06/03/2020
John Eisenberg
#EXPANDTHECLASSROOM
The Office of Special Education within the Nebraska Department of Education has continued their work without missing a beat. Some activities include continued professional development to many areas of need, development of materials to support the work of schools during COVID-19, guidance documents in areas of Unfinished Learning, staff reading books to be included on our Face Book page, meetings conducted in a wide range of areas to support the learning of parents and school staff, and continued work on guidance documents on eligibility, monitoring, and disproportionality. All staff have continued their participation in any committee work across the NDE as well with other outside stakeholders. All conducted virtually. Here is a link to all the professional development we are doing “virtually” to get in the hands of all educators!
https://cdn.education.ne.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SPED-OFFICE-PROJECTS-PROFESSIONAL-LEARNING-OPPORTUNITIES-1.pdf
We created a virtual Reading Symposium (The Summer MTSS Reading Symposium) that is free to all educators that will take place over 3 weeks in July.
In addition, within two short weeks our annual ASD Network State conference went from face-to-face to virtual learning with the support of our ASD Network and partners at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and NDE with approximately 500 participants. In addition, all PD and support to school teams have continued throughout April and May.
Programs for children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing had to shift many activities to virtual learning. For this group, the team working with the Nebraska Regional Programs for Deaf or Hard of Hearing developed Social Opportunities virtually for children who usually meet in person for a wider range of social enhancement opportunities. These social events occurred in different parts of the state and gave students full access to interpreters and closed captioning in order to participate. In addition, a virtual Transition Summit occurred for this group that provided lots of role models and support for effective transition planning. Also coming up in July the Nebraska Regional Programs will conduct a virtual camp specific to student who are deaf or hard of hearing with specific clubs for active engagement. Programs for children who are blind/visually impaired also shifted to providing support virtually or sending packets of information home in the large print or Braille formats needed for each student. Specific PD was provided to all staff who usually provide some overnight residential care, but was given learning opportunities to understand more about the vision disabilities of each of their students. The annual Deaf-Blind Summer Institute shifted from onsite to virtually format and will be conducted in July with approximately 132 participants registered to attend from Nebraska but other surrounding states.
