I’m not normally in the habit of recycling previous posts (especially those barely a month old), but I really need some feedback on this from teachers, CST specialists, parents, administrators, students, consultants – really, any stakeholder in the world of special education. Here’s what I wrote last month:
So every member of my new Child Study Team has some ‘pet project’ that they contribute to the department, and along those lines, I’ve been approached to put together a website for the department (not sure if it’s just for CST or Special Services in general; will get more details in the summer).
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Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments here – parents, what info can we make readily available to you? Special ed teachers/service providers, what “frequently asked questions” or topics would you put on a site for the community?
Although this project is still in the very early stages, I have some thoughts as to what I think needs to go on this site at minimum:
- “plain English” description of the NJ special ed determination process
- downloadable PDFs of NJAC 6:14 (special education code), PRISE (Parental Rights in Special Education), and similar documents
- little blurbs about each of the CST members (4 psychologists, 2 LDTCs, 1 social worker) and our supervisor, along with contact information (phone, email, fax)
- information on transition services and options
- links to useful external sources
I’m not quite at the point of creating a Twitter account for our Child Study Team, but I would like to do something a little more personalized than a static website, like maybe have a monthly blog post from a different CST member (a la a newsletter). I did create a wiki for the Special Services dept. at my last school as part of my grad school internship project, so I do have a basic blueprint, but given the additional year and a half or so of technical experience I’ve gained since putting that up (plus the fact that I’ll be using locally hosted WordPress as my canvas), I think I can kick this site up a notch.
So what do YOU think needs to feature on this website? Sky’s the limit, at least as we kick ideas around in this space.