Kansas City 33 School District, operating as Kansas City Public Schools or KCPS (formerly Kansas City, Missouri School District, or KCMSD), is a school district headquartered at 2901 Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, United States.The district, which lost accreditation in 2011, regained provisional accreditation from the state in 2014. In November 2016, the district announced it had gotten a high enough score on state accountability measures for the State Board of Education to consider full accreditation. However, the state's education commissioner told KCPS she wanted to see sustained progress. The earliest the district is likely to regain full accreditation is 2018.In 2016, the district moved from their long time offices at 1211 McGee in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri to a Midtown location to be closer to district families.
Date Presented 04/03/2025 The lived experiences of adults with Down syndrome (DS) with respect to their health literacy were explored. Health management within the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework can be effectively understood in this population, enabling better health system modifications. Primary Author and Speaker: Suja Angelin Chandrasekaran Contributing Authors: Madisen Huscher, Jessica Oeth Schuttler
Date Presented 04/03/2025 This study examined and found that occupational performance coaching (OPC), a therapist-driven and client-centered OT intervention can be used across diverse cultures including India to improve the occupational performance of clients. Primary Author and Speaker: Suja Angelin Chandrasekaran Contributing Authors: Sugi Sowmian, Rajendran K
Occupational therapy has traditionally focused on helping individual clients develop skills to overcome challenges. However, there is a growing awareness of how social and environmental factors impact occupational performance. This understanding has led to a shift toward more collaborative approaches that emphasize performance skills. The case report focused on collaborative OT groups for an 8-year-old male student diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in the school setting. He was a 2 nd grader in a special needs classroom in the public school, struggling with academic and social skills. The student had attended eight OT groups in the classroom setting. Typically, the sessions included an opening action song, a fine or gross motor warm-up game, and desktop activities that were integrated into the classroom curriculum. Significant improvement postgroup sessions was noted in three areas, namely handwriting, task sequencing, and turn-taking skills, evident from score improvement in the Goal Attainment Scale measurements.
Grounded within the tenets of culturally responsive education, this qualitative case study examined the culturally responsive instructional practices of teachers working with linguistically, ethnically, and culturally diverse students in sheltered English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms that mainly serve English language learners in an urban high school located in the Midwest United States. Three teachers participated in the study through interviews and observations. The findings of the study indicate that the inclusion of culturally and linguistically affirming and familiar tasks, including translanguaging, led to greater student engagement and academic gains in the sheltered ELA classroom.
