Lee's Summit R-7 School District

Keeping All Students Safe Act (H.R. 1893) - GovTrack.us

Jeff Grisamore Not: Grisamore decides against resignation after email threat last Friday - The Missouri Times

Jeff Grisamore Not: Mo. Lawmaker Who Threatened To Resign Over Bills' Failure To Pass Changes His Mind | St. Louis Public Radio A Missouri lawmaker who threatened to resign unless one or both of his key bills survived the last day of the 2013 legislative session is staying put, even though both bills failed to make it out by Friday's deadline. State Representative Jeff Grisamore (R, Lee's Summit) said his resignation threat was based on frustration with the Senate's inaction on the bills --  House Bill 717  would have provided funding for disabled children and  House Bill 727  for disabled adults.  Both bills died when the Missouri Senate chose not to advance them on the final day of session. "We don't need to be waiting and allowing such important bills that impact our most vulnerable citizens in Missouri, folks with disabilities and at-risk women and children and families, be put off until the last minute," Grisamore said. Grisamore changed his mind a

Jeff Grisamore Not: Will He Really Quit I believe that he will hold on to the only job that he has regardless of what his email says.  Not too many people will know that he made this threat and he will not stick to his word.  He just is using our families, once again, to make himself look good.  My opinion, of course. “He expressed that this issue was of the utmost importance to him personally and professionally,” Parson said. He added that as far as the threat to resign, he’d “let the email speak for itself.”

In Decade's Time, Childhood Disabilities Rise 16 Percent - Disability Scoop Are we providing services to 16 percent more than we were?  I didn't think so. In Decade’s Time, Childhood Disabilities Rise 16 Percent By   SHAUN HEASLEY May 6, 2013 Text Size   A    A Significantly more children have disabilities today as compared to a decade ago, largely due to increased diagnosis of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions, researchers say. The prevalence of disability in children grew more than 16 percent in 10 years, according to findings presented Sunday at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting, a gathering of four leading pediatric organizations held in Washington, D.C. It’s unclear what’s behind the rise in disability prevalence, though greater diagnosis of autism could be at least partly responsible, said Amy Houtrow of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who is lead author of the study. Researchers l

Feds To Move Away From DSM - Disability Scoop Feds To Move Away From DSM By   MICHELLE DIAMENT May 6, 2013 Text Size   A    A (Updated: May 7, 2013 at 10:07 AM CT) Just weeks before a new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is scheduled for release, the head of the National Institute of Mental Health says it’s time to change how mental conditions are categorized. The agency will be redirecting its research focus away from the symptom-based diagnostic criteria of the DSM toward more scientifically verifiable standards, the mental health agency’s director, Thomas Insel, wrote in a recent  blog post . By shifting away from thinking about mental disorders as they are currently classified in the DSM, Insel says researchers will be able to establish a new diagnostic system based on emerging science. “Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any ob

Missouri budget will increase education funding | ksdk.com JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri public schools and universities will be getting a funding increase under an agreement by legislative  budget  negotiators. A group of House and Senate members decided Tuesday to provide a $25 million funding increase to public  colleges  and universities based on whether they have met performance criteria such as student graduation rates. That's less than the $34 million increase sought by Gov. Jay Nixon but more than the House had approved earlier this year. The budget also includes $10 million for the University of Missouri medical school to expand a residency program at the Cox Health system in Springfield. Public school districts would get a $66 million increase to their $3 billion of core funding - the same amount Nixon recommended.

Fox C-6 Watchdogs: Dear Colleague Letter On Retaliation Law from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights Sound familiar? Dedicated to providing Transparency and Facts to the parents and patrons of the Fox C-6 School District in Arnold, MO. I've been told that our superintendent reads my blog. She says a lot of what I write is not true. I highly disagree. I strive for accuracy and the truth. Blanket statements such as hers are no longer being accepted by our community. Please provide specifics as to what is not true on this blog so that I may correct them right away. So, far I only hear crickets chirping! Thursday, May 2, 2013 Dear Colleague Letter On Retaliation Law from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights A friend and parent who has had similar issues dealing with their school district pointed out to me today that the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) recently posted a Dear Colleague

States Get Ranked On Disability Services - Disability Scoop States Get Ranked On Disability Services By   MICHELLE DIAMENT May 2, 2013 Text Size   A    A Arizona is the place to be when it comes to services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, according to a new national ranking. The listing is part of a  report  set to be released Thursday by United Cerebral Palsy, which ranks disability services in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Specifically, the advocacy organization weighed each state’s track record in promoting independence and productivity, ensuring quality and safety, keeping families together and reaching people in need. In addition to Arizona, the highest ranked states were New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont and California. Top performing states were largely clustered in the Northeast and on the West Coast. As in past years, the standouts represented both big and small states as well as those with high and low tax burdens. What’s more, the a

Kate Casas: The Sky Isn't Falling on Public Education The Sky Isn't Falling on Public Education Posted: 05/06/2013 2:04 pm Follow éducation  ,  Education Reform  ,  American Federation Of Teachers  ,  Henny Penny  ,  Jay Barnes  ,  Kate Casas  ,  Kathryn Swan  ,  Kathy Swan  ,  Missouri Association Of School Administrators  ,  Missouri Association Of School Boards  ,  Teacher Tenure  ,  aft420  ,  Dwight Scharnhorst  ,  Fables  ,  Foundation For Excellence In Education  ,  hb458  ,  hb470  ,  Masa  , Missouri House Of Representatives  ,  Teacher Evaluations  ,  Impact News SHARE THIS STORY 15 14 1 Submit this story When I was in kindergarten, my class put on a Mother's Day rendition of the play  Henny Penny  for our mothers, grandmothers, and other adoring fans. Almost three decades later I entered the education reform community and have been reliving scenes from this fable ever since. Only in this grown-up version instead of Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, and Go

Stansberry stood for leadership Do we really need to ask ourselves why Lee's Summit is never held accountable by DESE?  The person, at DESE, that is responsible for holding them accountable has a building named after himself. Stansberry stood for leadership BY RUSS PULLEY rpulley@lsjournal.com Former school and city leaders get their names slapped on roads and buildings. But when the Lee’s Summit R-7 School Board named the district’s central office building on Tudor Road it made a very specific choice to note what it’s namesake meant to this community. The Tony L. Stansberry Leadership Center at 301 NE Tudor Road is named after the superintendent of schools serving from 1996 to 2006. Patti Buie and Jack Wiley, two school board members who worked with Stansberry, said calling the administration building a leadership center wasn’t just symbolic. It was picked because it evokes the mark Stansberry left on the district. A focus of his administration was developing leadership at

Dear Colleague letter from Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Seth M. Galanter Dear Colleague Letter THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY April 24, 2013 Dear Colleague: The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in the United States Department of Education (Department) is responsible for enforcing Federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age by recipients of Federal financial assistance (recipient(s)) from the Department. 1 Although a significant portion of the complaints filed with OCR in recent years have included retaliation claims, OCR has never before issued public guidance on this important subject. The purpose of this letter is to remind school districts, postsecondary institutions, and other recipients that retaliation is also a violation of Federal law. 2  This letter seeks to clarify the basic principles of retaliation law and to describe OCR’s methods of enforcement. The ability of individuals to oppose discrim