everyone could please find their seats. Thank you all for being here this evening. Welcome to our special education advisory committee meeting. We have a fantastic presentation for you today. All about self-determination um by our lcps students. So um can you all please give them a big warm welcome. And we also have some guests here this evening. Um, moderating for us, we have Kendall sorts and T Trooper. Did
I get that right? Okay. All right, all right. And they are from. I'm determined. So, um, just quick, little bit of housekeeping. The QR code is up on the screen if you could please just log. Um, take a picture log in. Um, let us know that you're here. Let us know if you'd like to get further communication from cak and we are happy to oblige. Um and uh, we will go ahead and get started. There are snacks in the back, please help yourself to those, um, as well as
Flyers. Um, and more information on cak and of course, as always, we have our parent Resource Services in the back of the room, who are happy to um, meet with you and answer any questions you may have. So with all that said, Kendall would you like to come and take it away? Oh okay. All right. Perfect. Well, first of all, let me just say thank you for inviting me to come here today. I'm looking forward to to moderating and having a conversation. I was also briefed that I should
probably just give a little up, uh, update. Uh, regarding, um, I'm determined. Um, there has been a lot happening in the last several years. And so, uh, I will just share a few brief things before we get into, uh, the panel. Um, and the last month I'm determined has had some really good news in the fact that we have, um, become uh, Statewide Center. So, uh, in the last, uh, for the last Almost 2 decades, I'm determined has kind of operated under uh, under underneath the TAC, uh training and technical assistance center. Um,
and just in March, here we have now become our own, uh, Center. So we are currently hiring not to steal anyone away from anywhere. But if you're interested in want to talk more, I'm more than glad to do that. So what that means is that we'll be able to um, come to places like Loudoun County, um, And get do more long-term, ta and, uh, do more things on the ground with you, um, across the state because we'll be focusing solely on self-determination and building youth leadership. Um, uh, and self advocacy skills. With our, our
young people in the Commonwealth, uh, another thing that I just want to mention is that uh, for the last 2 years, we have been Producing a uh, feature length, film called pulling threads. Um, and if you haven't heard, we have now, 1 2 Awards, uh, 1 was at the over the Ryan Film Festival, which is in Cincinnati, Ohio. Uh, we we want to um, I think we won the the title was best narrative film at the
the film festival. And then, we were also at the International Film Festival in Richmond. And, uh, also won an award there for our casting. And, uh, the film is about following 3, uh, young persons with, uh, disabilities. Um, each of them represent a disability category and the actors actually have the disabilities that they represent. So, it's about disability representation and talking about our elements of self-determination. so those are just 2 things highlights, the things that are happening right now, we continue to um, interact and and
let youth leaders lead, um, and kind of Drive where we go as a project and that's something that we're very, very proud of So um, I'm going to let each of you kind of as we kind of shift into this panel, I'm going to let each of you kind of introduce yourselves just briefly. Um, why don't you tell us your name and your grade? And then we'll jump into some questions from their. Does that sound okay? So who would like to start? Hi. I'm Milo, I'm a junior at the Northstar School.
Hi, I'm tyrah. Animal, College. Anova and I'm part of Rockbridge cash. Hi, I'm Shay. I'm in 12th grade. I go to Woodgrove High School. And she and I were just talking about how excited she is to be done and just a few months. So, um, I think the first question I like to ask you is excuse me. Can you tell me a time about uh tell us about a time when you spoke up for yourself at school?
How did you do it? And what actually happened? I think she is going to go first for us. Yes. I had an English teacher in seventh grade who was old school and stubborn, He didn't like for his students to use technology to work on their school work. As a Disabled Student, I always had an accommodation where I could use my iPad or any other electronic device to complete my schoolwork and I have not had a problem until I met this teacher. with the help of my parents, my AIDS, and my case manager,
the teacher eventually gave in accepted it and learned that he always can't expect the same exact thing for every student and that he needed to adapt. If you want me to ever repeat the question, you just have to ask. So the question was, can you tell us about a time when you spoke up for yourself at school? How did you do it? And what did what happened? Yourself in school? Yes, to answer a question. and, But you know the answer I asked for help with the question. Thank you.
So, 1 of the first times I spoke up for myself in school, it was about the fact that I needed adaptive PE. Um, though, I may not look at, I do have a physical disability. Unfortunately that did not go well for me. I had to fight tooth and nail with the team at my home school. Only to wait so long for them. To finally honor my needs that I lost my PE credit for the year. And I would soon transfer the Northstar school which would help me make up my credit with a PE teacher and a class that works for me. So I'm going to, I'm going to go off script like really
early here because um, I 1 thing I hear is this idea about people being able to adapt. And what is the hardest thing to communicate? About. um, What is the hardest thing to communicate to teachers who are unwilling to adapt? I think it is. They have a rigid script of how they want their day to go and for them to have to go off that script sometimes. Feels so out of the way for them. but unfortunately, it kind of is important for the students
to be able to learn love that. I think the hardest thing for the teachers are that they are like what she said, very rigid but they need to learn. Not everyone, learns the same thing. Awesome. So, I think that's like some good advice already in the first question. The second question is, what helps you most at school like tools teachers, or extra time? How did you learn to ask for what you need because that's not always easy. Even for us as adults in the room, it's always not easy to know what to ask for, for what we need. So, curious, what
you would say For different assignments. Or guidance to finish or competent an assignment. I would say what helps me most is my current accommodations. They are having extra time on tests or assignments. Having a calculator in math and science leaving a few minutes, early from class, having assignments chopped and showing mastery. They all have been proven helpful in my classes. I always have my parents and AIDS speak for me when I was
younger, but As I Grew Older and matured more, I learned to advocate for myself, for things I need Um there are a few things that helped me most um some are accommodations like having a fidget movement, breaks and leaving 5 minutes before the Bell. The other things that that help me are consistency and communication and I did have to learn the hard way when I started really struggling and falling back in my classes that I needed to speak up for myself. Okay, because you're gonna You're Gonna Learn like I adapt on the Fly too.
So I love this idea of accommodations. But can you tell me like have has what you needed changed as you've gotten older and how has that changed? Like what it would be? An example of something that's changed as you've gotten older? In terms of accommodations. And thoughts. I think a lot of my needs have actually stayed pretty consistent. Um, but learning that I needed, those things
was something that was more difficult. That's very insightful. I love that. So, for college, I Apply for accommodations. And this month, I'm doing the meeting for it to get accommodations for college. 1 thing, we hear a lot, right? High school and college. 2, different worlds, right? And then the accommodations that you need at those kind of are different and the way that you even go about asking for them changes, says, navigating
that terrain is something that I think, is something that a lot of our young people struggle with, um, and so it's 1 of those things that we continue to to work through, right? through, right? And self-determination regardless of, whether you're in high school or college is really, really supporting that work. And, and really asking for those accommodations And Noah has like a wisdom filled answer coming. I only wish my vision was a little bit better, so you could come. I think my accommodations have been the same throughout grade school, but recently, I have applied for
accommodations at college. They're not all the same Mason offers very helpful accommodations. It's a great school for people with disabilities as what I have witnessed. yeah, so I think this understanding this idea that we're all undergoing kind of transitions as we get older and that things change, um, and that we might need different supports along the way is important. And as, as supports, I think it's important to remember that those changes happen and that we might need to have new conversations every now
and then, it's great. All right, I'm going to shift a little bit to um what things helped you do well in high school. And how did you get ready for what comes after high school? Because I know, we're all kind of moving in that direction, right? So what are the things that are going to are helping you get ready for After High School? The things that have helped me do well in school are my accommodations, which are having extra time on tests or assignments. Having a calculator in math and science
leaving a few minutes, early from class, having assignments chopped and showing mastery. They all have proven helpful in my classes. I always wanted to go to college. My parents and I read articles about disabled people who went to college and what worked for them then researched colleges in VA and West Virginia that were known for being accessible and diverse. I applied to 2 universities George Mason University and Shepard University. I got accepted into both of them, but I chose to commit to
George Mason. After applying and talking to disability services at mu. I have had to get a lot of paperwork. Done dealing with accommodations. I would need in my parents and I are currently in the works of trying to get the word out there about finding Personal Care attendants for me at college. My family and I also have been working on my Independence to help me prepare for college. That's awesome. Congratulations, by the way. That's huge. And George Mason has a good school. And you're making your mom cry Moms, making me cry.
Thank you. So I'll repeat the question again, just so that um what things help you do well on high school and how do you get ready for what comes after high school? So are things that Help me other than my accommodations. Was the Northstar school and it it's not the choice for everyone. Um, but For me, the flexibility, it gave me and the support that they had there and the class sizes was a huge thing. Um, And being able to learn a lot of the career Readiness
skills. Um, was really huge for me in learning how to transition into college and into the workforce. for me before, I got into college to Nova what really helped me the The most was. Being able to. Get some assistance before testing quizzes and make sure I study them. Was that hard for you or do you feel like it? Um, Hard. Yeah. What? What made it? What made it hard
particularly like, at our at college? like, Me like trying to remember rise and not finish on time. Yeah, just like the difference between what happened in high school and then what was happening in college. All right, here's another kind of transition focused question. and I know, um, Terry you're you're kind of already in the college place but I want you to think like after college now. Like um, so here's the question. What are your plans after high
school like going to college getting a job or learning a new skills. So we already know that she's going to George Mason. But do you guys like have any dreams for like what happens after college or like what what's what's the big like 10 year, 15 year plan? Uh, for for you? Maybe just a goal, you have. I will be majoring in Communications. I am hopeful that I can get into the field of Journalism after college. Let's talk. because I have,
A friend who works with me on. I'm determined. Who has CP and she just graduated from VCU 2 years ago and just got into jmu's grad program for communication that focuses on advocacy. Let's talk, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we absolutely have to talk. What else, what other Big Dreams do you guys have? um so I want to, I'm graduating, this semester early um
which is an amazing thing about Northstar offers um, Thank you. Um, so I'm hoping to take maybe a gap semester and get a job, and then I want to maybe go to VCU or ODU. I'm still going to scope out my choices. Um, and then I want to go for elementary education and teach like the lower end of elementary school. Love that. Need as many Educators as we can get. Well, I'm already working but I'm still trying to study physical therapy in college so that
In 10 years, a few years, maybe while I'm working. I can see myself, like, doing physical therapy but also trying to trying to do work at the same time so I can earn a little bit of money but also working Okay. Off Script. I'm turning 40 next month. I have this tendinitis in my shoulder. Have any advice? I don't know. Everybody says just stretch. Uh that's uh that's the advice
I've got so far. All right um we'll probably try to do maybe 1 or 2 more questions. Is that okay for time? We're still going, okay. I love this, this question. This is kind of, uh, 1 that I I've asked before to other people, if a younger student with a disability asked for advice. What would you tell them to help them feel more confident? Make sure that you get your accommodations early before ahead of time. So that you can be more prepared.
Love that. And just even like developing like the language to know what, how to ask that, right? Yeah, I think that's 1 thing. That I know a lot of students struggle with is like finding the words to advocate. For their accommodations or advocate for what they need. They don't always know how how to say it or or how to State it or what tone to use when they say it, right? So the sooner that you can do that that seems like that's that's really helpful in the long term. I love that. I have a few pieces of advice for the younger students with
disabilities. Be yourself. Don't make yourself try to fit in with the typical people. Your personality, your quirks, your disability, everything about you makes you unique. Speak up for yourself. Not everyone is accepting but if you speak up and say what you need, you can get help whether it's from 1, specific person or multiple people. The help may not come to you right away, but you can get it. Lastly, this goes along with the previous piece of advice,
you should advocate for others as well. If you see discrimination bullying or any kind of mistreatment, someone is experiencing because of their disability. You should help them speak out against the oppression, they're experiencing. That would help you and them in the long run and you're doing a good thing. You, you hit on a piece, a little bit. That a lot of people don't understand about self-determination is that 1 of the, uh, Outcomes of a self-determined individual. And this is in
the research says that when an individual becomes self-determined, the 1 of the first things they want to do. Is they want to share that information with someone else or do that on behalf of someone else? So it's not I think sometimes self-determination gets a little bit of bad wrap for it all being so, uh, self-focused, but actually, what I think happens more often than not is when you become self-determined, you learn how to recognize how to Advocate and support and care for others. And I think that's, that's 1 of the markers. I look
for, uh, as I as I kind of look for those self to terminate individuals that I run a cross 3 of, which I see here tonight. All right. so, the question again was If a younger student with a disability asked for advice, what would you tell them to help them feel more confident? Control and you deserve to have your needs honored, even if it means you feel like you're being ignored be annoying. Yes, be so annoying. Be a teacher's pet. Oh my God.
Um, because someone will eventually listened. feel like I just got the next t-shirt idea for him to turn He annoying. Love it. Oh man. All right. Oh that. We'll we'll try to get serious for just a second. Um we're doing we're doing a poor job at being too serious here. Now I'm joking. This is great. Uh next question if you could change 1 thing about our schools To make it better for students with disabilities. What
would it be? And I'm taking notes. Thankfully, the experiences I have had at school have been very positive. I started in preschool within an early childhood special education program then transitioned into a general education, kindergarten class After that, I have been in all general education classes with the assistance of a Special Education team for my physical needs safety, and to meet my accommodations. That was very lucky with all of the schools I attended. So
I don't think I have any suggestions That's fantastic to hear. That's great. Um, I think. Things. I would like to see is more college readiness and more workplace Readiness, but especially college readiness. I feel like we're not getting our disabled students. Ready for college or just kind of throwing them out there? I don't think. There's any change needed. So far. I think keep doing what we're doing. Yeah, okay.
But I think the college readiness career Readiness are both. Uh, Good things because they're I think in general like college college readiness is something that we could do better universally, right? And career Readiness, is something that we could do better universally as well. And so, just, I think, um, those are both reminders about what we need to do uh as administrators and faculty oncologists, as well as as uh employers how we communicate, what it is that we we
from our Workforce uh and then how to prepare for that. So both both of those are good reminders for sure. All right. Last. Question. This is another transition. Um, Question what? Programs teachers or tools? Help you get ready for Life After High School? Is there anything you wish you had? That would have helped more or you think might help more as you're making that
transition? What has helped me the most are my accommodations, which are having extra time on tests or assignments. Having a calculator in math and science leaving a few minutes, early from class, having assignments chopped and showing mastery. I did have a computer extension in my freshman year, called equi, which allowed me to write my math problems and equations on my computer, but I felt like it was more complicated. So now my eids just write my math for me while I do math. I wish equi was easier because I think it could help me be
more independent. I also wish schools did a better job of finding new tools for accessibility. There are tons of tools out there that would make life much easier for many students, but they don't seem to be offered often enough. Another thing that could have been better, I think there should be involved, much more and much sooner. I am racing to finish out my senior year with 1 meeting per month with them since January. And we could have been working together much sooner. Lastly, the school could do better with college prep.
They offer times to visit the career center, but I think they could spend more time with seniors especially those with disabilities who don't have the typical path to college or Life After High School. I I love the 1 comment you made about finding new tools and I think the 1 thing that we need to remember is that this younger generation probably knows where they are. So we shouldn't be searching them out in isolation, include them in the process, right? Of finding that new technology
and um, getting them on board. Uh, and then as you implement that, uh, Implement that those new technologies into your classroom, into your schools, help. Like let these young people show you how to do that, right? That we have young leaders in this state that can help us, uh, make our schools better. Um and so it's about working together and working beside uh that I think. Is that really matters there? That's good. Oh, By the way, I don't really like dares.
I have had it up here with them. Okay. Okay, let's talk later. Any other thoughts? What? Programs teachers or tools helped you get ready for Life After High School or are you helping you get ready for Life After High School? so, Um campus is a program that I'm sure many of you are familiar with but it is a college Runner as program that we offer here. And that has helped me significantly. Um, I've been unable to go on College, visits learn about the dates
that I need to have stuff done by um and just in general, general, learn more about college and then, you know, I'll do a teacher, um, my teacher Miss toon. Um, she is fantastic at teaching us about life, even when it's not part of the curriculum, And also keeping us accountable. And sorry, I didn't email you that I wasn't here today. For me because I already graduated high school. I was already prepared already ready. I have so much help
for getting into college, which I was excited for to already got in and I should have done my accommodations before I got in. but I've done it now, and I'm getting ready for the meeting on the 17th, so that's helpful. What I like about what you said there is, it is a process of learning, right? And the 1 thing that we repeat over and over again, Every time that we stumble or we hit a barrier or we fail
or we don't do something right, we can choose to like wallow in that or we can choose to use that as an opportunity to learn and move forward and it's that growth mindset that really sets the stage for everything that we do as it relates to self-determination. So I love that. You said like, hey yeah I should have done this but I learned from it and I'm going to do something different the next time and we're going to find another way there's multiple routes on our life Journey right? And it's about choosing to get up and try another way. Try another way try. Another way until we get to our goal. So
I think that was fantastic way to end. Let's give our uh panelists a round of applause. um, I did bring some swag for them and I brought um 1 of our biggest uh items that people love is, we got uh, Post-it notes that have some of our tools on it. So 1 of our most popular tools is the 1 pager which talks about your strengths preference interests and needs. They are now on a little sticky pad. So I brought a pack and I will put them in the back. You can feel free to take them with you.
Um, hand out to students, you can fill them out for yourself, uh, and uh, thanks again for inviting us here tonight. It was a pleasure talking with you and talking with you. Thank you again. Chea. Tara and Milo my goodness. I just can't say enough, you guys are amazing. Um, I was sitting over there a little bit crying, um, I'm so inspired by each of you and the paths that you have taken and you have shared. So openly with us, it's truly a beautiful day. And I, you know, as a parent of younger kids, I can't tell
you how much it means to me that you guys have kind of been there, Paving the way and making things better for all of our Our kids, um, and opening opportunities and people's hearts and Minds. Like, truly the work you've done is amazing and I know hearing your future plans. I'm really excited and I hope we're going to get to hear more from you and what you're up to. And um, I just, I feel like we need to give them another really big round of applause. And thank you, Kendall your masterful at this. I'm so glad
we outsourced it. You ask wonderful questions and have such good follow-ups. So um, now what we will do is we will take a little break, there are treats in the back, please help yourself to some treats we'll take probably about, uh, 15 minute break or so, um, and then we'll come back and we'll do our business meeting and maybe we'll get out a little early tonight. All right. Thanks again, guys.
All right guys, I'm sorry I I gave us an extra break because I was just having so much fun with our panelists. I'm sorry. But we are going to go ahead and get started. For anyone who missed our presentation, I highly recommend that you go to our website, maybe in like 1 or 2 days and look for the recorded version of our panelists because that was absolutely fantastic. Um, if you have not already, please log in using our QR code.
Um this slide shares with us the role of cak and our Virginia regulations um 1 of the things on the regulations. We will be seeing the um school division's annual plan tonight. So more to come on that. Um, I will just quickly go through our cak officers since probably by. Now, most of, you know us, my name is Liz Crowley. I am the chair of cak, um, to my right, we have Carla solola, our vice chair of membership and then we have
Katie rosenbrook, our cak secretary, um, we have Some we have over there. We have Katherine Moran, who is our vice chair of planning? We have Aaron Rozelle Poe, who is our cak, vice chair of communications. Um, next to her is Carrie, LaBelle who is our school board rep for cak and then all the way on the end. We have Dr. Paige, Carter, who is our special education director and our liaison?
Um, so first thing, I want to go ahead and admit our virtual attendees to. I have, I'll entertain a motion All right. Um all in favor, please raise your hand and say I All opposed nay. Any abstentions. All right, so we will have Beth Carlson, Jennifer D, Donado Kelly, Ralston and Sharon Trove joining us in this meeting. Um, I sent out the March meeting minutes, um, earlier, I
hope everyone had an opportunity to review them where there were any changes that need to be reflected in the minutes. hearing none, we will go ahead and adopt and post those Um, next, we have parent Resource Services with Leanne Kidwell to give us an update. Good evening everyone. I'm Leanne Kidwell with parent Resource Services. Um we are winding down for the school year and we have 1, Workshop left. It is tomorrow evening with Dr. Heather Applegate. Uh the problem with
perfectionism it will be here at the admin building from 6:30 to 8:00 and 10:02 A and B. And this is me if you need me. Thank you, Leanne. And, um, now we will go ahead and um, do we have anyone signed up for public comment? All right. No public comments. Um, your last opportunity to give us public comment will be at our May meeting. So if you have anything on your mind that you're burning to say, please come and sign up then. And with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Paige Carter for
our office of special education update. Good evening, everybody Leanne said we're winding down for the year. And for me, I feel like we're winding up for next year. Um, so, um, there is a very brief little, I think in January and then we pipe it up again. So um but um that presentation tonight, I feel inspired and renewed. Um, it doesn't take much to um get me fired up, but this was like going to a conference like it. It was something that was so
it was just so inspiring to remind us of why we do what we do every single day. When the days are long, when the days are hard, when the days are unexpected, um recalling something like this is really all you need. So thank you for who all who planned it and got that together. And and for the participants, I, I'm just, um, in awe. And, of course, I am a little bit thrilled. When I hear everything was great, we don't need to change anything. Um, I'm glad that their experience was such that they can look back on it. So fondly and and with such, um,
Um, confidence that they got what they needed um to move forward. Um, so I do have just 1 big update for you. Um, we are serving 10,745 students. Yes. That number does seem seem to go up every single month, but the key is, I thought we'd be at 11,000 by the end of the year. And to let you know, we have 376 students in the eligibility process as of, um, March 27th and at an 80% rate of Eligibility, um, because we do really take the process seriously and, um, and do not
refer willy-nilly about 80% of our students are found eligible when they enter the process. Um, we'll get us to 11,000, um, by um, the end of this fiscal year. So, um, we are growing, um, by Leaps and Bounds and maintaining somewhere in the 12% range of our population, um, creeping up a little bit. But I just always like to put that number up because each and every 1 of those 1, 0 7.
And I like to be reminded of the number every single day. Um, so that so that, we know, um, why we're doing what we're doing. All right, um, on your screen you'll see a QR code. This is is, if you are, um, interested in the minutiae of the annual plan that we are required to do, please, um, use that QR code. And a PDF of the draft. I want to emphasize draft of the plan will be there for you. It will be tiny, but you'll have the then, um, way that you can look at it
on your laptop later or whatever to make it bigger. But I, I did it from my phone a few minutes ago and you can get it big enough to see the dollar amounts and the narratives. Um Um, but if you needed another way, Liz will let me know. Um, and I do think I sent it to you another way. Um, if not, I will today, okay? All right. So, just to let you know, um, every year, um, the federal government and the state requires that special Educators, our special ed directors. Submit a plan for the division, every single
year, for how we are going to use federal funds that we receive And we'll talk a little bit about those funds that we anticipate um, in a few minutes. But but this is a requirement and it is um, for me in the years I have served as director or assistant director, we were fairly locked into our annual plan because we use it to fund positions and that is the case here in Loudoun. Which you'll See in a few minutes. Um, but it is an agreement between
lcps and the Virginia Department of Education. Um that says um this is what we're going to do with these funds. Okay, and we're going to do that by following the regulations and spending the money. The way that we have outlined in the plan. And our funding is, um, completely contingent upon the approval of this plan, both by the school board here in lcps, I'm going to be presenting this plan. Just as you see it tonight and I'll have time to answer questions in the work session on the 8th of April.
Um, but and another requirement is that I present this to cak for feedback. Um so I am doing that now um on the 8th next week, it will go to the school board as an information item, and then in may they will either approve it as a consent item or as an an an an another kind of item and I'll be there to answer their questions and I can't remember what that's called. Um, but anyway um, we'll be there. Um, that night, should they have any additional questions? And a lot of times school board members will
reach out in the interim, between those 2 times to answer to ask any questions that they have about the plan or any recommendations um so that we can take care of those things. Okay. So, the comp the parts of there are many tabs in the annual planet comes to me as an Excel file from the state of Virginia. At the bottom, there are tabs across the bottom and here are the tabs that I really have. Um, a lot of responsibility into really think about and I want to explain each of those to you. So the assurance and
certification section is really about saying we are who we say we are, we're going to do what we say. We're going to do basically, um, and the superintendent is the 1 who signs off on this plan. We also talked about our agreements with the um, with any kind of um jails and we do have an agreement um with or we work with here in Loudoun. Both the the adult, um, detention center, and the juvenile detention center. Um, and we we have actually a grant through vdoe
separate from this funds uh where we support, um students who may be incarcerated. So we talked about that. Yes, we do have facilities here in uh the division and yes We do support students, who may find themselves there for a Time? The next session is maintenance of effort and I want to briefly, explain that what that is maintenance of effort is a requirement in federal law. That says, we are going to spend the same or more every year per student as we spent
last year. So when the school board makes their budget, they can't go. We're just going to slash special ed. We're just going to cut that way down there are maintenance of effort prevents That. So, we have to spend more every year or the same amount per student, every year, we cannot cut back on special education. Um and it is a per student expenditure so if we suddenly had 500 less students it might change. But so would our requirement for our child count? That goes in on December
1st. But that is what that is about. We have to maintain our effort financially toward the service of students with disabilities. And the next part is proportionate set aside, a requirement of a regulation, is that a certain amount? And that is determined by the state. It's a formula be set aside to support students who are not enrolled in lcps but live here. So that might be students enrolled in private school students who are homeschooled, um are also included there.
Um, so anyone that is a resident of um Loudoun who is a person with a disability, who is between the ages of 2 and 22. Um, we have to write about how we will support them in the plan and I'll talk about that in just a few minutes. It outlines also how we're going to spend the money that the state allocates for us. It's not like a Grant application where we apply for as much money as we think we want. They tell us how much they're going to give us and then we tell them how we'll spend it and 611. It's all part of title 6B
that special education 611 is school age. Um so basically um kindergarten um, really first grade, but Kindergarten 322 and 619 money is that money that is allocated to go toward our early childhood special education, kids, who are uh preschool age beginning at Age 2. Okay. so, in our annual plan and we anticipate 14,671,341 for K
through 12 plus our postgraduates too. So that's the amount of money we anticipate getting from the federal government and the breakdown in the plan, as it's written. Now, is there for you. But I want you to see the positions that are highlighted in um in the list. 130, special education teachers, um, that we have our funded through this grant, uh, 5 teacher assistants to coordinators. And so on, it goes, but the 1, I always feel like I need to explain to
you because it makes sense that we would have an audiologist. It makes sense that we would have special education, teachers coordinators to support that, that kind of thing. The financial Analyst piece because you are required to have someone to administer the funds that you have both federal state and local for special education and to, um, support maintenance of effort, and things like that our financial analyst in our office, is the person who manages that and that is an allowable expenditure through the grant. So I wanted to explain that, that is someone in our department, not
someone in business and finance randomly doing. Calculations it is someone who works directly with me in our office so and then, in addition we have um, Money set aside for curriculum materials, and a lot of that curriculum money. For example, in the grant, we have used it to purchase reading materials before we have used it to purchase the materials. Set aside for a man in new CaRu. It really just depends on on how um, on what the needs are for the particular year and then our proportionate set aside
aside amount, um, is 71,349, 349.99 randomly, but that amount, if we do not expend it, all we can apply for that to come back into the other grant funding and help support those positions that we have listed there. But that is, that is how we have it outlined in the draft of the grant right now. This is not a change from last year um except that the curriculum and materials um amount of money
has gone up a bit. Um because we have Um less. Um, let's see how I can explain it, the 130 special education, teachers that go into the grant, we can decide which ones those are and looking at the ones that are in there. Now, it fluctuates, depending like if you have a teacher with 30 years experience, they are more experienced expensive than a teacher with 5 years experience. So, there is some fluctuation in looking at patterns, we were able to capture more money for curriculum and materials, which is always a good thing.
But it is the same exact same amount of positions as previous years. Okay, so, for title 6, B 619 preschool, um it's 200,140 that does not buy very much but we do pay for 2 EC teachers but the proportion it set aside amount for that is 445.25. Now I want you to know that if there are more preschoolers than that who come to us needing for example speech therapy
services or Consultation Services to their preschool or whatever, the need may be. Um if that amount exceeds we don't say I'm sorry we're out of preschool money. Now we Would access the other, um, other funds that we have local funds, that kind of thing. We have never turned away. Someone, because we ran out of proportion, it set aside money in the 619 where in either of them. But the 619 is such a small amount. If you got speech therapy, services
twice a week that would run out fairly quickly. We have never turned anyone away. Tammy is back. They're going, no, we haven't. Yes, that's true. So, I just want to let you know because that is such a small dollar amount. I did not want anyone to think. Well, how far is that going to go, right? Um, it goes as far as it needs to um to support the needs of the students. Okay. So here I just want to talk about the budget, just a little bit. These funds come through because of the individuals with disabilities, Education, Act. Um, as you may know,
lots of things in the federal government are in flux at this moment. Um, it is my deepest desire and hope that there would never be impact to Ida. Um, but um, that being said, I want you guys to know what a very small percentage of our budget. This is, that's why I stand before you quite confidently. Not worried about the state of Ida as far as money goes. Okay. So um when idea came out and I know I say this every year, but I
just want to say it again that they promised that they would fund special education at 40%. They never have, um, 15% is approximate now, but that's a high estimate on what they actually pay for AC the United States. So, full funding of idea has never happened. Anyway. Um, it is my hope that somebody will wake up and go. Wow, we've never really funded that 1 day. We're going to do that because that would be life-changing for school divisions. Um, and a lot of school divisions that that would be impacted by
something like this, are rural School divisions with a high Title 1. Um, hi special education population. They will not survive in the same way that Loudoun would should those funds go away. But I just wanted you guys to know that it is important that we continue to advocate, for full funding of Ida, regardless of how small of amount it is, for our budget. Okay? The majority of the money we spend here in Loudoun on students, um, on services to students with disabilities the
teachers and related Services, folks that support them our state and local dollars in lcps. It is only 5.7% of our overall budget. Is this Federal money that we spend a lot of time talking about a lot of time, taking data for reporting out on doing all those things, it is 5.7% of my budget. so I'm not saying I want to absorb that I would never want to, but if I needed to we could And services to students would not change. Our
superintendent said that at a recent school board meeting. It's absolutely true. So, I just in that with the state of things, I just wanted to add that to the presentation, only 5.7%, of our budget complete, it it would hurt, but not enough to impact kids. We would make sure of that. Okay. So that is in a nutshell, the draft of the annual plan, but you have the document in its entirety, um, from the QR code. Um, just for the sake of time, I will take a
few questions if anybody has any, but you can also email me directly or send your questions to Liz. Okay. Thanks Paige. Okay okay so my question to you is um for the so I see that the special education teachers all the ftse they pretty much stayed the same except for 1. Specialist you added 1, more specialist to know that has always been there. Well we had 1 for last year and we have 2 for this year. All right, we will check on that. But I
think that um, I think that it may have been an error in La. Next year, I want to look at the year before. Let me look at it, but that list is the ones that were funded last year, so I'll I'll double check, but thank you. And I'm going to make a note so I don't forget. And then can I ask a question then that? So the next part where we say the certain amount is budgeted for um, instruction reading, math, and behavior interventions. Last year. It was 36,519, I'm sorry, I don't have my glasses, but I think 89 cents.
And then this year we are at 159,000 542.84. Could you just? Yeah, I can I. Yeah and I tried to explain it a little bit already but it really depends on the costing of the teachers that are in the Grant. And we can fluctuate that. And so we want to move. Um, I don't want to say the less expensive teachers, but that's kind of the way it is. Um, um, you wouldn't put a 34 year teacher in the grant because it takes up a lot more of the money. we were basing it on. Um, the costing of the teachers the
the year before and we were able to manipulate it a little bit to get more money for curriculum out of it, by who we place in the grant um is basically where that came from and our estimates came directly from budget and finance after analysis. So I feel really confident in those numbers based on because we were able to do that even though we are um having a raise, you know, an increase in pay next year. So, Those, I mean, like, besides being the generic reading mod.
Oh sure. Yeah. The it's likely, curriculum materials are a good part of that. But also, um, curriculum as, um, and, and feeds associated with, like, mant or ukeru, or any of our required trainings. Anything, but it's all directly for staff. Or students in special education. Every single dime that comes from this grant. Like if I wanted to help out you know, if if we wanted to split some costs or do some whatever, um, I don't have any flexibility with the federal
money, it is 100% special education so it really does depend on um who we're training. So for example, if we were were training, um, as all of the teachers, um, all of the people who support a bit team of behavior, intervention team, we could only cost from the grant. Those who serve in the role of special education because the grant is very specific. It is for special education, not for anything else. I hope that answers your question but it's very and the way we inventory those materials, the way we do things
is very different um because of the federal requirements. Look at getting a proper curriculum for our program classes. Like at so. I that would very likely be local dollars and not and here. Okay? But yes, but we can talk about that outside of this. But not from this, not from this 1, right? Not this year. We're looking more. At more reading materials, those kinds of things. For everybody.
what if there's an increase in, um, children are enrolled in the special education program? How does that impact the number of teachers? If we're keeping it, you know, 130, are we looking at the numbers of enrollment and how is that impacting those numbers? And is, is it having an influence on? if we're saying yes or no, to the well, because we have
1,000 1,000 dish, um, special education teachers. Um, if we have more students that would cause me to allocate more teachers, we have a very um, solid Staffing standard here so we would absolutely um pay for more teacher. But not from the Federal grant because they say this is how much money you get. This is what we're paying for, with the federal money. But that that aside, the first 130 we could say come out of that and then the rest of the Thousand teachers come from local and State dollars and as and as
our population grows um we do have to increase the number of teachers that we have. For example, we added we have 203 more cross Cat t-shirts this year and 40 more program teachers this year and all of the toss that go with them and you can see that we did not get any more money to add any more teachers from the Federal grant, um, the way we, the way we have it laid out. Now, now we could have paid for the other. Oh, sorry. Paid for the other thing locally and and moved it around but basically that amount of money is set. But yes, we have to increase. Um, the number of
teachers we have based on the number of students we serve, and we try to predict what will be at at the end of the year, um, when we hire, um, and I look at percentage of capacity, for example, 1 of our elementary schools is it 82% capacity allowing them to grow by about 30 students and this year, they found 28 eligible. So I think we're good if that pattern holds. So those are the kinds of things. I look at school by school by school. Amazing. Okay. And I and I have colleagues who helped me with all kinds of
formulas and calculations to make that happen. Um, they say say, what else do you need? And then I say, oh can I have this? And then it magically appears on a spreadsheet. So I'm very grateful for that. I could figure it out, but but I don't need to because I have those folks, right Margaret, she's 1 of them. But there are, there are many, many folks who helped me with that stuff, but I think it is very important that we look at the data from every possible angle so that we are maintaining a staffing ratio that helps us to maintain and grow our students.
Okay, that was a great question. All right, if you have other questions, feel free to email me. I am. I would love to say I get back to you in 48 but it doesn't always um role that way right now with um, with, um, um, with Staffing emails. I'm a little behind just going to be, um, I'm going to tell on myself a little bit as Nikia says, um, but we are, um, absolutely, um, we'll entertain any questions and feedback you have about this Grant and other ways that we could do it. Um, it is challenging to change it because of the way we've locked in
our staffing because we get our annual plan and, and, and devised it after the budget has already been submitted, so we sort of lock ourselves in as we go. Um, but but any feedback for this year's plan that I can't Implement. Now we would certainly use in the development of next year's plan but please um, You know, share that and I'll make sure that, uh, PDF, um, gets emailed to Liz. So, she can share it out with you guys, so you can see it on a screen that's a little bit bigger. Let's check your computer. Um, and yeah, for anyone who
would like to to talk more about the annual plan. Um, our policy subcommittee will be looking at it on April 21st, so we will go into it in more depth and Page usually joins joins us for that. So it'll be another opportunity to ask questions. So if you go home tonight and you're like, oh my gosh, I wish I asked that come to our policy subcommittee, and you can do that. Just that, and I will be joining you live from Texas. I'll be at home, but I have already planned for um, attending that meeting with you guys.
Lovely, thank you. All right, and next we have Miss Nikia Purnell. Giving us our students services update Good evening, I am not tedra but I am Nikia for now and I am here, assistant director of special education for Len County, and today we hit the trifecta, it was above 60 degrees. We have homemade Goods in the back and we had kids at seak like that to me is like all I need to get at least through the rest of the month. And my low gave me
permission to be annoying. So like I I just, I don't know. I don't know if he gets Is better than that. If anybody has a problem with it, I'm going to send you to my low, she's my people. Now you're going to have to talk to my people about that. So I do have have, um, the DSs updates for you since tedra is not here with us. So exciting things last month, a nice sized group of us from here, um, were able to travel to New Orleans. Right at the end of mardigra, I promise that we were not
there for the festivities, but maybe at the end of the week, once the festivities were over for the ASA conference, which is the school Superintendent's Association conference and where some of our colleagues were able to present. And it was so well received, um, and amazing on what we've been able to do with our, um, student support assistance in the division, um, and how well that has been serving us. So it was really nice to see other divisions from around the nation, here our team, speak on
something really. Progressive. We've been able to do here. Lots and lots of questions. How did you do that? How do you have social workers there? How do I, I mean, so many questions that made me. Remember what Tara said? We're doing some things, right? Because hearing other people say, you have what per school. You have psychologists where? Yeah. Us, it was. I mean it it makes you grateful for the resources that you have. So, to speak. To a page just said it is a blessing not to be impacted even if we lose funds from the feds.
Because we are able to sustain with the funds that we have and that it was really apparent being around other school divisions that could not fathom the idea of having the resources we have. So, it's always good to have that pective and it was nice to be in New Orleans because it was way above 60 degrees there, which is amazing. Um, but we also, um, have started a collaborative work group where we do have members from the office of special education, working on. So we do have that representation to advocate for the needs of our students, but the FY 26. Budget has
passed the new Behavior Support positions. And I think we came here and shared that information that those were coming. I still don't have exact information for you about the function of that position. I can tell you they will be based in elementary schools. Maybe 2 per elementary school but the actual function, what that will look like who they will serve all of those specifics. This work group that has been formed is going to iron all that out. So more to come, we will report out on that. Once we have better information, but it was just passed, so
it is fully funded. So, that is a thing that is happening. It's not just like a wild myth that you've been hearing out in the street. It is a thing, I promise, okay. And so, that's going to be really helpful because we've been talking about Behavior quite a bit in a lot of our subcommittee meetings. So, we just wanted you to know this is another way. The division is planning to support Behavior across the board. This is not just a special education effort. Um, the school counseling team. Also launched School links, and we had a nice presentation, um, for School links. Um, was that last month?
Yeah, I feel like 2 months ago, my gosh, yeah, it was the virtual meeting and so, we had a nice presentation on School. Links course planner um and collaboration with the Department of teaching and learning so that has launched. launched. So again, if you guys have questions about that, you know that you can reach out to anyone in um, the department of student services and the school, counseling office or contact members of your school, team, to get more information about how to utilize that how to access it if you missed the opportunity to participate in the meeting.
Obviously, you can always contact any of the people I named named to kind of, get a run through to learn how to access that for your student. And with the benefits are of using and it is a huge improvement from what we had before. So I think you will enjoy that um more stuff more. This is not all the lcps, transition Center proposal. Thank you see, Yak for helping to get that approved. Yes, yes, across the board. Um, The Proposal will be presented at the May 6th special programs. Committee meeting May 6th put it on your calendar if you
want to be there. Um that will be proposed. We are very very excited, lots of meetings um about All of the preparation that is going to go into that. Um, it is going to take a couple years to get off the ground. But certainly everything is in the works, going through branding, going through logos going through naming, all the things you have to do before it actually becomes. A thing is all happening. And again, thank you. Thank you, thank you for advocating for us. Go ahead, Paige. I didn't I intended a meeting today. It was so exciting because there
were folks that get permits there and folks that apply for use land use and people who apply for construction, permits and people who are architects, who design things and people who, like, it was just a really awesome Gathering of folks, um, to get us kind of revved up, um, for the things to come. So this is a really awesome opportunity, um, that we're embarking on and 1. That was a long hard fight. I know. And I'm just really, I I feel fortunate to be here
for such a time as this Nikki and I both do, uh, and tedra. And I, and we are all 3, um, along with Jenna and her team participating in these early conversations to get it going. So, I just had to interact to say it's been a banner day. all the things that um, Nikia mentioned but I was also in that meeting today with all those very important people who have levels of patience and brains that I do not have. I cannot imagine applying for a permit knowing, it might be 12 months, you know, those kinds of things. Um, but
learning the process and And what delays may come and they are expected, which it really helps me to feel comfortable. It was just a great meeting today. So those things are underway and conversations are happening at least weekly sometimes twice a week. So we are we're very excited. Yeah. It it has been good news all around and I think looking forward to FY 26, like we said, 40 new programs, which means tons more teachers tons more supports for our students almost 11,000 students Recovery School,
transitions Center. I mean. Yes, we're always going to have things that we can grow areas where we can grow things. We need to do just a little bit better because you have to continue to get better, but I think sometimes stopping and just being grateful and thankful for what we have and what our students have and what we're able to do for them, is amazing, because our neighbors on either side of us, don't always have things the way we have it. So, I think sometimes, when we sit back and go, wow, look what we did. Look, what we did when we
came together with cak and pushed something across the finish line and kept kept asking, kept asking kept advocating. Yeah, yes. But but my low said so Milo said we could be so continue to be annoying. Yeah t-shirts I love it and we're going to have to Brand it. We're going to have to give Milo cut of that and um but the very last thing on our list, probably not the last thing we've done this month. But again these are the highlights from the previous month, I'm student. Health services will be hosting. Immunization Clinics at schools in collaboration with
HealthWorks and Safeway. And we know again with a lot of the changes that are being made um cuts to different federal funds and different things like this initiatives. Like this, bringing Health Care to those who need it. Um because while we may be very affluent, like I just said, we do have lots of things. Certainly, we serve families who do not and, um, so we always have to think about those who don't have the way that others have. And so when we're able to put on an initiative like this, it is another way that we serve our community. So these are our updates and I hope
we have a good rest of the night. Thank you so much Nikia. All right, Carrie. You're up our school board rep. She said she has a lot to say so everyone. Stretch and get ready. Oh boy, okay. I, Have some news. I can't give it all out today, but I will tell you. We do have a building for our transition Center.
And I was there. Without permission. Climbing around the building, peeking in Windows and it is perfect. It is lovely. There is a large space um, for Using as an auditorium using as a, uh, large, uh, area for working with people in different groups. We have, uh, lots
of room for classroom space. If that's what we're going to be using it for office space. A cafeteria. There is also a uh couple of middle doors around 1 side, and I suspect not that I could get in or even see into that part. But I think it was the storage area for equipment. And if that is the case, we are hoping that we'll be able to turn that into like a small engines classroom or do something with HVAC or
something like that. In that space. There is a big need for landscaping around the building so that would be 1 of the programs. That we're hoping to put in perhaps we can use some of the money that we're being given for this for a, uh, Greenhouse so that we can start practicing and growing our own basically. So, I'm really excited about this. I can't tell you where it is yet, but, um, it's moving forward. I have also been
involved with the transition planning, I've gone to several of the meetings that we've had, uh, we do need your advice for names, but when 1 other thing that I just got today, um, from Dr. Richardson the laden County Public Schools is excited to invite you to a round table event for the future lcps. Transition Center, a comprehensive program, dedicated to supporting students with disabilities, this initiative focuses on Career and
Technical education as well as independent living skills to enhance Workforce, integration Independence, and the overall quality of life for our students. Lcps is hosting this round table event to bring together Educators parents community members and other stakeholders to discuss and collaborate on the best practices. And strategies for supporting students with disabilities, this event aims to foster a collaborative environment where we can share insights address challenges and develop an
innovative solutions to ensure the success of our students. The lcps transition Center will serve high school students with disabilities who are working toward and applied studies diploma or an extended standard diploma or who have earned applied studies diploma, but are under the age of 22 and still eligible for educational instruction through lcps. Additionally career, exploration opportunities will be available for middle school, students with disabilities
to Aid in their transition to high schools. We look forward to your participation In this important event and to working together to support our students. Success the date. You've heard just a few minutes ago is May 6th 2025 time 900 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. with Brett Fist and networking from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. and the location is here right here in this room so you don't
get lost in the building. and, Um, we need you to RSVP by April 29th. So I am going to forward all this information to Liz cauti and make sure that you have all that information and the link to rsvt. VP, it's going to be awesome. So that is my news for the day. Um, sure. We will be announcing a lot more about our new building May 6th, 1 can ever be hopeful
and I will see you all there. Thank you. Thank you, Carrie. All right. Um, and Carla. Would you like to give us our membership report? Hi. Uh, we currently have 21 voting members on cak, um, But I have not received any new applications for cak membership. In over 4 months. So I would like to encourage anyone um attending or if you
know someone who would be interested in applying to be a member of CAC, we encourage um rolling uh applications so that we can fill, um, any positions that might come open for next year. Um, and actually, I believe We only have 79 schools with PTA, PTO Representatives. I I I I lost 1 through. I was checking. Okay.
It was a bad email. And when I went to correct the email, I discovered the individual was no longer serving. Um, for that school. So Uh, we do need 22. Additional awesome. Well you know, it's never too late to start recruiting for or too early to start recruiting for next year. So you know if you have a burning desire to be a PTA, PTO rep. Email Carla, um, applications for membership are on the back table. So if you want to apply now to be a cak member,
you can do it right now or you can go on to our website and find that application on there. It's a nice little fillable PDF and you can just send it on over to us. We we would love to have you. There's always a little bit of, you know, movement in our membership from year to year. So Um, we would love to have some some new members join us. We're a fun group we're annoying, but we're fun. Um, Yeah. We have permission, it's fine. Um, Is Carly here with us tonight. Carly. Welcome Carly 17 out.
She's 1 of our new cak members. And because we like to put people on the spot, Carly would you just like to like you don't have to do anything, fancy just give a quick introduction. I don't usually look like this. It's an off day for me. Thank you. I'm Ki Savino. My son is currently in um The Early Childhood special education program at Kenneth Colbert. Um, he is autistic and non-verbal which is what is bringing me
here. I very much want to Have him in the best place ever. And um, I've lived around the country and I do think this is the best place ever um, for him especially. Um and I want to be part of making it even better. Um, once he was diagnosed at 2 and a half, he is 5 and a half now. So, 3 years ago, um, I needed to learn more. So I'm about to graduate from George Mason. Um, with my masters in special education and a concentration in
autism. Thank you. So I'm graduating in the summer and then I'm going to roll right into um, St. Mary's University School of Law. Um to get a master's in um Juris prudence and special education, advocacy So I am here to learn from everybody and um, I hope to do great things. Thank you. Well, we are so glad to have you Ki. Thank you so much for
joining us. We look forward to your contributions. Um, for our cak chair report, I'm going to keep it light. Um, we've got the Sak Awards, coming up, nominations have closed. We got over 3550 nominations, which is absolutely insane. What did we have last year? 170. Something like that. Something about like 170. So we have, like, about twice as many this year. Yeah. It's uh, it's, it's a lot. So they're
wonderful. So far. We started the executive committee has started to review them. Um, it's we're going to have the most phenomenal awards ceremony. I am so excited. I mean, it's always great. It's going to be really extra great. I'm it's going to be wonderful. Okay? Um, so that means that we need to start working on our donations and soliciting all of our favorite businesses for a gift card, or if you would like to purchase a gift card and
donate it to the cak awards, it would be so appreciated because these are going to go directly to our awardees. Um and it's twenty 5 dollars denomination, so it's not a, it's not a big number that, you know, our awardees are not getting it, it's it's all in the, the honor and love it, but with a teeny tiny little Tangible gift um, as well as a trophy. So anything that you guys can do, we've already gotten some amazing pto's who have offered to chip in with purchasing cupcakes and Waters
and pay for some of our trophies. I mean, you it's just I we haven't even gone to price out the trophies yet, but I it's it grows a lot each year. So any, you know, help that we can get would be so appreciated? And, um, we will thank your PTO. We will put them in our program. We will thank you. If you want to become 1 of our, our official sponsors or any other business. So, we have recently sent out all of that sponsor information. So take
a look at that, um, and feel free to just go around the community and ask it's not a hard ask people actually really like to contribute to things that honor our Educators and students, you know who are helping out um our our community of students with disabilities. So, um, it's a little scary, maybe the first couple of times that you asked but it gets a lot easier um and you'll feel so good when you are able to actually help and be a part of the awards. So um, if you have any questions at all,
shahnaz is here. She and Laura. She and Laura, and Marsha are kind of, you know, running things um on the seak awards. So um, please just hit them up. Um, I think we also gave out their addresses for if you have gift cards that you want to drop off or just say hello. Um, so, um, yes, please reach out to us. If you have any questions for the CX survey, We have drafted the CX survey for this year. Um, I've been
waiting to get some feedback from people, it hasn't changed a lot from last year but we did clarify some of the wording and added a question about mental health supports. So um, you have any questions about that or would like to see a copy of it, I am happy to share and always happy to receive any feedback. Um, And then the final thing is we have um I have the quarterly quarterly presentation to the school board on April 8th at 4:30, so I guess Paige and I will be sharing sharing the
spotlight there. Um, it'll be a, it'll be a heavy sea, a special education night. All right, and with that, we're going to move into our nominations. We have to elect a new board for next year. And so Carla and Laura have been kind of headlining that. So First. Yes, thank you first. Let's do a quick run through and make sure we have Quorum because we can't take a vote without quorum.
Beth Carlson. Here. Liz karate here. Jennifer d danado. She's online here. Kathy, fully Gotti Lambert. Marcia Kelly. Tom Ketchum. Rosina kotak. Laura colossi. Alicia McFadden. Craig Mets. Stephen Meyer. Katherine Moran here. Kelly Rolston
here. Aaron rozel Poe. Katherine rosenbrook. Carly Sabatino. Carla solo is here, Sharon trove. Here, Melissa w. Sakina zarb. Thank you. Yeah and just real quick. Um, it's amazing how much you guys show up for the meetings. I said something at at the very bottom of my email that I sent out today, but I just really want to, like, call out our cak members for such amazing attendance, this year, like it used to be a
struggle for us to get Quorum and I think there's only been 1 meeting this year where I might have sent some Panic texts. Um You guys are just amazing in your commitment to see act and I want to thank you all so much. Um so with that I will let Carla and Laura take over our electing of officers for next year. Go ahead. What is this to say? Um, I think we want to present us the Slate. Yes.
Um, For, uh, the executive board for next year for chair shahnaz Khan. For vice chair of planning, Katherine Moran. For vice chair of communications, Aaron Roselle Poe. For vice chair of membership. Tom Ketchum. For secretary Katherine rosenbrook. And at this time, we'd like to ask if there are any nominations that would like to be made from the floor.
Okay. it's seeing none then can we move to make a motion to accept the nominations or The Sleep, the sleep. Okay, thank you. So perfect. Do you want a roll call or just a Yeah. All those oh yeah. Also. All right, all those in favor say, I all those opposed say, nay Okay, any extensions? Oh,
okay, uh, Beth Carlson. How do you vote? I, Jennifer, d danado. Hi. Really Ralston. I Sharon trove. I, Congratulations. To our new officers. Thank you for your service. All right. Finish the meeting chat. Do you want to? All right? Okay.
Subcommittee reports. Um, literacy and math. Alicia. Do you have an update for us that you would like to give The date. I was like when are we doing that? So it's not. Um, so the only big update from our last meeting. Um, there had been some concerns about, um, families, not receiving being able to receive Data when they're requesting on their reading programs that are being implemented. The reading intervention programs.
So although schools cannot give you any copy um written material, they should be able to provide all of the data as far as what is being given. Um and The progress that they're making so you can go ahead and request that of your team. And then our next meeting is Thursday, April 24th at 9:30 a.m. And then also, I just wanted to mention, um, textbook adoption if you noticed out in the hallway, there are a lot of books out there. Um, and so if you would like to go
browse the, um, The Middle School um English textbooks, they are out there as well as math K through 12. Um there's a lot of big math textbooks out there so if you want to look at those they're there. But there's also some Kindergarten ones too. So you know, pick your pick, your favorite. Um but those are going to be out there for a month before the school board votes on whether to adopt them. So you know I think we all as
parents of kids with disabilities know how important that curriculum is and that it's accessible and it makes sense to us. Oftentimes, we end up tutoring it at home. So, um, yeah, this stuff really matters to us so pleased that, you know, um, take some time and take a look at those those materials, um, and make sure that you agree with them. And if you don't reach out to your school board, member Or Carrie, she'll carry the mantle too. All right, and our
next 1, meaning inclusion. So our last meeting we outlined an agenda for our work session, coming up at the end of April, on adaptive PE, which you can see, there is a 12:30 p.m. here at the admin building. Um, and we begin to discuss our plans for heading into next year, some of the issues that we may uh tackle including Um, the availability of specials. Just note that we are not having our April um regularly
scheduled evening. Um meaningful inclusion subcommittee because it's during spring break and actually I think a lot of ours are but some of our subcommittees decided to move it a week and meaningful inclusion. Gave you a month off. So enjoy. Uh, and then policy, um, subcommittee Melissa, do you want to give an update? Um page, thank you so much for the great annual plan, um, introduction to our group. And so uh that was my on my agenda for our um, committee, uh, report part is I wanted
to personally invite everybody to come to our um, April 21st, Monday April, 21st at 6:30, it's virtual our policy and compliance subcommittee meeting because that's where we will be digging in, on the annual plan and developing, uh, the comments and the feedback, um, that we are supposed to do as part of our mission as a cak. Um, so that we can uh comment on those things too include. Um, comments on the aside funds and how um we in this uh disability Community.
Our feedback on how we would like to see those spent. Um so we're excited about it. We've been looking forward to getting the annual plan Plan and um, I invite all of you guys to come participate in that discussion. And transition subcommittee. Do you have an update should not? I mean, We haven't met and we've gotten a lot of really awesome transition. I don't think you can beat that know, for sure. So, um, the next, um, transition work session is on April 8th at 9:30 a.m. here at admin. So I'm sure we'll be
talking about the transition Center. So please come and join us. And then seak Awards planning was there anything else you guys wanted to add to that? Okay, all right. And then our executive committee will be meeting after our meeting tonight over at Clyde's. Um, and all are welcome. And our cak rep reports. So, C cak did they add another letter to
Their abbreviation. I think they, they might have There's there's something else but um do you guys have an update for us either Carla or Steve for CAC? Okay, that's what I was thinking but I wasn't sure. So their next meeting is on May 21st and they're going to be doing some, some cool stuff with. Isn't there a big plan that's going to be presented at the next CAC meeting by Dr. Grubs Or the last 1, okay? All right, very cool. Um, and Equity
committee, they also did not meet Yes. Okay. All right, so no updates there either. We are just moving right along. Um, we have already done our roll call for Quorum, so I think we're good there. Um, so we can get right into our policy review, so Melissa and Craig, I'll let you guys come up. It looks like a lot of policies on here, but don't be too scared. They're, they're not that bad. I don't think there's any 1 of them, that's really scary, so,
All right. Um, so there, as you can see, there are several policies that we don't have any recommendations for do. We want to do those first? Okay? Um, so policy, 8125, uh, uh, we would entertain a motion to adopt the recommendation of policy and compliance subcommittee, that we have no recommendations. Dude, I thought we wanted to do them separately so people had a chance to comment. I'm happy to do it as a slate. We tried to do that before and we got pushed back.
We can do it as a slate in. Anyone can call to the question if they disagree, okay? Sounds great. Is there any discussion? and if you So it's been moved and seconded that we adopt the recommendations that policy and compliance subcommittee that we have no recommendations to the listed policies. Is there any discussion? And this would be the time if you wanted us to break anything out. Nope. Okay. Um hearing no discussion. We'll move to a vote all those in favor um of adopting. The recommendation of no recommendations to these policies. Say I I, I
uh, any any opposed? Any abstentions. All right, Beth Carlson. I, Jennifer, d danado. I Kelly Ralston. I Sharon trip. I excellent. Okay. So that passes unanimously. All right, then we're going to look at policy 6130. Let me find it that is um that's the policy for unpaid meal debt. Um, this
addresses, the school board's commitment to ensure that students have access to nutritious meals to support academic Readiness, by addressing how, to handle unpaid meal debt. And um, actually uh, the CAC had addressed or reviewed this policy back in October of 2022, um, and had adopted a recommendation and so it was the policy and compliance subcommittee's recommendation, that we adopt the same um, concern and recommendation because it was not adopted by the school board back in 2022. And so the concern is that um uh from that we also had back in 2022
that we have received CX has received reports from the community. That lcps would not communicate with parents and their preferred language or language. They understood Andor their preferred mode of communication or a mode. They can access. Such as Braille policies, um, should be written to be inclusive of the needs of our parents and Guardians. Therefore our recommendation at line 55 after the word mail to add quote in their preferred mode of communication end quote so that the new sentence in the policy reads,
Students parent or legal, guardian is notified via email, text phone and mail in their preferred mode of communication. All right. So uh, do I hear a motion to adopt the recommend recommend the concern and recommendation from the policy and compliance subcommittee to policy 6130 unpaid meal debt. okay, second by Tom. Thank you. Any discussion on this? Yes. So, aside from the uh, policy aspect of this, um, I as a
parent oh is this not working? Oh, Hello. Is this working? Hi, I think it is, yeah. Okay, thank you. Um, so aside from the policy, um, whatever the um, The company or the their method of communication, I guess they have been like uh, falsely making calls, and emails and text messages. Um, at least to me, I don't have anybody else's experience. Everyone got it. Okay. So this, it's like it's continuing to happen. Um, and like my child is 5
and I sent him with food every day, so he has never gotten food from school. So I know that that's, you know, it's faulty. Um, so I just wanted to see if that was an issue for anybody else and like what maybe know or so. So so that that, that is an issue. Okay. Um, but that actually, it's not related to our policy um that that we're we're uh uh and the recommendations that were adopting. Um, that's more of a technical glitch technical issue. Okay? Right. Um, but, uh, yeah, so not directly related to our
policy recommendations, okay? So 1 other thing though, I don't know if this is like if it goes along with the policy but as for the unpaid meal debt, I know that some places will allow other people to pay meal debt. Um is this something that I can look into how to do pay for other people's meal debt? It's my understanding that is, in fact, the policy does address that these can be paid from other sources, okay, I would, but I don't know if anyone from the staff wants to address that directly that question.
I will. Oh, I would. Okay. Yeah. And again, the policy number is 6130 if you want to look it up. Um, and I know Liz sent out. Um, yeah, and if you um, scan the QR code that's up there, it takes you, we have a shared folder. You probably don't know about, but yeah, where we post all of the um policy packets that we're looking at. But also if you want to find the draft policy, um we usually send that out when we send out the subcommittee notices, but you can also go
on to board docs if you just Google lcps board, docs, and then there's a little thing that says policy, And you can search for the policy number and you'll also see the draft of that. And if you have any questions, if anyone has any questions, I'm always happy to walk you through because I know it was a little overwhelming for me when I first started trying to figure out where are these policies? Thank you definitely. Yes. So please come to any of us if you have a question, Stephen. Yeah. Oh hold on. 1 sec. There. In their preferred mode of.
Communication patience. In your preferred, the in the added wording in their preferred mode of communication. Um, what would that be you mentioned Braille? Yeah, well Braille was in the context of a mode that they can the parent could access. Um, such as Braille that was the context of the Braille comment. Okay, do we not knowing who's going to read this? Should we include that not including, but not limited to Braille. A a c, in other words, so that if a parent is reading that,
they know that's an alternative right and are there, um, other than Braille the other alternative modes are we like? You know, AAC sign language. I would make a motion that we insert, um, the wording including, but not limited to and the ones that you just said Braille sign language. Or should we say, for example? Sure, right. But you know, there's some uh, kind of Overarching themes that you'll see come up in our policy
recommendations. And of course, this is part of 1 of them, which is communicating people in a way that they can receive if they have a disability, but the other 1 is is we we love to make it easy for people who are working at good faith to pick up the policy and know what they're supposed to be doing. So anything we can do that makes that easier everybody wins. So, in a, in a I apologize. What was the comment? No, no, no. I think she was talking about, um, that ADA accommodations would be met so that ADA accommodations are met something like that, that referring to other modes of communication
are available because we don't provide an, for example, a sign language interpreter to every single event. But if we know that somebody needs that, we have absolutely provide that Oh, do you see what I'm saying? I see. I see where you're going. Yes. Because Loudoun County has like a form. Say if you were coming to this meeting, you could and you needed cart or you needed, you know, um, a sign language interpreter, then the individual will fill out that form, submit it to lden County so that that that resource can be provided say. I think we would need to know that you needed something in that format in order for us to deliver it to
you that way. So I think that ADA accommodations available upon request or or modes of communication available, you know, because we would need to know what that mode of communication is in order to deliver it. That way, I'm sorry. I'm tired, I'm droning on, but you know what I mean? So the wording be and their preferred Mode of uh, Ada communication. Okay. I'll accept that. I really think we ought to All right, I really think we should stick with an example.
Like Braille or sign language rather than refer to the Ada because the Ada does cover a lot of about signage and so forth. Not necessarily modes of communication, and I'm aware that if we reference that it starts to put it in a more Mercury area. And if our purpose is to make it more obvious to a lay person, what is intended there? We just give a couple of examples such as Yeah. And and but maybe kind of addressing the the concern over here. Some maybe adding some like, maybe not
referencing Ada per se but just saying, Say, apparent picked up this policy and was reading it and they might think, well, how do I do that? And so maybe dropping some language in, you know, um, you know, uh, these, uh, these modes of communication can be accessed at this link and and put a link to the request form or something that so that it makes it More accessible, Maybe. I think we may be getting down into the weeds and implementation for a policy. I think I think our objective
in this recommendation is merely to flag to student nutrition services. As they are developing like a technology for notifying parents. That this is something that they need to consider. If we go to, I think that was the, the level that we were at. Um, there's a whole lot of other implementation details that are bigger picture. Some of that may be a parent view, issue or so forth. This is not the place for that. and maybe you know, since the staff are able to communicate um and if there's a regulation that goes with this maybe
that might be information that could be in a regulation. Um I I just some of that is bigger than this particular policy is domain. Yeah. Well I want to to a regulation and if, if that's important then you know and and I I think there is, um, some value in making. Sure people have understand how they can get access to these things, but I do fully agree that may be um, more detail that's a per than is what would be appropriate for a school board policy.
Yeah. All right. So do I hear a motion from the? Is there any more discussion on that topic? I cut things off too quickly. Okay. Is there a motion from the floor? Because we need to amend if we can adopt. But we have an amended yet. You don't have a base motion. Motion can be. Subcommittees. Have to adopt with recommendations during include examples such as Braille Etc. Upon request. Yeah, okay, do I hear such a motion
Okay. And do I hear a second? Okay. all right, so any discussion all right, all those in favor of adopting, the motion, um, to adopt the recommendations of the policy and compliance subcommittee as amended uh, from the floor to policy 6130 all those in favor. Say, I, I, I those opposed, uh, any abstentions All right, Beth Carlson. I Jennifer d danado.
I Kelly rston. I Sharon trove. I okay, so that passes unanimously, moving on our next policy, Oh. Oh okay. Oh, we even had slides. Thank you. Oh my gosh. Okay. Okay, let's go past that. There we go, policy 2310 Committees of the school board. All right. Um, this address is uh, School Board standing select and advisory committees and just so everyone knows CX serves as an advisory
committee to the school board, um, and the following is the recommendation of the, uh, policy and compliance subcommittee. Uh, the concern is that there, what we think is a typo at line, 256, that makes the intent of the sentence unclear. And so, what we are recommending is that the end of line, 257, which is the end of the sentence. Um, add the word quote community in quote, so that the full sentence now reads, cak advises. The school board on the needs of special education students and examines issues of
relevance to the special education Community. Um, so that's it. Do I hear a motion to adopt the, uh, recommendation of the policy and compliance subcommittee to policy 2310? Are the? Steven seconded. Is there any discussion? Uh, so it's so it's been moved and seconded that we adopt the recommendation from the policy and compliance subcommittee to policy 2310. Is there any discussion? Okay, all those in favor. Say I I opposed any extensions.
All right, Beth Carlson. I Jennifer de danado. I Kelly rston. I and Sharon truth. Hi. All right. So that um, motion passes unanimously. All right, now we're to policy 5430 use of generative artificial intelligence. Um this policy establishes standards uh for the usage generative, artificial intelligence, or Ai and lcps to enhance learning through Adaptive Technologies such as this 1. And uh, there were actually 3 concerned.
Uh, okay. Oh, that's okay. I I've got it here so I printed it out. All right, so concern number 1 from the committee was um, that the current policy while it's not objectionable at all. Um, the committee felt that it lacked, the guard that should be required. When implementing an AI policy, the following items and others are missing any detail on limitations appropriate, use AI, ethics board, algorithmic bias, safeguards data ownership,
And review Beyond once a year approval of apps. So recommendation number 1, which is on here that oh, go back. Yep. That's it is, um, to establish an AI ethics board. That would include a representative of the disability Community to further Define. This policy and Associated regulations. so, our concern number 2 um, is that eligibility decisions, IEP generation placement? Decisions grading or course
design should not be solely. Automated via AI a human decision maker should remain involved in the decision-making. And concern number 3. Uh, programs are applications Etc. While generative AI decisions are based on models. Models should address algorithmic bias. Safeguards data ownership, trust and integrity Etc. Quote programs in, quote are less of a concern and there
should be more focus in the policy on actual generative, AI quote models, in quote. Therefore recommendation number 2 is at lines 30 and 36 to replace the term programs with the term models. Okay. So, go ahead. I'd like to suggest an amendment to concern 2. Which would be to change. The word should, as in a, human should be involved to must. Okay.
So, do I hear a motion to adopt the wreck concerns? Yeah, we didn't do a base motion but if we're going to do it like we did the previous, then we'll go ahead and do the base motion as adopting with this. Amendment right before once. There's a motion on the floor, you need to amend the base motion to change it. we typically don't I I'll grant you that, but Just so that there's no ambiguity. So, do I hear a motion? Um, Gotta Love Robert Charles of
water, right? Uh, not so much, uh, but anyway. Um, so do I hear a motion to adopt the recommendations and concerns, uh, from the policy and compliance subcommittee to policy 5430 as amended from the floor, to change the word and concern number 2 from should uh, to must be, uh, a human decision maker must remain involved in the decision. Making. Their second. Second. All right, any discussion to include about the
amendment. Go ahead Tom. Oh, uh I'm just going to make a comment about this because we took a look at this policy and it doesn't really say anything. It just sort of says, well there's Ai and we should really do kind of good things with it. So if there is any policy that you guys read, read this policy and comment back um to the school board on this policy directly as well as the comments coming from cak because this is a really important issue. Obviously, this is a technology that's um, beginning
to develop very, very quickly. There's a lot of Uh, minimal, understanding, uh, amongst most people that are not really immersed in this technology, um, and so we made some of these recommendations at a high level to help, um, deal with this. And when, uh, a couple times, uh, we mentioned the issue of bias, I'll give you an example of that right now, 1 of the ways that a lot of folks in education are concerned about the, um, use of AI is whether or not it's being used to generate papers and write, you
know, uh, student assignments and so forth. There is a known bias in llm in um uh generative AI right now. Where if you're a non-native, English speaker, you've learned English as a second language, you're more likely to be Tech. To be detected as having it been written by AI because you're following rules. And a lot of us who grew up here in the United States we don't follow a lot of rules when we write things and come up with ideas and so forth. If you come to this as a second language, you follow those rules
much more strictly just like well a gen AI engine. So as a result you get detected more often than not as as plagiarized to your work. So that's 1 example. There are other examples like that but just read through this policy and and give feedback on an individual basis. I would encourage everybody to do that. Yep. And you know, full disclosure, we actually had 2 to include Tom uh, members of our policy complaint subcommittee. Who literally do these policies for AI as part of their job? So we did have some experts, um, who are involved in this, um, yeah. And real quick. Um, the
curriculum and instruction committee is the committee of the school board that is looking at this policy. And so, they actually had a meeting right before this 1, um, and it usually is the First Wednesday of the month. Um, so you are and they're going to be looking at it again next month. So if you would like to go and give public comment there or, you know, or you can do it through, let's talk. Um, you are more than welcome to and they they are looking for Community input. So,
Any more discussion? Okay. All those in favor of adopting. The concerns and recommendations from the policy and compliance subcommittee to policy 5430. As amended from the floor. Say, I I those opposed, uh, any extensions All right, Beth Carlson. I Jennifer de danado. I Kelly Rolston Hi. Sharon Trove. Sorry, Sharon. Hi, I'm getting tired.
It's like, who are you? Do I know you? Um, only that? Uh, okay. That is it? So just 1. Oh and the motion passes unanimously. Okay, last thing. Um, so while the policy compliance subcommittee, part of our job is to review policies that are being reviewed by the school board. We also um can make uh recommendations and bring concerns to the school board and to the superintendent um outside of policies that are already being reviewed and this is 1 of those. And, um, so the concern that has been raised in the committee was regarding
classroom observations in lcps, and CK is recommended for years. that the lcps school board, develop a policy regarding classroom observations that addresses, the public policy concern to balance a parent's right to meaningful participation in the educational process. A private treating professionals. Need to collaborate with the school and the administration's need to minimize disruption to the educational environment. All of these are very important concerns. Um,
so, in response to that the policy and compliance subcommittee has put forward, um, 1 concern and, uh, sorry 2 concerned, Concern number 1, there's a lack of understanding by families and school-based staff of the rules and the parameters of classroom observations which leads to inconsistencies in implementation across the district. Because the only current information regarding this issue is in a guidance document that was developed in 2018. There
is concern that the guidance can be changed without the input of the community and the school board and then, um, in our policy packet, which you guys would have received prior to this meeting. There's a link to that guidance document So recommendation number 1 that the school board should develop a policy on this issue that would go through the deliberative and open process of policy adoption, and be more readily available to parents and staff. This would provide more information and Clarity regarding classroom
observations. Uh, concern number 2. That was raised is that there should be some oversight of decisions made by principles regarding classroom observations, the current guidance document on classroom observations gives the principal or their designate the authority to deny a request for an observation with no opportunity for review of that decision. So recommendation number 2 is to provide in the policy developed by the school board. Some kind of oversight of a
principal's decision regarding a classroom observation and a process for a parent to appeal that decision so, uh, do I hear a motion from the floor to adopt the recommendations um and concerns from the policy and compliance subcommittee regarding classroom observations Is there any discussion on this issue? No. Oh, everybody's tired. Yeah, I thought this would this would be the 1. That was going to drag it out. Okay, great. Yay. Um, so, uh, with there's no additional discussion,
then, um, then, uh, we will move to a vote all those in favor of adopting, the recommendations of the policy and compliance subcommittee regarding classroom observations, say I, I opposed Any abstentions. Okay. Beth Carlson. I Jennifer de danado. Hi, Kelly, Walston. Hi, Sharon trove. I, Okay and it passes unanimously. Thank you guys. All right. And next month May 7th is our last cak scheduled meeting.
Um, we are going to be um, Meeting with the chief of staff to discuss what kinds of policies might be headed. Our way, there's always that possibility that we might want to schedule something additional just so that we don't start off the school year with like 20 policies to review, but we will definitely keep open communication and figure out what needs to happen there. But as of now May 7th, is our last meeting and we
usually conduct that with um there's no presentation but we do have a subcommittee work session where we sort of summarize, the work that each of our subcommittees has done during the year which is extend. Expensive, obviously. And, um, get it all ready to go so that we can incorporate that into our annual report. Um, that captures everything that we've done this year. and then June 4th is our cak Awards which will be at Loudoun County High School and we would love for everyone to come and to um volunteer their time um it takes a lot of
hands to to make the event successful and we would truly appreciate that. Um, and with that, we are finished for the evening. So, thank you all so much and have a wonderful