Chalkbeat

Detroit school district to hold parents accountable for too many unexcused early sign-outs

2026-08-27T23:12:05+00:00

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This year, the Detroit district is sending a stronger message to parents that their children must remain in class the entire school day.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District wants to curb unexcused early sign-outs, defined by administrators as instances in which parents pick up their children before the school day ends without documentation showing it is necessary, such as a doctor’s appointment.

Starting this school year, parents who repeatedly unnecessarily take their kids out of school early will have to attend meetings and sign attendance contracts.

“Principals and teachers have repeatedly asked Central Office to establish clearer guidelines for stronger and more uniformed communication and accountability for this challenge, so they are not constantly at odds with parents regarding early pickups,” Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat in an email.

Sign-outs disrupt learning for students who leave early and their peers, Vitti said. When a student is signed out early, teachers may be notified with phone calls to their classroom or announcements over school speaker systems. Sometimes administrators have to abandon other work to get students, and security officers must screen all adults who enter schools for pickups.

Some of the most common documented reasons for early sign-outs in the district are the same that cause chronic absenteeism: parents and students’ inflexible work schedules, inadequate childcare, poor health, a lack of access to reliable transportation, and unsafe routes to school.

“To be clear, parents should always work with the school about safety concerns so intervention can occur between students and families,” Vitti said.

But some parents don’t give an explanation, while others tell the staff they simply don’t like waiting in the pickup line, Vitti said.

DPSCD’s new policy

The district’s previous policy only discouraged early sign-outs.

Early pickups may now happen only on “rare occurrences” and require documentation, such as proof of an appointment, the newly adopted policy says. Early releases outside of documented emergencies are now prohibited within the final 30 minutes of the school day. A typical elementary and middle school day lasts around seven hours.

Students will also be marked absent from class if they miss more than half of the instructional period.

The policy mandates parent meetings when students have three or more unexcused early sign-outs in a quarter. During the meetings, administrators will discuss the impact of the early departures and what instruction the students have missed. School staff will determine the issues causing students to leave before the final bell and connect families with additional resources.

Parents will have to sign attendance contracts — formal agreements to follow attendance policies — if their children have six or more unexcused early departures in a quarter. Parents will be asked to agree that their child will check in and -out with an attendance agent or other staff member.

“If the family does not comply with the contract, and continues to miss periods of the school day, then those absences continue to add up and contribute to the overall chronic absenteeism numbers for the student,” Vitti said.

There already are consequences for students who miss too many days, such as making them return to their neighborhood schools, referring them to the Wayne County Prosecutor support program, or requiring them to repeat their current grade.

Michigan lawmakers OK increased student funding and investments in literacy

2026-07-03T18:09:44+00:00

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Michigan schools would receive a 2.5% increase in per-pupil funding in a $22.9 billion state education budget lawmakers pulled an all-nighter to finally approve Friday morning.

The increase means the minimum amount a school would receive is $10,300 per student. That’s up from $10,050 schools got during the school year that just ended.

The budget was approved two days after the July 1 deadline. In 2025, the budget wasn’t approved until early October.

In a news release Friday morning, Whitmer applauded the budget, saying that for education in particular, the budget is strengthening literacy and “setting our students up for success.” It still needs her signature.

The budget includes a significant investment in efforts to improve literacy in order to reverse Michigan students’ years-long struggle in reading, with more money going toward teacher training in science of reading methods, hiring literacy coaches, and tutoring. The budget also continues an investment into a weighted funding formula that provides additional funding for at-risk students and English language learners.

It also includes money that would allow some districts to increase educator compensation, increases funding for students with disabilities and career and technical education students, and increases funding for after-school programs and early childhood education.

State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko said in a statement that students stand to benefit from the literacy investment. He also highlighted the budget’s continued investment in free school meals for all students, regardless of income.

“The budget also includes important investments in our ongoing efforts to address the teacher shortage so students are taught by highly qualified, certified educators,” Maleyko said. “It increases support for students with the greatest needs, including children who are economically disadvantaged, English learners, and students with disabilities. It also provides additional investments in Career and Technical Education, rural and isolated school districts, student transportation, and dual enrollment opportunities that expand college access.”

The increase in funding for students from low-income homes and English learners means that on top of the $250 per student increase, districts will get even more for such students, acknowledging that those with greater needs require more money to educate. Lawmakers first approved a shift toward a weighted system in 2023. This year’s investment represents a substantial step forward and establishes the system into law.

“Today’s school budget is a big win for all Michigan students, especially students with the greatest needs,” Brian L. Love, state director for EdTrust-Midwest, said in a statement from the education research and advocacy organization.

“For Michigan to become a top ten state for education, we have to ensure all students have the opportunity to succeed,” Love said. “While there’s more work to do to ensure schools and educators have the support they need to improve outcomes for all students, this budget continues to put Michigan on the right path.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Housing, groceries, and medical needs: Detroit’s Health Hubs helping to get kids to school

2026-06-29T10:00:00+00:00

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Upbeat on-hold music blared from Jerrica Mickens’ cellphone for nearly 50 minutes as she searched on her laptop for affordable housing for a parent in Detroit.

Mickens was on a three-way call with a mother and a legal aide hotline the morning of April 21 in her Central High School office. As the two waited for a representative to answer questions about the mother’s landlord troubles, Mickens asked what else her family needed. Did they want to pick up a box of groceries for the month? Did the kids need new clothes? Did anyone in the family need mental health services?

Mickens is one of nine “navigators” whose job is getting to know school communities and discerning their needs. They play a critical role in the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s 10 Health Hubs. Since launching in 2023, the hubs have contributed to improved attendance in the district and helped thousands of families, officials say.

DPSCD Health Hub navigator Jerrica Mickens poses for a photo.

Mickens’ time and care is often a lifeline for parents in survival mode. Sometimes, she said, families just need someone to listen.

“My passion is serving people,” said Mickens. “So if that’s what a person needs, then I’m gonna be here for that.”

The navigators lead parents through a complex web of district resources, social services, and nonprofit assistance they may not otherwise know how to access. Their offices serve as a one-stop-shop to triage the root causes that keep students from regularly attending school, such as poor health, unstable housing, and food insecurity.

At the hubs, students are connected with vision and hearing screenings, as well as medical, dental, and mental health care. The centers connect families with housing, utility assistance, and legal services. The school community can stop in for food and hygiene product distribution.

From July 1, 2023, through June 14, the hubs served families 19,200 times and more than 1,100 referrals were made.

“We know that for students to show up ready to learn and focus on their academics, their basic health and well-being needs must be met first,” said Superintendent Nikolai Vitti. “Schools are the natural, trusted, and most convenient hub for families to access these vital resources.”

DPSCD's 10 Health Hubs are distribution centers for hygiene products and food, as well as onsight health centers.

Prolonged absenteeism has long been a problem for Detroit schools due to systemic socioeconomic barriers, which in turn severely hinders students’ learning.

Michigan students are considered chronically absent when they miss 18 days or more in a 180-day school year.

Nearly 61% of the district’s students were chronically absent in 2024-25. Though the rate was considerably higher than the statewide average of 28%, DPSCD has outpaced the rest of Michigan in reducing absenteeism since the COVID-19 pandemic.

District officials attribute the improvement to many long-term efforts – like creating a culture of improving attendance among leaders, hiring more counselors to address mental health needs, and student incentives – but they believe the hubs are a key piece.

Students get lunch inside Osborn High School’s Health Hub.

Overall, the district’s chronic absenteeism rate decreased by 5.2 percentage points last year compared to 2022-23, the last year before the hubs opened. Academic performance has also improved, with third-grade reading proficiency and graduation rates reaching historic highs last year.

“K-12 students who accessed the Health Hubs during the 2024–25 school year had better average daily attendance and lower rates of chronic absenteeism than students who did not access the Hubs,” said Vitti, though he didn’t provide detailed numbers.

Jaiden Mabins' house burned down when he was a 10th grader at Osborn High School. Health Hub navigator Jerrica Mickens helped his mom find new housing close to the school.

Jaiden Mabins, who recently graduated from Osborn High School, said his attendance improved and his postsecondary plans were affected by Mickens’ work as a navigator at his school.

In 10th grade, Mabin’s home burned down, which meant moving in with his sister near 10 Mile – a considerable distance from his school on the east side of Detroit. The limited transportation options forced him to stay home many days, he said.

“Ms. Jerrica, she helped us find a new place, still close in the neighborhood for school,” said Mabins.

The navigator gave him new clothes, school supplies, and a laptop. When it came time to think about his post-high school options, she helped him fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

Addressing Detroit families’ needs beyond the school day

At 11:50 a.m. at Central High School, 17-year-old Jeremy McKinney was led by a school employee through Mickens’ office door, held open by two stacked boxes of canned green beans overflowing from the hub’s food distribution pantry.

McKinney squinted when he introduced himself, struggling to see. His glasses had been stolen. The navigator got him on the waiting list to get a new pair from a nonprofit that regularly visits the school.

Around 185 pairs of glasses have been given to kids in the district since the hubs opened, according to DPSCD.

As Mickens got back to packing boxes of groceries for scheduled pick-ups, she paused periodically to answer calls from parents.

Jerrica Mickens updates case files at her desk at Central High School.

“Oh Lord Jesus, I hope I can help her,” she said of a mother whose house flooded. Once a new place was secured, Mickens said she knew an organization that would build new beds for the kids. She could also help them get gas cards to get to school and some clothing.

While DPSCD has always tried to fill gaps for students with attendance agents and wraparound services, district officials say the hubs streamline the process. Navigators have the time for deeper conversations with families and take detailed notes on their case files. They can also better track how the children are served by outside organizations beyond the initial referral.

All of the hubs are strategically placed so every school has a location within 3 miles.

Mickens is currently responsible for 10 feeder schools in addition to Central and Durfee Elementary-Middle School. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she travels to the other schools to get to know parent outreach coordinators, principals, and social workers who relay family needs.

There are currently hubs in 10 DPSCD schools – Central, Denby, Henry Ford, Marygrove, Martin Luther King Jr., Mumford, Osborn, Southeastern, and Western International high schools, as well as East English Village Prep Academy.

There will also be hubs at the new Cody and Pershing high schools when they open for the 2027-28 school year. There are plans for a Detroit Lions Academy location, though an opening date has not been set.

A sign outside of a DPSCD Health Hub provides information for students.

It costs around $500,000 a year to operate each hub, said Vitti. But because most of the expenses are covered by donations from community partners, the actual cost for DPSCD is around $172,000 a year per hub, he added.

Coordinated school health plan models in New York City’s school system and the Oakland Unified School District served as models for the district. Those districts reportedly saw improvements in attendance and academic achievement, as well as lower rates of student discipline.

A third-party evaluator is currently examining how the hubs affect DPSCD student attendance. It is expected to be complete in the fall.

Later that day at Central, Mickens grabbed two tuna snack packs and a chocolate milk for a teen boy in between classes.

The navigator asked if he’d filled out the dental exam permission slip she gave him days before. No, he said, because he wouldn’t be at the school for long.

She consoled the student after learning the reason he had to leave. “No judgment,” she said.

Mickens said she understands some of the challenges the students she serves face. She dropped out when she was a ninth grader at Central years ago.

“A lot of it was because of the disconnect of social services that I needed,” she said. “ I have a heart to not let kids go through what I have.”

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Nearly 84% of Detroit district high schoolers were paid for attendance this year

2026-06-03T20:07:48+00:00

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Nearly 84% of Detroit district high schoolers were paid for coming to school this year, with far more students in neighborhood schools receiving the payout.

Roughly 12,800 Detroit Public School Community District students received at least one $100 Visa gift card for showing up to each class every school day in five-day cycles from Jan. 5 through March 20, according to the district. The district has 15,247 students enrolled across 26 high schools in the district. Students could earn up to $1,000 total.

The chronic absenteeism rate for the district’s high schoolers decreased by 10 percentage points this school year compared to 2023-24, before the incentive began. This year’s rate was 54% by the end of April compared to 64% in 2023-24, according to DPSCD.

The program began last year as part of the district’s ongoing campaign to curb chronic absenteeism, which is defined as a student missing 10% or more of days in a school year. That’s 18 days of instruction in a typical 180-day school year.

Schools in Detroit and other communities like it have long struggled with kids missing too much school due to systemic issues, such as poverty. Though DPSCD had a chronic absenteeism rate of 60.9% in 2024-25, the district has outpaced the rest of the state in reducing rates since the COVID pandemic.

More students were eligible for the attendance incentive this year in part because eligibility was calculated in one-week cycles, Superintendent Nikoali Vitti said at an April board committee meeting. Last year, students had to have perfect attendance in two-week cycles to receive the money.

DPSCD data shows the incentive reached far more students attending neighborhood high schools, compared to last year when the majority who received the money went to students at application or exam schools.

“That was something that was a challenge last year that definitely improved this year,” Vitti said.

For example, only 16% of students at Pershing High School got the incentive at least once in 2024-25. More than 62% of the school did in 2025-26.

Data shows the program largely supported students who already had good attendance, however, and those who were at risk of becoming chronically absent.

“It’s still not at scale getting at those students that are dramatically absent,” said Vitti.

DPSCD defines dramatic chronic absence as missing 45 days or more of school.

The district’s data tracks with what studies on attendance incentives suggest: Such programs do not address demotivating factors like unsafe routes to school.

Still, Vitti said the incentive has been a success overall in improving high school attendance.

“I think it’s also creating greater advocacy among their students themselves,” he said, adding that students are making sure their attendance data is correct and following up with their teachers, principals, and the superintendent.

The district recommended the program expand to include middle school students next school year in a budget proposal presented to the board last month. If the board votes to adopt the idea, students in grades 6-8 would get $50 for each week of perfect attendance January through March.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Parents say Detroit schools fail to complete special ed evaluations on time. Here is what the data shows.

2026-04-28T10:00:01+00:00

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Many students in the Detroit school district are not receiving special education evaluations within the time frame required by state and federal law, according to data shared last week with the school board.

Of the 1,680 evaluation referrals the Detroit Public Schools Community District received from the start of the school year through March, 72 were not completed on time and 728 are still in process, the data shows.

The numbers, which were given to board members during a study session, underscore what advocates and parents have said for years: that some students in DPSCD and other districts across the state are missing out on crucial services due to delays in the process.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the district has improved its number of on-time evaluations, but it needs to continue to establish a “no-excuse culture” around evaluation times.

“The standard is 100% ,” he said of the requirements of the law.

District officials pointed to some circumstances beyond their control to explain the numbers. Lohren Nzoma, assistant superintendent of the Division of Exceptional Student Education, said some of the delays are due to conflicting parent schedules, difficulty getting in touch with families, and students moving schools or homes frequently.

LaTrice McClendon, the board’s chair, asked district administrators for a breakdown of how many students with pending evaluations are moving frequently and how many cases are delayed because parents can’t be reached.

“How many are in school, and also, how long have they been in process?” she said, asking if students are waiting for “six months, a year, two years” to receive an individualized education program, or IEP, which maps out the educational needs, goals, programs, and services schools will provide students with disabilities.

District administrators did not have the information available at the meeting, but told board members they would follow up to provide it. If evaluations are not completed on time due to situations out of the district’s control, Vitti said those reasons need to be better documented at the school-level.

An initial evaluation is a comprehensive assessment conducted by a multidisciplinary team to determine whether a child is eligible for an IEP.

Initial evaluations may be requested by parents, school staff, or public agencies when a child displays signs of having a disability. If a district requests the evaluation, a parent must provide consent for it to move forward, according to the Michigan Department of Education. Districts must complete evaluations within 30 school days.

The law allows the timeline to extend beyond 30 days when parents agree in writing before the initial deadline.

As the number of students diagnosed with disabilities has increased in DPSCD and across the state, districts have struggled to hire enough staff to keep up with demand for evaluations. National staffing shortages and inadequate state funding for special education compound the problem, Vitti said.

“The fact is, in the state of Michigan, we are not appropriately funding [special education],” he said.

The district estimates that its special education costs this school year will total more than $214 million. Local, state, and federal grants will bring in around $179 million for special education. The district will have to use more than $34.9 million from its general funds to fill the gap.

Vitti attributed some of the district’s improvements to hiring more school psychologists and speech language pathologists earlier this school year.

Corletta Vaughn, vice chair of the board, said she hears from parents that the district does not follow up about pending evaluations for long periods of time.

“People are saying that, and what’s going to happen is we’re going to do better at communicating with our families,” Nzoma said.

Here is a breakdown of the district’s data on evaluations:

Administrators said they expect about 65% of the 728 pending initial evaluations to be done on time, while some others will get extensions.
Of the 811 complete initial evaluations this year, 637 were done on time and 102 were given permissible extensions.
Around 1,095 students who have already been identified as needing an IEP were not reevaluated on time this school year through March, up 16% from the same time in 2024.
There was a 48% decrease in the number of late annual IEP evaluations through March this year compared to the same time in 2024. Still, 249 were not completed on time.
Nearly 18% of the complaints parents filed against the district with the state stem from delayed responses to requests for initial evaluations. Another 7% of the complaints are from parents who say their children’s reevaluations were not done on time.

Changes to DPSCD’s special education system

This school year, the district revamped special education with centralized hubs at neighborhood schools. The change increased the number of self-contained classrooms from 174 to 185. Students with disabilities receive instruction and services in self-contained classrooms while they attend general education schools.

According to the district, the change streamlined administrative processes and led to stronger compliance in evaluations.

The district has reduced vacancies for special education staff from more than 100 in 2018 to as few as four at the start of the 2025-26 school year, according to DPSCD.

Recruitment and retention efforts, such as a $15,000 incentive to keep special education staff in the district, as well as programs for current staff to earn new certifications, have driven the change, Vitti said.

The main area the district still needs to improve, said Vitti, is customer service.

“We have to treat all parents better, but we have to be particularly more empathetic with our [special education] parents,” he said. “They are struggling more than the general ed students. They have more questions, they have more issues, they have more concerns.”

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Wayne County will consider new schooling options for its juvenile detention facility

2026-04-23T18:33:00+00:00

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The Detroit school district’s board approved a one-year contract with a charter school that operates in the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Facility, as the school’s future remains uncertain.

Board members signed off on the contract last week for Infinity Institute of Learning Strict Discipline Academy after district administrators said the school made enough progress to merit the extension. The one-year contract could also serve as a transition period as Wayne County officials consider other options for educating youth detained in the facility.

Mervat Jaafar, county spokesperson, told Chalkbeat last week the county is preparing to ask for proposals from other contractors and charter schools.

“The purpose is to ensure we secure the highest‑quality educational services for the youth in our care, supported by strong oversight, appropriate interventions, and programming aligned with their individual needs,” said Jaafar.

The charter’s current authorization contract ends June 30.

Infinity Institute of Learning Strict Discipline Academy went through a number of changes last year after the Michigan Department of Education found its management company did not evaluate students for special education services in the time required by the law.

A new management company, Infinite Pathways, overhauled the charter’s staff and brought the charter into compliance with special education requirements, according to the state. Zakia Gibson, CEO of Infinite Pathways, said during the board’s March committee meeting the charter has added transitional services for youth exiting the program.

“I think that we are needed,” she said. “I think that our students and our youth appreciate the services of continuing their education, even under these difficult and trying circumstances.”

The county may seek another one-year renewal with the current management company after this one to “provide the necessary transition period” and ensure there is no lapse in educational services, Jaafar said.

The detention facility has faced scrutiny in recent years for complaints of understaffing and overcrowding. In 2022, youth were left to mostly educate themselves for seven weeks when they were moved to a different facility because the charter was only authorized to operate in Detroit, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Jaafar said the facility has not experienced overcrowding in more than three years.

“The facility has maintained adequate staffing and continues to strengthen staffing levels to support safe operations and high‑quality services,” she added.

Improvements to education in the Wayne County JDF

The charter in the Wayne County JDF, formerly Capstone Charter Academy, was first authorized in 2012, according to DPSCD. It is the only strict discipline academy in Detroit.

Strict discipline academies serve students referred by the court system, have been expelled or suspended from other schools, and those whose special education plans require it. They are intended for students who may otherwise not have an opportunity to be educated.

Michigan law requires that juvenile justice facilities make every effort to ensure the educational needs of the youth in their custody are met. Youth must be provided with appropriate educational services within five days of their arrival.

Schools in the facilities must also comply with special education laws, including providing immediate assessments if a child displays signs of a disability. Students, parents, and public agencies may request initial evaluations, which must be completed within 30 days.

Of the 102 students enrolled in Infinity Institute of Learning Strict Discipline Academy at the start of this school year, 39 had disabilities, state records show. The school serves youth as young as age 10.

The MDE issued a corrective action plan for the charter in February 2025, state documents obtained through public records requests show.

The charter’s students generally have a history of dropping out, previous incarceration, placement in other residential facilities, and short windows of enrollment in other schools, state records show. Students’ typically stay between one and 90 days, according to the state.

A “high percentage” of the students enrolled in the charter were either not evaluated for special education or given an individualized education program, or IEP, in the amount of time the law requires, according to state records. (Records didn’t give the specific percentage.)

The MDE also ordered the charter to train its staff on the revised special education procedures.

Last spring, after the MDE’s initial findings, the charter hired a new superintendent and created several new positions to address gaps in service, according to DPSCD.

A new special education coordinator changed the academic programming, created a new documentation process to ensure students received services, and created a plan to provide outstanding compensatory hours to make up for service and instructional time students did not previously get.

There has been a reduction in the number of compensatory hours owed to students, though there are still more for the charter to make up, DPSCD administrators said.

The charter also improved family engagement and communication, as well as coordination with the JDF, the district said.

The MDE found the charter in compliance in January and closed the corrective action plan.

Felecia Brimmage, superintendent of Infinity Institute, said during the March committee meeting that students are now engaged in their education.

“We are making sure that when youth are coming to us, not in compliance with their IEP, that we are changing that for them,” she said.

Charters are not the only option for educating kids in detention in the state.

For example, the Macomb County Juvenile Justice Center contracts education services with L’Anse Creuse Public Schools, a traditional public school district.

DPSCD’s role with the Wayne County JDF is as an authorizer of the charter that operates within it. Michigan school districts, community colleges, and universities can authorize charters, which means they monitor schools’ compliance with state and federal education laws. They earn up to 3% of the state funding the charters receive.

The Detroit district currently serves as an authorizer for seven charters, including Infinity Institute.

In recent weeks, the DPSCD board began to discuss how it will navigate its relationship with charters. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has said the standard for authorization is for charters to either meet or exceed the academic achievement of district schools or offer a unique service that DPSCD cannot.

Charter operators, like Infinite Pathways – also known as educational service providers – handle key aspects of daily operations, such as payroll and hiring teachers. In Michigan, most of those companies are for-profit.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Report: Many Metro Detroit families want their kids in after-school programs but don’t have access

2026-04-13T10:00:00+00:00

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Ajia Phillips sometimes had no choice but to keep her daughter home from school.

On days when she worked 14-hour shifts as a kitchen manager, Phillips couldn’t get to Beacon Elementary School in the Harper Woods School District by 3:10 p.m. dismissal. Traveling by bus also made her arrival time unreliable. And sometimes the cost of the school’s “latchkey” program was too high for the family. As a result, her first grader, Marley Tucker, had to stay home with her aunt or uncle.

“I can’t leave her stranded at school,” said Phillips, who lives in Harper Woods, a Wayne County city that borders Detroit.

Now that Marley is enrolled in the new free Out-of-School Time program at Beacon offered by the nonprofit Sound Mind Sound Body, Phillips said her daughter’s attendance has improved.

Beacon Elementary School students paint during the Sound Mind Sound Body after-school program.

Many families in southeast Michigan want their kids to have access to similar programs – but only about 1 in 5 do, according to a 2025 survey released last month by the national nonprofit Afterschool Alliance.

Parents of about 500,000 kids in the region are interested in after-school programs, but only about 90,000 children are enrolled, according to the survey. In Detroit, the need is similar. Parents of about 101,000 children in the city want their kids in programs, while only about 20,000 are enrolled. (Data specific to Harper Woods was not available.)

The findings are based on answers from 1,146 households in southeast Michigan, and the projections made by the nonprofit are based on U.S. Census Bureau 5-year estimates made in 2022.

After-school programming has a number of benefits, including improvements in school-day attendance, student behavior, and academic performance.

In communities like Detroit, where 84% of students come from low-income homes, chronic absenteeism has long been an issue due to systemic barriers, such as inadequate transportation and parents’ inflexible work schedules. Academic performance in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, as well as in city charters and suburban districts where high percentages of Detroit students are enrolled, has lagged behind statewide averages for years.

Mary Sheffield, Detroit’s new mayor, has made after-school access one of her administration’s key priorities.

During her first State of the City address, Sheffield said her goal is to have an after-school program within a 2-mile radius of every Detroit school. She said she will increase the city’s budget for after-school programming to $2.2 million, an increase of 120% from the year before. Her administration has also made bus travel free for all students in the city, and Sheffield said she is advocating for DPSCD to take the money it previously spent on bus passes and direct it toward after-school programs.

Denzel McCampbell, Detroit City Council member representing district 7, said he is working with the mayor’s office to identify how the additional funds could have the greatest effect. He’s heard from existing program leaders and his constituents that not every Detroit family is keyed into the resources available.

“What I’m particularly focused on is how do we reach the kids that we’re not interacting with on a regular basis?” McCampbell said.

Students find motivation, purpose after-school

Bryan Jordan, 16, of Harper Woods, said he didn’t have much motivation to come to school once football season ended.

Now that he’s in the Sound Mind Sound Body, or SMSB, program at Harper Woods High School, Jordan said he has a reason to show up to class ready to learn. The program extends coaching, team building, and mentoring for football players through the rest of the school year.

He and many of his teammates get to school by 6 a.m. for weight training and stay well after the school day ends. They get training on how to apply for college, financial aid, and potential career paths.

Harper Woods High School students work out during the Sound Mind Sound Body after-school program.

“They make it cool to come around, conversate, laugh, have fun, focus on our work, focus on bonding as a team,” Jordan said.

Ray Lanlyons, an attendance agent for Harper Woods, said early data suggests the program has improved attendance for most of the boys.

For the 27 students enrolled in the SMSB program, average daily attendance improved from around 69.2% at the beginning of the school year to 81.7% since the end of January, Lanlyons said.

Curtis Blackwell II, founder and president of SMSB, said the organization’s many programs in 27 schools across the region, including in DPSCD, are designed to leverage kids’ interests to succeed in school — whether it be robotics, video games, sports, music, or art.

“It encourages young people to dream bigger and to feel like school has a meaning,” Blackwell said.

Cost, location are barriers for kids to attend after-school programs

Unique Reid, a Detroit resident whose son attends SMSB at Beacon, said the cost of other programs was prohibitive.

“We try to minimize all the bills that we pay, especially as single mothers,” she said.

The average cost for after-school programs in Detroit is around $98 a week, according to the Afterschool Alliance.

Unique Reid, left, and Ajia Phillips, right, pose for a photograph at Beacon Elementary School.

In addition to cost, a lack of availability, not enough safe transportation options, and inconvenient site locations also keep kids out of programs, said Jen Rinehart, senior vice president of strategy and programs at the Afterschool Alliance.

In order to make programs more accessible, Rinehart said the city will need to address all of those factors.

Michigan and Detroit leaders have begun to address some of the obstacles.

Last year, the state allocated $75 million in out-of-school time learning grants – including nearly $4 million to SMSB. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recommended increasing the grants to $135 million in the next budget.

Though the recent increases have allowed SMSB to expand, Blackwell said his organization doesn’t have enough resources to meet the demand. For example, in Southfield, nearly 120 students asked to be in the program. They were only funded to serve 40, he said.

Some of the city’s plans are to better resource existing programs, said McCampbell.

“What I’m hearing a lot from programs is we would love to do more, we could do that if we had more (funds),” he said.

Another avenue to having a greater effect, McCampbell said, is to find innovative ways to get the word out about existing programs. The city, schools, and community organizations can partner on outreach, McCampbell added.

“Let’s meet folks where they are,” he said. “They may not come to a community meeting, they may not read a newsletter, but they may hang out at the park.”

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Gas cards, bikes, and money for parents considered in Detroit district’s chronic absenteeism fight

2026-02-26T00:04:23+00:00

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More financial incentives, gas cards, and stronger early pick-up policies may be in the Detroit school district’s future as part of ongoing efforts to improve attendance.

The potential strategies were mentioned on Tuesday during a Detroit Public Schools Community District board work session on chronic absenteeism. Board members requested the meeting to springboard new strategies and better understand current efforts.

With a new mayor who has promised to focus on city issues that affect youth and education, there could be momentum to address root causes of chronic absenteeism.

Mayor Mary Sheffield, has already begun conversations with the district around improving transportation, district officials said. Those conversations have included the possibility of expanding city bus routes in specific areas where school-age kids have the highest rates of chronic absenteeism and hiring staff to make sure students feel safe riding the bus.

“If we’re going to partner with the city, maybe we should try to galvanize our community,” said Board President LaTrice McClendon during the meeting.

Students are considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of the school year, or about 18 days of instruction in a typical 180-day school year. Even as the state’s chronic absenteeism rate has climbed in the years following the pandemic, DPSCD has made substantial ground reducing its rate.

Last school year, 60.9% of DPSCD students were chronically absent, an improvement of nearly 5 percentage points from the year before. The district also decreased the rate by nearly 16 percentage points from the 2021-22 school year, when quarantine rules caused many students to stay home.

Still, the district’s rate was nearly 30 percentage points higher than the state average last year.

Districts in communities like Detroit, where 84% of students come from low-income homes, have long grappled with kids missing too much school due to systemic issues such as inadequate transportation, poor health, dangerous routes to school, and parents’ inflexible work schedules.

Gift cards, carpooling, bikes, and city partnerships

The district is considering building on existing financial incentives for attendance, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during the meeting.

Instead of an across-the-board incentive, like its perfect attendance payouts for high schoolers, the district could offer gift cards to families of early-grade students living in neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of poverty, Vitti said. The district could even target the incentive to neighborhoods and grade levels with the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, he added.

The chronic absenteeism rates in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade were higher than the district average last year, according to the district’s data. The kindergarten rate, for instance, was 68.3%.

The district may also give more gas cards to parents who carpool, bringing students from the same neighborhoods to school together. Attendance agents would organize this strategy at schools, Vitti said.

The district will also recommend updating school policy to curb the frequency of early pick-ups, said Vitti. Caregivers would still be allowed to pick up students early, but the new policy would set a standard about how often is acceptable.

“This has been a big problem for a lot of schools where we have parents consistently removing children from school before the end of the day,” he said. “It disrupts the learning process.”

This spring, the district will give some students at Cody and Osborn high schools bicycles to get to school, Deputy Superintendent Alycia Meriweather said during the meeting.

Students told the district in a recent survey that bikes would help them get to school. They are already being used at Davis Aerospace Technical High School, where the chronic absenteeism rate dropped by more than 14 percentage points last school year compared to the year before.

The bikes will be given to a targeted group of students to create data around whether the move can improve their attendance, she added.

DPSCD will continue to explore the idea of adding more yellow or shuttle bus services. Vitti said specific student data will be needed in order for those efforts to pay off.

“You will hear, ‘Why don’t we do more transportation?’” he said. “We can add a bus, but if we don’t have any assurance that there’s actually kids that are going to go from point A to B, then we’re just going to have an empty bus.”

The district does not currently provide yellow bus service to most high school students. Exceptions are made in some cases, including for those with disabilities or experiencing homelessness.

Although the district’s yellow bus pilot at Henry Ford High School and East English Village Preparatory Academy at Finney served few students last year, the district said it may have helped improve attendance at one campus.

Chronic absenteeism declined by 8.5 percentage points last semester at Ford compared to the 2024-25 school year, according to the district. In the same time frame, the district’s nine other neighborhood high schools’ rate decreased by 0.1 percentage point.

Ford went from having the highest chronic absenteeism rate of all 10 neighborhood high schools to the third lowest, according to the district.

The same was not true at East English – the chronic absenteeism rate there went up by roughly 1 percentage point in the fall compared to last year, the district said.

Board members want to see more parent, community investment

At an October board meeting, some members asked what could be done to hold parents more accountable when their kids miss too much school.

This year, the district began more coordination with its police department in issuing “parental responsibility” citations for egregious truancy cases, according to the district. The citations require parents to improve their child’s attendance or enter the court system.

The citations are a “last resort,” said Meriweather, the deputy superintendent.

Board members asked whether the district could expand attendance contracts to students at risk of severe absenteeism in neighborhood schools.

Currently, the contracts are used for students who attend a school outside of their attendance boundary who are at risk of missing 45 days. They are asked to sign contracts, with their parents, agreeing to improve their attendance or risk being transferred to their neighborhood schools.

The policy was adopted for the 2024-25 school year. More than 2,900 students were identified under the policy and 434 were transferred, according to the district. The average chronic absenteeism rate went down by 7 percentage points for the group who signed contracts. Chronic absenteeism reduced even more for the group of students who were forced to transfer back to their neighborhood schools, with the average rate dropping by 10.1 percentage points.

Board members asked if the at-risk threshold could be reduced from 45 days.

“We can definitely look at bringing that number down,” said Vitti.

McClendon suggested the district partner with community organizations, parent-teacher associations, volunteers, and block clubs to help get kids to school. The groups could help walk kids to school, monitor bus stops for safety, make phone calls to parents, drive carpools, and more, she said.

The district spends around $14 million a year on improving attendance, said Vitti, and most of the funding pays for attendance agents.

The district has hired more attendance agents and concentrated them in neighborhood schools with the most absenteeism in recent years. The agents have a number of duties, including home visits, data collection, dropping off resources to families, making connections to wraparound services, and more.

Board members said they would like to discuss whether it would be possible to hire more agents in future budgets.

“We need to talk about capacity to help, whether it’s on an office level, whether it’s on the school level, to ensure that we’re able to touch every student,” said McClendon.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

State superintendent says Trump’s Michigan schools investigations are based on false info

2026-02-20T00:23:56+00:00

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Michigan’s superintendent is firing back at the U.S. Justice Department by saying the Trump administration’s Title IX investigations into three districts are based on false information about the state’s health education guidelines.

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon sent notices of compliance reviews to superintendents of the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Lansing School District, and Godfrey-Lee Public Schools on Wednesday. The department said it is investigating whether the districts have included “sexual orientation or gender ideology content” in any classroom and if parents were notified of their rights to opt their children out of such instruction. It will also determine if transgender students are allowed to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

The letters cited the Michigan State Board of Education’s November revision of its “Michigan Health Education Standards Guidelines” that recommended students be taught about gender identity and sexual orientation. The correspondence said “health is a required class for graduation in the state of Michigan, with no opportunity for parents to opt their children out of receiving instruction.”

In a statement Thursday, State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko said the premise of the investigations are a “mischaracterization.”

“Local school boards set health curriculum with input from local sex education advisory boards,” he said. “Local control remains in place. Parents retain the right to decide whether their children should participate in sex education instruction.”

The current health education guidelines noted that under existing state law, parents must be notified ahead of sex education classes, have a right to review curriculum, and can opt their children out of all or some of it without penalty.

Michigan districts decide their own curriculums and are not required to comply with suggestions in the state board’s guidelines.

When the state’s current health education guidelines were proposed last year, many conservative and religious parents and community members spoke out against the changes. They claimed their rights to protect their children’s religious upbringing were stripped away.

Maleyko also reaffirmed the state’s commitment to ensuring all students feel safe and included.

“The much-needed updates to health education guidelines—which the Department of Justice falsely said are state requirements—help local districts make decisions on how they can support student health,” he said.

The Justice Department is asking the districts to hand over numerous documents, including library books with mentions of LGBTQ+ matters, curriculum texts, and presentations.

The letters threaten terminating federal funding if the districts do not comply.

All three districts receive high percentages of their funding from federal grants, said Peter Spadafore, executive director of the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, an organization that works to help students in districts with the greatest needs by creating educational equity.

Advocates worry the investigations will hurt youth

Erin Knott, executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality Michigan, said in a statement that the group is disappointed about the investigations.

“LGBTQ+ youth are among the most vulnerable young people in our state,” she said. “They face higher rates of bullying, harassment, and mental health challenges. Inclusive education policies are not ‘ideology,’ they are evidence-based efforts to ensure that every student feels safe, respected, and seen in their own school community.”

Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said while the investigations may not have legal bearing, they could cause a chilling effect that results in districts rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ students.

“This is an attempt to harass and bully districts into discriminating against trans kids and into erasing the existence of LGBTQ people,” he said.

Taryn Gal, executive director of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, a nonprofit advocacy group, said the political pressure on districts puts schools in an impossible situation.

“Do they comply and risk violating state law, implementing policies and practices they know harm students and the entire school environment?” She said. “Or do they risk federal funding and do what’s right to ensure every student, regardless of their identity, can succeed in school?”

Many Michigan LGBTQ+ youth say they fear the ripple effects of political rhetoric in President Donald Trump’s second term. A 2024 survey by the nonprofit advocacy group the Trevor Project found 89% of Michigan LGBTQ+ students said recent politics negatively impacted their sense of well-being.

Affirming policies are potentially life-saving, other surveys suggest.

Why the DOJ opened the investigation

The Department of Justice said in the letter that the revised standards could violate Title IX or a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Mahmoud v. Taylor, which requires districts to allow parents to opt their children out from classes with LGBTQ+ themes.

Spokespeople from the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to questions about why the three districts are the target of the investigations.

Kaplan said it appears districts with large populations of Latino and Black students in communities experiencing high rates of poverty were targeted. He said investigations are unusual because they don’t appear to be prompted by parent complaints. He added the letters are “constitutionally flawed,” and that current law does not allow the executive branch to dictate what local schools teach.

Gal said the letters also appear to “misunderstand the timeline and the standards it references.”

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud was issued in June 2025, and Michigan’s updated health standards were finalized later in 2025, yet the investigation is requesting materials and communications going back to 2023,” she said. “That kind of mismatch creates confusion and fear for school districts about what is actually expected of them.”

Arnetta Thompson, superintendent of Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, said in an email the district will provide all information the Department of Justice requested.

“At this time, this is a standard review process. “The District is not facing any charges or findings of wrongdoing. We remain committed to complying with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and have consistently operated in accordance with those laws.”

Spokespeople for the Detroit Public Schools Community District and the Lansing School District declined to comment.

Monique Bryant, a member of the DPSCD board, said as a parent she has never had a concern about classroom material.

“Sometimes you can have students and parents go too far left with something, and we have to be thoughtful and mindful of everyone,” she added.

Lansing school board President Guillermo Lopez said he had not heard complaints from any parents about not being able to opt out.

House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican from Richland Township, said at his regular news conference on Feb. 19 he supports the investigations because he doesn’t think most parents want their children receiving that type of instruction.

If it is happening, officials should “put a stop to it,” Hall said.“I would welcome more investigations.”

State Board of Education member Tom McMillan, a Republican from Oakland Township, said he was pleased to learn of the Department of Justice investigation: “This is one of the things the federal government can do to make kids safe.”

Even though state law says that parents have a right to opt out their children from sex education lessons, McMillan said there are no consequences for districts that do not follow the opt-out law.

“I think there should be serious consequences, removal of funds, maybe jail time, prison, for districts that don’t follow the law,” he said. “If they are harming kids, allowing boys to go into girls’ locker rooms, showers, that’s perversion and should be met with some kind of serious consequences.”

Pamela Pugh, president of the State Board of Education and a Democrat from Saginaw, said the investigation is a “politically motivated fishing expedition” and “a misuse of federal resources” that will burden local schools.

Trump threatens funding over transgender student protections, DEI

As promised during his campaign, Trump has targeted transgender communities and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in multiple executive orders.

Since last year, the Michigan Department of Education has pushed back on those executive orders, saying its efforts to incorporate curriculum that reflects diverse experiences won’t change.

The Trump administration has also targeted districts across the country with investigations and funding threats.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights announced an investigation into New York City’s education department for a policy that allows transgender students to play on sports teams in line with their gender identity.

Denver Public Schools was investigated last year by the Department of Education for converting a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom.

Chicago is facing a loss of millions in federal funding for magnet schools due to a dispute with the Department of Education over how the district serves transgender and Black students.

Another Title IX probe began in Maine in April. The Department of Justice sued Minneapolis Public Schools over its layoff protections for teachers of color in December.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Georgea Kovanis is a reporter covering LGBTQ+ issues for the Detroit Free Press. You can reach her at gkovanis@freepress.com.

Paul Egan contributed to this report.

Detroit teachers union asks district to reaffirm commitment to immigrant students in new contract

2026-02-17T21:58:34+00:00

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The Detroit Federation of Teachers plans to ask for more support for teachers whose students are impacted by immigration enforcement in its new contract.

The district’s current agreement with the teachers union will end June 30 and discussions around the new contract will begin in the coming weeks, said Detroit Federation of Teachers President Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins.

The request will come after months of unmet teacher and community pleas to the Detroit Public Schools Community District and its board to provide more training around dealing with federal immigration enforcement. Educators have repeatedly asked the board to do more to protect newcomers and their families as at least five students in the school system have been detained in the months since federal immigration enforcement has ramped up in the second Trump administration.

While the district has provided some training to certain staff, Wilson-Lumpkins told Chalkbeat it can “do a much better job.”

“Parents are still afraid,” she said. “If you go into some of those neighborhoods, where you would normally see hundreds of parents walking their kids to school, you don’t see those parents. That has truly hurt our classrooms.”

The DFT will also seek contract language that reinforces the school system’s commitment to being a sanctuary district, said Wilson-Lumpkins.

Kristen Schoettle, an English as a second language teacher at Western International High School and DFT member, said she wants the contract to include mandatory training for all district staff as a baseline.

Schoettle said the contract should have protections for immigrant workers, as other unions in large urban districts have achieved.

“There are quite a lot of employees with varying immigration statuses,” she said. “They are not represented at all in the contract. There are no special protections for them.”

At last week’s board meeting, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said he recently met with community leaders in Southwest Detroit, where a large portion of the district’s immigrant students and English learners attend school, to discuss strategies to support kids.

Vitti said it is clear enrollment is down and chronic absenteeism has increased in Southwest schools due to fears of ICE.

“We are actively working with Southwest leaders to proactively anticipate increases in ICE presence in Detroit,” said Vitti. “We’re doing this through individual leaders, community organizers, and groups. School staff and central office staff are working with those leaders to provide additional resources to immigrant families that have lost family members or are fearful of the ICE presence.”

The DFT’s bargaining priorities

The teachers union will fight for more competitive wages and better benefits so the district can better attract and retain staff, said Wilson-Lumpkins.

“Stability in our workforce directly impacts student achievement,” she said.

Vitti told Chalkbeat in an email the district and the DFT share the goal of “aggressively increasing teacher salaries to continue our improvement in recruiting and retaining the best teachers to serve our students.”

“A persistent challenge in providing our teachers with what they deserve — which is to be the highest paid teachers in the nation — is unequal and inequitable state/local funding,” he said.

The DFT’s bargaining priorities also include paid maternity leave.

The district provides protected maternity and paternity leave for up to 16 weeks, but it goes unpaid. Another four weeks may be allowed for those who qualify for family and medical leave. Some employees may also use paid sick or vacation time for their leave.

Most states don’t guarantee paid paternity leave, a recent study found, and just one-third of teachers reported access to any paid parental leave in a 2024 survey.

The union is also seeking more resources for students with autism spectrum disorder, saying that working conditions for teachers in special education and autism spectrum disorder or mild cognitive impairment classrooms are leading to burnout, said Wilson-Lumpkins.

This school year, the district revamped its special education department and restructured classrooms to be at centralized hubs. It also hired more staff to keep up with the growing demand for students’ special education service evaluations.

Even with the additional staff, Wilson-Lumpkins said members say the timeline for completing evaluations is unrealistic and causing staff to leave their jobs.

“The last contract scratched the surface,” Wilson-Lumpkins said at a recent board meeting. “This contract must be progressive, creative and innovative, so that there is no question about this district and this union’s expectations about what we have as a union and a district.”

The board went into its first closed session to discuss negotiations for this cycle of negotiations on Tuesday night.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Hundreds of Detroit students walk out of class to protest federal immigration enforcement

2026-01-31T00:20:22+00:00

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Despite the bitter cold Friday afternoon, hundreds of Detroit students walked out of class to protest recent federal immigration actions.

Students poured out of Cass Technical High School before their last period of class began, chanting “immigrants are welcome here” and “no justice, no peace.” They marched around a loop in midtown with hand-painted signs to condemn the recent high-profile killings of two people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis.

Some signs said: “There comes a time when silence is betrayal” and “U know it’s bad when white people are dying in the street” and “It shouldn’t have to happen to you for it to matter to you.”

“People are scared to leave their houses,” said Miguel-Angel Martinez, a Cass senior who lives in Southwest Detroit. “People are scared to go anywhere.”

The walkout at Cass Technical and others staged at schools around Metro Detroit were part of a “National Shutdown,” an organized day without work, shopping, or school.

“They took our alumni, they took our peers at Western [International High School],” said Hailee Hallman, a senior at Cass who helped organize the protest. “After seeing all this happen in so many places and watching it happen to people we know, it’s important for us to try to make sure they know that we’re not satisfied with this.”

Students feel the effect of immigration enforcement

At least five students in the Detroit Public Schools Community District have been detained by ICE in the months since federal immigration enforcement ramped up in the second Trump administration.

One student, Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, was deported to Colombia in June.

Three students seeking asylum in the U.S. – Santiago Jesus Zamora Perez, Kerly Mariangel Sosa Rivero, and Antony Janier Peña Sosa – were detained by ICE last month.

Mor Ba, another asylum seeker who graduated from Western days before he was detained, was released on bond from ICE custody last week.

Some of the teens at Friday’s protest have been directly affected by immigration enforcement in recent weeks.

Justin Perez, 16, said a member of his church was detained by ICE on his street. His uncle is awaiting deportation now.

“If I hear about any protests happening in the area, I always try to make my way,” he said.

Valerie Ortiz Sanchez, a junior who lives in southwest, said she wants to use her voice to speak out because others in her community are afraid to.

“I want to help my people, because what am I doing if I’m not?” she said. “I don’t want to hide under fear.”

Some fear traveling to school because of ICE

Education advocacy groups say immigration enforcement tactics are having a devastating affect on students and their access to education.

On Tuesday, multiple people reported to local officials that ICE arrested four people in Ypsilanti near a bus stop as parents dropped off their kids at school. ICE officials disputed the reports and said the agency is not targeting Michigan schools or bus stops.

The Michigan Senate on Thursday held a hearing for bills that would restrict immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations,” including schools.

Last year, the Trump administration revoked a longstanding federal directive for agents to not make immigration arrests near schools.

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti has said ICE has not attempted to enter any district schools.

Many teachers, students, and community members have pushed the district for months to adopt a stronger sanctuary policy. Among their demands are better transportation options for families with immigration concerns, know-your-rights training, and mandatory instruction for all staff on interacting with immigration agents.

The district has not yet made any policy changes.

DPSCD authorized students to participate in the walkout, said Chrystal Wilson, spokesperson for the district, in an email.

“We believe in encouraging our students to exercise their First Amendment rights and strive to provide a safe environment for them to do so,” she said.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Buses, safety: Students at Pershing High tell Mayor Sheffield how she can help

2026-01-09T22:31:19+00:00

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Mayor Mary Sheffield made Pershing High School the first stop after her public swearing-in ceremony on Friday.

The stop at the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s neighborhood school reflected her campaign promise to focus her term on initiatives that will improve the lives of young people.

Lines of cheerleaders and a hallway booming with applause greeted Sheffield. As students and adults clamored to point their cellphone cameras at the mayor when she walked in, girls talked to each other about how excited they were to meet the city’s first female mayor.

“I’m very grateful to be in the presence of such a person,” said senior Neveah Washington.

Sheffield, who was sworn in during a private ceremony on Jan. 1, spent 30 minutes with nearly 90 students in the school’s library. She talked about partnering with the city’s schools to address systemic issues that affect the quality of students’ education, from improving city transportation to offering more after-school programming and wraparound services.

DeAngelo Allen, left, and Darnell Miller, right, listen to Sheffield talk about her policy priorities.

The mayor said she also wants to give youth reasons to stay in Detroit, such as more career opportunities and affordable housing.

Though the mayor does not have control over schools, Sheffield told the students, “that does not mean that the mayor cannot be a great partner, that we cannot be visible and hands-on with our youth – and that is what I intend to do.”

Education became a key issue in the mayor’s race as more advocates pushed for the office to address underlying systemic challenges that contribute to poor academic performance and chronic absenteeism in the city’s schools.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told the students that Sheffield’s presence at the school reflects her interest in investing in opportunities that will benefit neighborhood schools.

“Being here at Pershing, being here at DPSCD, in a traditional public school, and a neighborhood school on the east side, all of that is intentional,” he said. “If we don’t have strong neighborhood schools, you can’t have a strong city.”

Sheffield told the students she is creating the city’s first youth department. Jerjuan Howard, the city’s new director of youth affairs, said each department in the mayor’s office will make a “youth priority statement” to detail how decisions may affect young people.

“What that means is that you all will be at the center of decision making for anything the city is talking about moving forward,” he said. “No other city in the nation has done this yet.”

Sheffield talked to the students one-on-one and collected their written questions.

DeAngelo Allen, a junior who takes a city bus to school every day, asked Sheffield how she will improve the city’s transportation. Allen said he is often late to school because the buses he relies on either come far earlier or later than their scheduled times.

The teen said he feels like he has to be vigilant about safety when he rides the bus.

“You have to watch your surroundings,” he said. “You see some pretty disturbing stuff.”

Mac Sconi, 17, asked Sheffield how she will address safety concerns – an issue many students say affects their ability to learn and get to school.

The teen said he was optimistic about the response he got from the mayor after she expressed she would take a holistic approach to improving safety with crime prevention programs. The city’s new neighborhood and community safety office will promote long-term solutions like mental health and conflict resolution programs, Sheffield added.

Mac Sconi, center, asks Sheffield how she will make Detroit a safer place for youth.

“There’s a lot of things right now that are threatening the safety of our students,” Sconi said. “It’s something that needs to be addressed, because what is the importance of anything if we are not safe?”

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district stands to lose $2.2 million in state funding for low daily attendance last year

2025-12-19T22:23:14+00:00

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Detroit’s school superintendent wants legislators to change a state law that mandates penalties for not meeting daily attendance requirements as the district faces millions in fines.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District will lose $2.2 million in state funding for not reaching a 75% attendance threshold multiple days last year, according to the Michigan Department of Education. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat the law disproportionately punishes schools in communities with high concentrations of poverty and creates more funding inequities.

He said the fines punish the district for attendance issues rooted in systemic challenges, such as housing instability, lack of transportation, health concerns. Ultimately, it takes away money that could be used to support students in need, he said.

Many school building closures also have been caused by the city’s aging infrastructure, which are beyond the district’s control or ability to fix, the superintendent added.

“It’s a policy that punishes the symptoms while making the underlying condition worse,” said Vitti.

Under the State School Aid Act, districts can lose state funding if less than 75% of enrolled students attend school on any day of instruction. The state superintendent can waive the fines in some situations, such as severe storms or epidemics.

The MDE calculates the fines based on the amount of annual state funding allocated to each district and the percentage school systems fall short of reaching 75% attendance per day. Districts that receive more state funding stand to lose more in fines.

Bob Wheaton, the MDE’s director of public and governmental affairs, said the agency and its auditors are obligated to enforce the daily attendance penalties. All districts in the state are subject to the fines, regardless of student demographics, he added.

When asked if the law is intended to address chronic absenteeism, Wheaton said the percentage of students in attendance on a school day is a different data point than chronic absenteeism rates, which represent how many students miss 10% or more of all days in a school year.

“While chronic absenteeism remains a serious concern for the state, the calculation of chronic absenteeism originates from federal and accountability reporting requirements and is monitored through separate data systems and processes,” he said.

State records show DPSCD fell below the attendance threshold 11 days last school year. Initially, the district faced more than $6.8 million in fines. However, the number was reduced to $2.2 million, according to the MDE, because the district reported absences at one school that went beyond the state’s 180 instructional day requirement.

“We were fortunate; the reduction was only possible only due to a unique circumstance at the specific building that was affected,” said Vitti. “Had the same situation occurred at nearly any other school in our district, we’d still be facing the full $6.8 million.”

So far this year, Vitti said DPSCD has fallen below 75% daily attendance twice.

But, “our challenges typically accrue throughout the year; during the winter months when students face additional barriers getting to school due to weather, and at the end of the year when attendance drops,” he said.

State records showed 142 traditional public school districts and charter schools were initially identified as facing potential fines for last school year’s attendance rates. A final tally was not immediately available from the MDE this week.

The Detroit district, where 84% of students come from low-income families, has long had high rates of chronic absenteeism.

In recent years, the district has significantly reduced the rate with a multilayered approach.

“We’re investing heavily in attendance agents, health hubs, home visits, parent engagement, mental health services; all the wraparound supports that actually move the needle on attendance,” said Vitti.

Last year was the first time students in the district were chronically absent at a lower rate compared to pre-pandemic years. Still, more than 60% of students missed too much school.

The statewide absenteeism rate was higher in 2024-25 than before the COVID pandemic, at nearly 28%.

As Michigan struggles to reduce absenteeism, recent data suggests districts with the most to overcome, like DPSCD, are outpacing the rest of the state in improving attendance.

At a November policy committee meeting, Vitti said this year was the first since he became superintendent in 2017 that the attendance penalty has been enforced for the district.

According to Wheaton, 2020-21 was the only year the penalty was not implemented in the state due to COVID.

In 2023-24, Wheaton said only one district faced a fine, but it was waived once it was verified there was an error in the attendance data.

“That said, it’s common for somewhere between 35 and 50 districts to be initially identified,” said Wheaton.

Vitti told board members at the November committee meeting that the district should begin lobbying legislators to change the law.

“Taking millions from schools doesn’t get a single additional child to school,” he told Chalkbeat “It just means we have that much less to help them get there.”

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s how the Detroit district spent nearly $32 million of its literacy lawsuit funds last year

2025-12-17T22:40:39+00:00

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Last year, the Detroit school district spent about $32 million from its literacy lawsuit settlement to hire more staff to support students learning to read, reduce class sizes in early grades, and pay for tutoring.

Some of the investments are already paying off, said officials in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, or DPSCD. Students in classrooms with academic interventionists and kids who read with in-school tutors showed more improvement on average on the district’s literacy assessments than their peers, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said during a board finance committee meeting in November.

The district’s spending on those initiatives account for about one-third of a one-time $94.4 million settlement in the 2016 federal “right to read” civil rights lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged Michigan’s longtime funding inequities led to bleak and unsafe conditions in Detroit schools, including vermin infestation, overcrowding, and leaking sewage. The complaint said the alarming state of schools in the city denied children “access to the most basic building block of education: literacy.”

The state settled the lawsuit in 2020 and allocated the money to DPSCD three years later. Last school year was the first in the district’s three-year plan to use the funding to improve literacy instruction, intervention, and proficiency.

The district’s plan for the money is based on recommendations made by a task force and input from community meetings.

The largest chunk of the district’s settlement spending last year went toward efforts to teach students in K-3 to read.

“The idea was investing there to narrow the achievement gap, because it’s the narrowest at the early grades, and to get kids to where they need to be as soon as possible,” said Vitti.

Results on recent state standardized testing suggest those efforts worked.

The percentage of DPSCD third graders who met or exceeded proficiency in English language arts on the Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP, reached an 11-year high in the 2024-25 school year.

The district’s overall proficiency rates, however, still lag far behind the statewide averages.

Last spring, 15.4% of students in grades 3-8 in the district scored proficient or above in English language arts. The statewide average was 38.9%.

Ida Short, a board member, asked Vitti at the committee meeting what the district can do to get students caught up to grade level more quickly.

Vitti said the greatest challenge in closing achievement gaps is chronic absenteeism, defined as a student missing 10% or more of days in a school year.

Last year, more than 60% of students in the district were chronically absent. DPSCD has reduced that rate below pre-pandemic levels, though it remains higher than the statewide average.

Here is a breakdown of how the district has invested the settlement funding so far:

The school system spent $17.3 million to hire 267 additional literacy academic interventionists to work with students in small groups and in K-2 classrooms. Students in classrooms that had interventionists showed more improvement on district assessments over the last two years than peers with similar previous scores, according to DPSCD.
In order to reduce K-3 class sizes, the district spent $4.6 million to hire 44 additional teachers. The largest improvements on assessments were not associated with the most dramatic reductions in class sizes, Vitti said.
Forty-three additional teachers were hired with $4.5 million so that teacher leaders could leave some classroom responsibilities to focus on coaching other educators at their schools. Of the 216 teacher leaders in DPSCD last year, 77 led K-8 English language arts classes while also coaching other educators. According to the district, students taught by teacher leaders were somewhat more likely to meet their goals in learning to read compared to their peers.
Around $2.5 million was spent to hire more multilingual academic interventionists to work with students who were not fluent English speakers. The district also spent $1.1 million to expand an existing newcomer program at Western International High School and establish one at Harms Elementary School. State proficiency assessment results show more English learners met language acquisition goals last year compared to previous years.
This school year, the district will spend $1.8 million on merit pay for educators whose schools or classrooms reached ambitious literacy goals.
The district spent $240,000 for 150 Let’s Read tutors to read with first and second graders. The program previously existed in the district, however, the settlement funds allowed the district to serve about 423 students – up from fewer than 50 in previous years. The funds allowed the district to offer tutors stipends of $2,500, as well as provide more training and curricular tools. Last year, more students who participated in Let’s Read met their goals in learning to read compared to their peers, according to DPSCD, but there was little difference in their proficiency levels at the end of the year.
DPSCD spent $230,000 to offer free after-school online tutoring to students in all grades for six weeks to prepare for end-of-year testing. According to the district, high schoolers who got the tutoring had better PSAT/SAT scores on average than their peers.
The district spent $270,000 to create Parent Academy sessions focused on literacy to help parents encourage their kids to read at home. Parents got $25 stipends for attending up to 15 sessions, with nearly 900 parents from 89 schools participating.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school district increases staff to keep up with special education evaluation demands

2025-12-10T22:30:31+00:00

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To keep up with a growing demand for special education evaluations, the Detroit school district will spend $9 million more than expected this school year to staff additional school psychologists and speech language pathologists.

The extra funds, which were approved by the school board Tuesday night, will be added to an existing $13.5 million contract approved in June and cover higher hourly rates offered at the start of the academic year to fill open positions.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District increased the pay after the original contract was approved to match private sector rates as part of an effort to retain staff in the hard-to-fill positions. The contract with outside providers allows the district to supplement its full-time special education staff with specialists.

Delays in evaluating students to determine whether they need special education services have persisted in the district and across the state for years, advocates and educators say.

Evaluations are a critical first step in assessing the needs of students with disabilities before they may be given an individualized education program, or IEP, which spells out what accommodations they are entitled to under federal law.

The district has made progress filling vacancies of school social workers, occupational therapists, and physical therapists in recent years, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said at a finance committee meeting last month.

But vacancies for psychologists and speech-language pathologists affected the district’s ability to quickly evaluate students.

Evaluations may require teams of various specialists. Psychologists may help evaluate students with classroom observation, testing, and interviews. Speech-language pathologists may conduct assessments in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Contracting with outside providers to fill those positions has improved the district’s evaluation process, according to the school system.

“This is a positive in moving into greater compliance with evaluations and direct support to students,” said Vitti of the contract increase.

With the pay increases, the district hired 71 psychologists and 45 speech-language pathologists in hourly positions this school year — more than double the previous year, according to the district.

Of the full-time and contracted positions, there is currently only one vacancy for a psychologist and four for speech-language pathologists, Vitti said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

There are also unfilled positions for six physical therapists and 12 occupational therapist positions, said Vitti, adding the number was “too high.”

All special education social worker positions are staffed, according to the district.

Last school year, there were more than 7,100 students with disabilities identified in the district, making up nearly 15% of the school system’s enrollment. Numbers for this school year are not yet available.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district says these investments are helping growing population of English learners

2025-12-08T20:05:53+00:00

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Last year, the Detroit school district hired dozens of multilingual academic interventionists to work with a growing population of students who aren’t fluent in English.

Detroit Public Schools Community District Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the $2.5 million effort, coupled with curriculum changes and virtual tutoring, has shown results.

More English learners in the district met growth targets on a national exam that tests how well they are picking up the language, according to recent state data.

More than 65% of English learners met or exceeded average growth in language acquisition on the ACCESS test – 8 percentage points higher compared to 2018-19, the year before the pandemic.

Statewide, that percentage remained nearly the same in that time period, at 70.9%.

“We understand that as more students with varying levels of English proficiency join our district, that proficiency performance on state assessments may not immediately reflect consistent growth,” Vitti told Chalkbeat in an email. “However, we anticipate increased academic outcomes each year in response to our strategic focus on targeted instruction and intervention for Multilingual learners.”

Though the exam results suggest a positive trend, some educators say there are still not enough certified teachers to educate the district’s growing population of English learners.

The district enrolled more than 7,400 English learners last school year, an increase of nearly 660 compared to the previous year. English learners now make up more than 15% of all students. That growth has come at a time when the district is looking to boost its enrollment after two decades of declines.

Teachers and community members have also urged the district in recent months to better support newcomers. As Detroit students and their family members have been detained and deported by federal immigration officials, community members asked the district to provide additional counseling services, know-your-rights training, and more transportation options for students.

The ACCESS test, created by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s language development resource group WIDA, measures English proficiency in reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The tests, given to K-12 students who are identified as potential English learners, do not measure performance in core academic subject areas.

In Michigan, the tests are administered annually to monitor students’ progress learning English. Results only include students who have taken two or more consecutive assessments.

Average growth on the tests is based on the percentiles students fall into compared to their peers on previous tests.

The results also indicate how much English students know when they first enroll in a school district in the U.S.

Many newcomer students are enrolling in schools across the country with greater language needs than before the pandemic, test results show. That’s true in DPSCD, too.

In 2018-19, more than 11% of DPSCD English learners were proficient. Last year, less than 5% were.

There are many factors potentially influencing the trend, said Julie Sugarman, associate director for K-12 education research at the Migration Policy Institute.

“Anecdotally, we’ve heard that over the last 10 years or so more newcomers are coming to the U.S. with less formal education and more interrupted education in their home countries,” she said.

Research also indicates the pandemic disproportionately affected English learners.

Literacy lawsuit funds used to support newcomer programs

Parents, students, and advocates have long called on the Detroit district to provide better instruction for English learners.

Advocates have also pushed for the state to increase funding for educating English learners for years. Michigan historically ranks among the worst in the nation compared to the percentage of funding other states allocate to such initiatives.

The 2016 federal “right to read” civil rights lawsuit against Michigan alleged many English learners were left behind in the Detroit schools due to funding inequity.

Among the allegations, the complaint said there were no certified English as a second language teachers at Medicine and Community Health Academy at Cody, even though there were multiple students who did not speak or write English fluently.

Teachers at the school relied on other students who spoke Arabic to assist the English learners in their classrooms, according to court documents.

The lawsuit was settled for $94.4 million in 2020. Three years later, the money was allocated to DPSCD in the state education budget.

The district began using the funds to improve reading instruction and add support for struggling students last school year.

More than $1 million was used to hire additional staff for an existing newcomer program at Western International High School and to establish one at Harms Elementary School last year, according to the district.

The programs are meant to streamline services and provide more English language development coursework for students who have been in the U.S. less than three years and are not fluent in the language.

Last year, the district adopted a new English language development curriculum, which is designed to “promote growth in listening, reading, speaking, and writing while also preparing students to demonstrate their English skills on the WIDA assessment,” Vitti said.

“Simultaneously, the curriculum introduces students to school culture in the United States by frontloading needed vocabulary to engage in daily activities,” Vitti added.

Multilingual students were also offered high-impact virtual English as a second language tutoring last year, said Vitti.

More than 1,243 students in the district qualified for the newcomer program in 2024-25, according to officials. Of those students, 216 attended Harms or Western International.

Around $2.5 million paid to staff 58 multilingual academic interventionists at 15 schools. The interventionists supported classroom teachers by adapting lessons for English learners and gave targeted instruction to small groups of students with language barriers.

Last year, the district employed about one interventionist for every 110 English learners, according to DPCSD. The goal is to have one interventionist for every 42 English learners.

The interventionists are required to have a bachelor’s degree, a minimum of three years of experience working with students, and evidence of coursework in math, English language arts, science or bilingual education.

The qualifications are different from those of certified teachers endorsed to teach English learners.

Kristen Schoettle, a teacher at Western International, said the interventionists’ work may be beneficial, but their time with students is not a substitute for the minutes they should have with an educator certified to teach English.

“They might be in a classroom helping translate something, but their focus isn’t on students learning English,” she said.

Michigan’s new requirements for teaching English learners

This year, Michigan schools will have to follow specific requirements for teaching English learners in order to receive certain state funding.

The law includes a framework for how many minutes of language acquisition instruction students must get from teachers endorsed in English as a second language or bilingual education based on their proficiency.

Many districts, including DPSCD, will likely have to hire or train more staff to meet the mandated minimums. School systems without enough endorsed teachers to meet the requirements must have a plan to acquire the staff in four years or less, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

DPSCD used some of its settlement money to offer tuition assistance for teachers to get English as a second language endorsements.

“ESL certified District staff has significantly increased due to our established partnerships, who provide alternative pathways for ESL/Bilingual endorsements,” said Vitti.

In the spring, the district spent $50,000 for certification courses for 10 teachers. Four of the teachers are now certified. A total of 48 teachers are working on the endorsement this school year, according to DPSCD.

The district also offered a $5,000 retention bonus to keep endorsed staff at schools whose student bodies are made up of 50% or more English learners. For new teachers with endorsements, a recruitment bonus of $2,500 was offered.

“These incentives and initiatives continue to bolster staffing ratios towards the new MDE guidelines,” said Vitti.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Teachers, community members ask Detroit district to update immigration sanctuary policy

2025-11-12T02:16:00+00:00

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Dozens of community members asked the Detroit school district on Tuesday night to update its sanctuary policy and train all staff on how to interact with immigration enforcement.

Speakers at the board meeting also asked the Detroit Public Schools Community District to protect students outside of school buildings and provide more transportation options for families with immigration concerns. Community members asked for in-school counseling for students at risk for immigration enforcement, referrals to legal services, and more resources for language acquisition classrooms.

Kristen Schoettle, an English language teacher at Western International High School, told the board DPSCD’s 2019 “Sanctuary District” policy needs to be updated.

“As we all know, a lot has changed since 2019,” she said. “We have to do more than simply say ICE isn’t allowed in school buildings.”

The concerns were raised as federal immigration agencies have ramped up enforcement, including arrests of parents and teens outside school buildings. Last week, a child care worker was dragged by federal agents from the Chicago center where she worked.

Though dozens showed up to address the districts’ policies around immigration concerns, the board asked for three representatives from the group to each speak for up to six minutes.

Some speakers ignored the board’s request and made additional comments in support of protecting immigrant students and families. The board did not stop them from speaking.

Chair Corletta Vaughn offered pamphlets on immigration resources to those at the meeting.

“You are not alone and we are 100% in support of all of our students and families,” said Vaughn.

The district’s sanctuary policy requires the superintendent’s office and general counsel to sign off before staff allow immigration agents with warrants to enter school property or access student data.

In January, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said the district would begin training principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, attendance agents, and security guards on the protocols. Community members want all staff to be included.

“We want to know who has been officially trained,” said Heidi West, a teacher at Academy of the Americas. “Do our secretaries and security guards know what to do if ICE is right outside or trying to get in?”

West said she and many other staff members feel unprepared and want training.

“This is the very least we should be doing to be proactive and make sure everyone is protected,” she said.

Schoettle said other public school districts, including in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, have mandatory training for all staff, regular “Know Your Rights” presentations and in-school counseling.

Schoettle told Chalkbeat that better communication with bilingual families is needed in the district. A robo call sent out by the district last month intended to quell rumors about immigration actions in the community caused “chaos,” she said.

Schoettle said the call only went out in English and it was misinterpreted by families, creating confusion and fear. The next day, about 15% of her class was absent, she said.

Frank Espinosa, another teacher at Western International, asked the board to provide better transportation for undocumented students and families with mixed immigration status.

As the district explores ways to use additional state funding to get kids to school, Schoettle said DPSCD should invest in more ride shares for families with immigration fears.

“There are undocumented parents who risk their safety every day to take their kids to school,” she said.

Vitti responded to the speakers’ concerns Tuesday night, saying any changes to the sanctuary policy would have to be made by the board, adding he would assist them administratively.

No members of the board responded to the speakers’ concerns after the public comment.

The school system has enrolled more newcomers and English learners in recent years. Last school year, there were more than 7,400 English learners, which represented 15% of the district’s students.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration ended a policy that deemed schools and day cares “sensitive locations” protected from immigration enforcement.

The administration’s immigration enforcement policies and increased arrests have impacted Detroit families, prompting fear in neighborhoods and schools for months.

In June, hundreds gathered at a board meeting to ask school leaders to decry the immigration arrest of DPSCD student Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, an undocumented teen from Colombia. After hours of public comment, the board reversed course and made a statement asking for Maykol’s release.

Days later, he was deported.

At October’s DPSCD board meeting, Vitti responded to several people who asked the district to provide “Know Your Rights” immigration enforcement training for students.

“I’ve certainly heard today the need for training and information sessions for our families that are fearful of ICE,” he said during the meeting. “I’ll work with the team and legal counsel to determine what exactly we can and can’t do, but obviously, as a district, we want to do everything we can in support of our students and our families.”

Vitti added that the district has never been contacted by ICE or given information to the agency.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

BridgeDetroit reporter Micah Walker contributed to this story.

Students at this Detroit school got free bikes. Here’s how they say it helped attendance.

2025-10-07T21:16:36+00:00

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Some days, it takes Elyazar Holiday two hours and four buses to travel the 20 miles from his home on the far west side of Detroit to his school on the edge of the east side of the city.

The Detroit school district has limited yellow bus service, and none for most high school students. Like many students in the city, the 17-year-old’s family doesn’t have access to a working car. Riding city buses to Davis Aerospace Technical High School is Holiday’s only option, but – with delays and missed buses – it often proves unreliable.

Last year, Holiday received a gift from his school that made the trek easier: a bicycle.

Principal Michelle Davis gave every student at the school a bike as part of a holistic approach to reducing chronic absenteeism. The bikes were funded through community donations.

Many of the nearly 100 students at Davis Aerospace last year said the bicycles helped them safely get to school by reducing the amount of time they had to walk to school or wait for buses. Others said the bikes gave them a new sense of independence, allowing them to travel around the city with their friends, get to after-school activities or jobs, and get exercise.

While Davis believes the bicycles improved attendance during good weather in the fall and spring, she said it’s only one measure the school is taking to get kids to class.

“Giving the students bikes is just one problem that we’ve solved for,” Davis told Chalkbeat. “What we do intentionally is solve for all of the problems that the kids have, because that has to be our major responsibility.”

Principal Michelle Davis poses in front of her "Big Ideas" board.

The principal wanted her students to feel the same sense of independence she did as a teen when her mother bought her a pink Huffy.

So, Davis wrote “bikes” at the top of a white board next to her desk that lists her “big ideas.” And soon the vision came to fruition.

Other high schools in the district may also soon give bikes to their students. Last school year, the district surveyed high school students who were chronically absent about why they missed too much school. Some of the students said having a bike would help improve their attendance.

After the district’s school board heard the feedback at a July meeting, some members said they wanted the superintendent to follow up on whether a stock of “dozens” of bicycles in a storage warehouse could be used for that purpose.

Can bikes reduce chronic absenteeism in Detroit?

Chronic absenteeism, defined for Michigan students as missing 10% of the school year, has long been a problem in DPSCD. Issues such as high rates of poverty, health concerns, parents’ work schedules, and unsafe routes to school keep many children from missing crucial instructional time.

Students at Davis Aerospace say the bikes have helped address some of those barriers.

A poster tracking attendance for each grade is one of the first things students see as they enter their school building.

Holiday, for example, said his bike allows him to get to bus stops more quickly.

The first bus Holiday usually rides is regularly late by 20 minutes to an hour, he said.

If that bus doesn’t come in time, the teen has to decide whether he’ll go to another stop to try and catch a bus on a different route.

“I might miss those if I walk too slow, or I might be tired from trying to run to make it there,” he said.

Now, if the bus that runs on Plymouth Road doesn’t arrive, the teen can ride his bike to another stop. Or if Holiday isn’t able to catch a transfer due to delays, he can ride his bike the rest of the way to school.

“With the bike, I can still make up the distance or go to a different street to get on a different bus and still make it there on time,” he said.

His bike also makes him feel safer.

While violent crime rates have declined in Detroit in recent years, many young people fear being attacked on their way to school. Their sense of safety is shaped by many factors, including news reports of peers killed in gun violence.

“A bike in itself is protection,” said Holiday. “You can use that to get away from the situation. You can use that as a barrier between you and something coming at you in the heat of the moment. You can even throw it.”

The bikes also help students left without a ride because their parents have to get younger kids to school earlier in the morning.

Myron Dean, a senior at Davis Aerospace, said while his parents take his five younger siblings to their schools, he has to get to school on his own.

With a bike, Dean can get to school in about seven minutes.

Dean is also using the bike to get to driver’s education classes so he can eventually drive himself and his siblings anywhere they need to go.

Junior Tryve Roberts said when no one in his family was able to give him a ride, he used to have to walk to school. It took about an hour, which would make him tardy.

Now, since he can get to school on the bike in about 16 minutes, he’s showing up on time more often.

Some research and anecdotal evidence in other parts of the country suggest bicycles alone may reduce chronic absenteeism. Those who support the idea say using bikes to get to school gives more students access to transportation they otherwise wouldn’t have, can improve their health and well-being, and adds motivation for kids to improve attendance.

However, the successful examples proponents cite are in parts of the country with warmer climates, such as Florida, Tennessee, and Arizona.

At Davis Aerospace, the students are taught bike safety and instructed to not ride to school in poor weather conditions or during the winter.

There are nearly 165 miles of bike lanes in the city, according to advocacy groups, but not every neighborhood in the city has access to continuous dedicated bike paths.

Creating a culture of good attendance

DPSCD has made strides in reducing chronic absenteeism in recent years. Several schools in the district have outpaced all others in the state in reducing absenteeism.

At Davis Aerospace, the chronic absenteeism rate dropped by more than 14 percentage points last school year compared to 2023-24. Since 2018-19, the chronic absenteeism rate at the school fell by nearly 23 percentage points.

Even with that progress, more than 42% of Davis Aerospace students missed too many days of school last year. And the problem is more persistent in the district’s neighborhood schools.

For example, Denby High School, which is also on the east side of the city, had a chronic absenteeism rate of nearly 80% last year.

Some of Davis Aerospace’s progress may be due in part to the bikes, but the school had already been making steady progress in reducing absenteeism before that program.

“What we know is that there’s not just one thing that’s going to decrease absenteeism,” said Davis. “Every kid that has a barrier for attendance, we talk to those students. We see what the barriers are, and we solve for the student and their challenge to getting to school.”

Students can pick out any items they want from the school's free boutique.

At the school, which requires an application for students to attend, reducing absenteeism is ingrained in the culture.

A poster hanging on a brick wall by the school entrance tracks the daily attendance rate of each grade. Students who miss two days or fewer in the class with the highest attendance each month get rewards like cookies, nachos, or a movie day.

A room on the first floor of the school looks like a clothing boutique, except the clothes “for sale” are all marked “100% free.” Kids can grab the things they need to show up to school, like winter coats, gloves, and new shoes.

In another space, kids can get the hygiene products they need to show up ready to learn. There’s also a washer and dryer in the school where students can clean their clothes.

Davis said there are discussions around creating a parent carpool for kids who live near each other.

‘A form of freedom’

The gift of the bikes was not simply a pragmatic attempt to reduce absenteeism, said Davis. It was an act of love.

“When you’re a teenager, bikes are your first form of transportation, right?” Davis said. “It gives you a form of freedom. You explore the world with your bike.”

Students Elyazar Holiday, Savannah Robinson, Ciana Carter, and Myron Dean pose with bikes in front of Davis Aerospace.

Junior Roderic Pippen said his bike helped him find a new hobby.

“I like to adventure on the bike – find new places to be at,” he said. “My bike trips are more fun than just sitting in the car, scrolling on the internet.”

Holiday will use his bike this year to attend biweekly events by the Midnight Golf Program, a mentorship and college readiness nonprofit.

Before they got bikes, seniors Savannah Robinson and Ciana Carter felt stuck at home during summer breaks because their parents were busy with work.

Last summer, the girls had the freedom to ride to meet up and go to places like the beauty supply store and restaurants.

“Anytime she had a bad day over summer, I’d be like, come on, girl, let’s go ride our bikes and get fresh air,” said Robinson. “So it’s really helpful for both of us.”

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit school district approves proposed charter school for struggling youth

2025-09-08T19:41:41+00:00

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The Detroit school district has approved a new charter school to serve students experiencing homelessness, chronic absenteeism, and interactions with the juvenile justice system.

Purpose Charter Academy, which is expected to open for prekindergarten through eighth grade students in the 2026-27 school year, will aim to “reengage disconnected youth,” according to the Detroit Public Schools Community District, or DPSCD. Projected enrollment for the charter the year it opens is 225 students. By 2029-30, it’s expected to be 400.

Since Superintendent Nikolai Vitti took the helm of the school system in 2017, DPSCD has authorized fewer charter schools. At the time, he said he wanted the district to use its resources to improve its traditional public schools.

Entities, such as school districts and community colleges, can authorize charters, meaning they approve charter applications and monitor the schools’ contract compliance.

More than half of school-age children in the city attend charter schools, with 62 charters in Detroit, according to state data compiled in May.

As the number of charters in the city and its suburbs increased over the last 30 years, enrollment in the Detroit district declined. But, rather than competing for students, Vitti said Purpose Charter Academy’s model could address student needs that are not otherwise met in the school system.

According to the charter’s development team, the most vulnerable student populations in Detroit often face significant and overlapping barriers in traditional public schools. The charter aims to combine targeted interventions, wraparound support, and culturally responsive programming that will allow the flexibility necessary to meet the students’ needs.

The new charter will be comparable to an alternative education program run by educators with trauma-informed training.

The Detroit district currently has one alternative education campus for kids in grades 6-12, which can enroll up to 500 students each year. There is no such program for children in the lower grades in the school system.

“A single school where the Board of Directors, budget and staff are all focused on serving the most at risk students allows a unique level of focus and program design around supporting deep-rooted trauma and instability that is not always easily achievable in a larger district with multiple other priorities,” he said in an email.

Detroit’s poverty rate is nearly three times higher than the national average. Nearly 85% of students in the Detroit district are identified as being from low-income households.

About 455 children experienced homelessness in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park last year, according to a January point-in-time count by the city. The count is an estimate and provides a snapshot of how many people experience homelessness on one night.

In the 2024-25 school year, more than 60% of DPSCD students were chronically absent, Vitti said at a recent board meeting.

Staffing requirements at the charter will focus on specialized expertise, such as staff with knowledge of the juvenile justice system and trauma-informed care, according to the district. The charter will be better positioned to coordinate services through other agencies such as shelters, courts, and mental health providers, according to plans for the school.

The main reason the district can’t implement the same model is cost, Vitti said.

“The District is not in a position to expand alternative education options for K-8 when the cost of those programs is typically much higher than traditional school settings,” said Vitti.

The charter plans to work with the district to enroll students in the school system when they are ready to return to a traditional school setting.

The nine-member development team behind Purpose Charter Academy includes Michigan Third Circuit Court Judge Cylenthia LaToye Miller, attorney Lamar Moreland, as well as educators, mental health practitioners, and civic leaders, said Board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo.

The development team has not yet determined if the charter will be self-managed or if a management company will be chosen to operate the school, according to the district.

Charters, also known as public school academies, are public schools and must follow state and federal education law. In Michigan, anyone can operate a charter. The operator handles key functions, such as hiring teachers and managing payroll. Many charter schools in the state hire for-profit companies to fill the role.

The Detroit district’s board voted in July to approve a three-year contract with Purpose Charter Academy. The charter must meet all of the state’s requirements before the contract is signed.

The board also voted last month to approve a lease agreement for the charter to use its vacant school building formerly occupied by the Detroit Lions Academy on East Canfield Street.

The charter will pay 9% of the per-pupil state funding it receives by 2028-29 for the lease. There will be an option for the charter to buy the property through August 2028.

The district will get a 3% fee for authorizing the charter, which would amount to around $81,000 in 2026-27, according to a financial analysis.

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan introduces new requirements for teaching English learners as federal support is rolled back

2025-09-04T22:03:40+00:00

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As the Trump administration pulls back support for English language learners, Michigan is rolling out new requirements for schools to educate such students.

Starting this school year, Michigan districts will be required to meet minimums of specialized instructional time for English learners. Districts will risk losing state funding allocated for those students if they do not comply.

State Superintendent Michael Rice also reminded local school leaders in a recent memo that the Trump administration’s revocation last month of guidance that spelled out the rights of more than 5 million English learners in the U.S. does not “alter the rights of students under Michigan law.”

Even without the guidance, federal legal protections for English learners remain.

In Michigan, there are more than 104,000 English learners, which make up about 7.3% of the total student population.

“Although federal protections may seem fragile, Michigan’s commitment to fairness and access in education remains steadfast,” he said in the memo to school leaders. “The legal protections afforded by our state have not changed, and Michigan continues to uphold the principles of inclusion and non-discrimination for all students.”

Still, some advocates fear the rescission of the guidance will cause confusion for local schools and weaken federal oversight of students’ rights. Educators say the guidance was a key part of determining what schools are required to do for students – without it, they fear English learners across the state will see a reduction in services or go without.

Jennifer Mrozowski, senior director of strategic communications and external relations at the research and advocacy group Education Trust-Midwest, said the rollback of the guidance “is a step backwards.”

“It builds upon the Trump administration’s ongoing and immoral attacks on not only public education but on our most vulnerable students,” she said.

An Education Department spokesperson told Chalkbeat it rescinded the 2015 Dear Colleague letter “because it is not aligned with Administration priorities.”

The rollback of the guidance comes as the Education Department considers winding down an online toolkit for helping English learners and the Trump administration proposed phasing out Title III funding for English language education, among other measures.

Earlier this year, the federal government ended the decades-old practice of treating schools and child care centers as “protected” locations where immigration arrests would not occur. The policy change left many families in Michigan in fear of dropping off and picking up their kids from school.

Immigration crackdowns have affected Michigan students in recent months, including the deportation of a Western International High School student in Detroit.

Samantha Magdaleno, executive director of youth-led immigrant rights organization One Michigan, said President Donald Trump’s actions send the message that immigrant students are not welcome in schools.

“We should be focused on helping children and giving them an education,” she said. “This is a basic human right.”

Michigan schools have four years to meet staffing needs for educating English learners

In addition to Michigan’s existing laws protecting language access for students, this year will be the first that local districts will have to follow specific requirements for educating English learners.

Last year, the Democrat-controlled Michigan legislature amended the state school aide act to require schools to provide English learners with a mandatory number of minutes in language instruction.

Federal law and precedent do not require schools to provide any particular kind or amount of service, nor did the rescinded guidance.

The Michigan Department of Education, or MDE, and Michigan’s English Learner Advisory Committee created the framework for the new requirements. Their recommendations were based on a review of settlements and agreements from 24 federal civil rights complaints over the last 20 years in multiple states. One of the cases was a 2014 complaint against the Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights.

Settlements made between all of the school districts and the federal Education Department included plans to implement appropriate hours of language instruction from teachers with additional training in multilingual education.

Michigan’s new requirements for students with lower proficiency in English include at least 150 minutes of language acquisition instruction, provided separately from other classes with a teacher with multilingual or bilingual education credentials. Another 150 minutes can be integrated into general education classrooms, and it may include working with a second teacher endorsed in English as a second language education.

Students with higher proficiency levels are only required to receive 150 minutes a week in either type of classroom setting.

Those who are phased out of English language programs after reaching proficiency must be monitored for four years after fully integrating into general education classrooms.

Students’ English language proficiency is based on results from annual assessments given to newcomers to the U.S., students who change districts, and those who are identified by educators as potential English learners.

The new required minimums likely mean some districts will have to hire or train more multilingual teachers. School systems without enough teachers to meet the requirements must have a plan to hire more staff in four years or less, according to the MDE.

Districts will be required to submit reports on how they use state funding for English learners to the MDE each year. If districts do not comply, the MDE may withhold the state funding.

Marcie Lipsitt, a Michigan education advocate who helps families with civil rights complaints, said she is skeptical that the state will be able to enforce the new requirements.

English learners have long been underserved in the state, said Lipsitt. Language barriers and immigration fears often prevent families from filing formal civil rights complaints when students don’t receive the education to which they are entitled, she added.

“As an advocate, you can’t file a complaint on behalf of someone else in Michigan like you can at the federal level,” said Lipsitt. “That’s a huge roadblock because I can’t even help protect a family by filing for them.”

Magdaleno said some of the youth she works with struggle to learn English in Michigan schools, despite existing protections.

English learners can still file federal or state complaints

English learners’ rights are not found in any one law. Instead, they come from a culmination of federal laws and court cases.

The 40-page Obama-era Dear Colleague letter listed those protections in one document.

It provided educators with examples of how schools should serve students in order to comply with the legal precedent, case law, and federal requirements it cited.

Among the framework the document laid out were common areas of noncompliance in schools, such as failing to identify and assess potential English learners, inadequate staffing, and unnecessary segregation of students. The letter also provided fixes to ensure programs’ effectiveness.

For example, the document offered a solution that many school districts found to streamline evaluating potential English learners. The guidance suggested asking parents to complete a home language survey to help assess students’ needs before school starts and testing those identified as possibly needing services within the first week of class to minimize disruptions.

English learners may still file complaints about their education because the legal protections cited in the letter remain in place.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights handles such cases, but many parents and advocates report their complaints have been stagnant since the Trump administration laid off the staff of seven of its 12 civil rights enforcement offices in March. One of those closed was the Cleveland office, which handled cases for Michigan and Ohio.

Also in March, the Trump administration laid off nearly every staff member tasked with ensuring states and schools properly spent hundreds of millions of federal dollars earmarked to help educate the more than 5 million English learners in the U.S.

English learners may also file complaints of discrimination based on race or country of origin with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, which enforces the state’s civil rights laws.

Michigan’s 1977 Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race and national origin in educational institutions. Michigan’s 2023 Meaningful Language Access to State Services Act also requires state agencies make services accessible to non-English speakers.

“Ensuring meaningful access is not only a legal issue,” Rice said in his memo to school district leaders. “It is a reflection of our shared values and our collective responsibility to the students, parents, and communities that we serve.”

Bob Wheaton, the Michigan Department of Education’s director of public and governmental affairs, told Chalkbeat the agency will review the need for any additional guidance in light of the federal changes and will “continue to provide guidance, monitoring, and technical assistance to districts to ensure clarity around compliance.”

Lipsitt said parents and community members should also take complaints to local school leaders.

“Go to your elected school boards,” she said. “Hold them accountable.”

Hannah Dellinger covers Detroit schools for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Stay of deportation denied for Detroit student held by ICE, attorney says

2025-06-11T21:55:15+00:00

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Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, an undocumented immigrant, hoped to finish high school in Detroit before returning to Colombia. That dream is likely over, his attorney said Wednesday, after his request for a stay of deportation was denied.

The Western International High School junior is in an immigration processing center in Louisiana, and his deportation is imminent, according to his legal team at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. Once Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, “have enough individuals to fill a plane to Colombia,” Maykol will likely be sent out of the U.S., Christine Sauvé, the organization’s communications manager, told Chalkbeat.

Even as dozens of people supporting Maykol packed the Detroit school board meeting Tuesday night, Ruby Robinson, his attorney, got word that the student had been moved to the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana. The news wasn’t a good sign – most charter ICE charter flights out of the country leave from Louisiana or Texas, the attorney said.

Officials from ICE did not immediately respond to confirm the status of Maykol’s case or his whereabouts.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District school board on Tuesday night made a public statement urging for the teen’s release so he can finish high school. Board members had been quiet about publicly advocating for Maykol’s release until hearing more than two hours of public comment from community members urging them to act.

Before the district made the statement, Robinson said support for the teen from his school would help his immigration case.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat last week that the district has “done everything it can to protect students” while they are on school grounds. He added that Maykol was not “under the protection and responsibility of” the district when he was arrested during a traffic stop in May.

“Please help him,” one of Maykol’s friends pleaded with the board at the meeting through a translator.

Another speaker from Maykol’s neighborhood said the student’s detention is “heartbreaking” and “horrifying.”

Paula Duran, a parent of two students in the district, told the board ICE’s recent actions in the city, including detentions of students’ family members, are “destroying” the school community.

Paula Duran embraces Maykol's mother during the DPSCD board meeting on Tuesday night.

“All of us are impacted by this – the whole DPSCD community and the whole city of Detroit,” she said.

Multiple teachers told the board Maykol was a good student and a hard worker. He worked late night shifts as a doorman at a hotel, but always came to school eager to learn.

The teen was focused on earning his diploma and was only 3.5 credits away from his goal.

Maykol was arrested and detained by ICE after Rockwood police pulled him over for allegedly tailgating another car. He was driving a group of other newcomer boys as they attempted to join a field trip to Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles away from Detroit.

The boys had not turned in parental permission slips on time to join the trip on school buses with the other 70 to 80 other students who went, said Kristen Schoettle, one of his teachers.

“The kids wanted to be with the rest of their friends on the trip,” Schoettle told Chalkbeat.

As he was getting pulled over, Maykol called a friend in his class who was on the trip. The friend alerted Schoettle and other teachers. Schoettle said she asked an employee at the park to give her a ride to the scene of the traffic stop.

Once she arrived, the teacher said the Rockwood police did not speak Spanish and were having trouble communicating with Maykol. At that point, the police called Customs and Border Protection to translate for them, according to Robinson.

The teen wasn’t licensed to drive, according to Robinson, and only had a city identification card.

The teen already had been going through the legal process to return to Colombia. A judge issued a final order of deportation for the student in 2024, and Maykol was working with immigration officials and the Colombian Consulate to obtain a passport and the documentation he needed to board a plane with his mother.

Maykol planned on completing high school at Western International while those arrangements were made.

But those plans fell apart at the traffic stop.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

After community outcry, Detroit district board calls for release of student detained by ICE

2025-06-11T03:31:10+00:00

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After more than two hours of heated criticism from the public, the Detroit school board reversed course and issued a statement condemning the detention of a district high school student by federal immigration officials.

In its statement, the board demanded that Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, an 18-year-old junior at Western International High School, be released and allowed to complete high school in Detroit.

Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, 18, worked night shifts at a hotel while he attended Western International High School.

Maykol was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, last month after a traffic stop and has not been released. On Tuesday night, the teen was in a Louisiana jail being prepared for “imminent removal,” according to his attorney.

Immigration advocates had been urging the Detroit Public Schools Community District board to issue a statement condemning the arrest, but at the beginning of the meeting, several members said the board has previously adopted a policy that identifies DPSCD as a sanctuary district that doesn’t welcome ICE on school grounds.

Sherry Gay Dagnogo, a board member, said that while the board stands with Western and the Southwest Detroit community, “We are cautious in not bringing unnecessary attention that will prevent us moving smoothly in having this issue addressed.”

That wasn’t enough for many of the people who spoke before the board during Tuesday’s meeting, with some suggesting the board is afraid that speaking out will affect the district’s federal funding. One urged a stronger public statement, saying, “It has never worked to cower in the face of fascism.”

Community members, teachers and students listen to public comment at the DPSCD meeting on Tuesday night.

“What we want to see is for this district, for the board, to stand up in the same ways that we’ve seen board members stand up in New York and Massachusetts, in places where we’ve seen other students detained,” said another commenter, Lindsey Matson, the deputy director of 482Forward, a Detroit-based nonprofit focused on education.

By 9:45 p.m., board members indicated they would issue a statement.

“We heard you. We agree with you. But we’ve got to get to work,” Board President Corletta Vaughn said before the board retreated into a closed session in part to write the statement.

They emerged with this:

“The Detroit Public Schools Community District Board of Education stands firmly with our community in demanding the immediate stay of deportation for our student, Maykol Bogoya-Duarte. Maykol is part of our DPSCD family, and we are heartbroken by the fear and disruption this situation has caused his loved ones, classmates, and school community. We call for the immediate release of Maykol and request a formal stay of his deportation. We want him to complete his coursework and graduate with his high school diploma—just as he has worked hard to do. We will also continue to keep in touch with the family and keep the school community updated.”

Those who remained in the auditorium cheered after Vaughn read the statement.

Earlier during the meeting, Maykol’s mother sat in the audience and wept as the latest update on his whereabouts came that evening. She didn’t speak, but she listened through an interpreter as dozens of people hammered school officials to make a statement.

DPSCD board members LaTrice McClendon and Corletta J. Vaughn read a statement asking ICE to release Maykol Bogoya-Duarte so he can complete high school.

Teachers, classmates, politicians show support

Multiple Western International teachers told the board the school community is rattled by his arrest.

Maykol’s teachers who spoke at the meeting said he was a good, hard-working student who wanted to earn his diploma. He made a mistake driving to the field trip, they said, but his punishment should not be imprisonment and deportation.

A student named Abby, who asked to use only her first name because of immigration concerns, told Chalkbeat, “we feel his loss in the school.”

On her first day at Western International, she didn’t know where her classes were, and Maykol led her to them.

He was respectful and gentlemanly, she said, and they soon became friends.

Before the board decided to issue a statement, the teen’s attorney said a show of support from his school would greatly help his immigration case.

Lindsey Matson, the deputy director of 482Forward, speaks about Maykol Bogoya-Duarte’s detention by ICE during the DPSCD meeting on Tuesday night in Detroit.

Maykol, who had been issued a final removal order by an immigration judge in 2024, was going through the legal process to obtain the documents to return to Colombia with his mother. He hoped to earn his high school diploma first and needed 3.5 credits, according to his lawyer, Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.

Immigration advocates urged district officials and Michigan lawmakers, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to condemn Maykol’s arrest and call for his release so he can finish high school. By late Tuesday, they had gathered more than 1,400 signatures on a petition.

U.S. House Rep. Shri Thanedar responded on social media Monday, saying “Maykol should be “released immediately and allowed to get his diploma.”

State Sens. Stephanie Chang, Mary Cavanagh, Sylvia Santana, and Rosemary Bayer released a joint statement on the teen’s arrest Tuesday evening. They called for a stay of deportation for Maykol.

“While awaiting his court hearings, Maykol should be able to live his 18-year-old life in the community,” the statement reads.

Maykol is a ‘very good student,’ his teacher says

On the day of his arrest, Maykol called Abby. Police officers pulled him over on May 20 for allegedly tailgating another car. He had driven with classmates who were also newcomers to try to join a school field trip at Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles from Detroit. District officials have said none of the students in the car had permission to attend the trip.

Abby, who was on the trip, told her teachers Maykol needed help.

One of his teachers who was on the field trip, Kristen Schoettle, said she got a ride from staff at the park to the scene of the traffic stop to try to intervene.

Maykol was not licensed to drive and had only a City of Detroit identification card, according to his attorney. The Rockwood police officers who pulled him over couldn’t speak Spanish and had trouble communicating with him, according to Robinson.

Because of the communication barrier, the officers called Customs and Border Protection, the attorney said.

Maykol was then detained and sent to Chippewa County Correctional Facility around 350 miles north of his home in Detroit, Robinson said, adding that the other students were not arrested.

On Monday, Maykol was moved to the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek, Robinson said.

On Tuesday, Robinson said Maykol was sent to the Pine Prairie Correctional Facility in Louisiana and was being prepared to be sent out of the country.

Schoettle said she helped connect Maykol to an immigration attorney the day of his arrest.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat that district police tried to advocate for Maykol but were limited in what they could do because he was off campus at the time of his arrest.

Schoettle told Chalkbeat it’s important to Maykol to earn his high school diploma. If he attends summer school, he might be able to graduate by the end of the calendar year, she said.

“He was a very good student,” said the teacher. “He asks a lot of questions and puts himself in situations that allow him to be a better learner.”

A lot of the teen’s friends graduated this year, said Schoettle. He was proud of them and wanted to achieve the same for himself.

Maykol’s detention prevented him from celebrating the end of his junior year and the obstacles he overcame. Even though he often worked late night shifts as a hotel doorman, Maykol came to school ready to learn, said Schoettle.

Abby said the arrest made her “really angry.”

“There’s a great sadness knowing he’s not here,” she said.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Lori Higgins is the Detroit bureau chief. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Advocates call on Michigan lawmakers to condemn ICE detention of Detroit student

2025-06-09T22:32:33+00:00

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Maykol Bogoya-Duarte, an 18-year-old undocumented immigrant, had planned to return to Colombia with his mother after he graduated from Western International High School.

With roughly one semester left in school, Maykol began making arrangements to leave the U.S.

But his plans and his education were upended last month when he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Instead of finishing out his junior year this week, the teen is in custody of the federal government and faces an “imminent” risk of deportation, according to his attorney.

Immigration advocates are now calling on Michigan’s governor, several Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation, and Detroit school district leaders to fight for Maykol’s release so he can complete his schooling in the U.S.

“At this time of the year, students should be focused on graduation and summer,” said Ruby Robinson, senior managing attorney with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, who is representing Maykol. “And here we have a student on precious time who is being deported. He should be able to finish his studies.”

Maykol is only 3.5 credits away from graduating, Robinson said, and would likely be able to finish school around the end of the calendar year.

His attorney said he is asking to be released and granted a stay of deportation to see his studies through before returning to Colombia.

Maykol was arrested on May 20 after he attempted to join a school field trip to Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles from Detroit. While driving with three other students in the car, Maykol was pulled over for tailgating another vehicle, said Robinson.

The teen was asked to provide his driver’s license but only had a City of Detroit identification card. Michigan does not currently issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

The local police officers who pulled Maykol over could not speak Spanish and had trouble communicating with him, Robinson said, so they called Customs and Border Protection.

“An important aspect of this story is that local police, instead of relying on internal translation services, were relying on Border Patrol agents to interpret for them,” said Robinson.

The practice of calling on Border Protection for traffic stops with people who can’t speak English could be interpreted as racial profiling, the attorney said.

Randy Krause, chief of the Rockwood Police Department, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maykol, who came to the U.S. at 16, received a final deportation order in 2024. After that, Maykol was working with ICE and the Colombian Consulate to obtain the travel documents he needed to depart the country, according to his attorney.

“We were in compliance with their order,” said Robinson, adding the documents are required in order to board an airplane out of the country. “It takes time for those documents to be generated.”

He was still in the process of arranging to return to Colombia with his mother when he was arrested. It’s unclear if he would have been able to graduate before leaving.

On Monday afternoon, Robinson and Maykol’s family didn’t know where he was. They believed he was being moved from the Chippewa County Correctional Facility to another location early Monday morning, the attorney said.

“We expect when he does reach where he will spend the night tonight, we will be able to find him, or he will be able to make a phone call to us or his mom,” said Robinson.

The attorney said because of the high number of people detained by ICE, the agency places them wherever bed space is available.

“We’re seeing people detained in far parts of Michigan,” he said. “We’re also seeing people being sent to Ohio and other places as well.”

Advocates want Michigan leaders to speak out

By Monday afternoon, nearly 900 people had signed a petition asking Michigan officials to condemn Maykol’s arrest, urge for him to be released to complete his high school education, and “to put preventative policies in place to better support immigrant students and families.”

Three advocacy groups — 482Forward, MI Students Dream, and the People’s Assembly — created the petition.

Lindsey Matson, the deputy director of 482Forward, said the advocacy effort is aimed at raising awareness of the issue and the petition, if it gains traction, will put pressure on those who have the power to intervene.

“Even a statement from the school board will be helpful,” Matson added.

The petition calls for action from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, U.S. House Reps. Shri Thanedar and Rashida Tlaib, and the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Thanedar, in a Monday evening post on X, formerly Twitter, responded to the detention, saying: “ICE should not be detaining high schoolers! Maykol Bogoya-Duarte just needs 3 credits to graduate, but was put in detention by ICE. He should be released immediately and allowed to get his diploma.”

Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the district, told Chalkbeat last week that the school system’s police department had advocated on the student’s behalf.

But the district did not notify students and families of the arrest because Maykol was not “under the protection and responsibility” of the school system when ICE detained him, said Vitti.

Robinson said notification about the incident or future instances like it would provide reassurances to families about how the district responds in these situations.

“I think people are looking for something like that from the school district,” said Robinson.

In addition to advocating for Maykol’s release to allow the teen to finish school, the attorney said the district should ensure its policies and practices support the needs of community members with immigration challenges.

That includes making sure students and staff understand their rights in interactions with law enforcement, he added.

In New York, the detention of a student has gained widespread attention and calls from advocates and political leaders for his release. (A second teen has since been detained.) Similarly, the detention of a teenager in Massachusetts prompted rallies.

Less attention has been paid to Maykol’s plight in comparison.

Matson said his case isn’t less important than what has happened in the other states.

“I feel like Democrats in Michigan have not really stood up for our immigrant population here,” she said.

The advocacy groups calling for Maykol’s release are asking community members to attend the Detroit Public Schools Community District board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Martin Luther King Jr. High School to urge school leaders to make public statements.

Immigration advocates are also encouraging community members to call the offices of state and national lawmakers, as well as ICE.

Lori Higgins is the Detroit bureau chief. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

A Detroit student was arrested by ICE. Students at his school are scared and angry.

2025-06-06T22:29:37+00:00

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Students at Western International High School in Detroit say they are fearful and angry after immigration agents detained one of their classmates last month.

“I just didn’t think it was right,” said Yoselin Luna, a junior at the school. “It’s just sad he has to experience that. It makes me sad because of all the hate.”

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detained the 18-year-old student, whose name has not been released, after he was pulled over on May 20 for a traffic stop by local police. He and three classmates were on their way to join a field trip at Lake Erie Metropark, about 25 miles from Detroit. The other students weren’t arrested.

Western International, the largest high school in Southwest Detroit, is home to a newcomer program that provides academic and social support to families who recently arrived in the U.S., and more than 60% of students at the school are English language learners. In the wake of the arrest, incorrect information around the circumstances circulated in the school. Some students said they wished district officials had informed them about what happened.

In some ways, the arrest shows the limits of what school districts can do to shield students from immigration enforcement. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti told Chalkbeat the Detroit Public Schools Community District did not notify students or families of the arrest because the student was not “under the protection and responsibility of” the district at the time.

Vitti said the 18-year-old skipped school that day and did not have permission to attend the field trip. Neither did the three classmates in his car, he said.

The school district has “done everything it can to protect students” while they are on school grounds, but it is limited in what it can do off campus, Vitti said.

Rockwood police stopped the car about a mile away from the park, the Detroit Free Press first reported.

The student did not have a driver’s license, only a City of Detroit identification card, a spokesperson from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol told Chalkbeat.

The student recently came to the U.S. from Colombia, the Free Press reported. He did not have legal immigration status and a judge had already issued a deportation order before he was arrested, federal officials said.

The local police contacted Border Patrol agents, according to federal officials, and he was put into ICE custody. The 18-year-old was held at the Chippewa County Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula, the Free Press reported. Federal officials didn’t confirm his current location.

District officials are concerned about the student, Vitti said, but couldn’t do much in those circumstances.

“After the student was apprehended, District police engaged the authorities that had the student in custody to ensure his safety and to advocate on his behalf,” said Vitti. “But, ultimately the authorities were following procedure and the law.”

Advocates say the student’s detention is a reminder of the reality educators and families have to contend with as the Trump administration has directed mass deportations.

Christine Sauvé, policy, engagement, and communications manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said families with precarious legal status must routinely make considerations about their safety when performing daily activities others might take for granted, like attending school trips.

“We’re trying to be very clear-eyed and upfront with families when they are trying to make decisions about which risks to take,” she said. “There’s an ever-present risk of local law enforcement agencies cooperating with ICE. It’s difficult news to process, but it’s something we want families to be aware of when making these calculations.”

Some students wish the district told them about the arrest

Several students from Western International who spoke to Chalkbeat said they didn’t hear about their peer’s detention from school administrators. Those who were aware of it heard from their classmates.

“I feel that it’s wrong that not a lot of us know that this happened,” said Jaylin Miller, a junior at Western International.

A senior, who asked not to be named due to fears of immigration enforcement, said he thought the school should have sent out a notification about the incident.

“I wish the principal would have stated it and let the whole school know about it and just keep everyone in touch,” he said.

Some of the students had heard rumors about the circumstances of the arrest, including that immigration agents stopped a school bus. Another thought that all of the students on the trip were asked to show their identification without cause. Both rumors were false.

Another senior, who has family members without legal status and spoke on the basis of anonymity, said the only information he’s received from the school addressing fears about recent changes to immigration enforcement policy was an email in January.

The email informed families about the district’s guidance following the Trump administration ending a decades-old practice of treating schools and child care centers as “sensitive” or “protected” locations where immigration arrests do not typically occur.

District policy requires a judicial warrant and an administrative review process for any entry into a school. But areas around schools, such as parking lots and streets, are public property.

“The District has had no challenges with ICE on our property this school year,” said Vitti, adding the school system’s jurisdiction beyond its property is “limited.”

Southwest Detroit youth are fearful and sad after the arrest

Yoselin, the Western International junior, first heard about her peer’s arrest during chemistry class from another student.

Yoselin said her father was deported from Detroit years ago. Lately, her Instagram feed is filled with videos of parents being separated from their children by immigration agents, she said.

“It’s scary,” said another student from the school who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of family immigration concerns. “For that to happen to one person, it keeps everyone alert, scared.”

The recent arrest of their classmate has made some Western International High School students fearful and angry.

Several youth brought the Western International student’s arrest to the attention of Samantha Magdaleno, executive director of One Michigan for Immigrant Rights.

“All of the students are afraid of what they’re seeing,” she said. “This administration is going after low-hanging fruit — they’re going after a student who was doing his best, going to school, and trying to contribute to society.”

Fear has permeated throughout Southwest Detroit’s large immigrant community since Trump was elected, said Magdaleno.

Across schools in the neighborhood, Vitti said there was a drop in attendance after Trump’s January directive to end the protected location policy for schools, though he did not say how much it declined.

After the district released its guidance, the superintendent said attendance and chronic absenteeism rates at those schools “have largely returned to levels comparable to last year.”

Vitti added it’s clear nonetheless that the president’s rhetoric and executive orders on immigration policy have “negatively impacted student attendance at schools with larger student immigrant populations.”

Reaction to the Western International student’s arrest has been muted in Detroit compared to that of two other recent immigration arrests of high school students in other parts of the country. Those instances garnered national attention, outrage, and protest.

Two weeks ago, a New York City public school student was detained after a routine immigration court date in Manhattan.

Officials from the school immediately got involved, seeking legal aid from various organizations. The principal told students the news and made space for them to share their emotions at school. New York Mayor Eric Adams, who initially distanced himself from the case, voiced his support for the student through a legal brief.

Last week in Massachusetts, ICE detained a high school student on his way to volleyball practice. The superintendent of the district released a public statement decrying the arrest. Many teachers joined protests and the state’s governor said she was “disturbed and outraged.”

The Massachusetts student has been released on bond, while the New York City student remains in detention.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan Senate Democrats won’t consider a trans athlete sports ban. Will Trump target the state?

2025-05-30T21:40:19+00:00

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The Republican-controlled House passed two bills last week that would bar transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams. But Democrats, who control the Senate, say they will not consider the legislation.

“Our legislative agenda is long and attacking kids is not on it,” Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, a Democrat from Grand Rapids, told Chalkbeat in a statement.

Failure to take up the Republican-sponsored bills could draw unwelcome political attention to Michigan at a time when the Trump administration has targeted for investigation states that don’t comply with its view on Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on sex.

Since taking office for the second time, Trump has issued several executive orders targeting the rights of transgender Americans. One in January said the U.S. government would only recognize two genders, male and female, while another issued that month attempted to ban gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. A February executive order called for schools to block trans girls from competing on girls sports teams.

Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that don’t comply with his executive orders.

Executive orders cannot override existing state and federal statutes, though, and there have been legal challenges to the constitutionality of Trump’s executive orders.

But the Trump administration’s threats to states that don’t comply with the order have stoked fears over how he intends to enforce it. Multiple federal agencies opened investigations into Maine this year after a heated exchange between Trump and the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, in which she promised to follow the state’s law protecting transgender rights.

In one of those federal cases, a judge issued an injunction to stop the government from freezing federal funds to the state. But there are two other open cases that have been assigned to the Department of Justice to enforce.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said other states are at risk of losing federal funding for Title IX violations, specifically singling out California and Minnesota. Officials in those states have said their civil rights laws preclude them from complying with Trump’s executive order. Bondi’s office announced Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into California.

Like some other states, Michigan recently expanded state protections from discrimination on the basis of sexuality and gender identity and expression. The expansion of those protections two years ago has long been a signature issue for Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

She signed the expansion of the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in 2023, saying in a statement that “Michigan is a place that will fight for your freedom to be yourself.”

It is possible what has happened in Maine could happen in Michigan, said Nancy Chi Cantalupo, associate professor of law at Wayne State University.

“But what is happening in Maine is in no way a success for the current administration at this point,” she said, noting that the federal government has never withdrawn funds from a state under Title IX or any other civil rights statutes it enforces.

“It’s not like there’s a light switch the federal government can use to just turn off federal funds at its whim,” she said. “There are a lot of steps it has to go through.”

Brinks did not respond to a question about whether she or others in the Democratic Party have concerns Michigan may be targeted by the Trump administration.

Whitmer’s office did not respond to questions about the bills.

In Michigan, a prohibition against trans girls competing on girls sports teams would affect few athletes statewide. The Michigan High School Athletic Association, the private organization that runs the state’s high school sports competitions, said there were no trans girls competing on spring sports teams this year. None played on winter sports teams, while two played on fall teams.

About 25 states have already passed similar laws restricting trans girls from playing on sports teams aligned with their gender identity.

Advocates for transgender rights say sports bills aren’t really about limiting the teams trans girls and women can play on.

“If this bill were just about sports, it wouldn’t be proposed in coordination with all of these other anti-trans bills [nationwide,]” said Kye Campbell-Fox, a research assistant and laboratory manager at Michigan State University, who studies the impact of legislation targeting the rights of trans kids. “This is a coordinated campaign to push trans people out of public life.”

Advocates say trans youth don’t feel safe as their rights are attacked

Though the Michigan bills have effectively died, advocates say lawmakers’ focus on the issue — and the language they often use to talk about trans athletes — is still harmful to all trans children.

The Michigan bills, for example, referred to trans girls as “biological males,” ignoring their gender identities. And some lawmakers have said that the presence of trans girls in locker rooms could lead to sexual violence against other girls.

Rep. Mike Harris, a Republican from Waterford, said during a hearing for the bills that he was concerned about the potential for sexual assault if trans girls use girls locker rooms.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to place biological boys and girls in the same room, to strip down naked next to each other,” he said.

There is no evidence to support the idea that trans girls will assault other girls, though there is evidence that trans populations face increased risks when they use bathrooms according to the sex they were assigned at birth.

Republican lawmakers’ rhetoric has emboldened some students and adults to feel freer to make hateful remarks, and LGBTQ+ youth are being affected by it.

“I’m hearing a lot of fear from youth,” said Jude Krajnyák, a regional coordinator for a research policy project at the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health. “Things everyone else gets to take for granted — like playing soccer in middle school — are rights that are being taken away from us.”

Krajnyák said he heard from a trans girl in middle school who gave up on playing soccer because she said “it’s just not worth” the backlash.

Currently, the Michigan High School Athletic Association determines eligibility for trans girls to play on girls teams on a case-by-case basis. The executive director of the association, Mark Uyl, makes the determination based on a number of factors, including what gender is recorded on the students’ school documents and other paperwork. Students are also asked whether they’ve begun hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries.

“The MHSAA asks for documentation on therapy and surgery as our policy allows for a waiver to be both approved and denied — and part of that decision is based on where in the transitioning process a student is at the time,” Geoff Kimmerly, director of communications for the association, told Chalkbeat.

The policy went into effect in 2012, according to the association. It aligned with federal law during the Obama administration, as well as federal requirements from the Office for Civil Rights during Trump’s first term and Biden’s presidency.

“The MHSAA follows and will continue to follow all applicable state and federal laws,” said Kimmerly in a statement. “We are monitoring developments in this regard closely.”

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Federal library funding cuts could mean the end of services for Michigan K-12 students

2025-05-13T22:50:25+00:00

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Proposed cuts to federal funding for local libraries could end essential services for Michigan students, particularly in rural and impoverished communities, according to state officials.

The Trump administration’s proposed 2025-26 budget would eliminate the federal department that provides funds to state library agencies. The cuts would mean the loss of nearly $4.8 million for the Library of Michigan, as well as grants that support Native American libraries in the state. The funding provides services that support K-12 students, such as early literacy programs, as well as access to the internet, technology, testing materials, tutorials, and online databases.

While most of the state’s library dollars come from local sources, rural, small, and lower-income communities struggle to raise enough revenue to maintain basic services and must rely on federal funds, said Diane Golzynski, deputy superintendent of business, health, and library services for the Michigan Department of Education, during a State Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

Potential cuts to statewide library services come as the number of school librarians in the state are dwindling and gaps in student literacy achievement are widening.

On March 14, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling to eliminate funding for the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services – the largest source of funding for state library agencies– as well as several other agencies.

Since then, 21 states, including Michigan, sued the federal government arguing the cuts would effectively dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services and two other agencies. The complaint argues that the executive order violated federal law because the institutions were created and funded by Congress.

A federal judge earlier this month issued a preliminary injunction in the case, temporarily preventing the cuts.

The Library of Michigan recently was notified it will receive federal funding already granted in a contract through the end of September 2026, said State Librarian Randy Riley during the board meeting.

“But after that, everything’s up for grabs,” he said, adding that the cuts proposed in Trump’s budget “would be terrible for what we do.”

Riley said there’s a risk that the statewide public database services the Library of Michigan provides – including the Michigan eLibrary, which gives access to online books, and the Michigan eLibrary Catalog, which lets residents order physical copies of books from collections in other parts of the state to their local libraries – could end or be significantly altered.

Or, the state might need to increase funding for local libraries to replace potential federal funding shortfalls in the future, Riley said.

The role of Michigan’s 397 local libraries in K-12 literacy has become more important over the years, advocates say, as school libraries have become more rare.

The number of school libraries in the state is unclear. However, data on the number of full-time certified librarians employed by districts suggests funding for school libraries has declined significantly in recent years.

The state ranks 47th in the nation for school librarians per student, according to the most recently available data analysis. The number of school librarians in the state dropped 73% between 2000 and 2016 – one of the biggest declines in the country.

Decades of research show access to well-sourced libraries and certified librarians help improve student outcomes.

In a recent national assessment, Michigan ranked 44th in the nation for fourth-grade reading.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Record number of MI kids reported hospitalized from cannabis in 2024

2025-04-22T15:32:45+00:00

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Brandon and Sarah Reinkensmeyer were getting a relaxing, child-free weekend away. They were traveling out of state for a friend’s wedding, while Sarah’s mom was home with their two kids in Birmingham, Michigan.

And then, on Saturday, they got a call from the hospital.

“I don’t know if it was a nurse who called, or if it was CPS who called us,” Brandon said. “Because CPS got involved at the hospital.”

Their 8-year-old daughter, Olivia, was sick. She’d come home from her brother’s T-ball game at an elementary school in Troy, eaten an entire box of mac and cheese, and then fallen asleep in the middle of the day.

Now her breathing had slowed and she “was not really functional, just like kind of out of it,” Brandon recalled her grandmother telling them. Then her grandmother had taken her to the hospital, where they’d discovered Olivia’s blood oxygen was low, too.

Then the hospital asked Brandon the last question he was expecting: “‘Are you aware that your daughter has THC in her system?’”

That made no sense. Brandon and Sarah Reinkensmeyer don’t use marijuana – it’s not in their home. Sarah’s mom, who was watching the kids, doesn’t use it either. So how had Olivia wound up with so much THC in her system that she was being admitted to the hospital?

“We’re like, ‘What are you talking about? This is crazy,’” Brandon said.

More reported pediatric exposure cases, hospitalizations

In the last five years, the state’s poison control center received about 1,500 reports of kids under the age of 6 being exposed to or ingesting CBD, THC, or other cannabis products.

The center’s data suggests more than 400 were hospitalized, and more than 100 reported cases required critical care. A small handful reportedly experienced seizures or had to be intubated.

There are likely many more cases than poison control reports show because doctors and parents may not call poison control when exposures happen. But poison control often doesn’t get blood testing information, so they can’t verify whether cannabis was actually involved in every report. And research is mixed on whether marijuana legalization led to increases in cannabis ingestions by kids.

“A lot of people just don’t even realize that cannabis can do this to little kids,” said Dr. Meredith Sharp, a pediatric hospitalist at Henry Ford St. John Hospital in Detroit, who says they see multiple kids who’ve ingested cannabis in the ER each month.

“The way they process things is different. They’re much smaller. So a dose that you would normally give to an adult … could be really dangerous for a kid.”

When small children find these sweet-tasting products, they can quickly consume multiple adult-sized servings. “Certainly the amount of gummies that’s in a pack could be enough for a toxic dose to land a kid in the hospital,” Dr. Sharp said. “But even just like a couple of gummies can honestly be enough.”

The most common symptoms for THC ingestion in kids are lethargy, confusion, poor coordination, nausea, and vomiting, according to a 2022 review published in the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians. More severe symptoms include abnormally slow heart rates, low blood pressure, seizures, and difficulty breathing.

ER doctors in Michigan say these cases have become increasingly common in recent years.

“We started to see this sort of wave of kids who came in with altered mental status, parents saying they’re not acting right, or ‘I can’t wake them up,’” Dr. Erica Michiels, an emergency medicine physician and the chair of pediatrics at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, told Michigan Public in November.

“These kids show up looking potentially extremely sick, and really require all of our resuscitative efforts to save their lives,” Michiels said.

One of the challenges of cannabis ingestions in very small children, is that the symptoms may mimic potentially life-threatening illnesses that doctors need to urgently rule out, often through invasive testing. That can include CT scans, which expose a child’s brain to radiation, in order to rule out brain bleeds, Michiels said, or lumbar punctures (also known as spinal taps) that take a sample of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord, “to make sure we’re not dealing with meningitis.”

“Parents also don’t come in very often volunteering that they think their child just ate an entire pack of edibles,” Michiels said. “So we’re often working with parents who are afraid to tell us what’s wrong. And oftentimes they themselves don’t know, because there’s a lot of information out there that’s incorrect about the effects of marijuana.”

Parents are often scared when they come in, Henry Ford’s Sharp said, because they don’t know what’s wrong with their child. And when they realize it’s edibles, “a lot of them feel very guilty,” she said. “The good news is that these kids do become well again. And after the effects wear off, all the kids that I’ve seen in my experience, go on to live happy, healthy lives afterwards.”

Loopholes, lack of enforcement allows cannabis marketed to kids

That was thankfully the case for the Reinkensmeyers’ daughter, Olivia. After a difficult night in the hospital (where she told her parents she had “really bad dreams,”) Olivia came home and recovered fully.

She told her parents that at her brother’s T-ball game, she and three other younger children had eaten a bag of candy that “tasted funny.”

As the oldest, Olivia oversaw matters so no one felt deprived. “They went to go sit and play picnic or tea time or whatever it was, and Olivia’s making sure that everyone got” the same number of gummies, Brandon said. “Like, ‘Hey, you get one, you get one, I get one,’ kind of thing.”

Brandon started calling the other parents on the T-ball team: Who was on snack duty? Had anyone seen anything?

One of the parents found an empty bag in the trash they’d collected at the game, Brandon said: marijuana edibles in packaging that looked just like a popular candy.

“It looks exactly like Sour Patch Kids,” Brandon recalled. “It’s really scary, actually, how crazy it looks.” He wondered: “How in the heck is this even legal in the state of Michigan?”

Technically, it’s not.

State regulations require Michigan’s $3 billion dollar marijuana industry to use child-resistant packaging and prohibit the sale of edibles that look like candy. But industry experts and regulators say it’s still too easy to buy copycat candy products from unlicensed online retailers, and there’s minimal enforcement of unlicensed marijuana products sold at local smoke shops, gas stations, and liquor stores, some of which allegedly sell to minors.

Last year, Detroit Public Schools Community District released a public letter to lawmakers about a surge in “the proliferation and consumption of marijuana edibles and vape pens” at school. The letter included a photo, provided by the Detroit Police Department, of edibles packaged to look like familiar candy brands: Skittles, Nerds rope, Jolly Ranchers, Sour Patch Kids, and Starbursts.

“When you see something like that, you know it’s illegal, because that’s not sanctioned by the state,” said Kim James, director of Detroit’s Office of Cannabis Affairs.

James says her own staff noticed unregulated products being sold at a liquor store near city hall.

They bought a bag of strawberry banana “Indica Clusters,” containing six gummies with a total of 600 mg THC, the psychoactive component. That’s 400 mg more than the 200 mg total maximum THC concentration the state allows in a single marijuana-gummy container.

Part of the issue is the “gray market” that’s sprung up since the 2018 U.S. farm bill legalized industrial hemp, a type of cannabis that has a delta-9 (a type of THC) concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis. Industrial hemp has a wide variety of uses, from bioplastics to textiles.

Since then, some industrial producers have chemically altered hemp to have higher concentrations of other types of THC, like delta-8 or delta-10. That means these products can still get you high, but producers argue they’re technically legal under the federal farm bill.

“The market for these products has exploded,” said John Fraser, the lead Michigan cannabis industry attorney for Dykema law. “These are big companies that are out there, and they’re making money and they’re basically unregulated.”

In response, Michigan expanded its definitions of marijuana in 2021 to include all types of THC, in an attempt to regulate these products. “But right now, we kind of have this disjointed framework,” Fraser said. “And without any kind of organized enforcement, these products continue to be sold in Michigan.”

The Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency has proposed draft rules that would provide “even more stringent potency requirements,” said Robin Schneider, executive director of the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association.

“And I think the majority of our members do support that. Because they don’t want accidental overdoses. But we can only do what we can do in our market. The enforcement needs to happen on the unlicensed hemp products that are being shipped into our state from other states that don’t have all of the safety requirements. And that’s a big point of frustration for us.”

Adults should lock up edibles to keep away from children

Even legal marijuana edibles can still look and taste like candy to little kids who find them at home, a friend’s house, or school, experts say. Some local health departments in Michigan have given away free lockboxes and lock bags as part of public awareness campaigns to encourage parents to lock up all marijuana in the home.

When a story appeared on WXYZ news about the Reinkensmeyers’ daughter and the other children at the T-ball game, the comments on social media either downplayed the kids’ symptoms or blamed the parents, Brandon and Sarah said.

“We weren’t even there when it happened, and we weren’t sure even how it happened,” Brandon said. “And then just minimizing the effects of THC on anyone, and [saying] that that would never happen, this is exaggerated. And it was just awful.”

The dismissal was what rankled most, Brandon said. “How can you think this? These are children. Their bodies are very different than adults. And do you even know what that means, like a 40 pound [child] to [consume] 20mg [of THC?] That’s staggering.”

But Sarah says it also got posted on a local mom’s page, and the parents there were really grateful for the heads up, saying they didn’t realize kids could get so sick.

Data reporting contributed by Adam Yahya Rayes.

Kate Wells is a Peabody Award-winning journalist currently covering public health for Michigan Public. She was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize finalist for her abortion coverage.

Michigan parents of students with disabilities feel ‘hopeless’ as civil rights cases remain in limbo

2025-04-14T10:00:00+00:00

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There was a time George Finley Jr. was on the honor roll.

After the seventh grader started having epileptic seizures a couple of years ago, he experienced memory loss. Now, he’s far behind where he should be academically. The Detroit Public Schools Community District agreed in November to pay for outside tutoring to help him catch up, records show.

That still hasn’t happened, and the school year is near its end.

“My son is not progressing,” said his mother, Sheri King.

She was close to getting an answer from the district. But the Trump administration gutted the U.S. Department of Education’s workforce weeks later, and the civil rights attorney who was helping facilitate King’s communication with George’s school stopped responding to her emails. His position, along with hundreds of others, was eliminated. With new leadership, the department shuttered more than half of its regional civil rights enforcement offices, which had investigated and resolved complaints for decades. Now, remaining offices must take on the backlog of cases.

King is in the same position as many families in Michigan and across the country. Parents of students with disabilities and those who experience racial discrimination or sexual violence in schools are uncertain of the fate of their federal complaints. Many say they have not gotten updates on their cases since the regional offices closed. Some, like King, fear what the future will look like for their children.

Hundreds of federal civil rights cases were put on hold after President Donald Trump took office in January. On Feb. 20, Craig Trainor, now the deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Office for Civil Rights, ended the pause on cases that solely dealt with disability discrimination. Staff were still told not to pursue race- and sex-based discrimination cases. At the same time, under new guidance, targeted investigations of school programs that promote diversity and policies that support transgender students were initiated.

Sheri King and her son, George, pose for a portrait in Detroit.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon lifted the freeze on all cases on March 6. However, the department laid off the staff of seven of its 12 civil rights enforcement offices on March 12. The closures included the Cleveland office, which handled cases for Michigan and Ohio.

Advocates said the move effectively decimated the department’s workforce and sabotaged its ability to enforce civil rights protections for students.

Former attorneys at the Department of Education said the nearly 50% reduction in staff will undoubtedly add to an existing backlog of cases.

“The reality is, cases aren’t moving, period,” one former Cleveland office staff attorney told Chalkbeat on the condition of anonymity due to fears of retribution.

The gutting of the department added to an existing backlog of thousands of open complaints. In Michigan alone, there are currently 782 civil rights cases under investigation, according to the department’s list of records published online. Of those, 462 are disability discrimination cases. Those investigations were opened before the dramatic changes to the department.

Michigan special education advocates said many of the parents they work with have not heard updates on their cases. Some had pending mediation hearing dates with their districts scheduled that have since passed.

Jacquelyn Binford, whose son, Rocco, is in first grade in Chippewa Valley Schools, was scheduled to have a mediation hearing on March 19 for a complaint she filed in December 2023. She hoped the district would agree to provide more occupational therapy to help her son develop his motor skills.

The district’s representative never responded to confirm the hearing date.

Since then, all of Michigan’s cases were assigned to the federal department’s Denver office. Binford said she hasn’t gotten any updates about the case.

“Here we are now,” Binford said. “This could have already been resolved.”

Chippewa Valley Schools did not respond to a request for comment on Binford’s case.

Detroit Public Schools Community District officials said they “respect the challenges that all parents with students” with individualized education programs, or IEPs, have.

The district said it will continue to “problem solve through the challenges they are facing to ensure their children succeed in school with the limited resources the District receives to educate each child with an IEP.”

Critical services, safety at stake for children, workers say

The Office for Civil Rights is charged with investigating and enforcing federal protections for students in K-12 schools, as well colleges and universities. It also facilitates mediations to come to voluntary agreements between parties.

The department is mandated to promptly investigate and resolve complaints against local and state education agencies as an impartial third party.

The federal laws it seeks compliance with include Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which ensures students with disabilities have a right to equal access to educational opportunities and services.

Quickly resolving complaints is crucial to the safety and educational outcomes of many children, former federal workers say.

“There could be a kid staying at home because they’re the survivor of sexual assault and there are no measures in place to ensure their safety,” the former Cleveland staff member said. “Or there could be a student with a behavior plan that’s not being implemented and that student is being restrained.”

Before his departure, the attorney said there was a case close to mediation that involved a high school student in a juvenile detention facility. The complaint alleged the facility did not have the special education services that would allow the child to graduate.

“I did feel like there could be a pathway to see this kid graduate,” the attorney said. “We had to cancel mediation because we were told not to do any communication with schools.”

Because the department missed the opportunity to intervene before the end of the school year, the attorney said the window to help the student graduate is gone.

A large part of the work of attorneys at the Cleveland office fell outside of investigations and mediations to reach early resolutions, another former staff member told Chalkbeat.

George Finley Jr. and his mother, Sheri King, hold hands.

In King’s case, a mediation agreement was already made. But, the mother told the attorney who was assigned to her original complaint that the district was not complying with the tutoring portion of the agreement.

The attorney was in the process of finding the point of contact in the district to finalize George’s enrollment and payment for the tutoring program before the Cleveland office was shuttered.

Binford said while she waits for an answer from Chippewa Valley Schools about whether they will provide in-school occupational therapy for Rocco, he struggles to keep up with his peers in gym class. He still needs help developing his muscles to open and close zippers, write, and cut food.

Michigan families are also awaiting the outcome of an Office for Civil Rights investigation that found the Michigan Department of Education allegedly violated the rights of students with disabilities during COVID-era school closures.

The state agency was accused of repeatedly giving incorrect information about students’ rights to parents and schools, according to legal filings. The federal investigation also alleged the state agency knew districts were failing to provide services to students with disabilities.

The federal investigation alleged students at the Michigan School for the Deaf, which is operated by the Michigan education agency, had their instructional time reduced by 43% during the 2020-21 school year. Students didn’t get speech language pathology, social work, or visual impairment consultation services for long periods of time, according to the federal agency.

The complaint seeks compensatory services for all students with disabilities in the state who were denied adequate educational support during that time.

Attorneys for the agency asked multiple times for the case to be thrown out. The Office for Civil Rights accused the state agency of attempting to shield itself from scrutiny and said in case filings it had not provided any proof that its alleged violations have been remedied.

Marcie Lipsitt, a special education advocate who filed the initial complaint against the state agency, said the administrative law judge assigned to the case was not impacted by the cuts to the Department of Education. She said a final hearing date for the administrative judge to issue a ruling has not yet been set.

“We’re still waiting every day to see what happens,” said Lipsitt.

The Michigan Department of Education has denied any wrongdoing.

Caseloads have doubled since federal cuts, former staff say

The federal Department of Education handles thousands of cases each year. In 2024, it received nearly 23,000 complaints.

Now that 240 staff members at the Office for Civil Rights have been laid off, those who remain are saddled with more than double their usual caseloads, according to former Cleveland attorneys.

Staff working at the regional offices that are still open also will have to learn the idiosyncrasies of state-specific laws. The attorneys who were laid off took with them decades of institutional knowledge, according to former staff.

A federal lawsuit filed on March 13 against the Education Department, Trainor, and McMahon, alleges the agency’s “complaint and investigation processing functions have fallen under attack.”

Two parents and the nonprofit association Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, including two Michigan members, are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege the department “has abdicated its responsibility to enforce civil rights protections, leaving students who should be able to trust and rely on their government to protect and defend their rights to instead endure discriminatory and unsafe learning environments without recourse.”

The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

Michigan families say they have run out of options

Many families feel they have run out of options after years of fighting for their children to receive appropriate education and support.

Lyn Hollister, mother of twins in ninth grade in Tri County Area Schools, filed federal complaints in February and still hasn’t heard anything about their statuses.

Shelbie, Hollister’s daughter who has autism and mild cognitive impairment, is still waiting for the district to modify her curriculum to focus on life and job skills. As she waits, Shelbie is suffering from mental health issues because of the stress to meet grade level standards.

Last week, the district agreed to put Hollister’s other daughter, Makenzie, who has cognitive impairment and severe cerebral palsy, on a track to receive a high school completion certificate instead of a diploma. The change will allow Makenzie to get more thorough transition services after high school, her mother said.

Hollister requested the same for Shelbie but is still fighting for the change.

“When your child comes home on certain days they have struggled and wrap their arms around you crying because they are so overwhelmed that day because of what is put on them, you just break down,” she said. “And your hands are tied.”

A representative for Tri County Area Schools declined to comment on Hollister’s case.

Hollister said she plans on moving her daughters to another school in the fall. They qualify for a Section 105c waiver, which will allow them to attend a school outside of their district.

“We’re hoping in this new district, they can finally have a team to support our children to be the best that they can be,” she said.

Mother and son Sheri King and George Finley Jr. embrace for a portrait.

King, the Detroit mother, said if she could afford to, she would move to another part of the state in hopes of finding a district that might provide a better outcome for George.

Options like private school wouldn’t work for Rocco, said Binford.

“I worry he would be forgotten about,” she said. “They don’t have the resources or the training to support him in a private school. We really do rely on the public education system.”

In some cases, complaints filed with the federal department can be handled by state or local agencies. That depends on what protections states have covered in their own civil rights laws.

In Michigan, the state education agency’s Office of Special Education enforces compliance with parts of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and state law. The office investigates and mediates state-level complaints. Complaints can also be filed with local intermediate school districts.

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights enforces the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which includes protections from discrimination based on gender, sexuality, religion, race. It also enforces the state’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act.

Binford said since she hasn’t heard anything back from the federal office, she was advised by an advocate to make a mediation appointment with Macomb Intermediate School District.

Another avenue for parents are lawsuits. However, legal cases are costly and timely. The standard of proof in the court system is also higher than in administrative proceedings.

King said after years of fighting for her son, she is left with limited choices.

“I feel hopeless,” she said. “I don’t know where to go from here.”

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan leaders push back on Trump’s attacks on DEI

2025-03-19T22:12:59+00:00

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The Michigan Senate this week passed a resolution to encourage schools and other institutions to adopt and uphold the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The move comes as some education leaders in the state have pushed back on President Donald Trump’s attempt to withhold federal funding from public K-12 schools that teach “discriminatory equity ideology” or “gender ideology.” The resolution was approved a week after the State Board of Education took its own action to support diversity in schools.

The resolution, introduced by state Sen. Stephanie Chang, a Democrat from Detroit, recognized diversity, equity, and inclusion,or DEI, as “essential foundational principles for achieving the American Dream.” It calls on educational institutions — as well as other entities across the state and the nation — to continue such efforts.

“As attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion continue at the federal level, we must remind ourselves that we’re not talking about an acronym — say each word and consider its impact for real people,” said Chang during the Tuesday afternoon Senate session. “We must consider our values and our responsibility to every Michigander, no matter who they are.”

Chang listed examples of DEI, including inclusive education for students with disabilities, Black history month programs on college campuses, and LGBTQ+ student centers.

The Senate voted along party lines, 19 to 18, to pass the resolution.

State Sen. Aric Nesbitt, a Republican from Lawton, said during the session he would vote against the resolution because the body should be focused on “real priorities.”

“We all want hardworking Michiganders to succeed, but not through a system that sacrifices merit for discriminatory quotas,” he said.

Resolutions are not laws and can be used in the Michigan legislature to call attention to issues.

Since Trump issued an executive order seeking to ban from schools anything “that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups” rather than as individuals, experts have questioned its legality and how it would be enforced in local schools.

Craig Trainor, the U.S. Department of Education’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter that schools taking steps to enroll more students of color and hire more diverse staff would be investigated.

The Education Department announced last week it is investigating 45 schools, including Michigan universities, for offering programs and scholarships with eligibility based on students’ race.

Federal officials alleged the schools are violating the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin.

Michigan leaders have pushed back against the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI and attempts to ban lessons on race and racism.

Last week, the Democratically controlled State Board of Education passed a resolution “defending public education, civil rights, and democracy against executive orders and directives that threaten children and communities.”

The resolution, introduced by Democratic Board President Pamela Pugh, condemned Trump’s executive orders related to schools as “attacks on educational access.” It also asked the legislature to enact state-level protections for DEI, special education funding, and local control of curriculum.

The board’s resolution, which passed 5-2, asked local districts to maintain DEI within existing legal frameworks and to continue to provide safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environments.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Rice, center, during a recent State Board of Education meeting.

Michigan’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Rice said last month Trump’s executive order would not impact efforts to incorporate curriculum that reflects diverse perspectives.

Rice also sent a memo to local school leaders clarifying the Michigan Department of Education’s stance on the federal “Dear Colleague” letter.

Citing the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act in the memo, Rice said educators must provide an education to every student, regardless of race, religion, or national origin.

The state superintendent also listed examples of DEI in Michigan’s public schools, such as diversity in literature, comprehensive history, grow-your-own student teacher programs, student advisory councils, and language access.

Rice said those efforts don’t discriminate on the basis of race but expand opportunities for students.

Rice also noted multiple federal laws prohibit the Department of Education from exercising control over local schools.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan LGBTQ+ students fear ripple effects of Trump’s political rhetoric

2025-03-07T12:00:00+00:00

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Sebastian Eaton-Ellison doesn’t feel safe in his school.

The gender-fluid 12th grader at West Senior High School said other students relentlessly bully him. They call him homophobic slurs on a regular basis. They have thrown rocks at him. Two pushed him up against a wall in a bathroom and choked him.

Last month, he chose to speak out publicly for the first time about the harassment he’s experienced since middle school, doing so at the Traverse City Area Public Schools board meeting. Moments before he got up to the podium, another speaker denied Sebastian’s identity and declared President Donald Trump “was right” when he said there were “only two genders: male and female.”

“A lot of people say I’m confused or unnatural,” Sebastian said to the board. “This has been happening to me since 10 or 11. And the whole time, I knew many of those in power either supported it or did not care.”

Groups and individuals have voiced homophobic and transphobic rhetoric in northern Michigan communities like Sebastian’s for years. But many students say they see more people emboldened in expressing those views since Trump won his second term as president, much as they did after the election in 2016. They fear the direct impact of Trump’s policies — which include a flurry of executive orders aimed at curtailing the rights of transgender students — as well as the ripple effects of his dehumanizing language.

Sebastian Eaton-Ellison, 17, sits for a portrait at a coffee shop in Traverse City.

The recent attacks on LGBTQ+ student protections come at a time when the same kids are already disproportionately impacted by the ongoing youth mental health crisis because of the stigma, discrimination, harassment, and violence they face.

“Students thought they were raised in an environment where they get to have more freedoms than their parents,” said Carrie Fiocchi, rural community outreach coordinator for the advocacy group Equality Michigan. “Instead, their rights are being squashed and they feel powerless.”

Skyler Eisele, a nonbinary 16-year-old in the Marquette Area Public Schools district, said they “feel scared people will be more confident deadnaming me or misgendering me.”

Advocates say the executive orders could harm LGBTQ+ youth

Trump made his opposition to transgender rights a centerpiece of his campaign. In the days since he took office again, he’s signed several executive orders targeting LGBTQ+ students and their families.

Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 28 that attempts to ban gender-affirming health care for all transgender youth under age 19. Another signed that day threatens to stop federal funding for local schools that promote “gender ideology,” which could include allowing transgender students to use bathrooms or participate in sports teams consistent with their gender identities. On Jan. 30, he signed another order that said the U.S. government will only recognize two genders, male and female.

The executive orders are not law, and some already face legal challenges. The directives are, however, causing confusion and creating real effects in some cases, such as one Michigan hospital temporarily pausing gender-affirming hormone therapy for new minor patients.

Trump’s administration has already threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine for its statewide protections for transgender athletes. The U.S. Department of Education said it will investigate a Denver public school and several school districts in northern Virginia over restroom access for transgender students.

A seagull flies over Grand Traverse Bay, left, and Sebastian Eaton-Ellison.

“These executive orders really are aiming at doing harm to these young people,” said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ Project.

Kaplan said Michigan schools must still comply with the state’s existing laws, including the Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act.

“We have comprehensive civil rights protections for transgender students in our state,” he said. “We believe taking those actions in the executive order violates those laws.”

Additionally, Kaplan said the executive orders don’t allow the federal government to take away funding already committed to public schools by Congress.

A coalition of state attorneys general on Wednesday issued new guidance noting schools have a legal responsibility to develop and execute plans to protect students vulnerable to harassment on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.

Taryn Gal, executive director of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, a nonprofit advocacy group, worries local districts might still “preemptively censor” their existing policies, even though there is no law requiring them to do so.

Before Trump was inaugurated, a federal judge axed Title IX protections for transgender students, which were added by the Biden administration in 2024. Trump was expected to rescind the rules when he took office.

Conservative activists recently filed Title IX complaints against four Michigan school districts — Rochester Community Schools, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Hartland Consolidated Schools, and Mt. Pleasant Public Schools — because they claim the districts' policies on gender identity violate federal law.

Since Trump took office, health data, guidance, and resources for schools on how to best support LGBTQ+ students have been removed from federal websites.

Downtown Traverse City shops and restaurants along East Front St.

Creating affirming and safe spaces for youth is potentially life-saving, data from surveys by the nonprofit advocacy group the Trevor Project suggest. The opposite is also true, with more youth reporting suicidality in environments where they don’t feel safe.

“It makes people feel like they can’t be themselves,” said Skyler, the Marquette student. “It’s like people get more closed off from their community.”

Gal said politics can have the same effect.

“We know that 89% of LGBTQ+ students in Michigan reported that recent politics negatively impacted their sense of well-being,” she said.

Michigan Republican lawmakers introduced anti-transgender bathroom and high school sports bills in past sessions. There are several such bills up for consideration now, though they will likely not move forward in the Democratically controlled state government.

Xye Fiocchi, a gender-nonconforming 10th grader in Ishpeming Public Schools, said though Trump’s executive order on gender may seem “ridiculous,” it can’t be ignored.

“It sets a path for people to be more confident when repeating this,” they said.

LGBTQ+ students could be afraid to go to school, state officials say

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Rice sent a memo last month to local school leaders reminding them of their legal and moral responsibility to educate and welcome LGBTQ+ youth, which include around 1 in 4 students.

Rice said in an interview with Chalkbeat he is concerned schools could become less safe for LGBTQ+ students because of the new federal policies — and that students could feel apprehensive about going to school at a time when the state already has a problem with chronic absenteeism.

“We wanted to remind our educators we care deeply about our children — all of our children — that they all have rights,” Rice said of the memo.

The state has a number of existing legal protections in place for LGBTQ+ students, as well as recommendations like the State Board of Education’s anti-bullying policy model for local districts and its guidance on safe and supportive learning environments.

Gal said some Michigan school systems and intermediate school districts have sent out statements of support for LGBTQ+ students in recent days.

Traverse City West Senior High School in Traverse City.

Sebastian, the Traverse City teen, said he experiences both support and discrimination in his community, where liberal and conservative values tend to clash.

He sees the contrast play out at school everyday: There are safe spaces, such as the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, but he often finds an anti-gay slur written in the dust on the window of his car in the school parking lot.

Sebastian feels most of his teachers are affirming, but he said some school administrators ignore his complaints about bullying.

John VanWagoner, superintendent of Traverse City Area Public Schools, said in an email after this story originally published on Friday that the district “takes all reports of bullying seriously.” He added students can report incidents online or in person.

“Every report is investigated thoroughly and in alignment with our board policies,” he said, though he didn’t respond to questions about specific incidents.

Xye said schools should offer more training for teachers on how to address the issues LGBTQ+ youth face.

“A lot of teachers have no idea what to do when a student comes to them and says, ‘Hey, I’m being bullied for being queer, and I’m depressed,’” they said. “That tends to feel very invalidating.”

Wiley Steeland, a bisexual student in Marquette, said more teachers should intervene to stop bullying.

“It’s a small thing they can do,” she said. “Knowing you can go to a teacher to deal with homophobia in the student body is really helpful.”

A suburban area outside of downtown Traverse City.

LGBTQ+ students are speaking up

LGBTQ+ youth say the increase in hate speech from adults and peers since the election will have a lasting impact on them.

Skyler, the Marquette student, said there’s been more kids in their school saying “your body, my choice.” Wiley said more students in her school are using the word “gay” as an insult.

Xye said a car full of students recently screamed a homophobic slur at one of their friends walking home from school.

“I’m really fearful how this is going to affect the future,” said Wiley.

But just as students report escalating hostility, some say they’ve also seen more people willing to speak out against hate. The painful political rhetoric is fueling a desire among some youth to seek justice and an end to the trauma they endure.

Sebastian, for example, said the tension in his community made him want to bring awareness to the violence he’s survived for years. He wants adults to stop turning a blind eye to it.

“I wanted to stir up more of a movement,” he said. “I want people thinking and talking about this more.”

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

After years of advocacy, foster youth say Michigan schools still need to fix a key systemic problem

2025-02-12T01:18:58+00:00

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Students in Michigan’s foster care system are still routinely denied access to their school records, despite years of raising concerns about the problem.

On Tuesday, foster youth and advocates told the State Board of Education they want the Michigan Department of Education and lawmakers to address the systemic problem by requiring schools to provide immediate access to transcripts, creating a centralized statewide database of records, and forming a multi-department taskforce to lead reform efforts.

Foster youth have lost years of education because they could not find or access their records, as NBC News first reported in 2022.

“This isn’t just a broken system — it’s a betrayal of the very youth it was meant to present,” Donella Anderson, a foster youth, said during Tuesday’s board meeting. “And every day that passes without action is another day that we are left behind — another day I am left behind.”

There are an estimated 10,000 kids in foster care in Michigan, but the total number is unknown because many go uncounted, advocates say. For example, people ages 18 to 23 who are still eligible to receive state services are not included in that count.

Michigan foster youth have a high school graduation rate of around 40% — about 40 percentage points behind the state’s overall graduation rate. That figure doesn’t include youth who drop out or complete high school in residential facilities.

Three bills signed into law last year addressed some of the issues that foster youth brought to the attention of legislators. One required residential facilities to enroll students in school within five days of placement and to provide an education that meets the state’s graduation requirements.

Another bill required the MDE to oversee residential facilities’ schooling programs and enforce compliance with the new education requirements.

The other required the MDE, the MDHHS, and the state Center for Educational Performance and Information to track the number of children in foster care, where they are, and how they’re progressing in their education. That information must be reported to the legislature.

Many of the youth who helped inspire those bills said at the board meeting they feel unheard after years of advocating and sharing their own traumatic stories.

“I cannot stand here today without addressing the reality that is weighing on me and so many others,” said Alyssa Andrews, one of the former foster youth who helped advocate for the recent legislation. “It feels like not only have you stolen our voice, but you have also taken our accomplishments and celebrate them without us. The work, the advocacy, the relentless fight, it came from us.”

Trinity Jones approaches the State Board of Education to make a public comment during Tuesday's meeting.

Bob Wheaton, director of the MDE’s Office of Public and Governmental Affairs, said in an email Tuesday the department appreciated the youth sharing their experiences during the meeting.

“We will continue to do what we can to support positive educational outcomes,” he said. “Youth experiencing foster care across the state deserve a partnership involving MDE, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), intermediate school districts, local school districts, and advocates to ensure implementation of new state statute that provides these students with educational opportunities.”

Wheaton added Michigan schools must follow a current state law that requires districts request in writing transfer students’ records from their previous schools within 14 days of their enrollment.

“MDE is working with MDHHS to implement the new laws and to ensure that existing laws are followed for the benefit of these children,” said Wheaton.

“The department supports additional changes to state law to better support children who are experiencing foster care, the juvenile justice system, or homelessness,” he added.

Tuesday’s outcry was prompted in part by a presentation given by the education department about its efforts to uplift the voices of foster youth.

Advocates and kids from Park West, a Michigan nonprofit that supports foster youth and advocated for the legislative changes, felt the MDE’s attempt at centering youth voices in a new initiative was shallow and would not bring any real change.

“Instead of doing real work, they spend more time co-opting, you know, and making it look like something is happening,” said Saba Gebrai, program director at Park West.

Advocates say Michigan schools don’t interact with the courts and the MDHHS to establish who holds parental educational rights for children in the foster system.

This means that schools aren’t sure who to share educational records with – birth parents, foster parents, or other family members. And that leaves kids in limbo.

Tiffany D. Tilley, member of the State Board of Education (center), speaks with foster youth and advocates outside of the meeting on Tuesday.

Teenagers who opt to get jobs and support themselves can’t get their transcripts because they are not recognized as their own guardians. Many have to wait until they turn 18 to see their records.

Alexia Roberts, a foster youth who wanted to speak Tuesday but wasn’t called on during public comment, wasn’t able to access her transcripts after she was kicked out of her home by a relative when she was in 11th grade.

“The principal, office staff, and teachers were not aware who my educational rights holder was,” she wrote in a speech she prepared ahead of time. “My parents were unable to check about my progress or anything from my schooling period.”

Roberts said she had to wait until she turned 18 to get her transcripts to enroll in an alternative high school.

Saba Gebrai speaks during the Michigan State Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

Requiring the immediate transfer of school records was a key piece left out of the bills, said Gebrai.

That piece could have been included in the legislation, but it wasn’t due to a lack of collaboration on the MDE’s part, Gebrai said.

While a change to the law is needed, Gebrai said the MDE could provide guidance to districts to make transcripts immediately available.

Gebrai said the youth she works with have researched solutions other states have found to the same problems. They don’t understand why Michigan can’t do the same.

“There’s no interest or there’s no real direction,” she said. “The need is there and the solution is there. Why not? What’s the holdup?”

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

ACLU, Michigan immigration attorneys release guidelines for schools amid Trump’s policy changes

2025-02-05T20:51:07+00:00

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Advocates and attorneys are encouraging Michiganders to call on their local school boards to adopt specific policies around interacting with immigration enforcement officials and protecting student privacy.

In the wake of the Trump administration’s changes to federal immigration policy, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center last week sent a letter to superintendents outlining best practices their districts should follow.

Refraining from asking students and parents about their immigration status, educating families about their rights, and requiring school security officers to commit to not arresting students for misdemeanors were among the recommendations.

“We ask that community members go to your school board meetings, talk to your school, and ask them to put these protocols in place and do internal training so everyone understands them,” said Elly Jordan, managing attorney for the Michigan Immigration Rights Center, during a virtual press conference Wednesday.

The Michigan Department of Education encouraged districts to review the letter with their attorneys, Rané Garcia, the agency’s director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, said during the virtual meeting.

The MDE also sent two memos to districts last month, advising them of their legal responsibility to provide public education to students regardless of their immigration status. The memos also remind school leaders of legal limitations to sharing student information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Many immigrant parents in Michigan and across the country fear it is not safe to send their kids to school since the Trump administration ended the decades-old practice of treating schools and child care centers as “sensitive” or “protected” locations.

On Jan. 21, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced its reversal of the 2021 version of the policy, which added places like after-school programs and playgrounds to the “sensitive” locations.

What does the ACLU and MIRC guidance say schools should do?

Stop requesting documentation for enrollment, other than proof of residency, age, and immunization history.
Allow families to establish residency in the district in multiple ways, such as a lease agreement, mortgage, utility bills, or pay stubs.
Establish a protocol for collecting additional documentation after a student is enrolled.
Don’t request students’ social security numbers.
Review policies around enrolling children without any records to ensure compliance with the McKinney-Ventro Homeless Assistance Act, which gives children the right to start going to school immediately without proof of address.
Remind families they may opt out of disclosing contact information for directories.
Require a valid judicial warrant, court order, or subpoena, for law enforcement or immigration officers to access student records or school grounds.
Define security camera footage inside of school buildings as educational records.
Develop specific protocols for interactions with immigration and law enforcement officers and train all school staff on the procedures.
Require school security or resource officers to commit to not asking students or families about their immigration status, not taking immigration enforcement actions, and not entering students into gang databases. The guidance also recommends that school officers confirm they will not collect any intelligence records on students, arrest students for any misdemeanor offense, and avoid arresting or citing students whenever possible.
Provide families with “know your rights” guides.
Send letters to families letting them know the district is a welcoming place and outlining school policies.
Remind parents they should update emergency contact information for their children in case they cannot pick them up. (For undocumented parents, this is necessary to avoid their children being turned over to protective services in the event they are detained.)
Have an employee at each school to whom students know they can report harassment or discrimination.

Concerns about absenteeism

Jordan said during the press conference the act of reversing the “sensitive locations” policy will have a chilling effect, regardless of whether immigration enforcement is actually carried out at or near schools.

“Even some U.S. citizen children are afraid to go to school and participate in sports after school activities and nutritional programs that promote their well-being,” she said.

Last month, state Superintendent Michael Rice told Chalkbeat he is “deeply concerned” federal immigration policy will contribute to Michigan’s ongoing chronic absenteeism problem, which also impacts student achievement.

Jordan said the decision in the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case Plyer v. Doe, which said public schools cannot deny an education to undocumented students, addressed what happens when children are not granted equal access to public schooling.

“If you look at a world where children have an inability to access the kind of education that is available to others, the Supreme Court said this would create a permanent underclass of people, and that’s incredibly terrible to hear and chilling to think about,” she said.

One Michigan school reported only half of their students attended in the days after the policy change was enacted, Jordan added.

On Monday, attendance was down dramatically at several Southwest Detroit schools. Many students and community members participated in the national Day Without Immigrants demonstration in protest.

Some advocates have called on districts to offer virtual instruction for students who fear going to school.

Last week, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said that option was available in the Detroit Public Schools Community District.

Jordan said many other districts in the state also offer virtual learning.

“Everyone should be able to go to school in a way that best helps them learn, and schools should be able to tailor responses to people’s individual situations in such a way that it really ensures that they get a free, adequate public education, as the law requires,” she said.

Miriam Aukerman, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said the organization is encouraging schools to make different options available to families.

“But I think it’s really tragic that we’re in a situation where families whose kids are gonna learn better in an in school environment with their peers, be able to participate in after-school activities, that those kids are terrorized from going to school,” she added.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Black students, poor communities are hit hard by Michigan’s teacher shortage, report says

2025-01-14T05:01:00+00:00

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Black children and students attending schools in Michigan’s poorest communities are more likely to be taught by less experienced teachers, according to a study that explored the many ways that ongoing teacher shortages affect the state’s most vulnerable students.

An analysis released Tuesday by the nonpartisan research and advocacy nonprofit Education Trust-Midwest found that students in these groups are more likely to be taught by teachers with emergency credentials and educators teaching outside of their fields of study. The districts with the highest concentrations of poverty in the state also struggle significantly more than wealthier school systems to attract and retain experienced teachers, the report says.

The analysis provides a more nuanced picture of the teacher shortage that has affected districts all over the state since the COVID pandemic. It shows that “everyone really is not struggling equally,” said Jen DeNeal, director of policy and research at Ed Trust-Midwest.

Michigan's opportunity index program assigns districts to one of six bands, depending on the percentage of students living in poverty, with Band No. 6 having the highest percentage. The chart shows not only the declines in teacher retention rates across the state since before the pandemic, but also the lower retention rates among schools in the higher-poverty bands.

The researchers focused on inequities in the distribution of highly qualified teachers, because years of research shows that educators’ impact can be more powerful than any other factor in schools in determining student achievement.

“Teacher shortages make up one important component of opportunity gaps that then turn into achievement gaps,” DeNeal said. “And we know that these gaps result in discrepancies in reading and math proficiency based on factors like race and socioeconomic status.”

In addition to student racial demographics, the analysis uses the state’s six opportunity index “bands” to analyze teacher distribution. Districts are assigned to one of the six bands based on the percentage of students from economically disadvantaged families, and receive corresponding supplements to their funding.

The report also included input from focus groups of teachers from across the state.

What did the analysis find?

In the state’s highest-poverty districts, more than 16.5% of teachers taught outside their own field of study in the 2022-23 school year. That was more than double the state average.
Districts in the most impoverished communities were 16 times more likely to have teachers with emergency credentials — meaning people who are either substitute teachers or are working toward getting their teaching license.
First-year teachers made up 32% of all teaching staff in the schools in the state’s highest-poverty communities, compared with 16% in wealthier districts. In high-poverty districts, 24% of teachers had more than 10 years of experience, compared with 46% of teachers in wealthier districts.
School systems serving majority Black student populations were nearly four times more likely to learn from educators teaching outside of their fields of study than students in primarily white districts. Those students were also nearly twice as likely to learn from a teacher with fewer years' experience, and four times more likely to learn from a teacher with emergency credentials.
While all districts had a harder time retaining teachers in recent years compared with before COVID, retention rates in more impoverished districts were 11 percentage points lower than in the wealthiest districts in 2022-23.

Michigan's opportunity index program assigns districts to one of six bands, depending on the percentage of students living in poverty, with Band No. 6 having the highest percentage. The chart shows that districts with higher concentrations of poverty tend to have a greater share of teachers who have one year's experience or less, compared with wealthier districts.

What does the report suggest to improve teacher equity?

The researchers credited Michigan with making “significant efforts and investments” to address the problem through innovative programs like the MI Future Educator Fellowship and the MI Future Educator Stipend, along with mentoring and induction programs, and a state funded student-loan repayment program.”

Recent efforts also include allowing some districts to use some funds dedicated to at-risk students to attract and retain teachers.

Meanwhile, low teacher salaries remain a big challenge for urban districts to compete for talent.

“Why would you go and spend $50,000 to $80,000 to go in student loan debt to become a teacher when you qualify for the Bridge Card?” one teacher said in a focus group for the analysis, referring to eligibility for Michigan’s food-stamp program.

The report recommends that the state address this need by making school funding more equitable.

“Most urban public schools do not have the funds to increase pay immediately,” Kyle Lim of the Grand Rapids-based racial justice organization Urban Core Collective, said in a statement. “As a state, we need to pressure our legislators to increase education revenue for schools.”

Michigan legislators passed a historic budget in 2023 that benefited students in the most need. Advocates, including Ed Trust-Midwest, said at the time that this type of increase in funding would have to continue for decades to make real change.

In the 2024-25 school budget, per-pupil funding did not increase, but the state did increase the opportunity index funds.

With Republicans now in control of the state House and more friction in the legislature, it’s unclear whether future state school budgets will include the same priorities.

DeNeal said there are “positive signs” both sides of the aisle will support more increases in funding for at-risk students, citing bipartisan support last year for legislation to require the “science of reading” in early literacy learning.

The opportunity index “has widespread benefits for every geographic area, and, frankly, every legislative district in the state of Michigan,” she said.

The report also recommends improving data collection to better understand why teachers are leaving the field; investing and prioritizing support for administrators; and increasing access to high-quality professional development.

Maegan Frierson, director of system building at the Kent County education network K-Connect, said the teacher shortage isn’t something schools can “hire their way out of.”

“If we’re wanting folks who will have the greatest impact on our kids, we have to have supportive environments,” she said.

The West Michigan Teacher Collaborative, for example, sees success with sessions that connect future educators with current teachers, Frierson said.

“They are having conversations with experts from the community and getting advice from leading educators,” she said.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

National nonprofit to bring mentorship program to Detroit high schools

2025-01-07T22:00:43+00:00

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Northwestern High School holds a special place in Danielle North’s heart.

She credits the Detroit school for connecting her with a program that helped her secure her first job and become a first-generation college student more than 20 years ago.

Today, the 42-year-old is back at her alma mater and preparing for the launch of a new program that she hopes will provide Detroit high school students with the same kind of opportunities.

Northwestern this fall will become the newest site for Bottom Line, a nonprofit initiative that gives students from first-generation and low-income backgrounds one-on-one mentorship and guidance for up to six years – from their senior year of high school and throughout college.

Originating in Boston in 1997, Bottom Line serves around 9,000 students in Massachusetts, as well as New York City, Chicago, and Dayton, Ohio.

North said Bottom Line’s Detroit-based program will be geared toward incoming 12th graders who come from a low-income household and have a minimum 2.5 GPA. Enrollment begins early next year.

In addition to Northwestern, Bottom Line Detroit will have four other hubs: Detroit Edison Public School Academy, University Preparatory Academy High School – Ed Parks Campus, The School at Marygrove, and East English Village Preparatory Academy.

“During this initial planning phase, we will garner the interest of students, begin to set up where our space will be at each location and come February, that’s when our enrollment period opens up,” said North, who was selected in October to serve as the Detroit program’s executive director. “Ultimately, by the fall of next year, we want no less than 180 students. We want to serve as many students as we can.”

Supporting young people in the D

Shauwea Hamilton, chief regional officer for Bottom Line, said the program has considered launching a site in Detroit since 2020.

Once the pandemic started to wind down, she said, the team began talking to partners, colleges, high schools, and community leaders and received funding from the Jacob Family and Kresge foundations, Ballmer Group, and GreenLight Fund Detroit, which is providing a $600,000 unrestricted, multi-year grant and ongoing, in-kind coaching and assistance. This will help support the program’s aim of reaching 725 Detroit students annually by 2031, achieving a 95% college enrollment rate and an average student debt of $19,000 after graduation.

“It’s exciting to be serving students in the largest Black-majority city in the country. That is really exciting for me as a Black leader,” Hamilton said. “And it was really grounded in relationship building and not just our belief, but the belief of the folks that we were talking to and engaging with, that we would be an added benefit to support young people in Detroit.”

In a city where fewer than 20% of residents hold college degrees and the median income averages around $37,000, Detroit students face many barriers when it comes to enrolling in college. Some of those challenges include the rising cost of tuition, skepticism from families on the value of a college education, and academic readiness. Many high school students are not getting the preparation they need to handle college courses or trade schools, according to the Education Writers Association. And the biggest gaps in preparation largely affect students of color and those from low-income families. Almost half of high school graduates had no cohesive college or career-prep curriculum while they were in high school, notes a 2016 report from The Education Trust.

Another factor is that there are less counselors in high schools to help students navigate the college process.

There’s a shortage of school counselors nationwide, but Michigan has one of the worst student-to-counselor ratios, ranking 48th in the country with an average of one counselor for every 615 students, according to data from the 2020-21 school year. The national average is 408 students per counselor. The American School Counselor Association recommends a counselor for every 250 students.

College advisers help fill in some of those gaps for counselors by guiding students with applications and financial aid. But in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, many college transition advisers were cut last year due to a pandemic-fueled enrollment decline and the depletion of federal COVID relief aid.

North said Detroit’s Bottom Line program is aiming for a ratio of one adviser to every 60 to 65 students.

North plans to hire three advisers to start in the fall. If the number of students in the program exceeds 180, then they’ll hire more, she said. There will also be opportunities for community members to volunteer at a later date, she said.

North said she’s excited to assist students during the early stages of the college process while they’re still in high school. Launching the program at Northwestern makes the new position even sweeter.

“I was already excited,” she said, ”But coming here and having the opportunity to interact with the staff and learn directly from the students what their experiences have been, to see the glimmer of light in their eyes, to see their future possibilities from their point of view and to understand what they’re looking for, has really just cemented it.”

Northwestern Principal Kimberly Rogers said every student in the high school who is eligible for Bottom Line will be enrolled. Northwestern was recognized this month by the Detroit Public Schools Community School District board as one of the top five DPSCD high schools out of 25 for enrollment in college and career level courses for the 2023-24 school year. It was also part of the College Board AP School Honor Roll, which recognizes schools whose AP programs are broadening access to college-level course work.

“It’s important to know that students who are staying in school will have support because sometimes, it’s difficult to navigate large institutions that do not have programs focused and centered on first-generation students,” Rogers said.

Making the college process easier

As of 2020, 54% of undergraduates nationally had parents who did not have a bachelor’s degree, according to FirstGen Forward Network, a group of higher education institutions dedicated to helping first-generation college students achieve success. Most of those undergraduates are students of color, with Hispanic students coming in at 73%, followed by Black students at 65%, and Indigenous and Pacific Islanders at 64%.

In Michigan, first-generation students vary by institution, but the University of Michigan has about 4,000 first-generation students out of its overall enrollment of 52,855 students this fall. Meanwhile, Michigan State University states more than 1 in 5 students are first generation. MSU’s enrollment for fall 2024 was 52,089 students. At Detroit’s largest college, Wayne State University, more than 9,000 of undergraduate students — including 42% of the 2024 incoming class — are first-generation college students. The total enrollment for the fall semester was 23,964 students.

However, nationally only 20% of first-generation students graduate, compared to 49% for continuing-generation students, FirstGen Forward reported.

Bottom Line is hoping to fill in those gaps and eliminate that inequity for low-income students of color, Hamilton said. As a first-generation graduate, she said that was one of the reasons why she joined the organization in 2018.

“The narrative about getting in is pretty pronounced. I think the narrative about how to leverage the college experience, gain the most out of it, and successfully get the degree is a lot harder to find,” Hamilton said. “Those supports really would have been beneficial for me. It’s the idea of helping a version of myself. It is a challenge to navigate the college system for the first time, and Bottom Line does that.”

The organization offers three programs. Its Access Program offers advisers to provide step-by-step guidance for high schoolers, such as filling out college applications, perfecting admission essays, applying for financial aid and searching for scholarships.

Bottom Line’s Success Program has advisers meet with students on campus, assist them with enrollment, financial aid, housing, and class registration. The advisers will also be there to help students with problem solving and navigating challenges throughout their time on campus.

In addition, the nonprofit offers the Bluprint Program, where students can chat with Bottom Line’s AI bot, Blu, and get virtual support from advisers.

According to its website, Bottom Line students have a 66% college acceptance rate, 91% of Access students go to college, and, in 2023, the average debt for Bottom Line students was under $17,000 — more than $20,000 less than the national average.

“The idea of having somebody who does this for a living, year in and year out, advising you, offers a different level of confidence in your choice and really helps jump start into a successful undergraduate experience,” Hamilton said.

Ashley Williamson hopes to be one of those undergraduate students. The Northwestern junior is contemplating going to Wayne State after graduation, but is also looking into UM and Central Michigan. Williamson, 16, has a passion for helping Detroit youth and is thinking about a career in social work.

“I’m really community-based. I like to try to stay as humble as I can and give back,” she said.

Williamson said she knows that she doesn’t have the answers to everything, so having a mentor would be beneficial.

“Having this opportunity to help me is all I’ve wanted,” she said. “I’ve been nervous about college and not knowing what to do, but having this program will definitely benefit me a lot.”

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

‘The kids everyone forgot’: The faltering post-pandemic push to reengage teens and young adults not in school, college, or the workforce

2024-12-19T12:54:29+00:00

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Lucian O’Donnell sat curled up in the lower bunk in a friend’s house, a two-story clapboard in a neighborhood crowded with other faded homes in Southwest Detroit.

Spring was sprucing up the trees lining the narrow one-way street. But on that day in March 2023, in the bedroom where Lucian was crashing, the blinds were drawn, draining the color from the pale blue walls.

In the previous years, he had hustled at long shifts in two restaurants and taken night classes after dropping out of high school. He had brainstormed life goals with his “success coach” at a neighborhood nonprofit working with teens and tried to better manage the diabetic kidney disease that had claimed his mom during the pandemic. He had seen a therapist.

Now, the 18-year-old had surrendered to the screens.

He toggled between “Minecraft” on his laptop — endlessly stacking blocks on a virtual grid — and social media on his phone. He knew the algorithms steered him toward negativity and conspiracy theories. He went along anyway.

The moment felt like a flashback to COVID-era isolation, except even lonelier: America had moved on from the pandemic. A resurgent Detroit was getting its swagger back, its population and median income inching up a decade after a bruising bankruptcy. But Lucian felt shut out from that sense of possibility.

At one point, he told his success coach that he thought of harming himself. They made a plan: He’d get in touch immediately if these thoughts escalated. They put together a list of good reasons to be alive.

That day, he glanced at the list. It was short: High school friends. Music. His goal of managing a restaurant.

He sank back into stacking blocks.

Youth advocates call young people like Lucian — 16- to 24-year-olds who are not in school, college, or the workforce — “opportunity youth,” focusing on untapped potential, not failure. Many are high school dropouts. As many as half earn a diploma or GED but flounder after graduation.

If the 4.2 million opportunity youth in the U.S. all lived in one city, it would be the second largest in the country.

They have long been “the kids everyone forgot,” as one nonprofit leader put it. But roughly a decade ago, with youth employment ravaged by the Great Recession, the Obama White House made reconnecting these young people a signature issue. Experts decried the lasting toll of even relatively brief stints of disconnection: lower incomes, but also poorer health and personal relationships. Congress passed the Workforce Opportunity and Innovation Act in 2014, tapping hundreds of millions for youth employment efforts.

But the programs that sprang up were often small-scale and insular, with modest, short-lived results. After COVID emerged in early 2020, advocates worried its upheaval could turn Lucian’s generation into the most deeply disconnected yet. So they pushed to rethink reengagement programs. They argued these efforts had focused too much on quickly steering youth toward a job — any job — often low-skill, unstable work vulnerable to economic downturns. Meanwhile, trauma and mental health issues kept young people from gaining a foothold in the workforce.

In Detroit, the city’s Employment Solutions Corporation, an agency reporting to the mayor’s workforce development board, enlisted six nonprofits that vowed to bring a more holistic approach to connecting with youth. It’s a crucial mission. As Detroit clamors for skilled young workers to power its growth, more than a quarter of Detroiters age 16 to 24 are not going to school or working, the country’s second-highest youth disconnection rate, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data released last month.

Among the nonprofits that signed contracts worth a collective $3.4 million in federal money to tackle the issue were two groups with different backgrounds.

One, Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, known as UNI, had offered programs to steer students to high school graduation and college for years. But amid the pandemic, it ramped up efforts to help teens who had dropped out of school or had graduated with no clue what to do next. A UNI success coach set out to triage Lucian’s complex needs through a turmoil-filled stretch.

Lucian O'Donnell, right, and a colleague walk toward UNI's headquarters from the nonprofit's community garden.

Another nonprofit, SER Metro Detroit, has long been the largest local player in working with disengaged youth, offering job training programs and an alternative high school. Here, GED teacher Anthony Tejada — who brought his own backstory of youth disconnection — set out to help a homeless teen named Seth get back on track.

Studies have suggested the empathetic approach is showing some promise. But efforts are running up against perennial hurdles: fragmented programs, fickle funding — and the lack of opportunities in ZIP codes with long histories of disinvestment where many opportunity youth live.

In a highly polarized country preoccupied with the economy, reengaging these young people and forging non-college pathways to good jobs has drawn some bipartisan agreement. After years of deadlock, a lame-duck Congress is on the verge of reauthorizing the sprawling Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, potentially beefing up funding for youth programs.

But in a moment ripe with uncertainty, will Detroit and other cities around the country be able to help young people like Lucian and Seth forge a path to stability? Or will they remain the kids everyone forgot?

In the spring of 2021, Lucian walked from the home where he was staying at the time to a community garden in Southwest Detroit run by Urban Neighborhood Initiatives.

A group of teens wearing facemasks stood in a circle in the middle of a grassy expanse with just a few raised boxes with tomatoes. Lucian resisted the urge to turn and flee.

UNI had long worked with middle and high school students in the Springwells neighborhood: a 1.3-square-mile, densely populated, and predominantly Latino area. But during the pandemic, Los HQ, the nonprofit’s hangar-like space down the street from the garden, welcomed more youth like Lucian — members of the COVID shutdown generation, who bore the brunt of the pandemic’s learning disruption and mental health toll.

Lucian O'Donnell poses for a portrait outside of UNI.

The nonprofit set out to help them with funding cobbled together from philanthropy, the Workplace Innovation and Opportunity Act, and federal COVID relief. It started offering short-term counseling and referrals to therapists with normally yearslong waits for new patients. It kicked off the gardening and cooking program to expose youth to culinary and green careers — and bring them back together outside.

A friend told Lucian about the culinary program, and he’d come to interview for the last spot left. The teen, who’d dreamt of designing video games, had never considered working with food. But the small stipend the program offered was a big draw.

Lucian had tuned out of high school during remote learning, which dragged on his entire sophomore year at Western High. He returned in 2021 when school buildings reopened, only to find he’d fallen too far behind. So he stopped going.

For most of his childhood, his single mom had been sick and rarely held on to a job or an apartment. Then, around the time COVID hit, her kidneys failed and other ailments reared up, confining her to the hospital for most of 2020. She died in early 2021. Lucian decided he wouldn’t let himself mourn her. He was on his own; he couldn’t afford to fall apart emotionally.

As he approached the group in the garden, his social anxiety spiked. He had forgotten how to talk to people in person.

Lucian, left, and a colleague help secure a plant in the garden at UNI.

Danielle Dillard, the program lead and a trained social worker, stepped aside to talk with Lucian, who stared at his beat-up sneakers and dribbled one-word answers. He felt he was blowing the interview.

Dillard offered the last open spot to Lucian.

SER Metro’s Youth Reengagement Center sits on a treeless commercial stretch in southwest Detroit, with a shuttered strip club and boarded-up adult bookstore across the street. The building was unveiled in 2023, remodeled and expanded with $4 million in state and philanthropic dollars.

Earlier that year, Anthony Tejada started working with 19-year-old Seth in the center’s GED classroom. The teen — who Chalkbeat is not identifying by his full name to protect his privacy — was coming off a rough couple of years. After dropping out of high school, he faltered in night school and another reconnection program in Flint, where a staffer urged him to give finishing high school one more try at SER. He was jobless and staying with his brother.

Tejada met Seth at a time when efforts to reconnect youth like him were in a new spotlight.

Anthony Tejada, a GED teacher at SER Metro Detroit, poses for a portrait in his classroom in Detroit.

In the years leading up to COVID, youth disconnection rates across the country had been steadily declining. Some advocates and practitioners saw it as evidence that their efforts were paying off.

But experts credited a recovering economy, noting that most of the relatively few reengagement programs studied rigorously have shown modest gains — a single-digit increase in high school completion, say, or several hundred dollars more in annual earnings. And even as the overall rate improved, the disconnection rate for Native American youth such as Lucian and Black youth such as Seth remained double or even triple that for Asian American and white youth.

Meanwhile, scientists had been rethinking the very definition of adolescence. The prefrontal cortex is developing well into the mid-20s, they noted, offering a make-or-break window to do the social-emotional repair many young people need to navigate the workplace — and life.

Then COVID hit. The national disconnection rate rose from 10.7% to 12.6%, or about 716,200 more youth, bringing new urgency to building better reconnection programs.

At SER Metro, staff embraced trauma-informed case management and got restorative practices and “healing-centered” training, rooted in the idea that trauma and disconnection feed each other in a vicious cycle.

Tejada wants the young people he works with to take the lead. He lets students, who increasingly come in reading at an early elementary level, do the GED prep class at their own pace and tackle the tests in their chosen order.

In late 2023, Tejada felt Seth had momentum. He’d been coming to class consistently and had passed the science exam. He’d found a social circle in the GED classroom, even dating another student, his first real relationship.

It was easy for Tejada to root for Seth. In high school, Tejada — like Seth — had struggled with ADHD. Tejada graduated and went to college, but in his freshman year, crippling depression set in. He stopped going to classes and dropped out.

But Tejada was a middle-class kid from the Detroit suburbs whose close-knit family rallied around him. Society is much harder on kids like Seth — poor, family scattered — when they take the same detours.

As Seth geared up to take the social studies exam, Tejada told him about his years pulling shifts in his family’s Mexican restaurant. Eventually, he made his way back to college. Look at his life now, he told Seth: a home, a family, a job he loved. Stability.

Tejada told Seth he didn’t need to stay in lockstep with an arbitrary timeline or a predetermined path: “A lot of us have many twists and turns along the way.”

For Lucian, the two years after he turned up at UNI’s community garden were full of twists and turns. He slept on a series of couches and beds, then rented a small apartment — only to get evicted a few months later. He worked several jobs, sometimes with pay under the table, which he often spent on expensive gifts for his friends in a bid to cobble together the family he never had.

There was one constant: Danielle Dillard, Lucian’s UNI supervisor and “success coach.” Dillard sat him down to make a “success plan” with goals for the year and beyond. She pushed him to go back to school — a top goal on his list, but one for which he didn’t feel ready. She pushed him to see UNI’s new in-house therapist and to address health issues.

After Lucian completed UNI’s culinary program in 2021, the nonprofit helped him find a job as a server’s assistant at a high-end Detroit restaurant. The shifts were long and fast-paced, but he was learning a lot.

Family Treat in the Springwells neighborhood of Detroit is closed for the season.

Then the restaurant closed abruptly, a pandemic casualty. He eventually found a job at Family Treat, a Springwells neighborhood fast food fixture. But it was only open in the warmer months. It was after the restaurant closed for the season that Lucian found himself isolated — and sliding downward — in that friend’s bedroom in the spring of 2023.

When Family Treat reopened a month later, for a brief moment Lucian felt freed from his entrapment. He loved the bustle and camaraderie of restaurant kitchens. He just wanted a restaurant job with more stability, benefits, room to grow.

For now, he picked up all the shifts he could, working up to 60 hours a week.

After work, his mind descended to the same dark place it had staked out during his jobless stretch. Exhaustion made things worse.

The grief over his mom’s death that he’d suppressed two years earlier reared up. By May 2023, that despondency turned to despair.

On Mother’s Day, in a park not far from the cemetery where his mom was buried, Lucian slashed his wrists.

Tejada’s work day was drawing to a close at the SER Metro reengagement center when a distraught Seth burst through the door. A few weeks earlier, the teen had failed the social studies GED test by just a few points. He had righted himself for a bit, turning his attention to the language arts exam.

For almost a year, he had chipped away at the GED at his own pace as Tejada, his instructor, had urged. But his momentum was fizzling out. He had been wondering if it might be time to get a job — any job.

Anthony Tejada, a GED teacher at SER Metro Detroit, poses for a portrait in his classroom.

What sent him pushing through the door minutes after he’d left the center was dropping his phone and cracking it while he was running to catch a bus. Suddenly, Seth found himself beset by all the complications in his life. His girlfriend, a classmate at SER, was pregnant. He was panicking that his baby would have two jobless parents slogging through a GED class.

“Nothing good’s ever coming to me,” he railed as Tejada and two other staffers sought to calm him down in the lobby. “Every little good thing I get is taken away.”

As Seth tried to slam his phone against the floor, Tejada enveloped him in a hug that was part comfort, part restraint.

“You’ve been through worse things than breaking a phone and missing a bus,” he reminded him.

Recent studies suggest that adding social-emotional support to reconnection programs can work. A 2021 report of the Opportunity Reboot model in Minnesota, which layers mentoring and social-emotional guidance onto existing reengagement programs, found it increased the odds of youth getting and keeping jobs. A study of One Summer Chicago Plus, a summer jobs program that paired minimum-wage jobs with cognitive behavioral therapy and mentorship, showed it significantly reduced teens’ involvement in violent crime — a goal that has often fueled efforts to reengage disconnected youth in that city and others.

The results so far in Detroit illustrate the challenges that persist. Ericka Page, point person for youth programs at the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, the agency contracting with the six nonprofits running programs, said data on these programs’ outcomes shows many young people bouncing in and out of reengagement programs and from job to job. Often, these are minimum-wage, part-time, or gig jobs.

The programs are connecting with youth and getting some of them employed. But sustaining their momentum over the extended time it takes to remake their lives is hard, Page said.

“The biggest challenge with opportunity youth is retention,” says Ann Leen, who heads the SER Metro center. “It could be a $15 an hour job. It could be the streets calling. It could be, ‘Mom needs help.’ It could be, ‘It’s just too hard.’ We have to be louder than those other voices.”

On the afternoon Seth burst into the SER lobby, the staff helped him calm down. But after that day, he started showing up less and less. By last spring, he had stopped coming. By fall, he returned, on and off. By winter, Tejada worried he was losing him again.

Lucian was not alone at the park when he harmed himself on Mother’s Day 2023. A friend who was with him called an ambulance that rushed him to the emergency room. He spent a week at a psychiatric hospital.

When he left, staffers from Urban Neighborhood Initiatives kicked into high gear. They set him up with an outside therapist and gave him rides to appointments. When he stopped going, they pushed him to go back. They found him a bed at a small shelter all the way across the city.

Lucian was eager to get back to work. He needed the money, but he also missed the steadying rhythms of working full-time. He walked the drab commercial stretch with boarded-up storefronts near the shelter and found the few businesses left were not hiring. For occasional shifts at a fried chicken place in his old neighborhood, he sometimes commuted as much as two-and-half hours one way.

Then in early 2024, a friend invited Lucian to move in with him, his mom, and his eight siblings in a house not far from Los HQ. The move back to the Springwells neighborhood was a game-changer, bringing him closer to jobs and friends.

A mural in the Springwells neighborhood in Southwest Detroit near Family Treat.

By this spring, he was on full-time grill duty at Family Treat. He had picked up more shifts at the fried chicken place. And UNI brought him on to help out with the culinary program two evenings a week and soon promoted him to program lead. At that rate, he felt, he might be able to afford to rent his own place with a friend by summer’s end.

Across the country, young people like Lucian had been getting back to work, pushing post-pandemic disconnection rates down as the labor market ramped up. But some experts and advocates worry there’s a catch to that good news.

Kristen Lewis, director of the think tank Measure of America, says she worries that many young people are choosing unstable jobs that can breed more disconnection in the longer run over opportunities to finish high school and get training that could actually open up a path out of poverty. The post-pandemic data has reaffirmed something experts knew before COVID: The fates of vulnerable young people like Lucian are chained to their ZIP codes and the whims of the economy.

“We’ve been searching for silver bullets: Summer jobs will solve everything! Mental health care will solve everything!” she said. “But look at the deep structural problems and profound inequities some neighborhoods face. It’s the story of what’s wrong with America.”

Lucian, too, felt keenly the precariousness of his situation last spring. His worries came to a head when a diabetic seizure struck near the end of his shift at Family Treat one April afternoon.

He had just started on an order of five footlongs in the narrow kitchen when a buzzing in his ears muffled the sizzle of the fryers and his vision faded to white. As he convulsed on the floor, his manager kneeling beside him, one thought cut through Lucian’s brain fog: He had to get back to making hot dogs.

He couldn’t lose that $11.50-an-hour job — and the fragile stability he’d just started regaining.

Lucian staggered up to his feet. His vision still swam, and arms stung as though jabbed by needles. But he dashed back to his work station, where the hot dogs he had set on the grill still rotated.

“You still need five of these, right?” Lucian called to the young woman working the front register.

This November, with Family Treat closed for the season, Lucian, now almost 20, walked into a GED prep classroom in Southwest Detroit.

UNI had referred him to the program, which would pay him $200 a week and introduce him to a career in carpentry. Lucian felt it would be good insurance against the fickleness of restaurant work — and a chance to finally tackle his longtime goal of getting a high school credential.

Lucian O'Donnell works on building a shelving unit at the nonprofit MiSide's GED prep and carpentry training program on Thurs., Dec. 5, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.

But uncertainty still plagued Lucian. He and his roommate were both unemployed, and the bills kept coming. The staff at UNI collected almost $400 for Lucian’s November rent and got him a free Thanksgiving turkey. He was quickly learning that it was tough to find a job while tied up in a carpentry and GED program for most of the day.

Some advocates worry that the COVID-era sense of urgency around opportunity youth might be fading even as many young people like Seth and Lucian haven’t yet regained their footing. But boosting funding for re-engaging and training disconnected youth has been a key area of bipartisan consensus in the federal push to reauthorize the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which expired in 2020.

Lawmakers launched a bipartisan Opportunity Youth caucus this summer. And a bipartisan agreement on the law earlier this year would have steered more money to youth programs, including a new $65 million apprenticeship program. But in late December the bill was shelved amid a congressional standoff over funding the federal government, leaving uncertain the fate of the law and the programs it powers.

On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance at times appeared to speak directly to young men like Lucian and Seth, promising a return to an era of robust manufacturing and access to good jobs that don’t require college. But practitioners worry about what the incoming administration’s appetite for federal spending cuts might mean.

In Detroit, the Ballmer Group, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s foundation, has been pushing the city for a big-picture vision for attacking youth disconnection. Here and nationally, the focus is shifting back to the training and credentials young people need to access high-demand jobs employers are trying to fill.

It’s impossible to know where Lucian and Seth would be now if their lives had not intersected with the agencies and people helping them. But their experiences these last few years affirm that young people who become disconnected from school and work need more than jobs that pay the bills. They need social-emotional backing – and also a way to see a clear path to more stable, fulfilling lives.

Their stories show that rebuilding after a stint of disconnection takes time. And programs often aren’t set up to serve young people in the long run, so the years ahead could bring more uncertainty.

Lucian helps a classmate out with fractions during a math GED session at MiSide on Thurs., Dec. 5, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan.

It’s easy, Lucian realizes, to miss the growth he’d made amid the rollercoaster of the last three years. He is taking better care of his physical and mental health. Time spent “jotting and rambling” in his journal about his long-term goals grounds him.

Dillard moved to the West Coast earlier this year, but they’ve stayed in touch, catching up on Zoom. She told him she was proud of him. He told her he was anxious, but also determined.

“I think a lot about the future,” Lucian said this month. “I am always thinking about when I am going to reach my goals — not if.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org. This article was reported with support from the Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Detroit charter students make gains on M-STEP, but lag behind pre-pandemic results

2024-10-07T21:02:20+00:00

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Charter schools where Detroit children account for at least half the student body showed progress on Michigan’s standardized tests, though their results trail statewide numbers and are below pre-pandemic figures.

In English language arts, 20.6% of students tested proficient or better on the 2024 Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress, or M-STEP. That result was more than 2 percentage points higher than the 2021-22 school year, but nearly 4 percentage points lower than the 2018-19 school year.

Statewide, 44.5% were proficient or better, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

In math, 9.7% of students tested proficient or above, a 1.8 percentage point improvement in comparison to the 2021-22 school year. But that number is lower than the pre-pandemic figure for the 2018-19 school year, when 14% of students tested proficient or better. Statewide, 35.1% tested at this level.

Detroit has one of the highest percentages of students attending charter schools in the nation, with roughly half the city’s kids, or about 50,000 students, in charter classrooms.

Chalkbeat’s analysis of charter test results includes schools in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties where Detroit students make up at least half the student body. The state categorizes a student’s performance on the Michigan standardized test as either advanced, proficient, partially proficient, or not proficient. For this analysis, Chalkbeat looked at the percentage of students whose test results were proficient or advanced.

Charters, which are independently managed public schools, often rely on management companies to oversee day-to-day operations, or to handle key functions such as balancing the books or hiring teachers.

In Michigan, most charters are managed by for-profit companies, which aren’t subject to public disclosures about how they spend money on behalf of schools or how much they profit. Entities like community colleges, universities, and school districts have the ability to authorize charters, meaning they approve charter applications and monitor the schools’ contract compliance.

Some education advocates have cited a lack of accountability and transparency among these authorizers as a persistent problem in the sector.

Earlier this year, the State Board of Education, passed a resolution urging state lawmakers to approve legislation that would strengthen oversight and accountability among the state’s charters.

Detroit’s charters tend to perform better academically than the city’s traditional public schools, though the gains are minimal, and one 2023 study found the Detroit Public Schools Community District enrolled a higher percentage of students from families living in deep poverty.

Michigan students in grades 3-7 take standardized tests in English and math. Fifth graders are also tested in science and social studies, and eighth grade students take the PSAT (the SAT pretest) for English and math. High school students take several different exams depending on their grade, including the PSAT and SAT.

Students in Detroit’s charter schools saw gains in science and social studies too.

In science, 15.4% of charter students tested in the subject were proficient or better, a nearly 4 percentage point increase from the 2021-22 school year. (Data is not available for the pre-pandemic 2018-19 school year when the Michigan Department of Education withheld science test results.)

In social studies, charter students saw small gains – and they slightly exceeded pre-pandemic results. However, the overall percentage of students who tested proficient or above remained low, at 4.3%.

Detroit students face a number of barriers to academic success, including housing insecurity, concentrated poverty, and structural racism. The majority of Detroit charter students come from low-income households, which plays a profound role in how they perform in school.

“Poverty has consistently had a substantial, adverse effect on student academic performance,” State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a recent press release about state test results.

Tara Kilbride, interim associate director of the Education Policy Initiative Collaborative at Michigan State University, said in a recent interview with Chalkbeat that even a one percentage point increase is notable when looking at the number of kids in Detroit who are still working toward proficiency.

“That one percentage point is bringing students to a point of being able to do more and have more of the fundamental skills, versus a one percentage point somewhere else where it means students are further ahead,” she said.

Broken down by grade, test results indicate younger students whose first years of school were affected by the COVID pandemic were a few percentage points below the overall average. In English language arts, for example, 16.8% of fourth graders tested proficient or better in comparison to 20.6% overall.

The challenges young students in Detroit charters face mirror some broader trends across Michigan. At the state level, 43.3% of fourth graders tested proficient or above in English.

Meanwhile, 38% of Detroit’s eighth grade charter students were proficient or better in English. Statewide, that number was 64.5%.

Chalkbeat contacted representatives from some of the largest authorizers of Detroit’s charters, including Central Michigan University and Grand Valley State, but both declined to comment. Daniel Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, did not respond to a request for comment.

Taking ‘small bites out of the overall problem of accountability’ in Detroit’s charters

Tinu Usoro has three children attending Detroit charter schools, including a second grader with disabilities.

Last year, Usoro’s daughter received a certificate for increasing her standardized test results, but Usoro wondered if her daughter’s results really reflected learning.

“I don’t feel like she’s learning the things that she needs to learn,” Usoro said.

Students with disabilities scored low across the board in Detroit’s charters — following a trend in Michigan and nationwide. Just 4.8% of Detroit’s charter students with disabilities tested proficient or better in English language arts, compared to 15% statewide, according to the state education department.

Nationwide, students with disabilities and English language learners have had a hard time recovering from the cascading effects of the pandemic, according to a new report, The State of the American Student 2024, from Arizona State University.

“Many parents struggled to take on the role of educator during the pandemic, particularly for children with disabilities who missed essential services like speech therapy,” the report reads. “Schools were often insufficient in their outreach, and many families were unaware of their rights to compensation for missed support.”

Charter school parent Sade Williams said the only reason her kids have thrived in the wake of the pandemic is because she was able to stay home during school closures to help with their studies.

“I am a pretty hands-on parent. So if there’s a problem with anything, then I’m normally there to help,” she said.

Usoro said the ways schools can help students bounce back hinges on things like transparency and accountability — two things she is trying to strengthen within Detroit’s charters.

She heads a charter school committee through the local nonprofit 482Forward, made up of parents, educators, retired teachers, and community members who are taking “small bites out of the overall problem of accountability,” Usoro said.

They recently created an interactive tool listing charter schools and things like the schools’ authorizers and demographics. The committee proposed making a similar tool for the state Department of Education’s website that shows that information for all the charters throughout the state. They received $150,000 in state funding to launch the tool, which should be implemented this year.

In comparison to traditional public schools, “with charters, it’s so nuanced,” Usoro said of the quality of each school. That means the test results contain nuance, too.

Robyn Vincent is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, covering Detroit schools and Michigan education policy. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org

Michigan’s vulnerable students continue to miss school at higher rates than their peers

2024-09-27T17:32:20+00:00

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Michigan students are facing challenges rebounding from the COVID pandemic, and those hurdles are more pronounced among certain groups of vulnerable children who are missing more school than their peers.

Students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students were chronically absent at a rate notably higher than the statewide average.

For the 2023-24 school year, 29.5% of students were chronically absent — meaning they missed at least 10% of school days — according to data from the Michigan Department of Education. In comparison, the rate was 37.6% for students with disabilities, and it was 40.1% for economically disadvantaged students, more than double the rate for students who are not economically disadvantaged.

The release of these numbers comes amid a federal investigation that found during the pandemic, many Michigan students with disabilities did not receive the services and instruction required under federal law. The investigation found that these children still have not received those mandated services or the compensatory measures that their families are entitled to.

Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, described the findings from the investigation as “an all too common scenario.”

She noted several lawsuits across the country where parents of disabled students and other groups facing discrimination have sued state governments or school districts alleging that their kids have been neglected or mistreated.

Lake worked on the new annual report “The State of the American Student,” which has been tracking pandemic recovery for the last three years.

“We talked to parents this year, and we’ve talked to experts in special education and multilingual education, and all of them pointed out that things were very bad before the pandemic,” she told Chalkbeat.

“So [test] scores were low already, they couldn’t get too much lower. Mental health needs were higher. All of that has been the case,” Lake said. “While this report really has been focused on pandemic impacts, the theme that we’re seeing coming through when we look at this student population in particular is a system that really wasn’t working before the pandemic.”

Jeremy Singer, assistant research professor at Wayne State University and associate director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity and Research, agreed that the disparities are nothing new.

“We’ve known for a long time that these groups face barriers to attendance that are more significant than their less vulnerable, less disadvantaged peers,” Singer said.

He pointed out that despite some improvement in recent years, the overall chronic absenteeism rate last year ran nearly 10 percentage points higher than in 2018-19, the last full school year before the pandemic. The increase from that year was 11.2 points for students who are economically disadvantaged, and 6.7 points higher for students who aren’t.

There are many factors at play that broadly apply to students who are chronically absent. For one, Singer said mental health issues have been exacerbated for young people whose formative years were colored by the pandemic.

“So we know that levels of stress and anxiety are a little higher, and it’s also possible that the way families are treating those issues might be a little bit different,” Singer said.

In other words, some families could be more inclined to keep kids at home when they are feeling unwell, either physically or mentally.

Still, the numbers are a reminder that certain kids continue to have a much tougher time getting to class regularly, Singer added. He said his research has unraveled many of the factors that contribute to chronic absenteeism and how they hit Detroit’s vulnerable and low-income families hardest.

Kids in these households, particularly in Detroit, are up against multiple barriers to attending class regularly, from unreliable transportation and a lack of public transit to the dearth of quality affordable housing options in the city.

Singer said some solutions to chronic absenteeism include strengthening neighborhood schools — so families have an easier time accessing the schools closest to them — and making them places where people want to spend time. That means nurturing “the quality of the school and the school’s capacity to maintain strong relationships, to maintain a strong, inviting culture.”

State policy appears to be supporting some of these efforts with lawmakers approving more investments to help schools and educators.

But looking at just education funding or what schools can do to reduce chronic absenteeism misses the bigger picture, Singer said.

Local leaders must acknowledge the many systemic factors contributing to chronic absenteeism: “transportation, housing, health, employment — these things play a really big role in students’ attendance,” Singer said.

Researchers have enough information on why students are chronically absent and now it is time to shift the focus to what schools and communities are doing about it — and whether those strategies are working, he said.

Robyn Vincent is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, covering Detroit schools and Michigan education policy. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org

U.S. Sec. of Education Miguel Cardona answers Detroit students’ questions about mental health

2024-09-05T23:35:32+00:00

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Cass Technical High School students lined up to ask U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona questions about mental health programs on Thursday, one day after a deadly mass shooting at a Georgia high school.

Jordan Scott, a junior, asked Cardona, who stopped at the Detroit Public Schools Community District campus as part of his 2024 back-to-school bus tour, what the U.S. Department of Education is doing to monitor students’ mental health and keep kids safe from gun violence.

“We’re doing as much as we can,” Cardona said. “We have people who are more interested in protecting gun rights than children.

“We have people who will fight if we try to provide gun safety legislation but try to look the other way when children are murdered.”

Before taking questions from several students in a town hall-style presentation, Cardona toured the school and visited a couple of classrooms. Education leaders including State Superintendent Michael Rice and DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti were also in attendance.

When asked after the town hall what he thought about Michigan’s 91% percent cut to state grants for districts’ student mental health and school safety efforts this school year, Cardona said the country can no longer go back to a time when it dealt with students’ trauma after the fact.

“To think that we cannot continue to support students through mental health funding and programming and after school programming is not really taking into account where students are today and where our schools are today,” he said.

U.S. Sec. of Education Miguel Cardona speaks with two students at Cass Technical High School before a town hall event on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024.

Nabiha Begum, a senior at Cass Tech, said she hadn’t heard about Michigan’s student mental health funding cut before Thursday.

“Honestly, it does make me quite angered,” she said. “All I want to ask is when will there be more effort to focus on students’ mental health instead of trying to just shun them?”

The last-minute $301.5 million reduction also surprised education leaders, who now worry that schools will have to lay off mental health and school safety personnel and cut existing programs.

Cardona also touted the federal government’s investments into student mental health during the pandemic with COVID relief funds for local districts. Those dollars are set to expire this month.

“It’s critically important that not only at the federal level, but at the state and local level, we don’t look at these programs as extra — that they’re part of the core program,” said Cardona.

The state’s cuts and the expiration of federal funding come at a time when youth mental health is still a national crisis. It predated the pandemic, and researchers say COVID compounded the problem.

An August report from the CDC showed some improvements for teen mental health from 2021 to 2023, including small decreases in the percentage of students who experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness and female students who seriously considered suicide.

But the report also found that the percentage of kids who experienced bullying increased from 15% to 19%, and the number of students who missed school due to safety concerns at school or on their routes to school increased from 9% to 13%.

Cass Tech senior Masuma Begum, 16, listens to U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona answer her question during a town hall event on Sept. 5, 2024.

In Michigan, reports of risks of student suicide increased by 43.7% in 2023 compared to 2022, according to data from OK2SAY, a state program that tracks anonymous tips of self-threatening behavior in schools.

During the same timeframe, reports of bullying increased by 31.6% and reports of drug use by 63.6%. Overall tips to the hotline, including reports of sexual violence and other mental health issues, increased by more than 31%.

Even before Michigan cut student mental health and safety funds for the 2024-25 school year, school mental health professionals said there weren’t enough staff to meet the growing needs of students.

Michigan hired more than 1,300 mental health staff since 2018, and Michigan had the third highest ratio of counselors to students in the nation during the 2021-22 school year.

At that time, the ratio was one counselor per every 615 students in Michigan, according to the American School Counselor Association. But the ASCA recommends a ratio of one counselor for every 215 students.

Before 2018, Michigan’s state school budget didn’t dedicate any money to districts dedicated to improving student mental health.

A 2023 study prepared for the Michigan Department of Education on the feasibility of building a comprehensive statewide school mental health system found that a lack of funding was the main barrier.

Administrators interviewed for the study were concerned about what would happen to the current mental health systems without the funding. They also said financial uncertainty prevented their districts from implementing all the features recommended for a comprehensive system.

The study also recommended that the MDE develop structures, processes, and guidance to support districts in creating a school mental health system.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona speaks at Cass Technical High School on Sept. 5, 2024.

Cass Tech senior Shinha Chanda said there’s an emotional strain on many young people who are coming of age during complicated times, and that school is “kind of” a stressor.

Begum, another Cass Tech senior, said she feels like most of the time society only cares about how kids are doing in school and blames poor performance on “not being a good student.”

“Most of the time, it’s deeper than that,” she said. “If they don’t get straight A’s, if they’re failing the class, it could be something deeper with their mental health.”

Begum said students can’t achieve academically when they are struggling emotionally.

“Why should we not focus on the students’ mental health as much as we do the curriculum?”

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan Department of Education makes another push to get federal civil rights case thrown out

2024-08-30T21:47:01+00:00

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The Michigan Department of Education on Friday made a final legal plea for a U.S. Department of Education administrative judge to dismiss all claims that the state agency violated the rights of students with disabilities during COVID-era school closures.

Attorneys representing the MDE again questioned the enforcement authority of the federal department’s Office of Civil Rights. The MDE’s filing said lawyers for the office had “scant allegations” and accused them of performing “legal gymnastics” in the case.

Many Michigan public school students with disabilities did not get the instruction and services they were entitled to under anti-discrimination laws, such as speech language pathology and social work, a years-long federal investigation found.

The state still has not given the students mandated compensatory services, or additional assistance to help kids catch up, according to the civil rights office.

Federal officials also said the MDE repeatedly gave incorrect information about what rights students were entitled to in presentations and correspondence with parents and school districts after.

Additionally, the civil rights office said that the MDE did not have a designated employee on staff to ensure compliance with civil rights laws, as is federally mandated.

The MDE’s latest filing, a brief in support of its motion to dismiss the case last month, comes after the civil rights office accused the MDE of trying to “shield itself from scrutiny” and misunderstanding federal law.

“Schools and districts faced unique challenges during the pandemic, but students with disabilities never lost their right to equal educational opportunity under Section 504,” said a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education in an email. “These students deserve for MDE to make things right, and we expect the administrative law judge will decide that MDE is legally required to do so.”

In its legal filings, the state has denied any wrongdoing.

“Due to the ongoing proceeding, the Michigan Department of Education has nothing more to add to the detailed documents we filed,” said Bob Wheaton, director of public and governmental affairs for the MDE. “We remain strongly committed to providing equal access to educational opportunities to all students in Michigan – including students with disabilities.”

States that don’t comply with laws protecting students with disabilities risk losing federal funding. In the 2023-24 school year, Michigan received $461 million in federal aid for special education.

Marcie Lipsitt, a Michigan special education advocate who filed the initial complaint, said it seeks compensatory services for all students with disabilities who have either individualized education programs or Section 504 plans in the state.

IEPs indicate services that students with disabilities are entitled to, and 504 plans lay out needed accommodations for students with disabilities who do not require special education services.

Lipsitt said on Friday that the MDE’s latest response reaffirms her belief that it does not understand the federal law.

“It is clear the MDE refuses to accept responsibility for issuing unlawful guidance,” on districts’ requirements, Lipsitt said Friday.

Attorneys for the MDE said in the latest filing that the OCR is relying on “dated and unpersuasive precedent.”

Here are some of the key areas of dispute as laid out in the filing:

The filing says that the civil rights office does not have the authority to enforce Section 504 regulations for students who are also covered by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The MDE claims that authority belongs to the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, a different arm of the Department of Education. In previous court documents, lawyers for the civil rights office said that is inaccurate and that the office does have jurisdiction.
The MDE said that the civil rights office is trying to hold it accountable for the actions of local school districts. The filing says that the civil rights office has no authority to impose supervisory responsibility on a state education agency for districts’ compliance with Section 504. In previous documents, the civil rights office cited federal cases that found states have some responsibility in ensuring district compliance.
The MDE claims that the civil rights office has not alleged that any students were denied a free and appropriate public education or were discriminated against due to the guidance the state agency gave to districts and parents. The civil rights office previously said it is not obligated to identify individual students whose rights were violated to prove noncompliance.
The MDE says it now has a federally mandated 504 coordinator and is in compliance with the law. The civil rights office previously said that the state did not have a coordinator for years and that the MDE updated its website to identify the coordinator one day before it filed its motion to dismiss. The civil rights office said the MDE did not give proof that any harm from the “years-long violation” had been resolved or that it won’t happen again.

Now that the MDE has made a final brief in support of dismissing the claims, an administrative law judge from the DOE will rule on the motion.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

This story has been updated to include a new response from the MDE.

Federal officials chide Michigan Department of Education for its response to civil rights complaint

2024-08-13T15:20:20+00:00

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Federal officials accused the Michigan Department of Education of seeking to “shield itself from any scrutiny” in its violation of the rights of students with disabilities during COVID-era school closures, according to a recent court filing.

In the court filing last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights claimed the state wants to “brush aside” the way it ignored federal anti-discrimination laws during the pandemic. Federal officials also said the state has not yet given proof that the violations have been resolved.

The agency asked the U.S. Department of Education’s administrative hearing officers to deny the MDE’s request last month to dismiss all claims made against it, including that officials repeatedly gave incorrect information about what rights students had to parents and school districts.

“The Michigan Department of Education has received the response, is reviewing with its legal counsel, and will respond through the appropriate legal channels,” said Bob Wheaton, director of the department’s office of public and government affairs in an email Monday.

Wheaton added that the department “remains strongly committed to providing equal access to educational opportunities to all students in Michigan – including students with disabilities.”

In a mandatory response to all of the OCR’s allegations, attorneys representing the MDE denied any wrongdoing.

The federal proceedings come after a yearslong investigation by the OCR and multiple attempts on the federal government’s part to urge the state to voluntarily meet compliance with federal disability and special education laws.

States that don’t comply risk losing federal funding. In the 2023-24 school year, Michigan received $461 million in federal aid for special education.

The OCR’s complaint seeks compensatory services for all students with disabilities who have either individualized education programs or 504 plans in the state, said Marcie Lipsitt, a Michigan special education advocate who filed the initial complaint.

IEPs outline services that students with disabilities are entitled to, and 504 plans lay out needed accommodations for students with disabilities who do not require special education services.

“The OCR’s response was very powerful,” said Lipsitt in an email.

The OCR responded to all of the MDE’s arguments for dismissal, including:

The MDE challenged the authority of the OCR to enforce 504 violations for students who are also protected under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Citing legal precedent, the OCR said it does have the authority.
The MDE said it does not have a legal responsibility to address local school districts’ 504 violations. The OCR said the department’s argument fails to consider federal cases that found states have some responsibility in taking steps to ensure districts are in compliance.
The MDE argued that the OCR did not in its complaint identify any individual students that were harmed. The agency said federal court precedent does not obligate it to identify students in order to prove non-compliance. It also said that its complaint includes allegations involving specific schools, parents, and students.
The OCR said that the MDE did not have a federally mandated 504 coordinator, or did not publicly identify one for years. The agency said the MDE’s website was updated days before it filed its motion to name an employee as its 504 coordinator. Despite that, the OCR said the MDE has given no proof that “any harm stemming from the years-long violation has been resolved, or that the violation will not recur.”

The 504 coordinator is a critical role because they help ensure compliance with the federal law, according to the OCR.

“MDE’s patent violation of a simple regulatory command foreshadowed the other violations OCR found MDE had engaged in,” the agency’s response said.

Additionally, the MDE repeatedly gave incorrect information to parents and school leaders in documents and presentations about what students qualified for compensatory services, according to the OCR, and has not taken steps to make sure they now have accurate information.

“Some of the documents have been removed from MDE’s website, but MDE has not issued corrections to parents, students, or schools,” the OCR’s response said.

The OCR’s complaint also alleges that the Michigan School for the Deaf, operated by the MDE, took away 43% of instructional time for students in the 2020-21 school year and never made it up. The school didn’t provide critical services like speech language pathology and social work for a prolonged period of time.

Though the MDE’s filing denies it violated the rights of MSD students, the OCR said a supervisor admitted in an email that the school was “severely out of compliance.”

Federal officials said they hope “negotiations can resume and expedite the ultimate resolution of this case.”

State education officials call for transparency

During a regular board meeting Tuesday morning, Nikki Snyder, a Republican member of the majority-Democratic State Board of Education, asked other members to call on the legislature to fund an audit of Michigan’s special education services.

Snyder also called on the board to discuss a motion to request the MDE give a public presentation on the OCR complaints at the next board meeting.

Tom McMillin, the only other Republican on the governing body, said the MDE has been “keeping the board in the dark” and that State Superintendent Michael Rice failed to notify them of the investigation.

The board voted against adding the resolutions to Tuesday’s agenda. Snyder and McMillin were the only votes in favor of discussing the items during the meeting.

Board President Pamela Pugh, a Democrat, said McMillin and Snyder were politicizing the issue and that she believes the board will continue to hear updates on the case. She added that though she voted against discussing the resolutions, “that doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

During public comment, six speakers, including parents and special education advocates, expressed frustration with the board for not taking action on the resolutions.

“I am really disappointed with what I see today,” Michele Maleszyk, a Troy parent of a student with dyslexia, said during the meeting.

Rice did not respond to McMillin’s remarks or to the parents’ concerns during the meeting.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

LGBTQ youth group gives queer students in Detroit crucial space to express their ‘True Colors’

2024-06-28T18:42:11+00:00

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Growing up in northeast Detroit, Patrick Burton’s androgynous looks meant he was often mistaken for a girl.

One day, a group of boys knocked on the door of the house he and his family had just moved into. They asked his mother if the new girl living there was available. She was confused, but Burton knew they were talking about him.

When the boys met Burton, they were no longer interested in becoming friends. Burton was disappointed but not surprised — he was no stranger to these awkward situations. So, he retreated from the misconceptions, the harassment, the bullying to create his own world, he said, “like many queer people do, right?”

It was a world that was continents away from some of his classmates, filled with art collages from fashion magazines, music from David Bowie, and teachings about the indomitable human spirit from Martin Luther King Jr.

Several decades later, the educator, artist, and curator is still creating his own world — but this one is for his students, too. Burton leads True Colors, an LGBTQ youth group at Denby High School in Detroit where he teaches art.

He started the group roughly five years ago with Denby counselor Sarah O’Halla to ensure it offered support that took advantage of the school’s existing mental health infrastructure. Since then, dozens of students have been part of the group, and it has become a place to embrace their differences, learn about queer culture, and heal.

A Detroit arts educator, still healing, helps his students to heal, too

The decades-long movement for LGBTQ rights has made major progress, including the legalization of gay marriage in 2015. It also has seen a backlash, with a recent wave of anti-trans legislation. Those policies haven’t gained much traction in Michigan, but changing hearts and minds remains a constant struggle, especially for kids of color growing up in Detroit.

That is where True Colors comes in.

Young people attending the bi-monthly group meetings have unwrapped many traumas – from peers who bully or harass them to parents who use homophobic slurs, or even kick them out of the house.

Some of what Burton hears suggests his students are “just as damaged as I was,” he said. For many of them, he believes it will take years to recover. At True Colors, he tries to accelerate that recovery, helping them “put together the broken pieces.”

O’Halla, the counselor who works with Burton, said the group enjoys support from school administrators, and it helps to answer a tremendous need in the school. As many as 40 students have attended a single session. Still, she said “the amount of students that even feel comfortable going is a small fraction of the number of students that would benefit from it.”

The ones who do attend are showing “a huge step of courage,” O’Halla said.

That step usually leads to some important realizations: Through conversation and contemplation, the students learn their situations are not unique and that they are not alone.

Burton also empowers students by teaching them about queer activists who risked everything in the name of human rights. Through films, books, articles, podcasts, and field trips, they learn about people like Harvey Milk, the first gay man to take office in California, writers and thought leaders such as James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, and pivotal events, such as the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, a string of demonstrations that unfolded in New York City after a violent police raid at a gay bar.

This speaks to Burton’s wide breadth of knowledge and his work outside of school as an arts programmer and curator. Burton received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a master’s degree in liberal studies from University of Detroit Mercy.

He specialized in queer studies for his master’s thesis, writing and directing a performance about the revolutionary roots of drag that debuted at the storied black box theater at 1515 Broadway in Detroit. It was later performed in New York City for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.

Burton continues to be a “queer cultural civil servant” with his organization Mighty Real / Queer Detroit and the multi-gallery, multimedia biennial exhibition, I’ll Be Your Mirror - Reflections of the Contemporary Queer, hanging through the end of Pride month across metro Detroit.

"Kukeon" by Katie Kaplan at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery for I'll Be Your Mirror.

"Scumble Bum," "Paintergiest," "Closeted Collector," "Killing Me Softly," "Night Shift," "55th Playhouse," "Art Basel Boys," and "Prison for Life" by Wayne Coe.

An untitled ceramic piece by Sahar Khoury is displayed (right) while the video "Wake Up It's Pansy Beat" by Michael Economy plays in the background.

The exhibition elevates queer art, expression, and history with paintings, photography, textiles, videos, and more by dozens of artists from across the world. Every piece has a story tied to queer life, and this approach — illuminating the courageous legacy of LGBTQ culture — mirrors how Burton leads True Colors.

The group is informed by Burton’s raw personal experiences. He came out in the late 1970s and found solace in literature that celebrated difference. In high school, his discovery of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance marked a turning point. Burton, who is white, felt a strong parallel between notions of “the other,” of being Black in America, with what it means to be queer amid the constant tension of a society ruled by heteronormative standards.

Detroit youth learn to dismantle notions of “the other”

Denby High School senior Arreanna Thompson understands what it means to be the so-called “other,” both as a young Black woman and a queer person. She acknowledges it can be hard for Black queer people to find acceptance given the central role religion plays for many in the Black community.

People outside the queer community have said to her, “‘Oh, you’re supposed to be with a man, get married to a man.’ I just wasn’t feeling that,” she said.

This complicated intersection of race and sexuality crystallized for her when she started having feelings for other girls in middle school.

Thompson is pansexual, meaning she is attracted to people of any gender identity, and she came out to her family rather by accident when she was 15.

She heard her family members say that gay people “should die.” She blurted out, “Well, I like females too. So should I die?”

Thompson said her family told her she did not “deserve to share blood with them,” that her sexuality was a phase – and a choice. She was devastated.

In the True Colors group, which Thompson has attended since she was a freshman, she has felt safe unpacking that painful moment, talking about who she is, and calling on members of the group for support. She also leaned on them when another student harassed and bullied her about her sexuality.

Through Burton’s teachings, she now has a broader understanding of the gay rights movement and its key figures. That has given her courage — this year she attended the city’s annual Motor City Pride celebration for the first time.

“It made me feel safe, like, when you’re at home — like I belonged there. I haven’t felt that way in a long time, that I belong somewhere and that these are my people, this is my community.”

For Rashawn Grayson, who graduated this year from Denby, True Colors will always be a place he can go if he needs support.

Grayson is pansexual, something he realized about himself when he was 10 years old.

“I had a class with a boy and a girl, and I had a crush on both of them,” he remembered. It struck him around the same time how people in his class mocked gay people. He couldn’t understand it. “I was like, ‘But what’s the problem?’”

But Grayson, like most kids, also sought acceptance, so he concealed those feelings and joined in. “When I did that, it kind of felt wrong. But like, I was just in denial when I was that young,” he said.

During his freshman year, as the COVID pandemic tightened its grip on the country, Grayson often found himself alone at home with his thoughts. He became depressed and suicidal. LGBTQ youth are four times as likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual young people.

(If you are struggling, find help and support here.)

Rashawn Grayson graduated from Denby High School this year and was part of True Colors for most of his time there. Even as he moves on to begin a new chapter of life, he knows he can return to the group anytime. "True Colors is always gonna be like a second home to me," he said.

“At that time, I was really coming to terms with who I was,” he said. “And while I was doing that, I was reflecting on all the things I’ve done before, like teasing people, bullying, and all of that.”

He decided he needed to come out to someone.

“I wasn’t going to tell them everything. I was still figuring myself out. But I knew one thing for sure was that I was pansexual,” he said.

Grayson mustered the courage to come out to his mom. Afterwards, she told him she “needed a drink,” because he had just dropped a bombshell on her. They both laughed – but his laughter was forced. Grayson later went to the bathroom and cried.

Joining True Colors helped him come to terms with that moment.

He discovered that he had a community, that other kids also had thorny relationships with their parents after coming out to them. “I stopped caring what people thought about me, or what they said about me. And now, I’m able to constantly tell people that I am a non-gendered person who has three different sexualities.”

Today, Grayson said his mom is still “trying to wrap her head around who I am.” But it is something he can talk about with a certain level of peace.

Just as Burton gathered an empowering vocabulary to describe himself through literature and art decades ago, Grayson, too, has learned a language about his identity through the True Colors group.

“In a way, it has been a form of therapy, not just for me but for everyone in there,” Grayson said.

The biennial exhibition I’ll Be Your Mirror — Reflections of the Contemporary Queer is hanging at galleries throughout metro Detroit through June 30. One participating gallery, Anton Art Center in Mount Clemens, shows pieces from the exhibit through mid-August. Find additional info, updates, and more here.

Robyn Vincent is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, covering Detroit schools and Michigan education policy. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org

Here’s where you can find free meals for metro Detroit kids this summer

2024-06-19T11:00:00+00:00

Resources are available for metro Detroit families who need help keeping food on the table while school is out.

One in six kids in Michigan face food insecurity, according to the nonprofit Feeding America. In Michigan, more than 850,000 children rely on free public school lunches and more than 474,000 eat breakfast in school. During the summer, children who rely on free school meals are at an increased risk of hunger, but households can get a boost from extra food assistance benefits and mobile pantries.

“Families rely heavily on ... the free and reduced lunch and so when school is closed they’re grasping at straws trying to find the resources to feed their families,” said Kelly McEvoy, director of food programs for Oak Park-based Forgotten Harvest.

The food rescue nonprofit served nearly 180,000 people in April, up from roughly 131,000 in January — a 37% increase.

“Even people who were fine before the pandemic might be struggling now just because of the cost,” McEvoy said. “Our lines have gotten busier at our mobile pantries where we service people. That tells me that there’s more people in need because (of) rising expenses.”

Here are ways families can get some help:

Metro Detroit Mobile Pantries operate through August

Between June and August, Forgotten Harvest is providing meals throughout metro Detroit for children who are out of school on summer break and do not have reliable access to food. The lunches are available through participating tutoring programs, sports camps, some Detroit Public Library locations, and events such as Metro Detroit Youth Day on July 10 at Belle Isle. Meals — including sandwiches, fruits and vegetables, and snacks — will also be available at 12 mobile pantries, starting June 24, including:

Straight Gate Church: 10100 Grand River Avenue, Detroit; first and fourth Thursday of the month from 9 a.m. to noon
Alternatives for Girls in Detroit: 903 W. Grand Boulevard, Detroit; first and third Thursday of the month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Gompers/Brightmoor Alliance: 14450 Burt Road, Detroit; second and fourth Friday of the month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Anne Visger Preparatory Academy: 11121 W. Jefferson Avenue, Detroit; Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon
Oakland Church of Christ: 23333 W 10 Mile Road, Southfield; second and fourth Thursday of the month from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Kensington Church: 25000 Hall Road, Clinton Township; Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Woodside Bible Church in Lake Orion: 2500 Joslyn Road, Lake Orion; Mondays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan – La Casa Amiga: 76 Williams Street, Pontiac; first and third Tuesday of the month from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
St. Clemente: 247 S. Main Street, Romeo; Mondays from 9 a.m. to noon.
Metropolitan Church of the Nazarene: 18945 Frazho Road, Roseville; second and fourth Wednesday of the month from 9 a.m. to noon, with registration at 7 a.m.
Bethesda Christian Church: 14000 Metropolitan Parkway, Sterling Heights; first and third Monday of the month from 4-5:30 p.m.
Citizens Changing Communities (Hand Up Inc.): 9650 Wayne Road, Romulus; Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information and any updates, go to www.forgottenharvest.org/find-food/.

Summer Food Assistance available for families

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer — Summer EBT — is a federal program to help families with school-aged children buy food. Students who receive state aid, such as cash assistance or Medicaid, or those who attend a school participating in the National School Lunch Program or School Breakfast Program are eligible. Families can get $120 for three months of benefits from June to August. Benefits will be issued Aug. 10, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, or MDHHS.

If a child is already receiving food assistance, the additional benefits will be loaded onto the Bridge card. Otherwise, they will receive a card via mail.

Students who have already been approved for free and reduced-price meals by completing a school meals and Summer EBT application, or the education benefits form for schools that are part of the Community Eligibility Provision, do not need to apply for the Summer EBT program, according to MDHHS. Those who receive state assistance do not need to apply either. All other students must contact their schools to complete a form.

For more information, go to bit.ly/MichiganSummerEBT.

Meet Up and Eat Up has sites across Michigan

Michigan’s Summer Food Service Program, also known as Meet Up and Eat Up, provides free meals to low-income children at locations across the state. For more information about locations and service dates and times, go to the online tracker: www.michigan.gov/meetupeatup.

Double Up Food Bucks help families buy fruit and veggies

Families can use the Double Up Food Bucks program to earn as much as $20 a day for fruits and vegetables at more than 230 participating stores and markets, including 50 in metro Detroit. The program, run by Fair Food Network, matches produce purchases for low-income shoppers using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, food benefits.

“Every year, one million Michiganders use SNAP to help put food on the table. While these dollars are vital for closing the food insecurity gap, families using SNAP still struggle to afford the fresh fruits and vegetables they need to stay healthy,” Fair Food Network CEO Kate Krauss said in a news release. “Our Double Up program matches SNAP dollars spent on fruits and vegetables so that people with low incomes can literally double the amount of nutritious food they buy.”

Fair Food Network is waiting for a decision from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on whether families can match their Summer EBT dollars with the Double Up Food Bucks program.

For more information and to find participating locations, go to https://doubleupfoodbucks.org/.

Nushrat Rahman is a reporter for BridgeDetroit and the Detroit Free Press. You can reach her at nrahman@freepress.com.

Report: Some Michigan districts are not equitably funding schools with higher needs

2024-06-10T12:00:00+00:00

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Many Michigan schools are still not being equitably funded, despite the state increasing dollars for at-risk students in recent years, according to a new analysis.

Only 55% of schools in Michigan’s 25 largest districts showed patterns of equitable per-pupil state spending in the 2018-19 school year, according to the analysis by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

The continuing inequities occurred because funding decisions for individual schools are made by school boards and administrators, not the state, the report said.

As lawmakers consider putting more money into at-risk funding for the 2024-25 school budget, researchers said they should consider adding more financial transparency and accountability tied to the dollars.

“I think it’s important because in Michigan, the state controls the purse strings, in terms of the funding model we have set up,” said Craig Thiel, research director of the CRC of Michigan. “But, are those dollars actually getting allocated down to the school where the children who need them attend? That’s a big picture policy question lawmakers have to ask.”

Amber Arellano, executive director of the non-partisan advocacy policy group Education Trust-Midwest, said the same pattern outlined in the report has been seen in other states. The organization, which often advocates for Michigan to invest more in at-risk funding, also calls for a “robust system of fiscal transparency and accountability,” said Arellano.

“Such a system will ensure that critical investments for students with the greatest needs will actually reach them in their schools and classrooms,” she added.

The analysis, which includes funding from the 2018-19 school year, was done with information from new federal data reporting requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires states to provide per-student spending at the school level for every district. Previously, states were only required to give district-level data.

Though 2022-23 funding data is available, it is not included in the CRC report. The analysis only looks at 2018-19 because it was the last full school year before the pandemic and gives a baseline for funding expenditures before the onslaught of millions of dollars in federal COVID relief funding.

The report did not list the districts or the schools included in the analysis.

The CRC plans on analyzing recent years that included big increases to at-risk funding and the new “opportunity index” formula.

In the 2023-24 state school budget, an additional $1 billion in at-risk funding was allocated to districts through the opportunity index, which gives more at-risk dollars to districts serving communities with higher concentrations of poverty.

Previously, the state gave the same amount of per-pupil funding to all students considered to be at risk, regardless of the levels of poverty in their districts.

As the state budget cycle wraps up, there are proposals to invest more in the opportunity index – a step that advocates say would begin to reverse years of inequitable school funding in Michigan.

The analysis includes a sample of Michigan’s largest public school systems and districts with the highest concentrations of students living in impoverished communities.

It looks at equitable rather than equal funding, meaning it seeks to find out whether districts gave additional dollars to schools in poorer communities.

The analysis calculated patterns of equitable per-pupil spending by creating three ratios. One ratio represents the percentage of students enrolled who were identified by the state as “economically disadvantaged” relative to the district’s overall percentage of students in that population. The other ratios represent per-pupil state and local spending for each school and one for overall per-pupil spending in the district.

Researchers used the ratios to calculate whether districts were directing more money to the schools with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students.

Of the 553 schools included in the analysis, 302, or about 55%, showed equitable patterns of per-student spending. When the analysis included federal dollars for poverty, the percentage increased slightly, to 57%.

Thiel said it’s still unclear why the funding disparities are happening. But there are a couple of possibilities, including personnel costs and using at-risk dollars to replace general funds.

“It’s generally the case that more senior, more well-compensated teachers gravitate to those schools where student learning is not as challenging,” said Thiel. “The younger teachers are showing up in schools that have students with the greatest needs academically.”

It might appear to administrators that they are staffing schools equitably, with more teachers at higher-need schools.

“But if a teacher’s salary in the school where student learning is not challenging is $100,000 and the two teachers in the school where it is challenging each make $40,000, the resources aren’t showing up in that school,” said Thiel.

District officials also could be using at-risk funding to supplant general fund dollars that would have gone to schools serving kids in impoverished communities.

“It’s a new dollar coming into the district, but at the school level, instead of targeting it to the at-risk population that generated that money, the dollar that was already planned to go there is backed out,” he said. “So, the net effect at that school may be zero.”

Thiel said as the legislature looks to increase at-risk funding again this year, lawmakers should consider rules to restrict such use of the dollars.

Arellano said Ed Trust-Midwest has called for a requirement that at least 75% of targeted funds be spent at schools where qualifying students attend. They have also advocated for public and easily accessible data on school-level spending of dollars directed to at-risk and English language learners.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

The FAFSA woes complicating federal college aid are especially acute for some Detroit students

2024-05-20T17:10:06+00:00

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It was College Decision Day at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, and Perriel Pace was walking through the halls wearing a sparkly shirt with a Michigan State emblem.

Pace had been excited to find the shirt at a church rummage sale. But on that day, it was a “bittersweet” choice of attire.

The Detroit high school senior was accepted to MSU months ago. She wants to become the first person in her family to go to college. But that hinges on federal financial aid. And with just a few months before the college semester begins, she still doesn’t have an answer about that funding.

Pace is among many students in limbo across the country due to the rocky rollout of a new version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The process this year has been mired in confusion — the revamped form was released at the end of last year and has come with no shortage of technical issues. Some students are still shut out of the system. Others, like Pace, managed to fill out and submit the form — but still, they wait.

In Detroit, these problems have tested the resilience of vulnerable young people already facing barriers to higher education. It is a roadblock that looms large in a city where just 17% of residents hold a college degree.

Pace has had issues finding stable housing and receives support under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. She lives with her cousin now. Last year she stayed in a shelter. Despite those challenges, she is highly engaged academically and civically. Pace has participated in student government, performed in school plays, and is involved in a number of youth organizations across the city that advocate for social justice.

She wants to convert that advocacy into a career and either become a lawyer for incarcerated people, or get her doctorate in education and sit on the Michigan State Board of Education.

She feels a sense of responsibility to carve a path into higher education — if she can get the money to go.

“Everybody, all my family, is looking to me. No one ever got the opportunity. And that’s what held them back as well — funding,” Pace said.

Students seeking college aid should ‘not despair’

The situation has had a clear impact on the state’s students who are planning to go to college.

According to recent data, 38% of high school seniors in Michigan have completed the FAFSA, a 21% decrease compared to this time last year.

These delays also have many schools on edge and have led them to rework their own timelines. The Michigan Association of State Universities’ Mia Murphy said that many public universities have moved back enrollment and deposit deadlines to accommodate students and their families.

“We want students and their families to know that they’ve done nothing wrong, that this is unprecedented, and it should never be like this again,” Murphy wrote in an email to Chalkbeat.

At Wayne State University, school staff has been working “around the clock” to help students with lingering FAFSA stress, said Ahmad Ezzedine, vice president for academic student affairs and global engagement.

Last year, 54% of the university’s incoming freshman class attended tuition-free thanks to a university program that utilizes a mix of state and federal aid, Wayne State scholarships, and grants to help students from low-income households attend.

“So we are confident that students will have very generous offers if their tuition is not fully covered based on their family situation,” Ezzedine said.

His message to students mirrored what admissions officers at local institutions of higher education like Michigan State and the University of Michigan-Dearborn told Chalkbeat: “What we want is that students don’t despair and don’t let something like this stop them.”

Still, for many vulnerable students, getting the necessary college aid is just one piece of their higher education puzzle.

College roadblocks persist, but so do Detroit students

The FAFSA rigmarole this year is particularly hard on Detroit students who face additional barriers to college, like finances, family responsibilities, and a lack of transportation, said Stacey Brockman, a Wayne State professor of educational leadership and policy who studies the pathways to college for Detroit students.

The latter is especially pronounced in a city ruled by automobiles and lacking robust public transportation.

In a forthcoming study looking at transit barriers and costs that students attending Detroit area institutions face, Brockman found that students using public transit to commute to community colleges spent upwards of an hour getting to class.

“Just objectively, that’s a really long commute,” she said.

More than half of students Brockman surveyed who had stopped going to college said finding reliable transportation was a top reason. Another 40% said they struggled to pay for it.

For some students, that problem begins well before they are thinking about college. In a recent survey, parents with children attending Detroit schools reported frequent challenges in accessing a vehicle.

Brockman’s work also highlights that many students don’t give up.

She found that one in five community college students in the Detroit area were still enrolled and making progress towards a degree in their fifth year. Many are working and supporting themselves. Slowly and steadily, they make it through.

Something similar could be said about the level of perseverance necessary to complete the FAFSA this year.

Trying to create a college-going culture

Katey, a senior at Detroit Cristo Rey High School, started filling out the FAFSA form back in January, a few weeks after it became available. (Chalkbeat is only using her first name because of her family’s immigration status.)

She’s on track to be a first-generation college student. Her parents are from Guadalajara, Mexico, and her household is of mixed immigration status. The federal government’s changes to this year’s FAFSA precluded her from completing the form. The revamped iteration asks for a parent’s Social Security number, something her parents do not have.

So Katey filled out a different form to confirm her father’s identity. The system rejected that form too, “but I never gave up,” she said.

Katey attended a FAFSA event through her school where she met Tanya Aho of Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, one of several community organizations helping people carve a path to college.

For months, Aho and Katey met and tinkered with the form and experimented with different strategies. Ultimately they figured out a workaround. Students around the country faced similar issues.

Aho said the glitch Katey experienced affected many students from backgrounds like hers up until the spring. Meanwhile, getting help in Spanish from FAFSA staff has been nearly impossible.

These layers of red tape are sending a message to students, she said.

“My kids are like, ‘You know, it doesn’t feel like they want us to get this money.’ And I really can’t argue … it doesn’t feel like this population has been a priority,” Aho said.

Katey spent difficult hours researching how to even apply for college. But it was the only way to get closer to her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian. In the fall, Katey will attend Michigan State. It was her pick given the school’s veterinary program.

At Western International High School in Southwest Detroit, where nearly three quarters of students are Hispanic or Latino, there are two bilingual college transition advisers for 400 seniors, Alicia Alvarez and Gina Dossantos. That’s nowhere near enough, Alvarez said.

Many college advisers were eliminated from several Detroit schools last year after the district made budget cuts, including at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, which Perriel Pace attends. At Western, Alvarez turned down a buyout last year but the school was ultimately able to retain her given its high enrollment numbers — more than 1,900 students attend the high school. Dossantos, meanwhile, works at the school through a partnership with the University of Michigan.

Many of the students Alvarez and Dossantos help come from vulnerable households. And they estimate roughly 20% of the students they have been working with are newcomers, often from Central American countries where they and their families escaped violence and death.

“They have to leave everything and come to this country — and then we can’t even help them get into college,” Alvarez said.

The FAFSA debacle has hampered the two advisers’ efforts to nurture a college-going culture at Western, and students are getting discouraged. “They are just like, you know what, maybe this isn’t for me,” Alvarez said.

Still, there are signs these advisers are making a dent. Alvarez is a graduate of Western herself. During her time at the school, there was much less emphasis on going to college, and there were no College Decision Day celebrations. But the contrast between then and now became clearer to her this year, when a Western student got into Harvard.

“It’s nice to see that the school is making progress in that way and to be part of that change” she said. “That feels really good.”

Robyn Vincent is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit, covering Detroit schools and Michigan education policy. You can reach her at rvincent@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan needs more youth mental health professionals. New program aims to help.

2024-05-16T21:20:24+00:00

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More mental health resources for youth are coming to Michigan this fall as part of a national effort that will also create pathways for young adults to enter behavioral health careers.

A new Youth Mental Health Corps that will help middle and high schoolers access mental health resources is launching in Michigan and three other states in September. It will eventually expand to seven more states next year.

The program also aims to tackle the state’s and the nation’s shortage of mental health professionals by giving corps members working experience. Additionally, it will provide stipends, scholarships, and in some cases, the opportunity for corps members to qualify for student loan forgiveness.

Corps members will be trained to help teens navigate resources available in their schools and community organizations. They will also share digital and media literacy resources with kids to help them navigate online harassment, bullying, and bias.

The new program, part of the federal volunteerism and service agency AmeriCorps, comes to Michigan at a time when advocates and educators say schools are far too understaffed to fully meet students’ growing needs for mental health services.

“AmeriCorps members are a tremendous resource for Michigan in helping solve the state’s pressing issues and youth mental health is one of those critical needs,” said Ginna Holmes, executive director of the Michigan Community Service Commission, in a statement. Michigan districts have added more than 1,300 mental health staff members in schools since 2018, however advocates say much more funding is needed to attract and retain counselors, psychologists, and social workers to the field.

The state had one counselor for every 615 students – the third highest ratio in the country – in the 2021-22 school year, according to the most recently available report from the American School Counselor Association. ASCA’s recommendation is once counselor for every 250 students.

For school psychologists, the ratio was one for every 1,445 students in Michigan during the same school year, and one school social worker for every 1,051 students, the most recently available data shows. The recommended ratios are one psychologist for every 500 students and one social worker for every 250 students.

Michigan is not alone in its shortage of school behavioral health staff. School mental health professional organizations say it would take more than 100,000 additional staff to reach recommended ratios in all of the public schools in the U.S.

“We are at a critical moment where we must act with urgency to address the mental health crisis that is impacting millions of our children,” said Michael D. Smith, CEO of AmeriCorps, in a statement.

The private-public partnership is funded by AmeriCorp, the Schultz Family Foundation, and social media company Pinterest.

Anyone with a high school diploma ages 18 to 24 is eligible to apply to become a corps member.

Hundreds of corps members will initially be deployed in Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas this fall, with plans to expand to California, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and Utah in the fall of 2025.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Advocates say Michigan lawmakers must do more to fund schools fairly

2024-03-21T19:48:42+00:00

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Michigan passed a historic school budget last year that gave an additional $200 million in funding to schools in impoverished communities. But advocates say more is needed to fund schools equitably.

During the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on PreK-12 hearing on Wednesday, advocates asked legislators to set aside $500 million more in funding for programs to support students considered at-risk this year, saying the need is “urgent.” They also asked the state to give more per-pupil dollars to English language learners and to reexamine what they called a “broken” funding system for students with disabilities.

The additional money would be allocated to the state’s “opportunity index,” a funding formula created last year that gave more dollars to districts serving communities with higher concentrations of poverty. While the advocates applauded legislators for the gains made last year, they urged the committee to allocate more money to students with high needs and continue to narrow long-existing inequities in school funding.

“It is a formula that will enable us to improve the state of education for all children,” said Jametta Lilly, CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, a group that trains and advocates for parents.

Historically, Michigan has been ranked among the worst states in the nation for its gaps in school funding between wealthy and impoverished communities. Previously, the same amount of per-pupil dollars were given to all students considered to be at-risk. Students are determined to be at risk by the Michigan Department of Education if they meet any of 10 criteria, including being from an economically disadvantaged family, being an English language learner, being chronically absent, and experiencing homelessness.

For years, advocates lobbied for the state to change its funding formula to a more equitable system. Ed Trust Midwest, a nonprofit that does nonpartisan policy research work, asked legislators to adopt the opportunity index funding formula as a step toward that goal.

“You listened, and thanks to your leadership, we are in a much different position this year,” said Jeff Cobb, director of government affairs at Ed Trust Midwest, during the hearing.

Last year, Michigan passed a historic $21.5 billion school aid budget with funding gains that benefited the students with the most needs in the state. For the first time, the budget gave more money to districts with higher concentrations of families living in poverty.

The new system created six “bands,” or levels of funding based on the percentage of students from economically disadvantaged families in a district. Within each band, districts received various percentages of additional funding from the state. For example, a district whose student body is made up of 73% of kids from economically disadvantaged households currently receives an additional 13.7% of base per-pupil funding.

While many advocates applauded the new funding system last year, the dollar amounts fell short of what they recommended. Advocacy groups are again asking for the same dollar amount they initially proposed.

Cobb asked the committee to commit to allocating enough money over the next five years so that the opportunity index would eventually give districts $2.9 billion in additional funding for at-risk students each year. In the 2023-24 budget, nearly $1 billion in extra funding was allocated to school systems.

The state still lags behind other states that lead the charge on equitable funding, as well as the best practices research recommends, said Cobb.

Though Michigan increased funding for programs for English language learners last year, the state still ranked among the worst in the nation compared to the percentage of funding other states allocate to such initiatives in 2023, according to Ed Trust Midwest.

“Unfortunately, Michigan has long underfunded English language learners leaving these students at a large disadvantage compared to their peers,” said Cobb.

Jose Orozco, executive director of nonprofit Voces in Battle Creek, said he’s experienced difficulty accessing resources for English language learners in Michigan schools first-hand.

“I know many families who face challenges ensuring that their child receives a high-quality

public education,” he said. “This is often not the school district’s fault, but rather the continuation of a school funding model that dramatically underinvests in English learners.”

Orozco asked the committee to give an additional $80 million for English language learners in this year’s budget.

“This is still far off from where we need to be,” he said. “The weights in law are still below what research recommends and leading states practice, but this investment would set us on a path towards fully funding these students.”

Another funding area the advocates said desperately requires change is how the state funds education for students with disabilities.

Currently, the state partially reimburses districts for costs related to educating students with disabilities, making it one of seven states that use this model. School systems are reimbursed for 28% of education costs for each student in special education in addition to 100% of the base per-pupil funding amount. The amount the state allocates per student has increased in recent years.

“Michigan districts shoulder much of the funding responsibility for students with disabilities but have varying capacities to cover these costs,” said Cobb. “As a result, students with disabilities are being shortchanged.”

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit schools are enrolling more migrant students. Can the district meet their needs?

2024-02-26T19:29:50+00:00

As an influx of school-aged migrant and refugee children have resettled with their families in Detroit in recent weeks, schools are working to quickly adapt to meet their needs.

Some are more prepared than others.

Detroit Public Schools Community District campuses on the southwest side of the city have long served diverse student groups and have many Spanish-speaking teachers and administrators who can easily communicate with parents. But a large number of students who have recently migrated to the U.S. are being placed in available shelter beds on the city’s east side, where schools have historically served children with different needs.

“It’s no fault of the schools,” said Elizabeth Orozco-Vasquez, CEO of Freedom House Detroit, a nonprofit that supports asylum seekers and refugees. “It’s just that they’ve never had to prepare for that before. Meeting the needs of a new population of kids is a big ask to put on an already tasked school system.”

Translation services in those schools are often limited. Additionally, transportation for kids to attend schools in southwest Detroit can be difficult to arrange, advocates say. The district is required by the federal McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act to help students without a fixed address maintain school stability.

“We are seeing a lot of school-aged children come in, primarily in schools outside of southwest Detroit that aren’t necessarily prepared for children coming from other countries who don’t speak English,” said Orozco-Vasquez. “It’s a resource that has to be built.”

About 70 families who recently arrived from Venezuela enrolled their children in DPSCD, according to the district, and the number continues to grow. Administrators say they are providing language interpretation and translation, and training staff to understand new students’ unique needs. In the long term, the district is considering establishing newcomer programs, which would centralize students at specific schools to streamline services for migrant and refugee children.

Detroit hasn’t seen the large numbers of migrants and refugees arriving that large cities like Chicago and New York have in recent months. But some of the families arriving in Detroit are coming from those cities because shelters and humanitarian organizations there are overwhelmed.

DPSCD is working to meet students’ needs

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in an email all schools in the district are now receiving support as they adapt to meet the needs of migrant students. Staff are being trained to use translation tools, to identify curricular resources to help students learn English, and to address the trauma the kids may have experienced.

The district has formed a small team of teacher training and support coordinators specializing in English language learning to deploy to schools with newcomer students, he said. DPSCD is also continuing to collaborate with community members through its Bilingual Parent Advisory Council as well as the Office of Family and Community Engagement to meet the families’ needs.

Staff can request a live interpreter and document translations, said Vitti. The district also offers over-the-phone and remote video interpreters, and students and staff are able to use Microsoft Translate.

“The district is working with all school leaders and teachers to make sure that they are fully aware of these resources and use them consistently to communicate with families who need language services,” said Vitti.

Part of the challenge, said Orozco-Vasquez, is that the newly arrived students are speaking many languages. In addition to Spanish-speakers, some speak Portuguese or French.

Some nonprofit organizations work with school districts to fill gaps in providing language support to refugee students. Samaritas, a faith-based statewide nonprofit, works with DPSCD.

“If there is no comprehensive ELL program in place, we work with the school on providing that,” Rawan Alramahi, supervisor of Samaritas’ school impact program.

Funding from a $94.4 million settlement – from a 2016 lawsuit that alleged Michigan failed to teach Detroit students to read and described inadequate education for English language learners – will likely allow the school system to hire more academic interventionists to work with English language learners, the superintendent said. A task force formed to identify how DPSCD should spend the settlement recently recommended the district do so.

The settlement funding will also be used to help the district determine whether there is a need for more newcomer programs to be developed at schools in DPSCD to “better serve first- and second-year immigrants,” Vitti said. There is one existing program at Western International High School that provides academic and social support to newcomer families.

“Through this strategy, newly arrived students with limited English skills would be assigned to these schools so we can concentrate resources for support, such as ELL teachers and [academic interventionists],” said Vitti.

The planned Health Hub at Western International, which will provide medical, dental, and mental health care, will also have a resource center with services for newly arrived families, said Vitti. Other Health Hubs, which will expand over the next three years at schools across the district, may also have the same focus, depending on need, according to the superintendent.

For migrant students who experience homelessness or are housed in shelters, the district will provide all the services guaranteed by the McKinney-Vento Act, which mandates that unhoused students be allowed to quickly enroll in schools, stay in the same school even if they move outside of enrollment boundaries, and receive transportation to their schools regardless of the distance, among other protections.

Overall, the district’s system for identifying students who need services through the act has improved, said Vitti. The need for transportation services with that funding has increased in the community across the board and is not unique to newcomer or refugee students.

“Newcomer and refugee students are not always homeless, but when they are, we are committed to providing transportation services,” said Vitti.

In the past, there were concerns about DPSCD’s ability to educate English language learners, who graduate from high school at lower rates compared to their English-speaking peers. Parents expressed a need for more language access in the district, and felt their concerns were ignored.

Inequities for ELL students is not unique to DPSCD. Michigan ranks among the lowest in the nation for funding for students who are not native English speakers, according to an analysis by The Education Trust-Midwest.

Last year, the state passed a historic school budget that provided $1.3 million more in funding for ELL students.

Some migrant families arrive from Chicago, New York, Texas

Most of Detroit’s migrant students have come from Venezuela, according to the school district.

Others are coming from Columbia, Angola, Senegal, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Orozco-Vasquez said there is a mix of families coming from larger cities like New York and Chicago as well as various cities in Texas, where officials have struggled to keep up with the growing need for services for migrants, as well as people coming directly from their countries of origin.

Samaritas is currently serving more than 250 school-age children, and has recently seen more families coming from Venezuela and Cuba, along with families from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

Both Freedom House and Samaritas said most of the newly arrived school-age children they serve have enrolled in DPSCD, and some are attending charter schools in Wayne County.

The increase in the number of families migrating to Michigan isn’t expected to slow anytime soon – officials expect to see a 40% increase in refugees settling in the state this year, which would amount to more than 3,600 people. As demand for temporary housing grows, the Office of Global Michigan this week asked residents to open their homes as part of a refugee support program.

Michigan has long been a destination for refugees and asylum seekers. Though the recent influx of migrants is sizable, it’s not the largest the state has experienced.

In 2013, more than 3,400 Iraqi refugees resettled in Michigan. And after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, more than 2,000 refugees came to live in the state.

DPSCD has also previously seen influxes of migrants. More than 40 refugees from Afghanistan enrolled in the district in May 2022.

Navigating a foreign school system

Ivan Nakonechngi, 13, works on his computer at home on Wed., Feb., 21, 2024 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

In addition to DPSCD and other schools in Wayne County, refugees are also being placed and enrolling in schools in Macomb, Oakland, and Genesee Counties.

One mother, Svitlana Nakonechna, 33, arrived in the U.S. three years ago after fleeing the war in Ukraine with her son, Ivan Nakonechngi, now 13.

Nakonechna is still learning English, and she communicates with Ivan’s teachers at South Hills Middle School in Bloomfield Hills Schools through an online translator application in email and on video calls. The mother tries to keep up with Ivan’s grades and when his work is due.

“Usually, I keep track of that since she’s not really good with English,” said Ivan, who began learning English in school in Ukraine.

Ivan Nakonechngi, 13, left, poses for a portrait with his mother, Svitlana Nakonechna, 33, in their home on Wed., Feb., 21, 2024 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Nakonechna said through an interpreter that she doesn’t know much about the curriculum Ivan is being taught, but she trusts he’s learning because she sees he’s engaged in his school work.

Though her sponsors and Samaritas have been helpful in enrolling her son in school and navigating the system, Nakonechna worries what may happen if she has to move out of the housing she receives through her employer to another school district.

“If we move from this place to another city and I need to find a new school, I still will need help because I don’t know how to handle it by myself,” she said.

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s high school graduation rate increases for the second year in a row

2024-02-23T23:19:03+00:00

Michigan’s high school graduation rate was 81.77% in 2023, the second year in a row the rates have increased and a promising sign that students are continuing to recover from the disruptive pandemic.

Last year’s graduation rate was 81.01%.

The dropout rate declined slightly to 8.13%, from 8.19% in 2022.

The four-year graduation rate represents the portion of students who entered high school in 2019 and graduated in 2023. The state released the data Friday.

The state also calculates five- and six-year rates, recognizing that some students are enrolled in early middle college programs in which they earn a high school diploma and an associate degree or other advanced certificate. Those rates also reflect students who need more time to graduate from traditional programs.

Students are counted as dropouts if they leave school permanently at any time in high school.

The state noted in a news release that graduation rates rose in all 17 categories, including for Black and Hispanic students, students from low-income homes, youth experiencing homelessness, and those in foster care.

The rising rates “are a welcome sign that student achievement is rebounding and a tribute to the hard work of Michigan students, educators, support staff, and communities,” State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement.

Despite the increases, stubborn and wide gaps continue to exist. The graduation rate for white students was 85%, and for Asian American students, it was 93.5%. For Black students, though, the rate was 71.3% and for Hispanic students, it was 76.8%.

The rates were dramatically lower for some of the most vulnerable students in the state. The rate was 59.6% for students with disabilities, 44% for students in foster care, and 58.3% for students experiencing homelessness.

Rice acknowledged that more work must be done to address the gaps.

Lansing district ‘overwhelmingly impressed’

Improving graduation rates has been a key goal in the Lansing School District, and the work to increase the numbers appears to be paying off. The graduation rate for 2023 was 76.37%, a 14 percentage point increase from 2021, when the rate was 62.10%. The 2023 rate is the highest the district has ever seen, Superintendent Ben Shuldiner said.

“We are overwhelmingly impressed by the hard work and dedication of our educators, our students, and our families,” Shuldiner said.

Among the initiatives that have led to the improvement, he said, is the hiring of graduation specialists at the high school and district levels. Their goal is to ensure that every student graduates.

“They’re checking in with students every day, making sure they’re coming to school and passing classes. They’re doing everything they can to make sure students are getting the support they need,” Shuldiner said.

That could mean ensuring they have tutoring, after-school help, a math class required for graduation, or a roof over their head.

Many other districts also saw gains. At Ypsilanti Community Schools, the four-year rate was 78.33% compared to 73.79% in 2022. In 2019, the rate was 68.53%.

Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross said the district has improved its rate because of gains at the districts’ alternative high schools.

Students at these high schools were typically behind in course credits.

“That team really focused last year on academic tutoring, after-school and acceleration during the Grizzly Learning Camp,” Zachery-Ross said. “And we really saw that those two differences and what’s happening in the classroom really made a difference.”

The district’s summer camp includes college visits, connecting students to community resources, and project-based learning.

Here’s what the rates looked like in several other Michigan districts:

Detroit Public Schools Community District’s four-year graduation rate was 74.26% compared to 71.06% in 2022. The district had a 75.84% rate in 2019.
Ann Arbor Public Schools’ four-year rate was 90.57%, which is up slightly from 89.23% in 2022 and 89.46% in 2019.
Grand Rapids Public Schools’ four-year rate was 82.39% in 2023, up from 80.53% in 2022 and 76.2% in 2019.

Traverse City Area Public Schools’ 2023 rate was lower than the previous year. The four-year graduation rate was 84.04% in 2023, down from 86.47% in 2022 and 84.97% in 2019. The district had a 90.51% rate in 2020.

Superintendent John VanWagoner said the four-year rate is misleading because the district has two high schools where some students are enrolled in early middle college, and they graduate in five years with both a diploma and associate degree or technical certificate.

Plus, the district has a large alternative high school, where many students take an extra year or two to complete their high school diploma.

For example, the five-year graduation rate at one of the high schools with an early middle college program, Traverse City Central High School, was 96.36%.

Still, VanWagoner said he wants to see graduation rates improve.

“Having one kid not graduate is too many; we want to make sure that every kid that is in our schools, that we set them up for the future, and a high school diploma is a must these days.”

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org

Isabel Lohman is a reporter for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Mentoring program provides Detroit kids with a forever ‘friend’

2024-02-22T20:19:47+00:00

On a warm, sunny day last July, Autumn Palmer and Peighton made their way to the playground at City Centre Park in Southfield.

Peighton hopped on a friendship swing. Palmer, 28, gave her a couple of pushes.

“Do you want to go higher?” Palmer asked. Peighton nodded.

After a few minutes, the 10-year-old wanted to try the zip line. “Ready?” Palmer said. Peighton held on tight to the cord and smiled as she slid to the other side.

At first glance, the two look like they could be mother and daughter. But their special bond began only three years ago thanks to an unique mentorship program.

Palmer and Peighton are part of the Detroit chapter of Friends of the Children, where children ages 4-6 are paired with a professional member called a “Friend” for 12 years or longer. The mentor is there for all of the child’s ups and downs –helping them learn how to read and write, navigating their relationships with friends and family, exploring their interests, and preparing them for college or a career.

BridgeDetroit has been following Palmer and Peighton for seven months, seeing their interactions and getting updates on Peighton’s progress. BridgeDetroit is identifying Peighton by only her first name to protect her privacy.

The organization has 36 locations across the country, including New York, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles. The Detroit chapter launched in 2020.

Friends of the Children works with kids who have adverse childhood experiences or ACEs, said Detroit Executive Director Derschaun Brown. These include experiencing violence, abuse or neglect, having a parent who is addicted to drugs or alcohol or being placed in the foster care system.

Brown, who joined the organization in 2022, said one thing that attracted her to the job is that Friends are not volunteers but paid, full-time mentors. Friends work with eight to 10 children each, spending three to four hours every week with each of them.

As someone who has worked in education for 25 years, Brown had never seen a model like Friends of the Children.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” she said. “I’ve been mentoring for 30 years and I’ve never received a dime. And, once I looked at the data around the organization, I said, ‘I’ve got to be part of this.’”

Autumn Palmer pushed her mentee Peighton on a swing at City Centre Park in Southfield last July. The two are part of the Detroit chapter of Friends of the Children.

Counted out of society

Friends of the Children was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1993 by entrepreneur Duncan Campbell and his wife Cindy Campbell. Duncan grew up in an impoverished neighborhood with alcoholic parents and wanted to help kids who came from similar backgrounds.

The first chapter opened in Portland with three professional mentors serving 24 children and eventually spread to other cities like Seattle, New York, and Boston.

Today, the organization serves 3,000 children. In its 31 years, Friends of the Children has seen outcomes such as 83% of youth receiving their high school diploma or GED, 92% going on to enroll in postsecondary education, enlist in the military, or enter the workforce with a living wage job, and 93% staying out of the juvenile justice system.

The Detroit chapter currently has eight Friends and serves 64 children and is expecting to enroll two more Friends and 16 kids next month, Brown said. Mentors must have an associate degree or higher, experience working with youth, and a passion for working with children.

“Many of our mentors come from education,” Brown said. “They were former teachers, former counselors, those who have trauma-informed practice experience and so, they come to us with a wealth of knowledge and experience, as well as love. Those are the three critical components that they must bring in order to be a part of Friends of the Children Detroit.”

Children are referred to the organization from four sources – Detroit Public Schools Community District, River Rouge School District, child welfare agency Orchard Children’s Services, and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Brown said Friends of the Children focuses on kids ages 4-6 because that’s when they’re at the beginning of their education journey.

“They (the referral sources) do an assessment on each of the children,” she said. “It could be that they’re threatening to be a part of foster care, they’re in foster care, or that they’re having some challenges in school. Once they do the assessment and determine, ‘Oh yeah, this kid has two ACEs,’ then they qualify to be a part of our program.”

Kids who face systemic and circumstantial barriers are often counted out of society, Brown said.

She was one of them.

Brown’s parents divorced and her father was absent from her life. Brown eventually gained a stepfather, but he died from a drug overdose. That left her mom a single parent raising Brown and her two siblings.

Brown said she didn’t have a mentor growing up and had to come to terms with her childhood trauma on her own.

“That’s why we’re fighting so hard for them (the children) because there is a chance for them to experience optimal success. There’s an opportunity for them and their families to thrive and not just survive,” she said.

Autumn Palmer and Peighton worked on a puzzle together at City Centre Park last July. The two often go on outings to the park or the library.

‘It takes a village…’

Peighton has also faced traumatic experiences in her young life. Her father is out of the picture and her mother is incarcerated. The fourth grader and her two siblings live with their grandmother, Tori Scheday-Walton, in northwest Detroit. In addition, Peighton has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, which can make it challenging to focus in school.

Scheday-Walton said she was referred to Friends of the Children by Sonya Lewis, the principal at Peighton’s school, Detroit Leadership Academy. They joined the organization in June 2020.

“I just felt like Peighton needed an extra buddy or a person in her life,” Scheday-Walton said. “It takes a village to raise children and you can never have too many helpers in a child’s life.”

Since Peighton started Friends of the Children at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, her first meetings with Palmer were virtual. But as restrictions began to ease, the two would go to places like the park or the library. During the school year, Palmer spends four hours a week with Peighton; two hours in school and two hours outside of school.

And Palmer assists Peighton with her growing interest in gardening. She has grown tomatoes, celery, onions, carrots and more, her grandmother said.

“She’s an excellent gardener,” Palmer said.

When it comes to schoolwork, Palmer is there to help Peighton with reading and math. The mentor also worked with Scheday-Walton to get school officials to offer Peighton an individualized education program, or an IEP.

“Autumn definitely advocated for me to make sure I knew what to say and do so they could get that in place,” Scheday-Walton said.

She has seen her granddaughter’s confidence grow with Palmer.

“She encourages Peighton a lot. It’s like having a big sister/co-mom for me,” Scheday-Walton said. “And Peighton depends on Autumn and looks forward to seeing her. It’s not often that a child looks forward to spending time with another adult that’s not a family member.”

“I like everything about her,” Peighton added about her Friend.

Last month, Palmer and Peighton participated in the Friends of the Children’s Mentor Day event at the organization’s headquarters inside Durfee Innovation Society. Along with several other kids and mentors, the two conducted science experiments from a kit, like making putty and perfumes.

Since meeting almost four years ago, Peighton has become a stronger reader and more confident in herself, Palmer said. Together, they’re working on goals like limiting screen time, eating healthier, and memorizing times tables.

“And I feel like she’s found the things that she really enjoys to do and advocates to do those things more often,” Palmer said.

Time will tell how Peighton will continue to grow. The pair have eight more years together, and possibly a lifetime, to go.

Micah Walker is a reporter for BridgeDetroit. You can reach her at mwalker@bridgedetroit.com.

Here’s what it would cost in Michigan for free preschool, community college, and school meals

2024-02-07T21:14:32+00:00

At a time when academic recovery from the pandemic has been slow, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a plan Wednesday to increase spending on Michigan’s most vulnerable students.

In her budget proposal, Whitmer also said she wants to invest more in preschool, provide child care workers with payments to enroll their own children in the kinds of programs in which they work, and expands the state’s scholarship program to ensure all high school graduates can enroll in community college, for free, if they choose.

The new investments in the $80.7 billion state budget amount to hundreds of millions of dollars of additional funding for education initiatives at a time when research shows Michigan students overall are still far behind where they were academically before the pandemic. It also comes as school districts across the state face the loss later this year of the federal COVID relief money that has helped boost tutoring and mental health services students have sorely needed.

And it’s possible, Whitmer said, because the state paid off billions in debt in the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Those debt payments, she said, freed up $670 million.

“We have the resources to invest in our people,” said Whitmer, who first outlined her proposals during her State of the State address last month.

Negotiations will now begin. Democrats hold the majority in the Senate, but until elections can be held in April for two open seats, the House is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Those two seats are in heavily Democratic districts.

Republican leaders were critical of the governor’s budget proposal.

“Last year, Democrats blew through a $9.2 billion surplus and fought for a $700 million income tax hike,” Sen. Jon Bumstead, a Republican from North Muskegon, said in a statement. Bumstead is the minority vice chair of the Senate Appropriations committee. “Now they are presenting an unsustainable budget that spends more money, bloats the size of government, and offers crumbs for average Michigan families still coping with higher costs on virtually everything.”

Here’s what Whitmer is proposing for schools, students, and families:

Increase in per-pupil aid for schools, including for the neediest students

The minimum amount school districts would receive per pupil would be $9,849, an 2.5% increase of $241 per student over this year’s level.

Meanwhile, Whitmer proposed continuing a practice she started several years ago of weighting funding for districts based on the needs of some students. That means schools receive additional money for students who are “academically at risk,” English language learners, career and technical education students, and rural students.

The budget calls for increasing funding by $125 million for those groups of students, which amounts to a 5% increase over the $118 million spent this year.

Community college guarantee for high school graduates

Whitmer’s budget calls for a $30 million increase in funding for the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, which would allow the program to expand to ensure every high school graduate in the state could receive an associate degree or skilled certificate at a community college for free.

With the community college proposal, more than 18,000 students would each save up to $4,820 on tuition each year, according to the budget proposal.

In her remarks to lawmakers Wednesday, Whitmer said the community college proposal would also help the state move closer to a goal to have 60% of the state’s working-age residents have a postsecondary certificate or college degree by 2030. When Whitmer took office in 2018, just 45% had achieved a certificate or college degree. That percentage is now at 51%.

“This would be a transformational opportunity for our students,” she said.

“Investments in community college are key to Michigan’s overall prosperity, as these degrees and certifications bolster the workforce across the state and help meet emerging talent needs of employers,” Brandy Johnson, president of the Michigan Community College Association, said in a statement.

Expanding free preschool for all

Whitmer’s budget includes making the state’s free preschool available to all 4-year-olds regardless of family income – two years ahead of schedule. She had previously proposed phasing in the expansion.

The expansion would cost an additional $159 million, including $63.5 million to allow the Great Start Readiness Program to enroll an additional 6,800 children. The rest of the increased cost would cover increasing the per-student allocation, opening new classrooms in underserved areas, and to help pay for the cost of transportation.

Child care workers would get free care for their children

Whitmer also plans to invest more in the child care sector.

The state would spend $60 million to create a pilot program to provide these workers with benefits to pay for child care for their own children. Budget documents say the median child care worker pay is $13.71 an hour.

“The average cost for child care for one child is $10,600 annually, which means the average child care worker would need to dedicate over 37% of their gross salary to child care costs if they want their child to receive the same care they provide for other children on a daily basis,” the document says.

Expansion of free school meals

Public school students across the state would continue to receive free school meals with $200 million Whitmer proposes including in the budget. Lawmakers included money in the current budget to ensure that each of the state’s 1.4 million children would have access to a free breakfast and lunch.

She said the free meals save families $850 a year on grocery bills and eliminates the struggle of ensuring children get out the door in the mornings with their lunch.

“Knowing that your child will eat no matter what is a huge relief,” Whitmer said.

The free meals have been criticized by Republicans because it is only for public school students, not for children enrolled in private schools or children being home-schooled.

“Why are they left hungry?” Sarah Lightner, a Republican from Springport, asked during the budget presentation.

Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@chalkbeat.org.

Advocates for Michigan foster youth hope education reforms will pass this year

2024-01-18T16:30:00+00:00

When Christian Goode transferred from a traditional high school to Lakeside Academy, a state-licensed residential foster care facility near Kalamazoo, some of his academic records never made it over.

As a result, he had to repeat an entire year of classes, and redo school work he had already completed.

“At times, I didn’t want to do it, because I had already done it,” Goode said of the work. “It felt like I was forgotten and no one cared.”

Goode is now 21 — years past high school and living in Van Buren Township. But the holes in Michigan’s foster care system that disrupted his education persist today, and they continue to create turmoil for thousands of students in foster care.

As reported by NBC in 2022, many students describe having to repeat years of school due to lost academic records. Some say they were placed in residential facilities that failed to give them an education that met state graduation requirements. Others said they missed weeks or months of school while waiting to be enrolled after moving to a foster-care facility.

Their experiences are now inspiring efforts in the Michigan Legislature to ensure that students in foster care get more of the education they deserve.

“These are young people who have already been dealt a lot of trauma,” said State Rep. Stephanie Young, a Democrat from Detroit. “The very minimum we can do is ensure they get the best education they can.”

Three bills introduced last year by Young passed the Michigan House in November. Young said she is pushing for the legislation to move quickly through a hearing in the Senate Housing and Human Services Committee and for a vote in the Senate. She says the bills have bipartisan support.

One of the bills would require that residential facilities enroll students in school within five days of placement, and that they provide an education that meets the state’s graduation requirements. Another bill would give the Michigan Department of Education responsibility for overseeing the facilities’ educational programs and enforcing compliance.

The third bill would require the MDE and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to keep better records on the number of children in foster care, where they are, and how they’re progressing in their education.

The state has an estimated 10,000 kids in foster care, but the total number is unknown because many go uncounted in the current system, advocates say. For example, people ages 18 to 23 who are still eligible to receive state services are not included in that count.

Michigan foster youth have a high school graduation rate of about 40% – lagging about 40 percentage points behind the state’s overall graduation rate. That figure doesn’t give a clear picture either, because it doesn’t include youth who drop out or complete high school in residential facilities.

“This problem has existed for years, and we’ve finally decided to come up with a solution,” said Young. “I don’t foresee any major obstacles in moving this thing forward.”

A group of foster youth and advocates spoke at the Dec. 12 Michigan State Board of Education meeting to ask the board to support a package of bills that would reform the way the state oversees education for kids in foster care.

Inadequate record-keeping adds to challenges for youth in foster care

Christian Randle entered the foster care system at age 11, when he said he was abandoned by his mother. He thought he was excelling in his school work for years, and worked hard to fulfill the promise he made to himself that he would graduate high school.

But when he left a residential facility and tried to enroll in a traditional community high school two years ago, he found out there was no record of him attending nearly three years of high school. In fact, Michigan has no centralized electronic system to track foster youth and their educational records.

“Through all that stress and trauma going on inside of that foster care facility, the one thing I was happy about coming out of it was my schooling,” Randle, now an 18-year-old senior at an online school, said in January. “And that was taken away from me.”

“I felt defeated and like I had to restart everything,” he said through tears. “To me, it felt like my life was over.”

The inability to access records also makes it impossible for traditional public schools to identify students who are in foster care, which can deprive those children of resources they need or their rights under federal education law.

For example, schools can’t fulfill the federal Title I requirement to engage with students’ families if they can’t identify who holds a foster youth’s parental rights. Neither can they comply with the federal 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act’s assurance of transportation for foster youth if they can’t identify which students are in foster care.

“They are invisible in schools,” said Saba Gebrai, program director at Park West, a Michigan nonprofit that supports foster youth. “Under the federal law, they have all these protections, but we can’t protect and serve them if we don’t know who they are.”

Because schools can’t see the youths’ case files, administrators can’t identify who has their parental rights. Biological parents, caregivers, and students old enough to hold their own parental rights are routinely denied access to the educational records they are legally entitled to.

Carlos Correa, a former foster youth who spoke about his experience to the Michigan State Board of Education in December, said he regularly struggled to get absences excused when he was in high school.

“They kept insisting that I get permission from my parents to attend my doctors appointments,” he said.

Education for foster youth lacks consistency

Beyond the record-keeping, it’s the quality of education that concerns many advocates for foster youth.

When kids move from one facility to another, often in the middle of a school year, there is no continuity in their curriculum, said Gebrai. The assessments they take to determine what classes or grade levels they should be in vary from facility to facility.

Residential facilities, many operated by private companies, can decide on their own what students are taught.

“Graduation and high school diplomas are not mentioned in the contracts that these facilities have,” said Gebrai. “Each facility is creating its own idea of what school is and what assessments to give, and they are not in communication with each other.”

Many youth who live in the facilities describe being placed in classrooms packed with kids of all ages and grade levels. They say there is often only one instructor or facility staff member overseeing large numbers of students. Some say they are instructed entirely online, and others say they are assigned packets to complete as lessons without instruction from a teacher.

“I was in a place for like one month without receiving education because of constant fights,” said Correa of a residential facility he was placed in.

Existing state laws require parents or facilities only to provide youth with “timely” enrollment in school. That vague language often leads to weeks of missed school for kids moving around in the system, advocates say.

Young said the explicit five-day deadline in the legislation she introduced would clear that up.

Gebrai and other advocates argued for the bill to mandate “immediate” placement, but Young argued for some flexibility. “Kids might be dealing with the trauma of being removed from their house and the only school they knew,” said Young. “Going to a new school the very next day, that’s traumatic. I get that there needs to be some wiggle room.”

According to a fiscal impact analysis of the bills, the laws would cost the state around $600,000 to hire three full-time staff members in the MDE to implement the proposed new requirements.

The residential facilities may contract with public schools to provide curriculum, the analysis says. The school aid budget already allocates $10.5 million to reimburse districts for on-site education for youth.

Foster youth see an opportunity for change

Goode, the former Lakeside Academy student, ultimately got his high school diploma there, and plans to go back to the University of Michigan-Flint in the fall. But he feels he missed out on a “normal” high school experience and childhood.

“I’ve never been to a homecoming dance or prom,” he said. “I’ve never experienced a high school science fair. A lot of things I grew up without and I sat on the outside of it. I can’t change that now.”

But he and Randle see Young’s bills as hope that things can change for other youth in foster care.

Randle, who lives on his own in Southfield and works several jobs to support himself and his cat, hopes to complete high school this year. His dream is to be the first in his family to attend college and to eventually have a career helping foster youth.

He says the changes in the law are long overdue.

“It’s the bare minimum that they can do, because they haven’t been doing anything for years,” said Randle. “It shouldn’t even have taken this long to pass the bills. Just the fact that it’s had to take this long shows a lot about how kids in foster care are treated.”

Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.

Detroit district gets better at identifying homeless students, but study points to big undercount

2023-06-21T21:49:00+00:00

Recent efforts by the Detroit school district are helping officials identify more homeless students who would otherwise miss out on crucial support services guaranteed under federal law, a new research study found.

Roughly 5% of the district’s students were identified as homeless last school year, compared with around 1% nearly a decade ago.

But the researchers, from Wayne State University’s Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research, found that schools in Detroit continue to significantly undercount the number of students experiencing homelessness, as well as other forms of housing instability. Their conclusions are based on data from the Detroit Public Schools Community District and charter schools in the city, as well as interviews with families experiencing housing instability.

The researchers estimated that as many as 16% of the roughly 100,000 K-12 students in Detroit experienced homelessness or housing instability during the 2021-22 school year, with roughly three-fourths of those students not being identified as homeless by their school during that time frame.

That gap is critical, because it points to potential underutilization of support services available to those students. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, homeless students are entitled to several services and protections, including transportation to and from school, academic support, the right to remain in the school they attended at the time they lost their permanent housing, and the right to enroll in a school even if they lack proper documents.

Homeless students are more likely to be chronically absent, drop out of school, and be suspended or expelled from school. So ensuring students can get access to McKinney-Vento services can have long-term effects on their academic wellbeing, experts say.

Federal law defines homelessness narrowly

Detroit had about 10,000 homeless people before the pandemic, according to a report from the Homeless Action Network of Detroit, with roughly 20% identified as children under the age of 18.

This month, Detroit city officials launched a new office to help residents facing displacement find housing options, part of a $203 million affordable housing plan announced last year by Mayor Mike Duggan’ administration.

Nationally, the identification of homeless students declined during the pandemic as school district liaisons found it harder to reach and provide resources to homeless students.

The Wayne State study outlines several barriers students experiencing homelessness may face, including lack of awareness about available resources, parents’ reluctance to discuss housing challenges with school staff, and a lack of follow-through when parents do disclose their housing status.

The federal definition of homelessness also complicates the task of getting support to students. To qualify for services under McKinney-Vento, students must meet certain criteria that distinguish homeless students from those who are housing insecure. Homeless students are defined by the statute as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence,” whereas the housing insecure category can be broadly defined and include those who may have been evicted at some point before shortly finding housing.

The Wayne State report notes that while 16% of students in Detroit may have experienced housing insecurity or homelessness in 2021-22, only about 11% may have qualified for services under McKinney-Vento.

To increase the identification of students facing housing instability, the researchers recommend that Detroit schools strengthen relationships with parents and improve communication about the availability of services.

DPSCD expands its efforts, but runs into hurdles

DPSCD, for its part, has increased its efforts to identify homeless students in recent years by adding full-time staff to its homeless student office, adding a residency questionnaire with its student enrollment form, and publicizing information about available services through designated staff and resource rooms at individual schools.

These efforts are likely the reason DPSCD has been able to identify a greater share of its homeless students than Detroit’s charter schools, the study said. DPSCD identified about 29% of its students who experienced housing difficulties, the researchers estimated, compared with only 16% for the charter schools.

This school year, DPSCD identified over 2,200 students as homeless, compared with 765 in 2018-19, according to Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

“We’ve definitely increased our numbers (of homeless students), because we’ve done a better job of engaging families and creating more awareness about the opportunity to be identified as homeless,” Vitti said at a school board committee meeting this spring. “But it’s natural to know that there’s a stigma that comes with that, and some parents are not comfortable.”

“We have done a better job over the years of identifying, but I would agree it’s still undercounted,” he said.

Vitti also pointed to the added hurdles families may face: A student or family member has to apply for McKinney-Vento services and be reviewed by a DPSCD staff member to be identified as homeless before they can qualify for support.

Those hurdles are compounded by a student’s “willingness to admit to homelessness,” Vitti said, as well as the limited resources available.

Despite recent budget cuts that have affected many of the district’s central office employees, Vitti said DPSCD will continue to staff its districtwide Office of Homeless and Foster Care by using grant dollars to hire contracted staff, as well as emphasize “relationship building, awareness and additional training for staff” and school liaisons.

Principals annually select a school staff member to identify and provide support services to students facing housing insecurity. Those staff will continue to receive monthly training on the inner workings of McKinney-Vento, mandated reporting, and available resources.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

A guide to finding school transportation for your child in Detroit

2023-03-22T17:48:24+00:00

Getting students to school in Detroit can be tough. Transportation options are limited, and they vary depending on where your family lives and which school your child attends.

The lack of transportation resources helps explain why so many Detroit students frequently miss class and lose out on learning opportunities.

Here are answers to some of the common questions parents ask about school transportation in Detroit, and resources to help families get their students to school.

Why don’t most Detroit schools provide buses?

Part of the reason is that they don’t have to. Most students in Michigan don’t have a legal right to transportation to and from school. Only children with certain disabilities or some who are experiencing homelessness have a right to school transportation.

Buses, drivers and fuel are costly, so Detroit and other districts that have financial constraints limit the amount of busing they provide.

Citywide, around 20% of students this year get to school on a yellow bus.

What transportation options are available to Detroit families?

Walking or biking may be an option, though some families report safety concerns. Some kids living in Detroit do have access to free yellow buses (more on that below). DPSCD pays for transit passes for students who want or need to use city buses. The passes can be picked up at each school’s office. Some families rely on commercial ride share companies, such as Uber and Lyft, though students technically must be 18 to use those services.

Which options are available to my child?

The answer depends on where your child attends school.

Charter schools

Nearly half of Detroit charter schools offer some form of transportation, though options may be limited. For instance, the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences runs buses from a handful of stops across the city, but stops may not be within walking distance of each student’s home.

The Detroit Schools Guide provides a list of charters that offer some transportation, but the guide hasn’t been updated since 2020.

Before enrolling, call the school or visit its website to learn more about transportation options.

Detroit Public Schools Community District

DPSCD recommends that parents and guardians use PowerSchool, the district’s online information center, to find transportation options. Once you verify your address and contact information, you should be able to see your child’s scheduled transportation route. Parents can also call their child’s school directly, or the district’s Transportation Call Center at 313-945-8600.

DPSCD parents can access bus route information through Powerschool using the student reports tab, as this screenshot shows.

No matter where your child attends school, they are eligible for yellow bus service if it’s guaranteed through their individualized education program or the McKinney Vento Act for kids who are experiencing homelessness.

K-8 neighborhood public school: You qualify for yellow bus service if you attend your neighborhood school and live at least three-quarters of a mile from the school. Find your neighborhood school by entering your address on this district webpage.

If you move into a new neighborhood and the neighborhood school is full, DPSCD provides transportation to the next closest school.

High school: High schoolers are guaranteed a free pass to ride the city bus. They can pick up the passes at their school office. High schools in areas with limited DDOT service provide door-to-door buses or shuttles to school.
Application school: Children who go to these schools do not qualify for yellow bus service.

Schools of choice (districts outside the city)

Many of these districts do not provide transportation to Detroit students. Here are transportation policies for the handful of districts outside the city that enroll the largest numbers of Detroiters.

Oak Park Public Schools offers busing to Detroit students, though they must re-register each year. Parents should fill out a transportation request form or call 248-336-7601.
River Rouge School District operates bus routes across Detroit. See this map for bus stops. For more information or to select a stop, call 313-203-1497 or email transportation@rrsd.me.
Hazel Park Schools does not offer any transportation to general education students.
Ferndale Public Schools and Redford Union Schools do not offer transportation to students who enroll from outside the district.

Preschool

Some centers in the Great Start Readiness Program, Michigan’s state-funded preschool, are eligible for free transportation, but there are strict rules about parents signing children in and out of preschool. Some schools allow an older sibling attending the school to accompany the preschooler. See this list of preschool programs in Wayne County that offer transportation.

What if my child has a disability?

If your child’s individualized education program specifies that they need transportation, they are entitled to that transportation no matter what public school they attend. A little more than 2,000 kids attending DPSCD schools get this curb-to-curb service.

What if my family is homeless?

If your family doesn’t have stable housing and you want your child to continue at the school they attended before you lost your housing, they can have access to transportation under a federal law called the McKinney-Vento Act. Families who are staying in a shelter, temporarily staying in someone else’s home, or otherwise lacking stable housing should call their district (DPSCD: 313-748-6383).

High schoolers covered under this law get DDOT bus passes, unless they wouldn’t be able to get to and from school this way. In these cases the district may also offer shuttles or gas cards.

I’m having a school transportation problem. Whom can I call?

The DPSCD transportation help hotline is 313-945-8600.

DPSCD bus service for general education students is provided by the following contractors:

ABC Transportation: 313-835-2700
Trinity Transportation: 313-228-4522
DHT Transportation: 313 895-1300

DPSCD bus service for students with disabilities and homeless students is provided by the following contractors:

City Cab Company: 313-576-6344
New Detroit Cab Company: 313-633-5646
Checker Cab: 313-963-5000
Trinity Transportation: 313-228-4522
Regency Transportation: 313-615-0504

The Detroit Department of Transportation customer service phone number is 313-933-1300.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Sarah Alvarez is the editor-in-chief of Outlier Media.

Michigan education leaders join push to help youth in foster care graduate on time

2022-12-16T22:01:36+00:00

Christian Randle expected to spend his senior year in a dual enrollment program that allows Michigan students to receive college credit while still in high school.

Instead, he’s working toward just a high school equivalency certificate.

He told the State Board of Education on Tuesday that he’s frustrated and feels like he’s starting high school over at age 17, because he’s been unable to get credit for schoolwork he did over the last five years while living in a series of foster homes and residential facilities.

Christian, who now lives in a group home in Farmington, addressed the board at its December meeting along with several other teenagers and young adults who were removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect. They’re asking the board to help ensure that others like them can graduate on time and with a solid education.

More than 10,000 children are in foster care in Michigan, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. About 40% of Michigan students in foster care graduate high school in four years, compared with 80% of all students.

That has to improve, State Board of Education members said Tuesday after hearing from the students and representatives of the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services.

“We want systemic change,” said board member Tiffany Tilley, a Democrat, who introduced a resolution asking the Legislature “to amend laws that will guarantee that vulnerable youth receive credit-bearing educational programming that will keep them on target to receive high school diplomas and allow them to access post-secondary opportunities.”

Board members unanimously approved the resolution but did not specify what legislative changes they want to see.

Foster youth and their advocates have a lot of ideas.

Above all, they want a law ensuring that foster children have access to accredited education programs.

Because of a shortage of traditional foster families, abused and neglected children are sometimes placed in group homes or in large residential facilities alongside children with mental health issues, drug addiction, or histories of juvenile delinquency, said Saba Gebrai, director of the Park West Foundation, which advocates for foster children. Students in these settings have restricted freedoms and often aren’t allowed to leave even for school, she said.

Instead, the facilities run classes themselves, and the programs might not be accredited, attorney Judith New of the Michigan Children’s Law Center said in a telephone interview. “These kids could be spending years of time in residential placement and then coming back to a regular school and having that school say, ‘You have no transferable credits at all. You have to start over in ninth grade.’”

Current law requires residential facilities to provide education services but does not require that the programs be accredited, which means their courses may not count toward state graduation requirements.

The Department of Health and Services, which contracts with residential facilities, did not immediately respond to questions about the lack of accreditation requirements.

Consequences for students can be dire

Tilley, the board of education member, learned about the systemic academic struggles of foster youth over the summer when she met a group of teenagers at a meeting convened by the Park West Foundation, which works with young people as they age out of the foster care system. Several believed they were earning high school credits during stays in residential care or juvenile justice facilities but left the programs years behind their peers, she said.

“My heart really went out to them,” Tilley said.

She wanted the rest of the state board to hear what she did, so she invited advocates and clients of Park West Foundation to December’s board meeting and introduced the resolution.

Consequences can be dire for children who are moved from place to place without consideration of their educational progress and continuity, Gebrai said in a telephone interview. Many drop out of school in frustration and live out their lives in poverty, because they don’t qualify for jobs that pay enough to support themselves, she said.

“They’ve already experienced so much trauma in separating from their families and from having experienced abuse, and this is another trauma of the same kind,” Gebrai said. “This is one more thing that’s going to exclude them from society.”

Gebrai wants courts and social workers to think about each child’s education plan before moving them to new foster homes or residential facilities. It’s not just about academics, she said.

“It’s having the same friends,” she said. “There’s dances, activities, sports, building memories and connectedness to a community.”

The Park West Foundation advocates only for foster care children — those removed from their homes for their own protection — but those placed in residential facilities for other reasons also would benefit from the changes advocates are requesting, Gebrai said.

NBC News previously reported on the state’s failure to provide a quality education to children in residential facilities.

How a student scrambled to make up credits

Bryanna Cook, now 21, was never in a residential facility, but she, too, fell behind her peers as she was raised in a series of foster homes starting at the age of 5. During high school alone, she changed schools more than 10 times, sometimes moving in the middle of a semester — too early to take final exams, but too late to receive credit in the new school, she said.

“It’s hard to get a footing anywhere or get the proper help or even know what school is about when you’re constantly moving,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.

As she entered senior year, Cook knew she wouldn’t have enough credits to graduate, so she enrolled in an online program on top of her regular classes at Lincoln High School in Warren. She took eight classes a day in person and five online to make up credits.

“My counselor told me she didn’t think it would be a good idea, that it would be too much, but I decided to do it anyway,” Cook said.

She remembers juggling “The Outsiders” for a 10th-grade English course while reading “Lord of the Flies” for 11th-grade English and practicing persuasive writing techniques for 12th-grade English.

“It was a lot,” she said.

That was three years ago, but the memory of that stressful time was fresh, she said, as she testified before the state school board.

“All foster children and youth in Michigan must have the same access and opportunities as everyone else to prepare for high school graduation, earn post-secondary credentials, and reach their full potential,” testified Cook, now a student at Macomb Community College.

Foster youth advocacy group outlines its proposals

Cook and other current and former foster youth presented a slate of legislative proposals they developed as members of Empowering Foster Youth Through Technology, an advocacy group supported by the Park West Foundation.

Among their proposals are laws that would:

Ensure that youth in residential placement have easy access to accurate transcripts.
Require foster parents to enroll foster children in school within one day of placement. (Current law allows five days.)
Ensure student transportation to school.
Require judicial oversight of student transfers between schools.
Increase stipends for foster parents to promote placement with families instead of residential facilities.
Provide support for children in foster care who are behind academically.

“A lot of that needs to happen,” Tilley said after the presentation.

State Superintendent Michael Rice agreed.

“First thing we need to do is get into the Legislature and make sure there’s no such thing as a non-credit-bearing course in Michigan public education, not for anybody,” he said. “Not acceptable.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Bipartisan dyslexia reforms fail again in Michigan Legislature. What’s next?

2022-12-13T22:34:12+00:00

Letters seem to move around on the page for Evan Kaganov, but thanks to assistive technology and extra support at school and at home, he now reads well enough to manage all A’s and B’s in eighth grade at Bach Elementary School in Ann Arbor.

Among students with dyslexia in Michigan, Evan is lucky. Many don’t get the same support. That’s one reason why the state’s fourth grade reading scores are among the worst nationwide — and why a bipartisan group of state lawmakers supported a package of bills this year to support students with dyslexia.

But the legislation failed to make it into law, dashing optimism among advocates for students with dyslexia that this was their year.

Now that lawmakers have adjourned the 2021-22 legislative session, it’s back to square one. Democrats could breathe new life into the bill when they take control of the Legislature in January, but the path forward may be complicated by other legislative priorities.

Dyslexia is a common learning disability that affects between 5% and 20% of all people.

Students with dyslexia often struggle to make the connection between letters and sounds, which is a fundamental component of reading. But with high-quality instruction, these students can learn to read effectively, research shows.

Most states have some system in place to promptly identify and support dyslexic students, but Michigan law hardly mentions dyslexia.

The effort to write a comprehensive state policy on dyslexia has moved in fits and starts over the last two years. In May, the bills passed the Senate nearly unanimously in a rare demonstration of broad bipartisanship. The House had seven months to follow suit, but the Education Committee never brought the bills forward.

As the end of the legislative session approached, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer negotiated with GOP leaders over what, if anything, the Legislature would pass during the lame duck session, but little came of it.

The dyslexia package wasn’t a priority in those talks, effectively ensuring that the bills didn’t have a chance to become law, said Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Township, chair of the House Education Committee.

“I don’t think it was ever high on anyone’s radar,” she said. “It’s unfortunate. Hopefully it will pass in the next session.”

Proponents of the legislation say Hornberger was distracted by a tight race for state Senate, which she ultimately lost to Democrat Kevin Hertel. Hornberger said House leaders could have simply submitted it to a vote of the full chamber if they thought it had a chance of becoming law.

Advocates frustrated by stalled bills

Democratic state Sen. Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor and Republican state Rep. Jim Runestad of White Lake — two sponsors of the bills — weren’t ready to give up on their legislation until the legislative session ended last week.

“I’m intensely frustrated that it’s sitting right on the precipice of passing and it isn’t getting done,” Irwin told the Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Council during a Zoom meeting last week.

Susan Schmidt, a retired special education teacher who now tutors children with dyslexia, is frustrated, too. She worked with Irwin and other stakeholders to draft the bill package.

“I’m extremely sad it didn’t pass, because there should be a sense of urgency in this state that we aren’t doing what we need to do to help kids learn to read,” said Schmidt, who recently was elected to the Ann Arbor Board of Education.

Schmidt sees the bills as a means to address more than dyslexia. They would change how reading is taught to all students, she said.

The bills spring out of fierce debates over the best way to teach children to read. In recent years, a consensus has developed among researchers and educators that phonics is an essential component of early literacy instruction, and that some curriculums and teacher training programs have given it short shrift.

Phonetic instruction systematically introduces children to letter sounds. It teaches them to recognize letter patterns, sound out words, and learn general rules such as: In many words ending with E — such as “make” or “pile” — usually the first vowel sound is long and the ending E is silent.

These concepts are particularly helpful to students with dyslexia, though advocates note that they are a fundamental component of literacy and helpful to all early readers.

There is no research on how much Michigan schools focus on phonics in literacy instruction, or what reading curriculums they use.

While many districts use effective curriculums that focus on phonics — notably the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which overhauled its literacy curriculum over the last five years — advocates say some districts are still using what’s called a “balanced literacy” approach.

That approach, which is also called “whole language,” relies on word repetition, teaches children to memorize “sight words,” and encourages them to figure out words based on context and images.

It didn’t work for Evan, said his mother, Caroline Kaganov.

“We shouldn’t be teaching kids how to guess. We should be teaching them how to use the English language, look at syllables, break down syllables … and figure out how vowels work together,” she said.

Schmidt also wants schools to return to phonics-based reading instruction.

“By teaching children how the English language is linguistically put together, you’re giving them the framework,” Schmidt said. “Forty percent, we know, are going to learn to read no matter what. For the 60% that need to … learn the code to read, this is very important to them.”

That’s especially true for children with dyslexia, Schmidt said.

Still some teachers are resistant, she said.

“Imagine you’ve done it one way for 20 years, and somebody comes along and says do something different,” she said. But, she said, “There’s also a whole lot of teachers that are like, ‘Oh, you have some ideas. I have some kids I don’t know how to reach,’ and they’re totally geeked.”

Dyslexia support: How interventions help readers

Evan was diagnosed with severe dyslexia in first grade, but only after his mother argued with district administrators, contacted a lawyer, and arranged for an independent evaluation so he could qualify for extra help. Now he gets a head start at home on in-class reading assignments, uses a computer program that reads along with him while highlighting words as it goes, and writes papers using a voice-to-text program.

Evan still reads much slower than his peers — 114 words per minute compared with the average of 153 for his grade level. But he now has the accommodations he needs to keep up in class.

Evan’s dyslexia was so severe that it was bound to be identified sooner or later, but children with less obvious signs of the condition might miss out on extra help they need, Kaganov said.

“My kid is severely dyslexic and I had to fight for intervention,” she said. “What about those kids who are just slightly dyslexic? They should have a right to attain literacy, too. I’m worried about those kids.”

Universal screening would ensure all children get the help they need, she said.

Here are key components of the legislation:

Requires districts to screen all K-3 students for dyslexia. Many would be able to use tests students already take.
Requires districts to provide specialized instruction to children who show signs of dyslexia.
Mandates training on dyslexia education for teachers working with young readers.
Requires teacher preparation programs to offer instruction specific to dyslexia. (Several programs previously told Chalkbeat they already meet this requirement.)

Some experts, including Rachael Gabriel, an education professor at the University of Connecticut, have cautioned that tests that screen for dyslexia aren’t reliable and that similar legislation in other states has been less effective than advocates hoped.

Other experts testified in favor of the bills, including Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti and David Winters, head of the department of special education and communications sciences and disorders at Eastern Michigan University.

The bills could lead to higher costs for Michigan schools if they result in more students being identified for special education services. Schools are required to support students with disabilities, and financial analysts noted that the measures could save money in the long run if they decrease the number of people who need extra help in school and beyond because they struggle to read.

Bills face an uncertain path forward

After bipartisan shows of support for the bills, advocates believe they can pass a Legislature reconfigured by big wins for Democrats in November.

But while many Democrats support the dyslexia bills, they are more focused on a different reading reform. They want to repeal a portion of Michigan’s third grade reading law that requires districts to hold back third graders who are more than one grade level behind in reading.

While most struggling readers have been exempted from retention under the law, Black students are twice as likely to be retained. Democrats, including Whitmer, have made repealing it a priority.

Attaching the dyslexia bills to third grade reading reforms might help move the bills quickly through the legislature, or it might add a layer of complexity to already knotty debates over retention and literacy.

“Complication often leads to delay,” Irwin said. “I was hoping we could get (the dyslexia bills) moving and then have a separate discussion about how to right-size the Read by Grade 3 law.”

Despite bipartisan support for the dyslexia bills, some administrators have reservations. Notably, leaders of teachers colleges have argued that they already cover the basics of dyslexia with future teachers, and say they don’t need another mandate from Lansing.

Still, teachers unions — a key part of the Democratic coalition — support the bills.

“We think it would be great to have more training to recognize dyslexia in students so they can get the help they need,” said Thomas Morgan, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association.

Unions would like to see changes to the bills to ensure teachers are given the time to meet the demands of learning new teaching methods and providing extra support to poor readers.

“We’re already pretty overstretched,” said Janell Mansfield, political and legislative coordinator for the Michigan branch of the American Federation of Teachers.

But she added that a lot of teachers see phonics as an answer to Michigan’s sinking test scores.

“I definitely don’t think it’s too burdensome to ask teachers to do continuing education to learn how to support students with dyslexia,” she said.

Tracie Mauriello writes about state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

How should Michigan fund school transportation? A new report offers a blueprint.

2022-12-08T22:12:30+00:00

Rudyard Area Schools, a district in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, has just one school building to serve its entire K-12 enrollment of 627 students. And that building is about a 23-mile bus ride away from Trout Lake, a town of 330 people on the other side of the district.

Those daily school bus trips require a lot of fuel. Low student density across the district’s 400 square miles helps explain why Rudyard spends more money on transportation per student than all but a handful of Michigan districts — about $1,000, or 7% of its total budget.

But despite its outsize transportation costs, Rudyard receives little extra funding help to get students to school. And many other districts, especially in sparsely populated areas, also face the burden of busing costs that eat into funds for instruction and facilities.

A new report offers a way to change that, drawing on transportation funding models from other states to propose a fix for what education leaders say is a longstanding hole in Michigan’s school funding system.

Carrying out the proposal wouldn’t be cheap, and it would have to find space in the new Democratic majority’s already crowded legislative agenda.

But advocates say it could have a powerful impact on education by improving attendance and freeing up operating funds for instruction and other priorities.

As it stands, districts with higher transportation costs — particularly in sparsely populated rural areas — wind up diverting money from the classroom to cover those costs. The state has no funding stream dedicated to the costs of school transportation, and its school funding system doesn’t account for transportation cost differences among districts, says Wanda Cook-Robinson, superintendent of Oakland Schools, a county educational service agency in metropolitan Detroit, who is part of the group that issued the report.

School funding study lacked focus on transportation

The report came from the School Finance Research Collaborative, a nonpartisan education research group that commissioned a detailed assessment of the actual costs of providing a high quality education to Michigan students. That study was released in 2018 and updated last year.

The SFRC assessment has become a sort of blueprint for policymakers seeking to increase education funding in Michigan. It emphasizes providing additional funding for students who are most expensive to educate, such as English learners.

But until now, the study lacked any discussion of how to fund transportation, which accounted for about 3% of school spending last year.

“I’m hopeful that (the new report is) a step in the right direction,” said Tom McKee, superintendent of Rudyard Area Schools. “It’s one of the things we wish came out of the report originally.”

Transportation costs are among the most pressing concerns of Michigan’s rural superintendents, according to a recent report from Michigan State University.

Funding formula would group districts by density

The SFRC transportation report was put together by an education consulting group, Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates. To develop their recommendations, researchers reviewed transportation funding policies from every U.S. state, narrowing the list down to models they felt would work best in Michigan.

Their final recommendation centers on districts’ student density, as measured by bus riders per square mile. Districts would be grouped by density. Then, to encourage efficient spending, they would receive funding equal to the average transportation spending for districts in their group.

Here’s an example provided by the SFRC: Say a district that currently spends $848 per rider on busing is in a density group with districts that spend an average of $927 per rider. That district would receive full reimbursement of its current transportation costs. Meanwhile, a district in the same density group that spends $2,774 per rider would be reimbursed up to the group average: $927 per rider.

Implementing the plan would be costly: The consulting group hired to conduct the study pegged the cost at $402 million per year, which would amount to a 2% increase in the overall schools budget.

But the added spending could pay off in the classroom by, for example, helping to address the high rates of chronic absenteeism that have set off alarm bells for state and local leaders this year.

A study of school transportation systems in 50 large Michigan districts this year found that attendance rates increased by as much as 1 percentage point when economically disadvantaged families had access to a school bus.

Even if districts didn’t use the added funding to expand their transportation offerings, “providing funding for transportation will allow districts to spend the money they would otherwise spend on school transportation in the classroom or on other interventions that could increase attendance or test scores,” said study author Danielle Edwards, an education researcher at Brown University.

As Democrats take full control of the levers of power in Lansing for the first time in decades, they will likely look to the SFRC to guide their education spending proposals.

State Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-Beverly Hills, said the new leadership’s priorities are still being negotiated. But she thinks transportation funding is important.

“It’s such a direct and obvious way to deal with our attendance problem,” she said. “Just pick the kids up and take them to school.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget recommendation, viewed as a key signal of the Democrats’ education spending plans, is slated for a February release.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Correction: Dec. 9, 2022: A previous version of this story said that Danielle Edwards’ transportation study is about Detroit; in fact, the Detroit Public Schools Community District is excluded from her analysis of attendance rates.

Yes, commute times matter in Michigan school choice

2022-11-03T20:15:47+00:00

Test scores aren’t the only factor that parents consider when they take advantage of Michigan’s school choice policies. They also want to live near their children’s schools.

That’s a finding of new research on school choice in Michigan. While seemingly obvious, the conclusion adds evidence to a long-running policy debate in Michigan, which has robust school choice policies but few rules to ensure that students have school options in their own neighborhoods.

Researchers Danielle Sanderson Edwards and Joshua Cowen used six years of student address data from 2012-13, tracking residential moves for every student in the state who either attended a charter school or a school outside their own district via Michigan’s “schools of choice” policy. The study was funded by the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education.

More than one-fifth of Michigan’s 1.4 million students choose to attend a public school not assigned to them.

Michigan allows students to enroll in a school district even if they don’t live within that district’s boundaries, provided that the receiving district agrees to accept students through the state’s interdistrict choice program.

Students can also pass on their local school and enroll in charter schools, publicly funded schools that, in Michigan, are typically run by for-profit management companies and aren’t controlled by an elected school board.

Among the study’s key findings:

Half of families who left schools of choice programs in Michigan did so because they had moved into the district they were already attending.
Families that had longer commutes to their chosen school were more likely to exit school choice programs compared with those whose school choices did not lead to longer commutes.
Students who moved residences were more likely to exit school choice programs and attend their local school district instead.

“Guess what, parents want their kids to go to school near where they live,” said Cowen, a professor at Michigan State. “Next to a school’s academics, distance is by far the biggest thing for parents. The longer your commute time, the less likely you are to stay in that school.”

Advocates of school choice have long framed Michigan policies as a way to help students whose neighborhood schools are struggling.

“All the work I’ve done has been to help kids for whom the schools they’re assigned don’t work,” said former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in 2017. In 2016, DeVos led a successful push to block legislation that would have given the city of Detroit more control over where schools were located in the city, a change that advocates hoped would, among other things, reduce commute times for families.

Cowen said the data shows that narrow, choice-focused policymaking ignores families’ broader needs, such as proximity to school.

The data “is taking issue with this general sense that school choice is the cure-all,” Cowen said.

Indeed, educators have argued for years that school choice policies destabilize schools by encouraging families to frequently change districts.

“We have created a culture where a parent gets angry at a school or doesn’t like what we do, they take their child and they go to another school which is absolutely detrimental to children,” said Christina Gibson, superintendent of Eastpointe Community Schools, during a panel discussion last week. About 25% of students in her district are enrolled through schools of choice.

But the data suggests that schools of choice may also be a pathway to stability for families. Cowen said that findings indicate that families use schools of choice to enroll their children and secure a place in a district where they can’t yet afford housing, then move into that district later on.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

As mask battles fade, Michigan school boards face a new wave of culture war debates

2022-10-12T12:00:00+00:00

Two years ago, while COVID was raging through Michigan, so were the battles at local school board meetings. Across the state, volunteer board members who typically pored over budgets and contracts struggled to contend with a vocal public sharply divided over mask mandates and online learning.

Those particular battles have subsided, but the political passions they ignited haven’t. On the contrary, the groups that rallied community support around defending or fighting COVID health precautions are now gearing up to engage their local school boards on a broader range of contentious culture war issues, such as history curriculum, book bans and the rights of transgender students.

Just Monday, the Dearborn fire marshal shut down a school board meeting there after hundreds of protesters showed up to demonstrate against LGBTQ books. The meeting devolved into chaos and was adjourned before members got through the agenda that included approving contracts for classroom projectors, adult education services, high school security guards, and asbestos removal. The board had also expected to have approved 43 new hires, discussed cell phone policies, and voted on the superintendent’s annual goals. The board is scheduled to reconvene on Thursday at Fordson High School, which can accommodate a larger crowd.

With elections weeks away, some experts are worried that Michigan school boards could become paralyzed if they again become stages for a fractious national discourse driven by partisan or ideological politics.

Already, these contests are attracting a new, more activist wave of candidates pledging to govern school districts in the name of parents’ rights. They’ve found a champion in GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, a conservative TV commentator who has put cultural issues at the center of her education agenda. They’ve been met, in turn, by slates of activist candidates on the progressive side.

Meanwhile, some board members are walking away from their positions or choosing not to run for reelection, saying they’re frustrated by political disputes diverting them from the job they thought they signed up for: helping children learn.

That job has become significantly more urgent. After two years of disruptions due to the pandemic, school boards must contend with falling test scores, student mental-health issues, teacher burnout and the task of allocating billions of dollars of relief money from the federal government to deal with those problems. But protracted gridlock over social issues could make it harder for them to address the urgent challenges facing Michigan’s 1.4 million public schoolchildren.

Don Wotruba, executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, warns that an “arms race” between progressives and conservatives in school board elections would mean “nothing gets done.”

“When we have agenda-focused individuals, it does disrupt the progress of the school board, because they spend an inordinate amount of time” on issues unrelated to student achievement, Wotruba said. “While they’re doing that, it’s not a productive, high-functioning school board.”

PAC endorses candidates advocating ‘parental choice’

Where some see the potential for gridlock, others see a mark of democratic vitality in Michigan.

“These organizations are spontaneous grass-roots organizations that self-organize and push for a change, and that’s the beauty of American democracy,” said Jeff Shaeper, who is running for school board in the Troy School District with the support of the conservative Get Kids Back to School PAC. The PAC’s mission has grown from fighting school mask and vaccine mandates to opposing what it calls “the erosion of traditional curriculum” and “wokeness.” It’s now helping dozens of candidates across Michigan run for school board on a platform of “parental choice.”

Schaeper, who questions the well-established efficacy of the COVID vaccine in reducing the severity of illness, said he would “break the groupthink” on the Troy school board while supporting civil discourse.

“I can disagree, but I can keep it cordial,” he said. “You know, I don’t call them scum-sucking bottom feeders, which I’ve been called. I keep calm.”

Matthew Wilk, who runs the Get Kids Back to School PAC, is a former Northville school board member and a veteran of the fiery debates over COVID that dominated board discussions in the first year of the pandemic. After he wrote in a social media post that COVID “only exists in falsified statistics,” the school board voted to remove him as president.

Wilk said his PAC is not donating money to candidates, but he has shown candidates how to file paperwork and helped them craft their messages.

Wilk says he wants his candidates to move away from political hot-button issues and push districts to improve student achievement.

“Now that we’ve seen the erosion of test scores, I’d like to see the discussion turn almost exclusively to that topic,” he said.

Yet platforms published by some of the candidates his PAC endorsed show that they are largely focused on ideological education battles over mask mandates and critical race theory, which is generally not even part of K-12 education. Dixon, whose campaign has focused on these issues, spoke at an event hosted by the PAC last month.

Wilk’s group alienated even some candidates who were pushing for reopening school buildings amid the pandemic. After Wilk endorsed four candidates for the Bloomfield Hills school board, three of them asked to have their names removed from the PAC’s website.

“I interpreted certain things (on the PAC website) as being part of one party,” said Paul Kolin, a Bloomfield Hills school board member who is running for reelection. Kolin, who pushed for in-person instruction in his district, was also removed as president of the board last year after he called the police about a list of anti-mask parents that was circulating among district families.

“School boards have become very political, but hopefully when we come out of (the pandemic), this is a nonpartisan position.”

Pandemic focused spotlight on school boards

Traditionally, school board candidates are drawn from PTOs and athletic booster clubs, said Michael Montgomery, a political scientist and education consultant who lectures at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. They usually bring positive and pragmatic agendas to their board service, he said.

“The growing importance of culture war issues to America’s right, however, has brought out large numbers of a different kind of parent activist across the entire country – people who are against this or that and will take every opportunity, every public comment period, every local election, to push their agenda,” Montgomery said.

Bree Moeggenberg, a local education activist in Isabella County, now runs the local branch of Moms for Liberty, a self-described parents’ rights group that started in Florida last year and since has spread quickly throughout the country.

Such groups grew in response to school board decisions during the pandemic — about online learning, mask requirements, vaccines and other health precautions — that suddenly became extremely disruptive for parents. At the same time, online classrooms gave many families an unusually intimate look at their children’s learning process.

As attention to board meetings increased, so did acrimony. In some cases, the divisiveness led to confrontations, threats, lawsuits, and even physical assaults. It also led to school board resignations in Grand Haven, Rice Lake, and elsewhere in Michigan and across the country.

Moeggenberg was a force behind an effort last year to recall Mount Pleasant school board members who had supported masks and vaccines as a precaution against the spread of COVID, and teaching children about the effects of systemic racism.

The recall effort was unsuccessful, but one of the targeted members later resigned. Twelve people now are vying for that seat. Because of the timing of the vacancy it will be filled by board appointment rather than general election.

Six other candidates are running in November for two full-term seats on the board.

The Michigan Secretary of State does not track numbers of candidates or vacancies in school board races, but both appear to have ticked up in some pockets across Michigan, particularly Republican leaning districts.

In Lowell Area Schools in Kent County, for example, eight candidates are running for three seats. Last election cycle, five people ran for four seats.

Ten candidates are running for three seats for full six-year terms on the Huron Valley Board of Education in Oakland County. Another two candidates are running to fill an unexpired vacancy. In 2020, a more typical school board election year, six candidates ran for five seats.

Meanwhile, frustrated board members in some districts are finishing out their terms but choosing not to run for reelection.

“I was disillusioned by how much time my school board service was spent not talking about student achievement,” said one board member from Oakland County who is stepping down when her term ends in December. She asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak with the media about her board service as required by the board’s policies.

“Every minute we’re spending responding to angry constituent emails about masks is a minute we’re not spending on students’ academic and emotional well-being,” she said.

State Rep. Darrin Camilleri, the ranking Democrat on the House Education Committee who is now running for state Senate, decries the political climate that focused vitriol on school board members. “Think about the example that our students are seeing from adults who are creating chaos at their local school district,” he said.

Conservatives say they’re focused on education

That characterization is unfair to parents who attended board meetings to express concerns — in a civil way — about district mask policies, said state Sen. Jim Runestad, a Republican on the Education Committee who is running for reelection. He said conservative parents have every right to raise concerns about schools’ instruction on social issues, and he applauded those who are running for office after feeling that their perspectives weren’t being taken into account.

“It’s a battle between the ‘educrats’ who say we need more social engineering and the parents who say, ‘No, let us do that, you need to focus on the basics of education to make sure that kids are learning the arithmetic and reading that they need to know,’” he said.

Moeggenberg and other members of her Moms for Liberty chapter have been knocking on doors and distributing yard signs to support conservatives in Isabella County school board races.

Candidates she’s talked to are motivated by the sense that schools are leaving parents out of important decisions about their children’s education and exposing students to controversial ideologies.

“So many people are passionate about what’s taking place,” Moeggenberg said. “It’s about making sure that before topics are discussed about sexuality, gender, and critical race theory, that we’re made aware. I would like to be alerted so I can discuss that with my child and help them walk through that.”

Culture war issues resonate with voters because they make for great campaign talking points, said Ronald Rapoport, a political scientist and professor emeritus at the College of William and Mary. The real policy work of school board members is more complicated to communicate, so it’s harder to get voters interested in them, he said.

“One is the easy issue of, ‘I don’t want Drag Queen Story Hour,’” because it’s easy to imagine even if it isn’t actually occurring, said Rapoport. “If you want to solve the problems of school absenteeism and teachers leaving, that’s much harder.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

‘We all know what we need’: Detroit youth work to boost mental well-being

2022-10-03T21:47:09+00:00

Across Detroit, young people responded to an ambitious pitch this spring: Come up with a strong idea for a program that would address the emotional and mental well-being of their peers, and possibly earn thousands of dollars to pull it off.

The result was scores of ideas that were as diverse as the young people themselves: A wellness room with Zen and calming activities. A spa day for male youth with incarcerated parents. A kitchen renovation so youth can come together for dinner and fellowship. A safe haven for LGBTQ students.

Those are just a few of the 40 ideas, proposed by people ages 9 to 23, that have received a piece of a $544,000 pot of money provided by the Skillman Foundation (a Chalkbeat funder), part of a new grant program aimed at addressing mental health and wellness. The awardees received between $5,000 and $20,000 to develop their plans.

The one thread through all of these concepts is that even though there are adult allies helping, the students were in charge. They came up with the ideas, they decide how the money is spent, and they decide how to turn their ideas into reality.

“We all know what we want. We all know what we need,” said Charles Patterson, 16, a junior at Davis Aerospace Technical High School.

What they need, Charles said, is connection with one another.

Charles is part of a youth group at the Eastside Community Network whose grant will go in part toward renovating a kitchen at the center and turning it into a place where young people can go to cook, eat meals, and spend time together.

Young people like Charles “are ready and capable leaders,” who are “enriched with lots of ideas,” said Lindsey Barrett, an associate program officer at Skillman who led the effort.

Charles said the pandemic left him feeling isolated, and turned him into an introvert because he spent so much time learning remotely. Things are better for students now that they’re learning in person, he said, but not all young people have re-engaged.

“You have to consider that maybe certain students went through something over the pandemic, maybe they had a family member pass away,” Charles said. “For me, three of my family members passed away during the pandemic and it was hard for my family, and for me personally.”

Report after report has highlighted the heightened mental health and emotional needs of students due to the pandemic. Long stretches of remote learning left students feeling isolated and disconnected from school and their classmates. Educators are trying to address that by investing COVID relief money into mental health, but staffing challenges have hampered efforts.

In Detroit, young people have been telling officials at Skillman that they need safe spaces to connect with their peers and the community. They also said they wanted to use physical activity, the arts, and creative expression to create these safe spaces, Barrett said.

“We know that these bright young people are really prioritizing their wellness, and they’re doing it by leading their own solutions,” Barrett said

On a recent Saturday, dozens of the grantees gathered in a room at the Northwest Activities Center in Detroit to receive training on project planning that was facilitated by the Neutral Zone, an Ann Arbor youth-led organization. They spread out on the floor, working in groups as they plotted their goals and the steps they need to take to accomplish those goals.

The young men from Developing Despite Distance, a program for males ages 10-24 who have a parent who is incarcerated, already knew one of their signature ideas was to take the group out for a spa day. Their adult leader, Tiffany Brown, guided them through the steps they would need to take to get there, like finding a spa and booking it in advance.

“We passed one coming up here,” Michael Glenn said as the group tossed around spa ideas. Michael, 16, is a junior at the School at Marygrove, and he’s looking forward to the spa day to help him nurse an old back injury from football.

Getting young people involved in addressing their mental health needs is important, Michael said, because many of them would otherwise stay silent about their struggles.

“Young adults don’t really express themselves,” he said. “It’s not that we’re afraid to. I guess it feels uncomfortable or unnatural. We don’t want to be a burden to others. So … this really helps out.”

Developing Despite Distance provides group counseling to the young men. The organization also works with them to connect with their incarcerated parents and helps them with visits.

The grant program “is a blessing,” said Brown. Not only will it allow for the spa day, but it will also pay for fitness training, more counseling, and a stipend for the young men for participating in Saturday counseling sessions. It’s the first time the participants will receive pay.

“When we have money in our pockets, we feel better, and that is really a form of self care,” Brown said.

Brown has often talked to the youth about her own self-care practices, which include getting massages. It gave the students the idea to do the same for themselves. Society, Brown said, doesn’t always give Black boys and men “the space to act like their wellness matters.”

“They’re often just putting on this mask like they’re OK. And so places where we can intentionally make them pause and really identify how they’re feeling in a safe, non-judgmental way, and provide support so that they can refill and recharge — that’s the root of what we do.”

Having an incarcerated parent means these young men have challenges that go beyond the pandemic.

“My biggest challenge is that they’re in schools, community centers, on our sports teams, and we’re not acknowledging that they even exist as a community … as a system. So the biggest challenge is that they are often suffering silently,” Brown said.

Over at the Eastside Community Network, cooking was the most popular program before the pandemic. Students would come together, cook, and then dine together.

“The students have said that … builds community,” said Tanya Aho, the adult leader for the group. But the kitchen was in need of a remodel, so the cooking sessions ended.

“This is completely student-led,” Aho said of the kitchen remodel. “They did the budget, they did all the research of the cabinets and the stove. They’ve done the design. They did the demo. They’ll be painting the cabinets.”

Charles, who has relied on sports and drawing to stay connected, wasn’t there for the demolition. But he’s involved in all of the planning and helping choose the finish on the cabinets, the color of the floors, and the type of countertops. He said bringing back the cooking program will be good, in particular, for students who feel disconnected.

“It brings a family atmosphere to our youth group,” he said.

LGBT training video for Michigan teachers rankles Republicans

2022-09-20T22:40:32+00:00

Bryce was 14 when he came out to his father. He was 12 when he came out to his mother. But he was just 10 when he came out in elementary school.

“In school, being trans is very awful,” said Bryce, now 19. “It is horrible.”

But for him, he said, it would have been worse at home.

When he finally did come out, he said, his parents ridiculed him. His father refused to call him “son,” he said, and his stepmother locked him outside in a rage.

“They were very aggressive and immature and emotionally abusive,” said Bryce, who lives in a rural area in the Lower Peninsula. He asked Chalkbeat to withhold his last name and town out of fear for his safety.

Bryce said being able to be himself at school saved him. He would bind his chest with an Ace bandage every morning in the middle school locker room to hide the shape of his body beneath a loose hoodie.

“I don’t think I’d even be alive now, to be honest,” he said. “I’m very lucky to be here today.”

Now he worries about other trans schoolchildren in light of a controversy that erupted last week over teacher training around the care of LGBTQ+ students. The training, from the Michigan Department of Education, exposed a gap between teachers’ obligation to inform parents about potential mental health issues and their responsibility to shield children from potential harm.

The controversy emerged last Wednesday after conservative activist Christopher Rufo tweeted a 43-second video clip excerpted from a nine-hour professional development series offered by the MDE.

In the clip, which was later criticized by both Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her Republican opponent, Tudor Dixon, a trainer suggests that teachers can talk with parents about a student expressing suicidal thoughts, without having to reveal that gender identity or sexual orientation is a cause of their distress.

Rufo tweeted that the clip proves MDE instructed teachers how to “facilitate” transgender students’ transitions and keep their chosen names and pronouns “secret from parents, even if the child is suicidal.” (Rufo is also one of the activists behind the conservative outcry over the teaching of critical race theory in America’s K-12 schools.)

The video, Rufo told Fox News last week, is an example of a way schools nationwide are radicalizing children, and he warned that parents need to be on guard.

MDE calls those accusations “patently false” and said the training helps schools create inclusive environments for vulnerable students who are more likely than classmates to be bullied and to attempt suicide. State superintendent Michael Rice has defended the training as important for teachers to better understand vulnerable students and help them feel safe and accepted in school.

Dixon, who has staked out conservative positions on a range of LGBTQ issues in schools, seized on the video Tuesday to call for Rice’s resignation. “Someone who has such contempt for parents as to instruct staff to hide information from them about their struggling child is unfit to oversee our education system,” she said at a press conference in Lansing, during which she criticized Whitmer for not taking a stronger stand.

Whitmer’s administration has itself raised concerns about the training. On Friday, the state’s chief operating officer, Tricia Foster, sent Rice a letter saying the training video goes outside the scope of his department’s responsibilities and asked him to ensure that trainings “comply with all applicable regulations, maintain department guidelines, and are reflective of best practices.”

Foster’s letter did not specify which regulations, guidelines, and practices she meant, and the governor’s office did not respond to questions.

The guidance in the video is consistent with MDE policy that has been in place since 2016, when the state board adopted guidance for schools around LGBTQ issues.

“The unique needs and concerns of each student should be addressed on a case-by-case basis, with a student-centered approach that includes the ongoing engagement” of the student, relevant school personnel, and parents “except in situations where educators are aware parental knowledge might threaten the student’s safety and/or welfare,” the policy says.

Whitmer campaign spokeswoman Maeve Coyle said that the governor “knows parents are crucial and should be involved in decisions about their children’s education” and that’s why she created the Michigan Parents Council to advise her.

Along with Dixon, the GOP-controlled Michigan Senate also condemned the professional development program in a resolution that passed on party lines. The resolution reaffirms “the fundamental right of parents to direct the education of their children.”

On Friday, the two Republicans on the eight-member state Board of Education also called for Rice’s resignation. Nikki Snyder of Dexter called the videos a “fundamental betrayal” and Tom McMillin of Oakland Township said they were evidence that “the assault on parents and parental rights has ramped up.”

Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University, said the training could have been better but that conservatives are making political hay out of almost nothing.

“There is a silliness to this outrage by the right,” he said. “Some of this is just about scaring parents into thinking they have no agency or oversight of their children. We don’t live in that world.”

But he said MDE made missteps when it provided this training directly to teachers instead of guiding school districts to set up their own policies, ideally calling for consultations with trained mental health providers.

“My experience with MDE is that professional development they develop isn’t entirely based on evidence or rigor,” he said.

Rufo did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

For Bryce, school was the safest place to come out as transgender, and he wouldn’t have done so if he thought his teachers were obligated to tell his parents he had started using a different name and pronouns at school.

He wants it to be safe for other young people to be themselves at school, too.

“There are reasons why people don’t come out to parents, whether it’s safety or their parents aren’t going to accept them,” Bryce said. “I lost my family. That’s why I waited so long.”

He said he understands the view among conservatives like Rufo and Dixon that parents should direct their children’s education and that they need information to do that.

“We aren’t trying to silence the voices of our parents,” he said. “We just want to be in a safe and loving environment while we learn and grow as human beings.”

Siblings Cloud and Seassun Rosenfeld, who have a supportive family, said they didn’t have those kinds of worries for themselves when they came out — but they have friends who are frightened to tell parents they are struggling with gender identity issues.

“If there’s a policy that teachers have to or should tell parents, then kids who live in fear of their parents knowing wouldn’t tell anyone,” said Cloud, a seventh-grader in Ann Arbor who identifies as gender queer.

Cloud put their concerns bluntly: “If a teacher is obligated to tell that a child’s suicidal thoughts are around gender issues, that could result in the child actually committing suicide.”

Their father, Dave Rosenfeld, shares the concern.

“Not all LGBT kids, trans kids, get the support they need at home. That makes it even more important that they get the support they need at school,” he said. “LGBT kids who are not supported, who do not get the support they need, are at a massive risk of bad outcomes” such as running away, homelessness, drug addiction, suicide, and dropping out of school.

As a father, he understands the need for parents to be informed, but he said schools’ first obligation is to protect children from harm.

It’s a tough line for educators to walk, he acknowledged.

“Schools should work together with parents to educate the child, but if there’s any potential danger to the child, you have to respect the child’s choices,” he said. “Have some faith in the competence of children to know if it’s something they’re ready for their parents to know about.”

The uproar over the training videos demonstrates the need for more training around LGBT issues, not less, he said.

“The backlash against that type of professional development is born out of religious fanaticism,” he said. “I find it disgusting, because what they are advocating for … will really cause harm to kids who haven’t done anything wrong at all. All they want to do is get an education like all the other kids.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

New report spotlights unique needs of rural schools in Michigan

2022-09-19T20:31:46+00:00

Tom McKee was an 11th grader in rural Michigan when a “grow your own” teacher training program sold him on a career in education.

Even so, McKee might have not imagined that he would one day go on to work as a superintendent, athletic director, and bus driver in rural Michigan — much less that he would hold those jobs simultaneously, as he did in his former job at Whitefish Township Community Schools.

McKee, now superintendent of Rudyard Area Schools in the Upper Peninsula, says he loves rural education for the tight-knit schools and the chance to make an impact on kids in his own community. But he says districts like his face challenges that haven’t been taken seriously enough by the state.

“Wearing those multiple hats is not appropriate,” he said. “But we do that in our rural communities because we have to to survive.”

Dozens of rural superintendents echoed that sentiment in recent years in interviews with researchers at Michigan State University. Rural schools face a unique set of challenges linked to their geography, district leaders told the authors of a new report, titled “Educational Opportunities and Community Development in Rural Michigan: A Roadmap for State Policy.”

The research team studied districts that the National Center for Education Statistics defines as “rural” or “town.” These districts cover most of Michigan’s land area, but they are sparsely populated: There are 8 students per square mile in the average rural district, compared with 137 per square mile in nonrural districts.

Large, sparsely populated districts make for long, expensive bus routes. Attracting teachers to isolated locales can be difficult. Access to medical services, mental health providers, and high-speed internet can be hard to come by.

Meeting those challenges come with a price tag. But Michigan spends only a small amount to specifically support isolated rural schools through a $9 million program that the report calls “a very low, poorly calibrated, and inadequate recognition of the cost disadvantages experienced by rural schools.”

“There’s nothing approximating a rural policy agenda in this state, and that’s going to have to change,” said lead researcher David Arsen, professor of education policy and K-12 administration. “The whole policy debate has been heavily urban focused,” he added.

State officials tout the latest education budget, which included funding increases for all schools and specific boosts for student mental health and for isolated districts. A federal infrastructure bill passed in 2021 will send at least $100 million to Michigan to connect 398,000 residents to the internet, about a quarter of those estimated to be without a connection.

The new state budget includes funding to help school districts consolidate, which some say would help reduce costs for small, rural districts in particular. Some communities view school consolidations as a threat to local identity.

Despite the new investments, many superintendents said they need more funds in particular for transportation, especially given the current price of fuel, which is down from its peak in June, but well above last year’s prices.

Rural districts spend on average $200 more per pupil on transportation than nonrural districts, and the 25 rural districts with the highest transportation spending averaged $2,170 per pupil, or nearly a quarter of their base funding.

Rural districts in Michigan are generally represented by Republican lawmakers, many of whom have fought for additional funding for their schools. Still, the Michigan GOP, which has controlled the legislature for a decade, has largely focused its education agenda on school choice policies that mostly affect urban areas.

“I think school choice is good,” Arsen said. “It’s not particularly effective in areas where you have a low density of schools like rural Michigan.”

Steve Yoder, the GOP chairman for Michigan’s first congressional district, which covers the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula, said his party ought to put more emphasis on supporting rural education.

“Typically a lot of Republicans like to be on the conservative side and be fiscally responsible, but in a lot of these underserved communities, Republicans need to get the message out that we are here to put money into those communities to recruit teachers and get those grades up,” he said. “That’s something that we need to work on.”

Growing up in several school districts in rural Maine, Jessica Drescher, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University who studies rural educational opportunity, saw firsthand the constraints facing isolated districts.

In a national study of rural districts, Drescher found that rural students overall performed slightly below their nonrural counterparts on standardized tests. But she found that the differences were much more stark when she made comparisons within racial groups: Rural white students fared significantly worse than nonrural white students, and so on within most racial categories.

Rural students experience poverty at similar rates to urban students in Michigan, putting them at a significant disadvantage compared with their suburban peers. Poverty is correlated with various negative academic outcomes.

Policymakers have to look more narrowly at the needs of rural areas if they want to make a difference for students there, the report argues.

Allen Pratt, executive director of the National Rural Education Association, agrees.

“You don’t want a cookie cutter that’s designed for Brooklyn when you work in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” he said.

Arsen and his team of four researchers spent four years interviewing 25 rural superintendents. Their districts cover 88% of Michigan’s total land area but enroll fewer than a third of the state’s students. Their schools are smaller, their staffs are harder to recruit, and their students are more spread out. While some rural districts share resources through countywide partnerships, many superintendents told researchers that they struggle to offer specialized programs, such as AP courses, because of the high cost of running a classroom with only a handful of students.

Despite their low enrollments, rural schools are inextricably linked to their communities, the report found. They are key drivers of local economies and often serve as central gathering places and sometimes even locations for funeral services, according to the report.

“If the power went out, we had our school open, because we had a generator, and people came and slept,” McKee said of his former district in Whitefish Township, which enrolls 53 students.

His current employer, Rudyard Area Schools, is larger, with roughly 650 students, and is a critical resource for the surrounding community. The district hosts dental clinics and is one of only a few districts in the Upper Peninsula with a school-based health center, which offers routine checkups and mental health care.

McKee often finds himself doing double-duty because attracting and retaining staff is so difficult. The district’s average teacher salary is $41,000, in the bottom third of the state. Paying teachers more is hard, he said, given the district’s transportation spending of roughly $1,000 per pupil, which is in the top 3% statewide. And it’s tough to persuade prospective employees to move to a remote area. McKee says more than two-thirds of his employees graduated from Rudyard or a district nearby.

Arsen said lawmakers can help by prioritizing equity, efficiency, and local control when making policy decisions.

Among the report’s recommendations to the Legislature are to:

Pay for a study of the costs of isolated education, then cover those costs.
Encourage cooperation among rural communities to pool resources needed to bring broadband to the region and make it more affordable and accessible to rural residents.
Enact place-based education policies that specifically address the needs of rural communities.
Ensure education policies are integrated with broader community development strategies.

“These rural schools are the heart of communities,” he said. “They are places where people really care for the kids. We were impressed by that, but we were also impressed that it’s tough, and they need additional help to serve the kids well. … With changes in policy that are within reach, we could make a lot of progress.”

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan school board hears prayers and explicit passages as book wars flare

2022-09-16T18:27:05+00:00

Part prayer service, part sexually explicit read-aloud.

That’s what Michigan Board of Education meetings sound like lately as they’ve become a battlefield for the latest culture war issue: restricting student access to books with sexual content.

Parents have been bringing their concerns to the board during public comment sessions that sometimes last more than two hours. Their pleas are passionate, but they’re also misplaced.

The state Board of Education has no jurisdiction over local school libraries and no power to legislate. That hasn’t stopped parents and conservative activists from queuing up online and in person to have their say at the board’s monthly meetings in Lansing.

“Local superintendents and local school boards look up to the state board to see what their recommendations are, so if the state Board of Education can just affirm what we feel,” that would be helpful, said Bree Moeggenberg, a mother of three and chair of the Isabella County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative nonprofit that has fought school mask mandates and lessons about LGBT rights and critical race theory.

Activists also have been taking their concerns to local school boards, where they’ve met some success, and to public libraries, seeking to defund them over objections to materials in their collections. Just this week, Dearborn Public Schools responded to parent complaints by removing seven library books that depict homosexuality, abuse, and rape.

Advocates for free expression worry that complaints about sexually explicit material might be just the start for conservatives who may ultimately try to restrict access to other kinds of content that they deem objectionable.

Book banning has a long history. In the 17th century, Puritans were burning copies of William Pynchon’s “The Meritorious Price of our Redemption.” Classics like “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Catcher in the Rye” often appear on banned-book lists because of racial slurs, foul language, violence, and references to drug use.

But banning activity has surged in recent months amid a growing conservative movement to control students’ exposure to lessons about racism, sexism, sexual orientation, and other sensitive topics in public schools. Data collected by PEN America, a group that advocates for free expression in literature, show that school districts across the country banned 1,145 books just between July 2021 and April 2022 — numbers not seen in decades.

In Michigan, growing numbers of parents and activists are showing up to state Board of Education meetings to advocate for stricter regulation of books. Some pray before their testimony. Others warn board members they will go to hell for not working to ban what they see as objectionable books from school libraries. Many dive right in, reading as quickly as they can from the most sexually explicit passages they’ve found in school library books before their three minutes run out and state board Executive Marilyn Schneider cuts them off.

“Dear Lord, I come to you this afternoon to ask you to protect these parents that speak today and are trying to protect their children against the devil that is hard at work,” one caller from Wayne County began on Tuesday. Twelve seconds later the caller, who identified herself only as Billie from Wayne County, read aloud an explicit passage about oral sex from “On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God,” which Publishers Weekly classifies as a children’s book.

Board members listened to her and more than 30 other speakers Tuesday but did not respond. They typically refrain from responding during public comment sessions.

Lately, most public comment sessions have been dominated by callers like Billie, but at Tuesday’s meeting, several people offered an alternative perspective. They said many of the books being challenged help readers see themselves in stories so they feel less alone in the world.

“They contain important messages,” Kat Draeger of Fenton, a fifth-year student at Michigan State University, testified on Tuesday. “They help people look at the world through a different lens.”

Reading about bullying, sexuality, and suicide, for example, can help students cope with circumstances they may find themselves in, she said.

She mentioned “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson and “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe — both among the books conservative activists are targeting because of their depictions of sexual assault and gender dysphoria.

“Young people need to learn social skills to understand the world around them and how they fit into it,” Draeger said. “Developing good citizens and healthy people is the job of both Michigan educators and this board. Taking away the ability of young people to better understand the world and themselves should not be this board’s right or responsibility.”

Parents like Moeggenberg say it’s up to parents, not schools, to decide what books are appropriate for their children.

“Some of these books might benefit some students,” she said in a telephone interview Thursday. “Who am I to say what works for somebody else? I would be a hypocrite if I said you had to do what I want and not what works for you.”

Moeggenberg said she would be satisfied if schools were required to notify parents before their children try to access books with sexually explicit content.

Other activists want to keep objectionable books out of schools entirely, though they still bristle at the word “ban.”

“No one is asking for books to be banned,” Jayme McElvany of Monroe told board members at Tuesday’s meeting. “That’s simply a way for you to ignore the fact that you are pushing sexually explicit material on children,” she said before reading book excerpts about anal sex, rape, and incest.

Lisa Querijero, a parent in Ann Arbor, says she trusts a school’s trained librarians to decide what books are appropriate for students.

“I’m here to counter and call out the small vocal minority that are attempting to compromise the integrity of our public schools and our democracy,” Querijero testified in Lansing on Tuesday. “Singling out and censoring books and curriculum is detrimental to creating critical thinkers. It is detrimental to teacher morale and the morale of the state of our public schools in general.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s ‘partnership’ school turnaround program eased pandemic’s impact, researchers say

2022-09-07T14:36:00+00:00

Michigan’s lowest performing schools struggled last school year, even as pandemic-related challenges such as quarantines lessened, but their problems might have been worse without the extra resources and support provided under a state turnaround program.

Those were among the findings of Michigan State University researchers studying the efficacy of the partnership model, the state program developed to help improve schools with the lowest test scores, attendance, and graduation rates.

In a report released Wednesday, researchers from MSU’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative found that the program may have mitigated some of the pandemic’s effects on student learning.

The report comes as the Michigan Department of Education prepares to designate another cohort of partnership schools that qualify for extra support based on a new round of standardized test results that showed widespread declines. Those declines mirrored student performance around the country.

“Because of the pandemic and remote learning, almost all the gains that many of our districts/schools had made were erased or almost erased,” the Michigan Department of Education wrote in its response to the report.

EPIC’s study highlights the disproportionate impact the COVID pandemic had on high-poverty areas and communities of color, where partnership schools are concentrated. Researchers hope policymakers use the data to target resources to schools and students who need them most.

MDE said it plans to intensify efforts to address student and teacher absenteeism and to help partnership districts attract and retain certified educators.

“One of the greatest challenges facing partnership districts is human capital,” MDE wrote.

Program assigns goals and resources to schools

Michigan launched the Partnership District Model in 2017 to help improve the state’s lowest performing schools and to meet requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, an Obama-era law that requires states to identify their lowest performing schools and provide comprehensive support to them.

Progress in partnership districts stalled during the pandemic and hasn’t yet recovered, EPIC found.

Yet, students in partnership schools performed comparably to — and in some cases better than — counterparts in demographically and academically similar districts that are not in the partnership program.

“If my child is enrolled in one of these schools, they’re getting extra support, and so I’d rather my child be in this school than one that barely missed the cutoff” for being designated a partnership school, said Katharine Strunk, director of EPIC.

Partnership districts are assigned liaisons who help them develop goals and access resources from the Michigan Department of Education and other agencies and stakeholders. They also receive a share of about $6 million a year in additional state funding — roughly $61,000 for each of the 978 current partnership schools.

Principals say they use that money to improve access to technology, hire more staff, and offer professional development, but told EPIC it hasn’t been enough.

But the ranks of partnership schools are likely to grow, based on recent standardized test results, Strunk says. That means each school’s share of the funding pool will decrease, unless more money is appropriated.

“These districts are the same districts that have been hit hardest by the pandemic, and what they’re going to need is more funding to support their strategies for improving student outcomes,” Strunk said.

How partnership schools addressed pandemic’s effects

Although tutoring is widely seen as an important strategy to address learning loss caused by the switch to online learning and other disruptions, principals of partnership schools told researchers it hasn’t been a priority in their districts.

That doesn’t surprise Strunk.

Successful tutoring programs are hard to implement, and they rely on being able to hire enough staff. Many districts already have trouble filling vacancies, she said. Enrollment in tutoring programs is another obstacle, Strunk said.

“Not just in Michigan but across the country, parents just did not opt in, especially for programs after school or during vacation time,” she said. “It might be because of transportation problems, or it might be because they think their kids have been through enough.”

Instead, partnership districts continued to use strategies already in place before the pandemic. New programs have largely prioritized students’ mental health and behavioral needs, which also grew during the pandemic.

Educators in partnership districts told EPIC researchers in surveys and interviews that their students continue to struggle with emotional challenges of the pandemic, which disproportionately affected their communities.

Sixty-two percent said they believed mental health was a major challenge for their students, and many pointed to inadequate resources to address them.

“We have a high population of students who have experienced trauma, but no one to help them with it, because the social worker is in a classroom substituting,” one teacher told researchers.

Attendance was another substantial challenge researchers identified in partnership districts. Educators told EPIC that student absenteeism was one of the biggest impediments to academic progress.

Updated report card expected in the fall

The state makes partnership designations based on school-level data, not district data. Districts that have at least one partnership school in them are considered partnership districts.

“The theory is that when a school is identified as really struggling, it often is reflective of district systems that have not supported the school,” Strunk said. “If a middle school is failing or struggling, there’s no way the high school and elementary school are doing just fine.”

The goal of the Partnership Model is to raise achievement, reduce dropout rates, and improve attendance and behavior.

Currently, there are 978 partnership schools in 26 partnership districts. Each of them has worked with the Department of Education on a set of goals that will qualify them to exit the program.

The department is expected to release a report in late fall announcing which have met their goals and which additional schools will enter the partnership model this year.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@gmail.com.

Michigan test scores down sharply from pre-pandemic

2022-09-01T21:59:42+00:00

Student scores on Michigan’s standardized test are sharply down from before the pandemic, underlining the severe academic toll of virtual learning and other COVID-related disruptions and traumas.

Last spring, 41.5% of third-graders statewide scored at least proficient in math on the exam, known as the M-STEP. That’s a decline of 5.2 percentage points from 2019, the last time the test was given before COVID-19 shuttered classrooms.

In English language arts, 41.6% of third-graders scored proficient or higher, a decline of 3.5 points from 2019.

With participation in the test returning to normal this spring, the results are among the strongest evidence available of the academic fallout from the pandemic.

“This year’s results indicate that Michigan students are still performing below pre-pandemic levels — with persistent and troubling opportunity gaps for our most underserved students,” Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest, a nonprofit education advocacy group, said in a statement. She noted that Michigan has been “behind our peers across the nation for far too long, and long before the pandemic.”

The scores have high stakes for the lowest-scoring students and schools. About 6% of third-graders will be recommended for retention under Michigan’s Read by Grade Three law based on their English language arts skills, though fewer than half of students targeted for retention have been made to repeat third grade in years past.

The scores also play a major role in teacher evaluations and in the letter grades that the state gives to each school. The most academically troubled districts will be put under increased state scrutiny, known as a partnership agreement, that can lead to a takeover or closure if scores don’t improve.

The results also underscore research showing Michigan students learned less in virtual settings during the pandemic. Though many districts that rarely or never resorted to remote classes saw declines, districts that offered the most remote instruction saw some of the biggest drops in scores.

In districts with at least 50 third graders, 127 districts saw the percentage of students scoring proficient or above in English language arts fall by 10 percentage points or more compared with 2018-19. Of those, 22% — or 28 districts — were fully remote for four months or more during the 2020-21 school year, while 54% were fully remote for just one month or none. Of the 37 districts to record gains of 10 percentage points or more, just two were remote for four months, or 5%. Far more — 70%, or 26 districts — were remote just one month or not at all.

Scores are down in most grades and subject areas across the state. For example:

30% of high schoolers who took the SAT surpassed the benchmark college-readiness score in math, down from 36.3% in 2019.
28.4% of sixth graders scored proficient or better on the math M-STEP exam, down from 35.1% in 2019.
43.4% of fourth graders scored at least proficient on the English language arts test, down from 45.8% in 2019.

Amid growing concerns about students’ well-being, Michigan schools are spending billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief to address the academic and emotional impacts of the pandemic. Many educators say the toll would be much worse if not for that additional federal funding, which expires in 2024. This year, they’ll be further aided by a record state education budget that includes extra funding for low-income students and for teacher recruitment and retention.

Schools were required to give the M-STEP in 2020-21, but parents worried about COVID-19 were allowed to opt out. Many did so, and just 70% of students took the test compared with 95% this year, a figure in line with the historical average. Experts noted that comparing statewide results year-to-year doesn’t work when participation rates differ so widely.

Nationally, students are also suffering significant academic losses. The National Center for Education Statistics released nationwide results Thursday of reading and math scores on the NAEP, a test often referred to as the “the nation’s report card.” Reading scores dropped more than they have in over 30 years, and math scores dropped for the first time since the test first began in the early 1970s.

A call for new investments in proven policies

Students who skipped the test last year typically belonged to groups that faced the greatest challenges during the pandemic, including students who had spent the year learning online, students of color, students from low-income families and English language learners, state Superintendent Michael Rice said. The inclusion of those historically lower-scoring students this year may partly explain why statewide scores fell in most grade and content areas compared with last year.

Responding to the new test data, Rice said new investments are needed in evidence-based policies such as smaller class sizes, in-depth professional development, tutoring, and small-group instruction.

“Each of these things has a disproportionately greater benefit for those who need than for those who don’t,” he told Chalkbeat. “They have a disproportionately favorable impact on at-risk children than middle-class children.”

In the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan’s largest, officials have set aside a portion of COVID dollars for small-group and one-on-one literacy tutoring for students several grades or more below reading level. The district’s scores remain well behind pre-pandemic levels, suggesting a long road ahead. Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti pointed to the various COVID-related disruptions of student learning during the 2021-22 school year as well as chronic absenteeism as significant factors in last spring’s test scores.

The trauma of the pandemic, combined with dark headlines about climate change and school shootings, offer one explanation for falling scores, said Elizabeth Moje, dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan.

“They’re looking around and going, ‘Gosh, the world is crumbling around us.’ There’s all this violence. How about school shootings? These are young people who are trying to make sense of their place in the world and asking ‘Where do I fit?’ and they’re being asked to learn abstract things that they don’t understand the purpose for learning. That in itself is stress-inducing.”

How to use the testing data

Testing experts cautioned against using the exam scores to draw conclusions about how schools performed during the pandemic given how much classroom time students missed.

“The word I would use is ‘grace,’” said Ed Roeber, assessment director for the Michigan Assessment Consortium, a nonpartisan education group. “There were a whole lot of people putting in 110% effort in getting kids taught.”

He said schools have the tools to accelerate student learning now that children are back at school. They can reduce class sizes, for example, or double check that every student is taught all the key concepts that show up on the test.

“Every child who’s tested can achieve proficiency,” he said. Schools can help them do so “not by practicing the test items but by looking at their instructional program and saying, ‘What kinds of skills do kids need to have?’”

At Westwood Community School District in Dearborn Heights, Superintendent Stiles Simmons said helping students recover includes both academic support and social-emotional support. His district is expanding a mentorship program it started last year for middle school students. He credits pandemic relief money for his being able to hire a districtwide social-emotional learning coordinator, who he said “has been a godsend.”

He said the M-STEP data can serve as a “baseline” and can be a “good exercise for maybe research purposes, but it doesn’t necessarily help us long term.“

“We need to really look at where we are now because that’s where our kids are,” he said.

In the Reeths-Puffer School District near Muskegon, 2021 scores dipped but have now returned to pre-pandemic levels for most grade levels for English language arts and in elementary grades for math. The district enrolls about 3,500 students, more than half of whom are considered economically disadvantaged by the state.

“I would say we’ve stayed relatively consistent through the pandemic,” Superintendent Steve Edwards said. “If you didn’t regress during the pandemic, I guess you can count that as a small win.”

He said he believes two factors contributed to that: the district’s decision to remain in-person for all of 2020-21, and its $500,000 investment in summer acceleration programming over the last two years. That funding came from federal COVID relief money that will run out in September 2024.

The pandemic funds provided “an immediate shot in the arm, but it could be detrimental to build systems and supports that people come to rely on, that then are no longer funded,” he said. “In the short term it’s great, but in the long term it makes me nervous.”

Brooke Brawley, director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment at Niles Community Schools, said the testing information is helpful in determining what extra supports students need. But she said it’s important to remember these scores are only one data point among many that inform teachers on students’ academic levels.

She said one area for growth would be looking at math scores and seeing how to use multi-tier systems to help students improve. A multi-tier system includes curriculum for all students and additional supports for students who need them.

Simmons, of Westwood, agreed. He said his district tends to focus more attention on benchmark tests that are administered three times a year, since they provide more real-time data of where students stand.

He expects to receive a comprehensive report from one of his employees Friday about how the district did. From there, he wants to analyze how the district compares with similar districts in size and demographics.

The district used benchmark scores last school year to determine who should receive high dosage tutoring. Simmons said students who regularly attended tutoring sessions had better grades and better benchmark test scores. He said the district is considering working with companies that have strong after school tutoring programs as well.

Frances Vicioso, a parent of a Kalamazoo Public Schools graduate, said the district’s results are very “concerning” but “absolutely what I expected.”

She wants more equitable school funding, more accessible information for parents about the school district’s budget, and more understanding from others about the limitations of standardized testing.

One-third of Kalamazoo Public Schools third grade students were proficient or higher in English language arts while 30.7% of third grade students were proficient or higher in math.

Kalamazoo’s third grade English language scores remained lower than the state average and had nearly the same size declines as the state from 2018-19 to 2021-22. In third grade math, however, the district’s proficiency rates fell nearly 7 percentage points, from 37.5% to 30.7%, compared with the 5 percentage point drop statewide (from 46.7% to 41.5%).

The district was fully remote for nine months during the 2020-2021 school year.

Vicioso, a former middle school teacher, said students’ achievement can be measured in other ways, including verbal reflections, class participation, and projects.

Vicioso is the co-director of Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Kalamazoo, an initiative that works to provide accurate historical narratives, build strong relationships and advocate for systemic change. She said she is concerned about many local students including students from low-income families and students of color..

“It tracks that the lack of services and lack of support would be reflected in these M-STEP scores,” she said.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Isabel Lohman covers education for Bridge Michigan. You can reach her at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Reading skills gap grows in Michigan

2022-09-01T19:30:16+00:00

Researchers found alarming increases in the proportion of Michigan third graders reading significantly below grade level and widening gaps in performance between Black and white students, and between students from low-income families and peers from wealthier families.

The performance disparities provide more evidence of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on at-risk children.

“This should be a clarion call to us,” said Katharine Strunk, director of the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University. “What are we doing to help these particular students?”

EPIC on Thursday released its annual data report on the number of students eligible for retention under a controversial Michigan law that says third graders can be held back if they score at least a year behind grade level on the reading portion of the Michigan Student Test of Education Progress, or M-STEP. The report is based on results of reading tests given this spring.

The results are important because they help policymakers and schools target resources. They’re also a gauge of the effects of the pandemic on young children during crucial years when most children learn to read. Some researchers say reading by third grade is “a make or break benchmark” correlated to later academic success.

Nearly 5,700 of last year’s third-graders scored low enough to be eligible for retention. That’s 5.8% of all third-graders, up from 4.8% the previous year. The Michigan Department of Education hasn’t yet collected data on how many of them are actually repeating third grade this year.

More than half would have been eligible for automatic exemptions based on, for example, their status as English learners or special education students, according to EPIC’s report. In the past, the vast majority of others were exempted too, because administrators and parents agreed that retention was not in the child’s best interest.

It rarely is, said Elizabeth Birr Moje, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education.

“Everything we know from research tells us that retention at a young age has negative consequences across the board,” including on dropout rates, future earning potential, and incarceration rates.

That’s one reason why the Reeths-Puffer School District near Muskegon promoted all third graders to fourth grade, even though 10 of them had reading scores that made them eligible for retention. Instead, those students will get extra help with reading this year, Superintendent Steve Edwards said.

“You’d struggle to find much evidence anywhere of the long-term benefit” of retention, he said.

Academics are more focused on what the M-STEP data reveal about learning disparities between demographic groups than on the retention component of the third-grade reading law.

“The hope with the retention law was not so much that we would actually be retaining children but that it would motivate people — whether families, or teachers, or school leaders — to do early intervention, to engage kids (in reading) very early,” Moje said.

The retention law also provides an accountability benchmark to let parents and community members know how well their schools are educating children in early literacy. And it helps schools focus resources on students who need the most help.

Advocacy groups like Education Trust-Midwest are concerned by the results.

“While it’s not surprising that so many children have fallen so far behind, we are now seeing the evidence of the impact of the pandemic, especially for underserved students,” said Executive Director Amber Arellano.

Michigan’s declines mirror results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress also released Thursday. NAEP scores show sharp declines across the country in math and reading during the pandemic. Among 9-year-olds who took the national test, reading scores dropped more sharply than they have in more than 30 years.

Remote learning and pandemic-related disruptions emerged as clear factors in student performance on the M-STEP.

Of Michigan third graders who spent all or most of second grade learning remotely, 10.6% were eligible for retention, twice the rate for those who learned in person all or most of their second-grade year.

In Reeths-Puffer schools, where students attended in person for all of 2020-21, 34% of students scored at or above the proficient level, down from 38% in the last two test cycles. It might have been worse if Reeths-Puffer schools had closed to in-person learning that year, as 16% of Michigan districts did for at least part of the year. Another 16% used hybrid models, teaching partly online and partly in classrooms.

“Most students learn best in a face-to-face environment,” said Edwards, the superintendent. “From a social-emotional and academic perspective, being face-to-face as much as we were at least mitigated what was a very difficult situation” during the pandemic.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that remote learning alone caused sinking scores, Strunk said.

Black students and those from low-income families, who historically underperform white and wealthier peers, were more likely to be in districts that used remote instruction during the pandemic.

Fifteen percent of Black third-graders scored low enough to be eligible for retention. That’s grown from 13% in 2020-21, and 10.9% in 2018-19, before the retention law took effect. Students were not tested in 2019-20 because of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the percentage of white third-graders eligible for retention grew from 2.3% in 2018-19 to 3.3% last school year.

“That’s a very large gap between Black students and everyone else, so we have to ask what’s happening there,” Strunk said.

The performance of students from low-income families is concerning, too, she said. Nine percent of third-graders from low-income families last year scored low enough to be eligible for retention, compared with 6.3% before the pandemic.

Among more affluent students, 2% were eligible for retention last school year, compared with 1.3% before the pandemic.

The state’s lowest performing schools also saw big declines in third-grade reading scores. Those buildings have been designated by the state as partnership schools based on factors including low graduation rates, attendance, and test scores. Those schools — including many in Detroit — have been in a turnaround program for the last three years and had shown progress before the pandemic.

A quarter of third-graders in partnership schools were eligible for retention based on 2022 scores, up from 22.3% last year, and 19.1% in 2018-19.

“Partnership districts have really been through it over the last couple of years,” Strunk said. “The communities in which partnership districts and schools exist faced the most dire economic and health consequences of the pandemic. We need to be working as hard as we can to support those communities and schools so they can help students recover from an unbelievably challenging time.”

Policymakers, administrators, and teachers need to target resources to districts and students struggling the most, Strunk said.

“I’d be doubling down on training our teachers to help them teach kids who may be very, very far behind grade level,” she said. “I don’t think we can assume they will catch up without targeted intervention and support.”

Schools in Michigan and across the country received federal COVID relief dollars that can be used, in part, to provide tutors to improve reading skills, but districts are having trouble finding enough tutors to meet their needs.

Arellano said those interventions should include specialized support for students with dyslexia. That’s an area the state Senate has begun to prioritize with legislation that advanced in May, although the state House hasn’t yet taken it up.

Schools seem to be working with parents to help struggling readers instead of holding them back from fourth grade, said Mike Testa, a member of the Michigan PTA Advocacy Committee and parent of four Livonia Public Schools students.

“Districts have done a good job working with parents to see what is actually best for that specific student,” he said. “They’re coming up with a course of action and a plan, not just putting a kid in fourth grade with no support but actually doing something to get that child caught up.”

That’s the kind of approach Moje advocates.

“Reading is a very complex endeavor” that requires an understanding of phonics, an ability to understand clues from syntax, an understanding of how sentences are put together, and a comprehension of meaning, she said.

“You have to assess where children are, why they’re there, and then intervene appropriately,” she said. “The sheer volume of children makes that difficult.”

She is hopeful that schools will be able to help struggling readers catch up to their peers.

“The idea that if you can’t read proficiently by third grade you’re doomed is a fallacy,” Moje said. “Somebody has to be intervening to help you make progress, but it’s not actually the case that you stop learning to read at third grade.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan’s pandemic-era special education guidance under U.S. investigation

2022-06-27T21:32:05+00:00

Federal officials are investigating a complaint alleging that Michigan provided illegal guidance to districts about serving students with disabilities during the pandemic.

The November 2020 guidance specifically concerned students who lost access to special education services — such as tutoring or physical therapy — during pandemic-caused school shutdowns, and the districts’ obligation to make up for those losses later through so-called compensatory services.

In its guidance, the Michigan Department of Education said compensatory services “may be awarded as a result of a finding from a state complaint, due process hearing, or monitoring activity.”

Critics said this language implied that districts didn’t need to provide compensatory services unless a parent filed a successful complaint through official channels, an often complex process that may require a lawyer or paid advocate to navigate.

“Districts have been terrible about providing compensatory education, and they all cite the MDE guidance,” said Marcie Lipsitt, an advocate who asked federal officials to look into the guidance.

Districts struggled this year to help all students recover learning lost during the pandemic, and limit the long-term negative impacts of COVID on children’s education. The stakes of this effort were especially high for students with disabilities, many of whom missed out on services that were guaranteed under federal disability law.

Lipsitt said the MDE should have directed districts to work with parents to ensure that students’ civil rights were protected despite the pandemic.

The pandemic created lapses in special education services nationwide, which led to large backups in claims for compensatory services. From New York City to Denver, families have struggled to make up for the education students missed when classrooms shut down in the first year of the pandemic.

In Michigan, districts’ approaches to compensatory services vary widely, advocates say: Some districts willingly provide funding for compensatory services, while others require parents to file a formal complaint with the state or request a hearing.

The decision to investigate the MDE’s guidance doesn’t mean the department did anything wrong, according to a letter announcing the investigation from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

An MDE spokesperson said the department is cooperating with the investigation and declined to comment further.

When schools recognize a student as disabled, they work with parents to identify the additional services the student needs to get an adequate education and develop a plan to provide them. For instance, a student struggling with speech might get expert help forming sounds into words. Under federal law, schools that don’t supply services according to students’ education plans must provide make-up services later.

States offer schools and districts guidance on how to meet the requirements of state and federal law. In Michigan, the education department’s guidance is not binding on districts, but it may influence their approach to negotiations with parents of students with disabilities.

Sharon Kelso, a Detroit-based special education advocate, said the MDE’s 2020 guidance suggests that districts don’t owe students compensatory services unless families demand them.

It made districts think “they have wiggle room around providing services, but they don’t have any wiggle room,” Kelso said.

Kelso filed a state complaint last year saying that her nephew, a high-schooler at Detroit’s virtual school, did not receive 35 hours of compensatory services that state officials determined he was owed because of education he missed between September and December 2020. The district said it didn’t have the staff to provide the services at that time. After the state ruled in Kelso’s favor, the district created a plan to provide the services this summer.

Such disputes may be less likely if federal officials require the state to change its guidance and push districts to provide compensatory services voluntarily.

In Denver, for example, the district took a proactive approach, evaluating students to see if they qualify for compensatory services rather than waiting for parents to file complaints. Denver set aside $12 million in federal COVID relief dollars to cover the costs.

Lipsitt hopes federal officials will go further and require Michigan to evaluate all of its roughly 194,500 students with disabilities to determine what compensatory services they deserve.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan summer school is going big — again. Here’s what parents need to know.

2022-06-22T20:55:52+00:00

Michigan students looking to have fun and catch up on missed learning this summer have many more choices than usual.

Districts have once again beefed up their summer programming, from credit recovery to camps focused on robotics and sports.

Fueled by federal COVID relief aid, the expanded summer school options come at the right time for students struggling with the academic impact of the pandemic. Many parents and students are looking for extra study time and opportunities to make up credits.

School districts planned to spend $179 million in COVID aid on summer programming over several years, according to budget proposals filed with the state in December. That’s on top of the smaller summer programs that most Michigan districts were offering before the pandemic.

What can parents expect from their districts this year?

In many cases, districts plan to keep the expanded summer programs they began offering last year, when most of the COVID relief dollars became available.

Many districts are still accepting registrations, and some will allow students to sign up after programming has started. Attendance generally isn’t mandatory, and most programs — with the exception of some enrichment camps — are free.

Here are examples of how some Michigan school districts are using their federal COVID funds for summer programming:

The Detroit Public Schools Community District will again offer its robust Summer Learning Experiences program this year.

Summer school in Detroit will run from July 11 to Aug. 4. It includes academic enrichment classes, STEM courses and recreational activities for students. The program will be conducted in person for most students, while students who currently attend DPSCD Virtual School will be allowed to take their classes online.

Some districts are using their share of COVID relief dollars to move away from summer programs that look like school, and offering extra learning time to as many students as possible.

Ypsilanti Public Schools rebranded its summer offerings Grizzly Learning Camp, rather than summer school. The camp features robotics and sports instruction, as well as credit recovery classes for students who need them. The district planned to spend $1.5 million in federal funds on the camp, which runs through August.

Grand Rapids Public Schools has more than 3,100 signed up for summer programs — about 20% of its total enrollment. That’s about the same number as last summer, but 2-1/2 times as many as pre-pandemic summers. The district is spending about $2.5 million on summer school, thanks to an influx of federal COVID relief money, compared with just under $1 million before the pandemic.

Fun is part of the curriculum. Students might, for example, play educational games on PlayStations, record podcasts about community heroes, or practice photojournalism, said Mel Atkins, district director of community and student affairs.

“We’re trying to disguise learning, so it doesn’t look like the school year,” Atkins said. “We’re not advocating for desks in rows. We’re looking for hands-on activities out in the community.”

The district is also offering online learning programs for children in kindergarten through 8th grade.

Other districts are narrowing their focus on students who need the most academic help.

Kalamazoo Public Schools’ summer school enrollment shrank from 2,500 last summer to 800 this year. That was by design, said Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri, who wanted to focus on children identified by teachers as struggling the most.

“Last summer everyone needed extra support, because everyone was transitioning back into brick-and-mortar schools after being virtual for 18 months,” Raichoudhuri said. “The need was higher, and we needed the summer months to ease the transition. We were really glad we made that decision.”

Many smaller school communities are also offering more summer programming. Joseph K. Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe Academy, a charter school in the Upper Peninsula with an emphasis on Anishinaabe culture and tradition, is enrolling more than one-third of its 630 students in an expanded academic summer school. The program will include field trips and two free meals a day. Activities will focus on environmental science and indigenous games and crafts, among other subjects. All students are eligible to participate.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

How a lawsuit could make way for DeVos’ bid to end Michigan’s public-private school funding divide

2022-05-12T15:42:31+00:00

May is a critical month for a two-part effort by conservative groups to dismantle Michigan’s 50-year-old prohibition on public funds going to private schools.

Part one is a ballot initiative that would give Michigan residents a tax break if they contributed to scholarships for private school tuition. Supporters must collect 340,000 signatures on petitions by June 1 for that proposal to have a chance at becoming law.

Part two is a federal lawsuit that challenges Michigan’s prohibition on public funding for private schools as a violation of the U.S. Constitution. A decision in the case, Hile v. Michigan, is expected in the next few weeks, though an appeal is likely.

Both efforts are linked to long-running efforts by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to direct public funds to private schools.

The ballot initiative would chip away at a strict separation of public and private education in Michigan. The lawsuit would smash the firewall entirely.

Together, the two efforts represent one front in a political battle to define how Michigan education policy should change in response to the pandemic.

DeVos and her allies say the pandemic showed the need for more school choice, noting that many students struggled with online learning during public school shutdowns, while many private schools continued in-person instruction.

The petition “is crafted in a way that really meets the moment for COVID education, providing families the ability to use a variety of education options,” said Ben DeGrow, director of education policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank that DeVos has supported.

Opponents say these policies would cut into public school enrollment and funding at a time when schools need additional help to manage the social and emotional fallout from the pandemic. They say that efforts to shift public funds to private schools are part of efforts by activists such as DeVos to undermine public education — efforts that originated long before the pandemic.

“Their intent is to eliminate public education as we know it,” said Casandra Ulbrich, president of the Michigan Board of Education and a leader of a coalition opposing the ballot initiative.

A challenge to Michigan’s constitution

Michigan’s constitution contains an unusually broad prohibition on public dollars going to private schools. The clause dates to 1970, when voters amended the state constitution after a heated debate.

Similar provisions in other states have been struck down recently by the federal courts on the grounds that they discriminate on the basis of religion. But the language in Michigan’s constitution remains in effect. Unlike many states, Michigan banned funding for all private schools, not just religious schools, making its constitution less vulnerable to claims of religious discrimination.

Michigan private schools receive some indirect public support. For example, they can enroll their students part time in public schools for classes that they don’t offer, at taxpayer expense. After a lengthy court fight, private schools in the state also won the right to draw state funding to comply with state health and safety regulations, an amount that reached $1 million this year.

DeVos has long aimed to expand taxpayer support for private schools. Along with her husband, Dick DeVos, she was a key backer of a 2000 ballot proposal that would have created a voucher system in Michigan, allowing students to apply their share of public school funding to private school tuition. The proposal was roundly defeated at the polls.

Now she’s backing the current ballot initiative to give tax breaks for contributions to private-school scholarships, which critics say is effectively a voucher program. Once the ballot initiative gathers enough signatures, supporters plan to take advantage of a provision in state law that allows them to put their plan to a vote in the GOP-led legislature, bypassing voters and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s likely veto.

This time, the main obstacle for the proposal is not voters but the 1970 amendment to the Michigan Constitution.

That’s where the lawsuit comes in.

The lead plaintiffs, Jill and Joseph Hile, are Kalamazoo parents of school-aged children who say they should be allowed to use funds from their Michigan Education Savings Plan account — a tax-favored account used for college or K-12 expenses — to cover tuition to a private, religious school. Their suit, filed in U.S. District Court in southwest Michigan, takes direct aim at the 1970 amendment.

The Hiles argue that Michigan’s prohibition of public funding for private schools violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects freedom of religion and speech, and the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection for all citizens under the law.

The plaintiffs claim that the 1970 amendment was motivated by anti-Catholic animus, and that denying funding to private religious schools amounts to religious discrimination.

The state has asked Judge Robert Jonker to dismiss the case, and he is expected to issue a ruling in coming weeks. If he agrees, his decision would likely be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, a process that could take several years, said Patrick Wright, vice president for legal affairs at the Mackinac Center, who is representing the Hile family.

The ballot issue, on the other hand, would likely be resolved well before then — even if it is challenged in state court as a violation of Michigan’s constitution.

Some predict the petition would surmount such a challenge, because the tax credits DeVos and her allies are pushing for involve individual contributions to private scholarship funds: If individuals are paying for the scholarships, they argue, does that really count as public funding for private schools?

But even Wright says that such an argument could be a tough sell in state court given the strict and explicit language in the current Michigan Constitution:

“People … challenging the ballot initiative would do well in court,” he said.

Overriding Michigan’s constitution

This is why the federal lawsuit is such an integral component of DeVos and her allies’ long-term plan to provide public support to private schools.

Suppose the tax credit plan for scholarships secured 340,000 signatures and was voted into law by state legislators, but the Michigan Supreme Court struck it down as a violation of the state constitution. The tax breaks would remain on the books, but would not take effect.

If, years later, the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down Michigan’s prohibition on public funding for private schools — the legal obstacle to the tax credit plan — then the credits for scholarships could take effect.

The situation has a parallel in the abortion fight now raging in Michigan, Wright said. Michigan has a 1931 ban on abortion on the books that could go into effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognized a right to an abortion.

Both the scholarship tax credits and the abortion ban will likely be hotly contested.

“There would be all kinds of lawyerly stuff to be going on,” Wright said, “but in the long run, the federal Constitution trumps the state constitution.”

That means Hile v. Michigan could ultimately pave the way for the scholarship tax credits — and more policies like it that would direct taxpayer dollars to private schools.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

One way to address student mental health? Bring the clinic to school.

2022-04-04T15:12:18+00:00

Many Michigan school administrators say they’ve often served as stand-in public health officials during the pandemic. So it’s no surprise that districts across the state are eager to get some backup from a program that opens clinics in school buildings.

School-based health centers make it convenient for students to leave class and walk down the hall for therapy, a medical checkup, or a dental appointment. While the first centers in Michigan opened decades ago, policymakers have renewed interest in them in the wake of COVID and the ongoing student mental health crisis.

As advocates push for a major funding increase, the outcome of this year’s budget negotiations could shape Michigan’s system for supporting student mental health for years to come — even after federal COVID funds run out. It would mean new health centers in roughly 100 districts that have expressed an interest in opening one but weren’t awarded funds.

Rates of depression and suicide among Michigan youth were already rising when the pandemic hit. State and federal officials are now warning of an emergency in youth mental health. Yet one-third of Michigan students with a mental illness don’t receive treatment, particularly in rural areas.

Many school districts are trying to address that problem by putting more counselors, nurses, and social workers in schools with their share of federal COVID funds, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of spending plans. Adding new school-based health centers would make those efforts more effective, experts say, because the centers are better equipped to assist with the most complex cases, freeing up school staff to handle other needs.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants the state to invest an additional $11 million to open new health centers in schools this year. A bipartisan group of lawmakers studying the Oxford shooting agree that more funding is needed, though they haven’t yet said how much. Advocates are pushing for even more: an additional $25 million this year, which would nearly double the state’s current investment in the centers.

Here’s what you need to know about school-based mental health centers.

What is a school-based health center?

The centers are formed under an agreement between local health care providers, such as a hospital system, a school district, and the state. All three parties share the costs.

Unlike a typical school nurse’s office, the centers are recognized by the government as health care providers, which means they can more easily provide referrals for care, and they can bill for services if students have insurance.

The school provides office space — often rent free — while the healthcare system provides medical workers such as licensed therapists and nurse practitioners. In some cases, a school nurse will share the space with health system employees.

If students have health insurance, the center can bill their insurer. If not, grants from the state help cover the cost of care, or the center can bill Medicaid. Students never have to pay out of pocket.

“The centers eliminate barriers of transportation and cost,” said Kim Baron, director of health services for Grand Rapids Public Schools. She also noted that students who get medical care in their school building don’t miss as much school as they would if they left during the day for a doctor’s appointment.

Why are school-based health centers getting so much attention now?

The first school-based health centers in Michigan opened in the 1980s, and their funding increased slowly but steadily for decades.

There are 124 centers across Michigan, with one in nearly half of the state’s 83 counties, according to the School-Community Health Alliance of Michigan, a nonprofit advocacy group.

The pandemic spotlighted the strengths of school-based health centers, said Deb Brinson, executive director of the School Community Health Alliance, which is pushing for a major new funding expansion to serve more students.

The centers stayed open even when many schools closed their doors, Brinson said. They offered medical expertise and infrastructure at a time when many school administrators were struggling to coordinate their community’s public health response. In many cases, the centers offered COVID testing and vaccinations.

As administrators across the state saw what the centers could do, “We started getting calls: How do we get a school based health center?” Brinson recalled.

Funding shot up last year, with an additional $5 million for mental health services. Now Whitmer is proposing an even larger increase.

Whitmer and legislative leaders will consider funding for the centers as part of this year’s budget negotiations, which will take place over the next few months.

Do the centers make a difference?

Students who used school-based mental health centers reported less risky behavior, better emotional coping strategies, and reduced physical stress, according to a 2018 study.

Various national studies have come to similar conclusions. A study of 168 schools in Oregon found that students at schools with health centers were less likely to report depression and suicide attempts.

Administrators in districts with centers say they are effective.

“There are hundreds of kids walking down the hall and getting the care that they need from a medical, dental, and behavioral health aspect,” said Tom Livezey, superintendent of Oak Ridge Public Schools near Muskegon.

“I can’t imagine having to go through the pandemic without this service.”

Before the pandemic, the Oakridge school health center typically served more than 700 unique students per year, including more than 1,000 mental health appointments. The district enrolls roughly 1,900 students.

How do the centers support mental health?

School-based health centers in Michigan are required to have a mental health staff person on site in addition to a medical professional such as a nurse.

Students can attend therapy or seek help if they are having an emotional crisis.

“From a mental health standpoint, we’re seeing kids act out in classrooms, and the anger and anxiety can turn into physical altercations in the schools,” Livezey said.

Given the lack of mental health providers for young people in the surrounding community, Livezey says school-based mental health centers are “the only way our kids are going to get adequate care.”

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@chalkbeat.org.

Michigan students who are homeless more likely to be disciplined

2022-03-30T14:00:49+00:00

Students who are homeless face suspension and expulsion at much higher rates than do their peers in Michigan schools.

Statewide, 17% of students who have experienced homelessness were suspended or expelled in 2017-18 compared with 8% of all students in Michigan’s district-run public schools. The rates are especially high in Wayne and Macomb counties, researchers found.

Those are among figures highlighted in an interactive map recently created by the Poverty Solutions Center at the University of Michigan based on its earlier analysis of data from that school year.

For example, the discipline rates for students who have been homeless are 38%, 37% and 36% in Hamtramck, Eastpoint, and Westwood school districts, respectively.

Benton Harbor Area Schools (41%), Atlanta Community Schools (41%) and Flint Community School District (41%) have the state’s highest discipline rates for students who have been homeless.

Superintendents of those districts did not respond to requests for comment. Many districts are on spring break this week.

The numbers are troubling and could be even higher, said Poverty Solution Center senior researcher Jennifer Erb-Downward, who suspects many districts underreport discipline.

“If you have a student that doesn’t have a fixed living space, school may be the only stable place they have. To expel them from that place can be devastating,” Erb-Downward said. “It’s pushing them out of a system we want them to be able to engage with.”

The percentages are similar in other states.. Other studies have shown that students experiencing homelessness in Texas, Indiana, and Washington, for example, are at least twice as likely to be suspended as their peers.

Researchers want administrators to consider the reasons behind student misbehavior.

School administrators “need to step back from that moment when something is happening in the classroom and hallway and think about how to diffuse that situation when there is something underlying the behavior that is more than just a discipline issue,” Erb-Downward said.

Suspension and expulsion seldom lead to the desired behavior change, according to studies by Johns Hopkins University and American Institutes for Research. Instead, they likely make students feel more disconnected from school and more likely to drop out, Erb-Downward said.

Researchers hope their work will spark conversations about school discipline and changes that de-emphasize punishment and lean toward connecting traumatized students with resources.

The Student Advocacy Center of Michigan wants to be part of those conversations. The center works to ensure children stay in school and understand their rights to a quality public education.

The center is asking districts with the highest discipline rates to revisit their policies.

“A different policy choice could mean we’re going to find another way to educate young people who’ve made a mistake,” said Peri Stone-Palmquist, the center’s executive director.

Among her recommendations are:

· Convene discipline policy committees that include teachers, students, principals, community mental health providers, and the district’s homeless liaison.

· Require districts to consider traumatic experiences in students’ background before punishing them.

· Allow students to appeal discipline to county, regional, or state-level arbiters.

· Consider alternatives to suspension and expulsion that can be more effective and less likely to lead to dropping out.

· Add homelessness as a factor schools must consider before removing a student from school.

· Hold suspension and expulsion hearings within 10 days of removal from school so students and their families have a chance to be heard sooner.

· Invest federal COVID-relief dollars in mental health initiatives.

Michigan has been moving away from automatically suspending or expelling students who bring items to school that can be used as weapons. A 2018 state law requires districts to consider seven factors including age, disability, and disciplinary history before suspending or expelling. That doesn’t always happen.

Democratic state Senators Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, Erika Geiss of Taylor, and Adam Hollier of Detroit have introduced bills to change school discipline policies, but they haven’t yet come to a vote.

One of the bills would establish an appeals process and would require districts to disclose data about suspended students including race, gender, ethnicity, disability status, and whether they are homeless.

Another bill would require independent decision-makers to authorize expulsions or suspensions of more than 10 days. It also would require districts to develop individualized education plans for students who are removed from school.

A third bill would require districts to determine whether behavior leading to potential discipline is related to homelessness, whether removal from school would create a barrier to enrollment and retention of the child, and whether a behavior plan would better address the violation.

Erb-Downward’s research shows that nearly 1 out of 10 Michigan children will experience homelessness at some point before they graduate high school. According to the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 2.7% of Michigan’s public school students were homeless in 2014-15, slightly above the national average of 2.5%.

“That really is a large number of students who are having housing instability that we know has long-term impacts,” Erb-Downward said. “That’s why we have to get out in front of this.”

Tracie Mauriello covers state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan. Reach her at tmauriello@chalkbeat.org.

This Hamtramck principal wants to prepare students for life

2022-03-16T15:19:01+00:00

To understand what drives Alvin Ward as principal of Hamtramck Academy, you might have to go back to his days as a teacher of students with learning disabilities.

Back then, while some teachers shied away from this population of students, “I thought it was the greatest opportunity to help students who need it the most.” He calls it the highlight of his teaching career.

Ward wasn’t just focused on helping students achieve academically so they could move on to the next grade. He was determined to help them to succeed in life well after they completed their K-12 education.

“For some kids, we determine whether they’re going to stay at home with their family or whether they’re going to live an independent … life,” he said. “We have to equip students with skills. That made it much more than a job. It was a moral duty for me.”

Alvin Ward is the principal at Hamtramck Academy, a charter school that was one of four in Michigan recently recognized by the Education Trust-Midwest for academic success.

Fast forward to 2021, when the Education Trust-Midwest named Hamtramck Academy one of its first four “Building the Hope” schools (see below for more information), largely because of the success the school has seen improving academic achievement for its students, many of whom are immigrants from Bangladesh, and many of whom are from low-income homes.

Ward, who has led the school for six years after a few years as a principal in Lansing, is as inspired as ever, noting: “We’re molding kids to move on and become adults. That’s the motivator for me — to see kids come and they learn and they can have fun and they can be safe. It’s more than just a school.”

He spoke recently with Chalkbeat Detroit.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What is it about this school that stands out?

We think we have embraced and put into practice some of the best strategies that can help K-8 students everywhere, but particularly in communities with many less affluent, minority, and English-learner students.

We are a National Heritage Academy charter school serving about 550 students in grades K-8. Our school was recognized as a “Building the Hope School” because multiple student groups, including Asian students and students from low-income backgrounds, showed exceptional academic progress, exceeding the statewide proficiency rate in both English language arts and math for three consecutive years.

But we don’t do this work for awards. We do it because making sure every child succeeds is central to our mission.

We strongly believe that having real-time data combined with individualized learning are critical — but we start first by creating a culture where students feel comfortable being themselves, regardless of their backgrounds, family income, ZIP code, or home language.

Why is it so crucial to build relationships with students and their families?

Many of our students come from families who are recent immigrants and speak another language at home, and many are Muslim. Our education team members, who often do not share those characteristics, take care to embrace our students’ diversity. That includes working hard to embed their culture into our classroom instruction, diverse reading materials and in the images of people whose faces line the walls of our classrooms and hallways. We also offer Arabic and Bengali translators and make sure our communications are accessible to our families.

Honoring our students’ and families’ culture is a big part of who we are – and something we know is also a significant contributing factor to our growth and progress.

How do you involve families in the school?

We have found our families have a true passion for learning. We feed on that hunger, provide a safe, fun environment – and from there we can apply the teaching tools that meet our students’ needs.

Every classroom works to create a “social contract,” where students agree to how they want to treat their teacher and fellow students. The students themselves then hold each other accountable in a classroom that is managed by them.

Our teachers also meet students where they are academically and then tailor instruction to their needs. That means really taking active steps to create plans and set goals based on the individual child.

To truly individualize instruction, we track and monitor student data regularly to inform how we teach, making adjustments where needed. Based on what we learn, our students may then receive intervention and support or small group instruction with other students who could also benefit from additional support on a subject.

Beyond providing ongoing instructional support for students who need it, we are passionate about creating a learning environment to encourage students to accelerate. For instance, we recently launched EXCEL-ERATE, our new advanced learning program to provide learning opportunities for top-performing students who are ready to learn at an accelerated pace beyond grade level.

Four Michigan schools that show promise

Hamtramck Academy is one of four schools singled out by the Education Trust-Midwest for helping traditionally underserved students progress academically.

The others are Bennett Elementary School in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Discovery Elementary in Kentwood, and Thomas Jefferson Elementary in South Redford.

They were selected to receive the inaugural Building the Hope Schools awards for demonstrating that students from all backgrounds can learn at high levels despite challenges at home and school.

All of them predominantly serve students of color and students from low-income backgrounds, and all performed in the top 25% of Michigan schools for academic proficiency or showed above average academic growth.

Here’s why each school was selected:.

Hamtramck: Multiple groups, including Asian students and students from low-income backgrounds, progressed academically and exceeded statewide proficiency rates on standardized tests for three consecutive years. Hamtramck faculty and staff use diverse reading materials, culturally responsive communication, and Arabic and Bengali translators to meet the needs of their community.
Bennett: English language learners improved substantially on state standardized tests for three straight years. The school uses a translation app to communicate with parents and caregivers who are not fluent in English.
Discovery: Most subgroups of students progressed academically and exceeded statewide proficiency rates for math and English language arts for three consecutive years. Discovery uses small learning groups to support struggling students.
Thomas Jefferson: Black students and students from low-income homes showed improvement on state standardized tests for three straight years. The school has decreased suspension and discipline rates, and aligned instruction with individual student needs.

The Education Trust-Midwest is a nonpartisan research organization that advocates for improved education for all Michigan students.

How COVID cash could help Michigan schools tackle a mental health crisis

2022-03-14T10:00:00+00:00

Mariana Hernandez knew her son was struggling through the first year of COVID. His normally stellar grades had dropped to F’s, and he didn’t seem like himself.

But she wasn’t prepared for her quiet, bright child to ask, “If I wasn’t here, how would you feel, mami?”

Hernandez was used to taking action when her kids needed her — a few years earlier, when her children’s Detroit charter school was failing, she helped teachers unionize.

Now she was at a loss. “I didn’t know what to do,” she recalled. She reached out to one of her son’s former teachers, who referred her to a counseling center.

“You think your kid’s OK,” Hernandez said. “But then I talked with a psychologist and she said, ‘Actually, these are suicidal thoughts.’”

Two years of frustration, disruption, and loss have taken their toll on Michigan students, exacerbating a youth mental health crisis that has been building for more than a decade. Michiganders want schools to take action, polls show, and educators are stepping up to the challenge, drawing on research showing that emotional distress and student learning do not mix well. Michigan schools have no shortage of funds on hand, thanks to $6 billion in federal COVID relief, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is recommending a budget that includes an additional $361 million for student mental health.

Yet it’s not clear how far that money will go. Districts have hired social workers and counselors, selected new social-emotional learning curriculums, and purchased therapy dogs (see below for a detailed list). But students’ needs are immense, and the pandemic-roiled labor market is limiting districts’ efforts to hire additional staff.

At stake is the post-pandemic recovery of Michigan’s youngest citizens, not just emotionally but academically.

“We have kids that are chronically depressed and addicted,” said Paul Liabenow, executive director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association. “There is a massive backlog of need.”

Second graders at Becker Elementary School in Dearborn cut out paper hands and wrote their own best qualities on the fingers, part of an activity designed by the school social worker.

On a recent snowy Thursday, fifth graders at Becker Elementary in Dearborn lit up at the sight of Kawkab Hachem.

Hachem is the school social worker at Becker — and only at Becker.

Before the pandemic, Dearborn Public Schools social workers were assigned to several schools, moving between buildings to work only with the most severe needs. Now, with help from federal COVID funding, the district expanded its social work staff, and Hachem works full time at Becker. That means she’s gotten to know all 226 students at least a little bit, even as she spends focused time with certain students. And it means she has time to visit every classroom for weekly lessons on managing emotions, self-compassion, and connecting with peers.

Nearly a year has passed since these fifth graders last had an online lesson. Kassem is an outgoing child who smiles behind his glasses as he talks. But his face darkens at the memory of sitting in his bedroom all day in front of a computer screen.

“Virtual learning made me so angry,” he said. “I felt like I was stuck.”

Today, though, Kassem and his classmates are making a list of 15 kind things students can do for another person. At another table, students are instructed to write kind notes to friends. “Dear Rached,” one student writes. “You are always there for me and you are the kindest person that I met in my life.”

Their teacher, Kristin Koss, has been with the Dearborn district for decades. In previous years, she said, social workers visited her classroom for social-emotional learning twice a year — not once a week.

“This is money well spent,” she said of the district’s new social worker hires. “The kids came back to the classroom (after virtual learning) and they didn’t know how to do school, they were so immature. These lessons help.”

Hachem’s presence also gives teachers space to focus on students with the most pressing academic needs — no small matter for teachers working to help students catch up from lost learning. While Hachem worked with the class, Koss pulled a single student aside to help him with a math concept he’d been struggling with.

At Kassem’s table, one of his neighbors, Mazen, agreed that lessons with Hachem are paying off.

“To care for other people, you have to care for yourself,” she said. “I learned that here.”

Michigan has taken notice of the mental health struggles of students like Khyiana Tate.

“Students — me included — we’ve been isolated, ” said Khyiana, a senior at the Michigan School for the Deaf. “I was stuck at home. A lot of times I was depressed. They don’t know what it’s like to have outside socializing just be snatched right from under us.”

For Tate, one solution is to hire more social workers and counselors.

Many Michiganders would agree. They put higher priority on addressing student mental health than almost anything else schools can do with federal COVID funds, according to a January poll conducted by Chalkbeat and the Detroit Free Press. Policymakers, too, have turned their focus to student mental health with budget proposals and efforts to revamp a health care system that lacks enough beds and providers to meet the needs of youth who are battling mental illness at growing rates.

Yet schools are struggling to find mental health workers to hire. The pandemic caused turmoil in labor markets, adding to a shortage of trained school social workers that began years before, said Kim Battjes, a professor at Michigan State University who trains school social workers. If districts can find someone to hire, Battjes said, they must often find ways to train them on the job.

“It’s like, ‘Yay, we’re getting money! Oh no, we don’t have people to fill these positions!’” she said. “School districts are hiring people who have never even worked with a kid a day in their life as therapists in schools.”

COVID funds alone won’t be enough to improve working conditions in schools, which have been deteriorating for years and making hiring more difficult, said Elizabeth Koschmann, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan and the director of TRAILS to Wellness, a nonprofit that shares research-based mental health practices with schools.

“The environment inside our schools is one of unimaginable stress, pressure, and relentless competing demands that all present as urgent priorities,” she said in an email. “And yet, the salaries for the staff remain largely the same. Burnout is driving staff away from the entire field of education and districts can’t find enough people willing to take open jobs.”

Surveys of parents and teachers in Coloma, a small town on the west side of the state, suggested that social and emotional health should be top priorities, echoing statewide poll results. But the district decided not to expand its staff of social workers, instead opting to purchase software that promotes social-emotional learning. District leaders were wary of funding the positions with one-time money, and they worried they couldn’t hire social workers if they tried.

“We didn’t try to allocate funds for social workers because we knew we couldn’t find them,” said Dave Ehlers, superintendent of Coloma Community Schools.

In Detroit, the district opted to contract out for additional mental health services rather than temporarily hire new counselors and social workers, said Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Dearborn, a large urban district bordering Detroit, took another path. The district hired new social workers using federal funds on the assumption that it won’t replace employees in other areas, if need be, as the funding runs out.

“A lot of how we look at funding is through attrition,” said David Mustonen, director of communications for Dearborn Public Schools. “Being a big district, we know we can lose anywhere from 80-100 instructional employees every year. It may mean we don’t replace a resource teacher, or maybe instead of four custodians in a building, there’s three.”

And that might not even be necessary, Mustonen said, if state funding for education rises, something Whitmer is proposing amid a historic budget surplus.

Students at Becker Elementary School in Dearborn wrote letters to friends saying what qualities they liked best about them. “Dear Rached,” one student wrote. “You are always there for me and you are the kindest person that I met in my life.”

After asking her son’s former teacher for help, Hernandez found a therapist for her son at Southwest Counseling Solutions, a nonprofit in southwest Detroit, where she lives.

His depression has lifted somewhat, she said, and the suicidal thoughts stopped, though he felt anxious and isolated when his school in the Detroit Public Schools Community District reopened this fall.

“He has ups and downs, and the lows we have are still really low,” she said.

The episode left Hernandez with feelings of guilt. Was she prepared for something like this? Should she have noticed sooner how badly her son was struggling?

She said she would have benefited from training on how to recognize mental illness in a child. And she said she is glad that many districts, including in Detroit, are looking to expand their mental health staff.

Parents: Resources if your child is having a mental health crisis

Mental illness or distress can be scary and confusing to parents. But there is no shortage of resources for parents worried that their children are not well.

In the Detroit area, parents can find help from organizations such as the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network, Caleb’s Kids, and Central City Integrated Health.
Parents anywhere in Michigan can reach out to health officials in their county for help with mental health. Find a list of mental health services by county here.
The Stay Well Project at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services offers free, 24/7 mental health counseling during the pandemic. Just dial 1-888-535-6136 and press 8.
TRAILS to Wellness offers tips for maintaining students’ mental health during the pandemic. TRAILS also has a self-care guide to help teens cope with COVID.
The Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a national group, has a list of coping tips and other resources, and a 24-hour hotline that families can call if a child is expressing suicidal thoughts at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). There is also a guide for youth struggling with mental health challenges.
Some schools also offer mental well-being training to students and parents, and school social workers are trained to support children in distress.

School districts across Michigan are using COVID funds to do those things and more:

In response to the pandemic, the federal government poured a record amount of money into schools — $6 billion in Michigan alone. Chalkbeat, the Detroit Free Press, and Bridge Michigan are collaborating to track where the money is going and how it is helping students.

To report on how schools are using the money to support student mental health, we pored over state records showing how districts planned to spend their share.

Lansing Public Schools is creating mental health programs with TRAILS to Wellness, a school-based program based at the University of Michigan. TRAILS provides brief lessons on mental health designed to be delivered to entire classes, student well-being surveys, mental health activities for staff, and suicide protocols.
In Grand Blanc, a suburb of Flint, the school district plans to hire seven new staffers to work one-on-one with students on social and emotional issues — one for every two elementary buildings, one for each middle school, and one for the high school. Students will be selected to work with the new staffers based on a mental health assessment or referrals by an adult.
The Kalamazoo district plans to pay 100 teachers an annual stipend to meet with small groups of students in advisory sessions that will focus on the challenges students are facing in life.
In Grand Rapids, the district plans to cover the cost of additional social workers and therapists.
Detroit Public Schools Community District will spend $10 million to contract with five organizations to provide mental health services, including therapy and diagnosis, to 3,700 Detroit students with the most severe mental health needs. The district expanded its full-time counseling staff in recent years, but demand for their services became overwhelming during the pandemic.
In Battle Creek, the district plans to hire a student support coordinator, an administrator who will help schools develop plans to address severe mental health issues among students and work with community agencies to connect students to mental health services outside of school.
In Flint, the city district contracted with a behavior specialist to address student trauma when classrooms reopened. When classes were virtual, the district hired a social-emotional learning coordinator to work with 9-12 graders who were learning online during the 2020-21 school year.
In Plainwell, near Kalamazoo, teachers, social workers, and other staffers are set to review district curriculums to bring social-emotional learning into academic lessons. For instance, a math teacher might include instruction on coping with frustration or working with partners to solve challenging problems.
Chatfield School, in rural southeast Michigan, hired an outside firm to provide mental health workshops to parents, students, and staff.
North Huron Schools, a small rural district in eastern Michigan, purchased a therapy dog named Chipper who lives with a teacher and spends his days at school. Teachers can refer distressed students to spend time with Chipper.

At the same time, Michigan has a massive budget surplus. With student activists calling for expanded mental health services in the wake of the school shooting in Oxford, Whitmer is calling for the state to invest an additional $361 million in student mental health. That proposal will likely be challenged by the Republican legislature, which proposes spending the surplus on a tax cut.

Still, these new investments may not be able to keep up with the need for mental health services. Consider the Grand Haven School District in western Michigan, where a string of six suicides between 2011 and 2017 spurred district leaders to expand their mental health staff to the levels that many other districts are trying to reach today.

Even as other districts in the area struggle to hire mental health workers, Grand Haven’s larger staff is struggling to keep up with mental health needs.

“We’re seeing the trickle effects of the constant chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic,” said Katie Havey, a district social worker. “We’re seeing more kids needing major interventions. We’re doing more suicide screenings and seeing higher levels of threat assessments.

“It is crazy to reflect on all of these things that we’re doing really well and realize that we could still use so much more support.”

About this project

$6 billion.

That’s how much Michigan schools are receiving from the federal government to help students and staff recover from the pandemic.

But it isn’t entirely clear how this unprecedented amount of federal cash is being spent and whether it is having an impact.

Chalkbeat Detroit, the Detroit Free Press, and Bridge Michigan have teamed up to find out where the money is going, who is benefiting, and whether the money is helping students get back on track academically, emotionally, and socially.

Please share your thoughts — and tips — with reporters Koby Levin at klevin@chalkbeat.org, Lily Altavena at laltavena@freepress.org, and Isabel Lohman at ilohman@bridgemi.com.

Check out a few of the most recent stories from our series below:

Federal COVID relief aid to schools will dry up soon. Are districts ready?

Michigan school districts are flush with cash, but wary

COVID aid helps Michigan school districts plug deficits

How private schools are spending COVID relief cash

New MI ESSER tutoring programs have room to grow

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@Chalkbeat.org.

Michigan 4-year graduation rates dropped during the pandemic

2022-02-25T23:39:16+00:00

Graduation rates in Michigan dipped for the first time in recent years.

The statewide four-year graduation rate was 80.4% for the Class of 2021, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points from the previous year. The state graduation rate is the percent of students graduating who began as freshmen four years earlier.

The numbers come as a timely reminder of the ongoing academic and mental health challenges COVID has placed on students, and the costs of educational turmoil. Without a high school diploma, students face an uphill struggle in the job market.

Those effects have been felt in Michigan and across the country. High school graduation rates dipped in at least 20 states after the first full school year disrupted by the pandemic, especially among students from low-income families.

State Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement Friday that the graduation rates reflect the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on students of color and economically disadvantaged students.

“While we remain considerably higher at 80.5% than we were a decade ago at 74.3 percent in our four-year graduation rate, we have a particular need to make sure that graduation delayed is not graduation denied and that our students graduate and do so with the requisite knowledge and skills to continue in some form of postsecondary education,” he said.

Michigan’s largest school district, the Detroit Public Schools Community District, saw a drop of 8 percentage points in its four-year graduation rate from the previous year, going from 72.5% for the 2019-20 school year to 64.5% for the 2020-21 school year. The district’s graduation rate has declined every year for the last five years, in part because some of the city’s lowest-performing schools were reincorporated into the district in 2017.

Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti tied the decline to that transition, but also said the pandemic was a big factor.

“Obviously, had it not been for the pandemic, which caused extreme absenteeism and therefore course failures, we would have been higher than 65%,” he said in an email. “This is now our new baseline and we will build from here.”

He said the district is taking steps to help students make up coursework and graduate. Teachers can make extra money by offering extra courses during the day, and after-school courses are being offered to help students make up missed credit.

Statewide, the graduation rate among Black students declined 2.8 percentage points, while American Indian students decreased 4.1 percentage points.

Among students from low-income families, the four-year graduation rate dropped 2.8 percentage points to 68.8%, after having been on a steady increase over the last five years.

The statewide decline is the first during the pandemic: Graduation rates ticked up for the class of 2020, which finished school after just three months of pandemic-influenced education.

Ethan Bakuli is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering Detroit Public Schools Community District. Contact Ethan at ebakuli@chalkbeat.org.

Koby Levin is a reporter for Chalkbeat Detroit covering K-12 schools and early childhood education. Contact Koby at klevin@Chalkbeat.org.

This story has been corrected to reflect that the decreases in graduation rates were drops in percentage points.

School tiplines have prevented suicides, assaults, vandalism, police say

2021-12-22T18:29:44+00:00

A Michigan student threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend at school. Another posted on social media that he planned to vandalize cars at the prom and would shoot any “snitches.”

Police intervened in both cases before harm was done, thanks to the state’s confidential OK2SAY tipline, which logged 3,742 calls, texts, and emails reporting school threats last year and nearly as many in the three weeks since the deadly shooting at Oxford High School.

It’s impossible to say how many of those threats would have been carried out if not for the tipline, but state police believe OK2SAY has stopped suicides, assaults, vandalism, and worse.

School safety experts say anonymous tiplines are among the most effective tools for preventing school violence, including mass shootings like the one that took four lives and injured seven last month at Oxford High School.

Just over half of the public middle and high schools in the U.S. have tiplines, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The most successful ones have coordinated, trained, expert teams prepared to respond quickly and appropriately, the department said in an April report.

“I absolutely believe if we did not have the OK2SAY tipline we would have had a school tragedy like Oxford a long time ago” in MIchigan, said Lt. Colonel Chris Kelenske, deputy director of state police who supervises the Office of School Safety.

OK2SAY is Michigan’s only statewide tipline. School districts do not sign up to participate but some are better than others at promoting it. Anyone can call. A few school districts have their own local tiplines, Kelenske said, but those aren’t staffed 24 hours a day by trained responders like OK2SAY.

Citing the ongoing investigation, Kelenske declined to say whether OK2SAY received any tips about Oxford in the days and hours before the shooting.

But in the 18 hours after, OK2SAY received a record number of more than 2,000 tips, Kelenske said. About 1,000 more have rolled in since then. Calls typically escalate after shootings — even when the violence happens in other states — because people are on high alert as news reports inspire copycat threats, he said. Copycat threats have caused more than 100 school closures in Michigan this month.

Threats are continuing, and law enforcement is taking them seriously.

For example, a 15-year-old was arrested this month, ordered not to return to school, and outfitted with a GPS monitoring device after police investigated an OK2SAY tip that the student had threatened violence at Bloomfield Hills High School.

Another 15-year-old was arrested in Oakland County after an OK2SAY tipster reported that the boy had said he would “shoot up” Lake Orion High School if he could get a gun.

Ninety percent of school shooters displayed warning signs, said Michael Planty, director of the Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention at the Research Triangle Institute, a North Carolina-based research institute whose scientists study technology’s role in solving critical problems.

“They revealed information about their plans days or weeks before carrying out the actual attacks. People knew, whether siblings or other students,” said Planty, a former Department of Justice researcher who studies victimization, crime prevention, and school safety.

OK2SAY is monitored around the clock by technicians trained to assess the urgency of calls and route tips to responders best equipped to handle them. Last year, OK2SAY routed 1,004 tips to school officials; 460 to local law enforcement; 379 to online resources, counseling or crisis lines; 95 to Child Protective Services; and one to mental health services.

OK2SAY was established by the state Legislature as a tool for anonymous reporting of tips about school-related crimes, or potential harm to safety of students, teachers, and staff. Since then, more than 29,000 tips have rolled in via phone, text and email. The program initially was housed in the Department of the Attorney General but now is managed by the Michigan State Police.

According to the program’s 2020 annual report, half of the cumulative tips have related to suicide and bullying, while 1,046 related to planned school attacks. The report does not include calls made after the Oxford shooting.

Students shouldn’t hesitate to call if they hear something concerning, Kelenske said.

“Saving your friend’s life is not betraying your friend,” Kelenske said. “If they did not say anything and something happened, how would that make them feel knowing they could have potentially done something.”

Anything concerning is worth reporting when it comes to school safety, said Brian Gard, founder of School Safety Associates, a national consulting firm based in west Michigan.

“If there’s any doubt, if there’s any hesitation” that it might not be a credible threat, report it anyway, he said. “It might be one pice of a puzzle, and somebody else might just make a tip that is another piece of the puzzle, and the person investigating might put these two things together” and be able to avert a threat to safety.

A tipline is only as effective as its marketing, Planty said. Students need to be aware of the tipline, and they need to know how to use it so they provide sufficient information for schools and law enforcement to follow up, he said. Students also need a school culture that supports reporting threats and concerns about safety, he said.

“The problem is that school culture often doesn’t allow students to provide this information. It comes across as snitching that will get them or someone else into trouble,” he said. “They need a school climate that’s there for them to feel safe, and they need to know that when they put in a tip it will be acted upon.”

That means tiplines need to be properly staffed, especially at times of high call volume, such as after a high profile attack like the Oxford shooting.

“When there’s a shock to the system people become hyper vigilant” and call in more tips, Planty said. “People feel more compelled and empowered to report.”

Door security, window locks, visitor screening, and well rehearsed lockdown drills also help. Gard also recommends that every classroom have an emergency backpack with a first aid kit, a whistle, high-visibility vests to identify teachers, and name tags to help with reunification of young children after an evacuation.

“It’s really important to focus on prevention and identification of threats, but if things do happen, schools need to be prepared,” Planty said.

OK2SAY costs about $1.1 million a year to operate. It is modeled after Colorado’s Safe2Tell program created after the Columbine High School shooting, where 15 people were killed and dozens were injured. According to the Colorado program’s website, the aim was to penetrate the “code of silence” that keeps students in fear of being labeled a “snitch” or of being targeted by the person they report.

(Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the title for Michael Planty, the director of the Center for Community Safety and Crime Prevention at the Research Triangle Institute.)

Sandy Hook mom seeks answers 9 years, scores of shootings later

2021-12-08T00:29:34+00:00

It’s been nine years since a gunman murdered first-grader Jesse Lewis, 19 of his schoolmates, and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Jesse would be 15 now, the same age as some of the students at Oxford High School, where a shooting last week took the lives of 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 17-year-old Justin Shilling, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin.

Both of those shootings could have been prevented, said Scarlett Lewis, Jesse’s mother, who is on a mission to stop them through Jesse Lewis Choose Love, one of several nonprofits created by Sandy Hook families.

Lewis spoke with Chalkbeat Detroit and Bridge Michigan about her efforts, her frustrations, and her advice for helping the Oxford community as it heals. Her responses have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

There have been scores of school shootings since Sandy Hook, 30 this year alone. What needs to change to stop them?

We need to shift our focus from the problem to the cause of these school shootings: loneliness, disconnection, isolation, and the lack of emotional management that negatively impact the mental health and well-being of our children. There are essential life skills that must be taught in order to most effectively deal with the challenges we face.

I have learned through my experience that every one of us needs to step up and take responsibility for what is causing these children to perpetrate these horrific events. We are in this together and change is needed.

After school shootings people tend to separate themselves into two camps. One wants to strengthen gun laws by expanding background checks and outlawing certain kinds of weapons. The other wants to focus on mental health. Which is the right approach?

The first approach hasn’t worked. In fact, it seems that it has actually amplified the issue. We continue to implement school safety in a physical sense, for example, by locking doors and arming school resource officers. We aren’t addressing the real cause of the problem: the mental health and well-being of our children.

We need to shift our focus to teaching children how to manage the difficulties in their lives, how to cope with challenges, and how to have healthy relationships and connections. Creating a connected, compassionate, and loving home and school culture can prevent grievances from escalating into attacks. Society is failing in keeping our children safe. We need to re-focus on the needs of our children.

How is your organization, the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, helping?

I stood up at my son Jesse’s funeral and asked the congregation to choose a loving thought over an angry thought. I said the Sandy Hook tragedy started with an angry thought and a thought can be changed. We have to work on what we can control, and this starts with our thoughts. This is something everyone can do right now to do their part to create a safe, more peaceful, and loving world.

I’m trying to do that through the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement. It’s a free program that teaches how to thoughtfully respond with love in any situation. It started as a school-based program but has expanded into communities, workplaces, and even correctional institutions.

As you detail in your book, Jesse left a guiding message behind. How are you carrying forward his message of “nurturing healing love?”

Scarlett Lewis reaches out to catch her son Jesse as he jumps in a pool in the summer of 2012. That December Jesse would be murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn.

“Nurturing healing love” (or, in Jesse’s first-grade spelling: ‘Norurting Helinn Love’) are the three insightful words Jesse wrote on our kitchen chalkboard before his death. They are actually included in the definition of “compassion” across all cultures. Nurturing means loving kindness and gratitude, healing means forgiveness, and love is compassion in action

I realized after seeing Jesse’s chalkboard message that if the Sandy Hook shooter had been able to give and receive ‘nurturing healing love’ the tragedy would never have happened. I set out to bring this message to as many people as possible and to let them know they could choose love over anger. I began with children.

How did you find compassion for the shooter who murdered your son?

People are astounded that I forgave the young man who murdered Jesse, but I know that hurt people hurt people. I realized that love, connection, and belonging are universal wants and needs that connect all of humanity, and that if the shooter had received more of it in his life, the tragedy might never have happened. In fact, the Sandy Hook shooter was denied essential services from kindergarten onward. There were stories I read, such as when he was in first grade and came to school with a backpack filled with birthday invitations and no one came to the party. Learning about his history you see the isolation, disconnection, and loneliness that plagued him.

There are only two kinds of people in the world: good people and good people in pain. Perhaps it will take a while for us to understand this as it feels easier to assign blame. In order to stop school shootings it will require that we address the cause and it starts with putting the spotlight on the continued mental health and well-being of these children.

What can the community do in the weeks and months ahead to help survivors of the Oxford High School shooting and families of victims?

The victims’ families and communities are in shock right now. We see school shootings happening across the country but never think it will happen to us. Families are writing obituaries and making funeral arrangements, struggling to comprehend how they will continue to live life without their beloved children.

It’s important to offer techniques and treatment related to trauma and make it available to everyone in the community, even those who are not intimately impacted as these events can cause others to experience trauma. The focus on mental health and well-being must be on-going.

Neighbors, friends, and the surrounding community need to open their hearts to all and offer acts of kindness and extended caring and concern for each other. It’s a beautiful thing that happens after a tragedy takes place as people come together in love and compassion.

I don’t want another parent to have to go through what I went through, and what parents in Oxford are going through right now. We can honor those lost by committing ourselves to shining a national spotlight on the need for mental health services for our children, and ourselves.

Parents of Oxford High School shooting suspect charged

2021-12-03T20:08:39+00:00

An internet search for ammunition during class. A chilling drawing of a pistol and a gunshot victim with blood everywhere. The words, “The thoughts won’t stop,” “The world is dead,” and “My life is useless.”

The signs were there, but Ethan Crumbley’s parents did nothing, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.

That’s why James and Jennifer Crumbley are now charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after the shooting rampage that killed four students and wounded six others and one teacher at Oxford High School.

McDonald announced the charges Friday. She would not say whether Jennifer and James Crumbley are in custody.

Their son, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, was charged Wednesday with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder, and 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

New details emerged Friday about the failures leading up to the shooting that took the lives of 16-year-old Tate Myre, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana; 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin; and 15-year-old Justin Shilling.

There were many opportunities to prevent the shooting, McDonald said, acknowledging the community’s anger at the school for not doing more.

When asked whether school personnel bear criminal responsibility, McDonald said only that the investigation is continuing.

She offered this timeline of events during a news conference on Friday:

Four days before the shooting: The teenager posted a photo of the Sig Saur SP2022 semi-automatic handgun on social media, calling it “my new beauty.”
Three days before the shooting: Jennifer Crumbley posted on social media, “Mom and son day testing out his new Christmas present.”
One day before: The school left voicemail and email messages notifying Jennifer Crumbley that a teacher saw him searching on his phone for ammunition. She did not respond to the messages but instead texted her son saying, “LOL. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
Several hours before the shooting: A teacher noticed and photographed an alarming note on the teenager’s desk that included a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun, a bullet, a bleeding figure with two gunshot wounds, and several quotes including “The world is dead.” A school counselor escorted him to the school office with the drawing, which had since been altered to scratch out the violent scene and some of the words including, “My life is useless.” The school summoned the Crumbleys.
Three hours before the shooting: The parents arrived for a meeting where they declined to take their son home with them and failed to ask him where the gun was.
At 1:22 p.m. Jennifer Crumbley texted her son saying, “Ethan, don’t do it.”

By then, 11 people had been shot and her son was in custody.

As news of the shooting spread, James Crumbley looked for the gun, McDonald told reporters Friday. When he couldn’t find it, he called 911 to say he believed his son might be the shooter, she said.

“The notion that a parent could read those words (on the drawing) and also know that their son had access to a deadly weapon that they gave him is unconscionable, and I think it’s criminal,” McDonald said. “It is criminal.”

Criminal charges against parents of school shooters are unusual but not unprecedented.

“I am by no means saying that an active shooter situation should always result in a criminal prosecution against parents, but the facts in this case are so egregious,” McDonald said. “I expect parents — and everyone — to have humanity, and to step in and stop potential tragedy.”

She said the investigation is continuing and intimated that Michigan gun laws insufficiently address criminal responsibility.

“We should take a very hard look at what gun owners are required to do,” she said. “It’s your duty to make sure you don’t give access to this deadly weapon to somebody that you have reason to believe is going to harm someone.

“Looking at that drawing it’s impossible not to conclude that there was a reason to believe that he was going to hurt somebody.”

Michigan has no laws requiring gun owners to secure weapons when children are in the home.

County prosecutors have been asking the Legislature to change that but partisan gridlock has prevented any movement to tighten gun laws. Proponents of the provision envisioned it stopping accidental shootings, not purposeful ones. Under it, adults who fail to properly secure firearms could be charged with a felony if a child under 12 uses the weapon to kill or injure.

In some cases, prosecutors have been able to file charges under existing law. For example, prosecutors charged parents of two young children after unrelated gun incidents in Detroit. In one case, a boy shot himself in the arm. In the other a 10-year-old shot his cousin. Both survived.

And in 2000, Jamelle James was charged with involuntary manslaughter after his 6-year-old found his handgun and shot 6-year-old classmate Kayla Rolland in Mount Morris Township.

Oxford is about 45 miles north of Detroit. The shooting is the 23rd incident involving gunfire on Michigan K-12 and college school grounds since 2013, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group.

Nationwide, there have been 28 shootings this year, according to the publication Education Week. Twenty of them have occurred since August.

Resources to help Michigan families cope with the Oxford High School shooting

2021-12-02T22:20:23+00:00

Communities across the nation are grappling with the fallout from the school shooting at Oxford High School that left four students dead and injured more.

“There are no unwounded students and staff today,” Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter said earlier this week. “Everyone … has been impacted by this tragedy.”

The ripple effects are already apparent. School leaders rushed this week to urge parents to be vigilant about reporting threats. Mental health experts warned that students far beyond Oxford may be traumatized by the shooting. And some school districts across Michigan shut down Thursday because of copycat threats.

Chalkbeat put together the list of resources below for parents and students to help them understand where to go for help dealing with trauma, what to do if they hear about a threat, and what warning signs to look for in troubled youth.

What to do if your child suffers emotional trauma after the shooting

Children and teenagers often turn to parents, relatives and teachers for comfort and guidance after a school shooting or mass violence. Survivors, friends and loved ones, as well as surrounding community members can be at risk of emotional distress following a tragedy, displaying a variety of reactions.

Organizations such as the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides guidelines and tips for caregivers looking to help their child or student in the aftermath of a school shooting.

Some common reactions and warning signs to look for include:

Feelings of anxiety, fear or worry about their safety or the safety of others
Fears that another shooting or violent event may occur
Changes in behavior or mood
Lack of interest in past activities
Physical ailments such as headaches or stomach aches

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is providing a list of resources and actionable steps for those affected by the Oxford school shooting.

Reassure children that they are safe. Let them know all feelings are okay when a tragedy occurs.
Make time to talk. Be patient and let children guide how much information you share by the questions they ask. Young children may need other activities like drawing or playing to identify and express feelings.
Keep explanations about the shooting age appropriate.
Review safety procedures both at school and at home.
Observe your child’s emotional state in case professional mental health support is needed.
Limit television viewing of the events.
Maintain normal routines.

What can parents do to learn more about their schools’ safety plans?

Michigan law requires school districts to develop an emergency plan for school attacks and threats of school violence, among other risks. The plans must be reviewed by a local law enforcement agency. While the plans aren’t posted online or submitted to the state, parents can ask district leaders for details of the plan, or even for a copy to review.

And parents can always contact leaders of their students’ school for information about safety drills and procedures.

Warning signs exhibited by troubled students to watch for

As research surrounding U.S. school shootings continues to emerge, some preliminary analysis has begun to identify common signs exhibited by troubled students who carry out acts of violence. School shooters usually show signs of distress prior to the incident, and were often suicidal, according to two criminologists who built a database of mass shootings in the U.S.

Notable patterns can include:

Experiencing or witnessing childhood trauma
Suicidal thoughts
Chronic loneliness or social isolation
Expressing thoughts of harming themselves or others
Expressing direct threats
A history of mental health concerns

Additional signs can involve “unusual or violent communications, expressed anger or intent to cause harm, and substance abuse,” according to Ready.gov.

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, outlines how school districts can avert targeted school violence and identify students in distress or exhibiting concerning behavior. A majority of plotters of school based attacks, the report states, experienced compounding family, social and academic stressors that can result in a range of responses from depression to hyperactivity.

What can parents do if their children show warning signs of violent behavior?

Parents may feel isolated or embarrassed at the prospect of sharing concerns about their children’s possible violent behavior. But there are many steps they can take to find help and support.

First, parents can lock up guns or other weapons.

Many specialists can help parents address warning signs of violence, which include intense anger, frequent loss of temper, and a history of being bullied. Guidance counselors, teachers, school psychologists, or school resource officers are trained to support families. Family members, friends, coaches, or clergy may also be able to help.

Mental health support groups available through the National Alliance on Mental Illness can help parents and children find resources and work through challenges.

If you suspect imminent danger, call 911.

Hear about a threat? Here’s what to do

What do you do if you’re a student, parent, or staff member and you hear about a threat? Law enforcement experts say it’s simple: Say something.

Michigan law makes it easy to report threats of school violence and other suspect behavior. The state has a program, called OK2SAY, that allows anyone to report a threat anonymously. Since 2014, nearly 2,900 tips have been received, 1,133 of them tips about threats.

It’s possible that the threat isn’t credible, but Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said he’d rather his deputies check them out rather than have to deal with one that ends up being credible but wasn’t reported.

Bouchard said tips can also be relayed to your local police department.

In the case of the Oxford shooting, there are rumors that students saw threats from the suspect. One parent said her son refused to attend school the day of the shooting.

Here’s what Detroit parents need to know about getting children ages 5-11 vaccinated

2021-11-12T22:51:27+00:00

Students ages 5-11 can now be vaccinated against COVID, and parents have several options, whether they’re looking for an appointment or seeking answers from a doctor about the vaccine.

Schools, city-run clinics, and pharmacies are offering shots for youngsters. Parents or guardians must accompany children under age 18.

The vaccine was deemed safe and effective for kids by federal officials last week. Parents say they are relieved that it is available, and school officials cheered it as another step toward normal in-person instruction. Vaccinated students typically don’t have to quarantine after a potential COVID exposure.

Here’s what families need to know about getting the vaccine and how to protect their children and those around them from COVID.

Where can I get my child vaccinated?

There are numerous sites across Detroit, including pharmacies, city clinics, and schools.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is hosting vaccine clinics at two locations from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13:

Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior High School,  3200 E. Lafayette Street
Randolph Career and Technical Center, 17101 Hubbell Street

No appointment is needed for district-run clinics. DPSCD will provide second doses on Dec. 4 at the same locations.

The district is holding more clinics next week, and district leaders say more will be scheduled.

Mark Twain School for Scholars, 12800 Visger St. Detroit, MI 48217, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16 (return for a second dose Dec. 7)
Bagley Elementary School, 8100 Curtis St., 3-6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 17 (return for a second dose Dec. 8)
Burton International Academy, 2001 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19 (return for a second dose Dec. 10)

The city is providing vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11 at the following locations:

Detroit Health Department, 100 Mack Ave., from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays-Fridays
Northwest Activities Center, 18100 Meyers Road, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays

The city clinics are offering the youth vaccine by appointment only. Mayor Mike Duggan said last week that appointments will be longer than normal vaccine slots to reduce wait time and anxiety. City clinics will be staffed by nurses with experience working with children.

To book an appointment with the city, call 313-230-0505 or register online.

Pharmacies including Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS are offering vaccines for children ages 5-11 in the Detroit area. Some doctors’ offices may also offer the vaccine.

How is this vaccine different from adult COVID vaccines?

Only the Pfizer vaccine is currently available to children ages 5-11. Other manufacturers are working to win approval for their vaccines for younger children.

The shot has the same active ingredients as the Pfizer vaccine that has been taken by more than 100 million Americans, but contains one-third the amount as the adult vaccine and is given with a smaller needle. Like the adult vaccine, the one for children consists of two shots given three weeks apart, with full immunity reached two weeks after the second dose.

What is the evidence that the pediatric vaccine is effective and safe?

Pfizer’s vaccine for kids was 91% effective at preventing COVID in clinical trials, an efficacy rate similar to the adult vaccine. Side effects in children were mild and similar to those seen in adults. The most common side effect was a sore arm. The vaccine was recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after officials examined safety data.

I have questions about the vaccine. Who can I talk to?

Your child’s doctor will have the latest information about the vaccine. Parents can also call the Detroit COVID hotline at 313-876-4000 and press 3 to be connected to a nurse.

Michigan dyslexia bills launch debate over supporting struggling readers

2021-11-11T23:39:45+00:00

Parents and students gave emotional testimony on Tuesday about struggling to read in a hyper-literate society, kicking off a renewed effort by Michigan lawmakers to pass a package of bills designed to help struggling young readers.

The bills require school districts to screen students for dyslexia characteristics and increase teacher training requirements so teachers are better able to identify and address reading problems. Dyslexia is a hereditary disorder that makes it difficult for people to do basic reading tasks such as sounding out written words. Researchers estimate that between 5% and 20% of all people have dyslexia.

The proposed laws have drawn unusually broad support from lawmakers and experts across Michigan’s political and geographical divides, who say the state has not done enough to identify and support struggling readers. Until last year, dyslexia was not mentioned in state law.

But the bills’ fate is not guaranteed. The same legislation was introduced last year but didn’t go to a vote. And some literacy experts and school officials urged caution about the bills, calling them overly prescriptive and too similar to policies that have proved ineffective in other states.

To some advocates, bipartisan support for the bills signals a promising opportunity to address dyslexia in Michigan.

“The hearings were dynamite,” said Sen. Jeff Irwin, a Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill package. “I feel really good about our trajectory in the legislature.” He added that similar bills were introduced late in the legislative session last year and said there wasn’t enough time for them to be seriously considered.

Supporters of the bills say they will help schools identify students with reading issues early in their school careers when teachers can do the most to help them. Several speakers during the hearing Tuesday said they have dyslexia themselves, or that their children do.

“I never wanted to read as far back as first grade,” said Anri Haglund, a seventh grader who said he has dyslexia. “I wasn’t able to read long words. I didn’t know the sound of ‘dge,’ ‘tch,’ and ‘tion.’ I can read harder things now and understand them. I should have learned these things sooner.”

Reading difficulties can also emerge for other reasons, including what some researchers, with tongue in cheek, call “dysteachia,” or a failure of classroom instruction that can leave students without the building blocks of reading, especially if they aren’t getting help with literacy at home.

Whether the literacy roadblock is dyslexia, poor instruction, or something else, research points to many of the same solutions: high-quality, personalized instruction.

An effort to improve literacy in Michigan’s youngest students got underway in recent years. A 2016 law known as “read by grade three” sought to improve reading scores in Michigan by expanding the state’s corps of coaches who will work with teachers to improve literacy instruction. It also pushed schools to emphasize literacy instruction by requiring that third graders be held back if they fell too far behind in reading.

Research suggests that the initiative has begun to have modest positive effects on reading scores.

The new bills aim to go further.

Well-to-do parents whose children struggle to read are already paying for specialized tutoring, and the proposed legislation would make those services available to more children, said Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District. Vitti has dyslexia, as do two of his children, experiences that he says fuel his work in education.

“This is an equity issue,” he said. “What families pay for out of pocket — mainly middle class and upper middle class parents — should be happening for every child within the traditional public schools.”

Existing processes for identifying Michigan students who need extra help with reading, such as the special education process, aren’t cutting it, he added.

“We cannot pretend that this is happening,” he said of students receiving adequate support with reading. “It’s not.”

Some experts and school officials worry that the bills, which narrowly define effective reading instruction, could have unintended consequences.

Rachael Gabriel, an education professor at the University of Connecticut, said similar legislation in other states, including Connecticut and Tennessee, has been less effective than advocates hoped. Tests that screen for signs of dyslexia aren’t reliable, she said, and can over- or under-identify students.

Gabriel says schools need to ensure that staff with literacy expertise have the time they need to comb through the test results and determine which students need extra support. The proposed laws don’t include funding for more reading specialists.

Legislation in Texas and Arkansas that relied on screeners to identify students with dyslexia didn’t lead to more students being identified, according to one study Gabriel cited. She also warned that some resource-strapped schools would struggle to implement the proposed law, pointing to a study showing that in states that implemented screening requirements, students of color were less likely to be identified with reading challenges.

“We should ask what would let existing systems work, rather lay on top of them with more specifications,” she said.

Some school officials are wary of the proposals because they attempt to enshrine a particular approach to literacy in law.

Existing special education systems are able to identify students who need extra help learning to read, said Justin Michalak assistant superintendent for special education and student services at Macomb Intermediate School District, a countywide education agency in suburban Detroit.

“It’s not a problem to try to work to identify dyslexia. The issue is writing very specific interventions into law,” said Peter Spadafore, spokesman for the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators. “We should leave flexibility to the specialists.”

Some specialists support the bills. David Winters, head of the special education department at Eastern Michigan University, said extra screening for dyslexia would ensure that more struggling readers would get help early, easing pressure on the already overtaxed special education system.

He also spoke in favor of a component of the law that would require teacher education programs to put a heightened focus on literacy instruction and dyslexia.

“While some Michigan teacher education programs may briefly mention dyslexia, | have personally found few teachers who have received sufficient accurate knowledge without personally taking on additional professional development,” he said.

Several of the state’s largest teacher preparation programs previously told Chalkbeat that they already cover dyslexia and the science of reading.

Bills SB 380, SB 381, SB 382, and SB 383 haven’t yet been approved by the Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee. They would also have to be approved by the House and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The office of Sen. Lana Theis, chairwoman of the education committee and a cosponsor of the bills, did not immediately return a request for comment on when the next vote is expected.

Kindergarten catchup: How teachers are helping young learners

2021-11-08T16:01:13+00:00

He. Me. An. With. Is.

A hand shot up as soon as the words appeared on the first-grade classroom overhead projector at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in the Detroit suburb of River Rouge.

“Jorell, you might know these words but we still have to sound them out. Can you do that with us?” teacher Christina Ogle asked.

“Everybody knows those words,” Jorell blurted.

The truth was that some of his classmates couldn’t even name the letters in them.

While Jorrell attended kindergarten last year, some of his classmates did not. And while schools are relieved that enrollment in early grades has bounced back after last year’s steep drop, first grade teachers in Michigan and across the country are now confronting big differences in their students’ readiness — and working with the children who missed instruction during a critical year for their development.

Kindergarten enrollment was down 11.3% across Michigan last year as parents chose to keep their students home rather than face the COVID health risk. In River Rouge it was down 37.2%. In some places — Flint, Benton Harbor, Chandler Park Academy, and Old Redford — fewer than half of last year’s would-be public school kindergarteners showed up.

Now, teachers across Michigan — one of 31 states where kindergarten is optional — are working to help them catch up to their peers.

As they entered school this year, parents and administrators had to decide where to place 5-year-olds who didn’t go to kindergarten last year.

Teachers have always had to adapt lessons to meet children’s different needs. But kindergarten and first-grade teachers said this year’s challenges have been more pronounced because some children moved directly into first grade with their peer group while others enrolled in kindergarten a year late.

Teacher Naja Moore uses a smart board to read to her kindergarten class at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in River Rouge.

Overall, 13,593 fewer kindergarten students registered for public traditional and charter schools in Michigan last year compared with 2019-20. Enrollment figures for the current school year aren’t yet available.

Last year’s kindergarten enrollment was particularly low in communities with more Black, Latino, and low-income families, putting already disadvantaged students a year behind their peers.

“Historically, schools have not done a great job of serving minority kids and families, so any time schools are additionally burdened they’re likely to do even less of a good job,” said Amy Parks, professor of early childhood education at Michigan State University.

State enrollment shows students who did not enroll in public school kindergarten weren’t flocking to private schools, either. Private school enrollment increased by less than 1%.

Some children may have been taught at home but it’s impossible to know how many because Michigan doesn’t require homeschool registration.

Thousands, though, were unaccounted for last year.

Parents kept their children home last year for a variety of reasons including health concerns and logistic challenges exacerbated by additional burdens families faced during the pandemic, said Walter Cook, a researcher with the Detroit Education Research Partnership at Wayne State University. Researchers there have been analyzing kindergarten enrollment data with The Skillman Foundation, a Detroit philanthropy group whose grantees include Chalkbeat.

Job constraints, lack of childcare, and inadequate internet access were additional obstacles that prevented some parents from providing the time and attention young children need to participate in virtual learning, he said.

‘It’s not play time, nap time, coloring.’

Kindergarten has become more academic, with its increased focus on reading and math readiness. It’s also a grade where children develop interpersonal skills and social behaviors.

“It’s not play time, nap time, coloring. We’re really pushing academics,” said Naja Moore, who teaches kindergarten at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy, the River Rouge school. “The hope is for kindergarteners to be able to read by the end of the year but even if they don’t reach that goal at the end of the year they still get that exposure.”

“If they go to first grade without any kindergarten experience they’re really behind because they’re expected to already know their numbers, already know how to write their name,” Moore said. “If they just go right to first grade they miss that educational foundation.”

For those students, the goal this year is academic growth, not necessarily proficiency, said Nichole German, the Ann Visger principal.

Missing kindergarten could have lasting effects, Cook said.

Detroit Public Schools Community District saw a 25% drop in kindergarten enrollment with 3,145 enrolling last year —1,039 fewer students than the year before, pre-pandemic. Kindergarten enrollment in Detroit charter schools was down 20.5%.

Most DPSCD students who skipped kindergarten last year went directly to first grade, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said. Smaller class sizes, expanded after-school programming, and literacy intervention for individuals and small groups will help them catch up, Vitti said.

In Ingham County, Holt schools are extending school days, offering extra instruction during scheduled school breaks, and having kindergarten students begin school with a “soft start” that allows teachers to get to know students before assigning them to classrooms, Superintendent David Hornak said.

“Everything is really hard for her.”

At Ann Visger Academy, Ogle uses a variety of approaches to meet the needs of students who skipped kindergarten. For example, she created two different sets of worksheets for her students.

Most students’ worksheets are geared toward beginner readers. They show, for example, a picture of a mouth and ask children to choose which is correct: “lip” or “lop.” or a picture of a police officer with the words “cop” and “cap.”

Students who missed kindergarten have easier worksheets that ask them, for example, to trace letters.

A first-grader struggles with a worksheet at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy in River Rough. The girl, who skipped kindergarten during the pandemic, was unable to match identical words and color them the same.

During independent reading time on a recent Monday, a boy who’d had a full kindergarten year sailed through three books, moving his lips as he read fluently, “It was Friday, and school was out. Froggy flopped home from the school bus — flop flop flop — singing ‘Hurray! Hurray! It’s Friday! Friday!”

Across the room, a classmate put her head on her pile of picture books and cried. It was her third meltdown of the morning. She stayed home last year and isn’t used to being away from her mother, Ogle explained.

Ogle persuaded her to flip through a picture book.

“As of now, that’s what she can do. One of the ways to start reading is to look at the pictures,” Ogle said. “Everything is really hard for her.” She doesn’t have the social, emotional and academic skills of a child who has been through kindergarten, Ogle said.

The differences might have been more pronounced if the children who did attend kindergarten last year had had a normal year, teachers from across the state said in interviews. Instead, they were in and out of school as the severity of the pandemic waxed and waned. Those who attended virtual kindergarten spent the year touching and clicking tablets instead of writing and coloring with pencils and crayons.

“When I introduced an activity that required scissors, my jaw hit the floor watching these kids try to cut,” said Chip Bennett, who teaches first grade at Perry Early Learning Center in Ypsilanti. “They’re holding scissors like they’ve never held a set of scissors in their life, and they might not have.”

Ogle noticed that in River Rouge, too. To sharpen fine motor skills she’s introducing more crafts than in a typical year.

She’s also spending more time than usual on phonics. A typical year begins with a review, but this year, some of her students have had no exposure to letters and their sounds. It’s been difficult, she said, to teach beginning concepts to children who are new to school while keeping more advanced students like Jorell engaged.

“It’s constantly adjusting so they’re not bored. I have to keep that in mind all the time,” she said. “I try to give them something extra to do.”

Parents shouldn’t worry too much, Parks said.

Older children enrolled in kindergarten will have developmental advantages that will carry through their schooling, she said, and those who skip kindergarten have plenty of time to catch up.

Still, she said, districts have to be more flexible in their academic expectations this year.

“First-grade teachers are going to have to spend a little more time on ‘How do we find the bathroom in the classroom?’and ‘What do we do when we want someone’s attention?’ and ‘What does a line mean?’ And it means other things might not happen, and that’s ok,” she said. For example, learning about greater-than and less-than may have to wait for second grade, she said.

“If both educators and families are looking at what kids need, I think we’ll be fine coming out of this,” Parks said.

How staff shortages are hurting Michigan students with disabilities

2021-10-26T21:37:35+00:00

In August, David Davis, a fifth grader with severe mental health problems, ran away from his school in Flint. Police found him several blocks away, playing in the street.

He soon received a special education plan that called for a paraprofessional to monitor his behavior throughout the day and ensure he didn’t hurt himself or run away.

David’s mother, Betty Nostrant, was still frustrated. She says she’d been telling school officials that David needed constant supervision since the family moved to Flint from Lansing two years ago. She also had been asking for an aide for her younger son, Jeffery, who has physical disabilities including seizures and incontinence.

What’s more, the district didn’t provide an aide for David until late September.

“They say they have children without parapros, that they’re doing the best they can,” she said. “But this is a physical safety issue.”

Flint Community Schools did not return requests for comment.

Many Michigan students are feeling the effects of the tight labor market as schools struggle to fill a wide range of positions, from teachers to nurses to social workers.

But the effects of staff shortages are especially severe for students with disabilities. The absence of a classroom aide, or parapro, can sharply reduce their learning opportunities and can even bring their education to a halt. For these children, many of whom were unable to fully access education while most Michigan schools were operating virtually, the post-pandemic year of recovery threatens to become another lost year.

District leaders say it has never been easy to attract and retain parapros, who receive meager pay and little training for a demanding job that has the potential to profoundly affect students’ lives.

Across the state, special education officials say hiring aides has gotten even harder during the pandemic.

“Where you would have had five applicants, nobody applies,” said Derek Cooley, vice president of the Michigan Association of Administrators of Special Education and special education director for Godwin Heights Public Schools, a district outside Grand Rapids.

“We have postings open, and you go in to check and there are literally zero applications.”

Statewide data on paraprofessional staffing challenges during the pandemic isn’t currently available. But anecdotes from people like Cooley suggest that special education programs are facing the same poorly understood pandemic-related pressures that have made hiring for challenging low-wage jobs difficult across the U.S. economy.

The shortages are creating a vicious cycle by making work harder for existing classroom aides, said Robyn O’Keefe, a parapro working in Birmingham Public Schools in suburban Detroit.

O’Keefe, a union leader in her district, said the district has been short paraprofessionals this year. Retirements are up, and a pay increase under the newest contract hasn’t been enough to help the district fill vacant positions.

“The demands of being in an understaffed environment, and with student needs being really great with the transition back from virtual — a lot of people are really questioning whether they’ll stay in the profession.”

For students with disabilities, the staffing squeeze can lead to civil rights violations, said Michelle Driscoll, policy coordinator for Michigan Alliance for Families, a nonprofit that helps parents advocate for children with disabilities.

“What I’m hearing from parents is that (federally mandated individualized education programs) are not being implemented and services are not being provided,” she said. “And it’s all kinds of services — academic supports, behavioral supports, social-emotional supports.”

Districts face a no-win situation when there aren’t enough aides to provide legally required levels of support to students, Cooley said. Other staff — such as school counselors, social workers, or reading specialists — can be reassigned to make sure students with disabilities receive necessary help. But that means they won’t be available to help other students.

Stephanie Jodway says her two 16-year-old daughters are on the autism spectrum and need constant adult support to get through the school day. Aides help her daughters with school work and with routine tasks like navigating to the bathroom.

Neither student is assigned a one-on-one aide, but their special education programs call for various school employees to stay with them throughout the school day. Their in-school support network has been stretched thin this year as their district, Port Huron Area Schools, struggles to hire aides.

“The paras and the teachers band together to make sure that they get what they need,” Jodway said. “Teachers are not getting their prep hours because students who need a parapro according to their IEPs don’t have one.”

Jodway worries that her daughters’ post-pandemic recovery is in jeopardy. Both regressed socially after spending almost all of last year learning from home.

“It’s frustrating because I feel like the easiest way to support all the kids is to have more adults in the room.”

Port Huron Area Schools did not return requests for comment.

In classrooms for students with particularly complex disabilities, paraprofessional shortages are dangerous and can stop the education process completely. Aides in these classrooms may be responsible for essential tasks such as changing diapers, feeding students, or calming an irate, emotionally challenged teen who has become dangerous to themself or others around them.

“We’re likely to have to do periodic closures this year due to unsafe staffing levels,” said Rachel Fuerer, director of special education for the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District, a regional agency that runs classrooms for students with severe special needs.

She says her program is lucky to get one applicant today for an open paraprofessional position that might have drawn 15 applications before the pandemic.

“I’ve been in this position since 2008, and I’ve never had to consider closing a classroom due to staffing, but we’ve had to come up with a plan to do so this year.”

Black teacher workforce declined sharply as Michigan students left city districts — study

2021-10-18T22:50:28+00:00

Michigan’s Black teacher workforce declined 48% between 2005 and 2015, far outpacing overall declines in the size of the state’s educator corps, according to a new study from Michigan State University.

During that period, tens of thousands of African American students left distressed city districts in Michigan. Hundreds of schools shut down in Detroit alone, eliminating thousands of jobs historically held by Black teachers.

Many students moved to suburban districts with largely white teaching workforces, but those districts didn’t pick up the slack by hiring more Black teachers, the study says. During the same period, the number of African Americans entering traditional teacher training programs also fell.

Michigan’s urban school districts haven been hobbled by a lack of funding, said Pamela Pugh, an elected member of the Michigan Board of Education. Indeed, the study notes that increased student-teacher ratios in city districts — likely a result of underfunding — also helped shrink the state’s Black educator corps.

“Public education was purposefully dismantled, and what happens when you dismantle something?” she said. “Yeah, you’re going to have educators and students leaving.”

Michigan lost Black teachers even as their particular importance to schools became clear in a growing body of education research. The presence of a Black teacher in the classroom has been shown to contribute to higher test scores and better behavior for all students — and Black students especially.

“We did not have a large number of educators of color in the workforce to begin with, and to see such a substantial loss is very troubling,” said Leah Breen, director of the Office of Educator Excellence at the Michigan Department of Education.

Attrition among Black educators has been on the state’s radar for years: At last count, 17% of Michigan students were African American compared with only 7% of teachers.

That underrepresentation is worse than the U.S. average: About 15% of U.S students are African American versus 7% of public school teachers. The number of Black teachers nationwide has dropped by about 1% over the last two decades.

The new study, “Deurbanization and the Struggle to Sustain a Black Teaching Corps,” breaks new ground by drawing a connection between enrollment declines in Michigan city school districts and the Black teacher workforce.

The study draws on statewide data that track the movement of teachers and students. The researchers did not survey Black teachers to find out why so many left the education workforce.

Rod Wallace, a former Detroit teacher and a member of a state education department advisory group that focuses on diversity in the workforce, said African Americans remaining in Michigan classrooms can bear an extra burden precisely because they are rare.

“I think in many districts, the requirements for African American teachers to not only instruct but to be beacons of hope and access creates an inordinate burden of stress,” he said, adding that “it’s one we readily take on.”

Steve Drake, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University, said his research suggests that focusing on diversifying the teacher workforce outside of cities should be a priority.

“Policymakers and supporting institutions like universities and school districts must develop strategies to build sustainable pipelines of Black educators in all of the communities where Black students live and work every day — not just in urban centers,” he said.

The paper points to research showing that Black teachers are more likely to stay in schools where they have more Black colleagues.

Thousands of Black students enrolled in suburban Detroit districts in recent years, but teaching staffs in those districts remained overwhelmingly white.

Black student enrollment in the Warren Consolidated School District grew by more than 500 between 2006 and 2015, according to state data. During the same period, the number of Black teachers in the district fell from 8 to 5.

In Eastpointe, a district that became majority Black over the last decade amid an influx of new students, the teaching force was 2% African American in 2017.

“Our kids deserve to see themselves in the people that serve them,” said Christina Gibson, assistant superintendent for human resources in Eastpointe. She said the pandemic drove a wave of retirements that she hopes will diversify the district’s teaching staff, noting that 25% of applicants for the open positions are African-American.

Warren district officials didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The state education department has mounted several efforts to attract and retain more African American educators, from encouraging students to return to their home districts as teachers to supporting alternative certification programs, which offer a fast track into the teaching profession.

Such programs have proved appealing to would-be educators who are Black at a time when the number of Black students entering traditional teacher prep programs has fallen. In Detroit, training programs for district support staff have already put dozens of people, many of them African American, into classrooms for the first time.

Researchers only used audited data, meaning they couldn’t get figures after the 2015-2016 school year. They noted, however, that the decline of Black teachers in Michigan may have leveled off in recent years. According to data from the Michigan Department of Education, there were 52 Black students for every Black teacher in Michigan in 2015. By 2019, that figure had fallen to 43.

But stark racial disparities remain: Statewide, there are 12 white students for every white teacher.

The study also notes that population declines in Michigan — with the corresponding reduction in the state’s teaching workforce — doesn’t account for the steep loss of Black educators. While the Black educator workforce fell 48%, the white teaching force shrank by 19% and the Latino teaching force grew by 6%.

Reversing the trend won’t be easy, but adults can start by encouraging Black students to become teachers, said Quan Neloms, a former Detroit teacher who is now a career counselor for Wayne RESA, the county education agency, in addition to serving on the state advisory committee on diversity in the education workforce and running an organization that aims to recruit Black men into teaching.

“African American teachers may not be getting introduced to teaching at an early age like some of their white counterparts,” he said.

“Just ask that question. Have you thought about being an educator? That’s what hooked me.”

Correction: A previous version of this story named the study’s lead author as Steve Beck. He is Steve Drake.

U.S. approves Michigan COVID funding for affluent districts

2021-10-08T18:42:19+00:00

Districts in affluent communities across Michigan will receive $363 million in COVID funds for their highest need students.

The U.S. Department of Education today approved Michigan’s plan for spending $1.24 billion from the Biden administration’s COVID relief package, which includes the funds for wealthy districts.

Federal officials had raised concerns that the plan didn’t focus enough on the students who were hit hardest by the pandemic.

Most of that money will go directly to school districts, with more going to districts with large numbers of students living in poverty. On average, districts will receive $3,040 per pupil, though big winners such as Detroit, Flint, and Benton Harbor will receive upward of $16,000 per pupil.

But state lawmakers set aside some additional funds for districts in wealthier areas — those that were in line for less than $1,093 per pupil — arguing that all schools faced increased costs during the pandemic.

Although affluent districts have fewer students living in poverty and rely on large local tax bases, lawmakers argued that they educated some students with acute needs during the pandemic. In suburban Detroit, the Royal Oak district was set to receive $201 per pupil, while Plymouth-Canton Community Schools was in line for $480 per pupil.

Under the approved plan, those districts and more than 200 others will receive $1,093 per pupil.

In recent months, uncertainty about whether the plan would be allowed by the U.S. Department of Education left some of those districts wondering whether they would face an unexpected, multimillion hole in their budgets. While $363 million is only a fraction of the total federal COVID aid, and will not bring the districts up to the statewide average of federal aid, superintendents said they were counting on it for program expansions that would help disadvantaged children.

“Today’s approval of that plan is a welcome step forward and gives our schools the assurance that they can continue providing their students with the support and top-notch educational experience they both need and deserve,” said Kenneth Gutman, superintendent of Walled Lake Consolidated School District and president of the K-12 Alliance, an advocacy group.

Under the approved state plan, his district will receive roughly an extra $391 per student,or $5.2 million total.

In their application, Michigan officials noted that even the wealthier districts had an average of 35% of students who receive free or reduced-price lunch, an indicator that a not-insignificant portion of students in those districts are living in poverty.

“Notwithstanding the fact that these 223 (districts) as a rule have lower percentages of children with special needs, English learners, and economically disadvantaged children, they nonetheless each educate students in these categories that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19,” state officials wrote.

Districts must spend about half of the funds to address learning loss, 10% for summer enrichment, and 10% on after-school programs.

They are also required to use the funds to address the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on students from families with low incomes, students of color, children with disabilities, English learners and migrant students, students experiencing homelessness, and children in foster care.

Transparency on COVID school dollars can help make the case for equitable funding, report says

2021-09-09T22:18:54+00:00

As Michigan schools work to hire school counselors and reduce class sizes with their share of $6 billion in federal COVID aid, a group of education advocates say the state should do more to show that education funding reaches the most vulnerable students.

After decades of meager state education funding, Michigan should be prepared to raise its investment in schools once the federal funds run out, according to a new report from The Education Trust-Midwest, a nonprofit advocacy organization. But first, the group says, the state should begin publishing data showing how money intended to support students from low-income families or students with disabilities impacts their classrooms.

Nearly 30 years after Michigan established its current school funding system, a chorus of experts and educators say the state is due for another overhaul, this one aimed at supporting the students with the greatest needs. At the same time, that idea is being put to the test by the billions of dollars in federal COVID aid now flowing into the state: Much of the money is destined for districts with high concentrations of poverty.

Showing exactly where those federal dollars go would lay the groundwork for future increases in state education spending, said Amber Arellano, executive director of EdTrust.

She called for “a serious system of fiscal accountability and transparency,” which, she said would serve as an answer to “people in Lansing who say, ‘Oh, if we put more money into public education, we don’t know where it’s going to go.’”

Michigan’s education budget has grown in recent years — and this year especially, thanks to a state budget surplus — but it still doesn’t come close to providing the extra funding that education finance experts recommend for the most vulnerable students.

Michigan spent roughly $12,700 per pupil in 2019 on K-12 schools, a figure that includes state and federal funds, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s less than the national average, but more than 29 other states.

Within Michigan, school districts receive increasingly equal funding. But districts with more high-need students — English learners and students with disabilities, for example — receive very little additional funding. And because school buildings are funded through local property taxes, wealthy communities can afford to build up-to-date schools while children in areas with low property values often attend run down classrooms.

The EdTrust report argues that available public reports don’t show whether funds intended to help at-risk students end up in those students’ schools.

The data exists, even if it hasn’t been packaged for public consumption, said Craig Thiel, research director for Citizens Research Council of Michigan, a nonpartisan think tank. Michigan schools are required to account in detail for their spending, and districts are regularly audited. The state’s school accounting manual runs to hundreds of pages.

Thiel says it’s up to the state to package the available financial information to show the public how the money is being used.

“Transparency is not opening up the government checkbook,” he said. “It’s figuring out what info in that checkbook is important, and then figuring out how to explain to taxpayers why it’s important and how to understand it.”

Transparency is good politics, said Dave Meador, vice chairman and chief administrative officer for DTE Energy and a member of the Michigan Partnership for Equity and Opportunity, a coalition organized by EdTrust that is pushing for increased funding for vulnerable kids. He said it would be easier to win support from Michigan’s business leaders for a major new investment in Michigan education if the state expands its reporting on education spending.

“Now is the right time for Michigan to put in place a stronger fiscal transparency system that allows for the tracking of equity-focused dollars down to the school level,” he said in a statement, adding that such a system would also help track how federal pandemic aid is used.

Asking school leaders to produce additional reports — even as they face new accounting requirements related to federal COVID aid — would not be fair, said Peter Spadafore, deputy executive for public relations for the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, an advocacy group that represents district leaders across the state.

“We are not afraid of accountability; we submit very detailed spending plans annually,” he said. “I don’t think a lack of reporting is the problem with Michigan’s funding system, the problem is a lack of equitable funding.”

Cornerstone gets OK to merge three schools in a turnaround bid

2021-06-25T01:10:52+00:00

Cornerstone Schools, one of Detroit’s largest charter school networks, will consolidate three schools into one new K-12 program in what its leaders say is an effort to boost flagging academic performance.

The network is creating a new school called Lincoln-King Adams-Young Academy, which will have an anticipated enrollment of 1,400 students across three campuses. The school will replace Cornerstone Health and Technology High School, Lincoln-King High School, and the network’s Adams-Young elementary building. Many students currently attending school in those buildings will be able to stay in place, though most will see major changes to school leadership and staff. Teachers at the schools being consolidated will receive offer letters to join the new school, Cornerstone officials said.

Trustees of Grand Valley State University, which oversees Cornerstone and dozens of other charter schools in Detroit, voted in favor of the proposal on Friday.

The changes come after GVSU officials called Cornerstone Health and Technology High School, which will close under the plan, a “weaker school” due to poor test scores and high teacher turnover.

Cornerstone has no plans to change its curriculum or emphasis on character-building — its schools mostly perform above average in Detroit, although well below the statewide average.

The network’s founder said that changes in leadership — including his own return to a top role — will help reverse lackluster academic results.

Clark Durant, 72, founded Cornerstone as a chain of private schools before converting them in 2009 to publicly funded charters. In January 2020, he took over as CEO of the Cornerstone Education Group, the nonprofit that runs five schools in Detroit.

“I’m coming back to be the CEO with an enormous mission focus and outcome focus for these kids,” he told Chalkbeat, explaining why he expected GVSU to support the plan.

In hiring new school administrators and staff, “I’m looking for people who no longer see this as a job, but as a real calling and are prepared to spend the time, and the energy, and the commitment, to change the reality for these children,” Durant said.

Don Cooper, assistant vice president for charter schools at GVSU, noted that the changes will alter the oversight structure in the Cornerstone network by putting students in the new school under the authority of a single school board. Currently, Lincoln-King shares a school board with Washington-Parks Academy, another Cornerstone school. Cornerstone Health and Technology High School had its own school board.

Under the plan, students from Lincoln-King High School, Cornerstone Health and Technology High School, and the network’s Adams-Young elementary campus will all technically attend the same school.

According to Cornerstone’s application to start the new school, students in grades K-8 will go to class in the current Adams-Young Building. The current Lincoln-King building will host students in 11th and 12th grades, and the current Cornerstone Health and Technology High School will host students in 9th and 10th grades.

Read the full application here.

Michigan’s school board wants to know how charter schools spend public dollars. It might not find out.

2021-06-22T22:05:37+00:00

The Michigan Board of Education is directing state officials to request records from charter schools in coming months in an effort to show how the schools avoid releasing basic information about how they spend public dollars.

Most Michigan charters are run to a significant degree by private companies that are not subject to public disclosure laws. The schools in some cases have responded to requests for payroll information, for example, by asserting that they don’t employ teachers — a contractor does.

Leaders of the Democrat-controlled board, which initiated the inquiry, said that transparency in school budgets ensures that for-profit management companies don’t divert money that was intended for classrooms.

Transparency advocates say charter schools’ open records practices are problematic, though they are legal.

“We’ve always found it concerning that [charter schools] are using a backdoor to avoid releasing records because they’re a private company,” said Lisa McGraw, public affairs manager for the Michigan Press Association, which advocates for stronger transparency laws. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t just say, ‘This is our budget, here’s how much we’re paying teachers and administrators, and here’s what the management fee is. What are they trying to hide?”

The records requests, which are set to go out by the end of summer, add fuel to long-running policy debates about whether Michigan places enough checks on the companies and on charter schools in general. More than 80% of the state’s charter schools were managed by a full-service management company, or contracted with a private company to handle some administrative functions, in 2018-2019, according to a recent report from Gary Miron, a professor at Western Michigan University. Only three states had higher rates of private charter management.

Charter advocates insist that the schools are fully transparent. Critics say charters use legal loopholes to hide their finances from the public, and warn that there’s no way to know if for-profit charter school operators are diverting money from classrooms that enroll tens of thousands of Michigan students.

Debates over charter school oversight have largely gone dormant during the coronavirus pandemic, but they could regain steam after the 2022 elections if the decennial redrawing of Michigan’s political boundaries tilts the balance of power toward Democrats in Lansing. The state’s GOP has generally sought to limit regulation of charter schools.

Dan Quisenberry, president of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies, a charter advocacy group, said the board is going to waste charter school employees’ time in order to score a political point.

He noted that charter schools, like all schools in Michigan, publicly document student test scores, graduation rates, teacher turnover rates, and student demographics, among other information.

Asked whether the public can access charter school payroll information, management company fees, and other management company spending, he said “I’m going to guess that it is. We’ll do some checking and find out. I think it’s being provided to the [charter school] boards, I think it’s being provided to the state, I think it’s already public.”

Researchers and journalists in Michigan have struggled to access this information. Gary Miron, a professor at Western Michigan University who produces a national report on the charter school industry, said that his team of researchers are often unable to obtain basic information from charter schools, such as who owns the learning materials and who employs the teachers.

“About 20% give us what we ask for,” he said at an April meeting of the state board. “Another 10% respond and say, we don’t have to give that to you, we won’t. And then 70%, silence, no response at all.”

Chalkbeat reporters have also struggled to obtain basic information from Detroit area charter schools. In 2019, when Chalkbeat requested teacher payroll data from dozens of charter schools and school districts in Wayne County, most of the charters either didn’t respond, said such records don’t exist, or denied the request. Nearly all of the school districts complied.

Casandra Ulbrich, president of the Michigan Board of Education, said she doesn’t yet know which records will be included in the public records requests to charter schools. Regardless, she said any entity that uses public funding to operate a school should be willing to say how it spends that money.

“I think that public education is an investment in the future, and everyone who is paying for that investment has a right to be confident that their investment is being used appropriately,” she said.

As Michigan lawmakers move to pause third grade read-or-flunk law, GOP splits over retaining fourth graders next year

2021-05-26T22:45:07+00:00

On the day Michigan sent letters to thousands of families saying that their third graders might be held back because of low reading scores, Republican lawmakers split over the future of the state’s controversial “read or flunk” law.

Legislators from both parties generally agree on eliminating the state’s retention mandate for third graders. That means families who receive those letters are likely in for some whiplash if the state reverses course.

But while it appears likely that the legislature will pause retention this year, it remains unclear what the requirements will look like next year.

The GOP-led Senate will soon consider a bill that would extend the state’s retention requirements to struggling fourth graders next year. While the bill passed out of the Senate education committee along party lines, some Republicans opposed it.

A bill sponsored by GOP Sen. Jon Bumstead would pause retaining third graders for a year. But Republican leaders amended the bill to require that fourth graders also be held back next year if they are behind in reading.

In an unusual move, Bumstead spoke against his own legislation during a committee hearing, saying he would ask for his name to be removed from the bill. He said he was not consulted about the changes.

“Our students, teachers, administrators, and parents don’t need more mandates from Lansing,” he said. “They need our help and empathy for all they’ve gone through.”

Sen. Lana Theis, Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Education and Career Readiness, who supports the plan to hold fourth graders back next year, said pausing retentions this year “is not an outright rejection of the third grade reading law. It’s clear the fundamentals of the third grade reading law are working.”

She noted that she recently introduced a separate bill that would use $55 million in federal COVID-19 relief to provide scholarships of up to $1,000 so that families of struggling readers can pay for private tutoring or instructional services.

The mandated retention component of Michigan’s 2016 literacy reform law was set to begin last spring, but was postponed after schools closed and the state canceled standardized tests.

Even without retention, Michigan students have scored slightly higher in reading since the literacy law was put in place. Researchers found that literacy coaching for teachers, a key component of the reading law passed that year, contributed to improved student outcomes.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, a Democrat, said that retaining students doesn’t help them learn to read. “Retaining kids can be emotionally harmful in a typical year, but in a pandemic, it’s my feeling that it’s just plain cruel,” she added.

Holding older students back is especially harmful, said Jennifer Smith, director of government relations for the Michigan Association of School Boards.

While it’s especially important to pause the third grade retention requirement this year due to the pandemic, she said, any change is coming very late. Parents are starting to receive retention notices.

“We would have liked to see this done earlier,” she said. “It seems a little late for those parents you can’t contact and can’t reach. “

Officials sent 2,966 letters to Michigan parents Wednesday saying their third graders had received a low score on the state English exam and might be held back, according to a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Education. While a few more families could get similar letters, the ones sent today represent the “vast majority” of the total, Martin Ackley said.

State Superintendent Michael Rice, who leads the department, said in a statement that he opposes the retention policy for third and fourth graders.

“Third grade retentions are bad public policy, and even more so if expanding to students in two grades,” he said. “Local school districts need to work carefully with families to focus on reading supports and minimize retentions and the resultant adverse impact to children.”

That’s a lower number than would have been expected in a non-pandemic year because fewer students than usual took the state exam. Michigan counted 100,684 third graders this year, but only about 70,000 have taken the English exam so far. The testing window closes June 4.

Report: Here’s how Michigan schools can help students recover from the pandemic.

2021-05-19T16:02:21+00:00

Michigan schools should use federal COVID-19 funding to hire more nurses, social workers, and psychologists as part of a multi-year campaign to help students recover from the pandemic.

That’s a key takeaway from a sweeping new set of recovery recommendations developed in recent months by a 29-member council of educators, public health experts, and others from Michigan’s education landscape. The council, which was appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in February, called on districts to send federal aid to the people who work directly with children and asked state lawmakers to continue that support once the federal dollars run out. The council also asked schools to ensure that low-income students and students of color are prioritized in academic and emotional recovery efforts.

While the council’s recommendations aren’t binding, they represent a high-profile push for districts to invest in new staff using the federal funds, which are set to run out in 2024. Some school business officials have emphasized infrastructure spending rather than creating new positions.

“If it’s just one time funding that will go away, then districts concerned about legacy costs are not going to invest in the necessary supports for students,” said Kevin Polston, chair of the council and superintendent of Godfrey-Lee Public Schools, a district outside of Grand Rapids with a high proportion of Latino and Black students.

The state Legislature could help, he said, by promising to increase funding for schools by the time the federal dollars run out. “Our job as a state is to make sure that the funding necessary for our students is in place so districts can have some certainty,” he said.

Districts across the state have already begun spending federal funds, and many are already following some of the council’s recommendations. For example, the Detroit Public Schools Community District has spent more than $1 million in federal funds on nursing staff since July, and it expects to spend even more on mental health.

The state’s largest teachers unions expressed support for the recommendations. “There are and will continue to be increasing demands placed on educators to meet student needs, so we must be intentional about similarly increasing respect and compensation for the profession,” said Paula Herbart, president of the Michigan Education Association, who served on the council. “Failure to do so will make the job of helping all students continue their learning post-COVID-19 even harder – and none of us can afford for that to happen.”

The council was tasked with providing ideas for helping students across the state recover academically and emotionally to the pandemic. Its final report, which was released on Wednesday, provides detailed suggestions and materials for helping districts achieve a range of goals, from helping students get on track after time away from the classroom to addressing health issues that may have gone unnoticed during the pandemic.

The recommendations include:

Provide high-dosage tutoring during the school day to the students who have fallen furthest behind and those with disabilities, either one-on-one or in small groups.
Train teachers in academic strategies that will help students catch up.
Create a mental health screening tool for students and train staff to provide follow-up support.
Meet suggested staff-student ratios for counselors (1:250), social workers (1:250), school psychologists (1:600), and nurses (1:750).

Whitmer said in a statement that the council’s report “will not only help local education leaders comprehensively address immediate challenges, but it will move us towards an education system that works better for all of our children.”

The council made several policy recommendations that would need to be taken up by the Michigan Legislature:

Increase state funding for schools, including additional funds for students with higher needs, such as English learners or students with disabilities.
Allow districts to offer virtual instruction in the fall to parents who want it.
Fund districts next year based on their highest enrollment count in the last three years.
Create financial incentives for teachers to stay in the profession, including scholarships and loan forgiveness.
Create innovation zones that would allow districts to opt out of state testing requirements in order to try new modes of teaching. Polston said districts would need support from teachers. Unlike innovation zones in other states, participating schools wouldn’t be able to waive any aspects of collective bargaining agreements, he said.
Provide free preschool to every 3- and 4-year-old in the state, regardless of income.

If any of the council’s recommendations are going to work, lawmakers must guarantee an increase in long-term funding,” said Tina Kerr, executive director of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators.

“We all know ... that without a commitment from lawmakers to invest the necessary resources for long-term results the best laid plans and blueprints will not have any positive impact on our students,” she said.

City faces blowback for plan to sell vacant land to KIPP charter school

2021-04-28T01:14:00+00:00

Activists protested Detroit’s proposal to sell 10 acres of vacant land to KIPP, a national charter school operator, during a virtual meeting Tuesday evening.

While activists vowed to pressure the Detroit City Council to stop the sale, there is little they can do to stop the school from opening somewhere in the city. The school, which is to be called KIPP Detroit: Imani Academy, got legal permission to open in December from Central Michigan University, which is 150 miles north of Detroit.

“I thought this call was about asking us if we wanted KIPP to be here, but it seems like they’re here, and they’re in place, and there’s nothing the public can do about it,” said Yolanda Peoples, a teacher in Detroit Public Schools Community District.

The debate is a flashpoint in a long-running battle over the role of charter schools in Detroit. Organizations like KIPP — a prominent national charter operator with a track record of successfully preparing students for college — have typically avoided Detroit, in part because schools here face unfettered competition for a shrinking pool of students and funding. No local entity controls where and when schools open in the city. Efforts to create such a system died in Lansing in 2016 amid a blitz of political donations by former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and opposition from local activists and policymakers who didn’t want the mayor to have a hand in education.

Opponents of the new school said it would draw students and resources from surrounding schools, many already struggling with low enrollment and unrelenting turnover of teachers and students. KIPP officials said the school would offer a higher-quality education than surrounding schools. Some residents of the area said they were glad to see the vacant land, previously the site of Longfellow Junior High School, put to use.

Candace Rogers, superintendent of Imani Academy, said the goal was to work with local residents to create a high-quality school close to the homes of Detroit students.

“This is not just a big box charter that enters… and plops a school on the corner,” she said. “Our job is to do this in a way that models community.”

As many as 78 people logged on to the virtual meeting Tuesday night to weigh in on the proposed sale, and more than a dozen offered comments and questions, mostly in opposition to the school. Many of the commenters said they are affiliated with By Any Means Necessary, a group of education activists led by teachers, and 482Forward, a parent and student advocacy group.

Some commenters pressed KIPP officials on the funding sources for the new school. An anonymous donor contributed $20 million to help build the campus; the school is also supported by federal grants for new charter schools, which have fueled KIPP’s ambitious growth plans.

City rules require community outreach for large land sales. KIPP’s attempt to buy a 10-acre city-owned parcel opened a new public forum for discussion of the new school — and renewed a long-running debate over how charter schools should be allowed to open and close.

“I support both DPSCD and I support charter schools, as long as they’re quality and as long as we have a transparent and accountable process,” said Arlyssa Heard, a local parent and organizer for 482Forward.

But she said the worried Imani Academy would cause problems for students at schools in the area.

“What about the schools that are already here? What’s going to happen to New Paradigm? What about the students at Joy Prep?” she asked, referring to two nearby charter schools.

KIPP, a nonprofit that runs 255 schools nationwide, is not unfamiliar with public controversy. Anti-charter activists strongly opposed KIPP’s efforts to open a school in Chicago, for instance, and school boards in other states have rebuffed new KIPP schools in recent years. (Most of those schools eventually opened.) The network has also faced criticism for its strict discipline policies, though it says those policies have been relaxed somewhat.

KIPP plans to build a K-12 campus on the land at 13141 Rosa Parks Boulevard, at the intersection of M-10 and M-8. The proposed price of the land is $125,000. Students would start school in fall of 2022 in a temporary structure, then move to a new building in 2023 once the first phase of construction is complete.

As many as 1,300 students could eventually attend the school, KIPP officials said. With that enrollment, the school would bring in at least $10 million in state funds every year that would have otherwise gone to other schools.

Network leaders spent part of the meeting detailing their plans for the school. Imani Academy will have an on-site food pantry, mindfulness lessons, and well-supported teachers, said Jennifer Hodges, director of KIPP’s whole child initiative.

Several residents of the area said they were glad to have a high quality new school in the neighborhood, especially since it would put the vacant land to use.

“I see it as bringing students back to the community who have been leaving to go to school in the suburbs for lack of a quality education,” Denise Lyles, a local resident who heard KIPP officials speak at a block club meeting, said.

The city council is expected to vote on the sale in the fall. The next meeting about the planned sale is June 15.

In high school, I witnessed inequities in public education. Now, I want to write about it.

2021-04-23T17:56:20+00:00

I first learned the term “redistricting” over a bag of honey mustard pretzels in my high school English teacher’s office.

A budding journalist, my questions over inequities between my high school and the neighboring high school within the same district began with a simple set of questions: Why did they get to wear hats, when we couldn’t? Why was their course selection so much greater?

These were some of the differences between the wealthy high school blocks away and my less affluent school. Like any inquisitive reporter, I was curious about what was behind the disparities.

My teacher, Mr. Anderson, highlighted a red line across the map of Darien, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Like shattered glass, the zigzag pattern created by what he called redistricting made no sense to me. It was as if someone had haphazardly drawn a pattern to avoid the low-income housing apartments, keeping the mansions and traditionally wealthy on the opposite end.

On the map, I saw my small white house, where I lived with my family of six, along the border of the zigzag. I am the resident bookworm and youngest daughter of a stay-at-home mom and a landscaper. A line was the only thing separating me from an entirely different education at a different school with a different student body.

Much of my educational experience was shaped by the stark contrasts between the rich and poor. I was a lower-income student. I waited in the free hot lunch line and I filed for college application fee waivers.

I went on to attend private universities and even graduated from a prestigious graduate program at Northwestern University. But through it all, I was always one of the few people of color in the room, often unable to shake off the feeling of being an out-of-place poor kid.

A young journalist, Jessica (third from left) preparing for a statewide journalism competition in Illinois.

I went to Hinsdale South High School, a public school composed of a mixture of low-income students from those housing apartments, wealthy kids on the border of the zigzags, and everyone in between. Students from my high school attended community colleges, trade schools, and a handful of Ivy League institutions. But just a five-minute drive away, the neighboring school was wealthy, with a majority white student body and a pipeline to top-tier colleges.

I convinced my school’s administration to let me shadow a student at the neighboring school, in the name of journalism and in pursuit of my own curiosity. I walked through less crowded hallways and overheard conversations about ACT prep courses and students who had applied to over 13 universities. Students streamed in and out of the lunchroom without a school monitor yelling at them to go back inside. There was no free hot lunch line.

I realized there would always be extra steps I had to take to even get close to the kids from the other side of town.

Over the course of the school day, I recognized that inequity was more than students who couldn’t wear hats or leave the lunchroom. The district border had been created by people who would never look me in the eye and tell me why I hadn’t been on the right side of the town, the one with an aquarium sciences class and greater AP class offerings.

Now, years later, I’m excited to get to work and demand answers from state officials who have the power to address the funding inequities that exist. As the new Chalkbeat reporter covering the Detroit Public Schools Community District, I know that students in the city have experienced and seen the inequities between suburban and city schools. They see school buildings in wealthier communities in better conditions and students whose parents can provide extra tutoring or test preparation.

I want to hear about the inequalities in your schools and report on those disparities, many of which I experienced. I want to shine a light on these inequities and push state officials to take action, so students don’t have to continue dealing with these inequities year after year. Send me a note with your story ideas at jvillagomez@chalkbeat.org.

I can’t wait to dig in.

KIPP wants to buy 10 acres of Detroit-owned land for its campus; public hearing scheduled for April 27

2021-04-22T23:54:55+00:00

KIPP, a national charter school operator with a track record of improving test scores, aims to purchase 10 acres of city-owned land to build its new K-12 campus in Detroit.

While Michigan makes it easy to open a charter school without community input, city rules require public outreach for large land sales. That means Detroit residents will get a chance to weigh in on the project at two public hearings, the first of which will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27, via Zoom.

KIPP’s arrival in Detroit is a milestone for the city. National education groups have previously avoided Detroit, where decades of declining enrollment and state interventions left the education system in a state of disarray unequaled almost anywhere in the country.

When KIPP’s plan for a new school was unveiled, some local advocates said it meant more Detroit students would have access to a high-quality education. Detractors of the project said Detroit is already struggling to fill its existing classrooms and that the new school will siphon students and resources from schools already operating nearby.

Residents had little say in whether KIPP would be able to open a school. KIPP was cleared in December to operate the school by Central Michigan University, which sits 150 miles from Detroit. In Michigan, charter schools can open with support from a state-approved authorizer, typically a public university. Some charters have opened within blocks of another school, competing for enrollment and state funding.

Melia Howard, a district manager for the city, said KIPP representatives have already met with Longfellow Block Club; the Muslim Center, a mosque and community center near the proposed school; and with other block clubs.

KIPP officials promised to look for students and teachers in the neighborhood, and to provide halal food and space for Muslim students to pray during the school day, Howard said. She said she had not heard from any residents who opposed the plan.

“They are excited because so many schools have closed in that area,” she said.

The proposed location for the school, which will be called KIPP Detroit: Imani Academy, is within roughly a mile of Durfee Elementary, a district-run school, and New Paradigm Glazer Academy, a charter school.

The Detroit City Council will vote this fall on whether to sell the land at 13141 Rosa Parks Blvd, a vacant 10-acre parcel near the city’s geographic center, for the proposed price of $125,000, said city spokesman John Roach.

The land previously housed Detroit City High School, which was shuttered in 2012 by Roy Roberts, a state-appointed emergency manager who closed dozens of other Detroit Public Schools. Roughly 200 Detroit schools closed between 2000 and 2015.

Amid high teacher turnover in Michigan, audit finds failings in teacher support systems

2021-04-01T21:21:21+00:00

Key policies designed to support Michigan teachers aren’t being adequately enforced, according to a recent audit by the state’s Office of the Auditor General.

Districts spotlighted in the audit couldn’t prove that new teachers had been assigned mentors or that teachers’ annual evaluations were based on a classroom visit — both of which are legal requirements.

Michigan is grappling with high rates of teacher turnover, especially in low-income communities. Some experts predict a mass exodus from teaching after a grueling pandemic year. In a recent report, Chalkbeat used a trove of state data to document the toll that teacher departures take on student learning. But the audit, published last week, calls into question whether existing policies designed to retain teachers are being adequately enforced.

“If the laws and the rules are all set up, but no one is checking to see if the rules are being followed, how can [the state] achieve its goal of retaining teachers?” said Craig Thiel, research director for the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, a nonpartisan think tank that has reported on problems in the state’s teacher workforce.

Auditors surveyed thousands of teachers and examined records from randomly selected school districts from the 2015-16 through 2017-18 school years. They found:

Fewer than half of school districts in the sample were able to document that they provided teachers with all required training. Many couldn’t document that mentors were assigned to new teachers, a legal requirement.
Thirteen of 20 districts in the sample were unable to document that all of their teacher evaluations were based in part on a classroom observation, a legal requirement.
Nearly 40% of a random sample of 114 teachers couldn’t document the training they claimed to receive for teaching certificate renewals.

The Michigan Department of Education agreed with the audit findings. In a response, department officials said they hadn’t had enough staff to provide the required oversight.

“We have a teacher retention problem here in Michigan and the kinds of things that are touched on in this audit are key strategies to improving teacher retention,” said Leah Breen, director of the Office of Educator Excellence, an arm of the state’s education department that is responsible for overseeing and supporting teachers in Michigan.

Breen said the department will offer new guidance to districts on requirements around teacher certification, evaluation, and mentorship.

And, in a further response to the audit, the department will conduct its own audits of districts’ handling of those issues beginning this fall. Breen said her staff will have to cut back in other areas to complete the audits, but said that it’s not clear yet what those areas will be.

Breen said that the discrepancies uncovered by the audit weren’t just a matter of missing paperwork. In some cases, she said, teachers were not being given the help that the law guarantees them.

“I think it’s probably both, she said. “There are definitely instances where mentors are not being assigned.”

Breen pointed out that the state does not provide funding to school districts to pay teachers for the additional work of mentoring new teachers.

Oversight of the teaching profession in Michigan has fluctuated over the last decade. An audit in 2011-2012 found similar problems to the new one, prompting the state to increase its enforcement of teacher support laws. A few years later, another audit found that districts were doing much better at documenting teacher training and mentorship. At that point, the department of education stopped auditing districts on this subject, and compliance fell off again.

Rep. Regina Weiss, a Democrat from Oak Park who was formerly a high school social studies teacher in Detroit, said she did not recall being assigned a mentor when she entered the classroom for the first time in 2011, as required by law.

She added that the state’s teacher training system, in particular, can be burdensome to teachers. Indeed, a quarter of teachers surveyed by the Auditor General said they were “dissatisfied” with training provided by their districts.

“It’s a missed opportunity,” she said. “It is helpful for teachers to be able to go to trainings, but I really do think it becomes just a box-checking exercise.”

How we used data to tell the human stories behind Michigan’s high teacher turnover rates

2021-03-28T12:06:49+00:00

In report after report, experts have sounded alarms about the large number of teachers leaving Michigan schools.

When Chalkbeat obtained a trove of data about the teacher workforce in Michigan, we saw an opportunity to tell the stories of the humans behind the numbers.

To do so, we dug through nearly a million rows of data and spoke with more than two dozen teachers, students, and researchers. Here’s a closer look at our reporting process.

Want to double check our work? We’ve included more technical information and code at the bottom of the page.

What is teacher turnover, anyway?

Turnover is the percentage of teachers who leave during a given year. Teachers who leave might go to another school or district, or they might leave the classroom entirely.

Turnover, as it appears in most state reports, is measured from fall to fall. In this case, a teacher turnover rate of 50% at a given school would mean that half of teachers left the school between the beginning of the school year and the next fall. This includes teachers who changed schools during the summer.

To capture midyear turnover, which research suggests is especially detrimental to students, we calculated the percentage of teachers who left between the fall and the following spring.

Who is represented in the data?

Teachers who were assigned to a classroom in Michigan. This includes long-term substitutes, librarians, career and technical education teachers, and school counselors who were assigned to teach classes.

We did not include teachers who taught in multiple districts schools since accounting for their moves would be extremely difficult. These teachers were about 2% of all teachers, and they tended to be specialists, such as music teachers, or to teach in cyber schools.

Teachers who left due to school closures are included in the data and our analysis. We considered removing them from our analysis, but opted not to because closures are significant experiences for the teachers in question and because leaving them in didn’t substantially change our findings. About 1% of Michigan schools closed in 2019. While several Detroit charter schools closed that year, eliminating school closures from our calculations would have reduced the turnover rate for Detroit charters by just over 1%.

What did we learn from the database?

The data gave us a more detailed picture of turnover than current data published by the state. The database helped us answer questions like:

How many teachers left their schools midyear?
How many teachers remained at a given school throughout a five-year period?
How many teachers left the profession between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020, after the pandemic closed schools across the state?
How many students attended schools with high turnover?
What are the demographics of students who attend the schools that teachers are most likely to leave?

How much teacher turnover is too much?

The most recent national teacher turnover rate we could find was 16%, a figure that dates to 2012.

Over the last 15 years in Michigan, the turnover rate has typically been between two and four points higher than that.

In Michigan cities, the rate is substantially higher, often exceeding 30%, according to our analysis of teacher certification data.

Some turnover is normal, even healthy. But experts we spoke with mostly said that 20% to 25% turnover should be considered problematic.

To calculate the number of students enrolled in high turnover schools, we defined “high turnover” as 30%.

Where did the data come from?

The state keeps extensive records on teachers, which are housed by the Michigan Department of Education and Michigan’s school data provider, the Center for Education Performance and Information.

Chalkbeat obtained records of teachers who were assigned to any classroom in the state between 2015 and 2020 by submitting multiple requests through the Freedom of Information Act to the Michigan Department of Education.

The database is based on teachers who were assigned to classrooms in the Registry of Educational Personnel, which is maintained by the Center for Educational Information and Performance, Michigan’s education data provider. The data includes people with teaching certifications and substitutes or licensed school counselors who are leading classrooms.

As part of the request, we asked the department to create a unique identification number for each teacher. (These were different from the unique IDs that the state assigns to every teacher, which are an important part of their personnel files.) This allowed us to track and visualize the movement of teachers over time, which hasn’t been done before by a news outlet in Michigan.

Separately, Chalkbeat obtained a list of schools with teacher turnover rates calculated by the state. This allowed us to check our work with the other data. We also used this list to figure out how many students attend schools with high teacher turnover.

How did you calculate the number of students attending high turnover schools?

A key question we wanted to answer was: Which students attend the schools with the highest teacher turnover?

To find an answer, we used a state database that contains teacher turnover rates over several years for every school in the state. It’s the same data contained in the state’s online parent dashboard.

Turnover rates from that database are available through 2018-19. First, we linked the turnover data with school enrollment data from the same year. Then we added up enrollments for subgroups, such as English learners, Black students, and students from low-income families, in schools with turnover rates of 30% or higher.

The state only provided turnover rates for school buildings. To find rates for cities and charter schools, we did our own calculations using teacher certification data.

Too many Michigan teachers want to leave their classrooms. Here’s how to keep them.

2021-03-28T12:06:13+00:00

Michigan has a teacher turnover problem that is limiting the educational opportunities of Black students and those from low-income families.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Teachers are more likely to stay when they have better training, their principals are well-trained, they receive reasonable pay, and their schools can afford to hire enough paraprofessionals, psychologists, and social workers.

When those things are missing, teachers tend to leave, severing relationships and routines that are essential to student learning. Their departures take a steep toll that is borne largely by students in Michigan’s low-income communities, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state data.

Improving the situation would be expensive, and Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature has shown little appetite for a major school funding overhaul. But significant new investments in the teacher workforce suddenly seem possible as school districts prepare to spend billions in federal coronavirus aid.

Advocates say that some of the money could be used beginning this year to pay for training and mentorship that make teachers more effective — and more likely to stay.

“We absolutely have the ability now to reduce turnover and create greater retention,” said Adam Zemke, executive director of Launch Michigan, a business consortium that advocates on education issues.

A systemic problem

Ask many observers how to reduce teacher turnover, and they will tell you that turnover is merely a symptom of a much larger problem.

The state isn’t investing enough in schools, said Barbara Schneider, a sociologist at Michigan State University who has studied turnover.

“It’s a resource issue,” she said.

Efforts to reduce turnover in Michigan have often centered on giving teachers more money for their work. When a nonprofit in Detroit pumped millions of dollars into a handful of higher performing charter schools, some of the money went toward retention bonuses. Just last year, the state set aside $5 million for a similar program: New teachers will receive as much as $1,000 for staying on after their first year, with the possibility of receiving more if they stay longer.

But those are small numbers in the context of Michigan’s $15 billion education budget.

By contrast, the amount of money Michigan spends on schools overall has dropped in recent years — it declined 30%, adjusting for inflation, between 2002 and 2015 as state revenue for schools was reduced by tax cuts.

Schneider says more funding wouldn’t just allow for increased teacher pay, but also for improvements to school working conditions. More money could pay for decreased class sizes, better teacher training, better learning materials, or for more school staff — paraprofessionals, counselors, and social workers — who give teachers the freedom to focus on teaching.

“Apart from really systematic investment in schools, it’s going to be hard to improve working conditions meaningfully,” said Lucy Sorensen, a professor at the State University of New York Albany who has studied teacher turnover. “To the extent that urban schools are less funded, higher stress work environments serving students with greater needs, that’s more likely to cause teachers to depart.”

Training, coaching, and mentorship

Advocates say that billions of dollars in coronavirus aid to Michigan schools presents an opportunity to boost spending on teacher training and mentorship.

School districts have broad discretion to spend the money, including by “hiring additional educators to address learning loss, (and) providing support to students and existing staff,” according to the U.S. Education Department.

Ongoing training, mentorship, and coaching are key to supporting staff, Zemke said. Launch Michigan surveyed 17,000 Michigan teachers in 2019 and found a widespread sense that they aren’t given the same training opportunities as members of other U.S. professions, such as doctors, lawyers, and veterinarians.

“They don’t feel empowered, they don’t feel like they’re being treated as professionals, they’re not supported,” Zemke said.

Several efforts across the state aim to expand teacher training and mentorship. In Detroit, an innovative school is modeled on the residency training system used by medical doctors in which trainees receive support from mentors and from more experienced peers over three years. In Battle Creek, a philanthropic initiative pairs veteran teachers with novices for regular classroom visits and consultations about teaching technique.

Expanding and supporting programs like that one — and teacher training in general — would go a long way toward improving retention, said Elizabeth Moje, dean of the College of Education at the University of Michigan, who was pivotal in the creation of the residency school in Detroit.

While districts have only a few years to spend the federal aid, Moje said the benefits of high-quality training would last far longer.

“What better way to use the money than to actually develop the best teachers?” she said. “If we spend it on a text or a learning tool, that might need to be replaced in a few years. Actively developing our teachers to feel really good about their work, that’s something that goes on and on and on.”

Principals need training and support too, and research shows that effective principals play a crucial role in retaining teachers.

The Detroit Children’s Fund, a nonprofit that is investing tens of millions of dollars in Detroit to improve schools, has already paid for principal training programs across Detroit.

But principals don’t generally get that kind of support, said Nicole Simon, a researcher affiliated with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers, an initiative at Harvard University.

“We know that for teachers one of the most important factors in keeping them in their schools is strong leadership. And we have not invested in that kind of leadership. We don’t teach people how to do it, we don’t support them while they’re doing it.”

Small fixes can yield big rewards

Sorensen emphasizes the need for systemic investment to truly improve teacher working conditions and thus reduce turnover.

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing schools can do in the absence of major new funding, she said, pointing out that turnover varies widely even among schools that receive similar funding and serve similar students. Detroit, for instance, was home to 76 schools with high turnover rates of 30% or more in 2018-19. But the city is also home to more than 40 schools with turnover rates below 16%, the most recent available national average.

What sets those schools apart? Often it’s communication, Sorensen said.

“People in the education field have not done enough of the simple task of asking teachers what they need and what the difficulties are in their everyday jobs,” she added.

Positive communication can be as simple as simply asking teachers to stay, said Punita Thurman, vice president of program and strategy for the Skillman Foundation, which funded several charter high schools in Detroit.

A principal at one of those schools experimented with periodically telling teachers that their presence at the school was valuable and that she hoped they would stay.

“It was a small gesture, but she was blown away at how much of a difference it made,” Thurman recalled.

Simply asking teachers for input is the not-so-secret recipe behind Upbeat, a company that aims to help districts reduce teacher turnover by getting teachers and school leaders on the same page. Upbeat surveys teachers anonymously to identify their frustrations, then shares the results with administrators.

“If teachers are involved in shaping the rules and procedures that govern their work days, they’re more likely to buy in,” said Henry Wellington, CEO of Upbeat, a company that consults with school districts about reducing teacher turnover. “If their performance evaluations are considered fair, they feel more successful. And we know that when teachers feel more successful they’re more likely to stay.”

Editor’s note: March 30, 2021: This story has been updated to correctly identify Barbara Schneider, a sociologist at Michigan State University.

Michigan lost 62,000 students this fall. Black enrollment fell 5%.

2021-03-16T22:18:45+00:00

Editor’s note: March 18, 2021: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Michigan’s 2020-21 enrollment decline was greater than the decline we reported in December. However, since the story was published Tuesday, we have learned that the figures the state released in December aren’t comparable to the enrollment data released this month. The December data were based on full-time equivalent counts that account for students who are part-time. The new data is based on a head count of students. Generally, the full-time equivalent enrollment is lower than the head count enrollment.

The story also incorrectly stated that the new data released by the Michigan Center for Performance and Information had been audited. It has not. Also, the December story included K-12 student counts, while the March data cited in Tuesday’s story included K-12 and preschool counts.

Michigan lost 61,940 students in preschool through 12th grade last fall, a figure that underscores the toll the past year has taken on students and adds urgency to early efforts to provide students with extra academic and emotional support.

Michigan’s public school enrollment decline is among the best barometers of the pandemic’s impact on students. Behind the numbers are students who may have abruptly moved to a new school, or whose education simply came to a halt.

Over the last decade, Michigan has lost an average of 13,000 students per year. This year, though, the state lost nearly five times as many. The 4.1% decline in enrollment is the largest by far since at least the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

“Where are the kids that are MIA?” asked Paul Liabenow, director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association. “We need to seek them out. We need to find a way to provide the support to families so the students can come to school.”

Students get much more than an education at school. Missing school means students miss out on school lunches, counseling, social services, and a connection with teachers, who are key advocates for students’ well-being.

Many states are grappling with declining enrollments. Colorado, for example, expanded its AmeriCorps program to help districts find missing students.

The trend in Michigan — as in much of the country — is driven partly by kindergarten, where enrollment fell by 13,000, more than twice as much as any other grade. Many families decided to keep young children at home rather than attempt to navigate Zoom education with a 5-year-old or preschooler.

But the declines were not limited to kindergarten. Enrollment in certain categories fell more steeply than overall enrollment, notably among white well-off students, as well as students who are African-American, or from low-income families.

Black enrollment fell by 13,700, a 5.1% decline.
Enrollment of students from low-income families fell by 34,400, or 4.5%.
Native American enrollment fell by 496, or 5.5%.
Enrollment of white, well-off students declined by 25,000, or 4.4%.

Some wealthier families have sent their children to private schools that offered in-person learning during the pandemic.

In December, Chalkbeat revealed that Michigan fall enrollment fell by an estimated 53,000 students.

That count was based on “full-time equivalent” counts that account for students who attend class part time. The new data, which was published this month by the Michigan Center for Performance and Information, is based on simple student head counts. The new numbers are not comparable to the figures Chalkbeat reported in the fall.

At the time, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer acknowledged that missing students are “a significant concern.” State superintendent Michael Rice acknowledged that some students — he eventually put the number at 13,000 — “likely weren’t being educated” during the pandemic.

So far, though, there has been no coordinated statewide effort to find them.

“Bold leadership is needed now,” said Jennifer Mrozowski, director of communications for The Education Trust-Midwest, a nonprofit education advocacy group. “State leaders should develop a plan that includes near- and far-term solution-oriented strategies to ensure that our students, who have suffered from interrupted learning over two school years, can have every opportunity to catch up and accelerate.”

“This data makes clear Michigan must rise to the opportunity and the challenge before us, act with great urgency and invest significantly and equitably in Michigan’s children, especially those who have historically been underserved.”

Rice didn’t answer requests for comment Tuesday.

Michigan counts student enrollment twice a year, in October and February. Some superintendents say their enrollments are rebounding as they offer more in-person instruction. Enrollment figures for February aren’t yet available.

Rice has called on the state legislature to require home-schooling families to register with the state. He said in December that 17,000 families told their schools that they planned to home-school during the pandemic. But the number could be higher — Michigan parents don’t have to tell anyone before starting a home-school.

With no quality controls in place, there is no way to know whether students who are being home-schooled this year will learn as much as they would have in a private or public school. Some district leaders say they have already begun to prepare to help students catch up after a year of home-schooling.

Individual teachers and districts have tried to find students, going to great lengths in some cases to call students, leave messages, and reach out to relatives. In Detroit, teachers, staff, and volunteers went door to door to ensure students came to school.

Districts in rural, urban, affluent, and low-income areas lost students. Detroit lost 1,600 students, or 3%.

Oak Park, which enrolls a high proportion of students of color, lost 542 students, or 12%.

Birmingham, a majority white, affluent district, lost 486 or 6%.

Three federal coronavirus relief packages have now passed Congress, all of them containing substantial support for schools that could be used to find students and help those who missed a large chunk of school.

In the most recent package, Michigan is set to receive $3.7 billion, of which a significant portion must be spent on efforts to help make up for the academic and emotional toll of the pandemic on students across the state.

Michigan teachers go out of their comfort zones again as schools reopen

2021-02-26T01:25:42+00:00

Lori List is both nervous and excited to return to her sixth grade English classroom in Southfield.

For weeks, Southfield held out as most other traditional public school districts made plans to open their doors to students who want to learn face-to-face.

But now the district has made plans to reopen its classrooms, forcing List — along with thousands of local teachers slated to return to in-person teaching for the first time in a year — to face one of the worst education quandaries of the pandemic.

On the one hand, educators’ morale has plummeted as it becomes clear that despite teachers’ efforts to adapt to virtual instruction, remote learning isn’t working for many students. At the same time, many teachers fear catching the coronavirus — which has now killed more than half a million Americans — in the classroom.

“It’s scary,” said List, one of thousands of local teachers slated to return to in-person teaching for the first time in a year. “It’s been very tough. It’s hard because it’s hard on the kids, because they’re not doing particularly well. And when we see our kids not doing well, it’s hard on us too.”

By and large, teachers are prepared to work face-to-face with their students — a key reason most of the state’s largest districts will soon reopen their doors, if they haven’t already. But the difficult decision to return to work adds to an already excruciating year that some say will take a long-term toll on the state’s already beleaguered education workforce.

Since January, COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply in Michigan, and concern is growing over the well-being of students who are still learning online. New guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that if cases are low enough and schools take the right precautions, schools can reopen even before teachers are vaccinated.

Many Michigan teachers have gone along with recent reopening measures — a marked departure from the fall, when many educators were fiercely opposed to returning to the classroom and teachers in Detroit blocked school buses that were set to take students to the first day of summer school.

The vaccine is making a difference. Teachers were placed near the front of the line for coronavirus vaccines statewide. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that two-thirds of the state’s teachers have received the vaccine or have plans to do so, well above the national average.

Mary Bouwense, president of the Grand Rapids teachers union, said the availability of the vaccine has “helped a lot” to shift teachers’ attitudes in favor of in-person instruction. The Grand Rapids district reopened its classrooms to students in a hybrid model in late January with support from the union.

Also helping to ease teachers’ minds about returning to in-person instruction: Research on schools that opened in the fall showed that the virus wouldn’t spread out of control if everyone in the building remained masked and socially distanced.

Teachers unions in some larger districts also forged agreements with district leaders that have made teachers more comfortable with a return to in-person instruction.

In Detroit, for instance, the district and its teachers union agreed to give teachers the ability to choose between in-person and virtual instruction this year. District officials hope that by not forcing the issue they will see alignment between the number of teachers and the number of students who volunteer to return to classrooms.

Terrence Martin, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said it is up to the district to give teachers the confidence to teach face-to-face.

“The comfort level of in-person instruction is going to hinge on how transparent the district is going to be, how well the mitigation strategies are implemented, making sure there’s proper ventilation,” he said.

While many teachers in Michigan are willingly returning to the classroom, many others remain opposed.

Teacher retirements are up across the state, and education leaders worry that the state’s already leaky teacher pipeline is going to fracture further.

Teacher shortages have “only gotten worse as midcareer and closer-to-retirement teachers say, ‘You know what, I’m going to retire early or change careers because I don’t want to jeopardize my health and the health of my family,’” said David Crim, spokesman for the Michigan Education Association.

Available vaccines provide excellent protection against COVID-19, but they don’t guarantee that a vaccinated person won’t fall ill. In a nonscientific survey earlier this month by the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, 42% of educators said they remained “very concerned” about the safety of in-person learning.

Kalamazoo, one of the state’s largest districts with roughly 12,000 students and 800 teachers, will remain virtual through the end of the school year, in part because of opposition from teachers.

While case numbers and research on COVID-19 in schools suggested that a hybrid model would have worked for Kalamazoo, parents and teachers opposed that plan, Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri said earlier this month. Parents preferred virtual instruction by a narrow margin, while teachers preferred it overwhelmingly.

Amanda Miller, president of the Kalamazoo Education Association, said a lack of vaccine availability for local teachers was to blame. She said the Kalamazoo Health Department prioritized only teachers who were already teaching in person.

A spokesman for the Kalamazoo Health Department confirmed that it was giving priority to teachers who were working in person, but did not respond to a request for further comment.

“Doing school this way is not very good,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of pressure [to reopen], and it’s understandable. It’s hard for everybody to be home.

“Teachers want to get back if we can do it safely and vaccinated.”

As classrooms reopen, stagnant water pipes pose a health risk — and schools don’t have to do anything about it

2021-02-17T23:19:59+00:00

Water safety experts say thousands of students returning to Michigan schools that have been closed for months are potentially walking into a health hazard.

Water left stagnant in school plumbing systems during COVID-19-related shutdowns could contain dangerous bacteria or elevated lead levels, potentially posing a threat to students and staff.

Schools can eliminate the danger by flushing plumbing systems with fresh water, a process most districts complete after summer breaks. But experts say schools may need to take extra precautions now, because COVID-related closures have stretched to 11 months in some communities — ample time for bacteria to grow and for lead to leach out of pipes.

As more schools reopen, advocates worry that the intense focus on preventing COVID-19 will lead overstretched school staffs to forget about drinking water hazards.

The state doesn’t require schools to ensure water quality or to regularly test their water. Even districts that say they are flushing their water systems may not be doing enough, said Elin Betanzo, founder of the consulting firm Safe Water Engineering.

“Everyone will say, ‘Oh yeah, we’ve been flushing.’ But that can mean different things to different people,” she said.

State guidance and water quality experts suggest weekly flushing, but that isn’t enough to guarantee safe water.

Officials in Ann Arbor say they followed state-recommended flushing procedures twice a week throughout the summer. But tests of the district’s water in October revealed potentially dangerous levels of bacteria in water pipes at several schools. The district is now flushing its pipes three times a week, said Bernie Rice, executive director of physical properties.

How to flush a school water system

Flushing school water can literally require flushing. Toilets move a lot of water quickly and can help restart a dormant plumbing system.

But it’s not so simple to prepare school water systems for returning students after a months-long closure.

Michigan offers detailed guidance for safely restarting school water systems. The steps include planning to ensure all pipes are flushed, running hot and cold water through pipes, and, if possible, testing the water for contaminants.

Water experts recommend flushing pipes for 12 weeks before students return to school in order to restore corrosion control treatment. Elin Betanzo, founder of the consulting firm Safe Water Engineering, said schools should use bottled water as long as they aren’t sure their running water is safe.

Click here to find slideshows and recorded webinars focusing on restoring drinking water in schools before reopening.

More classrooms are open to students in Michigan than at virtually any other point during the pandemic after Gov. Whitmer urged schools to offer an in-person option by March 1. In January, 60% of districts planned to offer an in-person option, up from 50% in December. That figure will grow as large urban districts in Flint and Dearborn are set to reopen.

Concerns about water quality for returning students is not limited to Michigan. Schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York have reported elevated levels of legionella in their drinking water after returning from a COVID-19 closure. Legionella can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially deadly type of pneumonia, when it is inhaled through mist or steam generated by faucets or shower heads.

Still, a small survey of school administrators in Michigan suggests that some schools aren’t doing everything they can to mitigate the danger. Of 252 people surveyed, 14% said their schools don’t normally flush their plumbing systems after summer break. Another 37% said they don’t know if their schools flush plumbing systems.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy conducted the survey. The survey is anonymous, and the department doesn’t know how many of the state’s 842 school districts are represented in the results.

“We aren’t very confident that the right people are getting the message,” said Patrick Kelly, a senior health care analyst at the Center for Health and Research Transformation, a nonprofit based in Ann Arbor. He said he’d been in contact with school district officials who didn’t know they needed to worry about the safety of their drinking water in addition to the coronavirus as students return to school.

“The possibility of people returning to schools in the near term makes this a very urgent issue,” he said.

If schools don’t have time to make their water safe before students return, experts recommend passing out water bottles until the plumbing can be flushed. That’s what happened in Birmingham, a wealthy Detroit suburb, but it is easier said than done in lower income communities that may lack the means to provide bottled water to all students and staff.

Some districts, including the Detroit Public Schools Community District, use filtered drinking water systems capable of removing lead. A minority of those also have filters capable of removing bacteria such as legionella.

But many districts don’t have filters. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s new budget proposal attempts to fill the gap by spending $55 million to install water filters in schools statewide.

If a school doesn’t flush its plumbing system and doesn’t have filters, students and educators could be in danger of lead poisoning or bacterial infections.

“Schools need to take action now so we don’t have another health risk for students,” said Kristin Totten, education attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. “We can’t focus so much on COVID that we miss this underlying nemesis that has been in our schools for a long time, which is lead in the drinking water.”

Water that normally runs through school plumbing typically comes from public water plants, where it is disinfected and often combined with anticorrosive agents that work to prevent pipes from leaching lead into the water.

When new water isn’t pumped into school pipes for weeks at a time, those treatments dissipate, allowing bacteria to form and lead to get into the water.

Most school plumbing systems contain some lead, Betanzo said. She played a role in detecting lead in Flint after a state-appointed emergency manager there changed the city’s water source, causing lead to leach into its water supply. Nearly 9,000 children were likely exposed to lead.

“During the extended shutdown, there may not be corrosion control treatment left,” Betanzo said. “If a school is opening and expecting kids to be drinking the water, they should have been flushing 12 weeks prior” on a regular basis.

She added: “There’s no safe level of lead exposure.” Lead is a potent poison that damages brain development.

Betanzo said that districts that have already found legionella in their plumbing — including Ann Arbor and Birmingham, where she has two children attending schools — should serve as a warning across the state.

Legionella was discovered in November in the Birmingham district, then again in January, days before some students were scheduled to return to in-person classes. Students were asked to bring bottled water and showers were shut down.

Betanzo said that the presence of legionella suggests that other bacteria might also be present in the water. Other common bacteria that grow in untreated plumbing systems can cause infections of the skin or digestive tract.

“If one thing can grow, then a lot of things can grow in the water,” she said.

She added that the results of the school administrator survey, which show that some schools don’t flush their water systems after an extended break, “don’t surprise me at all.”

Flushing water systems “hasn’t been an area of focus,” she said. “We have no requirements for drinking water quality in school for schools that get public water.”

When schools nationwide shut down in March, school officials in Ann Arbor knew they would have to regularly flush district plumbing systems in order to offer safe drinking water when students returned.

Rice, the district’s top facilities official, said his staff started out flushing the pipes once a week. Then they met with a water safety consultant, who recommended that they follow the state’s recommended flushing methods twice a week.

Bacteria grew anyway, prompting district officials to begin flushing the pipes three times a week. The Ann Arbor district hasn’t indicated when classrooms will be reopened, but Rice said he is increasingly confident that school water systems are ready for students.

“It’s kind of crazy to me that it’s voluntary,” he said. “You’d think that with all the stuff that happened in Flint someone would say ‘Hey, this is mandatory.’”

Editor’s note: Feb. 18, 2021: The story has been updated to clarify that most Michigan schools have some lead components in their plumbing systems, not necessarily pipes, and that corrosion control treatments don’t guarantee that no lead will leach into drinking water.

Extend Michigan school year by five days — but not this year — says state superintendent

2021-02-08T23:49:24+00:00

This school year already seemed to be dragging on for some teachers and parents when state Superintendent Michael Rice recently suggested extending Michigan’s school year in response to the pandemic.

Rice would like to assure those people that he didn’t mean this year in his comments last Tuesday.

“Some people have said, ‘Oh my god, you’re talking about extending this terrible year,’” he said in an interview with Chalkbeat last week. “Not my point. This year needs to end.”

Rice also clarified the amount of days he thinks should be tacked on to the state academic calendar, which currently requires a minimum 180 school days per year.

“I think the state should increase its number of days by a modest number,” he said. “I think it’s reasonable to consider another five days.”

Rice’s comments come as Michigan begins to grapple with how best to support student learning when the pandemic subsides. Advocates are calling for a national tutoring effort, and Tennessee already passed bills requiring tutoring and additional summer schooling. An influx of federal coronavirus aid means schools will have additional funds to work with as they seek to help students make up for academic learning losses.

After an exhausting school year, some parents weren’t thrilled with the notion of adding school days next year.

“I honestly don’t think an additional five days would be significant,” said Tyisha Hudson, a parent in Detroit.

While Rice said he thinks that students statewide could use more learning time, he said that some would need it more than others.

Rice also urged individual districts to consider adding more learning time for certain students, or in some cases the entire district. He said additional classroom time could be especially beneficial for:

Districts that had little in-person learning this year, or those that have a high proportion of low-income students and those learning English.
Certain children who had higher-than-average needs even before the pandemic, including English learners, early readers, and students with disabilities.
Children who were struggling academically before the pandemic and who could use extra help, such as a fifth grader who is still reading on a third-grade level.

Nearly 20 years ago, Michigan eliminated the annual days of school requirement. In 2010, the state reinstated the requirement, setting it at 165 days per year. The minimum was raised three more times in five-year increments until it reached 180 in 2016-17. Most U.S. states require schools to be in session 180 days per year.

“Every district needs to reflect on” the possibility of adding extra learning time, Rice said.

“Most districts are going to find that there are gaps in what was provided for young people. Not because educators didn’t work extraordinarily hard, because they did. But it’s in the midst of a pandemic.”

State superintendent: Extend the Michigan school year to combat pandemic learning loss

2021-02-02T20:32:26+00:00

Michigan’s top school official wants state lawmakers to increase the minimum number of days children are required to attend school.

Michael Rice, state superintendent, said that the pandemic has exacerbated students’ learning needs. With schools closed to slow the spread of COVID-19, thousands of students statewide spent much of the last 10 months learning online.

“Most students will receive less instruction from March of last year through the end of this school year than in any similar period of their education,” he said, speaking before members of the Michigan house and senate education committees.

“The current minimum number of days 180 was too low before the pandemic. It isn’t close to that of high performing nations. Students and staff need more coming out of the pandemic. The state legislature should raise the minimum number of days to underscore the need for more time.”

Rice’s comments add to a growing national conversation about how best to help students catch up from pandemic learning losses. Advocates are calling for a national tutoring program. In Tennessee, lawmakers recently beefed up their third-grade reading law and authorized tutoring and summer school programs. School officials in Detroit recently said they would dramatically expand their summer school offerings this year.

Michigan schools are set to receive a large infusion of federal coronavirus relief money, which could be used to expand students’ learning time. (The Michigan GOP is currently threatening not to allocate the coronavirus relief funds.)

Rice did not specify how many days he wants added to the minimum school year. Most other states in the U.S. require 180 school days per year at minimum.

Extending the school year is one way to increase learning time. Rice also echoed national calls for additional out-of-school learning time through tutoring, mentoring, and summer school.

Certain groups especially need more time with teachers, Rice said: Early readers, struggling readers, students with disabilities, and students who don’t speak English at home.

Over the last decade, Michigan steadily expanded its minimum school year from 165 to 180 days. It has been 180 days since the 2016-2017 school year. This is only a minimum, and some schools currently hold classes more than 180 days a year.

Whitmer: State should send $300 million in COVID relief to schools

2021-01-19T21:33:38+00:00

Michigan schools are already set to receive $1.7 billion in federal coronavirus relief. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to add $300 million in state funds to the total.

The funds are part of a wide-ranging, $5.6 billion COVID recovery plan that Whitmer is sending to the state legislature for approval. She said the money would help schools offer an in-person learning option by March 1, a goal she set earlier this month.

Schools that enroll a higher share of Michigan’s most vulnerable students — English learners, students with disabilities, and low-income students — would get a larger portion of the state funds under Whitmer’s proposal.

School groups applauded Whitmer’s goal of sending more state money to schools.

“We urge leaders in Lansing to work together to swiftly appropriate these dollars so that districts can begin making plans for recovery programs, in-person instruction, summer learning, and other expenditures for the resources our schools and students need now, and post-pandemic,” said Tina Kerr, executive director of the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, in a statement.

Whitmer’s COVID Recovery Plan includes $1.7 billion in federal funds for schools, but her administration will have little say over how that money is spent. The federal funds will be distributed to schools according to a federal formula. Most of that money will go directly to schools, while the remaining 10% will be distributed by the Michigan Department of Education, which Whitmer does not control.

The department hasn’t yet announced how it plans to distribute those funds. Whitmer didn’t make clear whether she had reached an agreement with the department on how the money would be spent. The department didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

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