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17th January 2025
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THE HOT STORY
Restraint and seclusion harmful to students, warns Education Secretary
Outgoing U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has told state and local K-12 and early education leaders that the use of restraint and seclusion to address behavior issues is harmful to children, and that schools should instead use proactive practices such as multi-tiered systems of support, which individualize interventions based on students’ needs. According to the most recent available federal data, about 52,800 public school students were physically restrained, mechanically restrained, or placed in seclusion at schools during the 2020-21 school year. “The rejection of seclusion and the shift away from reliance on restraint in our Nation’s schools and early childhood programs is long overdue,” Cardona said. “We must equip educators and early childhood providers with the positive, proactive, and evidence-based tools and resources to meet the needs of all students.” He also promoted creating early education and school programs that foster inclusion, safety and belonging. 
IMPACTFUL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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SOCIAL & COMMUNITY
Inauguration 'has a lot to teach students'
Emma Humphries, chief education officer at civics education advocacy group iCivics, tells Chalkbeat in an interview that teaching students about the presidential inauguration provides opportunities to raise a number if important issues for discussion. She said teachers who refrain from engaging with the topic are "... missing out on what should be sort of a shared national event. I think it’s sad when kids aren’t being brought to the table for those things.” According to Humphries, avoiding the subject with students is "... not teaching them how to engage across differences, to understand how the other side might view things, how to understand that two things can be true at once, in terms of your beliefs and someone else’s beliefs."
FINANCE
COVID aid partly spent on curriculum and buildings, report claims
A new federal report has concluded that a number of school districts used  their share of $129bn in federal aid issued during the pandemic to fix aging infrastructure, outdated textbooks and other issues they previously could not afford to. It found that 1 out of every 10 COVID relief dollars in 2022-23 was spent on a school building, six times more than what was spent on tutoring. Adam Schott, principal deputy assistant secretary in the Education Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, remarked: “There are certainly difficult decisions that are going to get made after $130bn is fully invested. We are just not seeing the type of fiscal cliff that we saw 10, 12, 15 years ago.”
Pandemic-related expenses to see DPSCD reimbursed over $70m
Detroit Public Schools Community District is to be reimbursed over $70m in COVID-19 costs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), along with the Michigan State Police and the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division have announced. Tom Sivak, a FEMA Region 5 Regional administrator stated: "FEMA’s Public Assistance Program remains an important resource for communities recovering after the outbreak of COVID-19. This grant funding supports the work done by the Detroit Public School system to keep kids safe and continue the critical services that they provided to so many Detroit families during the pandemic." Col. James F. Grady II, director of the Michigan State Police, noted that the school district had implemented a number of measures to safeguard students during the crisis.
TECHNOLOGY
Teaching parents digital skills to help children
Education Week examines the role of schools in improving parents’ digital skills, citing a report released Jan. 14 by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) which found that a majority of parents would like to be able to help their children with online class assignments and address social media and misinformation on the internet. Just 51% of parents said they felt “very comfortable” managing passwords and access to online learning sites for their children. Ji Soo Song, director of projects and initiatives at SETDA, commented: “Districts are facing a lot of demands when it comes to policy and practice and guidance with emerging issues like the cellphone ban [questions], digital citizenship, media literacy, and AI. They’re facing those demands, but they don’t have the internal capacity to be able to handle them.” He noted that: “Schools, as stretched as they are, can’t just be the sole institution that teaches these skills. There needs to be a communitywide approach.”
LEGISLATION
Indiana teachers could see pay boost
On Wednesday, Indiana senators discussed a significant proposal aimed at enhancing teacher support through Senate Bill 146. This bill would introduce paid parental leave for teachers for the first time, granting 20 days of leave for various family-related events, including childbirth and adoption. Currently, teachers can only access unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. The bill, authored by Republican Sen. Linda Rogers, also proposes raising the minimum salary for teachers from $40,000 to $45,000. Secretary of Education Katie Jenner noted that nearly 25% of Indiana's school districts already provide some form of paid leave. If passed, this legislation could make Indiana more appealing to both current and prospective educators.
New California bill threatens transgender athletes
On the first day of California's legislative session, Assemblymember Kate Sanchez introduced the Protect Girls' Sports Act, aiming to ban transgender high school students from competing on girls' teams. Sanchez argued that “young women who have spent years training... are now being forced to compete against individuals with undeniable biological advantages.” Despite its introduction, the bill is expected to fail in a Democratic-controlled legislature. Critics, including Assemblymember Chris Ward, labeled it a political stunt, emphasizing that it targets a vulnerable population. The Williams Institute estimates that only about 1.4% of American teenagers identify as transgender, with even fewer participating in sports. The bill has ignited discussions on the rights of transgender youth, with contrasting proposals like the Transgender Privacy Act introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, aimed at protecting transgender individuals from discrimination.
WORKFORCE
NEA dues income rises as membership continues to fall
The largest teachers union in the country, the National Education Association had 2.5m working members in the 2023-24 school year as it continues to lose members. A decline of 12,558 from the previous year was similar to the decline seen from 2022 to 2023, but the end of the 2021-22 school year saw a decrease of 40,107 working members, and 82,000 the year before that. However the falling numbers have not affected the NEA’s dues income, which has increased over the same period, with the organization receiving the most dues it had collected in at least a decade last year at $381.4m, up from $374.2m a year earlier.
STUDENTS
Social-emotional skills strengthened by the arts
Researchers from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, George Mason University and City University of New York have found that students’ empathy and other social-emotional skills can be boosted by live theater. The authors of a study on the subject wrote: “Several significant findings suggest that when paired with educational pre- and post-show experiences, students’ social perspective taking and empathy can be positively impacted through a single live theater performance.” This follows a recent study published in October in the BMC Medical Education journal which found that 35% of Portuguese students surveyed were actively involved in arts expression, typically scoring higher in empathy. 
TEACHING
Tutoring research finds virtual can be almost as good as traditional
Two studies from Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Research and Reform in Education have found that intense in-person tutoring is most effective results, but that when implemented with the same safeguards as traditional tutoring, virtual tutoring can provide an acceptable alternative. Amanda Neitzel, an assistant professor at Hopkins and the research center’s deputy director commented: “I was always one of those people who was so skeptical - 'it’s never going to work'. And then I did these studies, and I was shocked, because it did work.” Researchers saw no difference between virtual and in-person instruction for English language learners or those with special needs, while first-graders were found to have benefited most.
NUTRITION
New report raises concerns over school meal programs
The majority of school nutrition directors continue to have serious or moderate concerns over school meal programs' financial sustainability, according to a new School Nutrition Association report. SNA President Shannon Gleave remarked: "For less than the average price of a latte, school nutrition professionals are expected to prepare and serve a nutritionally balanced lunch, complete with fruits, vegetables, lean protein and milk.” She noted that “Underfunded school meal programs need additional support from Congress to maintain meal quality, meet additional nutrition standards and ensure access for students in need.”
SPORT
Title IX complicates athlete NIL payments
The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance indicating that colleges paying athletes directly for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals could violate Title IX. The nine-page memo states that NIL compensation should be treated like athletic financial aid, meaning it must be distributed proportionately to male and female athletes. This guidance could disrupt plans for many schools, as the House settlement allows universities to pay athletes directly under a revenue-sharing plan. NCAA board chair Linda Livingstone acknowledged the need to assess the implications of this guidance, while David Ridpath, former president of the Drake Group, remarked, “There was always a question of how Title IX applies to NIL. Now there is just more guidance.” The memo also raises concerns about potential disparities created by third-party NIL agreements.

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