President’s Message:

Turning Challenges into Opportunities

Stu Semigran

As students are once again returning to in-person school in greater numbers, life is not back to normal. There has been significant learning loss over these past two years. Students’ responses to personal trauma and hardships are showing up in a rise in behavioral issues which truly are calls for help and intervention.

The reasons for this disturbing reality are many. A number of older students took care of younger siblings as their parents did their best to find or return to work. Others got jobs themselves to help bring in necessary income for their families. Still others took care of family members dealing with COVID. Many fell into depression and anxiety worrying about their future or school events and traditions that were left behind.

The challenges that our students now face, though unexpected, can be viewed as potential opportunities to make our educational system (and their lives) ever better. They need to be addressed concurrently on multiple levels to catapult our students’ well-being and their aspirations for success.

Current challenges and needs

Learning Loss: In 2020-21, two out of every three LAUSD students had fallen behind in literacy and math.

Mental Health and Resocialization: Between 2007 and 2018, suicide rates among youth (ages 10-24) in the U.S. increased by 57%; estimates show more than 6,600 suicides among this age group in 2020.

Building Back Empathetic School Communities: In Los Angeles, only 30% of high schoolers reported feeling connected to their peers in the 2020-2021 school year.    

Staff Stress and Retention: Many teachers and staff have walked alongside their students and have absorbed a secondary level of trauma that has been telling. At the same time, they have weathered hardships in their own families. Staff and teacher burnout is at an all-time high.

Student Social-Emotional and Resiliency Skillset Development: The majority of our young people are at a loss for developing and practicing core life skills: the self-awareness, personal management, and interpersonal skills that will be their foundation, not only for their return to health, but for a lifetime of resiliency.

Focused solutions

Some focused solutions that educators and expanded learning providers, such as EduCare, are increasingly providing include:

For Learning Loss:

• Increase afterschool / summer academic classes and quality tutoring

• Provide additional specialized supports, particularly for English Language (EL) Learners and students facing homelessness and/or living in foster homes

For Mental Health and Resocialization:

• Hire more school counselors, psychiatric social workers (PSW), and case management workers

• Increase the number and access to vibrant afterschool programs

For Building Back Empathetic School Communities: 

• Heighten a community-building mindset at schools coupled with fun, engaging and healing events, school celebrations, and field trips    

For Staff Stress and Retention:

• Offer more Self-Care professional development and support for putting these skills into personal practice

• Address the need for living wages and pay increases

For Student Social-Emotional and Resiliency Skillset Development

• Focus on the whole-child with Heartset® education and social-emotional learning (SEL) programs and resources

A collective, multi-tiered approach of government, schools, educators, families, and communities is required to bring about these necessary changes. Only a comprehensive and systemic approach can bridge the gap between where our students are now and where they need to be in order to heal. 

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News from the Field: ACE Programs

ACE Reaches More and More Students

“The program allowed us to see how much we have in common, and it made me feel less alone.”

– ACE student

Heartset® Education (ACE Initiative, ACE Program, ACE Heartbeats) – EduCare’s unique platform for social-emotional learning (SEL) – has been proven to empower students to achieve excellence in personal, social, and academic pursuits while building a school culture of empathy and kindness.

EduCare’s comprehensive, school-based SEL program, ACE Initiative (AI), is currently operating in 14 LAUSD high schools, serving 10,174 students. AI staff support students, teachers, and administrators throughout the school day with a robust set of supports including student success, college preparation, and teacher and parent workshops.

EduCare also reached more than 35 schools and over 5,250 additional students this year with our ACE Program SEL workshops, including ACE Heartbeats, between July 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022.

Students had a lot to say about the positive impact of these workshops!

“The program allowed us, students, to have a voice.”

“The most important thing about the program was that it showed me how to boost my confidence and learn how to love myself.”

“The program allowed me to learn about each other’s lives and that we are going through something and it’s okay to ask for help.”

In addition, we had over 88.5% of our students experience a sense of belonging, and 84.5% learned to improve their self-confidence.

Be sure to read Spotlight on Staff in this issue, profiling one of our enthusiastic ACE Initiative Site Administrators, Carlos Hernandez!

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News from the Field: Afterschool Programs

Taking Down Tobacco

Did you know that nationwide, there is an ongoing program to encourage students to stand up and speak out against the tobacco industry? It’s called “Take Down Tobacco,” a year-round effort that culminates every spring with the Take Down Tobacco Day of Action.

All EduCare partnering schools (and schools district-wide) participated in the event by hosting either a Take Down Tobacco Day of Action or a Kick Butts event.

Los Angeles Unified School District’s Beyond the Bell sponsored the day’s events, with one or more of their ongoing EduCare campus programs actively involved:

• Advocates for Healthy Choices (AFHC)

• Tobacco Use Prevention Education (TUPE), or

• Take Action Campaign (TAC).

In addition to colorful posters and banners featuring anti-tobacco rhetoric, the message that tobacco use is a bad idea found its way into activities during lunch and after school.

Lunchtime events included dance teams, live music, spoken word, and open mics, all discouraging the use of tobacco.

Afterschool events included movie night and a variety of healthy activities providing alternatives to smoking or vaping: stress relief, yoga, meditations, and fitness.

A big shout out to all our schools and students for being part of Take Down Tobacco!

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