Minnesota Now

Minnesota students may be exploring new questions in school this year about how to ask for mental health support and show up for friends who are struggling.

Beginning this fall, the state requires Minnesota schools to provide mental health instruction for students, from fourth grade through senior year.

The Minnesota Department of Education and Minnesota’s branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) have co-developed guidance to help schools implement the new requirement. NAMI Minnesota Executive Director Marcus Schmit joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about what the new approach to mental health education could look like.

The federal government plans to stop reporting on the race, gender and other demographics of workers across industries. But the Minnesota Department of Human Rights is asking it to keep tracking that data. I'll talk to the state's human rights commissioner.

First responders in Burnsville are working with psychiatrists to learn how to respond to mental health crises. We'll learn about the new partnership.

Minnesota students are going back to the classroom. And school leaders are now required to have cell phone policies. I'll talk to three high school principals about their approach.

Plus, some students who stayed home during Operation Metro Surge never returned to their schools. An education reporter looked into the numbers.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “That Was The Moment” by LASALLE and our Song of the Day was “Puppers (Bandit's Song)” by Maximiano.

A first-of-its-kind partnership is forming between law enforcement and psychiatrists. The Burnsville Police and Fire Department Behavioral Health Unit is now working with the University of Minnesota Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences to help better respond to mental health crises.

Joining Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about the new partnership is Burnsville Police Sgt. Max Yakovlev, who created the department's behavioral health unit and Dr. Sophia Albott, a psychiatrist and head of the Division of Adult Mental Health at the U of M.

For generations of students, passing notes was a classic way to get distracted at school. Then came cellphones, and suddenly, that distraction could fit in a student's pocket, connecting students to friends and the entire internet at any moment of the day.

Minnesota schools are now entering their first full school year under a state mandate to have policies governing students' use of cellphones. The mandate went into effect in March.

In preparation for this school year, Minnesota Now asked three Minnesota high school principals what they've learned so far about getting phones out of the classroom.

Principal Rob Reetz of Mounds View High School, Principal Robert Bach of Stillwater Area High School and Principal Michelle Koch of Menahga High School spoke to Minnesota Now host Nina Moini about their policies.

A decades-long effort to collect demographic workplace data may be coming to an end.

In July, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission put forth a proposal to end federal workplace reporting requirements that have been in place since 1966. The current system tracks demographics like race, ethnicity and sex in an effort to prevent employment discrimination.

Last week, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights along with several other civil rights agencies filed a joint comment opposing the end of the tracking.

“Eliminating Equal Employment Opportunity reporting represents yet another significant step in dismantling our nation’s civil rights enforcement framework,” said Minnesota Department of Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero.

Commissioner Lucero joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk more about the concerns she has around this proposal.

Each year, some students move and don’t go back to the schools they attended before. But this year, some educators are bracing themselves for a different situation: students who stayed home during Operation Metro Surge and did not return.

A new analysis from Sahan Journal looked at a group of districts with high numbers of English learners. They found enrollment dropped by about 1,700 students between October 2025 and March 2026 at those 29 school districts. That’s compared to 80 students the year before.

Joining Minnesota Now to talk more about these numbers and what's behind them is Sahan Journal education reporter Becky Dernbach.

Federal officials have decided not to charge an ICE agent in the shooting of a man in Minneapolis this winter. It follows an unsuccessful attempt to extradite the agent, who was released from a Texas jail last week.

The Nepali community in Minnesota is coming together to collect relief for the thousands of people affected by devastating floods in their home country and in Tibet.

And Meta's putting in place new rules for kids on Instagram and Facebook as a part of a multi-billion dollar settlement. We learned more about what these changes will mean for kids and families.

Plus, a soon-to-be-released anthology edited by two Minnesota poets contemplates the history and future of policing.

The Minnesota Vikings have finalized their list of 53 players for the upcoming season. Sunday was the deadline for NFL teams to do so, but their rosters could still change. The Lynx lost their second game in a row Sunday before heading into a break for the FIBA World Cup.

Minnesota Now sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News host Kelly Gordon to break down these sports stories, plus the latest on the Twins and Loons.

You’ve likely seen this headline before: local newspaper shuts down. This time, it’s a neighborhood monthly that for the past 50 years has covered just one zip code in north Minneapolis. Alanna Elder reported on the Camden Community News’ final issue published this weekend.

A pair of Twin Cities writers gathered the work of 36 other poets in a young adult collection that comes out Tuesday. The anthology is called “Witness: Poems to Address the Past, Present and Future of Policing.”

It includes work by celebrated Minnesota poets like Danez Smith and Kao Kalia Yang as well as big national names, like Ada Limón and Amanda Gorman. Several poets will read their work in a launch event Tuesday evening at New City Center in Minneapolis.

The project’s editors, Ari Tison and Ty Chapman, also contributed to the collection. They joined MPR News host Kelly Gordon to talk about it.