Coraggio Consulting Fairfax County School Board Work Session, Tuesday, April 11, 2023 Date: Tuesday, April 11, 2023 Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia Length: 2h 0m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIoQTJVlc88 Official School Board page (FCPS): https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/school-board Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting. Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-11-04. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:10] All right, we're going to go ahead and get started. We've got, as we heard earlier, a hard stop at 3:00 for Ms. Sizemore. I'm not going to say that, because we're going to say 3-ish. [00:00:27] So I'd love for us to go ahead and get started. Dr. Reed, may I turn it over to you? Yes, ma'am. Thanks, Ms. Cohen. And it's my pleasure this afternoon to introduce staff who are going to walk us through the current progress in the development our special education enhancement plan with the understanding that this is still early days in finalizing our special education enhancement plan and there's still a significant amount of work to be done but this is intended this afternoon to be an update and progress report and opportunity for [00:01:05] feedback from the board on this really important topic to our students families and community. So I'd like to turn the meeting over to our chief academic officer, Dr. Sloan Presidio, to start us off. All right, well thank you Dr. Reed and good afternoon everybody. I won't provide much more of an introduction because I know time is precious. I do want to thank the staff though that are here with us today who have been working really hard on this as well as the community members who are participating with us on the steering committee. So there's a lot of involvement across FCPS in this work and I think we are in a really good place but as Dr. Reed said [00:01:42] we do still have quite a ways to go so we're excited to share with you kind of the current state and get your input and feedback and with that i think i'll turn it over to dr boyd thank you dr presidio um so good afternoon my name is michelle boyd and i'm the assistant superintendent for special services and i'm pleased to have the opportunity to provide you with an update regarding the special education enhancement plan today we will focus on the following agenda items [00:02:14] We'll talk about background, plan, timeline, and progress, draft responses to the AIR or American Institute for Research's 19 recommendations, talk about some draft plan documents, and last but certainly not least, seek school board discussion and feedback. [00:02:32] As Dr. Presidio shared, today I'm joined in person and remotely by an amazing team that serves as the co-chairs for the special education enhancement plans, serve on the steering committee, or serve on the implementation teams. [00:02:48] I'm grateful for all of their hard work and their dedication and know that as a collective community, we will develop a comprehensive plan that increases outcomes for FCPS students with disabilities. In preparing for our discussion today, I want to take a brief moment to recap where we've been so that we can have context for where we are going. [00:03:10] In doing so, I will provide a summary of the external special education review, project timeline, and planned progress. As a reminder, the school board requested an external review of FCPS's special education program for which AIR was selected to conduct the work. [00:03:27] AIR began the work in December of 2020 with the final report being presented at the October 4, 2022 school board work session. The review focused on four goals. Our systems design, structure, and establish processes, adequacy of human capital resources, alignment of services with evidence-based practices, and effectiveness of communication with stakeholders. [00:03:53] The external review resulted in AIR providing 19 recommendations to FCPS. Here you can see a timeline of the review and the work that was included in each phase of the review process. Currently, we are in the special education planning phase in which our priority is the development of the FCPS Special Education Enhancement Plan. [00:04:17] We are pleased to share that the team is on track with the plan schedule that was established November 2022. More specifically, draft mission, vision, and core value statements have been completed, as well as draft goals and objectives. The early initial draft implementation plans have also been completed and are currently being reviewed by the Special Education Enhancement Plans Steering Committee. [00:04:41] While progress is on track according to our initial schedule, we are recommending a revision to the schedule to incorporate additional stakeholder engagement. Today's discussion is an example of additional engagement opportunity and as such is notated in red as a schedule revision. [00:04:59] The revised timeline proposal includes a six-week extension from the plan completion date in order to embed additional engagement opportunities with the ACSD or Advisory Committee for Students with Disabilities and to incorporate two school board work sessions to receive feedback from the school board. [00:05:20] More specifically, instead of the plan being completed and shared by May 23, 2023, the plan will be completed and shared by July 17, 2023. The draft special education plan is comprised of goals and objectives that are responsive to recommendations received by AIR and special education priorities highlighted by FCPS stakeholders. [00:05:47] The four goal areas in the draft special education enhancement plan are instruction and inclusive practices with objectives that focus on tier one instruction, high leverage practices, least restrictive environment, and multi-tiered systems of support. [00:06:04] Special education processes with objectives that focus on compliance with federal and state special education regulations, parent engagement, and data collection and reporting. Communication with objectives that focus on accessible information and translation and interpretation support for stakeholders. [00:06:24] And last but not least, staff capacity with objectives that focus on recruitment and retention of fully licensed teachers, differentiated professional development plans, and supports that effectively perform, that support staff in effectively performing their job functions. [00:06:43] AIR organized their 19 recommendations into six categories, which informed the development of the four goal areas for the special education enhancement plan, as illustrated on the screen. At this time, we are going to turn our attention to the AIR recommendation and the draft action plan to address said recommendations. [00:07:04] Please be reminded that the Special Education Enhancement Plan Steering Committee has not yet been able to fully vet the draft implementation plans. The Steering Committee is currently reviewing the draft plans and developing feedback for the implementation team's consideration. [00:07:19] In this section, we will look at each AIR recommendation and associated tactics included in the draft implementation plans. I will also provide some examples of deliverables associated with the tactics discussed but will not speak to each deliverable in order to provide as much time as possible for board discussion and feedback. [00:07:42] Please note, however, that all deliverables are available to the board and to the public via the draft implementation plans that are posted to today's agenda on BoardDocs. AIR Category 1, Data-Driven IEP Development, includes six recommendations, 1A through 1F. [00:08:03] AIR recommendation 1A, create a standardized process and guidance for how staff should gather and document parent input during the eligibility determination and IEP development processes. There are a number of tactics that are associated with this particular recommendation from the special education processes implementation plan to include 1.4, in which we increase staff understanding of the importance of parent, guardian, and caregiver [00:08:35] involvement in special education and section 504 processes. 1.5, increase consistent documentation of parental participation by reviewing and revising IEP and section 504 forms to align with updated guidance relative to special education and 504 processes. 2.1, ensure parent, guardian and caregiver input relative to student strengths assets needs and documents consistently in special education increased staff understanding of the division's expectations [00:09:09] and increase family knowledge regarding parent giver participation in special education processes examples of deliverables associated with the tactics responsive to air recommendation 1a include develop and implement a comprehensive process to collect and document written or verbal parent guardian or caregiver input regarding student strengths and needs prior to and throughout special education and 504 processes provide administrators with professional development around collecting and documenting parent participation in special education and 504 [00:09:44] processes creating and providing district-wide professional development around collecting and documenting parent participation in special education for all relevant staff and looking at local screening eligibility special education 504 case managers and related service providers providing guidance to administrators general education teachers and related services staff around collecting and documenting parental participation in special education and 504 processes providing coaching to school teams on working collaboratively with parents and [00:10:18] families hiring an iep specialist per region to support iep development with a special education focus working with students excuse me teachers that are novice novice being defined by three years or fewer of experience creating training for parents regarding parent guardian and caregiver participation through the prc and through our parent advocacy groups and developing resources for school teams to share with parents of students going through trial time or who have [00:10:49] already been identified as a student with a disability. AIR Recommendation 1B, create a framework for parents and staff to enhance collaboration during the eligibility, determination and IEP processes. You'll see that the special education tactics listed here are similar to some of those listed on the previous slide and include 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. Examples of some deliverables that are associated with this particular recommendation include developing and [00:11:24] implementing a comprehensive process to collect and document written or verbal parent guardian or caregiver input regarding student strengths and needs prior to and throughout the special education and 504 processes trainings for family and professional development for staff moving forward to recommendation 1c establish guidance for staff to collect and report data more consistently to develop and monitor ieps here the associated tactics again come up from our special education processes implementation plan and include three tactics 3.1 ensure the division [00:12:03] wide process to collect baseline data as a result of iep implementation and ensure that's done with fidelity 3.2 ensure the division-wide process for iep goal progress monitoring and reporting is implemented with fidelity and 3.3 ensure the division-wide process for data collection and documentation to support special education and 504 processes are done with fidelity examples of deliverables associated with the tactics responsive to recommendation 1c include development and implementation of a comprehensive division-wide process to collect progress [00:12:40] monitoring data for iep goals and report goal progress using objective data as a result of iep implementation, develop a division-wide process to collect baseline data as a result of IEP implementation, develop area-specific guidance, for example, high incidence, low incidence, speech, OT, PT, adaptive PE, to support school staff knowledge and implementation of the required data collection processes as it relates to baseline data, providing professional development on IEP goal data collection and progress monitoring for professional staff, paraprofessionals [00:13:15] and administrators additional deliverables include developing guidance documents outlining the division's expectations regarding section 504 processes professional development for a variety of staff to include professional and administrative staff on 504 processes and again developing and implementing a plan to streamline data collection tools and resources to efficiently support decision making throughout special education processes looking at recommendation 1d revise [00:13:50] iep progress report templates and expectations so that staff so the staff report progress based on criteria specified in students iep rather than on a rating scale both of these uh the tactics associated with this recommendation are similar to some that was discussed previously and include Tactics 3.2 and 3.3 from the Special Education Processes Implementation Plan. [00:14:17] Examples of deliverables for this recommendation include division-wide expectations for data collection, resources, and ensuring functionality in CSTORS, which is our special education platform, for staff to report progress based on criteria specified in students' IEPs. [00:14:37] Moving last next to Recommendation 1E which is to monitor post-secondary transition planning supports to ensure students across all disability categories and their families have equitable access. Again we're still within that special education processes implementation plan but now we're looking at tactics 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 which are listed on the screen and which highlight provision of differentiated and enhanced supports for students with disabilities providing targeted professional development and also increasing parent understanding examples of [00:15:15] deliverables associated with the tactics listed on the screen include develop provide and implement resources and systems to support high quality transition planning and programming regardless of the area of disability that is aligned with the iep process and state performance indicators for all students with disabilities add six academy resource teachers which are special education teachers and transition services to ensure there is equitable access to academy programs to meet the diverse needs of students with disabilities and students with section 504 plans please note [00:15:50] this particular deliverable is connected to the pathways report that was completed by four point in 2022 offer a variety of community-based work experience and a lot staffing ratios to support students who need support in the classroom for work experience while simultaneously providing support in the community and we were requesting here an additional of one watt ia per 10 students review the division initiated structures associated with community work experiences for students with disabilities to determine what if any structures need to be revised to increase [00:16:28] opportunities for students to engage in community work to build habits work habits endurance and stamina in partnership with region leadership identified the vision wide expectation for transition support between school levels for families. For example, from preschool to elementary, from elementary to middle and middle to high. Ensure that our ETRs review a random sampling of IEPs that they're assigned schools to make certain secondary transition is addressed in accordance with special education regulations and provide in person and [00:17:02] asynchronous parent trainings on special education secondary transition processes. Looking at our last recommendation in the IEP development area, it's recommendation 1F, which is established guidance on placement decisions for students with disabilities. [00:17:21] In addressing this, we're going to pull from two goal areas, one being instruction and inclusive practices, where we're ensuring LRE guidance is implemented such that students with disabilities are only removed from general education settings when appropriate in accordance with special education regulations. 1.4, ensuring that systems and structures outlined in the inclusive practices plan is implemented with fidelity. And 2.3, ensuring that LRE or least restrictive environment decisions are individualized, data informed, and the rationales are documented consistently. And looking at our special education processes, 1.6, ensuring decisions regarding [00:18:00] LRE or data informed and rationales document. A few examples of deliverables associated with detectives in response to this recommendation include developing and implementing an LRE data collection tool to foster comprehensive data informed decision making so that all so that students with disabilities are only removed from genet settings when appropriate, providing professional development regarding LRE for all school-based instructional staff, administrators, 504 and SPED case managers, general education teachers, and related service providers on documentation of placement decisions for students with disabilities, providing administrators [00:18:40] and professionals with professional development and resources regarding inclusive scheduling for students with disabilities, providing professional development and resources to ensure staff understand the difference between course selection and LRE, developing guidance and professional development of resources to foster understanding of LRE and a documentation of decisions, creating quarterly reports for school based administrators on LRE to support progress monitoring, implement and update the FCPS inclusive practices plan submitted to video in January 23 to ensure it includes inclusive practices tactics and deliverables outlined in [00:19:19] the approved special education enhancement plan, develop a central Office Indicator 5 and Indicator 6 team that reviews school level data relative to LRE on a regular basis and provides feedback to region leadership, develop a multiyear plan to increase the number of inclusive preschool classes to increase the percent of preschool students serve in general education settings as appropriate and develop and implement in partnership with region leadership, a monitoring and accountability system to ensure individualized decision making for LRE is implemented with fidelity. [00:19:55] AIR Category 2. And please, I'll take a moment to see if we need to speed up, slow down, and so I'll give the floor to Dr. Reed. Thank you, Dr. Boyd. I think this information is so important, right? [00:20:12] And I appreciate you providing it to the board ahead of the meeting. So I think many of the board have had an opportunity to review this once, which gives us just a moment. So I think it might be helpful given the time commitment we have this afternoon, the hard stop. If we could just maybe move beyond the recommendations and let's see if we can go near the, I guess all of these are pretty much the recommendations and kind of, if we could go to slide 37, please, because that gets us through all the categories. [00:20:50] and thanks for reading my body language, Dr. Boyd, I'll have to rename you clairvoyant, so anyhow, if we could go to slide 37 and just kind of wrap this part up, then I think the board has input and questions which will, again for the next couple hours, I think occupy our time, so I appreciate the detail that you've prepared, so thank you very much. [00:21:13] Absolutely, and thank you for the board and for Dr. Reed for allowing me to breathe, that'll save me from drinking this whole bottle of water by reading all the slides i will i do want to highlight that i recognize that the information provided on the screen are tactics and are really high level or mid-level functions i would encourage you to look specifically at the deliverables that are listed on each of the corresponding implementation plans because that really speaks more closely to how are we going to ensure thus and such and so you can look at those actions that include a number of things. I'm also here on slide 37. There are some additional [00:21:52] supportive documents that are linked in the presentation and also posted on board docs to really support the unpacking of the plan in different ways. If you look at the AIR recommendation crosswalk, that really provides a high level identification of the goals and tactics associated with each AIR recommendation kind of at a glance for your review. [00:22:14] And then looking at the matrix, it really outlines a high level overview of the plan that's organized by goal and objective, which is a different perspective and a different approach that we've taken today. But we did want to provide that for stakeholder consumption for folks that may want to review the information from a different lens of perspective. Again, I want to reiterate, as Dr. Reed shared at the beginning, that the implementation plans our draft draft draft with a capital d and that the steering committee just met on yesterday and has already begun to provide some really um positive feedback and some helpful feedback for [00:22:52] us to revise and reframe some things um and it still has to go through some additional iterations of review so i just want to share that with you in advance thank you excellent dr reed i know you wanted to give us some expectation setting yeah thank you thanks dr boy and dr presidio and the whole team that's here. I know this has been a lot of work under a tremendous amount of scrutiny. Just want to remind the board that staff are working at my direction. So I think questions about the content are really going to be [00:23:28] helpful for Dr. Presidio and Dr. Boyd to be able to answer and questions about sort of how we're going to move forward. I trust I can help with from that standpoint. So just want to frame that and hopefully we'll have a robust conversation that leads to informing this plan in a way that will support our students moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. First we have Ms. Sizemore- Heiser followed by Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Presidio and Dr. Boyd for this information. I really appreciate all the hard work that's going into this [00:24:07] and I appreciate the level of detail and all of the side plans of the tactics. It's been really helpful to look at so I just want to frame that by saying I really appreciate your hard work But I wanted just to say dr. Reed. I am hopeful that The feedback from the steering committee and from us will help really flush out this plan because there is no how in this plan there's no how there's a lot of professional development on teachers who are already overwhelmed and There's a lot of repeating the recommendations as tactics and that's not going to get us anywhere [00:24:42] I was particularly surprised in the inclusion action plan to see the inclusive practices action plan submitted to VDOE completely subsumed in this plan, because as you know, I reached out when that was sent to say I had major concerns, because the inclusion act plan that was submitted I think in January or February mostly listed two main ways that we're going to improve inclusion practices, one, an LRE tool in the IEP meetings, and two, the literacy plan. [00:25:13] Now, while access to literacy, of course, will help our students gain access to, you know, general education academics, it is by far one part of inclusion. The social inclusion part of that inclusive act of Japan talked about lifting up what we're already doing and sharing what teachers are already doing as best practices. [00:25:32] Nothing in there was around anti-bullying, which is really a detriment to inclusion. There was nothing in there about programming, right? You use an LRE tool, so you go to an IEP meeting, here's what happens, my child wants to take ex-elective, they can't take ex-elective because we don't have enough supports for their disability in ex-elective, okay, I guess they can't take that, we'll put them in strategies instead, an LRE tool would just document that. [00:25:59] It wouldn't actually change the ability for the child to access the programming. There's nothing in here about accessing programming. There's nothing in here about neurodiversity. I mean, if you go to colleges, to corporations, I mean, heck, at the airport I saw an ad that referenced neurodiversity, but yet we're a leader in this work and there's nothing in here. [00:26:20] You can't have inclusion until you build a culture of neurodiversity. This is based on the medical model is what I'm seeing here, right? The social model says that you can't have inclusion unless the atmosphere itself, the programming is also inclusive. And there's nothing in here about that. [00:26:37] nothing in here but I mean there's a little bit about getting books in the library and make sure those books are read that's great but what are we doing to change mindsets so that's I mean I have pages and pages of notes so that's my my overarching feeling is that I mean when we talk about one of the IEP recommendations air recommendation 1d was to revise the IEP progress template the progress for template to get away from the rating scale but the The recommendation just says division-wide process for goal monitoring reporting is implemented with fidelity. [00:27:11] So we're looking at implementing the recommendation, this is on slide 15, is to implement with fidelity what we do. The AIR recommendation was to revise the template based on the criteria in the IEP rather than a rating scale, because that one to four rating scale, I have no idea what, one to five, no idea really what that means. [00:27:29] So it doesn't, it just says let's do what we already do, just do it better, just do it everywhere. May I put you on a go back? Am I done? Yeah, absolutely. All right. Dr. Anderson followed by Ms. Omeish. [00:27:48] Thank you, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. I think we still have work to do with the plan for sure, and I believe that the social aspect of inclusion, I think we have data that would support the need to really be thoughtful about that. [00:28:05] The accessing programming, I think what you're putting in the room is not a pro forma response but a response that's going to result in a different experience for our students and so fundamentally I think that's the intent of staff as well and what we need to do is codify that as part of our plan because this plan and all the work that has gone into it it's by itself is not going to make a difference for our students so it's the action that the plan informs and accelerates i think that the changing mindsets is the culture work that's so [00:28:45] important for us to think about and that change management is going to take all of us honestly inclusion that's authentic and meaningful is actually a general education initiative it's not something that our department of special services is going to be unilaterally able to create success for and I also hear your concern around the template and I'll have to take a look at that because I don't believe it's our intent to double down on our current template but I see how you could maybe read it in that way Dr. Boyd would you clarify maybe that and I think it's [00:29:23] something we want to flag as language to yeah so adjust in in one of the deliverables for example just looking at the progress reporting it talks about as a deliverable in reporting progress according to the metrics identified in the students IEP so again that's one of those detailed deliverables that is listed differently in the plan and when we give that guidance we want that to be done with fidelity and we also again the objective data and using objective sources and expectations that was something that was recommended by AIR and so that is reflected there. And I realized that and looking at the tactics, all of that [00:30:02] might not be evident, but that is addressed there. And the other piece, just as we talk about the LRE data collection tool, and we're happy to share that with folks so that they have an understanding. It really does get at the access piece because it really forces us to have meaningful data informed discussions about why can't little Riccardi be in this class? Why can't she be supported in the general education setting? And when I talked about as an example, one of the pieces about having a discussion with teams and with staff about the difference between LRE and course selection. Course selection is driven by working with your counselors, identifying what's the [00:30:40] next sequence in your math sequence, your science sequence, honors AP, all of that. That's one discussion. The IEP discussion is what supports and services that you need to meet your unique needs and one doesn't preclude the other. So the fact that Michelle is recommended for AP history. If I need to have AP history and that needs to be in a special education setting, then that's what I get. It's not based on what we currently have, what we currently do. It's an individualized decision. And those are some of those pieces that have to be communicated and articulated in professional development. I know [00:31:15] that there's the what was me about PD, but until people know better, you can't do better. And so that happens over time. And so we have to figure out when are we going to be able to share that education, have meaningful dialogue, such that people understand because mindset, again, that shift that doesn't take place in a bubble, people have to understand why I need to think about something in a different way. And that's an iterative process. So we have to figure out, we know PD time is sacred, but if we want to make a shift, we have to prioritize time for that. [00:31:47] So I just want to close out this response, and thank you, Dr. Boyd. I think that I heard a little bit of a murmur around the room about the AP, right? I think one of the concerns I've heard from parents, and I think Dr. Presidio was with me on the twice-exceptional parent evening, is that's not the feeling that that actually happens in those IEP meetings. [00:32:09] So I think one of our biggest challenges is going to be taking our document when we've completed it and actually have it live at each school, not some schools and not most schools, but each school. And I think we're in agreement so that a student in an IEP who says I need or want AP U.S. history, that we are providing the support, not that we could in some circumstance or not that we should, but that we do, right? [00:32:36] So I think that's the culture shift we're talking about here. And again, I just wanted to iterate that we know some of the things and we acknowledge that some of the things are not happening and are not happening consistently. But until we say that we're going to be committed to that, then we'll continue to have the same thing we've always had. [00:32:53] And so that's what we are trying to make this shift. And we're happy to think about how we can communicate that differently so that that's more clear. But that is our commitment, and that's been much of the discussion within the steering committee and implementation teams that we don't want limitations put on our students because they need support in a particular setting. [00:33:11] Thank you. Ms. Cohen. I think I'm just going to pick up from there because going through my documents that I printed, I have how written on almost every page. But to be constructive, here's what I would like to offer. [00:33:26] And just an example, I opened up to page 13. It says ensure parent, guardian, caregiver input relative to students, et cetera. What I would love to see in this presentation is the strategy that will lead to ensuring that blank, blank, blank. [00:33:43] Going through increase, ensure, it's all great and flowerly. flowery language, but it doesn't speak to the action. So I would love for us to begin with the action. It's like those smart goals. I literally wrote that here somewhere. We start with the action, and we're talking about special education. We're also talking about data, and we'll also talk about project management because that's one of your earlier ones. I would love to see this is the action to get us to this goal. It's going to be done by these people during this time frame because the pd is one that assaulted me and i say assault because we are talking about [00:34:23] a group of people that it has read already overwrought i'm like when is this going to happen is it summer is this after school is this before school all kinds of questions um and i may not have time so go ahead and put me on a go back now but i'm going to go back to kind of a bigger question because i could sit here all day i went through all four goals and i did a little back up the envelope math and I came up with 284 new staff members and all of the dollar amounts came up to roughly 70 million. Where are we gonna grow these 300 people in a shortage? [00:35:00] I get it. We need people. We need to have these people to do this job. But these people are not there. I'm thinking myself thinking right now how many special education vacancies do we still have? How do we propose growing 300 more to do all of these wonderful things that need to be done? [00:35:21] So I'd like to hear some thoughts about that. And before my time is up, also some prioritization of what is the most important here? What's the most key? Because we can't not-- I don't think we can do all of this in the time frame that we have. [00:35:37] Not because I don't think we should aspire to it, just because the reality of the world is such that it provides a lot of limitations. So I'm going to take a breath, so pause my time. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. You're correct. We're not going to find that many professionals at this point in time, period. Nor do we have the funding, the $70 million to support that. I think at this point there are some of the recommendations that don't require funding. It's just a different way of doing the work. And for the most part, I think we're also going to need to think about the staff we do have doing the work we are doing differently [00:36:14] and that's the culture of change in terms of the plus i think this is going to have to be a multi year plan it may create a transition in some roles we may have some roles in our schools right now that we're going to have to stop engaging with to start doing this work differently because i don't think we're going to find over 200 staff additionally period even in the next year or so. [00:36:38] So we may have to repurpose some of the work and stop doing some work to start doing other work. And in terms of which are the highest priorities here I think that that's something I'll ask Dr. Boyd to weigh in on in terms of her department and the committee maybe where they feel like the highest priority is and then I think we're interested in hearing what you all think is your highest priority is we craft probably a four to five year plan that's going to mirror our strategic plan. Thank you, Dr. Reed. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Again, we're very, very early [00:37:15] on. So this was the team's initial thinking about the work that needs to be done. And we wanted them to uplift really all of the needs that they saw based on the data, based on their experience as a as a parent or family member, as a staff, as a student, as an administrator. So that's what this is reflective of. We recognize that some of it may appear to be pie in the sky, but you have not because you ask not, right? If we don't ask for what we need, then we certainly won't have that. [00:37:46] But also, I think that it's important. One of the things that Dr. Reed said in terms of staff may stop doing one thing and do another, I think that it's going to be important for us to identify that because oftentimes we think that, but then we're not okay with the outcome about what we've stopped doing these 12 things because now we're doing these 20 things, but somebody those 12 things were very important to. And so we need to make sure that we're clear and transparent about the what we won't do anymore to now add these other functions, um, as something. And then in terms of prioritizing, what are the major buckets, not pieces of work that we [00:38:25] want to do? One of the things outlined in the plan is really looking at our public separate day schools, Burke, Key, Kilmer, Cedar, quander, and really looking, do they have the supports and resources to really affect change to help students who can transition back to comprehensive schools to do that and be successful to have that safety and security. Those FTEs potentially aren't even in there because this looks at we have to first assess what those programs are. We know and you all have heard about concerns about some of the programs now and the needs now. So if we identify that as a priority, then we would have to identify the things that are associated with that. Otherwise it [00:39:02] would look like just kind of a glossy cover that really wouldn't have the substantive work there. Um, and so that's just an example. And so as Dr. Reed said, we do, we would appreciate feedback from you all as the board as to what are those major items that you all want prioritize so that as we go back and review, we can lean heavily into those pieces. Um, and just be realistic and transparent with with folks about some of the other pieces may not be done or may not be done in the next three to five years. If I may push back on that a little bit, I appreciate you being inclusive of us, but we are not the subject matter experts in this area, [00:39:41] so I would love for staff to, as you're listening to us, yes, listen to us, but go back as the subject matter experts and prioritize and give us something to work on because we will need probably another 10 hours for us to really prioritize in a conversation here. And the other thing that I do want to raise that you did share and again I have lots of notes here is how are we going to reduce the teacher overwhelm we have the the compensatory time happening we have this that's going to be happening it's all the same people what can be automated what can we actually [00:40:17] take off of their plates so that the job doesn't become I'm not going to say unyieldy because it's there but just utterly impossible to complete and last thing that I want to throw in there is I'm looking at goal one and again just constructive to move forward I'm looking at the deliverables 1.11 1.12 both of them by the same deadline one is to develop the document one is to train the document I think we could be more specific they're developing the document could have its own timetable and then the training of it could be after the fact but right now [00:40:54] they're sitting in the same space and when you're reading it it just doesn't make sense but i'll go back please thank you you're on there and feedback to my statements absolutely absolutely we definitely again with this being an early process we have to go back and really look at the timeline across plans to say what is it that we're expecting to accomplish in year one what are we asking of teachers special ed teachers you know our teachers administrators to see if it's realistic and again we're so early with the actions that we haven't gotten to that piece so we can say you know what that's we'll be asking way too much of Jeanette teachers on this particular year. We need to shift some things around. So that's very, very draft and [00:41:31] very preliminary to your former question about staff workload. There are some deliverables and tactics in our staff capacity to really talk about staff workload. One being surveying staff about to figure out what their workload is. It's the I believe it's Minnesota MSD. Is that right? I'm looking at the team, Minnesota. I'm looking. I'm looking over there. I I think I have not, where there is a workload formula that would really look to see, based on workload, not just caseload, but in looking at the time it takes teachers to actually provide direct services, do case management, have IEPs. [00:42:06] Are we asking people to do, in 36 hours, what really takes 100 hours? And how do we look at that to determine what supports? Now, with that, we're going to go right back to that price tag conversation, [00:42:22] Because if they're because they're not staff aren't doing stuff just for extras. It's things that have to be done planning and differentiating for kids, providing direct services, working with families, collecting data. So there's nothing on the list that says we'll stop doing this and can't do it. Somebody is going to have to do it. And so as we engage in that assessment of what staff workload is, we will then have to say how do we address the workload. One of the other recommendations or deliverables here is providing that case management planning period. [00:42:51] There's lots of legwork that goes into preparing to effectively have an IEP meeting, collaborating at the secondary level with seven or eight teachers who serve a student that's on your caseload that you may not physically see as a case manager. And so I have to connect with Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Keith Gamara, et cetera, around the room. [00:43:08] Lots of time connecting with the student because now I've got to find little Frances and see what's important to her, what's going on with her. Connecting with her family, there's lots of legwork. And right now they're doing that whenever they can, in addition to teaching like everybody else. So those are the pieces that when we talk about how are we going to address workload, again, we have to go back to where are we prioritizing things. [00:43:30] I know we've done the extended contract and staff are extremely grateful for that. And that helps. It does help, but it doesn't solve the when is all of this getting done, even in what's considered a typical year. we recognize this is an atypical year but even within a typical year there's still more work than hours in a day um i think can we add this to go back dr anderson more conversation to answer okay okay all right okay all right miss omish followed by miss marron no happy to follow because very [00:44:08] similar headspace to my two colleagues um i think the question here is not you know we want to do all these like hundreds of things and we just don't know when and how like when and with what money i think the question is show us where less can be more and and we'll actually move the needle and this is where dr reid you know on in all honesty before we look at another version i want you to spend some time thinking about like are these things really going to be what push push us forward and where can we innovate so rather than thinking hey how can we get through this process and be responsive to recommendations by listing out things that are already happening or [00:44:46] that we might be able to do tweaking here and there and this and that let's get excited about ways that we can be transformative and innovative um and and to actually you know uh move the needle so for example when i look at something like the communication piece right like there's a lot of this central office stuff of okay like annual reviews and working with hr and developing training well maybe the key issue here is to just translate the ieps like maybe that's the number one you know most like clearest most pressing piece and i'm shooting in the dark but that's been my understanding up to this point uh or like on the inclusion piece right like i remember in the last [00:45:25] work session we were all eager to hear dr reed's innovative ideas around inclusion that were supposed to be a part of the next conversation i don't see where those are but i do think we're better served rather than you know having an online library and modules for kids and trainings for staff and surveys as as deliverables maybe that's just moving us towards actual inclusion in the schools and looking at school systems that have done that and just making it happen in fairfax like those are two obvious examples to me where it's not so much of like oh my gosh how are we going to come up with all the resources and all the people and and move this machine to get it [00:46:01] done and when it's more of let's be smart about how we like identify what will actually move the needle um because changing documents like guidance document or you know changing like updating policies or whatever it might be i saw a lot of that kind of language was like provide staff with resources ensure blank is implemented with fidelity provide training provide coaching um it we may find that a systemic change we make is far more effective than like hours of professional development that staff are already too overworked to absorb so I guess that's Dr. Reed I don't know I really think that we could be doing a lot more with actually less [00:46:42] in moving the needle if we if we just rethink how we do this and I mean and the emphasis on professional development I think to me is you know there's more opportunity perhaps to develop metrics or institute review points check-ins etc that might be better avenues of accountability than just universal professional welfare on every topic everywhere. [00:47:03] But with the few seconds I have left, I did want to ask, I know we left off the last work session saying that we wanted to have the consultants take a look at the preliminary ideas around our deliverables. Has that been done? And if so, what components did they review? And what have all these deliverables listed are actually new initiatives? [00:47:20] So thank you so much. The answer to your last question, the draft implementation plans were just completed the Friday before spring break and AIR has received the draft implementation plans on last week as did the steering committee and so they're in the process of reviewing the implementation plans as well and AIR representatives do participate on the special ed enhancement plan steering committee. And to your last question about what's new, we can certainly provide that [00:47:56] information for you. A lot of the processes are new that are in here. And again, I hear the team or I hear concerns or reluctance around PD and structures, and we invite and encourage your feedback on what you think might be more preferable. But I will share that a number of stakeholders did have discussion about this process and having additional resources to help our staff understand these processes was something that was highlighted as well as training and as well as [00:48:32] other resources, human capital, et cetera. And so we certainly welcome, you know, the board's feedback on things that you might be thinking of that you don't see, that you would like to see. We certainly welcome that specific feedback from you. If I can hear from Dr. Reed as well, I think a lot of my comments were directed at her. Thank you, Ms. Omish. I do, I will take a sit down and take a closer to look at the actual plan with Dr. Boyd. [00:49:00] I do think one of the keys is gonna be the implementation of universal design for learning. And when we think about that, that's instruction that works for our students with second languages, our students with IEPs, our students, just students in general. [00:49:20] So I think it's the more we can take what we're doing for professional development and make sure that it's integrated with best practices that serve all children, I think the better, right? So there are a variety of strategies I think we can think about. And I hear the concern that if we talk about professional development, that doesn't mean we're changing what we're doing, right? [00:49:41] And what you're talking about are what are the benchmark measurements for accountability that the professional development's a pillar for, but the professional development can't be the outcome, right? So what we're talking about is that the performance of the system needs to shift with new accountability targets and professional development's one of our strategies, but if we do that and nothing shifts, we haven't done anything. [00:50:06] - And folks, on the actual implementation plans, you'll see that the metrics are associated with the objective and they speak to just those things, the outcomes, not the what we're doing, 'cause those are just as they are deliverables, professional development, tools, et cetera, but what are we trying to shift if we are really doing this thing right? [00:50:27] We should see a higher percentage of students disabilities as an example in general education settings so we should see a pivot in our indicator five and six data we should see students performing higher again as an example on state assessments which is indicator three higher level diplomas indicator one all of those things are listed at that objective level um that associated metric i know we didn't talk about the metrics today but those are included in the draft plans and again we welcome your feedback and ideas um on that end as well nobody addressed the piece on inclusion i don't know if that if udl was the response to that dr reed or if there was anything else i remember there being talk of like a big [00:51:06] plan or change fair enough um i think we could certainly we do obviously need to address the inclusionary plan and inclusionary practices and do that over time that that isn't a switch that gets flipped but it is a dial that we turn over time over several years i think the question you're raising maybe is also we may actually know what to do and just aren't doing it yet because it's not required it's not clearly expected so i think that's a piece of this a little bit is making sure that because we've done professional development for many years on a variety of [00:51:42] topics right so at what point do we put a stake in the ground and say this is actually the model we're going to use um with staff and i see you nodding dr boyd but a um that may be a really clear outcome that the board expects at this point so that when we're looking at measurements of inclusive practices, it's actually how our students are benefiting that that data becomes something we look at annually. [00:52:08] Are we increasing the number of students meaningfully and authentically included in courses, activities, clubs, et cetera, et cetera, in educational process, right? So I don't have the actual or an actual plan written out for you, Ms. Omesh. [00:52:27] I think I have ideas from other parts of the country perhaps, but it's something, I think at some point we're just going to have to say we're doing it and move forward with that model. [00:52:43] Thank you. Ms. Marin followed by Ms. Keys-Gamara. Thank you. I could see that a lot went into this and I enjoyed reading a lot, you know, the particulars and some of the things were really good to see, inclusion specialists, the letters training for literacy, but as I sit here in the discussion, I feel like there's two solutions being talked about. One is the proposal that we've been presented with, and the other is what I hear the superintendent talking about universal design, and I can't quite rectify that, and I'm wondering, Dr. Reed, could you help me understand, we seem to have a very particular [00:53:20] plan in some ways. I agree with some of my colleagues saying that there aren't specific what to do, but you're really talking about a whole different vision for what's happening. So thank you, Ms. Mayor. And I think we were just on page 13, I think. And so when I look at page 13, really in a number of the recommendations are focused on special education staff, what they need to do, right, in a meeting, facilitating an IEP. And honestly, a lot of the work that AIR is talking about is actually focused when we think about inclusive inclusion is actually focused in general education [00:53:57] classrooms so it's not going to be sufficient to talk about it needs we need both to your point so it's not an either or it's an and we do need to adjust IEP protocols 504 protocols etc as per the 19 recommendations and we need to do work that supports our general education classrooms to be, I don't want to say, the ground needs to be tilled, right? So that as students come, we have skills to meet their needs. And so that's a universal design topic. And that's just language [00:54:34] that's often used when we think about what are the strategies instructionally that staff can use to support students in their classroom. Yeah, I just thinking about what I've heard from teachers and students and parents and myself as a parent of children with needs. What I'm not seeing is how all of this is brought together. Let's put aside the astronomical amount of staff that are being proposed. You know, we've got this plan, we've got your focus on retention and recruitment that is having gains, and then we have teachers telling me that they're leaving. They're just, they're leaving. So how do we even look at a plan like this knowing [00:55:11] those realities? And then you've got the content. You've got the portrait of a graduate, the which I will let you know it would be I think it staff would appreciate knowing why or reiterating why it was agreed to that the school division is going through this because they are really feeling it. [00:55:28] So you've got portrait of a graduate the OCCR compliance and high schools IP and 504 implementation and then you've got the curriculum. I mean what I'm hearing from staff is just it is layer upon layer upon layer and this is just one more piece. so again my point is I don't see a bringing things together and I'd rather use our time focused on building the thing that's gonna work. The last thing I will add is the solution that will mitigate the majority of these challenges is smaller class size and I'm just gonna keep you're gonna hear me talking about that a lot because all this stuff is a band-aid until we figure out how to get class size down from almost three dozen children in a [00:56:06] classroom right down to less than two dozen and we could have all these other strategies that we want but until we can have teachers have time to think and plan and do and relate to children and kids are not bullied quietly in the back of the room I don't you know I'm painting the worst picture there is and I'm sure there's better pictures but I've just had a lot of input these days and I'm very concerned and I think class size is really a solution we need to [00:56:34] focus on thank you anybody want to respond okay Ms. Keyes-Gumara, followed by Ms. McLaughlin. [00:56:52] Thank you. I do want to thank our staff for really responding. I know how this started. I know that there were significant concerns several years ago, and this board decided to take a more comprehensive approach to how to address those concerns. [00:57:15] And so, I'm grateful that there has been a response, and it since has sent, I think, a good message to the community. Are we perfect? No, we're still a work in progress. So I wanna say thank you for that. As I listen to my colleagues, I'm hearing one resounding question was the how of how things are happening. [00:57:38] And I think what we're really looking for, at least what I think I'm hearing and what's resonating in me, the type of shift that that is appropriate for the kind of thing we did three years ago to make sure we looked at these things right and when we start saying how I think that is different depending on what child we're talking about what circumstance and so are we looking for perhaps a menu of ways that you know it perhaps it is professional development perhaps it is some things that are being done in some parts of the county but not other are some schools [00:58:14] and not others and so are we talking about the kind of conversation where we're bringing those answers those successes as a resource for everyone and maybe that's a shift in our thinking I know I've always had some concern about the degree to which we have been siloed and how that hinders some of our students but in my outreach and having opportunity to talk to case managers and people who I think doing a really good job I often wondered what if they talked and what if they were able to bring those possible answers together for [00:58:53] everybody so that we had a menu of possible success stories and so perhaps fundamentally we're talking about improving how we communicate to our staff and how people who need our education are able to communicate with us perhaps we're you know when you have heart surgery they go in there and clean out some things perhaps we're really cleaning out some of those arteries to make sure that those effective methods are really available and we've created a way for they can for them to be translated [00:59:29] effectively to every student so i that's what i was kind of hearing i have some other things to mentioned I may need to go back but globally that's what was resonating as I was listening to my colleagues yeah thank you I communications at the road of a lot of concern right and how we communicate and we'll have what practices are lifted up and shared so fair point I'll put the rest of my stuff on a go back thanks McLaughlin followed by Miss Tolan I really appreciate all [01:00:06] the feedback that my colleagues have shared at this point and I do have concerns as cited by Miss Marin that we already are hearing from our special education teachers particularly from the VRA from the Office of Civil Rights that while we all believe in the goal of what that VRA is the implementation is untenable and we're still facing that deadline as I understand it through June and to my colleagues I have already shared with Dr. Reed I am exceptionally [01:00:41] concerned these surrounding jurisdictions do not have that VRA on their shoulders and I have continued to say that we need to take a national stand with the largest school divisions in the country who are under the same VRA to be able to communicate superintendents at that national level go talk back to the Virginia Department or not the Virginia U.S. Department of Ed and tell them privately, you know what? We're all in agreement here, but your proposal, untenable, and it is crushing our special education teachers. And we can either do this quietly and cooperatively and [01:01:19] collaboratively, or we need to signal to the Biden administration, you cannot call yourself the champions of public education when you're actually causing us to lose the very vital special education teachers we need. So I'm just going to, yes, use this work session to once again say, Dr. Reed, this is really important and I so appreciate that your team is working hard on this and it is massive and it's on top of all the other massive things we're trying to do, like the [01:01:52] literacy education. So I do believe in your leadership and I believe in your administration's to get this right. I am so thankful to hear that AIR consultants are working on the steering committee. I am very thankful that you, once again, along with Dr. Boyd, know how important our stakeholder engagement is. And I believe that you have a record of having people focus on, you know, how do we collectively do this as a community, because it doesn't fall on just the shoulders of the classroom teachers by a long shot. We know that we have heard for too long [01:02:30] long our families talk about how hard it is to advocate for their children and school by school over 200 some have exceptional experiences and others they're coming out to board members saying I don't know what else to do so this plan is important and I want to make sure all of our special education families hear and understand the commitment of this board to partner with you and make sure we have the right implementation but i again i can't emphasize enough what is staring us right here short term is between now and june how do we not lose any more sped teachers [01:03:09] and um i think that's a component of this here today any other feedback all right ms tolan followed by ms corn miss ms karen corbett sanders i'm also very happy to follow my colleagues um thank you miss mclaughlin for stating you know we've got this whole ocr thing on top of us and it's huge and people are overwhelmed and i was but i do want to thank all of you for coming here [01:03:44] today with the volume of documents and the work that you have done um despite that there's lots of information here and despite what's hanging over our heads trying to be strategic and move forward and I appreciate that. Interestingly I was in a strategic planning the virtual session yesterday for strategic planning and as I was reading all of these documents too and the same thing kept hitting me from the comments at the strategic plan and what I was reading across these documents [01:04:19] consistency and transitions and and so I just wanted to sort of uplift that but But those are also things that all of our students will benefit from, so Dr. Reed, I really appreciated your comments already today about how a lot of the things that we have across these documents are things that, as I was reading the detailed documents, I kept thinking, oh, every kid should have that, every kid should have that, not to minimize the needs of our special education students, but I think if we really do a good job of communicating across our departments, and Karen, okay, [01:04:57] quote of the day what if we talked um you know if I was really hoping that as we move forward built into this plan will be serious communication across all subject areas all departments you know a couple of examples that just jumped out at me you know one of your you know under goal 3 high leverage practices to monitor the fidelity with the science of reading I mean that is something that that all departments should be working on, you know, not just you. [01:05:32] You know, translations of the IEPs, that is key, but we are working on translations for so many different groups of our families. Let's just make sure that that's all coordinated and that we're doing in the most efficient manner possible. Because also, of course, sitting, you know, with the concern to have your own budget, I did do my own little tally, too, of all the numbers across the documents. [01:05:53] And so as we move forward and think over the years, strategies and prioritization of you know the work that we're doing will be so important but those collaborations can also reduce that price tag significantly if we can be smart about it so I just want to throw that out there there are lots of cost neutral items in there too that really require collaboration across you know our various departments so I appreciate that thanks again it's a ton of work I do want to point out when people are looking for the how I mean there is a detailed document on the enhancement plan inclusive practices [01:06:33] sped processes staff capacity tons of detail in there in with the numbers associated it's a great information thank you so much thank you and if we could add I think I may have been remiss in sharing that on the implementation teams and also on the steering committee there are staff from multiple offices and departments just for the very reason that was just spoken about ISD equity schools improvements and supports I won't list them because inevitably I leave somebody off HR so lots of persons with various content [01:07:08] expertise our parent liaisons things like that representative and in development of this process so I'm sorry if I didn't share that earlier I could maybe just ask our meeting managers as well maybe we could just spend just a minute or two and pull up one of the implementation plans that Ms. Tolan referenced because we didn't have an opportunity to share those. And I think it might be helpful just for everybody to see kind of the format because all of the feedback here is really helpful and it's good to get it at this stage of the process. So I don't submit that these implementation plans are anywhere near, you know, a finished product by any means, but [01:07:45] it at least gives you a sense of kind of how we're thinking about organizing the information. So maybe if we just looked at one of them just real quickly, it might be helpful because what's that no no I understand no yeah yeah no I understand I just thought it might be helpful if dr. Burgess shared and I think it might be helpful if we just took a moment bless you to look at the instruction one I know it was a lot of information and I know some people may have had more time than others to dig into it and to look at the and to look at the information and again we really welcome and encourage your feedback again on specific deliverables [01:08:23] actions things like that so that when we go back to the steering committee into the implementation teams we can really have some meaningful and robust discussion mm-hmm if we can pull up the instruction and inclusive practices one that would be helpful if that's okay with the meeting managers been able to participate yet given that this is material already shared with the board um my preference would be to continue on with what we're doing and if if colleagues after [01:09:00] reviewing these in more detail have questions they can bring it up in their go backs or communicate with staff over email or phone i wish we had more time but we just were strapped all right miss corbett sanders um and following that miss pekarski so if i can just briefly um reference since you did want to bring up the implementation plans, I think the question is that the implementation plans use a lot of buzzwords of increase, establish, shift, but there's not a baseline [01:09:37] from which they're going. So increase from A to B, what are those two numbers? Shift from X to Y, what is the shift actually being? And so I think that's what you're hearing from my colleagues um and uh i don't disagree with them i actually want to kind of pull back a little more um because when we first suggested this study to be done the reason we did it was because we know we spend significantly more dollars than other districts on special ed services but are we being as effective as we can be? [01:10:17] And so the AIR study did come out with a real focus on we aren't doing what we should be on inclusion and that we need to be much more intentional. And that's where, Dr. Reed, your referencing to universal design is critical because for us to actually do the inclusion that we need to do, we have to have those universal design criteria in place it will also with that if we free up money because we are doing more inclusion then what we're also going to be able to do is address [01:10:56] the concerns that Ms. Marin has about class size so I mean it becomes a strategic rethink is what I think people are looking for in moving forward with this and we know that our teachers are exhausted because of the VRA because of digging out of COVID in general because of the fact that we have a shortage of special education teachers so that realignment of our approach with the universal design is going to be critical because one of the things we should be looking at is that [01:11:32] every teacher coming into the system has to be trained in those pedagogies those skills that are so essential to meeting the needs of our students in base classrooms it also leads us to another area which is we had asked for and had been told that there was going to be a relook at our alternative schools but then it turns out that we actually only looked at some of our alternative schools in re-looking at them and not all because some fell under one stovepipe and others fell [01:12:06] under another stovepipe within fcps and so i think what would be really helpful to understand is how we bring this all back together knit it all together into a cohesive approach to not only meeting the needs of every one of our special ed students but meeting the needs of increasingly burdened teachers meeting the needs of our recruitment and retention meeting the needs so it's more of a strategic integration and i think mo you've got the pieces here it's it's looking [01:12:41] at how do we bring it all together and perhaps dr reed you can address that sure um i i'm gonna have to think about the alternative programs review because i haven't seen that yet i know we had to move that meeting we had one of our staff members wasn't able to make it so i know we've rescheduled that but i want to definitely check back on that i know you had an occasion to speak i think with um staff as well maybe and that's where that information came from i i do think that fundamentally i mean if we just get really clear about what we're talking about [01:13:18] today um it's the difference between layering more stuff on top of stuff versus just kind of cleaning everything out and saying what should this model look like right and at the end of the day that's the debate even in my own head what is the theory of action to really think about the difference between kind of spring cleaning the way I might have wanted to do it at 16 versus spring cleaning now right where I might have swept things up and just put them in closets or lifted up the rug and then now I know that you actually take the rug out and shake it right like you actually [01:13:57] clean it out so i think really that's the conversation we're going to need to have is how much because at some point it's counterproductive to keep layering things on top we're just going to have to say this isn't working and what do we do differently and that's it's just a completely different kind of conversation but i think we're approaching that more rapidly than i might have thought um yeah it is a shift and the change management skills required for making that kind of a shift are really different than layering professional development modules on top of [01:14:35] modules on top of right like that it is crushing yeah so i'm glad you raised the point yeah thank you miss corbett sanders did you need to go back miss corbett sanders or no i probably will but i I want to hear the conversation. Thank you. Okay. We'll plan to just circle back through. [01:14:55] Ms. Bukarski followed by Ms. Darnett-Koufax. Did you want to weigh in or are you going to hold your thoughts? Okay. Thank you. I think exactly what you said, Dr. Reed, is kind of as I, you know, dove into this material and there was so much and it was really overwhelming, I will be honest, to kind of look at it and then kind of take a step back thinking about if I were a teacher who is like well I'm already like I think I'm doing this or I I'm trying to do this and you know so why will that what else can I possibly do for all of you and then as a parent who reads it and I'm like [01:15:33] okay well a lot of this seems like the same thing I know not all but a lot of the same things we talk about we need to be doing um so that way of thinking about it I think is important um but I will to be fair to I want to be fair like you you brought this here I want to know what the rest of the committee has to say I want to know what the air professionals have to say who put the recommendations together and it's difficult for me to give feedback that will be helpful to you and to my [01:16:11] colleagues without having that full opportunity for everyone to have had a say and to think through some of these questions that are kind of being brought up because then I feel like I'm giving you feedback in a silo so I'm I very much want to know what do teachers think about this report right I asked a special ed administrator last night that I just happened to see at our town hall did you read this give me your feedback I'm going into this tomorrow I want to [01:16:43] know. And, you know, from somebody, this is a CSS site, was like, well, I read it all. I really just, I need a crisis prevention person to help me. Like, so that was, so the point being, I think we need to find a way, how are we going to have a plan that is going, is going to impact kids and how the the thinking will shift from one where you aren't sitting in that iep [01:17:18] meeting like i have and your child wants to take spanish but you're told well we don't have self-contained classrooms and you cannot do that and i think that and and i had solutions to that so the solutions exist but i think it's a way of thinking and expectations um so i'm anyway i feel like i'm rambling but um I'm very much looking forward to seeing where the committee will take this when they've had the opportunity to talk about it as a whole. [01:17:49] And I'm also worried about our teachers, very. Ms. Daronak-Koufax, followed by Mr. Frisch. And thank you, and thank you, staff, for what you've done. And so where we find ourselves today, there are so many of my colleagues, and if you're trying to bunch everything together, like how can we do this? [01:18:17] And we start, and Megan, you made me think about this when you talked about where we are and where we've been delegated and relegated and the catastrophic effect that has had on some of our teachers who are leaving mid-year who are not. When we as a system are all committed to making certain that every one of our children get what they need. [01:18:40] But you made me think about federally, what's happening. IDEA, where are we? We are at, it was supposed to be fully funded, and where are we? [01:18:56] We are at 37, where now? I think it's a little bit more than that. Rajan is saying 17. I think it's more. It's supposed to be 44. Right, that's where we are. Either way, we are grossly underfunded there, and so Fairfax County has been doing its very best as far as dedicating financial resources by making things, by working to maintain smaller class sizes and things like that, but we're still not where we need to be. [01:19:31] And obviously, I do agree with what Stella says. I think we need to continue to hear as the committee goes on and from the consultants and what we can do. But I guess right now I'm a little, I feel like I need, if you want better input than that from me, what are you asking us to do at this point, Dr. Reed? [01:19:57] Where are we and what do you want? When will this be brought back to us? Dr. Presidio indicated that much of what we've shared has been helpful, but obviously there are some things that people are currently frustrated with as well as the septic community and parents in general and teachers. [01:20:21] So I think at the beginning of the presentation, Dr. Boyd put out a proposal to adjust the timeline specifically, and we are asking for a six-week extension because we met with the executive board of ACSD and really looked at what would a robust process for an iterative feedback loop look like. [01:20:48] And to meet that process and to get feedback back to the steering committee that Dr. Boyd is working with, it would require us to take a little more time than we initially planned to get the final document. So I think that's a specific ask. [01:21:04] And if not six weeks, what amount of weeks could that look like? Because we also recognize it's important to prepare over the summer for changes to occur this fall. So, maybe it's some of the pieces we would have done sooner than others, you know, that are more clear-cut. [01:21:24] So, that's feedback on that specifically, Ms. Derenak-Kovacs, and then I think we've gotten some clear feedback on the how and some of the making more explicit kind of where we are and specifically where we want to go and accountability measures. [01:21:41] And Dr. Boyd, do you want to add to that, please? Yes, thank you. and thank you for the discussion so far today. It would be helpful for us. We do have all of the implementation co-chairs present today, so they're sitting behind you, and a number of folks are listening. It would be helpful for us, and again, we know that you received the materials right at spring break, and hopefully you were able to spend time with family and friends. [01:22:05] If there's specific feedback that you have on the implementation plans, that really would be helpful. If there's something that you see that you say, hey, I think this is missing. we haven't really addressed this, or I see that you're stating this particular deliverable, but I'm confused what's a clarifying question, that's helpful because I hear that there's more of a desire to know more about the how. And so we're trying to balance how we develop a plan that is going to be a multi-year plan, kind of if you're thinking about instruction, more of like [01:22:41] a high level unit plan versus a daily lesson plan, which would be, it would take us far more than six weeks to develop something that is very, very low level. And so to the degree that we can get feedback, very specific feedback from you, because what we don't want to have happen is for us to come back together and we think we heard what you said, but that wasn't what you really meant. Again, I know it's time, but we really would be appreciative of all of your feedback and we can certainly support a [01:23:11] response mechanism. If you wanted to have a universal system, we're happy to develop that for you, but that would be an ask that would be extremely helpful. Well, thank you for that. I think maybe a universal system where we all could see what each others are. And if you look at the six week period, that brings us right to when it's graduation season. So there may be a little bit more time there for work. So six weeks beyond the initial date, initially we were scheduled to be wrapped up [01:23:43] around May. So this will be mid-July. Mid-July. Okay. All right. So right before our break. All right. So thank you. But I think what you suggested would be a good thing because then colleagues could see what others are thinking and enhance upon that because I think that's where we do our best work where we listen and collaborate with each other. Thank you. All right. Just to start. I think the effort around inclusivity in our schools starts [01:24:18] with how we embark on the work to get there right and so if our steering committee um is being included in this um what does that look like and how do we take that to the work we do with them right do they feel prepared do they feel empowered to be thoughtful in the meetings by getting materials well in advance so that they can review them do they feel like they are being presented with what is wanted rather than what they would like what we want them to consider um you know as a as a school board member we only get so much information right we are typically presented with [01:24:55] what is desired rather than what has been considered and so I think to be truly inclusive of steering committee is to present them with not only ideas that the school division would like to advance but how they came to that consideration in the first place what things were thought of and discarded etc and to give them that information well enough in advance that they can use it to be thoughtful. I think a lot of this comes down to change management and systems can only take on so much change at a time. I think we've seen that with our literacy instruction rollout which is going [01:25:34] very well all things considered and it makes me think about our professional development as a whole not just on this front and I think the kind of groan you get in the community or from some colleagues around professional development is we all know people who click the boxes just to get through it right and so are we talking when we consider these changes are we talking about professional development modules which anybody can complete in a short amount of time are we talking about something transformative like we're doing with our literacy instruction so to [01:26:11] answer your question we're talking about really in-person professional development where we can have two-way discourse so that I can really see you you know what? Laura Jane gets it. She understands, blah, blah. Carl, we're going to have to follow up. This is where he has this disconnect. I had to use you as my example because it was your question. Little Sloan's right there. Little Sloan, he's right there. I use him all year. It's not fun anymore. But that type of piece, and that's where we know that that meaningful PD, that that takes time because in order for that to happen, that's time away from the classroom. So we realize that we are asking for in many instances a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain because if I know [01:26:50] how to teach reading to your point I may miss a couple of days of in-class instruction but wow can I do a great job with decoding the comprehension and all of those things now that I have some additional learning as a teacher as that instructor or facilitation of learning. I think what this points back to Dr. Reed is as we look at our human resources work and any changes that might be going on there how are we actually making our professional development impactful instead of the layered effect that we've heard articulated today. [01:27:19] Because having more impactful PD on this, while great, is in addition to all of the other things that are already happening. So again, workload. On the money front, you know, Ms. Darinette Koufax brought up IDEA funding and that's a perfect corollary for what we're talking about here. [01:27:38] We need more money to do what is expected of us, generally speaking, and we make do with what we've got. The same thing has to be said for this extra $60 million and 300 staff people. What does accomplishing the objectives laid out in the air report look like if we don't have $70 million, if we don't have an extra 300 people? [01:27:57] So I think that needs to be taken into consideration. I don't think we can rely on a plan that's we need, you know, millions and more people to make this happen. And then, finally, I have a general worry about measurability. I understand tactics versus strategy versus implementation, but even the tactics articulated, many of them are difficult to measure, and it always reminds me of the survey question we ask, where do you feel safe? [01:28:23] And then we tell people, everybody feels safe. What are we measuring? So I'm hopeful that as this moves forward, the items that we are measuring to determine whether this has been successful relies on things that can actually be measured and not just things that are motivated by a feeling of individuals. [01:28:41] Any response? I'll share that a number of the metrics again to your point, Mr. Frisch are very objective metrics. In fact, many of them are state metrics that are that our school division is assessed on and the special education performance report as we're talking about everything that begins with indicator is an objective hard number measurable that there's no warm and fuzzies with that about perceptions it's hard data certainly in some of the areas we do have to have perception perception data again that workload [01:29:17] piece the only way we'll really know is if we're addressing staffs feeling that I'm overworked is to ask them about that particular piece and so we know that we can look at a number of different indicators for that but we'll we definitely hear you um particularly about your your feedback about the pd and really how much is manageable this is just but one section of everything that's happening in the school division so we honor that respect that um so that's all i have to share there if we want to move the state measure the state stuff though our tactics have to be something that's measurable as well otherwise we're just saying look at what great work we did and we actually have no evidence of [01:29:56] of showing that our tactics were the efficacious, whether they were efficacious in the first place. Thank you. Yeah, just to follow that, I think, though, I mean, I don't know if my colleagues, I think you all will agree. I mean, what we're hearing, though, from some of our teachers is, like, they don't even have the bandwidth to do a survey about workload. Like, it's almost the conversations that we have, like, in the classroom and as parents, where we talk about trying to have kids have rational reactions when they're in a different part of their brain that can't like I [01:30:31] really 100% believe our staff is in that part of their brain they're just trying desperately to get through this year and to not get injured to have kids who are safe and happy in their class to not I mean they're in a like a crisis point and we see them resigning as a result of that and my worry is that like we have to these conversations have to happen in a way that we're saying hey there's a life raft on the horizon and this is it and we're trying to give you this but present it in a way that isn't oh we're going to present you with this life raft that doesn't have a hole cut out of it and [01:31:08] we're setting it on top of you in the water you know like that can't our staff can't see that we actually are figuring out a way out of this and so I think this plan is is very comprehensive and I know people busted their tushes to make it happen but I don't know again we're missing the piece of relatability and and how is this going to answer how does this make it better for Melanie's kid how does this make it better for Melanie's kid's teacher how do you know and so I do think you know to when we talked about like systemic change like the foundation work when we keep [01:31:47] saying ensure ensure and fidelity it speaks to practices that exist that just aren't there and so i think that's the frustration when i see parent reactions staff reaction to reading all of this is exactly what stella's friend said i just need a crisis resource person at my right like because my house is on fire so I just need a fire a hose and now then we can have a plan about how we rebuild it with the perfect insulation and appliances that don't catch you know I think that's what people are feeling on the ground and that's some of the passionate response that I [01:32:25] think you see from Rachna and several of us is this just isn't meshing with the reality of what is actually happening and i don't know i you know one thing for me as a board member like i would like to see um i'm looking forward to acsd's response to this to the steering committee's response to this to airs response like i don't know if we need to have a conversation as a board that we want air to come back and take a look at this and i recognize that that may be extending a contract but as a board like we said we paid all this money for this report and [01:33:03] so is this answering what we asked as a board and what air responded to so I'll put that out to my colleagues and I would definitely like a go back mr. fresh when it's time we're going I thought you were well-spoken we're gonna go back to the top and start with go backs besides more hyzer followed by Dr. Anderson. Well, I think I will respond to Ms. Cohen just briefly. And I think what you're saying [01:33:41] is that our teachers of students with special needs specifically are overwhelmed. And then the VRA on top of that has been crushing on top of that. And the solution to the AIR report can't be asking more of them, right? Because we're going to, we're essentially making worse a situation that's already not good so i think point taken and we really need to think about how does the model or the system our staff are in look different so it doesn't feel so crushing um so i i think [01:34:20] that's the thinking we need to move forward with so thank you for framing that if everybody could lower their placards unless they don't need to go back so only keep your placard up if you don't need to go back i know it sounds counterintuitive but it's easier for me to skip people without asking them and telling them, saying, I'm going through everybody. If you do not want to speak, leave your placard up, and that way I know not to call on you. So Dr. Anderson and Ms. Toland don't [01:34:50] want to go back. The opposite of normal. Thank you. I've got a list in front of me. If your placard is up, I'm not going to call on you. Okay. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, followed by Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Dr. Reed, I think where you hear my frustration is I've been doing advocacy in this field for 15 years, the parent advocate. And I've heard these recommendations over and over again. I'm thrilled to see the checklist we talked about 10 years ago in this plan, the transition checklist. So for 15 years, I'm hearing we're going to ensure we're going to do this. We're going to ensure we're going to do that, right? And, you know, if we do [01:35:29] the same thing for 20 years, how are we expecting a different outcome? And I think that's really where you hear my frustration. So, and where my other frustration is, it was very clear in the AIR report that they talked about programming. And there really is nothing in here about programming. And I don't just mean, yes, if so-and-so needs AP US history, they can get AP US history. [01:35:48] I mean, are we looking at CAT A, CAT B, enhance-on? Are those still best practices? Are we looking at what are the options for those IEP teams to discuss, right? I mean, there's something about academy resource teachers, but are we even talking about whether there's room in kids' schedules because of strategies and intervention blocks to be able to go to an academy? [01:36:08] Like, if we don't look at these basics of what are we providing, then none of these conversations are going to be any different. So, you know, that's my big picture is we have to look at programming. And I think part of looking at programming will help with this other conversation, which I fully agree with with our teachers, because we're not asking them to do more on top of what they're doing. [01:36:27] We're really looking at what are they doing and how do we ensure that what they're doing is best for what our kids need and what's outlined in this report. So I just want to put that there. If we want to talk about going through, I have lots of notes on all of these, I'm happy to go through, but the inclusion one, I will say you really cannot look at inclusion without looking at the atmosphere in which the child is included. [01:36:53] It doesn't make any difference. And I really, in my 10 seconds, I will say we cannot have tactic 1.4 be the FCPS inclusion practices plan. That cannot be the tactic, which is all that it is right now. i wasn't sure if i could speak um okay i'm going to try to do the homework that i think we've been assigned here which is to give you what our prioritization and what we would like to have happen clearly we don't have a lot of time to do this so i would definitely employ you for a two [01:37:31] by two with school board members just so we can engage a little bit more deeply um but i'm going to just throw out some things here at any rate when we do another iteration of this presentation i like it to be specific time about again just write all of these like a smart goal i would also like to see very clearly i don't know where this lives how are we going to one evaluate the day of a special education teacher and make some determinations in terms of what's going to come off for us to introduce these new things because you just can't continue to pile it [01:38:06] on so whether that is an internal audit with special education teachers who have no time to to even engage in a survey, but maybe may have five minutes to engage in a conversation just so we can get a sense of what can come off. I would also be very interested in what can we automate? [01:38:23] What can we do here that they don't have to do at the school? I know the data collection right now with the compensatory time was one that I've been advocating for us to automate and to do for them. And I don't know what this is here, but I would like for some feedback on that. [01:38:40] I'm not sure if I'm interested as much the air folks participating because they don't know the system they've written their report and i i don't know how helpful that will be for them to sit here for them for us to ask them very specific questions but i think that's a conversation you can have with them and i think they're available for that um what i would also like to hear dr um reed as you talked about we're not going to grow 300 people we're not so what's the plan how are we going to again repurpose those individuals how are we going to look at what they're currently doing and and maybe shift their [01:39:17] work into some other um avenue to really address some of these concerns here trying to make sure yeah i think i'm going to stop here and just leave the rest for my two by two thank you uh ms omesh followed by ms marin yeah happy to follow those comments um i guess in terms of of just being specific about things that I hope you see reflected. [01:39:48] Like what was shared, metrics, people, timeline, smart goals, and how we articulate these variables and having some specificity. I think when it comes to the AIR staff, I disagree a little bit and I think that maybe they can identify what actually moves the needle on some of these pieces or comments in that area. [01:40:07] So maybe being responsive to feedback in that regard would be helpful. I think even looking at OCR and seeing what broke to be able to identify what is most pressing and where our failures lie is an important thing in this process. [01:40:26] And then Dr. Reid, I cannot understate how important it is to me that I want to be able to have an understanding that what we're being presented with is 100%, 110% what you're signing onto and what you believe is what moves our division forward, is additive, is going to push the needle, and is not-- yeah, so I think part of that is an inclusion plan. [01:40:49] It seems like that has to be a separate component. I don't know, but Dr. Boyd, you asked for specifics. So that's something I think needs to be fleshed out or addressed somehow. We need to understand where that fits, if at all. In the communication piece, I noticed the machine translation is largely plan for how we're going to address that I caution and I think that we're going to have to if that is the direction that the division decides to go that we need to also then be thoughtful about who is responsible but and what happens when there are errors or miscommunications or mistranslations [01:41:25] in that machine learning and who ends up carrying the brunt of that because that should be on the system not on the family if that was our mistake but those are just some some pieces I think generally that I think are specifics for the next next phase but i don't want that to mean oh we heard all this feedback big picture and we're going to move forward anyway i think the big picture feedback that was shared by me and colleagues earlier is critical and may shift the direction of how we move forward with this plan so so i hope that we're responsive to that before we decide to just move move along and you know [01:42:00] kind of put our blinders on and keep going thank you miss omesh miss marron followed by miss keys [01:42:13] I just continue to think about how to how all this can be integrated. I mean, Dr. Reed, we're almost coming up on your one year here. You know, so that's an opportunity when we think of evaluation and the governance model and how we evaluate the superintendent and the work. You know, having a two by two for me is not about me trying to figure out how to operationalize this plan. It's about I would personally rather spend the time trying to figure out how we're going to evaluate the superintendent in creating this plan and integrate it and, you know, get to that universal design where we're not just putting kids in their silos you know I keep kind of wavering between of course we have to keep with their traditional you know [01:42:52] legal definitions kids with special needs to suit disabilities but there's also students with different abilities and it's there's a gray area and I'd love to get away from this like it's got to be black or white you're this or you're that you get this or you get that when it's much more fluid and I'm thrilled that this even includes 504s because if I choose the 504s such as students with ADHD which is a lot of students is often just completely you know excluded when we talk about special education so I'm glad that's not the case here so I just think you know there's a lot a lot of stuff's been raised today and I think it comes down to some real serious integration of the work and I don't think it's my role necessarily to tell you how to do that I [01:43:32] think you've heard a lot and but I want to help measure how you've answered that that call thank you miss keys Gamara followed by miss McLaughlin so I do look forward to the two by two because I think it's an opportunity to get some explanation not so much be the me be the expert so it just in that process I'd like to lift up two topics to make sure we're able to address those one is transitional services which I think needs to include any transition to a different source right whether it's elementary to middle or secondary [01:44:12] secondary or middle to high school and then high school and beyond. Definitely need enhancement there and discussion even of what parents should expect. The other thing is I know that at times there have been recommendations from the IEP team with respect to placement of a child and a parent may disagree. I'd like to look up delve a little bit more into how we're first of all justifying to a a parent what the what our reasons are and giving them a clear opportunity to respond and make sure that those comments are taken into account. [01:44:48] So just those two things is what I'd like to make sure we can discuss later. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin followed by Ms. Corbett Sanders. Dr. Reed, I think what I want to elevate a little bit is that if I understand roughly 14% of our students have the designation for special education. [01:45:11] so for is it 16 okay but the point being we're looking at about you know 80 86 to 84 percent of our families don't have a lot of knowledge about it and so we've got on the one hand a very engaged special education stakeholder community which I am deeply grateful for including Ms. Sizner-Heiser who I met as a constituent on this issue but in general people don't understand the whole thing about IDEA, that the federal government we talked about earlier has not been providing the funding. [01:45:50] So it's really ironic that they're coming down on us in OCR and VRA. You need to be doing X, Y, and Z. And they're not even doing their job in funding it. So we're not the school system in a bubble. We are one of thousands of school divisions, but we're certainly among the top 10. [01:46:09] I would say as part of this work, I would really like to understand, again, and I don't know if our consultants did it, but if they didn't, I'd like to know if the contract and scope of work was that they should have done this, which is let's stop trying to solve things in a bubble. [01:46:24] I think other people said this earlier. Find the best practices of school divisions that are doing it great. If it turns out that we're actually one of the better ones in the grand scheme of not so great, then let's have that conversation. but I think we need to lay out for our entire public. [01:46:40] This is what Fairfax County does currently. This is what, when we studied this and looked at divisions across the nation, this is where we're really one of the best, or this is where we're going to strive to get better at. But what I'm most concerned about is people can't have an assessment of what the problem is if they don't even know where we fall in the measure. [01:47:04] So I would just say, your team, really want to set us all up for success i know my time is up so i'm finishing my long sentence here is really we have to set the table first what we are compared to everybody in the nation at the best practice level and then how we will lead going forward and being better but right now i don't even know the answer to that and i've been here over a decade thank you um miss corbett Sanders followed by Ms. Darenak-Koufax. I want to first start with it is a economic imperative [01:47:43] that we get this right. We have a declining number of people who are in our workforce. We need to ensure that every child who comes to us with both exceptional capabilities and exceptional needs, that their needs are met. And so when we talk about the needs in this study, and how we implement it. We need to really reimagine how we even talk about the needs [01:48:17] of our students because as we talk about the needs of our students, we're actually talking about the needs of our community and our society. And that's why AIR was so focused on the needs for inclusivity. And I feel that if we do nothing else but focus more on how we address that inclusion piece in our schools and in how we support our students as they transition between [01:48:49] levels including out into either post-secondary education workforce development or into jobs that allows us to focus or center our work in the way that is necessary for our community and it addresses some of your questions as well Miss McLaughlin and so as part of this work we also have to have how does this work fit into the overall strategic plan of the system and so that's [01:49:25] kind of what I'd like to tease out a little bit more I would like you all to tease it out and come back to us with the answers for it and just recognize that this is stuff that has been going on for many, I first met Rachna when we partnered together, ACSD and the APAC, recognizing that our students needed access and inclusion in those programs. One last thing, because my time is out, I would urge that we get in touch with recent graduates and have them provide their feedback [01:50:01] on their experiences, because that will help us, guide us in this work too. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Dernot-Koufax, followed by Ms. Cohen. So I think we already know the answer to what one of my colleagues mentioned. [01:50:18] I think we know we are a premier school system for addressing the needs of special education students, albeit not perfect. I mean, when you look at the school that sits in my district, Key Center, that is one of the premier people come from all over the country to try to come here, particularly military families who have children with special education needs, some of those that are addressed by that school system. [01:50:46] So, by that particular school within our system. And I think as we go forward, I appreciate the answers to my questions earlier about what's needed from us, how we can collectively come together. And, but I do think the one thing that one of my colleagues has talked about, well as myself several of my colleagues i don't think we can just brush this part under the rug dr reed and it is the need to partner with our federal legislators who hold the funding strengths [01:51:23] i will tell you several of us on this board and previous boards i have been the federal legislative liaison several times directly speaking to our senators directly speaking to our congressmen And while supportive in so many ways, that gauge of funding dollars has not gone up. [01:51:44] And that does cause problems for us because we can't have it both ways. You can't be slamming the hammer but then saying this is what's required and we're going to help you. But then the help is not there or the help is minuscule in amounts to what it should be. [01:52:05] So that has to be added to our plan. It just has to be simply. So I look forward to continuing partnering and working. And again, we can tell that there's been a lot of work put in here, even though we're not where we all want to be yet. [01:52:25] But thank you considerably for the work you've done today. Thank you, Ms. Darenak-Koufax. Ms. Cohen. Yeah, I think a big piece of this, I've been kind of thinking over what you said, Dr. Reed. You know, one way that this becomes more manageable is that, you know, more hands make for less work. [01:52:46] So if our general ed teachers are better trained and more well-taught about how to include kids who typically might be put in self-contained classes, but also just make sure that kids can stay in their classes and not be farmed out always to different places, I think we're going to have a very different workload on the people who are doing this work. [01:53:14] And so, you know, I hope that we're sowing those seeds because it can't all be on the backs of our special ed teachers. It just it can't. And I I think, you know, what we said about 300 new staff members are not going to materialize. [01:53:31] I think that's true. And also, how do we find people who may be doing other things and be purposed in other ways to help them meet these needs? if they feel like this work is what's going to change things. [01:53:48] You know, I will say I think some things that I have personally experienced, you know, lead me to some frustrations with this. You know, we say least restrictive environment, but then we fight back on one-to-one AIDS. So I can't, like, we have lots of kids who want to be included in general ed and whose families have petitioned time after time to get one-on-one AIDS, and we're told we don't do that in FCPS. [01:54:12] So then you can only go back. And some parents are successful and some parents aren't. You know, least restrictive environment, as you heard when we were at Key Center early in the year, least restrictive environment also has to be in which kids can be successful. And so families have to be a piece of that because sometimes least restrictive may look like this on paper and from some formula that we make up, but it's not where kids are successful. [01:54:37] And they need to be at a Key or a Kilmer. So I just want us to be careful that we, when we turn things into formulas and checkable boxes, that we're forgetting, like, the human piece of all of this. Why are you smiling at me like that? [01:54:59] Dr. Reed? No, that's my, I just think that was just well stated. So I was smiling because I can almost sort of see it happening, right? But I do think fundamentally many hands do make light work, and we have a number of students in our classrooms that would benefit from universal design for learning just in general, so, and it would support inclusion in different ways, and it's not expensive. [01:55:31] it's just a mind shift. And it's also kind of, in many cases where we've done professional development around universal design for learning, I often hear staff when I'm in the room say, I remember this, or I used to do that, or I remember when. It's not necessarily new, like things that we won't recognize, but it's like just a subtle shift or a reminder of just good practice. So anyhow, I will refrain from smiling. [01:55:58] We have a little bit of time left, so if anybody has a third go back, we'll do one minute. I've got Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, followed by Ms. McLaughlin. One minute. [01:56:13] Lightning round. Just to pick up on what you said, what Laura Jean said is why social inclusion is so important. Because one of the comments I had in this document is there's focus on inclusion, but then the metrics are math and literacy. And there's so much more to inclusion than math and literacy. [01:56:30] I think we need to be really careful in not conflating academic outcomes with inclusive outcomes. And I think that's something I've seen everywhere in this document, right? And again, it's that checking boxes. But for kids who do learn best in self-contained settings, how do we then ensure that they're somewhat socially included as part of the fabric of the school community? [01:56:52] So that's one comment that I had. I will say I appreciate the sort of focus on transition and additional access to transition opportunities. However, it just talks about workplace learning opportunities. How do we find actual programs to teach workplace skills within the continuum of what students access? [01:57:11] So I think that's one comment I had on transitions. I'm trying to go through the specific pieces. The transition resource guide and the checklist is probably the best kept secret in FCPS. So how do we make it not the best kept secret and actually just give it to parents consistently and families and caregivers and teachers, you know, starting in probably fifth or sixth grade? [01:57:30] really big secret and I don't know why and I'll tell you that miss Pekarski text me said did you know about this thing and I'm like no I did not when your own child is going through transition so that's one piece that I have and then anyway I'll stop so my time is up if you want to do two by two perhaps I can go through my comments if that's helpful great miss McLaughlin yeah I wanted to go back one more time because going back to what the public understands I want to make sure that even for me I want to have a deeper knowledge of universal design. I just know that what I'm hearing from our teachers right now is [01:58:09] there is a very strong commitment and belief in inclusion but special education runs the gamut so people understanding what that looks like and the larger the class sizes we have and depending on the students needs of support our teachers are going to say I'm all for inclusion beyond you know just the general core subjects or what we've been doing to improve it but we have to help people understand what that looks like because I mean it's not even special education it's just differentiation I'm having teachers saying I've got 30 kids no one's necessarily with special education needs [01:58:49] but the differentiation needs are there and the English language learning might be there I mean there are so many things and that I think in general is setting this up for success is helping everybody understand what this means what it looks like and I always say when you can point to a school division that's doing it well it doesn't seem scary people will embrace change when they already can see it somewhere else and go oh okay and I that's my closing comment thank you with that unless anybody else wants to go we can adjourn thank you everybody ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com