Press Release - For Immediate Release
  August 25th, 2001
  Contact Information:
  Denton M. Kurtz (407) 629-9003
  the Kurtz Center
  1201 Louisiana Ave.
  Winter Park, FL  32789

Gail Kurtz, President of the Kurtz Center in Winter Park, and Denton Kurtz, M.Ed., Licensed School Psychologist  and Licensed Mental Health Counselor are two of only two hundred participants nationwide invited to hear and respond to findings from a series of white papers regarding learning disabilities.

August 27-28, 2001. The Learning Disabilities Summit: Building a Foundation for the Future will be held in Washington, DC on August 27 - 28, 2001.  This Summit is part of a national initiative sponsored by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education. 

OSEP has realized for some time that there is concern over the current identification and assessment procedures for LD. This summit serves as follow up to the 1997 IDEA regulations which called for careful review of research findings, expert opinion, and practical knowledge regarding the evaluation of children suspected of having a specific learning disability.

Early last year, OSEP began developing a process to open a discussion on the identification and assessment of children with learning disabilities.  The primary goal is to synthesize and organize the most current and reliable research available on key issues in learning disabilities. 

The Learning Disabilities Summit will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to hear and respond to findings from a series of white papers regarding learning disabilities. Written by nationally recognized experts in the field, each white paper reviews relevant empirical research and describes several critical issues which include:

• Early Childhood/Early Identification 
• Classification Approach 
• Historical Perspective 
• Approaches to Decision-Making 
• Discrepancy Models 
• Alternative Responses to Intervention 
• Processing Deficit Models
• Clinical Judgment 
• Is LD Real? 

Gail and Denton Kurtz report that the Summit was intense.  Each person invited listened and learned and participated in making recommendations for change.  It was apparent that the identification of SLD's will change.  The greatest need identified was to offer successful treatment programs to remediate LD;s, but it may be years before the Public Schools will offer that type of programming.

Interested individuals can get the latest information on the summit findings and the responses by contacting Denton M. Kurtz at (407) 629-9003.