Education
Federal judge vacates Biden Title IX rule, scrapping protections for LGBTQ+ students nationwide
This story first appeared in the Louisiana Illuminator. A federal district court judge in Kentucky has struck down President Joe Biden’s effort to protect transgender students and make other changes to Title IX, ruling the U.S. Department of Education violated teachers’ rights by requiring them to use transgender students’ names and pronouns. The ruling issued […]
Librarians gain protections in some states as book bans soar
Karen Grant and fellow school librarians throughout New Jersey have heard an increasingly loud chorus of parents and conservative activists demanding that certain books — often about race, gender and sexuality — be removed from the shelves. In the past year, Grant and her colleagues in the Ewing Public Schools just north of Trenton updated […]
U.S. Education Department pings states, schools to set policies on cellphone use
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Education Department called on every state, school and district on Tuesday to adopt policies on cellphone use in schools. The department asks schools to have well-thought-out policies on the matter, but does not dictate exactly what those policies should be. An accompanying resource for schools notes the risk social media can […]
High school exit exams dwindle to about half a dozen states
Jill Norton, an education policy adviser in Massachusetts, has a teenage son with dyslexia and ADHD. Shelley Scruggs, an electrical engineer in the same state, also has a teenage son with ADHD. Both students go to the same technical high school. But this fall, Norton and Scruggs advocated on opposite sides of a Massachusetts ballot […]
3 states blunt school choice momentum
Voters in Colorado, Kentucky and Nebraska put the brakes on the school choice movement last week, rejecting ballot measures that would have instituted or expanded state support for parents to send their kids to private schools or protected other school choice options. There are at least 75 private school choice programs available across 33 states, […]
Computer programs monitor students’ every word in the name of safety
Whether it’s a research project on the Civil War or a science experiment on volcano eruptions, students in the Colonial School District near Wilmington, Delaware, can look up just about anything on their school-provided laptops. But in one instance, an elementary school student searched “how to die.” In that case, Meghan Feby, an elementary school […]
School choice goes before voters in 3 states, faces pushback in others
Supporters of school choice in Kentucky are hoping voters will do what the state courts wouldn’t — allow a new path for state-supported payments to private schools. Kentucky is one of three states, along with Colorado and Nebraska, with school choice questions on the ballot this fall. Voters will be asked to decide whether public […]
Hotter August days push some schools to delay start dates
Owen Driscoll, a 17-year-old senior at Rufus King International High School in Milwaukee, was skeptical about starting school after Labor Day this year, three weeks later than before. But he is beginning to see the advantages. “Last year when we were on the old schedule, we had a few heat days [off in August] because […]
Much-attacked final Title IX rule goes into effect while still blocked in 26 states
WASHINGTON — Though the Biden administration’s final rule for Title IX extending federal protections to LGBTQ students went into effect nationwide Thursday, a slew of legal challenges has temporarily blocked more than half of all states from enforcing the updated regulations. After the Department of Education released the final rule in April, 26 states — all with […]
Law school grads could earn license through work rather than bar exam in some states
PORTLAND, Ore. — Before Bailey McQueeny-Rose attended law school at the University of Oregon, she worked in reproductive health care, first as a medical assistant and then as a trainer, teaching others to do the same job. The work opened her eyes to how access to health care differed based on the laws in the […]
When ‘universal’ pre-K really isn’t: Barriers to participating abound
When Tanya Gillespie-Lambert goes to an event in a local park in Camden, New Jersey, she takes a handful of brochures about free preschool with her. She has no hesitation about approaching strangers — moms with kids especially — to plug the service in the local public school district, where she’s director of community and […]
For child care workers, state aid for their own kids’ care is ‘life-changing’
SMITHFIELD, R.I. — Child care worker Marci Then, 32, looked over at two 4-year-olds in her care who were tussling over a toy plate in a model kitchen set. “Are we sharing?” she gently asked them. They both let go. Then works at Little Learners Academy child care center near Providence, Rhode Island. Her daughter, […]