Special Education Directors,

Please see the Programmatic Monitoring Alert regarding necessary changes to programmatic monitoring of the preschool transition process, developed in response to findings issued by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) and the resulting corrective action assigned to ADE/ESS. These updates are directly related to the transition of children from Early Intervention (Part C) to School Age (Part B).

Please contact your PEA’s assigned  PSM specialist with questions or concerns about these new preschool transition programmatic monitoring requirements.

Looking to provide your new special education teachers with the supports they’ll need for success? Teach Camp is here to help! Registration for Teach Camp is open until June 18, 2021 on a first-come, first-served basis using the link below.

Register for Teach Camp.

Teach Camp is a year-long support system that includes professional learning specifically designed for beginning special education teachers. The goal of Teach Camp is to increase retention of special educators by providing our newest special education teachers with the tools they need to survive and thrive during their first years in the classroom.

Teach Camp will launch virtually this summer and is designed for special education teachers who will begin their first, second, or third year of teaching special education in the fall of 2021. Because Teach Camp was not held this year, we are including third-year teachers in this year’s camp. Recent graduates from traditional teacher preparation programs, alternative certified teachers, and veteran general education teachers transitioning to special education are all welcome.

The cost of participation in Teach Camp is $150 and includes a three-day virtual summer “camp” from July 7–9, 2021, three after-school webinars with national speakers, and a one-day, in-person session in May 2022. Each  camper will receive a copy of The Survival Guide for New Special Education Teachers, a one-year membership to the Council for Exceptional Children, and additional valuable resources.

Please email the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox with any questions about Teach Camp. For more information about Teach Camp, please visit the ESS Teach Camp webpage.

Special Education Stakeholders,

ADE/ESS is pleased to request proposals for Arizona’s 2021 IDEA Conference, Renewal: Resilience to Results.

This year’s conference will be held via an on-line platform, and will feature over 75 professional learning opportunities addressing legal issues, special education compliance, preschool and secondary transition, social/emotional learning, and new this year, a content strand for related service providers.

Please see the Call for Papers for information on how to submit detail for sessions. Session proposals are due June 2, 2021.

Questions can be sent to [email protected].

Special Education Directors,

Please share this professional learning opportunity with your staff who engage in special education evaluations. Please join us on Monday, June 7 from 1:00 p.m.–2:15 p.m. for “Demystifying ESS Programmatic Monitoring,” a collaborative presentation between ADE/ESS and the Arizona Association of School Psychologists (AASP).

Together, leaders from ESS Program Supporting and Monitoring and AASP will provide clarification on some commonly misunderstood evaluation topics and share some tricks of the trade. This content is geared for evaluators and authors of evaluations, but all practitioners can benefit.

Please click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Participant registration is first-come, first-served. Please email Sherri Schwindt with questions regarding this professional learning opportunity. 

We look forward to seeing you there!

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

New Integrity Rule for FY 2021: -10134 

A new integrity rule for FY 2021 will be introduced into the integrity process on SPED data shortly.  This new rule is a continuation of our effort to further validate SPED reporting to ensure clean data for the state.   

A new one-sheet Integrity Tool is available on our AzEDS SPED Reporting webpage for troubleshooting tips. It has been added to our SPED Integrity Rules Reference document and referenced on the FY 2021 & 2022 ESS Data Reporting Updates document. 

Integrity Rule -10134 

This rule will validate any students enrolled at an Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) to have a corresponding SPED Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) reported. 

Please contact [email protected] with any questions regarding this new rule.   

Special Education Directors,

Please share the following message about upcoming math professional learning with general and special education teachers who teach mathematics.

June Math Office Hours

The ADE Math Team has scheduled office hours to allow educators to meet together to network, problem-solve, and develop solutions to allow all Arizona teachers and students to continue to feel supported and to be successful.

Grade-band meetings are provided for all math teachers, including special education teachers! These grade-band meetings will include opportunities for networking, problem solving, and sharing different implementation models. Office hours are one hour long with an additional 30 minutes at the end for a Q & A session. Participants can earn one hour of professional development credit for each session attended.

Elementary Math Office Hours (Grades K–5)

Wednesday, June 2 from 9:00–10:00 a.m. with Q & A from 10:00–10:30 a.m.

Register in advance for the Grades K–5 meeting.

Middle School Math Office Hours (Grades 5–8)

Thursday, June 3 from 9:00–10:00 a.m. with Q & A from 10:00–10:30 a.m.

Register in advance for the Grades 5–8 meeting.

High School Math Office Hours (Grades 8–12)

Thursday, June 3 from 12:00–1:00 p.m. with Q & A from 1:00–1:30 p.m.

Register in advance for the Grades 8–12 meeting.

Note: accommodations must be requested at least one week in advance of each webinar.

Please e-mail email Jenifer Fernandez or email Rob Hilliker with any questions.

Special Education Directors,

ADE/ESS is pleased to announce additional training opportunities for Arizona’s schools with The Neurosequential Model Network led by Dr. Bruce Perry. The trainings will assist schools in dealing with trauma and its effects on students. There are two training programs available to schools:

Neurosequential Model in Education

The Neurosequential Model in Education (NME) draws upon the neurodevelopmentally informed, biologically respectful perspective on human development and functioning to help educators understand student behavior and performance. The goals of NME are to educate faculty and students in basic concepts of neurosequential development and then teach them how to apply this knowledge to the teaching and learning process. NME is not a specific “intervention;” rather, it is a way to educate school staff about brain development and developmental trauma and then to further teach them how to apply that knowledge to their work with students in and outside the classroom, particularly those students with adverse childhood experiences. This training is for classroom teachers and is a trainer-of-trainers model, and participants will be equipped to bring strategies back to their schools. See the attached document that provides further details about the training expectations.

Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics

The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) is a developmentally informed, biologically-respectful approach to working with at-risk children and is a way to organize a child’s history and current functioning. The goal of this approach is to structure the assessment of a child, the articulation of the primary problems, the identification of key strengths, and the application of interventions (educational, enrichment, and therapeutic) in a way that will help family, educators, therapists, and related professionals best meet the needs of the child. (This training is for Master’s level school social workers, school counselors, or school psychologists.) See the attached document that provides further details about the training expectations.

Please join the Neurosequential Model Network for an informational session on May 19, 2021 from 12:00–1:00 p.m. to learn more about the trainings and hear from other Arizona schools who have been learning and implementing the model for over a year. Admission into the training series will require attendance at the webinar (or viewing of the recorded webinar) and submission of an application provided at the conclusion of the webinar on May 19. The cost of the training is $150.

Please click here to register for the informational session. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Email Aanya Rispoli any questions you have about this professional learning opportunity.

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.

ADE/ESS is so excited to announce that the 2021 IDEA Conference is scheduled for September 13—15, 2021:

• September 13 and 14, 8:00 a.m.—4:00 p.m.
• September 15, 8:00 a.m. –12:00 p.m.

This year’s conference will be held via an on-line platform (but ESS is already hard at work planning for an in-person event for 2022). The event will feature over 75 professional learning opportunities addressing legal issues, special education compliance, preschool and secondary transition, social/emotional learning, and new this year, a content strand for related service providers.

Please bookmark the IDEA Conference page for updates and registration information, which will be coming soon. Requests for proposals will also be disseminated shortly – please consider submitting presentations that represent your creative and research-based work.

ESS appreciates this opportunity to learn with each of you and looks forward to the year ahead. Please send questions to the IDEA Conference Inbox.

Special Education Directors,

The opening of the ESS Special Education Program Approval System for the 2021–2022 school year will open on May 17, 2021. ESS plans to have all ED-P programs that wish to operate for fiscal year 2021 to 2022 reviewed and approved by the end of June. Failure to apply to the application may cause integrity failures for public education agencies (PEAs) toward the end of the upcoming school year, which may affect state payments.

Please see the following memo for more information.

For any questions on ED-P programs, please contact Victoria Naser at [email protected].