to increase State funding for parental & family engagement.
A private after-school program called Kids First has spent the last year doing research on why kids drop out or do not go on to college. Douglas McGray of the LA Times writes that the answer is easy. Kids have no one to help guide them through the system.
Getting through high school in a large public school system is very confusing. Students often get frustrated because there is no one to guide them. California has the worse counselor to student ratio in the nation. It is 1 to 500. School counseling associations suggest 1 to 250 or less to be effective. So, it is no surprise that having double the recommended load makes counselors inaccessible.
Students say they give up and drop out because of the following:
- No information about scholarships and grants.
- Missed PSAT and ACT deadlines.
- No one talks to them until they are seniors and many opportunities have passed.
- Wrong classes were taken and now it is too late to correct the mistakes.
- No one explains how lower income families can find college affordable
- It may take a year to see the counselor.
Parents and families are essential to ensuring that students receive the necessary counseling and guidance to prepare youth for college and careers. The State of California mandates that families be provided with resources to enable them to proactively support their children's education through CA Education Code, Section 11502, yet this is sorely underfunded and unimplemented.
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