001All right, good afternoon everyone. Welcome and thank you for joining us for our May 19th um TEALA webinar. My name is Thomas Woodard and I will be your host for the day. A few reminders. This webinar is being recorded and the webinar the recording will be posted to our tea sped webinar site when we can. We have some website updates upcoming so that may be a little bit more delayed than usual. The chat feature is disabled. However, you may put questions in the Q&A section. The presenters will review your submissions and respond accordingly. Your questions do support us with clarifications and future FAQs, so please add them. Today's agenda includes four topics. Our first topic today is ESA appeals with Ed O'Neal. Ed, if you want to take it from here. Oh, actually um we
002are we're working through the it's just a general update. We're working through the appeals um as you as we start to get them. We're getting them right now. We're getting them twice a week from the controllers's office. Um we are outreaching each LEA based on um what the appeal is after we go through it. Um, that may look like a message through uh the Apex platform, that may look like an email, that may look like a phone call, just depending on what the circumstances. Um, everything that is related to the appeals um will be initiated by us to the the school districts. Um, if you have families that are outreaching you asking about uh TEA appeals or asking about documentation, please route them to Odyssey and the comproller. Um we will we're working with Odyssey
003and the controller to process everything. But um anything that is necessary to um close out an appeal or address an appeal um we will communicate directly with you all as in your school districts and school systems to get that done. Um it won't come through any other means. So if you don't hear from us um you're you're all set and don't worry about it. Um as of right now we've had about u about 150 sent to us. Um the families have 30 days from the notice that of funding to do their appeal. Um most of them got their notice the very end of April to the beginning of um May. So we're not expecting a whole bunch more to come through, but um we'll outreach you all as as that comes up. If you have
004questions, please um you know, feel free to use the Apex ESA um at TEA email as always um and we'll work through it. Um, and I know we're working with the ESC's to make sure they're up to gig as well, so they can support you all. So, >> hey Ed, can you can you back up just a little bit and just explain the context of appeals and what's happening just for people who might not be familiar with this appeal process? >> Sure. So, um, appeals um the appeals the appeals document went out through the ESC's last week as well. I can pull it up in a second as we're talking. Um but um [clears throat] they the appeals um families can file an appeal based on um their award notification. Um the comproller put very
005specific parameters on what they'll consider for um a TEFL appeal. Um and then um you know their the the families can submit the appeal to the comproller and Odyssey their vendor um on things like um maybe the document wasn't complete that was submitted to TEA for an IEP um or a more recent IEP that was within the window prior to the closing of the application on March 31st um just wasn't loaded. Um those are examples of things we've seen. um documentation that exists outside of the application window is still not being considered. Um so those are really some of the spaces we're seeing if um for whatever reason if a family applied for a TEA application and just missed that they needed to outreach their district to have a document uploaded into Apex. Um that's
006another example. And then any situation where we possibly um could not verify a student if maybe they um mistyped the UID number or mistyped the uh birthday. We've seen that second second example where um you know the birth date was the 18th and they accidentally bumped the 17th so they couldn't verify the student. So those are things that we're working through. Some of those more procedural things were able to clear without having to go to the district. Um if it is a document like an IEP or an R document that we need will go to the district. Um and if it's a a UID issue like we can't verify the student, we're outreaching the district to help clarify that. But, um, I think as of right now, last week we had the first batch of,
007uh, appeals we got was 35 students. Um, and we outreach about 26 districts related to those. >> Okay. Thanks. Um, I'm not hearing the echo, but I know we've gotten reports of an echo. Um, are we still >> That's happened. I don't know. And that's happened before. And sometimes people have two Zooms open for >> I was going to say previously that's what it's been causing. So I just looked up a few of y'all and y'all have two different rows for your name. So just make sure you're logged into one account and then it should >> Yeah, that happened before. Thank you, Kelly. >> All right. Thank you, Ed. Would you like to go right into the day program funding aotment discussion? >> Sure. I can jump to that. Let me share my screen. Perfect.
008Thank you. Okay. Um so this is related to the um excuse me um what's lost my train of thought for a second. We we issued a two administrator addressed um notice last week and that I'll I'll actually reference some of the things in there as well. Um, and there's actually a link at the end of this document to that TDA if you missed it. So, um, this is related to co-op funding for, uh, day placement programs. Um, a day placement program is a highly specialized structured environment where art committees can place students who need those highly specialized environments and those settings that are um, outside what's offer offered on the regular campus. Um again they're they deliver highly specialized evidence-based um settings low studentto staff ratios um while providing FAPE and art committees at the
009time of placement um as one of the requirements um need to consider least restrictive environment and what steps the student would need to um what skills the students would need to demonstrate what what um circumstances would be need to be in place for those students to be able to access a less restrictive environment in the future. When we look at Texas as a whole, uh there are 19 programs currently that are approved with contracts um for day treatment and an additional five programs that are residentially placed that also offer some day treatment. Um when we look at the breakdown um they're obviously, as you can see from the map, they're very consolidated into um kind of our major urban areas and more to um south and east Texas and central. Um there's not a lot
010of options north, there's no options further south, and there's definitely not a lot of options west. So, the limited day placement options create a few different challenges. Um, one, for students that require that level of care, uh, they're often not being educated or able to access that level of programming in their communities. Um, they're on buses for extended periods of time or transportation. And in some circumstances, um, even with transportation, that's still not really a viable option because the distance is so great. So, in some circumstances, students who would potentially be candidates for a residential placement if one existed um that was within a certain geographical area to where they're located actually end up in a residential program because that's really the only option to get them the level of support and service they need.
011So, um, out of the most recent session, the legislature, uh, a lot gave us, you know, the ability to, um, provide some foundational funding and and create some spaces where, um, we could help encourage these programs to operate and increase capacity across the state of Texas. Um, they'll the funds will flow through the foundation school program. These are county level programs that will allow you know multiple districts and eleas within a within a community within a county to access programming. Um and really with that ultimate goal of just increasing capacity um for day treatment and and kind of addressing the issues I talked about in the previous slide. So eligibility for the aotment is is defined as any uh educational service center uh traditional school district or open enrollment charter school can apply for the
012funding. Um ex any of those entities with an existing date placement op program currently are also eligible to apply just as part of their application. and they would need to talk about um expanding or how they would move adjust to meet the needs of the community. Um within the person, the entity that is applying for the program, we're referring to them as the program administrator. Um when they apply, they will define the scope of the program, what the program looks like as far as population and some things like that, but then they'll also establish what the rates are for participating eleas. So, um, we'll get into the funding a little bit in in a few moments, but really there's kind of multiple sets of funding that'll play to make these programs viable and operate as
013we move forward. And as I mentioned, the aotment is really uh existing to establish that base level of funding to allow these programs to operate. Um, when uh we released the application and it was in the TA, the application opened on the 15th last Friday. Um but when the program administrator applies um they will identify you know what the program looks like the capacity for the program um you know it might be a a K12 program for students with emotional disabilities. It could be um you [clears throat] know functional life skills and and students with autism and and things like that. Um but it'll be you know defined in the application so that we can you see what it looks like and again the focus is for those types of programs that will support students
014that need beyond what is typically offered on a regular campus. As we go through the opt applications uh we'll have two two staff from TEA uh review and score the applications. there's going to be 100 points possible. Um and then a cumulative a or uh an average of those will be generated to give a component score or composite and then we'll rank those. Um we are able to on an annual basis we're going to be able to uh approve and fund 20 programs per school year and no more than one uh program within a county. So this over this summer we'll approve 20 and we'll kind of talk about a timeline as we move forward. TA encourages school systems and those different entities within counties to um work together and work collaboratively to apply for
015and and build programs to meet the community's needs. Um when the program administrator applies, they will actually identify what county they're applying for. Uh we recognize that we have school districts that span counties at times and and we absolutely have ESC's that represent all the counties within their um regional boundaries. So during the the administrator or during the program administrator's application, they'll specify what county they're applying for. So we know that um if at the end of the day we have multiple programs um coming from the same county and there isn't a space to work collaboratively to build one program um it will be based on scoring which one we're able to move forward with and and ultimately approve. um you know considering all the funding and the number of applications we have um unless
016as I mentioned this before unless it's granted a waiver by commissioner um a program that is approved um is required to support all students within that county that meet the program parameters. So again, if you know the program administrator ultimately, you know, defines a program for the county that is approved, then it is um you know, middle school and high school life skills and functional life skills. Um a student that is in second grade that is you know on the spectrum um is obviously outside of the the age range of middle school and high school. So that would not be um a placement they would be expected to take. Um similarly if the design of the program is you know six classrooms with a capacity of 50 students um once that capacity is reached that
017student number 51 or 52 um that program would not be necessarily required to take those students um because the capacity has been reached. These programs are required to operate no differently than our date placement programs. So the minimum standards that we um have established under um the tech and TAC everything under 89104 um and 48304 and like I said the minimum standards under Texas Education Code 2908 will all be expected to um be used and and followed and I'll show links to those at the very end. Um, as far as funding is actually working, the the first year of operation, um, programs selected for cooperative funding will get $250,000. And again, that will flow through the FSP, foundational school program. For subsequent years, it's it's $100,000. And if on October 1st there are more than
018three students enrolled in the program and attending, there's potential there's another $150,000 um again that goes on top of that for additional base funding for a total of $250,000 per year. The legislature did not put a end date or or you know a longitudinal date related to that figure. So once the program goes into operation and supporting a county, you know, you have multiple students greater than three on an annual basis, um as long as all the requirements are met related to tech and TAC, um that foundational program funding at $250,000 a year will continue for each year. And then the benefit for, you know, capacity is again we can add up to 20 programs each year. So, we'll go through this first round this year. Um, with 20 programs, we'll be able to look
019at, you know, open an application window again for the following year to start the 2728 school year. And there's a timeline at the end that shows a little bit what that'll look like. Um, actually, here's the timeline. So, for this year, right now, this first application run, as I mentioned, the application open on February 15th. It's based in Qualrix. Um, there's a link in the TA and I have a link um in a few slides that shows you where everything is. Um we're doing the um obviously we're doing this webinar right now and then um we've also established in May and June a set of um kind of like open office hours where folks can drop in and meet with our staff to talk about applications to talk about um questions they might have for
020program establish a program >> and then um the the application are ultimately due June 30th for this first round. Um because this is tied to rule and related to rule, um we intend to provide preliminary award in July and then the rule will go into effect in September and then after the rule goes into effect, we'll be able to provide final award. Um we would expect that to be within two weeks because we're pushing the funding through the foundational school program. Um that funding will actually be able to move forward really quickly. um typically within 30 to 45 days of us notifying um our finance [clears throat] folks to move the money forward, they'll be able to flow it directly to districts. So that's kind of the the first um goround of timeline for this
021first cycle. And then um for the for the 2728 or during the 2627 school year as we think about the 2728 school year, this will be the timeline we'll look at. Um, obviously the con timeline right now is a little consolidated and collapsed as we're trying to um push as much um as we can and get it as fast into the field to help support these programs. But for the 2728 school year, it's a little more um extended um with, you know, applications opening later this fall with notice in in you know, early spring um to give more time to um build out the runway. We recognize especially with this first round um for the you know it is May um current operators or programs or districts that have programs um they may need a
022little bit of time to you know expand or grow. So part of the application is the program administrator will identify um their operating date of when they'll start to take students from um participating eleas in the county. So, um it's not necessarily that like you have to be, you know, fully operational and ready to go, you know, September 1st because that's when the funding is. We we recognize that for some um programs and program administrators, some of this funding might be used to improve facilities or do some of the things that are going to be necessary to increase the increase the um program to meet the capacity of the of the county. So, we built that into the application as well. Um kind of the key takeaways are you know this is really a system
023to provide that base level or foundational funding to programs to be able to you know carry and move forward. Um the the overall funding will flow from multiple streams. You have uh a program that is approved under this aotment will have this base level of funding. the program administrator, any students that they're placing in their program are drawing from from tier funding and and you know standard um funding formula and then they're going to establish rates daily rates of tuition to access the program by districts that are and eleas that are in the county. So, it's kind of those three funding streams that work in conjunction that will um that will flow and and create the operating program. Again, [clears throat] school districts, open enrollment charter schools, and ESC's are all entities that can apply
024for this um and you know, go through the application process and be an administrator. Um the agency can can award no more than um one per county and no more than 20 per um year and kind of define what that year is so people can think about timing. Any student that is eligible and meets the requirements of the program and resides in the county or is their district is in the county for which the program operates is eligible [clears throat] to go to the program based on NR committee decision as long as they meet those requirements and you know the demographics the the the focus of the program um their um you know the age group the and everything else like that that we talked about. And then again, first year funding is $250,000 and
025then subsequent year funding is up to an additional $250,000 with that 150 split 100 automatically and if greater than three students it becomes 100 an additional $150,000 and all funding will flow through the foundational school program. Um as um I mentioned um the the TA the resources and materials um the TAA on the co-op funding and a lotment is linked here. Um we'll post the slides um after this um guidance around the new funding allotment. These are all things that were linked in the TAA. Uh and and additionally the minimum standards so folks can see what the minimum standards are for date programs. Um any questions we get dropped in here through the chat, we'll make sure we're able to address um in kind of subsequent materials or pushing out through the ESC's. If you
026have questions after this, you can email them to day program funding at tea.t texas.gov um or you know jump [clears throat] on one of the um the you know open kind of office hour sessions I mentioned or or flow them through your ESC so we can make sure that we get them um answered. Thanks so much, Ed. Sounds like a great opportunity from some of the unders part of Texas. >> We're excited to be able to, you know, that the legislature gave us the resources to be able to do this and and really increase capacity to help kids um and and school districts support kids in our communities. >> That's a great opportunity. All right. So now I'm going to pass it to Michelle who's going to talk to us about educational residential placements, give
027us a statutory overview and rulemaking timelines. So Michelle, take it away. >> Excellent. Thanks so much, Thomas. Let me get my screen shared here. Um, let's see. second screen here. Okay. Is that sharing? Okay. >> Yeah. If you'll just pop it in presentation mode, it look perfect. >> Awesome. There we go. Thanks, Thomas. I appreciate that. Um, okay. Well, good afternoon everybody. My name is Michelle Selenus. I'm the director of day and residential programs here at TEA. Um, so the program aotment that Dr. O'Neal actually just went over will be running out of my shop. Um, so as everybody else has kind of already indicated, we're really excited for the opportunity. We're excited for LEAs to have the opportunity to hopefully build that day capacity across the state. Um, but today I'm here to talk
028with you about something a little different. Um, I want to talk a little bit about um, educational residential placements and a new AR requirement that will be effective for the 2627 school year. Um, when I use the term educational residential placements, I just kind of want to call out this was formally non-public residential placements. Um, and so today I'm going to talk a little bit just kind of for information only, um, some new AR requirements that will, um, be effective upon rule adoption. I'll get into all of that as we kind of go through the slides here. Um, so today's purpose again is just anformational update. Um we will also provide implementation guidance after rule is adopted. But today I just kind of wanted to familiarize you with um what came out of the 89th
029legislative session. So first here um some state supported living center materials have been developed by health and human services and these are the materials that will be shared out through an um art committee requirement. Um, so today I wanted to just kind of remind you of the existing statutory requirements. Um, give you a review of our anticipated rulemaking time frames and then also talk a little bit about LEA next steps. All righty. So for just a little background here out of the 89th legislative session, um, Texas Education Code 29.0056 0056 added requirements around school systems providing materials to parents regarding educational residential placement options for children who may qualify for placement in a stateup supported living center or SSLC. Um if you're not familiar with state supported living centers, uh those are operated by health
030and human services. They are residential programs that serve individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Um again these materials were developed by the health and human services commission and the materials are already available now on the Texas bed support website. So up here to the right where you see the state supported living centers kind of hyperlink. I put that there for you all if you just kind of want to familiar familiarize yourselves a little more with state supported living centers. And then below that is an actual visual of the brochure that Health and Human Services created. And this is the actual material that would be shared with parents in an ARD meeting where educational residential placements are discussed. In terms of our proposed rule making, um we have proposed rules to implement tech 29.0056. Um what
031we've outlined in rule is that it would require that these materials be provided at each AR committee meeting where residential placement is discussed. So just kind of calling out here for everybody this is not a one-time requirement. This would be an ongoing requirement and these would be provided each time um residential placement is discussed at an art committee meeting. Uh these rules were recently in public comment um from April 10th to May 11th. Um and again these requirements are not final until rule is adopted and we do anticipate that rule being adopted late August, early September. So what can eas do now to prepare for the new requirement? Um one thing is to become familiar with tech 29.0056. >> [clears throat] >> and also to become familiar with those state supported living centerformational materials that
032live on the Texas fed support website. Um also I'd encourage [clears throat] eleas to monitor tea communications related to final rule adoption and then after that subsequently we will be putting out implementation guidance for eleas. So what comes next is again after that rule adoption tea will provide implementation guidance for eleas. We're going to push out that information a number of ways. One, I'm going to make sure that this is kind of pushed out in the tea sped newsletters. We will also house all um materials, guidance documents, um implementation guides on our special education day and residential programs web page. And then I will also be re return be returning to an ESC Zoom as well as an LEA webinar to kind of present and walk through that implementation guidance for LEAs. And that's it
033for me. Pretty quick and sweet. If you have any questions, um myself or my team can be reached at sped day and residential at tea.ex.gov. And just kind of a little call out here, um that's our new email address, our old email address. um was had non-public in it and we're kind of moving away from from that terminology. But if you already have that kind of saved in your browser and your email, it will forward to our new email address. Just kind of want to call out that this is a new email address for um my program and my team. And that's all I got. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you Michelle. Great information as always. and I was able to pull up the link to the state supported state supported living center through Texas
034bed support pretty easily just with a quick Google search. So, thanks for for laying that out. Um, okay. Next up, we have Kristen Maguire who's going to talk to us about uh special ed funding and any updates. Take it away. >> Okay. Um, hello everyone. I'm Kristen Magcguire. from deputy commissioner of our office of special populations and student supports. So happy to join you today. Um I wanted to just make sure um obviously we are uh kind of in the thick of uh talking through our uh transition over to the service intensity model. wanted to make sure that um we kind of update you on uh some updates from what we have made to our uh website and web page around um special education funding. Uh did just want to point out um something brand
035new that we just posted yesterday is a related services Q&A. So we've had some questions uh from the field around um just you know generally how we're viewing related services how those are uh considered into um the calculation into the funding. So this document kind of serves a couple of purposes. One is of course to just kind of talk through what related services are. Um also it addresses speech. So we've had quite a few questions around speech therapy. when is that a related service? When is that an instructional service? So that is addressed in this document. Um and uh it also has some questions in relation to the intensity of services model and how you uh consider related services uh into that model. So just want to make sure that you are aware of that
036so that you can access uh look through those questions. Again, continue to send us questions, comments, um, uh, suggestions on how we can help clarify as well. Also just wanted to point out that um as we make any changes to our funding framework or u the funding tool itself uh we are kind of uh mentioning what those changes are so that you can see excuse me you can see uh kind of what the uh um extent of those changes are. Now again, our changes that we're making from here are not intended to be kind of a substantive change to the framework. Um so, you know, as uh districts get started and looking through and um you know, using the tool and the framework, we're not expecting you to go back to um any uh data
037you've already looked through, but it is uh you know, obviously the field is helping us to make clarifications um uh as we move along. So, just wanted to let you know that we also made some updates to um our FAQ. Uh >> [clears throat] >> uh a couple of weeks ago. I think on the 7th was the last time we um updated. So, just want to make sure that you're aware of uh updates. When we do update or add new ones, we will uh put the date and then indicate whether it's an update or um new. So again, also want to just remind you of our opportunities to um engage in uh feedback or questions. Um you know, we have these webinars of course. Um you can always email our our email address around sped
038funding. And then every Thursday we're hosting um uh office hours from 9:00 to 9:30 and 4:00 to 4:30 where you're welcome to come and ask questions as you have um you know suggestions on what can help uh the field understand um this transition. Obviously we are um happy to hear them. U so we want to try and partner with you. We know this is a very very significant shift um and a lot a lot of material and a lot of um you know resources here but again I we know that can be somewhat intimidating sometimes when there's you know when we try to put as many resources out there but then of course don't want to overwhelm you with the resources. So as you have suggestions on how we can help um obviously again happy
039um to try and and partner with you as much as we can. So you know best uh you know best method to ask individual questions is our zoom office hours but again um happy to you know your the questions that are sent in to the email address and that we hear from your ESC leadership uh obviously help us um update those FAQs and provide guidance. So, uh, I really just wanted to, um, uh, mention those updates and, um, uh, I think again, as you have those questions, send them in and, uh, we are happy to try and, and help out. >> Thank you, Kristen. It's great to see how how quick y'all were able to turn around that uh, FAQ for related services. Thank you'all for doing that. >> Of course. >> So, that concludes
040our agenda for today for the webinar. Those of you who have asked questions in the Q&A, if they [clears throat] weren't answered live, know that I will capture them after the meeting and we will get a response to you afterwards. I just want to reiterate that typically this recording is posted pretty quick after the meeting, but due to some updates to website, it may be a little bit longer. So, if you have any specific questions, feel free to reach out to panelists that you see here today um or any of the the mailboxes that they described for their project or program. Okay, thank you so much for your attendance and we look forward to seeing you next time.