In this issue you will find resources in the following areas:
- Assistive Technology
- Disability awareness and inclusion
- Family and Community Information
- Health Information
- IEP Information
- Special Education Resources
- RTI
- Spanish Language Resources
- Transition Services
Assistive Technology
Special education needs: Top 9 assistive technology products.
Another resource from Disaboom.
https://tinyurl.com/yf39j59
Matching AT to students’ special needs
Assistive Technology to Meet K-12 Student Needs is a great resource offered by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. It provides extensive lists of AT for vision, hearing, communication, access, and learning and studying.
https://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te7assist.htm
Disability awareness and inclusion
Updated for 2010 action! We’ve also included a separate page of resources on school inclusion.
https://www.nichcy.org/FamiliesAndCommunity/Pages/awareness-inclusion.aspx
Family and Community Information
SSA adds 38 new compassionate allowance conditions.
This is the first expansion since the original list of 50 conditions (25 rare diseases and 25 cancers) was announced by the Social Security Administration in October 2008. The new conditions range from adult brain disorders to rare diseases that primarily affect children. For more information about the SSA’s Compassionate Allowances initiative, go to:
https://www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances
Request for comments from the Social Security Administration.
Public comments are requested on SSA’s procedures for evaluating DAA–drug addiction or alcoholism. Deadline for comments: March 30, 2010. Find out more at:
https://socsecnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/policy-change-on-substance-abuse-coming.html
Another request for comments: Draft revisions to the DSM-5.
The American Psychiatric Association has released preliminary draft revisions to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) and is inviting comments from both professionals and the general public until April 20, 2010. The proposed revisions include using the term Intellectual Disability in place of Mental Retardation, as well as including Asperger’s syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder under the broader diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders. To view all proposed revisions and to submit comments, go to:
https://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx
Interested in participating in a study to identify very early brain features that may be characteristic of autism?
The Infant Brain Imaging Study is being conducted by the Center for Autism Research, which is seeking to enroll families who have an infant 6 months old or younger and who have a older sibling with autism or an older sibling who is typically developing. Babies will come to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia at 6, 12, and 24 months of age to receive developmental evaluations and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Parents will receive comprehensive evaluation reports at no cost and will be paid for their family’s time and travel. To learn more, visit:
https://tiu.research.chop.edu/trialfinder/static/docs/car/2009/09/25/IBIS_Flyer.pdf
So you want to be an advocate?
In this issue of the Special Ed Advocate, Wrightslaw explains what you need to learn to become an advocate and where you can get training. You’ll also find a reading and resource list and learn how advocates use flyer campaigns to educate others.
https://www.wrightslaw.com/nltr/10/nl.0216.htm
Self-care: Why parents of children with disabilities must nurture themselves.
From Disaboom. If you haven’t visited Disaboom, you’ll be glad you did.
https://tinyurl.com/ygxny6e
The “other child” with special needs: Understanding siblings.
Another from Disaboom.
https://tinyurl.com/yhqobwe
Positive discipline for children with special needs.
And a third from Disaboom.
https://tinyurl.com/ygstpz8
Need a glossary on assistive and instructional technology?
You’ll be glad that FCTD (Family Center on Technology and Disability) has updated its glossary with new terms and expanded definitions.
https://www.fctd.info/show/glossary
Stuttering
The mystery behind the complex disorder called stuttering has become a little clearer with the recent discovery of three genes for stuttering. https://www.stutteringhelp.org/Default.aspx?tabid=798
A practitioner’s guide to community-based transportation planning
This guide from the Community Transportation Association of America can help your community expand mobility options for people with disabilities by increasing their access to transportation.
https://tinyurl.com/ygjoo8y
HealthInformation
Visit the CDC.
https://www.cdc.gov/
CDC stands for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You hear about the CDC on the news all the time, and it offers some of the latest info on health conditions and disabilities. At the link above (the home page), you’ll immediately see the option to explore Diseases and Conditions A-Z. A good place to start, if you’re on a quest for disability info.
Like NIH, the CDC has multiple info centers and initiatives. Here’s one you may be especially interested in:
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
Here, you can explore infant topics (such as genetic disorders and newborn screening for hearing and other impairments); child topics (where you’ll find info on AD/HD, autism spectrum disorders, developmental disabilities, and much more); disability topics (e.g., people with disabilities, spina bifida); blood disorders (such as sickle cell anemia); and A-Z topics, where it’s all in one place.
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/index.html
Visit the Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center.
https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/
This center offers pointblank information in English and Spanish on rare disorders. If the disorder you’re interested in is a rare one, this is definitely a place to visit. At the link above, click on GARD (the info center), and you’ll go directly there. Use the search box in the middle of the page to enter the rare disorder in which you are interested.
How about the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine?
https://nccam.nih.gov/health/atoz.htm
This center is actually a part of the NIH and, like other NIH centers, offers a great deal of info to the public in English and Spanish. Definitely worth exploring! The link above will start you on the Health Topics A-Z page.
IEP Information
• the student guide’s audio program, where you’ll hear from students with disabilities who’ve gotten involved in developing their own IEP (including several who’ve lead the IEP meeting)
https://www.nichcy.org/InformationResources/Documents/audio/st1audio.mp3
• the audio program for parents and professionals, where those who’ve helped students get involved in the IEP process share their stories and advice
https://www.nichcy.org/InformationResources/Documents/audio/ta2audio.mp3
Special Education Resources
Resources for teachers of learners with severe, profound, intensive, significant, complex, or multiple special needs.
https://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/
The ultimate guide to special needs teaching: 100+ resources and links.
https://www.teachingtips.com/blog/2008/06/25/the-ultimate-guide-to-special-needs-teaching-100-resources-and-links/
Free resources for special educators.
Heard of SEN Teacher? This site provides cost-free teaching and learning resources for students with special needs and learning disabilities.
https://www.senteacher.org/
Empowering Effective Teachers: Readiness for Reform
Report
https://tinyurl.com/yfenma8
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released a series of briefs focused on identifying readiness and implementing reform and how the education community has focused too little on the recruitment, evaluation, development, placement, and retention of highly effective teachers. The foundation has asked nine school districts and one coalition of charter management organizations to propose strategies for significantly improving teacher effectiveness and for measuring it. The first report, “Readiness for Reform,” identifies four key areas for success and discusses assessing a school’s strengths and weaknesses.
Empowering Effective Teachers: Strategies for Implementing Reforms
Report
https://tinyurl.com/yjsrc6x
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has released a series of briefs focused on how the education community has focused too little on the recruitment, evaluation, development, placement, and retention of highly effective teachers. As a step toward changing this, the foundation has asked nine school districts and one coalition of charter management organizations to propose strategies for significantly improving teacher effectiveness and for measuring it. The second report, “Strategies for Implementing Reforms,” is on ways for making the reforms.
High-Risk Indicators in Middle School for Dropping Out
Policy Brief
https://www.nmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/research/Research_from_the_Field/Policy_Brief_Balfanz.pdf
In “High-Risk Indicators in Middle School for Dropping Out,” a new study from Johns Hopkins University, researchers pinpoint the time in middle school when students can be seen to have “fallen off the path to high school graduation.” The study found middle-grade experiences “have tremendous impact on the extent to which [students] will close achievement gaps, graduate from high school, and be prepared for college.” The fifth through eighth grades must therefore be reconceptualized, considered “the launching pad for a secondary and post-secondary education system that enables all students to obtain the schooling and/or career training they will need to fully experience the opportunities of 21st century America.” Available in pdf (16 pages, 410 KB).
New York City as a Case Model for Reform
Issue Brief
https://www.all4ed.org/files/NYCOverviewJan2010.pdf
As the nation has embraced the need to graduate every student ready for college and careers, high school reform and strategies to address low performance and close achievement gaps are at the top of the education agenda. Federal policymakers looking ahead to opportunities to support this work, such as the upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, are looking at districts that have been engaged in major reform, to understand the implications for supporting and encouraging these reforms. “New York City as a Case Model for Reform,” the first in a series of briefs, describes the theory of action underlying the efforts of the New York City Department of Education and some of the specific strategies it has employed to improve high schools. Available in pdf (16 pages, 780 KB).
Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on America’s Schools
Report
https://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/pdfs/100646_ScholasticGates.pdf
According to a new survey underwritten by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Scholastic, Inc., American teachers are more interested in school reform and student achievement than their paychecks, reports the Associated Press. The national poll, the largest of teachers ever completed, includes the opinions of teachers in every grade, in every state, and across every demographic, to keep teachers’ voices in the debate over education reform. Available in pdf (110 pages, 798 KB).
The Consequences of Dropping Out of High School
Report
https://tinyurl.com/yzsvg7e
“The Consequences of Dropping Out of High School,” a Center for Labor Market Studies report, outlines the employment, earnings, incarceration, teen and young adult parenting experiences and family incomes of the nation’s young adult high school drop-outs and their better educated peers in 2006–2008 The report finds lifelong labor market, earnings, and marriage problems for all young people who drop out of high school, which appears especially prevalent with young black men. Available in pdf (16 pages, 52.9 KB).
The Economic Benefits of Reducing the Dropout Rate in the Nation’s Largest Metropolitan Areas: A Boom to Regional Businesses
Video
https://www.all4ed.org/events/011210EconomicBenefits
“The Economic Benefits from Halving the Dropout Rate: A Boom to Businesses in the Nation’s Largest Metropolitan Areas” was released on January 12 and highlights the economic benefits that the local economies of the nation’s 45 largest metro areas could expect if the number of high school dropouts were cut in half. The study, conducted by the Alliance and funded by State Farm®, includes estimates on important local economic factors such as individual earnings, home and auto sales, job and economic growth, spending and investment, tax revenue, and human capital.
What a Superlative Student Assessment System Should Look Like
https://www.ccsso.org/premium-publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=381
A white paper from the Council of Chief State School Officers considers what a student assessment system would entail if built from the best practices in current educational research and educational systems in the U.S. and high-achieving nations around the world. The paper suggests that any assessment process should support a range of purposes that should include informing learning and instruction, determining progress, measuring achievement, and providing partial accountability information.
What Works for Older Youth During the Transition to Adulthood
Fact Sheet
https://tinyurl.com/ylhpsmp
A new Child Trends fact sheet, “What Works for Older Youth During the Transition to Adulthood,” examines the role that programs for older youth can play in promoting positive development and subsequent self-sufficiency in adulthood. It synthesizes the findings from 31 rigorous evaluations of programs; all of the programs evaluated youth outcomes during the transition to adulthood (ages 18-25), but programs varied in the ages of targeted youth. Available in pdf (15 pages, 281 KB).
RTI
RTI stands for Response to Intervention, as you probably know. It’s a hot topic in education these days, so perhaps you’re looking for the latest info available. Let us tell you then about these:
• RTI: Guiding principles for educators.
From the International Reading Association. Look around the site while you’re there, there’s a lot of great info for educators.
https://www.reading.org/downloads/resources/RTI_brochure_web.pdf
• RTI: Online professional development modules and resources for classroom assessment.
https://www.schoolsmovingup.net/cs/smu/view/e/3416
• Intervention Central.
This website is committed to the goal of making quality RTI resources available to educators at no cost. There, you’ll find all sorts of intervention ideas, downloadable resources, and tools for educators, such as: entertaining ideas for educating students; classroom ideas for developmental disabilities; effective teacher commands for establishing classroom control; defiant kids (communication tools for teachers); and what every teacher should know about punishment techniques and behavior plans.
https://www.interventioncentral.org/
Spanish Language Resources
If you need to connect Spanish-speaking families with disability resources, this page will help you. You don’t need to speak Spanish either, because the page is written primarily in English.
https://www.nichcy.org/Pages/spanishresources.aspx
Transition Services
Annotated bibliographies on transition issues.
Several resources have been added to the growing list of annotated bibs from NSTTAC (National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center), including separate bibs on health, sexuality, and customized employment. Check out the full list of available bibliographies at:
https://www.nsttac.org/products_and_resources/AnnotatedBibliographies.aspx
