Two recent stories by reporters here at 麻豆精品 demonstrate the ongoing ripple effects of the Trump administration鈥檚 massive deportation campaign. One deals with money, the other with home. 

My colleague Linda Jacobson detailed how empty desks are adding up, whether it鈥檚 students who are absent from school, families who have been detained or others who鈥檝e left their districts 鈥� or fled the country 鈥� on their own.

States fund districts based on per-pupil enrollment, and in California, that dollar figure comes from daily average attendance. In Minnesota, where immigration enforcement actions听, the state requires districts to drop students from the rolls if they鈥檝e been absent for 15 straight days. Unless an emergency exemption to the rule is granted, one district outside Minneapolis is facing a $1 million hit to its $51 million budget.

鈥淚 remember walking in the hallways going, 鈥楬oly God, where are all the kids?鈥� 鈥� an employee in another Minnesota district told Linda. 鈥淚t was eerie.鈥�

Meanwhile, Jo Napolitano looked at what happens when the parents go missing, specifically after being detained or deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Jo reports that for their children, thousands of whom are U.S. citizens, this abrupt upheaval often means removal from home and听school.

Some can find themselves, brand-new passports in hand, being sent to their parents鈥� birth country, which may be totally unfamiliar, or to live with family or friends 鈥斕齯nless those adults鈥� citizenship status is also precarious and they may be too afraid to take them in. An unlucky number are placed in foster care and some are just left alone.

鈥淲e鈥檝e heard about 15- and 16-year-olds living by themselves for several weeks because their parents were detained and they had no idea where they were,鈥� one advocate said. 鈥淚CE was not checking to make sure they were OK. These are U.S. citizen kids.鈥�
听
Click听听and听听to read the full stories.

In the news

鈥楤lack Arrows鈥� coming to a听school听near you. The sleek, dark-colored drones can dart across fields at 100 mph, punch through windows and bowl over assailants. They aren鈥檛 being deployed to Ukraine or the Middle East, but to neutralize听school听shooters. |听听

The battle over homeschooling regulations in Connecticut has intensified after the stepfather of a homeschooled 12-year-old was charged with sexual assault this month in connection with her death. It was the second death of a homeschooled student in the state in the last five months and followed the 2025 discovery of an adult man who told authorities that his stepmother had held him captive for decades under the guise of homeschooling. |

Suspensions are down markedly in the country鈥檚 largest听school听district, but New York City听school听officials are not sure why. From July to December 2025,听schools听handed out nearly 9,200 suspensions, 8% fewer than in the same period in 2024. The decline included a nearly 22% drop in long-term superintendent suspensions. |听

And you thought human drivers were hard to train.听The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into a driverless car that passed a stopped Texas听school听bus last month, just the latest of many such incidents. As of January, Austin Independent听School听District confirmed that Waymo vehicles had committed 24 violations, prompting the district to ask the company听to cease all operations on听school听day mornings and afternoons. |听

A 2021 opera by a groundbreaking Finnish composer about the most American of tragedies 鈥斕齛听school听shooting 鈥斕齢as come to New York City鈥檚 Metropolitan Opera. Populated by 13 characters,听Innocence听captures multiple aspects of the horrific event and its aftermath 鈥渨ith brutal honesty and abundant compassion,鈥� making it 鈥渁n early contender for one of this century鈥檚 great operas.鈥� |听

The Education Department announced Monday that it was rescinding Obama- and Biden-era agreements with five听school听districts and one college that were meant to advance LGBTQ+ student inclusion. The administration said the agreements 鈥渋mpermissibly expanded the scope of Title IX to enforce discrimination based on 鈥榞ender identity,鈥� not biological sex.鈥� |

ChatGPT reportedly assisted听school听shooter.听The state attorney general is investigating the AI chatbot鈥檚 alleged role in last year鈥檚 Florida State University shooting. The tool developed by OpenAI reportedly told the shooter how to take the safety off of his shotgun three minutes before he opened fire outside and inside FSU鈥檚 busy Student Union, killing two and wounding five. |听

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Finn, a border collie/Australian shepherd mix, contemplates his California existence 鈥� or perhaps just whether it’s time for 麻豆精品’s Phyllis Jordan to feed him dinner.

If you鈥檝e been following the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown, you鈥檝e likely heard of Democrats鈥� calls for greater officer accountability, including banning face masks and mandating body cameras and publicly displayed IDs. For my latest story, I dig into a lesser-known demand: barring federal immigration agents from Head Start, child care and pre-K classrooms.

That was once standard practice but since President Donald Trump rescinded a rule last year shielding so-called sensitive locations from enforcement actions, those who provide education and care to the youngest learners report harrowing encounters with immigration officers. I鈥檓 a staff reporter covering for Mark this week and I spoke to several of those folks in Illinois, which was hit with the administration鈥檚 Operation Midway Blitz last fall.

In the news

The latest in ongoing FBI investigation into L.A. schools鈥� failed AI chatbot deal: A January 2023 meeting invite obtained by 麻豆精品 suggests senior staff were consulting with AllHere principals at district headquarters five months before the contract was approved. It also calls into question statements by schools chief Alberto Carvalho that he had no involvement in selecting the company represented by his close friend. | 

• Carvalho issued his first statement after an FBI raid on his home and office. The high-profile school leader, who鈥檚 been placed on paid leave, denied any wrongdoing. | 
  
• Sources say grand jury subpoenas have been issued seeking records from the Miami-Dade County Public Schools鈥檚 inspector general and a fundraising foundation overseen by Carvalho while he was the Miami superintendent. | 

Kids鈥� internet safety bill moves to House vote. Despite Democrats鈥� complaints of a 鈥済iant loophole鈥� for Big Tech, a bill requiring online platforms to implement safeguards for minors has advanced to a full House vote. It would provide 鈥渆asy-to-use parental tools鈥� and limit addictive design features.听|听

A former Lakewood, Colorado, school security supervisor will serve 18 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old student on and off school grounds over the course of two years. 鈥淗is job was to ensure the safety of students,鈥� said a deputy district attorney. 鈥淚nstead 鈥� [he] manipulated a sixteen-year-old into sexual acts.鈥� | 

As federal civil rights complaints languish, parents of disabled students look to states. Colorado lawmakers unanimously approved a bill that would expand the state education department’s ability to hear complaints tied to students鈥� disability accommodations. They鈥檙e part of a growing number of legislators nationwide who want their states to step in amid federal staffing cuts and mounting unresolved civil rights cases. | 

• Go deeper: For Decades, the Feds Were the Last, Best Hope for Special Ed Kids. What Happens Now?听|听

Virginia has passed a bill barring schools from teaching Jan. 6 as a 鈥減eaceful protest.鈥� Instead, it would be presented as 鈥渁n unprecedented, violent attack on U.S. democratic institutions, infrastructure, and representatives for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.鈥�  | 

Private school choice but not for everyone. Texas has excluded about two dozen Islamic schools from its new $1 billion voucher program for allegedly being linked to terrorist groups, a decision that has led to a lawsuit and claims of anti-Muslim discrimination.| 

A $7 million tech effort meant to make Hawai驶i schools safer by equipping teachers and principals with panic buttons and mobile apps never got off the ground. Two years after launching, only one school in the state has panic buttons 鈥� and it鈥檚 not using them.| 

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Jebby, my handsome cockapoo, is very excited to hang up his jacket 鈥� and his booties 鈥� and sniff the spring air. 

It took  to stop the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooter after he killed 19 children and two teachers in 2022. 

Among the first officers to respond to what would become one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history was former campus cop Adrian Gonzalez. On Wednesday, after an emotional three-week trial, a jury found Gonzalez  Prosecutors had alleged the 52-year-old endangered children鈥檚 lives and abandoned his training when he failed to stop the 18-year-old gunman before entering Robb Elementary School and opening fire.

Big picture: It鈥檚 the second time ever that a school-based officer has faced criminal charges for their  as shots rang out inside a school. It鈥檚 also the second time the officer has walked free. 

In 2023, former school-based police officer  after he took cover outside a Parkland, Florida, high school as a gunman killed 17 people in a 2018 mass shooting.

Both cases raise the same question: Once a gunman enters a school and starts shooting indiscriminately at innocent people, 

Three for three? Gonzalez鈥檚 acquittal doesn鈥檛 mark the end of the criminal fallout from what the Justice Department determined were  Pete Arredondo, the school district鈥檚 former police chief, will stand trial on 10 child endangerment charges. A trial date for that case hasn鈥檛 yet been set.

In the news

Updates to Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown: 

• As thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents descend on Minnesota, school communities have been pushed into chaos and fear, my Twin Cities-based colleague Beth Hawkins reports. | 
  
• The Columbia Heights school district announced that federal agents have detained four of its students over the last two weeks 鈥� including a 5-year-old boy who was used as 鈥渂ait鈥� as officers pursued his family members. The Department of Homeland Security said the elementary schooler had been 鈥渁bandoned鈥� by his father during a traffic stop. | , 
  
• The former Des Moines, Iowa, superintendent, who was arrested by federal immigration agents in September, has pleaded guilty to felony charges connected to lying about his citizenship status on school district employment forms and for possessing a gun while in the country illegally. | 
  
• Maine parents have stopped sending their kids to school as the state becomes the next immigration enforcement battleground. | 
  
• Immigrant-rights advocates have called for a Texas judge to recuse herself from a case involving an unaccompanied minor, alleging she demonstrated cruelty and bias including grilling immigrant children about whether they had 鈥渁bandoned鈥� their families in their birth countries. | 
  
• Worms and mold in the food: As the Trump administration restores the practice of family detentions, children in ICE custody are being exposed to unsanitary conditions and limited access to clean drinking water. | 

As Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta prepares for a trial over allegations it failed to protect children from sexual exploitation, the company has asked a judge to exclude from court proceedings references to research into social media鈥檚 effects on youth mental health.| 

Employees of Elon Musk鈥檚 Department of Government Efficiency inappropriately handled sensitive Social Security data, the Justice Department acknowledged in a court filing. The president of the American Federation of Teachers, which sued to halt DOGE鈥檚 access to such confidential information, said the revelation 鈥渃onfirms our worst fears鈥� that the quasi-agency鈥檚 data practices jeopardized 鈥淎merican鈥檚 personal and financial security.鈥� | 

Poor reception: Turns out, kids aren鈥檛 so hip to the idea of school cell phone bans. Fifty-one percent of teens said students should be allowed to use their devices during class. A resounding 73% oppose cell phone bans throughout the entire school day. | 

School districts across Michigan have rejected new school safety and mental health money from the state over objections to a new requirement that they waive legal privilege and submit to state investigations after mass school shootings. Some school leaders have argued the requirement creates legal uncertainties that outweigh the financial support. | 

As the Prince George鈥檚 County, Maryland, school district faces a 鈥渃risis budget鈥� and braces for $150 million in cuts, officials plan to spend $6 million on artificial intelligence-enabled security technology, including weapons detection systems and license plate readers. | 

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School (in)Security features all the news that鈥檚 fit to 

Florida professors, university faculty, and teaching assistants could soon be able to openly carry firearms on campus, thanks to a sweeping new measure filed by a Republican lawmaker.

Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, is sponsoring the legislation, entitled 鈥淪chool Safety,鈥� to address security concerns in higher education. If passed, the bill would remove college campuses as gun-free zones 鈥� marking a significant shift in how Florida handles gun issues.

It would become one of the few Second Amendment expansion bills adopted in Florida since the Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, which prompted a higher gun-purchasing age and red flag laws.

In an interview with the Phoenix, Gaetz called his legislation 鈥渟adly timed,鈥� adding that he 鈥渘ever wanted鈥� to file a bill like this.

He referred to a slate of violent incidents in the past few months, including a shooting spree at Florida State University in April, the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in September, a shooting at Brown University over the weekend, and, most recently, an anti-Jewish shooting in Australia that left 15 dead.

鈥淲e鈥檙e living in a world where our institutions are being threatened,鈥� Gaetz said, adding that he鈥檚 already filed another bill aimed at outside of churches, mosques, and synagogues. 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry that I鈥檓 having to do this, but it just seems as though places in our society that we thought were safe, even sacrosanct, are now becoming targets.鈥�

Although he anticipates objections that teachers may abuse the ability to bring a gun to school, Gaetz pointed out that there have been no instances of a school shooting sprouting from an unwell volunteer in the guardian program. This school safety initiative allows trained and vetted school employees to carry concealed weapons on K-12 campuses.

鈥淣one of the parade of terribles have happened that the opponents to the guardian program tried to advance,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hile none of that has happened, people have been killed.鈥�

What else is in the bill?

Gaetz isn鈥檛 this first Florida lawmaker to try to promote campus carry. At the start of the 2025 legislative session, then-Sen. Randy Fine brought his all-encompassing to its first committee 鈥� unlike Gaetz鈥檚, Fine鈥檚 bill would have allowed all students to carry 鈥� but it was voted down. Fine later left to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Gaetz said that the heart of his bill is hardening Florida鈥檚 state colleges and universities by requiring better threat assessments, better responses to threats, and better communications between first responders and faculty in emergencies.

would allow university employees, faculty, and students who are also working for a college to either openly carry or carry conceal weapons on campus. It also would expand the school guardian program to the university level and create an offense of discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of school.

Gaetz said his measure also would require universities to ensure all classroom doors lock during an emergency 鈥� especially after FSU students during the April school shooting that their doors could not lock. He estimates that around $60 million will end up being appropriated for the effort, in line with what Gov. Ron DeSantis requested in his last week.

An identical bill has been filed in the House by Rep. Michelle Salzman.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

It was in physical education class when Laila Gutierrez swapped out self-harm for a new vice. 

The freshman from Phoenix had long struggled with depression and would cut her arms to feel something. Anything. The first drag from a friend鈥檚 vape several years ago offered the shy teenager a new way to escape. 

She quit cutting but got hooked on nicotine. Her sadness got harder to carry after her uncle died and she felt she couldn鈥檛 turn to her grieving parents for comfort. Bumming fruity vapes at school became part of her routine. 

鈥淚 would ask my friends who had them, 鈥業鈥檓 going through a lot, can I use it?鈥欌�� Gutierrez, now 18, told 麻豆精品. 鈥淥r 鈥業 failed my test and I feel like smoking would be better than cutting my wrists.鈥�” 

It worked until she got caught. 

Like students across the country, Gutierrez got dragged into a nicotine-fueled war between vape manufacturers 鈥� including a company that leveraged online advertisements on the websites of Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network to hook kids on e-cigarettes 鈥� and educators, who鈥檝e turned to digital surveillance tools and discipline to crack down on the youngest users. Gutierrez was suspended for a week after she was nabbed vaping in a crowded school bathroom during her lunch hour.

An in-depth investigation by 麻豆精品 reveals how nicotine-addicted teens, who often begin vaping under social pressure or, like Gutierrez, to cope with hardship, are routinely kicked out of school instead of receiving meaningful services that could steer them away from tobacco and help them break free of their vape pens. 

Candid interviews with a dozen high schoolers and recent graduates from across the country reveal how vaping has become ubiquitous in schools. The battery-powered nicotine sticks are more than an addiction: They define students鈥� social status, friend groups and coping strategies years before they鈥檙e 21 and legally old enough to buy them. 

鈥淎t my school, vaping starts because you want to be part of the popular crowd, you want to get invited to parties, you want to feel like you鈥檙e a part of a community,鈥� said Ayaan Moledina, a 16-year-old from Austin, Texas. 鈥淎nd you start doing those things because you鈥檙e pressured into doing it.鈥� Moledina says he doesn鈥檛 vape and has been excluded socially as a result.

Public records obtained by 麻豆精品 from a vape detector pilot program at Minneapolis Public Schools presents a unique window into the severity of the problem and of educators鈥� efforts to contain it. The main battlefield in the fight is the school bathroom. As they have for generations, teens take cover in the bathroom to socialize and smoke, but because vapes allow them to consume nicotine more discreetly than traditional cigarettes, district leaders are also embracing technological advancements to police them. 

Purchasing records from schools across the country show that districts are spending millions to install sensors in student bathrooms 鈥� once considered a privacy no-go for electronic surveillance 鈥� to alert them of changes in air quality. 麻豆精品鈥檚 analysis of the data from Minneapolis Public Schools reveals that the vape detectors brought a spike in school discipline, but they also produced a near-endless stream of alerts that could overwhelm district administrators. 

For University of Texas master鈥檚 student Cameron Samuels, Students Engaged in Advancing Texas when they were a freshman in college, all this means is that schools are spending money on invasive tech 鈥� the detectors, often equipped with microphones, are no less intrusive than security cameras, they argued 鈥� that could go to mentorship programs 鈥渨here teachers and educators can support students, meeting us where we鈥檙e at.鈥�

鈥淪urveillance is only a diagnosis,鈥� Samuels said of the decision to use sensors to counter student vaping. 鈥淚t only recognizes symptoms of a failed system without actually solving [them].”

Vaping is 鈥榚verywhere now鈥�

In Minneapolis, the $100,000 pilot program placed sensors in the bathrooms of two high schools and two middle schools with in 2022. The result, 麻豆精品鈥檚 investigation reveals, was a marked increase in students being punished for vaping in the months that followed. 

Across the four campuses, a student was disciplined for vaping every 3.1 school days on average in the two years before the devices were activated and inundated administrators with tens of thousands of alerts. In a nine-month period after they were deployed in September 2024, a student was disciplined for the same offense every 1.4 days. 

The increase was particularly pronounced at Anwatin Middle School where, in the 2022-23 school year, there were 15 vape-related disciplinary incidents. During the 2024-25 school year, after the sensors were installed, disciplinary actions for vaping reached 67.

Across the four campuses, at least half of the vape-related disciplinary incidents occurred in school bathrooms. Nearly 81% led to suspensions. Just 7% led to a referral to an alcohol and drug abuse counselor, according to the discipline logs, and after the vape detectors were installed, the rate of treatment referrals declined compared to the average over the two years before.

While the number of alerts were far greater at the two high schools, it was the younger students at the two middle schools who were more likely to be removed from their classrooms.

The escalation in vape-related suspensions in Minneapolis comes as federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show teen nicotine use dropping since a 2019 high that reflected e-cigarettes’ growing hold on the market. In 2024, some 8.1% of middle and high school students reported using tobacco products within the last 30 days, according to the most recent results from the . Nearly reported vaping e-cigarettes.

Stanford Medicine pediatrician Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, who helped create a and curriculum that鈥檚 used in schools across the country, has found higher youth vaping rates than the CDC figures. And released in September about student vaping reports the behavior is 鈥渆verywhere now,鈥� especially at 鈥済round zero鈥�: the bathrooms.

The survey was published by The Truth Initiative, a national nonprofit that is focused on preventing nicotine addiction among youth and young adults and opposes school discipline as a means of combating it. Some students were brazen 鈥� vaping openly in school hallways 鈥� while others hid e-cigarettes in bathroom fixtures, ceiling tiles and tampon dispensers, the survey found. 

Educators who were polled voiced concern about students鈥� 鈥渄istracting preoccupation鈥� with vaping and how constant bathroom breaks interrupted learning, said Jennifer Kreslake, the senior vice president of Truth Initiative’s Schroeder Institute.

鈥淚t also takes away from the teacher鈥檚 ability to do their jobs,鈥� Kreslake said. 鈥淭heir primary jobs are not monitoring vapes around campus, and it鈥檚 taking them away from what they鈥檙e in the school to do.鈥� 

In Lancaster, South Carolina, county health workers spent more than $150,000 on about 70 that are scheduled to go live at local schools next month. Officials said they chose the Triton sensors, in particular, because they go beyond vape detection to identify 鈥渁ggression,鈥� 鈥渒eywords associated with vandalism鈥� and 鈥渓oitering.鈥�

School officials鈥� previous efforts with vape detection centered on student discipline, said Ashlie Harder, the prevention director at Counseling Services of Lancaster.

鈥淭he goal for them was punitive 鈥� they wanted to catch the students,鈥� Harder said. 鈥淭hey wanted the students to get whatever the disciplinary action was. That was the plan.鈥� 

Harder, who had already been working with the district to stop schools from sending kids home for vaping, hopes to change that. Her office, which serves as the county鈥檚 commission for drug and alcohol abuse, secured the new, high-tech Triton sensors earlier this year with the goal for school officials to 鈥渓eave it for us鈥� to do in-school tobacco prevention programming based on the Stanford toolkit with young people caught vaping by the devices.

Lancaster County School District officials said they hope the sensors will prevent vaping on campus while also providing a new layer of bathroom security. School-based police officers will have access to the alerts in an effort to prevent fights and to stop students from camping out in the restrooms and skipping class.

Lonnie Plyler, the district鈥檚 director of safety and transportation, said nicotine use isn鈥檛 the full extent of the problem 鈥� students have also been bringing marijuana vapes to school.

鈥淲e hope that it will deter these people from actually bringing it into the schools and using it, knowing that we鈥檙e actually monitoring it and can see it,鈥� Plyler said. The vape detectors help create a process, he said, where students are 鈥渂eing punished through the school and possibly law enforcement.鈥�

Gutierrez, the student from Phoenix, was suspended in September 2024 after a school security guard caught her vaping in a bathroom stall. It鈥檚 also common for schools to station monitors outside bathrooms to sniff out vaping and for some restrooms to be locked altogether as a blanket deterrent.

Getting kicked out of school didn’t make Gutierrez鈥檚  situation any easier. An online quiz she was required to take during those days depicted vaping as ruining her life, she said, offering no help for her depression and making her feel ashamed. 

鈥淲hen I went back to school, I felt the eyes of the security guards,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t made me feel like I was in a jail.鈥�

Seven months, 45,000 alerts

It was 2 p.m., in late January when Anwatin Middle School Assistant Principal Nate Lee logged a new disciplinary action against two of his 334 students.

Vaping. 

As part of the pilot program, Anwatin was supplied last year with HALO vape detection sensors. The plastic, ceiling-mounted discs are sold by a subsidiary of the communications giant Motorola and are designed to notify administrators of vapor, smoke and, with certain microphone-equipped models, gunshots. Officials installed the devices in two boys鈥� and two girls鈥� bathrooms.

Once all 29 sensors across the two middle schools and two high schools went live in September 2024, administrators began receiving real-time alerts notifying them of suspected vaping, smoking 鈥� and evidence of students masking vape plumes with like Axe Body Spray.

At Anwatin, administrators responded to vape sensor alerts with fervor, student disciplinary records show, often resulting in suspensions. In the January incident, a seventh and an eighth grader were suspended after 鈥渋nvestigative efforts鈥� found they were in the bathroom 鈥渁t a time when the vape detector monitoring system alerted staff to illicit activity.鈥�

鈥淪tudents denied involvement,鈥� disciplinary records note, 鈥渂ut were both found to be in the bathroom.鈥� 

麻豆精品鈥檚 analysis of vape detection alerts suggest the sensors are accurate 鈥� or at least go off most when kids are likely to be in the building. Few alerts occurred outside normal school hours, according to the logs. 

Over a seven-month period between September 2024 and April 2025, the HALO sensors went off more than 45,000 times across the four Minneapolis campuses. On any given school day, the data reveal, Minneapolis educators at the four schools received an average of 412 alerts 鈥� roughly one every minute. On their most active day, the sensors alerted school officials to vaping 755 times.

The sheer number of alerts raises the question of whether school officials can reasonably respond to them and, if not, whether they鈥檙e an effective way to stop students from vaping at school 鈥� or curb their habit in general. 

Youth have existed in schools since the 1960s after a linked smoking to deleterious health consequences, including lung cancer and heart disease. Technological advancements in e-cigarettes were sold as healthier alternatives for adult cigarette smokers, but the vapes have been blamed for breeding a new generation of nicotine addicts. By the time the vape detectors emerged on the market, kids were already hooked.

Student interviews reveal the degree to which vaping culture has become fully ingrained in student life, with teens describing the allure of nicotine as so strong that addiction is nearly inevitable. For some teens who are sick of it, vaping has become a reason to avoid school bathrooms altogether. 

鈥淭hey do it at school, they do it in the bathrooms, they do it with their friends and they think it鈥檚 cool but they don鈥檛 understand the long-term impacts of it,鈥� said Moledina, the Austin teen and who is the federal policy director for Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. 

Over the summer, he and dozens of other students from across the country convened in a cafeteria at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, to discuss the of vape detection sensors and other digital surveillance tools increasingly employed in schools. 

Even here, where adults warned teens about vape sensors鈥� intrusiveness, students offered varying perspectives about the factors that lead to teen vaping 鈥� and the best strategies to prevent it. Nathan Wanna, a 14-year-old freshman from St. Paul, said he wished the sensors were installed in the bathrooms at his school. 

鈥淚 say it might be an invasion of privacy, but if it鈥檚 needed, it should be in there,鈥� Wanna said. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 see my friends tempted by peer pressure or the pain they go through to start doing that.鈥� 

Student-savvy workarounds

The four Minneapolis pilot schools saw a surge in vape alerts just before noon, suggesting students used the lull during lunch break to get their fix. Vaping was by far the most common trigger, the HALO logs show, accounting for 74% of alerts. Smoking cigarettes accounted for another 25%. In just 87 incidents, the sensors were triggered by tetrahydrocannabinol, the mind-shifting compound in cannabis, which can be consumed by vaping or other delivery methods.

The high schools were also overrepresented in the vape logs, even after accounting for their larger student populations, a finding that correlates with a higher percentage of tobacco users among older teens compared to those in middle school. Nearly 93% of vape alerts were registered on the sensors at Camden and Roosevelt high schools while just 7% were logged at Anwatin and Andersen United middle schools. Yet the middle schools accounted for 53% of all disciplinary write-ups for vaping. The disparity in the alert-to-discipline ratio suggests that high school administrators may have gotten buried by the noise. 

麻豆精品 provided Minneapolis Public Schools with a list of key findings from its investigation but officials didn鈥檛 agree to an interview or provide a written statement. Plans for vape detection beyond the four-campus pilot program at the district are unclear. But a national network of advocates and researchers that convened the student gathering in St. Paul this summer, has called on the district to give it up. When Minneapolis students are caught by the sensors, 鈥渢hey鈥檙e just told to go home,鈥� said local activist Marika Pfefferkorn, a NOTICE Coalition founder. 

鈥淭eachers and administrators have said that with vaping and vape detection, that we鈥檙e treating some students as if it鈥檚 a mental health issue 鈥�  and then for other students, it鈥檚 a behavior issue,鈥� Pfefferkorn said. 

The analysis accounts for a blackout period from early December 2024 through the end of January when the logs provided by Minneapolis Public Schools show zero sensor alerts. The data may have been excluded in error because the student disciplinary records provided to 麻豆精品 show some vape-related incidents during that same period, including several that cite the sensors.

While a single vaping session could trigger multiple alerts, records indicate such occurrences are rare. Fewer than 5% of alerts were within 10 seconds of another notification from the same device. Of the pings across the four schools, just over half occurred 60 seconds or more after another alert on the same device, meaning it鈥檚 likely the sensors were picking up separate vaping incidents. 

IPVM, a surveillance industry research firm that runs a 12,000-square-foot testing facility in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, has conducted audits on the HALO sensors, alongside similar devices, for several years and found they鈥檙e at their intended purpose: detecting plumes of vapor. 

But the sensors aren鈥檛 foolproof 鈥� they could be beaten by blowing the vapor into a bottle or a jacket sleeve 鈥� and there were other drawbacks, including alerts delayed by more than 20 seconds, the firm found. The detectors鈥� efficacy is highly dependent on where they鈥檙e installed, said Nikita Ermolaev, an IPVM senior research engineer.

In Minneapolis, the number of vape detections decreased over time, though it鈥檚 unclear if that鈥檚 because the sensors were a deterrent for students or if their placement was fine-tuned. 

鈥淗ow big is the school bathroom, how high are the ceilings?鈥� Ermolaev said. 鈥淗ow savvy are the students when it comes to workarounds? Are there windows in the bathroom that you can blow vape to?鈥�

After asking 麻豆精品 for a list of detailed questions, Motorola did not provide answers in writing or otherwise and did not respond to follow-up requests for comment.

In its marketing efforts to schools, Motorola has highlighted as a resource districts could use to finance the HALO sensors, each of which cost about $1,000. The company has also from lawsuits against e-cigarette maker Juul. In 2022, Juul reportedly agreed to more than 5,000 lawsuits, including by school districts. Many alleged it knowingly and unlawfully advertised tobacco to minors.

School systems identified by Motorola as using Juul settlement money to buy the sensors include those in Stockton, California, and Fairfax, Virginia, from the tobacco company.  

Vape City

These days, Elijah Edminster works at Vape City, a chain with more than 250 locations in multiple states and ambitions to become 鈥渢he #1 vape shop in the USA.鈥� 

But a few years before he started selling vapes at the shop north of Austin 鈥� Edminster said he鈥檚 required to ID all his customers and none are underage 鈥� he was a high schooler who got sent to an alternative school as punishment for vaping. It all happened after he took a hit his junior year in the school鈥檚 main bathroom.

鈥淣one of our bathrooms have doors or anything so, you know, it鈥檚 all pretty open,鈥� said Edminster, now 21. He said he met up with a classmate in a stall to buy a THC vape pen, 鈥渢ested out the little thing,鈥� and got caught by school staff on his way out the door. 

The school official 鈥減ulls us off to the side and starts questioning us, basically talking about how it was suspicious that we were in there,鈥� said Edminster, who was 18 at the time. 鈥淎nd he was like, 鈥極h, I have this vape detector that goes off, yada yada, and it went off. So what does that mean?鈥欌�� 

Edminster said he confessed after school officials threatened to call the police. Under a new state law, he was assigned to an alternative program housed in an 鈥渋nactive, old elementary鈥� school for a month. 

Thirty days is a long time to be away from regular classes, and the impact of schools鈥� punitive vaping crackdown has been particularly pronounced in Texas. School districts in the state have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to deploy sensors across hundreds of campuses, district procurement records show.  In 2023, Texas state leaders passed a law requiring that students, like Edminster, be placed in an alternative school if caught vaping on campus. 

The number of kids removed from traditional classrooms after the law was enacted 鈥� so high that state lawmakers backtracked this spring and returned vape-related disciplinary decisions to local districts. 

Andrew Hairston, the director of the Education Justice Project at the nonprofit Texas Appleseed, said the state鈥檚 two-year, anti-vaping enforcement effort has become 鈥渙ne of the most pressing things that we鈥檙e working on.鈥� 

鈥淎 lot of parents are reaching out to us 鈥� or young people 鈥� and telling us that their entry into the school-to-prison pipeline is fueled by vaping,鈥� Hairston said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a really unfortunate reality, especially for so many working-class Black and brown families across the state who are disproportionately impacted by punitive vaping policies.鈥�

A year after his first offense, Edminster said school administrators used a detector to bust him again, this time for trying to mask a vape cloud with cologne. He was suspended for three days. 

鈥淚 still smoke, I still vape, you know what I mean?鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 trying to quit vaping, but ya, [getting suspended] didn鈥檛 really do too much. It definitely just made me try and stop at school 鈥� but not even that much.鈥� 

Students should not be suspended for vaping but instead made to attend tobacco cessation programs, said Halpern-Felsher, the pediatrics professor behind the widely used tobacco prevention toolkit and director of . And even if kids are sent home 鈥� where they’re likely to vape more, she points out 鈥� they should still be offered help quitting in school.

Halpern-Felsher’s own data suggests the CDC鈥檚 teen vaping numbers are an undercount and, based on her conversations with educators, she鈥檚 challenged the narrative that the country is 鈥済oing in the right direction.鈥� 

She worries the vape detectors in school bathrooms could be tripped up by both false positives and negatives. While something as simple as hairspray could trigger an alarm, she said, delayed alerts could give school administrators bad information that could lead to disciplinary action against the wrong student. 

Minnesota鈥檚 own state health department has to stop youth vaping, as have two leading tobacco prevention organizations, and the American Lung Association. Last year, American Lung Association president and CEO Harold Wimmer called out vape detectors in particular. 

鈥淪tudents need additional education about the health risks and to be provided with resources to help them quit for good,鈥� he said in a statement. 鈥淭eens should not be punished for being addicted to a product that was aggressively marketed to them on social media, through celebrities and with kid-friendly flavors.鈥�

鈥業 stopped, but it wasn鈥檛 a good stop鈥�

Garrison Parthemore observed the prevalence of vaping in his Pennsylvania high school and felt the bad habit was changing the lives of his peers for the worse. So he teamed up with his brother and a friend to do something about it. 

 鈥淓very time we鈥檇 walk into the school bathroom we were met with a cloud of smoke,鈥� Parthemore told 麻豆精品 in an interview. 鈥淲e knew if there鈥檚 a problem at our school, it鈥檚 probably a problem everywhere.鈥� 

In 2020, the trio built a vape detector and entered their creation into a state STEM competition. The device came in third place and quickly found success after hitting the market in 2022. After undergoing a few upgrades, vape detectors became the flagship product of his company Triton Sensors, which claims it offers 鈥渢he most accurate sensor to detect Vape, THC, Loitering, Crowding, Keywords, Aggression, Gunshots and More.鈥� There are thousands of them in campus bathrooms across the country, including in the nation鈥檚 two largest school districts, New York City and Los Angeles. 

But don鈥檛 call Triton Sensors 鈥渧ape detectors鈥�: Pathemore said the label is 鈥渙ne of my pet peeves, honestly.鈥� They鈥檙e much more than that, he maintains. He called vape detection the company鈥檚 鈥渓ow-hanging fruit,鈥� as it pursues a more ambitious goal of promoting safety in public bathrooms and other private spaces where cameras are prohibited and authorities 鈥渉ave no idea of really what鈥檚 going on.鈥� 

He claimed Triton sensors allow school officials to know how many students are in the restrooms at any given time, even without a video feed. With sensors that pick up 20 different environmental factors 鈥� from air quality to gunshots 鈥擯arthemore said they鈥檙e able to capture 鈥渁bout 90% of what a camera can.鈥� 

鈥淚 can tell you where they鈥檙e at in the room, I can tell you how long they鈥檝e been there, so we can detect things like class cutting or overcrowding,鈥� he said. A keyword detection feature allows the sensors to notify officials of an emergency. 鈥淚f someone鈥檚 in trouble, they can yell 鈥榟elp me,鈥� or 鈥榮top it,鈥� or 鈥榚mergency.鈥欌�� 

Equipping the sensors with cameras, he said, is outside the equation and that the devices don鈥檛 collect 鈥渁ny personally identifiable information,鈥� so while they can zero in on how many students might be in a bathroom at any given time, they don鈥檛 attempt to pinpoint individual students. 

Yet as manufacturers like Triton and HALO branch out beyond flagging fragrant vape plumes, they raise additional privacy concerns. A massive vulnerability in the latest Motorola-owned HALO sensors, which include the microphones designed to alert school staff to fights, school shootings and 鈥渁ggression,鈥� . 

At a conference in Las Vegas, hackers revealed how the devices suffered from a flaw that allowed them to hijack the HALO sensors鈥� microphones. Once that weakness was exploited, the duo were able to eavesdrop remotely and create fake alerts. Motorola responded almost immediately, it was rolling out updates after the sensors suffered 鈥渃ritical vulnerabilities” that allowed hackers to take control of the sensors 鈥渢hrough brute-force attacks.鈥� 

It鈥檚 this creeping surveillance that gives some students pause, even those who told 麻豆精品 they otherwise support vape detectors in bathrooms. The possibility of unknown capabilities with the sensors is 鈥渧ery scary to me鈥� said Moledina, the Austin teen, who worries about a future where bathrooms come with cameras.

鈥淛ust knowing that there is vape smoke in the bathroom doesn鈥檛 really help you because the administrators already know it鈥檚 happening and just by knowing that it鈥檚 there isn’t going to help them find out who is doing it,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o my concern is that, at the end of the day, we鈥檙e going to end up having cameras in bathrooms, which is definitely not what we want.鈥� 

Minneapolis educators have used surveillance cameras in conjunction with the sensors to identify students for vaping in the bathrooms, discipline logs show.  

In February, for example, a Roosevelt High School senior was suspended for a day based on accusations they hit a weed vape in the bathroom. Officials reviewed footage from a surveillance camera outside the bathroom and determined the student was 鈥渆ntering and exiting the bathroom during the timeframe that the detector went off.鈥� They were searched and administrators found 鈥渁 marijuana vape, an empty glass jar with a weed smell and a baggie with weed shake in it.鈥� 

That same month, educators referred a Camden High School student to a drug and alcohol counselor for 鈥渧aping in the single stall bathrooms.鈥� 

鈥淎fter I reviewed the camera it does show [a] student leaving out that same stall bathroom,鈥� campus officials reported. 

Gutierrez, the 18-year-old from Arizona, said she quit vaping after she was suspended and now copes with depression through positive means like painting. What she didn鈥檛 do, however, was quit because she received help at school for the mental health challenges that led her to vape in the first place.

She stopped vaping while she was suspended, she said, because she was away from her friends and lacked access. She was frightened into further compliance, Gutierrez recalled, by the online lessons depicting vaping as a gross, gooey purple monster that would poison her relationships. 

鈥淵es I stopped, but it wasn鈥檛 a good stop,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 get no support. I didn鈥檛 get no counseling. I stopped because I was scared.鈥�

No, you鈥檙e not experiencing d茅j脿 vu. No, we’re not talking about some recent cyber incidents caused by teenagers, such as the PowerSchool data breach by a 19-year-old hacker from Massachusetts in 2024 who accessed sensitive data of more than 60 million students and 10 million teachers.

Watching PowerSchool make a comeback from such an incident made it clear that organizations can no longer afford to wait for proof that weaknesses exist. Continuous testing and engaging diverse perspectives are the best ways to stay ahead. That鈥檚 why this effort that began in July was intentionally designed to make students part of the solution, not the problem 鈥� to transform the same curiosity and skill that might lead to hacking toward cyber defense. 

After all, kids have been hacking computers, systems and schools since they鈥檝e existed 鈥� and they鈥檒l keep doing it. The difference now is that teenage defenders can help protect against teenage attackers.

The large-scale cyber incidents by teenagers emphasize three interconnected problems facing schools and our broader society:

First, our schools are dependent on a few key technology vendors that, if hacked, could shut down school districts across the country or lead to massive breaches of sensitive student, teacher and family data.

Second, teenage hackers who are fluent English-speakers 鈥� in loosely affiliated groups that go by names like Scattered Spider, Shiny Hunters, and Lapsus 鈥� have been behind some of the biggest cyber incidents in the past few years. They鈥檝e hacked organizations from Caesars casinos to Snowflake to Salesloft. Even giants like Google and Microsoft haven鈥檛 been spared. 

Some cyber experts have begun calling these young hackers Advanced Persistent Teenagers (or APTeens), a play on Advanced Persistent Threats (or APTs), the term used to describe sophisticated nation-state hacking groups from countries like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. 

Ultimately, our country faces a cyber workforce challenge that most strongly impacts 鈥渢arget rich, cyber poor鈥� sectors like schools, state and local governments, and small businesses that lack the funding and capacity to defend themselves against cyber threats.

With a different approach, progress can be made on all three problems 鈥� insecure tech, teenage hackers and the cyber workforce challenge 鈥� by creating an alternative pathway for teenage hackers. To make this work, edtech companies, hackers, policymakers, higher education and even high schools must provide a pathway that builds the skills the workforce needs. That includes offering the opportunity to receive immediate payment for hacking and bolstering the cybersecurity of key technologies society relies on daily.

With this in mind, in July, joined the and the to flip the APTeen challenge on its head. The goal was to promote hacking for good to secure our schools. The EdProtect Cybersecurity Research Symposium brought together teenage hackers, professional security researchers, and Skyward, a widely used edtech product, for a two-week live hacking event. 

The teenagers, college students from around the country, received support and training as they worked to find and report bugs. We know people learn best through hands-on experiences where novices can work alongside seasoned professionals and mentors, who were once teenagers too.

While live hacking events and bug bounty programs 鈥� where companies pay good-faith security researchers to find and share software bugs that can be used to hack their systems 鈥� are not new, they are rare in 鈥渢arget rich, cyber poor鈥� sectors like education. 

Since the nation鈥檚 14,000 school districts rely on the same few software vendors for their critical infrastructure, efforts like this to strengthen the cybersecurity of key vendors can have a dramatic impact for millions of students, families and teachers across the country. Furthermore, these endeavors shift the burden for managing cyber risk to the companies that are best positioned to address it.

The top campus security story this week is the resignation of Iowa鈥檚 largest school district superintendent, who was  on allegations he was living and working in the U.S. without authorization. 

In a 鈥渢argeted enforcement operation鈥澨�, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Ian Roberts, a 54-year-old native of Guyana, who has led Des Moines Public Schools since 2023.

The fast-moving chain of events raises questions about why ICE agents specifically sought the arrest of the public official and the city鈥檚 first Black schools superintendent, whom federal officials said had a previously unreported final order of removal issued by an immigration judge on May 29. Yesterday, he was accused of federal firearm charges for听.

The Trump administration has already听. The Justice Department announced Tuesday it would investigate Des Moines Public Schools to determine if it engaged in race-based hiring.听

In 2021, the district鈥檚听听said that out of Des Moines Public Schools鈥� 4,000 staff members, some 400 were Black. His comments were made as the district reflected on hiring听.

The unraveling of Roberts鈥� career is also听. The school board, whose vetting practices have come under scrutiny, released a letter this week saying it is 鈥渁lso a victim,鈥� after Roberts was accused of falsifying records about his immigration status and academic credentials.

Roberts,听for his native Guyana who came to the U.S. in 1999听previously served in leadership roles at school districts in Pennsylvania and Missouri and at a major charter school network.听

In the news

A TikTok post led to the arrest of a Kennewick, Washington, 14-year-old who officials say had guns, a color-coded map of his high school and a manifesto outlining plans to carry out a campus shooting. |听

In California, authorities say an anonymous tip thwarted a potential school shooting after a student posted 鈥渄etailed threats鈥� on social media including a 鈥渕apped-out plan.鈥� |听
The Education Department announced it would withhold more than $65 million in federal grants to the New York City, Chicago and Fairfax, Virginia, school districts for upholding equity policies designed to support transgender and Black youth. |听

Campus speech at the forefront: More than 350 complaints have been submitted to the Texas education department against public school employees accused of publishing social media posts that praised the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. | 

• The Los Angeles Unified School District faces accusations that its social media policy,听which allows educators to ban parents from campus for making threatening or racist online comments about school officials, violates the First Amendment. |听
  
• 鈥楾ruly scandalous鈥�:听The Trump administration engaged in the 鈥渦nconstitutional suppression of free speech鈥� when federal immigration enforcement officials arrested and sought to deport international college students for their pro-Palestinian activism. |听
  
• A new PEN America report warns of a 鈥渄isturbing normalization of censorship鈥� in public schools where book bans have risen sharply in the last few years. The 1962 novel听A Clockwork Orange听by Anthony Burgess topped the list. |听听
  
• Lawrence, Kansas, school officials were accused of censoring high school journalists and intimidating their adviser in violation of state law after current and former students filed a federal lawsuit alleging the district鈥檚 use of a digital student surveillance tool violated their privacy and press freedom rights. |听
  
  • The student activity monitoring tool Gaggle, which flags keywords like 鈥渒ill鈥� and 鈥渂omb,鈥� 鈥渉as helped our staff intervene and save lives,鈥� the Lawrence district says. But students say the system subjected them to false allegations. |听
    
  • 麻豆精品 throwback:听Meet the gatekeepers of students鈥� private lives. |听

鈥楶laces of care, not chaos鈥�: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law new rules that require federal immigration enforcement officers to show a warrant or court order before entering a school campus or questioning students. | 

Minnesota鈥檚 red flag gun law, which allows authorities to confiscate firearms from people with violent plans, has been used to prevent school shootings but its use is inconsistent, an investigation found. |听

A middle school boy from New York was arrested on allegations of catfishing classmates by impersonating a girl online, convincing male classmates to send him sexually revealing photographs and extorting them for cash or gift cards. | 

The Trump administration plans to overhaul a student loan forgiveness program for employees at nonprofits that officials claim are engaged in 鈥渋llegal activities鈥� 鈥� a justification that could be used to target organizations that serve immigrants and transgender youth. | 

A Michigan school district, where four elementary school girls said they were groped by a classmate on the playground, is accused of waiting eight days to report the incident to the police. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

麻豆精品 will meet for a company summit in Minneapolis next week. Matilda wasn鈥檛 invited, but she couldn鈥檛 care less.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. 鈥� A transplant from Miami, Anallive Calle learned her way around Kansas City from behind the wheel of a big yellow school bus.

The tablet near the dash provides turn-by-turn directions to every stop and checks each kid on and off the bus throughout her route. It鈥檚 helped her navigate the narrow roads and one-ways that stretch through one of the city鈥檚 oldest neighborhoods.

And from her phone, she can check on the status of her own son and whether he made the bus each morning and afternoon.

鈥淪o it鈥檚 transparent all the way,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou know when your child is picked up and where they鈥檙e at every moment.鈥�

Last school year, Kansas City Public Schools started a new transportation contract with Zum, a company that provides busing services for districts across the country.

With the new vendor, drivers welcomed updates like air conditioning and tinted windows that keep the new fleet comfortable. But they also were given a suite of new technology 鈥� a main driver of the 15,000-student urban school district鈥檚 decision to ink a $100 million, 5-year contract with Zum.

Aside from navigation, the buses are loaded with live cameras inside and out. Checking in at the tablet allows parents to track their kids and schools to get a headcount on that day鈥檚 breakfast and lunch. From the bus barn鈥檚 dispatch office, a large screen shows the location of each bus, its exact speed, whether it鈥檚 running on time 鈥� and even the driver鈥檚 rating from parents.

Derrick Gines, a Zum driver and safety trainer with 10 years of experience, said the technology built into today鈥檚 buses make drivers and students safer.

鈥淰ersus yesteryear, they were designed for freight 鈥� human freight,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut now, there鈥檚 so much safety wrapped around this thing.鈥�

While the iconic yellow buses might look like those of yore, school systems big and small are increasingly investing in a new wave of on-board technology.

New software programs monitor engine components, alerting transportation departments to maintenance needs. Other tools create the most optimal routes, saving on fuel, staff and bus costs. Turn-by-turn navigation and student manifests help ensure that no driver is lost and no kid is left behind. And live video feeds can help with student behavior issues 鈥� even allowing a school principal to speak to students on the bus in real time, in some cases.

This newfangled technology is a stark contrast to the machinery and aesthetics of the yellow bus, which have remained largely unchanged for decades, said Ryan Gray, editor-in-chief of School Transportation News, which covers the industry.

鈥淓ven when you walk onto a school bus, it still looks the same,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut the inner workings have just completely changed. All of the advanced electronics in it 鈥� the wiring to make all of this technology work, whether it be the hardware or the software 鈥� it鈥檚 grown by leaps and bounds.鈥�

Schools see some of these technologies as intuitive progress: Technology has reshaped many other facets of public education, while many bus drivers were stuck with paper maps and CB radios. But with the rise of new technology comes new risks, and some advocates are cautious about the security of all the data flowing through yellow buses.

A booming market of vendors and limited regulations on bus tech has given more responsibility to school IT and transportation departments. But Gray said most school districts are embracing these new tools 鈥� if they can afford them.

鈥淚t always comes down to money,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think that if they think they have the money, they鈥檙e going to want to buy this stuff.

School systems and tech companies say these tools can improve student safety, create efficiencies and help alleviate the chronic shortage of bus drivers.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge recruiting tool,鈥� said Jason Salmons, transportation director for Bentonville Schools in northwest Arkansas.

Bentonville contracts with Transportant, a Kansas-based company, to equip its buses with new camera and tracking technology. Salmons said the navigation and student tracking provide peace of mind to drivers, who can easily traverse new neighborhoods. The seven live cameras on each bus also provide security if an incident arises.

About 13,000 of the district鈥檚 20,000 students ride buses across 135 daily routes. In addition to an upfront cost, he said the school system pays a subscription of about $90,000 per year.

The software tracks not only every bus, but also every student鈥檚 boarding and disembarkment, even taking photos of the kids. If something happens, law enforcement can see where a child was and what they were wearing at dropoff 鈥� providing a 鈥減riceless鈥� service, Salmons said.

With real-time tracking 鈥� much like a rideshare customer would see on their screen 鈥� parents and students view buses as more reliable, he said. With more precise pickup times, students don鈥檛 wait outside in the cold as long and older kids can even get a few more minutes of sleep, Salmons said.

鈥淗igh schoolers use the app as their bible,鈥� he said.

Data privacy

Given the national driver shortage and parents鈥� focus on reliability, Cassie Creswell understands the appeal of the new bus technology. But she has concerns about the growing loads of data being collected.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a mixed bag on this stuff,鈥� said Creswell, the co-chair of the national Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, which advocates to protect student data.

That group has pushed to keep cameras out of classrooms, but hasn鈥檛 taken a formal position on school buses, she said. Creswell, a parent of a Chicago Public Schools student, said the more data that is collected 鈥� such as GPS locations and video footage 鈥� the more opportunities for that data to be sold or illicitly .

鈥淎re we actually clearing away stuff that you really shouldn鈥檛 hold on to forever?鈥� she asked. 鈥淲e鈥檙e so careless with student data 鈥� even very sensitive data 鈥� and we鈥檙e very careless about the long-term protection of that data.鈥�

School systems interviewed by Stateline said their bus data is being securely stored separately from other student records and that data such as videos are routinely deleted.

Alan Fairless, a founder and chief technology officer of the tech provider Transportant, previously worked in building encrypted tech products.

He said the company doesn鈥檛 sell any student data and encrypts the memory of each device 鈥� so, someone stealing a tablet off a bus would have no access to its memory. The company was created in 2018 to tackle parent and school concerns about bus reliability and delays.

Fairless said he quickly learned many districts struggle with high driver turnover because of student behavior issues on board.

By providing multiple cameras that can be accessed live, he said, the company鈥檚 product provides a new layer of support to drivers.

鈥淣ow, when something happens, they push a button and a dispatcher or principal is going to watch that bus in real time,鈥� he said.

Fairless said one school district has what it calls a seven-minute rule: When a driver alerts of an incident, a dispatcher aims to watch the video, figure out what happened and notify parents over text or phone call within seven minutes.

鈥淭he effect is, that video arrives to the parents, and now they know the real problem, and they know that before the student comes home and creates some other version of the story,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o now, it鈥檚 like the parents and the school district are working together to solve the problem.鈥�

Since launching, the company has contracted with 88 school systems in 19 states to provide its all-inclusive tech suite that includes the app for families, on-board Wi-Fi, camera systems and routing services.

While prices can vary, school districts typically pay about $3,600 per bus up front and an annual subscription cost of about $69 per bus, said Jeff Shackelford, vice president of sales.

Changing parent demands

The addition of Transportant has helped keep parents informed in Oregon鈥檚 Estacada School District, which sprawls across 750 square miles southeast of Portland.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been great customer service for our families to just see, just like when someone orders an Uber, they can keep track of where their kid is at,鈥� said Maggie Kelly, a spokesperson for the school system of about 2,000 students.

Kelly said the district expects to make up some of its initial investment in the technology as it realizes savings from more efficient bus routes.

Parents are demanding more real-time information on bus times and locations, said Rick D鈥橢rrico, a spokesperson for Transfinder, whose products build more efficient bus routes and provide tracking apps for parents.

鈥淚f I can track a burrito order, why can鈥檛 I track a bus?鈥� D鈥橢rrico said. 鈥淧arents these days expect their districts to have ways to notify them on individualized ETAs and alerts for when their kid is on their routes, and not rely on schoolwide email blasts.鈥�

Recently, school districts in Alaska, Texas and Wyoming have launched the company鈥檚 apps, which are free for parents.

Such services can provide savings by cutting back on the number of drivers and buses in operation. But they also relieve pressure on dispatchers, who can be besieged with parent phone calls during disruptions or delays.

Since rolling out a new bus tracking app this year, the St. Johns County School District in northeast Florida has fielded far fewer parent calls.

That app is just the latest addition to a portfolio of advanced onboard technology, said Jonah Paxton, transportation fleet technology foreman at the district, which serves about 27,000 bus riders.

The 52,000-student school system intentionally purchased separate products for bus cameras, parent tracking and driver navigation. Paxton said that allows the school system to avoid getting stuck with a single provider that could demand higher prices in the future.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not locked into a single sort of a walled-garden of products, which gives us a lot more freedom to pick and choose which products we like, which ones we don鈥檛 like, and gives us a little more negotiating power,鈥� he said.

To ensure security, the school system stores video files on its own servers rather than those of outside vendors, he said. The district has a specific video retention policy and it blurs out student faces if videos are ever requested under the state鈥檚 public records law.

Paxton said student and driver safety drives many of the tech decisions for the school鈥檚 fleet of more than 300 buses.

鈥淏uses are vastly different than they were even five,10 years ago,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think many people who haven鈥檛 ridden a bus in a while can think of the bus as sort of an unpleasant place, or kind of the Wild West of schooling, but they鈥檝e really come a long way.鈥�

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira contributed to this story. Stateline reporter Kevin Hardy can be reached at khardy@stateline.org. 

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

Right-wing political operative Charlie Kirk was discussing one of the most divisive topics in contemporary U.S. politics 鈥� school shootings 鈥� when a bullet pierced his neck. 

Before he was gunned down on a Utah college campus, the 31-year-old activist built a reputation as a free-speech absolutist whose provocative, pull-no-punches commentary made him an icon for many young conservatives and a villain to liberal college students who sought to shut him up.

Now, it’s his critics who find themselves on the receiving end of censorship as the Trump administration endorses a doxxing campaign against people who鈥檝e engaged in online 鈥渉ate speech鈥� and educators face consequences at work for critical social media posts. For students, it鈥檚 a fraught environment that offers new First Amendment risks, experts told me this week.

鈥淪omebody silenced Charlie Kirk, and that person probably wanted less speech,鈥� said Adam Goldstein, the vice president of strategic initiatives at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. 鈥淪o if our reaction to that is to start silencing each other, then we鈥檙e doing the work of assassins for them.”

Authorities have accused 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of murdering Kirk for his 鈥減olitical expression.鈥� Prosecutors released a series of text messages Tuesday between Robinson and his roommate and romantic partner in which the suspected killer said he had enough of Kirk鈥檚 鈥渉atred,鈥� and that 鈥渟ome hate can鈥檛 be negotiated out.鈥�

In the news

A teenager who shot two students at a suburban Denver High school on the same day as Kirk鈥檚 murder had 鈥渁 deep fascination with mass shooters鈥� and TikTok accounts 鈥渇illed with white supremacist symbolism.鈥� | 

• On the morning of the Evergreen High School attack, the school-based police officer was away from campus responding to a nearby car crash.听

The Uvalde, Texas, school district canceled classes for four days this week after it became the target of a ransomware attack. The district suffered a 2022 school shooting that left 19 elementary schoolers and two teachers dead. Campus security infrastructure, including surveillance cameras, were compromised by the cyberattack, the district said. | 

California reformed its student discipline regime 鈥� including a ban on suspensions for willful defiance 鈥� in a bid to combat racial and socioeconomic disparities. It hasn鈥檛 worked. | 

From 鈥榟omework helper鈥� to 鈥榮uicide coach鈥�: Parents testified at an emotionally raw Senate hearing Tuesday that their children were driven to suicide by artificial intelligence chatbots, including ChatGPT and Character.AI. Among those who testified are parents suing tech companies alleging their children鈥檚 use of chatbots led to harm or death. | 

• Florida mother Megan Garcia鈥檚 lawsuit alleges the Character.AI chatbot formed an abusive relationship with her 14-year-old son, Sewell, that drove him to suicide. |听
• 鈥淣o parent should have to give their own child’s eulogy,鈥� she told lawmakers. 鈥淎fter losing Sewell, I have spoken with parents across the country who have discovered their children have been groomed, manipulated and harmed by AI chatbots. This is not a rare or isolated case.鈥� |听
• In May, a federal judge rejected Character.AI鈥檚 arguments that its chatbots are protected by the First Amendment. |听
• On the same day as the hearing, OpenAI announced it would add an age prediction feature to its chatbots and tailor responses for younger audiences. |听
• Why parents should talk to their kids about the risks of AI. |听

A new Pew Research Center poll shows overwhelming public support for international students at U.S. colleges and universities, even as they get entangled in the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown. | 

New laws in 31 states and the District of Columbia restrict students鈥� cellphone use at school, according to a new analysis by the National Association of State Boards of Education. Yet the group argues the policies 鈥渕ay not address the full range of harms to student safety and mental health arising from risky online behaviors 鈥� or equip students with the digital literacy skills they need.鈥� | 

New in Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown: A New York school superintendent flew to Texas and tried to give a cap, gown and diploma to an undocumented student who was detained just weeks before his high school graduation. | 

• 鈥業mmense fear and terror鈥�:听How the militarized surge of law enforcement in Washington, D.C., has taken a toll on the city鈥檚 kids. |听
• A Maine congresswoman has called on immigration agents to give a 鈥渇ull accounting鈥� of its decision to arrest a father after he dropped off his child at school. |听
• A man shot and killed by ICE agents during a traffic stop last week dropped his children off at school moments before his death. |听

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has put a hold on new state social studies standards that parents, educators and faith leaders allege impose Christian beliefs on students in violation of the First Amendment. | 

The Green Bay, Wisconsin, school district will require middle and high schoolers to use clear backpacks after a student was arrested for bringing a gun to class. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

Everybody say meow to Taittinger, the new cat around the house.

Just not too loudly or she鈥檒l scurry under the bed.

It鈥檚 another hot summer Friday and another day with  鈥� this one jeopardizing both student health and campus safety data.

And once again, the development is unfolding in the country鈥檚 second-largest school district.

Kokomo Solutions, which the Los Angeles district contracts with , disclosed a data breach after it discovered an 鈥渦nauthorized third party鈥� on its computer network. The discovery happened in December 2024, but the notice to the California attorney general鈥檚 office wasn鈥檛 made until Aug. 5.  

It鈥檚 the latest in a series of data privacy incidents affecting L.A. schools, including a high-profile 2022 ransomware attack exposing students鈥� sensitive mental health records and last year鈥檚 collapse of a much-lauded $6 million artificial intelligence chatbot project. 

In the news

Students at the center of Trump鈥檚 D.C. police takeover: In an unprecedented federal power grab, the Trump administration鈥檚 seizure of the D.C. police department and National Guard deployment is designed to target several vulnerable groups 鈥� including kids. | 

• The move comes at a time when crime in the nation鈥檚 capital is on the decline. But a deep-dive from June explores how the district鈥檚 failure to prevent student absences has contributed to 鈥渢he biggest youth crime surge in a generation.鈥� |听
  
• Here鈥檚 what young people have to say about Trump鈥檚 D.C. takeover. |听
  
• City police will roll out a youth-specific curfew Friday in the Navy Yard neighborhood. |听

A new Ohio law requires school districts to implement basic cybersecurity measures in response to heightened cyberattacks. What the law doesn鈥檛 do, however, is provide any money to carry out the new mandate. |  

News in Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown: A federal judge in Minnesota has released from immigration detention a nursing 25-year-old mother, allowing her to return to her children as her case works its way through the court. | 

• The Trump administration has revived one of its most controversial immigration policies from the president鈥檚 first term: Separating families. |听
  
• Federal immigration officials quizzed an Idaho school resource officer about an unaccompanied migrant student, part of a broader national effort to conduct “welfare checks鈥� on immigrant youth who came to the U.S. without their parents. |听
  
• Leading Oklahoma Republican lawmakers have partnered with the Trump administration in a lawsuit challenging a state law allowing undocumented students to receive in-state college tuition. |听
  
• Los Angeles community members have organized to create protective perimeters around the city鈥檚 campuses after immigration agents reportedly drew their guns on a student outside a high school. |听
  • The district announced new bus routes designed to improve student safety while commuting to school听during heightened immigration enforcement. |听

• The nonprofit Southwest Key, which for years has been the federal government鈥檚 largest provider of shelters for unaccompanied migrant children, has laid off thousands in Texas and Arizona after losing federal grants. The Trump administration dropped a lawsuit in March over allegations the nonprofit subjected migrant children to widespread sexual abuse. |听
  
• A Texas court blocked the state attorney general’s request to depose and question a nun who leads Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, one of the largest migrant aid groups in the region. |听

Microphone-equipped sensors installed in school bathrooms to crack down on student vaping could be hacked, researchers revealed, and turned into secret listening devices. |听

鈥楾hese are innocent children, sir鈥�:听New video of the delayed police response to the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, shows the campus police chief attempting to negotiate with the gunman for more than 30 minutes. |听

Kansas schools have become the latest target in the Trump administration鈥檚 campaign against districts that permit transgender students to participate in school athletics. | 

• The Loudoun County, Virginia, school board has refused to comply with an Education Department order to end a policy allowing transgender students to use restroom facilities that match their gender identity. |听听
• The Education Department鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into allegations the Baltimore school district ignored antisemetic harassment by students and educators. |听

Lots of drills 鈥� little evidence: A congressionally mandated report finds that active shooter drills vary widely across the country 鈥� making it difficult to understand their effect on mental and emotional health. | 

A federal judge has blocked a new Arkansas law requiring that public schools display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms. It鈥檚 the second state Ten Commandments law to be halted this year. |  

ICYMI:听I did a deep-dive into the far-right Christian nationalists behind more than two dozen state Ten Commandments-in-schools bills nationally 鈥斕齟ach of which are inherently identical. |听

Is Texas up next?听Civil rights groups will ask a judge on Friday to prevent a similar law from going into effect. |听

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

Don鈥檛 sleep on this听听鈥斕齮he billion-dollar industry for hypoallergenic (and floofy!) designer pups.

As far-right political operative David Barton leads a Christian nationalist crusade, he鈥檚 traveled to state capitols across the country this year to support  in classrooms. 

My latest story digs into a well-coordinated and deep-pocketed campaign to inject Protestant Christianity into public schools that could carry broader implications for students鈥� First Amendment rights. Through a data analysis of  this year, I show how Barton鈥檚 role runs far deeper than just being their primary pitchman.

The analysis reveals how the language, structure and requirements of these bills nationwide are inherently identical. Time and again, state legislation took language verbatim from a Barton-led lobbying blitz to reshape the nation鈥檚 laws around claims 鈥� routinely debunked 鈥� about Christianity鈥檚 role in the country鈥檚 founding and its early public education system. 

Three new state laws in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas mandating Ten Commandments posters in public schools are designed to challenge a 1980 Supreme Court ruling against such government-required displays in classrooms. GOP state lawmakers embracing these laws have expressed support for eradicating the separation of church and state 鈥� a pursuit critics fear will coerce students and take away their own religious freedom.

In the news

Updates to Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown: Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released from custody a 6-year-old boy with leukemia more than a month after he and his family were sent to a rural Texas detention center. | 

• As the Department of Homeland Security conducts what it calls wellness checks on unaccompanied minors, the young people who migrated to the U.S. without their parents 鈥渁re just terrified.鈥� |听
  
• 鈥業t looks barbaric鈥�: 麻豆精品 footage purportedly shows some two dozen children in federal immigration custody handcuffed and shackled in a Los Angeles parking garage. |听
  
• The Department of Homeland Security is investigating surveillance camera footage purportedly showing federal immigration officers urinating on the grounds of a Pico Rivera, California, high school in broad daylight. |听
  
• California sued the Trump administration after it withheld some $121 million in education funds for a program designed to help the children of migrant farmworkers catch up academically. |听
  
• Undocumented children will be banned from enrolling in federally funded Head Start preschools, the Trump administration announced. |听
  
  • Legal pushback:听Parents, Head Start providers challenge new rule barring undocumented families. |听

The executive director of Camp Mystic in Texas didn鈥檛 begin evacuations for more than an hour after he received a severe flood warning from the National Weather Service. The ensuing tragedy killed 27 counselors and campers. | 

The day after the Supreme Court allowed the Education Department’s dismantling, Secretary Linda McMahon went ahead with plans to move key programs. | 

• Now, with fewer staff, the Office for Civil Rights is pursuing a smaller caseload. During a three-month period between March and June, the agency dismissed 3,424 civil rights complaints. | 

Massachusetts legislation seeks to ban anyone under the age of 18 from working in the state鈥檚 seafood processing facilities after an investigation exposed the factories routinely employed migrant youth in unsafe conditions. | 

An end to a deadly trend: School shootings decreased 22% during the 2024-25 school year compared to a year earlier after reaching all-time highs for three years in a row. | 

Florida is the first state to require all high school student athletes to undergo electrocardiograms in a bid to detect heart conditions. | 

The Senate dropped rules from Trump鈥檚 鈥渂ig, beautiful鈥� tax-and-spending bill that would have prevented states from regulating artificial intelligence tools, including those used in schools. | 

• Food stamps are another matter: The federal SNAP program will be cut by about a fifth over the next decade, taking away at least some nutrition benefits from at least 800,000 low-income children. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

74 editor Nicole Ridgway鈥檚 dog Mika is cooler than your dog.

As Texas schools face at least $600 million in federal funding cuts, multiple mental health programs, particularly those implemented in response to the pandemic and mass shootings, are at risk of losing funding.

School programs focused on chronic absenteeism, mental wellness and crisis services that were created in response to the Uvalde school shooting, as well as social workers and counselors, could all be on the chopping block.

Texas schools rely heavily on federal funding to support mental health programs. Data shows that two federal programs that are of being cut or account for 86% of the school mental health funding for more than 2,500 campuses statewide, according to Mental Health America of Greater Houston.

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Bracing also for the impending expiration of COVID-19 relief funding, school districts and advocacy groups this legislative session had pushed for more money through a dedicated funding source for school mental health, but lawmakers did not approve it.

Currently, such funding is combined with school safety in the so-called school safety allotment in the state school funding formula, and school districts tend to prioritize the allotment on school security.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to get into a situation where I am asking, do I hire a police officer or do I hire a counselor? I want them both,鈥� said Adrian Johnson, superintendent for the Hearne school district.

The funding cuts and lack of progress on getting a statewide dedicated funding stream for mental health comes at a time when g. The special legislative session starts July 21, but Gov. Greg Abbott has not assigned school mental health as a directive to lawmakers.

The funding crisis

Created in response to Uvalde, the federal helps fund two grant programs in Texas, the and the . The former implements mental health training and support in 60 high-needs districts and the latter helps 98 public school districts with case management tools that identify struggling students, as well as mental health personnel.

Almost three years later, the Safer Communities Act is losing over $1 billion spread across the country. Funds that were supposed to last until 2027 are expected to dry up by the end of this year.

This cut puts programs like , which deploys evidence-based mental health resources in three Central Texas school districts, at risk. The state homed in on those school districts because of their higher rates of community impacts from the pandemic and high rates of population growth.

The cut to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is just one in a series of proposed changes to federal funding for public education that will impact how mental health is addressed in schools.

According to an analysis from the , the freezing of five other federal programs that support public schools are expected to result in the withholding of approximately $600 million from Texas, more than 16.1% of the state鈥檚 federal K-12 funding. These funds have been used for a variety of services such as English language instruction and literacy, but also after school programs and summer programs focused on mental wellness.

Medicaid and CHIP are also facing cuts in the federal spending bill passed earlier this month, and both provide each year to school districts and local mental health authorities, enabling them to hire and retain mental health providers, offer preventive mental health screenings, and support students with disabilities using specialized services.

Separately, COVID-19 funds are set to expire this year t, forcing some smaller schools to lay off staff or find alternative ways to keep the social workers and counselors hired during the pandemic.

The confluence of these cuts come as Texas lawmakers missed opportunities to properly fund school mental health this year.

During the legislative session that ended in June, Texas lawmakers agreed on a robust that adds $8.5 billion to the state鈥檚 public school system. However, most of it has been earmarked for teacher pay; with roughly $250 million being set aside for school support staff and mental health support staff are not necessarily included in the pay raise.

Over 70% of the schools that sustainable funding for school-based mental health staff and professional school counselors was the main barrier to having adequate resources to address student mental health needs, according to a survey of 2,690 schools by the .

鈥淲e are hopeful that this will translate to more dollars for mental health. But without any legislation currently earmarking those dollars, that is not a guarantee,鈥� Rebecca Fowler, the director of public policy and government affairs at Mental Health America of Greater Houston, said about the new school funding.

In 2023, wrote to the Texas Legislature, urging the creation and funding of a separate 鈥渟tudent mental health allotment鈥� because programs were not reaching enough students.

Only 13% of schools used the school safety allotment for mental health supports, according to the

by Rep. , D-Dallas, attempted to secure dedicated mental health funds, but it did not pass this year.

鈥淯ncertainty around different funding streams makes it hard to navigate these conversations about the future of mental health and young people,鈥� said Kate Murphy, director of child protection policy for Texans Care for Children.

Changing conversations

After the devastating school shootings in Uvalde and Santa Fe compelled lawmakers to prioritize mental health, such support has waned in the last few years. Mental health advocates have pointed the blame at the culture war happening in the Capitol, namely that lawmakers have suggested mental health programs in schools are diagnosing children and reinforcing LGBTQ identities without parental consent.

For example, by Sen. , R-Brenham, would have required parental consent for any psychological or psychiatric examination, testing, or treatment conducted on a student by a school employee. The bill had eight senators as sponsors, and although it died in the less conservative Texas House, it demonstrates the shift in the legislative conversation surrounding school mental health.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there is a uniform understanding of the role of behavioral health in public schools. Who should be providing support? When should support happen?鈥� Seth Winick, director of the , said.

Johnson, the Hearne superintendent, said he understands parents鈥� concerns but says schools are the best place to address mental health issues for Texas families who might not have the income or time to schedule mental health services. Until a better solution is proposed, school mental health needs support, he said.

鈥淲e have students pre-K through 12 sitting in the school system for 180 plus days a year, and we should take advantage of that by not only giving them a strong educational foundation but a strong mental health foundation,鈥� he said.

What does the future hold?

Without federal funding support, school districts will have to get creative in addressing mental wellness within their walls.

Johnson said his school district is focusing on partnerships not only with local mental health authorities and health agencies, but also with other school districts. He said his district shares staff and cut costs by joining in on a special education cooperative with four other districts and can be modeled in other parts of the state.

鈥淲e have 700 kids, a neighboring district might have 600 kids, and another district may have 150; we have to learn to work together to help lower some of the costs during these budget cuts.鈥�

Collaboration is necessary, Johnson said, but even that is at risk under current funding restrictions.

Some schools are unable to expand partnerships with programs like , which directly works with students to provide mental health support and address chronic absenteeism.

鈥淐IS is currently serving two campuses in our district, but we would definitely expand to have CIS serve all of our campuses if we had a state funded allotment that would help the district provide the matching funding that is needed to partner with CIS,鈥� Chris Smith, superintendent of the Brownfield school district, said. 鈥淲e just don鈥檛 have the funding available.鈥�

Rural and smaller schools also face laying off social workers and psychologists hired during the pandemic and eliminating programs to ensure they can retain teachers through raises instead.

鈥淲e are adopting a budget this year that鈥檚 probably going to have a $2 million deficit. We are dedicated to making sure mental health services are available and luckily have been able to sustain through partnerships, but it has been tough times with the economy, and schools are struggling to keep up with costs,鈥� Smith said.

The endless loop of putting mental health on the back burner until tragedy hits is unsustainable, according to education advocates, who say it鈥檚 time for funding dedicated to school mental health.

鈥淚 would like to have funding similar to what they said with police officers. You have to have a police officer on every campus, but that costs money yearly, and they provide. We should be doing the same with social workers and psychologists,鈥� Johnson said.

Disclosure: Texans Care for Children has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete .

This article originally appeared in ,听a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

First grade was the year 鈥渁ll hell broke loose鈥� for Carter, a South Carolina teenager with multiple disabilities whose school career was marked by suspensions of every kind. In-school. Out-of-school. Forced to sit alone at lunch. Kicked off the school bus. 

In a powerful story and state-by-state data analysis this week, my colleague Amanda Geduld offers disturbing new insight into the degree to which children with disabilities are disproportionately subjected to school suspensions, sometimes for minor infractions. Disciplinary actions against children with disabilities aren鈥檛 just a matter of their behaviors, Amanda found. They鈥檙e also greatly affected by where the student lives. 

Amanda digs into the repeated school suspensions of Carter, which his mom said could have been avoided had the local schools provided adequate special education services that federal law demands. His case highlights a trend: No state suspends children with disabilities more often than South Carolina. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 just reflective of the state of public education of South Carolina as a whole,鈥� said Macaulay Morrison, the assistant director of a health and legal advocacy clinic at the University of South Carolina Law School. 鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 easier for schools to exclude these students than it is for them to figure out how to support them.鈥�

Read Amanda鈥檚 story here, and see how the numbers stack up in your state.听

In the News

New on the First Amendment battlefield: A slim majority of American adults support teacher-led Christian prayers in public schools, according to a new Pew Research Center report released just days after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott authorized Bible readings in schools and required Ten Commandments displays in classrooms. The Texas laws are part of a broader conservative push to bolster religion in schools 鈥� with hopes of ultimately finding favor on the Supreme Court. On the same day Texas required the display of the Ten Commandments in schools, a federal appeals court struck down a similar law in Louisiana. | 麻豆精品

Developments on Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown: Federal immigration agents arrested more than 30 people after conducting a raid at a south Alabama high school construction site. Officials said the operation 鈥渟ends a strong message to those who exploit illegal labor for profit.鈥� |

• In Florida, agents visited the offices of a state-funded children鈥檚 center in a search for their undocumented parents. |
• Detroit teenager Maykol Bogoya-Duarte has been deported to his home country of Colombia after he was detained by immigration officials during a routine traffic stop while driving to a school field trip. |
• In New York, residents confronted masked immigration agents lingering hundreds of feet from an elementary school. Agents got into a car crash as they attempted to flee. |
• The State Department will screen the social media profiles of student visa applicants for 鈥渁ny indications of hostility鈥� toward the U.S. |
• A former federal immigration officer in North Carolina was arrested on allegations he possessed images of child sexual abuse. |
• Student absences have surged by 22% this year in California鈥檚 Central Valley amid heightened immigration enforcement activity in the agricultural region, a new study found. |

The Loudoun County, Virginia, school district announced plans to install on its campuses artificial intelligence-powered surveillance cameras designed to identify weapons, fights and medical emergencies. |

A critic鈥檚 take on Pride Month: Libraries have become 鈥渃enters for queer resistance鈥� in the fight against censorship. A new investigation takes aim at LGBTQ+-affirming books which, according to the author, glamorize 鈥渕edicalized sex changes as brave and heroic.鈥� |

• The Trump administration has gutted a specialized suicide prevention line for LGBTQ+ youth, who are far more likely than their straight peers to die by suicide. |
• In a major civil rights setback, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors. |
• The Education Department announced the California Interscholastic Federation violated the civil rights of female students by allowing transgender athletes to compete on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. |

The Senate education committee voted Thursday to approve Trump nominees Penny Schwinn as the Education Department鈥檚 second in command and Kimberly Richey to lead the agency鈥檚 civil rights office. Both were advanced to the full Senate on 12-11 votes along party lines. | 麻豆精品

A federal judge has awarded more than $900,000 to a former Pennsylvania middle school teacher who was fired for attending the 鈥淪top the Steal鈥� insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. |

The Senate parliamentarian will allow a provision to ban state regulation of artificial intelligence for a decade, including rules around its use in schools, to remain in President Donald Trump鈥檚 sweeping spending bill. |

A bulletin from the National Terrorism Advisory System has warned of a 鈥渉eightened threat environment鈥� for cyberattacks after the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites. In an unrelated cybersecurity advisory last year, the federal government cited the potential threat of Iran-based hackers carrying out cyberattacks on U.S. 鈥渆ducation, finance, healthcare and defense sectors.鈥� | ,

A massive settlement, behind closed doors: The school board in Los Angeles has quietly agreed to issue $500 million in bonds to settle hundreds of decades-old sexual abuse cases involving former students. |

ICYMI @The74

For Some Tribal Communities, Head Start Programs Provide a Cultural Lifeline

Maine Case Opens New Battleground for School Choice: The Right to Discriminate

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Emotional Support

Look. At. This. Chunk. 

No really, this dog鈥檚 name is Chunk! This pup is 74 editor Kathy Moore鈥檚 11-week-old Corgi pup nephew, and we get it. He鈥檚 unbearably cute. Try not to make a scene.

Two developments this week have upped the anxiety over how far President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown will go to ensnare students and young children. In New York City, a  Bronx high school student from Venezuela showed up for a routine immigration court date and was promptly arrested afterward by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Chalkbeat鈥檚 Michael Elsen-Rooney, who  reports that the arrest has sent shock waves through the 20-year-old鈥檚 small, close-knit high school, which caters to .

Meanwhile, ICE agents have been showing up unannounced at schools, homes and migrant shelters from New York to Hawaii to interview children, some as young as 6, who arrived in the U.S. alone, The New York Times . The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for the children鈥檚 care and has historically been kept separate from immigration activities, is now, according to ProPublica. The Trump administration is calling these surprise visits 鈥渨elfare checks,鈥� but educators, advocates and others see them as a means of accelerating deportations. 

Propelling Trump鈥檚 deportation agenda has been a priority for Florida officials, from Gov. Ron DeSantis all the way down to the St. Petersburg school district police chief. An investigation I published last week revealed that the chief .

The revelation, included in a batch of public records I obtained from Pinellas County Schools, came after district officials claimed that an application to deputize campus cops with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest authority was a mistake. The records show efforts to cooperate with ICE run deeper than school officials have previously acknowledged 鈥� and that the district鈥檚 top leaders were aware of it.

Immigrant rights groups and privacy advocates have for years warned that school-based police officers could share information about undocumented students and their families with federal immigration officials, especially as Trump bolsters a program that grants ICE powers to local cops. More than 550 law enforcement agencies nationwide have what are known as 287(g) agreements with ICE, including at least one in every Florida county.

Civil rights attorneys say the directives given to Pinellas school police 鈥� which include orders to detain and question anyone with federal deportation orders 鈥� could violate constitutional protections against unreasonable detention and children鈥檚 legal right to a free public education regardless of their immigration status. 

In the news

School cybersecurity experts told me they were surprised by how quickly federal authorities arrested 19-year-old hacker and Massachusetts college student Matthew Lane. Lane pleaded guilty last week to carrying out a massive cyberattack on the deep-pocketed ed tech company PowerSchool, which gave into his ransom demand. They also criticized the company for its slower-than-previously-known response and public notice about the breach, which exposed the sensitive records of millions of students and educators.听

• The Department of Justice alleges Lane and co-conspirators demanded a $2.85 million ransom in Bitcoin. He pleaded guilty to cyber extortion, unauthorized access to protected computers and aggravated identity theft. |听

• More than 100 school districts have filed lawsuits against PowerSchool alleging negligence and breach of contract. |听

• In just the last month, districts nationwide were the targets of extortion demands despite PowerSchool鈥檚 decision to pay the ransom to prevent files from being shared publicly. |听

• A prize nobody wanted:听The education sector has come in first place … for being the slowest to report data breaches after ransomware attacks 鈥� averaging nearly five months. |听

• Kept in the dark:听Meet the hired guns who make sure school cyberattacks stay hidden. |听

鈥楾ake it down鈥�:听Trump has signed a new federal law that requires tech platforms remove non-consensual, sexually explicit deepfakes as teen girls nationwide are the victims of disturbing AI-generated images. |听

Red Cloud Indian School, which operates on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the Trump administration鈥檚 cuts to AmeriCorps. The suit charges the cuts would put job training programs and teaching assistants at “serious risk” in one of the country鈥檚 most impoverished regions. | 

Some seven years after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Broward County school district plans to cut about 100 security positions as part of an effort to slash its budget by $65 million. | 

On the list of alleged violations of students鈥� civil rights that may never be investigated after Trump gutted the Education Department: The case of a substitute teacher who was arrested on battery charges after she was captured on video dragging a 6-year-old boy with autism down the hallway of his Illinois school. | 

• Picking up the slack:听The National Center for Youth Law has launched an initiative to help the families of students whose civil rights complaints to the department听are no longer being investigated. The nonprofit鈥檚 鈥渇ellowship program鈥� will connect fired Office for Civil Rights attorneys with families to provide pro bono legal services. |听

A Minnesota school resource officer was accused of helping to cover up allegations that a former middle school teacher was sending sexually explicit images to a dozen male students over Snapchat. | 

鈥楴azi swastikas and things like that鈥�: A 33-year-old Texas mother was arrested on terrorism-related charges after police say she bought guns and tactical gear for her 13-year-old son as he allegedly planned a shooting at his middle school. Officials said they found 鈥渟ome very disturbing鈥� stuff in the mother鈥檚 home. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

Met a new friend, Elmer, spotted in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, while biking the 333 miles from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., this week.

Nice guy!

Pinellas County Schools Superintendent Kevin Hendrick was looped in on a Feb. 24 directive from his police chief ordering campus officers to detain and question anybody they encounter with a federal deportation order and to alert U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, obtained through a public records request. Hendrick was also notified by district police Chief Luke Williams of plans to deputize school-based officers under a federal program that grants immigration arrest authority to local law enforcement agencies and that鈥檚 experienced since the beginning of Trump鈥檚 second term 鈥� in large part from new partnerships in Florida.

Immigrant rights groups and privacy advocates have for years warned that school-based police officers could share information about undocumented students and their families with federal immigration officials and that the program to deputize local cops, known as 287(g), could give immigration agents a foothold in schools. 

The revelations in Pinellas County, advocates said, offer clear evidence of collaboration on immigration matters between the law enforcement division of the country鈥檚 28th-largest school district and outside police agencies. The instructions given to school resource officers, they assert, could violate constitutional protections against unreasonable detention and children鈥檚 legal right to a free public education regardless of their immigration status. 

鈥淚t should alarm and enrage every parent, teacher, and taxpayer in Florida that school police are being pressured to become informants for ICE and unconstitutionally detain members of our school community,鈥� attorney Alana Greer, the director and co-founder of the Miami-based Community Justice Project, told 麻豆精品. 

Greer noted the school district police department鈥檚 directive to assist ICE, and , were voluntary decisions that undermine community trust and its mission to promote campus safety. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 need or want armed cops in our schools doing ICE鈥檚 bidding. 鈥嬧�婽hese efforts do nothing to keep our kids safe.鈥�

The Florida Phoenix that the Pinellas County school district had applied to take part in 287(g), the nation鈥檚 first K-12 school district to take that step. In response to the resulting public outcry, Hendrick, the superintendent, said the district police chief acted in error and without his or the school board’s approval. The district didn鈥檛 respond to questions last week from 麻豆精品 about emails Hendrick and other district leaders received from Williams outlining the police chief鈥檚 intention to participate. 

Records show the school district鈥檚 lawyers had planned to meet to discuss the 287(g) application before it became public and Isabel Mascaranes, the district spokesperson, was listed on the form as the point of contact for ICE 鈥渢o coordinate any release of information to the media鈥� regarding immigration enforcement actions. Asked by 麻豆精品 what knowledge she had of the 287(g) application before it was submitted to ICE, Mascaranes responded, 鈥淐an I get back to you on that?鈥�

In a follow-up email, Mascaranes didn鈥檛 elaborate on when she first learned of the agreement, simply noting that she routinely handles 鈥渁ll media requests and releases.鈥� She acknowledged the district police chief 鈥渕aintains ongoing communication鈥� with the sheriff鈥檚 office and other local law enforcement agencies and his decision to submit the 287(g) application was 鈥済uided by state and federal directives, intending to remain fully compliant with the law.鈥� 

ICE and the Florida governor鈥檚 office didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment. The Pinellas County Sheriff鈥檚 Office also declined an interview request.

Voicemail records obtained by 麻豆精品 show it was ICE 鈥� not the district 鈥� that withdrew Pinellas school police from 287(g) consideration. 

鈥淚CE will not be entering into an agreement鈥� with the district, Melanie White, an ICE deportation officer, said in a voicemail to Williams, adding that the immigration enforcement agency 鈥渨ill not extend the program in that way鈥� to include K-12 school district police departments 鈥渁t this time.鈥� 

鈥楢n absolute priority of the Governor鈥�

Perhaps nowhere more than Florida, home to an residents, has Trump’s immigration agenda been so forcefully embraced, with state and local officials looking for ways to bolster ICE enforcement. That includes Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, who was tapped by Gov. Ron DeSantis to lead a new State Immigration Enforcement Council. The council was tasked with carrying out a state law extending immigration enforcement far into the realm of state and local police.

Records obtained by 麻豆精品 show Gualtieri threatened Williams and others to get on board or face the governor’s wrath.

While 鈥渋mmigration stuff is confusing,鈥� Gualtieri said in a Feb. 25 email to Williams and the heads of other Pinellas County law enforcement agencies, 鈥渋t is also at the forefront of Florida politics and an absolute priority of the Governor.鈥�

鈥淭he new law puts legal obligations on all of us to ensure we do certain things and the consequences for not doing so include removal from office by the Governor, including his power to remove police chiefs, city managers, mayors and commission/council members,鈥� he continued, adding that he would hold a call to 鈥渙n how to best comply with the new Florida law.鈥�

DeSantis, who claims he鈥檚 created for mass deportations, signed the law in February that establishes prison sentences for undocumented immigrants who cross into Florida after illegally entering the U.S. and requires jails and sheriff鈥檚 offices in the state鈥檚 67 counties to participate in the 287(g) program and facilitate arrests. A police agencies to stop enforcing the state law in April, saying it likely violates the Constitution鈥檚 Supremacy Clause and 鈥渦nlawfully encroaches鈥� on the federal government鈥檚 authority to enforce federal immigration laws. DeSantis and the Florida state attorney general are  

Florida lawmakers failed to pass a stricter bill this year which would have required all law enforcement agencies with at least 25 officers to form ICE partnerships. That law would have required Pinellas County school district police and other law enforcement agencies outside of sheriff’s and corrections departments to join forces with ICE. Even though that more far-reaching mandate did not pass, dozens of Florida law enforcement agencies voluntarily formed federal immigration enforcement partnerships, including the police departments at .

Pinellas County Schools Police Chief Luke Williams signed the 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement under pressure from the county sheriff, public records obtained by 麻豆精品 show. (Source: Pinellas County Schools)

And even though the Pinellas school police were not legally required by the law that did pass to pursue 287(g) or to act in concert with ICE when coming into contact with someone with a deportation warrant, Williams, the police chief, told the superintendent, the school board’s attorney and other districts leaders that they were.

Gualtieri 鈥済ave instructions on how deputies and officers should respond to the new law with respect to immigration and immigration enforcement,鈥� Williams wrote in a March 5 email outlining his decision to submit the 287(g) application. 鈥淎s you know we are bound to follow the law and during the conversation we were all advised that the expectation is that we do so.鈥�

In that same email, Williams said he related Gualtieri鈥檚 directions about filing the 287(g) form to school board attorney David Koperski and 鈥渁nd we both agree we must follow the law.鈥� The chief filed the form on Feb. 26.

Even without 287(g) arrest authorities, Williams told the superintendent that school-based officers would follow procedures outlined by Gualtieri to question and detain for up to an hour anyone they encounter with a federal arrest deportation order but who was not otherwise wanted on a criminal charge. 

Gualtieri鈥檚 Feb. 24 order came after ICE added some 700,000 people with federal deportation orders to the massive National Crime Information Center, a centralized database that law enforcement agencies nationwide use to track and act on criminal warrants. Without 287(g) powers, the sheriff wrote, local officials lacked authority to arrest people with deportation orders alone. Instead, local officers should contact the local ICE office 鈥渢o have someone respond to the scene.鈥� 

More than 1.4 million people nationwide have 鈥� a third of whom live in Texas or Florida and include longtime residents, people without criminal records and those with U.S.-born spouses and children. A heightened focus on people with final deportation orders regardless of their criminal histories is part of the Trump administration鈥檚 broader immigration crackdown. 

鈥淚f an ICE officer cannot arrive at the scene within one hour, then collect as much information from the person as you can and release the person and ICE will have to try to find them through their fugitive operations,鈥� Gualtieri said. After forwarding the message to school-based officers, Williams told the superintendent that 鈥淪chools Police will do the same.鈥� 

Schools have for decades been considered a safe haven for undocumented students and their families after the 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court decision enshrined childrens鈥� access to public schools regardless of their immigration status 鈥� a right Trump-aligned conservatives in several states are now actively trying to undo. 

On the second day of Trump鈥檚 second term, the president scrapped that instructed immigration agents to avoid making arrests at schools and other  

Trump border czar Tom Homan defended the policy shift in February, claiming Central and South American gang activity in the nation鈥檚 schools required there be 鈥渘o safe haven for public safety threats and national security threats.鈥�

鈥淧eople say 鈥榃ell, will you really go into a high school?鈥� Homan said in . 鈥淲ell, people need to look at the MS-13 members and Tren de Aragua members who enter this country, a majority of them between the ages of 15 and 17. Many are attending our schools and they鈥檙e selling drugs in the schools and they鈥檙e doing strong-armed robberies of other students.鈥� 

On the same day that the Pinellas schools 287(g) application became public, Chief Williams wrote that he had no desire to ferret out the immigration status of students and families, despite his stated intention to facilitate ICE arrests.

鈥淚 do not know the status of any of our students, or parents and do not care to,鈥� Williams said in his March 5 email to Hendrick. 鈥淚 do not want to place yourself or the School Board under scrutiny because I followed my beliefs but failed to follow the law.鈥�

鈥楢 new chilling dimension鈥�

A week after Trump鈥檚 inauguration, dispelling social media posts claiming immigration agents had visited a Pinellas high school and outlined how school principals should respond if they were to show up in the future. 

Certain educational records should not be released to federal officials without a subpoena, the memo noted, but ICE agents were in their authority to 鈥渂ring a student to the front office for an interview鈥� and make arrests. 鈥淲e recommend cooperating鈥� with ICE鈥檚 requests, the memo advises, and educators 鈥渟hould make an effort to contact the student鈥檚 parents before the school makes the student available to the Agent, unless the Agent directs the staff otherwise.鈥�

Other districts have adopted starkly different policies. In April, the Department of Homeland Security said agents to conduct wellness checks on unaccompanied minor children who arrived at the border without their parents. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told NPR the officials were denied entry onto the campuses and that school principals followed 鈥渁 fairly rigid set of protocols specific to these types of actions.鈥�

Renata Bozzetto, the deputy director of the nonprofit Florida Immigrant Coalition which filed the lawsuit against the state immigration law, said the communications between the school district police chief and the county sheriff were 鈥渁bsolutely horrible鈥� and could deter children from enrolling. She said she was particularly alarmed to learn that school district law enforcement officials had access to data about people with deportation orders and questioned to what degree 鈥減arents are being run through the system.鈥� 

Federal law restricts the types of student information that public school districts can share with third parties. However, records , like logs of campus crimes, . 

School districts have for decades been navigating how much information they should share about students with law enforcement 鈥渂ut adding ICE to the mix is a new chilling dimension to that relationship,鈥� said Cody Venzke, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union focused on surveillance, privacy and technology. 

That Williams acted on the 287(g) application without formal approval from the superintendent or school board, Venzke said, highlights a lack of district control over its police department to ensure a 鈥渟tudent鈥檚 right to an education is protected.鈥� The directive to detain anyone with an administrative deportation order absent evidence of a crime, he said, 鈥渞aises significant equity and constitutional concerns.鈥� 

If school-based officers are 鈥渞oaming school hallways looking for students that have administrative warrants out against them,鈥� Venzke said, 鈥渢hat is not an educational atmosphere in which students can feel safe and can learn.鈥�

No child should be forced to attend a school where they are bullied or unsafe. By allowing students to use open enrollment as a mechanism to escape persistently dangerous traditional public schools, the department is empowering families with a basic freedom.

At EdChoice, we鈥檝e long known that safety is a top priority for families. Our nationally representative , conducted in partnership with Braun Research, has tracked parents’ reasons for choosing certain schools for over a decade. In 2024, safety became the top priority for both private and charter school parents, surpassing academics, individual attention and values. 

And for good reason. According to a just-released survey, only believe their school handles violent behavior well, and just 37% say their school effectively addresses bullying. , with 44% saying their child鈥檚 school handles bullying well. But of all: only 33% believe their school does a good job of handling bullying, and just 37% think violent behavior is addressed adequately.

The consequences are real and deeply troubling. One in 10 teenagers said they missed school in the past year due to . About are “very concerned” about a violent intruder entering their school, and share that concern. Among , 28% said bullying was a key reason they left. And when asked what would help bring chronically absent students back to the classroom, 51% of teens pointed to reducing bullying.

It鈥檚 hard to focus on math or reading when you鈥檙e worried about being assaulted in the hallway or harassed on the playground. For too long, families have been told to simply wait for things to improve. This new guidance from the department sends a different message: families deserve safe public school options now.

Allowing parents to use open enrollment when schools are dangerous is a meaningful step forward. It gives families the power to act when their child鈥檚 school environment is not safe, without waiting for bureaucracy to catch up. It鈥檚 good policy and morally right. Among eight empirical studies that have examined how school choice affects school safety, every single one found a , test scores, parent satisfaction and integration.

But open enrollment must be more than a policy on paper. It must be implemented transparently, with clear communication, minimal red tape and no arbitrary restrictions from either sending or receiving districts. Families must know their rights, and the process must be accessible to all, not just those with time, resources, or connections.

Policymakers should also address overlooked barriers, like mental health and , to ensure open enrollment policies truly serve students as intended. One of the biggest challenges families face, especially low-income families, is simply getting their child to a school that meets their needs. States can expand access by offering transportation stipends or coordinating public-private transportation partnerships for students who choose to attend schools outside their assigned zones.

Even then, open enrollment is only one piece of the puzzle. Because some form of open enrollment already, to truly help those in persistently dangerous schools, states must go further by enacting private school choice programs, like education savings accounts, that give families real power to choose safer, more effective learning environments beyond the public system. While there鈥檚 much talk in Washington about expanding school choice, the real momentum for these policies is happening at the state level.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed the state鈥檚 first school choice program into law, an education savings account that will be available for any child whose family chooses. With the addition of Texas, there are now 76 private school choice programs across 35 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Eighteen of these are universal, offering programs to all students. 

Whether they are in their local public school or one across town, a private school, charter school or homeschool, students need environments where they feel secure, respected, and free to learn. The department’s announcement is an important step in that direction. Every child deserves access to a safe school, and every family must be empowered to choose the learning environment where their child is safest and most likely to succeed.

Tennessee state Sen. Bo Watson wants to eject undocumented students from public school classrooms. But first, . 

Watson seeks to require students statewide to submit a birth certificate or other sensitive documents to secure their seats 鈥� one of numerous efforts nationwide this year as Republican state lawmakers seek to challenge a decades-old Supreme Court precedent enshrining students鈥� right to a free public education regardless of their immigration status.

In my latest feature this week, I dive into , who warn that efforts to compile data on immigrant students could be used not just to deny them an education  鈥� it could also fall into the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As the Trump administration ramps up deportations and tech billionaire Elon Musk鈥檚 Department of Government Efficiency reportedly works to create a 鈥渕aster database鈥� of government records to zero in on migrants, data privacy experts warn that state and federal data about immigrant students could be weaponized. 

In the news

Cybercriminals demanded ransom payments from school districts nationwide this week, using millions of K-12 students鈥� sensitive data as leverage after the files were stolen from education technology giant PowerSchool in a massive cyberattack late last year. The development undercuts PowerSchool鈥檚 decision to pay a ransom in December to keep the sensitive documents under wraps. |听

Gutted:听Investigations at the Education Department鈥檚 civil rights office have trickled to a halt as the Trump administration installs a 鈥渟hadow division鈥� to advance cases that align with the president鈥檚 agenda. |听

• Civil rights groups, students and parents have asked courts to block the Education Department鈥檚 civil rights enforcement changes under Trump, saying they fail to hold schools accountable for racial harassment and abuses against children with disabilities. |听

• Among the thousands of cases put on the back burner is a complaint from a Texas teenager who was kneed in the face by a campus cop. |听

鈥楾he hardest case for mercy鈥�:听Congratulations to Marshall Project contributor Joe Sexton, who was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his reporting on a legal team鈥檚 successful bid to spare the Parkland, Florida, school shooter from the death penalty. |听

The city council in Uvalde, Texas, approved a $2 million settlement with the families of the victims in the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School, the first lawsuit to end with monetary payouts since 19 children and two teachers were killed. |  

• In Michigan, a state commission created in the wake of the 2021 school shooting at Oxford High School, which resulted in the deaths of four students, issued a final report calling for additional funding to strengthen school mental health supports. |听
  
• Meanwhile, at the federal level, the Education Department axed $1 billion in federal grants designed to train mental health professionals and place them in schools in a bid to thwart mass shootings. |听

A high school substitute teacher in Ohio was arrested on accusations she offered a student $2,000 to murder her husband. |听

Connecticut schools have been forced to evacuate from fires caused by a 鈥渄angerous TikTok trend鈥� where students stab school-issued laptops with paper clips to cause electrical short circuits. |听

Eleven high school lacrosse players in upstate New York face unlawful imprisonment charges on accusations they staged a kidnapping of younger teammates who thought they were being abducted by armed assailants. |听

The Future of Privacy Forum has 鈥渞etired鈥� its Student Privacy Pledge after a decade. The pledge, which was designed to ensure education technology companies were ethical stewards of students鈥� sensitive data, was ended due to 鈥渢he changing technological and policy landscape regarding education technology.鈥� |听

• The pledge had previously faced scrutiny over its ability to hold tech vendors accountable for violating its terms. |听
  
• New kid on the block:听Almost simultaneously, Common Sense Privacy launched a 鈥減rivacy seal certification鈥� to recognize vendors that are 鈥渄eeply committed to privacy.鈥� |

Google plans to roll out an artificial intelligence chatbot for children as the tech giant seeks to attract young eyeballs to its AI products. |听

Kansas schools plan to spend state money on AI tools to spot guns despite concerns over reports of false alarms. |听

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

Birds are chirping. Flowers are blooming. And听74听editor Bev Weintraub鈥檚 feline Marz is ready to pounce.

The latest casualty in President Donald Trump鈥檚 war on diversity, equity and inclusion is a $1 billion federal grant program to train school counselors and thwart mass shootings.

The U.S. Department of Education notified grant recipients this week it was ending funds to train and hire K-12 school mental health professionals included in a 2022 law that passed with bipartisan support following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which led to the deaths of 19 elementary school students and two teachers. 

The grants, which were included in a bipartisan gun control law approved by then-President Joe Biden, don鈥檛 align with the Trump administration鈥檚 goals, according to sent to grant recipients Tuesday evening and obtained by 麻豆精品. Grantees include local school districts, state education agencies and colleges tasked with training some 14,000 mental health professionals and placing them in K-12 schools in virtually every state. 

鈥淭hose receiving these notices reflect the prior Administration鈥檚 priorities and policy preferences and conflict with those of the current administration,鈥� Murray Bessette, a senior advisor in the Education Department鈥檚 Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, wrote in the letter. Affected programs, Bessette wrote, 鈥渧iolate the letter or purpose鈥� of federal civil rights laws, run counter to the department鈥檚 priority on 鈥渆xcellence in education鈥� and 鈥渦ndermine the well-being of the students these programs are intended to help.鈥�

Proponents of the grant program said they were caught off guard by the move, especially since , have attributed the unprecedented surge in school shootings to a student mental health crisis.

鈥淓nding these mental health investments will hurt students and families and make our schools less safe,鈥� Mary Wall, who was the Education Department鈥檚 deputy assistant secretary for P-12 education during the Biden administration, told 麻豆精品. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not an exaggeration to say that mental health supports save lives.鈥�

An Education Department spokesperson confirmed it would not renew $1 billion in grants, a move that appears to impact the entirety of the largest-ever federal effort to train school mental health professionals included in the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The law also created the first significant federal gun control measures in decades, including background checks on firearm purchases for anyone younger than 21 years old. 

Spokesperson Madi Biedermann said in a statement the grants didn鈥檛 live up to their goal of improving schools鈥� mental health support services 鈥� and suggested the cuts were part of a broader Trump administration effort to derail programs that support diversity, equity and inclusion in education. 

鈥淯nder the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,鈥� Biedermann said. 

Biedermann鈥檚 statement echoed by conservative pundit Christoper Rufo, who turned to X this week to accuse the Biden administration of using the grants 鈥渢o advance left-wing racialism and discrimination.鈥� 

鈥淣o more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health,鈥� wrote Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Rufo didn鈥檛 immediately respond to a request for comment from 麻豆精品. 

Wall said the Education Department during the Biden administration 鈥渙ffered a voluntary competitive priority鈥� to applicants who worked to ensure mental health professionals reflected the school communities they serve, but rejected the idea that the grants were a DEI initiative. Instead of creating a plan to support students鈥� well-being, she said the Trump administration has sought to 鈥渞ob school districts who have made important groundwork to have clinical services available to children and interrupt them midstream.鈥�

鈥淲e in no way required any of this to be focused on race or gender or sexuality or anything,鈥� Wall said. 鈥淲e were deliberately looking to set these up to be long-lasting, high-impact programs, where we would get the maximum amount of benefit.鈥�

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who introduced the 2022 law, accused the Trump administration Thursday of killing the grant program “in order to fund a giant tax cut for the crazy wealthy.鈥�

鈥淚 thought we had a bipartisan consensus around trying to support kids with really serious traumas and mental illnesses with support services in our schools,鈥� Murphy said in a statement to 麻豆精品. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 not consensus on anything that helps people in this administration.鈥�

Lauren Levin, the chief advocacy officer at the nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise, said the cuts hinder students鈥� access to those services in schools that are already under-resourced. Though the has been long debated, student rates of depression, anxiety and loneliness. 

Nationally, there is an average of about , significantly lower than the 250-to-1 recommended by the American School Counselor Association. School psychologists are , with a national average of 1 for every 1,127 K-12 students, according to the American Psychological Association.  

鈥淎fter school shootings, we hear a lot of important conversations about the mental health needs and gaps in this country for youth,鈥� including from Republican lawmakers, Levin told 麻豆精品. 鈥淚n many of these cases with these grants, it means children who are currently receiving mental health services in schools are going to stop getting that help.鈥�

In the first few months of the Trump administration, several federal initiatives designed to prevent mass school shootings have faced a similar fate. A 26-person committee of violence prevention experts 鈥� also approved as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Axe 鈥� was gutted. 

Levin said Sandy Hook Promise, founded after the 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, has also begun to track cuts to grants authorized under the federal Trump approved that law in 2018 in response to the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which resulted in the deaths of 17 people. So far, Levin said they鈥檝e documented cuts to about a dozen grant recipients totaling nearly $20 million, including funding designed to help schools address social isolation among students and prevent bullying.  

鈥淥ne of the reasons that students or any of these shooters are not getting the help that they need is that we have a gap in access to mental health care,鈥� said Levin, who noted that schools are among the most consistent places for young people to get help. 

鈥淚f someone is showing signs of wanting to hurt themselves or others, if they are socially isolated, if we see changes in behavior and if there is a school counselor, that school can be their lifeline,鈥� Levin said. 鈥淭hat could make all the difference.鈥� 

It all began when school officials mistook a blurry image of a Mike and Ike candy for pills. 

Pennsylvania teenager Blake Robbins found himself  that gave rise to student privacy debates amid schools鈥� growing reliance on ed tech. 

Spy High, a four-part documentary series streaming now on Amazon Prime, puts the focus on a lawsuit filed in 2010 after Robbins’ affluent Pennsylvania school district accused him of dealing drugs 鈥� a conclusion officials reached after they surreptitiously snapped a photo of him at home with the chewy candy in hand. 

The moment had been captured on the webcam of his school-issued laptop 鈥� one of some 66,000 covert student images collected by the district, including one of Robbins asleep in his bed. 

I caught up with Spy High Director Jody McVeigh-Schultz to discuss why the 15-year-old case offers cautionary lessons about student surveillance gone awry and how it informs contemporary student privacy debates. 

How student surveillance plays out today: Meet the gatekeepers of students鈥� private lives. | 

In the news

Courts block DEI directive: Three federal courts ordered temporary halts on Thursday to Trump鈥檚 efforts to cancel student diversity initiatives 鈥� and demands for states to pledge allegiance to the administration鈥檚 interpretation of civil rights laws. | 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that called for school discipline models 鈥渞ooted in American values and traditional virtues,鈥� taking aim at Obama- and Biden-era efforts to reduce racial disparities in suspensions and expulsions. | 

鈥楾he history there is deeply, deeply disturbed鈥�: Disability-rights advocates have decried plans at the National Institutes of Health to compile Amerians鈥� private medical records in a 鈥渄isease registry鈥� to track children and other people with autism. | 

• Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., faced criticism for recent comments that many kids 鈥渨ere fully functional and regressed because of some environmental exposure into autism when they鈥檙e 2 years old.鈥� | 

A new lawsuit filed by students at military-run schools accuses the Defense Department of harming their learning opportunities by banning books related to 鈥済ender ideology鈥� or 鈥渄ivisive equity ideology,鈥� including texts that refer to slavery and sexual harassment prevention. | 

California lawmakers are demanding answers after Department of Homeland Security agents visited two Los Angeles elementary schools and asked to speak with five students who the federal agency said 鈥渁rrived unaccompanied at the border.鈥� | 

鈥榃e all deserve reparations鈥�: White House aide Stephen Miller said in an interview last week the country 鈥渦sed to have a functioning public school system鈥� until it was destroyed by 鈥渙pen borders.鈥� | 

The Justice Department seized thousands of photos and videos in an investigation of a former University of Michigan assistant football coach who was indicted on allegations he hacked into student athletes鈥� private accounts to steal intimate images. | 

A 48-year-old mother was arrested and accused of bringing a gun to her daughter鈥檚 Indiana elementary school and threatening the girl鈥檚 teacher over a classroom assignment about flags. While discussing flags, the teacher reportedly referred to a rainbow flag in the classroom with the words 鈥渂e kind.鈥� | 

Banning 鈥榝rontal nudity鈥�: A Texas school district has removed lessons on Virginia history from an online learning platform for elementary school students because the commonwealth鈥檚 flag depicts the Roman goddess Virtus with an exposed breast. | 

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next month to weigh Trump鈥檚 executive order eliminating birthright citizenship, bringing into question a 127-year-old court precedent. | 

A class-action lawsuit accuses tech giant Google of amassing 鈥渢housands of data points that span a child鈥檚 life鈥� without the consent of students or their parents. | 

A Florida teacher is out of a job after she called a student by their preferred name, allegedly violating a 2023 Florida law that requires schools to receive parental permission to refer to students by anything other than their legal names. | 

The vice president of the Buffalo, New York, chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse was arrested and accused of sex crimes against children. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

Don鈥檛 even think about touching Matilda鈥檚 cactus.

The lawsuit is one in a barrage of legal challenges that have emerged since the company announced in early 2025 it was the target of a December cyberattack that, , led to a global breach of some 62.4 million students鈥� and 9.5 million educators鈥� personal information. Though the company hasn鈥檛 acknowledged how many people were affected, exposed sensitive files Social Security numbers, special education records and detailed medical information.

The St. Croix Falls breach of contract, unjust enrichment and false advertising, which sets it apart from other class action lawsuits charging negligence against the education technology company whose cloud-based student information system dominates the K-12 market.

鈥淎t the end of the day, we believe that there were fraudulent misrepresentations made to the clients to induce them to go and be in these contracts with PowerSchool,鈥� attorney William Shinoff, whose firm represents the St. Croix Falls district, told 麻豆精品 in an interview.

PowerSchool spokesperson Beth Keebler said in a statement the company 鈥渁cted swiftly and effectively to protect our customers in compliance with the law.鈥�

鈥淧owerSchool believes the claims are without merit and will defend itself,鈥� Keebler said. 鈥淗owever, our focus as a business continues to be our customers, ensuring they have the information and support they need while informing them of the steps we have taken to set a higher standard in cybersecurity for the entire industry.鈥�

Students and parents nationwide have filed more than 30 federal class action lawsuits against PowerSchool in connection to the December breach. The lawsuits, which could soon be consolidated, collectively allege PowerSchool was negligent when it failed to protect sensitive data and opened victims to potential identity theft. 

But because these center on the data breach鈥檚 potential for future harms, legal experts said, the cases could be dismissed almost as quickly as they were filed. The lawsuit filed by St. Croix Falls schools, meanwhile, alleges PowerSchool broke contractual obligations to keep data secure 鈥� and failed to provide schools the services they were promised. 

鈥淎 cornerstone of the commercial relationship between鈥� the school district and the company was educators鈥� 鈥渞eliance on PowerSchool鈥檚 representation that it would adequately protect鈥� students鈥� and educators鈥� sensitive information, according to the complaint filed in federal district court in Sacramento. Instead, PowerSchool 鈥渉as done little to help鈥� the school district and people whose information was compromised. 

Courts nationwide could soon be flooded with similar complaints. Shinoff said his firm, the Frantz Law Group, plans to 鈥渇ile thousands鈥� of them on behalf of school districts across the country. The precise number of districts affected by the breach is unknown. 

鈥淲hat I can tell you is we鈥檝e already spoken to hundreds of districts,鈥� Shinoff said. 鈥淥ur hope is that they will all get involved in this to ensure that PowerSchool is held accountable, that they can ensure that this information moving forward is indeed protected, and to make sure they’re reimbursed these public dollars that were spent for their programs.鈥� 

Shinoff represents large groups of school districts in several recent high-profile lawsuits, including against Facebook鈥檚 and Instagram鈥檚 and the . The lawsuits alleging that the social media giant Meta exacerbated the youth mental health crisis involve nearly 1,000 districts, according to the firm. 

PowerSchool has the hacker used a compromised password belonging to 鈥渁n authorized support engineer鈥� to breach PowerSource, its customer support portal for school staff seeking help with its software tools. The PowerSource portal reportedly lacked multi-factor authentication, according to and other records obtained by NBC News. 

The full audit, , found its systems were breached in August 鈥� months earlier than previously disclosed 鈥� but couldn鈥檛 say for certain it was by the same threat actors. 

The company 鈥渇ailed to implement the bare minimum security measures that are commonly utilized by similarly situated companies,鈥� the complaint alleges. 鈥淪omething as simple as providing for a multi-factor authentication log-in method would have been easily accomplished and would have prevented the Data Breach altogether.鈥�

The that the Wisconsin district is accusing PowerSchool of breaching requires that the company employ multi-factor authentication and data encryption, standard industry security measures. Its reported failure to do so also made PowerSchool one of only a handful of companies to be removed from the Student Privacy Pledge, a self-regulatory effort designed to ensure education technology vendors are ethical stewards of the sensitive information they collect about children. The company was Feb 13.

In an earlier statement to 麻豆精品, Keebler, the PowerSchool spokesperson, said the company 鈥渉as and will continue to implement [multi-factor authentication] across all internal systems as part of its robust and ongoing security protocols.鈥澨�

鈥淧owerSchool is accessed by tens of thousands of customers, posing challenges to MFA management,鈥� the statement continued. 鈥淗owever, following the incident, PowerSchool has implemented additional hardening efforts, including MFA for any PowerSchool employee and contractor access to customer data on PowerSource.鈥� 

鈥楧evil and the deep blue sea鈥�

Despite PowerSchool鈥檚 promise to bolster security measures, its customer districts have lost confidence in the company, attorney Mark Williams, who is assisting school districts in filing suits against the company, told 麻豆精品. 

But because its student information system plays such a significant role in day-to-day operations 鈥� and contains so much information about students 鈥� he said that switching to a competitor could become a logistical nightmare. 

鈥淢any school districts are between the devil and the deep blue sea,鈥� Williams said. 鈥淢any of them don鈥檛 have confidence in PowerSchool to secure their data but they are very hesitant to change the vendor of their [student information system] because it is extraordinarily expensive and burdensome to do so.鈥� 

While the company may not be a household name 鈥� save for a flood of recent press following the breach 鈥� its student information system is one of the largest ed tech services in the U.S. with teachers nationwide using it every day to track grades, attendance and other performance metrics. 

The company claims its software is used to support the learning for 60 million students globally at more than 18,000 institutions, including 90 of America鈥檚 100 largest school districts. 

PowerSchool was by the Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital for $5.6 billion. The company, which also owns the college- and career-readiness platform , has acquired , such as Schoology and SchoolMessenger, in recent years, furthering its reach into the nation鈥檚 K-12 classrooms.

Williams is the author of the central to the Wisconsin district鈥檚 claims against PowerSchool. Created by the , a collaborative effort between school districts and technology vendors to keep students鈥� information secure, the agreement is used by school districts in more than half of states to ensure the tech companies they contract with 鈥� 鈥� follow stringent security practices. 

Among its provisions is a requirement for companies to notify school district customers within 72 hours of learning data was accessed or obtained by an unauthorized third-party like a hacker. 

PowerSchool was reportedly unaware it had fallen victim to the December attack until the hacker came forward with a ransom demand, according to NBC鈥檚 reporting. The company then paid the hacker an undisclosed sum to prevent the stolen records from being shared publicly, the outlet reported, and was given a video by the threat actor apparently deleting the stolen files in their possession. 

Through the agreements, PowerSchool also vowed to 鈥渁bide by and maintain adequate data security measures, consistent with industry standards鈥� for the storage of sensitive records. 

Williams accused the company of breaching those requirements 鈥� laying the groundwork for a first-of-its-kind legal battle for the data privacy consortium. 

鈥淲e just felt that at some point you have to police the process, at some point you have to draw a red line,鈥� Williams told 麻豆精品. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to protect the contract because it protects schools and it protects kids. So that鈥檚 not negotiable for us.鈥� 

Given the difficulty school districts face in migrating to different student information services, St. Croix Falls seeks a commitment from PowerSchool 鈥� and court-ordered accountability 鈥� to ensure the company follows stringent cybersecurity standards in the future, said Shinoff, its attorney.

鈥淎t this point their word, to us, can鈥檛 be trusted,鈥� Shinoff said. 鈥淔or them to have someone that they鈥檙e reporting to for a period of time is something that鈥檚 essential 鈥� especially when we鈥檙e dealing with thousands and thousands of districts across the country.鈥�

Data practices under a microscope

Prior to the data breach, PowerSchool positioned itself as a national leader in K-12 education data security 鈥� and its CEO appeared at a White House event in 2023 to boast of its efforts to keep students鈥� personal information out of the hands of malicious actors. 

As an early adopter of a to design products with security at the forefront, CEO Hardeep Gulati spoke alongside then-First Lady Jill Biden at the first-ever White House summit on K-12 school cybersecurity, where PowerSchool and other technology companies highlighted the need to strengthen digital safeguards at schools nationwide. 

Watch: PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati speaks at the first-ever White House summit on K-12 cybersecurity in 2023.

During the event, the company free webinars, training videos and other resources to help schools better secure their systems. 

In the year prior to the summit, Gulati said, the company successfully fended off 1 billion cyberattacks on its servers while ensuring schools were kept safe through a 鈥渞elentless investment and focus on every element of security.鈥� 

Now, the company has found itself under scrutiny by the tech industry, lawmakers and other elected officials. In North Carolina, state Attorney General Jeff Jackson into the PowerSchool breach, which exposed the sensitive information of nearly 4 million people in his state, 鈥渢o determine if they broke any laws.鈥�

The company is also facing bipartisan federal questioning. In , senators from New Hampshire, Indiana and Oklahoma blasted PowerSchool for maintaining inadequate cybersecurity measures and accused it of offering delayed notifications and insufficient information to affected individuals. 

鈥淪chool district leaders who we have spoken with raised serious concerns about delays in your company鈥檚 response to the cybersecurity incident, including delayed notifications to impacted schools,鈥� wrote Sens. Maggie Hassan, Jim Banks and James Lankford. Sufficient use of basic cybersecurity safeguards like multi-factor authentication, they wrote, could have prevented the breach. 

PowerSchool says it will provide two years of identity protection services to students and educators affected by the breach and credit monitoring services to 鈥渁dult students and educators.鈥� Keeber, the PowerSchool spokesperson, said in the statement the company has seen 鈥渘o evidence of fraud or further misuse of the information involved to date.鈥� 

But the senators wrote that PowerSchool 鈥渉as not clearly communicated a date by which impacted individuals will receive鈥� the services. 

鈥淵our delayed and unclear communication is unacceptable,鈥� the letter continued, 鈥渆specially given the sensitive nature of the personal data that was stolen.鈥�

Information PowerSchool takes is 鈥榲irtually unlimited鈥�

Even before the breach, PowerSchool has faced criticism for its data collection, use and security practices. In the last five years, it has been named as a defendant in numerous federal lawsuits related to its data collection and use practices, a review of federal court records shows.

They include complaints accusing the company of subjecting people to persistent and unsolicited robocalls and of failing to properly identify children experiencing homelessness.

One brought by a Seattle mother and former middle school teacher accuses the company of selling student data collected through Naviance and other services to more than 100 third-party 鈥減artners鈥� with inadequate consent from students or their parents. That lawsuit, filed in May 2024 in San Francisco, also alleges the company has leveraged the data it collects on students to train an AI chatbot. 

鈥淭he information PowerSchool takes from students is virtually unlimited,鈥� the complaint alleges. 鈥淚t includes everything from education records and behavioral history to health data and information about a child鈥檚 family circumstances. PowerSchool collects this highly sensitive information under the guise of educational support, but in fact collects it for its own commercial gain.鈥�

In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, PowerSchool鈥檚 attorneys claimed Cherkin鈥檚 complaint relied on 鈥渂road, general social critiques condemning surveillance capitalism, cybercrimes and manipulative digital product design, in an apparent attempt to mask that they cannot make specific allegations of wrongdoing by PowerSchool.鈥� 

Keebler, the company spokesperson, denied Cherkin鈥檚 claims that it sells data or uses personal data to train its chatbots. 

But Cherkin argues the vast amount of data PowerSchool collects and shares about millions of students have made it an attractive target for cybercriminals 鈥� and should have been a red flag all along. She compared Powerschool鈥檚 business model to that of social media companies that are built to amass and monetize user data. 

鈥淚鈥檓 truly not at all shocked that this happened,鈥� she said of the breach. 鈥淭he only way, really, to keep data safe is to not collect it and stockpile it in the first place.鈥�

As President Donald Trump reportedly mulls an executive order to eliminate the Education Department, the federal government鈥檚 role could shift from ensuring children have equal educational opportunities to making it easier to deport them. 

One closely watched avenue where that could happen is allowing immigration enforcement in schools. Trump last month barring federal agents from conducting raids in sensitive locations like churches, hospitals and schools. 

A protest Thursday against the administration targeting schools in its mass deportation pledge was sparked in part by claims that last month was precipitated by rampant classroom bullying, with the student鈥檚 peers claiming the Texas girl’s family was undocumented and would get deported.

鈥淭he presence of immigration enforcement in our classrooms will not make schools safer, it will actually do the opposite,鈥� Alejandra Gonzalez Rizo, an eighth-grade teacher in Washington, D.C., and a former DACA recipient, said during a Thursday press call organized by two advocacy groups, United We Dream Action and The Immigration Hub. 鈥淚t will create chaos and fear, forcing students and teachers to look over their shoulders instead of focusing on learning.鈥� 

The big picture: To date, I鈥檓 not aware of any cases during Trump鈥檚 second term where immigration officials carried out enforcement actions inside a school. Advocates warned of a greater fallout to come. 

• School police in Texas have opened an investigation into Jocelynn’s death. |
• Now you see it, now you don鈥檛: The Trump administration implemented 鈥� then walked back just days later 鈥� an order that sidelined a federal program that allows nonprofits to provide legal representation to undocumented children who are in the country without their parents. |
  • The young migrants, called unaccompanied minors, have become a central target in Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown. |
  • Prohibiting ICE activities at or near schools or bus stops 鈥渃ould significantly limit immigration enforcement in Denver,鈥� the Trump administration said in response to a lawsuit from the city鈥檚 school district seeking to prevent an end to the sensitive locations policy. |
  • In February, a federal judge blocked immigration officials from conducting raids and arrests at a handful of churches and places of worship that sued to halt the policy shift. Trump鈥檚 directive, the judge ordered, likely denied religious freedoms protected by the First Amendment. |

Emboldened states: Decades ago, the Supreme Court ruled that all children in the U.S. are entitled to a free public education regardless of their immigration status. Conservative state officials want that to change 鈥� with lawmakers in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Indiana and Texas introducing bills to bar undocumented kids from classrooms. |

The Pinellas County, Florida, police department has reportedly applied for a federal program that deputizes local officers with immigration enforcement powers. |

• On Thursday, Pinellas school officials said they would cooperate with ICE but would stop short of instructing its officers to work alongside federal immigration agents. |

Departing gifts: From soccer balls to handwritten letters, educators across the country have been giving heartfelt mementos to multilingual learners whose families have chosen to leave their schools and their homes rather than risk scrutiny from immigration agents. | 麻豆精品

In the news

R.I.P. ED? Trump is expected to sign an executive order as early as today calling for an end to the Department of Education, throwing into uncertainty an agency that enforces federal civil rights laws and distributes financial support to low-income schools and students with disabilities. But here鈥檚 the thing: The department was created by Congress 鈥� and bringing down a federal agency will take a lot more than a few scribbles on a piece of paper. |

Now you see it, now you don鈥檛 (again): The department appeared to walk back a controversial order that threatened to strip federal funding from schools with diversity, equity and inclusion policies. | 麻豆精品

• In response to the original order, some educators said they had no intention of playing along. In Long Beach, California, for example, school officials moved forward with plans to open the Center of Black Student Excellence despite federal pressure. | 麻豆精品
  
• In a lawsuit Wednesday, the ACLU and the nation鈥檚 largest teachers union alleged Trump鈥檚 anti-DEI order stifled educators鈥� free speech rights. |

In a first-in-the-nation move, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed a law that strips state anti-discrimination protections from transgender and nonbinary students. |

A lawsuit has accused a former security guard at a Milwaukee private school of secretly recording underage girls in a campus locker room. |

• More from Milwaukee: City officials approved a $1.6 million plan to station police officers in public schools 鈥� more than 400 days after a state law went into effect requiring cops on campuses. |

The Senate failed to pass legislation that sought to bar transgender students from participating in school athletics programs consistent with their gender identity. | 麻豆精品

Free from gun-free zones: A new Wyoming law has banned 鈥済un-free zones鈥� in schools and other public spaces. |

Kept in the Dark

For a recent investigation for 麻豆精品 and Wired, I fell down a dark web rabbit hole and chronicled more than 300 school cyberattacks in the last five years 鈥� and revealed the degree to which school leaders in virtually every state repeatedly provide false assurances to students, parents and staff about the security of their sensitive information. 

This week, I highlighted my investigation into a ransomware attack on the Providence, Rhode Island, school district 鈥� where educators denied a massive student data breach in plain sight. 

As a result of that 18-month-long investigation, I was interviewed last week on KARE 11, the NBC affiliate in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Public records I obtained from Minneapolis Public Schools uncovered sharp disparities in what district leaders told the FBI after a 2023 data breach and what it communicated to the public. You can watch the newscast .

ICYMI @The74

• To Make Ed Tech More Secure, Software Companies Need to Step Up
  
• AI Chatbots Can Cushion the High School Counselor Shortage 鈥� But Are They Bad for Students?
  
• 1st Confirmed Death in Texas Measles Outbreak Is Unvaccinated, School-Aged Child

Emotional support

Oh hey, springtime, is that you? 麻豆精品 editor Andrew Brownstein鈥檚 pup Sagan is already out in the yard waiting for longer, warmer days. 

The shooter, who was identified as Solomon Henderson, 17, shot two students in the cafeteria at 11:09 a.m. before killing himself, according to police. Josselin Corea Escalante, 16, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. The other, a male, suffered a grazing wound.

Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Adrienne Battle released a statement Wednesday evening saying:听鈥淭his is a heartbreaking day for the entire Antioch High School community and all of us in Nashville Public Schools. My heart goes out to the families of our students as they face unimaginable loss. I want to thank the school staff who quickly and heroically followed emergency protocols, potentially preventing further harm, as well as the Metro Nashville Police Department and Nashville Fire Department for their swift and urgent response.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for 麻豆精品 Newsletter

鈥淲hile we have been focused on addressing the immediate situation, we are committed to understanding how and why this happened and what more we can do to prevent such tragedies in the future. It鈥檚 important to remember that our schools have historically been safe places for learning, friendship, and growth. We cannot allow this tragedy to overshadow the positive experiences of our 80,000 students.鈥�

Antioch High School will be closed for the rest of the week to give students time to grieve, Battle said, and grief counseling will be provided there and at other schools, which will remain open.

鈥淲e are committed to supporting Antioch High School鈥檚 students, staff, and families in the days and weeks ahead. I am grateful for the support of our Nashville community as we navigate this difficult time together,鈥� she said.

The shooting comes almost two years after three 9-year-old students and three staff members were shot to death at in Nashville before police intervened and killed the shooter.

It also comes just three months after a killed a 24-year-old man, and injured six adults and three teenagers.

Wednesday鈥檚 shooting drew renewed grief from lawmakers, along with some pleas for 鈥渃ommon sense gun safety solutions.鈥�

鈥淎s a mother and a representative of this community, I grieve with the families, students, and staff who are enduring this unimaginable tragedy,鈥� said Sen. Charlane Oliver, a Nashville Democrat who represents the Antioch area in the state legislature, in a statement. 鈥淢y heart goes out to the victims who were shot, their loved ones, and everyone impacted by this horrific act of violence. No child should ever feel unsafe in their school, and no family should face the anguish of such a senseless loss.鈥�

Other elected officials took to social media following the shooting.

Gov. Bill Lee said 鈥渉e was praying for the victims, their families and the school community.鈥�

State Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, called for the legislature to 鈥渟tart doing the work needed to keep kids safe.鈥�

鈥淗igh school kids really ought to be able to go to the cafeteria without fear of being shot,鈥� Yarbro said.

Nashville State Rep. John Ray Clemmons, the state House Democratic Caucus chair, echoed Yarbro鈥檚 sentiments.

鈥淲e will continue to fight for common sense gun safety solutions that protect our children and communities from gun violence,鈥� Clemmons wrote.

Antioch High School serves about 2,200 students speaking 41 languages, and offers STEM programs and an international baccalaureate curriculum. School buses have taken students to be reunified with parents at Ascension St. Thomas Hospital, 3754 Murfreesboro Rd.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

(Cassandra Stephenson and Adam Friedman contributed to this story.)

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

When a broad group of parents, educators and activists met in late October at a government office building in Arlington, Virginia, they gathered around a shared goal: Make America鈥檚 schools safer. 

There, three parents whose children were killed in mass school shootings sought to bolster student mental health and crisis intervention services. Some advocates favored increased school policing and physical security while others sought to limit how those hardening measures can harm children鈥檚 civil rights. Each was there as a check on recommendations being made by the federal government.

But membership on the 26-person committee, which was created through the 鈥� passed in the wake of mass shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket 鈥� was short-lived. On Monday, the first day of President Donald Trump鈥檚 second term, all members were terminated. For members of the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse External Advisory Board, the October gathering was the group鈥檚 first time meeting 鈥� and also its last. 

A letter signed by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman and obtained by 麻豆精品 said the decision was part of a wider effort to ensure the agency鈥檚 鈥渁ctivities prioritize our national security.鈥� 

鈥淔uture committee activities will be focused on advancing our critical mission to protect the homeland and support DHS鈥檚 strategic priorities,鈥� Huffman wrote in the letter. 鈥淭o outgoing advisory board members, you are welcome to reapply, thank you for your service.鈥�

In an email to 麻豆精品, a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security said the agency 鈥渨ill no longer tolerate any advisory committee which push[es] agendas that attempt to undermine its national security mission, the President鈥檚 agenda or Constitutional rights of Americans.鈥� The official did not elaborate on how the committees may be undermining the new administration’s mission. But Trump and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, the president鈥檚 pick for homeland security secretary, have made clear their priorities for DHS are and to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which steers the school safety clearinghouse. 

In fact, DHS this week to eliminate what it deemed as 鈥渢he misuse of resources,鈥� including those focused on emergency preparedness and cybersecurity. The move comes as schools and nationwide face .

But school safety committee members who spoke with 麻豆精品 said the group included experts from diverse perspectives 鈥� all focused on ensuring the effectiveness of a federal school safety initiative created during Trump鈥檚 first term. While the advisory board was created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a sweeping $1.4 billion law that includes stricter gun control measures and violence prevention programs, its purpose was to provide expertise and best practices to the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse. The clearinghouse is an interagency effort the to improve national school safety efforts. It includes the creation of SchoolSafety.gov, a 鈥渙ne-stop shop鈥� of resources for school leaders looking to foster safer campuses. 

New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, accused the Trump administration of violating the law, stating during a Jan. 26 news conference that the president “should not bow down to the NRA.”

In a press release the following day, Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, similarly criticized the move.

“President Trump doesn’t care about keeping our kids safe from gun violence,” Murphy said. “President Trump should reinstate these members immediately and stop playing politics with our children’s safety.”

Among those who advocated for the committee鈥檚 creation 鈥� and were ultimately dismissed from it last week 鈥� are airline pilot Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was killed in 2018 during the mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Montalto is now president of the nonprofit which was created by the parents of the Florida shooting to advance bipartisan campus security efforts. 

In an interview with 麻豆精品 on Wednesday, Montalto said he is 鈥渄isappointed that the members have been dismissed,鈥� and hopes to serve again on the board, which is congressionally mandated. 

鈥淭oo often the government gets involved in 鈥榞overnment speak鈥�, and we wanted to bring this external advisory board to life so that real people from outside of government could come together and have input into the process of keeping students and teachers safe at school,鈥� Montalto said. He said the board members, which were appointed during the Biden administration, represented a 鈥渂road cross-section鈥� of experts and opinions with a shared interest in student and teacher safety. 

School shootings in the U.S. have surged to record highs in the last several years, including an Wednesday that led to the deaths of two students, including the alleged gunman. The video streaming platform Kick acknowledged Wednesday evening the shooter had .

Chad Marlow, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union who served on the advisory board until this week, said the varied and wide-ranging viewpoints among members stood out most during their first meeting in October. 

鈥淭here was really an effort to get as many perspectives as possible into the room, and I don鈥檛 think there was any preconceived notion on where we were going,鈥� Marlow said. 鈥淲e were not given any instructions, like 鈥榃e would like to see you do X.鈥欌�� 

During the day-long session, he said, committee members were divided into three groups to discuss improvements to federal school safety grants and to analyze various security interventions like school-based policing. 

Marlow said it鈥檚 possible that the Trump administration could appoint new board members who are not in lockstep but fears the shakeup could eliminate experts whose viewpoints don鈥檛 align with those of the Trump administration and 鈥渉andcuff the quality鈥� of the group鈥檚 work. 

鈥淚 hope it鈥檚 not the latter because, at the end of the day, we should be focused on doing the best for keeping our kids safe 鈥� or, in the language they鈥檙e using, protecting the homeland,鈥� Marlow said. 

Still, Marlow said he plans to reapply for his seat. So, too, does Montalto, who said the Clearinghouse first created by Trump is 鈥渁ctually one of the most efficient programs in the government鈥� with four agencies coming together to provide resources designed to keep students safe. 

Important, too, are the voices of parents who鈥檝e experienced tragedy firsthand. 

鈥淎nybody who has suffered that loss can drive home the point of how important school safety is,鈥� Montalto said. 鈥淚t’s a nonpartisan issue, we just need to come together as an American family and try to make a difference.鈥�

If so, your sensitive data 鈥� like Social听Security听numbers and medical records 鈥斕�. Their target was education technology behemoth PowerSchool, which provides a centralized system for reams of student data to damn near every听school听in America.

Given the cyberattack鈥檚 high stakes and its potential to harm millions of current and former students, I teamed up Wednesday with Doug Levin of the  to moderate a timely webinar about what happened, who was affected 鈥� and the steps school districts must take to keep their communities safe.

Concern about the PowerSchool breach is clearly high: Some 600 people tuned into the live event at one point and pummeled Levin and panelists Wesley Lombardo, technology director at Tennessee’s Maryville City Schools; Mark Racine, co-founder of RootED Solutions; and Amelia Vance, president of the Public Interest Privacy Center, with questions. 

PowerSchool declined our invitation to participate but sent a statement, saying it is 鈥渨orking to complete our investigation of the incident and [is] coordinating with districts and schools to provide more information and resources (including credit monitoring or identity protection services if applicable) as it becomes available.鈥�

The individual or group who hacked the ed tech giant has yet to be publicly identified.

Asked and answered: Why has the company鈥檚 security safeguards faced widespread scrutiny? What steps should parents take to keep their kids鈥� data secure? Will anyone be held accountable?

In the news

Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, who says undocumented immigrants have placed 鈥渟evere financial and operational strain鈥� on schools in his state, proposed rules requiring parents to show proof of citizenship or legal immigration status when enrolling their kids 鈥� a proposal that not only violates federal law, but is likely to keep some parents from sending their children to school. | 

• Not playing along: Leaders of the state鈥檚 two largest school districts 鈥� Oklahoma City and Tulsa 鈥� rebuked the proposal and said they would not collect students鈥� immigration information. Educators nationwide fear the incoming Trump administration could carry out arrests on campuses. | 
   
• Walters filed a $474 million federal lawsuit this week alleging immigration enforcement officials mismanaged the U.S.-Mexico border, leading to 鈥渟kyrocketing costs鈥� for Oklahoma schools required 鈥渢o accommodate an influx of non-citizen students.鈥� | 
   
• Timely resource guide: With ramped-up immigration enforcement on the horizon 鈥� and with many schools already sharing student information with ICE 鈥� here are the steps school administrators must take to comply with longstanding privacy and civil rights laws. | 

A federal judge in Kentucky struck down the Biden administration鈥檚 Title IX rules that enshrined civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students in schools, siding with several conservative state attorneys general who argued that harassment of transgender students based on their gender identity doesn鈥檛 constitute sex discrimination. 

Fires throw L.A. schools into chaos: As fatal wildfires rage in California, the students and families of America鈥檚 second-largest school district have had their lives thrown into disarray. Schools serving thousands of students were badly damaged or destroyed. Many children have lost their homes. Hundreds of kids whose schools burned down returned to makeshift classrooms Wednesday after losing 鈥渢heir whole lifestyle in a matter of hours.鈥� |  

• At least seven public schools in Los Angeles that were destroyed, damaged or threatened by flames will remain closed, along with campuses in other districts. | 

Has TikTok鈥檚 time run out? With a national ban looming for the popular social media app, many teens say they鈥檙e ready to move on (and have already flocked to a replacement). | 

Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta restricted LGBTQ+-related content from teens鈥� accounts for months under its so-called sensitive content policy until the effort was exposed by journalist Taylor Lorenz. | 

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday announced the participants in a $200 million pilot program to help听schools听and libraries bolster their cybersecurity defenses. They include 645听schools听and districts and 50 libraries. |听

Scholastic falls to 鈥渇urry鈥� hackers:听The education and publishing giant that brought us Harry Potter has fallen victim to a cyberattacker, who reportedly stole the records of some 8 million people. In an added twist, the culprit gave a shout-out to 鈥渢he puppygirl hacker polycule,鈥� an apparent reference to a hacker dating group interested in human-like animal characters. |听

• Dig deeper: Here鈥檚 how AI is being used by cybercriminals to rob schools. |  

Not just in New Jersey:听In a new survey, nearly a quarter of teachers said their听schools听are patrolled by drones and a third said their听schools听have surveillance cameras with facial recognition capabilities. |听

The number of teens abstaining from drugs, alcohol and tobacco use has hit record highs, with experts calling the latest data unprecedented and unexpected. | 

ICYMI @The74

Emotional Support

New pup just dropped.

Meet Woodford, who, at just 9 weeks, has already aged like a fine bourbon. I鈥檓 told that Woody 鈥� and the duck, obviously 鈥� have come under the good care of 74 reporter Linda Jacobson鈥檚 daughter.