Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

WEEK 1 EDUC 6162

Part 1
For this part I have asked a classmate to help me establish contacts with Early educational professionals. I have not heard from them yet. I have also contacted some organizations through Facebook and have sent emails out to individuals. I am trying all types of ways but had had no responds back yet. I am still not discounting having to use the alternative to part 1.



Part 2
For this part I decided to explore DEC (Division of Early Childhood). The reason I choose this one was because of the work I am doing currently with my daughter's school. I also have children with learning disabilities and delays. I like to learn more on how I can help my children reach their full potential. This is what I learned from this week exploring this website:

"The Omnibus bill to fund the federal government for the remainder of FFY 2016 has been agreed to by all parties and was released this morning. The bill includes an increase of $20 million for the Part C program and an increase of $15 million for the Preschool Special Education Grant Program (619). These funds will be available through state’s grants July 1, 2016. This bill still awaits final passage by the Congress and signature by the President. Both are expected to occur." (DEC Website News and Notes).

This statement was taken from the response that the DEC had for the for the US Heath and Human Service Department. They were explaining what their opinion was on the departments family engagement statement. I found this very interesting and how the DEC was very open with their comments.
"The State-level recommendations raised some concerns given that family engagement, to be optimally effective, must occur at all levels of policy and service planning and implementation. While the recommendations are well-organized, detailed and appropriate, they lack adequate steps to engage families and direct service providers in these processes at the state level. As we have seen in, for example, the implementation of Part C of the IDEA, the process benefited greatly from a collaborative approach that engaged stakeholders, including families, at all levels as equal partners." (http://dec.membershipsoftware.org/files/DEC%20Response%20to%20Request%20for%20Comments.pdf)

References
http://www.dec-sped.org/news