EDLF 750: Education Policy Winter 2026

  You Have the Right to…Do What the Bill Says State legislatures are very good at writing laws about schools. Understanding how schools actually operate is sometimes less central to the process. Occasionally, that gap shows up in surprising places. Nevada’s A.B. 4 , a sweeping public safety bill, offers a perfect illustration. Tucked among provisions on assault, DUI penalties, and retail theft is a small section governing when law enforcement can access school property or students. On paper, it may look like a small procedural clarification. In practice, it raises a much larger policy question: Where should the boundary between schools and the criminal justice system actually be drawn? Under the bill, school employees generally may not allow law enforcement officers onto school property or provide access to student information without a warrant, court order, or subpoena, unless exigent circumstances exist. The policy intent is understandable. Schools maintain sensitive stud...

       What better way to get educators going than to take something in schools and politicize the heck out of it? This week’s topic hits close to home, considering I have spent most of my career in the area of social and emotional learning and equity/diversity. What is so interesting about this topic is that it is not new; in fact, we have been talking about this since the one-room schoolhouse, just calling it different things along the way. The public does not realize that the disagreements around these topics weigh heavily on the language we use. Language matters, and it can matter even more depending on a community.  Hess and Noguera's dialogue between chapter 6 and chapter 10 about SEL and equity/inclusion. The authors attempt to define what these terms mean in practical application. For SEL, they capture SEL in the same way CASEL describes SEL as teaching students about emotional regulation, relationship skills, etc. While Hess and Noguera agree that SEL...

  H.B. 440: Eating up Time Maybe it’s because it was nearing lunchtime. I was seated in the gallery of Utah’s House of Representatives and heard something about lunch, and I was suddenly locked in. The forum on the floor at that very moment was an impassioned plea from a legislator on behalf of schoolchildren all across Utah. As a former elementary school teacher and principal, I locked in further. Sponsored by Rep. Tiara Auxier (District 4, Morgan, Rich and Summit counties) of the House Education Committee and Utah Senate Rules Vice Chair, Senator Keith Grover (District 23, Utah county), H.B. 440 “enacts provisions related to school community councils, school meals and recess in public school” (Utah Legislature, 2026). Specifically, H.B. 440 would: ·          Require an LEA to dedicate a share table program; ·          Require a School Community Council and a charter school’s wellness com...

Growing up, I could never have dreamed of a day when students would come to school with an entire set of the Encyclopedia Brittanica in their pocket. Back then, the charge to do a report on any particular topic included a trip to the library to navigate the Dewey Decimal system and find a collection of books on your chosen subject. For me, this often included an encyclopedia or two. The idea that all the information in all those books (and infinitely more!) information is at one’s fingertips in the modern smart phone still boggles my mind sometimes. But, the access to that information came with a lot more-social media apps, games, apps for shopping, and limitless distractions and other ways to use one’s time. Student access to cell phones has included significant disruptions to classroom instruction, decreased student attention spans, and increased mental health challenges, such as anxiety and reduced in-person social skills ( Institute of Education Sciences ). Other major conce...

                      ( Photo-illustration by Leticia R. Albano; photographs via Getty Images ) Every year, American families pour staggering sums of money into youth sports, more than $40 billion annually, according to estimates from the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative . A recent national survey of 1,848 youth sports parents found that families spent an average of $1,016 on their child’s primary sport in 2024, a 46% increase since 2019, far outpacing general price inflation over the same period. When additional sports are included, the typical family pays close to $1,500 per year for one child’s sports experiences. In response to these rising costs, 76% of parents reported taking some action to manage expenses, often by cutting spending in other areas of the household budget ( 1 ). Parents frequently justify this spending as an investment in a future payoff, often in the form of a coveted athletic scholarship....

  The Utah Association for Superintendents joined the conversation surrounding Senate Bill 241 - Early Literacy with intention to stay off the menu by taking a seat at the proverbial legislative table. Authored by Senator Ann Miller and championed by the Governor's Office, the First Lady, and Philanthropy, the bill passed through the senate 24:1 and currently has a favorable recommendation from the House Education Committee.  Should 3rd-graders who are not reading on grade-level be held back? Of the many topics this bill proposes and the one gaining most attention is the option that students who are not passing by 3rd-grade on the end of year Acadience assessment will be held back to repeat their 3rd-grade school year. Opponents to this bill suggest that if retention is appropriate due to low levels in reading, would 3rd-grade be the optimal age to send a student back through their previous year, or would an earlier grade be more likely to increase their chances of acquiri...