January 21, 2010 Summary Report to SEAC: March 11, 2010

 January 2009 was the first year that the new single venue format was used  Approx. 45 were in attendance(Including SEAC members)  January 21, 2010:  Success for all Students  Being –whole and holy  Belonging- in community  Becoming –Catholic Graduates  Approx 58 members of our community were in attendance (Including SEAC members)

 This year we had 4 Themes under our School Board Improvement Plan:  1)Program (Literacy, Numeracy and Student Pathways)  2) Communication (Catholic Community Culture and Caring)  3) Transitions (Student Pathways)  4) Relationships ( Catholic Community Culture and Caring)

 4 themes/ Categories identified  Communication with Parents  “More info about community programs:  “Communication and planning very important to maintain gains child has made in grade 8. (Once they enter grade 9  Enhanced Service Delivery  “Transition to high school should begin before the new year – grade 7 or beginning of grade 8”  “Shadow a grade 9 student during grade 8”

 Administrative Capacity for Locally Developed Courses ◦ “what happens if the numbers are to low to support a locally developed course.”  Interactions with Parent/Students ◦ “At first meeting with high school could there be more interaction with student”

 Communication with Home ◦ “Common questions – information” ◦ “new families come to our Board – information” ◦ “web-site user-friendly for special education”  Communication with Community Organizations ◦ “wanting link-community partners/agency/ resources” ◦ “clear process to maximize potential”

 IEP Implementation Fidelity ◦ “the plans without a plan” ◦ “Not specific, no means to measure” ◦ “Detailed IEP but strategies/goals not being implemented/worked on”  Enhanced Service ◦ “parent provided written input into the IEP (after the fact) but IEP wasn’t updated to reflect the parent input.” Consistently Differentiate Instruction based on student IEP  “Child struggling with special needs may not have best match with curriculum fitting their specific needs.”

 Inconsistent Educational Skill Sets ◦ “one teacher did an excellent job on the IEP but homeroom teacher did not.” ◦ “discrepancies in skills between teacher and their abilities to write effective IEP’s”

 Curriculum /Classroom ◦ “spreading resources to all kids in classroom with special needs” ◦ “expanding on extracurricular opportunities...such as gymnastics.”  Socialization/ Peer Mentoring ◦ “self confidence build up” ◦ “students celebrating success”  Communication ◦ “better communication to get to know individual students strengths”

 Overall a good evening, with good participation and a modest increase in attendance  Communication with Parents/Home/Community  Enhanced Service Delivery/Curriculum Classroom delivery  Administrative Capacity for Locally Developed Courses  Interactions with Parent/Students  IEP Implementation Fidelity/ Educational Skill Sets  Socialization/Peer Mentoring

 The concerns, ideas and solutions generated will be the basis for action. Work is already underway on Transitions to develop greater consistency in the process.  Similarly Communication is being enhanced through construction of a new easy to navigate website including information about the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC).  Your voice is important to our cycle of continuous improvement. 