ELL News Headlines

In August 1920, a young woman named Pura Belpré traveled from Puerto Rico to New York City to attend her sister’s wedding —a trip that would not only change the course of her own life, but have a ripple effect on the field of children’s literature for decades to come.

A year after the Department of Homeland Security rescinded a policy limiting operations in and around schools, agents are not raiding schools, but immigration enforcement has nearly arrived at the schoolhouse door. There are reports of parents getting detained at bus stops and images of agents tackling people on school grounds.

Some of those places adjacent to schools would have been off-limits under the previous policy, raising questions about where the federal government will draw the line and putting pressure on school leaders to reassure families.

The first five years of a child’s life are among the most critical for their development. Those years lay a foundation and prepare them for kindergarten, often setting them up for success throughout school and beyond. But immense disparities exist in whether parents across the country report their child as ready for kindergarten, new data from the National Survey for Children’s Health shows.

Two Minnesota school districts and the state’s teachers’ union filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop immigration agents from carrying out enforcement activity at or near schools.

After more than a year of uncertainty over how a Republican-controlled Congress under President Donald Trump would change federal education funding, lawmakers on Tuesday approved a fiscal 2026 budget that maintains level funding for virtually every existing K-12 program. Schools nationwide can expect roughly similar year-over-year funding levels this fall for key programs like Title I for students from low-income households, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for special education services, Title II for professional development, and Title III for English learners.

About 25 percent of students in the St. Paul Public Schools are learning virtually right now amid the federal immigration surge in the Twin Cities, the district superintendent told MPR News.

Pura Belpré Awards honor outstanding books celebrating the Latine cultural experience. Here are the 2026 winners from the ALA Youth Media awards.

Renée Watson’s “All the Blues in the Sky,” in which the author blends poetry and prose to tell the story of a teen confronting the death of her best friend, has won the John Newbery Medal for the year’s best children’s book.

Today’s post is the final one in a series where educators share potential challenges that might exist in teaching English Learners, and how to respond to them.

Millions of children have grown up watching PBS Kids’ educational TV, geared toward 2- to 8-year-olds—from classics like “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” to recently added shows like “Lyla in the Loop.” Over the years, the content has evolved to include digital games, apps, and podcasts across a variety of platforms, plus curriculum-aligned videos, interactives, and lesson plans from PBS Learning Media. But access to this educational content is in jeopardy due to federal funding cuts.