Week in Review - January 19, 2018

NASET

WEEK IN REVIEW

National Association of Special Education Teachers

January 19, 2018 Vol 14 Issue #3

Dear NASET News,

Welcome to NASET'sWEEK in REVIEW. Here, we provide you with the latest publications fromNASET to read and or download, as well as some of the most interesting articles that have happened this week in the field of special education. We hope you enjoy this publication. Feel free to send us articles for this publication or let us know your thoughts about the WEEK in REVIEW at news@naset.org. Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

NASET News Team

NEW THIS WEEK ON NASET

NASET's IEP Components Series

Student with a Disability on the IEP Team

Operating on the premise that the student with a disability-who is the focus of all this discussion and planning- may have something vital to contribute to planning his or her educational program and future, IDEA clearly provides for the child's inclusion in, and participation on, the IEP Team whenever appropriate. Specifically, IDEA provides that the public agency must include the child with a disability at the IEP meeting "whenever appropriate, and requires that the child be invited to attend the meeting "if the purpose of the meeting will be the consideration of the postsecondary goals for the child and the transition services needed to assist the child in reaching those goals" [§300.320(b)]. As you can see, if transition goals and services are going to be discussed, the student with a disability must be invited to attend the meeting. This issue of NASET's IEP Components series will address issues pertaining to a student with a disability on the IEP Team. Read More

Texas Illegally Excluded Thousands from Special Education, Federal Officials Say

For years, Texas education officials illegally led schools across the state to deny therapy, tutoring and counseling to tens of thousands of children with disabilities, the federal government said Thursday. In a letter to the Texas Education Agency, which oversees education in the state, regulators from the federal Department of Education said the state agency's decision to set a "target" for the maximum percentage of students who should receive special education services had violated federal laws requiring schools to serve all students with disabilities. The target, enacted in 2004 and eliminated last year, was set at 8.5 percent of enrollment, and school districts were penalized for exceeding that benchmark, even though the state and national averages had both long been about 12 percent. As a direct result of the policy, regulators determined, the share of students receiving special education services in Texas dropped from 11.6 percent in 2004 to 8.6 percent in 2016 - a difference of about 150,000 children. Read More

Creating a Dysgraphia-Friendly Classroom

Dysgraphia is a language-based learning difference that affects a student's ability to produce written language. In the early grades, students with dysgraphia may have difficulty with consistent letter formation, word spacing, punctuation, and capitalization. In later grades, they may have difficulty with writing fluency, floating margins, and legible writing. In the classroom, students with dysgraphia are often labeled "sloppy," "lazy," or "not detail-oriented." But students with dysgraphia are often trying very hard, if not harder than others, just to keep up. Dysgraphia is an invisible disability that often goes hand in hand with dyslexia. Like students with dyslexia, students with dysgraphia are often acutely aware of what they're not capable of relative to their peers. Read More

Epileptic Seizures and Depression May Share a Common Genetic Cause, Study Suggests

From the time of Hippocrates, physicians have suspected a link between epilepsy and depression. Now, for the first time, scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Columbia University have found evidence that seizures and mood disorders such as depression may share the same genetic cause in some people with epilepsy, which may lead to better screening and treatment to improve patients' quality of life. The scientists studied dozens of unusual families with multiple relatives who had epilepsy, and compared the family members' lifetime prevalence of mood disorders with that of the U.S. population. They found an increased incidence of mood disorders in persons who suffer from a type of the condition called focal epilepsy, in which seizures begin in just one part of the brain. But mood disorders were not increased in people with generalized epilepsy, in which seizures start on both sides of the brain. Read More

Common Pain Reliever Use During Pregnancy Linked to Language Delay in Girls

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found an elevated rate of language delay in girls at 30 months old born to mothers who used acetaminophen during pregnancy, but not in boys. This is the first study to examine language development in relation to acetaminophen levels in urine. The Swedish Environmental Longitudinal, Mother and Child, Asthma and Allergy study (SELMA) provided data for the research. Information was gathered from 754 women who were enrolled into the study in weeks 8-13 of their pregnancy. Researchers asked participants to report the number of acetaminophen tablets they had taken between conception and enrollment, and tested the acetaminophen concentration in their urine at enrollment. The frequency of language delay, defined as the use of fewer than 50 words, was measured by both a nurse's assessment and a follow-up questionnaire filled out by participants about their child's language milestones at 30 months. Read More

Altered Voice Processing in Young Children with Autism and Delayed Language Development

Three- to five-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and delayed language development appear to process voices differently than typically developing children, according to a new study. "The diagnosis, 'autism spectrum disorder,' covers a lot of symptoms. For each various symptom, there should be a various brain pathophysiology," said Yuko Yoshimura, an assistant professor in the Research Center for Child Mental Development at Kanazawa University and first author on the paper. "It is important to objectively detect them, and to lead children with ASD and their parents to appropriate support and intervention." The research team includes scientists from the Gunma Prefectural College of Health Science, the Health Administration Center at the University of Fukui, and the International Education Center at Kyushu University. Read More

Board Certification in Special Education Available to NASET Members

Through an agreement with The American Academy of Special Education Professionals(AASEP), NASET members now have the opportunity to achieve AASEP Board Certification in Special Education - (B.C.S.E.) at a reduced fee. AASEP Board Certification in Special Education - (B.C.S.E.) is a voluntary choice on the part of the candidate. The candidate for Board Certification wishes to demonstrate a commitment to excellence to employers, peers, administrators, other professionals, and parents. From the standpoint of the Academy, board certification will demonstrate the highest professional competency in the area of special education. Board Certification in Special Educationestablishes a much needed standard for professionals, across disciplines, who work with exceptional children.Read More

TRIVIA QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Congratulations to: Jill Goyette, Kelley King, Debbie Adams, Raynelle B. Lanier, Melody Owens, Olumide Akerele, Hilary Hollihan Leavitt, Wanda Routier, Patsy Ray, Yvonne Harris, Denise Keeling, Darlene Desbrow, Nicole Pantopoulos, Charles King, Jessica Gaspar, Cindi Maurice and Diane Campbell-Mitchell who all knew the answer to last week's trivia question:

QUESTION:
Saying owners are abusing the law, Arizona state senator John Kavanagh wants to make it illegal to misrepresent a dog as a "______'' to bring it into places where pets are not allowed. The proposal would allow judges to impose fines of up to $250 on someone who fraudulently misrepresents a dog as a "______" to anyone who operates any business or recreation site open to the public.
ANSWER: SERVICE ANIMAL
This week's question: According to research done at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, more parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) report obtaining information about their children's ADHD and treatment from this source than from their healthcare provider, school or pharmacy. What is the source of where parents seek the most information
If you know the answer, email us at contactus@naset.org by January 22, 2018. We will acknowledge your correct answer in the next edition of the Week in Review

For City Kids with Asthma, Telemedicine and In-School Care Cut ER Visits in Half

Children with asthma in the Rochester City School District who received a combination of telemedicine support and school-based medication therapy were almost half as likely to need an emergency room or hospital visit for their asthma, according to new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). One in 10 children in the United States has asthma, making it the country's most common chronic childhood disease. Though symptoms can be effectively managed through regular use of preventive medicine, children must first be diagnosed, and then must regularly take their medication -- minority children living in poverty, in particular, do not always receive these interventions. As a result, these children suffer many preventable and potentially dangerous asthma flare-ups, which can lead to expensive emergency room visits. Read More

U.S. Childhood Mortality Rates Have Lagged Behind Other Wealthy Nations for the Past 50 years

In a new study of childhood mortality rates between 1961 and 2010 in the United States and 19 economically similar countries, researchers report that while there's been overall improvement among all the countries, the U.S. has been slowest to improve. Researchers found that childhood mortality in the U.S. has been higher than all other peer nations since the 1980s; over the 50-year study period, the U.S.'s "lagging improvement" has amounted to more than 600,000 excess deaths. A report of the findings, published Jan. 8 in Health Affairs, highlights when and why the U.S.'s performance started falling behind peer countries, and calls for continued funding of federal, state and local programs that have proven to save children's lives. Read More

Growing Opioid Epidemic Forcing More Children into Foster Care

The opioid epidemic has become so severe it's considered a national public health emergency. Addiction to prescription painkillers, such as oxycodone and morphine, has contributed to a dramatic rise in overdose deaths and health care costs. What many don't realize, it's also associated with an alarming number of children placed into foster care. In a study published in this month's issue of Health Affairs, researchers analyzed the association between the rate of opioid prescriptions in Florida and the number of children removed from their homes due to parental neglect. "Through my experience as a foster parent, I've seen first-hand how the foster system has been overwhelmed by children removed from homes where the parents are opioid-dependent," said lead author Troy Quast, PhD, of the University of South Florida College of Public Health. "My goal in this study was to gain insight into the factors behind this surge." Read More

Conception During IUD Use Increases Risks of Preterm Delivery and Low Birth Weight Babies

Women who conceive while using an intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) have a greater risk of preterm delivery, low birth weight babies, bacterial infections, or losing a fetus, according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and the Soroka University Medical Center. The research will be presented at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's 38th Annual Pregnancy Meeting in Dallas, Texas on January 29 to February 3. "We believe this is the first report tracking children born to mothers using an IUD over a long timeframe," says Dr. Gali Pariente, a faculty member of the BGU Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, BGU Faculty of Health Sciences and a clinical instructor at Soroka. "Working with a large sample over 23 years allowed us to investigate obstetric parameters that hadn't been examined previously in large groups." IUDs are the most popular form of reversible contraception worldwide. Nearly as effective as sterilization, yet not as permanent, they are the preferred birth control method for 23 percent of female contraceptive users, according to a 2015 United Nations report on world contraceptive use. Read More

Depression in Black Adolescents Requires Different Treatment

Black adolescents express depressive symptoms differently than people from other age and racial groups, requiring that clinicians take this into account when developing treatment plans, according to a new study led by a Rutgers University-Camden researcher. "Adolescent depression is a dire public concern in the United States, and even greater concern among Black adolescents, where, if left untreated, can disproportionately lead to an escalation of various mental disorders, academic failure, and related issues," says Wenhua Lu, an assistant professor of childhood studies at Rutgers University-Camden. Lu and fellow researchers Michael Lindsey of New York University, Sireen Irsheild of University of Chicago, and Von Eugene Nebbitt of Washington University examine the conceptualization of depression among Black adolescents and make recommendations for improving treatment in the study, "Psychometric Properties of the CES-D Among Black Adolescents in Public Housing," newly published in the November 2017 issue of the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research. Read More

Untreated ADHD Increases Risk of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)

A recent study published in The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry points to an important reason to consider seeking treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) - for men, at least. As diagnoses of ADHD become more and more common, many patients and parents are concerned about overmedication and are reluctant to treat the disorder. Some receive only behavioral therapy, while many don't seek any treatment at all. The 3 primary characteristics of ADHD are hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity. Together, these characteristics can lead to problematic and potentially dangerous decision-making. Recent studies suggest an association between an ADHD diagnosis and an increased risk of developing substance abuse disorders or STIs, however, the studies used small samples and yielded mixed results. Read More

France Faces Down its Outdated Notions about Autism

Behind the brightly colored walls of FuturoSchool's main hallway, in a small, cozy cubicle, Samy Sajidi is meeting with his counselor. Sajidi has autism and attends the school part-time. Since November 2016, he has also worked as a sales assistant at a clothing store - and so far, he tells his counselor, the job is going well. It's 3 p.m. on a Wednesday in October, and there are just four students present, including Sajidi, 27 - because this is no ordinary school. Occupying a modest space on the first floor of a quiet residential building in Paris, FuturoSchool is among the first schools in France to focus on providing applied behavioral analysis (ABA) for people with autism. Its eight other pupils, who also receive occupational therapy and speech therapy, are in lessons at nearby mainstream schools or away at activities such as music classes, swimming or judo. After their session is done, Sajidi and his counselor step out of the cubicle and walk toward an open space in the center of the school. It's filled with colorful equipment: giant exercise balls, gym mats, a ball pit. Sajidi and his counselor pick up tennis rackets and hit a ball back and forth, their laughter floating across the room. Read More

For People Living with Disabilities, New Products Prove Both Practical and Stylish

then buying a pair of shoes, a pen, or a new car-the expectation is for the product to do the job. But you also want it to look good: stylish, current, cool. Why wouldn't the same be true of products-wheelchairs, hearing aids, and more-designed to aid those with disabilities? This is one of the major questions explored in the new exhibition "Access+Ability," on view at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum through September 3 of this year. The show, which features more than 70 works, from an aerodynamic racing wheelchair to a vibration-activated shirt that allows the deaf to experience sounds, covers the wide range of innovations occurring in accessible design. It reflects how designers creating products for those with disabilities are making them not just increasingly functional and practical, but stylish. "Why not be able to change the color of your prosthetic leg to match your style, your taste, your outfit?" asks Cara McCarty, director of curatorial at Cooper Hewitt, who co-curated the exhibition with Rochelle Steiner, curator and professor of Critical Studies at the University of Southern California. "You can dress it up, dress it down." Read More

For Some with Intellectual Disabilities, Ending Abuse Starts with Sex Education

In the sex education class for adults with intellectual disabilities, the material is not watered down. The dozen women and men in a large room full of windows and light in Casco, Maine, take on complex issues, such as how to break up or how you know you're in an abusive relationship. And the most difficult of those issues is sexual assault. Katy Park, the teacher, begins the class with a phrase they've memorized: "My body is my own," Park starts as the rest join in, "and I get to decide what is right for me." People with intellectual disabilities are sexually assaulted at a rate more than seven times that for people without disabilities. NPR asked the U.S. Department of Justice to use data it had collected, but had not published, to calculate that rate. At a moment when Americans are talking about sexual assault and sexual harassment, a yearlong NPR investigation finds that people with intellectual disabilities are one of the most at-risk groups in America. Read More

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Different Types of ADHD Are Rooted In Different Areas of the Brain, Study Says

A recent brain imaging study suggests that different ADHD subtypes each originate in a distinct part of the brain, and may in fact be separate disorders. The results, if replicated, would challenge long-standing beliefs that ADHD is one disorder with several common variations, and may open the door to more personalized treatment strategies, the study's authors said. The study, published last year in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, examined 117 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 who had been diagnosed with ADHD. Initially, researchers tested each child's executive functions and tendency towards immediate rewards, and used the results to divide them into 3 groups: one that struggled solely with executive functions, one that struggled with both executive functions and reward management, and a third that performed similarly to children without ADHD on both tests. Each child then underwent an fMRI scan. Read More

Why Amazon's Alexa Is 'Life Changing' for the Blind

Bill Boules, blind since birth, has three Amazon Echos at his home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and says they've been "life changing." Boules, 42, bought the smart speaker as soon as it came out and found that right away it helped him more easily access audio content on the web. Previously, he had to use a screen reader, which is software that orally announces the contents of a web page. "The Echo is definitely a game changer," Boules tells PCMag. "You can get the information much faster, at least 10 times faster." Read More

LATEST JOB LISTINGS POSTED ON NASET

* EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - Criterion Child Enrichment is conducting a search for an Executive Director. Founded in 1985 as a not-for-profit organization, Criterion has served families for over 30 years and is a leading provider of early childhood education and early intervention services. Each year the agency serves over 7000 families through a program network that extends throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. To learn more - Click here

* Director of Special Education - We believe that all of our students, including our most vulnerable, can achieve at a high level. The Director of Special Education is charged with ensuring that our schools are able to provide our students with disabilities with the supports they need to achieve their full potential. To learn more - Click here

* Program Director ~ Annandale Campus - Applications are being accepted for this key leadership position within PHILLIPS Programs. The PHILLIPS School ~ Annandale Program Director, reporting to the President & CEO, will be responsible for all aspects of operation of a 200 pupil campus for students with emotional & behavior problems, learning disabilities and other school challenges. The Program Director also oversees a staff of 150. To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Various - $50,000/school year (185 days), summers off with year round pay and year round appreciation. Special Education Teachers needed in Arizona (Phoenix and surrounding cities). Needs are in the self-contained and resource settings serving students with emotional disabilities (ED), Autism (A), Severe/Profound (S/P), and Intellectual Disabilities (ID). STARS is the largest school contract agency in AZ. STARS is owned and operated by Occupational Therapists. You will be an employee and receive full benefits. To learn more - Click here

* Academic Advisor 1 - Advises and assists current and prospective students regarding interpretation of placement assessment, ascertainment of desired career and academic goals, development of an academic plan, establishment of program requirements related to academic objectives, and course scheduling and registration.Assists in the resolution of individual academic issues. Advises students on academic program changes and resolves issues affecting his/her degree progress and attainment of academic and career objectives. To learn more - Click here

* Director of Special Education - Oversee the development and administration of the District's Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Grants (pre-K and K-12) and the English as a Second Language Grant for English Language Learners (ELL). This includes both managing the budgets for each of the grants as well as developing and maintaining a comprehensive continuum of supports and services for students with disabilities and ELL students from preschool, age three, through high school graduation for both public and nonpublic schools. To learn more - Click here

* Director of Student Services - Located in the village of Kenilworth on Chicago's North Shore, District 38's 500-student, 100-employee, JK-8 Joseph Sears School combines the feel and traditions of a small-town community. Its goal is to prepare students for success through their teenage years and beyond by allowing them to cultivate their passions, develop a genuine love of learning and establish a system of values that will guide them throughout their later stages of life. To learn more - Click here

* Learning Specialist/Learning Program Teacher - Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart is seeking a certified learning specialist to teach in the school's Learning Program. The position is full-time, and the start date is immediately. Requirements include a master's degree or post-graduate work in education with emphasis in varied exceptionalities or learning disabilities.To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - The Adolescent Care Unit (ACU) at Tséhootsooí Medical Center on the Navajo Nation seeks a Special Education Teacher to work with 8 to 10 teens aged 13-17 with mild emotional or behavior issues in a subacute 60-day inpatient program. ACU combines western therapy with Native American traditional cultural methods to foster health and Hozho or harmony, and is located in northeastern AZ. To learn more - Click here

* Special Education Teacher - Various Positions Open: 2 positions for Special Education Resource 5th - 8th, Special Education Resource K-3rd, SPED - Social Skills le-4th, SPED - Social Skills 6th - 8th, Arizona certification required. To learn more - Click here

If you are an Employer looking for excellent special education staff - Click here for more information

Food For Thought..........
I've always believed the greater danger is not aiming too high, but too low, settling for a bogey rather than shooting for an eagle.
Peter Scott

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