School (in)Security Newsletter: Kamala’s Student Discipline Fail; School Ransomware Costs Surge to $3.75M

Crazy few weeks in American politics, huh?

With Joe Biden out and Kamala Harris in, the Democrats’ last-minute, presumptive presidential nominee will once again have to reckon with her controversial legacy combatting student absences — and their nationwide surge since the pandemic — as she faces off against Donald Trump between now and November.

Elected first as San Francisco district attorney and then California attorney general, Harris has offered her tough-on-crime bonafides on the newly forged campaign trail as an alternative to Trump, a convicted felon. Yet just five years ago, her signature education issue as California’s top cop — as she sometimes called herself — was seen as a liability .

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter

By portraying a crackdown on student truancy as a way to avert future criminals, Harris championed a California truancy law that set into motion a hold-parents-accountable approach that leveraged fines and jail time for chronic absences that are often the result of barriers including health problems and homelessness.

Parents, as a result, wound up behind bars. Such an outcome, Harris said during her failed presidential bid in 2019, was an “unintended consequence.”

Want more info on Harris’s anti-truancy crusade? EdSource has you covered.

• Fast forward to 2024: A coalition of education nonprofits launched a bipartisan effort last week to slash chronic absenteeism in half over the next five years, with one expert noting that punitive measures “do nothing but burden families.”

In the news

A Big Tech reckoning on child safety? Senate Democrats renewed efforts this week to pass the most sweeping tech industry regulations in decades, with the goal of formalizing new online privacy protections for children before their August recess. Taken together, two bills would ban companies from feeding content and targeted ads to teens with algorithms and hold tech firms to a “duty of care” to ensure their products don’t harm kids. | The Associated Press

The White House isn’t waiting for Congress to act. In new guidance, a Biden administration task force outlines strategies parents can use to ensure their children are using the internet safely. | Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force

From AllHere to where? The Los Angeles superintendent plans to appoint a task force to examine what went wrong — and how to move forward — after a company that built its $6 million AI chatbot went kaput. The task force will look into allegations that the company misused L.A. students’ data before it collapsed under financial strain. The allegations were first reported by yours truly. | Los Angeles Times

• Superintendent Alberto Carvalho remains committed to the supposed AI revolution in education, but Los Angeles parents are urging the rhetorically high-flying schools chief to pump the brakes and focus on pressing issues including a literacy crisis and student homelessness epidemic. | LA School Report

New York educators must alert parents at least a week in advance of lockdown drills under new regulations that require the safety routines be conducted in “a trauma-informed, developmentally and age-appropriate manner.” | Chalkbeat

Ending ‘forced disclosure’: A new California law prohibits school districts from imposing rules that require teachers to notify parents when a student changes their gender identity. | Los Angeles Times

A Justice Department lawsuit alleges that employees at Southwest Key, a nonprofit that serves as the largest operator of shelters for unaccompanied migrant children, repeatedly subjected minors under its care to sexual abuse and harassment. | The New York Times

No qualified immunity: Three Honolulu police officers can be sued on excessive force allegations that stem from a 2020 incident in which the cops handcuffed and arrested a 10-year-old girl at her elementary school. “No reasonable official could have believed that the level of force employed against” the student was necessary, a panel of federal judges wrote in their decision. | Honolulu Civil Beat

A ransomware attack targeting the Pueblo, Colorado, school district led to a massive data breach that exposed the sensitive information of students over a 15-year period. | KKTV

The high cost of cyber crime: About two-thirds of K-12 schools were hit by ransomware in the last year, according to a new report by the cybersecurity company Sophos. That’s a significant decrease from 2023, when 80% were targets. But recovery costs have surged over the last year — from $1.6 million to more than $3.75 million. | Sophos

ICYMI @THE74

• Advocates Fear Minnesota Students Will Again Be Subject to Restraint Used on George Floyd

• Youngkin Signs Order on ‘Cell Phone-Free Education’ in Virginia Public Schools

• Parents of Children with Special Needs Charge LAUSD Limiting Services, Holding Back Information

Emotional Support

I’m pleased to announce that Mika has joined the School (in)Security team after an exhaustive, nationwide search. I’m told that Mika — who was hired alongside The 74’s new editor-in-chief Nicole Ridgway — offers extensive experience and “sonar dish” ears that detect news leads with unrivaled precision.

( Send Mika a news tip )