News from the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC)

KEEPING UP WITH SPECIAL EDUCATION

JANUARY 2018 EDITION

In January, SEAC will be electing a new Chair and Co-Chair for the new year.

For the next few months, SEAC will be conducting ongoing consultations regarding Budget and the Special Education Plan for the upcoming school year. They will also be discussing the use of video conferencing technologies for students who cannot physically attend school due to extended illness.

If there is something you would like to have discussed at SEAC, please contact a committee member. You can find their contact information by visiting www.scdsb.on.ca and navigating to Programs > Special Education.

If you belong to an organization you believe should be represented on SEAC, please contact Tina Bazuk at tbazuk@scdsb.on.ca for information on the qualifying guidelines and the application process.

A message from Central Administration

We are so honoured to have been asked to contribute to this new and very important communication to parents. How have we arrived at this point? Last school year, with the launch of our new IEP writing program, we felt it would be important to reach out to our parent/guardian group in order to inform them about what this change would mean to them and the students. During these sessions it became clear that families had many questions, concerns and misconceptions in regards to support for their children with special education needs. As a result, we felt that the launch of this special education newsletter might help bridge that gap.

Please know that it is our intention with every issue of this newsletter to provide current information about the SCDSB’s special education supports.

With that we say welcome to ‘Keeping up with special education’!

Curt DavidsonPrincipal of Special Education

Stephen McClellandPrincipal of Special Education

LINGO DECODERIEP Individual Education Plan IPRC Identification, Placement and Review Committee SNC Strengths and Needs CommitteeSEN Special Education Need

SEA Special Education Amount SERT Special Education Resource Teacher RCT Regular Classroom TeacherABA Applied Behaviour Analysis

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TOOLBOXTalk to Text/Voice Typing tool in Google DocsUsing Talk to Text/Voice Typing, students can narrate their writing onto a Google Doc. More classrooms are using Google Docs for easy student/teacher sharing. Voice Typing can help reduce working memory demands, support writing fluency, provide cues and prompts to draw attention to writing features and more!

Get started by opening a document in Google Docs with a Chrome browser. Click Tools > Voice typing. A microphone box appears. When you are ready to speak, click the microphone. When you are done, click the microphone again.

RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES

Parent’s Guide to Special Educationhttp://bit.ly/2A7aMe5

Learning to Writehttp://bit.ly/2lGCVEn

UPCOMING EVENTSJAN

22Assessments in Special EducationSCDSB Education Centre, 1170 Hwy. 26, Midhurst, 6 to 7 p.m.

FEB

26Transition Planning - Grade 8 to 9SCDSB Education Centre, 1170 Hwy. 26, Midhurst, 6 to 7 p.m.

Additional sessions will be held in March and April. Stay tuned to our website for updates and more information.

GOLDEN BUZZER MOMENTFor the SCDSB special education team, a Golden Buzzer Moment is a time when we are inspired by a student. This could be a moment where a student achieves an individualized goal, a moment where school, community and family came together to support success or a moment where a student shows us what teaching and learning is all about! Golden Buzzer Moments happen every day at each of our schools. It is important that we take the time to celebrate these moments along our students’ learning pathways.

Haven Maitland, Grade 3, Tay Shores Elementary School

Haven is reading using Linguisystems Reading Comprehension with Educational Assistant, Lorraine Wilson.

STAY CONNECTED

@SCDSB_Schools /SCDSBwww.scdsb.on.ca