School districts across Indiana are reporting the highest number of staff and student COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.

Providing all Marion County students with equitable access to education has been a challenge for years, and a new report finds that Black and Hispanic students lack access to high-quality education — from birth through higher education — at disproportionate rates.

A new viral social media trend has encouraged students to take or destroy objects from their school and post about the vandalism online. Not only is it a disruption to learning, it’s led to thousands of dollars in school property damages. Marion County school districts are trying to prevent it from happening.

All Marion County school districts require face masks as of Sept. 3, after a few changed previously policies that allowed parents to decide if their student wears a mask or not.

The Marion County Commission on Youth issued a report on some of the top issues impacting students outside of school, and how that affects students’ academic success.

In the summer learning labs program hundreds of teachers are expected to teach students in grades 1-9 at least three hours of academics a day, in addition to other activities in the full-day program.

The $1.7 million internet pilot program will be based at six Marion County public and charter schools starting in February and could expand county-wide in 2022.

All Marion County schools will be required to follow a health metric for when they can offer in-person instruction. The order is based on the seven-day average of the countys COVID-19 positivity rate.

A fund created by the Indianapolis Mayors office will distribute $1.5 million to public schools in Marion County to help low-income students get computers and internet service for their remote e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.