Education

Legislation may be heard in the House Education K-12 Subcommittee on Wednesday, February 10th at 10am that would allow Special Education students to be locked alone in a room.  This would undo two years of work that outlawed locking students with Autism, Down Syndrome, ADHD, and other disabilities in isolation rooms.

If your legislator sits on this subcommittee we are asking you to make a call or send an email opposing House Bill 2538 by Tuesday.  A list of subcommittee members and bill sponsors, the areas they serve and their contact information is below.  When contacting your legislators please be respectful and let them know you live in their district.

Key Points

• This bill would make it legal to lock a special education student – of any age or diagnosis – in isolation at risk to their health and safety
• Contradicts health and safety codes that prohibit locking students in an educational facility without a way out
• A child could be locked in an isolation room without parental notification
• There is no requirement in the bill that locked isolation only be used in an emergency situations
• With a locked door, a student is trapped with no mechanism to call for help if they are forgotten – even for a minute or two – by school personnel
• Places all special education students at risk of locked isolation

For more information contact the Coalition at news@tndisability.org

Bill Sponsors and Districts

Click a legislator's name to get their email and phone number

Rep. Glen Casada - parts of Williamson County

Sen. Jack Johnson - Williamson and parts of Davidson - Senate Bill 2517

K-12 Subcommitee and Districts

Les Winningham, Chair - Clay, Jackson, Picket, Scott, and Anderson*

Ron Loller, Vice Chair - Shelby*

Judy Barker - Obion, Lake, and Dyer*

Tommie Brown - Hamilton*

Bill Dunn - Knox*

Beth Harwell - Davidson*

David Hawk - Unicoi, Greene*

Joey Hensley - Lawrence, Lewis, Wayne*

Ulysses Jones - Shelby*

Mark Maddox - Weakly, Carroll*

Johnnie Turner - Shelby*

Terri Lynn Weaver - DeKalb, Smith, Macon

The Volunteer Advocacy Project is a training program for individuals who are willing to become advocates for families as they navigate their way through the world of special education.  The project will be taking applications for volunteer advocates through Friday, December 19th, 2009.

Participants will learn about special education law and advocacy strategies. At the end of the training, each participant will shadow an advocate at a special education meeting. Following graduation from the program, you will be linked with a family of a child with a disability. Each volunteer advocate is expected to work with, at least, four families, at the discretion of The Arc and STEP.

Requirements:

• Willing to attend all weekly sessions
• Willing to shadow an advocate at a special education meeting
• Willing to advocate for four families of children with disabilities

Training will cover:

• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
• State law
• No Child Left Behind
• The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

To download a fact sheet and application. 

To download a PDF Flyer.

As a special education master’s student in George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development, I am conducting a research study about the IEP process.  An IEP is an Individualized Education Program, which documents instruction strategies that are tailored to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability.

I am requesting your participation in an online survey that you can complete at:  IEP Survey.  

Or visit: http://survey.ssg.gmu.edu/survey/entry.jsp?id=1247493078015

This survey should take approximately 15 to 20 minutes to complete. I greatly appreciate the effort and time you invest in completing this survey. Your input is very important. Should you have questions, please feel free to contact me. Thank you for your time and attention.

The U.S. Army has adopted an early intervention strategy developed by the director of the Siskin Center for Child and Family Research at Siskin Children’s Institute. Robin McWilliam, Ph.D., will help the Army implement his model for early intervention in natural environments for children with special needs.

The model is designed to empower families with the ability to incorporate early intervention strategies at home or in other natural settings. Essentially, early interventionists train families to play more active roles in children’s therapies at home or wherever the family is. Families learn to use everyday objects and events therapeutically, which result in small changes in children’s daily routines that have a major impact on their future abilities.

Dr. McWilliam will lead two presentations to early interventionists who contract with the Army to provide services to military families. The first presentation was held at the Army’s Educational and Development Intervention System (EDIS) Workshop at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. His second presentation will be June 3 and 4 in Heidelberg, Germany.

The U.S. Department of Defense provides services to children with special needs under Department of Defense rules, which largely correspond to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA). EDIS delivers early intervention services to eligible infants and toddlers in domestic and overseas areas, and medically related services to school-age children in special education programs in schools overseas.

Dr. McWilliam is the Siskin Endowed Chair of Research in Early Childhood Education, Development and Intervention at Siskin Children’s Institute. He joined the Institute from Vanderbilt University, where he led the Center for Child Development. With more than 25 years of experience as an academic and researcher, Dr. McWilliam consults with state and federal government leaders on services for children and families and has testified before Congress regarding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). He has developed more than 60 tools practitioners use to evaluate needs and serve children with disabilities, many of which have been adopted internationally.

To learn more about Early Intervention in Natural Environments

To learn more about the Siskin Children's Institute

About Siskin Children’s Institute

Since 1950, Siskin Children's Institute has served children with special needs, such as autism, developmental delays and Down syndrome. The Institute achieves its mission in a comprehensive way: a quality preschool education where children with disabilities learn together with typically developing children; family support and community outreach programs; innovative research focusing on early childhood development and special education; and in 2009, developmental and behavioral pediatric health care. For more information about Siskin Children’s Institute, visit www.siskin.org.