NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

ADA, Disability Education & News- Aids, Jobs and Conferences

FEAT- Families with Autism -Sherlock Center-News

Families for Effective Autism Treatment of Rhode Island (FEAT/RI) Upcoming Events:




2008-2009 FEAT/RI Guest Speaker Series

&

The 2009 FEAT/RI Autism Conference



(For more information on any FEAT/RI events, visit www.featri.org, email featri@gmail.com or call (401) 886-5015.)




2008-2009 FEAT/RI Guest Speaker Series




January 6, 2009

Featured Speaker – Dr. Todd Levine of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk, and Women & Infants Hospital

Time: 6:30pm

Location: The Trudeau Memorial Center

3445 Post Rd

Warwick, RI

*Pre-registration required. Contact featri@gmail.com for more information or to add your name to our mailing list to receive registration brochure.







2009 FEAT/RI Autism: Sharing the Knowledge Conference

This Year's Theme :"Autism Treatments Working Together"



SAVE THE DATE

APRIL 4, 2009

Butler Hospital, Providence, RI



***FREE FOR PARENTS***

Extremely discounted rates for Professionals!!!


This Conference is for Family Members, Educators and Professionals. Pre-registration required.

Sponsored by Butler Hospital



*Professional Development Credits will be available for RI Educators, Nurses, Social Workers, and Psychologists. CME's will also be available.



Keynote Speakers:




Dr. Andrew S. Bondy

Dr. Judith E. Favell

Dr. Gary B. Mesibov



Other presenters include professionals representing: The Groden Center, Bradley Hospital, The Organization for Autism Research (OAR) and many more!



Andy Bondy, Ph.D. - Dr. Bondy has almost 40 years of experience working with children and adults with autism and related developmental disabilities. He served as the Director of the Statewide Delaware Autistic Program for more than a dozen years. He and his wife, Lori Frost, pioneered the development of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). He has designed the Pyramid Approach to Education (with Beth Sulzer-Azaroff) as a comprehensive combination of broad-spectrum behavior analysis and functional communication strategies. This approach has been cited as a model program for preschool and school-aged children within public and private school settings. He has published numerous articles, several books as well as been an invited presenter at conferences around the world. He is the co-founder of Pyramid Educational Consultants, Inc., an internationally based team of specialists from diverse fields providing guidance and services throughout the world.



Judith E. Favell, Ph.D., BCBA – Dr. Favell is CEO of AdvoServ, a multi-state network of treatment programs for children and adults with developmental and behavioral challenges. Throughout her career as a clinician, researcher, teacher, lecturer and administrator, she has focused on the understanding and treatment of serious behavioral challenges, such as self-injurious and aggressive behavior in individuals with autism. Her work has encompassed not only clinical domains, but also organizational, regulatory, legal and policy issues, for example through testifying, chairing national task forces, serving as expert witness and writing guidelines and policies governing treatment in developmental disabilities.



Dr. Gary B. Mesibov - Dr. Mesibov is currently the Director of Division TEACCH at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a position he has held since 1992. This internationally recognized statewide program is one of a kind in its pioneering approaches to service, treatment, training, research and the education of individuals with autism.

Prior to Dr. Mesibov's appointment as Director of Division TEACCH, he served as the Division's Co-Director from 1987 and the Associate Director from 1983. Dr. Mesibov also serves as Professor of Psychology, Dept. of Psychiatry, and Clinical Professor, Dept. of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.




Complete registration brochures available late January, 2009.




Special thanks to Butler Hospital for their ongoing support of the FEAT/RI Annual Conference.



--
FEAT/RI
PO Box 8460
Cranston, RI 02920
(401) 886-5015
www.featri.org
featri@gmail.com



Trainings/Workshops/Events
Join the Sherlock Center mailing list and receive notices of upcoming events and resources.
Sign-up on-line at http://www.ric.edu/uap/onlinemaillist.html


News and Notes
NEW>>>Raymond's Room: Ending the Segregation of People with Disabilities
a book of interest to anyone who cares about a person with a disability or social justice. Raymond's Room: Ending the Segregation of People with Disabilities challenges the status quo and calls for a new look at how America provides services for people with severe disabilities. Written by Dale DiLeo, Raymond's Room argues compellingly for freeing people from segregated services, what DiLeo calls the “disability industrial complex.” The book’s call to action is urgent. Raymond's Room is an expos?© of how the current system fails to support people with disabilities to live fulfilling lives. Using a combination of personal anecdotes, humor, media examples, and scholarly research, DiLeo details the problems with programs that have kept people with disabilities institutionalized in both body and lifestyle, whether in large segregated facilities or smaller ones in the community. He then proposes a viable plan for change. Audio Interview: http://www.disabilitynation.net/



Downloadable information, including a cover image, author photos, an audio and text interview, is available on http://www.raymondsroom.com . You can purchase the book from TRN http://www.trninc.com



Real Work for Real PayInclusive Employment for People with Disabilities
Edited by Paul Wehman, Ph.D., Katherine J. Inge, Ph.D., W. Grant Revell, Jr., & Valerie A. Brooke

This groundbreaking text advances a critical element of empowerment for people with disabilities: inclusive, competitive, and meaningful employment opportunities. The only comprehensive resource on this topic, Real Work for Real Pay is an authoritative collection of current best practices, employment theories and policies, and specific tools that support positive change in the workplace. Readers will get the most thorough, up-to-date information on every aspect of inclusive employment. Learn more about this http://www.brookespublishing.com/store/books/wehman-7535/index.htm

Resources
TAX REFUNDS AND PUBLIC BENEFITS Developed by the Poverty Institute
600 Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Providence, RI 02908 (401) 456-8512 ∙ (401) 456-9550 ∙

www.povertyinstitute.org



This document shows how receipt of a tax refund, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) refund, affects eligibility for different public benefit programs.



Impact of Savings on Disability Benefits
There are 2 types of disability benefits that people may receive from the Social Security Administration.

1) Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits (SSDI) are based on what a person has earned and paid into the Social Security System. These are not subject to income or resource tests, so the receipt of the EITC would not affect benefits.



2) Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are welfare benefits and subject to income/resource limits. This benefit is paid to a disabled individual who has not worked or has worked but not enough to qualify for SSDI.



The resource limit for SSI is $2,000 and there are a number of exclusions (e.g., home in which person lives). For SSI, the EITC does not count for 9 months.



3) Some people receive both SSDI and SSI. These are people whose SSDI benefit is less than the SSI amount and they get a "Supplemental" benefit payment (hence the name supplemental security income).

How does one know whether a person is getting SSDI or SSI?


If the person's disability income is
lower than $680 its SSI, too since some people who live with others get a lower benefit

between $680.35 and $700.35 then they are getting either just SSI ($680.35) or a combination of SSI and SSDI.

higher than $700.35, then its just SSDI and the EITC never counts.

How will receipt of the Earned Income Tax Credit affect my eligibility for FIP?



The resource limit for FIP is $1,000. Resources include money in the bank, the value of property, except for the home in which the family lives and the value of one car per adult household member.

A tax refund is counted as a resource. However, the portion of the tax refund that is attributable to the Earned Income Tax Credit is not counted as a resource for the month it is received and the following month.

Example: The family receives an EITC of $4,000 in April and has no other countable resources. The money can be put in a bank account and would not affect the family’s eligibility for FIP in April or in May. As long as the money is spent below $1,000 by June, the family’s eligibility for FIP is not affected. (If the family had other countable resources, then the amount of money in the bank account in June combined with the value of the other resources would need to be less than $1,000.)



How will receipt of the EITC affect my eligibility for Food Stamps?
The resource limit for Food Stamps is $2,000 (or $3,000 if the household includes a member who is elderly or disabled). Resources include money in the bank, the value of property, except for the home in which the family lives and the value of one car per adult household member.

A tax refund is counted as a resource. However, the portion of the tax refund that is attributable to the Earned Income Tax Credit is not counted as a resource for twelve months, as long as the family was receiving Food Stamps at the time it received the refund.

Example: The family is receiving Food Stamps and receives an EITC of $4,000 in April. If the money is put in a bank account, it will not affect the family’s eligibility for Food Stamps as long as the funds are spent by April 2008.



How will receipt of the EITC affect my eligibility for RIte Care/RIte Share?
· At present there is no resource limit for Rite Care/Rite Share so the amount of money in a bank account does not affect eligibility for the program. The Department of Human Services has been authorized to implement a $10,000 liquid resource[1] limit and this may go into effect sometime in the spring of 2007.



How will receipt of the EITC affect my eligibility for subsidized child care?
· The resource limit for subsidized child care is $10,000 in liquid resources.[2] There is no exclusion for the EITC. However, as long as funds in a bank account (including the EITC) combined with the value of other liquid resources is less than $10,000, there is no impact on eligibility for child care assistance.



How will receipt of the EITC affect eligibility for WIC, LIHEAP or Housing Assistance?
· There is no resource test for WIC, LIHEAP or for Housing Assistance. Receipt of the EITC will not affect eligibility for these programs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



[1] Liquid resources means cash on hand or in the bank and things that can be converted to cash such as stocks, bonds and CDs. Savings accounts for education purposes or for retirement are not counted.



[2] See FN 1.



New Fact Sheet: Customized Employment Q & A: Addressing Concerns Related to Losing Social Security and Health Care Benefits
T-TAP conducted a national survey of Community Rehabilitation Programs asking them their opinion regarding what factors maintain sub-minimum wage employment for individuals with disabilities. Specifically, respondents were asked their opinion on the following statement: "Fear of losing benefits such as SSI, SSDI, and/or other health care is one of the primary reasons individuals in our sub-minimum wage programs / 14 (c) programs do not want competitive jobs." View On the Web http://www.t-tap.org/strategies/factsheet/addressingconcerns.html

New Online Resource from the National High School Alliance
Resource Guide for Action: Transforming High School for All Youth. The Resource Guide for Action, created by the National High School Alliance, is designed to help policymakers and practitioners take action around the six core principles of A Call to Action: Transforming High School for All Youth. The Call to Action is the High School Alliance’s framework of principles and recommended strategies to guide leaders at all levels in transforming the traditional, comprehensive high school so that all youth are ready for college, careers, and active civic participation. The National High School Alliance is a partnership of over 50 leading organizations that share a vision for a nationwide commitment to fostering high academic achievement, closing the achievement gap, and promoting civic and personal growth among all young people in our high schools and communities. To access the Resource Guide for Action or A Call to Action, please visit www.hsalliance.org.

Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities: Parents' Materials
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services at the U.S. Department of Education has released a CD version of the Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities: Parents' Materials, designed to assist parents and states in their efforts to work together to raise the achievement of all students with disabilities. The Parent Tool Kit compiles materials identified to augment the previously released CD, Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities, and offers a collection of resources on the same substantive areas addressed, including assessment, instructional practices, behavior, and accommodations. These new documents were written specifically for parents and include information they need as they work with schools to ensure that their children are receiving a quality education. The material may be http://www.osepideasthatwork.org/toolkit/index.asp



Grants


Job Postings RI
RI JOB BANK http://www.ajb.org/ri



RI JOB FAIRS/RECRUITMENTS http://www.dlt.ri.gov/webdev/JobsRI/recruitments.htm



State Employment including colleges http://www.dlt.ri.gov/webdev/JobsRI/statejobs.htm



RI Community Jobs - list-serve for job openings in non-profits http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/ricomjob.html



CRAIGSLIST http://providence.craigslist.org/jjj



InDeed http://www.indeed.com

Job Postings National


WORKFORCE RECRUITMENT PROGRAM: The WRP is a summer work program for college and university students with disabilities co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Department of Defense. Students are interviewed by federal agency staff at their colleges during late January through most of February. Hiring is done directly by federal offices throughout the country. White the majority of positions offered are for the summer and with federal agencies, students in this database may be recruited for full time positions by either the federal government or the private sector. For additional information, visit http://www.dol.gov/odep/programs/workforc.htm



Extension Associate – 06644 Job Description Located in Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University
is a bold, innovative and inclusive teaching and research university of academic distinction and public service where staff, faculty, and students alike are challenged to be active citizens of the world. The School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University has an immediate opening for an ADA Program Associate in the Employment and Disability Institute. The DBTAC-Northeast ADA Center , a federally-funded grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education is seeking a team member to provide training and instructional design. This five-year, 5.5 million dollar project provides training and technical assistance to businesses, employers, unions, advocacy organizations, state and local governments and other constituencies on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) throughout Federal Region II, New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.



Responsibilities: This individual provides a range of ADA programming primarily in the area of disability and
employment. The person participates in research and evidence-based practice efforts throughout Region II.



This is a one-year renewable appointment contingent upon available funding, work, and performance.

More information about the ILR School can be obtained at our web site, www.ilr.cornell.edu.

Qualifications

Masters or PhD in social-sciences, disability studies, disability-related law, human resources, industrial and labor relations, i
nstructional design or other related field.

Demonstrated experience on the ADA and related pieces of disability nondiscrimination and employment legislation.

Experience in teaching and developing distributed learning including online courses, and how to meet web accessibility
requirements are required.

Demonstrated knowledge of digital learning objects, multimedia instructional technologies, synchronous and
asynchronous distance education, and instructional design and assessment methodologies desirable.

Successful candidates must have strong project management, written and oral communication skills and experience teaching adult learners.

Demonstrated ability to work effectively in collaborative environments and to contribute to the innovation
and outcome success of a team is imperative.

Demonstrated relevant professional leadership and network development at the state, regional, national,
and/or international areas in relevant professional, trade, policy, or public networks.

Minimum of three to six years conducting training to relevant target audience, teaching related courses in
college-level environment, , and/or conducting research in the thematic content area.

Demonstrated writing ability and scholarly record in the thematic content area (articles in
peer-reviewed journals, articles in trade publications, research and project reports, informational
brochures, policy briefs, etc.).

Preferred Qualifications:

Minimum of one to three years demonstrated experience in large project management
(e.g. several staff and budgets exceeding $500,000).

Minimum of one to three years demonstrated experience in promoting thematic area program teaching,
consultation, and research services to regional, state, or national networks through the use of in-person, print, and electronic mediums.

Demonstrated experience in leading teams and mentoring, coaching, and supervising teaching
personnel: three to five years preferred.

Professional credentials in disciplinary area, such as appropriate state and national licensure,
certifications, etc.

Minimum of one to three years demonstrated experience in successful grant writing and
grant management.

Minimum of one to three years experience with distance learning.

Application Procedure:



Interested parties should submit a vita and letter of application describing her/his qualifications,

research agenda, and teaching experience to:



ilracademicrecruiting@cornell.edu

or

Search Committee, Cornell University, ILR Human Resources

103 Ives Hall, Ithaca , NY 14853



Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

What about people with disabilities in RI? S3406 Broadens ADA

President Bush Signs the ADA Amendments Act into Law
On Thursday, September 25, 2008, the President signed into law: S.
3406, the "ADA Amendments Act of 2008," which clarifies and broadens the
definition of disability and expands the population eligible for
protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.



R.I.’s emergency officials preparing for the worst

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, May 1, 2007

By Amanda Milkovits

Journal Staff Writer

NORTH KINGSTOWN — The photos of destruction used as warnings by weather forecasters are yellowing. It’s been more than 50 years since Rhode Island has been battered by hurricane winds and waves that smashed buildings, ripped away coastline, and flooded major cities.

To weather forecasters and emergency officials, that passage of time just means that Rhode Island, and all of New England, is overdue for a major hurricane. But it also means that there are fewer people around who remember how bad such a storm can be.

“The best forecast is for naught if we don’t respond appropriately,” said Bill Proenza, the new director of the National Hurricane Center.

Yesterday morning, as one of the Hurricane Hunter aircraft sat on the runway of the Quonset State Airport for its first stop of the East Coast “Hurricane Awareness Tour,” high-level officials involved in emergency management and the science of hurricanes said they were concerned that people in New England have become complacent.

The tour’s timing coincided with the beginning of a federal-level hurricane exercise, run by the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, which poses the scenario of a major hurricane hitting New York and New England. It’s the largest hurricane exercise undertaken in New England, and, appropriately, the fictional “Hurricane Yvette” follows the same path as the region’s worst hurricane, the storm of 1938.

This weeklong exercise, which Rhode Island is hosting, is one of several emergency-preparedness exercises across the nation in the next three weeks. It is testing whether the federal agencies learned from their failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast nearly two years ago.

There’s just a month before the hurricane season begins. Although the National Hurricane Center won’t issue its seasonal forecast until May 22, Proenza said yesterday he expects the season will be more active than normal. The El Ni?±o weather pattern that suppressed hurricanes last year has faded away, he said.

Rhode Island has changed since the last major hurricanes, in 1954, Hurricanes Carol and Edna. More people live on the coast, in areas wiped out by previous hurricanes. Inland, there’s more development downstream from dams, which can be strained by heavy rainfall. After being flooded by hurricanes, for instance, Woonsocket put up flood walls that will protect the city, but send churning water rushing down to Lincoln, Cumberland and Central Falls, said David Vallee, hydrologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service Northeast River Forecast Center in Taunton, Mass. “We have changed river valleys of the state through urbanization,” Vallee said. “Hurricanes are going to test every system we have from a rainfall standpoint.”

Timing is critical. Hurricanes move faster in New England than they do down South, so they’re “in for breakfast and out for dinner,” as Glenn Field, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service, put it. That means people in low-lying areas need to be evacuated by the time the hurricane is brooding off North Carolina. Fourteen hours before Hurricane Bob arrived in 1991, there were tropical storm-force wind gusts and coastal road closings in Rhode Island, Field said.

And even a small state can have different weather patterns. Anyone north and west of the hurricane’s center will be deluged with flooding rains, but people south and east of the center may have sunshine and strong winds. This means emergency officials have to know well in advance what track the hurricane will take, so they know where to evacuate.

That’s where “Kermit” comes in. The Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft, with dozens of hurricane symbols affixed to its silver side, is a Hurricane Hunter, a flying research laboratory for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The aircraft is loaded with instrumentation, sensors and radar systems that feed data back to the National Hurricane Center about the size and scope of hurricanes. Its crew of 18 to 20 people fly 9- to 10-hour tours, at 5,000 to 10,000 feet, directly into the storm.

Flying into the eye wall of the hurricane, wind gusts of about 200 mph batter the plane as sheets of water make it impossible to see, said pilot commander Tom Strong.

“It’s almost deafening. You have to shout to talk,” Strong said. “You can’t see two inches in front of you.” Inside the open, swirling eye, clear as sunlight, powerful updrafts suddenly lift the plane hundreds of feet.

The aircraft’s nose and fuselage radars measure rainfall density; the tail Doppler radar rotates and gauges wind speeds. As the crew flies, they release 25 GPS dropsonde instruments — canister-like instruments, with parachutes attached, that measure air temperature, dew point and atmospheric pressure — at about 10,000 feet.

“We put our lives at risk to get the data necessary for hurricane research,” said Rear Adm. Samuel P. DeBow Jr., director of NOAA’s office of marine and aviation operations. But the risk has brought great accuracy in tracking the hurricane’s path, he said.

The question DeBow and others had was whether people would heed the warnings. “Complacency is the enemy,” he said.

“Hurricanes are going to test every system we have from a rainfall standpoint.”



amilkovi@projo.com

SIT Collaborative Concerns & GLE's Officially

Parents: EDUCATION ALERT!
Your child may not graduate under the new regulations!!

Currently, to graduate, high school students must complete 24 course credits and a senior/capstone project which includes completing a project, paper, portfolio and presentation as well as documented benchmarks from the first three years of high school. This part of the graduation requirement is rigorous and provides for documented evidence of proficiency in all course subjects.

The Rhode Island Board of Regents is voting on September 3, 2008 on NEW graduation requirements. The new regulations propose that all high school students must pass the standardized NECAP tests in Reading, Writing and Math. These tests were originally designed for No Child Left Behind regulations. The proposed graduation regulations will require 3 equal parts:
1/3 24 course credits
1/3 Senior Project/Capstone/Portfolio
1/3 NECAP Tests passed with proficiency
Concerns for this new graduation requirement proposal:
• Potentially prevent your child from graduating regardless of his/her academic performance over 4 years of High School
• Results on Students’ school record for employers/colleges to see
• Increased Drop Out Rates - Lower Graduation Rates Statewide
• Test results will NOW carry as much weight as 4 years of class work
• Some students are being tested on material they have not yet been taught by their junior year and with no time to remediate before taking the test again in their senior year - 50% of RI schools curriculum are not aligned to the test
• MANY students don’t test well (According to College Admissions, Standardized testing is not the best predictor of a student’s success/ability)
• Financial impact to the districts of 5th yr seniors
• The test will narrow the curriculum (teaching to the test=loss of valuable class time)
What you can do Immediately:
Contact the RI Board of Regents: www.ride.ri.gov/Regents/MemberInfo.aspx
Write to Governor Carcieri, Office of the Governor, State House, Rm 115, Providence, RI 02903 – Tell them you don’t support testing as a graduation requirement in Rhode Island!

Important Meeting: Tues., August 26th 5 PM - Exeter-West Greenwich High School
930 Nooseneck Hill Road, West Greenwich, Rhode Island
For more information contact: Statewide SIT Collaborative at graduateri@gmail.com


TO: Superintendents and Curriculum Directors



FROM: Diane Schaefer, Director, Office of Instruction



SUBJECT: Grade Level Expectations and Grade Span Expectations



DATE: August 3, 2007



On June 28, 2007, the Board of Regents approved the Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) and Grade Span Expectations (GSEs) for mathematics, reading, and written & oral communication. As a result, the word “draft” was removed from these documents. The approved expectations (edited April 2007 for Reading and Written & Oral Communication, and edited August 2007 for Mathematics) may be accessed within the Rhode Island Department of Education website at http://www.ride.ri.gov/Instruction/gle.aspx.



Within the draft stages, periodic revisions and edits were made to enhance the GLEs /GSEs. The State GLEs/GSEs guide the development of the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) Assessments. For that reason, only minor clarifying edits have been made to the State GLEs/GSEs since spring 2004. Conversely, the Local GLEs/GSEs reflect more substantial changes that include additional GLEs/GSEs and clarifying edits.



To support districts, RIDE has provided several documents that identify the changes made to the GLEs/GSEs. These support documents may be accessed at http://www.ride.ri.gov/Instruction/gle.aspx under the title “Latest GLE/GSE Edits”.



Furthermore, it should be noted that the GLE/GSE ”2006 Final Version, Edited April 2007” (for Reading and Written & Oral Communication) and the GLE/GSE “2006 Final Version, Edited August 2007” (for Mathematics) documents have replaced all previous GLE/GSE documents throughout Rhode Island Department of Education initiatives. Therefore, older versions of GLE/GSE documents should be discarded.



If you have any questions, please contact me at 222-8436.

Email us
graduateri@gmail.com

Disability Resources

Sherlock Center Sign Ups
GLE's Supports
MassWorks Disability Employment Ideas and Conferences
Disability Information Resources Nationwide
Family Voices for Children with Disabilities & Health Care Needs
Parent Support Network of RI