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There are many ways teachers can help children with learning and attention issues succeed in school. Here are some common accommodations and modifications to discuss with the school as possible options for your child.

There are many ways teachers can help children with learning and attention issues succeed in school. Here are some common accommodations and modifications to discuss with the school as possible options for your child.

You can register online here!Your purchase includes one web access and one toll-free phone line for live 90-minute event, materials and unlimited access to Webinar archive. Gather a group in one location so many can participate for one low price!What:This webinar addresses the frequently confusing topic of student accommodations. Specifically, the presentation reveals how ambiguous accommodations can be - and how to select appropriate accommodations for each individual.The goal of this webinar is to present a model that can be used collaboratively by advocates, parents, students, and teachers to identify unambiguous accommodations. In preparation for the webinar, participants are requested to consider the commonly used accommodation "preferential seating." If you chose this for a student's IEP, exactly where should next year's teacher seat this child?   Time is provided for questions from participants.  When:Wednesday, March 14, 2012 12:00 to 1:30 PM MT Contact:The Advocacy Institute Phone: 540-364-0051 Email: info@advocacyinstitute.org

Requests for disability accommodations at college campuses are on the rise, leaving administrators struggling to determine whether or not flexibility is warranted in every case. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, universities are required to provide “reasonable accommodations” for students with disabilities. Often this means allowing those with special needs extra time or a quiet room for exams. But colleges from New York to Texas are reporting a dramatic increase in recent years in the number of students claiming that they need special accommodations, in many cases due to psychological conditions like depression and bipolar disorder.

Among accommodations requested and granted in the most recent testing year, approximately three-quarters were for extra time, and about half were for applicants with learning disabilities. High school and postsecondary school officials GAO interviewed reported advising students about which accommodations to request and providing documentation to testing companies, such as a student's accommodations history.

Although there are a variety of school-based services available for children with learning, emotional, and social disabilities, one critical need often goes unfulfilled: providing guidance and strategies that instill self-advocacy.       Most students have only a superficial notion of the reasons they receive these special accommodations, and many children are completely uninformed. Resource teachers and specialists do not generally have the authority to label and enlighten students about their disabilities, the foundation for building self-advocacy. If children are to learn how to become better consumers of educational resources, especially as they grow older, someone must take the lead.      Parents of children with disabilities can fill this role by doing the following: Introduce children’s diagnoses to them in elementary school so that they can make sense out of their struggles Use a matter-of-fact tone of voice when explaining to children that they learn/behave/relate differently from other students and, therefore, need extra help to ensure that they can succeed just like their classmates Don’t leave out the disability label—such as writing disability, ADHD, or Aspergers Syndrome—since labels are a reality of their educational life Emphasize that the teachers and special staff at school who help them will be aware of this label and prepared to help in certain ways to make school a fairer place for them to learn and grow      It’s important to review with children the ways in which their school must provide special help and services. Emphasize that these accommodations are rules the school must follow. “You have the responsibility to do your best job, and teachers must follow the learning/behavior/friendship helping rules that make things fair for you,” is one way to put it. Explain how extra time on assessments, decreased homework, or social skills groups are examples of the helping rules that schools must follow. Discuss how there is a written promise called the individualized education plan (IEP), which includes all the helping rules and makes all of this clear.      Find child-friendly resources—such as books, websites, and videos—that explain in detail their specific disability and the ways other children have learned to cope and achieve despite these limitations. Use these materials as a springboard for deeper discussion about past times when their disability created significant stress or barriers to success. Reassure them that this was before their problem was known and that there is so much that can be done to build a plan for success now that it has been identified.      Point out that one of their most important responsibilities is to be able to discuss their disability with teachers and ask for extra help and accommodation when struggles are too great. Make sure that these discussions take place before middle school, when developmental factors make it harder to get such discussions started. Ensure that they know what practical steps are in their IEP at each grade so that they can respectfully remind teaching staff if necessary.      Having a disability is like having to wear glasses; students with glasses have accepted this fact as necessary to seeing clearly.

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and Careers, which had released pieces of its proposed accommodations policy for students with disabilities, has now put out a full draft of its accommodations manual for public comment. (The organization also has an explanatory Powerpoint presentation and a list of frequently asked questions linked to the release.)

. Accommodations are only truly supportive if the curriculum and instruction that came before the assessment was accessible to these students in the first place. That means high quality teaching that guides students with disabilities to build their knowledge base and readiness skills.

The longer there is a strong distinction between general and special education, the worse it is for students who are labeled with a disability. It perpetuates the language of us and them. These two worlds need to meet and the sooner they meet, the better. I will try to make it as simple as possible. In my opinion, there are the three things that need to happen in order for our schools to become better for all learners. Back to top Making things better for all 1) Acceptance – Create environments of acceptance in the classroom. We may not all be the same, but we are all deserving of understanding and acknowledgement of our strengths. 2) Access – A curriculum that is accessible to all learners! Modifications, accommodations and assessment are the key components to giving our students with special needs access to the general curriculum. 3) High Expectations – Never assume that what we are teaching is going over our students’ heads. This sells us (as educators) and them (as learners) short. We must always presume competence of our students and give them the support that they need in order to be successful. Oh…and I forgot about the wildcard: Technology! Assistive technology is often the missing piece to getting a reliable communication system for our students; not to mention accessing the curriculum by moving beyond paper and pencil work. The farther technology advances, the more access our students will be able to have.

One in 10 college students has a disability but the federal government needs to do more to accommodate these students, a new report finds.

At its core, the American educational system is about democratization of knowledge for all students, regardless of their circumstances. In 2011, 22 percent of non-institutionalized adults with disabilities had less than a high school education. If this statistic was applied to the general population, my suspicion is that there would be an outcry to reform K-12 education to have better graduation results. But for students with disabilities, there is no shock or outrage and that is something that has to change. The key to improving the educational experience for students with disabilities is better accommodations in schools and continued improvements in assistive technology.

ASHLAND — About 20 students demonstrated Thursday at Southern Oregon University to protest an administrative decision to withdraw a student with Down syndrome.Eliza Schaaf, 20, a graduate of Ashland High School, was auditing a ceramics class as a way to share the college experience with her friends from high school, her parents said.

She already had completed two-thirds of the class when she received a letter Nov. 8 notifying her she would be withdrawn because she was not qualified to meet academic standards, even with accommodations, and disrupted instruction in the class. The letter also said the family would be given a full refund of tuition and fees.

Members of Schaaf's class and the university's Student Senate have formally opposed the administration's decision through petitions and a resolution.

EXTRA time. More breaks. A small, quiet room. Seeking such accommodations on entrance exams can be a journey of angst for students with learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A new set of federal regulations, published in September and effective in March, could smooth the path.