Weekly Update

1. District Coordinators Meeting Dates and Registration Links
2. First SPED Compliance Report and Use of HPS Advanced Planning FIE-ARD timeline & HPS Internal ARD Process Timeline
   
3. Dyslexia Awareness Month
   
4. Special Education Micro Credentials and BloomBoard Orientation Webinars
   
5. Individualized Reclassification of English Learners with a Significant Cognitive Disability and Served through Special Education
   
6. EasyIEP Updates/Tips/Q&A
   

Eight-year-old Evan is one of the brightest children in his third-grade class. He has a wonderful vocabulary and knows everything there is to know about baseball—he can even tell you who played in each of the last ten World Series games and who won. But when it comes to reading about baseball—or anything else—Evan has a lot of trouble. It takes him a long time to read each word, and even longer to read whole sentences. He often has to guess at how you say a word—and sometimes his guess is wrong. Reading out loud is especially stressful and embarrassing. His teacher recently told Evan’s parents that she thinks he might have dyslexia.

Most people assume that part of being smart is being able to read well. About 100 years ago, though, doctors figured out that some people, even some very smart people who do really well at many other things, have trouble learning to read. This difficulty with reading is called dyslexia.

Excerpt from: http://dyslexia.yale.edu/resources/dyslexic-kids-adults/on-being-dyslexic/

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month and it is the perfect time to get informed more about this disorder and raise awareness among students, parents, teachers, and even in the community by sharing valuable information with them through bulletin boards, newsletters, school websites etc. Please find some useful links below:

What is Dyslexia? - Kelli Sandman-Hurley

Understood.org-Videos About Dyslexia

For Students: http://dyslexia.yale.edu/resources/dyslexic-kids-adults/tips-from-students/

For Parents: http://dyslexia.yale.edu/resources/parents/what-parents-can-do/ten-things-to-help-your-struggling-reader/

For Educators: Dyslexia in the Classroom https://dyslexiaida.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/DITC-Handbook.pdf

Dyslexia Parent Education will be one of the topics in our first District Coordinator meeting and we will discuss the details about requirements, logistics, presentation materials etc. Stay Tuned!

As you were copied, the campus coordinators and teachers have been sent the following e-mail about Special Education Micro Credential today. This program provides great benefits to the participants . It is very important that they join the webinars and sign up and implement the requirements of Micro cRedentials and Bloomboard Program.The webinars will provide essential information about micro-credentials in general and navigating the BloomBoard platform.

Please encourage and support your coordinators and teachers take part in this great opportunity!

“As you may know, Harmony Public Schools (HPS) is partnering with BloomBoard to offer select groups of educators access to personalized, competency-based, job-embedded professional learning through micro-credentials. Through this partnership , HPS has recently activated a micro-credential program just for Special Education teachers and coordinators and added following four Micro Credentials to the HPS SpEd role card and BloomBoard program. These micro-credentials apply to any form of educator (including coordinators) working with special needs students (Special Education, Section 504, Dyslexia, Resource, Life Skills, etc.).

• Creating a Positive Behavior Management System for Students With Exceptionalities

• Promoting Active Student Engagement During Lessons for Students with Exceptionalities

• Collaborating to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners

• Identifying Your Student Learning Needs

Micro-credentials are job-embedded, so in addition to being recognized for work you are already doing, you will be eligible to earn stipends for earned micro-credentials. Joining online webinars and then signing up for a micro-credential program at Harmony is your chance to improve your practice, have your skills and expertise validated, earn a stipend as a short term incentive, and pave the way to advance your career in the long term.

Below are the webinars BloomBoard will hold next week. These webinars will provide essential information about micro-credentials in general and navigating the BloomBoard platform. If you were not able to attend a BloomBoard training session in August or last year, we strongly encourage you to join one of the scheduled webinars next week.”

· Tuesday, October 15th @ 4 PM CDT

· Thursday, October 17th @ 2 PM CDT

Zoom link to join the session: https://zoom.us/j/726478162

Under Texas Administrative Code (TAC) §89.1225(i), districts are required to use English Learner Reclassification Criteria Chart found at http://tea.texas.gov/bilingual/esl/education to reclassify English learners (ELs) as English proficient. The reclassification criteria under TAC §89.1225(i) apply to the vast majority of English learners also have identified special needs.

In rare cases, an English learner with significant cognitive disabilities who is receiving special education services may qualify to be reclassified using permitted criteria under TAC§89.1226(m), which gives special consideration to an English learner for whom assessments and/or standards) used in the regular reclassification process are not appropriate because of the nature of a student’s disabling condition. Students eligible to be considered using the reclassification criteria under TAC §89.1226(m) should only be those designated meeting the the definition of a student with a significant cognitive disability as determined by the ARD committee in conjunction with the LPAC. Please see the TEA guidance for details.

Below are important steps to be followed for the students that are eligible to be considered using the reclassification criteria under TAC §89.1225(m) .

• At or near the beginning of the school year, a meeting is to be scheduled between key ARD and LPAC committee members to discuss whether the student is eligible to be reclassified using criteria under §TAC 89.1225(m).

• At the end of the year, the ARD committee, with key LPAC members, meets to review the assessment results and subjective teacher evaluation required under TAC §89.1225(i) to determine whether the student has met the modified reclassification criteria.

Please review the documents in the links and ensure that the reclassification process is followed for the eligible students in the campuses.(Please keep in mind that very few students qualify for reclassification )

• STAAR ALT 2 Participation Requirements: Updated STAAR ALT participation requirements document is available in English and Spanish on the Main Menu>Documents>ARD/IEP.

• 504 Services: Please be aware that services can be logged for 504 students as well. Dyslexia teachers who provide services to 504 students can log in services by using 504-Dyslexia Services Logging Wizard as long as the dyslexia services are indicated in the students’ 504 plan and the teacher has been given access to dyslexia services.