Caitlynn Peetz is a reporter for Education Week who covers school district leadership and management. Prior to working at Education Week, she covered local education in Maryland and South Dakota.
Judah Boyle, of Des Moines, Iowa, splashes water as he runs on the beach at Gray's Lake Park, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024, in Des Moines, Iowa. Much of the Midwest is seeing extreme heat just as schools reopen.
York City School District police officer Britney Brooks walks one of her rounds on March 8, 2018, at William Penn Senior High School in York, Pa. School districts have had to get creative to fill school resource officer positions as police departments nationwide face recruiting challenges.
Special education teacher Chris Simley, left, places a coffee order at a table staffed by student Jon Hahn, volunteer Phil Tegeler, student Brianna Dewater, and student Mykala Robinson at Common Grounds coffee shop at Lincoln High in Lincoln, Neb., on Oct. 26, 2018. Policies regarding the maximum age at which students are eligible for special education services have changed quickly in recent years, providing a potential lifeline for families but a challenge for districts in keeping families abreast of the changes.
Art and technology teacher Jenny O'Sullivan, right, shows students a video they made on April 15, 2024, at A.D. Henderson School in Boca Raton, Fla. After districts equipped every student with a device early in the pandemic, they now face the challenge of recycling or disposing of the technology responsibly.
Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde delivers her breakthrough-year address to those gathered for the Dallas school district's State of the District dinner at the Omni Dallas Hotel in April.
Fourth-grader Sammiayah Thompson, left, and her brother third-grader Nehemiah Thompson work outside in their yard on laptops provided by their school system for distance learning, in Hartford, Conn., on June 5, 2020. Some districts kept virtual programs as an option after schools reopened, but many of those are now considering cuts to them as budgets tighten.
Brandon Hernandez works on a puzzle on a tablet before it's his turn to practice reading at an after-school program at the Vardaman Family Life Center in Vardaman Miss., on March 3, 2020. Districts that acquired devices for every student for the first time during the pandemic are facing decisions about what to do at the end of the devices' useful life.
Thomas Wells/The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP