ANNOUNCEMENTS

April seems like a good time to update everyone on what is going on with special education, Infinite Campus, and the many other concerns of the cooperative, so I will take a few minutes and see if I can cover almost everything.

First, I wanted to remind everyone to remember to do progress reports. When we converted to Infinite Campus as the only approved special education paperwork (March 1, 2010) we also changed the way we do many tasks. Suddenly, completing and sending progress reports becomes a critical task for several reasons. First, the progress reports are available to parents through the Infinite Campus parent portal. They records are also available to OPI for monitoring, so the failure to complete and send progress reports is a compliance issue. Also, if you are the case manager, all related service personnel are dependent upon you. If you, as case manager, do not send progress reports, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, and School Psychologist’s progress reports on counseling are also unavailable. It is critical, as case managers this task be completed!
 

Second, the lock feature, which has not worked, appears to have been resolved. This means, in the next few weeks, completed files should be locked, and will only unlock when you contact me to unlock them. While it seems easy to leave files unlocked, repairing the lock function means that parents, OPI staff, and individuals with read-only rights (think classroom teachers who need to make accommodations) will only have access after the file is locked. When we set a lock down date I will let you know. On that date I will ask you to lock any completed files and be prepared to lock files, as they are completed, in the future. I also need to remind you to think about the timelines you currently operate under. It will no longer be possible to complete a meeting and do the paperwork “later”. Everyone with access will not only have access to documents, but will also have access to the timelines between when the meeting was held and when the document was locked. I believe we will ultimately be found to be out of compliance if there is a three month lag between meetings and completion of paperwork as indicated by locking the files.

I also had the chance to talk to Tim Harris, Special Education Director for the state of Montana, who indicated that he believes, based upon current discussion at the federal level, that the discrepancy model for identifying children as Learning Disabled (LD) will go away. Simply stated, expect RTI to become a requirement for special education identification. If you are one of the schools which is still working to develop an RTI implementation plan, Wayne Callender will be retraining on RTI Sessions 1 and 2 on September 27th and February 1, 2011. The details regarding these trainings will be posted in the website in the coming weeks, along with how to register!

I have been working on the professional development calendar for 2010 -2011 and hope to have all dates and trainings posted by May 1. We have been working with our web designer, Lori Ruffier, to fix the professional development registration issues. I am confident will be able to register for next year’s professional development offerings on the website once again. And, before I forget, please go to the co-op website at www.mtcooperatives.org and click on the bus in the center of the state. The CMLRCC site has been updated! Thanks to Lori for all of her great work in updating the CMLRCC site!