Search This Blog

Translate

Friday, July 20, 2012

ESU 4 Special Education - October 15, 2012

ESU 4 Special Education... 

Continue the Revolution in Education 

You don't have to be great to get started...
But you DO have to get started to be GREAT!
-- Unknown


ESU 4 Special Education... 
Continue the Revolution in Education 

You don't have to be great to get started...But you DO have to get started to be GREAT!  
-- Unknown   

Fall Updates and Information for Special Education Teachers and Administrators in ESU 4... 

1) IEP Meeting Notices... the debate continues! On Friday, September 28th, NDE announced that after receiving a great deal of feedback on the proposed changes to Rule 51 requiring names be identified on the IEP meeting notice, that they will be changing that requirement. The federal law actually (only) requires positions to be identified on the IEP meeting notice, which is actually what is currently written in Rule 51. In their draft update of Rule 51, they had recommended that the requirement include names as well as positions. Feedback was provided from a variety of sources to NDE and those who are writing the new proposed draft. The amount and intensity of the feedback was such that NDE decided to reconsider this additional requirement and proceed with the original "positions only" requirement. So... you may identify positions on the IEP meeting notice; names are not required. However, I would caution you to make sure that you have invited all those teachers/professionals that the parent would want at the IEP meeting. Positions that are identified on the IEP meeting notice will need to be filled on the IEP signature page. Names do need to be on the signature page as well. 

2) NESA Assessment updates for Special Education teachers...
  • The Accommodations document on the NDE website has been updated as of November 2011. If you do not have this update, please download it from the NDE Assessment/Accommodations page, accessible via the Assessment or Special Education pages.  (http://www.education.ne.gov/assessment/NeSA_Accommodations.htm)
  • Districts are required to make their request for how students are participating in the NeSA Assessment. Students with disabilities will be able to have the paper/pencil option, especially if the IEP team determines that it will most likely take more than 2 days for that student to complete the test. This must be determined by the IEP team and is to be written into the student's IEP. So, if a student is going to take the NeSA reading test with paper/pencil, the NeSA Math test using the online format and the science test using the paper/pencil format, this needs to be on the IEP and reported to NDE. This report is due to NDE by October 19th. Work with your district assessment coordinator to identify which students should be using the online or paper/pencil format. In addition, students taking the alternate assessment also need to be reported on October 19th as well. 
3) And finally... Rule 51 and the new Rule 52 (for Part C/0-2 Early Intervention Services) are being finalized in preparation for the November or December State Board of Education meetings. After the board approves the drafts, there is time for public comments and the revisions based on those comments. The board will provide their final approval for the Rules, which then sends them over to the Attorney General's office for the AG's approval as well as the approval of the Governor. Once the Governor signs the Rules, we will be sharing that information, as new Rules will then be in effect. Just a note, because Rule 52 is all federal language, we are to be following the major components of that rule now. If you have any questions on Rule 52, please let me know. We have been sharing this information with the Early Childhood Cadre as well as special education administrators and superintendents.