Every Day Numbers for the 14th District

CHILDREN & FAMILY SERVICES

Division of Child Support Enforcement
(314) 264-7700

Jewish Family and Children's Services
(314) 993-1000

NAACP - St. Louis County Branch
(314) 389-1552

St. Louis County Human Services
(314) 615-4453

Youth Emergency Services
(314) 727-6294

CONSUMER PROTECTION

Consumer Credit Counseling Services
(314) 647-9004

Consumer
Credit Reports
1-877-322-8228

Missouri Consumer Protection Hotline
1-800-392-8222

Missouri Dept. of Insurance Consumer Information
1-800-726-7390

CRISIS HOTLINES

The Women's Safe House
(314) 772-4535

Youth Emergency Service Hotline
(314) 727-6294

St. Louis Housing Resource Center
(Homeless Hotline)
(314) 802-5444

Life Crisis Services, Inc. (for Adults)
(24-Hour)
(314) 647-4357

Elderly Abuse Hotline
1-800-392-0210

Child Abuse & Neglect Hotline
(24-Hours)
1-800-392-3738

Alcohol Drug Interventions & Drug Treatment Referrals
1-888-762-3750

Trevor Lifeline
(For at-risk LGBT youth: 24-Hours)
1-866-488-7386

HEALTH-RELATED SERVICES

Alzheimer's Association
1-800-272-3900

Birth & Death Records
(314) 615-1720

HIGHER EDUCATION

Missouri School for the Blind
(314) 776-4320

Paraquad, Inc.
(314) 289-4200

HOUSING

Beyond Housing
(314) 533-0600

Housing Authority -
St. Louis County
(314) 428-3200

Home Improvement Grants (North County)
(314) 615-8232

PREGNANCY COUNSELING

Abortion Alternatives
(314) 962-5300

Planned Parenthood & Reproductive Health Services of St. Louis
(314) 531-7526

SENIOR CITIZEN SERVICES

Missouri Rx Program
1-800-375-1406

Long-Term Care Information - Ombudsman
(314) 918-8222

Older Adult Community Action Program
(314) 993-5181

Legal Services of Eastern Missouri (Elderly Law Unit)
(314) 534-4200

TOUR THE CAPITAL CITY

State Capitol Tours
(573) 751-2854

TRANSPORTATION

Call-A-Ride
(314) 652-3617

VETERANS BENEFITS

American Red Cross Blood Services
(314) 658-2000

Missouri Veterans Commission
(573) 751-3779

St. Louis County Office of Veterans' Services
(314) 552-9890

VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATIONS

Big Brothers
Big Sisters
(314) 361-5900

Foster Grandparents
(314) 961-8000
ext. 370

Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal Frustrated With Governor Nixon's Continued Lack of Leadership

Veto of HB 42 Further Demonstrates Nixon's Disdain for Black Community, Children

JEFFERSON CITY – Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City) today expressed frustration and disappointment with Governor Jay Nixon, a fellow Democrat, for his planned veto of the Student Transfer Bill (HB 42).   

“This veto is indefensible and unfathomable,” Chappelle-Nadal asserted.  “Governor Nixon’s complete lack of leadership is staggering.”

For the second year in a row, the governor will veto bipartisan legislation designed to bring statutory order to the chaotic student transfer process and help students trapped in failing schools.  Among many other provisions, HB 42 would have: offered free tutoring and made home visits available in struggling schools; established funding for Parent Portals, technology which expands parents’ access to educational information regarding their children; allowed for extended learning times; and offer protections for districts receiving transfer students by allowing them to maintain recommended class-size ratios.

When the governor vetoed the first Student Transfer Bill last summer, he expressed concern with the “private option,” a provision that would have allowed a small number of students to potentially transfer to non-religious private schools.   Nixon later met with legislators and proposed a compromise under which he would accept charter school and virtual education expansion in exchange for the removal of the private option.  Despite the fact that HB 42 conformed to all of the Governor’s requests, Nixon will veto the bill anyway, again plunging Missouri’s education policy into chaos.

“We gave the governor the bill he said he wanted and he vetoed it,” Chappelle-Nadal stated.  “How is this any semblance of leadership?” 

One of the main provisions of HB 42 would have allowed students attending failing buildings throughout the state the chance to attend better schools.  Statistics show that these failing buildings are predominantly attended by impoverished, African-American students. 

“Governor Nixon has again demonstrated his lack of concern for the Black community,” Chappelle-Nadal lamented.  “From attempting to end the St. Louis desegregation program as Attorney General to his administration’s botched response to the events in Ferguson, this veto of legislation designed to give educational opportunities to the least among us is part of a larger problem.”

HB 42 is the product of two years of careful development. The majority of the bill was derived from legislation written by Senator Chappelle-Nadal over a two year period.  

“It is sad to watch this Governor kowtow to the education establishment’s army of highly paid lobbyists over the interests of our young people and their parents,” Chappelle-Nadal concluded.  “Tomorrow, Governor Nixon will inform another generation of Black children that he does not care about their education.”

HB 42 Fact Sheet

School Accreditation1:

• Under current law, only school districts are accredited, not individual school buildings. 
• The basic foundation of HB 42 is the development of a new classification paradigm under which individual school buildings will be accredited. 
• This new system will focus on individual school buildings with the goal of ensuring that struggling schools, and the students attending them, are not ignored. 
• Data show that the school buildings with accreditation scores consistent with the classification of unaccredited are predominantly filled with impoverished, African American students. 
• HB 42’s shift in perspective will allow many of these students currently trapped in failing schools access to a better education. 

 
Student Transfer2:

• HB 42 creates options for students in low-performing buildings to transfer to better-performing schools.
• HB 42 allows receiving districts to set class-size ratios to limit the number of incoming student transfers, thereby protecting the quality of education in receiving districts.
• Across the state, students attending unaccredited schools in an unaccredited district will have the option to transfer to a better performing accredited school within their district of residence, if space exists.  If no space exists, students will be given the option to transfer to an accredited school in another district or to an approved charter school in the same or an adjoining county. 
• In Jackson County, St. Louis County and City, and in large urban districts such as Columbia, St. Charles, and Springfield, HB 42 permits students enrolled in an unaccredited building to transfer to a better performing building within their district of residence, if space exists.  If no space exists, students are given the option to transfer to an accredited school in another district or to an approved charter school in the same or an adjoining county.  This right to transfer is granted without regard to the classification of the district as a whole, and is purely based on the status of individual buildings. 

Ensuring access to quality schools3:

• HB 42 ensures that students will only be allowed to transfer to quality schools. 
• The only schools that will be allowed to accept transfer students are fully accredited traditional public schools or high quality charter schools. 
• HB 42 protects schools that are fully accredited but might be on the cusp of losing their accreditation by exempting them from receiving transfer students. 

Regional Education Authorities4:

• HB 42 creates three regional education authorities to coordinate student transfers, provide assistance to parents, and process student transfer applications. 
• Each authority will consist of members appointed by the Governor and will be independent of DESE and education associations. 

Transfer Process5: 

• Parents must apply by March 1 to transfer their child. 
• The education authority will give first priority to students who live in the same household with brothers, sisters, and cousins who have already transferred and apply to transfer to the same accredited school. 
• If insufficient enrollment slots are available for a student to transfer, that student will receive first priority the following school year. 
• The authority must consider the student's or parent's choice of the receiving school above all else.
• The authority may also consider the best interests of the student as well as distance and travel time in determining transfers. 
• The authority is not allowed to consider student academic performance, poverty status, or athletics.

Virtual Education: 

• HB 42 makes virtual education available to students in low-performing schools.
• Students enrolled in an unaccredited school, an unaccredited school district, a provisionally accredited school district, and in any school district located in Jackson County, St. Louis County, and St. Louis City may enroll in a virtual school of the parent's choice. 
• A student must attend public school in the district of residence for at least one semester immediately prior to the virtual school enrollment.

 
Charter school expansion: 

• Currently, charter schools are only authorized to exist in unaccredited and provisionally accredited districts, St. Louis City, and Kansas City.
• HB 42 expands the areas in which charter schools may operate to include most school districts in St. Louis County and Jackson County. 
• Charter School expansion has the potential to create more transfer options for students.

Test Scores6: 

• HB 42 contains language that phases-in the test scores of transfer and transient students, which will help schools adjust to the inclusion of transfer students.
• The test score phase-in is recognition of the inherent challenges of educating transient students.

Normandy:

• HB 42 takes affirmative steps to help keep the Normandy school district solvent.
• For the next school year, the state will pay for all transfer transportation costs for Normandy.  This could save the district up to $2.5 million next year. 
• HB 42 creates various incentives for districts receiving transfer students to voluntarily lower their tuition rates.
• The state will pay ten percent of the tuition costs for districts that voluntarily reduce their tuition.
• HB 42 would disallow those Normandy students currently attending accredited buildings to transfer out of the district, thereby reducing the long term aggregate number of transfers.
• HB 42 will disallow the continuation of transfers for students who were not attending Normandy for at least one semester prior to the time they transferred out of the district, thereby reducing the number of transfers for which Normandy must pay tuition.

St. Louis County Children’s Fund: 

• HB 42 would make millions of dollars from the St. Louis County Children’s Fund available to unaccredited and provisionally accredited school districts in St. Louis County for wraparound services for students for the next two years.

School Improvement Measures7:

• HB 42 requires unaccredited school districts to provide free tutoring and supplemental education services to underperforming and struggling students. 
• Underperforming school districts may implement a new curriculum; retain an outside expert to advise the district or school on regaining accreditation; enter into a contract with an education management organization to operate a school or schools within the district; and to enter into a collaborative relationship with an accredited district;
• Any underperforming school district may offer an attendance recovery program designed to allow students to recapture attendance hours lost due to absences.
• The school board of any district that operates an underperforming school must adopt a policy regarding the availability of home visits by school personnel.  The school board's policy may offer to the parent or guardian of a student enrolled in any such school the opportunity to have at least one annual home visit and must offer an opportunity for a meeting at the school or a mutually agreeable site. 
• A fund is created to assist school districts to establish and maintain a parent portal so parents may have access to educational information and access to student data via mobile technology.
• The school board of an underperforming school district may increase the length of the school day and also increase the number of instruction hours.
• HB 42 requires all public schools in St. Louis City and Kansas City, including charter schools, to use a response-to-intervention tiered approach to reading instruction for struggling readers. Students who score below district benchmarks must be provided with intensive, systemic reading instruction.  Further, such schools must prepare a personalized learning plan for any kindergarten or first grade student whose most recent school-wide reading assessment result shows the student is below grade level. 
• HB 42 curtails Social Promotion in St. Louis City and Kansas City by requiring any student who is not reading at the second grade level by the end of second grade be promoted to third grade only if the school provides additional reading instruction during the summer and demonstrates the student is ready for third grade at the end of summer school or if the student's parents or guardians sign a notice that they prefer to have the student promoted.  The school will have final determination on the issue of whether to retain the student.
• HB 42 prohibits underperforming school districts in St. Louis County from promoting students from fifth grade to sixth grade or eighth grade to ninth grade if they are two or more years below grade level.  This will ensure that students are not promoted when they are not ready for the next grade level. 

Missouri whiffed on 'Ferguson Agenda,' other states stepped up to the plate (St. Louis Public Radio)

Virtual schools offer students another option, but question persist
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

St. Louis police investaging use of Taser on two downtown protestors
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Diversifying labor 'one way or the other' (The St. Louis American)

Clergy on the streets of Ferguson (The St. Louis American)

Communications workers union passes Black Lives Matter Resolution
(The St. Louis American)

'Building a relevant, credible community newspaper,' American publisher's 2015 Media Person of the Year speech (The St. Louis American)

Missouri lawmakers quit early, deadly force bill fails
(Associated Press via The Telegraph)

Missouri lawmakers pass on dozens of Ferguson-inspired bills
(Associated Press via Yahoo! News)

Legislative session leaves many frustrated, but GOP got some priorities through (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Municipal court bill's reach will extend well beyond Ferguson's streets
(St. Louis Public Radio via The St. Louis American)

Municipalities ticket for trees and toys, as traffic revenue declines
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

News 4 Investigates: Did Ferguson Commission help pass Senate Bill 5? (KMOV)

Can Maria beat Lacy for Congress? (The St. Louis American)