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Facing Challenges with School Attendance?

Regular attendance matters, but sometimes families and students face challenges getting to school every day.

Please take a moment to complete one of the short surveys below and help our district learn what supports our students need to attend school regularly. You can also learn more about attendance on our Attendance Matters web page.

Survey for Parents and Caregivers

Your insights are invaluable—please complete the survey to help us better understand and address the challenges families face with school attendance.

Complete the survey for parents/caregivers

Survey for Students

We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts by completing the survey and help us create the support you need to attend school regularly.

Complete the survey for students

Great news for you and your students! Salem-Keizer Public Schools is participating in the federally offered Community Eligibility Provision (CEP).

About the Community Eligibility Provision

This program provides all students attending a public school in the district with one healthy breakfast and one lunch each school day at no charge to your household.

The district will be part of this program for the 2024-2025, 2025-2026, and 2026-2027 school years – throughout this time you will not be required to complete free/reduced-price meal paperwork for your students.

Schools Not Eligible to Participate 

Online, virtual and some private and public charter schools within the Salem-Keizer School District 24J are not able to participate in the CEP and will continue to be responsible for funding their students’ meals.

This includes EDGE Online, Eagle Charter School, Howard Street Charter School, and Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School. If you have any questions regarding meals at these schools, please contact the school.

Contact Us for Support

If you need a letter indicating your students receive free meals at their school or if you have any questions regarding CEP, please reach out to our Food and Nutrition Services team and we will be happy to assist.

• Email: food_service@salkeiz.k12.or.us
• Phone: (503) 399-3091 ext. 2

Each year, the district distributes electronic devices such as Chromebooks, MacBooks, adapters and chargers for students to use to support their education. These devices and their distribution is overseen by each school and all students and families have a responsibility to handle these devices with care while on loan from the district.

Cost of Repairs

Students may be held responsible for any damage to their mobile/electronic device(s) including, but not limited to: broken screens, cracked plastic pieces, loss of function of the device, missing keys, etc. Should the cost to repair exceed the cost of purchasing a new device, the student may be held liable for the full replacement value. Lost items such as cables, adapters, etc. will be charged the actual replacement cost value.

Required Replacement

Families agree to pay all associated costs relating to Chromebook or MacBook (EDGE) replacement not to exceed $250.00 (per Chromebook) or $1,200.00 (per MacBook) should the device be stolen, lost, or damaged in any way. Have questions about district-loaned Chromebook or MacBook? Please contact your child’s school for assistance.

 

Video message from Superintendent Castañeda on YouTube.

Salem-Keizer Students, Families and Staff,

Yesterday and today were stressful for many students, staff, and families in the Salem-Keizer community. Yesterday, students and staff at South Salem High School experienced a significant lockdown connected to off-campus violence. We worked in full coordination with the Salem Police Department throughout the day and night.

This morning, we received an initially small number of tips and reports of threats. As is always the case, we thoroughly investigated the threats in conjunction with law enforcement. The original small number was duplicated and recirculated. The exponential rate at which the original threats spread throughout the community contributed to anxiety and fear.

Through all this, several things have been steady and true. First, our team prioritizes student safety above all other issues. Second, our safety protocols worked: impacted schools moved in and out of lockdown status based on conditions. Third, our district’s robust and highly-trained team maintained our district emergency operations center and worked closely with our law enforcement partners to monitor and respond.

Events like the ones we went through this week are scary. I commend our students, parents and community members who quickly reported all concerns to us. This reporting helped us immediately investigate and engage our district safety systems and local law enforcement partners.

I want to remind everyone of a few key things that you can do to help keep our schools safe:

• If you receive or see a threat online, please do not share or forward the threat online or through social media. Sharing unconfirmed threats spreads misinformation and causes panic. Instead, notify law enforcement, school officials, or SafeOregon immediately.
• School safety is serious. Talk to your students about safety and the grave consequences of their decisions, even if they are jokes.

This week has been extremely difficult for our Salem-Keizer community. We will continue to partner together to support our young people and protect the safety and wellbeing of each other both in and outside of our classrooms.

Superintendent Castañeda

Salem-Keizer Public Schools would like to invite families, community members and staff to review curriculum materials being considered for adoption.

Salem-Keizer Public Schools is in the process of evaluating and adopting a math curriculum for grades 6–8, a language arts curriculum for high school, and a new curriculum for our newcomer programs at Waldo Middle School, North High School, and McKay High School.

As part of the district curriculum adoption process, the district formed committees of educators, parents, community members and board representation to consider available curriculum materials.

About the Middle School Math Curriculum

The committee selected two curriculum options that will be available for public viewing as part of the curriculum adoption process for middle school mathematics:

• Carnegie Learning (Middle School Math Solution Courses)
• MidSchool Math (Core Curriculum by MidSchool Math)

All materials under consideration are rated exemplary by the Oregon Department of Education.

About the High School Language Arts Curriculum

The committee selected two curriculum options that will be available for public viewing as part of the curriculum adoption process for high school language arts:

• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Into Literature
  Bedford, Freeman, & Worth: Foundations of Language & Literature, Advanced Language & Literature, and American Literature & Rhetoric

All materials under consideration are rated exemplary by the Oregon Department of Education.

About the Middle And High School English Learner Curriculum

At Waldo Middle School, North High School and McKay High School, the district provides direct support to students who have recently arrived to the United States from other countries who have limited English proficiency. The below curriculum materials are being considered for adoption for these direct supports.

Middle School Newcomer English Language Development

• HMH Language Launch, Volume 1

High School Newcomer English Language Development

• HMH Language Launch, Volume 1 (Emerging 1A, 2A)
• HMH Language Launch, Volume 2 (Emerging 2)

Preview The Instructional Materials

At this point in the process, staff, families and community members are invited to review curriculum materials during one of the following times:

McNary High School Library

March 6, 2024, 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Sprague High School Library

March 7, 2024 5:30 to 7 p.m.

North Salem High School Library

March 12, 2024 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Questions?

Have questions about the curriculum adoption process? Contact the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at 503-399-3056.