Why student data remains at risk — and what educators are doing to protect it – By Kara Arundel, K-12 Dive

Outdated laws, abundance of state rules and increase in ed tech tools add to the difficulty in protecting students' personal data.

n 1998, when the World Wide Web was an exciting novelty, several government agencies and advocates raised alarms about the unregulated collection of children's personal information from website owners. 

A Federal Trade Commission survey conducted at the time — when about 14% of children used the internet at home or at school — found 89% of websites marketed for children had collected personal information directly from young users. Most troubling, the FTC wrote in a report, was the ease with which predators could communicate with children in chat rooms or online forums.

These "deep concerns" led to the passage of laws to safeguard children's personal online data, with the aim to prevent the unintended exposure of the details of a child's life and to keep kids safe.

But more than 20 years later, educators, parents, researchers and lawmakers are continuing to sound alarms about the vulnerability of children's online personal data as nearly every child is now able to access the internet from home, school or a smartphone in their pocket. 

Free School Lunch Expands to 8 More U.S. States, Now Reaching About 75 Percent of Students – By Ayumi Davis, Newsweek

A program that offers free or reduced-price school lunches recently expanded to more U.S. states, now reaching about 75 percent of students across the country.

The U.S. Department Agriculture added Alabama, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina and South Carolina to a demonstration program that began in 2012, bringing the total number of states participating in the program to 27, according to a news release issued Tuesday.

The agency said the 27 states in the program represented approximately 75 percent of students in the nation.

Students that have Medicaid will also now be automatically added to the program and be able to receive meals for lunch and breakfast for free or at a reduced price, according to the USDA website. Children whose parents are in other programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, also are in the program. Most students who receive free or reduced-price lunches apply for the program.

Amid staffing shortages, Minnesota schools call on retired teachers to fill vacancies – By Yasmina Askari, Minn Post

Cynthia Hanson had been retired for a little over a year and a half when the principal of the school she used to work at, Lake of the Woods Elementary, called about a vacancy. At first Hanson was reluctant to return due to her age and risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, but ultimately she decided to return to teaching until the end of the school year, saying the district is unlikely to find a special education teacher in a timely manner.

Hanson said fellow retired teachers told her she was crazy.

“They kept telling me, ‘You really want to go back? You really think it’s smart to do this?’” Hanson said. “I had some concerns and I’m an older person and I told them that if I came back and I found that I wasn’t able to do it or I didn’t feel comfortable doing anymore, that I would be leaving the position.”

With recent staffing shortages in schools across the state, districts have taken various measures to adapt, including emailing parents about filling temporary substitute roles, adding days on to winter break and reaching out to retired teachers like Hanson to fill in for long-term positions

Retired teachers like Hanson returning to school isn’t exactly new — schools have long maintained relationships with their retired teachers to fill in substitute roles. But recently there has been a significant uptick in recruiting efforts and the number of retirees now filling in the substitute positions as the number of job openings in schools soars.

Where are the students? For a second straight year, school enrollment is dropping - By Anya Kamenetz, NPR

The troubling enrollment losses that school districts reported last year have in many places continued this fall, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt public education across the country, an NPR investigation has found.

We compiled the latest headcount data directly from more than 600 districts in 23 states and Washington, D.C., including statewide data from Massachusetts, Georgia and Alabama. We found that very few districts, especially larger ones, have returned to pre-pandemic numbers. Most are now posting a second straight year of declines. This is particularly true in some of the nation's largest systems:

New York City's school enrollment dropped by about 38,000 students last school year and another 13,000 this year.

In Los Angeles, the student population declined by 17,000 students last school year, and nearly 9,000 this year.

In the Chicago public schools, enrollment dropped by 14,000 last year, and another 10,000 this year.