City, school districts partner to prevent summer slide for thousands of students
This post is one in a series, Sacramento for All, highlighting what the City of Sacramento is doing under the leadership of Mayor Darrell Steinberg to lift all its neighborhoods and residents. All told, the City has spent about $80 million over the last year and a half from Measure U and the federal CARES Act stimulus bill to help struggling neighborhoods, provide activities and training for youth, help Sacramento families, reduce homelessness and create more affordable housing Another $42.1 million in federal stimulus funds remains to be allocated.
This year’s summer slide could be far worse than a typical year. Experts are predicting that the combined learning loss of school shutdowns and distance learning will have an enormous negative impact, particularly for students in at-risk categories. This is why local school school districts and the City of Sacramento have partnered on funding aggressive summer learning initiatives throughout the city. Elk Grove Unified, Natomas Unified, Sacramento City Unified and the Sacramento County Office of Education are providing learning enrichment, distance learning enhancements and social-emotional support for thousands of students in the Sacramento area. The programs are all currently in session and the initial estimates from the school districts estimated they would serve nearly 7,000 area students in our highest need populations.
On May 26, the Sacramento City Council allocated up to $2 million in CARES Act funding for Youth, Parks & Community Enrichment to work with the school districts. The school districts outlined specialized learning and enrichment programs that would mitigate “summer slide” and a host of other activities that will support students through a summer marred by the COVID-19 pandemic. School districts also provided at least a thirty-three percent match in funding. Some districts are also funding community organizations to expand and enhance their summer initiatives.
The Northwest Evaluation Assocation (NWEA), a research-based not-for-profit organization that creates academic assessments for students pre-K-12, estimates that students will return in fall 2020 with roughly 70% of the learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year.
Natomas Unified’s Early Start program is focusing on remediation for students that have had difficulties with distance learning platforms and providing additional mental health support for students with counseling focused on depression, anxiety, trauma, and recognizing and managing emotions. Sacramento City Unified is partnering with community-based providers like Rose Family Creative Empowerment Center to mitigate summer learning loss by creating activities that raise awareness of and build skills around accessing mental health resources; and provide transition activities for school re-entry.
In addition to the $2 million in CARES Act funding, approximately $800,000 in frozen salaries from the City of Sacramento was reallocated for continued funding of RydeFree RT program, which allows students to ride public transportation for free.
