Monday, September 8, 2008

Alaska's Special-Needs Funds Going to "Boot Camps"?


Blogger Tomclash examines Gov. Palin's record on funding for special needs education. While many people claim she increased funding, it turns out that two-thirds of "special needs" money goes to a boot camp for high school dropouts. It sounds like a good idea -- but it has nothing to do with special-needs education.

Digging deeper into the websites that are supposed to serve Alaskan parents who have kids with special needs, I was interested in reading these sections of the Alaska education site, but the links don't go anywhere:

Developing Your Child’s IEP
www.nichcy.org/pubs/parent/pa12txt.htm
Be a full participant in developing your child’s IEP! This Parent’s Guide tells you how. It looks in detail at the IEP and discusses how to work effectively with schools to help your child get an education tailored to his or her needs.

General Information On Disabilities
www.nichcy.org/pubs/genresc/gr3.htm
Read the definitions of the 13 categories of disabilities under which a child with a disability may qualify for special education services under the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).

Questions Often Asked by Parents about Special Education Services
www.nichcy.org/pubs/ideapubs/lg1txt.htm
This publication explains in easy to read terms how students with disabilities access special education and related services.

Your Child’s Evaluation
www.nichcy.org/pubs/basicpar/bp1txt.htm
This publication describes the steps the school system will take to evaluate your child to determine if he or she has a disability and is eligible for special education.

As a service to those parents and kids, I emailed the webmaster to ask him/her to fix these links to make these valuable resources available to the people who need them.

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