Several Central Texas school districts are inching closer to the first day of school. KWTX is tracking new laws put into place in the Lone Star State education system. Come September, classrooms will be required to display the 10 Commandments. The law states the poster of the commandments must measure at 16 inches and 20 inches tall. view article

Trump orders work on new census, says people in US illegally 'WILL NOT BE COUNTED'  President Donald Trump declared in a Thursday morning Truth Social post that he has directed the Commerce Department to start working on a new census, noting that illegal aliens in the U.S. will not be included in the population count.  "I have instructed our Department of Commerce to immediately begin work on a new and highly accurate CENSUS based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024," the president said in the post.  view article

Just days before the first day of school at the newly constructed Homer C. Calfee Middle School, part of Willis ISD, the City of Conroe shut off the school’s water service. The school is set to welcome more than 800 students on August 13, but parents said important back-to-school events like orientation have been postponed because of the water permitting problem. view article

A new school year means even more classroom time for students at 15 Fort Worth ISD schools, the district announced. To accelerate academic growth, the Fort Worth ISD School Board approved a plan to add additional school days at 15 campuses. At these schools, the school year will begin Aug. 12 and extend to June 30. The plan adds 25 more instructional days for students at those campuses. view article

As students prepare to return to class, HISD is rolling out a new cell phone ban under a new state law that takes effect this school year. The law, House Bill 1481, requires all Texas school districts to restrict students from using personal electronic devices during the school day. That includes cell phones, tablets, smartwatches, headphones, and earbuds. view article

The countdown for returning to class is on with most Houston-area students starting a new school year next week. This weekend also marks Tax-Free Weekend where shoppers can purchase many school essentials without paying sales tax. To help out, many major retailers across the country and in the Houston area currently have deals to help students return to class or to college without breaking the bank.   Here are some of the deals:  view article

The agency initially blocked the payout because of two state investigations into now-banned lottery courier services, one of which sold the winning ticket. view article

For the seventeen year-olds that gathered in late July to begin their college applications, it may have still felt like summer, but for the five-person college counseling team at the newly built YES Prep Northline secondary campus, the bootcamp was the culmination of months of work preparing to send the class of 2026 off to college. Equipped with the folder of all folders — including an itinerary for the two-day college bootcamp, usernames and passwords to college application websites, a community service hours tracker, a blank version of the Common App, a master college list-building worksheet, a guide to calculating class rank and information on SAT scores benchmarks — the emerging high school seniors got to work. view article

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UNT will pay more than $700,000 to resolve accusations of racism.  A public university in Texas just learned an expensive lesson.  According to media reports, the University of North Texas will pay $725,000 to Professor Robert Jackson. Jackson sued the university in 2021, claiming to have suffered professional and emotional damage following accusations of racism leveled at him in te immediate aftermath of George Floyd’s death.  The dispute arose following a discussion in an obscure academic journal edited by Jackson. view article

LAMPASAS — On a blistering June morning, Andy Sipocz brushes his fingers through the thick, sawgrass fronds rising higher than his head beside a creek in the Texas Hill Country.  Around him, rocky limestone lines Yancey Creek, streaked in subtle reds and browns — evidence of millennia of mineral deposits and weathering.  Sipocz, a natural resources coordinator and biologist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, is one of more than three dozen staffers gathered here to begin laying the groundwork for what will one day be Texas’ newest state park — about a two hour drive northwest of Austin.  Wearing cargo shorts and pants, hiking boots, and sun-brimmed hats, the TPWD team winds its way down a steep hill — no trail in sight. That’s the point. They're here to determine where the trails should be. Today’s mission: conduct early-stage natural resource surveys and habitat assessments to support the park’s future design. view article

Just a few months shy of the one-year anniversary of a near-miss incident at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin City Council members approved a resolution July 24 urging the Federal Aviation Administration to prioritize staffing at the airport. Austin City Council member Vanessa Fuentes, who authored the measure, said the call to action includes several components, among them an FAA-approved air traffic controller academy in partnership with Austin Community College.  “We want to continue to ask and demand that the FAA take action, but also add a local solution,” Fuentes said in an interview with Community Impact. “Rather than pointing a finger, we are lending a hand, trying to address and help solve for the staffing shortages.”  If the city succeeds in establishing a certified air traffic controller program locally, it would be the first and only one of its kind in Texas. view article

Austin city leaders are urging the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reinstate $50 million in funding for flood protection upgrades to critical city utility infrastructure — money that was pulled earlier this year. In 2022, FEMA appropriated $50 million for part of the Fallwell Lane Capital Renewal Project, which aims to bolster flood resilience at a water treatment plant and a power plant in Del Valle, both of which border the flood-prone Colorado River. But the Trump administration canceled the FEMA program that provided the funds. Without those funds, the back half of the project — meant to protect $1.4 billion of infrastructure and prevent sewage overflow and power outages — has been stuck in financial limbo.  view article

Democratic members slammed the process, questioning why hearings were happening before maps were available for review. Chair Cody Vasut said follow-up public hearings will be scheduled once maps are filed. view article

Our mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. Based directly inside schools throughout Bexar County and surrounding areas, Communities In Schools of San Antonio connects children and their families to educational and community-based resources tailored to each student’s needs. view article

President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. Senate Democrats are imploring Trump ‘s administration to intervene as Palestinians suffer and starve in Israeli-controlled Gaza, with more than 40 senators signing onto a letter Tuesday urging the resumption of ceasefire talks and sharply criticizing an Israeli-backed American organization created to distribute food aid. Trump has been playing more golf Tuesday in Scotland on the White House has called a working trip including meetings with world leaders.  Here’s the Latest: view article

At least two summer camps in the Texas Hill Country have invited campers back after sustaining little to no damage from the flood. Other camps are still combing through the rubble. view article

East Texas school districts are making plans for a new state law that would create a public catalog of what books are in the libraries and classrooms. Senate Bill 13 allows school districts to decide which books are permitted in their school libraries. The law goes into effect on September 1. Nacogdoches ISD Superintendent, Gray Burton said the district is working on updating several campus library catalogs. They will also add books from teachers’ classrooms as of Monday. view article

Children’s crafts and certificates of achievement remain in some corners of Dobie Pre-Kindergarten School. The campus officially closed its doors in May 2025 as part of Richardson ISD’s Project RightSize consolidation plan. Dallas County and Richardson ISD were able to strike a deal to repurpose the campus into a resource hub. view article

Houston-based chain Shipley Do-Nuts no longer has Texas ownership after being acquired Monday by a California private equity firm, Houston TV channel KHOU reports.    A spokesman for Peak Rock Capital announced Monday that the Austin-based firm had sold Shipley to Leichtman Capital Partners, based in Beverly Hills. Also included in Leichtman's portfolio are Cici's Pizza and Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Shipley Do-Nuts, one of the largest donut companies in the country, got its start as a small Houston shop in 1936. Now, the nearly 90-year-old business has more than 375 stores operating in 14 states. view article

Children’s crafts and certificates of achievement remain in some corners of Dobie Pre-Kindergarten School. The campus officially closed its doors in May 2025 as part of Richardson ISD’s Project RightSize consolidation plan. Dallas County and Richardson ISD were able to strike a deal to repurpose the campus into a resource hub. view article

Who says you can't mix two passions together? For Dallas Independent School District softball Coach Mark Stout, he's done it weekly this season. Stout warms up his team at W.T. White High School every home game and then, for a brief moment, plays the national anthem on the trumpet to get to that exciting umpire line: play ball! He started doing it before games last season. view article

In some voting locations where a party’s appointed polling judge didn’t show up, election officials allowed the other party’s judge to operate both parties’ voting machines in an effort to keep the polling place running. view article

The Lewisville ISD board of trustees approved the district's 2022-23 academic calendar, which includes 177 instructional days. The 2022-23 calendar, which was approved during a Jan. 10 board meeting, will have an Aug. 10 start date with exams for the first semester to be completed before winter break, which runs Dec. 19-Jan. 4, 2023, according to the calendar. view article

Fort Worth ISD is moving forward with plans to establish four early learning centers across the district in areas where affordable, high quality child care is hard to come by after voters narrowly approved a November bond to fund the project along with other improvements. Three other bond measures were defeated in the same election after opposition groups lobbied against them, pointing to the district’s lackluster academic performance and what they called limited information about the bonds in the weeks leading up to the election. view article

An online petition created by the 'Students of KATYISD' group is demanding change to allow access to LGBTQ+ resources and websites, including a suicide prevention hotline. Katy ISD student, 17-year-old Cameron Samuels, spoke out at a school board meeting last week and told ABC13 that students cannot access LGBTQ+ youth resources and websites while on the district's internet server. view article

The Northwest ISD Education Foundation last week held a grand opening event for its new free store and library for teachers to get resources and educational materials for their classrooms. Teachers can “shop” for school and classroom supplies, snack packs, clothing items and books. All items are free to district educators, who will use them in their classrooms to support students, according to a news release from Northwest ISD. view article

When you were in school, did you ever wonder to yourself, "what if I were principal for a day?" On Wednesday, WFAA's Cynthia Izaguirre and our station general manager, Brad Ramsey, got that chance thanks to the Principal for a Day Program (PFAD) with the Dallas Independent School District. The program is meant to help people who don't work in education understand the strengths and challenges Dallas ISD schools face. view article

It’s 4 p.m. at S.S. Conner Elementary School’s district-run afterschool program, and cheerleaders are pumping up a group of 70 students as they enjoy a healthy snack. Now with full bellies and high spirits, the students go into classrooms and center themselves with deep breathing exercises and social and emotional learning practices. Then it’s on to fun, hands-on learning and, at last, an epic game of kickball in the gym. view article

The McAllen Independent School District (McAllen ISD) is considering closing Bonham Elementary School due to low student enrollment. Since 2010, McAllen ISD has closed down three schools: David Crockett Elementary in 2011, Jose Antonio Navarro Elementary, after the 2017-18 school year, and Abraham Lincoln Middle School the same year. view article

Calallen ISD's superintendent apologized for a video that surfaced on social media of a high school pep rally during which students portrayed former President Donald Trump and Jesus Christ while making racist remarks. The video, captioned "i'm so scared #saveme," has garnered close to 34,000 views and has been shared over 550 times since being posted. It is a screen recording from someone's Snapchat account. That person recorded the pep rally, which took place at Calallen High School's gymnasium. view article

The national outcry over efforts to foster diversity and inclusion initiatives in schools has added fuel to a heated Grapevine-Colleyville ISD runoff election. The incumbent, Mindy McClure, said she is fighting a campaign of “misinformation” from her opponent, community volunteer Shannon Braun. view article

For Granger ISD officials, they have been working since the spring of last year, planning on getting kids back to campus for the start of school. School for the Lions has been fully on campus since the start of the school year. The district says this is due to the COVID-19 safety protocols that are in place, as well as teachers who have gone above and beyond. view article

Austin ISD hosted its Operation Reconnect block walk door-to-door event to ‘reconnect’ with existing district families and help recruit new ones to its schools. The event specifically aimed at attracting families to schools in its northeast corridor, including (among others) Andrews and Harris elementary schools, Garcia’s Young Men’s and Sadler Means Young Women’s middle school leadership academies, and Northeast High School. view article

ABILENE – The Abilene ISD is opening baseball and softball contests at both high schools to 50 percent capacity at all four fields for the 2021 season. Fans will be allowed to enter this weekend’s baseball tournament games at Blackburn Field (Abilene High) and Cougar Field (Cooper) at no charge, but beginning with next week’s home games, all games for baseball and softball will be $4 for adults and $2 for students. Full-time AISD employees will be allowed to enter for free, but only with a district-issued ID, and that ID only gains entry for the employee. view article