Good evening. It is now 6:01 on Tuesday, February 13th. It is our special joint uh council meeting with the citywide council on English language learners and the citywide council on special education. I am Mark Gonzalez
joined with my counterpart. Hi, good evening. It's very happy to see you here. Um you know this is something we've had conversations about and uh it's finally taking place. Uh I'm Theresa Arbala. I'm the president of the
citywide council on English language learners and uh my there's one other council member that's going to be here. She's on her way. Um the interpretation team, where are
they? Okay. Uh we have Mandarin and uh Spanish and what else do we have? And Bengali. Um, could you please introduce yourself? Good evening. This is Wina Diaz, a
Spanish interpreter. Do you want me to say um how to log into the line language line for the participants or you just want me to present myself and then come back to me later? What do you should I go ahead?
Could you introduce yourself and just introduce your service to everybody out there, please? Okay. symbol. message deliver the little announcement will be in Mandarin. Thank you. Mentor announcement
completed. Thank you so much. Did they all introduce themselves? Thank you very much. Um uh my council members are on their way so we'll have to wait till they get here. There's a demonstration outside
and I don't I think maybe they have delayed people. Okay. Mark. Okay. And so for Council and Special Education, Maggie, can you introduce yourself, please? Joel's daughter is Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, my name
is Maggie Sanchez. I'm the public advocate appointee to the citywide council on special education. Um, I'll pass you over to Esther. I'm also the member of district 375 Rosario Citywide Council Special
Education. Sorry, we had to move a little bit. My apologies. Right. And we have one more. Teresa, you have another member. Okay. Hi. Uh my name is Emily and I'm the CESO council member and I have
served the council for like uh that's my second term and I'm happy to be here with you guys and thank you. Thank you. So we are honored to have a lot of our friends from the New York
City Department of Public Schools here. So thank you. We'll let you introduce yourselves in just a moment. a few announcements we want to go through first. Um, today we're going to have three separate presentations. There will be time for Q&A after the presentations,
but please, please, please put your questions in the chat box and then we can get them answered either during the meeting or offline depending on the complexity of the Q the question and the answer. Second, um CCSC has their town
hall with the chancellor and her senior staff coming up this Monday, February 24th. It'll start with the chancellor at 6:30, but we will have introductions starting at 6:15. It is at Clinton High School on 15th Street here in Manhattan
and also on Zoom. the sea cell. Traces, you want to uh our town hall is scheduled for March 18th at PS234, which is right down the block.
And uh after the town hall, we will be having a very quick special meeting, special calendar meeting. So, and it's also on no the calendar meeting will not be on Zoom, but the town hall will be. Thank you.
And then the CCEC elections are coming up. The deadline to run, to file to run is this Sunday, February 16th. So if you can go to your Nixa account, you can also apply for any of the four citywide
councils or any of the 32 district councils that you happen to reside in. And finally, summer rising was announced today. It will be happening this summer. Applications start on March 4th for current K through 8th graders. So again,
March 4th, applications will open. All right. Now, it's time for our special guests. Uh I'd like to kick it over to Johanna from Dial to to kick it off. Thank you. Hello. Hello. Thank you,
work. Um it is so amazing that we're finally at this meeting. we've been planning together along with both councils and myself and others um for this very moment. And so I'm grateful that we actually are together now and I'm really really excited because all
our team members that I work closely with or have the pleasure to work with um are here to join me today and talk about all the incredible things that we do. And so I'm going to review the agenda first. I think I I I missed saying my name. So my name is Johanna
Rodriguez. I'm the central parent advocate. I work um in the special education office. And so today we're going to talk about support of multilingual and special education students. We're joined by dial which um
in total we have we will introduce our leadership who's present in person in a moment. We also have project open arms and um the office of language access. And so in the beginning we will do our welcome so you can get to know the incredible leadership that we have. We
will also discuss what our division um does. We will then have multiple individual presentations. And I will preface and say in between each office as they are presenting. We're going to have Q&A. But please, please, please, please, please
try to put your questions in the chat. We do have staff that are going to answer live. Um, so we will have a Q&A after each one for five minutes, but um, if we do not get through all questions tonight, um, we will promise to get
those questions and we will answer at a later time and then we will close. So, I'm really really excited to introduce our fearless, amazing leader, Deputy Chancellor Christina Fodi, and she will kick us off. As I can never get used to these
microphones that you have to hold. Um, hi everybody. So nice to be with you. We've really been looking forward to this meeting. Um, you can tell how much we've been looking forward to it by the number of materials you'll find in the deck that you're going to receive. um because we went on and on and on in
wanting to be responsive to all that you wanted to talk about and we're excited to do that today. Um so this is our first I think full dial meeting um with you all which is very very exciting. It's I feel very proud to to bring the
full team and uh we have so much to cover today that I hope that you have coffee. Um and I will move around quickly uh just to introduce the beautiful folks that we have here today. Um you all know me, Christina Fod,
deputy chancellor. Um Suzanne Sanchez. Uh I know that everybody on CCSE knows uh the very famous Suzanne Sanchez. Um, Cecil, we're so delighted for you to get to know her as well. Um, our chief of school support, Andy Corso, is here with
us. Um, you might ask what a chief of school support and SE district 75 does. Let me explain to you. Um, and she'll she'll talk more about this herself as well. Um, but but Andy is working with superintendents and does all things
related to superintendents and districts. So, um, as it relates to, uh, special education, if a if a district, uh, needs support in any way around compliance or instruction or development of district staff, um, Andy is the
person to do it. You also know that we, uh, last month brought district 75 back into the dial family. And so, um, Andy will be the chief that oversees district 75 supports, which is very exciting. welcoming indeed to that role. Um, but
John Hammer, the chief of dial, he is my deputy. Um, so delighted that he's going to be working to support all uh all of our work um and serving certainly as my right hand. Uh Dr. Brenda Garcia, our chief of multilingual learners, um CCSE,
I can't wait for you to get her to know her as well. um and uh is has transitioned into her role so beautifully and we're so delighted for the work ahead. Um and we have our senior executive director on the of the committees on special education, Jessica
Wallenstein, I should say Dr. Jessica Wallenstein. Uh she earned that PhD. Um uh Jessica oversees the committees on special education which includes the CPSCs and our nonpublic schools. So delighted for you to get to know this team today.
Um and quickly to tell you a little bit of our about our division. Um the division of inclusive and accessible learning is dedicated to creating inclusive and accessible spaces. Um that means where uh classrooms and schools
where students are not just um tolerated for their differences. In fact, we want to certain we want to transform that notion into welcomed, loved, seen, uh appreciated for for any difference, whether that be linguistic um or um
disability related. Uh we recognize and center the brilliance that every one of our children uh brings to uh their school, their classroom, and the universe at large. So um we are building inclusive schools school by school, teacher by teacher, classroom by
classroom um and are really really uh working actively to to create a school system that keeps um the needs of our multilingual learners and students with disabilities at the center. If we begin with those students, we will have a system that is better for all
students. Um so that is that is our key goal and one that we're really excited to take on. Thanks DC. Uh so I'll jump in on the next couple of slides. First, a little bit about the numbers and the data. Um one of the things that that jumps out at me when thinking about the importance of
the work that we do each and every day as as as dial is that one in three roughly one in three students in New York City public schools is either a student with an IEP um a multilingual learner or both. Uh and so was you know as Christina is uh speaking about uh the
importance of of ensuring that our schools are welcoming and inclusive uh gives you a sense of the scale of of the work that we do and the and the students that we serve. I also think it's an important uh inflection uh point for our councils as well. Um you these two councils collectively support one in
three families uh in New York City public schools. Uh so tremendous kudos to to to the council members here tonight and the ones uh joining us virtually uh for all the support that you're providing to our families each and every day. Thank you. I'll go to the next slide
here. And then DC FOD talked a little bit about some of the leadership. This is just an overview of the structure of our division uh with the special education office, the office of multilingual learners, the committees on special education and school support in district 75, all all reporting up to
deputy chancellor. So what do these teams do each and every day? Uh a wide range of work that we're all very very proud of. Um, starting with uh instruction, ensuring that instruction is is of the highest quality in in all of our in all
of our public schools and is meeting the needs of uh students with IEPs and multilingual learners straight down to program development uh policy development and ensuring that our students with IEPs have high quality evaluations and access uh to top-notch
related service providers each and every day. Uh parent engagement and support is uh is of high priority for our division as evidenced by by tonight's meeting and something that we're intended we intend to continue to to strengthen uh in
partnership with all of you. Uh and obviously we are we continue to focus on transition supports uh and compliance. Uh so what does this work look like in terms of a specific project with these teams that are that are working each and uh you know very hard each and every day. Uh Brenda, I'm gonna hand it over
to you to talk a little bit about one uh one concrete example of the work that we do. Thank you, John. So, this year we this school year we launched the mult the chancellor's multilingual advisory council. Um our president, Terresa
Arbetta, is a proud member of the advisory council. Thank you, Teresa. Um and so this really aims to um have the community and form a strategy for all students to be able to have a pathway to multilingualism from preK to graduation
and that includes English language learners and English language learners with IEPs. The council is comp comprised of around 55 um families, parent uh parents, students, educators, community
members and researchers. Our adviserss right now are working um to define priorities and to develop recommendations. So our plan is to have a report ready and to present um later
this spring. Um we'll publish all the final recommendations in June. And the idea here is that we're developing a five-year strategic plan for multilingual education. Thanks so much. And um now joining us virtually, Kyle McDonald, our senior
director of academic policy for multilingual learners um will be leading us through the next segment. Thank you so much, Dr. Garcia. Um I'm Kyle McDonald, the office of multilingual learners, senior academic or sorry, senior director of academic
program policy. Um I'm going to be the first of a series of presenters. We received questions from the council in advance of tonight's meeting that I'm going to address. And then I'll pause briefly at the end of my segment to take additional questions. So I'm going to be
presenting about multilingual learners. If you have questions about multilingual learners, share them in the chat or we'll pause at the end of this section. And then there'll be additional presenters who will follow me and share about additional questions that you received. So I'm not the only one presenting. Um and I'm very honored to
be here tonight. The first question that we wanted to address when we're talking about multilingual learners, who are these students? Who are we even talking about? Multilingual learners includes several groups of students. So, it's a larger umbrella, a group of students. One specific type of multilingual
learner are our English language learners. So, our English language learners are a subset of that group. English language learners specifically are students that use a language other than English at home and are not yet commanding in the English language light. But other groups of multilingual learners might include students who use
language other than English at home and are proficient in English or it might include students that are learning another language in our school system. And that's all members of the larger group of multilingual learners. We can go to the next slide. So, how many of these students are there? Oh my gosh, we have an amazing diversity of students in
New York City. So glad that you asked this question so that we can talk about 44% of New York City public students speak a language other than English at home as their primary home language. So over two out of five of New York City public school students speak another language at home. And of that then we
were talking about English language learners are a subset about 18% of New York City public school students. So a little bit under one in five of our city students are actually currently English language learners learning the English language. We can go to the next slide. How do we
identify which students are English language learners? Amazing question. All students that enroll in New York City public schools complete the L identification process. It's not just a subgroup. All of the students go through this process. And all students have the right then to English language learned
instruction if the process turns out to indicate that. Um the SL number of days to complete this process is slightly different for students without IEPs compared to students with IEPs. So all students complete the home language identification survey initially um with
a trained pedagogue at the school in order to determine what the students primary home language might be. If the student has an IEP, then a language proficiency team meets and we're going to talk more about what that specific group does. After that step, if it's
determined, the student would complete the New York State Identification Test for English language learners, which is oftentimes also referred to as the NISATEL. This is an exam that would determine the students English language proficiency and their eligibility for English language learner services.
Following that, the parents would receive an orientation to learn about the different type of English language learner programs offered in New York State. You can go to the next slide. So that English language proficiency team, like what was it? The language proficiency team is only for students
who have an IEP at the time that they enroll in New York City public schools. And it has a really specific and limited role. The language proficiency team only needs to determine if that students IEP would impact what accommodations they would get on the nicatel or if they
should take the nicatel in order to determine language proficiency. So we can go to the next slide. That language proficiency team is made up of a school administrator, a teacher that has some experience with English language development such as an extension in
bilingual education or a certification for English or speakers of other languages. And it also includes a special education teacher or a design with knowledgeable about the needs of special education. and it include the parent and since the parent is present there should also be an interpreter
who's there to provide any kind of interpretation needs in the parents preferred language. This group of people as we just talked about I was just reviewing whether or not that student would take the nicatel in order to determine the student's language proficiency needs or if the nicatel
would not be an accurate measure of that student's language proficiency needs. It's not determining other things. So it's not determining whether or not the student is or is not an L. It's just about that niceel eligibility. Parents are a huge important part of this process and so should be actively
engaged about the process. This should be explained to them about what they're meeting to discuss and the outcome of this group's decision can be reviewed for five 45 school days anytime the parent requests. So the parents have the right then to request a review of the outcome of both this group. And if they
do decide to take the have the student take the natel, the parent can request to review that natel determination. We said after the niceel then families would get a parent orientation to learn about the multiple programs that are offered in New York City public schools. Those three types of programs include
English as a new language support where students are learning English language alongside core content area. This is provided with additional supports in the students home language. And all of the other models in also include English as a new language. So there's a model where
there's only ENL but there's also two bilingual education models that include ENL supports. One of the bilingual education models is known as dual language bilingual education. The primary thing that distins this model is that in this model there are both English proficient students and English
language learners that are spending about half their time in the target language and half the time in English. The third model is a transitional bilingual education model. This is the only program that's for English language learners only. And those English language learners are going to be
learning uh in both their home language and in English with increasing time spent in English as they become more proficient in the English language. We can go to the next slide. There's a great question in the chat. People are already asking about like how many of our English language learners
have IEPs. So we can look at there's the comparison here. The total number of English language learners with IEPs. Um, as John had mentioned at the top of our presentation, the proportion of overlap, um, last year that number was about 36,000 English language learners have
IEPs. And they're proportionally more of them are served in English as a new language only. Then we can see with our students that are English language learners without IEPs. So that's the green bar on the right. We can see a larger proportion of L's with IEPs are served in ENL only compared to L's
without IEPs. about 11% of our English language learners with IEPs are served in bilingual education programs which is really exciting that they have the opportunity to participate in that that um validation we can go to the next slide. So that was all about the initial
identification of English language learners and then every year our English language learners complete the New York State second language achievement test. So, this is an annual progress measure that helps us see how our students are learning and developing their English language skills. Uh, English language
learners with IEPs also take the NISSLAT and receive any of the accommodations and their IEPs that they're eligible to on this exam as well. Um, there is a requirement for New York State to provide an alternate assessment. Um, it's known as New York State
Commissioner's Regulation Subpar 154.3. Um but as of this most recent budget cycle there uh board New York State Board of Regents did propose to have this alternate assessment funded. Um but that funding is not currently within the budget for the upcoming year.
So this is a regulatory requirement but it's not currently funded by New York State. Um so for students that would be eligible for alternate assessment there is not currently an alternate assessment for the NICS slot that is available. And so that was my section.
If you have additional questions um from the Q&A, I believe a few people are helping me answer a lot of these already. Um I'm not knowledgeable enough about related service providers to answer this question, but we might get to related service providers later in a
different section. That's great. Any questions that people have that were not in the chat? Any questions from this room? Well, I'm still around. If you have more questions, please put them in the chat. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together. You are so excited. You're
about to learn about comparable service plans from the one, the only Jennifer Thomas. Thank you, Kyle. Um, what a wonderful introduction. Um, wonderful to be here. My name is Jennifer Thomas. I'm the deputy senior executive director of
CSES. Um, and I'm here currently representing the committees on special education. And the committees on special education work closely with our family welcome centers to develop something called a comparatable service plan. So that's what we're going to talk about now. Thank you for moving my slide. So
what is a ser a comparatable service plan or as we say a CSP? It's a support for students with disabilities that have moved into New York City. So, if your child has been receiving special education services before moving to New York City, they may need a comparatable
service plan or a CSP to ensure they continue receiving support while NYCPS reviews their needs. A CSP will be created if you provide an IEP or an individualized education program or a similar document from another city,
state, or country. In some instances, you share that your child has previously received special education services or even if you don't have the documents right away. If the official documents are not available, sometimes because families are in temporary housing or they're seeking asylum, schools will use
whatever information is provided to create this CSP. If your child has moved from another country or a state or territory but does not have an IEP, the Committee on Special Education will request um a copy from the previous
district. Some children may not have an IEP in their home country because there is no equivalent document that does exist. Um and if that's the case and your child does need special education services, they have a right to an IEP and they will receive a CSP in order to
support them in school. Our goal is to make sure that your child gets the support that they need as soon as they start school. Um, and the new school or the cse will create the CSP. Sorry for all the acron um based on the information provided to ensure that
there's a smooth transition um and the child gets immediate services that they need. Okay. So, at times during this process, families are going to be asked questions. Um the questions are going to be um to determine if a comparatable service plan is needed. So since the
terms of special education can differ across different states and countries and regions, asking open-ended questions that encourage families to share their child's educational experience can lead to a more meaningful and helpful conversation to determine if a CSP is
necessary. As a result, the New York City public school staff will ask families questions such as the ones that are on the screen up here. Um, and they want to note if the child's previously attended school in the DOE or have they received special education before, and
that'll help us to determine if a CSP is not needed. The school must immediately implement if there is already an NYC IEP. Um, so now that we know who's eligible for this comparative service plan, we're going to discuss who's available to assist in the creation of
the CSP. Um, and it's going to depend on the place of enrollment. So, creating the comparable service plan, a child's school enrollment process may vary depending on where they're enrolling in the New York City public schools. The steps for
creating the CSP depend on where the enrollment begins. So that we have this flowchart here. In most cases, families will visit the family welcome center or the FWC um where the staff will discuss the child's needs and determine if a CSP is necessary. If it's needed, the family
welcome center will assign a school placement and inform the school that a CSP should be created. Some families may instead visit the committee on special education and therefore and therefore they would be responsible for the development of this
CSP. If your child has an IEP from a non-DOE school or public uh Department of Education school that recommends a specialized school placement, the Family Welcome Center will refer you to the cse and they will create the CSP. If your
child enrolls in a DOE school and does not yet have a CSP, the school will take the necessary steps to create one for you. If your child is a preschooler, the CPSCE will open a case, create the CPSC, and assign a school placement when
applicable. I'm going to pause. Sorry for all that information coming quickly at you, and see if there are any questions that are coming out of the chat. Any questions in the room? Hey, I've got one. So, what is the
timeline looking like right now once a student is identified as um having an IEP for wherever they are coming from? What's the time frame for getting the CSP a implemented and b the time frame
currently? I'm not saying what the legal requirement is, but what's the time frame to actually having a full DOE assessment and um and then being transitioned to an DOE IEP? Um our goal is to do it as quickly as possible. I think it depends obviously on where the location is, but we try to
do it um again many cases within the week. Um but we again try to do it as quickly as possible depending on um what the case load is at each individual site. Thank you. No problem. Let me just move the chat and
see if there's anything else. Sorry, Mark. Mark, can I Oh, sure. Hi. Um, so the for the process for the initiation process
of having the um CS CSP is there. So if that requires a family to bring in any evaluations or any documents to for the
no for the if they have it, right? So what if the family is not aware that they have to turn that in or are just saying to the staff verbally that either they suspect or that they
had received their child had received services in their home country or state? Um what is the process for Hey Jen, I'm just going to jump in here super quick. Thank you for that really important question because it's very important
that everybody know and all of our families and certainly our CCSE partners that a family is not required to present written documentation in order to develop the initial comparable service plan. If a parent can verbally tell the
IEP team, whether it in the school or the cse about their child and their child's needs, the team can then develop the comparable service plan. So documentation, official papers or reports is not needed. Thank you for that. How how so then how
will families know like is it is it incumbent on the family to let the staff and and the DOE or to request a meeting in writing? Um how would the families know that if they're newcomers, if they
have no idea how the system works, what their rights are, how can we bridge that gap for those families? Great question. I I think it depends on their access point. So, if they're going to a family welcome center, the family welcome center has been trained to address these situations and they'll walk them through
the process. If they go to a committee on special education that's near their home, they'll walk them through the process. And same thing if they go to their neighborhood public school, um they'll walk them through what documentation is needed. They'll also let I think you came off mute.
Um No, I don't want any family to feel like it's a mystery. They It's totally fine if they do not know any of the answers. That's what we're here for, to support them um and make sure that they understand the process and we move them through it um as thoroughly as possible
so they know what the expectations are um as well as supporting with translation if that's And I just wanted to add on to the to the um your response. So, a few things, you know, when when um we started to receive our newly arrived students, um which feels
like, you know, ages ago, but it's still fairly recent when when everyone when uh when our numbers started to rise, we uh worked with advocates to create a one-pager that was uh very familyfriendly to talk about this very
issue because families were not um aware of the process or the services that were available to them. Um we then distributed that to all of the shelters and worked with the education points at the shelters to train them in the same
information. Um so yes absolutely if the family welcome center is the first point of contact they are trained in that information as well. If the school somehow is the first point of contact uh they should follow those same processes. But we're also been trying to do
meetings just like this to to share the same information so that parent leaders know this information as well. What I've seen on the ground is that even when families approach have approached schools, uh their school
staff, teachers, providers and have verbally stated that a child uh has either, you know, has received an evaluation or have handed in documents, there's an IEP still isn't opened until
an advocate is involved. And so is there any training? Is there anything that can be done done um on the ground with the schools to make sure that this doesn't happen and that parents are informed,
especially if it's newly arrival families that really don't know their rights and that don't um know the system as well as others do and that may not even know that um there are these entities and organizations that they can turn to. because we also have to keep in
mind that these are vulnerable communities that are in the shadows, if you will. So, we really need to um really either either make sure that schools the school staff is able to let
them know like hey just if you are concerned or or they I mean they see the child every day but um I know it's not an obligation of the DOE in terms of of opening up like unless the parent requests it but I really think that at
least informing the parent of their rights um especially because they're newly comers and may not know. Yes, thank you for that. And we do consider that something that we are required to do and have to do. Um and so to your point,
we're going to do more additional outreach to our schools and our superintendent partners around this process. There is information on the on our website uh for schools, but we are going to make a point to get it out again to all of our schools and all of
our cse to ensure everybody knows and understands the process. Um, and there are certainly some schools that will make the outreach to the parent and there may be schools that don't. So, we are going to make sure all of the families have the information uh in
their language and they feel we're going to do everything we can to continue for families to feel comfortable to ask for these supports on behalf of their children and they know how to do that clearly. Thank you all. I I do want to say I was just going to say our five minutes are up. Um thank you very much.
I'm going to pass um the baton over to Arwina Vejo who's going to be discussing assessments. Great. Thank you so much, Jennifer. And good evening, everyone. My name's Arwina Vjo and I'm the executive director of school-based evaluations and also formal
bilingual school psychologist in district 4 where I worked in for um eight years. I'm excited to talk to you tonight about assessments and what that process looks like. And although um I can go into this quite deeply for many hours, I hope that the slides are
helpful and I'm happy to um answer any questions um in the end on the chat. I also have uh my colleague Lauren Sullivan um who can answer any questions that come up uh pretty immediately. So let's jump right into what type of access our L students have to school
psychologists that speak their native language. On this first slide um is sort of an overview. Citywide, we have 1,138 school psychologists and 582 social workers in our community school districts. And of these, um, 382
are bilingual psychologists and 291 are bilingual social workers. I've listed out the languages that are represented, Spanish, Haitian, Creole, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Hindi, Korean, Russian, and Erdu. In the last 5 years,
New York City public schools has secured funding for additional school psychologists, of which 24 um psychologists have been bilingual and they have been placed in districts of high need. In addition, we launched a specially trained group of school psychologists who report centrally to
support our schools that have um a high need, furthering our ability to match language of assessment to students that need um need those need psychologists in those languages and therefore uh reducing our need for translators.
So, in addition, our psychologist and training program, which is a one-year graduate level internship program for school psychologists, is a way that we partner with graduate schools to recruit really the best of the best, right? And only to recruit for languages um and
also to recruit for languages that we need. So, our next cohort, which comes in September, for example, will include new languages that right now are not represented. And this will expand the um access that our students have. Um our
goal Great. Thank you. Our our goal is to the extent possible to match L students with um clinicians in their language. And when that's not possible, we'll match them to a clinician who's bilingual in another language. And as a
very last resort, we'll match students to a monolingual psych monolingual clinician who will use a certified interpreter. Now, we don't see a lot of the last option because we have bilingual representation in all our districts and we can now resolve um our
need for bilingual school psychologists through our itinerant staff for the most part. Thank you. Um on this slide is a synopsis of our SOPM guidance. We want to make sure that students have the opportunity to be assessed in both their
native language and in English. Now, there's a lot of clinical discretion that goes into what this means for each student. And we've conducted extensive training and increased the toolbox of materials that bilingual school psychologists have access to in order to make sure that when else students are
assessed, we're not confusing normal um language acquisition, language loss in the first language as well as gains in a new second language that may actually be not on par with monolingual peers that but that is on par with a student who's
learning a new language and is newly exposed to academic instruction. instruction in English. In our next slide, um you can see some of the tools that the field now has access to and that they have been trained on. We have a digital library
which was launched this year and provides monolingual and bilingual clinicians with expanded assessment tools. There's no wait time, so new versions, new exams, additional translations are available immediately when they're launched. Uh we also have
trained on the use of um one of the only duallyormed references assessments. This is a very unique tool that helps us assess our L students because it means that we can compare English language learners to English language learners
when we are um gaining information about English lang English acquisition. So it's very useful in understanding the additional assessments that are conducted through um a psychoeducational assessment. It helps us understand IQ. It helps us understand academic skills
and it really shows us what's normal if you will progression for an English language learner. And finally, clinicians were trained and have access to uh the cultural linguistic interpretive matrix, which is a tool that teams use to analyze data. And it
really puts a value on the reliability of assessments that are conducted without students since we have to consider language and culture cultural relevance um when we think about standard standard assessments that are used um in the field with all our
students. Great. Um, so what does this look like in action? We're starting with everything that we know about a student. And this is uh really a big area of focus when um we talked about um comparable service
plans, exposure to previous school, uh what that looked like, um what grade the student was in, what growth our student has made, language development, their educational journey, uh special education services, what access um to
education has looked like, really everything, right? We know that there are places where special education services are not available. Um, we know that there are places where students with the most severe disabilities are kept at home. This is a reality. I can certainly speak to countries where I've
seen an experience. Um, and and those are those are often families that are now here at a place where there is so much possibility, but perhaps it hasn't been their experience. So, really at the start, we're looking at baseline functioning and getting a sense of that whole child. Then we want to know what's
their current level of English language proficiency because even if a student just arrived just a few days ago, they're now exposed to English. So they're no longer a monolingual student of their um heritage language, right?
So, we're going to walk through um start in English, figure out language acquisition, um figure out the language of instruction that a student is exposed to, how does their performance compare um to their English language proficiency
because sometimes it could be that while we're seeing a student not performing equal to their monolingual peers, they are performing and growing appropriately for a student that is learning a new language and developing. Right? So, we're really using all of these tools to
increase the validity of testing. We're evaluating in the native language. We're taking multiple pieces of data to determine whether a student has a disability or whether what we're seeing is really a difference that can be explained by the normal process of
language acquisition. So, not an easy task, but we have done extensive training to really strengthen our bilingual clinicians that are doing this great work. Um, great. And then finally, um, teams are going to use this information to
determine the language of instruction for English language learners. Right? This is not a oneperson decision. It's a team. They're looking at language use, home language, looking at English language proficiency. We're digging into this information with parents. We're
learning about the child's home experience and preferences. Um, and we're reviewing assessment data. Um, clinicians are certainly reviewing programs and services that are being considered and they're thinking through the language of instruction that's appropriate according to these multiple
factors. I do want to talk a little bit about um some of the training on that last on the last slide if we could turn there. Great. So, I've included a little snippet of the trainings that have been offered this year. We have consulted with publishers of all of the tests that
are used for our L students. Uh we've provided um training for clinicians, multiple day training. We've run um small groupoup pilots and conducted training on non-bias assessment practices. In addition, our clinicians were trained on CSP um not once but many
times and on the process of assessing RL students. Uh we also conduct monthly case studies with our clinicians and so they have the opportunity to see a lot of the complex things that I talked about in practice. Um, our PIT group, the intern group that I spoke about
earlier are truly the best of the best because they spend a year with a bilingual school psychologist and then they receive a full day of training a week aligned to the needs of our L students and in a year they are our bilingual school psychologists. And finally, the ongoing collaboration with
our specialized program team who bring training on bilingual special education programs and also on determining uh language of assessment. So, I know that was a certainly a lot of information. Um, that is my time, but I'm here to answer any questions that you may have
or Lauren, if you are in the chat and see any particular questions that um I can answer, I'm happy to do that. Thank you, Arina. There's a there was a few questions regarding the comparable service plan and uh just hoping you could speak briefly about the training
that you and your team have done around that with school psychologists and that how your continued focus on that work. Yeah, great. I mean one of the reasons that or you know before one of the reasons that we
have expanded tools in the field is really because we want to make sure we get it right for all of our students. Right. So Suzanne, you know, as you shared at this, um, when you were talking about CSPs, you shared that families um, do not need to have actual
um, any paper material that proves that a student has a disability, but we would also accept uh, a narrative description of that. And that's true. And it's also true that students will receive services to support them as soon as possible while this process is happening. Um the
training with clinicians has really been on what happens after right and how do we assess the how do we gain all of the information that we need from our students and families. So the expanded assessment tools that I talked about,
the process of participating in um determining what immediate service a student uh would need and also um finally like the process of determining what services if any a student is eligible for and ultimately how we're going to support that student um are
things that all of our psychologists 1,300 you know 1,138 school psychologists have participated in. um as well as like family engagement and how to engage um our families in special education because like I said for some of our families it may not be a familiar
concept and for some of our families it may not be an easily accepted um uh concept as well. So our psychologists have been trained in non-bias assessment. they've been trained in like cultural competence around um uh the
assessment of our EL students and really working with families and students. I hope that's helpful. Yeah, that is helpful. Thank you, Arwin. And and thank you and your team for continuing to prioritize that really important work in support of all of our families, certainly especially our
newcomers. Uh and we're, as we mentioned earlier, we're going to continue to get that word out directly to our schools and superintendent teams. And uh I believe Mark has shared in the chat the uh resource it's called special
education resources. Uh and this speaks a little bit more about the comparable service plan process and how families can access and have that information. So thank you Mark for for and Jessica. Oh, of course. And thank you Jessica for dropping that in
so quickly. Great. Um, I'll be around, but if there are additional questions, feel free to drop them in the chat. And I think I'm turning to my colleague Carolina. We have one question. Oh, okay. One more. Go ahead. Thank you,
Arina. in high school. Okay. Okay. Um so I have a question for you and is what's the time period to assess the language proficiency of the kids because I have two kids. Uh they both are in different school grades and
I haven't received any kind of report whatsoever about um their development in this field of language acquisition and I would like to know how to get it. So first is like the time period to get that assessment and second how is this
going to be communicated to the parent. Yeah. So um thank you for that question. Um thank you for that question. So at any point a parent can request a re-evaluation. Um so if your child has
an IEP at any point you can request an evaluation and then work with the school psychologists and the team there to um plan the assessments that are needed in order to answer the referral question. So if in this case the referral question
or the question at hand is you know whether um your child has made progress in English like acquis English language acquisition and how that's impacting um their current special education services and that's a place where we'll certainly see um an English language acquisition
assessment um conducted and compared to previous. So I think the short answer is that parents are always a part of that assessment planning process. It's not something that we would ever want or expect a school psychologist to plan on their own. Um so reach out to your
particular school. I'm happy to provide my contact as well um and facilitate that process. But that is the process for all parents that um that would like a re-evaluation and would like to plan with their team around the assessments that are needed.
I I'll just add on that from if your child is an English language learner, there is an annual test called the NISLT. That test happens every spring. It measures progress in English in listening, speaking, reading, and
writing. And the school is required to give you a report. Um it usually happens in September. and you're entitled to have a meeting with the EL teacher that will where they will review the results um and usually they'll be able to
compare like from previous year how much they've grown in English and specify in what areas whether listening or speaking or reading or writing um they need to to strengthen um because we do expect annual progress in English every year um
so if that isn't happening I would say um to communicate with the parent coordinator at the school um and request the meeting with the L teacher specific to reviewing the NIS slot results. That is all the questions here. Thank
you. Thank you. Good evening everyone and thank you for being here today. My name is Karolina Liiano. I am the director of bilingual special education programs in New York City public schools and I am also a former bilingual school psychologist in
the Bronx. Um, as with everyone else, please feel free to type your questions in the chat and Michelle uh Netsler, one of my our team members will be supporting us in getting answers to those questions, but we'll also reserve five minutes after um we wrap up here so
that you can ask questions about bilingual special education. Um, so let's dive in. Uh we're going to be uh talking about bilingual special education programs. This is a program that is designed to meet the academic and language needs of English learners
with disabilities. Um we provide specialized instruction in both English and the students home language to ensure that they have the support that they need to succeed. Uh this program is very important here in New York City public
schools where as we referenced earlier we serve over 148,000 multilingual learners including approximately 31 of those with disabilities. Um and out of that number we have around 4,900 students who have this bilingual special
education recommendation. Um, so this means that they have an ICT recommendation or a special class recommendation and they have a language of instruction that is other than English. Um, so in New York City public schools, our guiding principles are
rooted in equity, in inclusion, and culturally responsive teaching practices. We are very committed to creating an environment where all students, regardless of their language background, have the support that they need to succeed academically to meet their annual goals on their IEPs. Um,
and for bilingual special education students, we focus on providing instructional strategies that are going to address not just their the academic content and how they can access that, but also how we ensure that they are gaining the English language skills that
they need to reach proficiency. Um, bilingual special education teachers are also going to play a very key role in this type of specialized program because they're supporting that language growth and that cultural inclusion as well as providing that specially designed
instruction that students with disabilities uh need. We also prioritize family engagement by offering resources in famil family's home languages including workshops uh direct outreach and family guides so that parents and
families can feel empowered in their child's education. As we continue to expand and grow bilingual special education programs, we are offering several types of special education program models. And I wanted to cover um what uh that looks
like in New York City public schools. So one uh very important model is your integrated co-eing or ICT classrooms. In these programs, uh students with different uh with disabilities learn alongside their peers who do not have disabilities. And there are two teachers
in the classroom, a general education teacher and a special education teacher that are both working together to ensure that the needs of uh BSE students are met. Uh in bilingual ICT classrooms, both teachers are going to be biliterate
and bilingual. This means that they can speak, they can read, and they can write in both English and the students home language. And they're able to provide that instruction um in the language that the student needs. This is going to be particularly important because it allows
us to fully support English learners with disabilities and ensure that their language development is happening not only in English but also in their home language. In addition to our ICT classrooms, we also have special class programs which are designed for students
whose needs cannot be met in the general education classroom even with special education services. Uh so these are classes that are going to provide more intensive support and they are exclusively for students with disabilities. There are different levels
of staffing intensity in special classes and those levels are going to be determined by the needs of the students, the management needs and the academic needs. So you might have a classroom that has one power professional um in addition to a teacher um or in district
75 you might have more power professionals in special classes. Um, we have these programs across 109 schools in New York City public schools and we are expanding our ability to serve students every year. If we could just go back to the previous slide, I just wanted to call out some numbers before
moving on. Thank you. Um, so uh for ICT Spanish we have um over 2500 seats and for special class Spanish we have over,300 seats across all 32 districts. For Chinese um we see uh 298 seats.
across the districts for ICT Chinese and then 108 seats for special classes um that are Mandarin. Um and then we recently opened up uh an American Sign Language ICT program in Manhattan um where we are going to expand obviously
and so this year we have 24 seats. We expect that that will grow in coming years. We can go to the next slide. Thank you. All right. So the expansion of bilingual special education has really been a priority for us. Um, we've seen significant growth in the number of
programs across New York City public schools. From 2016 to 2025, we increased bilingual special education program schools by 51%, which means that's more opportunities for our students to receive the services that they need. Um,
we've also expanded our language coverage, um, offering support for additional home languages, including American Sign Language. And we're exploring the possibility of opening and sustaining programs in even more languages, responding to that need that we have in our districts. And to ensure
that we have qualified staff, we've collaborated with colleges and universities to develop a pipeline for programs um for bilingual special education candidates offering mentorship uh immersive teaching experiences, licensing support, and even tuition
assistance. And another important model that I want to call out that we're also expanding in service of bilingual special education students is our mixed group classes. Um these are classes that provide bilingual special education students with instruction from a
certified bilingual special education teacher in the school where it may not make sense to um it may not be possible to create a traditional bilingual special education classroom. Right? This happens when there's fewer than, you know, three or two students that share
the same program recommendation in grade level. We try to capitalize and um utilize the teachers in the school that may have the appropriate certifications and are able to speak the student's home language um and try and pair that
teacher with those students whenever possible. And as we continue to build and expand uh specialized programs um for bilingual special education, we want to make sure that families have access to the information and the support that they need. Um our central bilingual
special education team partners with organizations like Senia and Adapt Community Network uh to provide resources and guidance to families. We recently presented um at both um within the last couple of weeks. Additionally, we encourage families to review the
citywide bilingual program list, which is a family-facing document to find out where these programs may be available in your community. Um, and obviously you can inquire um your IEP team can inquire on behalf of you or you can inquire about a program by reaching out to us if
you have um any questions or concerns or need additional information. You can reach out to us at that email um bsserogramschools.nyc.gov. of um I also want to highlight on the right um that we have developed a BSE or
bilingual special education family guide in several languages um including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Spanish. You'll see all the languages to the right. Um we have also engaged in presentations in English and in Spanish
um with translations available um during our beyond access series where we offer resources covering topics on you know bilingual educa special education serving our students who are English learners um and programs for our newly arrived
students. So that wraps up the bilingual special education segment. Um, if you have any questions, um, I am here to support. I can also check the chat and see if we've received any on there. I see some have already been
addressed. Karolina, uh, this is Michelle. Can you please just talk through the bilingual uh, program list and uh, confirm what information is available there? Sure. Um, thank you, Michelle. So the bilingual program list is um within is
in our New York City public schools website. Um and this is a link that you can click on. You can even prompt and Google bilingual education programs New York City public schools. And the first link that you will receive will be the one to this page where you can click and
download a a document that's going to contain information about where we have um these programs citywide. not just bilingual special education but bilingual general education programs as well. You can see the name of the school, the district, um the uh grades
that it serves. So whether it's an elementary school or a middle school or high school, you will be able to see the um language of the program, whether the program is a dual language or bilingual education. And most importantly for bilingual special education, you'll be able to see whether the program is an
integrated co-eing program or a special class program. And I see that it's been linked in the chat um by one of my colleagues. So that is um a resource for families, for IEP teams, and a document that we are um engaging during IEP team
meetings um to ensure that we know where the programs are once we make the recommendation so that families are prepared to receive and know about the school and be prepared to visit the school once the IEP has been finalized. I will also add that this is a list that's updated every year and so you
always want to make sure to go back to the link um so that you have the most up-to-date information when you're searching for available programs in your district. Hi. So my question may not be answered this evening. Um thank you for the presentation. Was a very thorough
presentation. Um I think as you were talking what I was wondering was there are deficits in hiring teachers. So do you know what the deficits are in having bilingual special education teachers available? Do you know
currently how many students are not being serious? Hello I'm sorry that there was um there was some feedback. Um so I can't speak to specific numbers, but what I can say is that when creating these programs um
citywide, we do engage uh with the division of human resources to support New York City public schools that are opening up the program. So we have these staff training initiatives. Um we have that ongoing collaboration with colleges and universities to really develop that
pipeline for our programs, prioritizing candidates uh for our bilingual education and our bilingual special education programs. Um we have subsidized extension programs for special education teachers who have the ability to speak another language but um
need that bilingual extension which is required to teach in our programs. And so I I'm not sure if anyone else on the team would like to add to this, but it is certainly a collaboration that we engage in um regularly with the division of human resources, our partners in the office of teacher recruitment and
quality um and connecting our schools to all of these resources as they're hiring to expand bilingual education programs. Thank you so much. And I think ahead, Michelle, sorry, I would just like to add that um you're asking about where we have the need. we know where the
students who have the recommendations are. Um, and we work directly with superintendent and principles to open programs in those areas and then as Karolina said, we partner really closely to make sure those uh places are those schools are staffed by a bilingual
special educator. So, it is something that we're constantly working on and reviewing with our partners in the Division of Human Resources to determine um how to continue to develop um bilingual special educators uh including
from our teachers who are already teaching um and then the pipeline for new teachers. Yes. Um so really quickly on on ICTS and bilingual special education um services, what is the recourse for families of um
MLL uh students with IEPs who are in ICT classrooms and who may not be receiving um those uh special education services in um in their native language uh or may
not or would or have to rely on teacher assistants to to um do those ser those um to speak to them in their native languages. Um I I've seen this on the ground where
sometimes uh families are pushed to not have um ICT services um because of the lack of providers or vice versa. Um so you know I it's just a concern to me
that yes there is this gap in providers and um special education teachers which I'm glad that there's a plan being put together to kind of um you know help with that. But in the meantime what is the recourse for these families that are
not and for the students that are not being appropriately served at this time? Thank you for that question. I know Michelle Netzer wants to jump in on that, but I do want to say always the resources the family should reach out to contact their school and their principal
uh if they're not feeling satisfaction or they they're not their issues not being resolved the way the parent would like or needs, they can reach out to their superintendent team and always reach out to the special education inbox. and Michelle's going to talk about an alternate placement para and
how that supports students in these very in these specific kinds of uh situations. Thanks uh thanks for that introduction Suzanne. Um I so for families who have a bilingual special education
recommendation in ICT or special class and they are getting their special education service but in a monolingual class. The students have access to an alternate placement parah which means that this is an interim service because that parah will speak their home
language and provide language support in that special education setting or classroom. Um and this is like I said an interim service. Our goal is to provide the bilingual special education program. We uh that is recommended. We understand
that uh sometimes families would like to stay in their current community school um and not move to a school where there is a bilingual program and we want to think about how to support them there. So that is one of the ways um that we support uh students and if the school um
is struggling to find a bilingual parah just like um Suzanne mentioned uh let's engage and reach out to uh our office for support and the district office for for support.
I have one more question um and it's a question that I have been asking in other spaces but and it's in relation to the teacher shortage but if you have a child sitting in a classroom which I have heard anecdotally a child who doesn't speak the language who may or
may not be in a bilingual classroom then how are you building that child's environment in the classroom through the material and the supplements I did hear and I cannot confirm but I did hear that you know tablet is being given in the child's language. But then there's still
a gap of how are you ensuring that the child is retaining the information in the language if you the instructor don't have the language. So I I I just want to add that um I want to say that when we provide training for New York City public schools in service
of our English learners with disabilities, we do it knowing that this is a specialized program. it doesn't exist in every school and most of our else disabilities are throughout New York City public schools outside of you know those 109 schools that I mentioned right and so when we talk about best
practices to serve English learners with disabilities across you know uh uh schools that may not have bilingual education programs we focus on building that classroom environment right you don't have to have a a bilingual teacher um to be able to build a classroom
environment that's designed to support diverse English learners. Um that it has flexible seating options that encourages those different learning styles and provides different activities for our English learners who we know are kinesthetic learners um that are going
to learn through different things that they do. Carolina, I'm so sorry to interrupt you. I just I just want to um get a little bit more specific and in terms of the response and I know Brenda has uh is just waiting to talk, so just one second. Of course. Of course.
Thank you, Karolina. Um, so all English language learners, including English with learners with IEPs, receive at minimum English as a new language. And so that means if they're a beginner at uh elementary school level, they have um
180 minutes of um sorry, 360 minutes of um ENL instruction, and that's both standalone and integrated. The additional piece to that is that we know that's not enough. That's not the whole day. And so we've really been um working with our districts and our schools on
this idea that all teachers are teachers of LS and um providing professional learning um in collaboration with the the uft um to ensure that all teachers are equipped with the strategies to be able to meet their needs. With that
said, the ENL teacher in a school is when a school only has an ENL model, right? We have schools with bilingual models and you know that does provide more of the home language support. Um ENL program has home language support. So we our office has for many years um
supported the acquisition of home language libraries that are reflective of the populations in the um in the schools. Um and the idea is that the ENL teacher is the source um the ENL and bilingual teachers to build
um that muscle amongst teachers within within the school. Um and in the co-eing piece that they are working in collaboration with that teacher so those teachers have the resources to be able to continue to integrate those strategies throughout the day. Um like
after the integrated ENL is occurring in the standalone. Yeah. But Brenda, if um can you talk a little bit about like that that ideal scenario is if everything goes well, um what is the escalation pathway in the event that a a
child is newly arrived or um is is Spanish speaking um and learning English? What is the escalation pathway if a teacher um has a student that they feel they're not equipped to help support their language development?
Sure. So the parent always has an option and a right to request a bilingual program and a and a transfer to a bilingual program. So that's first and foremost if the parent feels that the ENL program is not sufficient and they will their child will benefit from a
bilingual education model. We work um our my office specifically works with the field to ensure that that transfer occurs. Um so just putting that front and center if the parent wants to stay in that school and there is only an ENL
um program model then there's an escalation um pathway to bring that to our attention at the office of multilingual learners where we are happy to investigate it further with the field and follow up on having like an action plan to strengthen that um support
within the school. Yeah, I think I just wanted to intentionally ask those questions because I think that is an a critical qu, you know, that's critical information for you all to know as parent leaders, right? Like if a child has not acquired um English and is in
that process and they're in an environment where they are uh their family feels like the the school or the classroom is not equipped to help them acquire English. I do not, you know, I want to make sure that you all know as parent leaders that that child should should not stay without resources,
right? That is the escalation pathway. You know, Brenda said, of course, number one, you could request the bilingual program. Number two, if there if you need to go if a family needs to go to the principal superintendent um centrally, the district office also has
an has an LP point. Um we should not just let that go unattended. Can you hear me? Okay. Um, it's been a minute since I've had a mask in glasses. I'm like, I can't see. I can't hear. I can't do anything. I'm I curious about
the the the interim um bilingual parah situation. Right. What I've been hearing from parents is that there this is this goes for whether your your par is an interim bilingual you know parah or not the sharing of
paris. So how can we ensure that these students who really need that language support, really need access to someone who speaks their native language, that their par is not being pulled away to support other students, to support other learners or sometimes to support the
teacher, support another classroom even. Um I this is a widespread problem and I'm just curious what the monitoring looks like, what the conversation looks like, what school what parents can do um when they're told that that's not
happening and it and it is um thank you. So in any instance if a pair professional um is is being pulled away and and not providing that support that is absolutely something that should be escalated to the school. to your point,
it's of absolutely critical appointment uh importance that that pair professional has to is also providing language access support. Um the general escalation pathway is always teacher, principal, superintendent, and then of course you can always come to the special education office. Heather um
Heather is dreaming about that escalation pathway for how many years now. Um she's gonna hit me. I'm gonna move over. that um but yes um but you know the the interim
placement pair while they play a critical role I mean the other thing that your your question is really pointing to is it has not been our solution it cannot continue to be the solution right we need to have the bilingual programs that are close to home which is why Brenda and team um continue to pound the pavement to make
sure that superintendents are are planning for the expansion of our bilingual programming um and why Karolina's team is is doing the same. You know, the challenge we've historically had with our particularly with our bilingual special education programs is um making sure that they are
in in schools. you know, if that option is not offered to a family at kindergarten when a child starts school, um then or if a child starts in kindergarten and they have siblings at their home zone school already, it makes it incredibly challenging for a parent
to then bring kids to two separate schools. Um and so the location and number of offerings, you know, we've expanded those seats. We have thousands of seats now. However, the art of getting the seats in the grade levels um
and in the areas that kids need them the most has been our our largest challenge. Um that is an area that continues to drive so many of our compliance issues. Uh more importantly, it continues to leave gaps in in um in needs getting to
needs of students. Um it's a place that we continue to look for innovative solutions, right? And are really open to that conversation. I think is a beautiful point of collaboration for these two groups um is to to work on on some of those innovative solutions. So
it's a very long-winded answer to say I don't think that that our you know our our pair professionals and um you know we're looking for student independence. We're looking for student fluency. Our parents play an important role in um in bridging that gap when we don't have a
bilingual program in a teacher. But we also know that in terms of language acquisition, that that immersion and that those scaffolds, it's part of a whole classroom support is really what we want to see kids benefiting from. Good evening everybody. Um my name is Clever Palma. I'm the executive director
of the Office of Language Access. It's really nice to be here with you um and to see some familiar names on the Zoom boxes and to hear some familiar voices actually in the room live. So, uh excited to be here and to speak a little bit about um what it is the office of language access does. Um so to that end,
uh I want to just uh recall for those of you that may know that we used to be the translation interpretation unit. The TNI unit was how we were we were known back in the day. And um we we evolved with the name for multiple reasons um because we now do much more than that. Um we do
more than just document translation and in in person, virtual and over the phone interpretation. Uh we are now really focused on making sure that every most uh all processes within the New York City public schools programs, initiatives, any parent engagement uh
communication piece has a layer of language access. As you have heard from uh our previous colleagues who presented, there's been language access sprinkled in all of their processes and that's critical that we ensure that those pieces are in place. I do want to leverage I do want to springboard off one data piece that was shared earlier
by one of my colleagues. Uh the 44% of households speaking a language other than English as their home language. That is a huge number. Um but I'm going to add a couple layers to that. uh 44% is reflective almost of about I would say a little more than 180 different languages spoken in the school system. I
will also add that that's home language. Uh our interest here is preferred language both oral and written and there's a distinction there. Some families prefer to communicate in one language or the other uh in oral inerson communication and in document written communication that's another piece of
information that we need to collect and also be responsive to. Um, another layer is the so many different ways of communicating with families or families communicating with schools now. Whether it's walking through the front door, email, backpack, phone call, uh, Zoom meeting, inperson session, and all those
engaging pieces, we have to come up with a very, uh, strong infrastructure within the school system to make sure that we're doing as much as possible to provide the support needed to engage and communicate with our families. Uh, and that is why I think uh, one of the main reasons why we transitioned from TNI to office of language access. So we are now
involved with uh for the last several years making sure that we do the second bullet you see on your screen there which is to assist schools in developing and maintaining a comprehensive approach for engaging and communicating with families. Ola is simply one lifeline that schools have uh definitely uh
cannot do at all given a system this big. However, we have come up with other supports for schools and also district offices and just the system as a whole to ensure that uh folks are being informed and are being trained on what's available. We're partnering with proficient and professional language
service providers. 90 over 90% of our schools have a trained language access coordinator. There's earmark funding at schools um and so forth and so on, including actually a language access plan within the C. Those are all the pieces in place to ensure that uh we get we raise awareness, we raise the ampl we
amplify the work of language access. So our efforts and our a lot of our a lot of our work has been exactly that to amplify to train to raise awareness both within the school system uh and also outside the school system with families and communities as well. Next slide. Uh
to that end, I'm hoping that some of you may have seen some of our promotional materials to to raise awareness. Again, the work that we do here touches so many different worlds in addition and or including special education, uh, which is the focus of today's conversation. But we do, I mean, we were talking about
44% of households and those interactions with programs and different um, uh, systems and workflows and uh, initiatives, services, all are inclusive of the need for language access. So, we want we're speaking to all parents at this point. Uh and we want to make sure
that we uh raise the awareness level by making sure that folks see in translation uh messages about how to obtain language access outside of the services that currently have been rolled out that have been layered or or sprinkled with language access supports throughout those processes. Um we also want to make sure that we communicate
with families directly in as many different avenues as possible. Uh on an annual basis we make contact with our families specifically on language access whether it be phone calls, emails, text messages and and postcards to people's households. We're trying to come up with every possible avenue to ensure that um
that folks are aware. Uh it's going to take some time uh but we are seeing progress in the sense of uh additional demand and additional awareness and we have some great ideas moving forward on how to continue to enhance those those efforts. Next slide. Um in rolling out these new
initiatives and awareness pieces uh we've now uh enabled families to do direct uh request on our uh hello page our website page. In addition, then we do encourage schools to go to schools obviously or CSC's or district offices to make the request with the coordinator of the event or meeting that they're
working with uh at that level. However, uh as an alternative, families may request services directly on our our hello website uh which is part of the the promotional piece that we want to make sure that families are aware of. Next slide. And it's on our Hello page that
we've created a hub. we've carved out some some real estate to focus on language access and language access only. Um we encourage folks to to visit the site to learn more about what's available uh how to request services how to connect with OLA um and to provide feedback and concerns and escalate items
that uh that are not working well at the moment and we happy we're happy to address those as those issues come up. So again we want to direct communication and engagement with families in addition to continuing our efforts to to uh support and raise awareness within the school system. Next
slide. Uh we tal I talked about having about 90% plus uh schools with a trained lang language access coordinator. That was a great start. However, that was just one person at the school. Um in some places it worked very well. In some places not so. Um so uh given um a
settlement agreement that we've been working through for the last few years, a lot of great positive things are coming out of this. A couple of the items that I list here, it's something we're really excited about and actually have already launched is again raising awareness within staff. The idea here is to make folks understand beyond just the
language access coordinator because it can be anybody in the school staff engaging families that what supports are available, how to obtain them to make sure that offers are being made to families and so forth. U so we've rolled out and emphasized uh best practices both on uh how to obtain services, when
to provide them, how to offer uh ethics, the ethical piece as well. Um I saw some comments earlier about folks who are in the meeting uh who as an interpreter shouldn't have any other role in that meeting and it's absolutely correct and these are the types of uh pieces of information we want to make sure that everybody is aware of. Uh not everybody
is aware of the ethics of interpretation and translation. So it's it's it's now we have additional uh avenues to to relay these messages for folks to understand and to provide support and get guidance from from the office of language access. uh the training piece that we're really excited about. Um beyond just language access
coordinators, we're training all uh public facing school-based staff on what's available. Uh we've launched the training for the spring specifically for principles and parenting coordinators. And come the fall, uh the goal is to train uh train everybody at schools on on this item uh so that everybody's
aware of where to go and what to do and how to get the services needed to engage families. So, that's a quick uh summary of um of what we're up to uh today and uh we're excited about uh the the enhancements and the changes. I know there's lots of work still to be done and I open the floor to any questions
that you may have at this time. Thank you so much for that presentation. Really appreciate all the work you do. Thank you. And then I want to pass over a presentation to our colleagues in uh project open arms uh tomorrow. It's all yours. Yep. Thank you so much, Clever.
Uh good evening everyone. Uh my name is Tamara May and I proudly lead project open arms for New York City public school and we're going to talk to you tonight about protecting and supporting immigrant students. Um I'm joined by Charlie Crowley. Charlie, do you want to introduce yourself? Sure. Hi everybody.
Charlie Crowley, uh, deputy counsel and the director of senior field council at NYCPS. Um, my unit, the senior field council unit are 10 attorneys that provide direct legal support to principles and superintendent. And thank you everybody for taking the time to be here.
So, what is project open arms? Project open arms is an inter and intra agency collaboration uh with specific strategies and actions to support all new arrival students. So, we are a New York City public school team supporting our kiddos inside of New York City public schools and outside of
New York City public schools. Uh we continue working across central functions to proactively identify operational challenges and supports for these students and families. This um has included, but is not limited to improving the process to enroll for our newest New Yorkers. Kiddos can enroll at
any of our family welcome centers if they're an elementary school over the counter. And we do have our office of student enrollment staff located inside of the arrival center. We're also ensuring that shelter staffs and teams are proactively supporting students. So we do have New York City public school
staff members inside of our shelters. And then we are creating pathways for transportation for this population as a system. We've welcomed over 49,000 and it's almost at 50,000 um into our schools from countries across the globe speaking various different languages.
That's since July of 22. Thank you so much. So, um, when we talk about project open arms, I want to share with you some of the systems and structures that we have in place. One of the things that we have is we have a monthly project open arms district leadership team meeting.
This meeting is for our superintendent staff so that we can share with them um city policies that is are happening. We can share central supports available so that they can share back with their schools. um the districts can provide feedback and ask for support and we
share best practices. So those best practices that may be happening in one district, we want them to be spread across the city. Um in those meetings, we have our executive directors for school supports and operations as well as our student services managers. Those are the folks that support our guidance
counselors and our social workers. We also work very closely with our family support leaders and our family leadership coordinators because we believe that this message is super important to get to our families. and they're supporting our parent coordinators as well as our ST regional managers who are New York City public
school staff inside of shelters. Our team also offers monthly project open arms learning sessions. These sessions are staff facing and they're open to any New York City public school staff whether you're at the district, central or school level. Um we have these uh
meetings twice a month, once to twice a month depending on the topic. Um, we've done attendance supports, human trafficking, transportation. We just had one uh this week talking about how to spend our ST dollars. We want to make sure we're
getting all the supports necessary for our kids. We also have a monthly advocate think tank where we work with our advocate partners to identify challenges and collaborate on solutions. And finally, we have a crossf functional meeting where every team inside of New
York City public schools is meeting to discuss and plan supports for our newest workers. Next slide, please. I want to share with you some of the trainings that we're offering. Um we are doing know their we continue to do know their rights staff facing
trainings. These are provided u virtually so that we can expand our reach. They provide an overview of the rights of migrant youth and families who reside in New York City under the relevant bodies of law. These are held in partnership with project Russo as well as the mayor's office for immigrant
affairs. We will continue to offer know your rights family facing trainings. These trainings are done virtually again to expand our reach. Um and we're working closely with Clever's office, the office of language access so that we can have breakout rooms where families can get the information in their
languages. We have um been doing non-local law enforcement protocol trainings where we've been able to train thousands of our staff members, our superintendent, our principles, our school safety agents, our parent coordinators, our school transportation leaison, um our
DCDCBO partners that work inside of our schools for after school and other school staff members as designated by our principles. And we're continuing to offer those trainings. If there's somebody we haven't reached, we're going to continue to offer them so that all of our families know what our I'm sorry, so
all of our staff know what our non-local law enforcement protocol training is. We are working closely with the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement to talk about supporting children and staff through trauma and loss. Um this is helping us with talking about famil
family's journeys and the uh trauma that may be happening and or how to talk to families who may be experiencing anxiety due to non-local law enforcement. So these are how do our staff this is to help our staff talk to the kids. So we're not elevating the anxiety but
we're lowering it. Um and then lastly I want to talk about our partnership with Swift Kansas University to talk about rightful presence. Rightful presence is really creating a school culture where every student feels a sense of true belonging. It does not matter if you're an immigrant student, if you have an
IEP, if you're a multilingual learner, if you're LGBTQIA, you belong here in New York City public schools. And in this training, we are teaching our staff how to create that kind of environment inside of our schools. Some key reminders that got sent out to our principles in early
December. Number one is the students rights to education. All children, regardless of immigration or asylum status, have the right to a public school education. New York City public schools does not collect or track immigration or asylum status. We want
our families to understand that they belong here. I don't want them to worry about those things. The rights of students in temporary housing. This falls under the McKenna Vento law, which is a federal law for kiddos that they can enroll in and stay in their school or transfer to a school near their new
temporary housing location. Many for many reasons, students in temporary housing may have to switch their housing, whether it's being impacted by the 60-day rule, a shelter can close for many other reasons. But we want our families to know their rights, right? They can choose to stay in the school where they've become part of the
community and we'll help them figure out if they need transportation how to keep them inside of that community or a parent has the choice to decide, you know what, I want to transfer my child to a school closer to their new temporary residence and that's absolutely fine. It's parents choice and we want to make sure that we support
them with understanding their choices. Another thing we've recently sent out is our emergency contact information. It is important that schools have the most up-to-date contact information for students and families. While this is incredibly important for all kids in New York City public schools, um we want to
make sure that this is happening for our newest New Yorkers and it's the beginning of a new year. It's a great time to check, do the numbers that we have on file still work? Um making sure that we're encouraging our families to update that information. And we're going to talk about the non-local law enforcement protocol. The non-local law
enforcement, including ICE, cannot enter our schools except when legally required, which is a determination made by our lawyers. Staff must follow a strict protocol, which we'll cover today, and includes not taking any
action without legals approval. I'm going to pass it to Charlie to talk about what we've shared with our staff. Thanks so much, Tamara. So, we've, as Tamara said, we've been rolling out these non-local law enforcement trainings. Uh, we've trained
thousands of school employees. We're going to continue uh to roll out these trainings. The protocol essentially boils down to three steps. Uh first step is get information. We want folks in the school if non-local
law enforcement comes into the building, we want to empower our staff to make sure they're getting all the information from the non from the agent. That's step one, get the information. Step two, they're going to contact and provide the information to the senior field council
assigned to that school. Um, we do not want any school staff making any determinations whatsoever about whether or not we should be turning information over. want to make sure that the attorneys are the ones who are looking at it and making the legal analysis. So, step one, get information. Step two,
contact legal. And finally, step three, follow the instructions provided by the legal department. We want to make sure nobody is making any analysis whatsoever other than the lawyers. Um, our protocols have not changed. They've these are protocols we've had in place
for a very long time. Um, if non-local law enforcement does come to a school this and other relevant areas such as a bus stop, that's the same protocol that's in place, get information, contact legal, and follow the very specific instructions provided by the legal department. Uh, we've expanded
backups. We have a hotline so that there's lawyers on call to deal with if there is a situation, and field counsel can't be reached at once. So, um, we really are making sure that we have attorneys ready to go and we're making sure that staff know exactly what they should do if non-local law enforcement
does come to the building. Um, we have some resources listed to best support immigrant students during the transition. Tamara shared some of those. Uh, is there a next slide? I think we're going to Q&A. Charlie, go
right to Q&A. Again though, before we do get it the protocol just because we want to share it out as widely as we can. Get information, contact legal, wait and follow the very specific instructions that are going to be provided by legal. Those are the only three steps in the
protocol. All right, Charlie, I'm seeing some questions. I know that folks are asking asking um about that memo which um I'm sure you have all seen the chancellor has said we stand behind our protocol. I don't know
Charlie if you want to expand. Yeah, we've had no changes to our protocol. Um the one thing you know if there's anything specific to we don't want any of our staff members to be in fear or feel like they're in danger. Um and if so they have escalation protocols in
place but that's it. Nothing has changed in our protocol. It is those three steps. We do we have a duty to make sure we're maintaining confidentiality of all of our students unless there's a legal basis to turn over information. So getting info, contacting legal, and then follow the very specific instructions
provided based on the legal documents that are being given to us by the agent. Question for both of you. The mayor had a meeting with his senior staff yesterday. It was reported that the DOE has one
policy. All our other departments have a se separate policy. The challenge is within the DOE, we have school safety agents that are employed by the New York City Police Department, not the DOE. So they have a completely different protocol than NYPD
does than the DOE. So what is happening for the person or persons who actually control the door lock? What policy does the DOE have within a situation where the NYPD controls the front door to every school
building? Mark, what I think I'm hearing you talking about is our school safety agents, right? Employed by the NYPD NYPD. So, we have worked closely with them to make sure that they're getting the same protocol training. Charlie, I don't know if you want to add in anything there. We've
we've trained school safety agents. Every school safety agent is familiar with this protocol. They know the protocol and these are the protocols of our buildings that they're working in. So, um there should be no confusion. Thank you. Any other question?
So, there's a question about how long it takes for legal to get back to the principal or staff within the the building if something arises. What's that time frame look like or what would you anticipate the time frame to look like? That's that's a important
question. We're very aware of the time sensitivity here. We understand that if in fact there is an agent in the building and they're providing legal documentation, we need to act quickly. Uh my entire team has been trained extensively on exit circumstances, the protocols, they know what to do and how
to do it. But in addition, if somebody is caught where they're either tied up, people have lives, or they, you know, it's at an odd hour, we have the hotline set up with backups that are going to be manning the phone 24 hours a day. So, there will be an attorney reachable at
all times. Is that number ready readily available? Does does everybody know that number in an emergency? You know, people are scrambling. Yes. Um, and the number again is for schools to contact us if it comes up.
Um, I actually don't have it in front of me, but we could put it in the chat once we get it. But yes, that number has been distributed. Everybody in the schools have it. Uh, principles have been given the number and we have disseminated it. So again, that's a backup number. We have councils assigned to the schools
that are the primary. But in the event that they're not reachable, we want we want principles to immediately go to that hotline and uh either myself or one of my colleagues will be there. Another one other question. When we say the school grounds, some schools have
open streets and so they actually use the street in front of the school as a playground. Some schools have a playground run by the New York City parks department. Where is the boundaries that these protocol apply for
a school? What is the physical boundaries? Is it just the door and the four walls or does it expand as the school physically expands with playgrounds or open streets? I mean, it's going to depend on the specifics as far as where the playground is located and whose property it's on and whether
it's a public space or DOE space. But what I can tell you is that this protocol is specific to not only in our building, but our facilities. Um if if we've gotten a lot of questions about what if it happens on the street outside of the school, which we would not have
jurisdiction over. Um if an agent were to question anybody about any of our students, it's really important and we have shared confidentiality purpose still exist that and we have to make sure we're maintaining privacy unless there's a legal basis. So this protocol would go into action no matter where
somebody was. If a staff member got questioned about a student, uh, number one, they shouldn't say a word about any of our students until or unless there was a legal document presented that, uh, they would need to run through us.
Thank you, Tim. Charlie, I'm trying to I'm seeing a question in the chat that says, "The protocol is for ICE to not be let into the school buildings, correct? Can we explain how that works because not all of our uh schools have the the safety locks? Sure. In terms of if they're actually in
the building, what is the protocol or what it says? The protocol is for ice to not be let in the school buildings. Correct. Well, the protocol is what we do when ICE comes to our building either outside of the building or they enter the building and check in at the front desk. Some schools don't have they're able to,
you know, open the door, walk into the building, and you check in at the desk with school safety. Um, if they come in, that's where we we get the principal and we obtain the information. That's the step one of the three-step process where we're getting information from the agent to find out who they are, are they who
they say they are, what ID do they have, what legal documentation do they have to get what they're asking for, and then we have them step outside and wait while the principal consults with legal Charlie, I have a question that I'd love for you to answer. It says, "Can New York City public schools confirm now if
until today?" Right. ICS has showed up to any of our New York City public schools. There's a lot of misinformation out there, especially on social media. I'm really really happy that that question was asked because I'm very happy to report no, there have been no instances throughout the city uh at any
of our school buildings or facilities. Um, there lots of rumors that go around, lots of rumors, and then you track them down and you find out the telephone game, you know, turned one thing into ICE being in our building, but no, there have not been any visits. Charlie, I have another question that I think is
great for you to answer. It says, "Included in the training, is there a breakdown of the differences between an ICE warrant and a judicial warrant?" So, no. And that's for good reason. Um, we intentionally chose not to have that in the training because we do not and and I
stress this in our trainings. We do not want any school staff making any determinations. And the minute we start opening the door to say, "Hey, this is an administrative warrant. This is a judicial warrant." People are going to think that they have the tools to be able to do that. So that is why the only
steps are to make sure you're contacting getting the documents then contacting legal. So we don't go into any breakdowns. The lawyers are the only ones who are being trained on that. And then Charlie, there's a follow-up question that says, "Why can't ICE I'm so sorry. Why can't ICE be made to wait
outside once door is open? Isn't consent given?" No. Once they come in, I mean, people come into buildings all the time to check in, right? Nobody can come past that door. You have to show ID. You have to say who you are. You have to sign in the log. Once the person comes in, that's not consent to come into the
building. That's just checking in at the front desk. We then have the agent wait outside the building once we find out who they are and and what their reason for the visit is. Good question though. I just wanted to say whoever put Maggie,
I believe you put in the chat, what are we doing to help the students who are staying home right now out of out of fear. Their parents are scared to send them to school. We saw a dip in attendance. Then we had the mayor tell us that wasn't reality. Um I've seen it
I've seen it in my niece's kindergarten which is a bilingual program in Gowanas. Um half the kids are there. I talked to the teacher. They're not coming to school. They're missing services. Can we still do taotherapy for the students who
are too scared to come to school for good reason? Um so some followup on that. I think that would be lovely. Also the ACS piece when a child has not been at school for 10 days and there is educational neglect suspected and ACS
shows up at their home. Um some of these parents have communicated to the school what's going on, asking for work to do with their student at home, asking how they can support them. So I think that we need to tell our parents what to do in that sort of situation so they can avoid further trauma. Um, but my my
question for you is this normal because I have had several parents ask me this question recently and I don't know. Um, as as our sixth graders and seventh graders who are continuing students in the DOE system, New York City public
school students, why are they being asked to resubmit um, parents are being asked to resubmit their students documents, proof of birth? a health form, a registration form, a race identity form, two home
language forms, a race questionnaire, and two proofs of residency. Old immunization doesn't it doesn't count. You have to get a new one. So, if they've already submitted several of these items as kindergarteners or first graders when
they entered the system, why are they being asked for all of this now? And this is 40 sixth graders at the same school that I know of so far. What do I tell these parents? Thank you. Yeah, to that question. Uh K McDonald of senior
director of academic program policy. Charles, you can correct me that you're describing an enrollment packet that is abnormal to be requested as a continuing student and you can feel free to reach out to us. The documents you just described that's in a traditional enrollment packet that should only be uh
collected at time of enrollment. I'm saying I agree with you that's an abnormal request. What you're describing though are not those it's abnormal to receive that request at midyear point but that's a traditional enrollment packet that would only be collected at the initial time of
enrollment. You could let us know about it and we'll find out why that's being requested. I didn't lose any favor. Uh but I also just emphasize what Tamara shared at the top of the presentation that uh all students are entitled to an education
regardless of uh any type of immigration status or uh anything other than residencies. Those also that paperwork cannot be required in order to access education. Um, in regards to the Sorry, sorry Tamara. There's a question
in the chat box um from Karina. Is it possible for ICE to stop school buses to look for students? What train uh do the drivers and matrons have regarding this? Great question. Uh short answer is yes, it's possible. Has not happened and and
it it would be hard to necessarily see it happening, but we are ahead of it. Uh we did train bus dispatch about three weeks ago which was widely attended on on the specific protocols and we're continuing the trainings with uh bus companies, drivers, matrons, we're
rolling those out as well. So, uh we are definitely staying ahead of it um and making sure that everybody is aware of the protocol and that we have specific protocols in place so folks know who to call and when to call them. Thank you. I'm watching our time, but I'm noticing
there's a another question from Maggie that says, "Chraining for families project open arms should include the differences between ICE warrants, which are not valid to either search or detain, and judicial warrants that must be signed by a judge. families need to be made aware of those very critical differences and the right to remain
silent. So in our trainings, we talk about what's happening inside of New York City public schools. We're I myself am not a lawyer. I know Charlie when we does his trainings, even though Charlie is a lawyer, we don't want folks to really um maybe make a a mistake and
think something is a warrant. That's why we're letting our lawyers make those trainings. We do have familyf facing trainings done by our partners from project Russo and um the mayor's office of immigrant affairs where families can know about their rights and they'll learn more information about those
pieces. Great. Thank you so much for that presentation. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Are there any questions that the public has right now? We have uh our team for a few more
minutes here. So, any questions from the public? I know we have one question that came up which while we wait um there's a question from Paola. Can you please explain the process for families to receive a bilingual power professional at least until the
NYCPS meet the IEP mandated of a bilingual placement in a school nearby home? And what is the profile for the parrot in terms of training and licenses? John, I also Michelle did add some notes in the chat for that question, but I
don't so not sure if Michelle is still there online and wants it and wants to jump in. I I can start by just you know there's been a lot of conversation around the alternate placement power professional which is an an important resource but I think and deputy chancellor touched on this a little bit herself. It's important to note for our
families out there that um we have done a lot of great work led by Carolina to expand the number of bilingual special education seats that we have available. And I just want to make sure there are families out there that are aware that um you know the K through eight level especially in many districts uh for for
Spanish and and Mandarin programs, Chinese programs, we have seats available uh and Karolina is out there as a resource and if your child requires bilingual special education, the first thing you should be doing is reaching out to Carolina. Um and and her team's information should be in the chat. If
not, we'll make sure it gets in there. Um, this is not one you need to go directly to to the special education inbox. You should be going directly to to Karolina and her team to find an appropriate program uh, you know, as as close to your child's home as possible. In the event that that's not uh, we're
not able to arrange for that or or that program is a little further from your home than you're comfortable with, you should be speaking with your child's school around securing an alternate placement par to provide that that language support. And really the goal there is to ensure that um the language
access is provided through the alternate placement par profofessional. This is somebody who should be able to communicate uh with your child uh throughout throughout the school day and ensure that um really the academic language that is being used in the classroom is is is able to be accessed
by the child. Michelle, I'm not sure if you're still with us or if there's anything else that you'd want to add there. Nothing to add, John. Um, I would just say again to email us at bse programschools.nyc.gov or email me directly at
ciraniano2chools.nyc.gov. I just included those emails in the chat. Um, if there are concerns about a student not having access to a bilingual power professional while they're waiting, it's really important that you contact me and my team so that we can support with getting that staff to the appropriate
school. Thank you very much for that. Really appreciate it. Any other questions? Heather, hello. Um, I just have a tangentally related question. And I put in the chat and you probably don't need to answer it
tonight, but just to point out um that uh our students are required to complete foreign language requirements to graduate and currently there's no ICT for those foreign language classes. Uh which really puts our students at uh with disabilities at a huge
disadvantage. Um so I just want to put it out there that we still don't have ICT for foreign language classes. Thanks. I think it was included in the chat. There's not a policy against ICT in a foreign language that has to do with the recommendations of the IEP
teams. Um, we do have we do have them, but we I agree with you that they're they're rare. Um, and so we work on all opportunities we can to expand those opportunities. And yeah, for so for our world language programs, there's no no policy against having an ICT
recommendation in a world language program. Any other questions? Tim, looking at all the legal jargon, but since we have lawyers on this
call, is it is it difficult to reach that sort of that burden of of proof or or probable cause to have the judicial warrant issued in the first place? I'm wondering if there are loopholes that you're looking at that you're, you know,
specific to, you know, judges granting the warrant um on the basis of probable cause, what the probable cause is and looks like where we can get information on on the legal side of it. But is this something that is could never happen or
is this something that could easily happen given um loopholes in the law and where can I read about it? Thank you. Uh I don't believe Charles is still on. Uh Tamar can interrupt me, but what I would recommend is that on the project open
arms website, the know your rights trainings. Um there are virtual options for the know your rights training um from Project Russo. You could also find the contact information for the organization Project Russo that hosts those. It does touch on the differences between an administrative warrant and
judicial warrant and those could be contacts that you could follow up with for additional information. I'd really like to thank the dial team, the project open arms. This was a wonderful presentation by all and thank you for being so engaged with the community. We really appreciate it.
Thank you. Thank you. Goodbye. Thank you. Are there any other community? We'll open it up for public comment. Any public comments? interpretation. Please
wait a few minutes before leaving. Yeah. Introduce yourself. Hello. Oh, hi. I'm the member of the CISO. Uh my name is Hana Chong. I don't know what there's um to tell you, but um
been a member. This is my second year. Um and um I don't know uh anything. Yeah. Just right. Give it to
All right. Um Teresa Teresa, are we ready to adjourn the meeting? Are you ready to adjourn the meeting? All right. So meeting is is the joint meeting is now adjourned. CCSC
members please stay by. We're going to continue our meeting. We have one vote to do. Great. Thank you. We'll be CCSE will restart their meeting their calendar meeting in about two minutes.
Did it cover all the topics you wanted? It's really good. But I they didn't go too much into the nice that I mean they talked about it but I felt like they wanted Yeah, I mean it was a lot. [Laughter]
Oh, Heather, you're off. Heather's on fire. Well, she would like We're gonna Teresa wants to take a photo. Maybe nurse was This is it is Thursday, February 13th at 8:12 p.m. This is a citywide council on
special education. We are continuing our meeting. This we are now getting to the business portion of the meeting and we have one agenda item which is the CCSC budget. We have a budget amendment. we need to do today. So, is there a motion
to discuss the budget? I make a motion to discuss the budget for a second. All in favor? Okay. I all eyes. Rose, could you please go over the budget adjustments we need to make?
lead the council to vote to allocate funds to purchase additional equipment and devices and printer for the AA and refreshments for our town hall meeting. So the first item is to move funds from the membership reimbursement. I'm moving
$500 out to supplies to purchase the additional devices for the laptop. And the reason the council originally voted to create and move $1,500 into the equipment line to purchase the laptop and the additional supplies. Those items
have to be actually have to be purchased under the supplies. Unfortunately, the SGO said it was too late to move the balance from the equipment line. So, I'm taking it from member reimbursement. And for member reimbursement is for I'm
taking it from the person who resigned. she's no longer here. So, I'm taking it from what was allocated for her and moving it into um supplies. And the second item, it can all be done in one vote to move funds from the AA
travel line to supplies. Reason add these additional funds to supplies to cover the cost of a printer. Unfortunately, I have to purchase the printer from a DOE vendor and the cheapest one is
$811. I know, isn't it? And the third item is to move funds from memory reimbursement line. I'm moving $750 to meeting expenses to cover the cost of refreshments for the town hall meeting. Sir, any questions for Rose regarding
the proposed changes? All right, Anthony, I just want to state that we could buy a printer for Rose that would give her toner for ink for two years and pay $200 if we bought it at Costco. Instead, we are buying an $811 printer that we're now going to
have to buy toner at god knows what price at an outrageous markup. So, I just want to note that objection to these prices that we are being forced to pay for probably severely inferior products. So if we purchase it and then get
reimbured, does that have to be purchased by the member or by Rose? Okay. And then we get reimbured with our own money or with the D with the funds from the CCSC. What line can we take that from? Because the equipment line is is done.
Everything is going to be done by the end of this month. Really? So all right. So we are still good with these as Rose described. So are there any issues or can we go to vote on moving the money as
described by Rose and is listed on the spreadsheets we've received? I make a motion to move the money um as it's described on the spreadsheet and as Rose described.
Is there a second, please? Wait a second. Okay. All in favor of moving the money as described. Oh, we're all call. Here it is. Carolyn Cast. Hela Daily. Yes.
Markine. Sam Reed. Moes Rosario. Yes. Maggie Sanchez. Esa Vases. Yes. Everyone vote. Yes. Motion pass. All
right. Motion passes. Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? I make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion. We have Moes with a second. Thank you. Good night everybody. We will see you all on Monday, February 24th.
Again, the chancellor town hall starts at Clinton School at 6:15 p.m. Chancellor will be there at 6:30. Tamara has a quick question, comment. Tam them to it sent them to um a totally different date in an like an outdated
form. It was for March 3rd. Yeah, because I sent it through like the Clinton PA, the SLT, the IEP parents group. So, there was a lot like a lot of confusion about they were registering for the wrong meeting, so they just didn't register. Some people figured out
how to go on to like the DOE website and yeah, so if we can fix that, that would be I think you'd see the registration go up a lot. Okay. Even someone fix it though
because nobody registered out of those people. There were like 50. So they're not registering is what's happening. Yeah. But the people that are getting this March 3rd, some of them are just like it's a wrong meeting so I didn't register. Okay. I'll send that I'll tell
them to send an update to everybody who registered already the 94 because it went from 10 to 94 since the last time I gave you. But the form if they haven't if they go to the registration link, it's going to be fixed. It won't say March 3rd anymore. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Thanks everybody. Good night. Thank you interpreters. Appreciate it. Thank you Shine. the interpreter stay on the Spanish interpreter just for five minutes. We just going to have Okay.
Yeah. Just to help out