Humboldt County Office of Education: Academic Tutoring | North Coast Cal-SOAP

Cal-SOAP is currently recruiting college students to work part time in the local middle and high schools, in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, as Academic and College Access Tutors for the academic school year. Pay starts at $15/hour. Paid training is provided, and we will work around your school schedule. This is great experience for anyone planning to go into teaching, social work, youth advocacy or other field that involves working with adolescent children. Apply today and make a difference in the lives of the students you work with!

Tutors meet with students in classrooms, afterschool homework centers or in college/career centers and provide academic tutoring and/or college/career advisement. They encourage students to be academically successful and to set realistic goals for pursuing higher education. Tutors are supervised by Site Coordinators, usually a high school counselor or other administrator, and overseen by a Cal-SOAP College and Career Services Technician.

Tutoring Sites include: Crescent Elk Middle School, Del Norte High School, Eureka High School, Ferndale Elementary, Ferndale High School, Fortuna Middle School, Toddy Thomas Middle School, Fortuna Union High School, South Bay Charter, Hoopa Valley High School, McKinleyville Middle School, Pacific Union Elementary School, Sunny Brae Middle School, Six Rivers Charter School, Arcata High School, Zane Middle School, and Zoe Barnum High School.

• Have completed at least one semester of college
• Be enrolled at least half time in a college or other post-secondary school as an undergraduate or graduate student (half time is 6 units for undergraduate and 3 units for graduate, per semester.)
• Have financial need as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
• Ability to meet with students, at least twice per week for a min. 2.5 hr. block of time, during their school day
• Ability and desire to be a positive role model for students
• Strong communication skills
• Reliable transportation
• A record of dependable work attendance
• Strengths preferred: Algebra and Geometry, or higher math

A Factsheet on the Impact of COVID-19 on Assessments and Accountability under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act addresses a range of concerns about how extended school cancellations and absences may affect school accountability.

In addition to the possibility of waiving testing requirements, the Education Department may consider a targeted waiver for schools that don’t meet the minimum student participation rate of 95 percent in state tests, the guidance says.

And the department will also consider targeted waivers for schools that see high rates of chronic absenteeism related to the coronavirus. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia include chronic absenteeism as a school quality indicator in their ESSA plans.

Guidance on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, outlines how schools can honor their obligations to student privacy while communicating with the public about COVID-19 or while sharing information with health agencies that are working to track its spread.

“Through information sharing and coordination with public health departments, educational agencies and institutions can help protect their schools and communities,” that document says.

Parents must provide consent before schools can release any personably identifiable student information publicly, it cautions, but some educational records and health data kept by schools may be released to relevant health agencies under FERPA’s health or safety emergency exception.

Guidance on Students with Disabilities and the Coronavirus reminds schools that, if they “continue to provide educational opportunities to the general student population during a school closure” through activities like distance learning and online programs, they must ensure that students with disabilities also have equal access to the same opportunities.

That guidance, which mirrors a directive the department previously released related the H1N1 virus, also urges that homebound services and individualized education plan meetings may be required for medically fragile students who stay home to avoid getting ill.