Doc Leo, you there or Sabrina?
The recording start
Where you started. Thank you so much. Yeah, I see. OK,
perfect. So I would like to welcome everybody who
is here at our meaningful inclusion
subcommittee meeting tonight. Um, thank you
all for coming. We have a wonderful presentation
coming up. Um, my name is Ellen Kay, and I
am the chair of the Meaningful Inclusion Committee.
Um, I have been doing this now for 2 years,
and I really believe in meaningful inclusion,
um, having everybody represented and everybody,
um, has a chance to be included
and, uh, have, have the right to be
educated with their typical same age peers. I believe in that
very strongly, um. I would like to give
the district people here a chance to introduce themselves.
We have two people that I know of, and if there's
anybody else, um, so Doc Leo and
Sabrina Schei, would you please introduce yourselves and
let the, let the who and whoever else may be here and let the
people uh who are here know what your position is in the district
and what you do. So, hello, good evening, um, and
welcome. I'm happy to be able to be here and participate. My,
my name is Sabrina Shii, and I am the director for ESC
curriculum and school support and under
under my division or my part of the division, we do
focus on inclusion and inclusive practices, and, um,
Doctor Leo, who's gonna be joining us next really spearheads that work
um as the supervisor.
Hey everyone, sorry I haven't camera. Um, I'm in my
car waiting for my daughter, so, uh, I do wanna say thank you to everyone
for being here. Um, it's a pleasure working along with Ellen K.
Um, I think we'll have some updates from the district in terms of our
inclusion rates and our inclusion champion initiative, and any
questions you might have for us. So looking forward to the presentation and,
uh, hearing all the good information that will be presented. Thank you.
OK, so before district updates, what I would like to do
is just set some ground rules. I appreciate
everybody who is here. Um, please keep your
microphones on mute and your cameras
off because that does draw from the um
presenters. Um, if you have questions later on,
we'll keep an eye on hands, uh, raised, or we'll
have, uh, an opportunity for you to be able to,
um, ask questions. That's not gonna be a problem.
Also, if you have any questions, um, this
is Really for systemic issues later on if
you have any questions of district people. If you have any
personal questions, I put a link in the
chat. Um, if you take a look at it, it says
forms office, and if you click on that link, you
can fill out that form about a personal, if you have something
personal going on with your child, and that will get to the district
and the district will respond to you within 24 to 48
hours. So, um, all of those issues,
um, can be dealt with by the district, um, for personal,
but systemic you can ask the questions, OK? Um,
Sabrina or Doc Leo, if you would like to just fill in
on any of the district updates, we'd appreciate it. So thank you
very much.
No, I know, uh, Leo will probably share. I'll just share from, uh,
mine that, um, and Leo, I hope I'm not stepping on your toes with any of the things
I'm sharing in the district update, but, um, I know that
we did just work on our district Bie
recently, uh, where we have set some, uh, inclusion
standards. So we're working to, uh, really Look at those
steps that we're gonna be working towards to be able to meet those
goals, um, and that's a 3 year plan so we're
excited about that opportunity and also this time
uh we are looking at expanding our um
pilot program that we started in middle school. um, we're
expanding this is like an opportunity for students
to. Um, some, some uh be able to
participate in a co-teaching model, which Ellen has shared some information about that
in previous, um, meeting, but we are actually expanding
to high school, which we're really excited that, um, most of our
models for our first few high schools will be that that true co-teaching
model. So we're looking forward to those opportunities. Yes, we're so
excited about it and just looking forward to continuing the good work
alongside, and we really appreciate Ellen. Um, and the work she's
doing, and we appreciate working alongside her, so thank you.
OK. Yeah, you definitely stepped up, you definitely
stepped on my toes, Sabrina, so I'm not sure what to say and after
that, no, um. Um, I do want to just kind of
add on top of the school district Bie, uh, that we just,
um, we met as a, as with all stakeholders, families,
teachers, um, administrators to really figure out a three-year
plan to help our inclusion rates and support students with disabilities. So
we're looking forward to, um, to meeting those goals and
making improvements. Excuse me, we are also our
inclusion champion initiative is pretty much we have,
um, we have a representative from each school who's, uh, who's
been, um, chosen as their inclusion champion, who really has the
responsibility of really sharing out all the different type of
inclusive practices that are happening at your school. Uh, we meet with them
quarterly and we'll be meeting with them in March. Uh, and in March, we're actually
gonna be reviewing the data in terms of the inclusion. Rates and looking
at different ways we can include improve their inclusion uh rates when it
comes to students with disabilities so we're really looking forward to that and continuing that
work as we uh end this year and uh start up for the next year.
So, uh, we'll be staying on if you guys have any other questions, but we look forward to
the presentation. OK.
Um, Sabrina and I, Sabrina, if you don't mind
monitoring the chat, and I will also monitor the chat.
But right now what I'd like to do is I would like to introduce
our presenters. We have two,
fabulous presenters who have volunteered to, um,
present tonight on um uh a topic that is near and dear to
my heart, which is advocating for accommodation.
And um they have a lot of experience with this.
So I think that this is um amazing of them to do
this. Loose Rapaport is a senior at Mount Holyoke
College, where they study politics. They graduated from
Cooper City High School in 2021. Where they were an honor
roll and AP student. Luce is a Posse Foundation
scholar, co-founder and treasurer of Accessibility
Justice Club, treasurer of College Democrats,
secretary of the Student Government Disability Committee, and an active
member of the Jewish La Latin populations
at MHC. They are writing their thesis about
the effects of rank choice voting on voter turnout,
conducting an independent quantitative analysis, while
using research model that has not been previously
utilized in this field of study. Upon
graduation, Luce's goal is to attend graduate school,
to pursue a master's in public policy and administration.
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Luce
moved with their family to South Florida in 2017.
Carson Law is a senior at Mount Holyoke College, where
they study critical social thought. They are originally from
Portland, Oregon and have experienced private,
public, I'm sorry?
Private, public, and home education throughout their
lifetime. Carson is co-founder and primary contact of
Accessibility Justice Club, a leader of the Olive Tree
Installation, which is a student-run protest art project,
and a mentor and liaison for speaking, arguing, and writing
center at MHC. He is currently writing his
senior thesis on disabled life at Mount Holyoke using a
narrative lens to provide an accessible means of theorizing
about questions such as how does accessibility or lack
thereof affect treatment of disabled people.
How do disabled people grapple with the effects of
inaccessibility and how do institutions,
individuals, and those effective move forward from
inaccessibility? Before MHC, Carson
worked as a certified ASL interpreter and
professional advocate for. Education access for
disabled students in high school and higher education.
Carson's goal is to study civil rights in law school and become
a disability advocate, focusing on the rights of
disabled students to have a say in the
way their uh education is provided. So without further
ado, let me introduce Carson and Luce.
Thank you so much, Ellen for that wonderful introduction. Can you all hear
us? Yeah,
OK, cool. Uh, I'm gonna share my screen.
Yeah, OK, so, hi, I'm Carson, and this is Luce.
um, thank you, Ellen for the introduction. Um, we have our little introduction slides, which
is the information that you pretty much just heard about us, so this is
us, um, just to give you a little bit of an
overview of how um this presentation is gonna go to give you an idea of of
where we're gonna go with this presentation, um. We have this just agenda slide,
um, we're gonna talk about advocacy and how that fits into
accessibility and how that how that works for students, um,
as well as reform, um, and how that can partner really
well with advocacy and accessibility. Um,
and provide some concrete suggestions for you all to take away about reform
on the county level, and then we'll have some time for Q&A. Um, so if you have any
questions come up as we're speaking, feel free to drop those in the chat and we'll review those,
um, once we finish our presentation, um, and get all those questions answered.
Um, so throughout the presentation, something that we're gonna
do is introduce definitions of the topics that we're talking about,
not for a lack of your understanding of them, but just so that we're all on the same page because words
can of course take on a lot of meanings in different contexts. So we want to make sure we're all on
the same page on when we're throwing a term out there like what it means to
us, um, and so when we're saying advocate, what does that mean to us?
Um, in this context, when we're talking about advocacy, we're talking about disability
advocacy, um, and we define that as the act of protecting the well-being of
individuals with disabilities by ensuring equal access to opportunities and services
and promoting social and legal changes to improve lives. Uh, what we find really important
about that definition particularly is that it's an, it's an ongoing process and it can
be engaged with by anyone. Uh, advocacy is not just for someone
disabled or someone caretaking for a disabled student, uh, but for anyone. Advocacy is
a process that needs as many voices as possible to make the changes that we want to see.
So self-advocacy, um, while your presence at this meeting
demonstrates willingness to advocate for a student, can your student advocate
for themselves? We understand that there's different levels of disability and different
ages that can impede communication. However,
we still strongly encourage everyone to
communicate in whatever way they can, um, considering that
they know best, right? You know yourself best, you're disabled students gonna know what
their needs are best. Uh, not only should all disabled, uh,
people be taught advocacy, but they should also have the resources and support to do so.
So a good example of this is nonverbal or non-communicative students
having an AAC device, um, or providing them with information so
they can make a decision. Um, another example is how
sometimes some methods of communication can be perceived as
non-communication or non-collaborative, um, when
that's the way that someone has a way to express themselves. So
if A kid is throwing a
tantrum that is still a method of self advocacy and self
communication, but we can redirect that energy
to work for their favor and for their benefit and have them
succeed later on in life. Encouraging, so
our thought here is kind of like encouraging any mode of
self-expression, um, gives students and
disabled people generally in in avenue for communication in the future. So
when you respond to a child crying about something
as understanding that that's a problem for them for some
reason, um, you're giving them that avenue going forward to communicate
that there's that they're experiencing distress. Right, um,
so again, we understand that your students are minors, so there are limitations
as to what they can or should, um, choose regarding their education.
However, you should inform them whenever possible of any changes in plan,
especially regarding their day to day educational environment. I know when I had a
substitute teacher, uh, that would throw me off, um,
so making sure that you're keeping, um.
Open communications with not only your students but also the institutions
so that you can update your student with whatever is happening.
Um, and then again we want to emphasize giving your student the time and space to
share, um, if anything's not working out for them, um, as
everyone has a ways of communicating discomfort, distress and pain.
This can look different for everyone, but brainstorming solutions,
um, in which you can discuss which ways are the best to
communicate or How you can support them,
um, that would be the best case scenario, um, and then
it's also important to know that eventually your kid will need to navigate the world
even partly on their own, right? Um, so teaching and encouraging them to
communicate when something is wrong will be vital for their own survival. Um,
self advocacy can be anything from pushing back on ableism and school policy.
Like we do here at Mount Holyoake to asking you to go to the restroom or
requesting more assistance with a task. We really do
promote a broader idea of self-advocacy as well, and
how even small acts of asking for help are also a way of
self advocating, but encouraging, even those small
acts can promote and um
positively reward the student to encourage them to continue doing such
actions. So just to
provide a little bit of context on how we do that in um our own
lives and how we've seen that work in our communities, um part of the interpreting
work that I do now, I don't work as an interpreter um like on site anymore,
but um I do consulting work, uh, and one of the projects that I'm working on right now
um with a consulting company that I work with is talking about best
practices for educating students about advocating for themselves. It's something that we hear a
lot from disabled people, um, and leaders in Schools
is that students should be in their IEP meetings, which we strongly agree with,
but having a student who maybe hasn't had to make decisions for
themselves before, hasn't had to communicate their needs or hasn't been given the opportunity to
do that, they're walking into these meetings without really any knowledge of how to
participate, and that can be an even more dehumanizing experience to have all of
these adults that you might trust, you might not talking about you without your
input and waiting for you to say something, but not knowing what you can even say.
Um, then which is could be more dehumanizing than not having a say at all.
Um, so what we're working on right now is the best practices document on how to
educate students about self advocacy and um going into a
meeting, what you can say, what you can ask for, um,
before sending those students into those meetings so that they have all the tools that they need to be able to
communicate. Um, and that's similar to something that we do. Glu and I do at Mount
Holyoke, um, which is provide students with the
resources, um, that we know the school offers. We provide them with a list that we call the accommodation
menu, um, of resources that the school can offer them so that when they go
into their accommodation meetings, they know what they can ask for, and they don't have to invent it on
the spot. Um, and if there's something that's not on that list that they want, we can also help them
brainstorm solutions that might work for them, but having something to start with from the
beginning can be really helpful. Yeah, it's important to note that the reason why we founded
Accessibility Justice Club is because we saw a gap um
in the way that our institution works around disability and really higher
academia, but we're only in one institution, so there's only so much work we can
do here. Um, when it comes to working with
students, um, this really started because Carson was going to like
all of our friends accommodation meetings, um, because oftentimes there was,
there's generally not a school provided advocate or a school provided witness, uh, so
you have students first. year, such as me not
really knowing what their disability really looks like or what their needs might look
like as someone who I didn't have a 504 or an IEP,
um, I came to college, I discovered I was disabled and realized that I needed
accommodations and I needed to make the system work for me. However, when I
went into that first meeting, I did not know what was going on. I
didn't have anyone to guide me and resources were not there for me.
So what we're trying to prevent is that exact same thing. So not
only do we provide the accommodations menu, but we also go into meetings with
students or um we meet I have met with students prior
to their meetings and we talk through what accommodations they know
about and what accommodations they might want, um. Other
things that we do um within AGC um we have
done, we're all over, uh, we have done an array of different
um movements in advocacy, and I think Carson explains
it best, um, when it comes to the branches of advocacy.
Um, so one of the things that kind of leads us into our next topic is,
um, when something that's gonna come up kind of a lot through this presentation is giving people
options, um, and that accessibility can really look like having all the information to make an
informed decision. Um, and when we were providing students with all of the information
that they needed, what kept coming up for us was a lot of institutional problems,
um, and we're trying to solve these on an individual level of going with students to meetings,
asking for changes for them, but when an issue keeps coming up repetitively, what we saw
was a need for reform. Um, which is the next thing that we're gonna talk about.
Um, so reform is what um
is kind of larger changes, um, are While
we agree and value of agree that self advocacy is important and value
it, it also, we also believe that it shouldn't be the only route to
disabled people being able to exist in space. It really should cover more of the gray area
because each person does have individual needs. So no matter how much broader
accessibility you have individuals are still going to have their own needs,
um, and disabled people deserve to exist in any space and have
those spaces built for them, um, and so that's the reform aspect that we really think is
valuable. A great example of some um movements for reform
that we have pushed for with AJC um we have made it so
that the one accessible entrance to our library is unlocked during
all of library hours rather than just 9 to 5. Uh, we have
pushed for um the Um,
modernizing of a variety of different buildings in our campus. Our school was built in
1837, so you can imagine not all of our buildings are the most
accessible, um, and we're currently uh working really
closely with uh the office or the division of life,
uh, to possibly create a disability, um, student.
Affinity space sorry, an affinity space, uh,
so that disabled people and disabled students have a place to go
to exist with other disabled people and living in community and live in a space
that's built for them in a space where they don't have to fight to exist
as often disabled people have to do in their day to day lives.
Um, so while we encourage and really vouch
for self advocacy, we also want to encourage you that along with advocating for your
student, um, to advocate for broader reform, to advocate for broader changes,
um, in your larger community and your county, um,
and so I can talk a little bit more specifically about Broward County
as uh an alum of Broward County, I went to Cooper City High School,
um, and, um, while I didn't.
Go through the 504 IP system. My sister is disabled and is currently
in the system. So I do have a fair amount of knowledge about Broward
County. Um, one of the couple of things that we would
recommend that should really change and something that I've heard from multiple
different students as well as uh parents, is consistency across
class years, institutions, and towns. Um, in my city of
Cooper City, there is there to no
communication, uh, from elementary to middle school to high school,
um, and there's also.
Uh History, um,
of the process depending on who the head of the ESC
program is. So ensuring that there's consistency, not only for
your sake as parents, so you don't have to fight every 3 or 4
years, um, but also for the students, um, having to jump
around between integrated or not integrated classrooms, having to jump
around between teachers, um, can be really
isolating and really disruptive to a student's education. So
making sure that the schools are working with the parents, um, and
with the ESC support staff to ensure that the
student is having consistent and smooth transitions is key.
We would also advocate for equal distribution of resources, uh, locally and
countywide. I understand that this is wider reform,
um, but currently in one of my classes I'm studying, um,
educational funding, and one of the things that we're talking about is
neighborhood um educational funding and how Cooper City, the way
that Cooper City High School is founded is by the property taxes on Cooper City.
Um, however, you drive 20 minutes down the road and the
school can be. Completely different in terms of
resources, in terms of possibilities, in terms of their ESC program,
even within the same town, the middle school and the high school look completely different when it
comes to resources. So at least when it comes to
ESC. Keeping some sort of equal distribution of
resources or some consistency across, um, can also make it so
that if the family has to move, the student can have that consistency as well.
Um, you cannot predict that you're gonna be able to live for 12
years in the same city for whatever reason. Um, so
ensuring that not only is your school funded, but that other schools have those resources
as well, um, can not only prove beneficial to yourself but to
the wider community. I have more.
Um, so the next thing is clear and informed communication and consent. So again, as
we've mentioned repeatedly, um, options
are massive, um, when it comes to disability and really
any sort of advocacy or anything, um.
We would argue um that parents and students should always
know and have a say on the students' well-being and education. Um,
we have a lot of Spanish speakers in Broward
County. We have a very high Latino population. I know I
migrated um into the United States, and I
have heard of experience after experience of schools not
being willing to sit down and talk to the parents until they understood.
Um, making sure that both the parent and the child know what's going
on, um, can be very helpful and also
consent, um, and making sure that everyone's on the same page when it comes to the
child's education. Uh, we would also promote um active
county level supervision and accountability, somewhat like, um, this,
um. The panel that we're in right now,
um, in the way that Broward County does have guidelines
on ESC, however, as we've seen with the
inconsistencies with leadership, uh, and
inconsistencies in how the programs are managed, um,
from talking with different parents and different families, I have also found some
sort of um. Lack of
stability and lack of uniformity across the different
um ESC programs. So making sure that there's very
active county level supervision can make sure that your student is getting the
best of what they need. And finally, information and community
access. Um parents and students should be informed of community and
advocacy resources without barriers. So a great example would be
if they're meeting, if they're going into an IEP or 504 meeting, them being
offered a brochure that shares that this committee exists or that other
community spaces exist. I know my family found this
committee by when things weren't going well, uh,
they went on Facebook and that's how they found it. It shouldn't have to go to
that level where things are crashing down and that's when you find your community.
Community should be there to create this reform to support
advocacy and to support each other. Um, not only
do we work with an advocacy, but we also host a biweekly teas, uh,
disabilities, um, we still call them.
To also provide students that sense of community, um, because
everyone will be more empowered to push for reform and to push for advocacy and to
push for the well-being of their students if they see everyone else seeing it.
So making sure that these resources are very loud, very
clear, can also be very helpful for the movement. Really as many
opportunities for communication um as possible
is is really central to creating accessibility. Um, so
when we talk about having this kind of institutional reform,
um, one of the things that we're looking for is universal design, um, because we
talk about advocacy being to cover the gray area, which means before
you get to that gray area, you should have kind of a more structural support for a
variety of different experiences and backgrounds. Um, so the way that we would define
universal design is a design and composition of an environment so that it
can be accessed, understood, and utilized to the greatest extent possible by
all people regardless of their age, ability, size, or
disability, um, because universal design imagines
a variety of life experiences and then establishes whatever
system it is, whether that's a school or an event, um, or a classroom.
To accommodate as many people as possible so that before you even walk in, you're
able to, your life experience has been considered, um,
and That I have, um,
so. The benefit of that is that
disabled people aren't the only people being targeted and able-bodied people aren't the only people being targeted,
um, but rather you're thinking about a variety of life experiences and facilitating for
that in mind, which is called the curb cut effect. Um, so we have this graphic here,
um, which shows the curb cut, which is the kind of slope in the
sidewalk, um, up to 8DA standards for
wheelchair users, um, but you see throughout the image that
all everything highlighted in orange, actually those people. are also benefiting from the
curb cut, so you have a mother with a wheelchair, you have someone with a suitcase, someone
pushing boxes on a dolly, and now all of these people are able to use the the sidewalk that was not
previously built for them because the design was made with disabled
people in mind, which ended up benefiting everyone. Um, so we encourage you
to advocate for reform while it might take more time
than just focusing specifically on an individual students' needs. Uh, in the long
run, it benefits of a vast majority of students, uh, because there are
people who aren't disabled but still benefit from universal design, who still benefit
from an accommodation mindset and thinking of a variety of life experiences
because maybe they're not in a wheelchair, but they have a baby and they're pushing them in a stroller, um,
right, so there's these kind of designs that are built into the system that benefit
everyone long term. Um, and when we're talking about,
um, I actually lost my train of thought. Oh,
inclusion, um, we're talking about inclusion, having a a thing
such as universal design, having a thing such as the curb cut effect when you're
normalizing certain accommodations or certain. Meeting
everyone's needs and that becomes a normalized concept, um, can
be really helpful when it comes to integration and inclusion of disabled
students. If you don't make it feel like
this is a special thing that has to be for this one student because
they're special and different, even though every kid is
special and different and wonderful, um.
What can happen is not only can that normalize the experience
for able-bodied and neurotypical students, but it also
gives the student. Less of a sense of alienation.
Being disabled can often feel very alienating considering that the world is
largely not built for us. Um, so having such things
as universal design as advocating for a curb cut effect
can make it so that that sense of alienation is reduced because now
it's not longer no longer a big spotlight that the student needs a
ramp when other people are also using it.
So when we talk about designing with accessibility in mind, um, we're thinking
about it being as easy for someone with a different or non
normative life experience to enter and exist in a space as it is for a quote unquote
normative person. Um, so that applies to not just disability but a lot
of different marginalized communities. We're thinking about is this space
accessible for someone who is of who is not white, who
is not cisgender, who is not heterosexual, who is maybe
lower class, um, a great example of this in Broward County
specifically is having some sort of Spanish translation or Spanish
subtitles when there's some sort of presentation going on. is
thinking about a lot of different life experiences and not just this quote unquote normative student,
um, which ends up usually being an able-bodied white student. Um, and
instead thinking about what a lot of different life experiences might look like and how those students are able
to show up, enter the space and also exist in that space. Um,
so accessibility is, is not just design and it's not just
an individual students need. It's, it's thinking about, it's an ongoing process
of considering a lot of different life perspectives, um, and then also
incorporating those conclusions that you've come to about what someone's life might look
like and how they're gonna be able to interact with your space going forward and incorporating that
into your planning. Um, so,
While universal design is really beneficial, it also has limits because there
are individual people that have individual needs that are unique to them. Um, and this
is where this idea of more broader accessibility in relation to choices as
Luce has been talking about really comes into play. Um, one of the things that
We really heavily advocate for in our our club Accessibility Justice
Club is that everybody has access needs um
and everybody has things that would make it easier for them to exist in a space. So at
the end of the day what we need is to allow people to make the choice about whether a space is
right for them or not. um, and to do that they need to have all the information.
So something that we believe is really central to accessibility is having all of
the information is publicizing all of the information, giving people all of
the information they need to make an accurate decision for themselves. Uh, one of
the ways that we practice that in our own club is we have these
accessibility checklists, uh, that we publicize with our event
posters. So, you know, we, we have our poster that's nice and pretty, and it says, you know,
this is the date, this is the time, this is the place, here's what we're gonna be doing, um, and
then we always follow it up with these two checklists that provide people with
the information that they need to decide whether or not this is the right space for them.
Um, so we'll think through the event. Think about a lot of different life experiences and
check off the things that we're going to be providing or that we know the space incorporates.
Um, I know as a part time wheelchair user who also uses my car as a mobility
aid on campus, um, having this information before an event would mean
that I could go out a lot more. I could socialize a lot more because I, I need to know whether
or not. I can use a wheelchair if I need to, or, you know, if I
have no choice and I have to use my wheelchair today, I don't know whether or not this is
a space that has push buttons. Do I need to bring someone with me to help me get
navigate through the space? Um, and that's something that I have to think about. All of these things that
are on this list are things that I'm always thinking about before I go to an event. Um, and
that's a huge burden for disabled people to carry. So when you're thinking
about design, uh, you're thinking about the way that you're setting up a space, you're thinking about even just
engaging with maybe your disabled student, thinking about giving them all of the
information that they need to decide whether or not this is going to be comfortable for them, whether or not
it's something that they want to expend energy on. And then there's two other things
um that I also want to bring up. First of all, especially when the student is
able to communicate what their needs are, letting the student communicate what their needs
are, letting them know what the context is, and
letting them make decisions. Um, I know both Carson and I have
experience where someone tells us like, no, it's gonna be accessible for you. What
does that mean? You don't need, you don't know exactly what my needs are gonna be
now or what my needs are gonna be that same day. Only I can advocate
for myself and only I know what I truly need. Um, so making sure that your
student has that context can also be really helpful. And then on the other
hand, even if the event is mandatory,
um, because one big thing they're emphasizing here is you can choose whether to
go to the event or not, but I'm thinking like a school assembly. The students should
be able or The family member or the
uh teacher should be able to prepare the student as to what they're about to
encounter. So if they're about to go into a high
sensory space where um speech and questions are
not welcome, when they're about to go into a very quiet space,
um, or a very loud assembly. I know in Cooper City we
had these um pep rallies in the gym, and those were incredibly
overstimulating. Even if the student doesn't have a choice whether they want to go
or not, they can at least mentally prepare themselves. The way that even no
typical people like to prepare themselves in front of a pre like before a presentation at
work, um, giving students that knowledge
can help them deal with having these
situations and also doesn't make them feel um.
Ignored, um, or alienated where when they know
what's going on, um, uh, Carson mentioned earlier and there's
a specific word that you used, um, about like the
student not being included in IEP meetings.
Um, dehumanize? Yes, um,
oftentimes, um, when you're just being dragged from place to
place and you don't know what's going on and you don't know where you're being taken and you're
not being told anything, it could be very dehumanizing. So making sure
that even if the student doesn't really have a choice, like sometimes assemblies you
just kind of have to go, but telling the student what's going on, where they're going
for, how long they're going, what the space is gonna look like, what the seating arrangement
might look like, are we sitting at the front or are we sitting at the back? Um,
can also alleviate conflict
and alleviate the response of the student might have, especially if they have a negative
response, um, to such a situation, and also giving them as many
choices as possible within that situation, which maybe is where are we sitting,
what time are we going, when are we taking a bathroom break, etc. etc.
um, again it comes back to providing all of the information as you
can so that everyone's on the same page and everyone's well informed.
Um, so something that Luz had kind of brought up touched on
before, uh, is integration, and this is something that I found
very central to my experience working with, uh, deaf and disabled
students, uh, in high school settings when I was an interpreter, um, is
that access isn't enough. um, getting them physically into a space, giving
them an interpreter isn't enough to give them the same educational experience
as everyone else. Um, and I think, uh, J Logansmill
just brings this up in his book Curt Negativity, um. In a way that I think is is
really beneficial that um you have to have you accessible design
is important because people do deserve to be able to enter and navigate a space, uh,
but integration is what's really central as well, because at times, uh, as he
says in this quote that I pulled, he wanted less access, uh less energy
expended accommodating him into a into a community that exploited his
disability as an opportunity to ossify superiority, um,
and it's put in a little bit more simple language in the next slide, um,
but basically that. In a given
space, there is a social norm of ability. Um, no one is
expected to be disabled, and when you put a disabled student in
a classroom, it's very noticeable that they're disabled because the space
assumes that all of the students are able bodied, um,
and what we forget about when we think about universal design, when
we think about physical accessibility of a room, uh, or even just giving someone
choices, is that when they get to that space, how will they be treated? How
does ability operate as a social norm? How does disability stand
out as a deviation from that social norm? How does
that social norm inform the ablest cultures that we're throwing these students into,
um, that we just expect them to integrate into and if they don't have friends, that's a them problem
when really we've thrown them in with no prior
information with no prior um establishment of any of any systems for them.
Uh, so an important part of access is not just that entrance, but the ease in
existing in the space. What makes it easy for an able-bodied student to exist in
a space, and how can we replicate that on a number of
levels for the disabled students when we send them into those spaces. Um, so
an important thing to consider when a disabled student enters the classroom is what messages are being sent
to both them and their peers about their presence in that space.
Um, what comes to mind for me, having worked in interpreting is when I would
go into a classroom with disabled students, uh, the able-bodied students
that were their peers were very rarely educated about
disability, very rarely educated about deafness, um, so they
just have this new peer all of a sudden that they've never seen before and that automatically registers in
their minds as weird or or different. Um, and the,
the teacher very rarely also had education on what it was like to use an
interpreter and to engage with deaf students. Um, and
so while they might engage with the students sometimes for the most part they were defaulting to me as an interpreter.
And the not only as an interpreter but also as like a
classroom aid as kind of a pseudo teacher for these students. Um,
they put all the deaf students at one table in the corner and then I facilitated that
table, and that was the expectation of this classroom that was supposed to be
integrated. It was supposed to be a mainstream experience for these students, but it wasn't,
because from the way that they were physically placed in the room at the separate
table to the way that the teacher didn't interact with them, that communicated a lot to their
peers about how those students should be treated. Um, and it
made it very difficult for all of my deaf students to become friends with their
able-bodied peers because their able-bodied peers were subliminally communicated all these
messages about how they were different or they were weird or they were other, um,
and those are questions that we need to be thinking about when you're putting students in the space, what
is even the physical space you're placing them in communicating to their peers about
them. Um, is it communicated that they're an outsider? Is it emphasized that
they're different or special, or are they just another student? And how is
disability taught to their their able-bodied peers before they even enter that
space? And I think having a conversation about disability is a
natural variation in human life is a really valuable thing to teach
students before they even meet a disabled person, because we don't know what messages about
disability are being communicated to them in advance, um, whether that's at home or
from previous experiences, um. Or even if they've had, you know,
negative interactions with a sibling who's disabled and they hold that resentment, like those are things
that should be addressed before we make it a disabled students problem and we mainstream them,
um, and making sure that teachers are well educated on
uh disability so that they are able to integrate students. So when it
comes to integration, a couple of other things, a couple of other examples,
um, I'm 22 and in college,
and I have a classroom where because I have
accommodations for a chair, uh, because I take 3 hour long seminars because I'm
22 and in college, um, they set up
a completely different table in a corner with a with a little
chair that's Luss table and chair.
Um, and I use it because it's what accommodates me and
also the way the room is set up is that it's one large
table and me in the corner. What's up with that?
It's, it's not just a, um,
problem for, for minors. It's also a problem for adults who that continues into college,
it continues into the workplace, um, because these ideologies about
disability and ability and Hierarchy and
values and the body are all throughout our
society and that informs the way that we structure our spaces.
And an example relevant to Broward County, I know
from talking to families of specific cases where the student was
integrated and by that they mean that even though they were in the
classroom physically, um. Specifically this one
student that I have in mind, they were in a US history classroom. The
teacher was teaching US history. They were in a separate table in the
corning, in the corner, learning how to write, um, so not
even engaging with the content, not even. Being integrated in
the classroom, they were just having a different class in the same physical
space. So that's not integration, that's not true integration,
that's still isolating the student. So at that point, what is
most productive? Would it be most productive for that student to be in a different classroom where they
can be free of other um.
Distractions and learn how to read or write, or would it be best for
the student to be taking that history class with the syllabus adapted to
their needs, um, and with that, with the pair
of working with them to accommodate the syllabus and working with the teacher
to accommodate it, um, because even though the student was
in the classroom and integrated, were they? Um, if they were
just sitting in a corner learning completely different material.
I'm sure if I'm sharing with audio. This is
the video. It's not a video, um, there's a, there's a
link to the video, so, um, this is a really wonderful
um lecture kind of question answer um with
uh disability justice activist Mia Mingus, um, called Beyond Access,
and she talks about not just giving students
but generally disabled people access to a space that they don't want to be in. Um,
so kind of similar to J. Logan's Mil just talking about like what,
what are we giving disabled people access to when we design a building with
universal accessibility, when we put in ramps, what are those people walking
into? Um, and she says we're not just doing access for the sake of
access, it's not about getting physically into a space and sitting there. We're doing,
we're not just doing access for assimilation, and we're not just fighting to get access to the
horrible system, the current system that we have. Um, because
in many ways it is that it is, it is a horrible system for disabled
people often. Um, we're doing access that moves us beyond
access towards the world that we actually want, um, by putting disabled
people into a space, we should be making it a space that's safe for disabled people.
Um, so you should be having those conversations in advance of putting a disabled student into a
classroom, so that all of those students can be supportive of their disabled peers, so that
they understand how to engage with disability, so that we can have, as the Amiga
says, justice and liberation, access for the sake of deeper connection and
breaking isolation, because even though we're centering
this. System on this one disabled student and we're having these
conversations so that this disabled student can enter that space. There are going to be
other students that have similar experiences that have disabilities that
go unnoticed until college like loose or disabilities that are just not acknowledged
yet by the medical system or by the school system, um, like neuro divergency often
goes unnoticed. And when you're having those conversations, it
gives students the space to communicate what their own life experience looks like and
ask for the help that they need, um, and that's, that's huge for students that
that changes their entire academic career, um, to have
those conversations and break that isolation down and not have disability to be something that
they need to hide, but that they've seen form connections
with their peers with this new student that's coming in, um, with
their with their teachers about conversations about disability. Um,
so having that integration mindset creates a better
space for everyone to be a part of, which kind of goes back to the whole curb cut universal design,
and all comes full circle. So something that I want to
emphasize before we close, um.
I want to acknowledge that it can often sound as
though. Or When
I was talking about reform, it could sound as though I was criticizing Broward County.
That isn't necessarily the goal. What we're
trying to do here is demonstrate how there's no progress without
criticism. There's no problem, there's no progress without recognizing what
Issues need to be fixed. And so while Broward County is
currently doing a great job um in whatever ways they
can uh they can, there's still long ways to go. The same way
that I can praise our university as much as I want, um,
on the progress and the ways in which they've accommodated us,
there's still ways to go. And so not looking at this
as Oh, we're just sinking
and there everything is wrong, but rather
we've done all these things, all these things have worked. We know that
there's progress that has been done. What can be done
further to promote inclusion, to promote
um accessibility, and to promote self-advocacy.
And that is our presentation. Thank you for listening.
That was, that was incredible. Um, that was
really, um, just eye-opening for me
anyway, and some of the things that you shared were just
amazing. Um, I really love
the checklist for the space. I think that that
is something that can certainly be incorporated. Um, is
there any way, yeah, we're getting so inspiring. Thank you.
Um, do you guys have any personal stories that you are comfortable
sharing about how you guys advocated, um,
for yourselves for accommodations that you got to help you
gain access to a space? Yeah, um,
there's a, one, truly, um, I
think. Oh, a great one.
so Carson uses their car as a mobility aid, um, and I didn't know that
this was an option, um, until I met Carson,
um, and then this past year I got a car, and the thing
about our school with as most universities parking is that like parking is
like really isolated and in a corner and like you're not really supposed to use your car to
move around, especially because we live in a residential campus that's all a
mile um from corner to corner. Um, however,
I found that Um, in
my day to day, I was experiencing severe brain fog, severe
pain in going to class, going to work.
Um, so I started asking the school about
a school disability pass, um, cause I
don't, I didn't have a diagnosis, so I couldn't go to the state and request a
disability parking pass at that time. Um,
and what I got back was that the
school needed a letter of approval from the Massachusetts
RMV, which is the DMV but whatever they call it different because they're
special, um, that said that I was being
approved for disability placard. Come to find out that's not
a thing. Um, I called the RMV and I was like, hey, so
is this a thing? Like if I submit, if I get a diagnosis and I
submit, is there any way that I can get this letter? And what they said is that they that
hadn't been a thing since 2020. Um, and so I went back to the university and I
was like, OK, so that's not a thing. Um, that's not how that works
anymore. Um, what are we doing about this? And so
in that process, we actually got the policy changed
to where now a student can directly provide documentation to the
school and they will work with the student to get them a student
disability pass. Um, I, I still got the state
license uh placard, but um. In any
case, um, That's one of the cases in which
I encountered a barrier and even though I got it fixed
for myself, I kept calling and emailing and I was like, hey, is this
issue resolved? Like I kept checking in because I realized that if this issue
isn't, if I'm having this problem, I can't imagine how many other students
are. I can't imagine how many other students aren't able to use their car as a
mobility aid even though it might be incredibly helpful because
Disability services decided that they needed a paper that is no longer part of the
process of obtaining a disability placard. Um,
I, I think that that's one example for me. I think.
Some things that come to mind for me with self-advocacy are
one not trusting yourself to do it all on your own.
I always, always, always recommend that disabled students bring a friend, bring a parent,
bring an advocate, bring a professor, bring someone with you to these one on one
meetings where your accommodations are verbally approved or denied, um,
because having even just a witness is a huge deal, but also having
someone for emotional support, um, I'm usually the person that people then bring. I
say you should bring someone. I say, what about you? Um, and so I, I,
I go a lot of the times, um, but I also always bring someone, and there have been times where I thought
I'm such a good advocate, I could do it on my own. I could not do it on my own. It's
it's it's nothing else, it tends to be emotionally distressing
to be going and asking someone in power who
has the power to say no to you for things that you need just to get through your day to
day life. um, and so having someone there with you
to validate the fact that what you're asking for is not too much. What you're asking for is very much
within. The institutional resources that you contribute to by paying tuition,
by paying taxes, um.
And so, so always having someone with you is a big one for me and
advocating for myself, um, having, having a
sense of um Having
a sense of self-confidence in knowing that you deserve what
you're asking for, and even if that's having a conversation with a friend, another
disabled friend or a mentor in advance, being like, am I, is what I'm asking for
too much, um, and bringing someone else your fears before you go into that
meeting. Um, is, is really big because
like it's, it's hard to say I need these things that it seems like no one else
needs. I need these things that other people can succeed without and not
leave that space feeling like you are worth less than other people
or you're not as qualified as other people, when
really the, the, a lot of times the accommodations that I'm asking for something that I tend to
tell people is that they're not. Even tangible resources, right? I'm not
asking for, uh, I'm not even asking them to fix the buildings. I'm asking for
a teacher to not change my grade because I showed up late, because
the elevator's delayed because they don't have accessible parking,
because they only have one accessible parking spot and someone else took it. Like,
the things that I, that you, a lot of times you end up asking for as accommodations are, are
mindset changes. It's a perspective shift. Um, and asking. For that
perspective shift is actually not just helping me, that's helping people generally. This idea
that lateness is unprofessional or makes you
unqualified is, is, it's a mindset change, right?
Um, and it is exclusionary to a lot of people. So when I'm going in and asking for that
accommodation, it's actually not asking for too much and it's not a strain on
institutional resources cause it's, it's telling a professor not
to look down on me for not being able to navigate the. Campus.
Something that we've experienced a lot has been reassuring each
other and reassuring other students like, no, like you're just you're
good like you your disability is valid and what you're
requesting is not insane and it's within the guidelines of the
university and it makes sense, um, especially when it comes to
something that doesn't require resources, but even if it does, how many
resources are scarce? Um, something that I think a lot about, um,
I have a note taker accommodation, so in all of my courses there's a note taker,
um, that like a student that gets hired and
paid, um, to take notes for that class, um, because sometimes I
don't have the physical capability to get to get to class or I'm physically
there but not mentally, and so I need someone else to take the notes for me for whatever reason,
right? For a long time, I felt
really guilty about this accommodation. And then first of all, I'm providing a student a
job, so that's a benefit in the first place. But in the
second place, I'm not taking the resource away from anyone else.
If anything, there are now archives of notes of
this class that other students can access. Um, it's
also if a student receives a note taker halfway through the semester because they
didn't realize they would need it, they still have a history of those
notes as far as they might need
it. Um, so, realizing that most
resources aren't as scarce at some institutions make
them seem, uh, can be really helpful, um, and
then even if a request seems unreasonable, um, still ask
for it. Um, I think a great example of this, um,
we have a lot of housing issues, uh, here at Mount Holyoke College, my beloved
alma mater, um, because all of our buildings are very old.
And so for summer placement, I was put in a building with no elevator on the second
floor, and I told them, hey, I cannot live there, um,
and they were like, well, you kind of have to because the
other option was the 5th floor, um,
and I had to recruit a team of
6 different people to help me move into the room.
By the time that the summer ended,
I realized like I Everyone
is home. I need to move before everyone else
moves in. What am I gonna do? So I sat with disability
services and I told them. You need to help
me cause otherwise I'm not moving, like unless you want to replace me into this room for this
semester. I don't know what to tell you. Um,
so very fortunately, disability services was willing to work with
me and sent people from facilities with a truck
to help me move. Now at first I remember speaking with
Carson and being like this is so unreasonable, I should just hire movers, and then
I realized that it was $500 to move maybe all of half a
mile. And not worth it. So,
but by my self advocacy and by my not pushing
myself, because the other option was for me to try to move alone or with
one or two other people, which would have been, I have a mini fridge like that would have
been the wrong choice, um, and then bring it to a
third floor in the other building, um,
instead by having not only the support to reassure
me that this is something that I need and something that I deserve and something
that is helpful in that.
Asking isn't harmful. Um, remembering that
even asking for access is within your rights, and even though
an institution might not have a history of doing something, they can start doing
it, um, oftentimes, um, so we've had,
we've heard of accommodations being created for
students because even though that wasn't something that was provided
before, a student had a need and they communicated that need and
the institution was willing to work for them. So
making sure that that reform also includes
flexibility, um, and that the institution
is willing to work with families and students to accommodate them as needed
is really key. Also I'm gonna stop screen sharing.
Um, So I'm seeing some questions in the chat. Someone had
asked earlier um how to get access to the document about best practices for
sending students to IIP meetings. Um, it's still very much in process, um,
it's the result of a think tank with whole child
consulting, um, which is where I work, um, and so when we
get a finalized document, I will reach out to Ellen, um, and make sure that you're
able to get access to it. Um, as for at what age,
um, students should start participating in IP meetings, I saw Ellen give an
answer. I agree, as really as young as possible, as young as they're able to communicate to
you their preferences about school, if they're coming home and telling you what
happened in the classroom that day and that they felt left out
or that their teacher said something to them that or gave them an assignment that didn't
work for them. Um, then they have input to share. They have valuable
input to share, um, and participating in IEP meeting might not look
like having a 3 year old sit through an hour-long meeting at the end of the school day. Maybe that looks
like talking to them in advance, taking notes on the things that they are telling you, because
even a 3 year old has valuable input, um, and then that to the meeting,
um, but my, my daughter taught at the Colorado School for
the Deaf and blind. And she used to get input from her 3 year
olds and bring that to the meeting. And it was very valuable
information. And I advocate now. And whenever I advocate,
I always insist that my kids come to the
meeting, at least for the accommodations portion, if they're able.
Um, if they're not, we, uh, talk to before the meeting, and we try to
get their input, what works for you, what doesn't work for you, what do the
teachers do to help you so we can bring some input into the meeting from
the kid. Because we find that when the team
unilaterally makes decisions for the kid, a lot of times it doesn't
work because the kid knows what's best for the kid. So we try to
get input from the kid to help the kid. And the younger you
start them, the more productive those meetings are gonna be as they get older, when the
challenges are more complicated when you're talking about accommodations
and SAT um testing when you're talking about, um, like,
you know, much longer classes when you're talking about lab experiments,
knowing, having that student have a life of experience of sitting in these
meetings, knowing how it goes, knowing who the people in these meetings. knowing
that their input is valuable, um, they're going to be able to communicate much more
effectively than they are if at 12 years old, suddenly you start throwing them into
these meetings. And even if they're not explicitly able to communicate,
oftentimes if your kid starts to hate going to school,
when they've historically not had an issue going to school, then you can kind
of tell that something's wrong. So then talking with the teacher, talking
with the people that are surrounding the student in the classroom to figure out
what can be adjusted, what can be adapted, is still a method of communication
from the student. Um, it's still what
they can do to communicate their discomfort and what their
needs are, and it's kind of your responsibility as a parent
to. Accommodate for those. Um,
I did notice that someone unmuted. I don't know if we have other
questions. Give me one second. I would like to introduce
Jackie Goddard and give her, because she's got to get back to
another meeting, so I would like to give her a chance to introduce herself
and just speak for um 2 minutes, OK?
Jackie? Hi everyone, Jackie Luskin for ESE
advisory purposes. I'm just Jackie Jackie Goddard on um on our Facebook
page. Hi everyone, I'm the chair of ESC advisory. Thank you for being here.
Um, I'm sure it's been a great meeting. Um, I'm not actually in another meeting now. I
had a clash. Um, and, uh, just really want to
encourage folks to, um, also pay attention
to our ESC advisory page on Facebook.
Um, we, we post a ton of news and information and
updates um on there. There's a very Important school board
workshop meeting coming up next week, which I could really use
people mobilizing on and sitting up and pricking their ears up
their proposals to realign all the district
advisories, um, this proposal parachuted out of nowhere,
um, hit me like a ton of bricks. And I could really, really use
folks speaking up for advisory. We speak up for, um, for you folks,
and um, Uh, if you could just take a peek at our Facebook
page, that would be lovely. Our next meeting, our meetings are always, um,
the 3rd Wednesday of every month in person. Um,
and, uh, we always post those on our Facebook page and our web page
as well. And you should all, if your parents of students with, um, either an
IEP or a 504, you should receive, um, Uh,
emails prompting about that. Um, and also I see the ESE
department has sent out the, um, annual, uh,
state ESE survey. Um, you should have all had that on your,
um, email lately, and I'll post on our page again too.
It is really, really, really important because, um, each school,
uh, you can provide feedback on your school and the ESE,
um, uh, services that you receive.
And it's so important to, um, take part because that
survey kind of only Counts. I, I unless ESE staff can
tell me otherwise and that the rules have changed. But there has to be a certain,
um, percentage of parents actually respond to that email for each
school, uh, for that feedback to kind of count and actually register on
the, on the state's radar. So do take part.
Um, it's really important to advocate and keep voicing.
Um, as always, we celebrate all the great things that happen in Brown schools, and I'm
grateful to staff, but there's also a lot to fix. Um, and
it's only through, um, dialogue and collaboration, um, and
just communication that we can do that. So please stand up for your
advisory and, um, do take a peek at our Facebook page. I've
posted more on there about it. Thanks, everybody, and thanks, Ellen for running
a what I'm sure was a great meeting. It's been amazing.
OK. Thank you. Um, anybody else have any
questions for Carson and Luose?
Um, can we get a copy of that, um,
checklist, the for the for the access to the
Yeah, the access to the, yeah, that, that just that
that is amazing. That is so awesome.
This is one of those chances where I get to show off my best friend. Um, Carson
actually made those, um, and they also made a document that goes along
with it that explains each and every single option,
um, and goes into more details like what is low stimuli versus
high stimuli. So, um, yeah, we can absolutely share that.
OK, I've actually got a question here.
Um, this is more like a Sabrina question. It says, what do you do
when the school keeps sending the child home or asks you to keep the
child home without documenting as a suspension or anything.
I'm gonna tell you right now, whoever that's Melissa Melissa,
the school is not to do that. Um, if the school
suspends the child, um, that's one thing, but
the school is not to ask you to pick the child up. They are
not to send the child home without any documentation.
That is not something that they should be doing. So
Sabrina, if you want to touch on that. Yes,
Jackie, did you want to speak first? No, I'll go after you. Thanks, Ellen, but I,
um, I do have a, sorry, Sabrina. I do have a couple of things to say as
well, but you go first. OK, so I think one of the things that we were
recommending is that anytime there is a suspension, there's a document called a notice
of suspension. So, a very easy way
to, um, you know, get that additional
information and know as Ellen is saying that this was an actual
suspension is to say, you know, I'd like to come in and review the
referral and the notice of suspension, and you should be able to receive that.
Information and paperwork. We do, uh, recommend, and I know that
Ellen put it in the chat that if you are having that type of situation
that you reach out to our office so that um we can uh
work with you with the school to see, you know, why that is
happening and help you navigate that. Yeah, the, the very
top, there is a link to it says uh uh
formsoffice.com. Um, click on that
and put in your um your issue and the the
district will get back to you.
Um, Ellen, if I may, I just wanna add, I met
with the superintendent last week and we went through a number of um issues and had a
really, really good, uh, positive, constructive meeting, and
this was exactly one of the issues. Anybody who's been to ESE advisory
knows I bring this up pretty much every single meeting. The fact that
it still goes on is not excusable. So, um, the
trouble is, Sabrina, um, as we know, some
schools do call mom or dad and say, Hey, take your kid
home. But, so there isn't a notice of suspension, because
they, they're not, they don't consider it kind of a suspension.
They don't realize that what they're doing is effectively a suspension.
Even when kids are being suspended, there is not
necessarily paperwork being done. There's been a number of cases where parents can't even
get referrals. I've sent them back to say, um, you know, you need to
have paperwork for there to be a suspension. So there's two different things going
on. There's a suspension for which there needs to be paperwork. And then
there's the practice of um calling parents to say, come take your
kid home, and, you know, we You know, having a bad day
and, and we can't cope or, you know, um, which is, is not a
suspension, but it kind of is an illicit suspension and should not be happening.
So I did say to the, uh, superintendent, like, it feels
like just one even really easy fix for
that would just be to ensure that every single principal has
a memo that says make sure every single member of your.
Staff knows that this cannot be done. This practice
needs to stop. Everybody from the front office staff up to the APs and the
and the principal. Um, and he was not averse to that, um,
to, to just the idea of, like, putting in writing as a reminder and
a prompt to start really drilling down on that, because there shouldn't be
a single case of that happening. And I'm so sorry to hear of
folks that it's still happening too. OK, thank
you. Thank you so much. Anyway, um,
Does anybody else have um a question for Carson or
Luce? Because if not, I want to
thank them so much for this presentation. It
was enlightening. It was amazing. I,
I mean, I learned a lot from it about how to
advocate for accommodations, and
I've been doing this for like 40 years, and
Seriously, I, I just, I just thought it was a
wonderful, wonderful presentation. So thank you guys so
much for doing this. I did wanna um
say that it appears as though Beth had a question. I just wanted to give them the
chance um to ask.
You can um unmute yourself and just ask.
Yeah, I, I did have a question. I don't know if anybody has the answer. Um,
my, my kids are new to the school district this year, and I've had
a major issues with the special needs transportation,
um. Uh, the, the way it works here is so different because
in in Georgia where we moved from, they actually have a special needs
transportation line that specializes in that, but here you go through the
ESC specialist and they can't even really
uh assist you on the regular transportation line when you're having issues,
but I basically my, my issue is they drop my daughter off
150 ft away from my house, which requires her
to cross the street, which she can't do. Um, she's autistic.
And I've put in the request numerous times, which they keep denying, to
just drive her the extra 150 ft to the front door of the house.
And it's just been a back and forth, no man's land, and
I don't understand. They've even threatened to fire the bus driver because she
was dropping off in front of the house and they found out and they threatened the
bus driver. Um, to fire her if she does that. So,
and, and somebody and they're requiring somebody to be there at the
corner while I'm working to pick her up when they, you know,
I don't, I, I don't know if there's a better way with the special needs
transportation to go about this, but there's literally no reason for
them to deny the request for 150 ft. Yeah. OK,
so again, this is a um this is a
district, it's a personal, so I would fill out the form. On
that link, um, and the district hopefully will get back to you. Sabrina, do
you agree with that? Yes,
cause, um, obviously there's probably a couple of different factors that we would wanna, you know,
ask, and I wouldn't want to do that on a recorded meeting, but yes, that would be great if you can fill out
the form. Thank you. survey? Yeah, that survey
is actually like a parent request form so that somebody from our department would
reach back in and assist you. Oh, OK, that I, I wasn't aware of that.
Thank you. Yeah. Could I just add, add as well, um, as
um the ESC folks, um, department are great at fixing the
ESC problems, and then when there's an accountability issue, sort of
going back and saying, well, what went wrong and who didn't give proper customer service
there, there's also a system of regional superintendents. So I would
strongly urge you to also email them. So there's that
two-pronged approach, and then Um, fixes are made, um,
efficiently by the ESC department. They're, they're very responsive.
Um, but Sabrina, I think you would agree, like, you don't
get to then go back to the transport department and say, well, why this or why that,
or, you know, the, the regional superintendents encourage
us to, um, also go to them so they can take that look as
well at what went wrong on any other. Sort of
avenue of um of accountability too, so that's always
good I would say too with transportation, um, you know,
I'm not sure if it's north, south, central, there is like a uh like a
supervisor at that transportation. Because the the
the regional superintendents don't actually um oversee the
transportation department. That's the only reason I'm suggesting that that,
um, but, uh, there usually is, so that's why I'm just
suggesting that they might be able to connect to the person. I could also probably
connect um with the transportation because what we would
wanna make sure too is that the information that we're, you're getting is
like actually coming from like that level and not somebody making a
decision. At a lower level. So I do agree with what Jackie's saying
like that sometimes we definitely, to her point, you know, we don't
supervise those staff, so sometimes you do need to reach out
um to a regional superintendent and I, I would say maybe even in this case,
um looking at like a supervisor in the
transportation department as well. I, I think, uh, yeah,
I think there is an issue over the transportation department and where it sits in
terms of lines of authority and communication, um, and, and that is
a common issue. So I think it sounds like this parent has had quite
a lot of uh back and forth. My email, um, as the ESC
chair is
ESE.chair@gmail.com.
And anybody is very welcome to um email me for any
um pointers as to how you find who those regional
superintendents are, which region you're in, and just making sure those
um that you get to the right folks there. I can help with that. Hey,
Jackie, maybe you could put your email in the chat. Oh, I'll do it.
Thank you. Thank you ladies. I really appreciate the advice and the
help. Yeah, do please email. Thank you.
It's DSC chair at
It's ESE.
Chair@gmail.com. Got
it. Thanks, Ellen.
Got it. OK. All right,
so if We don't have any
questions. That would be the end of the presentation
for tonight. Again, Carson and Luce, thank you so much for your
wonderful presentation. Thank you, um, Jackie,
for helping out at the end with a couple of
suggestions. Um, Doc Leo and Sabrina, thank
you also for, uh, coming and, um,
presenting, uh, on the district updates. Um, I
hope everybody. Got a lot out of this presentation
as as I did. Um, certainly, I got a lot out of
this presentation. I thought it was absolutely wonderful.
Um, this, this, uh, presentation has been
recorded, so when I get the recording back from Doc
Leo, I will post it on the ESC Facebook
page and on the Meaningful Inclusion Facebook page.
Carson and Luose, if you want me to send you a copy of the recording, I'll be happy to
do that. Um, And if
nobody else has any other questions, um, we can
just say goodnight and sign off. Thank you so
much for having us. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for being here.
OK. Take care, everybody. Have a good night. Good night,