News
While cities across Texas strive to grow a college-educated workforce, growing restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts could hinder their plans for economic growth. These federal and state restrictions are unfolding against a backdrop of disparities in college access and success, according to a new IDRA research brief.
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eNews
Every student deserves a learning environment that fosters growth and belonging, where they are safe and free from harm. But, such a learning environment is not possible if corporal punishment is allowable under the guise of “discipline.”
Twenty states still permit corporal punishment in schools, where 70,000 children have been hit during a single school year. Each year, we recognize International Day to End Corporal Punishment as a call to action for advocates, educators, students and community to come together to support the end of this outdated, violent practice.
New Tools!
High school students need clear support to get to college, especially as changes to diversity policies created new challenges to an already confusing process for students and families. The resources in IDRA’s Community-Based College Access – Online Technical Assistance Toolkit provide practical tools schools can use now to help students transition to college. Informed by focus groups and roundtable conversations with students, families and school counselors, the toolkits help counselors and students navigate recent policy changes limiting diversity, equity and inclusion affecting college admissions.
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Classnotes Podcast #254
Dr. Lizdelia Piñon talks with Dr. Stephanie Garcia about why women and girls remain underrepresented in STEM. They examine new data, systemic barriers and how access, culture and confidence shape participation, plus solutions to expand opportunity.
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Newsletter
Changing the State of Girls in STEM Through Access, Culture and Confidence
From Robotics to Virtual Anatomy, Students Explore Future STEM Careers
Conference Connects Teachers with STEM Classroom Innovations
Bring IDRA VisionCoders to Your School
news
Georgia increasingly passes the burden of education costs to local communities rather than closing gaps at the state level. The wealthiest districts can raise almost $5,000 more per student in local revenue than lower-wealth districts, according to a new report released by IDRA. Georgia’s Quality Basic Education Formula Turns 40 – Closing the Gap or Passing the Buck? warns that property tax cut proposals being considered by the Geogia Assembly could deepen the gap between rich and poor school districts.
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Classnotes Podcast #253
Students and advocates examine how Texas’ SB 17 and the end of race-conscious admissions are reshaping college access. Hear from IDRA how DEI rollbacks affect students, campus climate and opportunity – and how communities are responding.
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eNews
All children have the right to attend K-12 public schools in this country. We are all stronger when every young person is able to learn in safe and welcoming classrooms.
Unfortunately, opponents to these fundamental values continue to challenge key legal and policy protections that ensure education for all children.
Newsletter
• The Federal Voucher Program – Doubling Down on Harming Students and Public Schools
• Publicly Funded Vouchers Facilitate Publicly Funded Discrimination – Recent Lawsuits Highlight Injustice and Inequity in Texas’ Voucher Program
• My Child is Starting Kindergarten. Texas’ Voucher Program Worries Me.
• Georgia Opts into Federal Voucher Program as Public Schools Face Funding Strain – IDRA Urges State Leaders to Recommit to Fully Funding Georgia’s Public Schools Instead of Expanding Privatization
News
Young students in Texas public schools performed better on STAAR exams and pre-kindergarten assessments after districts gained access to additional early education funding, according to a research brief released today by IDRA. The Texas early education allotment is designed to improve reading and math learning and expand access to Pre-K. IDRA’s brief examines how three Texas school districts use the funds and analyzes trends in student outcomes.
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News
Nationally, Black girls are consistently the most over-disciplined compared to girls of all racial groups. Students in the Atlanta area describe how harsh discipline hurts Black girls’ chances of future success in school and in life. These are among the findings of a youth-led research study supported by IDRA. IDRA just released the students’ report: “Listen to Us – Black Girls Speak Out on Biased Discipline and Its Impact in Atlanta-Area Schools.”
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In the News
IDRA has been supporting families and the Lubbock NAACP in Lubbock, Texas, since 2022 regarding persistent harassment and bullying against Black students in two districts. We helped some of the families file OCR complaints, which are now stuck due to the cuts at the U.S. Department of Education.
This work has been featured in two December 19 national news stories by Meredith Kolodner in The Washington Post and Hechinger Report. See the stories and IDRA’s work to end identity-baed bullying. ProPublic also ran its own story on December 20, "Monkey Sounds, “White Power” and the N-Word: Racial Harassment Against Black Students Ignored Under Trump."
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Resource
Learn more about IDRA’s work to end harmful discipline to create safer schools.
IDRA’s expert, Paige Duggins-Clay, J.D., was interviewed for a recent San Antonio Express-News story by Melissa Manno, “A student packed a child-safe knife in his lunch. Discipline and a lawsuit followed,” about a mother who is suing a school district for assigning her 10-year-old son to alternative school for bringing a child-safe knife to school in his lunchbox.
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eNews
Texas received a failing grade for school funding, and Georgia was not better, scoring a D, according to a new report released by the Education Law Center. "Making the Grade: How Fair is School Funding in Your State?" is the latest contribution to the ELC’s decade and a half series of annual reports on school funding fairness.
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Check out these opportunities to join our work!
- Grants Consultant
- Course-Credit Internship
- Course-Credit Education Law Internship
Federal Education Law and Policy Alert
U.S. Department of Education Announces Moves Key Programs to Other Agencies, Weakening Federal Oversight and Destabilizing Services for Key Student Groups
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Just out!
IDRA released our newest model policy package to help schools and state leaders equip school counselors to enhance college and career guidance schoolwide. School counselors play a pivotal role in helping students navigate the structural and cultural barriers that shape college and career access. This role is especially critical for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, who often lack access to the support and networks that make higher education attainable.
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News
A new investment from Greater Texas Foundation will open doors to college for students in the Rio Grande Valley through the new Kickstart College-Ready program. The initiative is a collaboration between IDRA and Region One Education Service Center (ESC) to help school districts ensure all students have access to dual credit, career certificates and associate degree pathways.
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Statement
IDRA, alongside the Texas Immigration Law Council and a broad coalition of business, faith, educator and student groups, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in U.S. v. Texas to do what Texas state leaders refused to do: defend the Texas Dream Act and the ability of Texas high school graduates to access and succeed in college, regardless of immigration status.
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eNews
As students, families and educators get settled in this new school year, this alert is a reminder that public schools, by law, must serve all students.
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eNews
IDRA’s model policy package provides policy language for states, school districts, and schools to adopt research-based student and family leadership and engagement strategies.
The package is a blueprint for transforming how schools relate to families and students, moving beyond surface-level communication to build real partnerships rooted in equity, trust and shared leadership.
Newsletter Special Edition
Through her vision and voice, Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel changed education forever.
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Alert
The 89th Texas Legislative session has wrapped up, and certain lawmakers spent those 140 days doing what we call the “Texas Three Step:” defunding public schools; demonizing them by attacking educators and what students can learn; and privatizing public education through private school vouchers. Despite a litany of attacks, IDRA and our partners stood strong in the face of billionaire-backed campaigns to harm students’ freedom to learn and ram through vouchers against most Texans’ wishes. We advocated alongside San Antonio educators who had lived through failed local voucher experiments and shared their stories on why vouchers hurt our communities most.
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eNews
Six students received prizes in a competition among participants in the IDRA Youth Leadership Now program, an asset-based leadership development program serving eighth-grade students who are deemed at risk of dropping out. In a reflection contest for YLN students in multiple school districts in Texas, the tutors wrote about how the program helped them do better in school and how they had helped their tutees to do better.
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eNews
Three students received prizes in a competition among participants in the IDRA VisionCoders program, an eighth-grade computer science course developed by IDRA serving Title I middle schools in Bexar County. In this innovative course, middle school students who are in at-risk situations become software designers who create educational games for younger students (their “buddies”).
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eNews
“I felt like I had a place to go where I was always welcomed.” – Kristina Espino, Odessa High School
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eNews
Students are still being hit in schools. That could finally end. The Protecting Our Students in Schools Act would end corporal punishment in all public schools receiving federal funds
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Alert
• IDRA Equipped Georgia Advocates to Defend Public Education
• Long Debate on School Safety and Discipline Results in Mixed Bag Legislation
• Charter Legislation Passes, Voucher Expansion Stalls
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Ban Defeated – For Now
• Georgia’s Education Budget Funds Vouchers First, Mental Health and Poverty Support Second
• Partners Pushed Against Key Bills Affecting Education and Youth
• Spotlight: Coalition and Community Work in Georgia
News
Barriers to access college are a longstanding challenge for Texas students from underrepresented backgrounds. Federal and state restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion introduced new barriers. IDRA released a preliminary report this month from its study of the impact of Texas Senate Bill 17’s ban on college diversity, equity and inclusion offices in 2023 and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that same year to significantly limit race-conscious admissions in higher education on marginalized college-going students.
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New Report
State legislatures across the U.S. South are acting on policies that significantly impact education equity. IDRA has released a new report outlining key legislative actions taken last year and previewing the current year.
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eNews
These students wrote a petition, gathered signatures and took their case to the school board
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eNews
A multiracial, intergenerational coalition of advocates filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging a Texas appellate court to end a Houston-area school district’s years-long practice of discriminating against Black students wearing racially and culturally significant hairstyles.
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eNews
Brownsville ISD middle school students who are in at-risk situations will become the next generation of technology leaders through an innovative project called IDRA Youth TechXperts™. Through this in-school program, eighth-grade students will gain cutting-edge STEM skills while also fostering leadership, inclusivity and real-world experience.
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eNews
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San Antonio, TX 78228
Phone: 210-444-1710
Fax: 210-444-1714
