News Briefs | FYI
July 22, 2024
Newsom signs final 2024-25 state budget
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the final state budget for 2024-25 on June 29 after reaching a deal with the state Legislature.
The budget agreement funds Proposition 98 at $115.3 billion and fully funds the cost of living adjustment at 1.07 percent, which also applies to categorical funding. Newsom and the Legislature adjusted his emergency school closure budget proposal, which in the May Revision would have required local educational agencies to offer remote learning within five days after closing schools due to emergencies.
ACSA staff and members, with other organizations, lobbied to protect LEAs from financial penalties if they did not meet the five-day deadline. The final budget removed the provision that would have allowed the state to withhold funding from schools if they did not provide remote learning in that timeframe.
ACSA advocates created a summary document that discusses other important provisions in the final education budget, including attendance recovery, Expanded Learning Opportunities Program changes and more.
Read the summary at content.acsa.org/2024-25-final-state-budget-summary.
Study: Teachers feel less close to chronically absent students
A new study finds that early elementary school teachers report feeling less close to chronically absent students and view them less positively, even when those students do not cause trouble in the classroom. This “cooling down” in the relationship between teachers and their chronically absent students may exacerbate the academic challenges these children face.
The study — by Michael A. Gottfried and Phil H. Kim at the University of Pennsylvania, and Tina Fletcher at the Walton Family Foundation — was published June 25 in AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.
Chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed since the pandemic, with 30 percent of U.S. students chronically absent in the 2021–22 school year, nearly double the rate in 2018–19, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The AERA Open study found that in addition to feeling less close with chronically absent students, teachers in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade reported viewing them as more withdrawn and as having worse interpersonal skills. When it came to academics, teachers perceived chronically absent students as having fewer positive learning behaviors as well as being worse at literacy and math, even if this was not true.
The study found that while teachers reported feeling less close to these students, they did not feel as if they had more conflict with these students. Rather, teachers viewed chronically absent students as displaying more internalizing behaviors, such as being withdrawn, but not externalizing behaviors, such as acting out.
“One stereotype about absent students is that they are ‘troublemakers’ when they are back in the classroom, but we don’t find that to be the case at all,” said Gottfried, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, in a news release.
Prior research has shown that negative teacher perceptions of students can harm children’s growth and development in school.
“Our findings suggest that absenteeism puts students at a double disadvantage,” Gottfried said. “First, they miss out on essential learning opportunities by not being in school. And then it erodes their teachers’ relationships with them, which can further harm their academic growth.”
Gottfried noted that schools can help by providing teachers with professional development to mitigate potential bias against students who miss a lot of school. This is especially important given that there are demographic disparities in who is absent, such as by race and ethnicity. Teachers might be adjusting perceptions in a systematic way by race and ethnicity as it is tied in with absenteeism.
Find the full study at www.aera.net/Newsroom/Do-Teachers-Perceive-Absent-Students-Differently.
Report explores young people’s use of online health tools
Common Sense Media and Hopelab have published a new research report, “Getting Help Online: How Young People Find, Evaluate, and Use Mental Health Apps, Online Therapy, and Behavioral Health Information.” The study explores how young people are using online tools like social media, teletherapy, and apps to manage their mental health and well-being.
Key findings from the report include:
Online resources are a vital lifeline: With in-person care and support often difficult to access, many young people are turning to online resources for their behavioral health needs. Of the young people surveyed, 65 percent have searched online for any behavioral health topics, and 53 percent say they have looked for mental health information from health-focused websites. The availability of these digital resources provides crucial support for those seeking assistance and practical information.
Youth are vetting information: Contrary to media trends suggesting a prevalence of uninformed self-diagnosis among young people, the report found 89 percent of respondents sometimes, often or always consider the trustworthiness of an online source, one piece of a series of steps most youth take to vet the mental health information they find online. They are checking the web and social media content they both search for and encounter, working to ensure they access reliable and beneficial resources.
Increased reliance among underserved communities: Young people from communities of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and those experiencing moderate to severe depression are particularly reliant on digital self-help tools. According to the data, Latino young people were more likely to report accessing online therapy than their White peers (34 percent vs. 23 percent) and LGBTQ+ young people are about twice as likely as their non-LGBTQ+ peers to report ever having attended online therapy.
Need for high-quality and accessible resources: The report underscores the importance of making mental health resources as high-quality and easily accessible as possible, ensuring young people can receive the support they need.
The report is the fourth in a series that tracks the role of social media in how young people ages 14-22 support their mental health and well-being. Conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, the study was uniquely co-created with young people themselves, who not only provided direction and input regarding survey content but also worked with the research team to prioritize and interpret results through focus groups and individual interviews.
A copy of the full report and findings can be downloaded at www.commonsense.org/getting-help-online.
FYI
Get connected! Join ACSA networking groups
Ready to expand your network? ACSA is rolling out new networking groups where California School Administrators can connect and share resources with one another: Arab American Network, Equity Administrators Network, LGBTQ+ Network, Pacific Islander Network, and Visible & Invisible Disabilities Network. To join, fill out an interest form at acsa.org/equity.
Submit a nomination for Negotiator of the Year
ACSA is looking for nominations for the Negotiator of the Year Award, which will be presented during the 2024 Personnel & Negotiations Symposium, held Sept. 24-27 in Burlingame. Visit acsa.org/negotiatoraward for selection criteria and nomination instructions. Nominations are due Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.
CDE seeks to fill classified employee ratio workgroup
The California Department of Education is recruiting members for the Classified Employee Staffing Ratio Workgroup. This workgroup will be responsible for providing recommendations to the Legislature for classified staffing ratios for identified classified staffing groups with the number of pupils at a site. The workgroup will include between 15 to 20 members, who will be selected to ensure balanced representation of regions and school types. Interested individuals are encouraged to apply and to distribute the application to other potential applicants. Work group meetings are currently planned for 3-4:30 p.m. Oct. 22, Feb. 18 and April 22. To apply to be a member of this focus group, please visit cde.ca.gov/ci/pl/cesrw.asp and use the online application link. Applications must be submitted no later than 4 p.m. Sept. 3.