Montgomery Independent School District parents soon will be able to track their child's bus route. For the 2023-24 school year, parents and the district's transportation department will use a SMART tag monitoring system. Students will be assigned an ID card that will register when and where they get on and off their school bus. The system also would provide bus arrival notifications for parents and school administrators. view article

A slew of school districts across the country are suing social media companies, alleging that the tech giants are contributing to a youth mental health crisis. Catch up quick: The first of the lawsuits was filed in January by Seattle Public Schools, alleging that social media companies had intentionally designed and marketed their platforms to attract youth and had violated Washington state's public nuisance law. view article

A scammer stole more than $269,000 from the Juneau School District last fall. City and Borough of Juneau Finance Director Jeff Rogers outlined the incident in a memo shared with the Assembly Finance Committee during its meeting Wednesday. He said someone claiming to be one of the district’s vendors asked to change their banking information. They used a “spoofed email address that varied slightly from the vendor’s last known email address,” according to the memo. view article

Almost a week after an 11-year-old child died in a traffic accident, students in the surrounding area are pouring out support to the San Marcos community. view article

The Plainview ISD school board followed up on their plan to eliminate vapes and other substances from the district during a regular meeting Monday night. The school board unanimously approved the purchase and installation of 42 additional HALO vape sensors for Plainview High School, Ash High School, Plainview Collegiate High School, Plainview Intermediate school and Plainview Junior High. The purchase of the sensors is in response to an increase in THC vaping at PISD, according to Plainview ISD Superintendent H.T. Sanchez. view article

Alamo Heights ISD is implementing a new safety protocol that involves a wearable badge, button and the potential to save lives in an emergency situation. Each staff member will soon be provided a CENTEGIX CrisisAlert badge, which has an embedded button with the ultimate capability of triggering a lockdown. view article

At a Feb. 21 Conroe ISD board of trustees meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Operations Chris McCord updated the board on the implementation of the SMART Tag bus monitoring system, which was approved in August. Rollout of the system began in January. The SMART Tag system provides all students with ID cards to monitor the status of school buses as they drive their routes. According to SMART Tag, the system is designed to improve safety, security, visibility and communication for school bus transportation. view article

Within one month of each other, two Georgetown ISD parents said that the district could not tell them where their children were after one never made it on the bus, and the other was dropped off miles from home. School buses typically serve as reliable transportation to get students to and from school, but both families say the district's transportation system failed them. view article

THIS IS WHAT high school teachers see when they open GoGuardian, a popular software application used to monitor student activity: The interface is familiar, like the gallery view of a large Zoom call. But instead of seeing teenaged faces in each frame, the teacher sees thumbnail images showing the screens of each student’s laptop. They watch as students’ cursors skim across the lines of a sonnet or the word “chlorofluorocarbon” appears, painstakingly typed into a search bar. If a student is enticed by a distraction—an online game, a stunt video—the teacher can see that too and can remind the student to stay on task via a private message sent through GoGuardian. If this student has veered away from the assignment a few too many times, the teacher can take remote control of the device and zap the tab themselves. view article

Local school districts are weighing in on a new artificial intelligence tool that already has more than 100 million users. Schools have an interesting choice. They can ban ChatGPT or embrace it. While there’s been a lot of articles written about how it can help students cheat, what some may be surprised to learn is how it can be a really helpful tool for both students and teachers. view article

Diboll ISD has announced that there will be no school for students on Friday, February 10 due to a water main break. All staff members are still expected to report to campus. An estimated time of resolution has not been provided. view article

Their software, Kami, is an interactive program similar to Google Docs meant to help teachers with their lesson plans. It will also help with grading assignments and providing help for every student’s needs. view article

Breckenridge ISD announced a move to the 4-day school week for the 2023-2024 term. The move is a growing one, as there are now six Big Country districts that have made that move. In Breckenridge, some concerns were brought up by parents about situations like childcare. When parents have to work five days a week, what will they do? view article

On Sunday, we brought you the story of Kacie Smith, a 20-year veteran teacher who quit her job at Frisco’s Liberty High School last year after she became aware of a student’s Instagram account targeting her with harassment and threats. Smith’s story is just one of countless examples of social media being used as the medium to belittle, berate and scare people, often through anonymous accounts. For teachers, it’s becoming an all too common part of doing the job, adding another layer of stress and, in cases like Smith’s, fear that can drive people from the profession. view article

Public school trustees are considering following other districts in the county by installing vape detectors in effort to keep the devices, which can be used to consume both nicotine and THC, out of schools. view article

A former Clear Creek ISD employee was arrested on Monday after being accused of stealing numerous iPhones from the district and sending them to other countries, officials said. Galveston County Sherrif's Office deputies said former lead network engineer for CCISD, Eduardo Vasquez, was arrested for theft of property. view article

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced today his agency will receive $363 million in grants from the federal government to increase access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet to more than 150,000 homes and businesses in Texas. The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the award of $363.8 million for the Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) program, which is a competitive grant application program administered by the Texas Broadband Development Office (BDO) housed within the Comptroller's office. The funds, administered through the federal Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, will bring much-needed service to about 152,000 locations across the state. The BOOT program will begin accepting applications for broadband expansion projects in spring 2023. view article

Andy McCarter, Assistant Principal of Wake Village Elementary School in Texarkana ISD, has been selected to represent the Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association (TEPSA) as the Region 8 Educational Service Center (ESC) Outstanding Elementary Assistant Principal of the Year. view article

Re “A.I. Is Doing Homework. Can It Be Outsmarted?” (front page, Jan. 17): This technology could become a boon to learning. It makes cheating easier, too. I teach philosophy and religious studies at a liberal arts college. This is what I tell students: view article

Starting Friday at 5 p.m., Katy ISD students will no longer have access to Twitter via the district's Wi-Fi. This change comes after issues were brought to the district's attention about students being able to access inappropriate websites through Twitter via the district's "BeTheLegacy" Wi-Fi, Katy ISD said. view article

Dallas ISD confirmed Friday that the district is planning to ban TikTok from being used on its WiFi and on district devices. In a letter to parents, DISD cited concerns about cybersecurity related to TikTok's Chinese owners. view article

Twitter joined the ranks of websites and social media applications blocked by Katy ISD.  Starting at 5 p.m. Friday, the social media app was blocked by district servers, the district said in an email to parents on Wednesday afternoon.  “Twitter will no longer be accessible to students while on the District’s BeTheLegacyWi-Fi,” the announcement states, although district staff will still have access to Twitter.  The district is blocking Twitter because it allows students to circumvent the district’s content filters, the statement says. view article

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm advisory for North Texas through Wednesday morning. Many schools and businesses in the area announced closings in anticipation of inclement weather. view article

Fort Worth ISD has taken the first step towards real-time school bus tracking for families, launching a new app to improve communication about transportation issues. It's something the district promised families back in the fall, after several elementary school students were forced off a school bus at the wrong stop. view article

Martinsville ISD will have electric-powered buses taking their students to and from school. “We’re always looking for ways to extend dollars at a small rural school,” said Martinsville ISD Assistant Superintendent Will Cauthen. Through the Environmental Protection Agency Clean School Bus Program, the school district was awarded a grant to purchase four new electric school buses. view article

It’s been almost two years since the big blackout of 2021, and most people agree the Texas power grid still needs "fixing.” The question is how. Now, a fight is brewing at the state Capitol over that very issue. It pits powerful industries, politicians and regulators against each other, and it will have an impact on energy bills, grid reliability and the environment. But it all hinges on a wonky policy proposal out of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. After the last big blackout, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 3, telling the commission to improve grid reliability. So, commissioners have been working on changing the state’s electricity market. They want to reform how energy is bought and sold on the power grid to create a market that makes sure power is there when people need it. To do that, the commission hired a consulting firm that came up with a plan called a Performance Credit Mechanism, PCM for short. view article

The Abilene ISD was a step ahead of the University of Texas at Austin. On Tuesday it was announced in an email to students and faculty that the Austin university wont be able to access the social media platform while connected to UT internet servers. “The university is taking these important steps to eliminate risks to information contained in the university’s network and to our critical infrastructure,” the email stated. “As outlined in the governor’s directive, TikTok harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices — including when, where and how they conduct internet activity — and offers this trove of potentially sensitive information to the Chinese government.” view article

The Abilene ISD was a step ahead of the University of Texas at Austin. On Tuesday it was announced in an email to students and faculty that the Austin university wont be able to access the social media platform while connected to UT internet servers. view article

I discovered Chat.open ai.com over break and lost several hours over the ensuing days. This is indeed one of the more revolutionary things I have seen in my career. view article

The Texas Commission on Virtual Education was established in 2021 by the 87th Texas Legislature through HB 3643. The commission’s charge was to develop and make recommendations — by the end of the 2022 calendar year — on the delivery of virtual education in the public school system and the provision of state funding for virtual education under the Foundation School Program. The report lists recommendations to achieve the following objectives: view article

Anger as sixth-graders are photographed practicing pole dancing at STRIP CLUB after field trip to Detroit Symphony Orchestra: Pizza restaurant was full so pupils were moved next door to club.   view article

A new program at Flour Bluff High School will allow students to build and fly in a plane. view article

Read the full story:  Gone are the “good old days” when the only emails we had to worry about were from a Nigerian prince asking for half a million dollars or an occasional threat of a computer virus. Your tech director has been faced with many new threats to school technology assets– networks, computers, and data security. You can be a big help in keeping your school district and your own personal devices secure by following a few time-honored adages from one of our founding fathers, Ben Franklin. view article

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The pandemic accelerated how much we all depend on internet access to carry out daily activities. The latest data shows more than 2 million Texas households do not have high speed internet, disproportionately affecting those in rural areas. “What has been revealed by COVID is the fact that many of our students in the city do not have equal access to broadband,” said Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson. However, this is not something that can be fixed overnight. view article

Ahead of the spring semester, Spring ISD officials have announced that changes will be implemented in hopes of improving remote and in-person instruction for teachers and students. In a presentation at the Dec. 8 board meeting, Lupita Hinojosa, chief officer of school leadership and student support services, announced that not all teachers will have to teach online and in-person students concurrently in the spring semester, as is currently the case. view article