Cardona: 'I want the same opportunities afforded to my daughter and my son — and my transgender cousin'

Good morning. Several updates out of Washington, D.C. to lead our coverage today, including proposed changes to federal Title IX law, yet another overhaul of the Education Department’s school discipline guidance and new research on how past expansions of the federal school meals program has been a boon to families and parents’ budgets. All that and more today at The 74:

Title IX

Proposed Title IX rule expands protections to transgender students

The Biden administration is pursuing sweeping new changes to federal Title IX law to restore “crucial protections” for victims of sexual harassment, assault, and sex-based discrimination that it maintains they lost during the Trump administration. Coming 50 years after the law was signed, the proposed changes also would effectively add transgender students as a protected class. But as Greg Toppo reports, the proposal sidesteps the question of transgender athletes’ rights to compete in girls’ sports, an explosive issue administration officials said will get its own set of regulations at a later date. Read our full report.

School Discipline

In a year of 'abysmal' student behavior, Ed Dept. to release discipline guidance

This summer marks the third time in eight years that the U.S. Department of Education is overhauling its policy on how school districts should handle school discipline. And while the controversy surrounding the issue hasn’t changed, discipline issues stirred up by the pandemic offer up a troubling new context. Some argue the department should leave discipline up to school leaders while others say the federal government has an important role to play in addressing bias. Linda Jacobson reports.

Research

Paper: Expanded school meals program lowered nearby grocery bills

Democrats and Republicans coalesced this week around a possible compromise that would extend a massive, pandemic-era expansion of free school meals. The deal is welcome news for education and nutrition advocates, who have argued that a lapse in the school lunch waivers would result in tens of thousands of children going hungry. A fresh look at recent research also reveals wider impacts to society — that the greater availability of free meals in public schools actually lowers grocery prices and spending even for those without school-aged children. Kevin Mahnken reports.

COVID Policy

Educating through the pandemic — 9 new updates on how states are responding

From Michigan’s push to invest in a large-scale tutoring program to Arizona's dedicating of $100 million to expand summer programming across the state, our latest roundup of regional and national school policy developments during the pandemic is now live. Produced in partnership with the Collaborative for Student Success, you can see all of this week's COVID developments and innovations right here. A few trends worth noting:
 

• North Carolina: Pandemic remote learning set back student progress (Read more)
   
• Minnesota: Lawmakers pass $93 million to address rise in mental health crises (Read more)
   
• Michigan: State seeking to invest in large-scale tutoring initiative (Read more)
   
• Oregon: Auditors warn state lacks accountability measure to ensure efficient use of funds (Read more)
   
• Arizona: $100 million K-12 investment sees summer camps expanding across state (Read more)