The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in the U.S. Department of Education recently posted five (June) Q&A's on the IDEA.ed.gov web site.

1. Discipline (June 2009):  http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CQaCorner%2C7%2C
2. Disproportionality (June 2009): http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CQaCorner%2C9%2C
3. Procedural safeguards (June 2009): http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CQaCorner%2C6%2C
4. Monitoring and technical assistance (June 2009): http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CQaCorner%2C4%2C
5. Secondary transition (June 2009): http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cdynamic%2CQaCorner%2C10%2C

The Ohio Department of Education's Office for Exceptional Children has created a new EMIS data collection form. As district staff develop Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), many find it helpful to summarize the information that will need to be reported in the Education Management Information System (EMIS) at the same time. This document is a management tool that districts may use to document special education data for submission to EMIS in the 2009-10 school year. Use of this tool is not required. It contains the fields for data that will be required to be submitted in EMIS for the 2009-10 school year and may be useful in managing the collection of required EMIS data.  To assist in summarizing the information, an optional data collection tool is available. This tool can be amended in any way a district finds useful. The form is just a tool provided for district convenience in collecting EMIS data. It is not a form that is required by ODE for any purpose.

A new federal regulation to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) provides that a parent may revoke consent for special education and related services for his or her child with a disability. The document, Whose IDEA Is This? Update Sept. 2009, summarizes the new regulation. This new information must be provided to parents no later than January 1, 2010. If districts and community schools have already made copies of Whose IDEA Is This? for use this school year, Whose IDEA Is This? Update Sept. 2009 must be printed out and inserted into the procedural safeguards notice when providing copies to parents. In this way, new copies of Whose IDEA Is This? do not have to be made this school year.

Please note that Ohio's procedural safeguards notice, Whose IDEA Is This?, is being updated to include the new regulation related to revocation of consent for the 2010-2011 school year and must be used by July 1, 2010.

If you have questions, please contact the Office for Exceptional Children, Procedural Safeguards section at (614) 466-2650 or (877) 644-6338.

To view Whose IDEA Is This? Update Sept. 2009 go to http://www.edresourcesohio.org.

In response to requests from the field, ODE/OEC announces the availability of Optional forms on the www.edresourcesohio.org Web site. The use of these forms is not required; districts and schools can continue to use the optional forms now being used. Those choosing to use any of the nine forms listed can use the forms as they are presented or the forms can be edited to include the name of the district or school or to make other changes by clicking where it says "View a tutorial for editing the content of the optional forms." Clicking on the forms listed will take users directly to the form chosen. All the forms can also be found on the left side of the home page of www.edresourcesohio.org by clicking on Optional Forms.

Optional Forms

• Form OP-1: Functional Behavior Assessment
• Form OP-2: Behavior Intervention Plan
• Form OP-3: Manifestation Determination
• Form OP-4: Agreement to Waive Reevaluation
• Form OP-5: Parent/Guardian Excusal
• Form OP-6: Progress Report
• Form OP-7: Assignment of a Surrogate Parent
• Form OP-8: Summary of Performance
• Form OP-9: Attempts to Obtain Parent Participation

View a tutorial for editing the content of optional forms listed above.

Whose IDEA Is This now available in the following 10 languages:

• Albanian
• Arabic
• Simplified Chinese
• Traditional Chinese
• Japanese
• Korean
• Russian
• Spanish
• Somali
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese
 

To access these documents go to www.education.ohio.gov. Use the keyword Whose IDEA Is This to search for the documents.

ODE/OEC has issued Ratio Requirements (last reviewed - 4/16/09) for Ohio's Operating Standards for Ohio's Educational Agencies Serving Children with Disabilities. The new document is posted at the EdResourcesOhio web site. View Ratio Requirements as a PDF file.

Screening for Emotional Concerns: Considerations in the Selection of Instruments is a report from the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children. This report not only gives guidance in the selection of evaluation tools it also profiles several screening tools.

The Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI), in furthering its mission to build state and system-wide capacity for meeting the needs of individuals with autism and low incidence disabilities, would like to respond to all requests that are received. OCALI staff must prioritize requests at this time and ask that you complete a Service Intake Form. If you would like to request services from OCALI, there is a new intake form on the home page of the web site at www.ocali.org. It is printable and can be faxed or mailed at this point.

Individuals with disabilities can obtain this document in an accessible format (e.g., Braille, large print, compact disc or cassette tape) by contacting the Center for Instructional Supports and Accessible Materials (CISAM) at the Ohio State School for the Blind.

Ed Resources Ohio is the new web site form the Ohio Department of Education's Office for Exceptional Children. The site contains policy, guidance and forms for serving students with disabilities in the state of Ohio. The Procedures and Guidance for Ohio Educational Agencies serving Children with Disabilities back on line. The Guidance Document contains the new ETR and IEP forms. Both the Procedures and Guidance Document and the new forms can be found at www.edresourcesohio.org.

The 2009 Testing Rules Book can be accessed on the ODE website at http://www.ode.state.oh.us/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=9&ContentID=43712&Content=62944. The 2009 Testing Rules Book can also be accessed by using the keyword search: Rules Book.

Pages 27 through 35 address topics related to Students with Disabilities (Participation, Exemptions, Accommodations and Alternate Assessments). Appendix I, pages 83 through 86 provides guidance for scribes and transcribers.

The specific accommodation guidance has been revised and is now available on the ODE Web site using the keyword search “Accommodations.” Please share this information with your staff. The current version dated September 16, 2008 replaces the August 12, 2008 version and the changes are summarized below (Note: To avoid confusion the previous accommodation guidance has been removed from the Web site).