PowerSchool, a vendor providing services to multiple North Texas school districts, recently announced a data breach affecting the personal information of students and staff, the district said in a letter to parents. PowerSchool, a company hired by districts to store student information, reported the data breach to Dallas ISD. Similar to Dallas ISD, several other North Texas districts, including Denton ISD, Frisco ISD and Richardson ISD, use PowerSchool but were not impacted by the breach. view article

This is your weekly news roundup, which takes a quick look at some developments in government, politics, education, environment and other topics across El Paso. The Socorro Independent School District used more than half its savings between 2022 and 2024, and may need to spend more to cover its expenses. view article

Citing all the work the company has put into the region, employees are requesting a special election in Cameron County to incorporate a city.   view article

Houston ISD's state-appointed board members gave initial approval early Wednesday to policy changes regarding public comment at meetings, but backed off a proposal to eliminate virtual participation. In a preliminary, after-midnight move long after most of Tuesday night's meeting attendees had left HISD headquarters, the board voted 8-1 to move toward restricting community members from addressing topics that are not on the posted meeting agenda, among other proposed changes to public participation. Whereas student speakers have typically spoken near the beginning of meetings and before their adult counterparts, the board also signaled support for giving itself the discretion to alter that practice on a meeting-by-meeting basis. view article

Austin Independent School District leaders said on Thursday they plan to get a new data system to track more than 13,000 students who receive special education services. The change comes as the district’s special education department enters its second year under state intervention. view article

Texas policymakers are thinking increasingly about children’s use of digital tools and presence on social media, a topic that’s likely to become a point of conversation in the upcoming legislative session this spring. view article

State leaders want nuclear reactors to provide consistent, low-carbon power to large industrial facilities. But in South Texas, locals worry what a uranium mining boom could mean for their groundwater.   view article

Despite the efforts of local governments and others, the move to provide internet access to millions of Texans has been slow and faces new challenges.   view article

Georgetown ISD-issued devices are no longer allowed to host any apps owned by ByteDance, the China-based owner of apps TikTok and Lemon8, after trustees approved a policy update barring the use of the apps on devices like those issued to students and teachers. view article

Interim Superintendent Karen Molinar admitted Fort Worth ISD failed its teachers in recent weeks after a contract lapse left 29 campuses without functional printers and copiers, disrupting classroom instruction and sparking frustration among educators. District administrators faced a barrage of questions from trustees about the issue during a Nov. 12 board meeting. Most expressed dismay over the technology department’s handling of the situation and its impact on daily operations across the district. view article

A Massachusetts family is awaiting a judge’s ruling in a federal lawsuit that could determine their son’s future. To a few observers, it could also push educators to limit the use of generative artificial intelligence in school. view article

Belton ISD has announced a new cell phone policy set to take effect in January 2025, aimed at curbing social media usage in schools. The policy was developed with input from over 1,800 parents and nearly 400 teachers, creating a three-pronged approach that varies slightly between elementary, middle and high schools. view article

Normangee ISD has terminated an employee initially placed on administrative leave over allegations of inappropriate behavior with a student, according to new documents released Friday. To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, KBTX has decided not to identify the employee involved until formal charges are filed. view article

How Schools Across America Are Struggling With AI Deepfakes view article

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The pandemic accelerated how much we all depend on internet access to carry out daily activities. The latest data shows more than 2 million Texas households do not have high speed internet, disproportionately affecting those in rural areas. “What has been revealed by COVID is the fact that many of our students in the city do not have equal access to broadband,” said Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson. However, this is not something that can be fixed overnight. view article

Ahead of the spring semester, Spring ISD officials have announced that changes will be implemented in hopes of improving remote and in-person instruction for teachers and students. In a presentation at the Dec. 8 board meeting, Lupita Hinojosa, chief officer of school leadership and student support services, announced that not all teachers will have to teach online and in-person students concurrently in the spring semester, as is currently the case. view article

Cleveland and Liberty ISDs became the latest school districts on the outskirts of the greater Houston area to cancel their online learning options this week, joining Barbers Hill and Navasota ISDs in requiring the majority of their students to return to campuses. Liberty ISD, which educates 2,266 students about 50 minutes northeast of downtown Houston, told parents at the end of October that remote learning would be offered only to medically fragile students, students who have tested positive for COVID-19, students who are quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure and students whose schools temporarily were closed due to positive tests. view article

The deadline has been extended for Fort Bend Independent School District parents deciding if they want their children to continue virtual learning or head back to the classroom. This comes as a special board meeting scheduled for today was canceled. Ft. Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said board members wanted to give more parents time to decide. view article

The Waco Independent School District and its charter school partner, Transformation Waco, could see more than half of their students start the school year Sept. 8 via remote instruction, according to registration numbers provided by both entities. view article

Alief Independent School District Superintendent HD Chambers says school officials have decided to begin the school year online. Chambers said he doesn’t want any student to lose out on their education because of the pandemic but the thought of how to bring students and teachers back to the classroom safely keeps him up at night. view article

Children with severe disabilities often don’t have the ability to speak up when they are hurt at school, so determining what happened can be difficult. That’s why one Dallas ISD trustee wants to require each special education classroom in the district to have video cameras. Texas public schools are already required to place one in a special education setting if a parent requests it. view article

Robert Bostic, a self-described evangelist for science, technology, engineering and math, really started something when he became the superintendent of the Stafford Municipal School District in 2014. The Stafford High Robotics Program, which began two years ago, competed May 19-20 in Austin as one of 32 teams from the state invited to the 2017 University Interscholastic League Robotics FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Division State Championship based on the points it earned at earlier competitions. view article

A threat was made against Seven Lakes Junior High School via social media Thursday, officials said. view article

On March 11, 2016, the Texas Education Agency Commissioner of Education, Mike Morath, requested an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on the implementation of SB 507. This new law requires video surveillance of certain special education settings upon request beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. In an earlier blog post, I outlined the provisions of SB 507. view article

Schoolhouse bullying is nothing new. It has been going on for decades wherever someone bigger, tougher or meaner believed they could get away with abusing another child. And wherever it's happened, it has been harmful to the person being bullied in degrees ranging from intimidation and fear to causing children to commit suicide, or even murder. view article

School districts have been caught flat-footed in the last two years, facing an onslaught of digital textbook providers who follow no standard data file creation process. This problem is called "user provisioning," (a.k.a. account provisioning) a fancy way of saying that you have to create usernames and passwords in EVERY online system students and staff will need to use. view article

The Beaumont ISD Board of Managers appointed Fred Shafer as executive director of the district's special education department during a special meeting Monday, according to social media reports. view article

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New Braunfels ISD Superintendent Randy Moczygemba is in Washington DC today, joining President Barack Obama for the "ConnectED to the Future" Event, a special conference including superintendents and other educators from across the country, who will lead their schools and districts in the transition to digital learning.  view article

While the staff at TexasISD.com preferrs Google Chrome as our browser of choice, we often use Mozilla Firefox as well.  We aren't huge fans of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) but the site works on it as well...as long as you are current in your versions, otherwise, well...it's just a mess. Most browsers have an update function and may even notify you that there are updates availible.  In some districts I have been to, the attitude is what I have works, why update. Well, what you have probably doesn't work that well and you just don't realize it. Take a second to check your browser version or look for updates if you haven't in a while. view article