School Survival

For the first time in over 15 years, a United States jurisdiction has enacted laws that significantly increase restrictions on homeschooling freedom!This past Wednesday, the D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) approved the State Superintendent of Education's June 27 draft of the home education regulations. After some discussion, the SBOE voted 5 to 1 in […]

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "teenager"? For many, it is not positive.Teenage rebellion has become commonplace, and our culture has responded by expecting less and less of teenagers. But is teenage rebellion inevitable, or are there new ways of thinking that could address the problem? Responsibility for […]

Bill could give federal oversight to private clinics for children and would require FDA inspectionsIn a move that could have implications for D.C.'s troubled special education system, a panel of lawmakers Wednesday passed sweeping legislation that gives federal authorities the right to inspect private children's clinics and schools.The bill would require the federal Department of […]

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Legislators are considering a proposal to restrict kids from wearing bulletproof vests at school. A young man wearing a vest and carrying a gun approached a middle school in East Baton Rouge earlier this year. Sheriff's officials say they could not legally do enough to punish him, so they want […]

PETA launched a new "Sex Talk" commercial Monday drawing a link between unwanted teen pregnancies and animal spaying and neutering...and they're airing it in Jamie Lynn Spears' hometown.The 30-second ad features parents who encourage their daughters to become sexually active. When one daughter asks her mother, "What if I get pregnant?" she responds with "pop […]

PS 49 in Queens used to be an average school in New York City's decidedly below-average school system. That was before Anthony Lombardi moved into the principal's office. When Lombardi took charge in 1997, 37 percent of fourth graders read at grade level, compared with nearly 90 percent today; there have also been double-digit improvements […]

After 23 and a half years in the Navy, Stefan Smolski knew he wanted to retire. But he wanted to do something with the extra time in his life.So he decided to become a teacher."It was one of those things," he said. "Sooner or later I had to do something in the afterlife, and it […]

Schools should have greater powers to search pupils, behaviour review says.Teachers should be able to search pupils to stop them bringing alcohol and drugs into school, says a review on tackling bad behaviour among pupils.Sir Alan Steer is to deliver proposals from his government-commissioned review of ways to improve discipline.Alcohol is identified as a growing […]

Many parents could face prosecution for leaving their children home alone during the summer holidays, a children's charity has warned.The Children's Legal Centre is calling for clarification of existing law, which fails to specify at what age children can be left on their own.Parents who fall foul of the law can face up to 10 […]

The alternatives section has been divided into categories: homeschooling & unschooling, online schooling, dropping out/GED, and charter schools. Each of those have 3 new articles in them (except charter schools, which only has one so far). Eventually the alternatives section will (hopefully) contain info about anything anyone would ever want to know about alternatives to […]