Delaware’s Comprehensive School Safety Program (CSSP) is marking completion of several significant safety initiatives, including: 1) new high-resolution maps for every public and charter school, 2) implementation of standard response and reunification training in all districts, and 3) the release of a new comprehensive school safety plan to all 231 public and charter schools in mid-July. The new school safety plan is the first major update since the creation of CSSP in 2012 and will provide schools with the most current guidance to keep students and staff prepared for a wide range of emergencies.

This fall, many Delaware schools will launch a new School Safety and Wellness Suite that incorporates a comprehensive approach to alert administrators of serious situations while providing students with the necessary tools and resources to prevent or deter a situation from escalating.

The state will name its 2024 Delaware Behavioral Health Professional of the Year at a statewide celebration on Monday. Delaware’s districts and the Delaware Charter School Network named local Behavioral Health Professionals of the Year for 2024. Following an application and interview process, one will be named the state honoree.

Shannon Gronau, a school counselor from the Milford School District, is the state’s 2024 Delaware Behavioral Health Professional of the Year.

WILMINGTON, Del. — On Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in honor of the 70th anniversary of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, the State of Delaware’s Department of Human Resources, Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, in collaboration with the Governor’s Office, hosted a panel discussion featuring descendants of the Delaware cases that […]

Secretary of Education Mark Holodick is pleased to recognize the following students for their submissions in this year’s Esri’s 2024 ArcGIS webapp competition. Students were challenged to create and share interactive mapping projects using ESRI ArcGIS software. Delaware entrants to this national competition must create a digital Storymap that explores some aspect of life in Delaware.

More than 142,000 children are enrolled in schools across the state and we want all of them to get to and from school safely each day whether they are walking, riding a bus or bike, or being dropped off.

The 2024-2025 school year marks the 20th anniversary of Poetry Out Loud®, an arts education program and dynamic poetry recitation competition for high school students that lifts poetry off the page, creating community and connection. A partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Poetry Foundation, and state and jurisdictional arts agencies, Poetry Out Loud takes place in all 50 states, American Samoa, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Five more schools have earned Delaware's Sapphire Award for Excellence in School Counseling. The 2024-2025 Sapphire Award schools are: Lake Forest Central Elementary (Lake Forest); Milton Elementary (Cape Henlopen); Anna P. Mote Elementary (Red Clay Consolidated); POLYTECH High School (POLYTECH); and Sarah Pyle Academy (Christina). 

The U.S. Department of Education today recognized 356 schools as the 2024 cohort of the National Blue Ribbon Schools, including two schools in Delaware. This prestigious recognition highlights schools that excel in academic performance or make significant strides in closing achievement gaps among different student groups.   

Seventeen schools across the state are being recognized either nationally or by the state for the academic progress of their students last year.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Professional Standards Board

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Office of the Secretary

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Office of the Secretary

The Thoothukudi police in Tamil Nadu have arrested a physical education teacher at a private school for allegedly harassing girl students sexually and forcing them to take liquor.

A suspended teacher from the PSBB (Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan) School in Chennai has been sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment for sexually harassing female students.

1. Chennai rain: IMD predicts heavy rainfall for Tamil Nadu. Are schools, colleges closed today?  Hindustan Times
2. Chennai rains today: Heavy downpour expected in many Tamil Nadu districts, IMD issues alert. Schools shut today?  Mint
3. Low pressure weakens, but heavy rain in Tamil Nadu may persist  The New Indian Express
4. Tamil Nadu weather: Schools shut in Chennai, IMD puts 17 districts in state on heavy rainfall alert  Business Today
5. Tamil Nadu rains: Schools, colleges closed in several districts amid heavy rain  The Hindu

The Borno State police command on Tuesday inaugurated an Explosive Ordnance Disposal training school in Borno State. Speaking during the ceremony in Maiduguri, the Commissioner of Police, who was represented by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Bello, said the facility, being the first in the region, would aid in training officers in handling explosives

CATARROJA, Spain — Thousands of students in Spain's eastern Valencia region returned to classes on Monday, two weeks after floods killed over 200 people and devastated towns in the area. Controversy over the regional government's handling of the floods still rages, and a teachers' union accused it of exaggerating the number returning and leaving the clean-up to teachers and pupils. Twenty-three people remain missing in the Valencia region after heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, sending tides of muddy water through densely populated city suburbs, drowning people in cars and underground car parks, and collapsing homes. A total of 47 schools in 14 affected municipalities reopened to more than 22,000 children on Monday, the region's education department said. Last week, it said it expected around 70% of students in the worst-affected areas to return this week. "The schools that have opened their doors today have followed cleaning and disinfection protocols to ensure maximum safety for students, teachers and staff," it added. But the regional teachers' union STEPV said it believed that the numbers returning on Monday were lower, without providing an alternative figure. Spokesperson Marc Candela said many schools were not ready to resume lessons, adding: "Teachers and parents are cleaning the schools with their own materials such as brooms." Educators wanted professional cleaning crews to sanitize facilities, as was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Parents are also worried about their children's emotional states, said Ruben Pacheco, head of the regional federation of parents' associations, FAMPA: "Families are exhausted, suffering psychologically, and nothing should be decided without consulting them so as not to generate more discomfort than they've already suffered." Candela said the department had held an online course for teachers last week with recommendations for psychological care, but had not dispatched additional counselors. Carolina Marti, head teacher at a school in Castellar-Oliveral, said it had received 60 children from neighboring towns, while five teachers were on medical leave. She said children and teachers were struggling to reach the school as many roads remained impassable.

ABUJA, Nigeria — Armed men broke into a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria early Saturday and seized 15 children as they slept, police told The Associated Press, about 48 hours after nearly 300 students were taken hostage in the conflict-hit region. School abductions are common in Nigeria's northern region, especially since the 2014 kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Islamic extremists in Borno state's Chibok village shocked the world. Armed gangs have since targeted schools for kidnap ransoms, resulting in at least 1,400 abducted since then. The gunmen in the latest attack invaded the Gidan Bakuso village of the Gada council area in Sokoto state about 1 a.m. local time, police said. They headed to the Islamic school where they seized the children from their hostel before security forces could arrive, Sokoto police spokesman Ahmad Rufa'i told the AP. One woman was also abducted from the village, Rufa'i said, adding that a police tactical squad was deployed to search for the students. The inaccessible roads in the area, however, challenged the rescue operation, he said. "It is a remote village (and) vehicles cannot go there; they (the police squad) had to use motorcycles to the village," he said. Saturday's attack was the third mass kidnapping in northern Nigeria since late last week, when more than 200 people, mostly women and children, were abducted by suspected extremists in Borno state. On Thursday, 287 students were also taken hostage from a government primary and secondary school in Kaduna state. The attacks highlight a security crisis that has plagued Africa's most populous country. Kidnappings for ransom have become lucrative across Nigeria's northern region, where dozens of armed gangs operate. No group claimed responsibility for any of the abductions. While Islamic extremists who are waging an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria are suspected of carrying out the kidnapping in Borno state, locals blamed the school kidnappings on herders who had been in conflict with their host communities before taking up arms. Nigeria's Vice President Kashim Shettima, meanwhile, met with authorities and some parents of the abducted students in Kaduna state Saturday and assured them of efforts by security forces to find the children and rescue them.

Reichman University launches a new medical school to address Israel's doctor shortage, with hands-on training from day one.

Females perform better than males • Malta’s computer literacy score is within international average for computer literacy and substantially below average in computational thinking

Rejoice Muzamani is studying in preparation for her next paper during the end-of-term examinations at Mwenje Primary School in Chiredzi, southeast Zimbabwe. The 13-year-old girl, who is in Grade 7 or final year of primary school, is not worried about leaving school early to make the 7-kilometer journey back home before dusk, risking attacks from […]

The mountain lion was considered a public threat and had activated a shelter-in-place order for nearby residents.

The government of Punjab on Tuesday — expanding on its previous order — closed all the educational institutions up to the higher secondary level in the province from tomorrow until the end of the week, shifting them to an online mode, as the province tackles the hazardous smog situation prevalent for the past few weeks.

The recent smog situation was declared a “calamity” in Punjab last month. Schools have been closed in the province’s main divisions — Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan — until November 17 in a bid to lower children’s exposure to pollution.

Separately, the public has been barred from entering public parks, zoos, playgrounds, and museums until November 17 to reduce public exposure to smog.

A day ago, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) representative in Pakistan called for urgent and greater efforts to reduce air pollution, noting that over 11 million children under five years of age were exposed to smog in the worst affected districts of Punjab.

The province’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a notification issued today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com that “All the educational institutions […] up to higher secondary level shall remain closed and will shift to online mode with effect from Nov 13 within […] DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Rawalpindi divisions […] till Nov 17.”

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat also announced the closure of schools during a press conference today, saying that the “decision was made in light of the complaints received from the district.”

“This drastic decision had to be taken to protect children from the deadly effects,” he said, “There is a sense of educational loss, but the decision to close educational institutions is being taken out of compulsion.

“In view of the difficulties in online teaching, an alternative strategy is being quickly brought in,” the minister added.

He also appealed to the public to cooperate and do what was in their capacity to help the government deal with this issue.

50pc of govt offices to work online

Separately, all government offices were ordered to shift half of their workforce to online mode to reduce traffic load on roads to prevent the worsening of the smog situation due to vehicular emissions.

“The physical presence of human resource(s) of offices in your jurisdiction may kindly be reduced to 50pc by shifting them to online mode/work from home,” the EPA said in a separate notification issued today.

In the order issued on Tuesday, which is seen by Dawn.com, the Punjab EPA directed all the administrative secretaries, as well as heads of attached departments and semi-government/autonomous bodies, to reduce the physical presence of human resources by 50 per cent.

According to the notification, the situation was likely to prevail for a few weeks, adding that local pollution contributing factors, especially vehicular emissions, may further exacerbate the conditions.

“Hence, the situation warrants to specify safeguards to reduce the number of vehicles on roads in order to control air pollution, through preparation and implementation of contingency plans,” the notification said.

The EPA also called for inter-departmental meetings to be convened in an online mode unless the physical presence of participants was “extremely necessary”.

Bad-quality air aggravating pulmonary diseases: doctor

Speaking to Dawn.com, a pulmonologist at Multan’s Nishtar Hospital, Dr Nasir Javed, said that asthmatic patients, who were earlier stable, are now facing chronic health conditions due to the smog.

“[Due to the smog], asthma patients would start feeling inflation in their airways and it would become difficult for them to breathe smoothly,” he said. “Even medicines have stopped working properly to cure the problem.”

He further added that asthmatics and chronic smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were at greater risk and were visiting the hospitals with exacerbation of their diseases.

“Air-Quality Index is directly proportional to the symptoms/ severity which one can suffer,” he said.

“Limited outdoor activity and hydration are the mainstays to avoiding respiratory issues as antibiotics were of no use.”

Smog to persist in major cities as weather conditions worsen: NDMA

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in an advisory issued today, said that the smog situation was expected to persist across the urban centres in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa throughout November and December due to high humidity, low wind speeds, and upper atmospheric pressure.

According to the advisory, as reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) the cities most likely to be affected by the worsening smog situation include Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Mardan, and Nowshera.

“The advisory highlights the rising smog levels in the affected areas, driven by the current weather conditions, and advises residents to avoid prolonged outdoor exposure and adopt protective measures to safeguard their health,” the *APP report said.

“[…] The National Emergency Operation Centre has been monitoring the current smog situation in Pakistan and surrounding regions.

According to the advisory, the team has access to advanced ground-based and space-based monitoring tools, enabling the analysis and projection of pollution emissions from various sources, including industry, transportation, and agriculture.

Precautionary measures

The NDMA advisory recommended the public adopt several measures to mitigate the effects of smog, such as avoiding unnecessary outdoor exposure during peak smog hours, especially in the morning, and wearing masks during outdoor activities, according to the APP.

“Staying hydrated, using dehumidifiers and air purifiers to improve indoor air quality, and adopting efficient transportation methods—like carpooling and eco-friendly driving, along with using COx and NOx filters—are also advised,” it said.

to write an autobiography for graduate school

to write a high school scholarship application letter

Title: Lung Association Urges Back-to-School Asthma Checklist
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2008 2:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2008 12:00:00 AM

Title: Soothe Back-to-School Anxiety, Teach Kids to Relax
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2009 8:10:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/24/2009 12:00:00 AM

Title: Cyberbullying, 'Sexting' Major Problems for Schoolkids
Category: Health News
Created: 8/20/2010 4:10:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2010 12:00:00 AM

Title: Walking School Bus Programs Take Off
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2011 11:01:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2011 12:00:00 AM

Title: Most U.S. Schools Unprepared for Pandemics: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 8/30/2012 10:05:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Daily Temper Tantrums Not the Norm for Preschoolers: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 8/29/2012 2:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/30/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Stuttering May Not Cause Emotional Woes in Preschoolers: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2013 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: Good Nutrition Can Boost School Performance, Expert Says
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2013 9:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: Expert Tips for School Bus Safety
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2013 9:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: How to Help Kids Quell Back-to-School Jitters
Category: Health News
Created: 8/24/2013 9:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: Health Tip: Pack Safe School Lunches
Category: Health News
Created: 8/27/2013 7:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: U.S. Schools Show Progress in Healthy Behaviors, CDC Says
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2013 4:36:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2013 12:00:00 AM

Title: Start School Later for Older Kids, Pediatricians Urge
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2014 9:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2014 12:00:00 AM

Title: Getting Back to School Sleep Schedules
Category: Health News
Created: 8/23/2014 9:39:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2014 12:00:00 AM

Title: With Kids in School, Parents Can Work Out
Category: Health News
Created: 8/22/2014 2:35:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/25/2014 12:00:00 AM

Title: Bullying Starts Before School Years Begin, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2014 12:36:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2014 12:00:00 AM

Title: Health Tip: Preparing for the First Day of School
Category: Health News
Created: 8/27/2014 7:35:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/27/2014 12:00:00 AM