Alright. Good afternoon, and welcome to our special education committee meeting. It's been a minute. I feel like we have not met in such a long time, so I'm very happy to be here with you all. My name is Carla Griego, and I am, board member for District 5 representing Northeast LA all the way to Southeast LA. I'm also chair of this committee, and I'm really happy to be here today. It's gonna be our last meeting of the year. And, so we're gonna be talking about some very important topics as we always do,
but in, since it is May and it is mental health awareness, we will be focusing on that, in particular for our population in the special education program. We have two folks, new folks today from the district. So I well, they're not new to the district. They're just sitting here joining us, from, you know, because other folks are not here. They're in Sacramento advocating for us right now. So I'll give, Leila a moment to introduce herself. Good afternoon. I'm Leila Rondeau.
I'm, an administrative coordinator of t k through twelve instruction. Thank you for having me. Yes. And, Tony? Greetings, everyone. Tony Aguilar, the chief of special education and specialized programs, special ed, and top of four other divisions are the divisions I oversee. And recognizing that our team is in Sacramento doing the really good work of advocacy, I'm here to join today. Woo hoo. So very happy that we have folks advocating for our students in Sacramento. And so this, afternoon, we have the opportunity to hear from behavioral and mental health
practitioners around strategies that the district is leading to support students' positive behavior, outcomes, and social emotional well-being. But before we start our presentation, I wanna give space to observe some very important, commemorations this month. In May, we observe mental health awareness. We also observe National Teacher Appreciation Week, and we have some teachers here that I'd like to call out. Kenya Pineda, Amy Bogard.
Sherita Rogers is not here with us today, but she is on our committee. And Maribel Grajales, also not in in attendance. And I know we have other educators here. We have classified staff, and we also have, out of classroom, and we have folks working at Bowdoin. But I just called up the teachers that are in the classroom doing that work directly with the students. So, and it's also National Speech Pathologist Day, which is on May 18. And so it's very important that we recognize their work as well since, they work
with Children at a very, very young age and in some cases, all the way through high school. But they are so instrumental in helping kids when they do the work early on. It really makes such a huge difference for our students. So we want to honor their work as well. So, before we move on to the presentation, I want to remind the audience that we will take public comment towards the end of the meeting and to our committee members. We will have time for discussion at the midpoint and the end of the presentation. So please jot down your questions or comments related to, to what you hear.
If you have a question or a comment specific to a student or a school site due to privacy concerns, the division of special ed will be limited as to what they can answer publicly. So, So, I also want to recognize my colleagues, Scott Schmerlson, our board president, and doctor Rocio Rivas, our vice president, also sit on this committee. Alright. So why don't we begin the presentation with miss Jennifer Nascimento who is an instructional coach for early childhood special education.
Welcome. How do I get it? Okay. There we go. Now we're on. Good afternoon, committee members. We are really happy today to be able to present to you some of the ways that division of, special education really helps our students with supporting disabilities through social emotional learning and positive behavior intervention. My name is Jennifer Nascimento. I am an instructional specialist with early childhood special education, and I am joined today with colleagues from the psychological services department and the behavior department. Alright.
So a lot of the things that we do are in direct response to the listen and learn campaign. One of the wonderful things that came out of it are the family resource fairs. Two of them have happened already. Two of them are, still to be. One of them this Saturday. So if you're not doing anything in the North, it's a wonderful, wonderful opportunity. Besides that, we put forth training to help paraprofessionals build their capacity around behavior, and there's been family workshops to support students at home. And we've continued partnership with the community advisory committee, which is the CAC.
Okay. The work that we're doing really highlights, these parts of the strategic plan. We really want to be able to eliminate opportunity gaps, build strong social emotional skills, foster strong relationships between home, teacher, student, and really increase professional learning because as we know, when teacher efficacy is increased, everyone is happier. Right? Okay. So just to define some terms. Right? We are we are gonna get really comfortable with this slide for a second.
Okay. So multi tiered systems of support, MTSS, is where everything falls under. Social emotional learning, SEL, and positive behavior intervention and support, PBIS. Okay? So through through the whole entire district, general education students, everyone benefits from these systems. Right? So what division of special ed does is we layer on top of these different individual supports that are very aligned to the student's individual needs or their individual education
plan or IEP. Okay? So with SEL, we want our students to be able to develop the skills necessary to understand and manage emotions. Right? We wanna be able to set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Right? So these skills are taught, as part of the curriculum, even starting with our babies through creative curriculum and going all the way through, you know, transition. Right? It's embedded in all of our curriculum. Classrooms may use zones of regulation, calming corners, mindful breathing techniques, yoga, and other social
emotional things that are just embedded throughout the day. Through PBIS, we are proactively establishing the behavioral supports that we need. So our classrooms will use visual schedules, they'll use token economies, they'll use timers, movement breaks, and we will definitely support students with their behavior goals and their behavior intervention plans. Right? So just as it all works together, wanted to establish that. Okay. When these all work together, we've got improved communication skills, we've got improved social interaction,
students feel a sense of belonging. They want to be part of everything going on. They want to not miss school and leads to higher academic performance and greater student achievement. This is the same idea as restorative practices, building that community, making sure that we do everything to maintain that community through all of these supports. Okay. So now we're gonna switch over to how we can support families. And some of the ways that we support families is through committees, workshops, fairs, and
trainings. Alright. Our Community Advisory Committee, CA Save, is a wonderful picture of Lilian Moran at one of our, resource fairs. With this, we support the community advisory committee with recorded presentations. Right? These presentations help ensure that the resources and messages shared are aligned, accessible, and supportive of PBIS and SEL. Right? So some of the topics that have been included very recently is how to use task analysis to teach skills at home, how to collaborate with school teams to align
behavior supports, how executive functioning skills impact students' learning, behavior, and independence, right, and strategies for at home supports. These, are available on our website. When you go to the DSC website, you've got your recordings all there. So as as parents are looking for answers, we can always direct them over to these recorded, resources. Okay. And, those meetings are in person. We know that obviously not all, meetings can be in person, and so there are
people who want to participate interactively, but via Zoom. So we have our virtual parent workshops. Right? Just, these workshops emphasize approaches such as setting clear expectations, reinforcing positive behaviors, building routines and schedules that support success. So even though it's virtual, we still incorporate hands on experiences with this. Right? Some of the other skills that have been gone through are self regulation, communication, and relationship building. We hosted a session recently on the power of belonging, partnering with families to nurture
success. And if you're not doing anything tomorrow no. No. Sorry. Next week, May 12 or May 14, we have supporting student mental health because it is student is mental health awareness week. So tune on in. Okay. Alright. So in collaboration with student, family, and community engagement, DSE created regional ambassador presentations, right, to help inform school communities about district services. So before the resource fairs, there were always these regional ambassador presentations.
Right? This, has covered a gamut of information, but when we're talking about SEL and PBIS, we've done pro presentations that support behavior, communication, overall well-being. Early childhood was able to do one of the presentations that talked about recognizing cues of students and responding to cool moments and hot moments. Behavior was able to do preventing and responding to behaviors at home, and there was a webinar also offered that gave, home based strategies and supports.
So all the way around, we have totally gotten covered. Okay. This is one of my favorites because I was able to participate in the, planning committee for this. The resource fairs were just an amazing way that community partners, district partners, families could all get into the same place. Right? So imagine a big old multipurpose room with tons of tables and activities, make and take activities. There were so many resources.
There were district partners that didn't know that other district partners existed. There were community partners that came to the tables, to all the other tables to let everyone know that they existed, you know, and the families that came were laden down with, you know, just different, there were kid activities too. There were toys and games, but but the parents really came back with a lot of materials too. And so with that, I wanted to show you something that you have on your desk.
Okay. So this is a little folder, and this is a little example of one of the make and take activities. It's a visual schedule much like what the teachers do in the classroom, at home. Right? So you can have this at home. If you go into your white if you go into your white folder and just spill it out for a second, you've got 16 different icons that you can use to help your child be more independent. If your child is having a hard time putting on their pajamas, right, you slap
one of those right in there, and once they do it, living on the back of your folder are six little happy faces to go, Yay. Congratulations. You did it all by yourself. Right? And so you've got all of these different options of washing your hands, using the bathroom, all different things that you can do. So you've got that as a little gift from us to you, to show you about the family resource fairs. Okay? And with that, I'm gonna pass it over to my colleague, Erica Garcia. Hi. Good afternoon.
My name is Erica Garcia. I'm a special education counselor, and I work with psychological services department. I'm one of four members of the parent counseling and training, team or PCT. And, we offer PCT on Wednesdays in English from 08:30 to 10:30 in the morning. And on Thursdays, we offer it in Spanish at the same time, 08:30 to 10:30. And we offer these free virtual webinars, right, or or Zoom meetings to all parents of students with IEP and special education needs.
And, the parents are given the information at their children's IEP meetings. The purpose of PCT is to enhance parents' understanding of child development, behavior, and social emotional needs. In addition, it empowers families to really help support the implementation of their child's individualized education program or IEP. And also it really helps their overall school success. We offer a variety of key topics in our presentations. Some of them are included here. Parenting strategies based on brain development, social emotional well-being, positive discipline and communication, and strengthening
homeschool relationships. We also provide parent surveys to help improve our practice and also to gain valuable parent information and input to really help inform our future sessions. And now we wanted to share a parent testimonial. It's a parent that wanted to share her experience and what she's gained in the PCT workshops. She is going to be speaking in Spanish, so I do ask if anybody needs, a headset where interpreters will be interpreting the present the video into English to please
use a headset at this point. And if we're ready, does anybody need a moment to get a headset? We're super excited to share this parent testimonial of a wonderful parent who just started our program in March. Already? Alright. So I'll play the video. Okay, Yes. I just want to say a little bit give a little bit of information about what I have received in the classes every single Thursday, things that are shared with us. And, really, it has been really useful for me because my son has an IEP.
And so there's a lot of situations in where you have to work, but you really don't know how to. And so here, miss Erica has been here. Miss Elena have been to let us know how we, I, as a we can support our children. And, truly, it has helped me. I started this year just in March, but the topics that they have presented to the group have been very interesting because in each one in each one of them, we have learned about what they have, told us or presented on.
And sometimes you don't know about certain situations with children because you really don't know what their need is. But through these classes that they provide, I will learn, and then you put it into practice. And then so not only do you have the support at home, but we too can you know how to how the have the information so you can put into practice with them. And so they've always said that the IEP team is a team where there's several
people, but it's also we are part of that team. And if we have the correct information, then we too can support. And thank you so much. I hope that next year, it continues and that these classes continue because it's very important for us. Thank you. Okay. Wonderful. So, at this point, we'd like to transition over to, give the opportunity for discussion on how we're supporting families. Thank you so much for sharing that information. I'd like to open it up to the committee, to ask any questions or share
any comments. Yes. Go ahead, Tom. Hi. I think it's great, but I'm a little disappointed that everyone under the, umbrella of special ed is not represented here today. DHH is not here. Are those parents of those kids need a awful lot of support. I haven't heard anybody mention how do you support them because they are very unique. The population is very unique and require a lot of support. So can you answer why DHH is not represented today?
Thank you so much for bringing it up. I absolutely support our deaf ed community, very much. And I I can tell you that our programs have instructional coaches and program specialists that work with our deaf ed programs on all of the supports that we've been given. And so when teachers that need ASL come to our professional learning, we get ASL interpreters. When there are parent workshops for the community, we make sure that all of the community supports that we have have interpretation and have, like and then there have been
there have been conversations. I've sat in different meetings with, like, different deaf ed members to see how much we can support. For this presentation, the early childhood behavior and psychological services department we're asked to gather a bunch of information from all of the different departments and see what it is that we're doing to support, SEL and PBIS through MTSS. Alright. Yeah. You have a follow-up? So your focus is solely on early childhood education programs for you?
Mine is. But I work in conjunction with all of the other departments. Okay. So mental health is a big, big, big struggle. Massive struggle on a whole different level, especially now. So how do you address that? Like, I have been, I work at Marlton. Oh. And I've been there about eleven and almost eleven and a half years, four years PSA. And I have throughout the district, when when we have mental health, wellness fairs and
things of that nature, I cannot connect with anybody that can service, that population as far as mental health and counseling is concerned. So that may be an area that, you all maybe, as a as a department, look deeper into because our kids are struggling. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. I wanna echo that. That is certainly a need. And I as far as I know, there were only two PSWs that serve the deaf and hard of hearing population. Right? Two throughout for the whole district.
Yeah. So and I don't know if one of them is still working with the district because I know they're working on on getting a PhD. So we may just have one. Do you know the answer to that, Tony? I I don't know what if we've lost one, but I know that we've had to. We can definitely look at to expanding. I think in hearing about the mental health, not just in the division of special education, but as a whole and holistic, I think it's a need. I think it's a also, we we need to kind of, be able to connect with SHHS so that they can branch into the level of supports that we give
on a grander scale for this unique population. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up, Tom, because your struggle is real. Right? In trying to get I'm an ACSW, and so I focus more on mental health myself as a the only signing PSA in the district versus my PSA work. But that's a need. It's a very, very strong need. So, I do what I have to do. Thank you so much. Anybody else have a comment or yes. Amy. I have a lot to say when it comes to deaf education and providing mental
support for our students. Thank you for bringing that up. Our population had the least amount of people to go to for support, and we had the least amount of people that we can have direct communication with. But I'm glad that the movement toward recognizing that and providing ASL interpreters for or trilingual interpreters for our families at these events. I it is my hope that we build upon this and increase the resources and
supports for our students who have language deprivation and language withholding things. And I want to continue growing their support. I'm really glad that we're meeting this weekend during the family service centers. And deaf education does have a table, actually not just a chair, but a actual table at this event. I will be there on Saturday if anybody wants to come see me. But I think that's what we need to do is start bringing that awareness and
bring our voices to the front. So thank you for that. Thank you. And I wanna commend the work that you all are doing as well. It's you know, I I agree with everybody. Mental health is the number one, ask. Mental health support is the number one ask of our parents, our students, our educators, and, in particular with students in the program, that certainly is, a need as well. So thank you for doing that. And I, you know, I'm glad that Doctor. So to is, is advocating because we do need to also advocate for these types
of supports at the state level so we can get more funding. Also, the fair was awesome. I I'm curious to hear in, you know, how the turnout was at the different areas. I was able to attend one of them in Region East, and it was great. I'm so glad that we're doing it. I just can't wait to expand it more in the next few years. I also appreciate all the topics that you have here. My my only concern is that they are virtual, and I understand that you're trying to reach as many folks. But I wonder, are there any of these that are done in person? And a big ask from families who, to who watch our committee meetings is that
they don't know about these and that they want them at their school. So what can we do to get these trainings at the school site? I, parents, including parents who sit on this committee, have said that they they don't feel that that support is at the school site, and they want that. So any ideas from you or even from our own committee here, the staff, how we can bring this to the school site so that at our at our schools, parents feel supported and have access to these amazing topics that I wish I had
when I had my kids little. So, yes. Christina. Hello. So, actually, now that you mentioned that, I had a coworker. I'm a a special ed para. Right? And we do ESY during the summer. And this summer, she mentioned that she went into a death, a deaf of hearing school, and she fell out of place. She's like, I'm really my ASL is really rusty. And then so we were having this conversation. It's a whole different world out there. And it's like, you know, I took, ASL, you know, just for for fun for
me because I used to work with the little ones. And so we got into that conversation, and it was very interesting. So even even for us paras, you know, we get interested in this stuff. You know, so if it's open to us as well, it's it's something great because there are pairs that, you know, would go the extra mile for students or even just knowledge for us. And then we went back into the conversation, because, you know, I expressed to them certain things, hey, watch out for this or watch out for that. Look. You know? And it's not like, you know, things like this, if there's trainings, hey, go to
that training. It's very awesome. Like, you know, if you're interested, it's out there. So it's just a matter of, you know, us employees who are interested to just keep growing and learning. I can definitely tell you there are paras out there who would enjoy the knowledge and education out there. So, you know, the conversation, it was like, wow, she came to my mind. You know? And it's, like, definitely, it's it's an interesting topic. And, you know, sometimes we put the little bit that we know to use, and it's it's helpful. You know?
And since we work a lot with the kids, it's like, you know, it's beneficial to everyone, you know, at at least as a para. You know? But thank you. Go ahead, Kenya. Hi. So I'm a resource teacher, and first and foremost, it's really nice to have a better understanding of what PCT is because I offer it at every IUP. And I send the parents all the information, but I oftentimes don't have my own experience to share of, like, what this is. And so it's really nice to be like, I heard them speak at the board meeting, and this is what you can do.
But I do like the idea of bringing these to the school sites themselves. At my school, we have four resource teachers, and we are all capped out, meaning over a 100 students between us. That is over a 100 families that can benefit from an on-site training that we directly can communicate with and say, this is something really beneficial that we can bring you on-site for. And I know my school is really big on, like, community work that we would extend our our doors to be open to the bordering schools to parents who also
wanna participate. So it'd be interesting in seeing how we can coordinate something like that because my school is really large, and I think it has the space and capacity to be able to provide this in person, which can mean so much to people. Virtual is nice and lovely, but there's something about getting face to face with people, and it brings a different level of, like, comfort to learning some of this information and more connectedness. I think it would be really beneficial, and there are some really big schools in our district that can be those hubs for hosting on-site things.
And we can do one in the fall and one in the spring. So that way we offer opportunities for different parents, especially for new parents who get IEPs at different points in the year. I love that idea. Oh my gosh. Anybody else we have oh, we're already over time. But anybody you wanna say something? Go ahead. No. I just, wanna commend all the work, that you are doing and, you know, the department, doctor So to. I also attended the, resource fair. Remember, I I was there. Went to almost every every table there. And just, it was positive energy, very useful, but I wanted to really share, the
resources and services and activities that they had. And I thought, I I left, you know, that fair just knowing a lot more. And then, I you know, the the this I'm sorry. What was it called again? Visual schedule. Visual schedule. I saw that, and I was like, that is I could have also used that, you know, when I was, you you know, raising my son. Right? And, and so, yeah, it takes a lot of work, but particularly reaching it's so vitally important, and I know I'm preaching to the prior choir here about bringing in
our parents. Because from the conversations I've had throughout in in my board district and all of the schools, you know, this is what I hear from parents. Like, I wanna learn more. I wanna be a participant with my child at at school, and I'm learning. And I hear their frustration, but I also hear, their their hope that they will get these resources and programs for their child. So I wanna thank all of you. And, you know, mental health, social emotional learning across the board through all of our,
our student groups is important, but particularly for, you know, students with special needs or neurodivergent students. And, all the way from when I even visit our early ed centers, you know, that conversation pops up, you know, with our teachers and and the principals of how to, you know, not only address the behavioral or, issues that, you know, that sort of manifest themselves in the classroom, but also connecting that with parents. So the more we, you know, intervene, early, early on is so, so vital.
So I understand that. And I'm wondering, are you how how are you how are you leveraging KLCS and providing maybe some, videos or maybe even a group of parents connecting and having a conversation so that other parents can also connect or having teachers or practitioners, you know, having a conversation about mental health or what are you doing, you know. So it's it's I know we wanna do it in person but also while parents
are, you know, cooking dinner or whatever they're doing at home, they can, you know, connect with a video where they're hearing from other parents as well. I think we should use those, that resource that the district has in providing videos with folk you know, parents handling conversations or this is what I do and having an example. I think that's all. I don't know. I think that would be very important to do. I'll chime in there. First of all, thank you both for being great, advocates for our family resource fair. Hopefully, we get our attendance up. So I appreciate that a lot.
I will say this. I agree with you and it's a great idea, doctor Rivas to expand, opportunities to broadcast this on KLCS. As we're looking at expanding our family resource fairs, one of the things we're seeing is that there's a need to maybe hold more workshops. So what I imagine with what you just said is having a fireside chat in a room in a workshop that can be also videotaped by our KCLS team to become something that could be broadcasted for a future, show. So thank you for that idea. I think we could definitely run with that. And if I could chime in just right on top of that.
Sorry. We did have, presentations at our family resource fairs as well. So that is an opportunity for parents to see something in person. And I do think some of the trainings, that Jennifer covered were in person for parents. It's just a hybrid model. So making sure that there's options for parents. Yes. The regional ambassador ones were in person. The community, advisory committee is also in person. They watch a recorded video first, and then they get together in a room and talk about it and, you know, we're there to answer questions and go go through
it. So, yes, there some of them are in person as well. With those region ambassador trainings, that might be something to just follow-up on because those are the idea behind that is that we're training those ambassadors to go back into those parent centers and be able to deliver those that parent education there at the parent centers at the schools to everyone's concern. Thank you for sharing that. And then I I at the, resource fair, I spoke to somebody who's a member of the CAC. Right? And one of the things that she asked is that we connect them to the
principals and the directors, and maybe we can create space at the principal's meetings or at the director's meetings for them to introduce themselves so that they can be welcomed to a school site and do this ambassadorship that you're describing. But they need to make that connection with the, principals and the directors. So if we can also create open some space for that. Scott. And I'm happy to say that this Saturday, the resource fair will be in my district or District 3 at Holmes Middle School.
I will be there to see. And, something that Rocio mentioned is so important is our television station. I don't know any other districts that have the luxury of a television station. And are we using it to its capacity? I don't think so, and I think we should. There's lots of things we could do with that station, and especially with with special ed and parents being able to watch things at home. So thank you for saying that. Alright. Lots of great ideas out of this presentation. Thank you so much. Okay. We'll continue. Thank you. So there's no further questions.
We'll have Elise come up, and she'll be presenting on supporting schools and staff. Alright. Good afternoon. My name is Elise Loganstein. I'm a behavior support teacher, and this is one of my colleagues, David Hadrichristadoulou, who's a behavior specialist. Specialist. We both work in the division of, special education behavior support department. The division of special education supports our schools and staff in many ways. Today we're going to look at the division support through the lens of professional development, consultation, and individual school support. We're gonna start with professional development.
The PD that we provide to schools and staff is connected to positive behavior supports, PBS, and socio emotional learning, SEO, rooted in the multi tiered system of supports or MTSS, as well as our district's discipline foundation policy. The goal of our PD is to build staff capacity connected to evidence based practices that lead to positive outcomes for our students. The content of each PD is customized to ensure relevance for all stakeholders we support. Staff can access PD in various formats including in person, webinar, and self paced asynchronous
online modules. I'd like to highlight some of the flyers that we distribute to schools and staff that are connected to SEL and PBS. These trainings have been developed with all staff in mind. Your first flyer on the right is the preventing and responding to escalating behavior online modules include three self paced asynchronous modules. Or sorry, that's one's on the left. On the right, we have our Behavior Emergency Prevention and Response Training or BPART and that includes a two day initial in person training and an annual in person recertification
training. These are examples of PD available to teachers and administrators. The first one, we offer evidence based practices to support students with autism, which is an online series. Second, you have the division of special education early childhood team, that has developed a monthly virtual series. Third, you have our functional behavior assessment or FBA webinar training that has also been converted to a self paced asynchronous modules to ensure that staff who are unable to attend our webinar training can access this training all year long.
Fourth, through our listen and learn campaign, we overwhelmingly heard that staff wanted opportunities to participate in enhanced and specialized trainings. Our positive behavior support symposium in person trainings have given staff an opportunity to attend trainings on the weekend. Please note that a very similar training has also been provided for our paraprofessionals. Here are some examples of PD available to paraprofessionals that were developed as the direct result of the listen and learn campaign. Stepping into your role, responsibilities, behavior support, and Safety in Special Education is a two
day in person training for newly hired special education paraprofessionals. We also offer several webinars throughout the school year. Topics include well agent service tracking, access to instruction and independence, in-depth behavior intervention training and supporting inclusive practices. The feedback we have received from our division PD is overwhelmingly positive. Here you can see some of the testimonials from our post training surveys. It'll take a minute. You guys can read those. And also in the packet that you have, your first page, is data from our
first PBS Symposium for this year for CSIS certificated staff, and that was held on, April 18. So you can take a look at that data, and I will hand it over to David. We also provide professional development tailored to school psychologists connected to evidence based strategies and best practices surrounding our students and families to address SEL for students. Another way we support schools and staff with social emotional learning is through a centralized library of resources created by our psychological services department.
School psychologists use the Padlet platform to share resources with school staff that in turn can be provided to parents and families. A few examples of the resources that are available are professional development opportunities, social emotional learning lesson plans, mental health and wellness programs and activities, positive behavior support strategies, and district crisis response proceed. Consultation is a big part of our PBIS and SEL support to schools and staff.
We collaborate with school teams to problem solve and to provide ongoing implementation support. Our consultation can be accessed through email, virtual meetings or in person. We support school staff with PBIS strategies and elements of our adopted curriculum that lend to routines, schedules, and clear expectations. Some examples include specialists, program specialists, and behavior specialists, provide regularly scheduled and as needed
consultation opportunities to schools, their leaders, and individual staff. We also provide bimonthly modified core curriculum office hours via Zoom. We collaborate with the PBIS RP team and provide bimonthly drop in sessions via Zoom in which all district staff have the opportunity to log on and ask crucial questions related to positive behavior support. We offer consultation for schools and staff through a Zoom platform.
Through weekly special education behavior support clinics, school staff can log in and consult with behavior specialists regarding behavior interventions, behavior intervention plans, and functional behavior assessments. We also offer drop in sessions that are tailored to special education paraprofessionals on a weekly basis. Another way the division of special education supports schools and staff is through individualized school support. When immediate and or urgent concerns arise at specific school sites, the division staff both
at the regional and central office levels respond and work alongside school staff to support the implementation of SEL and PBS strategies through a multidisciplinary approach. Examples of individualized school support include recommendations regarding behaviour interventions, classroom management strategies, and SEL curriculum and lessons, crisis and threat assessment response, guidance on the development and implementation of
behavior intervention plans, functional behavior assessments, planning and problem solving, and collaboration between the DSE modified core curriculum team and general education grade level colleagues to align SEL instruction for accessibility purposes. Thank you. I just wanna point out, the rest of your folder is the flyers that were so tiny on the screen so that you can see them in real life. And I'll hand it over to Denise. Good afternoon. My name is doctor Janine Topalian and I'm a specialist in psychological services region north.
At the core of everything we do is supporting students. From early start and low incident programs to career transition centers, we ensure that students are supported across their entire educational journey. Our focus is not only academic success, but also independence, life skills, social emotional growth, and preparation for life beyond school. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at what this actually looks like in practice. This is where our MTSS behavior framework comes in.
It brings all of these ideas together into a clear tiered approach to supporting students' behavioral and social emotional needs. Our MTSS framework ensures to supports for all students, including those with IEPs. We emphasize that special education is not separate. It strengthens the entire system. Classifying behaviors within the MTSS behavior framework helps teams match interventions to both students' need and behavior intensity.
While the pyramid identifies tiered support levels, the behavior classification of low, mild, medium, and high guides selection of the right supports together ensuring alignment. This process is fluid, data driven, with support levels adjusting a student's needs change. This framework ensures equity and access because every student benefits from strong social, emotional, and behavioral supports. At tier three, students with disabilities require implementation of IEP, designated supports, including behavior intervention
plans, ERICs, accommodations, and modifications. The division of special education works to build school staff capacity by guiding teachers and paraprofessionals in implementing individualized strategies, collecting and using data, and responding to high intensity behaviors. Partnerships with administrator supports with implementation and monitoring of behavior plans and use of ongoing data to adjust plans as needed, ensuring consistency, fidelity, and responsiveness across the school team.
This ensures students receive the right level of support at the right time to promote positive outcomes. One of the key ways we provide the support is through our counseling services, which serves as a critical component of our overall student support system. We provide school based counseling services, designated instructional services counseling, and educationally related intensive mental health services. These services are determined based on assessed need and focus on supporting access to instruction
through social emotional development. Continuity of care is key. Students build trusting relationships with consistent providers. These supports are essential not only for students with identified needs, but also for creating healthy, supportive school environments for everyone. And beyond counseling, we also see these supports come to life every day through school wide innovative SEL and PBIS practices. Collaboration is intentional between psychologists, other school based mental health providers, teachers, and staff.
These partnerships create supportive learning environments and strengthen student outcomes. We also see strong collaboration through programs such as the school anti bullying and kindness challenge program at Hazeltine Elementary School and the school wellness room at Hubbard Elementary School. These are school wide supports, universal in nature, that help students feel safe, connected, and supported by fostering belonging, relationships, and positive school culture, which are the key components of
success for all students. And now we will ex present examples of the evidence based programs our department utilizes. Good afternoon. My name is Miriam Chow, and I'm a specialist in psychological services in Region East. In alignment with LAUSD's goal of strong social emotional skills and pillar two, joy and wellness for strong social emotional skills, our work is grounded in evidence based programs and supports such as YTri, zones of regulation, ripple effects, and bouncy's ready to learn resilience.
Y Tri is a social emotional curriculum for students in the elementary through secondary level to support students with trauma, improve engagement, and increase academic success. The zones of regulation is a social emotional learning curriculum and regulation program that fosters learning and well-being for students from preschool through middle school. Ripple Effects is an online program that promotes positive behavioral and mental health for students in elementary through secondary grade levels.
Bouncy's ready to learn resilience supports with assisting young students with positive self talk to build emotional resilience and independence. All of these programs explicitly teach students skills including but not limited to emotional regulation, resilience, self awareness, decision making, and relationship building. These are skills that benefit every student, including our early education students. These programs build social emotional competencies and support early intervention.
We will now share examples of how social emotional learning is integral. Our team adapts SEL instruction using evidence based practices and appropriate modifications to increase student understanding and independence. For example, with visual cues, narratives, and sentence frames. They support with implementation of district provided SEL lessons and to increase accessibility for all students on the modified core curriculum. Special education staff collaborate with general education grade level colleagues to align SEL instruction and
language, provide teachers with SEL related tools to support students in expressing their needs, wants, and preferences. Now we will share a few examples of our specialized, settings. Our transition programs such as the Bridges to Independence program at Leechman Career and Transition Center focus on preparing students for life beyond school. Through daily routines, transitions, social interactions, and functional activities in real world contexts, students practice SEL skills in meaningful ways.
Modified core curriculum includes social emotional self esteem through personalized learning at school, at home, and in the community. Finally, Phoenix Academy demonstrates how we continue to support all LAUSD students across multiple school communities, including Reseda Charter High School, Los Angeles High School, and Wilson High School.
Phoenix Academy is a specialized program supporting students with significant social, emotional, and internalized behavioral needs. It provides a therapeutic, structured environment focused on continuity, relationship building, and student wellness. These programs demonstrate our commitment to supporting our most vulnerable students through targeted meaningful supports. These programs provide additional pathways and opportunities ensuring that students have access to the supports they need to succeed.
In closing, what we hope you see is that the vision of special education is not separate from general education. It is a system of support that strengthens outcomes for all students. Through collaboration, capacity building, individualized supports, and evidence based practices, we are ensuring that all students in LAUSD have the opportunity to thrive and be ready for the world. Thank you for the opportunity to present today. We have concluded our presentation, and I will turn it over to the board for
discussion. Thank you so much. That was very informative and helpful. I'm opening it up to the committee for any comments. Any yes. Why don't we begin with Christina and then Pamela? Okay. So I actually was excited about this whole topic because, I've seen these flyers, and if they've intrigued me, and I've taken a couple of them. And so with with there's more new ones, and it's like, oh, I wanna take that one too. Like I said, it all goes back to the same thing. There are parents out there that wanna get educated. And, actually, the one that really intrigued me was the webinar for para para educator
series. I actually watched it, and I recommended that to our supervisor. I'm like, I think this one is really great for many of the new Paras. I've been a Paras for so many years, so to me, it was like, oh, I know all of this, but I learned it in the field. And I know a lot of pairs come in and was like, oh, I don't have the training or I don't know what to do. And I think this webinar was really good for all the newcomers. So like I said, I recommended it to my supervisor, and I was like, I think we should definitely when, you know, we have those days that we can come
in early, that's a good training. It was an all day thing. So I was like, wow. You know? But I definitely and then I have done the positive behavior one. So like I said, I I I like to go to these trainings, and I'm sure there's other pairs that would be interested in in doing this. So I I really appreciate that, because as pairs, we sometimes we're just thrown in there. You know? We work directly with the kids, so sometimes we wanna have a little bit of knowledge and background to, you know, to be prepared of what to expect out there.
You know? Not every classroom runs the same way. So I think it's really, you know, not just teachers, but pairs because we're the ones that work directly with the students, and then we can always give the teacher that feedback, like, hey. This works. This doesn't work. Or maybe, touch base with them and it's like, how how can I improve myself? You know? So definitely, it's it's a great topic. And the more you guys promote it out there, definitely, there's gonna be pairs that you're gonna catch their attention and they're gonna take it.
I'll be signing up for some of these trainings like, oh, I wouldn't take that one. So thank you. Thank you, Christina. Let's see. Why don't I start with folks who have not spoken yet? So Marsha and then Elizabeth. Thank you. I wanted to thank the division of special ed for actually implementing a lot of the things that we, discussed and had feedback last year on this committee, especially with the listen and learn campaign. I do remember, asking for additional, professional development for para educators and I remember this
committee asking that we roll out resources for parents, because as the parents are more involved, the students practice more so they get better faster. So I wanted to actually commend the the special education division for implementing those things. But and and as always, I would love to see more implementation closer to home as the parents continue to request having worked with parents directly as a special education office technician. They need, the support.
They need information and we need to continue to advocate to get it for them. So thank you. Thank you. Go ahead, Elizabeth. I would like to thank the special education department for a lot of these classes, but I just wanna piggyback a little bit on the onboarding, for special education, the newcomers. The program that because I'm the vice president for SEIU and I go into the onboarding orientation at the beginning of the session. A lot of this onboarding training is not available to all special education assistants due to the fact that there have to be three years or less with district in
order to participate in this particular program. So it's not offered to everyone, and I do know that for a fact. So that would be it would be ideal that it would be offered to everyone that could take this training because a lot of the, training that we need is good to have a repetition of some things. And then the flyers that you all have here would be great to place them to talk to the administrators to place them on the board so that the so the people that are new that may not check their emails can be able to see something visually there. But I thank you for all the classes that you're offering, but the onboarding should
be open to everyone regardless of the years of service with district. Thank you. That's a great idea because if we were not doing it before, there are folks who've been working with us for a long time who never received it. So totally agree with that. It looks like somebody has a response to that. If I if I may, Jackie Mora, division of special ed behavior support department coordinator. Thank you. That is actually something we have implemented. We started with onboarding for all of our new paras, and what we found was through the listen and learn campaign that we needed more trainings in the region. So what we did, you don't have a flyer for it, but we expanded the
training. So the same training that we provide for all of the new paras available through registration, we actually did one, in every single region. And next year, we will be expanding that to more because we understand that our team can only train a certain amount of people at one time. But the more trainings you provide, the more paras will have this opportunity. And I want to tell you, Christina, I was a para educator for ten years for this district, and I had zero training. That was many, many years ago. It is no time, coming that we needed training for our paras, and we have
been doing that for years. But this year, we have truly expanded the onboarding training that we have for not only new paras, but for our all of our paras through our Saturday trainees also. So thank you, and we are going we're listening, and we're gonna make sure that we provide it even more often. That's great. I'm wondering, do they get certificates of completion? Is there Yes. Definitely. So all of our trainings are put into into myPLN. So once a paraprofessional has completed the training completely, they are given credit and then they can print out their own certificate.
I see Christina nodding her head. Christina, you saw me at the training. I remember seeing you at the trainings. Yeah. They get to print out their certificates so that they can show, Look at all the things I've done. And they can if it's a training during the week, during the work week, they can take that certificate back to the administrator so that administrator knows they actually attended the trainings. Some. I love that. Anybody else would like to make a comment? Scott? Slides eighteen and nineteen talk about professional development. And you have professional development for teachers, for principals, and for paraprofessionals.
Now I believe in differentiation, but I also believe in not having silos. So how do these three groups, specifically, teachers, principals, and paraprofessionals, how do they support each other? How do they know what each group has learned to share the information? Actually, that's a great question, and that's something that we will take down and jot down and take it back and bring up, and get a response for you. Sure. Thank you, Scott. I was thinking the same thing because I I think as a special ed teacher,
I wish I could have gone to training with my para. And we both I mean, you collaborate all the time. So if you can be in the same space, have the conversations, it is really helpful. So if it's not happening, I would love for us to create those trainings so that everybody and I agree with admin as well. Yeah. I would like to know what my principal learned at the meeting too. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Totally. Okay. Tamela? Okay. So I'm going to be that person today. I have three questions. One is when you mentioned support for all students, are the deaf ed?
Are they included in the all? As an ex para myself, I requested to work because I do sign. I requested to work in, a deaf school, so I was prepared. But how do you train, or can you get some onboarding to train paras that are coming to work in those environments? Because there's a lot of culture shock. So maybe I was just thinking about my PLN. Maybe having some training on, that that community would be good.
And then can you tell me a little bit more about how the Phoenix Academy came to be? So I'm gonna, add for the para training. So next year coming, we will have more online p l my PLN trainings for all of our staff, especially our paras. And through that, the division has been working with our deaf community to make sure that there are, modules specific for that population. So not only will everyone be able to get the basic, but they'll get these
specialized pieces. So, we're expanding our trainings for all of our paras for next school year. And I'm gonna let someone else answer about Phoenix Academy. Thank you very much for that question because this is my passion. So I will go ahead and respond. Phoenix Academy. So Wilson High School had the Phoenix the first Phoenix Academy. And when North was considering open up this was considering opening up the program. In North, I spend the whole day observing and seeing what what happens, how the psychologist, you know, what what her role was and what the teachers do, what type
of, how do students get referred to this program. So, the system was there, and we adopted it for the North in the sense that we it's a referral process. Students with, IEPs who are emotional who have emotional disability mostly, who need a structured setting that is not an MPS, but more of a gen ed campus, but on a site where it's sign up kind of secluded in an area because a lot of the students are depressed or anxious. They can't get to school.
They can't get you know, they have the intent to get out the door. They put their clothes out in the morning, but they just can't make it out that door. And, so it's on a different, like, part of the campus, but it's still gen ed. It's considered a special day program, and it's a very therapeutic because you have a school psychologist who's there, full time who provides the educationally, related intensive counseling services to them, and then you have a referral process because we wanna ensure as well that it's a least restrictive environment is being always taken into consideration, and we don't just
take students who are not as significant and they don't need it. And there's a maximum number of students we can take based on the number of what special ed says. Does that give you some background? Yes. When you say therapeutic, like, are there LCSWs on campus, PSWs on campus? So I will say that school psychologists have that unique training with education and mental health where we could bring that in, and school psychologists provide the ERIC's counseling on the sites. And, what we mean is that we do provide where you guys were speaking about the paraprofessionals and how does the team work together.
One of the things they do is they meet with the psychologist. They meet with the teachers and the paraprofessionals as a family, as a community, and they discuss, cases because they're high intense needs and significant behavior. So we wanna make sure that the students are always being watched if we see signs. We wanna make sure that the students are not, you know, masking things. So it's a collaborative process, and they get educated as well on factors of what depression could look like, what the anxiety could look like. But there is a lot of training to make sure, their students are you know,
the paras and the teachers are well aware because it's very significant behaviors, and we wanna make sure that there's covered. Let me just give space to let me ask Maria if she has any questions or anything that she'd like to say. How how could you have these workshops in school? Because as a parent, we don't know. Okay. Okay. I'll start over again. As a parent, I'd like to know how can we have workshops in schools? How can we make them? Because we don't know about these workshops as parents.
And even there are here at schools, in general schools, they'll have some. But for special education, there aren't any because that's what we'd like to know as parents in schools. So that way, we'd be able to involve ourselves more as parents for those of us who have special needs children in special education. Because there isn't. Thank you. Thank you so much for that question. Most importantly, as a parent, you have a lot of power. You have a lot of say. Your voice is very important. And so, therefore, if you see something, say something. If you're at a school site and you feel like you are not getting your
needs met, then it's time to speak up. Go and speak to your don't go and speak to the teacher. Touch base with the principal. Touch base with the administrator. And let them know, hey. I heard about all these great programs, but we're not we don't have them here at the school. What do we need to do to bring these programs into the school? So touching base with the resources that you already have at the school. Diane? Mhmm. Also, parent centers hold special education meetings. So if there is, questions that they have and the school's not holding it, that's something to also as as Miriam mentioned, to let the administrators know because special education
always holds a parent center and we present. I know psychologists have presented. I know our interns present at the school sites, and we just discussed the topics that PCT also discusses. So we bring those into the school, and I believe they do offer hybrid models at different schools depending on what that looks like. If parents are not able to attend in person, they also offer for them to go ahead and Zoom in, so they are part of those. But I again, like Mariam said, I think speaking up and saying why are these meetings not being held perhaps would be a good place to go.
Thank you. And I I wanna just, I appreciate you encouraging parents to speak up and use their voice. And I've heard from parents, including here in our committee, who've said that they have done that and still nothing happens or that they're discouraged from even communicating with one another about the IEP and supporting one another with, you know, like, the process. And so we wanna make sure that everybody does feel safe to speak up. And so creating these environments, belonging and safety and welcoming is very important for parents.
So I wanna go back to how we can make sure that this message gets out to the regions, to the principals, to everybody at a school site so that when a parent does come up and then the principal's reminded like, oh, yeah. I am supposed to be able to do this. Let me call, you know, the district and find out who can come and do a workshop. But if we can make that accessible, I don't know if we can have a a checklist or something, but, I would like to to see that at schools. Anybody else?
We have a few more minutes. Yes. Kenya. I just wanted to say, like, a big, big thank you to the Phoenix Academy because I like, as a middle school teacher, I adore finding places and opportunities for my students who are not significantly below grade level but have a significant mental health, behavioral, social, emotional impact. And I find that this is a gap in our district, a massive gap, small classroom settings for children who still need a significant amount of support.
So I've definitely run across Phoenix Academy in my research for some of my eighth graders, especially because by the end of middle school, we get really concerned with students who have had IEPs since early elementary. And still with all the supports we're giving, we're seeing an increase in behaviors and social emotional needs. And Phoenix Academy is just such an awesome option that fits this population of students that really is underserviced, approaching and at grade level children who still have significant limited access to the curriculum. So I think it's great to have a rigorous environment that's a small group setting
because I'm finding so many children that I'm coming across where that's the benefit. But the only option we can generally provide them is an SLD or an encore, which academically does not meet their needs and would in turn not provide them FAPE. So I think it's really great that we have these options that address those academically higher performing children who still need all our love and attention and, like, support. That's great. I did not know about Phoenix Academy. I'm sure a lot of people don't know about it. Yeah. And I'm wondering if it's an option that is when this when you already know,
right, that the student may be that would be a good placement for them, is that offered as So it's not offered because it's, again, like I mentioned, where it's it's a very significant you there's a limited number of students that may attend because of the program, but also we don't want it just offered because it also makes a difference on the, severity of a student. As Kenya mentioned, it's it's a a to g. You know, they they take college ready whatever coursework, because they're the kids who have average or above cognition where they're able to access the curriculum, but they all also
taking maybe sometimes college classes. But we wanna make sure that they they're just not placing them just for the sake of this is a placement. Let's go ahead and do it. We wanna make sure that there's there's a significant need instead of, doing it. There's a referral process, and we've established also a different process where they would come to case review with the specialist within each region, psychological services specialist, where we would review these reports and then consider different options and then we also invite parents if they seem like they may be a good fit to come and observe the program
because we want parent buy in. Without parent buy in, the you know, we're not gonna be able to pull them out of the house to bring them to the school. So we wanna make sure that the parents are buying in to help support us in that process to get them to school or get them on the bus to get to school. So it's a referral process, and then IEP teams may consider the continuum of placement needs, including Phoenix, depending on if Phoenix is able to meet the needs of the student as well. So yes. Yeah. As as a teacher, I will say it was a pain trying to bring this
up at my school. I do think there needs to be a little bit more transparency and, like, disbursement of information directly to teachers because I have gone to my administration asking for what are options for children that fit this kind of category. And Phoenix Academy was not on their radar, as well as, like, community day schools weren't there. So oftentimes, on our end, we're doing a lot of our own research as teachers and, like, talking to one another, but it would be helpful if this is communicated to us in a way that, like, this is the umbrella of opportunity that you
guys kind of can look at. But like you said, like, it's an application process. So I think that needs to be explicitly communicated too because there's programs also like IDEC that's also an application process. And to where exceptional. Yeah. And and exactly. So I think there's things that need to be shared with us that, like, this isn't a a resource, but this is how the resource is accessed. And oftentimes, I don't find that that information is readily available to not just administration, but the teachers as a whole. We're all kind of doing hallway talk, trying to figure out what's the next step
and what's the next option. So I do hope that we can get some of this information directly to the school sites because the number of people I talked to didn't know what Phoenix Academy was. So I think it's it's a good opportunity, but, yeah, just more information. Thank you. Thank you, Kenya. Christina? Yeah. And to piggyback on that, and it's just what I wanted to share earlier, it's like, you know, it's the more that paras know I speak as a as a para. I was like, the more we know, the more we can spread it out because it's happened where it's like, hey. I learned this. You know? And I and I feel the importance of this committee.
We learn a lot of things that, you know, the whole transitioning center, I, you know, I know someone who is in it, but I was like, what's a whole different world? I was like and I even told my supervisor if I leave, you know, my school site is to do that Because there's a lot of things out there that, you know, we're not aware of. And then so I come back and I share it with my coworkers or, like, hey, this you know, I learned this or I learned that. And like Kenya said, it's like we do our own research because we're interested. You know? And, I actually this weekend, I went to career ladder, fair, and I brought back
the the one that says the IEP and U. Right? And it had all this abbreviation, and I I was like, oh, let me take it to my coworkers. And I was like, hey, girls. I brought you this. And it's a it's a brief, rundown of everything. And then, like, if we can expand, oh, these trainings are specific for this, you know, for this group and stuff. And then we were talking with a coworker. She's like, oh, I'm, you know, worried about my daughter. And then because I'm a special, I'm I'm an early child development major, she starts explaining. I was like, but, you know, it's normal because she's still learning. Like, you know, so then, like I said, it goes back to the experience that
I have in so many years of of, you know, of early child development and, you know, getting into special ed. It's like, so everything is by word-of-mouth. The more that we know, the more we can spread it out. Or, hey. Let me find out who can give you more information. You know? And the word-of-mouth, like she says sometimes in the hallways, hey. You know? Catch this training or do this or you know? I think it's really important the more you guys promote it out there, it's gonna catch somebody's attention, and that person can spread it out to everyone and expand it. Thank you. Rocio?
Yeah. Just a few comments. First of all, I think that, all of the trainings and PDs that you've, communicated with us is so important for the not only the recruitment and retention of our paraprofessionals who wanna enter this field and knowing that working with LAUSD, this is all of the support that you will be receiving. So, you know and I think that encourages, you know, individuals who want to enter
into this work and wanna work for LAUSD and also for retention because the more we're providing that capacity, those strategies and research, be able to retain, you know, because this is this is an area, that we lose a lot of folks because it is it's very intense. It's very hard work and you need to have constant, you know, support and trainings and and all that. So this is beautiful, and this is great. And the more we can, you know, build upon, the professional development and trainings, I
think it would be important. But, you know, as Christina was speaking and also Kenya, I think we need to be more intentional and sort of it's not just word-of-mouth because you know about these trainings and you wanna share. Wondering if we can create liaisons. Like, Christina can be a liaison so you can connect with her so that she can communicate with her, colleagues on on all of these trainings. And I'm also wondering, is there a mentorship program so paraprofessionals who have been, you
know, working for ten plus years can also be there as supports for, you know, for a new, you know, a new sort of special education, paraprofessionals. So wondering if that is in place, like a mentorship program, a liaison. So it's not just on word-of-mouth, but it's more intentional that you're there is somebody in your school or, in your cluster of schools that has all of this information and she's the person. She or he are are, you know, the individuals that you can connect with.
Anyway, just some thoughts that came as I was listening to to all this. It seems like there is a a big, gratefulness and and, you know, knowing that the these trainings are being developed and they're being offered. But I think it you know, we need to really spread it, you know, and so that there's more sort of connections that our our paraprofessionals can make in this. So, and I love Christina's just your enthusiasm. It's like, oh my god. I wanted it sounds like somebody like me is like, oh, that's some great research.
I really wanna get into that. So, you know, I love that enthusiasm of yours. So, yeah, so, anyway, just some thoughts. She's basically an exemplary paraprofessional. I would have loved to have you. Not I love my paraprofessionals too, though, but you obviously are very exemplary. Any other last word from yes. Elizabeth. Hi. I think what we are missing a little here, not all paraprofessionals are able to receive the information that Christian Christina is sharing now. It may differ depending on what area you're in. I know there's a lot of parents that are new to the district.
Some administrators are not sharing information that you guys have even at the principal's meeting. So a lot of our members are not getting this. And, just we were just speaking on the onboarding. There is no certificate given to the members that are completing their acts to complete an evaluations at the end of the onboarding. There's no certificate given to them for those trainings. And so I I think we just need to be a little bit mindful to make sure that the principals are sharing this information. If you guys are giving them these flyers to that admin, it would be important that they share. Because a lot of our paraprofessionals are struggling at these worksites.
I'm not gonna sit here and make sure make you guys think that it's all peaches and cream because it's not. It might be peaches and creams at her worksite, but because I'm a vice president, I see a lot of issues that are going on in worksites, and I'm an advocate for my members for all areas, not just one area. And so I think it's very important that we communicate with our principals and our admins to let them know that it's important that these members are able to receive this information, place information on the board, give it to them in their sign in and sign out sheets, make sure they're posted in the cafeteria area all over so
that they are aware of what they can do and how they can support the students and be a better advocate for all of our students. Thank you. Thank you, Elizabeth. So true. And, I mean, frankly, the more training that all of us receive, the better we will be for our students. Right? So it all of us should, have these trainings. Accessible. Any last words? Last call. Alright. Well, I wanna thank you all for being here. I wanna give some love to our behavior support team. You all very incredible. I've reached out when I was a teacher, and you all came and helped me
observe students, write notes, help me with that FBA. Amazing. And, of course, we love our school psychologists because you're just always there and very supportive, and our EEC teachers and all the wonderful things that you do. Thank you so much. We heard some great things, some great ideas. We have gathered all of these, ideas. We're going to present these to the division of special ed as recommendations. We're also going to present it to the board. And, it seems like, you know, some work is already happening from last year's recommendations,
so we wanna continue that. And thank you all. I love liaisons and mentors. That is awesome. Awesome ideas. And they should not cost that much money. If we can give them a stipend, that would be great. So we gotta find some money for stipends. Anyway, thank you again, and then I I appreciate what, Scott offered not, working in silos. We wanna make sure that everything is integrated. I appreciate what you shared that when we support our students in the special ed program, we're supporting everyone. Right? And so we wanna keep that in mind as we make decisions that when we
are doing this, we are investing in everyone at our school sites. So, again, thank you. I'm gonna hand it off to mister McLean for, public comment. Alright. We have a number of folks signed up for public comment. I will call on the folks who listed themselves as being here in person first, and then we will call on those who listed themselves as being remote. Alright. So Elliot Pack, are you here? Elliot p? Come on down. You'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Elliot Pak, and I'm a high school student at Larchmont Charter School
currently involved in a civics project. Me and my my partner and I conducted research on phone policies among high school students across Los Angeles area schools, including several LAUSD campuses. LAUSD's current policy requires that personal devices be turned off and stored away unless a teacher gives permission. While this policy is clear, our research suggests that it may be overly restrictive and difficult to implement effectively in real classrooms. We surveyed students from multiple high schools with different phone policies, and the results suggest that strict phone restrictions do not necessarily lead to students viewing those policies as effective.
Many students reported that highly restrictive policies often result in inconsistent enforcement and frustration rather than improved classroom focus. Our data also showed that most students supported only low to moderate levels of distraction from phones. In addition, many students shared that phones can support learning when used appropriately. For example, accessing information quickly when school issued devices are limited or blocked. At the same time, students were honest that phones can also become distractions through texting, social media, and other non academic use. The solution should not be a complete ban, but rather a balanced policy that reflects
how students actually learn. When asked what policies work best, students commonly supported allowing phone use during breaks and lunch while giving teachers clear but flexible control over phone use in their classrooms. Based on our findings, we recommend that LAUSD reconsider its current approach and adopt a more balanced policy that limits phone use during instruction time while allowing appropriate use during non instructional time. Effective policy is not about being the strictest. It is about creating rules that students will respect, teachers can enforce, and classrooms can
realistically sustain. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. Alright. Audrey Grant. Are you here? Audrey Grant? She's, on lockdown at her school. Audrey Grant is not here right now. I will see maybe she will call in. Right. Charlize Gruber. I'm gonna call on folks who are listed as speaking remote. Charlize Gruber, are you on the line? I do not have Shirleyce Gruber on the line. Concerned parent, are you on the line? Yes. Concerned parent, I see you're on the line. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you have two minutes to speak once you begin. Concerned parent.
Good afternoon, committee members. Thank you for the presentation. I wanna point out a couple of things regarding safety and social emotional learning as it pertains to students with disabilities specifically. There is a sense that safety is only physical and emotional, but there is a component where it has to be also educational. What that means is that in order for students, especially students with disabilities, have access to their education, they need to be provided with an appropriate instruction, appropriate services that
are implemented appropriately and with fidelity. Now some of the highlights that you show here are positive, and it's unfortunate that we sometimes have to hear about the negative. The negative is that some students experience not feeling safe because teachers are not trained. And when we say teachers, I believe we need to make a distinction between general education teachers and special education teachers because it's a common topic that special education is only delivered in special education classes and that is just not true.
It's delivered mostly in general education settings. So when teachers, paraprofessionals are not provided with the requirement to take these, trainings or that they need to be trained because that, in turn, impacts students' access to with disabilities to be placed in more restrictive settings. They it escalates behavior, and then they are they are missing opportunities to spend time
with typical developing peers. So I urge the district to really look at the implementation of the program and the outcomes that we are seeing because unless we see that, we have a system that is not working for all. Thank you. Thank you for your time. David n Tolkovsky. I see you're listed as speaking remotely, but I don't have you see you in the room. Are you hiding somewhere, mister David Tolkovsky? Nope. Alright. Lucas Cook. I see you're on the line. Lucas Cook, former committee member. Please press star six to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once
you begin. Lucas Cook. Hello. My name is Luke Cook. I was the former representative for District 3 to this committee. I used a wheelchair, and I am now tent heading towards my junior year at UC Berkeley. First off, I'd like to start off by thanking the parents and teachers in any up to the school district with care. Definitely, I condemn the decision to have respect to the city to your point of view. There is not one qualified to be on the committee. That's truly the that says a lot about the other special education out of state.
Outrage of the propaganda machine that this committee has become for LCA for technical problems. First, make a word about how great the rules matter and how LCA was going to implementing it. Right? There's gonna be a follow-up word about how progress Mister Cook, you're you're you're you're, unfortunately, you're cutting in and out. We've had other callers who who are not cutting in and out. Can you maybe speak a little more clearly into your device and and and perhaps a little bit slowly? Is this better? That's so much better. Alright. Given, there there's supposed to be a follow-up report about how progress was going last
November. Given that, I cannot find it anywhere, and l c LAUC has been sued close to 1,800 times in just over four months this semester, for special education violations. I'm assuming the implementation has not gone well. Given the amount of lawsuits regarding special education in the past four months has almost surpassed the total for 2025, I have to ask, what's the point of lesson learned to actually help students, or is it to identify new targets? I also strongly object to the vision statement laid out during that meeting stating that they want to inspire students to become predictable citizens. Just over fifty year years ago, I and a majority of other students receiving social
exchange services would go to jail for being out in public in most major US cities and were often designed to institutions. If it were not for the actions of unpredictable disabled people, my community would still likely be in those institutions today. During the second meeting, a lot was said about special education centers and CTCs. May it remind us to me why there are so few special education centers in the first place? It's because you used them in a warehouse and segregate disabled students. When I was going from preschool to kindergarten, my transitional IEP, team told my family lower cramps would have been the best placement for me. As someone who has only had physical disability, this would not have been the right
placement to, to me for me, but that's didn't matter to them. I would if I had been placed in Lowcrans, I would not be attending the number one public English right now. As someone who, went to high school and who read the short bus, appears on the bus attend Miller CTC. The treatment that we faced on that bus from the staff at Miller was some of the worst dehumanizing treatment of which I've ever received. While the staff you who heard from, claims Thank you, mister Cook. If you could if you could wrap up thank you. Remember that the staff and families that have you've heard from were are hand selected
to tell you what the district wants you to hear. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. Alright. The next speaker is Clara Bass. Clara Bass. I don't have you on the line in front of me. Are you in the room, miss Bass? Looks like, Charlize Gruber is now online. Charlize Gruber, please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Shirley's Gruber. Charlize, may speak in Spanish. So if you have the translation headsets, be prepared. Charlize, group report because I want to be grateful for this information.
This information is very important in our classrooms and our special education and general education, especially those of us with IEP. Normally, the behaviors of ours of our children are related because it's difficult or they're aggressive. And not because of their difficulties with communication, but also their sensory. I I also would like to say and I would like to support the community of Carla Griego who's always been very assertive whenever she makes her comments Why it's necessary for the teacher's assistants to have this information at hand. Not just parents and I I recognize and I value the division of special education
that has these workshops with parents but us, we are not in the classrooms. It's the teachers, it's the assistants, the therapists, and they need to know what are the executive functions of each student. What are the things they need that are present, the causes, and how they're able to help them better. I value all this information. I would like for this to be it's supposed to be present for the next school year. And also I'd like to say hi to miss Claire. And also I'll finish my comment with a recognition for the division for one year. They've been presenting me in person. I've been going in person, and they've been putting a whole bunch of barriers, and
I just wanna make another comment for the positive. I also want to say the positive that I don't wanna accept, the fair that's gonna happen in the region South that's gonna happen this weekend. I applaud this because there's gonna be so much information for families and I recognize the work that you're all doing and providing for the community, and I would also like, y'all information and everything that you're doing. And also a fair for art where my son of six years old from the first grade participated in I would also want to recognize all this because you are all doing a great job, and, you're sharing, you're doing the principles and the vice principles, the information. We need to work a little bit harder, but also we need to recognize the
positives that's also happening. And thank you, and everybody have a pleasant day. Is identified as Megan. Megan, I see you're on the line. Please press 6 to unmute yourself, and you'll have two minutes to speak once you begin. Megan. Hello. Thank you everyone for the comments today. I'm here to continue off of previous statements made by Lucas Cook. The third meeting, which should have been the fourth meeting, I found egregious in the topic of conservatorships was brought up as if it was just a regular legal procedure. It's not, and it's extremely constraining it's an extremely constraining life sentence that someone received.
The person who is conserved the right to determine their medical procedures, where they live, who they are friends with, their finances, and who they marry all disappear. Given the amount of time that teachers on this committee and those who have given public comment have testified before this committee that they uninformed they are uninformed on how even an IEP meeting is supposed to function, it should be a great concern to everyone that this archaic process is commonly recommended. Yes. Some students may need it, but as a 2018 report from the National Council on Disability notes, the process is over recommended due to it being misunderstood.
While parents may think this is the best decision for their child now, when the parents inevitably pass away, the state can then appoint an independent conservator, leaving the conserved person open to abuses of all sorts. Additionally, the matrix of participation is incorrectly organized. The discussion of post high school goals should begin when it begins for every child in middle school. High schools act as a launching pad to help students understand what they like, what they don't like. Every high school has different programs. So if a student is already showing signs of wanting to work in a certain field, they should go to a high school that will help them achieve their goal.
The discussion on adult transition should not begin after high school. As waiting to have that conversation to occur until the student is in a CTC, it prevents the conversation on if a CTC is the best place to begin with. Even occurring. As committee have pointed out, the district standards for disabled students are often too low and actively harm their future outcome. Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. That concludes public comment. Alright. Thank you so much. I wanna thank again our presenters and, of course, the division of special education. I wanna thank all the committee members for taking time out of your busy schedule,
traveling all the way here to Vaudree and, share your ideas, your thoughts, and offer solutions and recommendations. I wanna thank parents and community members who participate in, public comment as well as our board secretariat, his whole team, the ITS and translation unit. And before we leave, and I wanna thank my colleagues, vice president Rocio Rivas and board president, Scott Schmerlson. And before we leave, if the committee members can come to the front, we can take a picture. And, yeah, I guess I will see you all next year.
Wait. Question. Oh, question. Yes. Oh, okay. Hold on. Hold on. Let me, can she you. Can Is this for public comment? It is public comment. Do that? Yeah. Did Jessica can do that? Remember? No? Jessica's okay. Okay. Why don't you go ahead, but can you turn the mic on? Yes. Sorry, guys. I just couldn't leave without sharing this. So what Jessica shared, with me was, there was a recent change in the state respiratory regulations, why intended to improve safety in the specialized settings, they have, inadvertently disrupted
the school based care for by removing essential tasks from the scope of LAUSD health care assistance. The shift has forced these dedicated classified employees to lose critical hours during summer school and on the bus on bus routes. As the non public school agency nurses, total medical care for students that they serve, we urge that you review how these regulations have impacted the livelihoods of the schools and the health care assistance and, most importantly, that the continually of the care for
our students. K. Now we're really done. Thank you so much, everyone. Let's take a picture.