crisis response

Education officials plan to vote on what critics are calling a 'doomsday' budget, a proposal that would force city schools to open next fall without resources like assistant principals, guidance counselors, athletics, and music programs.

More than 40 percent of New Jersey's students saw traditional holidays, such as Martin Luther King Day or President's Day, cancelled this year. A quarter had a shortened spring break. And 40 percent will remain in classrooms longer this month, with lessons stretching well into June and some graduations pushed back later into the month, all thanks to Superstorm Sandy.

The deadly tornado that swept through Moore, Okla., and flattened or severely damaged two elementary schools last week, hit especially close to home for the Lake Local School District.

Although school is back in session at Buena Vista schools, a state takeover is still on the table for the Saginaw County district.

Seven school children were among the dead in the Oklahoma City area after a mile-wide tornado with up to 200 mph winds destroyed blocks of homes, businesses and two elementary schools.

A reward was being offered as the investigation continued Thursday into racist graffiti targeting African-American students at Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, Calif.

Police officers showed up at Columbus high schools on Thursday morning and into the afternoon to seize records the state auditor is seeking in his investigation of the district’s handling of data.

Words like fine and routine punctuated descriptions of a day that was anything but at Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester, where two seats sat empty on the first day of classes since last week’s fatal bombings.

Arson is suspected in a three-alarm fire that heavily damaged the Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne overnight and may force it to remain closed for the rest of the academic year, authorities said. The blaze followed a series of bomb threats at the school that stopped about two weeks ago, said Fire Chief Daniel Kortan.