Lee's Summit R-7 School District

Judge chastises MO education agency, keeps charter school open - KCTV5 JEFFERSON CITY, MO (KCTV) - A judge had strong words for Missouri's education agency in rejecting their move to close Gordon Parks Charter School. Cole County Judge Daniel Green said the Missouri Board of Education had violated the state's open-meetings law and abused its power in rejecting the school's efforts to renew its charter. The school's application met the state law and should be approved, Green ruled. "Defendants' decision to deny the renewal of Gordon Parks' charter application was unlawful, unreasonable, arbitrary and involved an abuse of discretion," Green wrote. "The state board and DESE did not follow state law in reaching their conclusions." The state must also pay the charter school's legal costs, which could be in the tens of thousands of dollars. The judge's decision thrilled the charter school officials and its supporters. A represen...

Nixon: Tax cut bill would harm education, eliminate funding for new Fulton hospital | KBIA With two stops in mid-Missouri Tuesday, Gov. Jay Nixon continued his campaign against a Republican-sponsored bill that would cut the corporate and individual income tax rates. Nixon vetoed the bill earlier this summer. Enlarge image Credit File Photo / KBIA Nixon addressed Missouri school leaders in Columbia Tuesday at a conference hosted by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.  The governor used the venue to continue speaking against a bill that would cut taxes in the state. Nixon said House Bill 253’s passage would result in cuts of roughly $260 million from funding for public K-12 education in Missouri.  He said the state can’t afford to lose that funding.  The governor recently vetoed House Bill 253 after it passed the state legislature, but Republicans may attempt to override that veto.  For weeks, he’s also been drawing attention to p...

Dexter Daily Statesman: Local News: Nixon says tax-cut bill will harm education funding (07/30/13) NEW MADRID, Mo. -- Flanked by the state budget director and his top legal analyst, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon spent over an hour Friday telling a large group of school administrators, teachers and community members why they should support his fight against a veto override of House Bill 253. The governor had no shortage of strong words for supporters of the override, calling it "an unprecedented attack on public education" - the likes which he said he has not seen in his 27 years as an elected official. House Bill 253 would create tax cuts for individuals and certain types of businesses, which the governor said will harm the state's ability to fund schools statewide. Supporters say the legislation offers a responsible way to lower taxes and that the cuts will stimulate the state's economy and draw new businesses. Whether the governor's veto should be overridden is am...

LAUSD parents, teachers fight mainstreaming of disabled kids - LA Daily News LAKE BALBOA - Waving signs and chanting "Our kids, our choice," scores of Los Angeles Unified parents and teachers protested the looming transfer of hundreds of disabled students from special-education centers to traditional schools, as the district complies with laws to integrate students who have physical and developmental challenges. The protesters oppose the merger of four special-education centers with nearby traditional schools, a move that will affect about 300 disabled youngsters when school starts next month. Opponents of the plan say the district will be segregating rather than integrating their kids by putting them in unsafe situations and setting them up for teasing or bullying. They say they want it to be their choice, not the district's, to transfer their kids to a traditional campus. "They are celebrated at special-education centers for their abilities, not their inabiliti...

Inclusive Education: Right For Some by Bernard Rimland, Ph.D. Is there the parent of an autistic child who wouldn't be delighted beyond words if the child would simply blend smoothly into a regular classroom? That is a dream we all share . For a few, the dream becomes a reality. Over the years I have heard from a number of parents who have shared with us their joy, their pride and their good fortune: "Billy has been included in a regular classroom! He is having a hard time adjusting, but he is making it!" But, for every parent whose child "makes it," there are many more who are not so fortunate. Much as my wife and I would like to have our autistic son Mark be able to cope successfully in a normal school, it is very clear to us that he could not have done so. He has come along much farther than we ever dared hope, and we are quite confident it is because he was always in special classes, taught by experienced, skilled, caring teachers, exhibiting monumental...

The Lee's Summit School District has been investigated by the OCR for civil rights violations.  They were forced to enter into a resolution agreement.  Not too many of their residents are aware of the issues that this district is really facing.  Stay tuned for more.

Jeff Grisamore Not: Please Help Me Stop the Bullying of Children Hello! I've started the petition “Create a law that protects children from bullying by teachers" and need your help to get it off the ground. Will you take 30 seconds to sign it right now? Here's the link: http://www.change.org/petitions/create-a-law-that-protects-children-from-bullying-by-teachers Here's why it's important: It is essential that all children are safe from every kind of bullying and school remains a place to learn and not a place to fear. Did you know that the Kansas now has an Anti-Bullying Law that not only protects students from bullying by students, but also by teachers and other school staff? We need a similar law in Missouri.  The children of Missouri need the same protection as children in other states.  Children’s lives are being destroyed every day.  We cannot keep them safe without legislation.  That has proven to be the case over and over again. Teacher b...

Lee’s Summit schools to be highlighted in Obama speech | fox4kc.com This is an outstanding program and Lee's Summit should be pleased with their success.  However, they only put this much effort into programs that make them look good.  I wish that they had put this much time, money, and effort into my son's education.  He might have been a high school graduate instead of a high school dropout.  Lee's Summit will never put money or effort into those that will not make them look good.  Sad, but true. LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. – President Barack Obama will speak at the University of Central Missouri Wednesday to talk about the economy. As part of his remarks, the White House said Obama will talk about the Lee’s Summit’s School District’s accelerated engineering program. The program accepts juniors and seniors from 19 Missouri high schools and allows them to earn a bachelor’s degree in just two years after they graduate from high school. Seventeen-year-old Ma...

New law aids parents of special needs children in dealing with school districts | Tampa Bay Times TAMPA — For three hours Kate Grantham faced a panel of school officials to hash out a plan for her daughter's education. About half that time, the two sides discussed how much physical therapy the school would give Sarah, who has a condition that resembles cerebral palsy. "I tried to use all the sales words I've learned along the way," Grantham said. "Like, if this were your child, would you be satisfied with 30 minutes? I was getting very irritated." It is a task parents of special needs children sometimes dread: the summit to discuss a student's "individual education plan." Held annually, or sometimes more frequently, the meetings result in a legal document, called an IEP, that outlines a child's learning goals and what educators will do to help meet them. They can be daunting, confrontational affairs, as educators and parents often di...

A furor over change to state anti-bullying rules The wording is buried deep in the Christie administration's latest regulatory changes for public schools, a notation calling for removal of a single sentence from current regulations referring to certain required services and "corrective actions." But the words in question have to do with anti-bullying measures and the responsibilities school districts have to address the problem. Needless to say, the change has touched off a bit of a tempest. Three of the main sponsors of the state's Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights (ABR) - two Democrats and a Republican - last week wrote to state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf objecting to the change, saying it would all but gut the spirit of the historic law. Enacted in 2011, the anti-bullying measure put in place strict procedures and requirements for schools to combat harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB). "While we appreciate the department's ef...

Disabilty and Civil Rights: Choose to Stand On the Right Side of History Disabilty and Civil Rights: Standing On the Right Side of History Jul 18, 2013 AT 11:23 PM BY Ollibean Email "If we were to go back to the 1960s and we were to talk to those leaders who were vehemently against desegregation, we would hear the conviction in their voices of them stating why they believe their decisions and what they were doing to those children were just. Just as I believe that some of you and some of the board members that have spoken believe that their decisions are just. But, I fear that the Hillsborough County School Board is standing on the wrong side of history." Good morning, my name is Tonya Whitlock. I have four children currently in the Hillsborough County School District. I am here because I am very, very concerned with the decisions that are being made for our students in the ESE population and an...

People with milder forms of autism struggle as adults — SFARI.org - Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative People with milder forms of autism struggle as adults E-mail Print Share This Popularity tracker Deborah Rudacille 8 September 2011 Blurred boundaries: Social skills have a greater impact on quality of life for people on the autism spectrum than do any specific diagnoses. Contrary to popular assumption, people diagnosed with so-called mild forms of autism don’t fare any better in life than those with severe forms of the disorder. That’s the conclusion of a new study that suggests that even individuals with normal intelligence and language abilities struggle to fit into society because of their social and communication problems. In fact, people diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) are no more likely to marry or have a job than those with more disabl...

Petition | Create a law that protects children from bullying by teachers | Change.org It is essential that all children are safe from every kind of bullying and school remains a place to learn and not a place to fear. Did you know that the Kansas now has an Anti-Bullying Law that not only protects students from bullying by students, but also by teachers and other school staff? We need a similar law in Missouri.   The children of Missouri need the same protection as children in other states.   Children’s lives are being destroyed every day.   We cannot keep them safe without legislation.   That has proven to be the case over and over again. Teacher bullying gets little attention, say Stuart Twemlow, MD, a psychiatrist who directs the Peaceful Schools and Communities Project at the Menninger Clinic in Houston. But his new study, published in The International Journal of Social Psychiatry , hints that the problem may be more common than people believe. In his ...

Fox C-6 Watchdogs Documentation Contradicts Superintendent Dianne Critchlow's Statements at June 2013 Board Meeting! After I spoke during Public Comment at the June 2013 Fox C-6 School Board meeting regarding an open Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Education and a Final Agency Decision from the USDA finding Fox C-6 and Missouri DESE non-compliant with Section 504, ADA and the ADAAA, Superintendent Dianne Critchlow stated that: " We are in compliance with every complaint to date and one is in litigation and we cannot discuss it."   If you read the Monitoring Letters issued by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (ED OCR) and the Final Agency Decision from the USDA using the links below, you will find that our Superintendent's statement was false. Why would our Superintendent say that we cannot discuss these issues? Because it doesn't reflect well on her or the district. If Superintendent Critchlow is truly keeping ...

What Superintendents Really Think About Common Core, Other Education Topics | KC Education Enterprise

Pattonville School District reverses policy on transfer students : News Pattonville School District reverses policy on transfer students Print Email 2013-07-08T17:07:00Z Pattonville School District reverses policy on transfer students By Elisa Crouch ecrouch@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8119 stltoday.com 15 hours ago  •  By Elisa Crouch ecrouch@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8119 2 Pattonville Superintendent Mike Fulton's letter to parents Dear Parents: Read more Normandy will send buses to Francis Howell schools Under state law, Normandy and Riverview districts must pay transportation costs to at least one district. Read more Pattonville Superintendent Mike Fulton notified parents Monday that the school district's policy regarding transfer students from unaccredited districts has changed. Rather than refuse enrollment unless one year's tuition has been paid ...