The Kathe Shelby Leadership Award has been developed by the Ohio Department of Education's Office for Exceptional Children (ODE/OEC) to honor Kathe for her ardent efforts and passion in advocating for the improvement of the education of children with special needs in Ohio. The first of what will become an annual award to the Outstanding Special Education Leader in Ohio will be made at Ohio's 6th Annual Special Education Leadership Conference on September 26-27, 2012 at the Columbus Convention Center.

The Kathe Shelby Leadership Award will be presented to an Outstanding Special Education Leader in Ohio currently employed who has demonstrated exceptional and effective skills in improving the quality of special education programming for Ohio's school children. Each nominee should display daily evidence of initiative, influence, and respect towards children with special needs, their parents, special and regular education teachers, related services personnel, and school administrators. Each nominee should demonstrate excellence in providing high educational quality as well as express a genuine concern for the well-being of all children with special needs. The nomination form for the Award is available here. The deadline to submit nominations is March 30, 2012.

Kathe Shelby was the Director of OEC from September 2008 until her untimely death in August of 2011. In addition to her main responsibilities to ensure that the requirements of federal and state laws regarding serving children with special needs were carried out throughout Ohio, Kathe worked closely with the State Support Teams (SSTs) and other OEC-sponsored organizations charged with a variety of professional development activities related to supporting exceptional children. Kathe reached out to and took the time to meet with hundreds of people throughout Ohio as she traveled the state to carry the message that all children can learn and make progress. Kathe was elected to the Board of the National Association of Special Education Directors (NASDSE) after being a State Director for less than three years, a very unusual feat.

Prior to becoming Director of OEC, Kathe was the director of the State Support Team in Region 3, previously known as the Cuyahoga Special Education Regional Resource Center (SERRC). Kathe's entire professional career was devoted to supporting the education of children with special needs with the hope that their lives beyond school would be more satisfying and productive for them. Her work with OEC allowed her to carry out her work on a statewide basis.

The Ohio Department of Education's Office for Exceptional Children announces the Call for Presenters for Ohio's 6th Annual Special Education Leadership Conference that will be held on September 26-27, 2012 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

The 2012 Special Education Leadership Conference theme is Closing the Achievement Gap and the overarching focus is "Show Me What Works!" to improve reading, math, and behavior results for children with disabilities. This call for proposals is an invitation to local districts where children with disabilities are making progress in reading and math and where behavior is not holding them back. Proposals should describe research-based effective programs and practices that are contributing to this improvement and must include child performance data to show that the efforts are resulting in improved performance. Proposals from Institutions of Higher Education that are involved in preparing special education administrators and teachers are also welcome.

Conference Program
The conference program will include:

• Poster sessions (Specified time blocks) focused on instructional research, instructional strategies, and effective practices.
• Concurrent sessions (75 minute blocks) focused on demonstrations of instructional practice and specialized instruction; and
• Lecture: (75 minute blocks) focused on individual presentations on a specific topic. Interaction in this format is typically limited to questions and answers.

Time Lines for Proposals
The deadline for submitting a proposal application is February 10, 2012. Notification regarding proposal acceptance will be no later than March 2, 2012.

Proposal Requirements
Proposal requirements are available for download.



Questions
For questions, contact Caroline Coston via email at coston-robinson.1@osu.edu.

Additional information about the Conference will continue to be announced via e-blasts.

The Office for Exceptional Children (OEC) announces the following changes, additions, and reminders:

Changes

• The latest changes to the Guidance Document are available by clicking here and are also available at the beginning of the Guidance Document itself.
• Districts need to incorporate the revised PWN chart into their Policies and Procedures if they have adopted OEC's Special Education Model Policies and Procedures. It is important to remember that when a student exits high school, the district must provide a PWN and a Summary of Performance.
• Both ETR planning forms (school age and early childhood) that are included with the OEC ETR form are required for districts that have adopted OEC's Special Education Model Policies and Procedures. Evidence of planning including that parents were involved has always been required. Prior to this change of making the planning forms that are included with the OEC ETR form required forms, the two planning forms had been noted as "optional" as districts had the choice of using planning forms other than those included with the ETR form. However, the word "optional" on the planning forms led some educators to mistakenly believe that planning was optional. That was not and is not the case. Districts are considered out of compliance when evidence of planning including the involvement of parents is not attached to the ETR.
• The Early Childhood ETR Planning form has a few revisions and additional evaluation information and is now available at www.edresourcesohio.org under Required Forms.
• Revised Annotations for the IEP incorporate the six components of a measurable goal and of objectives. If benchmarks are selected, time periods must be noted.

Additions

• New charts are available for:
  • the ETR,
  • Residency and Custody

Reminders

• Progress report forms from the old 1999-2000 Model Policies & Practices do not contain information about measurable goals and should not be used. One option is to use the OP-6 Progress Report that is available under Optional forms on www.edresourcesohio.org.
• For questions about social graduation, refer to the 2011-2012 Ohio Statewide Assessment Program Rules Book.