Hello to listeners of This Week in California Education.

We’re pleased to introduce EdSource’s new podcast, Education Beat: Getting to the heart of California schools.

Join us each week as we cover everything from preschool to college, bringing you the personal stories behind the headlines.

As California students and teachers head back to in-person school this fall, we’ll be looking at how schools are preparing to help students with grief and loss caused by the pandemic, why it matters that California will be offering free school lunch to everyone and how teachers are preparing for their first day of class.

We’ll visit with freshmen starting their first year of college under the yoke of Covid. We’ll hear how one woman in Oakland adopted a whole class of first graders and helped get them to college. And how a college student in the Central Valley cut short her education to help her family, when her dad’s green card application was denied and he was stuck in Mexico.

We want you to hear the voices that are too often drowned out in the broader conversation: parents, teachers, and the students themselves.

Look for the first episode of Education Beat the first week of August, and please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.