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November 6, 2008

NASDSE Works! 

CHARTER SCHOOLS AND SPECIAL EDUCATION
Since 1998, NASDSE has become a national leader on charter schools and special education as charter school authorizers and operators try to understand their responsibilities vis-à-vis this group of students. NASDSE’s charter schools initiatives have been the primary source of support on this topic for all of those involved with charter schools in the 40 states and the District of Columbia where charter schools are part of the education community.

NASDSE’s work has evolved from an initial study that examined special education requirements in charter schools to the creation of a website that contains state-specific Primers on Special Education in Charter Schools, copies of state-specific Primers for 13 states that have participated in creating those resources as well as many other resources related to this topic.

The states that have worked with NASDSE to develop Primers are: CA, GA, HI, ID, MD, MI, NJ, NM, OH, and TN. Primers are currently pending for MA, MN and WI.

Although the project officially ended at the end of September 2008, the website will continue to be maintained. Whether you are a state official, a teacher or a researcher be sure to visit he project’s website, which has been expanded with new and enhanced resources including six new Special Reports, links to state-specific primers and video presentations that summarize each of the Primers – the Background Primer on legal issues and legislation, the Authorizer Primer, the Operator Primer and the Primer for State Officials who work and oversee charter schools. You can access the website at www.uscharterschools.org/specialedprimers.

DEAF/HARD OF HEARING EDUCATION INITIATIVE
NASDSE is proud to offer workshops in states to educate practitioners on the following vital issues: the foundations of educating students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), the characteristics of appropriate administrative and support structures for services, the process for identifying and assessing individual needs, terminology used in the field and federal and state policy as they apply to lowincidence populations.

NASDSE’s DHH initiative has provided invaluable leadership though its seminars in the following states since 2007: MI, PA, OH, CA, KN, AK, OK, AL, NM, IO, MD, NC, MI, KN, SD. ID and NC. States have used the seminars tin a variety of ways. For example, some are using the seminars to develop state plans for students who are DHH as well as using it as a springboard for on-going community of practice groups. Others are using the seminar to focus on specific issues such as literacy, educational interpreter certification and service provision as well as technology. NASDSE is proud that states have used the seminar for the preparation and advocacy of important legislation around interpreter issues.

PROJECT FORUM
Project Forum has been a fixture at NASDSE for more than 25 years. They provide valuable research and information to practitioners and policy makers on a variety of current special education issues. The topics researched recently range from “the state of the states” to local implementation of universal design for learning (UDL). The topics researched are generated from practitioners and policy makers and are recommended by an advisory board to OSEP for consideration. The Project Forum website features a section for “topic suggestions”, so if you have an area of concern or confusion, feel free to let Project Forum know. This is your research project!

Project Forum and CAST are excited to announce that they are conducting a month-long online policy forum on universal designs for learning (UDL) implementation! A kickoff webinar provided background on UDL. To register for this exciting and informative online event and to view all of Project Forum’s relevant documents please visit their website at: www. Projectforum.org Project Forum also recently conducted a forum on meeting the needs of students with disabilities who are homeless. The policy forum discussed ways of improving collaboration between those with responsibilities under the McKinney-Veto Homeless Act and those with responsibilities under IDEA. A summary of the issues and recommendations generated by the participants will be available soon on the Project Forum and NASDSE websites.

IDEA PARTNERSHIP
NASDSE is pleased to announce that the IDEA Partnership has been refunded for another five years through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)! The IDEA Partnership facilitates interaction and shared work across professional and family organizations around common interests. The IDEA Partnership works with leaders in 33 states to facilitate a new, deer type of leadership and partners with 55 national organizations to facilitate collaboration across stakeholder groups in an effort to facilitate a deep understanding of and share in work on “big issues” in education. One way in which the IDEA Partnership accomplishes its goal is through Communities of Practice (CoP). A CoP is quite simply a group of people that agree to interact regularly to solve a persistent problem or improve practice in an area that is important to them. CoPs exist in many forms, some large in scale and dealing with complex problems, others small in scale and focused on a problem at a very specific level. CoPs are a way of working that invites the groups that have a stake in an issue to be a part of the problem solving. The CoP develops its own schedule or ‘rhythm’ for interacting and creates mechanisms to communicate that give access to all the members. The IDEA Partnership’s CoP’s are broadly based around the following themes: NCLB/IDEA collaboration; school behavior health; transition, dispute resolution/creating agreement and teacher quality.

A recent and exciting example of IDEA Partnership work surrounds school-based mental health. For the last five years, 21 national organizations and 5 federal technical assistance centers have annually joined with 13 state teams to bridge education and mental health and through the national CoP on School Behavioral Health. The community members represent those working at the policy, practice and consumer level and work together on an array of issues.

Between annual face-to-face meetings, the community interacts through web meetings, conference calls and an interactive website sponsored by the IDEA Partnership, www.sharedwork.org. Currently, 1,700 stakeholders work together on the shared work site and 13 states have teams that are working across agencies and across groups to apply the community strategy at the state and local level.

A major accomplishment of the community has been to completely plan, review proposals, select presenters and host the National Conference on Advancing School Mental Health, which is attended annually by more than 700 participants. During the recent 13th Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health that took place on September 25-27, 2008 in Phoenix, AZ, the Community’s Youth Practice Group sponsored the opening keynote Ross Szabo of the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign who delivered a personal refection on depression and suicide drawn from his book, Behind Happy Faces. In the second keynote, the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), a founding member of the national CoP, framed talking points for participants to engage their members at the local level by concretely making connections between school-based mental health and the high school reform principles articulated in its publication, Breaking Ranks. To learn more about the National Community as well as all the communities of practice and follow the work of the states and the practice groups, register at www.sharedwork.org.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE
NASDSE will be hosting its annual conference in Kiawah Island, SC. from October 18-21. The theme this year will be “Formula for Success: Providing a Highly Capable Workforce.” Speakers include leading national experts who will help inform states about how to ensure that individuals who work with students with disabilities are effectively trained to meet diverse student needs. For more information please visit the NASDSE website at www.nasdse.org (click on ‘Events’). After the conference, presentations will be available on the NASDSE website.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SERIES
NASDSE is pleased to offer a new series of four professional development conferences. These conferences are purchased by the state directors of special education and are available for unlimited viewing and use in those states. This series of four telecasts brings nationally-recognized experts to your state using technology, providing an affordable means of quality, cutting-edge personnel development for a variety of stakeholders. Subscribing states receive unlimited rights to rebroadcast and reproduce these conferences for in-state, non-commercial use, providing maximum flexibility to utilize the series to best meet local and statewide professional development needs for state directors of special education, state education agency staff, local administrators, teachers, related service providers, higher education faculty, families, youth leaders, community leaders and other stakeholders. The topics to be covered in the 2008-2009 schedule include:

News You Can Use: 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, 2008

For more information and to find out how to access this invaluable professional development series, contact your state department of education or visit the NASDSE website at: www.nasdse.org.

NASDSE Publishes!
Recognizing that Response to Intervention (RtI) is a emerging and groundbreaking initiative, NASDSE offers a series of publications in an effort to inform and guide the field at the national, state, district and building level. Take a moment to visit NASDSE’s website to view these documents as well as our large collection on additional publications on varied aspects of special education at: www.nasdse.org. Click on any title below to view additional information.
• Response to Intervention: Policy Considerations and Implementation
• Response to Intervention Blueprints for Implementation: School Building Level
• Response to Intervention Blueprints for Implementation: District Level
• Response to Intervention: Research for PracticeTo learn more about meeting the needs of students who are deaf or hard of hearing, click on the link below.

Meeting the Needs of Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Educational Services Guidelines
Below are links to the most recent Project Forum documents. To access the documents, click on the relevant link below.

• Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS): Policy Forum (Sept. ‘08)
• Financial Responsibility for Students with Disabilities: A Special Case (Sept. ‘08)
• State Eligibility Requirements for Specific Learning Disabilities (July ‘08)
• Universal Design for Learning: Implementation in Six Local Education Agencies (June ‘08)

NASDSE Advocates!
NASDSE advocates on behalf of its members, the state directors of education, to promote the legislative agenda agreed upon and adopted by the board of directors each January. To view a copy of NASDSE’s legislative agenda go to: www.nasdse.org and click on ‘Government Relations.’

Below is a list of some of the issues and bills supported by NASDSE during the 110th Congress:

THE INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT (IDEA)
In anticipation of the upcoming reauthorization, NASDSE’s board of directors has begun to examine its reauthorization principles. Once the principles have been adopted, they will be posted on the NASDSE website.

NASDSE supports the following IDEA full funding bills:
H.R. 821 (Van Hollen) “Everyone Deserves Unconditional Access to Education”
H.R. 526 (Larson) “Full Funding for IDEA Now Act” and
S.1159 (Harkin/Hagel)”The IDEA Full Funding Act”

To read NASDSE’s response to the recent Part B Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by the U.S. Department

of Education, click on the following link: http://www.nasdse.org/Portals/0/IDESA%20suppl%20regs%20-final%20072808.pdf

THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT (NCLB)
Although 2008 did not see the reauthorization of NCLB, a great deal of legislation was introduced in the 110th Congress. Below is a list of proposed legislation that NASDSE has publically supported.
H.R. 3430 (Napolitano) “Mental Health in Schools Act”
H.R. 4100 (Woolsey) “Instructional-Level Assessment Pilot Project”
H.R. 1424 (Kennedy/Ramstad) “The Paul Wellstone Mental Health & Addiction Act”; and
S. 3573 (Murray) “Promoting Innovations to 21st Century Careers”

To read NASDSE’s response to the Title 1 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking recently issued by the U.S. Department of Education, click on the following link:
http://www.nasdse.org/Portals/0/CommentsonTitleIregs0608.pdf

MEDICAID
H.R. 5613 (Dingell/Murphy) “Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008”
S. 2819 (Rockefeller/Snowe) “Economic Recovery in Healthcare Act

June 17, 2008

Subject: New Project Forum Document

Synthesis of Two Reports on Critical  Issues for Special Education in Charter Schools 
http://projectforum.org/docs/Synthesisof2ReportsonCriticalIssuesforSpEdinCharterSchool.pdf

This Brief Policy Analysis is a synthesis of two reports developed for the website, Primers on Implementing Special Education in Charter Schools. A background on charter schools is given prior to the syntheses of the reports. The two reports each focus on a distinctive type of charter school: 1) schools designed for students with disabilities and 2) virtual charter schools. In the case of the charter schools for students with disabilities report, the author shares legal and policy contexts and typical issues. Regarding virtual charter schools, the report shares information on how special education is handled in this context. An observation section is provided following the report syntheses.

Additional copies are available from NASDSE; however, there are no restrictions on copying because this document was produced with federal funds. This document is available for downloading at http://www.projectforum.org
Additionally, Project Forum"s site has over 100 documents available for download.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 1:21 PM

Two new documents have just been added to the website that was created to contain information about implementing special education in charter schools. They are the first resources in a new section of the website entitled Special Reports. One document addresses issues related to charter schools designed specifically for students with disabilities and the other focuses on special education in virtual charter schools. The direct link for download is http://www.uscharterschools.org/cs/spedp/print/uscs_docs/spedp/reports.htm  

New Publications from NASDSE
The National Association of State Directors of Special Education, Inc. (NASDSE) has recently published two books. One is entitled Meeting the Needs of Students Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Educational Services Guidelines, which describes essential program elements and features that must be considered when designing appropriate services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, including those students with multiple disabilities. The other book is entitled The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Comparison of IDEA Regulations August 3, 2006 to IDEA Regulations March 12, 1999, which provides a section-by-section comparison of the old IDEA regulations to the new final regulations released by the U.S. Department of Education on August 3rd. The ordering forms can be viewed by clicking on the respective title above.

As promised, we have placed on the NASDSE website copies of the presentations and handout materials from the 3rd National Summit on Successfully Serving Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools held in November in Indianapolis. You can reach these files by scrolling down the web page at the following link:  http://www.nasdse.org/projects.cfm?pageprojectid=16   

You can also reach this web page by going to the NASDSE main page at www.nasdse.org and selecting Projects and then TA Customizer. Please share these downloads with anyone you think would be interested in them.