Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County School Board, Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) Meeting, Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Place: Loudoun County Public Schools / School Board meeting (see BoardDocs / LCPS-TV)
Length: 2h 25m (video)
Official meeting video (Vimeo / LCPS-TV): https://player.vimeo.com/video/1176779218?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 2026-10-11. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:03:34] and it's weird because it goes red, but that means it's...

[00:06:07] Hi, everyone. Good evening. We will start momentarily, so you guys have a few more minutes. We're just waiting to get everything together, and we will start soon. But you can scan in on the QR code if you are here and want to record your attendance.

[00:12:18] Turn red, and that means it's working. So, yeah, if you want to try pushing it, that's right. Hello? Yes. And then if you want to turn it off and you're done talking, just hit that button again. I think I skipped that. I'm sorry.

[00:13:48] Okay, everyone. I think we're finally ready to get started. So today, we're going to have a special presentation. Normally, we start off with our connection activity. But today, our connection activity will be interacting with our wonderful student panel.

[00:14:08] And so now I'll invite Catherine Moran, RSCAC Vice Chair of Planning, to come and introduce our panel. Awesome. Welcome. Glad to see everyone here tonight. This is one of my favorites when we get to hear from our students and the reason that we're all doing what we do.

[00:14:30] And I'm especially excited because we have two students from a CAST program, so our post-high program. And we have a student who is in virtual Loudoun, graduating this year from Rockridge and playing football.

[00:14:45] And we had a fourth student who got scheduled to work, but he sent his questions or answers to the questions in. So he wanted to be present and share his side of things, his story.

[00:15:02] And he's pretty amazing. So we have two friends with us from the I'm Determined Center, which I love getting to say center. It's amazing. And Kendall was with us last year. Kendall Swarton-Uber. He is the director at the I'm Determined Center. They're housed at JMU, but serve the state and beyond.

[00:15:25] And then Karen is with us. Karen is our regional representative. Is that correct? Okay. from Haymarket, but I just learned tonight that she is also Gina's mom, and Gina is one of the first students who, as a student, went through the I'm Determined project, prior to Center, the self-determination models, yeah, so, and she's now interning, so we get a double blessing having Karen here, because she's also a mom, and we just have talked

[00:16:01] about setting up with our CAS students some virtual learning with Gina and with that crew so that they have some connections. So cool stuff happening. I'm going to introduce our panelists that are here, and then we'll see. Virtually, we'll get Braylon, and then I will turn it over to you, Kendall. So we have Nisa. Nisa is in her third year as a CAS student. And Nisa, you've been

[00:16:33] in, you were at Ashby Ponds. Actually, it was Academies of Lauderdale. Academies, sorry. Yes. So Academies, and then which program after that? Cascades, second year, and this year here, Cascades as well. Awesome. So third year CAST student. Thank you. And Yasmeen, you're a first year student, correct? Yes. And which CAST program are you in? I'm in the CAST program also. And are

[00:17:06] you in Cascades as well? Yes. Awesome. And we were bragging on their CAST teacher, Amanda Brawley. She's pretty amazing. She is a former job coach and went back to school, got her degree, and is leading an amazing group of students through work readiness and independent living we have braylon briggs who again will be online joining us he is a senior at rockridge high school plays football is heading to college in the fall and then we also have our friend who

[00:17:42] could not be with us but shared information his name is justin copeland some of you may know his mom, she comes to our meetings. He's a senior also at Rockridge. He has been accepted to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. And so he is, he's actually driving himself up this weekend, which I had words with him about that because mom's heart. But he is amazing. And a lot of his, what he likes to talk about around his IEP is passion, finding your passion for something

[00:18:18] and focusing in on that and then how do you move that forward so I'm excited to share some of the things that he he said so I'm going to turn it over to Kendall and Karen so good evening how are

[00:18:54] you all oh you guys are so polite oh this is this is it's a pleasure to be back again I had such fun last year what the beauty of this is is this is my first opportunity to actually interact with them. We have the same questions, but it's really fun to just kind of do this cold turkey and see what happens, because I'm passionate about self-determination. I love working with young people, hearing their ideas, and I am so proud of the work that we're doing in the Commonwealth.

[00:19:30] I'm proud of the work that Loudoun is doing, and that is really what the center, just to kind of give you a brief glimpse of what the shift from the project to the center is is for a long time the project the undetermined project operated from underneath the training and technical assistance centers throughout the commonwealth and over 2020 2024 2025 we found out that we would be able to become our own center meaning that we would be able to dedicate a full-time

[00:20:03] staff to doing the work of self-determination in the commonwealth. What that allows us to do is work more closely with divisions across the state in thinking about what that looks like. What does a culture of self-determination look like? What does it look like to put self-determination into our instructional practices? What does it look like to have more things being youth-driven, whether it's student-led IEPs, whether it means student-led conferences, whether it means students thinking about what instruction looks like in our classrooms.

[00:20:38] And so what I'm doing right now and what our team is doing right now is we're going around to divisions across the Commonwealth and saying, what does a partnership with us look like moving forward? So I have a few things for you tonight if you are interested.

[00:20:54] I do have a handout that tells you a little bit about us. but I also have a lot of our popular links to some of our tools. We now have this newsletter that is pretty phenomenal where we're able to capture a lot of the things that are happening in divisions across the state.

[00:21:15] And again, we want to hear from you all. We want to hear from students. And so if there are good things happening here in Loudoun, we want to hear about it so we can highlight that to other parts of the state. I also have these wonderful things.

[00:21:31] How many of you would be familiar with one of our famous tools, the one pager? It used to be on like a sheet of paper, but now we put them on post-its so that you can kind of take them off and you can just stick them on your fridge, on your mirror, you can stick them on your parents, whatever you want, just to remind them of all the things, your strengths, your preference, your interests and needs.

[00:21:58] So I have a bunch that I'd be glad to share with you, and I can leave those behind too. And if you need more stuff from us, please contact us. And I know Catherine knows this, and we continue to want to establish and strengthen that partnership with you.

[00:22:15] So with that said, I'm going to ask Karen to share a little bit about what her role is as what we call a regional ambassador. And then from there, we'll jump into some questions with you guys, and we'll see where that one goes from there. In my role as regional ambassador, I've had the privilege of working with not just the youth, but families and educators to support the building of the cultures in the districts in northern Virginia.

[00:22:48] And I jumped on the chance to come and see what this was about, letting Kendall take the lead and learning from him, but also learning from the students. This is very close to some panels that my daughter and I have done as well as myself and some other regional ambassadors.

[00:23:07] And we're meeting people where they are in the sense of if it's virtual or if it's in person, but understanding the needs of each district. It's been fun. Not many people can say that, but it doesn't feel like work. Great.

[00:23:24] All right. So y'all ready? Okay. Yes, sir. I feel so special. All right. So let's jump in. Can you tell me about a time when you spoke up for yourself at school?

[00:23:40] How did you do it, and what happened? I can tell that. I once received unfair treatment from a teacher. I stood up for myself and told the guidance counselor. They scheduled a meeting with my teacher, my mom, and I.

[00:24:00] Even though the meeting could have gone better, what was most important was to put my foot down rather than just taking all the bad treatment. I bet everyone can agree and relate. Yes. Yeah. Great.

[00:24:19] It happened during fourth grade. During elementary school, I was made fun of for how I read. And he was laughing. And I stood up and I said, how is it going to make you feel if someone makes fun of how you read?

[00:24:51] One of the things I love about, and we talk about this all the time, that self-advocacy is something that develops over time, right? And oftentimes, we talk about the first attempt at self-advocacy always being a little bit rough, right?

[00:25:10] It's not a refined practice yet. It's something we gain over time. And so I love these examples of speaking up for yourself at school and recognizing, like, not everything's going to work out. This is the one thing that I think we oftentimes maybe misrepresent, that if you speak up, you're automatically going to get what you want.

[00:25:32] That's not true. We all know this as human beings. And so it's that ability to persevere, to self-advocate, to try to re-communicate your needs, re-communicate what you're looking for. And then be willing to kind of negotiate sometimes along the way. And building that skill is a big part of that.

[00:25:48] So it sounds like in that example, you're learning some of those negotiation skills. Great. All right. Second question. You guys ready? What helps you the most at school, like tools, teachers, or extra time?

[00:26:07] How did you learn to ask for what you need? Extra time to get assignments done, as well as people who are willing to look at things from a unique angle and be patient with me, were what helped me most at school.

[00:26:25] I learned about that and self-advocacy in my CAST program. Yeah, I can absolutely, I'll read it again.

[00:26:41] What helps you the most at school, like tools, teachers, or extra time? How did you learn to ask for what you need?

[00:26:59] written notes, I'm sorry, written instructions, hard copy of notes, calculator, and extra time. That's what helps me the most at school. And I know what my needs are.

[00:27:19] So I'm going to ask a follow-up question that's not on here. Okay. Oh, yes. A bonus question. Do you find that from year to year, month to month, maybe even week to week, your needs change? Because, and the reason I'm asking, is that sometimes the adults in your life may think that your needs remain the same and that you never change. But do you find that your needs and the things that you need to be successful are changing as you've grown up over time?

[00:27:59] Oh, they were both ready. Did you see that? Yes, they helped me a lot. did they did anything change so think about from when you were like young to now what is one need or a tool that's changed for you hard copy of notes yeah like having notes is something that like if you get a if you find a hard copy of notes that works for you you want to make sure

[00:28:36] that happens but that may not have been there for you over the course of your whole life right like is that something you've always had or is that something that's changed yes yeah do you have anything that's changed for you yes sir um i um i don't i don't know if this counts but when i was a little girl i i was in elementary school i had had um speech sessions to help me

[00:29:06] improve my speaking um but now oh i i speak a bit more fluently um outside of the stuttering and stammering but it's okay he though there are a lot of famous people who have speech impairments for sure yeah so that's like that's that that's the example that i think like both of those are great examples that we're not uh as individuals all of us we're not we're not stagnant people we change and our needs change and the things that work for us change and what we've come to realize

[00:29:40] is we, this is, I think I might have said this last year, we're still riding on our 20th anniversary as a project. I'm determined it's been around for 20 years. And so we have former youth that participated in our youth summit and were youth leaders for us who are the same age as me, which is 40 years old. Yeah, I'm that old. Did you know that? Fact. I thought you were 30.

[00:30:08] good answer i i'm loving this panel um so those young people have talked about how they changed over time and and the key success for them is recognizing what they need in the environments as their environments change throughout their lifetime and so as uh family members as teachers as educators as administrators we need to recognize like that's the question we should be coming with hey i know this was your need but has it changed or is this your goal still or has

[00:30:46] it changed and that constant conversation is a big big part of not only the self-advocacy but of building that self-determination and creating an environment where students can thrive good job on the on the question that wasn't on the paper um i'm going to skip three and we'll go to four if you could change one thing about our schools to make it better for students with disabilities what would it be?

[00:31:18] And this is your chance to be honest. What I would change is further training for general ed teachers, teacher assistants, and job coaches on how to interact with students with disabilities. It may seem like extra work, but it will be worth it in the long run because in the end, it's not survival of the fittest.

[00:31:42] We are not animals. We're humans, and humans help one another. that's what makes us different from animals you know yes thank you i'm glad we're all on the same page here i'm sorry that's why you got a round of applause yes go ahead okay let me know if you

[00:32:17] want me to repeat it take your time help help people help make a help make world the better

[00:33:00] place for kids with disabilities yes excellent and make learning fun for them ah there and i i think that i love that you said that so um one of the first things we did when we established the center was our team sat down and we established values that we wanted to uphold wherever we went and you want to know what our first one was yes please you want you want to guess it has something

[00:33:37] to do with what she just said um i'm sorry me or yasmin either of you oh uh survival no or i mean being humans but that yes so human-centered design was one of them we want to make sure that we recognize the humanness of every person we interact with um and design environments that take human beings into account so that was one oh there was another one about fun what do you

[00:34:10] think we said we said that we want to approach our work with a level of play that our work should be playful and we call it playful work so we approach everything we do at i'm determined with a little bit of play which is is saying we don't want to take ourselves too seriously because if we do that all the time it just gets to be a drag right and um but we also in play there's a little

[00:34:47] bit of experimentation there's a little bit of discovery there's a little bit of uncertainty with all of that and when we approach our work with that we find that we're more engaged we find that students are more engaged and then they're able to because they know it's playful they're able to take a little bit more risk right as they try new things and they experiment with the behaviors that are associated with self-determination so I love that you say like part of learning is to have fun

[00:35:17] right and to play and and learning learning the play all right how are we doing on time okay let's let's focus on some more maybe transition focus questions um how did middle school help you get ready for high school what advice would you give kids moving up to high school and i'm gonna listen because i have uh i mean i i have a daughter who is in 10th grade but i have a daughter who is in

[00:35:56] eighth grade so she's jumping from middle school to high school so I'm gonna take whatever you say tonight and take that home for her okay middle school taught me that not everyone's going to be my friend and to be careful with who I associate myself with I'd give the same advice to kids and your daughter who are moving up to high school as well as the the advice that I have had when

[00:36:29] And we were answering the first question about, oh, it's standing up for yourself and not just being the punching bag, if that makes sense. Yeah, absolutely does. And it's being able to kind of be, have that pride in yourself, right?

[00:36:50] And know that who you are is good. I love that. I will tell my daughter that. They helped me how to be independent. They helped me work hard.

[00:37:09] They taught me how to self-advocate for other people. They taught me how to be kind to one another.

[00:37:30] And I would say to kids, never give up and try harder. And you'll make the world a better place. Love that. And I'm going to tie what you said up in a nice little bit.

[00:37:47] A lot of the research that we are finding in self-determination says that when you have a person who is self-determined, one of the first things they want to do is share their learning with other people.

[00:38:06] So as much as self-determination is about improving yourself and learning how to advocate, set goals for yourself, once you have that, the effect of that is, I want to share that with other people. So usually an indicator for me, if I'm going and working with young people, is when they say, I want to make the world a better place, and I want other people to know what I know about what's been successful for me.

[00:38:34] That's usually an indicator that someone's self-determined. So kudos to you for that. All right, next question. Do you want to ask a question? I feel like you're just standing up here, and I want to hand the mic off as you're enjoying this?

[00:38:54] I'm enjoying this. Okay. Sounds good. Next question. What thing helped you do well in high school? How did you get ready for what comes after high school? It's six. Question six. Yep. I'll read it one more time.

[00:39:20] What things helped you do well in high school? How did you get ready for what comes after high school what helped me do well in high school were my good teachers and the experience i i gained through good and bad times i got hot ready for what came after high school was by having job experiences in school such as cii as some of you may be familiar with um community independent

[00:39:51] instruction i believe or i think that is ask around the ss the teachers amongst amongst them

[00:40:01] they'll know some will know great job thank you i like to take notes of what subject i'm doing and then i would go on my computer i would transfer the notes onto my computer so when

[00:40:39] that person answers asks me that question I remember the question yeah and those are skills that will transfer well beyond now right and I think those those building those skills and those practices one of the ideas that we have is that self-determination grows when students have opportunities to practice or opportunities to respond and so as we're thinking about how things

[00:41:13] become almost automatic or mastered. It's about how many opportunities they actually have to do those things and be successful with it or have feedback given to them so that they can improve upon it. So that's something as, again, as family members and as educators to think about, like, okay, so they want to grow this skill. They want to get better at this, applying this accommodation to their instruction or to whatever they're doing in life. Give them more opportunities. Give them more practice opportunities, even if it's maybe a little contrived at first. The more opportunities

[00:41:48] we have to practice, that's how it becomes automatic over time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Justin shared one of the biggest things that helped me throughout high school was finding a passion, setting personal goals that helped motivate me to work hard and keep a positive attitude or as positive an attitude as I could. And he is a role model for that passion. And with the opportunities, he has set up for himself where he's had great support from family and from teachers and peers

[00:42:23] where he didn't find things he created them which is something that I just I absolutely love about this young man he didn't want to hear no he knew he was going to but he he kind of made his way so that he would get to the yes and learn until he got to that yes so yeah and one thing that we we um say a lot is if we're if we're really about students setting goals for themselves and

[00:43:00] paving their own ways we have to be okay with the fact that once they start doing that um they may they may not be able to come to panels like this right because they're busy doing the things they set out to do and so sometimes it's like reminding ourselves we created this mess right um and that's good um but then we can't be disappointed when they can't be at everything that we want them to be at um when they they are busy and they can't come to um panels because they have a job and they're getting paid and they're doing all these wonderful things and so i think it's sometimes like

[00:43:36] the path um the pathway is kind of they they truly take ownership of their own path and that's different maybe than the ones that as educators or family members we had in mind um and it's being able to support them, even if it kind of goes off a little bit of the path that we maybe initially thought of. And that's part of it. That's definitely part of it. So I love when you started with, he can't be here tonight because he's working. That's great. All right. Let's do

[00:44:08] one more question. Is that okay? What programs, teachers, or tools help you get ready for life after high school is there anything you wished you had that would uh would have helped more cast helped me get ready to become an independent adult with job skills and life skills paratransit which is um loudon county transit but for people who with disabilities

[00:44:43] helped me to get to and from work independently i don't think there is anything that i wish would have helped me more though. I'm pretty happy. That's great. And I think the notion of transportation is a big thing. And I know it sounds like that was a huge piece for you. And that's one thing that is a privilege here that is not something that's everywhere. And I know that's a thing that when it is in place, it is super effective for building that independence,

[00:45:23] building access to employment and not having kind of this barrier of getting from one place to another. And so I think that the fact that you pointed to that is a huge, a huge thing that continue to advocate for that wherever you're going. Yes. Paratransit is important to me because I, because the truth is I can't hand drive, pave a car or a motorcycle or dirt bike or anything for anything with wheels for that matter because i have epilepsy and and if i and if i try hey to

[00:46:01] drive that's that's playing roulette hit with the road um i i'd rather i'd rather we still keep the pair trans and it handy for people who cannot drive hey due to physical intellectual mental neurological whatever all whatever disability this is a question i don't know the answer to but does paratransit ever pick you up in a motorcycle no they do not they have either

[00:46:34] if they have either a what what you would see on the public public transit or or they have have they can have vans or what's new they have paratransit on demand I like a windowless white van like those ice cream trucks but it's gray and it's safe, don't worry we'll be fine I set that one up I'm sorry it's okay it's a very good hood, it's a very good

[00:47:13] way of getting around if you have a disability. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. All right. I'll read the question again. What programs, teachers, or tools helped you get ready for life after high school? Is there anything you wished you had that would have helped more? Currently, I'm working at the CAST program, and I'm working with DARS, and during the summer, I was working with the I program.

[00:47:45] I was at Kathy Hudgens Community Center during the summer in 2024. That was through the I program. And the second part of that question was, is there anything you wish that you had that would have helped more?

[00:48:31] I don't know. That's a, that's a, no, that's a, oh, yeah. Sorry. I have a just answer. Yeah. Sorry, that was a bad question. No, and I think that this is. Oopsies.

[00:48:48] Before we hear Justin's answer, I think this idea of it is perfectly acceptable that, like you said, I'm happy. Things are good, right?

[00:49:04] Part of that is that if your life satisfaction is good and you like the way things are, being able to state that and that I don't want anything to change, just keep doing these things that are working. That's usually what I hear is like, once we find something that works, let's keep doing it.

[00:49:23] Let's not continue to try to change something that's already working. Justin's answer, yeah. So Justin said he feels like a lot of teachers' advice about staying organized and taking advantage of every opportunity you can is the most important.

[00:49:39] And he said he can't be more thankful for all of the help that he's received. We also talked, Justin worked with our family last summer, where he aligned his passions. Well, let me tell you one thing before that.

[00:49:55] So he also, in talking, said, don't listen to no. Don't listen to no. So don't take no for an answer. He wanted to apply to the Academies of Loudoun. He did it. He's finishing culinary there.

[00:50:12] Hasn't been a smooth sail for him, but he didn't take no. He went for what he was in alignment with his passions. He worked with us last summer, and I didn't know when he came in to meet me that he had an IEP.

[00:50:31] We talked about farm-to-table. We have a small farm with chickens. He wanted to come learn all the things that he could learn before he applied to culinary school. We have two of our kids went to the same culinary school, so we were able to get them together.

[00:50:46] So he and I have talked a lot about connections and making sure that you're not leaving out students with disabilities in making connections because you don't know what's going to happen. His culinary teacher in this high school brought him to me because he buys eggs from me.

[00:51:05] And so we had this great conversation. He spent the summer with us. Lots of conversations, lots more connections. And so he is really, I'm surprised he didn't write anything about it because it's something we've talked about often. So not taking no, making sure that we're connecting.

[00:51:24] And those opportunities, you talked about CII. He, yeah, all of those things, he would agree with you on that. So I want to, because we kind of know what Justin's plan is after high school.

[00:51:42] So I'm going to end with this. What's next for you all? like what's the what's the next this is question seven um what are your plans after high school is it college getting a job learning a new skill moving to europe what is it i'm i'm currently working on a licensed degree like um a certificate program oopsie i'm currently working at a

[00:52:10] certificate program and getting a job. Excellent. I currently do, well, technically, we're both high school, already graduated high school. What I am doing currently is working retail at a shoe store dsw i although i don't know what i want to do for a career yet or what i want to do with my

[00:52:46] life a for that matter but i do know one thing it's gonna rock and i'll just uh just uh a word of advice about careers right is it any adult who tells you that they know exactly what they want to do and that they're they're completely satisfied with everything are lying to you right it is okay to completely to rediscover that every single day and it's more about i like the difference between

[00:53:25] career and vocation and this idea of vocation being something that you're passionate about that drives you and it doesn't even need to be a job it can be like taking care of other people that's a vocational thing that can drive you throughout life so for me my vocation was I'm compassionate about working with people so that they can have a better quality of life and that doesn't mean any one job right there's a million things I can do so find that vocation right find that thing that drives you that's not that like Karen said it doesn't feel like work and then do

[00:54:02] that thing for the rest of your life I'll kind of end on that one because that's really what we want to tag into, right? Find that thing. We want our young people to be able to find that thing that doesn't feel like work, that gives them a high quality of life, and that they can then spread that energy to the other people that they come across. So thank you for spending some time with me. Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you. Glad you all were here.

[00:54:41] And Yasmin and I are both glad that we gave you inspiration as well as a couple chuckles here and there.

[00:55:13] Thank you both again so much. And our panelists who was not able to be here but sent in the answers, I think that was so adorable. We will take a break. We have delicious treats.

[00:55:28] Thank you, Laura, our SEAC member, Laura, for these really delicious treats every time she brings them. so um they're over there by leanne yeah and so um what we're going to do is we are going to take a break and reconvene at 7 15 um just because i know people will be coming in for the business portion of our meeting and that is slated on the agenda for 7 15. so um the public comment sheet is in the back if anyone was making a public comment today otherwise we'll see you back in about 20

[00:56:02] minutes hi everyone if we could go ahead and get started with the business portion of the meeting

[01:19:33] okay if you could please go ahead if you haven't already um scan the qr code to sign in and i just realized i did not change the date on that um sign in i'm sorry i did it just came in my head so um it is for today's meeting and i will i will change the date no no i it'll record the correct

[01:20:05] date so i'm not sure why my it's not moving all right um and here's the agenda for today okay so i'm just going to quickly just say that seac is mandated by the state of virginia and the primary role includes advising our school board of the needs of our students i'm shanaz khan i'm your

[01:20:40] seac chair and um to my left i have uh katherine moran our seac vice chair of planning we have katie Rosenbrook, our secretary. And to my right over here, we have Liz Crotty, our past chair. And we have Erin Rosalpo, our vice chair of communications. So we have Ms. Nakia Purnell at the end of our

[01:21:08] table, who is now our director of special education. Big round of applause. That's why I skipped you. I know. And I was waiting for it. And I was like, she's going to do it. Thank you guys for such a warm congratulations I know last time we were together everybody was like hmm why is she sitting there but my name tent has changed and so I'm official thank you for the updated name tent and I'm just really really excited we will be back to our regularly scheduled program with our

[01:21:45] connections I will not abandon connections just because I'm sitting here now so we will continue that at our next well regularly scheduled meeting because we're at the end of the year now yay nikia and then we have at the far end on this side we have carrie labelle who is our school board liaison and our alternate is april chandler okay so next up we will admit our virtual attendees

[01:22:18] can i get a motion a second okay uh all those in favor aye any nays okay sounds good and now did anyone have a chance to review the march meeting minutes which i sent at 3 p.m today You did? Okay, great. Were there any corrections? Thank you, Marsha. Were there any corrections, Marsha? Okay.

[01:22:51] All right, well, those will be sent in for posting. Okay, and did anyone know public comment in the back? Okay, so I do have one public comment that came to me via email, and I will read that now.

[01:23:06] I would like to share my concern about the new VAP participation decision-making criteria. At our recent IEP meeting, we learned that the new criteria have been implemented this year to be eligible to participate in the VAP testing.

[01:23:26] The criteria are extremely restrictive, so you must meet the most severe category, Level 4, in all three areas in order to be eligible. The areas are conceptual, social, and practical. Students essentially have to be nonverbal and completely dependent on caregivers in order to be eligible.

[01:23:48] It's completely unfair to students with a noted intellectual disability who are thriving on a modified curriculum to throw them into the SOL path. For example, if a sixth-grade student is learning early third-grade material, how on earth should he be expected to do well being tested on the sixth-grade material?

[01:24:09] We are setting them up to fail. This will be detrimental to the self-esteem of these learners, which will make classroom motivation decrease in learning that much harder for students, teachers, and parents. This will also impact graduation diploma paths and options.

[01:24:26] a standard diploma on the sol path requires five past past sols will these students no longer be able to graduate simply because they are able to feed themselves and use basic language i understand that this is a state level decision and not county but i'm hoping that our committee will be able to mount a protest to the state that will be heard louder than individual voices with that we will

[01:25:02] move on to Ms. Tedra Richardson from Department of Student Services. Good evening everyone. It's so great to see you all this evening. I tell you what a beautiful way to have started our time together this evening. It truly grounds us again especially when everything around us is so fast and so furious but to hear the experiences and the knowledge and the input from our students and just what they

[01:25:42] envision for their lives. Absolutely beautiful. And I hope that it is that experience that continues to move us forward through, I believe, the next 45 days that we have left within this school year. So SIAC, thank you for organizing such a beautiful experience. All right, happenings across the DSS. It is that time of year. It is feet meet time. So one was hosted this week at Parkview, which was fantastic.

[01:26:15] Our supervisor that supports the, you know, Parkview and Eastern Loudoun is cheering for that. We have another one scheduled at Loudoun Valley next Tuesday with the rain date of next Wednesday. And then Stonebridge has had to change from the 21st because that is now a student holiday and a teacher work day to April 22nd.

[01:26:36] But if you have not had the opportunity to attend a feet meet or to go out and support your student at a feet meet, what a beautiful experience. Our high school students work with the Special Olympics during their PE classes to learn all of the activities that our Olympians will be participating in.

[01:26:59] And our high school students facilitate those activities for our elementary students. it's truly a beautiful and wonderful experience it's lots of fun it's lots of positivity so if you are able to participate please try to join one of those feet meets up next the work of the student services committee so in March we had our first of two work sessions on the newly proposed policy 5340 safe and supportive removal of students within the educational setting we had

[01:27:34] representatives from SEAC, from GEAC. We will have an MSAC. We will have members this month joining us from LEAF. We did a tabletop activity. We tackled the first four sections of the policy.

[01:27:52] So when we meet again on April 23rd, and the work session is open to the public, we'll be meeting in the meeting room 102 A and B starting at 4:30. We will synthesize the input from the first four sections and then we will move into looking at the remainder of that particular policy.

[01:28:15] I will tell you it was such a positive experience. It was truly, it may have given us an idea as a school division, bless you, on how really to facilitate feedback from our community. It was so much more meaningful to have those discussions just sitting down looking at the policy and talking through it, rather than people just posting comments online.

[01:28:41] Like it was so much more meaningful. So we've been having some discussions about how might we expand that sort of work session concept in looking at all of the policies that we have so that there's more of a connection to what the impact of these policies are on our students and our staff and our families.

[01:29:03] So we are excited to continue to move this work forward. We are appreciative of the partnership with our advisory committees and we will keep you posted next month. That's all for me, thank you.

[01:29:23] - Nakia, you are up next. So I did wanna clarify, I didn't skip Leanne. she actually did not have, Leanne Kidwell from Family Resource Services did not actually have anything, but she did say that if anyone has any questions and wants to contact her to feel free, I think she was back there, but now I think she may have gone. Hello again, and good evening.

[01:29:51] I have lots of announcements and celebrations because we're doing lots of things to be celebrated. So, drum roll. As of today, we are serving 10,853 students with disabilities in Loudoun County.

[01:30:08] And you see down there, really small, but not because it's not significant. It is actually super significant. 467 students are currently, as of today, in the initial eligibility process. And you guys know in Loudoun, we do have about an 85% hit rate.

[01:30:26] So tell me what that is, Tom. On the spot, I need to know. Mr. Metz, what is 85% of 467 and go? Now, so you guys can tell me after, but about 410?

[01:30:43] So possibly 410 more than 10,853 by the end of the school year. So that is a huge number. And we were thinking we'd hit 11,000 before the end of this school year. So I think we're right on target for that, if not more.

[01:30:59] Alright, the happenings. So I want to start first with a huge congratulations. We have celebrated her internally, but want to celebrate her publicly. Our very own Carly Epling, our specialized program specialist, was recognized by the Virginia Public Schools Behavior Analysis Network as the 2025-2026 Leadership Award, which is a huge, extraordinary honor.

[01:31:25] So if you guys see her or feel free to reach out to her through email to say congratulations, it is a huge deal for her to have been acknowledged in that way. I want to give you guys some updates on the VUE Transition Academy because we are busy, busy, busy at work with meetings on VUE and it is so exciting.

[01:31:46] We told you last time about how we got to pick out flooring and wall design and carpet design and wall colors, and it was really exciting. So right now, we were in what is called the schematic design phase for anyone who is familiar with architect speak.

[01:32:04] In January and March, LCPS, along with VLK, our architects, we met with staff and students, which the student, that was another opportunity that you guys would have absolutely loved. it was similar to what we experienced tonight and just getting to hear their opinions on things it was an absolute joy and they have lots of opinions about what things should look like feel like sound like when you walk into a building so that was really nice the project is progressing into the design development and site plan process is beginning the capital improvement plan includes construction funding for fy 27 and construction anticipated to begin at the beginning of calendar

[01:32:44] year, 2027. And VIEW is anticipated to open in the fall of 2028. So that will be for our 28-29 school year. So it is not that far away because we're already at May. And I feel like we just did our introduction meeting. So here we are. All right. We conducted 32 cast and 10 project search interviews this year. And we have some excellent candidates. You just got a taste today of some of candidates that CAS produces, so the interviews were excellent. We heard some really fun stories about things that happened in interviews, so that was also another awesome opportunity. We should be

[01:33:23] hearing soon who has been selected to participate next year, so that's really exciting. In conjunction with Tammy Davis, our related services supervisor, and her team, our admin CAS program has launched a 3D printing business, and I do have some items to show you.

[01:33:41] I won't share what someone thought one of these items was, not on the mic. So here we have a desk organizer where your business cards can go in the front, your pens, pencils, other things, or your water bottle, if that is what you choose.

[01:34:09] They come in a variety of colors, red is one of them. Additionally, we have business card holders, this is another color, magenta or pink, this is my choice. and last but not least this is really exciting so post-it notes go here however there are little pullouts where you can use to make lines and bullets or i know but wait there's more i gotta

[01:34:44] get them out there's two rows of lines and bullets oh yeah that 3d printer is working baby one more one more and then lines and check boxes yeah so again we've got i'll show you the different colors i don't have all of them i think i'm missing two there's there's yellow there's pink purple blue and blue yes so we just did some tests so we did that for the fourth floor

[01:35:18] we will certainly let you all know when we are launching for purchase but just wanted to show you that the cast business here at the admin building is thriving we are using that 3d printer i mean it's probably up there going right now fulfilling orders so that's why we had to go snatch these we probably need to take them back so I just wanted to share that so that's really exciting so that's a part of our business that runs here at admin so we've added that to our cruising cafe you guys know they are on the move we've actually doubled our staff at our cruising cafe so now the cruising

[01:35:55] doesn't have to just happen the standard cafe can stay open and they can cruise after 1 30 so we are serving a double population. So they have already grown in just a year in their business here and we love it. They are truly a part of our work environment which is something I look forward to every day. So updates on the independent living labs because we told you guys about that. So we're progressing with construction right now in four spaces. That's going to start this summer coming up at Dominion, Stonebridge, Woodgrove, and Rockridge and then we have four additional schools

[01:36:30] that have completed the initial design and schedule will be developed after July 1 with those additional CIP funds so then the next four will start once that's funded so that's really exciting for schools who don't have a useful space to provide these transition opportunities in the school right now so that's another thing that you guys help to advocate for which we really appreciate. So we were talking about Leanne this was really exciting so we decided to change the model up a little bit. Instead of having it after school, we decided maybe let's have it during the school day. So that way parents who have littles or older students with disabilities who can't be

[01:37:09] alone can actually make it to the presentation. The diploma options presentation is one that is typically well attended. However, this year, 70 participants. That was a record-breaking number of participants for any presentation other than when we were fully online, like during the pandemic, which I'm sorry if that's triggering for some of you but we had huge numbers then but as far as in-person numbers this was a huge deal it's basically double what we typically see so that

[01:37:41] might be a model that we're going to ride with into next year all right so we also had our OSE March 19th professional development day that was the countywide professional development day and really it was a powerful testament to the dedication expertise and collaboration across our department, school leaders, LCPS partners. So here's some of the numbers. We had 87, 87 unique professional learning opportunities hosted at our site. Seven of those sessions were led by additional experts across the Department of Student Services. Six were powered by school

[01:38:20] leaders across school level and including our virtual learning community. Six cross-departmental sections five content sites hosted dss learning for general educators we did hear that remember we heard more training for general ed teachers so she was right on target with that four external vendors partnered on that day to provide professional learning and three sessions on curriculum as the foundation that was a common learning experience across all of the different locations. So again, if you are wondering, anytime anyone asks, how much PD are we getting? How much

[01:38:57] are you learning? Lots. We are really providing diverse opportunities for our staff and support staff moving forward into next year. So before we move on, I did want to just really quickly address, because while we appreciate everyone's personal experiences in meetings, I do want to clear up some of what was said in the public comment regarding that because you know we had a really awesome work session. Some of you were here for that. We broke out at tables and we went through the criteria and we talked about it. One misnomer that I really need to clear up. The VAP

[01:39:32] criteria has not changed. Anybody ask you what do you say? Has the VAP criteria changed? No the VAP criteria has not changed. The way we move through the consideration document has changed. It is more thoughtful. And why is it more thoughtful? It is more thoughtful because we as a division were over identifying students for qualifications for the alternative assessment. One percent or less of students in a school division should be qualifying for VAP. In some years we were at three percent or

[01:40:11] more which means we knew that we were over identifying and we weren't the only ones as a state we were over identifying which is why there was a need to create a more in-depth document so that teams could be more thoughtful so remember that's one thing one percent or less of our population of students with disabilities if we want to do that math again out of the 10 853 i don't know how many that is but somebody can do that math and tell me and then remember the requirement is that a student has intellectual and adaptive functioning that is typically more than

[01:40:47] three standard deviations below the mean. So you're talking in each category and you don't have to have a four in all categories because some of the categories are three or four. So these are just things I want to clear up because sometimes when we hear things and we walk away with them as fact I want to make sure that we are not having you walk away with any information that is not 100% accurate. There was also a concern I think in that comment regarding are our kids just not going to graduate? Well let's remember students who are taking the VAP do not graduate with standard

[01:41:24] diplomas anyway. Typically they graduate with an applied studies diploma and a student who also does not qualify for VAP which then would have to be on track for SOLs even if they don't pass through either special permission credit accommodations or local awards they would still have the opportunity to also graduate with an applied studies diploma because there is very specific criteria for that. So the same diploma that a child would receive if they were VAPT is the same diploma that they could also receive if they aren't able to successfully pass the five SOLs.

[01:42:02] So I just wanted to clear that up and answer any questions that you might have for clarity since that was brought up by one of our questions that was sent in. Any questions? If you have questions later and you don't want to ask them in front of the whole group, you know where to find me.

[01:42:23] All right, that's all I got. Carrie? I should have seen that coming.

[01:42:41] It's good to be here tonight. I hope you all enjoyed the I'm Determined program. They asked me a little bit earlier when I first heard of I'm Determined, and I said probably in between 2004 and 2007 at one of our transition conferences.

[01:42:57] And as a group, we used to, as a transition team, attend the transition conferences every year. And at that point in time, we were known throughout the state as the most forward-leading group in transition.

[01:43:14] So that's something. We had people visiting us, not from just other counties in the state, not from just other states. I even had in my program at one time people coming in from foreign countries, Brazil, Germany, Argentina.

[01:43:31] So we are transition specialists here, and that's one thing I will say about our team. We are very transition-focused, so keep that in mind as we go through things. And speaking of transition and self-advocacy, the one thing I wanted to share with you all tonight, there is something called Wright's Law.

[01:43:52] How many of you have heard of Wright's Law? Good. They are having their conference this year in San Antonio. It's July 22nd through 25th, and I will be going. And if any of the rest of you want to go, I will be more than happy to tell you to go to the Wright's Law website and look under events, and it's there.

[01:44:15] And all the information is there. And I hope that some of you who might be advocates or lawyers or just really determined to advocate for your children will consider thinking about going to this conference. It's awesome. So, except for that, there's not a lot that I've had happen since last month.

[01:44:37] What I will tell you is that I did work with a student services program. I'm on that committee as well, not just the SEAC person, but student services. And the reason it was so much fun was because Dr. Richardson bribed us with snacks.

[01:44:55] Yes, and we did get a lot of work done. We identified a lot of things that we thought could improve understanding in, what was it, 54, 5340. I'm not good with numbers.

[01:45:11] I will tell you that. if you told me what it was I could tell you what the title of the policy I could tell you but not the number but we do have a lot of things that we have worked on clarifying and so it's going to I like the process I have to say as member of the SBAC committee another one of my favorites we always had to wait for MSAC, GIAC, SEAC to get their comments back to us before we could bring it up here to the whole board and a lot of times it was late um and we were all in a rush and and we

[01:45:51] didn't know what to do so this is good because while we were sitting there all the comments from GAC MSAC and SEAC can be made right there at the meeting before we even put the policy in place so it'll come up right away so that's I thank you for that that was a great idea and the snacks so and it's good to be back I told somebody coming in I haven't been back in this building I don't things since March 19th because I didn't have any meetings. It was really nice. So glad to be back

[01:46:25] with all of you and I hope you enjoyed today's meeting as well. So I will just add to that that yes it was a really great experience. Liz and I were the chosen ones for SEAC. We went and we were able to really take a deeper dive into that policy 5340 and we will be sharing once we have our second meeting um the draft that came out of it for input from everybody so our did you know this is me failing because i couldn't find the document which was what our did you know was about

[01:47:03] by figure catherine will just go ahead and tell us about it today yes so it's around 504s and

[01:47:09] ieps and miss de donato will be reading it for us meaningful education progress so think of it

[01:49:09] Oh, is this not working? No, you're good. This is good. So think of it as 504, it focuses on access, those accommodations, whereas the IDEA focuses on instructions. Now, you'll also notice in the IDEA in that...

[01:49:26] Oh, man, you guys really don't want me to talk that long. I get to switch back. But so the Section 504, it's really on that access. So think accommodations, whereas that IDEA, and you'll get that IEP, Focuses on that special instruction now a lot of times it also has accommodations in there so that IEP can be both But that 504 it's just those accommodations Just that access both are essential tools to help LCPS ensure that their students with disabilities are supported

[01:50:04] Included and able to reach their potential and that's it

[01:50:16] All right Thank you, Jen. We appreciate that information hmm. So moving on - We have our membership, Tom. - So we are still at 21 voting members and in doing the audit of our PTO PTA reps, we are very currently, as of this evening, we are at 57 confirmed PTO PTA reps throughout the county.

[01:50:43] We have another 32 that have been identified but just not confirmed yet. So there are only 12 schools throughout the district that don't currently have a representative, but we've reached out to every single principal to both confirm the ones that are not confirmed well as get those last 12 covered as well that's so awesome towards the end of the school year we got it but yay um i know right so our executive committee meeting will be today after this

[01:51:18] meeting right over at clyde's everybody's welcome to join um the policy and compliance meeting uh Subcommittee met last week, and we'll go ahead and go over the policies at the end of the meeting.

[01:51:40] And now we have up our SEAC nominating committee, Liz and Carla. Hey, guys.

[01:51:55] So thank you so much to all of our SEAC members who reached out and maybe volunteered isn't the right word, but we're at least receptive to volunteering. Shh, shh, don't give her a mic.

[01:52:16] But anyway, we were able to put together a full slate for next year's executive committee, and so we would like to go ahead and read off some bios for the people that we found for each position.

[01:52:32] So I'm going to let Carla take it away with the first one. Our nominee for chair is Erin Rozelle Poe. Erin is a dedicated special education advocate, the mother of two sons who receive special education services.

[01:52:57] For more than 12 years, she's navigated the complexities of the special education system firsthand, gaining deep practical knowledge of special education law, procedures, and the real-world impact these systems have on families. Throughout her advocacy journey, Erin has been a consistent and outspoken voice for students with disabilities.

[01:53:19] She's spoken publicly at numerous school board meetings, emphasizing the importance of properly supporting children in special education. She has also authored multiple op-eds, advocating for systemic change and increased accountability in how schools serve students with disabilities.

[01:53:38] In addition, Erin has traveled to Richmond to support statewide literacy reforms in Virginia, highlighting the need for evidence-based instruction and equitable access to education for all learners. Erin earned board certification in special education advocacy under the mentorship and training of special education attorneys, further strengthening her expertise and commitment to the field.

[01:54:06] She has served as the SEAC Vice Chair for Communications for the past two years and has been a SEAC representative for her children's schools over the years. In addition, she's co-chaired the Specialized Literacy and Math Subcommittee for the past two years.

[01:54:24] She's also served in leadership roles, including PTO President at her children's school. I think we all know Erin holds a deep commitment to students with disabilities and their families and is dedicated to improving special education through partnership and collaboration with SEAC and LCPS.

[01:54:50] And for Vice Chair of Planning, we have Laura Colossi. Laura is a mother of two, including a son with autism. She has served as the PTO treasurer at her son's school for the past school year and has been a SEAC member and co-chair of the SEAC awards planning committee for two years.

[01:55:17] Previously, she earned a bachelor's of science degree in mathematics from George Mason University in 2017. Laura has thoroughly enjoyed her time being a part of SEAC, thank you, And looks forward to finding more opportunities to help our schools be inclusive for all students.

[01:55:36] And she's an excellent baker. And an excellent baker. We've got to keep her close, guys. Our nominee for Vice Chair of Communications is Marsha Kelly. Marsha Kelly is the parent of two children in Loudoun County Public Schools.

[01:55:56] She's been actively involved in her school's PTA in various capacities and serves as a SEAC voting member and representative. Marcia has a background in software implementation, consulting, and technical design, and brings a systems-focused, data-informed perspective to her advocacy.

[01:56:16] She's committed to advancing SEAC's work on behalf of students with disabilities and to improving communication, consistency, and meaningful inclusion in special education. Next, we have our Vice Chair of Membership, who we have Tom Ketchum volunteering to stay in his role.

[01:56:39] Tom is a father of four twice-exceptional children and has been an advocate for education for more than 18 years. Older than the rest of us. Oh, my goodness. Serving in roles on various advisories and councils in Loudoun and other counties, He is proud to serve as our current Vice Chair for Membership and Co-Chair for our Meaningful Inclusion Subcommittee.

[01:57:04] He also serves on GIAC, the Strategic Planning Committee, and the Equity Council. In his professional life, Tom is a lifelong entrepreneur who has built several successful businesses employing thousands of people and an accomplished inventor with 10 patents in AI and identity.

[01:57:27] I'll give you all the long ones. I know. Okay. For secretary, we have a very familiar face, Katie Rosenbrook. Thank you, Katie, for staying on as secretary.

[01:57:45] Katie's been a dedicated employee of the Loudoun County Public School since 2007, beginning her career as a special education teaching assistant. Driven by a passion for supporting students with diverse learning needs, she earned her master's degree from George Mason University and became a special education teacher in 2012.

[01:58:07] In 2023, she transitioned into the role of Start on Success as a Start on Success teacher for LCPS, where she helps provide selected high school seniors with meaningful paid internship opportunities through Inova.

[01:58:23] This program supports students in developing critical workplace and life skills as they prepare for adulthood. She has proudly served on the Special Education Advisory Committee since 2018, holding the position of secretary.

[01:58:40] In this role, she's committed to clear communication, organization, and collaboration to support the committee's mission of advocating for students with disabilities and their families. So we'd like to thank all of our nominees for stepping up.

[01:58:59] Yes. And so we wanted to put it out to our membership if they would like to go forward with voting for our slate of candidates this month or if they would prefer to hold off and wait another month.

[01:59:19] Yes. Good meeting. Sorry. Shanaz wanted to go a little bit early, but so we're going to have to wait a month so you guys can just get the anticipation rolling a little bit. And we will next month at our May meeting vote.

[01:59:39] So unless, unless, if anyone else, this is our slate. This is who we came up with. But if you have a dying wish to serve in any of these roles, please feel free or want someone else to nominate someone.

[01:59:55] These are, this is just our slate and nominations are still open. So at our next meeting we will ask if there are any additional nominations and then hold a vote. So thank you all so much.

[02:00:20] So our SEAC awards planning committee met quite a bit over spring break as we usually do. It's very fun. had 352 nominations for SEAC awards this year, guys. Which, fun fact, is the exact same number we got last year, too. Which, what are the chances? Like, literally, I saw that number and I was like,

[02:00:51] no. But yes. And I think I can speak for all of us that we had a lot of fun reading through them all and it's so hard to go through and to pick our winners but we did our very best and worked together as a committee and applying all of our various viewpoints to get to our winners so we are working on finalizing that we're not quite there but but we're really really close. Laura would you like to update on anything else that we've been up to? I think the list of nominations is going to go out soon, right?

[02:01:29] I believe the nominees are going to be notified beginning tomorrow. I spoke with Kristen, so not the winners. This is not the winners. These are just the nominees to let them know that they've been nominated.

[02:01:46] So they will be receiving emails. It may not be tomorrow, so if they don't get their email tomorrow, don't freak out. It's just a very big undertaking to send out all of these emails. And so, Kristen Lovell is absolutely amazing and incredible and does such a phenomenal job making sure that all the right people get CC'd on these emails so that our nominees receive the recognition that they absolutely deserve.

[02:02:17] So if you hear from someone that you nominated that they heard something, awesome. And then the actual, do you have something to add, Marsha? No, they'll just find out that they've been nominated for a SEAC award.

[02:02:40] And new this year, also something we worked on over spring break, is every nominee will be receiving a specially designed sticker that says that they were nominated for a SEAC award.

[02:02:57] So those will also be traveling around to them. And I'm not going to guarantee timing, but they will get them. this school year and I promise you that we had people who are much better with graphic design taking a look at them um so hopefully people will be able to proudly display their stickers so we're very excited about that you're mine I'm busy don't you see that I'm doing something I'm oh my gosh hey Carly so sorry about that you're good um and then I'm trying to think what

[02:03:32] out. So we've been finalizing wording on emails going out. I'm going to send out a sign up genius soon. So if you guys want to, I'll send that out probably the end of the week or so. Just so we can like, you guys can send that out to your schools so you can help contribute to the SEAC awards if you're interested. And then also volunteer opportunities too. We do want to ask that all of our SEAC members. Please attend. It is a phenomenal ceremony. It's incredible to see how many people

[02:04:08] have really promoted inclusion in our community. And even reading these nominees, the nominations, it was really just heartwarming. It was so hard to look at any of them and say, you know, like to pick any one person because they were all amazing nominations. So please, please block your calendars June 3rd at Light Ridge High School. All SEAC members on board please. Yeah we really need your help too. Like it is quite a big undertaking to put on these awards and we do get a lot of support

[02:04:44] from the Office of Special Education but we really need our members to also show up and help with all of the logistics. Like the people we've had in the past are just amazing workhorses but we could make it even greater better easier if we have more of our members who actually show up for the awards and we will find a role no matter what your strength is we will make sure to make use of it so it is really fine it's so much fun and there'll be cookies so yep snacks we'll make sure there's

[02:05:21] there's good food everyone's well fed yep all right does anyone have any questions about SEAC awards or nominations all right thank you all so much you guys okay and now we're going to go into subcommittee reports tom do you want to do the others as well yes yes you just go ahead so meaningful inclusion we're continuing to work on that video library we've had a couple of submissions so far there's plenty more if people want to sign up um please attend our next meeting

[02:06:00] which should be on April 22nd at 6 p.m. And there'll be announcements about that. GEAC, our next meeting will be May 14th. And that is going to be something I'd invite everybody here at GEAC to participate in as well, because that's going to be on Twice Exceptional Learners, which if you don't know, those are our students that have been identified as both special needs as well as gifted, which presents very unique challenges.

[02:06:32] our equity committee will be our council sorry equity council it's a changed format this year we'll be meeting next on may 7th and our next meeting of the strategic planning committee will be june 16th marcia also serves on that committee as well so if there's any input that you'd like for us to take to that committee please just have it to us by well next meeting would be great Thanks, Tom.

[02:07:04] Erin and Alicia for specialized reading and math. So we, excuse me, our last work session slash meeting was last month, and we were able to kind of definitely clear the air on some of this MTSS versus Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 1 intervention, and it was very well presented, and there was a lot of really great information that came out of that work session that we had.

[02:07:34] Our next subcommittee meeting will be virtual, and it's actually tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. So if you're available, log on, and we're going to keep talking about math, reading, and even some writing.

[02:07:55] Our transition subcommittee, Stephen? So, yeah, we haven't met yet. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, May 5th in person here at the LCPS building at 10 a.m.

[02:08:15] With snacks. Oh, okay. Okay. And our next meeting is on May 6th over here. We are going to have our transition team come and discuss the plans for the VIEW Transition Academy and any updates. They are going to be asking for some parent feedback as well, because this is the beginning stages. I really, really encourage parents to speak now, because this would be the time that we can make adjustments of what

[02:08:49] what we are planning what the plan is for the transition academy but I will say there has been a lot full a lot of thoughtful thinking thoughtful thinking whatever but you know they've been the process has been amazing and I've seen everyone so enthusiastic about this project so I feel like I take a look at it and I'm like I actually this the first time I feel speechless because I don't have that much feedback to give because they've covered a lot of everything that we are looking

[02:09:23] to have in this academy so please do take time to um hear them next month and provide some good feedback absolutely they will continuously provide us updates when we're in the transition subcommittee meeting and now we begin um just to let you all know to um on tuesday this coming up

[02:09:58] Tuesday I will be presenting the quarterly report to the school board so if anyone wants to join me I will I'll have to find out what time I don't know what time I'm slated for yet I don't think

[02:10:11] the agenda's out so they I don't know if they provided the cards here there's a card in the

[02:10:52] back I believe that has like it asks for feedback and there's a QR code Jen if it's not there I have a copy and i can send it to all of the members and anyone else want i'm sorry yes okay i'll i'll post it on our facebook group too and i'll send it by email if i can send it out okay so i will be after the dinner break after public come after 6 30 i will be speaking so if anyone wants to come

[02:11:30] join me please feel free to come over um okay so craig you're up and while craig is coming up we'll do roll call since we're going to vote. That's okay. Carrie Adams. I'm here. Sorry. That's okay.

[02:11:52] Elizabeth Crotty. Here. Jen DiNanano. Marsha Kelly. Tom Ketchum present. Shanaz Khan. Here. Rosina Katak. Laura Colossi. Well, she was here. We all know she was here.

[02:12:14] Mary McClintock. Okay. Alicia McFadden. Craig Metz. Right here. Stephen Meyer. Catherine Moran.

[02:12:32] Kelly Ralston, Erin Roselle Poe, Catherine Rosenbrook, Carly Sabatino. Here. Carla Sola, Sharon Trompf, Melissa Waugh, and Sakina Zarbouche.

[02:12:56] She is virtual. I know I see her. Ah, there it goes. I'm sorry. I couldn't get it to unmute. I'm here. First, we had two policies that the subcommittee did not find any reason for us to make recommendations on.

[02:13:18] Policy 3040, school building administration, was just being updated to reflect some updates in Virginia law. And policy 4190, their post-employment benefit funding policy, was just not something that would really related to our community of interest. So if we could take a motion to adopt that there are no recommendations for these policies?

[02:13:39] Second. Moved and seconded. The motion is to adopt that there are no recommendations for these policies. All those in favor? Sorry. Is there any discussion? Yeah, you got me. Is there any discussion? Okay. Now, all those in in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Any abstentions? Carly Sabatino? Aye. Carrie Adams? Aye. Sharon Trofe? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Now we have the

[02:14:15] annual plan. And for those who don't know, you know, the IDEA is a federal law with implementing regulations. Requires the state to adopt implementing regulations. And due to the way federalism works. Basically, we have to apply for the grant money. Part of that grant is agreeing to follow the rules, follow the regulations. Part of it is saying we followed the rules in the past.

[02:14:41] Part of it is saying we are going to follow the rules in the future. Those are mostly administrative from our perspective. In the past, one of the areas that we've had concerns about is there's this provision, it's not widely known, it's this private school proportional set aside. So when we apply for the funds, we get about $15 million of combined state and local funds. Unfortunately, it's not a lot of money. Most of our money comes from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

[02:15:16] But the regulations require that we figure out how many private school students, so that includes homeschool students. And whatever the proportion of those students to public school students, we have to proportionally set aside a little bit of the federal and state money to be used for services for them. So I think it comes out to about $65,000. Not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but it's there intended for the benefit of privately and homeschooled disabled

[02:15:50] students. And a long time ago, we found out that basically we never end up actually spending all that money and that seemed odd to us so there's money to help students and yet it doesn't all get spent helping the students and in the past there was language in the annual plan that said that money could only be used for speech language services and we were concerned about that you know if what first of all it seemed like an unreasonable restriction at all and then second if we're not spending all the money why would you restrict what we could spend it on why would you

[02:16:27] not want to open it up and see what people could come forth with needs to do. And this is also out of sync with other jurisdictions. Our understanding is that in many other counties, there's kind of a window for applications for use of this money that opens up and the money goes fast.

[02:16:45] One would think $65,000 with as many people are in Loudoun County Public School, I'm sorry, Loudoun County, not in LCPS, one would think that that money could go to good use quickly. So this was an issue that we've been tracking for many years.

[02:17:01] Now, a couple years ago, SEAC and the staff collaborated to come up with new language for the annual plan that took away that restriction and replaced it with language I believe was based on other counties. And I believe it was basically any reasonable need, first come, first serve.

[02:17:21] And so one of the things that we wanted to make sure of when we were reviewing this annual plan was that that language that had been developed in the past was there, and it was. So we're very glad to see that. And the staff did share that we're still not spending all the money.

[02:17:38] And so I think that there's an opportunity for collaboration ongoing to think of ways that we can get the word out and reach out more to private school and homeschool students to let them know there's this resource to help your children, help your family, and it's going unused, and it's there for you.

[02:17:59] So that's not particularly a change to the annual plan, just a future work item. The good news is that at the end of that process, there were no changes that we are recommending to the annual plan. And we thank you for the opportunity to get that to us to review. Oh, I think that we do need a motion.

[02:18:22] Moved and seconded. We didn't actually say what the motion was. Do you want to? That we have no recommendations? Thank you.

[02:18:42] Moved and seconded. The motion is to accept the annual plan with no recommendations. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Are there any abstentions? Carrie Adams?

[02:19:00] Aye. Sharon Trofe? Aye. Carly Sabatino? Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Finally, there was Policy 2350, Appeal of Administrative Decisions, and we did have a number of concerns and recommendations for this one.

[02:19:23] One of the issues was that there's basically chances for the parents and the staff to present their perspectives, their sides of the story, but there's no way that the parents can then respond to what the staff says to the appeal committee of the school board.

[02:19:49] So, for example, if they feel that something needs to be corrected or if there's a material omission, the parents don't get a chance to present that. I think one of the points that was brought up is that usually in an appeal situation, since the parents are the ones who are bringing in the burden of proof, that they should have this opportunity to respond to that appeal.

[02:20:20] So recommendation number one is to add two statements. Both of these are just asking that the parents be given the opportunity within three school days to submit a reply or a response to any of the information that was provided back by the staff. So the workflow would have been the parents submit an appeal, the staff provides their response. This is giving one more chance to respond to that. There's also a part of the policy that says that basically the appeals

[02:20:58] committee can ask for more information and so it's also giving a chance to respond to that. The second concern is that parents were not being given notice that they can appeal and how to do so in a timely manner. We had heard for example reports that sometimes that that information was put in the mail and it didn't even arrive until after the 10-day appeal window was over and so being told that you have this right after the time deadline to exercise it was not really fair

[02:21:33] another issue and this is one that we've brought up before is ensuring that if the parents or guardians or adult student are not native english speakers because this is important information about your rights that it be provided to you in your preferred language and if the parent guardian or adult student has a disability and needs to have the information communicated to them in an accessible way, that it is provided to them in an accessible way.

[02:22:08] The good news is that the primary language is already identified in ParentVUE, so LCPS already has much of that information. So the recommendation two is to add this language when an administrative decision is made which can be appealed under this policy.

[02:22:25] Notice shall include a statement that the decision can be appealed along with the procedure to appeal, which must include the contact information for where the appeal should be submitted. Such notification shall be provided in an accessible mode of communication and in the recipient's primary language. The third concern is the draft that we received says that appeals are permitted when authorized by school board policy and staff regulation.

[02:22:59] So being very strict in our application of logic, the way that it's phrased means that it has to be in both or you don't have that right. And so if, for example, the school board passed a policy that said you have that right, the staff could just write a regulation that doesn't and then you don't actually have that right.

[02:23:21] And I don't think that's what was intended. I think that's just a drafting issue. So we are suggesting that we just change that and to an or so that regulation can't take away an appeal right, instead can only add rights.

[02:23:37] And for consistency, a reference to the regulation should be made. So the proposal is to change the and to or and then to add another or. That's that one. Is there any discussion of any of these?

[02:23:59] I know that they were a little bit more meaty and a little bit technical. Do we have a motion? Moved and seconded. The motion is to accept the recommendations of the subcommittee for policy 2350. Is there any further discussion?

[02:24:28] Hearing none. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Are there any abstentions? Carrie Adams. Aye. Sharon Trofe. Aye. Carly Sabatino. Aye. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

[02:24:47] Thank you all so much for coming this evening. And we will see you next month for our last SEAC presentation and business meeting. Take care, everyone.

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