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On Tuesday, Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, introduced the Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013. It is an updated version of the 48-year-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the law that governs all public schools that receive federal money to support the most vulnerable students among the poor, racial minorities, learners of the English language and the disabled.

About 78 percent of Chicago Public Schools students from facilities set to close have now signed up for their new “welcoming schools,” the school district announced Monday. Of the 11,800 students attending closing schools, about 9,200 have enrolled in new schools, the district reports.

The target graduation rate for special-needs students with individual education plans is 80 percent, a goal that 130 school districts and charter schools met or exceeded. A total of 59 districts and charter schools had 100 percent graduation rates for special-needs students in 2010-11.

The legislation encourages school districts to adopt new career ladders and evaluations for teachers by giving districts that chose to do so roughly $300 more per student to help pay for the costs of implementing the new programs.

The early results look rather like the pre-Obamacare days: Premiums are continuing to rise and employees will be asked to shoulder more of the burden. But fundamental changes are beginning to appear.

The states that spent the most per student appear to be the ones that can best afford it. Median household income in nine of the 10 top-spending states is higher than the U.S. median.

Many of Ohio’s newest schools are bursting at the seams — or getting close to it. One out of three schools that opened this school year with funding from the Ohio School Facilities Commission is serving more students than the building is designed to hold, according to a Dispatch analysis of state data.

Middle Tennessee school systems with their own resource officers aren’t showing any interest in a new law allowing teachers with police training to carry guns, but the small districts touted as beneficiaries of the plan aren’t rushing into action, either.

Decades-old limits on the size of special education classes would disappear along with restrictions on the number of disabled students in traditional classrooms under proposals being pushed by state education leaders.