FOIA Release: FCPS "TLP Procedural and Instructional Guidance Training" (4.13.20)

Thank you to the FCPS special education teacher who was concerned about FCPS' plan and who shared information from this presentation with me, which led to a FOIA request and receipt.

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SPEAKERS: Dawn Schaefer, Andrew Guillen, Kellie Cochran

Dawn Schaefer  00:02

Thank you for joining us for this Blackboard Collaborate session, temporary learning plans with some procedural and instructional guidance. I'm Dawn Schaefer. I'm the coordinator for due process and eligibility and I have two colleagues with me this afternoon.

Andrew Guillen  00:20

Good afternoon. My name is Andrew Guillen, I'm a manager due process and special education services.

Kellie Cochran  00:28

Hi, I'm Kellie Cochran. I'm the coordinator for special ed related services.

Dawn Schaefer  00:37

So our agenda for this session is to talk about the temporary learning plan, talk about the extension of eligibility timelines, talk about special education meetings during this time of school closures. We'll talk some about instruction and staff expectations as well.

First of all, we are not amending all IEPs or 504 plans, either in Sea Stars or on paper. Instead, teachers will be required to develop a temporary learning plan for each student on their caseload, um, so that we can outline the services that will be provided during the school closure. If you look at this graphic, it explains a little bit about what we're looking at. In terms of plans for students. All students will receive this temporary learning plan, and some students may need an addendum without a meeting or an updated 504 plan to address something specific. Few students may need telephone conference to address initial or annual IEP's or 504 plans or local screening, eligibility, evaluations, 504 qualifications and transfers. And then the least number of students would need a meeting via blackboard collaborate, which is this platform.

Andrew Guillen  02:10

Okay, thanks, Dawn. So one of the things that we've done here at due process is, we've worked to develop a procedural toolkit during COVID-19 and distance learning. And so what you see right in front of you is our intranet page. There's going to be information added, including this recorded presentation, as well as a copy of the PowerPoint. But you'll want to come here for frequently asked questions, technical tech questions, some guided language that you might want to put on some of your plans and other documents. So I would start here first and then of course, if you have questions, we will give you some more information at the end of the training.

So while schools are closed for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year due to the COVID 19 pandemic, a temporary Learning Plan, TLP, will be developed for every student receiving special education services. During these unprecedented times, we are continuing to look at ways to support our parents and their children during this process. This TLP does not take place of the student's Individualized Education Program IEP, and it does not contain the same services and accommodations provided in their IEP. However, it does identify the continuity of learning services and consultation that will be provided to the student between now and the end of the school year.

It's most important that you contact parents this week and provide the TLP for them to review as soon as possible. We understand there may be different circumstances that may prevent your completion by this April 28 due date, but we would like for you to shoot for that date.

Using the guiding questions for the TLP to assist with with conversation document, excuse me, make sure you document contact on the students Sea Stars contact log, let them know that the TLP does not take place their child's IEP and that it does not contain the same services and accommodations provided for in their child's IEP. When school resumes, their child's current IEP will go back into effect.

So during the during the phone call, reassure the parent that we will be providing students with instruction on selected goals and assist with accommodations during designated times weekly. Discuss with discuss the following with the parent and document the parent's response to the following considerations: How are you and your family doing? We hope everyone is well. This is a stressful time, it's stressful and difficult time for everyone. Does the student have a device and internet access for the supports? Does your child have the ability to engage independently — i.e. use a laptop, keyboard, camera, with special with a special education provider via digital platform? Do you have the ability to commit time to support your child's access to digital learning? Are they are there specific accommodations that you believe are appropriate for your child?

Additional items to be discussed during your phone call. Please make sure to let the parent know: Be assured that we will work to provide students with any necessary accommodations outlined in their current IEP that can be provided through the temporary learning plan. Parents just want to have the conversation. They want to make sure that they've had input into this plan, and so these questions will give us that opportunity to do that.

Make sure that we talk a little bit about the specific goals and or accommodations on your child's IEP, like screen readers or graphic organizers that you believe are most appropriate for the child during distance learning. And during the phone call with the parent document parent's response to the following considerations: As a parent, ask what is the biggest priority for your child support during the closure? If you think about it, they've probably had a lot of working from home trying to get distance learning started up, it would be really nice to kind of hear from the school system, the following informations.

For our students pre K through eight, um, consider the following: during the closure, we will continue to provide our students with access to review and enrichment materials related to both the general education content and your child's specific IEP needs. Is there any specific area for which you would like to focus support for your child? And again, if you're talking to a high school student, during the phone call with the parent, document the parent's response to the following considerations. Document the parent's response to the following: During the closure we would we will continue to provide students with access to review, and enrichment materials related to both general education content and your child's specific needs. Your child will also receive, your child will also, excuse me, have the opportunity to move forward in his or her learning to receive credit for high school courses. While your child will receive feedback about about the work they complete, this work will not be graded and will only be used as a means to support your child's progress when schools reopen. Are there any specific areas for which you would like to focus special education support for your child?

So we're going to talk a little bit about completing the TLP. So we've given you some some some some thinking questions, questions that we want you to review to with parents that kind of show our effort to get them involved in the discussion. and now it's filling out the plan. The plan is going to be posted on the DPE server, sorry, the DPE webs intranet site shortly. It's also going to be hosted on the intranet site in the forms cabinet, as well as the public web. The first thing that I want you to do with this particular form is make sure you save it down. It's a PDF. It's not going to be in Sea Stars where you will have a screen. It's just a regular PDF. It'll be listed on the IEP documents as a as a as a static PDF, but you'll need to save it maybe somewhere like your H drive so that it can be uploaded into Sea Stars when it's complete. Second, you want to make sure that you confirm that the conversation has been documented on the contact log and Sea Stars while we're not using the IEP during COVID-19, we are using our Sea Stars contact log to document all of our conversations with parents. Next, use Sea Stars to gather specific demographic information, including the student's name, ID number, and parents, names. And so Sea Stars is going to have that information for you. You can go ahead and fill it out, um, and just make sure that you you have access to that information went ahead, circled the areas that also has parent name. And then right here is going to be the drop down that you can select for your school. You'll need to get your school's address, city, state and zip and the date of the letter, the student's name and the student ID number. Then, if you'll notice right within the letter, there is a little area here that we've highlighted. That's going to indicate the date at you've spoken to the parent. Next, you're going to go ahead and document the goals and short term objectives that will take place during distance learning.

When documenting IEP goals into the TLP, consider whether the students goals and/or short term objectives support synchronous and asynchronous instruction during distance learning. Please remember, many of our low incidence students have IEP goals with many short term objectives. During distance learning team should prioritize the goals and short term objectives that address distance learning. Remember, not every goal or objective might be appropriate in the TLP for distance learning. Another reminder is that this information typed in the text box will grow. So the the IEP PDF, I'm sorry, the TLP PDF in front of us whenever information is typed in here, the box will definitely grow to accommodate the information. So let's look at adjusting the components of a goal for the TLP. If the current goal cannot be provided during distance learning, proposed changes to some or part of the goals to support synchronous and asynchronous instruction, for example, does the condition portion of the goal support distance learning? Currently, a student's IEP might have the following condition: during hallway transitions and lunchtime Johnny will, or does the criteria need to be changed? Maybe we're not going to be talking about transitions. Maybe we're going to be talking talking about transitions from one online activity to the next. And the criteria, excuse me, may need to be changed to reflect distance learning.

When documenting IEP accommodations and modifications in the TLP, consider, consider whether the student's accommodations and modifications can be implemented during online format. So we've placed this chart in here to have you think about how students' accommodations and modifications can be adjusted during distance learning, given time constraints with synchronous and asynchronous learning, what accommodations and modifications might appear on the TLP and not in the IEP?

So just remember, we may need to modify some of the accommodations that we have on the IEP to reflect our distance learning plan. And just a quick note, this document will also be included in the procedural toolkit on the DPE site. I'm going to pass it off to Dawn.

Dawn Schaefer  14:20

Thanks, Andrew. This graphic shows some some thoughts and guidance that we have regarding the support and services on a TLP, for students in pre K through elementary school. It's divided preschool students who are on the SOL curriculum and students who are on the ASOL curriculum in this column.

If you look, we're looking at a combination of synchronous, asynchronous learning, individualized instruction and also, um, the addition of related services as needed and as required for the student. It's really important that case managers collaborate with all service providers for students to help determine what this package of services looks like on the TLP. And it's also really important that all special ed teachers who were providing services to students continue to do so.

This second grid is for middle school and high school and one main difference is right here in this first row, because students in middle school in high school are generally running their bell schedule, in terms of that instruction that's occurring, and that would be dependent On the courses that the student is enrolled in, in addition to that there is individual instruction and support available for students. And you'll see that it's broken out into students who are accessing the sL curriculum and students who are accessing the aligned standards and related services are to be treated in a similar way. One thing that I want you to know is that these two charts are going to be posted in the procedural toolkit that will be on the DPE intranet site. And that it's really important to talk to parents about what you think and get their input and that's why we were including the guiding questions.

For students who are who need to have an initial or annual IEP, the information that's included on the plot page will very much mirror the information that is in the TLP. And that that information on the plot page will outline what goals and objectives, what accommodations and what supports and services will be completed during the time that schools are closed. That guiding language will also be available on the procedural toolkit on the DPE intranet site. So services, of course, you would do services much the way that you did services for did goals and objectives and accommodations. So other things to think about, how will a team teacher provide support? How often is the student included with his or her general education peers for distance learning and will the students. Will the student access recorded lessons as one of their delivery models for instruction? So, also consider related services much as we talked about a few minutes ago. And again, another reminder, I can't emphasize enough to collaborate with all the service providers for the student that includes anyone who's providing counseling through the IEP, and any other related or additional service providers. So finishing up the TLP. The language here is a little larger than it is on the form just so we can go through it. You're going to put in a date for the parent to get back to you. And if the parent doesn't get back to you, go ahead and follow up with them. You're also going to put in a contact email for you so that they can email the letter back to you with their consent, and we'll talk about consent in a little bit. And then of course, your, your phone or email is also there. And you'll put your name. And at the bottom, there's the parents' ability to sign this plan. So, when parents, parents can respond in a couple of ways, the TLP does allow for the parent to request an IEP meeting. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. If the parent agrees, you're going to document the receipt of the TLP and it's agreement in the Sea Stars contact blog. And you'll upload the TLP to the historical documents tab. And then, again, implementing it. If a parent doesn't agree, or they request a meeting, you're going to document the receipt of that request and the disagreement, if there is one, and then you'll contact the parent to schedule IEP meeting. Probably an addendum to document their concerns with the TLP, and then discuss how the student is supported during distance learning. So some questions that are frequently asked about the TLP if the parent doesn't agree, schedule a meeting and contact your PSL. And then how do we address SOLs and LRE and placement on the TLP? And the answer to that is that, during distance learning during this COVID-19 closure, SOLs were for waived for this school year, and then LRE and placement proposals don't apply. We aren't able to implement that because there's no in-person schooling.

Another question that has been looming for everyone is what to do about special education timelines. Right now, what we know from the Virginia Department of Education, from a March 17 COVID 19 FAQ, is that existing regulations already provide for certain kinds of flexibility regarding extending timelines and holding meetings. FCPS has been utilizing the ability to extend timelines with parent agreement. But we are relaxing those timelines that we had imposed as a division to allow us to mutually agree to do so with the parent until we're back in school. Once we're back in school, eligibility, evaluations and eligibilities are expected to occur. As you know, all face-to-face evaluations are suspended while school isn't in session. There just isn't a possibility to do evaluations. We have what we are calling the extension of eligibility timelines letter. That's going to be SS sc 401. One will be available in the form's cabinet will be available on the intranet page. It'll be on the internet. And we are working on getting into into Sea Stars as well.

What it does require, is that any outstanding eligibility and evaluations will need to happen within 45 school days of school resuming. So some direction regarding completing this letter. If you have an eligibility that's overdue, or it's due before May 1, please complete and send this letter immediately. If you have an eligibility that's due after May 1, complete the letter and send it to families three weeks prior to the eligibility due date. So you may be sending some of those in addition to some of the ones that are overdue or do prior to May 1, given the timing that we have. If you don't receive a response within a week, follow up with a phone call to the family to make sure they received it and answer any questions they may have. Any other eligibilities due by June after June 1st . . . Sorry about that. Letters would be completed for any open eligibilities by June 1 where we haven't completed assessments or eligibilities. Anything other that's due after May 1st. We want to make sure that we've communicated with families that we've pursued the extension of the timelines and we reassure families that once we're back in session, evaluations will occur.

So we're asking you to call each parent and explain that there are no in person evaluation and that we are proposing extending the timelines to within 45 school days of schools opening. We want to document that conversation in the contact log and Sea Stars much like we are asking you to do for the TLP complete the letter, sent it to the parent as a PDF and then upload that to historical documents. This is the form and it's very much like the TLP that we saw just a few minutes ago, except that the date should be the date when the letter is written, and we're hoping it's about three weeks before the eligibility due date. We understand that some of these letters are not going to be written three weeks before but we're hoping once you've dealt with any backlogs that you have that it will be about that amount of time. This is the bottom of the form. You'll see number one is asking for the parent to read and reply no later than a certain date. And then item two is where you would put an email address for the parent to send it back to you. And then item three is your contact information. Item four is the name of the principal designate, that could also be you. And item five is the parent signature. If a parent doesn't agree to extend the eligibility timelines, you will go to eligibility with the information that you currently have.

We understand that some students may not be found eligible because data is not present, and that's understandable. You can assure the parent that the student could be re re referred to local screening once we're back in school, but you do need to make a decision with the information you have, if a parent doesn't agree to extend those timelines.

So now we're going to pivot to meetings and talk about the various special education meetings.

So we are asking that local screening continue. We continue to have a responsibility for child find activities as a school division and we know that many, many schools have local screenings that need to occur because referrals were received in the 10 days prior to the school closure. Some folks have received referrals since then.

We are asking school teams to collaborate and develop schedules that are similar to those that are used during this, excuse me, me during the school year, continue to determine whether evaluations are required and request evaluations if they are required, but then complete the eligibility, the extension of eligibility timelines letter, to let parents know that your child will be evaluated when school resume.

Again, eligibility meetings will address that extension of eligibility timeline and then revaluations would need to occur much as they would otherwise need to occur. It's important that folks consider whether evaluations are warranted at reevaluation and that's a collaborative conversation with the folks who are on that students reevaluation, IEP team.  Item 504 plans that are initials or annuals will continue to need to be completed within timelines. And again, we understand that there are some that are out of timelines. I apologize. One of my children just interrupted, I apologize. IEP and 504 plans are to be completed. And again, one major difference that we have at this point is that draft IEPs and draft 504 plans can be sent to the parent prior to the meeting. We hope that that will facilitate the conversation that needs to happen during that meeting, so that parents have something written to follow along with while they're on a teleconference. Again, addendums may be held, whether those are with a meeting or without a meeting.

If you have any transfers, and must transfers do go through the teacher department chairs in the building, but if you have a transfer, we really need you to contact the DPE specialist who supports your school. We're asking rather than doing a transfer IEP, that you go ahead and do an FCPS IEP and contact your DPE specialist because your DPE specialist is going to need to assist with some eligibility information on the back end of Sea Stars. And again, section 504 initial qualifications, if those are warranted, as an outcome of local screening, those would need to occur as well.

Consent is also a little bit different at this time. We would like you to present the parent with whatever the proposal is. Allow the parent the opportunity to provide verbal consent, and then document that verbal consent on the PWN that follows the meeting. If a parent does not want to provide verbal consent, that's fine. They can also send you an email providing consent. And you would also document that in the PWN if that has not been provided yet. Parents also have the option of providing consent through signature via other electronic means. I think you'll find some parents will want to print the signature page and sign it and scan it back to you. Others may want to sign it electronically on their device and email that back to you as well. It's really important that you upload any documents, the product of any meeting, to Sea Stars. Since we don't have paper records right now, we want to make sure that we're keeping records of the signatures and consensus and proposals that have occurred. And so those would need to be uploaded to Sea Stars as PDFs. I'm going to turn it over to Andrew to talk about some of these virtual meetings.

Andrew Guillen  30:57

Okay, thank you, Dawn. So, we covered this at our last meeting, but by now all of all the schools were assigned a temporary conference line through the AT&T services. Just remember those conference lines need to be used judiciously and they are designed for special education and 504 for meetings only.

Now, the big difference between the last time that we were able to talk to you and now is that FCPS has also you as also approved for us to use Google meet as an alternative to the teleconference line. So just make sure that when you are having your IEPs over the phone, teleconference line, or Google meet, that you follow the same best practices, try to send the information home in a draft ahead of time, and then follow what Dawn had mentioned about consent.

The really important thing to note here is that schools are going to have to get really, really tight and come up with a process for scheduling that conference line. Unfortunately, the division just does not have any other means at this point to provide additional conference lines. And then just remember, Zoom is not it's not approved right now to hold any special education or 504 for meetings at this time. So let's talk a little bit more about the Blackboard Collaborate Ultra platform. One of the things that we're going to be doing is recording some best practices, some tutorials, so we're gonna go ahead and . . . Hello, I'm sorry about that. It looks like I had a little network hiccup there.

So one of the things that we're going to be doing is making sure that we use the Blackboard Collaborate platform to address unique or IEP or 504 situa- uh situations. SBTs are going to get a little cheat sheet that's going to help them set up for each session. You will not be able to use your teacher assigned Blackboard Collaborate Ultra moderate account to host the sessions. Because we believe that these sessions are going to be unique, you're not going to be using this platform for a majority of your IEPs. They will need to be scheduled with a begin time and end time and have a separate link sent to all parties. So again, your SBT is going to get some additional information on how to set these up for you. What will be very helpful the SBTs group has asked is that as soon as you are aware that a Blackboard Collaborate Ultra meeting is going to take place, please make sure that we give the SBTs in your building plenty of time to set that up. It they've asked that it really not be the very last minute because they want to make sure that they set it up very carefully. And then, you know, you may need to in terms of the meetings that might have that happen, they could be continued meetings that were from prior to or during the break.

One of the things that we've also learned too, is, everybody has been told that Blackboard Collaborate and VPN do not work. Well, that is correct. They don't work well when everybody is VPN'd in, but IT has assured us that at least the Sea Stars moderator and the driver, who should really be the first, the same person, can be the person that's logged into VPN. However, please note that everybody else, including any other related service providers, or FCPS employees, should not be connected to VPN.

And now we're going to go ahead and pivot over in terms of instruction to Dawn.

Dawn Schaefer  35:05

Okay, thanks, Andrew. So we understand that everyone is rightfully concerned about confidentiality. We want to assure you that you can provide small group instruction to students with disabilities in virtual and online settings. VDOE has given guidance related to these considerations. And it during you know, in these platforms, we want you to know that Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and Google Meet are permitted for use under FERPA and that existing federal and state laws for the protection of students personally identifiable information, do still apply. Some tips. Do not do not display or make public a student's PII, including their full names. Please use first names only.

We want you to also use meeting control settings to minimize interruptions and disruptions. Only allow students to join your virtual class and don't publicly broadcast the meeting log login information. We also want you to use those control settings, so you can control who's present during that meeting or class. We know and you've probably heard of many cases throughout the country, where virtual meetings and classes are being publicly broadcasted and hackers and people who aren't, who shouldn't be there, are taking over and presenting inappropriate material. We don't want that to happen to you. So we want you to take some precautions.

Finally, there's a confidentiality notice for parents of students with disabilities that'll include information related to the disclosure of a student's PII and guidelines and expectations to ensure confidentiality that should be sent to school administrators for dissemination on Monday, April 13. Now I turn it over to Kelly to talk about instruction and resources.

Kellie Cochran  37:34

Thanks, Dawn. I appreciate being a part of this conversation. So as you begin your work with your students rest assured that there are endless resources on 24/7 to support and distance learning. This is also where packets reside, and trainings from OSEI. They've been a little bit difficult to find. So if you follow the arrows here, on this slide, you can locate the resources that you regarding research based programs, we know that some aspects can be used via distance learning. And coming this week we will have training, a training available to provide an overview how this might work.

I'm sure most of you have viewed the packets that have been mailed to students. From week one, to the end of the school year, early childhood and adapted curriculum packets will be sent to families. So if you look at this slide, when we're talking about the early childhood packet, it's all special ed class based resource and pack, and they'll be set weekly.

For adaptive curriculum, in grades K through two, this will be students for whom primary case matter report indicated that they were in IDS or in enhanced autism programs. And for grades three through 12, these will be students with that on the IEP. And again, these will be sent daily I'm sorry, weekly, the same as the early childhood packets.

Packets to special ed students accessing the general ed curriculum were sent on week one, and then a very large packet will be sent on week four, and then they won't be sent. They won't have packets after that because they'll be with their with their teacher. Students can opt out of hardcopy packets sent to the home because they are always available online. So the contacts for your special ed packets are Denise Forest for preschool and Ally Stack for all others.

We're gonna pivot on staff roles. Special Education case managers and teachers, your staff roles are to come consult with parents, consult with lead, and department chairs or your PSL, to probe the temporary learning plan which was discussed earlier. To implement instructions, students, both individual and group to communicate with your parents, to document if parents opt out and Sea Stars, for paraprofessionals to carry out support as designated by the supervising teacher, and I'm sure you've already started those conversations, and then for related service is it's to connect with individuals, students and families on caseload to support learning. I know there are a lot of questions in so many unknowns regarding a lot but also in regards to related services, so I hope this information that I share with you will help you understand our support and services for support students during distance learning.

The best place to start for students that have related services on their IEP is with the temporary learning plan. As Dawn mentioned earlier, it will be important to engage these conversations with your speech and language pathologists, hearing and vision teachers, OTs, PTs, adapted PE teachers, school psychologists, social workers. So you'll want to work with the case managers. They will work with the case managers and families to determine the appropriate services and how they can best support access and participation for students in the home environment. So what will that look like? We see it as we see it as a continuum of services. You can see here that support and services will range from teacher and team support at the base of the triangle, all the way up to simultaneous support at the top of the triangle. When you look at teacher and team support, you'll find that all students fall into this range of support. Here you related additional service providers will be available to school teams for problem solving. The first part, this level of support would include the universal design for learning principles that support all learners. As you move up the continuum to the next level, service providers will be collaborating with teachers and case managers to determine what accommodations might be needed within the home environment. For example, how will internal materials be presented? How do these materials need to be adapted so students have access? Service providers can help with that. It's incredible the amount of work that has already been done for students, especially students with hearing and vision impairments. All of this is a work in progress, and we're hoping that everyone will practice patience and understanding for school teams and families.

The next level on the continuum is targeted support of families and students. At this level more is required from related and additional service providers. Think of a coaching model here. For example, the students occupational therapists may target support in the form of a phone call, email, review of work samples, video modeling of fun activities. And as always, service providers will collaborate with the teacher and case manager. At the top tier, students require an even deeper level of service, such as real time multimedia support with the family and the student. The support can be synchronous or asynchronous. For example, a speech language pathologist may provide feedback after observing a student during functional activities intended to support the student's IEP. It's important to note here that student confidentiality will be paramount at this level.

So here are examples of targeted support from school psychologists and social workers. What will they do? Well, they'll continue to be available to school teams. On days they serve that school for all meetings. They'll collaborate with teachers to incorporate social emotional learning lessons, they'll consult with special ed teachers and provide services to support emotional social emotional learning, and mental health, including behaviors that interfere with learning. They'll engage in targeted outreach on a regular basis. they'll provide student clinic and parent clinic consultation. They'll work with families to maintain connection with private providers, and they'll help families access community resources. I also want you to know that related and additional service providers will have additional responsibilities to ensure that students and staff have the support they need, so they will participate in virtual special ed meetings with school teams, so please don't forget to invite them. They will maintain a daily schedule just as teacher level staff are doing at school sites. To the extent possible, they will align their office hours with students and school schedules, but a fair warning here is that this will be difficult for service providers who have students at multiple school sites. So be patient. Program managers and supervisors from speech, therapy services, adapted PE, ATS, vision, and hearing will all hold office hours on Monday and Wednesday from 2 to 4 pm.

So what about assistive technology services? Well, I can tell you that these teachers have already been hard at work supporting schools and students to ensure that tools and supports are available to access distance learning. They're providing support to school based technology teams, teachers, school teams, central office staff, students, and families. So how are they doing that? They're collaborating to deliver distance learning plans. They're providing accommodations and online learning environments. They're training staff and families with synchronous and asynchronous communication. They're collaborating with teachers regarding assistive technology accommodations for instructional materials. Most importantly, they're helping students and families understand and implement appropriate technology accommodations, such as word prediction, text to speech, text, and augmentative communication.

So, I think that's it for related services. We do look forward to working with all of you. There's one last reminder though and I know Dawn has mentioned it a couple of times, so please include all special ed . . . I'm sorry. My mother was calling me. Please include all special ed related and additional service providers in your conversations around students' temporary learning plans. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the service providers assigned to your school or connect with our admin team during office hours on Monday, Wednesday, between two and four. You can post links to our office hours at DSS home, DSS trainings, OSEI/OSEPS professional development opportunity. Thanks and now I'm going to hand it back to Dawn.  Oh, I'm not. I'm actually I'm going to talk about ABA coaches and behavior intervention teachers.

Um, so the ABA coaches will support their teachers in developing lessons. They'll assist their teachers with student behaviors. They'll collaborate to support other teachers as requested. They'll connect with teachers on a weekly basis. And the BITS, the behavior intervention teachers, they'll provide behavioral intervention support as needed. They'll assist teachers with incorporating behavioral best practices in the distance learning environment. They'll consult on individual case referrals and requests for continued to support. They'll provide professional development as needed to school and staff. They'll consult and collaborate with parents and guardians as needed. And they'll consult and collaborate with school staff regarding IEP goals and student needs. And now I'm going to pass it off to Dawn.

Dawn Schaefer  48:36

All right, thank you. So some ways to obtain assistance. OSEPS office hours will occur Mondays 1 to 2 pm and Fridays 10 to 11 am. We will, those will be posted on the internet COVID 19 toolkit on the DPE site that we've been referring to. I believe those are also going to be posted in the list that OCI is keeping. You can also email DPE help. You can contact your PSL. Please don't hesitate to contact the Office of Special Instruction for instructional questions. And again, the procedural toolkit that's on the DPE intranet, we think you'll find really helpful. Andrew, do you want to close this out?

Andrew Guillen  49:35

Sure. Thanks, Dawn. Okay, so I'm sure you've seen some variation of this through your online trainings past two weeks, but just remember, we really are in unchartered territory. And as you, as you've seen, we don't have all the answers, but they're coming and the reason why they're coming slowly is we want to make sure that we give them to you as accurately as we can. So, you know, we appreciate your patience. And remember that distance learning and the TLP are not meant to recreate school. If you have any questions again, please reach out to us. We look forward to assisting you. Thank you very much and we hope you have a successful first week back.