Sound System Disorder Eligibility

Jackie Bruner, Supervisor, Compliance DESE

The 2007 Missouri State Plan for Special Education requires districts to use "state designated normative data" to determine eligibility for children under the Sound System Disorder category.  At the current time, the Department is working with organizations and individuals across the state to develop the normative data for district use.  We are hopeful this process will be completed soon and the norms will be available to the districts.  Until the state norms are published, districts should continue to use the normative criteria that they previously used to determine eligibility for Sound System Disorder.

As soon as the state norms are published and ready for use, districts will be notified through SELS.

MAP-A Training

Heidi Atkins Lieberman, Assistant Commissioner DESE

Please do whatever you can to facilitate your teachers attending upcoming MAP-A training through the Regional Professional Development Centers (RPDCs).  Keep in mind that the performance of the students taking the MAP-A can lead to a higher number of students in your district identified in the "proficient" category.  The results of this test are heavily dependent on the expertise of the teachers administering it.

Attending MAP-A training is important for the following reasons:

* Science is added to the assessment for the first time this year.  This portion is structured differently from the Mathematics and Communication Arts sections.

* Teachers who participated in the MAP-A Science Pilot reported a level of discomfort with science content.  The training offers specific guidance and examples of MAP-A science activities.

* The training describes new rules for interpreting Mathematics and Communication Arts APIs.  Failure to follow these rules will cause MAP-A entries to be unscoreable.

* New guidelines for selecting APIs have been established for the MAP-A.

* New forms have been added this year and some MAP-A forms have changed.

* New samples, developed from 2006-2007 operational MAP-A submissions, are available.

* Every teacher who attends a training session receives a copy of the 2007-2008 Instructor's Guide & Implementation Manual.

* Teachers who attend have an opportunity to work with colleagues to develop assessment activities for their own students.

* MAP-A assessment is not self-explanatory.  It is a complex process.

Finally, keep in mind that administering the MAP-A does take time; support your teachers whenever possible with use of substitutes to free up some time for their MAP-A work.

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Mental Health Champions

The Department is seeking nominations for the Mental Health Champions awards to recognize three exceptional individuals who are truly mental health champions. Persons may be nominated in one of three categories:

An individual with a mental illness; an individual with a developmental disability; and individual recovering from a substance or gambling addiction. The winners will be recognized at a banquet in April, 2008, and receive a trip to Branson, including lodging, meals and tickets for shows.

To download the application click here. Deadline is November 15, 2007.

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Department of Transportation - Public Meetings

Throughout the past three weeks, the Office of Transformation has been conducting public input meetings throughout the state to obtain public input on the Mental Health Transformation Initiative.  The upcoming meeting schedule is:

September 11, 2007 - Kansas City

Pioneer College Auditorium

2700 East 18th

Kansas City, MO 63112

6:00pm- 8:00pm

September 12, 2007 - St. Joseph

Mo Western State University

Room 12 Leah Spratt Hall

4525 Downs Drive

St. Joseph, MO 6457

6:00pm- 8:00pm

September 18, 2007 - Kirksville

Truman State University

Student Union Building

901 South Franklin

Kirksville, MO 63501

6:00pm- 8:00pm

September 19, 2007 - Hannibal

Hannibal Regional Center

Multipurpose Room

805 Clinic Road

Hannibal, MO 63401

6:00pm- 8:00pm

September 20, 2007- Farmington

Mineral Area College North College Center

Conference Room A & B

5270 Flat River Road

Park Hills, MO 63601

 6:00pm- 8:00pm

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A Parent's Guide to Response-to-Intervention (RTI)

IDEA 2004 includes a new provision that allows states and school districts to use high quality, research-based instruction in general and special education to provide services and interventions to students who struggle with learning and may be at risk or suspected of having learning disabilities. Produced by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, this guide provides an overview of the RTI process, describe how it is implemented in schools and offer questions that parents can ask.   Get it FREE from NCLD: http://www.ncld.org/images/stories/downloads/parent_center/rti_final.pdf

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Transition Resources

Barb Gilpin, Interim Assistant Director, Effective Practices DESE  

There are two publications available through DESE's Division of Career Education's webpage to assist with the area of post-secondary transition:  

Student Pathways to Success presents four recommendations on improving student achievement in all Missouri public schools.  These recommendations are a focus on school career guidance and counseling, focus on rigor, relevance, and relationships in school curriculum, focus on student transitions and focus on high quality professional development.  This information can be found on the Division of Career Education webpage at http://dese.mo.gov/divcareered/ under the heading White Paper: Student Pathways to Success.

What's The Plan?  Helping Students Explore Their Futures is a booklet which introduces career clusters in Missouri .  Career clusters is a framework to help learners of all ages prepare for the global, knowledge-based economy of today and the future.  This framework will assist schools in offering programs that include differentiated academic content as well as provide a means for students to acquire credentials recognized by business and industry.  These programs of study will allow for students to create their own personal plan of study based upon individual interests, abilities, and career maturity.  This information can be found on the Division of Career Education webpage at http://dese.mo.gov/divcareered/ under the heading Career Clusters Booklet.

National Scholarship Competition for College Students with Disabilities

disABLEdperson Inc. announces its Fall 2007 Nationally Based College Scholarship Competition for disabled college students. The competition begins September 1, 2007 and goes through October 19, 2007.  More information can be found at http://www.disabledperson.com/searchdirectmedia.asp 

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New Online Resource for Youth

Access Living announces it's brand new website, all about young people with disabilities: The Youth Center Across the country, young people with disabilities are waking up to disability pride and culture. They want equal rights and equal lives. What they need is information that will empower them to advocate for the lives they want. That's why Access Living created this website. Most of the time, those of us with disabilities are the only ones in our families who have a disability. It's hard to explain what that's like to people without disabilities. However, at this website you can find information by and about people who know what it's like living life with a disability. We've got REAL information for your REAL life with a disability: stuff about dating, activism, getting news, disability pride, participating in Chicago events. The Youth Center can be found at http://www.alyouthinfo.org/

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New Fact Sheets from NSTTAC and DCDT

Two new fact sheets developed as a collaborative effort between DCDT and the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center (NSTTAC) are now available on the NSTTAC web site http://www.nsttac.org/?FileName=dcdt_factsheet&type=1

Student Involvement in the IEP features two evidence based strategies to involve students in the IEP process http://www.nsttac.org/pdf/dcdt_fact_sheet.pdf

Age-Appropriate Transition Assessments provides a working definition of "age appropriate transition assessments," examples of formal and informal types of assessments, and offers guidance to practitioners on selecting and conducting assessments. http://www.nsttac.org/pdf/trans_fact_sheet.pdf

Note that a draft version of a longer "Age Appropriate Transition Assessment Guide" is also available on the NSTTAC web site in PDF format at http://www.nsttac.org/pdf/transition_guide/nsttac_tag.pdf

DCDT is the Division on Career Development and Transition, a division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) http://www.dcdt.org . NSTTAC www.nsttac.org is funded through the Office of Special Education Programs, Office of Special Education.

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New National Technical Assistance Center on Transition and Employment for Youth with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) recently awarded a 24-month cooperative agreement for $1,850,000 to the Institute for Educational Leadership's Center for Workforce Development in Washington , D.C. , to establish a National Technical Assistance Center on Transition and Employment for Youth with Disabilities.

"It is essential that youth with disabilities receive the support they need to stay in school and succeed in the workplace, so that they can realize their dreams and ambitions for the future," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "This nearly $1.9 million grant is to help ensure that youth with disabilities graduate from high school and get the assistance they need to continue their studies or enter the workforce." The purpose of the National Technical Assistance Center will be to build the capacity of workforce development, economic development and educational service delivery systems to ensure that youth with disabilities graduate from high school and either enter employment or continue their education. A consortium led by the Center for Workforce Development will develop and promote quality collaborations and service coordination among agencies, programs and service providers at the national, state and local levels. For more information, go to http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/odep/odep20071254.htm

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GAO Report: Federal Disability Programs "Poorly Positioned" to Help People Go to Work  

A recent report by the watchdog US Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated ".social and legal changes have promoted the goal of greater inclusion of persons with disabilities in the mainstream of society, including adults at work. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) supports the full participation of persons with disabilities in society and fosters the expectation that persons with disabilities can work and have the right to work. However, GAO's reviews of the largest federal disability programs indicate that such programs have not evolved in line with these larger societal changes and, therefore, are poorly positioned to provide meaningful and timely support for persons with disabilities." The report further cites the looming crises in the slowdown in the nation's labor force and the low rate of return of return to work for individuals with disabilities receiving cash and medical benefits. The report can be found at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07934sp.pdf

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