Explore every episode of the podcast Education in Focus

As some students return to class this year with statewide or district-implemented cellphone bans, those who still have access to smartphones may be able to use an app powered by artificial-intelligence to complete their homework. The app, called Guath AI or Gauthmath, allows students to take pictures of their homework or tests, which it analyzes and solves. Critics have also pointed out that because it is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, user data may be accessible by that nation’s government. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_4d37743e-76ca-11ef-a42e-b7a5c9841da7.html

Earlier this month, a Texas special education teacher pleaded guilty to soliciting explicit photos from minors. The high school teacher posed as a 19-year-old boy to solicit the photos from a 14-year-old girl. The exploitation of children by teacher Juan Carlos Munoz highlights how adults posing as young people exploit minors, which federal law enforcement agencies say has been on the rise and must be discussed before it is committed. A Homeland Security Investigations special agent, Craig Larrabee, said in a press release that Munoz “abused his position of public trust as a special education teacher to prey on those he was entrusted to protect.”

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/safety/article_c923d28a-79b9-11ef-ba7b-2fba83125abb.html

Nearly two of three Detroit high school students did not complete selected online credit recovery courses the year after COVID-19. In the two following years, the district has seen higher completion rates for courses intended to help students graduate on time. Sample course completion data obtained by Chalkboard News through a public records request show that only 36% of Detroit Public School Community District students who took an online credit recovery course in the 2021-22 school year successfully completed it. The data show that students who had already failed a course were likely to fail the credit recovery course during that school year.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_69364158-7605-11ef-97fd-2f8001b2f968.html

As teachers begin another school year and approach their first grade book deadlines, some school districts are adopting more “equity grading” reforms. Just last month, the Kansas City Public School district in Missouri gave the green light to a “no zero policy” in which students receiving a failing grade would have a 40% minimum grade through 59% instead of the 0-59% range it had before. According to Adam Tyner, national research director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, this approach to grading rehashes some old approaches. Tyner was the coauthor of a research brief highlighting how these new “equity grading” standards were impacting students, both positively and negatively. 

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After the shooting at Apalachee High School in metro Atlanta last week, schools nationwide have closed due to threats, and dozens of students have been arrested. But what causes the uptick in school shooting threats after a mass shooting? According to Jaclyn Schildkraut, the executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government, it’s not clear whether shooting threats actually increase or whether people are just more vigilant. But she said there are ways to reduce the likelihood of future attacks and threats. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_907f56f2-720c-11ef-8832-d75aaa798052.html

School districts nationwide are facing a Sept. 30 deadline to spend the last round of nearly $200 billion in federal COVID-19 funds on helping students recover from learning losses due to school closures and other needs. The deadline, sometimes called a fiscal cliff, marks the last day districts can spend federal money on certain expenditures, but there are some extensions and deadlines to know about. According to the Edunomics Lab, which tracks federal spending nationwide, the money that is not spent by districts will return to the Department of the Treasury.

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Public school students in New York City will receive lessons critical of capitalism and asserting that Black Americans should receive reparations, that student loans are equivalent to “debt peonage,” the tenets of the Black Lives Matter movement and arguments for abolishing the police. The 520-page Black Studies Curriculum, which is being implemented by New York City Public Schools this fall, provides lesson plan outlines for teachers on controversial topics like the case for reparations, voter ID laws and the difference between defunding, reforming and abolishing the police. While many of the topics discussed would likely not be considered controversial, there are some classroom discussions that seem to be driven by stating controversial viewpoints as fact.

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Full story:https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_386bb7ea-6ef5-11ef-b8d6-af1a75b3aa17.html

State authorities have announced that the father of the suspect accused of killing four and wounding nine more at a metro Atlanta high school has been arrested for his part in providing weapons for the suspect to use. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday evening that it had arrested Colin Gray, the shooter’s father, in connection with Wednesday’s attack on Apalachee High School in Barrow County, Georgia. The move has a recent legal precedent: Prosecutors have previously convicted the parents of a school shooter who attacked a high school in Oxford, Michigan. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/safety/article_9ab681ce-6c60-11ef-81f1-ff19d7adc7e8.html 

The Washington State Board of Education is moving closer to officially updating and expanding a 2021 resolution that established an ethnic studies graduation requirement. Board members discussed “incorporating Ethnic Studies into the legislative platform, and/or addressing Ethnic Studies through the FutureReady graduation requirements initiative,” according to the agenda for Thursday’s virtual board of education meeting. According to the board’s website, FutureReady – implemented this summer – is an initiative to update graduation requirements to better prepare students for the future. However, the increasing focus on ethnic studies in all subjects is not without controversy.

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Full story: WA Board of Ed looks to expand controversial ethnic studies graduation requirement

Seattle Public Schools has amended certain student information policies after a parent complained to administrators that an identity worksheet handed out by an outspoken teacher may have violated federal and state laws, Chalkboard has learned. The district confirmed to Chalkboard News this week that it no longer asks students to provide protected information for a “social identity wheel” that could be linked to them without parental notification and an opt-out opportunity after a parent invoked federal laws limiting what schools can ask students. Chalkboard News obtained copies of a parent email sent to administrators through a public records request. The parent alleged that a world history ethnic studies class at Chief Sealth International High School required students to submit information violating federal law.

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A group of publishers, authors and individuals filed a lawsuit against Florida’s Board of Education and several school districts over book removals, which they say violates the First Amendment rights of publishers, authors and students. Thursday’s lawsuit specifically targets portions of the 2023 law which mandated the Department of Education create a parental objection form to allow parents and residents to complain about books in libraries or classrooms “without consideration of their value as a whole in violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.” The lawsuit stated that many classic books have been removed from school libraries, including Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina,” Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughter-House Five,” Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and others. 

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A Tennessee law meant to curb school violence has reportedly been used again to penalize younger students, allegedly leading a 10-year-old to be expelled for an entire year after making a finger gun gesture. The state’s zero-tolerance law for school violence, which was passed after a shooter killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville, has been invoked in several alleged instances where school administrators disciplined students with expulsion or arrest for making threats. According to a report from ProPublica last week, one unnamed Tennessee school district first suspended a student for making a finger gun gesture with his hands and then notified parents that he would not be allowed to attend the district for a year. 

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 Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_6855c9b2-63df-11ef-99ac-dbbfb33c7d2f.html

Some Arizona leaders are hoping cell phones will be banned throughout the school day as part of state law in next legislative session. “This is a real emergency, the problem of cell phones in the classroom,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said at a news conference on Thursday, arguing that the issue of students being distracted in classes continues to worsen. House Bill 2793, sponsored by Rep. Beverly Pingerelli, R-Peoria, was vetoed by Gov. Katie Hobbs in April. The bill passed the legislature along party lines, with Republicans backing the bill and Democrats voting against it. 

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Full story:

Montana governor wants cell-phone ban in schools

Arizona leaders to renew push for school cell phone ban

A federal judge in Virginia has ordered that a transgender middle school student can try out and play on the girls tennis team after the school board told the unnamed student she would not be able to be on the team. Last week's ruling comes as several courts are expected in the coming months to hear arguments on the Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX, the federal statute prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions. The Hanover County School Board in Hanover, Virginia, had previously denied the student a place on the tennis team, citing its policy on transgender students. The federal judge overturned the policy while litigation is ongoing, arguing that the school board should have created an exception for the student based on federal law. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_cb7aae7c-5ff2-11ef-8140-932aab4cb95f.html

Utah has permanently removed over a dozen books from public schools per a new state law governing “sensitive instructional materials.” The targeted books include titles by Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, Sarah J. Maas and Rupi Kaur. Critics have been outspoken against the new state law, which took effect July 1, which “requires the prioritization of protecting children from illicit pornography over other considerations in evaluating instructional material.” The state’s running list as of Aug. 2 shows 13 books that “have been determined to contain objective sensitive materials in a final determination.” 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_02761662-60a9-11ef-9ca8-d307d0bf748b.html

The United States Supreme Court ruled Friday that states involved in two lawsuits could not enforce the Biden administration’s updated Title IX rule in states continuing the multi legal battle over sex discrimination and gender identity. The high court ruled 5-4 to deny requests from the Department of Justice to stay injunctions issued by appellate courts which blocked the Department of Education’s new rule from going into effect on the Aug. 1 deadline as litigation continues around the expanded definition of sex discrimination. The arguments between the opinion and the dissent centered on whether the unchallenged aspects of the rule should be able to stand while the courts decide whether the challenged portions are legal. The majority opinion found that the challenged portions were “intertwined” with the rest of the rule.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_961b5976-5e70-11ef-b041-5be5846709c5.html

After recent escalations, Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma will use a state financial agency to investigate Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the state’s Department of Education. State Rep. Kevin Wallace said he would ask the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) to look into Walters and the Department of Education after lawmakers signed a petition calling for a committee in the House to look at six recent issues earlier this week. Walters told a local TV station that those calling for an investigation are “liberal Republicans” who are “flat-out wrong” and are a “lackey of the teachers union.” 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_e1f4b310-5bc3-11ef-859f-e3bbf7309108.html

As millions of students across the country prepare to go back to traditional public school, some estimates are that over three million K-12 students will soon begin their semesters at home for various reasons. Brian D. Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) — a non-profit group that collects data regarding homeschooling — shared with Chalkboard News that his “best estimate” is that there are “slightly more” kids learning at home in 2022-2023 than 2021-2022. He caveated that while his estimates for 2022-23 were not yet finalized, the initial estimates for the total number of homeschooled K-12 students “might have barely moved up to 3.2 million.” 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/parental-rights/article_980a1cc6-5c0a-11ef-8eb8-7b6907695073.html 

A district court in California ruled that teachers and parents in the state may try to create a statewide class action lawsuit against school districts with policies requiring them to conceal a student’s gender or name change from parents. The proposed class action lawsuit allowed to continue by Judge Roger T. Benitez stems out of litigation brought by two substitute teachers against Escondido Union School District, alleging the school and state-level leaders violated teachers’ rights by requiring them to withhold information from parents.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_04e9c226-5664-11ef-be5e-6b974468dcfd.html

A California school district says parents have the right to review the sex education their students receive, but it is silent about whether that policy applies to one high school’s student-created materials that reportedly discuss polyamory and gender identity. At Berkeley High School, students do teach other students about sex, according to a description of the school’s Sexual Health Information from Teens (SHIFT) program. They are overseen by unlicensed “educators” who are paid by the federal agency AmeriCorps. 

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A Rhode Island mother is suing her child’s former school district after the school initially denied her public records requests about her child’s curriculum and other school policies, and the local teachers union sued her to try to get her to stop. Nicole Solas, who had a kindergartener enrolled in the South Kingstown School District in 2021, wanted to know more about what was being taught at her child’s school and policies, but as she began asking questions, she was met with resistance. Soon, Solas began filing hundreds of public records requests requesting curriculum and emails from school leaders in an attempt to obtain answers. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_8dcc4400-598f-11ef-8331-f361215fa456.html

Students at a Detroit combined virtual school took their online credit recovery courses 20 times faster than the courseware provider suggests in the 2023-24 school year. According to a public records request filed with Detroit Public Community School District, students took their 11th and 12th-grade English language arts classes in about four hours, while the courseware provider Edgenuity recommends students spend 80 hours on such courses. All 23 students who took the 11th-grade ELA online credit recovery class at Detroit Lions Academy completed the course in four hours, 14 minutes and 20 seconds of active time, with an average grade of 86%. 

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A Maryland school district says it will have to walk back its bold goals for an all-electric bus fleet after a highly critical watchdog report revealed wasteful spending and a lack of oversight with a clean-energy transportation vendor. Montgomery County Public Schools said it will likely fall short of its goals to have an emissions-free bus fleet after delays and setbacks highlighted in a recent report from the Montgomery County Inspector General. The district has asked the state board of education for millions to cover the cost of standard diesel buses and said it would need an exemption for the vehicles because of a state law prohibiting the acquisition of non-electric vehicles.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/funding-spending/article_853fd40c-5050-11ef-aa16-7f4201fb6f22.html

As the presidential election heats up heading into the fall, experts say local school board races are becoming more politicized and partisan, eliciting various responses from states and districts. In Indiana, for example, a district ruled that a school board candidate who wanted to appear on the ballot with a Trump-themed nickname is disqualified. In Florida, however, voters are faced with an amendment that, if passed, would allow school board candidates to appear on the ballot with their party affiliation. Julie Marsh, a professor of education at the University of Southern California, said that in recent years, school board elections have seen higher spending and are “more politicized…more partisan, more nationally oriented, more contested.”

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A federal appeals court has ruled that the Biden administration can’t implement its Title IX rules in an additional four states, bringing the total number of statewide injunctions to 26. With a recent block awarded in Oklahoma on Wednesday and then an emergency appeal granted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, over half of the United States will be exempt from the Thursday deadline. The new Biden administration rules add gender identity to prohibitions on sexual discrimination in Title IX, including requiring schools to allow students to use a bathroom and locker room that aligns with their gender identity.

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An education organization that administers a nationwide assessment has found that students are still not performing as well as they were immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic and that students' achievement gap worsened in the 2023-24 school year as compared to before COVID. NWEA, which issues the Measures of Academic Progress, said in a report this week that some middle school students are still an entire school year behind where they were before the pandemic in almost every grade as schools are slated to run out of federal relief this fall. The organization estimated that eighth-grade students would require nine months of additional schooling to reach pre-pandemic achievement levels in reading and 9.3 months of extra schooling to reach the same in math.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_0cd88e9a-49f8-11ef-99ef-139d76f64c67.html

This week, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas sent a letter to over 50 school districts in that state, claiming their dress codes are in violation of a state law aimed at protecting students from hair discrimination. In a press release, the ACLU of Texas announced it sent letters to 51 districts, demanding they update their policies to comply with the law. Earlier this year, however, a judge ruled that a school district’s grooming policy did not violate the CROWN Act. The CROWN Act prohibits discrimination based on hairstyle and hair texture. 

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Several Oklahoma school leaders have reportedly signaled their opposition to the state’s top education official over a mandate to include the Bible in classroom instruction sent out last month. While several school leaders have said they are opposed to the mandate or will not implement it and instead rely on previous state standards, school districts have been hesitant to offer official positions. Several outlets in the state have reported backlash to Walters’ mandate from late last month requiring schools to teach students about the Bible in grades 5-12. The requirement, as Chalkboard previously reported, was also met with criticism from lawmakers. 

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New poll results show that the majority of likely voters say artificial intelligence shouldn’t be in schools because it makes it too easy to cheat. The Voter’s Voice Poll conducted by Noble Predictive Insights for The Center Square (which, like Chalkboard News, is owned and operated by the Franklin News Foundation) found that over two-thirds of likely voters say they think AI should stay out of schools. The recent poll of nearly 2,300 likely voters found that 68% agreed with the statement that “AI should be kept out of schools” because “it makes cheating too easy.” Only 22% were in favor of keeping AI in schools with the rest saying they were not sure. 

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A North Carolina school board passed a policy this week aligning itself with the Biden administration's expansion of Title IX which has faced numerous lawsuits and legal setbacks, including an injunction prohibiting its implementation in hundreds of K-12 schools, colleges and universities. The Wake County School Board voted Tuesday to adopt a policy echoing the Department of Education’s expanded definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity during a board meeting where various arguments for and against the policy were vocalized. Before the board’s decision, a federal judge out of Kansas ordered that the Education Department cannot implement its rule ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline in hundreds of specific schools nationwide, including progressive states like California and New York, according to court filings.

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The Government Accountability Office, which acts as a watchdog for federal agencies, said in a recent report that male students of color with disabilities were more likely to be arrested than the average student. The GAO also reported that police in schools nearly doubled the number of arrests and that arrests were more frequent when police were involved in discipline. Critics of police in schools say it creates a school-to-prison pipeline, while advocates for school resource officers cite the need to protect students and staff.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_4629e364-43b4-11ef-b713-2f4cce14c17d.html 

A government accountability nonprofit says the federal government’s school system has injected controversial topics and statements into classrooms and professional development at taxpayers’ expense. OpenTheBooks released a report on the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) this week and pointed to what it calls “extreme radical pedagogical practices under the umbrella of ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).’” The DoDEA did not respond to comment in time for publication. The report found that the government-run school district, which operates on behalf of military families stationed in the United States and abroad, has spent about $300 million a year on contracts since 2017 and that millions have gone to vendors offering DEI-related content.

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Thousands of teachers have left their unions in recent years, and alternative organizations are offering services as alternatives to those provided by the largest teachers unions: the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The Freedom Foundation announced this week that it will be launching the Teacher Freedom Network in January 2025 for teachers who want to leave the teachers union. The organization will offer options that unions typically offer like liability insurance coverage options, professional development and grievance support. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/unions/article_204b32f6-408f-11ef-9438-bf850c73d2d2.html 

Arkansas is getting help from other states in its defense of an injunction that halted a portion of the LEARNS Act. U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky issued a ruling in May that keeps Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva and the Department of Education from enforcing a portion of the law that requires a review of items "that may purposely or otherwise, promote teaching that would indoctrinate students with ideologies, such as Critical Race Theory, otherwise known as 'CRT', that conflict with the principle of equal protection under the law or encourage students to discriminate against someone based on the individual's color, creed, race, ethnicity, sex, age, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law." The injunction does not affect an executive order issued by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in January 2023 that bans the teaching of critical race theory in Arkansas schools, but Judge Rudofsky said the executive order and the section in question are similar.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/school-choice/article_a0bbaf0e-0401-52ee-9b23-1ef40a522f0a.html 

 Over half of U.S. states now require high school students to receive a financial literacy course before they graduate after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Tuesday passed by the California Legislature. With the passage of California’s law requiring schools to offer a course in personal finance by the 2027-28 school year and requiring the class of 2031 to receive at least one class, a total of 26 states now require students to take a course on how to manage money, according to a nonprofit spearheading efforts to pass such laws. While students are learning about the cost of living, how to balance their budget and file taxes, a Senate appropriations committee analysis of the legislation says implementing its requirements may cost the state an additional $200 million a year. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/curriculum/article_90515f48-38b6-11ef-a165-ab74215f033c.html 

Chicago Public Schools asked an HIV drug manufacturer to sponsor a district-wide event for LGBTQ+ students as young as 10 years old earlier this year in exchange for sponsorship benefits like logo placement and a shout out during the opening session. Global specialty pharmaceutical company Viiv Healthcare said it would give $10,000 to the district’s Galaxy Summit event earlier this year to qualify as a platinum sponsor after the district asked if it would want to help fund the event early this year, according to public records obtained by Chalkboard News. CPS declined to comment on its solicitation of donations from the HIV drug company and pointed Chalkboard to its previous statement that said CPS “aims to create a safe, inclusive and respectful school environment for every student.” The school district has not yet publicly commented on its agreement with Viiv Healthcare. 

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A federal judge has ordered the Biden administration to delay implementation of its sweeping changes to Title IX in another four states and at schools attended by students who belong to specific organizations or have parents who do. A Kansas district court on Tuesday blocked the Department of Education from implementing its updated rules expanding longstanding protections around sex discrimination to include gender identity in four more states and specific schools. It’s the latest in a series of rulings showing lawsuits challenging the rule ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline are likely to succeed. Courts have now halted the rule's implementation in over a dozen states. 

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/cultural-issues/article_5c54c9d2-3951-11ef-8f78-c7b280876780.html 

Two separate Tennessee families filed a joint federal lawsuit on behalf of their children against Bill Lee, the governor of Tennessee, and the Williamson County Board of Education. The lawsuit claims that on separate occasions, a child from each family (students in the William County School District) was wrongfully arrested, incarcerated and suspended as a result of the district’s interpretation of the new Tennessee statute requiring a “zero tolerance” policy for “threats of mass violence.” The lawsuit claims that “none of the speech attributed to the minor plaintiffs rose to the level of a threat of mass violence or amounted to actions that a reasonable person would conclude could lead to the serious bodily injury, as defined in § 39-11-106, or the death of two (2) or more persons,” which was the definition set forth in the statute.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/safety/article_88cba49e-338a-11ef-96d6-cf268f36687d.html

After the California Department of Education issued guidance that schools should not disclose students’ gender-related record change requests to parents, some California school districts adopted rules requiring parents to be notified if their children request to officially change their pronouns, go by a different name, or use facilities or school programs for children of the opposite gender. California Attorney General Rob Bonta responded by supporting lawsuits against these school districts, and the current bill in question, AB 1955. AB 1955, introduced by Assembly member Chris Ward, D-San Diego, would ban parental notification policies, and expand resources for LGBTQ+ students and families. 

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After a report from the NYC Special Commissioner of Investigation (SCI) exposed how some New York City Department of Education employees lied about receiving the COVID vaccine during a mandate for educators, the district said the matter is “under review.” The investigation “substantiated” that 16 current and former employees of New York City's Department of Education knowingly submitted falsified and misleading documents claiming they were in compliance with the district’s vaccine mandate. The investigation found that the employees claimed they all were vaccinated by a pediatric nurse practitioner, Julie DeVuono, who later pleaded guilty to forging and selling Centers for Disease Control Vaccination Record Cards, according to the SCI.

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Full story: https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/teachers/article_c0b2fa30-354f-11ef-bc68-0bbe1bba4023.html 

A former Buffalo Public Schools principal accused of manipulating grades in the New York district has been chosen to be the keynote speaker at a continuous improvement summit held by the Kentucky Department of Education. Teachers say while Marck Abraham was principal at McKinley High School, he reportedly pressured them to change student grades, calling into question the method he outlines in his book about how he raised the graduation rate for Black male students. An event page for the 2024 Kentucky Continuous Improvement Summit sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Education and accreditation company Cognia says it will provide professional development to school leaders.

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Researchers who analyzed an Algebra I online credit recovery course from Edmentum say it failed to challenge students, was vulnerable to cheating via Google searches and reused the same test questions. In a new paper that is under peer review, researchers at Vanderbilt University and Georgia State University have quantified how virtual credit recovery classes, which are often provided to students who have previously failed a course, are easily manipulated, reuse questions and fail to engage students at a higher level. After Chalkboard reported on the analysis of Edmentum’s online credit recovery course, the company responded that assessment results show its courseware is effective at boosting student knowledge and that it prioritizes academic integrity. 

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https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/accountability/article_e19bdb5e-2f4b-11ef-983f-039c5dd6f501.html

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board voted on a resolution Tuesday to revise its 2011 school cell phone policy to ban phones for students during school hours with few caveats. After a board vote, it chose to approve the resolution, 5-2, with board members George McKenna and Scott Schmerelson voting against the decision to begin banning phones during the entire school day. The board’s resolution says that “within 120 days, the Los Angeles Unified School District shall develop and present to the public at a board meeting updated cell phone and social media policies to prohibit student use of cell phones and social media platforms district-wide during the entire school day.”

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A federal judge has struck down the Biden administration’s rule expanding the definition of Title IX to include gender identity in six states, the latest in a salvo of legal challenges against the changes intended to protect LGBTQ+ students in recent days. Monday’s injunction from the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Kentucky prevents the Department of Education from implementing its proposed rulemaking ahead of its Aug. 1 effective date in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia. The court said in its ruling Monday that the state of Tennessee is likely to prevail in its lawsuit and that the new rule is not in line with the intent of the 1972 funding statute to protect educational opportunities for women in education settings and violates the Constitution.

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Chicago Public Schools used over $47,000 in federal funds for an event “to learn about and celebrate the galaxies of gender, sexuality and love” which taught 10-to-18 year old students how to be activists and reminded them they do not need to ask their parents before changing their name or pronouns at school. A portion of the district’s 2024 Galaxy Summit was sponsored by a HIV pharmaceutical company called Viiv Healthcare, which CPS said paid $9,000 for a catered lunch for students. The company, however, says it sponsored more than just the lunch of the March 2 event and provided resources to students. 

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Video platform TikTok has said that videos and accounts that promote online courseware cheating violate its policy governing frauds and scams, but reporting the videos doesn’t seem to have an effect and at least one removed account has returned. Last month, Chalkboard flagged two accounts that appear to violate TikTok’s policy on frauds and scams, which the company previously said governs accounts promoting cheating services to students using online classes. They are still operating and offering to help students complete their work. 

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The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights said in a report that over two-thirds of all Title IX complaints came from one individual as it seeks to increase its staff for the next fiscal year. The branch of the education agency that enforces federal funding statutes tied to civil rights legislation said 5,590 out of 8,151 complaints related to alleged sex discrimination came from one person, continuing a consistent trend where an individual has filed thousands of cases every year.  According to the annual report to the president and secretary of education, the OCR said that it had seen the largest number of complaints ever during the 2023 fiscal year (FY).

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https://www.chalkboardnews.com/issues/funding-spending/article_205815a2-24f6-11ef-a65c-3bc39cf51533.html

A new parents bill of rights took effect Thursday in Washington, but State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal is telling school districts to ignore it. The measure approved by lawmakers back in March was introduced by a voter initiative. Supporters said it was a way to ensure parents don’t feel left out of their child’s education and, among other things, have access to medical or counseling records if children are questioning gender identity or sexual orientation.

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As school board candidates run and win on more conservative-leaning platforms promising public school reforms, alternatives to traditional school board member associations have launched in states like Virginia and Pennsylvania in an attempt to redefine the role. Alternatives for conservative-leaning school board members have proven to be contentious, but proponents say they are following the law and holding school systems more accountable to promote student success. The York County School Board in Yorktown, Virginia, recently debated whether to use an alternative to the Virginia School Board Association. 

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A federal judge ruled earlier this week that New Hampshire laws limiting classroom discussions around critical race theory and divisive topics are unconstitutionally vague and violate the Fourteenth Amendment. New Hampshire was one of the dozens of states to pass laws limiting classroom instruction related to the legal framework that seeks to explain how racism permeates societal institutions, which critics of critical race theory call “divisive.” The law was challenged by the New Hampshire chapter of the ACLU as well as teachers unions in the state, who were concerned with what they could teach students given the scope of the law. The judge agreed that the laws were too vague. 

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