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Navigating Excellence - Parent Center Assistance & Collaboration Team
Region A E-News
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Inspirational Quote
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." - Nelson Henderson
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Message from Carolyn & Diana
A year of excellence! It is hard to believe that we have completed year 1 of the Navigating Excellence Parent Center Assistance and Collaboration Team (NEPACT) grant! It has been a privilege to work with each of you. Thank you for all of the amazing work that you do on behalf of families; your effort, energy, and excellence - the trees you plant for your organization and the families you serve - make all the difference in the world. Collectively, we have accomplished a lot in the past year and we are excited for the opportunity to continue our work together in the future. Looking forward to seeing you in Baltimore on November 4-6th at the regional conference, "From Passion to Performance: Using Implementation & Improvement Science to Enhance Outcomes", where we will continue to build and expand our knowledge and skills by learning new approaches to our work and new strategies to "plant trees, under whose shade we do not expect to sit."
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Featuring...
AFC: AFC joined 25 child welfare and education organizations in sending a letter to Mayor de Blasio calling on the City to abide by federal and state law and honor its commitment to guarantee bus service or a comparable mode of transportation to kindergarten through sixth-grade students in foster care. When students are placed in foster care, school can be an important source of stability. However, students often have to change schools upon their initial placement in foster care in New York City because they have no way to get to their original schools. Although the adopted city budget states that the Administration agreed to ensure bus service for students in foster care, the Department of Education is continuing to deny requests for bus service. More information.
FCSN: A Conference for Families of Children with Special Needs and the Professionals Who Serve Them will take place on Saturday, February 29, 2020 from 7:30am - 4:30pm at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston, MA. There will be workshops on Assistive Technology, Autism, IEP Goal-setting, Self-care, Transition Planning, and more. More information.
NH PIC: The Wrightslaw Conference will take place on Thursday, April 2, 2020 at the Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua, NH from 9:00am - 4:30pm. This conference is designed to meet the needs of parents, educators, health care providers, advocates and attorneys who represent children with disabilities regarding special education; it is not disability specific. More information.
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Upcoming Events/Dates to Remember
NEPACT Region A Parent TA Center Conference: Join us on November 4-6 in Baltimore, Maryland for our 2019 Regional Conference focused on using implementation and improvement science to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of our work including our ability to use evidence-based practices. More information will be forthcoming soon. Join us on Monday, November 4th from 9:00am - 11:00am, for our second face to face convening of our technical assistance Communities of Practice. The two meetings will run simultaneously with one group focused on meeting the needs of Native American families and the other on Military-Connected families. Information and resources on supporting these special populations will be provided. The NEPACT Day will start at noon on Monday, November 4 and end around 3:00pm on Wednesday, November 6 (the REACH for Transition day will be Wednesday). As always, NEPACT will pay for one representative from each center, but we encourage you to send/bring two participants to this important conference. You will need help using what you learn about improvement science and active implementation when you get back to your center.
Register today!!!
National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health 30th Anniversary Conference, November 14-16, Phoenix, Arizona:
A full day Serving on Groups Train-the-Trainer and half day Leading by Convening workshop will be featured at this conference, along with an array of other useful workshops. Find out more and register.
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Non-Profit Management Resources
Implementation & Improvement Science Infographic:
Implementation Science and Improvement Science are widely used approaches to support successful implementation and practice change. This infographic is designed to help you understand the relationships between Implementation and Improvement Science by looking at their commonalities and complements (learn more at the upcoming NE-PACT regional conference!)
What Makes an Effective Non-Profit?
Read this article, written for donors, on the key components of an effective non-profit, including clear mission and purpose, ability to perform key functions, strong practices, procedures, and policies, good people, and the ability to motivate others.
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Family-Centered Services Resources
Engaging Parents, Developing Leaders
: This publication from the Annie E. Casey Foundation introduces an assessment and planning tool to help nonprofits evaluate their parent engagement efforts and chart a path toward deeper partnerships with parents and caregivers. The tool spans just eight pages, with accompanying text outlining how to use it, how to assess its results and what real-world strategies and programs are already in play - and working - to boost parent engagement. Access the resource and tools.
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Youth-Centered Services Resources
Youth Engagement Toolkit
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It's from Canada, and its focus is engaging youth in health, but this guide, has great tips and tools for ensuring that youth feel motivated and heard, and stay engaged, as well as strategies to evaluate youth engagement.
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Staff Development Resources
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Absenteeism
Addressing Chronic Absenteeism: Taking action to address health-related chronic absenteeism can have a powerful impact on students' academic success and well-being for a lifetime. This document focuses on preparing educators-particularly school district decision-makers -with knowledge and practical guidance for creating meaningful change to address health-related chronic absenteeism.
More information.
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Bilingual/LEP
Who's Earning the Seal of Biliteracy? In One State, It's Mostly English-Learners: California's statewide push to honor students who master a second language is growing-- and English-language learners are benefiting the most. Read more.
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Child Welfare
Study of Court Appointed Special Advocates Demonstrates Negative Impact on Child Permanency
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A new study of Court Appointed Special Advocates is out. Commissioned by Texas CASA, funded by Texas CASA, and researchers selected by Texas CASA, the study demonstrates that children who have CASAs are significantly less likely to find "permanence" than children who do not have a CASA. They are less likely to be reunified with their parents. They are less likely to be in guardianship with relatives. And they are more likely to age out with no home at all. Please reach out to [email protected] if you want a copy of the full research summary.
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Cultural Competence
Legal Protections for K-12 English Learner and Immigrant-Background Students:
This brief lays out seven key ways the U.S. government protects the educational rights of EL and immigrant-background students, including those with Limited English Proficient and unauthorized-immigrant family members. It also explains the legal framework behind these rules, who enforces them, and how they can be seen in action in schools across the country. This report by the Migration Policy Institute explains these requirements and how states and local districts carry them out. The author covers seven distinct rules that are contained in the Every Student Succeeds Act and other relevant national legislation.
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Data
Data Needed to Ensure Early & Continuous Screenings
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The US Government and Accountability Office has issued a report on Medicaid Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT), an early screening and treatment benefit for low-income and medically needy young people. The report found that approximately half of all Medicaid beneficiaries aged 20 and under received screenings and services recommended under EPSDT in fiscal year 2017, but nearly as many did not. The report includes visual data displays of highlights, as well as recommendations.
Data from the National Survey of Children's Health Now Available
: The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC), under a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), has released the National Performance Measures (NPMs) and National Outcome Measures (NOMs) data findings from the combined 2017-2018 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH). All data are available through the interactive data query on childhealthdata.org! The combined 2017-2018 NSCH is the second multi-year data set since the redesign of the NSCH in 2016 and includes data from 52,129 children ages 0-17 years.
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Dropout Prevention
Indicators of Potential Dropouts:
Common variables found in the research that identify potential dropouts. Check it out.
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Early Childhood/Early Intervention
 National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations Launches New Resource: The National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations (NCPMI), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, released a new online resource for the implementation of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social and Emotional Competencies in Infants and Young Children (Pyramid Model). The resource, which is available to and geared toward states, districts, teachers, parents and other interested parties, provides information and other resources to improve social, emotional and behavioral outcomes for young children with developmental disabilities or delays. The early interventional tool aims to promote positive disciplinary practices, family engagement, data-informed decision-making, inclusion and integration of infant and early childhood mental health consultation. View the online resource.
DEC Launches Campaign for Early Childhood Funding Bill: Last week, CEC's
Division for Early Childhood successfully launched an online campaign in support of the Funding Early Childhood is the Right IDEA Act (H.R. 4107), a bill to restore full funding for young children with disabilities. Over 400 emails were sent through the "flood their inbox" campaign. Visit CEC's Legislative Action Center (LAC) for more information (
visit the LAC today!)
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Equity
Rise Up for Equity: A National Summit on Community Schools and Family Engagement:
The Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) is proud to unite two of its flagship events, the Community Schools National Forum and the National Family and Community Engagement Conference, to bring you Rise Up for Equity: A National Summit on Community Schools & Family Engagement! Creating the impact and equity we want for our most vulnerable children, youth and families require us all to deepen our collaboration and authentically engage parents, families and community-based partners. The Rise Up for Equity National Summit offers an incredible opportunity to explore innovative strategies, learn from your peers all over the country, and expand networks of support and action. Learn more.
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IDEA/Special Education
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Scan QR code
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IDEA Comprehensive Mobile Tool: This tool, provides quick and easy access to information about IDEA Part B, including Federal statutes and regulations, general supervision and monitoring, public reporting requirements, and more. To download the tool you can simply open your camera, scan the QR code, and add it to the home screen of your mobile device.
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Immigrant
Courts Block Public Charge Regulations: Federal courts issued national injunctions blocking any implementation of the administration's "public charge" regulations, which threaten the health, nutrition, and housing of millions of families. The orders, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, find, in part, that the plaintiffs are likely to prevail at trial. A third court arrived at similar legal findings but limited the scope of its injunction. As a result, the public charge regulations, which were scheduled to be implemented on October 15, are blocked across the country. More information.
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Inclusion
Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs: This 2-page document describes the legal foundations of serving young children with disabilities in inclusive early care and education programs and how those settings are determined. The document also provides examples of the various ways in which local school districts can braid funds to create inclusive placement options for young children.
Read more.
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LGBTQ
Research Review on Mentoring LGBTQ Youth: Does having a mentor improve the well-being of youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex or gender-nonconforming? Though few empirical studies have been conducted to address this and related questions, AIR researcher Christian Rummell summarizes a growing body of literature for the National Mentoring Resource Center that points to the type of support that might be most closely associated with positive outcomes. Read more.
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Mental Health
States Increase Focus on Student Mental Health: At least 49 bills concerning K-12 student mental health and wellness were enacted in 26 states this year, compared with 16 enacted in nine states last year, according to an Education Commission of the States report. The bills focus on improving school-based mental health services and support, providing teacher and school staff training on trauma-informed care and incorporating mental health education into school curricula. This is the first mental health policy snapshot ECS has done. The authors of the report said the nonpartisan research organization was getting more requests for data on how to support student health and well-being in schools. Approximately 1 in 6 children in the U.S. experience a mental disorder, and more than half of mental health challenges begin by age 14, according to the report. However, many children don't receive appropriate treatment, according to the report. Examples of this year's enacted legislation include Maryland's
H.B. 844, which requires local school systems to maintain ratios of no less than one psychologist per 700 students, and Mississippi's
H.B. 1283, which directs the state department of education to establish pilot programs that provide K-5 students with skills to manage stress and anxiety through an evidence-based curriculum.
Read more.
Succeeding At Work with a Mental Health Condition- Protection Against Discrimination: At work you have to weigh the advantages against the disadvantages of being open about a mental health condition. There are laws in place that protect people from discrimination and unfair practices on the job.
Find out more.
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Military Families & Youth
 Helping Coast Guard Families: Coast Guard families usually live near their installations-along coastlines but also far inland on rivers that connect to a coastline. Many of us in Region A serve areas where Coast Guard families can be found. This article will help your center locate and serve Coast Guard families and identifies possible best points of contract for outreach.
Check it out.
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| Poverty
Changes to SNAP (Food Stamps) Could Lead to 1 Million Children Losing Free/Reduced School Meals
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Analysis of the proposed new rule on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) reveals the potential impact on children. Under current rules, states can eliminate asset tests for SNAP to serve more struggling families working their way up the economic ladder. By changing these categorical eligibility requirements for food assistance, this proposal would deny or reduce SNAP for almost 3 million people. The proposed rule's impact goes beyond SNAP. Children in families that lose SNAP may also lose their free or reduced price school meals. The proposed rule would affect nearly twice as many children as originally estimated. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) now says 982,000 children would be negatively affected by changes to categorical eligibility, almost twice as many as the previously estimated 500,000. 497,000 kids would be moved from free to reduced-price meals, while another 40,000 would lose eligibility altogether. Key points: (1) The revised USDA estimates prove changes to categorical eligibility could impact close to 1 million children who may lose access to free or reduced price school meals (nearly double the previous figure cited). By forcing parents to fill out more paperwork, many more children could be inadvertently denied access to nutritious school meals, even though they are eligible. (2) Under the Community Eligibility Provision, nearly 2,000 schools across the country provide free school meals to all their students because more than 40% of their students participate in an anti-poverty program, such as SNAP. If fewer families receive SNAP, some communities may not qualify for the program, increasing bureaucratic hurdles and ensuring that some poor children will no longer receive free meals. (3) "Lunch shaming" is a worrying trend where school districts punish children who can't pay for lunch or have accrued lunch debt, for instance by serving them reduced-quality cold lunches, or by forcing them to wear stamps or wristbands in the cafeteria. This has resulted in national news coverage and has been met with an understandably negative backlash by the public. By forcing children who currently qualify for free school meals to pay, or kicking off children who pay a reduced fee for lunch entirely, change to categorical eligibility would only make this trend worse. How would school districts respond if the number of children losing some or all of their benefits swells by 982,000 children? To learn more: Read the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC)'s 1-pager on Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility.
Poverty Fuels the Achievement Gap:
The racial "achievement gap" in standardized-test scores shouldn't be considered a racial gap at all, a new study argues.
Instead, it's more accurate to call it a "poverty gap." Racial segregation tends to concentrate black and Hispanic children in schools where most of the students come from poor families because of the persistent connection between race and income in the United States. And those high-poverty schools provide fewer opportunities than schools that are more affluent. How stark are the wealth disparities? In 2016, the median wealth of a white family-assets minus debt-was $171,000, based on calculations of federal data conducted by the Urban Institute. For black families, median wealth was a little over $17,000. For Hispanic families, it was just shy of $21,000. "It's the difference in the poverty composition that is most predictive of the achievement gap," said Sean Reardon, a professor at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and the study's lead author. "That's the mechanism by which segregation is harmful." To calculate school effectiveness and achievement gaps, the researchers turned to a data archive they created using federal sources such as state test scores as well as results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Segregation data were derived from an annual survey of all schools in the country. Poverty was measured by looking at the percentage of children in a school who are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches. All those data have been compiled into an interactive online tool that the public can use to rate and rank schools and districts nationwide. In their analysis, the researchers found that highly segregated districts had sizable achievement gaps, and the rate of the gap grew faster as students progressed from 3rd to 8th grades. Read more.
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Social-Emotional Learning
Positive Impact of Social Emotional Learning
: Educators are embracing social and emotional learning (SEL) as a way to support the whole child and equip students for success. Rigorous research shows that SEL can lead to improved academic achievement, employment, health, and well-being. Read more.
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Technology
Text to Speech as a Support for Personalizing the Reading Experience: Text to speech can be helpful for a number of readers: those who struggle with decoding, those with visual impairments, and those who speak English as a second language. When word and sentence highlighting are available, it can also help with focus while reading. In the past, text to speech often required the installation of a separate program. Today, many devices include text to speech as a standard option. Find out more.
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| Transition to Adult Life/Youth
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Trauma & Toxic Stress
 Are We Trauma-Informed? Tools to Measure Progress in a Program, School, or Organization: The Child Health Development Institute is out with a new Issue Brief focusing on child trauma. Interest in addressing child trauma has surged in the past two decades, sparked by research on the effects of trauma exposure. As a result, child-serving organizations are increasingly integrating trauma-informed approaches; however, there is a limited research on how to measure the effectiveness of these approaches. This
Issue Brief, reviews 49 surveys (or measures) of trauma-informed approaches and identifies promising examples that be be used by programs, organizations, and broader service systems to help evaluate how they are supporting the health of children affected by trauma.
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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) -  located 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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