California's Children

SFUSD pulls trans-K off the fall '12 school schedule

2012-01-27T08:14:41-08:00

San Francisco Unified School District announced Wednesday that it will not offer transitional kindergarten (trans-K) in fall 2012 because of the uncertainties over the state budget. SFUSD will be the first school district to pull the plug on new grade, making the decision just 2 days before the deadline for families to submit first-round applications for school placement, reports Jill Tucker of the San Francisco Chronicle. Trans-K, established by the Kindergarten Readiness Act, is for children whose birthdays fall between September 2 and December 2; currently, these children can enroll in Kindergarten or wait a year before starting school. The...

It's official: $8 million in increased funding for CalWORKs Stage 3

2012-01-26T08:59:11-08:00

Contractors, administrators and providers of CalWORKs Stage 3 (non-federally funded subsidized child care for the final stage of welfare-to-work) received the following notice yesterday from Camille Maben, at right, director of the Child Development Division (CDD) of the California Department of Education (CDE): There have been reports in the field that a possible infusion of funding for Stage 3 could be imminent. We would like to confirm that $8 million in increased funding for Stage 3 is being identified as we speak, and the California Department of Education (CDE) will release details on this increase and the impact it will...

CA Supreme Court rules in favor of Los Altos' Bullis charter: district to blame

2012-01-26T08:56:01-08:00

UPDATE, January 25, 2012: The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of Bullis Charter School on Wednesday; it agreed with the decision of the appellate court for the Sixth District that the charter was not allocated adequate space under Propostion 39 by Los Altos School District, reports Sharon Naguchi of the Mercury News. The Supreme Court also denied a request to prevent other charter schools from citing the appellate ruling when requesting facilities from local school authorities. UPDATE, November 21, 2011: Los Altos School District (LASD) announced its decision last Wednesday to petition the state Supreme Court for a rehearing...

PFCs work against vax immunities in kids, Harvard research shows

2012-01-26T08:47:46-08:00

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), commonly used in Teflon, stain-resistant carpeting, rain gear, fast food packaging, and microwave popcorn bags, may hinder children’s immune responses to vaccinations, finds a study, "Serum Vaccine Antibody Concentrations in Children Exposed to Perfluorinated Compounds," reports Alice Park of Time. Researchers, led by Philippe Grandjean, at left, head of research for environmental medicine, University of Southern Denmark and adjunct professor, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, analyzed data on 578 children born at National Hospital in the Faroe Islands (Denmark) during 1999-2001. The location was chosen because PFC levels there were on the rise...

Pizza and fries are in; salt's out: new school lunch regs from USDA

2012-01-26T08:35:09-08:00

January 26, 2011: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rolled out the new changes to the National School Lunch Program yesterday, the first major nutritional overhaul of school meals in more than 15 years, reports Mary Clare Jalonick of the Associated Press. Sec'y of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and First Lady Michelle Obama ( at left, eating lunch with students from Parklawn Elementary, Alexandria, VA), announced the changes that begin to take effect this September and will be phased in over a 3-year period. The changes to school lunches will eventually include regulations regarding in-school breakfast and snacks. While pizza will...