Category: News in the Field

USDE Promotes Expanded Use of Behavior Assessments (December 6, 2024)

New guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) promotes the use of individualized behavioral assessments and support plans for students with and without disabilities to help schools address problem behaviors and reduce suspensions and expulsions. The 25-page, nonregulatory guidance issued last month calls for using ā€functional behavioral assessmentsā€³ (FBAs) more often to help school staff and families better understand the causes of a studentā€™s behavior. Those FBAs can inform ā€œbehavioral intervention plansā€ (BIPs) for reducing challenging behaviors and measuring progress toward those goals.

The guidance came from the USDEā€™s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The new guidance notes that for students with disabilities or suspected disabilities, parental consent may be required for FBAs. Additionally, FBAs cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation of a student who is suspected of having a disability.

Click here for more information from K-12 Dive.

Annual DeafBlind Child Count for Infants, Toddlers, Preschoolers, and Students Due Feb. 7th (December 4, 2024)

Annually, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, requires the Pennsylvania DeafBlind Project to conduct the National DeafBlind Child Count. The DeafBlind Child Count records the number of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and students who have deafblindness or who are at risk of developing deafblindness, and who are enrolled in early intervention or special education as of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) child count on December 1, 2024.

The count will be conducted beginning with Approved Private School programs in December 2024 followed by LEAs and Infant Toddler and Preschool Early Intervention Programs in January 2025. You must verify and submit your information no later than February 7, 2025. It is important for Pennsylvania to have an accurate DeafBlind Child Count as this information is tied to funding research, training, and technical assistance for this population of children.

Please be aware that for the DeafBlind Child Count, the federal definition of deafblindness is more inclusive and extensive than the one used for the IDEA child count. From birth through 21 years old, children should be reported in the count if they meet one or more of the following criteria:
-Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and students who have a diagnosis of deafblindness and/or receive both vision and hearing support services;
-Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and students who have a mild to profound hearing loss and mild to profound vision loss with correction that still requires adaptations or modifications;
-Infants and toddlers (ages birth-to-3; i.e. Part C) who have a diagnosis that places them at risk for an intellectual disability with inconsistent responses to visual input and sound. (At risk means a diagnosis that does not guarantee hearing/vision loss); or
-Infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and students with multiple disabilities who may demonstrate inconsistent responses to visual input and sound.

It is important for each Early Intervention Program and Local Educational Agency (LEA) to participate in the DeafBlind Child Count.

-If you do not have any infants, toddlers, preschoolers, or students with deafblindness, you will still need to log in and identify that you are not educating anyone with deafblindness at the present time.
-If you are educating an infant, toddler, preschooler, or student with deafblindness, you will need to either enter a new record or verify information about a child who already exists in the system.
-School-Age and Preschool Early Intervention Programs are encouraged to work closely with contracted providers (e.g., Approved Private Schools, Charter Schools for the Deaf or Blind) to ensure an accurate count of children.
-Connecting families of children who are deafblind with supporting networks and information is vital. A feature of the DeafBlind Child Count is a letter which you will be asked to send to the family of each child listed in your count. The letter provides information which will link families to support and information related to deafblindness

DeafBlind Child Count ā€“ Approved Private School Entries
All Approved Private Schools (APSs) entered their student data prior to the DeafBlind Child Count being opened for Early Intervention Programs, school districts, charter schools, and service providers. While there are few infants and toddlers served by APSs, you may see a child in the DeafBlind Child Count who has been entered by an APS. For those programs with many students who qualify, this will save them valuable time. This was done by all APSs even if there are no students who qualify for the DeafBlind Child Count enrolled in their school. As the Early Intervention Program or LEA for these respective children, you must either confirm that the child is your responsibility or reject them if the child is not within your catchment area or in the age range of children you serve. Please be aware that exceptions may exist. After you confirm that you are the Early Intervention Program or LEA for the child, you can update other data as necessary.

DeafBlind Child Count ā€“ Early Intervention Programs
If you are the Early Intervention Program responsible for providing Early Intervention Services to the entered child, you should confirm that the child is your responsibility. If the child is not the responsibility of your program (i.e., the child is not within your catchment area or in the age range of children you serve), please email [email protected]

Log In Information
To log in, please visit the DeafBlind Child Count website.Ā 
The process for entering login information is as follows:
-Log in with your username and password at https://www.leaderservices.com/_DBcensus
-If you do not know or cannot remember your username or password for the DeafBlind Child Count, use the ā€œForget your Login Infoā€ link on the DeafBlind Child Count website to have the information emailed to you. Or, email [email protected] for support.

If you have any questions regarding the data-collection system or your responsibilities for entering child data into the DeafBlind Child Count, please email [email protected]

Rollins to lead USDA, Including School Nutrition Programs (November 30, 2024)

President-elect Donald Trump has named Brooke Rollins to be secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where she would oversee the programs that reimburse schools providing school meals for low-income children.

Rollins, a Texas native, is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a conservative think tank launched in 2021. She also served as acting director of the White Houseā€™s Domestic Policy Council at the end of Trumpā€™s first term.

Although Trump has yet to reveal his position on school nutrition or universal meal policies, he did roll back Obama-era nutrition standards on grains, milk and sodium content during his first term in office. Meanwhile, Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation policy blueprint developed by former Trump administration officials, has called for Congress to eliminate universal school meal programs like the Community Eligibility Provision.

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PDE Improves Licensing Processes to Help Put Teachers in Classrooms, Makes Intern Certificates for Future Teachers Available At No Cost (November 28, 2024)

In efforts to speed up government and cut through red tape, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has announced that aspiring educators can now receive an Intern Certificate for free, enabling them to enter the classroom and teach for up to three years while taking education classes on the path to earning their full teaching certification. The free Intern Certificate opens up an alternative path into teaching careers for Pennsylvanians who have already earned a bachelorā€™s degree in another field and want to take their knowledge and skills to help educate future generations and puts more teachers into Pennsylvania classrooms, faster.

Individuals with an Intern Certificate have passed the content test demonstrating that they have the knowledge to teach in a content area and must only complete their professional core education work and student teaching before becoming fully certified. Interns have three-year certificates, giving them the chance to complete their student teaching while working and getting paid as a teacher of record. In addition, By waiving the fee for the Intern Certificate, PDE hopes to incentivize more individuals to pursue this option and encourage more schools to hire interns to address their immediate staffing needs.

Intern Certificates are an alternative to Emergency Permits, and PDE has worked with educator preparation programs to expand their teacher intern programs and reduce the number of individuals entering the classroom via Emergency Permit.  Intern Certificates are an example of PDEā€™s efforts to recruit and retain teachers in PA, as it works collaboratively with leaders in the education field to ensure there is a robust pipeline of educators in place to provide a high-quality education to learners of all ages across the Commonwealth. Other efforts include: reducing teacher certification processing times by more than ten weeks, creating a new Career and Technical Education (CTE) program in Education for high school students, awarding $1.5 million in grant funding to colleges and universities to bolster the Commonwealthā€™s next generation of special educators, eliminating the Basic Skills Assessment to become an educator, creating and expanding the Student Teacher Support Program to provide a stipend to student teachers, and allowing individuals authorized to work in the United States to earn certification and serve as educators in PA.