March/April, 2008 FORUM Article

 Highlighted Resources:
• New Website on Response to Intervention

News Bits

The Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA) is in its fourth year of collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to provide a series of educational programs on Tourette Syndrome and associated disorders. TSA is looking for organizations interested in participating in these trainings, either in person or through long-distance technologies. One program is geared toward medical and allied professionals and a second for education and school-based professionals. Details and contact information can be found at: www.tsa-usa.org/news/cdc_tsa_year4.html

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. has announced the Stan Appell Restraints and Abuse Education Fund, created in memory of Stan Appell, who loved all children and supported work to stop their maltreatment and abuse. This fund will be used to create legal educational publications to assist attorneys and advocates in combating the restraint and abuse of students with disabilities. COPAA believes that restraints, seclusion, and abuse are neither effective nor educational. For further information, visit www.coppa.org.

The National Council on Disability (NCD) recently released a new publication: The No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: A Progress Report. The study analyzes how these laws have affected student outcomes and what barriers still exist for students with disabilities. The report is available in HTML, Word, and PDF formats at: www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/index.htm

The Maternal and Child Health Bureau has published the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs Chartbook, 2005-06, which provides both national and state-level data on children with special health care needs. The Chartbook reports that 14% of all U.S. children have special health care needs and more than a fifth of U.S. households with children have at least one child with special needs. Children with special health care needs are defined as having or being at risk for "chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions that have lasted or are expected to last at least 12 months." For a hardcopy of the Chartbook, call the HRSA Information Center toll-free at 1-888-ASK-HRSA, or see it online at http://mchb.hrsa.gov/cshcn05/

CADRE (the Consortium on Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education) has developed a web-based video overview of their technical assistance project. The four minute segment outlines CADRE’s goals, partnerships, and resources. View the video at: www.directionservice.org/cadre/OverviewCaptivate.cfm

The annual KIDS COUNT report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation has a new presence on their Web site. The online tool tracks more than 100 indicators on education, income, health, and other risk factors for all 50 states and the nation as a whole. http://www.kidscount.org/datacenter/

This report from the National Center for Special Education Research uses data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS2) to look at how many students are receiving mobility training and the factors affecting their levels of orientation skills. Access the report online at: ies.ed.gov/ncser/pubs/index.asp#20083007