The U.S. Department of Education has proposed regulations, published today, to transition away from the so-called "2 percent rule," thus emphasizing the Department’s commitment to holding all students to high standards that better prepare them for college and career. Under the existing regulations, States have been allowed to develop alternate assessments aligned to modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAAS) for some students with disabilities and use the results of those assessments for accountability purposes under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In making accountability determinations, States currently may count as proficient scores for up to 2 percent of students in the grades assessed using the alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards.

The 77-minute OSEP presentation to the leadership conference on the new "Results-Driven Accountability" is available online. Interesting to note from the presentation: The department plans to create a tiered model of intervention for states, much like the response to intervention framework is used in classrooms. In the past, the department used a one-size-fits-all model, where each state was visited on a cyclical basis and every state received, in some measure, the same amount of technical assistance.

MISSOULA - A not so ordinary playground will be ready for students when they return to class at Jefferson School next week. Members of the Rotary Club of Missoula Sunrise spent Tuesday working on the new playground, which they've funded and built. Jefferson is the only Missoula school that serves pre-school age students and is a peer model school with both special needs and non-special needs students.

Four years ago the Helena School District received a $5.3 million grant for the Safe Schools Healthy Student Initiative. Since the grant is in its last year, Youth Connections in Helena wants to get the word out to the community about all the programs the grant has allowed them to establish.

It’s a daunting tasks setting up an autism classroom or appropriately integrating students with autism in to general education setting. Students with autism are all so different and have a vast array of needs. Many of these learners need to be taught individually. It can seem impossible to effectively teach a group of such different students when so many of us our understaffed. Before starting to set up the physical structure of your room or making any schedules, you need to plan out what your students will be working on, how they will be working on these tasks, and what types of centers your classroom needs.

A limited budget doesn’t have to stop you or your child from getting some of the best assistive technology available to help people with LD. These free resources will help you stretch your dollar while getting geared up for the new school year. Better yet, some of them may already be in your pocket—we’ve included features built into common devices like the iPhone and iPad that can be helpful for people who struggle with reading, math, organization and more.

As Secretary Duncan has noted, the Department of Education is committed to making sure that all of our young people grow up free of fear, violence, and bullying. Bullying not only threatens a student’s physical and emotional safety at school, but fosters a climate of fear and disrespect, creating conditions that negatively impact learning—undermining students’ ability to achieve to their full potential. Unfortunately, we know that children with disabilities are disproportionately affected by bullying.

Now, pretend your child is the President, and assume all of the aforementioned duties before enrolling him or her in a class or taking them to an event. My wife and I joke constantly that we could work for the White House based on all the “advance” work we do proceeding my son attending an event such as a birthday party, going to a new school, taking karate, or even a play date.  However, all of our advance work has made for smoother sailing for our son, and more importantly, he can enjoy these life events a lot more.

Co:Writer® is a word prediction app for iOS devices that provides context-sensitive word choices as one types to help students with learning disabilities write with more confidence and effectiveness. Like the Don Johnston literacy software on which it is based, the Co:Writer app presents relevant word suggestions based on spelling, grammar, and vocabulary drawn from a user's personal- and topic-specific dictionaries.

A 2012 study confirmed what many parents know well: Wandering by children with autism is common, dangerous and puts tremendous stress on families.   Amid a frightening number of wandering cases of children with autism this summer – many of them fatal – Autism Speaks wants to remind families of the resources available and the advice to follow to keep your children safe.

Genes in Life is a place to learn about all the ways genetics is a part of your life. On this site you will learn how genetics affects you and your family, why you should talk to your healthcare providers about genetics, how to get involved in genetics research, and much more!

Parents are bombarded with stories about autism research. Headlines and somber-voiced announcers declare that new research has found that autism is linked to a smorgasbord of things: mom's age, dad's age, grandfather's age, living near freeways, living near farms, prenatal stress, premature birth, fertility treatments, obese mothers, flu during pregnancy, having babies too closely together, and so on. How do we make sense of this?

After years of problematic errand running, Banna found a solution online, called "Caroline's Cart," which has a large seat and moveable handlebars, created specifically for kids with disabilities."I actually called the person on the phone and the person who created these answered the phone, and I said, what would it take to bring these to my community," Banna said.Manufacturers told her chain stores, like Wal-Mart, are usually quick to purchase Caroline's carts, but Banna -- a Missoula native -- decided to ask two, locally-owned stores to purchase an $850 cart. Managers at Good Food Store and Roars each agreed to buy a cart this past spring. Emi Kodama, a manager at the Good Food Store said, "I think it's a type of cart that will probably become more common in stores and supermarkets, so I'm excited to be one of the first places to be able to offer one for our customers."

Autism advocates celebrated what they thought was a major victory when President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010: They expected the law to require all insurance companies to cover pricey, potentially lifelong treatments for those with the incurable condition. But instead of creating a national standard for autism coverage, the administration bowed to political pressure from states and insurers and left it to states to define, within certain parameters, the "essential benefits" that insurance companies must provide.

Providing “optimism training” to parents of children with developmental disabilities who struggle with challenging behavior appears to go a long way, researchers say. Behavior issues seen in children were more likely to subside for parents whose own attitudes were addressed while they were taught to implement positive behavior support as opposed to parents who were merely trained in how to address their children’s challenges.

MILWAUKEE — The 54 million Americans who have disabilities can add an impressive reference to their resumes: the nation’s governors. Governors spent much of this year’s summer meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA) talking about how states can help people with disabilities find jobs. Under the direction of outgoing chair Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, the NGA has been studying the issue for the past year and has released a detailed blueprint that includes dozens of policy recommendations.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and staff from the US Department of Education (ED) recently released an “It Gets Better” video to address the importance of fostering safe spaces for learning across the country. Part of the Department’s initiative is ensuring that students are protected from the harmful effects of bullying within their communities.

One of the tools available to help is StopBullying.gov. The site offers a variety of resources for students, teachers, and parents to help with conflict resolution, provide support to those affected by bullying, and promote general acceptance within their local communities for the upcoming school year and beyond.

Every child, regardless of income, race, background, or disability can learn and must learn. And, our system of education—spread across 50 states, 15,000 school districts, and 95,000 schools—must embrace this core belief every day in every possible way. If our children are not learning, then we, as adults, have failed. That is why educators, advocates, parents, and policymakers need to make sure that students with disabilities have access to the general curriculum and are held to the same, high standards as their non-disabled peers. We can work toward this by: creating a culture of high expectations; ensuring students with disabilities have full access to college- and career-ready learning opportunities and assessments; and supporting students with disabilities so that they may excel in the general curriculum for college and career success.

The Social Security Administration will become the latest federal agency to start using the term “intellectual disability” in lieu of “mental retardation.” In a final rule published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Social Security officials said they approved the change in terminology citing “widespread adoption” of the term “intellectual disability.”

Plug "digital resources for k12" into Google and you'll get a bazillion results (or maybe it just seems that way). Head to any resource site for teachers and you'll lose yourself in a miasma of links. Thinkfinity will link you to Smithsonian, which will direct you to HippoCampus, and onto Kahn Academy, and over to Curriki, and off to — well, you get the picture. As wonderful as those sites are, sometimes you don't want to spend all your planning time piecing together a school year's worth of lessons from a multitude of online sites. You just want the whole enchilada delivered in textbook form from which you can select the content you'll assign to your students. To that end we have hunted down the top sources for digital textbooks — all free. What you and your students do with them on the iPads and Chromebooks in your classroom is up to you.