U.S. Department of Education

SchoolSafety.gov

(2020) | Useful to Parent Centers and all stakeholders involved in school systems, improving the school climate, and ensuring student safety. SchoolSafety.gov is a website recently created by multiple federal agencies. The site aims to help schools prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from emergency situations. In collaboration, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security […]

Understanding ESSA: A Parents’ Guide to the Nation’s Landmark Education Law

(2018, August) | Useful to Parent Centers for sharing with the families they serve, to better parental understanding of ESSA and their role in advocating for how it is implemented in their state. This 19-page Parents’ Guide to ESSA comes from the U.S. Department of Education with the stated purpose of helping parents understand the […]

Parent and Educator Guide to School Climate Resources

(2019, April) | Useful to Parent Centers, educators, families, and school systems interested in how to initiate or expand school climate improvement activities. The Parent and Educator Guide to School Climate Resources, from the U.S. Department of Education, is intended to provide parents, teachers, administrators, and other interested parties with: a general understanding of school climate, […]

Dear Colleague Letter on Early Intervention Services and Screening

(2018, December 20) | Useful to early interventionists, lead agencies, and Parent Centers on screening during evaluation of an infant or toddler for hearing loss or deafness. This Dear Colleague letter from OSEP responds to a question about the evaluation process for an infant or toddler suspected of being deaf or hard of hearing to determine […]

Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of IDEA, 2018

The Secretary of Education is required by law to report annually to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The 2018 report presents data on the children with disabilities receiving early intervention services or special education from July 2015 through December 2016, including:

• the nature of their disability,
• their placement, and
• the types of related services and other supportive services they received.

Read the preface to the report or its key findings, and download the full report here.

Presenting School Choice Information to Parents

(2018, October) | Useful, research-based guide for Parent Centers, schools systems, and policy makers sharing information about school choice with parents. _________ Presenting School Choice Information to Parents: An Evidence-Based Guide, from the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), presents findings from an online experiment conducted with 3,500 low-income parents. Each parent […]

From Miami to New Jersey: A Parent’s Journey

We are pleased to share with you this blog post written by CPIR’s own Myriam Alizo. She describes her personal journey as a parent learning that her four-year-old daughter had speech delays and attention issues. What to do? Like so many other parents, Myriam knew nothing about early childhood delays, IEPs, the IDEA, or the help that was available for families whose children have disabilities.

That all changed when her daughter’s backpack one day contained a flyer from the Parent Center in Miami. And doors and paths were opened… it’s a journey that has taken Myriam deep into the heart of the Parent Center network…

…but we’ll let Myriam tell you the story herself. From Miami to New Jersey, indeed.

Comprehensive Center Network Website and Information Portal

(2018, July) | Useful to: All education stakeholders searching for information about activities and publications of the Comprehensive Center network. Newly launched! The Department of Education has launched a new website for the Comprehensive Center Network (CC Network). The site compiles more than 700 resources developed by 23 regional and content-focused centers, and more than […]

Final Rule: Delay of Compliance Dates for Disproportionality

On July 3, 2018, the U.S. Department of Education issued a final rule that will delay by two years the date for States to comply with the “Equity in IDEA” or “significant disproportionality” regulations. Set to go into effect on July 1, 2018, implementation of those rules are now delayed until July 1, 2020. In the same final rule, the Department also postponed the date for including children ages 3 through 5 in the analysis of significant disproportionality, with respect to the identification of children as children with disabilities and as children with a particular impairment. The initial implementation deadline was July 1, 2020; the deadline is now two years later: July 1, 2022.

Access the final rule delaying compliance dates, read the analysis of comments and changes, and access key background information.