Lake Travis ISD announced Wednesday it will implement a ban on the use of smart devices by students in Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade for the 2024-2025 school year. The Superintendent of Schools Paul Norton sent a letter to parents and guardians informing them that the new smart device protocol will go into effect on the first day of school, Wednesday, August 14. view article

A small school district serving students from Tarrant, Hood, and Johnson counties is asking parents to be kinder online. However, making this pledge part of the school registration process for the upcoming year has stirred a social media controversy. "It was definitely executed in a bad way, if that was their intent," said Godley ISD trustee Kayla Lain. view article

For the new school year, Wylie ISD has implemented a new policy prohibiting students from using their cell phones during instructional hours. They’re calling it ‘No Cell from Bell to Bell,’ meaning that no student is allowed to use their cell phones from the time the first bell rings to start the school day until the last bell to dismiss them. Students’ access to their phones is restricted not only while they are in the classroom but also during lunch and any other intermittent time during the school day. view article

The Katy ISD 2024-25 school year kicks off August 14, and there are a few notable changes for the new school year. Here’s what parents and students need to know before school returns in the fall, according to district officials. view article

The Houston Independent School District has launched a new app which will provide news from the district to families. The HISD Source app is an app designed to keep families, staff, and community members informed and connected, according to the district. view article

The debate over cell phones in school is heating up in San Antonio. Right now, a pair of local districts are looking to update their policies and guidelines in hopes of avoiding distractions in the classroom and improving student learning. On Thursday, a school board committee with Northside ISD discussed coming up with a district-wide cell phone policy, since their guidelines currently vary from campus to campus. No decision was made, but there was some movement Thursday night at East Central ISD. view article

The Greenville ISD Police Department is investigating a shooting that happened Tuesday afternoon outside of the Greenville High School Athletic Facility. Reportedly, around 1:33 pm, an ex-spouse of a Greenville high school staff member and coach arrived at the facility and fired a single shot outside the Roy Q Traylor Athletic Facility. view article

Temple ISD is navigating using Artificial Intelligence in its classrooms. It will be a multi-year process focusing on generative AI. The district may use it for assessment, instruction and measuring student progress. view article

The Katy ISD Board of Trustees voted and approved this week a revised Discipline Management Plan that restricts the use of personal devices such as cell phones and smart watches. Starting next year, all students will have a Chromebook device. view article

The Hallsville ISD Board of Trustees recently approved a purchase of 120 iPads for the special education department in the amount of $118,260. The motion to consider the approval of purchasing iPads to assist teachers and students in the Special Education department was presented by Special Education Director Amy Collins. She said that there were three proposals included in the motion, with the option to purchase directly from Apple resulting in the least expensive option available. view article

The 18-year-old Klein Forest High School student who was responsible for the cyber attacks that STAAR testing for thousands of students in the district appeared in court Friday morning. Keontra Lamont Kenemore has since been charged with electronic access and interference, which is a third-degree felony. view article

A new proposed addition to Katy ISD's code of conduct would add phone restrictions but does not call for a total ban, after some trustees in April raised the possibility of banning all devices during school hours. A code of conduct committee has asked the Katy ISD board of trustees to approve a modified cellphone policy. PJS OK, PRINCIPALS SAY: Katy ISD principals push back on proposed pajama ban, because pajamas are fun view article

The Killeen ISD School Board approved a plan that would required middle and high school students to keep cell phones in a locked pouch.  The plan would require students at all middle schools and high schools to keep their cell phones in a school issued pouch. It would have a locking device similar to clothing security tags, according to the district. The pouches would remain locked until the end of the school day. view article

Students at Killeen Independent School District will have to lock their phones in secure poaches and put them away next year as part of a new policy intended to curb behavioral issues in the classroom. The Killeen ISD board voted unanimously Tuesday to make campuses “phone-free” for the 2024-2025 school year. It joins a movement of schools nationwide that have removed personal electronic devices from campus to quell bad behavior, boost student engagement and improve mental health. view article

Temple ISD will prepare its teachers for an ever-changing technological landscape when it holds a four-hour professional development workshop late next week on how to navigate Artificial Intelligence in the classroom. view article

Students across Midland ISD have been learning from nature and ecological experts as part of the I-20 Wildlife Preserve’s Conservation Job Corp. This summer program gives teenagers a chance to learn about different environments across Texas. It also helps show these students how they can make a living out of conservation. view article

A former Klein ISD student is accused of orchestrating a cyberattack that halted STAAR testing in April and he now faces a felony charge after thousands of students were impacted by internet problems. An April 16 internet disruption due to a “distributed denial of service attack” or DDoS, was traced to Klein Forest High School student Keontra Lamont Kenemore, 18, by the district’s IT department, according to Harris County court records and school officials. view article

Keontra Kenemore, 18, is facing a third-degree felony charge of electronic access interference after investigators accused him of launching a cyber-attack. The attack, called a DDoS, otherwise known as distributed denial of service, overwhelmed the district's network services during state-mandated STARR testing in April, according to court documents. More than 24,000 students were impacted, according to the district. Court documents show that Kenemore allegedly used his school-issued Chromebook to access sites that initiated the attack. view article

The former Collin County GOP Chairman fended off several challenges, earning 54 percent of the vote.  The Republican Party of Texas has chosen a new leader, with delegates to the party’s convention selecting former Collin County GOP Chairman Abraham George, who secured the nomination after several rounds of voting.  The race was open, as Chair Matt Rinaldi announced he would not seek re-election.  Ultimately, when the vote hit the floor, the selections were narrowed down to George, current Texas GOP Vice Chair Dana Myers, and activist Weston Martinez.  With no candidate securing a majority of the vote, a runoff was held between George and Myers. While votes were being counted in the race, Myers sent a text to delegates claiming she was endorsed by four of the other challengers in the race.  George ultimately prevailed, winning 54 percent of the vote. view article

Over 1.7 million Texas households could lose access to affordable, high-speed internet this month as a federal subsidy that helps low-income Americans pay for broadband services comes to an end. The Affordable Connectivity Program provides a $30 monthly discount on internet service for eligible low-income households, and a $75 monthly discount for households on tribal lands. The $14.2 billion program, which launched in 2021 as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, helps 23 million American households save money on their internet bills. The program expired at the end of April after Congress did not pass legislation extending funding but some households could receive partial discounts through May, with no benefits available in later months. view article

On a gray and muggy afternoon, several hundred handsome black cattle went about their business at the Wodagyu Ranch in Richmond, seemingly undisturbed by the beeps and buzzing overhead. "They're certainly used to it," said Arthur Erickson, co-founder and CEO of agricultural drone company Hylio, which he and several friends began in a dorm room at the University of Texas at Austin about 10 years ago. Co-founder Mike Oda grew up on the Fort Bend County ranch, Erickson explained, meaning that the company's co-founders always had a suitable place to tinker, ideate, manufacture and test their drones, which are used to apply herbicide, insecticide, fertilizers and other chemicals over farm and ranchland. Now they have grown to a company of about 75 people, with a foothold in the rapidly growing agricultural drone market. view article

People living in Texas who have registered to vote in the Mexican elections could elect the country’s first female president next month.   view article

Dubbed the “Silicon Fields” by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, during a White House announcement April 15, Taylor is shaping up to become the new heart of a semiconductor cluster in Central Texas. Samsung Electronics signed a preliminary memorandum agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce to receive $6.4 billion in direct funding, while the company is expected to invest more than $45 billion into the region. The federal funding—from the $53 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act signed into law in 2022—will vastly expand Samsung’s footprint in Taylor and further U.S. Department of Commerce’s goal of producing 20% of the world’s leading-edge semiconductor chips by the end of the decade, according to a statement from the White House. view article

The Texas Education Agency is defending its decision to let computers grade students’ STAAR essay test questions in the face of mounting criticism from parents and teachers who question the fairness of an automated scoring system. Agency officials told Hearst Newspapers the system echoes an approach taken by at least 20 other states and helps cut costs. Starting last December, all student essay responses were fed through a computer program for scoring. About one-quarter were then reviewed by human scorers for accuracy. 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

Cleveland and Liberty ISDs became the latest school districts on the outskirts of the greater Houston area to cancel their online learning options this week, joining Barbers Hill and Navasota ISDs in requiring the majority of their students to return to campuses. Liberty ISD, which educates 2,266 students about 50 minutes northeast of downtown Houston, told parents at the end of October that remote learning would be offered only to medically fragile students, students who have tested positive for COVID-19, students who are quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure and students whose schools temporarily were closed due to positive tests. view article

The deadline has been extended for Fort Bend Independent School District parents deciding if they want their children to continue virtual learning or head back to the classroom. This comes as a special board meeting scheduled for today was canceled. Ft. Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said board members wanted to give more parents time to decide. view article

The Waco Independent School District and its charter school partner, Transformation Waco, could see more than half of their students start the school year Sept. 8 via remote instruction, according to registration numbers provided by both entities. view article

Alief Independent School District Superintendent HD Chambers says school officials have decided to begin the school year online. Chambers said he doesn’t want any student to lose out on their education because of the pandemic but the thought of how to bring students and teachers back to the classroom safely keeps him up at night. view article

Children with severe disabilities often don’t have the ability to speak up when they are hurt at school, so determining what happened can be difficult. That’s why one Dallas ISD trustee wants to require each special education classroom in the district to have video cameras. Texas public schools are already required to place one in a special education setting if a parent requests it. view article

Robert Bostic, a self-described evangelist for science, technology, engineering and math, really started something when he became the superintendent of the Stafford Municipal School District in 2014. The Stafford High Robotics Program, which began two years ago, competed May 19-20 in Austin as one of 32 teams from the state invited to the 2017 University Interscholastic League Robotics FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Division State Championship based on the points it earned at earlier competitions. view article

A threat was made against Seven Lakes Junior High School via social media Thursday, officials said. view article

On March 11, 2016, the Texas Education Agency Commissioner of Education, Mike Morath, requested an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on the implementation of SB 507. This new law requires video surveillance of certain special education settings upon request beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. In an earlier blog post, I outlined the provisions of SB 507. view article