States are starting to require mental health classes for all students. It’s about dang time.

Why did this take so long?

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The Florida State Board of Education recently voted to require all students in the sixth grade and up to receive five hours of mental health instruction every year. Florida may have more than its fair share of questionable legislation, but this is highly commendable.

Florida isn't the first state to mandate such courses—New York, Virginia, and Maine all passed bills requiring mental health to be part of the required curriculum last school year, and more states are sure to follow suit.

It's a huge move in the right direction—and it's about dang time.

I taught in public schools fresh out of college, and even two decades ago I saw how much of a need there was for mental health education. Today, my thoughts on the matter are much more personal. Our oldest daughter spent much of her tween and teen years struggling with a mental health disorder called emetophobia—a clinical fear of throwing up. It got to the point in her mid-teens where she had a hard time doing normal, everyday things, like eating or being around people.

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It's time to rethink how we view families on food stamps. These programs show why.

Unlimited fruits and veggies, breakfast, and after-school supper. These Vermont schools serve it all — for free.

No matter what, all students in Burlington, Vermont, get breakfast, even in the hallway if they’re running late to class. They can load up on as many fresh, locally sourced fruits and vegetables as they want.

In other words, these kids don’t have to worry about being hungry during the school day: The Burlington School Food Project runs a free meals program for every child to make sure of that.

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The reason this teacher was suspended shows a painful reality for many LGBTQ people.

By all accounts, Stacy Bailey is an excellent teacher. After all, she was selected as her school's Teacher of the Year. Twice. Then she was suspended.

Considering how difficult it is to keep quality educators in classrooms that are often understaffed and lacking resources, you may already be scratching your head and wondering what horrible thing Bailey must have done to be taken out of her classroom for an entire year.

Bailey was suspended because she showed her elementary students a photograph of her future wife.

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New plans to arm teachers are a huge step back in gun control policy.

It’s been less than a month since the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida. But while things are slowly changing, the Trump administration may be working to bring more guns into schools.

According to recent policy proposals released by the White House, the administration is moving forward on its plan to provide "rigorous firearms training" for "specially qualified school personnel."

These proposals come on the heels of President Donald Trump’s comments that gun-free zones don’t work. At a Feb. 22 listening session, Trump said, "A gun-free zone to a maniac — because they’re all cowards — a gun-free zone is, let’s go in and let’s attack because bullets aren’t coming back at us."

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