Most-clicked story of the week:
Recent but separate survey findings from both the National Association of School Nurses and Soliant Health, a healthcare staffing provider, are raising red flags about districts’ ability to retain school nurses and, ultimately, to sustainably take care of students. For example, just 8% of school nurses said they plan to stay in the education sector until retirement, Soliant found. NASN’s preliminary survey data also shows that 66% of school nurses plan to stay in schools for three to five years.
The percentage that the U.S. Department of Education’s budget would face in funding cuts for fiscal year 2027, under a bill approved on June 9 by a Republican majority on the House Appropriations Committee. The legislation proposes $71 billion for the Education Department in FY27, a notable decrease from its $79 billion this fiscal year.
The bill now goes to the full House as the Senate will hash out its own version of a Labor, Health and Human Services Education and Related Agencies FY27 appropriations bill in the coming months.
Districts face more federal scrutiny over DEI, LGBTQ+ issues
- Three superintendents were grilled by Republican lawmakers in a June 10 House hearing on Capitol Hill over their districts’ inclusion policies, particularly over topics involving LGBTQ+ affirming practices and curricula that reflect diverse student populations. The district leaders from Chicago Public Schools, San Francisco Unified School District and Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools defended and stood by their policies. Democratic House representatives said during the hearing that they’d rather focus on improving academic achievement and addressing the Trump administration’s effort to shutter the U.S. Department of Education instead of "divisive culture war" conversations.
- Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on June 8 that it’s launching compliance review investigations into four California public school districts over their LGBTQ+ policies. San Francisco USD is one of the four districts included in these department investigations. The districts will be assessed on whether they permitted parents to opt out of instruction related to sexual orientation and gender ideology and if transgender students are allowed to use bathrooms, locker rooms and athletic rooms based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
- The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced on June 8 an investigation into a suburban Denver school district’s “rampant racially-discriminatory programming.” Cherry Creek School District’s initiatives being probed by the Education Department include a parent group called the “Voices of Color Committee” and a teacher training that instructs the U.S. was founded on white supremacy.
Where hope and concerns persist in students’ academic recovery
- Assessment data from the Nation’s Report Card released by the National Center for Education Statistics found reading scores for 9-year-olds increased in 2025 compared to both 2022 and 1971, a hopeful sign for student academic gains. Still, 13-year-olds showed no significant improvement in their reading scores since 1971.
- Lewis Ferebee, the outgoing chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools and the incoming CEO of EdReports, highlighted in an opinion piece for K-12 Dive on June 10 how DCPS students made historic gains in both English language arts and math following the pandemic. Ferebee credits the improvements to a focus on strategic planning and programming.
- Nationwide, however, the Annie E. Casey Foundation reported on June 8 that the decline in children’s well-being between 2019 and 2024 as measured by four indicators — education, health, economic well-being, and family and community — saw the sharpest score drop with education. Among those findings, the foundation’s 2026 Kids Count Data Book reported that the percentage of 4th graders not proficient in reading rose from 66% in 2019 to 70% in 2024, and the percentage of 8th graders not proficient in math also increased from 67% to 73%.
