pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf, 8
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 8 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Jennifer Roloff: Okay. So maybe I will save my question for after. Victoria Forester: I'd be glad to come back. Jennifer Roloff: Yeah. It will be for both. Okay. So I will wait on my final. Okay. Thank you. Victoria Forester: You bet. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Does anyone else have any questions? Anto Aghapekian: Did you say 36 years you've been in education? Victoria Forester: Thirty four. Anto Aghapekian: Thirty four. That's fantastic. Thank you. Victoria Forester: Thank you. Anto Aghapekian: And I have just clarification. Does the state or the federal government give you any funds? Victoria Forester: That is an excellent question and one that's killing me lately. Yes, we receive all of our funding from both federal dollars as well as state dollars. I can tell you that both are abysmal. The cost of Special Education is higher than the cost of educating a general ed student. Many of our students are medically fragile. They may need extra support behaviorally, and all of that costs money. Currently, the federal government is funding based on the 1970s way of figuring out how much each school district receives for special education funding. Let me remind you it's 2018. So we are poorly funded in this state from the federal government, and our state is not stepping up to fund special education either. And I use the word abysmal. However, I also am in front of the State legislature quite often saying "Hey, we got to do better for our kids. We've got to do better for our school districts." Anto Aghapekian: Okay. And the next question I have is, does the Alameda Unified have a person or a department that looks after the site, the schools and the physical plans to see if the buildings comply with ADA standards? Victoria Forester: Yes. So we have a significant maintenance and operations department. And part of their work is to make sure that our buildings are ADA registered. We cannot do any new building with having that pass through ADA law. And our bathrooms need to be a certain size. We need to have ramps getting up to schools. And I know in the last three years we've done a lot in Alameda Unified to modernize our buildings with that, with students with disabilities and families with disabilities in mind. Anto Aghapekian: And the last question I have is, if a student enrolls no matter what age but they have a special need that the district doesn't have, what do you do? What does the district do? 03/13/19 Page 8 of 32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |