Weekly Update 2/13/23

California

California has expanded the eligibility for its Mortgage Relief Program…

In a letter to the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are asking the IRS to refrain from taxing inflation-relief payments sent to more than 31 million Californians as the agency is poised to release guidance on the taxation of several states’ rebates…

According to California’s Homeless Data Integration System, from 2017 to 2021, California’s overall senior population grew by seven percent, but the number of people 55 and over who sought homelessness services increased 84 percent—  more than any other age group…

President and Administration

On Wednesday, 2/8, the Internal Revenue System (IRS) announced that it selected a non-partisan think tank to help prepare a report on the potential development of a free tax return e-filing system…

 According to new data from the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC), after two consecutive years of declines in suicide (47,511 in 2019 and 45,979 in 2020), 2021 data indicates an increase in suicide to 48,183, nearly returning to the 2018 peak (48,344)…

Congress

On Wednesday, 2/8, a bipartisan group of House members relaunched a "SALT" (State and Local Tax) caucus as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle prepare for another fight over scrapping a $10,000 limit on deducting state and local taxes…

Education

According to a new report, 45 percent of Black students considered stopping their coursework in 2022, weighing dropping out completely or taking a leave…

During the first full hearing of the House Committee on Education and Workforce on Wednesday, 2/8, the possible Pell Grant expansion was one of the main topics of discussion…

On Tuesday, 2/7, Federal Student Aid officials said that the new version of the Free Application of Student Aid (FAFSA) might not be ready by October 1, though the agency is planning to launch the application in the fourth quarter of this year…

Over 46,000 Arizona students now use an education savings account, which provides about $7,000 per child annually for a huge array of school services…

According to a recent State of the Student 2022 survey, undergraduate students are struggling to stay engaged in class…

Federal data shows that over the last decade, Mississippi had more corporal punishment incidents than any other state for every year data was collected…

An Indiana High School – Yorktown High School – is joining a growing number of schools and community organizations in the Indianapolis area using a new set of career skills “badges” that standardize what young people need to know…

St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Schools submitted an application for a new charter school in Oklahoma…

Weekly Update 2/6/23

California

In California, where about 15.2 million people are enrolled in its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, up to three million can potentially lose coverage because they no longer qualify or fail to re-enroll, state officials forecast…

There is a new push in California to not just stock school campuses with naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, but also allow students to carry and administer the drug…

According to state public health officials, children in California will not be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine to attend schools…

President and Administration

President Joe Biden will release his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year on March 9, 2023…

A coalition of major gun safety groups, including Brady United, Community Justice Action Fund, March for Our Lives and Newton Action Alliance, sent a letter to President Biden pressuring him to appoint a gun czar and declare a national emergency over gun violence…

In a bipartisan letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, 12 senators slammed the “repeated failures” of the FDA’s tobacco regulatory authority to take e-cigarettes that appeal to minors off the market…

On Wednesday, 2/1, the Department of Transportation announced that it will put forward a proposed rule that would require airlines to seat families together at no additional charge…

According to a new report, the U.S. would need to spend up to $1.3 billion to meet minimum standards for infrastructure to charge electric vehicles…

On Wednesday, 2/1, the Department of Labor reported that the nation’s demand for labor only got stronger in December as job openings rose to 11 million…

On Wednesday, 2/1, the Federal Reserve moved to increase interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, putting the borrowing rate between 4.5 percent and 4.75 percent…

The Biden administration plans to end the COVID public health emergency on May 11, as the U.S. shifts away from responding to the pandemic as a national crisis and instead manages the virus more like a seasonal respiratory disease…

The Agriculture Department is proposing new, stricter nutrition standards for America’s school meals…

According to a new poll commissioned by the National Parents Union, only 36 percent of parent voters believe the country is on the right track while 58 percent say it’s on the wrong track…

Congress

On Wednesday, 2/1, Axios led conversations with policymakers on the agenda for the newly minted 118th Congress…

On Sunday, 2/5, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that all U.S. senators will receive a briefing about China on Feb. 15, following the Biden administration's decision to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon off the Carolinas…

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) is demanding records from the Department of Education about certain Biden administration decisions regarding threats against school officials during the COVID-19 pandemic…

Student Loans and Repayment

Five former education secretaries, 128 House Republicans and 43 senators said in amicus briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that the Biden administration does not have the authority to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans for eligible Americans…

The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has a new brief examining how student debt affects retirees' financial security and how that would change under the Biden administration student debt plan…

Republican leaders of the House and Senate education committees want Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to extend the comment period on the proposed changes to income-driven repayment regulations…
Education

According to a new report from the Department of Education (ED), more than 18 million college students received federal COVID-19 emergency funds in the last two years—money that helped them stay in college and cover the cost of basic needs…

According to new data released by the Lumina Foundation, the national share of working-age Americans who hold college degrees increased across racial and ethnic groups and rose in all states between 2019 and 2021…

According to a study released in January 2023, the Connecticut Learner Engagement and Attendance Program (LEAP) made a significant difference in reducing absenteeism, particularly with secondary school students…

According to a new analysis from the National College Attainment Network, nearly $3.6 billion in Pell Grants was not claimed by eligible high school seniors last year…

Public Safety & Justice Update - Tyre Nichols 2/3/23

The Memphis officers charged in the death of Tyre Nichols were part of an elite unit called “Scorpion” meant to patrol high-crime neighborhoods…

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) said the brutal footage of Memphis police beating Tyre Nichols demonstrated the need for "a national conversation" on law enforcement…

Family gathered with hundreds of mourners for Tyre Nichols’s funeral on Wednesday, 2/1…

Body cameras worn by Memphis officers who stopped Tyre Nichols recorded his anguished cries and the conflicting orders that were virtually impossible for him to obey…

Memphis police first described what happened with Tyre Nichols as “a confrontation” following a traffic stop…

The death of Sacramento native Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police reverberated throughout California's capital city after footage was released last week…

Weekly Update 1/30/23

California

On Thursday, 1/26, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) launched his Senate campaign for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) seat…

Three civil rights groups – Disability Rights California, Western Center on Law & Poverty, and The Public Interest Law Project –  filed a petition to the California Supreme Court on Thursday, 1/26, challenging the constitutionality of the CARE Courts program, which Governor Newsom signed into law last year…

According to the Department of Water Resources, recent storms replenished California reservoirs enough for the State Water Project to provide six times more water to local agencies than state officials expected in December, fulfilling 30 percent of the agencies’ requests instead of five percent..

President and Administration

Valerie C. Williams, director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), released the second blog in a blog series on discipline and behavior…

According to a report by Home Care Pulse (HCP), the median caregiver turnover rate—or the percentage of all caregivers who left or were terminated from jobs—was about 64.9 percent in 2021…

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently released a new toolkit designed to help schools prevent and respond to cyber-attacks…

According to Bharat Ramamurti, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, the Biden administration is not preparing alternative proposals for canceling student debt in case the Supreme Court rejects its current relief program…

On Wednesday, 1/25, the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) released the Mass Attacks in Public Spaces: 2016 - 2020, a comprehensive report examining 173 incidents of targeted violence and highlighting the observable commonalities among the attackers…

On Tuesday, 1/24, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) issued marketing denial orders to two menthol e-cigarette products from R.J. Reynolds, which were Vuse Vibe Tank Menthol 3 percent and the Vuse Ciro Cartridge Menthol 1.5 percent…

On Wednesday, 1/25, the Biden administration announced new actions to increase fairness in the rental market and further principles of fair housing…

Education

The National Center for Education Statistics reported that students with disabilities on average scored 32 points lower in math and 40 points lower in reading than students without disabilities…

On Tuesday, 1/24, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced the ED’s “Raise the Bar: Lead the World” initiative for 2023 to promote academic excellence, improve learning conditions, and prepare students for a world where global engagement is critical to the nation’s standing…

At the beginning of 2022, Secretary Cardona called on schools to provide students who are academically behind with at least 90 minutes of tutoring each week…

 A report commissioned by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Ohio found that racial segregation of students tended to decline in school districts where more students were eligible to receive vouchers from the state…

The California State University system now has 25,000 fewer students enrolled than the state says it should educate…

Civil rights lawyers have expanded the scope of their class action lawsuit against the Fairfax County School Board and the Virginia Department of Education after more families came forward alleging the state had denied students their federally-mandated special education services…

Research has shown that alternative discipline approaches used by schools may not only reduce the prevalence of exclusionary discipline but also have positive effects on student and teacher perceptions of school safety…

Public Safety & Justice Update 1/27/23

President Biden said that police in the U.S. should be retrained to use deadly force less frequently in a speech about racial justice…

New York and Los Angeles police – the nation's two largest agencies – top the list of approximately 7,000 departments not reporting hate crimes to the federal government, according to a DOJ report….

Earlier this week, the Council on Policing Reforms and Race officially unveiled more than 50 research-informed recommendations to help address some of the most pressing issues facing policing and public safety…

A 67-year-old “disgruntled worker” shot and killed four people at a coastal farm and three more at another farming business near the heart of Half Moon Bay on Monday, 1/23, marking California’s second mass shooting focused on Asian Americans over two days…

On Saturday 1/21, a 72-year-old man carried out the fifth mass killing of 2023, the fifth time four or more people have been killed in a single incident in the United States…

A Supreme Court decision in June voided New York’s concealed carry law while also encouraging challenges to restrictions elsewhere — including California’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines…

California has mandatory waiting periods and background checks for gun purchases…

Officials at a Virginia school were warned on three separate occasions by teachers or employees that a six-year-old boy had a gun or had made threats, but failed to take action on the day he shot his first-grade teacher in class, an attorney for the teacher said…

In the three weeks since a first-grader in Virginia took his mother’s pistol to school and allegedly shot a teacher in the chest, the public has again asked why lawmakers have not done more to ensure that gun owners lock up their firearms…

The U.S. rate of gun homicides has increased in recent years, remaining a clear outlier for both civilian gun ownership and number of gun deaths among the world’s developed countries…

California is reeling from three major mass shootings in just over a week…

Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) reintroduced a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected last year that would curb use of long-term solitary confinement…

The Memphis Police Department fired five officers last week involved in an arrest that led to the death of a 29-year-old Black motorist Tyre Nichols earlier this month…

Diners at a Kentucky restaurant were outraged to see and hear what they believe was video footage showing the killing of Breonna Taylor at an event featuring John Mattingly, an officer involved in the 2020 raid, according to the local NAACP chapter…

Santa Clara County is among several areas critical of incarcerating girls and gender-biased youth (transgender, non-binary, and gender-biased youth)…

Classified documents were found in the home of former Vice President Mike Pence and turned over to the FBI for review…

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and states including California, New York, Colorado and Virginia filed a lawsuit against Google alleging they illegally monopolized the market for online ads through self-dealing, anticompetitive acquisitions, and forcing businesses to use multiple products and services that it offers…

The Justice Department announced 1/27 it had disrupted a notorious cybercriminal group behind ransomware attacks on more than 1,500 victims worldwide and millions of dollars in extorted payment…