Tuesday, April 30th, 7:20pm, at the Swampscott High School-Room B208.

The talk will cover:

*Specific items and wording parents should ask for in their child’s IEP.
*Common mistakes seen in ineffective IEP plans.
*How to ask for specific goals, approaches and outcome measures that will be sensitive to whether progress is being made.
*Common best practice approaches to address: learning needs, social pragmatics, organizational skills and behavior/emotional problems (i.e., What to ask for, how to define it and how would you know that progress is occurring).

Dr. Stember holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and maintains faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. He is a recognized expert in cognitive behavioral/exposure-based therapy for anxiety, learning and behavioral disorders. Dr. Stember has given grand rounds presentations, trained educators and consults to a variety of districts throughout New England. He is the prior Director of Behavioral Medicine at North Shore Children’s Hospital, and maintains private practice offices in Salem and Arlington. He can be contacted at his Salem office at (978)-745-6555.

The talk will cover:

Specific items and wording parents should ask for in their child’s IEP.

Common mistakes seen in ineffective IEP plans.

How to ask for specific goals, approaches and outcome measures that will be sensitive to whether progress is being made

Common best practice approaches to address: learning needs, social pragmatics, organizational skills and behavior/emotional problems (i.e., What to ask for, how to define it and how would you know that progress is occurring).

There will be time for a question and answer period where we will ask that your question be written on a 3×5 card so Dr. Stember can answer all in a timely fashion.

Dr. Stember holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and maintains faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. He is a recognized expert in cognitive behavioral/exposure-based therapy for anxiety, learning and behavioral disorders.   Dr. Stember has given grand rounds presentations, trained educators and consults to a variety of districts throughout New England. He is the prior Director of Behavioral Medicine at North Shore Children’s Hospital, and maintains private practice offices in Salem and Arlington, MA.  He can be contacted at his Salem office at (978)-745-6555.

The Transistion Workshop: An Important Workshop for Parents of Students 13 and Older
When: Wednesday, November 14th
Where: Swampscott High School, B129
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Transition refers to the transition of students who are on IEPs and are 14 and older, from high school into the adult world after they leave high school. This workshop explains the laws and cases that say that school districts must prepare such students for post-secondary education or training, employment, and, for students who need it, independent living (including, for example, teaching skills necessary to take care of their own hygiene needs, medical needs, transportation needs). Attendees will learn about what districts must do to prepare such students for these aspects of post-secondary life, including performing appropriate transition assessments, conducting appropriate transition planning, providing needed transition services, proposing needed post-secondary IEP goals and objectives, providing community experiences, and (for students who need it) making a Chapter 688 referral to the right adult service agency. They will also learn what parents can do when a school district is planning to force a student to graduate from high school with a diploma (and thus lose all rights to future education from the district) over the family’s objections that the student is not ready to graduate, as set forth in the landmark Massachusetts case, the Dracut case. (See link for commentary on the case: http://www.kcslegal.com/articles/crabtree109.html).

Clare Vann is a special education attorney in private practice representing parents in their efforts to get the special education services and program their children need. She began working in the field of special education law in 1981 as a volunteer at the Federal for Children with Special Needs, where she was quickly hired to help teach special education advocacy courses and to train parents in their rights under special education law. She frequently conducts workshops on special education law on behalf of the Federation, and she has recently written a guide on transition services and issues for the Federation. (The transition guide is expected to be published by the Federation sometime in 2012). Ms. Vann has been an attorney since 1986, and has an outstanding track record in her cases. She has family members with a variety of disabilities

Where:  Swampscott High School – 200 Essex Street – Room B129

Time:  6:30pm – 8:30pm

The Basic Rights workshop provides families and others interested to an introduction on the rights and responsibilities under:

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• Massachusetts Special Education Law      and
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

This workshop is designed to help people be effective partners with a child’s school, to decide a child’s eligibility for special education, and to plan, make decisions and monitor a child’s progress in school. Clare Vann is a special education attorney in private practice representing parents in their efforts to get the special education services and program their children need. She began working in the field of special education law in 1981 as a volunteer at the Federal for Children with Special Needs, where she was quickly hired to help teach special education advocacy courses and to train parents in their rights under special education law. She frequently conducts workshops on special education law on behalf of the Federation, and she has recently written a guide on transition services and issues for the Federation. (The transition guide is expected to be published by the Federation sometime in 2012). Ms. Vann has been an attorney since 1986, and has an outstanding track record in her cases. She has family members with a variety of disabilities.

As a reminder:

Our Yahoo Group is:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swampscottspecialedpac
Our Facebook Page is:  Swampscott Special Education Parent Advisory Council

The talk will cover the developmentally normal anxieties young children face, tools that parents can utilize to help empower their kids, and signs that suggest more significant difficulties. Dr. Stember will touch upon strategies that all parents can use, as well as approaches he utilizes to assist individuals who display more concerning symptoms (e.g., anxiety, learning and spectrum disorders).

Dr. Stember holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and maintains faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. He is a recognized expert in cognitive behavioral/exposure-based therapy for anxiety, learning and behavioral disorders. Dr. Stember has given grand rounds presentations, trained educators and consults to a variety of districts throughout New England. He is the prior Director of Behavioral Medicine at North Shore Children’s Hospital, and maintains private practice offices in Salem and Arlington, MA. He can be contacted at his Salem office at (978)-745-6555.

Basic Rights
Tuesday, November 8th, 6:30-8:30
Swampscott High School-room B129

This workshop is designed to help parents learn to be effective partners with their child’s school to decide their child’s eligibility for special education, and to plan, make decisions and monitor their child’s progress in school.
It provides families with an introduction to their rights and responsibilities under:

• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• Massachusetts Special Education Law and
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

The talk will cover the developmentally normal anxieties young adults face, tools that parents can utilize to help empower their kids, and signs that suggest more significant difficulties. Dr. Stember will touch upon strategies that all parents can use, as well as approaches he utilizes to assist individuals who display more concerning symptoms (e.g., anxiety, learning and spectrum disorders).

Dr. Stember holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and maintains faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital. He is a recognized expert in cognitive behavioral/exposure-based therapy for anxiety, learning and behavioral disorders. Dr. Stember has given grand rounds presentations, trained educators and consults to a variety of districts throughout New England. He is the prior Director of Behavioral Medicine at North Shore Children’s Hospital, and maintains private practice offices in Salem and Arlington, MA. He can be contacted at his Salem office at (978)-745-6555.

The Swampscott Special Education Parent Advisory Council is the local parent advisory council for the Swampscott school district that is mandated by Massachusetts Chapter 766 Regulations.  We are a member of the Massachusetts Association of Special Education Advisory Councils, and SPEDWatch. 

 We host meetings and workshops through out the school year, and at times will collaborate with local PACs including Marblehead and Nahant.  Meeting announcements will be done in several ways with minimum flyers going home.  In order to receive a direct email on meetings and other pertinent information, we have a Yahoo! Group that can you can join.  We will continue to post meetings on our web page, in the print Swampscott Reporter, Wicked Local Swampscott online, our Facebook page and Swampscott Patch. We will also have meetings entered on the school district master calendar.  

 The PAC gives back to the community in a variety of ways:

• Scholarships given out to deserving seniors at graduation
• Two benches donated to the handicapped accessibleAbbottPark
• Donation to the Jackson Park Playground for sensory playground equipment
• Theater seat donated to Swampscott POPS as part of the “Save Me a Seat” campaign
• Active member in the Swampscott Respect for Human Differences organization
• Creation of the Special Needs Resource area at the public library
• Ongoing book donations to the public library and schools.
• Served on various search committees for hiring of administration
• Available to provide support to families on special education laws and resources

 Some of the workshops we are planning for the school year include:

• Meet and discuss updates in the district with our new Special Education Director, Mona Blumstein.
• Basic Rights Workshop presented by the Federation for Children with Special Needs (FCSN)
• Understanding My Child’s Learning Style presented by FCSN

 If there are other topics you are interested in being presented or would like to help out the group in any way please send us an email.