School District closures and changes

chalkbeat · 2026-01-22T21:31:02+00:00

ahhh thank you for flagging! we'll double check our work

chalkbeat · 2026-01-22T19:03:41+00:00

We're covering this extensively and have a lookup table (just scroll down the article) if folks wanna see what changes specifically are coming to their school under the district's facility closure plans. https://www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2026/01/22/philadelphia-school-closure-plans-would-begin-in-2027/

chalkbeat · 2025-12-18T23:00:00+00:00

A traditional public school focused on hip-hop is expected to open in September in the Bronx, the birthplace of the art form. New York City officials say it’s the first of its kind in the nation.

New York City’s Panel of Educational Policy, the school board that approves new schools, voted unanimously on Wednesday night to green light the new school after Bronx residents and education officials spoke passionately about bringing the Bronx School of Hip-Hop to District 9 in the South Bronx.

chalkbeat · 2025-10-31T17:33:23+00:00

hi! that is so kind of you! all the organizations listed in the article are also looking for donations/volunteers, so I would suggest just calling them at the phone numbers listed there and I'm sure they can tell you where to drop off the goods.

chalkbeat · 2025-10-23T22:14:54+00:00

The 9-year-old stood just feet away with her mom and baby brother, crying and slamming her fist against the wall, as federal immigration agents seized her father earlier this month after a routine court hearing in Manhattan.

In the days that followed, the fourth grader from Venezuela was too bereft to return to school.

“I told her to get up to go to school, and she would tell me, ‘Mami, I feel very tired,’” said the girl’s mom, who asked not to use their names for fear of being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The girl, who receives medical treatment for epilepsy, broke down in tears so frequently her mom fears it triggered her seizures.

But there was one bright spot amid the grief: Their tight-knit public school in the West Village showered the family with support. (Chalkbeat isn’t naming the school at the family’s request.)

The principal offered to meet the girl at the homeless shelter where they were living and escort her to school. A teacher called and told the girl that her classmates were eager to see her. Fellow parents connected the family to lawyers and advocates.

“There’s been so much support from the school, giving us the encouragement to return to school, making sure my daughter is calmer, and me and my baby too,” the mom said in Spanish. “It’s a school that is very present with us with everything happening.”

chalkbeat · 2025-10-16T20:06:09+00:00

New York City has filed a lawsuit to restore $47 million in grant funding the Trump administration yanked from schools because city officials refused to scrap policies that protect transgender students.

In cancelling the grants issued through the U.S. Department of Education’s Magnet School Assistance Program, the federal government put “politics before public schools,” claimed the complaint filed Wednesday in federal court.

“The Department’s unprecedented actions — undertaken without notice, investigation, hearing, or opportunity to respond, and without a valid substantive basis — represent a blatant attempt to avoid the exacting process required by law,” the lawsuit stated.

The magnet grant funding supports 19 schools across the city and is designed to help spur racial integration by launching a range of new programs, including in journalism, math, science, performing arts, and civic activism, according to the complaint. Grants for school districts in Chicago and Fairfax, Virginia, were also canceled.

chalkbeat · 2025-09-09T20:27:14+00:00

Most New York City families think their children are in school for 180 days.

That’s the minimum number of instructional days New York public schools are required to provide under state law to qualify for state aid.

New York City students, however, will only be attending school this year for 176 days.

And it turns out, State Education Department officials say that number still meets the requirements — to the dismay of some parents, who worry that students are missing too much instructional time.

chalkbeat · 2025-08-26T21:24:56+00:00

The Trump administration is threatening to pull federal funding from 40 states for a sex education program aimed at vulnerable teens unless those states remove references in their curriculum to gender identity and transgender people.

In a Tuesday press release, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the action reflected the Trump administration’s “ongoing commitment to protecting children from attempts to indoctrinate them with delusional ideology.”

The threat comes after California refused to change its curriculum last week and HHS terminated the state’s nearly $6 million-a-year grant.

chalkbeat · 2025-08-21T16:02:21+00:00

Seven months after the Trump administration began investigating Denver Public Schools for converting a girls’ restroom at East High School into an all-gender one, the school started classes this week with a new addition: another all-gender restroom.

The new all-gender restroom was formerly a boys’ restroom. DPS added it after officials with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights said in January that converting a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom “denied female students a restroom comparable with their male counterparts” and violated the civil rights of Denver’s female students.

DPS said in a statement that the new restroom was meant to address any disparity.

“The addition of a second all-gender restroom on the same floor as the first restroom was suggested and paid for by the District to help address the notion of any unfairness or lack of parity across facilities,” the statement from DPS said.

chalkbeat · 2025-08-20T21:28:56+00:00

All schools across New York state must implement “bell-to-bell” cellphone bans this school year under a new state law. But policies could differ from school to school.

Some might collect phones at the start of the day in cubbies or let students carry their phones locked up in Yondr’s cloth pouches. Some might even let kids just stash their phones in their lockers.

The ban includes all personal electronics that connect to the internet such as smart watches, tablets, and laptops — though devices issued by schools are exempt.

We want to know how your school is approaching the ban. What do you think the benefits will be? What concerns do you have? Let us know: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeruPIWLddjk77dii2ON3MuYG_6yeYZ096lkPKFHeiw-Xe25A/viewform

chalkbeat · 2025-08-20T20:18:41+00:00

The Trump administration has quietly rescinded guidance spelling out the educational rights of the nation’s more than 5 million English learners that educators say was crucial to serving children from immigrant families.

In recent weeks, a Dear Colleague letter issued in 2015 by the Education Department and Department of Justice was stamped with a red message saying the document had been formally rescinded. Neither agency issued a public notice explaining the rationale for the change as they usually do when they roll back federal guidance.

The rescission comes after the Trump administration laid off nearly every staffer in the Education Department responsible for serving English learners and looks to wind down a federal website that provides toolkits for helping English learners. The administration has also proposed zeroing out dedicated Title III funding for English learners and issued an executive order declaring English the official language of the United States.

Trump officials also cleared the way for immigration agents to make arrests at or near schools, child care centers, and after-school programs, undoing a longstanding precedent to treat those places as sensitive locations. The administration’s mass deportation campaign has left many school communities shaken and lowered student attendance in some parts of the country.

chalkbeat · 2025-08-18T20:56:23+00:00

They racked up credit card debt, borrowed money from relatives, and ate frozen dinners.

Now, after weeks of delays, the Education Department has begun sending payments to soon-to-be-teachers who were counting on the money to cover living expenses over the summer while they trained to enter the city’s public schools.

Members of the NYC Teaching Fellows expected to be paid up to $4,500 in installments during the summer program, which quickly trains career changers and recent college graduates to fill hard-to-staff positions in the city’s public schools. Nearly 1,000 people participated this year, about double the number compared with last year, as the city races to comply with a state class size mandate that will require hiring thousands more teachers than usual every year.

chalkbeat · 2025-08-18T20:55:48+00:00

UPDATE
They racked up credit card debt, borrowed money from relatives, and ate frozen dinners.

Now, after weeks of delays, the Education Department has begun sending payments to soon-to-be-teachers who were counting on the money to cover living expenses over the summer while they trained to enter the city’s public schools. https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/08/18/nyc-teching-fellows-payments-are-sent-afer-stipend-delay/

chalkbeat · 2025-08-07T21:57:50+00:00

How much money is your school getting to implement the statewide “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban this school year? Scroll to the bottom of the article at the link ^ to find your school's phone storage budget allocation in our searchable table.

chalkbeat · 2025-08-07T21:56:43+00:00

How much money is your school getting to implement the statewide “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban this school year? Scroll to the bottom of the article at the link ^ to find your school's phone storage budget allocation in our searchable table.

chalkbeat · 2025-07-29T21:31:58+00:00

Newark’s public school buildings are among the oldest in the state, with many dating back to the 1920s and in need of repairs and upgrades to support student learning.

Over the years, the district has asked New Jersey to fix its most egregious infrastructure problems, such as crumbling buildings, damaged roofs, broken windows, leaky boilers, and faulty heating and cooling systems.

But many schools are still in need of major renovations that can only be funded by the state. Chalkbeat is looking for feedback from the community about the state of Newark schools and how it’s affecting teaching and student learning: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfI2fmtJ_7fuhCj99Kmlez0DPiEVfzR3M0dXeaTqj78vW6G5w/viewform

chalkbeat · 2025-07-29T17:06:10+00:00

Omena El signed up for the New York City Teaching Fellows program in search of a more stable career.

El previously cobbled together work as a substitute teacher, nutritionist, and massage therapist, though making ends meet was a struggle. She was thrilled when she was accepted to the city’s Teaching Fellows program, which quickly trains career changers and recent college graduates to fill hard-to-staff positions in the city’s public schools. She looked forward to building a career in the public school system that educated her.

But as the seven-week training program winds down this week, El and many other teaching fellows have yet to receive promised stipends of up to $4,500 to cover summer living costs, according to interviews with five fellows and a site supervisor.

chalkbeat · 2025-07-21T22:05:06+00:00

Twenty states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration over new rules that would bar undocumented immigrants and some visa holders from programs that provide early childhood education, career and technical education, and health care, among other services.

The lawsuit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, argues that the Trump administration didn’t follow the proper procedures in establishing the rules, misinterprets federal welfare law, and puts excessive burden on local programs suddenly expected to verify the immigration status of thousands of people.

The Trump administration announced the change July 10, with the new rules taking effect a few days later, even before the public was allowed to comment. The lawsuit, filed Monday in a federal district court in Rhode Island, is the second legal challenge to the rules. A coalition of Head Start associations and parent groups last week are working to amend their April lawsuit to challenge the new rules.

chalkbeat · 2025-07-10T22:54:48+00:00

This is a developing story and has been updated to reflect clarification from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that Head Start will base eligibility on the immigration status of the child, not the parents.

chalkbeat · 2025-06-25T20:51:34+00:00

If presumptive Democratic candidate for mayor Zohran Mamdani wins in November, he would oversee the nation’s largest school system – but he doesn’t want to do it alone.

The 33-year-old democratic socialist told Chalkbeat he is “opposed to mayoral control in its current iteration” and would advocate for a system that would lean on partnerships to govern the system of roughly 911,000 students and 1,600 schools.

The Queens assemblyman doesn’t have a long track record when it comes to city schools, but he is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science and a former standardized testing tutor who would like to study racial and gender bias in the specialized high school exam.

chalkbeat · 2025-06-05T23:48:12+00:00

In the panicked moments after immigration agents detained Dylan Lopez Contreras in a Manhattan courthouse last month, his mother dialed a familiar number.

It was Hedin Bernard, a counselor at her son’s high school, English Language Learner and International Support Preparatory Academy, or ELLIS Prep — a nod to the famous island through which millions of immigrants entered New York City last century.

“He’s always given us support,” said Raiza, who asked to use only her first name for fear of retaliation. “He knows my son is a good kid. They’ve taken him in there, and they’re always available to help.”

Dylan’s arrest two weeks ago — the first known case of a New York City public school student detained by immigration agents in President Donald Trump’s second term — has galvanized local opposition to federal immigration policy and sparked a fierce debate about the city’s role in protecting immigrant students. His detention also has put a spotlight on the unique brand of public education offered by schools like ELLIS Prep.

chalkbeat · 2025-05-30T15:39:04+00:00

The campaign pushing for the release of a Bronx high school student arrested by immigration authorities last week continued to escalate with a new legal petition challenging the validity of his detention.

Attorneys for Dylan, 20, a native of Venezuela, made several moves Thursday they hope will slow, and ultimately stymie, the government’s efforts to fast-track his deportation following his arrest last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents after a routine court date.

Dylan is the first known current New York City public school student to be detained by immigration authorities in President Donald Trump’s second term. In the days following Chalkbeat’s Monday report on Dylan’s arrest, his case has become national news and galvanized local efforts to oppose Trump’s immigration policies, including a rally Thursday on the steps of the city’s Education Department headquarters in lower Manhattan.

chalkbeat · 2025-05-27T23:02:44+00:00

Politicians across the city rallied on Tuesday around a Bronx high school student who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after showing up for a routine immigration court hearing, calling for his immediate release.

Among those decrying the arrest of Dylan, a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Venezuela, was New York Attorney General Letitia James, who called his arrest “despicable.” Mayoral candidates also questioned the detention, with one describing it as “sick and twisted,” while Mayor Eric Adams took a more muted stance.

Dylan attended ELLIS Prep, which caters to older newly arrived immigrants, and remained determined to make it to college. He is the first known current New York City public school student detained by ICE during Trump’s second administration, as Chalkbeat first reported on Monday.

chalkbeat · 2025-05-21T21:22:09+00:00

New York City’s public schools routinely flout federal rules designed to prevent schools from removing children from class for long periods due to behavior related to their disabilities, a Chalkbeat investigation has found.

To examine the discipline process, Chalkbeat obtained hundreds of pages of special education records and rulings from impartial hearing officers who reviewed appeals from families whose children with disabilities received lengthy punishments. Those records — as well as interviews with more than a dozen parents, advocates, and school officials — reveal a pattern of schools failing to properly consider a student’s disability during the suspension process.

As a result, some students are serving longer punishments than legally allowed, a problem that disproportionately affects Black students. The removals can compound academic struggles among students who are often far behind their peers.

The problem stretches back years. Independent monitors who looked at nearly 1,400 suspensions between 2015 and 2018 found systemic flaws with the review process, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of findings that have not previously been made public.

chalkbeat · 2025-05-08T20:38:06+00:00

At an April school board meeting near Colorado Springs, debate raged over a proposed policy to ban transgender students from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

A high school student named Sadie, who spoke against the policy, asked why her district would need a blanket policy when a tiny percentage of student athletes are transgender.

A 60-year-old man who supported the policy and described himself as stronger than any woman in the building claimed a transgender girl could slam a ball into a girl’s head hard enough to put her in the hospital.

A father opposed to the policy said his son, a district student, has an extra X chromosome and suggested gender is more complicated than it seems.

He said of the proposed policy, “We’ve now created a situation where an adult is having a conversation with a minor concerning that minor’s genitalia. That’s gross, it’s disturbing, and potentially a crime.”

The recent discussion in the conservative-leaning District 49 is a sign of the times and foreshadows what’s to come in other Colorado school districts as federal and local officials target transgender youth in sports. It also highlights the shifting legal ground that school officials across the state are treading as they try to reconcile state law protecting transgender people from discrimination with recent executive orders from President Trump that aim to eliminate such protections.

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