The 2020 edition of the KIDS COUNT Data Book is here — an annually published resource from the Annie E. Casey Foundation that tracks child well-being nationally and state by state. In this year’s report, Missouri ranks 30th among U.S. states.
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“We’re in a desert.” Sand-colored shades in the middle of the latest map of Kansas City participation in the Census show tracts that remain below 50% — and even less than 30% in some — in the number of households that have filled out the 2020 count — putting millions of federal dollars at risk.
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Remember the heady days of Google Fiber’s big Kansas City launch some eight years ago? A resolution now before the City Council wants Kansas City to dream big again. The pandemic has exposed the city’s digital gaps and the need to get everyone connected.
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Whether in the role of husband, father, mentor, volunteer, or photographer, Marvin Francois was always there. The one face you knew you’d see. The rock in so many people’s lives. Lost to senseless violence. But a messenger of peace.
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The word’s got to get out. The USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box program supplies KC non-profits the chance to give away free 25-pound boxes of produce — and The Prospect, Kanbe’s Market and the Urban League want to deliver more into KC’s food deserts.
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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
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An uprising of new anger on old embers swept over Kansas City over a hot weekend, both unnerving and steeling a community already shouldering the pandemic’s strain.
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The rain gathered force Thursday morning just as the line of cars began lining up early, filled with families eager to pick up free boxes of food and milk. Neither the rain nor the line of cars outside Fort Osage Middle School in Independence would stop before all 1,900 boxes of food and milk were given away.
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The Hickman Mills school board announced its three finalists for superintendent, naming two out-of-state superintendents and an assistant superintendent in Kansas City.
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The protections for renters against evictions in Jackson County are scheduled to expire June 1 — stirring anxiety among renters and landlords as another round of rent payments come due.
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It came to this. The teachers’ live-streamed faces flickered in the grid of a virtual conference call but none of the students who’d been invited to join them were there. Not a one. This was not a problem of lack of interest, but the difficulties of digital technology. The teachers did not give up.
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School administrators and childhood programmers across Kansas City are steering into a perfect storm as a broken summer for education raises the stakes now and for the critical fall semester ahead. The challenge is urgent, and one they are facing with creativity, collaboration, and determination.
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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.
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Tearo “Missie” Condit’s Hero Project with Bob Walkenhorst was extraordinary in education. “It lifted kids up. Their chests pump up like they met a superhero. It makes them feel like . . . ‘I have a voice. I can do something!’”
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Missouri joined 30 other states whose plans have been approved to distribute food purchase cards to all families that qualified for free or reduced-price meals during the school year to help strengthen home nutrition while schools are out.. Now the onus is on the state and school communities to inform newly eligible families and provide them EBT cards.
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A new report from the Centers for Disease Control is raising alarms over another potential hazard in America’s response to COVID-19: Many children aren’t getting their necessary immunizations. These critical vaccinations need to happen as pediatrician offices and clinics open for well-child visits.
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Missouri households receiving food stamps can now enjoy the same safety against the coronavirus by making purchases online. Amazon and Walmart websites are now prepared to accept Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards.
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How can America feed more children in need of better nutrition? A global non-profit says increasing food stamp benefits to families is essential. Bread for the World is urging the U.S. to increase the maximum food stamp benefits.
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Even as Missouri KIDS COUNT was preparing to release its 2020 data book, its writers knew everything was changing and that the stakes with the pandemic are rising for our most vulnerable children. So now comes the “Story Map of Vulnerability.”
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