In response to a yearslong decline in the mental health of the nation’s children and teens, officials are using COVID-19 relief dollars and their own money to build support services to recognize the symptoms of mental illness and help students who are struggling. Read more»

Some of the pandemic relief funding from the federal government will expire later this year, and Arizona school advocates worry extra counselors brought on by schools using the funding may be let go if a way isn't found to keep the positions. Read more»

One proponent of a bill in the Arizona legislature that would require sex offenders to notify their child’s school of their sex offender status says that a parent’s right to know trump’s that child’s right not to be ostracized or bullied. Read more»

Legislation that passed the Arizona Senate prohibits any entity that receives state funding from hosting a “drag show targeting minors” or risk forfeiting that money for three years, and bans school districts, cities and towns from using private money to pay for such a show. Read more»

Democratic legislators are working to bring free period products to Arizona public middle and high schools, but detractors say those products are already offered to students free of charge — if they go to the nurse’s office and ask for them, and the school has a nurse. Read more»

Arizona parents would be given easier access to school curriculum and teacher training materials under GOP proposals that critics say only serve to further vilify teachers and force schools to violate legal agreements. Read more»

Arizona school boards would have broader power to fire superintendents they believe are failing to meet the job’s responsibilities under a proposal that critics say could put board members at odds with the person they hired to run the districts — to the detriment of schools they oversee. 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»

School staffers across Arizona may increasingly find themselves pressed to fill in on other jobs, as districts struggle to fill positions across the board and personnel officers say they have openings they cannot fill for everything from nurses to custodial employees and administrators. 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»

School districts around the country - including Arizona, one of only six states that requires schools to have a naloxone policy - are trying to quickly respond to the growing toll from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin. Read more»

With summer temperatures rising, youth sports leagues and school districts will need to update their practice rules and heat policies to keep players safe - paying particular attention to low-income, minority neighborhoods that can get excessively hot. Read more»

Whether it’s a pandemic or climate change, the future of education looks like disruption - and by accepting that the COVID-19 virus is going to be a constant, school districts can innovate and prepare for a multitude of unknowns, including disaster. Read more»

With legislators still undecided on how to spend the record $5.3 billion dollar budget surplus, the Arizona Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s union, is demanding massive increases in education funding. Read more»

New legislation given preliminary approval by the Arizona House would hand over the operations of the 180 Arizona schools that received a D or F rating in 2019 to a high-performing school, be replaced by a “Fresh Start” charter school or shut them down if they don’t improve. Read more»