This week’s edition is pretty simple.
Pay attention.
Not because everything happening in education is bad. Not because every proposal coming out of Harrisburg deserves outrage. And certainly not because parents need another thing to worry about.
We need to pay attention because decisions are being made every day that affect our children—and sometimes things get strange.
📰 HEADLINES
Strange Things Can Happen at the Local Level
A recent situation involving the Coatesville Area School Board is a good reminder of why parents should know what their local boards are doing.
The board appointed someone to a vacant seat, only for that appointment to later be determined invalid because five votes were required. The situation became even more unusual when information surfaced about an active warrant involving the person who had been selected. The board reversed course, and the seat remained vacant.
This isn’t about turning every school board meeting into a controversy.
It’s about remembering that these boards make real decisions, involving real people, that affect our schools.
You don’t have to attend every meeting. But you should know what your board is doing.
Read the LancasterOnline story
Technology, Schools and Parents
Meanwhile, in Lower Merion, seven families filed a federal lawsuit challenging the district’s technology policy and seeking the ability to opt their children out of using internet-connected devices.
The district has asked the court to deny the parents’ request and accused them of “fearmongering.” Under the district’s revised policy, individually assigned devices begin in fifth grade, but some parents are still seeking an opt-out.
Regardless of where you fall in this particular dispute, there is a much bigger conversation here.
How much technology is appropriate in education? Who decides? What role should parents have? And where do AI, privacy, screen time and good old-fashioned pencils and paper fit into the classroom of 2026?
Those aren’t questions that are going away.
🏛️ HARRISBURG
Here are four proposals worth putting on the parent radar.
Sen. Frank Farry — Reducing Financial Barriers to Youth Extracurricular Activities
Farry is proposing a tax credit to help families offset expenses associated with children’s extracurricular activities, including equipment, travel, participation fees, lessons and competitions. The proposal had not yet been formally introduced when the memo was posted.
Sen. David Argall — Strategic Staffing for Pennsylvania Teachers
Argall is proposing an opt-in grant program to help schools move toward team-based staffing models and expanded teacher leadership roles, with the proposal aimed at teacher workload, retention and professional growth.
Rep. Brandon Dukes — Responsible Artificial Intelligence Policies for Schools
Dukes is proposing legislation requiring schools to establish local policies governing AI use by students and staff, including acceptable uses, human oversight, transparency and student-data privacy.
Rep. Regina Young — The Jack Reid Law
Young is proposing extending anti-bullying requirements to Pennsylvania’s nonpublic schools, including requirements for bullying policies, investigations and notification of students and parents involved in reported incidents.
The Bottom Line
None of us can watch everything.
There are school board meetings, court cases, legislation, policies, budgets and regulations constantly moving. Most parents have jobs, kids, appointments, dinner to make and about 47 other things happening at the same time.
But we can’t completely tune it out either.
Sometimes a seemingly routine school board appointment turns into something nobody expected.
Sometimes a Chromebook policy turns into a federal lawsuit.
And somewhere in Harrisburg, lawmakers are writing proposals today that could become the rules governing our children’s classrooms tomorrow.
That’s why we pay attention.
Not because we’re looking for something to be angry about.
Because they’re our kids.