The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary’s (DESE’s) Office of Childhood (OOC) has fully reviewed the child care subsidy backlog in family applications for child care assistance, provider applications for subsidy contracts, and provider payment reviews through September. Payments will continue to be sent over the coming weeks. Starting in March, the OOC will be reviewing family applications and provider contract applications within the OOC’s expected processing time.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has awarded $2 million to six local education agencies (LEAs) under the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Limited Access Grant. Each LEA was eligible to receive up to $400,000 to expand CTE programming for the 2025-26 school year where access to high-quality learning opportunities has been limited.

Missouri’s 2024 scores on national math and reading assessments remained steady in both grades 4 and 8, according to data released today by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Missouri’s scores statistically aligned with the national average on all four NAEP assessments.

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary’s (DESE’s) Office of Childhood (OOC) continues to clear the child care subsidy backlog in family applications for child care assistance, provider applications for subsidy contracts, and provider payment reviews. The OOC experienced several technical challenges launching the new Child Care Data System (CCDS) in December 2023, which created the backlog. The number of backlogged cases has declined each month since summer 2024, when additional temporary and contracted staff were added.

Nominations are now being accepted for Regional Teacher of the Year, the first step in the process to become next year’s Missouri Teacher of the Year. Nominations are due by April 14, 2025, and are anonymous unless otherwise requested. Nominations can be made through the online Teacher of the Year nomination form here.

Today, Dallas DeWeese, a social studies teacher at Hollister Middle School in the Hollister R-V School District, was presented with the national Milken Educator Award.

Today the Missouri State Board of Education voted to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking to change the requirements for some teacher certification areas. The current rule requires a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher in the specific content (i.e. subject) area for which the teacher is seeking certification. This proposed amendment to the rule would change the required content GPA from 3.0 to 2.5. Teachers earn content certification to teach most school subjects at the secondary level, as well as some specialty courses, like the arts.