Located in the states of CT-CPAC, ME-MPF, MA-FCSN, MA-Urban Pride, NH-PIC, NJ-SPAN, NJ-ASCF, NY-AFC, NY-UWS, NY-TAC, NY-RCSN, NY-Sinergia, NY-PNWNY, RI-RIPIN, and VT-VFN. 

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) has announced that it is accepting proposals for the 2010 COPAA Conference Breakout Sessions. The sessions are designed to promote special education advocacy and litigation for children with disabilities. The online proposal form is available on the COPAA website. (Due September 8, 2009)

The National Center on Response to Intervention is interested in parent centers resources on RTI. If you have resources you are willing to share, please feel free to email your materials directly to the RTI Center (rticenter@air.org), and they will review them for inclusion on their website. For more information, you can contact the Center at 877-RTI-4-ALL. Visit the RTI Center.

If you are interested in getting information about Schools Moving Up webinars, you can register directly with them. If you have any questions, you can contact them at schoolsmovingup@wested.org.

Early intervention (EI) professionals from across the country recently participated in an online self-assessment, using a tool developed by the Tots-n-Tech (TnT) Research Institute, to gather state and regional information on how EI programs are doing in making assistive technology (AT) and adaptations available for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities. Complete information about the tool and state results click here. Resource briefs designed to assist states and EI agencies improve their use of AT in early intervention.

The Human Rights Watch and the ACLU recently released a joint report on corporal punishment of students with mental or physical disabilities in US public schools which found that students with disabilities are routinely subjected to corporal punishment, such as paddling and throwing children into walls or floors, at disproportionately high rates. Students with disabilities made up 18.8 percent of students who suffered corporal punishment at school during the 2006-2007 school year, although they constituted just 13.7 percent of the total nationwide student population. At least 41,972 students with disabilities were subjected to corporal punishment in US schools during that year. These numbers probably undercount the actual rate of physical discipline, since not all instances are reported or recorded. While never appropriate for any child, "Impairing Education" illustrates how corporal punishment is particularly abusive for these students, who can be punished for conduct related to their disabilities, and who may see their disabilities worsened by this violent treatment. Click here for more information.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), with support from the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation, has undertaken the Quality Benchmark for Cultural Competence Project (QBCCP) to determine key elements of cultural competence for early childhood programs and ways to meaningfully integrate these elements within quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) criteria. As part of the QBCCP, NAEYC has developed a new tool to help spark discussion and to serve as a guide to help early childhood programs respond to the needs of diverse children and families in a positive way. Click here to view document.

A joint position statement from the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) provides a shared national definition of early childhood inclusion. Developed through a collaborative process coordinated by the National Professional Development Center on Inclusion, it will hopefully have widespread impact on the early childhood field.

The billions of dollars invested in New Jersey's early childhood education program are paying dividends, Governor Jon Corzine said, touting the results of a new study. The report found that children in the so-called "Abbott" district preschools performed at a higher level in the 1st and 2nd grades than students in the district that did not attend preschool. According to the study, the number of students forced to repeat a grade was cut in half. For more info, click here. 

Young Latino children face many challenges in accessing high-quality early care and education programs. A new toolkit from the National Council of La Raza, New Leaders, New Directions: Tools for Advancing an Early Childhood Agenda for the Latino Community (2009), is designed to help early childhood education leaders develop effective strategies to ensure educational success for Latino and English language learner (ELL) children.

The National Early Childhood Transition Center (NECTC) has published a new report, Transition Alert, which summarizes major findings from their review of nationally validated early childhood transition practices.

Because pregnancy and childbearing remain significant problems among foster youth, Chapin Hall examined the experiences and needs of pregnant and parenting youth in the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Families.  Key findings of the study include: at least 30% of the female foster youth had been pregnant more than once, and having more than one child was a significant barrier to educational attainment, with each additional child reducing chances of earning a high school diploma or GED by 45%. Click here to view report.

The NYU Child Study Center offers this guide to choosing a mental health professional including the important questions a parent should ask.

Family Health History - This customizable tool helps you create personalized booklets to start conversations about health in your family and community.
WikiAdvocacy - A free, reader-built guide, as well as a community for advocacy. It covers every aspect of founding and growing an advocacy organization from fundraising to detailed explanations of issues, skills, and the elements of creating a registry and samples repository.
Resource Repository - The Resource Repository is a digital commons for the global health community. This electronic collection of documents, links, audio, and video files, relies on contributions from the community in topic areas such as newborn screening, family health history, genetic testing, reimbursement, research, drug development, community engagement, and organizational development.
Webinars Schedule - All past webinars of the Genetic Alliance are archived on their website.

This publication contains a tool kit of solutions for public and private agencies interested in establishing and maintaining high quality language access programs, and features descriptions of effective LEP data collection systems and program self-assessment tools. The report is particularly useful in cataloguing the range of methods used to evaluate the language skills of new and current employees. Detailed descriptions of innovative and promising practices in the states of California, Hawaii, Iowa, Minneosta, Washington, and Wisconsin are highlighted. The "secret shopper" program in New York City is also profiled.

Updated periodically, this document contains 25 recommendations in 10 categories, including strong language access coordination and accountability, meangingful access to web-based information, and consistent enforcement of quality control standards.

In 2006, the Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education adopted Regulation A-663 for the purpose of providing translation and interpretation services to hundreds of thousands of parents with limited English skills. This report, based on parent surveys, focus groups, and on-site visits, documents widespread noncompliance with the regulation and contains recommendations, such as the establishment of an accountability system, professional development for administrative staff, and parent education efforts, to improve the effectiveness of the regulation.

Based on a survey of immigrant parents and students in the New York City School System, this report documents widespread failure to communicate in native language with immigrant parents. Without parental involvement in the education process, students will be deprived of parental support and schools will not have the full cooperation of parents.

A policy brief called Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement spotlights how six school districts have used innovative strategies to create and sustain family engagement "systems at work."  The brief also points to three core components of these successful systems.

Black students have made important gains in several Southern states over two decades, while in some Northern states, black achievement has improved more slowly than white achievement, or has even declined, according to a Department of Education study. As a result, the nation's widest black-white gaps are in Northern and Midwestern states like Connecticut, Illinois, Nebraska and Wisconsin, according to National Assessment of Educational Progress results. For more information, click here.

This link provides a comparison chart contrasting the protections available through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and IDEA, the Individuals with Disability Education Improvement Act.