Buzz from the Hub

This month’s launch of the Native American Resource Collection brings cultural matters into sharp focus. Because Parent Centers interact with an amazing diversity of people, it’s clear why being culturally aware and responsive are prized qualities in our network. May the resources spotlighted in this Buzz be useful to Center staff as they work with families and professionals from all walks of life.

The New Year always seems like a good time to reflect on the work accomplished in the previous year. In this issue of the Buzz, we would also like to share with you how our work and enthusiasm of 2019 will result in some new exciting products for you in 2020.

This Buzz from the Hub connects you with videos across a range of disability subjects, beginning with several you can share with families. The remaining videos in our list may be best suited for individual learning, staff development, or program planning. Here’s hoping these give your Center useful, relevant information in a multimedia format!

This Buzz from the Hub focuses on the importance of having and continuously strengthening the “people skills” that we as Parent Centers bring to our work with families and others. Skills such as active listening and questioning play a vital role in our ability to establish rapport and create a safe space where parents and others can share their questions and concerns.

We’ve divided this issue of the Buzz from the Hub into two parts: (1) resources on issues that many may find “touchy” or controversial; and (2) resources that aren’t controversial at all, just plain new, needed, and likely to be quite useful to Parent Centers, schools, and families.

The theme of this issue of the Buzz is on encouraging and enabling students with disabilities to speak up and participate in decision making that affects their education and their lives now and in the future. We are also pleased to spotlight 2 data resources that Parent Centers may find relevant to their work with families and their collaborations with others at the state, regional, and national levels.

As always, there’s so much news to share about what’s new, redesigned, improved, or otherwise noteworthy. This Buzz brings you but a sampling from each of those categories across such diverse key topics as transition to adulthood and postsecondary opportunities for youth with disabilities, state and local report cards, sexual behavior problems in children, student data, and parent-teacher conferences.

The IEP is one of the crown jewels in the education of children with disabilities and the primary vehicle for each child’s individualized program. CPIR has a large number of IEP resources that your center can use in capacity building, meetings with families, and workshops for families and professionals, we’ve put together this Buzz to make it easy for you to find those resources. Most are available in English and Spanish.

It’s that time of year again for most of us–back to school. You’re probably up to your neck already in resources to use and share, so we focused this Buzz on materials and information that both families and Parent Centers can use right now and continue to use throughout the school year. Best of beginnings to you!

Consider this Buzz as a messenger enticing you to pursue whatever you find fun, relaxing, exciting, or restorative. It’s not selfish to carve out moments to take care of yourself. And there are so many creative ways to do so!

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