Welcome to the Federation's 2013 Summer Fun Camp Directory. Here you will find links to over 200 camp Web sites serving children with disabilities, as well as useful information and resources to help create a rewarding summer camp experience for you and your child. Choose from the links below to get started. Download useful information and resources, Summer Planning for Children with Special Needs (PDF), or print a copy of the camps links and summer planning resources, 2013 Summer Fun Camp Directory (PDF).

MISSOULA - When getting around the house isn't easy, it's good to know people who are willing to help. Odette is a special needs child from Missoula who recently underwent a successful kidney transplant and is currently at the Children's Hospital in Seattle recovering.

With the summer just a month away parents are starting to feel the heat. Kids will be out of school and the challenge of providing a structured and fun summer are weighing heavily on the minds of parents. To make you a little less worried Netbuddy has collected 19 tips from parents of children with special needs on who to get through the summer break.

Today’s young people must graduate from high school with the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century global economy.  And that certainly includes youth with disabilities.  To that end, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy are working closely together to create opportunities for youth with disabilities to graduate college and career ready.

A school for the blind and visually impaired in Washington State uses distance learning to accommodate offsite teachers and students.

The National Braille Press has released iOS Success: Making the iPad Accessible to help students who are blind to maximize their use of the popular Apple tablet that's playing an increasing role in education The book, NBP's sixth guide to iOS devices, provides step-by-step instructions for iPad setup (including all accessibility features), using VoiceOver and Zoom, connecting to external devices such as braille displays, find and download apps, and use services such as Dropbox. NBP has done a remarkable job enabling persons who are blind or visually impaired to orient themselves on and learn to use iOS devices -- keeping them current and on the same page as their sighted classmates.

ere’s an infographic about some myths about education, from InformED, a blog by Open Colleges, an online education provider based in Sydney, Australia.

. Accommodations are only truly supportive if the curriculum and instruction that came before the assessment was accessible to these students in the first place. That means high quality teaching that guides students with disabilities to build their knowledge base and readiness skills.

The social struggles of young people with autism were far more pronounced than those of other disability groups, the study found. While almost one-third of those with autism qualified as socially isolated because they never received telephone calls or went out with friends, fewer than 10 percent of individuals with intellectual disability and only 2 to 3 percent of people with emotional disturbance or learning disabilities fell into this category.

1. You are a hero for your kids. You are. You’re a go-the-distance, fight-the-dragon, face-the-challenges hero for your kids. Taking a beating makes that more true. Not less. 2. We all struggle. Every parent. Everywhere. We all second-guess ourselves. And we all want to quit sometimes. Hold the good times close, and when things are tough, remember “this, too, shall pass.” 3. Finding the funny may not save your soul, but it will save your sanity. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, look for the humor and embrace the crazy. Laughter is a lifeline. 4. Every day, you will feel like you have mishandled something. Like you’ve been impatient. Like you’ve misjudged. Like you’ve been too harsh. Like you’ve been too lenient. You may be right. Apologize if you need to and then, whatever. Seriously. Just whatever. Let it go. 5. The crazy, the crying, the cuddles. The screaming, the sacred, the scared. The minutes, the magic, the mess. It’s all part of it. And it’s all worth it. 6. Family is the best. Even when it’s not perfect. And it’s never perfect. Ever. 7. At the end of organization, at the end of patience, at the end of perfection, we die to ourselves. And then love rises from the ashes. It sucks. And then it gets better. And then it sucks again. Still, love rises. 8. You will never regret parenting. Except for the teeny, tiny tons of times when you secretly wonder if you maybe regret it just a little. But, overall, never. And overall is what counts in the end. 9. Parenting is like climbing the big mountain. Look for the base camp. That’s where you rest, meet other climbers, take in oxygen and acclimatize. Base camp is what makes summiting possible. 10. You are not alone in this strange, vast, parenting ocean. Even in the dark of night. You are not alone. You’re not. 11. Kids know the way to magical and they’ll give you a free pass to come along. Breathe in the magic as long as you can because that same kid is going to poop his pants in just a minute. 12. There’s a very fine line between enjoying the chaos and barely surviving. Actually, there’s no line at all. It’s all mixed up together. That “fine line” thing is a lie. 13. If you pay attention, kids will teach you how to laugh loudly, how to love deeply and how to live fully. They will also ruin all your stuff. 14. Any number of kids is a lot of kids. 15. Look for joy. You’ll find it in the middle of the busy. Or under the ridiculous. Or hanging from the overwhelmed in its underpants. Joy’s like that. It’s in the middle of everything. It’s completely unpredictable. And it will surprise you when you’re not expecting it. Like vomit and diarrhea, except good. 16. You will fall apart and do it all wrong. Forgive yourself. Ask your kids to forgive you. Set an example of resilient fallibility. Set an example of practicing the art of love — both loving yourself and loving others. No one does this parenting gig right the first time. Or the last time. Or the times in between. Showing your kids how to keep going after getting it wrong is a wonderful gift to give them. 17. Kids are difficult, gross, confusing and awesome. So are you. 18. Parenting will bring you face to face with yourself. It may be terrifying. It may break you. But it will also rebuild you, and you will be stronger than you ever thought possible. 19. Balance is a myth. Parenting isn’t a tight-rope walk; it’s a dance. Strive for rhythm instead of balance, and trust yourself to move to the ever-changing beat. 20. Yes, you will have days where you wonder where the hell the capable and organized you went. Yes, you will sit on the floor of the main aisle at Target by the check-out area with a child who is thrashing, screaming and calling you names. Yes, you will have to tell your child that the dog is not a napkin and to put down the urinal cake. If you do not do all those things literally, then you will do them figuratively. And yes, you will also hold that child and rock back and forth and tell him you love him and tell him he’s safe and tell him you’re not leaving even though he will someday leave you. This is parenting. It is tragic and triumphant. Messy and magical. Sacred and spectacular. And it is, always, fiercely worthwhile.

Just weeks before a new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is scheduled for release, the head of the National Institute of Mental Health says it’s time to change how mental conditions are categorized. The agency will be redirecting its research focus away from the symptom-based diagnostic criteria of the DSM toward more scientifically verifiable standards, the mental health agency’s director, Thomas Insel, wrote in a recent blog post. By shifting away from thinking about mental disorders as they are currently classified in the DSM, Insel says researchers will be able to establish a new diagnostic system based on emerging science. “Unlike our definitions of ischemic heart disease, lymphoma or AIDS, the DSM diagnoses are based on a consensus about clusters of clinical symptoms, not any objective laboratory measure,” Insel wrote. “Patients with mental disorders deserve better.”

AbbVie is honored to continue the nearly 25 year commitment of helping people with cystic fibrosis (CF). The AbbVie CF Scholarship program expands this tradition, offering support to CF families through financial assistance towards higher education.

Parents have a right to use their voices, decisions and diligence to guarantee their children receive the education that will prepare them to reach their greatest potential — whatever that may be. Every child can learn. Rather than lowering standards for students with classified disabilities, we need to work to ensure that each child is challenged to reach his or her greatest potential. As a parent of a student with a disability, I have experience with how challenging this can sometimes be.

If your child needs Extended School Year Services (ESY) but the school does not want to provide these services, you need to learn about the legal requirements for ESY and how to use advocacy strategies to negotiate with the school.

A $7.7 million federal grant is being used to expand mental-health services in Montana and Wyoming where there is a severe shortage of psychiatrists and therapists.A Sacramento-based company, HealthLinkNow, received the three-year grant last year from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Awards, a federal program designed to underwrite promising new models of health care delivery.

I’m 53 and the younger sister of an older brother (by two years) who had undiagnosed Asperger’s while we were growing up (1960s and 1970s). My brother and I grew up with very unaware, self-involved parents. Short story…I spent years in therapy sorting through our family dynamics and learned so much about the kind of parental support needed to raise special needs kids and neurotypical siblings in a balanced home. I’d like to share what I learned. I collaborated with my therapist and wrote a series of tips that will hopefully help parents and caregivers understand and support ASD siblings. My goal is to raise awareness of the need for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) sibling support (the often-overlooked piece of the ASD support puzzle).

What follows are some of the things I wish I’d been told (and given) when we learned Emma was Autistic. These are the things, in retrospect, I wish all those doctors, specialists, pediatricians, therapists, and people who dedicate their lives and careers to autism had told me, but did not. I believe our lives would have changed dramatically had we been told even a few of these things. It is my hope that for those of you who may be at the beginning of your journey with an Autistic child, this list might help you avoid some of the many, many mistakes we made and a great deal of unnecessary pain.

April is known as Autism Awareness Month, but this year there's a movement to re-brand it Autism Acceptance Month. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), an advocacy group for and by people with autism, is calling for April to be a "celebration of Autistic culture and community." For me, this resonates a lot more than Autism Awareness Month. I'm already very much aware of autism. Two of my four kids have Asperger's syndrome, and I've been living and breathing autism awareness for quite some time now. So have my husband, our two kids with ASDs, their siblings, our entire extended family, and our friends.

Approximately 32 percent of students report being bullied at school. Bullied students are more likely (1) to take a weapon to school, get involved in physical fights, and suffer from anxiety and depression, health problems, and mental health problems. They suffer academically (2) (especially high-achieving black and Latino students). And research suggests that schools where students report a more severe bullying climate score worse (3) on standardized assessments than schools with a better climate.

As autism diagnoses keep increasing, so too do the number of blogs about autism. Self-advocates, parents with autism who have kids with autism, and non-autistic parents all bring their own viewpoints, and all need to be heard. Babble's 2013 Top 30 Autism Blogs brings you voices from a range of viewpoints: some familiar, some fresh. We're excited that this year's picks include several blogs that are new to our list, including Asperkids, Stimeyland, Just a Lil Blog, The Third Glance, and The Domestic Goddess.