All school districts, charter schools, secure care schools, and the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (ASDB) are required to annually administer the State Performance Plan Indicator 8 Parent Involvement Survey to parents of students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP). The survey opened on March 1 via ADEConnect Data Surveys and will close on May 31, 2024. The initial opening announcement was sent to the ADE/ESS Data Managers listserv. Currently, the response rate is only at 2.8%.

New: The survey application has merged the individual student login codes and parent letters. This feature will make it easier for users to disseminate parent instructions.

If you do not already have access to the survey application or need to add additional users who should have the right to use this information and administer the survey, contact your entity ADEConnect administrator and ask to be assigned the Data Surveys: User Role. If additional assistance is needed to be assigned the User Role, use the Help Desk ticketing system via ADEConnect.

Please email the Parent Survey Inbox with questions.

The ADE/ESS/Assistive Technology team is excited to announce the last in our series of 2023–24 National Presenters: “Artificial Sweeteners: AI for Teachers and Everyone Else, Too!” with Tony Vincent. This presentation is designed for general and special education teachers and related service providers.

“Artificial Sweeteners: AI for Teachers and Everyone Else, Too!”

Date: Friday, May 3, 2024

Time: 8:30 a.m.−3:30 p.m.

Fee: Free (lunch on your own)

Where: Rio Vista Recreation Center (Lakeview room)

Address: 8866 W Thunderbird Rd., Peoria, AZ 85381

About Tony Vincent

Tony Vincent started out teaching fifth grade in Omaha 25 years ago. Several years later, he took on the role of his school's technology coach. Eventually, he left school teaching to be a self-employed consultant, sharing friendly ways for teachers to reach, empower, and inspire their students. Tony is a prolific sharer and approachable, and he consistently selects practical tools and strategies that can be implemented right away. Tony returned to teaching for the 2018–2019 school year, where his fifth graders became Chromebook superusers and creative communicators. Tony posts many handy tech tips on social media and hosts a series of digital drawing challenges for kids called Shapegrams. Most importantly, Tony is the father of 11-year-old twins.

Workshop Description:

“Artificial Sweeteners: AI for Teachers and Everyone Else, Too!”

Teachers and therapists across all grade levels can sweeten their lessons with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI). A growing number of websites offer AI-powered tools for lesson planning, differentiating, communicating, and assessing. AI is an exceptional brainstorming partner and can produce delightful content, engaging activities, and instructional resources when combined with a teacher's expertise. We will explore free tools for crafting clever learning activities, developing thoughtful questions, authoring relevant story problems, reinforcing vocabulary, differentiating instruction, and generating rubrics. While the intelligence may be artificial, the results are real. Bring your laptop because you will be putting AI to use during this workshop. This workshop is appropriate for general and special education teachers and or related service providers.

Register for Artificial Sweeteners: AI for Teachers and Everyone Else, Too!    

If you have questions regarding this training, please email the AT inbox.

ARIZONA LITERACY ROAD SHOW! 

The Arizona Department of Education English Language Arts team invites you to attend the Arizona Literacy Road Show coming to a location near you!

About the event: This day-long in-person FREE professional learning experience will be a celebration of the science of reading and all things PreK-12th grade literacy. The keynote session will be about the science of reading and structured literacy and will dive into the components of Scarborough's Reading Rope. The breakout sessions will demonstrate how to effectively implement evidence-based literacy practices around each component of the rope, from PreK all the way to 12th grade and beyond. Participants will attend the morning keynote and then will have a choice of three additional breakout sessions to attend. New courses will be available for those who attended last year! 

Audience: Teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, interventionists, administrators, and support staff. Please share this with all of your colleagues and anyone else who might be interested!

Registration: Participants must register for the event in the ADE APLD. Participation is capped at 150 participants. All participants who register in APLD and attend the Arizona Literacy Road Show will receive an attendance certificate displaying 5 clock hours.  Specific location information and addresses will be emailed to participants.

Contact Information: For additional information about the Arizona Literacy Road Show, please contact: Karen Ten Napel at [email protected] 

Dates/Locations - click below to register for your chosen city:

• Holbrook, AZ – Thursday, June 13th, 2024
• Virtual – Tuesday, June 18th, 2024
• Yuma, AZ – Thursday, June 20th, 2024

Bullhead City, AZ – Thursday, June 27th, 2024

In partnership with the Arizona Department of Health Services, Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs Program, ADE/ESS is excited to be able to offer scholarships for Arizona youth and their families. Scholarships are available so that youth and young adults with disabilities and/or their family member/personal assistant can attend Arizona’s 2024 IDEA Conference: Expect, Engage, Achieve.

This cross-stakeholder event is intended for special education administrative staff, youth and young adults with disabilities, family members and caregivers, state agency staff, educators, service providers, and community members committed to student success. The event will feature numerous professional learning opportunities, including IDEA legal issues, instructional practices, national trends and hot topics, special education compliance, preschool and secondary transition, and content for related service providers. This year’s conference will be held from September 4–6, 2024, at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix.

Who can apply for a scholarship:

• Youth/young adult between the ages of 14 and 26 who has a documented disability
• Family member of a student with an IEP or 504 Plan
• Direct care provider who attends with a student or family member

Scholarships will cover each recipient's conference registration fee and lodging and mileage for eligible recipients. Additional, important information is listed in the application.

A limited number of scholarships are available. Please complete the Youth and Family Scholarship application by June 30, 2024.

Please download the Youth and Family Scholarship flyer to promote this opportunity.

For more information about the IDEA Conference, visit the IDEA Conference website. Questions about the conference, registration, or the scholarship can be sent to the IDEA Conference inbox.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

FY25 Statement of Assurances, required for all Public Education Agencies,

opens April 3, 2024

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the representative body for Special Education for Arizona, Exceptional Student Services (ESS), is required to annually obtain assurances from Public Education Agencies (PEAs) attesting that they are meeting the requirements under state and federal statutes. This requirement is completed via the Statement of Assurances application.

Completing the annual Statement of Assurances is a requirement for all entities defined as a PEA, regardless of whether they get federal funds. Non-Public Organizations (NPOs) are exempt from this requirement.

All PEAs must submit the FY25 Statement of Assurances (SOA) through the ESS Portal, accessed via ADEConnect.

The application will open on April 3, 2024, and close for submissions on June 12, 2024.

The SOA must be submitted by your Superintendent, Charter Holder, or Special Education Director before FY25 IDEA funding applications are approved in the Grants Management Enterprise system.

• The PEAs entity administrator must assign the role of ESS Special Education: Signer in ADEConnect to the individual who will review, sign, and submit the SOA.
• PEAs that do not apply for IDEA funds are still required to submit the SOA.

Once the role is assigned, please log in to ADEConnect, navigate to the Exceptional Student Services portal, and select the Statement of Assurances link under Surveys & Assurances:

Upon completion, the SOA can be printed for your records. If your PEA wants to ensure that the SOA was submitted, re-accessing the SOA will display the “Thank you for submitting” page.

Please direct any questions to the ESS Data Management inbox.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

Special Education Data Updates Webinar: Wednesday, April 17, 2024

The Exceptional Student Services Data Management team will host the next live Special Education Data Updates webinar on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, from 2:00 to 3:00 pm. This session will cover a variety of data topics that will include (subject to change):   

• Reminders 

• Trending topics 

• Top Three Integrity Errors 

• Q&A    

Please register by clicking this link. Registration is required to attend. If you have any questions, please email the ESS Data Management inbox.

Federal Fiscal Year 2024 IDEA Part B State Application

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) will soon apply for federal funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for the period of July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. This application document serves as the basis for the operation and administration of activities to carry out the requirements of Part B of the IDEA. As part of the public participation process set forth in the IDEA Part B regulations at 34 CFR § 300.165 and in Section 427 of the General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) (20 U.S.C. 1228a), the State must publish its Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2023 IDEA Part B Application and allow public comment.

The application document sets forth policies and procedures that Arizona will undertake:

1. to ensure that all eligible children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that includes special education and related services to meet their unique needs
2. to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents are protected
3. to assist public education agencies in providing for the education of all children with disabilities
4. to assess and ensure the effectiveness of efforts to educate those children

Note: Arizona has not yet received the Allocation Tables for FFY 2024 grant funds from the US Department of Education. Thus, the FFY 2023 Spreadsheet has been included until the FFY 2024 allocation amount is received. Upon receipt of the FFY 2024 allocation documents, ADE/ESS will remove the FFY 2023 Spreadsheet and replace it with an updated FFY 2024 Spreadsheet.

Notice of Public Comment Period

Any individual or organization may submit written comments. Written comments shall be accepted through April 20, 2024.

The 30-day public comment period for the FFY2024 IDEA Part B Application will be open from March 21, 2023, through April 20, 2024. The State will review and consider all public comments and make any necessary modifications to the application as appropriate.

Special education stakeholders may submit comments in writing beginning March 22, 2024, using the following methods:

• Submit electronically via the ADE/ESS Public Comment webpage
• Submit electronically to Exceptional Student Services via email
• Submit handwritten comments directly to Exceptional Student Services via the USPS to Arizona Department of Education, 1535 West Jefferson St. Bin #24, Phoenix, AZ 85007.

The Arizona Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ArSHA) will hold its annual convention in Tucson on Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13. There will be hundreds of speech-language pathologists (SLPs), speech-language technicians (SLTs), and speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) attending this event. 

The ADE/ESS sponsors the public school strand at the convention to support high-quality, relevant professional learning for school-based speech personnel. This year’s sponsored topics include eligibility for speech sound disorders, working memory, interprofessional collaboration in schools, and gestalt language processing. 

ADE/ESS will also have a table in the exhibit hall for recruiting SLPs, SLTs, and SLPAs to work in Arizona’s public schools. We plan to highlight all SLP/SLT/SLPA positions that are posted on ADE/ESS's Arizona Education Employment Board (AEBB). 

We typically see a sharp increase in visits to the job board during and immediately after recruiting at an event like this. To be included in this recruitment effort, please post your speech positions on the AEEB by Monday, April 8. Review the Effective Job Posting Guide and act now to post your open positions! If you need assistance with reviewing or writing a job description that captures your PEA's strengths from an SLP perspective, contact Mary Keeney.  

The ADE/ESS is pleased to announce that registration for Teach Camp is now open!  

Teach Camp provides professional learning and supports specifically designed for beginning special education teachers. Teach Camp aims to increase the retention of special educators by providing our newest special education teachers with the tools they need to survive and thrive during their first years in the classroom.  

Teach Camp is available to special education teachers who will begin their first, second, or third year of teaching special education in the fall of 2024. Recent graduates from traditional teacher preparation programs, alternative certified teachers, and veteran general education teachers transitioning to special education are all welcome. Please note that participants must be currently employed in a school district or charter as a special education teacher, and participants must have no more than two years of special education teaching experience in total (including previous positions) to be eligible to attend Teach Camp.   

Teach Camp will launch this summer! The cost is $250 per teacher and includes:  

• 3-day summer “camp” to be held July 9-11, 2024, in Tempe, AZ* (breakfast and lunch provided)  
• One-day follow-up session in February 2025 in Phoenix* (lunch provided)   
• A copy of The Survival Guide for New Special Education Teachers  
• A one-year membership to the Council for Exceptional Children  
• Additional valuable resources   

*Information regarding travel reimbursement for participants from eligible PEAs will be provided once registration is completed.  

Registration for Teach Camp is open until June 25, 2024, on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration must be approved by the special education director and completed by the PEA, not the special education teacher. On-site registration is not available.   

Begin the registration process for Teach Camp! 

Please email the ESS Recruitment and Retention Inbox with any questions about Teach Camp

Looking for self-paced professional learning on current special education topics of interest?

Register today for Summer 2024 NAU SELECT courses!

Special Education Learning Experiences for Competency in Teaching (SELECT) is a federally funded program sponsored by ADE/ESS and offered through the Institute for Human Development at Northern Arizona University. SELECT courses are recommended for special and general education teachers, administrators, related service personnel, paraeducators, and other interested individuals.

First five-week summer session courses

June 3, 2024 to July 2, 2024

• Inclusion in Early Childhood
• Differentiating Emotional Disabilities and Behavioral Disorders
• Mild and Moderate Disabilities
• Research-Based Math
• Legal Aspects and Compliance
• Paraeducator: Roles, Best Practices, Perspectives

Second five-week summer session courses

July 8, 2024 to August 6, 2024

• Autism and Communication Skills
• School-Wide PBIS
• Multi-Disciplinary Evaluation Team
• Principles and Practices of Effective Co-Teaching
• Conflict Resolution in Special Education Administration
• Secondary Transition for Students with Disabilities

Please view the attached flyer with details of upcoming sessions.

Register on the NAU SELECT webpage. Registration closes when classes are full or two (2) weeks before the start of class.

• SELECT classes can be taken for university credit for those teachers or administrators who are required by their school districts to have official transcripts and for those who may need to transfer hours out of state (tuition and associated fees apply).
• The classes can also be taken for professional growth contact hours for free.

For more information, please email the SELECT Inbox.