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Ohio Coalition for the Education
of Children with Disabilities

Our Projects

Meaningful Parent Engagement for Families with Children with Disabilities (PE)

School Age

OCECD’s activities include dissemination of information to stakeholders on the meaningful involvement of parents in their child’s educational program by providing information, training, support and assistance to parents, school districts, and institutions of higher education, regarding special education services in order to increase positive results for students at home, at school and in the community.

OCECD assists the Ohio Department of Education, Office for Exceptional Children with dissemination and return of the Parent Satisfaction Survey. We plan and conduct the “Partnering for Progress: Improving Results for ALL Students” conference each fall in conjunction with ODE, OEC; BASA, OESCA, OEA, OFT, OSBA, OAPSA, OAESA, OASSA.

OCECD provides technical assistance and support to the Parent Mentors of Ohio by attending their regional meetings, providing trainings in their area, site visits, case consultations by phone or email, and reviewing new applications. We participate yearly, in conjunction with staff from OEC, in conducting an orientation for new mentors, a topical conference in one of the Parent Mentor regions, and a fall and spring training conference for Parent Mentors and identified school districts’ representatives. OCECD also conducts transition trainings for students using the “It’s My Turn” curriculum and conduct trainings in transition (post secondary and early childhood) for parents, teachers, and administrators.

Preschool

OCECD conducts focus group discussions in five (5) of the eight (8) parent mentor regions of the state on the meaning of the preschool LRE performance measure and the meaning of the preschool child progress performance measure using the OSEP reporting categories. These five regions are: Northwest Ohio, Northern Ohio, Central Ohio, Mideast Ohio, and Southwest Ohio. OCECD recommends and develops publications, such as, brochures and documents in English & Spanish for Office of Early Learning &School Readiness to consider disseminating to preschool parents.

OCECD provides an opportunity for a presentation on preschool special education programming at the Partnering for Progress: Improving Results for ALL Students Conference. OCECD presents information specific to preschool parents’ needs at the annual ODE/OAEYC Early Childhood Conference and provides scholarships to families to attend the conference. OCECD informs Parent Mentors about preschool special education programming, preschool special education performance measures, the Early Learning Content Standards, and the Early Learning Program Guidelines.

OCECD provides information, support and assistance to individual families, parent networks, parent organizations, district personnel and universities, addressing the individual needs of each, via phone contact, mail, email, trainings and material dissemination.

Parent Training and Information Center Grants

Parent Training and Information Center - Region 2 - Disseminates information throughout 65 counties to at least 520,000 parents, professionals, and members of the public regarding disability issues. Publishes the FORUM newsletter with subscriber support. Provides training to over 900 parents on IDEA 2004 and to over 1200 parents on specialized topics. Provides targeted outreach to serve minority and low income groups. Provides assistance to over 12,000 parents annually by mail and telephone. Provides in-services and preservices to over 1000 professionals at schools and universities. Provides training to 72 Parent Resource Leaders across the region.

Parent Training and Information Center - Region 1 – Disseminates information throughout 23 counties, 123 school districts, and 3 major cities regarding disability issues. Provides targeted outreach to serve minority and low income groups throughout the 23 county area with materials that are translated in their native language, such as, Spanish or Hmong. Trains parents and professionals about the importance of early intervention, childhood development, transition from school to community and building their knowledge base of IDEA 2004, especially discipline. Provides one-on-one individual support by phone, individual parent meetings, IEP Clinics, IEP meetings via conference calls, and mailings. Publishes and disseminates a quarterly FUN newsletter. Works with agencies to provide information at FUN Fairs in the region.

State Professional Development Grant (SPDG)

OCECD has a grant from Ohio Department of Education, Office for Exceptional Children to work with parents of students with disabilities and other parents to focus on student success, including how to support improved instructional practices that will better prepare all children for post-school success. This work would include the development of materials for use by district and building leadership teams, state support teams, and parents.

OCECD will develop a tool for use by DLT and BLTs in creating a source of data that can be used to answer essential questions in the decision framework related to parent, family and community engagement. This tool must be developed to directly align with Level III C of the ODE’s Decision Framework.

State Parent Library Services Grant

Funded by Ohio Department of Education, Office for Exceptional Children, OCECD now houses the State Parent Library. OCECD makes available to parents of students with disabilities materials in print and other formats on loan so as to better inform them about their child’s disabilities. This will enable parents to educate themselves regarding educational, emotional, and behavioral strategies to assist their child to achieve high academic and functional goals. This aligns to SPP indicator #8, Parent Involvement.

We also make available to school professionals testing materials kits in Spanish so that students who are Spanish speaking can be assessed in their native language. Update materials as new editions are available and resources are found for their purchase. This aligns to SPP indicator #9, Disproportionality by race/ethnicity and #10, Disproportionality in specific disability by race/ ethnicity.

OCECD will maintain the library by using L4U software, cataloging new acquisitions, tracking circulation to parents and professionals for both English and Spanish versions of all library materials, as described above.