Topics: Education, News, School, US News, California
If you were paid to go to school, your attendance might go up a fair bit.
Well, that's what this program hopes for.
Most people spend the first 18 years of their life in education. While it is normal as can be, it can prove to be quite draining and some days students struggle to find the motivation to even show up.
Well, a pilot group of Oakland Unified School District students in California have been getting $50 a week to go to school... but like all things there is a bit of a catch.
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The 10-week program is being run by a group known as the Equitable Design Project and it has 100 students across seven school sites enrolled in it.
But if students want to get the money they’ll have to attend class five days a week and can’t be late or skip any. If they do, they'll miss out on the dollar.
As well as this students must meet with a program leader each week as well as complete short mental health and experience in the classroom assessment every week.
This program isn’t exactly new and has been in affect for the last two years and operates for the final 10 weeks of the school year for high schoolers.
The students that had been signed up to the program had quite a reputation and record of severe absenteeism, with many of them being unhoused or having unstable living conditions.
According to San Francisco Chronicle, Zaia Vera, a leader of the project and the head of social emotional learning at Oakland Unified, explained that the program was aimed to help these students and create good relationships to ensure they get a full education.
Vera said: "The money is a hook that gets them into school. It’s the relationships, it’s being valued that keeps the students in school."
Kevin 'AJ' Goines, who helps high schoolers navigate academics, attendance and social emotional growth in Oakland Unified also explained how the money was expected to keep the students geared towards their studies and in the classroom.
He said: “There’s some families and students where there are huge barriers that are causing their truancy.
“[They would say] ‘I don’t have money for the bus’ or in some cases, ‘I don’t have a proper jacket, and it’s cold and it’s raining’.
“Those were the things that we just didn’t have answers for.”
Following two years of trying out the program, the school district claimed absenteeism has been cut by half.
The program uses funds from a $200,000 grant from Education First, a national education policy organization, with financing from the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and the NoVo Foundation.
