Quality Public Education for All New Jersey Students

 

 
     GSCS Bar Chart: Statewide Special Education cost percent compared to Regular & Other Instructional cost percent 2004-2011
     11-18-10 Proposed Somerset County school for special ed students would include convenience store
     Special Education Series - Asbury Park Press 'Special Care-Unkown Costs'
     GSCS - High costs of Special Education must be addressed asap, & appropriately
     9-23-09 'Tests changing for special ed students'
     7-22-09 'State gives extra aid for schools an extraordinary boost'
     6-26-09 Executive Director to GSCS Trustees; Wrap Up Report - State Budget and Assembly bills this week
     6-24-09 U.S. Supreme Court backs reimbursement for private tuition
     090416 DOE RELEASE - IDEA ALLOCATIONS
     NJ District listing, Title One & IDEA under federal stimulus law
     12-29-08 NJ to new leaders - Fund our schools
     OCT 7 FORUM - DIRECTIONS & PARKING INFO ATTACHED
     OCT 7 FORUM - DIRECTIONS ATTACHED; PARKING FORMS TO BE AVAILABLE HERE SOON!
     GSCS, Special Education Coalition for Funding Reform, and Rutgers Institute co-sponsor Forum Oct 7th
     SAVE THE DATE - OCT. 7TH
     May 29 2008 STATE FUNDING FOR EXTRAORDINARY COST
     GSCS School Funding Paper 'Funding NJ's Schools...Finding a Workable Solution' distributed 10-22-07 at Press Conf in Trenton
     UPDATED - Possible Spec. Educ. Aid Loss to districts (based on current aid per current, yet outdated by 6 years, CEIFA distribution) if state chooses to 'wealth-equalize' this aid in a future formula
     10-23 Media reports & Trenton responses to date re GSCS Press Conf
     Spec. Educ. Aid Loss to districts (based on current aid per current, yet outdated by 6 years, CEIFA distribution) if state chooses to 'wealth-equalize' this aid in a future formula
     11-1-06 Press Conference packet
     9-20-07 New Jersey School Boards Assoc. Releases its Report on Special Education
     7-26-07 Council on Local Mandates reverses DOE spec ed regulation
     6-29-07 Lots of news affecting NJ, its schools and communities this week - STATE BUDGET signed - LIST OF LINE ITEM VETOES - US SUPREME CT RULING impacts school desgregation - SPECIAL EDUCATION GROUPS file suit against state
     Special Education Review Commission Report submitted April 2007
     Special Education - proposed 'burden of proof' legislation, Spec Educ Review Commission Report
     2-15-07 'Parents get boost on special ed rights' Star Ledger
     8-17-06 Special Education costs & Constitutional Questions re Tax Reform
     6-29-06 Mirroring the elements, State Budget looking like a 'natural disaster'
     6-12-06 EMAILNET - Extraordinary Special Education student aid; FY07 Budget 'crunch' is on; news clips
     5-16-06 EMAILNET Action in Trenton
     3-22-06 EMAILNET Governor Corzine's Budget Message
     1-19-06 GSCS member concerns re Proposed Revisions in Special Education Code
     Charts Spec Ed & Health Benefits increases v Local Levy since CEIFA has been frozen
     CHART: Health Benefits & Special Educ v.local levy FY02 to FY06 (pdf)
     2-28-06 Dept of Education Spec Educ Rules
     1-19-06 New Jersey Assoc of School Adminstrators on Sped Educ code revisions
     Proposed State Budget for Fiscal Year 2006 - GSCS Testimony
     Statewide - Special Educ & Total Enrollment Growth Chart 2001-2004[gscs]
     Special Education Enrollments 2003 statewide by DFG
     GSCS Testimony 2003 on Suggestions for School Funding - issues similar to 2005-6
GSCS, Special Education Coalition for Funding Reform, and Rutgers Institute co-sponsor Forum Oct 7th
Featuring Bruce Baker, national school finance expert currently at Rutgers, "A Current Look at State Funding Formulas Nationally: The Impact on Special Education" and Robert Pasternack, former Undersecretary of Education/Office of Special Education & Rehabilitative Services, "Best Practices in Special Education" Funding Policies to Support Excellence", the half-day forum will be held at Rutgers Busch Caompus, starting at 9 pm...Thanks to Bill Librera co-sponsor the Rutgers Institute for Improving Student Acheivement(RIISA) for providing the University setting. Click on More for details,directions and registration form

Rutgers University Institute for Improving Student Achievement (RIISA) joins

The Garden State Coalition of Schools & The New Jersey Coalition for Special Education Funding Reform

 

In Co-Sponsoring:

 

Promoting Excellence:

Best Practice in Special Education & the Funding Frameworks to Support it

 

featuring

Bruce Baker, Ed.D.,

University of Kansas

 

Robert Pasternack, Ph.D.,

former Assistant Secretary for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), USDOE

 

 

Tuesday, October 7, 2008, 9:00 – 12:30

Busch College Campus Center, Piscataway NJ

 

You are cordially invited to join us in a unique collaboration that brings together key stakeholders in New Jersey to help build a foundation of shared information and a national perspective on best practices in special education service delivery and the funding frameworks that support them.

 

Make Checks Payable $15.00 to RIISA.

Registration is limited.

 

Send to: Garden State Coalition of Schools, c/o Joanne D'Angelo

74 Springcress Dr, Delran, N.J. 08075

 

Name___________________________________________________

 

Title & Affiliation___________________________________________

 

Address_________________________________________________

 

Phone___________________________________________________

 

e-mail___________________________________________________

 

(   ) Check enclosed

(   ) Cash or check accepted at registration desk the day of the forum

 

Parking forms and directions will be available at:  www.gscschools.org

 

Our guests:

 

 Bruce Baker, Ed.D.

A Current Look at State Funding Formulas Nationally: The Impact on Special Education

 

Bruce Baker is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Kansas, where he teaches courses on school finance policy. Since 2000, Dr. Baker has published over 30 peer reviewed research articles in leading academic journals and law reviews. Baker is author of the recently published Financing Education Systems, from Merrill/Prentice-Hall. He has consulted for state legislatures on the design of state school finance policies in Texas, Missouri, New Jersey and Wyoming, for independent groups in Washington and Illinois and has testified in school finance related constitutional challenges. Dr. Baker's work focuses on costs associated with differences in student educational needs and the design of school funding formulas to meet those needs. Dr. Baker has conducted research on racial disparities in school funding and the intersection between school funding disparities and desegregation.

 

 

Robert Pasternack, Ph.D.

Best Practices in Special Education: Funding Policies to Support Excellence

 

Robert Pasternack is the senior vice-president for special education at Voyager Expanded Learning, a leading provider of in-school reading and math intervention programs, and professional development programs being used in more than 1,000 school districts throughout the United States, including New York City, Philadelphia, Richmond, Dallas, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Washington, D.C., resulting in dramatically improved student performance. Prior to that, he served in the Bush Administration as assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services. He is a nationally certified school psychologist, certified educational diagnostician, licensed special education teacher for grades K-12 and licensed school administrator. He served as director of special education for the New Mexico State Department of Education. Pasternack has lifelong personal experience with people with disabilities. For nearly 20 years, he has served as the legal guardian for his brother, who was born with Down syndrome.

 

 

For more information, contact:

 

Charity A. Leonhardt, Ed.M. Rutgers Institute for Improving Student Achievement

(732) 932-7496 Ext. 8120 Email: Charitya@rci.rutgers.edu

Brenda Considine, Coalition for Special Education Funding Reform

609-466-0694 Email consid@comcast.net

Lynne Strickland, Garden State Coalition of Schools

609-394-2828

Email gscs2000@gmail.com