Pam Murphy, President of Special Education Parent Advisory Council in Scottsdale, recently was contacted by a parent living in another part of the valley about starting up a group in their school district. Pam copied me on her response, and I thought she did such a great job that I asked her if I could share it:
Wow!! How exciting!! It sounds like the Special Ed director and parents are already working together!!
Jill probably told you most of what you need to know about us. You are certainly welcome to model your group after ours, or develop something different to meet your needs. Feel free to copy our mission and goals if they fit, or develop your own. Cave Creek is actually modeling their group after ours and is using much of what we use. Fountain Hills and Gilbert, for example, have developed their own style. I included Lisa Myerson Marshall in this email since she’s our out-reach board member who has brought together other district parent leaders with ours. In fact, we have a collaborative meeting on December 3rd we’d love to have you come to!!
Our group was started about 5 years ago by Margaret Corcoran-Smith and Shauna Mattson, two present board members. We represent all parents of children with IEPs, and we try to keep our focus broad. Monthly programs highlight broad needs – IEP workshops, meeting with administrators, transition issues, behavior concerns to name a few. In addition, our board meets regularly with our special education director, Lois Healey, (who is absolutely wonderful and wonderfully supportive of our group) and our now interim co-superintendent Katy Cavanagh who is in charge of curriculum and teaching. The meetings are collaborative and deal with issues of testing, identification of special needs, para-professional training, program availabilities, and inclusion to name a few.
Over the past few years we have really tried to focus on inclusion of our kids with special needs into the school communities. We take no stand on whether kids should be in self-contained classes or included in general ed classes. Those decisions are individual, and our board represents parents of children on both sides of that decision. What we focus on is the inclusion of our kids in the general school environment. We promote buddy programs and special social programs for the playground. We remind administrators to plan special ed classrooms in the middle of new facilities plan and not on the outskirts. We educate the principals and general PTO parents about the importance of inclusion of our kids in all school activities. Our administration has even given us the opportunity to present to an all district principal meeting!! We used pictures of our kids, and one of the middle school principals identified one of his new students immediately from the pictures and made him (and his mom) feel so welcome!
At our meetings we have made a tremendous effort to avoid a personal complaint session. This was a problem initially but has seemed to subside.
Now, I’m just rambling. Check out our website at www.sepac-scottsdale.org. Our mission and goals are under “about SEPAC.” We have regular columns from Lois Healey, and Jill Castle writes an excellent column as well!! Thanks Jill. News items and notifications are prevalent.
So, we wish you good luck! And, we hope you can join us in December!
If you are thinking of started a parent group and would like to chat with us, you can find our current board members listed on our web SEPAC web site on the Contacts page.
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