Applications for Mini-Grants Now Available

The Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education (IAASE) is awarding up to eight mini-grants to encourage the implementation of innovative practices in education. The project must focus on the implementation of one of the following innovative practices in the areas of assessment, instruction, or service delivery:

Assessment

·       Curriculum Based Evaluation (CBE)Curriculum Based Measurement (CBM)

·       Interview and/or Observation Method

·       Performance Based Assessment

·       Skill Probes

·       Rubrics 

Instruction

·       Cooperative Learning/Peer-Mediated Learning

·       Differentiated Instruction

·       Direct Instruction

·       Innovative Teaching Practices

·       Problem-Based Learning

·       Understanding By Design

·       Universal Design

·       Multi-Sensory Instruction

Service Delivery Method

·       Inclusion

·       Integrated System

·       Learning Communities

·       Response to Intervention Model/Multi-Tiered System of Supports

·       Trauma Informed Practices

Who Can Apply?

The principle applicant must be a staff member from a local district, special education cooperative, or a university. The principle applicant must be an IAASE member or sponsored by an IAASE member. Applicant partners/team members may include parents, individuals from local districts, special education cooperatives, universities, and/or community agencies. The project must directly impact students in schools.

What Are the Project Requirements?

The mini-grants are offered to encourage the implementation of innovative practices within the school setting. The project must be completed within the school year the mini-grant is awarded. The project must make a positive contribution to a classroom, program, or district. All proposals are required to address how the project will continue after mini-grant funding. Collaboration with university staff, community agencies, general education, special education, parents, and support staff is encouraged.

The principle applicant/contact person must be able to receive calls and correspondence related to the mini-grant.

Evaluation

A committee composed of the IAASE Innovations Committee members and the IAASE President Elect will evaluate proposals.

Funding

Up to eight mini-grant proposals will be funded.  Mini-grants may be funded up to a maximum of $1,200.  All funds must be used to support the activities outlined in the proposal.  Funds may be utilized to purchase materials, training, consultants, or staff time necessary to implement the project. Funds may not be utilized to perform any established responsibility of the program or district.  Funds may not be used to purchase gift cards or supplies provided by the program or district. Funds will be disbursed through a reimbursement process upon receipt of the final report.  The final report must include a summary of the project, a description of the outcomes of the project, and data supporting the outcomes.  All mini-grant expenditures require documentation with original receipts and itemization.  They must be submitted with the final report by June 15, 2020.  Final payment will not be disbursed until a completed final report is received.

Timelines

Proposals must be received by 4:00 pm on November 15, 2019.  An IAASE Committee will evaluate proposals.  All applicants will be notified by email by December 9, 2019.  Provide a midterm progress update by March 27, 2020 and final report by June 15, 2020.   All funds related to the project must be expended by June 1, 2020.

Submission

Proposals may be submitted via internet or through the mail. No faxed copies will be accepted. All proposals must include a cover page and a description of the project utilizing the outline provided in the call for proposals.

Proposals must be submitted to:

            Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education

Attention: Norma Gerrish, Administrative Assistant

1324 Lantern Lights Circle

Lebanon, Illinois 62254

Phone: 618-622-8800

Email: ngerrish@iaase.org

For additional information please click here for descriptions and directions for submitting an application for an IAASE Mini-Grant.  

UPDATED X1 ACTION NEEDED: Calls & Action Needed

UPDATED (10/26/2019)

The legislative process in Springfield moves very quickly.  We've worked with our coalition partners to align the language in the bill with the original intent of the law.  IAASE strongly believes in a collaborative IEP process where every parent/guardian is fully included in a process that is user friendly.  We also recognize that our teams are overloaded with significant caseloads and the issues that come along with managing paperwork.  With this in mind, our legislative team is working with others to make changes to the bill to bring as many coalition partners on board as possible.  This is the first of (what could be) several changes.  This change will:

Require school districts to keep service logs for all related service providers.

Rationale:  Many of our state's most impacted children receive related services.  To the extent that parents/guardians are not able to identify and receive information about the services their children have or have not received, IAASE believes this needs to be addressed.  While aligning the service log requirement to the Medicaid data collection rules was easier for us, it might have created a challenge for parents/guardians.  That was never our intent.

Given the speed at which we needed to move this legislation, we also have a NEW bill number:  SB 460.  It will be published on ilga.gov later.

At this point, we need your support in making two calls:

Please contact your State Senator!
This bill will originate in the Illinois State Senate and will be heard in committee this week and will likely be voted on by the full Senate shortly thereafter. Please click here to find the phone number for your State Senator. Then call them in their Springfield office and ask them to vote YES on SB 460. A sample script:

Hi there – my name is Dave Director. I live in Suzy Senator’s district and I wanted to ask her to vote YES on SB 460. We need to make sure that the bill is passed when it comes to the floor for a vote next week during veto session.

Please contact your State Representative!
If we are able to get this bill through the Senate, then it will move to the House of Representatives.  We need to make sure that we begin contacting our State Representatives as soon as possible so that they understand how our members feel about this issue.

Please click here to find the phone number for your State Representative. Then call them in their Springfield office and ask them to vote YES on SB 460.

A few final thoughts:

• Once this bill is posted on the Illinois General Assembly website, we will update this post.
• You can share this post with others (teachers are definitely heavily impacted and should be aware of this.  General education administrators should be making calls as well).
• Please be sure to contact your own State Senator (not the bill sponsors). 
• If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of the IAASE Leadership Team.

ACTION NEEDED: Federal Appropriations

Last week, the U.S. Senate made the first procedural move to advance a number of non-controversial spending measures for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 as early as this week. At the moment, the grouping, or "minibus," includes Commerce, Justice, Science; Agriculture; Interior and the Environment; Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs. While those bills are taking center stage, we learned that negotiations are active behind the scenes on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) bill, which includes federal funding for education programs. A current likely scenario [in a fast-changing climate] is that the top-line number for the Labor-H bill will land somewhere between the Senate's level-funding approach and the House's proposed major increase, leaving some additional money for FY 2020. The most likely outcome is that the bulk of extra Labor-H funding would go toward the National Institutes of Health. Any other excess could go toward education and may likely increase the major formula grants to states, including special education.

CEC has developed a Call to Action so members can engage in a final push on FY 2020 spending through a letter-writing campaign. The template letter calls for spending increases to the following programs:

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Grants to States Program (Part B)
• IDEA Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Program (Part C)
• IDEA Preschool Program (Part B Section 619)
• IDEA National Activities (Part D)
• National Center for Special Education Research, within the Institute for Education Sciences

To join in this call to action, please follow this link.

New Resource on Public Charge Rule Change

This week, the Protecting Immigrant Families Campaign launched a new online resource to keep advocates up to date on the latest developments with the proposed changes to the public charge rule. The resource, Public Charge Update: What Advocates Need to Know Now, is a read-only Google document that will be updated as new developments emerge. It includes timely information about the progress of the rule change; the rule is currently on hold as it goes through litigation. The resource also seeks to clarify any confusion immigrants and immigrant advocates may have and answers a series of frequently asked questions, including how the policy may impact immigrants applying for green cards from outside the U.S.

In Fall 2018, CASE spoke out against the public charge proposed rule, citing concerns about targeted discrimination against children with disabilities and their families, who may rely on Medicaid and other critical public benefits such as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and housing assistance. CASE opposes implementation of the public charge rule because of the harmful impact it will have on children and families.

For more information, go to the Protecting Immigrant Families website.

From the Protecting Immigrant Families Site - - -
Translated Community Education Materials
We’ve finalized the Spanish translation of our most up to date community education materials. More translations in Vietnamese, Korean, Hindi, Arabic, French, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Burmese, and Amharic are coming soon. Check our Know Your Rights page for updates this week.

Public Charge: Does this apply to me? - See how ‘public charge’ will impact you based on your immigration status, and what you should do.

You Have Rights: Protect Your Health - An overview for mixed-status families when it come to going to the doctor or enrolling in health insurance.

Should I Keep My Kids Enrolled in Health & Nutrition Programs? - Use this guide to help answer commonly asked questions about how to make good decisions for your family and their health.

ACTION NEEDED: Oppose HB 3897

Almost as quickly as we have been working to undo the damage that has been done by HB 3586, we have been hit with another disaster of a bill. HB 3897 will allow students to stay in Transition programs after their 22nd Birthday if their 22nd birthday occurs during the school year. This could mean that a student stays in our Transition programs for up to a year longer than they do now.

NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP! Please click here and complete that information. Mark that you OPPOSE HB 3897. Under Part IV, Mark Record of Appearance only. This bill will be heard in the House Human Services Committee next week and we need your assistance to stop it.

Dear Director...

Dear Director,
My cooperative is really feeling the staff shortage right now, particularly in the area of speech-language pathologists, and it doesn't look promising in the near future.  I have been approached with the tele-therapy idea, but I really don't know enough to make a good decision about it.  Do you have any experience with this?
Seeking advice

Dear Seeking,
I haven't ever used these services either, but I know a number of directors who have.  They have used online speech therapy in life skills settings focusing on language and with students who have articulation needs.  These directors report that they have had positive results, the SLPs are held to very high standards for documentation and communication, and collaboration with school and home has been very good.  Some agencies are willing to work with a district or cooperative's budgetary limitations.  Cost-wise, in my area, it was comparative to contracting with a live person.  There are many tele-therapy agencies out there, so you have the opportunity to comparison shop.  One drawback is that you cannot make Medicaid claims for tele-therapy at this time.

To our readers, we would love to hear your experiences with tele-therapy - please comment!

How I Handled It...

The first of our guest blogger posts is below. If you would like to contribute, please see the October 1st post and contact us!

How I Handled It…
How do you know when it might be time for you to look for a new position? Is it about not being challenged enough, or being challenged too much? Being too emotionally involved or too disconnected? Needing more money? Needing less responsibility? Needing a better ideological fit? A better ethical fit? Not liking the people with whom you work? Not liking the person you become when you’re there? Maybe you or your family need to live in a different place. There are so many reasons to change jobs, so how do you decide when it’s time? Here’s how I handled it.

Earlier this year, I accepted a new position, which began on July 1. A lot of planning went into applying and interviewing, relocating, and leaving great friends. Long before the decisions about where to apply and whether I wanted to move was the decision to start looking. I know a number of people who look at job postings all the time and talk about whether they might like the jobs they see. I was not one of those people. (I did look regularly at whether there was an educational director position open at the Smithsonian, but I never did come across that posting).

Ten months before I applied for any posted job, I began to think about whether I wanted to continue in my position, which I had held for 7 years. I was struggling and frustrated with a number of things, and I didn’t know that I wanted to work there anymore. I considered returning to teaching, leaving special ed for general education administration, or moving to teaching at the college level. To organize my thoughts, I made a list of the things that were bothersome to me. The list was long and disjointed. Some of the things were minor, and I realized that they were bothering me only because I was stressed out. I took those off the list. Other things were problematic, but I knew I could not impact them, so I took those off the list as well. I ended with three things on my list. As I pondered these last three things, I knew that I could not continue in my position if these three things did not change - and I thought I could affect all of them.

I rededicated myself to working on these three things as we moved into the new year. I went to my superiors, and I explained the importance, to our students, department, and district, of the things on my list. I asked for their help. I made plans about how I would address each of the issues. I needed to make sure that if I did decide to leave, it wasn’t because I didn’t try hard enough. As it turned out, even with my efforts, the important things didn’t change, and the minor things that were bothering me didn’t change either.

In the end, it was about me, not about circumstances or people or things that I wanted to be different. It was time for me to leave. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a hard decision to make; it was incredibly difficult. Finding the place where I wanted to go was the next step, but for me, I had to first feel confident in leaving. That’s how I handled it.

Upcoming Education Budget Hearings

The Illinois State Board of Education will be holding a series of budget hearings in the  weeks to discuss budget requests for the FY 21 school year.  Members of the education community have an opportunity to make their voices heard and advocate for increased funding to the Evidence-Based Funding Model and other special education line items.

We encourage you to be an advocate for increased EBF and special education funding because feedback and funding requests received will inform ISBE’s Fiscal Year 2021 public education budget recommendation.

If you can't attend, you can, submit a funding request online using the Budget Hearing Funding Request Form.  Lots more information and dates for the hearings are available by clicking here.

Tell Congress to Cosponsor - Funding Early Childhood is the Right IDEA Act (H.R. 4107)

This summer, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Congressman Rodney Davis (R-IL) introduced the Funding Early Childhood is the Right IDEA Act (H.R. 4107), a bipartisan bill to restore full funding for education and services for children with disabilities. This bill runs parallel to the widely supported bipartisan, bicameral IDEA Full Funding Bill (H.R. 1878). H.R. 4107 has 51 associations and organization that have pledged their support for the measure.

Currently, IDEA Part C and Section 619 Preschool Programs serve over 1.16 million children. The bill includes authorization levels for IDEA Part C and Section 619 Preschool Grant Programs and authorizes a five year glide path to full funding. During the Special Education Legislative Summit (SELS) advocates informed their members of Congress about the state of early intervention and preschool special education programs in the nation and urged them to cosponsor the bill to ensure that young children receive the services necessary for improved educational, behavioral and developmental outcomes. The Division of Early Childhood (DEC) Executive Director, Peggy Kemp applauds the bill and was quoted in Representative DeSaulnier’s H.R. 4107 press release saying, “Fully funding these programs under IDEA is essential to ensuring high-quality services for young children birth through five years with disabilities and their families. We are fully committed to working with these IDEA champions to make these funds a reality.”

Visit CEC’s Legislative Action Center to urge your member of the U.S. House of Representatives to prioritize the needs of young children with disabilities and their families and cosponsor H.R. 4107. Take action today!

Spirit Wear - New Styles Now Available

Check out our newest styles on the IAASE Online Store!  Home delivery is available!  Lots of great options.  Click here for all of the great details.

Let’s refresh our blog!

Let’s refresh our blog!

The first quarter seems to have blown by, and we are into fall already. This year, we would like to have our blog be more interactive, providing the opportunity for special education administrators to interact with one another, learn from each others’ experiences, and maybe be able to laugh at ourselves now and then. As we redefine the work of the Newsletter and Publications Committee, we would like to offer some opportunities for people to get involved by becoming guest bloggers:

Submit a post for “How I Handled It.” This could be a story of success (or not so much success) that you think might interest others. Click here to submit to “How I Handled It.”

Submit a question to the “Dear Director” Column or volunteer to be a director who answers these questions. Click here to become involved with “Dear Director.”

Share information from your IAASE Committee or Liaison position with our membership. Click here to submit information on behalf of your group.