A great education can start by learning that a German dog says, “wau wau.” A group of foreign language students from Kearney High School visited classrooms at all four Kearney School District elementary schools to lead 20-minute lessons in Spanish and German for the younger students.

On a beautiful Tuesday in May, the seniors in the Harrisonville High School class of 2025 fanned out across their town to help people. All of the yard work, painting, tidying and other odd jobs were these students’ way of giving back to the community that gave them so much.

Grain Valley School District staff members have changed the lives of students like Jonah and Brenton, but not all of those staff members are human. Each Grain Valley school has a highly trained therapy dog that helps students feel ready to learn.

In the Blue Springs School District, elementary students are excited to practice their lessons, because they get to work with a robot that personalizes the learning to them. And when they succeed, the robot might dance, play air guitar or ask them for a fist bump!

Grandview High School was such a positive, supportive learning environment for Alec Burks that when he went on to become a professional basketball player in the NBA, he knew he wanted to stay connected to his school.

In public schools around the Kansas City region, the first day of school is a time of positive anticipation. In Liberty, Carter experienced her very first day as a kindergartener, with her mother as a teacher in the same building. Baron experienced his very last first day of school as a senior at Liberty High School. This sweet story, told by the Liberty Public Schools team, shows all the excitement of these experiences.