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Most clicked story of the week:
Students in several areas of the country organized school walkouts on Jan. 30 as part of a “national shutdown” in protest of violent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, including the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.
While several school systems and district leaders acknowledged students' free speech rights, they also warned students of the consequences for unexcused absences, disruptive activity or violations to school rules, including the potential for out-of-school suspensions.
David Law, superintendent of Minnesota's Minnetonka Public Schools and president of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said districts should inform parents when a walkout is being planned and summarize in a message to them what happened after it occurred.
By the numbers
$25,000
That's the cost to large districts of replacing just one teacher, according to a January report released by the National Council on Teacher Quality. Teacher turnover can have both financial and academic consequences for districts and there are growing concerns that a lack of affordable child care will put strains on K-12 teacher retention. Child care is “wildly expensive” for most people, said Casey Peeks, senior director for early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress, a policy institute. But teachers’ challenges are exacerbated, as their salaries can’t keep up with inflation even as child care costs continue to rise, she said. “So it’s getting harder and harder for K-12 teachers to afford the cost of child care,” Peeks said.
Challenges and solutions in special education
- Identical bills in the House and Senate propose adding dyslexia as a new and separate category under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act's definition of a “child with a disability.” Currently, dyslexia is named as one of several disorders under the specific learning disabilities category in IDEA. Supporters of the bipartisan bills said the change is needed to modernize identifications for children with reading challenges. But critics have several concerns, including that dyslexia does not account for all reading disability subtypes. For example, some students can read words well but not comprehend what they’ve read but nonetheless do not have dyslexia, they said.
- The expansion of private school choice in recent years could “undermine” the gains students with disabilities have made in public schools over the past 50 years, including the right to be educated in general education classrooms along with their peers without disabilities, according to a report by the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates. The report offered recommendations to state officials, private school leaders and parents, for instance, by advising state leaders to safeguard students’ legal rights under IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and all civil rights laws.
- A U.S. Government Accountability Office report highlighted barriers to using school-based assistive technology for students with disabilities, as well as solutions some school systems are incorporating to expand access to devices and tools that can enhance learning. Some strategies school districts are using to overcome these barriers include forming assistive technology teams that create standardized processes to identify the best tech for students’ individualized needs and to coordinate procurement processes, the report said.
Private school choice debate continues
- Senators and witnesses at a Jan. 28 hearing discussed whether the expansion of private school choice — including through a new federal tax credit program — harms or helps public schools. Supporters said private school choice can drive competition that improves public school outcomes, while opponents voiced concerns about decreased funding for public schools and the impacts on students with higher needs.The discussion occurred during National School Choice Week.
- The rapid and recent growth of school options is delighting some parents, organizations and policymakers as they decry a lack of public school programs that fit with students’ and parents’ unique needs and desires. Private school choice opponents, however, are concerned these programs siphon funding from public schools where most students in the U.S. learn. As the private school choice conversation continues, K-12 Dive put together a Study Hall resource on what you need to know about this alternative schooling model.
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