According to a new report from LGBTQ+ student advocacy organizations Glisten and The Trevor Project, just under a third (32%) of transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse students missed at least one day of school in the month prior to being surveyed because they felt unsafe at school, according to a…
As reported by K-12 Dive, an August 26, 2026 social media litigation settlement between Meta and 52 states and territories looks to make sweeping changes to how youth interact with these platforms in efforts to reduce harm to youth mental health. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2023 and claimed…
A Massachusetts policy that restricts where private school students can receive publicly funded special education services is at the center of the lawsuit. Do state educational benefits carry over to students attending private schools? That’s the question the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review as they finalize their…
On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) disseminated a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) informing school districts it will consider all mental health screenings and other student surveys, such as those related to sex behavior or attitudes, to be “required” by a school district even when presented as…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in partnership with other federal agencies, has announced that it is developing a national autism elopement alert system for missing children and adults with autism. The goal of the project is to strengthen response coordination among emergency personnel, first responders and…
On August 24, 2026, the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Department of the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) published proposed rules in the Federal Register that would give itself more leeway in how and why it cancels federal grant funding. The rule changes would codify methods for cancellation of grant…
In an August 20, 2026 Dear Colleague letter (DCL) issued by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE), the agency defended technology use in classrooms, saying the use of educational technology is a separate issue from the use of recreational technology. The letter acknowledged the growing concerns from parents, educators, and…
As reported by K-12 Dive, on August 19, 2026 a federal judge partially blocked the Trump administration's effort to overhaul the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, saying its new emphasis on abstinence instead of contraception for pregnancy prevention and termination of grants that don’t align with that approach was implemented without…
On August 18, 2026, The U.S. Department of Education (USDE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Dear Colleague letter (DCL), providing school discipline guidance for district leaders, rebuffing previous attempts to reduce discipline disparities for Black and other historically marginalized students and calling for schools to “stop racial balancing.”…
CDC data released August 17, 2026 shows that in 2025-26, vaccination coverage among kindergartners decreased for all reported vaccines compared to the previous year. In fact, the rate of kindergartners entering school exempt from one or more vaccines continued its upward trend during the 2025-26 school year, with 4.2% of…
