Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Student Services Committee Meeting, Thursday, April 24, 2025

Date: Thursday, April 24, 2025
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 30m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1078538473?rel=0

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 2026-10-13. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] - Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the April 24th, 2025 meeting of the Student Services Committee. I am Anne Donahue, Committee Chair. With me are Ms. Melinda Mansfield and Ms. Carrie LaBelle. This meeting is being audio recorded, but not video recorded or live streamed.

[00:00:17] The audio recording will be available for anyone to listen to after today through the LCPS website. We are going to get started. Item number two on our agenda is public comment. my understanding is we have no speakers signed up for today okay all right so we will move on to item number three on our agenda which is approval of the draft minutes from our march 20th 2025 committee meeting hopefully we have all had a moment to review the minutes and if there are

[00:00:52] any unless there are any requests for edits or corrections i will entertain a motion to approve the minutes miss LaBelle I move to approve the minutes as written I second thank you the motion has been properly moved and seconded all those in favor please say yes I that motion passes unanimously and now we will move on to

[00:01:30] item number four our action item revisions to policy 8125 admission requirement mr. Dolson I believe this one is yours Thank You chair Mansfield yes it is we went through policy 8125

[00:01:45] I'm chair Donahue I apologize I apologize pardon me we went through policy 8125 last time as a committee the items that you see before you are what we discussed this policy did go before many committees and at this at the current time we asked for feedback there was no formal feedback from the school board advisory committees on the revisions that were presented at last time we met

[00:02:18] thank you mr. Dolson committee members any questions or concerns I think MSAC brings up a good point timely manner is there like a definition of timely manner

[00:02:41] or I'm sorry yes line 30 is that the red line so timely manner can I think it's it's the responsiveness so my office is also in charge of responding to McKinney vento applications so sometimes that requires additional documentation to ensure that we are following the federal law my office works with families on a daily basis in regards to their application process so sometimes that is

[00:03:20] just a communication between the school and then our McKinney-Vento liaisons in seeking out the proper documentation to be able to certify them under the federal law I also have one question Mr. Dolson when we had this as an info item at our March meeting I believe we discussed adding in as available related to records from international students don't see that in the in the

[00:03:59] current run. Mr. Donohue can you please let us know the line number on that one. Ms.

[00:04:37] Richardson I suspected you were about to ask and I was trying to find it. I believe it is on page 7 of the red line. believe it's line somewhere around 280 or 281 staff do you recall that conversation we did not capture that and we are making note of it so we will

[00:05:14] make that amendment you miss Mansfield so Montessori schools are they also accredited under Virginia was it private education council for private education some of them I mean I'm just wondering if they were if they do

[00:05:42] Montessori schools as well. Yes. Some of them may be. Okay. And that's on VDOE websites as to what those accredited will be. Correct. As well as the multi-division online providers. That list is also available on the Virginia Department of Education website. And we have that on here, right? Yes. Seeing further discussion.

[00:06:14] Do we need to make an amendment for what you just added or not? We haven't voted on that. Do we need to vote on adding

[00:06:28] the as available language since we discussed it last time we do so I move to amend line 279 of the red line version to add the word available between all and school

[00:07:04] transcripts such that it will the first sentence of part E will read students transferring from non-public or international schools must present all available school transcripts records exam scores etc is there say is that we

[00:07:42] the base motion and then we second the base motion and then from there that's why I was asking if this is gonna be amendment because we did talk about it last time it wasn't put in but we haven't said nobody said a base motion I just didn't know if we should make it as an amendment or not but usually we have a base motion then you amend it oh yeah okay so potentially having missed that stuff right you're right okay well then I move to forward this policy these

[00:08:21] policy revisions to the full board for its consideration I second now I make an amend an amendment as previously stated to add the word available into line 279 of the red line between all and school is there a second for that I second thank you miss LaBelle as to the amendment of adding the word available all those in favor please say aye that motion passes unanimously is there any further discussion as to the the base motion as amended so that motion has been moved

[00:09:01] and seconded so now we will vote on on the base motion as amended to forward the revisions to policy 8125 as amended to the full board for its consideration all those in favor please say aye that motion passes unanimously thank you we will now move on to item five our information item for this evening revisions to policy 8115 individuals who may be admitted free again this appears to be you mr. Dolson thank you so much chair Donahue again this is policy 8115 individuals who may be admitted free there are a lot of cross-references

[00:09:41] between this policy and the one that you just approved for the full board 8125 within the version you have before you we made some grammatical and formatting improvements throughout like policy 8125 we added section 6 to policy 8115 admission of students who are children of certain federal employees to comply with federal guidelines and we also removed the duplicated legal references

[00:10:10] at the end of this policy thank you mr. Dolson I had a question I had a question about the deletion of lines 71 to 73 in the red line version currently enrolled English learner students etc and I did note that that language is also stated in Part C at lines 54 to 56 yes ma'am ish so I'm a little curious why it

[00:10:49] was in there twice before and if that's the reason for the deletion it is it's just for to be more concise I have two items the first one is on line 39 on the red line version serious intent how is that provided how do we know serious intent so again I'm just going to speak for experience and dealing with high school students that would be things like regular attendance complying with

[00:11:25] school rules looking at the number of is it possible for a student to graduate within a school year the number of credits they need or that they have earned and then what they need in order to complete their high school diploma those I think that's summarized as kind of the intent behind that is this addressed in the regulations it is yes I would have to go back and double check but I believe it's enumerated well and it's enumerated here in in the sense of the attendance and the abiding

[00:12:02] by the school rules I mean those are the specifics. I think the it also talks about the number of credits that a student needs to earn. We do allow for students that are close to graduation to take eight credits during this time where they would be able to work towards completing their diploma given their age and given how close they are in making that success by completing their high school diploma.

[00:12:36] I'd have to go back and look at the specific regulation for that enumeration, but the intent is basically, I think, articulated well here, which is regular attendance and abiding by all of the school rules. So that's why, I mean, if that's here, then I don't know why we need that sentence, demonstrate a serious intent to complete high school.

[00:13:00] If I could just add a clarifying point. So Section B refers to students who turn 20 years of age. So we're talking about students that, by all accounts, should have completed high school two years previously, correct? And so part of that serious intent is coming to us with a plan, bringing your previous transcripts, Being willing to sit down, we could work with you with your work schedule or your other personal, you know, sort of obligations.

[00:13:28] And you are committing to do these things to get your coursework done so you can obtain your high school diploma. So I just wanted to make sure we were clear that we were talking about those 20-year-olds. And so we're having a different type of conversation with them when they come back to say, I really want to get my diploma.

[00:13:48] Can you work with me? What do I have to do? And so the questioning is just a little bit different. And certainly then the other factors are, can you attend regularly? We can work with you on a modified schedule. But it's all dependent upon the number of courses that you're going to have to complete and what those courses are.

[00:14:06] So my thought is, I mean, that, okay, so we have like a rubric or whatever, and it has like expectations, right? That's kind of what I'm thinking here for expectations, like serious intent. what is that definition and and like examples given or something like that so it captures it more if it's in the regulation I just my computer just I don't know if it is or isn't but I just want people to know when they look at the policy okay I need this and this and this is how I'm going to demonstrate my

[00:14:43] serious intent and so it's not oh well you didn't bring this or there's that I mean I think that that would be fair for them to understand since they've probably been out of school for a little bit correct the other thing I don't know how my board members feel about that but the other thing that I was thinking

[00:15:07] about was this 207 line 207 in the red line are we I've gotten it mixed up let me hold on that I might have gotten mixed up with the other policy hold on

[00:15:42] so I I have a question related to line 207 I was reading this and as similar to the questions I had asked with regard to the policy that we just just passed an action item thinking about students who have whose families are here on refugee status would they be captured as eligible for free admission they're from foreign countries but not on an exchange program so line 207 is referring to foreign exchange students yes so those students that are refugee status or

[00:16:19] different caliber of but do they like are they would they be covered somewhere yes yes they are definitely under what that would be students who are moving in just that we would consider them just like as a student that it's moving into the county outside of Virginia outside of the country they would be considered and their refugee status is is considered upon receipt of them whether that is disclosed or not obviously that is something but more times than not it is disclosed and we certainly treat those students with delicate natures

[00:16:56] because we know they're coming from situations that you know are not what a lot of our students come from so that that status is indicated it just depends the process by which it's indicated thank you did mix it up I just want to I want this committee to know that on page on the last one that we just passed of course page 25 through 22 23 they're actually working on a policy and SBAC

[00:17:34] 25 now yes the previous policy I'm really sorry no no no you're fine which lines again um 206 205 that whole 8 205 through yeah so whether they've been expelled from school attendance or uh in another state for offensive violation i think that they're working on this also in s back and so i don't know if any of that is gonna come back if there's changes or something

[00:18:07] just something to think about when it goes to the full board sorry i apologize i do have another

[00:18:26] question but so then so my other question mr. Dolson is for rips parts of this policy that reference alternative adult education courses the I'm a little confused about the right this is individuals who may be admitted free but when you're talking about the adult education the alternative adult

[00:19:04] education courses that's making me think of the right like the adult education that we offer which generally there is a charge per class correct so if they're referred to the adult education classes they would be charged those fees that's correct yeah so um in essence a lot of that was integrated into this policy through the last its last iteration during I think it's 2023 and the reason for that is because we do have students that come to us that are going to age

[00:19:40] out prior to being able to graduate high school before they turn 21 or 22 depending on where they fall and what that does is it impacts schools graduation rates so they are counting against those schools that they might attend and that graduation rate and as you know graduation rate isn't done by the entire school it's done by the cohort so if a student enters into to Loudoun County Public School today they enter as a ninth grader we have four years to graduate them and it's April 24th of 2025 so it doesn't matter

[00:20:18] that they start in April when we start our school year in August we still have four years to graduate them to be in compliance with the four-year graduation rate so in a lot of cases we have students that do enter into our school district in the spring or the winter and it is not possible for them to earn the number of credits in order to graduate on time so that's why that was added into this and and you know for you're not wrong and asking the question are there fees attached to that and there are there are fees attached to that and

[00:20:56] for students who if the cost of those fees would be a difficult obstacle or prohibitive for them to continue education are there waivers scholarships so I don't know anything specifically about that what I can tell you is that our welcome center works diligently with those receiving foreign education systems and we try to work with those the credits that they are bringing in the transcripts that they are bringing in like you said the available information

[00:21:30] in the last policy that we can award as many credits as possible but in a lot of cases it it's it's futile because they're just at the age where they're 18 or 19 or in some cases 20 and they have way too many years of a high school education in the state of Virginia in order to comply with the federal guidelines that say if you're 21 or 22 we are not able to educate you and I think a lot of that also is important when you are looking at the other end

[00:22:06] of the spectrum and you have your rising eighth graders going into ninth grade and that's it's important that we consider that that perspective as well we have young young students starting and then we have our older students that would like to continue and I think that's the important piece that we also have to consider thank you and since you mentioned that this policy was last

[00:22:28] revised in 2023 why are we doing it again now curiosity code changes so i'm wondering if in the regulations or anything there is mention of welcome centers because that's where a lot of the foreign that's where we want to start funneling people right we don't have enough right now but

[00:23:01] i mean so but if it's in regulation or something i'm just wondering i would have to cross reference that and look at that um specifically i don't i know that we don't have it specifically in our policy and so you're speaking reference to just the welcome center as a place to start or well they're gathering all the documents they're putting things together they're also helping the kids with transition and looking at these potential issues sure right even later and so

[00:23:39] that's why i'm wondering if it would be advantageous to put something in regulation or something

[00:23:46] about the welcome center I don't know I'm wondering if a lot of people go to

[00:24:47] the welcome centers but there are going to be many who do not and do not know about them so I wouldn't want to see that as the only place where they can bring their certificates their information so on and so forth so just very brief review of regulation 8115 the references are to the directors of school counseling and the principal any director of school counseling or high school principal and I'm using high school principal in this case just because we're dealing with high school credit bearing courses and credits they are very well aware that the that the Welcome Center exists family liaisons

[00:25:24] also are receiving a lot of these individual families and so they are working with the family liaison and the registrars at the Welcome Center we do have a registrar at our Welcome Center we have a full-time counselor at the Welcome Center and there's a conduit between the receiving school so if it's in this case Broad Run High School the director the administrative staff at Broad Run High School is working in tandem with those at the Welcome Center and then the Welcome Center in tandem with the director of school counseling are making recommendations as to what courses they can get credit for and then what their what their duration of what they would need would look like and so

[00:26:04] we have to do that out you know I think understanding that there's only seven or eight credits depending on the age of the student that a student can earn within an academic year so I don't know that it I mean I don't know that it's necessary to put in a document that states that our welcome center is is available because most it's probably very widely well I know it's very widely used by all of our high schools when they have foreign transcripts if you have a foreign transcript that comes into your school immediately goes to the Welcome Center because they have people that interpret those we work with our

[00:26:43] interpreting services and so then we wait for the documentation from the sending country sending school division jurisdiction for an interpretation of what credits the student earned you also need to be aware that many of these school years around the world are not like ours they end in December or they end in a different time frame and likewise many of these students that we receive from foreign countries have already graduated from their countries and we cannot educate them past that so I go back to the comment that chair

[00:27:22] Donahue you made about the adult ed courses we have a lot of students that come here wanting to learn English but they've already graduated and earned a certificate of some type in their in their home country we cannot award them another high school diploma so that's why that provision was put in the policy that adult ed courses do exist for those purposes if you are there just to want to learn English. So Ms. Mansfield I guess what I'm saying is I feel like our welcome center is widely used for this purpose and the purposes to support 8115

[00:27:59] and 8125. I think we're open and I would work closely with Mr. Rosario who oversees the welcome center as well as her staff in drafting any type of language that you might want to see in the regulation well i'd love to talk to her about it if that's okay absolutely her thoughts about it yeah because my understanding is that like okay so let's say where i live in my area freedom high school like at first they didn't have a lot of people funneling through the welcome

[00:28:36] center and didn't think about it but now they do and it's been a like a change in culture and things like that which has been great for them because of what you're just talking about like the transcripts and and we have people at the welcome center who are really good about knowing the different countries and what it means and what it doesn't and how to facilitate that which not all of our guidance counselors necessarily do because they haven't had to do that so that's why I am. That's why I was just seeing if it should be put in policy or regulation or something to funnel through. But I'd

[00:29:15] love to talk to Rosario about that. Cherise Rosario? Ms. Rosario. Yes. Yes, I think it'd be a great conversation and if you want to include me with that in that conversation, please feel free to do so. I'll reach out to her.

[00:29:37] Any further discussion? Then we'll move on to item number six on our agenda, new business. Is there any new business? In that case, move on to item number seven which is our adjournment thank you everyone for coming our next meeting will be on May 15th 2025 at I know I was I was starting

[00:30:15] to look it up 4:30 our next meeting will be on May 15th 2025 at 4:30 thank you everyone for being here and have a great evening

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