In a case involving a transgender track athlete, the Trump administration says female transgender athletes are seeking "special treatment" to compete in girls' or women's sports.

A collection of stories from the week that you may have missed.

Football, wrestling and competitive cheer pose a high risk for COVID-19 spread, while swimming and golf are at the low end of the risk scale developed by a national panel.

The judge said the law likely discriminates on the basis of transgender status in violation of the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

In some districts with all-remote learning, high school athletes are still on the field. And in some states, political leaders are getting heat for canceling school sports.

The daughter of Hmong refugees was an outspoken advocate for minority communities. She was elected to the St. Paul, Minn., school board in 2017.

Most school boards don’t look the students they serve, but new research suggests that must change.

School boards play a critical role in steering the progress of the nation’s schools, but the relationship between school boards and school district leaders could be better.

Here are strategies for creating strong, respectful, productive relationships between superintendents and school boards.

A gift from a Vietnam War veteran will create an emergency fund to help Penn State World Campus’s military learners when they have an unexpected financial setback.

After four years as chair of the Penn State Board of Trustees, Matt Schuyler’s leadership term officially ends during the trustees’ meeting today (Nov. 8). Schuyler first joined the board in 2015 as an at-large trustee and will continue serving as a member of the board through the end of his term in 2026.

Alumna Tanya Seyfert’s estate commitment will create scholarships for students who are affiliated with the military or who participate in work-study at the University Libraries, as well as funding urgent priorities set by Libraries leadership.

Jeffrey Goldberg and Matthew Vogt contribute a significant portion of the sales of their company, Sky Devil Wines, to veterans and veteran-specific causes. In 2018 they established a fund that is now named the Sky Devil Veteran's Entrepreneur Fund. The first two recipients of proceeds from that fund were recently named.

Penn State is launching a new Employee Resource Group (ERG) for employees who serve as caregivers for other individuals in their lives, including family members such as elders or children of any age who are unwell, or have special needs or disabilities. The new ERG, called Penn State Cares and is open to employees at all campuses, seeks to create a workplace where caregivers can support each other, use and expand existing university resources, and enable employees, who are caregivers, to thrive and grow.

Army veteran Adam Hartswick lost both of his legs due to a IED explosion while he was serving in Afghanistan, but his life was saved by proper tourniquet use. Now, he works with the Justice and Safety Institute, a Penn State Outreach program, to train law enforcement on the technique that saved his life. 

Active-duty service members and veterans experiencing PTSD have additional opportunities for treatment to support them, along with their partners, after the Department of Defense awarded a $3 million grant to Steffany Fredman, associate professor of human development and family studies, and colleagues in the STRONG STAR Consortium.

Three new hawks have joined the flock at the Klingsberg Aviary at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, including a forest-dwelling goshawk and two rough-legged hawks native to Pennsylvania’s grasslands.

Penn State Berks wrapped up its celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month on Oct. 11 with its 12th annual Latino Forum, an outreach effort for local high school students. Chancellor Radha Pyati provided a warm welcome to the students in Spanish, and she reached out to both students and the greater Latino community through a Facebook Live interview on La Mega Radio Station, a Spanish-language station who was on site for the event. Pyati was also interviewed live on La Mega’s Morning Show on Oct. 8.

Penn State Berks is holding a free public event, the “Eras Tour (Penn State Berks Version)” on Saturday, Nov. 2, in the Perkins Plaza. The event is held in junction with the course “Taylor Swift, Gender, and Communication,” offered this fall. Admission is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. 

Current charging stations for electric vehicles, or EVs, can be expensive to install, and limited in the number of parking spaces they reach. Penn State engineering student Jonathan Smith and his team have spent the last three years creating a possible solution: smaller, mounted charging stations, which can move to cover as many as five parking spaces. As CEO of Streamline Charging, he’s used his Penn State education and customized coursework to get the team’s ideas to market. 

Penn State Berks took learning out of the classroom in early October when 14 students, faculty and staff visited "Field of Screams," a haunted Halloween attraction in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The event was organized as an experiential learning activity for humanities, arts and social sciences courses (such as "Rhetoric of American Horror Films" and "Transformative Texts") that deal with topics related to horror and monstrosity within popular cultural texts. 

Penn State Berks will welcome Piscataway Nation singers and dancers to honor and celebrate Indigenous and Native American Heritage Month. The event is free and open to the public and will take place on Monday, Nov. 4, at 12:15 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium.

Prospective students and their families are invited to tour Penn State Berks at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, with Lion Ambassador student tour guides.

How do you translate what you learned in a semester-long course to a community celebration for an audience ranging in age from kindergarteners to senior citizens? That was the challenge to Penn State Berks students in the “Taylor Swift, Gender and Communication” course, and they rose to the occasion.

Although poverty has forced many villagers to the city or even abroad, co-leaders Besmir, Aniger and Hope are bringing hope to the youth in Albanian villages.

A rare treat for Roma women.

OM Albania partners in the Emmanuel Centre ministry to Roma street kids and their mothers during the holiday season.

Whether praying in Cantonese or Albanian, believers are one in heart.

OM’s Emmanuel Centre in Albania shines as light for children in the Roma and Gypsy communities.

An OMer runs an evangelistic sewing course in Albania; empowering local women by training them to sew while sharing the gospel.

OM Albania is reaching out to children with special needs, visiting their families' homes and helping the different family members in holistic ways.

A team from Penn State Harrisburg spent a week at a NASA facility over the summer, building a scientific experiment and sending it to space through the RockOn! program.

Maria Turkson, associate teaching professor of psychology at Penn State Harrisburg, will lead a panel of experts in a discussion about domestic violence prevention on Friday, Oct. 25. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The following is a collection of events happening around Penn State Harrisburg.

Thaddeus Stevens College, a two-year trade and technology-focused college, has recently expanded its articulation agreement with Penn State Harrisburg. Students completing their studies at Thaddeus Stevens College can transfer a variety of general education credits toward receiving a bachelor of science degree in human development and family studies from Penn State Harrisburg.

The Madlyn L. Hanes Library at Penn State Harrisburg has launched a new exhibition, “Always Aim High! An Exhibition Celebrating Shirley Chisholm,” featuring rare materials from the Alice Marshall Women’s History Collection. The exhibition opened Oct. 22 and will be on display through Dec. 20 at the entrance to Archives and Special Collections on the library's third floor. Chisholm was the first Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968 and the first Black woman to run for U.S. president in 1972. 

The Office of the Registrar and the Lambert Undergraduate Advising Center at Penn State Harrisburg will present “Schweek” scheduling week to assist students in scheduling their courses for spring 2025.

Retired Master Sgt. Gary Barb, campus technology officer at Penn State Harrisburg, is a veteran of both the U.S. Navy, which he served from 1989 to 1993, and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, which he served from 1994 to 2012. His daughter, Jessica Barb, is a communications major at Penn State Harrisburg, where she participates in the Army ROTC program, and serves in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

Marc Tucker looks at what the world's top performers tell us about the school choice agenda likely to be pursued by President Trump and his Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos.

Even if speaking up and fighting against vouchers is your calling ( and we need voices doing that) , it is still worth looking inward.

Indiana has one of the largest voucher programs in the country, with over 34,000 students receiving tax dollars to pay for private schools. With the Trump administration favoring school choice, many wonder if vouchers help or hurt education.

The Colorado Supreme Court decided Douglas County's Choice Scholarship Program is unconstitutional.

A ballot measure to expand the state's eligibility for so-called education savings account is contentious and confusing.

Despite being rebuked by Congress in its bid to do so last year, the U.S. Department of Education says it will use Education Innovation and Research funds for teacher professional development vouchers.

The FDA estimates that between 45 and 50 students at a Massachusetts school for students with autism, emotional disturbances, and intellectual disabilities are subjected to electrical shocks through electrodes attached to their skin.

Amid coronavirus-related school closures, advocates worry Education Secretary Betsy DeVos may waive requirements of special education law if Congress signs off. Schools say it's difficult to meet some requirements during the pandemic.

The two national teachers' unions and other prominent groups are seeking $175 billion for state K-12 budgets, $13 billion in dedicated aid for special education, and more to help schools deal with the coronavirus.

Congress should not grant flexibility from the federal special education law's key components due to the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has told federal lawmakers.