My office mates join me to sum up IEP season, discuss the trends we saw, and postulate on what we should expect for ’21-22. You can reach us all at SpecialEd.Law
Laura mentioned the Connecticut Reading League Covid Relief Tutoring Scholorship Program. You can read the guidelines here:
There Facebook page can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/TheReadingLeagueConnecticut/
TRANSCRIPT (not proof-read)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
parents, kids, pandemic, school, summer, people, laura, meeting, evaluations, evaluator, child, special ed, offering, person, vaccinated, students, reading, board, dana, connecticut
SPEAKERS
Stacey Tié, Special Education Advocate, Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney, John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern), Dana Jonson
Dana Jonson 00:01
Hello, and welcome to need to know with Dana Jonson. I’m your host, Dana Jonson. And I’m here to give you the information you need to know to best advocate for your child. I’m a special education attorney in private practice, a former special education teacher and administrator, a current mom to four children with IPS and I myself have ADHD and dyslexia. So I’ve approached the world of disability and special education from many angles. And I’ll provide straightforward information about your rights and your schools obligations, information from other professionals on many topics, as well as tips and tricks for working with your school district. My goal is to empower you through your journey. So please subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss any new episodes. And I want to know what you want to know. So like, follow and drop me a note on my need to know with Dana Jonson Facebook page. Okay, let’s get started. If you have not heard, I am rebranding my podcast and we are going to be changing it from need to know with Dana Jonson, to special ed on special ed, enlightenment from special ed experts. There’s not going to be any change in the content, it’s still going to be all the wonderful stuff that you love. I just discovered that need to know what Dana Jonson does not easily pop up in a search. And I would like this podcast to be easily accessible to parents. So we are just changing the name and some graphics. And after today, I will be back in August as special ed on special ed, you as my faithful listener do not have to do anything, you just stay right where you are. And on August 4, I’ll start popping back into your feed. So today, I’m excited schools are closed finally in the state of Connecticut, and I am here with Laura Hannigan and jombay og. Dora is an attorney in my office who has been on my podcast before and john bag has been our special ed legal intern for the spring. I asked them to join me today because after having a very unusual 18 months or so of school and special ed, we are starting normalize a little bit and we had our IP season which was exciting because we hadn’t had that in a year. And I just wanted to talk to you guys today about some of the trends we saw during the spring. And the new issues that are arising or popping up and how we feel this summer going into the school year of 2021 22 is going to be big. It might be the first school year in a while, two years that we actually might be able to predict a little bit of so I could be wrong. JOHN, can you introduce yourself a little bit for my podcasting friends?
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 02:33
Yeah, sure. My name is john Bay Ogg. I’m a law student at Northeastern University.
Dana Jonson 02:39
My alma mater.
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 02:40
Yeah, that’s so that’s how I sound Dana’s firm. I think she did some networking with North Northeastern or something and linked up with I think I did an interview a very emotional interview with her beginning of end of May, around that around that time, and then started working with with them the beginning of June. And it’s been I think, the timelines a little messed up there. But we’ve been I’ve been I’ve been here for about two months, and really learning a lot.
Dana Jonson 03:07
Yeah, I bet. So, Laura, we were talking before about how this year might be normalizing a little bit and how we really haven’t seen an IEP season for a year. And how did you feel it played out this year? How are you feeling?
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 03:23
I’m feeling it hasn’t quite ended yet. which is unusual. Yes, it kind of keeps going. And I’ve still got people calling with questions and new clients coming in, which for almost July is really unusual. But I think that this, you know, preceding 18 months has been so unusual that we’re we’re pushing back into normal, but we’re not quite there yet. And I think people are in trying to get back to that normal. They’re really looking for help in asking what the resources are currently what the situation is currently. Because I don’t think there’s a ton of guidance out there for parents to really look at and know what normal should be right now.
Dana Jonson 04:10
Yeah. And that’s why I say we’re not getting back to normal, but I think it’s starting to normalize down. I know, I feel at least for the people who are calling us I feel like we’re over the major hump of compensatory education. Would you feel that you saw that, Laura, that we really kind of established a lot.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 04:28
I see some places where they are taking it into account and just offering extra summer programming, but they’re not calling it COVID compensatory services, or asi or summer school. They’re kind of calling it, you know, an opportunity to for kids to have a learning experience over the summer. And it’s really district by district, whether they’re offering something or not. So that’s a little different. And you know, some of the questions are, does that count as ies Why? And the answer is no. They’re just, you know, offering some services for the sun.
Dana Jonson 05:00
Well, and I tell parents that it’s not as why because he is why is individualized for your child specifically? So it’s just an opportunity for educational growth that’s being offered to everybody, then it’s not special. And it’s not Yes. Why? That being said, if your school district is offering something you want, and you can have it, then take it, you know,
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 05:21
I mean, I always feel like she was crucial perspective, our kids have been deprived of such social interactions for so long that if it’s a positive experience for them, you know, I’m also seeing a lot of camps and programs offering tuition reductions or scholarships, I think, because everybody’s realizing that kids really need an opportunity to participate and things this summer just to have those social outlets that they missed for so long.
Dana Jonson 05:45
Yeah, not not all families are in a position to afford them either. Because of the last ridiculous 18 months, nobody really has the funding that they normally would for camps, et cetera, especially for families who have had to stay home an extra amount of time, we’re in Connecticut. So we’ve kind of just opened up a lot. And that’s where we are in the process is we’re just opening more and more and more right now. I’ve talked a lot about over the pandemic that one of the things I heard the most at were two of the things were reading and mental health issues. Those are the primary issues that I saw come up, john, I know you worked on some mental health and reading issues. So I know you’re familiar with them as well. Where do you think Laura, you’re my reading guru? So where you’re who I go to and ivory in question. So why do you think and I’ve asked this several times to several people who’ve joined me, why do you think reading has become such a big issue during the pandemic,
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 06:39
I think there’s several factors. One, I think parents got a glimpse of their children in a venue that they don’t normally see them. So the parents are seeing the kids in their day to day struggles, reading, writing, spelling, all of those things. And it really cast a light on the difficulties their kid has, and perhaps how much support the student is getting in school, and not really developing the skills to generalize those, you know, things across domains. So they can do it in school, when somebody’s sitting with them writing a paragraph, but at home on their own, they really weren’t able to. And I think the inability, because of the lack of in person for schools to provide a lot of the remediation kids that have reading disabilities can slide backwards really quickly if you don’t keep building those skills. So you know, the combination, I think was really tough. I think I just saw for those in Connecticut, that the reading League, Connecticut is offering a scholarship Relief Program for tutoring for the summer. Oh, wow. And there’s some information, you can go to Connecticut reading League, they, they have information, I literally just saw it on Facebook. So I don’t have much information other than you know, those in the reading community are recognizing that kids are going to go back to school with incredible shortfalls of where they should be.
Dana Jonson 08:00
I’ll look that up, and I’ll put it in the show notes. I’ll put that information there. So anyone can go look it up. I think also, and I’ve been saying this from the beginning, it related to something else. But I think it does relate to reading, I was realizing because I have a child with nonverbal learning disabilities. So one of the things that I noticed was when you take away all the outside cues, by going on zoom, you’re missing so much that you rely on in the classroom to know how to answer questions. Like if the teacher walks over there to grab that, then I know we’re going into math, as opposed to understanding that it’s math time. That’s so true,
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 08:33
or just the clock, you know, they’re there. They know what comes next. But zoom really missed
Dana Jonson 08:38
that exactly. And so I think one of the things I was thinking about with reading and writing is that there are tons of prompts in the classroom around you. So I wonder if children also part of that wasn’t that they weren’t doing as well as we thought they were in the schoolroom, it’s just that when they were at home, they didn’t have all those visual prompts that they normally have on how to write a paragraph or how to start a sentence or whatever those pieces are that they would normally draw from within their classroom that was sort of stripped away. And so it was interesting to be able to see children without any of those prompts.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 09:12
Yeah, that’s a really good point, you
Dana Jonson 09:13
know, kind of environments. I thought that was interesting. And I think the mental health piece I think we all understand, I don’t think have to ask why do we think mental health came into the forefront during a global pandemic,
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 09:24
though? I think it’s it’s interesting to address it from the frame of mind that some kids did really well in the pandemic, and it’s the returning to school that’s causing the mental health issues. So I think that Yeah, and how to address it from that standpoint and getting kids back in person when maybe they were socially isolating kids and they enjoyed being home during this
Dana Jonson 09:48
I had one of those. I definitely had one that was living her best life in quarantine, and really happy to be here a little upset. We’ve opened up wasn’t really even that interested in getting a vaccine. She was like Get what? I’m good. Yeah, no I can I can definitely relate to that. Two months ago, my husband mentioned for the first time that he might go back to the office, and I had a panic attack. I was just like, Whoa, what? Nope, you’re leaving the house can’t take it change too much. And then yesterday was his first day in the office, and I forgot he was gone. So I think, you know, it took me two months, adjusting to that concept. And I’m an adult. Yes, you know, so,
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 10:28
yes. And I was just reading, I was reading yesterday about the mask panic that I was feeling. And I was very glad to see that it’s not just me that whether you’re wearing a mask, or you’re not wearing a mask, or you’re vaccinated, or you’re not, you’re wondering what other people are perceiving you, as you’re going through, and it’s causing anxiety. You know, here we have a population where not everyone in school can be vaccinated because of their age. And I think that that’s going to contribute to to the anxiety of going back amongst that population.
Dana Jonson 10:59
I think also, there’s something to us as a species needing to understand things, and just just that, that intrinsic need to understand something we don’t understand. And so if I’m looking at you, and you’re not wearing masks, and there’s or they’re not wearing a mask, and I don’t know if you’re vaccinated or not. And I don’t know if I’m allowed to ask you or not, that is a lot of stuff and a lot of questions that are going through my head while I’m trying to talk to you. And, again, as an adult, I find that distracting. You know, a friend of mine made these vaccinated bracelets that that I wear. And it’s funny, because it’s not, I’m not, it’s not like, Oh, hey, everybody wants to know, I’m vaccinated. It’s more like if I walk in someplace, and I don’t have a mask on, I mean, Could somebody not vaccinated be wearing it? Yes, of course, like, there’s people like that everywhere. So I’m not even going to go down that road. But in general, if I go somewhere, and I’m not wearing a mask, I feel like it makes other people more comfortable. If they’re like, Oh, I can see from here she’s vaccinated. Versus I’m somebody who doesn’t want to wear a mask? And and I don’t know, I feel like that might put other people at ease, because it does help for me, because I’m always wondering, what’s going around. But yeah, I mean that, and I’m sure that’s gonna be hard. Yeah, for kids returning to school. And I mean, just the masks, we were talking about things that, you know, cause anxiety and kids and trying to receive the services and even when they were in person with masks on was so complicated. So even if we were in a situation where kids could receive some of their services, they weren’t both being delivered in the way that they typically were. So the benefit is probably less. So there’s just a whole so many factors that are going into why this anxiety and the deficits in reading and writing are existing, right? Yeah, I can totally see that. And john, I mean, to be it speaking of being virtual, we’ve never met in person. You have been an intern in our office for two months, and we have never met you. We don’t even know how tall you are.
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 13:00
Friendship actually, where I haven’t met met in person, anyone at the office? That’s hilarious.
Dana Jonson 13:05
It’s so funny
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 13:06
to me. I haven’t been in water and been in I haven’t set foot in my school in over a year.
Dana Jonson 13:12
So that’s an actually interesting component. Because you’re in you’re in graduate school, you’re in law school and your school has been closed and virtual for a year. Are you going back in the fall?
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 13:22
Yeah, that so I think Northeastern undergrad is making some options available for students who aren’t quite comfortable yet or something along those lines, or maybe medically, they’re not ready, but certain programs, including the law probe at the law school, and they are they are requiring everyone to come back.
Dana Jonson 13:41
That’s awesome. I mean, that’s awesome in that it’s great that they can open. Look, Stacey joined us isn’t that exciting? Stacey is the advocate in my office who’s now joined us. Hi, Stacey. We’re just talking about the end of the school year and kind of wrapping up and what we are seeing and talking about getting back to normalized world whatever that is, what is going to come up next what is going to be the next thing in the fall and Laura had mentioned that a lot of this is anxiety for kids who haven’t been out and now suddenly we’re gonna throw them back in to experience everything looks like
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 14:14
it’s like we haven’t experienced this kind of what is it a natural like a catastrophe disaster natural? Again, if we haven’t had a pandemic for how many For how long? We don’t know how what to do, how do we re reintegrate re
Dana Jonson 14:29
well, and how do you remember great cuz I guess we could look at 1919 right, but they don’t really have the same technology. So I’m not really sure it’s a good comparison. Here right. So Stacy, let me start with this. How was how was IP season 480 season
Stacey Tié, Special Education Advocate 14:47
was busy. IP season for me was busy and I found that a lot of we had almost double IP is because we would meet to do an IP in like March or April and then The parents wanted to meet again, at the end of May and June to go over it, make sure make sure everything that we put together worked and kind of set up for the fall, I’m finding that a lot of parents, I’m still getting phone calls, and I’m still busy. Typically summers slow, but I think people want to make sure they’re ready for the fall. And however that looks for their child. And so I think people are still getting their kids tested this summer, they’re still doing evaluations, they’re still calling ppts. Because they want to make sure they’re ready. They don’t want to wait to the fall and then start the process, because they’re concerned that that’s going to take long with wait days. So I find that I’m still busy.
Dana Jonson 15:40
And my phone still ringing. That’s basically what Laura just said, and I would have to concur with you all that I was not expecting it to be this busy this close to July 1, which which is is good. I think I mean, last year on July 1, we’re busy for a different reason. We’re getting lots of calls and couldn’t do a thing. So I think the fact that we’re able to work and able to help parents get what they’re needing is a huge plus, because a year ago, none of us knew what was happening. I think that’s a really good point about double IPS, meaning that you’re having one meeting and then a follow up and then wanting to check again, because that is something I’ve noticed, too, in almost all the IEP meetings that I had this spring, we were also incorporating a meeting in three months, or a meeting six weeks after school starts, or in a couple of matters. We have meetings on the very last day of ies why to assess EMI and to plan them for September. So I agree with you, I think that there is an extra level of caution. The parents are rightfully so taking this year to make sure they don’t miss anything. Because there were a lot of parents, I think last year who felt like Oh, we’ve got some issues, we’ll address them at our spring PPT are in Connecticut, we call them ppts, my spring IP meeting, and then suddenly everything shut down and you got nothing for a year. So I think parents are definitely much more on top of those things, and much more on top of following up progress monitoring all of those kinds of pieces. So I agree with you, Stacy, I think that we’re definitely going to see more work over the summer than we’d anticipated. And I think that’s smart. I think that is the right attitude to take it. I used to say that between the last day of school and after the July 4 weekend, literally no phones ring, you don’t get an email, everybody leaves school and is done till after the Fourth of July. And then they’ll start thinking about it again. But we’re not getting that break. And part of that is there were IEP meetings right up until the last day of school. Yeah, that’s unusual
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 17:38
thing. Yeah, that I’m and I think it’s important for parents to know that the summer is a little bit different, though, from the responsibilities of the school district, some of the timeline, timelines may be a little bit longer, it may be more difficult to put together a PPT with all the appropriate people, and they may be able to, but they may not be the people that you want at the PPT because those people are off for the summer. So you know, there’s got to be a little bit more consideration into whether you want to proceed with those things while the summers have, right. And
Dana Jonson 18:07
sometimes it’s totally worth it. Because if you’re just adding something or you need to make a change that you don’t really need everyone’s input for then it doesn’t doesn’t matter if the people at the table are on your child’s team or not. But if you need their input, then you have to be creative, then you have to find a way to get their input even if they’re not physically at the IEP meeting, or as you said, Laura, maybe even decide that that IEP meeting doesn’t happen until September when everybody’s there and then does that give you a little do you start a little bit behind the ball? Yes. But that might be more productive than starting what we think is correctly but with all the wrong people.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 18:45
Or it can be done by a simple amendment where you don’t need the team to come together, because in some instances that can happen. So I think these are the kinds of questions that we’re going to be continuing to get over the summer. I see services going back I see a lot on evaluations over the summer. And I think that that’s going to continue through the summer. Like Stacy said she this phone’s gonna keep ringing.
Dana Jonson 19:08
Yes. And I just had a client call me and let me know that the evaluator we are using is not available till January 2022. Wow. Yes. And it’s one of our common evaluators that we all use. So I think we’re about to get into some gridlock with evaluations. So I think for parents, who are getting their evaluations over the summer, if at all possible is a great idea, because we have some freedom, I think, you know, we also have a lot of parents who want to go away for the first time there are a lot of families who have been stuck inside. I had this question a couple weeks ago, which was I don’t want as why a client said to me, like I don’t want them offering it and I was like well, we’ll stop. Yes you do. You may not utilize it this year. But if your child needs it, you should have it in the IEP but I get it. They were like we’ve all been stuck in our house. Just us for over a year. We need to leave and go someplace else and not do digital schooling.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 20:04
And I think if you do decline it, make sure it’s recorded. That’s why you declined it. Yeah. Not just the parent refused services, right. But why you refuse the services, because these are unique circumstances.
Dana Jonson 20:16
And I think that’s a good point. If you’re sitting at home right now listening to this thinking, gosh, I really didn’t want to send my kids. Why I really wanted to go to the beach. Can I do that? You know, the short answer is yes. without it being legal advice or anything like that, because we’re not offering legal advice. You know, the short answer is yes, you don’t have to. But yeah, if it’s because you need to get away or you have some family vacation or things like that. You can let the school now and even talk about what strategies you might be able to implement while you’re away that might help your child not necessarily make progress but but not regress, if possible. And for some kids, would it be better for them to have Yes, why sure. But it might be better for them to have summer too. So you know, those are all things that you need to take into consideration. summer, summer is going to be good for I think a lot of people to be able to get caught up, get out, get what they you know, whatever you need, the world is opening up but then September is going to come What do we think? What would you guys guess as where we’re standing now we’re going to see more of in the in the fall. And I’m thinking we’re going to have a lot of evaluations. That’s what I think is going to be popping up. I think parents are out there getting their own evaluations right now.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 21:21
And I think we’re going to run into the problem that you touched on. And I think it’s important that people understand that these evaluations in the in the problem with COVID, just were not happening. It’s not due to a delay by the school. It’s not due to a delay by the evaluators. They were not occurring. And a lot of them are invalid unless they’re performed in person, which just kept pushing back the timelines. So you know, when Dana mentioned that there’s an evaluator who’s not scheduling until January 22, that may be a very normal circumstance and trying to weigh you know, waiting on a good evaluator versus moving ahead with somebody who has a space, it’s going to be a really tough decision to make in these times.
Dana Jonson 22:03
Yes, I think that’s going to be I’ve already seen clients struggle with that and wanting to get something done, and I get it, I totally get it. So I think it’s really those decisions have to be made on such an individualized basis. I also think that what’s really important because a friend of mine call me not a client, as a friend call, they’re in a different state, and they want to get an evaluation. And they were talking about whether to use insurance, whether to go to school, all those different pieces. And what kept coming back up was well, I’ll do my research, I need to find the best I need to find the best I need to find the best and and I realized that I think for people who aren’t as immersed in this field as we are we recognize that whoever is popular out there is the one best is not necessarily the person you need, you know, yep, you know, there are plenty of people who can give you a very good evaluation that will give you the information you need. And I’m not saying we don’t all want the best, whatever the best is, but I think that can become a problem too. When everyone in a in an area, maybe there’s one or two evaluators who become very popular, and everyone just needs to have them and then you end up with this huge backlog and people not wanting to go to somebody else. I think that’s a really good point that we don’t necessarily mean the quote unquote, best and that evaluators can be best for one thing, but maybe not for something else. Like somebody was asking me about neuro psych. If you have a neuro psych for a kid with dyslexia versus a neuro psych for a kid with autism, you may be looking for different things. You may choose a different evaluator. There’s no one best. Are you seeing that as well? Very true. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah, I think we’re going to run into trouble with these evaluation deadlines. And I think that’s, you know, whenever
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 23:39
we get a new client, I know the first thing I typically ask and I think you do, too, is what is it you’re looking for, you know, what is your endgame? And then the situations that becomes a really important question, because if you’re looking for an outplacement, or more services or good evaluation that’s going to go into the decision making process of how we proceed so just kind of focusing on I think it’s hard to focus right now because you’re you’re just in this state of my child is not getting what they need or we just came off this really weird time to kind of really be able to focus on what is it that you’re looking for is going to be helpful?
Dana Jonson 24:17
Yeah. And sometimes you need the event to figure that out. I don’t know is a valid answer. I think that’s important too to realize that I don’t know is okay but you have to know you don’t know thing I don’t know what I want this just isn’t working is an okay thing to say trying to fit if you’re not sure you haven’t really narrowed that down, then you need to take the time because as you said, you know, different different things we’re going for may require different different evaluations that maybe you don’t need that quote unquote best person who’s got an eight month waiting list that might just be not necessary.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 24:47
I think, you know, I don’t think we have any terms of we are of our knowledgeable about what is available because there’s so much federal money that is coming into districts now that has yet to be allocate into different areas. So I think there potentially will be resources that exist in the spall that don’t currently exist now. So trying to stay aware of what those are, you know, what’s offered is going to be really important too.
Dana Jonson 25:13
That’s a good point. And Stacy, you do a lot with your school board, what should parents be paying attention to? I
Stacey Tié, Special Education Advocate 25:18
was just gonna say, I thought that was a good point, Laura, I think it’s really important now more than ever, for people to be paying attention to the conversations going on their Board of Ed tables, because they know the grants that they’re going to be getting, they are currently making plans for the next school year and how they’re going to use their grants. For example, they may put in five literacy specialists. Well, that’s great. But as a parent, you have a right to speak publicly at these meetings, you have a right to write to your Board of Ed and your superintendent and your director of special ed, you should ask what kind of training are these literacy specialists going to have? What are they going to be used for?
Dana Jonson 25:51
is there is there a definition? Right? I don’t know of a definition of a literacy specialist. I just know that schools call them that. Or if the school is saying we’re gonna put in more mental health supports? Well, that’s great. But what are they? Are they people who can evaluate? Are they people who can provide services? Are they people who can do like, what does that mean, and board of EDS are meeting summaries?
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 26:13
ages, I think it depends to where they’re going to implement those resources, because at some schools are going to have a tendency to want to, you know, flood the lower grades with things because they’ve missed a lot of learning opportunity, where another trend I’m seeing is a lot of calls from people with kids in middle school and high school. And graduation has always been a topic that the schools are feeling a student should or shouldn’t graduate, and the parents are feeling the other way. And I’m seeing that a lot more this year, because students aren’t quite as prepared as they would have been without the pandemic, or their parents are realizing that they weren’t going to be quite ready, you know, whether or not we
Dana Jonson 26:48
had a pandemic, right. And again, being home with them. And particularly, as you said, most high schoolers have had more what’s considered educational opportunities, because they’re considered more independent. So they’ve sort of just been given a lot of online stuff.
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 27:01
Yeah, that’s a good point. Because where I’m at in law school, I almost feel like being able to stay home and just focus on one thing, which is my readings, it’s been actually more helpful. So it’s like, the higher you go up in your education, maybe the the less important these hands on experiences are,
Dana Jonson 27:16
but the kids that don’t have the skills to do it independently, are suffering that much more. So I think that’s what’s kind of being seen, right? Because I think typically, john, you’re absolutely right. As they get older, they’re more independent. So where we’re having the trouble is when you have a kid who is an independent, or and these are the ones that I find fascinating, the kids who ever went that were 100% independent, didn’t have an IEP seem to be doing fine. And the pandemic hit, and nothing could get in nothing. Like there was no learning, there was no submitting of work there. It was just a complete 180. And it was because the delivery method of our education change, and some kids can’t learn that way. And I found that to be really fascinating, you know, and then the mental health pieces that come with that as well, because you know, we couldn’t have a pandemic without mental health issues, that’s just not going to happen. So, Stacey, when you’re talking about Board of Ed, so I want to talk a little bit more about this, because it’s a really good point. I know, it never occurred to me to go to my kids Board of Ed meetings when they were younger just was one more thing that I did not think was worth my time. I mean, I know that logically, that’s not true. But when you have a bunch of young kids and you’re running around, it’s very easy to convince yourself that that’s true, and to make sure that it’s not for you. But what does go on at these Board of Ed meetings that would be helpful for parents as we enter into the 2122 school year with a lot of money coming into school districts that has not been allocated, what can parents really be looking for and do
Stacey Tié, Special Education Advocate 28:45
so typically, your board your boards of Ed, they set their own calendar, they have a regular schedule, and if you go on your district website, and you click on Board of Ed, you can find all the information there. And most, if not all have an opportunity for public comment. The nice thing about COVID is majority of these meetings are being recorded, and they’re in zoom. So you don’t have to physically be there. You can watch the recording later while you’re doing dishes or folding laundry. And you can write to your Board of Ed members and tell them your thoughts at any any point in time. But typically, when they have a meeting, they have to post their agenda at least 24 hours before meeting and you can see what they’re going to be discussing. And they also will include the materials they look at when they’d have their discussions about our agenda items. And that will also be posted publicly. And if anything is not we have a lovely law called the Freedom of Information Act. And you can ask for that information. If you look at the agenda, we’ll say exactly if there’s public comment and how to participate. And like I said, Alternatively, if you’re not comfortable public speaking, you can email your Board of Ed members at any time and you know, these people are elected by you and they make these decisions for your kids and they affect you locally. That’s why I think local politics is so important and get to know who’s representing the making decisions. For your children,
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 30:01
I’m not there yet with my little one I’m not she’s not in school yet would they have meeting minutes that you could access if if it’s a public
Stacey Tié, Special Education Advocate 30:08
safety, all meetings are recorded and they have minutes, I find that the meeting minutes are usually not very detailed. So but it gives you a summary. And then you could go, and the ones that do really good meeting minutes will actually timestamp where the conversation was. So you can go back to the recording and go right to the conversation you want to hear. But yes, thank you, john, meeting minutes are good, too. And there’ll be posted as well. And if again, if they’re not Freedom of Information Act, right.
Dana Jonson 30:33
But anything from the Board of Ed should be public and accessible by the public. So if there’s something that you’re looking for meeting minutes, or an agenda, or information or documents, follow up with your Board of Ed, because you should have access to all of that. I’ve rarely heard that someone had trouble getting something from the Board of Ed, because it’s, as you said, usually pretty public. The hardest thing I find with the Board of Ed is being heard by them. That’s all getting them to listen, because there are so many other facets that they are focused on. So what else are we seeing that might be helpful to parents as they think about planning for next school year?
Stacey Tié, Special Education Advocate 31:11
Well, my favorite summer thing to do is to organize my kids files and I we talk all the time about making sure things are in writing. So I will spend a good day going through my kids files and organizing the school year. And I find that it’s really helpful if you have a kind of a cover letter or a cover page, and you write a summary of what happened during the school year from your perspective. And that way, you just kind of have it organized and summarize the school year so that you can kind of keep track of what happened each school year because we all start to blend together when your mom and dad, that’s what I do for my clients. And I do it for my own kids. Part of being a special ed parent is record keeping,
Dana Jonson 31:49
and there’s lots of records. So to let it pile up, just I mean, honestly, there was some times when my kids were younger that I didn’t bother to do that. And those years are just lost. They’re just I don’t know where they are. I don’t know where the documents are. So I think that’s a really good idea. I mean, that is a great thing to do during the summer. also finding out to the extent that you can, who the staff are, who are going to be working with your child so that you can start the school year right reaching out immediately. I don’t always recommend reaching out to the staff over the summer, unless it’s really necessary if you’ve got a really complicated kids sometimes, but I feel like staff needs a break too. And I’ve seen parents do this where they’re having a difficult time, and they are all over the teacher during the summer to get things set for the fall. And it’s hard because that person supposed to be off the clock, and they’re not getting the response that they want. So I often recommend that parents reach out but maybe not expecting the teacher to be communicating with you all summer to prepare might be a bit much I don’t know that I’ve had a lot of discussions in these late year meetings about touring, and most schools will have a few professional development days before the students are there. And I found that a lot of schools were willing to have students who may be hesitant to go back or they’re transitioning buildings from elementary to middle school or middle school to high school and they’ve got bad anxiety, that’s a good time for them to go in and get familiar with the layout, see where their classes or maybe meet their teacher, that’s a great idea. I know our high school or middle school has the kids come in a week beforehand, all at the same time to try their locker locks to make sure they know their combination so that they don’t show up on the first day of school and have 4000 Kids saying I can’t use my locker, which probably happens to them anyway. But that is a really good point. I hadn’t thought of that this is a really good year to utilize those school tours, I think particularly if children are having any anxiety, even if they technically know the building, it might be an activity that could really help calm them because they haven’t been in the building for so long, or or any building for so long. That would definitely help. I would guess
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 33:58
one thing I found, even with my own daughter, this stamina had a really be built back because kids were used to being in zoom classes for a few hours a day or in person for half a day. Some of them in school only three days a week. And then suddenly they were back in person all day, five days a week and kids were exhausted and starving and you know all those cranky things. So there are some kids that have still have not been back in person five days a week. So going back in the fall, maybe a really big awakening to go back to that kind of early morning schedule and late afternoon and the sports and all of those pieces that a lot of people weren’t able to experience Oh, that’s
Dana Jonson 34:42
a good point. I was just thinking I have a teenage boy and there was like someone would pause in there talking and he’d run to the kitchen back full time. There’s no option for that. Now he’s gonna have to pack a lot of snacks to get through the day. But you’re right, we change all of our habits. All of our I don’t think he thought about how to pack a lunch because it was just like any second, he had a chance he went and grabbed food. And that was it. So now I have to like backtrack and be like, Okay, did you plan food for the day? If you didn’t plan food, it’s not going to be there. Yeah, that is crazy. I think that is going to be the hardest thing is just going into 2122. Knowing, and I’m knocking on wood with this, as I say, knowing I’m going to use that term lightly. But knowing that we’re going to be in person the whole time for us in Connecticut, not everybody has to provide distance learning. But I’ve found I have not encountered a school that is not doing it. I don’t know if you guys have have you encountered that?
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 35:39
I have I have had school that has said we’re not
Dana Jonson 35:42
for anybody online option for anybody.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 35:45
Correct? Wow, it’s kind of back to free pandemic that we didn’t offer it, then if you that’s gonna be tough. If you missed a day you miss a day, correct?
Dana Jonson 35:54
Well, I get that I get it. Like if you miss the day, like I understand that you’re out sick, you’re out sick deal with it, I meant like, I don’t have any schools who aren’t offering at all meaning kids who are medically fragile or who can’t get vaccinated who can’t be in school, they are adjusting to help. But maybe that’s why that school district is doing it is because they have a student. So maybe if they don’t have students, I do agree with that. I think I think that would be too confusing to be like, Oh, I had a sick day, or I don’t think we can have kids transitioning back and forth like that. That doesn’t make sense to me. But I do think that, you know, for kids who maybe still require, or I guess our definition of require is going to change.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 36:32
And I think that the difficulty was coming from the teachers to formulate both an in person and a virtual program at the same time is not easy. And they kind of went through these, you know, educational gymnastics in order to get it done for the pandemic. And now that things are going back to somewhat normal, they cannot sustain that kind of activity at a level that educates everybody, right.
Dana Jonson 36:58
And there are some components that will stay the same. I’ve heard I’ve heard at least from board attorneys, and people from the state that probably the virtual pbts, virtual mediations are probably going to continue. I think that’s a huge plus, for parents, I really do think that helps.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 37:15
It really levels the playing field.
Dana Jonson 37:16
Absolutely. And I think getting teachers comfortable with zoom will help. I mean, just in general just to have a parent teacher meeting and be able to see them face to face and not have to take a day off of work so that you can get home in time to make it to the teacher meeting, you know, that those pieces are going to be really huge. But unfortunately, you know, we’re gonna have to see where it falls with with students. And and I do get that I’ve always thought that we should have an alternate option for students then physically going to the public school. But you know, as we’ve learned, there are a lot of challenges with that, and a lot of barriers that we have to have over some schools did better than others, and probably the ones that did a little better are the ones who are more apt to maintain those programs longer. I do get it if you weren’t doing it. Well, to start with, why would you want to keep doing. But I think we’re gonna have some issues with students who maybe can’t be back in person full time and what those reasons are, because I think that we can generally guesstimate what reasons are acceptable and what aren’t and what we can work around and what we can’t, but we’re not going to know till it happens. So I think we’ll probably be seeing a lot more of that in 2122, that teasing out of what really do schools have to offer? I do think we’re going into 2122 with pretty much probably how it’s going to be we’re getting to this normalized place.
Laura Heneghan, Special Education Attorney 38:33
Yeah, I think so things changed pretty much for the better overall, moving forward, the virtual ppts. Parents don’t need childcare. They don’t have to sit in the office of the school waiting for the meeting to start. They’re in your own home. And I think that’s great. So I see some changes that are going to stick are good. But I think a lot of things you’re right are going to go back to the pre pandemic normal.
Dana Jonson 38:54
Yeah, whatever that was. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a good definition for normal. Exactly. JOHN, you’ve experienced a preseason, and we keep telling you it’s gonna get slow, and then it doesn’t but it will someday. What have you seen over your time with us to this IP season? That was surprising or unexpected? I don’t know. Maybe you didn’t expect anything? Oh, man. Well,
John Bayog (DAJLLC Intern) 39:15
yeah, I had pretty much zero expectations. Because I I had an IEP growing up, but I never went to the meetings, any of them. And so I had no idea what I was getting into. But I definitely learned so many different things. And so many different things were surprising. Particularly, I was surprised to see the Board of Education attorneys are like really arguing against getting these kids the help they need, which is what it seems like they do a lot of the time. But then, you know, there was kind of surprised that that was actually happening to see that that was actually happening. And then also, you know, some some districts are better than others. Some districts wanted to like did seem like they genuinely wanted to help the kids. They had the resources. I think that’s what it comes down to maybe is resources there’s there were some good some bad some a lot have a motion? Yeah, it’s it’s a total ride.
Dana Jonson 40:04
I think that’s the best way to describe it. That’s a good example. Yeah, that’s a good excellent Well, well said, I PCs, it is a total ride. That about sums up our entire spring. Well, thank you guys so much. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you joining me today, especially you, Laura, because I know you don’t like to join me on my podcast. Not because you don’t love me not because you don’t love me. I know you love me. But I need a lot of validation. For those of you listening. Laura provides a lot of validation for me during my day. So she doesn’t like to have to come on my podcast to do it, too. I’m teasing. Well, thank you guys so much. We are taking a break. I’m not going to record again until probably August and I will be back on August 4 renamed as special ed on special ed, you don’t have to do anything. You just stay here and I will pop up into your feed. So thank you, Laura, john and Stacy. Have a wonderful summer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me today. Please don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss any new episodes. And if there’s anything you want to hear a comment on, go to our Facebook page and drop me a note there. I’ll see you next time here on need to know with Dana Jonson have a fabulous day
