The Learning Curve: A Breakdown of this Year’s Schools Guide

It’s finally here. Last week, we released our yearly “A Parent’s Guide to San Diego Schools.” It’s the only physical product we produce, and it takes a ton of work. Education is notoriously jargony, so each year, we use the guide to demystify aspects of the schools that may be confusing for parents.  

As always, the guide is totally free. You can head here to download it, or even pick up a physical copy at any of our nearly two dozen distribution partners across the county. Those are also listed at the link above.  

We also have five upcoming workshops where readers can meet us and talk about all things education. Make sure to come with questions. We can’t guarantee we’ll have all the answers, but we’ll do our best to make sure you leave more informed than when you came. 

Before you dig in, here’s a rundown of what this year’s edition covers.  

What You Need to Know About IEPs 

One of the most common questions I get as an education reporter is how to navigate Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs for short. Students with special needs are entitled by law to receive services that fit those needs. It’s all part of schools’ requirement to provide a “free appropriate public education” to all students, regardless of what a child’s disability may look like.  

That’s where IEPs come in. These plans are crafted in partnership with a student’s school district and are meant to ensure that all kids have the support they need to learn and grow. IEPs can look very different, but there are some hard and fast rules: districts need to review them every year and make any needed changes, and districts also have 60 days to perform IEP assessments. Often, however, kids wait far longer. 

So, to help navigate the confusing world of IEPs, we spoke to an expert, Moira Allbritton, a special education advocate and program specialist at Exceptional Family Resource Center. 

Chronic Absenteeism Is the Real Problem 

If you’re a longtime reader of The Learning Curve, or of my reporting in general, you’re probably tired of hearing about chronic absenteeism. I’ve been beating this drum for nearly a year. But after all that time, one thing is clear: chronic absenteeism is still a huge problem. That’s why we included an update of where things currently stand. 

Many districts, schools, and even the San Diego County Office of Education, have worked to confront the issue head on and employed research-backed methods in the process. That’s all great. Still, while schools have made halting progress in getting kids back into the classroom, it hasn’t been enough to reverse the tsunami of post-pandemic chronic absenteeism. Given the incredibly damaging results of missing out on so much instructional time, we likely don’t yet know the full toll chronic absenteeism will take on kids’ education and may not know for years to come. 

Everything You Need to Know About After-School Programs 

As the cost of living rises all around us, many working parents have been grappling with how to care for their kids when school gets out. It’s hard to overstate the dilemma for some parents. After-school care is expensive, and free options can be few and far between. So, we spoke to Laurie Han, the associate executive director for Child Care Resource and Referral at the YMCA, about what parents should be looking out for. We also created a helpful map that shows what, if any after-school care options districts round the county offer, and how long each district’s waitlist tends to be, if they have one.  

San Diego County Public Schools Data 

Last, but certainly not the least, is the mountain of data we compile about public schools throughout San Diego County. And when I say a mountain, I mean it. This year, we collected data on 8 factors at more than 720 schools, from enrollment to chronic absenteeism to graduation rates. We also analyzed all that data to create an additional five metrics that include how well schools are performing on state standardized tests and whether those scores are trending up, down or somewhere in between. This portion, which allows parents to see how their child’s school is performing, is always one of the most popular parts of the guide. 

We’re particularly proud of one metric, and that’s because we created it to tackle the one almost immutable fact about education: schools in wealthier communities perform better than schools in poorer communities. Our income vs. test score metric, which we crafted alongside the data gurus at the UC San Diego Extended Studies Center for Research and Evaluation, tries to decouple the intertwined factors of standardized test scores and family income.  

By controlling for income when analyzing test scores, we’re able to see how effective schools actually are at educating kids. You can read more about our boutique metric and the kinds of insights it allows us to glean here. 

Note: The whole purpose of this guide is to help parents navigate their children’s education, so naturally your feedback is vital. Is there something you want us to tackle next year? Is there something you wished we’d done differently? Shoot me a message and I’ll see what we can do. 

What We’re Writing 

• When San Diego Unified officials announced in June that the district was facing a budget deficit that could reach $182 million by the 2025-26 school year, some officials expressed confidence they could balance the books without resorting to layoffs. Now, one board member has confirmed that layoffs are coming. Just how deep the cuts are, however, is yet to be seen. 
• For years, residents of Altadena, the neighborhood that surrounds St. Augustine have complained about dangerous traffic they say is largely coming to and from the Catholic high school. Even after the city installed traffic calming measures, residents are upset about the school’s lack of willingness to work with the community.