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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,1 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 1 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM 1. ROLL CALL Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: The meeting, the Commission on Disability on Wednesday, November 28th, 2018. Laura, would you like to do the roll call? Vice Chair and Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Present. Anto Aghapekian: Present. Leslie Morrison: Present. Jennifer Roloff: Here. Chair Elizabeth Kenny: Present via telephone. Arnold Brillinger: Present. Laurie Kozisek: Okay, not present is Lisa Hall and Susan Deutsch. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. We'd like to extend a warm welcome to our newest commissioner. Leslie Morrison. Leslie Morrison: Thank you. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: So glad you're here. Leslie Morrison: I participated in the earlier meeting last time, online but I couldn't speak. I heard everything that was going on, I watched what was happening. Laurie Kozisek: Madam Chairman, we now have, Susan Deutsch has arrived and I also forgot to mention that Jenny Linton is not here. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. 2. MINUTES 2-A Approval of Minutes for the September 12, 2018 meeting Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Alright, we're going to move on to item number two, minutes. Do we have approval of the minutes from the meeting on September 12, 2018? Anto Aghapekian: So moved. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, do we have a second? 03/13/19 Page 1 of 32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,2 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 2 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Susan Deutsch: Second. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. Susan. [Discussion of audio difficulties] Jennifer Roloff: Before we vote on that, Leslie it does say that you attempted to teleconference in, but you were unable to do SO. Leslie Morrison: That's correct. And then I watched it live on the web.So I was present, I just couldn't actively participate so I don't know how you want to record that. Jennifer Roloff: Yeah. I don't know if we want to record that in the minutes as such. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, so we have approval of the minutes by Anto and then the second by Susan. 3. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS/NON-AGEND (PUBLIC COMMENT) Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: And we'll move on to number three oral communications, any public comment other than our speakers today? Okay. 4. NEW BUSINESS 4-A Victoria Forrester, Director of special Education, AUSD Mental and Emotional Wellness Needs Assessment Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: We're going to move on to new business number four A, we have Victoria Forester Director of Special Education from the Alameda Unified School District who will be speaking to us about mental and emotional wellness Needs Assessment. Victoria Forester: Actually I am doing the strategic plan for special ed. And my colleague Jody will be doing the needs assessment. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay sorry about that. Victoria Forester: That's okay. Here it comes, that is the beginning and then I'll let you know when My name is Victoria Forester, the Director of Special Education for Alameda Unified School District. I began in this position at the beginning of last school year and prior to that was the Director of Special Ed and Student Services in San Leandro Unified. But I've taught in this district prior since I was 20 years old, for 22 years, and this is my 34th year in public education. I'm happy to be here this evening and share really wonderful news with you around our special education strategic plan. I'm assuming … | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,3 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 3 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Victoria Forester: So prior to this position being open I was doing a favor for Kerstin Zazo who is the Chief Student Support Officer and I was bringing, it was a kind of a consultant to work on the strategic plan for Alameda Unified. And so I came and facilitated the plan and we began in February of that year. And then the position was posted and I became director in July. So I've worked on this plan for a little over a year. You can see that the stakeholders were varied in our plan, we had parents, and community members, and Gen Ed teachers, and psychologists, support providers, and special ed teachers, and certainly site administrators, and district administrators. You'll notice my name isn't up there because I was the consultant that was facilitating the work. Victoria Forester: The history of our work, often times school districts who are having difficulties in some fiscal area will ask for FCMAT to come in. That's Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team. Usually they study two departments within the district, the Business Department and the Department of Special Education. And in Alameda's case it was the Department of Special Education. So FCMAT comes in, and they study everything about special education from a deficit model, they're looking at things that don't work. They're not going to comment on things that are working well. Victoria Forester: Many school districts who pay for FCMAT to come in, they take the report, they report on it to the board, and they put it in a white binder on their shelf. And as an ex-school principal, those are kind of our trophies, those white binders. And they never get read. Alameda chose not to do that. And the board asked us to create a planning team and to address the issues within the FCMAT report. And so this team was put together by Kerstin Zazo. And actually parents and teachers and staff had to apply to be a part of this team. And we engaged in 10 sessions more than 20 hours of … | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,16 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 16 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM community, and kind of solicit help with it. Developing a financial sustainability plan, because additional staff, it costs Money. Things that kind of fell into the no cost solutions were developing a clear process and site expectations for the referrals and for crisis intervention, kind of revising our roles and responsibilities on who we have providing mental health services, hopefully, freeing up more of our experts, freeing up more of our school psychologists who aren't just doing assessments for kids that are coming up for special education, like doing a better job with our tier one and our tier two. So that is, you know where I'm going with that. Jodi McCarthy: So utilizing them better and strengthening and building relationships with outside partners which is really hard to do, it's really hard to do, especially in a community that doesn't have a lot of Medi-Cal population. Stuff that we already have planned, we're presenting all of this at the school sites, we're doing some community presentations, we have monthly meetings with Alameda Family Services, and they're going through their own revamping and we've already presented to the board and we're going to do more presentations on what we're doing in order to kind of move this process along. That's it. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much, I'm sure we have some questions. Jodi McCarthy: A million I'm sure. Yeah, it's a lot. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Brillinger, do you have anything that you want to Arnold Brillinger: I have. If you would have been working back in the '60s or in the '90s, with the same kind of assessment to find out what these different feelings were, how do your findings differ from somebody that would have been in the '60s, going to high school or in the 90s? Jodi McCarthy: So I was going to high school in the 90s. Okay, early 90s, like '91, '92, but it was still the 90s, and I have a 13 and a 15 year old son and I was a c… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,17 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 17 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Jodi McCarthy: Right. Arnold Brillinger: But I was thinking, a lot of these things but no one asked us back in the 60s. I don't know, did they ask you in the 90s? Jodi McCarthy: Ask me what? Arnold Brillinger: About these different behaviors. Jodi McCarthy: I don't recall ever getting asked about it. I don't know if I was ever asked about it in high school, or if a report like this ever came out in the 90s. But then, I was a teenager and it was all about me, so I don't know what, right? What was really going on. I don't know. I don't remember participating in anything like the depth that we did with this survey last year. Arnold Brillinger: Yes. I mean, I would like to commend you for doing this. Jodi McCarthy: Thank you. Arnold Brillinger: But I've, I was going to high school and middle school in the 60s. And a lot of these things I thought, "Hey, we had those things too". We didn't have the cyber things of course, but the whole thing about "You don't understand me". And so forth. And I bet everybody here remembers that when they were growing up, no matter what, if they were 60s, it's good to get this out in the open. And we need to have the cooperation of the parents and the staff, the teachers, the administration, and all through the educational process. So I commend you for doing this. And I also wanted to know. Well, obviously there are other school districts that are doing something like this. How do your students seem to compare to them or is it pretty much the same way? As percentages and stuff like that? Jodi McCarthy: So when we were starting this process, we looked at New Haven Unified and we looked at Berkeley Unified, they both did. We looked to them, because I don't want to reinvent the wheel, you want to see what people have done and what worked and you want to use what they used. And our needs assessment showed. Our needs assessment showed a higher increase in the anxiety and the depression and the suicide idea… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,18 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 18 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM because kids use that to cope with this, and it's just a snowball. Arnold Brillinger: What kind of pressures would be different here in Alameda that's raising those percentages? Jodi McCarthy: In the shows, you find more of those pressures on the east end. It's the higher socioeconomic, the higher demand on the kids, the higher stress that you're going to go to Harvard or Yale or Stanford, and to do that, you need to play football, basketball, baseball, run track, do cross-country, be in this club, be in that club, do your community service. So there's a lot of pressure that's being put on our kids, especially at our higher-performing, higher-achieving students, so much so that we have a homework committee at Alameda Unified looking at reducing homework for our kids across the district, like limiting what AP classes you can take. Our kids are taking five different advanced placement courses plus taking a course at the community college. The level of stress that they're under is ridiculous. Arnold Brillinger: Now Alameda High takes in all of the students from Harbor Bay Island? Jodi McCarthy: Bay Farm, yes. Arnold Brillinger: Oh, Bay Farm? Okay. Jodi McCarthy: Union [Street]? Thank you. I should know. Yeah, that's the line. Arnold Brillinger: Alright, thank you very much. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: God, I feel so grim. Jodi McCarthy: Sorry, it's this heavy. I know, I'm sorry. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Roloff? Jennifer Roloff: Okay, so first of all, thank you both so much for coming. I'm the, what am I, the liaison to the school board from our commission. And so as our commission decided at our retreat last January, and I think we'll be having another retreat to decide on priorities we probably decided to prioritize and focus on mental health needs, not that we're eliminating anything else, but to put a focus on there. So in seeing what the school board was up to, this was the first report that I caught a wind of a… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,19 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 19 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM know, and you don't have to answer it all now. You can get back to us too. Jodi McCarthy: Anything you can do to advocate for services, I'm not going to say no to. And that's kind of what we're doing now is we're presenting these needs. It's like, "Hey community.. 11 Because, we can't take care of our children by ourselves, you know what I mean? The school district can't do it all. We need the community. We need the parents, we need the non-profits, we need the village. Victoria Forester: And right now what we're seeing is that when it comes to mental health needs, the only game in town is special education. So in order to get help if we have mental health issues which many of our students do, you have to get referred for an IEP, individualized education plan, then the cost of special education skyrockets and it just becomes this wall. In other districts that have lower socio-economics and higher Medi-Cal needs, you can harness that Medi-Cal dollar to get everything that they need. Alameda's, it's trickier. It's trickier because we have less than 30% of our students on Medi-Cal and in neighboring districts, folks in Oakland and Berkeley. San Leandro's has 73% of their students qualify for Medi-Cal. Heck, I had all sorts of services in San. Leandro. Victoria Forester: It's extremely difficult. So any way that we can partner with community organizations to bring mental health services or just some emotional work to our students, we're bettering the situation. That's a great question. And we will. You will see both of us link arms with anyone that wants to help us bring this work to our kids. What you saw tonight is incredibly alarming. And again, 34 years in public education, I'm a little older than Jodi, those statistics that are just about Alameda Unified are extremely alarming. Jennifer Roloff: Right, okay. Just a thought, maybe we put that on our agenda for our upcoming retreat. We'll have another one early in 2019 and see w… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,20 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 20 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM students who don't have Medi-Cal, right? Jodi McCarthy: And so you'll see the long lines or the waitlists for our students, they're for students who don't have Medi-Cal And what our findings showed in this needs assessment is that our students without Medi-Cal are actually more stressed out, having more suicidal ideation. And so we're chugging along, and again, over qualifying kids for special education services because it's the only game in town, simply because we can't afford to afford not to. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Morrison. Leslie Morrison: Yeah, thank you so much for the presentation. And the statistics are really alarming, and I don't know that there's an easy fix. One of the questions I had was really about the availability of mental health services in the city, and I think you've already addressed that. I'm new to the commission, so I'm not really certain about the history, but I think that there is a paucity of mental health providers across the country, and particularly mental health providers for children. And my experience is there aren't a lot of mental health providers in the city of Alameda. Or people who are private pay. And so, I like you reaching out to Kaiser. I wonder about reaching out to some of the other providers. I don't think it's an easy solution. And I'm just sort of parroting what you've already said, but I think to put it all on the school district doesn't really seem fair, but it's a big problem, I don't know where to start. Jodi McCarthy: Well in the Kaiser and the health insurance it took me a year and a half to get the right person, I guess, because they're a huge are organization, and I'm a little person, looking for that right person at the right time to get in front of. Leslie Morrison: But there aren't a lot of child psychiatrists in the country. There aren't a lot of child therapists in the country. So it's not just an Alameda problem, it's kind of a national problem. I a… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,21 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 21 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM at sort of a peer-to-peer model. Jodi McCarthy: We have that. The county runs a program called TUPE, Tobacco-Use Prevention Education. They use a peer-to-peer model, so they do a lot of training of peers around tobacco and vaping and stuff like that, to go out and do the work. They do that in the middle and high schools. So we have our middle and high schools participating in that. And then also through the school- based health centers, they have something called, YEAH, and I forget right now what that stands for, but it's Youth Education something, but it's the students doing peer-to-peer connections within the high schools. And what we presented, don't forget, it's a deficit model. We're doing a lot of amazing, wonderful things, but we have huge needs. Victoria Forester: Certainly, my experience is that a lot of kids are the identified patients. And so there was a lot that you said about family pressures and stresses at home that the kids are bringing to school. And again, that's sort of beyond the scope of what a school can look at, but I think that that plays a part, it might be the one that's showing up, displaying the stress and they're coming to the place where they do that, but it's a larger system that's playing it, it's what loops back to what services were available. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Commissioner Anto. Anto Aghapekian: I'm overwhelmed with all the information that you gave us tonight, and I'm basically humbled. [inaudible]. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Yeah, I want to follow up on that as well. The work that you're doing is definitely very difficult with all the things that are coming in different directions and stuff. So we really thank you for the work that you do and for coming to present with us. It's really great. And we have people who listen to this meeting as well. So, it's hopefully getting out to a broad base. With so many issues that you've brought up, where do you start? I'm just listening all th… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,22 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 22 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM three-year rollout of bringing restorative practices into school to bring down So there's a lot of awesome stuff that we're doing, and it's not like you can pick vaping. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, does anyone have any other questions or comments? Arnold Brillinger: I just wanted to thank you also, because I've spent a lot of time in elementary education, and I've been on the south side of Chicago and East Oakland. These were all not public schools though. Okay. And also in San Francisco. When they took their achievement tests and stuff like that, the whole school was up in the top 90s, that kind of stuff. And so I've been a part of both of those different groups, but was really surprised to see the stats that you brought up here. Victoria Forester: Alright, we're glad to come back in and talk about progress. S?: Thanks so much. 4-C Retreat Scheduling for 2019 at Mastic Senior Center Available dates are 1/12, 1/26, 2/9 and 2/16. No retreat in 2019 is also an option. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay, so we're going to move into item 4C, which is the retreat scheduling. It's open to the public. You're welcome. So Laurie, were you going to provide the dates or do you want me to? Sorry, I don't have them. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: So I believe the first thing we need to vote on is whether or not we would like a retreat this year. Because of the way that we had had the schedule in the past, we needed to make up a meeting because of how we had it every other month with the August, City not having any meetings that month. So this year we can decide whether or not we want to have the meeting, otherwise we have our six regular schedule meetings. I would like to propose that we do have a retreat, an extended time that we all get to talk and plan for the year. So I think we should propose a vote on whether or not you guys also agree with having a retreat for next year. Can I do all in favor or. Jennifer Roloff: So I'm just looking, … | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,23 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 23 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM These are usually on a Saturday. I think it was maybe three hours, three or four hours last year. Maybe we vote on whether we want to have a retreat, and then we can decide on whether or not we would like to cancel our January meeting. That sound good? Okay. So everyone in favor of having a retreat. Arnold Brillinger: I move that we have a retreat next year. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Right. Do we have a second? Jennifer Roloff: I second it. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. All in favor? All except Leslie Morrison: Aye. Leslie Morrison: I abstain, just because I've never been in the council, I don't really have an opinion either way for the vote. I would abstain. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: No problem. Okay, anyone in favor of canceling the January 9th meeting in order to have the retreat? Jennifer Roloff: OK, I'll move, or re-schedule the January meeting into a retreat. So that it's a retreat, okay. Is that weekend? Yeah, I would make that. Yeah, I move to do that. Susan Deutsch: I second Anto Aghapekian: I second [inaudible comments] Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: So we have a few options, sorry, for the retreat. It could be the 12th, the 26th, or February 9th, or February 16th. So we can agree on a date, hopefully, that most people are able to attend. We want to try to pick a date first. All: [short discussion on dates] Arnold Brillinger: Did we have someone second her motion? Susan Deutsch: Yes, I did. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: This is for the cancellation of the Rescheduling, sorry. Thank you. Rescheduling of the meeting from January which is the 9th to one of the retreat weeks. But we just wanted to check and see if there was a weekend that worked with everyone. So if we want to have a motion, if someone would like to do a motion to reschedule, and then All: [More discussion of dates] 03/13/19 Page 23 of 32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,24 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 24 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: So I would like to do a motion to move the January 9th meeting to February 9th, and it would be a retreat. And we would work out the timing, not sure what it will be, but I think it was like 10:00 to 2:00 last year. So do we have a second? Susan Deutch: I second. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. All in favor? Arnold Brillinger: No, wait a minute. Let's have some discussion. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Go ahead. Arnold Brillinger: Yes, I don't think that we necessarily need to get less meetings because this group, when I look at the people here, there are a lot of things that can be discussed and voted on, and worked on in six meetings plus a retreat, and I would just not like to shorten it down again. So I'm saying we should still keep the January meeting and schedule a retreat somewhere. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. And we also, I believe, have some speakers for our January 9th meeting. Correct, Laurie? So that's another thing that we want to take into consideration as well. Anto Aghapekian: I move that we have the January meeting, and also in addition, we have the retreat, so that we don't compromise the guests who will come on the 9th, and that's what I propose. Jennifer Roloff: I'll second that. That's okay. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: We want to vote on that? Leslie Morrison: So, technically, those are conflicting amendments; one is to reschedule the January, 9th meeting. So I think you have to vote on whether you're going to reschedule the January 9th meeting, and if that motion doesn't pass, then you could have a second motion to have an additional retreat meeting, but I don't know how you amend the first. I don't think it's a friendly amendment. I think you have to vote down the motion on the first. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. So we'll vote. Leslie Morrison: Yeah, take a vote on whether we're going to move the January meeting and everyone who thinks that we should have an extra meeting… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,25 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 25 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM person, people who made it want to withdraw it given the comments. It could be withdrawn also. Or we can vote on the motion, either way. Who made the motion? Do they want to withdraw it? Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Who made the motion, Laurie? Laurie Kozisek: The motion was made by Jennifer, and then it was remade by Jenn, and was seconded by Susan. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Do we want to withdraw that? Jennifer Roloff: So we would like to withdraw the motion. Susan Duetsch: Okay. Yes, we'll withdraw the motion. Jennifer Roloff: Yes. So now you can have a new motion. Arnold Brillinger: Okay, I'll make the motion that we have our six scheduled meetings plus a retreat, because the retreat is very important for us to get to know each other, and we need to build relationships. That's what those two ladies said that they need to build relationships in Alameda between parents, teachers and committee members. And so, okay, so that's my motion is that we keep the six plus a retreat date. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. Do we have a second? Anto Aghapekian: Second. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: All in favor? All except Leslie Morrison: Aye. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Any opposed? Leslie Morrison: And I again am going to abstain being a new member. But I'm happy to attend in February. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. I believe we're done with item 4C. So we'll move on to Old Business, Commission and Board Liaison Reports. Oh, go ahead, Laurie. Laurie Kozisek: Could I get a clarification that Arnold made a motion that we keep the scheduled meeting and add a retreat? Arnold Brillinger: Correct. Laurie Kozisek: I think you need to make another motion saying the retreat will be on such and such day from 10:00 to 12:00 or 10:00 to 2:00. 03/13/19 Page 25 of 32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,26 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 26 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: 10:00 to 2:00. Okay. So I would like to make an additional motion that we have the retreat on February 9th, from 10:00 to 2:00 PM. Can I have a Second? Susan Deutsch: I second. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. All in favor? All: Aye. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Any abstain or nay? No? Okay. Okay, I believe we're all set now. 5. OLD BUSINESS 5-A Commission and Board Liaison Reports (All commissioners) Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Old Business Commission and Board Liaison Reports. Commissioner Brillinger? Arnold Brillinger: Yes, I've been going to various commissions on disability in Berkeley and also in Oakland. The ones in Oakland seem to have lot of meat to them, because they're doing all kinds of work. Not only worried about the paratransit in the East Bay, but they're also dealing with different matters of transportation and how things are being constructed in Oakland. And I also went to the different AC Transit meeting, and they're continuing on with the working on International Boulevard to make it where the buses have their own lanes and things. So it's going to be interesting to see that. Our transportation meeting here in Alameda is next week, so I'll tell us about it in January. So those are my things. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Great, thank you. Commissioner Roloff? Jennifer Roloff: The only thing I wanted to follow up on is And I think, I don't know if we have a commission, but is it Jennifer, Jen and Anto, you were working on ADA for businesses, and we had suggested that the Facade grant that the city matches be extended into businesses doing ADA, and essentially, Laurie came back with a "No". And I'm wondering if there's a way we can push on that, if we could talk to someone in the city offices as to why or. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: That would be great. Do we know who is in charge of issuing the grant, or different grants for the city? Jennifer Roloff: Like the Facade grant. Do you rememb… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,27 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 27 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: You can report it to me.And then I'll spread the word. Jennifer Roloff: Okay, thank you. That's all I have for today. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Thank you so much. Commissioner Deutsch. Susan Deutsch: So I went to the park and rec mission meeting, and I presented about inclusive playgrounds. I thought they were very receptive. I heard that they liked my presentation, just from somebody, randomly, who heard about it. So I think it really went well. They're, right now, in the process of re-doing Littlejohn Park, and that park is going to have some inclusive aspects to it, but it's not going to be totally inclusive; it's a small park. And I think they're going to be talking more as they re-do other parks and build other parks. They're going to be talking more about how they can make the playgrounds more inclusive from the conversations. So I could send out a copy of what their plans are, for Littlejohn Park, but you really can't tell from the picture, really. But if everyone wants that, I can send it to Laurie and she can send it out or however. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Great. Are their plans pretty solidified at this point? Susan Deutsch: For Littlejohn, yeah, yeah, that's S solidified, so we can't make changes for that. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: So maybe future parks we can try to get in early. Susan Duetsch: Yeah, they're really open to it for future Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Oh, that's awesome, great. Anto Aghapekian: I was speaking with one of the commissioners about your presentations, and he said that he was very impressed as well as the other members of the commission, and they learned a lot from your presentation, not only they would invest, but they're going to use some of the items with the presentation in their future plans. Susan Deutsch: Thank you. I had that impression from them. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: So Commissioner Morrison, just so you're aware that each year during our retrea… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,28 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 28 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM the elections. But there is two items that the planning department is working on, and you've probably heard them that's one on Central that a member of the planning department came and did a presentation for us last year, and they have made some changes, some modifications to the original plan. And then the other one is on Clement Street. The plans are pretty well-developed. And I would like to, if the mission's agreeable, to invite one of the planning department officials to come and make presentation to us and both develop next meeting or the week, whenever they can come. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. So, on my part, I went to a Chamber of Commerce meeting to talk about the ADA Initiative that I've done, been working on for getting businesses to be doing small steps to be more accessible under the ADA, and providing certificate, showing that they've made progress. So I left a number of flyers there, and we have a commission email address so that people can email and ask questions and send in photos of their before and after. And I also got in contact with three city staff members that I met and have asked them to pass along our flyer and our information as well. I'm still going to try to work on spreading the word a little bit more the best I can, so any ideas on how to do that, the better. And then I believe the I'm sorry, I don't know the exact name. They came to talk to us about the help for the elderly and some of the homeless. They're going to be talking in front of the city council next meeting, I believe. Laurie Kozisek: If you're speaking of the Alameda Collaborative, which is working on the McKay Wellness Center, yes, they spoke here, and then they spoke at the planning board, and then I think they're speaking at the council. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: And this is to remove the government name on the parcel right now. Laurie Kozisek: Yes, it's to remove the government overlay, which is a required step before they… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,29 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 29 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Arnold Brillinger: Now see, I'm going to have to go back and find out because I don't remember where it was that I saw it. Laurie Kozisek: Okay, do take a look at it again. There should be a number on it or something, so that you can see who the issuing person was, and their CASp number. Arnold Brillinger: I don't think it was signed, or that it had anything on there. Well, let me find out. I'll give you a call and let you check it out. Because I thought it was kind of interesting because I thought, "Oh, the group is working on this and here's somebody's order, or whatever. " But I don't think it looked like that. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Right. No, so that's something that you can pay for to have a certified accessibility inspector come in and look into your facility. Separate, more intensive than this program. This is more of a free encouragement. That's more of a compliance-based. 6. STAFF COMMUNICATIONS Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. We'll move on to number six, staff communications. Laurie Kozisek: Thank you, Madam Chairman. The only thing I have to present is that I got an email today from someone who was ejected out of a restaurant because she had a service animal, which rather surprised her. So you might want to consider looking into service animals and educating people on what's a service animal as opposed to an emotional support animal or therapy animal or whatever, and add that to your education of businesses. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Right. Yeah, that's a huge item. Thank you for bringing that up, and I think that's something that we should definitely look into. You see it on the news a lot recently, and it's definitely illegal to eject someone who has a service animal. So it's sad to hear that that's happening in Alameda if that was the case. 7. ANNOUNCEMENTS Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Item seven, any announcements? Commissioner Brillinger? Arnold Brillinger: The other day I was going down Park Street again,… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,30 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 30 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM I've had problems with mine, but I've luckily been able to get help and get back home because of AC Transit or somebody else who really went out on a limb and took care of it for me. So what I would like to do just in this announcement thing, could we put it on the next agenda? And it'd only be like five minutes or something like that of trying to work up something in the county again and Okay. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: So we actually do have it as part of our agenda. It reached Laurie as well that people are having trouble getting home. So, perfect prelude into our next meeting. This is a huge issue that was cancelled, this program that Arnold is speaking of where the fire department will not come and pick you up and take you home. There's not a current system. And I think this is something that we really need to look into and try to help address so that people are not stranded when their wheelchair or other mobility device fails them when they're out on the streets. Anto Aghapekian: Two or three meetings ago, we had a presentation about emergency help for people, if somebody faints on the street, there is an emergency department in the city that goes and picks you up. Wasn't there a lady that gave a representation like that to us, about three meetings ago, two meetings ago? Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: I know we've spoken about a number of transportation items whether it be the taxi or the Paratransit or the shuttle. When we're talking about the bikes, and maybe they would prevent you from going down a curb ramp or something. So it's definitely come up, but I don't think we've had a concrete solution. Because they could submit something to the city, but that request is not something that's immediate. The see click fix is something that you guys work on over a period of time. It's not like an emergency service. If anyone has any other comments on that. Susan Deutsch: Well, we did have a presentation just about emergencies in g… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,31 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 31 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: And then she's the one who reported it, but I'm sure that it happens to people a lot more often than we know of. So I definitely want to take it seriously and look into it. Jennifer Roloff: Do we know, so if you actually call the fire department, they would say, "Sorry, no"? Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: That's what an email correspondence that Laurie had said, yeah. It's not part of their. Arnold Brillinger: They may show up though. I've had occasion where I was dropped off, and instead of turning right on the sidewalk, I went over on the grassy area, and it was right after a big rain, and if I would have kept on going, I would have gotten back to the sidewalk, but stupid me, I stopped for a moment, and then tried to get going again, and just dug a big old pit in the people's lawn. And in that case, I did call the fire department, they sent out some burly guys and they alley- ooped me back to the sidewalk. So, there are certain situations where they will, but in this one, I don't remember, it was some kind of a mechanical problem, I think. Laurie Kozisek: Madam Chairman, I believe in your case, Commissioner Arnold, it was a lift assist. They were getting you back up on your feet, so to speak. And they do that a lot. They do it every day with people. Whereas this person that contacted you and contacted us was in good health, but had a chair that wouldn't move, and so she essentially needed another way to get home. And so the staff got her out to the curb and got an Uber or something like that for her to get her home. So the fire department wouldn't have been able to drive her home. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Okay. So, it's understanding the differences of what is under their role, and then what is beyond their role that is the gap that we're missing. Does anyone have any further comments or announcements? Jennifer Roloff: I just wanted to remind everyone, or share that December 15th, between 10:00 AM an… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 32 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM second? Arnold Brillinger: Second. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: All in favor? All: Aye. 03/13/19 Page 32 of 32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,4 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 4 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM to have you do small group work, we had five program priorities and our program priorities we call chapters. And that sounds lengthy, but each chapter is one page long. The entire strategic plan is nine pages. It isn't found in a white binder, it's actually written to be used. And so I'll share those chapters with you, I'll show you the plan and then I will tell you the next steps. Victoria Forester: Sorry, I need to go back one. The first program priority is looking at intervention and identification. So we wrote goals and strategies around how do we intervene for all students before they are assessed for special education services. And how do we properly identify students who need extra help. So the first chapter is all about intervention and identification. Victoria Forester: The second priority is actually defining our program, our service delivery model. How are we going to serve the students all the way across the district, from age three all the way to age 22. Because in Special Education, we serve preschoolers all the way up until the age of 22. Or a culminating event such as graduation from high school. Victoria Forester: Program priority three is our systems of support, we have invested time, energy, brain work and money into a multi tiered system of support, and within that system that encompasses General Ed, kiddos as well as special education kids. Victoria Forester: Leadership and communication is chapter four. How do we go about engaging the community, engaging teachers, staff, parents and students into all of the work. And how do we communicate this. So this is my fourth stop on a road show about the strategic plan, and we are getting to anyone who will be willing to really engage in this work. I have met with parents, and teachers, and principals, community members. Because my desire in this work, we talked in the strategic plan about our destination for this work. Our destination post card. And mine is to be … | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,5 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 5 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Victoria Forester: And if you could stop it just right there, perfect. Systems of support, you'll see that each page is a chapter as I explained. And each chapter has goals, then a strategy to support the goal. Strategy number one in systems of support is to develop and implement effective procedures and protocols with fidelity, right. And certainly as we go through this plan, you'll see that it is costly. There are things that we need to do that cost money. And School districts always have a difficult time with budget. Our school district in particular has approved this plan, the Board of Education has, and adopted the fact that it's going to cost some money as we go through this process. Victoria Forester: In the long run it will save the district money, because we are doing things right, and that's the point of this. Past chapter five, you'll see at the end of the plan the next page is a reference and literature page. Every reading that we did, every scholarly piece of work that we read is listed right here. If you go on our planning team web page on the Alameda Unified School District website you will see the work week, or month for month that we did. And you can look at all of the data that was collected. It really is a very transparent process. And if you'll scroll down one more, the glossary. I can speak in full paragraphs using acronyms. And no one understands what we're talking about and I often hear from my son around the dinner table, "Would you stop talking Special Ed?". Because we say the ELCA brought us the IEP, which kept this with FCMAT. So the glossary is there for folks that don't speak that highly acronym language to figure out what we're talking about. Victoria Forester: The very last page is just a mailing sheet, if you fold the whole plan in half, you can't see the last page because it's not on here, then you can put a mailing label and put it in the mail, so it's a very usable plan. So what's next for ou… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,6 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 6 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Leslie Morrison: Okay. So you said it is a three-year plan. Was that sort of a school year, and did it start in the fall of '18? What's the time frame? Victoria Forester: Great question. The plan was approved by the school board last spring. And so, yes, the work started with the '18/'19 school year. And there are many of the strategies in the plan that we've already tackled like we are working on it. That's going to be one of those things where we say, "We're getting there here.' But then there's a lot of things on the plan, many strategies that we haven't even begun to tackle yet. And as I go around and talk with teachers, both general ed and special ed teachers, they say, "Well, there's a lot on here you haven't done. It's a three-year plan and it really is about we. All of us doing this work. Leslie Morrison: So within the three-year plan, do you have one year goals that you've set to accomplish? Victoria Forester: So that's part of the work that the steering committee is going to do. In the first meeting, they are going to be using a template for the work to continue. They're going to see what we're already tackling and getting close to really implementing, and then they're going to come up with a second square of strategies that are most important to tackle next. And that's how we'll go through it. There are some things that are more costly or that take longer to implement. And so those will be in the third box as we go along. Leslie Morrison: And you talked about fidelity. I am wondering about the fidelity of the strategic plan to the findings in the FCMAT. Victoria Forester: Yes. So the chapters really are the titles that the FCMAT report was broken into. These are the areas that need improvement. And so we took the FCMAT report, and we turned that into the chapters of the strategic plan. And before we did that, we actually took a look at As a strategic planning team, we took a look at all of the data that we had. It w… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,7 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 7 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Jennifer Roloff: Okay. And with FCMAT are there competitors? Can you pick different organizations to use than FCMAT? Victoria Forester: There are different FCMAT teams, and I'm not sure how Alameda went about that choice because I wasn't an employee yet. Jennifer Roloff: Okay, got it. Let's see. Oh, when you say that you're looking for Alameda to be the premier destination, distinction for special ed, is that a real distinction? Is there an association where we can receive awards, and accolades? Victoria Forester: Well, certainly within the state of California there are some markers in which you can say, "Dang, we're doing really well." But the way that the strategic plan kind of framed that was we were studying best practice from three school districts in the state, and then three school districts across the nation. We want to be written about and studied in that way. So one of the school districts Was it back in Vermont? And I can't remember the name. We want to be that school district? And that's kind of how we framed the destination postcard. Jennifer Roloff: Got it. Is there any way to differentiate what districts are falling behind in addressing the needs of special ed versus districts that are thriving? Is there a ranking or do you get reviewed every so often? Victoria Forester: Really good question. There's several different ways, but right now the state of California has what's considered its dashboard for achievement. And that's a place where you can go on the CDE website, look up "Alameda unified," and you can find out all about our assessment scores, our achievement. And within that there are scores for our special education students achievement as well as discipline scores as well as broken down according to race, and ethnicity, or disaggregated. I can tell you that currently Alameda Unified is very close to significant disproportionality in the area of discipline for students with IEPs. Which means we have a lot … | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,8 | 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 throug… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,9 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 9 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Victoria Forester: Sure. The law says that we have to provide free and appropriate public education for every student and we have a large variety and a spectrum of classes to meet kids needs in Alameda Unified. But if we can't provide free and appropriate public education then we look to other districts. I have partnered with our SELPA districts like Berkley or Albany or Piedmont to see if there is placements, and then I've taken some students of theirs. And then there is also non-public schools that if we can't provide FAPE, Free Appropriate Public Education, then we reach out to a non-public school. Families do not pay for that. School district funds that. Anto Aghapekian: Thank you. Victoria Forester: You're very welcome. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Anyone else? Otherwise, I have a few questions Just one question. Can you talk about maybe one or two tangible measures of success, whether it be improved test scores, or graduation, or something that you're trying to achieve from this master plan? Victoria Forester: Absolutely. There's a couple of things that pop into my mind. I would like to see our general education teachers and, again, that is my background. I'm a credentialed general ed teacher. I would like our gen ed teachers to have the knowledge and ability to teach any student that is in their classrooms so that we can achieve more inclusion of our special needs students. That's number one. Number two is I would like to see less qualification for an IEP or special education because we're serving our general ed kids better. Every kid with an IEP starts as a child in general education. And so those are two ways that I would like to see us achieve. And the second way, of course, saves the district a lot of money. I am passionate about equity for our students, and believe that our kids with IEPs, with special needs, really are a part of that equity piece. And they need to be included, and have access to core curriculum. The… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,10 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 10 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Victoria Forester: Right. So, if we do a better job of teaching all students then we will qualify less students for IEPs. And so that qualification goal is not about not giving kids what they need, it's about giving kids what they need at an earlier or lower level. I'm a firm believer in early intervention. We have very strong preschool programs that give kids what they need from a very. From three years old. The law says that we must find every child in our school district who may have a disability. And so we begin working with kids as early as two and a half. Leslie Morrison: So, you had also mentioned a couple of measures on the dashboard where Alameda has opportunities for improvement. One is discipline and expulsion. Kids with disabilities have a higher rate and Victoria Forester: It's suspension. Not quite expulsion. Leslie Morrison: So are some of those also measures that you're looking at, that you're looking to improve? Victoria Forester: Absolutely. We have a full integrated plan with the county of Alameda around disproportionality particularly looking at the discipline of students with disabilities, and even one layer deeper African-American students with disabilities. And so that plan with the county really feathers into our strategic plan to improve across the board. Leslie Morrison: And when you talked about lowering the number of kids on IEPs, where do 504 plans come in? Victoria Forester: Section 504 is for general ed students with a handicapping condition. So as a school principal, I once wrote a 504 plan for a kid that broke his right arm during testing time. You'd have to bubble in, and he couldn't do that. So we wrote a short-term 504 plan for that. Many kids have 504 plans for health issues, for ADHD oftentimes. And it still comes under the umbrella of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's not directly related to my department. Jody is in charge of 504s but certainly, as I stand here and say every kid … | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,11 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 11 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Leslie Morrison: It does. Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: Great. Thank you so much. Victoria Forester: Thank you all. I appreciate it. Leslie Morrison: And I just have a question. Will we at some point have an opportunity to hear how they're doing? In a year or two, will there be an opportunity to come back? Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: That would be great if you would be happy to come back. Victoria Forrester: Yes. 4-B Jodi McCarthy, Program manager, Student Support Services, AUSD Acting Chair Jenn Barrett: We really appreciate that. And you'll stick around in case we have more questions. Alright. So Jodi McCarthy, thank you so much for joining us. She is the Program Manager of the Student Support Services at Alameda Unified School District. Jodi McCarthy: And I'm talking to you about the needs assessment that Alameda Unified conducted last year. We took a real comprehensive look at the behavioral health needs of our students, because we were seeing a lot more reports of students being 5150 for suicide ideation, students needing more support with 504s around anxiety and depression, and eating disorders, and some mental health, behavioral health things that were going on. So what the district did last year was, took a really comprehensive look at all of the kids in our district from elementary school to middle school up to high school. Oh, and I have it. I've got it. Hang on. Let me see if I can do this. Okay, here we go. So, the purpose and the goal of the needs assessment was to really analyze what we were doing well, and what we were missing. We took a look at it through a deficit model much like Victoria was talking about. We wanted to see where the holes were, and how we can help kind of support and fill those holes. And fill the needs that our kids need because all kids need to learn, and they need to be able to thrive. Jodi McCarthy: The needs assessment is 50 pages long, and I'm not going to do all 50 pages. It contains all o… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,12 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 12 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM Jodi McCarthy: And then additionally, we also took a data from the Healthy Kids, the California Healthy Kids Survey, that's given to students at the end of school year. So, the report has all of these different categories. There's an executive summary, and we looked at seven findings. We looked at the tiers of support that we have at our schools, how we coordinate our practices, what the school's responsibility is, the district capacity, cultural responsiveness of the district. We looked at our school-based health center. There's a school-based health center at each high school site, one in Alameda High, one in Encinal, and one that serves like ECLC and that community, and ASTI and Island. Jodi McCarthy: We had a couple of things that fell into another category, and you'll see what those are. I'll tell you those in a minute. Then we looked at the next steps. We came up with a list. There were 21 no-cost recommendations, things that we could implement right away that didn't have any cost. It's in the full report. In the report there's also a budget that we would need in order to really adequately address all of the things that we found. And then there's a list of references. Jodi McCarthy: So what I'm going to do is give you just key findings of the seven different categories that we looked at. And I'm just going to highlight a couple of them out of each category because some of it is like school talk it, and it's not very exciting. So one of the things I think that is important that was a key finding out of the three tiers of support, the tier one is all everybody. The tier two system of support is groups of students, and the tier three support is individualized support. Jodi McCarthy: So we looked at all of the tiers. We looked at what are we doing for everybody, what are we doing for groups of kids, and what are we doing for individual kids. And what came out of the findings of that section of it was that we need more help, … | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,13 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 13 | teachers, like the teachers didn't really understand all of the different pressures that they were dealing with and they needed to be more understood and have more compassion. Jodi McCarthy: The curriculum needs to be more culturally responsive. And then another thing 03/13/19 Page 13 of 32 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,14 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 14 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM that we're working on with our human resource department is that because it was across the board, the students, staff, and families, all of them felt that there was a need for a more diverse staff. So we need to see more people that look like our students, teaching and in admin roles across our district. Access to the school-based health center at our high school sites. This was fun to talk about with our high school kids. The kids believe that the Health Center really is maximized. There's a lot of services that the health center offers, and it ranges from mental health, behavioral health services, from counseling, to condoms and birth control and reproductive health and physicals for sports as well as like immunizations. The school-based health center offers a lot to our kids, and there's kind of a stigma associated with using the school-based health center. It was one of the biggest barriers I think that came, that the kids reported. Jodi McCarthy: Some of the kids didn't want to be seen walking into the school-based health center because "Johnny is going there for you know what, because him and Debbie are going to go under the So there's like this teasing and stigma, I guess, is the best word to describe it, around using the Health Center because they're teenagers. The thing also that was reported by the kids was those who were seeking counseling services. There's often a wait list for them to be seen by a therapist and get some counseling around stress and anxiety and the things that they were dealing with. The other category, things that we found, cellphone policies were inconsistent, and there's issues on the elementary school playground, and food came up. Food options came up a lot, especially with the high school kids. Over at Alameda High, there's access to Park Street, so there's more things for them to eat because who wants to eat school food. But over at Encinal it's a bit of a hike to actually get to something th… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf,15 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-11-28 | 15 | ITEM 2-A COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, November 28, 2018, 6:30 PM eat their breakfast, whether or not they have You know, my kids have it, it's in there, that they don't, kids need to eat their breakfast. We provide options for them at school, in the office, mostly, there's a bowl of fresh fruit or in most school offices there's access to food, kids have the access to food, they just need to eat it. Jodi McCarthy: The online survey. Depression, feeling sad, teasing and problems at home were the areas for all three groups, the students, the parents and the staff that really popped up when it came to why kids were feeling stressed. There's underlying, there's already underlying mental health issues with depression or sadness. There's teasing and there's problems at home. In the top five relationship issues, staff reported that there's bullying and families reported that their kids are feeling lonely or left out. The focus groups were so fun. Jodi McCarthy: The biggest unmet needs that the kids told us about in these groups was there's a lot of stress that they're dealing with, there's a lot of conflicts trying to balance everything. They've got a full academic load at school plus they play sports plus they're in clubs and then there's their social needs and playing Fortnite and all the other stuff that goes along with being a kid, it's really hard for them to kind of find balance and they need strategies and they need skills. They reported a lot of like, I need to learn how to manage it and I don't know how, and they need somebody to show them how to do it. Jodi McCarthy: And dealing with social situations with their friends. High school students reported a huge problem with cannabis. They reported that vaping and marijuana was quite common and not unheard of, and it's even bigger than the alcohol use in the school. Adderall is big especially during finals. They reported a lot of depression, anxiety, and stress, too much homework, struggling with their grades, and teachers not understanding re… | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-11-28.pdf |
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