ACCESS NEW HAMPSHIRE

The Access New Hampshire: Living with Disability in the Granite State project is a joint research effort by representatives of the Institute on Disability, Disabilities Rights Center, Granite State Independent Living, New Hampshire Developmental Disabilities Council, the New Hampshire Department of Education, the New Hampshire Division of Behavioral Health, the New Hampshire Bureau of Developmental Services, and the Governors Commission on Disability. Its mission is to help legislators, state and local agencies, and the broader public understand the extent to which New Hampshire enables all its residents particularly those living with some form of a disability to live and participate in their communities. By highlighting key issues education, health care, employment, and community supports we hope not only to raise awareness about the barriers confronting individuals with disabilities, but also to initiate a statewide conversation about how to work together to address these challenges.

The first policy brief of this initiative, Educational Supports for Children with Disabilities, was published on September 26, 2006 by the IOD.

Findings focused on multiple areas, including...

  • How many children with developmental disabilities and their families are served through Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA)? What kinds of services do they receive?
  • What benchmarks can be used to determine the effectiveness of transition plans for young children from early intervention to preschool or other community programs, and from preschool to kindergarten?
  • How many children receive special education services? In the last five years, have there been changes in the numbers of special education students with specific disabilities?
  • To what extent are New Hampshire communities consistent in their provision of special education services to children with various types of disabilities who live in different regions of the state?
  • Compared to children without disabilities, how do children with disabilities fare on statewide assessments?
  • How much more likely is a child with a disability to drop out of high school as compared to a child without a disability?

In addition to providing information about what we do know, the policy briefs are also meant as a tool for collective discussion and learning. To this end, the Access New Hampshire project seeks to identify emergent research questions in the field and to provide useful resources for those interested in learning more about the supports and services available for people with disabilities. The following pages will be updated as we receive feedback from our readers.

To download the complete report, click here (2MB pdf)

Please note! In order to provide better services to the people of New Hampshire and to facilitate dialogue around the Access New Hampshire project, it would be very helpful if you could take a few minutes to complete a short 6 question survey about the education brief.

If you would like to participate in the survey, please click here.

To learn more about emergent questions in the field of educational supports, click here

To learn more about available resources and supports, click here

To read the Access NH press release, click here