News Briefs | FYI
September 21, 2026
CTC publishes draft regulations on assignment monitoring
The Commission on Teacher Credentialing is seeking public comment on two notices containing proposed regulations on teacher assignment monitoring sanctions.
As previously reported in EdCal, the CTC is moving forward with plans to require training for LEAs with a high proportion of teacher misassignments.
CTC’s Coded Correspondence 26-07 proposes regulations to clarify which assignments require certification, the teacher shortage and hiring hierarchy, and the reporting and correction procedures of potential misassignments.
The regulations proposed in CTC’s Coded Correspondence 26-08 would establish assignment monitoring interventions that are based on a tiered system with escalating interventions corresponding to the increased amounts of uncorrected misassignments.
The public comment period closes Sept. 21 for insert 26-07 and Sept. 28 for insert 26-08 with instructions for how to submit comments on page one of each respective notice.
Find links to these notices in the September 2026 issue of Advocacy in Action and all past issues at acsa.org/advocacy-in-action-updates.
Study looks at phone policies in CA schools
As California schools begin the 2026-27 year with new cell phone limits in place, a new study is giving school leaders a first look at how those policies are impacting learning and culture.
The findings come from the “Phones in Focus” study led by Dr. Angela Duckworth, professor from the University of Pennsylvania. This spring, ACSA partnered with the California County Superintendents Association to encourage participation in this national survey of educators regarding their school cell phone policies’ impact on learning and school culture.
The study included data from 5,516 educators in California (representing 22 percent of the state’s schools) who responded to the survey between April 8, 2025 and July 2, 2026. Preliminary results from California were shared with ACSA and other state educational leaders in August.
Duckworth was a guest on the Aug. 12 episode of ACSA’s Legislative Lunch Break to review some of the findings.
“In general, the stricter the policy, the happier the educator,” Duckworth said. “The surveys are overwhelmingly clear that classroom teachers are in favor of the more stricter variations of these cell phone policies. They say that they’re more consistently enforced, they say the students are more focused in class, and that they’re less distracted from social interaction between classes.”
Duckworth noted the analyses remain preliminary as researchers continue matching phone policy data with objective outcome measures. The findings are intended to help state and local leaders evaluate student phone use policies.
The work is timely as California continues implementing student phone policies. Assembly Bill 3216 (2024) required LEAs to adopt policies limiting or prohibiting the use of cell phones in schools by July 1, 2026, although many districts implemented policies sooner.
“I think they took the right approach by allowing schools to make decisions locally,” said Poway Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Ben Churchill, who was also a guest on the show. “Each community is different and we can make the best decisions at the local level.”
Churchill shared that surveys in his previous district (Carlsbad Unified School District) and his current one revealed around 80-85 percent of families wanted stricter cell phone policies and 90-95 percent of educators supported stricter policies, whereas only 15-20 percent of students thought cell phone restrictions were a good idea.
In Poway USD, the decision was made to allow students to use phones outside of instructional time.
“We’re working with the students to develop on a site-by-site basis on how best to do that,” he said, with possible methods such as pouches, caddies, or keeping phones in backpacks.
Duckworth also shared that the initial research is not showing a positive correlation between stricter cell phone policies and improving student test scores, which some educators may have hoped to see.
“Education is complicated,” she said. “Cell phones are a very important issue that we do need to take action on, but it’s not all of education and there are many other factors that we shouldn’t neglect. I don’t think there are silver bullets when it comes to raising student achievement.”
The California findings are part of a national effort to develop a comprehensive picture of school cell phone policies and their perceived effects.
The research team has also announced, “Screens in Schools,” a follow-up project on classroom laptop and tablet use and student responses to phone policies.
IES publishes guide for teacher staffing in rural schools
Rural districts across the United States struggle to keep teaching positions filled. The Institute of Education Sciences has released a new resource to give rural district leaders a practical, research-based process for tackling this challenge.
REL Northwest, in partnership with the Lower Kuskokwim School District in Bethel, Alaska, developed “Retaining Rural Teachers by Addressing Working Conditions: A Guide to Develop and Test Localized Strategies.”
Teachers in rural schools are more likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to cite dissatisfaction with working conditions as their primary reason for leaving their positions, and working conditions are factors that districts can directly address. The guide provides district leaders with a structured five-step process:
- Review research and local data to build a shared understanding of which working conditions matter most and where the district stands.
- Identify root factors that are preventing progress toward the working conditions teachers need to stay.
- Develop a theory of action that connects strategies to the root factors and defines what success looks like.
- Build implementation and data collection plans that clarify who does what, by when, and how progress will be tracked.
- Analyze, interpret, and respond to data to understand what is working and make adjustments over time.
The guide includes facilitator guides, research summaries, worksheets, and a survey question bank, providing everything a district team needs to carry the work from start to finish. It is designed for rural contexts where small school sizes, geographic isolation, and limited capacity require approaches that are practical, flexible, and tailored to local needs.
Read the guide at https://nces.ed.gov/use-work/resource-library/resource/tooltoolkit/retaining-rural-teachers-addressing-working-conditions-guide-develop-and-test-localized-strategies
FYI
SBE seeks individuals to serve as advisors
The California State Board of Education is currently seeking qualified and interested individuals to serve on the Advisory Commission on Charter Schools, Instructional Quality Commission and 2027-28 IQC Student Member, and the California Practitioners Advisory Group. Service on an advisory body provides a meaningful opportunity to advise the board on important education issues, collaborate with stakeholders from across the state, and help inform policies that impact schools, students, and communities. Find more information at www.cde.ca.gov/be/cc/ab. Application deadline is 5 p.m. Sept. 28.
Schools to Watch accepting applications by Oct. 1
The 2026 California Schools to Watch program is now accepting applications from both new and redesignated middle schools. California’s Schools to Watch program celebrates excellence in middle grades education and is coordinated by the California League of Middle Schools and the California Department of Education in association with the California Middle Grades Alliance and the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. To learn more and apply, visit www.joinclms.org/stw. Applications are due Oct. 1, 2026. For questions, contact Martinrex Kedziora at 951-768-8686 or at kedziora@leagueofschools.org.
Fourth graders can get free access to state parks
The California State Parks Department is excited to share that incoming California fourth graders can download the Free Fourth Grade Pass, which allows students and their families to enter 54 state parks at no cost. Access via www.reservecalifornia.com/passes/advancepasses (account required).