Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Public Schools, Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) Meeting, Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Place: LCPS Administration Building / School Board Room, Ashburn, Virginia
Length: 1h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1154483188?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 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:08:42] - Good evening, everyone. Probably go ahead and get started. For everyone, could you please use the QR code on the screen to go ahead and sign in.

[00:09:05] I did wanna take an opportunity here. As you all know, yesterday there was a terrible accident at Stonebridge High School. From the information I've received, it also involved a special ed student.

[00:09:25] And I know that all of us, we spend our days and, you know, all of our time, we dedicate our lives, we dedicate our time to advocate for our kids, and my heart just goes out to the family that has been affected by this.

[00:09:41] So I just wanted to take a moment and have, like, a moment of silence for this family.

[00:10:04] Thank you.

[00:10:24] As everyone is aware, unfortunately, our speaker today could not make it, So we will just go ahead and proceed on with our business meeting. We will begin with our connection activity. Tonight I will be representing Nakia and Tedra and myself.

[00:10:49] We were dividing and conquering today. So we're going to have an activity and play four corners. So if you would look around, you will see that we have agree, disagree, strongly agree, and strongly disagree on the wall.

[00:11:05] So I'm going to put up, and I know that this is a room full of people who don't have strong opinions, right? Experience tells me that. And forgive my sarcasm because I am a person with really strong opinions and value the opinions of CX so very much.

[00:11:22] But I thought we'd use our strong opinions about some very benign things to end up at a question. And when you get to your question, based on how you answer what I put up in a few minutes, I want you to spend about three to five minutes.

[00:11:37] I'll set a timer, and when that's done, we'll have another question on the board, and you will move, based on your opinion, to form your group. Any questions about that at all? Okay. The very first question is that Mary Poppins is the greatest literary character of all time.

[00:11:55] I believe that with all my heart. You are free to feel however you wish, but divide up accordingly, please. Just end up somewhere. I hope some people disagree or my group agree.

[00:12:46] To really think deeply about these questions, the answers that you put will be utilized for future planning and consideration. I realize that one of them is sort of an opening of a can of worms.

[00:13:05] Like, what would you like to share with us, basically? But there's questions about ESY, about parent involvement, all around the room. So if you take three to five minutes to discuss that and elect someone in your group to take notes, and then we'll rotate.

[00:13:21] All right, thanks.

[00:14:49] And thank you for rich conversation.

[00:18:14] And I agree with this group back here. Margaret Patterson is amazing, and I can't wait to tell her that you said that. All right, here is your next question. Geometry is much harder than algebra. Okay, so find your spot.

[00:18:34] Geometry is much harder than algebra.

[00:19:02] so either add to or develop some new ideas at each of the posts and and melissa i can give you

[00:19:10] directions okay friends we're gonna move the next question is a day in the mountains is as good as

[00:23:19] a day at the beach okay everyone if there is a corner you have not been to um this question is

[00:28:36] for you but here i'd like to know i think cheeseburgers are better than pizza for those of

[00:29:28] you that are joining online. The questions are thoughts about ESY and ways that we can, what would the perfect ESY look like? We also have a question about how to increase parent participation in SEAC, how to attract more families to SEAC. We also have a question about just general thoughts around special education that you would like to share with the OSC.

[00:29:58] and the other question is I can't say it Melissa what is that question thank you what parent training opportunities would you like to see so if online participants have any thoughts on any of those questions feel free to email those to me or to Shanaz and we'll make sure that your ideas get

[00:30:21] on the list thanks everyone for your input if you could make your way back to your seats I think

[00:36:14] Shanaaz is ready to get started. Thank you, everyone.

[00:36:54] Up on the screen is the agenda for today. I'm sorry.

[00:37:09] I did notice that the public comment sheet wasn't out earlier, but before we started the meeting, I did put it out there. So does anyone have a public comment today? Didn't want to miss out. Okay. So I'm just going to skip over that.

[00:37:32] Okay. So I wanted to introduce our officers. I'm Shanaaz Khan. I am the SEAC chair, and to my left, we have Catherine Moran, who's the SEAC vice chair of planning. We have Tom Ketchum, who's the SEAC chair, vice chair of membership.

[00:37:51] We have Erin Rosalpo, she is our vice chair of communications, and Katie Rosenbrook, who's not here today, she is our secretary, and we have Liz Crotty, who's our SEAC past chair.

[00:38:08] We have also, who you met already, Dr. Paige Carter, who is our Director of Special Education. And yay, we got Carrie LaBelle after all this. She's back for another year, so yay! And we're working on getting an alternate.

[00:38:29] Oh, we're not. No, you're right. I'm so sorry. She filled me in on that. We are, we will not have. I got news. Oh, you got more news. Okay. Well, I just got a text because I've been badgering Chair Chandler to please see who could be our new person.

[00:38:51] And apparently, rather than wait until next month when we have to have a board meeting to approve a new person, she just decided she'll be our standby. So it's April Chandler, who is our backup. Wonderful. Thank you, Carrie.

[00:39:13] Can I get a motion to admit our virtual attendees? Second? Anybody?

[00:39:28] Thank you. Is that it? Right? That's it, right? They're admitted, right? Do we have to? All those in favor of admitting our virtual attendees, please say aye. Any nays? Okay, thank you. Okay, really, I apologize. I sent the December meeting minutes like maybe a half hour before our meeting. Did anyone have a chance to look over it? Do we need a little more time to look at it or thumbs up if we're all good? Thumbs up? Good? Okay.

[00:39:59] Okay. And we will now have Leanne Kidwell come up from Family Resource Services. Hey, everyone. I'm Leanne Kidwell from Family Resource Services, and I am going to tell you about a couple of workshops that are coming up.

[00:40:34] The first one is tomorrow night, and it's the problem with perfectionism. That will be here at the admin building in person. And the next one is going to be executive functioning. it was very well attended last year and it was loads and loads of information so that will be thursday the 29th and that will also be here in person at the admin building in the evening and then the last one that i really wanted to highlight is when the bus stops coming show of

[00:41:09] hands who has been to when the bus stops coming excellent it's an event that you can come back to year after year because there's lots of information when you're transitioning out of schools to what's going to be next and it's never too young to start thinking about it. So it will be a event from 8 until 12 30. So it's an early morning and I'm not a morning person but 8 to 12 30 and we have

[00:41:41] a presenter from Department of Aging and Rehab Services. And we have a presenter from the Community Services Board, which is not the Community Services Board anymore, John Hudson, who was here. Then we have the transition team that always presents. And the best presentation is the student panel. So we have four, around four families of recent graduates. So that's always good and then we have a vendor fair and so far we have 33 vendors signed up and I'm still

[00:42:17] recruiting more so we're going to take over a whole nother space down here it's going to be bigger and better than ever so mark your calendars for Saturday the 7th of February and if you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call, send me an email, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or the other way around. And that's me. Any questions? I will see all of you

[00:42:47] on the 7th. And SEAC will be there too with our table as well. I believe it's Dr. Carter.

[00:43:04] All right. I'm going to give you Tedra's highlights from DSS. Right now, our work is really budget, budget, budget. So she wanted to make sure you guys had the dates for the meetings that were coming up in and around the budget and what the topics would be. And all of them impact the Department of Student Services and Special Education in one way or another. So we just wanted you guys to be aware of when those presentations would be. The other thing she wanted to highlight

[00:43:43] was the special permission process for this year for special permission for 26-27. Capacity at each school will be calculated at 85 percent and staff applications are first. That'll be January and February and then all applications are February to April and then the process will close April 30th.

[00:44:05] So just wanted you to be aware because I know some of you have students who are on special permission. So it's a little bit different this year. All right, and here are my updates. We got word, and Nakia was at a conference today in Richmond, and she got word about Virginia Kindness Week, and we heard about it after the fact last year, if you remember. So we wanted to get this information out to you. That QR code takes you to a link where you could get that t-shirt that says Virginia is for kindness. But it is a fundraiser for activities across the state. But you can just

[00:44:43] Google Virginia Kindness Week and it will take you to a description of what that is. But we mentioned it last year, but it was a little late for us to do anything with it. So we wanted to share with you the opportunity to celebrate Virginia Kindness Week. And as of today, we are serving 10,653 students. I always give you that number. It's not all about the numbers, but each one of those numbers represents a student who has very unique needs, and we want to make sure that we acknowledge just how many of them there are here in Loudoun, and anyway, growing number all

[00:45:22] the time. All right, and then this next thing I want to say is a little bit harder. It is a thank you from me because I will be retiring on March 1st of this year. It came really quickly, but I'm at a point in my life with my parents where I need a little bit more flexibility and maybe to be home a little more than an hour or two a day. So we made that really hard decision to do that, but I just wanted to take the opportunity to say one of the most things, the things that I'm most proud of during my three years plus here is the relationships that we have built and the

[00:45:59] collaboration in SEAC. You guys have achieved more things with budget and inclusion and all of the things. I could probably list 20 things that we've worked together on. And it is because there was open collaboration between the Office of Special Education and SEAC. And I just want to thank you for your part in that, it has made this job much, much easier. This job is a hard one, as you can imagine, because you want to help all 10,653 or whatever the number was that I just said.

[00:46:35] You want to be able to be all of those things. And you want to help all of your staff and get all of the things that they need all of the time. And the day that is only 24 hours sometimes runs really short. Um, and, um, there are competing priorities for every single thing anyone would ever need. So it, it is, um, a job that is, um, um, exciting every day. Um, and one that I'm, I'm really proud of. And so I have no doubt with Tedra's leadership and Dr. Spence's leadership that the progress and the forward motion that we have made as a SEAC and OSE will only continue.

[00:47:12] my team in the OSE is incredibly strong. One of our friends from an outside agency calls my team the Brain Trust of Virginia because they are so strong and know the law so well. So I will leave March 1st in very capable hands, I know, but I am just really proud of our time together and wanted formally say thank you. So Paige also did let me know that next month she will not be able to

[00:47:51] attend our meeting. So this is actually her last official SEAC meeting. And I did bring treats in the back so everyone can enjoy some cookies and stuff. And there is a card also floating around here. So, oh, we got it back. Okay, good. And so hopefully every, all of our members, anyone who wants to sign it, honestly, please feel free to sign it. What I want to say is I've worked with a few, you know, a couple of different special education directors, and what I want to say to you is thank you. Thank you so much for your continued collaboration with us. Thank you for

[00:48:30] listening to us. Thank you for advocating for us. The support we have received from the Office of special education is so much different than years past. And we have been effective because of your collaboration and your support.

[00:48:47] So I want to say I wish you all the best. And don't forget about us. Oh, I won't. Keep in touch. This is from all of us. Oh, thank you. And I did want to give Liz an opportunity, because Liz actually spent two years working with Dr. Carter.

[00:49:07] So thank you, Shanaz, for giving me a few moments speak. I will do my best not to be long-winded, but everyone knows that's not really a strong point for me. I feel incredibly fortunate to have worked with Paige when I was chair.

[00:49:28] From the very beginning, Paige showed a commitment to a true partnership with SEAC, grounded in honesty and transparency. Even when the conversations were hard and the situations were beyond challenging. She never wavered, and she never gave up on us. No matter how messy the issue, she offered steady counsel and worked alongside us towards solutions. Paige also brought a real can-do spirit, no matter what crazy idea we brought her, whether it was inclusive playgrounds,

[00:50:03] a transition center, or, you know, we had all sorts of wild ideas, but those were pretty crazy. You know, if she believed it was best for the kids, she gave it her full support. She helped us take ideas and turn them into plans.

[00:50:20] We even took field trips to the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation Center and the Davis Career Center to gather inspiration for what would become our own LCPS View Transition Academy. She made sure that special education had a voice in every room where decisions were being made.

[00:50:40] The connection she built across departments might not always be visible day to day to us families, but they deeply shape how students and families experience school in Loudoun County and whether they feel a sense of belonging no matter where they are. I am going to miss Paige's tireless advocacy.

[00:50:59] She was right there with us when we made big budget requests, and I am still in absolute awe of what was accomplished. She was always available, whether it was a 6.30 a.m. call on her way to work or a 9.30 p.m. policy and compliance subcommittee, maybe 10 o'clock.

[00:51:19] Yep, lots of those. I truly do not know how she did it, but I am so grateful for her dedication to our district and to our students and families. Paige, thank you for showing us that we can dream big for our kids and that when we partner together, amazing things can happen.

[00:51:39] especially when you are up to a little good trouble together. I hope you enjoy a beautiful retirement. I'm guessing you're probably not going to actually retire, retire, because that's not your nature. But you have given us so much, and you will be so deeply missed here.

[00:51:58] Thank you so much, Paige. Now we have Ms. Carrie LeBeau.

[00:52:20] Thank you. Paige, I just wanted to add a little something to all the accolades you've got. It's a warning.

[00:52:36] Real special educators never really retire. They just kind of step back and then jump in when needed. I can tell you that from personal experience. Yesterday, obviously, was a fairly hard day for a school, for teachers, for special educators, and for me when I heard the news about Kalina and the car.

[00:53:13] And it got me thinking, and yes, it's a terrible tragedy. It's something that we all worry about for our children. Will they be all right when we let them go out the door when I'm not there? You think you've got it, you think they've got it, and then something happens.

[00:53:34] And as I said, it got me to thinking. And how many of you know who Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are? Oh, babies, the rest of you.

[00:53:50] They were, back when I was a child, cowboy westerns were really, really popular. And he was called the King of the Cowboys. And he and his wife had a TV show, did many movies. He had a white hat, because the good guys always had white hats, you know.

[00:54:09] And he had a wonderful Palomino horse named Trigger that did tricks. So he was well known nationally for his TV show. But he and his wife had a tragedy, or what they thought was a tragedy at first in their family.

[00:54:29] After having four children, Dale Evans gave birth to a child with Down syndrome. And that was back before we had special education. That was back before we had acceptance of children with Downs with different features.

[00:54:50] Back then they were referred to as mongoloids. when my sister, who had Downs, was born, the doctor told her that the best thing, my mother, that the best thing for her was to just put the child away in an institution. And, you know, we didn't. My mother was made of sterner stuff than that. It was her child, period. Dale Evans felt the same way. She and Roy took their daughter, Robin, home to their ranch and guided her through

[00:55:22] several years of her life. And then Robin, I can't remember why, but Robin died. And it was devastating for the Rogers family. And as part of her healing process, she wrote a book called Angel Unaware. I want you to write that down. See if you can find it somewhere. I don't know if it's still in publication, but look for it. It is a wonderful book. She spoke through Robin. It was written in Robin's voice. And Robin talked about all the things she had to learn and how difficult

[00:55:56] they were for her and how her daddy and mommy helped her. And Dale Evans, at the end of the book, realized that God, I'm going to cry again, I'm sorry. God had sent her an angel. It wasn't a tragedy. It was a learning experience for her family. It brought the family together and taught her a lot and I want you to know that we we including me and most of you have angels in your

[00:56:32] family they're here to teach you joy love patience humility all of that and it's not a tragedy it is a blessing so please keep that in mind and keep your prayers for Kalina's family thank you thank you, Carrie. Now we will move on to our did you know. Catherine, do you want to present this?

[00:57:14] Thanks. Did you know self-advocacy can be taught at every age? Did you know self-advocacy is a skill that can and should be taught starting in elementary school and intentionally built through secondary transition? Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA, students must be prepared for life beyond school. By age 16, earlier in Virginia at age 14, Indicator 13 requires IEPs include measurable post-secondary goals and transition services

[00:57:53] to help students achieve them. A core part of those services is self-advocacy and self-determination. The ability to understand one's needs, communicate preferences, and participate in decision making. what this could look like across age levels. In elementary school, teaching students to identify feelings, strengths, and challenges. Practicing simple communication such as "I need help. I don't understand yet." Offering structured choices so students learn their voice matters. Encouraging students to talk about what helps them learn best. These early skills build the foundation

[00:58:31] for confidence and communication. In middle and high school, self-advocacy becomes more explicit and goal-directed. Students can learn about their disability, accommodations, and learning strategies. They practice requesting needed supports in class, work-based learning, and community settings. Students begin practicing meaningfully in IEP meetings. Instruction focused on preparing students to self-advocate in employment, post-secondary education, training, and independent living. Why this matters? Research and federal guidance are clear. Students who are

[00:59:07] taught self-advocacy are more likely to engage in their IEBs, successfully access accommodations after high school, maintain employment, navigate adult systems with greater independence. Self-advocacy is not an add-on. It is a legally supported, developmentally appropriate skill that grows over time. And we do have the Did You Know also posted on our website.

[00:59:36] And I just wanted to let you know that is Tia Beamer. She is the mom of Kira, who is currently in a CAST program and an amazing mom. If you get a chance to meet her and talk with her, she is doing all the cool things to help build self-determination within her daughter and learning and partnering with previous teachers and it's amazing.

[01:00:03] And so I was grateful that she would speak on that tonight. And before I get into the chair report, I wanted to take a second to introduce our state SEAC representative, Kelly Huff-Snyder.

[01:00:29] Can you raise your hand, please? Our brave soul back there who has taken on. So any issues you think that, you know, it's beyond LCPS, needs to go to VDOE, see her.

[01:00:47] She's in the process of getting her training done and soon will be up there advocating with us. so okay moving on uh tom could you please let us know how our membership is looking do you want me to do roll call as well or okay uh so we do have currently 21 voting members so we're we are uh full in that roster but continue to ask people to submit applications as we have people that will roll off in the future probably at the end of the school year we'll have some people that will roll off um we're currently going through an auditing those pto pto pto and pta reps so i'll

[01:01:25] an updated number on that next month um and i'll go ahead and do the roll call for the members currently so carrie adams here uh elizabeth crotty jen de donato marcia kelly uh tom ketchum president uh shanaz khan rosina katak laura colossi mary mcclintock uh alicia mcfadden

[01:01:58] brigg metz stephen meyer katherine moran kelly ralston uh elizabeth uh rizalpo i'm sorry elizabeth Erin Rosalba, oh sorry.

[01:02:16] If I could read, that would be better. Catherine Rosenbrook is not present this evening. Carly Sabatino. Here. Carla Sola, Sharon Tromp, Melissa Waugh, and Sakina Zabush.

[01:02:40] Okay. Our executive committee meeting, we will meet in person right after this meeting. It's open to the public, anyone who wants to come and join. And our policy and compliance subcommittee.

[01:02:59] Melissa, did you guys settle on another date or no? Okay, so we will let you know when our next policy meeting will be. I also have a policy to send to you guys. I don't think it's an emergency, but we are going to be combining the special education and the eligibility policies that are separate into one policy, as I think most of us agree that it should be.

[01:03:28] So, we want to send you that draft ahead of, to get your feedback before we present it. Thank you. Meaningful inclusion, Tom and Kelly. So, our next meeting, as you can see listed there, will be the 21st at 6 p.m.

[01:03:48] We got, we had a logistical issue in December, so we didn't have our meeting in December, but we'll be back on track next Wednesday. Specialized reading and math, Aaron and Alicia. There'll be a meeting link distributed, yeah.

[01:04:11] Okay, so I'll give just a quick recap of our last meeting because the focus, I would say mostly this month and this year, has been around kind of bridges and our math interventions and all those pieces that are out there for students.

[01:04:27] So last month we did spend some time talking about clarifying the use of bridges for RTI versus especially design instruction. We reviewed some of the spire aspect protocols for those mid-level checks that are strongly recommended, but they're not required. We talked about how that placement test should be used.

[01:04:45] We talked about also addressing a high risk ban for grades four through eight in the VALS assessment. Tomorrow we are actually meeting here again at 10 a.m. at Admin. It's actually going to be a combined session, so we're going to have the first part be our subcommittee meeting, and then that's going to transition into our work session where we're going to be taking more of a deeper dive into the lens of math, the specially designed instruction, the interventions, and kind of how that can look for students.

[01:05:18] So we hope that you can come and join us. Steven and Rosina for transition subcommittee. Good evening.

[01:05:37] So Rosina and I had a very nice meeting today, and we will be presenting to the admin transition a number of questions about things that we would like to discuss over the rest of the year.

[01:05:57] And I'll just give you what the headings are, the scope and access of the development of the transition center, independent living labs, how they are being designed and implemented, the community and independent instruction one of our concerns I think is to have a curriculum so that it doesn't vary by school so and then the last thing that we're concerned about

[01:06:37] is the precast program which is very important and we hope to find out how the mod there's a model program going we understand is that correct or no i thought there was a we did pilot this year that's what i meant yeah a pilot for cast one which is for students who and jenna you may have to grab that microphone um if tell me if i mess this up but it's really for um students who are

[01:07:11] not quite ready for the level of independence that you have in cast two so um or in regular cast and Jenna if you want to add to that. Yeah our goal was to really target our students who are closer to aging out and maybe weren't ready for cast to try and give them a different experience more time in the community so when they do age out they are more ready for that opportunity that is coming to them in the community but in any of our cast programs our number one priority is

[01:07:44] always student safety and so our cast one students we're not sure about that safety piece so it's staffed differently and that kind of thing but yeah so we are piloting one program of that this year we're hopeful to have the budget agrees with us another one next year okay thank you

[01:08:05] so just so everybody knows that our subcommittees are actually where we sit and we really get a lot of our work done as you can see I you know the co-chairs are presenting but you know we take the time we really do look at the issues that are what we're hearing in the community what we hear from

[01:08:41] our survey what people come and talk to us about so if you feel like there's an issue and it doesn't even have to fit in any of these buckets but our meetings are open to the public and that's why we post them over here so everyone can come and join us you know and and probably be part of the discussions anyway i just wanted to uh call your attention to the slide if you haven't looked at it

[01:09:21] our next meeting with admin is tuesday of next week uh 10 o'clock here the admin so our next meeting will be february 11th again it will be the second wednesday because of the budget season we um a couple of years ago we kept getting a little bumped off because it got busy the first week so we just went ahead and picked the second week of February we will have a presentation on

[01:09:58] TeachTown and what TeachTown is what TeachTown is designed to do how it is going to help support your students so I know we've had quite a few questions on how it works and and how it aligns with the curriculum so please stay tuned for that presentation and before we start the policy subcommittee i also wanted to let you know that um marcia kelly will be participating in the one lcps strategic planning um you know we had it up it was 2027 so now we're going to have the next

[01:10:37] few years they're going to plan a new one i was able to participate actually in a parent group because i filled out the survey and said i would volunteer for it and they picked me so i went in there and they had a lot of questions about you know different areas that they're working on the strategic plan so if you have any feedback um and any thoughts on how you see special education fitting into the strategic plan i would reach out to marcia because she's actually going to be part of the focus group where they're going to be meeting for four days and really diving into it

[01:11:10] okay should we move on to our policy subcommittee with craig and melissa all righty uh so first of all, we have three policies that the committee reviewed and decided that we did not have any concerns or recommendations to make to them. And that's policy 2230, legal counsel, policy 2540, policy manual, and policy 6330, distribution of information and materials and posting within

[01:11:50] schools, et cetera. So can we get a motion to adopt the recommendation of no recommendations? Thanks, Jen. Second? All right. Thank you. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of adopting the policy and compliance subcommittee's recommendation to make no recommendations to policy 2230, 2540, and 6330 say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Any abstentions? Carrie Adams? Aye. Carly

[01:12:28] Sabatino? Aye. Okay. That passes unanimously. All right. Next policy is 8220 student disciplinary sanctions. We had four concerns and recommendations to this one. This is one we spent quite a bit of time with, as you can imagine. Our first concern, first of all, the term FBA is actually an assessment, stands for Functional Behavioral Assessment, and therefore is not implemented. So the reference in

[01:13:04] this policy to checking whether the plans were implemented with fidelity should not refer to an FBA. Behavior intervention plans are what result from an FBA. So first recommendation is to delete the term Functional Behavioral Assessment at lines 121 and 122, and at line 122 after Behavior intervention plan, add the phrase, any other pertinent documents. Yeah, go ahead. One of the things that came up in our discussion on this one is that there is some confusion at the working

[01:13:39] level on this one. So if anyone ever talks to you about implementing an FBA or doing stuff that's in an FBA, that's not correct. The BIP is what you do. Behavior intervention plan is what's being implemented and it was developed out of the results of the fba okay concern number two at lines 22 to 24 of the policy reference of the policy reference progressive sanctions as identified in the current virginia department of education s bar collection but do not reference

[01:14:14] this public facing document in the policy and the s bar collection is basically describes the different levels of disciplinary action um for the purposes of collecting data on it by the virginia department of education um so our recommendation then is to add in the legal references section virginia code section 22.1-279 colon 31 to reference the vdoe or virginia department of education s bar collection document all right concern number three regulation 8220.3 at paragraph F2, and again, this is the regulation

[01:14:52] that goes with policy 8220, should accurately reflect what is in Virginia IDEA regulations regarding manifestation determination review. This is a recommendation we have made in the past. It has yet to be fixed, and it is a biggie, all right?

[01:15:11] Let me explain that reference there, 8VAC, which is the Virginia Administrative Code or the Virginia regulations, uses the conjunction or, not, and in defining what behavior the team must determine is a manifestation.

[01:15:29] So what the regulations say is a manifestation determination review team can just determine either that the behavior is a manifestation of the student's disability or that the IEP was not implemented with fidelity.

[01:15:46] the way our regulation states it is they have to prove both for the student essentially to prevail in that manifestation determination review hearing so as you can see just a little tweak of or and actually greatly and vastly narrowed those civil rights of our students um so we are asking again that uh this part of the regulation be changed to and instead of or i mean i'm sorry other way

[01:16:19] around yeah from or right from and to or and can i real quick i wanted to define s bar it's student behavior administrative response and it is a list of requirements that if a student engages in behavior a then the disciplinary response would be within what is listed for that behavior so it's it is trying to keep consistent across schools in virginia how we are responding to various kinds of behavior. Thank you. For this one I mean at least my understanding is the law and the

[01:16:58] regulations are the law and the regulations and those are your child's rights. LCPS does not get to come in and make an error in its policy and decrease your child's rights in this case. So in this case your rights are your rights but in this case there will lead to confusion and potentially to school staff not doing the right thing and it's just going to lead to more disputes in a situation that's already contentious. Because these manifestation determination review hearings happen when a student with disabilities is being potentially suspended or even

[01:17:31] expelled now for their 11th plus day and that's when that's the legal trigger for holding these review hearings so they are very contentious to begin with because parents are afraid that their child is because of their disability going to be excluded from school so that is recommendation number three and And concern number four, also with the regulation that goes with policy 8220, 8220.1 is unclear about when notification to parents is provided and how long parents have to request an appeal.

[01:18:06] Parents get notifications electronically and by mail. And a phone call to parents is required the same day as a suspension. It's called specifically verbal contact with the parent or guardian. But SEAC has received reports that some administrators have granted extensions for good cause, extensions for the appeal process, because the parent, for example, it may be dropped in the mail on a specific day, the parent doesn't get it for five or six days later, and now the deadline to appeal the decision has passed.

[01:18:40] So we have received multiple of these reports. And so SEAC has received these reports that these extensions for good cause have been granted as informal reasonable exceptions but this practice is inconsistent across the district so recommendation number four is to add to that regulation quote reasonable extensions may be granted for good cause if parents are delayed in receipt of notice and that's it go ahead

[01:19:13] thank you I am still chair that's another thing that I got of SBAC student behavior and accountability and uh this policy was brought up tuesday night for information so if you want the only way we can change it now is through the amendment process if you will give me copies of what you would like it to say i can bring it up as an amendment but i'm also one of the things that a lot of the committees are hearing is that we're not getting um the policies

[01:19:50] and the dates are going to come up out to you soon enough and we need to get that done. So if you'll send me whatever you want as an amendment, I will make sure it gets in. Well, let's take a vote on it now and then we can get you the slides and in the event that they pass.

[01:20:12] There you go. Okay. Yep, here's a... Also, thank you. Yes, and yeah, and this is exactly why Carrie received a resounding ovation earlier when we heard she was staying on and this has been an ongoing problem for years that had gotten better but we had a little backsliding with this policy about the district not getting SEAC the policies they're intending to review as the board in enough time for our policy and compliance subcommittee to meet and then for us to vote because we speak

[01:20:49] as one organization to the board not as individuals and that requires a vote so thank you kerry um the last section oh that's it for this oh right yes we need to vote on ab220 so do i hear a motion to accept the four concerns and recommendations to policy 8220 and its uh corollary regulation thank you jen for motion and second thank you marcia um so having a motion in second is there any discussion about policy 8220 or its reg hearing none uh we'll move to a vote all those

[01:21:29] in favor of adopting the four concerns and recommendations policy 8220 and its regulations say aye aye those opposed no any abstentions all right um carrie adams aye carly aye okay so that passes unanimously and the last thing that we discussed in our committee um this last month was the budget. We did come up with, I believe it was three concerns and recommendations this year for the budget. There are a lot of other things obviously that we discussed, but as a group we

[01:22:05] decided we wanted to really prioritize and focus on three of our top issues. And so this is what we came up with as a committee. Concern one, the increase in new and provisionally licensed teachers has increased the demand for specialized mentoring, coaching, and oversight beyond what our current 15 CIFs can provide with quality and consistency.

[01:22:32] And CIFs stand for... Specialized Instructional Facilitators. Thank you. Specialized Instructional Facilitators. Sorry, senior moment. And so our recommendation... Go ahead. Oh, sorry. I wanted to chime in and say that we actually have more than 15 folks with the title of SIF, but we only have 15 that support behavior and instruction in specialized programs, 15 that support the entirety of general education and CrossCAT,

[01:23:08] eight, nine that support assistive technology for the entire division, and then we have 23, 22, 23, I think it's 23, CIFs that support specialized reading and math mainly.

[01:23:27] So we do have, it seems like tons, but when you think about the scope of work that I just described, but specifically we were talking here about the support in programs, but I think that there are CIFs needed in all of those areas, but this was the top priority that I mentioned.

[01:23:47] But I wanted to clarify that there are more CIFs than that. But for specialized programs, there are 15. Thank you. Very important point. When we get to adopting, perhaps we could simply remove the 15 when we make our motion. Yep.

[01:24:04] Yep. And that would allow for flexibility for all those other kinds that also need to grow. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. And so our recommendation then is that CX supports the staff's request for funding for additional CIFs. uh concern two star rooms do one at a time okay okay all right let's do that good good good call all right so on concern and recommendations one uh do i hear a motion to adopt as oh well

[01:24:39] i guess we need to make you can make you can make a motion with that change once it's once there is a motion you have to amend it right but what's the change we're making i don't think we've adopted a change yet yeah i think yeah let's hear a motion to adopt the base we need the base motion need a base motion to adopt concerns one and recommendation one thanks Jen thank you and so now we move to discussion do we have any discussion about the base motion go ahead I move to remove the 15 from the concern okay it's moved and

[01:25:18] seconded that we amend this concern to remove the number 15 and what do we say instead because then it that the sentence doesn't make sense oh that's been changed from what was there earlier okay sorry okay all right so we've moved in second is there any discussion about the amendment to remove the number 15 okay hearing none all those in favor say aye aye opposed no any abstentions all

[01:25:52] right Carrie Carrie Adams I sorry I that's okay Carly bye okay so that carries unanimously now we'll go back to the oh we have some discussion go ahead Dr. Carter, what is the staff actually hoping to hire in terms of numbers?

[01:26:27] Well, hoping and what is probably realistic for the budget year that we're facing, we are hoping to get five as a base. But in order to really do the work, we would need to grow to at least one of each kind per cluster of schools um would be my recommendation and then we could spread them out how we needed to um so that's a tremendous number but i i want to be realistic in that i know the budget budget projections and i would my hope that would be we would get five to start

[01:27:06] with that kind of growth in the out years because though our population is reported to be shrinking special education is not. So I think that's, and the number of fully licensed teachers that come to us is also not growing. So I just, I think five to start with is a reasonable ask, but 15 would be a dream ask. Okay. When we were discussing this in the subcommittee, we declined to put a specific

[01:27:39] number here for what SEAC is asking for. Partly the thinking was we would rather definitely get a few than not get any and so we understand that there is a little bit of a trade-off process that's going to go on in the budgeting and I think the high level is we believe that more are needed and then we'll let the process play out a little bit as to how many we get more but we want to get again we would rather have a few more than not. Okay yes and I mean I just want to share I feel like you know these CIFs for parents who don't realize you know sometimes it's easy to think that

[01:28:18] that's like an administrative job but they are like right there in the classrooms with our teachers and our students and helping to support us and making sure that our classrooms can run smoothly and that we know what to do and how to handle tricky situations I know Paige mentioned our CFATs that we have only nine I don't know if you guys are familiar with how many more of our students have um communication devices aac in the classrooms now like the number has ballooned which is absolutely amazing it's so great that all of our students have these devices

[01:28:55] but when we don't have people who are able to come in and troubleshoot then you know teachers and tas are left trying to figure it out you know as best they can and having more people in there would make it so that our students can use these devices more effectively um you know and the programs too like i you know for years we've heard we've heard reports that you know teachers are like well i never really see my sif p because they're out putting out fires like how nice would it be if you know they could actually get support that didn't require having a fire right and just

[01:29:35] best practices. So, you know, I do understand the desire to be conservative. I don't personally agree with it because I, I, I, I see this as such an important need for the functioning of our programs to have these SIFs that are available to help support, um, brand new teachers like me, who i am so thankful anytime a sif walks through my door and is able to help me and i've been really fortunate with the support that i've gotten but you know i i want everyone to feel

[01:30:13] that level of support um so you know if you are able to advocate to your school board members and say this is important to me I want to make sure that you know my my students and their teachers are getting the proper amount of eyes I promise you these SIFs are very hands-on with our students in fact my SIF P comes into my classroom and she's like how can I help like do you need help with moving a student do you need help with meetings and things it's like they are there to

[01:30:48] make the classrooms run smoothly um so i just wanted to share that and if it's in your heart to push a little bit harder i know it's a tough year with the budget but these are these are important if we're going to have these programs we need to make sure that the teachers and the programs are supported appropriately thank you thank you liz yay all right is there any further discussion before we move to a vote on the amended concern and recommendation all right hearing none all those in favor of adopting the amended concern recommendations one say aye aye those opposed no

[01:31:28] any abstentions all right uh carrie adams aye carly salvatino okay so that that passes unanimously all right uh concern number two is regarding our star rooms which are sensory rooms we have a few of them now across the district um these star rooms are designated spaces within schools that are available to actually all students for proactive sensory regulation and self-management.

[01:32:00] SEAC has received reports that the 15-star rooms are ineffective, are ineffective, whoa, are ineffective, I am really showing my senior status tonight, yikes, an effective behavior support benefiting all students, not just special education, at schools that have them.

[01:32:19] These rooms are currently established informally using discretionary funds under the special education directors budget. Um, establishing an explicit budget item, line item for the star rooms under the student services budget would give this program funds required to expand to more schools and to upgrade to more dirt, uh, durable equipment, as well as provide funding stability and position this as a long-term priority to support behavior and mental health of all students. So our recommendation then is to add star rooms in the student services budget with the requested funding allocation of $100,000, equipment upgrades for existing 15 rooms at $5,000 each,

[01:32:57] and then we want to be able to equip five new star rooms to keep this program growing and expanding. And so we're conservatively requesting $5,000 for five additional rooms. So, all right, do I hear a motion to adopt the concern and recommendation number two for the budget?

[01:33:18] Anyone? All right, thanks, Marcia. We have a second. okay thank you and so we will now move into discussion is there any discussion about the star room recommendation towards the ones for upgrades that already exist so I think because anyone who couldn't hear the first part the question was why are we giving the same amount of money to allocate to new rooms and as we are giving to the existing rooms okay my understanding was that the

[01:33:57] The current rooms were built informally, a little bit of a pilot trial, about a thousand dollars a room was spent on equipment. And what we're finding is, on the one hand, they're quite successful and successful for not just special edged students. On the other hand, we're finding that some of the equipment wears out somewhat quickly.

[01:34:14] And so part of it is also to, basically, effectively, we're going to rebuild them with equipment that is durable, that hopefully will not need to be replaced in subsequent years. But also for some of our students, you know, things breaking and change can itself not be ideal in a behavior circumstance.

[01:34:31] But I believe in practice, the retrofit and the building of the new one are going to look a lot like each other. And that's why the numbers are the same. Also, what we're actually asking for is one pool of money and explaining kind of where that number came from.

[01:34:47] but we actually did agree or decide within the subcommittee that having a little bit of flexibility within that pool to spend a little more or a little less when we actually get to implementation is a good thing the high level is right now this is all being done informally as a discretionary budget kind of on a shoestring budget we've gotten a lot of reports that this is highly successful and help students with behavior help students with mental health we want it to continue. And by making it an actual line item on the budget with an actual pot of money that

[01:35:21] belongs to it, that's how we establish this as something that will continue. And just on a high level, this is something that will continue as just through discretionary money. Well, as much as I can guarantee that after my announcement earlier, but this is a priority for the Department of student services and definitely seen the benefit for it for the schools who have it.

[01:35:48] We also have some schools who have formal sensory rooms that were funded, purchased commercially and funded through PGA's and such, fundraising, things like that. A few schools have these beautiful commercial-made sensory rooms. And so part of this thought was, too, to not necessarily move in that direction from our budget but to move a little closer to what might be a little more formal as Mr. Metz was saying so I think but it will continue but right now to be clear it's out of discretionary money

[01:36:23] that the OSE has in the it's called the director's budget that we can utilize for projects like this and and we certainly spend that money every year and part of that is on star rooms and we do take requests from schools who are interested in having one and prioritize those in the order that they came and cast that was a question on how do we decide who gets one and who doesn't um sometimes they're born of need because this particular student might need one the school doesn't have one they're willing to start one and we reach out lucy um our cora nazario from

[01:36:58] our department um sort of spearheads that star room but i just wanted to give you a little more background on it, but it is kind of an on-demand situation for us right now, but we would like it to be a more formal initiative as funding allows. Middle and high school? Mainly elementary is where the star rooms are, but yes, there are rooms like this at every level. Our biggest challenge

[01:37:33] is space. You've heard me say that for other reasons too. Our biggest challenge is space, but we do have some at every level, and priority isn't given to one level or another. It's as the requests come in. You started to touch on space, and I know with the rezoning happening, and there was a lot of discussion about making room for programs and things.

[01:37:58] Was space for these star rooms also part of the discussion on the staff level? Sensory rooms are, this is something we're really excited about, Our collaboration with the Department of Operations and all of the departments that think about those things in advance, like the independent living labs and all of those things, there's a lot of collaboration that happens now.

[01:38:20] And part of the discussion is when we outfit a new school or plan for rezoning, we allow for spaces for special education programs and we allow for spaces for sensory rooms. So that has made the list of allocations through that department, the folks who handle that.

[01:38:37] It's usually Mr. Lewis and his folks who stand up and talk at board meetings when we're talking about rezoning and those kinds of things, and they're talking about space allocations. That has become part of their vernacular now, and they are completely on board with collaborating with special ed.

[01:38:55] So something to be really kind of excited about the future. Any further discussion on concern recommendations too? Okay, hearing none, we'll move forward to a vote. all those in favor of adopting the recommendation concern to and recommendation to say aye.

[01:39:14] Aye. Opposed, no. Any abstentions? Carrie? Aye. Carly? Aye. Okay, that passes unanimously. All right, moving on to concern number three. Appropriate staffing is critical to attracting and retaining qualified educators who can meet the diverse needs of our students. It's difficult determine however currently the breakdown between cross-cat staffing versus program staffing in the current budget so we request first transparency and how staffing levels are calculated and reported including a clear separation

[01:39:52] between staffing allocated to cross categorical classrooms and some of the out there cross categorical means you have a gen ed teacher and a special ed teacher in the same classroom it's also referred to as co-taught in other districts but cross-categorical classrooms and program specific classrooms so I'm sorry I want to jump into cross-categorical is a student who receives is also not and is all sometimes it's in a co-taught classroom and sometimes it is not it is a student who receives special education all along the continuum but is mainly served within the general education environment

[01:40:29] not just in co-talk classrooms there you go clarification okay uh recommendation three SEAC requests that the LCPS staffing standard for special education of one to ten in cross classrooms be maintained all right so uh do I hear a motion to adopt concern and recommendation three Jen yep second Marsha all right uh so that's been moved and seconded so we'll move on to discussion okay hearing none uh we'll move to a vote all those in favor of adopting concern three and

[01:41:07] recommendation three for the budget say aye aye those opposed no any abstentions uh carrie hi harley hi all right so that passes unanimously all right thanks guys um i sorry i would like to can we open up the floor to any additional amendments oh or like an additional uh a new motion yes it would be a new motion budget motion okay yes you may thanks um so i wanted to throw

[01:41:39] out to the general group an idea of um allocating money to pay for an in-person training day for our teacher assistants um i see this as a need our tas kind of just show up and they have to dive right into work and they don't get time to get training on things i've attended trainings this year on communication where I heard from TAs that said gosh you know we wish we'd gotten this training before the school year started and you know other kinds of safety things that would be so nice to be able to give our teacher assistance so that they're ready to

[01:42:18] go from day one so I understand I think I understand that that is not something that's currently allocated for in the budget and I think it would be really really beneficial for our teacher assistance so I mean that's been a concern we've raised for years and I believe it's even been on our annual report for years yes so this is not a new request and if it's still not in the budget I think it's although we did very deliberately want to be careful about prioritizing things that is one we've been asking for that for years and and perhaps it is time to ask for

[01:42:56] dollars to be put on it and I really want it's it's not just a budget issue it's a calendar issue so how how the calendar is allocated and where staff development can be and with collective bargaining that impacts this as well so I think this is something that our supervisor team and and Nakia and I have discussed at length the need for TA training and BA training within the calendar we agree that it is definitely a need and before the school year starts or even a

[01:43:30] during the school year if we could just have them for a whole day two would be amazing um would be a start and because we have some really amazing TAs and BAs that would be even more powerful if we could have more time to train them I could not agree more I didn't know that one was coming but wow I love it but I have a question are the are the TAs and the BAs covered by the collective bargaining agreement? Classified staff are part of that, yes. Now, Nakia is the collective

[01:44:07] bargaining expert, and she is not here, so I am going to stop talking before I say something that is wrong, but it is my understanding, yes. I guess the question is, are we asking for dollars to pay people for time that they would not normally work, or are we asking for the time that they are currently scheduled for and being paid for to be used differently, which is, I believe, budget neutral and merely a scheduling issue?

[01:44:39] Well, I think it could be either, but they have very few days in addition to when they are assisting with instruction, so I'm not asking them to be out of the... I would not want anything that would pull them from the classroom. So either adding days to their calendar, which would be very expensive, or utilizing the calendar differently, and I think we could, the admin team could be creative, but I think stressing the importance of TA training in special education is really the initiative that you're going for here.

[01:45:11] It is. Tonight's business is whether there is a budget and precisely operating budget request to be made, and I don't know if we know whether that's the case tonight. How should we proceed?

[01:45:25] I'm willing, I'm fine with differing to what Paige thinks is best for how to approach this, whether it is, I had heard from some people that it used to be in the past that there were professional development days given for TAs, and that was something that was taken away from the calendar, and that's made it hard, even sometimes down, you know, at the building level to really get that time in.

[01:45:57] And so, yeah, it's a big ask probably to add another day to there. Another challenge, and you guys are going to laugh at me, but it's space because there are 1,200 plus of them plus all of the general education TAs that support our students in general education.

[01:46:18] So you're looking at close to 2,000 folks that we would need to train and finding a place to make that happen. Like, even if we used one of our largest high schools, we could probably do a conference-style day. But finding a day when the school is available and not in use by someone else is also a challenge.

[01:46:41] And a virtual format for this group, I don't think, would be nearly as effective as in-person. So space is an issue, too. I just wanted to throw that out there. Liz, I'm going to put you on the spot since you raised the issue.

[01:46:58] Well, Jen has her hand up, so I'll put her on the spot. Thanks. I think this is a great idea, right? We're talking about these people. They need the training. They want the training, right? They want to be better at their jobs, and there are a great amount of people to do that. They don't have the time to do it.

[01:47:14] I don't think our teachers have a lot of extra time with all the training, especially we keep hearing about all the new Virginia training that's going on. I don't know when we're going to shove that in. We hear about space as an issue. to me we're asking for another day and we're asking for the rental of like one of the conference we have these gigantic hotels with these huge conference rooms locally that literally no one's using um i feel like we're asking for one day of renting that hopefully at a lovely discount from a you know local business but also then to utilize those people we all we keep hearing about

[01:47:52] from a resident of Loudoun County is how we keep allowing more data centers and we have all of this money now to support our community with, you know, that feels like this is an ask that we should be making. I make a motion that we add a recommendation to add, well, we want a concern.

[01:48:19] I think, can we work from my comments that I said and we'll just like fudge that into the concern and then- I've been taking notes. Okay. We can look at that. She can just send it to us. I'll send it. I'll send it. You guys can workshop it. But the recommendation would be to add one day of professional development training, like an additional day of pay for our teacher assistance and behavioral assistance.

[01:48:46] One or two. I mean, I think we start, if we're trying to be conservative, we do one or we do two. Ask for two, settle for one. There you go. i think you would be breaking your pattern if you low-balled it okay here this is true this is true liz crotty does not low ball let's go with two okay add pay for two days of professional development training for ta mba did we say pay or did we just add to the budget because i think it too i think it's a little bit to be resolved exactly how this gets implemented in the budget but what

[01:49:22] we can do is we can recommend it and they can they can the staff could come back to the board with a proposed motion that the board could, because typically the, the staff costs it out for the board so that the board can make the actual motion to amend. Are you saying to just request two days or are you saying to request two days of pay? Are you asking with that clarification or? I, I would say days of pay because I don't want to have my TAs pulled from my classroom if I can help it yeah i think it's implied yeah um but i think you can two additional days for training and so

[01:50:02] then if they couldn't do that i think they would work really hard hearing the need to build it into the existing calendar i really i really do think recommendations come from you carrie wait um and it and it i think effort would be made and i carrie would you agree i i think so thank you

[01:50:33] I'm sorry. I've written all this down. I've sent a note out, and I'm waiting for a message back from Chris Countryman to see if we have to go through collective bargaining. And at that point, I've got a list of what you want. Let's see. Allocated budget for two days of paid in-staff training for TAs and BAs. Is that it? Okay. And I'll proceed to work on that.

[01:51:01] We have to vote on it first. Yeah, but we will. Okay. All right. So a concern or recommendation has been proposed and moved. Has it been seconded? But it's not been seconded.

[01:51:18] Okay. Jen seconded. Liz moved. Liz moved. Okay. So we're opening the floor to discussion, although we've had quite a bit so far. But any other last-minute questions or concerns? Okay. Hearing no additional discussion, we'll move to a vote.

[01:51:34] All those in favor of adopting this concern and recommendation number four regarding additional pay for two days of professional development training for TAs and BAs, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, no. Any abstentions?

[01:51:51] All right. Carrie? Aye. Carly? Aye. Great. All right. That passes unanimously. Any more floor motions? Okay. Hearing none, we are done.

[01:52:18] Come to a meeting. Any other questions or discussions? Thank you all for coming. Have a good evening.

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