Happy Fall! That means I am deep in the throes of planning the 33rd annual PEAK Parent Center Conference on Inclusive Education being held February 14-15, 2019 at the Denver Stapleton Renaissance Hotel. My name is Deana Heisler and I am the Events Coordinator at PEAK. As I began planning for our upcoming conference I stumbled on to the “conference vault,” which, if it weren’t electronic, would have that old library smell! It holds years and years of conference memoriesRead more

Election Day is coming up on November 7, 2017 and we are excited to share information and tips about voting for people with disabilities and their families. En Español: Derecho al Voto de los Individuos con Discapacidades ; y Regístrate para Votar . If you are an educator interested in informing your students about the importance of voting, check out this article, Rock the Vote , from Teaching Tolerance! In every election season it is extremely important for all eligibleRead more

For our first Word Watch transition blog , PEAK enlisted friend and colleague Ian Watlington to contribute his wisdom and advice on how to avoid the “red flags” during the transition journey in order to move forward toward positive futures. We hope you enjoy hearing from Ian. Word Watch: Realistic By Ian Watlington It’s a question everyone gets asked at various stages in his/her life: What do you want to be when you grow up? As life goes along, suchRead more

If you need a guide that can help you make good decisions about transition and the supports and services you or your young person (if you are a parent) may need along the way, the Word Watch blog series from PEAK’s Shift Transition Project can help! There is a vast number of resources out there about transition to adulthood! Many are very good: they reflect best practices and current thinking about inclusion, belonging, respect, choices, and valuing the contributions ofRead more

October is Halloween month. This time of play and fancy can be a great chance for kids to participate with others in their neighborhood as they dress up and imagine themselves as new beings. When my kids were little, Halloween was a holiday I looked forward to and dreaded. My friends’ kids had playful, imaginative, amazing costumes which they planned for weeks, if not months, in advance. This mother, who doesn’t sew, struggled to find fun costumes especially for myRead more

PEAK recently received a request from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) asking for students, parents, teachers and other stakeholders to be a part of IDEA's 40th Anniversary Celebration! Here's their request: "OSEP is celebrating 40 years of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). As part of our celebration, we want to hear from individuals with disabilities, teachers, researchers, and other IDEA stakeholders about the personal impact this legislation has had. How has IDEA made a difference toRead more