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Description: The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to...
Description: As part of its barrier-busting mission, CAST offers a number of robust (and free) learning tools. These tools—many designed and tested as part of CAST’s research projects—help educators, developers, families, and other individuals experience the power of flexible learning environments. Clusive®?: An Accessible, Digital Reading Platfort Corgi: Co-organize Your Learning Biofab Explorer TIES Lessons for All: The 5-15-45 Tool CAST Figuration®? Learning Designed™ UDL...
Description: When a child is using your computer, normal safeguards and security practices may not be sufficient. Children present additional challenges because of their natural characteristics: innocence, curiosity, desire for independence, and fear of punishment. You need to consider these characteristics when determining how to protect your data and the child. You may think that because the child is only playing a game, or researching a term paper, or typing a homework assignment, he or she can't cause...
Description: All travelers will get more out of their trip by being able to speak a few words of the local language, but for people with a disability it’s often vital to be able to explain your particular needs. Since standard phrasebooks are unlikely to contain the language you need to talk about needs around disability we’ve gathered together some disability-specific words and phrases and translated them into as many different languages as we practically could. Although things are slowly...
Description: Sign It! is an innovative new online curriculum for learning American Sign Language (ASL). The instruction is done by professional actors (both deaf and hearing) who are fluent in ASL and is highly interactive, entertaining, and engaging. You can complete the lessons at your own pace. Built-in quizzes provide feedback about how well you are learning the material, and there is ample opportunity for practice. You'll see video vignettes showing conversational ASL, interviews with deaf celebrities,...
Description: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities.
Description: Childhood trauma isn’t something you just get over as you grow up. Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains that the repeated stress of abuse, neglect and parents struggling with mental health or substance abuse issues has real, tangible effects on the development of the brain. This unfolds across a lifetime, to the point where those who’ve experienced high levels of trauma are at triple the risk for heart disease and lung cancer. An impassioned plea for pediatric medicine to...
Description: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. CDC works to understand ACEs and prevent them.
Description: SAMHSA’s National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCTSI) improves treatment and services for children, adolescents, and families who have experienced traumatic events.
Description: The Heart of Learning: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success is a handbook for teachers written and compiled by OSPI and Western Washington University staff. It contains valuable information that will be helpful to you on a daily basis as you work with students whose learning has been adversely impacted by trauma in their lives. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Trauma, Compassion, and Resiliency: Background and Definitions Chapter 2: Self-Care: An Ethical Obligation for Those Who Care...
Description: Helping Traumatized Children Learn - The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative’s (TLPI) mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school. To accomplish this mission, TLPI engages in a host of advocacy strategies including: providing support to schools to become trauma sensitive environments; research and report writing; legislative and administrative advocacy for laws, regulations and...
Description: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC) Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, NCTSN) Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence (Activities Guide) Handbook: The Heart of Learning: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success (Compassionate Schools: The Heart of Learning and Teaching) Helping Traumatized Children Learn How childhood trauma affects health...
Description: Families are the enduring presence in the lives of young children with disabilities. This volume contains activities to support early care and education staff and families in developing positive relationships that support collaboration and family leadership. Session 1: Creating Bright Futures (Building Relationships with Families) Session 2: Listening to Families Session 3: When Concerns Arise: Learning from Families' Experiences Session 4: Getting...
Description: The Inclusion of Children with Disabilities: Training Guide is designed to strengthen the inclusion of young children with disabilities and their families in programs serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The guide features four modules, each containing a facilitator’s guide, training scripts, handouts, and videos. The modules are: Including Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Building Relationships with Families Collaboration and Teaming Preschool Inclusion Series The training...
Description: Google Maps has launched a new feature that shows the wheelchair accessible routes around public transit in major cities around the world. To access the “wheelchair accessible” routes, type your desired destination into Google Maps. Tap “Directions” then select the public transportation icon. Then tap “Options” and under the Routes section, you’ll find “wheelchair accessible” as a route type. When you select this option, Google Maps will show...
Description: VDSS is one of the largest Commonwealth agencies, partnering with 120 local departments of social services, along with faith-based and non-profit organizations, to promote the well-being of children and families statewide. We proudly serve alongside 1,650 (state) and 8,500 (local) human services professionals throughout the Social Services System, who ensure that thousands of Virginia's most vulnerable citizens have access to the best services and benefits available to them.
Description: All kids feel anxious from time to time. But kids with learning and attention issues are more likely to struggle with anxiety. How can you tell whether your child's level of anxiety is typical and appropriate? Learn when it's something to be worried about or a side effect of a medication like Ritalin. Then, read what one mother learned when her son got a 504 plan—beginning with the fact that there's absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.
Description: Where will a student with a disability receive his or her special education and related services? IDEA requires placement in the least restrictive environment (LRE) for each child, a setting that is based on the child’s IEP. Use the options and paths below to find out more about: who decides placement; how they decide it; what LRE is and why it’s a foundation element in IDEA and in deciding a child’s placement; and how placement can be affected if a child...
Description: School presents a unique challenge for children with behavior issues. Teachers need tools to use to help provide support and guidance. Administrators need methods for creating a positive learning atmosphere within the entire school. Parents need information on how to work with school staff to address their child’s behavior challenges in the school setting. We’ve included resources below that, hopefully, will give teachers, schools, and families the tools they need to create safe and...
Description: The education of children with disabilities is a top national priority. Our nation’s special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), sets high standards for their achievement and guides how special help and services are made available in schools to address their individual needs.
Description: The mental health of our children is a natural and important concern for us all. The fact is, many mental disorders have their beginnings in childhood or adolescence, yet may go undiagnosed and untreated for years. We refer to mental disorders using different “umbrella” terms such as emotional disturbance, behavioral disorders, or mental illness. Beneath these umbrella terms, there is actually a wide range of specific conditions that differ from one another in their characteristics...
Description: Parent Centers receive many calls and emails each year from people looking for materials on disability awareness. People need these materials to help community members, employers, organizations, and residents learn more about disabilities and what it means for people to live with a disability or raise a child with a disability. Having information about disability awareness can be put to many different uses–from classroom instructional units, to Girl Scout information fairs, to school...
Description: In drafting the provisions of IDEA, our nation’s special education law, Congress clearly contemplated that, at times, there would be disagreements between parents of children with disabilities and the school districts providing special education and related services to their children. While it is expected that parents and school personnel will work in partnership to ensure children with disabilities are provided appropriate services, there are times when the child’s parents and...
Description: About the Training Curriculum Title | Building the Legacy for Our Youngest Children with Disabilities: A Training Curriculum on Part C of IDEA 2004 By Whom? | This training curriculum was produced by NICHCY at the request of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education. The Center for Parent Information and Resources is pleased to house this curriculum and to make it continuously available. For Whom? | The curriculum is intended to...
Description: Giving a child a home is a remarkable gift. This page is written for the families who’ve adopted children with disabilities (and without!) and those who offer them safe haven through fostering. It’s also written for those who work in state agencies or in private organizations who find foster homes and adoptive families for so many children.
Description: The Virginia Family Network (VFN) is a contractual agreement between the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) and NAMI Virginia launched in 2011. The purpose is to create a statewide network of families who support, educate, and empower other families with children and youth with mental health needs while also promoting family-driven and youth-guided policy throughout the child-serving systems. The initiative is designed to...
Description: Sportable is an adaptive sports club with a mission of creating opportunities and transforming lives of those with physical disabilities and visual impairments through sport. We accomplish this mission by providing people with physical disabilities and visual impairments access to 13 sports in the greater Richmond area. These sporting opportunities build a community of athletes with active, healthy lives who take pride in there and each other’s accomplishments.
Description: Healthy brain development is essential for realizing one’s full potential and for overall well-being. For children and youth who experience child abuse or neglect and associated trauma, brain development may be interrupted, leading to functional impairments. Ongoing maltreatment can alter a child’s brain development and affect mental, emotional, and behavioral health into adulthood. Frontline child welfare professionals are in a unique position to recognize developmental delays in...
Description: Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible (Microsoft) - This topic gives you step-by-step instructions and best practices for making your PowerPoint presentations accessible and unlock your content to everyone, including people with disabilities. PowerPoint has many features built-in that help people with different abilities to read and author presentations. In this topic, you learn, for example, how to work with the Accessibility Checker to tackle accessibility issues...
Description: Make your Excel spreadsheets accessible - This topic gives you step-by-step instructions and best practices for making your Excel spreadsheets accessible and unlock your content to everyone, including people with disabilities. You learn, for example, how to work with the Accessibility Checker to tackle accessibility issues while you're creating your spreadsheet. You'll also learn how to add alt texts to images so that people using screen readers are able to listen to what the...
Description: Rules for the Accessibility Checker - To help ensure that your Office files are accessible, use the Accessibility Checker, a free tool available in Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, and PowerPoint on Windows, Office Online, or Mac, and Visio on Windows. It finds most accessibility issues and explains why each might be a potential problem for someone with a disability. It also offers suggestions on how to resolve each issue. Although the Accessibility Checker catches most types of accessibility...
Description: Make your Word Documents accessible (Microsoft) - This topic gives you step-by-step instructions and best practices on how to make your Word documents accessible and unlock your content to everyone, including people with disabilities. You learn, for example, how to work with the Accessibility Checker to tackle accessibility issues while you're writing your document. You'll also learn how to add alt texts to images so that people using screen readers are able to listen to what the...
Description: Helping Young Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: Policies and Strategies for Early Care and Education - In almost every early care and education (ECE) program across the country, there are children who have experienced trauma or who will, during their early childhood, experience traumatic events. Trauma in early childhood takes many forms, including abuse or neglect, witnessing violence, and having prolonged separation from or loss of a parent. An extensive body of research has documented the...
Description: Smartphones and tablets have only become ubiquitous in the last decade — but now, most of us can’t imagine life without them. Mobile devices have changed the way we communicate, access information, and learn. The possibilities they’ve opened up have also changed the way we interact with and think about subjects many people have trouble with, like math. Happily, there are a now multitude of mobile apps and computer programs that make numbers fun for all ages, and provide the...
Description: What you do and say matters! Explore and practice everyday strategies to develop Positive Goal-Oriented Relationships with a family. These relationships are key to our work with children and families, including the journey toward school readiness. Simulation 1 allows you to practice building bonds with families, beginning with an intake visit. Simulation 2 explores the process of developing and implementing goals with families. Simulation 3 explores using strengths-based attitudes to partner...
Description: Talks on Tuesdays are free, live webinars held from noon to 1pm EST on the first Tuesday of each month. These webinars focus on important topics that are relevant for EI practitioners and are chosen based on feedback from practitioners about what they need to know more about!
Description: Do you have a child with special needs? Precious Time is a pediatric respite care program that provides the families of children with special needs an opportunity to take a break from the demands of caregiving. JMU nursing students provide respite care as part of a student learning experience. Precious Time serves families who live within a one hour radius of Harrisonburg, VA. Claude Moore Precious Time (Precious Time) matches JMU Nursing and Health and Human Service students...
Description: Teachers across the United States are now able to access a new, free online tool, designed by and for teachers, to find highly targeted instructional math resources to support their kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms. With Watson's teacher-specific search and recommendation tool, you can now find relevant lessons, activities, standards information, and strategies faster than ever—all from a corpus of proven-effective materials recommended by educators. Free, easy-to-use lesson...
Description: Training and Workshops through PEATC - PEATC workshops are made possible through Federal funding from the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs and private donations. Our Federal grants designate PEATC as the Statewide Parent Training and Information Center and Region B1 RSA-Parent Training and Information Center. In order for PEATC to comply with our grant funding, we must ensure that at least 10 parents are registered to participate in each workshop so our program...
Description: Just like anyone else, individuals with I/DD come into contact with the criminal justice system as suspects, defendants, incarcerated persons, victims, and/or witnesses. People with disabilities are more likely to experience victimization, be arrested, be charged with a crime, and serve longer prison sentences once convicted, than those without disabilities. Individuals with I/DD with other marginalized identities (e.g., people of color, members of indigenous communities, and those who identify...
Description: Autism Speaks provides a sampling of the large range products and services our community often inquires about relating to safety, from seat belt harnesses, to wearable identification items, and smart technology. This list is not intended to be all inclusive and they do not endorse any individual product. Alert Me Bands AMBER Alert GPS Angel Guard AngelSense Autism ID Card Autism Safety Initiative AWAARE: Autism Wandering Awareness Alerts Response and Education Collaboration BE SAFE The...
Description: This section provides information on assessment and eligibility determination guidelines to special education professionals who work with English Learners. These guidelines can be used where traditional evaluation procedures may not be appropriate and are based on specific aspects of diversity such as race, culture, the acculturation process, high mobility among families and poverty rates.
Description: These standards offer a framework for how families, schools, and communities should work together to support student success. Family Engagement (Virginia PTA) When families and schools work together, students succeed. Engaging families in order to create a collaborative partnership between families and schools is at the core of our PTA work, it's even in the name of our association! Through family events, programs, advocacy and community outreach efforts, PTAs across the country are...
Description: Being a parent is the most wonderful—and hardest—job in the world. If you have a child with special needs, your job is no less wonderful, but it can be more complicated. Your child’s education is most likely an area of great interest to you. As a child with a disability, he or she may be eligible for special education services in school. If so, then it will be important for you to learn: more about special education; how special education services can support your child; and...
Description: The VA EI eLearning Center is designed to provide practitioners with high quality, interactive professional development on early intervention topics. Each module is available as a free resource and results in a certificate of completion. We invite you to explore the site to find modules that meet your certification or ongoing professional development needs. Virginia Early Intervention Certification Courses and Ongoing Professional Development Courses are available.
Description: More and more students are seeking support for mental health disabilities at colleges, but colleges have been unable to meet that demand. Some have argued that the nation has reached a “campus mental health crisis.” This National Council on Disability (NCD) report examines and assesses the status of college mental health services and policies in the United States, and provides recommendations for Congress, federal agencies, and colleges to improve college mental health services...
Description: AAIDD, is the publisher, copyright holder, and sole owner of the SIS, SIS-A. SIS-C, SIS-A Annual Review Protocol, and Person-Centered Planning With the Supports Intensity Scale-Adult Version™: A Guide for Planning Teams (2017). The suite of SIS tools also includes all associated interview scoring forms, user’s guides, training manuals and materials, and associated electronic software platforms, most notably SISOnline and SISVenture. The SIS-A is a standardized assessment tool...
Description: The Center for Safe Schools and the Highmark Foundation partnered to develop this new Pennsylvania Bullying Prevention Toolkit website that provides centralized, authoritative, easy-to-use information, tools and best practices to help families, schools and communities recognize, understand and prevent bullying. For parents, this toolkit ensures that they have a fast track to assessing and meeting needs when bullying occurs. Along with tips for parents whose children are bullied and advice for...
Description: This document was developed to clarify the relationship between Specially Designed Instruction, Core Instruction and Interventions within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) for educators developing, improving and maintaining systems of support for all students.The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004 made it clear that students with disabilities are to be considered first and foremost as general education students. This distinction, along with...
Description: A few resources for identifying SDI and incorporating SDI into the co-taught classroom. (From Marilyn Friend's presentation materials, Virginia's Co-Teaching Summer Institute, July 2017.)