Education
Child advocates warned of a surge in abuse cases, but there’s no evidence that’s happened
The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has seen a nearly 50 percent decline in the number of hotline reports of suspected child abuse and neglect since March. While some have warned that school closures related to the novel coronavirus would cause a spike in the number of children being abused, experts say […]
White House leans on Louisiana to reopen schools
BATON ROUGE — Vice President Mike Pence visited the Louisiana State University campus Tuesday to meet with the state’s top leaders to discuss reopening schools next month. Pence’s message was clear: the White House wants Louisiana to fully open all its schools despite the state’s high rate of COVID-19 cases. Pence arrived on Air Force […]
State plans to supply schools with cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment
Louisiana State Superintendent Cade Brumley told the Louisiana House Education Committee Monday that in addition to creating health and safety guidelines for reopening schools that the Louisiana Department of Education has also added information about supplying schools with cleaning supplies and how they should use them. School employees must be provided adequate access to hygienic […]
BESE meets Tuesday afternoon to discuss new COVID-19 guidelines
The Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, July 14 to create emergency rules and guidelines that “provide minimum standards, policies, medical exceptions and regulations to govern the reopening of the schools for the 2020 school year,” said BESE President Sandy Holloway.” The meeting is being held […]
Conflicting opinions about reopening schools in Louisiana and the U.S.
Across the United States, only 20 percent of parents with school-age children feel comfortable sending their children back to school in August or September, according to Echelon Insights, a polling firm that surveyed 500 parents a week between April 27 and June 18. The results of that poll and an analysis of it were published […]
Louisiana Key Academy welcomes students back to in-person instruction
While many Louisiana schools and school districts are still figuring out if they’ll have in-person instruction, online instruction or a mix of the two in August, Louisiana Key Academy, a Baton Rouge charter school, is scheduled to start in-person instruction for its students today, July 9. Created as a campus to focus on the needs […]
Education department’s reopening rules may be hard for students to follow
Ashley Collins is a bit worried about her six-year-old son, Austin, going back to school in the fall. Austin is about to start 1st grade at J.C. Ellis Elementary School in Metairie, but with the recent upsurge in COVID-19 cases in Louisiana and especially Jefferson Parish, Collins just hopes her son’s school operates with an […]
Louisiana students can expect a test as soon as they return
While four months without school may sound like every elementary school student’s dream, it also means that those students will likely have fallen behind academically to some degree. Because of that expected learning loss, Louisiana State Superintendent Cade Brumley said in a Tuesday interview that the Louisiana Department of Education plans to use universal screeners […]
State board gives 5 companies $140 million off next year’s property taxes
The Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday approved tax breaks for multiple Louisiana companies worth more than $148 million next year alone under a program critics call “corporate welfare.” Wednesday’s meeting was the first time the board had met for a full agenda since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the state, and the members […]
Pandemic said to widen already existing racial disparities in Louisiana schools
The COVID-19 pandemic has noticeably widened the educational gap between white students and Black and Hispanic students, a new study says. In a scenario that assumes a “virus resurgence” where in-school instruction does not fully resume before January 2021, research firm McKinsey & Co. estimates that Hispanic students will have experienced more than nine months […]
Louisiana Department of Education releases guidelines on reopening K-12 schools
School systems should prepare for at least three possible scenarios when returning to school this fall: traditional, hybrid and virtual, according to guidelines on the reopening of K-12 schools the Louisiana Department of Education released Thursday morning. The document defines a traditional setting as one where students return to a typical classroom setting with safety […]
LSU Board of Supervisors removes Troy H. Middleton’s name from LSU’s main library
Exquisite Wlliams did not have much hope that her June 6 petition to remove Troy H. Middleton’s name from LSU’s main library would accomplish anything. Middleton served as LSU president from 1951 to 1962 and, even as the civil rights movement pushed the country forward, he remained a staunch advocate for segregationist policies. “We were […]