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Teachers of Color: A majority of public school students are students of color, yet less than 20% of public school teachers are teachers of color, and only 2% of teachers are black men –– but California has started an initiative to change that, reports EdSource. According to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, there is a shortage of 307,000 public education jobs overall in the United States, and this is partially due to layoffs that predominantly affected black teachers during the 2007 recession. According to a contributing writer for EdSource, when the 2007 recession hit, scores of black teachers lost their jobs. The cuts were billed as a way to “reform education,” and poor student performance was viewed as an isolated reflection of teacher quality. Not only was this reform misguided, but data continues to emerge that shows the long term benefits for black students when they have a black teacher, along with the positive impact diversifying teachers has on closing the racial achievement gap. While the efforts to recruit a more diverse educator workforce in California have only just begun, a recent survey from a virtual town hall hosted by the Department of Education in Sacramento found that an overwhelming majority support the initiative and believe it is a critical step in reducing the racial achievement gap.
Related: The Hechinger Report: OPINION: Why are schools that predominately serve black and brown students consistently underfunded?
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ACEs Screening: California Surgeon General has an ambitious new plan: to screen every student for childhood trauma before entering school, as reported by NBC News. Stated in a hearing on providing care in schools held by the House Committee of Education and Labor in September, Dr. Burke Harris said that this initiative would require “public education, routine screening to enable early detection and early intervention and cross-sector coordinated care.” Dr. Harris has long been an outspoken advocate for examining the connection between Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) and negative health outcomes, but is now also leading the way in connecting ACEs to poor academic performance. According to Dr. Burke Harris, the higher a child’s ACE score (determined via an ACE screening), the more likely they are to miss a day in school. The stress hormones produced by trauma can also impact the developing brain, making it difficult for kids to sit still or practice impulse control. In her congressional testimony, Dr. Burke Harris also cited a pilot program that taught meditation to kids in school, which resulted is not only a reduction in school suspension rates and episodes of violence, but an increase in GPAs and standardized test scores. “The opportunity ahead of us is a true intersection of health care and education,” she said.
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Hub and Spoke: Health plans should do more to support parents in raising healthy families according to recommendations made by a coalition of child health researchers and First 5 Center for Children’s Policy in a new report on Medi-Cal, California’s low-income health program that covers 40% of the state’s children, as reported by California Health Report. The report proposes a “hub and spoke” model for delivering early and preventative behavior health services, meaning families of children enrolled in Medi-Cal –– including parents –– would be screened at central “hub” locations in their communities and providers would work with them to either offer on-site services like parent-child therapy or connect them with “spoke” organizations like substance abuse treatment, affordable housing services or support groups when necessary. As Medi-Cal works now, providers are only paid to address the behavior health of enrolled children and they must be diagnosed with an illness to receive treatment, a structure that ignores that a parent’s well-being and mental health has a direct impact on a child’s well-being. “The bottom line is Medi-Cal has to be reformed,” said Ted Lampert, president of the children's advocacy group Children Now. “Kids need to be prioritized more in Medi-Cal, and screenings and interventions required by federal law need to be occurring."
Stress and Sex: A new study has found that maternal stress may influence a baby’s sex and likelihood of preterm birth, as reported by U.S. News and World Report. According to the researchers who examined 187 pregnant women those with mental stress (such as depression or anxiety) and physical stress (like high blood pressure and greater calorie intake) were more likely to have a female baby, and were also more likely to give birth preterm. On average, 105 males are born for every 100 females, but in the study, the male-to-female birth ratio in physically stressed moms was found to be 4:9, while in mentally stressed moms it was 2:3, as reported by ScienceDaily. Lastly, researchers found that when social support was statistically equal across groups of mothers, the risk of preterm birth decreased, reports Cosmos. According to the researchers, the findings underscore the importance of social support for moms when it comes to fetal and maternal health and mitigating the risk of preterm pregnancies.
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Shift Work: Unpredictable work hours have harmful effects not only on workers, but their families too, according to new research from The Shift Project and as reported by The New York Times. According to the researchers who looked at surveys from 30,000 hourly employees, Black and Hispanic women had the most precarious schedules while white men had the best –– even when they compared individuals with the same level of education with the same type of jobs or even at the same companies. Researchers also discovered that the children of workers with irregular schedules had worse behavior and more inconsistent child care, and were also much more likely to exhibit anger, sadness and guilt, along with throw tantrums and argue. One of the biggest stressors for parents with irregular schedules was the inability to find child care, since formal high-quality child care typically does not allow unplanned drop offs and rarely operates outside working hours. On top of that, those with on-call jobs or last-minute shift changes were significantly more likely to leave a child under 10 at home alone or with a sibling.
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Politics and Current Events
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Bill Season: Bill signing season has officially come to a close with Gov. Newsom vetoing his last bills, including one that would have mandated full-day kindergarten, as reported by EdSource. According to Newsom’s reasoning, he has already taken steps to address obstacles standing in the way of full-day kindergarten, namely: $300 million one-time funding for schools to expand facilities to create more kindergarten classrooms. In reflecting on Newsom’s first legislative season in office, First 5 LA Executive Director Kim Belshé writes in an op-ed for Sacramento Bee that Newsom has enacted “groundbreaking laws” such as AB 1004 (in which First 5 LA was a sponsor) that promote child development with new mandates for Medi-Cal developmental screenings, and has continually proved that he is a champion of children through his investments, appointments and legislative actions. “By moving from talk to action in building brighter futures for our children, Newsom has shown he is born for this,” Belshé writes. What else do we know about the Governor besides his commitment to early childhood development and based on the 1,042 bills that were sent his way this season? LAist has created a summary, including a recap of the bills that Newsom signed that former Gov. Jerry Brown did not.
Public Charge: Federal Judges in California, New York and Washington State have issues injunctions against Trump Administration’s Public Charge ruling, which would impose impediments to legal residency for immigrants who receive public benefits such as Medicaid by expanding the definition of what it means to be a “public charge,” as reported by The New York Times. The rule –– which was widely seen as part of the Trump administration ongoing attempt to keep poor immigrants out of the country –– was found to be discriminatory, as well as undermining the well-being of children whose families rely on public assistance for nutrition and health. The law was supposed to go into effect on Oct. 15, and even though it has been temporarily blocked, damage has already been done, with many families dropping out of public assistance programs due to fear around immigration status. According to a Cornell Law School immigration professor, the rule against public charge is likely to go all the way to the supreme court.
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Baby Rave: Necessity is the mother of invention, as evidenced by the increasingly popular "Baby Rave," a family friendly dance party in the Bay Area. As rents skyrocket in the Bay, kids and kids activities are becoming increasingly rare, reports The Los Angeles Times, so fun and nostalgic activities like the Baby Rave fill a need for the families that remain. The rave, which is said to be shorter and slower than an adult rave but still similar, is hosted by the Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and includes a live D.J. “We only do one a month, but they sell out instantly,” said Nina Meehan, the theater’s executive artistic director. “It’s become by far the most popular thing that we do.”
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ICYMI: In Case You Missed It, More Great Reads
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