LOS ANGELES — The FBI is serving search warrants at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s headquarters and the superintendent’s home.
Federal officials in Los Angeles were serving the warrants Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the probe. The nature of the investigation and what allegations were being examined was not immediately clear.
The district and the superintendent’s office did not immediately respond to emails and a voicemail requesting comment.
TV news footage showed agents in FBI shirts and jackets outside Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s modest home in the San Pedro neighborhood about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of downtown LA. There was no visible sign of agents outside the district headquarters as of mid-morning.
The sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District is the nation’s second largest, with more than 500,000 students and covering more than two dozen cities.
Carvalho has been its superintendent since February 2022. Before coming to Los Angeles, Carvalho oversaw Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, from 2008 to 2021, when he was credited with improving graduation rates and academic performance.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Interested in starting a business, learning about artificial intelligence or exploring a new hobby? There’s a class for that.
Millions of U.S. adults enroll in credit and non-credit college courses to earn professional certificates, learn new skills or to pursue academic degrees. Some older students are seeking career advancement, higher pay and job security, while others want to explore their personal interests or try new things.
“They might have kids, they might be working full-time, they might be older non-traditional students,” said Eric Deschamps, the director of continuing education at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. But returning to school “opens doors to education for students that might not have those doors open to them otherwise.”
Older students, many of whom bring years of work and life experience to their studies, often are juggling courses with full-time jobs, caregiving and other family responsibilities. It is a challenging balancing act but can also sharpen priorities and provide a sense of fulfillment.
Here’s what experts have to say about returning to school, what to consider beforehand and how to balance coursework with work and personal commitments.
UCLA Extension, the continuing education division of the University of California, Los Angeles, offers more than 90 certificate and specialization programs, from interior design, early childhood education and accounting to photography, paralegal studies and music production. Individual courses cover a wide range of topics, including retirement planning, writing novels, the business of athletes and artists, and the ancient Japanese art of ikebana, or flower arranging.
About 33,500 students — nearly half of them older than 35 — were enrolled during the last academic year. UCLA reported a full-time enrollment of about 32,600 degree-seeking undergraduate students during the same period.
“I prefer calling our (adult) learners not only continuous, but the new majority student. These are learners who tend to already be employed, often supporting a family, looking for up-skilling or sometimes a career change,” Traci Fordham, UCLA’s interim associate dean for academic programs and learning innovation, said.
Higher education experts say some adults take classes for professional development as economic concerns, technological advances and other workforce changes create a sense of job insecurity.
“A great example of that is artificial intelligence. These new technologies are coming out pretty quickly and for folks that got a degree, even just 5 or 10 years ago, their knowledge might be a little bit outdated,” Deschamps said.
Adults interested in becoming students again may want to assess their time and budgets, and weigh the potential benefits and consequences, including the financial impact, the potential for burnout and rewards of education that may take a while materialize, academic advisors say.
Deschamps suggests asking where you want to be in 5 or 10 years and how the training and knowledge received through an additional class or certificate can help get you there. For example, if you want to start a microbrewery, learning to brew your own beer or launching a business will help. If a promotion or career change is the goal, training for a new job, refreshing skills or understanding a different industry may help show you are qualified.
Schools like UCLA and Northern Arizona University are working to make continuing education courses accessible by keeping the cost low in comparison to degree-track classes and offering financial assistance. A variety of learning environments usually are offered — in-person and online classes, accelerated and self-paced instruction — to help adults integrate schoolwork with their home and work lives.
Katie Swavely, assistant director for academic advising and student success at UCLA, started at community college before transferring to UCLA to study anthropology. She said it took her 10 years after graduating to go back for her master’s degree in counseling with a focus on academic advising. Swavely completed that degree in 2020 and credits access to the program through employer-sponsored tuition assistance from her job at the time.
“I felt like in so many ways I didn’t really know who I was or what I wanted to do other than just pay the bills and survive,” said Swavely, who is married and has two children. “It was hard. And I thought about quitting many times. We had to budget to the extreme and find additional ways to make it work.”
She added: “There are questions of how are we going to make it work and do we have the money. As a parent, sacrifices are there all the time. You make those judgment calls every day. But making sure that you’re investing in yourself. There’s always gonna be reasons why it’s not today, not this month, not this year, but it’s also OK to just jump in and go for it and see how it works out.”
As an avid book lover, Swavely now wants to take a book editing course and hopes to continue her education and enroll in that through the university soon.
Some experts say one of the main barriers to returning to school is psychological. There might be concerns that their writing skills are rusty and that they don’t know enough math or technology, bringing up feelings of uncertainty or failure.
“I think this is tied to access. Many of our learners, not all of them, haven’t imagined themselves in any kind of higher education, post-secondary education environment,” Fordham said.
Swavely said it was important for her to build a support network and take advantage of the counseling and advising options that were available to her as a student.
She encourages adults who are furthering their educations to spend time “finding your community.” Having people around who helped build up her confidence at home and during classes got her through graduate school, Swavely said. She also suggests setting boundaries and giving yourself grace when you need need help.
“The biggest piece of advice is for people to realize you’re never too old to learn,” she said.
Deanna Betterman chuckled at the simple notion of her kids spending extended time away from a wrestling mat.
“What’s the offseason schedule like?” the Sand Creek High wrestling coach was asked Friday morning, as the mats at Ball Arena began to bustle again.
“There is no offseason,” Betterman said.
This weekend, three wrestlers from Sand Creek High, a public school in Colorado Springs, advanced to or beyond the girls’ 4A semifinals of the Colorado state wrestling championships at Ball. All three wrestle for a girls’ program in its very first season of existence. All three, improbably, are freshmen: Peggy Dean (100 pounds), Stella Isensee (105 pounds), and Karris Carter (130 pounds). All three came by way of the Betterman Elite Wrestling Club, a youth academy in Colorado Springs run by Betterman’s husband Joe, a former Team USA wrestler.
Sand Creek wrestlers only actually attend classes in person on Monday and Wednesday during the school year, Betterman said. On Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, they arrive at the Betterman Elite gym at 8 a.m., practice from 9-11, shower, eat lunch, do online classes, and then have a second training session at 4:30 p.m. They take roughly one month off from this schedule in August. Last spring, the academy sent Dean and others — then in eighth grade — to Tallin, Estonia, for the largest wrestling tournament in Europe.
Dean won a gold medal.
“When we’re looking at the big goals, we’re looking at the Olympics for Peggy Dean, Karris Carter, all those girls,” Betterman said. “So these are just little stepping stones we’re hitting. We don’t put a lot of pressure on winning state titles and these little things.
“Those little things just happen, when you have those high expectations, and those high goals.”
Peggy Dean of Sand Creek works a takedown on Lilly Lundy of Lewis-Palmer during their Colorado State Wrestling Championships semifinal match at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. Dean won by way of a 15-0 technical fall. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Youth movement
Sand Creek’s triumvirate of prodigies is just a microcosm, truly, of a wide array of younger contenders at the 2026 state wrestling championships this weekend. Eleven different freshmen wrestlers advanced to the semifinals at Ball Arena in the 5A boys’ and girls’ brackets alone.
It’s indicative of a larger trend in Colorado and beyond. To be a powerhouse wrestling program, schools “have to have a feeder program,” as Betterman said — a youth club in the area that can pipe in young talent ready to reach a state stage from Day 1.
“Back in my day, it was the local tournaments,” said 37-year-old Pueblo East head coach Tyler Lundquist. “Now the guys are in bigger buildings than this from 5 years old, until they’re in high school. So the show’s not too big for them, most of these guys.”
Take Air Academy freshman Dylan Saba, a young man whose father wrestled and whose mother, Hillary Wolf Saba, was a two-time Olympian and whose brother Michael is committed to NC State for wrestling. Earlier this season, as Air Academy coach Brandon Lucero recounted, Saba was matched up with reigning 4A 106-pound state champion Tristan Pino, of the Sand Creek High boys’ team.
“This is a normal match for me,” Saba told Lucero, as Lucero recalled. “This is normal.”
Saba, Lucero said, pinned Pino in the second period of the match.
“I take every guy the same. Doesn’t matter … I just trust myself, and I know I’m good enough to beat, I think, anyone in the country,” Saba said Friday.
Dylan Saba of Air Academy (right) celebrates as time expires against Tristan Pino of Sand Creek during their Colorado State Wrestling Championships semifinal match at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. Saba won by way of an 8-2 decision. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
This extended to state, where Saba has been cutting down from 126 pounds to 120 pounds in preparation since January. This was not a strategy to avoid a more difficult matchup; instead, Saba and Lucero were running directly towards two-time state champion Drake VomBaur of Severance. The goal? Try and beat the toughest possible draw to set Saba up to four-peat at state championships throughout his high school career, a feat only accomplished by 34 wrestlers in Colorado prep history.
“If we get this one, I think he’s going to be pretty tough to stop,” Lucero said. “Which is why we kinda hit the toughest kid (in VomBaur), I could say, could be pound-for-pound in the tournament — to go kinda push that and see if we could do it.”
Saba has a wrestling mat in his basement, and started when he was 4. He is a unicorn at Air Academy, which does not have a traditional feeder youth club. It’s “tough,” as coach Lucero said, to compete with programs in Colorado that do. So from August until November, Lucero drove his wrestlers every day, 45 minutes up I-25 to train at Black Fox Academy, which feeds talent to 5A powerhouse Ponderosa High School.
‘There is no offseason’
It’s become impossible to become a wrestling power in Colorado and beyond, Lucero said, if programs don’t train year-round. Especially if they don’t have a relationship with a youth club.
“It’s making me old fast,” Lucero said. “It’s taken a lot of life out of me, because you’ve gotta turn around really fast, and get kids good quickly.”
At Pueblo East — the favorite in the boys’ 4A bracket — Lundquist holds sessions four days a week in all seasons of the year. They will practice again on Monday, just two days after the state finals. This is a race for advancement, and a race to keep up. And Lundquist has a self-described “blue-chip” talent in freshman Uriah Duran, whose father runs one of the “bigger youth clubs in Pueblo,” Lundquist said.
Duran advanced to the boys’ 4A 113-pound finals after beating Severance sophomore Tatum Garcia 10-0 by major decision Saturday. The freshman is an instinctual wrestler, Lundquist said, who doesn’t need much coaching beyond managing clock and cautions.
“It’s very rare that you see a guy — let’s say, 132 pounds and up as a freshman — having high success,” Lundquist said. “But these smaller-weight guys, right, I mean, their athleticism and their savvy, it just seems to get better and better and better and better.”
Donovan Symalla of Pomona looks as the clock as he makes a move for a late takedown against Jonathan Montes Gonzales of Grandview during their Colorado State Wrestling Championships semifinal match at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. Symalla won by way of a 4-1 decision. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Freshman success in heavier-weight classes became less rare this weekend in Colorado, though, as Pomona’s Donovan Symalla toppled Grandview senior Jonathan Montes Gonzalez 4-1 to advance to the final of the boys’ 5A 157-pound class. Symalla began wrestling at the Pomona Wrestling Club, a direct feeder for Pomona’s program, when he was 8. He’s “worn a Pomona singlet forever,” as head coach Sam Federico said.
“I don’t know if he’s going to win this tournament,” Federico said earlier Friday, of Symalla. “He’s got some seniors that are in the semifinal that are really good … I mean, at this point, they’re good, and they’re men.
“And Donovan doesn’t drive a car yet, you know what I mean?”
He did not need a license, however, to beat Gonzalez on Friday night. And Federico anticipates freshmen in Colorado are only going to get “tougher and tougher” as years pass and youth feeders grow, a sentiment shared by a host of coaches in the area.
“The level of wrestling, it doesn’t stop,” Betterman said. “It keeps elevating every year, because of programs like this.”
Air Academy freshman Saba wants to four-peat. Lundquist thinks Pueblo East freshman Duran can four-peat. Sand Creek High athletic director Mario Romero thinks the girls’ program can challenge for a state title in two years, once they import more talent from Betterman Elite.
The only thing that might be standing in the way of this youth movement, ultimately, is the youth underneath them.
“I can definitely sense it,” Dean said, after advancing to the girls’ 4A 100-pound final Friday.
“I obviously want the younger people to become better than me, and the people younger than them to become better than them. The competition, and the levels, are definitely rising.”
For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children’s mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time.
Some of the biggest players from Meta to TikTok are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children’s mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state and the federal government as well as thousands of families.
Two trials are now underway in Los Angeles and in New Mexico, with more to come. The courtroom showdowns are the culmination of years of scrutiny of the platforms over child safety, and whether deliberate design choices make them addictive and serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders or suicide.
Experts see the reckoning as reminiscent of cases against tobacco and opioid markets, and the plaintiffs hope that social media platforms will see similar outcomes as cigarette makers and drug companies, pharmacies and distributors.
The outcomes could challenge the companies’ First Amendment shield and Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms. They could also be costly in the form of legal fees and settlements. And they could force the companies to change how they operate, potentially losing users and advertising dollars.
Here’s a look at the major social media harms cases in the United States.
Jurors in a landmark social media case that seeks to hold tech companies responsible for harms to children got their first glimpse into what will be a lengthy trial characterized by dueling narratives from the plaintiffs and the two remaining defendants, Meta and YouTube.
At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 20-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits will play out. KGM and the cases of two other plaintiffs have been selected to be bellwether trials — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury.
“This is a monumental inflection point in social media,” said Matthew Bergman of the Seattle-based Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents more than 1,000 plaintiffs in lawsuits against social media companies. “When we started doing this four years ago no one said we’d ever get to trial. And here we are trying our case in front of a fair and impartial jury.”
On Wednesday Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified, mostly sticking to past talking points, including a lengthy back-and-forth about age verification where he said ““I don’t see why this is so complicated,” reiterating that the company’s policy restricts users under the age of 13 and that it works to detect users who have lied about their ages to bypass restrictions..
At one point, the plaintiff’s attorney, Mark Lanier, asked Zuckerberg if people tend to use something more if it’s addictive.
“I’m not sure what to say to that,” Zuckerberg said. “I don’t think that applies here.”
A team led by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who sued Meta in 2023, built their case by posing as children on social media, then documenting sexual solicitations they received as well as Meta’s response.
Torrez wants Meta to implement more effective age verification and do more to remove bad actors from its platform.
He also is seeking changes to algorithms that can serve up harmful material, and has criticized the end-to-end encryption that can prevent the monitoring of communications with children for safety. Meta has noted that encrypted messaging is encouraged in general as a privacy and security measure by some state and federal authorities.
The trial kicked off in early February. In his opening statement, prosecuting attorney Donald Migliori said Meta has misrepresented the safety of its platforms, choosing to engineer its algorithms to keep young people online while knowing that children are at risk of sexual exploitation.
“Meta clearly knew that youth safety was not its corporate priority … that youth safety was less important than growth and engagement,” Migliori told the jury.
Meta attorney Kevin Huff pushed back on those assertions in his opening statement, highlighting an array of efforts by the company to weed out harmful content from its platforms while warning users that some dangerous content still gets past its safety net.
A trial scheduled for this summer pits school districts against social media companies before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. Called a multidistrict litigation, it names six public school districts from around the country as the bellwethers.
Jayne Conroy, a lawyer on plaintiffs’ trial team, was also an attorney for plaintiffs seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for the opioid epidemic. She said the cornerstone of both cases is the same: addiction.
“With the social media case, we’re focused primarily on children and their developing brains and how addiction is such a threat to their wellbeing and … the harms that are caused to children — how much they’re watching and what kind of targeting is being done,” she said.
The medical science, she added, “is not really all that different, surprisingly, from an opioid or a heroin addiction. We are all talking about the dopamine reaction.”
Both the social media and the opioid cases claim negligence on the part of the defendants.
“What we were able to prove in the opioid cases is the manufacturers, the distributors, the pharmacies, they knew about the risks, they downplayed them, they oversupplied, and people died,” Conroy said. “Here, it is very much the same thing. These companies knew about the risks, they have disregarded the risks, they doubled down to get profits from advertisers over the safety of kids. And kids were harmed and kids died.”
Social media companies have disputed that their products are addictive. During questioning Wednesday by the plaintiff’s lawyer during the Los Angeles trial, Zuckerberg said he still agrees with a previous statement he made that the existing body of scientific work has not proven that social media causes mental health harms.
Some researchers do indeed question whether addiction is the appropriate term to describe heavy use of social media. Social media addiction is not recognized as an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the authority within the psychiatric community.
But the companies face increasing pushback on the issue of social media’s effects on children’s mental health, not only among academics but also parents, schools and lawmakers.
“While Meta has doubled down in this area to address mounting concerns by rolling out safety features, several recent reports suggest that the company continues to aggressively prioritize teens as a user base and doesn’t always adhere to its own rules,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.
With appeals and any settlement discussions, the cases against social media companies could take years to resolve. And unlike in Europe and Australia, tech regulation in the U.S. is moving at a glacial pace.
“Parents, education, and other stakeholders are increasingly hoping lawmakers will do more,” Smiley said. “While there is momentum at the state and federal level, Big Tech lobbying, enforcement challenges, and lawmaker disagreements over how to best regular social media have slowed meaningful progress.”
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AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this story.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a measure establishing public funding for charter schools is unconstitutional, affirming that state funds “are for common schools and for nothing else.”
The 2022 measure was enacted by the state’s Republican-dominated legislature over Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto. It was struck down the next year by a lower court.
The state’s high court ruled the “Constitution as it stands is clear that it does not permit funneling public education funds outside the common public school system,” Justice Michelle M. Keller wrote in a unanimous opinion.
In 2024, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed state lawmakers to allocate public tax dollars to support students attending private or charter schools.
It was another setback for supporters of charter schools, who have attempted for years to gain a foothold in the state. They argue the schools offer another choice for parents looking for the best educational fit for their children. But opponents say such schools would divert needed funds from existing public schools and could pick and choose which students to accept.
Charter schools have been legal in Kentucky since 2017, but none have opened because of the lack of a method to fund them.
Keller, in her opinion, wrote the court was not passing judgment on the efficacy of charter schools.
“We make no predictions about the potential success of charter schools or their ability to improve the education of the Commonwealth’s children, and we leave public policy evaluations to the Commonwealth’s designated policymakers — the General Assembly,” she wrote.
But Keller argued, Kentucky has for more than a century treated education as “a constitutional mandate, challenged again and again…”
“The mandate implicates state education funds are for common schools and for nothing else,” the justice wrote.
This weekend, I’m taking my little guy for an indoor activity using the free game of bowling he got for meeting our first family reading goal LAST summer! When sub-zero temperatures and snow days plague our country, summer reading probably sounds a LONG way away. But this is the time public librarians are designing and planning for their big summer reading program!
This year, some librarians are creating their own summer reading programs to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America. Others are relying on established national programs like:
Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP): A multi‑state consortium that creates high‑quality, affordable themed summer reading resources for libraries nationwide, or
iREAD (Illinois Reading Enrichment and Development): A flexible national summer reading program developed by the Illinois Library Association and used by thousands of libraries across many states through statewide partnerships.
But one of the most powerful drivers of lifelong reading isn’t a program at all–it’s a relationship. And some of the most effective literacy ecosystems today are those where schools and public libraries work not in parallel, but in partnership with parents and students.
Few places demonstrate this more clearly than East Hampton, Connecticut, where a decade‑long collaboration between school librarians and the public library has created a seamless year‑round literacy experience for students.
“It just seems very natural to us,” said school librarian Katie Tietjen during a recent conversation. “Why wouldn’t we all work together? We all have the same goal of getting kids to read.”
That shared mission–paired with mutual respect and a willingness to adapt–has become the backbone of a thriving model other communities can learn from.
A partnership built on trust and continuity
The collaboration began organically with a simple outreach from then–public librarian Ellen Paul, who invited Katie to connect as she entered her role as a new school librarian. There was no formal program, no grant, no directive–just two professionals with aligned goals.
As Katie explained, that openness is what created a decade‑long tradition: “There’s really been a long tradition of just collaborating… it just seems very natural to us.”
Even as staff changed over the years, the partnership didn’t fade. Instead, each new librarian–school and public–was welcomed into a system that valued cooperation over silos.
Public Library Director Christine Cachuela echoed this mutual appreciation: “We know you have a lot to do – especially at the end of the school year.” Her team sees their role as stepping in to lighten the load, not add to it.
A summer reading program that actually works
While many communities struggle to engage students meaningfully over summer break, East Hampton has built a program that is personal, relational, and rooted in consistent school–library contact.
For elementary students, the children’s librarian visits every single K–5 classroom to introduce the summer reading program. This isn’t an assembly or a flier sent home–it’s face‑to‑face engagement that builds excitement and trust. Christine described this individualized approach as a key differentiator–one that “helps build familiarity and excitement among students.”
Older students benefit from challenge‑based activities, flexible reading choices, and visits embedded directly into English classes. Public librarians present in the school library, making the program feel like a natural continuation of the school year rather than an add‑on.
Christine adds that “face time” deepens the community partnership: “The kids would come into the library over the summer, maybe for the first time, and the first words out of their mouth were like, ‘Oh my gosh, you were in my classroom!’ And so they’re just so excited to have that familiar face.”
And community support amplifies impact: Local businesses donate prizes, teachers volunteer for summer read‑alouds at the public library, and students see their future teachers outside the school setting, deepening connections.
A year‑round literacy ecosystem
This partnership isn’t a “summer project”–it’s a 12‑month collaboration that supports students at every stage.
Preschool visits and teacher read‑alouds strengthen early literacy pipelines.
Middle school lunch‑wave book clubs, create weekly touchpoints for students.
High school “library minions” and Teen Advisory Boards give teens ownership of library activities.
Public librarians participate in school Wellness Days, embedding themselves into school culture.
Christine shared that she advises public librarians to “take as much of the burden off the school as you can… reach out with something very specific: ‘This is what I can offer you. I planned this activity. When would you want me to come do it?’”
This mindset–proactive, flexible, and supportive–is the secret to sustainability.
Breaking barriers to access
The partnership also tackles a structural challenge: ensuring every student has access to public library resources.
Together, the teams:
distribute library cards to preschoolers and third graders,
run in‑school library‑card sign‑ups for eighth graders,
provide tutorials of Libby, Hoopla, and other digital tools, and
streamline card‑issuing processes for high school students.
This means that when a student wants a new print book, audiobook, graphic novel, eBook, or research material the school doesn’t have, they already know how–and where–to get it.
A blueprint for communities everywhere
If there’s one thing East Hampton proves, it’s that impactful partnerships don’t require massive budgets or complicated structures. They require:
proactive outreach,
flexibility,
shared values, and
the willingness to show up–together.
As Christine summarized: Public librarians should reach out with specific ideas, not broad offers–schools are too busy to decipher vague intentions. And Katie reaffirmed that understanding each other’s rhythms and constraints is critical to building trust.
Together, they’ve created more than a program. They’ve built a literacy ecosystem that meets students wherever they are – school, library, or home.
Getting started
Every community has the ingredients to replicate this model. In fact, many are already trying. But what East Hampton demonstrates is that true success lies in sustained, intentional partnership–not one‑off events or seasonal coordination. Because when schools and public libraries work together, they don’t just promote summer reading–they nurture lifelong readers.
And as Katie put it, the question isn’t whether collaboration is possible, it’s: “Why wouldn’t we all work together?”
Britten Follett, Follett Content Solutions
A fifth-generation family member, Britten Follett is CEO at Follett Content Solutions, largest provider of children’s and youth print materials and solutions to PreK-12 libraries, classrooms, learning centers and school districts in the United States and educational institutions worldwide, and a major supplier to public libraries. She has led Follett’s business since September 2019 and is responsible for providing leadership, strategic direction, and business development. In September 2020, Publishers Weekly named her a “PW Star Watch” honoree, one of 40 professionals singled out from the North American publishing industry.
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When the field of gifted education was first coalescing in the early twentieth century, it was mostly oriented toward children whom anyone would call gifted: your Mozarts and Doogie Howsers, your Little Men Tate. They were not merely bright and precocious but true outliers who, not unlike kids with dyslexia or other learning differences, needed a tailored curriculum and classroom setting in order to thrive. Troublingly, many of the early psychologists and educators who took the lead on studying and developing curricula for these children were steeped in eugenics, including the belief in intelligence as hereditary, race- and class-dependent, and largely fixed. For these thinkers—including Lewis Terman, who developed the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale—an exclusive gifted classroom logically doubled as a tool of racial and socioeconomic segregation.
In the mid-nineteen-thirties, the New York City Board of Education and Teachers College at Columbia University launched a five-year program in Harlem known as the Speyer School experiment, which, as a Board of Education representative later explained, was intended “to determine a desirable program of education for intellectual deviates.” There, kids who had earned either lower-than-average or exceptionally high scores on the Stanford-Binet test were divided into groups of “slow” and “rapid” learners.
The Speyer experiment wound down in 1941; one of its unofficial successors was Hunter College Elementary School, in Manhattan, founded as “an experimental and demonstration center for intellectually gifted pupils.” Prospective kindergarteners at Hunter must score off the charts on a modified I.Q. test just to get past the first round of the admissions process, which is, as the Times once wrote, “probably one of the most competitive in the world.” A Daily News piece from 1988 reported on the dilemma of “middle-class parents trying to make it in Manhattan” whose kids weren’t admitted to Hunter, despite I.Q. scores in the top one per cent. Many of these disappointed parents enrolled their children in private schools; others likely decamped to the suburbs. But a few instead began recruiting and fund-raising for what became one of the five ultra-élite citywide G. & T. programs, at the Anderson School on the Upper West Side. (Even today, Anderson is regarded among G. & T.-savvy parents in Manhattan as an exceptionally prestigious consolation prize, the Yale to Hunter’s Harvard.)
It’s easy to caricature some G. & T.-curious parents as grasping, status-obsessed, or slightly deluded about their child’s special brand of specialness. But research shows that the kinds of kids who might just miss a shot at Hunter or Anderson—not necessarily geniuses or savants, just very bright, driven, academically oriented kids—are likely to become inattentive, frustrated, or disruptive in a gen-ed classroom, with possible long-term effects on their academic performance and social-emotional development. Karen Rambo-Hernandez, a professor of education at Texas A. & M., told me that students suffer “when they show they need the challenge and are not challenged. They need opportunities to fail and learn from failure. They need the chance to say, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s an edge to what I know.’ ” These students, Michael Matthews, an education professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, told me, “keep sailing through school without having to do much of anything—until all of a sudden they do, and then they don’t know how to respond.”
Gifted class sizes are not necessarily smaller than their gen-ed counterparts, but they can feel that way because students’ level of academic attainment is more homogeneous. “In your typical neighborhood school, a fifth-grade classroom has everything from kids who can’t read at all to kids who are reading at a high-school or almost-college level,” Matthews said. “Asking a teacher to meet the learning needs of all those kids is an impossible order. What tends to happen is that the teachers focusses on the kids who need the most help. They figure that the ones who are achieving above grade level will be O.K. on their own, and we know that’s not the case.”
A precocious kid who is bored in a gen-ed classroom might need gifted education, but decades of data and research suggest it’s more likely that he and everyone else simply need fewer classmates, so that his teacher can give each student more individualized attention. Even Mamdani, who has not made K-12 education a focus of his campaign or early mayoralty, lamented “crowded classrooms” in his inaugural address. In 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law requiring public schools in New York City to limit classroom sizes to between twenty and twenty-five students by 2028. But funding, construction, and teacher hiring may be lagging behind the goal. As of last year, according to reporting by Chalkbeat New York, the city had reached its legally mandated benchmark only by juking the stats: more than ten thousand classrooms had been temporarily exempted from the law, including in schools that did not request the exemptions.
One of the nation’s largest school photography companies is facing canceled photo shoots and district-wide investigations amid unsubstantiated online rumors suggesting that children’s photos could have been accessed by a person named in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Several school districts announced this week that they have launched investigations into the popular company Lifetouch due to its former, indirect ownership by billionaire businessman Leon Black, who was an associate and friend of the late child sex offender.
“At this time, no evidence has been presented indicating misconduct involving Lifetouch’s operations within our schools or any compromise of student information. Nevertheless, we believe it is appropriate to review the matter carefully and transparently,” Clifton Public Schools, one of New Jersey’s largest school districts, wrote in a letter to parents on Wednesday.
Several school districts have said they will investigate Lifetouch over the former owner of its parent company, while one school said it was canceling its school photos altogether.
Guillermo Spelucin via Getty Images
A charter school in Arizona also told parents Tuesday that it was canceling its picture days scheduled for later this week “out of an abundance of caution.”
“While we do not have any information indicating a direct impact on our school or our students, our highest responsibility is always the safety, security, and trust of our families,” the Prescott Valley Charter School said in an announcement to parents.
In California, the Alisal Union School District in Salinas called the rumors “disturbing” and an issue that “deserves immediate attention” in a letter acknowledging parents’ concerns and questions on Wednesday.
“The District takes parents’ concerns very seriously and we stand ready to address questions and receive comments from parents, about this and any other issue,” wrote the district’s superintendent.
The rumors narrow in on Black, who until 2021 served as CEO and chairman of Apollo Global Management. The private equity firm owns Lifetouch through its 2019 purchase of the company Shutterfly, which purchased Lifetouch in 2018. The deal to acquire Lifetouch didn’t officially close until September 2019, however, which was a month after Epstein’s death.
Leon Black, seen in 2015, stepped down as Apollo Global Management’s chief executive officer in 2021 following an investigation into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Black’s past link to Lifetouch has led people to raise concerns online, without supporting evidence, that he may have consequently benefited from inappropriate access to Lifetouch’s photos. Some have also accused Lifetouch of being nefariously listed in the Epstein files. Though the company’s name does appear in the files, it’s in a 2019 bank statement that belonged to a person involved in the Epstein death investigation.
Lifetouch, addressing parents’ concerns in a statement this week, said Black never had access to student images and affirmed that it is committed to safeguarding every student’s privacy while following all applicable federal, state and local data privacy laws. A company spokesperson repeated that the “claims are completely false” when reached for comment Thursday.
“When Lifetouch photographers take your student’s picture, that image is safeguarded for families and schools, only, with no exceptions,” said the spokesperson.
In a separate statement posted online, Lifetouch CEO Ken Murphy acknowledged Black’s former ties to Apollo Global Management but stressed that “no past or present member of Apollo’s Board of Directors or Apollo’s investors have ever had access to student images, for any purpose.”
Student photos are only shared for the purposes of school records and for their purchase by parents or guardians. Lifetouch also does not, and has never, provided images to any third party, he said, while noting the company’s compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
“Additionally, as part of our decades long relationship with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Lifetouch prints SmileSafe cards free of charge for each student we photograph that families can use with law enforcement if a child goes missing,” the company said.
Megan Montanez, who said her daughter had her photograph taken by Lifetouch with the Clifton School District, told HuffPost Thursday that she remains unconvinced that proper safeguards are in place to protect all children.
“It’s not a stretch to assume that just because you don’t have a direct role in something that you don’t have access to other functions, especially as someone in a leadership position,” she said in an online message. “I think we as parents aren’t angry enough.”
Montanez said she’d like to see schools use local photographers and for school officials to be more transparent about how they select the companies they hire. If Lifetouch had been properly vetted, she said, they would have known earlier about Black’s connection with the company.
“The fact that this was public information in 2021 and in 2025 they used a company that had leadership with established financial ties with Epstein is gross oversight,” she said. “It’s our job as adults, [the] community, to come together and protect our kids, especially as more information comes out about all the things that the DOJ is attempting to cover up.”
Attempts to reach Black for comment were not immediately successful. A spokesperson for Apollo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NEW YORK — Pene Pati was cautioned as a 20-year-old not to pursue a singing career, an unusual occupation for a Samoan who grew up in New Zealand
“Lots of people want to become a singer because they want the lifestyle,” the tenor recalled. “Whereas for me, I did it out of spite, to be honest. It was somebody who said: `Don’t be angry if you don’t cut it as an opera singer because as a Polynesian, there are not many opera singers.’ And that part of me thought: How do I prove him wrong?”
Now 38 and booked by top houses into 2030, Pati laughed as he recalled vocal coach Robert Wiremu’s wariness.
“He didn’t say I wasn’t a good singer,” Pati explained. “He just said: `Don’t be afraid if you don’t make it.’”
Pati is among the emerging tenors in a group with Xabier Anduaga, SeokJong Baek, Freddie De Tommaso, Ismael Jordi and Jonathan Tetelman.
He impressed last month in his first staged performances of Massenet’s “Werther” at Paris’ Opéra Comique, a 1,200-capacity jewel box that turned down the composer’s 1887 offer to stage the premiere.
“I wanted people who had never sung it before,” conductor Raphaël Pichon said.
Pati’s biggest break was at the Comique on Dec. 13, 2021, when he replaced Jean-François Borras for the opening of Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette” with just a few hours notice. He had sung Alfredo in Verdi’s “La Traviata” the previous day in Amsterdam and quickly took a train.
“It was the springboard for Europe and for America,” Pati said.
His Paris castmates timed his held high C at 19 seconds, according to mezzo-soprano Adèle Charvet.
“The moment he set a foot on stage, it became electric,” said Charvet, who sang her first staged Charlotte with Pati last month. “When he’s around, it’s like the sun is here suddenly.”
Ted Huffman, the director, took advantage of the intimate house and placed Pati near the lip of the stage, where viewers could focus on his facial expressions.
“He’s such a warm person in real life and that openness, it translates to something very honest with the audience,” Huffman said. “Without planning this we went down a quite extreme path with the character in the way he went towards these inward explosions rather than the outward ones.”
Born in Samoa to parents who are both registered nurses, Pati moved to New Zealand with his family when he was between 1 and 2.
“That also gave me the motivation to leave New Zealand because I thought if they could do it, then now I have to do it,” he said.
Pati sang in an Auckland choir and planned on a computer science career. He was encouraged to pursue piano and singing by Terence Maskell, his choir and high school music director.
Pati continued studies at The University of Auckland, won a music competition in Australia and at the behest of tenor Dennis O’ Neill moved to Cardiff in 2011 to study at the Wales International Academy of Voice. Around the same time, Pati formed the trio Sol3 Mio with his brother, tenor Amitai Pati, and cousin, baritone Moses Mackay.
Pati entered the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program in 2013. During auditions for the program in New Zealand, he met soprano Amina Edris, his future wife and occasional recital partner. His first words to her were: “You’re the only one that’s better than me.”
He placed second among men in the 2015 Operalia competition and after at first turning down the opportunity, advanced to the San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellows program in 2016 along Edris. The following year he made his San Francisco Opera debut as the Duke in Verdi’s “Rigoletto.”
He sang his first European opera performance at Bordeaux, France, in 2018, and his profile rose when he replaced Brian Hymel for San Francisco’s opening-night performance of “Roméo” in September 2019. He’s since debuted at the Paris Opera (2021), the Vienna State Opera (2022), London’s Royal Opera (2024) and New York’s Metropolitan Opera and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera (both 2025).
Pati, who now lives in Paris, returns to the Met for Puccini’s “La Bohème” next season.
“He’s a tenor with enormous potential,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said.
Pati sings Edgardo in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Toulouse, France, starting Feb. 20, a role he repeats for his debut at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala this summer. He performs the title role in Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito” for his Zurich Opera debut in late April and returns home to New Zealand in August for Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet’s “Manon.”
“I don’t want to jump the gun,” he said. “Once you go to all the heavier stuff it’s hard to come back.”
After the final “Werther” performance, Pati invited the children’s chorus to his dressing room and gave them cake. Between performances at the New York’s Park Avenue Armory last September, he held a workshop, singing and answering questions for 14-to-18-year-old vocal students from Talent Unlimited High School.
“The most important thing about Pene for me is just humanity,” Pichon said. “It’s a man who wants to share, wants to communicate his passion, his music. It’s properly unique, how solar, how luminous is this man.”
Stony Brook University leads Long Island‘s MBA programs with 530 students enrolled in 2024, operating from Nicolls Road in Stony Brook. Andrea Goldsmith serves as president. The program offers part-time and online options with tuition of $7,615. The school provides financial aid to 38 percent of students and admits 85 percent of applicants. The university founded its MBA program in 1957 with concentrations in innovation and operations analytics.
Hofstra University ranks second with 445 students, including 234 full-time and 212 part-time enrollees, with Susan Poser serving as president. The university operates from Hempstead and charges tuition of $62,352. The institution provides financial aid to 51.69 percent of students and admits 50.32 percent of applicants. Hofstra founded its MBA program in 1935.
New York Institute of Technology enrolls 401 students, with 322 full-time and 79 part-time students. The school operates from Old Westbury with Henry Foley serving as president
Operating from Jamaica, Queens, with Long Island-based students, St. John’s University has 338 students, all enrolled part-time. The university charges $1,575 in tuition.
St. Joseph’s University, New York, which is based in Patchogue, enrolls 120 students, with 54 full-time and 66 part-time. Donald Boomgaarden serves as president. SJUNY charges $22,860 in tuition, provides financial aid to 61 percent of students, and admits 78 percent of applicants. The program began in 1916.
Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Lisa Allen will resign from her position, as the district faces a financial crisis that could lead to a state takeover.KCRA 3 obtained a recording of a portion of a video conference call from a district employee on Thursday when Allen called for a “new leader.” “It’s time for the district to have a new leader to lead us through this challenging time,” Allen said. “And we will get through these budget woes.” Allen said she had planned to serve for three more years but upon reflection realized that she was “not the face and future of the district.” A district representative said there will be a statement from the Board of Education at Thursday’s meeting. According to a December report, SCUSD is facing a $51.6 million deficit. An updated figure is expected to be shared at Thursday’s meeting when the district’s Interim Chief Business and Operations Officer, Lisa Grant-Dawson, will present an update to its Fiscal Solvency Plan.In a letter sent to district families Monday afternoon, Sacramento City Board of Education President Tara Jeane said there had been “a problematic lack of clarity on the scope of our deficit” and that action to correct the deficit had stalled in recent months.“If we run out of cash and we can’t pay our bills, we then have to get a loan from the state and that is officially state receivership,” she said. District and county leaders stressed Tuesday that all efforts right now are focused on circumventing that option. A state receivership situation would include an appointed trustee being brought in to run the district and serve as the board.Any decision about layoffs needs to be made by March 15, Jeane said.Allen was first named acting superintendent in July 2023 after Jorge Aguilar stepped down, following budget battles with the teacher’s union and board. She became interim superintendent that July, and then superintendent in April 2024. Allen has served in various district roles for 28 years, according to an online bio.The Sacramento County Office of Education is assisting the Sacramento City Unified School District with its attempt to avoid what’s called “fiscal insolvency” by providing financial experts to help guide solutions.”They’re facing, potentially, a shortfall big enough to cause them to go bankrupt. And if they go bankrupt, if they go insolvent, they’re required to get a state loan, which comes with interest,” said Dave Gordon, Superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education. “We are trying to give all the help we can to make sure they don’t have to become insolvent.”Gordon said, however, if the district is found to be insolvent, education will continue for district students. He did expect the district to identify costs that can be cut and to consider laying off employees.”I think more information will be forthcoming as we run the numbers and get more confident of how much needs to be cut and whether it’s there to be cut,” he said.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Lisa Allen will resign from her position, as the district faces a financial crisis that could lead to a state takeover.
KCRA 3 obtained a recording of a portion of a video conference call from a district employee on Thursday when Allen called for a “new leader.”
“It’s time for the district to have a new leader to lead us through this challenging time,” Allen said. “And we will get through these budget woes.”
Allen said she had planned to serve for three more years but upon reflection realized that she was “not the face and future of the district.”
A district representative said there will be a statement from the Board of Education at Thursday’s meeting.
According to a December report, SCUSD is facing a $51.6 million deficit. An updated figure is expected to be shared at Thursday’s meeting when the district’s Interim Chief Business and Operations Officer, Lisa Grant-Dawson, will present an update to its Fiscal Solvency Plan.
In a letter sent to district families Monday afternoon, Sacramento City Board of Education President Tara Jeane said there had been “a problematic lack of clarity on the scope of our deficit” and that action to correct the deficit had stalled in recent months.
“If we run out of cash and we can’t pay our bills, we then have to get a loan from the state and that is officially state receivership,” she said.
District and county leaders stressed Tuesday that all efforts right now are focused on circumventing that option. A state receivership situation would include an appointed trustee being brought in to run the district and serve as the board.
Any decision about layoffs needs to be made by March 15, Jeane said.
The Sacramento County Office of Education is assisting the Sacramento City Unified School District with its attempt to avoid what’s called “fiscal insolvency” by providing financial experts to help guide solutions.
“They’re facing, potentially, a shortfall big enough to cause them to go bankrupt. And if they go bankrupt, if they go insolvent, they’re required to get a state loan, which comes with interest,” said Dave Gordon, Superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education. “We are trying to give all the help we can to make sure they don’t have to become insolvent.”
Gordon said, however, if the district is found to be insolvent, education will continue for district students. He did expect the district to identify costs that can be cut and to consider laying off employees.
“I think more information will be forthcoming as we run the numbers and get more confident of how much needs to be cut and whether it’s there to be cut,” he said.
Greenville, Wis. – February 3, 2026 – As educators look for meaningful ways to balance digital learning with hands-on experiences, School Specialty®, a leading provider of learning environments and supplies for preK-12 education, today announced the official launch of its new Childcraft Out2Grow Outdoor Furniture line. Designed to extend learning beyond the traditional classroom, the innovative collection offers a durable, sustainable and economical way for schools to create engaging, learning environments rooted in exploration, movement and real-world discovery.
As outdoor learning continues to gain traction in early childhood education, Childcraft is answering the call for equipment that supports gross motor development, social-emotional skills and hands-on STEM exploration. The new line features a variety of versatile pieces, including sand and water tables, a planter, play kitchen and collaborative benches, that enable schools to create specialized outdoor zones for science, dramatic play and group projects.
Built for the Elements, Designed for the Child
Unlike traditional wood or metal alternatives, the Childcraft outdoor line is manufactured from High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE). This premium material is 100% recyclable and engineered to withstand sun, rain, snow and daily wear and tear without rotting, cracking or fading. The products feature rust-resistant hardware, splinter-free rounded corners and a limited lifetime warranty.
Empowering Educators and Students Alike
The line provides a comprehensive solution for modern early childhood needs:
Expanded Classrooms: Offers teachers the flexibility to move learning centers outdoors, encouraging nature-based discovery and hands-on observation.
Collaborative Hubs: Creates structured spaces for group activities and social skill development, essential for PreK–2 cooperative learning.
Multi-Use Versatility: Accommodates everything from STEM projects to snack time with stain-resistant surfaces that allow for quick, easy transitions.
Holistic Wellness: Promotes physical activity and eye health while reducing stress and screen time, helping children build focus and self-regulation.
“The Childcraft Out2Grow furniture line was born from a growing number of requests from our customers seeking new ways to enhance outdoor learning spaces for young children,” said Jennifer Fernandez, Early Childhood Education Strategist at School Specialty. “Knowing the many benefits of outdoor learning—academic, health, social and emotional—I’m thrilled that School Specialty can help early childhood programs create engaging environments where PreK–2 students can truly reap those benefits.”
Whether used in traditional school districts, childcare centers or children’s clubs and museums, these products connect students to nature while supporting well-being and educational outcomes.
The Childcraft Out2Grow Outdoor Furniture line is available for order immediately. For more information on the full collection, visit http://www.schoolspecialty.com/out2grow.
About School Specialty, LLC
With a 60-year legacy, School Specialty is a leading provider of comprehensive learning environment solutions for the preK-12 education marketplace in the U.S. and Canada. This includes essential classroom supplies, furniture and design services, educational technology, sensory spaces featuring Snoezelen, science curriculum, learning resources, professional development, and more. School Specialty believes every student can flourish in an environment where they are engaged and inspired to learn and grow. In support of this vision to transform more than classrooms, the company applies its unmatched team of education strategists and designs, manufactures, and distributes a broad assortment of name-brand and proprietary products. For more information, go to SchoolSpecialty.com.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia began to implement a ban on cellphones in classrooms Monday, as the school year starts in the landlocked South American nation.
Children in Bolivia, and teachers, will be asked to keep their cellphones in lockers or in their bags while they’re in classrooms. The measure will be implemented in both private and public schools and applies to pupils of all ages.
Several countries have already implemented mobile phone bans in schools in an effort to increase the attention span of children and reduce distractions, including Brazil, France and South Korea.
The measure was drafted under the administration of Rodrigo Paz, a centrist who won last year’s election and took office in November, following two decades of rule by the left-wing Movement Toward Socialism.
Paz said on Monday that he does not oppose technology, adding that he is attempting to improve connectivity for Bolivian students by using satellites to connect schools in rural areas to the internet.
“I will not give you Wi-Fi to watch movies,” Paz said during an event in Copacabana, a town on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest navigable lake. “I am going provide connectivity so that pupils can download knowledge.”
Last year, the Paz administration lifted a ban against foreign-owned internet satellite providers that had been put in place by the previous government. Bolivia has long relied on a Chinese-built satellite to provide internet in remote areas, but the satellite known as the Tupac Katari is getting old and has limited capabilities. Bolivia has some of the lowest internet speeds in the region.
During a school emergency, every minute that passes is crucial, but in those moments, a reliable connection can mean the difference between confusion and coordinated response. Yet, across the country, there is an unseen danger confronting school staff, students, and emergency personnel. This is inadequate communication connectivity within school buildings.
For years, schools have implemented fortified doors, cameras, and lockdown exercises. This is because communication is the unseen link that connects each safety measure. However, communication can weaken once someone enters a structure composed of concrete, steel, and reinforced glass. This is unacceptable during a time when almost every call to 9-1-1 is generated by a cell phone.
The changing face of emergency response
More than 75 percent of emergency calls now come from wireless phones, according to the Federal Communications Commission. When something goes wrong in a classroom or gym, the first instinct isn’t to reach for a landline–it’s to pull out a smartphone.
But what happens when that signal can’t get out?
This problem becomes even more pressing as the nation moves toward Next-Generation 9-1-1 (NG911), a major upgrade that allows dispatchers to receive text messages, images, and even live video. These new capabilities give first responders eyes and ears inside the building before they arrive–but only if the network works indoors.
At the same time, new laws are raising the bar. Alyssa’s Law, named after Alyssa Alhadeff, a student killed in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, requires schools in several states to install silent panic alarms directly linked to law enforcement. Similar legislation is spreading nationwide. These systems rely on strong, reliable indoor wireless coverage–the very thing many older buildings lack.
When walls become barriers
School buildings weren’t designed for today’s communications reality. Thick concrete walls, metal framing, energy-efficient glass, and sprawling multi-story layouts often block or weaken wireless signals. During an active-shooter event or a tornado warning, students may shelter in basements, cafeterias, or interior hallways–places where signal strength is weakest.
After several high-profile incidents, post-incident reports have revealed the same pattern: first responders losing radio contact as they entered, dispatchers unable to locate or communicate with callers, and delays caused by poor in-building connectivity. These breakdowns aren’t just technical–they’re human. They affect how quickly students are found, how fast responders can coordinate, and how well lives can be protected.
Technology that saves seconds–and lives
Fortunately, there are solutions available, and they are becoming more accessible.
The Emergency Responder Radio Coverage Systems (ERRCS) can also be referred to as Distributed Antennas Systems (DAS) within a public safety setting. The technology is responsible for extending radio communication coverage within building infrastructures. ERRCS are required within schools due to measures put into place within fire regulations.
For communication and safety needs, cellular DAS, also known as small cells, are required to expand cellular coverage on a campus. These enable students, faculty, and staff to make calls, send texts, and exchange vital multimedia messages to 9-1-1 dispatchers, which is crucial during the NG911 era.
Despite such technologies, smaller schools on more limited budgets can still leverage signal boosters and repeaters to fill coverage gaps within gyms, cafeterias, and other similar areas. At the same time, newer managed Wi-Fi solutions that offer E911 functionality can serve as a backup safety net that can transmit multimedia messages over secure Internet communications when cellular connectivity is no longer available.
Best practices for schools
Start with a coverage assessment. A comparison of where signals are dropping, not only for public safety communications but generally across each of the main cellular providers, will provide school administration with information on where to make improvements.
Schools should then coordinate with the fire departments, the office of emergency management, and wireless service providers prior to implementing any system. This will ensure that they comply with local regulations and interoperability with first responders.
Finally, maintenance and functionality are just as important as final installation. Communication systems should receive periodic tests, preferably during safety drills to verify that they work well under stress.
Bridging the funding gap
Improving in-building communications infrastructure can sound costly, but several funding pathways exist. Some states offer school-safety grants or federal assistance programs that cover technology investments tied to life safety. Districts can also explore partnerships with local governments or leverage E-rate-style funding for eligible network upgrades.
Beyond compliance or funding, though, this is an equity issue. Every student, teacher, and responder deserves the same chance to communicate in a crisis–whether in a small-town elementary school or a large urban high school.
A call to action
A school is more than its classrooms and hallways, it is also a community of individuals each relying on others during times of fear and uncertainty. Perhaps one of the most straightforward ways to make this community more resilient is to provide a strong indoor building communication environment, both for public safety communications and cellular devices.
The time has come to make connectivity a vital safety component rather than a luxury, because silence is simply not an option when seconds are at stake.
Maveddat is a seasoned technology and business leader with deep expertise across telecommunications, cloud, and IT solutions. He has held senior leadership roles at global technology companies including Oracle, VIAVI Solutions, and Mavenir, where he drove innovation and market growth.
At Wilson Connectivity, Maveddat leads the Enterprise Solutions business, focusing on delivering scalable connectivity solutions that enable enterprises to thrive in an increasingly wireless world. He holds an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas. Maveddat is also an inventor with multiple patents in advanced communications technologies.
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As a former admissions officer and now an independent education consultant, I’ve read thousands of college essays. The ones that earn students admission to their dream schools aren’t necessarily the most polished. They’re the ones that sound like the student and express that student’s personality and experience. Within a few minutes of reading a file, I could distinguish between an applicant who had checked all the boxes and a real person I could imagine. As I tell my students, “Colleges are admitting you, not your essay.”
Writing that kind of essay starts with what I call the 3 P’s: following a process, showing your personality, and letting go of perfection.
How process removes pressure
The number one challenge my students face with their essays is deciding where to start. They worry that they won’t engage the reader right away or won’t be creative enough. There’s a myth that the opening needs to be shocking, that it needs to be something that’s never been heard before. To help students overcome this hurdle, I encourage them to find their voice through a low-pressure process that begins with exercises such as free writing or simply telling me their story, which I record.
In the past few years, I’ve worked with many students who have solved their “blank page” panic by using AI to draft their essays. Students are often hesitant to admit they’ve used these tools, which creates a barrier between us. While I coach them to use AI responsibly for brainstorming or outlining, many still fall back on it for the actual writing.
I researched tools that could support a student’s voice without replacing it, yet many still worked behind the scenes. I wanted a platform that offered inspiration, feedback, and insights without taking over the creative process. I chose Esslo, which allows me to collaborate with students on their actual writing, along with tools like College Planner Pro and Grammarly.
I was working with a student who was spending too many words of her essay writing about what was happening to her mom, so I asked her to self-assess her “contribution” score and then check it against the AI-powered score from Esslo. Revising an essay is like teaching someone to golf–you can’t fix everything at once. Working on one area at a time creates a process that is more manageable and effective for students and counselors.
Personality over polish
Even an essential process can go too far. If students revise endlessly to chase near-perfect scores on a rubric, they often scrub away the pieces and quirks that make it uniquely theirs. At the end of what we believe is the final draft, I have my students read their essays aloud. Then I ask them, “Is this something you would say? On a scale of zero to 10, would this actually come out of your mouth?” If it’s not seven or above, then we’re not going to submit that essay.
I also ask students, “What part of this essay is written because you think it’s what the reader wants to hear?” And sometimes, if an essay isn’t working, I’ll ask, “What’s the real story behind this? What part of this story are you hiding?” We’ll talk about it, and more often than not, that conversation will uncover the authentic essay. An essay that sounds like the student–even if it’s imperfect–will always do better than a flawless essay that could have been written by anyone.
The problem with perfection
Every student needs a different path to get a finished essay. Some do well with tech tools, but others use them to chase perfection, over-revising their essays until they become overly complicated. Think about the best books you’ve read. They flow naturally and show personality. It’s important to remember that a personal statement isn’t an AP English assignment–it doesn’t need to be academically rigid, but it needs to be honest.
If getting started is the hardest part for many of my students, knowing when to stop can be almost as challenging. When do they stop revising? When do they need to start over? Sometimes I tell students to scrap everything and grab an actual pen and paper. Set a timer for 15 minutes and answer the prompt with a specific scenario, whatever comes to mind, with as much detail as possible. Even if the experience they write about doesn’t end up getting submitted as their answer to that specific prompt, it is usually so vulnerable and unique that they’ll be able to use it for another essay.
Whether it’s a student writing too much about her mom or someone stuck focusing on what they think admissions officers want to hear, my advice is the same: Write about yourself and don’t be afraid to be who you are. Tech tools can be an enormous help in this process–not by pushing students toward perfect rubric scores, but by helping them present the real person behind the application.
Christa Olson, Independent Education Consultant
Christa Olson is an independent education consultant in the Bay Area. She can be reached at christamarieolson@gmail.com.
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The first time Patrick Thaw saw his University of Michigan friends together since sophomore year ended was bittersweet. They were starting a new semester in Ann Arbor, while he was FaceTiming in from Singapore, stranded half a world away.
One day last June he was interviewing to renew his U.S. student visa, and the next his world was turned upside down by President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from 12 countries, including Thaw’s native Myanmar.
“If I knew it was going to go down this badly, I wouldn’t have left the United States,” he said of his decision to leave Michigan for a summer internship in Singapore.
The ban was one of several ways the Trump administration made life harder for international students during his first year back in the White House, including a pause in visa appointments and additional layers of vetting that contributed to a dip in foreign enrollment for first-time students. New students had to look elsewhere, but the hurdles made life particularly complicated for those like Thaw who were well into their U.S. college careers.
Universities have had to come up with increasingly flexible solutions, such as bringing back pandemic-era remote learning arrangements or offering admission to international campuses they partner with, said Sarah Spreitzer, assistant vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education.
In Thaw’s case, a Michigan administrator highlighted studying abroad as an option. As long as the travel ban was in place, a program in Australia seemed viable — at least initially.
In the meantime, Thaw didn’t have much to do in Singapore but wait. He made friends, but they were busy with school or jobs. After his internship ended, he killed time by checking email, talking walks and eating out.
“Mentally, I’m back in Ann Arbor,” the 21-year-old said. “But physically, I’m trapped in Singapore.”
When Thaw arrived in Ann Arbor in 2023, he threw himself into campus life. He immediately meshed with his dorm roommate’s group of friends, who had gone to high school together about an hour away. A neuroscience major, he also joined a biology fraternity and an Alzheimer’s research lab.
His curiosity pushed him to explore a wide range of courses, including a Jewish studies class. The professor, Cara Rock-Singer, said Thaw told her his interest stemmed from reading the works of Philip Roth.
“I really work to make it a place where everyone feels not only comfortable, but invested in contributing,” Rock-Singer said. “But Patrick did not need nudging. He was always there to think and take risks.”
When Thaw landed his clinical research internship at a Singapore medical school, it felt like just another step toward success.
He heard speculation that the Trump administration might impose travel restrictions, but it was barely an afterthought — something he said he even joked about with friends before departing.
Thaw’s U.S. college dream had been a lifetime in the making but was undone — at least for now — by one trip abroad. Stuck in Singapore, he couldn’t sleep and his mind fixated on one question: “Why did you even come here?”
As a child, Thaw set his sights on attending an American university. That desire became more urgent as higher education opportunities dwindled after a civil war broke out in Myanmar.
For a time, tensions were so high that Thaw and his mother took shifts watching to make sure the bamboo in their front yard didn’t erupt in flames from Molotov cocktails. Once, he was late for an algebra exam because a bomb exploded in front of his house, he said.
So when he was accepted to the University of Michigan after applying to colleges “around the clock,” Thaw was elated.
“The moment I landed in the United States, like, set foot, I was like, this is it,” Thaw said. “This is where I begin my new life.”
When Thaw talked about life in Myanmar, it often led to deep conversations, said Allison Voto, one of his friends. He was one of the first people she met whose background was very different from hers, which made her “more understanding of the world,” she said.
During the 2024-25 school year, the U.S. hosted nearly 1.2 million international students. As of summer 2024, more than 1,400 people from Myanmar had American student visas, making it one of the top-represented countries among those hit by the travel ban.
A Michigan official said the school recognizes the challenges facing some international students and is committed to ensuring they have all the support and options it can provide. The university declined to comment specifically on Thaw’s situation.
While the study abroad program in Australia sparked some hope that Thaw could stay enrolled at Michigan, uncertainty around the travel ban and visa obstacles ultimately led him to decide against it.
He had left Myanmar to get an education and it was time to finish what he started, which meant moving on.
“I cannot just wait for the travel ban to just end and get lifted and go back, because that’s going to be an indefinite amount of time,” he said.
He started applying to colleges outside the U.S., getting back acceptance letters from schools in Australia and Canada. He is holding out hope of attending the University of Toronto, which would put his friends in Ann Arbor just a four-hour drive from visiting him.
“If he comes anywhere near me, basically on the continent of North America, I’m going to go see him,” said Voto, whose friendship with Thaw lately is defined by daylong gaps in their text conversations. “I mean, he’s Patrick, you know? That’s absolutely worth it.”
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Littleton Public Schools agreed Thursday to pay $3.85 million to the families of three children who are autistic and were abused by a school bus monitor.
The school board voted unanimously to approve the settlement Thursday, slightly more than two weeks after former bus monitor Kiarra Jones pleaded guilty to abusing the three boys while they were riding the bus to and from The Joshua School, a private school in Englewood.
Littleton Public Schools was contracted to bus the students, who are nonverbal and autistic, to and from school each day. Jones abused the boys on their bus rides for about six months, between September 2023 and March 2024, before authorities discovered surveillance video that showed the woman elbowing, stomping and punching the students.
The boys’ parents frequently asked teachers and officials at The Joshua School about their sons’ unexplained bruises and injuries while the abuse was going on, but school officials claimed the children were injuring themselves.
The families have filed a lawsuit against The Joshua School, alleging that school officials mishandled their concerns and never reported suspicions of abuse to outside authorities, enabling the monitor’s abuse.
In a statement, attorneys from Denver law firm Rathod Mohamedbhai said the three families appreciate the school district’s willingness to resolve the case early to allow for the children to start healing.
“No parent should have to wonder if their children will come home from school hurt by the very people entrusted to care for them,” attorneys for the families said Thursday night.
Littleton Public Schools has changed policies around reviewing and retaining bus surveillance, according to the statement.
“The families continue to advocate for the rights of their children and for the dignity and rights of the Autism community as a whole,” attorneys for the three families said. “They continue to seek accountability and justice from everyone who played a role in not ending the abuse against their children sooner through their ongoing lawsuit against The Joshua School.”
Joshua School Executive Director Cindy Lystad previously issued a statement that put blame for the abuse on Littleton Public Schools and said the school stands by teachers and staff members.
School board members did not comment on the settlement before or after approving it Thursday night, but district officials posted a letter online from Superintendent Todd Lambert addressing the settlement shortly after the vote.
The settlement will be “fully funded through insurance” and will have “no adverse impact on the educational services LPS students receive,” Lambert wrote.
“We will continue to look for ways to strengthen our practices, to communicate transparently with you, and to do everything in our power to ensure the safety, dignity and well-being of every student in our care,” he wrote.
Mayor Cherelle Parker on Friday declared a snow emergency, which will go into effect at 9 p.m. Saturday. The city’s Streets Department plans to use 1,000 workers, 600 pieces of equipment and 30,000 tons of salt during the storm.
BOHEMIA, N.Y. — A New York school district is “erasing its Native American heritage” and violating civil rights law by changing its team name from the “Thunderbirds” to the “T-Birds,” federal education officials say.
The U.S. Department of Education said Thursday that the Connetquot Central School District can voluntarily resolve the federal law violation by restoring the “rightful” Thunderbirds’ name.
The Long Island district, like others in the state, changed its team name in order to comply with state regulations banning Native American sports names and mascots.
But federal education officials argue the state mandate violates civil rights law because it allows schools to continue using names derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the “Dutchmen” and “Huguenots.”
“We will not allow ideologues to decide that some mascots based on national origin are acceptable while others are banned,” said Kimberly Richey, who heads the Education Department’s civil rights office. “The Trump Administration will not relent in ensuring that every community is treated equally under the law.”
The school district said it is reviewing the federal finding, but state education officials excoriated it, saying the conclusion “makes a mockery” of the nation’s civil rights laws.
“USDOE has offered no explanation as to whose civil rights were violated by changing a team name from Thunderbirds to T-birds,” JP O’Hare, spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement Friday. “NYSED remains committed to ending the use of harmful, outdated, and offensive depictions of Indigenous people.”
The state education department and the school district reached an agreement last year in which Connetquot would be allowed to use the “T-Birds” name and related imagery such as an eagle, thunderbolt or lightning bolt, in exchange for dropping its legal challenge to the state’s Native American mascot ban.
Native American advocates say the “Thunderbird” is a mythical creature often depicted as a powerful spirit and benevolent protector in many indigenous traditions.
