001okay perfect first I'd like to um if I could just have one second we have a new member of tea that is joining us this morning so you'll see him on there his name is Charlie Kusha and he is as of yesterday come over to be on the ESC and stakeholder support team so that's the team that uh where I'm located and I asked him if he could come today and just be a shadow and meet you lovely people and see what the CAC is all about so welcome Charlie we're glad you could be here with us this morning morning everyone glad to be here with you thank you thank you Charli okay Amy I will turn it over to you okay welcome to today's February meeting of the continuing advisory committee for tea um
002I'm excited that we're all here today I'm excited that we get to do some of our annual business um who's excited about elections um and I'm excited that we get to refresh and restart our work to help um kids in Texas get a better education so um Stephanie would you like to go over our um purpose and our meeting agenda sure absolutely okay so CAC members duties you advise tea of unmet needs within the state and the education of children with disabilities you comment publicly on any rules or regulations proposed by the state regarding the education of children with disabilities you advise tea in developing evaluations and Reporting on data to the secretary under Section 618 of the ACT advis tea in developing corrective action plans to address findings identified and federal monitoring reports under
003Part B of the ACT advise tea in developing and implementing policies relating to the coordination of services for children with disabilities and advice to EA in setting standards related to significant disproportionality determination today's meeting um is as follows we have our wel an opening which we just had um going to go over the agenda and just talked about the meeting guidelines so first we're going to have some updates from tea we have Christen McGuire with us this morning and then we're going to have public comments if any um if anyone is on here that would like to make a public comment or if you're in the if you're physically at esc13 if you will let the chair or the vice chair know um that you would like to make a public comment public comments will
004be uh received from 9:00 to 9:30 and then um they will be heard after tea updates following that we will have CAC officer elections of the chair Vice chair and secretary then we'll review and approve the meeting minutes discuss recommend take possible action on current meetings and future meeting topics and set future dates and then adjourn so that is what's on the agenda for today okay so are we ready for tea updates and sure Kristen would you like to good morning Kristen welcome good morning hope everyone is staying warm um it's way too cold for my taste but um the weather did not ask me what my what my uh preference was so here we are so hope everybody's staying warm and um appreciate you joining me I think you can can you see my
005uh slide deck okay all right so I just prepared some um General updates for you on uh some of our kind of goings on um and uh happy to share this deck with uh Stephanie um to to then share with you if you would like um also um you know we'll continue to keep you updated as we move along through the session um right now of course with the session um uh no kind of real active movement on um legislation yet which is fairly typical for this time in the session just because we have a lot of bills but um the house just formed their uh committees last week so so um we expect that to start start to move here um pretty quickly in the next couple of weeks so just um in terms
006of a couple of rule updates that we've made in the last few months um just one to uh uh keep you informed about is a rule regarding our state um uh facilitated IEP process we did change some rules in um uh in the last few months around kind of when those the state facilitation process could be used and so um originally or prior to this amendment um they were not um it was not allowed to be used for these purposes here listed in the bullets but it now um uh is allowed so this is a facilitation process of course that has to be agreed upon by both parties but it can be requested um and then an independent facilitator would be assigned if they are available we made some uh recent changes to our graduation
007rule in relation to students with disabilities um that is in 89107 of the Texas administrative code um and so really it was uh more clarification than anything else um in terms of just kind of questions we had received from the field so we wanted to make sure we clarified what the intent um uh had been and so um you will uh able to kind of look at those amendments and then I wanted wanted to just let you know of some um project updates that we uh have going on the um parent directed special education services program so pdscs this is known in statute currently as supplemental special education services so you've heard it probably referred to as sses um we uh kind of changed how we administer the program um with that name um to
008pdss just because uh we wanted to make sure we were kind of truly referencing what what the program is um so the application window for pdss is now open so that is open um until March 31st so we have received over 40,000 um applications so far since February 3rd when it opened so um the word is out that it is available so encourage you to let your um um you know your stakeholders and your um networks know that that application is out uh in terms of some grant opportunities just wanted to let you know that currently there is um a we have we have many grants that are um out in implementation right now and being administered but one that is currently open is a window around Early Childhood um special education so um there
009is some there are funds available to help leas and service centers um get training um on particular ecse Early Childhood issues um and topics as well as helping cover costs of uh certification exams um and then other types of training so that is uh currently an application window that's open for our leas um which of course leas include districts and charter schools and also our service centers uh we have um as as most of you know we've had some autism grants um that were specifically appropriated in our um state budget for um the uh the last several years and so um currently we kind we have our 2024 2026 cycle of Grants going on um there was 20 million appropriated across the bayum for those and uh 10 applications were awarded and so we will
010um continue to um you know track the administration and sort of implementation of those grants um and be able to give you some more information about uh you know kind of what the what those funds were used for um as we continue to to monitor those other project highlights um that are uh fairly recent is um of course last session there were uh there was legislation passed around the driving with disability program this again of course um added a uh component that school districts um need to let families know um about this program if um they have students who may have a um impairment that may impede communication um with peace officers and so uh We've created some resources around that for our school district to uh communicate that we are um continuing to work
011on some updates to the Texas transition and employment guide so we will publish that later this school year as well and then just some general um Deen heart of hearing resource updates um we did launch um a new Grant with University of Houston to develop some self-paced um online modules for teachers of the deaf and heart of hearing um and so that um that is currently open for a 2025 uh start and then uh the de blind supplemental teacher certification is launching in September of 2025 and so our state board uh for educator certification is making those um you know final tweaks to get that uh certification available one of the things that we have actively pursued at the agency is to get support um within our regional service centers of course there are 20
012um across the state and so um we have what we call special education liaison and then we have um a newer type of position called strategic integration Liaisons and so um or Sills um and so these uh these positions um work both in um kind of compliance um uh assistance as well as um student outcome um targeting student outcomes and how the service centers can help support with your kind of systems level um changes that might need to be made to um improve student outcomes and so we're excited that the um Sills is at the point where we are kind we are actively um engaging those positions within the esc's and that they are now available to help support um leas in their region in terms of some resources just launched fairly recently we have
013some collaboration and flexible grp grouping courses that were developed that uh give some um some good detail to both um uh special Educators and general Educators around um as well as instructional leaders well um around how to develop skills in collaboration and those flexible um grouping uh decisions and data driven decision making we also have some um kind of quick uh Snippets of videos that we've created around we're calling them quick learns that go over kind of some of these major components of special education and sort of the best practices around co- teing and the core principles of um of that Dynamic so those are recently out of course you can find reference to these in our Texas sped support uh website we did launch fairly recently an at support website that talks about um
014it gives resources on on assistive technology uh devices and uh resources and as well as kind of integrating those um into the school system so we're excited to kind of see sort of we're at sort of the Baseline um uh posting of that and kind of see where that might take us um as I've mentioned before the state is transitioning um uh away from using a disability eligibility category of non-category Le for our early early U childhood uh Learners to developmental delay now of course these are not the same um definition they're they're quite different and so um we have created a kind of quick guide and frequently ask questions document to um accompany that uh that change and then a kind of quick guide on students who transfer we get a lot of questions
015from the field about what um schools need to do for um kids that transfer in from inst state or out of state um I realize I still left the coming soon on that but that is actually posted on Texas bed support uh um now if you have any interest in that um excited about um being able to do this um so this is um an effort that we are launching to get more um kind of devices and supplies and resources into the hands of our um leas for students with visual impairments so we are in the process of procuring um these refreshable Braille Monarch tablets uh for students whose primary medium is Braille So currently um in the state we have 338 um students who's uh who have been reported that Braille is their primary
016medium so we are um in uh the process of procuring those which are valued between1 15,000 and $188,000 each um to get those into the hands of our students as well as providing training to their teachers around the use of those tablets so um definitely excited to see uh how we can best support um the use of those if if that is something that uh works for those students and then um we are purchasing specific um kind of early readers that offer um Braille to we are getting those to um service centers so that our leas can uh check those out from their service centers so these are uh books that look the same as other early readers um and uh just happen to have Grail so we're hoping that um we can get some
017some more resources out to the field in relation to those early readers and being um inclusive of uh the classroom settings again as I referenced um Texas bed support is the website that houses most of our um uh resources around special education for the field for our practitioners so encourage you to look up um any uh information that you'd be interested in on that website um all of this data I think I've shown you before I just put it in here just as a reference point so that you have it if you wanted to access that so essentially the um the the number of students identified for special education we do not yet have the 2024 25 um numbers that um you know as of the October fall snapshot we'll get that here in the
018next few weeks I believe um so next meeting I will probably have some updated numbers and then evaluations this this is the number of initial special education evaluations that were completed in previous school years and then uh I know I've talked through these next several slides around um identification of Dyslexia specifically and kind of what the service um delivery and programs um those students were identified under and then of course the um primary disability categories that we see uh within the state stay fairly um fairly stable uh you know do switch a little bit uh from time to time but we um do of course continue to have specific learning disability as the uh sort of top identified disability or primary disability through special education and then you'll see the others below that um this
019is in relation to State assessment um and how students with disabilities who are served through special education are fairing so again we continue to focus on how we can help support the Improvement of student outcomes one of which of course is the state assessment but um obviously not uh the end all be all and then graduation and dropout rate comparison as well so those are quick updates I have for you um happy to try and and take any questions or feedback um uh otherwise uh I will let you get on with your meeting does anyone have any questions for Kristen yes Amy uh this is Kevin with TWC I I did have a couple of questions uh Kristen you said that you would be able to share the the slide Deck with us correct yes
020yes okay awesome the other question I had was um on your comments relating to the uh the Braille display uh devices I think you mentioned Monarch tablets or something like that that's something I I'm not familiar with is is that a relatively new piece of technology I mean I'm aware of the Braille displays that that interface with a laptop or with a you know an iPad or something like that but is this um is this kind of a a next level or next Generation yes yes that's definitely my understanding and I can def I can send you more information about these tablets um from our um uh specialist who works um who focuses in this area but yeah this is um we would in as far as I understand we would be the first state
021in in getting all of our students whose primary medium is Braille um these particular devices okay wow and you said they're like 15,000 a copy or something yeah yeah they're they're quite um quite pricey but um they from you know what our specialist has um gathered from his National conversations as that because they are you know refreshable and because of the use they look kind of like iPads basically um that they are um you know definitely uh something worth exploring and keeping up so you know we're willing to kind of invest in that and see how we can help support and then you know if if that um you know if if that continues that it is kind of this you know more Innovative technology and continues on that path we will continue to purchase
022those as students you know enter and exit hey excellent no I I appreciate the information I I'm not aware whether or not it's on our approved uh at uh devices but I'm certainly GNA follow up on it because that sounds like a really Innovative device so that that's great yeah yeah definitely send some information through through Stephanie to send to you thank you it it would be really awesome if we could get like interviews from or like data from the students that actually use it once we actually have the equipment because it's one thing for you know the state of Texas to buy this new state-ofthe-art thing but if it doesn't work for people we need to know that absolutely agree yes absolutely or why they like it yes yes because then we can add
023more to the budget potentially if we can prove that people actually are benefiting from it absolutely yes I agree and we will make sure and and and do that and continue to keep you posted on that thank you of course anyone else okay I don't see anyone else so uh thank you so much Kristen for being here I appreciate that and whenever you have an opportunity to get that deck to me I will send it to all of the CAC members absolutely thank you thanks all right Amy in checking the my email the CAC inbox I do not have anybody that has notified me that they would like to make a public comment so I don't know if you have anybody there physically with you that would like to make a public comment no one
024has come to us so okay I think I think it's time to move to our next agenda item okay all right so no public comments so now we're we will have uh CAC elections the roles are chair uh Vice chair and secretary so I had emailed you guys a list of what those duties look like I had pulled them off the bylaws so you um should have had an opportunity to review those and um typically uh the way that this has worked before if anybody wants a particular role you just just say it and then people can put in the chat yay or nay and that's kind of how we've done it before so Amy which one do you wanted to start with do you want to start with secretary and move that way or
025do you have a preference start with secretary okay so is there anybody that is interested in being the secretary Stephanie I'd like to continue in that role okay so Janie has expressed an a desire to continue she's the current Secretary so if you drop in chat if you agree with that you can just send a yes or if you do not agree with that you can send a no and then I'll take a look at those okay so looks like the majority has voted voted yes so congratulations Janie you continue to be our secretary thank you for offering to fill that role okay we can move on to Vice chair currently um Aaron is vice chair so um any interest from anybody who would would like to be Vice chair uh and vice chair doesn't
026have any particular length of service terms on it right like the chair does correct anybody can be Vice chair correct I'm happy to continue serving in that role if folks would like me too oh thank you Aon anybody else like to throw their name in the Hat NOP okay so if you are in favor of Aaron continuing in the role of Vice chair please put that in chat okay eron it looks like the yes is haveit so congratulations thank you for offering to fill that role again this year we appreciate your service to the CAC and last but not least we have the chair the position of chair currently we know that is Amy um anybody want to throw their their name out there for chair you have to have served on the committee for
027at least a year correct I i' like to nominate um a continue her position I it takes a lot of dedication especially in this cold weather and being there yeah you're you're right Jam yeah so um if you or Amy do you accept that nomination um I will accept if no one else feels led to venture okay all right well you're already getting some yeses in the chat Amy yes to Amy yes to Amy's chair yes for Amy yes for Amy it's youve got your cheerleading squad going on um so it looks like confidence guys yeah all right congratulations Miss Amy you are the chair so thank you all right so it's going to remain the same as it was last year that'll be easy to remember Jamie as secretary Aaron as Vice chair and
028Amy as chair so thanks guys for your votes appreciate it right the next thing is unless you have any other business um we didn't have any other business items up here today it would be to review and approve the minutes um andless unless you want to talk about possible dates for a next meeting and then any items that you would like to have discussed at the next meeting we can do that first because then it could be captured in yes Stephanie real quick um when will the uh our annual uh report be posted to the website yeah that's a great question thank you for bringing that up we appreciate it um right now it's with the um governance Division and once they post it on their website they'll let me know and then I'll have
029it posted on the CAC website so I can shot you guys an email once that happens and then I can actually attach the final report if that would be helpful that way you don't have to go back and keep checking the website and a link to the website please yes of course absolutely no problem so do we want to consider possible dates like or agenda items or agenda items either one um got my pen ready ready to take notes we've usually done it in June assuming that the legislature finishes on time that's my recollection right yeah um okay um speaking of which would you like like me to give a presentation on um Bill highlights or do we think that'll be soon we'll have S Amy are you asking for our next meeting or or
030right now for our meeting because it'll be in June do you have that information available right now Amy because if if you do that would be excellent well um it's still too early just because we just formed um committees in the house but I'm thinking by the time we get to June we might even have some signed so that's why we didn't put it on today's agenda okay we can add it to the June agenda and then whatever you have available at the top if you would like to share that'd be I think you know that's that's what I'm hearing you say it's your agenda you tell me but I've tentatively put that down yeah we'll we'll put that down and we'll see what we have okay perfect there may be a coming soon right
031another session right we'll see um some sort of presentation and discussion of what's Happening of legis islation that did or did not pass in this session yeah is there anything we need to hear from tea for June do we have any questions that we want updated perhaps from today maybe in light of just the the current Dynamics with the Department of Ed um there's any updates you know by then maybe things have kind of settled and we'll kind of know the lay of the land but maybe some sort of update related to the you know the federal arm of the department so Federal updates okay I have written that down um we don't know that we'll have new appointees in June but if we do we should give them some time to introduce themselves okay
032all right I have that anything else question for the committee at large is there anybody is there any external group that you would like to invite to make a presentation to the committee that would help us um formulate the next um set of policy recommendations or that you would like a follow up on the policy recommendations we just made that might be a homework activity between the meetings is to reread the report and email us back with oh I want to follow up on fill in the blank and then that can help us add to Future agendas do we want to put a Amy kind of in that vein do we want to put an agenda item for June that is um basically discussion and possible action on following up from this uh past reports
033recommendations yes I think a formal discussion needs to happen especially for open meetings uh Amy and Aon this is you know my first go around uh with CAC uh you know during session but how typically and historically how is uh the report viewed and and how is it uh how do it interact with the the current process well that's a good question to ask me uh because because when I'm not the chair I'm also a policy Advocate professionally so I don't typically go around advocating as the chair of the committee but um I do often pick out specific recommendations that are in line with um other advocacy coalitions um and you know the C the CAC also thinks this is a good idea um as a group or you know the CAC has this information
034in the report that ws itself so I don't necessarily say that you know we agree with such and such Coalition but I say that we are highlighting specific areas that need work that are supported by these other Advocates um does that answer your question yes I I think so I think so it's um I guess I'll learn more in June on you know maybe how the report was used or in in what ways I I know that it typically gets read um I've never seen it referenced in hearings before yet but that that would be sort of a hey they're they're hearing us kind of moment but um they're definitely reading it and they're asking questions Kevin I would add a couple things so during the session so as a as a CAC Committee Member
035we're not allowed to in that capacity before against any particular Bill however as a private citizen you're welcome to do the advocacy however you see fit um you know I think uh kind of picking up one Amy said one of the uses of a report is to be able to put that information out there to the public and let uh groups that are an advocacy role be able to point to that in addition to their own work to support their advocacy see in certain areas um one thing I would mention is um the governor's committee on people with disabilities one of its statutory requirements is to point to um State body's um strategic plans and and recommendations and things like that so if you go to gov. texas.gov disabilities um they should have links to
036uh our report of be published the the newer one will be published soon uh as well as you know the developmental disabilities Council and their of course their own policy recommendations and kind of down the list so um that's a great place to kind of link out to what other groups are doing um that you know may uh directly or indirectly affect um students with disabilities in the um not just K12 that we kind of focus on but even in in higher education so and then so that's kind of during the session then after the session there's usually a period where everybody's going like okay what does that all mean for us um so I could would expect Stephanie and and Kristen will will try to give us that information as soon as they know
037what the legislature provided in terms of funding provided in terms of guidance uh on what they want to see and what they're you know requiring what changes they may require and so forth so um June is typically a little early to know exact what's going on but we may have the outlines of things and of course that assumes that things don't get pushed into special sessions after our June date in which case we'll just have to do it in our third quarter meeting right okay thank you Stephanie send out that information from Monarch so we don't have to pull it from the chat sure um um Janie are you ready with the minutes or do you need more time well I'm sorry actually I can can we discuss that did we discuss at all a
038possible meeting dates for June no oh yeah that's true yeah we need to because that's summer break for me and I'm going to be out for that way I know if I schedule it I black it out and I know it's the same thing for the other people that work at esc's or um in the um in know several isds so we're looking in June correct that's what I put out there is uh still being in the second quarter and meeting that obligation but kind of getting hopefully as much knowledge about what the legislature has done to that point as possible does anybody want to propose a date Amy do you want to propose a date Ain do you want to propose a date um I could throw out a few just to see um
039what might or might not work for folks so maybe um the uh 17th 18th I don't know if we've been we're doing today is a Wednesday so let's put the 17th 18th um I don't know if the 19th is a day off for folks um or we could do 24th 25th is any one of those weeks better or worse for folks I will be out on the 17th and um the 24th 25th and 26th okay so anybody have any objections to the 18th I can that okay I have one 18th is good two 18th is good three 18th Works 18th is good for me okay okay now if um of course this all depends on the esc's availability do we want an alternative date in case that date does not work for the for esc13
040what about the 20th that's a Friday the 19th I believe is a is a holiday is it juneth on the 19th yes so some some folks may be closed yeah it's a it's a national holiday uh so what about the 20th would that work as a as an alternative date yes okay for me okay all right Adrian's not available on the 20th so we have one no we could look at the 23rd that's a Monday would that work better anybody have any conflicts on the 23rd that actually works better for me than the 18th yeah Lori can't ever do a Monday yeah I know Lori have a comp with Mondays um then alternatively it would be Friday the 27th any objections to Friday the 27th okay yeah we're would have a hard time because I
041know a lot of people go on vacations uh Fridays are hard for people some people don't work on Fridays in the summer so um so far the only concrete date we have is the 18th we could go sooner I mean we kind of went down the calendar but we can go up the calendar if you if you prefer we could look at um June 11th who is not available in May maybe we can do it beforehand well I think they wanted to see uh because legislature is in session if we could have some possible answers I mean I I could be wrong about that you guys can meet whatever you would like to meet I have no say so on that I just make the arrangements but um I had I could do 11th okay
042we could also go into July yeah that's true you could go you could go the other way April can't do the 11th okay um can't make the 11th through the 13th okay so the 11th is off do you want to look at July July is the third qu yes that would be good okay I know you've got the is our statue Stephanie I don't know if you know is our statute when we say meet quarterly does that mean literally has to be in the quarter or do it just mean four times a year functionally I think it says four times a year okay um I could pull up the bylaws real quick but I that's my recollection but um I could be wrong so we're looking in July then yeah I think you guys working
043in July I could do Wednesday the 9th or Thursday the 10th or the 16th yeah it just says uh I'm sorry it says the annual schedule of regular meetings will be no less than four meetings each year it doesn't specifically say it's got to be in the quarter okay good to know thank you yeah I think you're you guys are good if you want to go into July so I'm sorry I was looking that up so I don't know what your votes are about July um April is the es closed in July your ESC no okay I know some's are so um all right looks like the 16th is getting some direction okay okay I could use that as a second date and I don't know if esc13 closes I I can't remember if they
044close for a break but I'll let you guys know so I'll check June 18th as the the best date and then July 16th as our second date and I'll will let you guys know I'll send you a calendar invite with that date whenever it gets approved by esc13 thank you sure all right Jamie do you need a few minutes or you good sorry Amy the second date was July 19th or the 16th the 16th okay got it [Music] and let me know if you're seeing it because I'm sharing my entire screen okay it won't let me there can you see it yes yes yes Joanne is no longer a member she resigned so she's not absent okay there you go for we don't have to V officially vote on our meeting dates do we um
045no you you set those dates you can determine those dates okay can I have a motion to approve the minutes I motion to approve the minutes who who who um it was April oh I was April thank you you're welcome this is lauia second all in favor say I I I I okay who seconded the motion to approve the minutes I'm sorry let me include it it was Lori that's okay oh okay sorry Lori that's all right do we have a motion to adjourn the meeting this is Kevin a motion to adjourn can I have a second this is Lori a second all in favor I any oppos well with that um I thank you for your participation in our February meeting and I look forward to seeing you this summer thank you stay warm
046everyone thank you everybody you Amy thank you for your dedication I chickened out I was gonna go out there but it was too cold for me