Policy
This coverage will look at how public leaders establish new policies in a range of crucial areas of government – health, education, public safety, for example – and how these policies impact people’s lives through better services, effective regulations and new programs. This will include stories examining how state and local government approaches policymaking around emerging areas, including artificial intelligence.
For the third straight year, efforts to crack down on low-performing programs have stalled, even as concerns about student outcomes persist.
Proponents say California's major AI legislation offers essential guardrails on a quickly developing technology. But detractors — including the president — say it's burdensome, unnecessary and unfair.
The state now has 21 virtual charter academies as education officials debate funding incentives and how to measure school performance.
The notion that we can assume people suffering from substance use disorders will freely choose what is best for them and their children is regularly undermined by reality. Too many children have paid the price.
Proposed legislation would allow schools to check immigration status and potentially deny enrollment or charge tuition, challenging the Supreme Court’s long-standing guarantee of public education for all children.
The explosive growth of data centers, fueled partly by the AI race, has some states scrambling for a piece of the action and some localities trying to pump the brakes.
Formerly incarcerated women have expertise that is policy-ready. We need to mandate including them on the bodies that shape jails, prisons, parole, sentencing and reentry.
The fast-tracked bill would limit use of voter registration information, shield ballots from disclosure under open records law and expand rules governing recounts.
The U.S. homeland is out of range of military strikes, but state and local governments could see cyber attacks, cloud service disruptions and rising supply costs.
Lawmakers halted a proposal to bar unvaccinated children from schools as the state faces its largest measles outbreak in two decades.
Inmates and families say costly per-minute fees and limited services under a widely adopted system have turned a communication tool into a financial burden.
It’s a core public safety issue: Researchers need access to agency data, but it can be difficult or impossible to come by. You can’t solve a problem you can’t measure. Model state legislation offers a framework for expanding access.
Construction regulations have evolved through a rigorous process guided by professional expertise. But safety and housing affordability shouldn’t be seen as competing goals.
With the number of residents over 65 growing four times faster than the rest of the population, legislators are advancing more than 20 bills and a long-term plan to reshape aging services.
For public officials who support equal opportunity, recent court rulings and other developments provide reasons for a little optimism.
Just over 10,000 residents signed up as federal subsidy cuts and rising premiums reshape the state’s insurance marketplace.
State investments lifted scores overall, but stark gaps remain between affluent and struggling districts.
The English-only requirement follows decades of debate in a region where many households speak Spanish and multilingual voting remains protected.
At least eight states now require insurers to cover alternatives without higher co-pays or extra hurdles.
State officials pitched robotic ultrasounds to help rural areas with no OB-GYNs, but clinicians say technology can’t replace trained providers.
A proposed bill would clarify when conversations outside public meetings violate the state’s open government law.
By ending state-paid insurance support, the DeSantis administration risks cutting off lifesaving medication for as many as 12,000 residents.
Operation Metro Surge, the largest federal enforcement effort in state history, will transition to routine operations under border czar Tom Homan’s oversight.
Intensive instruction and test retakes helped thousands of students improve and move on to fourth grade.
Temporary pandemic-era changes helped a lot. Continuing revival requires systems calibrated to rural scale rather than to urban norms.
Federal subsidies helped 13 million more Americans access health insurance through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Millions are expected to lose coverage now that subsidies have expired.
It’s the most significant step yet in a state program set to launch next school year.
As federal safeguards erode, state lawmakers are laying the groundwork for restoring and protecting wetlands left vulnerable by Clean Water Act rollbacks.
States that had historically high immunization coverage are seeing rising exemption rates and declining vaccine uptake, posing new public health challenges for legislators.
Laws targeting the practice have been a mess. It benefits both businesses and consumers, and pricing decisions should be left to market forces.
A dramatic drop in paroles reflects 2024 changes that tightened eligibility and eliminated discretionary release for many incarcerated people.
