Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) Meeting, Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Date: Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 2h 8m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1018287836?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 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:02:07] everyone I'm so sorry we're getting started a couple minutes late the computer may need to do a reboot so we're just gonna give it a second to see

[00:02:16] so we don't get in the middle of things all right everybody we are going to

[00:03:32] cross our fingers and we may or may not read need to restart but we're gonna pretend like we don't and we'll just get going welcome everyone to our October SEAC meeting thank you all so much for coming this evening I'd like to do an extra special thank you to all of our school-based staff who comes out to our SEAC meetings after a very long day with our kids and still makes time to come to our SEAC meetings thank you so much we really appreciate you being here this evening and of course everybody else as well this evening we have a very special

[00:04:08] presentation by our assistant director miss Nakia Purnell but first I'd like to get started with our parent resource services Leanne do you want to come up and share what's on the horizon for our community thank you good evening everyone I'm Leanne Kidwell with parent resource services and I have two workshops coming up we have a

[00:04:45] workshop coming up on Wednesday October 23rd it's going to be at Briarwood high school so we're going to have room for lots and lots of you to attend it's the specialized reading and math in action so it will be the specialized reading and math facilitators they're going to be doing reading math executive functioning behavior and it's kind of like a make and take so you get lots of things to take home with you and use with your students at home if you only

[00:05:19] do one workshop this fall I would say it's this one it's fantastic and if you've been go again because there's going to be new strategies and new things in place. So October 23rd, Briarwood High School. It's on our website. It's on our Facebook page. It's on our Twitter.

[00:05:39] The other one is a new to us. It's building resilience in kids and it's through the mental health team and that's going to be on October 24th here at the admin building in this room from 6:30 to 8. Both of them, 6:30 to 8. And that's it. Thank you. Any questions?

[00:06:00] Thank you so much. And yes, please come to the Literacy and Math. It's very helpful. I went last year, I learned a lot, and I got lots of fun little takeaways. So if you like free stuff, you're going to enjoy it. And learn things, too. So, all right. I will hand it over to Nakia now.

[00:06:23] Good afternoon. And we have a lot of people here today. We didn't think a lot of people would be here. And so I'm really excited that we are keeping this up because last time we had a ton of people. We've done it again in October. So now you've set a precedent. Everyone who's here has to come back next month. Okay, that's how it works. Okay, so we're going to go ahead and get started. So what's new? Well, you guys already know that what's new in special education is

[00:06:54] the VAP decision-making tool. The tool is what's new for today. So it looks like most of you are sitting in groups. We will have some time to move around because this is going to be a group activity. So if you're sitting alone, you may have to join a group, but I'll give you some time.

[00:07:19] Okay, so why we're doing this, aside from because it is new, is to just give you a little bit of background because oftentimes you are the one sitting at the table having to go through the tool. We don't often have to go through the tool unless you're a supervisor out there participating in a meeting or a school-based admin or dean or designee of some sorts, but you all are also a part of that team. So we want to make sure we're providing you the background, giving you a nice review. The time that we spend today, I am telling you, is going to be a fast-forwarded version of time you are probably going to spend at the table at your IEP meetings. I want to preface this

[00:07:57] activity by saying that because we don't have a ton of time, but we want to spend enough time getting you acclimated to the tool, okay? And so you will have time to actually use the tool in your groups. So the changes to the tool were just really in formatting. If you remember the old tool or if you've seen the old tool, there are just a few changes to formatting. So the table was removed.

[00:08:23] it the direction of the decision making is different it just makes for a more user-friendly experience and I think I like the new design better longer but the design is better okay pop quiz and we're going to do this by hand if your answer is true raise your hand if your hand is down I am going to assume that your answer is false because there is no third choice I don't know is not an answer today okay all right so the VAP participation criteria has remained unchanged true or false

[00:09:01] hands up for true the answer is true the the VAP criteria has remained unchanged what has changed is the format of the tool that we use to consider the criteria so we are busting some myths I know some people have said oh there's new VAP criteria no no no no there's not new VAP criteria there is new form to consider if a student meets the VAP criteria. Okay, only the form has changed to support deeper discussion and more informed decision-making. Form

[00:09:38] updates were driven by the following things: Virginia's data regarding IEP teams VAP participation, a little bit higher than what was expected, VAP participants with primary identifications without criteria that includes a cognitive impairment so examples maybe some students who met eligibility criteria under the disability category of emotional disability but no cognitive impairments that could be questionable monitoring results and concerns so you know they've been going around and we were chosen

[00:10:13] last year for the CSEA monitoring so through some of that audit process that we talked to you guys a ton about last year some of it was discovered that way historically exceeding federal 1% caps, and that 1% is about the amount of the population of students with special needs in a division that should be found eligible for meeting the criteria for VAP, and requests from local educational agencies for additional guidance.

[00:10:42] So this new criteria form is a little longer, like I said, but it provides that additional guidance to those of you sitting at the table, making the decision. Instead of having to go somewhere else to get that guidance, the guidance is right there in the tool. So that is another reason for the change. Okay, so let's start with the definition because you're going to see this quite a bit as you're going through your packet and the packets are on the table. Once we start the activity, if we need to come around and add some additional resources, we will do that. But the definition of significant cognitive disabilities

[00:11:16] is very important. Significant cognitive disability is not a disability category. So you know if you've sat through eligibility and you've got those 14 disability categories that are recognized in the state of Virginia, significant cognitive disability is not one of them. Intellectual disability is one of them, but significant cognitive disability is not one of them.

[00:11:36] So you can't just open up the student's paperwork and go, oh, yes, they have that. It's not that simple. So identifying a significant cognitive disability is not solely determined by an IQ score. So you also can't go to that psych evaluation and flip, flip, flip to the end where the scores are and go, oh yes, the IQ is under that? Yes, they meet the criteria. Not that simple either. So it is also not based on a specific disability category. Oh, the student has autism?

[00:12:05] Yep, meets the VAP criteria. Doesn't work like that either. So participation in the alternate assessment involves students who have a most significant cognitive disability that impacts both intellectual ability and adaptive functioning which is those daily living skills. These students will have intellectual functioning and adaptive skills well below average. Well below meaning sometimes deficient, significantly deficient. And other characteristics must also be considered

[00:12:40] beyond standardized test scores. So and obviously if you are at your tables I want to give this disclaimer as well. You will probably have a ton more information. What we provided for you today for the activity is a psychological or possibly developmental depending on the student's age and an educational evaluation and the student's present levels. Obviously when you're at the table you're probably going to have more input. You might have some private evaluations, speech language, OT, PT. You may have a ton of things at the table to make those considerations but for the purpose of

[00:13:16] Today, that is what you're going to have to try to make an informed decision as a team. Okay, so only those students with the most significant cognitive disabilities are eligible for VAP or should be. When I say are, you might think like right now, today in Loudoun, maybe, maybe not, should be eligible.

[00:13:37] Only those with the most significant cognitive disabilities, again, the 1%. most of these students, but not all, have intellectual disabilities, autism, or multiple disabilities. Many of these students, but not all, were identified for special education services prior to even entering kindergarten.

[00:13:55] And the decision about which students should participate in VAP can be difficult. So again, I think the acknowledgement from the state, and again, I failed to say that at the beginning, this is the training that we all went through when this document rolled out, so these slides are directly from the state.

[00:14:11] So they acknowledge that sometimes it's difficult. So I don't want to pass this off as a situation that's easy. You're going to come sit at the table. Everyone's going to agree. We'll all be on the same page. It might not be a situation like that, because sometimes it's really clear.

[00:14:27] Sometimes it's really unclear. And sometimes it's so confusing that everyone really gets to a point of frustration. So I think I wanted to put that out there. But I'm hopeful that this new form, teams will find some of that frustration is taken away because it is more thoughtful and more comprehensive. Okay so why does it matter what students participate? Well matters for a lot of reasons. The IEP teams need to identify the appropriate students being assessed because short-term and long-term implications. So those short-term implications could be less depth and

[00:15:03] breadth and complexity of instruction based on the full SOLs. Long-term students most likely will not meet the requirements for a standard or advanced diploma and longer term students may not be eligible for some post-secondary training institutions military service or jobs so again what we're doing now for students the instruction that we're providing them that leads to the assessment that they are taking does have post-secondary implications so that's why it is so important to get this right okay the decision-making tool So overview. When you are in the meeting, it is a fillable form. Your teams may print it out. They

[00:15:43] may have it on the table. We have a printed out version for you. You could totally come with a printed out version if you wanted to, but it is a fillable form. Now, there may be some drafted responses pulled from the data that you all are going to review, but it certainly should be a comprehensive conversation with all of the knowledgeable members of the IEP team, which includes parents, advocates, attorneys, anyone that the family brings, trusted friend, grandma, Auntie, anyone who is sitting at the table that has been invited or is a part of the IEP team should be a part of the conversation.

[00:16:15] The IEP team must complete this tool every school year. It's not a one and done. You don't come to the table and say, oh, I thought we did this last year. Yeah, we did. We're going to do it this year. We're going to do it next year. Every year that it needs to be considered. So this is not a one and done situation. The tool comprises sections A through D, which is why it is a little long.

[00:16:35] Because once you open it up, you'll see that there are very specific questions for section A, B, C, and D. And it does make for some lively conversation because we had some very lively conversation when we went through this same activity that you guys are going to engage in today.

[00:16:52] And the tool has very specific steps that have to be followed. And so we will go through those steps. I won't read you this, but we will go through those steps at your tables. So to complete the tool, these are some of the sources that should be considered, so if you are at the table, formal and informal assessment results, evidence-based intervention data, assistive technology evaluations or assessment data, learner characteristics, current and recent IEPs documenting support services and progress.

[00:17:25] Okay, so does there have to be data to support each decision-making point? Yes, that was the easy one. Yes, and for all of these reasons. And I want to make sure we have time to do the work so I don't want to read to you every single thing on the slides.

[00:17:40] Okay, sections A through D, evidence and decision. So section A, we're gonna go ahead and you can, at your tables, you should have like two copies of packets for student one and student two, but then you should have a VAP criteria decision-making tool.

[00:18:00] Someone can just open up. There's a tool. And again, if you are not in a group, you probably want to get with the group because you want to be able to have a good, thorough conversation. So that's just a screenshot of what it looks like. We're going to give you a little more guidance before you get started.

[00:18:20] So these are the rare or questionable disability categories for students who meet the criteria. deafness or hearing impairment, emotional disabilities, as I said earlier, OHI sometimes, specific learning disability, orthopedic impairment, speech or language impairment, and visual impairment, unless there is a concurrent significant cognitive disability.

[00:18:45] So remember sometimes, but these are the rare or questionable categories. Now remember your typical categories, but they are not automatic qualifiers. Remember, you can't just open it up and say, yes, autism, we got one. That's not how it works. Deaf and blindness, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, traumatic brain injury.

[00:19:05] So these are some of the more typical categories of students who meet the criteria. Okay. So what do you have to do? You provide a brief summary to be used for each of the sections. So using all of the data that you have, it's going to ask you in that fillable form.

[00:19:24] You don't have the fillable form. You just have a paper copy. but it's going to ask you for a brief summary. What data points did you use to come to this decision for each section? So here are some instructions, and you don't have to stick to this, but it kind of makes it fun because this is how people don't have to say not it and touch their nose because that's what we like to do, right?

[00:19:45] So the group facilitator, so the person that's going to keep you guys on track, not talking about what you ate for lunch, is the person with the oldest child or children, The note taker, who's going to kind of keep your thoughts squared away, is going to be the person with the most pets, the person to report out, and you will not be made to report out.

[00:20:05] I'm not going to go around the room, but should your group want to report out, identify a person who's going to do that. The person who has traveled to the most states, and a timekeeper, because I just told you we're not going to have a ton of time, but again, when you are at the IEP table, there is not a time limit.

[00:20:22] Don't go back and say, Nakia, say, we got five minutes to get through this, because I not only for the purposes of today's meeting because we really want to get through the activity and have time for good conversation and questions so we're going to try to spend around five minutes per each student I know that's not a lot we'll keep checking our watches I tried to get through those first slides really really quickly so we could get to the good stuff but we're going to try to spend we're going to say five to seven minutes kind of reviewing the documents for each student so you might want to divide and conquer and see if you can go through and make the decision So we're going to go step-by-step with the first section.

[00:21:00] So the first section is very quick. So let's go ahead, open it up. The first section, I don't even know that we're going to need five minutes because section A really just asks some very, very simple questions. So you guys, go ahead and open up. Section A's got two questions.

[00:21:17] The first one, the first question is, does the student have a concurrent IEP, which is very easy, and what student disability categories does the student meet. That should be really quick.

[00:21:35] You should be able to glean that for both of your students very quickly. I'm going to walk around, see if you guys need any more paperwork. You guys need another tool.

[00:22:11] There you go. You want another one? I had a lot of extra ones. Garnell, you need to sit at a table with a group. No independent work here.

[00:22:25] So I'm going to predict that for Section A, you guys have been able to answer, does the student have an IEP?

[00:25:12] Well, yes, because I gave you the present level. I told you that part. And then what disability categories, you were able to glean that from the present levels as well? Because those were the only two questions. All right, we're going to go to B. And you may have already skipped ahead, which is okay, but I'm going to advance the slides.

[00:25:31] Determining most significant cognitive disability. So in section B, you're really going to get into some of that conversation. In this section, select the most applicable row that best describes, so most applicable, best describes the student's daily functioning, not what you've seen them do one time.

[00:25:52] Remember that one time when we were on that? The daily functioning for conceptual, social, and practical. And then after reviewing all of the data, you must decide between two rows. Presume competence every single time.

[00:26:09] It's going to be for everyone. We're going to presume competence, which means if you're like in a bind, should it be a two or should it be a three? We're going to choose two because we're going to presume competence. That is what this process requires you to do. Okay, and what does that mean?

[00:26:26] There's an explanation there in your slideshow of what presume competence means. because we're going to err on the side of caution to what is most beneficial for the student. And here are some questions to consider. Some of these things we've already discussed. We want to make sure that if we're choosing a four, that we're meeting all the criteria that is next to four for significant cognitive disability. And only do the scrippers in row four describe such

[00:27:05] significant deficits. Only for section B. Remember, we are staying in section B. Does the student's cultural and socioeconomic context matter? Yes, because that could impact adaptive functioning.

[00:27:28] You guys can continue working. I'm just reminding you these are things, conversations, that your teams will be having when you're making this consideration. Remember, you're always separating a student's cognitive functioning from external factors. And again, we said this is a

[00:28:06] comprehensive picture of the student, not just driven by their IQ.

[00:34:49] I'm hopeful that was about 10 minutes. If it wasn't, you guys can wrap up section B. Totally just winging this time thing. I did not set a timer. Was it about 10? Let's say it was about 10. All right, so we're going to go to section C you can wrap up section B but we're gonna go to section C so section C requires us to determine if the student requires that direct individualized instruction utilizing those V-SOLs so that would be different

[00:35:28] from the SOLs and do they require substantial remember these are keywords they do a really good job of putting some good descriptive keywords in here Substantial Support to Achieve Measurable Gains in the Grade and Age Appropriate Curriculum.

[00:35:47] Substantial Support. I know that is a subjective word. What does substantial look like? Well, that's what you guys have to talk about. We're going to have 10 minutes for Section C.

[00:36:03] Remember to presume competence if you get stuck. Maybe for this section you want to be talking about AT.

[00:36:23] Does the student have any AT or require any assistive technology? That may come up in this part of the conversation. Do they need maybe a formal evaluation? Or have they already had one?

[00:36:39] That might come up in this part of the conversation. Now here is a difference. Remember in section B, only those who were a four meet the criteria.

[00:36:55] But in this section, could be a three or a four. You got to pay attention. It gets kind of tricky.

[00:44:32] Oh, we're about to move into section D. And you guys are having tons of good conversation, which is what it should look, feel, sound like when you're at the IUP table, right?

[00:44:49] Section D, additional consideration. So this is where we're going to consider things like disability category, educational environment or instructional setting, reading levels, expected performance on those grade level assessments.

[00:45:11] Are they achieving these things with or without accommodations and/or modifications, administration decision or the impact of student scores, any behavior or emotional duress during these assessments if that's noted, poor attendance or extended absences, so that might identify some gaps in learning.

[00:45:36] Is the student an English learner? Are there any other social, cultural, or economic differences, maybe not disadvantages, but differences that need for, again, AT or AAC in order to participate in those general assessments?

[00:45:55] Academic and other services that the students receive and like for how long do they spend most of their time in or out of the special education environment? And this is where you may want to talk about some of those visual or auditory disabilities.

[00:46:12] Okay. Some other things, let's see, to consider during this conversation. Again, remember, we're not making any decisions solely based on that category. So we talked about that in the beginning. So just keeping these. And these are things that if you have this in front of you, each time you move into the category, you kind of switch your brain, right?

[00:46:35] okay, this section, let's be thinking about this. So now we're thinking about the label. We're also going to be thinking about whether, you know, the student is able or unable to take that general assessment to show what they know.

[00:46:51] Are they able to do that? Is something impeding their ability to do that? You want to talk about that here. You also, again, you're going to want to talk about, have they been receiving most of their instruction in that self-contained classroom? Or are they traditionally out in the general classroom most of the day, or some team taught, things like that?

[00:47:15] This is a lot of words on this slide, I'm sorry. Oh, we did not create the slides, I said that at the beginning. So, and again, you know, the IEP team is considering this student's participation. So what other things might need to be discussed about their ability emotionally to really participate in this general assessment.

[00:47:40] So you want to be talking about that. That's where some of that social emotional background information might be discussed if you have that in your present levels or might you have that in your psychological evaluation somewhere. So you want to review some of that information. Okay, so you have two questions to answer in this section and 10 minutes.

[00:48:08] Sorry, five minutes.

[00:48:12] i said five to seven i've been giving you guys ten though just so you know all right y'all are

[00:54:13] having too much fun which lets me know we're no longer talking about criteria d too much fun too much fun all right the very last thing you're going to do is answer yes or no so by a show of hands with no explanation and i'm not going to tell you if you were right or wrong i just want to see. I know there is no, there is no win here because I was not on your IEP team. So I cannot tell you if your IEP team decision was right or wrong because it was your decision. I might whisper

[00:54:49] in your ear though later about it, right? Okay, so student one, if was student, if you thought student one met the VAP criteria, raise your hand as a group unless you were split. Student one met the VAP criteria? Y'all might be all stars. I don't know. Student two. Does student two meet the VAP criteria? Oh, there's a table at the back that's saying y'all might not know what y'all are talking

[00:55:22] about. Do y'all want to share? Am I? Oh, okay. I don't know if I believe it. Okay. Lucy was over there. Okay. That's what happened. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for engaging in this activity I hope that it gave you a glimpse into what it might look like at the table I am hopeful that your teams are drafting some information prior to you coming to the table so you already have some really good blurbs to work with and consider certainly that's not the end-all be-all because remember when you come into a meeting everything is a draft so if there are other

[00:56:01] pieces of data or information that people introduce or want to bring into the conversation be open to that if someone says I don't know because a team back there that IEP team in the back might have been on to something they were like this student was two years old we we might need to ask for a re-eval I said I don't know maybe I would so those are things that could happen at the table that might delay and you might say we're going to reconvene and reconsider because we're going to ask for a re-evaluation we don't know that we have enough data to make

[00:56:35] this consideration. That's okay too, because again, you are making a decision about a child every single year that has post-secondary implications. And that is a very, very serious decision to make. It is in the hands of the IEP team every single year. So it requires this level of conversation. So you guys let me know if you hear somebody saying, we only got 15 minutes to have this conversation say Nakia said we had more minutes than that all right all right so you guys we are going to move into the next section of the meeting but prior to doing that go ahead and get

[00:57:12] your bio breaks out of the way and go visit the cruising cafe before they leave because they have tons of amazing snacks out there for you and then we'll get back to business thank you guys so much

[00:57:21] for your engagement all right everyone I hope you enjoyed your break and got some refreshments and

[01:15:53] snacks and all that good stuff and are ready for our meeting to commence the QR code has been up for a long time for every everyone could you please try and log in for those at home I hope we replace the QR code because I know there were some issues with people being able to scan it last time so if this QR code does not work for you please let me know and we will try something else to make sure we have something that's high def enough to work on all of our platforms.

[01:16:28] I am not going to spend time going over the role of SEAC and Virginia regulations, but please know we are mandated by Virginia, and we do a lot of work here in SEAC, and if you want to read more about it, you can go to our website and check it out.

[01:16:44] I will briefly introduce everyone. My name is Liz Crotty. I am the chair of SEAC. We have Katherine Moran, who is not with us this evening, but she is our SEAC Vice Chair of Planning. We've got Carla Sola, who is our Vice Chair of Membership, Erin Rosalpo, who is our Vice Chair of Communications, our SEAC Secretary is Katie Rosenbrook, our SEAC Past Chair is Sharon Trofe, who is with us virtually, as is Katherine Moran, so hi, guys.

[01:17:14] Then we have our Director of Special Education, Dr. Paige Carter. And our school board liaison, Carrie LaBelle, who is watching virtually, so hi, Carrie. She couldn't be with us this evening, but sends her regards. And then our school board liaison alternate is Melinda Mansfield.

[01:17:32] Do we have any public comment? Did anyone grab the sheet? Okay. Okay. Thanks, Shanaz. So, we use public comment to inform our work, to advise the school board on special education needs. We focus on system-wide issues rather than individual concerns or specific situations.

[01:17:53] Please do not use student or staff names. Verbal comment may be given, but please submit your written comment to us so that we can include it with our annual report. You can just hand it over to Katie Rosenbrook when you're done, or myself, it's fine. We have one public comment this evening.

[01:18:10] Courtney Miller, would you like to come up and join us? Thank you. - Hi, first off, I'm so tired, so I apologize in advance. My name is Courtney Miller. I am a parent of multiple students, but the issue that I wanted to bring to everyone's attention was something that I had just kind of briefly started to be aware of as, again, a larger systematic issue, that especially I was seeing in the secondary schools that a lot of the special education students in the self-contained classes for adaptive PE are doing a gym in the cafeterias

[01:18:47] rather than being able to access the gyms. So for me as a student, with a student who is coming in, movement is very important for a lot of the kids. I know different have sensory things, but the benefits of being able to fully access the movement, fully access the curriculum by using the spaces that we do have.

[01:19:09] A lot of the schools have multiple gymnasiums. It seems that a lot of it is a scheduling issue for the adaptive PE teachers, rather than just a spacing issue, that I would love if we could all come together and open up a conversation to have a solution so that these students can access the same space.

[01:19:28] Freedom of movement that will help with coordination, will I think actually help with some of the sensory things we're doing. We'll give them more time to develop friendships with people, to listen to music while they're also engaging in the movement and stuff, rather than the cafeteria class that I happened to observe.

[01:19:46] They didn't even use the whole cafeteria. They pulled a couple tables to the side. There were three mats that were placed out and the children took class on the mats and the cafeteria workers were setting up for lunch at the same time. So there was multiple things that were distracting, food cooking, it really didn't allow for very much.

[01:20:08] And I observed another class where the adapted PE teacher unfortunately was out and the solution was to have the children walk the hallways and there was not a substitute provided. And frankly that seems pretty unacceptable and our students deserve so, so, so, so much more than that.

[01:20:27] So I would love to open this up as a larger conversation and definitely by next year all of our special ed students are able to have true movement and to access their PE curriculum. Thank you.

[01:20:42] Thank you. Before we move into our did you know section, real quick, on the back table we were at the disability services board last night and they asked us to share with everyone information about accessible voting here in Loudoun County.

[01:21:04] Apparently all of our voting sites here in Loudoun County are very accessible and they go out of their way to make sure that anyone's needs are accommodated whether it's there's a long line or they need something adapted they're apparently very helpful so if you want more information on this you can grab a flyer if we for some reason run out of flyers we're going to post it on our social media so you can see it there as well and so next we will go into our did you know section on dyslexia and october is dyslexia awareness

[01:21:39] month so we thought it would be a timely time to talk about it so erin thank you thanks Yes, so October is Dyslexia Awareness Month, and as a mom of two children who have varying degrees of dyslexia, I stepped up to the plate on this one.

[01:21:58] So I'm just going to kind of give you a quick overview as much as possible about dyslexia, things to look for. It's really a complex world, so hopefully you kind of get an idea of what it's like. So dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with spelling, writing, and pronouncing words.

[01:22:19] problems with how you store words and their meanings in the memory, as well as trouble forming sentences to communicate more complex ideas. Dyslexia falls under the umbrella of specific learning disorder. The disorder has three main subtypes for reading, writing, and math.

[01:22:34] As a child gets older, dyslexia can often look like difficulty spelling simple words, learning to speak, learning letters and their sounds, troubles learning the names of the letters, problems telling letters apart, such as B or D, and P and Q, trouble rhyming, reluctant to read aloud in class, trouble sounding out new words, trouble learning how sounds go together, mixing up the position of sounds and words, organizing written and spoken language, memorizing number facts, reading quickly enough

[01:23:07] to comprehend, understanding longer assignments that are required, spelling, learning a foreign language, and even correctly doing math problems. Having one of the above doesn't necessarily mean a child will have dyslexia, but if they're having trouble learning some of the basic reading skills, then it's recommended that a dyslexia screening and test is a good way to see if specialized help is needed.

[01:23:33] The impact that dyslexia has is different from each person and depends on the severity of the condition, as well as the effectiveness of the instruction or remediation, ranging from mild, moderate, to severe. Students with dyslexia may find it difficult to express themselves clearly or to fully comprehend what others mean when they speak.

[01:23:53] Such language problems are often difficult to recognize, but they can lead to major problems in school, in the workplace, as well as relating to other people. Having dyslexia is not a measure of intelligence, however, dyslexia can affect a person's self-image.

[01:24:10] Students with dyslexia also end up feeling sometimes dumb and less capable than their peers. After experiencing a great deal of stress due to academic problems, a student may become discouraged about continuing in school. Genetics play a role in having dyslexia as well. Dyslexia is a lifelong condition. With proper help, many people with dyslexia can learn to read and write very well. Early identification and treatment is the key to helping individuals with dyslexia achieve in school and in life. Most people with dyslexia need help from a teacher, a tutor, a therapist, specially trained using a multi-sensory structured

[01:24:50] language approach. While dyslexia can present challenges for many who have it, there is no shortage of high achievers with dyslexia. Some examples of famous or very successful people with dyslexia include Jennifer Aniston, Tom Cruise, Magic Johnson, Kiana Reeves, Henry Winkler, and many professional athletes. Thank you, Erin. That was wonderful. And next we have Dr. Paige

[01:25:22] Carter to give us our update from the Office of Special Education. Good evening, everyone. Before I give my usual update, I just wanted to tell you about a visit we made today to the Davis Center, which is a transition center in Fairfax County. Several administrators across the division attended today, as well as a Virginia delegate and their aide and several other folks went to really explore some options for transition. And I was really proud that during

[01:26:01] the Davis Center's presentation, they pointed out some of the cool things that we were doing. And Jenna, she may be out in the hallway, but Jenna, our transition supervisor, also pointed out some of the awesome things that we are doing such as the the cart the snack cart here and a couple of other things so it was a really good visit but just in preparation for moving forward with a transition center here in Loudoun so we're really excited about that visit all right so we are 22 students up from our count um last week as we are making adjustments uh for last week last

[01:26:40] month and and again I think this is probably a low estimate because as students transfer in as students are undergoing the eligibility process there's always this is as of Monday there may have been even a few more eligibility meetings yesterday and today but it's always interesting to see the numbers the numbers tick up and and down and fluctuate the other thing you guys always want to hear about is our special education vacancies the blue is where we were this time last year. The red is where we were last month and the gold color is where we are this

[01:27:18] month. That is a total of 35 teacher vacancies right now. That does not include long-term substitutes. It also does not reflect three teachers that are in the hiring process right now. For the TAs, there are 31 vacancies with five TAs in the hiring process as of Monday this week. So we are filling those vacancies as the year ticks on, which we are much better positioned this year as far as vacancies. I do want to say about the vacancies, recognizing that if your student is in a classroom

[01:27:57] that doesn't have a teacher, I by no means want to minimize the impact of that. We want this chart to be flat on the zero line. We want to be fully staffed in every way, and I'm going to talk about few budget priorities um that will um i believe help us get there but i just want to give you a few audit updates i'm happy to report that three of the four audits are complete the fiscal audit our comprehensive um audit from the state of virginia looking at mostly at matters of compliance as well as our internal staffing audit have all been completed and and to paint it with broad

[01:28:36] strokes. For me they were a celebration of strengths, but refinement of practices where we were missing the mark a bit and also highly value the inter-departmental collaboration that is emerging out of the outcomes of this audit that I'm told is new and great. So I'm really I'm really glad about that.

[01:28:57] We are getting ready for the external special education audit which will be the largest one and the one that is most comprehensive. They're pretty much it touch every area of special education including instruction and staffing and personnel and compliance so where it will be very comprehensive it will take about 18 months to two years to complete we have identified a company who will be doing that with us and in the process of solidifying that agreement now and we should begin sometime around January so we are very excited about that one

[01:29:32] because it will give us information that directly impacts our students every day. All right, it's budget season, and I always like to identify with you guys some of the things that I am putting forward that you can help me advocate for.

[01:29:49] Of course, special education staffing, that's always at the top of the list. We also want to recognize that our growth in early childhood and the growth in, especially students with autism, continues to rise. And so we'll be adding new programs next year for both early childhood special education and elementary.

[01:30:11] There may be a few secondary additions, but it looks like the trends are mostly in K-2 and early childhood. We're also going to have asked for some, of course, the maintenance of our robust staffing standard with a few enhancements to those staffing standards.

[01:30:28] to accommodate students who are, um, sort of in between the, the, um, S.O.L. track and the alternative standards, V-SOLs. Um, we, um, it, it is a rung on the continuum that we individually are able to support, but not in the way at elementary we'd like to.

[01:30:47] So we're requesting some enhancements to the staffing standards at elementary so we can support students a bit differently. We're also asking for stipends for our lead special education teachers in elementary. And also HRTD is lifting recruitment and retention bonuses for hard to fill positions.

[01:31:08] And we want that to continue in the coming years. And that includes all areas of special education. We are excited for that. We also want to continue support for transition services, both in learning labs and as we move toward a transition center.

[01:31:23] don't want to stop the advocacy for that and we also of course inclusive playgrounds want to continue lifting that as something that is a priority both for SEAC and for us all right and then I just want to say a big thank you I was Google has included now easy gifts to put on or gifs if you're one of my children on the slides I just thought a neon sign might be appropriate because I went to Las Vegas last week for a little getaway and I'm into the neon these days but I really just

[01:31:58] want to say thank you to SEAC for your advocacy on behalf of special education and for the collaboration the more I communicate with directors around the region and the state I am extremely fortunate to work with all of you and don't want to neglect to lift that each and every time we're together. So that's all I have. Thank you so much, Paige. We appreciate you too. Um, Tedra, now it's

[01:32:30] your turn, Department of Student Services. Thank you, Liz. Um, good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. Um, it has been a busy start to, to the school year for the entire Department of Student Services. So I do have some updates. Um, first, um, LCPS in partnership with, um, Senator Russett Perry and Delegate Kanan Srinivasan. We hosted a recovery school roundtable. You all

[01:33:03] might remember last year's budget. We were able to get funding from the General Assembly. And so here's a picture of the legislators and leaders and community partners that gathered on September 19th because we have written the framework for our recovery school, but really wanted some more input, and so this is a work in progress, but we are hoping and excited to get that lifted up in time for the 25-26 school year. Secondly, our mobile health clinic received a commendation,

[01:33:36] and it was delivered by Delegate Atusa Reser for their work in our community schools in the Sterling area, so that was a wonderful celebration. Then we also have our student health services team is really working with community partners such as health works and um the safe way out in sterling are really trying to provide some on-site clinics for student im unizations to our schools and so we're excited about those those expanding partnerships um and additionally um we will be we

[01:34:14] have we have submitted our application to the virginia department of health so that our lead nurse practitioner, Dr. Christina Young, who mans the student mobile health clinic so that we can provide vaccines.

[01:34:30] And so we are really excited to be able to extend our services through our mobile health clinic. And then some updates. So it is budget season. Paige, thank you for setting the stage there. Um, um, wow.

[01:34:46] If the school board, when the school board sees all of the initiatives, the initiatives coming out of the Department of Student Services. They'll have to take a step back for sure. But we do have growing needs across our population for those that we serve. So we have prioritized student health services staffing, primarily our registered nurses, making sure that all of our schools are equipped with registered nurses to meet the needs of our students.

[01:35:17] In addition to registered nurses, really looking at the student population and then also being able to build our capacity of student nursing assistants to support our health clinic offices. Special education staffing, cross-categorical teachers, specialized program teachers.

[01:35:36] As Paige has shared, we have seen quite the increase in early childhood special education. Mental health staffing has been prioritized by our school board, and you all know that we've been able to add additional student assistance services specialists to our schools.

[01:35:55] We were able to add 10 more coming into this current school year, but really looking at expanding our mental health supports, not just for our students, but also looking at mental health supports for our staff. And then we do have an initiative that focuses on behavioral support to our elementary schools.

[01:36:16] Not just for students with disabilities, for all students. Special programs, again, talking about our recovery school, we do have funding for this year and we're in the planning and development phase for that. And then we have prioritized, it's a legislative priority for our school board.

[01:36:34] They have also identified it as a budget priority for them, and so our transition center for students with disabilities, and I do want to thank Liz Karate, Melissa Wah, and Shonaz Khan for coming out and speaking and advocating during the joint committee meeting of our school board, and our board of supervisors really lifting up the need for inclusive playgrounds, and our transition center, and I think it was so impactful that they really shared the personal impact that it can have on families to have these resources to serve our students so that is the update from DSS again it's been a super busy time

[01:37:13] we're excited budget season is probably going to wear us down a little bit and we appreciate your advocacy and thank you on the front end for all that you do for our students thank you thank you Tedra so I'm going to hand it over quickly to Carla to give us an update on our membership and there we have 20 active SIAC members out of 21 available positions and we currently have four

[01:37:50] membership applications that are under review since we have membership requirements people are at different places in terms of meeting those we have 78 PTA PTO representatives for 101 schools. So we're still looking for more school representatives if you're listening. And we will be holding a virtual information session on Wednesday,

[01:38:25] October 23rd at 730 to go over the role of a PTA PTO representative. We sent out google link for that and i will resend that out for um anyone who will be able to join us on the 23rd thank you so much carla um and also speaking of membership we um we voted in a new sea act member steven meyer welcome steven i'm going to put you on the spot just for a second just because

[01:39:04] everybody else got to do an introduction briefly last time so i don't want you to miss out on that I'm Steve Meyer. I'm a retired teacher here at LCPS. I taught at Harper Park. I taught students with all different kinds of disabilities, pre-algebra, to get them ready to graduate high school. I loved it. And the one problem that I saw was that the kids I taught in my self-contained

[01:39:43] classes especially but others didn't have pathways to succeed numbers of my students were behind in reading they were way behind in math they would do fantastic in all different kinds of CTE programs and other such programs so I really wanted to join SEAC at this point to help work on the new transition center I think it's important I know there was a study done by the National

[01:40:19] School Board Association for students with IEPs and those students that were in CTE programs graduated with higher academic skills than those students who were not and I saw that in my own students they didn't have a pathway and and so they didn't try. They had an agreement with their parents that they could do so much, and I knew they could do a lot better. So with the pathway, I think we're going to see wonderful

[01:40:51] things. We're so happy to have you join us and excited for all the new future members and anyone who wants to come and get more active with us. You don't even have to be a member and make that commitment. We will take all the help that we can get. Speaking of which, we're going to talk a little bit about advocacy hopefully most of you guys got the email that I sent out I think it was this last week or the week before all the weeks are kind of jumbled together right now so I

[01:41:25] apologize but like Tedra said a few of us showed up for the board of supervisor and school board joint meetings if you feel like oh man I can't believe I missed it good news there's another one And this one is even more important because the topic of transition is actually on the agenda and we can also share about inclusive playgrounds as well. So this is going to be on Monday, November 18th at 4 p. m. You want to show up a little bit early so that you can sign up for public comment.

[01:41:53] It's just a sheet. I promise it's not as scary as it sounds. You just get up there and, you know, you can either have something pre-written, you can just speak from your heart, whatever, you know, you're most comfortable with.

[01:42:12] But it makes such a difference. And not having a canned thing. We're not giving you pre-planned comments to read because no one really cares about that. They want to hear about you and your experience and why these topics are important to you.

[01:42:29] So Monday, November 18th, it is at the Loudoun County Government Center. so it's not here that night, so you have to trek a little bit further to Leesburg if you're from this side of the county, but it's easy enough to get to. There will be a number of us there, but we really need everyone to come out because if they just keep seeing Shanaz and I and maybe Melissa, you know, they're going to be like, okay, we get it. You guys want this, but they need to hear from other people as well. There are going to, I mean, Tedra and Paige went over what the

[01:43:04] budget priorities are coming out of student services, there are a lot of other people with competing budget priorities, okay? Like, none of this is a guaranteed thing, and if these are things that we want our community to have, we need to get out there and explain it, because you know that the music people are going to be out, and the sports people are going to be out, and it's a lot easier for them to make time in their evenings to get out to these meetings, and they will come out.

[01:43:31] They will come out in big numbers. We need to do the same. And I know that that's a really big ask from every single one of you. But it's so important. And I wouldn't be standing here and saying this if I didn't think that it really, really matters.

[01:43:49] So if you can't make it on November 18th, we also have October the 22nd and November the 12th and November the 19th. There are a lot of opportunities to have your voice heard. It is always better to come in person and give your public comment, but if you really can't do it for some reason, we have emails that you can send.

[01:44:10] We've put up all of your representatives on there. Let them know how important this is to you and why it's important. It's going to make a difference, but we really do need every single person. If we can get someone from every single school to come out and talk about why this is important and bring your neighbor, bring anyone who's close to you who also cares about the future success of your child and their ability to access playgrounds and all of this.

[01:44:37] I mean, it impacts so many people, but we need them to actually come out and show up and take a deep breath and just speak their truth. You can absolutely bring your children. It's better to bring your children. Let your children speak.

[01:44:54] I mean, they may be very invested in this as well. I know some of our kids might not be able to, But for those who can, who want to share why these topics might be important to them and might impact them, please, please let them speak. I mean, we're all learning and working on being better advocates, and our kids are too.

[01:45:13] And if they see us advocating, that's going to help them. And it also gives them an opportunity to really start that effective advocacy for themselves as well. So, sorry, this is just my moment of begging. If you need more information, we have it on our SEAC webpage, we've also posted it on social media.

[01:45:33] It's got all the dates, it's got all the emails, we'll probably spam you again to share it as well as we get a little closer to some of these other dates. Okay, and yes, advocacy is action. I actually heard that phrase from our MSAC chair and I was like, you are so right.

[01:45:52] We cannot just be talking to our neighbors about it and, you know, sending, like, little grumpy texts to our friends and stuff. If we want to make change, we actually have to take an action. And there is no one better at that than parents of children with disabilities.

[01:46:10] Like, we know what it means to change things. So much has changed for our community since everything began, you know, back in the 1800s even. you know, parents are the drivers of change and we need to continue that. So numbers are going to make a difference. Make it personal. Share your why. And if you have any questions, feel free to email me and I'm happy to answer. And I look forward to seeing you all there. Please come up and say hi to me. Don't just feel like you have to hide in the corner. Be like, hey, I'm here to

[01:46:45] help support and advocate for those things. I will be very happy to see you. Okay. Also, speaking of budget, we are going to be talking about budget topics to work on, refining our recommendations in all of our subcommittees, so you are welcome to attend our subcommittees and provide input, or you can send an email if you have thoughts as well, but the policy subcommittee will then be meeting and officially drafting our budget recommendations, which we will then bring to all of you guys for discussion probably hopefully next month also in

[01:47:24] progress is the annual report which we will be presenting in December but I will be presenting on it a bit at our November school board meeting and the data is escaping my head but I'll send that out to everybody as well okay now we are going to move into our new business section and we need to admit our our two virtual attendees.

[01:47:50] Do I have a motion? All right, Katie makes the motion, a second? All right, Erin and Melissa. All in favor of admitting Catherine and Sharon, please raise your hand, say aye.

[01:48:07] Aye. All opposed, nay. Any abstentions? All right, Sharon and Catherine, you are admitted. And the first thing we're gonna do is we are going to approve the minutes from May. I sent them out in advance.

[01:48:23] Did anyone have any corrections to make to the minutes? All right, seeing none, I will accept those minutes. And we will now move into our roll call for quorum. Beth Carlson, Liz Crotty.

[01:48:42] Here. Jennifer DiDonato, Kathy Fuligatti-Lambert, Tom Ketchum, Shanaz Khan, Rosina Katak, Laura Colossi, Alicia McFadden, Craig Metz.

[01:49:02] He's right there. Hey, Craig, can you stay here? Stephen Meyer, Catherine Moran is virtual, Sarah Plattenberg, Kelly Ralston, Erin Rosalpo, Katie Rosenbrook, Carla Sola, Sharon Trope, Melissa Waugh, Sakina Zarbusch.

[01:49:32] Excellent. So, yeah, we've got more than 50%. Perfect. All right. Now we will move into our policy review. So I will call up Melissa and Craig to go over that. Okay.

[01:49:53] So this will be pretty quick tonight. Yay. So, first of all, Policy 1040, which is the Equal Opportunity for Equitable, Safe, and Inclusive Environment Policy. SEAC had one concern.

[01:50:09] We were concerned that the actual definitions of an individual with a disability found in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act were not being accurately reflected. Oh, thanks, sorry. I didn't realize I had more slides.

[01:50:26] Oh, I have a couple. Okay. And so this policy, the policy actually starts out by saying the Loudoun County School Board is committed to providing for equitable, safe, and inclusive learning and working environments. And the policy affirms this commitment for all people, and every policy, practice, and procedure shall reflect this commitment.

[01:50:46] Mistreatment, bullying, harassment, and otherwise harmful actions are prohibited. All right, and so the Section 504, the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act define individuals with disabilities protected by these federal laws as those who have a perceived disability.

[01:51:08] And so our recommendation is that the policy be amended at line 16. Does it go into that? No, okay. Line 16 to add the phrase, quote, disability, comma, or perceived disability.

[01:51:20] So that the whole sentence now reads, the Loudoun County School Board affirms a commitment to this principle for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, ethnic or national origin, citizenship or immigration status, perceived citizenship or immigration status, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition, age, marital status, sexual orientation, perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, perceived gender identity, gender expression, military status, and here it is, disability or perceived gender identity.

[01:51:50] disability. And then our second recommendation is that at the end of the policy, at line 40, add a reference to the definition of those protected under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disability Act to include in the citations to the federal law and the federal regulations for those two laws. So those are our recommendations and our concern.

[01:52:15] do i have a nothing else okay uh should make a motion and then discussion all right so if i could hear a motion to adopt the concern and two recommendations from the policy and compliance subcommittee in a second all right is there any discussion all right and so the motion was made to adopt the concern and two policy recommend recommendations to amend the policy uh as presented by the policy and compliance subcommittee and again any discussion looks like

[01:52:53] no all right all those in favor of adopting the concern and two recommendations say aye and uh any opposed any abstentions all right but we need to get the all right and Catherine Moran what was your vote aye Sharon Trofe aye okay and so the motion passes unanimously and I'm going to go back and there were several other policies that the policy and compliance subcommittee reviewed listed here on the bottom half of that slide policy 2440 regarding school board quorum rules

[01:53:33] and voting 7630 for tuition programs 7316 pay for coaches 4030 non-locally funded programs grants and donations and 8020 relations with school support organizations such as pta pto and boosters After reviewing those policies, the subcommittee proposed and adopted no recommendations or concerns, and so that is our position for today.

[01:53:58] So if I could hear a motion to adopt the policy and compliance subcommittee's finding of no recommendations or concerns for the listed policies. Okay, so moved. Is there a second, Tom? All right. Any discussion regarding these policies?

[01:54:16] All right. All those in favor of adopting the position of the Policy and Compliance Subcommittee to make no recommendations to the listed policies, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Any abstentions? Catherine Moran, what's your vote?

[01:54:35] Aye. Sharon Trove? Aye. All right. And so the position of the Policy and Compliance Subcommittee that there be no recommendations to the listed policies is adopted unanimously. all right now we'll move into our reports and updates and we're actually going to get to subcommittee reports this week or this month um so first off let's start with the literacy and math subcommittee alicia do you want me to bring you a mic or do you want to come on up here

[01:55:14] all right yeah come on up and join us okay so um so far we have been talking about the guidance and some of the training for the updated reading and math programs that have been approved by BDOE. We are awaiting some updates for data for, what was it? The

[01:55:47] Lexia. And then the read aloud accommodations. And if you would like to join us, our next meeting is October 17th at 9 a.m. virtual. All right. And next, we've got meaningful inclusion. Tom, do you want to give us an update there yeah we're in the works we're in the work so meaningful inclusion had our first meeting last month where we set

[01:56:25] sort of the agenda for the year obviously the advocacy around the inclusive playgrounds I'll just echo what Liz said continues to be a big part of what we're discussing because while the approval by the school board for the funding for the fencing, it was a great start. It was a start, and we'll continue to push on that throughout the rest of the year. And our next meeting for the Meaningful Inclusion Subcommittee, of course, is next Wednesday evening, and it looks like we will have our first work

[01:56:58] session scheduled for next Wednesday afternoon, where we will be talking specifically with some LCPS staff about the playgrounds and the efforts there. Do you want me to also cover equity while I'm up here? It's not really a subcommittee. It's not a subcommittee, but I'll just. Equity had their first meeting last month. They decided to form a couple of subcommittees. I think in a very sincere form of flattery, one of those is a policy subcommittee largely based upon a lot

[01:57:35] of the stuff that we do here at SEAC, which is great, and also looking at the charter itself for the equity committee, which hasn't been updated in several years. Next meeting for equity is actually in November, because the subcommittees will be having their first meetings this coming month, or sorry, this month, rather. And in GEAC, they meet every other month. That's a gifted advisory of course and uh that first meeting was basically covering and reviewing topics uh around

[01:58:06] the different gifted services available throughout the county awesome and policy i know you guys actually did have an update that you wanted to give just super quick mainly because i just wanted folks to know we actually do more than just review policies i know it feels like all i ever talk about is policies um but we really especially this year as opposed to previous years we really want to be more proactive in the Policy and Compliance Subcommittee, addressing issues raised in public

[01:58:45] comment and that kind of thing. Our last committee meeting, besides reviewing policies, we also reviewed the audit report on special education staffing. We're able to discuss that with the LCPS staff members who regularly do come to these policy meetings, and we have some fantastic discussions in that forum. We also are able to discuss budget recommendations and talk about recommendations CIEC has made in the past and ones that we wanted to re-up for this year.

[01:59:13] Also, definitely the transition center and the inclusive playgrounds. And then, as I said, it's been raised already that three of our subcommittee members went and presented public comment at the joint meeting of the school board and the board of supervisors. Sorry, I was having a brain lapse, sorry, it's late in the day.

[01:59:35] But anyway, so there's a lot going on. Please come. We publish, send out the dates and times of the meetings. Oh, and they're actually right there on the board. And they're virtual. Anyone can come, whether you're a SEAC member, a PTA, PTO rep, or just a member of the community or a member of the staff.

[01:59:52] We welcome everyone because this is your opportunity to provide direct feedback on a lot of these issues. And it also can fulfill your requirement If you're interested in becoming a member of SEAC, it does count for one of the meetings that you would have to attend to be able to apply to be a member.

[02:00:09] So come on out. Join us in Policy and Compliance Subcommittee. All right. In transition, Shanaz. Where are you, Shanaz? There you are. You're hiding in the back. I told you you were supposed to always be in the front.

[02:00:29] So, you know, first of all, I do want to take this opportunity to thank our staff, Tedra, Paige, Nakia, everybody, school board members, who are really listening to us and hearing our need for a transition training center.

[02:00:50] I mean, it's been really collaborative. It's been awesome. We're really very appreciative of all of you for hearing our need. We had our meeting yesterday morning for the transition subcommittee.

[02:01:07] We had a work session here. We started off with Jenna, our transition supervisor, kind of giving us an overview of what was done over the summer and some of the stuff they've been working on. They talked about training staff in writing a meaningful and compliant transition plan, training for transition staff on public transportation, We talked about the community partnership we have with FAA and how that's developing.

[02:01:39] Then after giving a really good in-depth overview of what they've been working on, we started talking about CII and what does CII look like? What should it look like? We've talked about CII community independence instruction.

[02:01:59] We talked about how traditionally it's been called CBI, which is a community-based instruction. That's kind of recognized, I believe nationally, all over this community-based instruction, how we were thinking about going back to using that terminology and developing what will it look like in elementary, middle, and high school.

[02:02:19] This is going to be our continued talk throughout the next three times we're going to be meeting. Also we'll be talking about what do we want our transition center to look like, what do we want to have and incorporate in our transition center.

[02:02:37] And so we also talked about how we can increase engagement among schools with CII and how it benefits our students and how we can increase our business partnership. So our next workshop is December 17th at 9:30 a.m. at the LCPS admin building.

[02:02:53] We really hope more people can come and give their input. All right, and SEAC awards will be getting started very soon. I know it seems far off, but it's going to jump up very quickly, so we'll have more information soon.

[02:03:12] The executive committee will be meeting tonight at Clyde's after this business meeting, so it is open to all. Please come and join us if you'd like. Since Carrie is not here, we will not do her portion, but I know she always likes to hear from the community, so if you ever have any concerns, please feel free to reach out to Carrie or your school board representative.

[02:03:38] We have already gotten a couple of these representative reports done, but we have not gotten to Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee. So, Stephen, would you like to share our update on that? Thank you, Liz.

[02:03:57] So, I went to what I thought was going to be a CTEAC meeting, And I was surprised that Dr. Grubbs was there and basically presented an in-depth slideshow on what he was hoping to accomplish.

[02:04:14] He basically said that Dr. Spence was 100% behind having special ed students in all of these programs. And Dr. Grubbs said the same when I talked to him privately.

[02:04:30] The new division that Dr. Grubbs is heading up is divided into four different groups. One is CTE, one is K-12 computer science, work-based learning, and then the last is adult education.

[02:04:49] And Dr. Grubbs is really committed. He attended our transition meeting that Jenna led yesterday. He attended by phone because he was driving to a meeting, and he was there for most of the meeting.

[02:05:07] So I think we really appreciate his interest. And he said to me personally that in addition to the Transition Center, he hoped to have special ed students in his programs also.

[02:05:24] So I think there's a lot of hope. The last thing I wanted to say is, so Jennifer Alpers from Fairfax was recently hired, and she will run under Dr. Grubbs the CTE programs, and she ran one of the Fairfax satellite programs, and the way she put it to me was, we wanted special ed students there.

[02:05:55] We weren't concerned about them passing the tests for a state certificate. We wanted them there. We provided supports, and we wanted them to be educated so that when they went out to look for a job, they could say, I passed this program.

[02:06:16] So hopefully Loudon will do the same, and thank you. Thank you so much for all of those great updates. There is a lot of work that's happening in all of these committees and subcommittees and they are all open to everyone.

[02:06:36] Please feel free to come and join us and, you know, share some input. We, the more the merrier, truly. Our next SEAC presentations and business meetings for November, we have the LCPS Family Support Social Workers and then we're going to have an LCPS Resource Fair with some different resources from within the county that might be helpful to your family.

[02:06:59] So that's with Ms. Jennifer Evans and Dr. John Walker. And then in December, December 4th, we're doing our SEAC annual report. So that's always a really exciting presentation and meeting. But we'll be going over all of the work that we did last year, right, that is kind of setting us up for what we're up to this year.

[02:07:20] So it should be, I think, a very nice, helpful, positive walk down memory lane. We'll be going over, at that point, the annual survey that hopefully every one of you took, right, and the results of that. So that'll be really interesting to see as well.

[02:07:38] So please come and join us for all of our meetings going forward. We love having you here. Thank you all so much for coming out this evening. thank you for your energetic enthusiasm and collaboration and it just it means so much to us all to have you here so thank you again have a wonderful night and we'll see you next month

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