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.
In the absence of national policy, at least 28 states have set standards on cheating, safety and responsible AI use in schools.
Despite recent cutbacks to the insurance program, more states now pay for access to doulas, who provide support during pregnancy and childbirth.
Educators will not be allowed to use a model called “three-cue-ing” – which teaches kids to read using context clues – as their primary method of reading instruction.
The state asked the high court to lift a lower-court judge’s temporary block on enforcement of the law, which makes it illegal for an undocumented immigrant to enter or re-enter Florida.
Its ideals, expressed by New York’s Democratic mayoral nominee, have seen plenty of success around the world. Maybe it’s time for a third party that would unapologetically stand for working- and middle-class Americans.
Under a state law enacted this year, individuals can face additional penalties if they’re caught wearing a face covering while committing a crime.
Proposed statewide standards would cover everything from transporting young people to arresting their caregivers.
After more than 1 million deaths, opioid mortality is dropping fast.
Phone lines that provide mental health support to tens of thousands of Californians say they are on the verge of shutting down or dramatically scaling back as a result of cuts in the state’s new budget.
A narrow majority of justices found that by regulating abortion, legislators had "impliedly repealed" the state's near-total ban on the procedure. Dissenters called the ruling pure policymaking.
Universities were already facing a grim future due to demographic changes. Then along came Trump.
Senators voted 99-1 to strike the ban from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It would have blocked state and local governments from regulating AI for a decade.
States should remove barriers to building, siting and competition to unleash electricity.
States are spending 15 percent of their home-generated revenue on the program, seeing their largest cost increases in 20 years.
Like some other states, Indiana is moving away from criminal justice reform efforts, imposing new penalties for homicide, fentanyl and other crimes.
The state is seeing a larger decline in residents 18 and younger than any other state. It’s also getting older and seeing losses in its working-age population.
The court ruled that states can deny Medicaid payments for medical screenings and other services at the abortion provider. The decision reverses prior policy allowing any qualified provider to be paid by Medicaid.
Better data and messaging would help. So would improved education.
School choice programs provide state money to help families who want to educate their kids outside of public school. After launching programs targeted at disadvantaged students, many states are opening the programs up to everyone.
The incinerated town of Lahaina has barely begun to recover. Policymakers have scrambled to ease inflexible laws and regulations but rebuilding would be happening much more quickly if that had happened before the fires.
With classroom behavior notably worse than it was prior to the pandemic, a number of states are increasing penalties to address aggression and disruption.
Oregon has enacted a law that's the first of its kind, protecting doctors from corporate interference over medical decision-making.
The state will spend $75 million moving more people with mental illness from jails to treatment facilities. “You’re not coming out better after three years at our jail,” said one sheriff.
The alleged shooter’s ability to pose as a police officer in Saturday’s killing of a state legislator has sparked fears about copycats.
The Trump administration concedes it ended too many Department of Education contracts but critics say it hasn’t restored enough congressionally approved programs.
Millions are likely to lose health insurance, and there is no credible data that imposing such rules would save money. They would hurt rural communities and red states as much as blue ones.
A proposal under the state budget would end the need for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities to qualify annually. Instead, they would be considered permanently eligible unless their circumstances or conditions change.
The proposal would shake up the finances of hundreds of institutions that use race as a factor in admissions, scholarships or other ways.
States are taking a look at tax credits, cost-sharing, regulation reductions and more as they look to support families and their economies.
The state is devoting $50 million to a research consortium looking into the effects of ibogaine, an illegal drug being touted by surprising psychedelics champion Rick Perry, a former governor.
Rather than pulling special education kids out for separate instruction, it’s putting special ed teachers in classrooms with the general student population. Test scores are improving.
