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Free Live Webinar: Response to Intervention: Making It Work Thursday, April 15, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Mountain time Also available "on demand" anytime 24 hours after the event Free registration is now open. Response to intervention, a tiered instructional model designed to provide more tailored support to students, has quickly gained prominence as a vehicle for school improvement. But implementation of RTI poses challenges. The framework often entails changes in organizational and instructional roles, new tools and curricula, increased paperwork, and greater program-coordination demands. Join two experts for an in-depth discussion of how schools and teachers can address common RTI-related issues.

The VSA Teaching Artist Fellowship program seeks to identify, engage, and support teaching artists with disabilities in the visual and performing arts. VSA recognizes the value of teaching artists in integrating the arts into education. Teaching artists with disabilities also serve as role models of diversity, expression, and inclusive learning in the classroom.

What: The High School Tiered Interventions Initiative (HSTII) is a collaborative effort among the National Center on Response to Intervention, the National High School Center, and the Center on Instruction that explores how RTI and tiered interventions are being implemented at the high school level. In this webinar, Dr. Kristen McMaster will provide an overview of Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM), including the purpose, a brief description of research, and a demonstration of how CBM data can be used to monitor student progress. She will briefly review CBM tools that are available for high schools in reading, mathematics, and the content areas, and provide instructions for developing CBM tools for use at the high school level. Following Dr. McMaster's presentation of CBM in high school, representatives from Walla Walla High School in Walla Walla, Washington, will discuss how they have monitored school progress as part of their tiered intervention model. This presentation is suitable for anyone interested in the researcher and practitioner perspectives of RTI and progress monitoring at the high school level.

There have been a lot of articles on a lot of websites about accessibility and the iPad since the specifications were first released. Now that our USA readers and bloggers have begun to get their hands on the devices there are even more articles being written, and I’m sure more will follow as the 3G enabled devices are released in the USA and both models become available in other countries starting on May 28th. As an assistive technology enthusiast and disabled blogger, it’s fantastic to see so much interest in the non-mainstream uses of these devices!

AdastraSoft's goal is to provide a set of innovative, user-friendly mobile application solutions to assist those who have various special communication and education needs to realize their full potential. We design our products with community-centric model in mind: Your ideas and suggestions will help shape the content and presentation of our software.  We welcome you to explore our site, and hope you would become a contributing member of our software community.

What: Join us for this free webinar entitled "RTI Implementation: Developing Effective Schedules at the Elementary Level." One of the key components of an effective RTI model is the development of schedules that maximize the time, resources, and personnel available within a school. This webinar will address issues surrounding the development of effective schedules for the implementation of RTI at the elementary level. Scheduling of core instruction, intervention time, team meetings, and planning will all be addressed. Dr. Alexandra Hilt-Panahon and Dr. Karen Gischlar, our presenters for this webinar, both have experience working with schools to develop schedules at initial implementation of RTI as well as across time. Recommendations for efficient, effective, and sustainable schedules will be provided. What topics will be discussed? Issues related to the development of effective schedules for the implementation of RTI at the elementary level, including the scheduling of core instruction, intervention time, team meetings, and planning. Recommendations for efficient, effective, and sustainable schedules. Who will benefit from this Webinar? Teachers, administrators, and technical assistance providers seeking more information about developing effective schedules for the implementation of RTI at the elementary level.

A significant amount of attention, money and resources are devoted to soldiers who return home after war and experience a host of issues that fall under the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet according to a leading expert on childhood trauma, the number of affected veterans is dwarfed by the legions of American children who are being abused and neglected. Those children, Bessel van der Kolk told Missoulians last week, experience their own psychological, emotional and physical trauma on a daily basis. And they are much the worse for it.

Four more hospitals are signing on to be part of a unique national network that provides one-stop shopping for medical and behavioral care of children and adolescents with autism. Medical centers in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Columbus, Ohio and Edmonton, Canada will join 13 other hospitals as part of Autism Speaks’ Autism Treatment Network.

Click here to download the full brochure with registration (PDF) Click here to register for this conference online Topic: Restitution: Helping Children Make the Right Choices When: May 19-20, 2011 Where: Best Western Heritage Inn Great Falls, MT Additional Information: Day 1: Diane Gossen is the author of It’s All About We: Rethinking Discipline Using Restitution, Restitution: Restructuring School Discipline, the Restitution Facilitator’s Guide, and My Child is A Pleasure. In addition Diane has published thirty training guides and numerous videos for implementation of the Restitution model in schools, residential settings, and for mental health practices. Day 2: Breakout Sessions: See full brochure for more information.

Click here to register for this event What: Dr. Grandin didn't talk until she was three and a half years old, communicating her frustration instead by screaming, peeping, and humming. In 1950, she was diagnosed with autism and her parents were told she should be institutionalized. www.templegrandin.com/ If you have seen the HBO movie "Temple Grandin" you know how important Eustacia Cutler, Dr. Grandin's mother, was to her success. Come and hear her first-hand account of raising Temple Grandin at a time when Autism barely had a name. As part of the conference, Ms. Cutler will be the featured guest at an evening reception for parents of individuals with an autism spectrum disorder. In addition to keynote presentations, multiple breakouts sessions each day will feature a choice of educational, medical, adolescent/adult, and family support strands. Lighting the Way welcomes family members, educators, social workers, childcare providers, support professionals and other community members to attend the event. CEUs and college credit hours will be available. A pre-conference session is scheduled for June 8th. Dr. Barry Grossman and Dr. Ruth Aspy, founders of the Ziggurat Model, A Framework for Designing Comprehensive Interventions for Individuals With High-Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome, will present a day-long workshop. Full conference information and on-line registration available at: www.augie.edu/autism When: June 9 and 10, 2011 Where: Sioux Falls Register: A limited number of stipends are available to help SD families with a member with an autism spectrum disorder attend the conference.   Please contact SD Parent Connection at 1-800-640-4553 or sdpc@sdparent.org to request a stipend.

Click here to download the NAMI Basics Commitment to Teach form (PDF) Click here to download the NAMI Basics Education Program Teacher Application (PDF) Who can teach the course? The course is designed to be taught using a co-leader training model. Both teachers must have been trained in use of the curriculum by either a NAMI National trainer or a nationally certified state trainer. Teacher trainings are expensive, time consuming and can be emotionally draining for all involved. In an effort to ensure that only the best candidates participate in the training, NAMI organizations are encouraged to use an application process to select individuals to participate in teacher trainings. There is a sample Teacher Application form in the COURSE FORMS section on page CF-1 that can be used as the first step. Individuals who are interested in being trained to teach the curriculum must meet the following criteria: Be the parent or other primary caregiver of an individual who began experiencing symptoms prior to the age of 13 (it is not necessary that the child have been formally diagnosed prior to 13). It is important that all individuals trained in this curriculum have lived through the experiences of having a young child with a mental illness. Be at a point in their life where they are familiar and comfortable with the emotional issues families face and can self-disclose about their own feelings of guilt, anger, shame, ambivalence and grief regarding their life situation. Be willing to participate in an intensive weekend training on how to teach the curriculum. Be willing to make the commitment to participants in the course, the co-leader and to the NAMI organization to complete the 15-hour course once it begins.

Pre-Registration required. To register call the Salvation Army at 245- 4659 What: A lot of times parents need help, but don't feel comfortable asking for help! That's why Drs Les & Leslie Parott have created this new video-driven study. their teaching take a faith-based approach into the traits parents want their children to have, and the traits they want to learn to model for their children. Captured on these DVD are real-life parenting moments taken inside the home of 20 real families who are trying to raise their kids in the best way possible. When: Thursdays, October 6 - November 10, at 4:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. While children are in the Billy Booth Fine Arts Program. Babysitting will be provided for preschoolers.

Parenting can be a very rewarding experience, but it can also be very difficult at times. Children do not come with instructions and many people who become parents do so with little or no formal training. Many parents do not have the support of family members living in the area or may not have had appropriate parenting models growing up. All parents -- and their children -- deserve the support and guidance a Nuturing Parenting class offers. The Family Tree Center offers 4 different parenting classes (babies, toddlers, grade-schoolers, and adolescents) utilizing the evidence-based best practice Nuturing Parenting Curriculum. Classes meet two hours a week for fifteen weeks and cover topics such as: Empathy, Brain development, Child development, Discipline, Safety, Family morals and values, Family rules, Drug and alcohol abuse, Stress and anger management, Routines, and Problem solving. Highlights include: Free childcare and dinner for children Snacks for the parents Family interaction time during each class Activities for grade-school age children and older where they learn, at their level, the same information their parents are learning Classes are offered at no charge to all self-referred parents and for a nominal fee of $10 per class for parents who need a certificate Materials fee is $20 If you are interested in these classes: Contact Tonia at 406-252-9799 or email the Family Tree Center office at ftcoffice@qwestoffice.net.

Click here to download the full flyer and registration for this event (PDF) Free training for: Elementary teachers, Special education teachers, Administrators, Paraprofessionals and parents This workshop is designed for a variety of individuals: Schools just beginning to think about Response to Instruction (RtI) Support staff in schools already implementing RtI (speech therapists, school psychologists, occupational and physical therapist, tutors, etc.) New administrators or teachers in schools already implementing RtI New members on established RtI teams Participants will be provided: An overview of the Montana RtI model--both the “big picture” and the eight essential implementation components Practical strategies and possible next steps they might take to “power up and move forward” with RtI implementation efforts Discussion of how their specific positions and roles “fit in” with RtI structures and procedures. When: October 4, 2011 8:00am - 3:30pm Mountain Where: Robins Administration Building 425 6th Street Upstairs Conference Room Havre, MT

Click here to register for this webinar What: This presentation will provide an overview of dental care for individuals with special health care needs (pediatric to adult).  The presentation will include information about unique aspects of providing dental care to individuals with special health care needs, barriers to access to care, the dental home model, as well as a presentation on dental training resources/modules.  This presentation will include an overview of the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center. When: September 19, 2011 12:00 - 1:30pm Mountain For more information: Contact Rebecca Carman, at Senior Program Specialist at AUCD, at rcarman@aucd.org.

What: PolicyLink's Ron Stief will facilitate a discussion on some of the latest and greatest practices developing communities and economies in Indian Country! This webinar will highlight two models: the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Promise Neighborhoods. Our speakers include Marissa Spang, Director of the Promise Neighborhoods project in Lame Deer, Montana and Krystal Langholz, Executive Director of Hunkpati Investments in Fort Thompson, South Dakota. When: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 10:00 - 11:00am Mountain To Join: Dial 1-866-740-1260 and visit www.readytalk.com and enter: 3853940 Check out the Plains Talk website to access previous webinar recordings and to download roundtable policy reports from across the Northern Plains!

What: Montana Digital Academy announces live math help in May, 2011 aimed at K-8 students in Montana. Montana Digital Academy's Direct Academic Student Help desk, or DASH, has been providing live, one-on-one tutoring in math and other subjects since October, 2010.  We are expanding DASH's mission in May to experiment with ways that we can utilize our University of Montana students to help struggling students throughout Montana. Starting May 2, DASH will run two weeks of live, after school tutoring sessions with our staff to try our remote tutoring model.  We will provide access through GoToMeeting, an excellent online tool for bringing people together in different locations. For a flyer to share with your students, click here. For our live session page or to get more information, go to our Math Help Live Wikispaces page here.

Click here to register for this webinar What: The rapid growth in adoption of "Response to Intervention" across the nation's public schools, sparked in large measure by changes to IDEA's identification procedures for specific learning disabilities, is raising issues of compliance with IDEA's Child Find mandate.   Specifically, under IDEA (2004), school districts are no longer required to use a discrepancy model when determining eligibility, but instead, may use alternative means (e.g., response-to-intervention (RTI) or processing deficit approaches) to identify students. Consequently, significant variability among states in the SLD identification criteria now exists. The implementation of new criteria - particularly RTI - may result in delay or failure to properly identify students as eligible for IDEA services.   This Webinar will present the latest information on RTI adoption across states and the use of RTI for SLD identification. It will review recent challenges, including litigation, and provide guidance on an array of practical advocacy options that can be used to capitalize on the RTI process-to help struggling students regardless of whether they are suspected of having SLD-and deal with the delay or denial of access to special education potentially posed by RTI.  Time will be provided for questions from participants. When: Wednesday, November 2, 2011  12:00pm - 1:30pm Mountain

Amy Weitlauf, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics, will be leading a study among parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness training as part of early interventions for children with ASD. Amy Weitlauf, Ph.D. Through a nearly $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau (Grant No. R40MC27706), Weitlauf and colleagues from Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) will teach all participating parents to use the Early Start Denver Model, an intervention method aimed at early treatment of ASD.

Developing effective, real-world-ready approaches to providing early diagnosis, treatment, and supportive services for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the goal of 12 research grants awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). These grants are part of a broad research effort to provide models for the delivery of needed services to children, youth, and adults with ASD, across different communities and care settings, appropriate to each age and individual. NIMH is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).