Autism Advisory Committee Meeting Notes 2007-08

Monday, May 5, 2008

1. The Autism Master Plan was submitted to the Assistant Superintendent for review, and will be submitted to the Superintendent’s cabinet and the Board of Education.

2. Lynn has been invited to present the autism overview inservice to Schallenberger at a Fall inservice/staff development.

3. The committee approved posting information re the book Autism in the School-Aged Child on the AAC website link. The committee discussed and approved adding a general disclaimer to written resources so it would be clear that a posting did not imply endorsement.

4. The committee approved changes to the parent brochure. The brochure will be given to the CDC, school psychologists, SLP’s and posted to the website.

5. The committee reviewed goals for the 2007-08 school year and set goals for the 2008-09 school year. The 2008-09 goals are:
•review data from staff and parent survey
•improve communication with targeted stakeholders
•explore and develop opportunities to host guest speakers
•ongoing training and staff development
•ongoing monitoring of the autism program

6. Commencing with October 6, 2008, the committee will meet on the first Monday of the month through May, with the exception of January. The date for the January meeting is Monday, January 12, 2009.

Monday, April 7, 2008

I. Lynn reported that the staff surveys had been distributed with a return date of April 16. The parent survey will be sent out later in April. The results of both surveys
will be shared at the first AAC committee meeting of the 2008-09 school year.

II. Lynn presented the autism overview inservice to Los Alamitos and reported that the staff was engaged and receptive. Additional schools will be targeted for this presentation in the coming school year.
Information on upcoming workshops and seminars is posted on the AAC link on the sjusd website.

III. The committee received updates on the tasks assigned at the March meeting. Jennifer and Marnie completed the “tips” on autism, Kathy submitted an article that included the tips and information about the AAC to the PTA District Newsletter, and Lynn sent the article for Spanish translation and distribution for school site newsletters. The Special Education Referral Process that the committee worked on last year had already been posted to the website.

IV. Sarah Rodriguez brought the template for the informational brochure for parents, and led the committee through the steps of creating the brochure. She will have the draft available electronically for the committee to review before the next meeting.

V. Final meeting of the school year will be Monday, May 5.

Monday, March 3, 2008

I. The committee reviewed the proposed staff survey and recommended a few changes. The staff survey will be sent at the same time as the parent survey.
Results will be reviewed at the first AAC meeting of the 2008-09 school year.

II. The committee discussed the drop off in attendance at meetings and the possibility of meeting less frequently. It was decided that this issue would be addressed at the May goal setting meeting when the committee determines its priorities for the coming year.

III. The committee discussed implementation of ideas for expanded communication with stakeholders and assigned responsibility as follows.
•articles and “tips” in the PTA Crier - Kathy will be responsible for finding out details
•articles and “tips” in school newsletters - Jennifer and Marni will collaborate and Lynn will disseminate and obtain Spanish translation
•workshops on Classified Training Day - Lynn will schedule
•general information on autistic students for dissemination to target stakeholders- Sarah R. will create template and committee will work on content at the April meeting
•post above information on website link - Kathy will post when completed
•Q&A for parents - committee will develop
•post Special Ed Referral process that committee developed - Kathy will post
•summary of master plan/description of programs, acronym list,resources for questions and information - Nora and Kathy will work on this

IV. The committee discussed the possibility of fundraising and decided it did not have the resources, time or personnel to devote to such a project at this time.
Karen shared information about donorchoose.org, a website that connects teachers with donors for classroom projects and materials. Lynn will make this information available at team meetings, and Kathy will post info on the website link.

V. Lynn reported that the preschool teacher in the SJUSD/Morgan Center program at Terrell had moved to Canoas to work in the K-1 so there is a vacancy in the preschool now.
We have a few IA’s in the program who are currently doing course work and are interested in becoming interns/teachers.
Another class will be added to the program next year at the K-5 level. The class will be housed at either Canoas or Terrell.
Lynn will be presenting her autism overview to the staff at Los Alamitos.

VI. Next meeting is Monday, April 7.

Monday, January 7, 2008

1. The committee spent most of the meeting editing the draft of the Autism Master
Plan. The committee will receive the final draft electronically before the
February meeting.
2. The committee edited the IEP Update/Report Card Flow Chart. Karen and
Miichele will make the corrections and complete the chart for presentation at
the February meeting.
3. Lynn reported that she would be presenting an Autism Overview at the
principals’ meeting on January 9. She is also scheduled to present to two
site staffs in the near future.
4. Next meeting is Monday, February 4.

To view October, November and December meetings click on “Learn More”.

October 1, 2007 | November 5, 2007 | December 12, 2007

December 12, 2007

1. Lynn Stacey reported on the social programs at the elementary level. CLC has been given space at Carson and is starting an after school social program for students who attend Carson and have ABA in their IEP. The YWCA also integrates students with autism into its after school day care.

Kaia Hamilton reported on the progress of the social programs at the secondary level. Michele Garcia-Winner’s assistant has been conducting training in the District.Ten people were in the training initially and the number has dropped to five.The training requires a large time commitment.

A social skills program is being offered at Bret Harte as an after school enrichment activity. At John Muir the social skills program is incorporated into the SDC classroom On the Muir campus there is also a classroom in partnership with the Beacon School that serves 9 students who have been brought back from NPS placement. . At Pioneer the social skills program is an elective. Castillero and WGMS should have programs up and running by next semester, and Leland personnel will be trained with the goal of starting a program next year.

The District has hired a Ph.D. in psychology to start a social skills program at Steinbeck-Allen. The class will be offered three days a week for 40 minutes either before or after school.

2. Discussion ensued on the IEP goal/report card process, with input from An Nguyen, principal of Canoas, and Sheryl McGinnis, principal of Los Alamitos. With agreement from Sheryl, An and Michele Syth, the committee suggested the following actions be taken to strengthen the accountability piece in the process.
• A list of special education students and the services they receive will be given to principals. This list will facilitate monitoring of the process.
• Two weeks before each report card period, a reminder memo will be sent from Michele to the principals, who will then alert their affected staff, reminding them of the process and legal timelines that must be met
• Beginning in the 08 school year, when the principals hold their first meeting for staff who are being evaluated, they should inform evaluatees that the paperwork showing the legal notification process was followed will be included in the evaluation documents. Michele will outline this procedure in a memo to principals before the school year begins and will send the information to Special Ed personnel at the sites.
• Kathy and Karen will put together a draft flow chart outlining this process.

3. Lynn presented a power point on autism to selected staff and will present to principals at a principals’ meeting. She will offer to present to staff at the sites and will bring a sign up sheet to the principals’ meeting so they can schedule. Classified staff should be encouraged to attend these mini-trainings as well as certificated.

November 5, 2007

I. Lynn reported that her presentation on autism to the DOP’s was well received.This general presentation engendered interest for some of the DOP’s in attending the training for the social cognition program in December.On Classified Training Day the Instructional Associates will attend inservices on managing behavior in the classroom, fostering independence and the change in the IEP law. IA’s in the Morgan Center/SJUSD program will also have a four hour training session specific to the SJUSD/Morgan Center model.All IA positions in the Morgan Center/SJUSD program are now filled - a first for us since the inception of the program almost 5 years ago. We are now seeking a teacher for a primary class at Canoas to replace our instructor who left in October.

2. Lynn reported that she and Kathy met with Marcy Lauck to present the information regarding the categories that the committee would like addressed for the Spring
staff survey. We should have a sample draft ready for the December meeting.The committee broke into small working groups to discuss information obtained
from the parent survey of last Spring. Each group identified three actionable items based on their analysis of the data presented. The committee identified the following areas that need to be addressed:
1. Better communication between providers and parents
2. Development of structured social groups at all levels
3. Continue to improve the quality of and opportunities for staff training
To address No. 1 the committee confirmed that there is a legal requirement to report IEP goal updates at report card time, there is a procedure in place to obtain input from all providers, but the procuedure is not always followed. The committee suggested the following remedies:
•training for principals on the procedure
•empahsis on this procedure as part of training for IEP writing
•flow chart developed with accountability piece included
•parents receive information in writing as to this requirement
An volunteered to address his subject at the next principal’s meeting to obtain input from principals as to how they can oversee and facilitate the process in a way that works for them. Kathy will communicate with Karen about putting together the flow chart.
To address No. 2 the committee identified this as an area of study for the group, looking across the continuum from pre-K through high school. There are pockets
where social programs are in progress and the committee needs to gather information on what is currently in place with ABA, DOP’s, teachers.
The committee acknowledged issues with funding, training and personnel, and agreed that the first step is to find out what we have in order to find out where we
need to be. To that end, the committee would like to invite Kaia Hamilton back to discuss how the current program is structured in the secondary schools. Kathy will invite Kaia to a future meeting. .We will identify staff who can help us with the other pieces and ask for reports to the committee from them as well.
To address No. 3, which is an ongoing goal of the committee, the committee suggested the following:
•mini-trainings for general ed staff on a site basis
•better trained IA’s
•classified staff trained with site money and included in staff inservices
•funding for training
Since this is an area of study designated by the committee, progress reports on the above will be reported out in future meetings.

3. The committee was left with little time to work on the Master Plan so this will be carried over to the December meeting, with the goal of completing and finalizing the draft at that time. Next meeting is December 3.

October 1, 2007

1. After welcome and introductions, the committee reviewed general operating procedures and goals for the year. The goals are:
•complete autism master plan
•survey staff of autistic students re needs and support levels
•monitor implementation of secondary autism program
•broaden communication among stake holders
•expand and develop parent support for ongoing fundraising
•autism spectrum training and staff development for administrators, teachers and instructional associates

2. Lynn Stacey reported the following training activities:
•48 staff from SJUSD attended the Morgan Center Conference on September 29.
•a presentation to the Dropout Counselors on social cognitive skills on October 2
•autism paraprofessional training in June was attended by 50 people
•future training opportunities will include a Carol Gray/ Michelle Garcia-Winner training, the Morgan Center speaker series and Temple Grandin at the San Jose Convention Center

3. Lynn reported that the autism classroom for grades 3 - 5 was added this year at Canoas. We now have two SJUSD/Morgan Center preschool classes at Terrell,and three classes at Canoas that serve the K-5 population. Four of our five teachers began as IA’s in the program, meeting one of the stated goals of the program, which is to “grow our own”.
There are two autism classes serving the K-5 population at Carson and other autistic students integrated into campuses throughout the district.

4. Kaia Hamilton reported on secondary programs as follows:
•SJUSD is in partnership with the Garcia-Winner clinic
•We have a class at Muir operating in partnership with Beacon School, with staff receiving social skills training. There are eight students in the program; the program is able to grow to twelve.This class accommodates more involved students who need a sheltered environment. Higher functioning students are integrated into the regular program.
•Special Ed has purchased the Garcia-Winner curriculum. There are enough materials for three more classes but teachers are reluctant to commit to teaching these classes.
5. The committee reviewed the results of the parent survey which was given at the end of the 06-07 school year. It was noted that satisfaction rate was high at the elementary level
where resources have been concentrated. The committee will analyze the results further at the November meeting. Results of the survey will be posted to the committee link on the SJUSD website.

6. The committee discussed the purpose of the proposed staff survey and identified general topics that should be included in the survey. Kathy and Lynn will meet with Marcy Lauck to share this input and generate questions that will produce quantifiable data in these categories. The results of that meeting will be shared with the committee at the November meeting.

7. The committee reviewed and revised the draft Master Plan. Work on this will be ongoing until it is completed.

8. The next committee meeting is Monday, November 5.