Promoting Statelevel Crosssector Professional Development on Inclusion

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• Promoting State-level Cross-sector Professional
  Development on Inclusion
• OSEP National Early Childhood Conference
• December 9, 2008

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Outcomes

• Increase awareness of SpecialQuest BirthFive
  activities and resources
• State Leadership Teams
• SpecialQuest Multimedia Training Library
• SpecialQuest.org
• Identify strategies for enhancing information
  sharing and cross-system work with partners to
  support inclusion
• Identify strategies for including ALL children -
  children with and without disabilities and their
  families
• Identify at least one strategy to implement in
  your work

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Presenters

• Linda Brekken, Cheryl Ducey and Cathy Liles
  SpecialQuest Birth-Five
• Pat Cameron and Donna Traynham Massachusetts
  SpecialQuest State Leadership Team
• Phyllis Mondak, Kathy Maybee and Anne Taggart
  Virginias SpecialQuest State Leadership Team

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Participants

• Experience with SpecialQuest?
• Attended SpecialQuest
• Part of a State Leadership Team
• Used the SpecialQuest Multimedia Training
  Library
• Expectations for session?

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Together Were Better

• What stood out for you in the video?
• What ideas or strategies did you hear that might
  be helpful in your work?

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SpecialQuest State Leadership Teams

• 10 State Leadership Teams Selected
• Initial team meeting with Coordinator and 2
  Coaches
• Completed State Perceptions of Inclusive
  Practices
• Attended National Leadership SpecialQuest
• Quarterly State Leadership Team meetings to
  implement Action Plans
• SpecialQuest support for implementation of action
  plans
• Networking among State Leadership Teams

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• State Leadership Team membership (35 members)
• Parents
• Head Start Association
• Head Start State Collaboration Office
• Dept. of Public Health (Part C)
• Dept. of Early Education and Care (619)
• Dept. of Elem. Secondary Ed (big B)
• Dept. for Children and Families
• Dept. of Mental Health
• Higher Education (six colleges and universities)
• Public schools
• Head Start and child care programs

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• How we got started
• Massachusetts was an Expanding Opportunities
  state so we had many of the players at the
  table.
• One goal of Expanding Opportunities was to
  develop professional development system on
  inclusion across settings.
• Applying for SpecialQuest met that goal and
  provided technical assistance in getting there!

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• Vision Statement
• Recognizing that all children are born with
  possibilities, families and children birth to
  five will have access to high quality, child- and
  family-centered inclusive settings in a seamless
  system of coordinated supports and services.

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SpecialQuest Colleges Universities
Lesley University, Cambridge
Massasoit Community College, Brockton
Mt. Wachusett Community College, Gardner
North Shore Community College, Lynn
UMass, Boston

SpecialQuest Demonstration Sites Fall
River Barnstable Holyoke

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• Activities/Outcomes
• Imbed SpecialQuest materials and universal
  message of inclusion in early childhood college
  courses, both general ed and special ed.
• Support SpecialQuest graduate programs and
  develop demonstration sites to expand
  SpecialQuest to age five and involve the
  transition to public school.
• Provide professional development on inclusion to
  the early childhood field across settings.

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Demonstration Sites Fall River

• Three Fall River SQ Team Meetings have been
  held since August (presenting SQ at CPC meeting
  tomorrow).  Follow-up  Team Meetings scheduled
  for 1/16/09 and 2/5/09
• Team consists of 24  Child Care Providers (4),
  Family Child Care (1), Early Intervention (4),
  Parents (2), Head Start Staff (3), Early Head
  Start Staff (3), Public School Staff (2), Higher
  Education (4), CCRR (1)
• Strengths of Team  strong connections among
  agencies with good collaboration transitions
  networking committee work sharing of resources,
  information and expertise engaged and committed
  to inclusion
• Fall River's challenges to inclusion  need
  therapists to services children in Head Start and
  Child Care Child Care Programs need funding for
  11 need for specialized equipment (standers,
  walkers, gait trainers, augmentative
  communication, etc.) need better communication
  between Early Intervention, School Department,
  and Child Care Programs around dually enrolled
  children

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Fall River (continued)

• Accomplishments  developed a vision and mission
  added SQ to CPC agenda interagency referral and
  release forms are in process, developed a 6.5
  hour workshop for MHSA, a 6 hour workshop for
  MEIC, and a 3 hour workshop for Head Start and
  Early Head Start Staff developing a series of 2
  hour workshops for the PACE Child Care Works
  Spring Training Calendar  Bristol Community
  College is using some SQ materials as part of
  their coursework Durfee High School is looking
  at SQ materials to enhance their Child Care
  courses.
• Action Plan  recruit Pediatricians and/or other
  Health Care Professionals onto the Team, continue
  work on interagency referral and release forms,
  develop stronger communication systems between
  EI, School Dept., and Child Care, continue work
  on SQ Series for PACE
• SQ Materials used  "Getting Started", "Getting
  Services", "In Concert", "Embracing
  Possibilities", and "Bright Futures"      

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Demonstration Site Holyoke

• Team
• Consists of 12 people from EI, CPC, HS, Public
  Schools, Child Care, and EEC still in process of
  recruiting individuals who wan to be part of our
  local team
• Our local team have met 4 times and 2 times with
  our coach
• Strengths
• Lots of beginning conversations about inclusion,
  but not consistent across all agencies.
• Public Schools have committed to involvement in
  SQ process
• Good interest between HS and EI systems
• Challenges
• Keep interest of public school personnel
• Involve child care, including family child care
  also CPC
• Get parent on board
• Successes/accomplishments/stories about
  inclusion
• Anthony goes to our Head Start full day
  classroom. He has Traumatic Brain Disorder he is
  developmentally delayed with speech and language
  impairments along with orthopedic impairments.
• Malachi also in full day at our Head Start. He
  has Dandy Walker Syndrome and Traumatic Brain
  Disorder he is developmentally delayed with
  speech and language impairments along with
  orthopedic impairments.
• Angel full day with a diagnosis of Down
  syndrome.

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Demonstration Site - Holyoke

• Challenges
• Training teachers to know what is expected of
  these children and what they can and cannot do.
• Teachers confidence to work with children with
  special needs. Our teachers are not licensed
  special education teachers.
• One on ones are limited and also not always
  trained for who they are working with.
• We have many children who are on the autism
  spectrum but because they are so young they will
  not be diagnose. These children tend to be very
  challenging for our teachers.

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Virginia
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Virginias Vision

• Virginias early childhood workforce is sustained
  by a high quality comprehensive professional
  development system founded upon principles and
  practices of inclusion of all children.

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Principles

• Engage families as partners at all levels.
• Expand participation on the committee to include
  broader communities of practice including the
  health community.
• Ensure that the System is culturally diverse,
  sensitive, supported, and respected.
• Support strong public and private partnerships on
  state and local levels to include identification,
  expansion, and leveraging of resources.
• Create dynamic system that anticipates change and
  seeks new opportunities.

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Leadership Team

• Head Start State Collaboration Office
• VDOE ECSE Project members
• Higher Ed IHE Council, Sp Ed Depts, UCED,
  Community College System
• Part C
• Office of Early Childhood Development (lead)
  Governors Office
• State and Local Head Start/Early Head Start,
  state TA consultant
• Parents, Parent Advocacy
• DSS Child Care Training
• Va. Child Care Resource and Referral Network

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Integrate into other state initiatives already
started

• Governors Working Group Preschool Initiative
• Home Visiting Consortium
• Head Start Collaborative Advisory Committee
  Mental Health Subgroup
• NPDCI grant application leadership team
• Coordinated system of professional development
  from pre-natal to 5 years of age.
• Integrated training - not separate.
• Consider a broad approach.

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Goal 1 Create and Synthesize Infrastructure

• Establish and sustain an infrastructure to
  coordinate planning, financing, and delivery of a
  professional development system.

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Goal 2 Develop a Comprehensive
Accountability System

• Develop a statewide measuring system of outcomes
  for continuous quality improvement.

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Goal 3 Promote and embed VAs SpecialQuest
vision

• Create a marketing and public awareness plan that
  supports inclusive practices, and ensures all
  communities are aware of the services and
  resources available to families of children with
  disabilities.

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Goal 4 Professional Development and use of
research based practices

• Implement a Service Delivery System for
  Professional Development incorporating research
  based practices

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Goal 5 Embed family partnerships

• We agreed that this should extend across all goal
  areas.

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• Local Headstart
• Plans and Activities

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Small Group Discussions

• Instructions
• Choose a topic for discussion
• Introduce yourselves
• Identify a notetaker
• Brainstorm your challenges and strategies
• Identify one gem or great idea to share back
  with the large group
• Identify who will share back
• You have 15 minutes.

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Discussion Topics

• Building cross-system support for inclusion
• Building relationships with partners
• Learning about each others systems and resources
• Planning together for inclusion
• Promoting and evaluating collaborative service
  delivery for inclusion

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Reflections

• Write down one idea or strategy that you will use
  in your work

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Continuous Improvement

• What worked?

• Suggestions

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