April 2018

Membership Services Committee / April 2018

Focus Areas: Skilled Staff

Type: Open Committee

The membership services group is pleased that our new membership and overall organizational membership continues to grow this year.

We are looking forward to honoring our retirees on June 12th at 3:30pm

Tuesday Professional Learning / April 2018

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

June 12 MAASE

Mark Shinn PhD – High Quality Student Evaluations/Specially Designed Instruction/Skilled Staff

Brad Rose – Program Evaluation

The Tuesday Professional Learning Committee will be meeting during May to plan for the 2018-2019 school year. The Committee works to align the MAASE Four Focus Areas with the Professional Learning that is offered to MAASE members in order to embed high quality learning into the MAASE experience. It is the hope of the Committee that the PL that is selected assists school administrators in developing and improving skills and practices that will positively impact student outcomes.

Urban Special Education Administrators (CoP) / April 2018

Focus Areas: Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

Type: Open Committee

MAASE Meeting- June 13th at noon

UCoP discussed the use of appropriate interventions that meet the criteria for SDI.

• Some districts can’t afford to purchase intervention programs and believe they might not be meeting the needs of their students.
• Other districts are using chunking, scaffolding, and other good instructional strategies to support students with disabilities and believe this is enough to help a student progress towards their goals.
• It is difficult to be consistent with interventions when students are absent on a regular basis. District believes interventions not as beneficial as they could be.
• Teachers need to build relationships with their students in order to make in roads with them.  Students don’t trust their teachers and believe they are treated differently because they have a disability.

Supervisors of Low Incidence Programs (SLIP) (CoP) / April 2018

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

Type: Open Committee

Dates To Remember:

1. March 15 Site Visit – 5 attended & great networking opportunity

2. Next SLIP Meeting – June 12, 2018

3. MAASE Summer Institute – Aug. 12-15, 2018 (Register & Hotel Reservations open)

4. Program Evaluation Due – June 30, 2018

5. School Improvement Plans Due – September 1, 2018 (Sooner for some districts)

6. 2019 SLIP Winter Conference – January 17-18, 2019

1. Site Visits – Discussed continuation & group would like to see them continue.  Dates will be scheduled now for members to put on their calendars as soon as possible. Woodsedge & Heartwood are both willing to host.

2. 2019 SLIP Winter Conference – Planning underway for next year & attempting to get it ready earlier.

a. Committee – Joanne Thorsen, Mary Bradley, Jennifer Rogers, Susan Reynolds & Tina Lawson

b. Dates scheduled would be best on a Thursday/Friday for travel and the best month to schedule.

c. Theme – General, not specific to open up topics related to center-based programs. This may help with presenters.  Check on key note.

d. Survey – A brief 3-5 question survey will be sent out to the membership for feedback on information for next year.

3. Summer Institute Presenters – Discussion on topics of interest for the SLIP group. Service Delivery Models, Need/Level Based programming, and Student Growth for Evaluations.

4. Seclusion & Restraint – Discussed different responses to situations – face masks for spitting; Football pads for staff; staff movement due to severe injuries; home-based services (Little guidance available, must be justified, based on student need, consider hours as this is not homebound services) Police involvement discussed.

5. Ideas on “contingent separation rooms in your schools.” –Criteria on the decision for this plan documented and action plan to return to the classroom.  Is it therapeutic? Is the parent involved? Is decision-making process documented? Is it a proactive measure to reduce/prevent severe behavior?

Use of Google/Legal Update?

Student Growth data/assessments (connect to data) – Discussion on how different districts are looking at data to determine rating level for evaluations.

6. Work Group Project – Discussed the development of IRIP’s and math curriculum/assessments

7. Roundtable – Quicksand modules for Homeless Liaison’s discussed and amount of time to complete, which has been overwhelming. Anyone know of Robocall for Easy IEP? If you do, please share with Brooke McIsaac.

Secondary Transition Administrators (CoP) / April 2018

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

Type: Open Committee

Conversation with MDE – Janet Timbs:

MDE

“Identifying priorities for next school year along with a “format” for meetings/trainings.  Having 2 workshops a year will not move us toward better results. I am open to any suggestions!”

–Janet:

• “Seamless Transition”
  • Company is Transcend
  • 3 sites last year, 2 new sites this year – cross agency teams
  • Obligation includes: 3 face to face with all teams together, 2 face to face with individual teams, monthly call, online “homework”
  • Goal = build capacity and then take across state
  • Janet is co-leading with Bill Colombo from MRS
  • application process to be a part of the next cohort is coming in October – could be at ISD level or at district level – must include education and community agencies – most are heavy on MRS / Disability Network – Kent is newest team and they have CMH involved
  • Discussion about difficulty in getting collaboration from partners
  • Janet sent to Transition Coordinators, MRS leadership sent to counselors
  • What prerequisites would be expected? – commitment that all will work together
  • Team has to identify minimum of 12 students who will be leaving in a couple of years – going through Discovery Process, looking at Customized Employment
  • Intended Outcome is a group of students having employment (competitive / integrated) by the time they leave school
  • Similar to Building Your Future with START
  • First round – people only had 2 weeks to turn around applications – want to start early this time to allow for time to prepare
  • No funding – but it is quality training
• April 12 – 13 Training will “close out” priorities for this year’s grant
  • transition assessment
  • data analysis
  • IEP development
• MDE, BSBP, MRS, MTSA – Denver NTTAC Capacity Team Building Conference – each agency pays for own person to attend will become our Employment First – School to Work Committee  (Monthly Group under Lt Governor’s office – NTACT Team under OSE) —someone from MAASE could be a part of this group
• What are priorities for next year? Best practice
  • Tennessee Transition – courses online
  • University of Indiana – Tuesday Transition Tips
  • MAASE collect exemplars of best practices from around the state, vet them, send out to the field
  • Practice of the month
  • MAASE CoP – collect information and send out to the field
  • Catamaran will have a space for best practice and will add to it
  • Marcia can share document outlining Employment First in Michigan
  • Developmental Disabilities Council – limited connection with education but now starting outreach – work more with adult population
  • Student led IEPs and self-determination
  • Activities in the transition plan are specially designed instruction
  • Still a struggle to get folks to understand the WHY behind transition planning
  • Across K-12, all kids (including SWD) there is a frustration with the pressure to get career / college ready

Collaboration with CTE?

New Administrators (CoP) / April 2018

Focus Areas: Skilled Staff

Type: Open Committee

We are looking forward to hosting a session at the Summer Institute

ISD Collaborative (CoP) / April 2018

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

• Bridging the Gap Conference – May 10th – 11th in St. Ignace
• Next ISD Collaborative CoP scheduled for June 11th from Noon – 3 at Clinton County RESA

• Janet Timbs & Charles Thomas provided an overview of the Virtual Monitoring process and answered questions from the group
• The group received updates from the March DAS meeting
• The group received updates from the Michigan Transition Services Association Conference
• The group discussed the possibility of creating a searchable complaints database
• The group shared their experiences with FMs/CAPs
• Current Complaints were discussed, group provided support to one another in resolving Complaint questions
• Current activities in Catamaran were discussed
• The group approved the nomination and appointment of Steve Berg for co-chair of the ISD Collaborative, replacing Darla Jackson whose term ends at the end of this school year.
• Conversation on risk/threat assessments, resources to be shared out via email
• Regional reports

Early Childhood Program Administrators (CoP) / April 2018

Type: Open Committee

MAASE EC COP professional learning and retreat:

June 20th, noon – June 21st, noon in Traverse City.

No June Meeting at MAASE.

LARA finger printing questions for new rules:

If a student is pulled out of a licensed program for special education services, does the special education provider have to meet the licensing requirements?

If there are multiple licenses in one building who does the SLP go on? Can they be on multiple licenses?

If a local school bus, does the k-5 bus driver also need the background check?

How often does the fingerprinting need to happen?

How is LARA communicating with substitute agencies?