Vermont Enhancement Grant
Project Description: The Northeast Regional Resource Center (NERRC) and Learning Innovations staff has contracted with the Vermont Department of Education to provide services in connection with their Continuous Improvement Monitoring Process (CIMP). The Northeast Regional Resource Center, as part of its main grant with the U.S. Department of Education to provide technical assistance to the eight northeastern state department of education in the area of special education, has been providing substantial technical assistance to the Vermont Department of Education for the past year and a half to revise their federal monitoring process.
Federal and state monitoring in special education is experiencing a paradigm shift from a focus on compliance to outcomes-based assessment and planning that is centered on those requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Act that will produce the greatest positive results for children with disabilities and their families. In addition, the new monitoring is more aptly called continuous and relentless strategic planning and evaluation, aligning workplans within the department and resources with targeted problems in need of improvement or out of compliance with federal and state law. The processes being created by all states, involve new kinds of collaborative strategies with stakeholder authority for assessment and input for improvement planning and implementation. States are also beginning to align their state to local monitoring with the changes in federal monitoring.
Staff under this series of contracts will provide ongoing advice regarding the Improvement Planning process, facilitation training and facilitators for public input sessions, synthesis and reporting of comments gathered from public input, evaluation expertise and professional development, and the writing of Vermont's Improvement Plan due to the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs July 1st.
WestEd staff involved with this project:
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