Additional Requirements
Requirements of Selected LEAs:
Up to 15 Public K-12 Indiana Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) will be selected during this 2023-2024 school year to participate, up to 10 of which may be former recipients of the AEMing for Achievement Grant. Previous AEM teams may apply for the simultaneous benefit of increased collaboration efforts with new AEM grant recipients and as an opportunity for our previous teams to delve deeper and create stronger sustainability and culture change. Each of the Indiana LEA's that are selected will be required to assemble an AEMing for Achievement-UDL Coordinating Committee (AEMUCC). PATINS will designate Specialist staff to work collaboratively with the AEMUCC. All committee members should be strongly committed to devising a detailed plan and to fulfilling the goals of that plan, including, but not limited to, three mandatory all-state meetings and weekly AEMUCC meetings with their designated PATINS Specialist.
Committee members should consist of an administrator, special education staff, general education staff, Digital Rights Manager (DRM), technology staff, and related service personnel, but may include other advisors such as students and parents if desired and beneficial. We require a minimum of 4, but we strongly recommend 5-7 committee members as a dedicated core group, to begin with, based on the success rate of past years' teams.
- LEA Administrator (Required)
- Special Education or General Education Teacher (Required)
- IT Staff (Required)
- Digital Rights Manager (Required)
- Special Educator Director or designee
- Teacher of the Blind and Visually Impaired
- Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
- Curriculum Staff
- Related Services Staff (Speech-Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist, Physical Therapist, etc)
Designated personnel in LEAs selected agree to:
- Convene and sustain a District AEM-UDL Coordinating Committee (AEMUCC).
- Attend 3 required meetings. At least 2 team members required at each event; however, all team members are highly encouraged: Introductory in-person training/Orientation Day on August 16, 2023 which may be in-person or virtual, a Mid-Year Online Gathering on January 17, 2024, and an In-Person Collaboration Day on May 15, 2023 which may be in-person or virtual.
- Develop an Action Plan based upon an AEM-UDL needs assessment with PATINS staff assistance and implement the activities in the plan.
- Collect and analyze formative and summative data on systemic effectiveness and document an informal Case Study on at least two students.
- Participate in regularly scheduled teleconferences and meetings with assigned PATINS Specialists.
- Provide data on the impact of this AEMing for Achievement Grant on the development of the LEA system and provide at least 2 Universally Designed Lesson Plans utilizing the PATINS UDL Lesson Creator, with PATINS staff assistance.
- Designate and/or update/increase the number of DRMs (Digital Rights Managers) in the district, up to a total of 5 per public school corporations and 3 for charter schools.
Formal Grant Purpose & Additional Details:
The intensive technical assistance and guidance provided through this grant opportunity will help your district more accurately identify students who need reading accommodations and more specifically, accommodations from which they receive the most benefit. This is grounded largely within the national movement toward "Accessible Educational Materials" (AEM) in all learning environments and increased federal focus on student achievement and outcome data. More on the 7 AIM Indicators can be found on the CAST website. More on the 7 AIM Indicators.PATINS provides this guidance, technical assistance and access to uPAR, Co:Writer, and Snap&Read at no cost to your district until, at the very least, June 30, 2024. Your entire LEA will have access to uPAR, Co:Writer, and Snap&Read for at least a full calendar year from the date of issue.
The formal purpose of this grant opportunity is to assist Indiana Public K-12 LEAs in providing Accessible Educational Materials (AEM), which are accessible formats of print-based instructional materials, to students with print disabilities AND identifying students who require reading accommodations and which reading accommodations that are best for them individually. This is all provided through the working framework of Universal Design for Learning. Working closely with LEA representatives, PATINS staff will offer guidance on developing, improving and sustaining an effective and efficient system for providing AEM and Assistive Technology (AT) as needed, in a timely manner and in compliance with the IDEA reauthorization of 2004, ESSA, and the Dec. 2015 OSEP Dear Colleague Letter and the recently revised Indiana Article 7.
Intensive and focused assistance from the PATINS Project/Indiana Center for Accessible Materials (ICAM) will be very LEA-focused and will proceed in accordance with an individualized Action Plan collaboratively developed and agreed upon by the LEA’s AEM-UDL Coordinating Committee and the PATINS designated staff. Assistance will be provided to the LEA personnel involved in the provision of Accessible Educational Materials for students with qualifying print disabilities.
