Last of the Stats and Available Resources

City-data.com

522 people in Milledgeville in mental hospitals or wards
165 people in schools, hospitals, or wards for mentally retardation
37 people in other noninstitutional group quarters
16 people in homes for mentally ill
12 people in homes for the mentally retarted
14.5 percent of GA has disabilities.

Blandy Hills Elem- 10% disability 2007 653 students
Creekside El. 706 total students 12%
Eagle Ridge El. 14% 1216
Midway El. 591 17%
Oak Hill Middle. 1351 19%

Baldwin County High School
Related Vocational Instruction (RVI) is a program designed to support students with disabilities enrolled in a Career & Technology program. The goal is to provide these students with job entry skills at the completion of their Career & Technology experience at Baldwin High School. The goal of the RVI specialist is to provide resource assistance to students with disabilities served under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA).

RVI students raise money. Biggest project is Relay for Life. Money is also given to the Atlanta Children’s Hospital and is used to pay for the vocational banquet in February. They attend Spring Leadership Conference at Jekyll Island in the Spring where students enter competitions. This year, we are participating in Sam’s Voice, a domestic violence awareness program, the Will Robinson Memorial Run, the Milledgeville Christmas Parade in addition to Relay for Life.

Baldwin County Assistive Technology Team Members:

PEC -T. Kitchens, C. Granade, D. Watts
Oak Hill - C. Goforth
Baldwin High - E. Freeman
OT Rep – L. Crumpler
SLP – A. Merritt Psych Services - B. Daniel
SST Coordinator - K. Hornsby
Technology and Countywide Contact person– V. Harmon

Resources:

5 Star AT Accommodations
GAETC Handout - Assistive Technology Devices for Writing
GAETC Handout - Assistive Technology Devices for Reading
Low Technology Spelling Aids
Standard or Adapted Calculators
Graphic Organizers for any Grade Level
Supporting Math Instruction with Assistive Technology
Speech Enhancing Devices
Object based communication displays
Picture communication displays
Dedicated augmentative communication devices
Integrated computer based augmentative communication solutions

Student Support Teams (SSTs) are school level committees who meet with parents to address the needs of students who are experiencing academic or behavior problems. The major responsibilities of an SST are the early and accurate identification of student needs and the planning of appropriate intervention strategies to address those needs, if possible, within the regular classroom. SSTs are opportunities for educators who are trained and experienced in using different educational methods to deal with students with various educational problems to aid and support each other in an effort to meet individual student needs.

Successmaker- I want to learn more about this program. Many many schools are using it.

specialed.about.com
* Speech Recognition
* Screen Reader
* Touch Screen
* Switch Activated EADL
a portable, inexpensive, and easy-to-use device for alerting (paging) caregivers.
* Keyboard with Large Print Keys (four times larger)

Picture Communication Symbols PCS

Iste: international society for technology in Education. We are using this in one of my classes and is a great resource.

I found these next sites and discriptions fascinating. They gave me great ideas to what is happening with technology in education for people with special needs.

Don Johnston empowers educators with supplemental instruction and intervention solutions to help students build core literacy skills with confidence. Since 1980, we have worked with special educators and partnered with literacy authors, psychologists, teachers, researchers, and organizations to develop supportive tools and instructional materials. Our assistive devices, reading and writing technologies and implementation models will help you provide differentiated instruction using a variety of multiple learning approaches. Thousands of struggling students have become independent readers, writers and thinkers using our specially written paperback, audio and computer books.
http://www.donjohnston.com

Freedom Machines profiles lives being transformed by new technologies in educational and work environments. For: Parent and Teacher Education, Diversity, Social Work, Public Policy, Technology & Engineering, Faculty & Staff Development. 54 minutes with chapters, bilingual (English-Spanish); teaching guide & full accessibility (talking menus, captions in both English and Spanish).
http://www.freedommachines.com/

Kingsbury School homepage with content developed in-house for our pupils (who have severe, complex or profound and multiple learning difficulties). The site has a simple visual interface employing PCS symbols, MSAgent and multimedia to aid accessibility by non-readers.
http://www.sldonline.org/Kingsbury/

(WCPRC)
The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child is a unique project that contributes to young peoples education and grows as humanitarians to become Global Citizens. The WCPRC is an empowerment-process to strengthen young peoples voise. The project is based on The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, democracy and Global Friendship.
http://www.childrensworld.org/

I also had my first weekly meeting to discuss the project on Friday.

(2 hr)