ELL News Headlines

Educators should focus more on a strengths-based approach that emphasizes kids’ agency and resilience while teaching students the social-emotional skills that will help them safely navigate their digital lives. That was one of the main takeaways from a panel hosted by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning as part of the organization’s virtual spring conference.

Two teenage brothers from the Republic of Congo were living their version of the American dream. They were leaders on their high school basketball team and involved in their local church. The elder was weeks away from graduating. That dream was thrown into upheaval this month when the brothers were detained by ICE agents who had waited outside their guardians’ home in Diamondhead, Miss. Israel Makoka, 18, and Max Makoka, 15, were leaving to take the bus to school when they were arrested and later moved to separate facilities, in Louisiana and Texas, where they remained on Wednesday. Their detention has crushed the school community in their conservative small town.

Since January, Alabama, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia have passed some form of legislation to reevaluate technology's role in education instruction and assessment, and more than 10 other states are considering similar restrictions. Last week, after months of petitions and demonstrations, the school board of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) also voted unanimously to limit screen time for all grade levels, beginning in the fall, with a particular focus on eliminating it entirely for elementary-age students.

The federal FAFSA form is required for anyone applying for federal financial aid, and for many low-income students it is the only possible route to affording a college degree. The Education Department is not supposed to share student information with agencies responsible for immigration enforcement. But now that the federal government has been disregarding longstanding norms on data sharing, some students with undocumented parents are not applying for federal financial aid, even though they’re eligible.

Despite New York City’s last-minute withdrawal of a controversial proposal for a new artificial intelligence-centered high school, parents, students, and educators packed this week’s school board meeting to speak on AI anyway.

Alyssa McFeat was one of the 15 students and 67 staff members at the Aveson Global Leadership Academy who lost their homes — and their school — in the Eaton fire, one of eight major wildfires that caused widespread destruction in California last year. Across the state, these wildfires would disrupt school for over half a million students as they raged on for close to a month, according to a news report from NPR.

The Los Angeles Unified School District unanimously voted to curb classroom screen time, directing staff to develop a policy by June ahead of the upcoming school year. The resolution aims to set clear limits on how screens are used in classrooms across grade levels. It was championed by Schools Beyond Screens, a group of parents that has spent months pressuring the district to evaluate how the use of devices is impacting student learning, especially in the earlier grades.

At the Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center earlier this month, teams of 10 high school students, sporting red and blue uniforms stitched with badges representing four fire academies, raced to complete a series of tactical challenges that simulate a real-life fire emergency. For many students, the Palisades and Eaton fires became a turning point in their path to becoming first responders. 

The Education Department plans to dissolve the office that supports the country’s 5 million English learners. The Office of English Language Acquisition already was decimated in early rounds of layoffs. Last August, the Department quietly rescinded guidance that many states and school districts rely on to protect the rights of immigrant students.

Since January 2025, educators and advocates for English learners and immigrant students have raised concerns about support for these populations, even as schools' federal obligations to them remain intact.