Sweden is set to ban mobile phones in schools from the next academic year as part of a broad reversal on the use of screens in classrooms. The Swedish center-right coalition government is prioritizing more reading time and less screen time, particularly among preschool students, by favoring books and other traditional learning tools. Sweden’s plans are part of a broader shift and an international digital reckoning against smartphones. Countries have outfitted campuses with laptops, tablets and learning apps for students. But classrooms have become saturated with screens and a growing number of parents, teachers and school districts are saying it is time to scale back.

“Lucha Libro,” a high-energy, action-packed story time is bringing live wrestling matches to libraries across the U.S. to promote literacy. Founded in 2024, “Lucha Libro” plays off the name of the popular Mexican-inspired sport of Lucha Libre. Libro means book in Spanish. Over 40 events are planned this year at libraries from California to New Jersey.

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President Donald Trump's administration put dozens of college campuses under investigation last year and cut federal funding unless they came in line with his Republican agenda. Now federal officials are taking a wider approach. As new investigations have been dialed back, multiple agencies are rewriting federal rules governing all of higher education. The new tactic goes after many of the same targets, including diversity, equity and inclusion; transgender athletes; and antisemitism. New rules under consideration would require colleges to end DEI policies and ensure they have “intellectual diversity,” a veiled call for more conservative voices. Some people in higher education welcome the approach, saying it invites conversations that didn't happen during last year's investigations.

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Ohio State University has agreed to pay approximately $100 million to settle hundreds of legal claims from former student athletes who said they were sexually abused decades ago by a doctor at the university. The school has fought lawsuits in federal court since 2018 brought by former student athletes against the university over its failure to stop abuse by Dr. Richard Strauss. Strauss worked at the school from 1978 to 1998 and died in 2005. The school’s Board of Trustees approved a preliminary agreement with all but one of the 280 survivors with claims still involved in pending litigation.

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Under Trump administration, efforts to address deep-rooted inequities for students of color are being cast as discriminatory against white students. Civil rights lawyers describe the Republican administration’s actions as an inversion of legal history. The federal government long enforced civil rights laws with an eye toward remedying historic, systemic discrimination against Black people and other people of color. Programs that withstood legal scrutiny are now quick to be deemed “illegal” examples of diversity, equity and inclusion by the White House. Schools that fail to comply have faced threats to their funding and in some cases have lost federal grants.

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A residential treatment center in Missouri advertises to adoptive parents that it can help heal struggling children. Calo Programs is part of the so-called troubled teen industry that has been quietly institutionalizing adopted children at extraordinarily high rates. How Calo makes money and what happens to kids there offers a window into a larger phenomenon. Some youth treatment centers depend on government funding despite limited oversight. Calo is facing more than a dozen lawsuits and parents describe a chaotic environment that left their children more traumatized than before. Calo denies wrongdoing and says its treatment has helped many children.