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"The California Community Foundation is to announce Friday that it has received $1.5 million from the Ford Foundation to give children in impoverished communities the same enriched learning activities typically enjoyed outside school hours by their wealthier peers. The California foundation also contributed $200,000 to the efforts."

"Herald-Leader reporter Linda Blackford on Sunday provided some insight into why the graduation rate of low-income students fell from 46 percent to 35 percent: The legislature routinely raids lottery funds intended for need-based financial aid to balance the state budget."

"Most of the schools' homeless students are defined as unaccompanied youth,' temporarily living with another family or adult who is not their legal guardian, or alone without an adult. Some are unsheltered youth,' without a stable place to sleep every night. The Orleans Parish School Board provides services for homeless students: free lunches, school supplies and uniforms, referrals for housing, jobs and medical attention."

"HOPES CAP in Hoboken received $20,000 for its HOPES on the Road program, which introduces residents of low-income neighborhoods to services that include one-on-one counseling, weekly health education events, lunch-and-learn workshops, translation services, and transportation to health care facilities."

"Watts learned about BELL when then-Superintendent Peter Gorman tapped her to lead Spaugh Middle, a high-poverty school where test scores were among the district's weakest. After researching what could help her kids, she used federal money to bring BELL to Charlotte in 2009, with a six-week summer program for 60 rising sixth-graders. It was the first BELL program in North Carolina."

"The smoke detectors and alarms are installed at no cost to city residents. The primary recipients are to be senior citizens, low-income households, physically impaired and household with children 14 years of age and younger."

"For many Elmont families, the abrupt cancellation of youth programs has meant more than a disruption of child-care schedules. It's also meant a loss of academic and cultural opportunities in one of Long Island's most diverse communities. Elmont's population of 30,000 has more than 50 ethnicities and includes many recent arrivals from the Caribbean, Central America and South Asia. Half of the community's school-age children live near or below the poverty line."

"The pattern is all too obvious and entirely too familiar: The schools with the lowest scores are all Title I schools -- that is, those with the most students living in poverty. The schools with the highest scores -- and four topped the state average in every subject in every grade -- are all non-Title I schools. The correlation between poverty and educational struggle is familiar everywhere. But it seems to be worse, and getting worse, here."

"Consider this: One in five U.S. children lives in poverty, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, meaning about 16 million kids could show up for school unprepared. And the National Retail Foundation says the average U.S. family spends between $80 and $90 on school supplies to ensure kids are ready for class."

"Twenty principals and assistant principals are among 26 current and former Chicago Public Schools employees who provided false income information on applications to get their children into the federal free or reduced-price lunch program, according to CPS Inspector General James Sullivan."

"According to the report form the Council on Postsecondary Education, the graduation rate of low-income college students fell from 46 percent to 35 percent between 2008 and 2010. In the same time period, the graduation rate of moderate- to high-income students dropped from 57 to 53 percent."

"Jason Andrews took a walk in someone else's shoes this week. The Providence High School student spent a little over an hour participating in a simulation at an unusual summer camp designed to help participants learn what it's like to live in poverty."