The Hawaii State Department of Education, in partnership with stakeholders, developed a State Improvement Plan to improve systems providing early intervention, education, and transition services, through an innovative personnel development program supported by coordinated policy, procedure, and practice interventions. Ultimately, the Department of Education (DOE) believes that this strategy will lead to significant gains in in-school and post-school outcomes for children with disabilities. The State Improvement Plan is integral to the overall DOE system improvement efforts and the vision of the State Board of Education for meeting the needs of all children so that they attain high performance standards.

The State of Hawaii recognizes that this is an opportune time to apply for a State Improvement Grant to improve the system of services for children with disabilities. The State was one of the first systems to serve children with disabilities in their community public school; to apply a single standard of performance expectations to all students, including those with disabilities; and as a statewide system, to implement educational reforms uniformly across all schools in the state. Recently, a number of factors have further increased the likelihood of significant impact of education reform in the state, including:

• The hiring of a new state superintendent, who will use his leadership to focus on high academic standards for all students.
• The state Departments of Education and Health have been operating under the Felix Consent Decree since 1995, generating numerous studies and leveraging significant resources to address service issues for children with mental health needs.
• For the past several years, the Department of Education has been involved in several reform initiatives resulting in movement resources and supports to school complexes (high school and its feeder schools) and individual schools.

The State Improvement Plan includes an overall goal supported by five system improvement goals leading to improved system and student outcomes. The five goals seek program improvement at policy (state), procedure (district or complex), and practice (school) levels of the system, as follows:

• To increase statewide capacity to foster high standards and provide quality school-wide services and supports to children with disabilities.
• To improve service integration and student transition supporting improved learning and performance.
• To improve statewide accountability by assessments and other performance measures; To encourage committed involvement of partnering family member, educators, related-service agencies and others interested in improving early intervention ,educational, and transitional services for children with disabilities.
• To improve the quality of educational services and supports by providing the knowledge and collaborative skills that in-service and pre-service personnel as well as other partners need to support improved educational performance and post-school outcomes for children with disabilities.

Using an innovative approach to system improvement, the project integrates personnel development and system improvement outcomes in order to build local capacity to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Interdisciplinary Professional Development Teams at the complex level are pivotal, in that they provide training to school-based teams that implement new practices and they provide feedback to policy level work groups, which recommend system-wide changes. In other words, as educators, related service providers, and parents are supported as a team at the school level, solutions to child-based issues will support development of improved procedures and more responsive supports at district and complex levels, providing information guiding potential policy improvements at the state level. This multilevel approach, linked with continuous feedback of information, will ensure lasting and sustained system improvements for children with disabilities and their family members.

Project Title:	Ka Hihi'o o O Na Liko O Hawai'I Mua, the Vision of the Budding Children of Future Hawaii
Primary contact person:	Dr. Robert Stodden
Address:	University of Hawaii 1776 University Avenue, UA4-6
Phone:	808-956-9199
Fax:	808-956-5713
Email:	Stodden@hawaii.edu
Web site:	None available
Date SIG application written/submitted:	September 28, 1998
Round funded:	First
Begin/end dates for funding:	01/01/99-12/31/03
Funded amount /year:	$600,000
Who wrote the application?	IHE
Length of application:	Narrative: Approximately 100 pages

 1. What specific products are planned for development?

• All materials and information will be interactive for on-line and on-site follow-up.
• State guidelines for combining the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to support implementation of school-wide support programs.
• Complex-level Professional Development Team training materials; including effective teaming, transition strategies, and behavior strategies.
• Interdivisional agreements across general education, special education, evaluation, and related-service agencies to decrease policy and procedural barriers to state-wide data collection for children with disabilities.
• Multimedia training modules on children with disabilities taking state-wide assessments and alternate assessments.
• Information and training packages to increase the capacity of parents of children with disabilities to participate fully in state-wide, complex-wide and school-wide decisions and teams.
• Media/public awareness program regarding the benefits and importance of teaching in special education for recruitment and retention.

 2. What interstate connections are planned?

3. What strategies are planned for service delivery? 

• The SIP incorporates the following eight priority areas:
  • Service integration/coordination.
  • Measurable school and post-school results for children with disabilities.
  • Consumer, parent, and stakeholder involvement.
  • High academic standards.
  • Transition strategies.
  • Disciplinary strategies.
  • Research-based strategies.
  • Educational reform coordination.
• Training and on-going technical assistance to complex-level Professional Development Teams which will combine university faculty members, state- and district-level support staff (general educators, special educators, related-service disciplines), and parents of students. These teams will then work as "critical friends to provide integrated training, technical assistance , research based information, and follow-up support to Service Coordinators and Student Support Teams.
• Designate a Director of Program Support working with the State Deputy Superintendent so improvements can have a system-wide and school-wide impact and ensure that all reform activities are coordinated for the benefit of all students, including those with disabilities.
• Summer institutes to train Student Services Coordinators.
• Quarterly parent support sessions and role-a-like support sessions.

4. What partnership strategies are intended?

• Personnel development will be conducted by and within stakeholder teams or interdisciplinary cohorts.
• Significant SIG budget allocated for Memoranda of Agreements (MOAs) with partnering agencies that will staff school-complex Professional Development Teams.

5. Who are the partners?

6. What types of contracts or subgrants are intended to partners, LEAs, IHE, PTIs, and others (including lead agency under Part C)?

• Approximately 70 stakeholders crafted a vision and priority goals that serve as beacon for further improvement efforts.
• University of Hawaii, College of Education and Center on Disabilities Studies, Local Education Districts, Parent Training and Information Groups, and 0-3 Hawaii.
• MOA to UH Center on Disability Studies to provide leadership training and team development skills/support to school-level Student Support Teams, complex &emdash;level Professional Development teams, and the Partnership Steering Committee and its policy-level work groups.
• MOA to UH Center on Disability Studies to collect all evaluative data and information and provide feedback to the Professional Development Teams, as part of the continuous improvement process, prepare and disseminate training materials, modules, on-line instructional databases, research-proven practices.
• Stipends to in-service trainees for participation in training events during off-duty time.

7. How will resources be pooled with other resources?

• HI DOE committed over $3 million to increase quantity of certified special education.
• HI DOE MOAs with College of Education at the University of Hawaii to increase the number of certified special education teacher graduates and with the College of Medicine, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of Hawaii.