Minutes from November 2016 SEPTA Meeting

Courtesy of SEPTA Secretary, Karen Sosnoski, here are the minutes from the November 10, 2016 SEPTA meeting.

Arlington Special Education PTA

Thursday November 10, 2016

7-8:30 PM

Thomas Jefferson M.S. Library

Entendiendo Educacion Especial

• Minutes from October meeting presented for approval. Approved.
• Rocio Villalobos, translated the meeting from Spanish to English for Secretary Karen Sosnoski.

• President’s Report: Caroline Levy
• Introduced guests: Assistant Superintendent, Wendy Carria, Paul Jamelske, new Interim Director of Special Education and Kathleen Donovan, Parent Resource Center
• President’s Chat will occur at the meeting on December 8 2016.
• Friday December 16th Mt. Olivet, Glebe Rd. Sensory friendly Santa, former congressmen Jim Moran will be Santa. Will be at teen center, quiet, not a mall.

• Presentation by   Arianna Sweeney from PEATC, the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center, www. PEATC.org.
• partners@peatc.org
• (703)923-0010
• (800) 869-3514  Hablamos Espanol.
• PEATC main offic: 8003 Forbes Place, Ste 310, Springfield, VA 22151.

• PEATC works with families with kids who have special needs.
• PEATC is a center for parents throughout VA. They educate parents. Their purpose is to train parents and families, to teach kids their rights.
• PEATC offers phone call and online services.
• They have a lot of brochures and info sheets.
• They work w/ organizations and agencies to help parents help each other.
• They have discussions every month. They discuss questions with parents and parents share experiences. They offer three or four presentations per discussion, on subjects like networking. Usually @6-9. They’ve been doing this since 1975.

• Objectives:
• To familiarize families with information. PEATC staff ask people at the meeting, “how do you feel?”
• Parents may feel sad, frustrated, confused, ignorant. Sometimes they don’t have enough information. Special Education is like planning and packing when you go on a trip; you need to know service requirements; what program your school offers; the process of education. You have to plan for your child’s education.
• What is special education?: Instructions designed for your child.

• Questions from meeting participants. Parents ask how the IEP program at W-Lee works, what are the expectations for kids with disabilities?
• Special Ed kids have the right to access the same curriculum of all kids. They can be in regular ed classes to the best of their ability.
• The IEP program prepares them from the start of high school until the end.

• Review of the IDEA, individuals with disabilities education act. Parents need to train themselves to collaborate with the school and advocate for their child. Parents role in special education is very important. The journey begins here—the trip of special education,
• Start with diagnosis, recommendation from the doctor based on an evaluation.
• It is very important for parents to collaborate with the school, to share with the school all of the information they have about their child, because you know your children, their routines, their triggers, what they like, what they need to communicate more than anyone else. Parents can do evaluations with the school or outside of the school.
• If you, the parent, are not satisfied with the diagnosis that the schools giving you, you can ask for an IEE , Independent Education Evaluation, an outside evaluation.
• Every child is different depending on the diagnosis.

• Discussion of promoting independence through the IEP.
• IEP is a plan for your child. Specific to your child’s needs. Child, parent, school are like a triangle. It is very important for the child depending on the age, the diagnosis, and how your child feels, to participate in the meeting.
• What are baby steps to getting your child involved with the IEP? Child legally supposed to be invited to the IEP meeting starting at the age of 14. But your child can already start attending the IEP meetings way before that. Gave example of a 10 year old with Aspergers who has been attending IEP meetings since he was 7 or 8 years old. Baby steps: come in for five minutes. Child can make a drawing or video to introduce themselves. Our final goal is to become better advocates for our children. It’s important that you include your child. You want them to be able to advocate for themselves. You don’t want them to feel uncomfortable but you want them to feel/be involved.
• Meeting participant asked: what do you need to get your child included? Answer: Nothing, just tell them your child’s coming. You can let them know in advance if therapist or anyone else is coming.
• Meeting participant asked: Do you have parent advocates to go with parents to the meetings? No. We provide information and training so parent becomes the advocate. We CAN refer you to lawyers. We can review your IEP, goals, modifications with you. We don’t go to meetings with you.
• Meeting participant asked: Can the PRC can help with that? Answer: The Parent Resource Center can help parents prepare, but we don’t attend meetings either. But we do help with trouble shooting. There’s some really good resources on imdetermined.org  some in Spanish. PRC has bilingual information as well. Having someone who knows how the IEP works going over it with you helps a lot.
• Parent asked: Can I bring a draft IEP to the Parent Resource Center? Answer: Of course.

• Check out PEATC’s website or Facebook. We collaborate a lot with the department of education and offer free training.
• Question: How much do educators in Arlington know about PEATC? Answer: I can only speak for minorities in general—I think some do, but not everyone. We’ve been reaching out to the Hispanic community.
• More about the IEP: The IEP includes levels of academic performance, functional performance, social abilities and goals. It talks about information specific to your child’s needs.
• Question for parents: How do you prepare for an IEP? Some parents said they don’t have time.
• Prepare yourself mentally and physically.
• Write down questions you might have.
• Think about all the classes and therapy your child has gone through and think about what’s working and not.
• Build a relationship with the teacher so they see your child the same way you do, but also knowing they see a different part of your child.
• Sometimes it’s hard to understand how the four out of five times scenarios described in the IEP relate to the big picture.
• Majority of parents PEATC has met with haven’t had a good experience. Part of it could be translation is difficult. Parents may have incomplete information about the goals.
• Every county completely different

• More about PEATC services and successful IEP processes:
• PEATC located in Springfield, has a lot of one on one meetings with parents.
• PEATC will come to your community center, meet with you one on one, train you. She can help parents get legal help, put them in touch with other agencies.
• You can take the IEP home with you and review it later; you don’t have to sign it on the spot and your services won’t change until it is signed.
• Make sure every request and answer related to the IEP are in writing.
• Annual Revision—Just to make sure everything is working okay. If a service is not working for your child, you can send a request and ask it to be changed. IEP is designed for the benefit of your child. Know that you’re able to call an IEP meeting if a service is not helping your child or they need more support.
• Contact PRC, contact PEATC, get someone who can sit down with you and review your child’s IEP.
• PEATC guides parents from beginning to end of child’s education. They’re even helping a child who is now in college. Child needs to know how to advocate for themselves.
• PEATC does have a bilingual youth program. Wants to empower the kids, teach them to advocate for themselves. Group support for teenagers with ADHD or some sort of learning disability—depression, anxiety, bullying. Creating a safe environment to share with other kids.
• After high school they can still look for community help in college.
• It’s all completely free.
• Wants to help parents create better communications with the school.

• Snacks, surveys handed out, meeting adjourned.