About The 101

Welcome to The 101.

The public schools landscape feels like it’s grown increasingly complicated, with a morass of laws, policies, procedures and governing bodies at the local, state and federal levels. On this site, we’ll do our best to unpack complex topics and explain who has oversight in posts that can be read quickly and shared easily with friends and neighbors. We’ll also include links to primary sources, including state and county agencies, for those who wish to take a deeper dive.

The 101 is brought to you by the Orange County Department of Education, which serves Orange County’s most vulnerable student populations and supports 28 local school districts with services necessary for their operations, including professional development, legal and fiscal guidance, high-speed internet access and security, payroll services and student enrichment. 

Feel free to take a look around, and if there’s a topic you’d like to see covered, drop us a line at communications@ocde.us.