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March 9, 2006 Meeting |
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The Sevier County Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SC SpEd PAC) held its eighteenth meeting on March 9, 2006. Five members attended. New Topics · Findings from Jeff's dissertation research Jeff opened with findings from his dissertation research. The major findings are 1. Belonging to the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (PAC) helps members not feel alone with their child’s disability 2. The PAC is a source of good information 3. Amount of help/harm special education students receive corresponds to the proximity of those helping 4. Parental involvement is not as good as it used to be 5. There is no strength in small numbers 6. Special education placements are individualized while its laws are for all 7. As the child’s future bears down, the possibilities get more limited 8. Advisory, advocacy, and support all intertwine as PAC goals It's not quite done yet, but before the final draft the members who participated will be the first to have a look at the full dissertation.
Attracting New Members
One of the dissertation findings was that this group has too few active members to get things done. Good point, and I'm making recruiting my top priority as a result. You should, too. Here's a direct link to the application. Special Education Department
Jeff started the meeting by giving a tour of the SpEd Dept's home since October 2005. We're in four trailers connected by decking and overhangs. (It looks better than that probably sounds.) Anyway, now that Jeff has some shelf space, he has made his special education topics library available for members to borrow. If anyone else has books, tapes, whatever, you can get them to me (Jeff) to add to the collection. Michael Collins was the first to borrow a book, one I just bought and haven't even finished yet. Parents' Perspective on Special Education for May 1, 3:45 pm Jeff will host a panel discussion for the May 1 after-school inservice session. The title is Special Education Parents' Perspective. Our very own Michael Collins and Carol White will participate, along with Jim and Ruth Baker, whose daughter is in her 40s now and attended special education before and during the changes in the federal and state laws. Come support our own. It's at Sevier County High School's library and our last PAC meeting of the year will follow at 6 pm, same location. Cyclical Performance Review Here are the results of the parent survey for school year 2005-2006 . We got back only 164 after sending out more than we ever have. That's the bad news. The good is that once again, the responses are overwhelmingly positive. Kathy Dufau helped with the tallying. She and I haven't finished trending the comments yet, but will have this at the May 1 meeting. Call for Surrogate Parents Jeff will be holding two 1-hour training sessions in April for anyone interested. Surrogate parents in special education represent children in the school system who are wards of the state. They sit in as "parent" at the IEP meeting and track the child's academic progress or troubles at school during the year. School system employees cannot be surrogate parents, but any other adult can. If you're interested, contact Jeff by e-mail or at 748-7711. Breakthrough Corporation Michael Collins mentioned that Breakthrough, the local organization that offers services for adults with autism, has a new director. She is Dana Hampson at (865) 521-6430. She sent me an e-mail recently (at Michael's request), to ask that anyone who wants to get on their mailing list contact her. Website: http://www.breakthroughknoxville.com/ . SpEd Newsletter The March newsletter is on the website: http://www.slc.sevier.org/nltr0306.pdf . Topics include helping children avoid boredom, transitions, the SpEd parent's perspective, and a lot of suggested web links. The parent perspective article is intended as the first in a series. If you are interested in contributing a story for the parents and staff to read, send or e-mail it to Jeff. Calendar Information The calendar for the 2006-2007 changed recently. The new one is at http://www.slc.sevier.org/cal0607.pdf . Vacation Week and TCAP Week Coming (Jeff) Sevier County School's vacation week is the second week of April (10 through 14) and TCAPs are the last week of that month, 24 through 27. The hardest week of the month will no doubt be that third week. Eagleton Little League, Challenger Division (Jeff) Jeff and his wife are again running the softball league in Blount County. It's for boys or girls with disabilities if they are between 6 and 18 years old. The first game is April 8. Contact Jeff by e-mail or at 748-7711 for more information. 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 Monday, May 1, 6 pm at the SCHS Library. |
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