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Extra
Special
Excerpts
ESE/Student Services Newsletter Welcome to the 2004-2005 school year! The Martin County Exceptional Student Education Department (ESE) is pleased to bring you the initial issue of Extra Special Excerpts, our newsletter specifically developed for parents of children with disabilities. A priority goal for the ESE/Student Services Department is to increase communications with parents. One of the steps to accomplish this goal is the development of this newsletter. We are happy to share this first edition of Extra Special Excerpts with you. Future editions of the newsletter will be available in November 2004, February 2005 and May 2005. It is the hope of the Parent Services Department to fill this newsletter with items of interest to both parents and ESE professionals. We look forward to providing this newsletter to parents via US mail, electronically through our electronic parent distribution list and as a link on our ESE website: www.ese.sbmc.org. If you are a parent who has access to an email address and would like to have the newsletter forwarded to you by email please contact Donna Hosang, ESE Parent Liaison at hosangd@martin.k12.fl.us or by telephone at 772-219-1200 extension 30476. I wish you and your family an excellent school year and look forward to sharing ESE news with you in future editions of Extra Special Excerpts! Dr. Joyce B. Holmes, Director ESE Parent Advisory Council (PAC) Parents of children served by the ESE Department are encouraged to attend the quarterly meetings of the ESE Parent Advisory Council. All meetings are held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Media Center of Pinewood Elementary School on Willoughby Boulevard in Stuart. The meeting schedule for the 2004-2005 school year is as follows:
Thursday, September 30 (special meeting at Bessey Creek
Elementary School)
For additional information regarding the PAC meeting please
call Donna Hosang, Parent Liaison, 291-1200 x 30476. Second
Annual Building Bridges to
the Future Conference:
Martin County Exceptional Student Education, in conjunction with the ARC
of Martin County and Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System is
happy to announce the second annual parent conference. Parents of
any child receiving services from ESE, regardless of your child’s age, are
invited to attend. Make sure to mark your calendars and save
Saturday, November 6, 2004 to join us at Pinewood Elementary
School (8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.) for an excellent day of fellowship and
training. The planning committee is working diligently to develop an
excellent array of interesting topics and speakers.
Parent concerns are of great importance to us. Let your voice be heard by following the Parents We Need Your Input link on the ESE Website (http://ese.sbmc.org/). If you do not have access to the Internet you will have another opportunity to complete our Parent Survey, which will be mailed to you in January 2005. Your input will assist the department with developing parent training and departmental strategic planning.
Let’s
Investigate:
Need
to Know Martin County ESE: www.ese.sbmc.org Martin County Shared Services Network: http://ssn.sbmc.org ESE Training Calendar: http://ese.sbmc.org/staff_training.htm ESE Parent Training Calendar: http://ese.sbmc.org/parent_training.htm
Healthy
Communities Healthy Youth: FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE AND YOUR CHILD WILL TOO!
“It isn’t the walls and
furniture that make a home. It’s the family!” IEP Tip of the Month: Make every attempt to sustain relationships All parties at the IEP table should try to get to know and personally connect to the other team members. Since it is in the best interests of children to have a cohesive team working towards a common goal, parents and educators must take a leadership roles in sustaining the team atmosphere. All team members need to be patient, prepared, and educated about the child’s needs. Parents must be educated about the objective realities of their child's disability so they can talk to other team members as peers.
Powerful Parenting: The
Asset-Building Way Would you like to know the secrets of healthy parenting in a world that often seems very unhealthy? The idea of “developmental assets” or building blocks of success introduced by the Search Institute in Minneapolis (www.search-institute.org) gives a new sense of hope and practical direction for parents. Researchers at Search Institute have identified 40 assets (http://www.search-institute.org/assets/) that have a powerful, positive impact on young people. Children and teenagers who have a lot of assets get involved in very few risky behaviors-the kinds of problems we worry about. And when young people have a lot of assets, they are much more likely to do the positive things we value. Assets do make a difference. By incorporating them into your parenting, you can help your child grow up happy, healthy, and responsible. Future issues of this newsletter will explain further and give practical information on each asset. For more information on the developmental asset movement in Martin County call Sue McVeigh, Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Task Force Chair at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Martin County: 772-545-2262. The Healthy Communities Healthy Youth Task Force is a sub-committee of the Martin County Shared Services Network (http://ssn.sbmc.org)
Do you need to contact us? To contact the ESE District office simply call 772-219-1200 extension 30421 for assistance or connect to the staff directory on the ESE website: http://ese.sbmc.org/directory.htm
Highlighting an ESE Program The Parent Services Program of Martin County Exceptional Student Education was developed several years ago to increase communication and collaboration with parents of students with disabilities. Parent Liaison, Donna Hosang, is responsible for coordination of the ESE Parent Advisory Council, providing training to parents and ESE personnel, providing information of importance to parents through the use of an electronic distribution list, coordinating the ESE newsletter and developing conferences in conjunction with our community partners. Any parents with questions regarding the ESE department or Parent Services may call Donna at 772-219-1200 extension 30476 for more information. Preview of things to come! Watch for the
next edition of Extra Special Excerpts in November.
An item of interest in the next edition will be the announcement of a new
program, |
