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	Center for Family Involvement
	The Center for Family Involvement (CFI) supports parents as decision makers, mentors, and leaders

In the past several years, the Partnership formalized commitment to families through the creation of the Center for Family Involvement, with the goal that parents/families and the professionals with whom they work embrace the family’s central role in improving the lives of individuals with disabilities. CFI works with families to increase their skills as decision makers, mentors, and leaders so that their family members and others with disabilities can lead the lives they want. (For more information, go to centerforfamilyinvolvement.org).

Major Activities:

• PARENT INVOLVEMENT SURVEY, 2005 - 2008
  CFI implemented and provided state and division reporting on results of a Part B and 619 Parent Involvement Survey responsive to Virginia’s Special Education State Performance Plan and Annual Performance Plan, Part B Indicator #8: the percentage of parents with a child receiving special education services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities.



• VA Family to Family (F2F)
  Through the F2F Heath Information and Education Center, CFI assists families by providing one place to call for accurate information, referral to support services, parent-to-parent support, and educational opportunities for learning about healthcare long team care support.



• PARENT/FAMILY LEADERSHIP AND FAMILY NAVIGATOR NETWORK
  Through parent-friendly training events and materials, CFI supports parent efforts to become advocates for their own children, mentors to others, and leaders in systems change and policy development. CFI supports a network of family navigators around the state who respond to parent and family calls for assistance in meeting the needs of their family member, and their family’s needs.



• CULTURAL OUTREACH LIASONS
  CFI provides outreach and support to culturally diverse families of children and youth with disabilities and assists parents and family members in understanding and navigating service systems to get the services they need.



• PARENT INVOLVEMENT ACTIVITIES
  CFI reviews parent involvement needs with Virginia Department of Education’s statewide Parent Involvement Priority Project and works with them and providers of parent involvement supports to identify and implement activities to help VA schools improve parent involvement and student outcomes.



• TRANSITION
  CFI develops and maintains a website for middle school students and their parents to assist them in beginning to plan for transition and life in the community. CFI partners with the VA Transition Forum to hold a Parent Summit for parents of students of transition age. A staff members serves as a representative to the Virginia Inter-Community Transition Council (VITC).



• PARENT RESOURCE CENTERS
  CFI provides training and facilitates networking for personnel of VA’s Parent Resource Centers and encourages new PRCs in Virginia public schools.



• LOCAL SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVISORY COMMITTEES
  CFI maintains a local SEAC website and provides information, resources, training, and technical assistance for local SEACs.



• COLLABORATIVE STANDARDS-DRIVEN IEPS
  CFI provides the Collaborative IEP Handbook and It’s About Me! A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating My IEP in English and Spanish; conducts Collaborative Standards-Driven IEP training with selected IEP teams; and develops training modules for other IEP teams in VA.