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By Guest contributor, Aug 5, 2019 for the Human Rights Campaign Post submitted by Kimmie Fink, Welcoming Schools consultant As educators head back to school, it’s important to remember they will be serving not just a classroom full of new students, but also families. The Family Equality Council estimates that between 2 million and 3.7 million children under the age of 18 have an LGBTQ parent -- a group that has typically been underserved, if not sometimes ignored, in school settings. The...

By Catherine Gewertz, Education Week, August 5, 2019 More than half of the country’s teachers say they’d go on strike for better pay if they had the chance, and half are so unhappy that they’ve seriously considered leaving the profession in the last few years, according to a poll released Monday. “I work 55 hours a week, have 12 years’ experience, and make $43k,” one teacher told researchers for the PDK survey. “I worry and stress daily about my classroom prep work and kids. I am a fool to...

By Cheryl Corley, National Public Radio, August 5, 2019 In Kentucky, running away from home or constantly skipping school could get a kid locked up in a juvenile hall for days. Those acts, called status offenses, aren't serious crimes, but for years Kentucky and other states treated them as though they were. That first brush with the juvenile justice system can often lead to more trouble if authorities focus on punishment, not the underlying reasons for the bad behavior. But there's growing...

By Theresa Harrington, EdSource, August 5, 2019 Ashley Wallace is one of nearly 145,000 teachers nationwide whose students will start the school year with new classroom and learning supplies thanks in large part to the generosity of strangers. The help arrived through a national nonprofit web site, DonorsChoose.org, that connects what teachers need to donors. Back-to-school is the site’s busiest time of year. [ Please click here to read more .]

We are delighted to announce that the position of Director for the Center for Learning and Resilience has been released. Please click on the links below for further information or to apply. The Butte County Office of Education (BCOE) is located in Northern California and serves 14 districts and 18 charter schools in Butte County and provides services to students and educators in all 58 California Counties and employs 1500 people in Butte County and across the state. Link to job posting :...

These NYC-based organizations are educating teens of all gender expressions about what makes romance healthy. Even though her high school had a guidance counselor, it was a meeting with her school’s RAPP (Relationship Abuse Prevention Program) coordinator, Ellen*, that helped her find the support she needed to end the relationship. “I didn’t go to my guidance counselor because they weren’t there to help with emotional issues,” Diana said. Unlike traditional counselors, RAPP coordinators are...

In a recent survey involving 1,000 primary teachers conducted by ed tech company ClassTag , 45 percent of respondents said more than a quarter of families were “hard to reach and engage,” with 21 percent saying that more than half of their families were hard to engage. However, according to the report, The State of Parent Engagement , parents tend to think that teachers do a good job of communicating. Some 39 percent rated teachers as having good communication, rating them at 9 to 10 points...

By John W. Bull, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, July 17, 2019 Texas was the last of two states—Wyoming being the other—that treated truancy as a crime. Students and their parents faced court fines, and if penalties went unpaid, teen truants could be cuffed by constables and sent to jail. None of this made any sense to me when 10 years ago, as San Antonio’s presiding municipal judge, I inadvertently began the process of changing the system across the state. I had heard from a friend who...

By Sally Ho, Associated Press, July 26, 2019 SEATTLE (AP) — Rachel Whalen remembers feeling gutted in high school when a former friend would mock her online postings, threaten to unfollow or unfriend her on social media and post inside jokes about her to others online. The cyberbullying was so distressing that Whalen said she contemplated suicide. Once she got help, she decided to limit her time on social media. It helps to take a break from it for perspective, said Whalen, now a 19-year-old...

By Manola Secaira, July 25, 2019, Crosscut While growing up undocumented, Verónica Guajardo didn't see a place for herself in STEM. Now, she's a researcher who's helping students like herself find their own paths. This interview has been edited for clarity. I was actually an undocumented student for many years. I came to the U.S. about two or three years after I was born, when I was fairly young, from Guadalajara, Jalisco, in Mexico. Then my parents moved to the Central Valley [of...

By Kelly Field, Pacific Standard, July 24, 2019 This story was produced in collaboration with the Hechinger Report. On a recent Thursday morning, when most of their peers were busy prepping for the day, a dozen teachers and staff at Delaware's Sussex Technical High School sat down to talk about race. The group was discussing Chapter 2 of scholar Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism . Lynne Banning, an administrative assistant to the...

By Derrick Bryson Taylor, The New York Times, July 24, 2019, Depression and anxiety. The state of the country. Climate change. Mass shootings. Today’s students are grappling with a variety of issues beyond the classroom. To that end, lawmakers in two states have recently recognized the importance of the mental health of their students by allowing them to take sick days just for that. The measures “empower” children to take care of their mental health, one expert said. On July 1, a law in...