IDEA Parent, Community, and Educator Collaboration
The Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD) staff and consultants provide support services to parents and families of children with a disability. They respond to inquiries from school districts, the general public and specifically to families of children with a disability to provide information, support, and assistance regarding special education programs and services. Our staff and consultants answer telephone inquiries, meets one-on-one with families as necessary, and provide guidance in understanding IDEA and the Ohio Operating Standards and, the provision of services available in the local school district.
Additionally, OCECD Staff and consultants collaborate with the 16 State Support Teams (SST”s) to coordinate efforts to establish a consistent level and means of services. We also provide a bridge for communication between parents, schools and the State Support Team Family Consultants. The regional Parent Mentors and Family Consultants provide information and guidance to parents and school staff to address their needs and provide assistance as necessary.
OCECD staff and consultants provide support services to families of students with a disabilities through individualized, personalized information review, communication with school district staff, attendance at school team meetings - as necessary, if invited by the parent or school staff, and dissemination of information related to both Parent Mentor services and special education programs.
Project
Launch
OCECD participates in web conferences with PACER Center and partners from two other states. We participate in on-line space for sharing information and resources, determining service gaps. Individual assistance is provided to those seeking information including families, families from diverse communities, professionals, and youth in regard to transition and/or related services. Workshops on transition or employment are presented to students on transition for employment and independent living in the community. OCECD has presented “workshop without walls” presentations to culturally and linguistically diverse individuals in Ohio.
Parent
Training and Information Center for Ohio
OCECD has set forth as its mission to endorse and promote efforts to provide appropriate quality education for children and youth with disabilities. We do this in the belief that all children have the right to a meaningful and relevant education. The Ohio Coalition staff and consultants are dedicated to ensuring that every child with disabilities is provided a free, appropriate public education. With this in mind, OCECD continually strives to improve the quality of services for all children and youth with disabilities in Ohio. The Ohio Coalition’s vision is to safeguard that all students with disabilities are: prepared for kindergarten, ready to be actively engaged in learning, and able to graduate equipped to move on to a career or on to college and then a career.
OCECD
is committed to providing the best training and information to a variety of
audiences, including underserved parents, low-income parents, parents with
limited English proficiency, parents of incarcerated youth with disabilities,
and parents with disabilities. At this
time, Ohio schools are in a period of redesign of curricular and instructional
processes. Taking into account the
specific needs of students with disabilities is central to the success of such
efforts. The ultimate goal of this
project is to encourage educational system redesigns and productivity
improvements by an extensive review of evidenced-based practices, with the goal
being the identification of the most current findings of successful school
districts and the initiation of state-level implementation. Leadership at the district, school, and
classroom levels emerge as the most powerful driver of significant changes to
improve student outcomes, especially for minority and underserved
populations. Our staff and consultants has
intensified its outreach services to these school and parent leaders during the
course of this grant period.
Students
(consumers) must be involved in their Individualized Educational Program (IEP),
especially transition age youth who are 14 or older and preparing for future
jobs and careers. Due to the monitoring
visit from OSEP in 2009, which found Ohio lacking in transition planning for
youth, action has been taken to correct this deficit and in order to produce
positive results.
Complementing what Ohio’s SST’s are doing for school personnel, the Ohio Coalition is providing comparable services to both students and parents of children with disabilities who are 14 and older. OCECD’s Self Advocacy Training, It’s My Turn, is a critically acclaimed transition training that instructs teens with regard to their rights and what they need in their transition plans in order to progress to their post-secondary life. Post-Secondary training is geared toward parents so that they understand what their child’s transition rights are and that the process begins at age 14. This ‘forces’ all parties involved to look ahead to the future for not only typical students, but also students with disabilities. The identification of interests and goals gives a focal point to complete a framework in order to reach those goals.
Another
issue that the Ohio Coalition is investigating is evidence-based education
practices for transition-aged youth with low literacy. To meet the identified needs of low-literacy
youth, OCECD is using is the Mentoring 4 Reading Achievement Program (M4RA). This one-on-one reading mentoring program
uses an evidence-based, online guided reading series to improve reading for
children and youth reading below a 6th grade reading level.
The connection
between juvenile justice and special education in Ohio is both sobering and
substantial. There are over three times as many special education students in Ohio’s Department of
Youth Services facilities as there
are in the general school population.
In addition to the low-literacy rates of Ohio’s youth, the Ohio’s College-and Career-Ready Commitment [www.achieve.org/Ohio] reports that far too many students either drop out of high school or graduate unprepared for post-secondary success. This closes doors and limits options and opportunities. This is particularly true for minority and low-income students. The Ohio Coalition adds the additional focus of students with disabilities.
Studies
have shown positive outcomes when Parent Centers partner with State and local
agencies, other nonprofits, and Independent Living Centers in order to provide
postsecondary education options, employment training, and supports. Independent Living Centers participate with
OCECD staff in working with schools and students on transition plans.
The ultimate goal of OCECD is to assist all parents, especially those within traditionally under-represented groups, so that their children will: (a) meet developmental and functional goals and the challenging academic achievement standards that have been established for all children; (b) be prepared to lead productive, independent adult lives to the maximum extent possible.
State Professional Development Grant (SPDG)
The goal of the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Program’s (OSEP) funding program is to assist state education agencies and their partners to reform early intervention, educational, and transitional service systems to improve results for students with disabilities. To achieve this goal, states receive funds from OSEP through State Personnel Development Grants (SPDG), which may be used to improve systems of professional development, technical assistance, and/or dissemination of knowledge about best practices across districts. The Ohio Department of Education (the Department), Office for Exceptional Children’s SPDG is aligned with Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement to improve early language and literacy outcomes for all students, including those with disabilities, English learners, and other at-risk learners. SPDG activities will provide systemic supports to increase and extend evidence-based early language and literacy instruction. Ohio’s SPDG also aims to increase partnerships with institutions of higher education, professional associations, family organizations, and others. Collectively, these efforts will build capacity at the regional, district, and building levels to support language and literacy learning for all students. The Department is contracting with the Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities (OCECD) Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) to increase access to resources for families of students with reading difficulties.
Ohio Department of Health
OCECD began working with the Ohio Department of Health through the Joint Commission on Infant Hearing, an early detection and intervention program. OCECD contacts families of newly diagnosed newborns and infants who are diagnosed as hearing impaired, in order to connect them with enrollment into PART C Early Intervention Services. This not only lets families know that there are services and supports available to them to address their needs and those of their child, but that there will be someone who will be able to guide them through the process of obtaining support and locating resources.
OCECD has
Additional Funding Sources for various projects:
Baisden Fund a private donation to be expended in specific counties in Ohio for training
The Marion Community Foundation for training of parents to mentor their children in reading in Marion County
NAMI for support of Multicultural families