Having trouble with truancy, learn from Detroit schools how to get kids to school.
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Axios DetroitBy Joe Guillen and Annalise Frank · Aug 25, 2025
It’s Monday and school’s back in session!
🍎 Sounds like: “I Can” by Nas.
🌂 Today’s weather: Mostly sunny, with a high in the low 70s. Scattered afternoon showers.
Today’s newsletter is 936 words — a 3.5-minute read. 1 big thing: New year, big shifts for Detroit schoolsBy Joe Guillen
Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Detroit public schools begin the 2025-26 academic year today.
Whether your kids are in school or you haven’t followed school news in years, here’s what to know.
📈 Boosting enrollment: The district intensified recruitment efforts this summer.
- The strategy included a $3.5 million marketing campaign and canvassing crews that visited nearly 80,000 homes to tell families about the district and its programs, per Chalkbeat Detroit.
- Enrollment in the district was 49,000 last year — down from 156,000 in the 2002-03 school year.
💸 Chronic absenteeism:Rates exceeding 50% in recent years have pushed school officials to use unconventional tactics to increase attendance.
- The district started paying students $200 in gift cards every time they achieved perfect attendance for two weeks, maxing out at $1,000.
- Providing students with bikes to solve transportation problems has also been explored.
💡 Special education changes: The district revampedthe special education department to increase the number of self-contained classrooms for students.
- The shift means fewer schools will offer special education, forcing some students to transfer.
👋 New board member: Rev. Steve Bland Jr. was appointed to the seven-member school board in July to fill a vacancy left when former member Angelique Peterson-Mayberry was appointed to the Wayne County Commission.
- Bland is also the senior pastor of Liberty Temple Baptist Church.
📱 Classroom distractions: Cellphones at schools are a hot-button issue across the state.
- Lawmakers rejected a statewide ban last month.
- Detroit public schools already have their own rules that prohibit use during class, unless a teacher allows use for instructional purposes.
😬 Federal relations: Funding uncertainty looms as officials contend with the Trump administration’s critical approachto public education.
- “This current president and this administration is not supportive of our children,” superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in March.
🎒 State budget: There are also questions surrounding state education funding because of a prolonged budget impasse — lawmakers missed their July 1 deadline.
- Funding for free school meals statewide runs out Sept. 30 without a budget deal or spending plan for the meals, Chalkbeat reports.
2. Free Press sues for records tied to Dan Gilbert empireBy Sam Allard and Joe Guillen
Photo Illustration: Brendan Lynch, Lindsey Bailey/Axios
The Detroit Free Press has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to compel the Michigan Department of Treasury to disclose documents related to economic development subsidies.
Why it matters: The big beneficiary of those subsidies has been local billionaire Dan Gilbert, whose developments have reshaped Detroit.
- His Rock family of companies — including real estate arm Bedrock — is headquartered in Detroit.
State of play: The Free Press filed a FOIA lawsuit last month in pursuit of information to identify businesses and new employees within Bedrock’s downtown projects that are supported by a taxpayer subsidy program called “Transformational Brownfields.”
- The Treasury department denied Reindl’s initial FOIA request, claiming such reports are shielded because they constitute confidential taxpayer information.
What they’re saying: “The lawsuit seeks information that is key to understanding whether developers such as Bedrock do ultimately achieve the lofty expectations for their biggest projects,” Free Press business reporter JC Reindl wrote.
The other side: The Free Press’ line of inquiry is faulty because it doesn’t account for changes to the brownfield program brought on by the post-pandemic remote work revolution, Bedrock president Jared Fleisher wrote in a letter to the Free Press published yesterday.
The bottom line: We’re eager to see any documents that are ultimately disclosed and the Free Press’ analysis of them. 3. The Grapevine: You heard it here 
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
🚨 Morningside Cafe on Detroit’s east side is closed indefinitely after an early Friday morning break-in.
- The coffee shop on East Warren has experienced a slew of challenges — it had a break-in last December, and experienced a damaging fire prior to opening in 2023. (Instagram post, BridgeDetroit)
🦁 The Lions will induct former defensive end Robert Porcher, the franchise’s all-time sack leader with 95.5, into the team’s “Pride of the Lions” ring of honor at the Sept. 14 home opener against the Chicago Bears. (Free Press)
A 16-year-old boy died after being found Saturday at Butzel playground on the city’s west side with a gunshot wound to his head. (Fox 2)
- Shootings involving children prompted a curfew crackdown last month.
A MESSAGE FROM IEDCDetroit hosts the future of economic development
The 2025 International Economic Development Council (IEDC) conference lands in Detroit this September.
The story: This global gathering from Sept. 14–17 leaves attendees with long-term tools and explores how innovation and inclusion can redefine communities.
Register now. 4. Goodbye, trashBy Annalise Frank
Hannah Tizedes (left) manning the Cleanup Club station on Friday along the Detroit River. Photo: Annalise Frank/Axios
A trash-cleaning nonprofitpartnered with Belle Isle Swim Club Friday for some early-morning cleaning, coffee and river-wading on Belle Isle Beach.
The big picture: The Cleanup Club, founded three years ago by activist Hannah Tizedes, hosts community cleanups around the region and supplies participants with gloves, grabbers and buckets.
- Check the website for upcoming cleanups.
Plus, the weekly sunrise swim gathering offers free coffee sponsored by James Oliver. Participants chat, swim, read, work or simply exist.
- Sometimes they partner with other groups like the Cleanup Club or Rise & Run Detroit.
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