Students are struggling with what is happening around them at school and at home, including managing their mental health and stress. District leaders are concerned about student well-being as well as how a lack of engagement is connected to other issues.

Research shows engagement levels are closely connected to academic outcomes. Additionally, district leaders report that a lack of engagement plays a role in behavior issues, chronic absenteeism and a lack of academic progress. In a recent survey, 58% of district leaders connected disengagement to learning loss.

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To recapture student engagement and get students back on track, district leaders need to support teachers with the strategies, technology and time to personalize a student’s journey.

Enabling deeper student connections

Boosting student engagement starts with supporting teachers in what they do best: connecting with their students. Research demonstrates strong learner-educator connections can lead to students earning higher grades, building a deeper connection to school and feeling included and respected. These factor into engagement as well.

Focusing on the student-teacher relationship doesn’t mean telling teachers to connect and engage students, and then walking away. Nor is it about finding the best technology to take over as much teaching as possible.

Instead, district leaders need to give teachers the support they need to create personalized learning experiences. Yes, technology is an essential piece of enabling personalized approaches efficiently, but students still perform best when teachers are driving instruction.

District leaders need to introduce technology that enables teachers to shape the experience, including:

• Expanding choice: A lack of engagement can sometimes be a lack of emotional engagement with a subject. Teachers who can connect students’ interests with classroom content have a better chance of encouraging students to be curious, passionate and connected to what they’re learning. A digital curriculum that expands course choice can help students stay on track in school while also engaging them in topics they’re interested in learning without requiring additional teaching staff or time.
• Tailoring interventions: Measuring engagement is complicated. Educators can’t rely on just one input to determine whether a student is engaged or not. Incorporating diagnostic assessments can help educators understand on a deeper level what students know and identify ways to motivate them intrinsically and extrinsically.
• Emphasizing process with AI: The focus of using AI has often been on how students might use the tool to disengage and not complete their work. But AI can be an engagement tool that personalizes learning. Instead of punishing students for using a tool like ChatGPT, teachers can encourage them to use it to brainstorm and organize their thoughts, and then dedicate class time to analyze what the tool produced and identify ways a student should adapt it to their point of view.

Engaging students on multiple levels

Beyond adding more moments where teachers can easily draw students in, personalizing learning with technology can help educators tap into all styles of engagement. Too often student engagement is misunderstood as just basic compliance with classroom expectations.

But truly engaged students are connecting behaviorally, cognitively and emotionally. Without all three, the experience may be unbalanced, or a student’s progress may be misunderstood. For example, students who aren’t emotionally engaged, even if they are paying attention, may be less motivated when they encounter challenging topics.

Given the connections between engagement and absenteeism, classroom behavior, and learning loss, it’s essential district leaders empower educators with personalized learning strategies and smart technology. With a multi-dimensional engagement strategy, teachers can build stronger connections with students that deepen their learning and resolve some of today’s biggest classroom challenges.

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That may be because the medical community also doesn’t have a full grasp on just how social media affects the health of students, researchers contend in a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

“Research shows social media has the potential to both harm and benefit adolescent health,” the report says. “For example, algorithms that generate content recommendations can provide young people with important health information or expose them to unscientific treatments.”

The “direction” of the relationship between social media and adolescent health is also murky because social media may influence health but health may also influence how young people use social media. “There is also much to be learned about how specific platform features—such as “likes” or the endless scroll format of some platforms—may affect adolescent health,” the report posits. For these reasons … a more judicious approach is warranted rather than a broad-stroke ban, and does not make recommendations for specific limitations on teens’ access to social media.”

What is clear is that attractive design can keep kids attached to their phones even when they want to disengage. Compounding the risk is that adolescents, compared to adults, have a harder time regulating emotions, are more sensitive to rewards and are meant to seek out independence and explore new identities, the National Academies adds.

Social media health solutions

District leaders should continue to emphasize media literacy and provide teachers with adequate professional development in the subject one superintendent recently told District Administration was among the most important schools could teach. The report also encouraged district educators to advocate for states to set media literacy curriculum standards, particularly in digital media to make students more sophisticated and discerning users of social media.

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Educators should counsel students to use social media for social support and to avoid content that depicts illegal or risky behavior, such as self-harm, harm to others, hate speech and eating disorders. Adolescents should also be routinely screened for signs of “problematic social media use” that interferes with their ability to engage in schoolwork and other daily routines.

Educators can also encourage parents and caregivers to set guardrails by creating a family media use plan that:

• Addresses what type of and how much media is used and what media behaviors are appropriate for each child and for parents.
• Places limits on the hours per day each media platform is used.
• Promotes children and adolescents getting at least one hour of physical activity each day and at least eight hours of sleep.
• Prohibits children from sleeping with devices, including TVs, computers and smartphones.
• Designates media-free family times (such as dinner) and media-free locations (such as bedrooms).
• Ensures parents view media with children so the latter learn to use platforms creatively and collaboratively.
• Use media to learn and be creative, and share these experiences with your family and your
  community

Parents should also form a network of trusted adults—such as aunts, uncles, grandparents and coaches—who can interact productively with children on social media and help them when they encounter challenges or suspicious behavior.

Outside of schools, the report called upon the International Organization for Standardization, a tech industry watchdog, to set standards for social media platform design, transparency and data use. Social media companies themselves should develop more robust systems for reporting and rooting out online harassment of minors, from cyberbullying to sexual exploitation.

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Police in Henry County, Indiana, arrested a juvenile who allegedly threatened to bomb Tri Jr./Sr. High School in the South Henry School Corporation. Though the school was not officially closed because authorities learned of the threat on a Saturday, deputies swept the school. The suspect was arrested Dec. 9 on suspicion of two counts of felony intimidation because the teen also allegedly threatened to harm another student.

It was hardly an isolated incident. A 13-year-old boy was arrested earlier this month for allegedly making threats—via Snapchat—to commit a school shooting at Carwise Middle School in Florida’s Pinellas County Schools. When the 13-year-old allegedly threatened to shoot the student who received the message, that student told his parents and they called police, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office noted in a press release.

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The suspect allegedly admitted to sending the messages but claimed the threats were a joke as he was taken into custody and charged with written threats to kill or conduct a mass shooting.

An 18-year-old student was arrested Nov. 30 for posting text messages on social media that threatened Waterford Mott High School in Michigan. When the suspect was contacted by police, she blamed a classmate for the threats and showed them a Snapchat video that warned students not to go to school because the classmate had a gun, Waterford Township police reported on Facebook.

The young woman was charged with one count of intentional threat to commit an act of violence against schools and released on a $5,000 bond, police added.

The St. Clair R-XIII District in Missouri was closed for one day at the beginning of the month after authorities were notified of a bomb threat sent via text message through an internet app. The disturbing message was tracked to a student, who, when taken into custody, allegedly admitted to sending the text because they didn’t want to go to school that day, the St. Clair Police Department reported on its Facebook page.

Here is a sampling of school threats reported and arrests made within just the last month:

• A 14-year-old student in an orchestra class allegedly used a violin case to mimic and threaten a shooting at Van Buren Middle School in Ohio’s Kettering City School District, according to WHIO.com. The teen was arrested after another student reported the incident to administrators.
• Schools in Bemidji, Minnesota were closed Dec. 6 after dispatchers received multiple 911 text messages threatening a specific school and a staff member. Officers arrested a juvenile male “after an extensive search involving several 3rd party cellular re-sellers,” Bemidji police said on Facebook. The boy was charged on suspicion of making terroristic threats, a felony.
• Kent Roosevelt High School in Ohio was shut down on Nov. 15 after a threat was posted on Snapchat. A 17-year-old boy was arrested the following day on suspicion of making the threat and charged with inducing panic, a second-degree felony, the Ravenna Record-Courier reported.
• A 15-year-old boy was arrested at Danville High School in Kentucky on Nov. 15 after he allegedly called 911 to report a bomb at the school. Police swept the school and took the student into custody, charging him on suspicion of terroristic threatening, a felony, Danville police reported on Facebook.
• A 13-year-old girl was arrested after she allegedly threatened, in the presence of a teacher and other students, to blow up Lake Charles Charter Academy in Louisiana. The student was charged on suspicion of menacing and booked into a juvenile detention center, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
• A juvenile in Shreveport, Louisiana was arrested for allegedly phoning in two bomb threats against Heritage High School, which is located more than 1,000 miles away in Wake Forest, North Carolina, police said.

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Here is a look at what some recent research has found:

• Reading as a remedy: Children who read frequently self-report better mental health.
• Literacy motivates kids: Access to books that pique a child’s curiosity paves the way to academic success and builds empathy.
• Resiliency is a muscle: Resilience is a set of skills that can be developed and sharpened over time, including when children experience traumatic events.
• Classroom relationships are critical: Educators who cultivate positive connections with kids instill more security and confidence in children.

To help K12 leaders and their teams create these conditions, two experts—Michele Myers and Linda C. Mayes, authors of The Educator’s Guide to Building Child & Family Resilience—shared several strategies in a Q&A with District Administration. “An important part of mental health is having a positive self-identity and knowing who you are,” says Myers, a teacher-educator at Wake Forest University. “Books allow you to see that.”

“Reading lets children see that there are a thousand and one ways to go through this life,” adds Mayes, a professor of child psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology and director of the Yale Child Study Center. “It shows them how others experience life, deal with challenges and find opportunities.”

1. Explain how reading fosters better mental health and resilience.

Mayes: Multiple pathways link literacy and mental health. One is self-esteem, which is a major component of mental health. Reading grows your community and helps with stress regulation, which comes with remarkable health benefits. If you think you are the only one in the world who has ever experienced a certain situation, it can be incredibly stressful. It is a lonely experience if you cannot see others’ shared experiences.

The other piece that we should not underestimate is the ability to read and embrace a story. It is a good feeling to be immersed in a story and it gives children confidence. They feel confident when they can not only read but also when they can tell someone what they have read and engage in conversation. Data from the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report shows us that frequent readers are more likely than infrequent readers to report feeling proud and excited, while infrequent readers were more likely than more frequent readers to say they have felt lonely, sad or anxious. This trend carries onward in age as well: infrequent teen readers are more likely than frequent readers to say they feel nervous or anxious (50% of infrequent readers vs. 39% of frequent readers), sad or depressed (37% of infrequent readers vs. 25% of frequent readers), and lonely (30% of infrequent readers vs. 19% of frequent readers).

Reading lets children see that there are a thousand and one ways to go through this life. It shows them how others experience life, deal with challenges, and find opportunities. It also gives them a window into other people’s lives, teaching children important, health-promoting skills such as using their imagination and thinking of another person’s perspectives, especially when it comes to how another person is feeling.

Myers: An important part of mental health is having a positive self-identity and knowing who you are. Books allow you to see that. If a child never sees themselves reflected in the pages of a book, that tells them they are othered. But when they have literature that shows them positive aspects of their identity, culture, and things that are valued, they become a believer.

Rudine Sims Bishop’s work is foundational to our understanding of how reading fosters better mental health and acts as windows mirrors, and sliding glass doors for children. When we read books to children, we invite them to look into the windows of spaces where they may not have otherwise lived. We give them multiple ways of seeing the world and seeing themselves reflected in the world, which in turn gives them alternative perspectives.

2. How can educators intentionally make the connection between reading and mental health?

Myers: Literature allows children to understand themselves better. It can show positive aspects of identity, culture, and values. One of the things that I am passionate about is having a robust classroom library that offers many books reflecting the multiple ways of living within the world. These books can expand a child’s understanding of what it means to be one in a collective of others.

Educators need to build classroom libraries that have books reflective of positive, affirming messages about children and their worlds, cultures, and languages. This says to a kid: “I matter. Someone sees me. And I see myself reflected in this world.”

Mayes: It’s not only important for children to see themselves in a book but for children to see others. Reading creates a world that is more diverse than your own. Educators need to ensure that their classroom library has access to books that encourage kids to read widely, not only about themselves but about others, too.

3. How does literacy drive curiosity?

Mayes: Children are inherently curious. They come into the world curious. Curiosity is the engine that drives learning development and lifelong health. It keeps you open to possibilities to try something different. Our task as teachers, parents and adults is to make sure that curiosity thrives and flourishes alongside incidents of trauma and stress.

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Myers: Instilling the desire to learn in children is what we as teachers want to do. That is what we hope to accomplish every day. When children are engaged and curious about their education, they tend to learn more, behave better and thrive in classrooms.

When I work with educators, I encourage them to make sure that whatever topic they are discussing or studying is reflected in their classroom library. It is so important that students know where they can go to find answers to the questions they may have. Children must know that we as teachers will honor them and help them find the answers through literature.

4. Why does curiosity lead to academic success?

Myers: We want to teach children that it is OK to ask questions and that it is expected that you ask questions. This is how you create classroom communities that are safe and nurturing. We should see questions as a way to promote learning.

One of the things that I think is important when we work with kids is creating spaces where they can ask questions that matter to them, research to find the answers and challenge the answers that are not plausible. For example, if a child is told, “The earth is flat,” can that child do some research to find out those answers for themselves? We need to teach our children to not just accept answers that are given.

5. Why is empathy important for mental health and resilience?

Mayes: Empathy is a very complex cognitive response but essentially it is the ability to put yourself in another’s shoes and try to see their world from their perspective. Empathy builds relationships and communities. It is a key skill that helps kids learn how to make and maintain friendships. It is about bringing people together and is not about sympathy. Empathy is the ability to experience what another person is experiencing and relate to them.

Myers: It goes back to the African principle: I am because we are. When you can feel what someone else is feeling, you understand that our collective humanity resides in all of us being well, and realizing that we cannot go through life alone. When we understand this principle, we put our actions toward supporting whoever is the weakest link in our chain.

6. Should educators address specific events—such as the wars in Ukraine and Israel—as they help children process traumatic events?

Mayes: When we don’t talk about the things that children are hearing or what they are seeing on the news, it conveys the message that these are topics you cannot talk about openly. There are times when teachers will not know everything about the topic, but it is better to ask children about the questions and feelings they have.

The Israel-Gaza issue is especially challenging right now since it is so polarized, but fundamentally, children are being impacted on all sides. Encouraging kids to start thinking down to the level of how children and families are doing is critical. You have to talk about these things, or they become even more traumatic.

When we center the needs of our learners, we’re doing what is in the best interest of everyone involved. You’re not saying who’s right and who’s wrong. It’s a fine line to walk in our polarized world, but that’s where you want to be because you’re cultivating a resilience skill called altruism.

Myers: I think about one of the classroom teachers I used to co-teach with, Sara Suber. We talk about Sara’s great work in The Educator’s Guide to Building Child and Family Resilience, and how she always made space for kids to ask the questions that were on their minds. She never made her stance or opinion the only view that mattered. She allowed them to have opportunities to ask questions, to share their feelings and emotions, and for them to “Bring it to the Carpet.” They could bring anything to the carpet because she wanted them to know that it is OK to know that bad things happen in the world, but when you walk into the classroom, we are going to work through it together.

She created a space for the children where they could be vulnerable and open. For example, one of the students in Sara’s class had terminal cancer and the child died during the academic year. It was a traumatic event for all of them to experience but the children had a safe space to express their emotions, and Sara even took it a step further. She formed a connection with the hospital and encouraged the students to start fundraisers so that their money could be contributed to the hospital. Sara showed these children that we can use traumatic experiences to benefit others. Her students learned that we can do good, even when the bad things occur. We do not have to be stagnant.

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Confirming these facts comes with a warning, however. AI-based suicide-risk prediction algorithms also “compromise student privacy and perpetuate existing inequalities,” according to the Rand Corporation’s latest analysis of the technology’s potential to protect young people.

“The adoption of AI and other types of educational technology to partially address student mental health needs has been a natural forward step for many schools during the transition to remote education,” the research nonprofit says in its report. “However, there is limited understanding about how such programs work, how they are implemented by schools, and how they may benefit or harm students and their families.”

AI monitoring tools track student activity on school-issued devices and school-administered accounts when used on personal devices. The applications analyze language, keywords and even sentiment to identify threats. Students are automatically opted-in to the tracking and they, or their parents, have to opt themselves out to block the software.

The companies that produce the software typically identify suicide risks and alert designated school personnel. One such provider, Gaggle, reported issuing more than 235,000 self-harm and violence alerts during the 2020–2021 school year, the report noted.

AI monitoring, however, is only one facet of student health and wellness, and most K12 schools and their communities still do not have sufficient resources to support the overall mental health of youths, the report asserts. Healthcare providers, parents and other caregivers are not fully aware of how schools are using AI monitoring tools, RAND added.

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Ultimately, more data is needed to show how accurately AI algorithms can detect suicide risk and whether the technology is improving student mental health, the researchers concluded.

Installing AI monitoring: Next steps

For school leaders planning to adopt or improve AI monitoring efforts, RAND recommends:

1. Engaging communities for feedback: Schools should involve parents, healthcare providers and other community members in developing policy around how AI monitoring alerts will be acted on and who will be informed that a student is at risk of harming themselves. “Through these broader consultations, the use of AI-based monitoring in schools might not be seen purely as a technical solution to a complex problem, but a part of a complementary set of interventions in the broader educational system,” the researchers advised. “
2. Notifying caregivers and students about the surveillance: Districts should make clear what activity is being tracked on websites, email and other messaging platforms, and how alerts are triggered. Parents and students should be made aware of how they can opt out, what data is being collected, where it is stored and who has access to it.
3. Establishing a consistent process for responding to alerts: Best practices include ensuring responses to alerts are coordinated between school IT personnel, safety staff, counselors and leaders. Schools and districts should also have implemented a crisis response plan that covers suicide threats, but administrators should limit reliance on law enforcement involvement, the report counsels.
4. Track outcomes of risk alerts: Schools should review how personnel are intervening with students after alerts are triggered. Administrators should consider working with researchers or other experts to examine whether the process is benefiting student mental health and preventing risky behavior. Schools should also track outcomes such as law enforcement involvement, disciplinary actions and false positives.
5. Help students understand mental health: Administrators can use the adoption of AI monitoring as an opportunity to have positive conversations with students about mental health and the support that is available to them. These conversations can take place during classroom instruction, on district websites, and at assemblies and parent-teacher events.
6. Ensure district anti-discrimination policies guide AI tracking: Research has shown that this technology can disproportionately affect marginalized students based on race, gender and disability. Schools must train civil rights personnel, legal counsel and technology leaders, among others, to ensure AI tracking does not become a method of discrimination.

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At the same time, solutions are emerging and evolving as K12 leaders work to reverse the trend and eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline.

“We cannot be complacent when the data repeatedly tells us that the race, sex, or disability of students continue to dramatically impact everything from access to advanced placement courses to the availability of school counselors to the use of exclusionary and traumatic disciplinary practices,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a recent statement.

Disciplinary disparities

Black boys are more than twice as likely to be suspended than their white male classmates, according to a November report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

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Overall, about 638,700 students were suspended (out-of-school) at least once and about 28,300 were expelled in the most recent year for which national data was available, 2020-21. Black students, among other groups, are also overrepresented when it comes to arrests and law enforcement referrals:

• Black students represented 15% of K12 enrollment, but 18% of students referred to law enforcement and 22% of students subjected to a school-related arrest.
• White students represented 46% of enrollment, but 55% of students referred to law enforcement and 47% of students subjected to a school-related arrest.
• Students with disabilities represented 17% of enrollment, but 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 28% of students subjected to a school-related arrest. They also accounted for 29% of students who were suspended at least once of 21% of those who were expelled.
• Boys, Black students, students of two or more races, and students with disabilities were subjected to restraints and seclusion at disproportionate rates.

Districts reported approximately 274,700 school offenses in 2020-21, the large majority of which were “threats of physical attack without a weapon.” About 180 schools (less than 1%) reported at least one school shooting and about 100 schools reported a homicide of a student or staff member, the Department of Education reported.

‘Peace-Building Circles’

New solutions are emerging and other practices are being refined right alongside the troubling numbers. In November, a leading civil rights group took aim at dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. Learning for Justice, an initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center, released several resources for school leaders who want to reform disciplinary practices in their districts.

“Educators and families can advocate for and implement practices that prioritize mental health and well-being and do not push children out of the classroom,” says the nonprofit, which shared the following ideas and articles:

1. A community “Freedom School” model embraces transformative practices to strengthen relationships.
2. A tool kit for using peace-building circles.
3. “Decarceration” gives educators a key role in ending discipline that criminalizes youth with trauma-informed practices and other reforms.
4. “It Was Always About Control“: Why class management that’s based on compliance is at the root of discipline that harms young people.
5. School safety without police is an effort to advocate for students’ dignity.
6. How leaders can work with parent-led grassroots organizations that want to end punitive school discipline policies.
7. From slavery to school discipline: Examining the connection between school discipline and the history of slavery can help schools affirm and protect Black students.
8. A webinar on trauma-responsive education.

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Students who fall into crisis, including those who are now exhibiting unusually aggressive behaviors or skipping school, often lack “protective factors,” such as the ability to solve problems and build relationships, Samuell contends. Exacerbating these gaps are students’ dysfunctional home lives or responsibilities such as taking care of younger siblings or elderly relatives.

“Kids are coming to us lacking decision-making skills and coping strategies,” she adds. “They are faced with responsibilities beyond their level of development. They are coming to us with a lot more than they are developmentally able to cope with.”

Suicide prevention steps

Students who lack those coping skills are also more likely to engage in risky behaviors other than suicide and self-harm. Here are 5 steps that Samuell urges administrators to take to fortify their suicide prevention approach:

1. Creating a suicide prevention policy: It may sound obvious but it bears repeating. Districts need a clear and comprehensive suicide prevention policy that lays out professional development for educators and lays the groundwork for important school- and districtwide functions such as crisis-response teams. Here are some tips for creating a crisis response team.

2. “Gatekeeper” training for teachers and staff: As teachers are the most important part of the academic enterprise, they also play a key role in identifying warning signs of students who are in crisis. Administrators must provide training to ensure teachers and other staff are able to recognize when a student is at risk of harming themselves or others. “One-stop-shop assemblies, though powerful and dynamic, can do more harm than good,” Samuell asserts. “Rather, we should embed prevention activities into classrooms—in health, English, PE—so we have prevention going on across the board.”

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3. Use universal screeners: Assessments such as the DESSA screener allow educators to gauge students’ social and emotional competence and then provide the necessary tier of instruction. “It allows us to teach from K12 in a targetted manner, just like we teach to academic skills deficits,” Samuell explains. Counselors can also use the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale to measure a student’s level of risk when they are talking about suicidal ideation or displaying suicidal behavior.

4. Strengthening school climate: Connectedness is the No. 1 factor when it comes to developing resiliency in students. Educators must help students feel confident that it is safe for them to raise concerns about bullying and other threats to their well-being. Students must also see that administrators and teachers are taking action when concerns are raised.

5. Technology’s role in suicide prevention: Administrators and their teams need to leverage all the data they collect on students to identify academic, social and behavioral risks more quickly and comprehensively. Virtual counseling and therapy can also augment in-person staff when districts and schools are shorthanded.

“We have to get away from educators’ coming into the building thinking ‘I’m not here to parent, I’m here to teach,'” Samuell concludes. “We’re in a day and age where, at school, we provide the nurture, we provide the environment and we provide the academics.”

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“School grounds are supposed to be places where people from all backgrounds, faiths and beliefs feel safe and welcome,” Melinda Person, president of the New York State United Teachers union, said in a statement this week. “Such expressions of hatred violate core American values of inclusivity and respect and are unacceptable everywhere.”

In Florida, a torn Israeli flag was found at Equestrian Trails Elementary School, which is part of the Palm Beach County School District, WPBF reported. School police are investigating the incident, the district told parents in a message distributed last week.

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“I want to assure you that your children are safe. Our district takes a strict stance against antisemitic activity and is committed to educating our students with a deeper understanding of the ramifications of prejudice, intolerance, and stereotyping,” Principal Michele Chorniewy said in the statement, according to WPBF. “It is crucial that every student and staff member feels safe on a school campus.”

Swastikas were found drawn onto a desk and a bathroom wall at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools, WUSA9 reported. The school is investigating and, in a message to the community, Principal Douglas Nelson said the community is already experiencing “elevated concern.”

“These hateful actions make us feel targeted and unsafe,” Nelson said, according to WUSA9.

A swastika and other offensive graffiti were discovered recently at two middle schools and a high school in Greenwich, Connecticut, per the Greenwich Time. Greenwich Public Schools Superintendent Toni Jones warned that police would become involved if any “violence or belligerence” occurs, the newspaper added.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona warned schools this week that they could lose federal funding if they don’t respond adequately to antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents. He told CNN that the agency’s Office of Civil Rights had received “eight or nine” complaints about antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents on school campuses since early October.

The Office of Civil Rights also issued a letter to schools noting an “alarming rise” in threats to Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students and reminding K12 leaders of their specific legal obligations to protect students from all forms of discrimination. “Jewish students, Israeli students, Muslim students, Arab students, Palestinian students, and all other students who reside within our school communities have the right to learn in our nation’s schools free from discrimination,” the letter says.

New Jersey officials are also urging schools to respond “immediately” to antisemitic or Islamophobic incidents.

“There has been a marked increase in bias targeting Jewish and Muslim community members in K-12 schools and on college and university campuses across our state,” Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Sundeep Iyer, director of the Division on Civil Rights, wrote in a statement. “The rise in bias in our schools threatens the safe educational environment to which all our students are entitled.”

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In fact, some jurisdictions are cracking down harder than others as school and law enforcement officials contend with the disruptions, health concerns and crime they see following in vaping’s wake. Several counties in Alabama are taking what’s surely among the nation’s most aggressive responses to the problem. Students caught vaping at school in Cullman County receive a ticket and are being prosecuted in a newly created “vape court,” AL.com reports.

First-time offenders who complete an education class and community service will have their charges dropped and won’t have to pay court fees. Vaping appears to be on the decline in the district since the program started in 2021, AL.com noted. “We had 126 our first year and that decreased by 27% the following year,” a juvenile court official told AL.com. “We actually have a pretty good success rate.”

Vanquishing student vaping

Students caught vaping in Texas risk even harsher punishments. Vaping the key ingredient in marijuana, THC, is a felony in Texas and a new bill passed this year requires that students caught vaping nicotine also be removed from class and placed in a “disciplinary alternative education program.”

Northside Independent School District conducts disciplinary hearings for THC and nicotine infractions. “The number increased twofold just from 21-22 to the 22-23 school year,” Superintendent John Craft told KSAT.com. The district held 1,800 disciplinary hearings last year and a large majority of those involved THC. In comparison, there were 746 hearings for THC vaping in 2020-2021, the station added.

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Brownsville Independent School District students facing felony charges can enter a “second-chance” diversion program through the local district attorney’s office, according to MyRGV.com. Some 14 students recently had pending indictments erased after completing the “Learn, Educate, Appreciate and Develop” anti-vaping diversion program, thus avoiding consequences such as having to disclose a drug conviction on the college aid applications, the website explained.

Leaders at the Marion County School District in Mississippi describe their new vaping policy as “zero-tolerance.” Violators will be placed in one of two seven-step programs, WDAM reported.  “One is more of an introductory ‘here’s-what-vaping-does’ and we try to walk them through the stages of, if they have an addiction, how to break the addiction,” Superintendent Carl Michael Day told the station.

Some Marion County students support the rules. “I feel like it’s actually a good thing for the school because it’s a distraction if the kids want to just leave out of class to go vape or just be doing it in class and not be paying attention to the teacher,” high school senior Zion Payton told WDAM.

Funding for prevention

In a bit of good news, about 1,600 school districts are now receiving their shares of a $1.2 billion settlement against vape manufacturer Juul. Districts in Florida are in line for $438.5 million, with the small Okaloosa County School District in the panhandle planning to use its $360,000 to expand its anti-vaping campaign, Superintendent Marcus Chambers told WEAR-TV.

The post The vaping crisis: Districts resort to dramatic measures, including indictments appeared first on District Administration.

Bullies and their victims both are more likely to experience poverty, struggle academically and lose jobs in adulthood. They are also more likely to commit crime and abuse drugs and alcohol. As for schools, they risk losing millions of dollars in attendance-based funding when students stay home to avoid being bullied, WalletHub reports.

The states that deal with bullying most effectively are those where research-based anti-bullying programs are easily accessible to schools, says Lori Latrice Martin, an associate dean at the College of Humanities & Social Sciences and a professor in the Department of African & African American Studies at Louisiana State University.

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And those schools have firm commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. They also staff an appropriate number of trained professionals to address student mental health and wellness, Martin adds.

“School systems should have programs in place that protect children from bullying by fully investigating reports by students, parents, or other concerned individuals,” the professor suggests. “There must be accountability at various levels. School administrators must be held accountable for protecting students and providing services or referrals for students as needed.”

To identify where bullying is most pervasive, WalletHub examined the share of high school students getting bullied online, truancy costs, whether states have anti-bullying laws and several other metrics in 47 states and Washington, D.C. For example, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Arizona, Alaska and Iowa had the highest rates of online bullying; Rhode Island, Texas, Hawaii, Delaware and Washington, D.C. showed the lowest.

Here is WalletHub’s ranking, from highest to lowest rates of bullying:

1. California
2. Alaska
3. Nevada
4. New Jersey
5. Louisiana
6. Pennsylvania
7. Georgia
8. Wisconsin
9. Oklahoma
10. Wyoming
11. Arizona
12. Ohio
13. Iowa
14. New Hampshire
15. Mississippi
16. Tennessee
17. Texas
18. West Virginia
19. Nebraska
20. Arkansas
21. Montana
22. South Carolina
23. Missouri
24. Kansas
25. Alabama
26. Kentucky
27. North Carolina
28. Idaho
29. Illinois
30. Maryland
31. North Dakota
32. Florida
33. Michigan
34. Vermont
35. Connecticut
36. Hawaii
37. Colorado
38. South Dakota
39. New York
40. New Mexico
41. Virginia
42. Indiana
43. Utah
44. Maine
45. Washington, D.C.
46. Rhode Island
47. Massachusetts
48. Delaware

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