Attendance for all students is important, but one could argue that attendance in preschool through 3rd grade is critical. Yet, data shows that P-3 students have among the highest rates of chronic absenteeism when compared to their older peers. Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10% or more of the school year. That’s just two days a month or a minimum of 18 absences per school year. Chronic absenteeism is calculated by collecting all absences that make up excused, unexcused, suspension days, and incomplete independent study contracts. Chronic absenteeism contributes to inequities like reading proficiency by 3rd grade, peer relationships, and school connectivity.

As we explore our P-3 systems, it is important that we work with our families and educational partners and lean into problem solving and supports that result in increased student attendance. Messaging and communicating attendance to your school communities in a concentrated, focused, and ongoing way can help improve attendance rates and grow community knowledge around attendance. Attendance Works offers many resources and tools that can help support your positive attendance initiative.

Join SDCOE virtually on Oct. 18 for a two-hour boutique training around chronic absenteeism. See below for more information.

Your partners in education,

The SDCOE P-3 Team

This session is designed for P-3 educators to learn more about specific strategies that will work to support chronic absenteeism beginning with our earliest learners. Come and collaborate with educators across San Diego County and develop an initial action plan that focuses on communication and relationships as we work to interrupt chronic absenteeism.

Register to attend the Importance of Attendance in Your P-3 System from 2 to 4 p.m. on Oct. 18.

Investigate powerful P-3 practices at the P-3 Administrator Institute. All district and school administrators are invited to a two-day institute to develop and explore their P-3 system. This institute provides intentional, in-depth time for participants to examine their current strengths and opportunities within their P-3 system in order to make actionable and relevant site-based changes. This exciting opportunity will foster learning, collaboration, and action planning to build a cohesive P-3 continuum. Come and leverage county partners in this exciting work. Please access the Oct. 12- 13 and March 14-15 registration links to learn more.

The SDCOE P-3 team is offering a professional learning session to support educators with TK classes on their sites. This accelerated session will provide a high-level overview on what to expect in TK classrooms.

Participants will learn:

Register and get more information on the Oct. 17 offering.

Registration for Cohort 3 is now closed. Due to high demand, we are excited to announce that we are currently enrolling for the SDCOE TK Pathway: Cohort 4. This pathway is designed for multiple subject credentialed teachers who are looking to increase their capacity in working with our youngest learners and will support them with meeting the 24 Early Childhood Education (ECE) unit requirement to teach TK. For those that want to participate, we need each individual to fill out the registration form as soon as possible as registration closes Sept. 15. Course 1 of Cohort 4 begins Oct. 1.

The Expanded Learning Opportunities program provides funding for after school and summer school enrichment programs for kindergarten (including TK) through 6th grade as described in California Education Code Section 46120. Commencing with the 2023-24 school year, local educational agencies shall be subject to an audit to determine compliance with specific program requirements (Education Code Section 46120(c)(1)). An audit guide is expected soon. For additional information, please reference this Education Code.

Trauma-Responsive and Resilience-Building Practices for Early Childhood Educators provides an overview on the neurobiology of trauma and the impact of toxic stress on a child and adult. Participants will be introduced to the science of resilience and neuroplasticity in order to support and understand the difference between a challenging behavior and trauma trigger. This offering is geared toward early childhood educators working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary-aged children to understand trauma as well as its impact on young children’s brains, behavior, learning, and development. Participants will learn a range of trauma-responsive and resilience-building teaching strategies that educators can use to create strength-based environments that support children’s health, healing, and resiliency.

SDCOE offers a number of professional development opportunities on a variety of topics for preschool, infant/toddler teachers and administrators, and family child care providers. The workshops are intentionally offered to align to program quality goals and build upon existing skills. Check out the Early Education Professional Development catalog to explore how the workshops are differentiated by levels of expertise and target audience.

For registration or workshop questions, please email the SDCOE Early Education team.

GLAD® is an instructional model for TK-12 that supports the vision of the California English Learner Roadmap policy by strengthening educational programs and practices for English learners. Project GLAD® supports the implementation of integrated and designated English language development. This model provides full and meaningful access to an education that results in attaining high levels of language proficiency and mastery of grade-level standards. Visit the SDCOE Project GLAD® website for learning opportunities for both teachers and administrators.

The Writing Redesigned for Innovative Teaching and Equity (WRITE) courses introduce TK-12 educators to culturally and linguistically responsive instructional practices, with an emphasis on integrated literacy and equity-centered design. During the four synchronous, two-hour meetings and applied projects, teacher leaders build their capacity to support site and district implementation through dynamic learning. The asynchronous course component (approximately one hour per week) includes readings, relevant online discussions, and applied projects. The courses are aligned to California writing standards and support teachers to design for equity in the following content areas: English language arts/English language development (ELA/ELD), Spanish language arts/Spanish language development (SLA/SLD), Spanish/Spanish for Spanish speakers, history/social science, science, and career technical education. Professional learning credit available.

The SDCOE professional development calendar highlights offering that may be a good fit for you and/or your staff.

The California Department of Education (CDE) Early Education Division is excited to share that the required 2022–23 Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) Planning and Implementation Program Reports for local educational agencies (LEAs) are available for completion. The purpose of these reports is to collect the responses to the required questions from the updated 2022–23 UPK Planning and Implementation Grant Planning templates. The information collected from these required reports will inform CDE on UPK implementation and will help identify what additional support may be needed for LEAs and COEs to support UPK implementation.

The CDE is collecting answers to the updated 2022–23 UPK Planning and Implementation Grant questions found in the updated LEA template and the updated Countywide Planning and Capacity Building template.

Template link:

Program Report link:

SDCOE's grant team keeps an updated list of grant opportunities based on topic. For more information about grant opportunities and applying for grants, visit the SDCOE Grants webpage.

Our goal at SDCOE is to gather and share the most current and relevant content for the implementation of UPK and establish a network across San Diego County. Subscribe here to the SDCOE Universal Prekindergarten newsletter. Access archived issues.