The Tataya Mato week at Indianapolis’ Jameson Camp is a free sleepaway camp for children impacted by HIV/AIDS. (Peter Balonon-Rosen/Indiana Public Broadcasting)
It’s a sleep away camp. It’s free. And once a summer the Jameson Camp in Indianapolis hosts a session for campers with this in common: Either they or a family member have HIV/AIDS.
The goal? Use summer camp to help children process their struggles with the disease.
The unique camp session began in 1995. At the time, HIV and AIDS were so loaded with stigma, people wouldn’t talk about it. Even within their own families.
“Some of the kids would sit in the car and their parent would tell them what was going on,” says Brad Higgins, site manager at Jameson Camp, fighting back tears.
Higgins has been a groundskeeper at Jameson for 20 years. He says some kids may have never known their family member had HIV.
But the camp has always had this rule: Campers need to know why they’re here – that either they or someone they’re close to is directly impacted by the disease.
In an IU School of Medicine pathology lab, Shortridge High School student Isaac Carrera Ochoa is at a microscope looking for specific cancer biomarkers to be used in immunotherapy cancer treatment. Ochoa is searching for a biomarker called VISTA.
“I have studied 19 cases and only two seemed positive,” Ochoa says.
Professor Dr. George Sandusky, Ochoa’s mentor, says the work of these high schoolers is having a tangible impact on patient lives.
“We’re right on the cutting edge here because several people do get immunotherapy when they come from regional and outlying hospitals,” Sandusky says.
Sandusky says immunotherapy uses the patient’s own body to fight the cancer instead of radiation and chemotherapy – though immunotherapy may be used in tandem with the other treatments.
He says this kind of hands-on experience has a lasting impact on the students. Sandusky recently learned a participant from several years ago is now at the IU School of Medicine.
Ochoa says his cancer research this summer is especially meaningful because he has a relative being treated for breast cancer.
In a wired world, summer camp is one of the last phone-free zones. But campers, staff and especially parents don’t always appreciate the message. The NPR Ed team investigates.
“It beeped in the envelope. That’s how we knew.” Leslie Conrad is the director of Clemson Outdoor Lab in Pendleton, S.C., which runs several different camps during the summer. Clemson bans cellphones and other electronic devices for campers. That makes sense.
A range of text book fees at Indianapolis Public Schools for the 2016-17 school year. (photo credit: Indianapolis Public Schools)
Families in Indianapolis Public Schools who have not paid textbook rental fees will soon be hearing from a collection agency.
The IPS Board voted unanimously Thursday to hire a company to collect on the outstanding bills.
More than 3,000 IPS parents have delinquent textbook fees from last school year. That has left more than a half million dollar deficit for the district, officials say.
More than 5,500 bills were sent for the 2016-17 year for a total of $846,221 in textbook rental fees. But as of this month, 3,213 parents had not paid last year’s fee leaving a deficit of $550,693.
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to state superintendent Jennifer McCormick, outlining problems with the state’s security for student data. (photo credit: Peter Balonon-Rosen/ Indiana Public Broadcasting)
The U.S. Department of Education (USED) sent a letter to state superintendent Jennifer McCormick this month outlining problems with the Indiana Department of Education’s security around student data.
The state receives grant money from USED for implementing security systems, which opened the state up to an audit.
According to the USED letter, the audit’s “objective was to determine whether IDOE has internal controls in place to prevent, detect, report, and respond to unauthorized access and disclosure of personally identifiable information” in the state’s data system.
Early Learning Indiana awards grants to pre-k programs across the state. (photo credit: Sonia Hooda / Flickr)
The education advocacy group Early Learning Indiana has awarded $72,500 to programs across the state designed for youngsters.
Fourteen different programs were selected for the group’s Family Engagement Prizes. They include grand prize winner Walnut Hill Early Childhood Center in Goshen, which was awarded $25,000.
St. Mary’s Child Center MLK in Indianapolis was among eight programs receiving $5,000 awards. The others were Apple Tree Child Development Center YMCA in Muncie, Bona Vista Early Head Start in Kokomo, Head Start of LaPorte County, School City of East Chicago, the Monroe County Community School Corp. in Bloomington, Montessori Garden Academy in Indianapolis and Cradles of Clay County in Brazil,
The awards were granted to early childhood school programs that demonstrate “a deep level of commitment and care for families.”
Caleb Pierson looks over a cabinet project he designed for Heartwood Manufacturing. Pierson is a graduate of a program run through Batesville High School, that helps students get manufacturing skills while still in high school. (Claire McInerny/Indiana Public Broadcasting)
Indiana workforce officials are convening dozens of groups of local education and business leaders across the state to improve training efforts for new workers.
Workforce development commissioner Steve Braun shared local workforce data with the Lafayette-area group – made up of high school superintendents, vocational and technical educators and local employers – on Monday.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos says she will revisit Obama-era sexual assault policies, but did not reveal what specific policy changes the administration intended to make. In this May 23, 2017 photo, DeVos visits Providence Cristo Rey High School in Indianapolis. (Peter Balonon-Rosen/Indiana Public Broadcasting)
Federal education officials plan to take a hard look at campus sexual assault policies created by the Obama administration, saying those policies could deprive accused students of their rights. It’s a move infuriating advocates for victims and women who have spent years waging a campaign against what some have called “rape culture” on campuses.
The issue has garnered considerable controversy. And it’s one all too familiar in Indiana.
The federal government is currently conducting 16 investigations into Indiana colleges and universities for possibly mishandling reports of sexual violence.
New federal healthcare legislation could result in large cuts to Medicaid, the federal healthcare program for low-income people. Schools often rely on these funds for special education and other health services. (Simon Hulatt/Flickr)
Indiana districts stand to lose more than $3.6 million per year over the next two decades, under proposed cuts to Medicaid spending under new federal healthcare legislation.
How school services would be effected has garnered little attention in the national debate as Republican lawmakers seek to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Indiana districts use Medicaid, the federal healthcare program for low-income people, to pay for certain health-related services. Districts rely on Medicaid reimbursements for special education, transportation for children with disabilities, social workers, full-time nurses, testing accommodations, physical and occupational therapists and medical equipment. Districts also use Medicaid reimbursements for administrative costs, like health fairs or connecting students without medical insurance to state services.
The Indiana Department of Administration Thursday opened up the process for hiring a new testing vendor to create the state’s new assessment, Indiana’s Learning Evaluation Assessment Readiness Network (ILEARN).
The state outlines everything it wants and requires from the new test, and various vendors will submit a proposal to create the new assessment.
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