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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate has passed a bill requiring schools to place video cameras in special education classrooms to help protect students from abusive teachers.Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, says his panel heard heartbreaking testimony from parents of special needs children who were beaten in their class.

ATLANTA (AP) — More parents are opting out of school shots for their kids. In eight states now, more than 1 in 20 public school kindergartners aren't getting all the vaccines required for attendance, an Associated Press analysis found. That growing trend among parents seeking vaccine exemptions has health officials worried about outbreaks of diseases that once were all but stamped out. The AP analysis found more than half of states have seen at least a slight rise in the rate of exemptions over the past five years. States with the highest exemption rates are in the West and Upper Midwest.

The U.S. Department of Education today announced the award of more than $28.8 million in grants to 42 states to cover a portion of the fees charged to low-income students for taking advanced placement (AP) tests.

MT Montana Office of Public Instruction $44,452

ATLANTA (AP) -- More than $1 billion has been spent over the past decade searching for the causes of autism. In some ways, the research looks like a long-running fishing expedition, with a focus on everything from genetics to the age of the father, the weight of the mother, and how close a child lives to a freeway. That perception may soon change. Some in the field say they are seeing the beginning of a wave of scientific reports that should strengthen some theories, jettison others and perhaps even herald new drugs.

Steve Jobs also delivered a trademark "one more thing" at this year's WWDC. This time out, it was a new telephony product called FaceTime. There have already been various attempts at this, including the HTC Evo's front-facing camera and third-party video conferencing aps, but FaceTime presents the most user-friendly application of the technology. There is no set up, and it is fully integrated into the OS, making it extremely simple to use.

I want to highlight something that was touched upon in the FaceTime video shown at the WWDC. Not much been written about it, but the example shown had a powerful message to a specific community. I grew up in a home with a blind grandmother. The telephone was one of the bright spots in her life. She could not see, but she could speak and hear things like Books for the Blind, which in those days were delivered on vinyl records. She also spoke to family and friends on the phone. Those conversations were very important to her.

However, for the deaf community, the telephone has no meaning. They can't just pick up the phone and talk to friends and family. Only recently has the cell phone become an important communication tool for them—texting has been a godsend. Face-to-face, they use sign language and facial expressions to communicate. The Apple video demonstrated showed a deaf couple signing to each other from separate locations.

NEW YORK — Next fall, when millions of kids tune into Cartoon Network to watch Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo and other favorites, they'll encounter something new — an ambitious campaign to enlist them as foot soldiers in the fight against bullying.Unlike many bullying programs, this one is geared toward middle school, where experts say bullying is most common. It also targets not bullies nor the bullied, but kids who witness bullying, giving them appropriate techniques to intervene.

IDEA 2004 requires that students with disabilities be provided with physical education. If your child has a disability and an IEP, the school must provide physical education as part of your child's special education program. Many children benefit from adapted physical education. Because physical education is a required component of special education, your child's physical education teacher should be included as a member of the IEP team.

SAN FRANCISCO — Even as audio versions of best-sellers fill store shelves and new technology fuels the popularity of digitized books, the number of titles accessible to people who are blind or dyslexic is minuscule.A new service being announced Thursday by the nonprofit Internet Archive in San Francisco is trying to change that. The group has hired hundreds of people to scan thousands of books into its digital database — more than doubling the titles available to people who aren't able to read a hard copy.Brewster Kahle, the organization's founder, says the project will initially make 1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations and the government. He's hoping a subsequent book drive will add even more titles to the collection.

Click Here For More Information, and to Make Reservations What:Conference - Plain Talk About Reading (heralded as the nation's premier reading institute because of its clear focus on providing the latest scientifically based reading research (SBRR) and strategies for those who teach reading at all ages and grade levels). From the nation's leading researchers and seasoned practioners, atendees will learn the current findings on reading instruction, reading difficulties and reading intervention, and classroom strategies that put this knowledge to work.     $575 per person (if received before 9/30/11)    $645 per person (if received between 10/1/11 - 3/2/12)    $745 per person (if received after 3/2/12) Sessions In-depth information on today's most burning reading issues Early childhood literacy and language development  Getting adolescent literacy right Integrating literacy strategies across the disciplines at all grade levels  Practical strategies for increasing vocabulary Increasing reading comprehension  Teaching reading to English language learners Implementing Response to Intervention at all levels Leadership that yields increases in student literacy levels  Increasing teacher knowledge and skills Broad session choices: Sessions that target early childhood classrooms  Sessions that address how to meet the needs of special education students   Content-centered sessions on strategies for the classroom Sessions delivering the latest research on reading, RtI, language development, attention, and other related topics Sessions especially for school and district leaders Sessions focused on English language learners When:April 29, 2012 - 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) – RegistrationApril 30, 2012 - 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. (Mountain Time) - Day 1May 1, 2012 - 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. (Mountain Time) - Day 2May 2, 2012 - 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Mountain Time) - Day 3

The new AP guidelines specifically address the issue, recommending that journalists “do not assume that mental illness is a factor in a violent crime,” and that “studies have shown that the vast majority of people with mental illness are not violent, and experts say most people who are violent do not suffer from mental illness.”