Report 2019-104 Recommendation 8 Responses

Report 2019-104: Youth Experiencing Homelessness: California's Education System for K-12 Inadequately Identifies and Supports These Youth (Release Date: November 2019)

Recommendation #8 To: Gridley Unified School District

To comply with federal law and best practices, Gridley should, before academic year 2020-21, ensure that school staff who provide services to youth experiencing homelessness receive training as federal law requires. Further, as set forth in best practices, the LEA should provide this training at least annually, and the training should include the definition of homelessness, signs of homelessness, the impact of homelessness on youth, and the steps an LEA should take once school staff has identified a youth as possibly experiencing homelessness.

1-Year Agency Response

In the spring of 2020, we contracted with McKinney-Vento.org, an online provider of state-specific trainings for school staff, to provide access to our district to their library of online and trackable trainings for school personnel that were targeted toward different aspects of school personnel, with separate modules for administrators, food service personnel, transportation, enrollment, counselors, teachers, coaches, etc. This resource was brought to our attention through the county School Ties office as a solution for ours needs. In the early implementation there were a number of issues with the technical implementation of this that were not fully resolved until after the start of the school year. In communication with the company's new quality assurance supervisor, these have been ironed out and Gridley Unified personnel had the trainings available and have begun completing them in late October 2020. Through the software interface, we can track who has completed which trainings and help ensure that all staff complete their training. All staff members were provided with a welcome letter, a self-registration link, and an overview of the expected completions: Minimally the core overview video of about 11-12 minutes to McKinney-Vento, the 4-10 minute video specific to their job title, and then the completion quiz (4-6 questions) to complete their certification.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

We have completed a contract with McKinney-Vento.org, a nationwide provider of McKinney-Vento trainings, to provide job-specific trainings to the various classes of employee at our district. This approach was taken to tailor the trainings to the type of expected interactions that various employee types may have over the course of a school year. At this writing, we are in process of account setup for the district administrators and prepping to train them in monitoring employee completion of trainings. Once we have access to the full suite of trainings, the Special Projects Coordinator position will ensure that all employees receive the general orientation to McKinney-Vento as indicated in the audit findings as well as their job-specific module. This training is all online, and even if schools remain closed to due COVID, this should have no impact on our ability to complete the trainings when employees return to work in August of 2020.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

We have secured the services of an online provider of McKinney-Vento training, tailored to the needs of various staff members from teachers, to administrators, to custodial. All staff will be required as part of the back-to-school process to complete the training modules to increase their awareness of identification and service to M-V students. Key personnel such as administrators, counselors and secretaries will receive additional face to face instruction from the LEA's M-V coordinator(s) around additional aspects of their roles.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2019-104

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.