United states deparment of education office of special education and rehabilitative services

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Introduction

The State of Nebraska is a State of contrasts. The State is comprised of vast rural areas in the western part of the State and two major urban areas, Lincoln and Omaha, are found in the eastern part of the State. One-half of the State’s population resides in the eastern third of the State.

Administrative Structures and Children Served: Part C

The Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (NDHHS) are the Co-Lead Agencies for the implementation of Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Implementation of the State early intervention system is carried out through 29 Early Childhood Planning Region Teams (Teams). The Teams mirror the membership of the Nebraska Interagency Coordinating Council and are composed of parents, advocates, representatives from local education agencies, non-profit agencies, educational service units, Head Start, and child care.

The Teams are responsible for carrying out local coordination and planning to enhance the early intervention system. Their duties include public awareness, child find, data collection and system support. Dollars are distributed to the Teams based on the previous year’s reported December 1 Child Count. Teams also receive dollars from the Co-Lead Agencies to develop innovative projects to address local needs.
Local school districts located within the Teams are responsible for providing the special education and related services to infants and toddlers. Because Nebraska has a State law guaranteeing a free appropriate public education to infants and toddlers, the State uses Part B funds to provide special education and related services to infants and toddlers. A separate contractor, selected by consensus of the Team, provides service coordination to the infants, toddlers and families located in the Team’s geographic area. Local school districts are the primary service provider for families who decline service coordination.

At the State level, the Part C staff is comprised of 2.7 full-time equivalents (FTE) in the NDE and 3.5 full-time equivalents (FTE) in the NDHHS. Part C funds also support two full-time “Family Partners” through a contract with the Nebraska Parent Training Center. The family partners are responsible for providing advice on policy matters, working with the Nebraska Interagency Coordinating Council and the Regional Planning Teams, and for offering family support and training. The Nebraska Interagency Coordinating Council is an integral part of Nebraska’s early intervention system in advising and assisting the co-lead agencies. The Nebraska Interagency Coordinating Council organizes its work through ad-hoc task forces and an Executive Committee.

The State has had a steady increase in the number of infants and toddlers served under Part C of IDEA. In 1992, Nebraska reported serving 665 children, while, in 1997, this number increased to 885 children (1.29 percent of the 0-3 census). During this time period, Nebraska had a relatively stable annual birth rate.

Administrative Structures and Children Served: Part B

The Nebraska Department of Education is charged with the responsibility to implement Part B of IDEA to ensure the provision of a free appropriate public education for children with disabilities, ages three years through twenty-one years, in the least restrictive environment. More than 43,400 children (ages three years through 21 years) were served through IDEA, Part B in the 1998-1999 school year. During the 1998-99 school year, 12.3% of the total students enrolled (ages 6 through 17 years) were students with disabilities. For students with disabilities, ages 6 years – 21 years, 2.60% are American Indian, 0.62% are Asian, 10.13% are Black, 5.46% are Hispanic and 81.18% are White. Nebraska has one of the fastest growing Hispanic populations in the United States.

During the 1997-1998 school year, 84 of the 86 special education teachers for ages 3-5 years were fully certified. In that same year, for teachers of students ages 6-21 years, there were 2,189 positions, of which 2,140 were filled by fully certified staff, 39 uncertified staff, and 10 positions were vacant. During the l998-l999 school year there were ten complaints, twelve hearings, and 40 mediations under Part B. During the 1998-1999 school year, the drop out rate was 30% (national: 31%) and the rate of graduation with a diploma was 69% (national: 61.6%).

Overview of the OSEP Continuous Improvement Process

Validation Planning and Data Collection
The previous OSEP Part B monitoring visit was conducted in l993. The State developed a corrective action plan in response to areas of deficiency cited by OSEP. OSEP issued a letter in October l994 stating that NDE had met the requirements of the corrective action plan.
The OSEP Continuous Improvement Monitoring Process has six steps: self-assessment, validation planning, validation data collection, reporting to the public, improvement planning and implementation of improvement strategies.
The first stage of the OSEP Continuous Improvement Process, the self-assessment stage, began when the State of Nebraska established the Steering Committee, a committee composed of key stakeholders representing diverse perspectives for both Part B and C of IDEA. The Steering Committee conducted a self-assessment (self-study) to analyze how successful the State has been in achieving compliance with IDEA 97 and improving results for children with disabilities and their families.
During the validation planning stage, the Steering Committee worked with OSEP staff to plan strategies for validating the State self-study results. The validation planning stage included conducting focused public meetings, reviewing the self-study data, and developing a data collection plan, which included on-site and off-site strategies. Validation planning took place on-site in Nebraska on August 24, and 25, l998.
The validation data collection stage took place during the week of October 5, 1998 when OSEP collected data, presented the data to the Steering Committee in a structured exit conference on October 9, 1998, and worked with the Steering Committee to plan the reporting process. OSEP collected data at both the State and local levels. For Part C, OSEP visited five planning region teams, spoke with groups of parents, service providers, and administrators and reviewed individual family service plans. For Part B, OSEP visited schools in five school districts to review student records and to interview teachers, administrators, service providers, and parents regarding the provision of appropriate services for students with disabilities. OSEP staff also attended two Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings to observe how teams use information and make decisions relative to the need for and provision of appropriate educational supports and services for students with disabilities.
The fourth stage, reporting to the public, includes the publication of this report. The report reviews the State’s performance in the implementation of IDEA 97, including strengths, suggestions for improved results, and areas of noncompliance. NDE and NDDHS will disseminate the report to the public and OSEP will post it on the Department’s website.
The fifth stage, improvement planning, is based upon the self-assessment and validation results. The Steering Committee will develop an improvement plan that addresses improved results for children with disabilities, including timelines, benchmarks, and methods to verify improvement. The Steering Committee has formed subgroups to address the issues identified in the exit conference. For example, NDE has continued to lead the efforts of the Nebraska Stakeholders Group. One of the subgroups addresses behavior, counseling and discipline issues. A second subgroup addresses parent involvement issues discussed at the exit conference with OSEP. Other subgroups include the continuous services for infants and toddlers subgroup, the transition subgroup, and the curriculum adaptations and modifications subgroup.
The sixth stage of the OSEP continuous improvement process is implementation of improvement strategies, which will occur as the State of Nebraska implements its improvement plan and evaluates the effectiveness of the plan.

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