Assistive Technology Partnership/Education, part of ESU 10 Program of Services and housed in the ESU 10's Cozad Center, provides statewide assistive technology services to children (birth to twenty-one) with special needs and their families, caregivers, teachers, service providers, etc. Some of the services offered by ATP/Education include:
- Training (which may range from awareness of assistive technology to specific devices)
- Consultations (child-specific requests/identified needs)
- Technical support (this may include phone support or on-site visitation)
- Funding (assistance with working through the funding process and information on available sources of funding, but ATP/Education is not a funding source)
- Equipment loan pool (short term loans of devices)
Because of the size of Nebraska, ATP/Education has divided the state into five regions, with an educational specialist assigned to each area. You are able to contact your educational specialist with specific questions you might have or requests for training, technical support, etc. There are no charges for services provided by ATP/Education.
The educational specialist for ESU 10 is Marcy Feik. Marcy's contact information is:
Marcy Feik
1910 Meridian Ave.
Cozad, NE 69130
mfeik@esu10.org
308.784.4525
Under Nebraska Rule 51, all decisions for a child on an Individual Education Plan (IEP) must be made through a team process. Educational specialists must operate within this team process. They work in conjunction with appropriate school personnel (administrators, regular and special education teachers, paraprofessionals, occupational and physical therapists, speech language pathologists, etc.), parents, agency personnel, and, most importantly, the student to assist in determining what assistive technology will be most effective for the student.
Educational specialists provide guidance to the local educational team on gauging and selecting appropriate assistive technology. They do not make specific recommendations or do evaluations on assistive technology. All decisions related to assistive technology services and devices are made by the school educational team.
ATP/Education has a statewide loan pool which offers you an opportunity to "try before you buy." You are able to borrow assistive technology for a short period of time to use and see if it is appropriate. The loan pool equipment is listed on the AT4ALL website
www.at4all.com. This allows you to view the equipment available and request items via the site. The AT4ALL website includes descriptions and photos of the devices and links to the manufacturing companies. AT4ALL also has loan pools from other participating programs and items for sale or give away.
ATP/Education is a good resource for information on where to purchase specific assistive technology.