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Autism Spectrum Disorders and Public Schools How many Montana public school students are there with autism? There are approximately 141,000 public school students in Montana’s K-12 schools and on January 31, 2012, there were 823 students with an educational label of autism. There are 16,000 students with educational disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), which is the federal legislation which determines special education eligibility. Five percent of the students with disabilities are autistic. This percentage has increased from 1 percent to 5 percent in the last seven years, as the number of students with autism has increased and the number of enrolled students (and students with disabilities) has decreased.

There are several different types of student financial aid - scholarships, grants, work-study and loans. This guide explains the financial aid options available to students who want to further their education by attending a college or university or a career or technical school. You’ll also learn about how to apply for federal student aid, get information about scholarships for students with disabilities, and learn about other types of financial aid to help pay your tuition, fees and other higher education expenses.

To that end, today, ED’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) issued guidance to educators and stakeholders on the matter of bullying of students with disabilities. This guidance provides an overview of school districts’ responsibilities to ensure that students with disabilities who are subject to bullying continue to receive free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Under IDEA, States and school districts are obligated to ensure that students with disabilities receive FAPE in the least restrictive environment (LRE). This guidance explains that any bullying of a student with disabilities which results in the student not receiving meaningful educational benefit is considered a denial of FAPE. Furthermore, this letter notes that certain changes to an educational program of a student with a disability (e.g., placement in a more restricted “protected” setting to avoid bullying behavior) may constitute a denial of FAPE in the LRE.

The American Bar Association's Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law established the national Mentor Program for: law students with disabilities prospective law students with disabilities, and recent law school graduates with disabilities The Program’s purpose is to give members of these groups the opportunity to learn from an experienced attorney. In a recent study conducted for the ABA, those immediately out of law school cited having a mentor as an important driving factor of satisfaction with their career. Career satisfaction, however, is just one benefit of having a mentor-mentee relationship. Practitioners, students, and academics have all praised the benefits of a mentor program for those with disabilities, namely the availability of advice, guidance, and support.  

The American Bar Association's Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law established the national Mentor Program for: law students with disabilities prospective law students with disabilities, and recent law school graduates with disabilities The Program’s purpose is to give members of these groups the opportunity to learn from an experienced attorney. In a recent study conducted for the ABA, those immediately out of law school cited having a mentor as an important driving factor of satisfaction with their career. Career satisfaction, however, is just one benefit of having a mentor-mentee relationship. Practitioners, students, and academics have all praised the benefits of a mentor program for those with disabilities, namely the availability of advice, guidance, and support.  

From Disability.gov, this fact sheet provides an overview of the major federal student aid grant programs. The federal government provides grant funds for students attending colleges, including career colleges and universities. Grants, unlike loans, do not have to be repaid. To access the fact sheet in English go to http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/Grant_Programs_Fact_Sheet_04_2009.pdf A Spanish version is available at: http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/spanish/Grant_Programs_Fact_Sheet_04_2009%28es%29.pdf

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.

As Principal Investigators of the Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities, we are writing this letter to express some concerns about the present participation of students with disabilities in online learning. Several months ago we accepted the challenge of finding answers to important research questions about how online learning environments can be optimally designed and implemented to be accessible, engaging, and effective for all students, including students with disabilities.  To accomplish this goal, the Center is conducting research to identify and verify trends and issues as well as describe potential positive outcomes and negative consequences related to participation of students with disabilities in online learning.  These findings will inform our development and testing of promising approaches to online learning for students with disabilities.  This research program definitively has barely begun.

Emerging research on the "neurodevelopmental paradox" of twice-exceptional students highlights the need for educators to take an earlier, more holistic approach to evaluating and teaching students with disabilities. Often, when people think of a gifted student with disabilities, they picture an autistic savant, like Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie "Rain Man," but in reality, "there are a lot of kids who are really struggling, and we totally miss them," said M. Layne Kalbfleisch, the principal investigator of the Krasnow Investigations of Developmental Learning and Behavior, or KIDLAB, at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va. Ms. Kalbfleisch and other experts estimate there were 300,000 twice-exceptional students—intellectually gifted children also diagnosed with learning disabilities—in 2004, when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act first noted that students with disabilities may also be gifted.

Travis Moses is a blind student who can’t always do his homework because an online program the University of Montana uses is inaccessible to him.Moses, a senior in the social work program, is one of some 1,121 students registered with UM’s Disability Student Services. He estimates from 75 percent to 90 percent of his classes have an online component – and some UM courses are only online.“I’ve been told every year, ‘Oh, we’re working on it,’ ” Moses said Monday. “Well, you know, I’ve gotten to the point that I doubt it. I’m angry that something was put in place that was not verified.”Last May, the Alliance for Disability and Students at the University of Montana – ADSUM – filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging students such as Moses who have disabilities face discrimination at UM. On Monday, the department’s Office for Civil Rights confirmed in an email the complaint about educational technologies is under investigation.

Arne observed the faculty there is “absolutely committed to making sure that every student fulfills their academic and social potential.” When Alexa asked the students on the panel what makes special education students so successful at Wilde Lake, one student shared that the cultural stigma of being a special ed student had been eliminated and declared that it had been taken over by the notion that, “I am a student!” We know that Wilde Lake takes this belief very seriously, as more than 90 percent of their students spend more than 80 percent of the school day in a general education setting.

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.