Issue 1 October 2018

Ohio Department of Education Updates

The Ohio Department of Education's Office for Exceptional Children revised the ETR and IEP forms which will begin being used in Autumn of 2018. Click here for a summary of updates provided by the Ohio Center for Autism and Low-incidence. If you would like to view informational online PowerPoints provided by ODE click the Special Education Updates button below.

On September 18, 2018 the Ohio State Board of Education adopted the revised grade level Ohio Learning Standards-Extended (OLS-E) for students that are assessed on the Alternate Assessment for Student’s with Significant Cognitive Disabilities (AASCD). Ohio's Extended Standards are no longer grouped in grade bands. Megan Trowbridge and Bret Malone will be attending a State Network meeting in November which will provide more information and possible training opportunities.

You may notice there are no longer K-2 Extended Standards in any content areas. K-2 extended standards were purposefully dropped because the standards at those grade levels are universal for all students. All students should be working towards the general standards in those grades. To supplement all standards, OCALI has worked closely with the Department of Education to build learning progressions. A learning progression is a carefully sequenced set of building blocks that students must master en route to mastering a more distant curricular aim. These building blocks consist of subskills and bodies of enabling knowledge that is a pathway that students travel as they progress toward mastery of the standards. These progressions are a robust way to help teachers plan and monitor their instruction and, as a result, enhance their student’s learning. These are currently in the final development stages for all standards and will include K-2. OCALI and the Department plans to release them in the near future.

Southern Ohio PBIS Opportunities

Lets talk about what is going on in PBIS land!!! There are many opportunities for team trainings at all levels of support.

Click here to learn about PBIS Tier I Classroom Management

Click here to learn about Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports Tier II

Congratulations to our PBIS award winners! Bronze Award: North Adams Elementary School, North Adams High School, Peebles Elementary School, Greenfield Elementary School, and Ripley Elementary School. Silver Award: Peebles High School

Alternate Assessment Trainings

It's not too early to think about registering for Region 14's Alternate Assessment Trainings! Registration is in STARS.

Full Day Training (for teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and second raters who have never been trained) will be Friday, December 7th, 2018 8:30—3:30.

Half–Day “Refresher” Trainings (for teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and second raters who have attended the full day training in the past, but would like a “refresher” course) will be Wednesday, January 16th, 2019 Morning Session: 8:30—11:30 Afternoon Session: 12:30—3:30

Assistive Technology

Region 14-Hopewell Assistive Technology Lending Library

In order to assist member districts in meeting IDEA requirements in assistive technology (AT), the Southern Ohio ESC has a library of assistive technology devices which allow member districts to borrow equipment for limited time periods. The purpose is to assist in making a more informed decision as to whether the product and its features will be useful to individual students. Available equipment includes: communication devices, computer access adaptations, computer software, switches, mounts, adaptive toys, and more. Please click here for information on creating an account to check out our materials.

Early Learning and School Readiness

We talk a lot about transitions in early childhood education. There is transitioning from Help Me Grow, transitioning to Kindergarten, transitions in our school day as well as transitioning from home to school and back home again. The beginning of the year is a perfect time to focus on the social emotional needs of the children in our care. Predictability and structure are essential for children, especially those with the highest needs.

Children need a balanced and varied day that includes quiet and active times, small and large group times, teacher led and child directed, large motor and small motor. All these activities lead to multiple transition times in the day despite our efforts to keep them to a minimum, further making predictability and structure essential.

The following are some things to reflect upon as you think about your classroom transition times:

1. Do you have visual schedules? Active use of visual schedules is a critical piece of a successful classroom day. Active use needs to occur daily and should include changes to the daily routine (maybe it's raining outside so we will have inside recess or there is a special guest coming to read to the class). View this link for access to visual schedule ideas from classrooms around Region 14 here:http://bit.ly/2NKV57V

2. How do you teach expectations and procedures? Teaching procedures ensures a predictable environment. Teachers that specify how to execute specific activities set children up for success! This teaching should cover virtually everything. Arrival, bathroom, lunch, playground etc. If it's part of your day….. TEACH IT explicitly. You should also reteach after breaks, snow days, or whenever you see the routine needing a recalibration. Having a yearlong teaching expectations plan is important to keep you organized and on track. This link shows a couple samples of a yearlong teaching plan http://bit.ly/2DxpGBb

3. How many transitions do you have? Finally, really think about the number of times in the day that you transition, how long they take and how your children respond. Children who have challenging behaviors need a longer amount of time to process transition. Arrival is the hardest time of the day for children to transition second to naptime. (if your operate a full day program) What do you do to make transitions fun?

For more information on transitions, NAEYC included an article in their September 2018 issue, https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/sep2018/reducing-challenging-behaviors-during-transitions

Ask the State Support Team

Do you have a question for the State Support Team? Submit a question and maybe it will be featured in the next newsletter!

Post Secondary Transition

The 3rd Annual Transition Expo will be held on March 13 at Good News Gathering in Hillsboro, Ohio. All of our Juniors and Seniors with Disabilities are invited to participate. If you have a younger student that you feel will benefit from participating in the Transition Expo, please invite them to attend.

There will be businesses to visit and three valuable learning sessions to attend. A free lunch is provided for everyone participating. More information will be coming.

What can you be doing now? Start working with your students on interviewing. Attached is the interview sheet used last year at the Transition Expo. Feel free to use this document to practice with your students

IEP Breakdown

Extended School Year services moved to Section 4 of the IEP and must be considered for each goal and may happen at any time the school is not in session. Extended school year services are provided beyond the normal school year of the district which includes both the days of the school year and the hours of the school day.

Extended school year services are not the same as summer school, compensatory services or enrichment programs. The IEP team should consider extended school year services to prevent significant regression of skills or knowledge retained by the child which would seriously impede the child’s progress toward their educational goals. Extended school year services are necessary to avoid something more than adequately recoupable regression of skills or knowledge. The team needs to determine whether the time the student will need to re-learn the skills lost is excessive, particularly compared to the time it takes nondisabled students to regain skills lost during a school break.

The IEP team may want to collect further data and reconvene later in the school year to determine if extended school year services are needed. The team would then enter the date on the IEP of when it plans to reconvene to make the determination based on data collected.

Featured Hopewell Related Service Team: Adaptive Physical Education

Adapted Physical Education is a related service that modifies the environment and activities of the physical education setting to increase the rate of success for the students with physical and cognitive impairments. Region 14/Hopewell Center provides both direct and consultative services depending upon the needs of the child. Region 14/Hopewell Center attends E.T.R./I.E.P. meetings and when appropriate writes goals and documents the progress of the student. Megan Gehring and Brad Heys are our Adaptive Physical Education team.

Professional Development

October 9, 2018 So You Want to Start S.O.L.E (Self-Organized Learning Environments) Flyer Link

October 15th & 16th UDL, Are You Ready? Cohort 2 Flyer Link

October 18, 2018 Break Out EDU Flyer Link

Oct. 31, 2018 March 1, 2019 May 3, 2019 Speech Consortium Flyer Link

January 21, 2019-February 25, 2019 Sensory Issues and High-Functioning Autism and Related Disorders: Practical Solutions for Making Sense of the World Flyer Link

February 27, 2019 Youth Mental Health First Aid Flyer Link

As Requested: The Cost Of Poverty Experience Flyer Link

Contact Megan Trowbridge at mtrowbridge@sst14.org if you have any suggestions to add to our next newsletter. We would love to share your successes within the region!