Press Kit
The go to place for any issue having to do with education across the nation
| What it is | A national education news podcast network: weekday briefings in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories, weekly deep dives, section-by-section law series, and national investigations from public records and federal data. |
|---|---|
| Shows | Education Across the States (flagship, weekday) · NH Education Trends in Southern NH (weekly) |
| Sister production | Run the Room — a weekly podcast on building and running a business, sequenced from the foundations up (Sundays 7:00 PM ET), produced by Charles Mayfield with its own site, channels, and audience: run-the-room.github.io |
| Hosts | Alex and Jordan |
| Producer | Charles Mayfield — producer and owner; independent, self-funded, no outside backers |
| Launched | October 2026 |
| Published | 300+ episodes on the flagship feed |
| Listen | Education Across the States: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · iHeart · YouTube · RSS · Pandora. Run the Room: Apple Podcasts · YouTube · iHeart · Pocket Casts · RSS. (Listings verified October 25, 2026.) |
| Website | education-across-the-states.github.io |
| Press contact | educationacrossthestates@gmail.com · (978) 291-8525 |
| Producer CV | Charles Mayfield — producer CV |
Built from the federal Civil Rights Data Collection (2023–24) and IDEA Section 618 child counts: 19% of public school students have an IEP or a Section 504 plan — 15% under IDEA (about 7.6 million students) and 4% Section 504-only (about 1.9 million). The investigation tests the two explanations against the category data: specific learning disability has fallen by roughly 450,000 students since 2002 while autism rose more than eightfold; state identification rates run from about 11% to about 21% under one federal law; Texas's decade-long 8.5% benchmark suppressed identification until federal monitors intervened, after which Texas grew 67% in eight years. Students with IEPs account for 73% of physical restraints in the federal data. Full charts, expert voices, and sources: education-across-the-states.github.io/one-in-five/
Section 504-only identification almost quadrupled in fifteen years — 1.1% of students in 2009–10 to about 4% today — under a legal test that has not changed. Rates run from 0% to over 30% by school building, skew affluent and White against the IEP pattern, and the system has no federal funding trail, no published national condition breakdown, and has never had an eligibility audit. Every on-air claim proof-checked against its source before publication.
Sources in every episode. Each episode description names its documents, datasets, and reporting. Nothing invented — no fabricated quotes or figures. Real voices, unaltered — guest recordings air exactly as submitted; written answers are read verbatim. Right of reply — institutions and officials we cover are invited on the record, and responses air as given. Corrections in the open.
Special education law and practice (IDEA, Section 504, state rules) · school funding formulas and district budgets · school board governance and closures · federal enforcement (OCR, OSEP) and state education agency guidance · teacher shortages and certification · out-of-district placements and contracting.
Charles Mayfield, Producer
educationacrossthestates@gmail.com · (978) 291-8525
Run the Room: runtheroom@outlook.com
Embargoed releases and media advisories welcome at the press contact above.