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Crazy House El Mercado Out West Festivities Wendy's
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Scheopner's Water Conditioning Inland Paperboard & Packaging, Inc. St. Catherine Hospital West Lake Hardware Garden City Visitor & Tourism Bureau Cynthia Martin Thomas Brian & Krystal Willhite Wes & Linda Kress Sarah Woodward Sonic East and Sonic West Kansas Dept. of Transportation Terry & Judy Weddle Dana Young
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Early Childhood Project Submitted by Tammy Steeples
Because meaningful and authentic contact with young children and their families is essential to the effective preparation of teachers who will have insight and sensitivity about the perspectives and experiences of families of young children with special needs, the UEC program at KU is setting up a family registry to identify families with young children who would be willing to assist in this training endeavor. Families in the registry would make themselves available to interact with university students for a variety of projects and activities. Families would always be free to decline to participate at any time that was not convenient for them, and information about families would be treated with professional confidentiality at all times. The projects and activities would vary in length, some being short term and some involving regular contact over a period of several weeks or months.
Two new unified early childhood licenses (UEC) that blend general early childhood and early childhood special education are now a possibility for Kansas teachers. One license is for educators who work with children from birth through the 3rd grade and the other is for those who work with children from birth through kindergarten. The University of Kansas currently offers a program to prepare teachers for the first licensure (Birth through Grade 3) and is preparing to submit a program to the Kansas State Department of Education for their approval directed to preparing teachers for the second licensure (Birth through K).
One of the primary goals of these new licensure programs is to prepare teachers of young children who feel competent and confident in their abilities to meet the needs of young children of all abilities in their programs. Another primary goal is to prepare teachers who demonstrate a family-focused perspective.
If your family would be interested in participating in such projects with university students studying unified early childhood education or you would like further information, please contact Tammy Steeples, 785-842-7491, 785-691-9691, steeples@ku.edu or Barbara Thompson 785-550-8141, 785-864-0692 bthomps@ku.edu or contact either via mail at the Department of Special Education 521 JRP, 1122 W. Campus Rd. Lawrence, KS 66045. |
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Autism Waiver Submitted by Pamela S. Keller, Autism Program Manager
On September 25, 2007, Kansas received approval from the Centers of Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to implement an early intensive intervention statewide Home Community Based Services (HCBS)/ Autism Waiver starting January 1, 2008. The population to be served includes children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, including Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified. There will be five services offered under this waiver to children 0 through 5 years of age who have received a diagnosis of Autism from a licensed Medical Doctor or PH.D Psychologist using an approved Autism specific screening tool and meet the level of care (functional) eligibility criteria utilizing the Vineland II Survey Interview Adaptive Behavioral Scale. The waiver will serve 25 children in its first year of operation and this number will be increased by 25 in both the second and third years provided funding is available. Health Care Policy (HCP) / Community Supports & Services (CSS) will be administering the HCBS/ Autism Waiver and will be accepting the preliminary Autism application forms in December 2007 . In December, families will be able to download the preliminary application at, www.srskansas.org/hcp/cssindex.htm . It is estimated that local SRS offices will have the preliminary applications available in paper form in December. The waiver will operate in a first come first serve basis and it is anticipated a “Proposed Waiver Recipient List” will be established.
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