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Navigating Excellence - Parent Center Assistance & Collaboration Team
Region A E-News
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Message From Diana & Michele |
As Parent Centers, everything we do makes a difference. It makes a difference in the life of an individual child. It makes a difference in the life of their family. It makes a difference in their community. And it makes a difference in how systems operate. Thank you for making a difference!
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Puppets in Education, a program of Vermont Family Network (VFN): This program, which is in its 41st year, teaches children how to keep themselves safe and healthy and to appreciate each other’s differences. We do this through educational programs for children and adults that utilize life-sized puppets who model effective leadership and problem-solving skills and demonstrate respect, compassion and inclusion in a diverse community. Learn more here.
Metropolitan Parent Center at Sinergia: Managing Test Anxiety for Parents: May is Mental Health Awareness month, and for youth and young adults, testing for colleges, end-of-the-year assessments, and final exams are here, and can bring adverse effects on their mental health. In this presentation, young adults who are mental health professionals prepare to provide resources and facilitate conversations around managing test anxiety to families, parents, and youth. Special shout-out to Tatiana Calderon, Autism Initiative Coordinator, Metropolitan Parent Center at Sinergia, a supporting Region A Youth Leadership Council member facilitating this event. Watch here.
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Upcoming Events/Dates to Remember |
Region A June Drop-In Call: The next Drop-in call will take place on Tuesday, June 6th, 10:00 am - 12:00pm, ET. Our featured technical assistance presenter will be Michele Tyler and Myriam Alizo from The Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR). They will discuss NEW updates to the eLearning Hub and CentersConnect and how these resources will assist Parent Center staff. Let us know if you have any agenda items. Join the Drop-in call.
Building Protective Communities for Black Children and Families: Please join Child Trends on June 13th at 2 pm for a webinar on building and sustaining protective communities for Black children and their families. Communities play a critical role in children’s development and well-being, across all ages and developmental stages. Child Trends aims to contribute to national and local conversations about ways to ensure that Black children and families have access to communities that are protective and nurturing. Panelists will include a diverse range of perspectives—including research, policy, direct service, and advocacy voices in the fields of education, housing, health, and safety—and discuss strategies to dismantle racial inequities and build the conditions and contexts that Black children and families (and all children and families) need to thrive. Panelists will further reflect on their own visions for protective communities for Black children and families and what is required to achieve those visions. See this registration page for more info.
NE-PACT Parent Center Showcase: Join us on June 20th at 10:00am for a presentation given by Advocates for Justice (AJE). They will share how they have been successful engaging families with the Parent Cafe’ model. Click here to join.
OSEP Leadership and Project Directors’ Conference: The 2023 Office of Special Education
Programs conference returns in person! OSEP will hold a combined Leadership and Project Directors’ Conference, July 24 – 26, 2023, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. Parent Centers are responsible for travel and lodging. REGION A IS WELL-REPRESENTED IN WORKSHOPS AT THIS CONFERENCE! Click here for more information and to register. Hotels are filling up so book your hotel ASAP.
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Non-Profit Management Resources |
Equitable Budgeting for Non-Profits: A thoughtful budget can serve as a roadmap for an organization’s finances, a tool for communicating mission goals and resource needs, and a compass for becoming a more equitable organization. Check out these ten tips on preparing a budget that reflects your organization’s commitment to equity.
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Youth-Centered Services Resources |
College or Training Programs: How to Decide Tips for Youth: Youth might start a job or go to a technical school or a college after high school. Deciding which path to take can be challenging, and these helpful tips can support your outreach to youth as the next season of their life starts. Find it here. |
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Staff Development Resources |
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Absent Again: Strategies to Improve School Attendance: Regular school attendance is crucial to the development and education of children. However, despite best intentions, there are often significant and persistent barriers. To address the ever growing challenge of school absenteeism, The Help Group shared their expertise about practical strategies parents and professionals can implement. More information. |
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U.S. English Learners’ Language-Proficiency Scores Still Below Pre-Pandemic Years: Virtual learning, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, continued to impact English learners’ English-language development in the 2021-22 school year, according to new national assessment data. Read more. |
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Top 10 Facts about Bullying and Harassment of Students with Disabilities: Parents Resource Network in Texas shares this wonderful fact sheet which includes statistics, letter templates for parents contacting their child’s school, advocacy tips and more. View the whole resource.
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Person-Centered Approaches to Supporting Dignity of Risk for People with Disabilities: In the words of Richard Branson, “You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” Dignity of risk is the idea that taking reasonable risks is essential to learning new things and supporting autonomy for people with disabilities. Risk should be balanced with ensuring the person’s health and welfare. People with disabilities often have less personal control over risk-taking as a result of other people making decisions about risks that should or shouldn’t be taken for them. When people with disabilities are supported to make their own choices and accept the reasonable risk involved, it can lead to personal learning, growth, and feelings of self-worth, autonomy, and independence. In this webinar, national experts, providers, people with lived experience, and state representatives will examine best practices for assessing and addressing risk through person centered practices while balancing choice, decision-making, and satisfaction. Watch the webinar recording. |
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Understanding Inequity Through Data: “Data is the opposite of neutral. It is dynamic and explosive. And it exposes facts we might not want to look at.” Cathy O’Neil. Data is one of the most important resources for understanding and solving problems. Disaggregated data — data broken down into subcategories like race, age or gender — can play an important role in uncovering inequities by making comparisons between groups based on important outcomes. When making these comparisons, it is important to keep in mind the institutional and structural policies and practices that created these disparities in the first place. Check out these resources on understanding inequity through data.
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Discipline & Positive Behavior Supports |
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IDEA Legal Update: Art Cernosia, Esq., presented on a CADRE webinar where he reviewed the most important legal cases in special education and early intervention in the recent past. In addition to reviewing the cases, he reflected upon what they may mean for the field. Watch the recorded webinar.
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Approaches to Dropout Prevention: Heeding Early Warning Signs with Appropriate Interventions: This report, produced by the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research, outlines steps that schools can take to identify at-risk students and provide the necessary support systems and relevant interventions to assist students in obtaining a high school diploma.
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Early Childhood/Early Intervention |
How to Navigate Your Child's Preschool Education: Preschool parents have a wealth of knowledge about their child's learning. Here are six reasons why you are right about your preschooler's development.
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Raising the Bar on Teacher Pay: Fair and equitable compensation is a key driver in attracting and retaining a talented educator workforce. States and districts play the most significant role to ensure teacher salaries are competitive. To address current challenges related to educator shortages, many state and district leaders are actively engaged in discussions about increasing teacher salaries, among other things. Read more. |
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Equity definition and statement: The Parent Center Voices for Equity Workgroup has been working together to co-create resources for parent centers. They developed the definition for equity which is on Centers Connect. How might you use this definition to guide your work with families, youth and your systems advocacy? Check it out on the Advancing Equity space on CentersConnect.
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Transition Planning for Youth in Foster Care Fact Sheet: Learn more from this fact sheet designed for youth in foster care. The sheet includes an overview of individualized education programs (IEPs) and fosters care transition plans. Read more. |
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Grandparents as Caregivers |
Formed Families Forward: This Parent Center is dedicated to supporting foster, kinship, and adoptive families of children and youth with disabilities and other special needs. They serve families, educators and child welfare professionals in the Northern Virginia area. Formed Families Forward’s mission is to improve developmental, educational, social, emotional and post-secondary outcomes for children and youth with disabilities and other special needs through provision of information, training and support to adoptive and foster parents, and kinship caregivers. See all of their wonderful resources on their website. FFF – Formed Families Forward. |
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“Unwinding” the Medicaid Continuous Enrollment Requirement: The Center for Law and Social Policy developed these Frequently Asked Questions about what is Medicaid unwinding, the standards that states have to comply with as they go through the process of redetermining eligibility, the challenges enrollees may face, how advocates can help minimize loss of coverage, and what individuals and families can do if they lose Medicaid coverage. Read more. |
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OSEP Director Speaks to Behavior as a Form of Communication: OSEP Director Valerie C. Williams encouraged people to see the behavior of students with disabilities as a form of communication. Additionally, she wanted those working with students with disabilities to ask “why” a child may engage in disruptive behavior. Read more.
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How Immigrants Give Back to the U.S. as Soldiers and Veterans: Immigrants and refugees from all over the world have brought their unique, diverse traditions to popular holidays in the United States. Some, like the Swahili names of Kwanzaa candles and the Scottish New Year’s Eve song Auld Lang Syne, have obvious international roots. Others, like mistletoe at Christmas, jack-o-lanterns at Halloween and chocolate bunnies at Easter, may surprise you with their origins. Read on to learn just some of the ways immigration has shaped our celebration of Labor Day, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve and Easter.
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TIES Inclusive Practice Series (TIPS): This page is designed to share practical information, ideas, and strategies on specific topics and practices to support inclusive education. Check out almost 20 inclusion tips here. |
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Juvenile Delinquency/Juvenile Justice |
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5 tips on making workplaces LGBTQ-inclusive: Outward appearances for LGBTQ-inclusive is the first step of a pledge. Still, outward appearances don’t always translate into daily policy and practice. Your organization must live out true inclusion by continuously building a welcoming environment for LGBTQIA+ candidates and employees. Read more. |
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Social Media and Youth Mental Health: It can be difficult for adults who grew up without or with limited social media to understand why it’s so important to young people. The technology boom in recent years has created a massive cultural difference between older generations and Generation Z, who grew up with widespread social media. While it might not seem important to you, social media matters to youth and is a very real part of our world—so it’s important to understand the unique pressures and challenges they face because of it. Learn more. |
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Military Families & Youth |
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Pow Wow Etiquette: Pow wow season is approaching us again. It looks to be a great year, with many tribes again opening up, after 2 years of COVID. We have often talked about the benefit of attending area Pow wows as a fun and informational way to get to know the tribes and Indian communities in your area. With that in mind, we thought it would also be a good time to remind visitors of the Pow wow etiquette. Visit CentersConnect for more information. |
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Parent/Family Engagement (and Youth!) |
Strategies for Equitable Family Engagement: This resource outlines guidance and provides real-world examples across five major categories of evidence-based, equitable family engagement strategies.
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Remote Learning/School Reopening |
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Social-Emotional Learning |
Why All Teachers Need Training in Mental Health and Social Work: The need for such varied skills has only gotten more pronounced in recent years. In these times of “political division, racial violence, extreme rhetoric, intensifying storms, mass shootings, economic crises, global pandemics and more, this article talks about the challenges of addressing the social-emotional needs of children at a time when some politicians have pushed back against the idea. Read more.
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Accessible Learning Design: Reaching All Learners Where They Are: Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are at the core of all we do, so accessibility must be part of all conversations, including learning and development. It is imperative that all learners have access to education and learning, so that everyone has the same opportunities to grow in their career. Learning and development professionals should focus on accessibility in design and development to provide more equitable and inclusive learning experiences, which ensures compliance, increases skill levels, and positively impacts culture and the bottom line. Learn more. |
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Transition to Adult Life/Youth |
How to Create & (Actually) Follow a Schedule: Learning and Working from Home with a Mental Health Condition: This young adult blog post has tips on how to prioritize tasks, use tools like the Pomodoro Technique, minimize distractions, and more. These tips can help you create a schedule, get things done and help keep your mental health in check. Check it out.
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How Safe, Stable Relationships Can Prevent Toxic Stress in Children: Read more on this important topic in an issue of Pediatrics, the magazine of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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ABOUT THE REGION A PARENT TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE CENTER
The Navigating Excellence-Parent Assistance and Collaboration Team (NE-PACT), the Region A 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-AJE, DE-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.
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