Senior U.S. Education Officials to Visit Kansas City, Mo., as Part of 2012 Cross-Country Back-to-School Bus Tour Promoting Education

On Wednesday, Sept. 19, Acting Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Michael Yudin will visit Garfield Elementary School in Kansas City, Mo., where he will participate in a roundtable discussion with educators about Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The event at Garfield Elementary is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s third-annual cross-country, back-to-school bus tour, “Education Drives America.”

PBIS is designed to enhance the adoption and implementation of a continuum of evidence-based interventions to achieve academically and behaviorally important outcomes for all students. The Department has supported PBIS for over 15 years and there are nearly 17,000 PBIS schools in the United States.

Yudin is part of a leadership team from the U.S. Department of Education that is traveling across the country from Sept. 12-21 for a series of events highlighting the theme that Education Drives America.

“America’s future is directly linked to the quality of education that we provide our children, young people and adults,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who began the tour on Wednesday, Sept. 12 in Redwood City, Calif. “This bus tour is an opportunity to highlight what’s working and create momentum for education reforms that improve the lives of all students.”

Besides Kansas City, some of the other stops include Sacramento, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Salt Lake City; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Denver; Topeka, Kan.; St. Louis; Evansville, Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Charleston, W.Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Richmond, Va.; and Washington, D.C.

For live, up-to-the-minute updates from the road, follow the Education Drives America tour on Twitter using the hashtag #edtour12, or visit the Department’s bus tour blog. To receive media advisories, press releases, notifications about postings to the blog, and other special updates during the tour, subscribe to the Department’s Education Drives America e-mail updates by clicking here.