08/13/2025
🚨Bowling Green's Lillian Schaper State School to Permanently Close
Staff and students' family members were only recently informed of the yesterdays decision to close 12 schools around the state for the severely disabled.
Lillian Schaper State School in Bowling Green is among the list that will be permanently closed by the end of the 25/26 school year.
According to a staff member, the school currently serves 12 students (grades K-12), although that number fluctuates.
There are also around six staff members employed at the school.
The school has had a long history in Pike County and Bowling Green. The Pike County Agency for Developmental Disabilities website documents the school as being originally founded in the 60's.
"Pike County has a long history of leading the way in caring for its citizens who have developmental disabilities," the organization wrote in a history of the school. "Starting with a group of parents, family members and interested citizens, the Champ Clark Association for Re****ed Children was founded in the 1950’s. It functioned as a parent support group and led to Pike County parents becoming aware of and involved in what was going on around the State. In 1955, four mothers of children who had intellectual disabilities and no school to attend approached Mrs. Ruth Jensen, county superintendent of schools, and requested her assistance."
The organization goes on to document the birth of the school which started as classes in the basement of the abandoned Bowling Green Elementary/Junior High School in 1960.
"The school moved, in 1972, to two trailers set up on land at the new Ruth Jensen Village," the website continued. "After outgrowing the trailers, a brand new school, Lillian Schaper State School No. 14, was constructed in 1974. The school was named after Mrs. Lillian Schaper of Bowling Green, who worked tirelessly for the school children."
That history did not affect Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's (DESE) decision.
According to an August 12 press release from the DESE, the decision to close the 12 schools including the Bowling Green site was approved by the State Board of Education.
This recommendation was made by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) during the August 12 Board meeting. DESE leaders presented possible solutions to the Board in May to improve services at MSSD. Those solutions were designed to strengthen educational opportunities for both students currently enrolled within MSSD along with all students with extensive support needs (ESN) throughout Missouri.
The initial step in reimaging the MSSD is reducing the number of locations over the next year.
The board voted to:
• Permanently close six buildings that were already temporarily consolidated due to staff vacancies, effective immediately. Those locations include Briarwood (Harrisonville), Lakeview Woods (Lee’s Summit), Gateway/Hubert Wheeler (St. Louis), Rolling Meadow (Higginsville), Delmar Cobble (Columbia), and Ozark Hills (Salem).
• Permanently closing six additional buildings by the conclusion
of the 2025-26 school year as a proactive approach to addressing additional challenges in those buildings and regions that would otherwise likely result in emergency consolidations in the future. Those locations include Citadel (Potosi), College View (Joplin), Crowley Ridge (Dexter), Dogwood Hills (Eldon), Lillian Schaper (Bowling Green), and Prairie View (Marshall).
“The State Board of Education believes this is the first step in providing more opportunities and strengthening education for all students enrolled in Missouri Schools for the Severely Disabled,” State Board of Education President Mary Schrag said. “This decision is not taken lightly but will result in a more efficient program that enriches quality resources provided to students and their families.”
Throughout the last two years, DESE worked with Public Consulting Group LLC (PCG) and Capital Asset Engineering to independently evaluate the operational and educational programming of MSSD to ensure students within the program receive the highest quality educational opportunities. In September 2024, a Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee (LRPAC), made up of more than 50 stakeholders, was established to review the findings of the PCG study and make recommendations to the Board.
“We appreciate the work of the advisory committee over the past year,” Commissioner of Education Dr. Karla Eslinger said. “I know this recommendation did not come without careful consideration of putting the students’ best interests first. Ultimately, LRPAC’s work revealed that permanently closing these 12 locations will improve services provided to students with severe disabilities and their families. This timeline provides opportunity for our educators and families to determine best outcomes for their student.”
During this extensive project, the LRPAC identified many strengths among MSSD’s work, including staff and leadership who are supportive and knowledgeable and team members who provide a caring environment for students. The LRPAC also recognized several unique challenges MSSD faces:
• Enrollment: MSSD has experienced a 36 percent enrollment decline during the last 16 years (1,033 to 660 students statewide).
• Staff recruitment and retention: There is currently a 23 percent vacancy rate among MSSD staff (115 vacant positions), along with a high turnover rate in MSSD leadership roles.
• Facilities: Most MSSD students are being served in aging facilities that were not designed to serve students with ESN. Many buildings also do not provide enough learning space or have excessive wasted and unused space.
• Instruction: Currently, there are inconsistent measures in place for progress monitoring, student outcomes, or alignment to statewide alternate learning standards. There’s also limited ability for MSSD students to interact socially with their non-disabled peers.
The press release went on to state:
“DESE and the Office of Special Education are committed to ensuring Missouri students with ESN are being educated in the least restrictive environment, a guiding principle of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that requires students with disabilities are educated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate. Currently, 36 states are educating students with ESN in less restrictive placements than Missouri.”
The Tribune will update as more information becomes available.
