Upper Grand District School Board
Special Education Advisory Committee
Minutes
The Special Education Advisory Committee of the Upper Grand District School Board met on
Wednesday, February 12, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. in the Boardroom at 500 Victoria Road North,
Guelph.
The following Association Members were present: Kim Brenner and Carole Craig, Parents
for Children’s Mental Health-Wellington County, Sharon Dills, Learning Disabilities
Association of Wellington County, Beth Haworth, Community Member-at-Large, Jason
Offer, Association for Bright Children-ABC (by teleconference), Sue Shaw and Carrie
Proudfoot, Autism Ontario-Wellington County.
Present from Staff were: Trudy Counter, Coordinator of Communication, Language and
Speech Services, Dr. Mary Susan Crawford, Chief Psychologist, Special Education
Consultants - Mark Howe, Barb Tompkins, Naomi Theodor, Jacqueline Foster, Special
Education Coordinator, Christine Kay, Principal, Tracey Lindsay, Superintendent of
Program, Sandra Roberts, Vice-Principal, Sandra Szpular, Special Education Coordinator /
Collaborative Projects Lead, Cheryl Van Ooteghem, Principal of Program, and Dr. Lynn
Woodford, Manager of Mental Health/Addiction Programs and Services.
Trustee Present: Marty Fairbairn
Regrets: Pauline Busby, Community Living Guelph-Wellington, Stacey Stevens, VOICE for
Hearing Impaired Children, Don Richardson, Integration Action for Inclusion in Education
and Community (Ontario), Jennifer Waterston, Trustee, Laurie Whyte, FASworld Canada.
Marty Fairbairn welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order.
Approval of Agenda
Sharon Dills moved that the agenda of the February 12, 2014, meeting be approved.
The motion carried.
Approval of Minutes
Carole Craig moved that the Minutes of the meeting held on January 8, 2014 be approved
as printed.
The motion carried.
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Special Education Advisory Committee Minutes
February 12, 2014
Review of Action Items
Tracey Lindsay, Superintendent of Program spoke about the two handouts provided this
evening in response to the request to receive a written response to the motion put forward
at the November SEAC meeting “The Board dispense of the limit of 10 accommodations
per category in the IEP Engine Software”. The first handout described what has taken
place - the portion of meeting minutes from the Board and SEAC meetings relating to the
motion, and media release following the November Board meeting. The second handout
was titled, “Written Response: How will we communicate with staff and parents that the
number of accommodations can be increased beyond 10, if necessary, reminding
everyone that the accommodations listed are to be precise and specific for each student.”
Tracey Lindsay referred to the Communication Immediate and Communication for
September 2014, which highlights and outlines how we have been communicating this
message and how we will continue to communicate this information through various
means.
Creating Pathways
Carlo Zen, Student Success Lead and Lisa Sanvido, Program Leader, Student Success
presented Creating Pathways to Success and began by showing the “Creating Pathways
to Success, An Education and Career/Life Planning Program for Ontario Schools – Policy
and Program Requirements, Kindergarten to Grade 12, 2013” document. Carlo Zen,
spoke about the highlights of the document and engaging students in discussion for life
planning and options available to them noting this replaces the “Choices Into Action:
Guidance and Career Education Program Policy for Ontario Elementary and Secondary
schools, 1999” document. The three core beliefs; all students can be successful; success
comes in many forms; and, there are many pathways to success were read. The rationale
for creating the document was reviewed as well as the vision which focuses on how we
deliver education while recognizing students need to be prepared with a clear plan
regardless of the path they choose to take.
Lisa Sanvido spoke of how we are collaborating and embedding this in the various pillars,
curriculum and planning. The Creating Pathways document outlines a four-step inquiry
based approach built on: knowing yourself; exploring opportunities; making decisions and
goal setting; and, achieving goals and making transitions. The program components and
process chart was displayed with the structure of what, where and how of learning
explained.
Carlo Zen noted one of the key aspects of the document is around parent engagement as
parents play a vital role in education. The Implementation Plan timelines were also
reviewed. Lisa Sanvido then referred to and displayed a sample of My Blueprint – the
Individual Pathways Plan distributed this evening and explained the anticipated difference
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Special Education Advisory Committee Minutes
February 12, 2014
between the information found in My Blueprint for Grades 7-12 versus K-6 students. The
document also contains some information about transitions from various grades as well as
students with special education needs or those with an Individual Education Plan. As part
of the implementation, a committee of teachers, curriculum leaders, principals and viceprincipals from the elementary and secondary levels are working together to ensure a clear
understanding of their roles in the plans.
It was noted by Carlo Zen that although this would not replace the Transition Plans
currently being used for special education needs, it does highlight the importance of
transition planning. Following an inquiry about whether there was a plan in place to
support and encourage the parent engagement piece, Carlo Zen responded that we are
hoping to build on natural opportunities for parents to be engaged reminding we are just at
the implementation stage.
Updates on the 2013-2014 Special Education Plan Goals
Sandra Szpular, Special Education Coordinator/Collaborative Projects Lead began by
introducing the “Mid-Year Review of Special Education Goals 2013-14” distributed with the
meeting agenda and copied for everyone.
This outlines the five goals contained in the 2013-2014 Special Education Plan, the
specific objectives and mid-year status of each goal as part of the monitoring piece.
Highlighted in the area of IEPs were the workshops taking place for our resource teachers
and teachers of special education classrooms. The integrated transition plans area
highlighted the work to date and the inservices to implement the Integrated Transition
Plans as part of the Tri-Ministry Protocol. The status of the SEA refresh for students in
grade 8 using Durabook laptops was reported as was the trial social-emotional
programming noting it has been tweaked due to a variety of opportunities and challenges.
In the area of promoting student advocacy, teachers have been working to help children
understand how to self-advocate with a few student examples shared.
Sandra Szpular then drew attention to the updates made to the Special Education Staffing
section of the Special Education Plan 2013-2014.
Attention was also drawn to the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) Brochure
as we need more printed. There were some updates required which have been made.
Members were asked to review this. Carrie Proudfoot requested this be sent
electronically.
Follow-up to Special Education Exceptionality Criteria Update in
Accordance with the DSM-5
Dr. Mary Susan Crawford, Chief Psychologist spoke about the information provided at the
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January meeting regarding the updates made to the Behaviour / Mental Health
Intervention Team and the addition of the Mental Health Secondary Support for Secondary
Students in the Special Education Plan, explaining both.
Dr. Mary Susan Crawford began by referring to the criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorders
and Learning Disability which have not changed. She then spoke about the reason for the
changes made to the criteria for identification of students with a Mild Intellectual Disability,
Developmental Disability and Gifted. This information is contained in the Guidelines for
IPRC Identification section of the Special Education Plan.
In the area of Mild Intellectual Disability she spoke about the board criteria and best
practice noting we have added the adaptive functioning piece to the assessment to assist
with having proper documentation for students and not creating any barriers. The changes
made in the area of Developmental Disability were primarily due to the guidelines and
criteria required by the DSO and the DSM-5. The changes made in the area of Giftedness
will allow us to be in-line with the scores being used by other boards throughout the
province which is an Overall Full Scale IQ or General Ability score at the 98%ile.
Discussion regarding the “Supporting Minds – An Educator’s Guide to
Promoting Students’ Mental Health and Well-being” document
Dr. Lynn Woodford, Manager of Mental Health / Addictions Program and Services spoke
about the “Supporting Minds – An Educator’s Guide to Promoting Students’ Mental Health
and Well-being” introduced during her Mental Health Strategy presentation provided at the
January SEAC meeting. This document was created by the Ministry of Education to assist
educators understand more about mental health by providing information about the
different types of mental health conditions and impact on student learning. The role of the
educators in supporting mental health and well-being contains information in the areas of:
creating positive classroom environments; reducing stigma; knowing students; and talking
about mental health with both parents and students. The 8 chapters of the resource
outline mental health conditions and contains information about “What it is”, “What does it
look like?” and “What can educators do?” in order to assist and respond to the various
conditions i.e. anxiety, depression.
Dr. Lynn Woodford concluded by speaking about the work being done in the Upper Grand
DSB through inservices for staff, working with Principals, providing a summary of each
chapter of the resource to be provided to schools, the development of a monthly column
on mental health and well-being for school Newsletters, embedding mental health into the
curriculum as well as School Mental Health – ASSIST which is developing presentations
for staff meetings on the various topics.
Kim Brenner commented she felt having a column in school Newsletters on this topic was
a really good idea. Dr. Lynn Woodford welcomed input regarding this from members.
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February 12, 2014
Open Forum
Carrie Proudfoot reported that Autism Ontario has a new on-line database. She also
commented on the government announcement of funding to support youth and adults with
Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Kim Brenner commented on the recent Bell Let’s Talk Campaign aimed at raising
awareness around Mental Health issues.
Sharon Dills reported that they Learning Disabilities Association will no longer be receiving
funding from the United Way and therefore, they are looking for ways to support the local
chapter.
Updates from the Superintendent of Program
Tracey Lindsay reported the Special Education Class Placement requests were reviewed
in January. We anticipate an increase to programs in some areas and a decrease in
others based on need.
The Educational Assistant allocations have also been reviewed with some changes made.
Members will notice a change to the format of the minutes which is being done to ensure
minutes and reports posted on the board website are in an accessible format.
Trustee Report
Marty Fairbairn spoke about the Environmental Sustainability Action Plan that will be
presented at the February Board Meeting for final approval.
Meeting Summary, Recommendation(s), Motion(s) and Action(s)
Marty Fairbairn drew attention to the letter received and distributed with the agenda
regarding concern around full day learning on special education resources and asked if
members would like a letter written in response. Carrie Proudfood requested more
information on this topic before a decision to respond is made.
Carrie Proudfoot remarked that the board website link to the Special Education tab and the
meeting dates for this year were not working. Tracey Lindsay responded that we would
look into this.
Adjournment
Kim Brenner moved that this Committee adjourn at 8:32 p.m. to report to the Board.
The motion carried.
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