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| IN THIS ISSUE |
| This Month from the National Dissemination Center |
| It All Starts...in Families...and Communities |
| The Little Ones: Early Intervention/Early Childhood |
| Schools, K-12 |
| State & System Tools |
| Special Focus: Disability Conditions | |
Greetings!
We're off daylight savings time, the leaves are coming off the trees, and in some places, it's been snowing to beat the band. NICHCY is pleased to send this month's enewsletter your way. May it bring you just the info you've been needing.
 There's lots of news and resources to pass along from OSEP's TA&D Network, and we do, marking each with the TA&D logo you see to the left. And, as always, we're pleased to share many excellent resources from beyond the TA&D network. We hope you find this information useful. As always, we welcome your feedback. Please feel free to contact us at nichcy@aed.org.
As you may know, November is a month chosen by many groups as a fine time to raise awareness regarding specific disabilities or topics. This month, let us observe National Family Caregivers Month, Inclusive School Week, Diabetes Awareness, and National Epilespy Awareness. Find out more below.
Best wishes for November!
Your friends at the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities
p.s. Note our new address! Please correct us in your databases and other systems, as need be, because our mailing address is now:
NICHCY
1825 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 700 Washington, DC 20009
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THIS MONTH FROM THE NATIONAL DISSEMINATION CENTER
NICHCY is pleased to share several resources with you, freely available on our website.
First, may we remind you from last month's enewsletter...
- For trainers on IDEA 2004 who work with Spanish-speaking audiences:
Eight modules have been translated into Spanish in the Building the Legacy training curriculum on IDEA 2004 and all the participant handouts for all the modules.
http://www.nichcy.org/Laws/IDEA/Pages/BuildingTheLegacy.aspx
- For those interested in transition planning for youth with disabilities:
Many folks used our Rate This Page gizmo to let us know our transition suite needed updating. So last month we launched a new transition suite for those who asked and those who didn't, differently organized and quite expanded. Begin at the main transition page.
http://www.nichcy.org/EducateChildren/
transition_adulthood/Pages/Default.aspx
And speaking of our Rate This Page gizmo, we've heard from many of you about...
- Where's NICHCY's Catalog of Publications?
We don't officially have one anymore. All of our pubs, old and new, are available on our website. But to make it easier to share info about what we offer, we've designed NICHCY's 2009 Guide to Our Online Publications. Feel free to print it out and pass it along.
http://www.nichcy.org/InformationResources/Documents/NICHCY%20PUBS/onlinecatalog09.pdf
- Where's NICHCY's brochure to share at trainings, meetings, and conferences?
Umm...that's gone, too. (Costs a fortune to print.) But we've come up with something we hope will serve you better: flyers you can include in your own information. There's a Flyer for Families (in English and Spanish) and a Flyer for Educators (also in English and Spanish, if educators would like to share news of NICHCY with Spanish-speaking families of children with disabilities). Available at:
http://www.nichcy.org/InformationResources/Pages/flyers.aspx
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IT ALL STARTS IN FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
Spread the Word: United We Ride National Dialogue.
November 2-13, 2009
Do you have a suggestion about how to increase access to affordable and reliable transportation services for people with disabilities, older adults, and people with limited incomes? Sign up now to participate in an upcoming online National Dialogue with representatives of the federal government, as well as state and community leaders.
November is National Family Caregivers Month.
America's family caregivers are family, friends, partners, and neighbors. A wealth of resources for caregivers is available at the National Family Caregivers Association, plus you can read all about what they have planned for this month, find ways to participate, and get posters and kits.
9th annual Inclusive Schools Week: December 7-11, 2009.
Special education scorecards: How's your state doing?
THe National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) has updated its Special Education Scorecards, which provide each state's special education enrollment (including students with learning disabilities), student performance on key performance indicators, federal funding provided to states in support of special education, and the state's latest rating by the U.S. Department of Education regarding implementation of IDEA.
http://www.ncld.org/on-capitol-hill/policy-related-publications/special-education-scorecards
Understanding the ADA Amendments Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
This Parent Advocacy Brief will help you understand the changes brought about by the ADAAA, how they apply to Section 504, and how these changes may impact children with disabilities, including learning disabilities, as well as other conditions such as AD/HD, Aspergers Syndrome, diabetes, asthma, and life-threatening food allergies.
New Medical Home state data website.
The Data Resource Center is partnering with the American Academy of Pediatrics to help state and family leaders quickly access data on how children and youth in each state experience receiving care within a medical home.
http://medicalhomedata.org/content/Default.aspx
Guía para la familia sobre los sistemas de cuidado para niños con necesidades de salud mental.
The link below takes you to the Spanish version of SAMHSA's Family Guide to Systems of Care for Children With Mental Health Needs.
Haciendo frente a la sobrerepresentación: Pautas para los padres.
This brief, in Spanish, defines the concept of overrepresentation, identifies possible causes for the problem, and offers a variety of ways that parents and families can help prevent or decrease overrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in special education programs.
http://www.nccrest.org/Briefs/BRIEF_spanish_parent_guide_DOCUMENT.pdf
CapScribe.
CapScribe is a free, open-source technology application that adds caption and/or audio description to audio and video files.
http://atmac.org/capscribe/
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THE LITTLE ONES: EARLY INTERVENTION/EARLY CHILDHOOD
Foundations of Inclusion Birth to Five video.
This 11-minute video can be found at CONNECT (Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge).
Would you like to preview a module on Embedded Interventions?
CONNECT is also making its Module 1 available for preview through November 30th, 2009. The preview is a slimmed-down version of the actual module, designed to give instructors a quick glimpse of content and resources available for learners.
Headsprout Early Reading.
"Headsprout Early Reading" is an Internet-based supplemental early literacy curriculum of forty 20-minute animated episodes designed to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The What Works Clearinghouse's review of the research on its effectiveness found this literacy curriculum to have potentially positive effects on oral language and print knowledge.
Videos and presentations from the National Early Childhood Summit.
On September 16-18, 2009, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) held a first-of-its-kind national summit called Building Brighter Futures for Our Children. The summit brought together teams from 39 states to develop a coordinated policy agenda among state health, early education, and human service systems for improved child outcomes. If you missed it, you can view videos from the summit here.
How much are we spending on our children?
First Focus recently released Children's Budget 2009, a comprehensive guide to over 180 federally funded programs seeking to improve the lives of America's children. This year's guide includes a special analysis of investments in children provided through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA)--almost $144 billion.
What works in early childhood mental health?
The Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD) released a new report entitled What Works? A Study of Effective Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Programs.
Early literacy? 2 new CELL reviews.
CELL is the Center on Early Literacy Learning, with two new reviews:
Public policy developments in state early care and education.
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has published its annual report, State Early Care and Education Public Policy Developments (FY10), which shows that ARRA stimulus funds are giving states opportunities to avoid cuts to certain early childhood programs and fund some new or expanded initiatives. Governors and state legislatures have approved policy changes for FY10 in areas such as: infant/toddler initiatives, professional development, and child care subsidies.
policy/state/StateECEPublicPolicyDevelopmentsFY10.pdf
Revised NAEYC early childhood professional preparation standards.
How's Head Start doing in your state?
Find out in these state fact sheets from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). Each fact sheet includes all Head Start programs in the state (Early Head Start, Head Start preschool, American Indian and Alaskan Native Head Start, and Migrant/Seasonal Head Start), as well as data on participants, families, staff, and programs.
Challenging common myths about young English language learners. This article challenges six commonly held beliefs about the development of young children who are learning English as their second language and presents research evidence drawing from a variety of disciplines that can better shape education policies for all children.
http://www.fcd-us.org/resources/resources_show.htm?doc_id=669789
Training teachers to support young children's behavior and emotional development.
Can Teacher Training in Classroom Management Make a Difference for Children's Experiences in Preschool? provides promising findings from Foundations of Learning (FOL), a demonstration and random assignment evaluation of an intervention that trains preschool teachers to better support young children's behavior and emotional development.
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Looking for complimentary teaching materials?
Still trying to find basic classroom items for your students? Edutopia suggests free online tips for obtaining the everyday supplies you need.
http://www.edutopia.org/free-school-supplies-fundraising-donation
A synopsis of The Power of Feedback. Feedback, defined as information about performance, is an integral aspect of instruction and learning. Want to know what a synthesis of 12 meta-analyses of 196 studies found when feedback was included as an instructional strategy? The Center on Instruction has produced a synopsis of Hattie and Timperley's (2007) "The Power of Feedback" published in the Review of Education Research (Review of Education Research, 77, 81-112), Find COI's synopsis at:
http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/Corrected%20Synopsis%20Power%20of%20Feedback.pdf
Guidelines for students with disabilities in case of flu outbreaks.
The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance on flexibility and waivers for SEAs, LEAs, postsecondary institutions, and other grantee and program participants. The guidance includes a section on students with disabilities whose attendance might be disrupted due to flu. The guidance is now available to download.
Functional behavior assessment and behavior plans.
More on behavior: Conduct an A-B-C analysis.
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/activities/independent/iin005.pdf
Learning to read: What we know about cracking the code.
Over the last decade, neuroscience breakthroughs and educational research findings have led to an entirely new understanding of how the human brain learns to read. If you want to visit a truly fascinating website, this one will take you on an odyssey you won't soon forget, in the classroom or out. Allot a chunk of time, because you won't want to leave, once you start delving in. (Of course, you can always go back...)
Cochlear implants, the IEP, related services, and IDEA.
Autism and resources for professionals.
The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders has posted a number of resources for the public: Evidence-Based Practices for Children and Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Autism Internet Modules; and Foundations of Autism Spectrum Disorders Online Course.
Vital characteristics of successful middle grades schools.
If this caught your eye, then you may be pleased to know that, on November 5, National Middle School Association will release the fourth edition of This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents and a companion book of research and resources that support its concepts.
Middle schools save the date.
April 22-23, 2010.
That's when the Middle Level Essentials Conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
What works in adolescent literacy: Read 180.
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STATE & SYSTEM TOOLS
Moving from highly qualified teachers to highly effective teachers.
Indian education policies in 5 northwest region states.
This REL-NW report categorizes the policies of five northwest region states based on 13 key policies identified in the literature and describes the legal methods used to adopt them, such as statutes, regulations, and executive orders. The study found that six key policies had been adopted by all five states. Find out more about the policies at:
Project Forum has been very busy.
This OSEP-funded project conducts policy analyses on critical topics in special education. Three new analyses are now available:
- Superintendent leadership: Promoting general and special education collaboration
- RTI: Select state programs (Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island)
- Serving students with disabilities in state-level virtual K-12 public school programs
- Access them all at: http://www.projectforum.org/index.cfm
IDEA Partnership launches its new website.
Sweet! (The IDEA Partnership is dedicated to improving outcomes for students and youth with disabilities by joining state agencies and stakeholders through shared work and learning.)
New report maps state proficiency standards to the NAEP.
Academic standards became less rigorous from 2005 to 2007 in a majority of states, says a study by the National Center on Education Statistics. The report compares proficiency standards of states using the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the nation's report card) as the common yardstick.
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2010456.asp
Public school graduates and dropouts report.
This First Look from NCES presents the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate, and dropout data for grades 9 through 12 for public schools during the 2006-07 school year.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2010313
The high cost of high school dropouts.
If the high school students who dropped out of the class of 2009 had
graduated, the nation's economy would have benefited from nearly $335
billion in additional income over the course of their lifetimes, according
to a new issue brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education.
Listening to Latinas: Barriers to high school graduation.
To help keep girls in school and on track for success, the National
Women's Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund went straight to the source: Latina students and the adults who work with them every day. http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/ListeningtoLatinas.pdf
What post-school outcome data can do for you.
The National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities, in
partnership with the National Post-School Outcomes Center, developed this online guide, which provides information on six states that have begun to display, analyze, and apply data across Part B Indicators 1, 2, 13, and 14.
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SPECIAL FOCUS: Resources on Disability Conditions
The most often-asked questions at NICHCY are about disability conditions. They truly are at the heart of us all, and they are what join us. You wouldn't be reading this enewsletter if your life weren't powerfully entwined with someone who has a disability. So, we make this fact our special topic this month and pass along a few resources on far too few disability conditions. We regret that. All the disabilities we haven't mentioned, all the groups and knowledge out there! But you really didn't want this enewsletter to go on forever, did you? Let us start here.
AD/HD: K-12.
Have you visited CHADD lately, especially their new education pages? CHADD stands for Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Autism: Lots going on.
Multiple resources have come out with respect to autism and its related disorders, including:
Chronic pain: How to cope.
Managing your chronic pain doesn't just mean receiving treatment and taking medication--it's also about paying attention to your mental and emotional well being, and becoming a proactive patient.
http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/coping.html
Conduct disorders.
A "soft place to land for the battle-weary parent."
Diabetes: November is American Diabetes Month.
And one of the go-to places is the American Diabetes Association, both for information on diabetes and to learn more about the Stop Diabetes campaign.
Epilepsy: November also marks National Epilepsy Awareness Month.
Visit the Maternal and Child Health Library for key resources on FASD, including websites; fact sheets and brochures; screening, diagnosis, surveillance, intervention, and training tools; and prevention-education materials (in both English and non-English languages).
Food allergies: Reducing the risk.
A Consumer Update from the FDA.
Hearing impairments: FDA offers a new online hearing aid guide.
From the Food and Drug Administration, this guide is intended for current and potential users of hearing aids.
Intellectual disabilities.
Just out in September from the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD): The 11th edition of Intellectual Disability: Definition, Classification and Systems of Supports, known in the field as the "Definition Manual." This edition establishes an advanced paradigm that professionals will use when evaluating and delivering the support services that a person with intellectual disability needs at school, at home, in the physician's office, or (perish the thought) in court.
http://www.aaidd.org/news/news_item.cfm?OID=2819
Learning disabilities|dyslexia.
Several items of note:
- Are vision problems the reason?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (Section on Ophthalmology and Council on Children with Disabilities), American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, and the American Association of Certified Orthoptists published a Joint Policy Statement in August 2009. Find it on the International Dyslexia Association's website, at:
http://www.interdys.org/InsInt.htm
- Reading and language instruction: Matrix of multisensory structured language programs.
http://www.interdys.org/ewebeditpro5/upload/MSL2007finalR1.pdf
Orthopedic impairments.
Project IDEAL (Informing and Designing Education for All Learnings) offers info on orthopedia impairments (such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, degenerative diseases, and musculoskeletal disorders) to both teachers and parents.
Speech and language disorders in the school setting: Frequently asked questions.
If you are wondering if a possible speech-language disorder is affecting your child's school performance, you may find this FAQ helpful.
http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/schoolsFAQ.htm
Visual impairments.
Connect with info and with others at NAPVI (National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments). Find, for example:
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Publication of this eNewsletter is made possible through Cooperative Agreement #H326N080003 between AED and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education. The contents do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government or by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities.
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Comments on our newsletter? Too long? Too short? Off-target? Right on? 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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