Our Mission
To provide services and leadership, in partnership with families, schools and communities, that improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth.

Our Goals
• Increase learning growth for students
• Decrease the gap in achievement
• Increase annual graduation rates
• Increase gateways to post-secondary success

Leadership Lessons at Heartland AEA

Greetings, 
Do you think of yourself as a leader? I hope so. At Heartland AEA, there are so many ways every employee provides leadership as a part of his/her daily responsibilities. 

You may have heard about the pilot study on leadership development that is underway at the Agency. A small group of staff is checking out the Denison leadership development system and working together to cultivate their skills. While I look forward to learning from this group’s journey over the next several months, I encourage all of us to simultaneously work on our own leadership skills. 

One of my colleagues shared a leadership blog with me that you may also find helpful. One of the feature articles on the blog highlights the results of a study by the late Warren Bennis (a great resource on leadership/former distinguished professor of business administration at USC) on characteristics of influential leaders. Some highlights of his work about creating empowering environments include the following tips: 

1. Share information. 
2. Change your mind based on new information shared with you. 
3. Expect positive results. 
4. Provide learning opportunities for those you serve to enhance expertise. 
5. Ask, don’t command. (Unless you’re in a crisis.) 
6. Set goals together rather than independently assigning them. 
7. Authorize others to act and decide. 
8. Establish mistake-making policies before mistakes happen. 
9. Expect people to solve their own problems as much as possible. 
10. Be an external cheerleader – most of us have plenty of internal critics. 
11. Express enthusiasm for the projects and interests of others. 

See how many times you can use this advice when engaging with colleagues, with those you serve and with the planning councils you are connected to. You will be exercising leadership and contributing to an empowering work environment for others! What have you been reading about leadership? 

Please share your ideas and thoughts (share in the “Comments” section of this article) or consider writing a guest article for The Connection. 

Have a great week, 
Paula

Help Heartland AEA LIVE UNITED by Donating to 2014 United Way Campaign!

As you heard at the All-Staff meeting, Heartland AEA will again be participating in a campaign to support United Way. Heartland AEA participates in this drive because United Way serves families and students in our communities in ways that are complimentary to our mission. Our donations are directly applied to United Way community priorities in Education, Income and Health. United Way supports programs that help high school students graduate on time and supports other programs that increase the learning growth and school readiness of early and middle-grade students. That’s quite comparable to our agency’s educational goals! We hope that you feel comfortable by choosing to donate to worthy causes through United Way. 

Our goal this year is to increase employee participation through pledge card giving and special events. Even if it’s just $1 a pay period – we would be grateful for your donation! 

Pledge Your Continued Support 
Pledge cards are an easy, convenient way to give back to the community. Staff may choose a one time donation or payroll deduction. It is important that if you choose to do a pay deduction, your total contribution is evenly divisible by 24 pay periods. Remember that pay deduction pledges from last year’s drive continue to be in effect until December 31, 2014. 

As an added incentive, whomever submits a completed pledge card with any donation amount will receive one casual day sticker. Everyone loves casual day! 

Pledge cards will be sent out to each regional office this week, so look for them soon in an office near you! You can return your completed form to Samantha Perry, Human Resources Specialist, in the Johnston Administration Center, Van Route #0.0. Return your card by Oct. 31 to be eligible for the casual day incentive! 

Get Your Bids Ready for the Online Auction 
We will be blowing the dust off our online auction site to again bring you some great items to bid on! Be watching for the link to the live auction site towards the end of the month. 

Regional/Office Events 
Stay tuned for more information about specific events that will be held in each region/office! 

If for any reason you do not wish to donate to United Way, the Community Health Charities of Iowa and Iowa Shares are two other charity organizations in which you can donate. We are unable to do payroll deductions for these organizations at this time. If you choose to donate to these organizations, you can contact the agencies at the following: 
Community Health Charities of Iowa (877) 517-6266 
Iowa Shares (319) 338-1446 

Your participation in the Agency’s United Way events is voluntary. It is not the Agency’s intention to pressure any Heartland AEA staff into donating. We hope you find United Way is an easy way to reach out and help the communities we live in!

Updates to Your Wellmark Health Insurance Plan

Below is a list that highlights updates that have been made to our Wellmark health insurance plan. Amendment 1 and Amendment 2 are complete lists of the updates. 

• BlueCard® notification enhancement — When your employees are traveling outside of their home state and are admitted to a BlueCard facility, it will no longer be the employee’s responsibility to handle notification requirements. The BlueCard provider will now be responsible for handling this for your employees. 
• Residential treatment facility language — On Nov. 13, 2013, the Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of the Treasury released the final rule for the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). The requirements of this final rule necessitate a change to the definition of residential treatment facilities. 
• Smoking cessation — Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control. Now, nongrandfathered Wellmark health plans cover prescription drugs and devices to treat nicotine dependence at no cost to employees. This ACA benefit update does not apply to grandfathered health plans. However, grandfathered health plans can choose to cover smoking cessation drugs.

Reminder: Last Week to Register for Teacher Quality Offerings!

The list of courses and study groups with registration information is now available. The deadline to register for Teacher Quality courses and study groups is Oct. 3. Most courses and study groups will be held November through June. A few offerings will start in October. Last year eligible staff members were paid $500 to participate in a course or study group. The amount for 2014-15 will be determined when registration closes on Oct. 3. Participants register by going to the Agency’s professional development catalog. A frequently asked questions document has also been created.

Reminder: Programming Change Approaching for Licensure Classes

All Drake University Extension Education courses offered after July 1, 2015, must be offered for EDMA credit. Drake EDMA courses must have 30 hours of outside work for each credit offered in the course. 

For example, if you offer a one-credit course (15 contact hours), there must be an additional 30 hours of work the participants are required to do outside of class. There must also be a way to document or assess that work. Courses that start before July 1, 2015, can be offered for EDEX credit even if the course ends after July 1. 

Drake is currently working to develop a web page that outlines this change and include other resources and updates as we move forward. Please see our professional development web page for more information.

Reminder: Two New Features of the Child Find Module Coming to Web IEP System

Effective Oct. 1, 2014 two new features of the Child Find module of the Web IEP system will be available. 

Feature 1 will email the first listed electronic participant with all open evaluations. Each Monday after Oct. 1st, this email will be generated for all open Child Find records and will include the remaining days for the 60-day timeline. 

Feature 2 will email the first electronic participant that the timeline for the Child Find module is reaching the point at which the record will be deleted (fall off the Child Find list). The first electronic participant will be notified of the action steps that must be completed to ensure that the record will not drop off the student list. 

We hope these two features will enhance your use of the Child Find Web IEP module.