Message from Executive Director

Dear Family and Friends of CIDA:

Happy New Years to you all! I hope everyone celebrated the start of 2020 in beautiful dreams and hopes with family and friends. We’re a few days into the new year already, and CIDA is fully prepared to make 2020 another exciting journey with you all.

The year 2019 was quite a year for all of CIDA families. In the last two years, CIDA has invested its rigorous efforts in cultivating new visions for individuals with disabilities through empowering their families.

As a result, CIDA and CIDA’s family network achieved things that seemed impossible, sometimes in very challenging circumstances. Last year, we had established two strong networks of our parent support group, trained hundreds of parents and guardians, started a sibling net support program, and developed a transition program for young adults with exceptional needs.

Of course, there are still many unsolved issues for our community, including special education and services practices, communication problems between families and the agencies, and a lack of employment opportunities for young adults with disabilities. We know that the obstacles and barriers in front of us are still very high. Nevertheless, no matter what the challenges are, we will not lose our hope and priority: to be strong and consistent on our beliefs in the Least Restrictive Environment and self-determined life for persons with disabilities.

In 2020, we will continue to empower families impacted by disabilities through special education training, resources, and advocacy. In addition, the adult support programs, such as Advocacy and General Support (AGES), Housing Training, and Transtion@CIDA, will create a new perspective on how to resolve the issues in youths and adults with disabilities after high school. We anticipate that CIDA’s advocacy work in making improvements to the special education policy and implementation will finally shape a legislative action in collaboration with the local politicians.

We know that these are not easy tasks, but I am confident that we will continue to make significant progress in 2020 with help and support from our CIDA community.

Again, thank you for your continuous support, and I wish for every family to have a healthy and happy 2020!

Young Seh Bae, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Policy News

Congress Weighs Renewal Of Program That Moves People Out Of Institutions
Source: https://www.disabilityscoop.com

Advocates are discussing a possible deal to permanently renew a federal program which allows people with disabilities to move from institutions to the community. A proposal in the U.S. senate would help in reauthorizing a Medicaid program which gives states funding to pay for different employment supports, housing, and other services. This will help those people with disabilities to transition from nursing homes and other institutions to homes in the community. This new plan would have no end date and would be funded $450 million for the next 10 years annually.

Teacher Coaches Push Small Gains in Student Achievement, Study Shows
Source: https://www.thecity.nyc

Small gains in achievement were shown through an initiative of employing reading coaches to help teachers improve instruction. The program aims to get every student to read on grade-level by the end of second grade by 2026. Studies showed that those students who had teachers spend more time with coaches showed slightly higher scores on a reading assessment than those students who did not have coaches. Schools that had access to coaches had 22.5 points increase in comprehension scores as opposed to 18.9 points increase with teachers that were not trained.

What’s Up at CIDA

CIDA’s ‘New Year Party’

On December 27th, we held our 5th Annual New Years Party @ Adria Hotel. We saw amazing performances from our CIDA community, celebrated CIDA’s achievements of 2019, and had a wonderful time being with each other. Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate with CIDA and we hope we will be able to achieve even greater things in 2020!

Events

• January 21 – CIDA Workshop (Topic: Health Care Day – Affordable Care Act & Community Clinical Service Resources) & Parent Group Support Meeting (All ages)

For registration to the above events in January and for more information click here: https://cidainfo.com/events/2020-1/