New Year’s News

Happy 2024! Our New Year’s baby came in the form of a newly-created LLC—Plum Words—which means EdInk is now operating under a business officially recognized by the State of Ohio. Confetti, please! After a lot of thought—and a lot of advice from peers and mentors in the Google News Initiative Pre-Launch Lab—this felt like the best route for our small but mighty project to begin. The name honors my late grandma, Marion Baird, whose maiden name was Plum, and who was a history teacher before she married.

We spent the winter break working on the business side of EdInk, including plans for our first original feature, coming next month. We are so excited to be up and running! And though it's early in the year, there’s already a whole lot of education news worth mentioning. Here’s your first roundup of 2024.

☑️ Actions to take 

⛺ Sign up for summer camp. Now that it’s January, you can stop worrying about the holidays and start worrying about whether you’ve already missed the signup for the summer camp your kid most wants to attend. Apparently enrollment starts early (Columbus Dispatch). 

🏫 Enroll in school for fall. Speaking of enrollment, it’s time to start thinking about next school year; CCS has already opened registration for 2024-25. Application deadlines are here, and you can learn more about your options at virtual school choice fairs, happening at 6:30 tonight for district middle and high schools, and February 13 for elementary schools (Columbus City Schools).   

✍️ Fill out the FAFSA. High school seniors and college students depend on the Free Application for Federal Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to help cover higher education costs. But recent updates intended to simplify the process delayed access to the form—normally available in October—until December 31. Even as it came online, a New York Times columnist found the rollout to be anything but smooth. The Enquirer has advice on filling out the form, and it sounds like families might need it this year (New York Times & Cincinnati Enquirer). 

🧠 News to know 

🇺🇸 Politics - Ohio Governor Mike DeWine ended 2023 with a veto of a bill that would have banned gender- affirming care for transgender youth, and prohibited transgender girls from joining middle and high school women’s sports teams. Though DeWine noted in his remarks that, “This bill would impact a very small number of Ohio children,” the Ohio House nevertheless decided to return early from their winter recess yesterday in order to override the veto. The Ohio Senate also needs to override the veto for the bill to be enacted. No vote is currently scheduled (Ohio Capital Journal & 10 WBNS).  

🏫 School Board - The CCS Board of Education held its first meeting of 2024 Tuesday night, swearing in newly elected (or reelected) members: Jennifer Adair, Sarah Ingles, Tina Pierce, and Brandon Simmons. Members elected Christina Vera as the new board president and Tina Pierce as vice president (Columbus Dispatch).

📱 Social media - Ohio law was set to change January 15 and require kids under 16 to have parental consent to sign up for all social media sites, under the new Parental Notification by Social Media Operators Act. The law has since been put on hold by a judge. No word yet on whether this would stop kids from accessing questionable sites during the day on their school Chromebooks, but one can hope (Dayton Daily News & NBC4i).

🎉 Community partnerships - Finally, some good news: Two schools in Linden will receive $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Education over the next five years for the One Linden Schools Initiative to create community schools at Hamilton STEM and Windsor STEM Academy. These schools will provide health and social services for neighborhood families, along with education for students (Ohio State News). 

🎨 And if you’re looking for something creative for your kids to do on MLK Day or President’s Day, check out these free classes at Glass Axis. 

❓ Input wanted

✏️ We are considering creating a quick guide to Columbus City Schools enrollment and transfers now that the process has opened. Send us a message with your questions and we’ll work to get them answered.

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