Since being sent to live in an adult jail eight days ago, 16-year-old Jane has spent 22 to 23 hours a day in her prison cell.
Jacqueline Rabe Thomas
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
Posted inEducation
Advocates seek investigation into DCF treatment of court-involved youth
Child advocates are calling on Connecticut lawmakers to set up a special panel to investigate the treatment of children committed to the care of the Department of Children and Families for breaking the law.
Posted inEducation
Senate Democratic leader seeks spot as community college president
Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr. will be interviewed this weekend to become the next president of Quinebaug Valley Community College.
Posted inEducation
Lawmakers vote to require better responses by CT colleges to sexual assaults
The House bill seeks to improve how all higher education institutions in Connecticut respond when a student comes forward to report an assault, and to boost prevention through bystander training akin to the “see something, say something” campaign.
Posted inEducation
Democrats unveil plan, and funding, for step toward universal pre-K
Thousands of Connecticut students start kindergarten each year already trailing their peers academically because they didn’t attend preschool. Democratic legislative leaders announced Wednesday they intend to pass legislation that will pay for thousands more children to enroll in public schools’ preschool programs.
Posted inEducation
Report: Many Connecticut charter schools ‘hyper-segregated’
State law requires education leaders to “reduce racial, ethnic and economic isolation” to advance the state’s interests, but an advocacy group reports that most of Connecticut’s charter schools are “hyper-segregated.”
Posted inEducation
They may have a college degree, but does that lead to a job?
Two legislative committees have approved a bill that would require the state’s public colleges and the departments of Labor and Education to implement a system to track information on student employment once they graduate from Connecticut public colleges and universities.
Posted inEducation
CT Child Fatality Panel: Unsafe sleeping conditions leading cause of infant deaths
The state’s Child Fatality Review Panel on Monday issued a “Public Health Alert” to spread the word that dangerous sleep conditions are the leading cause of infants dying in Connecticut.
Posted inEducation
UConn’s Napier: ‘We do have hungry nights’
Napier told reporters that it’s hard for him to see his jersey getting sold while he struggles to eat.
Posted inEducation
Questions (and answers) about CT’s new girls’ incarceration unit
“There are girls that really very easily can fill these 10 beds,” said Joette Katz, commissioner of the state Department of Children and Families.
Posted inEducation, Money
Not so fast: Key lawmaker upset with approval of more charter schools
The co-chairwoman of the General Assembly’s powerful budget-writing committee is angry that the State Board of Education has approved opening more charter schools than the state budget provides for.
Posted inEducation
Connecticut’s charter school enrollment set to surge
More students than ever are about to have the chance to enroll in a charter school in Connecticut.
Posted inEducation
How much does the state owe your school district?
If the spending cap on education were removed this year, the state would have to pay an additional $687.6 million to fully fund the formula.
Posted inEducation
UConn has 4 percent budget shortfall; considers additional tuition increase, other cuts
The University of Connecticut is facing a $46.2 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins July 1 — a 4 percent shortfall in the funding needed to continue its existing programs. Officials have not ruled out tuition increases and ways to cut expenses in order to close the gap.
Posted inEducation
Name change for ‘special master’ may not resolve teachers’ concerns
Since the state named a “special master” in New London and Windham, there has been unrest among teachers as to what authority that person enjoys and what autonomy local officials retain.
