But the city only committed funding through the current 2025-2026 school year, and city leaders made it clear that this was a pilot program they would support for the first few years and then hand over to the district to build into its budget or seek outside funding. That funding cliff has arrived just as OUSD navigates a serious budget deficit and needs to trim $100 million from next year's budget.
California is one of six states that fund public schools based on how many students attend classes on an average day. Under California law, Average Daily Attendance is calculated by dividing the total number of days students attended class by the number of days of instruction. A student who leaves campus for only part of the day to protest, or for any other reason, still counts as having attended school for the purposes of calculating ADA.
Oakland Unified School District leaders see attendance rates as critical to their plan to address a $100 million budget gap. Increasing attendance by even 1% overall could add $5 million in revenue. That's because state funds, which make up the biggest pot of money for the district, are based on a funding formula that uses students' average daily attendance rates. Raising attendance a few percentage points could mean millions more for a district searching for a way out of its structural deficit.
Enrollment in Oakland Unified School District is on the rebound, but continued gains are uncertain as the district faces large unresolved deficits. During the first regular school board meeting of the year on Wednesday, OUSD's executive director of enrollment Kilian Betlach reported increases in transitional kindergarten enrollment, enrollment gains from charter school closures, and a collapse in enrollment by newcomer students. This year, OUSD's enrollment exceeded projections by more than 500 students, which means roughly $7 million more in state funding for the district.
The government has promised to create 50,000 more places for children with special educational needs (Send) in mainstream schools in England. It plans to invest 3bn over the next three years, partly funded by cancelling the building of some planned free schools. Councils - who will receive the funding - have argued the money needs to be diverted to the right areas and to the people who know what is needed in their local communities.
The Trump administration on Tuesday accelerated the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education with a plan to transfer key, legally required functions to other agencies, including oversight of its $18-billion, core anti-poverty program, Title 1. Critics said the move was politicized and counterproductive and fear future program cuts. California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said vital services to the state and nation's most vulnerable students were likely to be disrupted.
The Department of Education notified the state and 16 others in March that the Trump administration had rescinded access to millions in federal money earmarked to combat the pandemic's impact on students across the nation. The recovery funds had been previously approved and awarded to the states from the department and were supposed to be available until March 2026, but the Department of Education abruptly changed course, a lawsuit from the 17 impacted states alleged.
The number of pupils in primary schools in London is continuing to fall sharply as a low birth rate coupled with families moving away from the capital is starting to take effect, a report has found. Since 2019 there has been a drop of 150,000 pupils according to analysis by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) which predicted a further 400,000 drop of pupils in schools in England by the end of the decade.
EAST PALO ALTO - A private East Palo Alto school was locked down and searched Tuesday after a caller threatened to "shoot up" the campus, according to authorities. The East Palo Alto Police Department said it received the call at 2:30 p.m. and immediately dispatched officers to The Primary School in the 2000 block of Clarke Avenue. "Out of an abundance of caution, the school was secured and searched," police said. "Once the area was deemed safe, children were safely released to their parents." No injuries were reported.
Seven in 10 schools are struggling with real-terms cuts to their budgets since 2010 1,200 more than last year according to the Stop School Cuts coalition, which has been monitoring school funding levels for almost a decade. Research by the coalition, which is made up of three education unions, school governors and a parents' charity, found more than 1,000 schools had suffered cumulative real-terms cuts in excess of 1m each, with Essex, Birmingham and Kent among the hardest hit areas.
The county asserted that the state violated a 2004 budget deal in which counties and cities agreed to give up a portion of vehicle licensing fees and local property taxes to help close the state budget deficit. To repay counties, the state Legislature guaranteed funding for school districts where property taxes alone do not cover school budget needs, according to the county.
"The current state of these schools is unacceptable," said State Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, describing the heartbreaking findings from the investigation regarding deteriorating school conditions.
