November 5, 2009 Meeting Minutes

Lynn Wiltrout called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.

In attendance were: Linda Chernitsky, Toni Lozar, Mitzi Miller, Kerri Pigeon, Gay Vroble, Donna Downing, Scott Martin, Megan VanFossan, Lynne Dunnick, William King, Kellie Gavran, Joel Kirsch, Laura Walters, and Rikki Wilson.

Introductions were made and Lynn welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Old Business

A motion was made by Mitzi to approve the October minutes, Lynn second the motion.

New Business

Lynn asked everyone to review the handouts that are in their packet. Rikki advised the group that the information from the dispute resolution training was included. Mitzi advised the group that the ODR will come in to train for 15–20 people. Toni advised that they are coming back to train a team of trainers as well. She will pass along the information when we receive it. Mitzi advised that the information was really good.

Lynn explained that the alphabet soup handout is very helpful to parents.

Mitzi asked how many districts display the Local Task Force flyer. Laura explained that they always hand out the information however; West Greene is at least 45–60 minutes for parents in their district. Mitzi advised that we are looking into moving into school districts for next year, but the problem is that the districts don't send the information home. Laura said that they are holding parent trainings and they had 12 parents in attendance because she sent the information to several other districts besides West Greene. She also sends the information home with the student's report cards. If we could get parents to get on our website and join the mailing list, that would be great.

Joel asked what the role of the task force was. Mitzi explained and Rikki gave him some flyers to hand out to parents.

The IU asked the LTF to explain the Medical Assistance billing form. Linda explained it. ACCESS cannot be billed unless the form is complete. Parents do not have to sign the form if they choose not to. Mitzi asked about a cap on the ACCESS billing and she was told that there is a cap of $200.000. Megan and Lynne said that there is no cap and that they had a lawyer look into it. She explained that school based ACCESS does not affect the medical assistance part. We will ask Mr. Solobay and the person from the welfare department when they present.

Lynn advised that another speaker is coming into present on the Medical Assistance topic.

Presentations on How to Open the Lines of Communication

Joel Kirsh from Avella — He advised the group that this is his favorite topic. Without communication the kids are going to suffer. Ways to open communication include being visible, sending out newsletters, using the school messenger, making personal phone calls. His district also runs a lot of different parent activities. Joel gave a wonderful presentation.

Laura Walters from West Greene, Scott Martin from Bentworth, Lynne Dunnick from Washington, and Megan VanFossan from McGuffey chose to hold a round table discussion instead of a formal presentation. Laura said one way to open communication is to respond to parents phone calls immediately. Treat parents like you want to be treated.

Toni let the districts know that when they are holding trainings they can give her the flyers to hand out at the LEA meetings.

Lynne stated that everyone tries to get back to parents as soon as possible, If there are issues or concerns about your child, the teacher should be the first level of communication. Then if it is not resolved it should go to the next level. She has also found that emailing parents is much more effective than a phone call.

Mitzi thinks that parents are not educated so they don't speak up and then just go with the flow. She feels that getting a rapport with you district helps to open communication. She has heard districts address parents with “What do you want now?” They need to make a good first impression. Megan said that McGuffey tries to keep their students with the same teacher and has the teacher send letters home to the parents at the beginning of the year.

Mitzi feels that the lines of communication will open if the parents and school districts build a positive relationship.

Lynne said that they explain everything in parent's terms when they attend their meetings. She also did some research on communication and said that the initial problem is building the relationship. All relationships need to be built on positive notes. Teachers should call parents before school starts when they get their roster. Once the positive relationship is built, it makes communication much easier. Parents know their child better than the school staff. They should bring their data to their meetings and use it to communicate their needs.

Mitzi wanted to clear the record and state that she has very good communication system with everyone involved in her district. There are parents who don't. She feels they don't know how to handle it and it is very intimidating to them. We really need to get to the parents before they call in because they want to file a due process.

Gay said that she sees parents that feel Special Education is a stigma. She feels that districts don't include the special education parents separated but the title 1 students have nice parties and things for. That starts the intimidation process. Special Education parents feel like they are not part of the regular education activities. She feels that if they were including in the title 1 students it could start a better relationship. Its like you have a negative label over your head when you're segregated.

Donna feels that there are several layers of support for the special education students. She stated there are 90 professionals who jobs are to help in the evaluation process. Each of those persons is attached to no less than 10 agencies. That is 900 agencies that can help these students. She has very good relationship with the parents she works with.

Toni said that in most cases, it's not what you say to people, its how you say it. If you reverse the situation and put yourself in their shoes it is easy to build a good relationship.

Laura asked Mitzi what her response is when a parent calls her. Mitzi advised her that she does not guide people to get attorneys or go the due process route. She asks them to contact parent support groups and educates them on things that they can do. She has never ever told a parent to go to due process.

Mitzi advised that the MR diagnosis is hard enough to swallow for parents. They are devastated and don't know what to do. Mitzi tries to help these parents understand and learn about what they can do for their child. Lynne stated that it is also hard for the districts to tell the parents the diagnosis. Kerri advised that the psychologist should do a one on one with the parent to give them the diagnosis instead of doing it in front of a large group of people. Explain that they are the same kid they were the day before they just need a little extra help.

Open discussion on communication continued until approximately 11:45 a.m.

Rikki will send Mitzi a list of the school districts and a chart of the LEA for each district.

Gay advised the group that the PEAL conference would be held on March 16, 2010. Please share the information with parents.

Mitzi thanked everyone for attending. She explained that the Meet and Greet is in December. Please pass out the information to parents and plan on attending.

Kerri motioned to close the meeting at 11:50 a.m., Mitzi second the motion. The next meeting will be held December 3, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. at the IU1 Central Office.

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