OSEP Releases Fast Facts on Educational Environments of School Aged Children with Disabilities

OSEP Fast Facts: Educational Environments of Children with Disabilities, Ages 5 (in kindergarten) through 21, Served under IDEA Part B. Percentage of Students with Disabilities, Ages 5 - 21, Receiving Services Inside a Regular Class 80% or More of the Day, in the US, Outlying Areas, and Freely Associated States: SY 2020-21. The map demonstrates the ranges of the percent of Students with Disabilities, Ages 5 through 21, Receiving Services Inside a Regular Class 80% or More of the Day in 2020-21 by State. Educational environments are defined in the IDEA Part B Child Count and Educational Environments for School Year 2020-2021, OSEP Data Documentation.

By the Office of Special Education Programs

OSEP released a new OSEP Fast Facts: Educational Environments of School Aged Children with Disabilities, which explores our IDEA, Section 618 data.

This OSEP Fast Facts takes a closer look at the environments where children with disabilities are receiving special education and related services.

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Thriving Through Connections

NOTE: May is Better Hearing and Speech Month

Jaxson and Donia

By Donia Shirley, Vice President of the National Family Association for Deaf-Blind and parent of Jaxson, a child who is deaf-blind.

When a baby is added to a family, invisible bonds often quickly form with others who have children the same age. For families who have children with complex support needs, that community can seem out of reach, especially when they have a child with a low incidence disability such as deaf-blindness.

A few days after our 6-week-old son Jaxson was transferred to our local children’s hospital, we started receiving diagnoses. We learned he was deaf-blind; he was profoundly Deaf and had colobomas (an eye condition that cannot be completely corrected). The medical team eventually informed us that Jaxson had CHARGE Syndrome.

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Paula Goldberg: A Drum Major for Justice

Paula J. Goldberg

Paula Goldberg

The disability community lost a giant yesterday with the passing of Paula Goldberg, a co-founder of the PACER Center, a leading parent training and information center. She was instrumental in advocating for the establishment of parent training and information centers and that they be a vital component of discretionary grant funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Paula’s dedication to children with disabilities and their families, not just those in her home state of Minnesota, but around the country and around the world, was legendary.

Paula was a friend and mentor to me and to many of us in the special education advocacy community. Paula often played the role of the parent no child wanted to disappoint. As such, she pushed policymakers to take actions that would advance high expectations for students with disabilities. She made us stronger, better, and unified.

I know her memory will be a blessing.

Katy Neas
Deputy Assistant Secretary
(Delegated the Authority to Perform the Functions and Duties of the Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services)

Voices From the Field: Interview with Amy Hunter

Supporting Children’s Mental Health

Amy Hunter

Amy Hunter is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) who earned her Masters of Social Work degree at Boston University. Amy has a post graduate certificate from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Early Childhood Mental Health. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Child and Human Development. In her capacity at Georgetown she co-leads the post-graduate clinical certificate program on infant early childhood mental health and co-directs the mental health section of the Head Start National Center on Health, Behavioral Health and Safety. Additionally, Amy serves as a lead on the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations (NCPMI), a training and technical assistance center funded by the Office of Special Education Programs. Amy has worked in the field of infant early childhood mental health for over thirty years.

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