Key Topics

Behavior Problems

When children struggle with their behavior, it can have a negative impact on everyone in the family. Parents know they need to respond, but they often aren’t sure what’s the best strategy, especially if a child is frequently acting out and nothing seems to work.

This resource collection from the Child Mind Institute offers parents a comprehensive look at problem behavior. It covers many topics, including what may be triggering problem behavior, how to improve the parent-child relationship when it becomes strained, what to do if kids are struggling with behavior in school, and how to get professional help if you need it. The suite is also available in Spanish.

To take a closer look at the individual topics treated in the collection and to access it in English or Spanish, come here.

Buzz | “Bread and Butter” Topics of Parent Centers (& Parents)

What concerns and questions do newcomer families often tend to have when they learn that their child has a disability? These, shall we say, are the bread-and-butter of topics that Parent Centers so often address. This Buzz connects you with easy-to-share introductions to and explanations of what many newcomer families need to know. New Parent Center staffers may also find these materials a useful crash course in basic topics related to children with disabilities.

Safe Schools Checklist

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Return to School Roadmap | Child Find under Part B of IDEA

This Q&A document (OSEP QA 21-05) on Child Find under Part B of IDEA reaffirms the importance of appropriate implementation of IDEA’s child find obligations, which requires the identification, location and evaluation, of all children with disabilities in the states.

Webinar | Return to School: Development and Implementation of IEPs

This webinar focuses on important guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, issued on September 30th and entitled Return to School Roadmap: Development and Implementation of IEPs in the LRE. The guidance stresses the importance of revisiting the needs of students with disabilities as they return to classrooms. Have the needs and learning difficulties of individual students changed, given the impact of COVID-19, remote learning, and isolation? Do goals in the IEP need to be changed, do the services and supports to be provided need to be adjusted? Presenters from OSEP explore these and other questions, including compensatory services and addressing the school-related health needs of returning students.

Parent/Guardian Re-Entry Guide | 2020-2021

This draft parent reentry guide provides parents with support and resources to help navigate these unprecedented times of schooling during the pandemic. It presents an overview of the potential challenges that may present in the 2020-2021 school year and then addresses how to support students and families in the areas of social emotional learning, academic support at home, family culture and well-being, current operations, and health and safety concerns. It concludes with a large resource list for families.

Read more about what’s in the guide here, as well as where to access it.

Bullying Prevention Hub

Developed in partnership with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the Bullying Prevention Hub is a resource for teens, parents, and educators seeking support and help for issues related to bullying and other conflicts. It offers step-by-step plans, including guidance on how to start some important conversations for people being bullied, parents who have had a child being bullied or accused of bullying, and educators who have had students involved with bullying.

Read more about the Bullying Prevention Hub, its Parents Portal and the Youth Portal, and the kinds of resources and practical tools it offers for keeping safe online, here.

Parents Guide to Problem Behavior

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SchoolSafety.gov

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Charting the LifeCourse

The National Community of Practice for Supporting Families of Individuals of I/DD has been working to develop systems of support for families throughout the lifespan of their family member with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Especially for individuals, families, and professionals are the Charting the LifeCourse materials, which include a LifeCourse toolkit in English and Spanish. The framework for Charting the LifeCourse was created BY FAMILIES to help individuals and families of all abilities and all ages develop a vision for a good life, think about what they need to know and do, identify how to find or develop supports, and discover what it takes to live the lives they want to live.

Read more about and access the LifeCourse Toolkit in English and Spanish here.