Jody Lawrence-Turner

Slushy snow chilled their toes and rain drizzled overhead as students waited to re-enter their new old school on Monday in northwest Spokane. A crowd huddled outside Finch Elementary School on North Milton Street for a short, formal dedication before 600-plus children filtered inside Monday, high-fiving teachers and administrators along the way.

For the first time, Spokane Public Schools will offer an online enrollment process for all students who want to attend a school outside their neighborhood. Families can research the schools and program options then apply for their top choices. Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Shelley Redinger has...

Education reporter at work inside Rogers High School.

A charitable mission to help less-fortunate people establish new households just got bigger. Furnishings for Hope, a retail furniture store that opened 11 months ago, had to move to a larger storefront where it will be able to accommodate increased donations and a newly established customer base.

Education is changing rapidly across the nation, and Washington and Idaho are no exception. State standards have become more rigorous, funding issues persist and technology is changing classrooms. Here are 10 things to watch for in 2015:

Don Juan Foster collected cans for money and often slept on a bench just off the Centennial Trail in Mission Park. The 55-year-old died after being hit by a car. Kathy Thompson used the House of Charity as her address to receive mail from her family in Maine. She died in her tent along the Spokane River in Peaceful Valley.

Libby Center’s loyal tabby has disappeared without a trace. The black-striped golden-brown kitty that appeared each morning and afternoon to greet schoolchildren went missing following the Thanksgiving holiday.

Mary Timm Mueller started a play group for her son with Down syndrome, looking for a way to create a community for her mom friends and bring together children like Benjamin. The need for a place where kids with intellectual disabilities and their siblings could play, learn and make friends became apparent. Soon, Mueller wanted to go beyond her home.

Ten Spokane students hope to soon say “patent pending” about their own invention. A Linwood Elementary School Lego robotics team, The Big Bot Theory, has made what they are calling a “BinderPad.”

While Spokane students are piling roasted chicken and homemade red potato fries onto their plates, other students around the country will still be eating canned vegetables packed with sodium and previously frozen meat. Congress on Thursday approved a spending plan that allows schools more time to comply with new federal standards requiring that they cut down on sodium and boost the amount of whole grains in school lunches. Nutrition directors nationally have complained that they’re losing money from the new standards because so many students stopped eating school lunches and because the fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains cost more.

Knight is only 15 months old and already he’s in high school; the golden boy started attending Ferris this fall. He’s no ordinary young man, though. He’s a guide dog in training.