Children’s media uses relatable characters and stories to explore adoption, foster care, and family separation, helping normalize tough topics and open conversations.
Schools and Education
A reporter finds that Maine schools continue using restraint and seclusion on students, causing trauma and shirking accountability.
Asian families in NYC’s foster system face invisibility due to poor data and cultural stigma, leading to lasting harm and overlooked reunification struggles.
Montcalm County Intermediate School District was one of the subjects of a 2022 Detroit Free Press investigation over restraint and seclusion tactics used on students with disabilities.
While the state Department of Education has made trainings and tools available, researchers say it needs to do more to help districts use them.
Thousands of restraints and seclusions used on students each year reveal fractured interpretation of Maine law.
Even with incomplete data, experts say districts show alarming reliance on practices meant for emergency use.
Alaska’s rural schools face decades-long neglect as state funding lags, leaving Indigenous students in hazardous, overcrowded buildings with few options.
“Anxiety feels like a bomb in my stomach and every second feels like a year and nothing makes it stop,” said one young woman. “Anxiety tastes like bad coffee on an empty stomach. Anxiety feels like something watching me sleep.”
It has been five years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit and despite the difficulties, LAUSD reported that in 2023-2024 the graduation rate reached 87%, the highest of all time.