Missouri Board of Education Archives

Missouri voters could decide who sits on the state board of education – not the governor

March 1, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri voters could be asked to change the way state board of education members are selected. Representative Dottie Bailey, R-Eureka, wants to let voters decide who sits on the board, instead of letting the governor appoint all members. In order to be a board member, the Missouri Senate is also currently required to sign off on the governor’s appointees if the Legislature is in session.

Rep. Dottie Bailey (Photo courtesy of Tim Bommel, House Communications)

During a House committee hearing, Bailey said her proposed Constitutional amendment would allow voters to choose board members during each general election of a presidential election year.

“We need this to be an accountable elected position because it’s so vital, especially right now. It was vital before COVID-19. Now it’s even more vital,” said Bailey. “It’s such a crucial job. Just like us, if we don’t do a good job, we get voted out. With the state of education in our state today, I just feel that this puts this into the mold of the rest of our state.”

Currently, no more than four of the eight board members can be from the same political party. That could change under the proposal. One member would be elected from each congressional district by the voters of the congressional district and one member would be elected by the voters of the state at large.

Rep. Ian Mackey, D-St. Louis, questioned Bailey about the intent of the proposal.

“Do you think partisanship in education overall is a good or bad thing,” asked Mackey.

“Well, lately I think it’s a bad thing,” said Bailey.

“But if it’s your partisanship, then it’s probably going to be a good thing because that’s what I’m hearing,” saud Mackey.

“No, I don’t necessarily think that at all. I think you need people that represent your constituents and their ideas and their wants,” said Bailey. “Not either Republican or Democrat. If it’s a fully Democratic Congressional district, fine. Send whoever you wish. I am all for that. No shade to the governor or past governors or future governors. It’s just a more complete representative type of government, which we have.”

“To me, that sounds like pretext for making the board more Republican leaning,” said Mackey.

“I get it. I guess in some instances that would be the case,” said Bailey.

Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho, said he thinks school board races should be held during partisan elections.

“I don’t think it’s right that people can run for office and never declare what they subscribe to – what ideology they subscribe to, what they believe, how they think. They can just simply make a statement like, ‘I’m for the kids,’” said Baker.

Dr. Mary Byrne provided testimony for informational purposes. She suggested that members review information about Alabama’s elected state Board of Education.

“I would tell you that they are worse off than the state of Missouri,” she said.

Byrne said the committee should consider how much money lobbyists pour into U.S. Congress to pass education legislation. She also said foundations are seeding departments with former employees.

“You may think that you are getting power to the people but what you may be doing is opening the campaign contribution influence into elections of your state board members,” she said. “I don’t know if you are not going from the frying pan into the fire.”

Bailey’s plan does not currently lay out any campaign donation restrictions.

The measure would limit board members to two, four-year terms. Vacancies could be filled by the governor – as long as the Missouri Senate approves of them after appointed by the governor.

The House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday morning on Bailey’s proposal.

To check out House Joint Resolution 47, click here.

Missouri Teachers of the Year want K-12 community to get vaccinated immediately

February 16, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

“Our state’s teachers and support staff have faithfully risked their lives this year,” a letter says from Missouri’s 2017-2021 Teachers of the Year. It is addressed to Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Randall Williams and it presses him to let teachers and support staff get their coronavirus vaccinations immediately.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson visits a St. Louis school on July 29, 2020 (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

The letter is signed by Darrion Cockrell of Lindbergh Schools, Melissa Grandel of the Fordland School District, Shelly Parks of Francis Howell in St. Charles, Beth Davey of Ritenour Schools, and Darbie Valenti Huff of the St. Joseph School District. Three of them say they have been infected with the virus and say all cases are from likely exposures at school.

Most Missouri schools have been operating at least partially in-person classes for months. According to Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) data, 27 of the state’s 551 public districts and charter schools are currently offering distanced learning only.

Under Missouri’s coronavirus vaccination plan, citizens currently eligible to get immunized include those in the health care field, first responders, long-term care patients and staff, individuals 65 years or older, and Missourians with certain health conditions. Teachers are eligible to get immunized now if they are 65 years or older or have health conditions that could put them at risk of developing COVID-19.

The next phase of the state’s plan will allow teachers, faculty, and staff in public, private, and nonprofit pre K-12 schools to get vaccinated. But that phase might not begin until April or so.

“We have stepped up to the challenge to meet the educational, social, and physical needs of students, families, and communities in every way possible. We have been thanked as heroes – and just as often have been accused of ‘not doing enough.’ And yet, we have continued to place the needs of our children as the first priorities. Imagine, then, the dismay and chagrin teachers feel in knowing that many of our state’s school employees with Phase 1B Tier 3 may not have access to the vaccine for several months. Therefore, depending on the region in which they teach and live, the current distribution plan may not provide teachers and support staff full viral protection before the end of this school year,” the letter says.

The teachers say they have concerns about addendums and lowered safety precautions they say many school districts are using.

“Many districts are no longer identifying close contacts if most individuals were presumably masked. Many districts are utilizing ‘modified’ quarantines in which exposed students are still in buildings. Many districts have abandoned research-backed guidelines of 6-foot distanced learning for the convenience of full classrooms. Few Missouri counties employ a mask mandate, and many schools are holding instruction without mask protocols. This indicates an even more pressing need for Missouri educators to receive higher prioritization to the vaccine,” they say.

According to the group, 26 states are vaccinating educators immediately, including seven of Missouri’s eight bordering states.

“Policy makers and community leaders have asked school buildings to be open. Missouri teachers and support staff are doing what has been asked of us. We asked that you do the right thing,” they say.

Missouri, along with every other U.S. state, has had a high demand for the vaccine but not enough vaccine to go around. In a recent legislative committee hearing about the state’s vaccine rollout, Dr. Williams said the state had to make some tough decisions about Missouri’s priority list.

During this month’s Missouri Board of Education meeting, State Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said she shares the desire for teachers to be a priority. However, she said she also understands the way the state has set up its priority list.

“When that next tier opens, there may be communities who are called upon to prioritize their distribution and we are going to ask them to really think carefully about how do we make sure our teachers get in when they are eligible,” she said. “Additionally, we have a number of our teachers who are currently eligible because they are over 65 or have a pre-existing condition and we are encouraging them to seek that vaccination as quickly as they can.”

DESE spokeswoman Mallory McGowin said she wishes the next phase would launch earlier. She went on to say the vaccination is one layer of the state’s overall strategy to fight the virus.

“We’ve used that swiss cheese analogy – that we’re stacking layers of protection on top of one another like swiss cheese. And so there’s holes in every layer of protection, but the more layers you add, the more holes you cover up and better protect the students and staff members in your building,” she said.

The state has also emphasized the need for masking, handwashing, and social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus but wearing a mask in public is not required. Instead, Gov. Mike Parson has left coronavirus-related restrictions up to local leaders. Safety measures within schools have also been local control decisions.

Missouri discusses plan to meet social and emotional needs of K-12 students

February 10, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Board of Education is working to craft a statewide plan to help deal with the intensifying social and emotional needs of K-12 public school students. During a board meeting Tuesday, member Kim Bailey says the COVID-19 era has aggravated these problems.

Shutterstock image

Bailey, from western Missouri’s Raymore, is a licensed mental health and trauma specialist. She says the state needs to identify the gaps that exist among kids.

“We know that by virtue of the way everything is set up right now, that there are students falling through holes, educationally as well as social-emotional,” says Bailey. “If we don’t do this and fill in this social-emotional gap that has been created because of COVID-19, I feel like we will never win the battle on the educational gap.”

She recommends the effort be based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals of Mental Health, which has definitions about what “healthy” is.

“I’m wanting us to have a system that is moving our state forward, that stays out of, what I’m going to say is paradigms and politics, and focuses on what is tried and true that the mental health profession has researched for 70 years and says ‘This is what is healthy.’ It gives our students a foundation, moving forward, on how to be healthy and how to live well,” says Bailey.

In 2015, Missouri put in place social-emotional learning standards. Bailey says Missouri has “set the curve” for the rest of the nation.

She says the latest effort would not be a new program. Instead, it builds upon what is already in place and makes it more cohesive.

“The problem is, is that we’ve had COVID-19 since then. So, we need to re-evaluate our approach and make sure we are adjusting to fit the new need that came from COVID. We are the only state that is even having this conversation,” she says.

Member Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge, of Pasadena Hills in St. Louis County, says generations of children have had their learning impacted.

“I want to call out what may not be obvious but COVID-19 and the impact to social-emotional learning is essentially the outcome of undergoing trauma and a traumatic experience. Children in impoverished, marginalized situations have been impacted by trauma, have had their social-emotional learning compromised. So, this is not new. This is not new,” she says. “A part of me is cringing because we’re talking about it like it’s new but in fact, we’ve had a new trauma that has just exacerbated a problem that has existed for a long time. I can’t underscore how important it is for these kinds of interventions because a prolonged, if you study the science and you look at how brain chemistry changes when you undergo trauma for prolonged periods, we’re potentially facing a very dire set of circumstances if a good contingency of our children are having those experiences.”

“I absolutely agree there are individual impacts of this but there are also systemic impacts of this that we need to make sure we are addressing through an evidence-based psychologically sound approach,” says Bailey. “There’s been such a deconstruction of understanding of what it means to be human, or dare I say a healthy human. There’s been all these definitions of what it means to be human, but many of them step outside of the concepts of what we would consider psychologically sound. What this does is it gives our students a psychological footing based off of the mental health profession of what it means to be a healthy human.”

Member Peter Herschend, of Branson, applauds the plan.

“The trick will be to put it into actionable form that the average classroom teacher out there can grasp,” says Herschend. “I think Kim is on sound ground here talking about the COVID-19 impact on social-emotional learning. It’s an area we never even talked about two years ago.”

The endeavor is in the early stages. Board Vice President Victor Lenz questions how much extra work the approach would be for teachers.

Bailey says many elements are already in place.

“Just like we teach physical health, it would be teaching what it means to be mentally healthy. A health teacher could teach these concepts,” says Bailey. “You don’t need a licensed mental health professional. It wouldn’t be a big lift. The sooner we get this into the hands of our teachers and students, the better equipped our students will be. This is again teaching them how to think – not what to think.”

Lenz says community support on the rollout is key.

“People have to see the positive results and how it’s going to affect positively the overall education that we’re doing in order to get the support to implement this kind of thing, rather than resistance. I 100% think we need to do this, I totally agree. But we’ve got to be very, very careful how we do it in order to get the support that we need from everybody involved,” says Lenz.

Bailey suggests reconvening a work group on learning attainment. It could come up with recommendations to get the ball rolling on an overall plan.

Missouri Senators could spar this week over K-12 education package

February 1, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Senate could debate a giant education package this week that is a source of high contention among lawmakers and the education world. Senate Bill 55, sponsored by Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, could change the landscape of K-12 education in the Show-Me State.

Missouri Senate could bring up contentious education package this week

The plan would:

•Allow charter schools in any school district located within a charter county as well as in any Missouri city with a population greater than 30,000 people.

•Let parents use tax credits on things like private school tuition, school supplies, and tutoring. That portion could cost up to $100 million in its first year.

•Give state aid for full-time equivalent online learning enrollment to the MOCAP virtual school provider – not the local district the student lives in.

•Set up a process to allow school board members to be recalled.

•Limit State Board of Education members to one eight-year term.

•Strip a district of state aid if it is a member of a statewide activities association that bans a home school student from participating in activities offered by the district or requires a home school student to attend the school to participate in any activity.

Many Republicans have prioritized this legislative session the expansion of access to other educational opportunities. SB55 supporters have argued that traditional public schools do not work for every student’s needs. In some instances, they have pointed to the pandemic causing additional learning challenges for Missouri students.

SB 55 opponents have said the effort is an attack on public education and would take money away from traditional public schools. Another argument that has been made is if taxpayer money is going to go to charter schools and private schools, they should have the same accountability measures as traditional public schools.

The votes on the bill could be tight, possibly leading to deals being made behind the scene in order to get it across the finish line.

Former Missouri House Education Committee chair laid to rest; described as statesman and champion (AUDIO)

January 22, 2021 By Brian Hauswirth

Missouri’s education commissioner and a number of current and former state lawmakers traveled to southern Missouri’s Ava for Thursday’s funeral for former State Rep. Maynard Wallace, R-Thornfield.

Former State Rep. Maynard Wallace, R-Thornfield, speaks on the Missouri House floor in Jefferson City on April 8, 2010 (file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at House Communications)

An obituary from Clinkingbeard Funeral Homes says Mr. Wallace died suddenly at his home on Sunday. He was 77.

The Thornfield Republican served in the Missouri House for eight years, from 2003-2010. He chaired the powerful Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee during his final two years.

State Sen. Karla Eslinger, R-Wasola, describes Wallace as a champion for public education.

“He would find an opportunity for folks to understand that we have some really good schools out there,” Eslinger says. “He was very proud of the work of the schools in his (southern Missouri) district, and so he was able to share those success stories to folks who may not have that perception of public education.”

Wallace also served as a school superintendent in Ava and in southwest Missouri’s Forsyth. Eslinger served as assistant superintendent under Wallace, at Ava.

She tells Missourinet that Wallace was a statesman.

“The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician is worried about the next election, a statesman is worried about the next generation. And I think that is definitely Maynard Wallace,” says Eslinger.

After leaving the Legislature, Wallace also served three years on the State Board of Education. He also served six years on the Missouri State Tourism Commission.

Senator Eslinger also describes him as a devoted husband, grandfather and a man of faith.

Former State Sens. David Sater, R-Cassville, and Mike Cunningham, R-Rogersville, were among the many former and current lawmakers who attended the funeral.

Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s full five-minute interview with State Sen. Karla Eslinger, R-Wasola, which was recorded on January 21, 2021:

Missouri K-12 community waits its turn to get COVID-19 vaccination

January 15, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

The state is not quite there yet in offering the COVID-19 vaccination to Missouri’s K-12 school workers. It is working on a plan to get them vaccinated when it is their turn. During a state Board of Education meeting this week, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Spokeswoman Mallory McGowin said supply continues to be an obstacle.

“The number of vaccines we have gotten into the state has not been what we were hoping at this point,” she said. “And so, that is affecting the timeline obviously for our K-12 audience.”

Missouri K-12 community waits its turn to get COVID-19 vaccination

Member Mary Schrag of southern Missouri’s West Plains said the medical community in rural Missouri is also lacking vaccine.

So far, the immunizations have been offered to Missouri’s health care workers as well as long-term care staff and patients. On Thursday, the state began offering them to first responders and remaining health care workers. Beginning Monday, individuals 65 and older and those with an increased risk of severe illness can get vaccinated.

K-12 school employees are next in line. Some board members, including President Charlie Shields, said the education community should be higher on the priority list.

“The faster we get the education community immunized, the faster we get back to in-person learning, which we have said as a board is a huge priority,” said Shields. “The more kids we have in school, the more parents we have able to re-enter the workforce, the faster the economy recovers.”

School nurses could help to vaccinate fellow employees. Some workers might end up going to a nearby Walgreens or CVS Pharmacy. Shields said hospitals “stand ready to help.”

“What we would do is set up in a large space be it a gymnasium or a cafeteria, have several people doing the immunizations, doing the registration, things like that. Then we need to be able to watch people for 15 minutes to make sure they don’t have a reaction,” he said. “So, it takes a lot of manpower to do these. But when you set them up right, you can do hundreds if not thousands a day. So, you can imagine it wouldn’t take very long to do an entire school district.”

Shields, of northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph, is the CEO of Truman Medical Center in Kansas City and serves on the Missouri Hospital Association Board.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine tracker shows more than 528,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine had been delivered to Missouri’s hospitals, health care providers, local health departments, or pharmacies. Gov. Mike Parson says Missouri has administered at least 190,000 doses of the immunization.

CDC, Missouri officials begin work on first-ever COVID-19 study within K-12 schools

December 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri is partnering with the CDC, Washington University and St. Louis University to help local K-12 schools and public health leaders review current COVID-19 measures. CDC workers arrived over the weekend to begin working on the first-ever pilot project within elementary and secondary schools.

Missouri officials begin work on first-ever COVID-19 study within K-12 schools

The effort will track COVID-19 infections among students and staff based upon whether they were wearing masks in school when they came into close contact with someone infected with the virus. They will be tested over a 30-day period.

Schools participating in the project are being identified in St. Charles, St. Louis, and Greene Counties. Participation of students, workers and employees is voluntary.

During a Missouri Board of Education meeting this week, State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spokeswoman Mallory McGowin says the project is being piloted for the next couple weeks until schools go on winter break.

“And then the entire data collection and review process is anticipated to be completed within about three months. So likely when schools resume in the new calendar year, there will be more of ability to add participating districts,” she says. “The project will also involve a survey of school-based mitigation strategies. That survey will be sent to schools throughout the state to help the researchers and medical professionals working on this project better understand the measures that are being implemented across the state.”

The findings could lead to additional health measures being taken.

The results of the study will be published for the nation’s school systems to see.

Missouri K-12 statewide testing to move forward, but results won’t be used for accountability purposes

December 9, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The Missouri Board of Education voted Tuesday to avoid using 2021 standardized test results for state and federal accountability. Members still want the state’s K-12 public school students to take statewide tests next year, but they do not want the results to count against schools for funding and accreditation purposes.

Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven

The move might lower the blood pressure of some teachers and administrators who are overwhelmed enough as it is this school year from COVID-19’s wrath on education and life in general. During Tuesday’s board meeting, Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven said she wants teachers to be able to focus on the fundamentals.

“We want them to be educating our kids and we believe that if they continue to educate the kids to the best of their ability, the scores generally take care of themselves. But we expect to see some differentiation. Who wouldn’t expect to see that,” she asked.

Dr. Vandeven went on to say the state must still continue to maintain high expectations of learning during the pandemic.

“It’s also not very healthy for young adults to give them a diploma or a credential and then have them go into the next phase of life and not really be prepared,” she said. “We have to know that they have acquired certain skills.”

Assistant Commissioner Chris Neale said accountability systems are built around standard metrics and this academic year is anything but standard.

Victor Lenz

“At this point, we know quite a bit about how instruction is being provided but we do not yet have hard data on how students are doing. The anecdotal information that we hear ranges from students doing fairly well to students who are struggling terribly,” said Dr. Neale. “We believe all of this may be true and that student success is very dependent on both the students and local conditions. At this point though, we do not have consistent, comparable, objective, independent data that will provide an accurate picture. Once we do, both state and local leaders can consider how best to respond applying resources to address unfinished learning.”

Board Vice President Victor Lenz of St. Louis said statewide testing will help to take the temperature of academic performance in the midst of COVID-19. Board President Charlie Shields of St. Joseph agreed.

State Board of Education President Charlie Shields

“In my world of health care, if somebody came into our Emergency Department expressing all the symptoms of extreme hypertension and we didn’t put a blood pressure cuff on them, we’d be charged with malpractice. I think we have to understand what’s going on there,” he said. “To say that we’re not going to do assessments – I use that analogy in the medical world but I think this would be educational malpractice if we refused to do this.”

According to the Department, 10 Missouri school districts and 26 charter schools have not yet had students onsite this school year – totaling more than 82,000 kids. Those students are learning remotely.

The schooling method is not everyone’s cup of tea. Online learning can be difficult for some students to pay attention in class – sometimes leading to an increase in lower grades and a decline in attendance. Vandeven said students with special needs, English Language Learners and others are struggling to learn in a virtual environment.

Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge

Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge of Pasadena Hills questioned if the test results will be used against schools in a punitive manner.

“I think that’s especially concerning in cases where public school data is being used to make the case for different types of schools and alternative choices,” she said.

Dr. Tracy Hinds, deputy commissioner of the Division of Learning Services, said using the data as a punitive measure is not the direction the Department is going.

“We are really seeking information. We want to be informed. We need to know the next steps that we need to take,” she said.

Carol Hallquist of Kansas City questioned how the state can ensure accurate testing data is collected.

Carol Hallquist

“Data are only useful if they are accurate. Dr. Mark Bedell, superintendent of Kansas City, told me that the testing he’s done are showing positive results because they don’t have special needs and English Language Learners as part of his base. Going back to Charlie’s example, it seems like you would blood pressure machine on and it’s faulty and the reading would do you no good. So, help me understand how the data will be accurate and useful,” she asked.

Vandeven said it would be unfair to call the information inaccurate.

“I don’t know that the data are faulty. I think they’ll give you an accurate blood pressure reading,” said Vandeven. The thing is, they might be a little bit lower because his diet has been terrible.”

She said the key will be test participation among Missouri’s 900,000 K-12 public school students. If parents do not want their kids to take the test in person, then participation could suffer.

“Right now, the law is 95% participation rates and it’s for that very reason – so that you are comparing sort of apples to apples. If we get 70% in this district and 30% in another, that has to be part of the story and part of the data reporting and understanding what we are seeing,” says Dr. Vandeven.

Lisa Sireno, Standards and Assessment Administrator in the Department’s Office of College and Career Readiness, said the state is coming up with a game plan to test students next year, including possibly moving the test taking to later on in the spring.

“Without systemwide assessment, we cannot build a complete reflection of the impact of the pandemic on student learning. We know that the more students who participate in the assessment, the more useful the resulting data. We are encouraging assessment of as many students as possible and we will report assessment participation rates,” she said.

Another consideration is reducing the length of the test.

Missouri education official calls substitute teacher shortage a crisis

November 10, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri schools continue to struggle with having enough teachers available to educate students in traditional classrooms this year. The Show-Me State has had a chronic problem with teacher shortages, but COVID-19 has made that can of worms open even more.

Missouri education official calls substitute teacher shortage a crisis

Many of the state’s 70,000 pre-k through 12 teachers are going above and beyond this year to reach their students in the classroom and at home. Some schools have been forced to move to online learning if they lack enough educators. Teachers are giving up their planning time to pitch in and help in other parts of their school. Students are sometimes getting shuffled into other classrooms because their teacher is absent.

According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s (DESE) website, about 81,000 students are currently getting in-seat instruction. About 139,000 are learning online only. Another 658,000 are doing a combination of the two. None of Missouri’s roughly 551 school districts and charter schools are closed due to COVID-19.

In September, DESE launched an online training program that can fast track candidates to become K-12 substitute teachers. The temporary effort is meant to help fill the gaps in teacher shortages during the pandemic.

More than 2,700 Missourians have enrolled in the program so far and about 700 are currently subbing. Dr. Paul Katnik is the assistant commissioner of the Office of Educator Quality at DESE. During a state Board of Education meeting today, Katnik says people in every region of the state have signed up.

“We started the entire program on September 2. We were issuing our first certificate on September 9,” he says. “People can get this done in a week if they’ve got everything turned in and they get their training done right away. I can tell you there’s other people that haven’t moved along quite that quickly.”

Despite the volume of participation, the need for more subs still exists. Just ask Missouri Board of Education member Mary Schrag of southern Missouri’s West Plains.

“I just think we’re just really struggling still to get subs in these very small towns where we have really limited numbers of individuals who would probably be able to sub and be successful,” she says. “I think in the more urban areas, they are more populous. There’s just more people to tap into in the first place.”

Substitute teacher certifications have also taken a plunge since March. The range has been anywhere from 16% to 72% compared to last year. Certifications began to turn the corner a bit last month but Katnik says the substitute teacher shortage is still very real.

“It was a problem before the pandemic. It’s certainly a crisis now,” he says.

Katnik says the rate at which schools are not filling substitute teacher jobs has, in turn, grown during the pandemic.

“The typical fill rates for substitutes are upwards of 80% in a normal year. Meaning if I need ten subs, I usually get eight out of the ten,” says Katnik. “But we’re hearing fill rates now being 50% and less, which means I can’t even fill half.”

The cost for the full set of substitute training courses required to meet certification is $175. The online program is available on the Missouri Department Elementary and Secondary Education’s website.

Missouri program changes lives of high school students with disabilities

October 28, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

For the past 100 years, the state’s Vocational Rehabilitation Program has been helping Missourians with disabilities develop work skills. It began after World War I to aid injured soldiers in gaining employment. The program is part of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

During a Missouri Board of Education meeting, Assistant Commissioner Tim Gaines said one of its programs, the Summer Work Experience Program, has served a record of nearly 800 students this year.

It helps high schoolers with disabilities build job skills and prioritizes students who have never worked before. They work for six weeks during the summer while getting paid minimum wage for their efforts.

“This was the best year we’ve ever had,” he said. “We had 209 high schools that participated in the Summer Work Program, which is excellent. We had 235 employment sites and these were good jobs. These were reputable businesses.”

A wide variety of employment sites have participated, such as grocery stores, retail businesses and parks.

“You would have thought that we would have canceled this program due to COVID-19,” he said. “We thought about it. We met about it, but we heard over and over from students, parents, teachers and others that ‘This is an important program. We don’t want you to cancel it.’ So, we didn’t.”

The program has been around since 2015 and has gained strong popularity throughout its existence. In its first year, 115 students were served – a far cry from today’s 794.

Gaines said he has a whole folder of stories about the program changing the lives of some high schoolers, including one about a mom who has seen tremendous growth in her son.

“Mom said that before her son’s summer work experience at McAlister’s Deli, her son’s anxiety was so incapacitating that he would never go out into public,” said Gaines. “And by the end of the work program, he was going out into the community to shop with his friends that he made from work.”

After his summer work wrapped up, McAlister’s Deli offered her son a part-time job.

Gaines says this year, about 69 of the kids were offered jobs. He emphasizes the program is about gaining work experience for these students who are still in school.