Special Education Forum: State Advisory Committees
File Name: spedsac1.txt
Subj: Parental input
Date: 95-09-23 11:11:21 EST
From: Mom424
Our sate advisory committee seems completely unconcerned with parental input.
There is not a single parent of a child with a disability on the committee..
What experience have you had in your state?
Subj: Re:Parental input
Date: 95-09-24 05:15:24 EST
From: NSteven262
IDEA requires that the State advisory committees on SpEd have a balance. In NH we have 8 parents, the Caprent Information Center, a rep from Sch Bds Assn., Dir. of Sped Assn., Principals Assn., Business & Industry, Supt. of Schools, a state senator and a state legislator, and two disabled individuals. The group meets monthly. The problem right now is that the NH Board of Ed is heavily influenced by the Governor's Task Force on Spec. Ed because they're all "his" people.
Subj: Re:Parental input
Date: 95-09-24 16:59:01 EST
From: SPECEDPAR
It sounds like to me that NH is an ALL republican state... It seems the Republican thing to do is to throw all of special education or any disability issues away. The new Congress is mostly Republican and just look what they are doing to the IDEA. Someone needs to talk with the Christian Coalition, since they claim, it was they who votedt the new congress in. Are Christians supposed to take care the lesser like Christ did? The CC wants to do away with ALL federal mandates which includes IDEA and ADA.
Subj: parental input
Date: 95-09-25 03:43:12 EST
From: NSteven262
You might be interested to know that our state advisory has many difficulties. The members are appointed by the governor. It took a lot of time this year to get those appointments through. Now the chairperson of the committee has resigned as chair because she is concerned that her state funding money will be held up in her district because of her opinions. Now isn't that scarey???!!!
Subj: Re:parental input
Date: 95-09-26 16:15:12 EST
From: Dls3
The State Advisory Council in Illinois is still called the"State Advisory Council onthe Education of Handicapped Children"-Does that tell us something? Illinois' AC is not taken too seriously, mostly because they have a long standing history of promoting exclusion versus inclusion of cwd. Does any state have an AC which they are proud to call their voice?
Subj: Re:Parental input
Date: 95-09-27 10:34:24 EST
From: SandyM5122
I am a Mother in Texas who just got back in the fight for LD children. We are in FBISD. Where to we go to find out about the State Advisory Committee. I have been fighting the system fir now 7 years. Help!!!!!
Subj: Re:Parental
input
Date: 95-09-27 19:02:17 EST
From: SPECEDPAR
In Georgia the state advisory committee is a joke !!!!
Subj: Re:Parental
input
Date: 95-09-27 23:10:52 EST
From: Mom424
each state participating in IDEA must have a state advisory panel.The
requirements are in the federal regulations The panel has three required
functions: to advise the state educational agency of unmet educational needs
of children with disabilities within the state: to issue public comments on
the state's annual program plan, on rules or regulations proposed by the
state for educating children with disabilitries and on procedures for giving
out IDEA funds... The committee has to hold public meetings. The meeting
date. time and place have to be advertised. committee members, meetings, the
annual report and minutes from the meeting are public record. your state
department of education should have this information. our committee met
today. the only item that was resolved today was that the committee members
will determine the make up of the committe in April. I guess making a
decision like this in October is really to much to ask for. Everyone on our
committee except one person out of 14 are state paid employees. We have one
parent representative. Some parents are getting together to write our own
annual report. I cannot wait to see whose has the most info!!!! I am
interested in gathering info about all of the state advisory comm. so if you
have info please let me know. MOM424
Subj: Re:IL
Date: 95-10-07 09:30:52 EST
From: Keridak
Dear Dis3
I have recently become involved with inclusion at the preschool level ie Head Start. I would appreciate information on contacts. I work in Cook Co.
Also I have heard that Il has broken the state up into 48 sections overseen
by " LICKS". The LICKS will make the descisions in distributing the funds
from the Federal block grants. Do you or any one know more??? Thanks
Keri
Subj: Re:CA Advisory Com on Sp Ed
Date: 95-10-14 12:11:29 EST
From: ENCINITAS
Gee wiz! After reading the messages posted about the other St. Ad Com., I feel like the one we have in CA is exemplary!! Yes, we have parents on it. In addition many of the professionals on it also are parents of kids with disabilities or they are person's with disabilities too. Our commission has approached the legislature to initiate spec. ed legislation, they are called upon by leg. committees to testify re: legislation, and the Commission takes a public stand on all legislation that may effect spec. ed. The legislature and the Dept. of Ed. have called upon the Commission to hold stae-wide hearings on issues and provide a report. The Spec. Ed Division in CA does not make a move without informing the Commission on what it is doing. Every Commission meeting there are presentations about something to keep the commission informed.
Also, at every commission meeting, there is a time for public input. I have served as an officer of the Learning Disabilities Association of CA and we have used this forum to request investigations, which the commission then undertook.
Yes, this is just an ADVISORY group, but in CA, the Dept of ED and our Leg. know that they better pay attention or else, the parent organizations (and also all the professional education organizations) will be hearing from us PERSONALLYùand CA is a big state -- we have a half million kids identified for spec ed services.
Subj: Re:NH
St Advisory
Date: 95-10-31 10:54:30 EST
From: NSteven262
NH is always in the state of transition and currently compromises effectiveness. The NH Dept of Ed doesn't like the name the legilature gave us: State Advisory and Oversight Committee. They feel it implies the DOE isn't doing it's job. When I see the very poor status of our Spec Ed in NH, I have no wonder why they feel threatened. The chairwomen, a Sped Dir. resigned the chair because she was worried that her opinions could impact funding . . . NH is in bad shape. But our committee is trying to get it together!
