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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: Back to School | |
Greetings!
August! How did that happen so fast?
Maybe July flew by because there was so much to do. OSEP's TA&D Network has been very busy during that time, so we have many new resources to bring to your attention. NICHCY is also pleased to identify resources from beyond the TA&D network, where people have been very busy, too.
As much as it amazes us to say, it's almost time for the kids to go back to school---and the rest of us, too. We've made Back to School our special topic for the month, identifying resources that can help families, schools, and educational agencies use these last weeks of summer to read about and get ready for the new school year.
We hope you find this information useful. As always, we welcome your feedback. Please feel free to contact us at nichcy@aed.org.
Best wishes for August! 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
What's on NICHCY's site that may help you get ready for (and through!) another academic school year? Here's a quick list of resources you may find useful in the next few months.
Fact sheets on specific disabilities.
NICHCY's fact sheets discuss, among other things, school considerations with specific disabilities such as: AD/HD, autism, cerebral palsy, deafness or hearing loss, Down syndrome, epilepsy, emotional disorders, LD, intellectual disabilities, speech-language impairments, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairments or blindness. They'll also point you to the leading organizations specializing in those disabilities. And that will lead you to a wealth of info related to school concerns.
http://www.nichcy.org/Disabilities/Specific/Pages/Default.aspx
Reacquaint yourself with IDEA.
The nation's special education law is a very powerful influence in the lives of children with disabilities attending public school. This is also true for their families and teachers, school administrators, and district personnel. NICHCY offers comprehensive and authoritative info on IDEA, easy-to-read articles, and thorough training materials. Pick your poison!
Train your staff about IDEA.
http://www.nichcy.org/Laws/IDEA/Pages/BuildingTheLegacy.aspx
Train your staff, period.
http://www.nichcy.org/Pages/StaffDevelopment.aspx
What's the research have to say about...
...assessment and accommodations, the power of strategy instruction, effective math instruction, or social skills and academic achievement?
http://www.nichcy.org/Research/EvidenceForEducation/Pages/Default.aspx
Addressing the general education curriculum.
http://www.nichcy.org/EducateChildren/effective/Pages/gened.aspx
Of course you can also visit the NICHCY website and shop til you drop! We hope you will...and often. Also please take a moment to rate our pages and let us know what more-else-different you need to address the needs of children with disabilities at home, in the community, or at school.
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IT ALL STARTS IN FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
After the diagnosis.
Have you recently learned that your child has...asthma, ADD/ADHD, autism, or a central processing disorder? You may wish to read the First Five Things to Do After Your Child Is Diagnosed for each of these disorders. Such suggestions are also available for: bipolar disorder, cancer, celiac disorder, cerebral palsy, congenital heart defects, and cystic fibrosis. Access them all at About Special Children:
http://specialchildren.about.com/od/
gettingadiagnosis/a/diagnosis_2.htm Boundless playgrounds.
Boundless Playgrounds, Inc. teams with local communities to build inclusive playgrounds so that children of all abilities can learn and play together. Find out more about what makes a inclusive playground inclusive and how to advocate for one near you.
www.BoundlessPlaygrounds.org
And how about accessible health club and fitness facilities?
Removing Barriers to Health Clubs and Fitness Facilities: A Guide for Accommodating All Members, Including People with Disabilities and Older Adults is written for health club and fitness facility owners and managers (but may be useful for families and individuals with disabilities as well). Check out page 5, which itemizes suggestions for making a center a welcoming facility.
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~ncodh/pdfs/rbfitness.pdf
America's children: Key national indicators of well-being, 2009.
Just published by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics! The report has three demographic background measures and 40 selected indicators to describe the population of children and depict child well-being in: family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health. This year's report has a special feature on children with special health care needs.
http://childstats.gov/
Upcoming Arc national conference: November 11-14, 2009.
The Arc is deeply invested in the community of those with intellectual disabilities. If you are, too, you may be interested in the Arc's annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA.
http://www.thearc.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=411
Youth Lead for those with developmental disabilities.
Youth LEAD provides teens and young adults with developmental disabilities with resources and support to set and meet their goals for education. Youth LEAD also helps youth-serving community organizations increase inclusive programming for individuals with developmental disabilities.
www.youthleadyouthcongress.org
Going to work: What are individuals with DD up to?
The Institute for Community Inclusion's Real People, Real Jobs website is a growing catalogue of success stories about individuals working in paid jobs in their communities. Through the use of innovative, front-line employment support practices, these individuals are earning money, forming networks, and contributing to their communities. Learn more about these people and the promising practices that led to their success.
http://realworkstories.org/
And for employers...
The Office of Disability Employment Policy's new guide Diversifying Your Workforce: A Four-Step Reference Guide to Recruiting, Hiring, & Retaining Employees with Disabilities is for you.
http://tinyurl.com/cc9bpc
What does the law require re: individuals with HIV or AIDS and occupational training?
Find out in the Justice Department's fact sheet on legal requirements relating to admitting individuals with HIV or AIDS to occupational training schools and granting state licensure in occupations such as barbering, massage therapy and home health care assistance.
http://www.ada.gov/publicat.htm#qa_aidslicence
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THE LITTLE ONES: EARLY INTERVENTION/EARLY CHILDHOOD
RTI in early childhood.
RTI (response to intervention) is all about preventing delays in children's learning and behavior. It's a hot topic in K-12 programs; how to apply it in early childhood programs? Find guidance in a new paper from the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI): Response to Intervention and the Pyramid Model.
http://www.challengingbehavior.org//do/resources/papers.htm
Bright Futures: Early childhood developments.
A new edition of Bright Futures emerges from the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices and examines opportunities for early childhood in the federal economic recovery package. Also find highlights of Early Childhood Advisory Council development in Guam, Iowa, Maine, and Ohio.
http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0906brightfuturesnews.pdf
What do you think of these practice guides? Weigh in.
CELL is the Center for Early Literacy Learning, and CELLpractices are Practice Guides Especially for Practitioners working with parents and young children. These guides can be used by early childhood educators, child care providers, early interventionists, and other early childhood practitioners for promoting young children's literacy learning. CELL is asking for user feedback on its 68 new Practice Guides and will revise them based on that feedback. Have a look and weigh in with your 2 cents worth at:
http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org/pgpracts.php
OSEP's policy letters on early childhood transition.
Visit the National Early Childhood Transition Center and, among other resources, find a summary of three policy letters from the feds on early childhood transition, as well as the findings from a survey of families and providers in 24 states about significant transition experiences across the early childhood years.
http://www.hdi.uky.edu/NECTC/Publications/
transalterts.aspx
What works to promote healthy social-emotional development in young children.
The Evidence-Based Social-Emotional Curricula and Intervention Packages for Children 0-5 Years and Their Families is a new product of the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children. Subtitle? Roadmap to effective intervention practices.
http://www.challengingbehavior.org/do/
resources/documents/roadmap_2.pdf
Defining the features of inclusion (an 11-minute video).
Check it out at CONNECT.
http://community.fpg.unc.edu/
Collaborating in the community.
A new report from Pre-K Now, entitled Beyond the School Yard: Pre-K Collaborations with Community-Based Partners, profiles communities where early childhood programs are working together to provide high-quality early learning opportunities for more children. It includes a discussion about the benefits and challenges of coordinating programs and how state policy makers can support local efforts.
A early childhood journal, peer-reviewed and open-access.
If you're working with young children with special needs (0-8 age) and their families, you may be interested in the new International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education (INT-JECSE). It's online, it's peer-reviewed and scholarly, and it's open to everyone.
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Accessible books for students with print disabilities.
Bookshare is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities. Funded by an award from OSEP, Bookshare's library includes more than 50,000 digital books, textbooks, teacher-recommended reading, periodicals, and assistive technology tools. Talk about a back-to-school resource!
http://www.bookshare.org/
More on accessible textbooks.
NIMAS was introduced into IDEA in 2004 and has been described as a "giant leap forward" for students with print disabilities. Through NIMAS, students have access to textbooks and core instructional materials in digital and other formats. Here are two NIMAS links to explore:
2009 AT resources (CD-Rom).
When you don't have ready access to the Internet, all of the information available on the website of FCTD, the Family Center on Technology and Disability, is packed onto FCTD's 2009 CD-Rom of assistive technology resources. Request a copy today!
www.fctd.info
Emerging technology for autism research and treatment.
Fascinating, detailed article from the Family Center on Technology and Disability, as part of its July newsletter.
http://www.fctd.info/resources/newsletters/displayNewsletter.php?newsletterID=10075
Implementing tech in your school.Scaling up and implementing technology into a school's curriculum is an exciting process, but one that requires collaboration among school staff and knowledge of the different elements that are necessary to successfully integrate and sustain the technology. CITEd examined the process and offers several short how-to briefs, including key factors to consider.
2009 Technology Innovators Conference, November 16-17, in DC.
The 2009 NCTI Technology Innovators Conference, Educational Futures-Powered by Technology, will focus on the how learning and assistive technologies can supercharge education for all students.
http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/
Universal screening for reading problems.
This resource (from the RTI Action Network) will give you an in-depth introduction to early screening---why universal screening is important, how it fits into an RTI framework, and steps for creating a reading screen as an identification of early predictors of later reading outcomes.
http://www.rtinetwork.org/Essential/
Assessment/Universal/ar/ReadingProblems
Project MORE and reading.
Project MORE is an Ohio-developed, scientifically based reading research project that provides 1:1 volunteer reading mentoring to children with disabilities in grades K-4. Find out more about Project MORE, including how to use this approach in your neck of the woods, at:
http://ohioprojectmore.org
Alternative pathways to learning.
The Center for Educational Pathways is dedicated to helping underserved children and their teachers build creative pathways to academic success. Take, for example, the Center's Comic Book Project, which helps children forge an alternative pathway to literacy by writing, designing, and publishing original comic books. Or investigate the Youth Music Exchange, an after-school program that creates record labels the children own and manage with the help of community-based organizations.
http://www.edpath.org/programs.htm
Doing what works.
The DWW website is meant to help educators identify and make use of effective teaching practices. The Teacher-to-Teacher online digital workshops you'll find at DWW give a professional learning experience that includes instructor coaching, peer-to-peer collaboration, and individual exploration. Two workshops are currently available: English Language Learners, and Encouraging Girls in Math and Science.
http://www.t2tweb.us/doingwhatworks/Home.asp
SchoolsMovingUp.
SchoolsMovingUp helps schools and districts address the challenge of raising student achievement. Find resources by topic, including resources on: assessment & accountability, curriculum & instruction, district improvement, early childhood, parent involvement, professional development, school improvement, secondary, and technology in education.
http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/cs/smu/
print/htdocs/smu/home.htm
Effective ways for LEAs to engage SEAs and schools regarding RTI (video).
The RTI Action Network offers instructional video and audio content to highlight some of the important issues related to RTI. This video features Bill East, the Executive Director of NASDSE.
http://www.rtinetwork.org/Professional/Podcasts/
Bill-East-Effective-Ways-for-LEAs-to-Engage-SEAs-and-Schools-Regarding-RTI
Improving accommodations outcomes.
This document from NCEO (National Center on Educational Outcomes) presents a five-step process for schools, districts, and states to use in monitoring accommodations for instruction and assessment. It's designed as a companion to the Council of Chief State School Officers' Accommodations Manual: How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate Use of Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment of Students with Disabilities.
http://www.cehd.umn.edu/nceo/OnlinePubs/
AccommodationsMonitoring.pdf
Mental health and dropping out of high school.
Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Dropping Out: A Quick Stats Fact Sheet provides a snapshot of the current issues surrounding dropout factors among students who are identified with emotional disturbance, and offers mental health resources that may assist this population with remaining in high school.
http://betterhighschools.org/docs/NHSC_MentalHealthFS.pdf
More on preventing students from dropping out.
Here's a Practice Guide from the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities (NDPC-SD), designed to help teachers and school staff put research-based practices into place to support students with disabilities.
http://www.ndpc-sd.org/knowledge/practice_guides.php
Evidence-based practices in secondary transition: A user's guide.
Looking for educational practices and specific strategies shown to have positive results for students? This User's Guide includes an array of materials regarding transition research synthesis, lesson plan starters, and professional development resources. To access the User's Guide, click the link below (which will take you to the IDEA Partnership website), then click on the Guide under Partnership User Guides on the right side of the home page.
www.ideapartnership.org
Indicator 13: Collecting data to tell the feds how you're doing.
Indicator 13 relates to transition services for youth with disabilities. OSEP has just approved a checklist for collecting the data to report on Indicator 13. It's available at:
ARRA: Opportunities for high school improvement.
The National High School Center provides detailed information about ARRA (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) to help states and districts plan how to apply ARRA funding so that it has the greatest impact on high school improvement.
http://betterhighschools.org/ARRA.asp
Bilingual professional development: Visit the Iris Center.
Oh boy, talk about resources for current and future teachers. Bilingual, too! To whet your appetite, here's a very brief sampling of modules of possible interest. All are available in both English and Spanish.
Professional development: Inclusive systems and equity.
This module from the Equity Alliance guides participants through an exploration of inclusive educational systems, schools, and classrooms. Downloadable materials include PowerPoint presentations, participant handouts, and facilitator manuals.
http://equityallianceatasu.org/
pl/inclusive-education-for-equity
Professional development: Students with autism and transition to adulthood.
Transition specialists may wish to try this low-cost online course.
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STATE & SYSTEM TOOLS
RTI self-assessment tool.
This resource from the Center on Instruction contains both a web-based self-assessment and resource filtering tool that SEAs can use to determine their level of RTI implementation, and find resources that are relevant to their needs.
http://www.rtictrl.org
Looking for funds to develop (or expand) a State Longitudinal Data System?
At the end of July, the Department of Education released a Request for Application (RFA) for the State Longitudinal Data Systems under the ARRA. The purpose of the grant is to enable states to design, develop, and implement statewide preschool through grade 12 education and postsecondary education data systems capable of managing, analyzing, and disaggregating individual student data. The average grant is expected to be $10 million. Applications are due November 19, 2009. To read the full request for application, visit:
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/slds/pdf/2009_ARRA_RFA.pdf
Guidance from DOE on using ARRA funding to boost school technology programs.
Federal officials have just issued guidance for using more than $650 million in the economic-stimulus package to boost educational technology programs in the nation. The guidance relates to the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology program and details how the money should be distributed by states to local grantees and what districts can use it for, and it outlines the reporting and transparency requirements attached to the funds.
For data system designers and managers.
The National Center for Education Statistics has developed a new Data Systems Standards and Guidelines website to help data system designers and managers build and/or improve education data systems.
http://nces.ed.gov/dataguidelines/
Revised Indicator 14: Measuring students' post-school outcomes.
The National Post-School Outcomes Center helps SEAs establish practical and rigorous data collection systems to measure and profile the post-school experiences of youth with disabilities. Check out the revised Indicator 14 materials the PSO Center has just posted at:
http://psocenter.org/
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SPECIAL FOCUS: BACK TO SCHOOL
As we mentioned in the intro to this newsletter, our special focus this month is Back to School. Hope these resources interest and assist!
10 reasons to go to Back to School night.
http://specialchildren.about.com/od/
- Back to School Transitions: Tips for Parents (English)
- Home-School Conferences: A Guide for Parents (English/Spanish, audio)
- Anxiety and Anxiety Disorders in Children (English/Spanish)
- School Refusal: Info for Educators (English)
- School Readiness: Info for Parents (English, audio)
Browse the list of resources available at:
http://www.nasponline.org/families/index.aspx
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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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