SALEM, Ore. -- Oregon lawmakers want to ensure more underrepresented students are successful in higher education.

At the end of the 2021 session, a bill was passed to create a task force to find out how to accomplish the goal. The Senate President and House Speaker will appoint members to the task force later this summer.

Rep. Teresa Alonso León, D-Woodburn, was one of House Bill 2590's chief sponsors. She wants to reimagine higher education.

"We're going to travel around the state and talk to all of our students, and hear about what's working, what we can do better," Alonso León explained. "How can we improve things? I just have a vision for really transforming our postsecondary institutions through the lens of our students."

Alonso León has a history working for colleges and was the first Latina GED administrator for the state. The task force will work with students of color and those from rural communities, LGBTQ+ students and other groups traditionally underrepresented in colleges and universities.

Ben Cannon, executive director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, which will assist with the task force's work, said affordability and complex applications can be barriers for people applying for college, especially if they're first-generation students.

He pointed out it's important to work with individual schools, and at the statewide level, to make postsecondary education attainable for all.

"The institution-by-institution work to identify the particular things they can do to better support these students, and the type of systemic look that the legislative task force will likely take to these issues," Cannon outlined.

Alonso León argued college campuses should foster a sense of belonging. That can be hard for some students of color when schools don't have a dedicated space for diversity, equity and inclusion.

"Not all campuses have a DEI office or a multicultural center, and those are things that are really important to students," Alonso León contended. "They need to connect. They need to find ways to connect with other students and other like-minded students, whether it's their culture or an area of interest."

The task force is slated to work through December 2023.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.

This week saw a Duluth high school go on lockdown because of a threat received by authorities. School social workers across Minnesota say with campus safety still a big priority, they're carrying out approaches to make their environments less ominous and more welcoming.

The latest threat follows last month's nationwide social media scare on TikTok, as well as a deadly school shooting in Michigan.

Sarah Mages - licensed social worker at the St. Peter Middle School - said students have increasingly dealt with more anxiety over the past couple of decades, with threats of violence playing a part.

She said emotional connections between staff and students are important.

"We've just found that if there's that connection," said Mages, "kids are able and willing to talk to those adults because they feel like they're cared for."

Her district has conducted surveys with high-school students and fifth-grade students, asking if they feel supported by at least one adult in their building. In both surveys, three quarters of students said they do.

Social workers in other districts say home visits and crisis-intervention teams are also helpful approaches that complement standard security measures.

Prior Lake High School Licensed Social Worker Nancy VanHorne said social media messages often blend the outside world with campus environments.

If those scenarios make a student not want to come to school, her staff might visit them at home to make them feel reassured or accompany them on campus.

"You know, I had a student come in before students got here one morning," said VanHorne, "and we kind of walked the building and we talked through some anxieties she was having."

Kathy Kimani is the director of the Office of School Support for Saint Paul Public Schools. She said de-escalation efforts are important when trouble arises.

But she said there are other important ways to foster a safe environment, including social and emotional learning.

"We might do things like implement some restorative practices," said Kimani, "which would start off as students actually sitting in a circle, building community, getting to know one another. "

All three of these professionals, members of the Minnesota School Social Workers Association, said the pandemic has added to the anxiety students are feeling.

The Chicago Teachers Union held a day of action yesterday, outdoors and in their cars, in an effort to safely push back against returning immediately to in-person classes, with the surge of the Omicron variant hitting the area hard.

Teachers in the union have proposed a return to online learning until Jan. 18, to avoid a major outbreak. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has so far opposed returning even short-term to online learning, saying it's safer for kids to be in-person in school for social, emotional and developmental reasons.

Jesse Sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said the educators want that, too.

"We've been in schools during a pandemic trying to educate children, and that's where we want to be again," Sharkey asserted. "But we're asking for some basic commonsense safety measures."

The union is asking for more support from the city for testing and personal protective equipment, and they say there should be procedures in place for outbreaks in schools. Monday marked the fourth day of cancelled school.

Chicago currently has an opt-in testing programs for public school students. But the union said not enough people opt in, and it would be better to have an opt-out program.

Sharkey contended when it comes to controlling outbreaks in schools, if too many educators, staff or students are out due to COVID, it is worth temporarily returning to remote learning.

"If you say school's all good and half the students don't show up, you're not doing any learning for half the students," Sharkey argued.

He pointed out if 25% of staff, 30% of elementary school students or 25% of high school students are absent due to COVID, it should be a signal for individual schools to go online, and allow cases to slow.

The COVID health pandemic has blunted progress made in the number of Latino students graduating with a college certificate or degree, a development which could have long-term racial and economic impacts in Colorado.

Wil Del Pilar, vice president of higher education policy with the Education Trust, said the primary barrier for Latino students is lack of financial resources compared with their white peers.

Just 21% of Latino men have completed a college degree, compared with 47% for white adults.

"The reason this is critical is because the jobs that are being created require some post-secondary education," said Del Pilar. "And so unless we educate this population of our state residents, we are actually going to leave them behind in the economy."

Colorado ranks high nationally for its educated population; 61% of all Coloradans have some college credential.

A recent Chalkbeat report found that just one in four Hispanic Coloradans has completed a certificate or degree. Less than half of Latino men attending four year colleges in Colorado, and fewer than a third at community colleges, make it to graduation.

Del Pilar said even modest supports can make a big difference. He points to an emergency grant program his group helped launch to help students if they needed to purchase food or repair their car, in order to keep students from stopping out of school.

He says he was surprised by the average grant size.

"Seventy-six dollars could be the difference between a student earning their degree or a student being one of these statistics," said Del Pilar, "of the 36 million people in this country who have some college and no degree."

Hispanic enrollment in higher education fell by 5% last fall during the height of the pandemic. Enrollment among first-time Hispanic college students dropped by nearly 20%.

Del Pilar said students entering an environment where they don't see many people who look like them face additional barriers if they are the first in their family to attend college.

"When you're seeing a lot of first-generation, especially first-generation Latino students, is the student having to figure it out on their own," said Del Pilar. "They don't have what we call "college knowledge," of what it takes to get in, what it takes to pay, and then what it takes to get through college."

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.