Designed to foster
civic awareness and involvement,
Kids Voting Missouri combines dynamic, hands-on
civics activities with an authentic voting experience.
The program first
came to the St. Louis region in 1996 when the
Ritenour School
District participated in a pilot project involving about 3,000
students.
Under a license
granted by
Kids
Voting USA, the Citizenship Education Clearing
House (CECH) now directs Kids Voting Missouri through the
UM-St. Louis College of
Education.
Since 1998, when
CECH took over Kids Voting Missouri, the program has grown from 12
schools and 65,000 students to 27 districts and more than 229,000
students.
This past Fall,
more than 125,000 St. Louis area students in grades K-12 went to Kids
Voting polls with their parents or other adults and voted for President,
US Senator, US Congressman, Governor and a host of other state and local
officials and a variety of state and local ballot propositions.
Other Highlights
from the most recent Kids Voting project include the following:
-
Over 194,000
K-12 St. Louis area students studied portions of the special Civics Alive and
Destination Democracy curricula and
practiced registering to vote on special "Student Voter Registration
Cards" provided by the St. Louis Rams and Schnucks.
-
More than 750
"Teacher Leaders" received special training on how to integrate the
Kids Voting lessons into their existing curricula.
-
Over 2,000 St.
Louis area volunteers served on the school district steering
committees and staffed Kids Voting polling sites on Election day.
-
More than 125
area 5th graders participated in Kids Voting Missouri's "Junior Poll
Worker" Pilot Program -- first of its kind in the country.
-
Several Kids
Voting High Schools used peer tutors to teach lessons to younger
students, held mock Presidential Debates and put on Debate Watch
parties.
-
More than 45
pre-service teachers from the College of Education at UM-St. Louis
participated in a special pilot project and helped teach Kids Voting
lessons and staff Kids Voting polls.
