https://kidsomnia.com/Kidsomnia is an independent magazine for American parents that reads federal education data, new laws and studies, then explains what they mean for your kid.en-usMon, 02 Nov 2026 21:43:06 +0000 https://kidsomnia.com/federal-tax-credit-scholarship/https://kidsomnia.com/federal-tax-credit-scholarship/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 11:30:00 -0500Kate SmithA family of four can earn $192,000 in McAllen or $616,500 in San Jose and still clear the income line. That's the easy yes. Now find the other five. The $1,700 credit goes to whoever donates, so the money can reach your family only as a scholarship from a charity, and only after six separate yeses. That scholarship takes a state that joined, a listed charity that serves your child, a household under the income line, and money left when your application comes up. No federal form gets your child a scholarship. The donor has the easy job. A gift of $1,700 to a qualifying charity takes $1,700 off… https://kidsomnia.com/can-a-school-screen-my-childs-mental-health-without-consent/https://kidsomnia.com/can-a-school-screen-my-childs-mental-health-without-consent/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 11:00:00 -0500Kate SmithWashington wants ink, Illinois law names an opt-out, and one signature squares a district with both. California says the federal letter isn't law. The federal agency that enforces student privacy law says a school cannot screen your child's mental health without your signature, and that an opt-out form is no substitute. The red pen landed on Illinois. On October 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office gave Illinois until November 13, 2026, to revise the guidance it issued to districts in August 2026. Every state got the warning. On October 5, 2026, the… https://kidsomnia.com/which-states-recovered-from-pandemic-learning-loss/https://kidsomnia.com/which-states-recovered-from-pandemic-learning-loss/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 10:30:00 -0500Kate SmithNo state is back on all four tests, kids at the bottom recovered only in those three, and the top-to-bottom gap grew in every state and DC, honor roll included. Only Louisiana and Alabama, and Hawaii by a hair, are back at their 2019 level on the Nation's Report Card, and no state is back on all four of its tests. Mississippi gets honorable mention, still below 2019 and clearly ahead of the nation. Thirty-nine other states and the District of Columbia fell about as far as the nation did, and seven states fell clearly further, which earns them the back row of summer school. No state grades its… https://kidsomnia.com/where-did-public-school-students-go/https://kidsomnia.com/where-did-public-school-students-go/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 10:00:00 -0500Kate SmithEveryone has a villain. The roll shows three-quarters of the loss in one fall, and kindergarten classes through fall 2030 already born and already smaller. Of the students public schools lost between 2019 and 2024, about 630,000 reflect a smaller school-age population, about 750,000 match gains at private schools and in homeschooling, and about 130,000 are absent with no note. That last group is the leftover the federal files cannot place, too small to tell from zero. The three groups add up to 1.51 million, more than the 1.42 million on the federal count, because California's transitional… https://kidsomnia.com/is-online-school-the-same-as-homeschooling/https://kidsomnia.com/is-online-school-the-same-as-homeschooling/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 09:30:00 -0500Kate SmithThe ad says school. The form you signed decides who pays, who tests, who owes special education and who signs the diploma. Your child's online school is a homeschool in law if the enrollment form you signed names no school, and then the person answering for the schooling is you. A public virtual school is a public school that happens to run on a laptop, and a homeschool leaves the parent in charge, whatever software is open. The two can be legal opposites on the same kitchen table. The difference sits quiet, like a bad report card in a backpack, until something goes wrong with the special… https://kidsomnia.com/what-do-top-math-countries-do-differently/https://kidsomnia.com/what-do-top-math-countries-do-differently/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 09:00:00 -0500Kate SmithThen England wrecks the easy story, climbing from 34 points behind America at grade 4 in 1995 to 35 ahead in 2023 on a fraction of East Asia's measured tutoring. The world's strongest math systems schedule about as much classroom math as American schools report, or less. What several of them add is an exam that decides a child's next school years before college, and a second shift of lessons that parents pay for after school. We read their laws, timetables and spending surveys and set them beside TIMSS 2023, the international test given at grades 4 and 8. The first five rows are the top five… https://kidsomnia.com/what-can-a-529-plan-pay-for-in-k-12/https://kidsomnia.com/what-can-a-529-plan-pay-for-in-k-12/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 08:30:00 -0500Kate SmithLunch money, on $10,000 held a year. Ten of the 25 states we could pin down leave K-12 out of their own break, and the clawback can top the federal saving. Congress doubled what a 529 plan can spend on K-12, to $20,000 per child in 2026, and the federal tax it saves on money spent early stayed small, about $110 on $10,000 held one year at an assumed 5 percent. The money can now pay tuition, books, test fees and a qualified tutor. $110 Federal tax saved on $10,000 held for one year, at 5% growth, which is our assumption, in the 22% bracket. Source: our calculation from 26 U.S.C. 529, 2024… https://kidsomnia.com/free-national-park-pass-for-fourth-graders/https://kidsomnia.com/free-national-park-pass-for-fourth-graders/Mon, 02 Nov 2026 08:00:00 -0500Kate SmithThe whole car rides in on one printed sheet, the savings stop at $80, and the paper dies on August 31, 2027. Your fourth grader's free pass saves you whatever you would have paid at federal park gates, up to $80, because $80 buys a U.S. family the annual pass that does the same job. The form asks for a zip code and a printer, because a screenshot of the paper opens nothing. Any fourth grader living in the United States or its territories can get one, and so can a homeschooled 10-year-old. The pass in force covers national parks, national forests and other federal lands and waters, and it…