Tag: SEPAC

SEPAC Business Meeting – April 11th, 2023

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Kristen Burke, Joyce Schlenger, Amy Forsythe, Jason Choi, Junko Nagano, Kate, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, and Jessica Dombrosky attended.

Approve Minutes:

Minutes will be approved offline

Officer/Committee Reports:

• Tonight we have the Basic Rights Transition workshop with FCSN. We will put the registration link in the chat.
• On May 9th we will hold a business meeting which will involve nominations for SEPAC officers for next year.
• On May 11th we will be presenting the results of our SEPAC survey to the school Committee
• On May 16th we are having an evening workshop with Dr. Crahan from Tufts, on the importance of sexuality and relationship education being inclusive for neurodivergent student populations.
• We are going to contribute a statement toward the sex education presentation to the School Committee later today, and have our officers sign it.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

–

APS Staff Reports:

• The School Committee approved the District’s 5 year plan, with special initiatives outlined where Special Education and MTSS are identified as a focus.
• We have a number of hiring committees meeting, to fill administrative positions (Bishop principal, Brackett principal to replace Mrs. Z after almost 50 years of service, the Director of SEL, Director of Data and Accountability) Many of these positions are being added to support the strategic initiatives.

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

–

Announcements:

• We are hosting our Basic Rights Transition Workshop tonight with the Federation for Children with Special Needs. Registration is required.
• Our next meeting is on May 9th at 7:30pm on Zoom.

Adjourn

SEPAC Business Meeting – March 14, 2023

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Alison Babeu, Claire Johnson, Cheryl, Eileen Coleman, Jamie Fisher, Jill Krajewski, Katrina Bernstein-Lewicke, Krasimira Petkov, Paul Schlichtman, Laura Gitelson, Leslie O’Brien, Lisa Welch, Liz Exton, Louisa Popkin, Margaret Potter, Michele Phelan, Rachel Miller, Rohit Dhanjal, and Tracy Callahan attended.

Approve Minutes:

Minutes will be approved offline

Officer/Committee Reports:

• We held our anxiety workshop with Dr. Stephani Synn from the Baker Center. The slides were emailed out to our email list.
• On March 21st we have a bullying workshop from FCSN. You have to register at least 24 hours in advance, and we need a certain number of people registered (10?) for them to hold the workshop.
• On April 11th we’ll have our business meeting in the morning and our transition workshop with FCSN in the evening. Keep an eye out for the flyer for that one.
• The dates for the roundtables with the publishers of the various reading curriculum finalists will be announced soon, so keep an eye out for that email.
• Sarah attended the Visions of Community Conference online last weekend. Judy Human was supposed to be the keynote speaker, but unfortunately she passed away.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

–

APS Staff Reports:

• Tomorrow is Civics Day for 8th Grade students at Ottoson. Alison will be on a panel about accessibility, along with a representative from the town.
• The School Committee meeting this week will be held at the METCO headquarters in Boston. Members will be voting on the proposed budget.
• We’ve begun to have transition meetings for 5th graders going over to Gibbs. Fifth grade teams will give information about current services and ask about programming at Gibbs.

Question and Answer Session with Arlington School Committee Candidates:

(Secretary’s Note: Due to technical issues, I was unable to obtain the live transcript from this meeting to reference for editing at a later time. Due to this issue, not all statements were fully captured in response to the questions posed. I did the best I could to keep up.)

• Paul – Educator background, Special Ed background, formerly on the School Committee at Minuteman. Paul’s Website
• Liz – Parent of Stratton students, educator in a nearby district, was elected at the start of the pandemic. She realizes that the strategic plan initiatives are just getting started, and that communication with families is paramount. Liz’s Website
• Jill – Educator and union leader in her school. Designer of programming for 9th grade students. Interested in implementing policy. Making sure that the special education process is visible to parents and that families are engaged in communication and have equitable access. MTSS is a game-changer and should be implemented at every level from Kindergarten to 12th grade. A third priority is the roll-out of our new literacy program, looking at the impact it has on all groups of students, especially special education students. Jill’s Website
  
• Laura – Has had many conversations with parents of special education students. Peirce parent to two kids, on Rainbow Commission, part of Moms Demand Action, worked as a substitute teacher. Need to implement resources equitably across the district, prioritize quality Professional Development for Teachers. Laura’s Website

Role of Budget –

Paul – SC hires and sets expectations of the Superintendent, and then they evaluate effectiveness through measurable outcomes.

Liz – SEPAC gives good feedback on how effective the budget/policy choices are for students.

Jill – Important to choose quality PD for teachers, use current structures of communication, such as SEPAC and School Committee chats/meetings, to get proactive feedback from parents.

Laura – Expert on advocacy for families, important to her to use these communication skills to help inform which policy is best for our kids.

Teacher/Paraprofessional Retention-

Laura – We have TAs in every Kindergarten class, and she has seen how important they are for our kids. Pay equity for teachers and especially among paraprofessionals is needed to bring them in line with neighboring districts. Also having quality PD to make them want to stay in the profession.

Jill – Thankful for Paul helping to negotiate the paraprofessionals contracts recently. She supports a mentor program, having exit interviews, and finding out why they’re leaving. Housing is an important issue, having affordable housing in town. Teacher pathway funding, especially for teachers in marginalized groups, is available.

Liz – Arlington is a tricky town to access. Teachers would leave farther away, getting here is tricky. In terms of retention, PD for paraprofessionals is really important. Having consistent early release across schools is important for PD. Having a mentor/staff member to support paraprofessionals is important to make them feel valued. Supporting our teachers in their roles is also important, because it makes paraprofessionals want to stay.

Paul – Four years ago we passed a debt exclusion and override for a $270 million High School. By the time it passed with 75% of the budget, it was because everyone knew why it was needed. The current issue we need to address is the teacher and paraprofessionals salaries and how they need to be brought up in line with neighboring towns so we don’t lose them.

Universal Design in Learning –

Jill – Arlington is in the middle of a pilot with heterogeneous groupings, so it’s hard to evaluate how it’s going yet. Has worked with identifying IEP students to be part of a project-based learning classroom/program, and it was like night and day for them.

Liz – Need to give students opportunities to demonstrate their learning. It’s important to provide opportunities for teachers to work collaboratively with one another, to have a special educator as part of that collaboration. Giving time for teachers to work across content areas to collaborate is important.

Paul – One of the things we can do as a School Committee is allow teachers to implement a pilot program that gives students opportunities to try honors level work. It’s important to let them work in teams, support them as they implement heterogeneous classrooms.

Laura – Not an educator, but will read the research and support teachers as they implement heterogeneous classroom programming.

Student feels supported/feels a sense of belonging –

Jill – Important to have support in classrooms, but also with extracurriculars, so special needs kids can feel like they are full participants in the school experience.

Paul – Important to survey kids, find out where they need support, and make sure we have enough social workers to support kids in each building.

Rebuilding a sense of trust?

Jill – Important for school committee members to listen, go to SEPAC just to listen.

Liz – It needs to be a conversation, listening but also communicating what the SC can and can’t do, finding a way within the system to implement change.

Paul – Trust is a lagging indicator. Would like to explore going forward, coming up with a metric of how many parents are coming to meetings with advocates, outside evaluations, etc. If fewer numbers, indicator

Understanding of Equity –

Laura – Look at the data, who is being disciplined, who is underperforming in schools, and hold superintendent and building principals accountable. It should be that it shouldn’t matter which classroom a student is in, they should feel supported across the district.

Jill – MTSS and engagement are very important. We should encourage teachers to pick a focal group of students and engage with them to enact positive change.

Liz – Equity is all students getting what they need to achieve. It’s important for teachers to have high expectations of students and use MTSS framework to help students get what they need.

Paul – His concern is with students whose families aren’t as savvy, don’t have the resources they need to advocate as effectively for their kids. Families of English Language Learners, Immigrants. These families need to be provided with resources to bridge the gap, and give these parents a voice so their children’s needs are advocated for at the table.

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

–

Announcements:

• Our next meeting is on April 11th at 9am on Zoom.

Adjourn

SEPAC Business Meeting – February 14, 2023

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Louisa Popkin, Joyce Schlenger, Chris Carlson, Amy Benjamin, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Cathy Bieksha, Cheryl, Kate, Claire Johnson, Kimberly Bradshaw, Ashley Lorenz, Lisa Welch, and Alison Babeu attended.

Approve Minutes: 

Minutes will be approved offline

Officer/Committee Reports:

– Tomorrow, thanks to Jess Chloros, we will be hosting a speaker from the Baker Center for a workshop on anxiety. We will be on this link at 7pm.

– AHS will be hosting a parent group on guardianship and guardianship alternatives, both in the morning and in the evening on Wednesday

– At 6pm, the Understanding Our Differences crew will be hosting a workshop. Slides will be available after.

– We will be hosting a workshop from the Federation for Children With Special Needs in the spring, either Understanding Your IEP or Transition Planning. We will be hosting it along with Somerville SEPAC, who was kind enough to include us in their Basic Rights Workshop in the fall.

– We will have all four of the candidates for School Committee for a question and answer session at our March business meeting. If you have questions you’d like to ask, please send them to us and we can ask them for you.

-On March 21^st at 7pm, we will be hosting a workshop on bullying and what parents should know from FCSN. We need at least 7 people preregistered, otherwise they will cancel the workshop.

-On April 11^th we will have a morning business meeting, and then in the evening we will be hosting our Basic Rights Transition Workshop from FCSN, along with Somerville SEPAC.

-Dr. MacNeal will be presenting curriculum finalists. Feel free to give feedback.

-FCSN gives us one free attendance for their virtual workshop for parents. Send us a message if you’d like to attend.

-Our Parent/Caregiver survey will close at the end of this week.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

-We will be hosting a workshop from the Baker Center on Coping with Anxiety, scheduled for tomorrow, February 15^th at 7pm on Zoom.

APS Staff Reports:

– Dr. MacNeal will be presenting the three finalists for our new reading curriculum. Here is a link to Dr MacNeal’s presentation: https://arlington.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=15267&MeetingID=1643

– There will be an upcoming budget presentation to the School Committee

Parent/Caregiver Listening Session with Alison Elmer, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services:

Things that have been working for us:

-Having someone else pass along knowledge of my child from year to year, the DIBELS reading assessments

-Open communication with members of my child’s team and the school nurse

-School staff and school nurse keep me aware of how my child is doing during the day. 

-Even though staff changes, there has always been someone who contacts me through the transition from one team member to the next. 

-Team members are attentive to the needs of my child who is not on an IEP, giving them social emotional support and access to Tier 1 interventions so she feels safe at school.

Challenges:

– Social worker turnover (4 in 5 years) at Stratton has been a challenge, because it takes a while for my child to build a relationship.

– A lack of knowledge about neurodiversity, and what different disabilities look like, what autistic masking looks like, dismissing parent concerns and reports of falling apart at home after holding it together in school. More professional development is needed around identifying students who might need interventions and support.

– There appears to be a lack of communication between special educators from year to year, and sometimes things that work aren’t communicated from one year to the next. What procedures are in place so that communication happens.

-It’s extremely hard for my student with an emotional disability to go into an environment (Ottoson) where she is treated badly/bullied, and the anticipatory anxiety makes attending school each day difficult. Not sure if it’s the size of the school, or the lack of a consistent emphasis on building a positive school climate. The interventions on the IEP are set up to be reactive to the negative climate, but nothing is being done to address the negative environment that makes these interventions necessary.

-The structure of how schedules don’t work with supports, and how changes needed to be made when supports were added. Sometimes those changes involved being put with a student detrimental to child’s emotional well-being, and you are forced to make a choice between emotional well-being and academic success.

-Would like to be able to communicate directly with paraprofessionals like I can with the social worker, so they’re not left out of the communication about support needs. 

-The SLC at Stratton is bursting at the seams, and they’re concerned about how some students have a literal closet as a classroom. As a district, it sends a message when we provide this kind of inadequate environment for our highest needs kids. The SLC classrooms shouldn’t be hidden away behind a secret door, and they should be in a space with enough room to move around. Kids spill out into the hallways, and sometimes their most difficult moments are in public, for all to see. It’s shameful, and important that the district know about it.

What are some opportunities from a student services perspective, now that we are under the same umbrella as SEI and Counseling?

-Opportunities for evaluating and improving the climate of schools, and the way that student difficulties are handled, that could really help students with disabilities.

-Social curricula are not tested on students with disabilities, and aren’t inclusive of everyone. You shouldn’t have to perform one sort of thing in order to be seen as standing up for yourself. Not everyone is able to perform to these expectations.

-More training is needed for educators in how disabilities show up in behavior, and how the student doing the behavior is sometimes not assessed through the lens of someone whose needs are also not met. Why are we not using Collaborative Problem Solving in other schools besides the High School? Why is there not a move to roll it out in the other schools? As far as I’m aware, the Ottoson doesn’t have a SEI curriculum.

-Not all students qualify for an IEP, and it’s important that those who don’t still have their needs met through Tier II interventions.

-If you feel more comfortable sharing your thoughts anonymously, feel free to share them in response to our annual survey.

-It’s been shown that you get more response from APS if you hire an advocate. This is a barrier to accessing support, because not everyone can afford one.

-If your focus is on three areas at once, it is a concern that not as much attention is being paid to special education issues. Alison answered that the special ed coordinators play a big role in the department and in addressing the needs of students in the individual schools.

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

–  

Announcements:

– 

Adjourn

SEPAC Business Meeting – January 10, 2023

Call to Order

Introductions:

Alison Elmer, Chris Carlson, Kristin Burke, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Alison Babeu, Lou Duquette-Holmes, Jim and Suzie, Rohit Dhanjal, Lisa Welch, and Sarah Amitay (Sara Hamitay?) attended.

Approve Minutes:

Meeting minutes from October 2022, November 2022, and December 2022 were approved.

Officer/Committee Reports:

• As of today, we are confirmed for a presentation on February 15th from 7-8:30pm with a staff psychologist at the Baker Center on identifying and supporting students with anxiety. They were recommended to us by Jess Cloros, so be sure to check with your specialists to see if they might be willing to do a presentation
• The survey has been updated to include sections on emotional well-being and academic access
• Sarah and Alison are on the search committee for a new deputy Superintendent on Curriculum and Instruction.
• We will be hosting a workshop from the Federation for Children With Special Needs in the spring, either Understanding Your IEP or Transition Planning. We will be hosting it along with Somerville SEPAC, who was kind enough to include us in their Basic Rights Workshop in the fall.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

-We will be hosting a workshop from the Baker Center on Coping with Anxiety, scheduled for February 15th at 7pm on Zoom.

APS Staff Reports:

• There is a search committee for a new Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. The finalists will be identified soon. These finalists will go through another round of assessments and round robin interview panels, including meeting with groups of teachers, admins, students, and parents.
• Over the next few School Committee meetings, they will focus on different aspects of the Strategic Five-Year Plan and Priorities that have been developed/identified as important for the District. It is also budget season, so funding for these priorities will also be discussed.

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

• Lou Duquette-Holmes from Wayside says that they offer many levels of support and outpatient mental health care (they accept both private health insurance and MassHealth). They run support groups for students during the week, and offer free monthly workshops (funded by Department of Mental Health) on topics important to parents/families, and they also hold IEP workshops.
• The center that services Arlington students/residents is Advocates, out of Framingham, MA. (Link: advocates.org Phone: (508) 628-6300 )
• There is a new Behavioral Health Help Line. (833-773-2445) It’s free and is available to anyone needing mental health help/support. It’s different from the National Suicide Hotline (988), but they can connect you to that hotline if those services are needed.
• There are many concerns about the degree of mental health challenges students are facing after having their education disrupted by a global pandemic.
• Sarah mentioned that many of these questions and concerns about mental health would be addressed in our upcoming survey questions, and also during the anxiety workshop next month with the staff psychologist from the Baker Center.

Announcements:

• Our next meeting will be Tuesday, February 14th, at 9am.

Adjourn

SEPAC Business Meeting – December 13, 2022

Call to Order

Introductions: Dr. Roderick MacNeal Jr., Alison Elmer, Amy Benjamin, Kristin Burke, Lisa Welch, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Amy Forsythe, Cathleen Hoelscher, Deborah Perry, Elizabeth McWhorter, Gina Filosa, Jennie Mansfield, Kate Radville, Claire Johnson, Anna, and Rachel Ostrow attended.

Approve Minutes: Minutes will be approved offline before the next meeting.

Officer/Committee Reports:

• Inae and Sarah had their annual meeting with Dr. Homan. They touched on a lot of talking points, including open/transparent communication with parents, and SEPAC participation and feedback on programming.
• Sarah has started a Google form where parents can express their preference on whether they’d like to participate on any committees.
• We are working on our annual survey and will make it available in January. If you would like to give any suggestions for this year’s survey, please message/email us at arlingtonSEPAC@gmail.com or on Facebook Messenger.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

• We had our first Basic Rights workshop, Evaluation and Eligibility, along with Somerville, back in October. We are looking to host our own workshop, on either Transition or Understanding Your IEP, sometime in the spring.
• We have a parent who is working on getting a workshop from the Baker Center on Emotional Regulation.

APS Staff Reports:

• Alison presented the final report findings on the Tiered Focused Monitoring Group A cycle. The Group A cycle is a review of the Special Education and Civil Rights programming in the District. The TFM evaluations included pulling student records for review, interviews with parents, and on-site visits for interviews and review of Time-Out room spaces (we have one at Dallin Elementary).

The district was found to be in compliance with all review criteria, and no corrective action was needed. There was one area, initial evaluation timelines, where we were found to not be in compliance. (This is because four of seventy-nine IEP meetings didn’t occur within the 45 day timeline.) The corrective actions for this were done in Spring 2022, when the initial TFM process took place.

Here is a link to the final report:

Click to access 174102-2ce87133-670d-48ef-8457-58fafb63ca58.pdf

Update on Literacy Curriculum Search by Dr. Roderick MacNeal Jr., Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction:

Presentation Link: Literacy presentation

-A Literacy Core Team was formed to establish a vision for the new K-5 Literacy Program.
-This Literacy Core Team worked with The Hill for Literacy, a contractor who partnered with the District. They used a research-based evaluation tool to consistently evaluate all programs.
-The Core Team narrowed the program choices down to 3 programs in Fall 2022, and a timeline to finish the review process was formed. These 3 programs were chosen by committee.
-One of the major criteria when evaluating programs was whether programs represented/were backed up by the science of reading. Another factor was that the program included multiple identities were represented in its course material.

• At the end, they will meet with publishers and users of the programs, to ask questions and get clarification about the program materials and implementation.
  -This is our Tier 1 reading curriculum. Our hope is that by choosing a program that meets the science of reading, that we will have fewer students who require Tier 2 and Tier 3 support.
  -Each school has three vertical teams. Among these 3 teams, they are further divided to focus on different parts of the curriculum review. (red, yellow, green chart of focus areas). Each school-based team has a month to complete their review of the curriculum.
  -We will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide input before a curriculum is chosen.
  -We understand that no one program is going to meet all our needs, but we want to choose the one that meets most of our needs and follows best practices.
  -If you have any questions, please email Dr. MacNeal directly or email them to Alison.

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

• Kate Radville asked about de-implementation of current programming. Will teachers know not to be doing bits and pieces of old curriculum, or to not utilize the phonemic portions of the new programming if our choice is to continue to use Fundations/Hegarty for phonics and phonemic awareness.

Dr. MacNeal’s response: There will be a phased roll-out, because teachers will need to be trained in the new programming. The current Tools of the Mind curriculum will need to be phased out for Kindergarten, for example, and some classroom materials will need to be removed/replaced.

Teachers will have to be coached/supervised to make sure they are properly implementing the new curriculum and not following old curriculum practices. (such as using the pictures, guessing the word by the first sound)

Announcements:

• Our next SEPAC meeting is an evening meeting, on Tuesday, January 10th, at 7:30pm.

Adjourn

SEPAC Business Meeting – November 8, 2022

Call to Order

Introductions: Louisa Popkin, Alison Babeu, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, and Jessica Dombrosky attended.

Approve Minutes: Minutes could not be approved because we didn’t have enough members in attendance to approve them.

Officers/Committee Reports:

• We had the folks conducting the Mental Health Screening to our October Meeting, and we posted the slides from the presentation on Google Drive, for anyone who missed the meeting:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rhXdJ3XYIXlGVf7IPqsMVOpB9xUC1l9Q/view?usp=share_link

• We are looking at getting on Superintendent Homan’s agenda, and meeting with her in the upcoming month. Our plan is to release this year’s SEPAC survey by January.
• We partnered with Somerville SEPAC to host a Basic Rights workshop. The presenter was from Mass Advocates for Children, and the presentation didn’t improve upon past presentations we’ve had from presenters at FCSN. We are looking to schedule our workshop soon, which will probably be on Transition Planning.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

–

APS Staff Reports:

• During the week of November 14th, the DESE Public School Monitoring will conduct the Tiered Focused Monitoring review of Special Ed and Civil Rights Regulations, to make sure that everything is within legal compliance with regard to meetings/paperwork timelines/compensatory services post-pandemic. If you want to request a telephone interview, please contact Joan Brinkerhoff: 781-338-3715
• We are pleased to offer interactive forums to discuss the APS Vision, recommendations of the Equity Audit, and get community feedback on Strategic Planning Initiatives. Forums are happening on November 16th (in Boston), December 1st, and a virtual forum on December 8th. Interested community members only need to attend one forum.

• We are getting into budget season, and it’s likely we’ll need to request a budget override in the spring.
• A district-wide team of special educators, reading instructors, and administrators met and will be reviewing reading instruction programs to choose a new curriculum to replace the Lucy Calkins curriculum.

https://www.hillforliteracy.org

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

• Louisa participated in professional development on Mediation Training, and on taking the perspective of parents during Team Meetings, run by Metrowest Mediation Services, with trainer Seth Weisen
• Inae mentioned that it would be good to have different perspectives to give feedback as we work to determine a new reading/literacy curriculum that will work for everyone, including learners with dyslexia. Currently, many of the decisions around curriculum choice happen behind closed doors, which isn’t transparent. This lack of transparency is a concern of many families in the district.

Announcements:

• Our next meeting is on Tuesday, December 13th, at 9am.

Adjourn

SEPAC Business Meeting – October 11, 2022

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Chris Carlson, Joyce Schlenger, Kristin Burke, Magali Olander, Caroline Rosa, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Gina Filosa, Meredith S, Alison Babeu, Rubia, Tracy Perneta, Ron, and Michael attended.

Approve Minutes: Meeting Minutes from June 2022 and September 2022 were approved.

Officers/Committee Reports:

• We had a nice Meet and Greet at the high school at the end of September in the new high school. It was nice to see everyone in person.
• We are partnering with Somerville SEPAC to do Basic Rights- Evaluation and Eligibility, on Thursday October 27th, at 7pm.

Here is the Zoom link for the Basic Rights Workshop:

https://bit.ly/3maRTRk

Meeting ID: 825 4903 8334

Password: SSEPAC-21

• Sarah and Jess participated in interviews for the new District CFO position.

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

– 

APS Staff Reports:

• The Tiered Focused Monitoring folks will be reviewing the District Special Education programs in November, along with additional special education records that they choose.
• A survey should be coming to every parent of a child with an IEP at the end of this month. If you’d like to request a phone interview, please contact Joan Brinkerhoff:  781-338-3715  . 
• We received the recommendations of the APS Equity audit. Superintendent Homan and DEI Director Thomas are planning community forums so that families can learn about the new APS Vision, hear the recommendations of the Equity Audit, and give community input on the drafts of the APS Strategic Planning Initiatives.
• In the spring, we held workshops to determine a new Mission and Vision for the District, and now we will be holding forums to get community input.

Presentation on APS Mental Health Screening Initiatives – presented by Mental Health Assessment & Outreach Coordinator Magali Olander and District-Wide Social Worker Caroline Rosa

• Link to presentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rhXdJ3XYIXlGVf7IPqsMVOpB9xUC1l9Q/view?usp=share_link
• Statistically, 1 in 5 adolescents will have mild mental health issues, and 1 in 10 will be identified with severe mental health issues. The majority of these students will receive mental health support in schools
• Mental Health universal screening is a Tier 1 intervention, given to the entire student body. Mental Health screeners are offered to every student in grades 3 through 12.
• Universal screeners help identify which students might need additional group and individual services.
• The Trails to Wellness curriculum is the Tier 2 program, for students who are identified as needing more support: http://www.trailstowellness.org
• Michael asked: Do screening responses ever result in DCF referrals, or do staff have individual conversations with families before that could happen? I’d expect that families who feel more vulnerable around DCF will end up opting out to avoid that risk.

Answer: the screener specifically asks questions about anxiety and depression. Any issues dealing with abuse and neglect are often identified when Tier 2 interventions have begun.

Tracy asked what happens if students respond in a way that suggests they are at risk for self-harm or suicide.

Answer: Those students who respond as at risk for suicide/self-harm are often met with that very same day. If they aren’t met with that day, it is within the next few days.

Michael asked if there are demographic breakdowns of opt outs, to check whether there are patterns based on income or race?

Answer: Teachers know which students have opted out, and students are allowed to opt out on their own, and there is language about that at the start of the screener, so they know they can opt out.

There are a relatively small number of opt outs compared to the total number of students who participate in the screening.

Of the students who test at elevated levels of concern, students have their counselors/social workers check in with them soon after.

Inae asked if students on IEPs can use the results of the mental health screener to inform whether they might require additional social work services, if they currently do not receive them on their IEP. 

Answer: Since the information in the screener is indicative of that student’s mental health state on that day, and is not diagnostic. The school social worker (part of the special education team in the K-8 Student Services model) is made aware of the results. 

Sarah asked what other initiatives they have been working on.

Answer: It’s mostly the screener at this moment, but we are currently thinking about how the needs of the district as a whole could inform better Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions.

Mental Health Screener FAQ:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13XpUAGFUtwani31BepvkIdx6TtDDDfgBRijJerNMtmo/edit

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

–

Announcements:

• Basic Rights with Somerville SEPAC on Thursday, October 27th at 7pm on Zoom.
• Our next meeting will be Tuesday, November 8th, at 7pm at this same Zoom link.

Adjourn

SEPAC Business Meeting – September 2022

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Lauren Bellon, Kristin Burke, Joyce Schlenger, Joan Brinckerhoff (DESE), Dee Wyatt (DESE), Epp Brecht, Jamie Gallo, Kelly Hamilton, Rachel Ostrow, Alison Babeu, Cheryl, Rabbi Talya Weisbard Shalem, Jess Chloros, Krasimira Petkov, Sarah Thompson, and Gina Filosa attended.

APS Staff Reports:

– This is cycle A of Tiered Focused Monitoring, and we are hosting an orientation session tonight on what will be happening during this cycle.

Parent Orientation Presentation on Tiered Focused Monitoring:

Parents and other individuals may call Joan Brinckerhoff, Public School Monitoring Chairperson, at 781-338-3715 to request a telephone interview. If you require translation services to participate in the interview, the Department will arrange for that to happen.
Parent Resources – Office of Public School Monitoring (PSM) (mass.edu)

https://www.doe.mass.edu/psm/parents/default.html

• Parent Survey anticipated to be emailed to parents around October 21st. If your child has an IEP, the primary parent who is indicated as such in Powerschool should be receiving a survey. You may need to check your spam or promotions folder.

If you have more than one student on an IEP, please reach out to Joan Brinckerhoff (Joan.L.Brinckerhoff@mass.gov) for a second survey.

Surveys are anonymous, and we would not reveal any identifying information of your case to folks in the district.

There are 37 questions in all, both multiple choice and open-ended/short answer questions. We encourage you to elaborate on your answers.

DESE looks at district-wide issues, so they are more likely to take notice if a number of parents flag the same issue.

We currently don’t have a survey for general education students or students who are in the IEP eligibility process and don’t have an IEP at this time.

Student records pulled and reviewed by the Office of PSM are different from the ones the School District pulls during their self-assessment.

During the week of November 14, 2022, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Office of Public School Monitoring (PSM) will conduct the Tiered Focused Monitoring Review of Arlington Public Schools:

https://www.arlington.k12.ma.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2858219&type=d&pREC_ID=2327427

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

• Dispute Resolution 201
• We are working through the survey responses from last year, to see what suggestions folks had for workshops.
• Last year we focused on dyslexia/reading. The feedback we got is that folks are still wondering what is being done to help secondary students who have reading difficulties.
• Families would like to learn a bit more about the different placements available at the middle school level and beyond, and what they mean
• We are working with Somerville SEPAC to pair with them on workshops. They have already scheduled their Basic Rights: Evaluation and Eligibility for October, and we are invited to attend. We are going to plan a different Basic Rights workshop (either Understanding your IEP or Transition Planning for turning age 22 and beyond)
• Judge Baker Center/Camp Baker – Fantastic organization, son has attended the camp, Jess has attended the parent night
• McLean is hosting a webinar for Arlington Parents:

First webinar:
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Our first parent webinar will take place this Sunday, September 18th 7:00-8:00pm “Understanding Self-Harm for Parents” presented by Michael Hollander, Ph.D. Description and Zoom link can be found on the website.

All information for the parent webinars, including dates/times, Zoom links, presenter information and learning objectives can be found here on this website:

https://healthcare.partners.org/streaming/Live/McLean/McLean_SCS.html

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion:

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Announcements:

• We changed the date for the Meet and Greet, to Wednesday, September 28th. The Meet and Greet will be held in the Discourse Lab at the High School, at 9am.
• Next month’s meeting is on October 11th, the Tuesday after Indigenous People’s Day, at 9am. The Zoom link for the meeting is the same as the one used tonight.

Adjourn