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(WASHINGTON) -- Vice President JD Vance on Thursday directly contradicted what is in the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran, touting it as a "win-win" and insisting Iran will only reap financial benefits if they "change their behavior."

"They don't get anything unless they change their behavior," Vance said during a briefing at the White House Thursday morning.

That conflicts with what U.S. officials had said was in the MOU, which states that "immediately upon signing," the Treasury Department will allow the export of Iranian crude through waivers -- a financial windfall for Iran, which has faced sanctions for years. Vance digitally signed the MOU with Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf before President Donald Trump physically signed it Wednesday.

ABC News pushed Vance on the financial rewards that Iran is already receiving simply for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. As part of the agreement, the U.S. is removing its naval blockade of Iranian ports, and Iran will allow commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed after the war started, to be restored to pre-war levels. ABC News asked how Iran is allowed to sell their oil freely without making any new concrete nuclear commitments.

"They've made very concrete nuclear commitments. They have committed to the destruction of the highly enriched [uranium] stockpile that they have in their possession," Vance said, adding that lifting the Strait of Hormuz blockade has promoted "the free flow of energy ... across the world."

However, Vance's comments conflict with what the deal says. There is no firm commitment from Iran to get rid of their nuclear stockpile -- just a commitment to negotiate "the disposition" of it over the next 60 days.

Also, allowing Iran to freely sell oil on the global market now is an economic windfall for Iran, which could generate more than $60 billion a year in revenue, experts told the Wall Street Journal.

Furthermore, Vance defended the oil waivers by arguing the U.S. will gain insight into Iran's economy.

"So by lifting the blockade, that's the significant thing that has changed. And by lifting the sanctions, we're actually going to be able to see a little bit where their financial system actually sends money and receives money. That's a real benefit to the American people. And that's really the only thing that has changed by the change in sanctions," Vance said. 

He also repeatedly stressed that U.S. taxpayer money will not flow directly to Iran -- "not a single penny, by the way, from the United States of America under any circumstance." But a final deal could still allow Iran to reap huge financial benefits, including the unfreezing of assets and a $300 billion reconstruction account for Iran -- the details of which will be sorted in the 60-day period.

Pressed on whether Iran can be trusted to change its behavior, Vance asked "isn’t it worth trying?"

Democrats -- and some Republicans -- have expressed concerns about the MOU. Chuck Schumer, the Senate's top Democrat, said Iran "took Trump to the cleaners" in negotiations over the MOU in remarks on the Senate floor Thursday. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said of the MOU on Thursday: "Iran's left stronger, we're left weaker."

"You know, I've seen skeptics of the deal. People say 'the Iranians will never change their behavior.' Well, maybe that's true. And if so, they don't get any of the benefits of the bargain. But isn't it worth trying? Isn't it worth seeing whether this incredibly weakened position that the president of the United States has put the Iranians under, whether that motivates them to change their behavior, not just vis a vis the West, but vis a vis the Middle East," he said.

Iranian Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said Thursday that Iranian officials entered the agreement from a position of strength, portraying the U.S. president as having pushed aggressively for the deal out of desperation.

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(WASHINGTON) -- Janeese Lewis George won the Democratic primary for mayor of Washington, D.C., held earlier this week, according to a projection from the Associated Press on Thursday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) -- Nayleen Escalante-Villatoro, a sixth grader at Brookland Middle School in Washington, D.C., has struggled significantly with attending school.

She said whenever there are family problems that force her mother to take off work, she has to step in.

"Me and my older sibling stay home to watch the little ones," Nayleen told ABC News, adding, "It makes me feel stressed because I'm missing school and I'm not learning."

This not only frustrates Nayleen, but it also impacts her studies: "I have to do a lot of makeup work after all the missing assignments that I haven't done," she added.

Kids like Nayleen face a multitude of challenges at school -- when they're there.

From the rigors of learning how to read and write to addressing mental health concerns and outside distractions, students juggle more than just their classroom workloads. A combination of these issues and other societal factors has fueled an attendance crisis that's led to a spike in student chronic absenteeism -- defined as missing at least 10% of the school year -- in recent years, according to experts who spoke to ABC News.

While one in three students nationwide experienced chronic absenteeism during the 2021-2022 academic year, the rate is declining, from up to 30% to roughly 24% by the start of the past school year, according to estimates from the Return 2 Learn tracker reviewed by ABC News.

Government officials are also collecting data on K-12 chronic absenteeism but the Department of Education recently told ABC News it couldn't yet provide it. Its National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) told ABC News in 2023 that chronic absenteeism increased from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, there's been no silver bullet to the problem. Different states have taken their own approach, from going door-to-door to check on students to providing high-impact tutoring at school. Education and health experts also emphasize family engagement, community relationships, extracurricular activities and outdoor recreation are potential solutions for chronically absent students.

Hedy Chang, CEO of Attendance Works, a nonprofit focused on addressing absenteeism, said that when kids aren't showing up to school, it's an indication that engagement isn't happening.

"When you treat it as a matter of engagement, that's when we build the relationships with families, which make them trust schools and it builds a relationship so that we can actually find out what are the underlying causes of why kids aren't showing up," Chang told ABC News.

United Family Advocates Executive Director Joanna Lack is calling for more attention to those underlying causes. Lack worked on the issue for many years as the chief performance officer in Camden, New Jersey, and has since transitioned to the non-profit organization dedicated to keeping families safe and together.

"We've been looking at the wrong problem instead of opening up the hood and saying 'What's actually going on here?'" she said.

Home life among 'constellation' of issues

Student absenteeism is often correlated with household or child welfare problems that impact the student's school life, according to UFA's Lack.

"Chronic absenteeism is like the symptom that you experience, but it's not the disease, and we've been treating it like it's the disease," Lack said.

The Department of Health and Human Services does not have a specific initiative targeting chronic absenteeism. However, Head Start and the Family Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement-Fatherhood (FORGE) program under the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) both aim to improve outcomes in child welfare and enhance early childhood education, according to HHS officials.

Chang said there isn't an urgent need for new federally funded programs or aid, just better use of ones that are available.

"I need existing programs to think about how they use chronic absence data to collaborate and work together to support kids and families and make sure the kids who need their resources, or the schools that need their resources, are getting it," she said.

There's a "constellation" of issues that contribute to increased absences, from child welfare involvement to unstable housing, but Lack noted that families are complex and kids don't come in silos.

Activity makes a 'huge difference'

Nayleen is one of the thousands of students across the country who participate in extracurricular activities through the SCORES program, which creates safe environments where young people can build connections with their communities, according to its website. She said DC SCORES -- which provides soccer, poetry, and service-learning programs -- has helped her return to class more regularly.

She explained that playing soccer with DC SCORES has empowered her and she looks forward to talking to her coach after attending school.

"It helps me because whenever I'm going through stuff he will understand me," she said. "Sometimes he will help me. He will sit down and have a talk with me," she said, adding, "Whenever I'm down, he will ask me if I'm OK."

At the last month's inaugural National Executive Forum on Health and Outdoor Recreation, which combined outdoor recreation industry and health leaders to promote using recreation as a pillar of public health, experts told ABC News that recess makes a "huge difference" for holistic growth in adolescents.

Outdoor Recreation Roundtable President Jessica Turner emphasized that being outside is fundamental to student health.

"We've stepped back so far from incorporating the outdoors into our lives and to step back into it doesn't take very much," Turner told ABC News. "It's not a heavy lift."

Schools supporting parents and kids

Chang, of Attendance Works, said chronic absenteeism isn't inevitable.

She stressed that schools are starting to adopt more effective family engagement strategies for those dealing with attendance issues.

Shavar Jeffries, CEO of the KIPP Foundation, which operates the largest public charter school network in the nation, has utilized some simple yet effective solutions to correct absenteeism.

Jeffries told ABC News that when a student doesn't show up, they call the family "immediately."

"'Johnny, Mary, didn't come to school today. We really need them because they are going to miss an opportunity to learn,'" he said, adding "Then, frankly, sometimes we also say: You got to figure it out."

"Get your baby to school because they can't learn to fulfill that potential if you're not able to do that," Jeffries added.

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(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump administration revealed the list of materials that the National Park Service removed from parks across the country that relate to civil rights, diverse populations, science and the environment.

The list was made public on Wednesday as part of a court filing brought by various organizations. The Interior Department is appealing a federal judge’s order to restore those materials ahead of America 250 celebrations on July 4.

Included in the list are vague descriptions of the materials that were removed and their location. The list, however, does not provide images of the content that NPS found objectionable.

Examples of items that were removed include signs about climate change at parks like Acadia National Park in Maine and Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York; materials involving civil rights at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and at the Medgar and Myrtle Evans Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi; materials involving slavery at the President’s House in Philadelphia and materials on women’s rights at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge at the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York.

The list also includes reasons for the removals.

“Disparages Americans past or living” appears to be the reason provided by NPS for the removal of items related to civil rights, diverse communities, slavery and atrocities committed by the United States against Native Americans.

“Unrelated to beauty, abundance and grandeur of the national landscape” was listed as the reason for the removal of items related to science and the environment.

A spokesperson for the Interior Department confirmed to ABC News in a statement that the government is appealing the judge’s order to restore the items.

“We fully believe politically charged language denigrating our Founding Fathers is inappropriate and only further divides Americans,” the spokesperson said. “Through President Trump, we have encouraged Americans to visit our cultural and historic sites and engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country.”

The spokesperson added that the government seeks to “strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here.”

ABC News reached out to the Interior Department and NPS for further comment.

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley ordered the restoration of the materials in a Friday ruling and cast their removal by NPS as “a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization.” She ordered the government to restore all items by July 3.

The federal government has filed a motion asking for an emergency stay pending appeal, which would block the restoration as the appeals court considers the case. In the motion, the government argued that the restoration of the materials would cause "irreparable harm.”

In response, Kelley ordered the government to produce the list of changes and the condition of the materials, writing that this information was necessary for her to consider the government’s argument.

The removal of materials, which relate to civil rights, diverse communities, science and the environment, was made in compliance with a March 27, 2025, executive order in which President Donald Trump ordered the Interior Department to remove content that cast the United States’ “founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”

The complaint filed in February challenges the removal of the materials and was brought by a coalition of organizations committed to preserving history, the parks and the environment.

"National parks belong to the American people and censorship of any kind goes against the values these places represent," said Alan Spears, a senior director " said Alan Spears, a senior director at the National Parks Conservation Association, one of organizations suing NPS. "Americans count on national parks to help us understand our full, rich history. Stories of triumph and tragedy alike deserve to be told out loud at parks."

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