We are looking forward to improving outcomes for students with disabilities with you in the coming year. To this end, The Office of Special Education Services will be hosting a series of video calls with directors across the state to better communicate our activities and initiatives. Directors are invited to join calls on the second Monday of each month from 3:00-3:30 for an update from Program Director, Sherri Coats, and on the fourth Monday of each month from 3:00-4:00 for a deeper dive into specific initiatives and special education topics presented by SES staff.
For registering for these calls, please see the Video Call Agenda. If you would like a recap, you can find the resources on the webpage.
Over the past several years, the Oklahoma State Department of Education, Office of Special Education Services (OSDE-SES) has partnered with the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) to provide a system for School-Based Medicaid reimbursement that is compliant and user-friendly for schools. OHCA has identified the OSDE as the program administrator for the school-based Medicaid program. OSDE has contracted with the Public Consulting Group (PCG) to submit claims on behalf of districts. However, the “school-based Medicaid program” is inclusive of any school that bills Medicaid, even if it does not use PCG to submit its claims. Please see the Medicaid Memo for more information.
Questions and concerns can be directed to Kellie Carter.
This guidance brief offers guidance for discussion questions IEP teams may use to consider whether or not a student with disabilities needs individualized support from a paraprofessional or personal care assistant. This document addresses instrumental activities of daily living, health-related functions, redirection of behavior, and other tasks as identified in an Individualized Education Program (IEP), Section 504 Plan, or health plan for assigned students.
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.
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Jeni Robison for more information about Medicaid billing
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Kelly Wright for more information about services through Presence
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.
Register now for the annual training for the end of year data collection. Webinars will be held in March with Open Doors in May. Please plan to attend one or more. More information and the registration links are available here. Please contact a member of the Data Team with questions.
For those districts that received funding for Project 618, Age 18–22-Year-Old Transition Development Program, your budget must be submitted by April 1, 2024, or those funds will be forfeited.
If assistance is needed, please contact your finance specialist.
Districts must review their MOE tab in their LEA Agreement to verify their submitted data matches their OCAS data for FY22 and FY23.
If assistance is needed, please contact your finance specialist.
The IDEA Part B Flowthrough Allocation Adjustment has now been uploaded in the Grant Management System (GMS). Districts must create a budget amendment for the IDEA Consolidated Application in order to view and budget those funds. To access the Grants Management System (GMS), go to the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) website and scroll down to the Oklahoma State Department of Education Single Sign-On and click to access the site.
- Login by using your username and password.
- Click the Grants Management and Expenditure Reporting button
- Scroll down to IDEA Consolidated Application
- Click the amend button.
For questions or additional information, please contact your Finance Specialist. The budget amendment should be completed by March 15, 2024.
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
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:
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:
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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
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.
OSDE is offering a FREE intervention management tool for all districts, this is a different aspect of EDPlan that is different than EasyIEP. This tool is intended to support district and site level intervention tracking that schools are already completing. Weekly sessions regarding how to use the OKMTSS on EDPlan data management system's intervention platform are open for all educators to attend. We will have two sessions in February, three sessions in March and five sessions in April. These training sessions will provide time for general education teachers to learn how to create a group of students for interventions, how to create an individual student intervention plan targeted to evidence-based intervention protocols provided within the platform, and to see how the progress monitoring data is graphed to provide the visual story necessary to determine if a student is or is not responding to the intervention.
OSDE invites general education teacher to access OKMTSS on EDPlan to learn the function of the system this spring, so that when the system is integrated with all of the district's Student Information System (SIS) across the state starting in the 2024-2025 school year, teachers will have a good understand of how to utilize OKMTSS on EDPlan.
Below are the registration links for the February training sessions. Please consider sending as many general education teachers as possible to these sessions. OSDE seeks to ensure the platform is accessible for all educators so they can practice this spring, in order to prepare for the coming school year use of the OKMTSS on EDPlan system.
For those interested, please do not update any user types prior to the training.
 The State Personnel Development Grant presents the Oklahoma Multi-Tiered System of Supports Community of Practice. This month Community Of Practice will take place February 29, 2024 at 9am. This monthly session follows the SPDG's asynchronous professional development sequence available on OSDE Connect.
Questions about Indicator 7 Results? Join us for an overview of this indicator including targets, calculations, and responding to results on March 8, 2024 from 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM during our Open Door Indicator 7 Data Session.
The Office of Special Education Services in collaboration with Dr. Kaylin Coody will be hosting two one-day Special Education Services and Management training this Spring. One will be held on March 4, 2024 in Moore, Oklahoma. The other will be held on March 7, 2024 in Glenpool, Oklahoma.
This training is a general training that reviews Special Education legal history, basic behavior information, meaning of learning styles, and accommodations/modifications. It is largely designed for novice paraprofessionals.
In completing the training, paraprofessionals are awarded six hours of professional development to count towards yearly requirements.
There is no cost associated with the training. If participants cannot attend, the district will be responsible for the cost associated with the participant(s). Enrollment is limited to 50 participants.
The Office of Special Education Services at the Oklahoma State Department has developed a state-systemic improvement plan (SSIP) to support educators who serve kindergarten through third grade students, with a focus on students with special needs and early literacy outcomes.
We are excited to offer an opportunity for the coming school year for school sites who educate students K-3, within the State of Oklahoma, who have scored 0% proficiency for third-grade reading based on state testing proficiency for students with IEPs.
We are hosting informative virtual meetings to answer your questions and provide insight into this program! The informative meetings will be the same session but offered at different times to accommodate your schedule:
Register in advance:
What is the State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP)?
 The program features three tiers of participation:
- Tier 1:
- Universal Supports: Access to templates and protocols for early literacy interventions and evidence-based practices. You can access the Universal Supports through OK Multi-Tiered System of Supports | Oklahoma State Department of Education.
- Sequenced Professional Development: Access to a professional development sequence, intended to support educators with early literacy outcomes.
- Tier 2:
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Strategic Leadership Coaching: To support development of a site MTSS leadership team, aide in implementing MTSS for K-3 early literacy, continuous coaching. Application due June 1, 2024.
- Tier 3:
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Instructional Coaching: Application to access direct, individual support for educators working with K-3 students, supporting early literacy. Educators must be concurrently participating in the professional development sequence. Application due June 1, 2024.
The application for participation has been included in the email as links. On-time deadline is June 1, 2024, and late-acceptance will continue until August 1, 2024, or until the capacity for the program has been reached.
For more information to determine if this program is right for your school site, please email Alexa Hudak to set up a phone conversation to answer any questions you might have.
We are eager for your participation!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
- 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.
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.
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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