Buzz from the Hub

Nice fantasy, isn’t it? All you hard workers lounging by the pool, in the pool, anywhere near a pool! While you’re there, we thought we’d revisit several key issues of our network and pass along updates and resources that you might find useful now or in the near future.

Everyone’s heard about the “summer slide” that can erode student progress and key skills. This Buzz highlights resources families can use to help children and youth slide into fun this summer instead, while keeping them learning and engaged. Find suggestions and perspectives on how to keep our children up and running–and ourselves, too. Enjoy this summer!

This Buzz focuses on resources and recent data that Parent Centers, community organizations, and social service agencies may find useful in planning their outreach to and services for populations that are at risk: namely, young children, students of color, Native communities, and students with disabilities. What is being done–and what can we ourselves do–to support the most vulnerable children, youth, and adults?

This Buzz shares resources about Parent Centers and the tremendous work you do, resources for Parent Centers (did you miss the OSEP webinar on FERPA and IDEA Privacy Requirements?), and resources that Parent Centers can use with the families you serve.

This Buzz shares tools that families can use in supporting their children’s well-being at home, at school, and in the community. You’ll also be pleased to know there’s a new learning module available on writing high-quality IEPs that meet the much higher standard set by the Supreme Court in the 2017 Endrew F. decision. Great for staff training!

This Buzz shares recent resources that received a Highly Rated review from CPIR’s teams of Parent Center reviewers. We’re pleased to spotlight six such resources–3 from CPIR itself and 3 from other organizations.

This Buzz spotlights resources of high priority to Parent Centers, families, schools, and students themselves: supporting student learning and performance by providing accommodations in the classroom and during state assessments; and promoting school safety by ensuring that school resource officers (SROs) in our schools are appropriately trained and clear about their roles and the limits of their authority.

This issue of the Buzz spotlights three resources you may find appropriate for sharing with parents, family members, and professionals who are new to the disability journey that begins when a child is born with or diagnosed at some point as having a disability. What to do? Who to call or turn to for guidance?

As Parent Centers, we are always looking for tools and information that will help us create trainings, conduct workshops, understand current trends and the people we serve, and share valuable disability information with families. So this Buzz is dedicated to sharing resources that will hopefully support you in the great work you do to educate and connect others.

New tools for a new year! Not all the resources mentioned in this Buzz are shiny new, but you may not have heard of them, ever used them, or signed up to receive them. These tools are there for all of us to use in shaping how ESSA is implemented; in engaging families in advisory roles; in identifying OSEP-funded projects in each state and across the nation; and more

CPIR has been updating many resources housed in the Hub library. Amid the tedium of checking links and removing resources that are out of date or no longer available, we’ve discovered unexpected rewards: New resources! Ones we hadn’t heard about or realized were available. We’re pleased to share 5 of these with you.

The spotlight of this issue of the Buzz from the Hub is on short videos you can use with staff and share with the families and professionals you serve.