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Education

Inside Our Schools

Crackdown on Student Threats

A Tennessee School Expelled a 12-Year-Old for a Social Post. Experts Say It Didn’t Properly Assess If He Made a Threat.

The way school officials handled his case also exposes glaring contradictions in two recent state laws that aim to criminalize school threats and require schools to expel students who make them — with minimal transparency or accountability.

by Aliyya Swaby,

A Teacher Dragged a 6-Year-Old With Autism by His Ankle. Federal Civil Rights Officials Might Not Do Anything.

The Garrison School is part of a special education district that had students arrested at the highest rate in the country. It had pledged to change how it disciplines kids after a ProPublica-Chicago Tribune investigation and subsequent federal probe.

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen,

The Department of Education Forced Idaho to Stop Denying Disabled Students an Education. Then Trump Gutted Its Staff.

For years, the Education Department was the only agency that could ensure states would improve conditions for disabled children. Now, Trump’s cuts threaten to hamper its oversight.

by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman,

Help Us Report on How the Department of Education Is Handling Civil Rights Cases

Have you recently filed a civil rights complaint or do you have a pending case? We need your help to get a full picture of how the dismantling of the Office for Civil Rights is affecting students, parents, school employees and their communities.

by Asia Fields, Ashley Clarke, Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards,

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Crackdown on Student Threats

A Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law

Under the settlement, the Chattanooga charter school also agreed to implement training on how to handle threats of mass violence at school, including differentiating between “clearly innocuous statements” and “imminent” violence.

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio,

The Price Kids Pay

Illinois Lawmakers Ban Police From Ticketing and Fining Students for Minor Infractions in School

The legislation comes after a ProPublica-Chicago Tribune investigation revealed that even though state law bans schools from fining students directly, districts skirt the law by calling on police to issue citations for violating local ordinances.

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards,

Texas Lawmakers Want a Charter School Network to Stop Paying Its Superintendent Nearly $900K. The School Board Says No.

The rebuke from lawmakers and charter school leaders came after an investigation from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune revealed that Salvador Cavazos, who oversees fewer than 1,000 students, is among the most well-paid superintendents in the country.

by Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Ellis Simani, ProPublica,

Series

Series: Crackdown on Student Threats: Tennessee’s Harsh Punishment of Kids

Series: School Wars: How Battles Over Vouchers, Book Bans, COVID-19 and More Are Harming Public Education

Series: Segregation Academies: Decades After Desegregation, Private Schools Still Divide

Series: Inside Shrub Oak: An Unregulated Boarding School for Autistic Students

Series: State of Disrepair: Inside Idaho’s Crumbling Schools

Series: Chaos at the School Board: Unraveling America’s School Board Unrest

Series: Unequal Discipline: Native Students Face Harsh Discipline in New Mexico

Series: The Price Kids Pay: How Schools and Police Work Together to Punish Students

Series: The Pandemic and Illinois Schools: A Digital Divide, Vulnerable Students and Hidden Data

Series: Grace: A Failure in Michigan’s Juvenile Justice System

Series: Lessons Lost: How Federal Schools Are Failing Native American Students

Series: Dollars for Profs: The Lucrative World of Academic Moonlighting

Series: The Quiet Rooms: Children Locked Away in Illinois Schools

Series: Campus Complicity: Faculty Sexual Misconduct in Illinois

Series: Financial Aid Loophole: Giving Up Guardianship to Get Aid

Series: The $3 Million Research Breakdown: University of Illinois at Chicago’s Troubling Study

Series: The Failure Track: Alternative Schools and Accountability

Series: Evaluating Charter Schools: Questions About Public Transparency and Private Profits

Series: College Debt: How College Debt is Putting the Squeeze on Families

276 stories published since 2015

A Tennessee School Agreed to Pay $100,000 to Family of 11-Year-Old Student Arrested Under School Threats Law

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio,

Illinois Lawmakers Ban Police From Ticketing and Fining Students for Minor Infractions in School

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards,

A Gutted Education Department’s New Agenda: Roll Back Civil Rights Cases, Target Transgender Students

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen,

Idaho Gave Families $50M to Spend on Private Education. Then It Ended a $30M Program Used by Public School Families.

by Audrey Dutton,

In An Era of Big Money, the University of Illinois Shrugs Off Rules on Athletes’ NIL Deals

by Stacy St. Clair, Chicago Tribune, and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica,

A Texas School Board Cut State-Approved Textbook Chapters About Diversity. A Board Member Says Material Violated the Law

by Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Dan Keemahill, The Texas Tribune,

A University, a Rural Town and Their Fight to Survive Trump’s War on Higher Education

by Molly Parker, Capitol News Illinois,

How Texas Conservatives Use At-Large School Board Elections to Influence What Students Learn

by Jeremy Schwartz, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Dan Keemahill, The Texas Tribune, photography by Shelby Tauber for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune,

Parents Sue Trump Administration for Allegedly Sabotaging Education Department’s Civil Rights Division

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen,

Texas Lawmakers Want a Charter School Network to Stop Paying Its Superintendent Nearly $900K. The School Board Says No.

by Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Ellis Simani, ProPublica,

Inside the Schools Alaska Ignored

by Taylor Kate Brown,

Massive Layoffs at the Department of Education Erode Its Civil Rights Division

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards,

Two Transgender Girls, Six Federal Agencies. How Trump Is Trying to Pressure Maine Into Obedience.

by Callie Ferguson and Erin Rhoda, Bangor Daily News, and Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica,

She’s on a Scholarship at a Tribal College in Wisconsin. The Trump Administration Suspended the USDA Grant That Funded It.

by Matt Krupnick for ProPublica,

This Charter School Superintendent Makes $870,000. He Leads a District With 1,000 Students.

by Ellis Simani, ProPublica, and Lexi Churchill, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune,

A Rural Alaska School Asked the State to Fund a Repair. Nearly Two Decades Later, the Building Is About to Collapse.

by Emily Schwing, KYUK,

Illinois Has Virtually No Homeschooling Rules. A New Bill Aims to Change That.

by Molly Parker and Beth Hundsdorfer, Capitol News Illinois,

Education Department “Lifting the Pause” on Some Civil Rights Probes, but Not for Race or Gender Cases

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen,

“We’ve Been Essentially Muzzled”: Department of Education Halts Thousands of Civil Rights Investigations Under Trump

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen,

A New Mexico District Says It’s Reduced Harsh Discipline of Native Students. But the Data Provided Is Incomplete.

by Bryant Furlow, New Mexico In Depth,

Idaho Passed $2 Billion in Funding for School Building Repairs. It’s Not Nearly Enough.

by Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman,

Elon Musk’s Team Decimates Education Department Arm That Tracks National School Performance

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards,

The Department of Education Told Employees to End Support for Transgender Students

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen,

First Came the Warning Signs. Then a Teen Opened Fire on a Nashville School.

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio,

Hoping to “Trump Proof” Students’ Civil Rights, Illinois Lawmakers Aim to End Police Ticketing at School

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards,

In the Wild West of School Voucher Expansions, States Rely on Untested Companies, With Mixed Results

by Alec MacGillis,

How Many Students Have Been Expelled Under Tennessee’s School Threats Law? There’s No Clear Answer.

by Aliyya Swaby,

How Segregated Are Your Local Private Schools? We Made a Tool to Help You Find Out.

by Jennifer Berry Hawes,

ProPublica Releases New Private School Demographics Lookup

by Sergio Hernández, Nat Lash and Ken Schwencke,

Private School Demographics

by Sergio Hernández, Nat Lash and Brandon Roberts,

On a Mission From God: Inside the Movement to Redirect Billions of Taxpayer Dollars to Private Religious Schools

by Alec MacGillis,

Two Families Sue After 11-Year-Old and 13-Year-Old Students Were Arrested Under Tennessee’s School Threat Law

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio,

Feds Fine Baker College $2.5 Million for Deceptive Marketing That Left Students With Debts and Regrets

by Anna Clark, ProPublica, and David Jesse, The Chronicle of Higher Education,

Arizona Regulators Closed a Failing Charter School. It Reopened as a Private Religious School Funded by Taxpayers.

by Eli Hager,

The Story of One Mississippi County Shows How Private Schools Are Exacerbating Segregation

by Jennifer Berry Hawes, data analysis by Nat Lash, with additional reporting by Mollie Simon,

Illinois’ AG Said It’s Illegal for Schools to Use Police to Ticket Students. But His Office Told Only One District.

by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards,

Segregation Academies in Mississippi Are Benefiting From Public Dollars, as They Did in the 1960s

by Jennifer Berry Hawes and Mollie Simon,

Segregation Academies Across the South Are Getting Millions in Taxpayer Dollars

by Jennifer Berry Hawes and Mollie Simon,

A 13-Year-Old With Autism Got Arrested After His Backpack Sparked Fear. Only His Stuffed Bunny Was Inside.

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio,

Despite Trump’s Win, School Vouchers Were Again Rejected by Majorities of Voters

by Eli Hager and Jeremy Schwartz,

An 11-Year-Old Denied Making a Threat and Was Allowed to Return to School. Tennessee Police Arrested Him Anyway.

by Aliyya Swaby, ProPublica, and Paige Pfleger, WPLN/Nashville Public Radio,

Tribal College Campuses Are Falling Apart. The U.S. Hasn’t Fulfilled Its Promise to Fund the Schools.

by Matt Krupnick for ProPublica,

In a State With School Vouchers for All, Low-Income Families Aren’t Choosing to Use Them

by Eli Hager and Lucas Waldron,

We Enlisted a Community to Help Us Report on One State’s Crumbling Schools. Here’s How You Can Do the Same.

by Asia Fields, ProPublica, with Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman,

In an Unprecedented Move, Ohio Is Funding the Construction of Private Religious Schools

by Eli Hager,

Georgia’s Top GOP Lawmaker Seeks Tougher Action Against Students Who Make Threats. But It May Not Make Schools Safer.

by Aliyya Swaby,

School District With Highest Student Arrest Rate in the Nation Agrees to Reform How It Disciplines Disabled Students

by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen,

The Unequal Effects of School Closings

by Alec MacGillis,

A 10-Year-Old Pointed a Finger Gun. The Principal Kicked Him Out of His Tennessee School for a Year.

by Aliyya Swaby,

“Cookie & Zo’e”: A Georgia Family Wrestles With School Choice 60 Years After Desegregation

by Liz Moughon and Almudena Toral,

What We’re Watching

During Donald Trump’s second presidency, ProPublica will focus on the areas most in need of scrutiny. Here are some of the issues our reporters will be watching — and how to get in touch with them securely.

Learn more about our reporting team. We will continue to share our areas of interest as the news develops.

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Sharon Lerner

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Andy Kroll

I cover justice and the rule of law, including the Justice Department, U.S. attorneys and the courts.

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Melissa Sanchez

I report on immigration and labor, and I am based in Chicago.

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Jesse Coburn

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    Crackdown on Student Threats

    A Tennessee School Expelled a 12-Year-Old for a Social Post. Experts Say It Didn’t Properly Assess If He Made a Threat.

    The way school officials handled his case also exposes glaring contradictions in two recent state laws that aim to criminalize school threats and require schools to expel students who make them — with minimal transparency or accountability.

    by Aliyya Swaby,

    The Ugly Truth

    Former “We Buy Ugly Houses” Franchise Owner to Plead Guilty in Fraud Scheme That Cost Investors $40 Million

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    Ethical Concerns Surround Sen. Joni Ernst’s Relationships With Top Military Officials Who Lobbied Her Committee

    Ernst, an Iowa Republican, is one of the most influential voices in Congress on military topics. Ethics and military experts say her relationships with top Air Force and Navy officials created potential conflicts of interest.

    by Robert Faturechi,

    Red State Voters Approved Progressive Measures. GOP Lawmakers Are Trying to Undermine Them.

    In the wake of ballot measures that increased abortion access and improved sick leave for workers, a coordinated effort is unfolding across the country to restrict direct democracy — and shift power to partisan legislatures.

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