A ruling from the state’s highest court makes clear that the School Construction Authority must outline its plans for long-term monitoring of and protection from toxins at once-contaminated properties that house school buildings, and communicate them to the public.

Parents of special and general education students have collected their fair share of school bus nightmare stories and many will have a chance to recount them at Wednesday’s City Council hearing on recent transportation problems. The bus companies are not expected to attend.

According to the annual survey of class size conducted by the teachers’ union, there were 670 schools with overcrowded general education classes in the city in the first weeks of school, up from 660 last year. The number of overcrowded special education classes more than doubled.

State education officials toured a top-performing elementary school in Maspeth, Queens Friday morning.

In Principal’s Office, a regular feature of SchoolBook, a city school principal is interviewed for insights into school management and the life of a school leader. Today, Kate Burch shares her experience starting a new school that she hopes offers academic rigor within a nurturing school community.

Matthew Willoughby, who leads the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction, explains how he gets his students ready for college with creative projects and field trips in addition to traditional academics.

Principal Nadav Zeimer said he is feeling in the spotlight since his school was removed from the turnaround list last year. He wants to prove to city officials that the decision was the right one, and that his transfer students can succeed despite difficult life circumstances.

Beacon High School is getting a brand new facility on West 44th Street in Manhattan. When construction is done, the screened school will have a cafeteria, a gym, and technology and arts labs. There also will be space for the popular school to accept about 300 more students.

A summer day in one Brooklyn neighborhood. Part-time classes, short-term jobs, handball and the Olympics.

Educational Web sites for students and teachers are thriving as more states, including New York, adopt the Common Core curriculum and move toward a somewhat more unified system of teaching and testing. E-learning companies see the standards as a great opportunity, but some warn that it is another way of bringing the private sector into public education.