Special Education Directors,

Writing better goals and effectively monitoring student progress towards those goals are foundational skills for Related Service Providers. Positive student outcomes can only be achieved when school-based therapists can do both consistently. Good data on good goals leads to effective interventions and allows therapists to write better progress reports in less time. And we know that “time spent on paperwork” is a leading cause of therapist burnout. For these reasons, we are very excited about the next presentation in our series of Related Service Provider Seminars, Creating Goals that Are Easy to Monitor and a Stress-Free Companion Monitoring Tool, with Carlo Vialu, PT, MBA, and Peggy Morris, OTD, OTR/L, BCP. This workshop is designed for Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, and Speech-Language Pathologists and will convey ASHA, APTA, and AOTA CEUs. Please share with your staff.

Creating Goals That Are Easy to Monitor and A Stress-Free Companion Monitoring Tool

Presented by ADE/ESS/Special Projects

Hosted by Littleton Elementary School District

Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Time: 8:00 a.m.−3:30 p.m.

Fee: $120 (lunch on your own)

Where: Littleton Elementary School District

Address: 1600 S. 107th Ave, Avondale, AZ 85323

About Carlo Vialu

Carlo served as Director of Physical Therapy for the NYC Department of Education, overseeing a program with over 700 PTs working in more than 1,500 schools. He is the project manager of research on normative data for five mobility tests for school-aged children and co-founder of SeekFreaks.

About Peggy Morris

Peggy is an OT with 30+ years of pediatric experience in early intervention, private practice, and outpatient therapy, but most of her experience and passion are in school-based practice. She coordinates the post-professional MS and OTD programs and school-based certificate programs at Tufts University. She is Board Certified in Pediatrics through the AOTA and is a regular SeekFreaks contributor.

Workshop Description:

Are you ready for an easy way to write goals and monitor progress? Peggy and Carlo will walk you through setting goals that are easy to monitor and creating a monitoring tool that can help you decide whether your student is on track, if it is time to change the intervention, or if it is time to work on more challenging goals.

Stress-free monitoring begins with a well-written goal. While making a goal SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound) is a great start, how many times have we written a SMART goal that contained too many conditions to be easy to measure? So, in the morning, you will learn the three common problems with SMART goals and the four strategies to make your SMART goal easy to monitor. You will practice utilizing Apply EBP’s simple worksheet for goal creation with the guidance of your instructors. You will then go through the three steps to create an accompanying data-collection system. You will gain four tips for making this system user-friendly for different team members and help make informed decisions. You will learn and practice using this data-collection system in making objective decisions about whether your student is on track or if it is time to change the intervention or goal.

Finally, you will learn two additional strategies to elevate your goals further: the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) for more complex cases and the five steps for creating collaborative interprofessional goals.

Bring sample goals you need to improve and case vignettes that you find challenging. There will be multiple opportunities to practice goal creation, monitoring, decision-making, and interactive Q&A discussions with the instructors. Leave the day with concrete strategies and the confidence to create goals and monitor them meaningfully!

Register for “Creating Goals that are Easy to Monitor and A Stress-Free Companion Monitoring Tool”

If you have questions regarding this training, please email Margaret Egan or email Mitch Galbraith

Special Education Directors,

Please share the following message with your staff who support Post School Outcomes (PSO) Survey data collection.

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition team would like to thank those who participated in the 2021 PSO data collection season. The PSO Survey helps PEAs collect and report information to meet Indicator 14 requirements. Between June 1 and September 30 of this year, PEAs statewide worked hard to reconnect with former students who had IEPs when they exited high school during the 2019–2020 school year. Through their efforts, 6,245 former students responded to the survey, for a 78.7% participation rate with 71.8% of respondents engaged in postsecondary education/training or employment. A more detailed view of this year's PSO Survey results will be posted on the PSO Website by October 31, 2021.

Our team wants to recognize PEAs that performed exceptionally this season to complete PSO requirements. We are excited to share the PSO Celebration Website, which highlights the PEAs that completed all PSO surveys and met criteria for one of the following categories:

• PSO All-Star—Met or exceeded the statewide participation rate goal of 80% and engagement rate average of 71.8%
• PSO MVP—Met or exceeded the statewide participation rate goal of 80%

Please join us in congratulating Arizona's exemplary PEAs for their hard work and dedication!

Questions regarding PSO can be sent to the PSO Inbox.

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition Team is excited to announce a virtual professional learning opportunity on Wednesday, September 29, 2021 from 2:30–3:30 p.m. for school administrators, school counselors, Career and Technical Education (CTE) staff, and special education staff. Please share with any other stakeholder who is interested in this topic.

CTE Recruitment for Inclusion of Students with Disabilities: Innovative Strategies from a Panel of Your Peers

How do you increase the inclusion of students with disabilities in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs? Join ADE CTE and Exceptional Student Services staff as they host a conversation with Arizona school districts about their innovative ideas and best practices for CTE recruitment. ADE will also share a resource with recruitment strategies collected from educators, counselors, and administrators statewide during the last year. Prepare to build your recruitment toolbox with fresh ideas used throughout Arizona.

Please register for this webinar in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Please email Amanda Nolasco, ADE School Counselor Specialist, with any questions regarding this professional learning opportunity.

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition (ST) Team is excited to launch a variety of webinar sessions for the upcoming 2021-22 fall semester.

• Transition Tuesdays
• Transition 101 Series
• Getting Centered on Out-of-the-Box Thinking: Person-Centered Planning for Transition-Aged Students
   

Please view the attached marketing flyers that provide detailed information about each webinar series. Registration will be required for all events, and the registration links are available for all sessions on both the corresponding marketing flyers and the ADE Secondary Transition webpage. If requesting accommodations, please register no later than 3 business days before the scheduled webinar.

Feel free to join any session that will make a positive impact on your secondary transition professional practices.

On behalf of the ESS Secondary Transition Team, we want to say welcome back to a new and exciting school year. We look forward to seeing you virtually this fall semester.

If you have any questions regarding any one of the webinars, please email the ST Team.

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/ESS is pleased to announce the opening of registration for Arizona's 2021 IDEA Virtual Conference, Renewal: Resilience to Results, scheduled for September 13–15, 2021.

The conference registration fee for professionals is $100.00 and can be paid by credit card, check, or purchase order.

Information about conference keynotes can be found on the conference webpage, which will continue to be updated throughout the summer.

Questions about the conference or registration can be sent to [email protected].

Special Education Directors,

Please see the following stakeholder communication opportunity from the Arizona Response to Sexual Violence & Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Collaborative:

The Arizona Response to Sexual Violence & Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities Collaborative recently released, Preventing Sexual Abuse in Arizona Schools: Suggested Protocols for Students with Intellectual, Developmental and Other Disabilities.

At nearly seven times the risk of sexual abuse as their peers, Arizona students with disabilities are vulnerable to exploitation. This new report focuses on helping Arizona schools design better ways to protect students with disabilities from sexual abuse.

Some of the suggested best practice recommendations include:

• Resources and strategies to support students who report abuse
• Required training for mandatory reporters
• Policies that promote supervision and digital communication guidelines for all school personnel
• Accessible and inclusive lessons on sexual health and relationships

One of the most critical recommendations towards prevention is also seen as the most controversial: offering accessible and inclusive lessons on sexual health and relationships. Research finds that young adults with mild to moderate cognitive disability are sexually active at similar rates to their peers without a disability, yet are less likely to learn about sexual health from trusted adults. Receiving ineffective or inaccessible sex education, or no sex education at all, has also been found to be a correlating factor in the sexual abuse of youth with disabilities. Recent research found other factors that contribute to abuse. “Some students with disabilities grow up with adults providing hands-on personal care and may not have an understanding of when they are touched inappropriately,” said Erica McFadden, Executive Director of the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council and one of the leaders of the Collaborative. “Some may not understand when they are a victim of sex trafficking. For that reason, our youth with disabilities should be receiving information on how to identify unsafe situations and what to do about it.”

"The inclusion of students with disabilities and their respective accessibility and accommodation needs in school abuse prevention policies is critical,” said Betty McEntire, chair of the Collaborative’s sexual abuse prevention in schools workgroup. “It not only ensures a safe learning environment, but also provides educators and school administrators the tools needed to respond in an inclusive manner.”

The Collaborative will be hosting a Zoom panel for educators Thursday, May 13 at 9:00—10:30 a.m. and for community members Tuesday, May 18 at 6:00—7:30 p.m. to discuss the research findings and policy recommendations and take questions and answers from the audience. For more information about the report, contact Erica McFadden at [email protected] or (602) 542-8977.

Hello Educators,

With the start of the 2020–2021 school year, obstacles and unique barriers may be faced by staff working with transition-aged youths. The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition Team would like to invite you to tune into the Transition Tuesdays series. These sessions are intended to share information and strategies that will support the transition planning process throughout the pandemic and beyond.

Details for the upcoming Transition Tuesdays session:

Office Hours

October 20, 2020 at 2:30 p.m.

Do you have questions about Secondary Transition? Join us this fall for one of our virtual office hours. These one-hour informal meetings are opportunities to discuss transition planning topics and brainstorm strategies with Secondary Transition Specialists and other AZ educators.

Registration is required for all Transition Tuesday sessions.

Please view this flyer for upcoming Transition Tuesday sessions with updated details.

Email the Secondary Transition Team with any questions.

We look forward to seeing you there!

OSERS published updates to "A Transition Guide to Postsecondary Education and Employment for Students and Youth with Disabilities, August 2020" to advance the office's efforts in ensuring that all students and youth with disabilities are equipped with the skills and knowledge to achieve their post-school and career goals.

In this updated transition guide, OSERS added information about dual enrollment and the ABLE Act. OSERS also hopes this transition guide will help students and youth with disabilities and their families to better understand how the state education agencies (SEA), the local education agencies (LEA), and the vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies work together to facilitate improved outcomes for students and youth with disabilities.

• A Transition Guide to Postsecondary Education and Employment for Students and Youth with Disabilities (August 2020) 
• Letter from RSA Commissioner and OSEP Director on the importance of collaboration between special education and vocational rehabilitation related to secondary transition 

Converging Ideas: Connections for Student Success!

Special Education Stakeholders, 

The ADE/ESS is pleased to present the opening of registration for Arizona’s 2020 IDEA Conference, Converging Ideas: Connections for Student Success! We are excited that the IDEA Virtual Conference is here and we are ready to open professional and personal development for this school year with rich and relevant learning opportunities. 

Throughout the 2020—2021 school year, the conference will feature 24 sessions targeted to professionals in the education community, and 18 sessions targeted to youth and families. The youth and family sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 7:00—8:00 p.m., and the professional sessions will take place on Thursdays from 2:45—4:00 p.m. IDEA Virtual Conference professional learning opportunities will be provided to participants FREE for the entire school year!!

The IDEA Virtual Conference Kick Off begins next week! The youth and family strand kick off is Tuesday, September 1 – and the professional strand kick off is Thursday, September 3.

Please note: The IDEA Virtual Conference will host learning opportunities in a regular schedule throughout the year as follows:

• Professional sessions will be held on the 1^st, 2^nd, and 4^th Thursday of every month from 2:45 p.m.—4:00 p.m.
• Youth and Family sessions will be held on the 1^st and 3^rd Tuesday of every month from 7:00 p.m.—8:00 p.m.

Information, session descriptions, dates, and registration information can all be found at /ideaconference. Session information will be made available approximately one month in advance on the website so that participants can reserve time in their busy schedules for important learning and connecting opportunities.

Please contact Aanya Rispoli for any questions related to the 2020 IDEA Virtual Conference. We appreciate all of the hard work being undertaken at the beginning of the school year and look forward to a productive year ahead. 

The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition Unit is excited to bring back Transition Tuesdays for Fall in the 2020-21 school year. There will be multiple opportunities to engage with the team while they host both transition-related topics as well as office hours. Registration will be required for all events, and a link will be disseminated 1 week before each event. We hope you can attend Transition Tuesdays!

For detailed information regarding Transition Tuesdays, please review this flyer.

Transition Tuesday Topics:

Tuesday, September 1, 2020 @ 2:30 p.m.

• Let’s Google It! Predictors of Post-School Success Series: Digital Resources for Self-Advocacy/Self-Determination

Tuesday, October 6, 2020 @ 2:30 p.m.

• ECAP without AZCIS

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 @ 2:30 p.m.

• Pump the Brakes: Merging Person-Centered Planning & the Transition Planning Process

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 @ 2:30 p.m.

• In the Know with PSO: Preparing for Post-School Outcomes Data Collection

Office Hours:

Third Tuesday of the month at 2:30 p.m.

• September 15, 2020
• October 20, 2020
• December 15, 2020

If you have any questions regarding Transition Tuesdays, please email the transition team.