May 19th Meeting notes

Howard County SECAC Agenda

May 19, 2020 General Meeting 7:00pm-9:00pm

Zoom Virtual Meeting

ORDER OF BUSINESS

1. Call to Order - 7:03pm
2. Welcome and Introductions
   1. Purpose and Vision 

The Howard County Special Education Citizens Advisory Committee (SECAC) advises the school system on the needs of students with disabilities. We collaborate with other community disability advocacy groups to improve special education and the lives of our students in Howard County, MD.

1. Announcements:
   1. Nominations for next year’s Board.  All positions are open for 2 year terms.  The current Secretary and Member at Large are term limited and cannot run again.  See the by laws for a brief description of each position.
2. MSDE TAB Overview
   1. Visit http://marylandpublicschools.org/programs/Pages/Special-Education/TAB.aspx
   2. These are state publicized documents.
   3. There are 8 TABs for COVID-19.
   4. 20-01 and 20-03 are general information for students with disabilities.
   5. Other tabs have specific information for sight or hearing disabled students, IFSPs, complex medical needs or have extensive needs, secondary transition, assistive technology.  
      1. The AT tab discussing the different technologies available.
   6. The second to the last document discusses supporting students during this time.  Lots of great resources and information for supporting your student’s learning and mental health.  
   7. The last document is a parent guide to special ed during distance learning/COVID-19.
      1. The Family Support and Resource Center employees are checking their voicemail from home.  If you have any questions, parents can still call here.
      2. PPMD.org is also available.
   8. HCAS has support groups on Zoom.  Check their website.
   9. Progress monitoring - PPMD has a fact sheet.
      1. Need to show the IEP team that the child has lost services.
      2. Everyday at 2pm there is a parent support group on different topics. 
3. Department of Special Education Question and Answer
   1. Dr Savage - thanks to SECAC for putting together the meeting.  Thanks to parents for support.  This was unprecedented.  
   2. Gave an update to the BOE recently.  Lots of new things are being asked of educators.  
   3. A few points - the authors of IDEA never imagined doing this during a pandemic.  They are striving to follow the spirit of the law.
   4. Questions submitted ahead of time will be asked first. Participants watching may submit questions via chat option. They will be read as time permits.
   5. The COL does not replace the IEP or IFSP.  The letter at the beginning does not mean that things cannot change.  Things can change.  
   6. Loss of knowledge and regression in skills is the reality.  No child is getting the full scope of their education right now.  Replicating the full scope of a child’s IEP or IFSP is going to be a challenge.  
   7. They have not stopped scaling up services and support.  When they first started they  were not where we wanted to be. Things are changing as time goes on.  
   8. Please reach out if you need help.  School team, administrators, etc…
   9. Answers to pre-submitted questions and questions asked during the meeting are available below.  
4. Next Meeting Dates
   1. June 10, 2020 via Zoom
5. Adjournment