Making Data Work in California

This brief is designed to help district decision-makers in California think about how they might collect and use chronic absence data, with an emphasis on leveraging their Student Information Systems (SIS) to support this work. It lays out approaches to maximize the opportunities presented by recent changes at the state and federal level, including CALPADS new attendance data collection for 2016-17 school year, and new chronic absence reporting requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act. The brief also provides suggestions for how to best leverage SIS providers for tracking, analyzing, disseminating, and using chronic absence data to develop strategies to reduce chronic absenteeism among students.

New Grant Opportunity for Schools and Communities to Improve School Climate

On September 23, 2016, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund: Learning Communities for School Success program into law. This new program will provide grants to local school districts to implement research-based strategies to improve school climate and to mitigate the school-to-prison pipeline.

Get Ready to Apply:

We encourage school districts and community organizations to start preparing now for this competitive grant opportunity.

A Request for Proposal process is expected to begin in early 2017.

Why School Nutrition Matters

At least 1.7 million households with children in California cannot consistently afford enough food. Schools are in a unique position to contribute to child nutrition through school meal programs, but there are millions of children who aren’t reached by these programs. Increasing access to healthy meals at school is critical to ensuring students can learn, grow, and achieve. So how can schools optimize their LCFF investments by improving school meal programs and increasing participation?

Co-authored by California Food Policy Advocates and the Partnership for Children & Youth, this second chapter of “Student Supports: Getting the Most out of Your LCFF Investment” dives into the most impactful practices for school nutrition and how they can help support progress on the LCFF priorities.