NY State Center for Rural Schools

We need EVERY New Yorker to keep their eyes peeled for Spotted Lanternfly this summer! SLF is a destructive pest that feeds on more than 70 plant species, including crops that are critical to New York’s agricultural economy, like grapevine, apple trees, and hops.

If you see a in New York City, kill it immediately by stepping on it or crushing it. People living in New York City do not need to report Spotted Lanternfly sightings to the Department or collect samples at this time.

If you live outside New York City, you can help the Department by reporting immediately after it is found. Follow these steps:
• Take a photo
• Collect a sample and place it in a freezer or in a jar with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer
• Contact the SLF responders at https://agriculture.ny.gov/ReportSLF

After you have reported SLF in your area and collected a sample, you should kill any additional SLF you see by stepping on it or crushing it.

Visit https://nysipm.cornell.edu/environment/invasive-species-exotic-pests/spotted-lanternfly/ for more information.

Thank you to everyone for your help in combating this invasive pest!

cc: NYS Department of Environmental Conservation The New York State IPM Program PRISM Share Group New York City Department of Parks & Recreation New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Cornell Cooperative Extension

Nice opportunity!

ONLY 3 DAYS LEFT TO APPLY for the National Signature Project Award! The National Rural Education Association and Rural Schools Collaborative are accepting applications for this $2,500 grant to an outstanding and innovative classroom project that exemplifies the very best in place-based education. Learn more or apply now: https://buff.ly/3K77HyN

[Description: "3 days let to apply" and National Signature Project Award logo overlaid on desert road background]

Well worth a read. Distance from more populated areas helps until it doesn’t. Healthcare access in rural areas will be stretched and the time to stay distant is not ending.

‘It Really Is the Perfect Storm’: Coronavirus Comes for Rural America In rural Washington, hospitals are faltering, stores can’t get supplies and people are staying closer to each other than you’d think.

Please urge your communities to participate in the 2020 Census. Here is the current map of response rates showing how few people in rural areas have responded relative to the suburban and urban areas. So much political representation and Federal aid is tied to these Census numbers that can help our communities, families, and students. https://2020census.gov/en/response-rates.html

A troubling trend...

Coronavirus Was Slow to Spread to Rural America. Not Anymore. A late-arriving wave of illness could overwhelm rural communities that are older, poorer and sicker than much of the country.

Childcare access is a key part of a healthy community. How has PreK impact access to to care for infants and toddlers? Check out our latest publication that examines this question.

Child care deserts in New York State: Prekindergarten implementation and community factors related to the capacity to care for infants and toddlers Access to high quality child care provides a valuable support to families and communities as it both enables parental employment and provides a safe a…

New and Useful Data for Enrollment Planning: Ever wonder how local birth rates relate to your first grade enrollment? We recently added a new variable to the suite of data tools at http://NYEducationData.org. The new variable uses Live-Birth data from the State Health Department and includes it in a calculation that gives some sense of whether your first grade enrollment is larger or smaller than the number of births in your community 6 years earlier. As seen in this map, you can see how the purple districts have a value over 1 meaning that the first grade public school enrollment is larger than would have been predicted by simply looking at births 6 years earlier. The Brown districts have first grade enrollments smaller than the number of births 6 years earler. The white distircts are about even and have roughly a 1-1 ratio between the two. Multiple tools now use this data including our Enrollment Projections, The 25 Year Trend tools, and the Map your Favorite Variable tool. Check out the ratio for your own district! Please reach out to John Sipple if you have questions ([email protected])

The Harvard-led National Center for Rural Education and Research Networks (NCRERN) is now officially up and running. The past two days were spent getting oriented to the various components of the impact assessment process and to begin the networking amongst the teams from 30 rural school districts from all parts of Upstate NY. Tom Kane (PI) spoke this afternoon sharing what has been learned to date from Urban districts and other members of the Harvard team led various sessions. John Sipple led 4 focus groups examining all angles of Chronic Absenteeism in the 30 districts and was duly impressed with the experience, professionalism, motivation and knowledge of the participants.

The meetings took place over two days at the renovated Hotel Syracuse. The renovation is spectacular. First opened n 1924, closed on 2004, and then refurbished and reopened in 2016, this is a classic hotel with modern amenities. Fun to see.

The Mental Health Assn of NY is a great resource for student mental health issues. Read their Healthy Young Minds newsletter herehttps://www.mentalhealthednys.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Healthy_Young_Minds_September_2019_FINAL.pdf

Let's look beyond our UPK partnerships to include discussions, planning and partnership for birth to K. See this short essay from our friend (and Pam Buffington's colleague) David Jacobson at the Education Development Center in Boston.

How Schools, Districts, and Communities Are Joining Forces to Bolster Early Learning A new report describes innovative school and districtwide approaches to supporting young children from birth through early-elementary school.

Very important set of issues raised by our colleague, John Green.

Why the 2020 census matters for rural Americans People living in rural and small town America have much at stake in the 2020 census. But census participation tends to be lower in rural areas.