Victoria Tatum has spent more than two decades fighting for services for her autistic son, Eliot. As her son became a teen, his anxiety made him increasingly violent. She thinks Santa Cruz families need better intervention, sooner, for families with special needs.
K-12 Education
Posted inCoast Life
Nine fun places for kids’ — in-person! — group classes around Santa Cruz County
Who is ready to let the kids out and into summer classes? Parenting columnist Liza Monroy has tracked down the best of what we know is out there, with key info to aid your planning.
Posted inEvents, Politics & Policy
As fentanyl’s painful death toll grows in Santa Cruz, taking young lives, it’s time for meaningful solutions
The stories of loss from mothers Sophie Veniel and Carrie Luther inform a much larger picture of fatal fentanyl overdoses. Lookout’s monthlong dive into the rise of fentanyl-related deaths locally finds a lack of cohesive attention paid to this post-pandemic epidemic, as local officials plan a Monday town hall to assess and troubleshoot new strategies. Our three-part series begins today.
Posted inLatest News
The push to get children vaccinated is stalling. It poses new COVID-19 dangers
Despite months of outreach and on-the-ground efforts, the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for young children remains stuck in neutral — prompting experts to say more needs to be done to inform parents about the benefits of inoculation.
Posted inLatest News
California backs away from COVID vaccine mandates for kids
The state decides it won’t require COVID vaccines for children this fall, and a bill to mandate kids vaccines without personal belief exemptions stalls out.
Posted inK-12 Education
California senator proposes checks for low-income, homeless high school seniors
A state senator wants to send no-strings-attached checks to homeless high school seniors in California, where basic income programs are beginning to “feel a lot more like a movement.”
Posted inEnvironment
The avian soap opera unfolding atop this Berkeley bell tower has humans riveted
Nesting in UC Berkeley’s bell tower, peregrine falcons Annie and Grinnell always seemed to soar above the world of human drama. In the past year, all that changed.
Posted inEducation
Without SAT, ACT, what’s next for Cal State admissions?
Cal State joined the University of California in ending its use of an admissions test for freshmen. Now the system is creating a new set of eligibility criteria, the first change since 1965. The plan is to focus on student high school grades and life experiences.
Posted inK-12 Education
Welcome to the TK challenge: Transitional kindergarten comes with benefits to families, difficulties for administrators
California’s transitional kindergarten program is expanding to include all 4-year-olds by 2025-26. Santa Cruz County school officials say this is going to be a challenge, but that it will have an overall positive impact on families and schools.
Posted inK-12 Education
Marion Joseph, who changed the way California children learned to read, dies
Marion Joseph’s advocacy and work in the 1980s and ‘90s helped shape how children in California are taught to read.
