Got a few hours a month that you would like to donate to a good cause? As many of you know, DPHD is a very small division compared to some of the CEC divisions related to more high incidence disabilities (SLD, EBD). As such, we need to ask some of you to get involved to make this a better division for everyone. At the last Business Meeting (notes included in this newsletter), we discussed some things we would like to have happen within DPHD, and decided to go to the members to ask for help. Do you have a few hours to work on some of these? Or do you know others who might be able to help us out? Or are there other things you would like to see DPHD providing for their members and any suggestions for how this can happen? Here’s a partial list, any interest?

1. We would like to make our website a strong resource for our members. The idea is for fact sheets, position papers, best practice strategies, etc. Are you an “expert” in a particular topic? Have you spent some time working with a particular disability or have you worked a particular technique that others would fine helpful? Are you willing to write this up and share with others working with the same type of kids? (Do you know how to get to our website? http://education.gsu.edu/physicaldis is the address, then click on the DPHD side of the site.) Check out the information that is already on the site to help give you some ideas. We know we have a lot of talent out there working with kids, let’s help each other! (You also might want to check out the Georgia Bureau for Students with Physical and Health Impairments website, lots of good stuff on there!) If you are interested, send ideas and/or articles to Alison Stafford (alisonmstafford@gmail.com), Joni Baldwin (baldwiJL@notes.udayton.edu) or Kathy Heller (kheller@gsu.edu). 
2. Want to be more “official” with your writing? Consider submitting an article to our journal Physical Disabilities: Education and Related Services. Dr. Barbara Kulik is our editor and she is a joy to work with. She would be happy to give you some feedback if you have some ideas you would like to explore. Dr. Kulik can be reached at bkulik@csun.edu. OTs, PTs, SLPs, and other related service personnel are encouraged to send articles as well. 
3. Got some ideas on how we could expand the membership of DPHD? We are a low incidence disability division, but we know there are more folks out there that would benefit from this division. We are forming a membership committee and are looking for a few good people! Contact Pam DeLoach at pdeloach@tampabay.rr.com if you would like to be on the committee or have some thoughts on how to expand membership and/or improve membership benefits.
4. We need a student representative for DPHD! Know someone who is taking classes and working on getting licensed to work with kids with physical/health disabilities (or just has an interest in this area if the state licensing is non-categorical)? The student representative would need to be at the CEC Conference next April in Louisville, KY, but DPHD will help with the cost. Contact Alison Stafford at alisonmstafford@gmail.com if you know of someone who would like to be in this position.
5. We also need some officers for the division. Currently we have an “interim” secretary and vice-president as we didn’t have folks interested in running for office. Again, contact Alison at the address in #4 if you would be interested in serving as an officer.
6. Interested in transition of students with physical/health disabilities to their next level of schooling or employment? There has been some discussion on forming a transition subcommittee of DPHD. If this is something you think you would like to do, or would be interested in hearing more about, contact Adrienne Duris at ALDuris@aol.com.
7. DPHD will be reviewing and revising the standards for teachers of students with Physical and/or Health Disabilities. You can see the current standards on the CEC website at www.cec.sped.org, click on accreditation and licensure, click on professional standards, scroll down to Knowledge and Skills Standards, and click on Physical and Health Disabilities to review the current standards. Comments or concerns about what is there? Any of them outdated or need to be revised? Send you thoughts to Joni Baldwin, our Knowledge and Skills chairperson (baldwijl@notes.udayton.edu). In about a year we will be surveying members as to the relevance of the items, let Joni know if you would like to be a survey participant. We will do some random sampling, but a purposeful sample will also be used.

OK, that’s it for now! There are a lot of options above for you to get involved in the Division for Physical and Health Disabilities. Help us grow and continue to educate those working with our kids. Thanks in advance for your time and interest.

Division for Physical and Health Disabilities

Annual Report of the Representative to the Knowledge and Skills Subcommittee

Of the

Professional Standards and Practices Standing Committee of CEC

2006 CEC Annual Convention

Salt Lake City, Utah

April 5-8, 2006

Joni Baldwin, Ed.D.

University of Dayton

Dept. of Teacher Education

300 College Park

Dayton, OH 45469-0525

937-229-3230

baldwijl@notes.udayton.edu    

Charge

Serve as the representative to the Knowledge and Skills Subcommittee of the Professional Standards and Practice Standing Committee.

Activities

The CEC Knowledge and Skills subcommittee met for two sessions at the CEC 2005 National Convention in Baltimore and worked together in Washington, DC January 14-16, 2006.

The Advanced Common Core for special education personnel who are working on a post baccalaureate degree and/or who serve in advanced special education roles is in the final stages of revision. The following areas will be the base for the advanced core: Leadership & Policy, Program Development and Organization, Research & Inquiry, Evaluation, Professional Development & Ethical Practice, and Collaboration. Specific items were sent to a representational sample of CEC membership for input as to the importance of each item. These survey results were reviewed in January during the K&S Subcommittee in Washington, DC, with a final set of competencies compiled to go to the CEC Professional Standards and Practice Committee of CEC for final approval.

CEC divisions are currently working on of updating their Performance Based Standards. This includes reviewing current standards and deciding if they should be revalidated, revised or discarded. To be validated and included, each standard proposed or maintained must have research citations to support the need for this item to be a standard. The Division for Developmental Disabilities was the first division to complete this task, with the Division for Gifts and Talents and Division for Early Childhood currently involved in the process. At the January meeting, TAG proposed standards were reviewed, with the final items now ready to be surveyed with the membership of TAG. DEC is working on developing their standard items, which should be brought to the K&S Subcommittee at the 2006 Convention meeting. 

The Division for Physical/Health Disabilities (DPHD) will also need to review/revise current professional standards. This task includes reviewing our current standards, determining if they should stay or go, revising if necessary, and providing research citations to document they are research-based competencies. To do this, we need a small group of interested individuals (called the Set Work Group by the CEC Knowledge and Skills Subcommittee) who are committed to reviewing/revising the CEC Performance-Based Standards for Physical and Health Disabilities (current standards can be found on the CEC website). This work can be completed by mail, e-mail and conference calls, with a meeting for those who can attend at the 2006 and 2007 CEC National Conventions. Please contact Joni Baldwin at baldwijl@notes.udayton.edu if interested in working on this very important task.

Recommendations

1. Develop a Set Work Group to begin the task of reviewing DPHD Professional Standards.
   1. Identify specific organizations with members serving physical and health disabilities that may be of assistance in developing/revising competencies.
   2. Facilitate location of any literature used to develop the original competencies (California POHI teachers?).
   3. Develop a time line for meeting deadline of proposed competencies by 2008.
   4. Locate individuals or groups who can provide research support to the Set Work Group.
2. Maintain a representative on the Knowledge and Skills subcommittee of CEC.
3. Maintain financial support for participation in the K & S work sessions (January in Washington, DC and April at the CEC National Convention).

Standards developed by each CEC division are published in the “Red Book”, What Every Special Educator Must Know: Ethics, Standards, and Guidelines for Special Educators, 5^th Edition. This guide is available through www.cec.sped.org. The “Red Book” contains performance-based standards for all beginning special education teachers, the CEC Code of Ethics, and standards for administrators, para-educators, educational diagnosticians, and transition specialists.

We want your input and opinions! Send us your comments at

dphdnewsletter@hotmail.com