March 18, 2021 spss

Time and Place
The March 18, 2021 meeting of the Specialized Programs and Services Subcommittee will be held at 5:30p.m. Due to the Governor's state of emergency declaration, and because it is unsafe to assemble in a single location, the meeting will be held electronically and the meeting shall only discuss or transact business statutorily required or necessary to continue operations of the public body.

To join by web:

https://meet.google.com/xiy-xpyh-use

To join by phone:

617-675-4444‬ PIN: 925 382 696 3995#

Agenda
I. Call to Order

II. Old Business

a. Transition's update and response to SEACs 2019-20 annual report list of parent/community concerns & recommendations

b. Who are the transition supervisors? Who do they serve? Is there outcome data?

c. What other opportunities are available for students in transition programs?

III. How can the subcommittee support LCPS? Next Steps/Follow-up dates (as needed)

IV. Adjourn

Documents
(e-copies available upon request):

Recommendation 3A: Career/Transition - Report metrics on the number of students being served in CAST. There is a significant need for independent living skills, workplace readiness, and job training for our students with disabilities that are not college bound. Despite reports of having 250 business partnerships for our CII programs, many of these programs do not have LCPS students in them and their situational time, training, and work is severely limited.

a) Establish dedicated training facilities strategically placed within LCPS where students can come together to learn independent living and job skills.

b) Ensure that the IEP team understands and implements individualized IEP post- secondary goals and coordinated activities that include as many targeted, coordinated activities per area of development as needed (e.g. education, employment, training and independent living skills) not limited to one per area.

c) Ensure that legitimate job skills are being trained in our transition programing and that students are not just engaged in activities that do not have real-world job applicability.

d) Establish IEP transition assessments to evaluate independent living skills and workplace readiness skills for students. While DARS can evaluate a student's actual skill sets to enable IEP teams to measure the 5 core areas for work employment skills, not all students are referred to DARS early enough in the transition planning process. The current aptitude surveys are insufficient to measure these skills. Assessments should be identified based on the needs of the student and include a mechanism to identify independent living skills (where necessary), soft skills, work skills and needs to measure development and gaps for remediation plans.

Recommendation 3B: Career/Transition - Provide adequate funding to utilize a transit service provider to provide frequent and flexible transportation for CII that accommodates more students in a wider "allowable" geographic proximity.

Recommendation 3C: Job Training - Transition services are a related service and should be documented and written into the IEP as a direct service with support hours documented to accomplish the activities defined in the IEP. There is no reporting on what has been accomplished and often relying on the student or special education case manager to initiate a process.

a) IEP's should clearly document the special education services that will be needed while attending MATA and AOL. This would ensure that teachers are aware of the student's needs in that environment rather than relying on an aide that the school sends along with the student.

b) Provide dedicated Job Coaches at the high school level. Currently teaching assistants are trained as Job Coaches and they have other responsibilities that take away from their ability to devote their time to job coaching.

Recommendation 3D: Job Training - Provide training options at MATA for students that could support different programs at MATA where they can develop specific job skills that are entry-level but necessary to assist within the different programs at MATA or in real life. For example, learning to sort items/inventory, stock shelves, rotate inventory, entry positions in cosmetology, prep work for culinary, etc.

Recommendation 3E: Community College - High school college and career offices should provide information and identify students who could be eligible for community college certificate programs or students who have the skills needed at the high school level to go into a workplace certificate program.

a) High school career centers should have more than just college information and include resources on apprenticeships, postsecondary training programs that do not require a college degree, jobs that are suited for high school graduates, etc. to ensure that students with disabilities do not feel that the career center does not apply to them.

Minutes
(To be approved and posted)