| Top News School closings from Hurricane Harvey cause disruption across Texas The New York Times More than 160 Texas public school districts and 30 charter schools were closed. Teachers, students and parents were unsure when classes would be in session, and who, exactly, would be reporting to which schools. The upheaval threatened schools across the state, even ones unaffected by the storm itself, as families flee to other cities. Read more>> Top News Wisc. legislative panel backs delay on opportunity school provision The Journal Times The Racine USD looks as if it could get a pass for one more year on the threat of a possible state takeover of several of its underperforming schools. But to completely avoid a possible takeover, the school board will have to make its employee handbook compliant with a state law that prohibits collective bargaining for public employees. Read more>> Top News LAUSD gets a chance to clone good schools, but what are the necessary ingredients? Los Angeles Times The concept sounds simple: take a good school, figure out what’s happening to make students successful, and re-create those elements to spread the success somewhere else. Could the idea of replication work for public schools? LAUSD has a chance to find out when it received two grants to give school cloning a try. The school board voted last week to approve the projects. Read more>> Top News Landmark school funding bill advances through Illinois Senate Chicago Tribune The Illinois Senate signed off on a bipartisan measure to revamp how the state distributes money to local school districts. The legislation would allow the state to resume payments to schools after many began the academic year without funding. Gov. Bruce Rauner has pledged to sign the bill. Read more>> Top News New York City expands therapy dogs program in city schools New York Post The Department of Education has brought new meaning to “teacher’s pet.” After a popular pilot in seven schools last year, it will expand the program that brings therapy dogs into schools to an additional 30 campuses this upcoming year. Read more>> Top News Mayoral candidate proposes free college for Seattle high school grads KOMO News Jenny Durkan, a Seattle mayoral candidate, suggested giving graduates of Seattle public high schools up to two years free college tuition at any one of the state’s 34 public community or technical colleges. Graduates, including undocumented students, would be eligible for the plan starting fall 2018. Read more>> From DA Magazine How schools manage leadership change Carol Patton Managing leadership transitions is an organizational process with many moving parts, such as mentoring new leaders and engaging new employees throughout recruitment and onboarding. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Americans express support for traditional public schools in new poll The Washington Post Most American adults are weary of the intense focus on academics in public schools today, according to a new national survey, and want students to get more vocational and career training as well as mental, physical and dental services on campus. Even so, a majority of public school parents give higher grades to the traditional public schools than they have in years. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis Charlottesville offers our schools a teaching moment East Bay Times As we reflect on our upcoming lessons as schools begin again, many of us are grappling with how to respond to the insidious events in Charlottesville. While preparing our responses to this national political crisis, we must not lose sight of the other national crisis that pervades many of districts, schools and classrooms: discriminatory discipline practices. Read more>> Opinion & Analysis What, specifically, should a young child learn now? NPR Beyond the basic premise that we shouldn't teach children something before it's developmentally appropriate to do so, are there general principles that govern what's valuable to learn sooner rather than later? And might recognizing such principles transform the way we think about early childhood education? Read more>> Industry News ID card agreement enables efficient flexible schedule support ScholarChip Argo Community High School, located in a suburb of Chicago with approximately 2,000 students, is implementing ScholarChip’s ID Manager. The Illinois school will print customized smart ID cards that will support its new flex scheduling program for the new school year. Read more>> Industry News Accelerating mobility options for schools, teams and families GoKid GoKid Connect is a mobility solution designed to connect schools and parents through a secure web portal and GoKid mobile app, enabling parents to quickly identify who in their school lives close by, and is willing to carpool. Additionally, GoKid announced the availability of a web app. Read more>> Industry News Content accessibility streamlined for back-to-school ASSIST LLC Apex Learning middle and high school content is fully integrated into ASSIST 4.0, ASSIST LLC’s integrated education management system for K12 schools. Both schools and students can now access Apex Learning’s core subject, foreign language and elective courses directly on ASSIST. Read more>> View more news at District Administration's PR Portal | 