A new, free app lets people share positive COVID-19 status and allows users to know within 24 hours if they have come in contact with another app user who tested positive.

The money will go toward critical expenses, including technology to support remote learning, summer and after-school programs, mental health services, support for students with special needs, sanitizing buildings and planning for long-term closures.

Some Shelby County Schools educators recorded their lessons from home facing a computer screen, while others recorded from someone else’s classroom facing a TV camera. At Middle College High School, one classroom has been transformed into a makeshift studio.

On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, SCS board member Kevin Woods says Shelby County Schools face a possible $130 million hole in its budget from the loss of sales tax revenue.

Lawmakers directed the policy board to revise graduation rules after the coronavirus shuttered schools. The decision will affect an estimated 71,433 students in the Class of 2020 as Tennessee works to blunt the fallout of COVID-19 on school communities.

Our forced experiment in not-really-home-schooling is likely to accelerate educational inequalities. My kids have a fridge full of food, reliable internet and two still-employed parents at home. Many of their fellow public school students do not have all of these things. Too many may not have any of them.

The meeting behind (virtual) closed doors appears to violate a state statute governing how public business should be conducted, according to a letter sent to the Shelby County Schools district from a lawyer representing Chalkbeat.

Shelby County Schools board member Kevin Woods has changed his mind about not seeking another term.

Even as the new education voucher program is mired in a court battle and public schools may lose more funding if the coronavirus pandemic causes a recession, the state education department is accepting applications through April 29 via an online site. 

Dozens of students are hunkered down in deserted residence halls here, socializing the same way they are going to class – entirely online.

YMCA is running 62 meal-distribution sites across Shelby County from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday. 

YMCA of Memphis & Mid-South has stepped in to make sure students who were relying on Shelby County Schools for meals next week can be fed. Shelby County Schools announced Friday it was suspending its program after a nutrition services employee tested positive for COVID-19.

So far, the Shelby County Schools district only has 30,000 to 40,000 take-home devices for 95,000 students. Students living in poverty are less likely to have a computer at home, Ray said.

Shelby County Schools will begin distributing meals to students who need them Monday, March 23. The program will start with lunch but could be extended to breakfast depending on response.

The proposal aims to lift the burden of testing and other state mandates from public schools disrupted by the ongoing spread of COVID-19, as well as deadly twisters that shredded parts of Middle Tennessee this month.

Six years ago, two programs were ranked, Rudd says.

The founder of the charter school company operating Frayser's ASD School, MLK Prep, and County Commissioner Michael Whaley talked about the Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris' proposal for a new high school in Frayser on "Behind The Headlines."

For now, TNReady testing is on for grades 3-11. It’s scheduled to start as soon as April 13, though school districts have some leeway to decide exactly when.

Tennessee's Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn appeared before the Senate Education Committee for a second straight week, where she was grilled about decisions last year involving the state textbook commission. 

The governor set aside $68 million in next year’s proposed budget to overhaul reading instruction. 

“We were told there was going to be some thorough cleaning,” said Jake Pritchard, a fourth-grade teacher at Treadwell Elementary. “That does not appear to have happened.” 

Lori Gilbert, the president of Treadwell Elementary’s parent group, said some Spanish-speaking parents did not get the district’s robocall about a quarantined employee in Spanish until after school started.

A new Frayser high school could determine the fate of two longtime neighborhood schools, while also rebuilding the neighborhood's optimism. 

Chancellor Anne C. Martin indicated that she likely will allow three pro-voucher groups representing parents from Memphis and Nashville to become part of the case. 

Chris Fay became principal in 2009, the first non-Brother to lead CBHS, and has been working at the high school since 2003.