To do over your break: public comment now open on proposed federal prohibition on gender affirming care for young people.

PUBLIC COMMENT IS NOW OPEN on prohibiting gender affirming care for young people. Comments are open until February 17, 2026.

The grossly expressed summary: 

This proposed rule would require that a State Medicaid plan must provide that the Medicaid agency will not make payment under the plan for sex-rejecting procedures for children under 18 and prohibit the use of Federal Medicaid dollars to fund sex-rejecting procedures for individuals under the age of 18. In addition, it would require that a separate State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plan must provide that the CHIP agency will not make payment under the plan for sex-rejecting procedures for children under 19 and prohibit the use of Federal CHIP dollars to fund sex-rejecting procedures for individuals under the age of 19.

("sex-rejecting" is what they've come up with? Really?)

Flood 'em with comments!

Does your district have a policy for this?

Earlier this week, the AP reported on a case of a middle school girl in Thibodaux, Louisiana, who was ongoingly bullied by boys at her school with AI-generated nudes. When the school ongoingly did not deal with it, she and others fought one of the boys on a school bus. She was kicked out of school; the boys did not face consequences from the district, 'though it appears that they are facing legal consequences now.

Two things: 

1. The responses of administrators in this story are maddening:
   "At the disciplinary hearing, the girl’s attorney asked why the sheriff’s deputy didn’t check the phone of the boy the girls were accusing and why he was allowed on the same bus as the girl. “Kids lie a lot,” responded Coriell, the principal. “They lie about all kinds of things. They blow lots of things out of proportion on a daily basis. In 17 years, they do it all the time. So to my knowledge, at 2 o’clock when I checked again, there were no pictures.”
   
   The superintendent commented that "a “one-sided story” had been presented of the case that fails to illustrate its “totality and complex nature.”
   
   After an appeal to the school board to get her back into her school:
   “She’s already been out of school enough,” one of the girl’s attorneys, Matt Ory, told the board on Nov. 5. “She is a victim.
    “She,” he repeated, “is a victim.”
    Martin, the superintendent, countered: “Sometimes in life we can be both victims and perpetrators.”
   
   
   
2. I continue to see headlines of districts passing what they appear to be calling "an AI policy."
   One policy? Really?
   Because unless you've gone through your policies and found all of the places where AI could impact district operations, this isn't covered in policy. Did you consider the above in your bullying policy? 

As I am typing this, I am seeing AFT President Randi Weingarten attempt to defend her position on AI on Bluesky: 

We know students, like the rest of the world, are using AI. Teachers need to be equipped to deal w/all the issues AI creates. Our approach starts with maximizing safety & privacy and empowering educators to make educational decisions, so AI tools can benefit not harm www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...

[image or embed]

— Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 (@rweingarten.bsky.social) December 23, 2025 at 5:04 PM

They can't.  

Wait, what? moments from last week's Board of Ed

Due to the Consensus Revenue hearing starting at noon, I did not liveblog the last section of the Board of Ed meeting last Tuesday, which was on the interim graduation report. I did watch it later in the day--you can read my MASC coverage here--but much like the Commissioner's goals, feedback was not so much focused on the report as it was talking around associated items. 

Please enjoy this waving snowman from Palmer.
The snowman has nothing to do with the post,
but we need to take our happy things where we can.

There were five eyebrow raising moments during the meeting--two from the Commissioner's priorities, and three from the graduation discussion--that I want to be sure we don't miss, as much as everyone's attention right now may be elsewhere. 

This week's AI doesn't work at all story

Headline in the Washington Post: 

A school locked down after AI flagged a gun. It was a clarinet.

From the article: 

Some school safety and privacy experts said the recent incident at the Florida middle school is part of a trend in which threat detection systems used by schools misfire, putting students under undue suspicion and stress.

“These are unproven technologies that are marketed as providing a lot of certainty and security,” said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database. 

Even more remarkable is the response of the company: 

 “We don’t think we made an error, nor does the school,” Alaimo said. “That was better to dispatch [police] than not dispatch.”

To leave out what sending schools unnecessarily into lockdown does for student and staff mental health, actual student safety, not to mention their education, demonstrates how little this industry actually cares for the well-being of students.

And never forget: this is indeed an industry. Fear sells. 

What we're losing in the Office of Civil Rights

 Good read from The Hechinger Report: 

Now, however, the Trump administration is wielding the power of the Justice Department in new and, some say, extreme ways. Hundreds of career staffers, including most of those who worked on education cases, have resigned. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights also has been decimated, largely through layoffs. The two offices traditionally have worked closely together to enforce civil rights protections for students. The result is a potentially lasting shift in how the nation’s top law enforcement agency handles issues that affect public school students, including millions who have disabilities...

The Justice Department’s lawyers historically have worked on a few dozen education cases at once, concentrating on combating sexual harassment, racial discrimination against Black and Latino students, restraint and seclusion, and failure to provide adequate services to English learners. 

In the last 11 months, however, the agency has sued over and opened investigations into concerns about antisemitism, transgender policies and bias against white people at schools. It sued at least six states for offering discounted tuition to undocumented immigrants and pressured the president of the University of Virginia to resign as part of an investigation into the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies. And it joined other federal departments to form a special Title IX investigations team to protect students from what the administration called the “pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities.”  

FY27 Consensus revenue hearing

 ...which you can find here

Remember, the idea here is that they're hearing testimony which will inform the Executive branch, House Ways and Means, Senate Ways and Means in agreeing on a revenue projection.

The major players here are Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael J. Rodrigues, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz and Secretary of Administration and Finance Matthew J. Gorzkowicz.

Rodrigues opens by introducing his colleagues...and my video went down
posting as we go

Board of Ed: Commissioner's priorities

 The backup is here

Have met 2700 stakeholders and attended over 50 events
this marks six months on the job

December Board of Ed: adult education

Wyvonne Stevens-Carter: 

adults seeking high school equivalency or English learning; workers following pathways; those imprisoned exiting; adults working 

Multiple pathways in one system with multiple providers
now reaching over 27 thousand students 

December Board of Ed: 2026 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year

Tara Goodhue, who teaches science at Lowell High School
will bring all recognized together in May
hey, she's a Clark alum! And took urban schooling
She's the child of a teacher
knew she wanted to work in a city school district
speaks of being inspired every day by her students, and that they make her laugh every day
"really easy to feel overwhelmed"
"committed to spreading a message of hope"
"we cannot stand frozen as the forest burns"
envisions a fishing derby in Lowell

Member Fisher: I'm biased; I don't think I taught you, but I taught that class at Clark
was reenergized listening to you

Grant: "let's go back to school!"
amplifies her voice and story

Mohamed: find nature anywhere 
"thank you for going outside and taking kids outside"

Rocha: high standards, not high stakes
to hear your sense of humor warms my heart

Craven: "I learned something about lichen that I won't forget today"

December 2025 Board of Elementary and Secondary Education: opening comments

 The agenda is here. The meeting will be livestreamed here.

I'm doing this one remotely so I can switch over to the consensus revenue hearing at noon. Updating as we go...

Public comment:

Jodie Alencar: adult education learner, speaking of his experience learning English as an immigrant from Brazil
"I am one of the faces of adult education in Massachusetts"

The promise of a school bus

This one happens to be on Route 122 in Barre,
part of the Quabbin Regional School District.

 A few weeks back, my morning trip to a school district put me behind a bus in a local district. It was an elementary school run, and so even in November, most stops had adults alongside waiting passengers of various sizes. There were last hugs, backpack handoffs, parting parental wishes before students joined their peers on board.

Is there anything we do that shows more trust in other people than putting our kids on a school bus?

I don't just mean putting our kids on a vehicle driven by a stranger; that's just the start. They will spend their day with adults who we trust with everything about them: their physical safety, their emotional well-being, their sense of self, and yes, their educational development. 

I think this is why so many of us are particularly appalled by someone driving past a bus with its lights flashing for a pickup; it isn't only that children can be hurt or killed (though it's certainly that). It's that we've agreed, tacitly, that we together keep children safe by all stopping for a bus that has stopped for them. It matters more than whatever the rush we may be in to get somewhere. Kids' safety comes first.

Except, of course, as a society, we have decided it doesn't, when on the eve of the anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre, students studying for a final exam at Brown University are shot. 

Kids and their safety should matter more. But America has decided that it doesn't. 

Two big meetings for the state this week

 And wouldn't you know, it's a double header, because these things aren't coordinated!

• On Tuesday at 9 AM, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education has their regular monthly meeting. While I suspect the interim graduation report will be getting attention in public comment, remember that it's an interim report. The final report is due in June. 
  What I'm going to paying most attention to is the Commissioner's 2025 School Accountability Designations, which implies that he has some to make. Whether, as some parents at UP Academy Dorchester apparently fear, he'll be moving schools out of receivership, or, as hinted at last year by then Acting Commissioner Russell Johnston*, he'll be moving some in, we'll have to listen to learn. 
  
  
• On Tuesday at noon, the Joint Committee on Ways and Means is holding the consensus revenue hearing. For those of you who don't mark this on your calendar in big letters, this is when the two chambers of the Legislature together with the executive branch hold a hearing to inform their decision as to how much money they'll budget for next fiscal year, FY27.
  State House News Service last week noted in a timely article that this number is more and more not what they spend at all. 
  

  Since fiscal 2019, when Senate and House Ways and Means Chairs Sen. Michael Rodriguesand Rep. Aaron Michlewitz began leading the budget committees, four fiscal years ended with total spending that outstripped the next year’s enacted budget.
  The pattern raises questions about whether the formal annual budget — debated for months and trumpeted each summer — has become less a blueprint for state spending and more of a starting point that lawmakers revise dramatically and with increasing regularity through midyear spending.

  What it will do is begin to give some sense of how they're thinking about next year. I'm also looking forward (?) to seeing if anyone else is concerned about the massive impact the federal changes to Medicaid and SNAP are going to have on this and following budgets. 

I am planning on following this, but all online, as one cannot quickly get from Everett to Boston!


__________________________________________
*As a reminder, the schools he named were: 
Brockton: Arnone Community Elementary School
Chelsea: Clark Avenue Elementary School
Framingham: Harmony Grove Elementary School Springfield: Lincoln Elementary School
Worcester: North High School

And as someone in Worcester: I'm really concerned about North, which is in the lowest performing 2% of districts in the state.

Ensuring next year's state budget is ready for federal impacts

 As I noted back in October, there were changes made to how the federal government is managing SNAP and Medicaid that will have impacts on school funding and on the state budget. I said then, and I continue to fear now, that I don't see indications that Massachusetts is making this part of our preparation for FY27 and beyond. 

Applying Mahmoud v. Taylor to vaccines is alarming

 On Monday, the Supreme Court sent a case challenging New York State's ending of religious exemptions for vaccines back to the appeals court " for further consideration in light of Mahmoud v. Taylor."

Mahmoud, of course, was the decision that allows parents to exempt their children from, well, basically anything in a school, on religious grounds. 

Slate covers the issue here well: 

Unfortunately, Mahmoud’s author, Justice Samuel Alito, wrote the opinion so sweepingly that this interpretation is entirely plausible. He evinced no concern for the rights of other students—like, say, the children of LGBTQ+ parents who might feel stigmatized by the removal of books that depict families like theirs. And he contemplated no clear limits to parents’ freedom “to direct the religious upbringing of their children.” Instead, he indicated that when parents’ faith-based demands conflict with democratically enacted education policies, it is the parents who must win out and the contested policies that must yield. So the Amish plaintiffs in Miller v. McDonald are not off base when they say that Mahmoud establishes their right to send their kids to school unvaccinated. Alito’s decision is so recklessly capacious that it arguably allows parents to challenge even the most basic school-safety measures on religious grounds.

Mahmoud did at least acknowledge that infringements upon this newfound First Amendment right may survive if they are “narrowly tailored” to serve a “compelling government interest.” The plaintiffs argue that the existence of New York’s medical exemption proves that there is no compelling interest in overturning its religious exemption, insisting that these opt-outs are analogous. But they are not: As the 2nd Circuit explained, there is “a difference in magnitude” between the frequency of religious and medical exemption, with families claiming the former vastly more often than the latter. Medical exemptions are also easier to police, since states can require licensed doctors to explain why each child has a legitimate need to forgo vaccination. Public health experts have shown that religious exemptions were linked to recent outbreaks—like New York’s measles epidemic—while medical exemptions were not.

In a week in which South Carolina reports what they've termed an "accelerating" measles outbreak  and Connecticut has just reported their first case in four years, it would certainly seem as if there is a compelling interest here. It is alarming that the Supreme Court would wonder otherwise.

where we are at on federal grants

 This came out from DESE's grants office this morning. While it is not new information, I thought it was a useful summary: 

On November 12, a “continuing resolution” was passed to reopen the federal government through January 30, 2026. However, most school year 2026-2027 federal education funding levels have not been resolved and are still subject to negotiation (ESSA, IDEA, Perkins, etc.). If Congress cannot come to an agreement on FY27 funding levels by January 30^th, they must either pass another “continuing resolution” or shut down the government yet again. It should be noted that the national school meals program was the one major area of federal education funding that did receive a new full-year appropriation, through September 30, 2026.
 
Early the following week, the U.S. Education Department (USED) informed state education leaders of its intent to transition the management of several major programs to other federal agencies. The announcement stated that the majority of programs currently managed by the federal Office of Elementary and Secondary Education will transition to the U.S. Department of Labor via an inter-agency agreement. These programs will include Title I-A, Title II-A, Title III-A, Title IV-A and B, and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Act, among others. 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) programs will, for the moment, remain at USED, as will the Office for Civil Rights. USED officials noted that signed agreements with the Department of Labor and other agencies are only a first step and could not provide immediate details on the timing or specifics of the interagency transitions. These details will vary by program. The federal press release includes links to several federal fact sheets, including one on elementary and secondary education. 

The aid didn't go out

 You might remember back in late October during the government shutdown, Worcester with GREAT fanfare announced that there was a local effort to help families struggling with hunger as SNAP benefits were also shut down. Among the things listed:

...4,000 food gift cards — each worth $100 — will go to individuals and families who stand to lose SNAP benefits on Nov. 1....$150,000 will go to the Worcester Public Schools so students and their families have access to nutritious food

Now, I know I wasn't alone in observing that there are 24,000 students in the Worcester Public Schools and 72% of them count as low income, so that was not going nearly far enough. At least, I am sure we all thought, it was something.  

So I had to re-read these paragraphs from the T&G last week twice to be sure I understood this correctly: 

A recent example of the slow pace of bureaucracy is how 4,000 food gift cards were distributed to Worcester families who temporality lost federal food aid benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the recent government shutdown. 

Donations received by the United Way of Central Massachusetts paid for the cards, each with a $100 value, and Morales said 800 have been given to families of students in the Worcester Public Schools. More cards are available, but families must fill out an application and that takes time.

Morales also noted 1,300 of the 4,000 food cards were disbursed by the Worcester Community Action Council before Thanksgiving. 

So...just over half the cards went out BY A MONTH LATER?

And families of kids in WPS had to FILL OUT AN APPLICATION to get the cards?

Every day, the Worcester Public Schools feed any child who attends. No one fills out anything, because--and this is quite explicitly why the federal program works as it does!--WE KNOW THAT IS A BARRIER to food.

What on EARTH? 

We at least temporarily have an Office of Civil Rights back

 Well, well, well, what do you know? If you lay off hundreds of people who deal with civil rights complaints in the U.S. Department of Education, what do you end up with?

...a growth in its massive backlog of those complaints. 

Thus on Friday, U.S. Ed called back hundreds of those employees, though not without the trademark unprofessional snark that is a current hallmark of the agency: 

In the email to employees, the department said “it is important to refocus OCR’s work and utilize all OCR staff to prioritize OCR’s existing complaint caseload.” 

“In order for OCR to pursue its mission with all available resources, all those individuals currently being compensated by the Department need to meet their employee performance expectations and contribute to the enforcement of existing civil rights complaints,” the email notes.

Remember, Secretary McMahon has repeatedly said that the mandates Congress has for the Department can and are being carried out, but as USA Today notes: 

Education Secretary Linda McMahon's decision to tap into her own laid-off workforce provides further evidence her agency is struggling more than she has publicly indicated to meet its legally mandated responsibilities.

Since cutting the department in half earlier this year, many families waiting on resolutions to their civil rights complaints have been stuck in limbo. Colleges have also reported significant issues with the federal financial aid system.

 I should note that the first report I saw of this was in FedScoop.

A note on transportation from Washington State

 Really interesting thing I learned from this article covering Spokane, Washington buying a new fleet of school buses: 

The state also now requires school districts to prove they are getting a better deal by contracting with an outside provider rather than having their own fleets.

I want to do some poking around and find out more about the law and what caused that to be the case. 

 

Some folks just need something to be angry about

 But they're fighting like dogs in the town across the river
Over a brand-new crosswalk that won't matter come winter
Lord, sometimes folks just need something to be angry about
What're you angry about?

"Pain is Cold Water," Noah Kahan

As Mass DOT held a public hearing on proposed changes to upper Pleasant Street (Route 122) here in Worcester Wednesday night, the Washington Post covering why it is that Vision Zero--the novel idea that no pedestrians should die due to drivers--hasn't been successful in the United States was timely. (That's a gift link to the Post.)

As illustrated by some of the public testimony at the Worcester meeting, the big reason that such moves fail in the U.S., per the review by the Post?

 Motorists are hostile to measures that slow traffic and favor pedestrians.

 As a result, then: 

Local leaders give token or tepid support. Spending on pedestrian-friendly improvements is not prioritized. The U.S. government, meanwhile, never backed up its pledge with federal action or significant funds.

Motorists in the U.S. want to go really fast in their big cars, and our system revolves around that.

Pedestrians, though, are all of us at one time or another. Even those who drive everywhere occasionally have to exit a vehicle to get somewhere.

And one group that doesn't drive at all? Children. 

Children walk, and ride bikes, and wait for school buses. And children, thus, bear a disproportionate burden of systems that advantage cars over those who don't drive. 

Children, also, don't vote or donate to lobbying groups.  

If we actually want to prioritize kids, we need to prioritize the safety of those outside of our big steel cages that go really fast. 

This post in part brought to you, also, by thoughts I had whilst shoveling sidewalks Wednesday, a day Worcester had school after the Tuesday storm. While the roads are plowed by the city, the sidewalks—how thousands of children in Worcester get to school—are not, and sidewalks also do not have to be cleared until 24 hours after snow stops. That means Worcester’s children made their way to school Wednesday morning on uncleared sidewalks. 

Budgets are moral documents; what we fund is what we value. We don’t value pedestrians, including our schoolchildren, enough to ensure their winter safety. 

AI isn't panning out

 From an article in Futurism, Microsoft's (to give the latest example) sales pitch isn't panning out:

Regardless, the dustup suggests that enterprise customers are far from convinced that large AI agents are ready to autonomously complete complex multistep tasks. It’s yet another indication that companies are struggling to convert the enormous hype surrounding generative AI into actual revenue, a concerning trend considering the billions of dollars AI companies are burning through right now with no end — or return on investment — in sight.

This is, of course, because it continues to absolutely not live up to the hype: 

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found earlier this year that even the best-performing AI agent, which was Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro at the time, failed to complete real-world office tasks 70 percent of the time

What I find incredibly alarming is how many people who are in positions of power and authority refuse to look critical at all on this matter. We're continuing to see it pushed across the education sphere, including (particularly of concern to me) in matters of school finance. 

Consider what a 70% failure rate looks like for school budgeting. 

Office of the Inspector General on FY23 in Brockton

 I am just seeing this, but for those who read or follow such things: the Office of the Inspector General has issued a report on Brockton in FY23. You can find it here.
Coverage in MassLive, Boston Globe, and The Enterprise

Two ways the news isn't good today

 Happy Monday back from Thanksgiving! 
Two pieces of not great news today:

• We are just failing all over the place on vaccinations, and that has consequences. Last week, the United Nations warned that 30 million children around the world have missed measles vaccinations, and "...outbreaks continue to rise sharply." To wit:
  

  In 2024, 59 countries experienced large or disruptive outbreaks – almost three times as many as in 2021 – and a quarter of them had previously eliminated measles.

  At the same time, here in the U.S., whooping cough numbers are outpacing those of last year. A third baby in Kentucky died last week. 
  
  

• I will admit the phrasing here made me laugh, but it turns out an "old fashioned web search" is better for learning than using large language models (generative AI). This is from research published in October through the National Academy of Sciences. 
  And at the same time, the argument schools have been hearing on why students need to be 'taught' AI seems to not be panning out: AI use in businesses has flatlined.
  

  Three years into the generative-AI wave, demand for the technology looks surprisingly flimsy.

  That one's from The Economist, by the way, the "we're looking to see if there is money to be made" coverage, so perhaps we can take that to the bank?