Schools across the country have been reviewing their safety plans since the deadly shooting in Newton, Connecticut. New York City has 5000 school safety agents who are trained by the N.Y.P.D. They guard the entrances of every public school, and there are 88 schools with metal detectors. But is this enough? WNYC’s Beth Fertig spoke with WNYC’s Marc Garber about the psychology of school safety.

Charter schools typically open in low income and minority neighborhoods where parents say they’re desperate for better schools. But a few charters are now opening in whiter, wealthier areas where residents like their local schools. The Panel for Educational Policy will vote tonight on a new charter in the Williamsburg-Greenpoint area. The charter says it’s trying to get a more diverse range of families. But not everyone trusts its motives.

School districts including New York City are reviewing their safety plans in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. The city’s department of education also sent suggestions to staffers for calming students who want to talk. WNYC’s Yasmeen Khan and Kathleen Horan checked in with parents and students at schools in Park Slope and Brownsville to see how they’ve discussed the shooting.

Students and teachers in New York City and around the country are back in their classrooms on Monday, and many will hold discussions on the school shooting on Friday in Newtown, Conn. SchoolBook wants to know how students and teachers are processing the information together.

A new media professor and author of The Parent App: Understanding Families in the Digital Age talks about how parents can manage their children’s (and their own) use of digital technology. Join the conversation about the fast-changing world of communication and connection.

Nearly 100,000 Americans suffer from the blood disorder sickle cell anemia, a painful disease that shortens life-expectancy. Sickle cells aren’t round – they’re shaped like a crescent moon – and Radio Rookie Bree Person hates looking at them. She hates talking about them too. But Pearson, a student at Washington Irving High School, decided she wanted more people to understand the illness. Hear her report and an interview with a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore.

Some high school seniors had their college applications delayed by Sandy, and may be writing about the experience. What real-life events were in your essay? Hear the conversation on The Brian Lehrer Show. Plus, Don Fraser, from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, offers suggestions on how to best address the storm’s impact in an essay.

The president of the College Board defends the role of non-fiction reading in Common Core curricula in an in-depth conversation with radio host Kurt Andersen. He insists fiction will not get short shrift under the new guidelines.

Here’s a deeper dive into the grades and scores released Monday afternoon for the city’s 500-plus high schools. Listen to our analysis and read how other media outlets covered the release of the high school progress reports for the 2011-12 school year.

Teenagers age out of the foster care system at the age of 18. Many of them don’t have the skills or the support network to make it on their own. Two advocates for children have written a book about six teens who found their way off the streets, and how they did it.