Tag: SEPAC

Call to Order

Introductions – Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Deborah Savage, Emily and Ben Butler, Stacy Hutton, Liz Exton, Rena Mello, Chris Carlson, Jacob Woolf, Tracy Perneta, Michelle Moruzzi, Brenda Mahoney, and Margaret Credle Thomas attended.

Approve Minutes – Meeting Minutes from September 2021 were approved. Meeting minutes for October 2021 were tabled until next month for further review. Jess will send out the October minutes to those who were in attendance for further review.

Officer/Committee Reports –

– We recently learned that Massachusetts put out new guidance with regard to SEPACs, specifically that they may no longer be subject to open meeting laws. This would mean that we could continue to elect to hold meetings online after the pandemic, making these meetings a bit more accessible for those who could not travel to make meetings at the Jefferson Cutter House.

– We have contacted several people

– Two weeks ago we held our Basic Rights workshop on Transition Planning

– Last week the High School Special Education Team and MRC hosted a presentation on what services and vendors are available to students prior to graduating.

Update on Website, Listserv, Communications –

– The SEPAC Website on WordPress has been updated, and the SEPAC Website link on the APS Homepage now redirects to the updated SEPAC site.

Workshop Planning –

– Next month we will be hosting Sara Burd, the Director of Social and Emotional Learning at APS. If you have any specific questions or topics for her for next month, please send them to arlingtonSEPAC@gmail.com

– The Understanding Your Neuropsych Evaluation Report workshop has been postponed until the spring.

APS Staff Reports –

– We are getting into budget season, and each school will be presenting their school improvement plans to the School Committee

Presentation/Discussion with Margaret Credle Thomas, Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at APS:

– Worked in the district for nine years, previously as the METCO director. She started her new role as director of DEI in August.

– She did her first DEI segment at ACMI/MCI (https://www.youtube.com/c/AcmiTv) , and will be holding more in the future.

– She just started doing listening sessions with families and staff, and has another one coming up tomorrow. The listening session in January will discuss the panorama studies, and the DEI audit she would like to conduct.

– Her big mission for right now is assessment and listening to figure out the common themes happening in the district. Using the garden analogy, she’s been assessing what is working/growing well and what might need to be uprooted/changed.

– She wears many hats, and one of them is a Special Education parent of a 20 year old son who is currently taking Transitional classes.

– A couple of years ago, they held anti-racism courses during the November professional development day. One of the courses was on changing curriculum/instruction to reflect anti-racist teaching.

– Inae asked about reports that other districts reported that they were having a problem with students using language in middle grades, such as the “r-word.” She asked what strategies and teachings were being considered in APS, and pushing in support and using curriculum such as “the power of our words” or topic specific library books were mentioned.

– Sarah asked about diversification among staff, and Margaret mentioned that their biggest hurdle was retention when it came to staff.

– Margaret mentioned that she is working with Alison on developing Tier I and II push-in supports. Alison mentioned that the district had previously identified that a disproportionate number of African American students were in substantially separate settings, so they are applying grant money to tackle the structural institutions that are creating these outcomes, and add supports to the Tier I and Tier II so that students are supported before being referred to special education.

Public Participation / New Business / Open Discussion –

– On Saturday, November 13^th, Bill Hayner and Jeff Thielman will be hosting a School Committee chat for Special Education parents. The link for the zoom chat is on the APS website calendar

– Sarah was contacted by a parent of an older child who was interested in holding an after school class for 4^th and 5^th grade students who were interested in non-competitive LEGO building and social skills club. This would be an after school offering through Arlington Community Education.

– Sara Burd, the Director of Social-Emotional Learning, will be at our December 14^th morning SEPAC Meeting.

– On December 14^th we will have a morning SEPAC meeting and then we will be holding an evening social discussion.

– Stacy asked if Alison could speak in the future about outcomes for students on IEPs (measures like MCAS, common assessments, college graduation rates)

– Michelle asked about compensatory services and whether anyone else had the experience where services were offered at the end of the year, and if other parents had late services offered. She mentioned that delaying services for dyslexia would lead to a wider gap between a dyslexic student and their peers, the older they got. Alison said that the staffing shortages and the SLP at Brackett leaving three weeks into the school year led to a gap in services. Compensatory services were discussed to make students whole, both after the pandemic gap in services, and when staff leaving leads to service gaps.

– Deb Savage spoke about how parents wish they could be notified when staff leave, and there are service gaps. Alison encouraged parents to follow up with building principals and their SpEd Coordinator if they were concerned about compensatory services for their children.

Announcements –

–

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions – Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Bill Hayner, Agapi Stratakias, Joyce Schlenger, Louisa Popkin, Kristin Burke, Rena Mello, Lynne Bennett, Chris Carlson, Joanna Poole, Brie Stanley, Katrina Bernstein-Lewicke, Tracy Perneta, Melissa Hinck, Stephanie Trinkle, Krasimira Petkov, Lori Berman attended

Approve Minutes –

Meeting Minutes from June 2021 were approved.

Officer/Committee Reports –

– Basic Rights on October 27^th at 7pm, the topic is Transition Planning. Attorney Clare Vann will be presenting. The workshop is put on by the Federation for Children with Special Needs on their Zoom platform. The link to register is:

Registration Link:

https://fcsn-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kfumsqT4qHtSd0CA2xSjq3z0Ef31v0AtN

Update on Website, Listserv, Communications:

– We used to have a listserv, but don’t have that option.

– Sarah put the ArlingtonSEPAC@gmail.com email in the chat for those to opt in to our email list

Workshop Planning-

We are looking to hold the Understanding Your Neuropsychological Report workshop again. Inae still needs to reach out to those in the community who previously ran it.

Alison mentioned that someone from Crafting Minds is willing to do a workshop on dyslexia at some point.

We are looking into having principals or our new Director of Diversity Equity and Inclusion present at future meetings. Alison suggested that maybe we should also invite our reading specialists.

Other Workshop Ideas: Preparing for College for High Schoolers

APS Staff Reports –

Alison presented on the new SLC – D over at Peirce Elementary

– Collaborating with Dr. Melissa Orkin from the Tufts Center for Reading and Language Research/Crafting Minds, in 2017

-Established Goal to Differentiate Specialized Instruction for Students with IEPs for Reading

-SLC-D serves students with specific learning disabilities in reading and/or writing, and/or language learning difficulties. Most students have average or above average cognitive skills with language-based learning disabilities. Many may have difficulty with memory deficits or auditory discrimination.

Methodology is:

– Multi-sensory – Using visual, auditory and kinesthetic pathways in the brain simultaneously

– Explicit – Teachers directly teach, explain and demonstrate each concept

– Sequential and Cumulative – Skills are sequenced in small steps, following the order of language

Current Staffing:

-Special Education Teacher (1.0), Speech Language Pathologist (0.5), Paraprofessional (1.0), Related Service Providers, Gen Education teacher (1.0), and a Consultant (Dr. Orkin).

Space:

– Classroom is for 3^rd and 4^th graders over at Peirce Elementary

– Growth intended for grade 5 next school year

– Regulations limit maximum grouping/staffing to 12:1:1

Katrina asked how it was determined if students qualify for dyslexia/language-based learning services like Wilson, and if students needed to get outside diagnoses in order to receive services. Alison said that reading specialists use screening tools to determine where the language-learning deficits are and whether students require certain instructional tools like explicit phonemic awareness curriculum, or Wilson.

Krasimira asked how we know if our student has been considered for this program. Alison said that the students who have been evaluated for IEP services with the assessment battery were considered for the program. Those who most closely matched the profile and required a more restrictive learning environment to make effective progress were considered first for the SLC-D. Not every student with dyslexia requires a more restrictive setting to make effective progress. (Sarah said that legally, schools should not be eager to put students in a substantially separate program unless they require it to make effective progress in the curriculum.)

Stephanie asked how it is determined what method would work best for each student when working with them. Alison said that they are using the assessment battery to pinpoint what types of intervention are required with each student. Tests such as phonemic awareness, phonemic (auditory) processing, working memory, retrieval, site-word efficiency, pseudo word decoding, oral language awareness, listening comprehension

Bill Hayner said that Dr. Homan has indicated areas of need to be addressed at the next School Committee meeting. He says to contact your School Committee members with any concerns or ideas for workshops to improve the professional development of our special educators/reading specialists.

New Business – Inae said we are open and receptive to any ideas on speakers we might invite.

Announcements – Next meeting is in the evening, November 9^th at 7:30pm, on Zoom

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Kirsten Burke, Chris Carlson, Joyce Schlenger, Bill Hayner, Lynne Bennett, Rena Mello, Amanda Donahue, Elizabeth Homan, Erin DeMaura, Mme Pierre-Maxwell, Louisa Popkin and Joyce Dvorak attended.

Approve Minutes – To be reviewed next month at our online meetings

Officer Committee Reports –

– Basic Rights Workshop in October

– Transition Planning, presented by Federation for Children with Special Needs, a state organization that holds workshops.

– Understanding your Neuropsych Report, maybe in November

APS Staff Reports – New Elementary and Middle School coordinators, Louisa and Rena

ESSERIII Report – Dollars to help accelerate recovery from pandemic, return to school planning

Options A, B, and C:

Option A – Improved communications and outreach to families and the community

a. Improve accessible services and information to all families

b. Improve/streamline communications

c. Improve translation and interpretation capabilities for families whose first language isn’t English

d. Make sure that all families feel welcomed and supported by APS

Option B – Support to Ensure Student Access to Consistent and Equitable Information

a. Professional development for culturally responsive instruction

b. Intervention supports to serve all students

c. Professional learning/training in anti-bias and anti-racist teaching

d. Improve the Multi Tiered System of Support (MTSS)

Option C – Extended learning time and Coordinated out-of-school services

a. Analyze effectiveness of existing out-of-school learning opportunities

b. District-wide standard approach to out-of-school interventions and services

c. Continuing the expansion of ESY summer services from 2020 and 2021

All initiatives will be monitored/updated to gauge effectiveness. If initiatives aren’t effective, they will be adjusted accordingly.

New Business – Social Hour tonight at 7pm, New Parent Chat, Informal Meeting

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Anjani Datla, Cathy B, Cheryl Miller, Chris Carlson, Eileen Coleman, Elisa M, Joyce Schlenger, Katell Guellec, Katherine Reisz-Hanson, Katrina Bernstein-Lewicke, Kristin Burke, Len Kardon, Liz Exton, Melanie Cipar, Mira Whiting, Noel Dyer, Rebekah, Sophie Prevost, Stephanie Greiner, Stephanie Trinkle, Tracy Perneta, Janna Moreau, Dror, Clair Johnson, Rachel Ostrow, Sarah Forster, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, and Jessica Dombrosky attended

Approve Minutes:

– Meeting Minutes from May were approved

Officers/Committee Reports:

– We have been talking about possible workshops for next year. The first event we have is a Meet and Greet in September. We are thinking of doing our Basic Rights Workshop from FCSN in October.

– In November we are looking into how to read your IEP report, and after that have a workshop on Beyond Basic Rights from the law firm Sarah met at the FCSN conference on Dispute Resolution

Planning Workshops for the Coming Year:

–

APS Staff Reports:

– Alison shared the results of the Tiered Focus monitoring. They were on-site in January, and the final report was issued on May 20^th 2021. The Office of Public School Monitoring were monitoring the District’s compliance with special education and civil rights. Monitoring happens every 3 years. Parents and school staff were interviewed, along with the SEPAC chairs.

– They are looking at licensure, professional development, facilities and classroom observations, oversight, time and learning, and equal access. Targeted standards must be met in Special Education. We were identified as Tier 2 (out of 4 possible Tiers, where a higher number requires more oversight by the DESE). Tiers 1 and 2 develop Continuous Improvement and Monitoring Plan (CIMP). All of our criteria were implemented in Special Education. With civil rights, 15 of 17 criteria were implemented, with two partially implemented. One civil rights item was related to student handbooks, while the other was related to restraint procedures documentation)

Introducing Dr. Homan, our new Superintendent

– Starts on July 1^st. She is originally from the Midwest. Formerly an English teacher, and taught 9^th and 10^th grade ELA. She took a job with Boston Public Schools and Boston became home. She is a big believer in public schools and that every child is talented and capable of achieving their best, and what they need is different for each child. She has been sitting in on town meetings, finance committee meetings, and school committee meetings since February, and has been meeting with Dr. Bodie and visiting each school in the district.

– Alison mentioned that Dr. Homan has done work in Waltham on multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), and asked her to speak about it. It is a system that is meant to be flexible. If a district wants to have an effective MTSS, they need to define what Tier 1 has access to (reading, math, social-emotional support and criteria). A strong MTSS has Tier 2 supports for students who need it (usually accelerators, so students who are behind can catch back up. Small Group Support). Tier 3 is more intensive, usually one on one or small group support with a counselor. Special Education isn’t necessary to get tiered support.

-Sophie asked Dr. Homan to speak about her work regarding Equity. She mentioned that in Waltham, educators were trained to examine and reflect on whether their interactions with students were in any way denying equal access to Tiered instructions among students of color.

-Inae asked about universal design of instruction and assessment. Dr. Homan believes it’s important for teachers to model and facilitate different modes of instruction, and that students should have multiple ways to demonstrate their comprehension of the material.

– Katrina asked about reading instruction, particularly among dyslexic learners. Dr. Homan says that Waltham used Fundations, and that students benefit from things like repetition and hand motions in order to learn phonemic awareness. Alison mentioned that they are adding Fundations instruction to the third grade curriculum, and more phonemic awareness curriculum to Kindergarten.

-Katell asked about how Dr. Homan leads with empathy. Dr. Homan said there is a distinct difference between being a mom and being an educator, and that there’s a different kind of listening you need to do. When a school needs to accomplish something, having a committee with teachers and parents can help each other understand the other’s story and perspective. The better you can understand what is going on at school or at home, the better you can bridge the divide and flexibly support the learner.

-Sarah asked how General Educators and Special Educators can have the time to work together and collaborate so that each feels responsible for supporting and implementing a student’s IEP. Dr. Homan says having common planning time is important. Also, targeted co-teaching can be very successful if implemented properly. Having a special educator at the table helps all understand the needs of the student.

SEPAC Board Elections:

– Inae and Sarah were reelected as Co-Chairs, and Jess was reelected as Secretary

Public Participation/New Business/Open Discussion:–

Announcements:

–

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Kristin Burke, Lynne Bennett, Sophie Prevost, Chris Carlson, Joyce Schlenger, Bill Hayner, Stephanie Trinkle, Samrat Bhattachan, Tracy Perneta attended

Approve minutes:

– Meeting minutes from April were approved

Officers/committee reports:

– We have been thinking about our next steps and events/workshops for next year.

– At a subcommittee meeting for the School Committee, David Goode mentioned that they could host our website, and the District can then link to that website from the Special Education page. Alison said she could follow up with Dan Sheehan, who has taken over for David Goode since he retired. There will be a notice when you are redirected that you are leaving the district website to visit the SEPAC website.

– We will be having a Social Hour tonight at 7:30 at this same Zoom Link, where parents and caregivers can chat and commiserate, not in an open meeting format. There will be breakout rooms, based on different ages or disabilities. School staff will not be present for the social hour. Any parents can attend, even if you don’t have an IEP or 504. If you’re at all interested, you can attend.

– Inae will be reporting back to the School Committee about SEPAC in June (June 10th).

– Alison and Inae are on a hiring committee for the new district position for the Director of Diversity/ Equity/Inclusion. We are trying to find someone who can represent the District well in all of these facets, at the intersection of these facets, and how they influence our District and how it operates as a whole.

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

–

APS Staff reports:

– Bill Hayner is the new School Committee Liaison to SEPAC, and is in attendance at this meeting.

– MCAS is starting in certain grades at the elementary schools today. MCAS has limited the number of sessions, pushed the testing window back, and expanded the number of days where testing could occur. High Schoolers had the MCAS requirement waived unless they are applying for state scholarships.

– The Whole Child team has been working on holding a Community Day in June to close out the year and as a send-off to summer.

– Dr. MacNeal will be reporting on our Tiered Focus Monitoring results from the evaluation that was done in January. There are no findings or procedural issues in Special Education this time, and they don’t issue a report unless they find issues, so Alison doesn’t have a report to share.

– The coffee chat with the School Committee (bring your own coffee, because it’s happening on Zoom)

SEPAC Board Nominations:

– Inae would like to stay on as Chair

– Sarah would like to stay on as Co-Chair

– Jess would like to stay on as Secretary

– Other possible positions are Social Media Coordinator or School Liaisons.

– Stephanie Trinkle would like to be the Brackett School Liaison.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

– Bill mentioned that school committee chats run every Saturday this year. There are focus groups in these chats for different topics, and Special Education has been discussed at least twice this year. An anonymous report from these chats is generated and shared with the administration. The feedback from the District has been positive, and these meetings will continue into next fall.

– Stephanie Trinkle had previously mentioned the different types of monitoring used to determine effective progress for children with IEPs. She was trying to figure out where in the IEP this monitoring and progress was addressed. Alison mentioned that if a student scores at high risk on the DIBELS, their progress will be monitored more frequently than a student whose scores indicated lower risk. Progress monitoring tools aren’t usually mentioned in a student’s IEP. Inae said that decoding the different parts of your IEP and their functions could be a potential workshop for next year.

– Stephanie asked if someone reviews an IEP after it is put together, before it’s sent to parents. Alison said that responsibility belongs to the Team Chair.

Announcements:

– We will hold Board Elections at next month’s SEPAC meeting.

– Our Social Hour

– Our next meeting is an Evening Meeting, June 8^th, at 7pm. Our special guest, Dr. Liz Holman, our incoming Superintendent, will be attending.

Adjourn

Call to Order

Introductions: Alison Elmer, Inae Hwang, Sarah Barton, Jessica Dombrosky, Alex, Cheryl Miller, Chris Carlson, Lauren Bellon, Liz Exton, Rebekah Lea, Sophie Prevost, Katrina Bernstein-Lewicke, Tracy Perneta, Eileen Coleman, Dror Wolff, Stephanie Trinkle, Rachel Katzman, Rachel Ostrow, and Beth Rapoza attended.

Approve minutes:

– Meeting minutes from March were approved

Officers/committee reports:

– We held our Basic Rights workshop last month, on Eligibility and Evaluation. We had a pretty good turnout and the presentation went well.

– We have talked about having an informal meet and greet with other parents on Zoom, just to chat and talk about how things are going during the pandemic. It would be more of a social and peer support event. Contemplating holding the social in the evening on the same day as our morning SEPAC meeting (May 11^th, 2021)

Planning Workshops for the coming year:

– We are discussing having presenters in Assistive Technology/Assistive Augmentative Communication for presentations in the fall.

– Sarah Burd would address social-emotional needs of SpEd students in another presentation.

APS Staff reports:

– Full re-opening happened for elementary students last Monday, April 5^th. We are continuing to conduct pool testing. Some students returned to full time from being remote, and students who were in opposite cohorts (AA/BB) were able to reunite.

– Extended School Year – DESE strongly recommends that students receive as much in-person learning as possible. That said, they are offering a remote option and an in-person option for ESY summer services as an extension of the accommodations offered this past school year. A survey was sent to parents, asking them to make their choice to attend in-person, remotely, or opt-out of ESY.

Programming is between July 12^th through August 19^th, from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at Menotomy, Peirce School, Gibbs School, and AHS

ESY services are proposed in order to prevent substantial regression, so IEP services during ESY may differ from the services given during the regular school year. It is expected that families will know their child’s summer services schedule by the end of June.

– The next phase of re-opening happens after we return from Spring Break, with re-opening of the middle schools on the following Tuesday, and the high school will open the following week.

Public participation / New business / Open discussion:

– Melanie Jarbo – Did the dispute resolution talk at VCO conference. Has to figure out if there’s a conflict of interest doing something in-district, but if her law firm approves then she (or someone else from her law firm) can do the presentation for us next year.

– Stephanie Trinkle asked about the roles of different supports for social-emotional goals during unstructured times. The BCBA and social worker help teach adaptive and socially appropriate ways to interact with peers. The state has developed learning standards for social emotional learning, and most start in pre-K, but skills are taught in the curriculum moving up through the grades, with things such as Responsive Classroom and Second Step as part of the SEL curriculum. Other tiered services or lunch bunches are also offered.

– It might be a good idea to have Sarah Burd come back and give us an update on the implementation of the SEL plan.

Announcements:

– Next month we will take nominations for the SEPAC Board Elections, and in June there will be elections.

– The school committee will be hosting a coffee chat (bring your own coffee because these are done on Zoom 🙂 ) for parents of Special Education students on Saturday May 8^th from 11am to 12pm

-Our next monthly business meeting is on Tuesday, May 11^th, from 9am to 10am on Zoom

Adjourn