IDEA Partnership Activities

IDEA Partnership Activities March-August, 2007

Dialogue Guides & Georgia State Improvement Grant The IDEA Partnership’s Dialogue Guide activity will be used to conduct interactive discussions across stakeholder groups in support of Georgia’s State Improvement Grant (SIG). The Dialogue Guides complement Georgia’s statewide Café initiative, which has been embraced by the State Superintendent’s Office. The SEA staff will work with the IDEA Partnership to identify key resources related to dropout prevention and broker connections within Georgia to align with stakeholder initiatives that support the SIG.

Community of Practice Strategy & Jordon Ministry of Education Delegation Visit At the request of the Academy for Educational Development (AED) International division, the IDEA Partnership staff hosted a Jordanian Delegation visiting the United States to learn more about the strategy of bringing together states and stakeholders as allies in tackling persistent problems and achieving positive outcomes through a Community of Practice approach.

National Community of Practice (CoP) on Transition The National CoP on Transition Annual Meeting was held from April 29 – May 1, 2007 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The following states, national organizations and TA providers participated: AL, AZ, CA, DC, DE, ND, NH, PA, VA, and WI (States); AASA, AOTA, ASCA, CSAVR, DCDT, NASSP, NASDSE, NCIL, NEA, NYLN, and Family Voices (National Organizations); and NSTTAC, FRC, NPSOC, GLWCAC, and PEPnet Midwest (TA Providers). Meeting focus: - Community Building: A Year-Round Strategy to Achieve Better Outcomes - Youth Role - Transition and High School Redesign

High School Redesign Initiative. The IDEA Partnership works closely with NASSP to explore connections between transition and emerging strategies around High School Redesign. Jay Engeln from NASSP is working with a number of states to help them make the connection.

Pennsylvania Community on Transition. Pennsylvania is one of the first states within the National Community that decided to bridge transition and HSR efforts. They sponsored the Pre-Forum Training on High School Redesign led by Larry Gloeckler and number of sessions on that topic at their 2007 PA Community on Transition Forum. Number of states (DE, NH, PA, SC, and WI) and national organizations (AOTA, CSAVR, DCDT, NASSP, and NEA) from the National Community were involved.

The Community presentation on HSR and Transition can be accessed on sharedwork site http://sharedwork.org/documents/CoPPresentation_HighSchoolRedesign.ppt. 12th Annual Conference on Advancing School-Based Mental Health October 25-27, 2007. The 12th Annual Conference on Advancing School-Based Mental Health will be held October 25-27, 2007 at the Omni Orlando Resort in ChampionsGate, Florida. This conference is sponsored by the Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland and The IDEA Partnership at NASDSE. We expect 12 states and over 20 national organizations to participate and represent the National Community of Practice on School Behavioral Health. Ten Practice Groups will meet during the conference and continue the national dialogue around school mental health issues. To learn more about this conference please see the conference brochure: http://csmh.umaryland.edu/conf_meet/AnnualConference/download_files/92783%2012th %20Annual%20Broch%20revised.pdf

Facilitators’ Meeting, August 14 & 15, 2007, Kent Island, MD In preparation for the National Meeting, all Practice Group Facilitators will get together next week, August 14 & 15, 2007, on Kent Island, MD to plan activates for the Conference. Many Practice Groups already formulated their action initiatives, for example: - Learning the Language/Promoting Effective Ways for Interdisciplinary Collaboration PG is developing a tool that makes explicit the vocabulary and key initiatives in each major system (MH, Ed, JJ, Health, Child Welfare...etc) using the Public Health Model as the framework; - Education: An Essential Component of System of Care PG is writing a White Paper addressing research from macro work on System of Care that is relevant to education; synthesizing, presenting at the national meeting and connecting to Seed Grants’ work; - Connecting School MH and PBS PG is organizing 2 webcasts: (1) the use of the PBS process in juvenile correction facilities and the data collected to date; and (2) the interrelationships observed between the two sides of the triangle in districts utilizing a PBS process and the accompanying data.

CADRE/ IDEA Partnership Creating Agreement Community of Practice This collaborative workgroup engages diverse stakeholders from several organizations in an effort to promote the use of appropriate dispute resolution to new audiences. The goal is to equip members of key national organizations with enhanced skills for interest-based negotiation and collaborative problem-solving. By exposing a cross-section of educators, parents and related service providers to these skills, there will be an increased capacity to prevent and resolve conflicts at the IEP/IFSP level. Training modules were designed to include core concepts and strategies for special education dispute resolution with the intention to capacitate IDEA Partners to deliver introductory training to members of their organizations. The Workgroup is designed to strategically shift an expanded set of organizations and individuals toward avoiding adversarial encounters and reaching agreements through positive communication and collaboration for students and youth with disabilities to maximally benefit from their educational program. Fiesta Educativa Statewide Conference On June 30, 2007, the IDEA Partnership collaborated with Fiesta Educativa to bring Spanish-speaking families to participate in focus groups on transition at its statewide conference, Celebrating Twenty-Nine Years of Unity and Diversity in Los Angeles, CA. Fiesta Educativa is a statewide organization that works to inform and assist Latino families in obtaining services and in caring for their children with special needs. Members from the IDEA Partnership Transition community of practice (CoP) co-facilitated three, two-hour focus groups with 10 Spanish speaking families in each. The purpose was to build on the work from Fiesta’s conference in 2006 to:  Increase our understanding of the unique needs of Latino families;  Increase our understanding of what support services and resources are needed to help children be successful during and after high school; and  Understand what families need to help their children make good decisions for themselves.

The feedback from the families in all three groups’ will be translated into English and will serve as the springboard for further dialogue and action with the larger Transition community for how to better support Latino families that have children and youth with disabilities.

NCLB-IDEA Collaboration Meeting following CCSSO Summer Institute