Wyckoff Special Education Parent Advisory Group

Meeting 3/22/17 Recap

District Attendees: Debbie Herold (Director of Special Services), Erica Ward (EMS guidance counselor), Kellie Ramundo (EMS Learning Consultant), Annie Mapes (Coolidge guidance counselor)

  • Progress Reports

Will go home in paper form in the next week. Hoping to get back to online next year.

  • PARCC

A question was asked about PARCC testing accommodations and parent was referred to school principal.

  • Standard Based Report Cards & Progress Reports

Parents discussed some inconsistency in report cards across teachers and expressed that more training may be needed- especially as teachers go on leave. The current report card is being looked at by the district. We discussed that a progress report may not be in line with the report card as the progress report measures progress to individual goals and the report card measures to grade benchmarks.

  • Playground Success

We spoke with Annie Mapes from Coolidge about a program Coolidge is trying regarding helping kids have more success on the playground. Playground time is one of the only unstructured times and children can have trouble organizing effective games/rules and others have difficulty joining in and finding their place. The Coolidge guidance counselor and principal are observing playground behaviors and inclusion and looking at strategies to increase success. We discussed sharing this program across schools.

  • Buddy Program

We discussed the idea of a buddy program for special needs students and any student interested. The idea is to pair up students so the students can really get to know each other and make a friend where socialization may not be easy for all kids. The buddies could change throughout the year. The hope is that all children will be more accepted despite their differences and friendships will form early where they may not have otherwise. The schools have a program for new students and Lincoln has a program as part of the PTO that may be starting points to expand on.

  • Parent Advisory Group

The meeting was turned over to Jill Dyer to discuss thoughts on expanding this group and turning it into more of a parent run group with input on what to discuss at these district meetings, speakers we are interested in, etc. We discussed how to get the word out to all interested parties that receive special services. Debbie Herold is willing to send something out to all families and we discussed having each principal send it in their eblasts. We can use the Special Services page on wyckoffps.org to announce meeting dates, events, and contact information.

Upcoming Meetings:

  • Parent Meeting April 18, 2017 @ 9:30am – email for address and to rsvp.
  • District/Parent Meeting: May 16th @ 9am at Sicomac

Post Meeting Notes:

  • Karen Riley will email Meeting Notes to all meeting attendees. Jill Dyer to provide.
  • Debbie Herold indicated they cannot do a mailing at this time of year but the principals can send out information in their eblasts. Jill Dyer to provide information to send including mission, contact info, meeting dates, etc.
  • In response to using the Special Services page on wyckoffps.org to post our information Debbie Herold will speak to Rich Kuder and get back to us.