2019-12-10 Speical Education Parent Advisory Council Minutes

Home Browse Search

• Public Comment: o There was a request from a parent to ask Jessica Minahan, M.Ed., BCBA,to present in Reading. Chris Kelley noted that the District may be having her present at the Parent University in the spring. • New Business o School District Updates from Jennifer Stys: • In January,the District plans to post on the Student Services webpage draft descriptions of each of the special education programs within the district.The drafts to be presented are the working drafts that were presented by Sharon Stewart at the lune 2019 SEPAC meeting. With the drafts,surveys for community feedback will be posted. o Discussion of education resources for parents concerning section 504 plans, including District's recently created resource guide • Jennifer Stys noted that the 504 resource guide created in the fall is an internal staff resource. Parents may physically go to any school in the District and ask to review the 504 binder created in the fall, but review of the binder must occur in the school and the content of the binder will not be posted online. • The District plans to create a webpage for parents with 504 resources and an outline of the binder. Chris Kelley noted that it would be helpful to have a FAQ section in the resource webpage. It would be helpful to the District if the Board could collect most asked questions and concerns about 504s for the District to include. It would be helpful for parents and community members to email both the SEPAC and Jennifer Stys with questions for the 504 website. • Laura Noonan noted that on the District's website in K-12 website files there a pdf describing the 504 process from 2016. Jennifer Stys clarified this is an old document and may not be up-to-date. The file is available here: https://www.reading.kl2.ma.us/files/7815/0349/6640/]DEA 504 Module - 2016.pdf • Laura Noonan made a motion that the SEPAC add a list of 504 resources to the meeting minutes without reading all the resources aloud during the meeting. Amy Stewart seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. • List of 504 resources: • https://fcsn.org/2016/fall-2016/iep-504 • http://www.doe.mass.edu/sped/links/sec504.html • https//www.decodingdyslexiama.org/504american-with-disabilities-act- and-dVslexia.html • http://www,cicm.org/504 Plans.html • https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/504- plan/understanding-504-plans o Presentation from Diana Koster of Understanding Disabilities: • Understanding Disabilities provides disability awareness workshops for grades 1-5 in Reading. It completed a total of 104 workshops this school year. Each student in Reading has the opportunity to participate in 7 total workshops over 5 years. The focus of the curriculum is to describe and give kids language to Page 1 2