Most-clicked story of the week:
The U.S. Department of Education is aiming to curb the practice of schools “passing the trash,” or allowing employees accused of sexual misconduct to jump from one school to another when allegations surface.
In a July 10 Dear Colleague letter, the agency reiterated the responsibility of states and districts to protect students by not engaging in the practice, which it described as “a troubling and recurring pattern in schools” nationally.
The number of former federal special education officials who served in every presidential administration from Richard Nixon through the first Trump administration and the Biden administration — but not the second Trump administration — who signed a letter opposing the transfer of special education management to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The former officials said in the July 13 letter that such a move “dismantles, rather than relocates, the federal infrastructure built over five decades” of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Principals convene in Florida
- Anne Vernon, principal of Myron J. Francis Elementary School in Rhode Island, shared how a positive behavioral interventions and supports model can boost attendance significantly during a July 13 session at the National Association of Elementary School Principals’ National School Leaders Conference in Orlando, Florida. Among her advice, Vernon warned school leaders that promoting perfect attendance awards is a common misstep that can hurt these efforts.
- On July 14, Alana Winnick, educational technology director at Pocantico Hills Community School District in New York, discussed the importance of focusing on digital wellness rather than banning devices altogether. “Stop measuring screen time and start measuring screen purpose,” Winnick told attendees. “What is technology adding? What is it replacing or displacing?”
- In a July 15 keynote, former U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona — who served as an elementary school principal in Meriden, Connecticut, for a decade — offered leadership advice and lessons learned from his career. Focusing on how principals can innovate while balancing the pressures of running a school, he spoke to the importance of collaboration, good pedagogy and time management.
Policy spotlight
- A civil rights complaint filed July 14 against Pittsburgh Public Schools alleges the district’s school closures and consolidations will disproportionately impact Black students as 6,000 or more students are impacted. The complaint was filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission on behalf of five students who will be reassigned to new schools under the plan approved in May.
- A new proposal from Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson would require high school students to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or the state equivalent to graduate. The plan unveiled July 13 aims to increase the share of students accessing aid, though students could opt out by signing a form.
- Recognizing school districts’ need for artificial intelligence guidance and tools, Maine Department of Education leaders knew that a traditional policy development process — identifying an issue, drafting a policy, and then reviewing, approving and implementing it — wouldn’t fit with the urgent demand for supports. “With AI, by the time you finish that cycle, the technology had already changed,” Beth Lambert, chief teaching and learning officer at Maine DOE, recently told attendees at the Education Commission of the States’ National Forum on Education Policy.
