The Iowa Transition Pre-Conference sessions will focus on strategies for educators and AEAs. It will be held on Sept. 22, 2015 at the Coralville Marriott in Coralville, Iowa. The cost will be $65.00 for the half day and includes an afternoon snack. No lunch will be provided.
The Iowa Transition Conference will be held on Sept. 23-24, 2015 at the Coralville Marriott in Coralville, Iowa. Participants have the opportunity to attend sessions on transition planning, assessment and services appropriate for parents, students, educators, AEA and agencies living, learning and working with students with disabilities. The conference will also offer an Exhibit Hall to learn more about transition services and products and offer networking opportunities. Costs: Wednesday is a full day for $100.00 and includes breakfast and lunch; Thursday is a half day for $65.00 and includes breakfast with a keynote in the late morning before conference closing. No lunch will be provided.
For more information go to the ITC 2015 webpage.
For Exhibitor and Advertiser information go to ITC Exhibit and Advertiser webpage.
If you have registered, thank you for your support! Please send the attached flyer to anyone you feel would benefit from attending this event.
The Special Education Statewide Procedures Manual (July 23, 2015 version), Release Notes (July 1, 2015 version), Parental Rights Summary (July 2015 version), Procedural Safeguards Manuals for Parents (Translations), Educational Evaluation Reports (Translations) and IEP Forms (Translations) are now posted on the Iowa IDEA website. These documents are currently posted on the front page of the IDEA website in addition to their permanent location under the IEP dropdown menu > Statewide Special Education Procedures > Manual.
Please read the Release Notes for updated information in the Special Education Statewide Procedures Manual. If you have any questions regarding the content, please contact your Regional Director.
Students are served with an Individual Education Program (IEP) for various educational needs. Some students are eligible for services in multiple goal areas. But did you know that a student with an IEP can simultaneously fall under another umbrella - that of gifted and talented? This subgroup of students, known as twice-exceptional or “2e”, is under-identified and underserved in schools.
Twice-exceptional learners are defined as follows by authors Sally Reis, Susan Baum, and Edith Burke in the June 2014 edition of Gifted Child Quarterly:
"Twice-exceptional learners are students who demonstrate the potential for high achievement or creative productivity in one or more domains such as math, science, technology, the social arts, the visual, spatial, or performing arts or other areas of human productivity AND who manifest one or more disabilities as defined by federal or state eligibility criteria.
These disabilities and high abilities combine to produce a unique population of students who may fail to demonstrate either high academic performance or specific disabilities. Their gifts may mask their disabilities and their disabilities may mask their gifts."
Few teachers are aware of the possibility of overlap in the populations of special education students and gifted students. As a result, twice-exceptional students fall through the cracks of both systems and lack access to the appropriate educational services they need.
The West Des Moines Community School District is working to address this issue with professional development for their teachers on May 21. A parent session is scheduled for 7 p.m. on May 21 at Raccoon River Park Nature Lodge, 2500 Grand Avenue, West Des Moines. The evening session is open to all parents (and educators) in the Heartland AEA area who wish to know more about supporting students who are twice exceptional. Contact Kristine Milburn at (515) 633-4052 or milburnk@wdmcs.org if you have questions about the WDMCS event.
For further guidance on supporting your 2e students, contact a Parent and Education Connection Coordinator who serves your district.
The National Autism
Center has recently released the new review and analysis of
interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on research
conducted in the field from 2007 to 2012. The new publication
provides an update to the summary of empirical intervention literature
(published in the National Standards Report in 2009) and includes
studies evaluating interventions for adults (22+), which have never been
systematically evaluated before now.
This project is designed to
give educators, parents, practitioners and organizations the
information and resources they need to make informed choices about
effective interventions that will offer children and adults on the
spectrum the greatest hope for their future.
It’s never too early to
start planning for the future! Let’s Talk Transition is an event linking
transition-age students with special needs to community and agency
resources. Jasper County parents, teachers and students 14 and older are
invited to this FREE event. Please pass on this flyer to interested students and teachers.
Let’s Talk Transition
Date: April 21, 2015
Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Location: Newton Public Library, meeting room A/B
Registration: http://bit.ly/TransitionTalk15
It’s never too early to start planning for the future! Let’s Talk Transition is an event linking transition-age students with special needs to community and agency resources. Jasper County parents, teachers and students 14 and older are invited to this FREE event. Please pass on this flyer to interested students and teachers.
Let’s Talk Transition
Date: April 21, 2015
Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Location: Newton Public Library, meeting room A/B
Registration: http://bit.ly/TransitionTalk15
Date: April 13, 2015
Time: 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School
Parents, students ages
14+, educators and AEA staff are invited to attend this fair to gather
information that will be of assistance to students with special needs
who will be transitioning from high school to post-secondary pursuits.
Break-out Sessions
6:20-6:55 p.m., 7:05-7:40 p.m., 7:50-8:30 p.m.
Informational Tables
5:30-8:00 p.m.
Registration
Registration is not
required, but it would be helpful if students let their guidance
counselor or special education teacher know that they plan to attend by
March 30, 2015.
The Significant
Disabilities State Leadership Team is in the process of developing a
long-range professional development plan on specially designed
instruction of the Iowa Core Essential Elements for administrators,
educators and AEA staff who support students with significant
disabilities. We value your input and request your participation in this
survey.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/69TTH5N
Thank you for your
assistance in developing a long-range professional development plan on
specially designed instruction of the Iowa Core Essential Elements. The
survey is scheduled to close March 6, 2015.
If you have any questions, contact Keri Steele, Regional Director/Assistant Director of Special Education, at ksteele@heartlandaea.org or ext. 14372.
Boone and Story county families, educators and community and agency staff who support students with special needs are invited to attend our Transition Resource Fair! The Resource Fair is a FREE event that focuses on linking transition-age students (14 and older) with special needs to valuable community and agency resources. Please pass on the flyer to any teacher, parent or student who may be interested in attending.
Transition Resource Fair
Date: March 3, 2015
Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: Heartland AEA Ames Office (511 S. 17th Street)
The Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) provides a high quality online resource to assist parents and professionals in examining the evidence-base of a variety of psychological, educational and biomedical treatments for individuals with autism.
Please join us for conversations about Chapter 62 Early Literacy Implementation legislation and the connections and considerations specific to Special Education.
Target Audience: Elementary Special Education Directors, Student Services Coordinators, Special Education teachers, etc. AEA staff members are invited to attend to enhance understanding and support teacher/district partners.
Topic: Special Education and Chapter 62: Connections and Considerations for individual students and system decisions. The session will provide an overview of Chapter 62 legislation, discussion of the intersection of Chapter 62 and special education, considerations for goal setting and progress monitoring, and data based decisions for intensifying instruction.
Learn more and register.
Central Iowa families, educators, community and agency staff and others who support children with special needs are cordially invited to attend our annual Diverse Learners Resource Fair! The Resource Fair is a FREE event that focuses on linking families of children and youth with special needs to valuable community and agency resources. The fair is hosted by Heartland Area Education Agency’s Parent & Educator Connection. Please pass on the flyer to any teacher, parent or student who may be interested in attending.
Diverse Learners Resource Fair
Date: Feb. 21, 2015
Time: 9 a.m.–12 p.m.
Location: Heartland AEA Johnston REC
Starting Jan. 15, 2015, two changes will occur with the Web IEP Program.
1) The Extended School Year (ESY) form will be available on the IEP program when “Yes” is checked to the question, “Are Extended School Year (ESY) services required?” on tab G. The form will be available via the Forms tab.
Users will be able to document up to four goal areas on the ESY form. The Incomplete Data Report (IDR) will require the form when “yes” is selected to the ESY question. An explanation will also be required when the question is answered “yes”. The form will be editable regardless of the IEP status (open, submitted, ready to review, validated and archived). This is similar to updating progress on graphs.
If ESY on tab G was marked “yes” previously, the ESY form can be added via the “Forms for Active IEP” button on the IEP overview screen.
2) Forms created on an IEP will be restorable. Currently, when a form is deleted, it is gone and cannot be retrieved. Beginning Jan. 15, users of the Web IEP will be able to contact the Web IEP Administrators (Sue Dunsmoor and Mary Keul) requesting that the deleted form be restored or permanently deleted.
If there is a form in the recycle bin, the IDR will display a message and the count number on the tab will show a number other than “0”. However, users will be able to mark the IEP, “Ready to Review,” and the IEP can go through the review process and be validated.
If you have questions, please contact Misty Christensen at (800) 255-0405 ext. 11203.
The Iowa Department of Education has issued the following guidance document about Iowa’s Early Literacy Alternate Assessments.
This letter is a follow up to an Iowa Department of Education email dated May 14, 2014 regarding changes to Iowa’s Alternate Assessment for the 2014-2015 school year. For the 2014-2015 school year, Iowa will administer two different assessments: the Iowa Alternate Assessment Science Alternate Assessment (IAAS) for students in grades 5, 8 and 11 and the Dynamic Learning Maps ELA & Math Alternate Assessments for students in grades 3-8, 10 and 11.
Iowa’s Participation Guidelines for determining which students should be taking Iowa’s Alternate Assessment are now available. This document will help IEP teams make determinations for the 2014-2015 school year. Students are no longer allowed to split between Assessment tests; they either need to take all of their assessments through Alternate Assessment or all through the Iowa Assessments.
Please go to the Department's webpage for a series of short webcasts providing introductory information on Iowa’s AYP Alternate Assessment Policy, Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM) Assessment System, Iowa Alternate Assessment Science (IAAS) System and processes for the 2014-2015 school year.
Additional information includes assessment training requirements, roles and responsibilities of district personnel including tech support and a comparison crosswalk document between IAAS and DLM ELA & Math assessment processes.
Participants are encouraged to make comments and submit questions through the survey link identified for each webcast. A frequently asked question document will be constructed from the surveys and posted on the webpage.
The new Special Education Procedures Manual and Special Education Procedure Release Notes, both dated January 15, 2014, are now posted on the Iowa IDEA website at www.iowaideainfo.org. These documents are currently posted on the front page of the IDEA website in addition to their permanent location under the IEP drop down menu > Statewide Special Education Procedures > Manual.
If you have any questions, contact Misty Christensen, Regional Director/Assistant Director of Special Education, at mchristensen@heartlandaea.org.
In Iowa, when a student turns 18, gets married or is incarcerated into the adult legal system, he/she obtains his/her educational rights. This means that students' educational rights transfer to them. School districts need to inform parents and students of this transfer of rights at least one year prior to their 18th birthday and on their 18th birthday. The materials below have been added to the Heartland AEA website and can help teachers, parents and students understand what educational rights students and parents have and what the transfer of rights means for them.
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Parent’s Guide
- Student Information
- Power of Attorney for Decision Making
- Sample letter of notification of transfer of rights
Click here to access these materials on the Heartland AEA website.
Based on feedback we’ve received, a new Special Education tab has been added to the main navigation bar on our agency website. Check it out at www.heartlandaea.org!
The name of the tab is “Special Education Services” and in the drop-down menu under it are four main categories:
- Getting Started With Special Education
- Guidance Documents
- Program Supports to Schools
- Student & Family Services
Under Student & Family Services you will find the specific services provided to students and families such as assistive technology, hearing, occupational therapy, school social work, etc.
With the creation of the new tab, we have shifted the “About Us” information down on the page. Click on the “About Heartland AEA” link for information about agency leadership, board of directors, office locations and schools we serve.
We hope you find this change helpful. Please contact the Communications Department at comms@heartlandaea.org if you have any questions.
