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Early data suggest chronic absence has doubled nationwide. Sixteen million students—or one out of every three—are now missing so much school that they are at risk academically. Fortunately, research and experience offer effective strategies for addressing chronic absences.
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The increased stress, mental health challenges, and inequities observed during the pandemic have reaffirmed the need to create safe, welcoming learning environments for students and educators. Well-designed teacher preparation for a whole-child approach is an important step toward meeting students’ needs and can overcome major hurdles such as teacher shortages.
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As the pandemic landscape continues to evolve, schools and districts are encountering a range of new challenges. LPI has synthesized 10 of the most important COVID-19-related actions schools and districts can take this fall to support students and staff.
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A student’s performance under conditions of high support and low threat differs substantially from how they perform without such support or when feeling threatened. To create identity-safe classrooms where students can learn and thrive, schools can promote trust and interpersonal connection; create purposeful communities of care and consistency; use restorative practices to promote understanding, voice, and responsibility; and recognize diversity as an asset.
Dion BurnsDaniel EspinozaJulie AdamsNaomi Ondrasek
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In California, the approximately 47,000 students who live in foster care face complex educational challenges. This report sheds light on the needs, characteristics, and outcomes of California students living in foster care and promising practices to better support them, including enhancing effective coordination and collaboration among agencies; building trusting relationships in schools; and providing targeted social, emotional, and academic services.
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Following the school shooting in Uvalde, TX, there have, once again, been calls for armed teachers or security officers in schools. But research shows that more guns don’t make schools safer. Instead, there are three evidence-based strategies for increasing school safety: gun controls, reporting of warning signs, and school-based social-emotional and mental health supports.
Lorea MartínezLaura E. HernándezMarisa SaundersLisa Flook
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Social Justice Humanitas Academy is a teacher-led community school that advances student learning and development through its mission to support students on their journeys toward self-actualization, social justice, and postsecondary success. It maintains a supportive and inclusive learning environment, engages students in social and emotional development and student-centered pedagogical strategies, and provides access to integrated systems of supports.
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Education should provide opportunities for every student to learn and thrive, but the current U.S. system often falls short. Research from the science of learning and development points to whole child education as a method to transform systems to provide high-quality learning for all students. The Whole Child Policy Toolkit can help state policymakers and education leaders advance whole child policy and support schools, districts, and communities to meet the needs of every child efficiently, effectively, and equitably.
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More than 5 million children in the United States are living in deep poverty, but their economic circumstances do not have to determine their life chances. By leveraging three key strategies—funding adequacy and equity, community schools and partnerships, and a whole child teaching and learning culture—schools and school systems can mitigate the impact of poverty on student success and well-being.
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Polarizing and inaccurate framing of social and emotional learning (SEL) has caused concern for some parents. The authors examine a Fordham survey that sheds light on why and discuss how to help parents understand that SEL and academics are inextricably connected and not an either/or choice.
