2018 June News

CIDA’s Latest News and Event Announcement

Welcome to the June 2018 newsletter from CIDA! We invite you to catch up on our latest content and event news!

Policy Update

Public Comment Period on Proposed NYS Every Student Succeeds Act Regulations has begun on June 5.

The public comment period on proposed regulations in preparation for the implementation of New York’s approved Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan began on June 5, Commissioner MaryEllen Elia announced. The public comment period continues through July 9. Comments on the proposed changes will be accepted through July 9 and can be submitted by email to ESSAREGCOMMENTS@nysed.gov.:
(https://govt.westlaw.com/nyreg/Document/If242dea2535e11e8b101b052329bc141?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&transitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default))

The NYS Education Department has not released the Korean language translation for the ESSA Parent Information flyer yet. CIDA will make every necessary effort to reach out to the NYS Education Department in order to obtain the Korean version of ESSA parent information material.

Special Education Enrollment Trends Upward

The number of students receiving special education in US public schools is on the rise, according to a new federal report. There were 6.7 million kids with disabilities in classrooms across the country during the 2015-2016 school year, accounting for 13.2% of all students, an increase of 100,000 students from the year prior. The figures, which come from an annual report issued by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, cover children from ages 3 to 21 receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Among school-age children with disabilities, the report found that 63% of them spent at least 80% of their day in general education classrooms, up from fewer than 50% in 2000. Special education enrollment has been trending upward since the 2011-2012 school year when the number of students with disabilities was at 6.4 million, though this population has steadily accounted for about 13 percent of the nation’s public school students during that time.

Source: Disability Scoop https://www.disabilityscoop.com/2018/06/05/special-ed-enrollment-upward/25150/

What’s Up at CIDA

Intern Program Summer 2018 @ CIDA
We grow the next generation of leaders

Every year, CIDA invites college interns to train as future community leaders. The CIDA interns engage in various areas of work including education, community program development, and technology-related tasks. This year again, CIDA has invited four amazing young people to the Summer 2018 internship program. We proudly announce the newest members of the CIDA family: Erin Park (Boston University, majoring in Severe Special Education); Charlotte Hutzler (NYU, majoring in Applied Psychology), Lesley Jeon (NYU, majoring in Foreign Language) and Maria Gulino (Johns Hopkins University, majoring in Math, returning intern).

NYS OPWDD Korean Family Forum

June 12, 10:00 am @ Adria Hotel, Bayside, NY

NYS OPWDD is transitioning its services to a new structure, the Care Coordination Organization (CCO) starting July 1, 2018. CIDA hosted a community forum regarding the recent changes in OPWDD service delivery systems and the needs of Korean families with developmental disabilities. CIDA invited OPWDD (the central office in Albany) for a forum to inform parents about how to access services through the CCO and Self-Direction. Hirah A. Mir, Ph.D., Projects Assistant in Workforce Transformation and Kate Bishop, Director of Programs in the Division of Person-Centered Supports at OPWDD presented the various changes including Care Coordination and Health Home Care Management. In addition, families had questions and comment session to speak out the problems and concerns in the current developmental disability services coordination and delivery systems. Dr. Kimberly Berg and Nabila Ibrahim from the New York State Developmental Disability Planning Council (DDPC) also joined the forum to learn about the needs of Korean-American families.
CIDA will continue to collect the questions and comments from families until July 15 and forward them to NYS OPWDD and DDPC. We will share their answers and feedback with CIDA families.