Would you like to take advantage of a great opportunity? It’s free! In fact to offset the cost of travel and missed work, we provide a scholarship of $50 a day for each day you attend.

This incredible opportunity offers parents and their children, age birth to 5 with bilateral moderate to severe/profound hearing loss, to spend 5 days completely free of charge with experts in the field of deafness from all over the state. The professionals’ job is to give you information you need to help you make decisions along your journey of raising a child with a hearing loss. You will receive informational materials, meet other parents, and learn about the following:

• How do I teach my child speech and language?
• How do I read an audiogram and understand what the test scores mean?
• What types of hearing aids are on the market and how are they different?
• What are the pros and cons of cochlear implants?
• How do I discipline a child who is deaf or hard of hearing?
• What do I look for in the educational programs?
• How do I toilet train my toddler who is deaf?

Your child will receive audiological, psychological, speech – language, vision, and educational evaluations. All of these are free of charge!

Please join us for an awesome week of learning and getting to know others who are experiencing some of the same issues you are. This opportunity takes place June 13 - 18, 2010. at the Illinois School for the Deaf in Jacksonville, Illinois.

For more information about the Institute and to find out how to enroll, contact the Division of Specialized Care for Children at 1-800-322-3722.

Parent Guide - Educational Rights and Responsibilities: Understanding Special Education in Illinois is a document, developed by the Illinois State Board of Education for parents and others to learn about the educational rights of children who have disabilities and receive special education services. (Updated 6/09)
Note: The following documents are in  .pdf format. In order to view them correctly please visit http://www.adobe.com to download version 9.0 of Adobe Reader.

A new social networking website called Starbright World has been created for teens with chronic and life threatening medical conditions, and their siblings. The goal of the site is to help these teens connect with other youth like themselves who don’t have the same social opportunities.

The Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Library has released a new edition of the Community Services Locator, an online directory that can be used by service providers and families to find health, mental health, family support, parenting, child care, and other services in their communities. Topics include education and special needs, health and wellness, mental health and well-being, family support, parenting, child care and early childhood education, and financial support. It is available online at http://www.mchlibrary.info/KnowledgePaths/kp_community.html

The Arc of Illinois Family to Family Health Information and Education Center has developed a guide to back-to-school related services and accomodations for children with special needs titled "Tools for Schools". The guide covers many school related services with identified websites.

A new National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families, has been established in Berkeley, California under the auspices of Through the Looking Glass, a non-profit organization founded in 1982. The Center will oversee several national research studies concerning parents with disabilities and their families, as well as provide consultations, trainings and publications to parents, family members and professionals.

The research and resources of the Center will address the nearly 9 million U.S. parents with disabilities - 15% of all American families. Parents with disabilities include mothers and fathers in all disability categories - such as parents with physical disabilities, deaf parents, blind parents, parents with psychiatric or cognitive disabilities.

The Center will focus its research and resource activities on four critical areas that impact parents with disabilities: custody, family roles and personal assistance; paratransit; and, intervention with parents  with cognitive disabilities and their children. One of the notable activities planned over the next three years is a scholarship program for high school seniors and college students whose parents have disabilities. The Center will be staffed by nationally recognized experts regarding parents with disabilities, most of whom have personal or family experience with disability or deafness.

More information about the Center and Through the Looking Glass is available at the organization's website (www.lookingglass.org), or by email at tlg@lookingglass.org.

DSCC established a Family Advisory Council in July 1999 which meets three times per year, (July, November & March), to provide onging and diverse family perspectives to the agency. Council members are reimbursed and are selected to represent the cultural, social and geographic diversity of the Illinois children with special health care needs receiving agency services. The Council is coordinated by a parent, Mr. Bob Cook, who serves as the agency's Family Liaison Specialist. He coordinates Council meetings, publication of the family newsletter, Special Addition, and serves as a liaison for staff and families. More information about the Family Advisory Council (text-only version) is available on our website.