Exceptional Childrens Assistance Center Inc.

“The executive and finance committe of the board of directors received an electronic copy of the form 990 for review and comment prior to submission.”

“Each year, annually all members of the ecac board of directors are required to sign a conflict of interest statement. In addition, board members are encouraged to identify any conflicts of interests as board business is being conducted. Board members who do not disclose a conflict of interest and/or have benefited from an ecac board action or management decision without the organization's knowledge will be removed from the board. The executive committee of the board of directors is responsible for enforcing the policy; however, in the case of a member of the executive committee, the entire board will participate. The ecac personnel policies also contain a conflict of interest policy. The policy is reviewed with all new staff members as a part of the staff orientation process, and signed annually by staff members. The policy is periodically reviewed at staff meetings,and project managers are responsible for compliance. A staff member who does not follow the conflict of interest policy will either recieve a written warning or be terminated, depending on the seriousness of the infraction and degree of harm to ecac.”

“The ecac board of directors determined the executive director's salary based on a performance review.”

“Ecac's officers are board volunteers and not compensated.”

“The form 990 and irs 501(c)(3) determination letter are available to the public upon request. Copies will be provided immediately in the case of in person requests. Requests received by writing, phone, fax, or e-mail means will be honored by directing the requestors to guidestar. The current form 990 (not including schedule b), form 1023, and copies of previous form 990's can be requested. Hard copies can be requested from the ecac office, and we reserve the right to charge a reasonable copying fee plus actual postage.”

“The exceptional children's assistance center (ecac) is a private non-profit parent organization committed to improving the lives and education of all children through a special emphasis on children with disabilities. Ecac affirms the right of all individuals, from all backgrounds and cultures, with or without disabilities, to an appropriate education and other needed services. We seek to make that right a reality by providing north carolina families with a variety of parent information, education, outreach, and support program and services. All parent training and information activities are designed to provide families with the information and skills they need to advocate for and access appropriate educational and other needed services.”

“Ecac works closely with the n.c. Department of public instruction (ncdpi) exceptional children division. As such, we have several contracts to carry out specific scopes of work (sow) for projects related to family engagement in schools and projects to increase the graduation rate for students with disabilities. The nc state improvement program (nc sip) provides services to reading and math sites across the state, develop and distribute information for families of children with disabilities, enhance family engagement efforts through providing leadership trainings that help families gain the knowledge and skills needed to be more actively involved in helping improve educational outcomes and services for children with disabilities. This includes a 'speaker's network' of parents to share their experiences in preserve and/or graduate students in up to 10 n.c. Institutions of higher education. In addition, ncdpi provides financial support to fund specialists to assist families raising children with deaf/blindness”

“The parent training and information center (pti) provides services to north carolina families of children with disabilities, youth, their teachers, and other professionals. This project is funded through a grant from the us department of education, office of special education programs. All services are designed to provide families with the information and tools they need to navigate the special education system and become informed and effective participants in their child's education. Services are provided at no cost to parents and family members, and include: a toll-free help line, individual assistance with educational issues, workshops, institutes and webinars, website, newsletters, fact sheets, information packets, a free lending library, and information through social media. Information is available in both english and spanish. Ecac's pti staff members responded to more than 19,000 individual requests from nc families and professionals. Ecac reached more than 8,000 families, students and professionals through trainings in both english and spanish. Our newsletters reached nearly 50,000 people. Ecac had nearly 3 million connections on social media and the website received more than 100,000 hits on the web page for information. Ecac also distributed almost 12,000 individual pieces of information during the exhibits and workshops we provided.”

“Infant toddler program (cdsa); under a contract with the state department of health and human services, division of early intervention, ecac purchases assistive technology for babies/toddlers at risk as described on the families individual family service plans. The 16 child development service agengy (cdsa) offices prepare authorization for purchase of assistive technology (204 orders, total over 129,000) and reimbursment to familes for medical cost over the families sliding scale cap amount (161 payments, total almost 50,000). Maternal and child health program; under the bureau of children and youth branch of the department of public health, ecac issues checks (212 payments, total over 60,000) to family members attending public meetings and trainings that direct the care for children and youth with special health care needs. Other contracts; includes the work ecac performs for the department of public instruction through the oak foundation grants. Focus of funding is training teachers of students with special learning disabilities(payments out of over 89,400). In addition, part of the other contracts is the subcontract mentioned in line 4c with parent to parent of georgia for technical assistance to 12 states with parent training and information centers (expenditures over 135,500).”