U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has detained more than 650 children in California under President Donald Trump鈥檚 second term, an EdSource analysis of federal data has found. Most arrests happened in California communities, rather than at the border, and involved minors who resided and attended school in the state.

The number of children detained in the state鈥檚 interior rose 90% during the first year of Trump鈥檚 second term compared to the prior year under the Biden administration, our analysis shows. More than 100 of the children detained under Trump were age 5 or under. 

The rise in child detainments in the state鈥檚 interior began soon after Trump took office in January 2025. Trump won office on a promise to carry out mass deportations, 鈥渋llegal immigrant killers, rapists, and drug dealers from our streets and sending them back where they belong.鈥�

Starting immediately and escalating over the summer of 2025, ICE agents have conducted large-scale operations in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. Some children have been detained while accompanying parents to routine ICE check-ins. The practices reflect an escalation in enforcement activity that .

The children detained, so far, include a from Los Angeles County who was detained in June 2025 and deported to Guatemala; a who, along with his father, was detained at an immigration hearing that same month and deported to Honduras; and who, in March, was detained without his hearing aids and deported to Colombia along with his mother and younger brother.

Medical professionals and advocates contend that no period of time in detention is safe for children. In 2016, a Department of Homeland Security Advisory Committee 鈥� the practice of detaining children with their parents as they await the outcome of their case 鈥� writing 鈥渄etention is never in the best interest of children.鈥�

鈥淭he kids that are in detention in these facilities, they鈥檙e losing their childhoods every single day that they鈥檙e in there,鈥� said Wendy Cervantes, who oversees research and advocacy of immigrant families at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Law and Social Policy. 

A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to EdSource that this data is 鈥渂eing cherry-picked鈥� to 鈥減eddle a false narrative.鈥� ICE, the spokesperson said, is 鈥渘ot targeting children.鈥�

鈥淚CE does not separate families,鈥� the unidentified DHS spokesperson said. 鈥淧arents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.鈥� 

What the data shows

EdSource analyzed federal detainment data obtained by the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley and UCLA capturing federal detainments between October 2022 and March 2026. The analysis found: 

• There were 666 Californian children detained during the Trump administration. Of those, 408 children 鈥� or 61% 鈥� were deported. Under the Biden administration, 8% were ultimately deported.听
• Nationally, children have been held longer in detention under Trump than under Biden. The median length of detention jumped from one day under Biden to eight days under Trump. This does not include 335 children who had not yet been released from detention as of March 11, the last day for which data was available.
• Nationally, the average number of children in detention jumped nearly 10-fold under Trump, due in part to these longer detention stays. Under the last year of the Biden administration, there were, on average, 23 children held in detention each day. During Trump鈥檚 first year of his second term, that figure rose to 219.

The Trump administration is going after 鈥渢he worst of the worst,鈥� including pedophiles and rapists, a DHS spokesperson said. 

鈥淢any of the individuals that are counted as 鈥榥on-criminals鈥� are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don鈥檛 have a rap sheet in the U.S.,鈥� the DHS spokesperson said. 鈥淔urther, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally.鈥�

According to EdSource鈥檚 analysis of ICE鈥檚 data, none of the 666 detained children in California under Trump had any felonies or previous convictions listed. Twelve minors were listed as having pending criminal charges, including three girls between ages 6 and 9. The nature of those pending charges is not disclosed. The ICE data does not include information about any connected family members or their cases.

During his second term, Trump reopened family detention facilities, including the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley and the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center in Texas. In California, 250 detained children were ultimately sent to these family facilities.

A 12-year-old from Los Angeles, identified by the initials G.S., gave describing their experience living inside the South Texas Family Residential Center during a 64-day detainment with their parents and younger sister.

The child said ICE agents detained the family during a routine ICE check-in in Los Angeles. The family lost their apartment and belongings, according to the May 22 declaration. The status of the child and their family is unclear.

鈥淚t makes me feel hopeless to be here for so long, because now it鈥檒l take me and my whole family a long time to get back to normal because of how much money and education we have lost,鈥� the child said in their declaration. 鈥淚f I could change one thing here, it would be to shut down the whole facility.鈥�

Trump vs. Biden

One major difference between the Trump and Biden presidencies has been the number of children who arrived at the border. Of the 5,676 children detained in California between October 2022 and when Trump started his second term, 94% were apprehended at the border.

Biden prioritized placing some of the unaccompanied minors who arrived at the border with sponsors, Cervantes said, and ended the practice of family detention that resumed under Trump. Cervantes said the Biden administration largely followed . 

The 1997 agreement provided rights for immigrant children in U.S. custody and prohibited most detentions from lasting more than 20 days. The declaration from the detained Los Angeles minor is one of several included from children and parents in a lawsuit claiming their rights under the Flores agreement have been violated.

Attorneys representing the Trump administration in this case in June 2025 that conditions at detention centers for children have 鈥渄rastically improved鈥� since the original agreement. Referencing the high number of immigrants at the border, the administration said the Flores Settlement Agreement 鈥渉amstrung the government in addressing this catastrophic illegal migration.鈥�

Apprehension in California

During the first year of Trump鈥檚 second term, adults were detained in California鈥檚 interior at more than four times the rate they were held during the last year of Biden鈥檚 administration, while the rate of child detainments rose by 90%.

California has passed laws and issued guidance with the aim of shielding schools from federal immigration enforcement. For instance, under California law, school officials .

In , parents, teachers and neighbors have formed rapid-response networks to report sightings of ICE agents for students and their families to avoid while commuting to and from school.

The sites of some immigration enforcement operations, such as job sites, may be more likely to target adults than children. However, Cervantes notes that some teens working at restaurants or as lifeguards at pools have been apprehended in ICE raids while they鈥檙e on the job. She also disputes the Trump administration鈥檚 claim that children have not been targets of immigration enforcement. 

Children may not be detained at the same rates that adults are, but medical experts warn that any time spent in detention is too long for their well-being.

Shortly after Trump began his second term, medical professionals to the president and then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem warning that 鈥渄etention itself poses a threat to child health.鈥� 

鈥淲e have endless amounts of research and expert testimony on how harmful detention is to children,鈥� said Michelle Bran茅, who was the immigration detention ombudsman under the Biden administration, and now leads the nonprofit Together and Free, which supports asylum-seeking families. 鈥淵ou see kids with extreme depression. You see kids really regressing, kids going back to wetting the bed after they鈥檝e been trained for years.鈥�

Going Deeper

The Deportation Data Project collects U.S. government immigration enforcement datasets obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. EdSource analyzed this data with a focus on how immigration enforcement is affecting children in California.

The participants in the project are academics and attorneys, including co-founders Graeme Blair, a professor of political science at UCLA; David Hausman, a professor of law at UC Berkeley and attorney Amber Quereshi.

This dataset from the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement contains anonymized individual level data. It contains data about arrests, detention stays and detention rates in individual facilities, largely from Oct. 1, 2022, during Biden鈥檚 term until March 11, 2026 during Trump鈥檚 second term. 

A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security said that neither they nor ICE have verified the accuracy, methodology or analysis of the Deportation Data Project and its results. 

Hausman noted that it has posted the original data obtained directly from ICE.

鈥淭hese are ICE鈥檚 own records of who is arrested, detained, and deported,鈥� Hausman wrote in a statement to EdSource. 鈥淲e have posted the data and code underlying the analysis. We welcome any specific feedback.鈥�

This ICE data from the Deportation Data Project does not include the city or state of residence for those individuals who were arrested or detained. This makes it difficult to determine with precision how many Californians are being affected directly by enforcement operations. Additionally, many of the over 700,000 arrests nationally in the data set have blanks where there should be information about the state or area where an apprehension took place.

EdSource鈥檚 analysis relied primarily on a set of more than 1 million detention stays nationally. Every recorded individual stay in the ICE detention system has a list of codes corresponding to detention facilities. Our data analysis counts those who were first detained in a California detention facility as being detained in California.

California is a border state. A hallmark of the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration policy has been a shift from the border to deporting immigrants who are living in the interior of the country. So it was important to determine whether someone had been detained as a part of border enforcement. We used the same methodology as the Deportation Data Project to distinguish between an arrest at the border or one that occurred in the interior. We counted an arrest as happening at the border if it involved U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including Border Patrol or the Coast Guard.

Determining the age of those Californians who were detained was more straightforward. We have the birth year of those who were detained, as well as the date that an individual was booked into a facility. If the difference between those years was less than 18, this analysis counts them as a child. Because we do not know the exact birth dates of each individual, 666 children may be an undercount.

None of the data connects family members to one another.

This story was originally published by . Sign up for their .

EdSource Reporter Zaidee Stavely and Data Journalist Daniel J. Willis contributed to this story.

The U.S. Department of Education may no longer be able to fully support students, it says in an internal report that lays bare the full extent of the Trump Administration鈥檚 first round of government cuts.

The department lost about 40% of its staff from the day Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025 through March 31, 2025, but certain subdepartments were hit harder, according to the report released last week. The Office of English Language Acquisition, which served immigrant students, was gutted, leaving one employee, according to . The department also terminated contracts and grants totaling roughly $2 billion. 

Although the report was internal, conducted by the education department鈥檚 Office of Inspector General, it is incomplete. Department staff did not comply with all the inspector general鈥檚 requests and cancelled interviews. As a result, the report says that many of its key findings are not definitive and that the total number of layoffs, the impact of those cuts, and the reasons for terminating certain contracts and grants remain unclear.   

The report also says that because of the cuts, the education department may no longer be able to administer Congressionally appropriated dollars or oversee federal education law, including the distribution of financial aid, investigations and data analyses. 

鈥淎ccording to the Department of Education’s own inspector general, the rapid elimination of nearly 1,600 staff, including those responsible for teacher training, student mental health programs, and legally required oversight functions, raises serious questions about whether the department can still meet its obligations to students,鈥� said Kindra Britt, director of communications and strategy for . 鈥淭hese are not bureaucratic losses; they have real consequences for real kids.鈥�

The report only includes cuts through March 31, 2025, and the education department has continued to cut staff and terminate grants and contracts since then. A number of grants have also been restored . The Trump Administration has slowly transferred many education services to other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Treasury Department. This year, the sole remaining staff member supporting English language acquisition elsewhere in the department and the work was transferred to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. That office is now managed, in part, by the .

鈥淭he Department of Education is focused on returning education to the states while preserving critical funding and reducing unnecessary bureaucracy that can slow support to students and families,鈥� wrote Kirsten Baesler, assistant secretary of the department鈥檚 elementary and secondary education office. 鈥淓nglish Learners should never be treated as a siloed program, set aside as an afterthought.鈥� 

In a statement, Scott Roark, a public information officer with California Department of Education, said the state remains focused on helping students, regardless of the administration鈥檚 efforts to 鈥渄isrupt services and safeguards鈥� and to 鈥渋mpose a national ideology on local schools.鈥� He said schools directly impacted by these disruptions should contact the state鈥檚 education department for help. 

Is the U.S. Education Department more efficient? 

Soon after his inauguration, Trump signed executive orders and directives which proposed ways to make government more efficient. The U.S. Education Department, spurred on by those orders, sent out offers to all federal employees saying they could resign and stay on payroll for a few months. Later, in March 2025, the department began laying off workers.   

The cuts were uneven across the education department鈥檚 17 offices, according to the Inspector General鈥檚 recent report: The Institute of Education Services, which conducts research, and the Office of the Under Secretary, which oversees many higher education programs, lost over 80% of their employees, much like the Office of English Language Acquisition. The 14 employees in the Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs were untouched. The Office of Inspector General is an independent entity and did not review itself.

Whether those cuts have created any efficiencies is up for debate.

Sharon Bonney, the chief executive of , a national organization representing adult education programs, said she primarily interacts with the education department’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, which lost about 30% of its staff in the first few months of 2025, according to the report.

鈥淚 haven鈥檛 seen them miss a beat. I have seen more efficiencies,鈥� said Bonney. 鈥淚n the past I would send an email, it would take three weeks to respond to, and now, two hours later, I have a response.鈥�

For Edgar Lampkin, the chief executive of the California Association for Bilingual Education, the effects have been 鈥渄evastating.鈥� 

California still struggles to serve its more than 1 million English language learners, in bilingual education, and recent efforts to improve California鈥檚 bilingual education have received .

Lampkin鈥檚 association, along with the advocacy coalition , has long received federal grants, sometimes totaling as much as $1 million annually, to train bilingual teachers across the state. 鈥淭hose grants are gone,鈥� he said 鈥� and the Trump Administration won鈥檛 see the full impacts of its actions, he added. 鈥淭he effects of education are normally 10 plus聽years ahead.鈥澛�

This article was and was republished under the license.

In a 6-3 decision, the conservative court said that West Virginia and Idaho did not break the law when they passed legislation prohibiting trans athletes from competing against biological women and girls. 

Becky-Pepper Jackson, a transgender 10th grader and track athlete in West Virginia, argued that such regulations are 鈥渦nreasonable.鈥� 

鈥淲e disagree,鈥� Justice Brett Kavanaugh , bringing his perspective as a girls鈥� to the case. 鈥淪eparate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable: Given the inherent physical differences between the sexes, allowing only biological females to play on women鈥檚 and girls鈥� teams can reduce the risk of physical injury and ensure fair competition.鈥�

Attorneys who represented Jackson and Boise State University transgender student Lindsay Hecox called the opinion a 鈥渉eartbreaking ruling鈥� and 鈥渄eeply harmful.鈥� The decision, however, doesn鈥檛 settle an ongoing legal debate over whether Title IX requires that participation in sports be based on biological sex determined at birth. 

鈥淚’m not terribly surprised by the outcome, given the court鈥檚 opinions in the last year,鈥� said Jenny Denny, a specializing in education and Title IX compliance. 鈥淚 think we could read the writing on the wall.鈥�

Last year, the court upheld a Tennessee law prohibiting gender affirming care for minors, and in April, conservatives sided with California parents who argued that districts should alert parents if their child wants to change their gender identity.

But she said the court鈥檚 opinion did not redefine Title IX to suit the administration. 

鈥淯sing a sports analogy, which is fitting for today, it’s not a slam dunk for the U.S. Department of Education,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think we’ll see the Department of Education cherry pick some language from the opinion today, but it still doesn’t give a clear answer.鈥�

The decision doesn鈥檛 prevent states like California from maintaining policies that allow trans athletes to compete in line with their gender identity. But it also means the administration will likely continue its to prevent trans-inclusive policies through and threats to strip federal education funds from districts. 

Education Secretary Linda McMahon suggested as much in her comments on the ruling.

鈥淭his is a tremendous victory,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd we look forward to ensuring that every educational institution in America abides by the law of the land.鈥� 

The department鈥檚 enforcement actions have been based on an President Donald Trump signed last year, but now officials will likely apply the court鈥檚 opinion to any future effort to rewrite the Title IX rule, said Joshua Dunn, executive director of the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He frequently writes legal commentary for EdNext. 

He agreed that whether Title IX allows schools to include trans athletes in girls鈥� sports is still 鈥渁n open question.鈥�

Beth Parlato, senior legal counsel for the conservative Independent Women鈥檚 Law Center, called the opinion a 鈥渉uge win,鈥� but added, 鈥淭here鈥檚 more work to do.鈥�

Congress, she said, needs to 鈥渄o its job鈥� and pass legislation that would apply to all states.

In a partial dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the other two liberals on the court, agreed with Kavanaugh on Title IX. But she said the majority should have sent Jackson鈥檚 case back to the lower courts for further 鈥渇actual findings about the state of the scientific debate鈥� under the equal protection claim. 

鈥淎 restrained approach, based on all relevant facts, is particularly necessary when the court is faced with a consequential decision of constitutional dimension,鈥� she wrote.

While Jackson will likely not be able to compete in track this fall, Andrew Ortiz, senior policy attorney at the Transgender Law Center, said Tuesday鈥檚 decision won鈥檛 have a major impact. because there were already so few trans students participating in sports in the 28 states that tried to ban their participation. In those states, intramural sports and private schools, 鈥渃ould still be options,鈥� he said. While the cases now go back to the lower courts, he expects the states to 鈥減retty quickly鈥� prevail in their efforts to enforce their laws.

鈥楤ack of the pack鈥�

As is often the pattern, the justices released opinions with the most nationwide impact at the end of their term, one in which Trump鈥檚 agenda, from immigration reform to voting laws, has . While Hecox and Jackson challenged the laws in their states before Trump took office, the administration took part in the case, arguing that states shouldn鈥檛 have to carve out a special exception for transgender athletes even if, as their attorneys argued, their physical advantages have been diminished by puberty blockers or drugs to suppress testosterone.

In fact, several months after the oral arguments, Michael R. Williams, West Virginia鈥檚 solicitor general, argued that the opposite is happening. In May, he that Jackson finished fourth in discus and first in shot put in a statewide track and field competition. 

鈥淎s a high-school sophomore, B.P.J. is not finishing 鈥榥ear the back of the back,鈥� 鈥� , referencing the from Jackson鈥檚 legal team in the case. Jackson 鈥渋s instead defeating every 鈥� or nearly every 鈥� female in the state in these events.鈥�

But LGBTQ advocates, like the , argue that because transgender athletes represent such of students participating in sports, it鈥檚 misleading to say they are dominating competitions or 鈥渟tealing鈥� first place medals from women and girls. 

The debate continued at the appeals court level even while the Supreme Court deliberated in the West Virginia and Idaho cases.

In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit an advocacy group, , in their argument that a Minnesota policy is discriminatory because it allows trans athletes to compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. 

The court said that Trump鈥檚 executive order and the administration鈥檚 actions against states and districts didn鈥檛 settle the legal dispute over the issue. 

鈥淭he executive branch鈥檚 views on that question may guide its own enforcement approach,鈥� wrote Raymond Gruender, a George W. Bush appointee. 鈥淏ut they cannot independently establish a 鈥榮trong likelihood鈥� that [the athlete鈥檚] participation violated Title IX or its implementing regulations.鈥�

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, a member of the House education committee, filed three articles of impeachment against McMahon, noting the secretary鈥檚 鈥渨illful intent to unilaterally dismantle and eliminate the Department of Education.鈥�

Bonamici a week ago, prompting a swift response from McMahon defending her track record.

鈥淚t speaks volumes that House Democrats think an impeachable offense is working to improve student outcomes and reduce the federal bureaucracy,鈥� she .

The resolution accuses McMahon of compromising the ability of the department to fulfill its duties. That鈥檚 also the conclusion that the department鈥檚 Inspector General reached in released Wednesday detailing how the administration has slashed the agency鈥檚 staff by 40% and canceled billions of dollars in grants and contracts. 

McMahon has been forced to backtrack. The department currently has several job openings posted, including and .

Democrats have introduced articles of impeachment against multiple members of President Donald Trump鈥檚 cabinet, including Health and Human Services Secretary and Defense Secretary . But historically the attempts have rarely succeeded. Two years ago, the House impeached Biden Homeland Security for what members said was a failure to stop migrants from crossing the border, but the Senate dismissed the two articles against him.  Before him, the last cabinet member to be impeached was William W. Belknap, secretary of war under President Ulysses S. Grant, on , in 1876. 

Critics of Betsy DeVos, Trump鈥檚 first education secretary, called for her to and some groups advocating impeachment. But lawmakers never took formal steps to do so. A federal judge, however, held her in 2019 and fined her $100,000 when she continued student debt collections in violation of a court order. The department .

While some Republicans have also been critical of McMahon, Rep. Tim Walberg, the Michigan Republican who chairs the education committee, called the action 鈥減olitical theater.鈥�

鈥淪ecretary McMahon is doing exactly what voters elected President Trump to do: rein in a bloated bureaucracy and put students, parents, and taxpayers first,鈥� he said in a statement.

The effort is also largely 鈥渟ymbolic鈥� and unlikely to succeed, said Jeffrey Henig, a professor emeritus at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

鈥淪ymbolism can be important, and a case can be made for using this as a way to draw attention to the dismantling of the department,鈥� he said.

The resolution says McMahon has 鈥渄ecimated鈥� the agency and 鈥渃reated a culture of fear and chaos鈥� that has harmed education programs.

Specifically, the articles of impeachment are:

1. Willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law

The text cites McMahon鈥檚 actions to transfer responsibilities, which under law rest with the Education Department, to other agencies. Just last week, she announced that the office overseeing special education would move to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Civil Rights would transfer to the Justice Department.

2. False statements before Congress

The resolution accuses McMahon of lying to Congress during her confirmation hearing that she would follow the law in disbursing education funds appropriated by Congress. Instead, the text reads, she has defended the cancellation of several research contracts and discontinued grants for programs like community schools.

3. Breach of public trust

Again focusing on funding, the resolution states that the administration held up payments for services like migrant education and afterschool care and put 鈥渃ritical鈥� K-12 programs at risk.

Bonamici said parents, especially those of students with disabilities are “distraught” over splitting up the department. “They are asking us to take action to stop these illegal transfers,” she said. “To them I say, ‘We hear you.’ “

Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, suggested McMahon鈥檚 actions aren鈥檛 grounds for impeachment.

鈥淭he race to the bottom continues, in this case regarding the definition of 鈥榟igh crimes and misdemeanors,鈥� ” he said. 鈥淭his is just politics, but I can appreciate that Congressional Democrats don’t feel like they have any other recourse right now.鈥� 

Federal officials Tuesday that the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services will move to the Department of Health and Human Services, while the Office for Civil Rights will shift to the Department of Justice. It鈥檚 a decision that鈥檚 been in the making for more than a year, as the administration has attempted to dismantle the Education Department .

At a press conference Tuesday, senior department officials as new partnerships between the agencies. The officials said the changes won鈥檛 impact or reduce students鈥� rights, but instead improve efficiency. Senior department officials participated in the briefing on the condition that the speakers wouldn鈥檛 be identified by name. Education Secretary Linda McMahon did not take part.

Both the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the Office for Civil Rights will retain some original functions, according to federal . But many specifics, such as staffing decisions and timelines, are still under discussion, the officials said. 

Special education advocates have protested that moving programs, including civil rights oversight, out of the Education Department will harm students with disabilities. 

In a  Tuesday, McMahon acknowledged that too many families must still fight for timely and appropriate special education services for their children. She said the changes will 鈥渂reak down bureaucratic barriers and strengthen the coordination of resources to improve programs.鈥�

鈥淚t should not require herculean effort to obtain what the law guarantees,鈥� McMahon said. 鈥淎s the Trump administration scales back federal micromanagement when it hinders success, we are equally committed to bolstering the efficacy of federal oversight where it is essential.鈥�

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services oversees the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a landmark set of statutes that guarantee more than 8 million children with disabilities the right to attend public school. Critics say moving responsibility to HHS means taking oversight away from experts in specialized instruction and handing it to an agency ill-equipped to administer non-medical programs.

鈥淢oving IDEA oversight into HHS pushes students with disabilities toward a medical model, where disability is treated as a diagnosis to manage instead of a natural part of human life,鈥� Robyn Linscott, a director at The Arc of the United States, said in a Tuesday press release. 鈥淲hen that mindset drives education decisions, students are more likely to be segregated, underestimated or treated as separate from the school community.鈥�

The Education Department the special ed office already overlaps with HHS programs for people with disabilities.

The Office for Civil Rights has been a key avenue of relief for parents unable to get services for their children through complaints filed with their state, mediation, administrative hearings or due process cases. Families in states lacking local enforcement of special education complaints depend on OCR to investigate discrimination.

McMahon said in her statement that the partnership between OCR and the Justice Department will provide more responsive and coordinated enforcement of civil rights laws.

鈥淥CR and DOJ will combine their expertise and capacity to bolster evaluation, investigation, resolution of complaints and, above all, enforce critical protections for all students,鈥� she said.

Senior education department officials said during Tuesday鈥檚 press conference that OCR will refer complaints to the Justice Department for evaluation, investigation and resolution. The agency will still be in charge of case settlements, civil rights data collection and state assistance, and will make final determinations on whether to pursue action by referring cases to the Justice Department for enforcement.

Though McMahon said the moves will improve student and family outcomes, The American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents 2,000 Education Department staffers, said the shift is breaking down government processes instead of streamlining them. 

鈥淭his isn’t efficiency 鈥� it’s chaos. Previous interagency agreements divvying up both P-12 and higher education programs to other federal agencies have led to massive delays in congressionally mandated funding and confusion for federal employees and the public alike,鈥� union President Rachel Gittleman said in an emailed statement. 鈥淭hat’s an insult to the millions of students and families who rely on these services and the taxpayers who count on federal oversight to prevent waste, fraud and abuse.” 

The Trump administration is using interagency agreements to circumvent to close the Education Department, a move that House members have warned would 鈥渃reate inefficiencies鈥� and 鈥渃ause delays and administrative challenges.鈥� When the Department of Labor picked up career and technical education last year, for example, some states had to wait months to access millions of dollars in funding.

In the past year, major contracts for the federally funded Comprehensive Centers and Regional Educational Laboratories have been canceled, then reinstated. Calling the structure of Comprehensive Centers 鈥渄uplicative鈥� and 鈥渃onfusing,鈥� the U.S. Department of Education solicited public comment on a redesign. The 2027 budget proposal released by the White House in April zeros out both Comprehensive Centers and RELs entirely.听聽

Watching this unfold with concern are state education agencies鈥攖he primary recipients of this expertise on how to comply with federal laws and improve education outcomes. We recently interviewed state agency leaders in 14 states to hear about their experience with federal technical assistance: What works? What doesn鈥檛? What can they not afford to lose? Our sample is not nationally representative, and the Department of Education is conducting its own broader need-sensing. But offers a ground-level view that can help inform the choices ahead. 

Leaders most often named three functions of federal technical assistance as valuable and not easily replaced.  

The first: providing specialized expertise to help implement the most effective instructional practices. Smaller agencies, in particular, lack staff experts on topics such as evidence-based literacy instruction or supporting students with dyslexia. They also lack the resources to evaluate whether changes in practice are occurring in schools. 鈥淚 can count on one hand the number of PhDs we have, and I think it鈥檚 two,鈥� one leader told us. 鈥淲e just don鈥檛 have the capacity to dig into the issues that we know we want to.鈥� 

The second was cross-state networking. Technical assistance providers often broker connections between individuals in similar roles across state lines, connections that leaders would not have made on their own. This creates opportunities to learn from one another and exchange promising practices. 鈥淚t is completely a siloed job out here in our region,鈥� one said, 鈥渁nd having access to [other] people who are doing the work is the biggest benefit.鈥�  

The third was providing authoritative guidance on compliance with federal law that is specific to states鈥� own systems, staff and rules. This function matters especially in the context of efforts to give more autonomy to states. If states are going to take on greater responsibility for how federal education funds are spent, they will need timely, expert help navigating complex requirements in federal laws 鈥� which remain in place even as other aspects of education policy are largely 鈥渞eturned to the states.鈥� 

Given the restructuring and budget proposals, there is real uncertainty about what technical assistance will look like when the dust settles. Leaders we spoke with provided caveats about some of the ideas that have been floated and suggested improvements they would like to see. 

Some expressed frustration with bureaucratic delays in Education Department processes 鈥� particularly around selecting providers and initiating new projects. Yet they were still skeptical about the idea of giving each state funds to contract for its own technical assistance. 鈥淚f I鈥檝e got a million bucks, and I want to build this thing, requests for information go out today, it鈥檚 likely the first opportunity that that work begins is probably at least a year out,鈥� one leader said. 鈥淭his is state procurement; that鈥檚 the rule, not the exception.鈥�  

State leaders also worried that direct contracting would fragment the national expertise and cross-state coordination a federal system provides. They preferred centralized systems more responsive to states鈥� priorities over a mandate to 鈥渄o it yourself.鈥� 

The ongoing push to hand education functions to other agencies, some leaders cautioned, would result in more complexity, not less. 鈥淚nstead of having five contacts at ED, we鈥檙e going to have two contacts at the Department of Labor鈥� [another at] Health and Human Services鈥� [another at] Commerce,鈥� one said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 actually think it鈥檚 going to create more efficiencies.鈥� 

Other state agency leaders wanted the federal government to lead more boldly on evidence-based practices. The Department of Education, one told us, 鈥渉as never really put their stake in the ground on what is good instruction, what is good assessment, what are good materials.鈥�  

In all, the state leaders we interviewed would welcome reforms that cut red tape and give them more voice in shaping the support they receive. At the same time, they wanted to retain an infrastructure that can deliver specialized research support, cross-state leadership, and state-specific compliance guidance.  

As the decision point nears, their experience offers a roadmap for getting the details right 鈥� one grounded in the daily realities of running a state education system.

But one line in the department’s own should give parents and policymakers pause. It says the department “would not establish goals and performance indicators” for the MEGA program. 

If Washington wants to throw a sprawling set of K-12 priorities in one pot, it needs to say how taxpayers are supposed to know whether the meal was worth the bill.

At its heart, MEGA would consolidate programs into a single state formula grant, with at least 25% reserved for literacy and 25% for mathematics.

That matters because the programs include support for teacher development, after-school programs, state assessments, homeless students, rural schools, school safety, magnet schools, civics, arts education and family engagement. 

All are important programs that are being compressed into a budget that sets aside huge chunks for reading and math and leaves less room for everything else. And once those line items disappear into a single grant, the public will have a harder time seeing what states funded, what they skipped and what any of it bought.

That is a strange place to economize, because the federal cost of keeping score is tiny. Public schools spent $818.2 billion in current expenditures in fiscal year 2023, according to the latest . Before any of the proposed cuts take effect, the main federal testing-and-data lines totaled , , and . That is $694.8 million all told, or about 85 cents for every $1,000 schools spend.

And yet that sliver buys some of the most important information in American education. As Robin Lake wrote, the newest were alarming and pandemic recovery remains uneven. 社区黑料’s interactive on widening achievement gaps shows lower-performing students falling further behind in nearly every state. These are precisely the kinds of problems that become visible only because the federal government mandated metrics.

To be fair, federal education policy has accumulated layers of programs, rules and paperwork; and there is a legitimate argument for giving states more discretion. But even stronger advocates of local autonomy than I have argued for a truer national yardstick so that flexibility does not become opacity. Simpler funding and clearer public evidence belong together.

The Department’s own documents underscore this contradiction. Under the MEGA proposal, states and districts would still be expected to meet federal reporting requirements under . But the new grant itself would arrive without its own goals or indicators, even as the administration describes it as an “evidence-based” investment in literacy and numeracy. 

Some of the programs being consolidated currently have specific purposes and, in some cases, performance measures of their own. , for instance, are explicitly targeted to literacy and report performance information. Under MEGA, that specificity would give way to a much broader grant with no specified performance indicators.

This is especially hard to justify because the budget would not only merge programs but also hollow out dedicated measurement lines. A federal line for state assessments would even as states are still expected to keep testing and reporting. The budget would cut federal education statistics from and reduce NAEP and the National Assessment Governing Board from . 

MEGA is still only a budget request, and Congress rejected similar cuts last year. But proposals like this matter because they reveal what Washington now considers the tiny slice of education spending focused on accountability as dispensable. Programs such as school safety, rural education, homeless students and family engagement would have to compete inside the unreserved share of MEGA. 

If the administration believes states can do more with fewer federal silos, then it should welcome a short public scorecard showing where the money went and what improved.

That scorecard need not be complicated. Congress could require states to publish their MEGA plans in a common format and report a short, comparable set of outcomes for reading, math, attendance, graduation and subgroup performance. None of that would prevent flexibility. It would simply ensure that outcomes remain visible. No one should have to reverse-engineer state budgets to find out whether a grant marketed as a literacy investment actually strengthened reading outcomes.

The administration says MEGA would move decision-making closer to home. Fine. But if the money moves closer to home, the metrics should move with it. Policymakers and researchers need a short public scorecard and a common reporting template. If MEGA is going to remake federal schooling, it can do what schools ask of children every day. Namely, show your work.

You cannot claim to support literacy while slashing the very programs that help children become readers, stay healthy and succeed in school.

For more than two decades, I have worked alongside families as a social worker, nonprofit leader and education advocate. Today, I lead Families In Schools, a nonprofit that equips parents with the tools, knowledge and confidence to support their children鈥檚 learning. I have seen firsthand what happens when families have the support they need 鈥� and what happens when they do not.

The parents we work with remind me of my own parents. My father came to this country through the Bracero program and, like so many parents, trusted public schools to create opportunities for his children. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. That should not be the exception for children in communities like mine.

I benefited from programs that helped me succeed. Today, too many families risk losing those same opportunities.

The president鈥檚 Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal would take 17 education programs that families rely on and roll them into a single block grant, cutting their funding from $6.47 billion to just $2 billion.

This is not reform. It is a dismantling.

Under this proposal, funding would no longer be dedicated to specific programs. Instead, states would receive significantly reduced amounts of money, with broad discretion over how it is spent. There would be no requirement to maintain investments in afterschool activities that keep children safe while parents work, college access programs like TRIO and Gear UP, community schools, family engagement efforts, academic supports and services for homeless children.

Programs like these aid more than 26 million students from low-income families. With reduced funding and no dedicated protections, they would be pitted against one another, and many would be at risk of disappearing altogether. But these programs are not extras; they are lifelines.

Families and educators know exactly what these cuts could mean.

They could mean parents working a second job scrambling to find somewhere safe for their child to go after school. They could mean English learners losing critical assistance in the classroom, or community schools having to cut back on health care, counseling, food assistance and other basic services that enable children to learn.

And they could mean family engagement 鈥� one of the most powerful drivers of student success 鈥� being pushed even further to the margins.

Parents are children鈥檚 first teachers and their most fierce and stalwart advocates. Literacy development begins at birth, in play and conversation with caregivers. Kids learn to love reading when people they love read to them. If they are struggling or falling behind, it鈥檚 usually the parents or caregivers who fight to make sure they get the help they need, whether that means demanding testing, changing schools or finding tutoring and afterschool activities. Children do not learn in a vacuum. They learn best when their families have the tools, information and resources to be active partners in their education.

The programs on the chopping block have been in place for decades, and they define 鈥渆vidence-based.鈥� They have been evaluated, showing improvements in attendance, academic outcomes and the ability of families to better support their children鈥檚 success.

Walking away from them puts that progress at risk.

States and local districts cannot absorb cuts of this . Families cannot simply make up the difference with time they do not have, money they cannot spare or resources that may not exist.

Parents, educators and policymakers all want children to read, succeed in school and build better futures for themselves. But literacy cannot just be a slogan, and literacy skills cannot be learned if children鈥檚 overall developmental needs are not met.

If children are truly to succeed, Congress should reject the president’s proposed cuts and protect the programs students and families rely on every day.

As immigration authorities carry out what President Donald Trump has promised will be the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, several states are passing laws to keep children out of foster care when their detained parents have no family or friends available to take temporary custody of them.

The federal government doesn’t track how many children have entered foster care because of immigration enforcement actions, leaving it unclear how often it happens. In Oregon, as of February two children had been placed in foster care after being separated from their parents in immigration detention cases, according to Jake Sunderland, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Human Services.

鈥淏efore fall 2025, this simply had never happened before,鈥� Sunderland said.

As of mid-February, nearly by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The record 73,000 people in detention in January represented an compared with one year before. According to , parents of 11,000 children who are U.S. citizens were detained from the beginning of Trump鈥檚 term through August.

The news outlet NOTUS that at least 32 children of detained or deported parents had been placed in foster care in seven states.

Sandy Santana, executive director of Children鈥檚 Rights, a legal advocacy organization, said he thinks the actual number is much higher.

鈥淭hat, to us, seems really, really low,鈥� he said.

Separation from a parent is deeply traumatic for children and can lead to , including post-traumatic stress disorder. Prolonged, intense stress can lead to more-frequent infections in children and developmental issues. That 鈥渢oxic stress鈥� is also associated with damage to areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory, , a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.

, and amended existing laws during Trump鈥檚 first term to allow guardians to be granted temporary parental rights for immigration enforcement reasons. Now the enforcement surge that began after Trump returned to office last year has prompted a new wave of state responses.

In New Jersey, lawmakers are considering to amend a state law that allows parents to nominate standby, or temporary, guardians in the cases of death, incapacity, or debilitation. The bill would add separation due to federal immigration enforcement as another allowable reason.

Nevada and California passed laws last year to protect families separated by immigration enforcement actions. California鈥檚 law, called the , allows parents to nominate guardians and share custodial rights, instead of having them suspended, while they鈥檙e detained. They regain their full parental rights if they are released and are able to reunite with their children.

There are significant legal barriers to reunification once a child is placed in state custody, said Juan Guzman, director of children鈥檚 court and guardianship at the Alliance for Children鈥檚 Rights, a legal advocacy organization in Los Angeles.

If a parent鈥檚 child is placed in foster care and the parent cannot participate in required court proceedings because they are in detention or have been deported, it鈥檚 less likely they will be able to reunite with their child, Guzman said.

are U.S. citizens who live with a parent or family member who does not have legal immigration status, according to research from the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Within that group, 2.6 million children have two parents lacking legal status.

Santana said he expects the number of family separation cases to grow as the Trump administration continues its immigration enforcement campaign, putting more children at risk of being placed in foster care.

the agency to make efforts to facilitate detained parents鈥� participation in family court, child welfare, or guardianship proceedings, but Santana said it鈥檚 uncertain whether ICE is complying with those rules.

ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment for this report.

Before the change in California鈥檚 law, the only way a parent could share custodial rights with another guardian was if the parent was terminally ill, Guzman said.

If parents create a preparedness plan and identify an individual to assume guardianship of their children, the state child welfare agency can begin the process of placing the children with that individual without opening a formal foster care case, he added.

While Nevada lawmakers expanded an existing guardianship law last year to include immigration enforcement, the measure requires the parents to file notarized paperwork with the secretary of state鈥檚 office, an administrative step that may be burdensome, said Cristian Gonzalez-Perez, an attorney at Make the Road Nevada, a nonprofit that provides resources to immigrant communities.

Gonzalez-Perez said some immigrants are still hesitant to fill out government forms, out of fear that ICE might access their information and target them. He reassures community members that the state forms are secure and can be accessed only by hospitals and courts.

The Trump administration has taken through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the IRS, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other entities.

Gonzalez-Perez and Guzman said that not enough immigrant parents know their rights. Nominating a temporary guardian and creating a plan for their families is one way they can prevent feelings of helplessness, Gonzalez-Perez said.

鈥淔olks don鈥檛 want to talk about it, right?鈥� Guzman said. 鈥淭he parent having to speak to a child about the possibility of separation, it鈥檚 scary. It鈥檚 not something anybody wants to do.鈥�

is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at 鈥� the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Sacramento City Unified and La Mesa-Spring Valley school districts and Taft College in California are among six educational institutions in the U.S. that had civil rights settlements terminated by the U.S. Department of Education on Monday, according to the 

The agreements, negotiated by previous administrations, were meant to uphold protections for transgender students. Now that they have been terminated, the colleges and school districts are no longer obligated to continue measures such as faculty training or allowing students to use the bathrooms, names or pronouns that align with their gender identity, the Associated Press reported.

The termination of the agreements is an effort to enforce President Donald Trump鈥檚 executive order that the government recognize only a person鈥檚 sex assigned at birth. 

In Sacramento City Unified, that means the district will no longer have to abide by a 2024 settlement that requires it to provide training on Title IX policies to school administrators, teachers guidance counselors and school resource officers, according to the  

The settlement stems from a 2022 complaint by a transgender student who said a teacher refused to use his preferred pronouns and that an administrator also referred to him incorrectly. The Office for Civil Rights, under the Biden administration, agreed with the student and directed the school district to take corrective measures, according to The Bee.

Sacramento City Unified said Monday it 鈥渞emains committed to the support of our LGBTQ+ students and staff.鈥�

The district won鈥檛 decide whether to rescind the policies until it learns whether it will impact its federal funding, according to The Bee. The district faces a $170 million budget deficit and threats of state takeover.

La Mesa-Spring Valley Unified Superintendent David Feliciano told the  that the decision would have no effect on district policies and procedures.

鈥淲e remain committed to ensuring a safe and supportive learning environment for all students,鈥� he said.

Written in response to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good during federal immigration operations, the song offered more than commentary. It interpreted a national crisis, asking listeners to confront what state power looks like when it arrives in neighborhoods, on sidewalks and in the lives of ordinary families. 

That is precisely why this moment belongs not only on playlists and opinion pages, but in civic education.

Since then, the political terrain has shifted, but not in ways that make the issue less urgent for schools. President Donald Trump Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after months of political fallout surrounding the administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown. 

Around the same time, reporting showed that the administration had scaled back the most visible ICE tactics in Minneapolis, there from roughly 3,000 agents to about 650, and shifted toward more targeted operations after the public backlash. Arrests declined in February, but ICE remains active, and the economic and civic damage in Minneapolis continues.

The retreat matters. It suggests that public protest, documentation by witnesses, investigative reporting and political pressure forced a tactical recalibration. But it also underscores a deeper lesson for educators: Students are living through a period in which official narratives, video evidence, journalism, protest and art are colliding in real time. 

Schools cannot pretend these are merely political controversies happening somewhere else. They are contemporary case studies in how democracy works, how it fails and how citizens push back.

The arrest earlier this month of , a Nashville-based reporter for a Spanish-language news outlet, makes that lesson even harder to ignore. Rodriguez Florez had been covering immigration arrests in Tennessee. Then ICE detained her, despite her pending asylum case, valid work permit and marriage to a U.S. citizen. 

Moments like this one shed light on why protest music is produced in response to government actions to silence individuals, raising essential civic questions for students to consider: Who gets to document state power? What happens when the people telling a community鈥檚 story become vulnerable themselves? And how should a democracy respond when journalism, immigration status, and political retaliation appear to converge?

Springsteen鈥檚 song is not a lone artistic response. Recent in Rolling Stone traces a broader wave of anti-ICE protest music released in the wake of the Minneapolis operations. Billy Bragg wrote 鈥淐ity of Heroes.鈥� NOFX released 鈥淢innesota Nazis.鈥� My Morning Jacket put out a benefit project, Peacelands, in solidarity with communities affected by ICE brutality. Bon Iver shared a live track to raise money for immigrant legal defense. Low Cut Connie and Dropkick Murphys have added their own contributions to this growing soundtrack of dissent.

Another Rolling Stone  places Springsteen鈥檚 song in a longer tradition of 鈥渋nstant protest songs,鈥� linking it to works such as Woody Guthrie鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� written in response to a 1948 plane crash that killed 28 Mexican migrant farmworkers being deported; Nina Simone鈥檚 鈥溾�� and Bob Dylan鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� written after the 1963 assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers; and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� about the Ohio National Guard鈥檚 killing of four Kent State University students protesting the Vietnam War.

This history is what makes this such a consequential educational moment. Protest songs are not simply cultural accessories to political events. They are historical artifacts, rhetorical arguments and emotional archives. They help listeners name what has happened, assign meaning to it and imagine what moral response is required. In classrooms, they can help students examine competing claims about law, order, belonging and dissent without reducing complex issues to partisan slogans. 

Analyzing protest music asks students to interpret voice, perspective, evidence, omission and historical context. These are not ideological activities designed to indoctrinate youth. They are learning opportunities to build critical thinking and civic literacy skills.

The question is not whether teachers should tell students what to think about Bruce Springsteen, ICE, Kristi Noem or the Trump administration. The question is whether students should have the chance to grapple with how democracies narrate force, how communities contest official accounts, and how music, journalism, and protest shape public understanding. 

In elementary school, that might mean introducing age-appropriate examples of peaceful protest and the role of songs in movements for fairness. In middle school, it could mean comparing lyrics with speeches or media accounts and asking what each includes, emphasizes, or leaves out. In high school, it could mean examining how protest music enters political life as argument, memory, and civic witness.

The broader lesson is that protest is not alien to American history; it is one of the ways people have always argued about freedom. From abolitionist songs to civil-rights anthems to Springsteen鈥檚 Minneapolis lament, music has carried democratic conflict across generations. 

It has helped individuals feel the stakes of policies they might otherwise encounter only as abstractions. It has translated public tragedy into public argument. And that argument, however uncomfortable, is not something schools should avoid. It is something students should be prepared to enter with the skills of engaging in productive and divergent thinking on complex civic issues.

At a moment when federal officials are trying to soften the optics of immigration enforcement without abandoning its underlying machinery, and when a journalist covering immigration can herself be detained, schools should resist the temptation to retreat into silence. Young people need more opportunities, not fewer, to interpret the music, reporting, speeches and images shaping public life around them.

A democracy worthy of the next generation depends on an informed citizenry capable of productive disagreement. Protest songs do not threaten that project. They give students one of the essential ways to practice it.

Dylan Lopez Contreras, the first New York City public school student detained by federal immigration officials during President Donald Trump鈥檚 second term, was released Tuesday night after spending 10 months in federal custody, according to his mother and his legal team.

Dylan, now 21, was a student at ELLIS Preparatory Academy, a Bronx school geared toward older, newly arrived immigrant students, and his arrest was one of the highest-profile early examples of an in immigration enforcement last year in which officers arrested immigrants in the hallways of federal court following their legal hearings. arrest.

Kristin Kepplinger, a spokesperson from the New York Legal Assistance Group, which had been representing Dylan in his immigration court case and federal habeas corpus lawsuit, said the reason for his release wasn鈥檛 yet clear, as they had yet to review his release documents.

His legal team was thankful to Mayor Zohran Mamdani鈥檚 administration and to the office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer who鈥檇 been advocating for his release, Kepplinger added.

Dylan鈥檚 federal habeas corpus petition was denied. An immigration judge also , but his lawyers appealed.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment on Dylan鈥檚 release.

A native of Venezuela, Dylan first entered the country in 2024 through a program under former President Joe Biden that allowed migrants to make appointments to cross the border and seek asylum.

Dylan鈥檚 arrest quickly earned local and national attention, prompting former Mayor Eric Adams鈥� administration to file an amicus brief seeking his release, along with rallies and calls from national elected officials. Last month, Dylan鈥檚 mother, Raiza Contreras, attended the State of the Union with Sen. Chuck Schumer.

鈥溾�淸I鈥檓] emotional,鈥� Raiza told Chalkbeat in a brief interview Wednesday in Spanish. 鈥淚鈥檓 grateful to God first and foremost and to all the people who were present in this case.鈥�

Gov. Kathy Hochul that she mentioned Dylan鈥檚 name in a recent meeting with Trump鈥檚 border czar, Tom Homan.

Mamdani said the city was 鈥渙verjoyed鈥� by Dylan鈥檚 release.

鈥淭hroughout this injustice, Dylan has shown remarkable strength, resilience, and courage,鈥� the mayor said in a statement.

Even as federal immigration enforcement swept up other city students 鈥� some of whom subsequently 鈥� Dylan remained in custody in Western Pennsylvania for nearly a year. In a September , he described the frustration and depression of having his life put on hold.

Norma Vega, the principal of ELLIS, where staffers and helped coordinate legal and other forms of support for the family, said she believes the sustained public campaign for Dylan鈥檚 release paid off.

鈥淚t confirmed for me we did the right thing,鈥� she said. 鈥淜eeping him in the public eye, he became the face of every immigrant youth across the country.鈥�

She added: 鈥淚t was about this kid who they [the federal government] inaccurately thought was alone 鈥� and how important it was for us to let them know he鈥檚 not alone.鈥�

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

A federal judge in Massachusetts has halted enforcement of several key vaccine policies imposed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ruling that the Trump administration illegally overhauled a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee dedicated to issuing immunization recommendations.

The decision, which comes in response to a filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics last July, temporarily blocks the enforcement of all recommendations voted on by the panel. That includes the overhaul of a decades-old recommendation that all newborn babies receive a vaccine against , a push to emphasize the risks of and a ban on vaccine preservatives like .

The ruling also temporarily halts participation from 13 of the panel鈥檚 15 members, complicating a meeting that was to begin later this week.

The CDC鈥檚 committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is charged with setting national guidelines around which people should be vaccinated against a wide range of preventable diseases and when those vaccines should be administered. The recommendations play a key role in determining which vaccines insurance companies are willing to cover and how accessible those immunizations are to the public.

Last June, Kennedy all 17 members of the committee and replaced them with a slate of hand-picked appointees, many of whom are seen as vaccine skeptics. In his Monday , District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy ruled that the Trump administration likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to appoint qualified, nonpartisan experts, as the panel鈥檚 charter requires.

By ignoring those requirements, 鈥渢he Government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions,鈥� Murphy鈥檚 ruling reads.

Dr. Andrew Racine, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, celebrated the ruling, calling it 鈥渁 historic and welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere.鈥�

鈥淔or decades, the AAP partnered closely with the federal government to advance our mission of attaining the optimal health and well-being of children and youth,鈥� Racine added. 鈥淲e would much prefer to return to that partnership and collaborate with federal healthcare agencies instead of litigating against them.鈥�

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

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

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

In the news

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ICYMI @The74

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

When the Trump administration decimated the Education Department鈥檚 civil rights office last year, thousands of students waiting for relief from alleged racial and sexual discrimination in schools were left to languish. 

It turns out the move to sideline half of the Office for Civil Rights staff , according to a new report by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. Nearly a year later, the Education Department still can鈥檛 say whether it saved a dime. 

GAO estimates the decision to place civil rights staffers on paid administrative leave, while simultaneously shuttering most of its regional offices, cost upwards of $38 million for the salaries and benefits of staffers who were kept home. 

鈥淥ther costs,鈥� the government watchdog noted, 鈥渁re unknown.鈥� 

Without a full accounting of costs and savings, the watchdog concluded, the the shakeup improved efficiency, saved money or better served students 鈥� the very reasons used to justify the cuts in the first place. 

In the news

The latest in Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown: Minnesota school districts and the state鈥檚 teachers union filed a lawsuit demanding reinstatement of a longstanding policy against immigration enforcement activities near schools and other 鈥渟ensitive locations.鈥� | 

• A Minnesota 11-year-old and her mother will be reunited with their family after being held for nearly a month in a Texas detention center after getting picked up by immigration agents on their way to school. | 
  
• The horrifying truth behind the immigration arrest of 5-year-old Liam Ramos: It wasn鈥檛 an accident. | 
  
  • The Columbia Heights school district where Liam is enrolled closed for a day this week after officials received a 鈥渞acially and politically motivated鈥� bomb threat. | 
    
• 鈥楴one of this is OK鈥�: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz demanded in a letter that the federal government disclose how many of the state鈥檚 children have been detained as part of the immigration enforcement surge 鈥� and pleaded for agents to stay away from schools and bus stops. | 
  
• Cities could be compelled to cooperate with federal immigration officials in order to access federal funds for investigations into internet crimes against children, a lawsuit alleges. | 

Big Tech in the spotlight: As TikTok and Snap settle lawsuits centered on the damaging effects of social media on children, Meta and YouTube are gearing up for closely watched trials. The tech companies face allegations the apps were designed to keep kids hooked despite known harms to their well-being. | 

• Amazon reported hundreds of thousands of photos of child sexual abuse in its artificial intelligence training data 鈥� but the company鈥檚 refusal to say where it came from could hinder police efforts to track down perpetrators. |  
  
• As Democrat- and Republican-led states pass rules designed to protect children from the potential harms of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, an executive order by President Donald Trump gives the attorney general authority to sue states with consumer protection laws that stand in the way of the country鈥檚 鈥済lobal AI dominance.鈥� | 
  
• The head of the Federal Trade Commission came out as a strong proponent of contentious online age-verification rules, arguing 鈥渋t offers a way to unleash American innovation without compromising the health and well-being of America’s most important resource: its children.鈥� | 

A North Carolina woman faces criminal charges after she allegedly kicked a pregnant school resource officer in the stomach while refusing to leave her child鈥檚 elementary school. | 

鈥業t鈥檚 evil鈥�: The National Institutes of Health failed to protect genetic data of more than 20,000 U.S. children from misuse by a fringe group of researchers who used the records to claim intellectual superiority of white people over other races. | 

Two Florida teenagers accused of plotting to kill a classmate will be charged as adults with attempted premeditated murder. | 

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社区黑料鈥檚 Eamonn Fitzmaurice and his son Ellis  to offer a few treats and scratches. 鈥淚鈥檓 a dog person,鈥� Eamonn tells me, 鈥渂ut the cats were cute.鈥�

Nearly half of those surveyed reported leaving their jobs to provide child care, 80% experienced food insecurity and just over half worried that their child was missing out on care that is safer or more welcoming. This was especially true for kids with disabilities.

The research is particularly relevant given the federal government鈥檚 recent attempt to freeze $10 billion in social service funds to five Democratic-led states, including at least $2.4 billion in child care subsidy funding.

Daphna Bassok, the report鈥檚 author and an education and public policy professor at the University of Virginia, said if the funding to the five states were to disappear overnight, the impacts would be 鈥減retty dire鈥� and quickly felt.

鈥淭he findings highlighted just how meaningful these resources are for families. This is not help around the edges or help just to make things a little better,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he results suggest they are driving families鈥� abilities to work and go to school and do basic things, as well as children’s ability to go to child care centers.鈥�

On Jan. 6, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was halting billions in child care and family assistance funds to California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, alleging 鈥渟erious concerns about widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars in state-administered programs.鈥�

Within days, the attorneys general for all five states claiming the move was 鈥渃ruel,鈥� unconstitutional and would lead to immediate and devastating impacts. A federal judge has since issued two , halting the freeze through Feb. 6. 

Three key programs serving particularly vulnerable children and their families hang in the balance: the Child Care and Development Fund ($2.4 billion), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ($7.35 billion) and the Social Services Block Grant ($869 million).

The Child Care and Development Fund is the main federal grant program allowing states to assist low-income working families with child care, and even before the attempted freeze the need was greater than what the dollars were able to support, according to Julie Kashen, the director of Women鈥檚 Economic Justice at The Century Foundation. 

鈥淚t is a program that has long been starved,鈥� she said.

The move by HHS to cut off funds to the five states followed a conservative YouTube personality alleging widespread fraud in child care centers in Minnesota. A from 2019 did find significant weaknesses in anti-fraud controls, vulnerabilities that were addressed by and . Separate and highly publicized instances of substantial fraud in a Minnesota child nutrition program during the pandemic have since led to dozens of . The more recent allegations made via viral video have so far proven to be

Some 12.5 million children are eligible for the subsidies based on federal guidelines, yet only about 2 million received them in 2019, covering just 16%, according to a 2023 Between July 2024 and May 2025 in Virginia alone, almost 19,000 families who applied for a subsidy were placed on a waitlist.

Brookings researchers collaborated with the Virginia Department of Education to survey these families. They received responses from 6,548 (35%) of them between August and September of 2025, making it one of the largest studies to date looking at the experiences of eligible families missing out on subsidies. At the time of the survey, 67% of respondents were still awaiting the benefits, while 33% had made it off the waitlist and were receiving funds.

The vast majority of surveyed families still on the waitlist reported significant impacts to their employment as a result, with 76% saying they worked less than desired, 71% saying they turned down additional work or a promotion and 64% saying they reduced work or school hours to provide care. Nearly half had left their jobs altogether.

In open responses, parents described the financial bind they were in: each needed child care to work but, without subsidies, also needed work to afford child care.

鈥淪o many of these families felt trapped in this cycle,鈥� said Bassok.

One parent wrote: 鈥淚 feel like I can’t commit to any plans or ideas about the future months or year until I know if my daughter can go to daycare because we simply cannot afford the rates without subsidy.鈥�

This challenging loop could be exacerbated if HHS is allowed to proceed: The Century Foundation has that if child care providers in the five states are forced to shutter because of withheld federal subsidies, it could impact more than 500,000 children, cost more than $400 million annually in lost parental earnings and could drive 156,000 moms of young children out of the workforce.

It鈥檚 not clear what will happen once the temporary halt lifts on Friday; the judge is currently considering a request for a temporary injunction, which would secure the funding while the underlying case is litigated.

For now, the families who eventually made it off the waitlist in Virginia are faring significantly better: nearly two-thirds reported they were able to increase work or school hours, start a new job, or accept a promotion or new position as a result. In all, those still awaiting funds were twice as likely to remain unemployed as those who received them, a difference Bassok described as 鈥渕assive.鈥�

Those still on the waitlist were also 11 percentage points more likely to experience food insecurity (80% vs. 69%); 15 percentage points more likely to frequently worry about running out of money before getting paid again (51% vs. 36%); nearly twice as likely to have bills that are often past due (31% vs. 18%); and 10 percentage points more likely to buy things with credit, hoping to have the funds later (25% vs. 15%). 

Half of families awaiting support said they were unable to find any care for their kids 鈥� including with relatives or friends 鈥� and the vast majority (69%) worried their children were missing out on care that could better support their learning and development. That percentage plummeted to 21% for the families that eventually made it off the waitlist.

These concerns were particularly pronounced for parents of kids with diagnosed or suspected learning disabilities and delays, according to Bassok, who described this as an 鈥渋ntense and common theme in the responses.鈥�

Families were 鈥渞eally worrying about what the wait for a child care center was doing for their kids at a critical moment in their development,鈥� she said.

鈥淢y son is turning 2 years old and is not yet talking or interacting with other children,鈥� wrote one parent. 鈥淲ithout access to affordable, quality care, he is missing vital opportunities for socialization and early learning that could support his development.鈥�

Another argued her daughter鈥檚 delays were a direct result of low-quality care: 鈥淪he is just being 鈥榳atched鈥� and not taught much. She doesn鈥檛 say many words and I have to put her in speech therapy. 鈥� I didn鈥檛 have enough money to pay for the day care center that teaches babies.鈥�

These concerns extended to physical safety as well: parents struggling to afford care were less likely to rely on regulated child care centers and more likely to turn to options they didn’t trust.

鈥淭he wait for assistance has forced us to rely on unlicensed home daycares out of desperation,鈥� wrote another parent, 鈥渨hich comes with safety concerns and constant instability.鈥�

On the flip side, parents of kids with disabilities who did have access to the subsidy reported an ability to access high-quality care. One wrote, 鈥淸Receiving a subsidy] has meant that my son, who has high functioning autism, can attend a safe school where he can get incredible care and since starting there he has been thriving.鈥�

Bassok argued that the Brookings report demonstrates a growing need for more of the exact resources the federal government is trying to strip away. 

鈥淎side from this moment of what鈥檚 happening nationally around these cuts,鈥� she said, 鈥渢he real takeaway is around needed expansions in federal and state dollars to meet these demands for kids.鈥�

The U.S. Senate has until Friday night to approve a package of funding measures or else risk another government shutdown. That package includes funding for child care subsidies, Head Start, and other services for young kids.

Senate Democrats have said they oppose the spending measure because it also includes funding the Department of Homeland Security. They want new restrictions on immigration enforcement, and to split it off from the other funding bills in the package in the  by federal officers.

In addition to Head Start and child care, the bills in the six-part package include funding for infant and early childhood mental health, maternal health, and home-heating assistance,

鈥淭here is no reason that funding for children, for babies, for meeting their very basic needs should be contingent on whether or not ICE gets funding,鈥� said Melissa Boteach, the chief policy officer at Zero to Three, an advocacy organization for babies and young kids. 鈥淸Young kids] are in the most rapid stage of brain development. They have immediate needs that need to be met.鈥�

Head Start disruption: What could happen?

The last government shutdown in the fall lasted 43 days, and several Head Start programs in California . Boteach said there may be a few centers that are immediately affected, and others later on if a shutdown drags on, depending on when the center鈥檚 grant cycles starts.

Those most at risk are programs that have a Feb. 1 start date, said Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California, of which she estimated there are around 6-10.

Head Start is a federally-funded program that provides early education and other services to children in low-income families. 鈥溾�奆or many of these children, these are also the most nutritious meals that they get every day [at Head Start],鈥� Cottrill said.

鈥淚t’s not guaranteed that they’ll close their doors if there is a government shutdown. It really depends on whether they have other funding sources,鈥� she added.

Federal funding for childcare subsidies for low-income children (which is administered through the state) is also part of the funding package. Earlier this month, President Trump said he would freeze that funding to California, though  has been tied up in court.

鈥淭here’s already been a good deal of instability in these programs and for families who rely on them and are just hopeful that the Congress can finish this off and, uh, be able to move forward,鈥� said Donna Sneeringer, president of the Child Care Resource Center, which runs Head Starts and child care subsidy programs in the Los Angeles area.

鈥淸Parents] feel very insecure 鈥� these temporary pauses鈥� the family’s lives don’t pause,鈥� said Mary Ignatius, who heads Parent Voices. 鈥溾�奟eal harm happens to the child care providers, the families, and the children who cannot afford any delays.”

This article was originally published by .

Zjanice Carter was just a child in Seattle when her parents moved the family more than 2,000 miles to Kalamazoo, Michigan, all for a chance at free college for their six children.

鈥淢y parents always dreamed of having a big family,鈥� said Carter, now 25 and a college graduate. 鈥淏ut as they realized that dream was really expensive, they began to game plan and pray about how (were) they going to afford to give us the life that they wanted us to have?鈥�

Kalamazoo had what was then a rare program. Anonymous donors in 2005 created what they called the Kalamazoo Promise, a pledge to pay college tuition for any graduate of the Kalamazoo school district. Students would no longer worry about whether they could afford college or if they would graduate with thousands of dollars of debt.

鈥淢y parents packed their whole lives into the back of the van and just drove for 33 hours, the whole way, trusting that this community would keep its promise,鈥� Carter recalled.

Kalamazoo did keep its promise 鈥� for all six Carter children, who each earned college degrees without tuition bills 鈥� along with about 9,000 graduates who have had college tuition bills paid since the program launched. A little more than half of those students who started college earned a certificate or degree.

The Kalamazoo Promise marked its 20th anniversary in November by pairing a celebratory banquet with a conference of researchers and advocates of similar 鈥減romise鈥� programs across the country that Kalamazoo helped inspire.

In some cases, donors in communities rallied to raise private funds that would guarantee tuition payments for decades. In others, individual colleges, cities or states commit tax dollars to covering tuition.

The anniversary was also occasion to take stock of challenges that promise programs face as the Trump administration reshapes school laws and federal funding of schools, states and social service organizations.

“It鈥檚 an important time for the Promise movement,鈥� said Michelle Miller-Adams, senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute and organizer of a panel on the federal changes. 鈥淲e’re here celebrating two decades of innovation around place-based scholarships, as well as the many thousands of students served by Promise programs. At the same time, though, we need to attend to policy changes that could make the coming decade more difficult.鈥�

She said 鈥渁ttacks鈥� on the U.S. Department of Education, changes to student loan rules and accreditation, as well as potential threats to Pell grants students rely on are 鈥渁ltering the landscape of federal higher education policy and may challenge the foundation on which Promise programs are built.”

All of those factors could affect promise programs in different ways 鈥� in how well students are supported while they prepare for college, how much tax money is left for publicly-funded promise programs and how much money a promise program will need to cover tuition to keep their promise.

Ryan Fewlins-Bliss, executive director of the nonprofit Michigan College Access Network, told 社区黑料 that navigating the political climate today is 鈥渟carier鈥� than before.

鈥淚 think people are really worried about the existence of their organizations and their missions, and their fundraising, their donations鈥heir federal funds,鈥� he said.

There鈥檚 even concern that federal cuts to Medicaid will push health care costs to states, which will leave less money in state budgets to support state colleges and to support state promise programs.

 鈥淲e could again see declining college affordability as a result of state budget choices,鈥� said Sameer Gadkaree, outgoing CEO of The Institute for College Access & Success.

Though it might be the best-known, Kalamazoo isn鈥檛 the first such 鈥減romise鈥� program 鈥� the first came in the 1960s in Philomath, Oregon 鈥� but the city of 73,000 was key in drawing attention to a strategy to give students hope that if they finish high school, college was within reach.

In the 20 years since the Kalamazoo Promise was announced, similar programs have grown dramatically across the country, from just 10 in 2005 to more than 200 today, by one count, as cities like Pittsburgh, New Haven, CT, and El Dorado, AR, have started their own programs.

Several states also started statewide scholarship efforts, including California, Massachusetts, New York and Tennessee, while Michigan added promise programs in Detroit and other cities.

College Promise, a Washington, D.C., non-profit that advocates for the programs, reports an even greater growth when including other broad and inclusive scholarship programs 鈥� 53 such scholarships in 2015 to more than 450 today.

鈥淎bsolutely, we can trace many of the community-based programs to the Kalamazoo Promise modeling effect,鈥� said Michelle Miller-Adams of the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. 鈥淭he Kalamazoo Promise got a ton of national publicity when it was first created, and that is part of the reason many other communities decided to give the model a try.鈥�

Former President Barack Obama brought some of that attention when he at a city high school, telling students their chance to 鈥渃hase your own dreams without incurring a mountain of debt鈥� was an 鈥渋ncredible gift.鈥� 

Since then, researchers have found that promise programs can improve college readiness, enrollment and completion, along with increasing property values modestly, as families like the Carters increase demand for houses. 

Because promise programs can differ greatly 鈥� most notably in the type of colleges they pay for or whether students must contribute their federal Pell Grants first 鈥� comparisons are rarely simple.

But researchers have shown:

• College promise programs lead to more students enrolling in college than before the programs started.
• The pandemic caused a break in that pattern, with fewer students everywhere enrolling in college than pre-pandemic. But students in promise programs are still enrolling in college more than in comparable cities.
• Students are to believe they will earn an associates degree or higher with help from a promise program, with disadvantaged racial groups sometimes expecting a 30-percentage-point gain.

鈥淭he adoption of a promise program had meaningful impacts on local high school students鈥檈xpectations to ultimately attain an associate degree or higher,鈥� University of Wisconsin-Madison Assistant Professor Taylor Odle reported in 2022.

Promise programs can also help cities. Though they don鈥檛 draw flocks of families looking to take advantage of them, multiple studies have shown they draw some. Communities tend to either lose fewer residents if the region is declining or gain some population 鈥� about 1.7 percent, 鈥� compared to similar communities.

Programs like Kalamazoo鈥檚, that give students 10 years of scholarship eligibility, can also help students whose career path isn鈥檛 clear. Jacqueline Bell, a 2021 graduate of Kalamazoo Central High School, tried culinary and cosmetology programs at two separate colleges before deciding to pursue becoming a pastry chef at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

鈥淚 would still be doing this, even without the promise,鈥� Bell said. 鈥淭his is just what I love to do. But having that promise definitely helped and kept me here … and in less debt. I’m very grateful that I don’t have to worry about that.鈥�

At the same time, some question whether the programs truly help low-income students that most need it. Federal Pell Grants can typically cover community college tuition for the poorest students already, even if there is no promise program in place.

Promise programs also rarely cover room, board and transportation, costs students have to pay themselves while attending college full time. Since about 75 percent of promise programs cover tuition only after Pell Grants have been spent, students can鈥檛 use the grants to cover those costs. 

鈥淪ince most promise scholarships only cover tuition and fees, low-income students may not receive any money,鈥� University of Georgia researcher Meredith Billings the Brookings Institution. 鈥淚nstead, these programs tend to subsidize middle- or high-income students.鈥�

Promise advocates also have additional concerns about low-income students and those of racial minorities. They worry that if federal grants to nonprofits that help these students are cut, students might not get the support they need before graduating from high school, leaving them less prepared for college. And philanthropies that would otherwise support a local promise program could shift money to cover gaps for those students from lost federal grants instead.

鈥淭he offices that supported them are going away,鈥� said Fewins-Bliss. 鈥淭he scholarships that supported them are going away. The people that supported them are going away. 

Those concerns are tempered, however, by what backers say is strong bipartisan support from states, who see appeal both in helping disadvantaged students find a path forward, but also as a way to build a more skilled and educated workforce to boost the state economy. Many promise programs have evolved so that connecting students to internships and jobs is as much a part of their mission as paying college tuition.

鈥淵ou have students that are less likely to use social assistance,鈥� John Barnshaw, senior leader of research and policy for College Promise told 社区黑料. 鈥淵ou have students that are now more likely to have jobs full time and contribute to an educated workforce (and) higher tax base.鈥�

Even within Kalamazoo and other urban areas, promise programs are constantly fighting to have families take school seriously and believe that college is right for their children. Kalamazoo Public Schools Superintendent Darrin Slade said his district had more than 50 percent of high school students chronically absent after the pandemic and there are still students who don鈥檛 take advantage of the scholarships, even just for trade school.

鈥淲e’re fighting old narratives, cultural biases, any number of things that will keep a student feeling that even though the opportunity is here and it’s the most universal offering that we could imagine, that they still think it’s not for them,鈥� he said.

As Miller-Adams added, 鈥淚t’s not enough just to understand the value of what’s on offer. People need to show up and see it through.鈥�

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that a study found an increase in college degrees earned under college promise programs. The study covered increases in student beliefs that they would earn a degree, not degrees earned.

These moves raise significant concerns that the federal government won鈥檛 be able to meet its legal obligations to students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ().

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has numerous times that federal special education funding will continue flowing, no matter where the office and programs land within the government. But what she has not acknowledged 鈥� and what is troubling 鈥� is how moving the program to an agency like HHS inevitably shifts the focus of special ed from education to health care, thus pathologizing disabled students.

This is especially true considering HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made about children with autism, calling them tragic and doubting their ability to lead full and meaningful lives. His statements indicate a belief that a medical diagnosis absolutely leads to tragic outcomes 鈥� which is simply untrue. 

Framing students with disabilities solely in medical terms hinders their potential for growth by narrowly confining them to a diagnosis and perceived limitations 鈥� resulting in low expectations in school. As recently as the , this allowed most states to exclude disabled students from academic assessments. Many schools encouraged their parents to keep their children at home on testing days.

Since then, the country has steadily moved away from low expectations for students with disabilities. Under the Biden administration, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services issued specifically focused on setting a high bar for these children. The guidance included a focus on inclusive education practices to ensure students with disabilities have access to high-quality education with the opportunity to meet challenging goals. It also offered details about how states and districts could leverage federal funding to achieve those ends. 

Inclusive education practices are flexible and creative. Using such an approach, a team determining appropriate classroom settings during an Individualized Education Program meeting might decide that instead of placing a student in need of behavioral support in a segregated class of peers with disabilities, the student could be put in a general-education classroom, assisted by a paraprofessional or special education teacher. operates this way. Teachers or paraprofessionals accompany students with disabilities to general-education classes, providing behavioral and academic support in real time, innovatively and effectively meeting a child’s unique education needs. Instead of limiting children with disabilities, guidance and practices like these help students look to an expansive future. 

But between moving special education to HHS and the longer-term to convert IDEA grants into formula block grants, it will fall to the states to ensure that their special education laws and regulations are robust. IDEA includes minimum requirements for supporting disabled students. States can and should do more, including developing their own laws and guidance on issues like inclusion, challenging academic standards, teacher and service provider support and training, and requirements to provide services in an equitable manner to all students.

Families and advocates can work to hold states and districts accountable by, for example, pushing for state-level disaggregated reporting on timely provision of services, restrictive class and school placements, and disproportionate disciplinary practices. Additionally, states must work toward timely resolutions of and for any violations of disabled students鈥� civil rights. 

Leaving schools without timely access to federal funding to provide legally mandated services means students will unnecessarily struggle, and their lack of progress will be used as an indication of the failures of the current program. There have already been that shifts of education programs to other federal agencies have tied up resources in even more layers of bureaucracy. 

Shifting responsibility for specific IDEA and special education programs to HHS means that when states come looking for guidance, the staff with deep understanding of the interplay among civil rights, disability and education will no longer be available to help them. What guidance they do receive could be limited and unsupportive of students鈥� true intellectual, cognitive or physical capabilities.

Burying special education deep in the can only make things more difficult for children with disabilities. Finding essential services that families are desperate to reach will be like looking for a needle in a haystack. 

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of IDEA. What should be a time for celebrating milestones in increasing inclusivity and accessibility in America’s public schools has instead been fraught with fear and fights to retain the unique supports provided to disabled children through the Department of Education. It doesn鈥檛 have to be this way, and it shouldn鈥檛. 

Harold Hinds, is a civil rights attorney and Ph.D. student at the New School’s School for Public Engagement, also contributed to this essay.

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the news

Updates to Trump鈥檚 immigration crackdown: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One year ago today, Trump took the oath of office for a second time and set it all in motion. 

Through executive orders, layoffs and canceled contracts, he and McMahon carried out a frontal assault on a federal agency Congress created in 1979, the U.S. Department of Education.

The nation has experienced 鈥渟ome of the most rapid and likely consequential changes in education policy,鈥� since the mid-1960s, when lawmakers passed the Civil Rights Act and the law creating Title I funding for children in poverty, said Jeffrey Henig, a professor emeritus at Teachers College, Columbia University. Under President George W. Bush, the No Child Left Behind Act further deepened Washington鈥檚 involvement in schools.

But those initiatives used the strength of the federal government to expand educational opportunities for poor and minority students, Henig said, while this administration is turning away from a focus on equity.

The gameplan hasn鈥檛 always gone smoothly. On three occasions, McMahon has called back staff she fired. The department has frozen and unfrozen funds for programs like afterschool care and suspended long-running research projects. To those who have lost their jobs or seen their civil rights complaints ignored, it鈥檚 been a . Others who believe in McMahon鈥檚 鈥溾�� to make the department obsolete say the pain is necessary.

鈥淚 realize it has sometimes been messy, but that鈥檚 inevitable when the federal role has been built up by special interests over six decades,鈥� said Jim Blew, an Education Department official during Trump鈥檚 first term and the co-founder of the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute. McMahon, he said, is 鈥渞eversing that history by relinquishing power.鈥�

The agenda is somewhat paradoxical. McMahon Washington bureaucrats should get out of the way so education can be 鈥渃losest to the child.鈥� But the administration has tried to exert more control over districts that resist Trump鈥檚 orders. The Office for Civil Rights has launched multiple investigations, threatened to pull funding from states and districts with gender-inclusive policies and curbed efforts to improve achievement among minority students.

Blue states, teachers unions and advocacy groups have fought back in court. A notes more than 20 active cases over the administration鈥檚 anti-DEI mandates and eight related to dismantling the department. Several more lawsuits challenge canceled grants and contracts.

Trump鈥檚 crackdown on immigration has been one of the more tangible ways the disruption in D.C. has filtered down to local districts. Some children are afraid to come to school or wait for the bus, while high school students have been swept up in immigration raids. 

Interruptions in funding made it hard for states and districts to plan ahead. But some experts say the long-term financial impact of the Trump 2.0 shake-up may be minimal. Superintendents are more concerned about declining enrollment than which federal department is distributing their money, said Marguerite Roza, the director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. 

鈥淭he second grader still goes to school. The teacher is still there. The district budget looks pretty much identical to what it did before,鈥� she said. 

In addition to firing staff, McMahon is moving the department鈥檚 major functions to other agencies. But the transition of career and technical education programs to the Labor Department has not been without complications, and that program represents just a fraction of the $18 billion budget for Title I, making some state leaders wary of what will come this year.

鈥淚f this is some form of experimental policymaking, I know of no parent who wants their child to be used in an experiment,鈥� Eric Davis, chair of the North Carolina State Board of Education, said at a meeting. 鈥淭his self-inflicted disruption runs counter to the many decades in which the Department of Education was instrumental in improving the education and academic achievement of millions of Americans.鈥�

Here are eight areas where the Trump administration has radically recast the federal role in education in its first 12 months:

The rapidly shrinking Education Department

Eliminating the Department of Education has been a goal of Republicans since President Ronald Reagan first took office in 1981.

They鈥檙e closer than ever to reaching it. The agency is now less than it was a year ago as the administration aims to drastically reduce education鈥檚 federal footprint.

In addition to the more than 1,300 jobs she cut in March, McMahon slashed 450 positions during the seven-week government shutdown in the fall. Congress and a federal judge forced her to reinstate them. But the moratorium on those layoffs runs out Jan. 30, and some who were targeted by that action expect she鈥檒l try to terminate them again. 

鈥淲e’ve never seen an administration so actively hostile to career civil servants,鈥� said one current employee who asked to remain anonymous to protect her job. With more than a decade at the agency, she鈥檚 among those who have been reassigned to handle basic tasks. Some with 鈥�20-plus years of professional experience are doing things like scheduling rooms.鈥� 

McMahon and others who back the administration鈥檚 goal of abolishing the agency say those staffers won鈥檛 be missed. But blue states are challenging the layoffs in court, saying the department performs essential functions, from increasing opportunities for disadvantaged students and protecting civil rights to gathering on the state of the nation鈥檚 schools. 

As she continues to transfer jobs to other agencies, McMahon will hear from early next month on plans to move services for American Indian and other Native students to the Department of the Interior. Advocates are battling to keep her from moving oversight of special education as well, but at a meeting in December, McMahon maintained, 鈥淣othing shall remain,鈥� said Jennifer Coco, the interim executive director of the Center for Learner Equity, who attended the meeting.

Unless Congress makes those moves stick through legislation, a future administration could reverse them. It鈥檚 also unclear whether attempts to reduce staff and rearrange federal oversight 鈥渨ill pass court muster with the many legal challenges underway,鈥� said Patrick McGuinn, a political science and education professor at Drew University in New Jersey.

The year culminated with an event in a small Iowa town in which McMahon granted the state more flexibility to spend $9 million in federal funds. It鈥檚 a preview of how the administration wants to distribute all federal education funds, 鈥渢hrough no-strings-attached block grants,鈥� said Blew, of the Defense of Freedom Institute.

The department is expected to grant more waivers, and whether Democratic or Republican, most state and local education chiefs are relieved that McMahon wants to reduce paperwork, Blew said. Gustavo Balderas, superintendent of the Beaverton, Oregon, schools, agreed.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you鈥檙e going to find a superintendent who’s going to say, 鈥楪ive me more reporting,鈥� 鈥� he said. 

But some found the news from Iowa underwhelming.

鈥淎fter all of last year鈥檚 public posturing and back-and-forth, it felt like weak sauce,鈥� said Dale Chu, a consultant who focuses on assessment and accountability. It was a 鈥渟ymbolic win for Iowa,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut the jury鈥檚 out as to whether it ultimately makes a difference on student outcomes.鈥�

鈥� Linda Jacobson

Immigration

While the drama unfolds in Washington, Trump’s immigration enforcement actions have hit closer to home. He rolled back longstanding that kept federal immigration agents off school grounds, making K-12 campuses fair game. And despite the Department of Homeland Security鈥檚 claims that it is not targeting students or schools, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers have been on or near K-12 campuses across the country ever since, arresting and deporting parents and kids 鈥� often at drop-off and pick-up times.

A federal-agent inspired melee at a Minneapolis high school earlier this month 鈥� hours after an ICE agent fatally shot an unarmed motorist nearby 鈥� prompted a two-day districtwide shutdown. Absenteeism has skyrocketed in heavily patrolled areas throughout the country, and many families have chosen to . Others have joined a nationwide resistance movement.

“Since January 2025, the administration has blanketed communities with ICE agents, which 鈥� predictably 鈥� has only brought chaos, cruelty and violence to our schools,鈥� said Alejandra V谩zquez Baur, a fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank. 鈥淎nd we anticipate this is just the beginning. This year, education leaders will need to be even more bold to defend their students and the sanctity of the learning environment.”

In some cases, schools and other groups that serve undocumented students have gone underground, scrubbing their locations off their websites and using secure messaging to communicate, fearing any attention from the Trump administration could jeopardize their funding or tax status.

The gutting of the Education Department has left the nation鈥檚 5 million English learners with little oversight 鈥� or as to their . The president, who has espoused an English-only agenda, at one point sought to to support these students.

Undocumented immigrants, banned from Head Start, career and technical education programs and adult education last year, have received a temporary reprieve as related lawsuits are decided. Some states, including Florida and Texas, have rescinded in-state college tuition for those here illegally, keeping education 鈥� the reason so many immigrants cite for coming to America 鈥� out of reach. 

鈥� Jo Napolitano

Students with disabilities 

As the department shrinks, education leaders are especially concerned over how McMahon plans to adhere to the many congressional mandates for oversight of disability services for children in schools.

In December, she told advocates that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Labor Department would most likely be tasked with oversight going forward. That pronouncement means continued uncertainty for schools, said Coco, of the Center for Learner Equity. 

鈥淭here is a sense of fear and chaos in schools,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e already operating on razor-thin margins. What they can neither handle nor sustain is more delays. Or the notion that federal reporting is now getting spread across multiple agencies with multiple streams of paperwork.鈥� 

McMahon said she hoped eventually to let states seek waivers freeing them from guidelines on how funding meant for children with disabilities is to be spent, and how school systems will be held accountable for meeting those children’s needs. Adding to the uncertainty: In October, numerous department staffers with the hard-to-acquire expertise needed to oversee services for students with profound disabilities and particular needs were fired. 

Once the on those mass layoffs lifts at the end of this month, advocates hope they won鈥檛 be terminated again.

鈥淭here is a real disconnect between what鈥檚 mandated in law and what鈥檚 happening,鈥� said Coco. 鈥淧eople are anxious the other shoe is going to drop.鈥� 

鈥� Beth Hawkins

Civil rights

No area of education policy has been upended more by the Trump administration than civil rights. McMahon gutted the office dedicated to resolving discrimination complaints and has focused its remaining resources on fighting antisemitism and restricting transgender students鈥� access to women鈥檚 sports and bathrooms. 

The department has of racism against Black students, advocates say, even as it an investigation into the Green Bay, Wisconsin, school district for allegedly denying tutoring services to a . Meanwhile, the department is tied up in litigation with and that allow trans students to compete on teams and use facilities consistent with their gender identity. 

Conservatives cheered McMahon鈥檚 aggressive posture.

鈥淧arents are overjoyed,鈥� Nicole Neily, president of the advocacy group Defending Education, said on in February, after the Office for Civil Rights launched an investigation into Denver Public Schools for creating . 鈥淔or this to be a priority of the administration, I think, really sets the tone from the top down.鈥�

But others say the move has left victims of discrimination, bullying or sexual assault without a place to turn. 

The department closed seven of 12 regional OCR offices, including Boston鈥檚, which was handling a complaint against a Massachusetts district where a teacher held a involving two Black fifth graders in 2024. 

The district placed the teacher on leave, but 鈥渕ore should have been done for these children, including assemblies to educate all teachers and children on the horrific impact of slavery,鈥� said Marcie Lipsitt, a Michigan-based advocate who filed the complaint. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been radio silence since.鈥�

McMahon brought back more than 250 laid-off OCR employees in December, but some think their job now is closing complaints rather than investigating. Lipsitt said five that she filed on behalf of students with disabilities have been dismissed in the past month. Sandra Hodgin, CEO of Title IX Consulting Group, said when she asked OCR about cases she was working on, she was told ‘We’re no longer looking at those.’ “

McMahon hasn鈥檛 said where she would move OCR if she continues to offload offices to other federal agencies. One calls for the Department of Justice鈥檚 civil rights division to absorb it, but Johnathan Smith, chief of staff and general counsel at the National Center for Youth Law and a former DOJ official, sees ahead.

鈥淭here’s no staff there, either,鈥� he said.

鈥� Linda Jacobson

LGBTQ and DEI issues

Trump鈥檚 policies have affected local school staff as well. His executive orders against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and environmental justice-related work resulted in the elimination of more than $1.5 billion in 鈥渄ivisive鈥� and researching educator effectiveness and retention. In many diverse school systems, the loss of funding meant the immediate shuttering of programs that were graduating large numbers of new educators of color.  

Under the guise of outlawing 鈥済ender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology,鈥� the orders also called for limiting LGBTQ students鈥� rights and eliminating classroom materials referencing slavery, Native American history and sexual harassment and abuse. U.S. law specifically prohibits federal interference in schools鈥� choice of classroom topics and materials.

The Department of Education followed up with guidance saying race-conscious policies or initiatives are considered illegal discrimination. Federal officials did not appeal a court order declaring the letter unlawful.   

With 2026 marking the nation鈥檚 250th anniversary, it鈥檚 likely the administration will become more deliberate about trying to reshape history curricula, said Andre Perry, a senior Brookings fellow. 

鈥淭he first year was about dismantling policy structures,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he second year will be about putting in place things they deem important. [And] schools are going to have to do a lot of these things.鈥�    

The White House also made good last year on Trump鈥檚 campaign promise to curtail the rights of transgender students, issuing an order declaring 鈥渟ex as an immutable binary biological classification.鈥� The administration then demanded that several states stop letting transgender students play sports, and . Last week, OCR launched into 14 school districts, along with three colleges and the state of Hawaii, over those policies.

鈥淭he breadth and scope of what this administration did in just one year was pretty astonishing,鈥� said Naomi Goldberg, executive director of the Movement Advancement Project. 鈥淲hat’s really critical to recognize is how much of it is outside of what agencies typically can do without legislation from Congress, and so much of it violates established case law.鈥�

In 2025, more than 700 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in states throughout the country 鈥� but just 90 were enacted, according to the organization鈥檚 .

That relatively low legislative success rate may be one reason the groups behind the push appear to be focusing on state-level ballot measures in 2026, said Goldberg. Measures curtailing trans youth access to medical care and sports will potentially go before voters in Colorado, Maine, Missouri and Washington. 

鈥� Beth Hawkins

Head Start

Head Start, the federally funded preschool program, hasn鈥檛 been immune to funding disruptions and the administration鈥檚 anti-DEI agenda. Officials initially a temporary federal funding freeze. The move led to confusion and closures and served as a warning shot: The early education and support program for low-income children and their families would become a target of Trump’s second term.

Over the next 12 months, the administration continued to delay funding, shuttered five regional offices, fired scores of employees and issued a number of rule changes leading to an ongoing lawsuit. Of particular concern: A ban on any practices perceived to be DEI-related and an unprecedented edict barring enrollment to thousands of kids based on their immigration status. During the prolonged government shutdown, roughly 10,000 kids across 22 programs lost access to services.

Causing further alarm was a  鈥� ultimately scrapped 鈥� that zeroed out funding for Head Start.

Providers got some relief through court orders pausing some policies, but they say the program鈥檚 future under Trump remains precarious. The right-wing Project 2025 playbook, by the president, calls for Head Start鈥檚 elimination. Program foes argue that its $12.2 billion budget is bloated, local centers have been caught up in scandal and Head Start does not produce .

Last year was meant to be a 60th anniversary celebration of the War on Poverty-era program, which has reached more than and their families since its inception. Instead, Head Start has weathered the administration鈥檚 鈥渄eath-by-a-thousand-cuts approach,鈥� said Katie Hamm, deputy assistant secretary for early childhood development under former President Joe Biden.

She worries that in the coming year, 鈥渢he attacks on Head Start will continue,鈥� pointing to a number of already-delayed January grants and ramped-up child care fraud investigations in Minnesota and other states. 

鈥� Amanda Geduld

Research

Others are concerned about losing valuable education data and statistics that guide efforts to improve schools. 

In February, with the Department of Government Efficiency鈥檚 help, officials canceled dozens of contracts through the Institute for Education Sciences, effectively shutting down the department鈥檚 primary knowledge-gathering agency. The following month brought the news that nearly 90% of IES鈥檚 workforce had been terminated. 

A year later, plans to restore that research infrastructure are still murky.

The impact on the world of K鈥�12 research was swift, with major federal contractors and dozens of scholars the return of funds and jobs. Dan Goldhaber, a professor at the University of Washington and frequent recipient of federal research support, said that while he believes the department鈥檚 data collection needed to be brought up to date, the 鈥渢earing down of the institution鈥� had made improvement harder.

“Best-case scenario, this has been incredibly disruptive,鈥� he said. 鈥淓ven if you’re not facing cuts, and your project hasn’t just disappeared, there’s a lot of uncertainty about the future of this work.鈥�

After the barrage of withdrawn funding and reductions in force, Washington issued conflicting messages about the future of IES, with Congress proposing the budget for the organization that the White House requested. Researcher Amber Northern was also to help guide a modernization process, suggesting that the razing may be complete.

Mark Schneider, who led IES during the Biden and first Trump administrations and has become one of the agency鈥檚 most prominent critics, said that while it was easy to void contracts, the true challenge for Trump鈥檚 team would be to design a modern system for K鈥�12 research and development. No plan was yet in evidence, he added.  

“My biggest disappointment is not that DOGE and the department cleaned out the detritus at IES, it鈥檚 that there’s no evidence that they thought enough about how to rebuild,鈥� Schneider remarked. 鈥淭hat, to me, is the loss.鈥�

鈥� Kevin Mahnken

School choice

To the administration, the best judges of school quality are parents. That鈥檚 their chief reason for advancing a bold .  

In July, Trump signed the first national tax credit scholarship program into law, a 鈥溾�� that school choice advocates have long sought. Because it鈥檚 intended to reach students in public schools as well, even prominent Democrats like former Education Secretary Arne Duncan have gotten behind it and urged governors in blue states to participate.

The Educational Choice for Children Act, which kicks in next year, gives taxpayers a $1,700 dollar-for-dollar tax credit when they donate to a nonprofit that awards scholarships. It鈥檚 unlike education savings accounts, which allow parents to use state dollars for tuition or homeschooling expenses. 

But depending on taxpayers to fund the program means scholarship groups will need to recruit multiple donors just to cover private school tuition for one student, said Michael McShane, director of national research at EdChoice, an advocacy organization.

鈥淭hat is a lot of donors and outreach and accounting,鈥� he said. Overall, he gives the administration 鈥渁n incomplete鈥� on its school choice agenda, adding that the Treasury Department鈥檚 upcoming regulations tied to the program 鈥渨ill matter a great deal.鈥�

Choice advocates don鈥檛 want governors to add their own rules, while others want strict accountability on how the funds are spent. Further details of how the program will layer on top of existing private school choice programs will emerge in the coming months. But Norton Rainey, CEO of ACE Scholarships, an organization already operating in multiple states, said the tax credit scholarships will ideally complement state-funded ESAs.

鈥淔or families,鈥� he said, 鈥渢he experience should feel additive rather than confusing.鈥�

If the program primarily serves students already in private schools and opens doors to tutoring and afterschool programs for public school kids, it might not be to public education that some fear. 

鈥淗owever, it is also possible that this program may prompt a portion of public school students to seek enrollment in private schools,鈥� said Kristin Blagg, a researcher at the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank. If that鈥檚 the case, she said, states could see 鈥渟ubstantial public school enrollment declines.鈥�

The administration鈥檚 support of private school choice is one way it has aligned itself with Christian conservatives who want religious schools to maintain their admission criteria even if they accept public funds. Many religious schools don鈥檛 accept LGBTQ students, children with disabilities or those from a different faith.

But that鈥檚 not the only way Trump is trying to blur the line between church and state. He supported Oklahoma Catholics in their failed effort to open the nation鈥檚 first religious charter school. The religious right, a key faction of the MAGA movement, has been working to inject the Bible into K-12 public curriculum in several states, and the president announced in September that the Education Department would issue guidance on , which some experts expect to emphasize Christianity.

In mid-May, McMahon supported Trump鈥檚 school choice agenda by announcing an additional $60 million for charters, funds from programs like family engagement centers and educational TV for preschoolers.

She often showcases private and charter schools in her tour stops across the country, like the with a classical model she visited in March.

鈥淪chool choice,鈥� afterwards, 鈥渋s crucial for students and parents to access learning environments that best fit their needs.鈥� 

鈥� Linda Jacobson

Supporters want the program to be uncomplicated, both for nonprofits granting scholarships and the private schools participating. Others want to ensure that students who remain in public schools can benefit from the program, while critics oppose the basic concept 鈥� a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for those who donate up to $1,700 annually to a scholarship-granting organization.

They want the Trump administration to focus instead on supporting public schools.

 鈥淭he federal government should invest in strong, inclusive, well-resourced public schools 鈥� not incentives that drain support and weaken safeguards,鈥� one Tennessee man wrote in a letter to the Treasury Department and the IRS, among the more than 2,100 comments on the new law submitted by the Dec. 26 deadline. 

With the tax credit already on the books, the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit Coalition, which represents more than 200 school choice advocates, private schools and scholarship organizations, wants the administration to keep the program simple. 

The organization wants officials to make it 鈥渁s easy as possible鈥� for scholarship-granting organizations to participate, for taxpayers to contribute and to 鈥渕aximize鈥� the number of students who will benefit.

Their letter calls for the administration to clear up some potential confusion.They want officials, for example, to keep recordkeeping requirements for participating nonprofits from being 鈥渙verly burdensome or onerous.鈥� 

John Schilling, a consultant who lobbied in favor of the program, said he hopes Treasury officials will release rules by summer. 

鈥榁ery well prepared鈥�

President Donald Trump signed the new program into law in July as part of a large tax cut and spending package. Because it鈥檚 hard to predict how many taxpayers will donate and claim the credit, it鈥檚 not yet clear how much the program will cost the government. Kristin Blagg, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, that after an initial 鈥渞amp-up period,鈥� the program could generate between $2.7 billion to $6.1 billion annually.

Scholarship groups could begin awarding funds to students in early 2027, but it might take until that fall for them to raise enough money.

鈥淭he ones that are serious about doing this are going to be very well prepared,鈥� Schilling said. 鈥淚’m hopeful that they will line up a lot of donors who will give in the first quarter of 2027.鈥�

So far, of Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas have said they intend to opt in, while those in New Mexico and Wisconsin have announced that they won鈥檛. But Schilling said he thinks that鈥檚 a mistake聽because donors could just send their money to a scholarship organization in another state.听聽

鈥淚f you’re a blue state governor, why would you want taxpayers in your state sending their money to some other state?鈥� he asked. 鈥淚 think that’s a political liability.鈥�

Despite Democrats鈥� longstanding opposition to vouchers for private school and education savings accounts, which can be used for homeschooling, some, like North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein, say the program is a chance for more public school students to receive tutoring and afterschool programs.. 

That鈥檚 what the Afterschool Alliance emphasized in its submission. The advocacy organization suggested that perhaps some scholarship programs could focus on students who need afterschool activities while others could stick to granting private school scholarships. 

According to a December , conducted for the National Parents Union, more than three-fourths of parents support the tax credit if it鈥檚 targeted only to public school students for tutoring, summer learning and afterschool programs. But that figure drops to 40% if the benefit is restricted to private school tuition.

In the spirit of 鈥渞eturning education to the states,鈥� the advocacy group, , wrote that states should be able to design and run the programs in a way that reflects 鈥渢heir unique policy landscapes, community needs and family priorities.鈥�

The organization also wants the Treasury Department to allow states to evaluate schools and providers 鈥渢o assess whether the programs participating are delivering meaningful, measurable results.鈥� Such data, including average scholarship amounts and the demographics of students served, should be publicly available, the comment said.

Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at the conservative , told 社区黑料 that he鈥檚 not opposed to public school students receiving scholarships for tutoring or afterschool enrichment, but he doesn鈥檛 want the program to become 鈥渁 backdoor diversion of funds to public schools themselves.鈥�

To religious groups, one chief concern is that states might attempt to require private schools to change their admission policies. In its comment, the Christian Legal Society, an organization of Christian attorneys, referenced litigation in Maine, where religious schools are suing over a requirement that they accept all students, regardless of religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, if they want to participate in a private school choice program.

鈥淚t is important that federal regulations prevent governors from yielding to the temptation to play politics with the program by adding additional regulations to distort it,鈥� the group鈥檚 comment said. 鈥淪uch regulations,鈥� they wrote, would lead to 鈥渋nevitable lawsuits鈥� and limit options for families.

Microschool founders and advocates have additional concerns. A section of the tax credit law says that a K-12 鈥渟chool鈥� is whatever a state law defines it to be. The problem is that most states don鈥檛 legally recognize microschools even though they represent a fast-growing sector within the private school landscape. A published last year showed that most schools participating in state school choice programs enroll around 30 students 鈥� the size of many microschools.

鈥淔amilies turn to programs like ours because their children鈥檚 needs cannot be met in traditional settings,鈥� Alexandra Batista. the owner of Steps Learning Center in Orlando, Florida, in a comment to the Treasury Department. 鈥淓xcluding these types of learning environments due to narrow or outdated definitions would further disadvantage students who already face significant barriers.鈥�

Some organizations, like the left-leaning , want the federal government to adopt an official definition of microschools as a way to better track them and monitor the quality of education they provide. 

But those in the movement are 鈥渘ot excited about that prospect,鈥� said Don Soifer, CEO of the National Microschooling Center. Some microschools in states with education savings accounts operate like small private schools, while others are more like homeschool co-ops. Some are required to earn accreditation in order to receive state funds; others aren鈥檛.

In his to the Treasury Department, Soifer said that it would be 鈥渉ighly inappropriate and contrary to legislative intent鈥� for officials to adopt an official definition of a microschool when 鈥渢he industry itself has no consensus.鈥�

Schilling, the lobbyist, said he hopes the Treasury Department addresses the issue in the rules. 

鈥淢icroschools feel like they ought to be able to participate in this and we completely agree,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he intent of the legislation was for a student, in any educational environment, to benefit.鈥�

WASHINGTON 鈥� States must now provide 鈥渏ustification鈥� that federal child care funds they receive are spent on 鈥渓egitimate鈥� providers in order to get those dollars, President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration announced. 

The Tuesday shift in policy came followingwhich prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to freeze all child care payments to the state. 

HHS could not offer many specifics on how the review process will play out for other states, but clarified that the money in question is provided through the multibillion-dollar federal Child Care and Development Fund, or CCDF. 

鈥淪tates will be required to provide documentation, such as written justification, receipts, or photographic evidence, demonstrating that funds are supporting legitimate child care providers,鈥� Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for HHS, said in a statement to States Newsroom on Wednesday. 

CCDF provides federal funding to states, territories and tribes to help low-income families obtain child care. 

The program, administered within the Office of Child Care under HHS鈥� Administration for Children and Families, combines funding from the Child Care and Development Block Grant, or CCDBG, and the Child Care Entitlement to States, or CCES. 

Funding for CCDF in  stood at roughly $12.3 billion 鈥� comprising $8.75 billion from CCDBG and $3.55 billion from CCES. 

Head Start 鈥� a separate program that provides early childhood education, nutritious meals, health screenings and other support services to low-income families 鈥� does not appear to be affected. 

In a Tuesday  announcing the move, Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O鈥橬eill said he had 鈥渁ctivated our defend the spend system for all ACF payments鈥� and 鈥渟tarting today, all ACF payments across America will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.鈥� 

He clarified in a  shortly after that 鈥渇unds will be released only when states prove they are being spent legitimately.鈥� 

Funds undergo 鈥榬egular audits鈥�

鈥淔ederal funding enables millions of parents in every state and Congressional district to access and afford quality child care,鈥� Sarah Rittling, executive director of First Five Years Fund, a federal advocacy group, said in a Wednesday statement. 

Rittling added that 鈥渢hese funds are essential to the nation鈥檚 well-being, allowing parents to work while ensuring their children are cared for and safe.鈥� 鈥ㄢ��

She also described the reports of potential fraud as 鈥渄eeply concerning鈥� and pointed out that 鈥渟tate oversight through regular audits is required by law to ensure that every dollar intended to protect and support young children is used properly and effectively.鈥� 

鈥淎t the same time, we must ensure that nothing takes away from making sure funds for child care continue to reach the children and families who depend on them,鈥� she said.

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There is a new cost to hiring an international worker to fill a vital but otherwise vacant position in a California classroom: $100,000.

In September, the Trump administration began requiring American employers to pay a $100,000 for new H-1B visas, on top of visa application fees that amount to $9,500 to $18,800, depending on various factors. These visas allow skilled and credentialed workers in multiple job sectors to stay in the U.S. On Dec. 12, California joined 19 other states in for instating the 鈥渦nlawful鈥� fee, according to Attorney General Rob Bonta鈥檚 office.

Most foreign workers on H-1Bs in California work in the tech sector. But California also relies on H-1B visas to address another issue: a nationwide teacher shortage and a for staff in dual-language education and special education in K-12 districts.

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Data from the California Department of Education shows school districts filed more than 300 visa applications for the 2023-24 school year, double the amount from just two years earlier. Educators and school officials say its overseas workers on visas are highly skilled, instrumental in multilingual education, and fill positions in special education.

Now education leaders are sounding the alarm that the high additional fee for overseas workers will worsen the strain on California鈥檚 public education system.

International employees fill a much-needed gap for school districts

California continues to face an ongoing teacher shortage. In 2023, California K-12 schools staffed 46,982 positions with employees whose credentials did not align with their job assignments, according to from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Another 22,012 educator positions were left vacant that year. Of total misassignments and vacancies, around 28% were in English language development and 11.9% were in special education.

California school districts have also resorted to hiring teachers who haven鈥檛 yet obtained certain credentials, according to a study by the nonprofit . Facing a need for teachers, school districts have found that trained professionals from other countries are willing 鈥� and qualified 鈥斅爐o take classroom jobs that would otherwise go unfilled.

In 2023, in the Bay Area east of San Francisco, West Contra Costa Unified School District had 381 misassigned positions and 711 vacancies, according to the commission. So the district turned to foreign educators, hiring about 88 teachers on H-1B visas 鈥� a majority from the Philippines, Spain and Mexico 鈥� to teach in mostly dual-language and special education programs, said Sylvia Greenwood, the assistant superintendent for human resources at the district.

鈥淲ith our shortages in special ed, they were a good fit for our district. And so, therefore, we kept that pipeline open and brought teachers here from the Philippines to support our students and our students with special needs,鈥� Greenwood said.

The decline in the number of credentialed special education teachers continues to worsen. Between 2020 and 2024, the number of credentials earned to teach special education decreased by almost 600 across California, according to from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. The number of temporary permits and waivers granted by the commission increased by about 300 during the same period.

Francisco Ortiz, the president of United Teachers of Richmond and a teacher at Ford Elementary School in West Contra Costa, said the workload for teachers in the district will increase if West Contra Costa Unified is unable to bring in new international teachers.

This would create 鈥済reater instability鈥� for students, he said, adding, 鈥淚t’s going to have a great impact in special education, which is already on fire.鈥�

California school district officials say they are unsure they can pay the new fee to fill hiring gaps with international employees. West Contra Costa officials said they do not know yet who will be responsible for paying the new fee: the district, international teachers themselves or another party.

鈥淲e are a district that is dealing with a structural deficit as well, and so that cost, in a lot of ways, is going to be very difficult for our district or really any school district, to be able to take that on,鈥� said Cheryl Cotton, the superintendent for West Contra Costa.

Pasadena Unified, in Southern California, filed about a dozen applications for H-1B visa sponsorships in 2024. Now the district, facing a $27 million , will require those applying for H-1B visas to pay for it themselves, according to district spokesperson Hilda Ramirez Horvath. She said foreign employees will also no longer receive other types of financial support, including legal or filing fees related to immigration processing.

Language programs benefit from international teachers

District officials are also worried about the cultural costs of losing international educators. Educators on H-1B visas make dual-language public schools possible, giving families in California a unique multicultural education that sticks with their children for life.

Kelleen Peckham, a mother to two children in West Contra Costa, said she chose to transfer her daughter to Washington Elementary School in Richmond because it has a dual-language immersion program that teaches students to speak and read Spanish.

Peckham also plans to send her son, who will start kindergarten next year, to the same school even though it takes the family an extra 15 minutes to drive there.

鈥淢y husband’s family is from Mexico, and so [their] grandmother, on one side, only speaks Spanish,鈥� Peckham said. 鈥淚t’s important for [them] to be able to communicate with [their] family and extended family.鈥�

She said if the dual-language immersion program at Washington Elementary doesn鈥檛 survive, she would consider transferring her children back to the school in their neighborhood.

Fee spells 鈥楰eep Out鈥� to foreign workers

Within weeks of the fee鈥檚 , a coalition of international worker groups, unions and religious organizations the Trump administration, alleging the fee would inhibit staffing in education, medicine and ministry services.

鈥淚t鈥檚 essentially a giant 鈥楰eep Out鈥� sign for prospective individuals looking to utilize the visa process to be able to come to the United States and fill these roles and provide these services,鈥� said Laura Flores-Perilla, an attorney with the Justice Action Center, a Los Angeles-based immigration litigation group representing the coalition in its lawsuit.

鈥淚t’s not just going to hurt these individuals who have this pathway to do this, but it’s also going to hurt employers within the United States,鈥� Flores-Perilla said.

Although the fee , many international teachers are feeling less welcomed to work and live in the states. A.F., an international elementary school teacher in the West Contra Costa Unified School District, said many teachers are still concerned the federal government will announce new policy changes that could force them to leave the U.S.

鈥淚 feel like it’s a form of discrimination to impose [a] $100,000 fee for teachers,鈥� A.F. said.

A.F., who is currently on an H-1B visa, asked to only give his initials because he fears speaking publicly will affect his ability to receive a green card in the future. He immigrated from the Philippines to California five years ago on a J-1 visa before transferring to an H-1B visa at the beginning of 2025. J-1 visas allow visitors to temporarily stay in the U.S. to participate in certain programs, including teaching, studying, conducting research and more, according to .

A.F. said the district previously paid for all of his immigration costs for his H-1B visa, which amounted to more than $3,700 for processing fees and an immigration attorney.

The future is uncertain for H-1B visa hopefuls

H.R., a physical education teacher in West Contra Costa who works on a short-term J-1 visa, said he moved his family from Mexico to the U.S. three years ago to work at one of the district鈥檚 high schools because he felt it would be safer to raise his daughter in the U.S. H.R. requested to use only his initials because he doesn鈥檛 want to jeopardize his ability to apply for the H-1B visa in the future.

鈥淢y biggest reason [for moving] is my daughter,鈥� he said. 鈥淢e and my wife decided that it would be a good chance for her [and] a big opportunity to learn the language and to grow up in a different environment.鈥�

H.R. can鈥檛 apply for the H-1B visa because he missed the deadline and West Contra Costa Unified is now unlikely to pay for his immigration fees. After his visa expires in June 2026, H.R. will move back to Mexico with his family and reapply for the J-1 visa in hopes of returning to California.

鈥淓verybody says here that they need teachers in California 鈥� but they don’t want to do anything to [help us stay] here,鈥� H.R. said.

At the Los Angeles Unified School District, spokesperson Christy Hagen said in an email to CalMatters that the recent visa changes have not yet impacted the school鈥檚 hiring of educators on H-1B visas. Hagen said the district鈥檚 immigration experts were 鈥渟till evaluating the effect of this order.鈥�

Maria Miranda, a representative for United Teachers Los Angeles 鈥� the union for Los Angeles Unified teachers 鈥� said the district had, as of mid-November, not provided any guidance to its educators or schools on how H-1B visa hopefuls would be supported.

Flores-Perilla, the attorney bringing the lawsuit against the Trump administration, says no hearings have been set in their case yet. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has now also brought a over the $100,000 fee, arguing that the proclamation overrides provisions of the and harms U.S. employers.

For now, districts will have to wait on the results of either lawsuit to potentially see some relief in immigration costs.

鈥淚t’s absolutely unfeasible to be able to pay this fee [and] to be able to actually bring in prospective employees in their fields and industries, so it’s going to hurt everyone,鈥� Flores-Perilla said.

Sophie Sullivan and Alina Ta are contributors with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.

This article was and was republished under the license.