Student & Family Care
Welcome to the Student and Family Care Resource Page. Donna Brashear serves as the Swedeborg Student & Family Care Coordinator. In this role, she assists families in locating and accessing community and school-district resources. She also serves as the district’s Homeless Liaison and Foster Care Coordinator, and can connect families with additional support and services as needed.
For help, questions, or referrals, please contact her through the school office at (573) 736–2735.
Homeless Liaison Coordinator: Donna Brashear
IF YOU LIVE IN ANY OF THE FOLLOWING SITUATIONS:
In a shelter, a motel, or a campground due to lack of an alternative adequate accommodation
In a car, park, abandoned building, or bus or train station
Doubled up with other people due to loss of housing or economic hardship
You may qualify for certain rights and protections under the federal McKinney‑Vento Act.
Eligible students have the right to:
Receive a free, appropriate public education.
Enroll in school immediately, even if lacking documents normally required for enrollment.
Enroll in school and attend classes while the school gathers needed documents.
Enroll in the local school; or continue attending their school of origin (the school they attended when permanently housed or the school in which they were last enrolled), if that is their preference.
If the school district believes that the school selected is not in the student’s best interest, the district must provide a written explanation of its position and inform the student of the right to appeal the decision.
Receive transportation to and from the school of origin, if requested.
Receive educational services comparable to those provided to other students, according to the student’s needs.
Foster Care Coordinator: Donna Brashear
In all circumstances, the best interests of the child shall be the first priority of the Children's Division.
Recognizing the importance of familial stability in foster care and adoption placement, it shall be the practice of the children's division, when appropriate, to support a child's return to the custody and care of the parents or guardians with whom the child resided immediately prior to state custody.
When restoration of care and custody is not appropriate or possible, the Children's Division shall attempt to place the child with suitable relatives in accordance with section 210.565.
The Children's Division shall further support familial stability by ensuring continuity of foster placement, except in instances where cause for a change in a child's placement is reasonably found.
The Children's Division shall work with each child in state custody to develop both a permanency plan and a case plan. These plans shall be developed within twelve months of a child's entrance into state custody. The permanency plan shall include the child's immediate and long-term placement goals, while the case plan shall address a child's specific medical and emotional needs.
Recognizing the value of familial relationships in foster care and adoption settings, it shall be the practice of the Children's Division to place siblings in the same foster care, kinship, guardianship, or adoptive placement, unless doing so would be contrary to the safety or well-being of any of the siblings. If siblings are not placed together, it shall be the practice of the children's division to support regular visitation and communication between siblings in state custody, and between children in state custody and their parents and relatives, where not otherwise prohibited or against a child's best interests.
The Children's Division shall support all children twelve years of age or older in state custody to attend any hearings pertaining to the child's placement, custody, or care, provided that the child is willing and able to attend such hearings, and that attending such hearings is in the best interests of the child.