Nine of California’s 21 public school police departments own military-grade gear such as semi-automatic rifles, less-lethal launchers and smoke grenades. Under a 2021 law, Assembly Bill 481, those departments must publish annual reports detailing their inventories, document how the equipment was used, and give residents a chance to weigh in at a public forum. But CalMatters found that five of the nine districts — including Fontana Unified, San Bernardino City Unified, Apple Valley Unified, San Diego Unified and Los Angeles Unified — had not published current reports before being contacted by reporters.

San Diego and Montebello school police only released updated reports after CalMatters inquired. Twin Rivers Unified in Sacramento County and Santa Ana Unified issued their first-ever public reports this year, despite having owned military equipment for years.

Fontana Unified School District initially told CalMatters its police force owned no military equipment, then reversed course days later, saying it would update a 2024 report and present it to the school board this month. San Bernardino City Unified gave a similar response before producing documentation showing it does, in fact, have such equipment.

Apple Valley Unified’s 2025 policy lists tasers, semi-automatic rifles, sponge-round launchers and munitions as military equipment but contains none of the required details on training, costs or usage rules. The district said it has never filed an inventory report, arguing its rifles and tasers are exempt because they are “standard issue” — though watchdogs and the CalMatters review found several districts making similar claims despite state definitions saying otherwise.

The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, was intended to rein in the militarization of local police forces, particularly in lower-income and minority communities, by requiring elected school boards to approve — and regularly reapprove — the use of such weapons. Agencies must show the equipment is cost effective, protects civil liberties and that no reasonable non-military alternative exists.

Los Angeles School Police Department, once stripped of Pentagon-surplus gear including grenade launchers and an armored vehicle after public backlash a decade ago, still maintains 112 semi-automatic rifles and 104 bean-bag shotguns, according to district spokesperson Christy Hagen. She said the equipment is used only in limited, high-risk emergencies to protect students and staff, but did not say whether the district intends to formally disclose the arsenal as state law requires.

In Sacramento County, the Twin Rivers Unified School District Police Department has held such equipment for more than two decades but did not adopt a formal use policy until this past May — several years after the law took effect. Police Chief David Lugo told the district’s governing board the new policy was simply about achieving compliance, not expanding authority. In April, before the policy existed, Twin Rivers officers deployed patrol rifles while responding to a shooting at a nearby high school where a teenager was killed.

The rollout of that policy sparked a heated debate among parents and staff. Some argued that campus police need access to rifles and less-lethal weapons to respond quickly to an active-shooter situation, especially in areas where outside law enforcement backup could take many minutes to arrive. Others countered that the weapons — some functionally identical to firearms used in combat zones — require far more training than school officers typically receive, and that arming campus police could alienate the Black and Latino families who make up more than half the district’s students.

A CalMatters review in July uncovered similar gaps in transparency among California’s public college and university police departments, finding many campuses were not properly disclosing their own military-style arsenals. The latest findings suggest the same pattern extends into K-12 education statewide, raising fresh questions about oversight of school policing at a time when some communities are pushing for greater investment in counseling and de-escalation training rather than hardware.

District officials in Santa Ana and Montebello also acknowledged their equipment-use policies omit legally required details, such as how the public can file complaints about weapon deployment. Montebello said residents can raise issues at police town halls or board meetings, while Twin Rivers pointed to complaint forms available by mail or in person. Santa Ana did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Elsewhere, districts such as Victor Valley Union High School, Clovis Unified and Hesperia Unified have adopted formal military-equipment policies but say they do not currently own, and have no plans to purchase, such gear. Compton Unified, which drew criticism in 2014 after authorizing officers to carry AR-15-style rifles, said it ultimately never purchased the weapons.

Following CalMatters’ inquiries, several districts — including Fontana, San Bernardino and San Diego — said they intend to publish updated reports and resume compliance with the law as the new school year begins.

Original source: CalMatters

The post Some California Schools Fail to Report On-Campus Military-Style Rifles as Required by Law appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Austin Beutner, the former superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District who helped write Proposition 28, praised the resolution.

“I’m delighted to come to an agreement that will further arts education for kids in California,” Beutner said.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 2440, is meant to smooth out some of the ambiguities in Prop. 28, the 2022 ballot measure that dedicated roughly $1 billion annually to music, theater, dance and visual arts programs in California’s public schools. Under the law, districts must use the money to add new arts programming rather than simply replace what they already fund. But uncertainty over how to interpret those rules has left many school systems wary — and, in some cases, has led dozens of districts to hand the unused arts money back to the state rather than risk running afoul of the law.

That fear was well-founded for Los Angeles Unified, which Beutner sued last year, alleging the district eliminated existing arts programs and used Prop. 28 dollars to quietly replace them. The district has denied wrongdoing, and the lawsuit remains pending in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Clearing Up the Confusion

Authored by Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, a Torrance Democrat, AB 2440 attempts to ease districts’ anxiety by bringing Prop. 28 into closer alignment with the state’s broader arts education framework. The bill would establish a clearer, standardized definition of what officially counts as an arts class.

It would also give schools explicit permission to pool their Prop. 28 dollars across sites, allowing them to share arts instructors and other resources more efficiently. Additionally, the bill tackles a longstanding gray area: whether contributions from outside groups such as booster clubs or nonprofit arts organizations should be counted toward a school’s baseline arts spending.

Beutner initially opposed the measure, arguing it would weaken Prop. 28 by giving districts too much freedom in how they allocate the money — freedom he worried some schools would use to quietly replace, rather than expand, their arts offerings. His objection nearly stalled the bill’s progress. But after CalMatters and other news organizations reported on the issue, Beutner and the bill’s backers found common ground.

The revised legislation now includes language requiring that “the local education agency shall certify that all provisions of (Proposition 28) have been implemented at each of its school sites” — a addition that ultimately satisfied Beutner’s concerns.

“More Art” for Students

Beutner dropped his opposition in mid-August once that certification requirement was added.

“My hope is that this causes districts to further reflect on whether they’re in compliance with Prop. 28,” he said. “I’m delighted we were able to collaborate on this.”

The bill went on to pass unanimously.

Kyle Holmes, director of statewide arts initiatives for California County Superintendents — one of the bill’s strongest supporters — said he was pleased to see it advance.

“For kids, this will mean more art,” Holmes said. “That’s the heart of this bill: making sure schools have better access to Prop. 28 funds, giving schools the clarity they need to get funding to students.”

Even with the legislative fix, Prop. 28 still faces significant hurdles — chief among them, a shortage of qualified arts teachers. Many districts have struggled for six months or longer to fill vacant arts positions, unable to find enough credentialed educators to meet demand. A recent study by the Stanford Research Institute estimated California is short roughly 5,000 arts teachers statewide.

“We’re seeing more and more colleges offering credential programs for the arts,” Holmes said. “But more young people need to know that if you’re interested in teaching the arts, there’s a clear pathway to a high-paying career.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post California Schools Are Stockpiling Arts Funding — A New Law Could Force Them to Spend It appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

That theory has now been tested — and the results aren’t encouraging.

Despite pouring billions of additional dollars into K-12 education over the past decade and a half, California continues to rank near the bottom nationally in reading and math proficiency, according to the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Achievement gaps between white students and their Black and Latino classmates remain stubbornly wide, even as state leaders have specifically earmarked funding to close those disparities.

Under Govs. Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom, California has steadily ramped up education spending. The 2026-27 state budget, signed into law in June, allocates $151 billion in state and local funds for public schools, with additional federal dollars pushing per-student spending to nearly $30,000 — an increase of roughly 50% since Newsom took office.

Yet money alone hasn’t solved the underlying problems. Several California school districts are now teetering on the edge of insolvency, including Sacramento City Unified, not because state funding has dried up, but because districts have repeatedly overspent under pressure from labor unions representing teachers and staff.

Compounding the issue is a governance structure that spreads responsibility across so many elected officials and agencies that no single person or body can be held clearly accountable when students fall behind. When parents or journalists try to pin down who is actually in charge of fixing the problem, the response is often a shrug — or officials pointing fingers at one another.

There was a modest step toward clarity this year. Acting on recommendations from a coalition of university education researchers, Newsom and state lawmakers agreed to strip real authority from the elected state superintendent of public instruction, turning that position into a largely advisory role. Going forward, the state Department of Education will be run by a commissioner appointed directly by the governor, who also selects members of the state school board.

In theory, that consolidation means the governor’s office can no longer dodge responsibility for how the state’s schools are performing. Whether that accountability actually materializes remains to be seen — especially once a new governor, likely Xavier Becerra, takes office and inherits the job.

Recent legislative action offers a preview of how difficult that accountability push may be. The California School Boards Association backed a package of four bills this year designed to hold state government to the same performance standards already expected of local districts, particularly when it comes to shrinking the achievement gap.

All four bills cleared the Assembly. But three of them quietly died in the state Senate, with no vote taken and no public explanation offered. Only one survived: Assembly Bill 2225, which would establish a six-member commission tasked with developing a strategy to improve student outcomes statewide. It now awaits action from the governor.

The fate of the other three bills suggests that, even as legislative leaders were willing to hand the governor more direct control over the education bureaucracy, they were far less eager to expose state government itself to the kind of accountability now demanded of local school boards.

California’s persistently weak academic outcomes deserve to be treated with the same urgency as a natural disaster — a wildfire, an earthquake, a flood. Instead, the problem has simmered for years, resistant even to historic increases in funding.

Making matters more precarious, sustaining current funding levels won’t be easy. The state has faced repeated multibillion-dollar budget deficits in recent years, and delaying payments to schools has become one of the go-to tools lawmakers use to help close those gaps — raising the uncomfortable possibility that the resources devoted to fixing California’s education crisis could shrink just as the need for reform becomes more urgent.

Original source: CalMatters

The post California Boosted School Spending, But Student Achievement Still Lags—What Comes Next appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Proposition 28, passed by voters in 2022 with strong support, directs roughly $1 billion annually to arts programming in K-12 schools statewide. Funding is distributed based on enrollment, with additional money going to schools serving larger populations of low-income students. Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest district with about 400,000 students, received roughly $72 million last year. Death Valley Unified, with just 21 students, received about $2,000.

Under the law, schools must devote at least 80% of their allocation to hiring arts instructors, with the remainder covering supplies and related costs. Any unspent funds must be returned to the state after three years — and that first three-year window has now closed. The California Department of Education has not yet released figures on how much money came back, but the state plans to redistribute those unused dollars to schools that are successfully implementing their arts programs.

Data compiled by Create CA, a nonprofit that backed the ballot measure, shows that dozens — possibly hundreds — of schools across California spent none of their allotted funds. The list includes charter schools along with small and mid-sized campuses scattered throughout the state.

Meanwhile, other districts have embraced the funding wholeheartedly. Bakersfield City Schools doubled its folklorico and mariachi programs, purchased thousands of instruments, and brought local artists into classrooms to work alongside teachers. Long Beach Unified expanded its high school arts offerings dramatically, now featuring everything from marching band and painting to steel drums, improvisational dance, chamber orchestra and photography.

**A shortage of teachers and unclear rules**

For districts struggling to spend their allocations, the barriers are twofold: a scarcity of qualified arts teachers and confusion over how the money can legally be used.

Although the law permits districts to combine Prop. 28 funds to jointly hire a teacher, the statute doesn’t spell out exactly how that arrangement should work. Compounding the problem is a statewide shortage of arts educators — a recent Stanford Research Institute study estimates California needs roughly 5,000 additional arts teachers to meet demand. Rural districts, which already struggle to recruit specialized staff, are hit especially hard.

School officials also point to ambiguity in how the law defines an arts class. Prop. 28 offers a broad definition but doesn’t require alignment with the state’s existing arts education framework. Because schools already receive some arts funding through other channels, many administrators are uncertain whether they can combine those funds with Prop. 28 dollars without running afoul of the law.

“We need clarity and confidence that we’re doing this the right way,” said El Dorado County Superintendent of Schools Ed Manansala. He said districts fear being accused of misusing funds — for instance, if they share a music teacher with a neighboring district but don’t properly divide that teacher’s time. “We have a long history of supporting the arts and we really want to make sure we do this right.”

That fear isn’t unfounded. Austin Beutner, the former Los Angeles Unified superintendent who authored Prop. 28, sued his old district last year, alleging it used Prop. 28 dollars to replace — rather than supplement — existing arts funding, a violation of the law. The case remains pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. The district maintains its spending was lawful.

**A legislative fix, and a fight over its impact**

The confusion has prompted Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, to introduce Assembly Bill 2440, which would clarify several provisions of Prop. 28, including what counts as supplemental arts funding. The bill has drawn broad bipartisan support — with one notable exception: Beutner.

Beutner argues the bill would weaken the law by giving districts too much discretion, potentially allowing them to concentrate arts programs at a handful of schools rather than expanding access across the board, or to reclassify existing classes — physical education, for example — as arts instruction to satisfy the requirement.

“I believe in the arts, and what it can do for students. Some kids only come to school because of the arts,” Beutner said. “We should not be fighting over this. Prop. 28 is very clear” that the money must fund new arts programming, not substitute for programs already in place.

Beutner also characterized the bill as effectively shielding Los Angeles Unified from accountability in his pending lawsuit. A district spokesperson, Christy Hagen, said in an email that LAUSD had no involvement in drafting the bill and has taken no formal position on it. Beutner said he’d prefer lawmakers hold off on the legislation until a judge rules in his case, warning that moving forward now could deepen the confusion around how districts spend their money.

The bill currently sits in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s suspense file, with a decision expected soon on whether it will advance. If the committee declines to take it up, the measure will likely stall.

Muratsuchi said he remains open to negotiating a compromise. “[Beutner] and I share the same goal of Prop. 28 providing arts and music to every child in California regardless of zip code,” he said. “We want to make sure the law’s language reflects that. Hopefully I convinced him that I mean well and we have the same objective.”

**Calls for clearer statewide guidance**

Veronica Alvarez, executive director of Create CA, said resolving the ambiguity in the law is essential to its long-term success. Too many districts, she said, are either confused by the current guidelines or find them too restrictive to implement effectively.

“We want clearer statewide rules, so all kids from Shasta to Bakersfield get high-quality arts education,” Alvarez said. “Hopefully we can move forward on this.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post Schools Are Returning Millions in California’s $1 Billion Arts Education Funding. Here’s Why appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Since 2013, before California overhauled how reading is taught in its elementary and middle schools, the state ranked 47th nationally in fourth-grade reading proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card. At the time, just 27% of California students scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the exam, which is administered every two years to students across the country.

The following year, the state adopted a new curriculum framework for English language arts that pushed schools toward phonics-based instruction, alongside stronger vocabulary teaching and other foundational reading strategies. Phonics instruction won’t be mandatory statewide until next year, but most districts have already begun incorporating it.

Since then, the state has rolled out new curriculum materials, a dyslexia screening tool, and updated requirements for teacher credentialing programs. Officials also expanded transitional kindergarten and introduced new guidelines for supporting English learners.

Perhaps the most significant investment came in 2023, when the state distributed $500 million in grants to help schools hire literacy coaches and take other steps to strengthen reading instruction. These coaches — typically former teachers with specialized training in reading — work directly with classroom teachers to sharpen how they teach children to read. Last year, the state added $215 million more to the effort, and the most recent state budget includes an additional $350 million for literacy coaching.

The approach echoes what happened in Mississippi, a state that leapt from 49th in the nation in fourth-grade reading in 2013 to 9th place by 2024. Mississippi credits much of that turnaround to literacy coaches and intensive teacher training. While California’s reading framework closely resembles Mississippi’s, the Southern state moved much faster and more aggressively to train teachers, whereas California has phased in its rollout over several years.

Reading scores creep upward

California’s reading scores have improved steadily, if modestly, since 2013. Last year, the state landed roughly in the middle of the pack nationally, with 13 states outperforming California and the rest scoring the same or lower — a shift that also reflects declining reading scores nationwide.

On state assessments, the share of fourth graders reading at grade level rose from 40% in 2014 to 46% last year. Scores had approached 50% before the pandemic, dipped when schools shifted to remote learning, and have been gradually climbing back since.

Fourth grade is considered a critical benchmark in literacy development, since by fifth grade students need solid reading skills to keep pace in subjects like history and science. Children who aren’t reading fluently by fourth grade are more likely to struggle academically in other areas. Research has also linked weak literacy skills in adulthood to higher rates of unemployment and incarceration, among other challenges.

Sarah Novicoff, a researcher with the Public Policy Institute of California, recently studied the state’s literacy investments and found they’ve made a real difference — with one important caveat.

“They’ve clearly had a positive impact,” Novicoff said. “But there’s an opportunity to do even better.”

Novicoff found that nearly 60% of school districts used their grant funding to hire literacy coaches to support teachers, reading specialists to work directly with students, or otherwise expand literacy-focused professional development.

Districts that made those investments saw measurable gains in reading scores, including among English learners, her research found. While results varied from district to district, students overall scored about six points higher on state tests within two years of the investment being made. Novicoff expects those gains to keep growing over time.

Rural districts struggle to find coaches

Not every district was able to hire a literacy coach — not for lack of interest, but for lack of available candidates. Novicoff’s research found that 42% of districts reported difficulty filling these positions.

“I would love to hire a literacy coach,” said Patricia Gunderson, superintendent of the Lassen County Office of Education. “It’s great that the state is offering the funding, but we simply can’t do it. We don’t have the capacity.”

In California’s rural and remote regions, finding qualified literacy coaches has proven nearly impossible, Novicoff found, which has slowed progress in those areas. In Lassen County, near the Nevada border, districts already struggle to find enough credentialed teachers, let alone educators with advanced specialized degrees. Even if schools could hire coaches, there aren’t enough substitute teachers available to cover classrooms while teachers attend training.

Still, Lassen County has found creative workarounds. In 2023, the county organized a weeklong summer training program, paying teachers to learn the new curriculum without disrupting the school year. Gunderson said the effort paid off — state reading scores rose more than 7 percentage points, though they remain below the state average.

In Siskiyou County, along the Oregon border, county superintendent Allan Carver said he welcomes the state’s investment in literacy coaching, but it’s created an unintended side effect: teachers are leaving classrooms to become literacy coaches, possibly drawn by less stressful work or slightly higher pay, leaving teaching vacancies behind.

“We’re trying to solve one problem and, in the process, making the teacher shortage worse,” Carver said. “We need a comprehensive plan for training literacy coaches before we simply hand out funding and set expectations for training.”

In Baldwin Park, in the San Gabriel Valley, Principal Laura Rodriguez said literacy coaching has been a turning point for her school’s reading outcomes. Using a state grant, Tracy Elementary School hired a literacy coach who works closely with teachers, instructional aides and the school’s reading specialist.

The coach, Claudia Barba, leads workshops for teachers and parents, trains aides, assesses students, reviews data and provides feedback to classroom teachers. She also developed a literacy plan that closely examines the root causes behind low reading scores and targets them directly.

“It’s amazing,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve seen a huge difference since we started this. It’s transformed our campus.”

Tracy Elementary, a dual-language immersion program in Spanish and English, primarily serves low-income students, more than 30% of whom are English learners. The school’s literacy plan teaches children to read first in Spanish, then in English, emphasizing vocabulary and phonics in both languages. By third grade — when the state begins administering reading assessments — students are already reading fluently in both languages.

Just two years after hiring its literacy coach, Tracy’s reading scores climbed more than 10 percentage points, with English learners showing significant gains as well. Other measures of school success have improved too: chronic absenteeism dropped from 44% shortly after the pandemic to 11% last year, and math scores are trending upward as well.

“Literacy is the key to everything. If a child can read, they can access knowledge. They start to enjoy school,” Rodriguez said. “They can get a better education.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post California Reading Scores Rise After Literacy Investments — But Can the State Do More? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

The state isn’t experiencing anything close to the so-called “Mississippi Miracle,” in which that state’s reading scores rocketed from near the bottom of national rankings to among the best. But California’s scores have been climbing steadily since officials began rethinking early reading instruction more than a decade ago.

Back in 2013, California ranked 47th in the nation for fourth grade reading proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card. Just 27% of students tested as proficient or advanced. The following year, the state adopted a new English language arts framework emphasizing phonics and vocabulary-building — the building blocks of reading instruction. While phonics-based teaching won’t be required statewide until next year, most schools have already been shifting toward it.

Since then, California has rolled out new curriculum materials, a dyslexia screening tool, updated teacher training requirements, expanded transitional kindergarten and new support systems for English learners. But arguably the most significant investment came in 2023, when the state set aside $500 million in grants to help schools hire literacy coaches — often former classroom teachers with specialized training — to work directly with teachers on reading instruction. Lawmakers added another $215 million last year, and the newest state budget includes $350 million more for coaching efforts.

Mississippi, meanwhile, jumped from 49th to 9th in the nation over roughly the same period, an improvement officials there attribute largely to intensive teacher training. Its reading framework closely mirrors California’s, though Mississippi moved faster and more aggressively to train its teachers, while California has taken a more gradual approach.

Still, the numbers show progress. California ranked around the middle of the pack nationally on last year’s Nation’s Report Card, with 13 states scoring higher, even as reading scores nationwide have generally declined. On statewide tests, the share of fourth graders reading at grade level rose from 40% in 2014 to 46% last year. Scores dipped during pandemic-era remote learning but have been climbing back since.

Fourth grade is considered a pivotal benchmark, since students who aren’t reading proficiently by then often struggle across other subjects as coursework grows more complex. Research also links low literacy in adulthood to higher rates of unemployment and incarceration.

Sarah Novicoff, a researcher with the Public Policy Institute of California, studied the effects of the state’s literacy investments and found real improvement — though she says there’s clear room to do more.

“They’ve absolutely had a positive impact,” Novicoff said. “But we have an opportunity to do an even better job.”

Her research found that nearly 60% of California school districts used their grant funding to hire literacy coaches, reading specialists or provide additional teacher training. Districts that made those investments saw meaningful gains, including among English learners — an average six-point jump in reading scores within two years, with Novicoff predicting further improvement over time.

However, a substantial number of districts — about 42% — reported they simply couldn’t find literacy coaches to hire, even though funding was available.

“I’d love to hire a literacy coach,” said Patricia Gunderson, superintendent of the Lassen County Office of Education. “It’s great the state is offering the money, but we just can’t do it. We don’t have the capacity.”

In rural and remote regions, the challenge is especially acute. Lassen County, near the Nevada border, struggles even to keep enough credentialed teachers on staff, let alone attract specialists with advanced reading credentials. Finding substitute teachers to cover classrooms while staff attend training sessions has proven just as difficult.

Even so, Lassen has found creative workarounds. In 2023, the district held a paid, weeklong summer training for teachers on the new reading curriculum, avoiding disruption to the school year. Gunderson said the effort paid off — reading scores rose more than seven percentage points, though they still trail the state average.

In Siskiyou County, near the Oregon border, county superintendent Allan Carver said the state’s coaching investment has created an unintended side effect: some teachers are leaving classrooms altogether to become literacy coaches, drawn by less stressful working conditions or slightly higher pay. That’s left new vacancies for districts already struggling with teacher shortages.

“We work to solve one issue and further exacerbate the teacher shortage,” Carver said. “We have to develop the literacy coach pipeline before we simply allocate funds and expectations for training.”

The picture looks different in Baldwin Park, in the San Gabriel Valley, where literacy coaching has transformed outcomes at one elementary school. Principal Laura Rodriguez said Tracy Elementary used its state grant funding to bring on literacy coach Claudia Barba, who works closely with teachers, instructional aides and the school’s reading specialist.

Barba runs workshops for teachers and parents, trains classroom aides, evaluates students’ progress, reviews data and coaches teachers individually. She also developed a customized literacy plan aimed directly at the root causes behind the school’s low reading scores.

“She is amazing,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve seen such a difference since we started this. It has changed our campus.”

Tracy Elementary is a dual-language Spanish-English immersion school serving a mostly low-income student population, with more than 30% classified as English learners. Its literacy approach teaches students to read first in Spanish, then in English, building vocabulary and phonics skills in both languages. By third grade — when the state begins formally testing reading proficiency — most students are fluent readers in both.

Since bringing on the literacy coach two years ago, Tracy’s reading scores have jumped more than 10 percentage points, with strong gains among English learners as well. Chronic absenteeism has plummeted, from 44% shortly after the pandemic to just 11% last year, and math scores have improved too.

“Literacy is the key to everything. If a child can read, they can access knowledge. They start to enjoy school,” Rodriguez said. “They can get a better education.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post California’s Reading Scores Rise as Literacy Investments Pay Off—But Is It Enough? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Gov. Gavin Newsom this week signed legislation directing the California Board of Education to consider adding lessons on heat illness symptoms to the state’s health curriculum. It follows a separate law, signed in 2024, that required school districts across the state to finalize heat-safety protocols for outdoor activities by July 1 of this year.

Both measures are being welcomed by parents, school nurses and environmental advocates as important first steps. But critics note that neither law comes with funding attached — meaning schools still lack money for the air conditioning upgrades, shade structures and updated curriculum that experts say are truly needed to keep children safe as heat waves grow more frequent and severe.

“These laws show that kids in California are already being hurt by extreme heat,” said Sarah Matsumoto, policy director for the nonprofit Green Schoolyards America. “This isn’t some future risk. We need a real, comprehensive plan to protect children from it now.”

A student’s idea becomes law

The push for heat education legislation traces back to a fourth grader in Sacramento. During a brutal, record-setting heat wave in 2022, the air conditioning failed in Natalie Rubio’s school cafeteria, forcing students to eat lunch outdoors in triple-digit temperatures.

Rubio, now 13, remembers classmates growing flushed, developing headaches and showing other signs of heat illness that day. She later brought her experience to state lawmakers, helping inspire Assembly Bill 1653, authored by Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Palmdale Republican.

“This bill creates no mandates,” Lackey said during a legislative hearing. “It simply promotes awareness and prevention. Because sometimes the most powerful way to protect our students is by giving them the knowledge to protect themselves.”

The stakes are rising. According to Tracking California, a public health surveillance project run by the Public Health Institute, 618 children ages 5 to 17 were treated in California emergency rooms for heat-related illness in 2024 — a roughly 30% increase over the year before.

Extreme heat has also disrupted learning statewide. Data from the nonprofit UndauntedK12 shows California students lost more than 40,000 hours of classroom instruction during the 2025-26 school year due to heat-related closures, which accounted for nearly three-quarters of all weather-related school shutdowns in the fall semester.

Rubio hopes the new law leads to short, age-appropriate lessons and regular reminders during heat waves. “I want schools to teach every student the signs and symptoms of heat illness and how to respond in a memorable way,” she said.

However, the law does not guarantee new classroom material will actually appear. Any changes would have to be folded into the state’s health education framework — a voluntary guide covering topics such as nutrition and mental health that was last updated in 2019. According to the governor’s office, updating that framework again would require the Legislature to both authorize and fund the effort. The state Board of Education did not respond to questions about its plans.

Stephanie Seidmon, a project manager with UndauntedK12, said her organization backed the bill in part because it offers a low-cost option “at a time when our state budget is limited.”

Even without curriculum changes yet in place, school nurses say simply raising awareness could help. “Students might not realize that this headache or this dizziness might not just be feeling tired but could be a sign of heat illness,” said Rosemarie Dowell, government relations chair for the California School Nurses Organization. “That can empower them to react for themselves, react for somebody else, to encourage them to get water, find shade, or tell an adult.”

New rules for outdoor activity

Currently, the California Department of Education offers no statewide standard for how hot is too hot for outdoor recess or physical education. Instead, districts are pointed toward general resources, including state health department guidance defining “extreme heat” as conditions lasting more than two days and nights.

At the high school sports level, an estimated 9,000 student athletes nationwide suffer from heat-related illness each year, with most cases occurring in August, according to national research. The California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees high school athletics, does set enforceable heat rules, including guidelines on practice scheduling and hydration breaks.

Senate Bill 1248, authored by Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Bakersfield Democrat, requires all California schools to establish formal protocols for outdoor activities during extreme heat, including clear thresholds for canceling recess or sports practice, monitoring weather conditions, offering indoor alternatives, and training staff to spot signs of heat stress. Districts were required to have those plans finalized by July 1.

The law was inspired by the death of Yahshua Robinson, a 12-year-old Lake Elsinore student who collapsed and died in August 2023 during a P.E. class held in extreme heat. Testifying before lawmakers in 2024, his mother described the conditions that led to his death.

“It was in the nineties outside that day, and even the best and highly trained athletes wouldn’t run in it,” she said. “Yet Yahshua’s class of middle schoolers were made to run in that heat. Physical education should happen only in environments conducive for physical activity.”

A costly problem, still unfunded

While the new laws focus on education and planning, advocates argue the deeper issue is infrastructure — and money. Many California schools, particularly older campuses, were never built to withstand the kind of sustained heat now common across the state.

“Many of our school buildings were built before the era of extreme heat fueled by climate change,” Seidmon said. “Our kids are playing on playgrounds, in schoolyards and on fields that don’t have shade… It’s critical that our school buildings and grounds protect our children from extreme heat.”

Emily Penner, an associate professor of education at UC Irvine studying how schools are adapting to rising temperatures, said responses vary significantly depending on region. Districts that have already dealt with severe heat for years tend to be quicker to adopt heat-resistant playground materials or prioritize air-conditioned school buses.

“This is a case where we have some pretty concrete things we know we need to do, like put HVAC at most schools across the state,” Penner said, “and now we have to figure out how to marshal political support for something like that.”

Funding falls short

Even when money has been made available, it hasn’t stretched far enough. In 2020, state lawmakers created CalShape, a ratepayer-funded program to help schools assess and upgrade aging air conditioning systems. But the California Energy Commission, which administers the program, paused new applications in 2024 due to budget pressures. Roughly $200 million in unused funds could be returned to investor-owned utilities if the Legislature doesn’t act by year’s end.

Voters approved additional funding in 2024 through Proposition 2, a $10 billion school facilities bond — but statewide modernization needs already exceed what that money can cover. A separate measure, Proposition 4, directs another $10 billion toward climate-related projects, including $50 million for California’s Urban Forestry Program, which supports efforts to add greenery and shade, including at school sites.

Still, advocates say the state has a long way to go.

“Compared to the federal government and many states, California is one of the leaders in this issue,” Matsumoto said. “And we are still not collectively meeting the moment.”

Original source: CalMatters

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Under current reporting practices, students who identify as Native American and also as another race — such as Black, white or Asian — are typically placed in a “two or more races” category rather than being counted as Native American. That means many students with Native ancestry may not appear in official Native American student counts.

The result, advocates say, can make Native students less visible in education data and limit the ability of schools, districts and policymakers to understand their needs. For families and communities, the practice can feel like an erasure of Native identity.

The issue has statewide implications, including for Southern California and Inland Empire school districts, where student populations are often racially and culturally diverse. If Native students are not accurately reflected in enrollment data, it can affect how their academic outcomes and support needs are measured.

The concern underscores a broader challenge in education reporting: how to recognize multiracial students without obscuring the identities and communities they belong to.

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And then there’s Orick.

The picturesque town in northern Humboldt County has a historic school with five classrooms, a gym, a vegetable garden and an expansive play field. Its current enrollment: nine. Its expenses: $118,000 per student per year, more than five times the state average.

California has dozens of school districts with enrollments under 100 and higher-than-average expenses. Most of these districts are in remote areas miles from the next nearest school. But as urban districts grapple with the threat of school closures and the inevitable backlash from families and staff, rural schools face an even more heart-wrenching scenario: close the school and decimate the town.

“Close the school? It comes up all the time,” said Orick Elementary School District Superintendent Justin Wallace. “But I’d say it’s an equity issue. We have families who can’t afford a lot, and this school provides the most consistent setting for our kids. They’re safe, they’re well fed, they’re learning.”

Most of these rural towns once had booming local economies. Logging, ranching, farming, mining and other industries employed generations of families. In the 1960s Orick had 3,000 people and nearly 300 students in its school. There were seven lumber mills, grocery stores, restaurants, churches, even a movie theater.

But as California’s economy changed and jobs in these towns vanished, many communities struggled to find a new purpose. In Orick, the lumber mills gradually closed, the National Park Service claimed much of the surrounding land and residents moved elsewhere. Now, Orick has about 300 people and an average household income that’s just under $39,000 a year — a third of the state average. According to Orick School’s accountability plan, Orick residents “experience high rates of poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, domestic violence, substance abuse, and run-ins with the criminal justice system due to limited resources and high community rates of intergenerational trauma.”

‘Terrified’ of closure

In towns like Orick, the school serves as a savior, of sorts. It’s a community hub, one of the few sources of decent-paying jobs and a symbol of hope for the future. It’s a central part of the town’s identity. The school in Orick operates as a food pantry for the community, gives away clothes to families in need, hosts Narcotics Anonymous meetings and runs a toddler playgroup. The district bought a washer and dryer so residents have a place to do laundry.

Kimberly Frick is the fifth generation in her family to attend Orick School. She remembers when the classrooms were full, students won trophies and the town was like a close-knit family. Now she’s president of the school board and fights to keep the school open. Saving the school, she said, is tantamount to saving the town.

She and Wallace scour the area to find new students for the school. Every time a new family moves to town, they visit and try to persuade them to enroll their children. Other community members chip in, as well, by fixing up homes, keeping the town clean and participating in the volunteer fire department, water district and other local services.

“I feel terrified about the possibility of the school closing. I’d hate to see it happen on my watch,” Frick said. “The facility is clean, safe, well maintained. We provide a high-quality, individualized education for each child.”

Orick, whose name originates from the language of the nearby Yurok tribe, sits in a lush valley along Redwood Creek, nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Coast Ranges. A herd of about 60 elk roam through the town and are frequent visitors to the school play field. There’s a pizza truck, a small convenience store and a newly refurbished hotel. A rodeo draws crowds every July.

But much of the town is abandoned or dilapidated. A trailer park near the school is strewn with trash and broken furniture. Many of the buildings are boarded up. There’s no gas station. The post office is only open a few hours a day.

Budget breakdown

California funds its schools based on how many students show up every day. But small districts get most of their money in grants, in order to protect them from wild fluctuations in revenue. Last year Orick received $774,000 from the state and federal governments. The school gets extra money because so many of its students have high needs: all are low-income and more than half receive special education services. Some years, numerous students are homeless or in foster care.

Most of the budget goes toward salaries. The school has four full-time staff: two teachers, an administrative assistant and Wallace’s position, which includes serving as superintendent, principal, literacy coach and special education director. A janitor, cook, counselor, special education teacher and after-school teacher all work part time. Maintaining the school buildings is expensive: heating bills can cost $1,100 a month. So is transportation, because everything is far away. When the students take swim lessons, for example, a driver transports them 30 miles south to McKinleyville. Whatever funds are left over go toward student supplies and enrichment activities like field trips.

An obvious way for the state to save money would be to merge Orick School District with its neighbor, Big Lagoon Union Elementary District, 15 miles south. But the merged district would only save money on facility costs and one superintendent’s salary, totaling less than $200,000 a year, because the new merged school would have higher expenses, such as the cost of transporting students 30 miles round-trip every day.

A merger would also alienate one of the communities, Wallace said. Both communities are highly invested in their schools and prize their independence and local control, he said.

How to close a district

In the early 20th century, California had more than 3,500 school districts, each with its own school board, superintendent and unique traditions. To save money, the state gradually winnowed the number down to the 1,000 that exist today. But there are holdouts. Sonoma County, for example, has 40 school districts, some with only a handful of students.

“It’s one of the most common questions we get: Why do we have 40 school districts?” said Eric Wittmershaus, spokesman for the Sonoma County Office of Education. “Everyone in the community agrees it’s too many. The problem is that no one wants to close their school.”

California has a lax attitude toward closing under-enrolled schools. The state lets a district’s average daily attendance slip below six before it intervenes. In those cases, the county can request a temporary waiver, in hopes that enrollment increases, or start the process of consolidating the district with one of its neighbors. But consolidation rarely happens because local officials and voters have the ultimate say.

In 2011, the Legislative Analyst’s Office recommended upping the minimum district size to 100, but the recommendation was never implemented. In fact, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s current budget includes a 20% boost in funding for schools that the state deems to be “ necessary small schools,” which are elementary schools with fewer than 97 students – or high schools with fewer than 287 students – at least 10 miles from the nearest other school.

Grand juries in Santa Clara and Sonoma counties have recommended consolidating small districts to save money, but neither of those reports led to changes.

Still, some experts say that financial realities may force the issue. Enrollment is declining nearly everywhere and it might not be the best use of taxpayer money to pay for half-empty classrooms and deserted playgrounds.

“Do we need to provide a school in every community? A post office? What if that community barely exists?” said Carrie Hahnel, senior associate partner at Bellwether, an education research nonprofit. “We guarantee a free public education to every child, but do we guarantee a school in every community?”

Now and then, districts will shutter. Last year, Green Point Elementary District, deep in the Klamath mountains, consolidated with a neighboring district when its enrollment fell to three (its per-pupil spending was $108,000 a year). In Sonoma County, Kashia Elementary District, with eight students last year, is at risk of closing next year.

Schools reclaimed by nature

Enrollment in Humboldt County has been declining steadily since at least the 1990s, and isn’t expected to rebound any time soon. A century ago the county had about 100 school districts, essentially one in every mill town, but as the mills closed the districts gradually closed, too.

Some of those towns — and their schools — have been swallowed up by the redwood forests. The old logging town of Falk, for example, had a school, mill, post office, dance hall and about 400 residents. After the mill closed, the town gradually emptied out and the Sierra Pacific lumber company, which owned the land, tore down whatever buildings were left in 1979. “Aside from the rose bushes and English ivy, the town of Falk has literally disappeared,” according to the county’s visitor guide.

Michael Davies-Hughes, the county superintendent of schools, encourages small districts to plan ahead to avoid abrupt mid-year closures, which are disruptive to students, families and staff.

“We want districts to be proactive, so they have options,” Davies-Hughes said. “For some, the current model may be increasingly difficult to maintain.”

Outdoor ed and Native traditions

In Orick, older students take a bus 40 minutes every day to attend high school in McKinleyville. Wallace and Frick said it’s unrealistic to put younger children on a bus for long distances, especially in bad weather. Humboldt County has long, dark, rainy winters, with roads often blocked by fallen trees, floods or mudslides.

Besides, Frick and Wallace said, Orick School does a great job educating its students, which is reason enough to keep it open. It has an exemplary outdoor education program, with students going on regular excursions into the nearby wilderness, learning about the local flora and fauna, the seasons and forest ecosystem. They raise trout and steelhead to be released in local waterways, test water quality in the creek and watch pollywogs turn into frogs in classroom terrariums.

Wildlife is all around them. In addition to the elk, students can observe condors and falcons soaring overhead, deer and coyotes hanging around the field and even the occasional bear. Students learn to fish, camp, raft and surf.

About half the students are Native American, and the school offers a robust education in Native traditions and history. A Yurok volunteer comes regularly to teach Yurok culture through activities such collecting acorns and making mash, and extracting pine nuts from pinecones to make beads.

“I mean, come on, how many other schools are in such an incredible setting?” Frick said. “Orick is a great place to go to school.”

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Senate Bill 848, sponsored by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, a Democrat from Alhambra, stems from a slew of recent lawsuits over sexual abuse in California schools, as well as a news report on decades of sexual abuse by at least a dozen teachers at a high school in her district.

“I’m proud to see this bill move forward. It’s been really personal for me,” said Pérez, who recently told CalMatters that she was the victim of a teacher’s inappropriate interest while she was in high school. “For survivors, this is an important step toward justice.”

The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and applies to all K-12 schools in California, including private schools. 

Among other things, the law requires schools to train teachers, coaches and other school staff on how to prevent and report sexual misconduct; broadens the number of staff who are required to report abuse allegations; and requires schools to write comprehensive policies on appropriate behavior. 

But the database is perhaps the most significant change. Administered by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the database is intended to stop teachers facing credible accusations of abuse from quitting and getting rehired at another school, potentially abusing more children. The database will be available to schools as part of their employee screening process, and would be updated if allegations against a teacher prove to be unfounded.

Although sexual abuse has long occurred in schools, the extent of the problem came to light in 2020 after the passage of AB 218, which made it easier for victims to sue school districts and other government agencies over sexual abuse. The law opened a floodgate of lawsuits that have so far cost California schools more than $3 billion and brought some districts to the brink of insolvency. 

Another bill’s failure

The large payouts inspired another bill this year, which would have provided some relief for school districts faced with lawsuits over decades-old abuse claims while still allowing victims to be compensated. Senate bill SB 577, sponsored by State Sen. John Laird, a Democrat from Santa Cruz, stalled in the Assembly. 

The bill didn’t cap settlements or attorney fees, but it called for a statute of limitations on older incidents and would have made it easier for school districts to issue bonds to pay settlements, which in California have mostly ranged from $5 million to $10 million.

“I am disappointed that SB 577 will not be advancing this year,” Laird said in an email. “I had hoped to protect survivors’ access to justice while finding some fiscal relief to local governments. Despite these months of hard work, it was just impossible to balance these interests to get to a successful outcome this year.”

Laird said he hopes to resurrect the bill next year.

Financial hardships for districts

School districts were devastated by SB 577’s failure. Some had canceled preschool programs and field trips, frozen salaries or laid off staff and taken other steps to pay legal settlements. The expenses come at a difficult time for schools, as pandemic relief grants have recently expired and enrollment continues to decline in many parts of the state. 

Montecito Union School District, a 350-student district near Santa Barbara, last month settled an abuse lawsuit for $7.5 million — nearly half its annual budget — for alleged sexual abuse by a former staff member between 1972 and 1978. 

Nearby Carpinteria Unified has also been affected.

“We are very frustrated that legislators failed to assist California school districts who have been forced to defend themselves against decades-old claims, spending millions of dollars that impact current students and families,” said Diana Rigby, superintendent of Carpinteria Unified. “Our district has been severely impacted by the financial burden of defending four lawsuits from the 1970s.”

Advocates for SB 577 said that trial attorneys were behind the bill’s failure. Attorneys earn up to 30% to 40% on legal settlements, and have been advertising around California in search of people who were abused in schools. 

In the final days of the legislative session, ads circulated on social media featuring a photo of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas with the words, “Stop the Predator Protection Law” and “Stand with child victims.” The ads were paid for by the law firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a national firm with offices in Irvine and Riverside, which specializes in sex abuse claims.

John Manly, a partner in the firm, said he bought the ads to pressure Rivas to reject the bill.

“If I have to spend every last dime to protect a child from being abused, I will do that,” Manly said. “I’ve spent my career doing this, and I’m not going to stop.”

Manly, the lead attorney in the lawsuit against former Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar, said he’d fight any legislation that curbs abuse lawsuits. He also said Pérez’s bill doesn’t go far enough: it should include felony charges for mandated reporters who fail to report suspected abuse, and it should require school districts to publish the names of staff who’ve been “credibly accused” of sexual misconduct.  

He expects the fight to continue next year and beyond.

Consumer Attorneys of California, a lobbying group, was neutral on Laird’s bill.

“Although CAOC had no official position on the bill, we thought it struck the right balance between protecting survivors’ rights and addressing issues relating to public entities,” said Jonathan Underland, spokesperson for Consumer Attorneys of California. “We were disappointed to see that it did not cross the finish line.”

Eventually, state political leaders will have to take action on abuse lawsuits because too many schools and government agencies are facing insolvency, endangering programs that millions of people rely on, said Ben Adler, public affairs director for the California State Association of Counties.

“God bless Senator Laird for taking this on. It was a thankless task,” Adler said. “Moving forward, there has to be a way to ensure justice for survivors without bankrupting schools and counties, which provide a social safety net. The governor and the Legislature will have to get everyone in a room to figure this thing out.”

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