News and Events
Read about important special education news, ACE actions and events, and our continuing education and advocacy training.
Turtle Rock Elementary sends child home with broken arms caused by bullying| In The News December, 2008
Visit this link to the NBC report Click Here. When the son of our Executive Director attended this school, he was sent home from Kindergarten with a split open lip needed stitches. Another child had pushed Chase into a desk and caused him to land on his lip. Chase was seen by the nurse and sent back to class. When Chase's mom picked him up from child care, his lower lip was a "gaping gash." Chase was taken to the urgent care facility covered by his health insurance and given over 10 stitches to close the lip. Chase had a bump on his lip from the scaring for over ten years because the injury was not dealt with properly. When Brenda mentioned the lip needed stitches, the school simply stated "they didn't know the injury was so bad." No incident was reported was ever written. While this incident with our Executive Director's son was over ten years ago, it shows that Turtle Rock's practices with injured children are not unique to the current case.
Echoing Green Annual Fellows Conference| November, 2008
Continued training in non-profit development with Echoing Green.
Brenda Provides Introductory Overview of IEPs and IEP Game Training| May, 2008
We want to thank Connected Through Kids for allowing us to train their foster parents in the IEP process. I am personally enriched by having the privilege of meeting wonderful people who take care of babies, toddlers and older children in foster care. This is a great group of loving people! I received the most providing the training to these parents because of their shinning example of love and care!
Research Study Finds Special Education Vouchers Raise Disabled Student Academic Achievement| April, 2008
Read the full study at the Manhattan Institute
"The Effect of Special Education Vouchers on Public School Achievement: Evidence From Florida's McKay Scholarship Program
by Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters
Executive Summary
This paper evaluates the impact of exposure to a voucher program for disabled students in Florida on the academic performance of disabled students who remain in the public school system. The authors utilize student-level data on the universe of public school students in the state of Florida from 2000-01 through 2004-05 to study the effect of the largest school voucher program in the United States, the McKay Scholarship Program for Students with Disabilities (McKay), on achievement in math and reading by students who have been diagnosed as disabled and remain in the public school system.
This paper is the first empirical evaluation of the impact of exposure to a voucher program designed to allow students with disabilities to enroll in schools other than their local public schools on the achievement of disabled students who remain in their local public schools. Vouchers for disabled students are the fastest-growing type in the United States. Programs similar to McKay are currently operating in Ohio, Georgia, and Utah and have been recently considered by other states.
Highlights of the study include:
- Public school students with relatively mild disabilities made statistically significant test score improvements in both math and reading as more nearby private schools began participation in the McKay program. That is, contrary to the hypothesis that school choice harms students who remain in public schools, this study finds that students eligible for vouchers who remained in the public schools made greater academic improvements as their school choices increased.
- Disabled public school students' largest gains as exposure to McKay increased were made by those diagnosed as having the mildest learning disabilities. The largest category of students enjoying the greatest gains, known as Specific Learning Disability, accounts for 61.2% of disabled students and 8.5% of all students in Florida.
- The academic proficiency of students diagnosed with relatively severe disabilities was neither helped nor harmed by increased exposure to the McKay program."
Research Study| April, 2008
Attention boys and girls of all ages are needed to participate in an ongoing research study:
The Center for Behavioral Teratology at San Diego State University is interested in participants who are:
- normally developing children
- children with ADD/ADHD
- children prenatally exposed to drugs and alcohol
- adopted children or children living in foster homes
- children in special education classes
For additional information please call 619-594-1228
Calls are confidential
Santa Monica: Special Education Reality Revealed| April, 2008
Jorge Casuso writes "The recommendations were in response to an independent report that vindicated longstanding complaints by special ed parents that the District's practice has forced them to bargain for their children's education behind closed doors, then barred them from disclosing the terms. According to the report by Lou Barber & Associates, the District had entered into 140 settlement agreements with parents over the past three years, compared to few if any for most California districts, a number that "needs to be reduced dramatically."
Read the whole story at Surfsantamonica.com
Outreach: San Diego IEP Day | April 12, 2008
Brenda and Linda provide outreach at the San Diego IEP Day hosted by the San Diego Regional Center.
Professional Development: Anaheim Lindamood Bell Conference | March 15, 2008
Brenda, Linda and Lori attend the research conference and learn a great deal about learning disabilities, autism and effecitve school programs for reading remediation.
Professional Development: Anaheim COPAA Conference | March 6-9, 2008
Brenda brushed up on her advocacy skills by attending the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates conference held in Southern California this year. Thanks COPAA for being so close to home!!
New ACE family member: Brenda gave birth to her new daughter Zoey on January 5| 2008
Some call it starting over and others call it "family." After raising her son for 17 years, Brenda, our Executive Director, and partner Jerry, gave birth to a baby girl. We welcome Zoey to our ACE family of children.