F Lee Mentioned That When NC Was Monitored, NC Was Found Non-Compliant in Students

THE VERY SPECIAL EDITION

Volume 19, Issue 1 8/18/09

Dear Staff:

Welcome to the 2009-10 school year! We hope you had a wonderful, restful summer.

Welcome to our new EC teachers! We had many applicants for not many positions and know we got the best! We are down some positions this year; funding is very tight and headcount last year was down so we have less to spend. We are using EC stimulus monies to help maintain jobs and to improve technology in EC classrooms.

For this year we can boast continued initiatives leading the system in best reading practices, helping with the push in math foundations, continuing and improving our use of Research Based Interventions and Progress Monitoring in general education to reduce unneeded referrals to special education, expanding our licensed Day Treatment program for some of our most severely behaviorally and emotionally involved students, and benefiting from having most of our students’ information already entered into the EasyIEP system.

We are very proud of special education students’ scores on state testing last year! Please see the wonderful news in the letter from Lew Johnson included in this newsletter.

A lot of information about special education is posted on the web. Updates and more information should be available soon. Please be familiar with the special education page (found on our system homepage – click SERVICES and then EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN).

May all your forms finalize and every student meets AYP!

Have a great year!

Sincerely,

Ann Brady Daphne Wall Director of Exceptional Programs Exceptional Programs’ Curriculum Coordinator

Staff Development/Meeting Dates: EasyIEP updates: August 20, 2009 1:00-4:00 at RCHS media center Reading Foundations: September 25, October 28 & 29, November 16 & 17 Self-Contained Meeting: August 20, 2009 after convocation at RMS Preschool Meeting: August 21, 2009 12:30 at RCHS media center Conference for Exceptional Children: November 2-3, 2009 in Greensboro

Note: check the SEA system and staff development calendar regularly for opportunities!

Worth Quoting:

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. ~Henry Brooks Adams Training and Staff Development

Reading Foundations Training: We continue to be very proud of the efforts in our system to providing teachers (general and special education) with the skills needed to provide the BEST instruction to ALL students. Reading Foundations Training is offered locally by our staff through our State Improvement Grant.

Reading Instruction Foundation Training, entitled Teaching Students with Persistent Reading Problems, was developed by Rebecca Felton and David Lillie through the North Carolina State Improvement Grant. The staff development program has been designed to introduce teachers to the knowledge, skills and procedures needed to provide effective instruction for students with persistent reading difficulties. The teaching principles, techniques and strategies presented in the program are supported by an extensive body of instructional research involving students with reading difficulties.

The program is designed to provide teachers with a solid foundation of knowledge and skills needed to deliver effective instruction to all students, particularly those who continue to struggle with reading, even after having the benefit of instruction and learning experiences. The program consists of nine units and provides a solid foundation on which to build an effective reading instruction program.

Quotes from previous participants:  “Reading Foundations is so enriching and informative that it ought to be a required college course for anyone pursuing a career in teaching.”  “Reading Foundations has been an incredible journey in learning to teach reading all over again!”

Who: ALL teachers will benefit When: September 25, Oct 28, Oct. 29, Nov. 16, Nov. 17. Credit: Teachers successfully completing this course will earn 3.5 CEU’s. Spring and summer sessions will also be offered. Email Daphne Wall if you would like to sign up. For questions email: Daphne Wall at [email protected].), Phyllis Baker at [email protected]), or Kristi Harris at [email protected]).

Greensboro College: The Fall 2009 course offerings in special education at Greensboro College have been posted. All courses are offered from 4:00 – 6:20 once per week. Course offerings cover general curriculum and adaptive curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels. For more information, contact Beth Hair (336- 272-7102, ext. 454 or email at [email protected]).

CEC: The theme for the 59th Conference on Exceptional Children is, Growing Our Own....Harvesting Results. Registration and more information will be online soon at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/conference/2009.

The Exceptional Children Division looks forward to joining forces with teachers, principals, related services providers, parents, administrators, college and university faculty and students, exhibitors and others to refresh our commitment to the education of children with disabilities. It will be held at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro on November 2-3 for the conference and November 3-4 for the post-conference institutes.

Mark the date; we hope to again be able to support registration for teachers to attend.

Reading Foundations: The fall course is already full. We plan to offer a spring course. EVERY special education teacher should complete this five day training opportunity!

EasyIEP Updates: Staff from PCG will join us to explain the upgraded system and highlight some forms updates. We are moving to Flexible Interface which should really help with the placement process. New staff definitely needs to attend to become familiar with our mandated system for writing IEPs and completing EC paperwork. Those familiar with the system will also benefit from a review of changes and upgrades. No pre- registration is required; the session will be held in the media center at Rockingham County High School from 1:00 – 4:00. CIPP Updates

CIPP Audit Results: As part of the required Continuous Improvement Performance Plan process, we pulled a representative sample of 75 folders for monitoring this summer. A team of lead teachers and psychologists worked under the direction of our state consultant, Eileen Davison, to audit these folders. Many folders passed audit and it was obvious that many teachers have worked very hard to maintain compliant, neat, quality folders. However, there were numerous issues needing to be addressed; some individualized and some more global. Each teacher who was responsible for a folder sent in for CIPP audit will receive the folder back with feedback. We are working against a short deadline to make certain all folders are compliant so please follow the directions; use your psychologist to help you if needed.

It became apparent that with all the changes in forms and emphasis over the last few years and the hiring of new staff, we really need to work with all staff on some basic IEP rules. The three major areas of concern were non-compliant DEC 5s, non-compliant annual goals, and non-compliant PLAAFPs. For example: We can no longer use the statement “No other options considered” under Section 2 of the DEC 5. This is one of the changes that needs to go into effect immediately along with the IEP changes. Many of the CIPP errors that will require reevaluations are based on this one incorrect item.

Compliance Training Opportunity:

To address IEP compliance issues, each EC Certified staff person shall review training modules 10 and 11 on the DPI website for developing measurable and compliant PLAAFPs and annual goals. This needs to be completed before Friday, September 4th or before any corrections are made to IEPs audited for CIPPP purposes or new IEPs written.

The IEP Module Website is located at http://www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/policy/presentations/. Also attached is a copy of a compliant IEP on EasyIEP forms and a compliant DEC 5 Due Process Form with instructions for completion.

We are planning QAC sessions (question, answer, and clarification) on the following dates: date time targeted group Sept. 8 2:00-4:00 Reidsville/Rockingham Elementary Sept. 9 2:00-4:00 Eden/Western Rockingham Elementary Sept. 14 2:00-4:00 Reidsville/Rockingham High School Sept. 15 2:00-4:00 Eden/Western Rock Middle High School

One person from each school is required to attend but everyone is encouraged to attend. If you are not able to go to your grade level and zone session, please feel free to come to any session. Register with Jessica Jeffries at [email protected] for a session and the location will be given when you call in.

Congratulations to Teachers of Exceptional Children in Rockingham County

As you may know, for the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 school years, the district did not achieve its Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) target in the Students With Disabilities subgroup in reading for the grades 3-5, 6-8, and Grade 10 for both reading and math. However, through your hard work and implementation of programs like Reading Foundations, Wilson Reading and Math Foundations significant student improvement was achieved.

This year grades 3-5 and 6-8 achieved the target proficiency goal through Safe Harbor for BOTH READING and MATH. Last year in grades 3-8 the percent proficient was 17.6% in reading and 31.7% in math. This year reading increased to 27.6% proficient (35.3% with growth) and math jumped to 42.2% proficiency (47.1% with growth). These results are fantastic and the increases due to student growth are evidence that EC teachers are producing student achievement that is better than expected. These increases in percent proficient were enough to achieve AYP through a process called Safe Harbor.

The high schools also achieved outstanding results in the area of math by increasing the percent proficient from 32.1% to 37% proficient. Continued work is needed in the area of reading; however, the district is taking a long- term approach to this by supporting reading instructional efforts for students with disabilities at the elementary and middle school levels. I am confident that it is only a matter of time until these initiatives pay off at the high school. Congratulations of your success and the success of your students, and thank you from the administrative team at Central Office.

Lewis Johnson, Ed. D Director of Testing and Research

Transitions from PK to Kindergarten Most often the paperwork is completed for these new kindergarten students. If you have a student entering kindergarten from PK who has had an IEP, please check the following: 1. current IEP reflects the correct school age setting (for example, regular) 2. A DEC5 has been completed with the setting change 3. CECAS has been sent to Becky.

Resources Our State Policies (effective 11/1/07) are available at: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/ec/policy/policies/2007policies.pdf

Free parent-child materials are available for downloading from Washington Learning Systems at www.walearning.com and click on the purple button that says "Free Parent Education Handouts" on the home page. The Rockingham County Library in Eden NC has a new Assistive Technology station, which includes software to help students read and write. Struggling readers can use this station to have the computer read aloud all the content of the Web. You can learn more on the library’s web homepage: http://www.rcpl.org/index.html.

Materials, supplies, field trips, and other needs It is no secret to anyone who has been monitoring the news that there have been significant cuts to public education and that our system is working on how to send back monies to Raleigh (how and where to make reductions). Special education has had some reductions even though stimulus monies have made our cuts less severe than other areas of education. Until the school budget is finalized, we will not be sending out dollar allotments. Please contact us for critical needs; otherwise please be patient. We would like to give schools and preschools monies similar to last year, but realistically we will likely need to be more conservative in order to maintain staff.

Special Transportation It is very important that you notify us of bus problems after the first couple of days (moves, no one home, etc.). Please call Jessica Jeffries (627-2709) with this information. If students are not on special transportation it is because they did not have a completed form for this year.

No Shows and Transfers Please notify Becky Garrison (627-2708 or [email protected]) of any students with special needs who are “no shows” or who you know have transferred elsewhere (in or out of system). Please help us to keep our data current. Do not wait until headcount to notify us of student changes. Becky needs to keep current all confidential folder locations and case managers.

EasyIEP Updates and Reminders Upgrade to Flexible Interface: You will see some changes to EasyIEP that should help to manage paperwork. The main change is the adoption of FI (Flexible Interface) which will allow users to logically follow the placement process. An example of use: if you are working on a new referral, you will work from a referral tab and collect green checks in order as you move from DEC1 through DEC6 (similar to the current DEC3 tab). The session on August 20 (1:00-4:00 at RCHS media center) will show everyone the new process. Grade Assignments: Most of our students have moved up a grade. EasyIEP will fix grades at the next upload from NCWISE (in September). We are not going to manually change students’ grades unless there is a compelling reason to do so earlier. If you print an IEP and the grade is incorrect, just hand correct it for now. In order for everyone to have access to students who have moved to your school (due to grade promotion OR moving within our system) we have opened access for all professionals to view all students. Once we upload new information, this expanded access will be closed.

Caseloads and case managers: You remain responsible for managing your own caseload in EasyIEP (assigning yourself as case manager when you are such). You will want to update your caseload list early in the year.

Effective dates: All IEPs and DEC forms should be completed on EasyIEP; this requirement was effective October 1, 2007.

New students: Students who are new to the system and come with completed paperwork will not have forms or IEPs in EasyIEP. If the student moves from Guilford County, we can transfer the EasyIEP records to you if you call.

Handbook of Parent Rights A Handbook must be sent to parents:  Upon initial referral or parent request for evaluation,  Upon receipt of State complaint or petition for due process hearing,  When there is a change of placement for disciplinary reasons (suspension over 10 consecutive days or pattern),  When parent requests a copy, or  If the notice (i.e., Handbook) is revised. Otherwise one Handbook per year is required to be sent to parent(s)/guardian(s).

We will soon have a new and updated Handbook; until it is completed, continue to give the current (July 2004) Handbook including the insert to parents when required for one of the reasons listed above. Since we are soon going to have a revised notice (Handbook) that will have to be distributed to parents, you are NOT required to send or give any Handbooks now except for the reasons bulleted above.

Therefore, unless you have a discipline situation or a parent requesting a Handbook or a Due Process, you are only required to send current Handbooks for initial referrals only. We will send home Handbooks to all our students’ parent(s)/guardian(s) as soon as we receive the revised version from the State and can get them printed.

You may also access the Handbook at: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/ec/policy/resources/englishhandbook.pdf.