The Connecticut State Department of Education hopes students will help their high schools improve secondary transition services in Connecticut by participating in the Post-School Outcomes Survey.

In July, the survey will be sent to students who had an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in a Connecticut public school district and graduated or left school within the past year. Parents or guardians can assist students with completing and returning the survey if necessary.

The survey will be mailed to the address on record with a student’s school district. If a student has moved and did not receive a copy of the survey, please contact Joseph Madaus at joseph.madaus@uconn.edu and a copy of the survey will be sent to you.

All surveys are handled with complete confidentially. The survey is administered by the University of Connecticut (UConn) using questions designed by other students and teachers and authorized by the Connecticut State Department of Education.

The survey consists of simple questions covering employment, further education and training, support from applicable state agencies and life in general after high school. The purpose of this survey is to understand what types of activities each student with an IEP did during their first year after leaving school such as attending college or a training program, working or getting services from a state agency and how districts can improve services provides to students. Improved programs will help students leave school with the skills they need to continue their education, find work, and contribute to their families and communities.

The success of the survey depends on each student who has left high school taking time to reply.

Participation is a unique opportunity for a student’s experience to have direct influence on the services and activities that will be available to other students in the future. Each student’s response WILL make a difference!

The U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, issued final regulations on February 14, 2013, that govern the use of a child’s or parent’s public benefits or insurance (e.g., Medicaid) to provide or pay for services required under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The final regulations became effective on March 18, 2013. On Tuesday, June 11th, they released a suggested model form for written notification of parental rights regarding the public benefits and insurance regulations.

The final regulations provide the following clarifications:

Prior to accessing a child’s or parent’s public benefits or insurance for the first time-and after providing notification to the child’s parents, the public agency must obtain written parental consent that

• specifies the personally identifiable information that may be disclosed (e.g., records or information about the services that may be provided to a particular child), the purpose of the disclosure (e.g., billing for services under part 300), and the agency to which the disclosure may be made (e.g., the state’s public benefits or insurance program (e.g., Medicaid);
• specifies that the parent understands and agrees that the public agency may access the parent’s or child’s public benefits or insurance to pay for services.

Specific information that must be contained in this written notification to the child’s parents-prior to accessing a child’s or parent’s public benefits or insurance for the first time and annually thereafter-includes

• a statement of the parental consent provisions,
• a statement of the “no cost” provisions,
• a statement that the parents have the right to withdraw their consent to disclosure of their child’s personally identifiable information to the agency responsible for the administration of the state’s public benefits or insurance program (e.g., Medicaid) at any time,
• a statement that the withdrawal of consent or refusal to provide consent to disclose personally identifiable information to the agency responsible for the administration of the state’s public benefits or insurance program (e.g., Medicaid) does not relieve the public agency of its responsibility to ensure that all required services are provided at no cost to the parents.

Read the OSERS memo Written Notification of Parental Rights Regarding the Use of Public Benefits or Insurance.

Hyun Ju Kang, Doctoral student and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at
University of Wisconsin-Madison, is conducing a research study designed to understand Korean-American immigrant parents’ hopes, concerns and dreams about post-school outcomes for their adolescents with disabilities. Korean-American immigrant parents of adolescents with disabilities, who are currently in high school, live in the United States and speak Korean, are invited to participate.

Read Hyun Ju Kang’s research cover letter and flyer for more information or contact Hyun Ju Kang at hkang25@wisc.edu or 608-253-5824.

A complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on behalf of children with disabilities at a public charter school in Hartford last year regarding the suspension rate of students with disabilities in the school has led to a federal civil rights agreement. The school will now be required to train staff in the federal education requirements for disabled students, and in the characteristics of disabilities such as autism, mood disorders, attention deficit disorder, and childhood trauma. It has also agreed to develop a centralized data system to track removal of disabled students from classrooms.

A recent article by Kathleen Megan in the Hartford Courant describes the agreement. Read “Achievement First Pledges To Do Better With Disabled Students: Civil Rights Complaint Said Too Often Students With Disabilities Suspended, Given Demerits”

Parents of children ages 6 and older with identified Autism Spectrum Disorders are invited to support graduate candidate preparation in the assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Supervised evaluations will take place at University of Saint Joseph (specifically at the School for Young Children adjacent to the main campus). The assessment evening will be from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on June 11, 2013. During that time, parents will participate in a semi-structured interview and children will participate in a play-based observational assessment in an adjacent room. Measures include the Vineland-II, Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS-R), Childhood Autism Rating Scale 2 (CARS-2), and Social Responsiveness Scale 2 (SRS-2). Parents will receive a copy of the resulting evaluation, which includes recommendations for consideration for the child’s educational development. Recommendations are based on best-practice guidelines articulated in the Connecticut Guidelines for the Identification and Education of Children and Youth with Autism. Space is limited to the first 9 families.For more information, contact Dr. Melissa Root at mroot@usj.edu.

Each year, the Bureau of Special Education conducts a survey of parents of students receiving special education services, ages 3 through 21 in a sampling of school districts throughout the state. The survey is the continuation of an ongoing collaborative effort between the Bureau of Special Education and the Connecticut Parent Work Group (PWG) to collect information on family satisfaction and parent involvement in their child’s special education program. Information from this survey will be used to gather parent input on whether or not school districts are encouraging parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities (monitor progress in improving special education services in Connecticut).

The districts that have been chosen for this year’s survey will be announced soon.  Shortly thereafter, parents of children receiving special education in these districts will receive an envelope in the mail (with a return address of Glen Martin & Associates -GMA) containing the survey. Parents can also complete the survey online. Both the online and paper survey will be available in English and Spanish.

For more information, please call Marcus E. Rivera, Education Consultant, Bureau of Special Education at 860.713.6932 or by e-mail at marcus.rivera@ct.gov. If parents need assistance completing the survey, please contact Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center at 1-800-445-CPAC, or by e-mail at cpac@cpacinc.org. For support to Spanish-speaking families, parents can contact CPAC at 203.776.3211.

The CT Transition Task Force (TTF) has recently developed a list of transition “standards” that the CT State Department of Education would like to propose as areas that should be addressed for all students with an IEP, ages 15 – 21 years old. The list contains ten key areas that the TTF determined to be critical to the success of any student with a disability. These “standards” were renamed as: CORE Transition Skills.

These eleven CORE Transition Skills are the basic areas that all students with disabilities need to master in order to be successful after high school. Next year the Transition Task Force will identify the specific Common Core State Standards that apply to each of the Core Transition Skills, develop a task analysis for each CORE Transition Skill that will provide a continuum of activities across the range of students with disabilities (mild/moderate through severe/significant), and will develop examples of how to write SMART Annual Goals and Objectives using these CORE Transition Skills.

The Core Transition Skills are listed below. Please be aware that these are still in draft form and the final CORE Transition Skills may look slightly different, but the general content will remain the same. Stay tuned in the fall for additional information about these CORE Transition Skills!

CT CORE Transition Skills
To the maximum extent possible, Each Student with a disability will be able to:

• Assist with the development of his/her Individualized Education Program (IEP
• Attend, participate in and/or facilitate  his/her Planning and Placement Team (PPT) meeting
• Demonstrate and accept responsibility for his/her independence and activities of daily living
• Demonstrate skills needed to access appropriate transportation (both public and private)
• Explain his/her disability relative to individual strengths, needs, preferences and interests
• Identify and ask for accommodations necessary to ensure equal access and full participation in post-school education and/or employment settings
• Describe his/her rights and responsibilities under Disability Legislation (e.g., IDEA, 504, ADA)
• Demonstrate skills to access appropriate healthcare to meet his/her individual needs
• Demonstrate skills to access community resources and participate in the community with and without support (recognizing the need for interdependence)
• Demonstrate skills to access appropriate employment to meet his/her individual needs
• Demonstrate skills to access appropriate postsecondary education, training, or lifelong learning opportunities to meet his/her individual needs
• Demonstrate appropriate social interactions and skills to develop and maintain meaningful relationships

CT CORE Transition Skills

On Thursday, May 9th, Congressman George Miller (D-CA), ranking member of the House Education & Workforce Committee and Congressman Gregg Harper (R-MS) introduced the Keeping All Students Safe Act, HR 1893, a bill to protect all students nationwide from restraint and seclusion.

Below is a summary of important points about the Keeping Students Safe Act, HR 1893.

• The KSSA will ban restraint/seclusion except in emergencies where someone is in danger of physical harm.
• The KSSA will require that parents be informed if their child was restrained/secluded on the same day that the event occurred. Parents should be notified very quickly so they can seek medical care for concussions, hidden internal injuries, and trauma, and to work with the schools to create positive environments for their children.
• The KSSA will ban restraints that impede breathing, mechanical restraints, and chemical restraints. These include chairs and other devices that children are locked into; duct tape and bungee cords, ties, rope, and other things used to restrain children; and other devices.
• The KSSA will prevent restraint/seclusion from being used when less restrictive alternatives, like positive supports and de-escalation, would eliminate any danger. It would require them to end when the emergency ends.
• The KSSA will require that if children are placed in seclusion rooms, school staff must continuously visually observe them.
• Instead of restraint and seclusion, the KSSA seeks to promote positive behavioral supports for all children. The bill will shift schools toward preventing problematic behavior through the use of de-escalation techniques, conflict management and evidence-based positive behavioral interventions and supports. This shift of focus will help school personnel understand the needs of their students and safely address the source of challenging behaviors – a better result for everyone in the classroom.
• The KSSA will also ban dangerous aversive practices that threaten safety; require the collection of data; and require appropriate training of staff.

View the bill here: Keeping Student Safe Act

To contact your members of Congress regarding the bill, dial 202-224-3121; ask for your Representative’s Office, and then ask for the education aide. If you are unable to call and need to use email, visit http://bit.ly/RepWrit. (You can also find your Representative’s name here.)

To examine the impact of existing federal regulations and legislation on the successful transition from school to work of youth with disabilities, a free, public online dialogue will be held May 13-27, 2013. The U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration will host the event and invite policymakers, service providers, advocates, youth with disabilities and others to join this online dialogue to improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities.

Overview
To examine the impact of existing federal regulations and legislation on the successful transition from school to work of youth with disabilities, a free, public online dialogue will be held May 13-27, 2013. The U.S. Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services and the Social Security Administration will host the event and invite policymakers, service providers, advocates, youth with disabilities and others to join this online dialogue to improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities.

Why is this happening?
The four host agencies want to ensure that all youth benefit from collective federal resources to achieve economic empowerment and maximize independence. Your input in this conversation is extremely important because studies and reports have shown that, compared to their peers without disabilities, students with disabilities are less likely to receive a regular high school diploma; twice as likely to drop out of school; and half as likely to enroll in and complete postsecondary education programs. Up to two years after leaving high school, about 4 in 10 youth with disabilities are employed, compared to 6 in 10 same-age, out-of-school youth in the general population (National Center for Education Statistics, 2000; National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 [NLTS-2], 2005).

Why participate?
Your input can help these agencies identify federal legislative and regulatory barriers and opportunities to improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities. It will also facilitate their working together strategically on an interagency basis to foster the alignment of policies, programs and practices that support the successful transition from school to work of youth with disabilities. Once the dialogue has closed, a summary report will be made public.

Who Should Participate?

Anyone with a personal or professional stake in supporting the aspirations of youth and young adults with disabilities to live, work and thrive in their communities is invited to register and participate.

How to Participate

Online registration will begin May 7, 2013. You will be able to provide input from May 13 until May 27, 2013. (Instructions for registering are available at http://fptepolicyworks.ideascale.com. Once registered, participants may submit ideas, submit comments about ideas, and rate those ideas they think are the most important. The dialogue will be facilitated to ensure participants experience a robust and productive exchange.

The Connecticut Department of Social Services (DDS), in collaboration with the Governor’s Early Childhood Planning Office, the Early Childhood Education Cabinet and the state’s Child Day Care Council, will hold public forums/hearings to provide Connecticut’s parents, service providers and advocates an opportunity to comment on child care services in Connecticut including the proposed Office of Early Childhood and CT’s draft Child Care and Development Fund draft Plan.

The hearings will be held on Thursday, May 16, 2013 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Connecticut Charts-A-Course, Training and Conference Room, 2321 Whitney Avenue, Building 2, Suite 501, Hamden, CT 06518 and on Thursday, May 30, 2013 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at the Connecticut State Department of Education, 25 Industrial Park Road, Middletown, CT 06457. (Public Hearing will be held immediately following the Connecticut Early Childhood Education Cabinet meeting)

Families and providers will have the opportunity to comment on the future of child care services at the hearings. The state is preparing a comprehensive child care plan to access federal funds and guide programs and services over the next two years.

The draft CCDF plan will be available to review on or after April 24th by visiting the Department of Social Services website at www.ct.gov/dss or http://ct.gov/dss/cwp/view.asp?a=2340&q=490684. Written comments may be submitted by e-mail to julie.bisi@ct.gov through June 10, 2013, or in person at one of the public hearings.

The state uses federal child care funds to support the child care needs of limited-income families and professional needs of child care providers. The child care plan presents various strategies to work with state and local partners to increase professional development opportunities, early learning standards, wage enhancements and other services to support the child care field.

The public can also get further information by calling the Department of Social Services’ Child Care Team at 1-800-811-6141 (press option 6).

A Plan for an Early Childhood System for Connecticut: The Office of Early Childhood

Connecticut’s Child Care & Development Fund Quality Performance Report – Federal Fiscal Year 2012

Summary of Child Care and Development Fund Plan (CCDF)