Children & Youth Action Network
(CAN) Reports

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Judy B. Engelhard, CAN Coordinator for the Division for Learning Disabilities, provides brief reports for TeachingLD.org so that visitors can keep informed about important developments in policies affecting students with learning disabilities and their teachers. TeachingLD.org is pleased to offer this page as a place for people concerned with learning disabilities to keep up to date.

6 December 2006

IDEA COMMUNITY-BASED PUBLIC MEETINGS

If you did not attend any of the IDEA Community-Based Public Meetings held across the country this fall, the PowerPoint presentation made by Alexa Posny, Director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), is available in the NEWS section at http://idea.ed.gov/explore/home.

OSERS IDEA 2004 WEBSITE INFORMATION

The website dedicated to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in the U.S. Department of Education continues to add resources to assist in the implementation of IDEA. Information on the following topics, plus video clips on IDEA issues can be seen at http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/:

• Alignment with the No Child Left Behind Act
• Discipline
• Disproportionality
• Early Intervening Services (EIS)
• Evaluation and Reevaluation
• Funding
• Highly Qualified Teachers (HQT)
• Identification of Specific Learning Disabilities
• Individualized Education Program (IEP)
• Monitoring and Enforcement
• National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)
• Part C Option
• Private Schools
• Procedural Safeguards
• Secondary Transition
• Statewide and Districtwide Assessments

IDEA PART B REGIONAL IMPLEMENTATION MEETINGS

Three regional implementation 2-day meetings for Part B Regulations are scheduled as follows:

January 30-31, 2007 - Washington, DC
February 12-13, 2007 - Los Angeles, CA
February 15-16, 2007 - Kansas City, MO

Registration information and further details of the meetings are available at http://www.rrfcnetwork.org.

Topics for the Regional Implementation Meetings include:

1. Discipline
2. IEPs, IEP Meetings, Evaluations and Reevaluations
3. Private School Children
4. Highly Qualified Teachers
5. Procedural Safeguards
6. Monitoring
7. National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)
8. Response to Intervention for the Identification of Specific Learning Disabilities, Early Intervening Services

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SOLICITS PUBLIC INPUT FOR IDEA PART D

On November 27, the U.S. Department of Education issued a request for public comments and recommendations on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan for IDEA Part D National Activities. This request seeks public input on changes or clarifications to help improve the Comprehensive Plan for IDEA Part D. Comments on the Comprehensive Plan should be submitted to the Department of Education no later than January 11, 2007. You may access the Comprehensive Plan by visiting:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2006-4/112706d.html or http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2006-4/112706d.pdf

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) will be issuing formal comments and recommendations to the Department before the deadline. Please share with CEC your views on the Comprehensive Plan by emailing pubpol@cec.sped.org by January 5, 2007.

RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION (RTI) COLLABORATIVE PROJECT

DLD participated in a collaborative effort with 12 other organizations, each of whom provided papers on their perspectives on Response to Intervention (RTI). The collection of papers was completed in November 2006 and can be accessed at http://www.reading.org/downloads/resources/rti_role_definitions.pdf.

DEPARTMENT OF ED APPROVES THREE ADDITIONAL STATES FOR GROWTH MODEL PILOT

In November 2006, the U.S. Department of Education approved three additional states -- Delaware, Arkansas, Florida -- to participate in the growth model pilot program. This program seeks to track the performance of individual students over time to determine progress made to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), rather than taking a snapshot of a student's performance at one given time. To be approved for the pilot program, states must submit detailed plans to the Department of Education on assessment systems that will be used to measure student progress.

The Department plans to approve no more than 10 states for this pilot program. Having already approved North Carolina and Tennessee -- in addition to Delaware, Arkansas, and Florida -- five slots still remain available for interested states. CEC supports a growth model approach to assessing a student's performance for means of meeting AYP. Read CEC's policy on Assessment and Accountability

RECEIVE POLICY UPDATES FROM CEC

If you wish to receive weekly updates on public policy issues from CEC, please email me at can@teachingLD.org and put "policy updates" in the subject line.