Northeast Parent Centers' Assistance & Collaboration Team
Region 1 E-News
In This Issue
Message from Carolyn & Diana
Featuring...
Upcoming Events/Dates to Remember
Non-Profit Management Resources
Family-Centered Services Resources
Youth-Centered Resources
Absenteeism
Bilingual/LEP
Bullying
Child Welfare
Choice/Charter School/Virtual Schools/Voucher Programs
Cultural Competence
Data
Discipline & PBS
Dispute Resolution
Dropout Prevention
Early Childhood/Early Intervention
Education Reform
Equity
Every Student Succeeds Act
Family Support
Fatherhood
Foster Care
Grandparents as Caregivers
Health
Homelessness
Immigrant
Inclusion
Juvenile Delinquency/Juvenile Justice
LGBTQ
Mental Health
Military Families & Youth
Native American
Parent/Family Engagement (and Youth!)
Poverty
Racism
Social-Emotional Learning
Transition to Adult Life/Youth
Trauma & Toxic Stress
Quick Links
Message from Carolyn & Diana

Welcome to the 
Navigating Excellence - Parent Center Assistance and Collaboration Team (NE-PACT)!  As Co-Directors of NE-PACT, we are thrilled that we will have the opportunity to work with you over the next five years to enhance Region A parent centers' capacity to (a) reach and serve families and youth, including the most underserved; (b) strengthen parent center staff, including multilingual staff, to provide effective and appropriate outreach and service provision, especially to underserved families of children and youth with disabilities; and (c) effectively manage their nonprofit organizations, including developing their boards.  Please reach out to us
NE-PACT's TA Coordinator, at any time with your ideas, suggestions, TA requests, or for any other reason.
Featuring...

Region A includes five parent centers that have been added to our Community of Practice: Advocates for Justice and Education (DC), APNI (Puerto Rico), DRVI (VI), the Parent Information Center of DE, and Parents Place of MD, all PTIs. We are happy to share a little information about each center.
 
Advocates for Justice Education : Established in 1996, Advocates for Justice and Education (AJE) is the Parent Training and Information Center and Family to Family Health Information Center for the District of Columbia . Their mission is "to empower families, youth, and the community to be effective advocates to ensure that children and youth, particularly those who have special needs, receive access to appropriate education and health services." Their values are accountability, accessibility, and commitment to children and families. Their Executive Director is Rochanda Hiligh-Thomas.
 
APNI : Founded in 1977, APNI is the Parent Training and Information Center for Puerto Rico . Its vision is to "ensure that people with disabilities and their families are part of our society and have broad participation in all social, political, and economic areas." Its mission is to "provide information, guidance, training, services and support necessary for the protection of rights and full participation of people with disabilities in society."  Celia Galan is their Executive Director.
 
Disability Rights Virgin Islands : Also founded in 1977, the Disability Rights Center of the Virgin Islands is the Parent Training and Information Center for VI. Its vision is "a barrier free, inclusive world that values diversity, culture, and each individual." Their mission is to "advance the rights of persons with disabilities, support and empower families and provide training and information that promotes the overall health and educational development of children and youth." Amelia Lamont-Headley is their Executive Director.

Parent Information Center of Delaware:  Established in 1983, the Parent Information Center of Delaware  serves as Delaware's Parent Training and Information Center.  Their vision is "for all children to fulfill their potential to succeed."  Their mission is "to advance effective parent engagement in education. PIC is especially focused on supporting families of children with disabilities, birth-26, gain access to supports and services in their community and school to assist them with accessing their education."  Their Executive Director is Meedra Surratte.
 
Parents Place of Maryland : Established in 1990, the Parents Place of Maryland  is the Parent Training and Information Center and Family to Family Health Information Center in Maryland.  PPMD's mission is to "empower families as advocates and partners in improving education and health outcomes for their children with disabilities and special healthcare needs."  Renee Averitt-Sanzone is their Executive Director.
Upcoming Events/Dates to Remember

NE-PACT/Region A PTAC Drop-In Call, Tuesday, 11/6 at 10 am: The first NE-PACT drop in call for the new grant is scheduled for Tuesday, November 6, from 10-12 ET. Dial 877-713-0446 and use participant code 389-654-6677. On our first call, we will provide a brief overview of the technical assistance available through NE-PACT and introduce the five centers that have joined our previous region. Please let us ( diana.autin@spanadvocacy.org) , ( chayer@spanadvocacy.org) , and ( rmensah-boateng@spanadvocacy.org ) know if you have any agenda items you would like to include.
 
College & Career Readiness: Strategies to Support Students' Social and Emotional Skills, Thursday, 11/15 at 12 noon or 3 pm ET : In this interactive webinar, participants will learn strategies on leveraging teen-written stories to help students develop the social and emotional learning skills necessary for secondary school completion, college enrollment, and success in the workplace. Webinar participants will practice activities centered on teen-written stories and identify the SEL and career readiness skills (such as communication, goal-setting, and problem-solving) demonstrated by the teen author. Xavier Alvarez, the teen author of "Even When I Was Homeless, I Stayed in School," will talk about how adults provided the support he needed to excel and graduate from high school. Register for the webinar at noon , and for the webinar at 3 pm ET .
Non-Profit Management Resources 

Effectively Managing Change in Nonprofits:  Change is a constant in the non-profit sector.  Whether your organization is making a strategic change in direction, personnel, or program management, effectively communicating change to key stakeholders is critical to the success of the process.  This video will help you understand how to develop a successful change management strategy.  Watch it here.  And register (it's free!) with Nonprofit Ready to be able to access many more great nonprofit management resources like the brief video below.

Managment vs. Leadership:  The world of leadership development is blighted by fads, fiction, and falsehoods, and often blurs the differences between leadership and management.  This short video exposes some of the common myths about how we perceive leadership vs. management, and offers straightforward insight on how investing in skilled managers can transform the outcomes and success of an organization.  Watch it here.
Family-Centered Services Resources

Tips for Creating Resources for Families with Low Literacy:  This brief document provides concrete strategies to create resources that are effective for families who have low literacy.
Youth-Centered Services Resources 

Preparing Staff to Work with Immigrant Youth: This guide provides the context of the immigrant youth experience and practical tips for hiring, developing and retaining staff to work with this population. Parent Centers have both an opportunity and a responsibility to encourage and support the healthy development of the growing numbers of immigrant youth. This publication is based on hands-on experience by national and local youth organizations who do this work effectively. While the data about the numbers of immigrant youth are outdated in this publication, the tips remain relevant. 
Absenteeism

Joining Together to Create a Bold Vision for Next-General Family Engagement: Engaging Families to Transform Education:  Commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of NY, this new report reinforces the critical role of family engagement in creating equitable learning pathways for children, and offers promising high-leverage areas that can be transformative for children, families, schools, and communities.  Taking into account over 50 years of research and policy, this report identifies five promising, high-leverage areas that can serve as building blocks for the next generation of family engagement strategies: reducing chronic absenteeism, data sharing about student and school climate indicators, the academic and social development of youth in and out of school, digital media, and the critical transition periods in children's learning pathways. Read the report
Bilingual/LEP 

ELL Trends : One of the most significant recent trends in the U.S. education system is that white Non-Hispanic students are no longer the majority-a trend mainly driven by the growth in the number and percentage of Hispanic children. For early childhood educators, one of the increasing needs associated with this trend is access to appropriate education for English Language learners. Hispanic children who start kindergarten without speaking English rarely catch up with their English-speaking peers. NIEER has published a policy paper  outlining challenges facing non-English speaking families and recommending policy changes for state pre-K, including:
  • Identify the number of DLL children in state pre-K and use the data to inform policies on teacher preparation, curriculum and classroom practice
  • Screen and assess all children in their home languages
  • Communicate with families in their home languages
  • Better prepare and support teachers by offering pay premiums for bilingual specialist teachers and partnering with higher education institutions to offer specialization for teaching DLL children from preschool through Third Grade
  • Increase participation in high-quality early childhood education for DLL children
Educating English Language Learners: A Review of the Latest Research:   An article released in American Educator provides an overview of seven principles from a recent consensus report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine along with an example of how they can be applied in practice.The report, "Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures", examines what research tells us about learning English from early childhood through high school, identifies effective practices for educators, and recommends steps policymakers can take to support high-quality educational outcomes for children and youth who are learning English.The author notes these principles and practices build on findings from previous reviews on the same topic, as well as U.S. Department of Education best-evidence syntheses. Recommendations for future research are outlined and useful resources are identified. Check it out.

Young English Language Learners: A report published by New America amplifies concerns about early learning opportunities for Dual Language Learners raised in the State of Preschool Yearbooks 2017 Special Report .  "Because DLLs represent a growing segment of the U.S. population, and because the early years are so foundational to long-term success, it is important that education leaders have clear insights about these students: who and where they are, the services they receive, and how they are progressing," the New America report states. But early education policies for DLL lag the K-12 system, where children learning English are entitled by civil rights law to extra language services and federal policy requires states to determine which students qualify for extra language services. Instead, Dual Language Learner Data Gaps: The Need for Better Policies in the Early Years  notes that most states fail to collect information about the number of DLL children enrolled in state-funded pre-K or the quality of programs serving them. Without reliable and relevant data, educators cannot make informed decisions on funding, policy and programs these children need. Today, at least 25 states mandate Kindergarten Readiness Assessments (KRA), the report states, yet almost all assess children only in English, resulting in incomplete assessments of linguistic abilities and contributing to a "deficit perspective" of the DLL child. And quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) established to enhance preschool quality usually ignore DLL-specific criteria and fail to make data truly accessible for non-English-speaking families, the report states. The State of Preschool 2017 Special Report: Supporting Dual Language Learners in State-Funded Preschool  found six states with a high DLL enrollment in state preschool-California, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico and Texas-also have policies in place supporting young dual language learners. Yet several states with high populations of DLLs-including Arizona, Florida and New York-do not even track the home language of children enrolled in their state-funded preschool programs. "Due to the numbers of young DLLs in our communities, their learning outcomes have consequences for our future," said Dr. Allison Friedman-Krauss, co-author of The State of Preschool 2017. "Our report shows few states have policies supporting the quality early learning experiences these children need to thrive in kindergarten and beyond."
Bullying 


Bullying at School: Resources and the Rights of Students with Disabilities:  Students with disabilities are bullied at a higher rate than their typical peers.  October is National Bullying Prevention Month, providing a good opportunity to review information about available resources and actions families can take.
Child Welfare

Abuse & Young Children with Disabilities: A Review of the Literature:   Legislation in the United States, such as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, mandates service system collaboration to meet the complex needs of young children with disabilities who have experienced abuse. This literature review examines extant literature related to young children with disabilities who have experienced abuse. Gaps in the literature are identified and future directions are discussed.  

Uplifting Every Voice: Changing the Perception of Parents Created by the Child Welfare System: Read this story of how one parent "spoke truth to power" in the child welfare system.
Choice/Charter Schools/Virtual Schools/Voucher Programs

Senators Push GAO to Investigate Virtual Charter Schools:  Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Patty Murray have called on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate full time virtual charter schools.  Both senators pointed to data showing that students enrolled in virtual charter schools perform worse than their peers and there's little research providing that they adequately serve students with disabilities or English language learners.  The schools typically have high student-to-teacher ratios and there's little financial accountability and transparency, the senators wrote.  Meanwhile, virtual charter school operators like K12 Inc. spend tens of millions of dollars compensating their top executives and on advertising, the senators write.  Brown - who represents Ohio, where the massive virtual school ECOT closed earlier this year - and Murray are asking GAO to investigate how virtual charter schools recruit students and verity student enrollment and participation.  They also want the government watchdog to explore academic outcomes for students and how much federal, state and local funding virtual charter schools receive.  The letter comes at the same time as a report from the Center for American Progress detailing the poor performance and financial practices of virtual charter schools.  The report notes that for-profit virtual charter schools typically graduate about half of their students, placing them among the lowest-performing schools in their state.
Cultural Competence

Culturally Relevant Curriculum and Culturally Responsive Schools Toolkit:  The West Dayton Youth Taskforce, Racial Justice NOW!, and the Dignity in Schools Campaign are developing a culturally relevant curriculum and culturally responsive schools toolkit.  Check it out.
Data

Got Data?  Implications of Variation in Access to State Data: Recently, Chalkbeat highlighted North Carolina as the source of a disproportionate  share of education  research, thanks to extensive-and accessible--state education data .  The result, according to Matt Barnum, is "a troubling reality: We know much less about how policies play out in places where data is hard to access - and in some cases, may be kept under lock and key for political reasons. That leaves the public to take the best lessons it can from a state that's home to just 3 percent of the country's public school students."  The data is available through a Duke University research center-an objective third party with no obvious political or policy agenda. Too often, Barnum asserts, concern about "unflattering conclusions" prevents release of data or even its collection.  From Washington DC  to California , calls are being made for improving access to data. Last year, a Data Quality Campaign report  criticized state school "report cards" as difficult to find and understand, saying "everyone deserves to know how their public schools are doing... It shouldn't be this hard."   On a federal level, the national Commission on Evidence-based Policymaking last year issued its final report  calling for Congress and the White House to modernize the country's infrastructure for collecting and protecting data 
Discipline & Positive Behavior Supports

Dignity in Schools!   In this interview, Tafari Melisizwe discusses the work being done in the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC), a national coalition working toward eliminating school pushout and the school-to-prison pipeline.  Through advocacy work and action planning, the DSC strives to create a school environment in which students can excel and thrive.  Read the interview.
Dispute Resolution

Early Intervention Procedural Safeguards:  The Early Childhood TA Center (ECTA) has updated their resources on procedural safeguards in early intervention.  They have a specific page dedicated to EI procedural safeguards guidance.  CADRE also has a page dedicated to their Part C Dispute Resolution workgroup.
Dropout Prevention

Solutions to the Dropout Crisis : If you missed the award-winning Solutions to the Dropout Crisis Magazine, here's a chance to view it. The webcast, composed of two 30-minute episodes hosted by NDPC Director Dr. Sandy Addis, is also available for download in separate segments. The first Solutions to the Dropout Crisis Magazine episode brings together a faith-based community initiative, a research leader, and a business leader in three 7-minute segments that illustrate examples of collaboration and present ideas for consideration. The second 30-minute episode, which received a film industry Telly award, focuses on the case for trauma-skilled instruction and how emotional and physical trauma affect students' performance and can lead to students' dropping out.  Personal examples show that fostering healing, change, and growth through trauma-skilled instruction leads to increased opportunities for educational and personal success. View the webinar.
Early Childhood/Early Intervention 

Child Care Aware of America's 2018 State Fact Sheets:   Child Care Aware® of America has published its most recent set of fact sheets illustrating the unique child care landscape in each state. State fact sheet statistics are calculated from federal databases and state-level information collected annually from Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies as well as survey data.  Each state fact sheet includes child care facts, including data on infants, toddlers, and young children; the supply of child care; the cost of child care; and the child care workforce. They also describe services provided by and the role of CCR&Rs in each state as well as participation in state initiatives for quality, health and wellness, family engagement, and emergency preparation.  Find your state information
Education Reform

Building Assets, Reducing Risks:  The Building Assets, Reducing Risks program (BARR) is a strategy that is being used across high schools to better engage and improve student outcomes.  Its eight core strategies including focus on the whole student, prioritize social and emotional learning, provide professional development for all staff, create teams of students, give teachers time to talk about the students on their respective teams, engage families, engage administrators, and meet to discuss the highest-risk students.  Find out more.
Equity

Equity and Early Childhood: At the time they enter kindergarten, many young children face gaps that exist - by income, race/ethnicity, language and culture - in child outcomes and opportunities, as well as in system capacity and response.  Closing these gaps is fundamental to the success of each child and of the US as a nation.  The following resources and help expand a focus on equity in early childhood systems:  Think Equity: Resources for Focusing on Equity When Promoting Investments in Pre-K ,  and Fostering Equity Through Educator and Family Empowerment.
Every Student Succeeds Act

Report on ESSA Equity Indicators Released The Learning Policy Institute has released a  report  titled "Making ESSA's Equity Promise Real: State Strategies to Close the Opportunity Gap" on the use of suspension rates, school climate, chronic absenteeism, extended-year graduation rate, and access to a college-and career-ready curricula in their accountability systems under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Students with disabilities face disparities on all five of these measures. Find out if your state is using these factors in its accountability system with these interactive maps.  
Family Support

Family Support Improves Child Outcomes:  A report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation underscores that enhancing supports for parents can improve outcomes for children.  The odds are stacked against children born to teens or parents ill-equipped to provide financial and emotional stability.  The Opening Doors for Young Parents report warns that "we cannot change these odds by solely focusing on children when their lives are indelibly shaped by the adults raising them."  While this may be an overstatement, there is no doubt that supports for parents can improve the lives and development of young children.  The report makes several recommendations for federal and state policymakers to support economic and family stability for young parents struggling to "earn, learn and raise a family," such as pairing education and training, transportation and housing assistance for at-risk parents with subsidies for high-quality, flexible child care and preschool.  States are urged to use a recent increase in the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) to assist young parents seeking high-quality, affordable infant and toddler care.  States also should allow higher education and vocational programs to count toward completing any benefit program work requirements.  Earlier this year, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released the Early Childhood is Critical to Health Equity report, which also called for viewing child outcomes through a wider lens.  "Supporting children requires supporting families," the report noted.  "Improving health equity in early childhood requires reducing poverty in households with children, which may require different strategies than those that focus on services for children alone."
Fatherhood

The Role of Father Parenting in Children's School Readiness: A Longitudinal Follow-Up:   A new paper published in the Journal of Family Psychology reports on a longitudinal follow-up examining the bidirectional relations between father parenting and child executive function/school readiness across the preschool period. Authors note that while mother autonomy support has been shown to predict child executive function (EF) and school readiness, little is known about the influence of father parenting on these child outcomes.Authors found the relationship of father autonomy support to child executive function is similar to what has been found with mothers. They further suggest that physical play may be an important context for father influence on child outcomes.  Read more.
Foster Care

Legal Center for Foster Care & Special Education: The American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law has a Legal Center for Foster Care and Education that includes information and resources relating to foster care and special education, including the rights of foster parents in special education decisions.  Read more.
Grandparents as Caregivers

Supporting Kinship Caregivers:   Check out this podcast series on Supporting Kinship Caregivers from the Child Welfare Information Gateway Click here  for your state kinship care contact information and resources.
Health

Leveraging Early Care & Education to Improve Health:  The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recently published a summary of its workshop exploring how health care and early education interact to influence child development, recognizing birth through age 5 as a unique opportunity to enhance longer-term outcomes.  Exploring Early Childhood Care and Education Levers to Improve Population Health: Proceedings of a Workshop notes that roughly 60 percent of children birth to 5 spend at least part of their days out-of-home or under non-parental care, so early learning programs can connect with families as a convenient and trusted resource for information and support.  "By weaving health promotion, preventive care, health literacy, and health care coordination into early care and education environments and making it easier for both health care providers and early care and education providers to coordinate and cooperate through policy levers, we can change the health status of entire geographies of children," said Debbie Chang, the senior vice president of policy and prevention at Nemours Children's Health System.  Participants discussed letting the health sector take more of a leadership role in early childhood system building, a need to create "a shared language across public health, medical field, and education fields" to encourage collaboration and communicate about desirable outcomes, and whether paying family members to stay home and care for children birth to 3 as a job might improve child outcomes.  Improving child health is a key goal of quality early childhood programs.  With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIEER recently launched a multi-year study to see how preschool policies and practices at school district, school, and classroom levels influence child development and health.  They hope to share new insights about how preschool policy and practice affect children's physical activity, and how the level of activity influences physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development.  Click here for a closer look at their work so far.
Homelessness

Impact of Homelessness on School Readiness Skills and Early Academic Achievement:  A Systematic Review of the Literature:   A systematic research review published in Early Childhood Journal examined the impact of homelessness on young children's school readiness skills in preschool and academic performance in early elementary school. Fourteen studies were identified that included data exploring this association in preschool through Grade 3.  Researchers report that children experiencing homelessness have lower school readiness skills and academic achievement compared to the general population of children. However, researchers could not conclude whether children experiencing homelessness perform lower than socio-demographically matched housed children. They further report that most large studies found children experiencing homelessness had lower academic performance than housed low-income children. However, fewer than half of small studies found support for this association.  Authors conclude that good school attendance, high-quality parenting, self-regulation, and early education are among several potential protective factors discussed in the literature that may lessen the negative impact of homelessness on school readiness skills and academic achievement in early elementary school.  Check it out.
Immigrant 

Pathways to Opportunities:  Promising Practices for Immigrant Children, Youth and their Families:  In this report, the authors consider promising practices for addressing the challenge of integrating immigrant children, youth, and their families into their new societies.  Mass migration is touching every corner of the earth.  For some countries, the story of immigration is as old as their founding; for others, the experience of receiving large numbers of foreigners is entirely novel.  Immigrant populations vary dramatically across countries in their number and proportion and in their geographical, national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic origins.  At the same time, there is a convergence of experience among various nation-states, as the steady flow of migrants across the borders and into the institutional and social structures of society demands a public response.  Developing and sharing best practices to meet the needs of immigrant families and their children and to support their successful integration into their new societies is no longer an option but is essential for economic development and social cohesion.  Read the report.
Inclusion

Intelligent Lives:  Inclusive Schools Week is a proud partner with INTELLIGENT LIVES, the groundbreaking new documentary by Dan Habib.  Narrated by Academy-award winning actor Chris Cooper, the film stars three pioneering young adults with intellectual disabilities - Micah, Naieer, and Naomie - who challenge perceptions of intelligence as they navigate high school, college, and the workforce.  The film can now be screened in every community across the USA - host your own screening for Inclusive Schools Week!  Intelligent Lives can help you advocate for change, raise funds for your organizations, and open doors to inclusive education and employment for people of ALL abilities.  Watch the film trailer and learn how to host a screening in your community.
Juvenile Delinquency/Juvenile Justice

Is it Enough? Youth Who Remain in Adult Facilities Are Still At Risk After the Implementation of PREA's Youthful Inmate Standard For Youth Justice Action Month (YJAM) (October), the Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ) released its report, " Is it Enough: Implementation of PREA's Youthful Inmate Standard " in recognition of the 15th Anniversary of the  Prison Rape Elimination Act  (PREA).  PREA is a federal law enacted to address the problem of sexual assault and rape in U.S. detention centers, jails, lock ups, and prisons. Regulations for the law specifically address one of the most vulnerable populations in adult jails and prisons, youth under age 18.  PREA's  Youthful Inmate Standard  was developed to create a minimum standard that protects youth in adult facilities from being raped or sexually assaulted by requiring that youth are held in housing where they are sight and sound separated from adults. The standard also requires supervision when youth are outside of housing units with incarcerated adults. The challenges associated with keeping youth sight and sound separated under the standard has helped contribute to a  growing number  of state legislatures passing bills to create a presumption or a requirement that youth under 18 are held in juvenile placements even when they are prosecuted as adults.  However, for the youth who remain in adult facilities, there are ongoing limitations associated with implementation of the law.  In light of the 15th Anniversary of PREA, the CFYJ reviewed over 800 audits of adult correctional facilities, with a focus on the first complete audit cycle, to identify how the facilities are complying with the Youthful Inmate Standard.  After examining the PREA audits, CFYJ found that generally even facilities that exceeded the Youthful Inmate Standard were providing basic necessities that could be better provided in a juvenile facility where youth would have greater access to educational and vocational programs.   Compliance with the Youthful Inmate Standard is costly for many states, especially as states struggle to retain qualified correctional officers to staff these facilities.  As a result, a growing number of states and localities are finding alternatives to adult facilities for youth. The number of youth in adult jails on any given night has declined by over 50 percent from 2000 to 2016 according to data from the  Bureau of Justice Statistics  CFYJ finds, until areas of the law and regulations are strengthened, the vulnerable populations the law seeks to protect, particularly youth, will continue to experience elevated risks of abuse.
LGBTQ

Conditions Worsen for Trans-Gender Students:  A new report from GLSEN, a national advocacy group for LGBTQ students, suggests progress has slowed when it comes to making schools more inclusive environments for transgender and gender-nonconforming students.  GLSEN's report is based on its National School Climate Survey.  It found that after years of decline, the frequency of students reporting verbal harassment based on gender expression - which is how individuals express their gender identity, in how they look, dress or behave - went up between 2015 and 2017.  The frequency of students reporting verbal harassment based on sexual orientation did not change in that time, but reports of physical harassment and assault based on sexual orientation trended downward.  Altogether, the survey found 70 percent of LGBTQ students experienced verbal harassment at school based on sexual orientation, while 59 percent did so based on gender expression.  More than 56 percent of students reported hearing homophobic remarks from teachers or staff, while 71 percent of reported hearing negative remarks about gender expression from teachers or staff.  Joseph Kosciw, GLSEN chief research and strategy officer, said in a statement that the U.S. has seen "great progress" on the issue over the last decade.  "Unfortunately, in 2017, that continued progress has slowed, and in some cases, we see no change at all," Kosciw said.  "Worse still, our findings indicate that many schools have become even more hostile towards transgender and gender nonconforming youth."  The survey was conducted online with a final sample of 23,001 students between the ages of 13 and 21.  The survey includes students from the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.

Could Open Educational Resources Help LGBTQ Students?   LGBTQ students often have dramatically different school experiences than their peers.  In many cases, they face hostility from teachers and students, discriminatory school policies, and have access to few in-school supports.  To compound this, they are not taught material that reflects, represents, or validates their identity.  As a result, they are less engaged in school, graduate at lower rates, and face much higher rates of mental health conditions than their counterparts.  Though more and more schools are beginning to recognize this problem, there is little guidance and few resources.  Check out this blog series that explores the possibilities for creating and implementing LGBTQ-inclusive curricula as a critical step in improving outcomes, with a focus on leveraging open educational resources.  The blog series explores how OER, which are designed to be easily updated and shared, could provide a new approach to creating more inclusive learning materials and equitable learning environments.
Mental Health

Why Principals Need to Make Student Mental Health a Priority:  With a decline in school psychologists and a rise in mental-health support needed, this article discusses a three-tiered approach principals can take to address mental health issues within their schools.  The article also shares practical tips and strategies principals with limited resources can utilize. 
Military Families & Youth

Parents Need to Know the Military-Connected Children's Educational Bill of Rights:  Military-connected children have educational rights.  They may not be called educational rights in any law or policy, but the intent behind the Military Children's Interstate Compact Commission (MIC3) is the same - a fair treatment of military-connected kids in public schools.
Native American

A Portrait of American Indian and Alaska Native Children and Families:  A brief recently published by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, ACF provides a snapshot of indicators of need and potential unmet need for early childhood services, based on the 2010-2014 American Community Survey.  The report shows a majority of AI/AN young children live with a parent, most young children live in households with a working adult, and most have health insurance. However, almost one-third live in households at or below the FPL and participation in preschool and nursery school is low, at 21 percent, despite a high rate of adult employment. Additionally, few AI/AN mothers received home visiting services.  Intended as a "first step" in understanding the characteristics of AI/AN young children and their families, the brief states that more research is needed to understand the service provisions, availability, and barriers to supporting these families.  Read more
Parent/Family Engagement (and Youth!)

Families are Fundamental: Takeaways from the National Center for Families Learning Conference:  For those who were unable to attend the National Center for Families Learning Conference, check out this article for great insights from an array of experts on strategies and efforts for connecting and engaging both child and parent or caretaker with learning and personal growth.

5 Strategies for a Successful Parent-Teacher Conference:  Parent-Teacher conferences can be stressful for all parties involved, but it doesn't have to be. Check out this article to learn top challenges facing teachers and parents and solutions to overcome them.

How African American Mothers from Urban, Low-Income Backgrounds Support Their Children's Kindergarten Transition:  Qualitative Findings:   A new study in  Early Childhood Education Journal  utilized qualitative interviews to explore how 20 mothers from urban, low-income African American backgrounds facilitated their Head Start preschoolers' transition to kindergarten. Researchers found that, despite possessing parental/family risk factors associated with ineffective kindergarten transitions, mothers monitored and assessed their children's academic and socio-emotional school readiness abilities and promoted readiness competencies while addressing readiness weaknesses.  Researchers further report that one of the ways mothers supported children's transition readiness was through one-on-one conversations with preschoolers. Researchers suggest that Head Start can assist families and children prior to kindergarten and continue to serve as a link between families, children and elementary schools, as the transition to kindergarten is not only a critical milestone in children's lives, but has implications for academic and future life success.  Read more .

Family Feedback and Programmatic Decision-Making: Responsiveness of Early Childhood Administrators:   A new study released in the  Early Childhood Education Journa l examined families' rated level of satisfaction with and open-ended comments on eight aspects of a birth-five child care program in the Northeast United States. These included class environment, teacher-teacher interactions, teacher-child interactions, teacher-family interactions in an anonymous end-of-year survey.   Program administrators then participated in a 90-min focus group to discuss aggregated findings. Content analysis revealed noteworthy insights regarding initial reactions and proposed recommendations.  Researchers stress the importance of seeking anonymous feedback from families, allotting dedicated time to reflect on and address concerns and notifying families of specifically how their input is being used to inform programmatic improvements .  (Emphasis added).  See the study .

Will this Program Work Here? Assessing Feasibility :  Family involvement programs can look great on paper and yet fail miserably.  Programs can have defined goals, a well-defined time frame and program structure, research-based curricula, proven results for a specific target population, and still fail to produce the positive outcomes we expect.  Why do some well-designed intervention programs fail?  One common reason is implementation.  Read more
Poverty

Child Care Remains Unaffordable for Many Families: Families across the country spent on average more than 10 percent of their annual household income on the cost of care for one child, a figure that rises to 37 percent for single parents, according to a  new report from Child Care Aware of America.  The advocacy group found that in 2017, the cost of center-based child care for an infant exceeded the cost of food and transportation in all regions across the U.S. In 28 states, the expense exceeded the cost of tuition at a four-year public college. For families paying for care for two young children, the expense exceeded mortgage payments in 35 states and D.C.  Child Care Aware of America found center-based care for infants to be least affordable in California, while center-based care for toddlers was least affordable in Massachusetts. Utah, Oregon, Minnesota, New York, Washington and Hawaii rank as the most affordable states for infant and toddler care. "Quality, affordable child care should be available and accessible to all children in the U.S. - regardless of age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or geographic location," said Lynette M. Fraga, executive director of Child Care Aware of America, in a statement. "Since 60 percent of children under age six have both parents in the workforce and working mothers make up 40 percent of the workforce, the lack of access to quality, affordable care hurts most children and all communities."  
Racism
 
How Well-Intentioned White Families Can Perpetuate Racism:  Check out this interview with sociologist Margaret Hagerman about her research into how white children learn about race
Social-Emotional Learning

Teens Share How They Found Strength Even in Difficult Situations:  Why do terrible hardships derail some people while others are able to carry on? Where does that strength come from? In this issue of  Represent, writers demonstrate their resilience even in circumstances where many would have given up. In two of the most harrowing stories, " She Couldn't Make Me Hate My Brother" and " Saving Myself and My Sister", it's the love of a sibling that pulls the writer through terrible abuse. Other writers find their power in making art, getting good grades, earning money, forgiving an abusive mother, coming out of the closet, and talking to an accepting therapist.  As always, writers describe treatment that enrages and saddens the reader, but we try to emphasize, through the stories and the accompanying discussion activiities, how they overcame and even thrived.  See For Staff: Group Activities for Youth.
 
SEL Skills as the Core of All Content:   Social and emotional learning (SEL) skills aren't core content, but they're the core of all content. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), these skills include how to "understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions."  Implementing SEL and teaching character aren't without challenges or debates. There's a lack of consensus about how we measure SEL skills (and whether we should or even can), how technology fits into SEL instruction, and whether you can truly "teach" character. A few things are clear, however: SEL is important, teachers value it, and digital technology is part of our lives. Explore the topics below to learn more about character strengths like empathy, find actionable activities and edtech tools for the classroom, and discover ways to involve families in SEL learning.
Transition to Adult Life/Youth

Job Accommodation Network Ticket to Work Blogs:  The Job Accommodations Network (JAN) contributed two posts to the Social Security Administration's (SSA) Ticket to Work blog, both penned by Melanie Whetzel, lead consultant on JAN's Cognitive/Neurological Team.  In " Talking about Disability Disclosure," Whetzel discusses the three main reasons that employees and job applicants might disclose a disability in the workplace or for the application process.  In " How to Request Accommodations," she provides guidance on how to disclose a disability and request accommodations.

Legal Landscape for Preparing Youth for Employment Webinar Now Available : NCWD/Youth's recorded webinar entitled "What School Leaders Need to Know" is now available online.  Based upon content from a brief published by the Institute for Educational Leadership , the webinar explains the changing legal landscape for preparing transition-age youth with disabilities for employment. School leaders may find it useful for understanding their responsibilities under recent case law to prepare youth with disabilities for work and careers. Students, families, vocational rehabilitation and developmental disability agency personnel, and community rehabilitation providers may also benefit from this overview.
 
NCWD/Youth Releases Brief on Professional Development for WIOA Youth Providers:  NCWD/Youth's new brief, "Professional Development Needs Among WIOA Youth Service Professionals", examines what professional development (PD) youth service providers are receiving and recommends strategies and resources for expanding front-line staff development. Youth service providers indicate that some of their top PD needs include training on how to recruit and retain out-of-school youth, how to develop, place, and support youth in work experiences, and how to serve youth with disabilities, including youth with the most significant disabilities.
Trauma & Toxic Stress

Six Guiding Principles to a Trauma-Informed Approach: Check out this infographic on the six guiding principles to a trauma-informed approach: Safety à Trustworthiness and Transparency à Peer Support à Collaboration and Mutuality à Empowerment Voice and Choice à Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues.
 
Toxic Stress and Children: Evidence of Consequences: Check out this collection of articles on the consequences of toxic stress on children . The articles are divided into four areas: Adverse Childhood Experiences, Immigrant, Co-Morbid Conditions and Vulnerable Populations, and Effect of Parents' Adverse Experiences.
ABOUT THE REGION 1 PARENT TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER  
The Navigating Excellence-Parent Assistance and Collaboration Team (NE-PACT), the Region 1 Technical Assistance Center, provides technical assistance to federally-funded parent centers -- Parent Training and Information Centers (PTIs) and Community Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs) - NEPACT Logolocated in the states of CT-AFCAMP   CT-CPAC , DC-AJEDE-PIC, MD-PPMD,   ME-MPF , MA-FCSN , NH-PIC , NJ-SPAN , NJ-ASCF NY-AFC , NY-CIDA, NY-LIAC  NY-UWS ,    NY-Starbridge ,   NY-INCLUDEnyc ,   NY-Sinergia , NY-PNWNY , PA-HUNE, PA- ME, PA-PEAL, PR-APNI RI-RIPIN , VI-DRVI and VT-VFN .  These Parent Centers are independent non-profit organizations. We also provide support to emerging parent centers and parent organizations serving families of children with or at risk of being identified as having disabilities. In addition, we work with early intervention and education agencies (local, state and federal level) seeking information regarding best practices in involving parents of children with disabilities in systems improvement.
The center activities are specifically designed to:
  • Enhance the capacity of parent centers to provide effective services to families of children with special needs and to work effectively with their states to improve special education and early intervention systems; and,
  • Facilitate their connections to the larger technical assistance network that supports research-based training, including educating parents about effective practices that improve results for children with disabilities. For more information click here.