October 22, 2018: NASDSE has revised its education service guidelines for deaf or hard of hearing! The new guidelines “Optimizing Outcomes for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Educational Service Guidelines” are downloadable free (here), and print copies are available for $25 each plus shipping. Go to Publications to order. Chapter 9 of the guidelines is a self-assessment form. You can download it (here).
October 19, 2018: NASDSE welcomes our new Board of Directors for 2018-19:
President: Jamie Wong, Director of Special Education, Louisiana Department of Education
Secretary-Treasurer: Monica Verra-Tirado, Director of Special Education, Florida Department of Education
President-Elect: Steve Milliken, Director of Special Education, Nebraska Department of Education
Past President: Santina Thibedeau, Director of Special Education, New Hampshire Department of Education
Members-at-Large:
- Barbara Guy, Director of Special Education, Iowa Department of Education
- Linda Turner, Director of Special Education Programs, South Dakota Department of Education
- Zelphine Smith-Dixon, State Director, Georgia Department of Education
- Barbara Van Haren, Director of Special Education Programs, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
October 19, 2018: NASDSE Recognizes Special Education Leaders: At our 80th Annual Conference, the following leaders in the special education community were recognized for their contributions to the fields of special education.
- Martha J. Fields Award of Excellence: Presented to the National Center on Education Outcomes (NCEO). Dr.Martha L. Thurlow accepted the award on behalf of CCSSO.
- Heritage Award: Presented to Arthur Albert, Director of the Federated States of Micronesia.
For more information on NASDSE awards, click here.
October 6, 2018: Thank you to all of NASDSE's 80th Annual Conference and Business Meeting sponsors! Please click here to view our sponsors and their web pages.
June 15, 2018: NASDSE joined with 50 other organizations this week calling on Congress to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). When Congress first passed IDEA in 1975, it pledged to fund it at 40% of the average per student expenditure. Congress has never lived up to its promise and today IDEA is funded at less than 15 percent. To see the ad, click here.
April 17, 2018: We have a new section on our Government Relations page that lists the various letters that NASDSE has written or endorsed on behalf of the state directors of special education this year. (click here to take you to the Government Relations page).
February 9, 2018: NASDSE sent a letter to Secretary DeVos urging the Department NOT to postpone implementation of the significant disproportionality regulation. Read the letter here.
February 6, 2018: Today NASDSE is releasing this statement in regards to the U.S. Department of Education indicating that it is considering postponing implementation of the regulation that was issued in December 2016 on identifying and remediating disproportionality in special education:
NASDSE recognizes and agrees with the overall concern related to disproportionality in special education. These concerns were behind the Department of Education's release of a regulation in December 2016 that laid out steps states were to take to identify and address this issue. NASDSE has learned that the Department of Education is postponing implementation of this regulation. States are moving forward to implement the regulation as it is currently written and NASDSE does not believe that implementation should be postponed from the current timeline contained in the regulation. At the same time, a number of states have questions/concerns regarding how the regulation addresses the calculation of disproportionality that we would like to see OSEP address. We hope that OSEP will work with NASDSE and the state directors of special education to address their concerns related to how disproportionality is calculated and identified so that true disproportionality can be addressed in meaningful ways.
February 4, 2018: NASDSE is pleased to share this update of case law on IDEA, the ADA and Section 504. Please click here to see this update.