Author: BelieveAgain

The new term at the U.S. Supreme Court arrived this fall after one of the most consequential years for K–12 education in recent memory, with major rulings touching on special education, parental rights, religion in schools, and federal education programs. As those decisions ripple, courts nationwide remain a central force in shaping how public schools operate.From transgender student rights and student speech to immigration and religious expression, a series of cases aimed at resolving some of education’s most contested questions could shape day-to-day school policies, student experiences, and the boundaries of school districts’ authority in the years to come.Here’s a…

President Donald Trump’s executive actions have prompted legal challenges virtually from the moment he took office for a second term in January. His education-related policies haven’t been immune.This year, Education Week tracked the lawsuits that school districts, universities, multistate coalitions, teachers’ unions, professional associations, and others have filed against the Trump administration to challenge unilateral funding freezes; U.S. Department of Education downsizing; grant terminations; directives concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion and transgender-student rights; and more.As of Dec. 22, we’ve tallied 70 lawsuits challenging the administration’s education actions or broader policy changes that affect education. These lawsuits—most of which are still…

A federal appeals court has upheld a Michigan school district’s investigation and expulsion of an 8th grader who allegedly made comments about bringing a gun to school less than a week after a fatal mass shooting at a nearby Michigan high school. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, ruled unanimously that the 1,000-student Cass City school district did not violate the student’s constitutional rights when the superintendent and two police officers questioned and searched him. The panel also upheld the temporary expulsion of the student identified as H.H., even though no…

A Lake Tahoe school district is caught between California and Nevada’s competing policies on transgender student athletes, a dispute that’s poised to reorder where the district’s students compete.High schools in California’s Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, set in a mountainous, snow-prone area near the border with Nevada, have for decades competed in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, or NIAA. That has allowed sports teams to avoid making frequent and potentially hazardous trips in poor winter weather to competitions farther to the west, district officials say.But the Nevada association voted in April to require students in sex-segregated sports programs to play on…

Four-term North Carolina Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt, a towering figure in North Carolina politics in the late 20th century who helped leaders from both major parties strive for public education reform, died Thursday at the age of 88, his daughter Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt announced.Hunt, whose career provided a prototype for the modern “education governor,” served an unprecedented 16 years as governor as the state received the rewards and stings of shifting from textiles and tobacco to a high-tech economy.Rachel Hunt’s office said that her father died peacefully Thursday at his Wilson County home.“He devoted his life to serving the…

This school year, for the first time, the rural Moscow school district in Idaho has employed two full-time “community schools coordinators” who help connect students and families to social services and academic enrichment opportunities, like internships and career counseling.Moscow Middle School opened a family resource hub, open for walk-ins three hours a week during school and once a quarter on Saturday afternoons, where any child from the community can pick up free clothing, school supplies, books, and toiletries.Middle-school students learning about forestry got to visit a nearby university’s experimental forest three times this semester. And the school hired a licensed…

It’s been a wild year in education, with everything from the disruptions of AI to Trump’s disassembly of the Department of Education. Along the way, there’ve been horrific NAEP scores, a slew of cellphone bans, a new federal tuition tax-credit program, Supreme Court rulings with big implications for K-12, and much else. Before we ring in the new year, it can be useful to reflect on the year that was. In that spirit, I like to revisit the year’s RHSU columns and surface some of the top hits—as determined by readership, feedback, and personal preference.There are always a few pieces…

When a measles outbreak hit West Texas earlier this year, school absences surged to levels far beyond the number of children who likely became sick, according to a study, as students were excluded or kept home by their families to minimize the spread of the disease.Absences in Seminole Independent School District, a school system that served students at the heart of the outbreak, climbed 41% across all grade levels compared with the same period the two previous years, according to the Stanford University study.The preliminary study, which has not been published or finished a formal peer review, offers a glimpse…

Utah has repealed a collective bargaining ban passed earlier this year that prevented labor unions serving teachers, firefighters, police, and other public employees from negotiating on behalf of their workers.Republican Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday approved the repeal of a policy that experts had called one of the most restrictive labor laws in the country.The state’s Republican-controlled Legislature originally approved the policy in February, saying it was needed to allow employers to engage directly with all employees, instead of communicating through a union representative. Thousands of union members from the public and private sector rallied outside Cox’s office for a…

A new documentary is shining fresh attention on a major special education ruling the U.S. Supreme Court decided last term, spotlighting the lawyer who not only won that case but has played a role in several landmark victories for students with disabilities in recent years.“Supreme Advocacy,” a 40-minute film from Bloomberg Law, pulls back the curtain on how a single case moves through the Supreme Court—from the time it is taken up by the justices through legal briefs, oral arguments, and then a decision. (Released Dec. 2, it is available for free on YouTube.)The filmmakers chose as their subject Roman…