Iowa Family & Educator Partnership Newsletter
Learn More About the IA Family & Educator Partnership & Access Resources at
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FAMILY AND EDUCATOR PARTNERSHIP RESOURCES
Welcome to a new school year filled with new beginnings and new opportunities! The Family and Educator Partnership is here to help you get off to a great start by providing materials to help improve family engagement in special education.
Research indicates family engagement can lead to higher grades and test scores, improved attendance and better behavior. And yet, most teachers share with us that they find it challenging to connect with families. Let us help!
We have assembled a file box for each building, filled with materials to help families understand and engage in the special education process. These will be distributed over the next month. We have recommended storing these resources in the room where IEP meetings are most commonly held. As questions or concerns come up with families, you will have the appropriate resource to share. Have a family questioning if a special education evaluation is the right path for their student? Share the Child Find document with them. Is a child new to services in the area of behavior? Share the Functional Behavior Assessment &/or Behavior Intervention Plan booklets with the family. Sending out a meeting notice? Include a copy of ‘What to Expect at an IEP Meeting’. Have a family who needs more resources or is having a difficult time understanding the special education process? Share the FEP brochure with the family so they can reach out to us. The resources in the box have limitless possibilities and you can find suggested uses on the chart also enclosed in the materials.
We hope that you will use these materials to help families be more engaged and continue to use them for years to come. Unfortunately, we are not able to keep up with all of the printing demands. If your school would like to order more please go to https://aeacreativeservices.org/. Once logged in you will click on ‘start your order’ near the top. In the ‘Search Products’ box type ‘FEP’. From there you should see a list of all of the family engagement materials.
We hope you will find these materials helpful. If we can be of any assistance to your team, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Register for the Free Iowa BEST Summit 2021
Nov. 2-3, 2021
Iowa Events Center, Des Moines
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The Iowa BEST: Behavioral, Equitable, Social-Emotional, Trauma-Informed Health in Schools Summit is designed to highlight our collective need to bolster support and care across our educational system, and to build our shared capacity to get there. Attendees will receive valuable information, resources and practical solutions around social-emotional-behavioral health.
Focus areas:
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Social-Emotional-Behavioral Health (SEBH) provides strategies and evidence-based practices around SEBH for all learners and stakeholders in an MTSS Framework.
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Family and Student Voice provides rich learning to improve and sustain family and community engagement to benefit all learners, birth-21 and engage student voice within an MTSS framework
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Accelerating Learning provides strategies and evidence-based practices around accelerating learning and closing achievement gaps for all learners in an MTSS framework.
The summit is co-sponsored by the Iowa Department of Education and the University of Iowa College of Education.
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Upcoming Family Engagement Conferences
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Free training/groups specifically for Mom's or Dad's. The groups will be held via zoom. Although this funding is for Jefferson, Keokuk, Van Buren & Washington County anyone from another area can join. We also have numerous groups that cover several topics. For more information about this group, another or to register please contact Bradley Pothoven, Fatherhood Coor. at 641-455-4359 or bradleyp@cfiowa.org
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*** NEW this year ***
GP Transition Community Network
Monthly zoom sessions will be open to Great Prairie LEA and AEA staff, with a focus on timely Secondary Transition related topics. Time will be built in for participants to collaborate with each other so please bring your ideas to share. Participants are encouraged to attend all or part of the sessions, based on availability each day.
Mark your calendars! Transition Community Network sessions will be hosted on zoom from 11:30 - 12:30 on October 12, November 9, December 14, 2021.
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Would you like to know more about the FEP program and the service we offer? Click on this link to watch a short, informational video about some of the services we can provide for families & educators.
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For more information on Special Education guidance, resources and procedures, please visit the
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Understanding Special Education- in Spanish
The Iowa Family & Educator Partnership is committed to helping families and educators better understand the special education process. To do this, we offer printed and electronic materials on a variety of special education topics. Some of the pamphlets are also offered in Spanish. Click on the documents below to learn more about them.
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This brochure will help explain FEP supports and services available to families & educators through the IA Family & Educator Partnership.
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This document will help families prepare for an IEP meeting. It offers guidance on what to expect before, during and after the meeting.
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Child Find is the process used to determine if a child needs special education services and supports. This brochure will help you understand the what, how, when and more in reguards to the child find process.
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All of these documents and more are also available at:
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Do you know others that would benefit from this
newsletter? Please forward it to them!
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Great Prairie AEA | 800-622-0027 | www.gpaea.org |
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STAY CONNECTED WITH GPAEA |
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Great Prairie Area Education Agency works as an educational partner with public and accredited, nonpublic schools to help students, school staff, parents and communities. Great Prairie AEA provides professional development and leadership to promote school improvement, a variety of instructional services, special education support services, and technology and media services. It is the policy of the Great Prairie Education Agency not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, creed, age (for employment), marital status (for programs), sexual orientation, gender identity and socioeconomic status (for programs) in its educational programs and its employment practices. There is a grievance procedure for processing complaints of discrimination. If you have questions or a grievance related to this policy please contact Greg Manske, 3601 West Avenue, Burlington, IA 52601, (319) 753-6561 x1217, greg.manske@gpaea.org (employment practices) or Deb Cook, 2814 N. Court Street, Ottumwa, IA 52501, (641) 682-8591 x5324, deb.cook@gpaea.org (educational programs). |
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