Education

About 1,400 students came to the Marriott Hotel in downtown Oakland, Calif., some from considerable distances, to take the SAT exam, which is now entirely online. Officials had to cancel the test due to Wi-Fi problems.

Connecticut is doling out $122 million for air quality improvements in 48 school districts, intended to fix or replace boilers, ventilation components, and controls and technology systems related to HVAC operations.

A speech language pathologist in New Orleans praises the use of alternative and augmentative communication devices in classrooms to help students with autism, learning disabilities, brain injuries or sensory impairments.

Endorsing potential legislative action for the next session, Gov. Kathy Hochul suggested banning smartphones from schools, but possibly allowing cell phones that can send text messages and not access the Internet.

A state audit found that a public online college based in New Britain, Conn., was at high risk of cyber attack or other disasters due to a lack of comprehensive risk assessment or regular threat assessments.

A lawsuit against a for-profit medical school in Elk Grove alleges that a ransomware group in 2023 stole tax forms of former and current employees and students, and the university did not notify the victims for months.

Almost 25,000 Klein ISD students taking state-mandated academic tests were locked out or interrupted in April due to a DDoS attack.

The university is working with the Detroit Regional Chamber on Innovate Michigan, an initiative to keep skilled graduates from Michigan universities in state and to secure financing for companies founded by researchers.

With two semiconductor plants under construction in New Albany, Ohio, Intel Corp. is funneling millions into the state's colleges and universities to train technicians, engineers and other workers to fill 3,000 jobs.

Since the Clean School Bus Program officially launched in 2022, Pennsylvania districts have received more than $47 million for zero-emissions buses in five districts including Pittsburgh Public Schools.

At a time when cameras are ubiquitous and social media is part of community engagement, school districts need policies, and perhaps technology, that formalize the process of getting parental consent for photos of students.

To comply with a 2022 law that will soon require classes to have 20-25 students, the New York City Department of Education gave principals about a dozen options, including using virtual learning to save classroom space.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is giving money to 27 districts across Michigan to buy 100 electric or low-emission school buses, with Grand Rapids and Kent districts receiving the largest amounts.

Moved by research into the mental-health effects of cellphone addiction in young people, administrators at Wilton School District in Connecticut will form a committee to discuss the idea of restricting phones in schools.

The Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust will give $40,000 each to schools across the state to buy iPads, Chromebooks, esports equipment, various robotics, virtual reality equipment and other tech supplies.

The state will require students to stow phones during class — a decision that comes as states across the country fight back against excessive teen phone use, citing growing research on its negative impact.

Schools that had already embraced the imperatives of Internet access, digital literacy and 1:1 device plans fared better for it during the pandemic. AI could be a similarly urgent pragmatic concern.

A new bill signed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine gives K-12 school districts until 2025 to craft new policies limiting the use of personal devices, and related distractions, in the classroom.