Special Education Directors,

Please join us for the next episode of Thursday Afternoon LEarning Series, or TALES, on Thursday, August 6 from 2:45 p.m.—4:00 p.m., when Tony Vincent presents, “Crafting a Class Brand Together.” Developing an inclusive community of learners is key to starting out a successful school year, especially when class takes place online. Tony Vincent has advice for making a strong personal connection with all learners by crafting a class brand together. The process begins with interesting activities for teachers and students to get to know each other. Afterward, students take what they have in common and determine what they collectively stand for. Then the class comes to a consensus on a class name, logo, and slogan. Tony notes that when students rally around an authentic brand, they feel a strong sense of community, work harder, and achieve more. See how Tony’s fifth graders put their brand into action, understand how it was developed, and consider how you might give your class, club, or group a unique identity this school year.

Please click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Participant registration is first-come, first-served and is not limited to special educators – feel free to forward. Questions regarding this professional learning opportunity can be sent to [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT 

NEW FY20 ESS Discipline Data Training Webinar

ESS Data Management will be hosting a training webinar for Discipline Data Collection (DDC) on August 11, 2020, from 10am - 11am. This training will expand on the overview training presented on February 25, 2020, available on the training videos webpage.

If you have any questions, please direct them to [email protected]

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/School Support & Improvement, in partnership with Ricky Robertson from Corwin Press, would like to invite you to participate in two FREE virtual Resiliency and Social Emotional Learning workshop series that will provide intentional professional learning on educator self-care, understanding behavior as communication, and trauma sensitive social emotional learning.

COVID-19 has changed our landscape, making this support for educators and students an essential first step to sustain academic achievement. The workshop series is for teachers, teacher teams, administrators, leadership teams, paraprofessionals, social workers, counselors and other support staff. School and district leaders can enroll their whole school teams for these sessions.

Please see the announcement for more information about the series and registration.

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

Annual Data Collection Application Closed for Maintenance Until 8/5/20

 Due to necessary maintenance and IT related delays impacted by COVID-19 priorities, the Annual Data Collection (ADC) application will be temporarily unavailable between July 22 – August 5.

This data collection requirement is due in its entirety on September 15, 2020.  We apologize for the delay.

If you have any questions, please direct them to ESS Data Management.

Special Education Directors,

The ADE/ESS has been asked a variety of questions by public education agencies (PEAs) around “school days” under the Executive Order 2020-44 issued by the Governor on June 29, 2020.

This is a Hot Topic outlining the impact of this Executive Order on school days and special education timelines.

For any questions or clarifications please contact your PEA’s assigned Program Support and Monitoring specialist.

Special Education Directors,  

Please join us for the next episode of Thursday Afternoon LEarning Series, or TALES, on Thursday, July 23 from 2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m., when we present, “Get a Move On!” Students with special needs may have difficulties attending, processing, and recalling information during distance learning. Research tells us that movement and brain breaks have great potential to help students learn and remember. Physical movement and brain breaks can have positive effects on executive function, attention, and recall and may also reduce stress. Yet, with distance learning extended through the middle of August, students may be spending time in front of monitors and screens and moving less than ever. In this session, an OT, a PT, and an SLP will be sharing no-cost ways to easily integrate movement activities, sensory experiences, and brain breaks in distance learning. Join us on July 23 and help your students get a move on! 

Please click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Participant registration is first-come, first-served and is not limited to special educators – feel free to forward. Questions regarding this professional learning opportunity can be sent to [email protected].

We look forward to seeing you there,

Margaret Egan, PT

Mitch Galbraith, MS, OTR/L

Mary Keeney, CCC-SLP

Special Education Directors,

Please see the available professional development opportunities below.

Dive Deep into AZ Math Standards

for

Special Education Teachers

We know that, as special education teachers, you are typically working across multiple grade levels and with students who have various strengths, and we are here to support you in making it all work!

Join us as we spend time diving into our math standards and supporting documents to consider the following:

• Where are the students coming from? We will delineate content from the previous grade level.
• What do they need to learn this year? We will discuss the major content standards of the current grade level and how we can embed previous year learnings.
• Where are they headed? We will look at connections across grade bands that will support student learning in subsequent years.

See the list of sessions below, and please feel free to sign up for the session(s) that are most relevant to you, based on the students that you support. These sessions are a repeat of the sessions offered in June, and we welcome teachers who are attending for the first time and those who wish to join us again!

Elementary Sessions

• Grades K-2:  July 21, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
• Grades 2-3: July 22, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
• Grades 3-5: July 23, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
• Grades 5-6: July 24, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.

Secondary Sessions

• 6^th Grade: July 21, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
• 7^th – 8^th Grade: July 22, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
• HS Algebra I/II: July 23, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
• HS Geometry: July 24, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Special Education Directors and Business Managers,

Please review this posted memo for FY21 IDEA Consolidated – Entitlement grants.

The ESS Program Management team has also created a listserv, you can select the link and enter your information if you’d like to sign up.

For any questions or further guidance, please contact [email protected].

DATA MANAGEMENT ALERT

Annual Data Collection (ADC) Final Submission Process

Due to COVID-19 and IT related delays, the final submission process for the ESS Annual Data application will not begin until July 20, 2020. The Annual Data Collection is due in its entirety on  September 15, 2020.  We apologize for the delay. The application language stating the final submission July 15, 2020 due date will be updated as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please direct them to ESS Data Management.

Special Education Directors,

ADE/ESS has received a number of questions regarding the use of electronic signatures. Based upon guidance provided by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), ADE/ESS is providing this Hot Topic regarding the use of electronic signatures.