The Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health

Resource Highlight "Pathways to Public Health Insurance Coverage for MA Residents," a publication of the Center for Health Policy and Research and the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute, is a wonderful document. It provides flowcharts to help determine the public health benefit program for which your child and family is eligible and that provides the most comprehensive health coverage, even if you have private health insurance.

To download a copy, or view it on-line, go to
http://www.pathwaystocoverage.org.

If you, or other families you know, are struggling with understanding MassHealth, call the MA Family-to-Family Health Care Information and Education Center at the Federation at 1-800-331-0688, ext. 210 or e-mail
massfv@fcsn.org

Parent Training and Information 2006-2007 Workshop Schedule
http://fcsn.org/pti/workshops/home.html

Administrative Advisory SPED 2007 "The following chart highlights some of the key changes in the law found in the new regulations and describes the impact of these changes on current school district practices. Please note that the chart does not include all of the changes in the federal regulations, and does not duplicate information provided in previous guidance documents issued by the Department. Please refer to previous guidance from the Department and the U.S. Department of Education when reviewing how practices have changed or are changing in response to IDEA-2004 and its implementing regulations. Additionally, the Department recommends that you familiarize yourself with the statute and the final regulations as you and your staff implement the new federal special education requirements."
http://www.doe.mass.edu/sped/advisories/07_1.html

Education Next: New Study Debunks Myth about Special Education Costs

"Special needs, a costly debate Schools seek state funds to meet rising expenses"

"Have you ever brought up something in an IEP meeting that you thought was a well-accepted practice for working with children with special needs -- something like a Functional Behavioral Assessment, or accommodations, or alternate assessments -- and had the professionals around the table look at you like you just started speaking in tongues? It's hard to know if they're trying to trick you or are really that clueless -- and hard to know which is scarier -- but unless you've come armed with some hard facts on the prevalence of these practices, you may not be able to make much headway. That's why this tool kit is such a good piece of intelligence for parents. It's from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, and outlines just those sorts of things you may be asking for in the unmistakeable language of bureaucracy. The Child Study Team may be able to pretend that you're just making this stuff up, but the federal government, not so much." ~From Terri Mauro
http://www.osepideasthatwork.org/toolkit/index.asp

"It's just one page on a site from a Cognitive Development Center in Lexington, Massachusetts, but this nifty chart brings together a large amount of information on learning, and children's problems with it, in one easy-to-follow package. For each of 12 cognitive abilities -- visual thinking, logical thinking, auditory thinking, receptive communication, expressive communication, digital discriminative movement, expressive communication, digital discriminative movement, ocular discriminative movement, representational thinking, body & sense thinking, and spatial thinking -- the chart lists what it is, how it is important to learning, and related learning difficulties. Bookmark this resource for those times when you have to make sense of school IEPs and evaluations." ~From Terri Mauro

State To Boost Services To Mentally Ill Children At Home
New Plan To Ease Unnecessary Hardships

GROTON-DUNSTABLE SPEDPAC hosts:

DR. ROSS GREENE
Founding Director of the Collaborative Problem Solving Institute@
Massachusetts General Hospital
Nationally known doctor and author - The Explosive Child
Co-Author with Dr. J. Stuart Ablon – Treating Explosive Kids: The CPS
Approach

DATE: Tuesday, January 9
TIME: 7:00 – 9:00 P.M.
PLACE: Groton-Dunstable Regional High School
703 Chicopee Row, Groton - Black Box Theatre

NO COST!!  (This is a very worthwhile speaker for parents and teachers to see!)

New Year- New Center -New Programs

As we enter the New Year, in our New Center, we are happy to announce that the Center received funds from DMR’s Autism Division to benefit families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, here in Central Massachusetts. The charge from the Division was threefold:

       To initiate programs for Sensory Integration Activities that will serve children aged 3—18

       To develop Social Skills groups for children with Asperger’s Syndrome or high functioning Autism up to age 18

       To create two weeks of Vacation Family Fun activities for children with ASD, their siblings and parents

To participate in all activities children must be either Autism Division or DMR eligible. If you have not contacted DMR to determine if your child is eligible you can call us at the Resource Center and we will assist you in filing an application. Those who were previously told that their children were not eligible by DMR, prior to the establishment of the Autism Division should re-apply. Unlike our family fun activities, these groups are for children with ASD and a parent, siblings will not be included, (with the exception of vacation camp programs that will be announced in the spring ).

Go to www.arccm.org  for details on classes.  (Social skills groups, sensory integration activities, swim and safety courses, etc.)