Dusty Rhodes
Reporter - Education DeskAfter a long career in newspapers (Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Anchorage Daily News, Illinois Times), Dusty returned to school to get a master's degree in multimedia journalism. She began work as Education Desk reporter at NPR Illinois in September 2014. But it's not her years of experience or her education that help her understand this beat. It's her sons -- "one homemade, one adopted" -- who have vastly different types of intelligence and vastly different learning styles. Between the two of them, she's experienced public, charter, Montessori and magnet schools, gifted, IEP and 504 accommodations, and uncountable band concerts, science fairs, basketball games, and parent/teacher conferences. It's the parent/teacher conferences that always make her cry.
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When Avital van Leeuwen was in 10th grade, she was into skateboarding, punk rock, smoking pot and feminism. Her home life was in turmoil in the aftermath…
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Last year, Illinois amended its school code to limit options for districts sending special needs students out of state. Under this new amendment,…
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Every child in America has the right to a “free and appropriate public education,” thanks to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, signed into…
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In the 2017-18 school year, Illinois sent close to 350 students with special needs to private boarding schools in other states. The cost added up to more…
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The Illinois State Board of Education today amended emergency rules that had banned the use of certain physical restraints in schools. Those rules had…
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The Illinois State Board of Education is encouraging anyone with information about abusive time-out rooms or restraints in any school setting to share…
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Teachers and educational support personnel in the Springfield School District approved a new two-year contract last night by a vote of 422 to 150.The…
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Illinois has more than 850 school districts, and most of those stop at 8th grade, or serve only high school students. State Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Lake…
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If a school resource officer wants to question a student about a criminal act, they first have to notify the student's parents. That's according to a new…
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Springfield teachers are headed back to the bargaining table after their union, the Springfield Education Association, voted last night to reject the…