Message from Executive Director

Dear Family and Friends of CIDA:

The year 2019 has been a year of leaps and achievement for CIDA. During 2019, the family of CIDA Networks increased from 250 to 400. We’ve provided more than 50 educational workshops and support groups; and worked with more than 170 special education disabilities related cases. The new Transition @ CIDA has now established itself as a program that teaches young people with disabilities, skills to live independently. Also, CIDA and the Sibling Net (CIDA Sibling Group) held our first community forum on disability to ask legislators on a new vision for New York’s disability policies.

All of this work could not be accomplished without the dedication of CIDA staff members, the hard work of the Board of Directors, and your participation. The year 2020 will be another important year that will allow CIDA to create a greater voice for our children and families to become the leaders of inclusion and social changes. To achieve this goal, we would like to ask for your continuous interest and more participation in CIDA in 2020.

I wish you all the best the rest of the year and wish you a healthy and happy New Year.
Thank you.

Young Seh Bae, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Policy News

Board of Regents and Education Department Launch Phase I of Review of New York State Graduation Measures
Source: https://www.nysed.gov

The Board of Regents and State Education Department has started the first phase of reviewing graduation measures within the state of New York. “[…] The Department remains committed to reducing opportunity and achievement gaps that impact so many of our students” said Beth Berlin, Interim State Education Commissioner. The Department is partnering with Achieve on Phase I to conduct a literature review on graduation requirements, focus on innovative models, and provide a report and presentation to the Board in February 2020.

Lawmakers Propose Extra Funds To Cover High Special Ed Costs
Source: https://www.disabilityscoop.com

Due to a new proposal from Congress, school districts that are facing high costs for educating students with disabilities would get help. A new bill offers extra money for schools struggling with special education expenses that are three or more times the average cost of each student. Under the IDEA High Cost Pool Funding Act (H.R. 4673), the federal government would be able to add support for those states that have schools with expenses beyond the threshold.

What’s Up at CIDA

CIDA’s ‘New Year Party’

As 2019 is slowly coming to an end, CIDA is beginning to prepare for our annual ‘New Year’ party. CIDA is working alongside with our families to spread joy and big smiles with everyone. This year, we will be hosting the party at Adria Hotel in Bayside. If you would like to give CIDA a helping hand in preparing for this huge event or if you are interested in being a donator, please contact our Field Associate, Mijung Kim or contact CIDA at cida@cidainfo.com. We hope many families will be able to join us for an amazing time!

CIDA Parent Group – Support Group updates

CIDA holds two support groups every month; one for parents of early childhood and school age group (0-15 years), one for parents of transition age and adult age group (15+ years). Our parent groups came up with various names to title our two support groups. We would like to proudly introduce our two support groups, ‘Nurim’ (Early childhood & school age group) & ‘With Us’ (Transition age & adult age group). Thank you to our parents for all your wonderful ideas and we hope that with these new names, we will be able to come closer as a community!

Events

• December 10 – Parent Group Support Meeting (Early Childhood & school age group (0-15)
• December 12 – IEP Webinar (Basic)
• December 17 – ‘Social Security Services (SSA): SSI & SSDI – Workshop Parent Group Support Meeting (Transitional age & young adult age group)(15+ yrs)
• December 27 – CIDA’s 2019 ‘New Year’ Party @ Adria Hotel

For registration to the above events in September and for more information click here: https://cidainfo.com/events/2019-12/