OSDE - SES - January 30, 2024 - Internal

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Announcement

OSDE Partnerships!

OSDE-SES continues its partnership with PCG-Medicaid billing services and Presence this year.  Presence is the leading provider of live, online therapy and evaluation services in pre–K–12 schools and has delivered over 6 million sessions to students around the country.

You may contract directly with Presence to meet any of their evaluation and/or therapy needs. 

However, if your district signs up to bill Medicaid through PCG, your district may be eligible to access free evaluations through Presence. 

  • Jeni Robison for more information about Medicaid billing 
  • Kelly Wright for more information about services through Presence

Early Childhood

Early Childhood Guidance

Early Childhood Transition/New Indicator 12 Resource

  • Early Childhood Transition: Part C to Part B
  • PowerPoint Slide Deck now available  for districts. This presentation includes the updates to the early childhood transition process announced in 2023.
    • If a district has been identified as needing to address indicator 12, reviewing the recording and slide deck should be reviewed as part of their PD plan for their toolkit.

Early Childhood Outcomes(ECOs) – New data quality tools

Assessment

District Level OAAP Participation – Justification Survey

If your district is anticipating more than 1.0 percent of your testing population (Grades 3-8, and 11) will participate in the OAAP/DLM testing in the 2024 spring operational window, the survey: “2024 Justification for Exceeding 1.0 % in OAAP Participation” must be completed online by March 1, 2024.  

If your district is not expecting to exceed the cap, no action is required. The survey is designed to be completed by someone at the administrative level with special education and state testing knowledge. It may be completed by either the District Testing Coordinator, Special Education Director, or someone in a similar position.  

Finance

High Needs Memo

New memorandum regarding changes and updates to the application for High Needs, Tier I and Tier II.  Please contact your finance specialist for any assistance


IDEA ARP Fund

All IDEA ARP fund expenditure reports must be submitted to OSDE-SES by January 28, 2024.

If assistance is needed, please contact your finance specialist.

Alt Diploma

Alternate Diploma Updates

Based on new legislation, Oklahoma has a new graduation pathway for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities.  The new state-defined alternate diploma is available for the school year 2023-2034.  Following graduation, students who graduate with an alternate diploma must be afforded a Free Appropriate Public Education through the school year in which the student turns 22 years of age.  This change will require districts to provide additional services through the Extended Secondary Transition Program.  More information is available regarding the following:


Alternate Diploma Collaborative

The Oklahoma State Department of Education, Office of Special Education Services will continue to hold Secondary Transition/Alternate Diploma Collaborative meetings monthly beginning in August.

Zoom meetings will typically be held on the 4th Thursday of each month at 3:00 p.m., except for holidays/school vacation weeks.

The schedule of monthly sessions and known topics are listed below:

  • February 22, 2024 @ 3:00 p.m.  
    • OK's Got Talent with Moore Public Schools  Whitney Green, Academic Resource Coordinator 
  • March 28, 2024 @ 3:00 p.m.
    • Special Olympics Unified Sports – Meg Corn, Special Olympics Oklahoma & Mustang Public Schools

Join us via Zoom for all sessions scheduled. 

Meeting ID: 160 702 2023

Passcode: 393839


Secondary Technical Assistance

OSDE-SES is providing Transition Technical Assistance through a temporary, part-time Secondary Transition Program Specialist.  Assistance to schools/districts will be available through various formats to include e-mail, phone, virtual (via Microsoft Teams) and/or in-person.  Please use this link to complete a Transition Technical Assistance Request for your school/district regarding Secondary Transition topics, including the new Alternate Diploma and 18-22 Transition Programs.  For brief questions and/or more information about Transition Technical Assistance, please contact Claudia Beckner or Lori Chesnut

Trainings/Webinars

OKMTSS Community of Practice

The State Personnel Development Grant presents the Oklahoma Multi-Tiered System of Supports Community of Practice. This monthly session follows the SPDG's asynchronous professional development sequence available on OSDEConnect.

This session will focus on how to plan for intervention and system fidelity using feedback loops.

We look forward to having you attend the event on February 1, 2024 at 9:00 AM!


2024 Oklahoma Deaf Education Conference

The Oklahoma School for the Deaf is pleased to present the 2024 statewide Deaf Education Conference.

Professionals in the field of deaf education will come together, engage in dynamic workshops, connect with colleagues, and identify pathways to empowering students through access, language, and literacy. Attendees will include early interventionists, early childhood specialists, teachers of the deaf, and educational interpreters.

The pre-conference will be held June 3-4, 2024.

The conference will be held June 5-6, 2024.

Registration is now open. 

Staffing

**NEW** Paraprofessional Conference

The Oklahoma State Department of Education, Office of Special Education Services will be holding their 2nd Annual Paraprofessional Conference in 4 locations around the state. We have also created a Paraprofessional Website for the 2023-2024 Conference with all information regarding the conference. 

Registration is now OPEN for districts to send their paraprofessionals or other support staff to attend the 2nd Annual Paraprofessional Conference for their yearly 6 hours of Professional Development. Make sure you register for the ONE location you would like to attend before all the spots are filled! Seats are limited! 

REMEMBER TO PRINT YOUR TICKET.

Districts can use Project 613 funds to pay for substitutes, travel, and lodging. Lodging must be over 60 miles. 

NOTE: The dates of the conferences in the Fall of 2023 and Spring of 2024 may interfere with some districts Fall and Spring breaks. The city, date and venues of the conferences were selected before the districts school calendars were made public. Thank you for understanding and we hope to see your support staff at one of the locations of the Paraprofessional Conferences.

If you have any questions/concerns please contact Megan Salisbury and/or Abby Johnson.


CPI Trainings for 2023-2024 SY

The Oklahoma State Department of Education, Office of Special Education Services will be holding their CPI 2-day Regional Trainings for you to send 4 employees to get blue card certified.

ONLY 40 people will be able to attend each session, so make sure you register ASAP! Waiting lists have been opened for spots that are sold out. 

NOTE: A waitlist has opened for the sessions, if the session is full follow the link to join the waitlist

2024 - Second Semester - 

  • February 8-9, 2024 - Lawton, Oklahoma - Bishop Public Schools, Gym
  • February 22-23, 2024 - Tulsa, Oklahoma - Tulsa Tech, Riverside Campus
  • March 14-15, 2024 - Afton, Oklahoma - Northeast Technology - Afton Campus
  • April 11-12, 2024 - Guymon, Oklahoma - Guymon Jr. High  

 

CPI is approved through Project 613 for substitutes, travel, and lodging. Keep in mind lodging must be at least 60 miles one way. Questions can be directed to Megan Salisbury.

Professional Development

**NEW** Secondary Transition for Students with Disabilities

The Secondary Transition for Students with Disabilities self-paced course has been released and is now open for enrollment in OSDE Connect. This course is recommended for teachers/providers who are new to secondary transition and as a refresher for experienced staff.  There are great links and resources contained in the course.  Participants will receive a certificate of completion.  This is also a recommended pre-requisite for participants in enrolled in the upcoming Secondary Transition (Severe/Profound): Assessment Results to Develop Meaningful Transition Plans for Students who Participate in the OAAP on February 27th in Oklahoma City, as well as the sessions for Mild/Moderate and Severe/Profound in the Tulsa area in May.

The course can be accessed directly Secondary Transition for Students with Disabilities


Effective Instructional Practices for Teaching Transition Skills to Students Participating in the Oklahoma Alternate Assessment Program (OAAP) Regional Professional Development

The OSDE-SES is pleased to offer five regional trainings to empower educators to effectively teach transition skills and monitor student progress. This training will demonstrate how to implement effective instructional practices to teach transition skills to students with significant cognitive and adaptive disabilities who participate in the Oklahoma Alternate Assessment Program (OAAP). Special educators and paraprofessionals will learn to use data collection, task analysis (forward and backward chaining), and prompting (when and how to use prompts, how to fade prompts) to enable students to make progress toward their postsecondary and annual transition goals.

 

Online Professional Development in Dropout Prevention Strategies

NDPC offers online courses in each of the 15 research-based Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention. The 15 Effective Strategies are recognized as the highest-impact interventions for graduation rate improvement. Each online course takes participants through an exploration of what the strategy is, how it fits within the 15 Effective Strategies model, and the research supporting it, allowing participants to envision for themselves how the strategy can be implemented well within their schools and communities. Participants investigate successful implementations across the country, potential benefits and barriers to implementing the strategy, and key implementation characteristics to consider in setting up their programs. Each course costs $99 except for the overview course, which costs $149.00. Each self-paced course takes 60 to 120 minutes, except for the overview course, which takes about 6 hours to complete.

Project 613 Funds are available for the NDPC Online Courses! 

For more information and a list of courses, visit Online Professional Development in Dropout Prevention Strategies.


Secondary Transition (Severe/Profound): Using Assessment Results to Develop Meaningful Transition Plans for Students Participating in the OAAP

This training will focus on using assessment results to develop meaningful transition plans for students with severve/profound disabilities.

Participants will: 

  • Learn to incorporate transition assessment results into the IEP
  • Review case studies
  • Analyze transition assessment results
  • Use assessment results to identify specific transition strengths and needs and develop postsecondary goals, annual transition goals, services, coordinated activities, and courses of study.

Secondary Transition (M/M): Using Assessment Results to Develop Meaningful Transition Goals & Services for Students with Mild/Moderate Disabilities

This training will focus on using assessment results to develop meaningful transition plans for students with mild/moderate disabilities.

Participants will:

  • Learn to incorporate transition assessment results into the IEP
  • Review case studies
  • Analyze transition assessment results
  • Use assessment results to identify specific transition strengths and needs and develop postsecondary goals, annual transition goals, services, coordinated activities, and courses of study.
Other News

Educational Interpreter Registry

If your district employs educational interpreters, please verify that they are on the OSDE Educational Interpreter Registry.  All interpreters in an educational setting are required to be on the registry and are required to obtain yearly CEUs. 

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