by Brittney Melton

August 23, 2026

Good morning. This week, the North Carolina Museum of Art gave a 2,000-year-old Roman statue a new arm, prosecutors say an Albany woman planned to bomb the New York State Capitol building, and California passed the nation’s toughest wildfire landscaping rules.

How common is corporal punishment today?

by Kadin Mills, Reflect America Fellow

Almost a year ago, I reported a story about chronic absenteeism. A study examining state policies found that eliminating punitive practices in schools, including corporal punishment, could encourage regular attendance.

This got me wondering: Where is corporal punishment still used? And how common is it today? What I found was more complicated than I’d expected.

An illustration of a school administrator working at their desk, which has apples and a paddle on it.

Deanna Staffo for NPR

With no federal ban on corporal punishment in schools, states and local districts set the rules. My analysis found 30 states plus Washington, D.C., have explicitly banned the practice, while 15 states explicitly allow it. Where it’s legal, districts often set their own policies and parental consent is typically required.

Corporal punishment is far less common than it once was, but it still happens in public schools. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection, there were nearly 32,000 reported instances of corporal punishment used on K-12 students in the 2021-’22 school year. Almost all happened in eight states, primarily in the South.

For many people, the issue is deeply personal. Some parents and educators I spoke to support the use of corporal punishment in schools because they experienced similar physical punishment as children. Others point to religious teachings. One expert told me that calls to ban the practice can feel like a personal attack or moral judgment.

I also visited a school in Oklahoma that used paddling as a part of its disciplinary procedures – and the visit surprised me. The students knew the principal's paddles by name (Peace and Harmony), and they were enthusiastic to tell me about them.

But research on the harmful effects of corporal punishment is clear. According to the American Psychological Association, corporal punishment can lower a child’s self-esteem and have lasting consequences.

Check out more great reads from the NPR network you may have missed:

➡️ Every state has its own rules on whether student photo IDs are accepted at the polls or whether you need state-issued identification, leading young voters and advocates to raise concerns about new laws. In Indiana and New Hampshire, there are new bans on using student IDs to vote that have sparked lawsuits. State laws on these IDs have become more prominent as President Trump has pushed to overhaul voting in federal elections nationwide.
➡️ Many people are turning to chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT when they are feeling stressed, anxious or depressed, even though these tools are not designed for mental health. Some families have filed lawsuits against AI companies after their loved ones died by suicide following prolonged interactions with chatbots, claiming that they contributed to their deaths. Laura Reiley and her husband, Jonathan Rottenberg, chose not to sue after their daughter's death. Instead, Reiley is sharing her family's story and advocating for change in the AI industry.
➡️ The formal grievance system designed to allow immigrants in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention to report abuse, medical neglect and poor living conditions without retaliation has effectively collapsed, leaving thousands with virtually no internal oversight. This is one of the main reasons for the record number of deaths in detention. Critics say that these inhumane circumstances have led more detainees to risk their lives by protesting, often through hunger strikes.

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Pod Club

Flat green fields stretch into the horizon as a tornado funnel and gray storm clouds approach from the right.

Connect Images/Jason Persoff Stormdoctor/Getty Images

Thanks for tuning in last week to the Pop Culture Happy Hour episode about the best fictional TV workplaces. “I'm currently (finally!) retired, but if I had to go back to work, I'd enjoy teaching at Abbott Elementary,” NPR listener Pam Whiting said. “While the drama of the teacher's lounge isn't NEARLY as dramatic as at an actual school, the kid-centered ethic is spot on.”

Today, we’re listening to an episode from Short Wave that dives into atmospheric scientist Perry Samson’s dumbest decision: getting caught inside a tornado. But, luckily for him, he also made a split-second decision that may have been the smartest thing he’s ever done. Hear what can be learned from nature at its wildest. Listen to the episode or read the transcript.

Has any wild moment in nature taught you a lesson? Let us know by clicking here. Your response could appear in next week's Sunday newsletter.

Love podcasts? For handpicked episode recommendations every week, check out Pod Club — a newsletter written FOR podcast fans BY podcast fans. Subscribe here!

And, on this week's episode of The Sunday Story from Up First, a discussion on what’s at stake for a Pacific ecosystem that has been undisturbed for years now that the Trump administration is opening nearby waters to commercial fishing.

MBA's

The words "Sunday Puzzle" over a white background. The name "Will Shortz" is under the Sunday Puzzle title, etched into red dice.

NPR

It's time for the Sunday Puzzle! For this week’s on-air challenge, the theme is MBAs, as in the business degrees. Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase or name in which the first word starts with M-, and the second word starts BA-. For example, if you are given the clue “A little of this, a little of that,” the answer would be “Mixed bag.” Test your skills here. Check the page later to hear the answers, or catch them live on Weekend Edition at 8:41 a.m. ET.

This week's online challenge comes from NPR Puzzlemaster Will Shortz. Spell out the numbers from 13 to 20 — THIRTEEN, FOURTEEN, FIFTEEN, SIXTEEN, SEVENTEEN, EIGHTEEN, NINETEEN, TWENTY. Select one letter from each word, in order, to name another number. No anagramming is necessary. What number is it? Submit your answer here, and you could win a chance to play next Sunday's on-air puzzle.

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This newsletter was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.

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