Marta Jewson

Bernard Smith and Katy Reckdahl on the men trapped in the Orleans Parish Prison and Broad Street Bridge in the wake of the levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina that flooded New Orleans. [...]Read More... from Episode 282: Orleans Parish Prison after the storm ‘We’re still in here’

The ups and downs within the John McDonogh High School building illustrate the persistent inequities of New Orleans public schools [...]Read More... from The long arc of John McDonogh Senior High School

This year, LEAP scores came back from the state of Louisiana in record time. Do parents understand the scores? Do kids? Now, the state begins to crunch school statistics to create School Performance Scores, which could lead to charter-school closures later this fall.

A state law passed last year required cities to share a portion of school-zone camera tickets with the schools themselves. But the City of New Orleans and local schools have not yet agreed on how to split the money.

It’s unclear how the school’s order affected the student, who did return, but sporadically. But the school district sent Fannie C. Williams administrators a serious ‘notice of noncompliance’ in the case, which is still under investigation.

Armed by scientific studies, reading experts urged a resurgence of phonics, which helps children learn to read by sounding-out words, in a way well-known to older generations. But the state's third graders are still struggling from their Zoom-heavy start to reading.

Parents said that their young child was too sick to go to school. But the school disagreed, and so the child received no services last year, then started this year with no services. It’s still unclear who’s to blame — and how to catch other students before they fall through the cracks.

Over the past five months, as the two parties negotiated, charter leaders have been tightening belts and hoping that the city will finally agree to hand over 100% of property-tax money to schools, instead of skimming away millions each year.

Given that mistake, parents question whether the school is financially ready to repair McDonogh 15 in the French Quarter.

State and district school officials argue that they’ve complied with a 2015 federal civil-rights judgment. But lawyers representing students who still aren’t getting adequate special ed services say that school officials may be complying with the letter of the law, but not the spirit of it.

High winds on Mardi Gras Day truncated Rex’s route and kept Zulu from downtown New Orleans, taking a toll on business owners and on local school bands, which went unpaid for Zulu and other weather-affected parades. Then Rex announced that it would pay the bands booked for its parade, raising questions about the history of band payments from krewes – and why those payments matter. 

OPSB had sued because the city was skimming a portion off of the top of its OPSB tax payments; district officials agreed to settle last year, when the School Board realized it was facing a $36 million deficit.

"Alice saved my life," neighbors say. In 2007, Alice Craft-Kerney helped to launch a post-Katrina clinic that was invaluable to neighbors. But it closed its doors after an inexplicably short time.

Four city schools are likely to close. Budget shortfall could top $49 million.

Though its score climbed a little, the NOLA Public Schools district received the same grade, a C, from the state of Louisiana for the third year in a row. The state’s A-F letter grades are particularly high-stakes for 12 charters, who could face closure at the end of the school year.

The Orleans Parish School Board settles a years-long lawsuit against the city, to provide financially strained schools with help that includes a swift, $20 million cash infusion and $70 million for education over 10 years.

School leaders worried that the budget gap may grow further, as officials tally final numbers.

Planned Parenthood exhibit opens today, looks at 40-year, often embattled, presence in Louisiana

Because of objections to a federal rule protecting gender dysphoria, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has joined a multi-state lawsuit seeking to invalidate Section 504, the disability law best known for providing support for public school students.

Across the nation, there’s been an increase in programs looking at ways to help lift up young people – and move them from poverty into more secure futures. Here in New Orleans, administrators at Rooted School saw fewer absences, a jump in reading scores, and a boost in independence for students who received $50 weekly stipends.