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• District to rely on technology to reduce bullying [HTML 2,208kb]
  According to the Miami Herald, Broward County is the first Florida school district to unveil a new anti-bullying policy before the year’s end, as required by law.
  
• Judge upholds invalidation of AP exam results in Calif. cell phone cheating incident [HTML 2,798kb]
  An Orange County judge has denied a request from a student group to block the national administrator of the Advanced Placement exams from retesting 375 Mission Viejo high school students, the Orange County Register reports.
  
• Mississippi districts restrict electronic communications with students [HTML 4,453kb]
  The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson reports that school districts across the state are telling students not to text their teachers or communicate with them on social networking sites.
  
• Missouri enacts cyberbullying law [HTML 1,424kb]
  Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt has signed a bill prohibiting cyberbullying. The bill revises the state’s harassment laws by eliminating the requirement that the communication be written or over the telephone.
  
• Third Circuit to consider case involving fake MySpace profile of principal [HTML 5,499kb]
  The Sharon, Pennsylvania, Herald reports on an appeal pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit of a Pennsylvania federal district court decision in a lawsuit that calls into question the limits of school officials’ authority to discipline students for off-campus speech.
  
• Teachers’ union to file complaint over videotape surveillance of classroom [HTML 2,139kb]
  According to the Associated Press, the Everett teachers union says it will file a unfair-labor practice complaint against the Everett School District (ESD) with the Washington Public Employees Relations Commission over the ESD’s videotape surveillance of a high-school teacher's classroom for about a month last year.
  
• Wisconsin enacts law to keep cyber schools open [HTML 1,348kb]
  Gov. Jim Doyle has signed a bill that ensures virtual schools qualify for state aid but caps enrollment and subjects those schools to a program audit. The new law guarantees the online schools can open this fall.
  
• Court dismisses lawsuit over anti-plagiarism software [HTML 2,215kb]
  Four Virginia and Arizona high school students hoping to score a legal hit against Turnitin have been rebuffed: a federal district court judge in Virginia recently threw out their lawsuit, ruling that the plagiarism detection company does not violate the copyright of students, even though it stores digital copies of their essays to check future submissions for academic dishonesty.
  
• Gossip website raises concerns at Washington high school [HTML 3,397kb]
  A website that invites people to anonymously post gossip about each other is creating problems at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.
  
• Fourth Circuit to rule whether linking to a website opens a forum [HTML 6,167kb]
  Is a local school district that includes links on its Web site to promote positions it agrees with also obligated to link to Web sites that offer an opposing view?
  
• More states drafting legislation to combat cyberbullying [HTML 4,308kb]
  The suicides of a 13-year-old Missouri girl who was the victim of an Internet hoax and a 13-year-old boy in Vermont bullied online by peers who spread rumors that he was gay—along with complaints from teenagers, parents and educators—are spurring an increasing number of state lawmakers across the USA to draft legislation giving schools more power to do something about bullying over the Internet.
  
• Massachusetts e-mail case offers lessons for school personnel [HTML 3,991kb]
  The swirl of controversy in Arlington last year over e-mails between two school employees and their battle with the superintendent offers a valuable lesson to public employees everywhere, some now say, on one important way to avoid trouble in today's workplace: Consider all e-mails public records.
  
• New Jersey lawsuit highlights the difficulties in dealing with Internet-savvy kids and harassment [HTML 2,055kb]
  A New Jersey lawsuit highlights the growing difficulties that school districts face in dealing with Internet-savvy kids and harassment that may extend beyond the classroom, experts say.
  
• ACLU asks Colorado’s Boulder Valley School District to end cell phone searches [HTML 5,084kb]
  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sent a letter to Colorado’s Boulder Valley School District asking it to stop administrators from conducting cell phone searches.
  
• Student barred from running for class office [HTML 3,900kb]
  A Burlington, Connecticut high school student who was barred from running for class office after she called administrators a derogatory term on an Internet blog is accusing top school officials of violating her free speech rights.
  
• Students file lawsuit against Turnitin.com [HTML 4,283kb]
  Two students at McLean High School in Mclean, Virginia and two high school students in Arizona have filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court in Virginia against Turnitin.com, a company that many school districts and schools have hired to help them combat plagiarism in the Internet age.
  
• Schools target digital media players as potential cheating devices [HTML 2,254kb]
  Schools across the country are targeting digital media players, such as iPods and Zunes, as a potential cheating device.
  
• School officials search cellphones of students suspected of cheating [HTML 3,304kb]
  School officials at some Denver, Colorado area high schools have been searching students’ cellphone text messages when they suspect the students of cheating, drug abuse, or other school violations.
  
• States consider crackdowns on cyberbullying [HTML 3,617kb]
  States from Oregon to Rhode Island are considering crackdowns to curb or outlaw cyberbullying, the behavior that involves students who taunt or insult peers on social Web sites like MySpace.com or via instant messages.
  
• School board bans taping in class after student records teacher stating his religious views [HTML 2,961kb]
  After a New Jersey high school teacher was recorded telling students they belonged in hell if they did not accept Jesus as their savior, the school board has banned taping in class without an instructor's permission and added training for teachers on the legal requirements on separation of church and state.
  
• Students in Edwardsville, Illinois have been expelled for participating in an on-campus brawl [HTML 2,780kb]
  A dozen students in Edwardsville, Illinois have been expelled from school for participating in an on-campus brawl over who got invited to a party, a fight school officials said was arranged on the social-networking hub MySpace.com.
  
• Survey of T+L attendees suggests most districts lack policies addressing the use of social-networking sites by students [HTML 5,427kb]
  Only 35 percent of the educators, administrators, and school board members who registered for the National School Boards Association's (NSBA) recent 2006 Technology + Learning (T+L) Conference and responded to an e-mail survey said their districts had policies to address the use of social-networking sites by their students.
  
• Assistant principal files civil suit against students over fake myspace profile [HTML 4,312kb]
  Anna Draker, an assistant principal at Clark High School in Bexar County, Texas, has filed a civil lawsuit against two students and their parents, claiming defamation, libel, negligence and negligent supervision over a page on the popular website MySpace.com.
  
• Senate committee approves bill that will improve the E-Rate program [HTML 2,560kb]
  The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation recently approved a comprehensive telecommunications bill that will improve the E-Rate program, which provides $2.5 billion a year to school and libraries.
  
• Parents sue to overturn ban on students carrying cell phones in schools [HTML 3,114kb]
  Eight parents and an organization of parent association leaders have sued the City of New York's Department of Education (NYED) to overturn a ban on students carrying cell phones in public schools.
  
• Michigan schools ban iPods and other electronic devices [HTML 2,876kb]
  Citing disruption to the school setting and safety, schools in Comstock Park and Grand Rapids, Michigan have enacted policies to forbid iPods and other electronic devices in school.
  
• Internet blog sites receive increased scrutiny from school administrators in the Washington, D.C., area [HTML 3,738kb]
  Internet blog sites, such as MySpace.com and Xanga.com, are receiving increased scrutiny from middle and high school administrators in the Washington, D.C., area.
  
• FCC issues notice of proposed rulemaking regarding E-Rate [HTML 2,984kb]
  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding the E-Rate program.
  
• NCLB might be focusing the market for software producers, instead of closing the achievement gap [HTML 3,441kb]
  Thanks to billions of dollars of funding allocated to underachieving schools, the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) might be focusing the market for software producers, instead of closing the achievement gap between poor and wealthy school districts.
  
• Schools that participate in the federal E-Rate program must obtain an FCC Registration Number by November 1, 2004 [HTML 924kb]
  The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is reminding all schools, school districts, and school administrative facilities that participate in the federal E-Rate program that they must obtain an FCC Registration Number from the Federal Communications Commission by November 1, 2004.
  
• FCC says federal funding to wire schools and libraries to the Internet should start flowing again soon [HTML 2,162kb]
  Federal funding to wire schools and libraries to the Internet should start flowing again soon, U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Michael Powell said last week, a day after congressional lawmakers attacked the agency for stopping funds.
  
• School districts nationwide are rescinding policies prohibiting cell phones in school [HTML 1,671kb]
  School districts nationwide increasingly are rescinding their policies prohibiting cell phones in school.
  
• NEC pleads guilty to fraud in connection to E-Rate program [HTML 2,772kb]
  NEC Business Network Solutions has agreed to plead guilty in federal district court in San Francisco (CA) to federal wire fraud and antitrust violations and to pay fines and restitution in the amount of $20.7 million in connection with a federal investigation into waste and corruption in the E-Rate program.
  
• FBI’s Cyber Division served a sealed warrant on Deer Valley School District (AZ) as part of online piracy crackdown [HTML 1,525kb]
  As part of a national crackdown on pirated music CDs and movies, agents from the FBI’s Cyber Division served a sealed warrant on Deer Valley School District (AZ) and interviewed about 20 employees at the district’s Administration Services Center.
  
• FCC proposes changes to E-Rate program [HTML 3,224kb]
  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued an order and notice of proposed rulemaking that makes and proposes changes to the E-Rate program.
  
• Parents file class action suit claiming that wireless network is harmful to their children [HTML 3,996kb]
  A group of parents in Oak Park Elementary School District 97 (Ill.) has filed a class action lawsuit in state court claiming that the wireless network installed by the district is harmful to their children.
  
• Education Minnesota filed suit to shut down a for-profit online education program [HTML 2,949kb]
  Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, has filed suit against the state’s department of education to shut down a for-profit online education program certified to receive public funding.
  
• School districts should take note of recent copyright infringement lawsuits filed by the RIAA [HTML 3,733kb]
  School districts should take note of recent copyright infringement lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a trade group representing the five major recording companies.
  
• FCC makes effort to eliminate waste and fraud in the E-rate program [HTML 4,347kb]
  In an effort to eliminate waste and fraud in the “E-rate program,” which provides discounts for connecting schools to the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has voted to impose stiffer penalties on companies, school districts, and individuals who engage in misconduct or are convicted of criminal violations.