Kidlaw

Morse v. Frederick A fourteen-foot banner on a public sidewalk in Juneau, Alaska changed student speech law forever — and landed a teenager in front of the Supreme Court. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. How a 2002 Olympic Torch Relay led to a landmark First Amendment case 2. The story behind the infamous "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner 3. Why Principal Deborah Morse suspended stud...

MHSSA Mental Health Services for Students Act of 2021 (H.R.721-S.1841) Behind every locker is a student silently struggling—anxiety, grief, trauma, even thoughts of suicide. A bipartisan bill puts mental health help right down the hall. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. $200 million in grants for school-based mental health services 2. $130 million authorized yearly, FY2022-2025 3. Expand...

HEOA Education Opportunity Act of 2008 One federal law reshaped every college campus in America: the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. Here's what it really changed for students, families, and schools. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. What is the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008? 2. Its five core goals: transparency, cost, aid, accountability 3. Over 100 new...

GFSA Gun-Free Schools Act  One federal law changed how American schools handle guns—forcing mandatory expulsions, fueling zero-tolerance policies, and igniting decades of fierce debate over safety, fairness, and justice. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. What the Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA) actually requires 2. How GFSA differs from the Gun-Free School Zones Act 3. The mandatory one-year...

Flores v. Arizona One lawsuit reshaped how America teaches English learners. Flores v. Arizona exposed broken school funding, sparked a Supreme Court showdown, and rewrote the rules for millions of immigrant students. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why Arizona was sued over English Language Learner funding 2. How Flores v. Arizona became Horne v. Flores in 2009 3. What the Equal Educa...

ESSA  Every Student Succeeds Act What happens when a law shifts power from Washington to your local school board—and to kids in detention or foster care? Meet ESSA, the law quietly rewriting the American school day. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. What ESSA is and why it replaced No Child Left Behind 2. How states now control accountability and standards 3. Required annual testing in g...

One law touches nearly every public school in America. Discover how the Elementary and Secondary Education Act became the backbone of equity, funding, and accountability in K-12 education. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. How ESEA became the foundation of U.S. K-12 education law 2. Why Title I-A sends federal dollars to low-income schools 3. How annual assessments track student progress...

One ruling ended fifty years of federal abortion rights and rewrote American law overnight. Here's what the Dobbs decision means for courts, schools, families, and children today. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. How Dobbs overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey 2. Why the Court called Roe "egregiously wrong" under a new test 3. How abortion authority shift...

COPPA Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Millions of kids go online every day, leaving behind names, photos, and locations. Here's the law built to protect them: COPPA. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. What COPPA is and why Congress passed it in 1998 2. Which websites and apps COPPA actually covers 3. How verifiable parental consent actually works 4. What a compliant children...

Millions of families depend on it, yet few understand how this $3.55B fund shapes child care, courtrooms, and classrooms nationwide. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. How CCES delivers $3.55 billion a year in child care funding 2. The two funding buckets: mandatory dollars and MOE matches 3. Who qualifies: TANF families, income caps, and work rules 4. How CCES links to CCDBG rules to for...

CASAs Court Appointed Special Advocates A judge decides a child's fate in minutes. One volunteer changes everything. Discover how CASAs fight for kids nobody else has time for. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. How CASA volunteers began in 1977 Seattle 2. Who qualifies to become a trained CASA advocate 3. What a CASA investigation actually involves 4. Why judges accept nearly all CA...

BASE Building an Affordable System for Early Education A $9Billion federal plan to fix America's broken childcare system could also cut crime, ease courts, and rebuild the economy. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. What BASE is and how its $9B annual funding works 2. Difference between BASE grants and MDRC's BASE project 3. How supply-side investment differs from family subsidi...

Absolute Parens Patriae When family fails, who steps in? Discover the 900-year-old legal doctrine that lets the state become "parent" to the vulnerable. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. What parens patriae means and why it still matters today 2. Its royal origins in medieval England's Court of Chancery 3. How Ex parte Crouse (1839) brought it into American law 4. The 1899...

Winkelman v. Parma City School District Your child's IEP isn't enough, you lost the hearing, and you can't afford a lawyer. In 2007 the Supreme Court told parents to walk in anyway. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why Winkelman v. Parma City School District changed IDEA cases 2. How parents gained independent, enforceable rights under IDEA 3. What "party aggrieved&q...

USA Uninterrupted Scholars Act Four schools in one year. That is the reality for many children in foster care — and a 2013 federal law was written to stop the churn. On January 14, 2013, Congress passed the Uninterrupted Scholars Act, amending FERPA so a child's education records can finally travel as fast as the child does. This broadcast unpacks what changed, who it protects, and how it pla...

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 You had the skills. You had the experience. Before 1964, being turned away for who you are was perfectly legal. Title VII changed that forever. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. The five protected traits every covered U.S. employer must respect 2. Who Title VII reaches, and the 15-employee threshold that triggers it 3. Disparate treatment vs. dis...

SOSA Securing Our Schools Act How do we keep the children inside a school building safe? SOSA answers with steel doors, badges, and counselors — the answer is still being written. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why the Securing Our Schools Act keeps returning to Congress 2. Five pillars: hardware, SROs, funding, counseling, and training 3. How each SRO hired may add 2.5 in-school arre...

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 One federal law reshaped every classroom, courtroom, and clinic taking federal money — and in 2024 it changed again. Here's what Section 504 means now. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Who qualifies: impairments that limit major life activities 2. How a 504 Plan differs from IDEA and special education 3. FAPE, accommodations, and access...

Private Schools vs Charter Schools One family wins a lottery for a free seat. Another signs a $13,000 tuition contract. Same dream, two different doors. Here's what truly divides them.  WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why a charter school is public and a private school never is 2. How charters trade autonomy for accountability under a contract 3. Where the money comes from: taxpay...

NJECCE New Jersey’s Early Childhood Care and Education System A four-year-old walks into a classroom for the very first time. What happens next shouldn't depend on which door she walked through — and in New Jersey, it doesn't. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. How the mixed delivery system unites three kinds of providers 2. Class size caps, adult-child ratios, and teacher salar...

Plyler v. Doe In 1982, one vote decided whether a child could be locked out of school over a piece of paper. Plyler v. Doe said no — and that door is still open. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why the Equal Protection Clause covers every child in a state 2. How a 5-4 vote blocked a permanent, uneducated underclass 3. What schools may never ask for at the registration desk 4. Why tuiti...

Momnibus Innovative Maternity Care Act In America, mothers still die from preventable causes, and the burden isn't shared equally. The Momnibus Innovative Maternity Care Act answers that crisis. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why Black and Indigenous mothers face the sharpest maternal risk 2. How telehealth and remote monitoring reach rural, underserved areas 3. New Medicaid and...

NCJFCJ National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Every day, in an American courtroom, a judge decides where a child sleeps tonight. Since 1937, one organization has helped answer that question.  WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why the NCJFCJ is the oldest judicial membership organization 2. The four focus areas behind every child and family case 3. How Enhanced Resource Guid...

Momnibus CARE for Moms Act  Giving birth in America is more dangerous than it should be. Black and rural mothers bear the heaviest risk. Congress answered: the CARE for Moms Act. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why postpartum Medicaid must stretch from 60 days to 12 months 2. How doulas and midwives expand the maternal health workforce 3. Mobile obstetric units bringing care to rural m...

Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. A cheerleader's angry Snapchat reached the Supreme Court and redrew the line between a school's authority and a student's private voice. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS BROADCAST 1. Why one off-campus Snapchat post produced a landmark 8-1 ruling 2. How Tinker's substantial disruption test applies beyond the campus 3. Three features that give...