The $11.58 million, promised since the Covid-19 pandemic, has been delayed for more than a year. Twenty districts will get a share of the money.

A Vermont bill, H.640, would require school boards that oversee high school grades to include student voting members, with one student per grade. Boards that operate middle schools would also add two nonvoting student members from grades 7 and 8.

Students with IEPs spend more time in general classrooms than average, yet are sent out of district at more than twice the national rate.

Vermont schools are lowering chronic absenteeism, but about 1 in 4 students statewide are still chronically absent. State education officials want to update truancy laws to standardize definitions and focus on prevention over punishment.

Transformation is far from guaranteed. Lawmakers first need to agree on a new school district map before proceeding with other facets of the law.

Vermont Education Secretary Zoie Saunders initially asked school districts to certify compliance with a federal directive targeting DEI programs but reversed course days later after public backlash. The state will now submit a single certification while reaffirming support for DEI in schools.

"The whole system is designed to not educate a certain subset of the population," said one parent of a child with autism.

Benefits and salaries, school construction, disappearing federal dollars and increased mental health-related needs are all contributing to rising education costs in Vermont.