Follow AAE on:

Subscribe to RSS Feed:

Weekly News Round-Up for August 30th
posted by: Melissa | August 30, 2019, 04:42 PM   

Each week, AAE brings its members a round-up of what’s happening in education. From big, eye-catching headlines to the stories most papers overlook, we find the news our members really want to see. This weeks: school safety, skimpy lunches, strikes, and more!


Safety Efforts Changing Our Schools: School safety remains a top issue for parents going into the new school year, with educators attempting to assuage that fear including Texas Governor Greg Abbot. In some cases, schools and districts are taking extreme steps to protect students, including drills, lock downs, new technology, and hardened buildings. Just this week, Louisiana announced a new panic button app for K-12 schools which was designed to aid quicker response times in emergencies. Not everyone is happy with the direction schools are going. Florida’s new student tracking database in particular is drawing criticism. In the midst of all this, there’s still an abundance of threats, not all of them real and parents aren’t always sure how to respond. For example, the news of a potential threat in Arkansas led to panic despite it being ultimately false.


Short Lunchtimes Leave Students Hungry: A recent national survey has revealed that 20% of public schools are giving students less than 20 minutes to eat lunch. This includes the time that students spend in line waiting for food and has led to incidents where students were still waiting for food when their lunch period ended. This problem is more exaggerated in some parts of the country than in others. In Washington, for example at least some students lack enough time to eat in a majority of schools, despite what the school puts on paper. Giving students more time to eat may improve student’s eating choices.


Strikes Called Off when Demands Met: Teachers and school districts across the county reached agreements to end or forgo strikes this week. In Clark County, Nevada, union and district officials had been at an impasse for several weeks over contract disputes, leaving the union threatening a strike and district administrators looking to the legal system for help. The dispute ended on Wednesday, when the district announced that it would agree to the union’s demands. In Kennewick, Washington, the strike started before the school year and delayed the first day of school, leaving parents frustrated with the situation. The two sides have reached a tentative agreement which would make the district’s teachers the highest paid in the region. The Seattle Education Association also announced a deal that would prevent them from going on strike, although the details were not clear.


Happening Elsewhere:

Here’s How Much Economists Say One Good Public School Teacher Is Worth

2 Indiana online schools in enrollment dispute lose charters

High school students say about 20% of their peers are vaping, some as young as 8th grade

Study: For first time in 30 years, high school sports participation is down

It’s electric: Virginia’s yellow school buses going green

Speakers press for local control over Little Rock schools; ‘You flunk,’ Judge Griffen tells members of state board

Boy consoles classmate with autism on first day of school

Bus safety rules stressed as schools go back in session

As charter schools multiply, teachers at traditional public schools have a choice — stay or go?

U.S. to states: School lunch changes none of your business

Has your child’s information been compromised? Data breach hits schools in CNY, nationwide

Back to school, without a teacher: Inside the struggle to keep teachers at rural schools

Teaching America’s truth

Delaying School Start Times Not Only Improves Health, But Also Reduces Crime, Study Finds

Hackers target smaller, less protected schools as school year begins

Many kids take a passion for the planet back to school

Governor, lawmakers agree on new controls on California charter schools

Texas banned out-of-school suspensions for most young children. 4,500 kids were suspended anyway.

Gov. Kim Reynolds won’t push change to Aug. 23 school start date law

Mom’s ‘before and after’ pics after daughter’s first day of school go viral


What’s going on where you are?

Share below!


Comments (0)Add Comment

Submit a comment
 (not published)
smaller | bigger

security code
Write the displayed characters


busy