220 Amherst Avenue, Sheboygan Falls, WI 53085

Ann Roy, Director of Student Services P:920-467-7894| E:

TO: Board of Education

FROM: Ann Roy

RE: JUNE BOE Update

Date: July 16, 2015

Two new and important changes in DPI rules within the identification of children with disabilities have gone into effect across Wisconsin as of July 1st. For your knowledge, this includes:

  • Change in terminology and concept from “Cognitive Disability” to “Intellectual Disability.” The former term ‘cognitive disability’ is inconsistent with the current methods of determining whether someone has an intellectual disability. It also does not adequately capture the definition of what constitutes an intellectual disability. New terminology of ‘intellectual disability’ is now in keeping with the federal language that has existed for some time as well as the language used within the American Association on Intellectual and Development Disabilities’ classification manual, and in the Wisconsin Early Learning Standards.
  • School districts are now able to identify children with a “Significant Developmental Delay” ages 3 through age 9. Previously, this limit extended only through age 6. This change has the potential to make credible changes in how we evaluate students with disabilities and provide them with specialized instruction or not. We will now have a longer timeframe to evaluate a child and more accurately identify the area of need beyond age 6. Assessment, interventions and services can be more precise for each student.

I will be working with all special education staff as we implement these changes in practice and understanding. We will have further communications for parents as we encounter the new age ranges for Significant Developmental Delay and the new concepts and terminology behind Intellectual Disabilities.

I am delighted to confirm that our District has completed and submitted the federal Civil Rights Data Collection requirement, well in advance of the August 7th deadline! Recall that this is survey of data from every school in the nation is required every two years, and is a major effort to ensure equal educational opportunity for all students. This year’s data was from the 2013-14 data sources; this is a biennial mandatory effort coordinated by the Office of Civil Rights. Over 16,000 districts across the nation participate. A special shout of thanks and appreciation goes to Suzette Burkhart in the High School office as she undertook the labor of gathering data from sources across three schools and many departments, always with a smile and accuracy.

DPI is working with Districts across the state to prepare for a new assessment for our English Language Learner students, ACCESS 2.0. Like the prior ACCESS assessment, it will continue to measure social and academic English language proficiency for our English language learners (ELLs). The new version of the assessment provides a computer-based test administration versus the previous assessment that needed to be done in small group and for some portions, individually. We will save a great deal of time in resources of staff and in time needed for students to be away from class and greater flexibility of assessing. More importantly, the new reports will be more detailed and provide teachers with better data to understand the instructional needs for ELLs.

Summer training is underway and more around the corner for all staff. Within the Student Services, this includes:

  • Infinite Campus Special Education coach training July 29th
  • Infinite Campus Special Ed teacher training on new IEP forms, August 6th or August 17th.
  • Non-Violent Crisis intervention training for initial trainees, August 13th and 14th.
  • Non-Violent Crisis Intervention re-certification training July 27th or August 5th.
  • Allies in Autism Education (AAE) team training August 4th – August 6th.
  • Numerous summer curriculum projects by staff in Special Education and ELL geared toward improving instructional supports for all learners.

“Kids from learning enriched environments make your job easy;
Kids from learning impoverished environments make our jobs important.”

Barbara Colorosa