Oregon Department of Education Office of Student Learning & Partnerships

Office of Student Learning & Partnerships

Transition Advisory Committee

Members:
x / Alverson, Charlotte / x / Dunn, Roberta / x / Johnson, Pattie / x / Poppen, Marcus / x / Unruh, Deanne
Ayer, Lyn / x / Ingledue, Marcie / x / Kosko, Ken / x / Simich, Sally
x / Curley, Patricia / x / Jackson, Lydia / x / Mahaffy, Vikki / x / Sorenson, Jill / x / Scribe: Ramona Reynolds
Guests:

PURPOSE: The purpose of the Transition Advisory Committee (TAC) is to serve in an advisory capacity on issues related to determining transition priorities for documents, web information and development, and other issues that may arise. The TAC considers the services and postsecondary outcomes for students and informs the department on strategies and plans to improve transition for students beginning at age 16 and continuing through age 21.

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday November 13, 2012

9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Agenda Item / Discussion / Action
Introductions / Introductions were made and Sally, along with other TAC members, gave a short history of their special education experience and qualifications. Keith Ozols with Vocational Rehab will join us at a future time.
The new location for the TAC meetings was enjoyed, and thanks to Marcie for making it available to the group.
Updates / Sally summarized some of the changes at the department: Nancy Latini resigned and Petrea Hagen-Gilden stepped in for 6 months (interim) and Sarah Drinkwater replaced Dianna Carrizales-Englemann. Petrea recently was with Tigard/Tualatin and Sarah comes from Gig Harbor, WA. Other Ed specialists have also replaced other staff in the ODE/SLP unit who retired or left for other reasons. New department leadership has reminded staff that ODE is a service organization not a punitive agency; we try to give answers and support people.
1) A superintendents Memo was sent out on HB2283. School districts needed clarification around the 990 hours rule. It is not an option: Transition aged students should participate in full day services 5 days a week, not less. If an IEP team designs a program for a student with less than the 990 hours, school districts, parents and concerned parties have to be notified of the reason for it. Some students being served by transition programs don’t want full time programs, but their parents may want it considered. Parents may prefer agencies to be responsible for the students full time; however, the services are dependent on decisions made by the IEP team.
2) Jackie Burr (our former Secondary Transition Specialist) is still working with ODE under contract.
3) The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) participants asked Sally to attend the meeting to discuss Employment First information.
4) Sally will also share information from her trip to Long Beach California scheduled for 11/26/12. She will return to Oregon on 11/29/12.
5) Referring back to the 990 hours: Any instruction and other agency participation can be included in the 990 hours, including work time. In the past, some activities performed by other agencies may not have been specified in the IEP. Now they should be included. It may be helpful for schools to have more support around writing an IEP to support the 990 hours instruction requirement. It would help to have more info on this, perhaps specific training on documentation, who can be part of it, what to include and what not to put in it.
Some conversation has been to include teachers in interagency training regarding IEP meetings. Petrea has talked about involving teachers and other parties so that all players understand each other’s participation.
Some districts that had existing transition programs before HB2283 have recently been challenged on the 990 hours issue. PPS signed an agreement that serves to specify the intent of the bill, that all transition aged students should have access to 990 hours. The Memo was sent to special education directors and building principals. The TAC felt it was important to be sure teachers and others learned about the issue. Sally mentioned other issues around transition age students, and asked for input on the mechanism that the state could use to get the message out to districts. If staff could access the information at any time, it would be more useful. Everyone thought a short 10-min webinar would be good. It might help to ask people in front lines what they need because they are the ones who need the info. Participants here at TAC need to get word out to the districts. A transition conference would be appreciated and would give an alternative method for getting info. “Just in time “ training would be much appreciated. Sally mentioned that she spoke with Petrea about webinars for transition services –this could be specific districts or statewide.
Sally asked the people who came to the SPR&I training events what they need. People are still confused about transitions and other topics. There were several new people attending the trainings and we need to have a method for separating those who are experienced from those who are brand new. Sally is attending SPED administrator meetings and will carry any questions forward (basic 10 most often asked). Sally would then be able to get answers or assess funding needed.
Is Sally hearing anything about transition aged students who want to keep working toward a regular diploma? People (parents & staff) are concerned with older students being in classes with younger students. The state working to the 40-40-20 model may result in some older students coming back and working toward receiving a regular diploma. Others got a GED and then went back to take more classes before going to community college.
Jackie prepared a FAQ document before leaving, covering issues around HB 2283. Sally will continue to gather questions and informational needs so that the FAQ can be updated as new issues come up.
Minutes from Last Meeting / None / Handout
NPSO intensive TA STEPSS PD grant. / Oregon submitted an application and was accepted to be part of the National Post-School Outcomes (NPSO) intensive technical assistance project. Technical Assistance (TA) providers will be Charlotte and Jim Leinen. They will work with Oregon to develop a logic model to identify gaps, resources, and ideas, then help develop a plan and method for implementing Oregon needs. Pattie and Jackie have been working with NPSO in the past and it will be exciting to work together on the program improvement for the state and districts in the use of data. The first 5 years of NPSO focused on building the post school outcomes system. Now, the focus is on analyzing and using the data collected. The next step is to implement the data use tools for the state and districts.
The NPSO has a toolkit for using data from the post school outcomes collection. They were successful in getting a grant to look at what professional development is needed in order to change outcomes for the better. Oregon, Iowa, Kentucky, AZ and RI are partnering in the initial group of states with a district selected for participation. Districts recognize the need for using outcome data for program improvement.
A meeting will take place soon to kick off the grant activities. Oregon will select a large district which will represent the state in this process. In year 3, it will be rolled out to other districts. ODE has invested in getting involved in this effort. Programmatic improvement is the goal for districts and students.
The focus of the MOU is being revised. Petrea has had 3 meetings on this. It will be hard, but needs to be done.
Transition Resource materials, 2012 / The Transition Materials Booklet was posted to the (ODE) web pages in Transitions Resources. It emphasized all eight transition standards and provided information on the standards that showed initial non-compliance in IEPs such as student preferences & interests not being included. It also provided examples of strong post-secondary goals, courses of study, and other transition components. Sally said district staff should visit the transition training modules regarding webinar sessions in the resources for transition services. It comes from Center on Change in Transition Services from Seattle University in WA.
The colorful flow chart transition services cards were a big hit, and more will be made and distributed. The Transition Booklet also contained information on the diploma options, and data on graduation, dropouts, transition services, and the post school outcomes results. / Presentation, handout
First look, APR’s
FFY 2011 / No real progress in improving graduation rates, lowering dropout rates to report. The initial non-compliance rate on IEPs did not improve when the whole group of standards were considered, but there was improvement in lowering the number of standards that files were out compliance in. The post school outcomes showed an increase in the percent of students with disabilities that were engaged in higher education, completive employment, or other work or school one year after leaving special education services. / Handouts- need to be returned ( preliminary, not for distribution)
Next meeting / January 9, 2013

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