The Arizona-based Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is elevating some of its most controversial members - including those with direct ties to other anti-government and white nationalism movements - into formal leadership positions. Read more»

The true toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on many communities of color — from Portland, Oregon, to Navajo Nation tribal lands in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, to sparsely populated rural Texas towns — is worse than previously known. Read more»

Newly compiled data reveals how severely the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Indigenous communities in Arizona at the onset of the pandemic, and it shows how the community’s response helped reverse the trends in 2021.  Read more»

Para el año escolar 2021-22, los distritos de todo el país enfrentaban lo que muchos denominaron una crisis de ausentismo debido a que el cierre de escuelas relacionado con la pandemia causó estragos en la asistencia, y los educadores tuvieron que actuar. Read more»

Los estudiantes de Arizona son suspendidos por no presentarse a clase, y los datos muestran que los estudiantes negros, latinos y nativos americanos con frecuencia están sobrerrepresentados entre los que no pueden asistir a clases por faltar a clase. Read more»

Pandemic-related school closures wreaked havoc on attendance. By the 2021-22 school year, districts and charter networks across the country were facing what many dubbed a crisis of absenteeism. Students weren’t showing up, and educators had to act. Read more»

Arizona students are suspended for not showing up to class - because they arrive late, leave campus midday or fail to make it at all - and the data shows, Black, Latino and Native American students are frequently overrepresented among those blocked from class for missing class. Read more»

Aunque al menos 11 estados prohíben por completo suspender a los estudiantes por faltar a clase, las escuelas en gran parte del país, incluido Arizona, tienen la libertad de castigar a los estudiantes por faltar al tiempo de aprendizaje obligándolos a faltar aún más. Read more»

Suspending students for missing class is a controversial tactic and though at least 11 states fully ban the practice, schools in much of the country - including Arizona - are free to punish students for missing learning time by forcing them to miss even more. Read more»

A rule change set to take effect in December will lower the barrier for extremist organizations to access law enforcement personnel by taking continuing-education decisions out of the board’s hands and placing them in those of individual law enforcement agency leaders across Arizona. Read more»

The impact of missed preventative medical care during the pandemic is beginning to emerge in the form of drastic declines in childhood vaccination rates among Arizona youth, now at lower levels than at any point in the past decade. Read more»

Election and domestic extremism experts warn that so-called Arizona “constitutional sheriff” groups are compounding problems created by disinformation campaigns and undermining public confidence in elections and law enforcement. Read more»

AZCIR used criteria established by the Southern Poverty Law Center to identify Arizona “constitutional sheriffs” - a movement built around a radical ideology that the sheriff’s power within his or her county is superseded by no state or federal government entity. Read more»

More than half of Arizona’s county sheriffs are at least partially aligned with a growing movement of so-called “constitutional sheriffs,” with an ideology that indoctrinates them with false legal theories about a sheriff’s authority over state and federal government. Read more»

Since Jake’s Law was enacted, hundreds of eligible students have accessed mental health treatment they may not have otherwise received - yet, two years into the program, more than half of Arizona schools haven’t referred students to mental health providers. Read more»