DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Student loan payments start up again for most borrowers in October, but more than 800,000 people who have been paying for years are having their loans forgiven.

The discharges were announced via email on Friday, July 14, to an estimated 800,000 Americans.

President Joe Biden’s plan to provide up to $20,000 in federal student loan forgiveness has been blocked by two federal courts.

The Biden administration is no longer accepting applications for student loan forgiveness after a second federal court shut down the program.

Here’s what to know right now to steer clear of scammers

Those who want to apply for federal student loan forgiveness can try to access the application through a beta mode website that was launched to test the system ahead of the formal website launch later this month.

Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth are urging the Education Department to strengthen regulations against excluding kids from class because of behaviors related to a disability — a practice known as informal removal.

When President Joe Biden announced a plan to forgive student loan debt, many borrowers who kept making payments during the pandemic wondered if they’d made the right choice.

The Biden administration says it will cancel any federal student loans used to attend the for-profit Westwood College from 2002 through 2015 after officials found that the school exaggerated the job prospects of graduates.

President Joe Biden says many Americans will be able to have up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt forgiven in they make less than $125,000 a year.

New statewide test results from the Department of Education show achievement gaps between students are closing.

The Biden administration has agreed to cancel $6 billion in student loans for about 200,000 former students who say they were defrauded by their colleges.

President Joe Biden hasn't made a decision yet on how he'll handle the student loan debt issue, but his administration is trying to bring closure to one of the most notorious cases of fraud in American higher education.

The Biden administration says it will cancel more than $70 million in student debt for borrowers who say they were defrauded by the for-profit DeVry University.

The U.S. Department of Education filed a 'cease and desist' complaint against the Florida Department of Education.

Officials at historically Black colleges thought they might finally have a pipeline for long-term funding from the federal government after the Biden administration included at least $45 billion for them in its multitrillion dollar economic package.

The state has taken the position it can continue imposing sanctions on school districts that don’t provide a parental opt-out as soon as it files for appeal.

As some Florida districts are defying an executive order by requiring students to wear masks, that move is getting some support from the highest level.

It’s more than a week before a lawsuit attempting to block the state’s opt-out mandate is expected to be ruled on.

Florida Coastal School of Law’s hopes of staying open suffered a setback Monday when a federal judge denied a motion for a court order restoring its eligibility for federal funding.

Florida Coastal School of Law’s hopes of staying open suffered a setback Monday when a federal judge denied a motion for a court order restoring its eligibility for federal funding.

The Biden administration has announced that federal student loan payments will remain suspended through January 2022, extending a pause that was scheduled to expire next month.

Florida students’ scores on standardized tests dipped in 2021, with the sharpest decline in math scores, according to data published Thursday by the state Department of Education.

During an at-times heated meeting on Wednesday, the State Board of Education adopted new curriculum standards for civics, government and Holocaust education, along with updates to other subject areas.

A federal investigation into whether the St. Johns County School District breached Title IX through its dress code policy continues as district officials on Wednesday turned over a cache of documents to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

The Florida Coastal School of Law on Friday said it’s disputing the findings by the Department of Education (ED) in a letter that denied the school’s reinstatement in the Title IV Student Loan program.

Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, the city’s only law school, has learned its application to get back into the federal student loan program has been denied.

A Jacksonville school is receiving recognition from the U.S. Department of Education for its efforts when it comes to the environment and sustainability.

ATLANTA – Georgia will not grade schools and districts using state test results for the second year in a row, the state Department of Education announced Tuesday, saying federal officials had waived the requirement for the state accountability system. Georgia will not compute its College and Career Ready Performance Index, a numerical system that the governor’s office then uses to assign letter grades to schools and districts. This year, the federal government is requiring Georgia to give the tests, but districts won’t be graded on how students do. AdTest results for schools, districts and groups of students will still be available, said Matt Cardoza, a spokesman for the state Department of Education. The tests given to Georgia high school students normally count for 20% of a student’s grade in Algebra I, U.S. history, biology and American literature and composition.

Biden also signed a second executive order formally establishing the White House Gender Policy Council, which his transition team had announced before he took office. Any effort to rewrite DeVos’ rules would have to go through a federal rulemaking process that can take years to complete. AdRepublicans slammed Biden’s move and defended DeVos’ rules. The scope of cases that colleges must address is also likely to be expanded again under the Biden administration, he said. Biden is starting the process even as DeVos' policy faces ongoing legal challenges.

New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is shown this still image, from New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's media availability, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021, in New York. (New York City Office of the Mayor via AP)NEW YORK – New York City's Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza announced Friday he will step down, citing the coronavirus pandemic's personal toll on his family. Porter is set to take over March 15, ready to “hit the ground running and lead New York City schools to a full recovery,” she said. Some elementary school students returned to in-person schooling in December, but upper-grade classrooms have remained closed except for those serving some special-needs students. “From day one, Carranza challenged white supremacy in education and called out the inequity, bias and segregation in New York City schools.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Amid a debate about whether students should be required to take standardized tests in person as COVID-19 continues to spread, the state Department of Education is giving an additional two weeks for the Florida Standards Assessments and a statewide science test to be administered. “The department will use best efforts to respond to all such requests within five days,” the emergency order says. During Monday’s committee meeting, senators asked Kelly whether the state will meet a federal requirement that 95 percent of Florida students in grades 3-8 sit for math and English-language arts exams. The state assessments that have been given a time extension are subject tests in English-language arts and reading, writing, math and science, which are administered to students in grades 3-10. Corcoran’s emergency order also gives school districts “flexibility for administering tests on nights and weekends,” a spokesman for the education department told The News Service of Florida in an email Monday.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A priority of House Speaker Chris Sprowls that would lead to books being delivered to the homes of struggling elementary school readers got unanimous approval Thursday from a House panel. “In the essence of this bill, we certainly want our children to read on grade-level, we want them to be successful students and adults. But more importantly, we want them to be excited about reading,” Trabulsy said during Thursday’s meeting of the House Early Learning & Elementary Education Subcommittee. AdThe most recent data on English Language Arts assessments, recorded during the 2018-2019 school year, showed 43% of third-grade students were reading below grade level. To choose a distributor for delivering books, Trabulsy said the Department of Education or third-party administrator will publish a request for bids.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In a win for advocates of English-language learners, Florida is allowing students to opt out of taking an annual English proficiency exam that is administered in person. The state Department of Education also is expanding the window of time for K-12 public-school students to take the test, if they choose to do so. Jacob Oliva, the chancellor of Florida’s public school system, announced the changes Thursday in a letter to school district superintendents. But the exam now will be offered through May 28 --- effectively until the end of the school year in most school districts. The majority of our ELLs (English-language learners) in Florida speak Spanish, and the second largest group are Haitian,” López said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Education has signed off on the Duval County and Clay County school districts’ plans for spring reopening. Under the state’s COVID-19 emergency order, school districts have to continue offering in-person classes five days a week. The reopening plans allow the districts in Duval and Clay counties to continue receiving state COVID-19 relief funds. School districts in Nassau, St. Johns and Bradford counties have not had their plans approved yet. Click here for the list of approved plans.

Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis used this week’s Children and Youth Cabinet to lay out the case for a full return to classroom learning. DeSantis says the science supports the move to bring students back to school. “The CDC released data showing that children ages 19 and younger have a 99.997 percent survivability rate,” DeSantis said. When schools were closed in April, Florida’s Child Abuse Hotline saw a 38-percent decline in calls. “She took me home and met my mom and saw the situation," Adams said.

Since coming under federal scrutiny, the 12 schools disclosed a combined $6.5 billion in foreign funding that was previously unreported, the department said. Yale said it failed to submit foreign funding reports for the years 2014 to 2017 but later corrected the omission. It's not unusual for U.S. colleges to accept foreign funding for research projects or exchange programs, but federal reporting requirements have long been treated as an honor system. That began to change last year, however, after a bipartisan report in Congress raised alarms about colleges’ ties with China. In response to that finding, DeVos began ordering broader investigations into universities' foreign funding.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida appellate court has sided with the state in the lawsuit aimed at overturning the requirement for schools to reopen in-class learning. “It was about local control.”The appellate court not only said the teachers union had no standing to bring the suit but also rejected its arguments against the state’s order. And they would have had their funding adjusted the way it would be adjusted under any other normal year if they didn’t offer brick-and-mortar classrooms,” said Andrea Messina, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association. School boards are taking the study with a grain of salt. “We believe the appellate court got it wrong, but we still believe the commissioner believes he can overstep his authority as an appointed bureaucrat and override locally elected school boards, elected by parents and community leaders.

The revised plan applies to students at secondary schools, and it will bring students back for on-campus learning for five days a week in a phased approach. High School students will return to campus Monday through Friday on Sept. 28. A measured, phased return to having all students on campus Monday through Friday will be extremely beneficial in bridging to larger attendance in school facilities.There was never a hybrid learning model for elementary students. Here are the key dates listed by DCPS:Sept. 14 Grade six students return to campus Monday through Friday (all other secondary students remain on hybrid)Sept. 21 Grade seven and eight students return to campus Monday through Friday (all high school students remain on hybrid)Sept. 28 High School students return to campus Monday through Friday. The change to the hybrid attendance structure has no impact on students who chose either Duval HomeRoom or Duval Virtual Instruction Academy, the district said.

State education leaders are working to make sure mental healthcare is accessible to students and families this upcoming school year. This week, the states Department of Education and the Department of Children and Families presented a framework for how school districts can develop their mental health plans. Mental health is more important than ever as we battle a pandemic, and that care needs to be accessible to everyone. It also includes $5.5 million for youth mental health first aid. State law required that school districts should submit their approved plans to the education commissioner by Aug. 1.

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robert Redfield, speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing at the Department of Education July 8, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)WASHINGTON House Democrats are criticizing the White House for blocking the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from testifying at a public hearing on safely reopening the nation's schools. Democrats said they invited CDC officials, including director Robert Redfield, to testify at a hearing next Thursday but were rebuffed by the White House. A committee spokesperson said the panel asked for any CDC official to testify but was rejected. A White House spokesperson said Friday that Dr. Redfield has testified on Capitol Hill at least four times over the last three months.

ATLANTA Public school students in Georgia are likely to see fewer state standardized tests in coming years. The measure would cut four of eight exams in high school and one exam in middle school. The federal government requires high school students take at least one test in math, science and English/language arts. The bill keeps the requirement that end-of-course exams be factored into a high school students final grade. Georgia administered no standardized tests this spring after schools were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Woods and Kemp are asking the federal government to release Georgia from federal testing requirements again next year.

The 25-member task force will convene three times in the coming weeks. The groups goal is to include the voices of teachers, staff members and school administrators in the reopening conversation. The task force will focus on a wide variety of reopening topics including physical and mental health, student success, working conditions and financial investment in schools. The Department of Education has been in constant communication with educators, superintendents, parents and education stakeholders throughout the entirety of the COVID-19 crisis. The Governors Office and Department of Education said they both will consider the recommendations FEAs task forces produce.

Following that move, News4Jax asked other school districts in Northeast Florida whether theyre considering offering personal protective equipment before students and staff potentially return to their campuses this fall. A spokesperson for the Clay County School District said that school leaders are engaging in a discussion about whether or not to purchase and provide PPE, but noted that no decision has yet been made. The question of providing masks to personnel is also underway in the Nassau County School District. St. Johns County School Districts spokeswoman Christina Langston said leaders are talking about how the district will handle personal protective equipment. News4Jax also contacted Putnam and Bradford Counties school districts for information but did not immediately receive a reply Wednesday.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - An administrative law judge Monday backed Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran in a dispute about a contract to help monitor social media for threats of violence and other problems in school districts. The department negotiation team this spring recommended awarding the contract to Abacode, which planned to subcontract with ZeroFox. But Corcoran on April 15 issued a decision that said he was awarding the contract to NTT Data, concluding that it "provides the best value for the state," according to Creasy's recommended order. Creasy wrote that Corcoran's "decision memorandum articulates reasonable permissible motives" for the department awarding the contract to NTT Data. Under administrative law, Creasy's recommended order will have to go back to the Department of Education for final action.

"It is America who owes our heroes an extreme debt of gratitude," Trump said, speaking at an American Veterans conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Current law says that the government will discharge the student debt for any borrower who is "permanently and totally" disabled, but they had to submit an application. They found that just 9,000 of 42,000 eligible veterans had applied for the loan discharge as of April 2018. Since then, more than $650 million in student loan relief was granted to more than 22,000 eligible veterans, the Department of Education said in a statement Wednesday. "You used to have to wait weeks and weeks and weeks and you don't wait anymore."

An interim statewide grand jury report found many schools were not following state law that requires an armed presence in every school, but 36 counties now participate in the Guardian Program. School guardians can either be school employees volunteering to serve as armed security in addition to other job duties or personnel hired for the specific purpose of serving as school guardians. State funds are granted to participating sheriffs offices to cover the screening and training costs for each guardian. We will not have any teachers with weapons on them on our campuses, Gadsden County Schools Superintendent Roger Milton said. Gadsden County guardians trained for a total of 196 hours during the summer, which is 52 hours above what is required under state law.

The schools affected by the plan include Lake Forest Elementary and Northwestern Middle School. The districts plan to convert Northwestern into an elementary school is contingent upon whether voters approve a half-cent sales tax to fund the districts master facilities plan. He does not agree with Greenes decision to close Northwestern Middle. Now-shuttered Lake Forest Elementary, which is less than 2 miles away from Northwestern, received an F grade in 2018-19. Greene: "My plan is that Northwestern will close at the end of the 2019-20 school year."