A bi-weekly e-brief of the DEC Children's Action Network
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Call to Action

★ By Friday April 28th, Congress must take action to avert a government shutdown. This is a great time for you to connect with them.  Find your elected officials at the CEC Legislative Action Center. Talk to your members of Congress about investing in programs for children with exceptionalities and ask them to stop further cuts to programs that support children with disabilities and their families. Tell them to:

  • Invest in early childhood special education, early intervention, and research programs
  • Keep Medicaid funding and the Affordable Care Act intact; carefully consider the important benefits these programs provide to our nation's' most vulnerable children and families.

Contact your Representative and Senators now! Not sure how to take action? Below are ideas: 

  1. Use the letter already prepared by CEC, or prepare one of your own.  
  2. Tweet your Senators, you can find your senators on twitter. 
  3. Tweet your Representatives, you can find your representatives on twitter. 
  4. Call your senators’ or representatives’ local office and ask when they are holding constituent meetings, and go to one!

★ Please continue to share our message of #WeBelieve in inclusion and the civil rights of all children and youth with disabilities and their families across social media. You can also tweet your Senators or tweet your Representatives.
WHAT'S
HAPPENING
IN
WASHINGTON

★ To avoid a government shutdown, Congress will need to reach an agreement (or pass another continuing resolution) by the end of this week on spending levels for the remaining months of Fiscal Year 2017. The continuing resolution the House and Senate passed in December 2016 funds the federal government until April 28, 2017.  Recently, the Trump Administration provided Congress a list of possible cuts to make in the Fiscal Year 2017, including almost $3 billion of cuts to the Department of Education programs including: Pell Grants, Supporting Effective Instruction (Title II) State Grants, Comprehensive Literary Development Grants, and the Title IV Block Grants. Read more information on the CEC Policy Insider Blog. 

★ On April 11th, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a statement discussing a listening session she participated in with other members of the Trump administration cabinet and White House staff with the President’s Strategy and Policy Forum. The statement focused on the Secretary’s support for providing broader decision-making power to state and local governments, encouraging public-private partnerships, and expanding access to career and technical education for college students and adult learners.

★ The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) is seeking input regarding the IDEA.ed.gov website. The input is intended to support the Department in updating the site and ensuring there are easy-to-navigate resources available. A blog is available for users to provide comment.

★ On April 5th, Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced legislation in the House that seeks to provide states with increased flexibility with respect to funding and implementing Head Start. In specific, the legislation would allow Head Start funding to be distributed as block grants to states instead of appropriations that are distributed directly to grantees. This legislation is intended to be a companion bill to legislation introduced by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT). Current Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Tom Price has historically supported this effort. The National Head Start Association (NHSA) issued a statement in response to the bill’s introduction. 

Other updates, courtesy of the Council for Exceptional Children:

DEC Policy & Advocacy News
★ The DEC Policy website now has a repository of past and significant Advocacy Letters written or signed on by the organization. The page includes letters sent to Congress, government agencies, and cabinet members. DEC’s Priority Recommendations to the Trump Administration and the 115th Congress, delivered directly to new Secretary DeVos, can be found here.   
UPCOMING DEC POLICY & ADVOCACY EVENTS
  • Mark your calendars! The next DEC advocacy webinar will be Friday May 26th from 12:30pm-1:30pm. The webinar will focus on DEC’s new policy and advocacy structure, and how Subdivision CAN fits into this. Monthly “drop-in” hours for CAN Coordinators will be discussed, as well as opportunities for Subdivisions to work with national CAN to address state-specific issues. Not a CAN Coordinator? No problem! Join us to learn more about the purpose of CAN and what you can do to get involved.
  • Stay tuned, as discussions are also in the works to bring you a Federal Update webinar with Governmental Relations Consultant Sharon Walsh, similar to the popular What’s Happening in Washington? session held at the DEC conference each year.
Have an early childhood special education or early intervention policy or advocacy story you would like to share? Whether you are a Subdivision leader/member or just an interested DEC member unaffiliated with a Subdivision, contact  brittany@dec-sped.org or DEC CAN Coordinator anlyons@kent.edu  to share what's happening in your state or Subdivision or just to bring awareness to an important policy or advocacy issue relevant to DEC. 

Please note that all story submissions must be non-partisan in nature. If you are interested in guidance on how to craft your story and/or how to ensure it is non-partisan, DEC will be happy to help! Selected stories will be shared in a future issue of YES DEC CAN! 
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