Happenings Around the Lab
The beginning of September brought an exciting visit from Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to Kansas City, and Parent Power Lab had the honor of hosting a conversation to allow the voices of parents to be amplified while sharing space with members of the Department of Education’s staff including Montserrat Gariby and Cecily Zayas.
We were thrilled at an opportunity for the very real and powerful experiences of our local parents to be shared directly from them, and we know that the concerns that were voiced were illuminating to not only our local educational landscape, but to the nation as a whole. Parent Organizing Institute (POI) Alums and incoming cohort members of our 2024 Class were well represented and raised a few of the many areas in which they see a need for improvement from the building to district to state to national level.
Here are a few of the issues that rose to the top:
Parent and Coalition Leader Jahna Riley spoke about the troubles she’d experienced with transportation as she attempted to get her Kindergarten daughter to her first day of school and after a two hour wait the bus never arrived. She proposed solutions such as a partnership between district and charters for a better pool of transportation options, and expressed a desire to learn more from other cities who are doing well in this area. She also keenly suggested that perhaps districts should be providing parents with funding for private transportation if they do not currently have a reliable transportation option.
POI Alumni from the class of 2023 and current Special Education Parent Power Circle leader, Jillian RainingBird spoke on the ongoing and integral work being done in her circle to organize parents around the pressing, but ever increasing challenges being faced by parents of students who have or are working to understand potential diagnosis of students with special needs.
An endless and growing number of parents have experienced a battle when working to either have their children diagnosed at all or to have the terms of their Individualized Education Plans met either legally or effectively once students have been diagnosed. These issues should certainly concern us all as there is a clear thread that exists between those of our students who have the most need and those who are perceived to have the least. Dr. King’s quote reminds us that, “ A threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
We also had the pleasure of hearing from EarlystART Schools CEO, Deidre Anderson on Early Childhood Education (ECE) concerns such as staffing shortages and the lack of support from the city in ECE overall.
Ariel touched on the impact of gentrification in the education sector as she memorably spoke about her former elementary school classroom now being a condo that rents for $3,000 a month.
Finally, Garrett Webster highlighted the dire importance of attention and support needed in the area of mental health and wellness for our students, many of whom have experienced immeasurable amounts of trauma both in general and most especially in these last few years.
After sharing a bit of information about the recent Raise the Bar: Lead the World legislation, Department of Education participants expressed their desire to listen, take notes and carry them back from the field. We are excited to hear back more from the outcome of our conversation soon and are grateful for the time and space spent in community with one another.