Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Student Behavior and Accountability Committee, Monday, April 24, 2023

Date: Monday, April 24, 2023
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 1h 6m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/821348425?rel=0
BoardDocs (School Board): https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/loudoun/Board.nsf/Public

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 2026-10-22. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:05] - Good evening, I'd like to call to order the April 24th Student Behavior and Accountability Committee meeting. Joined with me today are my fellow committee members, Mr. Mejedevi and Ms. Polifko.

[00:00:23] I noted we don't seem to have anybody signed up for public comment, okay. So we'll move to item three on the agenda, which is the approval of the March 27th draft minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? So be moved there a second second all those in favor of approving the minutes for March 27th Please raise your hand and say aye that motion will pass unanimously with all committee members present next item on our agenda today We have one action item, which is the review of policy 8255

[00:01:02] LCPS guidelines for protective orders. I know there will be some discussion for this as well, but I is there a motion to move forward this item or would we like to discuss it first we can make a motion and then we can discuss it okay is there a motion to move policy 8255 forward for the full board as an information item so be moved is there a second second okay any discussion on this item i

[00:01:40] i wanted to start actually if if you don't mind just on this policy we had a good amount of discussion actually in last month's committee meeting we had I would say the benefit of having some school-based administrators present as who had come to listen to the meeting and we ended up asking some questions that I think were helpful if if we don't mind if we can start with staff if you can provide an update about to kind of go over what the updates to the policy have been

[00:02:16] since we met last time thank you Chairperson Ogadevi, if we had a chance to meet with our registrar's office and also our office that handles student information FERPA and FOIL request to make sure that we're putting this in accurately and information inaccurately.

[00:02:40] And I believe that if you turn or if you look at line 61, that's where it started. I think there were questions last time on how this was going to be reported in information system. So we got together and we figured out, first of all, I want to remind everybody, this was a 2019 state code that said principals were responsible for putting this information out to everybody in the right parties once they were made aware.

[00:03:03] But that was also came during the pandemic. And when I went through and reviewed, I found that we did not have a policy that addressed this. So this is one reason why we put this policy in and developed some procedures so that principals can take care of this measure when they're informed of a protective order.

[00:03:20] and I have Ms. Kling here too, who's with the Registrar's Office to help out. She's, you can ask questions to her too, so she can introduce herself if you have questions. But it basically, we said that it would be, how it would be reported, she'll notify the senior, the principal, she'll notify the senior registrar at the division level of the protected order.

[00:03:42] There is a warning tab or alert tab that they can put on the student file. So while that protective order is in place, anybody that pulls up that student would be fine in the alert tab. And the school will maintain a hard copy of the protective order and forward that hard copy to any school that this, an active protective order to any school that the student may transfer to if that protective order is still in place.

[00:04:04] So we made those changes 'cause I know there was concerns about how that information was going to be entered in the student information system and then shared afterwards. - Thank you very much for that summary, that's helpful. Are there any other questions from the committee members?

[00:04:21] Mr. Mejedevi. - Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Folden, I think that was the concern that we had from the last meeting, so thank you for working in and adding the language. So my question would be, it says add alerts, does the system sort of support that today to add alerts?

[00:04:43] - It's very much in line with the practice we already have, so it's under student notifications and it is a small alert and it travels with any staff member that has access to the student information system.

[00:04:58] So if a staff member is looking at the student's profile, it shows you alert. How does it work? I'm just curious. For a student alert, the specific icon is a yield sign with exclamation in the middle of it. And then there's details specific to that student.

[00:05:16] There's directions on how you get to that information. It's not like it's glaring. Nobody would see it, but the appropriate staff members. That's all I heard, Chair. Thank you. Ms. Polipko. Thank you, Chair Ogadegbe. My question is related to the advancement of a protective order.

[00:05:34] Should a student transfer to a new school on line 66 and 67? Do we currently have a specific timeline in which that needs to be done? A timeline as to when that information needs to be shared with a new school or a student does move from school to school?

[00:05:52] Yes, that's correct. A timeline for when that protective order would need to be transferred. You can talk about probably in school, and I can talk about when we transfer out of the division. When the student is moved from one school to another or concurrently enrolled at two of our schools at one time, the student information system is consistent across the board.

[00:06:15] So there's nothing necessary electronically to happen. The information is then instantaneously available. Okay, I think I'm just referring to the hard copy because we also have information here about a hard copy of that protective order. So I think what I want to verify is that that transfer of the hard copy will be done in a timely manner.

[00:06:36] And right now in the policy, while it may happen electronically immediately, we don't have anything written in this policy that states when the hard copy should be transferred. So if a student is transferring from one Loudoun County school to another Loudoun County school, it's one or two days that that cumulative file gets sent over by way of our pony distribution system.

[00:07:01] If they're concurrently enrolled, then the information, I think you have to answer that question, the information is shared with the concurrent enrollment school with a specific meeting. - And we also have developed a comprehensive student support plan that is required, and we're working with student information systems, so that will also be in the electronic file, so when the student immediately transfers, the school registers, they'll have access to that comprehensive student support plan.

[00:07:30] We also put in place, because we do have transfers outside the county, that when, as soon as a school division makes that request, that information is shared with them they make a request for the student records okay so thank you so I guess it would be up to you know if other members on the committee feel that any specific information needs to be added there or if we're okay where we are I'll stop now thank you for raising that question I I would think that we would want the hard copy of the protective order because we spent a lot of time last time talking about how we don't put the contents of the protective order

[00:08:08] into their electronic file for a number of reasons all of which made sense but if a student is transferring to another school in the spirit of making sure that that other school has everything they need to know I think having that hard copy protective order would be something that you would want that other school to actually have before the student got to that school so the one to two days i i'm also wanted to learn some more about this within the school system or without of the school system because inside lcps okay so let's say a student transfers from one school to another

[00:08:48] that receiving school so to speak should have the full picture of everything including the protective order that's active before the student steps in to the school and similarly if there's concurrent enrollment.

[00:09:03] - Dr. Fulton, would that take place in that meeting? - That does take place in the meeting. It's, the other piece is once that student does register at a new school, then there's a request for records that does occur at that time period. I think it is transferred pretty fast because the ICON will be up there alerting them when that student does a roll, just like if the student has an IEP, they're gonna make a request for that information that's gonna come, but the ICON's gonna be up there alerting that they have an IEP, that they can have access to that information.

[00:09:33] So they would be able to have access as soon as they see that icon by contacting the registrar's office as to what that information is when a student does transfer. I mean, the hard copy, that's a request and I can see how fast that can get delivered over there in that piece in there.

[00:09:50] But the school should be aware of all that information when the student does transfer in. There's multiple alerts through a comprehensive student support plan and the alert on the top that there's an active protective order. - So if that's part of the meeting that occurs, So does the meeting happen before the student actually steps foot into the new school, or is it kind of all happening at the same time?

[00:10:13] Most of our transfers occur, if they occur because it's a student safety issue, and that's the reason the meeting does occur before the student does arrive at the new building. And the parents and student are involved with the Comprehensive Student Support Plan. And if that meeting would cover something like an active protective order, can we, with assurance say that that a copy of any active protective order so instead of saying and forward a copy it could say and a copy of any active protective

[00:10:51] order is is kind of provided through the transfer process I just want to make sure again I mean we don't want a situation where there's a protective order and the receiving school doesn't have the information and an icon kind of popping up alerting them, it seems sort of passive.

[00:11:10] I wanna make sure that we're actually handing it to the receiving school. - And there's a couple of things here. We can put the language in that the principal and our designee will alert the receiving school or principal or designee of an active protective order in the details, so we can make that part of the requirement that's gonna require a verbal notification.

[00:11:29] We also have to, because we do have students who transfer the active protective orders, don't want the information being shared with their new building. So the parents do have a right to have that information guarded if they want to, they control that information that's there. So I think we'd have to work on that, what that language would say in there with parent permission or others when a student transfers to a new school that the sending principal notify the receiving principal of that active protective order.

[00:11:56] - And is it the sending and receiving principal who are having the transfer meeting? - Yeah, we have built that in and that's not required by policy right now. we have built that in as part of the standard operating procedures whenever there's a safety placement or a transfer of a student for other reasons in the middle of the year besides this regular special permission process.

[00:12:16] So we've built in that, the level one transfer meeting that we're gonna talk about a little bit later in the meeting, so we are making that requirement. A student who does transfer and one of the reasons is because an active protective order or to move out of school would be, would participate in a level one transfer meeting and the receiving school would set up comprehensive student support plan for that student with the parent and student participating and then I think that just I'll comment it you know not every student that has is party to a protective order is going to be transferring because of a safety concern either and so the transfer meeting might

[00:12:53] not be applicable to every student that has a protective order on file if it is active though they should now have a once a policy is passed they should have a CSS P in place and that will transfer with the student so the the sending principal shouldn't be notifying the receiving principal of a CSSP that's actively in place I mean I think what she's speaking of is if if it's not because of a safety placement right but even if it's not a safety placement any protective order would have a comprehensive student support plan already in place that's a requirement that we put in the policy so that has to be in place for any protective order okay thank you one one more comment and

[00:13:32] then mr. Mahedovee has a comment as well I I would just really like to see that we have timeline codified in policy that's stipulating that the copy is going to be there before the student is so I don't know exactly mechanically how that happens but it's we we just need to make sure that the receiving school has every piece of information that they should have okay we do have students that do transfer and show up in the front door the day that they do

[00:14:06] transfers so understood but but where possible right because and you know mr. Mahedemi thank you chair you know I I guess I'll go back to the sentence and then we can kind of go back to the the thing that miss both I think miss Polifco and miss Oak debates kind of alluded to the line says that school would maintain a hard copy of the protective order in the students cumulative folder and forward a copy of an active protective order if the student transfer to a new school. It doesn't give any wiggle room. If the student decides or parent

[00:14:45] decides, it doesn't say anything of that sort. And so I think where Ms. Polifco sort of started, and I sort of concur, then I think we need to put some time frames. So is it like two business days? I think, as you mentioned, one or two business days. That's how I'm thinking. And I think to the point that where Ms. Ogadekbe was mentioning that it could be in the standard operating procedure, but I think from a policy, I think this is sort of the board needs to make sure that that's set up in a way from a policy perspective that that happens. So you could have many things

[00:15:21] that are happening in standard operating procedures, but I think there is, based on our three board members here, I think there is a consensus that we need to make sure it's in policy that those things are happening from a much more of a proactive nature versus it's happening, we understand that but if alliance is you know we added the lines is hard copy is going to be passed on and it's in the comprehensive plan but that's not how it's listed up here so there's two things happening one is talking about comprehensive plan the second thing is well the meeting is going to

[00:15:55] take place between the principals the third thing is uh if a student transfers um i guess voluntarily maybe moving because of whatever reason that they have changed schools how do you make sure that the the hard copies then gets transferred from one school to other school.

[00:16:12] And again, where I think I heard from Ms. Ogadegbe, and again, I'm not trying to explain further, but how do you make sure that it's not waiting from alert for the principal then to request it? We want to get, I mean, at least from a board intention is we don't want to make it all about, well, they'll get alert, then they request it.

[00:16:30] We want to make sure it's done before the student shows up. If I'm getting the gist of the committee members here. So that's kind of the intent we're trying to establish here. Okay, and I'm going to probably defer because that's part of the cumulative records. So those cumulative records and folders that transfer to a student, and I don't know how long, how many days they usually take to get there.

[00:16:48] So as a practice, our registrars, as soon as they transfer a student over, will pull the file and prepare it, and it goes the next day. But there is the lag time because our staff members have to come pick it up. The day they pick it up, it gets processed and then delivered.

[00:17:07] But at the same time, I'm not sure if you would want to delay enrollment or attendance. No, I don't think, but I think if I were to give one more grace period and say, well, within three business days, let's just say, I mean, would that be?

[00:17:23] I just, I really feel like when we're talking about protective orders, we want all of that. I mean, and I don't know where the line is about hard copy versus fax or something. You know, is it possible to provide an advanced copy electronically before the hard copy is delivered through the Pony Express that takes one to two days?

[00:17:48] But I think we just want to make sure that the receiving school has everything that they need to know before the student arrives on campus for the safety of the student. And I do understand the question in having worked with them.

[00:18:04] And I know there's an emphasis you have on the hard copy, which is just a documentation. the most important part of the document is the safety plan that's put in place. The hard copy just says this is in place and has a timeframe. So as a school-based administrator, delay doesn't bother me as much as the fact is, what do I need to do to put that plan in place to begin with?

[00:18:23] Okay, I can get the hard copy and have the end date when that does occur. So I'm kind of walking through this is saying, are we creating something that really is already in place and maybe by just by that language is that the sending school will notify the receiving school of any active protective orders in place when that student registrars, and then the cumulative records will come, but when those active protective orders in, they should already have a safety plan in place.

[00:18:48] It might change at the new school based on other factors that that school would have to start initiating a new comprehensive student safety plan based on other factors and depending on who the safety plan and who the protective order, who the complainant and who the respondent is.

[00:19:05] So I think those are the most important pieces to put in. The hard copy basically gives you the information saying there is a protective order and who the parties are, and that gives you an end date. The safety plan is what are the things you're doing to ensure and protect that safety, which I think is what you're driving at.

[00:19:29] So is there concurrence with the adjustments that we've talked about here to continue to move this forward to the board as an information item? Yes. Yes, go ahead, please. Thank you, Ms. Ogdenabee. Thank you, Chair. So I think when we move forward, I think when you explain to the full board, I think there There is, I mean, it took us a long time to understand that.

[00:19:52] And to be very honest, I think that has to be clear when you go to the board. Otherwise, it's going to cause much more confusion up there. Because I think that what that cumulative folder means and what the order is and what's already in the electronic system, I think it just has to be clear.

[00:20:08] I think it will help understand better. Because I think when you throw in a hard copy, I think it throws off. And that's the thing. So anyway, I just want to make a comment about that. I can be there at that meeting, too. Okay thank you so much and thank you for the work on getting this to the point where it is I know that there's been a lot of discussion on this one oh we did could I take a minute to introduce somebody that's new to our staff and I wasn't able to do something sorry sorry

[00:20:44] so that with discussion up thank you for that reminder so um all those in favor of moving this policy forward with the adjustments as discussed this evening please raise your hand and say aye, aye, that motion passes unanimously with all committee members present.

[00:21:00] Yes, please, Mr. Fulton. - Okay, I apologize for that. I didn't get a chance to introduce him when I was virtual that one time, but this is Bill O'Brien, who's our new hearing officer that works in our Office of School Administration. Bill Daniel, I'm sorry, Bill Daniel.

[00:21:18] Yes, Bill comes from us with experience and Bill handles most of our discipline hearings now. So he is the party that will work when they do 10-day hearings with recommendation for further action when schools do. So he is part of that process and has been a great asset to us.

[00:21:36] And also, there's a few of our school administrators in the audience, if they can get a chance to introduce themselves, too. And Ms. Brown here is here all the time. Good evening. I'm Diane Apprentice. I am the Special Education Dean at Harper Park Middle School in Tobit Elementary.

[00:22:00] Good evening, everyone. I'm Shanee Ivey Brown. I'm the principal of Harper Park Middle School. Welcome and thank you. we appreciate miss brown being here and she always brings a staff member so i i think it's great for a dean to be here through this process and watch how policies work so i appreciate the work of miss brown and bringing her staff here so i know we've i know we've just moved this forward for an information item but certainly there'll be more conversation when it gets to the full board i'm wondering if either of you have any comments or thoughts or feedback that would be helpful for

[00:22:39] us to consider again I think one of the as Mr. Mejedevi just mentioned communicating this and we'll certainly tee up the policy and have some discussion as it's broached with the full committee but any any comments while we're here we did this the last time too we

[00:22:56] had a principal and asked for some feedback on the fly okay great thank you so much so

[00:23:29] moving on to our information items we have item 5.01 staff updates an update on the ranch the relaunch forward program Mr. Fulton and Ms. Gettleman is putting up the slides I just wanted to share some information about our relaunch forward program too and I have Ms. Ream here as one of our teachers in the relaunch forward program we basically started a relaunch forward program as a as a need as a placement an alternative placement for students currently we have two alternative placements that can be placed at relaunch forward program where they can be placed

[00:24:06] in a virtual setting and that virtual setting might be a virtual loud and or might be in a distance learning environment relaunch forward is a small section of north star school we have two classrooms there one for middle and next slide one for middle and one for a high school a general program is relaunch forward is can serve as a discipline placement for a student um as part of their suspension during their suspension after their suspension ours an

[00:24:42] alternative placement for a student we use all those measures as putting a student in a relaunch forward program part of the staff works with in the separate classrooms middle school and high school to work with the stone students and then the the staff works individually with all those students to maintain their grades and work while they are either suspended or serving a relaunch forward program in lieu of their suspension until they are returned back to their original comprehensive school or an alternative placement afterwards so this is not a permanent placement program this is for during that suspension time and I want Miss Ream talk a little bit about what they do

[00:25:22] instructionally with our students yes yes I'm Bobbi Ream I'm serving as the lead teacher in our program we have two high school teachers and we have two middle school teachers and what we do is in a nutshell is when kids arrive we try to maintain the connection with the homeschool and keep the administration and the school counselors and the teachers keep it in the front of their

[00:25:59] mind that we are returning their students back to them and that we'll be using their materials and their lessons and their Schoology work and any other work that they want to share with us to work with the kids so that they can seamlessly transition back when their discipline piece is over.

[00:26:20] One of the reasons that we really want to do that is we know that when kids are suspended from school or removed from their home schools, when they come back, if they're not caught up, then we put them at risk for on-time graduation.

[00:26:35] We put them at risk for having to not stay caught up and then just become a bigger burden to the school in terms of discipline and time. And we also put the families in a precarious position because their student was out of school and now they're back and they can't catch up.

[00:26:55] So rather than just leave them at home, they come in to us and we start right from the get-go. We have some nice forms that we inherited, and it serves as a communication document with the homeschool. And one of the really great pieces about it is the APs are involved in the process, the classroom teachers are involved in the process, and any supports that the kids would get.

[00:27:17] Like if they have an IEP, their case manager is involved. If they have student support services for maybe substance abuse, those people are involved. So they maintain all that contact. They meet with those kids regularly once a week, and so that if they would normally be seeing someone from the mental health team, they're seeing somebody virtually.

[00:27:38] If they're seeing someone, maybe the school psychologist, regularly for some goal setting, they're still getting that service. So, again, when they go back, all the kids, you know, if yearbooks were ordered when they meet with their school counselor, their school counselor says yearbooks are being ordered, so they're ordering a yearbook.

[00:27:54] So it's a really – it's been – we've had no – not one parent, not one student, not one school administrator, and not one teacher say, this is insane. People are really appreciative of the kids being able to come back.

[00:28:10] Do you want me to tell you a couple good stories? Go ahead. Because I thought that's what I was going to tell you was some good stories. We had – we've had 19 kids come through at the high school level, and nine kids come through the middle school level. So with the 19 high school kids, we had a student that came to us as an AB student, no history of discipline, but had done something that needed to be out of school time while it was worked through, and the kid was ready to come back to school when things were worked out.

[00:28:43] So the parents were upset because their student is very involved in the school, a kid's a ninth grader. And he came in, the parent worked closely with us. His homeschool teachers really were accommodating. They really liked him as a student. His Spanish teacher set up her own virtual meeting, so he would, on her planning time, she was working with him on his Spanish to keep him caught up because we focus on the core classes and the electives that we can, but Spanish 3 is probably out of the league for most of us.

[00:29:13] And so when the parents worked through the discipline process and when the student was able to go back to school we got a really sweet note from mom because the kid came back just in time to try out for the baseball team and made the baseball team so she feels like that's been you know keeping him connected to his school he wasn't permanently with us he was their student and we were just providing his educational services and we got a couple notes from that same that student same teachers that said it was amazing that you know we were giving a test on Tuesday and he walked right in that door, he took that science test. So it works that well. The

[00:29:52] communication is great with the schools. And if I could tell you one other kid, we have a student that had a really hard time this year. Not so much that he was going to have some discipline assigned to him, but he needed something else beyond coming into a big school and, you know, having a hard time every single day. So the principal made a really good case with Dr. Fulton and his team and the students guidance counselor had done a really good job with the parents so the parent was on board when we said can we take your kid out of public school for just a

[00:30:28] little while and try to slow down time for him he's a senior he's missing a lot of learning we're spending too much time on him trying to get him to do something during the day and we're not making any headway and so the parent was like you know sure we can try it we said nothing permanent if it doesn't work we're going to keep an eye on it so we put the kid on virtual we have a virtual component we so the student would logs in with me and I deliver the instruction from three to four every day he's got my three o'clock to four o'clock appointment and we've had the kid since December the student meets regularly once a week with his guidance counselor so she keeps him on

[00:31:07] top of things he went in on teacher work days and made up his workplace readiness test he needed his CPR test he needs for graduation and he also made up one of his SOLs so he's on target to graduate he went from a CD student he's an AB student and two weeks ago when we met with mom and his guidance counselor and myself on a post-secondary planning meeting mom could not be happier she said now that he has slowed time down and isn't coming to school in that elevated state where he's having problems he accesses his education and she hasn't been outside therapy

[00:31:44] So he's even able to take in that outside therapy because he's not in an elevated state all day. And so at our post-secondary planning meeting, we collaborated with mom. And she wants to use this year as a springboard to solidifying those skills that he's kind of started demonstrating.

[00:32:05] And his plan is to, and she's taken him on visits, to start off next year and maybe do a postgraduate year at a military prep school. because his goals are to join the military. So we have all kinds of cool things going on. If you're ever at the North Star, come in the front door.

[00:32:22] There's a little room, a classroom on the left. We're the closest room to the door. It's our classroom. That's our space, and the kids are with us. But you would really like to see the kids working. Sometimes they're goofing around, but, you know, they're teenagers too. So lots of good things. If you have any questions, I can certainly field them.

[00:32:37] Thank you so much for this presentation and also sharing that. I'm actually going to be there tomorrow morning. Come and see me. It'll be early, but I'll be there from about 7.30 to 8.30 tomorrow morning.

[00:32:53] Oh, definitely stop by. I'll come early tomorrow. Okay. If I could tell you one more thing. Around January, we started another component. So students that have a 5 to 10-day suspension, the school administrator is asking the parents if they would like their student to receive some virtual support from us.

[00:33:09] More like an organizational check-in. We don't have access. We don't go overboard like that. But what we do is meet with the student, go through Schoology, help them do an organizational system, make a work plan out, and then suggest how they can communicate with their teachers and things to stay on top of it and do some follow-up with that, too.

[00:33:28] And that helps those kids that just get lost and say, you know, Schoology, I'm not getting any help. It's just to give them a boost. But stop by tomorrow, definitely. Thank you. - Statistically students who are suspended and out of school, if you can go back to that previous slide, Ms. Gettleman, they fall behind in their academic work.

[00:33:51] They have little or no access to instructional staff or other support staff, including mental health staff. And we're often unsupervised during the school day. I know there's an expectation when a student was suspended in school, but sometimes you're also have family in crisis when there's behaviors and there's not going to be that supervision during the school day.

[00:34:09] So, you know, we do go through a safety review if a student is not considered safe to be at the North Star. We do not place them at the North Star. We go through that process and make things are in place, but then we do put them in the North Star for their duration of that suspension.

[00:34:24] Once after that hearing is completed with student, we've also had some students that we've placed there for safety placement reasons. And Ms. Reams being a little bit modest, the second student she talked about would not have graduated, had not been access to that virtual program through the North Star.

[00:34:39] Ms. Kettle. - I think I went over a lot of those, but this is the numbers we served. We started the program in December of 2021. We worked with a lot of different offices in instruction. During that year, 2021-22, we had 11 high school and four middle school students there.

[00:34:58] This year, we've had 19 high school and nine middle school students. Our temporary virtual support, as you can see, we've had 46 students in that temporary virtual support. And then distance learning placements that also get connected through this program. We had five last school year and half of a year.

[00:35:15] This year, we've had 14. Those are students that are discipline learning placements, but still can have access to staff and check-ins with the staff, including if needed, unified mental health staff, school counseling staff, instructional staff as part of that support for the students.

[00:35:31] I will say the students, I don't know if this is still true, but by February of this year, every student that we have physically placed in a North Star left the school building with better grades than what they came in with. They left the North Star relaunch forward program with better grades than they came in with as part of that problem because the students that are struggling and sometimes struggling behavior are not doing very well academically either.

[00:35:55] The other key piece here is a student struggling with mental health, mental health is not a IDA disability and it is difficult sometimes for us to figure out what that's going to look like and what that structure is gonna look like for a school. So having access to alternative programs to provide for that student, whether it's temporary or whether it's gonna be throughout the school year are very valuable for that student to continue to progress and make that path towards graduation and path towards citizenship.

[00:36:23] - Next slide. - As part of this process, we do these meetings. We have a level one, which is a transition meeting, which I mentioned that we're trying to put in place now, anytime a student moves from one school to another during the school year, we do that.

[00:36:39] Could you go back please? We also will talk a bit about the level two transition meeting, which we do. And that's if there's a safety concern, we use central office staff to review and then a comprehensive student support plan.

[00:36:54] And then Ms. Gettleman was gonna show you the level one transition meeting. This is a level one transition meeting. This is between the two schools. It is run through our office. Dr. DiNicola will set these meetings up and the schools will be there. The appropriate school staff will be there, special education staff if needed, EL staff if needed, and others will be part of that meeting in the process.

[00:37:15] So the school will talk about what the academic progress, the social emotional supports that are needed for the student, other programs that are needed for the student and also talk about behavior of that student in that transition meeting and those. And then we also invite our executive principal and level directors to those meetings too as part of the process.

[00:37:37] If we have a safety concern that has come up before we place a student, we do a level two meeting, if you can go to that, level two meeting. Okay, and the level two meeting is central office staff, safety and security staff, student mental health services, Student substance abuse services, student counseling services are part of that.

[00:38:01] You have hard copies in your folder. We also use, again, executive director, level directors are part of that. Myself, I'm a part of that 'cause I bring the policy and administration and the behavioral discipline piece. But what the level two staff is, is what resources and support will the receiving school now need from us?

[00:38:20] What some other things we can do to support the student? And also support the school. What are some safety measures that we do have to put in place for that student to come if that's a safety issue. Also, we use that if we determine this student right now should not be in a physical location in a building, we're gonna have them virtually. As you see, we did have some students virtually, they'll make a decision that they're gonna receive their services in a virtual setting.

[00:38:40] And when we do move, sorry, I'm going through these fast, we have something called the Comprehensive Student Support Plan. And this is what the plan is. This is to try to eliminate, provide support for the student's safety and supportive measures, but also try to eliminate the silos where information about a student might be shared with one person, but not through everybody.

[00:39:00] And so we do these to try to protect an unsafe incident, social emotional support, academic support, further incidents for safety or repeated infractions of the student. A student that is a victim or alleged victim can also have a comprehensive student support plan in place as well as an offender or an alleged offender.

[00:39:20] So that plan is put in place. We don't have to give all the details of everything, but it also requires the school administrators to notify those parties that are directly involved with that student's education, which might include a teacher assistant, cafeteria manager, a bus driver, a coach or a sponsor, so that they are aware of the plans that are in place and who the point of contacts are.

[00:39:44] And we just discovered that we wanted to, and I did a lot of research on looking at student safety and other issues, and working in silos can happen in large organizations, And this is the attempt to say, okay, we're gonna centralize all this information. So it's being shared in a timely fashion with everybody.

[00:40:02] So this is one of our most used documents at a school setting now is often used to say, okay, what's our plan? What's the place? What are all the plans in place? Who are the people we have to contact? It does have a review date. So it doesn't, it's not there for the whole year. It might end. It might be modified at periods of time when the schools go through.

[00:40:19] And then for, if a student moves to the North Star, that comprehensive student support plan is between that host home school and the North Star School staff too. And then it goes back when that student transfers back and that new information that's there. And I believe that's the end of the slides, correct?

[00:40:37] We have one more there. All right, so those are the things that we have put in place now when a student does move in with our relaunch forward program at the North Star. It is, you know, it's something that wasn't really fallen under our jurisdiction as our office, but something we saw and needed and created.

[00:40:57] And we were very fortunate to have four really good teachers. I mean, that was really surprising. And I've worked with Ms. Ream before. She'll tell you stories that we got, when I worked with her before we got every kid to graduate, no matter what was their occurrence. We even had a few that graduated wearing orange jumpsuits, but we figured out a way to get them their high school diploma when they got through.

[00:41:17] So having staff like that and working with students. And the other part too, is if you can talk about the amount of time they put in, it's not really easy to have a student teacher ratio falls under normal numbers that you look at for another school because the amount of intensive support that's needed for these students is much greater especially at a time when we are trying to do a lot to catch a student up build the supports build the confidence build the school skills so they go back into a comprehensive school and we don't have repeat behavior and the first the first batch of students we got for the first half of the year a lot of those kids were already

[00:41:52] behind so we had to go back and really like i do the math science and the kids that need math you You can't just say, well, you're here for quarter two. I'm going to start with quarter two. You have to go back and, you know, get the credit recovery and get the skills built so that they have something to do.

[00:42:07] Or when you send them back and they don't have the skills, you know, the same situation will happen. It's just taking longer to happen. So we want to make sure that the kids feel like they have that foundation along with the supports to go back. Are there any questions? I appreciate the time.

[00:42:25] I just thought I would like to share that with you so that you have an understanding of what that process looks like. Mr. Mahedravi. Thank you, Chair. so thank you for the presentation and so i guess i've you mentioned it's a relaunch um it's a sorry relaunch forward as a program i think you describe i think i know you mentioned there's four teachers that are helping students so i guess when i think of a program there is a it's a program so maybe you touched on it maybe i missed it so besides the teachers the four teachers

[00:43:01] what how does it constitute a program like is it a is an intake process is a is a you know what is really because program means a lot more than you know having teachers in place so what how do you define that as a program yeah that's a great question because I didn't want to name it because it wasn't a program it's just something we created it wasn't budgeted we use contingency money the first year to get staffing and next year I think we have budgeted positions and we're working on a greater definition of the supports that are provided for the students by working with other departments because my goal is that you have achievable goals when you get through there and you meet those goals before we transfer you back

[00:43:40] and move you back to your school setting. The intake process is really the hearing process. So we do the discipline hearing, the determination of an alternative placement for that student, whether it's Mr. Daniel, myself, doing that hearing part of that is a discussion with a parent saying that in a student, we're looking at you're gonna be suspended for 45 days, let's say, during that time period, we can put you in an alternative placement at the North Star.

[00:44:03] This is what it's gonna look like in this process. We do those level one meetings, and then the student and the parent go over to the North Star and have a meeting with the North Star staff before the student does come over. So they get an idea of what that's gonna look like while they're in school and doing there. We would like to add more things to that program.

[00:44:22] Like I said, kind of measures to say, these are the things that we wanna work on, behavioral skills and others that we wanna work on as you progress through to determine, even if those behavioral skills are met, that maybe then the student's discipline might be reduced based on the fact that they met those behavioral skills and it's been determined they can return back to that comprehensive school.

[00:44:44] - Thank you for sharing this. I think you'll have to put some more structure or some processes in place. Like I think everything you talked about somewhere to say this is a program and the program does A, B, C, and D. So anyway, I know it's still evolving and he's still figuring out doing it, so.

[00:45:02] - It is and I know Ms. Riem will add more to that, but the program is built to serve students during their discipline suspension and out of school and to maintain or help them on their academic path with still having access to school counselors, unified mental health support, and other instructional support or behavioral support in that part to do it.

[00:45:21] So that's part of what we want to do. Yes, we like to evolve to have more in there, but there is a process before we do place a student there. And there is a determination whether or not this is gonna be that best placement for them. You know, we also are talking that some students had some safety issues and we have to determine in our comprehensive student support plan what those extra layers of protection are going to be when that student does come to the north star in the relaunch forward program and miss ream um i was just going to add that the program was started to keep the kids caught up academically but we realized in early conversations this year that

[00:45:59] it wasn't academics that got them to us so that's a great goal because we're an educational institution And that that's when they go back to their school, that that's going to be what's going to help them to get back into the game if they choose to do that.

[00:46:14] But we realize right into it that we need to be able to provide that emotional support and that decision making that's going to keep them from returning back to us. And we do use – I'm a former special ed teacher, high school special ed teacher, with extensive training and experience in working with kids with emotional and behavior disorders.

[00:46:38] So I used it – we started using a curriculum that we used with our ED students where you can tailor some conflict resolution, some decision-making, things like that, to do some skill building in addition to the academic piece, individualize that a bit so that hopefully the choices that they're making when they go back won't return them to us.

[00:47:02] But we have a full plate with the academic piece because when the kids come in, not that we don't want to do it and we are not doing as part of it, but the academic piece at this time of the year is pretty critical because we're still getting kids that have straight ups, that they just haven't done things, you know, that just things have gotten in the way and maybe their attendance is poor.

[00:47:24] So we're trying to get that balanced, but we do realize that component. And I know what you're saying, because to just say it's just academics, we didn't get them for academic reasons. Kind of us. Yes, Ms. Polifko.

[00:47:40] Thank you so much. Thank you for bringing that up, the fact that you didn't get those students for academic reasons, or just for academic reasons, because you're absolutely right about that. My question about what you do in the program in terms of reinforcement and any kind of, like, do you have any specific incentive systems in place for the kids, or in addition to what they may already have, if they're students with IEPs and they already have a specific plan or a behavior plan, do you as a school there at the North Star do any sort of like a level system with the kids or some kind of incentive program to help them build those skills?

[00:48:19] That's a wonderful idea, but let me tell you a couple things. One, we're not North Star. It's like we're renting. We could be at Broad Run. We could be at Potomac Falls. We just have a room there because there is room, and it's small. Our kids stay with us all day. We don't eat with North Star kids.

[00:48:35] We don't use the bathroom with North Star kids. We're on our own schedule. So we eat the last lunch. We eat the last breakfast. Our kids are with us. There's a couple things that the kids really like, and we do incentivize, but the kids are so very different. And we don't want them to know each other too well so that they don't share their difficulties.

[00:48:54] They're bringing their own challenges, And we don't want them to meet other challenges and leave any more struggling than they were when they came with us. But they do like a couple of things they really love is a phone break to play on their phone for just a while. So if they're done with the task and we have a schedule set up and we'll say, like, this is the time where you can get on your phone if your work's done or use the bathroom or something like that during that time.

[00:49:17] And they love to go outside. And then so we'll go outside. We take them over. There's that park right next to us. We'll go shoot some basketball and get outside. mostly boys. We only have, right now we have one girl and they like that. And we take them on walks during the day to get them outside and move around. They like that. And then from the 3.30 till 4 o'clock, we're usually tying things up because they go back to their homeschools or home at four.

[00:49:44] So that last block we'll play. We have a set of games. We'll play team games and try to do some things. But that's the kind of variety thing like that because we're not, at our school, we're not allowed to bring food reinforcers because that would be the reinforcer we you know we just follow the county policy of not bringing food in but they do things like that. Ms. Polifko that's a good point and one question that we've talked to with Ms. I've talked with Ms. Evans one of the things is we want we want to have some program goals but they're going to be very individualized for each student because some students might be in there for 10 days some might be in there for 45 days

[00:50:20] so that that's a bit of a different time than they're in and it's going to be basically what what are those needs that come through those level one transition meetings for that student during this time period that we need to make sure that we are meeting. And so it might be somebody from their school counseling department or administrative staff is checking in with a student.

[00:50:40] It might be that virtual check in, it might be an outside resources checking in with that student as part of that program that they develop. So they become, they are very individualized. And as Ms. Ream says, there's not a lot of information that we want to always share in between students. If you've worked in alternative settings, you'll find that sometimes people got better at the things that got them in there by talking to other people that were involved.

[00:51:02] So it's very much a controlled environment and that way you're focusing on that individual improvement that they will do with the students. But we would, and we're asking for help is, let's have some measures that we can have with some students about behavior, especially if we have a student that's repeating the behavior and that repeating behavior has led to a longer term consequence.

[00:51:24] - And if I could tell you one, I'm going to give us a little shout-out because I'm always trying to evaluate whether or not we're doing a really good job. But all the kids that have taken SOLs so far, all passes, passed the workplace readiness test for the kids' need for graduation. And then one of our students who we did return back, we made some really huge social-emotional changes.

[00:51:44] We did help him apply to the academies of Loudoun. He'll be going to a MADA program next year. So he feels really good about that, too. So, I mean, we're trying to get them just what they would get if they were at their homeschool, so not missing anything, not losing any ground. I think that keeps the individual schools, the individual teachers, and the individual parents in a good place.

[00:52:05] And we did have two other seniors whose discipline may not have been deserving of a long-term suspension, but working with the parents in the process and about where they were, we determined that it would be better for them to be at the relaunch forward program for the last part of their senior year. it was really the only path they had towards graduation to do so so we we worked out a in our hearing and discipline letter that they were placed there through the rest of the year by agreement with the parents and so we didn't have a repeat behavior or repeated the struggles but it also was

[00:52:36] the only only way those students would be able to graduate okay thank you so much and thank you for the presentation and also for sharing some of the the specific stories from some of the students that you're working with so that said we will now move forward with item for 5.02 which is policy 6220 this is coming as an information item kind of as a courtesy copy from another committee that's reviewing this policy right now it came through the finance

[00:53:14] and operations committee and they had asked that this be forwarded to the student accountability student behavior and accountability committee for input so I wanted to ask mr. Fulton if you can give a overview I'm gonna let mr. mr. Davies do that if that's okay I'm Scott Davies I'm the director of transportation for LCPS so this policy 6220 falls within my area of influence and we are specifically recommending some updates to remove duplicative

[00:53:53] of language, clarified that the driver must participate in the bus evacuation drills and specify that kindergarten students must be accompanied to and from the bus stop and that we encourage young students to be accompanied as well. And the reason we brought it here to provide more specificity in terms of reporting student behavior or student misconduct on the bus and that is when it's reported to school administrators that it must be treated consistent with how that same misbehavior occurs in the classroom.

[00:54:31] - Any questions? Yes, Mr. Mehedevi. - Thank you, Chair. So I'm with the Finance and Operations Committee. I think when, and I, sorry to bring more work back to this committee, but I thought this fits in this particular committee's purview for discipline to make sure that it does go through this committee to before we sort of agree on the Finance and Operations Committee.

[00:54:54] So that's why this is here. So I just want to provide just a little bit of time for walking for review, if we can just pause for a moment. The relevant paragraph is B4 that talks about the student discipline.

[00:55:34] So I think one of the questions I have is actually below that in section B5, talking about the driver having the authority to stop at the nearest and safety place and restore order before proceeding. where are kind of the parameters that bus drivers are working with in in terms of just defining what that in the moment redirect is or discipline so it's you know discipline on the bus so how would you define kind of the parameters of discipline that's happening on the bus versus you know kind

[00:56:11] of the what happens later either through the you know in consultation with the parents or guardians or you know with the principal so student management is a big component of our training so every driver that comes through that we hire goes through our month-long training process and a big part of that training is student management because as you can imagine with up to 84 students behind you in a big metal box rolling down the highway it's a big deal and so student management is an important component and when students go outside of expectations

[00:56:51] that we rely on the driver to use their best judgment consistent with the training that we provided to manage that and if it requires them to sometimes they'll turn back to the school and take the students back to have an administrator come on the bus sometimes if they if they're not able to do that they'll pull over try to restore order or and they'll call dispatch and dispatch will have a lead driver come out and kind of serve in that same role as the school administrator someone other than the driver to help restore order to the bus before they proceed on it's not a doesn't happen very frequently especially this time of

[00:57:30] year generally happens at the beginning of the year when things are a little more energetic and expectations haven't been fully set yet but that's after the first month or so things are managed pretty well okay thank you and I'll ask again for our guests here if miss Brown do you have any kind of experience with this in your role as the principal in terms of any feedback in terms of how things are handled on the bus versus and then you're kind of at the end of

[00:58:08] like receiving and sometimes of issues I would imagine when the bus drivers are arriving at the school or coming back the next day to inform you of what's happened? Thank you. I would say that I think it all depends on the school and the relationship that the bus drivers have with the school. Again, it's a communication thing. I think for, I can always speak for Harper Park, but I will say that I think we have very good relationships with our bus drivers and they know that we will get on a bus and we will share expectations with

[00:58:46] them in regards to the safety of every student on the bus and the importance of that. So there's a collaboration there that we worked together. We've had bus drivers bring buses back to the school because of the safety of everyone. And we've shared and said that we would work with that bus driver to find out what the situation is. And because we followed through with supporting the bus driver, then that minimized any issues that we've had on our buses. I'm not saying it's perfect but i think it's all about collaboration and communication between the schools and uh the

[00:59:24] transportation together thank you so much and i will add uh and miss brown makes a good point if there is a a breakdown in any communication often the lead bus driver or transportation can contact the level offices or our office about that that communication piece and you know they are driving a mental classroom with her back to all their students uh and we've worked on things with Mr. Davies and Mr. Clark about making sure we're erring on the side of safety.

[00:59:54] If there is a concern that the driver takes that safety precaution, we're not worried about kids are late getting to school or late getting home. Let's make sure we do the safety piece. And we saw that example of that a few weeks ago with an incident that happened at a high school bus, where the driver did the right thing, notified the right people.

[01:00:11] Fortunately, it was a really bad mistake by a student. It wasn't an immediate safety issue, but it was treated as one, and the response was one of let's make sure we're keeping everybody safe. Can I add something as well?

[01:00:29] I've even rode a bus myself. Again, it's just supporting the bus driver, letting them know that we are here to support them 100%. If that means one of us as administrators are getting on the bus to ensure the safety of every student, that we're willing to do that.

[01:00:47] So, again, they just love to have the support, and it just helps them. And it also helps the students to see, too, that we care enough about them to get on a bus to make sure that every student gets home safely. I really appreciate hearing from you. Thank you so much.

[01:01:03] Any other questions from committee members? Yes, Mr. Mihedjevi. Thank you, Chair. So I have a question in Section A, between 2 and 3. The Section 2 sort of speaks about, I'll jump to line number 2, it's line 13.

[01:01:20] It says, at the pre-K and 1 grade levels, initial safety training shall be given during the first week of school. And additional training shall be given on a periodic basis during the year. And then I think we talk about emergency exit drills in the second section.

[01:01:38] So besides the pre-K and one, I guess, pre-K and one, do you provide additional training for other students or just pre-K? So we do, so there's classroom training that the teachers actually do that for our kindergarten students.

[01:02:00] we do emergency about evacuation drills on the bus for first semester and second semester and that that's for everybody so that's what that's the difference there so the a2 there that's referencing classroom training for our kindergarten students so so this is but again this is for so this will be done by the classroom teacher correct certainly the committee members I mean doesn't make do we need to clarify that this is done by the classroom teacher versus most of the other instructions are related to bus drivers, so.

[01:02:35] I think it says in the elementary school curriculum, so I think that's covered between lines 12 and 13 already. I'm reading that the student rider safety instruction shall be included in the elementary school curriculum.

[01:02:59] So I'm reading that to mean that it's happening in the school as part of instruction. So, Chair, I just think it's making a broad assumption because then we specify pre-K to one. I just wanna know who's gonna be doing that.

[01:03:15] If it's gonna be done by, as Mr. Davey's mentioning, is it be done by classroom teachers, I think it won't hurt to be specific about that, that's all. - Okay, and so perhaps on line 14 then after the, where it says during the first week of school, add the words by the classroom teacher.

[01:03:41] Any other comments? Okay. - So Mr. Davey, are there, do we do any reporting of this, any incidents? I'm not sure of any disciplinary actions, et cetera.

[01:03:58] Is there a report that's done every year of any incidents happening on the bus by itself? - We don't do a cumulative report. So when an incident occurs, the driver will pass that, we'll do an incident report that gets floated to the lead driver.

[01:04:14] The lead driver will then enter it into the student information center, student information system, and then send it to the school for action by the school. And the language that we've added in section B mandates that the school take that and for action consistent with how they would act if that same behavior occurred in the classroom.

[01:04:35] And that's one of the things that we've seen where there's not consistency doesn't always happen. - And there are specific SBAR student behavior administrative responses that schools can use state codes that refer to bus safety or bus behavior. Some of them may not be just bus safety and bus behavior that will be addressed to the school administrators will look through and determine what that response is.

[01:04:56] - So are they covered like some sort of report back to the school board on a biannual basis? Is it, I mean, again, are they, is there a report available to the school board of any of these things? - And we could run it based on bus violations that reported as bus violations.

[01:05:13] Some of the violations may have occurred on bus, so the location would be there, but the offense doesn't say it's not an SBAR bus violation. For instance, if a student gets a fight on bus and there's a fight with injuries, the suspension will be fighting for injuries, the location would say bus on there.

[01:05:30] Or if a student creates an unsafe environment on a bus, there's an actual SBAR violation that says unsafe behavior on bus. Or at the bus stop, right? Yeah. So there's no tracking as such today? You have to be tracking either location or the SBAR or multiple layers to try to look at it.

[01:05:47] I'd love to get some more feedback on that. I'll be just to make sure that we're tracking those. - We can ask the research office if there's ways that information can be pulled. - Okay, thank you.

[01:06:05] Any new business? Okay, lacking new business, we are adjourned. Thank you.

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