 Dear reader,
In reporting on public education, we sometimes find disturbing trends, like this one: Children with disabilities are being suspended “off the books” and denied their legal rights to an education. It’s part of a practice known as informal removals, and happens to children who are not supposed to be disciplined because of their disability. These removals are likely circumventing federal protections, The Hechinger Report and The Associated Press found.
In interviews with 20 families in 10 states, parents told our Meredith Kolodner and The AP’s Annie Ma that they were called repeatedly, sometimes less than an hour into the school day, to pick up their children from school. Some said they left work so frequently they lost their jobs. Our reporting attracted the attention of two senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both from Illinois, and so far 83 parents have reached out to us in response, telling similar stories. We are still investigating, so please share your story with us.
We have a lot more to share with you this week, including a view from a college campus in South Dakota, one of the many states where students have been fighting to protect their reproductive rights following a near-total abortion ban triggered by the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.
We also have a new package of stories, interviews and a short film with our partners from Retro Report and WCNY, taking an in-depth look at the upcoming affirmative action lawsuits the Supreme Court is expected to hear later this month. And we’re excited to tell you about the many stories we published last week with the New York Times Learning section, including some important post-pandemic trends on the future of higher education that could be major game changers going forward.
As always, we love to hear from our readers and hope you will tell others to sign up for our newsletters and become a member.
Liz Willen, Editor
|
|
Main Idea
