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UPDATE: Please provide written input on the Virginia History SOLs before the March 21st deadline. March 13th-March 21st, the Virginia Board of Education will host public hearings on the new proposed version of Virginia History Standards of Learning (SOLs) at six locations in Virginia . This is the opportunity for your voice to echo through history about the quality of instruction our children receive in the decades to come. Despite almost universal condemnation from parents, educators and the community, the revised and revisionist Virginia SOLs are moving forward . The new proposed standards are inadequate, requiring young children to understand developmentally inappropriate concepts. They emphasize a euro-centric history reminiscent of history curricula during Massive Resistance , ignore or minimize the history of our diverse communities, and do not reflect the ancestors of many of our children. Additionally, over 100 new standards have been added that teachers would have to scramble to cover them all, and would have to resort to requiring rote memorization rather than analytical and skill development. Even more egregious: there are factual errors, omissions of important historical information, and emphasis of political indoctrination over factual historical information. At a February 2023 meeting , the Board refused to consider the collaborative draft that would have merged the rushed content produced by the Youngkin administration with an August 2022 draft produced from years of work by over 600 professionals, parents, and teachers. The August draft of the revised standards is overwhelmingly preferred by parents and professionals. Right now, they are working with a January 2023 draft with a significant number of controversial changes and omissions . If you live in Northern Virginia, please plan join 4 Public Education before 6:30pm on Tuesday, March 14th at: The George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Hwy, Mt Vernon, VA 22121 If you live in another part of the Commonwealth, please contact us for support or contact local organizations in your community to ensure speakers for teaching truth at each of the regional meetings. If you cannot attend any of the meetings, please provide written comment here . Finally, if you haven’t already signed the petition Teaching Truth , please do so now. The petition with signatures will be presented during the hearing in Mount Vernon on March 14, 2023.

I'm an Arlington parent who wrote this email in the midst of several student tragedies engulfing Arlington Public Schools a few weeks ago. 4PE encouraged me to improve it by expanding on my thoughts and citing resources. Please feel free to use language from it in your own advocacy. -AC To: Superintendent Francisco Durán, Mary Kadera, Reid Goldstein, Cristina DiazTorres, David Priddy, Bethany Zecher Sutton Cc: "school.board", Engage Subject: SROs at APS Date: Thursday, February 16, 2023 1:32 PM Dr Durán and School Board Members: I am increasingly becoming concerned about the rhetoric coming to Arlington regarding bringing School Resource Officers (SROs) back after the tragedies at Wakefield and surrounding schools. I ask that the work of the SRO Working group be preserved. The SRO working group, as I understood it, was a balance of people who did and did not support SROs. Their recommendations reflected a thoughtful approach to police engagement in schools. It would be a shame to throw all of their work away because we finally experienced tragedy. In fact, from the outside looking in, it looks like both situations were decisively handled by school administration and ACPD. I reviewed the 2022 MOU as well, and while I would have liked to see more language regarding restorative practices and how ACPD engages specifically in certain situations (e.g., restraint), I think for our community, I don't see the need to revert to armed police people in schools again. Working off site is fine. I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what SROs actually do. They do not patrol hallways and bathrooms; and cannot get involved unless a crime has been committed. Their presence does not decrease the levels of drugs or crime in schools. And monitoring students during their free time at school can be easily accomplished by more staff anyway. And what are "safe schools" anyway? A place where students are monitored constantly so that nothing bad ever happens (which we all know adults can’t control)... or a place where every student feels safe to attain a free and appropriate public education? In the end, I do not want children criminalized for drug use. They need help and support, not a juvenile record. Your charge is to keep ALL students safe, including the ones who have generationally and systemically been traumatized by police presence in society. (E.g., Black students, the undocumented.) In your next budget, a longer term solution would be to hire more staff to monitor and address student behavior, and provide mental health and substance abuse counseling; and family/community wraparound services. Fentanyl is a crisis... but not in the way that the media is portraying. Like meth before it, it's an absolute epidemic in resource poor communities, particularly in Hispanic/Latine and other second generation immigrant communities. Regionally, most overdoses are happening in high free and reduced lunch (FARM) schools. All school violence has root causes in mental health, helplessness and “not being heard.” We do have trained staff who can address bullying, drug use, and making bad decisions. We just need more of them. I am sad that the events took place, and I'm glad the community is mobilizing. And I'm glad you're listening. Thank you. Thank you for listening. --Anjy Cramer En Español/ In Spanish If you would like to hear another Virginia parent's perspective about the opioid crisis and SROs in schools, please click here. Additional Resources: Arlington County FY2023 Adopted Budget: Police Department (ACPD). See pages 239-241 for SRO FY2022 budget and how it was reallocated. Arlington NAACP Branch Press Release on SROs (2020) Call for Action to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States of America. Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School and Community Violence. (2018, updated 2022). Can Restorative Practices Help to Reduce Disparities in School Discipline Data? A Review of Literature. Stewart Kline, Dana M. (2016) Mind the Gap: A Systematic Review of Research on Restorative Practices in Schools, School Psychology Review. Zakszeski, Brittany, and Laura Rutherford. (2021) Protecting the Flock or Policing the Sheep? Differences in School Resource Officers’ Perceptions of Threats by School Racial Composition, Social Problems. Fisher, Higgins, Kupchik, Viano, Curran, Overstreet, Plumlee, Coffey. (2022) NAACP Resolution, School Resource Officers (2018) School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Role of School Resource Officers (SRO). Excerpt from Research Anthology on Interventions in Student Behavior and Misconduct. Keenan, Sheri, and Jeffrey Rush. (2022) The Thin Blue Line in Schools: New Evidence on School-Based Policing Across the U.S. By Sorensen, Acosta, Engberg, and Bushway, of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. (2021) We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police-Free Schools. Advancement Project and the Alliance for Educational Justice.

Redacte este correo electrónico en medio de varias tragedias estudiantiles que afectaron a las Escuelas Públicas de Arlington hace unas semanas. 4PE me obligó a mejorarlo ampliando mis pensamientos y citando recursos. Por favor, siéntase libre de usar el lenguaje de este en su propia defensa. -A.C. De: Anjy Cramer Para: Superintendente Francisco Durán, Mary Kadera, Reid Goldstein, Cristina DiazTorres, David Priddy, Bethany ZecherSutton Cc: "school.board", Engage Asunto: SRO en APS Fecha: jueves, 16 de febrero de 2023 13:32 Dr. Durán y miembros de la Junta Escolar: Cada vez me preocupa más la retórica que ha tomado Arlington con respecto a traer de vuelta a los Oficiales de Recursos Escolares (SROs) después de las tragedias en Wakefield y las escuelas aledañas. Pido que se conserve el trabajo del grupo de trabajo SRO. El grupo de trabajo de SRO, tal como lo entendí, era un equilibrio de personas que apoyaban y no apoyaban a las SRO. Sus recomendaciones reflejaron un enfoque reflexivo sobre la participación policial en las escuelas. Sería una pena tirar todo su trabajo porque finalmente vivimos la tragedia. De hecho, desde afuera, parece que ambas situaciones fueron manejadas con decisión por la administración escolar y ACPD. También revisé el MOU de 2022, y aunque me hubiera gustado ver más lenguaje sobre prácticas restaurativas y cómo ACPD se involucra específicamente en ciertas situaciones (por ejemplo, restricción), creo que para nuestra comunidad, no veo la necesidad de revertir a policías armados en las escuelas de nuevo. Trabajar fuera del sitio está bien. Creo que hay un malentendido fundamental de lo que realmente hacen las SRO. No patrullan los pasillos ni los baños; y no puede involucrarse a menos que se haya cometido un delito. Su presencia no disminuye los niveles de drogas o delincuencia en las escuelas. Y monitorear a los estudiantes durante su tiempo libre en la escuela puede lograrse fácilmente con más personal de todos modos. ¿Y qué son las "escuelas seguras" de todos modos? ¿Un lugar donde los estudiantes sean monitoreados constantemente para que nunca pase nada malo (que todos sabemos que los adultos no pueden controlar)... o un lugar donde cada estudiante se sienta seguro para obtener una educación pública gratuita y apropiada? Al final, no quiero que los niños sean criminalizados por el uso de drogas. Necesitan ayuda y apoyo, no un registro juvenil. Su cargo es mantener a TODOS los estudiantes seguros, incluidos los que han sido traumatizados generacional y sistémicamente por la presencia policial en la sociedad. (Por ejemplo, estudiantes de color, indocumentados). En su próximo presupuesto, una solución a más largo plazo sería contratar más personal para monitorear y abordar el comportamiento de los estudiantes y brindar asesoramiento sobre salud mental y abuso de sustancias; y servicios integrales familiares/comunitarios. El fentanilo es una crisis... pero no en la forma en que los medios lo presentan. Al igual que la metanfetamina antes, es una epidemia absoluta en las comunidades de escasos recursos, particularmente en las comunidades hispanas/latinas y otras comunidades de inmigrantes de segunda generación. A nivel regional, la mayoría de las sobredosis están ocurriendo en las escuelas con alto contenido de almuerzo gratuito o reducido (FARM, por sus siglas en inglés). Toda la violencia escolar tiene raíces en la salud mental, la impotencia y el “no ser escuchado”. Contamos con personal capacitado que puede abordar la intimidación, el consumo de drogas y la toma de malas decisiones. Sólo necesitamos más de ellos. Me entristece que se hayan producido los hechos y me alegra que la comunidad se esté movilizando. Y me alegra de que se les esté escuchando. Gracias. Gracias por su atención. Sinceramente --Anjy Cramer En Inglés / In English

Like many in my upper middle-class community, I felt that my family was immune from drug addiction, but when my daughter was a senior in high school, we discovered that wasn’t true. At Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia my daughter was arrested for having a can of beer in her locker. It seems that she was drinking at school, the Student Resource Officer (SRO) was notified, her locker was searched, she signed a confession, and she was arrested, all before I, as her mother, was even notified there was an issue at school. As a result, a judge sentenced her to a drug treatment center where she ended up being introduced to heroin by her new friends. Somehow my daughter was able to graduate from high school, but the next eight years were traumatic for her and our family as her addiction spiraled out of control. Over those eight years she attended numerous treatment facilities, psychiatric hospitals, and recovery houses. How many? I can’t say – we stopped counting at twenty-five. During those years, my daughter lost many friends to fatal overdoses. Once, my daughter was abandoned on the side of the road instead of her “friends” calling for help, because they thought she had died from an overdose and were afraid to be implicated. Through some miracle, she was administered naloxone (an opioid overdose treatment), was taken to the emergency room, and survived her overdose. She entered recovery….again. There, she had some friends relapse and discovered a roommate dead from a fatal overdose. Despite all of these crises, our family has been one of the lucky ones. Not only did our daughter survive an overdose, but she eventually found recovery and is now a successful professional working on an undergraduate degree. I don’t know why our family was spared when so many others lost their loved ones. I thank God every day that we have this time with her. Parents ask me for advice about their own child who is using dangerous drugs. I don’t have a solution for them, but I can share some of what I learned through our experience: Tough Love did not work: Early on we were told to use “tough love” but trying to control someone using physical violence, abuse, or humiliation did not sit right with us. Not only does that approach not work, it can exacerbate the problem because drug use is often used as self-medication by people who experienced trauma or who are in mental anguish. Setting Boundaries were critical: We had younger children, so for their safety and our peace of mind we set boundaries on what we would and would not accept, such as the conditions under which our (then) adult child could live in our house, and what would happen if the conditions were not met. Sometimes she failed, but we tried to soften her landing while keeping our boundaries intact. Unconditional love underwrote her success: The biggest realization we had was that we had to keep loving our daughter unconditionally for who and where she was in her life, whether or not she could stay away from drugs. This was hard. It took time and practice for our family to do this. Nevertheless, it was clear to us that loving a person where they are, without conditions, is one of the most important ways to help someone with a substance use disorder. It is possible to show them love without enabling their self-destructive behavior. As of 2020, SROs are not allowed to question and arrest students without a parent notification. Surely this change has protected students from what happened to my family. Hopefully, it has also slowed the school to prison pipeline fed by arrests in high school. It is painfully clear from our experience that communities must carefully consider the role and training of SROs in their schools. If the role of SROs is to both protect and nurture students, SROs can be a positive force in the schools. However, if SROs role is to arrest or discipline students who are themselves victims of addiction without offering opportunities for counseling, intervention, and support, then they will become part of the problem rather than part of the solution to addiction and drug overdoses. In recent years substance use has become prevalent in high schools, and the number of both fatal and non-fatal overdoses have skyrocketed, traumatizing communities and bringing unbearable pain to affected families. We must find ways to better protect our children from substance use disorders and addiction, but also, we also to protect them from the harm that can come from overly aggressive law enforcement. If you would like to hear another Virginia parent's perspective about the opioid crisis, SROs, and violence in schools, please click here. Further Resources about Opioids and Substance Abuse in Teens Fairfax County Public Schools. Webinar and resources Schools Respond: Substance Abuse in Teens Panel Webinar. Northern Virginia Family Network Consejos para adolescentes: la realidad sobre los opioides. US Department of Health and Human Services. (2019–Spanish version) Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools. Justice Policy Institute. (2022) Evidence-Based Resources About Opioid Overdose. US Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy School Success Stories: Upshift Program. Deschutes County, Oregon. (2022) Opioid Overdoses Continue; Learn How to Get Help. Fairfax County Government. (2023) The Role and Preparation of School Resource Officers. D.A.R.E. (2021) Tips for Teens: The truth about Opioids. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2019)

The 2023 General Assembly adjourned on Saturday, February 25th. During this session, things played out as predicted for a divided legislature where each party blocked efforts of the other party which resulted pretty much with the status quo as a result. Regarding 4 Public Education’s priority bills, all the bills we opposed failed, but most of the bills we supported also failed with two exceptions: A bill to increase mental health resources in K-12 went to conference but was ultimately passed by both of the chambers after the House amendment was rejected. A bill that would have increased teacher compensation was amended by a House amendment to instead form a working group to study the feasibility of raising teacher compensation. Thus, even with a surplus budget and as Virginia struggles to fill positions, our legislature delays on raising pay for teachers. The General Assembly adjourned without a budget agreement. The House and Senate budget proposals show quite different priorities. The House supports spending Virginia’s surplus revenue on Governor Youngkin’s proposed $1 billion in tax cuts for corporations and wealthy citizens, in addition to his $4 billion in tax cuts last year for the corporations and wealthy individuals. The House also supports a generous increase in funding for the Governor’s lab schools, even though the legislature (once again) voted down the bill for lab schools. In contrast, the Senate budget proposes fully funding K-12 education and providing no more funding for lab schools. It is worth noting that a generous amount was earmarked for Lab Schools in last year’s budget although the bill on lab schools had been defeated. Only a portion of last year’s funding for lab schools has been spent so far. Although the legislators left Richmond without reaching a resolution on the budget, they did pass a “skinny budget” as a stopgap that fixed the $201 million error made by Youngkin’s Department of Education this school year. The budget conferees will continue to work on the budget. When they reach a budget deal, the Governor is expected to call legislators back to a special session. At that time the budget will be finalized and the legislators will take up any bills that the Governor has vetoed. Until that happens, “At the Statehouse” will be on a much needed hiatus. Once again, we thank you for your support to help pass and defeat bills to ensure support and success of our students and educators. Photo Credit: Skip Plitt - C'ville Photography, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

After the General Assembly adjourns on February 25, 2023, all bills that pass both chambers will go to the Governor for his signature or veto; however, the General Assembly will reconvene on the sixth Wednesday after adjournment (April 6th) to consider any of the Governor's recommendations and vetoed legislation. Bills that are signed by the Governor will become law on July 1 of this year. Now the attention turns to the 2024 State Budget. The Governor provided his proposed budget, but the submitted House and Senate versions of the budget were radically different. The conferees from each chamber and party are in conference attempting to finalize the budget; however, the current versions remain highly dissimilar, with education issues as a prime area of disagreement. The Governor has demanded tax cuts, which has resulted in unacceptable funding for K-12 education. In contrast to both the Governor’s and House budget plans, the Senate budget more than doubles the funds for public schools and provides no additional money to Lab Schools. Please take a minute to answer our calls to action to encourage our legislators to ensure sufficient K-12 funding for Virginia’s public schools to ensure excellence and pass one more bill. Please ask our legislators to: Ensure high quality education by funding the revised Standards of Quality. Make meaningful investments in students’ education: increase support staff & infrastructure improvements. Prevent the diversion of k-12 public education funds from public schools. Support bill SB1043 to provide better mental health resources in Public schools. This bill passed the Senate and the House Committees and is now in the House for a vote. Of the many bills that were introduced this session, we identified 29 as priority education bills to either support or oppose. All twelve priority bills that we opposed were defeated. Also, we collaborated with dozens of other advocates to help defeat another bill, HB1461. Of the 17 education bills we supported, 13 were defeated. One bill SB1215, passed both chambers and will go to the Governor for signature (or veto). Two bills we supported, SB1257 and SB1268, were incorporated into SB1043, which passed in the Senate and the House committees, but is waiting to be heard by the full House. One bill, SB819, was withdrawn by its sponsor. The House has until February 25, the last day of the session, to approve that bill. Finally, we thank you for your support to help pass and defeat bills to ensure support and success of our students and educators. Photo Credit: Skip Plitt - C'ville Photography, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The 2023 Virginia General Assembly is coming to an end, yet Richmond continues to foment the culture wars by trying to remove history from our History curricula, funding from public schools, and social emotional support in our classrooms. All Virginians want true and complete history, fully funded schools, and healthy students ready to learn, yet there is little movement from Richmond on critical issues in our schools. Heck, the administration lost $201 million in public school dollars, yet it is still trying to privatize public school funds. Thankfully, many elected officials, leaders, and parents care about these issues, and are working together across our state and in every community to solve these critical issues while working to attract and retain qualified, caring, and skilled educators. However, these issues require funding for successful solutions, something that Richmond seems to want to take away from our public schools. At the same time, we will invite guest bloggers over the next couple of weeks to provide perspectives and resources on these crucial issues: There is a crisis of opioid addiction and increased fentanyl overdose deaths in our schools and communities. This is a national problem that requires multi-layered regional and local solutions that include parental awareness and involvement. Parents and teachers have reported increased bullying in our schools. A mental health crisis among students has hit an all time high per the CDC, which urges schools to invest in supporting struggling youth. Likely, these concerns are related. Our communities have tools and resources to address bullying and support mental health, but we need to move past divisive rhetoric, return to nuanced discussions, and look to the future of our students. The Virginia Department of Education has removed consequential history from our students’ curricula, despite “nearly universal condemnation from parents, educators, and the community.” We cannot let this stand. Please attend one of the six public hearings planned by the Virginia Board of Education. If you live in Northern Virginia, please plan to attend on Tuesday, March 14th, you can RSVP here on our event page and we will provide more information on how we can organize. We parents, educators, and citizens should be student-focused for student solutions. 4 Public Education wants to hear from you about what you see in your schools and community. Please share with us issues, solutions, and successes at info@4publiceducation.org.

The new, proposed, history and social studies Standards of Learning (SOL) are moving forward despite almost universal condemnation from parents, educators and the community. Along with 75 other speakers, 4 Public Education had three speakers at the recent Board of Education meeting in Richmond to denounce the proposal and to recommend the adoption of a previous version from August 2022. The new proposed standards are inadequate. They require young children to understand concepts for which their brains are not yet developed. They emphasize a euro-centric history reminiscent of the institution during Massive Resistance, ignore or minimize the history of our diverse communities, and lack reflection of the ancestors of many of our children. Additionally, so many new standards have been added (132) that teachers would have to scramble to cover them all, and would have to resort to requiring rote memorization rather than analytical and skill development. Even more egregious- there are errors, omissions of important information, and political terms are used. At the meeting the Board refused to consider an alternative, collaborative draft that would have merged the content produced by the Youngkin administration with the draft produced after years of work by over 600 professionals. That original draft of the revised standards is overwhelmingly preferred by many parents and professionals. The Board of Education is now planning public hearings on the new proposed version six locations in Virginia. The schedule for pubic comment dates and times-around the Commonwealth is can be found here. If you live in Northern Virginia, please plan to attend on Tuesday, March 14th, you can RSVP here on our event page and we will provide more information on how we can organize. If you live in another part of the Commonwealth, please contact us on organizing in your community we want to be sure we have speakers at each of the regional meetings. Finally, if you haven’t already signed the petition Teaching Truth, please do so now. The petition with signatures will be presented during the hearing in Mount Vernon on March 14, 2023. The text of the petition will be edited slightly as the status of the Standard of Learning changes. However, the content of the petition will not change. Your voice now will echo in the quality of instruction our children receive in the decades to come.

They work to include all students, no matter the income, race, country of origin, ability, or gender. Our schools work to support each child based on their needs and challenges to help them succeed in school and beyond. They offer diverse opportunities for each child to learn, play, and expand their horizons. Whether it is in school or after school, there is something to challenge and support each student. Our teachers are the most educated, committed, and experienced. Public schools attract the best teachers who are certified, trained, and supported to be the best teacher for each student. That is why Virginia public schools rank so well - #4 in the country. Virginia’s public schools offer a wide variety of classes and after-school activities including: foreign languages, vocational tech, advanced academics, special education, English as a second language, humanities, college-level courses, and more are offered at nearly every public school. Parents can choose to opt in or opt out of student programs, curricula, and services. Virginia’s public schools offer students the tools to be well-rounded individuals, which prepares them to be active members of our American society: ready to work; continue education; participate in democracy through informed voting; make wise decisions; and understand the social, economic, and legal rules of society.

Tuesday, February 7, 2023 was the Crossover deadline in Richmond for the 2023 General Assembly. Crossover is the last day for a bill to pass out of the chamber in which it was introduced and continue to be considered for passing in the opposite chamber, thus bills approved by the House go to the Senate for consideration and bills approved by the Senate go to the House for consideration after this date. The status of each bill on the day of the crossover deadline gives an early indication of the bill’s viability. If a bill has not made it out of committee by that day, it will probably be “left in committee” and not be considered further for in this 2023 session of the General Assembly. Tuesday, February 7th was crossover in the General Assembly. This session, of the 29 priority education bills we are following, we supported 17 and opposed 12. At crossover, six of the bills we supported passed that chamber, one was still being considered in the chamber where it was introduced, two had been incorporated into other bills, and six failed or were stricken by the patron. Of the 12 education bills we opposed, two passed the chamber where they were introduced, one had been incorporated into another bill, five had failed, and four were left in committee. For the rest of this week, bills that pass each chamber will be assigned to committees for consideration in the other chamber. Readers are encouraged to watch for Calls to Action to continue to support or oppose bills as they work their way through the other chamber. Also, one of Governor Youngkin’s appointees to the Virginia Board of Education was not confirmed. Suparna Dutta, of Fairfax Virginia, lost her bid for confirmation in a 22 to 18 vote. This leaves a vacant seat on the Virginia Board of Education. Photo Credit: Skip Plitt - C'ville Photography, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons