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Catholic schools are offering programs for children with disabilities more and more, with schools serving students diagnosed with everything from Asperger’s syndrome to intellectual disability. Though traditionally out of reach for faith-based schools given the high cost of providing special education services, determined parents are fund-raising and getting grants to develop programs at Catholic schools across the country. In fact, the number of Catholic elementary schools with a resource teacher to assist students with special needs grew from 28 to 42 percent between the 2001-2002 school year and 2008-2009.

Achieving Excellence and Innovation in Family, School, and Community Engagement is a series of free webinars that aim to provide opportunities for stakeholders representing national, regional, and local organizations to learn about family, school, and community engagement research and innovations, as well as best practices from the field. The first installment of the webinar series addresses the question, How can stakeholders build the capacity to transform schools through effective family, school, and community engagement? This webinar will include real-life examples of innovative family and community engagement efforts, as well as discussing how to successfully integrate family engagement systems into student learning and how to sustain engagement efforts across the cradle-to-career pathway.

The national standard recommends a ratio of one registered, professional school nurse to every 750 students, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Association of School Nurses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Nurses Association.Current 2012 data indicate that Montana has a ratio of 1 registered school nurse to 1,985 students, according to Montana Association of School Nurses’ April 2012 comprehensive study of school nursing services.

A new government publication aims to help schools enlist parents in promoting and sustaining health in their children.

Published by the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health covers how schools can connect with parents about health education for children, engage parents in the subject matter, and ultimately sustain ongoing interest in the mission.

For thousands of Texas parents, the start of the school year has taken on a new meaning: an end to the conflicts, struggles and disappointment with the public school system. A growing number of parents of special-needs children are opting out of public schools, deciding instead to home school or to pay for pricey private schools.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan paid a visit to Wilde Lake High School Tuesday and called the Columbia school a microcosm of the educational world: diverse and inclusive. Duncan and Assistant Secretary of Education Alexa Posny joined Wilde Lake Principal James LeMon and school system Director of Special Education Patty Daley in a round table discussion. They questioned a panel of about 20 students, parents, school staff and Howard County Public School System staff about inclusive practices for special needs students at the school.

We live in a world of shrinking budgets, reduced staff and limited resources for Public Schools. Schools are fighting to survive let alone trying to educate our children. Add in the fact that 13% of the entire student age population has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and it’s no wonder that Special Education has once again become the scapegoat of the week. While eligibility, services and placement under an IEP are supposed to be based on need, and not money, that is not always the case. So the ability to motivate a School is one of the most important skills a parent can possess. Let’s start by defining what motivating a school in special education means. It means the ability to get the School on your side so that the IEP Team can tailor an IEP that meets your child’s unique needs and provides a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). 

Students with disabilities face several longstanding challenges accessing services that may assist them as they transition from high school into postsecondary education or the workforce—services such as tutoring, vocational training, and assistive technology. Eligible students with disabilities are entitled to transition planning services during high school, but after leaving high school, to receive services that facilitate their transition they must apply as adults and establish eligibility for programs administered by multiple federal agencies. Students with disabilities may face delays in service and end up on waitlists if these programs are full. In addition, while all five states GAO contacted have taken steps to coordinate their transition services and assist families with the transition process, officials said that it is still difficult for students and their parents to navigate and for providers to coordinate services across different programs. Officials and parents GAO spoke with also noted a lack of sufficient information or awareness of the full range of service options available after high school on the part of students with disabilities, parents, and service providers. In addition, state and local officials said students with disabilities may not be adequately prepared to successfully transition to life after high school. This may be due, in part, to limited opportunities to engage in vocational and life skills training or obtain work experience while in school.

An effort by the Obama administration to overhaul the troubled federal agency that is responsible for the education of tens of thousands of American Indian children is getting major pushback from some tribal leaders and educators, who see the plan as an infringement on their sovereignty and a one-size-fits-all approach that will fail to improve student achievement in Indian Country. As Barack Obama makes his first visit to Indian Country as president this week, the federal Bureau of Indian Education—which directly operates 57 schools for Native Americans and oversees 126 others run by tribes under contract with the agency—is moving ahead with plans to remake itself into an entity akin to a state department of education that would focus on improving services for tribally operated schools. A revamped BIE, as envisioned in the proposal, would eventually give up direct operations of schools and push for a menu of education reforms that is strikingly similar to some championed in initiatives such as Race to the Top, including competitive-grant funding to entice tribal schools to adopt teacher-evaluation systems that are linked to student performance. The proposed reorganization of the BIE comes after years of scathing reports from watchdog groups, including the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and chronic complaints from tribal educators about the agency’s financial and academic mismanagement and failure to advocate more effectively for the needs of schools that serve Native American students. It also comes a year after U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell called the federally funded Indian education system “an embarrassment.” The BIE is overseen by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is housed within the U.S. Interior Department. Pushback From Tribes The proposal, released in April, was drafted by a seven-person “study group” appointed jointly by Ms. Jewell and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Five of the panel’s members currently serve in the Obama administration. Some of the nation’s largest tribes, however, are staunchly opposed to the proposal, including the 16 tribes that make up the Great Plains Tribal Chairmans Association, which represents tribal leaders in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. “It’s time for us to decide what our children will learn and how they will learn it because [BIE] has been a failure so far,” Bryan V. Brewer, the chairman of the 40,000-member Oglala Sioux tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D., said last month in a congressional hearing on the BIE. In the same hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Charles M. Roessel, the director of the BIE and a member of the panel that drafted the plan, said the agency’s reorganization “would allow the BIE to achieve improved results in the form of higher student scores, improved school operations, and increased tribal control over schools.” (Despite multiple requests from Education Week, the BIE did not make Mr. Roessel or any other agency official available for an interview.)

Click here to register for this event What: This three hour training is designed for counselor/administrator teams to work together to learn the basic principles of the Montana School Counseling Program Model.  The training will include roles and responsibilities of counselors and administrators within the program and steps for implementation of the Model.  Participants will have an outline of an implementation plan and be able to begin the implementation process. The goal is to provide high-quality, Level I training for Montana school counselors and administrators. Participants will learn the tools to: establish a school counseling program as an integral component of the school?s academic missions; ensure students have access to counseling services; identify and deliver the knowledge and skills acquired in the Academic, Career, and personal/Social Domains; promote specific guidelines and strategies to engage culturally different students/parents in counseling and the educational process; and, sponsor a culturally appropriate approach to counseling that is aligned with the spirit and intent of IEFA. Where: Montana State University - Billings College of Education Building, Room 122 Billings, MT Scheduled Trainings: March 11, 2011 9:00am-12:00pm April 1, 2011 9:00am-12:00pm April 13, 2011 9:00am-12:00pm Cost: http://www.msubillings.edu/smart/training/schoolcounseling.htm There are no fees for this training but registration is required.  Mileage reimbursement will be paid for those outside of the Billings area.

There’s a group of students struggling through school rd to navigate that gets little attention in the media or in the debate about how to fix schools: Children with ADHD. ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is a brain condition that makes it especially hard for children to focus and concentrate in school and has a number of other symptoms. It is too often misunderstood by teachers, parents and even the students themselves. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 9.5% or 5.4 million children 4-17 years of age, had been diagnosed with ADHD, as of 2007. Many others who have the disorder haven’t had the benefit of a diagnosis. Here is a powerful post by David Bernstein, a nonprofit executive who lives in Gaithersburg, Md., writing about the difficulties that his two sons, ages 7 and 15, have confronted in school as a result of ADHD.

The day I finally got an Individualized Education Program (IEP), I was in my junior year of high school. Now, I understand that when people think of a student who has an IEP, they usually think of a young child in elementary school. Unfortunately, for me, that wasn’t the case. For many years, my family and I tried to figure out my diagnosis and get me an IEP, but this process took longer than anyone could have imagined. After many visits to the neuropsychologist, I was finally diagnosed with dyslexia, AD/HD and auditory processing disorder.