Kansas City Public Schools Faces Lawsuit From Suburban Districts Over Transfers

Five suburban school districts have filed suit to stop student transfers from Kansas City Public Schools to their districts until various issues like costs and student eligibility are resolved.

Missouri education officials revoked the accreditation of Kansas City Schools in September, effective Jan. 1, after the district failed for years to meet state performance standards. According to Missouri state law, students are permitted to transfer from an unaccredited school district to a neighboring accredited district.

The school districts of Blue Springs, Independence, Lee's Summit, North Kansas City and Raytown are willing to accept students from KCPS, but will only do so after a resolution is determined over the KCPS transfer policy that they say violates state law, according to The Kansas City Star. They seek an injunction to halt any transfers until the courts, state education department and state lawmakers clarify all issues laid out in the suit.

"The petition is designed as an interim measure until the overarching issues surrounding the future of KCPS can be resolved," according to a statement from the districts, KCTV reports. "By taking this action collectively, the five districts hope to prevent the disruption of KCPS students' education in the middle of the academic year as well as provide time for a lasting and positive educational solution to be determined that will ultimately benefit all students."

The Kansas City board of education earlier this month determined that districts receiving KCPS students must provide transportation, without stating that KCPS would pay tuition determined by the receiving district, according to court documents. The suburban districts contend that under state law, KCPS is responsible for the cost of both transportation and tuition, at the determination of the receiving district.

"The petitioners will suffer financial challenges and strain as they attempt to meet the needs of their current students and simultaneously provide teachers, space and educational supplies for the additional students," the lawsuit reads. "Moreover, the accredited districts may face suit from their own taxpayers who could claim that the accredited districts are impermissibly using local funds to educate non-resident students."

According to a 1993 amendment to the state law, accredited schools must accept student transfers from a neighboring unaccredited system if that district provides both transportation and pays tuition determined by the receiving district, KMBC reports.

KCPS offered to pay for transportation to the three closer districts, but couldn't afford to pay for others that are further away. KCPS also said earlier this month that students are only eligible for transfers from the system if they attended a Kansas City Public School for two full semesters, according to KCTV. The suburban districts content in the lawsuit that it is against the law to require a specific length of time required of a student in KCPS prior to transfer eligibility.

"We are all caught between an effort to comply with the law on the one hand and the pressure of a timeline to implement our own reasonable interpretation of the law on the other hand," Kansas City Schools officials said in a statement Tuesday. "However, the most important variable, the educational disruption to the families and students must not be overlooked. Careful thought and planning are needed prior to the implementation of such a complex process."

Kansas City's school have for years stood on volatile ground as the district saw heavy turnover -- the 50,000-student district had six superintendents between 1999 and 2011 -- and now has more than two years to regain accreditation before it could face state takeover in 2014.

The district's last superintendent, John Covington, left abruptly in August to head Michigan's Education Achievement System, a plan to transform low-performing schools piloting in Detroit. Covington's Chief of Staff Chace Ramey was named interim superintendent in Kansas City.

Amid the lawsuit and accreditation issues, KCPS is looking for ways to repurpose eight more closed schools as the district's number of shuttered and unused schools increased to 38 last year, the Associated Press reports.

Comments

[22Keys]

03:48 PM on 12/29/2011

Socio-economics can only be blamed so much. There are terrible teachers out there, but not enough to see the results we currently have. As much as it offends our sensibilites these days, we have to accept the truth that different groups of people (families) have different attitudes toward education. Why do lower middle class Asian-American students in Los Angeles consistenly outperform their peers that live in the same neighborhoods, and attend the same schools, as their peers from different ethno-cultural backgrounds? Parents in the inner city are obviously not making their children study.


http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/16/local/me-lincoln16

[taylor5]

01:21 PM on 12/29/2011

non athletes need not apply

[leftbehind2000]

10:51 AM on 12/29/2011

Defunding, poor administration... there is not just one problem with KCP. But shuttering these schools and sending these kids out to neighboring schools without providing any kind of money to help cover the cost of transportation and tuition, etc., shows that we still don't get it.

I have not been in the other schools, but I did my student teaching in a Raytown school. The article calls it a "suburban" school, but the district is not far removed from the inner city, nor are its funding problems. The school in which I worked was shabby, run-down and overcrowded. There was no athletic program, no music program, and no after hours clubs because the district could afford none of them. Classes exceeded 30 students to a single teacher. They still use overheads because that's all they have.

We watch propaganda like Waiting for Superman and conclude that the fault is the teacher. Well, perhaps we should, instead, look at the funding, or lack of it, that is causing many schools to fail. If we are serious about Education reform, we must first change how schools are funded, with ALL public schools funded EQUALLY.

[GlennWatson]

09:33 AM on 12/29/2011

Parents flee the city schools and what do the city schools do? Come after them.

[special38x2]

12:44 AM on 01/02/2012

That is all wrong isn't it. As a parent, I'd want my kids out as fast as I could and wouldn't think twice about how the failing district feels about it. Stalkers....lol

[GlennWatson]

09:54 AM on 01/02/2012

Its not a matter who how the failing districts feel. It a matter of how the good district feel.

If a parent and student are fleeing a bad district that is fine, as long as they are not bringing the problems of the bad district with them.

[educatormary]

09:24 AM on 12/29/2011

Becoming educated is a "mindset", not a legal issue. If no value is attached to education when a child is young, there is little likelihood that one will be ever be established. Stop looking at teachers and school districts and find a means to legislate a change in the mindset of parents who raise children who are never exposed to literacy at home. This is the only way real change will take place in any school district; especially in impoverished areas. People should concentrate on "how" they educate children, not how much money they spend. No amount money, spent on educating a child who doesn't want to learn or sees no value in learning, will change anything.

[tg7357]

08:43 AM on 12/29/2011

Kansas City: what a town!! Nothing has been the same since Mayor Clever ramrodded the School Board, fired at least 4 Superintendents of Schools within 2 years, and generally acted like Napoleon.
If the KCPS is failing, why transfer students? Why not overhaul the teaching ciriculum, dump the bad teachers/ principles/ etc and start over again?

[GlennWatson]

09:33 AM on 12/29/2011

Its failing because the students are bad not the teachers.

[ArchieBunker II]

12:01 PM on 12/29/2011

EXACTLY,come over here on Indep.Ave. and you'll see why! We are quick to blame the teachers,when we should be standing in front of mirror. Is teachers job to teach kids,not raise em! I attended every PTA meeting my kids had at their school,I wanted them to have a better education than I had if it killed me. We have forgot that every time we point a finger at someone,there are 3 pointing back! btw,thank you Dr. John Covington for lying to these kids!

[thudula]

02:01 AM on 12/29/2011

Please: "HELP un-HOUSED HOMELESS ex-HOMEOWNERs and un-HOUSED HOMELESS
ex-EMPLOYEES obtain FOOD and Temporary Shelter." ASK your RELIGIOUS or SOCIAL ORGANIZATION to OPEN A " DAYTIME WALK-IN SHELTER." Chairs are all that is needed.
Unhoused Homeless can use the Daytime walk-In Shelter Address to APPLY FOR BENEFITS.
It is FREEZING , HELP AVOID DEATHs.

[Laura Hayes]

01:01 AM on 12/29/2011

The issue is poverty, and simply moving these kids without changing their value systems will change nothing

[GlennWatson]

09:34 AM on 12/29/2011

Oh it will change something. It will screw up the good schools they move into.

[MsLovePeace]

12:03 PM on 12/29/2011

Mixed income schooling does, according to studies, does work to raise scores low income students. However, it's consequences -whether through voluntary or involuntary bussing, usually push the more affluent people out of public schoolsYou take teachers out of a impoverished neighborhood and put them in an affluent one and their scores will go up right quick. The reverse is true as well- many of these great teachers in affluent neighborhoods would drown teaching in the inner-city. I agree with Laura; the only solution is to deal with poverty, but that effort has been abandoned. This will destroy the public school system in the inner-city and the suburbs. Just watch. Then the whole thing will be ripe for corporate take-over. Just watch America. The schools you love to malign will be gone, and there will be nothing left for anyone who can't afford private.

[MrOnePercent2012]

02:33 PM on 12/28/2011

I'd sue too. What good district would want a bunch of losers from the big city. They are bound to cause trouble.

[Rebel78753]

02:15 PM on 12/28/2011

This is reason of why America is on the decline!

[tgonz37]

04:18 PM on 12/28/2011

And here we thought gay marriage civil unions, pro-choice, organized labor, and immigration were the causes of all decline.

[JOHNMEDLIN]

09:53 AM on 12/29/2011

Turns out it's republican controlled states that's the cause. I live in the area. Defunding by the tea party republicans have ruined our schools.