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CASE
Last week you received a Call To Action from both CEC and CASE. When you get two, especially within a short period of time, what do you do? You do BOTH. There is a reason you received multiple requests: it is important! In case you missed some of the great information, you can get this terrific, ready to use, cut and paste TOOL KIT. Remember not only can you send multiple letters, but you should also activate any membership groups you are a member. Don't miss out on this huge opportunity to make a difference in this fight for our most vulnerable students! Your action is critical.
Speaking of action ... Did you nominate someone for the CASE "G" Award last week? If you answer is no, then you still have time to get it in before the June 30 deadline! The information and nomination form are on the CASE website. What is the "G" Award? The Early Career Special Education Administrator Award is presented to a Special Education Administrator who is a member of CASE and in their first three years administering special education programs and/or services, and who embraces 5 of the pre-selected values. Members of CASE can nominate a Special Education Administrator in their district/school who exemplifies the values by telling their story and how they support their teachers enabling them to go above and beyond for children with disabilities. The winner receives a $1000 check to be used for "fun" and not school items. This is a great opportunity to encourage a new administrator!
And while we are on the whole "important" theme, have You Registered Yet for the Special Education Summit? We have filled up the Westin and are now working with the Residence Inn that is very close so book your room now! We especially need registrations from these states that are not represented in the over 200 people who are attending: Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming!
More than ever before, we need to have EVERY voice in D.C. this summer. For the last 14 summers, CASE has convened a group in Washington DC to learn how to make a difference back in our district by talking with the folks up on the Hill! For the last two summers, we have joined forces with CEC to make our footprint even bigger. We were so successful, last summer we had to turn people away due to the size of the hotel we were using. This year we moved to a bigger hotel! We are so excited to be just up the road from where we were last year — same metro stop — at the Westin Alexandria. We will not be turning anyone away this year! We hope to have teams from EVERY state as we gather on Sunday afternoon, July 9-Wednesday, July 12! Check out the flyer and then head on over to the dedicated website and register! Don't forget to reserve your hotel rooms, as the second hotel is filling up fast! This summer is going to be a critical year for us to help educate our congressional delegations on our communities, our students, our staff and our needs! Hope to see you in D.C.!
Early Bird Registration for the 2017 CASE Annual Conference is open! Kindel Mason (ID), CASE Professional Development chair and his committee have put together an amazing program ! The 27th Annual CASE Fall Conference will be held at the Nugget in Reno, Nevada, Nov. 2-4. Now is a great time to go ahead and reserve you room at the Nugget at the amazing group rate of just $81 a night — and that includes your airport to hotel and back transportation! We are working on registration and hope to have it up in the next month. In case you are part of your State/Provincial leadership — the CASE Board of Directors will be meeting all day on Wednesday, Nov. 1 and the morning before the conference starts at lunch on Nov. 2! Mark your calendars!
The question last week was "If you had some 'extra' time to just read and explore, which of these topics would you choose?" We had our largest number of respondents in the last 6 weeks on this question and the answers were pretty well distributed. The number one answer was a tie at 25 percent between Growth Mindset and UDL. Second place with 20 percent was policy issues on special education. A close third with 15 percent was policy issues in education. There was a three-way tie for third place at 5 percent between STEM, Project-based learning, and 1:1 Technology. I think this question showed we all have a desire to learn more about various content even if we don't have much extra time to do it. The fact so many of you took the time to answer this survey shows you really do still have that spark for learning! CASE gives you many opportunities to learn — I hope you will let us know if we are hitting or missing the mark. We would love your input on what we need to be doing to meet your needs!
Thank you again for all you do EVERY day for your district, your students, your staff and your community!
Luann Purcell
Executive Director
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CASE
This regular update highlights new legal developments of major significance of special education leaders.
As a service to CASE members, this periodic legal alert provides, as a two-column table, highlights (on the left) and practical implications (on the right) of major new legal developments. The monthly update for this issue
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Children and adolescents often rely on their peers for social and emotional support. In addition, many students may welcome the opportunity to function independently of teachers and parents, and feel that fellow students have a better perspective on their problems. Schools can take advantage of strong peer relationships by implementing a peer mediation program. With the commitment and training of school professionals, families, and the community, a peer mediation program can serve as a valuable resource for teaching students healthy conflict resolution skills and creating a positive school climate.
Click on the following link for more information on Peer Mediation: (http://k12engagement.unl.edu/peer-mediation). Then click on the red button to download the pdf and read more. Find Strategy Briefs on over forty other topics at: http://k12engagement.unl.edu.
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NAME
As the U.S. Senate begins its work to address health care reform, it might be a good time to remind people of the actual number of children in this country that are covered by Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
The following links provide the number of children enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP by school district, county, congressional district and state.
Percent of Children Covered by Medicaid/CHIP by School District
Percent of Children Covered by Medicaid/CHIP by County
Percent of Children Covered by Medicaid/CHIP by Congressional District
Percent of Children Covered by Medicaid/CHIP by State
This information was created by Georgetown University, Health Policy Institute, Center for Children & Families.
You can also find this information on the NAME website by logging into the Members only>News section.
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NCRTM
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities continues to be higher than for those without disabilities. In 2015, the unemployment rate for persons with disabilities ages 16 and older was 10.7 percent, compared to a 5.1 percent unemployment rate for persons without a disability ages 16 and older. However, recent employment data for Americans with disabilities does show signs of improvement.
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NCES
New state-level data on early childhood readiness and college readiness, as well as open enrollment polices, are now available on the State Education Reforms website. The State Education Reforms website draws primarily on data collected by organizations other than the National Center for Education Statistics.
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U.S. Department of Education
The sixty minute webinar, which has been pre-recorded for transcription purposes is available on the Office of Innovation and Improvement's website. In addition to the webinar, the transcript and presentation slides are also be available.
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Department of Education
In order to receive Federal funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act, 1 each State educational agency must submit a State plan or application for each program. Section 8302 of the ESEA requires the Secretary to establish procedures and criteria in order to simplify the application requirements across various ESEA programs and reduce burden for each SEA that submits a consolidated State plan, after consultation with the governor.
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CEC Policy Insider
Rumors are rampant in Washington, D.C. about the status of a Republican Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It has been reported that the "secret" bill could come to the floor of the Senate for debate as soon as June 26 and voted on by June 30. CEC is concerned about the lack of transparency by the Senate Republicans as most of the member of the Republican Caucus have not yet seen the bill, Senate Democrats have not been included, no hearings will be held, and it is unlikely that the public will be privy to the bill before it goes to the Senate floor for debate.
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CEC Policy Insider
The State of Learning Disabilities: Understanding the 1 in 5 was recently unveiled by the National Center for Learning Disabilities. The report uses recently released data for the 2015-2016 school year and other field-leading research to shine a light on the current challenges and opportunities facing the 1 in 5 children who have learning and attention issues such as dyslexia and ADHD.
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CEC Policy Insider
The National Center on Education and the Economy recently held a briefing, Empowered Educators: How High-Performance Systems Shape Teaching Quality Around the World. Empowered Educators, led by Linda Darling-Hammond with researchers: Karen Hammerness, Mistilina Sato, A. Lin Goodwin, and Ann McIntyre described some of the world's top-performing education systems.
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CEC Policy Insider
The Department of Education recently issued a notice in the Federal Register inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year 2017 for the Technical Assistance and Dissemination To Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities — Technical Assistance Center on Positive Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Outcomes for Young Children With, and at Risk for, Developmental Delays or Disabilities.
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CEC Policy Insider
Join us at the 2017 Special Education Legislative Summit! 2017 SELS will be held in Alexandria, VA and Washington, D.C. from July 9-12. Register today to make sure CEC's voice is loud and clear, this year more then ever. We hope to see you there!
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| | HOT TOPIC: SUBJECT LINE FEATURED STORY |
By: Howard Margolis (commentary)
 On May 4, Republicans in the House of Representatives repealed the Affordable Care Act and passed the American Health Care Act of 2017. The bill still has a long, involved and confusing process before it can become law. So, why write an article on what's an uncertain possibility? Because the House bill shows parents, relatives and friends of medically-involved children and children with disabilities — from mild to profound — what supporters of the AHCA are fighting for.
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Education World
Betsy DeVos took a hammering from both Republicans and Democrats, appearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee regarding proposed budget cuts and discrimination of LGBTQ students. DeVos' vision that she tagged onto the proposed $9 billion across-the-board cuts — a 13 percent cut to the current budget — outlined in the administration's budget proposal was one of reforming an education system to offer parents and students more choice. DeVos argued the budget puts a focus on "programs that are proven to help students while taking a hard look at those that are well-intended, but haven't yielded meaningful results."
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NPR
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made it clear, appearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, that she sees no connection between school funding and school performance. As evidence, she criticized the Obama Administration's $7 billion grant program to improve struggling schools, an effort that yielded no significant impacts in test scores or graduation rates.
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Education Week
If you listen to one top Democratic senator, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has pledged to make sure schools participating in a proposed federally backed school choice program must follow federal special education law. But the issue isn't necessarily so straightforward. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the ranking member of the Senate education committee, thinks DeVos made the answer pretty clear.
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The Hill
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said that all schools that receive federal funds will be required to follow federal civil rights laws. "Let me be clear, schools that receive federal funds must follow federal law," DeVos said during the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies hearing on President Donald Trump's proposed budget for the Education Department.
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Education Week
Students with disabilities who spend at least 80 percent of their school day in general education courses have higher rates of on-time graduation, college attendance, and employment than students with disabilities who are similar in other ways, but who spend less time in general education, according to a new study. The same study found that students with disabilities are also more likely to graduate on time and find jobs if they took four or more credits of career and technical courses in high school, compared to similar peers who took fewer such courses.
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ADDitude Magazine
No child can succeed at school if he believes he is less smart or less capable than his peers. Follow these strategies to change your child's mindset and to promote his self-esteem. Together, they can unlock a lifetime of more positive learning.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Neuroscientists have found that dyslexic children from lower income families responded much better to a summer reading program than children from a higher socioeconomic background. Using MRI data, the team also found anatomical changes in the brains of children whose reading abilities improved — in particular, a thickening of the cortex in parts of the brain known to be involved in reading.
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Education Week
New research is helping to clarify how teachers become chronically stressed, and how it can affect their students' well-being and achievement. "Relationships really matter for learning; there's a lot of evidence around that," said Robert Whitaker, a professor of public health and pediatrics at Temple University. In one 2016 study, University of British Columbia researchers tracked the levels of stress hormones of more than 400 elementary students in different classes. They found teachers who reported higher levels of burnout had students with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol each morning, suggesting classroom tensions could be "contagious."
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By: Susan Winebrenner (commentary)
 Summer is beginning, and you haven't made any activity plans for your gifted child. By the end of this month, you may be regretting that decision. Here are some suggestions for your consideration. The first consideration should be to find paths to connect your child with other kids who share their interests. Most gifted kids care more about quality of friendships than quantity of options. To find a like-minded learner who shares one's learning passion is a gift.
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Edutopia
Many teachers shy away from including music in their classrooms because they presume they need musical training to use music as a teaching tool. However, there are multiple ways to implement music in the classroom that don't require any training.
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ADDitude Magazine (commentary)
Amber Chandler, a contributor for ADDitude Magazine, writes: "Like an infomercial for summer reading, I walked dutifully into the Barnes and Noble, flanked on one side by my six-year-old, Zoey, and on the other by my three-year-old, Oliver. We browsed the large selection of enrichment and review books, and I decided on "summer bridge" books, which would review the prior year and lay the foundation for the next school year."
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EdSource
For classroom teachers, professional training can be a mixed bag that too often leaves teachers uninspired with no improvement in student learning, according to a new report by the Learning Policy Institute. So researchers for the nonprofit institute set out to find what works best in helping teachers to improve teaching methods and their students' learning and test scores. In reviewing results of 35 previous studies, the new report urges that mid-career teacher training, which is also known as professional development, focus tightly on the academic subjects' content, incorporate active learning, encourage collaboration, provide coaching and be of sustained duration, among other things.
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Education DIVE
Part of the challenge states and school districts face in ensuring students have access to a "well-rounded education" is that many of the subjects and disciplines that would make up such an education are often constantly in danger of cuts, most likely because state accountability exams do not focus on proficiency in these subjects. For example, the Commission's report details many of the funding opportunities ESSA offers districts that emphasize opportunities in arts and music, but the number of headlines on the local and national level bemoaning the loss of arts and music programs in schools over the years have become countless.
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The Brookings Institution
The exit and churn of public school teachers have always been of concern to policymakers. Ideally, we want to keep the best and the brightest in the schools where they are needed the most and, at the very least, we want to keep them in the teaching profession more generally. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 3.6 million full-time-equivalent public school teachers in the United States in 2015; 8 percent of those exited public school teaching during the following year, and another 8 percent moved to a new school. Combined, nearly one in six public teaching positions will be vacated and will likely need a replacement before the next school year.
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The Brookings Institution
Most researchers and parents agree that effective social and emotional skills are essential to a child's development and success as an adult. But how much do we know about these skills, how to measure them, and what impact they have? In the latest issue of The Future of Children, a joint publication of Brookings and Princeton University, a wide range of scholars debate the success of current social and emotional learning programs, how to accurately measure SEL skills, and whether teachers are well prepared enough to support positive social and emotional development in young children.
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Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
Name: State Personnel Development Grants (SPDG) Program
Type: Applications for New Awards
Summary: The purpose of this program, authorized by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), is to assist state educational agencies (SEAs) in reforming and improving their systems for personnel preparation and professional development in early intervention, educational, and transition services in order to improve results for children with disabilities.
These grant competition comprises two priorities:
- Absolute Priority 1 — Effective and Efficient Delivery of Professional Development
- Absolute Priority 2 — State Personnel Development Grants
Date: Applications Available: Feb. 13.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: April 14.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: June 13.
FR Link: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2017-02895
Type: Notice
Summary: Personnel Development To Improve Services and Results for Children With Disabilities-Interdisciplinary Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services for Personnel Serving Children With Disabilities Who Have High-Intensity Needs
Dates:
Applications Available: Jan.3.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: March 6.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: May 3.
CFDA#: 84.325K
Summary: Notice inviting applications for a new award for fiscal year (FY) 2017. Personnel Development To Improve Services and Results for Children With Disabilities—Interdisciplinary Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention, and Related Services for Personnel Serving Children With Disabilities Who Have High-Intensity Needs.
The purposes of this program are to:
- help address State-identified needs for personnel preparation in special education, early intervention, related services, and regular education to work with children, including infants and toddlers, with disabilities; and
- ensure that those personnel have the necessary skills and knowledge, derived from practices that have been determined through scientifically based research and experience, to be successful in serving those children.
FR Link: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2016-31838
Type: Grant Announcement
Program: Education Research and Special Education Research Grant Programs.
Date: Tuesday, March 8
CFDA: 84.305A, 84.305B, 84.305D, 84.305H, 84.305L, 84.305N, 84.324A, 84.324B, and 84.324L
Summary: The central purpose of the Institute of Education Sciences' (Institute) research grant programs is to provide interested individuals and the general public with reliable and valid information about education practices that support learning and improve academic achievement and access to education opportunities for all students. These interested individuals include parents, educators, students, researchers, and policymakers. In carrying out its grant programs, the Institute provides support for programs of research in areas of demonstrated national need.
Competitions in This Notice:
The Institute will conduct nine research competitions in FY 2017 through two of its centers:
The Institute's National Center for Education Research will hold six competitions, one in each of the following areas:
- Education research;
- Education research training;
- Statistical and research methodology in education;
- Partnerships and collaborations focused on problems of practice or policy;
- Low-cost, short-duration evaluations; and
- Research networks.
The Institute's National Center for Special Education Research will hold three competitions, one in each of the following areas:
- Special education research;
- Special education research training; and
- Low-cost, short-duration evaluations.
Deadlines: The dates when applications are available and the deadlines for transmittal of applications invited under this notice are indicated in the chart at the end of the FR notice.
Click here for more information.
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