By Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P]
For the new school year, all schools in California school districts have been opened with expanded services: 98 percent have increased educational opportunities for returning students.
Thus, 95 percent of school districts in California have expanded mental health and wellness services, 73 percent reported increasing after-school programs, and 83 percent reported increasing learning acceleration programs.
To learn about additional services, parents can refer to the new School Districts Expanded Opportunities Mapwhich provides region-specific data.
The $123.9 billion K-12 education package has served to create investments in AB 86, which seeks to meet the immediate needs of students.
According to the California government, to support children as a whole in a long-term transformation, $4.3 billion will be used to transform the youth behavioral health system. It will focus on early identification of trauma, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, among other issues.
In addition, $3 billion will be used to create thousands of full-service community schools; and $650 million in ongoing funding for universal free school nutrition.
For increased learning time, $1.8 billion will be allocated, increasing to $5 billion by 2025, with the intent of achieving universal access to summer and after-school programs.
Also, Universal Transitional Kindergarten or TK for all four-year-olds by 2025, with an additional year of public education.
In this regard, 300 million will also be invested for the prekindergarten teacher portfolio, and 490 million will be invested to build and renovate state preschool, transitional kindergarten and kindergarten facilities.
Finally, with the vision of improving the quality of learning time, the government explained that $1.1 billion in ongoing funding will be allocated for high-poverty schools to hire up to five teachers, educators, and counselors.
It will give $2.9 billion to expand the teacher pipeline and match teachers with vulnerable students, $250 million to attract expert, board-certified teachers to high-needs schools, and $1.5 billion to improve special education.
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