Did you know?
Did you know that progress monitoring is a required component of the IEP process? Each IEP goal needs to have a graph with data that is collected and entered twice a month? You can always do weekly collections(this might happen more on behavioral goals) but the charting only needs to happen twice a month on the web IEP program.
The graphs have been a wonderful tool to show students, families, and staff the progress being made on a goal area. Congratulations to all of you who have succeeded in charting and graphing this year!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Monday, December 21, 2009
Extended School Year Services
Good Morning,
Although the snow is flying and the Holiday music is playing, I want to take an opportunity to guide us in some preplanning for the upcoming summer. As you may know, the summer school program funded through general education funds will not be in place this coming summer. I anticipate this will in turn impact requests for extended school year services for students with IEPs. As you may remember, extended school year services are considered through the IEP team process. The data needed to help with that consideration is the progress monitoring (charting) of IEP goal areas. I would encourage teachers to gather progress monitoring data after the Holiday break to help with any requests that may come this upcoming spring. Further information is available on the Grant Wood website at:
http://www.aea10.k12.ia.us/divlearn/specialeducation/index.html
May you all have a well deserved restful Holiday break and I look forward to working with you in the upcoming year!
Take care,
Julie
Although the snow is flying and the Holiday music is playing, I want to take an opportunity to guide us in some preplanning for the upcoming summer. As you may know, the summer school program funded through general education funds will not be in place this coming summer. I anticipate this will in turn impact requests for extended school year services for students with IEPs. As you may remember, extended school year services are considered through the IEP team process. The data needed to help with that consideration is the progress monitoring (charting) of IEP goal areas. I would encourage teachers to gather progress monitoring data after the Holiday break to help with any requests that may come this upcoming spring. Further information is available on the Grant Wood website at:
http://www.aea10.k12.ia.us/divlearn/specialeducation/index.html
May you all have a well deserved restful Holiday break and I look forward to working with you in the upcoming year!
Take care,
Julie
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Supply Budgets
Hello,
I hope this finds everyone safe and sound during our first Iowa snowstorm! Last night at the school board meeting the Linn Mar Budget Management Model was reviewed. The model lists some budget goal priorities. One of those priorities is to reduce supply and equipment budgets by 10% and eliminate or reduce purchases of supplies and services. Student Services will be implementing this priority by several means. One of those means is to reduce special education classroom supply budgets by 10%. Karen Wilson has the adjusted amounts of remaining budgets. All purchase orders will be reviewed and must be connected with specific curriculum needs and/or individual student needs.
If your classroom is planning for a field trip off the Linn Mar campus after January 1, 2010 please contact your building principal. In turn, they will contact me with any questions/concerns that may arise.
For those of you using the Unique Learning Curriculum, we will continue to monitor the number of printed copies and will reimburse the printing costs back to the building’s print budget at the end of the year. Please remember to notify Karen Wilson with the number of copies made on a monthly basis. As a reminder, these costs are budgeted through the Special Education ARRA (Stimulus) funds.
Any other questions/concerns please feel free to contact me.
Take Care,
Julie
I hope this finds everyone safe and sound during our first Iowa snowstorm! Last night at the school board meeting the Linn Mar Budget Management Model was reviewed. The model lists some budget goal priorities. One of those priorities is to reduce supply and equipment budgets by 10% and eliminate or reduce purchases of supplies and services. Student Services will be implementing this priority by several means. One of those means is to reduce special education classroom supply budgets by 10%. Karen Wilson has the adjusted amounts of remaining budgets. All purchase orders will be reviewed and must be connected with specific curriculum needs and/or individual student needs.
If your classroom is planning for a field trip off the Linn Mar campus after January 1, 2010 please contact your building principal. In turn, they will contact me with any questions/concerns that may arise.
For those of you using the Unique Learning Curriculum, we will continue to monitor the number of printed copies and will reimburse the printing costs back to the building’s print budget at the end of the year. Please remember to notify Karen Wilson with the number of copies made on a monthly basis. As a reminder, these costs are budgeted through the Special Education ARRA (Stimulus) funds.
Any other questions/concerns please feel free to contact me.
Take Care,
Julie
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Bookshare
More information to come... but we are learning about a web based free service specifically for NIMAS eligible but also other students with reading disabilities. It provides books that can be downloaded to a computer and read to a student. There are some upcoming webinars where we are learning about it but you can check it out at bookshare.com. Ask your GWAEA rep for details.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Congratulations on Count Day!
Hello!
Thank you to all student support staff members, AEA staff, and building administrators for a very successful October 30th Count Day! Your hard work through out the year to keep IEPs up to date and current certainly pays off when the October deadline comes around. Congratulations!
As a friendly reminder, please note that progress monitoring and graphing are also part of completing the IEP data on a timely basis. Best practice would be to keep the progress monitoring on a twice a month basis. This year we have had several IEP meetings where a family is asking to see the progress on IEP goals. Sometimes the graph is available and some times not. This tells me families appreciate and understand the need to check the progress on their child's IEP goals. Thank you for keeping our families informed!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!
Julie
Thank you to all student support staff members, AEA staff, and building administrators for a very successful October 30th Count Day! Your hard work through out the year to keep IEPs up to date and current certainly pays off when the October deadline comes around. Congratulations!
As a friendly reminder, please note that progress monitoring and graphing are also part of completing the IEP data on a timely basis. Best practice would be to keep the progress monitoring on a twice a month basis. This year we have had several IEP meetings where a family is asking to see the progress on IEP goals. Sometimes the graph is available and some times not. This tells me families appreciate and understand the need to check the progress on their child's IEP goals. Thank you for keeping our families informed!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!
Julie
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Ron Peeler presentation October 20, 2009
Hello!
Ron Peeler, Ahlers Law Firm, did an excellent job of presenting current issues in special education for our student support staffs. The associates heard him in the morning and the teachers/AEA support staff/counselors in the afternoon. Thank you Ron for coming to Linn Mar land!
As a follow up to the presentations, we were asked to review our time line expectation for keeping materials. Please note that all records and files should be kept for 2 years minimum and best practice is for 5 years. During our conversation it was determined that if the day to day data collection is not recorded in another manner, it should also be filed on that same time line. If the data collection is summarized in another manner (i.e. IEP progress monitoring, charting, etc..) the day to day data can be sent home with a family member.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions/concerns in that area.
Thanks for all you do for Linn Mar studnets and families!
Julie
Ron Peeler, Ahlers Law Firm, did an excellent job of presenting current issues in special education for our student support staffs. The associates heard him in the morning and the teachers/AEA support staff/counselors in the afternoon. Thank you Ron for coming to Linn Mar land!
As a follow up to the presentations, we were asked to review our time line expectation for keeping materials. Please note that all records and files should be kept for 2 years minimum and best practice is for 5 years. During our conversation it was determined that if the day to day data collection is not recorded in another manner, it should also be filed on that same time line. If the data collection is summarized in another manner (i.e. IEP progress monitoring, charting, etc..) the day to day data can be sent home with a family member.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions/concerns in that area.
Thanks for all you do for Linn Mar studnets and families!
Julie
Friday, September 11, 2009
Parent Forum Information
We have scheduled Information Nights for families who have children supported through Special Education Programs in the Linn-Mar district.
Topics will include Services available in the Linn-Mar Community School District, our Area Education Agency, our local community, and the State of Iowa.
Presenters will be Dr. Janine Wahl, Regional Adminstrator for Grant Wood AEA, Kelly Von Lehmden, Linn Mar Parent and Family Representative at the University of Iowa Center for Disabilities and Development and Julie Jensen, Executive Director of Student Services at Linn Mar.
Three different nights available with the same information being presented at each forum:
September 29, 2009 6:00-7:00p.m. Wilkins Elementary Music Room
October 1, 2009 6:00-7:00 p.m. Bowman Woods Elementary Media Center
October 6, 2009 6:30-7:30 p.m. Excelsior Middle School Media Center
Topics will include Services available in the Linn-Mar Community School District, our Area Education Agency, our local community, and the State of Iowa.
Presenters will be Dr. Janine Wahl, Regional Adminstrator for Grant Wood AEA, Kelly Von Lehmden, Linn Mar Parent and Family Representative at the University of Iowa Center for Disabilities and Development and Julie Jensen, Executive Director of Student Services at Linn Mar.
Three different nights available with the same information being presented at each forum:
September 29, 2009 6:00-7:00p.m. Wilkins Elementary Music Room
October 1, 2009 6:00-7:00 p.m. Bowman Woods Elementary Media Center
October 6, 2009 6:30-7:30 p.m. Excelsior Middle School Media Center
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