South Dakota Parent Connection

The office of special education funded Parent training and information center (pti) providing information, consultation, and training to parents of children ages birth to age 26 who have developmental disabilities and the professionals who serve them. This year under our pti and family to family (f2f) program services, sd Parent Connection (sdpc) provided 22 Parent trainings delivered to 303 parents. Over 500 instances of individualized assistance were provided to over 300 parents/caregivers. Approximately 3,000 individuals received our twice monthly e-digest, half estimated to be parents. 14,878 website users conducted 22,000 sessions at www.sdparent.org for 82,000 webpage views. Sdpc facebook page reached 69,300. Sdpc participated in 11 community events across the state reaching 900 parents and youth. 76 youth and parents participated in sdpc transition to adulthood events. Seven transition training courses were conducted through additional rsa funding reaching 171 youth/families. Sdpc's navigator program worked with an additional 96 families in 42 school districts across the state. 100% of families surveyed indicated that following support from sdpc they were able to make better informed decisions to help their child and would recommend sdpc to other families. 100% of families surveyed indicated they are better able to support their child and work with those serving their child. Ratings on training events and resources show them to be highly relevant, useful, and of high quality. The family to family (f2f) center is funded through the maternal and child health care act. The navigator program is funded through the South Dakota department of education - special education programs. The navigator program provides individualized guidance to parents of children with disabilities and school professionals at no cost. In an objective and neutral process navigators help both parents and educators work together in locating and utilizing information and resources, improving family-school communication, understanding the special education process, building or rebuilding partnerships, and reaching or making progress towards agreement on supports and services for the student on an individualized education plan (iep).