anti-vaccine protesters stood outside the doors to the multi-purpose room at Marigold Elementary School where the Chico Unified School District board meeting was taking place Wednesday night.
Oct 21, 2021
This time, the nation’s second-largest K-12 system, along with interim Superintendent Megan Reilly and all seven school board members, are being sued by the California chapter of the Children’s Health Defense — a group founded by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — as well as the Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids.
Oct 21, 2021
The Redlands Unified School District offered counseling to students on Wednesday, Oct. 20, after a video surfaced of a female Citrus Valley High student singing what her school described as a “racially insensitive” song.
Oct 20, 2021
A “glitch” in the Pasadena Unified coronavirus verification system has delayed the district’s ability to determine a departmental breakdown of vaccination percentages.
Oct 20, 2021
Ethnic studies will be taught in high schools across Orange County in the next four years, along with the rest of high schools throughout the state.
Oct 20, 2021
Orange County’s second-largest school system that’s had one elected leader at the helm for more than two decades now wants to see if new trustees can better reflect its 24-square mile community of bilingual students and working families.
Oct 20, 2021
A San Diego County judge has ruled in favor of the Cajon Valley Union School District’s superintendent and four of its board members in a lawsuit filed by a fifth board trustee, who had claimed they treated her unfairly.
Oct 20, 2021
Public schools throughout the Bay Area and the state are grappling with a spike in teacher absences and vacancies as schools have reopened, coupled with a shortage of substitutes, leading them to offer incentives.
Oct 20, 2021
California school districts have two choices: Bite the bullet and make budget cuts now, or delay them and face even more painful decisions. That was the ultimatum presented by Michael Fine, CEO of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team.
Oct 20, 2021
To enroll in bilingual education in most school districts, you have to attend class in person. It’s too difficult to find enough bilingual teachers and too hard to teach a new language online, most districts say. But one district near Los Angeles, is taking on those challenges.
Oct 19, 2021
Hacienda La Puente Unified School District on Monday, Oct. 18, followed through on a Sept. 23 board of education edict that said all employees — including teachers — must be COVID-19 vaccinated by Oct. 15, by placing those who did not comply on unpaid leave.
Oct 19, 2021
While the state is the first to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students, California schools aren’t required to provide meals that adhere to students’ religious or cultural beliefs. This has an especially big impact on Muslim students.
Oct 19, 2021
Faced with getting a COVID-19 vaccine or losing their jobs, thousands of hesitant Los Angeles school-district employees opted for a last-minute jab, allowing them to access schools and offices on Monday.
Oct 19, 2021
As hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Sacramento on Monday and parents across the country held their kids out of schools to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students, the politically active Bay Area appeared to be sitting this one out.
Oct 19, 2021
It’s not clear how many California students and school staff stayed out, but the percentage of students not showing up for school was highest in rural, more conservative areas of the state.
Oct 19, 2021
Groups of parents and children kept out of school in protest lined the sidewalk outside Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa on Monday, part of statewide demonstrations against California’s vaccination mandate for K-12 students.
Oct 18, 2021
Fairfax is one of a handful of local school districts that have recently ended remote access to meetings. Greenfield Union, the third largest elementary district in Kern County, put a nearly identical statement on its website on Oct. 8.
Oct 18, 2021
Some Los Angeles Unified students who show up to school Monday, Oct. 18, may be surprised to find they have a new teacher, or that their favorite bus driver or campus aide is no longer there to greet them.
Oct 18, 2021
Thousands of children will not be in school on Monday as parents protest California Governor Gavin Newsom's COVID-19 vaccine requirement for students, by taking their kids to the state capitol to protest.
Oct 18, 2021
Marin County has a reputation for being a bastion for liberal politics, but it’s also the most segregated county in the Bay Area. The Sausalito Marin City school district, in particular, has been a microcosm of long-standing racial inequities.
Oct 18, 2021
About 97% of Los Angeles teachers and 97% of administrators met the school district’s Friday deadline to be vaccinated against COVID-19, a level of compliance that officials hoped would result in minimal disruption to classroom teaching in the sprawling district.
Oct 18, 2021
Despite this year’s return to in-person learning, districts throughout the state are seeing major declines in both enrollment and average daily attendance and fear the reductions could result in significant funding cuts next school year.
Oct 18, 2021
The unexpected drop in statewide school enrollment last year of 160,000 students may prove to be a blip. Or that one-year 2.6% drop could be an oversize harbinger of a decade-long enrollment decline in California.
Oct 15, 2021
Under the new law, high schoolers will be taught about the struggles and contributions of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and other ethnic groups, according to the state’s model ethnic studies curriculum.
Oct 15, 2021
Cabinets, a drinking fountain chiller, and an elevator sensor. They don't sound like much, but they caused a heated exchange between two Coachella Valley Unified School District trustees at Thursday's board meeting.
Oct 15, 2021
Supporters of a Natomas Unified School District teacher filmed in an undercover video discussing antifa called for the district to allow the teacher to return to his position during a Wednesday news conference at the Sacramento office of civil rights attorney Mark Merin.
Oct 15, 2021
California’s two largest school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — are targeted in lawsuits challenging their student COVID-19 vaccination mandates, alleging the vaccines are too new and that unvaccinated children face discrimination and the denial of their equal right to a public education.
Oct 15, 2021
Some California school district superintendents, especially those in rural areas of the state, fear that teachers and other staff members will quit rather than be vaccinated or take weekly Covid tests — a state requirement that began Friday.
Oct 14, 2021
More than 100 teachers, parents and community members lined the sidewalk outside the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District administration buildings on Niblick Road Tuesday evening to rally for better pay.
Oct 14, 2021
More than 100 teachers, parents and community members lined the sidewalk outside the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District administration buildings on Niblick Road Tuesday evening to rally for better pay.
Oct 14, 2021
Following another tense argument, the Fresno Unified School board formally censured one of its trustees over an outburst during a meeting in August. The board voted 5-1 to censure Trustee Terry Slatic. He cast the only ‘no’ vote.
Oct 14, 2021
This year, the Legislature’s focus on education was on Covid-related bills and on a record-high state budget, which includes tens of billions of new and one-time spending, along with policy decisions on how to spend the money.
Oct 14, 2021
Diverting funds intended for California’s high-needs students for other spending “dampens” the potential to significantly close the achievement gap between high-poverty and low-poverty students, new research has found.
Oct 14, 2021
Supporters of a Natomas Unified School District teacher filmed in an undercover video discussing antifa called for the district to allow the teacher to return to his position.
Oct 14, 2021
The San Diego-based group that has been fighting the state’s school mask mandate sued San Diego Unified School District for the district’s new COVID vaccine mandate.
Oct 14, 2021
The Sacramento City Unified School District board voted at a special meeting Tuesday night to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all eligible students and staff.
Oct 13, 2021
The cosmetology program, now in its third year, is part of a new complex of buildings at the Regional Occupational Center on Mount Vernon Avenue that opened in fall 2019. That includes programs for construction, veterinary technology, automotive technology and culinary arts.
Oct 13, 2021
Tuesday afternoon's meeting didn't draw as many speakers as the one that led to the board protesting the state mask mandate, but some speakers pressed the district to do more
Oct 13, 2021
The Palm Springs Unified school board voted 5-0 on Tuesday night to approve school resource officer contracts for the 2021-22 school year with three police departments as well as the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
Oct 13, 2021
Amid a battle with pro-union organizers, Clovis Unified School District’s faculty senate voted Monday to form a new employee organization called the Clovis Teachers Organization.
Oct 13, 2021
n total, 876 cases — 778 involving students, and 98 involving employees — had been reported to The Tribune as of Oct. 11.
Oct 13, 2021
About three out of 10 San Diego Unified students were at risk of not meeting state standards in reading last fall while schools were closed and students were learning on computers, according to just released district test scores.
Oct 13, 2021
After a COVID-19 outbreak forced Loma Prieta Union School District to shut down last week, the rural Los Gatos district will reopen Wednesday for in-person instruction, the superintendent announced Tuesday.
Oct 13, 2021
The Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday, Oct. 12, to ratify an agreement with the teachers union on matters related to quarantine instruction, COVID-19 health-and-safety measures and employee compensation.
Oct 13, 2021
Parents packed an Oakdale school board meeting on Monday to protest Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students, urging trustees to fight it.
Oct 13, 2021
The new $2.7 billion universal transitional kindergarten program is being hailed by many experts as a game-changer for families in a state with almost 3 million children under the age of 5.
Oct 13, 2021
Los Angeles Unified School District employees who don’t receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Friday won’t be allowed to return to campus on Monday, a district official said.
Increasingly organized groups of parents advocating for an immediate return to class are emerging as a potent political counterweight to teachers unions.
The teachers union in Sacramento City Unified School District released its framework for reopening for in-person learning on Tuesday, and the plan prioritizes offering the COVID-19 vaccine to all of its 4,500 district employees.
Experts have found that remote instruction falls far short of classroom learning. But surveys have shown that a majority of Black and Latino parents in Los Angeles are still hesitant about sending their children back into schools.
Some teachers are reluctant to return to classroom settings as Orange County students resume at least some in-person learning. So substitute teachers might be in demand more than ever before.
Santa Clara County schools have the green light starting Wednesday to usher in a phased return to real face-to-face lessons. But the vast majority are opting instead to stay the course through the rest of the semester.
At Lucerne Valley Elementary in Southern California’s high desert, hundreds of students have returned to in-person learning and a dramatically different school day.
Pleasanton is the latest city to take a hard look at the role of police in the community and schools — and how to respond to mental health calls. The city agreed to revise its police use of force policies and possibly remove school resource officers.
Rescue Union School District, home to 3,700 students at its five elementary schools and two middle schools, is able to open since the county has remained off of the state’s monitoring list and complied with the long list of requirements to reopen.
Masks will be required at every level. In elementary schools, half of students will end their day at lunchtime, before the other half arrives. Middle and high school kids will trade off and spend two days a week on campus.
At the June 23 Oceanside Unified School Board meeting, Trustee Mike Blessing asked staff to present an option for “100 percent return” in the fall, District Communications Director Matthew Jennings said.