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PLUK eNews December 6, 2004
http://www.pluk.org/eNews/Dec_06_04.htm 
Volume 3 Issue 9

Welcome to PLUK's electronic newsletter! 
(Download the printable pdf version at: http://www.pluk.org/eNews/Dec_06_04.pdf )

We are proud to present news of interest for Montana families of children with disabilities and special health care needs, and for the professionals and educators who serve them; however, it does not constitute an endorsement.

Highlights:

President's Remarks at the Signing of H.R. 1350 December 3, 2004
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2004
Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building, 10:20 A.M. EST
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041203-6.html 
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. Good morning. I'm proud to be standing up here with friends from both sides of the political aisle who worked together to re-authorize the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It's a really good piece of legislation. It took a lot of hard work, and it shows what is possible in our nation's capital.
I want to thank Mike Castle for being the sponsor of the bill. I appreciate your hard work, Mike. I also appreciate being here with Senator Ted Kennedy, who has been a long-time advocate for the IDEA legislation. I appreciate you bringing your sister. Welcome. (Applause.) I want to thank Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming and Senator Pat Roberts from Kansas, Senator Sessions from Alabama, Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee, and Congressman Ric Keller for being here, as well. Thanks for your good work and your stalwart support.
I appreciate Gene Hickok. Dr. Hickok here is the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. I want to thank Doug Hunt, who is the commissioner of the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission, for agreeing to serve on the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education. I want to thank you for your work on that, Dr. Hunt. I appreciate Kyle Stevenson being up here today. Kyle, thank you for coming. I first got to meet Kyle at the -- (laughter) -- White House tee ball game. He's a pretty good player. Thanks for coming. Stephanie, I appreciate you being here. It's good to see you again. I want to thank Isabelle June Baily for being here. Isabelle June, thank you for being here. We're so proud you're here. Thank you for joining us. (Laughter and applause.) She's up here with her mom, Carolyn, and her dad and two brothers, Alex and Ben, are with us today, as well. Thank you all for coming.
America's schools educate over 6 million children with disabilities. In the past, those students were too often just shuffled through the system with little expectation that they could make significant progress or succeed like their fellow classmates. Children with disabilities deserve high hopes, high expectations, and extra help.
In the bill I sign today, we're raising expectations for the students. We're giving schools and parents the tools they need to meet them. We're applying the reforms of the No Child Left Behind Act to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act so schools are accountable for teaching every single child. All our students deserve excellent teachers. So this law ensures that students with disabilities will have special education teachers with the skills and training to teach special education and their subject area.
Some students with disabilities will need intensive, individualized help. So this law, for the first time, will support tutoring programs to help children in schools that need improvement. When schools are so busy trying to deal with unnecessary and costly lawsuits, they have less time to spend with students. So we're creating opportunities for parents and teachers to resolve problems early. We're making the system less litigious, so it can focus on the children and their parents.
The people who care most about the students are of course the teachers, and especially the parents, who know their needs and know their names. So we're giving more flexibility and control over the students' education to parents and teachers and principals. We'll make sure that parents and schools can change a student's educational program to better meet their needs, without having to attend unnecessary meetings or complete unnecessary paperwork. We trust the local folks to meet high standards for all our kids, and this bill gives them the freedom and flexibility to meet our goals.
All students in America can learn. That's what all of us up here believe. All of us understand we have an obligation to make sure no child is left behind in America. So I'm honored to sign the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and once again thank the members for being here. (Applause.)
(The bill is signed.) (Applause.)
END 10:24 A.M. EST
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041203-6.html 

Award-winning job rehabilitation counselor helps area Montanans overcome disability
By RICHARD ECKE, Tribune Staff Writer
Job rehabilitation counselor JoAnn Null has been named Counselor of the Year.
JoAnn Null is no shrinking violet when it comes to helping her clients. She is a state job rehabilitation counselor.
"She's unreal," said Craig McCarthy of the Dearborn area. "She's telling people to get it done right now. My phone rang off the hook for two weeks after my first meeting with her."
Null won an award this fall as Counselor of the Year in vocational rehabilitation from the Montana Association of Rehabilitation.
"Why do I think I'm so good?" she asked in an interview. "Because I care. I don't sympathize but I have a lot of empathy. I treat people as people. I don't consider myself better than (they are)."
Read more at: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041202/LIFESTYLE/412020306/1024/NEWS01 

Agency Says Broader Law Needed to Protect Civil Rights of Disabled
Eileen Putnam, The Associated Press, 11-30-2004
An independent federal agency wants President Bush to propose changes in the nation's landmark disability act, citing Supreme Court decisions it says have reduced the status of disabled people "to that of second-class citizens."
The National Council on Disability, which advises Congress and the president, said in a report being released Wednesday that legislation is needed to restore the original intent of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.
The council proposed an "ADA Restoration Act," which it likened to the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, passed by Congress to broaden the civil rights law enacted two decades earlier.
Specifically, the council said Congress should bar discrimination against anyone "on the basis of disability," a change from the current wording, which bars discrimination "against an individual with a disability."
Read more at http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1101738476924 

Come join our national online discussion on the SETT Framework hosted by Joy Zabala.
The discussion has gotten off to a lively start, with several interesting comments and questions already posted. Here's a sample of some ongoing discussion taking place...
"I want to jump in by asking about family engagement in using the SETT Framework. From my experience both as the Mom in the IEP meetings as well as the professional, it seems that there is more information and resources on the professional side. What are strategies to support parents and the student contributing to the discussion and be active participants? What perspectives will the family provide?"
Please come and take a look at the discussion - even better, participate! Share your questions, comments and experiences. Whether you are a interested family member or friend or an AT professional, we want to hear from you!
http://www.fctd.info/webboard/index.php 

Preventing Early Reading Failure
Regular checkups -- the key to preventive medicine -- are an expected part of everyday life. They catch problems early and allow us to live longer, healthier lives. Today we have the knowledge to create a similar preventive model in kindergarten and elementary school classrooms for detecting reading problems early. In the past ten years, researchers have developed easy-to-use assessments that accurately predict which children are at risk for reading failure. They've also developed intensive, small-group interventions that can bring virtually all children's reading skills into the average range. When teachers implement the preventive model of reading instruction, they can track students' progress with reading checkups three times a year and provide immediate, effective interventions for children who fall behind. In the Fall 2004 issue of American Educator, an article by Joseph Torgesen explains the research behind the preventive model and one by Catherine Paglin shows how one school district put the preventive model to work.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/index.htm 

RESEARCH: Even Minimal, Undetected Hearing Loss Hurts Academic Performance
An unidentified minimal hearing loss is a significant factor in the psychosocial and educational progress of young children, according to multiple research studies conducted over the past 20 years at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Researchers will present their findings during the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's (ASHA) annual convention at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, November 18-20.
Investigators found that children with a hearing loss in one ear were ten times more likely to suffer academic difficulties than their normal hearing peers. They also found that one third of the children examined repeated grades or required resource assistance in school.
A minimal hearing loss can be in only one ear, both ears, or can be the inability to hear high-pitched sounds. Children with this type of hearing loss are able to hear many sounds in their environments, but they often miss soft sounds or sounds of a particular frequency range. Children can have a minimal hearing loss due to a variety of reasons, including genetics, complicated births or deliveries, or exposure to ototoxic drugs. These minimal losses often go undetected because children with such losses are believed to be ignoring or not paying attention since they appear to hear with no apparent difficulty.
Read more at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041123204642.htm 

RESEARCH: Magnetic resonance spectroscopy may prove to be the definitive diagnostic test for bipolar disorder
Posted By: News-Medical in Medical Study News, Published: Tuesday, 30-Nov-2004
Magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy may prove to be the definitive diagnostic test for bipolar disorder, a serious brain illness characterized by an alternating pattern of extreme emotional highs and lows, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Using MR spectroscopy of the brain, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., identified significant differences between the brain chemistries of people with and without bipolar disorder.
"The psychiatric community clearly needs a tool to help diagnose bipolar disorder," said John D. Port, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology and consultant at the Mayo Clinic. "We are hopeful that very high-field MR spectroscopy will prove helpful by identifying metabolic markers of the disease."
Currently, bipolar disorder is diagnosed by psychiatrists on the basis of symptoms and, when available, family history. Often patients go undiagnosed for years.
"Bipolar disorder is challenging to diagnose because individuals can cover up the symptoms of the illness or may recognize only their depression, not the manic phase of the disorder," Dr. Port said. "It's also important to be able to distinguish bipolar disorder from major depression because a mistaken diagnosis can result in the wrong therapy and unstable moods for years."
Read more at http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6567 

STUDY: Brains of People with Autism Recall Letters of the Alphabet In Brain Areas Dealing With Shapes
Finding Supports Theory That Autism Results From Failure of Brain Areas To Work Together
Monday, November 29, 2004
In contrast to people who do not have autism, people with autism remember letters of the alphabet in a part of the brain that ordinarily processes shapes, according to a study from a collaborative program of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.
The study was conducted by researchers in the NICHD Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism (CPEA) at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. It supports a theory by CPEA scientists that autism results from a failure of the various parts of the brain to work together. In autism, the theory holds, these distinct brain areas tend to work independently of each other. The theory accounts for observations that while many people with autism excel at tasks involving details, they have difficulty with more complex information.
The study and the theory are the work of Marcel Just, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Nancy Minshew, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and their colleagues.
The study is scheduled for on-line publication November 29 in the journal Neuroimage, at http://www.sciencedirect.com. 
Read more at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/new/releases/final_autism.cfm 

RESEARCH: Autism: Why Do Some Develop Then Regress?
ANN ARBOR, Mich -- Most children with autism show developmental differences early in life, usually involving their ability to communicate. But new University of Michigan research examines the 20 to 40 percent of youngsters who appear to develop communication skills, then regress.
The largest known study of its kind offers a host of new details on autism with regression, including a link between regression and a family history of autoimmune thyroid disease, an association with gastrointestinal symptoms and more findings offering a better picture of autism's causes.
While previous research used data collected from school age and older children, the new study included mostly children in their pre-school years. The U-M Autism & Communication Disorders Center used data collected from 13 sites across the nation as part of a larger project within the Collaborative Program for Excellence in Autism.
Read more at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041203100809.htm 

Educational Interpreter Certificate Project (EICP) Cohort 5
The EICP Cohort 5, funded by the OPI, and provided through the Distance Opportunities for Interpreter Training Center in Colorado, is a distance learning program that provides K-12 working interpreters with the knowledge and skills to effectively interpret in the K-12 educational setting. The certificate program consists of 30 semester hours of specialized coursework and a required online orientation course. Approximately half of the credits are focused on interpreting skills and the other half are knowledge sets to apply those skills effectively in the classroom.
Recruiting and screening of EICP Cohort 5 applicants will occur between January and May 2005. Applicant selection will occur in June and the online orientation course will be held August 8-September 2, 2005 (tentative date). The EICP courses will begin September 6, 2005. Participants in this cohort group will complete their training in August of 2008. As a part of the project, participants are expected to participate in a three-week summer program held in Denver during the summers of 2006, 2007 and 2008. All costs are included as a part of the program's registration fees (paid by the OPI) with the exception of per diem and transportation for the summer sessions. These costs are usually paid for by the applicant's employer using its own IDEA Part B funds.
Information about the EIPA, including registration information for the assessment, is available on the Web site at: http://www.usu.edu/mprrc/curproj/ask12/index.cfm. 
If you have questions regarding this memo, please call Marilyn Pearson at 406/444-4428.

RESEARCH: Brain Abnormality Linked to Hyperactivity Disorder
Mon Nov 29, 2004 09:18 AM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Brain scans of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder show abnormalities in the fiber pathways along which brain signals pass, scientists said on Monday.
The finding indicates the disorder may be more than just a chemical imbalance, they added.
Using an imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging, researchers found subtle anatomical differences in children diagnosed with ADHD that may affect communication between key areas of the brain -- the frontal cortex, basal ganglia, brain stem and cerebellum.
Read more at: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6942511 

Montana: Women's Equity Project's first newsletter available online
These projects focus on improving post secondary employment outcomes for young women with disabilities.
http://www.msubillings.edu/equityoutreach/newsletters.htm 

Upcoming PLUK trainings and activities planned for Winter/Spring 2005
PLUK associate boards around the state are sponsoring a number of trainings and activities this coming year. Mark your calendar if you are interested in participating.
Go to http://www.pluk.org/training  for more detailed information and registration.

January 2005
Title: Staying Cool When Our Buttons are Pushed: An Introduction
Date: Tuesday, January 11, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Where: Interactive video conference airing statewide from Missoula
Presenter: Doug Cochran-Roberts

Title: ADHD: Where We Stand Today
Date: January 19, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Bozeman Chamber of Commerce
Presenter: Stephanie Luehr

Title: Staying Cool When Our Buttons are Pushed
Date: January 24, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Mansfield Center, Billings
Presenter: Doug Cochran-Roberts

February 2005
Title: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Date: Tuesday, February 8, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Where: Interactive video conference airing statewide from Fort Belknap
Presenters: Jill Plumage, Fort Belknap Hospital

Title: Special Education in Montana (legal aspects and case studies)
Date: February 9, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Montana School for the Deaf and Blind conference room, Great Falls
Presenter: Kathy Manley Coburn

Title: Financial Planning and Resources for Families
Date: February 24, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Ruby's Conference Center, Missoula
Presenters: Nancy Gibson & Karen Grove

March 2005
Title: Bullying: an Introduction to What we can do
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Where: Interactive video conference airing statewide from Kalispell
Presenters: Dr. Marlene Snyder and panel

Title: ADHD: Where We Stand Today
Date: March 9, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Kalispell
Presenter: Stephanie Luehr

Title: Staying Cool When Our Buttons are Pushed: Part 2
Date: March 21, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Kalispell, The SUMMIT
Presenter: Doug Cochran-Roberts

April 2005
Title: TBA
Date: Tuesday, April 12, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Where: Interactive video conference airing statewide
Presenters: TBA

Title: Bullying: What we know, What we can do
Date: April 15, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Miles City
Presenter: Dr. Marlene Snyder

May 2005
Title: TBA
Date: Tuesday, May 10, 6:00 - 8:00 PM
Where: Interactive video conference airing statewide
Presenters: TBA

Title: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Date: Tuesday, May 17, 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Where: Great Falls
Presenters: Jill Plumage, Fort Belknap Hospital

Other Community Activities

PLUK eNews is published by:

Parent's, Let's Unite for Kids - PLUK
516 N 32nd St
Billings MT 59101-6003
800-222-7585; 406-255-0540; 406-255-0523 (fax)
plukinfo@pluk.org 
http://www.pluk.org 

Edited by: Roger Holt rholt@pluk.org 
Proofed & condensed by: Elisabeth Mills scribe@pluk.org 

Mission Statement: Parent's Let's Unite for Kids unites parents, professionals, families and friends of children with special needs to support one another, and share information for the benefit of their children.

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