'Learning Together Every Day' campaign rallies support, encouragement for critical school attendance

The work to help all children “cannot be the schools’ responsibility, alone,” write leaders in the campaign by the United Way of Greater Kansas City, SchoolSmartKC and Turn the Page Kansas CIty. “It requires the collaboration of our whole community.”

Neighborhood schooling: LINC carries aid to families during pandemic

The path to this moment — when tears slipped from a grandmother’s eyes — had wound its way door by door through neighborhoods that are hurting. Like many of LINC’s Caring Communities site coordinators, Danisha Clarkson was out in the field helping her partner school reach families of children who were unaccounted for or needed help in the new school year . . .

KCPS Parent University to help ease online learning transitions

The new online school year continues to pose a challenge for families as everyone is trying to master technology and online platforms that are critical to their child’s success in school. The Kansas City Public Schools will be using its Parent University to help families succeed.

Strange new year: This is what it takes to get all families learning, thriving

With Labor Day behind them, the rest of the area’s school districts leapt into a most daunting school year this week. LINC was there to help as parents, teachers and their collective school community navigated the anxious first steps of remote learning.

'Pain unlike any we've ever seen': Doctors issue dire Covid warnings for KC

Those weren’t their faces in the line of picture portraits. Nor were those their names. But the University of Kansas Health System professor telling their stories in an alarming public forum Wednesday assured that they and the devastation of Covid on their lives were real.

Free child care available for KCPS families and staff members

Kansas City Public Schools is partnering with the Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City to provide high quality school-age childcare free-of-charge for KCPS families and staff members.

Destination unknown: Schools go boldly (with mixed plans) into new year with Covid

Here’s hoping that every school district will be able to say in the end that they planned right for Covid. Because, with no clear path through the pandemic, schools open the year vulnerable to second-guessing, whether all online or inside buildings with their teachers.

Give now, apply now: Digital equity fund wants equal opportunity for all KC students

“It is our belief that every student in Kansas City deserves equal opportunity to learn and for this reason, SchoolSmartKC and partners have created the KC Schools Technology and Connectivity Access Fund.”

Tax-free weekend for school supplies is back; starting Aug. 7

Kansas City-area shoppers who have been frustrated by this pandemic will get some welcome relief in stores and online during Missouri’s tax-free weekend, beginning Aug. 7

Utility shutoffs loom over schools' plans to teach children online at home

As pandemic-cautious schools begin fall classes online, vulnerable families are grasping at the schools’ technology-dependent programming without safety nets that had barred utility shutoffs and landlord evictions.

Covid overwhelming schools' plans for indoor fall openings

Our reckless summer with Covid-19 is proving all the warnings true. And now schools and their essential social infrastructure are toppling again under the weight of hundreds of new coronavirus cases every day just as districts were daring to launch meticulous, precarious reopening plans.

Hickman Mills seeks $30 million in no-tax-increase bond issue election Aug. 4

While voters statewide will decide the future of Medicaid expansion in Missouri Aug. 4, Hickman Mills voters will be making a $30 million decision on the future of their public schools.

Educare initiative to offer mini grants in support for early education providers

This is a good time for early education providers in homes and child centers to apply for support from Educare and its training and mentoring services. Providers who apply now and are enrolled in Educare by Sept. 30 can earn mini-grants valued at $500 to $1,000.

Creativity rises against the COVID storm as schools scramble to re-open

Ideas on reopening schools during COVID are churning at warp speed. Here’s one example, in the name of safe-spacing: How about overflow class space and after-school programs in church basements?

'You are professionals'; LINC trains child care specialists in power of relationships

LINC and the Infant and Toddler Specialist Network, despite the pandemic, is training child care workers to be stronger allies in helping families raise healthy, imaginative children who are ready for school and childhood.

Unanimous: Hickman Mills school board picks Obeng to be superintendent

The Hickman Mills school board has selected Yaw Obeng to be the south Kansas City school district’s next superintendent in a unanimous decision. Obeng currently serves as superintendent in the Burlington School District in Burlington, VT

Hickman Mills' superintendent search narrows to six semi-finalists

The Hickman Mills school board is interviewing — via Zoom — six semi-finalists this week who are vying to be the district’s next superintendent. The board expects to present the finalists early next week to the public, posting resumes and video interviews by the board.

No panic; Star School rises up to keep education going for court-involved teens

The pandemic was shutting down Missouri’s state-run schools for troubled youth. Teachers worried for their students whose tenuous grasp on education means so much to their chances to rise. Then, assuredly, an answer came to them: “Oh, right. Star School.”

Missouri's Child Advocacy Day 2020 is on! (virtually, that is)

This week, the 2020 version of this the statewide gathering will meet online, promising “to show Missourians that even though times are uncertain now, we can still come #Together4MOKids.”

Disconnected at home: KC’s pandemic-fueled race to get Internet access for all

The pandemic’s social isolation lights new fire to a long-running struggle to get everyone in Kansas City connected to the Internet. A look at who’s doing what, and how you can get help, or give help.