Chelsea Prax

The People Want To Read: On Massive Budget Cuts Proposed in Chicago If passed, Chicago Public Library will lose half their budget for acquiring new books and materials.

The People Want to Read: on the massive budget cuts proposed for Chicago Public Library. What's at stake and what you can do, whether or not you live in Chicago.

buttondown.com/wellsourced/...

absolutely incredible data on what's being reported to the Administration for Children's Services in NYC

familypolicynyc.org/data-brief/h...

The Implications of H.R. 1 for School Funding and What States Can Do Federal changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), including modifications to Medicaid and SNAP, will alter how states identify students from low-income backgrounds. This, along with chang...

Criminalizing immigrants disrupts kids' right to education

ICE raids are linked to a 22% increase in daily student absences ... and 1 in 6 students live in a targeted household (e.g., with at least one non-citizen adult)

learningpolicyinstitute.org/blog/implica...

Book Cover: Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy by Madeline Lane-McKinley

Solidarity With Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy is available now!

Happy Publication Day, @lalouverouge.bsky.social! 💐

www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2610-s...

The proposed legislation aims to distinguish poverty from a refusal to meet kids' needs.

kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/...

Child welfare advocates split with law enforcement on distinguishing neglect from poverty in Kansas • Kansas Reflector Testimony over a proposal to redefine “neglect” for the child welfare system showed a divide between social workers and law enforcement.

Hundreds of Kansas children were separated from their families for truancy and neglect - a bill aims to change that.

kansasreflector.com/2025/02/07/c...

when we win the masked agents raid our neighborhoods. what do they cover up? (yesterday) is their promise & their charge. on 75th and South Shore they ram down our doors using (yesterday). they toss canisters of (yesterday) into our children’s lullabies. why? my people, we carry (today) & (tomorrow) in twin holsters. we plant (today) & (tomorrow) in our gardens. every day there are more sprouts. let it be known: Chicago will never cower. (yesterday) already died. (yesterday) is dying. (yesterday) will die again. there is no future in (yesterday). the agents in our neighborhoods hide their faces because they are losing. because they lost. when we win, there will be whistles from the gulls circling Lake Michigan. let them sing it: Chicago is a city of (today) & (tomorrow). Chicago is the future.

“Chicago is the future.“

@joseolivarez.bsky.social for @chicagomag.com

what would you add?

www.aota.org/advocacy/adv...

Add your influence to the rapidly shifting landscape by taking a survey with Phones in Focus. Just 5 minutes + you can win a gift card: www.phonesinfocus.org

UCLA's new brief is THOROUGH: Available evidence for common lines of inquiry, including distraction + mental health. Acknowledge tensions among researchers' conclusions for what data MEAN. Attention to more themes: equity + digital literacy

transformschools.ucla.edu/research/str...

How Cell Phone Bans Are Playing Out in Schools Cell phones are overwhelming K–12 schools. Teachers cite constant disruptions in class and administrators worry that cell phones negatively affect academic learning, mental health, and attention spans...

RandCorps looked closely at schools in Florida and finds policy change is related to
- Modest test score improvements (avg: 1pt)
- Increased suspensions, esp for Black boys
- Less benefit to girls
- Reduced absenteeism

www.rand.org/pubs/researc...

School Cell Phone Bans: Listen to Researchers and Stakeholders School cell phone policy must reflect the research and views of stakeholders.

School policies on personal device use are changing rapidly!

Round-ups are often super useful for seeing what's new ... a few I've read recently

1. Blog from @shankerinst.bsky.social asks whether tablets provided by school are different from cell phones www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/school-...

Oct. 22, 1963: Chicago School Boycott The Chicago Public School Boycott, also known as Freedom Day, was a mass boycott and demonstration against the segregationist policies.

#tdih 1963 Freedom Day: massive (200,000+) student boycott & demonstration against segregated schools (decade AFTER Brown v. Board) & inadequate resources for African American students in Chicago.

CRM in the North.

Read ⬇️ & watch 63 Boycott doc. More #tdih🧵
www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/19...

You can change your mind upon the discovery of new information

Covid & Cancer September 26, 2025 Ben Clark Cancer, Covid-19, News There is now compelling medical evidence that Covid-19 infections can reactivate dormant cancer cells, and trigger the growth of secondary cancers (metastatic progression). In studies, cancer survivors who contracted Covid had a statistically significant higher risk of cancer-related deaths compared to uninfected cancer survivors. This is such an important issue that BuDS has decided to run an awareness campaign over the autumn and winter. The aim of the campaign will be to warn cancer survivors of the very real additional danger that Covid poses to them.

There is now compelling medical evidence that Covid-19 infections can reactivate dormant cancer cells, and trigger the growth of secondary cancers. In studies, cancer survivors who contracted Covid had a statistically significant higher risk of cancer-related deaths

buds.org.uk/covid-and-ca...

Cover of a zine called Dirt in a Cog small ways to resist fascism that make a big difference bt Invisible Histories

Remember our Dirt in a Cog zine gives you handy dandy ways to incorporate pushing back on alt right authoritarianism into your everyday life. Check it out on our website below.

invisiblehistory.org/zines-guides...

a small cohort of @aft.org educators joined me to learn at last week's Kempe conference

One emailed me takeaways: "One theme is clear: the [family regulation] system is broken, it unfairly hurts minority populations, and a new system is required. The good news is that models and templates exist."

the authors posit that the gaps they see among kids ages 10-13 will likely get wider over time

I wonder how well "points" in the ABCD study correspond to practical differences at school?

Kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests, a study shows Data from a large, ongoing study of adolescents shows a link between increasing social media use and lower cognition and memory in teens.

a lot of people have been talking about links between kids' social media use and #mentalhealth

this study looks at social media and learning

tl;dr - increased exposure to social media is associated with lower and memory scores

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Department of Education Condemned for Ending Support for Students with Disabilities | Autism Society Broad Coalition of Disability, Civil Rights, and Education Organizations Call for Reversal of Layoffs at Department of Education October 14, 2025, Washington, D.C. – A […]

350 organizations -- including @aft.org -- call for reversal of layoffs at the Department of Education with specific attention to continuity of support for students with disabilities.

autismsociety.org/department-o...

"We've seen a significant increase in donations, unlike we've ever seen before," said Steve Sosebee, president of the U.S.-based Palestine Children's Relief Fund...."the fund, which usually has an annual budget of around $12 million, had raised $15 million in just 10 days."

State reveals how many kids lost health coverage after being unable to do so in Senate committee • Florida Phoenix Florida’s top Medicaid official came before the Legislature Tuesday to update state senators on a pending legal battle with the federal government over expansion of the popular children’s health insur...

Latest from Florida - as the # of uninsured kids rises in FL, the bipartisan CHIP expansion continues to be stalled by the Governor.

State reveals how many kids lost health coverage after being unable to do so in Senate committee floridaphoenix.com/2025/10/07/s...

Black people have been asking this question for a very long time.

"Radical educator and philosopher Paulo Freire wrote, “The more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can better transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled.” 👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾
- Chapter 9

Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America 404 Media has gotten a grant to unearth public records about systematic censorship of books, schools, and libraries in the U.S.

Some exciting news: 404 Media just won a grant via Muckrock to investigate book bans and educational censorship in the U.S. The plan is to file hundreds of public records requests around the country and to report on and archive all the documents for public use:

www.404media.co/help-us-inve...

Will bans and limits in carceral settings be part of the dataset?

We know that drug-free zones and gun-free zones were created to protect students. Now the local community is creating ICE-free zones so all students feel safe and welcome. @rweingarten.bsky.social @ctulocal1.bsky.social

Children's Environmental Health Fact: Children under 5 bear 88% of the global burden of disease due to climate change. At right, a child holds up a sign featuring a warming earth.

This Children's Environmental Health Day, mobilize for equitable environmental protection policies that promote kids' health and well-being.

aftvoices.org/aft-leaders-...

Teachers & public employees—know your rights online.
🗣️💻 Join @aft.org’s @rweingarten.bsky.social + experts from @penamerica.bsky.social & @ncacensorship.bsky.social for a webinar on free speech, digital safety & protecting yourself online.
REGISTER here 👉 sharemylesson.com/webinars/fre...

this week, I'm at an international virtual conference, "A Call to Action to Change Child Welfare"

my favorite session so far has been on family resource centers

+ I'm thinking about how to synthesize lessons from a panel yesterday on which I was a presenter - our audience was so engaged!