The COVID public health emergency forced many Nebraska students to put their college careers on hold.

More than 300,000 Nebraskans have completed some college, but don't have credentials, according to new data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Mike Baumgartner, executive director of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, said with the state's unemployment rate currently at less than 2%, students are prime candidates to take on critical unfilled jobs.

"And with the state trying to up its game in a lot of technical areas, and agricultural areas that require additional training, that's an important pool of adults for us to go out and meet those workforce needs of the state," Baumgartner pointed out.

Economists project at least 70% of jobs paying a living wage in Nebraska will require some form of postsecondary degree or credential.

In the last session, state lawmakers set a 70% attainment goal for Nebraskans ages 25 to 34. Baumgartner argued helping students re-enroll in school and cross the finish line will strengthen Nebraska's agriculture, construction, education, health care and other sectors.

Researchers found more than half of those who stopped out of college are age 35 and older.

Baumgartner stressed it is never too late to go back to school, and noted completing a degree or certificate program has significant long-term economic benefits.

"We have a plethora of statistics that show that people who have completed a credential will earn more over their lifetime, they are more likely to vote, they are more likely to have health care," Baumgartner reported. "If they don't like their current job, it's an opportunity to move into something completely new."

Cost remains the biggest barrier to completing a degree, and Baumgartner pointed to the state's gap assistance program to help financially strapped students get their first credential at community colleges, and the Nebraska Opportunity Grant, which is available to part-time adult students.

He added more can be done to remove basic barriers to completing degrees.

"Food pantries on college campuses are becoming a familiar staple," Baumgartner observed. "Lots of students will have child care issues, so it's important that colleges either have child care available or have a good partnership in the community."

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

A Nevada nonprofit is celebrating a 94% graduation rate among its high school seniors for the 2021-2022 school year.

Tami Hance-Lehr. CEO and state director of Communities In Schools of Nevada, said the graduation rate is based on its 453 case-managed high school seniors, most of whom are students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, or are experiencing some other form of poverty.

Hance-Lehr pointed out Nevada's graduation rate for such students is around 82%. Compared with the state's overall graduation rate, African American students in the program are 17.1 percentage points above the statewide average, Hispanic and Latino students are 14 percentage points greater and multiracial students are ahead by 13 percentage points.

She noted the pandemic presented many challenges for students to cross the finish line.

"The other thing to keep in mind is when these students came to us, the majority of those seniors when they started working with Communities In Schools either in their junior or senior year were not on track to graduate," Hance-Lehr recounted. "They were most likely credit deficient."

Hance-Lehr explained it is not only identifying barriers keeping kids from attending school and working to get students back on-track, but also making sure they have goals after high school. The program puts a full-time on-site coordinator on every one of its 92 partnering campuses, to help in the effort.

Hance-Lehr stressed of the 453 high school seniors, half plan to attend college, 32% plan to join the workforce, 14% plan to get a certification, apprenticeship or attend a trade school and 4% plan to join the military.

While the program's focus is on K-12 students, Hance-Lehr noted they are prioritizing support to their alumni once they leave the program.

"We need to be focusing on our students after they graduate as well," Hance-Lehr contended. "Barriers that we remove for them and get them to graduation, do not just go away when we've given them a diploma, and then they enter into the world and say 'here you go.' There are still transportation barriers, there are still trauma barriers, there are still poverty barriers."

Hance-Lehr emphasized they have more than a hundred community partners and acknowledged the work they do would not be possible without them. She added community providers are able to help students with more individualized needs.

Missourians can now see how often their schools use seclusion and restraint to address student behavior.

A 2021 law requires that schools report these incidents to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, beginning this school year.

State Rep. Ian Mackey - D-St. Louis - said he proposed the original bill after many parents shared their children's school discipline experiences, many of whom qualified for special education services.

He said it allows the use of seclusion or restraint under very limited conditions.

"It cannot be used as a form of punishment," said Mackey. "It cannot be used punitively to teach a child a lesson. It must only be used if a child poses a threat, and as soon as the threat is mitigated, the seclusion and restraint must cease. That is what the law says."

The law also requires that schools notify parents when these interventions are used with their child.

Just over 600 Missouri students were secluded and 1,565 were restrained in the first half of the current school year.

Mackey said he hopes this law promotes the use of more positive approaches to behavior change in Missouri schools.

Amy Gott reported that her son was frequently secluded or restrained from first through fifth grade and that - in the beginning - the school rarely notified her.

In addition to being isolated from peers, Gott said he missed out on what was being taught when he was sent to what was known as the "recovery room."

"He would tell me, 'Well, she would sit me down in front of the same worksheet that they had in the classroom that I didn't understand, and tell me to work on it,'" Gott quoted her son had said. "And he said, 'I just didn't understand it.'"

Gott's son was eventually diagnosed with Asperger's, a high-functioning form of autism.

She began homeschooling him in fifth grade. She said she believes it was the school's misinterpretation of his behavior that led to years of being secluded from the classroom.

"A lot of times, at first especially, it would be like the rest of the day," said Gott. "And I mean from 10 o'clock on. Instead of him having autism and not understanding, he was being defiant."

Students are still struggling with learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic.

A study from the research group NWEA showed 2022 test scores are not rebounding to the same level as they were pre-pandemic.

In New York, math scores declined sharply throughout the state, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy.

Researchers said the issue goes beyond test scores. The study also found existing education inequities were amplified by the pandemic.

Elisa Villanueva Beard, CEO of Teach for America, said the learning loss is also the result of numerous issues coming to a head. She described it as trains on a collision course.

"On one train, we have children who are not well, both from a learning perspective and also from an overall wellness perspective," Villanueva Beard observed. "On another train, we have a teacher crisis happening where teachers are being asked to do more with less."

Villanueva Beard argued another issue is having an outmoded system which could not meet the moment. Some solutions she thinks will get kids back on track are hiring and retaining good teachers, and providing students with equitable learning opportunities, but noted a lack of innovation within the current education system could be a challenge.

Students have been facing problems with mental illness, due in part to the pandemic. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 44% of students felt persistently sad or hopeless during the first two years of the pandemic.

Villanueva Beard is concerned it will affect children in the long term.

"We are living in a society where uncertainty is the only guarantee," Villanueva Beard asserted. "Our children actually need to be able to be creative, have very clear skills around reading and math computational thinking."

She added a community approach must be taken to ensure kids fully recover from the pandemic, in terms of social emotional health and educational skills.