Summer Learning Institute 2026

This presentation will provide a general overview of legal requirements and best practices for responding to chronic absenteeism and student truancy issues, including how to address compulsory education laws with a parent/guardian and understanding the role of child find obligations and mental health supports.  The presentation will also provide an update on new laws affecting how schools handle student truancy, including changes to truancy notification letters.

Sanger Unified has been on a three-year journey to develop and define student growth in a way that can be measured, monitored, and analyzed at the district, site, grade, teacher, and individual student levels. This work is grounded in the district’s commitment to operationalize a clear and ambitious goal: All Students Will Achieve One Year of Growth or More. In this session, participants will learn how Sanger Unified moved from a broad aspiration around student achievement to a practical system for defining, tracking, and using growth data to drive continuous improvement across the organization.
Attendees will explore the processes, challenges, and key decisions involved in building a student growth framework that creates clarity, ownership, and alignment at every level of the system. The session will highlight how growth measures can be used to inform instruction, strengthen collaboration, guide site and district leadership, and keep the focus on the progress of every student. Participants will leave with insights into how a district can create a shared understanding of growth, build systems to monitor it effectively, and use that work to support higher levels of learning for all students.

In this engaging breakout session, we’ll explore how Career Technical Education (CTE) programs equip students with practical skills that extend far beyond the classroom. Participants will hear how students leverage these skills in part-time jobs while pursuing college, transition into full-time employment after graduation, and contribute to their local communities and economy. Join us as we highlight success stories, discuss strategies for strengthening school-to-career pathways, and examine the critical role CTE plays in preparing students for meaningful, sustainable careers.

A quick morning break to make sure you have your blood flowing!

This session will present a strategic framework for reducing chronic absenteeism that not only improves student engagement, but also helps districts stabilize Average Daily Attendance (ADA) and protect revenue in a time of declining enrollment and rising costs. In one Central Valley school district, this approach resulted in a 31% reduction in chronic absenteeism at the elementary level within 18 months. In a second Central Valley district, chronic absenteeism declined to 7% during the 2025–26 school year. These results were achieved through a proactive, data-driven system that combined actionable attendance data, early warning indicators, and targeted intervention strategies to identify barriers to attendance early and respond before absenteeism became entrenched. As districts face enrollment losses and inflation that continues to outpace COLA, improving attendance is one of the most immediate and practical ways to strengthen ADA, preserve funding, and maintain critical student programs and services.
This session will also highlight how districts can leverage real-time attendance systems such as Ed-Link, developed by Chris Gocke, to monitor attendance patterns, identify students at risk for chronic absenteeism, and implement timely interventions that improve student outcomes while recovering lost revenue. Participants will explore flexible attendance recovery strategies, including One-Day Independent Study, Short-Term Independent Study, before- and after-school attendance recovery opportunities, and Saturday academies. These approaches allow districts to recover instructional time, re-engage students and families, and maximize ADA in a strategic and student-centered way. Grounded in Dr. David Diehl’s field experience and informed by longitudinal research on early predictors of disengagement, this presentation demonstrates how data-informed attendance systems and targeted interventions implemented before middle school can improve attendance outcomes while helping districts respond to the financial pressures of declining enrollment and inflationary costs.

Over the past two years, Sem Yeto High School (SY) has experienced a remarkable increase in its graduation rate, rising from 63% to 82%. As of February 2026, projections indicate that this rate will exceed 90% for the current school year. Significantly, SY has also been removed from Comprehensive School Support and Improvement (CSI) status for the first time in recent memory. Additionally, the school has been recommended as a model for California continuation schools and will be recognized at the upcoming California Continuation School Conference in May. During the accreditation visit by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) in January 2026, the WASC chair remarked, “In my 20 years of conducting WASC visits across over 100 schools, I have never witnessed a school achieve such significant progress in improving student learning in just two years.” What’s the secret behind this success? Join us to connect with the Principal and leadership team from Sem Yeto High School in Fairfield, CA, as we explore the critical mindset shifts necessary for implementing a Personalized Competency-Based Education (PCBE) model in an alternative school setting.  In this presentation, we will take a deep dive into the steps taken, the challenges faced, and the mindset changes that facilitated this transformation. Attendees will learn how an alternative program can serve as a laboratory of innovation, providing valuable insights for other schools in the district as they embark on their own journeys toward adopting the PCBE model.

The current education system wasn’t built to hold our full humanity—so it keeps misreading trauma as trouble, survival as defiance, and brilliance as disobedience. In this transformational session, Dr. Felipe Mercado—professor, consultant, author, social worker and former principal—shares how the Wise Compassionate Framework is helping schools reimagine what it means to truly serve.
Blending clinical depth, real-life stories, and systems strategy, this session goes beyond theory to reveal what happens when schools continue business-as-usual—and what becomes possible when we lead with wisdom and compassion. Participants will:

• Reflect on a real-life story that reveals the life-or-death stakes of how we respond to student behavior
• Unpack why misbehavior is often misunderstood trauma—and how that misunderstanding drives disconnection and burnout
• Learn the core pillars of the Wise Compassionate Framework and how it transforms culture, climate, and adult capacity
• Leave with practical tools that restore safety, connection, and meaning in classrooms, schools, and systems

This isn’t just another training or traditional PD—it’s a revolution of care. For adults. For students. For the systems we’ve inherited and the futures we’re building. It’s time to stop repainting the walls—and rebuild the whole damn house, foundation first.