::Inside this IssueThe Power of Teamwork and Community
Support
by Ann M. Nagy, Christina’s mother and Art Educator
Christina Nagy is proof of the power of community
support and early intervention in educating a child with multiple
disabilities. Although her educational journey has been filled
with challenges of bipolar disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, multiple learning
disabilities, and severe social skill deficits, she has been gifted
with hope for a productive future because people learned to work
as part of a team to help her succeed.
 From a kindergartener who was placed in a full time special
education setting with a recommendation for a placement in a
full time self contained ED classroom, she has gradually learned
to become successful in an inclusive general education classroom.
Early testing and early intervention were both crucial to Christina’s
successes because each new test shed light on the root causes
of her negative behaviors. Poor frustration tolerance aggravated
by undetected learning disabilities, difficulty in managing her
behaviors due to medication trials intended to stabilize her
bipolar symptoms and ADHD, her lack of social skills, tactile
defensiveness, and poor anger control were directly affecting
her behaviors. Her entry into the school system was turbulent
and explosive. In 2001, an IN*SOURCE advocate, Paula Guzzo, began assisting
us and providing us necessary resources to achieve educational
success. Since then, Christina has made steady and remarkable
progress. On May 24, 2005, Christina was awarded a Certificate
of Achievement from Highland School for outstanding achievement
in Choir, Talent Show, All-Star Artists, Honor Roll, and Citizenship.
She also passed both sections of the ISTEP. Her social skills have also improved to the point that she was
able to help her mother as a Teacher’s Assistant to art
students in Grades 1-3 during a recent summer camp. At the end
of a particularly difficult day, she commented about how frustrated
she was that one particular boy didn’t listen, couldn’t
sit still, made rude comments, and was totally uncooperative.
Her mother explained to her the need to be patient and to try
to help him because that is how she used to act when she was
in kindergarten before she started getting the help she needed
from so many different sources and people. Together they began to name all the people who had helped her.
The list seemed endless – her parents, the psychiatrist,
behavior therapists, counselor, classroom aide, private tutors,
teachers, resource teachers, administrators and her IN*SOURCE
advocate. We talked about how some day she might be able to help
others, especially children like the boy from the class she had
helped teach. Christina said she couldn’t wait to go back to school
so she could tell her aide that this summer she got to be an
aide just like her. (Editor’s Note: This article was submitted at the end
of last summer. Christina’s mother reports that this summer,
Christina accompanied her to help teach children in an inner
city tutoring program and not only did she do an excellent job,
she was featured in a news broadcast about the project! She also
helped in a children’s art program for a local college
and recently performed in a Karaoke Idol contest at a local mall.
This will be Christina’s first year in middle school. Good
luck, Christina. May your hope for a productive future be fulfilled
as you continue to meet with success along the way.)
::From the
Executive Director
In a week or so another school year
begins. It seems much too soon. It seems as if we were
just having conversations about summer jobs, summer
school, athletic camps, going to the lake, summer parties
and all of that sort of stuff. Now we are talking about
school clothes and school shoes, class schedules and
the kids trying to determine the last possible minute
they can stay in bed and still get to school on time.
My wife and I are suffering from major sticker shock.
There are huge book fees and fees for everything else,
and then when you multiply everything times 4, it is
stunningly expensive. Anyway...Caitlin will be a senior,
Jake will be a junior (and he just got his driver’s
license last week), Sam will be a freshman and Anna a 7th grader.
We expect a lot from our kids, don’t we? And, in turn, I
believe that they have every right to expect that all of us around
them, their families, their schools, their communities, that all
of us will do all we can to help them succeed. They must have complete
confidence in us and they must know that we have every confidence
in them. Let us all have a great school year. Have fun, kids! The federal IDEA regulations have finally been published. I have
not plowed my way through all 1700 pages yet, but I am making headway.
They’re here, so now what? Well, I encourage you to read
Paul Ash’s article in this newsletter. Paul does a great
job in explaining where we are now and what is to come. The coming
months are going to be very busy. It will be a challenge for all
of us to work together to craft a new state rule. I expect passionate
debate and what I hope will be reasoned and reasonable compromise.
Our voices will be important in supporting those things that make
sense and in helping to reconsider those things that make less
sense. Our kids deserve our best efforts.
The majority of this newsletter is devoted to our annual state
conference. We will be in Bloomington on November 3rd and 4th.
I think it is going to be a great event. Please mark your calendar
and plan to join us. I look forward to seeing you there.
And finally, we recently received the resignation of Deb Gavette,
one of our regional staff members. We are very grateful to Deb
for her work and dedicated service to children, their families
and their schools. Thank you, Deb. We wish you well.
Take care and Best Wishes,
Richard Burden
They're Here . . .
by Paul Ash, Assistant Director
Division of Exceptional Learners, Indiana Department of Education
On Thursday, August 3, 2006, the U. S. Department of Education
announced the release of the long-awaited Final Regulations for
IDEA 04. Unofficial versions of the Final Regulations were made
available on August 3, and the official version is scheduled to
be published in the Federal Register on August 14, 2006. Unless
an earlier effective date was specified, the regulations are effective
60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
The issuance of the Final Regulations will unleash a flurry of
activity nationally and in each state. Organizations are already
busy compiling “side-by-side” comparisons, printers
are overheating as they print the 1700+ pages of the “unofficial
version,” stakeholders are comparing the unofficial version
with the earlier proposed regulations, State Advisory Councils
are gearing up to seriously revise state rules and regulations,
and stakeholders are scouring language to see if their particular
areas of interest have been addressed. Don’t be too discouraged
by the sheer volume of the Final Regulations. The first 70% of
the document consists of a preface and responses to the more than
5500 comments received. The next 25% consists of the actual regulations,
and the last 5% is index, reference and sample forms.
On August 3, 2006, the U. S. Department of Education conducted
a series of conference calls with various stakeholder groups. These
conference calls were most informative and the USDOE is to be commended
for their efforts to widely disseminate the information and also
take questions during these conference calls. They are also to
be commended for planning technical assistance training sessions
regarding IDEA 04 …and especially for including a sample
IEP form and a sample Notice of Procedural Safeguards. Having such
samples will greatly simplify training requirements, eliminate
confusion, and minimize needless “reinventing of wheels.”
What should stakeholders plan from this point? The final Regulations
are scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on August
14, 2006. They will be available electronically on the U.S. Department
of Education website ( www.ed.gov ), though many stakeholders will
be well-served with summaries and side-by-side comparisons as are
expected to be available from the Council for Exceptional Children
( www.cec.sped.org ) or the National Association of State Directors
of Special Education ( www.nasdse.org ).
Indiana’s State Advisory Council on the Education of Students
with Disabilities has been meeting monthly to discuss possible
changes in Article 7 and consider input from stakeholders. No actual
changes have been made because the State Board of Education must
formally “re-open” Article 7 for the Article 7 rule
revision process to proceed. It is expected that the State Board
of Education will authorize the Division of Exceptional Learners
and the State Advisory Council to begin the rule revision process
in the near future.
The Division of Exceptional Learners has a long valued transparency
and public input in all matters involving public policy and rule
revision. Events and schedules will be available through IN*SOURCE
publications and their website, as well as the Division of Exceptional
Learners website. However, good public policy requires public participation
and input. Your interest and involvement will help to assure we
do our jobs well for Indiana’s students with disabilities.
Your comments regarding Article 7 can be submitted to the Division
of Exceptional Learners at the dedicated Article 7 e-mail address,
tsapc@doe.state.in.us.
Submitted by Dawn McGrath, ICAN Project Director
As a parent of a student with special needs, you might find the
topic of ISTAR being discussed at your case conference committee
meeting. What is ISTAR and what does it mean to families in Indiana?
ISTAR is a standards-based assessment instrument. Teachers and
other team members consider observations and evidence of what each
student is able to do. Parents can provide helpful information
to add as well. Ratings are entered into the computer system where
detailed reports and graphs of progress are then generated.
ISTAR was designed to represent the whole continuum of progress
from birth to employment. For that reason, it can provide a clear
and comprehensive measure of present levels of performance and
indicate appropriate goals on an individual basis. It can be used
to help guide instruction for any student in Indiana including
those who are accelerated beyond grade level expectations.
ISTAR is a required assessment for students in public school preschool
programs. It is also a required assessment for students with limited
English proficiency and for students with significant cognitive
disabilities who do not participate in ISTEP+. In these cases,
the data is collected by the state and used in the accountability
formulas. ISTAR has also been used as a supplemental assessment
for many students who take ISTEP+ or who are not in the grades
tested by ISTEP+.
There are specific criteria that have been set forth by the state
to help guide the case conference committee when deciding whether
or not a student should participate in ISTAR or ISTEP+. Current
policy expects all students except for the most significantly cognitively
disabled students to participate in ISTEP+. Although there is a
graduation appeals process, students who intend to get an Indiana
high school diploma are expected to participate in ISTEP+. The
decision to use ISTAR instead of ISTEP+ would typically indicate
that the case conference committee believes that the student will
be unable to attain a regular high school diploma. This decision
should be documented in the student’s case conference committee
report.
Just like with ISTEP+, ISTAR will also generate levels of achievement
as required by the No Child Left Behind Act. Passing scores on
ISTAR are counted toward school accountability formulas in the
same way that passing scores in ISTEP+ are counted.
::Recreation Survey
If your family includes a child with a developmental
disability as well as an adolescent sibling ages 10-17 without
a disability, you may wish to respond to a survey examining recreation
involvement in families with a child with a developmental disability.
The parent and the sibling are requested to complete the survey
which will take each of them approximately 20 minutes. The researchers
anticipate that the results of the survey will contribute to a
better understanding of the relationship between family recreation
and strong families. To access the survey, go to http://chlddisab.familyleisureresearch.com/chlddisab.htm.
(Excerpted from the National Center on Secondary Education and
Transition E-News, which can be found at http://www.ncset.org/enews.)
::New to IN*SOURCE . . . PayPal!
You can register and
pay online for our Annual Conference!
Annual Conference Information will be up soon . .
.
While visiting our new website < www.insource.org > check
out other IN*SOURCE trainings and presentations you can register for at no
cost to participants.
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