Greetings!
Thanksgiving is behind us (we hope you enjoyed yours), and now it's the run at light speed toward the holidays and a new year. This edition of NICHCY News includes a special focus on addressing disability concerns amid the holiday hoopla and, as always, connects you with new resources in OSEP's TA&D Network and beyond. We hope you find this information useful and valuable. As always, we are eager to hear your feedback. Please feel free to contact us at nichcy@aed.org. Best wishes for a warm and happy holiday season! Your friends at the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities |
Celebrating inclusive education: December 1-5, 2008.
The Inclusive Schools Network is hosting the 8th Annual Inclusive Schools Week this December 1-5, celebrating the theme, "Together We Learn Better: Inclusive Schools Benefit All Children." Check out the 2008 "Celebration Ideas" Kit! and find free celebration and awareness materials at:
http://www.inclusiveschools.org/week
December 3rd, from 3 to 4:30 pm EST: Webinar on the role of the special educator in today's math classroom.
Dr. Hank Kepner, President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), will discuss NCTM standards and focal points. Dr. Lisa Diekerwill reflect on the role of the special educator in implementing these standards and focal points in mathematics in inclusive settings. Register online at:
http://www.inclusiveschools.org/Events_Registration
December 3rd is a busy day!
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To celebrate, join the Inclusive Schools Network and the world community this December 3rd in observing the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. More information is available at the UN Enable website:
http://un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=109
Early Childhood Conference (face to face!).
December 8-10, 2008, Washington, DC
http://www.nectac.org/~meetings/national2008/splash.html
All month long: Online discussion on Parent Advocacy and Family-School Partnership.
The Family Center on Technology and Disability is hosting a month-long discussion of effective family-school partnerships that result in successful use of technology. The discussion will be moderated by long-time AT/IT technologist Lon Thornburg and highly effective parent advocate Charles DiPietro. Take part at:
http://www.fctd.info/webboard/index.php
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In the blink of an eye, it'll be 2009. Here's a quick list of events and opportunities on the 2009 horizon.
Technology, Reading and Learning Diversity Conference.
January 22-24, 2009
San Francisco, CA
TRLD is a conference integrating technology interventions with expert literacy strategies to help students of all ages (K-12 through adult) succeed.
http://www.trld.com
OSEP National Parent Center Conference.
January 28-30, 2009
Crystal City, VA
Parent Center leaders and colleagues will come together to learn about current topics and reflect on their work, united by the common goal of improving outcomes for children with disabilities.
http://www.taalliance.org/conferences/2009/index.asp
2nd Annual Rare Disease Day.
February 28, 2009
NORD, the National Organization on Rare Disorders, is partnering with EURORDIS, the European Rare Disease Organization.
http://www.eurordis.org/article.php3?id_article=1862
Addressing Challenging Behavior: National Training Institute on Effective Practices Supporting Young Children's Social/Emotional Development.
March 22-25, 2009
Clearwater Beach, Florida
If you're an early interventionist, a child care provider, part of Head Start, or an early childhood teacher, you may wanna check this one out.
http://www.addressingchallengingbehavior.org/
International Conference on Positive Behavior Support.
March 26-28, 2009
Jacksonville, Florida
The Association for Positive Behavior Support will be your host.
http://www.apbs.org/conference/jacksonville/index1.aspx
Professional development telecasts from NASDSE.
NASDSE (National Association of State Directors of Special Education) is offering four conferences for purchase by the state directors of special education. Subscribing states receive unlimited rights to rebroadcast and reproduce these telecasts for in-state use in local and statewide professional development. Find out from your state department if your state subscribes to the series, or visit NASDSE online. Topics and dates are:
- Resources and Supports for Students with Autism and their Families
(October 10, 2008)
- Partners in Progress: Youth/Young Adult Leaders for Systems Change
(December 5, 2008)
- From Computers to Classrooms: Tackling Bullying in Today's Schools
(March 20, 2009)
- Understanding the Big Picture: Federal Policy and its Impact on the Classroom
(May 1, 2009) http://www.nasdse.org
Middle Level Essentials Conference.
April 23-24, 2009, Las Vegas, Nevada
http://www.nmsa.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/Conferences
Workshops/MiddleLevelEssentials/tabid/590/Default.aspx
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Holidays can be a special time and a stressful marathon simultaneously. For many, the unique concerns of disability can make handling the festivities, the food, and the runaway schedule a real challenge. You might find these resources helpful in keeping a lid on the bubbling pot.
Surviving the Holidays
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/chronic_fatigue_syndrome/86769
Recipe: Surviving the Holidays With Family
http://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/news/2006/11/recipe-surviving-holidays-with-family.html
Daily Tips: Surviving The Holidays
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd-web/article/1058-3.html
Stress-Free Travel Tips for ADHD Families
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/993.html
AD/HD Holiday Help: House Rules for Children
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/880.html
AD/HD and Keeping the Peace at Family Gatherings
by Larry Silver, M.D.
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/2065.html
Say Hello to Social Success
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/2998.html
How I Survive the Holidays!
Compiled by Laura J. Warren, Texas Parent to Parent
http://txp2p.org/newsletters/2002newsletters.htm#holidays
What Should I Do at Family Gatherings?
http://www.snacknyc.com/files/22766306.pdf
Can't We All Just Get Along? - Three Moms on Surviving Family Gatherings
http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/3058
Surviving the Holidays and Autism
http://www.bbbautism.com/e.news/vol.3/vol_3_iss_1_holidays.htm
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| It All Starts in Families and Communities |
Support for families.
Find families in your own neighborhood, add resources, disability organizations, events, and discussion topics. Start your own online community or join existing groups for support and friendship.
http://www.oneplaceforspecialneeds.com/
Autism: A hangout for caregivers.
Autism Hangout, a new website, is for the 12 to 17 million caregivers looking for daily insights on how to assist those living with autism.
http://www.autismhangout.com/default.asp
BrainLine: On traumatic brain injury.
Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), their families, friends, and teachers will find useful timely information and resources at this comprehensive new website for anyone whose life has been affected by TBI. It includes links to specific sections for people with TBI, their families and friends, and professionals.
http://www.brainline.org/
Questions about EPSDT, answered.
EPSDT stands for the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment service, a comprehensive set of benefits available to children and youth under age 21 who are enrolled in Medicaid. Here's a 10-page fact sheet that answers commonly asked questions about EPSDT.
http://www.healthlaw.org/library/attachment.134266.pdf
Learning opportunities for your child through alternate assessment.
Wondering about alternate assessments? Wondering what the differences are between alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards and those based on modified academic achievement standards? (So are we.) Then you'll appreciate these two documents from NCEO, the National Center on Educational Outcomes. The 1st link explains alternate and the 2nd link explains modified.
http://cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/LearningOpportunities.pdf
http://cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/AAMASParentGuide.pdf
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The Little Ones: Early Intervention/Early Childhood
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Developing your child's literacy.
From the Center for Early Literacy Learning (CELL), the new CELLpractices Practice Guides Especially for Parents can be used by parents to give their infants, toddlers, or preschoolers fun and exciting literacy-learning experiences and opportunities. Practitioners will also find the guides useful for working with parents to promote their use of literacy learning activities with their children.
http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/pgparents.php
Speaking the language of acronyms.
Find out what those early intervention and early childhood acronyms mean! Just out from NECTAC, the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center.
http://www.nectac.org/~pdfs/pubs/acronyms.pdf
Outcomes 101.
The Early Childhood Outcomes Center summarizes many questions frequently asked about the child and family outcomes measurement process and provides brief answers.
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~eco/faqs.cfm
Early childhood assessment: Why, what, and how.
This National Research Council Report identifies the important outcomes for children from birth to age 5 and the quality and purposes of different techniques and instruments for developmental assessments.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12446
What do we mean by professional development in the early childhood field?
This concept paper, from the National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (NPDCI), presents a definition and framework for professional development in early childhood. Defining what is meant by professional development is intended to guide efforts aimed at ensuring that the early childhood workforce is highly qualified and effective in working with young children (birth through 8) and their families.
http://community.fpg.unc.edu/resources/articles/NDPCI-ProfessionalDevelopment-03-04-08.pdf
How occupational therapy can help children make transitions.
The American Occupational Therapy Association offers a short paper about the role of occupational therapists in supporting families and children with disabilities as they transition between early intervention, preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school, and ultimately, from school to adult life.
http://www.aota.org/Consumers/WhatisOT/FactSheets/Children/Transitions.aspx
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The Family Connection
A resource to help busy principals and assistant principals with their communications to parents and families. The National Middle School Association offers the Family Connection as a free service to NMSA members, who can use the publication "as is" or cut and paste articles as they see fit. Not a member? Take a look at the free sample issue available online at:
http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/TheFamilyConnection/tabid/208/Default.aspx
Encourage student reading at home.
How can teachers encourage reading at home and support the role of parents as educators? One way is through the use of family literacy bags-a paired set of theme-based fiction and nonfiction books and related interactive activities that kids bring home from school to share with their family. Reading Rockets has developed a set of six family literacy bags appropriate for a kindergarten or first-grade listening level to encourage some hands-on fun and learning. Just assemble everything into a two-gallon zip top bag, and send home with your students.
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/27935
A new online community for educators.
You can now join the Learning Community free for 30 days and receive access to everything PD 360 has to offer, including nearly 1,000 research-based video segments on educational topics. PD 360 is an on-demand subscription professional learning resource that now includes a Learning Community where educators can share ideas and resources, upload files, discuss hot topics and issues, and participate in forums. At the web address below, click on Free Trial and enter your information and the referral code Nov-EM. (Note: Each subscribing state, district, and school has a private community exclusively for its teachers and administrators. The public community allows PD 360 users from around the world to communicate and collaborate.)
http://www.pd360.com
A professional learning module: Culturally Responsive Response to Intervention (RTI).
New, from NCCRESt, the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems.
http://www.nccrest.org/professional/culturally_responsive_response_to_intervention.html
Has Reading First improved students' reading comprehension?
The final report is out from the Institute of Education Sciences. While IES' evaluation found no statistically significant improvement in the reading comprehension of students, Reading First did have a significant impact on students' decoding, phonics, and fluency skills-three of five basic components of reading. It also had a statistically significant impact on the total time that teachers spent on the five essential components (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) of reading instruction promoted by the program in grades 1 and 2. Lots of other interesting findings...
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20094038.asp
Training modules on PALS (Peer Assisted Learning Strategies) in reading.
The IRIS Center shares a trio of training modules for teachers, all related to research-based information and strategies for implementing PALS in your classroom. Two modules are newly revised (PALS: A Reading Strategy for Grades K-1 and PALS: A Reading Strategy for Grades 2-6), and one (PALS: A Reading Strategy for High School) is completely new.
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/iris_new_materials.htm
Special education instruction, math, reading, science, and English language learners.
Lots and lots of excellent materials are available online, courtesy of the Center on Instruction, one of the five Content Centers serving the Comprehensive Center network. Pick your instructional area!
http://centeroninstruction.org/
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Special education in America.
A new report, from the EPE Research Center.
http://www.edweek.org/rc/articles/2008/10/27/special_education_in_america.html
And the survey says...
Find out what the states said about activities, changes, and challenges in special education in 2007, newly available online at NCEO, the National Center on Educational Outcomes.
http://cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/2007StateSurvey/2007StateSurveyReport.pdf
Letters of clarification from OSEP.
Policy letters from OSEP dated April 1, 2008 through June 30, 2008 are now available online at the address above.
http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/letters/2008-2/index.html
(A subset specifically addressing Part C and Section 619 of IDEA can be accessed via the NECTAC website at
http://www.nectac.org/idea/clarfctnltrs.asp)
Scaling up of evidence-based practices: Annotated bibliography.
SISEP, the OSEP-funded project State Implementation & Scaling-up of Evidence-based Practices, offers this brief overview of the scale-up literature as it relates to system transformation, capacity development, implementation science and practice, school reform, high-fidelity implementation, innovation zones, and usability testing.
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~sisep/resources.cfm
High school graduation: What's required?
Visit the National High School Center's Interactive Map, which compares high school graduation requirements ((English, mathematics, social studies, science, foreign language, art, and electives) and state university entrance requirements for 50 States and DC. The state profiles also capture national high school improvement initiatives, as well as a brief description of the programs/strategies and the related research base.
Share your thoughts about RTI with your colleagues.
Would you like to know what others are doing to promote implementation of RTI in their states? Or would you like to join (or start!) a dialogue about how RTI is working at the secondary level? The National Center on Response to Intervention is waiting for you. All you need to do is register (at the address below).
http://www.rti4success.org/index.php?option=com_registration&task=register
And speaking of RTI...
Visit the National Center on RTI's online library (select the 3rd tab at the top), where you'll find briefs, fact sheets, presentations, media, and training modules relevant to RTI that are divided into 18 separate categories. Many of the current resources were created by organizations, associations, state departments, or districts.
http://www.rti4success.org
Financial responsibility for students with disabilities: A special case.
A 14-page article from Project Forum, available online at:
http://www.projectforum.org/docs/FinancialResponsibilityforSWD-ASpecialCase.pdf
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| Comments on our new newsletter? Suggestions for future topics? Please feel free to contact us at nichcy@aed.org. We're here to help you help children with disabilities. | |
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Final IDEA rules, hot off the press.
On May 13, 2008 the Department of Education published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register. The comment period closed on July 28, 2008, with more than 700 comments received. The Department has now published final rules addressing:
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parental revocation of consent after consent to the initial provision of services has been provided;
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State or local educational agency's (LEA's) obligation to make positive efforts to employ qualified individuals with disabilities;
representation of parents by non-attorneys in due process hearings;
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State monitoring, technical assistance, and enforcement of the Part B program; and
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allocation of funds, under sections 611 and 619 of the Act, to LEAs that are not serving children with disabilities. The rules go into effect December 31, 2008.
edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-28175.htm
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