February 22, 2026

Madelyn Whitt (left) and Quani'e Lanier read in the school library at the Academy @ Shawnee, a magnet middle and high school in Louisville, Kentucky. With cellphones banned at their school, students find other ways to pass time.
Lydia Schweickart for NPR

Hello hello, old friends!

Jonaki Mehta here – the education team’s (kinda) newest reporter! I am SO thrilled to be back, and this time, for the long haul.

You might remember me from my work with the team last year, when I helped cover the monumental changes to the federal education system. I also had the chance to visit Louisiana, where students were making amazing gains in reading, and Maine, where federal cuts to public education were threatening things like mental health access in rural schools, and Oklahoma, where we met two students with Down syndrome who were having classroom experiences that were a world apart.

Now, I’m back with a very special focus: I’ll primarily be reporting on, and telling stories about, students with learning differences.

This is a historic time for students with disabilities. Special education in this country recently turned 50, and now, as the Trump administration continues to dismantle the Department of Education, many are concerned that protections for disabled students may go along with it.

There’s a lot of positive stuff happening, too: growing awareness around learning differences, technology that is improving the lives of disabled people, and advocacy and activism that is changing narratives around these students. I plan to tell stories about the people – students, teachers, parents – whose lives will be affected by all these changes.

And, while I’ll still be helping the team cover the other major stories in education, I’m super excited to dive into this world. If you have tips or ideas, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at jmehta@npr.org or @jonakimehta.602 on Signal.

— Jonaki Mehta, Correspondent, NPR Ed.

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In other news...

1. What worked and what didn't with a cellphone ban at a Kentucky school. How do you get teenagers to put their phones away for hours at a time? That is the question many schools are trying to solve as bans on cellphones sweep the U.S. — more than 30 states so far now restrict their use during the school day. One of those states is Kentucky, where all public school classes must now be cellphone free. Read the story.

— Sequoia Carrillo, Education Reporter, NPR

2. Minnesota Republicans defend their focus on fraud despite the ICE surge that followed. What followed claims of fraud in Minnesota's child care programs was a weeks-long federal immigration enforcement surge that led to upheaval in and around Minneapolis, thousands of arrests and the deaths of two U.S. citizens. Read the story.

— Dana Ferguson, News Reporter, NPR

3. A report finds children with mental health diagnoses are often incarcerated instead of getting treatment. A new report from Congress has raised the alarm about children with mental health conditions being held in juvenile detention, rather than getting treatment. Read the story.

— Martin Kaste, National Correspondent, NPR

And here's something to make you smile...

8 creative ways to build your village, according to our listeners.

How did you build your village? NPR’s Life Kit asked this question in a January newsletter, inspired by an interview with Priya Parker on how to create community.

The key is to start imagining the community you might want to live in and then take steps to make that a reality, says Parker, a conflict resolution facilitator and the author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters.

Many of Life Kit’s readers have done just that, finding creative ways to make lasting connections where they live.

One person said he'd gotten closer to his neighbors by hosting a weekly coffee date. Another strengthened her network of mom friends by organizing a night out. One man grew a garden in his front lawn just to have something to talk about with passersby.
Here's a sampling of village-building activities from Life Kit’s readers.

As always, thank you for reading and listening!

— The NPR Education Team

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