1. Office for Exceptional Children
Good morning Everyone! I am so pleased to join you this morning for the 6th Annual Ohio Dean Compact on Exceptional Children. The theme of the conference P20 Social Capital: Working Together to Ensure Equitable Opportunities to Learn for All Children resonates the
It is a privilege to be here and to share with you some exciting initiatives from Office for Exceptional Children. First, I want to provide you with an overview of Ohio’s Strategic Plan and then talk about the Improving Educational Experiences and Outcomes for Students with Disabilities plan and then end with our work with the Advancing Inclusive Principal Leadership
Before I start with the updates, I just want to say a thank you for all the work you do with pre-12 educators, leaders and preservice teachers to improve inclusive instructional practices.
Office for Exceptional Children

2. education.ohio.gov/StrategicPlan
Working together for Ohio’s students!
I am proud to share with you an overview Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education
State Strategic Plan for
The tile of the plan Each Child, Our Future resonates Ohio’s shared commitment to ensure that each child is challenged, prepared and empowered.
This plan was built by Ohioans for Ohioans. Launched by Ohio’s superintendent of public instruction and the State Board of Education in the summer of 2017, more than 150 Ohio-based partners worked in various subcommittees to develop the plan. Moreover, approximately 1,200 Ohio citizens—including parents, caregivers, preK-12 educators, higher education representatives, business leaders, employers, community members, state legislators and, of course, students themselves—attended 13 regional meetings across the state to review the plan and provide feedback. In total, more than 1,350 Ohioans had a hand in crafting the plan.
As you hear about the plan, I ask you to think about how the work that you do ties to certain areas of the plan.
education.ohio.gov/StrategicPlan

3. This infographic provides you with a brief overview of the plan’s components that are included in the Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education.
The whole child is at the center of the plan.[1] The state-level vision provides an aspirational guide for students, parents, partners and the education system. One goal represents the state’s annual target. Three core principles, four learning domains and 10 priority strategies work together to support the whole child and enable the state-level vision and goal.
Focus on the connection to the work that you do. Remember, to challenge yourself to think about how your scope of work fits in Ohio’s Strategic Plan for Education
The work will reflect the vision, goal, principles and domains of Each Child, Our Future to ensure that recommendations are aligned with Ohio’s Strategic Plan

4. Improving Educational Experiences and Outcomes for Students with Disabilities Plan
The improving Educational Experiences and Outcomes for Student with Disabilities Plan will be done in the context of Each Child Our Future to ensure it is clear that the improvement plan focuses on students with disabilities and is tied to Ohio’s statewide vision, goal, core principles and strategies. (Part of strategy 7, meeting the needs of the whole child).

5. Development of Plan January 2019
Steering Committee, ODE internal staff committee, and workgroups
The process is beginning this month with a charge to examine various aspects of the educational experience of students with disabilities (literacy, disproportionality, post-secondary transition and graduation, and effective teacher and school leader professional development and practices).
The goal is to develop recommendations that will lead to improved outcomes for these students. The completion of the development of recommendations is projected for December 2019.
The development of the plan will be facilitated through the implementation of a Steering Committee, ODE internal staff committee, and workgroups. The Steering Committee will provide oversight of the plan development and will guide the process. The steering committee will meet monthly and members will include executive level ODE staff and at least one representative from: State Board of Education, Ohio House of Representatives, Ohio Senate, Ohio federation of Teachers, Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities, Disabilities Disability Rights Ohio, Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities, Institutes of Higher Education, Council for Exceptional Children, State Advisory Panel for Exceptional Children (SAPEC) and various other education associations.
ODE internal staff committee will provide day to day oversight of the plan development process. ODE internal staff committee will meet monthly and will include staff from various offices in ODE: Office for Exceptional Children, Office of Innovation and Improvement, Early Learning and School Readiness, Teacher Effectiveness, Integrated Student Supports, Literacy Unit, Career and Technical Education, Curriculum and Assessment.
Four workgroups will be created from stakeholders across identified areas of focus, who will make recommendations for improvements that will support schools in supporting children with disabilities. The steering committee will provide guidance on the topics of each workgroup. We expect that they will include Literacy, Disproportionality, Post-secondary transition and graduation, Effective teacher and school leader professional development and instructional practices.
Educators, administrators, related service personnel, education and disability related organizations, students and parents of children with disabilities will be engaged throughout the process.
The work produced by the workgroups will reflect the vision, goal, principles and domains of Each Child, Our Future to ensure that recommendations are aligned with Ohio’s Strategic Plan

6. Key Activities to Inform the Development of Plan
Engage national expert to
consult with Ohio
Targeted stakeholder engagement
Several Key Activities are occurring to Inform the development of the Plan:
We have engaged a national special education expert to consult with Ohio and facilitate the planning process.
Additionally, we want to engage stakeholders. With the goal of hearing directly from parents and school district personnel who support students with disabilities. This will help us gain a better understanding of the key successes, challenges, needs and improvement opportunities across the state. We will accomplish this through a statewide survey, parent town hall meetings, and focus groups.
The target audience for the statewide survey is school district personnel, including building administrators, teachers, and service providers who wok directly with SWD. The purpose of the survey is to identify the challenges, exemplars and needed improvements across the topics of identification, evaluation, least restrictive environment, professional development and instructional practices.
Focus groups – The purpose of the focus groups is to take a deeper dive into the current state of special education services from those who completed the statewide survey. ODE will identify questions generated by survey responses and ask for more information specifically about and ideas for actionable improvements from school district personnel, both building administrators and teachers and related services personnel.
Parent Town Hall Meetings – The target audience for parent meetings are parents or guardians who have children currently being educated in Ohio’s public school system as well as those whose children have dropped out or recently graduated from high school. The purpose of the parent group meetings is to hear directly from parents who have navigated the special education system. The steering committee will review 5-6 draft questions that will be used at five regional meetings across the state.

7. Development of Plan Examine state data Conduct literature review
Identify and document best practices, exemplar models
Expected outcome
Examine state data (Data story) current status of special education in Ohio
Conduct literature and research review on national best practices utilizing our partners in higher education
Identify and document best practices exemplar models currently in place in Ohio that demonstrate result driven practices in the areas of literacy, behavior, social emotional learning, disproportionality, tiered system of supports, post secondary transition and graduation, effective teacher and school leader professional development and practices.
The expected outcome: The work groups will develop a set of recommendation that can serve as a roadmap for practices, polices and actions that will improve the educational experiences and outcomes for students with disabilities.
Completion of the development of recommendations and plan is projected for December Once again, we are excited to be part of this important work and look forward to working with you through the process.

8. Advancing Inclusive Principal Leadership (AIPL)
Five State Initiative
Ohio
Colorado
Mississippi
Arkansas
Georgia
Directly aligned with the Improving Educational experiences an outcomes for SWD plan. We are excited to be part of CCSSO’s Advancing Inclusive Principal Leadership (AIPL) State Initiative. We believe that the ground work has already been layed in Ohio with our work on principal preparation and development including through its partnership with the CEEDAR Center and the Ohio Leadership for Inclusion, Implementation, & Instructional Improvement work, and Ohio Leadership Advisory Council (OLAC).
We will be working with five other states over the course of the next two years.

9. Advancing Inclusive Principal Leadership (AIPL)
Two year commitment from Nov 2018 – Oct 2020
Plan to prioritize effective policy and practice strategies that advances inclusive principal leadership.
Ohio has been selected based on its demonstrated commitment to these goals.
Two Year commitment from Nov through October 2020
State team including cross office collaboration from the Office for Innovation and Improvement, Teacher Effective and Exceptional children.
We have representatives from higher education, key stakeholder representative -Federation of Teachers, K-12 Central office administrator and building principal.
The purpose of AIPL is to assist Ohio with planning and prioritizing effective policy and practice strategies that advances inclusive principal leadership. .
We have been meeting with CEEDAR Inclusive Principal Leadership Topical Action Group monthly to examine inclusive principal leadership policy and practices through a cross-state learning environment. We are scheduled to convene with the other four states in the spring.
Our work is focused on effective policy and practice strategies laid out in the online guide, Supporting Inclusive Schools for the Success of Each Child: A Guide for States on School Leadership,
Ohio is focused on
Strategy 4: Promote Principal Development on Inclusive Practices
Strategy 5: Provide Targeted Supports to Districts and Schools
Strategy 6: Connect School Improvement and Principal Development Initiatives
Throughout this process, Ohio’s goal is to strengthen our vision of inclusive principal leadership, build further coherence, engage stakeholders, and identify processes for continuous improvement.
Thank you for so much for your time today and once again thank you for your commitment to supporting our preservice teachers.