"2023 has been a tough year for K12 cybersecurity, and some states and local education entities are not taking it as seriously as they should," says Tim Chadwick, chief information security officer at LINQ.
Data suggests that we've already surpassed last year's record-high 305 incidents of a shooting occurring on school grounds. This expert says school leaders "have an obligation" to prepare for and prevent these inevitable situations. "We're not going to solve a problem with a technology or hardware product," he says. "Any security technology and target hardening will only be as good as the weakest human links behind them."
California's forthcoming Master Plan on Career Education will, among other steps, help incoming high school students begin exploring well-compensated careers—including professions that don't require college degrees.
The most effective solutions start long before a student begins thinking about committing self-harm, says Brandy Samuell, a former K12 administrator who is now director of product management at eLuma, a teletherapy provider.
While CFOs and federal programs directors have done a good job guiding districts through the last three years of budget tailoring, now it's time for superintendents, cabinet members and board members to take a longer-term, strategic approach to ensure that only the most effective strategies—those with the strongest (LOI)—are retained as resiliency is drained from the system.
This fall in Tucson, teacher shortages and superintendent longevity were top of mind but so were issues—such as test scores—that haven't been getting as much attention as of late.
"There were no traditions or routines yet," Principal Ahna Davis says of Cabot Freshman Academy. "We got to create the school that we wanted. Ten years later, it is still a fantastic school!"
If his school community had to choose between himself and its nine therapy dogs, David Snowden of the Franklin Special School District jokes that "the director of schools would have to go."
Districts are raising salaries, building apartments and giving teachers more planning time. But, with superintendents warning of worsening staff shortages, districts may be overlooking another solution: student teaching.
