FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (April 2009)
Contact: Elizabeth McAdams-Ducy, Graduate Student, at elizhope@neo.tamu.edu, or Kelsey Johnson, Communications Specialist, 979-862-4990 or kelsey_johnson@tamu.edu
A&M Students Create C.A.R.E. Kits for Special Education Classrooms
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS – When disaster strikes during the school day, are teachers adequately prepared? Student researchers at Texas A&M University have identified the need for improved disaster preparedness in the classroom and are developing kits for special educators whose students have disabilities.
Elizabeth McAdams-Ducy, research assistant for Project REDD (Research and Education on Disability and Disaster), supervised the research project for two master's students––Ginger Murray and Lindsey Young––who are trainees in the Low-Incidence Disabilities (LID) program. The student researchers created a disaster preparedness kit prototype. The C.A.R.E. (Classroom Action in a Real Emergency) kit includes suggestions for contents for three different types of kits, preparedness checklists and student information forms. It is expected that teachers will use the kit as a guide for their disaster planning.
"The contents and development of the C.A.R.E. kit is grounded in recent literature on disaster and disability," says Mc-Adams-Ducy. "This project is seminal because there is currently not any product available specifically for special education teachers in planning for their students with disabilities in times of disaster."
C.A.R.E. kits are being created for special education classrooms in Navasota ISD with the goal of eventually distributing the kits more broadly as funding sources are secured. The student researchers also plan to train special education teachers on effective disaster preparedness planning and on the use of the C.A.R.E. kit.
McAdams-Ducy will present on the C.A.R.E. kit project at the CEC (Council for Exceptional Children) Convention and Expo 2009 in Seattle, Wash. View the C.A.R.E. kit poster (pdf).
For more information, contact Elizabeth McAdams-Ducy at elizhope@neo.tamu.edu.
###