ISSUES PAPER
Date
: November 18, 2002
To: Mr. Jim Thornhill, School Superintendent
From:
Bill Sammons
[sammons@tampabay.rr.com]
(863)
688-3323
An ESE Parent
I was glad to receive
notification of the ESE Advisory Committee Meeting. Below are topics that I
presented to Don Woods, the committee chairman. I would like to see the
committee discuss many of these topics during the course of the year. It is a
long list and some of the topics are involved.
First, I should probably
ask if you believe this committee is the appropriate forum for these issues. If
so, could the committee prioritize these issues for discussion, as well as other
issues you and the other committee members have? If this committee is not the
appropriate forum, it would be great if the committee could discuss where these
issues should be addressed.
Often a few wonderful
programs are discussed in the meetings, and it is great to hear about them, they
are important, and we should continue to discuss them. But it is also important
that we fully address those problematic topics and issues that could have the
greatest impact on the ESE students and ESE teachers in Polk County. Viable
solutions that answer these issues as well as the wonderful programs should be
identified and actively advocated by the committee.
Below are some of the more
problematic topics and issues that could be covered in this year’s meetings.
Several of the issues below may not have a substantial foundation. The members
of this committee could help to correct any information and/or any
interpretation that is concurrent. Where the concerns expressed do have
foundation, the committee could seek to find solutions.
[ ESE
Director Sherwin Holmes' March, 2003, response to issues inserted in red ].
Bill,
Below
are some answers for you as we discussed. The best way to cover this much
material is to sit down and discuss it.
1. A State of
Exceptional Student Education in Polk County Program
I would be interested in
hearing an overview of the ESE programs from the Director of Exceptional Student
Education. What does the Director of ESE Services see as the current strengths
and weaknesses of Exceptional Student Education in Polk County:
Some
of the strengths would include the collaboration with regular education in the
areas reading initiatives including our Reading 1st partnerships and
Reading Matters trainings. Inclusion is another area that Polk progressed in.
Weaknesses include the training issues for both paraprofessionals and teachers.
The dilemma of training during the school day and covering with substitutes vs.
after school training that cannot be mandated under our current collective
bargaining agreement. Teacher certification is another issue for the District
and will need to be addressed under our No Child Left Behind Committee.
Suspension rates continue to be an on going concern.
What are the initiatives
he is planning to build on those strengths and to correct those weaknesses?
What are the Director’s
issues?
Where would parent support
be most helpful to the program?
Parents
of ESE students and regular education students can have the strongest impact at
the school level in PTO and SAC committees. The ESE advisory is meant to
supplement the school level efforts. Other committees that deal with specific
ESE issues such as SEDNET offer more focused opportunities for parent
involvement.
For instance, the overview
for the ESE programs for autistic children could include:
(1) How may autistic
children are in the district?
(2) What is the largest
class size, the smallest class size, the typical class size within the
district?
(3) What is the typical
disability-specific training of the teachers and the para-professionals that
work with autistic children?
(4) How many of the
teachers are teaching out-of-field?
In the
ESE department according to the data from SAP the number of teachers teaching
out of field are 214.
(5) What is the policy on
providing para’s?
The ESE
portion of the 2002-03 Polk County Staffing Plan states that paraprofessionals
are designated for self-contained classes and should be used in this capacity.
It also states that if a unit meets appeal criteria assistance may be provided
as either a part-time or full-time paraprofessional that would include the
self-contained or resource classes. Under extreme health and behavioral
circumstances it may be necessary to assign a specific paraprofessional to a
student or group of students. The assignment of a paraprofessional is a
restrictive measure and limits the student’s contact with peers affecting
socialization.
(6) What is the general
curriculum followed?
The
curriculum of each of our units follows the Sunshine State Standards and the
Sunshine State Standards for Children with Disabilities. This is provided by the
state as benchmarks for facilitation of learning.
2.
COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS:
Parent involvement is
generally acknowledged as a good thing, it’s just how does one get it?
Can a serious effort be
made to develop a voluntary email directory and/or mailing directory of parents
and teachers, grouped by disability?
Some ESE
parents are on an email list. This list has been generated at conferences,
parent newsletter, and the FDLRS newsletter. At the conferences, parents all
asked to fill out their email address if they so choose. In the parent
newsletter and the FDLRS newsletter parents are asked if they would like to
become a member of an email directory and if so to complete the form and return
to FDLRS. We must be very cautious with sharing parents’ email because of
confidentiality and the fact that many of them do not want to release their
email. This is true also in regard to their students’ disability of which many
of our parents do not want to reveal.
Could parents be notified
of issues that would be coming before the school board that would have a direct
impact on their child?
Notification
of school board issues is available though the public relations department of
the Polk County School District. Leah Lauderdale is our public relations
director and is knowledgeable in this particular area.
Could we notify them of
new services that may be available or upcoming training?
ESE
parents are notified of new services and upcoming training through the parents’
newsletter, the FDLRS newsletter as well as announcements in the local
newspaper. Coming events are also sent through the email system to the schools
for posting or provided as handouts for the students to take home. Many times
various businesses throughout Polk County will place in their businesses,
posters notifying the community of coming events.
3. THE ESE BUDGET:
What dollars come into the
county specifically for ESE? How much money is there and what are the major
sources?
The ESE
department received varies sources of funding for students ranging from the
local funds to multiple grant funds. These funds vary from year to year. This
year we received the following amounts.
1.
Local funds
$107,737,254.00
These funds are allocated for salaries,
instructional text materials, technology, contracted services and extended
learning plan.
2.
Federal funds
$11,360,367.00
(IDEA, SEDNET, Alternate Assessment)
These funds are allocated for enhancement of
programs to include instructional materials, equipment, technology, contracted
services, support personnel salaries, student specific paraprofessional
salaries, teacher training, paraprofessional training and parent training.
Where are these dollars
spent? Is ESE spending 80 percent of its budget on staff?
ESE is
spending approximately 83% of its budget on salaries.
How much is going to
outside service providers?
Approximately $1,300,000.00 is allocated for outside services providers (i.e.
speech, mental health, health care)
Is a detailed discussion
the how the ESE budget works a reasonable topic for the ESE Advisory Committee
to be conversant with?
4. VARYING
EXCEPTIONALITIES:
In the Florida
Comprehensive System of Personnel Development Personnel Data Planning Book,
2000-2001, it reports that 65% (586) of Polk’s 902 ESE teachers were teaching
Varying Exceptionalities classes. Of the 13 largest school systems in the
state, only Volusia County had a higher percentage. Of the 13 largest school
systems that I compared which serve 70 percent of Florida’s students, Volusia at
82% had the highest percentage of VE teachers, Polk was second at 65%, with the
remaining 11 counties percentages reported at 37%, 36.5%, 35.3%, 30.3%, 16.8%,
15.7%, 7.5%, 5.9%, 2.0%, 1.9%, and 1.1%. I understand large numbers of VE
classes could mean there is a high rate of inclusion present in a school
system. I have been assured in Polk County it does not.
As of
July 1 of 2002 the state of Florida has collapsed the specific exceptionality
certification and now certifies ESE teachers as ESE k-12. The Districts and
colleges are going through a transition period to accommodate the new
certification law that has been enacted by the state. Teachers in the District
that were hired prior to the new law are certified according to their specific
exceptionality but are recorded on SAP as VE.
There are several good
reasons what the high percentage of Varying Exceptionalities teachers should
receive attention as a major issue. (1) Two highly-decorated ESE teachers have
told me they would not teach VE classes in Polk. When asked why, the teachers
said (2) the VE teachers generally had too many kids in the VE classes, and (3)
there with too many diverse disabilities, making it impossible for the teacher
to deliver an effective education. When checking further, there are class sizes
approaching and in some instances exceeding 40 children, (4) with no aide
present being the general rule. I have had heard arguments by an administrator
that the high numbers could be justified to some degree because generally VE is
a transitory classroom, with many of the students attending other classes or
receiving other services outside the classroom during much of the day. The VE
class I happened to stop by had 42 students enrolled, with 22 students actually
in the classroom during my brief visit. Two more students were being added to
the class that afternoon. There was an aide working in the classroom with the
teacher, but the principal reported that the aide was supposed to be elsewhere
on campus, but she tried to send the aide into the VE class whenever possible
because of the impossible position the VE teacher was placed in. When I asked
the teacher about the class, she asked (5) how would I like keeping up with 45
IEP’s? And then I remembered the (6) high mobility of Polk’s students. We were
probably talking about 55 or 60 IEP’s during the year.
Many of
the VE classes are resource, which means that the students are only in the ESE
classroom for a specific time period each day. With reference to the high
numbers of students in the VE classroom, once again this is clarified in the
Staffing Plan 2002-03 for the Polk School District. If a VE resource room has
weighted weekly contact hours over 835 or the units have more than 30 students
with 650 weighted hours the principal of the school may appeal for assistance.
Assistance may be provided as either part-time or full-time paraprofessional
help or another teaching unit. Scheduling by the individual school determines
the number of ESE students in the ESE classroom at any given period.
This description of the
Polk County VE classroom seems to be confirmed when reviewing the data in the
Personnel Data Planning Book. Of the 585 VE teachers employed by Polk County,
39.8% (233) of them were teaching Out-of-Field, which was 88.9% of all of the
Out-of-Field ESE teachers employed by Polk. Are knowledgeable ESE teachers
steering clear of VE classes with the void being filled by Out-of-Field
teachers?
Information at
http://cpt.fsu.edu/tree/VE/BEES6.HTML on Best Practices in Providing
Educational Services in a VE Delivery Model seems to reinforce that the ESE
Advisory Committee should discuss the VE classrooms in Polk County.
5. Permanent
Substitutes:
It would be fair to say
that many parents would be shocked if they heard that several ESE classes had
substitute teachers the entire year. Should we know how many ESE classrooms had
substitutes the entire year and what exceptionalities were involved?
There
are approximately 710 ESE teachers. Out of the 710, 16 ESE VE teachers are
provisional substitutes or permanent substitutes.
6. Behavior
Therapists:
The need for behavior
therapists is a topic near to my heart due to first hand experience. For some
years Sherwin Holmes has been trying to get the School Board to hire 5
additional behavioral therapists, one for each district. It is my understanding
that last year two positions were finally approved, but they went unfilled. Is
it still the case? What can be done to fill them? Was the salary offered one
realistic to meet with success?
The
county currently uses a total of 5 Behavior Analysts. Two Behavior Analysts are
on staff and 3 are private contractors. These providers work with educators and
students in developing behavior plans and staff training.
One of the reasons
behavioral therapists are needed is to stem the criminalization of kids with
developmental disabilities by their arrest after their teachers or school
resource officers have filed criminal charges against them. Intensive training
of the teacher, the school resource officer, and the student by behavioral
therapists would appear to promise to greatly reduce the arrest rate. Has the
ESE Department quantified how often charges are being filed against ESE
students? Do we know the arrest rate?
At the
present time the ESE Department does not have access to the number of ESE
students that have had charges filed against them while on school grounds. A
present initiate of the Network for Children with Severe Emotional Disturbance (SEDNET)
is to review the arrest rate and out of school suspensions for Polk ESE
students. The purpose of the review is to identify gaps in services for
students and plans for implementation for appropriate strategies.
7. An Arrest
Protocol:
This is another topic
taken from personal experience. Whenever a teacher, administrator, or school
resource officer files incident reports with law enforcement agencies pertaining
to ESE students, and where the behavior is a manifestation of the disability,
should a protocol be developed to insure: (1) parents are contacted;
School
districts may summon law enforcement authorities in response to any criminal
activity that involves an IDEA-eligible student. 20 USC 1415(f)(9)(A) and 34
CFR 300.329(a). “The implication of this legislation is that a district does
not have to notify the parents or otherwise comply with the IDEA’s procedural
safeguards prior to reporting a crime.” A school district can call the police
when a student’s misconduct is a manifestation of his disability. Although a
school district is not allowed to impose serious discipline sanctions in
response to a conduct that is a manifestation of a student’s disability, calling
the police is not considered a disciplinary measure under IDEA.
and (2) intervention IEP’s
are conducted if indicated; and (3) arrest reports and school reports are made
known and available to the student’s parents; and (4) a documented review to
determine if behavior plans were in-place and if they were being properly
executed; and (5) is the teacher or administrator filing the charges satisfied
that lack of training or lack of support was or was not a significant factor in
the filing of charges; and (6) if direct therapy by a behavior analyst or a
behavior therapist is required to avoid future outbursts; and (7) if behavior
training should be made available to parents to keep a consistent behavior plan
at home and at school; and (8) and interview of the teacher or administrator to
identify any other intervention or training the could avoid future incidents
and/or arrests of the student.
The
arrest procedures involving ESE students will be discussed by the SEDNET
committee as they review the systems issues relating to criminal charges and
discipline for ESE students. Parental input is encouraged.
8.
The DOE Audit of Polk’s High ESE Dropout Rate
For the first time ever,
last year the DOE decided not to audit ESE departments randomly, but to audit
those districts with indicators pointing to possible crises. Polk was one of
the first six to be audited under the new program. Polk’s crisis indicator was
the dropout rate of it’s ESE students. The County has, or should be receiving a
final copy of this audit soon. Should this be a topic discussed by the ESE
Advisory Committee?
To
clarify, DOE does still have 3 types of audits: random program audits, focused
and continuous audits.
The
trigger for the monitoring visit was the dropout rate for students with
disabilities. The information transmitted to DOE showed unusually high dropout
rates. Part of the discrepancy is due to clerical entry procedures that have
been corrected and will show significant decreases for the current school year.
During
the week of March 18th, 2002, Polk County participated in a focused
monitoring visit. The report from the Department of Education was received
November 6, 2002. Our department in cooperation with other departments in the
school system wrote a response and corrective action plan. This corrective
action plan has been received and approved by the DOE. It is a 2-year plan
involving staff training, attendance policies and tracking, placement decisions,
implementation of positive discipline plans, and the expansion of vocational
opportunities for ESE students.
9. Nine Open
Positions for Speech teachers:
Is there a triage process
to determine which students get the speech services that are available? For
some students, timely speech therapy is much more critical than for others. Are
parents whose ESE children are not getting speech notified so they may have an
opportunity to mitigate the lack of therapy available from the school system?
Are contract services available for those students not receiving services but to
whom the services are critical? Does Polk County have high vacancies because of
unreasonable case loads? Is there a vicious cycle underway?
Referral Process – The referral
for speech-language services involves the same steps as any other ESE program,
including 2 IAT meetings and interventions. In addition, we have implemented the
use of a Communication Screening instrument that helps the school staff and
speech-language pathologist develop the appropriate interventions prior to
placement decisions.
Students Not Receiving Services –
At this time, all students with current IEPs are receiving services due to a
highly dedicated staff who have taken on additional job responsibilities to make
sure this has happened. The district is currently contracting 5 speech-language
positions.
Open
Positions
– We are exploring a salary restructuring proposal for speech-language
pathologists. We have also met and discussed our critical shortage with David
Lauer, Liz Miles, Bob Hartley, Rocky Yearwood.
Go to the 2004 Data Indicators tab, click, and look at page 8.
Statewide, 14% of the total disabled population is identified as Speech Impaired
(SI) as compared with 8% in Polk County. These numbers are saying that
Polk may have 75% more Speech Impaired students than it has identified.
10. Lack of
Advanced Degrees:
According to the Florida
School Indicators Report on
http://MyFloridaEducation.Com , 28.5 percent of Polk County’s high school
teachers have advanced degrees. Statewide, 39.7 percent of high school teachers
have advanced degrees. Of Florida’s 67 school districts, there are only 11
districts with a lower percentage of advanced degrees, but they are districts
with very small student populations. Clay County is at the 27.8 percent mark,
and has a student population of approximately 28,000. The other ten counties
that have lower percentages have populations of 7,500 or less.
ESE programs I would guess
rely more on teachers with advanced degrees than Regular Ed programs. We need
to discuss strategies to bring this number up.
Degrees
are within the scope of the No Child Left Behind Act and are being addressed
through a combined effort of Instructional Services and Human Resource
Development.
11. FTE Class sizes:
Could the FTE class sizes
be made available for everyone on the ESE Advisory Committee to review?
What are the average
classroom sizes by exceptionality. What are the largest classes, and what are
the smallest classes in each exceptionality? How many of the classes are too
large according to best practices? For VE classes, what is the typical class
size during the day.
Florida statutes delegate ESE class size decisions
to Districts that are subject to funding constraints. While there are no best
practices, class sizes are inversely proportional to state funding allocations.
The Polk
County Schools Staffing Plan 2002-2003 that is updated each year states class
sizes for regular education as well as for ESE classes. The size of the class
or units are allocated by assessing the number of student’s weekly contact hours
and individual program weightings. The weighted weekly contact hours for a
resource classroom should fall within the range of 550-835 with 650 being the
point at which the FEFP dollars support the cost of the unit. Self-contained
units serving students who do not participate in the regular education program
are program staffed. The following are the broad guidelines for the class size:
Exceptionally # of Students
Mild (EMH, EH, SLD, VE) 13
Moderate (TMH) 11
Severe (Autistic, SED, Profound) 8
Physically Impaired 8
Pre-kindergarten 12
12.
The Number of Unfilled ESE Position. Were
the DOE’s Numbers Right?
In the Florida
Comprehensive System of Personnel Development Personnel Data Planning Book,
2000-2001, it reports the Polk County School District had only 6 vacancies in
the 2000-2001 school year. Was that right? What is the current number of
unfilled ESE teaching positions, service positions, and para-professional
positions?
Our
Personnel Department was unable to verify this information. Advertised
vacancies are listed on the PCSB website at:
http://www.polk-fl.net/
Please
note that the website may not reflect the most current information.
13. Substitutes for
Para’s:
Polk County as a very low
absentee rate for it’s teaching staff. What is the absentee rate for Polk’s ESE
para-professionals? From experience, when a para-professional is absent,
generally a substitute for the para-professional is not provided. In ESE
education, it appears the instructional model depends on the para if instruction
is going to be effective that day in the classroom. Do ESE administrators agree
with this and are there any plans to generally provided substitutes for ESE
paras?
The
Personnel Department reports that the absentee rate for ESE paras is not
recorded this year on the SEMS program as the ESE teachers are. Beginning in
2003-04, this information will be recorded. At the present, each individual
school calls in substitute paraprofessionals.
14. Polk’s In-School
and Out-of-School Suspension Rate:
In Polk County in 2000-2001, 10 percent
of the students were placed on in-school suspension, and 16 percent of the
students were placed on out-of-school suspension. Of the 13 largest school
districts in Florida, only two districts in 2000-2001 had higher rates of
out-of-school suspensions, Brevard at 16.2%, and Duval at 21.4%. What is the
rate of in-school and out-of-school suspensions for Polk's ESE students? For
many of the ESE students it is not appropriate to give them out-of-school
suspensions. Are ESE personnel making the decisions?
Go to the 2004 Data
Indicators tab, click, and look at page 6. Statewide in 2002-2003, 8% of the total
student population received in-school suspensions, 9% in Polk County.
However, statewide, 14% of the students with disabilities received out-of-school suspensions,
23% in Polk County. Polk was 64% higher.
Statewide in 2003-2004, 7% of the total student population received out-of-school suspensions, 11% in Polk County. However, statewide, 15% of the
students with disabilities received out-of-school suspensions, 20% in Polk
County. Polk is 33% higher.
Suspensions are issued by school based administrators and or meetings involved
with the Office of Discipline. Rates in our District are unusually high for both
ESE and regular education students. ESE teachers are involved as per IDEA
including the manifestation determination, functional behavior assessments and
behavior intervention plans. Training on IDEA compliance items involving
suspension is provided on a regular basis. The District is also piloting a
Positive Behavioral Supports training to assist schools and help them arrive at
alternatives for suspension.
15. The
Incident of Battery in the Polk County School System:
The SESIR Incident
Summaries on MyFloridaEducation.Com show that of the 13 largest school systems
in the state, the Polk County School System reported the highest incidence of
batteries, 11.76 batteries per 1,000 students. The next highest was Palm Beach
with 8.02 per 1,000, then Lee with 5.73 per 1,000, Dade at 5.15 per 1,000,
Hillsborough at 4.72 per 1,000, Duval at 4.03 per 1,000… How many of these
batteries involved ESE students, and how many of these batteries were a
manifestation of the ESE students disability?
According to information from the Student Services Department, discipline
information is entered on to the mainframe with no differentiation between ESE
students and regular education students. This issue will also be one of the
issues addressed by the SEDNET committee.
Polk County does not
keep records on how many ESE students are charged with batteries on Polk's
school campuses. I tried to get them to start keeping such records.
ESE students are not only being charged, but they are being arrested and taken
to the Juvenile Detention Center for behaviors that are a manifestation of their
disabilities. At the Juvenile Detention Center, they are unable to
accommodate the disabilities of the ESE students.
I have seen no
movement to change the system that allows, and perhaps encourages this to
happen. On April 27th, 2004 I received a letter from Ann
Marshall in the Director of
Discipline and Security, Polk County Schools, saying "Consideration will be
given to developing a system relating to student arrest rates at a later date."
It took two years to get this non-response.
16. Beginning of
Year Delay in Providing Services:
From experience, delivery
of most services like speech and physical therapy does not begin until the third
week of the school year, even for returning students. Is this a scheduling
problem or a budget problem? For many of the ESE students, the loss of these
services over the summer is damaging enough. Why is it necessary to add another
two weeks to the absence of services?
DOE
Technical Assistance Paper # 11149
How can
a therapist accommodate for the beginning of year procedures without using a
range of time?
District
procedures must ensure that students who have a therapy documented on the IEP
receive therapy on a regularly scheduled basis at the beginning of each school
year but with no more than a 10-day delay. More than 10 days may be interpreted
as a change of placement and a denial of a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
As
referenced in TAN FY 1991-2 “Beginning of Year Procedures for Programs for
Speech and Language Impaired Students,” the Office of Civil Right (OCR) declined
to state a rule as to an acceptable length of delay. They did, however, state
that a 10-day delay in initiation of direct services would not be a denial of
FAPE.
17. Training
of Para’s
What percentage of the
ESE para-professionals in the Polk County School District received adequate
training regarding the specific disability of the student they are assisting
with? What percentage of ESE para-professionals in the Polk County School
District have received training regarding the specific disability of the
students they are assisting?
The
District (FDLRS) and the ESE facilitators provide the paraprofessionals with
introductory training specifically designed to identify educational and
behavioral characteristics of children with disabilities. Paras are assigned to
specific units. paraprofessionals are trained on a daily basis by the ESE
teacher in the classroom to which they are assigned. After hours training for
both teachers and paraprofessionals is on a voluntary basis. School based
training is may be provided to the paras by the principals and may include
crisis prevention and behavior management training.
18. Vocational
Training for the Mentally Retarded and Job Coaching:
Is staffing in this area
sufficient to insure job coaching is available for our ESE students? What is the
average shoulder-to-shoulder time a parent should expect when best practices are
in place? What is the average shoulder-to shoulder time Polk's job coaches are
actually able to spend with their students?
There
are currently five transition specialists within our district. Job coaches are
provided to each job site within the community and work to coordinate work based
learning programs specific to the job site. Students are provided individual
job training by the job coaches on a daily basis as appropriate. Students may
also work side by side with site-based employees to improve skills. Shoulder to
shoulder time is contingent upon the needs of the individual student. A daily
evaluation of employability skills is monitored to assess strengths and
weaknesses. There is also an existing job program that provides for an
inclusive model at Florida Southern College. Transition specialists work
closely with schools and students to help find paid employment upon graduation.
19.
Instruction of Regular Ed
Teachers on Inclusion
Recent experience has been
that there is very little training for the majority of regular Ed teachers on
the inclusion model and how to make it effective. Are there any plans to make
serious inclusions training part of a regular Ed teacher's required training
program in the next year or two?
An
Inclusion Facilitator works full time training and supporting schools that are
changing their service delivery models for students with disabilities. At the
end of this school year there will be 30 schools that are working to give
students with disabilities more access to the general curriculum. Through the
use of the training model adopted by the DOE, “The Quality Designs for
Instruction”, teams from these schools are trained in the inclusion philosophy,
techniques and tools for making change, instructional strategies that work for
all kids, accommodations and modifications, and collaborative teaching. This is
a 3-day comprehensive training. The team develops an action plan for their
individual schools, that will consist of more customized training for their
staff. In addition to this, ESE is now networking with HRD to imbed more
instructional strategies that are inclusion friendly into the required FLIGHT
training for new teachers. In addition, we are working with local colleges to
emphasize the importance of pre-service changing to better prepare prospective
new teachers for inclusive education.
Over
$30,000 has been spent this school year from ESE on training specifically geared
to inclusive practices. A substantial grant is expected from DOE to further
support these efforts for next year. Effort will be made to continue to create
a seamless system for training that will not focus on inclusion training, as
much as it will focus on quality instruction in the classroom or all students.
20. Parent
Involvement in the Committee and in Their Child’s Education:
Providing parents
meaningful information in a format that illustrates important impacts on their
child’s education would be the fastest way to increase parent involvement in the
committee and their child’s education. Can this committee assemble the
information and post it on your web page?
For
specific information sources, the PCSB website can provide links to information
and sites.
This information has been
posted by Bill Sammons, a parent of an ESE student in the Polk County School
District in Florida.
Contact:
Bill@ESEparents.org
(863) 688-3323
