The Parents’ Place of Maryland (PPMD): As Parent Centers, we know we are all tasked with serving families from birth-26 but sometimes reaching “the littles” can be difficult. We also know that early intervention and catching those families when the babies are still babies, leads to more positive outcomes in the long-term. PPMD has worked hard to grow their early childhood programs through building collaborations in their state. What started with one staff member who happened to specialize in early childhood, eventually grew into PPMD holding the Learn the Signs Act Early and aRPy Ambassador positions for MD. The success of the programs came from lots of work, patience, and collaboration. Relationships with the state department of education, the local infant and toddler programs, and the DD Council, to name just a few, have all allowed PPMD to build partnerships that have helped them grow as well as meeting the needs of the youngest populations. Read more about PPMD here.

Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center (CPAC): Join a support group for parents and caregivers of ‘tweens and teens’ who are on the Autism spectrum. Be a part of community capacity building for youth in a tween/teen autism group on November 29th from 10:30 am to 11:30 am. Register here.

DaSy | CPIR Family Data Leader Project Application: Are you a Parent Center with a strong focus on Early Childhood programs, services, and data? Do you have a relationship, or are you hoping to develop one, with your state’s Part C/Part B 619 State Representatives? Do you have a desire to build strong Family Data Leaders in your community, using an equity mindset? If you have answered yes to any or all of these questions, this application is for you!

1. Click here to complete and submit your application by December 10, 2023. Use the same link for more details.
2. Note: If you are not on CentersConnect yet, click here to create your account and join the Early Childhood space.
3. If you have any questions contact Susan Barlow at srb@parentnetworkwny.org.

Region A December Drop-In Call: The next Drop-in call will take place on Tuesday, December 5, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm, ET. Our featured technical assistance presenters will be Mary Elizabeth Bruder and Darla Gunder from ECIPC (Early Childhood Intervention Personnel Center for Equity). Click here to join.

NE-PACT Parent Center Showcase: Join us on Tuesday, December 19th at 10:00 am for a presentation given by Mission Empower. They will share how they have been successful engaging families with the Parent Cafe’ model. Click here to join.

Bridging Social Isolation: Unlocking the Power of Video Games for Individuals with Disabilities: Join the Disability Employment TA Center (DETAC) on January 9, 2024 at 3:00 pm ET, in welcoming the AbleGamers Charity, an organization that fights social isolation through the power of video games. Participants will discover how video games can help overcome isolation and learn about efforts and programs where they connect players with disabilities to test games and participate in user research and development to help make games and products more accessible.

Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR): Check out the Hub Central events calendar for more webinar and events.

Building Movements, Not Organizations: Creating a healthy, humane world will require more than new organizational designs. It will take rethinking the nature of organizations entirely. Check out this article in the Stanford Review.

Helping Parents Be “Servant Leaders:” How can we use the concepts of “servant leadership” to more effectively serve diverse families AND develop their capacity to use servant leadership in their daily lives? The concept of servant leadership can offer a frame of mind as parents consider their role and how they might focus their efforts on continuous improvement. Parents as servant leaders prioritize and build trust as a critical foundation for their family’s interconnected relationships and individual successes. They are responsible decision makers, and they exercise sound judgment showing competence in what they do. Read more.

YAFC Podcast Series: Episode 8 is here! Independent Living: Answering the Question, “How Do You?” People who are not familiar with disabilities are often curious about how people with disabilities live their lives. Knowing how to answer these questions can help create a more inclusive community. The cool part is that every person with a disability is unique so their answers are different and how they achieve and define independence is different. Find it here.

Strategies for Cultivating an Organizational Learning Culture: Increasing pressures for accountability and outcomes reporting coupled with increasing competition drive nonprofit organizations to implement continuous improvement strategies to meet internal and external needs. Learning is a key factor in the push for continuous quality improvement, and nonprofits need data to make decisions, change their operations, and inform planning and program management activities. Nonprofit organizations accustomed to using data for accountability and reporting must think and manage differently to cultivate an organizational culture that values inquiry. Building and sustaining a learning culture, though beneficial, is seldom easy to achieve. This brief seeks to help nonprofit practitioners define a learning culture and the strategies needed to cultivate it. Read this brief here.

Chronic Absenteeism: A Symptom of an Outdated School system: Since the pandemic, reports and articles in publications across the country have bemoaned the rise in chronic absenteeism (missing at least 10% of school days a year). Read more here.

California Scales Local Training to Help Young Bilingual Children: In the wake of the failure of Build Back Better, experts say early education reform must come locally. The training model focuses on the value of and support for a child’s home language, getting to know the child and family, and concrete strategies early childhood educators can use to support linguistic growth. Learn more.

Get Help Now: The StopBullying.gov December 2022 issue shared a simple and easy to read chart providing suggestions for families to get help with bullying: “The Problem” and “What You Can Do”. Find it here also en Español.

Separate Licensing or Approval Standards for Relative or Kinship Foster Family Homes: The Children and Families Administration shared the rule that Title IV–E agencies must periodically review the amount of foster care maintenance payments (FCMP) to ensure that the agency provides a licensed or approved relative or kinship foster family home the same amount of FCMP that would have been made if the child was placed in a non-related/non-kinship foster family home. This rule is effective on November 27, 2023. Read the new rule here or click the PDF for a printed version.

In New Jersey school segregation case, parties enter mediation phase to avoid years of litigation: A pivotal court case aimed at desegregating New Jersey’s schools is heading to private mediation. The goal is to reach a resolution between the families, the advocates, and the state more quickly than they could through litigation. One big question: How will charter schools fit in? Read about it here.

Oklahoma OKs Religious Charter School Teeing Up Legal War Over Separation of Church and State, U.S. News and World Report: Board members approved the application for the country’s first religious charter school despite warnings from their own counsel that they would likely be sued. Read the full article here.

Public School Parents and Civil Rights and Educator Organizations Sue Public School to Stop Unconstitutional Private School Voucher Program: Six public school parents, along with the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and The South Carolina Education Association, filed a lawsuit today asking the South Carolina Supreme Court to strike down a recently enacted private school voucher program, which drains scarce state resources that should be used for the public schools that 90% of students attend and violates crucial protections in the state constitution, including a prohibition against directing public funds to private schools. Read more about the lawsuit here.

Cultural Competence: it all starts at the front desk: A great deal of training and effort has been directed at supporting health care and other professionals to provide culturally and linguistically competent services and supports. For most families, however, many interactions precede the actual encounter with the health care provider. Read more.

Architecting for Data: Check out this article on four ways nonprofits can cut through the data hype and start using data on purpose.

When Discipline Muzzles Learning: Tales of Harsh Punishment at School: Lost recesses, detention, extra work, chastisement — these harsh punishments are common responses to ADHD symptoms beyond a student’s control, and they do no good to anyone. Here, parents tell of harsh discipline, tattered self-esteem, and violated rights at schools that didn’t understand ADHD. Read more.

Navigating Intra-family Conflict: A Resource for Early Intervention Service Providers: This resource, created by CADRE, offers strategies and sample language EIS providers can use and adapt to fit their context as they navigate intra-family conflicts. Check it out.

Dropout Prevention: Helping Kids Stay in School: Leon Baxton, CEO of Communities In Schools of Jacksonville, joined The Morning Show to discuss some of the most common reasons students fall behind. Click here to view the very informative 5 minute video.

Trauma-Informed Care in Early Childhood Education (ECE) Settings: A Scoping Literature Review: This scoping literature review sought to explore the current knowledge base on trauma-informed care in ECE settings to identify what is known and potential gaps in the literature. Here are 20 articles that discuss trauma-informed care in ECE settings and summarize the key findings from the literature, including that few studies have focused on children with disabilities. Read more here.

Supporting Youth Affected by the Violence in Israel and Gaza: Tips for Families and Educators: National Association of School Psychologists shared that news coverage may be triggering to individuals who have experienced violence here at home or war in other parts of the world. Caregivers and educators can help children and youth feel safe by helping them understand what is going on factually, how events do or do not affect their lives, and how to manage their emotional reactions. Check out the tips here.

Advancing Equity: Five Districts Focus on Improving Outcomes of Black and Latinx Students: The Regional Educational Laboratory Program (REL) heard from multiple district leaders who wanted more information and guidance about asset-based strategies for reshaping their district systems and structures in order to promote equitable learning environments. Specifically, these districts wanted to know how to identify and change existing policies and practices which reinforce inequities, especially those that are barriers to success for Black and Latinx students and their families. In response to these requests, REL West formed the Equity in Action project. The project involved five California school districts committed to racial equity change Read more about the project here.

Child Maltreatment and Brain Development: A Primer for Caregivers: The Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2023 provides caregivers, including parents, kin caregivers, foster parents, and others, with important information on brain development and how it may be affected by abuse and neglect. The factsheet also reviews how to work with caseworkers and others to make sure the child and their family receive appropriate services and supports. Click here to download the fact sheet.

Grandparents of Children with Disabilities: The grandparent-parent relationship is arguably one of the most important relationships that aid in the success of a family. This study demonstrated a positive correlation between grandparents’ support and parental adjustment to the role of parenting. Grandparents are able to support and nurture parents, aiding in their confidence to face the challenges that come along with raising a child with disabilities. Grandparents can begin to navigate their new role through emotional means. This includes providing strategies to alleviate stress, advice about raising children, and being by the parents’ side through all the emotions they may face. Read more here.

Report Highlights Neglected Health Needs of Children with Disabilities (around the world): A report published in September by the World Health Organization and UNICEF highlights the global prevalence of developmental disabilities among children and young people, shedding light on the urgent action needed to address disparities in healthcare, health outcomes, and exposure to social determinants such as poverty. Read more.

Foster, homeless youth disproportionate loss of instruction time to suspension: Students in precarious living situations — especially foster and homeless youth —are much more likely to be suspended and lose instructional time vital to their academic success, according to a report released by the UCLA Civil Rights Project and the National Center for Youth Law. Read more here.

Student-Led Decision-Making in Schools: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) released a new blog series August 14, 2023, as part of a continued effort to emphasize the need for more cohesive secondary transition planning for students with disabilities.  Click here to read the OSERS’ Successful Transitions for All blog series.

Janet Mills issues executive order creating Office of New Americans in Maine: Like many states, Maine is struggling to accommodate a surge in asylum seekers, many of whom arrive in the United States with trade skills or professional experience but who are temporarily barred from working under federal law. Maine is also experiencing a worker shortage across many business sectors, including health care and construction. Learn more.

Inclusive Postsecondary for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Higher expectations and inclusive K-12 education have allowed students and families to see the potential of attending a college program. While there are important concerns to address and questions to answer regarding safety, access, supports, and transportation, the benefits of postsecondary education for students with intellectual disabilities almost always outweigh the challenges. The development and growth of academic, work and personal skills, independent living, friendships, and self-advocacy are a few of the many positive student outcomes. In addition, Think College outcome data shows program participants are employed post-graduation at significantly higher rates with higher average wages. Read more here.

Juvenile detention fees cripple families financially, opponents say: 13 states have passed laws eliminating certain categories of fines and fees, including housing costs, and 20 states no longer charge child support or cost-of-custody fees, according to the law center. The states that continue to levy families do so despite the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges decrying those charges. Read more here.

Helping Families to Support Their LGBT Children: This practitioner's and families' resource guide is a resource targeted at decreasing risk and increasing the well-being of their LGBT children. This includes providing accurate information on sexual orientation and gender identity for parents and caregivers early in their child's development. Read more here.

Student mental health is in crisis. Campuses are rethinking their approach: Amid massive increases in demand for care, psychologists are helping colleges and universities embrace a broader culture of well-being and better equipping faculty to support students in need. Learn more here.

Letter on Military-Connected Children with Disabilities (November 9, 2023): The following letter, written by Valerie Williams, OSEP and OSERS Director, can help to support states, parents, families, and others to meet the unique needs of military-connected children with disabilities and ensure the timely provision of required early intervention and special education and related services. Read the letter here.

Mental Health Issues from Historical Trauma Plague Native Americans: What is historical trauma?  In short, experiences shared by the same culture, the same community, and the same family are passed down through generations, resulting in deep psychological wounds.  These wounds often lead to substance abuse, addiction, sexual violence and abuse, and overall family destruction.  This article and video share issues regarding Native American mental health issues from historical trauma and some ways to cope.

Engaging Families as Partners in Systems Improvement: Family engagement is most likely to gain traction at the system level when top leadership values and promotes family partnership, and develops policies to support family engagement as a core strategy that’s essential to the organization’s mission and goals. Family engagement is effective when families that represent the diversity of the community participate in authentic collaboration with agency partners in planning, designing, and monitoring system improvements that impact children, youth, families and their community. Whereas agency leaders and staff bring professional experience to the planning table, family members bring “lived experience.” Lived experience represents the direct encounters that families have had with services, programs, policies, and systems as well as critical knowledge families have about their children and neighborhoods. Read more.

Rethinking Poverty: The erosion of the public safety net, the increasing prevalence of low-wage employment and decreases in low-ages earnings have combined to play low-income families under constant pressure as they struggle to work, care for their families, and maintain their access to public benefits. According to an emerging body of brain science, the stresses that come with being poor negatively affect the strategic thinking and self-regulation skills that people need in order to break the poverty cycle. These skills, known as executive function (EF) skills, are fundamental to our ability to solve problems, to multitask, to juggle priorities, to control impulses, to delay gratification, and to persist in the pursuit of goals. Researchers at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and elsewhere have shown that living in poverty compromises EF skills in at least two critical ways: First, poverty creates powerful stresses that swamp our thinking and create a “bandwidth tax” that decreases the quality of the decisions we make. And second, the stresses associated with poverty can alter the way the brain develops in children who are subjected to them. Check it out.

U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights Releases New Civil Rights Data on Students’ Access to Educational Opportunities During the Pandemic: Data on an improved website from the 2020–21 school year show stark inequities in students’ educational access across civil rights indicators, including regarding courses and programs, school staff, and student discipline; including restraint and seclusion.  Read more here.

Social-Emotional Learning Gets its Moment in the Spotlight: The work of USC Rossier’s Mary Helen Immordino-Yang shows how schools can embrace SEL, a new interdisciplinary science of development, culture and neuroscience. Check it out here.

Involving Teens and Young Adults in Selecting Assistive Technology: This 4-page resource helps families involve teens and young adults in learning about and selecting assistive technology (AT).  An important goal for older students is to understand the areas in which technology can support them in their educational and employment goals.  The tip sheet encourages  students to advocate for themselves, and to take an active role in selecting assistive technology to address their needs.  Read more here.

Guide to Adaptive Devices for People with Disabilities: From mobility and motor aids to cognitive and sensory systems, there’s an assistive device for everyone. Learn more.

Science of Toxic Stress: Check out these Adverse Childhood Experiences resources here.