NORTH CAROLINA COUNCIL FOR THE DEAF AND THE HARD OF HEARING
Quarterly Meeting Minutes
August 14, 2015
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Joint Forces Headquarters, Raleigh, NC
Members Present:
Julie Bishop
Christina Bryant
Bud Cayton
Kevin Earp
Mary Edwards
Ericka Ganon
Lester Latkowski
Johanna Lynch
Denise Nelson
Rachael Ragin
Deborah Stroud
Donald Tinsley
Brad Trotter
Tovah Wax
Ex Officio:
Jan Withers (Present)
DSB Liaison:
Kim Harrell (Present)
NORTH CAROLINA COUNCIL FOR THE DEAF AND THE HARD OF HEARING
Quarterly Meeting Minutes
August 14, 2015
9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Joint Forces Headquarters, Raleigh, NC
Introductions, Announcements, Approve Minutes from May 8, 2015
May 8, 2015 minutes were approved.
None of the members acknowledged having a conflict of interest or appearance thereof on matters listed on this agenda
Update on EIPA, Transition Project, and Communication Plan
Dr. Rachael Ragin, Consultant, Deaf Education and Audiology, Department of Public Instruction
The Transition Project is a group that works with individuals who are transitioning from high school, postsecondary educational setting, four year college or work. The group focuses on delicate transitions and makes sure the kids know enough about themselves and how to advocate for themselves. There are five people including myself that have volunteered to work with the national organization. North Carolina was picked as one of the top states where they provided research assistance in getting things set up so our measures would be valid. We are very excited about that and we are hoping to roll it out in January.
The second was interpreters and where we are with the Educational Interpreter Performance Assessment (EIPA) movement from a rating of three to a four. We are sort of in the same place; there is a pilot that will be run with the kind of intervention that will impact and raise the score. Monday we find out what the results of the pilot were, and I will have this information at the next Council Meeting.
The communication plan is incorporated in House Bill 317. This plan’s purpose is to identify the student’s communication needs and follow through with these issues.
Introduction
Claudia Horn, Senior Director for Employment Services
Claudia Horn is the Senior Director for Employment Services and her role is to manage the rehabilitation services for the blind and the deaf and hard of hearing as well as individuals with other disabilities. Claudia Horn serves on the North Carolina Works Commission, the North Carolina Works Subcommittee on Accountability and the North Carolina Works Steering Committee. Claudia says it is very exciting to see how these programs that are incredibly diverse and differently mandated get to work together for the benefit of people seeking employment.
Mental Health Services and Deaf/Hard of Hearing Children
Dr. Audrey Garvin, Director, NC School for the Deaf
Currently, at the North Carolina School for the Deaf (NCSD), out of 65 children, nine have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder which seems to be something people accept but in some cases it is severe, seven with depression, four with behavioral disruptive disorder, three with impulse control issues, three with developmental disabilities and behavior health needs, two with anxiety, one of each extreme disruptive behavior disorder, disruptive mood deregulation, major depressive disorder and eating disorder. The North Carolina School for the Deaf does not routinely accept children who are asking to be evaluated for admission. Fifty percent of the school withdrawals were students with behavior health disorders and of those 75 percent in that category were a danger to themselves and others.
Tovah Wax: You talked about the school for the deaf trying to accommodate children with emotional behavior problems; what about on the other end, all the psychiatric programs, state programs like in psychiatric residential facilities - what about them accommodating deaf and hard
of hearing children in programs that already exist?
Audrey Garvin pointed out this was a very good question and there isn’t an easy answer. Because she and her staff cannot possibly do all of the work. On the campus, students have RHA therapists who come to meet with them and NCSD will provide the extended support. The next step is to go to a therapeutic home, level 2, 3 and psychiatric placement. NCSD works closely with the Department of Social Services (DSS), mobile crisis unit, the emergency room, and from there NCSD students will go to the home psychiatric facility. For children or young adults there isn’t a central place for deaf and hard of hearing children who are actually patients. NCSD covers 47 counties and they don't always have them in all of the 47 counties. Getting a child appropriately placed is not an easy thing.
Denise Nelson asked: will the solution be that NCSD be more than a school for the deaf and become a psychiatric facility or something else like state support for referrals to the National Deaf Academy in Florida?
Audrey Garvin stated that in September 2011 a group came to the NCSD in order to determine whether the school should stay open or not along with Southern NGMS and at that meeting with those people gathered I recommended that if there was the financial support to create a program at the NCSD and everything that goes with it, the training, the ability to hire appropriate staff, that would be something we would consider. That was in September 2011. What I emphasized in my report, I can offer but I cannot fund and staff and create all the things that need to be created. We have created everything we need to create for the children we have. Broughton Hospital psychologists can determine if a child is a severe danger to himself/herself or others and needs in-patient care, they can make that recommendation.
Audrey Garvin stated that Denise Nelson and Brad Trotter have made the recommendation that is the most appropriate. There isn’t one person that can pull all of the factors together and it has to be something where everyone is not blaming each other because things fall through the cracks and so much falls through the cracks that is part of the issue, it begins to put into jeopardy the child being able to be maintained at the school where progress is being made but at any moment the child needs to be elsewhere and there is no other place to go.
Legislative Update
Jan Withers: Department of Health and Human Services will have a new DHHS Secretary starting next Monday, Wos has resigned to spend time with her family. Rick Brajer starts Monday, August 17.
The NC legislature has not passed a budget; there is a continuing resolution allowing the state to continue to operate as normal and they have extended that to the end of the month and we feel strongly there will be a budget in place at that time. There is a debate about teacher assistants and Medicare and Medicaid reform and it will take until September before there is an agreement on that.
Reports from Committees
Community Access Committee
The first item committee discussed was Registry of Interpreters Conference in which a moratorium was declared on certification of sign language interpreters after this December. Discussion was about what impact it will have on our interpreter licensing and recruitement.
Motion 1: Moved by Brad Trotter to have someone from North Carolina Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (NC RID) or the Interpreter Licensing Board to come to the Council Meeting on a regular basis to give the group an update on what is going on with the interpreting field. Motion Seconded by Johanna Lynch. Motion Passed
The second item the committee discussed was the problem of the lack of availability of hearing aids and implants for those who can’t afford them which includes veterans and how veterans have difficulty getting hearing aids or implants when they come back home. Large numbers of senior citizens with cognitive diseases function better when given hearing aid or implant or pocket talker.
The third item the committee discussed was that the Department of Human and Health Service and (DHHS) and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) need to work together to identify options for providing the support services to children from both residential schools and whatever they need to function appropriately; the committee proposed a task force to be run by DHHS and DPI to address the mental health needs of children who are deaf and hard of hearing and deaf blind with severe emotional and behavior issues, particularly those whose needs are more than schools can handle.
Education Committee
The committee fully supports moving forward with severe behavioral task force idea.
Motion 2: Moved by Denise Nelson to have DHHS and DPI task force look at treatment needs of behavioral health issues beyond the capacity of the school to manage. Motion Seconded by Kevin Earp. Motion passed.
The committee discussed the EIPA assessment for interpreters and Rachael Ragin has presented to the group about the proposal to increase the base from 3.0 to 3.5 and 4.0. 3.5 is the requirement in most states and 4.0 in some states. DPI has been working on a proposal in that area to present to the legislature to enact. The recommendation from DPI is there would be three years to make the jump from 3.0 to 3.5 and two years to get to 4.0. There are concerns about that; specifically, the committee is concerned about the second aspect of that requirement - they do not want to see a situation where there will be poor access for the students due to the fact that there are interpreters that can’t make the standards and not able to make employment. So the committee is proposing a longer time to get to 4.0 and also provide extensive support in training for all interpreters. Committee recommendation is to have June Atkinson from DPI to recommend that the second step of improvement from 3.5 to 4.0 be given more time and support and that spoken language facilitator position be standardized at the state level.
Motion 3: Moved by Denise Nelson to have a letter drafted to DPI’s June Atkinson that recommends a broadening of the second window for movement from 3.5 to 4.0 training and mentorship to support that, and second, that the spoken language facilitator position be standardized at the state level. Motion seconded by Council Members.
The committee also talked about House Bill 317 that passed two years ago and is related to deaf education and how a percentage of it is being implemented. There is an aspect of that law in which at the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, the team is supposed to inform the parents of the continuum of placement options including the school for the deaf.
Announcements
North Carolina Walk4Hearing Sunday, October 18, 2015.
The National Deaf Seniors Conference is being held from Sunday, August 23 through Thursday, August 27, 2015 in Asheville at Grove Park Inn.
On Saturday, September 19, 2015, Deaf Awareness Day at North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, North Carolina.
Raleigh Little Theatre has installed a Loop System.
Adjournment
Next Meeting: November 6, 2015 NC Joint Force Headquarters
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