Brock Bulletin
January 2015
A Word From Rhonda
Happy Friday of a 3 day weekend!
I hope everyone had a relaxing winter break as we have a busy spring ahead of us as always. It's hard to believe the first semester is coming to a close!
I want to share just a few updates from our Department of Intervention Services with you. Parent Plug In was held December 9 and Director of Special Education, Montie Parker provided an overview of Parent Rights under IDEA and Region 10 consultant, Layne Pethick shared functional skills strategies with parents. He is awesome. If you have not heard him speak on Autism, I highly encourage you to attend one of his sessions at Region 10.
On the 504 side, Director of Intervention Services, Debbie Gauntt continues to focus on building campus 504 leadership capacity through the utilization of SuccessEd for records management. Debbie is also working with the Dyslexia Specialists on continued implementation of their new instructional design.
Our RtI district committee continues to work on refining the Response to Intervention process for CISD and the updated system will be ready for rollout for the 2015-2016 school year.
There are great success stories happening for our learners with disabilities on every campus. Thank you for what you do EVERY day. You are making a difference!!
Special Olympics Polar Plunge
CMS North has a team participating in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge. Support them any way you can; either a monetary donation or attend and cheer them on! Here is a link to their team page:
Saturday, Jan 31, 2015, 08:30 AM
City Lake Aquatic Center, Parkview Street, Mesquite, TX, United States
Individualize Decisions About Field Trip Participation
Before excluding a student with a disability from a field trip, a student’s Section 504 or IEP team must demonstrate that:
1) even with the provision of accommodations, the student isn’t qualified to participate;
2) providing the accommodations would result in an undue burden; or
3) the field trip is otherwise inappropriate to the child’s needs.
Consider the following tips to ensure that your decisions about who will and will not participate in a field trip are compliant and individualized:
• Make a team-based decision. Don’t make a unilateral determination about whether and how a particular student or group of students will participate in a field trip. The decision should be made for each student based on the student’s individualized needs and in the context of a 504 or IEP team meeting with the parent participating.
• Consider accommodations. Work with the team to identify reasonable accommodations that would enable the student to safely participate. If the student requires,
for example, the support of an aide to facilitate his participation, the district must provide the aide at no cost to the parent. Although a district isn’t required to provide an accommodation that would constitute an undue burden or that would fundamentally alter the nature of the services, program, or activity (28 CFR 35.130(b) (7)), the mere fact that an accommodation will increase costs doesn’t make it unduly burdensome.
• Don’t put the onus on parents to show the child can participate. Requiring parents to affirmatively demonstrate that a trip is appropriate to the student’s needs as a condition of participating contravenes Section504. Rather, the district may bar a qualified student from the trip because of disability-related characteristics or behavior only if the IEP or 504 team has determined that the student cannot participate successfully with the provision of reasonable accommodations.
• Don’t compel parents to attend. It’s OK to invite the parent of a student with a disability to join the trip. It’s not OK to condition the child’s participation on the parent accompanying himHB 5 Course Substitution Training for Secondary Special Education
HB5 allows for course substitutions where appropriate for learners whose ARD or 504 Committee determines the recommended course is inappropriate for the learner. This decision can be based on a number of factors. This training will acquaint CISD Middle School and HS Special Education Case Managers of our process for making a course substitution.
Click link below to register on Eduphoria:
Thursday, Feb 19, 2015, 04:00 PM
Coppell High School, West Parkway Boulevard, Coppell, TX, United States
TEACH ESY!
Mornings only & No Fridays
Work Day is June 8
Session 1 = 11 days (June 9-25)
Session 2 = 12 days (July 14-31)
Application attached to Rhonda's email & due to Trish Wallace by March 17
(Tuesday after Spring Break so you can make a rested decision J)
Job sharing possible, however preference in hiring will be given to those who can work entire session