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00000176-770f-dc2f-ad76-7f0fadbc0000Educators tell us that students who miss 20 or more days of school in an academic year—and there are 85,000 of them in Maryland—have lower test scores, lower graduation rates and even lower chances of getting into college or of breaking the cycle of poverty.WYPR’s Gwendolyn Glenn is spending the next year meeting with educators, students, parents, researchers and others to explore the causes and effects of chronic absenteeism and the solutions being offered by city and county officials.Empty Desks is made possible through a grant from the Open Society Institute—Baltimore.00000176-770f-dc2f-ad76-7f0fadbe0000 Listen to Empty Desks stories:Overview of absenteeismWhy Some Homeless Students Travel 2 Hours To SchoolGetting To School Is Harder Than You ThinkBaltimore Teachers Struggle To Keep Chronically Absent Students On TrackChronic Absenteeism--A Look At The NumbersIn City Schools, Climate Change Is Not About The WeatherIllness: A Barrier To Attending SchoolIn Ghana, School Absenteeism And Poverty Go Hand-In-HandOne School's Battle With Chronic AbsenteeismA Bright Spot In The Battle Against Chronic AbsenteeismOne-Of-A-Kind Daycare Center In Baltimore Helps Teen ParentsContact Gwendolyn Glenn at [email protected]

Maryland's General Assembly has returned to Annapolis for its annual 90-day session amid a rising tide of partisan rancor. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has staked out some tough positions on spending and warned the legislature's majority Democrats not to cross him. The Democrats, led by House Speaker Mike Busch and Senate President Mike Miller, have promised to push their own agenda, including mandatory sick leave and pay equity for women.The session also will be colored by election-year politics; not necessarily the presidential race, but the domino effect brought on by Senator Barbara Mikulski's retirement.One Republican delegate has launched a campaign for that seat and four Democratic delegates and a senator are running to fill the Montgomery and Prince Georges County Congressional slots being vacated by Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen, who also are running to replace Mikulski.And one senator, Catherine Pugh, has entered the race to replace Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is not running for re-election.The session goes through midnight April 11 and WYPR's Rachel Baye will be on hand to cover it.

WYPR Newsroom Series:On The Watch: Fixing the Fractured Relationship Between Baltimore's Police and Its CommunitiesUp With Neighborhoods: A Southwest Baltimore PartnershipRockets' Red Glare: the War, the Song, and their LegaciesDeconstructingVacantsSparrows Point: The Plan, The Cleanup, and The PromiseCommon Core: A Work In Progress

Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial CommissionMore than 700,000 people every year visit Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, the site that inspired our national anthem. In this series, WYPR tells stories of the War of 1812: the people, the places, and the song.This series has been funded in part with State Funds from the Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission, an instrumentality of the State of Maryland. However, the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission.

WYPR News explores the future of mental healthcare and The Affordable Care Act.

00000176-770f-dc2f-ad76-7f0fae4d0000The West African country of Ghana has one of the continent’s most politically stable governments, a high literacy rate, and is rich in minerals.But there are still pockets of grinding poverty where homes are substandard, the water is unsanitary and schools are nonexistent or in poor condition.WYPR’s Gwendolyn Glenn recently traveled to Ghana on a fellowship from the International Center for Journalists and is filing reports in this series, Ghana at a Glance.Contact Gwendolyn Glenn at [email protected]

Freddie Gray's death from injuries obtained while in police custody in April fanned the smoldering anger and frustration with police practices in Baltimore into a conflagration of protesting, rioting, and looting.For the next twelve months, WYPR's Mary Rose Madden will explore those practices and the culture of policing in Baltimore. She'll look at how the relationship between officers and citizens reached that tipping point and report on racial and class tensions, the documented instances of excessive use of force and probe how complaints against officers are handled.She'll look at past attempts at police reform in the city, how they compare with other cities with the same problems and how police officers are responding to calls for community-oriented policing.It will all be in On the Watch: Fixing the Fractured Relationship Between Baltimore's Police and Its Communities .On the Watch will air during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.This special series is supported by grants from the Bendit Family Foundation, Sig and Barbara Shapiro, The Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, and Open Society Institute-Baltimore.

In a rare if not unique alliance, an anchor institution in Baltimore has joined seven adjacent communities in an effort to find and build on intrinsic strengths.The University of Maryland, Baltimore already looks to these neighborhoods as home for many of its 15,000 employees. Partnership businesses will expect to be heavily patronized by the university. A range of educational initiatives will produce a stream of qualified employees – and reinvigorated southwest Baltimore. Over the next several months, WYPR's Fraser Smith will follow this working experiment to see if it might serve as a template for neighborhood revival around the city.This special series on the Southwest Baltimore Partnership is made possible with grant support from Patricia and Mark Joseph.