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On September 12 The New York Times* reported that the detention of migrant children had skyrocketed to highest-ever levels.  At 90% capacity, shelters like Casa Padre in Brownsville, Texas, are straining to meet the legal requirements for detained youth, including those surrounding education. Any child living in the US, regardless of immigration status, is legally required to attend school. For the children still in detention centers, Southwest Key*--an immigration non-profit--has partnered with Brownsville Independent School District to bring teachers into their centers until sponsors—usually family members—have been identified for each detained child. But the children who have already been released to sponsors and who will start their local public schools, a different set of challenges lie ahead.  

Communities In Schools of Troup County, Georgia, alum Fredrick Bailey is the first ever recipient of the Bill and Jean Milliken Fellowship. This annual fellowship seeks to advance CIS' collective work and give voice to the next generation of CIS leaders and thinkers, while honoring Bill and Jean Milliken’s unique contributions to this organization. This year’s fellowship is focused on how to prepare all students for college, career and civic engagement, a topic derived from the inaugural Milliken Dialogues.

A recent Brookings Institute literature review found that on average, students' achievement scores declined over summer vacation by one month's worth of school-year learning. But for millions of students, it’s the educational relapse that occurs when school is out for the summer months. The U.S. Department of Education released a report in May of 2018 that highlighted the even greater backslide for students who may not have access to summer camps, libraries, zoos, aquariums, and museums due to location or socioeconomic status.  

Ten innocent lives were lost in Santa Fe, Texas on Friday. This marks the 22nd school shooting this year including the mass casualty incidents in Parkland, Florida and now in Texas. No matter the scale, these incidents have traumatized our nation’s school children.

Communities In Schools hosted the inaugural Milliken Dialogues and Policy Summit on April 25, 2018 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.; the theme of which was college and career readiness. At the Summit, a new Gallup poll commissioned on behalf of Communities In Schools was released.

This year, in memory of two CIS alums who died attempting to rescue neighbors during the same hurricane, Communities In Schools will give the Tomas Carreon and Alonso Guillén Distinguished Service Award to a CIS alum who exemplifies the selfless bravery Tomas, Alonso, and VJ personify.  

The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have sparked a long overdue national conversation about   conduct and relationships in the workplace. While the conversation has initially focused on the issue of gender inequity, we must bring the same attention to how we can value differences and ensure fairness when it comes to issues of race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, and physical ability. 

Girls' Empowerment Group at Capital High School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, hosts an impressive cast of rotating weekly female speakers.

The CIS National Office will engage in the national dialogue over school safety that has gripped the nation since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida

Every February, the conversation around racial representation in the media reignites. This year, the release of Marvel’s much anticipated Black Panther has been a shot in the arm for the movement—inspiring hashtags such as #Isawmyself that accompany social media storytelling about the first time a young person of color saw themselves reflected in media or popular culture. While this is a vital conversation, it should expand into other other avenues that affect they way our young people percieve themselves.