Websites

Someone recently asked for information on good websites to share with families and teachers. I wanted to make sure that you are aware of the Iowa AEA online possibilities. See what you think! Some of you may want to try these activities with your own children and/or grandchildren!

Start by going to the Prairie Lakes AEA home page, click on Iowa AEA Online (blue bar at top of page),

Look on left side (menu) click on World Book Web

You will be asked to put in a user name-try (Zone4Poky) and password (nwiaea)works for me - maybe you can try a different zone number

Then scroll to the bottom of the page, RIGHT hand corner, you will see Early World of Learning. Click to open

The Early World of Learning is the premier online resource for preschoolers and children in the early elementary grades. Developed with experts on early childhood education, the Early World of Learning offers rich resources designed for easy integration into the classroom curriculum. The site encompasses three interactive learning environments:Trek's Travels offers narrated stories, interactive games, and original videos that teach critical early childhood themes, including numbers, shapes, colors, opposites, and more.
Welcome to Reading provides leveled reading practice to develop and strengthen phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and comprehension skills. This site incorporates The Lexile Framework® for Reading to make sure every child meets with success.
Know It offers a richly visual interactive encyclopedia that will captivate early learners with non-fiction topics of interest and importance to them.
Configurable settings throughout the Early World of Learning will provide educators with the ability to:
• introduce the engaging content to emergent readers of varying abilities• leverage resources for group instruction as well as independent and small group study
The Early World of Learning will stimulate a lifelong love of reading and knowledge

Other Website Favorites

If you are not familiar with the csefel.vanderbilt.edu/ site you must check it out. There is a section for families, caregivers, teachers, etc. Talked to a toddler room teacher this morning about a BITER - great article to share with family and the staff called, "Responding to Your Child's Bite" - check it out!

Also take a look at the Get Going Activities on the getreadytoread.org site - lots of fun ideas for families and children to work together

Have you seen teach-nology.com/printables I am really opposed to worksheets, but there are some other time saving labels on this site

And www.childcareland.com - you can subscribe daily , again, I'm not for worksheets, but this has some other fun ideas.

Enough for now - if I give you to many, you won't check them out!

3-5 referrals

Someone recently asked me if "we are to be capturiing all 3-5 referrals on the Early ACCESS intake form and sending them to me?" Another good question to address.

All of our office secretaries capture 3-5 referrals that are called in to the AEA on our EA referral form and then they send them to me. I do keep them in a folder and send them on to the appropriate staff member (often times an SLP).

I have NOT asked you to complete the form on every child (3-5) that you may see. I am assuming that you have that information, if I need it. It was collected in the past, to have data to hire additional staff. At this point, we don't expect to hire additonal staff, so it is no longer being collected systematically.

Sure enough, someone will want the data with that being said!

Progress monitoring

I recently received an email asking, "What is the expectation for progress monitoring?" Good questions, - if you have those thoughts, so do others, so I will address it in my blog!

The expectation is to try progress monitoring with ONE child and bring the form back to our Jan. meeting with Gloria. After that, you can decide if it's a helpful and meaningful way to collect data and show progress. Progress monitoring is not appropriate for every child or every goal; it can be used when a child already has a skill and you want to increase or decrease the skill/behavior. It often works well to use as a "team approach" when several are working together and supporting each other.

Gloria will also introduce/(review for some)mastery monitoring - in some cases, that works better for collecting data and showing progress for certain children. And rubrics will be addressed as well. (Don’t' worry, we don't intend to throw the baby out with the bath water!)

You are NOT being forced into doing anything, but rather, given "more tools" to use -as each child is different and we know we must have data to make decisions. Remember, some people in our dept. have been on the job less than 5 years, and they really need to know what's all available and how to use it. Hope this helps!

Do you subscribe to the Zero to Three email? Two great articles Raising Thankful Children and Parenting Young Children Today:What the Research tells Us, were the topics of the last email. Both worth reading and sharing with parents!

Do you subscribe to TACSEI/CSEFEL email? TACSEI's New "Making Your Life Easier" Series Provides Tips for Parents and Caregivers on topics such as bedtime, naptime, running errands and diapering. Great information to share with families!

Do you subscribe to Camille Catlett:Natural Resources? Recently she had a great article on Using Video to Enhance Outcomes for Young Children and Their Families
Video is a valuable tool for early care and education practitioners and can be used in many ways, including documenting child progress, evaluation, assessment, coaching, consultation, reflective practice, reflective supervision, family education, and professional development.

Pleae let me know if you need information on how to subscribe to any of the above resources; it is our responsibility to stay up to date on what's happening in the early childhood field!

Alignment Documents

Creative Curriculum is the most widely used curriculum in all of the preschools throughout AEA 8. This year many programs are replacing the Creative Curriculum Developmental Continuum with the new GOLD assessment. GOLD is a comprehensive assessment system that can be used with children birth through kindergarten age. I have attached a crosswalk with the GOLD and the Iowa Early Learning Standards.

I have also attached the AEPS crosswalk with the Iowa Early Learning Standards.

Please take the time to become familiar with these tools and use them in decision making!

Early childhood setting codes launch Dec. 1

Dee Gethman,is working with Kirby Leland and Michelle Tressel in order to program the Web IEP and IMS to be ready to launch the new EC Setting Codes on December 1, 2010.

Kirby has programmed the Web IEP EC Setting Code worksheet to ask:
Does this child attend a Regular Early Childhood Program, includes kindergarten?

Note: A Regular EC Program is defined as a program, including kindergarten, with at least 50% peers NOT on an IEP.

If yes, then they complete the answer to the following question:

How many MINUTES PER WEEK does the child attend a Regular Early Childhood Program? (cannot exceed 2,400 minutes per week; 480 minutes per day).

The rest of the calculations will be done within the formulas and the information completed on Page F regarding “Minutes in Settings.”

Thus, the IEP Teams will only need to complete the following steps:

1. Answer the question about attending a Regular EC Program; and

2. Determine how many minutes per week a child attends a Regular EC program.

If a child does NOT attend a Regular EC Program, the IEP Team will complete the information similar to the previous worksheet, regarding where the child receives special education:

· Special ed class

· Special school

· Residential facility.

If none of these:

· Home or

· Service Provider location or some other location.

Dee is planning to send a powerpoint describing the new codes and changes. I will send the information out as soon as it arrives. We can further discuss the changes at our dpeartment meeting on Dec. 16.

Work Sucks !

Well, now that I have your attention! I've seen this book entitled, "Work Sucks" lying around in several locations within our AEA office in Pocahontas. The title certainly gets ones attention; so I grabbed it and read it over the weekend. The book has an interesting concept about focusing on ROWE - Results Oriented Work Environment rather than on working the traditional day from 8-4:30, working from a time clock approach! It also talks about SLUDGES - things that might be perceived as "put downs" about co-workers. "Did you notice that so and so never gets to work by 8:00?" or "How about so and so who spends the first half hour chatting with co-workers and drinking coffee and reading the paper?" or "so and so who never shows up for meetings?" This books makes you realize how working from somewhere besides an office or cubicle can happen, due to technology such as email, cell phones, etc.

It's my understanding that the Communication and Outreach team are reading and studying the book. If you can get your hands on it, I'd suggest you read it; it makes a lot of sense!

The other book that is being read is "How full is your bucket?" That's next on my list, lots of comments about the book, if you follow the blog on Friday news. The gist of this book is to be a "bucket filler", giving positives to those you meet, rather than a "bucket dipper"

Early childhood codes

Becky Coffelt and I attended the EC network state meeting in Marshalltown on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. Dee Gethman presented the new Early Childhood codes and worksheet for Part B. This information will fit in well with our 3-5 dept. meeting topics in Dec. There were lots of conversations about Page F and it's relationship to the codes, etc. So, stay tuned - more to come within the next month!

So you want a sneak preview? Yes, there will still be A and B codes, along with C and D codes.

World Forum

If you are interested in seeking information about the World Forum that I attended in Nebraska City in October, you can find pictures and a press release on the Prairie Lakes home page. Look on the right hand side of the page under "News and Information", scroll down to "World Forum, Connecting kids and nature" I discovered that the forum really did present appropriate information about preschool children -what child doesn't learn best from hands on experiences? what child with behavior problems or special needs couldn't benefit from learning through inquiry? doesn't nature contribute to their health and well being and gives them a sense of discovery? Are these important factors in successful education? I believe so!

Smile

Well we've made it through count date, whew! Now that was a stressor!

Did you know that it is proven that the act of smiling makes you feel better about everything - especially about you? Smiling requires fewer facial muscles than frowning, thus preserving the youthful tone of your checks and avoiding the dreaded wrinkles around your eyes and mouth.

Smiling releases endorphins, those wonderful little chemicals that reduce levels of pain and stress.

Endorphins even cut down on your appetitie. Smile and lose weight. Does it get any better than that?

If your not smiling these days, you need to start. Just look at Nicole, she has a smile that brightens her eyes and pushes the corner of her mouth into her cheeks, grinning from ear to ear with excitement of being engaged and the rest of us are congratulating her and remembering our story! Smile and the world smiles with you!

Preparing Preschool for the 21st Century

Please take a few minutes to look at the Prairie Lakes home page. On the right hand column you will find the topic, Preparing Preschool for the 21st Century. Click on it!

There is an informational article and pictures of some of our local preschool, daycare, and Head Start partners taking part in the UNI workshops that are being brought to our AEA.

CHANGE in DATES

As I worked on my online calendar for November, I discovered that we have a ECSE 3-5 Department meeting scheduled for Mon. Nov. 15 and our 1/2 team/dept. meeting scheduled that same week for Fri. Nov. 19. I would like to make some schedule changes to avoid overkill. We will CANCEL NOV. 15 MEETING!

First of all, it would be important that our 3-5 people, Becky Coffelt and Deb Shelton help facilitate our department meeting that focuses on IEP topics. Becky has informed me that she will not be able to meet on Nov. 15 as she is completing a verification visit for the Statewide Preschool Grant that day, at a location outside of our AEA.

Secondly, Nov. 15 is the follow-up session on Attachment that Tammy, Cheryl, Gale and I attended in September. (We shared information with you at our last dept. mtg).

So, I am proposing NO DEPARTMENT MEETING on Mon. Nov. 15. I've looked at other dates in Nov. and have very few options to reschedule based on room availability in Pocahontas.

The new plan: Fri. Nov. 19 as scheduled - EA Proc. Manual Updates and ISU IFSP mods.
Mon. Dec. 6 - Joint Dept. Mtg with OT/PT and Gloria on PROGRESS
Monitoring - all day
Thurs. Dec. 16 - ECSE dept meeting - focus 3-5, all day in Poky
Fri. Dec. 17 - 1/2 day training CANCELLED!

Out of Office

I will be leaving on Sunday, Oct. 17 for Arbor Day Farm, Nebraska City, NE and returning Wednesday, Oct. 20.I have been asked to join an area collaborative team for the Connecting Children with Nature Action Forum. The decision and early bird deposit was handled last spring. I'm feeling a bit guilty going - knowing how much emphasis has been placed on how we spend our time, special education dollars, etc. etc. But I keep reminding myself that I am partially funded through general education dollars which allows me to do "normal" things.

I will check email and phone messages daily, but will not be readily available.

Child Find Procedures/Activities

The message below is from Gary Petersen - if you have anything to share with him, please send it directly to him at gpetersen@aea8.k12.ia.us


"Please send me any checklists/ cheat sheets/ memory ticklers you are aware of that you or your staff are currently using for child find procedures and activities. This checklists might include items such as forms (when, where, who, how), activities (e.g., meetings, contacts, etc.), internal procedures (e.g., maintenance of records, etc.) or anything else that people need to manage the process. I am hoping this will help with developing common practices and procedures. Thank you."
Gary

Posted by Denise at 11:49 AM

Essential Skills

An activity that each of our departments were asked to complete was the Essential Skills Document. The purpose of the activity was to help determine what staff members need to Know, Understand and Do to provide the essential services that are provided in each district within Prairie Lakes AEA. The questions asked were:
What are the broad categories of your Essential Services? What Skill Sets are needed?

Take a sneak peak and see if it makes sense to you! Open for feedback and discussion!

Facilitation Skills

Well I am blogging on Monday evening, as Monday - day got away from me with meetings... As I sat in meetings today, I decided that the meetings would have been much more effective if facilitation skills would have been used! Since we all had the opportunity to attend facilitation training over the past 3 years, please make sure and use some of those suggested strategies when facilitating the upcoming Friday meetings on the Early ACCESS procedural manual updates and the ISU/IFSP modules. To review: 1) Assign a facilitator (that's you) 2) Have a timekeeper - announce how much time you will spend on a certain topic and stick to it 3) Summarizer - assign someone's role to "summarize" the discussion before moving on to something new, decisions made, etc. 4) Be a good participant - you will appreciate it when you are the facilitator
Posted by Denise at 3:52 PM

Early Childhood Degree

One of the components of a "quality" program is a teacher that is certified in early childhood. The Department of Ed. has determined that all 3 and 4 year old children on IEPs are placed in classrooms with a certified EC teacher. Please be careful and find out if the teacher at Head Start, center-based preschools, Catholic preschools, etc. meet this requirement prior to the discussion with districts, parents, and IEP teams making decisions.

A teacher with an elementary degree can get a conditional early childhood license from the BOEE and begin classes.

October Count

Well, October is already here! Please do your best to complete all IFSP and IEPs by Oct. 29 - count date.

All initial IEP meetings and consent for placement must be dated on or before 10/29/10 to be included in the count for this year. Please have conversations with LEA teams about this time line.

All IEPs must be approved on/or before 11/5/10 to be included as part of count. This means the teachers will need to submit the IEPs and they will need to be reviewed for weighting to be approved. This includes any initial IEPs for support services as well.

What do you know about the communities you serve?

I was recently asked if there are statistics for school districts to help in planning the need for future daycare and preschool programs. Here is a great resource to use.
Go to the Prairie Lakes home page
Click on Programs and Services on left hand side of page
Scroll down, Click on Learning Supports
Scroll down, Click on DATA
Scroll down, See heading Iowa State University Regional Capacity Analysis Program
Click on School District Profiles
Find districts you serve.

I've attached the Pocahontas sample so that you get excited about all that you can learn about your community!

Department Meeting Topics

Are you currently serving a 0-3 child with red flags of being on the autism spectrum? Have you made use of the speech paraeducator to assist in the home? Are you feeling you have enough strategies to use with the little ones? Would we like to spend some time at one of the upcoming department meetings sharing strategies and techniques that work. We are fortunate to have Tammy Berger and Marlene Armbrecht on our AEA Autism team. Perhaps they could share other resources with us. Could any of Thomas Higbee's preschool strategies work for children in the home? Please let me know if this is a discussion you want to continue.

Gale,Cheryl,Tammy, and I attended the Parent Child Attachment Workshop in Milford on Thursday, Sept. 23. The target audience was home visitors. Dr. Martha Erickson shared the idea of video-taping a 5 minute session of mom and baby. It was empowering to watch the video with the mom at the next home visit. Mom was able to see strengths and things she'd change in her relation, reaction and responses to a young child. Very powerful!

Department meetings are perfect opportunities to spend time learning from others. Don't hesitate to suggest topics that would help us do our job better!

Wondering

I've been wondering how many of you are completing an ECO map with families as you get new referrals? Remember the ECO map is a great way to have a documented conversation about a family's formal and informal resources.

Also have wondered if you've tried a Routine Based Interview? Again, understanding the child within the context of his/her family and daily routines is the best way to ensure that your outcomes address what's really important to a family.

Did I mention family outcomes? We randomly sampled every 20th IFSP to gather baseline information for Dr. Gloria Frolek Clark. Our findings, 2 family outcomes!

Our work is ongoing. Please don't put last years learnings on the shelf! We continue to strive to be the best we can be!

Department Professional Development Plans

I have attached the department professional development plan for you to review. It summarizes our work from last year and how we will connect it to our ongoing work this year. We will be working closely with Dr. Gloria Frohlick Clark who will be providing facilitation, coaching and training to our department and the OT/PT department. Gloria recently retired from the D.E. where she was on the state early childhood leadership team as a consultant for 0-5 services. She is now available to do private practice. You will meet her on Sept. 10!

As we have learned from Jerry Stremel's presentation, Iowa is NOT doing well with special education (IEP kids). We've gotten away from a focus on special ed. kids and need to build skills and invest time in assisting teachers so that IFSP/IEP children will make progress on their outcomes/goals. Do we have the right interventions? Do we have data that tells if we need to change interventions? We are all responsible to help make a difference! More to come on that thought!

Early Childhood Programs and the Triad/Dyad Structure

I am sure there is still confusion with the triad/dyad structure and the conversation of how early childhood programs "fit" into the role/work of school social workers, psychologist, and special education consultants.

Pam Ahlrich, zone coordinator, created a document to help clarify roles and understanding of our collaborative work. The attached document is version 3; there have been extended conversations and clarifications on this topic.

Please use the document to assist you and remember these important points about your role:
1) ECSE teachers/consultants have expertise in curriculum and instruction at the early childhood level.
2) Private preschools and Head Start programs located within the communities you serve, rely on YOU as the first point of contact.
3) The initial point of contact with preschool programs within a district building may vary - who is readily available on a regular basis?
3) Collaborative teams are necessary for child find activities, evaluations, challenging behaviors, interventions,transitions and IEPs. draft

My How We've Changed

Would you please find a baby picture (ages 0-5) of yourself and scan it and send it to me by Thursday, Sept. 2? (A secretary or someone in the office should be able to help you with this task if you are not sure how to do it)? We will be using the pictures for a fun opening activity at our first dept. meeting on Fri. Sept. 10.

In order to help us get to know you and to be able to identify you from an "earlier years" picture, can you also send me 3 facts such as: where you were born, grew up, # of brothers/sisters, high school/college, no. of children you have, grandchildren, etc.etc.

Dept. Plans for 2010-11

I've been hesitant to share the final professional development department plans for this year, as the chairperson meeting is today - Monday, Aug. 23. After feedback and approval, information will be sent to you.



Please note that Sept. 17 is NOT a date that will be used for 1/2 day dept. meeting as mentioned in the original schedule. Our dept. meeting is Sept. 10. You have a couple different opportunities for additional PD in the month of Sept. - Sept. 17 there is autism training. Sept. 23 is the Parent/Child Attachment training, and Sept. 17 & 23 is IEP webinar training. Choose any or all of the options; you know what you need to do your job!

IEP training - mark your calendar

Please carefully read the email from Gary Peterson regarding upcoming webinar and online IEP training for new AEA and LEA staff. At last count, we have 20 new ECSE district teachers. Many of them have little or no experience writing IEPs! Although it's not required, one way you may be able to support the new district teachers is to attend the webinar training with them. Learning together and building relationships is critical to establishing an understanding of "who writes what parts of the web-based IEP." Remember, one of our priorities is "to improve the outcomes for children with disabilities." It's critical that we work together to make this happen!

The webinar dates are as folllows: Sept. 23, Sept. 30, Oct. 14, Oct 21 from 3:30-4:30.
I've attached an assignment schedule with NEW ECSE district teachers - if there are additional new staff, please let me know.

Autism training

Here is a comment from the autism training:

"I know Tuesday morning some people wondered about hearing all the research-but that is exactly what we need to say 'Here is the research that says this works. if you want to do something different-show me your research that states your way works.'
I really "got" what he was saying and I will definitely be sharing that information all year."

I hope you found the information to either be a good review or a challenge to you to try something new.

There are two opportunities to attend (attendees only choose one day):September 17 - 9:00-4:00 at the Pocahontas AEA office OR October 4 – 9:00-4:00 at the Pocahontas AEA of
This inservice will provide staff with information about Autism Spectrum Disorders, how to evaluate for special education eligibility and how to report out conclusions. Contact Joyce Anderson, Estherville office to register.

Department Meeting Dates

All Day Department Meetings in Pocahontas: 9:00 -2:30
Friday,September 10
Monday,October 25
Monday,November 15
Monday,December 6
Monday,January 17
Friday,February 25
Monday,March 21
Friday,April 29
Monday,May 16

1/2 Day Team Meetings in area offices: 9:00-12:00

Fridays:September 17,October 15,November 19,December 17,January 21,February 18, March 18,April 15,

More information will be coming about the focus of these meetings!

Department Meeting Dates

We are trying to finalize department meeting dates and plans for next year. Look for more information next week.

Building Rep Role

Here is an email conversation asking for clarification on rep role for next year.

Denise: Since I know you've been working on finalizing assignments, wondering if you could help clarify
"Rep. assignments will not be made for Head Starts, non-public preschools and district preschools where the ECSE teacher serves as rep".(document sent by ZC) There seems to still be some questioning what this means? Thanks

Pam: We put that in originally to allow for flexibility in places where ECSE consultants served as the Building Rep currently and said at the ECSE meeting that we would likely have a variety of "set-ups". We do believe that ECSE programs need to have access to Mental Health/Behavior folks as needed and in areas where there are larger program needs (Storm Lake and Spencer for example) we have assigned folks on a more active basis.
Pam

Parents as Presenters

Attached is the information about the "Parents as Presenters" workshop that is hosted each year. It is a great opportunity for parents to "tell their story", as well as to become connected to other families who can be a resource and support. Perhaps you know of a family that would benefit from this experience - it's a great way to empower them; so please share the information with the families you see. Sometimes you will be surprised who shows interest! Applications are due June 9.

Hearing Department

This is an email message I recently received from Judy Mischke, Chairperson of Hearing & Vision.

During the summer, the audiologists prefer to be contacted via email, but like in the past, they will have summer booth eval dates and once they get those days set up, they will notify the ECSE teachers.

For the teachers of the D/HOH
Mary Pauk - call her home phone 515-832-3312
Doreen DeBeck - call her cell phone 712-299-0781
Karen Ackerman - email her kackerman@aea8.k12.ia.us
Nancy Schofield - email her nschofield@aea8.k12.ia.us
Judy Mischke - call her cell phone 712-260-0085. I will also check my email jmischke@aea8.k12.ia.us

Autism

On Friday you should have received a flyer inviting you to an Early Childhood Autism Workshop in August. Please consider attending both days!

In April,our department met to discuss assignments for next year; Deb Bennett suggested that the agency provide professional development that was early childhood focused! Theresa Golden listened to "the voice" and asked me to bring in Dr. Thomas Higbee, Utah State University. Several staff from the Spencer office heard his autism presentation in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and were impressed! I went to Jerry Stremel, our department liasion and he was very supportive as well.

I understand that the timing, August 16 & 17, our first contract days, may not be ideal. Since ECSE district teachers are invited, we needed a date that was before they were back in the classroom. And the presenter needed a date prior to Aug. 30 when he is back in the classroom as well. It's not easy, coordinating a location, a date, and all the details it takes to bring in a national speaker.

Celebrate Diversity Conference

On Saturday, August 21 in Des Moines, Eight breakout sessions will explore culturally
competent teacher practices and strategies addressing a variety of issues in the area of race,diversity and early childhood. Flyer attached!

Challenging Behaviors

There are 2 excellent "free" training opportunities occurring in June that you may want to consider.The first training is in Ames on June 18 and is sponsored by the State Learning supports Team. Dr. Glen Dunlap, Child and Family Studies professor at the University of South Florida, will present “The Most Challenging Behaviors: Functional Assessment and Positive Behavior Support for Young Children.” Includes an overview of intensive, individualized interventions for children with serious challenging behaviors and the development and implementation of behavior support plans.
Intended Audience: Early childhood, lower elementary, mental health and support staff. Registration information is attached.

The second training is being held on June 25 in Ft. Dodge and is sponsored by Linking Families and Communities Empowerment. Jennifer Robers Miller. M.S. LPC presentation is "Dealing with Children with Challenging Behaviors." Registration information is attached.

vision

There have been some questions about the use of the MTI photoscreener camera and the referral process for vision and hearing. We have developed a checklist of the responsibilities of the service coordinator, audiologist,and vision specialist that will be shared with their department in May. Since we don't have another department meeting, you are responsible to read the information and ask questions to clarify the process.

I met with the vision department last week and Mary and Jean gave me their cell phone number(see attachment). If referrals come in during the summer and you need their assistance, they have asked that you call their cell phone and email them in order to ensure the timeliness of birth to three evaluations and services. The audiology department meets later this month and a similar process will be put in place for reaching them during the summer.

I have also attached a list of Infantsee Doctors and a Birth to 3 and 3 to 5 vision checklist that may assist you with local resources.

3-5 referrals

Why do so many 3-5 referrals come during the month of May? And will referrals continue to come during June, July, and August?

As you recall, the agency sent out a memo that FIE's should not be signed after April 1, in order to ensure completion of the eligibility process prior to staff leaving for the summer.

This process leaves a "gap" in services for young children. If a child is referred in May, it is likely that no services will occur before September. That is 4-5 months of "waiting."

I will continue to forward the referrals that are submitted to our agency. I would ask that you contact the parents, mail an ASQ or complete it over the phone. Please discuss the importance of the child attending a preschool in the fall and help make appropriate contacts to a district or Head Start placement. In some cases, it may be appropriate to refer to Child Health Specialty Clinic in Ft.Dodge, Spencer, or Mason City.

Recently I attended a meeting in Ft. Dodge and was informed that Catholic Social Services provides "trauma cognitive behavior therapy" to little ones. Private insurance and medicaid are billed for services.

Berry Hill, Center for Mental Health in Ft. Dodge has recently hired 2 therapist for "parent child interaction therapy." Within the next couple of months they will be taking appointments for young children as well.

Summer is a time when you must know your community resources!

Research to Practice: Early Intervention in Natural Environments

Thank you for submitting the ISU IFSP pilot information in a timely manner! The forms have been sent to the DE. Gale and I will randomly pull 5 IFSP outcomes written between the dates of May 1 and June 30 and submit them to the pilot project. This will be a way for them to measure progress on the components of a quality IFSP outcome based on the training information.

I have lots of paperwork to go through with ECO, RBI, article reviews, etc. etc. If I am missing anything, I will contact you. Grades will be submitted and available later this month.

Is there anyone that would like to participate in a grant proposal with Dr. Robin McWilliam and the Institute of Education Science and the U.S. Dept. of Education??? This is a 4 year commitment, beginning in March 2011. There will be stipends and training available for 10 service coordinators from Iowa! I can send you more information if you are interested and plan to work for the AEA for at least 5 more years!!! Contact me ASAP if interested!

Intrepreter services

Can you please send a list of any interpreters you use with families? The agency is planning to offer an in-service/training for interpreters in order to ensure their understanding of interpreting for an educational agency, confidentiality, procedures, etc. If you have NOT used an interpreter, please respond N/A.
I would need the following information:
Intrepreter's Name:
Address:
Email:
Phone:
Language they can intrepret:
Hourly Rate:

Department Meeting

Please note that we will be in Storm Lake on Tuesday, April 27 for our dept. meeting. Jerry Stremel has asked to have time on the morning agenda to "hear our voice" in regards to equity of services, moving from 6 zones to 5 zones, assignments, etc. It may be helpful to have your caseload up to date as well as have data to bring to the conversation. An agenda will come out next week.

In the afternoon, we will have a presentation on Home Visitor Safety and how to know the signs of the presence of drugs in the home. Some of our home visitor partners from other agencies will be joining us for the 1:00 presentation.

Week of the Young Child

April 11-17 is the Week of the Young Child - WOYC is an annual celebration to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. The theme of Week of the Young Child is "Early Years Are Learning Years"
Do something special to celebrate children and families!

Friday Zone Meeting

Our group had a good discussion at Friday's zone meeting on the individual goals, barriers, and solutions that were written back in October. We were able to Skype Zone 2 for a brief time! How about the rest of you? Was the time productive? Did you get some tips from one another? I should have had everyone submit a brief summary of their discussions on Basecamp. Lesson learned!

Speaking of Basecamp, some of you have requested a review of
"how to get into basecamp and document your time in the log,etc." Others have asked for some group time to explore the IFSP online Modules. So, Zone 2 & 4 decided that would be a worthy topic for the optional department meeting on Monday, March 29. Mark your calendar and plan to join us that morning from 9:15 - 10:15. A complete schedule of the days events will come out later this week.

Suspect Disability

Early ACCESS file reviews are finished;it's been fun to go to the offices and have the chance to have lunch and visit informally after completing the work! You've done such a great job with compliance issues - there is so much to remember when you complete both IFSP and IEPs.

Which brings me to the next review point. There are still questions about the use of the "suspect disability form" for those leaving Early ACCESS. I just received a "draft"document from the Department of Education that will be used to clarify the procedure and added to the revisions of the manual. Look it over; it's hot off the press!

Zone Meeting

At this time I haven't seen an agenda for Friday's zone meeting, but I would expect that department teams have time to collaborate in the afternoon.

Prior to the meeting, I will be faxing the individual goals/priorities that each of you wrote in October. March is already here - let's self examine where each of us are at on the goals/priorities set in Oct. and see what work needs to be done prior to May.

I've attached a suggested action plan to use in your small group discussion on Friday. Please adapt it to meet the needs of your group.
Zone 1 & 6, Zone 2 & 4, and Zone 3 & 5 should plan to Skype at some point during your work. Hopefully, someone in each zone is familar with Skype, if not, please ask a secretary or someone in your office to assist you in learning this new means of communication.

IFSP Outcome Modules

I was on the online IFSP Outcome site on Saturday and found it fairly easy to navigate. The information in the modules is helpful and reinforces our department work. There are many extra resources that you can click on for more information, research, etc. One of Dr. Robin McWilliam's readings on writing outcomes was listed. It appears that our focus is very similar to the state's focus for Early ACCESS providers.

One could spend a lot of time learning! I'd encourage you to check out the site soon and remember to document your "after work hours" in the time log on Basecamp for Teacher Quality money. Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions.

Extended School Year Services

During the months of March and April it is important to have those necessary conversations about Extended School Year Services, if and when appropriate, for some children.

In the procedure manual, Transition: Early ACCESS (Part C) to Special Education (Part B) it states,
A child eligible for special education must be considered for extended school year services (ESYS) as necessary for the provision of Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). ESYS are provided in accordance with the child's IEP; therefore discussion of ESYS occurs at the initial IEP meeting. If a decision to provide ESYS is made by the IEP team, the agreed upon services are documented on the IEP. [41.106]

Take time to look at the Statewide IEP Procedural Manul on pages 105-110 to understand all that's involved in determining ESYS. It's our responsibility to know the new state wide procedures!

IFSP Outcome Modules

The ISU IFSP Outcome Modules study is requesting each participant to submit 5 child outcomes as well as any family outcomes written during the time frame of July 1, 2009 - October 1, 2009. (This will give us data on how the RBI process has affected outcome writing as well.)



Gale will also be printing outcomes from the web, based on the time frame of Oct-Feb. for the study. (You are not responsible to send these, but I wanted you to be aware of this also.)



Please scan copies of 5 child outcomes as well as any family outcomes or fax them to 712-335-4600 PRIOR to March 1. Yes that means by this FRIDAY,FEB. 26!!! Sorry for the late notice!

You may scroll to the Jan. 18 blog posting to review the IFSP modules training information. More info will be coming regarding the online training which will occur in March and April!

District Infant and Toddler Programs

The DE has been working on the development of Infant/Toddler Quality Program Standards as a complement to the current IQPPS. The standards are now ready for field testing. They would like to field test the standards in a school district program and need our assistance. In order to identify districts that currently operate a district infant and/or toddler program please contact me immediately. I will contact them with more information and find out if they are interested in the field testing.

Release of the SWVPP grant application for 2010-11

Please share this information with districts you serve that may be applying for the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program Grant.

From Penny Milburn: "As you can imagine this is a very challenging legislative session for our legislators. Due to the challenges they must address DE has posted the following message on the website. Please let your districts know about the posting delay and ask them to check the website periodically. Encourage your districts to continue working on their plans for the Preschool Program."

2010-2011 Application Documents & Guidance
Posting Delay
The posting of the revised application, technical assistance guidance manual and timelines for the 2010 - 2011 Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children grant has been delayed. Please continue to refer to this website for additional information.
Districts are encouraged to review the 2009 - 2010 Application Documents & Guidance, Legal Requirements & Reports, and Guiding Practices for the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for Four-Year-Old Children at this website.

Preschool Responsibilities

Some of you were in attendance at the Zone Preschool Meetings that were set up for the districts to discuss preschool roles and responsibilities. A draft document was passed around at this meeting and input was given on the AEA and LEA common expectations. This document, (attached) has been finalized and will be included along with the district letter on Part B potential students (see blog info from last week).



The biggest change for next year - we will no longer be the IEP facilitator/casemanager for preschool children. Districts will be responsible for IEP children. This change mostly impacts small districts who do not have ECSE teachers on staff.

IED-11 Brigance

Many of you have been using the IED-11 Brigance tool. There has been a request for the updated version which has scoring for the social emotional area. Please check and see if you have the updated version; if not, to request computer software, you open the AEA manager, click on the Technical support tab, (bottom left side) and complete the request. If you let me know prior to the request, I will see if the funding comes from the zone budget or the department budget.

Update Caseload Due by Feb. 15

Believe it or not, it is time to send me your updated caseload once again. Hopefully you are keeping this updated for your own purposes and it will be simple to just forward it to me. Thanks!



With the recommendations for the new zone territories, there will likely be upcoming conversations about how the decisions made, may/may not affect your current territory! Stay tuned!

District Letters

In February, we are responsible to send information to school districts about potential children turning 3,that will be considered for Part B services during the 2010-11 school year. This information is helpful to districts in planning programming for the next school year. If you have partners service coordinating (KIDS program, CHSC, etc) you will need to include children from their roster as well. Please contact them for the information or check with Gale for accurate information. We know this date is just a "snap shot" of children we are currently serving. It is our responsibility on a regular basis to keep districts informed of potential/possible students. The format of the letter is attached; please prepare the letter on Prairie Lakes letterhead to ALL districts that are part of your assignment (even if they have no potential children for next year). Ask your secretaries to help with this task. All letters should be brought to the FEB 15 department meeting. I have an additional letter to send to each of the districts, so please DO NOT MAIL them ahead of time so I can include the enclosure.

IFSP Outcome Modules

The Department of Ed and ISU staff have been working on IFSP Outcomes module training. The purpose of the training is to improve the quality of outcomes written for children. The training has been set up as an online training and is ready to be tested. Several ECSE teachers from the AEAs are being asked to pilot the training modules. Our department goal of moving from "research to practice" has the following outcome on our rubric, "The learner demonstrates the ability to write a participation-based child-level outcome and family outcomes/goals"(Random selection of IFSP outcome page for documentation)

It appears that piloting this project would fit in nicely with our department work. It is estimated that it will take from 4-8 hours to review the modules - depending upon the time spent on extended learning activities and discussion. We would be able to complete this work during ZONE MEETING TIME and use the remainder of the time as TEACHER QUALITY HOURS! More information will be coming, please contact me if you have questions or concerns.

Disability Suspect Form

So do we need to use the new " Disability Suspected Form" for children transitioning from Part C to Part B? The Part C transition requirements in the state Early ACCESS procedural manual were written prior to the Part B transition requirements, therefore, you will not find this information clearly spelled out in either manual. (Look for a revised/updated manual in the future)... Until then...

Reference Document: IFSP Transition Plan Page - there is a Part B Consideration box (right hand top corner of page) here is where you check _ child will be referred for Part B eligibility determination, or _ Parent declined consideration for Part B eligible determination, or _ not applicable (Data indicate child not potentially Part B eligible) (Discussion occurs at transition planning meeting)

If existing IFSP data suggest child has...
1) developed age appropriate skills - no new concerns - go to community options (Disability Suspect Form is not completed)
2) developed age appropriate skills - BUT someone (parent or team member)has some concerns - go to Disability Suspect Form (after completing the disability suspected form, team may conclude - NO disability suspected and not complete an evaluation ;or team may determine YES evaluation is needed and proceed)
3) Child is not developing age appropriate skills - concerns - go to Disability Suspect Form (after completing the disability suspected form, team may likely conclude -YES evaluation is needed or NO disability is not suspected )

The purpose of the Disability Suspect Form is to give clarity to what constitutes a suspicion of a disability and to ensure that students are evaluated if there is a disability suspected. Please review the key concepts and scenarios distributed at Gary Petersen's web presentation from the November zone meeting!