001that's so i would say god i'm going to go ahead and get started um my name is kate krista i am the um i'm just going to ask anybody on this wall who's not speaking right now if you guys can just mute yourselves because i want to make sure there's no feedback um and i just want to welcome all the parents um and students guardians out there that are um watching today's presentation um i think this is an exciting opportunity for us to hear a little bit more about transition and getting our special education students ready for what comes after high school so we have a lot of presenters today um we're going to hear a little bit from western connection the academy of western connecticut we have the department of developmental services here with
002us i'm a representative from the bureau of rehabilitation services we also have ability beyond um our judge from probie court naught valley community college and also kennedy center so we have a filled evening filled with lots of information um very excited to provide us with this opportunity and um also mr kirsten in just a moment is going to be sharing um a link with you that you can use to input any questions that you may have during this presentation um as a reminder you know we'll have each presenter can share first and then at the very end is when we will open it up for questions and answers okay all right kate that you're good okay i'm gonna present to everybody at home my screen um and you'll have a couple different ways that if
003you have a concern or a question that you'll be able to ask it so first at the bottom of the youtube uh station channel in the description there's two there are two links um i should say there's one link and there's a telephone right number so i'm just going to show you a couple things here so as kate had just said uh kate's the supervisor of our special ed um and we do have sue myself mr collin time miss pavone miss gross mr scott farrell judge you mean and john gorzal is here as well so the way that you guys can ask questions there's a google excuse me form if you take your phone and you put on the uh as if you're gonna take a picture but just don't take a picture hold it
004up to that qr and the qr will your your phone will read it and then it will tell you it will link you directly into a google form and if i click on that you'll see on my phone it says the dhs virtual transition fair it will have uh your name and then it will also have your question down below we're not going to share your name but we are going to share your question with the group just below that code the qr code right here is the google phone and um miss reference will be manning that as [Music] well okay so just a couple quick things here um our vision statement danbury high school aspires to be an equitable community that supports social emotional and cognitive growth so all learners can achieve their highest
005potential and part of that is knowing all the services that you guys have the ability to access and that's going to be part of what we're going to do uh with this fine group that uh is here tonight a couple things about our school were about 33 200 that was as of a couple days ago uh the number of languages spoken right here right 43 uh we have 233 courses uh we have 62 inner scholastic teams 52 right clubs and next year we're gonna have about 530 special ed students um and every one of those students has the ability and the right to access uh a lot of the stuff that we're going to speak about our special education staff that is here tonight kate uh again who just spoke to you she is the
006supervisor of special ed um and then dawn and joe if you guys want to un mute yourselves and just say hello to the group i'm going to escape right here and i'll go back over here quickly so we have two guidance counselors who work with our special ed group um one has been with us for a long long time and joe's uh kind of new so joe if you want to speak first uh sure good evening everyone i am the new guy as mr carson said uh i am thrilled to be here tonight i'm actually really excited to hear a lot of great information from our presenter so hopefully i'll be learning uh not quite as much as everybody else because hopefully i have a little bit of leg up but i'm looking forward to
007some great information tonight dawn i don't know if dawn is still there she may have stepped away for a quick second um so uh if at any time during the get together uh if that qr code does not work again if you call in um your question you'll be able to ask that directly to joe okay um so uh the first person to present tonight sue if you want to share your screen thank you bill um it's just me there's no screen there's no powerpoint i'm just going to do my speech that i normally do if that's all right um but i do want to thank everybody for coming this evening the program that i work with is called the western connection program and it is a collaboration between danbury public schools and western connecticut
008state university the program has been on campus since we primarily are on the midtown campus however we do have do take classes and have some work sites over at the west side campus the program is a two-year transition program for special education students not only going to danbury public schools but surrounding districts as well we have three primary focuses in our program the first one is educational so students who are accepted into the western connection program get to audit one class a semester um the nice thing is is it's not just a small set of classes that they get to pick from it can be any 100 level class in any subject area as long as the class is open and available as it would be to any freshman so while the students are auditing
009that one class they get help from the western connection staff as well as from peer mentors on campus they get assigned two mentors for a total of three hours a week um and the mentors help not only with academic uh subjects and topics but they also help with them socially and to get students familiar with the campus students are expected to do all of the work of the class that the class is asking any papers take tests you do get accommodations as you would at the college level um the important thing to know and to understand is that you are auditing the class um so given the fact that it's in a transition program it's for experience for you to learn how to use those time management skills test taking skills to prepare you to
010go on to college we also the second component of the program is our vocational component so all students get jobs on campus we have a variety of different types of jobs from food service shipping and receiving mail room we have office jobs there's a job in the accessibility office the admissions office we have library we also have the locksmiths office so there's a wide variety of jobs to pick from and the goal is that every semester you get to explore a different job so by the time you're through the two-year program you have at least four different experiences working in four different areas and then our last main component of our program is our social component the students that are accepted into the western connection program are have the ability to attend any sporting events
011any theater events anything that's going on campus that any other freshman would be have availability for we also have that availability uh we we try to utilize that utilize those services and go to as many social events that we possibly can the program as a whole as a group um go does two social events a month and the students also are expected to join a club on campus and go to the weekly club meetings so um and there the university does a great job of offering what they call a club's carnival for all of the clubs so the students can go and see which clubs are available um and what days they meet and what times they meet um we also do a social skills group a weekly social skills group as well as a
012girls group and a guys group i could go on for a lot longer but i don't want to take up too much time i just want to let everybody know that we follow a similar application process as a normal senior going um applying to colleges so if you're a junior right now and you're interested in the program i am going to be sending out flyers for our open house shortly uh but um your september of your senior year is when you would start applying and we go through the process from september through to the end of the school year all right so thank you i'm going to present my screen again for all the parents out there one of the things that you should know is that uh sue's program and mine are uh peop
013the students are placed there through the ppt uh uh through school through the process of the ppt uh the academy program is a post-secondary community-based uh vocational right program we have students from the age of 18 up to 22. and we service petco naugatuck valley city hall shoprite berkshire foods tj maxx st james church cardis we hope so and central office at beaverbrook uh our school day is a regular school day we come in at 7 20. uh we do a uh a group get together every day we cover budgeting checking uh we cover the the ability to interview your strengths what you do well what you need to and improve upon and then at about quarter nine we go out to the sites um there's a job coach out there and then at about
014one o'clock we come back and we de-brief um with the students and then um it's about every other week sometimes it's back-to-back weeks but every other week we also go out into the comm community so last year a few of the things that we did went to the police department we had a wonderful tour there the fire department the mall jk's diner uh we took a wonderful tour of the heart bus depot we went to the christmas tree shop mall um went to stews and then one of the first things we actually do um in conjunction with the moms and dads is we go to people's bank and if any of our students um want and don't have we actually open up a checking account for our students [Music] last year once a week we
015also get together at night and we have actually students who come back to us and some of the activities that we do there we we went to watch a um uh same thing went to bounce text this roadhouse we go out to eat we go out to applebee's the mall we bowl and we also uh watched a couple flicks last year so again what's different between between our programs is uh based on recommendations from the staff and moms and dads uh the students will be sent to us and again they're with us from the age of 18 um and they can stay up until the age of 22. okay so uh now we're going to hear from the agencies yes we'll be up first marcus thank you bill um okay i wanna i wanna start
016with dds eligibility uh to be eligible for department of developmental services you need to be a resident of the state of connecticut have a full iq score of 69 or below and deficits in adaptive behavior you could also have a medical diagnosis of prader-willi syndrome and your disability must originate during the developmental period which means prior to age 18. our application is found online it is a pdf you complete it by printing it out compiling all the stuff that's indicated on our checklist and then you make a copy of it one you save for yourself and then the other you would forward to dds it is on the website where you mail it to you can also email it and scan it to us the process takes about two to three months from the time
017you mail out your application you'll get an eligibility letter in the mail if eligibility is denied you have 60 days to appeal that and i would suggest you do it right away because the tax the clock starts ticking immediately um also on our website is the application for those with an iq of 70 or above an autism spectrum disorder that department although we review the eligibility that asd department is under the department of social services um what dds has to offer you okay so you're registered for dds and you're about 18 or anytime after 16 actually we actually have people who visit our respite centers we have four in the west region if you are eligible for dds services you are eligible for respite um some people choose one of our respite centers you are
018also eligible to receive respite in-home if need be that could be accomplished by applying for a family grant anybody who is eligible for dds services is eligible for family grants up to and ninety nine 4999 per year that doesn't mean you get that every year that means you may submit um a request for a grant for something disability related and you might receive a fraction of what you requested or the whole thing they need to make that funding last all four quarters so it's equitably spread amongst everybody um what you are entitled to um you [Music] you can engage one of our occupational therapists our physical therapists behaviorists or nurses on a consultation basis you can also speak with one of our transition advisors which i am there are three transition advisors in the west
019region if you are in the danbury school district i am your transition advisor um so really the first that we talk about in transition planning is at 17 and a half we talk about exploring guardianship dds gets involved in a guardianship in that we are notified through a local probate court of an application and dds sends out a team of two to interview your son or daughter uh we may do that at your home we may do that at a school right now everything's done virtually you can also as alternatives to guardianship you can explore conservatorship or power of attorney but dds only gets involved in the guardianship piece so you can start that as early as 17 and a half um and dds will provide an assessment to the court that way at age
02018 when your individual reaches the age of majority you will have guardianship in place if it's approved by the court after you have guardianship and you turn after your age 18 we encourage you to apply for ssi supplemental security income we encourage that at 18 because then it is based on your income and not your parents income after you are approved for ssi and sometimes you get denied but please appeal that but after you approve for ssi we recommend that you apply for husky c husky c is the medicaid waiver which dds is going to receive 50 cents on the dollar from the federal government regarding services rendered so absolutely before any individual exit school and is assigned the case manager in order to receive a case manager and to receive any of our grad
021funding which occurs after the age of 22 you need to apply for without husky c in place you will not be receiving a case manager and you will not be eligible for the grad funding so that is very important uh and i wouldn't i wouldn't delay that past the age of 20 actually you know you want to make sure that husky c is in place we do a lot of collaboration at dds often we collaborate from the with the bureau of rehabilitation services regarding employment most tracks through dds most of our programs have an uh vocational component to them um we understand that not everybody uh can work and it's a family decision and if family tells us you know what we're work isn't part of our son or daughter's future we respect that we
022move on um once you're assigned a case manager and that will typically happen during your last year in school what we encourage you to do with your case manager is to complete a level of need assessment and that will basically dictate your funding uh for your graduate funding so your annualized funding past age 22 with dds now that level of need assessment can be visited revisited every year and even more often if there's uh an individual has is hospitalized if there's behavioral episodes medical conditions there's a number of things wherein your case manager can revisit it and reassess your level of need um we also have uh some of the some of the programs we work or we have service providers qualified service providers and on our website there is a qualified provider list and
023it shows you everybody the state of connecticut and dbs contracts with to provide those services and some of those you'll be hearing from today it's the kennedy centers the ability beyond so when you go on that qualified provider list on the dds website you can see all of these organizations and see what types of services they offer you and that's about it um i plan on putting my um phone number my name phone number and email in the chat dialog so um if anybody needs to contact me feel feel free and you can also contact the school they're familiar with me and they have my contact information as well thank you uh okay and next we're gonna move to miss pavone uh as a quick side note we actually work with miss pavone uh our
024group of 18 students we work with leah each week so leah welcome thank you thank you let me see if i can figure this out how to present now um oh i did it okay um [Music] okay can can everybody see my screen i'm just gonna okay i'm just gonna get into the slideshow here we go okay um so hi my name is leah pavone i work for the state of connecticut bureau of rehabilitation services um brs is an agency that provides vocational services so as mr kersten always says when you think brs think work so that's who we are we provide services to help individuals become employed we have an adult services side of things and through the adult services we help adults with disabilities obtain employment and help with um you know some
025other a variety of services to help individuals secure permanent employment um just to give you an idea of how we're structured we are the you know we fall under the department of aging and disability services uh brs is one of the many um agencies that fall under the department of aging and disability services or ads we were called um busby which is the board of education services for the blind and just to confuse you because we are the state of connecticut there's another dds but not to be cons confused with the agency that marcus represents this is the disability determination services um and then you know right down below you it also lists another a number of other agencies um that also fall under ads i'm not going to get into them but this is
026where we fall within the organization of the state of connecticut um so i work for a program called level up um level up was created about six years ago and it was in response to federal legislation though which we call the wiawa the workforce innovation opportunity act um this changes the way that we provide public vr services to students with disabilities so who do we serve we serve students who are between the ages of 16 and now it's 21 um who have an iep or a 504 and are potentially eligible for our adult services program [Music] individuals who come through level up do not have to apply for eligibility if you meet these requirements you're potentially eligible you're a student between the age of 16 and 22 and you have a iep or a 504
027all you have to do is fill out a simple form and enroll in our program so what are our services our services um are pre-employment transition services so it's all the services that or a lot of the services that you may need in order to prepare for competitive employment um you know we also provide linkages to the american job centers or the ajc's as they're called um and i will facilitate with you know getting students hooked up with our adult vrs program so why was this program created it was created to help students with career advancement and to also improve some student outcomes the federal government had looked at student outcomes um throughout the country and saw that there was a lot lacking and um we wanted to have a program that addressed the needs
028of the student population okay so what is level up as a consultant um in planning for the future for their child um you know so that would be considered guidance and counseling that i that i can provide to students and families um i provide self-advocacy instruction job exploration um so through job exploration sometimes i meet with students one-on-one i have access to different vocational assessments um you know that i can administer to the students and just to kind of really get it you know provide that student with some guidance on how to prepare for the future um you know choosing the career um and figuring out where to go from here we also provide a work based learning experience which means it's a it's pretty much like a short-term part-time job um we're approaching right
029now our our summer which is our big season for work-based experiences so right now we're prepping students for working um you know part-time jobs this summer all of our work experiences are um you know entry-level employment so the idea behind the work based experience is that students are are getting that entry-level experience that first job experience jobs are all entry-level they're you know what their peers are doing so sometimes we get asked well you know could you develop something very specific and sometimes we can but for them for the most part we stick to those entry level experiences um because it's just to give students that that taste of what it feels like to work all of our experiences are paid students get paid a minimum wage and the expectations are of a competitive job
030so students may work 10 to 15 hours a week they have they may work four-hour shifts um it's it's the employers have the same expectations that they would of any other employee we do provide on-site supports so if you have a student that requires some some extra supports on the job learning that the job tasks we will provide assistance with that and another service we provide is workplace readiness um where i meet with students and we we work on how to prepare uh for you know the expectations of work okay who can participate as i said before uh any student ages 16 to now 22 who has an iep or a 504 um can can um enroll in our program um if a student is interested you should speak to mr kirsten miss curnahan and
031they can help get you started the best time to connect is two years prior to exit so when we say exit we mean leaving school we don't mean graduation so if if your student is going to stay in school and you know this until 22 the best time to enroll the student is when they enter the transition program however if you have a student who's going to take that diploma and leave the school system after senior year then the you would want to enroll your child um when they're entering junior year okay important to know we do not provide transportation um since we are preparing students for competitive work um transportation will be you know up to them up to the students to get themselves to and from work um you know but we do
032provide assistance with helping them learn um the public bus route you know by referring students to um you know for travel training through the kennedy center um a lot of times also in the in the transition programs i know mr kirsten does this in his program where he uh works with students in learning the the public bus routes okay so how are service deliver services delivered well we do a lot of things you know in groups so right now i work with mr kirsten's class at the academy in this current hands class at um western connections and i think pretty much the whole class in both of those classes they're they're all on my caseload um so now that we're virtual i meet with the students every single week um i talk about a variety
033of topics we we talk about um a lot of like the workplace readiness like skills that you need to get a job interview skills um you know how to how to make a good first impression how to um you know present yourself for that interview what are the expectations at work what you know appropriate behaviors at work problem solving on the job um and we all then we talk about self-advocacy we talk about disability disclosure in the workplace why you would want to disclose how you disclose we talk about um disability disclosure in in colleges you know who to talk to how do you disclose what documentation they need um you know a variety of different topics like those you know we talk about um on a weekly basis when things were normal before covid
034um i usually met with the groups about once miss kerningham's class about once a month and mr kirsten's about once a quarter and when he was talking earlier about going out into the community um they actually came to my office in danbury so and we met in my office we had a big conference room and i met with all the kids um and that was really great because they learned where we are located and we're actually located um our danbury office is in the same building as the department of social services so they got to see where where dss is located and where we're located so when they graduate and they come or they exit the program and they're ready for adult services they already know how to get to our office um and they
035in some cases they were able to meet the adult counselors and they were able to to ask questions and get to know the adult counselor right there when they were meeting with me um the work yeah i'm gonna interrupt you for just one second i think that your slideshow is not um we're stuck on that very first slide that says work faith ruling experience um so i just want to let you know that that we're not seeing i'm sorry um i'm gonna get out of it then because you know what i don't know how to fix it oh it looks like it just updated so now i see level up activities okay how about that okay there we go there you go i know how our search is delivered so i think great great um
036okay so so we had thank you for letting me know that um so so i do deliver services during the um the school day but we also deliver services um on vacations um during the summer months you know obviously the work experience is after school um we also have some paid groups i run a lot of groups and that's really important for for you know giving me the opportunity to get to know the students so i can provide appropriate guidance and counseling um my groups tend to be you know just a little unstructured i might just come up with a topic and we're gonna we discuss it for the day but then we also contract out with agencies like ability beyond and they have a more structured curriculum-based um program that they will do with
037our students so you know ability might come in and do a you know a four-hour um service of workplace readiness or self-advocacy and like i said that's that's more structured than what i do okay so okay and then this is this is just um an overview of some of our different um activities that we have through level up uh we also provide some informational interviews um job shadowing opportunities which means students actually go out into the community they um they might meet an employer have an opportunity to ask questions might you know shadow um at a work site just to see what that job is like because a lot of times kids say well i want to do this but then they really don't really understand what that means so informational interviews and job shadow
038opportunities are really great in helping kids get that hands-on experience and actually get more information regarding different careers um okay um so just to give you a little bit more information about our work based experience the we give a total number of hours for the work based experience so this summer and you will never hear me say this again ever but this summer we have a lot of money and we want to spend it so but i don't think anyone's ever heard me say that as a state employee but but this summer we can say it um so this summer we're offering students 80 hours of a work experience which means they they can work about 10 hours a week for eight weeks in the past we've done work experiences for 40 hours 60 hours
039but this summer is the um it's it's really great it's 80 hours um but that varies every single year so next summer it may not be 80 hours we may be back down to 40 but i don't know i i don't know we know these things you know from year to year um so we do prioritize students who have no work experience um right we prioritize students who are exiting next year um but other than that you know this summer we're we're giving a really nice experience um here is my contact information if you if you would like to contact me um we are not in the office right now because of coven i suspect we will be in in a few more months but i i'm not sure but um so please don't call
040my office because i'm not there and i won't get the message but that cell phone number that is there is my work cell and i do have my work cell with me all the time so please you know feel free to call me on that number or email me of course and that's and that's it okay thank you that was wonderful um our next speaker is going to be from ability which is kathleen gross hi everyone thank you for having us tonight so my name is kathleen gross and i'm from mobility beyond's career development department and i supervise individuals funded with brs dds and private pay contracts so i'm just going to go over some of the other stuff that we do as well our mission at ability beyond is to discuss discover build and
041celebrate the ability in all people our organization is dedicated to empowering every person no matter their ability to have the opportunity to live work and thrive as an integral part of their community for well over 60 years ability beyond has pioneered the ways to help thousands of people with physical and mental disabilities to discover their abilities and become an important part of their community as of today we actually have helped 3 000 people benefit from our services across new york and connecticut we're always trying to be at the forefront and developing innovative programs and best practices that are being recognized and adopted on a national level through our groundbreaking programs in the community job training and placement supported living and recreational educational enrichment we empower the individuals we serve to live full and rewarding lives
042we're always trying to go beyond to ensure that the people we serve have bright futures a place to call home enjoy independence through work and have a forever home where they can age with dignity we work with a large variety of funding sources to support post-school services in connecticut to just name a few the abi program your rehab services the board of education and services for the blind dds department of mental health and addiction services the social security's ticket to work program and as i said earlier some private pay contracts ability beyond is an employment first agency excuse me employment first is defined as employment being the first and preferred outcome regardless of the level of disability everyone no matter where they are receiving services whether it be day program transition individualized day we'll be
043working on an employment focused goal individuals with disabilities should have the right to work in real jobs earning a real wage which is essential if citizens with disabilities are to avoid lives of poverty dependence and isolation have the right if able to work in a job fully integrated within the general workforce working side by side with co-workers without disabilities earning a minimum wage or even higher they should also have the right to access um for assistance to support and ensure job success if they require that support have the right to pursue and the full range of available employment opportunities and to earn a living wage and a job of their choosing based on their talents skills and interests through some of our employment programs we help the individuals we serve by training them for fulfilling
044work opportunities providing job placement assistance we work very closely with leah and some other level up counselors at brs we also work with the dds funded individuals for um sometimes to find the job but they also provide the long-term supports on the job our dedicated and experienced staff will design individual strategies to help meet each person's employment goal we provide group supported employment career development services work readiness just kind of piggybacking on what leah said some of those uh work-based experiences self-advocacy classes we also have customized employment we pride ourselves on customized employment and always kind of adding more tools to our toolbox assessment services and job shadowing through connecticut and new york as a part of the social security administration ticket to work employment network ability beyond is also able to assist individuals in
045reaching self-sufficiency through full-time work and going off entitlements that is their goal our employment supports include assistance with career exploration resume building job search networking assistance to find the right opportunities online applications interview preparation assistance with disclosure negotiating reasonable accommodations initial onboarding and intensive job coaching to ensure success ongoing long-term job counseling and coaching assistance with developing natural supports in the workplace and career-driven goals we have a very holistic approach to seamless transition ability beyond transition services empower people with disabilities to build their careers and create brighter tomorrows discovering their unique interests and strengths expanding their networks of support creating opportunities for experiential learning achieving their personal goals career exploration internship opportunities for real work experience and volunteer experiences to build their resumes and networks our team decides once the team decides on the individual
046is ready that the individual is ready to get a job in the community ability beyond the work to secure funding for the employment specialist from career development to work with that individual to find and secure that employment depending on the individual's specific needs and funding and the person may find a job and work competitively in the community with continued supports vrs's short-term support so they would help the individual fund the individual to get the job support them to get up and running on the job and then if they did qualify for dds services the individual would try to transfer over to dds funding and that is the long-term job support we also find the job and work competitively and to work competitively in the community which job coaching supports transition to our individualized day program
047so like i said we're employment first agency if individual wants to work and that is their goal but maybe they can't work by themselves maybe there's a safety concern we do and have individual day funding through dds and that's where staff would be with the individual while they're working for that one-to-one support we also like to make sure that each individual also given their goal has a full week so maybe they only want to work three days a week and go to day program the other two days a week to maintain those social skills we can also depending on their needs and their funding also look at that scheduling too daily activities of a day program might include visits to parks and zoos go hiking attend sporting events arts and crafts theaters photography class right
048now with covid we do a lot of virtual classes but then we do have some individuals on site i believe we're doing half day programs right now and we're looking on expanding more individuals coming back to program in person and extending those days for example they'll meet at nine o'clock at the hub that's our main building over in the corporate park they do a morning sharing and social activities at 10 they participate in recreation or volunteer opportunities 12 o'clock they all have lunch together 1 o'clock they'll go to the park for a group hike and at three o'clock they're usually on their way home with our transition program so that is also like a day program it is essential for the individuals to take the sweetheart bus to transition because in transition our main goal
049is employment at the end so that gives them that independence to already know how to navigate the sweetheart bus so designed to allow the individual services and the goals to be met they all take place in the community supported one by one staff if it's a day program recreational activities going to the gym with movies volunteer like we said transportation behavior supports enhanced supports when needed and also residential programs all programs due to covet do have a decision tree at this time individuals must meet some criteria like being able to tolerate and wear a mask temperature checks ability to maintain social distancing obviously that's not always easy so at least being able to be prompted to follow the social distancing rules like i said reduce capacity in the buildings the remote option we do have
050enhanced cleaning of all program space and buildings reduce community outings the day program into transition services we've really been trying to think outside the box to in order to get individuals back i believe they've been back since like september in person um but we've really been trying to think outside the box to get more individuals back and being creative with space a lot of us in um you know like an administrative department or working from home to allow space for individuals to come back and that social piece is very very important um i believe the dds representative marcus went over it but it's all looked at as the level of need the lawn score to be eligible for one of our day programs so one to two is usually ise and that's where i supervise
051that and the individual supported employment so very career driven wants to work needs some assistance maybe on work for the check-in uh one two to three the transition program or as well i see they really want to work and elon four to five transition program but i see should be at least we like to talk about it a lot um at their team meetings let's talk about work anytime isu's mentioned that's work related and then along six or more is a day program that's all i really have right thank you athlean um for everybody who is at home viewing this remember you will be able to watch the tape version as well um so uh there's lots of great things here stuff uh scott you're gonna be up next vloggertuck valley thank you bill okay
052so good evening my name is scott farrell i'm assistant director of admissions here at naugatuck valley community college danbury campus i'm just going to take you through a couple of slides give you a good idea of who we are and what we do so this is where we are located on the corner of maine and west street actual entrance is on 7 west street we have twenty thousand square feet twelve classrooms three computer labs a health lab student lounge faculty office and two conference rooms so again we've uh expanded we've been here now 11 years in danbury this facility on maine and west we came to about three and a half years ago and uh it's going real well we were outgrowing it for a while uh kovid slowed us down based on not having
053classes but it looks like for the fall we're going to be back to having classes on campus a lot more right now we're doing about 10 percent of the classes and we expect a lot more participation by students so some facts we are credited by the new england association of schools and colleges we have over 6 000 students about 1400 at the danbury campus over 100 different degrees and certificate programs we also have learn to earn programs so these are short-term programs to learn a skill anything from cna welding manufacturing bookkeeping pct patient care technician pharmacy tech a bunch of things we are open enrollment so anybody who wants to come can come however if there is a prerequisite for a course you need to meet that prerequisite to be able to take it we're
054very affordable two thousand two hundred and fifty eight dollars per semester or four thousand five hundred and sixteen dollars a year so why should people attend nagatop well again our professors have office hours so they're there to be able to help you and assist you uh we do have free tutoring through what's called the ace academic center for excellence so again between these two things you're not in this alone we have the tutors are both professional tutors and student tutors so depending on what level of tutoring you require we have about an 18 to one student ratio we do have the free bus pass so again uh students who have learned how to use that heart bus system uh they can take it to get here uh they once they have their pass if they're
055leaving here and need to go to work they can use the pass to go to work so i think it fits into a lot of the things we talked about here and making sure employability but also again getting them some skills and then credits transfer so if you take credits here we are originally accredited so you can take them to other schools if you complete here and now you want to go to say western get a bachelor's degree you could do that or again if you went to another state you'd be able to take the credits with you also and so we have a very easy admissions process it's an online application you fill it out um need some basic information so there is a copy of your transcript so we have an idea of
056how you did in classes so we can identify what level of math and english will start you with we also need immunizations measles mumps or bella varicella are required however if a student is at the high school they probably have that already and can get a document from the student the school nurse that shows that so we do have a disability services office terry litella is our counselor there so she's the one who will review the iep 504 any psychological testing that has been done and then be able to use that information to figure out what kind of accommodations might be required and would help the student out again the law from the high school to the college a little different fall under the americans with disability act so there are certain things we can't
057can do but not everything that you might have had while you're in high school so most important is at naugatuck valley students achieve their goals so again that's i think the most important for us to know about your student is now what is the goal what is the expectation what are we trying to do to help them get there and if you have any questions online please feel free to reach out to me we are on a rotating basis being on campus so calling is probably not the best because i'm not always here right now it looks like monday and thursdays but based on schedules and things that happen but if you email me no matter where i am i always have access to my email so anybody has any questions please write them out
058send them to people there and i'll be able to answer them or you can reach me individually and i'll be glad to help you out in any way i can thank you so much have a great night scott uh that you can tell them a professional at this he's in and out man love it uh god that you're up next please thank you so much um i'm judge diane yemen i've been the probate judge in the district of danbury for 31 years and i'm really pleased to come back here again to present with all of you i wanted to uh thank bill kirsten for putting all this together and my fellow presenters and also the families who are joining us tonight it's really been a difficult last 18 months or so and so i just
059wanted to encourage you if you have a lot of issues or concerns or are facing a lot of challenges feel free to reach out to your school system to dds to any of us on the panel uh for referrals and for support we are an amazing community and we're very blessed with so much support so always feel that you're not alone so i don't have any um paperwork to hand out tonight like i usually do but i do want to refer you to the probate website that's the most important thing i'm going to tell you tonight because everything i'm going to tell you is online and you can easily access all this information and the probate website is www.ctprobate.gov gov like government so it's again www.ctprobate.gov all our forums are online there's a wonderful eight-page
060user guide on guardians of the appointment of guardians all the court directories and phone numbers and the courts are open the probate courts um although the superior court did close for a period of time the probate courts never closed during all this pandemic we've continued to do our business and we've been operating our hearings through web uh cisco webex and people that can't access the webex so they can call in for hearings uh the courts are always available and uh just to remind you the courts consolidated a few years ago there's 54 courts danbury's jurisdiction is purely danbury and if there's any residents of um northern fairville county probate court that's basically the towns of bethel newtown bridgefield and reading and then a housatonic court serves a number of towns near milford bridgewater sherman brookfield
061and new fairfield but all this information is online i'd like to start really with just reviewing the couple of the definitions so on the probate courts have the authority to appoint limited guardians or plenary guardians of the intellectually disabled we also can appoint standby guardians so in addition to appointing the guardian we can do a standby in the event the guardian becomes ill or incapacitated and then court can upon learning that there has been an issue can court can quickly appoint that standby that's already in place um through the court system's prior hearing um and uh the court also notes that um the definition of intellectually disabled is extremely important um and the intellectual disability uh also requires a iq of 69 or under just like dds has the requirement for their those who are
062within their jurisdiction um so for 69 and under um and those those are the cases that we can appoint the guardians limited or plenary um if someone has a an intellectual disability of over 69 perhaps in the case of autism again there's other avenues appointing uh having the individual have a health care representative appointed or having a power of attorney done which are not under court supervision they're simply done with through the attorney's office um there's other avenues including having a conservator appointed of person or estate over finances so these are other avenues that are certainly available but all the definitions are in the connecticut general statutes and online and the protected party we refer to the individual with the intellectual disability as a protected person also sometimes called a respondent so the the i
063also want to remind you there was some additional legislation a couple years ago um previously the guardians had ability to make decisions over health and health decisions housing other services but this included now an expansion to allow the guardian to handle and monitor finances and so that's a new part of the process where they can apply to handle finances especially if the individual is going to be having a job or receiving social security benefits um this allows them to have the authority to diminish that those finances for the individual and that's a new part of the process um so as far as how to apply for a guardian whether it be limited or plenary um just simply and again you go on the probate website and there's the wpc 700 is the application uh to
064appoint a guardian of a person with intellectual disability you use that form either to ask for a limited or a plenary guardian and it's broken down into different areas and the limited guardians is where we appoint them over maybe just certain areas like medical a plenary guardian would have decision making in all the areas so the pc 700 is the application form also is required is the non-refundable filing fee made payable to treasury state of connecticut um there can also be a fee waiver by the petitioner's fee waiver if the person who's filing usually the parent qualifies um also the call another form called respondency waiver and that response fee waiver is so that the court-appointed attorney will be paid by the state if the person with a disability meets the criteria to have a
065fee waiver granted and the fee waiver is a pc184a and then there's acceptance forms a pc7705 again all this is online and the acceptance form shows that they're willing to serve um so we we do need applications in place um i told you there is a new statute a few years ago to allow authority over finances so it's a pc7 that's the application for the authority to handle finances but usually you file all these documents at the same time the court will order a assessment by dds and once the assessment is received and we have a court appointed attorney represent the the uh protected party the court will conduct a hearing now it's of course on webex and the attorney will appear the family appears but the protected party the court conducts a hearing simply
066to review the assessment i'll review the iq hear the report of the court appointed attorney and uh and and hear the family and him what the requests are and at the end of that hearing the court will be able to appoint either a limited guardian or plenary guardian or will be appointing a standby guardian uh and these guardians are under court supervision we have review hearings every few years um and they do need to let us know if they're moving or any any major circumstance changes so there are guardianship reports that are due um and as far as the finances once they're appointed um the court has the ability to waive any accountings we know that often the families are doing accounting for social security um so we don't always have to require accountings and
067we can waive that um the other requirement if it's over financial authority uh the person's assets have to be under ten thousand dollars and if their assets are over ten thousand dollars they really need to go the route of having an application for a conservator appointed so that's pretty much the gist of it again all the information is online again i'll give you a probate website which is www.ctrprobate.gov [Music] and you'll find all the forms and information online thank you so much great judge thank you and last but certainly not least is the kennedy representative john gordzala yep uh yes it's wordsala it's actually uh wart is in guardian and zala is a river in austria so if you put them together it's wordzala that's how you pronounce it and you did uh so so
068thank you uh thank you for that i'm gonna uh let's see i'm gonna share this i'm not sure if you could see anything um let's see select here we go um so before we uh before we kick it off i'd like to uh tell you two stories um one is there's success stories of the uh transitional students that we work with in terms of travel training and i'll get into travel training um the nuts and bolts of it in a second and i apologize my camera's not working i think it's burned out from all the zooms that we've done over the past year but again part of kovit has taught us to be agile and adaptive and that's what we've done at the kennedy center so speaking of which our travel training program it's fantastic
069so one of the stories is we had a transitional student and again we're all over the state of connecticut he lived in milford he loved um mark twain um just he he just adored mark twain so he learned that the mark twain's house is up in hartford so he was taught to take public transportation from milford where he lived all the way up to hartford um and that included you know multiple buses multiple transfers two trains metro north um the hartford line and now he he goes up there and he volunteers his time so he doesn't even have to go up there this is what he does and that i would find it you know pretty daunting to to take that that's at least an hour away and again as he said there's transfers et
070cetera but he worked with us and this is what he's doing now and he really loves it another uh example um a recent example is right before the pandemic we taught and the person um she had cortical visual impairment so she wasn't completely she didn't have a complete loss of sight but she did have some some vision um and again if they have complete loss of sight they use busby but this person um she lived in the northeast portion of connecticut and again we work with all the transportation districts so she learned to take a a bus um to a she got a job at a grocery store and what was interesting about this was the bus in that area only shows up every two hours so if she missed that bus she couldn't go
071to school i mean she couldn't go to work and even more so if she missed the bus coming home you can imagine what would happen after the pandemic um arrived she became an essential worker excuse me so she she was able to continue on doing what she had to do which was you know maintaining her job taking the bus um to and from work and she she got to be a an essential worker so um and she's still doing that as we speak right now so it was uh it was a great success story um and we're continuing on that so i'm gonna try to uh launch this and it says uh i can't share my screen but that's okay because what i'll do is i'm i'm just gonna talk is basically just words up
072there anyway um so our travel training program um it's been we work with transitional students for this instance it's a free program we're all over the state of connecticut um it doesn't matter where you are um if there's public transportation by you we're there we've had this program since and we've trained over 5000 people in the state of connecticut on how to take public transportation safely in their community and our number one goal for the travel training program is to teach individuals on how to use public transportation safely and independently safely is our main uh our main focus and the program is for individuals that are already dependent in the community and if they like to learn how to use public transportation safely basically is the two examples that i gave earlier it just opened
073so many new doors of of independence and and confidence i mean and all our tribal trainers are so passionate about what they do it's just a fantastic program all the trainings are one-on-one and the trainings are scheduled when the individual is available so it doesn't matter where you want to go the travel training destinations can be anywhere they could be to work places schools colleges medical centers you have to go to the doctor's house of worship the mall we're just training someone they wanted to uh go to their uh girlfriend's house to meet to meet them we can do that it doesn't matter where you go just like for public transportation when you get on a bus bus driver doesn't ask you where you're going same thing with us you know you just give us
074a destination we'll be there and we'll help you it's not a rubber stamp program meaning it's a it's a process so we we graduate people um that after we will go through a specific process and if they're not ready for it they're not graduated but again we've had persons with um all types of intellectual cognitive sensory physical disabilities and we're training i've been training a person um she's a wheelchair user since the fall and she just graduated so again we it doesn't matter how long it takes to train someone we're just we're just interested in one their safety and when they're comfortable and when we believe that they're ready to take public transportation and by saying that we go out we've been going out and during the pandemic we you know obviously wear uh ppe
075we practice all all the the cdc guidelines and we also go out in the rain in the snow and you know in inclement weather and you have to do that because again when you have to go to school and you have to go to work you don't have a choice you can't say i woke up and you know the cloud it was cloudy out or it was raining etc it doesn't matter to our travel trainers we'll be there and we'll encourage you to get where you want to get and you'll you'll learn how to take the uh the bus or the train so what is taught it's basically self-advocacy trip preparation street cost street crossing safety what to do in case of an emergency and you know how to properly use bus transfers as i
076mentioned before and the bus fare this is really cool so we work with the department of transportation we work with all the transit districts in in the state of connecticut and because we have a relationship with dot typically uh an adult fair because again if you're over 18 it's a dollar 75 depending on where you are in the state of connecticut for this but for this purpose let's say it's a dollar 75. what we have to the state of connecticut is if the person has a disability um they they work with the kennedy center and they can get it's called a reduced fair id card and at the end of this you know my talk you can feel free to you know to contact me we can you know we can show you how to
077do that but what's great about it is you only have to pay 50 you get 50 off of the bus fare or the train fare so you can imagine the savings you get you know and again this is also applies to seniors as well including those that persons would have disability but if you're taking a train from new haven all the way up to hartford you get 50 off so if you're going to take public transportation to your job you get 50 off so that that's that's a huge savings what our program does charge we don't we don't charge but the only tr price that you do have to pay is when we're travel training you will have to pay your own bus fare right so again when when we start working with you we
078get you the the reduce fare id it's 50 off and you know you can't beat that uh you can't beat that price it's it's a fantastic and it's a one-time fee of five dollars for this uh little card and it's good for your lifetime if you lose it it's ten bucks but again that that's a little nudge not not to lose it but again we help work with you to get the card it takes about two weeks um and it's a it's a fantastic savings and again it's a it's an incentive to take public transportation um so it's great and again the outcome you get skills that are confidence confidence builders and and the independence that you get that you need to worry to where you want to go so you're not stuck in the
079house and you're not asking for for for people for for rides and what we do also after you graduate this program we don't like okay that's it we'll we never talk with you again we actually have follow-ups so our tribal trainers they would contact you know a trainee that has graduated uh 1 6 and 12 months after the fact to see how they're doing so let's say you have a an evening course coming up in let's say the fall hypothetically well then your spring course is in the morning no no problem we'll train you and reach wherever you want to go any new destinations let us know again there's no fee and we'll train you continue you know to exp because again nowadays in terms of the public transportation um things are changing rapidly as
080you all know and you know certain times there's bus schedules that are changing etc and as a good is a positive um this summer public transportation um is going to be free on weekends so again i mean what what better you know an incentive is that to learn how to take the bus and again we're open you know 12 hour or 12 months a year so if you're interested please contact us we'll be happy uh happily happy to do the travel training and again um any new destination at any time you want um it's fine and how this process works is you just send us an email and again i apologize for my screen sharing actually is anything showing up right now nothing okay all right that's what happens no problem so again just you
081know when you contact me we'll be more than happy to send you a referral form um you know you just fill out the referral form you send it back to us uh we'll get back to you we'll start an intake and that's it now what i like to offer that that's my 10 minute presentation but what i really like to offer everybody um it sounds like a commercial on tv but what we do is we we also offer a presentation during the pandemic it's called a travel training guide so after we have a presentation like this yeah you get some people that are still on the fence well i'm not quite sure about travel training during the pandemic we get that again we've been going out during the pan throughout the pandemic again we're none
082of our travel trainers have gotten covered um so we've been you know we we've applied by you know the cdc guidelines but what we do offer is for those that are on a fence about it we want to keep the pulse going we want to keep the excitement going so we have this presentation and again we we typically um i would say it's about 15 minutes we would send you a zoom credential you would zoom in and if the person doesn't have internet access no problem what we do is we print out the powerpoint presentation we'll have a phone call and we'll just say go to page one page two and what this travel training guide is i can't explain enough how how invaluable it is it basically talks to the either the parent or
083the guardian and it alleviates fears and concerns we go over all the steps that we take to do travel training um and then it's a leave behind it's like if you go to the doctor's office you don't remember any most of it when you when you leave this is it was initially set up is a booklet um and this is what we did after we met with the parent the guardian or the representative we would leave this behind so now what we do is you know thankfully through technology we would send you the pdf when we're done um but again we go through all the aspects to ease any of the anxiety um with the person um that's about to be travel trained or if they're on a fence about it so again we'll be
084more than happy to do a presentation again in the evenings during the day at your convenience and again that that keeps the interest going because what we don't want to say is okay after the pandemic we'll we'll call you no we're we're slammed in a good way we're very busy so the sooner you contact us you'll get on the you'll get on the list and we'll be more than happy to do a presentation for you um so again if you have any questions please please let me know and again we'd be more than happy to do a presentation and equally happy to do travel training for you and again we're we're throughout the state of connecticut so if there's a transit district nearby we're on it pun intended and we'll help you get to where
085you want to go thank you thank you john fantastic uh one of the things for everyone who is at home watching i am reminded of of not only all the wonderful um things that are available through dds and brs and noga talk in the kennedy center and ability but also the the people most importantly who work there um in working with them for for quite some time now if you have any questions or concerns please get in touch with your uh teacher your case uh the case manager at school and they can either get in touch with me um but but it's been a pleasure to work uh with these folks uh we've had a couple questions about um if you didn't get everything that you needed tonight uh you can use the same link
086tomorrow um and you'll be able to watch it um so if you want to go back in and just kind of watch it and pause it and just to write things down um joe was there a couple other questions there yes there are um a few of them are sort of specific to individual students so we'll we'll probably just follow up with the those students or those families individually um the one question i think that might be a little bit more useful um in general uh mr collins there was a question if somebody needs to follow up with dds directly if they've been waiting for a response or need to get in touch with someone what's the best way to do that to reach out to dds uh the best way to reach out to
087dds is either contacting the west region helpline which is 1 or by contacting me and my phone number is five three 203-448-3536 great thank you um i think that was it um for this for the general questions mr kirsten marcus one question that i had uh what's and i think i think that you would touch on what's the difference if uh your son or daughter um is autistic um in terms of the process i i and in terms of the of the time that you apply and then the time that you actually start to receive services as opposed to somebody who is uh um you know 69 or below was that too vague okay it's it's a little vague but um essentially if you are accepted under the asd division which is under the department
088of social services there is a waiting list um i do not know how long the waiting list is i'm not sure when services commence from the time you apply um but i know it's lengthy i believe it's years even so my best advice would be to get on the waiting list as soon as possible and i can't speak to when those services begin um but the bulk of our services uh the grad funding and all those things take place at age 22. wonderful and then miss uh won there was a question about um do you do do the kids who take who get assigned um a place to work do they get paid is that a paid oh absolutely yeah absolutely the kids um will get paid minimum wage actually um minimum wage right now
089is 12 and 10 cents an hour but august 1st it will be going up to 13 an hour so what we have decided because it would just be a fiscal nightmare to pay kids 12 10 until august 1st and then give them a raise we decided that we're just going to pay them 13 an hour for the entire summer work experience wonderful and then scott there there was a question for naughty talk um could you just briefly just just touch on the difference between if if you go to naugatuck if the kids program as opposed if you want to get your associate's degree yeah no problem bill so the biggest difference between a certificate program which most of our certificates are usually a year long and a degree plan is the general education requirements so
090a certificate is specific to what that area is so i'll give you an example if we look at horticulture so i'm going to come in and get a horticulture certificate you will be taking horticulture classes those are the classes that you need and you'll take them for the two semesters and you'll meet the requirement for that particular certificate or manufacturing automotive so there's a lot of different certificates that are out there but you and there's no requirement to take the math the english history social science um that are required for a degree however if you do start off as a certificate and then later on down the road you decide okay yes i do want a degree you can go back and take those degree classes and then you would be able to earn an
091associate's degree so it it they they still work together but you can take it separately wonderful and um scott or all the uh if i want to get a certificate in x and then somebody else want to get a certificate and why are they the same number of things that they have to take credits or clients most certificates are usually they still require um two semesters so yeah they're going to be somewhere around 30 32 credits that are required for it but again each program has broken it down it is available on the website our catalog is there in the catalog it lists all the different certificates so you can see exactly what courses are required and you'll know okay if i want this certificate i need to take these courses these courses and then
092i'll have the certificate gotcha fantastic and then judge um a parent today asked uh they had the guardianship up until the age of 21. and then uh as we were talking about um if she wants to can can she reapply to get the guardianship of her daughter since it expired i wasn't 100 sure the way she explained it but the way that she explained it was that when when her daughter turned 21 she [Music] does that kind of sound right or not um so the guardianships um first of all you can apply up to six months prior to the 18th birthday but we can't appoint until the 18th birthday so typically it only takes like you know 90 days or 45 days for the assessment so even applying like three months before the 18th birthday
093is sufficient and these guardianships um many times they apply for them not only when they're 18 or 19 or 20 but even older we've had guardians appointed when the person's 40. so there is no expiration of these guardianships um they do they do continue their certificates of appointment may expire so they may have a certificate showing that they have this valid certificate for one year and they need to need to apply for a new certificate and if someone asks us for an updated certificate of appointment we're going to check and make sure that their file is up to date that they follow all proper guardianship reports that are due and that they've notified up in the address change etc so we'll make sure the file is up to order as we always do when we
094do our review hearings but there's no need to reapply gotcha kate did you have anything that you want to say just to kind of wrap things up um yeah i just wanted to um thank everybody for um participating again all the presenters there is a wealth of information um i'm sure that parents have been taking furious notes um and so i really do appreciate everything that was shared um judge german i think it was you that stated earlier what a difficult year this has been um for everyone and so i appreciate you know everyone um taking their time many of you out of your personal lives to participate in this and for parents for taking the time to join i also encourage you i think that a lot of this information is just kind of
095the basis and the foundation for what we um for what many of you as parents may need to really um fully understand all the ins and outs of each of the agencies that was discussed in programs that was discussed tonight so i encourage you as you look through the information and research it more to um kind of reiterating what mr kersten said earlier you know reach out to any of us on this panel um the school staff especially myself mr kirsten um your child's school counselor their case manager special education teachers we might not have all the answers but we know these individuals on the line will so if we don't we can help to connect you and get the answers for you um so um thank you again and i hope everyone has a
096wonderful night all right guys thank you everybody thank you thank you thank you