U.S. Department of Education Archives

Missouri shares virus aid spending suggestions with K-12 schools

April 14, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

The U.S. Department of Education says Missouri’s K-12 schools will get nearly $2 billion in total federal aid from the latest coronavirus plan. State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spokeswoman Mallory McGowin said health experts suggest spending some of the virus funding on the basics.

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

“The experts shared that while good sanitation in schools is never something that you should omit, purchasing those UV cleaning systems that can be quite pricey or spending a lot of money to do these extraordinary cleaning measures may not be the place to invest your resources. The experts shared that continuing to purchase masks for students, continuing some of those other mitigation strategies would be a better place to drop their dollars into,” she said.

As schools consider what to use the money for, McGowin said many Missouri schools are not set up to have much social distancing.

“If you’re not able to utilize that layer of protection – keeping students and staff at least three feet apart now per the new CDC guidance – then you need to layer on the additional mitigation strategies. That’s when masks become prudent. That’s when the plexiglass barriers and things like that become something you really need to sink your energy into,” she said.

Some Missouri communities and local school boards have lifted coronavirus restrictions. McGowin said now is not the time to ease up school health rules.

“From our perspective and the perspective of the Department of Health and Senior Services, all are in alignment that those mitigation strategies that schools are using and that we’re seeing work must remain in place to ensure that we can continue to offer those in-person learning opportunities safety and with little to no interruption,” she said.

The state strongly encourages the use of face masks but McGowin said there are no financial penalties against schools that do not require masks.

School nurse group hopes Missouri districts will put federal aid toward hiring nurses

April 12, 2021 By Alisa Nelson

Missouri’s K-12 schools are getting a big chunk of change in the latest federal coronavirus relief package. The U.S. Department of Education says $1.95 billion total has been designated for Missouri schools. The plan also includes funding for a program to increase student internet connectivity for virtual learning and aid for nonpublic schools.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson speaks to schoolchildren and teachers in mid-Missouri’s California School District on September 9, 2020 (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)

Linda Neumann, with the Missouri Association of School Nurses, says the group hopes the state’s school districts will consider using some of the federal funding to hire school nurses.

“The Missouri Association of School Nurses is hoping that in Missouri, they will invest the federal funding in a way that will effectively achieve safer classrooms in schools, to improve the physical and mental health and academic success of children. Part of this involves hiring school nurses in those schools that do not have access to a school nurse,” says Neumann. “If they need school nurses or if they need a counselor or maybe they can expand the number of school nurses they have so that one school nurse doesn’t have to cover three schools.”

Neumann tells Missourinet a 2020 state Education Department report shows about 20% of Missouri public school districts do not have a nurse.

“For some students, the school nurse is their actual health care home because of lack of access in their community, especially in some of our rural communities. That tends to be where there is a lack of school nurses right now, where not every town has a doctor, dentist, or a pharmacy, but they have a school. If that school has a registered nurse there to take care of those kids, that school nurse can really fill in the gaps, find resources, and have resources brought in. “It’s not that schools don’t appreciate having a registered nurse there. It is often a budget issue,” she says.

Neumann says in the early 1990s, about 50% of Missouri public school districts did not have a school nurse on hand. Then, an effort began to tax smokeless tobacco products and designate that revenue toward putting more nurses in schools.

In 1995, Missouri allocated $5.4 million annually for 15 years for school health services, which increased school nurses in schools to 99.7%. That funding ended in 2010. As a result, not all school nurse positions were sustained.

For the schools without a registered school nurse, some have a health aide. Others rely on their principal or an administrative assistant to field health problems. Without a school nurse, Neumann says the level of expertise and care the kids are going to receive is not going to be the same.

According to the state Department of Health and Senior Services, there are more than 72,000 Missouri K-12 public school students with asthma, some 27,000 have life-threatening food allergies, about 7,300 suffer from seizures, and more than 2,200 have Type 1 diabetes.

“This doesn’t even mention the impact that COVID-19 has had on kids,” says Neumann. “COVID-19 has definitely disrupted learning of students and compromised their physical and mental health. We have seen anxiety and depression go up tremendously in our state both in children and adults during covid.”

Neumann says having a school nurse on staff helps to reduce student absenteeism.

“When a registered nurse is there to help manage those chronic health conditions, like asthma and diabetes, those are things that the healthier we can keep the kids the more they can be in school,” she says.

Neumann cites The Journal of American Medical Association showing the benefits of investing in a school nurse.

“Their determination was that in schools, for every dollar invested in a full-time registered school nurse, that society would gain $2.20,” she says.

When administrators or school boards are determining how many school nurses are needed, Neumann says the schools should keep in mind student safety.

“That means nurse to student ratio and it really varies depending on the health needs of the students and the social determinants of the population,” she says. “If you have 700 kids that are all well, one school nurse is sufficient. But if you have eight kids with Type 1 diabetes, three with seizure disorders, three with sickle cell, a kiddo with chemotherapy – there are just so many factors that play into that.”

Missouri has about 550 traditional public school districts and charter schools serving roughly 900,000 students.

Missouri schools scrambling to overhaul new sexual assault and discrimination regulations

July 13, 2020 By Alisa Nelson

The U.S. Department of Education has issued new regulations for the nation’s K-12 and most higher education schools to use when responding to sexual harassment and assault allegations. The changes fall under the federal Title IX law, which bans discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities getting federal financial aid.

Missouri schools scrambling to overhaul new sexual assault and discrimination regulations

The new rule, issued in May, begins August 14 – leaving many Missouri schools rushing to comply with the changes while they also figure out how to reopen schools in a COVID-19 world.

Key provisions of the new rule include:
• Defines sexual harassment to include sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking, as unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex
• Requires the school to offer survivors supportive measures, such as class or dorm reassignments or no-contact orders
• Protects K-12 students by requiring elementary and secondary schools to respond promptly when any school employee has notice of sexual harassment
• Holds colleges responsible for off-campus sexual harassment at houses owned or under the control of school-sanctioned fraternities and sororities
• Restores fairness on college and university campuses by upholding all students’ right to written notice of allegations, the right to an advisor, and the right to submit, cross-examine, and challenge evidence at a live hearing
• Shields survivors from having to come face-to-face with the accused during a hearing and from answering questions posed personally by the accused
• Requires schools to select one of two standards of evidence, the preponderance of the evidence standard or the clear and convincing evidence standard – and to apply the selected standard evenly to proceedings for all students and employees, including faculty
• Gives schools flexibility to use technology to conduct Title IX investigations and hearings remotely

Kelli Hopkins, associate executive director of the Missouri School Boards’ Association, tells Missourinet the rule very narrowly defines sexual harassment and takes on a more due process approach.

“You need four trained people in pretty much what I would call courtroom-level types of process,” Hopkins says. “And we’ve got school districts with two people in the central office.”

Hopkins says the changes are very complicated.

“Now there are a set of procedures and requirements about how to investigate, who investigates, and who decides whether they did something wrong and what the penalties can be and a whole slew of brand new ways to do things,” Hopkins says.

A coordinator is required to educate the rest of the group charged with Title IX duties. An investigator is required to examine the allegations. Another individual issues a decision in each case. If an appeal is made, another person must hear each appeal.

Under the new requirements, Hopkins says if one of the parties involved in a claim leaves the school for good, the school no longer has jurisdiction. Private and criminal lawsuits could still be filed.

According to Hopkins, the new rule only applies if the alleged events took place as part of the school’s programming or activities.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit requesting a federal court to block the new requirements. The organization says by adopting a rule that subjects sexual harassment to different standards than other forms of harassment, the Trump administration is doing exactly what Title IX prohibits — discriminating on the basis of sex.

The ACLU opposes the provisions in the regulation that:
• Impose an unduly narrow definition of sexual harassment, one narrower than that used for racial harassment
• Allow colleges and universities to not investigate complaints of incidents that they reasonably should have known about
• Relieve schools of the obligation to investigate many instances of student-on-student harassment or assaults that occur off campus, even where they have continuing effects on campus
• Allow schools to adopt unreasonable responses to complaints and holding them responsible only if their actions are “deliberately indifferent”
• Allow schools to apply a clear and convincing evidence standard of proof

Hopkins says a claim also being made is that the regulations will make sexual assault almost impossible to prove and could serve as a deterrent for victims to file a complaint.
She says another ACLU argument is a federal law cannot be overturned with an administrative rule.

“What they (ACLU) are saying is what Congress created, they (U.S. Education Department) have now altered so significantly that the regulations are illegal,” says Hopkins. “I think they have a legitimate argument, especially for K-12.”

A press release from the U.S. Department of Education says the new requirements hold schools accountable for failure to respond equitably and promptly to sexual misconduct incidents and ensures a more reliable judgement process that is fair to all students.

“Too many students have lost access to their education because their school inadequately responded when a student filed a complaint of sexual harassment or sexual assault,” says U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. “This new regulation requires schools to act in meaningful ways to support survivors of sexual misconduct, without sacrificing important safeguards to ensure a fair and transparent process. We can and must continue to fight sexual misconduct in our nation’s schools, and this rule makes certain that fight continues.”

The release goes on to say the Obama administration denied students basic due process protections – leading to such cases frequently being overturned by the courts.