Companies selling services to protect children and teenagers from sexual predators on the Internet have enlisted the help of schools and teachers to verify students' personal information. Those companies are also sharing some of the information with Web sites, which can pass it along to businesses for use in targeting advertising to young…

In rural parts of the nation, such as McCool Junction, Nebraska, schools are taking creative steps to lure new students to local schools in their quests to keep those schools open and their communities intact. Elsewhere, towns and school districts in Kansas are giving away plots of land for home sites. Districts in Kansas are drawing new students…