April 2016

Membership Services Committee / April 2016

Focus Areas: Skilled Staff

Retirement Celebration is June 7th immediately following the professional development.

Please add your picture to to membership directory. If you have difficulties, feel free to send your picture to Sue Leach.

Don’t forget to sign up for Colleague Connections!

MAASE News / April 2016

New Position

• Kara Green, Director of Student Services, Greenville Public Schools – effective February 2016

Grand Valley State University Students

• Megan Colligan
• Janelle Duffey
• Judith Nancy

Legislative Action Committee / April 2016

Focus Areas: Skilled Staff

Type: Board Appointed

The House Education Committee began testimony on a package of bills (House Bills 5409, 5410, 5411, 5412, 5413, 5414, 5415, 5416, 5417, and 5418) designed to end seclusion and restraint policies for students outside of emergency situations.

As of now, MAASE has taken a neutral position on the legislation and has outlined several changes that we feel are still necessary before we can support the bill.  Those changes can be found here on our wiki: http://maase.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/107153454/MAASE-April2016-Seclusion-Restraint-LG.pdf.

We want to thank the members who have reached out to us and provided feedback or expressed concerns about these bills.  To this end, we feel it is important to remind the membership that legislation is a situation when less is more.  This is counter-intuitive for those of us who have made our living in the special education world, where the more detailed we can be, the more likely we will be compliant, ensure FAPE, and/or stay out of trouble in general!  But when it comes to legislative language, omissions are usually a blessing.  It is imperative that we help our fellow special education colleagues, our principals, and our superintendents take a step back from this legislation for a moment and distinguish the things that we would still be permitted to do because of omissions in the bill language (e.g. student-level BIPs, which are mandated under IDEA and the MARSE).

The thing we have to keep in mind about legislation is that the legislators can tell us what districts can or cannot do, but they cannot make districts do them well.  Our goal as we collaborate with legislators and the LG’s Office is to support language that reiterates the importance of PBIS and also supports the 2006 State Board Standards for the Emergency Use of Seclusion and Restraint, since the majority of districts are following those practices already.  At the end of the day, we believe that this legislation will give districts another reason to critically examine current district practices and to reiterate to their staff that seclusion and/or restraint are ONLY to be used in emergency situations- both positive outcomes in our opinion.

To date, we have met with Senators and Representatives, and have met on three occasions with the LG’s Chief of Staff and/or the LG himself around the S&R bills.  Last week, we met with MASA and MAISA lobbyists to ensure we were all on the same page.

Moving forward, we will continue to meet with legislators, the LG’s Office, and our association colleagues at MASA/MAISA.  Many of our members will engage their legislators around this topic through our Michigan Legislative Action Seminar (MLAS) on April 19-20th.  We are also working with members on coordinated testimony in the House Education Committee in the short run as the bill moves through the House.  We will engage in similar activities when and if the bill passes the House and heads to the Senate.

We appreciate your attempts to share this information with your superintendents. Remember that other associations are looking to MAASE for guidance in this area, given our expertise.  Please continue to be proactive with your representatives and superintendents in this regard.

Seclusion and Restraint!  For the latest MAASE input on these bills, please refer to our wiki here: http://maase.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/107153454/MAASE-April2016-Seclusion-Restraint-LG.pdf.  We appreciate your attempts to share this information with your superintendents.  Remember that other associations are looking to MAASE for guidance in this area, given our expertise.  Please continue to be proactive with your representatives and superintendents in this regard.

Join us for MLAS on April 19th and 20th, when we will hear from the LG and take to the Capitol to have conversation with our representatives!

Association Partnerships / April 2016

Focus Areas: High Quality Student Evaluations, Program Evaluation, Skilled Staff, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

Type: Open Committee

Next Committee Meeting June 1, 2016

APC met4/6/16 at 3:00 via Adobe Connect

Present: Matt Korolden, Shalika Robie, Tracye Johnson and  Andy Claes

Absent: Bill Brown, Jennifer Scott-Burton, Ben Hicks, Kim Iverson

Agenda topics

• Emerging organizational messages aligned to each of the focus areas
• MAASE members to develop the  “MAASE Message” for each of the four focus area
  • The committee revisited the work already accomplished by the MAASE Executive Board and determined that no additional work is needed on these two items
  • The committee identified the need to clarify with Executive Board the need for any supplemental resources related to each focus area
    • One pagers
    • Presentation/video

Managing committee work & Committee Foundations

• The committee reviewed two resources: a chart to assist with identifying and tracking MAASE work that connects to the APC function and logic model to describe the APC workflow.
• The committee agreed that the activity of identifying existing or emerging MAASE work and connecting it to the APC function would best be accomplished as part of the MAASE Leadership meeting in July.

It can be reviewed at this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FDJcXg01gcZCfK_ADp9rt0gvzZnJGF2buIyZjspNdFU/edit#gid=0

• The committee developed a workflow

It can be viewed at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7S2FW5OWaBdfml6cS0zRTdTVEJob3RXcFZtZ2RneEVxaHBjdlRpRWlHY3AzeF9PdVo0enc

• The committee reviewed and adopted a “go to” list of communication resources.  They can be reviewed at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7S2FW5OWaBdRVlwMUYtZUZOd0k
• The committee reviewed an initial draft of a model one page communication.  Work will continue on this document with the intent that it become a sample for future work to model.

MAASE Resources

• The committee viewed a draft PPT template that might be used as the sample for future work to model.

It can be viewed at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7S2FW5OWaBdfml6cS0zRTdTVEJob3RXcFZtZ2RneEVxaHBjdlRpRWlHY3AzeF9PdVo0enc

• The committee discussed additional organizations for direct outreach: MAISA, Michigan Alliance for Families and Michigan Family to Family Support.

It can be viewed at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7S2FW5OWaBdfml6cS0zRTdTVEJob3RXcFZtZ2RneEVxaHBjdlRpRWlHY3AzeF9PdVo0enc

Respectfully submitted 4/6/16

Matt Korolden, Committee Chair

Tuesday Professional Learning / April 2016

The Tuesday PL Committee met on March 9th, 16th and April 12th.  The focus of the meetings was to plan for the 2016-2017 Professional Learning.  The following information was gleaned from those meetings:

1. Transformational Leadership will be the common theme/series

2. Some survey results included topics that might better be addressed at EdCamp

3. February PL will include a full day attorney presentation

4. For 2016-17, when there are 2 workshops, one will focus on leadership development and

Summer Institute / April 2016

Focus Areas: High Quality Student Evaluations, Program Evaluation, Skilled Staff, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

Type: Open Committee

We need your presentation proposals by May 6th.   [date extended to May 20th]

Use link to:

• Register for the conference
• Submit a proposal – Due May 6th [date extended to May 20th]
• Register to be a Sponsor

Link: http://www.cvent.com/events/maase-summer-institute-2016/event-summary-5857bb68ea8c48c2a2ac9010c0a1a671.aspx

Keynote: Monday, August 8th – Todd Whitaker

Keynote: Tuesday, Aug 9th – Todd Gravois

Welcome Reception – Sunday, August 7th – Lots of fun planned!

Lobbyist / April 2016

KAROUB REPORT: February 2016

Microsoft Word – April 18, 2016

Misc / April 2016

Focus Areas: Program Evaluation, Skilled Staff, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

May 4th, 2016 and June 1st, 2016

Committee Work:

Personal Curriculum – new competency expectations for the Transition Coordinators.  Provisions of the PC will be used to increase graduation and reduced dropout rates for students with IEP’s.

Challenging Behaviors – An overview of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) was provided.  PBIS is a Framework for enhancing adoption and implementation of, Continuum of evidence based interventions to achieve, academically and behaviorally important outcomes for, all students.

Responsiblities of the OSE – 5 stages: Contact, Cooperation, Coordination, Collaboration and Convergence. This will help to design an improved partnership with MDE>ISD>LEA>Schools.

Lt. Governor Calley announced a bill to mandate the requirements pertaining to the emergency use of seclusion and restraint. The Lt. Governor highly promotes the use of PBIS.

Supervisors of Low Incidence Programs (SLIP) (CoP) / April 2016

Focus Areas: Skilled Staff

Type: Open Committee

– Next meeting is Tues., June 8th during lunch of PD day.

– 1% Proficiency Cap Exception Applications are now available and due by August 29th at 5:00 pm

1. We are looking for ideas on projects for the 2016-2017 school year. Suggestion made on curriculum development and collaboration with Wayne RESA.

2. Seclusion & Restraint – Draft is out and testimony is being taken Thursday, April 14th and Thursday, April 21st. Please see Eric Hoppstock or Dawn Bentley to ensure collaboration on items for testimony.

3. SLIP Winter Conference – Two years of PBiS and last two years of Transition have been held. We are looking for a theme for the 2017 SLIP Winter Conference. Should we continue with 2 days or return to a 1 day format? Input is encouraged. Survey responses will also be used. We are currently in the planning stages for next year.

4. 1% MI-Access Proficiency Cap Exception Applications – These are now available on the MDE Accountability web page. The applications are due by August 29, 2016 at 5:00 pm. There is also a Helpful Resource available with detailed information on 1%, how it is calculated, how to access application and sample responses. Make sure you know when your current exception expires.

5. Roundtable discussion was held with those in attendance.

-Concerns with PSAT materials being sent to districts who do not have students identified as taking it and who have completed requirements that the assessment is not administered in the building. (Please note that testing materials had to be returned.)

-Discussion was held on number of School Social Workers they have for their building. Review of student enrollment was discussed as well.

-Email to be sent out on presentations for Summer Institute relevant to the SLIP group. Also, if a general meeting should be held as a session. We did not do this last year, but a few members have asked for this participation.

Meeting adjourned at 1:00.

Monitors (CoP) / April 2016

Focus Areas: Program Evaluation, Skilled Staff

The Monitors CoP met on April 11th at 4:30PM with 42 Monitors in attendance.

Annual State Monitors Conference

May 5&6 @ Mackinac Beach and Bay

51 Monitors are currently registered, which means they all get t-shirts!

Agenda items include:

• MDE Updates presented by Teri Chapman
• Mediation – conflict Resolution presented by MSEMP
• Data Mining
• Indicator Tamers
• and more…

Monitors, there is still time to register, you’re just not guaranteed a t-shirt.  Register at www.oaisd.org

We debriefed as a whole group after the OSE meeting for ISD Directors and Monitors on April 11.

As an activity, the OSE asked that we identify a list of challenges and opportunities that we, as a group, feel come along with the proposed restructuring.  The majority of our CoP time was spent doing just that.  Below are a few of the topics we came up with.  

• How do we maintain involvement with complaints
  • Mediation: Formal vs. Informal
  • Facilitated IEP
• What are the challenges and opportunities we see for monitoring and TA
  • No communication thus far with current TA’s
  • Questions from Monitors not being answered until OSE has time to debrief and then address at next venue of information sharing. Each meeting scheduled provides more and more clarity, but never complete clarity.  Building plane while flying it.
• Suggestions for Communication
  • Increased transparency
  • Use communication protocol: potentially from MI Excel
• Challenges
  • Authority over LEA’s and PSA’s: Michigan is a local control state and so it is not realistic to think we can just walk in and take control of a local in order to change practices as a means to improving student outcomes.  It sounds nice, but it’s not realistic.
  • There is currently no expectations or structure for ISD Technical Assistance providers and so there are more questions than answers
  • What will be our avenue for input?  MAT was disbanded and there is no current avenue for input
• Opportunities
  • When final report is complete, TA role should include:
    • Verification of CAP activities
    • Providing technical assistance to locals more frequently than the current TA’s are able to (2 times).
  • Coaching Model versus Technical Assistance

***We charted out all of our concerns as a group and presented the work to Jan W.  Additionally we have recommended that the OSE meet with a few Monitors so that detailed information regarding the notes recorded on the chart paper can be shared more in-depth.

Additionally, there was important information shared on the April CIMS Workbook Webinar that was discussed:

April 15 Workbook: Recording of the webinar www.bit.ly/CIMSApril

• B-Complaints activity is new to CIMS and will involve 7 districts in this workbook.  Systemic level corrective action will now be issued through and monitored by CIMS whereas the student level corrective action will be monitored by the ISD Monitor.
• Cross Indicator Analysis is a new activity that 600 districts will participate in if they had les then 95% compliance for Timely IEP’s and more than 5 IEP’s were late.  This replaces CAP activities for either Timely, B11 or B12 and forces the district to look at each of these indicators and how they impact each other. One of the required activities will be to put the results of the Cross Indicator Analysis as a Board Meeting agenda item.
• Workbooks must be acknowledged by May 15, BUT in preparation for the May 15 Workbook, CIMS is going dark on May 8-14.  Districts can still acknowledge on May 15 (Sunday).
• B13 Verification Activity is a new activity for ISD Monitors.  Must do an on-site visit to each district who received a B13 CAP in the fall and do a file review for 8 students.  The 8 students can be 8 of the students who are already included in the B13 checklist activity.

B-13 update

• Different interpretations of the checklist items again.  If you did not participate in the B13 webinar on April 11, then you will want to watch the recorded version www.bit.ly/CIMSB13

Early Childhood Program Administrators (CoP) / April 2016

Focus Areas: Program Evaluation

Type: Open Committee

August 3rd will be the date we visit St. Joe’s to see their Trauma Center. More details will follow with an R.S.V.P. and agenda.

GSRP — IEP language and prioritization of intakes

MAASE is looking for proposals for early childhood topics for Summer Insititute

Discussion of Single Service Delivery Model for Early On

Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program Administrators / April 2016

Focus Areas: Skilled Staff

Upcoming Dates:

• October 12th, 2016
• April 12th, 2017

In April, we welcomed Dan Levy (Department of Civil Rights) and Annie Urasky (Division on Deafness, Deaf/Blind & Hard of Hearing) to discuss the interpreter rules which will be in effect September 1st, 2016. Members in attendance were able to discuss questions related to their district struggles in regards to the rule change.

An FAQ specifically related to educational interpreting will appear on the DODDBHH website at some point in May.

For now, information for administrators of DHH staff and/or programs is being stored in a Google Drive. For access to the information, please email Trish Lopucki: tlopucki@nvps.net

ASD Program Special Education Administrators (CoP) / April 2016

Focus Areas: High Quality Student Evaluations, Program Evaluation, Skilled Staff, Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

Type: Open Committee

• The mission of the MAASE Autism Community of Practice is to provide guidance to the field as the state plan for autism is implemented. The Autism Community of Practice will provide input, guidance and technical assistance to the Autism Council of Michigan as part of the implementation strategy for the state plan.

Focus Areas:

 ASD Community of Practice Agenda

April 13, 2016

Purpose of Meeting

 Continue with organizing the work of the autism CoP for 2015/16

 Finalize details for April 26 training

 Review Binders

Meeting Objectives

 Assign tasks to members for finalizing details for April 26 training

 Review Binders: scope and sequence of committee work using goals and benchmarks. Aligning the work of this committee to the four main focus areas of MAASE.

MAASE ASD CoP Purpose/Function

 Review MAASE four focus areas: high quality evaluations, specially designed instruction, skilled

 Review meeting minutes from December

Assign final details of April 26 training

Identify date/s and logistics around 2 nd day of training to occur during the summer institute

 Review and discuss Education-based Evaluations for ASD

ASD Program Special Education Administrators (CoP) / April 2016

Focus Areas: High Quality Student Evaluations

Type: Open Committee

Education-based Evaluations for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Crowne Plaza Lansing West Hotel – Lansing, Michigan