Recent News

CAWS is excited to be partnering with WE Help Two to make twice the difference through their funky sock fundraising program.

There is no upfront cost to the program and schools can keep up to 50% of the total sales.

Socks can be sold online and/or We Help Two can send a box of socks to your school at NO UPFRONT COST! That means schools will only have to pay for the inventory sold. Leftover packs are sent back and schools will be invoiced for what was sold. 

The service focus for 2025-26 will be raising funds for the fire and flood victims in California. Schools will also be able to select their own cause or one of the three international programs offered by We Help Two. 

Open for details:

CAWS is pleased to present our Calendar of Events for 2025-2026. We continue to offer a variety of in person and virtual events that support best IB practices while bringing us together as a community.

Our events will be hosted by global, regional and local IB leaders, CAWS Board Members, IBEN trainers, the Orange County Department of Education Coordinator and CAWS vetted vendors.

Invitations for our upcoming events will be sent to your email. Each in-person invitation will include details about the event, ensuring you have all the information you need for registration. Look for these invitations over the coming months and get ready to engage in enriching experiences.

I look forward to staying in touch as the year progresses. Together, let's make this our best year yet - one filled with innovation, meaningful growth, and shared success.

Warm regards,
Robin

Over the past week, we have been working with the Governor’s office and attorneys with the California Department of Justice and Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, providing expertise on budget process and impacts to local education agencies (LEAs) as they prepared the litigation that was filed today in Federal District Court.

Updating your School A-G list: This is the time to work with your school and

district to ensure your school A-G list accurately reflects your Middle Years

Program, Diploma Program and Career Program course offerings for 2025-2026.

Open for full content.

While it seems like news out of the federal government is changing daily, there have been a few recent updates of particular interest to California and K-12 schools that we wanted to highlight.

Trump threatens to cut California’s federal funding as tensions escalate with the state

May 2 was the deadline for policy committees to act on bills that have been tagged with a cost. Bills that fail to pass out of their policy committee today are effectively dead for the year. This week’s deadline forced hearings on several highly contentious bills related to charter schools and literacy instruction, among others, which we discuss below.

Now that we have a sense of bills that are moving forward, and in many cases with more clarifying language, we want to provide you with a summary of some of the major education-related bills that are still moving through the process in the areas of:

We understand that not everyone could attend Chad's engaging and informative session on the "Insights on CP, Let's Talk About It." To ensure you don't miss out on the valuable information shared, we are pleased to provide you with a copy of his slides. We hope these materials serve as a helpful resource.

The UC A-G Course Management Portal is now open for course submissions and updates. This is the time to work with your school and district to ensure your school A-G list accurately reflects your Middle Years Program, Diploma Program and Career Program course offerings for 2025-2026.

Yesterday President Trump signed several executive orders advancing policies of the new administration and overturning executive action President Biden had taken. Though some of these might be slowed or stopped by lawsuits challenging their legality, many could have impacts on education programs and funding (all executive orders are posted here). With assistance from our colleagues at the Committee for Education Funding in Washington D.C., we wanted to list these in one document with links so you would have the text available for your review. In the coming weeks and months, we will keep you posted on the details and implementation issues involved with many of these that have the most significant impacts on TK-12 schools in California. The Executive Orders include:

The Schoolwide IB project has worked with over 100 schools across the US and Canada to support the development and implementation of a school defined plan that opens access and grows student participation and success in the IB Diploma Programme and Career-related Programme.

This is a recording by International Baccalaureate of our event for those of you unable to attend or wish to hear it again.

Thank you to our participants.

As a follow up to the immigration resources for California schools we shared with you in early December, we wanted to make sure you also have access to student and community immigrant and immigration resources released yesterday afternoon by Attorney General Rob Bonta.

At a press conference this morning in the San Joaquin Valley, Governor Newsom highlighted a few topline issues for his proposed 2025 budget. The full budget will be released later this week, but the impetus for this early glimpse is that Governor Newsom plans to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter and will not be available to present the detailed budget.

Thank you to those of you who participated in our recent event. I have included the slides that I used during my introduction and look forward to seeing many of you again at future events.

Open to view slides.

Please contact me if you have any questions.
--
Dorothy Battenfeld, University Liaison
California Association of IB World Schools
707-528-6818
[email protected]
http://www.cawsib.org/

Dear colleagues in California and the greater IB global community,

The California fires dominating the global news have been insurmountably devastating for families in the Los Angeles region. Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by this horrible event. For our California schools, please remember that CAWS is there to serve and advocate for you however we can. We all see the immediate impact of what is happening in the LA region, but know the unforeseen long-term effects will be equally challenging. For our California colleagues, whether advocating through the state or with IBO, CAWS will always be your main point of contact for information, advocacy and support.