What is the Missouri Youth Leadership Forum?

The Youth Leadership Forum for students with disabilities is a unique career leadership-training program for high school juniors and seniors with disabilities. By serving as delegates from their communities at a three and a half day event, young people with disabilities cultivate leadership, citizenship, and social skills. To view a the MYLF Brochure, click here. To download the MYLF Application click here. 

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OSEP Question and Answer Documents

These documents address in detail the requirements of IDEA and provide valuable information to enable responsible public agencies to ensure compliance with IDEA.

http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CQaCorner%2C 

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NCLB 2% AYP Rule

The Dept of Education has issued, and OMB approved, the final 2% regs under NCLB, allowing up to 20% of students with disabilities to be assessed against alternative achievement standards (34 CFR 200), along with the final version of 300.100 (Assessment Participation). The Press Release can be read, along with ED's analysis. 

Regulations

Guidance

Fact Sheet

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DESE News

New Assistant Commissioner of Special Education

Heidi Atkins Lieberman, a veteran official of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, has been selected to lead the Department’s division of special education. Commissioner of Education D. Kent King announced her appointment today.

Ms. Atkins Lieberman’s appointment is effective immediately. She replaces Melodie Friedebach who retired last December.

She joined the state education agency in 1990 and has served as legal counsel for the Division of Special Education since that time. Before joining DESE, she was a lawyer in private practice in Jefferson City for four years.

"This is an exciting time to be involved in special education, as we make the connection between compliance and student performance. I look forward to working with our stakeholders and staff in continuing our focus on improving achievement for all students," she said.

A New York native, Ms. Atkins Lieberman graduated from law school at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville in 1984. She served a one-year clerkship with Missouri Supreme Court Justice Andrew Jackson Higgins before entering private practice in Jefferson City.

Blind/ Visually Impaired Lending Library

The Outreach Services Division of Missouri School for the Blind (MSB) is pleased to announce the establishment of a Professional Development Lending Library. A collection of print materials and videotapes has been compiled for use by educators of students who are deaf/blind or visually impaired/blind. There are currently 32 titles listed with a brief description of each title. It is a work in progress. Additional titles will be added over time. The list is accessible on MSB's web page. Go to www.msb.k12.mo.us, scroll down and clink on the link "Missouri Instructional Resource Center," then click "Professional Development Lending Library." Materials may be borrowed from this list by contacting Yvonne Ali, Supervisor, Missouri Instructional Resource Center, at yali@msb.k12.mo.us.  The loan period is six weeks. Loans are intended for short-term use and review. Borrowers are encouraged to purchase any title required for long-term use.

Transfer Students Arriving with No IEP Docuementation / Comparable Services

OSEP has now explained that there is a distinction between transfer students from out-of-state who are receiving special education services, without an IEP document in hand and transfer students from in-state, who are receiving special education services, without an IEP document in hand. 

Students, who are transferring from out-of-state and are receiving special education services without an IEP document in hand, should be enrolled in the general education curriculum until the public agency can conduct an evaluation to determine if services are necessary and develop, adopt, and implement a new IEP if appropriate. 

Students, who are in-state and are receiving special education services, without an IEP document in hand, must receive FAPE. Public agencies should conduct interviews as extensively as possible with parents and the sending school districts to determine appropriate services until the receiving school district receives the student's IEP or the IEP team reconvenes to develop, adopt, and implement a new IEP. If you have questions regarding this message, please do not hesitate to call the Special Education Compliance Section at (573) 751-0699.

State Performance Plan / Annual Performance Report

On December 2, 2005, a SELS message was sent out to announce the completion and filing of the State Performance Plan (SPP). The SPP, required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and filed with the U. S. Department of Education, was developed with input from stakeholders and is the document that drives our monitoring focus. This document, which connects compliance and performance, is used to evaluate each state's efforts in implementing IDEA. The SPP includes 20 required indicators identified by the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) (both compliance and performance related), baseline data reflecting the state's efforts to implement IDEA; measurable and rigorous targets for a 6 year period (2006 to 2011); and, activities the state will undertake to improve.

Each year, on February 1, beginning February 1, 2007, the state is required to submit an Annual Performance Report (APR) to the U. S. Department of Education. This APR is a report of the state's performance on the indicators and targets established in the SPP. We filed our report on February 1, 2007. Both the SPP and APR are posted on our web site at: http://dese.mo.gov/divspeced/SPPpage.html. 

NEW ONLINE RESOURCE FROM THE NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL ALLIANCE

"Resource Guide for Action: Transforming High School for All Youth". The Resource Guide for Action, created by the National High School Alliance, is designed to help policymakers and practitioners take action around the six core principles of A Call to Action: Transforming High School for All Youth. The Call to Action is the High School Alliance's framework of principles and recommended strategies to guide leaders at all levels in transforming the traditional, comprehensive high school so that all youth are ready for college, careers, and active civic participation. The Guide can be found at http://www.hsalliance.org/ 

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TOOL KIT ON TEACHING AND ASSESSING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: PARENTS' MATERIALS

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the U.S. Department of Education has released a CD version of the Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities: Parents' Materials, designed to assist parents and states in their efforts to work together to raise the achievement of all students with disabilities. The Parent Tool Kit compiles materials identified to augment the previously released CD, Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities, and offers a collection of resources on the same substantive areas addressed, including assessment, instructional practices, behavior, and accommodations. These new documents were written specifically for parents and include information they need as they work with schools to ensure that their children are receiving a quality education. Information on the toolkit can be found at http://www.osepideasthatwork.org/index.asp.

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Transition Skills For Youth with Developmental Disabilities: What Works

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NICHCY Resources

Evidence for Education Publication Series

Greetings from NICHCY, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. We're writing to make sure you know about NICHCY's newly launched publication series, Evidence for Education. The series will be exploring a range of relevant evidence-based educational practices. The first in the series is attached to this email and is called The Power of Strategy Instruction. Strategy instruction is a powerful student-centered approach to teaching that is backed by years of quality research. Inside the issue, you'll find a brief overview of the foundations of strategy instruction, followed by a number of well-researched examples of strategy instruction in practice.

The Power of Strategy Instruction is also available on NICHCY's Web site in PDF and online formats. Tell your friends and colleagues to come and help themselves to a copy!

Text-only version: http://research.nichcy.org/Evidence_TOC.asp 

PDF version: http://research.nichcy.org/NICHCY_EE_Strategy.pdf 

Each new edition of Evidence for Education will be available as an online, accessible document and as a downloadable PDF document. Next up in the series are these three:

-- Accommodations for Testing

-- Interventions for Math Instruction

-- Social Skill Development

Look for them in Spring/Summer 2007. Or come to NICHCY's site and sign up for the Research Newsletters, and we'll let you know when each new issue is available. Sign up at: http://research.nichcy.org/default.asp 

We hope you'll find this resource helpful to your interests or can pass along the information to someone who will. As we come across new resources (or develop them ourselves), we'll let you know via an eNews letter such as this one. Until then, please feel free to call or email us with your disability-related concerns, or visit our Web site, at: www.nichcy.org. 

Training Materials on IDEA 2004

Greetings from NICHCY, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. We're writing to let you know that NICHCY has just posted three new training modules on IDEA 2004, the nation's special education law. These are part of the IDEA 2004 training curriculum NICHCY is producing at the request of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Each module includes a PowerPoint slide show to use in training sessions, detailed discussions of IDEA for trainers, and handouts for audience participants. The modules available for download, use, and sharing are:

-- Disproportionality and Overrepresentation

-- Introduction to Evaluation

-- Initial Evaluation and Reevaluation

All are available at: http://www.nichcy.org/training/contents.asp 

In all, 19 modules on critical IDEA topics will be available by Summer 2007. If you'd like to know when each new module becomes available online, take a moment and sign up at: http://www.nichcy.org/mod_signup.asp 

We hope you'll find these training resources helpful in your work or personal life. As always, please feel free to call or email us with your disability-related concerns, or visit our Web site, at: www.nichcy.org. 

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Kansas City Summer Transportation Institute

The UMKC Institute for Human Development will host a 2007 Transportation Institute (STI) for high school students from the greater Kansas City Area (MO & KS) on the campus of UMKC June 18th - July 18th. The purpose of the STI is to create awareness and stimulate interest in high school students to take full advantage of the wealth of career opportunities that exist in the transportation industry. One seven careers being transportation related, this is a tremendous opportunity for young people to explore transportation related careers. Students will participate in a wide variety of interactive projects and tours related to the field of transportation. Students will also understand the benefits of diversity, and other skills.

The Institute is a 4-week focused and structured learning opportunity that is designed to be fun, interactive, and engaging. Twenty-five rising ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grade students who have completed or are qualified to enroll in Algebra, have around a grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale, and have an interest in a Transportation, Engineering, Science, or Technology related career will travel to and from the UMKC campus each day. 

For more information visit www.kcsti.com to obtain an application or see the STI DVD link at http://www.umkc.edu/is/Human_development/human.asx. Contact Mark Ohrenberg, Project Coordinator, UMKC - Institute for Human Development at 816.235.1767 or ohrenbergm@umkc.edu. Review of applications will begin on April 18, 2007. 

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