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Most clicked story of the week:
The arrival of federal immigration enforcement activities at schoolhouse doors has placed educators, families and students on high alert in recent months. To provide a picture of the situation on the ground, K-12 Dive has compiled a tracker of incidents based on publicly available information, with updates to come as new information arises.
Number of the week:
$79 billion
The amount of fiscal year 2026 funding available for the U.S. Department of Education through Sept. 30. President Donald Trump swiftly signed the bipartisan, bicameral budget compromise on Feb. 3 following its final approval from the House in a 217-214 vote earlier in the afternoon.
Technological technicalities
- Federal officials will enforce new federal accessibility rules for web content and mobile apps as early as this April, but many school districts won’t be ready to comply. Just 14% of respondents say their districts have completed or nearly completed updates to ensure digital platforms and content are accessible as mandated under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a survey conducted by the National School Public Relations Association and Sogolytics.
- Educational institutions faced 251 ransomware attacks worldwide in 2025, with 94 such incidents confirmed by the targeted organizations, according to a report released Feb. 5 by Comparitech, a cybersecurity and online privacy product review website. Some 3.96 million records were breached among those confirmed attacks. However, ransomware attacks on the education sector worldwide began to slow down in 2025, with the number of incidents targeting schools, universities and other educational institutions rising by just 2% compared to the year prior.
Policy in the spotlight
- The Education Department spent nearly $1 million per week on salaries for civil rights enforcement staff it put on administrative leave beginning in March 2025, paying up to $38 million total through December 2025, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Feb. 2. Between March and September, while the majority of the department's Office for Civil Rights staff were on leave due to the agency’s reductions in force, the office received more than 9,000 complaints and resolved a total of 7,072 complaints. It did so by dismissing 90% of them, the report said.
- The Education Department will continue to target diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools under Title VI despite a court block on its controversial anti-DEI Dear Colleague letter. That letter, issued a year ago, announced the department’s policy interpreting Title VI — which protects students from discrimination based on race, ethnicity and national origin — to prohibit DEI programs. It said some schools’ race-based equity programs discriminate against White and Asian students and could result in federal funding loss for districts.
