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Welcome to Maryland Learning Links!
Maryland Learning Links is the one place to visit for information, guidance and resources related to Special Education in Maryland. Whether you are an administrator, teacher, service provider or parent, you are sure to benefit from MLL’s comprehensive and user-friendly blend of knowledge and real-world practice, all of it built on the belief that every child can learn and achieve both inside and outside the classroom.
Here are the main topic areas for the site:
In this section of the site, you will learn about Maryland’s Birth through Five early childhood intervention and Special Education system of services. These services are all rooted in the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004, which ensures that children with disabilities have the opportunity to receive a free and appropriate education (FAPE) just like children who do not have disabilities. The evidence has shown that one of the most effective ways to achieve this mandate is to reach children with disabilities when they are very young. Here you will find out how to make that happen.
Today’s increasingly diverse classrooms present great opportunities as well as complex challenges for educators. How do you plan, instruct and assess so that all of your students learn and achieve to their maximum potential? In this part of the site, we focus on a variety of real-world tools and strategies that can assist you in promoting success for all your students, with a particular emphasis on students with disabilities. You will also see here that approaches like Universal Design for Learning, Differentiated Instruction and Co-Teaching – while originally intended to address the needs of students with disabilities – can actually help every student that you teach.
Now, more than ever, professional educators actively participate in a lifelong learning adventure – theirown. So how do you keep up with all the advances in educational theory and practice? How do you mentor others while also developing as a professional yourself? How do you address the challenges and opportunities of teaching in the 21st century? And most important of all, how do you ensure that you are using the teaching strategies and techniques that are best for your particular students and for what you want them to learn? This section of Maryland Learning Links helps to answer these questions and provides you with some roadmaps around building a productive and rewarding career teaching all kinds of learners.
School administrators are the instructional leaders who lay the foundation for establishing a culture of collaboration with their staff, parents and community to create a positive school climate that promotes student success. In the role of the instructional leader, how do you enhance your skills to effectively meet the needs of students with disabilities and other diverse learners? And how do you empower and support your staff to deliver high-quality, research-based instruction that addresses the needs of all your students? In this area of the site, you will learn about leadership, collaboration and how you can be a catalyst for promoting high levels of achievement for all the students at your school.
Parent involvement is one of the single most important factors in a child’s success in school. When parents and educators work together as partners, all children can thrive in school and in their lives after school. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) makes parents equal partners – with local school systems, service providers and education agencies – in plotting the educational course of their children with disabilities. So how do you as a parent use that authority to its best effect? In this section of Maryland Learning Links, you will learn about the Special Education laws, processes and resources that you need to know about to help your child succeed. You will also hear the personal stories of other parents and get some tips about great creative and educational activities that you can do with your child every day.
Special Education happens in the classroom. But the foundation for Special Education is in a set of federal and state laws. What are these laws? And how do they impact you and your students in the classroom? In this area of the site, you will learn about the laws that are the basis for Special Education, with particular emphasis on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). We have also gathered a wide range of federal and state resources here that will be useful for educators and families alike.