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Parents School Survey 2021-2022

 

As the 2021-2022 school year comes to a close we are doing a parent survey to help guild our special education advocacy team as they plan for next school year. 

Your responses can help us identify concerns or highlight programs that are doing amazing work but not receiving the recognition they deserve .

Whats the numbers on childhood disabilities?

 

Have you wondered how many children are impacted by a disability in our community?

This is some of the local schools special education numbers in 2021 from the Indiana department of education. For a student to receive special education services under an Individualized Education Program the student has to have a disability that is impacting their education.

To learn how to support Community Inclusion Ambassadors inc. please visit Supporting Community Inclusion Ambassadors

Thank you for making Sensory Easter possible

Thank you for making Sensory Easter possible. 

 We want to thank our communities for helping make programs like Sensory Friendly Easter possible in our area.  We had a Easter bunny trail, crafts, the Easter Bunny, and if families wanted some snacks where available. 

Sensory Friendly Easter is part of our Sensory Friendly Activities Program that helps families rising children with a disability or special need to have activity that is calmer for children, and adjustable for individual needs so that families can enjoy the events. With the help of a local photography families are able to enjoy the activities and get links to their families photo after the events. 

A Special Thank you to our community partners at: Amazon.com, Old National Bank, Walmart Paoli, ReC2Photography   (Ralph Carter) River's Edge Fellowship Church 

Community Inclusion Ambassadors Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit that works to make the community inclusive for families caring for a child or young adult with special needs.  If you would like to support our works please visit https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/3998069 to donate or if you would like to learn how you can help please contact us by Call or Text to (812) 329-0216 .

Whats the Numbers in Autism Mean

Whats the Numbers in Autism Mean

 Their has been a lot of post about Autism with varying numbers so our Board president wanted to look at the facts and share the numbers. 

First lets look at the 1.  

That is a someones son or daughter. 

A grandchild 

A niece or nephew. 

A member of our community.

A student in our schools.

That 1 means the world to their family and close friends. 

Please understand that when it says 2018 its 1 in 44 they are looking at a only children born in the year 2010.  This is how the numbers shown have been done by the CDC since the start.  Its also important to understand this is based from the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring sites.  The last report in 2018 was based off 11 reporting sites. the 1 in 44 is an average with the sites. meaning some areas have higher rates and some will be lower. (  1 in 60 children in Missouri to 3.9%  or 1 in 26 children in California.)

Sources: 

 CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/addm.html

Please Consider supporting Community Inclusion Ambassadors mission to help families caring for children with disabilities in our communities. https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/3998069

Sensory Friendly Easter 2022

 

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Indiana Education Impact Alerts 2/01/2022

 Indiana Education Impact Alerts

(This is a short summary focused on impacts to students with disabilities please read the full bill for more information. This is the views of one Special education advocate and not that of Community Inclusion Ambassadors Inc. )

House Bill 1107 - http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/house/1107#digest-heading

Special Education Impact Areas for House Bill 1107: 

1. Turning the burden of proof from the parents to the schools. Currently parents have to prove that the school didn’t provide FAPE. If this passes the school will now have to prove how they provide FAPE to the student.  

2. Requiring schools to have training on Bullying for all staff and volunteers. 

3. Provides that a public agency shall not require, as part of a resolution of a due process hearing or a dispute relating to the provision of special education services to a particular student, that a parent of a student or an emancipated student enter into a nondisclosure, nondisparagement, or confidentiality agreement or clause. ( This means no more forcing families to be quiet about the injustice and mistreatment of special education students in schools. Currently many times a special education dispute is resolved before a hearing and the local school district will require a non disclosure before they will provide the needed services for a student. If the family does not sign then the process could drag out years without the student receiving critical educational services.  )

House Bill 1134 and Senate Bill 167 

HB1134- http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/house/1134#document-7671e6e6 

SB167-  http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/senate/167#document-859f4618 

Special Education Impact Areas for 1134 and 167: 

1. There is a section about psychological services to a student.  This is concerning as Psychological services are a related service under IDEA ( Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)  If a student is in need of this type of services the school would need to start child find and develop an IEP to full meet the students needs with Supports, IEP related Services( psychological services) and Developing IEP goals to help the student. 

2. This is being marketed to families as a “share your lesson plans with parents” Bills. ( We currently have laws that require children to get daily physical activity in school yet we have schools refusing to follow this law. It's hard to believe these bills will help families and teachers. We need the state to develop resources on making programs and systems to streamline communication for educators and parents ie: parent portals that truly allow families to see the homework assignments and access online textbooks and communicate with teachers so that families can help our students with an easy user interface. We need the burdens of administration work back onto the school administration not on the frontline classroom educators. )

3. These bills cover a large area of issues and it's concerning that some of the issues are not addressed as free standing bills to better serve the children of Indiana.