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Boston School News: BPS, School Committee and Area Districts

Boston Latin School building on Avenue Louis Pasteur, for Boston school news
Boston Latin School on Avenue Louis Pasteur in the Fenway (file photo). Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Updated automatically as new school stories post. Dates: BPS calendar 2026-27

This is The Boston Report’s hub for Boston school news: Boston Public Schools (BPS) policy and budgets, School Committee and City Council hearings, building projects, labor contracts and school news from nearby districts such as Brookline, Medford and Burlington. The newest stories list automatically below, followed by the official sources for school data and district announcements.

Latest Boston school news

Boston Public Schools

BPS is the largest school district in Massachusetts and is governed by the Boston School Committee, which hires the superintendent and votes on the district budget and major policies. The district’s budget is part of the city budget approved by the City Council each spring; see our breakdown of where Boston’s FY2027 budget money goes. Council oversight also reaches student safety, as in the hearing on BPS bullying and sexual misconduct policies.

For school-year dates, including the first day, vacations, early-release days and the last day, use our Boston Public Schools calendar. When snow threatens, check the Boston snow day and storm center for closing announcements.

School news around Greater Boston

Suburban districts face many of the same questions about buildings, staffing and costs. Recent coverage includes the Medford High School project and its debt exclusion vote, Brookline educators’ contract talks, and the Burlington High School building project with the Massachusetts School Building Authority. Town pages on our local towns hub collect more district news.

How to look up school data

Parents comparing schools should start with the official profile for each building rather than third-party rankings, which often mix data from different years. Each DESE profile shows a school’s grades served, enrollment by grade, student demographics, accountability status and assessment results, and most pages let you download the underlying tables.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) publishes school and district profiles with enrollment, MCAS results, graduation rates, staffing and per-pupil spending. Those profiles are the primary source we use when comparing schools, and we name the school year for every figure because the data are released on a lag. BPS posts its own announcements, enrollment information and School Committee materials on its website.

What we cover in Boston school news

Our school reporting focuses on decisions that change what families experience: budget votes and staffing, school building and closure plans, transportation and bus routes, student safety policies, labor contracts, and state test and graduation results when the state releases them. We also follow the higher education news that shapes the city, from Harvard and Boston College to Northeastern and the public universities, on our college sports and Boston news pages.

Every figure we publish names its source and school year. When a district announcement and a state data release disagree, we say so and link both. Have a tip about your school? Email contact@thebostonreport.com.

Official school resources

For all city coverage, go to the Boston news hub.

Sources

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