Five stories district leaders should know about this morning.
Today's briefing covers a federal hearing on Tennessee's Memphis school takeover law, a vendor data breach exposing district employee information, a bipartisan cellphone-restriction bill in Congress, slowing progress on chronic absenteeism, and spreading state Ten Commandments display laws.
Picks, summaries and “why it matters” notes are written with AI (Claude) from each publisher's headline and excerpt, then linked to the original reporting. Read the source before acting on a story.
Attorneys for the Memphis-Shelby County school board faced tough questioning at an Oct. 2 federal hearing on the district's lawsuit challenging Tennessee's state takeover law. Reports indicate the takeover could move forward soon, though the state's takeover board remains in limbo for now.
A data breach at Frontline Education, a vendor serving school districts, has exposed school district employee data.
A bipartisan bill in Congress would create a federal grant program to support state efforts to put cellphone bans or restrictions in place in schools.
Progress in reducing chronic absenteeism has slowed nationwide. Attendance experts point to Iowa and Rhode Island as states seeing success.
Five states now have laws that require or authorize Ten Commandments displays in public schools. That has raised the question of whether such displays are passive or become part of the curriculum.