In honor of BIPOC Mental Health Month, here’s a good read about possible “summer slide” - not in learning but in student mental health – as well as suggestions for how to address it. 
Quotable & Notable
“From the moment they step into the school through graduation, they’re never really included. As a teacher, I purposefully included Black males in things we would do and I noticed a difference in engagement. I want to read about people who look like me... If I’m not seeing myself represented in literature, I’m not going to read as much.” 
who:
Kenny Smith, a former teacher who launched pilot program “Black Males Read and Play Too” in Akron, Ohio 

where:
Fact of the Week
A Care.com survey found that 72% of U.S. families spend at least 10% of their income on child care. Another half of families reported spending 20% of their income on child care. In contrast, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sets the affordability threshold for child care at 7% of income. 
Policy Radar
State 
Here is a good read about how one Ohio school district is meeting the requirements of a new dyslexia law finalized last year (HB 436). It underscores the vital importance of the implementation process of any piece of legislation. In this case, after bill passage and before the full enactment of requirements, Ohio formed a study committee, issued best-practice recommendations in the form of a dyslexia guidebook, then rolled out changes sequentially. Districts have to implement new changes including requirements first to test young children for signs of dyslexia and then later to provide services and monitoring to those students at risk of having it. Learning to read is a complex process and so is implementing a statewide mandate to diagnose, monitor, and treat possible reading conditions for hundreds of thousands of children.
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Federal 
Congress moved to finally extend nutrition waivers through the summer and next school year. As U.S. News and World Report explains, “The nutrition waivers, which were set to expire at the end of June, have provided schools with generous reimbursement rates and allowed them flexibility from complying with meal patterns and nutrition standard requirements. School nutrition directors say that the waivers have been crucial in allowing school meal programs to operate at all given the unpredictable landscape.” 
Events & Happenings
Urban Institute is hosting a webinar to support Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) lead agency staff, their research partners, and others in developing focused and feasible research questions. This webinar is the first in a series of new events, Building Your Data and Research Skills to Answer Policy Questions. Register here. 
Beyond the Buckeye State
The state legislature in Nevada approved a $50 million investment to help families afford child care. The Nevada Child Care Fund will expand income eligibility for child care assistance and lower copays for eligible families. 
 
This opinion piece, written by a director of staffing for a California nonprofit that operates child care centers, lays out three steps for California to mitigate its child care teacher shortage. The author recommends state-provided tuition reimbursement for early childhood education courses and materials; eliminating the high cost of teacher permits; and creating early childhood education teacher residency programs. 
What We're Reading
The Annie E. Casey Foundations shares three publications meant to describe the challenges faced by parenting students (that is, student parents attending postsecondary school) as well as ideas for how states can better support this population. 
 
The National Women’s Law Center published a report on the “state of child care,” examining state policies on child care income eligibility thresholds, parent copayments, data on waiting lists, provider payments, and much more.  
Research Round Up
Research from an OSU professor of social work found that federal nutrition programs may have benefits that extend beyond hunger prevention. Specifically, greater access to SNAP may be associated with fewer children in foster care and/or involved with a state’s child protective services. The study examined 14 years of data among 50 states and D.C., observing trends in states where SNAP policies became more generous, and subsequent trends in foster care and CPS cases in that state. The study was published in JAMA Network Open. 
This edition written by: Jamie O'Leary and Caitlin Lennon
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