December Newsletter

We at the Access Center would like to wish you and your families a very happy holiday season!

Automated Web Tour
Interested in becoming more familiar with the resources available on The Access Center’s website? We invite you to try our new automated web tour for a private tour through the site. Written text and audio are available to guide your journey through the layers of materials so you can become better acquainted with our resources and online events.

National Inclusive Schools Week
Join with your colleagues in celebrating the 5th Annual National Inclusive Schools Week December 5-9, 2005. Celebrations in schools, classrooms, and communities will focus on the achievement gap and strategies for improving educational outcomes for all students. Obtain a free Celebration Kit and acquire ideas, lesson plans, and materials to use in promoting the Week in your community.

AC Staff Provide Information, Technical Assistance in Alaska
In November, Access Center staff traveled to Unalakleet, Alaska to present at the Bering Strait School District’s (BSSD) Annual Conference.  The BSSD, comprised of 15 villages located on islands and coastal settlements on the Chukchi and Bering Seas, is 650 air miles north of Anchorage.  The four-day conference, which provided intense staff development in curriculum and instruction, educational technology, and best practices, was attended by over 300 educators flown into Unalakleet from the surrounding villages. Access Center staff made introductory presentations on differentiated instruction and co-teaching at the conference and collaborated with the BSSD and Alaska Pacific University to develop, deliver, and support courses on each topic via videoconferencing through the Alaska Staff Development Network.   Participants in the courses include the co-facilitators -- BSSD staff from Unalakleet and the Access Center Staff from D.C. – as well as the students, who are general and special educators, as well as administrators from five Alaskan school districts.  The courses will include six videoconferences, which will be presented between November 2005 and May 2006.

Access to the General Education Curriculum
The National Association of State Directors of Special Education’s Project Forum surveyed State directors about the status of strategies related to improving access for students with disabilities to the general education curriculum. The report is based on the stages that states are in by academic area, strategies to enhance access, professional development provided, whether they have a written definition of access and any challenges they have encountered in supporting these activities. The Access Center will soon be posting this and other state resources related to access on its website.

Spellings Announces Growth Model Pilot Proposal Under NCLB
The Education Department will allow 10 states to experiment with using growth models to track student progress. Some states will be allowed to meet NCLB accountability requirements by measuring student growth over time, rather than the current practice of comparing this year’s students against last year’s students.

Supreme Court Places Burden of Proof on Challenging Party  
On November 14, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that parents who challenge special education plans have the burden of proving that they are insufficient. If schools bring a complaint, the burden rests with them.  Traditionally, the burden of proof has been placed on schools to demonstrate that educational services provided in the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) are appropriate. The case is Schaffer v. Weast, 04-698.

Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against NCLB; NEA to Appeal 
A federal judge in Michigan on November 23 dismissed the National Education Association’s lawsuit against the No Child Left Behind Act.  The suit charged that the law imposed requirements on states and school districts that were not paid for by the federal government. The judge ruled that the federal government had the right to require states to spend their own money to comply with the law. NEA has stated that it will appeal the decision. 

IDEA Turns 30
November 29 is the 30-year anniversary of the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990. To recognize the anniversary, Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), along with 38 bipartisan cosponsors, introduced a concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 288) reaffirming support for IDEA “so that all children with disabilities have access to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment.”