Featured Resource

Dispelling Myths associated with Assistive Technology

Educational Technology (OET) provided the guidance “to increase understanding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA’s) requirements regarding assistive technology (AT) devices and services, and dispel common misconceptions regarding AT, while also providing examples of the use of AT devices and services for children with disabilities,” according to a Dear Colleague Letter accompanying the AT guidance.
The guidance, Myths and Facts Surrounding Assistive Technology Devices and Services, highlights 28 myths and facts related to AT devices and services. The guidance provides additional information and resources to support children with disabilities and identifies related requirements addressed in the IDEA

An Online Celebration of Mother Language Day 2022

“I ka wā mamua, I ka wā mahope.”
Through the Past is the Future.

Hawaiian proverb

The Smithsonian Institution is hosting the online Mother Tongue Film Festival to celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity. The festival will showcase films and filmmakers from around the world, highlighting the critical role languages play in our daily lives and the importance of maintaining languages that are vanishing. For American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, this is an urgent reality, because their mother languages are the only means to communicate with elders, the wisdom keepers, to learn about and from their collective pasts. These languages express ideas and values on which their cultures are built, and Native mother tongues capture concepts that don’t exist in English.

The festival events and film premieres span from February 17 – March 4, 2022. Check out the event schedule and learn more about the films on offer here.

Getting Ready for the 2021-22 School Year: FAQs about Testing Children with Disabilities

The 2020-21 school year was an unprecedented year with many districts implementing virtual learning, and with some districts moving back and forth between in-person and distance learning. Now, as children return to school in Fall 2021, it is critical that states and districts gather information on what children with disabilities have learned and where they need more support to meet standards-based learning goals. With this information, educators can make changes to current programs and to instruction to address children’s needs. Both formal and informal tests are important tools for gathering information.

This brief from NCEO answers frequently asked questions about whether (and how!) to test children with disabilities. The FAQ notes in particular that individualized education program (IEP) teams may need to revisit a child’s IEP before making test participation decisions. IEPs written before the COVID-19 pandemic may no longer address an individual child’s needs after the pandemic. For a list of the FAQs posed and to connect with the brief, read more here.

Interactive Guide to School Choice: Public and Private School Choice

School choice comes in many different forms, and all 50 states plus the District of Columbia provide parents the ability to send their child to a school outside their neighborhood in some way. Charter schools, magnet schools, open enrollment programs, and state turnaround districts all provide public school options to parents. School vouchers, education savings accounts, and scholarship tax credit programs expand those choices to include private schools.

In the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)’s interactive guide to school choice, you can: (a) click on a state to see a profile of all the school choice programs offered in that state;(b) click on a type of school choice policy for an explanation as well as a map of all the states that have enacted that policy; and (c) find many additional resources that explore these policies further.

Visit the Interactive Guide and explore!