Hello to all and happy New Year!

As we navigate this new year, please give yourself the gift of extra time. When you are asked to share a memorable event in your lives, it isn't a special gift that people usually choose to speak about, but a particular experience they have had with someone special.

During this season, I would like to say thanks to:

· Parents and guardians who diligently spend quality time with their child.

· All the volunteers who give countless hours to make CCISD a better place for students and staff.

· Community members and parents who organize fund raisers, make phone calls, and bring food to classes and the staff lounge on special days.

· All the people in our district who are committed to giving their best to your children every day.

· All of you who are doing your very best to send your child ready to learn every day. I am proud of how much our community gives during this time of the year. We have many programs that reflect the caring community culture that is growing through our population.

On behalf of the Special Services staff, we hope that you had a wonderful holiday season and have a prosperous New Year!

Thank you so much for supporting all that we do!

Don't forget to check out our Calendar of Events listed at https://www.ccisd.net/specialservices. More events will be added as we continue to collaborate with you and find out what your needs are. Thanks for all that you do to help us grow and for your continued support! Remember that We Are Here For You!!!

As always, if we can be of service to you, please reach out via the link in the newsletter, by emailing sped@ccisd.net, or contacting us through our Parent Resource Center Specialist (Penny Sweeney) at 281-284-0751. We are here for you!

***The information provided in this newsletter is gathered from a variety of sources and is not sponsored by, nor affiliated with CCISD. The information is provided for your information and review.

If translation is needed for the Newsletter:

On the right-hand column under Accessibility, click on Translate and choose desired language.

Si se necesita traducción para el Boletín:

En la columna de la derecha, abajo en donde dice Accessibility, haga clic en Traducir y elija el idioma deseado

Dr. Michele Staley

CCISD Executive Director of Special Services

Thank you to all of the wonderful parents that support the Parent Resource Center. I love the time that we spend together!

Researchers are continually conducting studies to learn more about the causes of dyslexia, early identification of dyslexia, and the most effective treatments for dyslexia.

Developmental dyslexia is associated with difficulty in processing the orthography (the written form) and phonology (the sound structure) of language. As a way to understand the origin of these problems, neuroimaging studies have examined brain anatomy and function of people with and without dyslexia. These studies are also contributing to our understanding of the role of the brain in dyslexia, which can provide useful information for developing successful reading interventions and pinpointing certain genes that may also be involved.

Do you have students who struggle with reading? Here are two tools that are available to support your students:

Learning Ally

What it Is: Learning Ally Audiobooks is a digital library app located in the CCISD SSO portal that features human-voiced audiobooks. It's designed to meet the needs of struggling readers, including those with a learning disability, physical disability, or visual impairment. It features over 80,000 human-read audiobooks.

How It Works: If your child struggles with reading, reach out to your child's case manager or teacher to see if your child would be eligible for a Learning Ally Account. If your child already has a Learning Ally, Account, they should be able to log-in to it from their SSO portal.

Additional Info and Resources:

• Learning Ally Eligibility Guide

• Learning Ally Parent Resource Packet

Snap and Read

What It Is: Snap and Read is an extension that can be used to read text from online documents, websites, and PDFs to students. It also includes study tools, such as highlighters and notes, translation tools and text leveling tools.

How It Works: A student will open a document and turn their Snap and Read extension on. Once the extension is on they have access to the reading and text tools.

Who Has Access: ALL CCISD teachers and students.

Additional Info and Resources:

• Snap& Read Quick Reference Guide for Tool Usage