How to Budget for the School Extras Families Forget to Plan For
The supply list is only the start. Lab fees, field trips, calculators and activity passes arrive months later — here's how to plan for them.
By Kara Williams • September 13, 2026
Latest
What Parents Should Know About the New FAFSA Timeline
The FAFSA — the federal form that gates nearly all college aid — now opens each October for the following fall, but the 2024 redesign delayed aid offers by months, and families should plan around the confusion it left behind.
By Kara Williams • August 28, 2026
Study
How to Help a Middle Schooler Rebuild Study Habits
The study methods most kids choose — rereading and highlighting — rank among the least effective in published learning research, and two boring-sounding replacements work measurably better.
By Kara Williams • August 26, 2026
Youth
What Parents Should Know About the Rules on Teen Work Hours
Federal law caps a 15-year-old's school week at 18 hours and stops capping hours entirely at 16 - but state rules, work permits, and a 20-hour research marker all shape what a first job should look like.
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 23, 2026
How Seniors Can Prepare for Life After Graduation
About six in ten high school graduates enroll in college right away — which means every path, including that one, needs a plan.
By Hiroshi Nakamura • July 23, 2026
What the Data Says About Summer Learning Loss
Summer slide is real but uneven — math slips more than reading, and the losses pile onto the students with the fewest resources.
By Hiroshi Nakamura • June 30, 2026
How to Help a Teen Manage a First Smartphone
The average American kid now gets a first smartphone around age 11 — and the first thirty days of ownership set the rules for years.
By Zara Nasser • June 7, 2026
Youth
Why Reading for Fun Drops in the Teen Years
Only 14 percent of 13-year-olds read for fun almost every day — the decline has a schedule, a cause list, and a few fixes that work.
By Zara Nasser • May 16, 2026
From the past month
Students
How FERPA Privacy Rights Shift From Parents to Students
A federal law hands most control over school records to students the day they turn 18 or start college — with a few exceptions families should know before that happens.
By Kara Williams • August 20, 2026
Skills
How to Help a Student Study Smarter, Not Just Longer
Decades of cognitive-science research point to two study habits that actually work — and they're not the ones most students already use.
By Samuel Achebe • August 17, 2026
Pathways
What Families Should Know About School Reentry After Juvenile Detention
Federal rules require a reentry plan with an education piece before a young person leaves a juvenile justice facility, but how well it works still depends on which adult stays on top of it.
By Kara Williams • August 15, 2026
Student News
Why Chronic Absenteeism Hasn't Dropped Back to Normal
Missed school days spiked during the pandemic and have come down since — but national data show the decline stalling well above pre-pandemic levels, and researchers are still working out why.
By Kara Williams • August 18, 2026
How to Use a Planner Without Giving Up on It
Most planners die by October because they are used as a diary of intentions — the fix is one daily review habit and a page small enough to finish.
By Zara Nasser • July 27, 2026
Why Public Speaking Practice Starts in Middle School
Speaking anxiety peaks exactly when class presentations begin — and short, repeated, low-stakes reps in middle school shrink it for life.
By Zara Nasser • July 5, 2026
How to Write a First Resume as a High Schooler
A first resume is one honest page — experience is anything you did regularly, and action verbs plus real numbers do the persuading.
By Zara Nasser • June 12, 2026
How to Study for Math Tests Without Cramming
Math is learned by retrieval and spacing — worked problems redone from scratch on separate days — not by rereading notes the night before.
By Samuel Achebe • May 20, 2026
What Parents Should Know About Chronic Absenteeism
A record share of students are missing enough school to fall behind academically — here is what the data shows and what a family can do before it becomes a pattern.
By Kara Williams • August 12, 2026
How to Build a Morning Routine That Survives the School Year
A school morning that works is designed the night before and paid for with sleep — not powered by louder wake-ups in September.
By Hiroshi Nakamura • August 10, 2026
Family
How to Plan College Visits With a High Schooler
A good college visit plan spreads a few trips across junior and senior year and treats the student, not the campus, as the unit of study.
By Kara Williams • July 18, 2026
Family
What Families Should Know About Screen Time Rules That Work
Effective screen time rules target sleep, meals, and content — not a single guilt number — and they survive because the adults follow them too.
By Kara Williams • June 25, 2026
How the IEP Process Actually Works, Step by Step
From a parent's first written request to the annual review meeting, an Individualized Education Program follows a federally defined sequence — here's what happens at each stage under IDEA.
By Kara Williams • August 21, 2026
Chronic Absence Nearly Doubled Since 2019, and Schools Are Still Climbing Back
Roughly one in four US public school students was chronically absent in 2023-24 — missing 10 percent or more of school days — nearly double the pre-pandemic rate, per analyses of federal data.
By Kara Williams • August 10, 2026
Student News
How School Districts Are Spending Leftover Relief Funds
The last federal relief dollars hit a hard deadline in March 2026 — the final chapter of roughly $190 billion in pandemic-era education aid.
By Marta Kowalczyk • August 1, 2026
Student News
What the Data Says About Kindergarten Enrollment Recovery
Kindergarten enrollment fell 9 percent and pre-K 22 percent in the pandemic — federal data shows the youngest grades mostly came back, while demographics now pull the other way.
By Marta Kowalczyk • July 9, 2026
What the CDC's Developmental Milestones Checklist Actually Tracks
The free checklists cover ages 2 months through 5 years and are built to start a conversation with a pediatrician, not to deliver a diagnosis on their own.
By Zara Nasser • August 13, 2026
What Parents Should Know About Teen Work-Hour Rules
Federal law caps how many hours 14- and 15-year-olds can work and keeps everyone under 18 out of hazardous jobs, but states can set tighter limits, and more young people are working this summer than a year ago.
By Zara Nasser • August 10, 2026
Education News
How Universal Pre-K Programs Are Scaling Across States
More than 40 states now run public preschool programs, but reach and quality vary so widely that "universal" means very different things in different zip codes.
By Kara Williams • August 5, 2026
Education News
What New Research Says About Tutoring That Works
A meta-analysis of 96 randomized trials found tutoring produces some of the largest learning gains ever measured — but only when the dosage, timing, and tutor are right.
By Zara Nasser • July 14, 2026