Power outages can be costly for California schools

Planned power outages by utilities are intended to reduce the risk of wildfires during severe weather events. But as climate change leads to more extreme weather and outages become more frequent, some California school districts say those outages are incurring great financial losses.

As CalMatters’ Alejandra Reyes-Velarde reports, school districts can be notified of an outage as little as an hour before the power goes out. To reduce disruptions, some districts are using their limited funds to pay for storage batteries or backup generators. Last year, Val Verde Unified School District diverted $500,000 from its school facilities budget to purchase batteries, and Jurupa Unified School District spent more than $364,000 on two generators.

• Bruce Bivinssuperintendent of Perris Elementary School District: “It could be better security on our campuses, more upgraded facilities, better access to technology or other things that they can actually use right now versus preparing for the possible one day this year (the power goes out).”

In addition to high one-time costs, outages carry another financial risk. Schools receive their state funding based in part on student attendance. When outages result in school closings or a drop in attendance, schools can file a waiver with the state Department of Education to protect their funding. But schools don’t always know how much they’ll be able to recover and must wait until the state reviews the exemption.

Blackouts disproportionately affect low-income families and students with disabilities. Because schools serve as community hubs, not only do students miss a day of learning, but families are left without vital services, including free meals and childcare.

• Melissa Kasnitzlegal director of the Center for Affordable Technology: “(Utilities) put a lot of time, effort and money … into calculating the risk of a wildfire actually occurring under certain weather conditions. What they haven’t done is put a little bit of effort into assessing the risk of what happens when you turn off people’s power.”

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The state is suing the Trump administration again, but — twist! — this time it’s not over federal funds. Instead, California is in a 15-state lawsuit with Arizona over federal vaccine guidelines.

In January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a memo withdrawal of recommended status from seven vaccines: rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday that the state sued the CDCThe US Department of Health and Human Services and the two heads of the two agencies, including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The lawsuit also challenges Kennedy’s dismissal in June 2025. federal vaccine advisory panelwhom he then replaced with vaccine critics.

The lawsuit comes five months after California officials said the state would separate from the CDC and join an alliance of western countries to provide residents with vaccine information. This is the state’s 59th lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s second administration. For more information on the other cases, check out our tracker.

California’s 21 regional centers help coordinate support services for some of the nearly half a million residents living with developmental or intellectual disabilities. But some parents of people with disabilities say thousands should be eligible for services are prohibited under applicable state lawwrites Ana B. Ibarra of CalMatters.

Regional centers connect people with therapies, day programs for adults, independent living support, job training and more. To qualify for services in California, a person’s disability must begin before age 18. But some want to extend the “age of appearance” rule to 22, bringing the state in line with federal policy.

In 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have raised the maximum age, citing budget issues. At the time, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that retroactively expanding services would increase eligibility by up to 2,000 people in the first year and cost up to $60 million.

This year, a member of the Democratic Assembly Pilar Schiavo of Santa Clarita is pushing to expand eligibility not through a stand-alone bill, but through the annual budget process, which could result in an allocation request through a trailer budget bill.

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Today, the Escondido City Council is reviewing the agreement the city made with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to share the police range. ICE officers have been using the range since 2014, and the federal agency formalized use of the range in a contract starting in 2024. But amid ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics as part of Trump’s deportation campaign, local activists and officials are calling on the City Council to rescind the contract. Read more by Deborah Brennan of CalMatters.