Anna's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘Developmental Disability’

Jeff Covington sent me over this press release. I wanted to share it with our blog readers because it is super awesome that people are really beginning to reject the “R” word…even high schoolers. Thanks Jeff!!!

A Texas high school has recalled copies of its yearbook after special needs students were described as “mentally retarded” within its pages, angering teachers, students and their parents.

Mesquite High School‘s yearbooks were initially distributed on Friday, but were recalled by school officials within hours.

“They told the entire class that they have a slight mistake that needs to be fixed,” a senior at the school told Fox’s KDFW affiliate.

An introduction to the “Special Education” section read, “Some of the disabilities the students in the Special Education Program have are being blind, deaf or non-verbal” and described two students as “both blind and deaf, as well as mentally retarded.”

“There was an oversight in the editing approval process,” Laura Jobe, communications director for the Mesquite school district, told The Dallas Morning News. “Those who work inside the special education department know these requirements.”

The yearbooks will be redistributed this week, school officials said, without the offending pages.

“We earnestly regret the term ‘mentally retarded’ was included and offer our apologies to our students and their families,” Jobe said. “The use of the words ‘mentally retarded’ is something we would never condone.”

Mesquite High’s graduation is scheduled for May 26.

Second day at the APDDA Conference and there is just a lot of terrific networking going on. I’ve  gotten to spend a little time with some of our amazing Therapites, Judi Myers (Executive Director at Gatesway), Stacie and Arrahwanna (Program Directors at Home of Hope) and Dr. LaFontaine, DD Division Director for the State of Deleware…just to name a few.

Oh…I took a couple extra pics…one for Elliot and Connor (yes, it is as awesome a court as it looks) and Scott Umbright (APDDA Executive Director) let me hold his Oregon/Auburn game program…it was SOOOO sweet to look at!

You said you wanted Therap to be more individualized. You said you wanted more information in one location…well, by this Spring/Summer you should have it.

The newest and greatest feature coming out in our next major update - Therap 9.0  – will be the Individual Home.  This is a new page (or series of pages actually that will allow a user to see the most pertinent plans, background, and activity for an individual.

Check out the screen shot below and then email me and write, “Anna…I love Therap”…. yes…we ALL love Therap because Therap is all about what our providers need, request, and want from an electronic documentation provider! NO OTHER COMPANY comes close….

This week we will be submitting our brand new Therap T-Log App to the Apple App Store! Whoo Hoo!!!!

Different from the Mobile T-Log Reader, which you may have used before, the is a “real” native iPhone (or iPad or iPod Touch) App.

In addition to being able to read and write T-Logs, you can also include photos, audio, and your GPS Location!  We’ll be showing this off in Fishkill and you should be able to try it out for yourself in a few weeks.

Just ONE MORE REASON that Therap is your #1 choice when it comes to electronic documentation! I love it!!!!!

Oh YES!!! I am a proud Therapite!!!!!!! Why you ask? Well, wouldn’t you be proud if one of your Therp-loving users just received word that they got ZERO…that’s what I’m sayin’…Z-E-R-O deficiencies on their most recent State QA Review??? Huh???!!!!Oh yeah, did I mention that they have all of their documentation on THERAP!

Okay…I might have…but its worthy of noting again….SWEET!!!

We have every reason to be giddy...Super job LuAnn and the DJK team!

A HUGE Congratulations to Jean, LuAnn, Damien and all of the DJK staff for their outstanding work.