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$30M Head Start contract up in the air

By , Daily Memphian Updated: June 16, 2025 1:53 PM CT | Published: June 16, 2025 4:00 AM CT

Memphis-Shelby County Schools officials say that the district is making more improvements to staff training and student safety after a 4-year-old walked off the campus of a Raleigh elementary school in early May. 

The preschooler’s 44-minute disappearance from Keystone Elementary School resulted in another violation from Head Start, the federal program that funds early childhood education services to students from low-income families. 

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Memphis-Shelby County Schools Head start early childhood education Subscriber Only

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Laura Testino

Laura Testino

Laura Testino is an enterprise reporter on The Daily Memphian’s metro team who writes most often about how education policies shape the lives of children and families. She regularly contributes to coverage of breaking news events and actions of the Tennessee General Assembly. Testino’s journalism career in Memphis began six years ago at The Commercial Appeal, where she began chronicling learning disruptions associated with the pandemic, and continued with Chalkbeat, where she dug into education administration in Memphis. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Times-Picayune, The Tuscaloosa News and USA Today.


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