On February 2nd from 2:00 – 3:30 pm, the RESC Alliance is hosting a panel discussion, Early Childhood Special Education Evaluations: COVID and Beyond. For panelist and registration information please see Early Childhood Special Education Evaluations _ COVID and Beyond Flyer.

The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) and the State Education Resource Center (SERC), in collaboration with the CT Department of Developmental Services (DDS), the CT Department of Aging and Disability Services (ADS), the Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center (CPAC), and the University of Connecticut Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), are hosting the 6th Annual CT Secondary Transition Symposium, which is being held VIRTUALLY on Friday, January 29, 2021. Please see the flyer for additional information about this FREE virtual event.

The Connecticut Secondary Transition Symposium brings students and their families together with educators and other professionals to improve secondary transition programming and services for students with disabilities. The 6th Annual Symposium, with the theme of “Empowering Our Youth Beyond 2020,” will continue to build the capacity of educators and other professionals, in partnership with middle and high school students with disabilities and their families, to help ensure successful post-school outcomes.

Register now at http://www.ctserc.org/events.
Registration deadline is January 27, 2021.

For registration questions, please contact Lauren Johns, SERC Project Specialist, by phone at 860-632-1485 ext. 256 or by e-mail at johns@ctserc.org. For content questions, please contact Melissa Wrigley, SERC Consultant, by phone at 860-632-1485 ext. 397 or by e-mail at wrigley@ctserc.org.

Due to popular demand, the Connecticut State Department of Education, in collaboration with the RESC Alliance, is sponsoring two additional cohorts of a Structured Literacy Series: Systematic Teaching of Basic Literacy Skills. Please see the flyer for additional information related to the training.

Join us for this FREE, virtual workshop and learn systematic, structured methods for teaching decoding, encoding, oral, and written expression to students with learning disorders and specific language disabilities.

Participants will:
• Define and model strategies to teach students who have specific reading disabilities
• Identify skills needed to develop basic proficiency in reading and spelling
• Learn the developmental progression of oral language skills that prepare students for reading proficiency

To register for this cohort, either click here or visit the CREC Events page at www.crec.org/events. For questions or assistance with registration, please contact Lisa Fiano by e-mail at lfiano@crec.org or by phone at 860-524-4040.

The ECTA is offering a PreK LRE Decision Making presentation on Wednesday, January 20, 2021 from Noon–1 p.m. For more details and registration information please see flyer below.

PreK LRE Save the Date Flyer and Registration Link

The Connecticut State Department of Education together with the RESC Alliance continues the critical resource of offering related services communities of practice (CoP) in 2021. Practitioners in the field have the opportunity to join CoPs in the areas of School Psychology, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech and Language Pathology, Behavior Analysis, Teachers of the Deaf and Social Work. Please refer to the Related Services Communities of Practice Informational Flyer Jan-Feb 2021 for the upcoming dates and contact information.

2020-21 CSDE-SERC Structured Literacy Program Training Series Flyer

The Connecticut State Department of Education, in collaboration with the State Education Resource Center (SERC), is sponsoring a training series featuring structured literacy approaches. These research-based approaches are designed to work with students with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD)/Dyslexia and other decoding challenges.

Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling, and Speech (LiPS)

This three day training will be held on Wednesday, January 13, Thursday, January 14, and Friday, January 15, 2021.

For additional information related to the training, registration, and required materials participants will need for the training, please visit the following link: https://ctserc.org/events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D149965523.

Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking

This two day training will be held on Tuesday, February 2 and Wednesday, February 3, 2021.

For additional information related to the training, registration, and required materials participants will need for the training, please visit the following link: https://ctserc.org/events?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D149965586.

Applications are now open for the Twenty-Third Annual Connecticut Youth Leadership Project, Inc. (CT-YLP), Youth Leadership Forum (YLF). The 2021 YLF is scheduled to be held virtually during the summer of 2021. Student Applications for the 2021 Virtual CT YLF can be found on the CT-YLP website at https://www.ctylp.org/student-applications or at 2021 Virtual CT YLF Student Application. The deadline is February 24, 2021.

Questions can be directed to Stephanie Barksdale, Executive Director, by phone at 860-689-6868 or by e-mail at execdir@ctylp.org.

The ECTA is offering a PreK LRE Decision Making presentation on Wednesday, January 20, 2021 from Noon–1 p.m. For more information please see flyer below.

PreK LRE Save the Date Flyer

The Bureau of Special Education, in collaboration with the RESC Alliance, is offering several FREE, virtual sessions of Person-Centered Planning: LifeCourse Planning Tools.

Charting the LifeCourse, a universally-designed person-centered planning framework, is a tool to assist individuals and families of all abilities and ages to develop a vision of a good life. Participants in this session will understand the importance of person-centered/futures planning, become familiar with the LifeCourse tools, and how to use them to support the development of the IEP and Transition Planning.

For additional information about this training and to register for one of these virtual sessions, please see the flyer. Please contact Eric Protulis by e-mail at eprotulis@aces.org or by phone at 203-498-6849 for questions or assistance with registration.

The Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), in partnership with the RESC Alliance, is conducting an outreach to middle and high school students. We want to hear the voices of these students to hear, first hand, how they are learning through the pandemic, and what Connecticut Schools can do to make them feel even more connected, energized, and enthusiastic about learning this year. To gather this information, the CSDE and the RESC Alliance will be using the ThoughtExchange platform.

We need your assistance for gathering this important information. We ask that you review the memorandum from Deputy Commissioner Desi Nesmith at ThoughtExchangeMemoDec2020 and distribute the information as requested. A sample email to students along with a link to the ThoughtExchange platform for students is on the second page of that memorandum. Please encourage the students themselves, rather than parents whenever possible, to participate.

Please help the CSDE spread the word and ensure that student voice is heard during this pandemic. We have 1300 responses thus far!!

Thank you!