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Oct 29th, 2008
California’s public education system is huge: more than six million students in about 9,500 schools, which are governed by almost 1,000 elected school boards and regulated by a complex education code. The schools are funded through a finance system largely controlled by the Legislature and governor. In California, schools vary in their grade-level configuration. Most elementary schools encompass K-5, middle schools 6-8, junior high 7-9 and high schools 9-12. With one of the most well educated populations in the country, Bay Area parents place a high priority on their children’s education. They also are involved in ensuring their children are prepared for future challenges and demand accountability from the educational system. Within the Bay Area, there are nine county offices of education that educate nearly 500,000 area school children. There are also many private and parochial schools in the Bay Area that provide diverse educational offerings. Educational Requirements California state law requires all minors ages six years and older to attend school, except for 16- and 17-year-olds who have graduated from high school or who have passed the California High School Proficiency Examination and obtained parental permission to leave school. Children younger than 16 years of age must attend school full time. Schools are generally required to provide a minimum of 180 instructional days. Further, the law specifies a minimum number of minutes of attendance by grade level. Several full-time and part-time alternatives to regular high school are available to 16- and 17-year-olds, including “continuation” classes, regional occupational programs and adult education courses. Kindergarten Kindergarten attendance is not required by law, but parents have the right to enroll their eligible children in public kindergarten once they have reached the appropriate age. Schools must admit children who have reached age five on or before December 2 of that school year. Admission must occur at the beginning of the school year or whenever a student moves into the school district. For more information regarding kindergarten enrollment, visit the Kindergarten web page at www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/em/kinderinfo.asp. First Grade In order to enter public school first grade in September, a child must reach age six on or before December 2 of the school year. Some exceptions may apply, but no child may be admitted to first grade who has not attained at least age five. Children who are at least five years old and are enrolled in a public school kindergarten may be placed in first grade at any time if they meet district criteria that demonstrate exceptionally advanced development for age. At the discretion of the receiving district, children transferring from one district to another, or from out-of-state, may be placed in the same grade in the receiving district as they were enrolled in the sending district. Children enrolling in public school after completing one year of a private-school kindergarten may be admitted to first grade at the discretion of the district. For more information regarding compulsory education and enrollment age, contact the State Elementary Education Office at 916-327-0857. Immunization and Health Checkup California law requires each child to have up-to-date immunizations. Children are exempt from immunization requirements when (1) their parents sign a statement at the school indicating that such immunization is contrary to their beliefs; or (2) the parents submit a statement from a physician indicating that immunization is not considered safe for the child. An exemption may be temporary or permanent and may be for specific or all vaccines. State law also requires each child’s family to provide, within 90 days of entrance into the first grade, a certificate documenting that the child has received a health checkup within the previous 18 months. Parents may waive the health checkup requirement because they do not want or are unable to obtain a health screening for their child. If the waiver indicates that the parents were unable to obtain such services, the reasons must be included in the waiver. Law requires school districts to exclude any first grader up to five days if the child has neither a health examination certificate nor a parental waiver 90 days after entering the first grade. All children under 18 years of age entering a California public or private elementary or secondary school for the first time, or transferring between schools, must present a written immunization record, including at least the month and year of receipt of each dose of required vaccines (or an exemption to the immunization requirements). Otherwise, the child will not be allowed to attend school. To meet California’s school-entry requirements, children entering kindergarten will need a total of five DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) immunizations; four polio immunizations; two MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) immunizations; three hepatitis B immunizations; and one varicella (chicken pox) immunization. Students entering seventh grade must show proof of three hepatitis B shots and a second measles (or MMR) shot. Students can be admitted if they have had at least the first in the three-shot hepatitis B series on condition that the remaining shots are completed when due. All students entering California schools from out-of-state must show proof of varicella immunization. Contact local county health departments for more specific information on requirements relating to the number of vaccine doses and the ages at which vaccines are to be given. In some cases, in addition to the month and year of the immunization, the day is also required. Some counties now require that students entering school at specific grade levels show the results of tuberculosis skin tests. For more information regarding immunization and health checkup requirements, contact your school district, county office of education or county health department. You may also view the California Department of Health Services Immunization Branch website at www.dhs.ca.gov/ps/dcdc/izgroup. High School Graduation and College Admission Graduation Requirements To receive a high-school diploma, students must fulfill state and district graduation requirements. State-mandated graduation course requirements, which are the state minimums, are as follows: three years of English; two years of mathematics (including Algebra I); three years of social science (including U.S. history and geography; world history, culture, and geography; one semester of American government; and one semester of economics); two years of science (including biology and physical science); two years of physical education; and one year of foreign language or visual and performing arts. Students successfully completing Algebra I in middle school must still complete a minimum of two years of mathematics in high school. Recognizing that these 13 years of preparation are state minimums, local school boards often set local graduation requirements that exceed these state-mandated requirements. Beginning in the 2005-06 school year, students are required to pass the California High School Exit Examination to receive a California high-school diploma. (Refer to the California Department of Education’s website at www.cde.ca.gov and click on Testing & Accountability for more information on this requirement and two methods of earning a high-school diploma or its equivalent: the California High School Proficiency Examination and the General Educational Development test.) College Admission Requirements Students planning to apply to a four-year California public university are required to complete course work that exceeds the state-mandated requirements for high school graduation. For high school students to be considered for selection to a campus of the California State University (CSU) system or the University of California (UC), they must complete the following: four years of college preparatory English; three years of mathematics, including algebra, geometry, and intermediate algebra; two years of history – social science; two years of laboratory sciences; two years of the same foreign language; one year of visual and performing arts; and one year of academic electives. The University of California recommends that students applying for freshman admission complete three additional years of advanced study, one each in mathematics, science and foreign language. The list of courses at each California high school certified by the UC system as meeting its freshman admission course requirements is located on the University of California website at https://doorways.ucop.edu/list. For additional information about the specific courses approved for admission by CSU and UC, review the admissions requirements for each system on the California Colleges website at www.californiacolleges.edu. The site also has extensive resources on planning for college. For more information on high-school graduation and college admission requirements, contact the Intersegmental Relations Office at 916-323-6398. The Graduation Requirements web page is at www.cde.ca.gov/63590. Charter Schools In California, charter schools are rapidly growing in popularity. Currently, more than 600 charter schools and eight all-charter districts are operating in California. Approximately 16 percent of these are conversions of existing schools, and 84 percent are new start-up schools. Charter schools are located throughout the state in 49 of California’s 58 counties and in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Student populations are diverse and tend to reflect the student populations of the districts in which the charter schools are located. Approximately 220,000 students are enrolled in charter schools in California, according to the California Department of Education. Charter schools may set admissions standards under the following conditions: • An existing private school may not be converted to a charter school. • A charter school must be nonsectarian. • A charter school may not discriminate, nor can it charge tuition. • No pupil can be required to attend a charter school, nor can teachers be required to work in a charter public school. • A charter school must have highly qualified credentialed teachers in all core subjects. Innovative charter schools are providing programs that offer everything from an emphasis on foreign languages to performing and fine arts. Some charter schools develop partnerships with other public agencies (such as the California Conservation Corps, county government agencies and local community colleges), and some provide specialized programs (such as a program to place students in work experience settings or a program of comprehensive family services). While most charter school students attend site-based programs with the look and feel of a traditional classroom, other students participate in programs with research-based alternative learning modalities (such as the Montessori methods) or programs that are tailored to the needs of the individual student (such as nonclassroom-based or independent and virtual programs). In some cases, charter schools focus on dropout recovery, providing a second chance to students who wish to pursue a California high-school diploma and who have not been successful in other settings. All charter schools must participate in the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program and other state assessments. Charter schools receive an Academic Performance Indicator like all other public schools. An interactive web–based map on the Charter Schools in California Counties web page, which affords the public easy access to specific information on charter schools, can be found at www.cde.ca.gov/ds/si/cs/ap1/imagemap.aspx. For more information regarding charter schools, contact the Charter Schools Division at 916-322-6029 or by e-mail at charterschools@cde.ca.gov. Additional information is also available on the Charter Schools website at www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cs and the U.S. Charter Schools website at www.uscharterschools.org. Year-Round Education As of October 2005, 19 percent of K-12 public school students were attending 1,430 schools that operated year-round schedules in 156 school districts. The effect, in terms of new school construction dollars saved as a result of multitrack, year-round education operation, is impressive. If 20 percent of the 700,141 multitrack, year-round education students are housed in excess of capacity at their school sites, then more than $2.2 billion in construction costs is avoided by the state and local school districts. Year-round education is an alternative way to construct the school calendar. Both traditional and year-round school calendars have approximately 180 days of instruction, or the same number of instructional minutes, but year-round calendars spread instructional and vacation periods throughout the year. For example, the most typical instructional/vacation year-round pattern is called the “60/20 calendar,” 60 days of instruction followed by 20 days of vacation, repeated three times during the school year. Year-round education can be single-track or multitrack. A single-track, year-round calendar simply changes the instructional/vacation sequence of the school year. All the students and staff are in school or on vacation at the same time. But a multitrack, year-round calendar does something quite different. It divides the entire student body and staff into four or five different tracks. A school using a four-track system has, at any one time, three of the four tracks attending school while the fourth track is on vacation. When the fourth track of students returns from vacation, another track leaves. Thus, the student population rotates in and out of school, one track replacing another on vacation, which allows the enrollment of the school to exceed It is possible to have a three-track, multitrack, year-round education calendar, called a Concept 6 calendar. Because this calendar has only 163 instructional days per year, schools presently using Concept 6 have until 2012 to find alternative ways to house students in excess of capacity. Schools not using Concept 6 calendars cannot adopt this calendar. Possible advantages associated with single-track, year-round education include its potential to (1) improve academic achievement by eliminating summer regression; (2) relieve teacher and student burnout; (3) provide new opportunities for teacher training; and (4) offer frequent remedial and enrichment programs during intersessions. However, as administrators try to achieve these potential benefits, they are faced with a number of challenges. For example, coordinating family vacations, maintaining full extracurricular and athletic programs, and lengthening the instructional year require sophisticated and sensitive planning. Colleges & Universities More than 35 colleges and universities comprise the Bay Area's world-class educational and research facilities. The National Research Council (NRC) rates the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and Stanford University as the two top-ranked graduate schools in the country. NRC also ranks programs in the biological and biomedical sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) among the nation's best. UCSF is one of the nation's top health, science and educational institutions and a world leader in advancing new techniques to diagnose and treat disease. UCSF's School of Medicine and School of Nursing maintain their high national rankings in the new annual survey of the best graduate schools published by U.S. News & World Report. Both rank in the top 10 in the nation. The University of San Francisco has been part of the community since 1855 and today continues its mission of training young people for positions of leadership in the community. The Wharton School is an extension of the University of Pennsylvania. The school offers top-quality management education to the region's business leaders and organizations. Alliant University continues to serve the area by providing educational programs in psychology. Four campuses throughout California have offered highly regarded programs for more than 25 years. City College of San Francisco, a public, two-year community college, offers credit and non-credit classes to 80,000 full- and part-time students at eight campuses and additional outreach locations throughout the city. San Francisco State University, which celebrated its centennial in 1999, has built a national reputation for addressing real-world issues through practical, applied research and scholarly work. Golden Gate University, which traces its origins to the founding of the YMCA in 1853, is an independent, multi-campus university that offers certificate and degree programs throughout California, Nevada, Washington and abroad. Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts is the largest regionally accredited, independent school of art and design in the Western United States. Established in 1929, the Academy of Art University is now the largest fully accredited private school of art and design in the nation. Increasingly, academy students are winning national art competitions and are recruited by industry leaders nationwide. Colleges & Universities in the San Francisco Bay Area Academy of Art University 79 New Montgomery St. Alliant University/CAPP 2728 Hyde St., Ste. 100 American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine 455 Arkansas St. American Conservatory Theater 30 Grant Ave. California College of Arts and Crafts 1111 Eighth St. Oakland Campus: California College of Podiatric Medicine 1210 Scott. St. California Culinary Academy 625 Polk St. California Institute of Integral Studies 1453 Mission St. Chapman University 2950 Buskirk Ave. Cogswell Polytechnical College 1175 Bordeaux Dr. Dominican College of San Rafael 50 Acacia Ave. Expressions College of Digital Arts 6601 Shellmound St. Golden Gate University 536 Mission St. Heald Business College 350 Mission St. Holy Names College 3500 Mountain John F. Kennedy University 100 Ellinwood Way Notre Dame de Namur University 1500 Ralston Ave. San Francisco Conservatory Of Music 1201 Ortega St. San Francisco Law School 20 Haight St. San Francisco State University 1600 Holloway Ave. San Francisco State University- College of Extended Learning Santa Clara University 500 El Camino Real Saybrook Institute 450 Pacific Ave., 3rd Flr. Sonoma State University 1801 E. Cotati Ave. Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720 University of California Hastings 200 McAllister St. University of California, San Francisco 505 Parnassus Ave. University of Phoenix 185 Berry St., Ste. 1600 University of San Francisco Golden Gate Ave. & Parker Ave. |
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