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CASE
I hope most of you are reading this on a mobile device and not at work. There may be some of you who are still working this week, but I believe most school districts have the next two weeks off. I also hope you are able to do some personal and professional reflection on the year that is almost over! We are all so hectic much of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas — it is no surprise students and learning have a tough time during those three weeks! I just returned from a trip to D.C. where the National Center of Intensive Intervention advisors and staff met and I have to tell you I was shocked at how many homeless mothers and young children there were. I go to D.C. about once a month and I just don't remember seeing so many; granted, it was especially cold but I just was overwhelmed by the little children. In my community of about 120,000 I am told we have over 300 homeless school children. And we are an area that is fairly affluent. I say all this to just remind us of the importance school plays in the lives of these families and most importantly the children. While school is out, many of these students will not have the respite and food school offers to them. As you consider your giving habits at the end of the year, perhaps look to your local agencies who serve these families during the winter and winter break!
Last week I tried to really promote your attendance at the 2017 CEC. Right after I finalized the article, I receive a great resource from CEC! They have spent some time and energy developing a Justification Toolkit for members to use as they "line up" support for their attendance! The Toolkit can help members make the case for travel, funding, and time off to attend CEC 2017. CEC wants folks to have a solid understanding of the benefits of attending so they can inform decision makers. You can use the Toolkit PDF or the toolkit is also available on CEC's website, http://www.cecconvention.org/, under the registration tab.
The convention this year is going to be amazing! We will be in Boston April 19-22. Early Bird Registration is going on now but there are other registration options, too. As always, CASE will be very visible at the convention! Come in on Tuesday so you can join us for a full breakfast and our member/board meeting on Wednesday, April 19. Our Spotlight session with Julie Weatherly will be on Thursday and the AMAZING CASE NIGHT will be on Thursday evening. CASE Night will be transportation to the New England Aquarium, dinner, drinks, entertainment, and of course lots of networking and fun! The sponsors this year are Star Autism, Education Modified, C8 Sciences, and Winsor Learning. Remember, this event often sells out and tickets will be going on sale Feb. 1 on the CASE website for $65. The event itself is way over a $100/per person but with our great sponsors, the ticket price is well worth this fun event! Mark your calendar now so you won't be left out of the fun! There will also be a strand of administrative sessions and you will hear more about those here in the weeks to come! But you need to register now for the convention!
Have you lined up your Virtual Winter Conference location? If you are going to be a virtual site, now is the time to be lining up your location and developing your promotion strategies! We even have HINTS for you to use as you set up your virtual site! Our Professional Development committee has heard many times how mental health is a big issue in the day-to-day issues of our public schools. Because of this repeated appeal, it was decided our 6th annual hybrid conference would be devoted to the mental health topic! This hybrid is going to be such a great and practical professional learning opportunity for you and your staff. This is a unique opportunity for you to have everyone hear the same thing and then apply to your students and families! Thursday, Feb. 23 will be on Mental Health in the Schools and then Friday, Feb. 24 will be the legal implications of some of the mental health issues as well as a general legal update. So, you need to start getting the logistics lined up for Feb. 23-24. All you need is a big enough room, internet, LCD projector, sound and screen! We don't even mind if you want to charge a registration fee to either cover the cost of snacks/lunch or make money for a school project! OR... you could come to be with us at the point of origin, Clearwater Beach, Florida. Just think about what it will be like the week of Feb. 20 where you live and what it will be like on the warm, white sands of Clearwater Beach, Florida! If you ever attended the CASE Winter Policy Institutes, you might remember the lovely Sheraton Sand Key Resort! Though, the hybrid isn't run the same way, this is still a great location for any meeting in February no matter where you live! The room link is already live so go ahead, start planning that winter get away! This conference format is perfect for maximizing your professional learning dollars since the registration for sites is the same as just one registration! Register now and join us Feb. 23-24 either virtually or at the Sheraton Sand Key!
Last week's poll asked what presents the greatest challenge to being a special education administrator? Coming in first was personnel issues at 27 percent. Second place was close behind and a tie between funding and professional learning-staff at 20 percent. Third place at 13 percent was advocates/attorneys. Last place was a three way tie — highly qualified personnel, time commitment and other at 7 percent. Other was defined mainly as parents who tried to manipulate the system. It is clear from this limited list there are many issues that are challenging to you as you do your day to day job. Robin and I both hope you will have some time during your holidays to be able to breathe and enjoy the season. Take the time to look after yourself and to reflect on what a huge difference you make in the lives of your staff, your school system, the students, the parents and indeed your community! We would like to thank you for all you do for your professional association also!
Luann Purcell
Executive Director
And
Robin Smith
Administrative Assistant
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CASE
This regular update highlights new legal developments of major significance of special education leaders.
As a service to CASE members, this periodic legal alert provides, as a two-column table, highlights and practical implications of major new legal developments. Here are my top three items for this issue of the CASE Weekly Update.
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Youth courts are structured, court-like programs that employ a restorative justice philosophy. This program allows youth to become involved in determining the consequences for their problem behavior. Youth courts provide early intervention for teen offenders in a flexible setting that is personal and age-appropriate and will provide sanctions without leaving the teen with a permanent record if sentences are completed. This program has been used as a mechanism for disciplinary consequences within school settings.
Click on the following link for more information on Youth Courts: (http://k12engagement.unl.edu/youth-courts). Then click on the red button to download the pdf and read more. Find Strategy Briefs on over forty other topics at: http://k12engagement.unl.edu.
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Have you encountered an intelligent, hardworking student who excels in most subjects but struggles with reading? This student is likely battling the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties: dyslexia. Download our whitepaper to learn the 7 common signs and strategies to address their needs in the classroom.
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REL
The Regional Educational Laboratories Program has released a new video series that explains how schools, districts, states, and their research partners can use a cost-effective approach, known as "opportunistic experiments," to test the effectiveness of programs. Under the right circumstances, this type of research study can generate evidence for informing your education decisions.
What is an Opportunistic Experiment? An opportunity to randomly assign participants to an intervention when one or more of the following conditions exist:
- Excess demand (for example, over-enrollment in a district program or school)
- Limited resources (for example, a lack of resources to implement a new program in all schools at once)
- Pilot tests (for example, a need to test a new program at a few schools before using it in all schools)
There are four videos in the series:
- Embedding Evaluations in Everyday Activities (1 minute) — This introductory video gives an overview of the video series.
- Why Use Experiments to Evaluate Programs? (6 minutes) — Describes why you might want to use experiments to evaluate your programs and policies. It shows why experiments are valuable tools for learning what works.
- Recognizing Opportunities for Rigorous Evaluation (8 minutes) — Describes key characteristics of opportunistic experiments and provides examples and suggestions of situations where you may be able to conduct such experiments.
- Addressing Challenges and Concerns about Opportunistic Experiments (coming soon!) — Will outline considerations that may reduce concerns about using experiments to learn what works.
For More Information: This video series is based on two guides to opportunistic experiments — a guide designed for district and school leaders and a guide designed for researchers.
Ideas That Work
As recently noted by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice, the fact that a student has been charged with or convicted of a crime does not diminish his or her substantive rights or the procedural safeguards and remedies provided under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. More than 60,000 youth are currently in juvenile correctional facilities, and a large portion of these youth are identified as having a disability, yet less than half report that they are receiving special education services. To protect the rights for these youth and improve their chances of leading positive and successful lives, it is the shared responsibility of States, State educational agencies, public agencies, and correctional facilities to ensure full access to a free appropriate public education.
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IES
The Institute of Education Sciences has awarded the first four grants in a new research program designed to help states and school districts evaluate the effectiveness of programs, practices, or policies being used in their schools. The low-cost, short-duration evaluations of education interventions and special education interventions are funded by IES' National Center for Education Research and National Center for Special Education Research.
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MHS has been a leading publisher of scientifically validated assessments for over 30 years. We are proud of the high quality our assessments stand for.
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U.S Department of Education
The U.S Department of Education is pleased to announce availability of the 2017-2018 School Ambassador Fellowship application. The application will close on Jan. 23 at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time. We appreciate your sharing the information with great educators in your network.
The 2017-2018 School Ambassador Fellowship application can be found here and we highly encourage applicants to review the information on the School Ambassador Fellowship website in anticipation of applying.
We want to highlight two exciting changes for the Ambassador Fellowship.
First, the School Ambassador Fellowship program is designed to broaden the Department's Teaching Ambassador Fellowship and Principal Ambassador Fellowship programs to allow other professional school personnel — counselors, school librarians, parent liaisons, assistant principals and others — to apply. Our goal is to create a cadre of outstanding educators to inform the program and policy work of the Department, while expanding their own knowledge and expertise as they participate and help lead the national education dialogue.
Second, we are excited to be moving to an online application system. It will assist with both ease of application completion and application review, while maintaining strict protection of any personally-identifiable information. As in previous years, applicants can choose to apply as Washington Fellows — resident Fellows who work at the Department's Headquarters in Washington, D.C., for one year — or as Campus Fellows — maintaining their current school positions while participating as Fellows on a part-time basis over the course of one year. Further, the School Ambassador Fellowship will maintain the same application criteria and high standard as its predecessor programs, as well as ensure that all eligible applicants have daily interactions with both students and other educators in their home school settings.
Thank you in advance for your assistance distributing this information far and wide throughout your networks.
The National Engagement Team
U.S. Department of Education
IES
Three new Data Points released look at trends in reports of bullying, use of hate-related words, and other unfavorable conditions in the nation's schools. The reports from the National Center for Education Statistics, in the Institute of Education Sciences, use data collected in the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey.
Trends in Bullying at School Among Students Ages 12 to 18 shows that the percentage of students who reported being bullied at school declined from 2005 to 2013.
Trends in Hate-Related Words at School Among Students Ages 12 to 18 shows that, from 2001 to 2013, there was a decline in the percentages of students who reported being called a hate-related word or seeing hate-related graffiti at school. Among students who reported being called a hate-related word at school, the percentage of students called a gender-based hate word decreased from 2001 to 2013, while the percentages of those students called hate words based on race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation increased.
Reports of Bullying and Other Unfavorable Conditions at School shows that students who reported being bullied at school also reported other unfavorable school conditions at a higher rate than students who were not bullied. Such unfavorable conditions at school included availability of drugs and alcohol and the presence of hate-related graffiti, gangs, and guns.
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CEC Policy Insider
The U.S. Department of Education made available to the public final regulations under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, aimed at promoting equity by targeting widespread disparities in the treatment of students of color with disabilities. The regulations address a number of issues related to significant disproportionality in the identification, placement, and discipline of students with disabilities based on race or ethnicity. The Department also released a new Dear Colleague Letter addressing racial discrimination.
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CEC Policy Insider
With only an hour left in what could have been a government shutdown, the Senate passed legislation on Friday that will fund the federal government until April 28th 2017. President Obama signed the bill early Saturday morning. Reported in last week's Policy Insider Blog, House Republicans published and passed a Continuing Resolution that freezes most government funding at 2016 levels through April.
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CEC Policy Insider
The appointments team is among the largest within a comprehensive presidential transition team. A major role of the transition team is to identify and vet candidates for key agency roles. The appointments team is responsible for recommending Cabinet members, as well as individuals for other critical management jobs including undersecretary and assistant secretary positions.
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CEC Policy Insider
Secretary King sent a letter to governors and Chief State School Officers urging them to end the use of corporal punishment in schools, a practice linked to harmful short-term and long-term outcomes for students. "Our schools are bound by a sacred trust to safeguard the well-being, safety, and extraordinary potential of the children and youth within the communities they serve," he said.
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CEC Policy Insider
The CEEDAR Center has released a one-pager that gives special education teachers the basics on the Every Student Succeeds Act. Specifically, this document reviews how ESSA affects the state licensure process for special education teachers.
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CEC Policy Insider
Donut get overwhelmed about choosing from the hundreds of sessions at CEC 2017 — it's a piece of cake to personalize your convention! Strands present a subset of sessions by topical area in-depth-but don't worry: It's not all or muffin!
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| | HOT TOPIC: SUBJECT LINE FEATURED STORY |
By: Brian Stack
 President-elect Donald Trump recently named Michigan's Betsy DeVos to be the next Secretary of Education. DeVos, a strong advocate for school vouchers and school choice in her home state, is expected to bring this topic to center stage when she begins her term in Washington. It comes as no surprise that Trump is making a strong case for the privatization of our nation's schools, implying that a business-model approach will improve our schools for all students.
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Education Week
The number of annual complaints to the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights more than doubled since the start of President Barack Obama's administration, increasing from 6,364 in fiscal 2009 to 16,720 in fiscal 2016. That's according to a report by the Education Department highlighting the work of the civil rights office during the Obama administration. It also notes the ongoing civil rights issues the department sees in schools, for the office ranging from teacher and staffing inequities in schools, to chronic absenteeism and racial disparities in school discipline policies.
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U.S. Department of Education
The White House released a new capstone report with updates about projects launched and local progress made in response to the Administration's Rethink Discipline efforts. Rethink Discipline was launched as part of President Barack Obama's My Brothers' Keeper initiative and aims to support all students and promote a welcome and safe climate in schools. The full report is available here. The White House will also convene stakeholders and leaders to discuss the progress made and the work ahead to encourage and support local leaders as they work to implement supportive school discipline practices.
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The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Supreme Court review of a battle between the parents of an autistic child and his Colorado school district could help raise the standards of education for some of the more than 6 million disabled schoolchildren across the United States. But it could also prove expensive for already cash-strapped school districts. Federal law guarantees disabled students a free and appropriate public education, but precisely what that means isn't well defined. Federal judges often have had different interpretations of what they're entitled to, something lawyers for the Colorado family and other advocates for disabled students say leads to better education and more services for disabled children in some states than in others.
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Education Week
The U.S. Department of Education released final regulations and new guidance governing how testing is supposed to work under the Every Student Succeeds Act. It also announced $8 million in grants to states to improve science tests. If you've read through the proposal for assessments that a group of educators and advocates negotiated last spring, these final regulations will probably look very familiar to you.
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THE Journal
States are failing to provide teachers, parents and the general public with easily understandable and accessible reports on school performance, according to a new report from the Data Quality Campaign. The report, Show Me the Data: State Report Cards Must Answer Questions and Inform Action, examines school performance report cards produced by all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The DQC evaluated each state's report card based on what information was included, how it was displayed and whether it was accessible and understandable to the general public.
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Education Week
With President-elect Donald Trump waiting in the wings, the Republican majority in Congress will have the opportunity to tackle a host of education issues when its next session begins in 2017, from funding for disadvantaged and special education students and college access and affordability issues, to student-data privacy and career and technical education. At the same time, there will be significant turnover in some key positions: In addition to Trump's selection of school choice advocate Betsy DeVos to be education secretary, the House education committee will have a new leader, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.
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By: Howard Margolis
 "Joey, my 10-year-old son, struggles with reading. That's understandable. But why does he hate it? Why does he fight it? What's wrong with him?" In most cases, nothing is "wrong" with him. Lots of struggling readers don't like reading. Lots of them act like they have a bad attitude. After years of failure, many expect to fail. Even before fourth grade, they've given up. Instead of working to become proficient readers, they work to protect themselves from failure and humiliation.
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PsychCentral
Emerging research suggests little physical activity may leave 6 to 8 year-old boys behind on their reading skills. Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Cambridge, discovered sedentary behavior was linked to less than optimal academic performance in the first three school years. The findings have been recently published in the Journal of Science and Medicine and Sport.
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Futurity
Self-regulation skills help children manage their thoughts and feelings, control impulses, and solve problems. Now, a new federal report recommends that schools include them in the daily curriculum. "Self-regulation affects well-being across the lifespan, from mental health and emotional well-being to academic achievement, physical health, and socioeconomic success," says Desiree Murray, associate director of research at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Edutopia (commentary)
Jay Meadows, a contributor for Edutopia, writes: "It has always seemed to me that if the appropriate groundwork were responsibly laid, if the students were appropriately primed and invested in a lesson, the learning would come easy. It is with that in mind that I'd like to present the following hacks for increasing student engagement."
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MindShift
Catherine Good has experienced stereotype threat herself, although she didn’t know it at the time. She started her academic career in pure math, expecting to get a Ph.D. But somewhere along the way she started to feel like it just wasn’t for her, even though she was doing well in all her classes. Thinking that she'd just chosen the wrong application for her love of math, Good switched to math education, where she first encountered the idea of stereotype threat from a guest psychology speaker.
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U.S. News & World Report
Say the fourth-grader was tussling with his on-again, off-again buddy on the playground — a taunt here, light shove there. He's agitated. Stomping, huffing. At most schools, governed by a traditional disciplinary approach, the offender would land in the principal's office, likely followed by a few days of detention: an hour after school, empty classroom, utter silence. At Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in Baltimore, kids are instead referred to the Mindful Moment Room, an oasis of colorful tapestries and beanbag chairs, oil diffusers and herbal tea, where they practice deep-breathing exercises, meditate and talk about what happened.
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Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
Type: Grant Announcement
Program: Education Research and Special Education Research Grant Programs.
Date: Tuesday, March 8
CFDA: 84.305A, 84.305B, 84.305D, 84.305H, 84.305L, 84.305N, 84.324A, 84.324B, and 84.324L
Summary: The central purpose of the Institute of Education Sciences' (Institute) research grant programs is to provide interested individuals and the general public with reliable and valid information about education practices that support learning and improve academic achievement and access to education opportunities for all students. These interested individuals include parents, educators, students, researchers, and policymakers. In carrying out its grant programs, the Institute provides support for programs of research in areas of demonstrated national need.
Competitions in This Notice:
The Institute will conduct nine research competitions in FY 2017 through two of its centers:
The Institute's National Center for Education Research will hold six competitions, one in each of the following areas:
- Education research;
- Education research training;
- Statistical and research methodology in education;
- Partnerships and collaborations focused on problems of practice or policy;
- Low-cost, short-duration evaluations; and
- Research networks.
The Institute's National Center for Special Education Research will hold three competitions, one in each of the following areas:
- Special education research;
- Special education research training; and
- Low-cost, short-duration evaluations.
Deadlines: The dates when applications are available and the deadlines for transmittal of applications invited under this notice are indicated in the chart at the end of the FR notice.
Click here for more information.
Rehabilitation Services Administration
Type: Final Rule
Summary: Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA);
Joint Rule for Unified and Combined State Plans, Performance Accountability, and the One-Stop System Joint Provisions
Dates: Final rules announced: Aug. 19.
This final rule is effective: Oct. 18.
Law: Public Law 113-128
Summary: The Departments of Education (ED) and Labor (DOL) (or, collectively, Departments) issue this Joint Final Rule to implement jointly administered activities authorized by title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) signed into law on July 22, 2014. This Joint WIOA Final Rule provides guidance for State and local workforce development systems that increase the skill and credential attainment, employment, retention, and earnings of participants, especially those with significant barriers to employment, thereby improving the quality of the workforce, reducing dependency on public benefits, increasing economic opportunity, and enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of the nation.
FR link: https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-15977
Type: Final Rule
Summary: Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA);
Miscellaneous Program Changes
Dates: Final rules announced: Aug. 19.
This final rule is effective: Sept. 19, except the removal of part 388, amendatory instruction 13, is effective on Oct. 1.
Law: Public Law 113-128
Summary: The Secretary amends the regulations governing a number of programs administered by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to implement changes to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Act) made by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, signed on July 22, 2014. The Secretary also implements changes to the Act made by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, signed on Aug. 7, 1998, that have not previously been implemented in regulations, and otherwise updates, clarifies, and improves RSA's current regulations.
FR link: https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-16046
Type: Amended Regulations
Summary: Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA):
State Vocational Rehabilitation Services program;
State Supported Employment Services program;
limitations on use of subminimum wage.
Dates: These regulations are effective: September 19, 2016, except for amendatory instructions 2, 3 and 4 amending 34 CFR 361.10, 361.23, and 361.40, which are effective Oct. 18.
CFDA: State Vocational Rehabilitation Services program: 84.126A
State Supported Employment Services program: 84.187
Summary: To implement the changes to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Act) made by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the Secretary amends the regulations governing the State Vocational Rehabilitation Services program (VR program) (34 CFR part 361) and State Supported Employment Services program (Supported Employment program) (34 CFR part 363). In addition, the Secretary updates and clarifies prior regulations to improve the operation of the program. Finally, the Secretary promulgates regulations in new 34 CFR part 397 that implement the limitations on the payment of subminimum wages to individuals with disabilities in section 511 of the Act that fall under the purview of the Secretary.
FR link: https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-16046
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