Minutes of APIECE hosted IDEIA 2004 meeting on Thu., May 26 at Mary Jacobs Library in Rocky Hill NJ from 6:30–8:30 pm.
Minutes by Bob Witanek Advocate@StudentAdvocate-NJ.org 908-881-5275
If anyone who was at the meeting wants to add or
clarify anything, please let us know.
Feel free to forward these minutes to interested
parties.
To join the NJ IDEIA 2004 Organizing Committee or RSVP for next (June 23)
meeting, click here:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/NJIDEIA2004_Org_Cmte.htm or send a note to
Advocate@StudentAdvocate-NJ.org .
Next Meeting June 23. Information:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/June23_2005_IDEIA2004_Mtg_RHill.htm
Attendance:
14 people attended from towns Annandale, Basking Ridge, Delran, Lawrenceville, Haddonfield, Hightstown, Montgomery Township and Neshanic Station.
Organizations whose members attended include A Parents Initiative for Every Child’s Education (APIECE http://APIECENJ.org / http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org )
CAN, COSAC, DOORS, Hand N Hand Coaching, Special Education Leadership Council (SELC http://selc-usa.org )
(Attendees identified themselves as members of above groups but were not necessarily representing the organizations.)
In addition to parents, three attendees of the meeting are professional education advocates and there was one attorney who has represented special education families in attendance.
Opening / Introductions
The meeting was opened by APIECE founder Jerome
Carr who explained how our organization addresses the issues of special
education students on equal footing with our concerns on such issues as the
Achievement Gap, African American History in the schools, etc.
The attendees then each introduced themselves with some providing some background information on themselves.
During announcements, an attendee provided information about a limited opportunity for special needs children to receive tennis instructions in Montgomery Township on Saturday’s starting toward the end of June. She distributed a flier on the issue. Those interested can contact keobrien2@yahoo.com .
Byron Jasper of APIECE turned in 25 signed petition pages (one signature for page). To print off a copy of the petition to gather signatures, go to this link:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/PetitionIDEIA%202004Handout_Sig.doc )
Review of 11 points and DOE position
Bob Witanek reviewed the 11 points of the
petition with some discussion on the points. To see and sign the petition
on-line, go here:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/IDEIA2004_Petition.htm . Once the discussion of the 11 points was completed, there was unanimous support for the points in the meeting and those in the room at the time who did not sign completed a signature page. The timeline of implementation was clarified as well: the federal law will be written and implemented by July 2005 and the NJ code revisions will be written and implemented by July 2006.
There was a discussion of the DOE position on
the 11 petition points. The comments of NJ Special Education Director Barbara
Gantwerk were reviewed. Ms. Gantwerk’s letter to the districts seeking district
feedback on how to implement IDEIA 2004 in NJ was discussed along with the
letter the APIECE steering committee sent urging her to send a letter to every
special education parent in the state asking for our feedback. It was stressed
that our analysis of her comments is not to personalize the issue, as she
represents DOE. It is important for us to be aware of the DOE position so we
can recognize the obstacles before us. The following observations of DOE / Ms.
Gantwerk’s position were made.
- In her letter to the districts and her comments in the paper, Ms. Gantwerk has announced the changes of IDEIA 2004 as fait accompli, not as changes that are under consideration. The letter did not mention at all any interest at all in parental input. The Trenton Times article quoted her as saying that short term goals will be eliminated as opposed to stating that they “could” be eliminated.
- She has stated that parents should not be alarmed and that we already had a chance to have input on the national level giving the impression that DOE is not now interested in our opinion.
- She gave the impression in the paper that it was actually parents who were clamoring for the elimination of short term goals.
Renay Zamloot relayed her experience at a meeting with Ms. Gantwerk where Ms. Gantwerk gave a similar impression that many of these decisions had already been made. Ms. Zamloot also discussed her efforts on behalf of SPAN http://SPANNJ.org in trying to arrange individual meetings with members of our State Board of Education. After gaining the interest of several Board members, she was contacted by Commissioner Librera's office and was informed that the Commissioner "discouraged" such meetings. Further, she was instructed to participate in an open public testimony, which was to be attended by one or two Board members and where she would be allowed only five minutes to speak. In questioning the Commissioner's Special Assistant, Ms. Zamloot discovered that State Board members DO meet with representatives of school district related organizations, but not with parent organizations or individual parents. Shortly after her conversation with the Commissioner's office, all scheduled meetings were cancelled by the Board members.
It was stressed that the details of the DOE
position were being laid out not to discourage us – not to make us feel hopeless
– but to make clear of the position we are in and the obstacles before us.
It was stressed that if we are able to connect with a substantial portion of the
parents of the 225,000 special education students in NJ, through unity and
organized action, and through collective dialogue, we can surmount any and
all obstacles and we can prevail on this issue.
Committee Formed
Those in attendance agreed to work together as
an APIECE affiliated committee entitled NJ IDEIA 2004 Organizing Committee. The
proposed goals of the committee follow the minutes below.
Actions urged include:
A date will be picked, likely within the next 2 – 3 weeks, for coordinated letter writing to the Department of Education, the Acting Governor, state elected representatives and newspaper opinion pages. We will consider repeating the calls for coordinated action in following months and possibly include call-ins and later, perhaps a physical presence coordinated with the other actions. A 3-person committee has selected June 15 for the first date of action. To start working on your letter, you can use our letter writing tool box:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/IDEIA2004_Writing.htm
We hope to urge on 100 letters for the date in
question and to have 1000 petition signatures by that date. If you want to send
a letter sooner – please be encouraged – you can always send it again on that
date.
See:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/june_15_100LettersForOurChildren.htm
The idea of participating in SEAC meetings was discussed. The importance of attendance and testimony by our constituents at everyone of the monthly meetings was stressed. It was also discussed that we move in that direction by calling folks out to come to an initial such meeting and at that meeting, we can discussed with those who turn out the importance of covering all of the future such meetings.
All members of the committee and supporters of students with disabilities should consider ourselves petitioners for the 11 point petition at The Student Advocate Website. We should continue to promote the petition on the internet but more importantly, we should be talking to friends, relatives, colleagues, parents of our children’s classmates in our day to day travels. We should all print off copies of the petition (from this link): http://studentadvocate-nj.org/PetitionIDEIA%202004Handout_Sig.doc . Attach them to clipboards and leave one in our car and one in our house. You can print off some handout materials from these links to give folks when they sign:
A letter to be drafted to formally request that advocacy and parent organizations support the petition drive organizationally and otherwise stake out a position in opposition to the reduction of rights of students with disabilities and parents and the destruction of important individualized planning methods like short term objectives. We will invite those groups to join us in coalition around this effort.
The need for our participation in the public hearings that DOE will be scheduling on these issues this fall was stressed and it was mentioned that it is around that time that we will likely hand in the petition.
The suggestion by Ilise Feitshans was made that whatever space we can open up with the petition drive could possibly be utilized to write our own version of how the administrative code should read. She also called attention to two Supreme Court cases and suggested that we work on Amicus Briefs for those cases to promote another avenue to impact the issues raised in the petition drive.
The next meeting of the NJ IDEIA 2004 Organizing Committee is as follows:
Thursday, June 23,
6:30 – 8:15 pm
Mary Jacobs Library, 64 Washington St., Rocky
Hill, NJ 08553
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/June23_2005_IDEIA2004_Mtg_RHill.htm
We are hoping that more organizations are represented at this meeting and we have a larger turn out. If other organizations affiliate with the organizing committee, we can convert it to a coalition.
NJ IDEIA 2004 Organizing
Committee Proposed Goals
To join the NJ
IDEIA 2004 Organizing Committee, click here:
http://studentadvocate-nj.org/NJIDEIA2004_Org_Cmte.htm or send a note to
Advocate@StudentAdvocate-NJ.org .
To promote the IDEIA 2004 petition at http://StudentAdvocate-NJ.org by inviting signatures face-to-face, promoting in news media, sending opinion letters to papers, calling friends, associates and colleagues and through other means.
To promote education among families of the 225,000 special education students in the state about the IDEIA 2004 changes and how they will be affected by them and how they can be involved in the effort to protect the rights of students with disabilities, their parents and guardians and to support important special education processes that can be eliminated.
To reach out to advocacy organizations, parent groups and other community organizations to formally invite them to support the petition and to otherwise state their own positions around the 11 issues of concern highlighted in the petition.
To organize approaches to and responses to the NJ Department of Education and NJ State in general as they come out with statements, positions, outreach, etc. around the IDEIA 2004 issues of concern.
To organize participation in Special Education Advisory Committee meetings and other public group activities to make our views known to the state and the public.
To organize petition signers to follow through on the tasks that they volunteered to do when they signed.
To meet on a monthly basis to assess our progress and plan out the next month of activity.
Ask the Advocate
NJ Complaint Form (MS Word)
(PDF)
On Line Public Hearing on IDEIA 2004
Survey on NJ OSEP Complaint
Process
Past Activities
IEP Wkshp
Rec. Programs for
those w/ Disabilities
An Evening of Educational Advocacy
September 8, 2005 Edison, NJ
What The Student Advocate Has Done for Our Children
Lately . . .
NJ IDEIA 2004 Organizing Committee
Minutes of IDEIA 2004 meeting on Thu., May
26
Student Rights Radio
Discussion, October 31
Effort to
Reach Gubernatorial Hopefuls and Acting Governor / Candidates
IDEA: An Update
Dec. 5, 2005
Middletown
January 18,
2006: Hold a Candle Light for Our Children's Rights
50 Strong For Our
Children
No. Jersey Radio Interview Aired, 1/22
Petitioning for Rights Children: Legal in Princeton
Interview on NJ IDEIA Rights
- Racial Disparities in Sp-Ed
Call
is Heard in Montgomery Twp: Inclusive Recreation
NJSAU Minutes 2/18/2006
Playing and Singing for
Our Rights, 4/1/6
Better IDEA Laws for Special Education
Students?
Better IEPs? Anything is Possible!
April
1 Report: Student Advocacy Union - Fundraising Concert
Mobilization for Rights
of Our Children, May 17, 2006, Trenton
Nationwide Internet Radio Rally for Sp-Ed Parent Rights
9pm EST, Sat. May 20
Parents’ Rally @ Statehouse in Trenton Thursday, June 8, 2006
Piscataway Parents Mtg, June 19, 2006