Latest news with #NewtonPublicSchools
Boston Globe
14-07-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
How cellphone-free schools can work for everyone
The success of this pilot led the Newton Public Schools to Advertisement While critics have expressed concerns about safety and communication loss for students and families, Newton middle schools have found solutions like creating accessible phone stations in the front office that allow students to contact home when necessary, and they have accommodations for students with specialized needs. Advertisement The national 'Wait Until 8th' These approaches are increasingly supported by medical research. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, in his book ' Psychiatrists have seen a growing number of young people struggling with attention problems, insomnia, loneliness, and mood issues, symptoms that are often tied to excessive smartphone use. Smartphones affect attention and sleep, two essential components for a healthy developing brain. The constant stimulation of smartphones rewires attention networks in the brain, making it harder for young people to focus on tasks that require sustained effort. Over time, this impairs not only their ability to concentrate, but also their emotional regulation, impulse control, and capacity for deep learning — all of which are foundational for academic success, healthy relationships, and long-term mental well-being. In a Advertisement Creating smartphone-free school environments is not about punishment or control; it's about providing a supportive space where students can focus, connect, and recharge. Even if students continue to use smartphones at home, time away from devices during the school day offers young minds the rare room to breathe — space for deeper thinking, social connection, and a daily digital detox in a world where digital input rarely takes a pause. As schools with smartphone policies are showing, it's possible to set A Massachusetts Attorney General Advertisement Such changes do not require major funding, but they require thoughtful planning and community support. With It is time to move past the debate over whether smartphones belong in schools and focus on how to manage them wisely in a world where they are here to stay. If we do, we can help students thrive — academically, socially, and emotionally.
NBC News
05-07-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Vaccinations rise when states button up religious loopholes
Unlike other kids in Massachusetts, students living in one Boston suburb won't be able to go back to school next month unless they've had their chickenpox and measles shots, as well as other routine childhood vaccinations. 'Any student not fully vaccinated without exemption will be excluded from school,' Newton Public Schools Superintendent Anna Nolin wrote in a memo last month. The directive followed a chickenpox outbreak among students, as well as rising threats of measles, Nolin said. But unvaccinated students without medical reasons to forgo the shots can still get a pass to attend class in Massachusetts: a religious exemption. According to state immunization data, vaccination rates among kindergartners in Massachusetts have been falling — from 95.9% in 2020 to 94.3% this past school year — as the proportion of students with religious exemptions has risen: 0.93% in 2020 to 1.33% currently. Schools in Massachusetts loosened vaccination requirement rules during the pandemic, allowing unvaccinated students to attend class without exemptions. In some areas of the state, the proportion of students who are allowed to skip shots because of exemptions is as high as 12.8%, according to the state's data. There's 'a lot of concern about what's happening with kids and keeping them safe from vaccine-preventable diseases,' said Northe Saunders, executive director of the SAFE Communities Coalition, an organization that supports pro-vaccination policies. 'People are fed up.' A bill working its way through the Massachusetts statehouse proposes removing nonmedical exemptions — including religious and philosophical beliefs — for vaccination requirements to attend public schools. 'Misuse of the current religious exemption loophole in Massachusetts policy has led to kindergarten classes across our state with terrifyingly low rates of vaccination,' Logan Beyer, a Harvard Medical School student, said at a hearing about the legislation last month. Beyer, who studies child health and child health equity, testified that she had a conversation with a woman who confided that she would use the religious exemption loophole to delay vaccinating her child. ''We don't really go to church, but you don't have to prove anything,'' the woman said, according to Beyer. Massachusetts isn't alone. Vaccination rates have been falling across the United States for years. Clamping down on vaccination exemptions raises rates In the past decade, California, Connecticut, Maine and New York have removed such exemptions in an effort to drive up vaccination rates. It seems to be working. Maine, for example, had one of the country's highest vaccination opt-out rates in 2017, at 5.3%. Two years later, in 2019, it passed a law that eliminated religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccinations. Since then, Maine's kindergarten MMR vaccination rate has climbed from less than 94% to nearly 98%. When California passed a law in 2016 removing personal belief and religious exemptions after a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland, MMR coverage increased by 3% in 2019. It has remained high, at 96.2%, according to the California Department of Public Health. 1,267 cases already logged this year. While the majority of parents support vaccination, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly undermined the shots' safety and effectiveness. Childhood immunization rates fell during the pandemic for several reasons. Children were less likely to get their annual well-checks during lockdown. And misinformation about Covid shots stoked fears about vaccines in general. The percentage of students with religious exemptions in Hawaii doubled during that time, from 2% before the pandemic to 4% last year, according to the state Health Department. Hawaii legislators proposed a bill to end exemptions based on religion, but it stalled after a massive public backlash. Meanwhile, Kennedy has doubled down on vaccine distrust. In June, he abruptly fired every member of the federal government's group of nonpartisan, independent experts charged with advising the administration on vaccines, appointing instead several known anti-vaccine activists. Religious concerns about vaccination? Most states and Washington, D.C., allow parents to opt out of vaccination requirements based on religious or philosophical views. Mississippi lawmakers added a religious vaccination exemption in 2023. In Texas, where an ongoing outbreak of measles in southwest Texas has killed two children, legislation in front of state lawmakers would make it easier for parents to be notified about and obtain vaccination exemptions. There is no indication, however, that any of the world's major religions oppose vaccination. Catholic popes, for example, have a long history of supporting immunizations. In a 2021 video message, Pope Francis urged people to get the Covid shot, calling it 'an act of love.' 'Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable,' he said. Jewish law supports vaccination. Islamic law does, too. The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest spiritual leader, has personally given polio vaccinations to children. One possible sticking point in some religions is a concern that vaccines contain fetal cells. The concern is unfounded, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. 'Some vaccines involve growing viruses in human cell cultures originally developed from two aborted fetuses in the 1960s. These cell lines are still going, so no new aborted fetuses are ever needed,' the group writes on its website. 'Purification processes filter the vaccine during production, and no fetal tissue remains.' Still, the number of kids whose caregivers are opting them out of routine childhood vaccines has reached an all-time high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts said the findings reflect Americans' growing unease about medicine in general. Dr. Sean O'Leary, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital Colorado and a spokesman for the pediatrics academy, said the group's official policy 'is that there should be no nonmedical exemptions for vaccines,' including religion. (Some children have weakened immune systems because of cancer treatments or organ transplantation and can't be vaccinated.) Otherwise, 'there's no legitimate reason not to be vaccinated,' he said. 'The benefits of vaccines clearly outweigh the risks.'
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Kansas students benefit from $50K from United Way
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Almost a dozen children's programs will share $50,000 from United Way of the Plains. The money for south-central Kansas is part of the annual Dwane L. Wallace Youth Venture Grant, which is partly funded by an endowment established by Velma Lunt Wallace to honor her late husband, Dwane L. Wallace, former head of Cessna Aircraft and community advocate. First measles case reported in Sedgwick County The money goes to school-based programs that uplift and empower local youth through impactful initiatives. 2025 Dwane Wallace Youth Venture microgrant recipients: Bus bucks, USD 259 Wichita Public Schools, $7,000 CMA Robotics, Christa McAuliffe Academy K-8, USD 259 Wichita Public Schools, $3,000 Field trips, 5th and 6th grades, USD 373 Newton Public Schools, $1,860 Fresh fruit for students, USD 439 Sedgwick Public Schools, $2,340 Head Start nutritious food and meals, Cooper Early Education Center, USD 373 Newton Public Schools, $3,000 Medicine Lodge Grade School Truancy Prevention Program, USD 254 Medicine Lodge Public Schools, $2,300 Summer Enrichment Program, Oxford Elementary, USD 358 Oxford Public Schools, $7,000 Healthy snacks for students, USD 311 Pretty Prairie Public Schools $7,000 STEALTH Afterschool Program, USD 259 Wichita Public Schools, $7,500 Valley Center High School Food Pantry, USD 262 Valley Center Public Schools, $7,000 Youth-Centric Mandarin Extension Program for Impactful Linguistic Education, The Independent School, $2,000 Medicine Lodge Public Schools Truancy Prevention Program (Courtesy United Way of the Plains) Pretty Prairie Public Schools Wellness Wednesday Healthy Food Program (Courtesy United Way of the Plains) Wichita Public Schools Stealth Healthy Food Program and Bus Bucks Good Behavior Program (Courtesy United Way of the Plains) 'This microgrant program provides an opportunity for teachers and schools to support youth and inspire the next generation, carrying on the legacy left by Dwane Wallace,' Logan Bradshaw, United Way of the Plains director of community impact, said in a news release. Click here to learn more about the program and to apply for future grants. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.
