Carolyn Jones
CalMattersCarolyn Jones covers K-12 education forCalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics, and a JPR news partner.
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California legislators want to limit deportation actions at schools, but they can’t ban immigration officials. -
New California law prevents schools from requiring staff to notify parents if a student identifies as LGBTQ. It’s in response to some districts requiring staff to notify parents when students identify as a gender other than what’s in their official files. -
More than 115,000 children in California were undocumented in the most recent census count, and it’s estimated almost half of California children have at least one immigrant parent. -
A new state law bans private colleges from considering an applicant’s ties to family members who are alumni or donors. California’s public universities don’t use legacy admissions. -
The Smarter Balanced scores show improvement for both math and English language arts. Black, Latino and low-income student scores climbed more than the state average, although they still had lower scores overall. -
Schools that banned phones a few years ago have advice for other districts as the governor calls for a crackdown. -
The overall number of 4-year-olds in transitional kindergarten has increased. But as the program is being phased in, the percentage of eligible children enrolling has dropped. -
Gov. Gavin Newsom launched the community school initiative with $4.1 billion in grants to connect students and their families to medical care, counseling and other services. -
Supporters of a California trans youth ballot measure wanted to change the name assigned by the attorney general, but a judge said no. -
California schools got $23.4 billion in federal pandemic relief money. Low-income schools that got the most may be hardest hit when the funds expire this year. -
At some rural schools construction projects are left undone, teaching jobs are unfilled and students who need specialized services don’t get them. -
Despite a few improvements, the data shows students are still struggling on several fronts.
