FCCPTA
Special Education Committee
Minutes of
the April 20, 2005 Meeting
In Attendance:
Marlene Burke, Scott Campbell, Janine Doran,
Maria Eisenberg, Lisa Fagan, Margaret Fisher, Caroline Hockenberry, Tammy
Kenney, Ranver Kort, Tia Marsili, Donna Martinez, Laura Nelson, Melissa
Stoner.
Guests:
Cindy Daniels, Nancy Mercer, Mark (the puppet)
Location:
Dunn Loring Parent Resource Center 7-9 pm
The Arc of Northern Virginia:
Nancy Mercer, Executive Director of the Arc, and Cindy
Daniels, Director of Education and Mentoring, gave a presentation on the
history and current projects of the Arc of NOVA. The Arc was started by
parents 43 years ago who wanted to keep their children with intellectual
disabilities from being institutionalized. They were responsible for the
creation of the first group homes, the first transportation network for
people with disabilities (Fastran), the first sheltered workshops, and the
first camps. Now it is not only parents but also people with disabilities
themselves who work to keep the Arc active. They serve people with all kinds
of disabilities.
Projects include:
-
School assemblies. for $250, they will come to your
school and provide up to two performances per visit for students below
4th or 5th grade, using puppets who talk about what it is like to have a
disability. They also have programs for older students.
-
Training the police on behaviors of people with
disabilities and on helping victims of sexual assault who have
disabilities.
-
Mentoring day: several elected officials served as
mentors and therefore got a chance to learn about the issues that
concern their mentees.
-
Life Planning: For a $500 fee, they will help a
family plan their goals and how to get there. They are seeking federal
funding to expand this service to families who cannot afford it.
-
Free individual advice by phone.
-
Advocacy service ($70/hour)
-
Counseling about guardianship (not always the right
thing to do)
-
Legislative advocacy.
Nancy and Cindy would like everyone to join the Arc
($25), whether or not they have disabilities; we are, after all, trying to
create one community.
PTA Representatives Discussion:
Discussion focused on how to reach more parents and how
to form a special education committee of more than one person. Ideas
included:
-
Have support group meetings and not just committee
meetings
-
Have meetings in your home
-
Ask the school staff to send home fliers in the
backpacks of students with IEP’s (or to all students)
-
Speaker forums: the general experience is that
attendance is very low. Having one of the school’s teachers speak might
increase interest
-
Set up a table at Back to School Night and other
parent events and have people sign up with their email addresses.
-
Offer yourself as a resource to parents and staff.
-
Work with the Parent Liaison to help them with
special education issues among parents who do not speak English well.
-
Create a special education section on the PTA web
site. The Beech Tree ES site has sections on safety issues for children
with autism, help for parents who are new to special education, links to
web sites, and how to get Extended School Year services.
-
Anticipate PTA newsletter deadlines to get meetings
announced that way. The deadline for September could be in July.
-
Request that a special education committee line be
added to the volunteer survey that parents fill out at the beginning of
the school year.
