Symposium on Improving Educational Outcomes for Students with Intellectual and Behavioral Disabilities due to Prenatal Alcohol Exposure
Symposium hosted by the Education Work Group of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Sponsored by: Interagency Coordinating Committee on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and The Office of Rare Diseases, National Institutes of Health and U. S. Department of Education.
Brief Summary
The purpose of the meeting was to bring the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) biomedical community and the Education Community together to learn to communicate and understand each other better. That included increasing awareness of FASD and the needs of persons with FASD in the education system and also increasing understanding by the FASD biomedical community of current and potential relevant activities in the educational systems.
The ICCFAS Education Work Group Members include staff from CDC, US Department of Education, IHS, NIAAA, NICHD, and several experts from outside the federal government. US Department of Education, NIAAA, and NICHD members of the ICCFAS Education Work Group were particularly prominent in structuring the meeting and leading discussion groups during the meeting.
The meeting was open to the public and the seventy participants included biomedical research scientists conducting relevant basic research and/or intervention trials and demonstration projects; education community representatives from universities, several states, local communities, and the federal government; FASD advocates, and other interested persons. In general, the results of the meeting include increased awareness of shared understandings and different perceptions between the biomedical and education communities, recommendations for ways of increasing FASD information dissemination and training materials to the education community, and suggestions of ways to accommodate the needs of students with FASD within the present structure of educational systems in the US. Preparation of the formal proceedings and report from the meeting are in progress and will be available before the end of the year.