Kidscreen
Kids media and product news, including safety, privacy, and what is about to ship.
What the brief reads
Sources
The Monday run checks these outlets, then keeps only the pieces that actually moved in the United States. A story about another country stays out, even when a U.S. outlet wrote it. Competitor updates, show agendas, and app-store reviews are folded into New tech and School rather than left as a separate pile.
New tech
EdSurge
Product launches and district adoption, mostly school software.
Wareable
Wearable launches. Only when the product is sold in the United States.
Wirecutter
The guide parents trust when they search for a kids smartwatch.
Competitor release notes
Xplora, Gabb, Bark, Pinwheel, TickTalk, Garmin Bounce, and Apple Watch Family Setup. Ship notes and app-store version history.
App store reviews
One-star reviews on kids-watch apps: GPS, battery, school hours, and subscription anger.
CES and Toy Fair
Where new kids hardware is shown. The agenda is the signal.
Parents and teachers
After Babel
Jonathan Haidt. Sets the parent and school conversation on phones, anxiety, and bans.
ParentData
Emily Oster. Evidence-minded parents who ask for data before they buy a safety device.
Cult of Pedagogy
Jennifer Gonzalez writing to working teachers.
Edutopia
Teacher-written practice on attention, belonging, and tools.
Reddit: r/Teachers, r/Parenting, r/edtech
Unpolished complaints. Search smartwatch, phone ban, and school AI.
Understood.org
Learning and attention differences. A large share of watch buyers are here.
Child Mind Institute
How clinicians explain screens, anxiety, and school refusal to parents.
National PTA
Official parent voice, plus the Notes from the Backpack podcast.
PDK Poll
What the public thinks of public schools.
School
The 74
School policy, phones, absenteeism, and parent politics.
Education Week
What teachers and district leaders are arguing about, including AI rules and devices.
K-12 Dive
Short briefs on district buying, AI, and operations.
Chalkbeat
Classroom reality in specific cities: staffing, phones, safety, and parent anger.
The Hechinger Report
Longer investigations on learning, inequality, and technology that failed its promise.
ISTE and SXSW EDU
What teachers will sit through a session to hear.
School board phone policies
Statewide phone bans and district policies. These change what a school mode has to do.
Workshops
Companies that teach children STEM, or run classes, camps, and after-school sessions. The point is a partner who already has the child in the room, doing the work, where a companion can sit beside that session. What each program has kids do is on the Programs page.
Code Ninjas, theCoderSchool, and Snapology
Coding, robotics, and build sessions, usually after school or on weekends. A new program, a curriculum change, or a partnership is the piece. One local class listing is not.
iD Tech and Bricks 4 Kidz
Multi-day camps and in-school workshops. Useful when they add a subject, an age band, or a school partnership.
FIRST and Camp Invention
FIRST LEGO League and the National Inventors Hall of Fame’s Camp Invention. Seasonal programs with a shared curriculum, which is an easier companion fit than a one-off party.
Girls Who Code
After-school clubs with a set curriculum. A companion has to fit the club, not replace the teacher.
Mathnasium, Sylvan, Kumon, and Huntington
Practice sessions rather than build workshops. Same collaboration idea: the child is already sitting down to do the work.
Afterschool Alliance
Who funds and runs after-school time in the United States. The map of rooms a companion could enter.
Investments
Edtech Insiders
Deal flow, founder interviews, and the K-12 AI market maps investors use.
HolonIQ
The funding scoreboard. Keep the United States slice. A round in another country stays out.
EdWeek Market Brief
How districts buy. More useful once a product sells into schools.
Reach Capital
An edtech fund that writes its thesis in public.
ASU+GSV and GSV
The main education-investing gathering. The agenda is an early map of what capital cares about.
Owl Ventures
A large education-only fund. Portfolio and memos show where institutional money sits.
Crunchbase News
Round announcements for U.S. companies. Read with a saved search for edtech, kids, and family.
Research
Tyton Partners
Education specialist bank. Free deal recaps and segment reads.
Common Sense Media
Parent surveys and product verdicts, including AI toys and companions.
RAND education surveys
National samples of teachers, principals, students, and parents.
Pew Research Center
Teens, parents, and tech numbers that reporters and policymakers quote.
Project Tomorrow Speak Up
Students, parents, and teachers on school technology, in one instrument.
McKinsey Education
System-level K-12 work. Skeptical of handing every child a device.
BCG education
Recent work is heavy on AI and skills, more system than kids hardware.
Deloitte Insights
Back-to-school parent spending, plus consumer tech. A retail read.
Whiteboard Advisors
What districts and agencies are about to ask vendors.
Bellwether
Independent K-12 analysis used by funders and operators.
Joan Ganz Cooney Center
Sesame Workshop’s shop for kids and digital media. Closer to child development than to software.
Brookings education
School quality, screens, and policy.
Circana
Toy and juvenile sell-through. Press releases are free. The workbook is paid.
Accenture, PwC, EY, KPMG, and Bain publish education work that is often higher education or workforce. Read a piece when it is actually about school or families. Gartner and Forrester rarely beat HolonIQ, Tyton, or Circana on kids hardware.
Rules and trust
FTC
COPPA updates and enforcement. Precise location, voice, and biometrics are personal information under the amended rule.
CARU / BBB National Programs
Children’s advertising and privacy cases.
Fairplay
The organized U.S. critique of commercial kids tech. Their objections preview press cycles.
Education Commission of the States
State legislation on devices, AI, and school safety.
AAP policy
Pediatricians shape what parents believe is safe.