Chalkbeat

Open or closed? Some Colorado programs for homeschoolers remain in limbo after turbulent summer

2026-08-26T21:33:36+00:00

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As the school year begins, leaders at Denver’s Bluff Lake Nature Center are searching for a way to keep offering publicly funded enrichment classes that teach homeschooled students about water quality, wildlife tracking, shelter building, and foraging.

Space Academy, a Colorado Springs program that teaches homeschoolers about rocketry, is pausing its once-a-week classes this school year.

The contrasting decisions show how different homeschool enrichment providers are reacting to the sudden demise of the controversial group that had authorized their programs. That group — Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES — is dissolving after a recent crackdown by the state.

The dissolution affects 44 state-funded homeschool enrichment programs and comes after a roller coaster year that brought intense scrutiny and strict rules to public homeschool enrichment offerings. If all 44 programs retained an authorizer and received approval, they could have served more than 6,000 Colorado homeschoolers this year at a cost of more than $35 million in state dollars.

But in all likelihood, the numbers will be much lower. That’s because some homeschool programs authorized by ERBOCES have already closed, and others, including Space Academy, are pausing in the hopes of relaunching under a new authorizer in fall 2027.

Authorizers handle certain administrative tasks and serve as a conduit for state funding.

Controversial group that opened ‘Colorado’s first public Christian school’ will close after 13 years

Some homeschool enrichment programs previously authorized by ERBOCES are scrambling to find a school district or charter school willing to authorize them so they can continue providing tuition-free classes this year.

It’s unclear how many of the 44 programs are seeking new authorizers and how many have closed their doors temporarily or permanently. Programs have until Sept. 4 to find new authorizers and inform the state.

“We are in conversations with numerous people about alternate paths to authorization for this school year prior to (the Colorado Department of Education’s) deadline in September,” Rachel Hutchens, executive director of Bluff Lake Nature Center, said in an email.

Last year, Bluff Lake’s program served about 35 homeschoolers.

Verónica Corral Flores, Space Academy’s program director, said in an email that her program won’t hold its usual weekly classes this year but will offer free monthly sessions where homeschooling families can build and launch their own rockets. Grant money will cover the cost of the rocket kits, she said.

New rules, more oversight for homeschool enrichment

A state law passed last spring put new guardrails on public education co-ops like ERBOCES, which had long been lightly regulated.

Since the pandemic, the Monument-based group had authorized a flood of homeschool enrichment programs across the state. Lawmakers grew alarmed over mounting state spending on homeschool enrichment and news that some programs subsidized private schools while others offered activities that public school families had to pay for, including horseback riding, skiing, and jiu-jitsu lessons.

The new guardrails include strict criteria for receiving state funding and a new layer of review for homeschool enrichment programs that operate outside the boundaries of the school district or BOCES that authorizes them.

ERBOCES authorized more than 50 homeschool enrichment programs last school year. Earlier this summer, it submitted applications on behalf of 44 of them to state reviewers. A few other authorizers — Aurora Public Schools and some charter schools — also submitted applications to the state for a handful of out-of-boundary homeschool programs.

By August, ERBOCES was on the brink of collapse because of defections by member institutions and a state crackdown over an improperly constituted board and misspent state money. Then, on Aug 17, its most critical member, School District 49, voted to dissolve the co-op.

That left the 44 homeschool enrichment programs in limbo. Complicating matters, the state had reviewed only half the applications submitted by ERBOCES, approving three, including Space Academy and Bluff Lake.

The state denied 18, several because homeschool enrichment funding would subsidize students attending private schools, reviewers said. A state spokesperson said denied programs could submit clarifying information and ask for a second review. Only a few have done that so far, they said.

A waiting game for families

Gran Via, a bilingual outdoor education program in metro Denver, is one former ERBOCES program that found a home with a new authorizer: an Aurora charter school called Wildflower Montessori. Bill Knous, executive director of Gran Via, said his group switched authorizers before ERBOCES was dissolved. Gran Via had long been in talks with Wildflower because both take a Montessori approach and have similar missions, Knous said.

But finding a new authorizer is only half the battle. Gran Via is still waiting for the state to decide on its application to operate at a park and library outside Aurora one day a week. Without state approval, Knous can’t officially enroll homeschool students or get state funding.

With the school year underway, that puts Gran Via families, including some with neurodivergent children who’ve struggled at traditional schools, in a bind, Knous said.

“They’re not focused on all the politics,” he said. ”They’re simply thinking about, ‘Is my kid going to be seen, valued, and known at school?’”

For now, Knous said Gran Via is visiting with families one on one to keep them connected to the program while it awaits a decision. He choked up as he shared some of the worries parents have about losing the program.

“It’s very hard for them, right?” Knous said. “Because they’re like, ‘What if this doesn’t happen? What do we do?’”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

35% of Summer EBT money went unspent by Colorado families last year, data shows

2026-08-14T14:00:00+00:00

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More than a third of the money that some low-income Colorado families received last summer to help feed their children went unspent, state data shows.

Summer EBT provides eligible families with $120 per child to buy groceries during the months when kids are not getting breakfast and lunch at school. The federal program grew out of a pandemic-era effort to keep students fed while schools were shuttered.

The under-spend matters because it means families are losing out on free food money during what advocates called “the hungriest time of year.” State officials made changes to this year’s Summer EBT rollout to encourage more families to use their benefits.

Once a family gets their money, they have 122 days — or about four months — to use it. The timeline will start running out in late September this year.

This summer is the third that Colorado has participated in Summer EBT. Last summer, the state gave out $57.6 million to more than 480,000 families of preschool through 12th grade students. But state data shows that 35% of those students never used their one-time $120 benefit, meaning that nearly $20.2 million went back to the federal government.

That money could have fed more than 168,000 additional children, according to the data.

Colorado had the lowest Summer EBT usage rate of the 20 states for which education policy consultant David Rubel gathered data. For instance, Missouri also distributed about $57 million in Summer EBT benefits last year. But that state only lost $3.5 million, according to Rubel.

“There’s so much bad stuff happening,” Rubel said, referencing cuts to other federal food assistance programs. “But here, you have something where the money was already allocated. Let’s use it. We don’t have to fight over it. It’s there.”

There are several reasons why families might not use their $120 per child, advocates said. The benefits are issued on a reusable card that’s separate from a family’s regular benefits card. If a family loses or throws away their Summer EBT card, they must request a new one.

Some families don’t know that Summer EBT exists, advocates said. Students are automatically eligible if their family receives public benefits such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Colorado Works, or if they qualify for free- or reduced-price school meals. Others must fill out an application.

But some automatically enrolled families “expressed hesitation or uncertainty about utilizing the benefit,” said John Rosa, a Colorado Department of Human Services spokesperson.

“Because it is such a new program … there is a general awareness-raising that needs to happen,” said Chloe Eberhardt, the associate director of benefits access for the nonprofit No Kid Hungry. “It’s easy for families to be confused about eligibility for the program.”

Operational and customer service challenges also contributed to the lower usage rate last year, Rosa said, as did outdated mailing addresses. Colorado was using addresses supplied by school districts from previous academic years, an issue the state remedied this year by mostly using current addresses from the state’s public benefits system, Rosa said.

School districts also play a role in telling families about Summer EBT, and advocacy organizations held a training call this year to provide district staff with up-to-date information, said Graciela Guillen, the applied policy and economic justice coordinator for Hunger Free Colorado.

But Jeffco Public Schools spokesperson Devra Ashby said that while the state’s second-largest district shares information about Summer EBT broadly, it doesn’t send targeted communications to families because eligibility is based on confidential student and household information.

“Protecting the privacy of our students and families is a priority,” she said.

The Colorado Department of Human Services does send targeted communications, and it updated them this year with clear “keep your card” guidance, Rosa said. To help boost usage, the department also rolled out two new online tools this summer.

The Summer EBT Enrollment Checker allows families to check if their child is eligible. The Summer EBT Portal lets families request a new card, change their address, or check the status of their application without having to make a phone call.

The online tools are available in English and Spanish.

“What we know is that summer is the hungriest time of year,” Eberhardt said. “Summer meals and Summer EBT help close that summer hunger gap.”

Clarification, Aug. 18: This story has been updated to clarify that families who lose their Summer EBT card can request a new one. They don’t have to reapply for one.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

CHSAA and districts settle Colorado transgender athlete lawsuit; case continues with state

2025-12-05T02:55:43+00:00

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The group governing high school sports in Colorado has agreed not to sanction schools or teams from eight conservative-leaning school districts and charter schools for policies on transgender student athletes under a settlement agreement finalized Thursday.

Some of the districts and schools passed policies this year barring transgender students from joining teams that align with their gender identity.

The agreement marks the end of the Colorado High School Activities Association’s involvement in a federal lawsuit spearheaded last spring by the 27,000-student District 49 near Colorado Springs. The lawsuit will continue with other defendants, including Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and officials from the Colorado Civil Rights Division.

The settlement won’t have much effect on high school sports in Colorado because the Colorado High School Activities Association, also known as CHSAA, has never had a major role in determining which school teams transgender athletes can join. The group’s bylaws have for years recognized the right of transgender athletes to participate on sports teams that match their gender identity and state that the group can review district decisions on such matters.

But the group has never penalized a school or district for policies on transgender athletes or dictated what those policies should say, a CHSAA spokesperson said in an emailed statement Thursday.

“Eligibility decisions have always been left to individual schools and districts, which is why being named in this lawsuit was both frustrating and unnecessary,” she said.

The statement called the plaintiffs’ decision to sue CHSAA “much more performative than substantive,” and said it won’t change anything about the group’s policies, practices, or authority.

The outcome of the ongoing lawsuit between the state and the eight plaintiffs remains to be seen. The state’s anti-discrimination law includes protections based on gender identity.

A number of Colorado districts have policies that allow transgender students to join sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Others make decisions on a case by case basis, and more recently, some bar transgender students from playing on teams that match their gender identity.

In addition to CHSAA’s agreement not to sanction the plaintiff districts and schools for policies on transgender athletes, the settlement states that CHSAA won’t penalize the plaintiffs for making public statements about the “advantages of biological males over biological females in competitive sports” or the risk of “allowing biological males to play contact sports with or against biological females.” The agreement says this provision won’t apply to statements that advocate violence or demean people based on gender identity.

The settlement also states that if an athlete or team forfeits a competition against a transgender athlete or a team with a transgender member, there will be no penalty, but the forfeit will be counted as a loss.

Finally, the settlement stipulates that the plaintiffs will pay CHSAA $60,000 to cover legal fees and operational costs.

In a press release Thursday, District 49 Superintendent Peter Hilts said, “This settlement is a major step forward, but our work isn’t done. We will continue litigation against the Colorado Civil Rights [Division] and the Attorney General’s Office to ensure every district in Colorado has the freedom to protect girls’ sports, safeguard student privacy, and uphold the spirit of Title IX.”

Multiple Republican lawmakers cheered the settlement on social media Thursday.

Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents western and southern Colorado in Congress, said on X, “At its core, this settlement is about fairness, safety, and common sense. Schools have a responsibility to protect young women and maintain a level playing field by upholding basic biological standards. As a father of daughters, I know how important that is.”

District 49 filed the lawsuit against the state and CHSAA last May, the day after its conservative-learning board narrowly passed a controversial policy banning transgender middle and high school students from joining school teams that align with their gender identity. The policy was developed after President Trump’s February executive order that threatened to withhold federal funding from any school that allows athletes assigned male at birth to participate in girls’ or women’s sports.

In addition to District 49, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Colorado Springs 11, Academy 20, Montezuma-Cortez, James Irwin Charter Schools, Monument Academy, The Classical Academy, and Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Education Services.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Federal SNAP-Ed program cuts mean less nutrition education for Colorado students and families

2025-10-17T22:50:57+00:00

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Southern Colorado’s Center school district used to offer young children fruits and vegetables to try that they might not have previously eaten at home, like kiwi and jicama.

The federally-backed program that helped provide these foods also assisted educators in teaching preschool and elementary students’ families why fruits and vegetables are good for their health. With kiwi, for example, the district would send home recipes for a salad that could be made by parents, said Janet Sanchez, Center Consolidated School District 26JT’s director of preschool.

The program in Center and others like it across the state received support through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed, which ended on Sept. 30 as part of federal budget cuts passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump.

The federal government provided Colorado more than $6 million annually to use on educational programs like the one offered in the 600-student school district located in the San Luis Valley.

These programs were meant to reinforce healthy behaviors and show families that even on a shoestring budget, healthy eating could be in reach. Improving eating habits, in turn, can help improve health outcomes, experts say.

“We serve poverty-level families. This gave children an opportunity to try new foods and try new physical activities,” said Sanchez, who works in a district where 90% of the students qualify for free or reduced price meals.

Administrators and advocates say that without the funding, schools and communities have lost a program that taught children and families healthy habits, including lessons on nutrition and cooking from scratch.

Sanchez said the Center school district can’t replicate these types of programs on its own, especially because teachers aren’t experts on nutrition.

“With our budget constraints,” Sanchez said, “we just can’t continue the teachings.”

Nationwide, the federal government spent about $536 million annually for the SNAP-Ed program. Congress also cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $186 billion through 2034 and has put more of the cost burden on states. The cuts come during a time when food insecurity is on the rise.

While the SNAP program ensures families get fed, the education component was created to teach healthier habits. States used SNAP-Ed in different ways to educate families and students.

The Colorado Department of Human Services distributed the $6 million in federal funding for SNAP-Ed programs to the Colorado School of Public Health and Nourish Colorado.

The Colorado School of Public Health, a collective of three universities that partner on health research and education, primarily operated its programs in preschools and elementary schools, including ones in the Center district.

Associate professor Jini Puma said the programs promoted wellness in schools and created lifelong skills and habits to prevent serious diseases like obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

The SNAP-Ed cuts forced the Colorado School of Public Health to lay off 25 employees who supported school gardens where students learned to grow and taste their own food, developed classroom lessons for teachers, and advised cafeterias on healthier meal options, she said.

Colorado School of Public Health officials would also put together the recipes that were sent home with students, created newsletters about nutrition, and promoted classroom activities that helped keep kids active.

They even reinforced lessons in Center such as proper handwashing techniques and how to stay healthy during the flu season, Sanchez said.

The school of public health’s programs operated in over 140 preschool and 56 elementary schools and taught about 19,000 children, teachers, and caregivers in 19 counties, Puma said.

“We really could change the trajectory for those children so that we can prevent later chronic diseases,” Puma said.

Sanchez said the program greatly contributed to the health of her community. The program not only provided the food for students to try, but also made it easy on teachers to teach about nutrition.

Many of the parents in Center work long hours, she said. The program offered easy activities and meals to try with kids, she said.

“And the program also showed parents that they need to take care of themselves,” Sanchez said.

Nourish Colorado, a nonprofit focused on advocating for accessible, nutritious foods, also was granted the federal funds from the state and delivered nutrition education services in 56 of the state’s 64 counties to help reach almost 400,000 Coloradans. The community-based nutrition education programs worked primarily with adults.

Nourish’s Executive Director Wendy Peters Moschetti said the cuts are bad for everyone, especially because the program has proven to improve the health of communities.

U.S. Department of Agriculture research shows that every $1 spent on SNAP-Ed saves up to $10.64 in health care costs by teaching students and families about nutrition and health.

Colorado lawmakers have asked voters for more money for school meals and food programs such as SNAP-Ed on the state’s Nov. 4 ballot.

She said there’s likely to be significant discussion about how the state would use new revenue if Proposition MM passes. She plans to advocate for the SNAP-Ed programs

“We will be at that table,” Peters Moschetti said. “And that is our best bet right now to continue to fund public, community-based nutrition education.”

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado has a new child abuse reporting law. Here’s a guide for educators on the new requirements.

2025-08-22T15:00:00+00:00

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Teachers, child care providers, and other people who work with children will soon be subject to a new state law governing how and when suspected child abuse or neglect should be reported.

The law, which takes effect Sept. 1, includes several changes recommended by a state task force that spent two years considering reforms that clarify the responsibilities of mandatory reporters — people who work with kids and are legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect. The new law includes a provision aimed at reducing the disproportionate number of low-income families and families of color who are reported for suspected abuse or neglect.

Some of the task force’s recommendations didn’t make it into the new law because they would have cost more money than state lawmakers wanted to give in a tough budget year. They include a recommendation to require standardized recurring training for mandatory reporters.

Below are answers to common questions about the new law.

If I suspect child abuse or neglect at work, how soon do I have to report it?

The new law requires that mandated reporters make a report within 24 hours. The old law required a report “immediately” but did not define the term, which led some mandated reporters to wait 48 or 72 hours before reporting, according to members of the task force.

If I see signs that a child in my classroom is being abused or neglected, can I let my supervisor make the report instead of doing it myself?

No, you must make the report. The new law prohibits employees from delegating their duty to report to a colleague or supervisor who doesn’t have firsthand knowledge of the suspected abuse or neglect.

In the past, employers such as schools or hospitals sometimes had rules that required employees who suspected abuse to report it to their supervisors instead of going directly to authorities. The idea was that the supervisors would make the report to authorities, but in some cases, they never did. The new law attempts to close that loophole.

Schools and other employers can still require educators to report suspected abuse or neglect to supervisors or go through other internal procedures, but those educators must report to authorities as well.

If multiple mandated reporters at my job see signs of abuse or neglect at the same time, who should report it?

If you are a mandatory reporter, you should always report suspected abuse or neglect. However, if a colleague has reported the same instance you are calling about, you will not be required to make a full duplicate report. Instead, you will receive a referral identification number that fulfills your duty to report.

Does the new law take race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or disability status into account?

The law prohibits reports due to these factors. Experts say this change came about because families of color and low-income families are disproportionately funneled into the child welfare system because manifestations of poverty, racial identity, ethnicity, or disability are sometimes conflated with abuse or neglect.

For example, if a child wears the same clothes four days in a row or tells the teacher they’ve been sleeping on the couch at their aunt’s house, it might not be neglect, but an outgrowth of financial problems, said Jessica Dotter, sexual assault resource prosecutor at the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council and a member of the state task force.

She said teachers should pause to ask questions like, “Is this neglect, or is this poverty? Is this neglect, or is this a kid with two parents who are disabled?”

As a teacher, I’m a mandated reporter. Does that mean I have to report suspected child abuse or neglect that I see outside my job?

No. The old law wasn’t clear on this point, but a 2019 Colorado Court of Appeals decision held that mandatory reporters are obligated to report suspected abuse or neglect even if it happened outside of work. The law change specifies that mandated reporters are not required to do this.

While mandated reporters don‘t have to report outside-of-work instances of suspected abuse or neglect — for example, something they saw at a kid’s soccer game — there’s nothing preventing them from reporting if they choose.

What happens to mandatory reporters if they fail to report suspected abuse or neglect?

If mandated reporters knowingly fail to report, they can be charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor, which carries a maximum of 120 days in jail and a fine of up to $740. But the likelihood of going to jail for violating the law is low, according to an analysis by Dotter.

She found there were 70 failure-to-report cases from 2010 to 2020, and 41 of them were dismissed. In only 19 cases, mandated reporters either pleaded guilty or were found guilty. They were all given probation or another sentencing option that did not include jail time.

“Even though there’s a possibility of jail,” said Dotter, “in 10 years, there was not one case where jail was the outcome.”

Am I a mandatory reporter?

There are more than 40 categories of mandatory reporters under Colorado law. They include public and private school employees, child care employees, nurses, psychologists, social workers, mental health professionals, and coaches. For a full list, check out the FAQ from the Colorado Department of Human Services.

Where can I find information or training on the new law?

The Colorado Department of Human Services offers free online training in English and Spanish for mandatory reporters. A new version of the two-hour training that includes information on the recent law change will be available starting Sept. 1.

For general information about child abuse reporting rules and resources, check the department’s CO4KIDS webpage.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Paying for housing on a Colorado teacher’s salary? It’s not easy, report finds.

2025-08-13T22:11:04+00:00

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At one point, Cassidy Proctor, a social studies teacher in the Montezuma-Cortez district in southwest Colorado, spent half her $44,000 salary on housing costs. Another district teacher recruited from the Philippines said she rents a single room in a family’s house for $750 a month.

Forty miles away, a local nonprofit helped Nathan Van Arsdale, who works at the Durango district’s career center, with a down payment on his 450-square-foot condo.

These are a few of the stories highlighted in a new report from the Keystone Policy Center on the shortage of affordable housing for Colorado educators and district staff. It’s based on survey results from more than 3,200 respondents in 10 Colorado districts. The report doesn’t name all the participating districts, but Van Schoales, Keystone’s senior policy director, said they include urban, suburban, mountain resort, and remote rural districts.

Several of the educators featured in the report cite the negative impacts of pricey or hard-to-find housing: long commutes, crowded living conditions, and living paycheck to paycheck. Ultimately, these kinds of problems lead to teacher turnover.

Finding affordable housing has long been a problem for Colorado teachers — sometimes because there’s simply no housing available and other times because the cost of available units is too high. The average teacher salary in Colorado was about $73,000 last school year, with district averages ranging from $37,000 in the tiny Vilas district in the southeast corner of the state to $100,000 in Boulder Valley. Colorado’s median single family home price was $590,000 in July, according to the Colorado Association of Realtors.

One of the Keystone report’s key findings is that many teachers spend too much of their income on housing. In four districts that participated, more than half of survey respondents spend over 40% of their income on housing — well above the 30% level that’s a common rule of thumb.

Schoales said keeping housing costs under that threshold is especially important for middle-income earners.

“Obviously, if you’re making a million dollars a year, if you want to spend a third [on housing], you still have a lot of discretionary income,” he said. “But for teachers and for cops and firefighters, it’s a real problem.”

Greg Meshell, a middle school math teacher in Cortez, said before a recent pay raise, he was spending 47% of his salary on housing not including utilities, according to the report.

“After the raise, it still accounts for about 42% of my salary,” said Meshell, who earns about $60,000 a year plus stipends from coaching.

Schoales said one of the report’s findings that most surprised him was that 70% of survey respondents said they’d be comfortable with their school district as their landlord.

“If you had asked me a couple of years ago if teachers would be interested in workforce housing, I would say very, very few,” he said.

The report highlights a couple districts that have provided housing to teachers for many years. One is Byers 32-J east of Denver, which manages 10 apartments and two houses for employees. The district touts lower rental costs as a benefit to try to draw teachers. For example, according to the report, the district recently purchased a three-bedroom, one-bath house with a garage, carport, and yard, which it rents to teachers for $400 a month.

“We don’t have a lot of turnover. When my teachers are there, they realize the benefit, and there’s a lot of loyalty that comes with that,” said Superintendent Tom Turrell, according to the report.

Schoales noted that some school districts partner with groups that oversee workforce housing, so they may technically own the units, but don’t have day-to-day oversight.

“It’s not quite like … a mining company from 100 years ago where if they don’t like you, they can throw you out,” he said.

The Keystone report includes four recommendations to help solve the teaching housing problem. One advocates for an outside group of consultants that can help school districts think through possible solutions. Another recommends more state support to bring districts,especially small rural ones, together to build workforce housing.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Health coverage for Colorado babies and toddlers could be disrupted by Trump administration policy

2025-07-29T23:41:58+00:00

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New guidance from the Trump administration has derailed an effort by Colorado to allow babies and toddlers covered by public health insurance to stay continuously enrolled until they turn 3.

Colorado had been planning to roll out its continuous coverage initiative on January 1, 2026. But the guidance, which was released earlier this month, now has advocates worried that thousands of young children from low-income families could lose health coverage at a critical time in their development, with downstream effects on schools, hospitals, and other institutions.

The Trump administration guidance will affect young children enrolled in Medicaid or Colorado’s Child Health Plan Plus program, or CHP+. Instead of allowing them to stay enrolled in the insurance plans until their third birthday, as Colorado leaders intended, their parents will have to fill out paperwork to re-confirm eligibility every 12 months. If they miss the deadline, skip the paperwork, or their income rises slightly above the government’s low-income threshold, their kids would lose coverage.

During the COVID pandemic, the federal government allowed people on public insurance programs like Medicaid and CHP+ to stay continuously enrolled without having to re-submit paperwork every year. When the pandemic ended, some states, including Colorado, sought federal approval to keep the policy going for certain vulnerable populations.

The Trump administration’s new guidance signals an end to that era.

The guidance emphasizes “fiscal and program integrity” as the rationale for ending continuous eligibility for some groups. It also comes amid a broad federal push to shrink a variety of safety net programs. The recent budget bill that Trump signed into law will make deep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who’s running for Colorado governor, cited some of those cuts Tuesday in announcing a federal bill that would provide continuous public health coverage to enrolled children until they turn 6.

“Guaranteed, consistent coverage during a child’s critical stage of development is especially important now, as the Republican ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ will cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and CHIP, increase barriers to coverage … and add unnecessary red tape that will lead to people improperly losing their health care,” he said in a press release.

CHIP is a joint federal and state health insurance program for children who don’t qualify for Medicaid. CHP+ is Colorado’s name for CHIP.

With Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, Bennet’s proposal may be a nonstarter.

Madi Ashour, director of K-12 education policy for the state advocacy group Colorado Children’s Campaign, said one of the biggest problems with the federal restriction on continuous eligibility for young children is that they’ll miss doctor visits that could uncover developmental problems and route them to important therapies.

“If a child is dropped for Medicaid coverage during that crucial 0-3 window, they may miss diagnoses or supports for developmental delays,” she said.

Ashour said Colorado’s continuous coverage initiative for babies and toddlers can be thought of as “a workload reduction effort for kindergarten and elementary teachers.”

“Kids who start preschool or kindergarten with undiagnosed or unaddressed developmental delays are much more likely, obviously, to struggle with early literacy, behavior, or even peer relationships,” she said. “That may require more intensive and costly interventions later in the school system.”

A 2023 Colorado law set the stage for the state’s plan to ensure continuous public health insurance coverage for two groups: young children during the first 36 months of their lives and adults in the first 12 months after release from state prison. The state received permission from the Biden administration in late 2024 to roll out the effort starting in 2026, but that permission needed to be renewed this coming December by the Trump administration. It now appears that won’t happen.

Marc Williams, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, said in an email that plans underway for the Jan. 1 launch are “being urgently pulled back” now.

The department “is analyzing whether it needs to rework legislation and what the fiscal impact may be,” Williams wrote.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Medio millón de estudiantes en Colorado recibirán $120 en beneficios alimentarios este verano

2025-05-19T17:58:39+00:00

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Las familias de aproximadamente 450,000 estudiantes desde preescolar hasta 12.º grado ya recibieron este mes dinero adicional para compras de alimentos, cargado en tarjetas electrónicas de beneficios, como parte del programa Summer EBT dirigido a menores en situación de bajos recursos. Además de esas familias, los funcionarios estatales esperan entregar el beneficio alimentario, financiado principalmente por el gobierno federal, a unos 50,000 estudiantes más durante el verano.

El año pasado, muchas familias recibieron sus beneficios de Summer EBT con retraso, en algunos casos justo cuando comenzaba el nuevo ciclo escolar. Este año ha sido distinto: la mayoría de las familias recibió el dinero el 1 de mayo.

La implementación del programa Summer EBT es una de varias medidas que Colorado ha tomado en los últimos años para reducir la cantidad de niños que pasan hambre. En 2022, los votantes aprobaron una iniciativa electoral para ofrecer comidas escolares gratuitas a todos los estudiantes del sistema público, sin importar el ingreso familiar. El programa ha sido tan popular que su costo ha superado lo anticipado por los funcionarios estatales.

Para mantener el programa activo ante serios problemas presupuestarios, los legisladores encontraron fondos para financiarlo completamente hasta diciembre. También enviarán dos iniciativas al voto en noviembre que, de ser aprobadas, generarían el dinero adicional necesario para continuar el programa más allá de ese mes.

Los estudiantes de escuelas públicas en Colorado, desde preescolar hasta 12.º grado, son elegibles para recibir la tarjeta Summer EBT si sus familias reciben beneficios públicos como SNAP, Medicaid o Colorado Works, o si califican para comidas escolares gratuitas o a precio reducido. (Aunque ahora las comidas escolares son gratuitas para todos los estudiantes sin importar el ingreso familiar, la mayoría de las escuelas aún solicita a las familias completar formularios de elegibilidad para comidas gratuitas o similares, que evalúan el ingreso familiar).

Las autoridades anticipan que más de 500,000 niños en edad escolar recibirán los beneficios del programa Summer EBT este verano. La mayoría los recibió o los recibirá automáticamente. Sin embargo, algunos — incluyendo aquellos que se mudaron recientemente a Colorado o se inscribieron en una nueva escuela — podrían tener que completar una solicitud en el sitio web del Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Colorado.

Los estudiantes que hayan perdido su tarjeta de beneficios pueden llamar al centro de ayuda de Summer EBT al 800-536-5298 para solicitar una nueva.

Los niños que reciben tarjetas Summer EBT también pueden aprovechar las comidas gratuitas de verano que se ofrecen en escuelas locales u otros puntos de distribución.

Traducido por Rossana Longo, Colorado Community Media

Ann Schimke es reportera senior de Chalkbeat y cubre temas relacionados con la niñez temprana y la alfabetización temprana. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un email aaschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Half a million Colorado students to get $120 in food benefits this summer

2025-05-08T23:58:40+00:00

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The families of about 450,000 Colorado students in preschool through 12th grade received extra grocery money from the state this month to cover the cost of food during summer break.

The $120 per child preloaded onto electronic benefits cards is part of the Summer EBT program for children from low-income families. In addition to the families that have already received the benefits, state officials expect to provide the grocery benefit, which is mostly funded by the federal government, to around 50,000 more students through the summer.

Last year, many families received their Summer EBT benefits late, sometimes just as the new school year was starting. But this year is different, with most families getting the money on May 1.

Rolling out the Summer EBT program is among several steps Colorado leaders have taken in recent years to reduce the number of children who go hungry. In 2022, voters approved a ballot measure to provide free school meals to the state’s public school students regardless of family income. The program has been so popular, it’s cost more than state officials anticipated.

In an effort to sustain the program amid serious state budget troubles, lawmakers found the money to keep the program fully funded through December. They’ll also send two ballot measures to voters in November that, if approved, would raise enough additional money to continue the program after December.

Colorado students in public school pre-K-12 are eligible for Summer EBT cards if their families receive public benefits such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Colorado Works, or if they qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. (Although free school meals are now offered to public school students regardless of family income, most schools still ask families to fill out free or reduced-price meal eligibility forms or similar forms that gauge family income.)

State officials anticipate that more than 500,000 Colorado children in preschool through 12th grade will receive Summer EBT benefits this summer. Most received or will receive the money automatically. But some — including those who recently moved to Colorado or enrolled in a new school — may have to fill out an application on the Colorado Department of Human Services website..

Students who’ve misplaced their existing benefits card should call the Summer EBT support center at 800-536-5298 to get a new card sent.

Children in families that receive Summer EBT cards can still take advantage of free summer meals at local schools or other sites.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

School accountability should factor in environmental hazards like pollution, Adams 14 says

2024-09-20T01:12:30+00:00

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The Adams 14 school district in Commerce City faces some of the most serious environmental hazards of any in Colorado. It’s also one of the lowest performing.

But external factors such as local levels of poverty or pollution aren’t a part of Colorado’s school rating system that holds districts accountable for student test scores. Adams 14 officials have asked the State Board of Education to reconsider that. But it looks like they have an uphill battle.

After more than a year of work, a 26-member task force has almost finished a set of recommendations for changing the state’s accountability system. The group’s latest draft, published on Friday, doesn’t recommend considering factors such as the environmental pollution in a community, although it’s still taking feedback.

At a State Board of Education meeting last Wednesday, Adams 14 Superintendent Karla Loria highlighted pollution in Commerce City, and research showing that such conditions can contribute to higher rates of student illnesses, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems.

Community members say their higher than average rate of adverse health issues are directly tied to conditions created by industries like a Commerce City oil refinery run by Suncor Energy that has faced multiple investigations for exceeding the amount of pollution it is allowed to release into the air. Commerce City, a heavily industrialized community north of Denver, is considered a disproportionately impacted community, based on state data.

“Adams 14 students face, every day and night, detrimental environmental exposures that more than 90 percent of our students across the state do not face,” Loria said.

The Adams 14 school district currently serves about 5,400 students, of which more than half speak English as a new language and a majority come from low-income families. Those demographics, when combined with high pollution levels, create a challenging situation for Adams 14 students and educators, Loria said.

Wendy Birhanzel, the superintendent of the Harrison school district and the chair of the task force looking at the accountability system, said she’s well aware of how external forces impact students.

But she said the task force focused on inequities within the accountability system, and stuck to factors that are within a school district’s control. In the year the task force has been meeting, she said she didn’t hear concerns about environmental pollution.

“We know there’s a lot of factors that go into a student’s performance or a student’s success, and so with our charge it was really about what can schools and districts control and change within their own systems to change outputs,” Birhanzel said. “When you talk about those outside factors, that becomes a whole different conversation than really what our focus was.”

Accountability system’s handling of Adams 14 spurred criticism

For its accountability system, Colorado mostly looks at student performance on standardized state tests, and student growth on those tests. At the high school level, the rating system also considers graduation rates and how many students move on to postsecondary options.

Districts can earn one of five ratings. In the most recent results for the last school year, just 11 districts — including Adams 14 — received one of the lowest two ratings. Being in those two lowest ratings for five years or more then means the state must step in and order an improvement plan, or take steps like closing schools.

Adams 14 was the first district to reach so many years on the watchlist for low ratings. The fallout has put a strain on the accountability system, as well as the local community. The State Board stripped the district’s accreditation in 2022, and ordered a reorganization that could have resulted in school closures or even the dissolution of the district. But after community pushback, the state backed off the order.

Many community members pointed to factors outside of the school’s control — including poverty, bad water, and student health issues — as reasons why they said the state’s ratings system was unfair, punitive, or inaccurately capturing student learning.

For years, Adams 14 has been working with outside consultants trying to improve student achievement. But it has yet to show improvement on the state’s rating system.

A majority of schools and districts initially identified for low performance under the same system do manage to improve and get off the watchlist.

Still, Colorado lawmakers commissioned an audit to examine the state’s accountability system. In 2022, the audit concluded that the system was reasonable, although it did find that certain groups of students, such as Hispanic students, were more likely to struggle.

After that audit, the state convened a task force to determine whether there should be changes to the state’s accountability system.

That task force has been meeting since August of last year. Their latest draft includes more than 20 possible recommendations including creating a super subgroup to avoid over-counting students who fall into more than one subgroup, and translating more of the state tests into more languages.

Birhanzel said the recommendations will help the state “better measure where we’re succeeding and where we need to support schools, districts or students.”

The final report is due by mid-November. Some of the recommendations could be adopted by the State Board or the Colorado Department of Education, but some could require changes to the state law on accountability.

Adams 14 seeks help from new Colorado rules

This month, much of Commerce City is breathing a sigh of relief after an oil and gas company dropped plans to expand gas storage tanks across the street from an Adams 14 elementary school. But that reprieve for the district doesn’t address all its current concerns about environmental dangers.

Adams 14 officials implied in their public comments last week that due to new state rules about environmental justice, the State Board had a legal obligation to consider the district’s official status as a disproportionately impacted community when making any changes to the accountability system.

The new rules define a “disproportionately impacted community” and suggest that more state agencies factor the designation into their decisions. The Colorado Department of Education was not listed among the state agencies, although the rules note that its list of such agencies isn’t meant to be exhaustive.

The state education department disputed Adams 14′s interpretation of the rules, saying it’s not aware of such a requirement. But it did say it would review relevant materials from the district about that issue.

“We recognize that factors outside schools’ control impact the student learning environment,” the department said in a statement. “Our department and the state board can and do consider those factors when making decisions about how to support districts and schools.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

More guardrails for Colorado districts that want 4-day weeks, report urges

2024-08-13T16:01:39+00:00

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Colorado school districts with four-day weeks have slightly lower student achievement on average than those with five-day weeks and see little improvement in teacher turnover after shifting from five to four days.

That’s according to a new report from the Keystone Policy Center that argues for stricter guardrails on four-day school weeks and the creation of an expert panel to study the issue.

The report, “Doing Less With Less,” comes at a time when nearly two-thirds of Colorado’s 185 districts — enrolling about 14% of the state’s students — operate on four-day-a-week schedules. In the last five years, about two dozen districts across the state, most small and rural, made the switch. This year, the 1,200-student Strasburg district, about 30 miles east of Denver, is the only district changing to a four-day schedule, according to the Colorado Department of Education.

“There’s this growing movement around four-day school weeks, and as far as I know, there haven’t been any public discussions around the merits of it,” said Van Schoales, senior policy director at Keystone. “I mean, every district that’s applied for waivers [from five-day-weeks] has gotten them. It’s been a rubber-stamp process.”

Keystone’s report, citing both state and national research and anecdotes from district leaders, concludes that having fewer school days per week doesn’t generally help kids academically.

“The trend toward four-day school weeks in Colorado does not provide a net benefit to the state’s public school students,” the report says. “In fact, student achievement is not even the top consideration when districts make the switch.”

Instead, the primary rationale is to help recruit and retain teachers by offering the shorter week as an employment perk.

While some district leaders told Keystone that four-day weeks have given them a competitive advantage when it comes to staffing, the report concludes that the schedules often don’t make a big difference

As an example, it describes how when the tiny Dolores district in southwestern Colorado switched to a four-day week a few years ago, teacher departures slowed at first. But when a larger nearby district adopted a four-day week the next year, the advantage melted away.

“So now we’re all just back to fighting over who can pay their people more and benefits and things like that,” Superintendent Reece Blincoe said in the report.

The report also highlights the experience of District 27J, a 23,000-student district based in the Denver suburb of Brighton, the largest to have made the switch.

District leaders took the plunge in the 2018-19 school year after voters repeatedly rejected ballot measures that would have helped boost teacher pay. They figured the attractive schedule would pull in and keep teachers otherwise turned off by the district’s low salaries.

But a study by Brown University researchers cited in the Keystone report found that experienced teachers were 5 percentage points less likely to return to 27J after the switch to a four-day week. It wasn’t because teachers didn’t appreciate the shorter school week, but rather because the schedule didn’t outweigh the draw of higher salaries elsewhere.

The Keystone report urges policymakers to consider fixes to the teacher recruitment and retention problem, including higher pay for rural teachers and housing help in districts with a shortage of affordable housing.

The report also acknowledges that some research on four-day weeks is mixed, and more research is needed. Some studies have found the schedule helps retain teachers, reduce bullying, and boost attendance. Others link the schedule to reduced graduation rates, higher rates of food insecurity, and more chronic absenteeism among high schoolers.

Schoales said, “We stopped short of saying that folks shouldn’t do it, because we know that there are circumstances in which it makes sense.”

He cited remote districts where students may spend an hour or two a day on school buses.

“Those are rare instances relative to the state’s population,” he said.

While many school districts with four-day weeks offer enrichment programming or child care on the fifth day when there is no school, fewer families than expected use it, district officials told Keystone.

In Pueblo, Becky Medina, chief operations officer of the local Boys and Girls Club, worries about the children who aren’t showing up to the extra programming her clubs offer on Fridays.

“A lot of them don’t have the means. Whether transportation is the barrier or finances, they’re not getting those other experiences,” she told Keystone. “They’re the ones that are behind in school. Are they now falling farther behind?”

Because nobody tracks which students show up to fifth-day programming, “we’re pretty blind to that,” Schoales said. “It would make sense that kids with less are going to have a harder time taking advantage of that,” he said.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Vaping: These Colorado schools will get Juul lawsuit settlement money for education and prevention

2024-07-09T20:44:33+00:00

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Twenty-one Colorado school districts, seven charter schools, one cooperative education services board, and one youth residential treatment center have been awarded $11.4 million in funding over the next three years for vaping education and prevention programs.

The money comes from a $31.7 million settlement between the state of Colorado and e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs Inc. Colorado sued Juul in 2020, alleging that it targeted youth with deceptive marketing and played down the health risks of vaping. In settling the lawsuit, Juul did not admit any wrongdoing.

Colorado is poised to spend the bulk of the settlement money on a $20 million grant program aimed at improving children’s mental health. But the state is also giving smaller grants directly to school districts, nonprofit organizations, and government entities.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the recipients of the smaller grants in a press release Tuesday. The school district and school recipients are:

Alamosa School District: $244,968

Atlas Preparatory School in Colorado Springs: $85,000

Aurora Public Schools: $140,267

AXL Academy in Aurora: $238,000

Bennett School District: $218,547

Center School District: $198,098

Chavez-Huerta Preparatory Academy in Pueblo: $46,940

Colorado Military Academy in Colorado Springs: $117,471

Dolores County School District: $45,681

Downtown Denver Expeditionary School in Denver: $78,000

DSST Public Schools in Denver and Aurora: $114,000

Eagle County School District: $213,353

Elizabeth School District: $130,217

Fountain-Fort Carson School District: $131,009

Gunnison Watershed School District: $74,534

Harrison School District: $253,405

Lake County School District: $87,543

Mancos School District: $54,300

Mapleton Public Schools: $36,681

Montrose County School District: $100,000

New Legacy Charter School in Aurora: $71,624

North Park School District: $187,545

Pueblo County School District 70: $127,657

San Luis Valley BOCES: $273,870

School District 49: $126,961

Sierra Grande School District: $100,985

Southern Peaks Regional Treatment Center in Cañon City: $36,181

Steamboat Springs School District: $125,635

Strasburg School District: $91,500

Summit School District: $50,000

Twelve nonprofit organizations and government entities were awarded a total of $6 million. Those recipients are:

21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office, Juvenile Diversion Lighthouse Program: $224,010 for a vaping education program for youth in Mesa County, with a focus on rural communities
Boys & Girls Clubs in Colorado, Inc.: $855,979 for community engagement and youth substance use prevention and peer-led programs at 50 clubs across Colorado
Broomfield Public Health and Environment: $202,184 for nicotine replacement therapy and peer support programs to help young people quit vaping, with a focus on LGBTQ+ youth
Denver Department of Public Health and Environment: $541,158 for nicotine replacement therapy, community engagement, and trauma-informed counseling for youth
Mountain Youth: $500,000 for vaping prevention education, media campaigns, cessation programs, and youth-led initiatives in the Eagle River Valley
Jefferson County Public Health: $400,000 for vaping education and cessation services for youth
Partners of Delta, Montrose & Ouray: $297,161 for mentors who will support middle and high school students with behavioral issues through school-based programs
Partners for Youth: $335,487 for an initiative to connect youth in Routt County with trusted adults and engage them in positive activities to prevent substance use
Rocky Mountain Center for Health, Promotion and Education: $800,000 for a program that will train adults to build strong connections with youth in school, family, and community settings
Servicios de La Raza: $950,000 to deploy a bilingual vaping-cessation program for Latino youth
University of Colorado/Colorado School of Public Health UpRISE: $544,018 to expand a youth-led social justice movement for tobacco control
Youth Healthcare Alliance: $350,000 for a program in which school-based health centers will participate in an alternative-to-discipline initiative for youth who are caught vaping

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado to spend $20 million of Juul settlement on grant program to improve youth mental health

2024-06-04T20:56:27+00:00

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Colorado will spend $20 million of a $31.7 million lawsuit settlement with e-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs Inc. on a grant program aimed at improving youth mental health, state Attorney General Phil Weiser announced Tuesday.

The program will prioritize collaborations between school districts and community organizations. The aim is to address children’s mental health so they don’t turn to vaping as a way to cope.

“When you think about a challenge like youth vaping, you can think about addressing the symptom — the fact that people are vaping — or the underlying cause,” Weiser said in an interview after the announcement. “We’ve chosen to address the underlying cause.

“We know that because of mental health issues, people turn to substances like vaping. That’s why we’re going to the source to ask: How do we build better connections?”

The “how” will be up to the school districts, which will be invited to apply for grants later this year. The long lead time is intentional; Weiser said the goal is for districts to collaborate with one another and with local community organizations to come up with programs that help develop young people’s connections to trusted adults and to one another. Several Colorado foundations have offered to help facilitate those collaborations over the next six months.

“We do not want to prescribe what you need to do,” Weiser told a room full of educators at a Colorado Education Initiative summer conference, where he made the announcement. “We want to offer a broad opportunity around holistic youth mental health and leave it to you to think about what collaboration, what partnership, what strategies make sense in your community.”

Colorado sued Juul in 2020, alleging that it targeted youth with deceptive marketing and played down the health risks of vaping. The state was one of several that settled with the company. Juul did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.

Thirty percent of Colorado high school students reported having vaped at least once, according to the most recent data from the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, which is administered every other year. Sixteen percent of students said they’d vaped in the last 30 days.

The $20 million grant program is the largest of three programs that Colorado is spending the Juul settlement money on. The others are a $6 million grant program aimed at nonprofit organizations and government agencies, and an $11.4 million grant program for school districts to address the youth vaping crisis. Those grant programs are already underway, and Weiser said the recipients will be announced soon.

Weiser said he sees the $20 million program as especially impactful because of the power of collaboration. “Schools are free to work with whoever in their community is serving young people,” he said. “In some communities, it might be a Boys and Girls Club. In other communities, it might be a library teaching kids to read.”

Grant applicants whose school districts serve a combined 23,000 students or more will be eligible for a $2.5 million grant over a three-year period, Weiser said. Applicants whose districts serve between 7,500 and 23,000 students will be eligible for $1.75 million over three years, and districts that serve fewer than 7,500 students will be eligible for $750,000.

Late last year, Colorado led a coalition of 42 attorneys general nationwide that sued Meta in a similar lawsuit alleging that its social media platforms, including Instagram, used deceptive practices to harm children and teens and addict them to social media.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Alcalde anuncia nuevo sitio web con campamentos de verano gratis, programa de trabajos para adolescentes en Denver

2024-05-22T19:18:54+00:00

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La ciudad de Denver busca conectar a 1,000 adolescentes más con trabajos este verano, ayudar a familias para que encuentren campamentos de verano, y financiar eventos temporales como parrilladas y torneos de basquetbol en ciertos vecindarios, según anunció el alcalde de Denver Mike Johnston.

Las iniciativas tienen como objetivo “prevenir los riesgos de la violencia en el verano”, Johnston dijo, la cual suele aumentar entre los jóvenes cuando la escuela termina. Estas iniciativas se implementarán después de varios años de aumento en la violencia con armas de fuego en y alrededor de las escuelas de Denver y de conversaciones comunitarias sobre cómo reducirla.

“Todos sabemos que es una responsabilidad compartida asegurar que nuestros estudiantes estén ocupados durante el verano”, el superintendente de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver Alex Marrero dijo durante una conferencia de prensa con Johnston.

Las nuevas iniciativas de verano incluyen:

La iniciativa YouthWorks del alcalde, la cual busca conectar a 1,000 personas jóvenes de 14 a 21 años de edad con trabajos durante el verano. La gente joven que trabaje 100 horas o más entre el 1º de mayo y el 16 de agosto y complete un taller de capacitación sobre conocimientos financieros puede obtener un bono de $1,000. Se dará prioridad a personas jóvenes que cumplan con los requisitos para recibir comidas escolares gratis o a precio reducido o para otros beneficios públicos.
Un nuevo sitio web que Johnston llama “un lugar con todo” para encontrar campamentos de verano y otros programas. El sitio web—en denvergov.org/youthsummer—también está disponible en español al seleccionar ese idioma en el menú desplegable ubicado arriba a la derecha. Las familias pueden ingresar el nombre de una escuela o el domicilio de su hogar y ver todos los programas de verano disponibles a ciertas millas de distancia. Muchos de los programas en la lista son gratis u ofrecen asistencia financiera. Por ejemplo, el departamento de Parques y Actividades Recreativas de Denver organizará un nuevo campamento de verano llamado Summer Rec Kidz para niños de 8 a 12 años de edad. El campamento será de 9 a.m. a 12 p.m. con una opción de participar en más programas gratis hasta las 4 p.m.
$500,000 en fondos de subsidios a organizaciones locales para que organicen eventos temporales para niños y familias en diversos vecindarios. Johnston dijo que estos eventos “traerán vida y alegría y oportunidad a comunidades donde sabemos que tenemos una verdadera probabilidad de reducir la violencia comunitaria”. Se priorizarán cinco sitios foco alrededor de la ciudad para que se organicen eventos temporales financiados con subsidios.

Johnston animó a los empleadores en la ciudad para que se suscriban y formen parte del esfuerzo de YouthWorks. Además, promovió dos ferias laborales lideradas por la ciudad, una disponible de forma virtual y la otra en persona.

Feria laboral virtual: viernes, 24 de mayo, de 4 a 6 p.m.
Feria laboral en persona: sábado, 1º de junio, de 10 a.m. a 1 p.m. en el centro de eventos, 2105 Decatur St, Denver, 80211

Los nuevos programas se respaldarán con un subsidio estatal conocido como GEER, las siglas en inglés de la Asistencia de Emergencia del Gobernador para la Educación, la cual está financiada por fondos federales debido a la pandemia. La Oficina de Asuntos Infantiles de la ciudad obtuvo $1.7 millones en fondos de GEER, dijo una vocera de la ciudad.

Melanie Asmar es la corresponsal jefa de Chalkbeat Colorado. Comunícate con Melanie por correo electrónico a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Colorado mandatory reporting laws meant to protect children get another look

2024-04-25T20:07:06+00:00

This story was produced by KFF Health News and is republished with permission.

More than 60 years ago, policymakers in Colorado embraced the idea that early intervention could prevent child abuse and save lives. The state’s requirement that certain professionals tell officials when they suspect a child has been abused or neglected was among the first mandatory reporting laws in the nation.

Since then, mandatory reporting laws have expanded nationally to include more types of maltreatment — including neglect, which now accounts for most reports — and have increased the number of professions required to report. In some states, all adults are required to report what they suspect may be abuse or neglect.

But now there are efforts in Colorado and other states to roll back these laws, saying the result has been too many unfounded reports, and that they disproportionately harm families that are poor, Black, or Indigenous, or have members with disabilities.

“There’s a long, depressing history based on the approach that our primary response to a struggling family is reporting,” said Mical Raz, a physician and historian at the University of Rochester in New York. “There’s now a wealth of evidence that demonstrates that more reporting is not associated with better outcomes for children.”

Stephanie Villafuerte, Colorado’s child protection ombudsman, oversees a task force to reexamine the state’s mandatory reporting laws. She said the group is seeking to balance a need to report legitimate cases of abuse and neglect with a desire to weed out inappropriate reports.

“This is designed to help individuals who are disproportionately impacted,” Villafuerte said. “I’m hoping it’s the combination of these efforts that could make a difference.”

Some critics worry that changes to the law could result in missed cases of abuse. Medical and child care workers on the task force have expressed concern about legal liability. While it’s rare for people to be criminally charged for failure to report, they can also face civil liability or professional repercussions, including threats to their licenses.

Being reported to child protective services is becoming increasingly common. More than 1 in 3 children in the United States will be the subject of a child abuse and neglect investigation by the time they turn 18, according to the most frequently cited estimate, a 2017 study funded by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau.

Black and Native American families, poor families, and parents or children with disabilities experience even more oversight. Research has found that, among these groups, parents are more likely to lose parental rights and children are more likely to wind up in foster care.

In an overwhelming majority of investigations, no abuse or neglect is substantiated. Nonetheless, researchers who study how these investigations affect families describe them as terrifying and isolating.

In Colorado, the number of child abuse and neglect reports has increased 42% in the past decade and reached a record 117,762 last year, according to state data. Roughly 100,000 other calls to the hotline weren’t counted as reports because they were requests for information or were about matters like child support or adult protection, said officials from the Colorado Department of Human Services.

The increase in reports can be traced to a policy of encouraging a broad array of professionals — including school and medical staff, therapists, coaches, clergy members, firefighters, veterinarians, dentists, and social workers — to call a hotline whenever they have a concern.

These calls don’t reflect a surge in mistreatment. More than two-thirds of the reports received by agencies in Colorado don’t meet the threshold for investigation. Of the children whose cases are assessed, 21% are found to have experienced abuse or neglect. The actual number of substantiated cases has not risen over the past decade.

While studies do not demonstrate that mandatory reporting laws keep children safe, the Colorado task force reported in January, there is evidence of harm. “Mandatory reporting disproportionately impacts families of color” — initiating contact between child protection services and families who routinely do not present concerns of abuse or neglect, the task force said.

The task force said it is analyzing whether better screening might mitigate “the disproportionate impact of mandatory reporting on under-resourced communities, communities of color and persons with disabilities.”

The task force pointed out that the only way to report concerns about a child is with a formal report to a hotline. Yet many of those calls are not to report abuse at all but rather attempts to connect children and families with resources like food or housing assistance.

Hotline callers may mean to help, but the families who are the subjects of mistaken reports of abuse and neglect rarely see it that way.

That includes Meighen Lovelace, a rural Colorado resident who asked KFF Health News not to disclose their hometown for fear of attracting unwanted attention from local officials. For Lovelace’s daughter, who is neurodivergent and has physical disabilities, the reports started when she entered preschool at age 4 in 2015. The teachers and medical providers making the reports frequently suggested that the county human services agency could assist Lovelace’s family. But the investigations that followed were invasive and traumatic.

“Our biggest looming fear is, ‘Are you going to take our children away?’” said Lovelace, who is an advocate for the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, an organization that lobbies for the civil rights of people with disabilities. “We’re afraid to ask for help. It’s keeping us from entering services because of the fear of child welfare.”

State and county human services officials said they could not comment on specific cases.

The Colorado task force plans to suggest clarifying the definitions of abuse and neglect under the state’s mandatory reporting statute. Mandatory reporters should not “make a report solely due to a family/child’s race, class or gender,” nor because of inadequate housing, furnishings, income or clothing. Also, there should not be a report based solely on the “disability status of the minor, parent or guardian,” according to the group’s draft recommendation.

The task force plans to recommend additional training for mandatory reporters, help for professionals who are deciding whether to make a call, and an alternative phone number, or “warmline,” for cases in which callers believe a family needs material assistance, rather than surveillance.

Critics say such changes could leave more children vulnerable to unreported abuse.

“I’m concerned about adding systems such as the warmline, that kids who are in real danger are going to slip through the cracks and not be helped,” said Hollynd Hoskins, an attorney who represents victims of child abuse. Hoskins has sued professionals who fail to report their suspicions.

The Colorado task force includes health and education officials, prosecutors, victim advocates, county child welfare representatives and attorneys, as well as five people who have experience in the child welfare system. It intends to finalize its recommendations by early next year in the hope that state legislators will consider policy changes in 2025. Implementation of any new laws could take several years.

Colorado is one of several states — including New York and California — that have recently considered changes to restrain, rather than expand, reporting of abuse. In New York City, teachers are being trained to think twice before making a report, while New York state introduced a warmline to help connect families with resources like housing and child care. In California, a state task force aimed at shifting “mandated reporting to community supporting” is planning recommendations similar to Colorado’s.

Among those advocating for change are people with experience in the child welfare system. They include Maleeka Jihad, who leads the Denver-based MJCF Coalition, which advocates for the abolition of mandatory reporting along with the rest of the child welfare system, citing its damage to Black, Native American, and Latino communities.

“Mandatory reporting is another form of keeping us policed and surveillanced by whiteness,” said Jihad, who as a child was taken from the care of a loving parent and placed temporarily into the foster system. Reform isn’t enough, she said. “We know what we need, and it’s usually funding and resources.”

Some of these resources — like affordable housing and child care — don’t exist at a level sufficient for all the Colorado families that need them, Jihad said.

Other services are out there, but it’s a matter of finding them. Lovelace said the reports ebbed after the family got the help it needed, in the form of a Medicaid waiver that paid for specialized care for their daughter’s disabilities. Their daughter is now in seventh grade and doing well.

None of the caseworkers who visited the family ever mentioned the waiver, Lovelace said. “I really think they didn’t know about it.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Padres en Colorado: quizás puedan obtener más dinero para el supermercado con el EBT de verano

2024-04-05T18:53:14+00:00

Read in English.

Actualizado: Retrasos en los EBT de verano han dejado a familias esperando para recibir beneficios cruciales de comida

A partir del mes de junio, cientos de miles de familias con bajos ingresos en Colorado recibirán $120 por niño para pagar por comida en el supermercado durante las vacaciones de verano.

El programa, llamado “EBT de verano”, busca ayudar a los padres de niños que asisten a escuelas públicas desde prescolar y hasta el 12º grado para que paguen por alimentos cuando las comidas escolares gratis no estén disponibles o sea más difícil conseguirlas. Los funcionarios estatales esperan que las familias de más de 300,000 niños se beneficien.

Una ley que se aprobó en Colorado en noviembre durante una sesión legislativa especial permitió que el estado se uniera al nuevo programa, el cual recibe la mayor parte de sus fondos a través del gobierno federal, con una pequeña contribución del estado. Casi tres docenas de estados ofrecerán el programa este año.

En años recientes, Colorado ha dado varios pasos para reducir la cantidad de niños que enfrentan hambre en el estado. A partir de este año escolar, la gran mayoría de los estudiantes en Colorado pueden obtener comidas escolares gratis sin importar el nivel de ingresos de su familia porque los votantes aprobaron un programa universal de comidas en 2022. Un programa similar de EBT de verano se implementó durante la pandemia, pero dejó de ofrecerse el verano pasado.

Familias en Colorado pueden obtener tarjetas del programa de EBT de verano si reciben beneficios públicos, como SNAP, Medicaid o Colorado Works, o si sus hijos cumplen con los requisitos para recibir comidas gratis o a precio reducido en la escuela.

La mayoría de las familias automáticamente recibirán una carta en mayo por cada niño que cumpla con los requisitos del programa de EBT de verano, y las tarjetas precargadas llegarán por correo al poco tiempo. Para tener acceso al dinero en la tarjeta, las familias deben establecer un número de identificación personal. Para hacer eso, pueden llamar al 888-328-2656, ingresar el número de la tarjeta, y seguir las instrucciones.

Aquellas familias que crean que su hijo cumple con los requisitos del EBT de verano, pero que no hayan recibido una carta de elegibilidad, pueden llamar al Centro de Apoyo para el EBT de Verano al 800-536-5298 (por mensaje de texto al 720-741-0550) o enviar un mensaje electrónico a cdhs_sebt_supportcenter@state.co.us.

El Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Colorado, el cual está administrando el programa de EBT de verano junto con el Departamento de Educación de Colorado, recomienda que las familias confirmen que la escuela de su hijo tenga un registro de su domicilio actual y la información de los padres/tutores. Las familias que estén recibiendo SNAP, Colorado Works o Medicaid también deben asegurarse de que el archivo de su caso tenga su domicilio actual.

Los niños con familias que reciban tarjetas del programa de EBT de verano igual pueden aprovechar las comidas gratis que se distribuyen en escuelas locales u otros sitios durante el verano.

Ann Schimke es reportera senior de Chalkbeat y cubre temas relacionados con la niñez temprana y la alfabetización temprana. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un email a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Colorado parents: You may qualify for extra grocery money with Summer EBT

2024-04-03T16:32:56+00:00

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Starting in June, hundreds of thousands of low-income Colorado families will get $120 per child to pay for groceries during summer break.

The program, called Summer EBT, aims to help parents of children who attend preschool through 12th grade in public schools pay for food when free school meals are unavailable or harder to access. State officials expect families of more than 300,000 children to benefit.

A Colorado law passed during a special legislative session in November enabled the state to join the new program, which is mostly funded by the federal government with a small contribution from the state. Nearly three dozen states are offering the program this year.

In recent years, Colorado has taken several steps to reduce the number of children who go hungry in the state. Starting this school year, the vast majority of Colorado students can get free school meals regardless of family income because of a universal meal program approved by voters in 2022. A program similar to Summer EBT was in place during the pandemic, but it expired last summer.

Colorado families are eligible for Summer EBT cards if they receive public benefits such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Colorado Works, or if their children qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.

Most families will automatically receive a letter in May for each child eligible for Summer EBT, with preloaded cards arriving in the mail shortly after. To access the money on the card, families must set up a personal identification number. They can do this by calling 888-328-2656, entering the card number, and following the prompts.

Families who believe their child is eligible for Summer EBT, but who didn’t receive an eligibility letter can contact the Summer EBT Support Center at 800-536-5298 (text 720-741-0550) or email cdhs_sebt_supportcenter@state.co.us.

The Colorado Department of Human Services, which is administering the Summer EBT program jointly with the Colorado Department of Education, recommends that families ensure their child’s school has current address and parent/guardian information on file. For families receiving SNAP, Colorado Works, or Medicaid, their case should also have a current address on file.

Children in families that receive Summer EBT cards can still take advantage of free summer meals at local schools or other sites during the summer.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

How a friend’s death turned Colorado teens into anti-overdose activists

2024-03-04T21:38:08+00:00

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This story was produced by KFF Health News and is republished with permission.

Gavinn McKinney loved Nike shoes, fireworks, and sushi. He was studying Potawatomi, one of the languages of his Native American heritage. He loved holding his niece and smelling her baby smell. On his 15th birthday, the Durango, Colorado, teen spent a cold December afternoon chopping wood to help neighbors who couldn’t afford to heat their homes.

McKinney almost made it to his 16th birthday. He died of fentanyl poisoning at a friend’s house in December 2021. His friends say it was the first time he tried hard drugs. The memorial service was so packed people had to stand outside the funeral home.

Now, his peers are trying to cement their friend’s legacy in state law. They recently testified to state lawmakers in support of a bill they helped write to ensure students can carry naloxone with them at all times without fear of discipline or confiscation. School districts tend to have strict medication policies. Without special permission, Colorado students can’t even carry their own emergency medications, such as an inhaler, and they are not allowed to share them with others.

“We realized we could actually make a change if we put our hearts to it,” said Niko Peterson, a senior at Animas High School in Durango and one of McKinney’s friends who helped write the bill. “Being proactive versus being reactive is going to be the best possible solution.”

Individual school districts or counties in California, Maryland, and elsewhere have rules expressly allowing high school students to carry naloxone. But Jon Woodruff, managing attorney at the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, said he wasn’t aware of any statewide law such as the one Colorado is considering. Woodruff’s Washington, D.C.-based organization researches and drafts legislation on substance use.

Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that can halt an overdose. Available over the counter as a nasal spray, it is considered the fire extinguisher of the opioid epidemic, for use in an emergency, but just one tool in a prevention strategy. (People often refer to it as “Narcan,” one of the more recognizable brand names, similar to how tissues, regardless of brand, are often called “Kleenex.”)

The Biden administration last year backed an ad campaign encouraging young people to carry the emergency medication.

Most states’ naloxone access laws protect do-gooders, including youth, from liability if they accidentally harm someone while administering naloxone. But without school policies explicitly allowing it, the students’ ability to bring naloxone to class falls into a gray area.

Ryan Christoff said that in September 2022, fellow staff at Centaurus High School in Lafayette, Colorado, where he worked and which one of his daughters attended at the time, confiscated naloxone from one of her classmates.

“She didn’t have anything on her other than the Narcan, and they took it away from her,” said Christoff, who had provided the confiscated Narcan to that student and many others after his daughter nearly died from fentanyl poisoning. “We should want every student to carry it.”

Boulder Valley School District spokesperson Randy Barber said the incident “was a one-off and we’ve done some work since to make sure nurses are aware.” The district now encourages everyone to consider carrying naloxone, he said.

Zoe Ramsey, a high school senior from Durango, Colorado, testified before state lawmakers in February about a bill to clarify that students may carry naloxone, a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses.

Community’s devastation turns to action

In Durango, McKinney’s death hit the community hard. McKinney’s friends and family said he didn’t do hard drugs. The substance he was hooked on was Tapatío hot sauce — he even brought some in his pocket to a Rockies game.

After McKinney died, people started getting tattoos of the phrase he was known for, which was emblazoned on his favorite sweatshirt: “Love is the cure.” Even a few of his teachers got them. But it was classmates, along with their friends at another high school in town, who turned his loss into a political movement.

“We’re making things happen on behalf of him,” Peterson said.

The mortality rate has spiked in recent years, with more than 1,500 other children and teens in the U.S. dying of fentanyl poisoning the same year as McKinney. Most youth who die of overdoses have no known history of taking opioids, and many of them likely thought they were taking prescription opioids like OxyContin or Percocet — not the fake prescription pills that increasingly carry a lethal dose of fentanyl.

“Most likely the largest group of teens that are dying are really teens that are experimenting, as opposed to teens that have a long-standing opioid use disorder,” said Joseph Friedman, a substance use researcher at UCLA who would like to see schools provide accurate drug education about counterfeit pills, such as with Stanford’s Safety First curriculum.

Allowing students to carry a low-risk, lifesaving drug with them is in many ways the minimum schools can do, he said.

“I would argue that what the schools should be doing is identifying high-risk teens and giving them the Narcan to take home with them and teaching them why it matters,” Friedman said.

Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, Friedman identified Colorado as a hot spot for high school-aged adolescent overdose deaths, with a mortality rate more than double that of the nation from 2020 to 2022.

“Increasingly, fentanyl is being sold in pill form, and it’s happening to the largest degree in the West,” said Friedman. “I think that the teen overdose crisis is a direct result of that.”

Gavinn McKinney died of fentanyl poisoning at a friend’s house in December 2021. McKinney was part of the Thunder Clan of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. He also had Kickapoo and Assiniboine heritage.

If Colorado lawmakers approve the bill, “I think that’s a really important step,” said Ju Nyeong Park, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University, who leads a research group focused on how to prevent overdoses. “I hope that the Colorado Legislature does and that other states follow as well.”

Park said comprehensive programs to test drugs for dangerous contaminants, better access to evidence-based treatment for adolescents who develop a substance use disorder, and promotion of harm reduction tools are also important. “For example, there is a national hotline called Never Use Alone that anyone can call anonymously to be supervised remotely in case of an emergency,” she said.

Taking matters into their own hands

Many Colorado school districts are training staff how to administer naloxone and are stocking it on school grounds through a program that allows them to acquire it from the state at little to no cost. But it was clear to Peterson and other area high schoolers that having naloxone at school isn’t enough, especially in rural places.

“The teachers who are trained to use Narcan will not be at the parties where the students will be using the drugs,” he said.

And it isn’t enough to expect teens to keep it at home.

“It’s not going to be helpful if it’s in somebody’s house 20 minutes outside of town. It’s going to be helpful if it’s in their backpack always,” said Zoe Ramsey, another of McKinney’s friends and a senior at Animas High School.

“We were informed it was against the rules to carry naloxone, and especially to distribute it,” said Ilias “Leo” Stritikus, who graduated from Durango High School last year.

But students in the area, and their school administrators, were uncertain: Could students get in trouble for carrying the opioid antagonist in their backpacks, or if they distributed it to friends? And could a school or district be held liable if something went wrong?

He, along with Ramsey and Peterson, helped form the group Students Against Overdose. Together, they convinced Animas, which is a charter school, and the surrounding school district, to change policies. Now, with parental permission, and after going through training on how to administer it, students may carry naloxone on school grounds.

Durango School District 9-R spokesperson Karla Sluis said at least 45 students have completed the training.

School districts in other parts of the nation have also determined it’s important to clarify students’ ability to carry naloxone.

“We want to be a part of saving lives,” said Smita Malhotra, chief medical director for Los Angeles Unified School District in California.

Gavinn McKinney’s mother, whose name is being withheld because they are part of a state confidentiality program for survivors of domestic violence, at the Colorado state Capitol for a hearing in February on a bill to clarify that students in the state may carry naloxone, a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses.

Los Angeles County had one of the nation’s highest adolescent overdose death tallies of any U.S. county: From 2020 to 2022, 111 teens ages 14 to 18 died. One of them was a 15-year-old who died in a school bathroom of fentanyl poisoning. Malhotra’s district has since updated its policy on naloxone to permit students to carry and administer it.

“All students can carry naloxone in our school campuses without facing any discipline,” Malhotra said. She said the district is also doubling down on peer support and hosting educational sessions for families and students.

Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland took a similar approach. School staff had to administer naloxone 18 times over the course of a school year, and five students died over the course of about one semester.

When the district held community forums on the issue, Patricia Kapunan, the district’s medical officer, said, “Students were very vocal about wanting access to naloxone. A student is very unlikely to carry something in their backpack which they think they might get in trouble for.”

So it, too, clarified its policy. While that was underway, local news reported that high school students found a teen passed out, with purple lips, in the bathroom of a McDonald’s down the street from their school, and used Narcan to revive them. It was during lunch on a school day.

“We can’t Narcan our way out of the opioid use crisis,” said Kapunan. “But it was critical to do it first. Just like knowing 911.”

Now, with the support of the district and county health department, students are training other students how to administer naloxone. Jackson Taylor, one of the student trainers, estimated they trained about 200 students over the course of three hours on a recent Saturday.

“It felt amazing, this footstep toward fixing the issue,” Taylor said.

Each trainee left with two doses of naloxone.

This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

Wondering about tutoring and if your child would benefit? Here are some answers to your questions.

2023-07-20T18:46:52+00:00

Leer en español.

As educators look for ways to help students as they recover academically from pandemic interruptions, tutoring can play a key role.

But across the country, many leaders are seeing that some of the students who need the help the most aren’t taking advantage.

So, as parents, what questions should you be asking about tutoring and whether your student can benefit? Here are answers to some common questions.

When should I consider tutoring for my child?

Rhonda Haniford, associate commissioner of the school quality and support division at the Colorado Department of Education, said the first thing to keep in mind is that different tutoring programs are designed to achieve different goals.

While parents might think tutoring is only to help students who are struggling academically, sometimes programs are designed instead to keep students engaged, accelerate their learning, or hone in on specific skills or needs.

If a parent believes their child is struggling academically, Haniford said they should look at what their school offers.

“First, I would say meet with the school and talk about what they’re seeing,” Haniford said. “Talk about what’s working, what are the child’s strengths as well as where are their needs. And can tutoring help? It depends on what the tutoring program is designed to accomplish.”

Parent Keri Rodrigues said her five sons’ report cards showed good grades and that her boys were doing well. But when she asked them to read to her at home, she noticed two were struggling.

“These were things I could see,” Rodrigues said.

Rodrigues is co-founder of the advocacy group National Parents Union. She advises parents to trust their instincts and ask questions when they believe their children might be struggling. That means starting with more conversations with teachers.

When talking with teachers, Rodrigues said, one of the most important questions to ask is whether your child is reading at grade level, and if not, what is being done to get them there.

“Report cards often are not telling us this information,” she said.

Ashara Baker, a mother to a rising second grader and also a leader with National Parents Union, advises parents that if their child attends a school that has low state test scores, they should consider tutoring even if it seems like their child is doing well.

What questions should I ask to know if this might be a good tutoring program?

Haniford said the first step is to make sure that the goals of the tutoring program match your child’s needs.

After that, she said, parents should ask if their school has a diagnostic assessment of their child. Most schools do, she said. That information can guide tutors to a student’s needs and to build on their strengths.

Rodrigues likes to remind parents that they don’t need to be well-versed in education curriculum to start asking questions. She suggests asking if a program is using evidence-based practices, which are strategies that are based on research and have been proven to work, and if their reading programs are based on the science of reading, the research about how children’s brains learn to read.

“If you hear things like balanced literacy, that might be a problem,” she said. Balanced Literacy is an approach to teaching reading based on a debunked philosophy that reading is natural and requires encouragement. “Even if you just remember they should say ‘science of reading,’ you shouldn’t be intimidated.”

Some research shows that “high-dosage” tutoring programs may be most effective for students who need academic help. Usually that involves in-person instruction a few times a week.

Baker is leading an effort to get New York schools to make high-dosage tutoring available in public schools.

She said good communication is important. Her local district advertised a summer enrichment program, and her daughter attended. Baker knew her daughter was taken to get a library card and to the farmers market, and she heard about how much fun the kids had with water balloons. But Baker said she didn’t know the program was meant to be a form of tutoring.

“It can be fun, but you have to be checking in: How are we doing? Are we making progress?” Baker said.

She also suggests asking if tutors are trained and certified and finding out how many students are working with each tutor. Small groups are best, she said.

Haniford agrees about small groups. She said the most successful programs have no more than six students per tutor.

“They have a clear purpose and vision for what they want to accomplish, and it’s not a catch-all with too many students, because then students are not getting individualized attention,” Haniford said.

How do I know if my child is getting the most from their tutoring?

Baker suggests that parents make sure the tutoring program their school uses, or that they select from outside groups, does some testing that will measure improvement or where more help is needed.

The tutoring program she pays to help her daughter outside of school now gives parents regular reports about how things are progressing and how parents can help maintain the progress at home.

Jennifer Castillo, new principal of Boston P-8 in Aurora, said that the school has tutoring run by an outside group, but uses the school’s own teachers that are already familiar with their students.

“Having those relationships is very important,” Castillo said. “They know where those student’s gaps are, they know the reasons students are there. I think it’s important for the tutors and the student to be able to go to their parents and show that progress. After a month, I’m seeing an increase in scores or ability or confidence, whatever the issue. As a parent, hopefully you don’t have to ask in a strong partnership.”

Castillo said that if the program you’re considering has tutors who aren’t teachers in the school, parents might ask if there’s a way for the tutors and teachers to communicate with each other so that the tutoring help is aligned with what is happening in the classroom.

Should I wait to get my child into a tutoring program?

“There’s always that tug of should I wait a little longer? Maybe it was a rough year. Maybe it was a rough teacher,” Rodrigues said. “Things don’t get easier the more you wait. They get harder.”

This is especially true for younger children who need extra help to learn to read. Being able to read will help students learn more complex subjects later.

Haniford and Castillo believe parents should clarify why their child needs a break — is there a social or emotional issue, for example — and to look at various options to address the issue.

“Kids don’t need a break from learning,” Castillo said. Learning can happen all day, she added. “But we need to ensure they’re engaged and it’s not just sitting and listening. Taking the tutoring outside, making it more hands-on, or making it more applicable might help.”

Castillo also recommends that students understand the importance of tutoring and the benefits they should see themselves.

“The students have to want to be involved,” Castillo said. “Letting them have some ownership will help as well.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

WATCH: Denver Mayoral Debate: Education Edition

2023-04-24T20:08:29+00:00

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UPDATE: Watch the full Denver Mayoral Debate on Facebook, or below

Denver voters will choose the city’s next mayor in a runoff election June 6.

The state of Denver Public Schools and the relationship between the city and the school system have become part of the race, with candidates Kelly Brough and Michael Johnston both calling for the mayor to play a more prominent role in education.

Join CBS News Colorado, Chalkbeat Colorado, and EDUCATE Denver from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, for a Denver mayoral candidate debate focused on public education issues.

When: 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 2

Where: Manual High School, 1700 E. 28th St., Denver, https://goo.gl/maps/QvmUN4jHqr8hVHVSA

Hear directly from Kelly Brough and Michael Johnston about how they would seek to work with Denver Public Schools during a critical juncture for the district and the community.

What role can the mayor play in building strong public schools? How can the city and the school district work together to solve the pressing problems facing our youth? Can the mayor build effective partnerships and hold other elected officials accountable?

This event is free.

Translation will be available.

Please RSVP so that we know how many people to expect and so you can share the education questions you’d like to ask the candidates.

The debate will be moderated by CBS’ Shaun Boyd and Chalkbeat’s Melanie Asmar.

Debate de candidatos a la alcaldía de Denver: Educación

2023-04-24T20:08:11+00:00

Read in English.

Los votantes de Denver elegirán al próximo alcalde de la ciudad en una segunda vuelta electoral el 6 de junio.

El estado de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver y la relación entre la ciudad y el sistema escolar se han convertido en parte de la contienda, con los candidatos Kelly Brough y Michael Johnston pidiendo que el alcalde desempeñe un papel más destacado en la educación.

Únete a CBS News Colorado, Chalkbeat Colorado y EDUCATE Denver de 4:30 p.m. a 6 p.m. el martes 2 de mayo para ver a los candidatos a la alcaldía en un debate enfocado en temas de educación pública.

Cuándo: 4:30 p.m. a 6 p.m. el martes, 2 de mayo

Dónde: Escuela Secundaria Manual, 1700 E. 28th St., Denver (mapa)

Habrá servicios de interpretación.

El evento es gratuito.

RSVP aqui

¿Qué rol puede desempeñar el/la alcalde para fomentar el desarrollo de escuelas públicas excelentes? ¿Cómo pueden trabajar juntos la ciudad y el distrito escolar para resolver los problemas que enfrentan nuestros niños? ¿El/la alcalde puede crear asociaciones eficaces y pedir que otros funcionarios electos rindan cuentas de sus acciones?

Escucha lo que Kelly Brough y Michael Johnston quieren decir sobre cómo intentarán trabajar con las Escuelas Públicas de Denver en este momento tan crítico para el distrito y la comunidad.

Confirma tu asistencia para que sepamos cuántas personas sintonizarán y cuántas personas aprovecharán de servicios de interpretación. Además puedes compartir las preguntas sobre educación que te gustaría hacerles a los candidatos.

El debate estará moderado por Shaun Boyd, de la CBS, y Melanie Asmar, de Chalkbeat.

RSVP aqui

Ski day helps Aspen Community School students cope with recent false shooting threats

2023-03-17T16:30:00+00:00

This story originally aired on Aspen Public Radio and is republished with permission.

After a string of school threats over the last month and a half, many students, teachers and families in the valley have been on edge.

The three false threats each happened on a Wednesday morning and schools were bracing themselves for the possibility of another one last week.

A threat didn’t materialize last week, but instead of waiting to find out whether they’d have to secure their buildings yet again, teachers and administrators at the Aspen Community School decided to do something different.

So on the morning of Wednesday, March 8, over a hundred K-8 students gathered for a day of cross-country skiing at the Snowmass Nordic Center.

After students and teachers took a few laps on the trails, ACS principal Casey White called a brief all-school meeting.

“So last Wednesday, you guys probably remember we had an all-school meeting and then shortly after you got the message that we were going to secure the building again,” she said to students and staff. “And you know what I noticed? The kindergarteners were already out cross-country skiing. And all of a sudden an idea hit, ‘Maybe we should all do that.’”

White ran the idea by her staff first, and then alerted families and local law enforcement that they would be doing a school ski day.

“So one week later here we are, we are all out cross-country skiing because you have been so powerful in being able to stay calm and to help us through times that we don’t really know what’s coming next,” she said. “So thank you for coming out here.”

Out on the trails, fourth-grade student Kai Waanders was skiing with a few of his classmates.

“It’s amazing that we get to be out here instead of being inside a school all locked up like the last few Wednesdays,” he said. “It was kind of surprising and a little scary to have such a surprise — it hasn’t happened once last year or the year before.”

While some schools in the area received direct threats and had to go into full lockdowns, the Aspen Community School went into “secure” mode as a safety precaution.

Under a “secure protocol,” all doors are locked and no one is allowed in or out of the main school building while classes continue.

Waanders said that even though he was worried thinking about all the “what ifs,” he also felt safe.

“I knew that we had a community and people that could help us if something were to ever happen, and I knew that we’ve been preparing for it since kindergarten,” he said.

School lockdown drills aren’t the only way that Waanders and his classmates have been preparing for situations like this.

For years, Aspen Community School has been offering what it calls “social emotional” learning.

“It was a group of us on a very grassroots level, sitting around in our old building,” said White. “The question was, ‘What do we want for our ACS graduates? What character traits do we want our students to embody?’”

They eventually landed on five traits that are now the core of the school’s social emotional program: kindness, compassion, empathy, tolerance, and patience.

White said teachers and staff shape their curriculum to help kids learn those skills.

“We feel like when you can embed the tools to be able to self-calm and to navigate social problems and to apologize when needed — when you can do that in a setting that’s not super stressful, like cross-country skiing or a normal day in the classroom, then when something tough comes up, you’ve got the muscle,” she said.

At an all-school meeting at the Snowmass Nordic Center, Aspen Community School Principal Casey White thanks her K-8 students for how well they handled having to remain inside the locked school building during the recent false threats.

ACS also works with Lily Larkin, a licensed clinical social worker and wellness teacher from the Aspen Hope Center.

Larkin is one of the center’s twelve school-based clinicians in the valley and she spends four days a week at ACS.

“One of the things we work on is knowing that when our brains go into a fight, flight or freeze response, we’re not necessarily going to learn effectively in that state of mind,” she said.

When the school went into “secure,” Larkin says teachers created a sense of safety by tailoring classroom activities to how the students were feeling and coming up with projects that weren’t necessarily part of the regular school day.

“So they were doing art projects in the classroom, they were knitting, they were doing a lot of really wonderful hands-on activities to support them in that moment,” she said.

Larkin is also a parent at ACS and she appreciated that teachers went around to each class and told students in an age-appropriate way what was happening, while it was happening.

“So when my first-grader came home after having the experience, she just looked at me and she said, ‘Mom, somebody was trying to scare our school today,’” Larkin said. “And that’s how she described it.”

Some of the social emotional skills the school teaches, such as the “breathing tool” and the “listening tool,” are also helpful for parents.

“When my daughter comes home and she is visibly upset about something, but she tells me that she’s fine, I can look at her and I can say, ‘Sweetheart, if I’m listening with my eyes, ears, and heart, I can tell that there is something wrong — and you don’t have to tell me right now, but I’m here for you and I wanna hear about it,’” she said. “And that’s the ‘listening tool.’”

As a parent, Larkin is especially grateful to teachers who’ve supported families and kids through everything from the pandemic to school threats.

“Teachers are absolutely heroes and they have become, in the last decade or so, first responders,” she said. “It really feels like that has amped up a lot.”

Back at the nordic center, a group of middle-school students who regularly meet with Larkin were taking a ski break.

“Once a week we go down to her classroom and we sit in a circle and she asks us questions and we answer them altogether,” said sixth-grade student Annalise Ingram. “Also if you need some more time, you can just go down and see her anytime.”

Fellow sixth-grader, Anderson Tippet, said he appreciated the questions that Larkin asked them after the recent threats.

“One of them was like, ‘How are you dealing with this?’ ‘What makes you feel better or helps you not be as nervous about it?’” he recalled.

Tippet said he’s realized that having friends close by helps.

“Most of us have been together since kindergarten, so we’re all really good friends,” he said.

For her part, Larkin said she’s impressed by her students.

“They have moved through all of the feelings related to the last few Wednesdays and it’s so fun to see everybody together smiling, falling over, laughing, picking each other up,” she said.

The group of students agreed that they’re also proud of each other and grateful for their teachers and the whole community.

“Even when we were stuck inside, we still got through it really nicely by working together,” said fourth-grade student Cora Chimerakis. “The teachers just made it all happen and I’m really thankful for them — and thank you for the community always being there for us.”

Eleanor Bennett is an award-winning journalist and Morning Edition anchor. Eleanor has reported on a wide range of topics in her community, including the impacts of federal immigration policies on local DACA recipients, the Valley’s COVID-19 eviction and housing crisis, and hungry goats fighting climate change across the West through targeted grazing.

Where candidates for Denver mayor stand on education issues: an election guide

2023-03-14T11:15:00+00:00

Seventeen candidates are running for mayor of Denver during a time when the city’s schools face challenges ranging from declining enrollment that’s led to school closures to rising youth violence that’s prompted discussion of the role police should play in schools.

The Denver mayor plays no formal role in running the school system, but that hasn’t stopped some candidates from suggesting that person should have a louder voice and even appoint members to the school board.

Internal divisions on the school board have played out in public and led some critics to say the board isn’t focused on the needs of students. Other candidates say it’s important to respect the authority of the independently elected school board.

We asked all the candidates what they see as the role of the mayor in Denver Public Schools, how they would address an affordable housing crisis that’s pushing teachers and families out of the city, and how they would address gun violence that’s showing up at the schoolhouse door.

The election is April 4. If no candidate earns more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates will advance to a runoff election on June 6.

Ten of the 17 candidates responded. Here, in their own words, is what they said.

More children are grieving after the loss of a parent. Cherry Creek schools are piloting a program just for them.

2023-03-09T19:43:53+00:00

Leer en español.

For years after Oliver Dean lost his dad to cancer at age 5, triggers could send him into a depressive spiral.

But young Oliver had some advantages: He had a mother who worked at his school, an accessible school counselor and a psychologist specializing in child grief. Together, they helped him cope with overwhelming memories and disabling pain.

Since the pandemic began, more children have experienced the loss of a parent or caregiver, but too few of them have access to such support.

Last year, the Cherry Creek School District began a pilot program with grief-care nonprofit Judi’s House in Aurora to host group therapy for elementary age students. The Cherry Creek Schools Foundation is funding the program.

This year the program serves 20 students at two schools.

“I think there is a lot more need, absolutely,” said Steve Nederveld, director of mental health for the Cherry Creek School District. “We had schools specifically ask us for this kind of program.”

Dean knows about that need.

One day in third grade, a book about a girl who had alopecia, a condition causing hair loss, flooded Dean’s mind with painful memories about his dad balding and how he didn’t remember him with hair.

Often, teachers knew to warn Dean when a subject in class might remind him of his loss. On this day, Dean wasn’t expecting to have a wave of grief wash over him. But because he had been learning skills to deal with his emotions, he recognized what he was feeling and decided to step out of his classroom.

Now 19, Dean says he was lucky to have the support, part of it arranged beforehand by his dad, who was a social worker. He knows most children aren’t as fortunate.

“There are far more people than you would expect who lose someone significant before they turn 18,” Dean said. “You don’t know everyone’s circumstance. There are a lot more people who can relate than you think.”

Need for grief care is growing

If Cherry Creek’s trial proves it helps children, leaders say they hope it could become a regular part of Judi’s House offerings to schools. That would require more data to show the program works, as well as a way to pay for it, since the group does not charge schools. For years, the nonprofit has focused on middle schools, where they’ve felt their limited funding can make the most impact.

But Nederveld heard from elementary school leaders who want similar services in their schools.

Firm numbers are hard to come by, but people who work in schools say more students are dealing with losses. Nederveld said some of that is COVID-related, but students also are enduring the fallout of deaths by suicide, drug overdoses, and gun violence.

A model Judi’s House developed estimates the number of children who will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18. In 2018, that estimate was 1 in 18 children in Colorado. In 2022, the estimate went up to 1 in 14 children.

That would be about 7% of the child population.

“We weren’t really surprised by the data but we were also shocked, if that’s possible,” said Dr. Micki Burns, chief clinical officer at Judi’s House. In 2020, an estimated 4% of children who had lost a caregiver lost that parent to a gun-related homicide. “It’s a number that is growing and increasing.”

Burns said Judi’s House does serve everyone who comes to them but sometimes people have to wait for a spot in a group. The organization also offers quarterly family services. Sometimes people come to them but need other mental health services first, so they may get referred elsewhere.

”There is such a gap in mental health services in general,” Burns said. “As a society, we do need to do so much more.”

Schools see a benefit to helping students cope with grief

Last year, after the pilot started at Sagebrush elementary, Judi’s House found positive effects on students. Teachers reported students had improved attention and behavior, said Emily Napier, a licensed clinical social worker and community-based care manager for Judi’s House, who is running the pilot program.

Judi’s House is running its grief therapy groups this year at Cherry Creek’s Village East Community Elementary, where almost 70% of students qualify for subsidized meals, a measure of poverty, and Rolling Hills Elementary where about 15% of students do.

“I don’t think these two schools were outliers,” Nederveld said. “They were the first to reach out.”

Kids are placed into either kindergarten through second grade or third through fifth grade groups.

Rolling Hills has about 10 students in a weekly group, for third through fifth graders.

In the fall, staff reached out to families of students they knew had lost a close relative. If the family agreed, a Judi’s House clinician interviewed the student to see how grief was impacting them and to ensure the group setting could benefit them. Classroom teachers also filled out questionnaires about their student’s behavior in class.

This spring, the 10 students began meeting once a week, for an hour, in a group run by staff from Judi’s House.

District and school leaders say that the fact the group is run at school, during the school day, and for no charge helps families who may face barriers trying to access those services outside of schools.

Karen Arrowsmith, the school’s psychologist, said that halfway through the 10-week program, teachers are reporting that students are excited.

“They’re looking forward to the group, they’re opening up, and they’re checking in to make sure the group is still happening that week,” Arrowsmith said.

The goal is to slowly help students better understand their feelings, and to process their emotions. Then students learn about various coping strategies.

“When someone close to a child dies it kind of just rocks their world,” Arrowsmith said. “I would say we see a variety of emotions: confusion, sadness, anger, worry. Kids will tell me sleeping is hard. Concentrating on school work can be hard.”

For the younger group, a six-week course helps students label and understand their feelings and learn strategies to cope with them.

“A child’s understanding of the world can get shattered or disrupted,” Napier said. “It’s very painful. That can come out as behavioral changes. It helps schools to be able to say we don’t want to punish these kids for this behavior, but also we need them to be able to function and learn.”

Connecting with others helps children heal

Oliver Dean’s mom, Lisa Dean, remembers the first group session she and her son, then 7, joined at Judi’s House.

“We came home and Oliver said to me, ‘I want to go to school at Judi’s House,’” she said. “I was really confused. He loved school, but he said, ‘everyone there was like me. They all had someone in their life who died.’”

She and her son describe the “magic” of Judi’s House as their ability to create a safe space for families to talk about loss, despite being in a society that doesn’t like to talk about it.

Lisa says when Oliver was growing up she saw his grief show up in different ways. Changes, like the end of a school year, were difficult. Teachers noticed him struggling around the time of his bar mitzvah, because she realized he was missing his dad.

“Grief isn’t an event, it’s a journey that changes over time depending on the child’s maturity,” Lisa said. “As he matured he was able to see there’s lots of levels of loss and grief, and they’re not all as intense.”

Lisa now volunteers at Judi’s House, where she’s a “buddy” for children who need help completing activities during the group, or who need to be pulled away for a break during a difficult moment.

Napier said groups are a “powerful opportunity for kids to feel seen.”

“Sometimes, especially with little kids, as a society, we might underestimate how much grief they’re in, but little kids grieve just as much as we do,” Napier said.

Oliver, who is now in college, wishes more schools were prepared to help students who experience the death of a close family member.

“We live in a society that doesn’t want to talk about death. But for people who are grieving, it makes it harder to not see someone walking down the hall who gets it,” he said. “Leaving students in a lurch with an expectation they perform at the highest level, even when they’ve kind of been through it, it’s not fair. Sometimes there are things in life that are more important.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to more accurately describe the numbers of grieving children estimated in the model used by Judi’s House.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Federal grant will expand Colorado family engagement in schools

2022-09-23T22:43:31+00:00

When Luis Murillo started leading parent academies as a principal in Center, he prepared presentations on how school boards work and where school funding comes from — the things he thought parents needed to know.

He quickly realized parents were looking for something different. They wanted to know how to deal with bullying and racism their children experienced at school, how to know if their kids were on track to graduate, and even how to check grades online.

The parent academies that Assistant Superintendent Murillo conducts now in English and Spanish in the Alamosa School District show parents how to navigate the school system, know their rights, and understand the copious data schools collect.

“There is a disconnect between a portion of our community and the school district,” Murillo said. “We want to create a more connected community, and when we get there, we’ll see better outcomes for students. I don’t just mean academic achievement, though that is part of it. It’s about transparency. It’s about trust. It’s also about getting off our pedestals.”

This is the kind of family engagement work that Colorado education leaders hope to see spread around the state with the help of a new $4.7 million federal grant. Parent engagement is key, they said, to addressing some of the most pressing issues facing students, from reading challenges in the early grades to poor attendance in high school.

Colorado was one of eight states to be awarded money this fall from the U.S. Department of Education. The National Center for Families Learning will lead the work to create a Colorado Statewide Family Engagement Center. Local partners include the Colorado Department of Education, the Colorado Education Initiative, the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, and the Black Parent Network.

The five-year grant will support the creation of a statewide advisory committee, with at least half the members being parents and caregivers. That group’s work will include studying how school districts engage families and developing meaningful ways for parents to influence policies and school governance. The statewide effort also will strengthen family literacy programs and offer parents training in how to engage productively with school boards.

Additionally, the money will support the creation of regional hubs for training and information, as well as expand work already happening in five school districts that can serve as learning labs for others. Those districts are Denver Public Schools, Greeley-Evans District 6, Alamosa School District, Pueblo City Schools, and Mesa County Valley District 51.

“Each of these districts already has a track record and investment in family and community partnership, and this is an opportunity to expand on what they’ve been doing and learn from it,” said Samantha Olson, vice president for strategy at Colorado Education Initiative.

Schools haven’t always felt like warm and welcoming places for the community, Murillo said. COVID restrictions and school safety measures put up new barriers in recent years, when schools need parents more than ever.

Alamosa’s parent engagement efforts include revamping the website and Facebook page to be more user-friendly. It’s the first place many parents look for information and sets the tone for other communication, Murillo said. The district is also planning more newsletters and videos. Reaching parents means communicating in English, Spanish, and Q’anjob’al Mayan.

With the grant, Alamosa plans to create a parent liaison unit at every school and expand a relatively new home visit program. He wants parents to know that educators have the same dreams for their children that parents do.

Joyce Brooks, a retired teacher and longtime education activist in Denver, said parent engagement too often has looked like “checking a box” — sending a survey or holding a meeting but not really listening. That’s especially true when it comes to Black parents, she said.

“I’ve heard parents say they were treated as though they didn’t matter when they offer suggestions, that they don’t know what they are talking about. Just the way the front office of their school treats them, not getting all the information they need,” she said.

Brooks helped found the Black Parent Network to be a resource for parents where they can ask questions and learn in an environment where they know they’ll be respected. The founding members were motivated in part by a desire to close persistent academic gaps and in part by a sense that those statistics were creating too bleak a picture of Black students’ abilities, Brooks said.

The group has created parent toolkits to help with everything from getting special education services to incorporating Black history and culture into lesson plans. Members are also analyzing Denver schools’ Black excellence plans. The plans are intended to push educators to improve outcomes and opportunities for Black students in Denver schools.

Brooks said the plans are a great idea that she would like to see replicated in other school districts, but the plans themselves have fallen short of expectations. Brooks said bringing parents to the table would create much more meaningful plans.

Participating in the grant will give Black parents a strong voice in improving family engagement and education statewide, Brooks said, and also allow the network’s efforts to expand beyond a few school districts.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

He did it! Colorado science teacher summits Mount Everest

2022-05-16T21:05:56+00:00

Eddie Taylor, a chemistry teacher at Centaurus High School in Lafayette, was one of seven members of an all-Black climbing team, Full Circle Everest, to summit the world’s tallest mountain in the early hours of May 12.

He commemorated the historic ascent in an Instagram post, writing, “We did it yall! The Expedition was a success. The summit just being a single step in a very long journey. At 2:40 am on May 12th, Pasang Sherpa and I stepped onto the highest point on Earth, snapped a few blurry photos and proceeded to hustle down.”

Taylor, who is also the high school’s track and field coach, departed for Nepal in early April. In an interview before his departure, he said he might make it back to Centaurus in the Boulder Valley district on the last or second-last day of school this month. (The school’s marching band gave him a spirited send-off on April 1.)

While other Black climbers have previously climbed Mount Everest, this was the first summit by a team of Black climbers. The other Full Circle team members who summited were Thomas Moore, also of Colorado; and Manoah Ainuu, Rosemary Saal, Demond Mullins, James “KG” Kagami, and Evan Green. Phil Henderson, who lives in Cortez, Colorado, led the Full Circle team but did not climb.

In a March interview with Chalkbeat, Taylor said he hoped the expedition and the publicity around it would serve as a welcome mat for people of color interested in outdoor sports.

“If you’re a black person or a Latino person and you Google ‘climbing,’ you’re going to still see lots of people who don’t look like you,” Taylor said. “That, I think, makes those sports … seem a little bit more unapproachable.”

He said in addition to outdoor groups geared toward people of color, Full Circle Everest helps make outdoor adventure accessible by showcasing elite Black climbers, who “also want to give back and say, ‘OK, you can do this, too.’”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado voters to decide on free school lunch expansion

2022-05-11T06:10:51+00:00

Colorado voters will decide this November whether to cover the cost of school meals for all students.

All Colorado students have had access to free lunch over the last two years thanks to pandemic-related federal waivers that are set to expire this summer. During that time, many school districts reported more students eating lunch, sometimes as many as 40% more than in pre-pandemic times.

Lawmakers have sent a measure to the voters that would bring in an additional $101 million a year by limiting tax deductions for high-income earners. Those new state funds would supplement additional federal dollars that schools can claim by participating in the community eligibility program. Rather than relying on families filling out applications for subsidized lunches, school districts could use eligibility for programs like Medicaid and food stamps to count children in poverty and get more meals covered.

In addition to covering the costs of school meals, participating school districts could also get money to buy healthy local foods, raise wages for food service workers, upgrade equipment, and train workers to prepare healthy meals.

The proposal would create the Healthy School Meals for All program. House Bill 1414 passed both chambers with bipartisan support, though many Republicans voted no. By getting lawmakers to place the measure on the ballot, supporters save time and money they would have spent gathering signatures.

However, there would be a gap year before the program starts. Schools wouldn’t have access to any extra money for the 2022-23 school year. The Democratic sponsors of the measure had originally backed a bill that would have used state money to fill in that gap, but it stalled due to concerns about ongoing costs.

Backers of the initiative, such as Hunger Free Colorado, say offering free lunch to all students reduces stigma and shame and encourages participation, while relieving cash-strapped families of one more expense.

Some Republican lawmakers objected to asking a small percentage of taxpayers to pay for something that families should be providing and that many parents can afford.

The proposal would limit state income tax deductions for taxpayers earning $300,000 or more. Individuals would be limited to $12,000 and joint filers to $16,000.

The measure does not require the governor’s signature to appear on the ballot. The referred measure only requires a simple majority to become law.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Lawmaker: Community schools option not intended for Adams 14

2022-03-10T23:57:49+00:00

To address persistent academic struggles, Adams 14 leaders have proposed developing community schools to provide extensive wraparound services such as tutoring for students, English classes for parents, on-site laundry facilities, and food pantries.

They hope a bill nearing final approval will make the State Board of Education more receptive to their plans. Senate Bill 54 would establish the community school model as an option for schools with turnaround status, the lowest rating in the state’s school performance system.

But the bill’s main Senate sponsor said her proposal was not designed for districts that have already faced state intervention. That would include Adams 14, which has been on a state watchlist for a decade and is fighting to maintain its autonomy after it ousted a state-ordered external manager.

“This is for the beginning of the end, not the end of the end, which is where Adams 14 is at,” said state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat.

Adams 14 school district serves the working-class Denver suburb of Commerce City. In 2018, after eight years of persistently low test scores, it became the first Colorado district that the state ordered to turn over day-to-day operations to an external management company. This year, under the leadership of Superintendent Karla Loria, the school board terminated its relationship with the company, MGT Consulting.

Adams 14 is scheduled for a hearing in front of the State Board of Education in April to determine next steps. The board has asked for feedback on the most drastic option available to it, dissolving and reorganizing the district.

The Adams 14 school board, meanwhile, says it wants the opportunity to chart its own course and has sued the state in an effort to change the terms of the accountability process. Loria has pushed back against the idea that students aren’t achieving enough. More than half of the district’s 5,700 students are learning English, yet many have to take standardized tests in English. And nearly 73% qualify for subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty.

“There are complicated reasons why schools end up in turnaround status,” Loria told the House Education Committee Wednesday. “It has to do with poverty, the way we test not being conducive to certain communities, our rating system, and the list could go on. The worst thing that can happen is for the state to close a school or take other adverse actions that disrupt the lives of our students and our school community.”

Loria called community schools a “wonderful option” for Adams 14 and welcomed a suggestion from state Rep. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat, to enable the bill to go into effect before the April hearing. But other committee members declined to do that, so the bill likely would go into effect some time this summer.

Also this week, the district’s school board adopted a resolution stating its intent to pursue the development of community schools, including at Central Elementary, which has been flagged for very low performance and could face state intervention beyond what’s aimed at the district.

Community schools require extensive engagement with parents and staff to identify programs that would provide more stability for students. Those could include adult education in English, literacy, and job skills, mentoring and tutoring, access to medical care, and more.

A 2019 bill allowed schools to pursue a community schools model as a form of innovation status, which grants schools exemptions from certain state rules. This year’s bill would add the community schools model to the options available for schools that face state intervention after five years of persistent low performance. The other options are innovation status, conversion to a charter school, closure, or external management.

Neither bill provides money for wraparound programs, but community schools can pursue grants.

The bill passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support. It moved out of the House Education Committee on a partyline vote after Republicans said they were concerned about anti-charter comments made by Adams 14 representatives.

Zenzinger said community schools might have been a good option for Adams 14 in 2018, but now it may be too late. Regardless of the merits, she didn’t draft the bill to present the district with another option.

“The secret sauce about community schools is you really need to be committed to it and it needs to be from within,” Zenzinger said. “I understand the advocates are really excited about this, but it’s become very political. I think they are taking the concept of community schools and plopping them down on their side of the argument.”

Without explicit legislative authority, it’s hard to say how the State Board would respond to a request from Adams 14 to develop community schools, a spokesperson said.

Zenzinger said the crisis in Adams 14 does call out for further legislative action.

“We are unprepared as a state for a school district reaching this point,” she said. “There isn’t anything outlined in our accountability system to say what happens now.”

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Directores del servicio de comida esperan que el gobierno federal mantenga los programas de almuerzo

2021-12-22T19:42:29+00:00

Read in English.

Cuando el distrito escolar de Jeffco espera un envío de alimentos, usualmente falta por lo menos un artículo.

Beth Wallace, directora de Servicio de Comida, dijo que su equipo típicamente recibe aviso sobre los productos que faltan el día antes de que el camión llegue al almacén.

“Preguntamos qué tienen disponible, y usualmente lo aceptamos; de lo contrario, no tendremos comida”, dijo Wallace.

La alternativa podría costar $4 más por caja, pero Wallace lo aceptará. Cuando no hay nada disponible, o la alternativa no llega a tiempo, los trabajadores del servicio de comida rebuscan en el almacén del distrito para encontrar algo que puedan servir.

Ha sido un año difícil en general, dijeron los directores de servicio de comida en un panel llevado a cabo el jueves 9 de diciembre por No Kid Hungry y la Asociación de Nutrición Escolar, pero la planificación para el próximo año escolar también está resultando estresante.

Mientras planifican el próximo año, en el que se anticipa que continúen los problemas de la cadena de suministro, quieren que el gobierno federal continúe las exenciones por la pandemia que han permitido una mayor flexibilidad y un aumento de los fondos para sus programas de comida escolar, dijeron Wallace y otros directores de servicios de comida.

Los fondos adicionales han sido en un aumento en los reembolsos por comidas. Los directores de servicio de comida dijeron que el aumento ha ayudado a pagar el costo más alto de los alimentos y para aumentar el sueldo del personal.

Warren DeShields, director del servicio de comida en las escuelas públicas de Bridgeton (un distrito mayormente latino en Nueva Jersey) dijo que si las exenciones desaparecen, “no sé cómo vamos a mantenernos a flote”

“Nuestros estudiantes realmente necesitan la comida que les proporcionamos”, añadió.

DeShields y otros directores de servicio de comida dicen que aunque les cuesta más trabajo, y a menudo incluye alimentos que no son su primera opción, han podido alimentar a los estudiantes.

Los distritos escolares están viendo un mayor porcentaje de participación, lo que significa que más estudiantes están optando por un almuerzo escolar que en años anteriores. En Jeffco, el número de comidas servidas aumentó de 30,000 a 45,000 diarias.

Los directores dijeron que es importante asegurar que más estudiantes estén preparados para aprender porque han comido bien.

A veces, conseguir las comidas significa recibir alimentos de diferentes proveedores, incluso de aquellos que no tienen contratos vigentes. Eso puede significar que viene de más lejos y a precios más altos.

DeShields dijo que su planificación también ha requerido rotar los alimentos disponibles con mayor frecuencia. Por ejemplo, cuando consigue hamburguesas de pollo, quizás las prepare de forma diferente para que los estudiantes no sientan que están comiendo lo mismo semana tras semana.

Los directores de servicio de comida dijeron que han visto cómo las familias han tenido dificultades durante la pandemia para alimentar a sus hijos.

La flexibilidad que han tenido para servir comidas fuera de un comedor tradicional permitió que los padres estuvieran más enterados de lo que sus hijos estaban comiendo. Los distritos de todo el país utilizaron autobuses para llevar comidas a las casas de las familias durante el aprendizaje a distancia.

“Les sorprendió la calidad de la comida, su frescura y su variedad”, dijo DeShields.

También se han servido comidas en los salones de clase, lo que permite mantener distancia social y también ayuda a asegurar que todos los estudiantes tengan acceso a las comidas.

El reembolso más alto que los directores del panel le pidieron al gobierno ha hecho que los distritos puedan pagarles más a los empleados para atraer a más de ellos durante la escasez de personal.

Las escuelas de Jeffco normalmente funcionan con unos 400 a 450 empleados de servicio de comida, pero este año tienen por lo menos 100 menos, dijo Wallace. Eso significa que hay menos líneas abiertas y menos opciones de comida para los estudiantes. El distrito también ha comunicado que tiene planificado servir kits de almuerzo ya preparado cuando no haya empleados disponibles.

Wallace dijo que Jeffco ha aumentado el salario mínimo para los trabajadores de servicio de comida de $13.25 a $15 por hora. También dijo que espera poder ofrecer un bono de contratación a partir de la próxima semana.

Otra flexibilidad del gobierno ha permitido que los distritos ofrezcan comidas gratuitas para todos los estudiantes, dijeron los directores. En Jeffco, donde alrededor del 28% de los 70,000 estudiantes tienen derecho a comidas con subsidio, Wallace dijo que este año nadie ha sentido “vergüenza por recibir alimentos”, ya que nadie sabe qué estudiantes tienen derecho a almuerzos gratuitos.

“Ha sido un beneficio maravilloso de este programa”, dijo Wallace. “Aquí la igualdad ha sido excelente.”

Wallace dijo que en Jeffco ha escuchado que los estudiantes están agradecidos por poder comer almuerzo todos los días.

Ella cuenta que un estudiante le dijo “Gracias, Ms. Wallace. Antes solamente podía almorzar dos veces a la semana; ahora puedo almorzar todos los días”. “Me encanta cuando ellos me hablan”.

Food service directors await federal action to keep school lunch programs going

2021-12-10T01:00:32+00:00

Leer en español.

When the Jeffco school district expects a food shipment, usually at least one item is missing.

Food services director Beth Wallace said her team typically gets a heads up about the missing products the day before the truckload arrives at the warehouse.

“We ask what they have available, and we usually accept it; otherwise, we will not have food,” Wallace said.

The alternative might cost $4 more per case, but Wallace will take it. When nothing is available, or the alternative doesn’t arrive in time, food service workers dig through the district’s warehouse to find something they can serve.

It’s been a difficult year overall, food service directors told a panel hosted by No Kid Hungry and the School Nutrition Association Thursday morning, but planning for the next school year is also proving stressful.

As they plan for next year, with expected continuing supply chain problems, they want the federal government to continue pandemic-era waivers that have allowed extra flexibility and increased funding for their school meal programs, Wallace and other food service directors said.

The extra funding has been in the form of increased meal reimbursements. Food service directors said the increase has helped pay for the higher cost of food and to increase staff pay.

Warren DeShields, director of food service at Bridgeton Public Schools, a largely Latino district in New Jersey, said if the waivers go away, “then I don’t know how we’re going to stay afloat.”

“Our students really need the food we provide,” he added.

DeShields and other food service directors say that although it takes more work, and often involves food that is not their first choice, they have been able to get food to students.

School districts are seeing higher participation rates, meaning more students are opting for a school lunch than in previous years. In Jeffco, the number of meals served increased to about 45,000 per day, from about 30,000.

Ensuring more students are prepared to learn because they have had a good meal is important, food directors said.

Sometimes securing meals means getting food from different vendors including those without existing contracts. That can mean it comes from farther away and at higher prices.

DeShields said his planning has also meant rotating available food more often. For example, when he gets chicken patties, he might dress them up differently so students don’t feel like they’re eating the same meal week after week.

Food service directors said they’ve seen how families have struggled feeding children during the pandemic.

The flexibility they’ve had to serve meals outside of a traditional lunchroom meant parents had more insight into what their kids were getting to eat. Districts across the country used buses to deliver meals to family homes during remote learning.

“They were surprised at the quality of food and freshness and the variety,” DeShields said.

Students have also been served meals in classrooms, which allows for social distancing and also helps ensure all students have access to the meals.

The higher reimbursement that directors on the panel asked the government to extend has meant districts could pay employees more to attract more applicants during the staff shortage.

Jeffco schools normally operate with about 400 to 450 food service employees, but this year, there are at least 100 fewer, Wallace said. It means there are fewer lines open and less food options for students. The district has also communicated plans to have school staff serve premade meal kits for lunch when no food service employees are available.

Wallace said Jeffco has raised its minimum wage for food service workers to $15 per hour from $13.25. She also said she expects to be able to offer a hiring bonus as early as next week.

Another government flexibility has enabled districts to give free meals to all students, directors said. In Jeffco, where about 28% of the 70,000 students qualify for subsidized meals, Wallace said this year there has been no “food shaming” because no one knows which students qualify for free lunches.

It “has been a wonderful benefit of this program,” Wallace said. “The equity there has just been outstanding.”

Wallace said in Jeffco she’s heard students are grateful for being able to eat lunch every day.

“‘Thank you, miss. I used to be able to have lunch only twice a week; now I can have lunch every day,’” Wallace said a student told her. “I really like when I hear from kids.”

Schools, pediatricians look to make up lost ground on non-COVID vaccinations

2021-11-22T20:00:00+00:00

Melissa Blatzer was determined to get her three children caught up on their routine immunizations on a recent Saturday morning at a walk-in clinic in this Denver suburb. It had been about a year since the kids’ last shots, a delay Blatzer chalked up to the pandemic.

Two-year-old Lincoln Blatzer, in his fleece dinosaur pajamas, waited anxiously in line for his hepatitis A vaccine. His siblings, 14-year-old Nyla Kusumah and 11-year-old Nevan Kusumah, were there for their Tdap, HPV and meningococcal vaccines, plus a COVID-19 shot for Nyla.

“You don’t have to make an appointment and you can take all three at once,” said Blatzer, who lives several miles away in Commerce City. That convenience outweighed the difficulty of getting everyone up early on a weekend.

Child health experts hope community clinics like this, along with the return to in-person classes, more well-child visits, and the rollout of COVID shots for younger children, can help boost routine childhood immunizations, which dropped during the pandemic. Despite a rebound, immunization rates are still lower than in 2019, and disparities in rates between racial and economic groups, particularly for Black children, have been exacerbated.

“We’re still not back to where we need to be,” said Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatric infectious-disease doctor at Children’s Hospital Colorado and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

Routine immunizations protect children against 16 infectious diseases, including measles, diphtheria, and chickenpox, and inhibit transmission to the community.

The rollout of COVID shots for younger kids is an opportunity to catch up on routine vaccinations, said O’Leary, adding that children can receive these vaccines together. Primary care practices, where many children are likely to receive the COVID shots, usually have other childhood vaccines on hand.

“It’s really important that parents and health care providers work together so that all children are up to date on these recommended vaccines,” said Dr. Malini DeSilva, an internist and pediatrician at HealthPartners in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. “Not only for the child’s health but for our community’s health.”

People were reluctant to come out for routine immunizations at the height of the pandemic, said Karen Miller, an immunization nurse manager for the Denver area’s Tri-County Health Department, which ran the Westminster clinic. National and global data confirm what Miller saw on the ground.

Global vaccine coverage in children fell from 2019 to 2020, according to a recent study by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF. Reasons included reduced access, lack of transportation, worries about COVID exposure and supply chain interruptions, the study said.

Third doses of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (DTP) vaccine and of the polio vaccine decreased from 86% of all eligible children in 2019 to 83% in 2020, according to the study. Worldwide, 22.7 million children had not had their third dose of DTP in 2020, compared with 19 million in 2019. Three doses are far more effective than one or two at protecting children and communities.

In the United States, researchers who studied 2019 and 2020 data on routine vaccinations in California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin found substantial disruptions in vaccination rates during the pandemic that continued into September 2020. For example, the percentage of 7-month-old babies who were up to date on vaccinations decreased from 81% in September 2019 to 74% a year later.

The proportion of Black children up to date on immunizations in almost all age groups was lower than that of children in other racial and ethnic groups. This was most pronounced in those turning 18 months old: Only 41% of Black children that age were caught up on vaccinations in September 2020, compared with 57% of all children at 18 months, said DeSilva, who led that study.

A CDC study of data from the National Immunization Surveys found that race and ethnicity, poverty, and lack of insurance created the greatest disparities in vaccination rates, and the authors noted that extra efforts are needed to counter the pandemic’s disruptions.

In addition to the problems caused by COVID, Miller said, competing life priorities like work and school impede families from keeping up with shots. Weekend vaccination clinics can help working parents get their children caught up on routine immunizations while they get a flu or COVID shot. Miller and O’Leary also said reminders via phone, text, or email can boost immunizations.

“Vaccines are so effective that I think it’s easy for families to put immunizations on the back burner because we don’t often hear about these diseases,” she said.

It’s a long and nasty list that includes hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, rotavirus, pneumococcus, tetanus, diphtheria, human papillomavirus and meningococcal disease, among others. Even small drops in vaccination coverage can lead to outbreaks. And measles is the perfect example that worries experts, particularly as international travel opens up.

“Measles is among the most contagious diseases known to humankind, meaning that we have to keep very high vaccination coverage to keep it from spreading,” said O’Leary.

In 2019, 22 measles outbreaks occurred in 17 states in mostly unvaccinated children and adults. O’Leary said outbreaks in New York City were contained because surrounding areas had high vaccination coverage. But an outbreak in an undervaccinated community still could spread beyond its borders, he said.

In some states a significant number of parents were opposed to routine childhood vaccines even before the pandemic for religious or personal reasons, posing another challenge for health professionals. For example, 87% of Colorado kindergartners were vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella during the 2018-19 school year, one of the nation’s lowest rates.

Those rates bumped up to 91% in 2019-20 but are still below the CDC’s target of 95%.

O’Leary said he does not see the same level of hesitancy for routine immunizations as for COVID. “There has always been vaccine hesitancy and vaccine refusers. But we’ve maintained vaccination rates north of 90% for all routine childhood vaccines for a long time now,” he said.

Malini said the “ripple effects” of missed vaccinations earlier in the pandemic continued into 2021. As children returned to in-person learning this fall, schools may have been the first place families heard about missed vaccinations. Individual states set vaccination requirements, and allowable exemptions, for entry at schools and child care facilities. Last year, Colorado passed a school entry immunization law that tightened allowable exemptions.

“Schools, where vaccination requirements are generally enforced, are stretched thin for a variety of reasons, including COVID,” said O’Leary, adding that managing vaccine requirements may be more difficult for some, but not all, schools.

Anayeli Dominguez, 13, was at the Westminster clinic for a Tdap vaccine because her middle school had noticed she was not up to date.

“School nurses play an important role in helping identify students in need of immunizations, and also by connecting families to resources both within the district and in the larger community,” said Denver Public Schools spokesperson Will Jones.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Poverty, hunger, lost learning all hit children hard. Colorado needs to protect them from COVID fallout, advocates say.

2020-09-12T01:36:19+00:00

Colorado should prioritize opening schools above opening businesses and take stronger action to stave off a looming crisis for the state’s children, 45 advocacy organizations led by the Colorado Children’s Campaign wrote in a letter to Gov. Jared Polis and other state leaders Friday.

While children are less likely to suffer the most serious health consequences from the coronavirus, they are hit harder by nearly every secondary effect of the pandemic and the efforts to contain it, the advocates wrote. Those include poverty, hunger, homelessness, and lost learning.

“Prioritizing the care of our children benefits all Coloradans,” they wrote. “By placing the needs of children and families at the center of our response we can ensure kids are in safe environments provided with the tools and skills to realize their full potential, and we can support parents who need to work so our economy can thrive.

“We are at an inflection point. The trendlines in community spread create an opening to advance strategies that support children and families. As the school year begins, families are having to make impossible choices between the education and care of their kids and meeting basic needs.”

Hundreds of thousands of Colorado students are learning remotely, some by family choice and some because their school campuses remain closed. At the same time, tens of thousands lack adequate internet access to support their learning. Families are also struggling with unprecedented job losses that threaten their housing and their ability to put food on the table. Households with children are more likely to be evicted than those made up just of adults, studies have found.

The letter asks the governor to set clear metrics for when it’s safe for schools to open, improve internet access for all students, set baseline expectations for quality remote learning, shore up child care providers, and make sure children have secure housing and enough to eat.

“What we’re seeing across all the work that we do is that kids and families need a lot right now, and there is more that the state could be doing to put children at the center of our policy response,” said Leslie Colwell, vice president of K-12 education initiatives for the Children’s Campaign.

That starts with providing clearer guidance to school districts and communities about when it’s safe to open schools and prioritizing schools above other types of businesses that could contribute to higher rates of community spread, the letter says.

Over the summer, Colorado did not provide any framework that would indicate when it is safe to return to the classroom. That contributed to the patchwork of school reopenings across the state. In some cases, districts in the same counties with the same health conditions made different decisions.

In late August, after school had started, the state public health department released a draft matrix to guide local reopening decisions. The criteria suggest schools should be open for at least some in-person learning throughout the state.

While the letter praises this as an important step, advocates note that the matrix doesn’t mention child care centers as a distinct category and doesn’t prioritize schools above activities such as gyms and indoor dining in restaurants.

“That misses the mark,” said Erin Miller, vice president of health initiatives for the Children’s Campaign. “Having kids in school and child care is so critical for parents who need to be at work; those should be prioritized.”

“Schools and child care programs should be among our last institutions to close and the very first to open, as these settings directly support our state’s economic recovery,” the letter says. “Therefore, the dial should be revised to prioritize the reopening of in-person schools and child care settings, before businesses that pose a significant risk of community spread.”

Advocates said the state also needs to give more direct guidance to school districts to prioritize in-person learning for younger elementary students, students with disabilities, and others who are particularly poorly served in a remote environment. In some districts, schools don’t have the infrastructure to serve all students safely, Miller said, and the state should be explicit about using an equity lens to determine which students get priority.

The letter also calls for higher and more uniform standards for what constitutes quality remote learning and for putting more resources into improving online education for those circumstances in which school isn’t safe. The state also needs to do more to ensure all students have internet access. Polis and Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes recently announced a $2 million investment in expanding internet access, but it is not expected to fully meet the need.

As families look outside the school system for help and form learning pods, the state should take a greater oversight role and ensure that adults caring for children have, at a minimum, a background check, the letter says. Advocates said the state could do more to encourage school districts to facilitate safe learning spaces even when schools are closed and to steer families toward licensed care.

In addition, the letter calls on the state to do more to ensure all children have access to nutritious meals and to prevent evictions.

“We have children who are starting their semester in a hotel room because their family has been evicted,” said Jack Regenbogen of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, an advocacy group that works on housing and other issues facing low-income families. “This was a problem before, but it’s more dangerous now. What’s unique right now is that a lot of families are having to make tough choices about whether they go back to work while their children are learning from home.”

Earlier this summer, Polis let a state moratorium on evictions expire. Renters have some protections under new rules from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are too many loopholes to protect children, Regenbogen said.

In addition to stopping evictions now, the letter calls on Polis to require landlords to offer renters reasonable repayment plans to help them stay in their housing long term.

Correction: This article has been updated with the correct spelling of Jack Regenbogen’s name.

Read the full letter and see who signed it below.

Getting schooled in conservation

2020-08-26T17:33:14+00:00

This story originally appeared on High Country News.

Marissa Moore started her freshman year in 2015 at Montezuma-Cortez High School in southwest Colorado, just a 15-minute drive from Mesa Verde National Park. She took honors courses and regularly earned the A and B grades that her parents expected. But by that summer, Marissa’s family was struggling: Her parents were getting a divorce, and that year, her mother broke her back. At 16, Marissa was the eldest child living at home, and her responsibilities shifted from basketball, choir and honor roll to keeping house, taking care of her siblings and looking for a job. “I was depressed about my parents getting a divorce,” Marissa, a member of the Otoe-Missouri Tribe, said. “And, you know, I wasn’t able to be a kid anymore.”

Over the next two years, between working, driving to Grand Junction with her mother for medical treatments, and dealing with her own depression, Marissa missed most of her sophomore and junior years. She still wanted to attend school and get her diploma, but challenges in her personal life didn’t leave much room for a traditional path toward graduation. High school administrators told her she would turn 18 before she could earn the credits she needed for her diploma, and encouraged her to pursue her GED instead. “It took a lot of willpower to not just give up, and to start drinking with my friends or going to get high all the time. That’s how other people I know have coped,” Marissa said. “But I have siblings, and they’re watching everything that I do. If I start giving up and doing stupid things, or getting in trouble, what does that say to them?”

Instead, Marissa enrolled at Southwest Open School, where a holistic, experiential, and personal approach to education connected her with a life-changing internship in conservation. Marissa grew into a leader and began to shape a dream beyond her high school diploma: becoming a park ranger or guide at Mesa Verde National Park.

Southwest Open School, a public charter school in Cortez, Colorado, was founded more than three decades ago as an alternative for kids who weren’t thriving in a traditional education system. Nearly 90% of the kids it serves are still considered to be at-risk, but its model for hands-on, experiential learning and its commitment to emotional growth and safety have made it an increasingly popular educational choice in the Four Corners region. “In education across the country, we’re seeing the traditional model does not work,” said Southwest Open School Director Matthew Keefauver. “We need a system that recognizes that these students are human beings, and they have things that are happening outside of school.”

Students come from four districts within Montezuma County and the surrounding region, a place where 14% of the population are Native American, 13% are Hispanic or Latino and 82% are white. The student body at Southwest Open School is 30% Native American, 15% Hispanic, 53% Caucasian and 2% other ethnicity.

Marissa Moore talks with educator Jay Loschert about the irrigation monitoring system that she helped install earlier in the year.

In Marissa’s first days there, school counselors helped her map a path to graduation. She would still need a lot of credits, and she’d have to work hard, but it was possible. Courses on emotional management and relationship-building helped her feel safe. Her depression lifted, and she got to work. “After so many times of trying so hard to be normal, and having to hide how you’re feeling, it was amazing to get to just talk about your feelings,” Marissa said. “It [her depression] got better, because everybody at SWOS really loves you.”

For some of her credits, Marissa helped manage the campus garden, and in one class project, she designed a new job: a social-media strategist for farms. In a pivotal moment, Teri Gregory, one of Marissa’s first teachers and mentors at Southwest Open School, connected her with a summer agricultural immersion program with the Montezuma Land Conservancy. She would work at Fozzy’s Farm, the MLC’s 83-acre agricultural education center, where students learn about conservation and work in teams to manage irrigation and production on the farm. “I decided to give it a chance, because it was an extra credit and it also paid a stipend, which was really helpful,” Marissa said. “I can help support my mom and two younger siblings.”

At first, Marissa couldn’t imagine being a farmer or working outside. But after days and then weeks in the fields, her confidence grew, and she became a mentor for other students.

In August 2018, at the end of her six-week immersion, Marissa was promoted. She decided to stay on as the first full-time high school intern for the Montezuma Land Conservancy. “What we’re trying to do is give people enough time and experience on the land that they feel like they’re part of it — they belong here, it belongs to them, and they belong to it,” said Jay Loschert, MLC outreach and education coordinator. “We want them to think about careers in conservation or agriculture that they otherwise wouldn’t have.”

The work at Fozzy’s, combined with the school-led field trips to other nonprofits and to national parks, helped Marissa imagine a new future. Before, she had thought about early childhood education, but her time with the Land Conservancy and at Fozzy’s shifted her interests toward conservation. “I always knew I’d be someone that youth could talk to, and I still plan on being an advocate for Native American youth, and women,” she told me. “I’d never thought of being outdoors and being a park ranger, but that’s what I’m thinking about now.”

Toward the end of June, I called Marissa while she was at home with her 13-year-old brother, Xavier, and her younger sister, Sasa Hite, 16, who now attends Southwest Open School. Marissa was getting ready for one of her last days at the farm, and Xavier interrupted to offer her lunch. “My brother thinks that he’s a chef,” Marissa said. “That’s the path he’s going to go down in the future.”

He told Marissa he’s going to go to culinary school and become famous — be the next Gordon Ramsay, a legendary British chef. “Do it,” she said. “Go further than me. I dare you.”

The next month, on a hot and sunny July 31, Marissa spoke at her graduation ceremony, which had been delayed by the pandemic. Formerly shy and terrified of public speaking, Marissa proudly mounted the outdoor stage, wearing towering stilettos and a shimmering, silvery graduation gown and matching cap. She urged her peers not to miss the moment; they should find out what they wanted, she said, and go after it.

“A completely different person is leaving this school today,” Marissa said. Then she accepted her diploma, waved to her teachers and fellow students, and walked off the stage.

Marissa Moore waited months to graduate after COVID put her school’s plans on hold.

Page Buono is a freelance writer based in Durango, Colorado. She received her MFA in nonfiction from the University of Arizona. @BuonoPage. High Country News is an independent magazine dedicated to coverage of the Western U.S. Subscribe, get the enewsletter, and follow HCN on Facebook and Twitter.

Colorado summer day camps can open June 1 — with modifications

2020-05-26T01:48:17+00:00

Colorado’s state health department announced Monday that summer day camps and sports camps can open on June 1 as long as camp providers take precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Sleepaway camps can’t operate in June, but they may be able to open in July and August. The state will decide in mid-June.

The new state guidance, which came after the last week of school for many districts, mandates a raft of conditions including a maximum group size of 25 for outdoor camps and 10 per room for indoor camps, plus efforts to maintain physical distance of six feet between campers. The guidance also requires masks for employees and campers whenever possible and health screenings for employees before they start work and for campers when they are dropped off.

Many in-person summer enrichment and academic camps, including those offered by the Denver district, were cancelled or moved online earlier this month. But Monday’s news provides clarity for summer camp operators who still plan to offer in-person programs and parents who rely on summer camps or classes for child care.

The summer camps guidance is similar to what’s already in place for child care providers that remained open or reopened during the pandemic. Those rules include class sizes of 10 or fewer, curbside drop-off and pickup, and a closure of at least 24 hours if there is a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 in a student, parent, or staff member.

The summer camp guidance doesn’t explicitly require a 24-closure if there is a confirmed case of COVID-19, but states that camp operators “must cooperate with their local public health agency on next steps” and recommends they “prepare for closures following a case or outbreak.”

A recent survey from the Denver-based nonprofit ReSchool found that three-quarters of 24 Denver area camp providers planned to provide in-person programming this summer, though with changes to comply with state health guidance. In some cases camps will start at a later date than usual.

Patricia Lira, a single mother in Denver, has been anxiously awaiting information about summer programs.

She usually sends her 9-year-old daughter Amelia to Mexico for a few weeks to stay with the girl’s grandparents and then to Discovery Link, a full-day program offered at various Denver schools. But this year, Lira said, it’s too risky to have her daughter travel to Mexico, and Discovery Link has been canceled.

“It’s just time to figure out what to do. It’s stressful,” said Lira, who is an architect for a construction company.

When the pandemic hit, Lira worked from home through April, then went back to work with Amelia by her side. While Lira is thankful that her boss is understanding and her daughter is old enough to do some things independently, she also wants Amelia to have a break with kids her age — just not in a virtual format.

“They need to be active,” Lira said. “For me, something online is not an option.”

Though she’s hopeful that Amelia will be able to attend some kind of in-person summer program, Lira believes there should be lots of precautions in place to reduce the chance kids will contract COVID-19.

“If she gets the virus she’ll pass it to me like any other sickness,” Lira said.

Summer camp 2020: In Colorado, it’ll be dramatically different and socially distant

2020-05-12T22:51:02+00:00

Diana Romero Campbell usually enrolls 1,000 Denver-area elementary students in her organization’s free full-day “Summer Scholars” program. This year, she’s anticipating less than half that number will attend the remote version her team is rushing to plan.

Keith Desrosiers, whose nonprofit normally serves 2,500 Boulder County kids in outdoor day camps, plans to reach only about 225 this year, allowing just four or five children per instructor and offering fewer camp sessions than usual.

Welcome to the dramatically different — and for some, disappointing — summer camp experience of 2020.

With just weeks left in the school year, Colorado public health authorities have not decided yet whether summer camps will be allowed to open in June and if so, under what conditions. Late last month, the state began allowing limited in-person instruction in the K-12 and higher education systems — small-group tutoring sessions or welding classes, for example — but public health authorities are also watching to see if cases increase after loosening stay-at-home rules.

Gov. Jared Polis said this week that he expects to release guidance on both sleepaway and day camps on May 25.

Some camps have already canceled programming for June, and large school districts like Denver and Jeffco have moved all of their summer programming online.

The cancellations, changes, and uncertainty are taking a toll on working parents who have already weathered weeks of remote learning and depend on camps to provide child care during the summer. Nonetheless many camp providers still hope to provide some in-person programming.

Some parents are reluctant to send their children to in-person summer programs because they don’t want their children or family members to catch the coronavirus. But others say it’s the only way they can keep working.

“What’s happened with the COVID-19 pandemic is it’s brought to light many of the inequities in our system in a much more dramatic way,” said Amy Anderson, executive director of Reschool Colorado, a nonprofit focused on out-of-school learning.

Still, Anderson is hopeful that with concerns about learning loss magnified by this spring’s school closures philanthropists and others will work to ensure summer programs persist. She said Reschool will give out $40,000 to $50,000 in scholarships to students statewide who need financial assistance for summer programs.

A new survey from ReSchool found that three-quarters of 24 Denver area camp providers planned to provide in-person programming this summer, though with changes to comply with whatever health guidance the state provides, and in some cases, starting at a later date than usual. Nearly two-thirds also said they anticipated offering online or at-home activities for students. More than one-third said they haven’t finalized their plans yet.

With many school buildings and other public facilities closed, one of the biggest hurdles for camp operators this year is securing space.

Romero Campbell, president of Scholars Unlimited, which provides free after-school and summer programs to low-income students, said her program can’t run the usual six-week in-person sessions in Denver, Aurora, and Westminster because its school sites are closed.

Instead, her instructors will run 60- to 90-minute online literacy classes three days a week. All students will get headsets to reduce background distractions and staff will drop off necessary supplies each week. On the other two days, online sessions will feature guest speakers, museum tours, or other virtual field trips. If it’s permitted, there may be weekly park meet-ups that include an instructor and a small number of students.

Romero Campbell knows the scaled-down summer program, which she expects will enroll 300 to 500 children, will pose difficulties for working parents who usually rely on Summer Scholars for child care. But she’s hoping it can serve as an innovative prototype for summer learning.

“We can’t let our fear paralyze us,” she said. “It could be a brilliant summer. We could have amazing wins, but buckle up because we’re probably also going to experience some major failures.”

Desrosiers, who heads Thorne Nature Experience, said he considered cancelling his program altogether this year, but wanted to keep his staff working. In addition to lowering group size from 12 campers to five and eliminating daily group bus rides, he extended sessions from one week to two and will give instructors nine days off between sessions.

When Desrosiers changed this year’s camp format, he gave already enrolled families first dibs on signing up. While about half pulled out because of concerns about older or immune-compromised family members, there was enough interest to fill all available slots in less than a day.

One thing that won’t change at Thorne Nature Experience this year is the percentage of scholarship recipients Desrosiers will enroll. He’ll give out 45 full scholarships, one for every four paying campers as usual. His board committed to the $33,000 investment even though it could mean staff layoffs later.

“It’s a scary decision to make,” said Desrosiers, but one that helps ensure low-income children get access to the kinds of experiences middle and higher income children enjoy. On weekly conference calls with other camp directors Desrosiers urges colleagues to continue offering financial help to families who can’t pay full freight.

“Part of what I’m trying to explain is the need that exists and how not to abandon your scholarship programs,” he said.

Why Colorado school districts are serving fewer meals during COVID-19 closures

2020-05-09T00:36:13+00:00

One of the first considerations for any school district thinking about closing school, even for a single snow day is: How will children eat?

As schools across Colorado closed in March to slow the spread of coronavirus, food service directors and cafeteria workers swung into action, setting up an extensive network that has handed out hundreds of thousands of meals, many of them to families short on food for the first time.

But despite extensive efforts and growing need, these meals remain millions short of what districts would have served in normal times. Districts have been unable to approach pre-pandemic meal counts for a range of reasons, including confusion over the rules, lack of transportation, and narrow pickup windows that don’t meet the needs of harried parents.

The districts that have bucked this trend, like Westminster Public Schools, have done so by leveraging strong community networks and ramping up delivery options.

A Chalkbeat analysis of data from the first month of food distribution found that many metro area school districts are serving less than half of the meals they would have served if school were in session, in some cases much less.

Don’t see the graphic above? Click here.

During the first month of school closure, Denver Public Schools served just 12% of the student meals it usually serves while Jeffco Public Schools served just 16% of what it normally would have served to students. Some districts are reaching a larger share of students, like Aurora Public Schools at 34% and Adams 12 Five Star Schools at 57% of their normal meals. Westminster Public Schools, meanwhile, is providing 125% of the student meals it did when school is in session.

The lower numbers don’t mean a lack of need, advocates said. Paola Babb of Hunger Free Colorado said calls to the group’s food hotline have tripled. They’re processing more food stamp applications than ever, and food banks are seeing more customers than ever.

“We’re seeing huge need across the state,” she said.

Hunger Free Colorado provides families with children information about school sites along with neighborhood food pantries.

“The schools are a linchpin in their community,” said Jessica Wright of LiveWell Colorado, a group that works to improve access to healthy food. “The ability for them to still serve meals is critical. The food banks are overwhelmed and if the schools shut down food distribution, I would really hate to see the fallout.”

Busy lives, confusion, and shame make it harder to reach families

Because most districts are giving out multiple meals at once, the families that come to school sites often are getting more food for their children than they did during the school year, when many students ate lunch but not breakfast. And many schools have added weekend meals and food for adults, neither of which they offered during the school year.

But schools are not reaching nearly as many students.

There are a lot of reasons why more families aren’t taking advantage of these free meals. Some parents don’t have transportation. Others, especially those with younger children, find it difficult to get everyone loaded into the car and make it to a narrow pick-up window.

“Noon comes but I’m so busy, how do I go out?” said Xiomara Blanco, a Jeffco mother of two children, one with special needs. “By the time I get them both in the car with me, time’s up and so I’d rather make their meals myself.”

Others don’t want to be seen taking a handout.

“They want to do this in a very discreet way,” said Papa Dia, who runs a community organization that helps African immigrant families in Denver and Aurora. “We just drop it by the door and leave.”

There’s also uncertainty about what, exactly, the rules are. Many districts from the start tried to make meals as easy to access as possible. Children did not need to be students at a particular school, in a particular district, or even students at all, to get meals, which are freely handed out to anyone aged 1 to 18. No one was asked for identification. But children did have to be present to get a meal.

Westminster Public Schools bus driver Charlotte Cooper takes bags of food and loads them onto the bus for delivery.

Many districts have relaxed that requirement, but confusion abounds. Despite assurances, some immigrant families fear they’ll risk their immigration status or potential citizenship if they take free food.

Gladys Soto, a Denver parent, and group leader with the education advocacy group CLLARO, said people wonder if they have to take their kids, if they have to show an identification, or if they have to live in the neighborhood. And they wonder if all they’ll get is canned food.

“The district just assumes everyone is going to understand what they’re saying,” Soto said. “There’s still lots of families that you have to break it down, step by step.”

Serving meals in a pandemic brings its own challenges

To keep serving students, food service directors across Colorado have had to overcome major hurdles. There have been shortages of bread and milk, paper bags and food cartons, gloves and masks. When there are shortages, districts have to get waivers from nutritional requirements or spend more to meet them.

Several suburban districts told Chalkbeat they break even on meal distribution through a combination of careful purchasing and staffing decisions, donations, and reserves built up when their school lunch programs were profitable. But the Denver school district expects to lose $5.7 million by the end of the fiscal year on meal service since schools closed. A national study from the Urban Institute and LiveWell Colorado’s survey of food service directors both found many programs operating at a loss, which raises questions about sustainability.

Schools have had to change kitchen work flows so that fewer workers standing further apart can still prepare large quantities of food. They have to keep cold food cold and hot food hot at outside grab-and-go stations and on long delivery routes. Food service workers have had to quarantine after getting sick or being exposed to an ill person. Many food service workers are older or care for family members who are in high-risk categories.

Many districts have implemented rotations to give employees a break from the stress and are offering hazard or “thank you” pay to those who come in.

“It’s not like I can say, ‘Let’s open you up and serve as many meals as possible,’” said Theresa Hafner, executive director of food services for Denver Public Schools. “I have to say, ‘I can only put three of you in there. How many meals can we produce?’”

Denver, where roughly two-thirds of students qualify for subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty, started its food distribution program at 12 schools where a lot of students normally eat lunch, but as the numbers started to come back, officials realized they were missing too many families.

The district added school sites and delivery along bus routes in high-poverty neighborhoods and to apartment complexes with lots of children. Demand at the Montbello campus in northeast Denver, one of the district’s busiest distribution sites, didn’t go down at all when other sites opened nearby.

Nonetheless, by mid-April the district was serving roughly 3,900 lunches a day, compared with 45,000 lunches a day when school is in session, three-quarters of them to students from low-income households.

Wright, with LiveWell Colorado, sees food service directors being creative and resourceful, with some even offering meal kits for families to assemble at home when school staff couldn’t safely cook and store the food they had on hand.

But at the end of the day, it’s hard to replace a school cafeteria and a fully staffed kitchen.

“Now we have these grab-and-go meals with prepackaged items that may not be as appealing and may not be what families want,” she said.

Don’t see the graphic above? Click here.

Making meals work for families

Wright said districts often have good reasons for changing meal sites and distribution schedules, but the constant changes make it hard to provide the most up-to-date information.

Districts that have added delivery routes often reach a higher percentage of their families in poverty, Wright said, and many food service workers and bus drivers relish the opportunity to see “their kids” again.

The Adams 12 Five Star district distributes food three days a week at five comprehensive high schools, but that can be a walk of up to three miles. After identifying those in need, the district began delivering food and even personal hygiene items to 600 families — and plans to add more.

“We are just committed to getting the food and supplies to those families. If we’re going to err, let’s err on the side of humanity and compassion,” said Pat Hamilton, the district’s chief operating officer.

Rocky Mountain Prep charter network in Denver and Aurora set up its own meal sites, but also bought $10,000 worth of grocery store gift cards and authorized trusted employees to hand them out to those with the most need. CEO and founder James Cryan said the network had to shift from running schools to being “a food supplier, tech support organization, and dramatically undertrained social work service.”

In Aurora, food services director Shannon Solomon said that the district increased participation by keeping consistent sites and times and by using colorful decorated buses to serve as a visual cue.

To discourage socializing and reduce potential exposure, the district keeps a tight 30-minute window to hand out food but added two lines to speed pickups. And realizing that some families were busy, Aurora made it easier for neighbors to pick up food for each other.

The biggest challenge right now? Solomon is “desperate for bags” and has shifted to bulk packaging.

Delivery options and word of mouth help some districts reach more families

The suburban Westminster district, where 78% of students qualify for subsidized lunches, is serving more meals than ever before by taking food into the community and leaning on neighborhood networks to get the word out.

After starting with four pickup sites, the district has added eight “bus stop sites” in areas where lots of students live. Some families that can’t leave their houses get a week’s worth of meals delivered.

“The district has taken the position that they want to feed all the kids they can,” said David Maki, Director of Culinary Service for Chartwells, the food service company that took over the district’s food service program 10 years ago.

A Westminster Public Schools bus makes its first stop at the Berkeley Village Mobile Home Park to distribute meals prepared by food service staff at Tennyson Knolls Elementary School. The district has reached more families in need by delivering food.

And the district is also relying on word of mouth.

“The community thought they had to sit there and eat on site, and that’s why at first they didn’t want to go,” said Lorena Osorio, a mom of two Westminster students.

Osario works as a volunteer with El Centro Humanitario to get more people in her community to fill out the Census. As job losses swept through so many families, she started telling everyone that the district was serving emergency meals — and the food is good. Now people share with each other what’s available.

A typical meal includes a sandwich — that could be a chicken patty, hamburger, turkey and Swiss among other options — fruit, vegetables and milk. The district has also served tacos, baked ziti, chicken Alfredo, and fajitas.

“Even the vegetables and fruit that they give are very good quality,” Osorio said.

Questions about sustainability

The Urban Institute recently looked at food distribution methods in urban and rural districts across the country and found schools grappling with many of the same challenges faced in Denver area districts. Researchers also raised concerns about the long-term sustainability of school-based food distribution.

Adding delivery service and navigating supply chain problems raise the cost of meal service even as districts are taking in less money and bracing for bigger budget cuts. Schools need to be “made whole” for the community service they’ve performed, said Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, and perhaps they should carry less of the burden going forward.

Expanding eligibility for food stamps and for “pandemic EBT,” a purchasing card with the value of school lunches, would allow more families in need to just buy food, she said.

But in the immediate aftermath of school closures, there were no other organizations as well suited as schools to step into the gap.

“We don’t have a comprehensive family policy in this country,” Waxman said. “That’s what schools are.”

Data analysis and visualizations by Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee. Senior reporter Melanie Asmar also contributed reporting.

Even in a pandemic, some Colorado districts serve ‘just normal school lunch’

2020-05-08T23:00:18+00:00

One thousand pounds of ground beef in the freezer and a stockpile of foam food containers are helping one small Colorado district maintain a little piece of normalcy amid a pandemic.

“Just normal school lunch: Mac ’n’ cheese, goulash, mashed potatoes and gravy with a pork chop, chicken fingers with mashed potatoes and gravy, a hamburger,” said Lacreata Mease, food service director in the Limon district, as she rattled off some recent menu items. “I don’t know how else to cook.”

As school districts around the state announced extended closures, John McCleary, the superintendent of the 450-student Limon district on Colorado’s eastern plains, asked Mease to put in a big order.

“He said, ‘I think this is going to be a big deal. Do you think that we could get some food delivered, in case this turns out to be a big deal?’” she recalled weeks later. “So I went and ordered a lot of hamburger and diced chicken and pasta and stuff that we use every day.”

Those supplies have helped Mease and her small team to serve roughly 100 students the same types of hot meals she used to serve to 300 students a day when school was in session.

“We are just so grateful that our day is pretty normal in the midst of all this craziness,” she said.

It’s also allowed Mease to avoid some of the shortages that have bedeviled other school lunch programs during school closures. Many districts have switched to pre-packaged food items for grab-and-go lunches. They’re easy to assemble with a small crew, reducing exposure for workers, and they’re easier to keep at the right temperature for several hours. But once mundane items like pre-bagged baby carrots and granola bars are now in short supply.

“When I go to make my orders, there is no prepackaged hardly anything in the warehouse,” Mease said. “There are no cereal bars. There are no Uncrustables, whatever that is. I mean, I know what it is. I just can’t imagine that that is some child’s lunch, but it must be.”

Other Colorado districts have made the same discoveries. Facing dire shortages of sliced bread, Adams 12 Five Star Schools in suburban Denver also started serving hot lunches again. Cooking real food gives the district a lot more flexibility to work with what’s available, said chief operating officer Pat Hamilton.

“We make menu adjustments,” he said.

But there is one widespread shortage even Mease had to grapple with.

“The thing that panicked me the most was not being able to get sacks, because everybody wanted those paper sacks,” she said. “We didn’t run out, but we were down to the last few.”

This Colorado foundation helps schools with crisis response. Now, the crisis is lunch.

2020-05-08T22:56:39+00:00

Sometimes you need to reunite a parent with a child, and sometimes you need to unite a child with their next meal.

A Colorado organization that for years has worked on school safety issues has taken that expertise and, in cooperation with Adams 12 Five Star Schools in suburban Denver, developed a method for handing out meals and learning materials during coronavirus with a goal of minimizing the risk of transmission for both front-line workers and families.

Founded by the Keyes family after Emily Keyes was shot and killed at Platte Canyon High School in 2006, Colorado’s “I Love U Guys” Foundation has worked to help schools around the country improve their crisis response. Executive Director John-Michael Keyes said that after he got done “weeping salty tears of despair” over widespread school closures, he realized his organization had a role to play.

“We’re not experts about any of this, but we talk to the experts,” he said.

From those conversations and from practice and revisions and more practice in the Adams 12 district, the “I Love U Guys” Foundation developed what they’re calling the “standard distribution method.” It grew from the foundation’s “standard reunification method,” a way of reconnecting parents and children in a safe and orderly way after an incident at a school, which might mean something mundane like a gas leak or something life-altering like a school shooting.

Hallmarks of the standard reunification method are clearly defined roles and jobs — one person greets a parent and checks their ID, a runner carries the information to another adult who is with the children at a defined gathering spot — and a designated person who oversees the whole operation.

“We’re using the same roles and the same training that we use with another one of our programs, which is the standard reunification method,” Keyes said. “We’re reunifying a student with a laptop. Or with their lunch. One district in Texas reunified band instruments with band members.”

There are still greeters and runners. The people who prepare the food remain separate from the people who take it outside, and those workers and volunteers in turn remain separate from the people who greet families and pass food through car windows. Constant disinfection is built into every step. If one person gets sick or is exposed to someone who might be sick, it doesn’t require the entire operation to shut down or the entire team to quarantine.

In Colorado and around the country, school-based meal distribution sites have shut down after a worker tested positive or was exposed to someone with COVID-19. Food service workers have even died of the disease. The stress of potential exposure takes a toll on everyone. Like many districts, Adams 12 is rotating the job of meal preparation and distribution among different teams so that people get a break.

“It’s emotionally draining to be that person on the front lines constantly,” said Pat Hamilton, chief operating officer for the Adams 12 district and a board member of the “I Love U Guys” Foundation.

The district has often served as a laboratory for ideas developed there. It took some time to fully realize what social distancing required in the context of food preparation and distribution.

Two videos taken at Adams 12 schools show the evolution of the method over several weeks. In the second video, everyone is masked, and staffers are much further apart. Hamilton said the method has continued to evolve.

Materials related to the standard distribution method are available for free on the foundation’s website. The foundation doesn’t track how many districts are using it. It is aware of districts in Texas, New York, and Nebraska that have adopted it.

The pandemic has been hard on students like me. It’s time to boost mental health support in schools.

2020-04-29T16:35:48+00:00

My name is Amelia Federico, I’m a senior at DSST: Byers High School in Denver, and, like many of you, my life has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic.

I was hanging out with some friends after school on March 12 when I received the message that we wouldn’t have school again until April 6. At that time, I was honestly excited for a break. As a senior in high school, I was dealing with preparing for AP tests, making decisions about my future, and participating in clubs and extracurriculars. Trying to balance all of that comes with a lot of stress and anxiety. In fact, many students live in a world of consistent pressure and anxiety, which is undoubtedly a factor contributing to the relatively high suicide rates among Colorado teens.

Those three weeks turned out to be much more difficult than I anticipated. But I told myself that I could mentally do three weeks.

The reality now, of schools closed for the rest of my senior year, is even tougher. After 12 years of being a Denver Public Schools student, instead of being in a familiar classroom, surrounded by the community I love for my last class, I will be alone in my living room, saddened to miss the milestones others associate with the end of high school.

Along with processing all of that, I am dealing with the new pressure of supporting my family as best I can. My mom is a single mom, out of work due to the pandemic, and solely responsible for keeping food on the table, a roof over our head, and making sure we are all healthy. I see her stress and anxiety, and it makes me feel helpless. I know I am not the only young person having this experience right now. In Denver, 64% of the district’s students receive free or reduced price lunch, and I’m sure many of those families are experiencing struggles similar to ours. That means thousands of students across the city are experiencing more stress, anxiety, and uncertainty than ever before.

On a positive note, the pandemic has elevated the importance of mental health. Just this week in a survey released by the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Education Initiative, district leaders identified emotional support as the top priority for schools across the state. Young people have been pushing this conversation for a long time, and adults are finally catching up.

Adult leaders could learn much from students in conversations about what adequate mental health support looks like during this time and in the future. I know, because over the last two years I have been in constant conversation with other students through my work at Our Turn. Our Turn is a grassroots advocacy organization that helps young people push for policy changes in their school districts.

In 2017, students and community members I work with identified mental health as a core issue. And since then, we’ve been urging Denver Public Schools to ensure that all schools staff at least one full-time mental health counselor, that those counselors reflect the identity of the students they work with, and that all school staff receive trauma-informed training each school year.

These kinds of support are more important than ever. I am worried that, in the fall, students will be expected to go back to school just like normal — the same way we were expected to transition to online learning, even though we weren’t involved in the development of remote learning plans.

Young people deserve to have their voices heard and their years of leadership honored. If we had been heard before this crisis, maybe in addition to having access to math and science online, students would also be able to meet with school-based mental health staff.

In these unprecedented times, I’m watching people come together in meaningful ways. I hope one of the new ways we come together in Denver and Colorado is for teachers, principals, and parents to join students in their call for more mental health support.

Amelia Federico is a senior at DSST: Byers High School in Denver.

Colorado bill to expand mental health first aid training for teachers moves forward

2020-02-07T03:05:22+00:00

Facing alarming teen suicide rates, Colorado could put another $1 million a year into training teachers in what’s known as mental health first aid.

The Senate Education Committee on Thursday unanimously supported two related bills, one authorizing spending on training for teachers and another that would allow students to take an excused absence for mental health needs, like anxiety or depression.

Just as regular first aid courses teach lay people how to staunch bleeding from a wound or perform CPR, mental health first aid trains them how to talk someone through a crisis and recognize warning signs, as well as better understand the resources that are available to people in crisis.

“Our educators are on the front lines,” said state Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat and the bill’s sponsor. “They see the risk factors, a child being sad when they were not the day before or when they’re more emotional. Our educators can redirect that situation and make sure that student gets the help they need.”

Kathryn Brown, a counselor at an alternative high school in Englewood, a south Denver suburb, described a recent incident in which a student with a history of self-harm grabbed a pair of scissors, ran from the classroom, and locked himself in a closet. Two teachers had to talk to the student through the door until help arrived.

But Brown also cautioned that mental health first aid, while critically important, cannot be a replacement for adding more counselors, social workers, and school psychologists, noting: “We need professional development for teachers, and we need more mental health staff.”

Both bills came out of the Interim School Safety Committee, which convened through the summer and fall, in the wake of a fatal shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch. Other bills recommended by the school safety committee would create a working group to explore further solutions and make changes to Safe2Tell, Colorado’s once-innovative anonymous tip line.

In a separate hearing Thursday, the Safe2Tell bill unanimously passed the House Education Committee. Most calls to the tip line now involve children in mental health crisis, not threats to campus safety. At the same time, the tip line is sometimes abused by students who want to harass a classmate. The bill changes how calls are handled to better reflect that reality and creates an annual advertising campaign to raise awareness about the tip line.

The bill creating the working group passed the Senate Education Committee Wednesday.

The Interim School Safety Committee steered clear of more controversial gun control legislation, but Democratic lawmakers separately plan to introduce a bill requiring safe storage of firearms.

The mental health first aid bill was introduced on the first day of the session as Senate Bill 1, indicating its high-priority status to lawmakers. It continues existing programs that were in danger of ending due to lack of funding.

That bill calls for Colorado to spend up to $1 million a year for the next four years on these programs. Legislative analysts estimate the state could train around 650 educators a year, while the demand is much higher, between 1,000 and 1,500 a year. The bill envisions a “train the trainer” approach in which educators can take what they’ve learned and teach it to other adults in their schools. Participation in the training would be voluntary.

In recent years, Colorado has passed a number of other bills to provide more training for teachers and other school employees in mental health and suicide prevention. Last year, the legislature even approved funding for more social workers and behavioral health professionals in schools, but only as limited grant programs. Many Colorado schools don’t have a full-time mental health worker of any kind.

Lorrie Yoshinaga, a third-grade teacher in the Cherry Creek school district, said she needs more tools to help her students. She has seen young children throw punches — and desks.

While the ultimate goal is lower youth suicide rates and more connected, supportive school environments, Yoshinaga had another measure of success in mind.

“Success is when teachers want to go to school to teach,” she said. “They’re not crying in their car. They’re not crying in a closet. Because they know how to help their students.”

Brown said that too often, training for teachers looks like someone explaining the brain science on how trauma affects children rather than offering practical tools.

“What teachers don’t have is really specific strategies they can implement in the classroom, ones that are both universal and help everyone but also that can help a student having a panic attack under the desk,” she said.

All four bills still need to pass both the full House and Senate before going to the governor’s desk. They are not expected to face opposition.

Parent and community group asks Jeffco schools for longer lunch time, healthier food

2020-01-13T20:40:52+00:00

Fifteen or 20 minutes isn’t enough time for students to buy and eat lunch at school — and cafeterias should offer some healthier options, a Jeffco district task force has recommended.

Parents have complained about their children not having enough time to eat, especially if they stand in line to buy food. Right now, about 32% of Jeffco students eat school lunch. Increasing that number would help the district’s food services department, which relies on revenue to operate, be able to expand and offer more enticing menus.

District officials for Jeffco Public Schools see lots of challenges to accepting the group’s recommendations, but are committing to look into some of them.

The volunteer task force met for about a year. Part of the goal was to find ways to get more students eating school meals. In Jeffco, the proportion of students who eat school lunch has increased to nearly one-third, officials say, and is likely due to the addition of some new menu items.

Several parents on the task force said they don’t allow their children to eat school lunch, and wouldn’t unless the district could lengthen lunch time and broaden healthy options.

Even then the group’s recommendations, which include other things like composting lunch trays, offering more menu items, and starting a catering service in a food truck for other school events, likely face many challenges.

Jeffco is planning to pilot salad bars at eight to 10 schools, which it hasn’t yet identified, beginning in the fall. The district hopes to partner with a university researcher to determine whether a salad bar prompts kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, without increasing food waste.

As far as time, the group recommended that the district require all schools give students a minimum of 30 minutes for lunch.

Right now, each school sets its own schedule. District surveys showed that Jeffco elementaries on average give students 20 minutes to eat lunch. Many range from 15 to 17 minutes for lunch. That includes the time that students must stand in line to get their lunch before eating.

“We hate to eat and run. Why should they?” said Guy Nahmiach, a task force member who presented the recommendations. “We heard that when we interviewed students. That was one of their main reasons for not eating in the cafeteria. It just takes too long.”

Standardizing schedules would involve input from many departments, officials say, and the conversations are just starting. It also could combine with conversations about a proposal from another task force, that suggested Jeffco push back start times for high schools and middle schools so that teens can get more sleep. Those start times would affect the schedule and the ability to provide a 30-minute lunch.

The district would also have to consider contracts with teachers and other staff that outline how long a school day should be, and would have to schedule bus routes around new school times.

Task force members pointed out that they heard pushback from principals and that the district would need to help get them on board.

Nationally, Beth Wallace, the district’s director of food services, said, “the time for lunch is shrinking and shrinking and shrinking,” and added, “it is definitely affecting our participation.”

Without the authority to set the length of lunchtime, her department focuses on how to help students get their food faster. That means going to various district schools during lunch, stop watches in hand, and tracking how many students go through the line per minute or per another specified amount of time.

Those observations are compared with industry standards to determine if there’s enough staff to serve the students, she said, but often staffing is not the problem. Sometimes Wallace said her department finds students don’t arrive in the lunch line until minutes after lunch has started.

The task force suggested that the district help schools add or split lunch lines to serve students faster.

In some schools, the cafeteria may be too small, and not designed to fit multiple serving lines.

“You can’t just keep adding serving lines,” Wallace said.

While staffing is a problem — the district has about 30 vacancies that it has not been able to fill, and another 20 to 30 staff members who may be off on any given day — Wallace said those shortages contribute to other limitations.

For instance, only a handful of schools have reusable trays that can be washed and reused. Wallace said that when staff is short, time for washing dishes is often the first thing to be cut, as staff prioritize preparing and serving lunch, meaning there is not enough staff capacity to have reusable trays.

Some parents on the task force said they are concerned about the environmental impact of the district’s food service, and pointed out that often students are in classes learning about the environment, and then see cafeteria practices that may contradict what they are learning.

Wallace said task force concerns pushed the district to start using compostable trays this year, at an increased cost of about $250,000.

But right now, schools don’t have systems for composting those trays.

In the next month or so, the district is expected to present a master plan for Jeffco’s food department. The report should include a cost analysis of how to upgrade kitchens to allow more cooking from scratch, how to better market school food and health initiatives, and whether to invest in a central kitchen or warehouse.

Using bond money approved in 2018, the district is already planning to add walk-in freezers, to expand food-prep capacity, at the 70 Jeffco school kitchens that don’t have one now. The money won’t be enough to add a freezer at all 70 schools, and some schools don’t have enough space.

Wallace said the district also has other equipment issues, and this year received two industry awards including one for having the oldest functional oven in the country.

Overcoming the district’s challenges will take money and a long-term plan over time, Wallace said.

Task force member Nahmiach also told the board that he understands not everything can change soon, but emphasized, “don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done.”

Read the district’s full response to the group’s recommendations:

Could a new vaping and tobacco tax pay for free preschool in Colorado? Advocates want to ask voters in November.

2020-01-11T02:13:12+00:00

Colorado voters could decide this November whether to fund free preschool for 4-year-olds statewide by taxing tobacco and vaping products.

On Friday, two citizens took the first step toward putting the question on November’s ballot, filing more than a dozen possible versions with the state’s Office of Legislative Council, which reviews potential initiatives before sending them to the Secretary of State’s Office.

The money from a new vaping and tobacco tax, which is sure to be vehemently opposed by the tobacco industry, would go a long way toward helping Gov. Jared Polis make good on his promise to offer free preschool to all 4-year-olds by the end of his first term.

One version of the ballot question would put $300 million more a year toward state-funded preschool. That’s far above the $27 million that Polis requested in this year’s budget and that so far, lawmakers of both parties have been reluctant to endorse.

Anna Jo Haynes, a longtime early childhood education advocate, and Jim Garcia, CEO of Denver’s Clínica Tepeyac and a board member of the advocacy group Healthier Colorado, filed the ballot initiatives. Filing so many versions — all with slightly different taxing levels and methods — is a common practice before the options are winnowed down to a single question.

The idea of taxing nicotine to fund preschool is not new. Last year, state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Thornton Democrat and pediatrician, sponsored a bill to ask voters to do just that. Despite Polis’ support, the Colorado Senate rejected the idea amid a robust campaign from vaping and tobacco interests and concerns about using a regressive tax to pay for an essential service. That meant it never went to the ballot. Now proponents are taking matters into their own hands.

Backers of the ballot effort say new taxes will help address Colorado’s highest-in-the-nation youth vaping rates by making tobacco and vaping products more expensive, a move that’s been shown to decrease sales. Colorado does not currently tax the liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes, making vaping a cheap and attractive alternative to cigarettes.

“Placing taxes on these products is the best way of keeping these products out of the hands of kids,” said Jake Williams, executive director of Healthier Colorado.

New taxes on a pack of cigarettes or vaping products would range from $1.20 to $2.60, depending on which version of the ballot proposal is selected. At 84 cents a pack, Colorado’s cigarette tax is among the lowest in the country. With a $1.01 federal tobacco tax, the measure would bring total taxes to between $3.05 and $4.45 a pack.

Williams called the potential new tax a win-win that would improve health and early education in the state.

Historically, Colorado voters have not supported statewide ballot initiatives to support education through property tax or sales tax hikes.

But Bill Jaeger, vice president for early childhood and policy initiatives at the Colorado Children’s Campaign, said the latest effort may be more promising since Coloradans have shown a willingness to pass “sin taxes” on both tobacco and marijuana in the past.

He said even if Polis is successful in securing more preschool funding during the legislative session this spring, more money will be needed to make it widely accessible.

“We have to recognize that it’s taken us 30 years to get where we are and where we are is serving 24% of all 4-year-olds in the state,” he said.

Besides funding universal preschool, a new tobacco and vaping tax would raise $30 million to $35 million annually for programs that help people quit smoking or vaping.

In addition, about $15 million a year would go to programs, such as safety net health clinics, that currently get funding from the tobacco tax passed by Colorado voters in 2004. That amount is meant to make up for the financial hit those programs could take if tobacco sales go down as expected, and thus revenue from the 2004 tobacco tax shrinks.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer contributed to this report.

$34 million grant buoys Colorado’s early childhood efforts

2020-01-02T23:23:17+00:00

Colorado won a $34 million federal grant intended to give more young children access to quality early childhood services.

The grant will pay for a long list of projects, including updates to the state’s early childhood technology systems, improvements to the child care rating system Colorado Shines, scholarships for childcare providers seeking a common industry credential, and microgrants to improve child care facilities.

State officials received word in December they’d get 90% of the $38 million they requested — or about $11 million a year for three years. The new money comes via the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five funding competition, which was established under the 2015 federal education law the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Colorado also plans to use the grant money to create an early childhood resource hub for families, translate state trainings for child care providers into Spanish, and pilot a telephone service that allows providers to consult with early childhood mental health professionals.

Last year, Colorado was among 44 states and Washington, D.C., to win one-year planning grants, enabling their applications for the larger three-year awards announced last month. Colorado was among 20 states, and the only one in the Mountain West, to win a grant in the most recent cycle.

Jennifer Stedron, executive director of the nonprofit Early Milestones Colorado, one of the state’s partners in seeking the grant, said she’s excited the state will continue with the early childhood plan state leaders first released in 2008 and updated in 2015.

“We’ve had this vision for early childhood for a good decade and this is really the next step,” she said. “We have kept at this idea of systems-building.”

For the average family, she said, successful systems-building means making it easier for parents to find child care, health and education resources, and support for young children with developmental delays or other special needs.

”Why are they the ones having to make all these calls and fill out a million duplicate forms and tell the same story to 10 different adults?” she said of families trying to access services for their children. “That sort of coordination should happen behind the scenes.”

The infusion of new federal money will help make that a reality, she said.

Our top stories of 2019 — and what to look for in 2020

2019-12-20T22:51:05+00:00

From the Denver teachers strike to a school safety panic that closed hundreds of Front Range schools to the launch of free full-day kindergarten statewide, Colorado education news made headlines last year.

Other top stories of the year include the closely watched election that “flipped” the Denver school to a union-backed majority, the thorny takeover of the struggling Adams 14 school district by an external manager, and the passage of new laws and policies on student discipline.

As we head into 2020, we thought we’d take a moment to round up our top stories of 2019 and let you know what to expect next year. If you’d like to share a story idea or comment with us, reach out at co.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Full-day kindergarten

Free full-day kindergarten is coming. Here’s what Colorado parents need to know.

This has been a dream of education advocates and cash-strapped parents for decades. With a new governor who campaigned on expanding kindergarten and a strong economy bringing in more revenue, lawmakers finally took the plunge and funded full-day kindergarten for Colorado students.

What’s next: More than 90% of eligible students enrolled in kindergarten this fall, more than state officials predicted. Education advocates hope to see big payoffs from this investment, with more children reading at grade level and even graduating high school on time. The next big push: Free preschool for more Colorado 4-year-olds.

Denver teachers strike

How a once-promising merit pay system led Denver teachers to the brink of a strike

Teachers in Colorado’s largest school district went on strike for three days in February, the first teacher strike in Denver in 25 years. The dispute was not only about higher pay but also about widespread dissatisfaction with a merit pay system that advocates had hoped would transform the teaching profession. By the end of that strike, teachers won both raises and significant changes to the ProComp system.

What’s next: Viewed narrowly, what remains to be seen is whether the new pay structure caused more teachers to return to the district this year than in years past and to stay on the job long-term. The strike also set the stage for a union-backed majority to win control of the Denver school board, potentially setting in motion much bigger changes.

A historic school board election

Why the Denver school board ‘flipped’ and what might happen next

Carried by momentum from February’s teachers strike and a broader backlash against the status quo, candidates opposed to the policies that made Denver Public Schools a national exemplar for education reform took control the school board for the first time.

What’s next: With a former teacher as president and a majority of members backed by the teachers union, the Denver school board will tackle several complicated issues in 2020. One of the biggest? How to “reimagine” the district’s controversial school rating system.

School safety

‘Nothing makes me feel safe.’ How Colorado educators and parents are processing yet another school shooting.

A school shooting in May at STEM School Highlands Ranch took the life of Kendrick Castillo injured eight others, and sent shockwaves through the Denver metro area. The attack took place less than a month after hundreds of schools shut down due to reports that a troubled young woman obsessed with the Columbine had made unspecified threats to schools. Both events revived long-running conversations about school safety, gun control, and mental health but provided no easy answers.

What’s next: State lawmakers are expected to take up a host of school safety related bills, and school districts continue to revise safety procedures. But changes are likely to be incremental. Statistically speaking, schools will remain very safe places, but teachers, students, and parents will continue to live with a gnawing fear in the background.

Early literacy

Concerned about reading instruction, state cracks down on teacher prep programs, starting with Colorado’s largest

Last February, Colorado’s education department released a scathing review of the University of Northern Colorado teacher prep program, criticizing it for offering reading courses that don’t match up with literacy research. The review came amid ongoing concern about Colorado’s low reading proficiency rates. State leaders also updated the state’s 2012 landmark reading law — the READ Act — with tougher rules, launched a multimillion dollar external audit of how schools and districts spend READ Act money, and authorized a pilot program for dyslexia screening.

What’s next: Consultants will dig into how schools and districts are using about $40 million a year meant to boost third-grade reading proficiency. In addition, the state will continue to scrutinize courses on reading instruction in teacher prep programs. Fort Lewis College in Durango is up next. And the University of Northern Colorado will have to prove it has complied with five state conditions, in order to keep its reauthorization.

Adams 14 in turnaround

Adams 14 defends bilingual model as the district’s new plan for English learners

In the Commerce City-based district of Adams 14, a private company is managing the school district as a last resort imposed by the state to try to improve education. It’s a first for Colorado. The district serves more English language learners than any other in the state, as a share of its student population, and turnaround efforts include yet another plan for how to teach them. That plan raised some concerns from parents who favored the previous approach, which was put on hold.

What’s next: The state is keeping a close eye on what MGT Consulting, the private company, is doing to improve Adams 14 schools. The district also has new locally elected board members to whom MGT is also accountable. Helping English language learners will be essential if test scores are to improve, but it’s just one of many initiatives being pursued by the external manager.

Student discipline

From dozens of suspensions to one: How this Colorado school stopped removing young children

After years of effort, state lawmakers limited out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for students in preschool through second grade. Even before the law changed, one Jeffco elementary that previously had some of the district’s highest early childhood suspension numbers radically changed how it approaches discipline, providing lessons for other schools undertaking this work.

What’s next: Expect to see more districts and schools examine their discipline practices in the early grades to ensure compliance with the new law. Plus, with state data showing out-of-school suspension numbers by grade, it will be easy to see which districts and schools have — and have not — curbed the use of suspensions.

Handcuffed in Denver in fifth grade: ‘Whenever I shut my eyes, I saw the cuffs’

Eleven-year-old Jake DiProfio was handcuffed at school four times this year. The experience left him with nightmares, scars on his wrists, and a visceral fear of police. Faced with stories like Jake’s and others, including the handcuffing of the 7-year-old son of a parent activist, the Denver school board banned the use of handcuffs in elementary schools this year. Data shows that black students and students with disabilities are far more likely to be handcuffed at school.

What’s next: As part of a new policy that bans the use of handcuffs on elementary school students, Denver Public Schools is more closely tracking how many times its school safety officers use handcuffs and on whom. The first “trimester transparency report” was filed in November, and the district will produce two more before the end of the school year.

Changing demographics

Aurora lists campuses that could become magnet schools, or could be ‘repurposed’

Rising rents are pushing families out of some parts of Aurora, while developers plan new subdivisions in the city’s eastern edge. As population shifts leave some schools half-empty and others crowded, Aurora is looking at a new facilities master plan. As part of that process, the Aurora school district released a list of schools for potential “repurposing.”

What’s next: Teams of educators and community members have been formed in each region of the district, with recommendations expected in two regions this spring. First, representatives of each region will determine focus areas for their schools. With that as a guide, the recommendations could include merging schools, closing schools, finding other uses for school buildings, as well as suggestions for creating future schools in growing areas.

Student mental health

‘It’s OK to not be OK’: How one high school saved lives with a 34-question survey

Staff at Cañon City High School in southern Colorado use a 34-question mental health survey to pinpoint teens who need help. In the first year of the program, district staff identified a dozen high-risk students and immediately referred them to community-based mental health crisis teams for formal evaluations. Some of those students had concrete plans to kill themselves.

What’s next: Identifying and supporting students with mental health issues continues to be a massive issue in Colorado. State lawmakers are considering several proposals for the 2020 legislative session that would address youth mental health. They include bills to allow schools to excuse “mental health” sick days, reorganize the Safe2Tell anonymous tip line, expand mental health training for teachers, and require insurance companies to cover annual mental health check-ups.

Chalkbeat reporters Melanie Asmar and Yesenia Robles contributed to this roundup.

Colorado early childhood efforts could get a major boost from federal grant

2019-12-18T16:55:57+00:00

A multimillion federal grant could pump $38 million into Colorado early childhood efforts over the next three years. Federal officials will announce grant awards by the end of December.

One thing the birth-to-5 grants won’t do is create large numbers of new preschool and child care slots. That’s because the pot of money — a total of $206 million for 23 states in the first year — is too small.

“You can build some good infrastructure with this money,” said Simon Workman, director of early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. “What you can’t do is significantly expand services to children because that costs a lot more money.”

To make child care available to a large proportion of working families, he said, “you’re talking hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars per state.”

The new money will come from the federal Preschool Development Birth through Five grant program, which was established under the 2015 federal education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act. Forty-six states, including Colorado, won federal planning grants last year to help them craft applications for the larger renewal grants available now.

Lindsey Dorneman, director of the Preschool Development Grant project at the Colorado Department of Human Services, said ensuring the grant money would create lasting impact came up often during the year-long planning process.

“We talked about investments in slots and in child care,” she said, “That’s just not sustainable.”

In addition, Dorneman said the federal government designed the grant to touch on a variety of programs that impact young children, not just child care and preschool.

“They went pretty broad, and we did too,” she said.

If Colorado wins a renewal grant, leaders plan to update several of the state’s early childhood technology systems, improve key pieces of the child care rating system Colorado Shines, provide scholarships to early childhood providers seeking a common industry credential, and offer microgrants to improve child care facilities. Other plans include creating an early childhood resource hub for families, translating state trainings for child care providers into Spanish, and piloting a telephone service that allows providers to consult with early childhood mental health professionals.

Dorneman said if Colorado is among the states to lose out on a renewal grant, leaders will have to decide if there are some early childhood projects they can still move forward using other funds. She said there’s also a possibility the state will get a portion of its $12.5-million-a-year request instead of the full amount.

Workman said even states that don’t win renewal grants will have benefitted from spending the last year creating early childhood strategic plans as part of the planning grant process. The lack of federal money may slow down the pace of improvements, but won’t necessarily derail progress completely, he said.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story indicated that an $11 million state match required if Colorado wins the federal grant represents new money for early childhood initiatives. In fact, the $11 million is existing state money already dedicated to early childhood efforts.

Helping kids by texting their parents? Here’s what experts say about this exploding strategy.

2019-12-17T20:18:54+00:00

Texting programs aimed at parents of young children have proliferated over the last several years as smart phones have become ubiquitous and health and education groups look for new ways to get kids on track early.

They have names like Bright By Text, Vroom, Ready4K, Text4baby and Text2LiveHealthy. Some are open to all parents of young children, providing tips on activities that promote talking, reading, and learning. Others are more tightly focused, for instance targeting low-income parents whose children attend certain schools.

There’s evidence that such interventions can provide valuable nudges that help change behavior in parents and thus change the experiences their young children have. A 2014 study co-authored by the Stanford University researcher who later spun Ready4K into a commercial product, found that offering advice for parents via text on building early literacy skills increased the number of home literacy activities parents did with their children, upped parental involvement at school, and led to literacy gains among preschoolers.

Denver parent Bridget Gillogley, who has a 14-month-old daughter named Rory, signed up for Bright By Text a few months ago on the advice of a friend. Although she works as an early childhood special educator and knows a lot about child development, she said the text message tips suggest quick, easy activities she wouldn’t always think to pluck from her professional repertoire. For example, when she got a text message about creating different kinds of lines with a drawing utensil, she and Rory tried it out with crayons and paper, a stick in the sandbox and their fingers in shaving cream.

The messages give “you these little ideas on ways to engage with your child and things to look for.” Gillogley said. “What I really, really like about it is it’s not a huge commitment.”

The ease of text messaging is also a boon for program creators. Such interventions are far cheaper, less labor intensive, and easier to scale than common early childhood programs such as home visiting or parenting classes.

Experts say well-designed text message programs can make a meaningful difference for some children and families. Still, they’re no cure-all.

Ariel Kalil, a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago who has studied text messaging interventions, said, “You’re not going to text a family out of a violent neighborhood.”

Another researcher, Ben Castleman, said the low cost of texting campaigns can be alluring, but shouldn’t overshadow hard questions about whether they work.

“The inexpensiveness can be a distraction from whether these campaigns are effective when we scale them,” said Castleman, a professor at the University of Virginia who’s studied text messaging interventions that boost college enrollment and completion

We talked to researchers who’ve studied this strategy and the organizations that run texting programs to find out how and when texting is effective and the caveats that come with it.

Combating “behavior bottlenecks”

Kalil’s team recently studied the use of text messages to encourage Chicago Head Start parents to get their children to school every day. The intervention, called “Show Up to Grow Up” increased daily attendance and reduced chronic absenteeism among participants. Some of the texts provided personalized information, such as how many days a child had been absent in recent weeks or what they’d learn in class on a given day if they showed up. Others offered planning tips such as putting the child’s shoes by the door the night before to make it easier to get out of the house.

Kalil said purveyors of text messaging programs need to understand parents’ behavior bottlenecks — the things that prevent them from doing the things they aspire to do. The problem could be as simple as procrastination or disorganization.

“If you can understand what is standing in the way of a parent knowing and wanting to do something,” text message interventions can be effective, she said.

One size doesn’t fit all

A recent study that compared a 25-week literacy-themed texting program with a health-themed texting program — both aimed at parents of preschoolers in Virginia — showed that the two had different benefits for different children. Researchers found that children with higher literacy skills at the start of preschool gained more from parent texts about reading stories, learning letters, and writing words, and that children with lower literacy skills saw bigger literacy gains when their parents received texts about nutrition, sleep habits, and other health topics.

Sonia Cabell, a professor at Florida State University and the study’s lead author, said, “Our cautionary note basically was, one size might not fit all and we need to have more research to help understand this better.”

She said she’s interested in finding out whether folding language and literacy texts into health and well-being texts would be more broadly effective.

Personalize it

This personalization push has increasingly led texting programs to customize messages to parents based on their language, location, and the age and needs of their child.

Personalization takes lots of forms — from something as simple as using the child’s name in messages to providing specific data about a child’s school attendance or performance.

The Denver-based nonprofit Bright By Text has begun sending parents text messages on community events like library storytimes, flu clinics, or free children’s museum days. It’s all based on the ZIP code they entered when they first signed up.

Subscribers — parents who are expecting and those with children up to age 8 — usually get one community event message a week and at least a couple more with brain development, health, and early learning tips based on their child’s age. Both types of texts come from a raft of partner organizations, including the city of Denver, which puts special emphasis on community resources in six high-poverty neighborhoods.

Bright By Text, which is free to any parent or caregiver, has more than 70,000 subscribers nationwide, with localized event texts now available in about half the states.

Jared Wigdor, vice president and chief development officer for Bright By Text, said 20% to 40% of Colorado subscribers click the links in local event texts — the organization’s most popular kind of message.

Ready4K, a texting program now run by the San Francisco Bay Area company ParentPowered, is experimenting with a new personalized program that uses a child’s developmental screening to send families messages specific to their child’s needs as well as links to referrals and services.

Rebecca Honig, director of content at ParentPowered, called the personalized version of the program, which is rolling out now in one region of California, “our next great frontier.”

More than 200,000 parents of children up to fourth grade already get Ready4K messages about learning activities through its traditional program, which tailors the messages based on the child’s age. Preschools, schools or school districts in all 50 states pay ParentPowered so their families can receive texts.

The 2014 study from Stanford researchers, one of whom later became the CEO of ParentPowered, found the traditional program leads to two to three months of learning gains by the time children enter kindergarten. A 2018 study by the CEO and three Stanford researchers found that texts personalized based on a child’s skills leads to four to five months of learning gains.

Layering with other interventions

While some text messaging programs are designed as stand-alone products, others supplement traditional interventions. One example, Text2LiveHealthy, is a two-year-old Colorado program aimed at low-income preschool parents. The program, funded by the federal food subsidy program SNAP, is meant to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, reduce consumption of sugary drinks, and increase physical activity among children.

It builds on nutrition and exercise lessons incorporated into preschool classrooms, parent newsletters, family fun events, and a six-week parenting class. The text message program now has 3,000 subscribers in 11 Colorado counties. It includes three texts a week, including one on a local resource, such as a farmers market or free summer meals for children.

Jini Puma, associate director of the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center, said the six-week parenting class represents the “Cadillac” version of the program, but that it was a big ask for parents with multiple jobs or other conflicts.

Texting, she said, is “super effective to use in this way, where it’s part of a multilevel intervention.”

Breaking down barriers to access

In theory, text messaging is accessible to almost everyone. A 2019 Pew Research Center report found that 96% of Americans have a cell phone, with the proportion jumping to 99% for people ages 18 to 49.

But those who design text messaging programs to boost school readiness or child health say language and cultural relevance matter, too. Text2LiveHealthy translators not only convert text messages into Spanish, but also tweak the content to better adapt to a Hispanic audience.

For example, an English text that provides a recipe for a holiday apple walnut salad is matched with a Spanish text that recommends using vegetable or canola oil in place of lard when making tamales for the holidays.

Puma said one-third of the program’s 3,000 subscribers receive the texts in Spanish. Based on the results of parent surveys asking if recipients made a positive change based on a texted tip, the program is even more effective for Spanish-speaking participants.

At ParentPowered, besides translating and adapting Ready4K texts for Spanish and Arabic-speaking parents, program leaders don’t include links in most of their texts. The idea is to ensure that parents without data plans or internet access can get the same information as everyone else right on their phone’s text message screen.

Kalil, of the University of Chicago, said text messaging services that provide school readiness tips or other expertise to parents of young children are so inexpensive, they’re easy to offer to any interested parents. Still, she said, program designers must find ways to reach low-income populations who stand to benefit most from the content.

“What would be unfortunate is if only high-income parents responded and in doing so you increased inequality,” she said.

Denver turned marijuana into money for after-school programs. Other cities are taking note.

2019-11-27T22:51:35+00:00

A modified version of this article first appeared in Youth Today, the national news source for youth service professionals, including child welfare and juvenile justice, youth development, and out-of-school time programming.

Denver’s after-school programs have been a major beneficiary of the city’s special retail marijuana sales tax. As efforts to legalize marijuana spread, after-school leaders in dozens of cities are taking this lesson home.

Last year Denver collected about $46 million in marijuana tax, said Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock. The Denver Afterschool Alliance now receives $1.5 million yearly for after-school and summer learning programs and has expanded programs in under-resourced neighborhoods and provided more training for the program staff.

“Denver became the first city in the U.S. to implement recreational marijuana,” Hancock told a gathering in Denver earlier this month organized by Every Hour Counts, a national coalition devoted to building citywide after-school systems and expanding learning opportunities to all youth. “If people are going to buy marijuana, then we’re going to make sure it supports our young people.”

In 2012 Colorado approved the recreational use of marijuana for adults, with a tax earmarking some funds for education. Denver also levied a special tax on marijuana sales — now 5.5% — so that the total marijuana tax rate in the city is about 25%.

The ability to make a strong case for the benefits of out-of-school time programs was critical in gaining a share of the city’s special sales tax, said Maxine Quintana, director of out-of-school time Initiatives for Denver’s Office of Children’s Affairs and co-founder of the Denver Afterschool Alliance, a network of after-school providers.

Another factor was the mayor’s already strong commitment to out-of-school time. He pioneered the My Denver Card, which gives school-aged children unlimited access to city recreation centers and, in many cases, after-school and summer enrichment programs.

In addition, the after-school alliance positioned itself as the entity best suited to protect and inform youth in the brave new world of legalized marijuana.

Denver Afterschool Alliance took action

As marijuana became legal, after-school providers felt unprepared. They didn’t know how to handle questions from kids about drug use.

With the first funding of $500,000 in 2012, the Denver Afterschool Alliance created a curriculum based on principles of positive youth development to provide kids with information about marijuana use.

Healthy Lifestyles 101 is a 10-hour curriculum for fifth through ninth graders, aimed at debunking myths about marijuana, helping after-school providers approach the subject, and making sure youth know the legal age of use is 21. It challenges misconceptions that, like cigarettes, people only have to be 18 to buy marijuana, and that because it is a plant, it is healthy and good for you. Some health risks are noted, and the course challenges a belief among some kids that everyone their age is using marijuana, according to the Alliance.

Providers get training and materials along with the curriculum.

“I wanted to be able to show … that after-school programs were good protective factors,” Quintana told after-school leaders at the Every Hour Counts gathering.

The stated goal of the curriculum is to enable middle schoolers to make positive decisions about marijuana. Middle school is the time when many kids first try marijuana, said Daniel Read, evaluation analyst with the Alliance.

“The key policy challenge is to keep youth [marijuana] use down,” he said.

Quintana said she had armed herself with data to show the city the impact of the Healthy Living curriculum and of after-school programs in general. Alliance data also showed how Denver neighborhoods compared in measures of child well-being — and which areas had the most need.

The Alliance was able to make a strong case for after-school programs being the best place to inform kids about marijuana use. Its funding tripled to $1.5 million by 2016.

As other cities and states consider legalizing recreational use of marijuana, more after-school providers are looking to Denver’s example, Quintana said. Alaska is directing funds from legalized marijuana into after-school prevention education and will be using the Denver curriculum.

Quintana has advice for after-school networks in areas that are considering legalizing marijuana:

Ensure that city leaders understand the value of after-school and summer learning.
Let them know that after-school is the ideal environment — a safe and supportive place with trusted adults — for youth to learn correct information about the legal status of marijuana and its associated risks.
Involve the community’s after-school providers in the process.

High school can be rough. These Colorado teens are making it easier for their peers to get help.

2019-11-12T20:46:22+00:00

School shootings seemed to be forever in the headlines. There was only one counselor at the high school. And there were whispers about a student who had a panic attack in a school bathroom.

That’s what got a group of Colorado high school students in rural Chaffee County talking about teen stress two years ago — and gave them the idea to create a voucher that provides teens with free, confidential counseling.

Today, the “teen wellness vouchers” are available in the county seat of Salida and the town of Buena Vista to the north. They can be found in the county’s high schools, the post office, the library, the Boys & Girls Club, and Fun Street Family Arcade.

In a state with an alarming youth suicide rate and a persistent hunger for prevention strategies, the vouchers represent a student-driven effort to broaden access to mental health services. The idea behind the ubiquitous blue and green paper slips is to simplify the process of seeking help and whittle away the stigma that surrounds mental health.

The professionally designed vouchers, spearheaded by a group called the Extraordinary Teen Council, lead with catchphrase “for teens by teens” and conclude with the tagline, “We all need someone to talk to sometimes.” They entitle users to two free, one-hour counseling sessions with staff from Solvista Health, a local mental health center. In addition to dispensing with the usual slew of paperwork during the first two sessions, counselors can meet students at community locations if teens prefer.

Over the last year, 37 teens have used the vouchers. Originally, they were available to students 15 and up, but now are available to students 12 and up because of a recent state law lowering the age at which minors can receive outpatient psychotherapy without parental consent.

These vouchers are offered at locations around Chaffee County.

“I feel like everywhere should have this,” said Bella Kintgen, a junior at the 380-student Salida High School and a member of the teen council.

Mandy Kaisner, chief operations officer at Solvista Health, said when the teen council pitched the voucher idea to her, she didn’t hesitate.

“We were so excited about it, we just said yes and made it happen,” she said. “Who doesn’t get excited when youth are driving the boat?”

While many teens who use the vouchers don’t enroll in ongoing treatment, some do. Overall, Solvista’s caseload of patients 18 or younger has increased 26% — from 194 to 245 — since the vouchers were introduced.

Students and high school staff say teenagers have plenty to stress about, including schoolwork, jobs, college admissions, and peer pressure.
“There’s a lot of judgment from other kids at school. Nobody wants to be ‘that kid,’” said Daemon Kerrigan, a junior at Salida High School and a member of the teen council.

“That kid,” said Kintgen, could be the one who’s socially awkward, doesn’t adhere to fashion trends, or likes anime.

Kerrigan and Kintgen said they experienced the spotlight of peer derision at an assembly where members of the teen council were recognized for their efforts to help get vaping banned in local parks. As they stood up, many of their classmates booed.

Kintgen said she sees a lot dark humor about suicide at school.

Classmates press an index finger to their temple as if it’s a gun or say things like, “Oh, you’re not going to see me tomorrow, I’m going to cut my wrists.”

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell who’s kidding and who’s not.

There hasn’t been a suicide at the high school during her time there, Kintgen said. Then she added, “knock on wood.”

Kerrigan said when he gives presentations about the teen wellness vouchers to high school classes, one of the most common questions is, “How anonymous is it? What do you need to give them?”

It’s confidential, he’ll respond. “No one gets told about this.”

Solvista officials said they do involve parents if there is a crisis that could affect student safety.

Rob Tressler, now one of two counselors at Salida High School, said he tells students about the voucher program during one-on-one meetings early in the school year. And while he invites them to talk on the spot if they retrieve a voucher from the counseling office later on, he doesn’t push it.

“We honor that if they don’t necessarily want to talk to me or the other counselor, they’re at least getting help from someone,” he said.

‘Keep the story going’: How community volunteers nudge elementary students to take on racism

2019-10-31T21:11:48+00:00

No food, no pets, no cameras, no radios.

“You can only bring what you can carry,” Bob Harada told the fifth graders, standing at the front of their sunny classroom inside Boulder’s Flatirons Elementary School.

He wasn’t talking about an upcoming camping trip. He was painting a picture of the tough choices made by Japanese Americans — including his own parents — who were forced by the U.S. government to leave their homes for faraway internment camps during World War II.

Harada was one of a dozen volunteers who visited the school on a recent Friday as part of a program called Reading to End Racism. Run by YWCA Boulder County, the idea is to use storytelling to raise awareness about racism and discrimination, and encourage students to do something about it. Citing the current social and political climate, including a local incident earlier this month in which a white woman yelled racial slurs at a black college student, leaders say the program is as timely as ever.

“A lot of times kids feel like they don’t have the power to do anything and we’re coming in here to tell them you have the permission to do what’s right,” said Shiquita Yarbrough, the YWCA’s manager of community engagement and equity.

“By us coming into elementary schools, it’s giving the kids enough time to work on those skills because it’s not something that will change overnight,” she said.

While Reading to End Racism has been around in some form for years — an oral history dates the project’s inception to the 1990s — it’s expanding its reach this school year to 17 Boulder Valley schools, up from eight to 10 previously. The program visits participating schools once annually, with guest readers visiting every classroom to read and discuss a children’s book.

There are 250 books in the program’s library, some historical accounts of racism or oppression, and other more general stories about kindness and friendship. Titles include “Harvesting Hope,” about the life Cesar Chavez; “Of Thee I Sing,” Barack Obama’s tribute to 13 famous Americans; “Hidden Figures,” about the contributions of four black female mathematicians during the space race; and “Coolies,” about Chinese-American brothers who helped build the railroad.

Guest reader James Johnson brought two books to Stephanie Crawford’s first grade classroom: “Mr. Happy” and “Mr. Grumpy.” The books, which feature characters that are basically colorful shapes with faces, didn’t delve into racism, or any -ism for that matter.

But they did give Johnson a chance to introduce some new words — ally, ostracize and intervention.

“If I’m your ally, what does that mean?” he asked the children gathered on the rug in front of him.

They guessed “working together,” “being a friend,” being “a good teammate,” and standing up to a bully.

“Ally means a lot of things, he said genially. “It’s very important.”

Earlier that morning, Avi Edwards also talked about being an ally during her visit to a third- and fourth-grade classroom to discuss LGBTQ issues. There, she read, “Red, A Crayon’s Story,” about a blue crayon that the other crayons assume is red because of his red label.

Edwards, who described her own daughter’s struggle to come out as a lesbian years earlier, asked the children to talk about a time they saw someone, or were themselves, mistreated because of a difference.

Lots of students offered up examples — a girl said her brother accused her of acting “too much like a guy” and a boy recounted being pushed down and called a nerd for the way he threw a football.

Edwards asked the children how they can intervene when they see someone being mistreated.

“First check on them,” one girl suggested, “but then you can tell the person who’s doing that to stop.”

On the other side of the school, Harada read excerpts from a children’s history book on Japanese American internment camps. He mixed in details from his parents’ story, recounting how they were first housed in horse stables and then relocated on a train with blackened windows to a camp in southern Arizona.

They lived there in a tar paper shed for three years, he said. The constant blowing desert dust was why his mother stuck with her daily dusting habit even after they were freed and the family moved to Minnesota.

Harada asked the fifth graders lots of questions during his presentation. How would they feel if they suddenly had to sell all their possessions for next to nothing at a garage sale? How would they like to live in a space the size of one corner of their classroom?

And, of course, what would they bring with them if they were sent off to internment camps?

Lots said clothes. One said a soccer ball. Others said bolt cutters, sunscreen, and an air mattress.

Harada, a retired banker, began volunteering with Reading to End Racism about six years ago after hearing about the program through his church.

“I just feel it’s a good opportunity for me being Japanese American to talk about a subject that’s both personal, but also a good example of how racism really affects people,” he said. “I think it’s important to keep the story going.”

With rising youth suicide rates, a traveling play aims to help Colorado teens talk about mental health

2019-10-28T22:03:11+00:00

Andre is smart and popular, a star high school athlete with a pretty girlfriend. But he’s also a stressed-out perfectionist who can’t square his outward image with his relentless fear of failing.

“Man, what are you complaining about? Everybody says you got it,” he tells himself in the mirror.

But with the help of an unpopular “emo” girl named Syd who talks candidly about her own struggles with anxiety, Andre starts to open up about his feelings and consider getting help.

The teens are characters in “Ghosted,” a play recently staged for 275 ninth-graders in the gymnasium at Greeley West High School in northern Colorado. The traveling performance will visit more than a dozen high schools across the state this year as part of a two-day workshop meant to raise awareness about mental health, suicide, and resources that can help students cope. Sponsored by Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the production comes as Colorado and the nation face rising youth suicide rates and educators continue to grapple with the question, “How can we help?”

The state’s youth suicide rate is 20.4 per 100,000 adolescents aged 15-19, nearly twice the national average of 10.5. Just last week, a 17-year-old student from Arapahoe High School in the Littleton district took her own life, the ninth reported youth suicide among the school’s students since 2013.

Colorado has also been plagued in recent years by multiple suicides among children who haven’t yet reached their teen years, including a Denver fourth-grader in 2018, an Aurora fifth-grader the year before, and two Fort Collins sixth-graders in 2015.

“Ghosted” is among a host of current efforts that aim to reduce those numbers. Some Colorado schools are hiring new mental health staff, offering mental health screenings, or emphasizing social and emotional skills to help students deal with frustration and stress.

Besides following Andre and Syd, “Ghosted” depicts the experience of Liam, an angry teen reacting to turmoil at home, and Kayla, Andre’s worried girlfriend. While much of the play takes place outside the school counselor’s office, adult characters never actually appear.

Instead, the teens talk through their feelings together — using dialogue, including some curse words, that feels mostly true to life. Besides dishing out the kind of cutting insults and sarcastic retorts familiar to any parent or teacher of a teenager, the characters also share moments of self-reflection and empathy.

Perhaps the best barometer of whether the play hit home came after the performance during a 20-minute conversation between the actors, two facilitators and the students who filled the gym bleachers. When a facilitator asked students to stand if they thought the play accurately represented high school life, at least half the group rose. One-third stood up when asked if they had friends or knew of people who had been through experiences like those portrayed by the cast.

Adiana Youngblood was one of the students who stood in response to both questions. The 14-year-old said she liked the subtle way the play covered “anxiety, depression, all those emotions people don’t feel comfortable talking about.”

The message that “it’s better to let it out than keep it in,” is an important one for students, she said.

A competitive dancer, Youngblood knows what it’s like to live with mental health issues, having been diagnosed with both depression and anxiety.

“With the anxiety, it’s sometimes hard to go to school and function without having … that feeling of ‘Oh my gosh I can’t do this, I can’t do this.’” she said. “It’s scary.”

Besides soliciting ideas from students about who they could turn to during a crisis and what activities might help them cope with stress, facilitators handed out wallet cards with suicide prevention information after the play.

There was additional discussion the next day — when “Ghosted” facilitators visited the classrooms of students who’d attended the play to lead smaller mental health workshops.

The idea behind the next-day sessions, like the post-play chat, was to start an ongoing conversation about mental health.

“It’s not just a show that stands on its own,” said Brian Harper, director of “Ghosted.” “We make sure students have a chance to react to it.”

That’s one of the elements that makes the play different from other dramatizations that take on teen suicide, including the controversial Netflix drama, “13 Reasons Why,” which received heavy criticism in its first season for its graphic depiction of suicide.

With that show, Harper said, “You could be [watching] by yourself and that’s the end of it. This is meant to begin a conversation.”

Greeley West, which will host the play again in the spring for the other half of its freshman class, followed the two-day “Ghosted” sequence with a mental health presentation the following week conducted by staff from North Range Behavioral Health, a local mental health provider.

Mitch Johnson, the ninth-grade counselor at Greeley West, said more students than usual came to see the school’s five-member counseling team after the three events.

“After these presentations, I think we do see an influx because they’re like, ‘OK, that stigma doesn’t matter.’”

“Ghosted,” which will run this fall until Nov. 22 and again in the spring semester, is available for free to schools in Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s service area. Those interested in booking the show may contact brian.harper@kp.org.

Deep breaths and ‘brain breaks’: How extra funds for mental health are transforming one Aurora school

2019-09-24T21:38:30+00:00

Last year, Elkhart Elementary’s full-time psychologist kept busy working with students with special needs who she was required to help.

If a need cropped up among the rest of the student body, Ariel Bowlby sometimes couldn’t respond — unless the issue turned into a crisis. Assistant Principal Angie Paz often had to step in to help.

Paz said she intervened “sometimes even between doing disciplinary actions — but at the same time providing that social emotional piece that they need.”

This year, with new funds voters approved in 2018, Aurora Public Schools has placed another person, a social worker, at the elementary school to be more proactive. Only six weeks into the school year, school leaders said it’s already making a difference by reducing discipline referrals, improving school culture, and increasing student attendance.

“In 25 years as an educator, this is the first time I’ve been fully supported,” Elkhart Principal Ron Schumacher said. “I feel like I’m able to do 30% to 40% more work on any given day because we’re not being asked to do things we can’t handle.”

Districtwide, Aurora has used the new local tax money to hire more than 70 mental health staff members, including social workers, psychologists, and counselors. Every school received at least one new staff member. And the district is still looking to fill a few more positions.

District officials provided an overview of what each type of mental health worker might be able to do, and then principals could request what they needed at their school. Every school has increased access to mental health services.

At Elkhart, the idea was for Jordan Glaude, the school’s new social worker, to help the school be proactive, instead of just reacting to students in crisis.

With about 550 students, Elkhart is the largest elementary in Aurora and is one of the district’s higher performing schools. About 94% of the students qualify for subsidized lunch, a measure of poverty. And almost three-quarters of the students in the school are not yet fluent in English.

As school started in August, school leaders identified approximately 30 students who need extra help this year — some who have experienced a death in the family due to violence, some who have parents going through immigration issues. A couple times a week, Glaude pulls them out of class as a group to work on coping skills.

The idea is to rotate the kids she works with approximately every six weeks.

“It’s really a positive,” Glaude said. “They’re not in trouble when they come see me.”

Besides the group sessions, Glaude also floats into classrooms to watch how students are applying the skills during their school day, and she meets one-on-one with any student who asks for her help, or who a teacher flags as needing a check-in.

Mental health supports for students have become more popular nationally as educators say they see more children, and at younger ages, highly impacted by trauma. Youth suicide is also on the rise, and Colorado is one of the states with the highest rates.

To address it, more and more schools are working to bring mental health resources into the classroom. Last year, several school districts, including Aurora Public Schools, asked voters for increased local taxes, citing mental health supports as one need.

In Jeffco Public Schools, new local revenue has helped the district add 49 social and emotional learning specialists who are now available at almost twice as many schools as before. The district also added nurses to every high school and five district-level staffers including two suicide prevention specialists.

The Douglas County school district used its local voter-approved tax revenue to add 85 counselors including at least one for every elementary school, as well as at several secondary schools where the ratio of counselors will drop from one per 350 students to one per 250 students.

And in Adams 12, a new local tax has helped pay for more than 46 new positions for schools, plus two new district-level positions that include a suicide prevention and crisis response coordinator.

At the state level, the legislature this year approved a measure to create a three-year pilot program for 10 elementary schools to place social workers, counselors, or psychologists in each grade starting next fall. The pilot schools are to be identified by January.

The National Association of Social Workers suggests one social worker per 250 students, or a lower ratio if students have “intensive needs.” With a full-time psychologist plus a social worker for 550 students, Elkhart still has a ratio higher than recommended, but despite that, officials say the school is improving.

Average daily attendance had been around 95.5% in past years, and has risen to 97.5%, Schumacher said. So far this year, there have only been two disciplinary referrals, a positive start given that two years ago, the school reached 300 referrals by the end of the school year. Last year was better, but still saw 48 such referrals.

And staff say they feel supported.

In addition to the new position, Elkhart began training all teachers last year on how to incorporate social and emotional skills and coping strategies into their day. The training for teachers includes lessons on how the brain works, and what conditions are most appropriate for being able to learn.

Students in every classroom at Elkhart now practice social and emotional skills every morning, and throughout the day take “brain breaks.” It looks like teachers guiding students through stretches or yoga poses, doing physical exercises, or sitting with students in a circle talking about what to do if they are having trouble focusing.

One first grade boy shared that he would just pause and “take three deep breaths.”

Part of the work is about helping students identify their feelings, and learn to de-escalate themselves if needed. And teachers remind students that they can apply the skills outside of class, too.

In one fifth grade classroom, teacher Bobbie Kuminka walked students through an exercise where they squeezed certain points on their hand to relieve tension. She told students that as they go into middle school next year, this was an easy exercise to continue.

“You can do it under your desk and no one has to know,” Kuminka said.

“Adults need this too.”

This story has been updated to correct a job description for Jeffco hires.

Altercation between Denver parent, bus driver emblematic of bigger issues, activists say

2019-09-24T12:47:14+00:00

Denver police and school district officials are investigating an altercation between a black parent and a bus driver, apparently white, that community activists say is another example of district employees treating black students and parents harshly.

The conflict stemmed from an incident last week that started on a school bus carrying students home. The driver stopped the bus between regular stops, and he and a district bus aide refused to let off their passengers, who were mostly black middle school students, while a crowd of concerned parents gathered outside.

The driver ended up in a physical altercation with a parent whom video shows jumped onto the bus.

Although the district is still gathering facts, Denver Public Schools Chief Operating Officer Mark Ferrandino said the situation should have been handled differently.

“This should have been able to have been de-escalated,” Ferrandino said. “Why and how that happened, I think we need to investigate and work to ensure that individuals who are on buses or in classes understand how to de-escalate in a culturally responsive way.”

The parent, 32-year-old Brandi Martin, was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault on an at-risk adult because the bus driver is over 70 years old. She has not been charged, and police are still investigating.

The bus driver was not arrested. Both he and a district-employed aide who was on the bus are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the district’s investigation, Ferrandino said.

A video taken by another parent shows some of what happened. A police report fills in other details. The report says the bus driver pulled over between regular stops on his after-school route Wednesday from Denver Green School Northfield middle school because some students had become “unruly.”

Parents waiting at the usual bus stop got texts from their children relaying the location of the bus, and soon a crowd of parents anxious to collect their children gathered at the bus, which was stopped on the 2900 block of North Kearney Street.

The video shows two men in yellow safety vests that say “Denver Public Schools” standing in the open emergency exit of the bus. On the bus, students can be heard shouting, “Mom! Mom!” and “Let us go!” as agitated parents talked to the two men.

A few students got past the men before a woman from the crowd jumped onto the bus. One of the men appeared to grab the woman and shove her into a seat. The woman broke free and tried to climb further into the bus, but the man grabbed her by the arm and eventually by the hair. She broke free again and threw some punches before exiting the bus, clutching her head.

Martin has since retained an attorney. A GoFundMe page set up to benefit her says she jumped on the bus when she heard her daughter crying out for her.

The GoFundMe page says the bus driver and aide “were asked multiple times by the students’ parents to release their children.” When the driver and aide refused without explanation, “parents were worried as their children were screaming to get off.”

A message signed by Martin that was posted to the GoFundMe page Monday thanks those who have supported her. “I just want to say hold your babies tight, tell them you love them, be the mama bear you are because there’s nothing wrong with that,” the message says.

Community activists are pointing to the incident as another example of racial bias in Denver Public Schools. Activists are calling for the bus driver and aide to be fired.

“We’re looking at a systemic issue,” said Hasira “Soul” Ashemu, a community activist whose children were not involved in the incident. “Black and brown parenthood is being criminalized. … How many white mothers would have done that same thing to get access to their child?”

Jennifer Bacon, the school board member who represents northeast Denver, said her heart is with the families who endured the trauma of the chaotic event — especially since the district has committed to taking a “trauma-informed” approach to nurturing its students.

“You can hear in the video people crying,” Bacon said. “We need to be sure we live up to our commitment to be trauma-informed. That, one, we don’t trigger it. And if it occurs, we respond.

“I do think the families are owed an apology.”

Ferrandino said he understands the frustration of parents who were barred from their children on the bus. When a school bus pulls over at a location that is not a regular stop, Ferrandino said protocol calls for drivers to initiate a reunification process that involves asking students their names, checking parents’ IDs, and making sure students are released to the correct guardians.

But Ferrandino said this situation may have called for something different.

“While bus drivers try to follow the normal process, given how confrontational this was — and going through reunification was going to create more confrontation — a different approach may have been warranted,” he said. “This is not how we expect situations to be handled, and not how we want to make sure kids feel cared for in our transportation system.

“We will work to learn from this and improve from this.”

Kartal Jaquette, an administrator at Denver Green School Northfield, said the school responded quickly with an email to families Wednesday night and a meeting with affected students Thursday morning. The meeting was a chance for students to talk about how they felt.

The most common reaction, he said, was that students felt unsafe.

District leaders have acknowledged that institutional racism exists in the district, and the school board recently passed a resolution calling for the district to better serve black students, who are more likely to face harsh discipline and less likely to be reading at grade level.

Last year, a Denver kindergarten teacher made a 6-year-old black boy clean feces off the floor, even though the young child said it wasn’t his.

After a father went public with the story of his 7-year-old black son being handcuffed at school, the district released statistics showing that 45% of the students handcuffed by district safety officers in the past two years were black, even though black students comprise only 13% of the student population.

“This whole incident was just so unfortunate,” said Bacon, the school board member.

While she said she wants to reserve judgment and give the district space to complete its investigation, “I hope we don’t find this was an example of implicit bias, or this was an example of not doing our best at understanding how to de-escalate.

“We have to brace for if we find that,” she added. “We can’t run from it.”

In record year for measles, 24,000 Colorado students are back in school with exemptions from shots

2019-09-11T23:48:37+00:00

Amid a record number of measles cases nationwide, about 24,000 Colorado kids went back to school this fall with personal or religious exemptions from the vaccination that protects against the highly contagious disease.

Public health experts say Colorado is particularly susceptible to a measles outbreak because of low immunization rates, with the state’s lenient exemption policies partly to blame. But efforts to tighten rules for non-medical exemptions, including a bill that died in the legislature last spring, have sparked fierce opposition.

A new report notes that Colorado’s exemption rate among kindergarteners ticked up slightly last year while the share of kindergarteners fully immunized against measles fell to 87%, from 89% the previous year.

Last year, 2.75% of more than 864,000 Colorado schoolchildren had religious or personal belief exemptions from the vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella, commonly called MMR. Another 0.1% of students had exemptions for medical reasons. Meanwhile, the MMR vaccination status of nearly 7% of students was unknown, either because their shot records were incomplete or never submitted to their schools.

The report, from Children’s Hospital Colorado and the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition, also found growing resistance from schools to publicly reporting their immunization and exemption rates.

While state rules require schools to provide this information to the health department annually, only 89% of schools reported it last year, compared with 94% the year before. The state publishes school immunization and exemption rates in a searchable online database to help parents and members of the public gauge local disease risk.

There has been one confirmed case of measles in Colorado this year, and state health department officials say they have investigated at least 64 other reports of people suspected of having measles, but all were ruled out.

The number of measles cases has ballooned across the country in 2019, with outbreaks in several states, including New York, Washington, Oregon, and Texas. Nationwide, there have been 1,241 cases in 31 states. In contrast, there were 372 measles cases nationwide in 2018 and just 63 in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 95% of people in a population must be vaccinated to prevent a disease like measles — a concept known as herd immunity. Colorado’s relatively low measles vaccination rate illustrates the state’s vulnerability on a big-picture level, but the risk of an outbreak varies widely by community.

Pockets of unimmunized students can be found in plenty of Colorado schools, including charters with Montessori or Waldorf-inspired curriculums, district-run enrichment programs for homeschooled children, and some alternative schools. At least 67 schools across the state had measles vaccination rates under 80% last year, according to data from the state health department.

The searchable chart below shows 2018-19 MMR vaccination and “personal belief” exemption rates for Colorado schools. The chart doesn’t show the percentage of students with religious or medical exemptions, the percentage of students “in process,” or the percentage who have turned in no vaccination or exemption paperwork at all. The data comes from the Colorado Department Of Public Health and Environment.

Test scores, vaccination rates, AC and more: 10 back-to-school stories with news you can use

2019-09-04T21:31:21+00:00

Welcome to our back-to-school roundup! We have school-by-school test results, graduation rates, vaccination rates, and asthma rates. Plus, answers to your questions about free full-day kindergarten, sex education, school safety, and air-conditioning.

Test Scores

Here’s what you need to know about your child’s CMAS score report.

Find school-by-school and statewide CMAS results here.

Find school-by-school and statewide SAT results here.

Graduation Rates

Find your school’s graduation rate here.

School Safety

Four things to know about how Colorado lawmakers are trying to make schools safer.

Full-Day Kindergarten

Colorado now offers free full-day kindergarten. Here’s what parents need to know.

Childhood Vaccination

Find your school’s measles vaccination rate — plus, a primer on state vaccination rules.

Sex Education

There’s a new law on sex ed in Colorado. We have answers to your questions.

Asthma

Denver parents, find out your school’s asthma rate.

Air Conditioning

Check which Denver schools lack air conditioning, and which ones are slated to get it.

‘These outbreaks are a monster to control:’ Amid measles worries, here’s what parents need to know about Colorado’s vaccination rules

2019-08-05T16:00:39+00:00

There have been a record number of measles cases across the country this year, and health experts fear there could be an outbreak in Colorado.

“It’s coming,” said Bernadette Albanese, a medical epidemiologist at the Tri-County Health Department, which serves Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties. “We’re not immune by any means from that happening here. We have enough pockets of unimmunized people here.”

Herd immunity — protection from disease outbreaks when a large majority of a population is vaccinated — usually requires immunization rates of 90% to 95%. Last school year, only 87% of Colorado kindergarteners were fully immunized against measles — one of the lowest rates in the country. At some schools, fewer than half of students are vaccinated against the disease.

Measles is extremely contagious and can spread easily to unvaccinated people, including babies who are too young to get shots and people who can’t get shots for medical reasons. Common symptoms of the virus include fever, cough, runny nose, and later a rash. It can lead to ear infections, pneumonia, encephalitis, and in rare cases, death.

“You’re contagious four days before your rash has started,” Albanese said. That means people with measles can start infecting others well before they know they have the illness.

“These outbreaks are a monster to control,” she said.

Experts say high vaccination rates are the best way to keep diseases like measles at bay. Colorado law requires students be vaccinated against a number of diseases, including measles, to attend school or child care, but there are some exceptions.

Read on for answers to your questions about immunization rules and to learn what steps schools and health officials may take in case of an outbreak.

Can child care centers or schools decline to enroll children who are not vaccinated?
Private child care providers can refuse to enroll un-immunized or under-immunized children as long as providers have a written policy detailing their rules, said officials from the Colorado Department of Human Services, which oversees child care licensing. This is true even if the child’s parents have claimed a religious or personal belief exemption.

For schools, including preschool programs run by school districts, state rules say that students can be “denied attendance” if they’re missing some or all of their vaccines, unless they have an exemption or are in the process of getting caught up on shots. If students have an exemption, public schools have to let them come to class, unless there is a disease outbreak. (More on that later.) State health department officials said they haven’t heard of a public school refusing to enroll a child because he is not fully immunized.

What kinds of vaccine exemptions can parents claim in Colorado?
There are three types of vaccine exemptions recognized by the state: Personal belief, religious, and medical exemptions. The first two allow parents to opt a child out of shots if they are opposed to vaccines for personal or religious reasons. Medical exemptions, which require a signature from a health care provider, are permitted for students who can’t be vaccinated for health reasons. About 90% of exemptions in Colorado are personal belief exemptions.

Can a child be barred from attending school where they are enrolled until they are fully vaccinated?
Yes. As mentioned above, students can be barred from school if they are not up to date on their shots, “in process,” or covered by an exemption. If there is an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, health officials can bar an unvaccinated child from school even if the child has a valid exemption on file. The number of days a child can be kept out of school depends on the type and severity of the outbreak.

If a child isn’t vaccinated and hasn’t claimed an exemption when school starts, is there a grace period that allows parents more time to comply with vaccination rules?
Yes, parents have 14 days to get their children caught up on shots, submit an “in process” plan for their child to become vaccinated, or file an exemption. The 14-day window starts when the school notifies parents that their child doesn’t have the required vaccinations or a valid exemption. Technically, this two-week period could start after the first day of school, but in practice it often starts weeks or months later.

If I want to claim a personal belief or religious exemption from vaccinations for my child, am I required to do so on an official state form or website?
No. While there is an online state form available here, and downloadable forms in 11 languages here, parents are not required to use them. If they choose not to, they can submit a statement of exemption to their child’s school or child care provider. The statement must include the child’s name, age or date of birth, date the exemption was filed, the vaccinations being declined, and which type of non-medical exemption they are claiming — personal belief or religious.

There were measles outbreaks around the country last year. How worried should I be about an outbreak in Colorado?
State health officials say Colorado is vulnerable to a widespread measles outbreak because of low state vaccination rates, the availability of international air travel to other at-risk countries, and clusters of undervaccination in Colorado schools and communities.

Several states, including Washington and New York, experienced measles outbreaks this year. Nationwide there have been 1,164 reported cases in 30 states in 2019, the highest number since 1992. Colorado has had four measles cases in the last five years — one in 2019, two in 2016 and one in 2015.

Health experts say the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and rubella, is safe and effective. Kids need two doses of the vaccine — the first at 12 to 15 months old and the second at 4 to 6 years old. Two doses is about 97% effective in preventing measles infection, according to state health department officials. (Use the searchable chart at the bottom of this story to find out MMR vaccination and exemption rates for Colorado schools.)

If a student at my child’s school contracts a contagious disease preventable by vaccine, does the school have to notify parents?
State health department officials say in most cases, schools should notify parents. Schools typically work with the state or local health departments to determine whether to send letters, emails, or post the information on the school’s website.

Schools won’t provide the name of the sick student or identifying information. However, they will notify parents of students who may have been in close contact with the child so parents know what symptoms to watch for and can get medicine if needed.

Schools don’t always notify parents when a student contracts a contagious vaccine-preventable disease. For example, if a child is diagnosed with whooping cough but is on school break during the contagious period, a letter to parents isn’t usually necessary, state health officials said.

Also, if there are multiple cases of a disease in a short period, school officials may notify parents about the initial case but not subsequent cases. Finally, some diseases, such as shingles, HPV, and pneumococcal disease, are contagious but don’t easily spread to others and wouldn’t pose a risk to the general school population, state health officials said.

My child can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons. Should I pull her out of school if there’s a vaccine-preventable disease outbreak?
It depends on several factors: which disease is causing the outbreak, how widespread the outbreak is, and the seriousness of your child’s medical condition. Talk to your child’s doctor or your local health department for guidance.

If my child contracts a contagious vaccine-preventable disease, who do I have to notify?
You should tell your school nurse that your child was diagnosed with a contagious, vaccine-preventable disease so the school can work with public health officials to notify other parents, if needed. Sometimes public health officials will contact you to ask questions about other people who may have been in close contact with your child.

What is the Colorado Immunization Information System and who has access to it?
It’s a computerized system that collects vaccination and exemption data for Coloradans
of all ages from a variety of sources. It helps health care providers, schools and child care
centers keep track of the shots their patients or students have received.

State rules allow information in the database to be shared with the following sources under certain circumstances:

The individual or parent/guardian;
The individual’s health care provider;
A school, child care center, or university where the individual is enrolled;
A managed care organization or health insurer where the individual is enrolled;
Hospitals;
State health department contractors working on CIIS; and
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, for individuals enrolled in Medicaid.

How can I find out immunization rates at my child’s school?
Go the state health department’s searchable database to find school and child care immunization and exemption rates for required vaccines for 2018-19, or the previous two years. Rates for a small number of schools — mostly in rural areas — are not in the database because the schools or their districts failed to submit them to the state health department. Parents or the public can still request immunization and exemption rates directly from schools. State law requires schools to provide it.

Chalkbeat

Open or closed? Some Colorado programs for homeschoolers remain in limbo after turbulent summer

New rules, more oversight for homeschool enrichment

A waiting game for families

35% of Summer EBT money went unspent by Colorado families last year, data shows

CHSAA and districts settle Colorado transgender athlete lawsuit; case continues with state

Federal SNAP-Ed program cuts mean less nutrition education for Colorado students and families

Colorado has a new child abuse reporting law. Here’s a guide for educators on the new requirements.

If I suspect child abuse or neglect at work, how soon do I have to report it?

If I see signs that a child in my classroom is being abused or neglected, can I let my supervisor make the report instead of doing it myself?

If multiple mandated reporters at my job see signs of abuse or neglect at the same time, who should report it?

Does the new law take race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or disability status into account?

As a teacher, I’m a mandated reporter. Does that mean I have to report suspected child abuse or neglect that I see outside my job?

What happens to mandatory reporters if they fail to report suspected abuse or neglect?

Am I a mandatory reporter?

Where can I find information or training on the new law?

Paying for housing on a Colorado teacher’s salary? It’s not easy, report finds.

Health coverage for Colorado babies and toddlers could be disrupted by Trump administration policy

Medio millón de estudiantes en Colorado recibirán $120 en beneficios alimentarios este verano

Half a million Colorado students to get $120 in food benefits this summer

School accountability should factor in environmental hazards like pollution, Adams 14 says

Accountability system’s handling of Adams 14 spurred criticism

Adams 14 seeks help from new Colorado rules

More guardrails for Colorado districts that want 4-day weeks, report urges

Vaping: These Colorado schools will get Juul lawsuit settlement money for education and prevention

Colorado to spend $20 million of Juul settlement on grant program to improve youth mental health

Alcalde anuncia nuevo sitio web con campamentos de verano gratis, programa de trabajos para adolescentes en Denver

Colorado mandatory reporting laws meant to protect children get another look

Padres en Colorado: quizás puedan obtener más dinero para el supermercado con el EBT de verano

Colorado parents: You may qualify for extra grocery money with Summer EBT

How a friend’s death turned Colorado teens into anti-overdose activists

Community’s devastation turns to action

Taking matters into their own hands

Wondering about tutoring and if your child would benefit? Here are some answers to your questions.

When should I consider tutoring for my child?

What questions should I ask to know if this might be a good tutoring program?

How do I know if my child is getting the most from their tutoring?

Should I wait to get my child into a tutoring program?

WATCH: Denver Mayoral Debate: Education Edition

Debate de candidatos a la alcaldía de Denver: Educación

Ski day helps Aspen Community School students cope with recent false shooting threats

Where candidates for Denver mayor stand on education issues: an election guide

More children are grieving after the loss of a parent. Cherry Creek schools are piloting a program just for them.

Need for grief care is growing

Schools see a benefit to helping students cope with grief

Connecting with others helps children heal

Federal grant will expand Colorado family engagement in schools

He did it! Colorado science teacher summits Mount Everest

Colorado voters to decide on free school lunch expansion

Lawmaker: Community schools option not intended for Adams 14

Directores del servicio de comida esperan que el gobierno federal mantenga los programas de almuerzo

Food service directors await federal action to keep school lunch programs going

Schools, pediatricians look to make up lost ground on non-COVID vaccinations

Poverty, hunger, lost learning all hit children hard. Colorado needs to protect them from COVID fallout, advocates say.

Getting schooled in conservation

Colorado summer day camps can open June 1 — with modifications

Summer camp 2020: In Colorado, it’ll be dramatically different and socially distant

Why Colorado school districts are serving fewer meals during COVID-19 closures

Busy lives, confusion, and shame make it harder to reach families

Serving meals in a pandemic brings its own challenges

Making meals work for families

Delivery options and word of mouth help some districts reach more families

Questions about sustainability

Even in a pandemic, some Colorado districts serve ‘just normal school lunch’

This Colorado foundation helps schools with crisis response. Now, the crisis is lunch.

The pandemic has been hard on students like me. It’s time to boost mental health support in schools.

Colorado bill to expand mental health first aid training for teachers moves forward

Parent and community group asks Jeffco schools for longer lunch time, healthier food

Could a new vaping and tobacco tax pay for free preschool in Colorado? Advocates want to ask voters in November.

$34 million grant buoys Colorado’s early childhood efforts

Our top stories of 2019 — and what to look for in 2020

Full-day kindergarten

Free full-day kindergarten is coming. Here’s what Colorado parents need to know.

Denver teachers strike

How a once-promising merit pay system led Denver teachers to the brink of a strike

A historic school board election

Why the Denver school board ‘flipped’ and what might happen next

School safety

‘Nothing makes me feel safe.’ How Colorado educators and parents are processing yet another school shooting.

Read more: First Person: Sol Pais scared me. She also reminded me of the troubled students I want to protect.