March 15, 2012 MPACT ENews

MPACT ENews

March 15, 2012

Greetings!

Did you miss an issue of the MPACT ENews? Delete it by mistake? Wish you could find a past article? Well you can! To view current and past issues of the MPACT ENews visit our website at http://ptimpact.org/News.aspx

Online Trainings offered through MPACT

MPACT has just added another online training to our resources, Extended School Year is now available along with:

Special Education: What I Need to Know
IDEA Transition Requirements
Transition to Post Secondary Experiences (Part 1 & 2)
Connecting Goals to Coordinated Activities and Services for Transition
Transition Resources - Disability Disclosure
Soft Skills

You can access them by going to our Training page and clicking on Online Training, or CLICK HERE .

In This Issue

MPACT Online Trainings

Parent Mentor Program

MPACT Surveys

Public Comments - SEAP

SEAP Nominations

Discipline - State Plan Clarification

Improving Reading for Students with LD

Private School Consultation Requirement

Quick Links

Surveys- Let us know how we're doing.
Contact Us!

MPACT Parent Mentor Program

MPACT Parent Mentors are available to offer support and guidance to parents of children with disabilities throughout the IEP process. Parent Mentors are volunteers who receive 24 hours of initial training, ongoing monthly training, and technical assistance from MPACT staff with regard to special education law, the IEP process, conflict resolution, and effective communication. Their goal is to help parents build a collaborative partnership with the school district so their child may receive an appropriate education. To view the list of current MPACT Parent Mentors, go to http://ptimpact.org/Volunteer/MentorList.aspx.

If your school district has had a MPACT Parent Mentor in attendance at an IEP meeting, please take a moment to complete a brief online survey located at http://ptimpact.org/Surveys.aspx if you have not already done so. A separate survey should be completed for each mentor who has provided services to parents in your district. These surveys assist MPACT and DESE with identifying and addressing areas of success and improvement with the Parent Mentor Program.

For more information about MPACT or if you have questions regarding the status of a Parent Mentor, please contact MPACT by telephone at (800) 743-7634 or by e-mail at info@ptimpact.org. You can also view the MPACT website at http://www.ptimpact.org.

How Are We Doing?

Have you ever received phone support by MPACT? Attended any of our trainings? We'd LOVE to hear from you!! Please complete one (or both!) surveys to help us do continuous improvement and recognize those staff that have made a difference!

Satisfaction Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Satisfaction_of_Service

Workshop Follow Up Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=M_2bZ_2bJzfFxOpJU2cxN2L3aw_3d_3d

Opportunity for Public Comments to Missouri's Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP)

As stakeholders in the education of children with disabilities in Missouri, you are invited and encouraged to share comments to Missouri's Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP). The SEAP is comprised of educators, administrators, state agency representatives, parents, and persons with disabilities. The quarterly meetings are open to the public and there is a time for public comment on every meeting's agenda.

For meeting information, please visit: DESE Special Education Advisory Panel webpage: http://dese.mo.gov/se/seap/ or contact Lina Browner at 573-751-5739 or email: lina.browner@dese.mo.gov.

The public may also submit comments to the panel via email at seapcomments@gmail.com or through the DESE Webpage:http://dese.mo.gov/se/seap/94142feedback.html.

We welcome and encourage comments regarding concerns or issues faced by students with disabilities, their families, and the professionals who work with them. For example, the SEAP has addressed such issues as transitioning to adult services, positive behavior supports, seclusion and restraint, and due process hearings related to special education.

This is a private SEAP committee email address and is not accessed or monitored by DESE. It will be viewed by the SEAP's public comment committee members only. The comments will be shared with the full SEAP Panel at quarterly meetings. The Sunshine Law requires that records of the SEAP be available for public review. While we will not publicly identify you when discussing your comment, if a Sunshine law request is made, the record with your name would be produced. When you submit comments to the Advisory Panel you should not include any personally identifiable information regarding a child or other individual parties. While responses cannot be made to your individual comments, public comments received will be shared with the Panel as examples of issues concerning the special education community.

By working together, we can positively impact special education in Missouri. Thank you!

SEAP Public Comment subcommittee members:
Patricia Kopetz, higher education representative
Diana Taylor-Soole, parent representative
Judy Ray, special education teacher representative

Nominations for the State Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP)

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is seeking nominations for "Parents of Children with Disabilities" and "Individuals with Disabilities" to serve on the Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP). Parents must have children between the ages of 3 and 26 and the child must have/had an Individualized Education Program (IEP). Recent graduates with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, or adults with disabilities who have an interest in state level special education services for children ages 3-21 are all potential candidates for these positions.

The Commissioner of Education of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is responsible for making appointments to the Special Education Advisory Panel. Several factors are considered when making appointments to the panel. Those factors include but are not limited to: geographic area and disability representation. At this time, the panel is in need of representation from northern and southern areas of the state but all applicants will be given consideration.

Persons interested in being considered for appointment or of having others considered are asked to complete a nomination form located at http://dese.mo.gov/se/seap/ (one form per nominee). Individuals may self nominate for membership. For additional information about the Advisory Panel, go to the link listed above.

Please mail, fax, or email completed nomination form(s) to:

Lina Browner, Executive Assistant
Office of Special Education
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
P. O. Box 480, Jefferson City, MO 65102
fax 573-526-4404 phone 573-751-5739
email lina.browner@dese.mo.gov

Clarification of State Plan Provision on Discipline

A question has arisen about what is required when a student has been disciplined. Page 81 of the State Plan http://dese.mo.gov/schoollaw/rulesregs/Inc_By_Ref_Mat/IDEAPartB.htm (Regulation V) indicates that, when a child with a disability is removed from the current educational placement for more than 10 school days, a school district must continue to provide educational services to enable the child to make progress in the general education curriculum and toward meeting IEP goals and "modifications that are designed to address the behavior violation, so that it does not happen again." The quoted language is not clear but the intent is to comply with the federal regulatory requirement 34 CFR 300.530(d) and only make changes to behavior intervention services and modifications if appropriate. There is no requirement that there be changes in every case. The state has not imposed a requirement that exceeds the federal requirement.

New! Improving the reading comprehension of students with LD

We've summarized the major points of Berkeley, Scruggs, & Mastropieri meta-analysis of research conducted between 1995 and 2006. This meta-analysis synthesizes findings of 40 studies for improving the reading comprehension of students with learning disabilities.

http://nichcy.org/research/summaries/abstract82

Private Schools/Parent Placements/Requirement for Consultation with Representatives of Private Schools

This message is to remind school districts that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires timely and meaningful consultation among the public school district, officials of private schools, parents of home-schooled children, and representatives of parents of parentally-placed private school children with disabilities within their jurisdiction. This consultation must occur at least annually and more frequently if needed and needs to occur prior to your decision about the use of the proportionate share of funds described in IDEA. This is a public meeting which should comply with the requirements of the Missouri Sunshine Law.

The consultation is intended to address topics such as child find, proportionate share of funds, provision of special education and related services, the consultation process, and how you will provide a written explanation if you disagree with the views of the private school officials on provision of service issues. To ensure this consultation meets all of the requirements of the IDEA, districts are encouraged to document decisions made during the consultation process and share the completed plan with the private school representatives involved in the consultation. A sample documentation form is available at
http://dese.mo.gov/divspeced/IDEA-PPPSCD.html.

After timely and meaningful consultation has occurred, you must obtain a written affirmation signed by the representatives of participating private schools. A model form is available at http://dese.mo.gov/divspeced/PDF/Nonpub_Con-Part.pdf. If the representatives do not provide the affirmation within a reasonable period of time, you must forward the documentation of the consultation process to us.

For more information on consultation and the required topics that must be discussed during the consultation process, proportionate share for students attending private schools, and the affirmation of nonpublic school consultation and participation form, go to:
http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/faq-parent-placed.pdf and http://dese.mo.gov/divspeced/PDF/Calcu_Pro_Share.pdf.

Report on Necessity of Restraints, Seclusion 'Reckless,' Advocates Say

A new report from the American Association of School Administrators about the importance of being able to restrain and seclude some students in the interest of school safety has outraged some disability advocacy groups.

The AASA report, "Keeping Schools Safe: How Seclusion and Restraint Protects Students and School Personnel," describes scenarios in which parents said without the use of these methods, they may have had to institutionalize their children. The report also describes scenarios in which students injured school employees so badly they needed emergency medical care.

However TASH says the AASA report "is unsubstantiated, ill-informed and reckless." TASH, formerly The Association for the Severely Handicapped, was particularly incensed over a statement in AASA's report that implies that the choice for some students is to either be restrained and/or isolated or institutionalized.

Free MPACT Trainings

MPACT trainings are provided free of charge to parents of children with disabilities. To sign up for an upcoming training, follow the links below, then click on the 'SIGNUP' button located next to the training name. Fill in your name, email address, phone number, the name ofthe training you wish to attend and the date it is being offered.

While registering for a training is not mandatory it does ensure that the trainer has an adequate amount of handouts. This also allows MPACT to contact you should a training need to be cancelled or rescheduled. To view a comprehensive list of all trainings provided by MPACT go to http://ptimpact.org/Training/Training.aspx.

Please be sure to double check the website training pages for any updates or changes to trainings offered.