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Next Meeting Previous Meetings
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October 27, 2005 Meeting |
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The Sevier County Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SC SpEd PAC) held its seventeenth meeting on October 27, 2005. Five members attended. New Topics · After School Training Sessions Remaining for 2005-2006 Jeff distributed a copy of the 3:45 to 5:45 pm training sessions to be held at the Trula Lawson Center. These sessions will each precede our SpEd Parent Advisory Committee meetings. The next one is December 13, 2005. John will host a panel of general education teachers. This one is on inclusion from the general education teachers' perspective. (Of course, SpEd teachers and parents will be welcome!) Two other inservice sessions will be held in March and May. The March 9 one is on IEP documentation and the May 1 session is special education from the parents' perspective. These four inservices are based on the needs identified in the previous training needs assessment. Jeff also distributed a training needs survey for the next two years and review of training from the past two years. Please complete and return these to him by December 13. · Volunteers for May 1 The topic for the May 1 meeting is special education from the parents' perspective. Jeff Romanczuk is going to host this one and is recruiting volunteers who haven't done this kind of panel session earlier. Let him know if you're interested. · IDEIA 2004 and State SpEd Laws Jeff mentioned that most of the provisions of the recently reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA 2004) became law July 1, 2005. Several timing changes are included in the law, including a provision for IEP updates every three years instead of at least once a year (if the parents agree to this) and the requirement that the evaluation process from parent permission to evaluation summary meeting occur within a 60 calendar day span. (The previous requirement was 40 school days.) There are many sites that cover the IDEA 2004 changes. For starters look at the Library of Congress summary or the Council for Exceptional Children's table. The National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems has a concise section by section summary too. Jeff distributed a table explaining how the federal changes will impact special ed at the state level. The state is keeping the the annual benchmarks/short term objectives in the IEP process even though the federal government now requires this only for SpEd students being assessed by alternative means. Tennessee is also keeping the 40 school days requirement for the evaluation/reevaluation cycle. Another provision is that a general education teacher may be excused from the IEP meeting participation (if the parents agree to this ahead of time and in writing). Public school systems also have greater requirements to include private school and home-schooled special education students in special education services. · Review of "Written Agreements Between the Parent and the Sevier County School System" Related to the previous point, Dr. Enloe developed a form for parents to indicate that they know about certain changes to the IEP plan, bus schedule, etc. and to document these changes. Jeff asked the lead teachers at each school and the members of the SpEd PAC to review this document before we begin using it. Please suggest any changes to him by December 13. · Cyclical Performance Review The Continuous Improvement Monitoring Program is now the Cyclical Performance Review (CPR) and Sevier County Schools in back in the first year of the four year cycle again. We need parents to get involved not only in the parental areas of concern, but to be an "outside" reviewer for areas that are not parent-specific. If you want to be on a CPR committee, contact Jeff by e-mail or at 748-7711. One thing that all parents can do is complete the new parent survey for school year 2005-2006. These are due back to Jeff by January 20. · Department of Mental Retardation Services Jeff's wife attended the most recent Department of Mental Retardation Services meeting in Knoxville. If you are interested in receiving a copy of the handouts/information, contact Jeff by e-mail or Brian Sims. The next DMRS meeting is March 9, 4-6 pm in at Lakeshore, Maple Cottage, in Knoxville. Ongoing Topics
John suggested we start an after-school childcare specifically for the special education students. We have some information on how a few counties close by are doing it, but we need to work out the level of need/interest county wide to figure out at what schools to locate this childcare and what needs might be unique to Sevier County. We intend to offer tutoring and enrichment activities during these hours and there will be a charge for this service. Jeff has spoken with Pam Walker of Kid's Place a few times, with nothing settled yet. Anyone else interested contact Jeff by e-mail or phone (748-7711).
Jeff asked for volunteers to serve as individual education planning meeting parent advocates. We're thinking that, especially for the parents of newly diagnosed students, it might be good if they had an experienced parent to talk to ahead of time about what will happen at the IEP meeting. This advocate could also attend the IEP meeting and provide whatever assistance the parent might need (from finding the meeting location to translating SpEd jargon). Kathy Dufau, Megan Duhon, and Brian Sims are the only volunteers right now. Anyone else interested should contact Jeff by e-mail or phone (748-7711). These parent advocates don't have to be SpEd PAC members, but they do have to be (or have been) parents of Sevier County Special Education students. Jeff will pass along to the SpEd Consulting and Lead Teachers the names of those parents interested in helping.
Only a few members have signed up for our online Yahoo! Group for the SpEd PAC. If you aren't already signed up for it, when you go to the link, the first button you'll have to click on is the "Join this group!" one. If you are already a Yahoo! member, your current log on will work. If not, you'll need to sign up for your own ID and password, which doesn't take long. Once we get a few more members, we can use this online group for messages to all, file and picture sharing, polls, meeting notifications, and live chat. Since we'll be meeting less and working by subcommittee more, the Yahoo Group will become a useful way of communicating SpEd PAC business. Please join it! Next Meeting Tuesday, December 13, 6 pm at the Trula Lawson Center. Please contact Jeff by e-mail or phone (748-7711) the week prior to arrange for childcare. |
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