SharedWork.org

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Welcome to SharedWork.org.
The IDEA Partnership Communities of Practice are focused on advancing policy and practice in four key areas: (a) the intersections of the No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA); (b) school behavioral health services; (c) interagency transition, and (d) teacher quality.  As partner organizations work together and with States, districts, local sites and individuals, they form Communities of Practice whose members learn from each other and take action together in coordinated ways.  (Read more about this collaborative work at the IDEA Partnership website at http://ideapartnership.org.)

The SharedWork.org website is designed to support and facilitate the shared work that occurs among individuals, organizations and agencies at the local, district, state, and national levels.  For each community of practice, state, or practice group, you will find the following sections: What’s New, Repository, and Discussion.

WHAT’S NEW – this feature allows users to post upcoming meetings, important information, announcements and other documents pertaining to collaborative school behavioral health.  Click on the link of any topic in which you have an interest.

REPOSITORY – this feature is where users can post and share important files and documents of interest and use for the community.  Click on the link of any file or document you would like to access.

DISCUSSION – this feature allows for online, ongoing communication and sharing between the national community, practice groups and all stakeholders on various topics or projects.  Click on a topic of interest.  Review comments made by others.  To add a comment, click on ADD COMMENT.  Complete the information, make sure to select under Posted by – Other and type in your name, add your comments under text, and click on ADD; add your comment, then click on RETURN TO MAIN PAGE.

To begin, click on the community title below.

The IDEA Partnership facilitates interaction among 55 national organizations with shared concern or interest around an issue. You can find a list of partners at http://www.ideapartnership.org/partners.cfm). The Partnership is the U.S. Department of Education's investment in the value of stakeholder expertise. We believe that those who are closest to the work can be valuable partners in finding new approaches to implementation challenges. While most of our work brings stakeholders with various perspectives together to understand complex issues in new ways, it is sometimes important to explore issues in more depth with people who share the same role. This site is a place for members of national organizations to work with those in similar roles to better understand education issues.

This task force has been established to assist in the revision of the Guidelines for Identifying and Educating Students with Serious Emotional Disturbance.

The National Community of Practice on Early Intervention and Early Childhood created this SharedWork site as a place where states and national organizations can work together on issues that affect infants, toddlers and young children, and their families.

This site is a place for IDEA Partnership Activity Leaders to share information and updates on our progress.

The focus of this Community is to collaboratively work across diverse stakeholders to create a shared agenda across education, mental health and families. This community operates through 10 practice groups. 12 states, 23 national organizations and 6 technical assistance centers working together in this community.

This Creating Agreement Workgroup was formed as a result of the collaboration between the IDEA Partnership and the Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution for Special Education (CADRE) national center. The Workgroup is made up of various national and state organizations with the intent of modeling cross stakeholder collaboration around a common issue—early dispute resolution. The Workgroup developed a basic presentation and skill-building activities on conflict resolution with the purpose of reaching and informing a wider network of people. The information is also disseminated deeper into their own networks and presented to other organizations where early dispute resolution is an important issue.

The National Community of Practice on Improving Teacher Quality: General and Special Education Collaboration is sponsored by the Center for Improving Teacher Quality (CTQ) to help states reform, improve and align their teacher licensing systems for GENERAL and SPECIAL education teachers of students with disabilities. Funded by the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education, CTQ is a national technical assistance center that is working with states to develop models for ensuring and raising the quality of teachers of students with disabilities.

In 2004, Federal, states and local agencies came together around their shared interest in improving school and post-school outcomes for youth. Today, four federal agencies, 10 states and many national organizations are joined in the community. Together, they focus on issues including: Meaningful Youth Role: Increasing Accessible Transportation: Outreach to Child Welfare, Juvenile Justice, and Mental Health: Employment; and Post-secondary Options.

Project Forum at NASDSE has joined forces with CAST to host this virtual forum on UDL policy issues. We intend for this shared work as a conversation on policy issues related to UDL implementation in schools, districts and states. All interested parties are welcome to discuss policy challenges and barriers to UDL implementation. Guided topical questions will be posted between October 6 and November 3, 2008 to facilitate your collegial discussions and identification of barriers. Your input will help shape the agenda for further UDL policy work.

Since 1999, the Council of Chief State School Officers and the IDEA Partnership at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education have sponsored state-to-state learning opportunities with federal agencies, national organizations and technical assistance providers on collaboration across Title I and Special Education.