District ABA Advisory

Minutes – June 10/08
District ABA Advisory
Attendance 11

 

Meeting called to order at 7:04

 

Minutes approved from last meeting – Elaine motioned to accept, seconded by Dawn

 

 

Old business
•We will have an editorial in the Edcom Paper for September – it is due in by August 1st
•Nancy W will start and Elaine has offered to review and edit
•On the parent site of the school website there will be a link
•We appeared in the DPAC annual report as a parent group advocating for ABA
•We now have a link on the DPAC website
•Our request to have information sent to every principal was declined as the District noted that with the number of schools and administrators it would further an overload of information that is sent schools at this time – however parents who are in contact with Student Services and are running ABA home programs will be informed of the Advisory – A secondary approach would be to have information sent to Integration teachers
§ Resource List – we asked if there was a list that could be forwarded to consultants so that children could have access to those curriculum items which are already owned by the district – motioned to request that parents can check out resources – suggested by CS that district could purchase materials that consultants would be interested in utilizing – Nancy R will follow up on this request in July

 

SET BC

– response was that children who needed communication devices were not considered until they were past K to 2 in practice in the past

– This was not satisfactory to the Executive Committee as the logic that children need to demonstrate competence with PECS is not supported by research and that children in ABA programs have that exposure as early as 2 years old

– This position was checked with RR he replied that this is not policy it will be reviewed in July

– Nancy R will make a list for RR of items that will be reviewed in July as a reminder so that parents and Integration teachers can have clarification

– We will request to Student Support Services that all integration teachers are aware that there is no policy and individual cases should be reviewed

 

 

Question about prep given to all SEA’s – response from District was that only those with full Bell to Bell coverage with SEA’s are being given – a complete response to the letter sent to the district on this topic will be expected for the next meeting

 

Nancy R – gave direction on how to find postings on district website

Go to: http://www.sd36.bc.ca/ click on “job opportunities” on the left margin. Click on “Support Staff” and scroll to near the bottom of the page and click the link under CUPE Posting Bulletin. The current posting closes June 30th.

 

Consultant Expenses

We sent the district a letter asking them to look for creative ways to pay for the consultant hours. This letter was read to the group. The members felt the letter was compelling and logical and we hope that this will prove effective as we move forward.

 

Parent Notification

A letter on parent notification about receiving ASB SW’s was sent to the District, Rick noted that he would pass this on to Ann Turner and have her contact Christine Thomas and ask Christine to let her know who is assigned to each child so that she can contact parents to let them know they have some one assigned to them.

 

IEP reviews

The district confirmed that formally there is no obligation to have more than one IEP review in a 12 month period. However, it is the district’s preference to meet on IEP’s twice annually. Parents should feel free to request reviews as required to meet the program needs of their individual children.

 

 

New Business
•We will get in touch with South Fraser Child Development Centre to distribute information about our existence – Dawn will do a draft version of a flier that will be used to do this
•Fraser Health Assessment Network
•We will be putting an information flier in the new parents package to know that we exist
•We should also pass this information on to the consultants
•We should also be listed under ACT BC – Nancy Robins will contact them
•The members were made aware that Claudia Semaniuk is retiring the end of June and she will be replaced by Ann Turner who is currently the principal of Cloverdale Traditional
•Several Committee members have met Ann expressed their excitement in working with her
•Motioned by Louise – that we send Anne Turner a bouquet for her first day – seconded by Roxanne
•Louise will take care of this – we will check with Kathy to see what day she starts

HR Questions

Several questions were posed to RR in the Executive meeting with him. He recommended that we speak to Christine Thomas in HR to get accurate information. Nancy R has made 3 calls over the last week to Christine and they have not been returned. Eleanor M will take over trying to make that connection and get those questions answered.

§ Ask Christine Thomas – at the end of K is it a new posting

§ Can a person give notice to vacate a position in some way, without leaving the district, so that children can get posted in the initial June meeting?

§ Could the posting process be expedited?

§ Ask her about how to specifically request subs by name.

 

Getting Hired as an ABA SW

•Anyone interviewing to be an ABA SW should be clear that they are planning to take the ABA SW Course.
•If someone has a therapist that would like to apply but is not planning to take the course and they have concerns they should contact Nancy Walton (wiklo@shaw.ca)

Surrey College Course

•Need to check what was said at information session about Job Shadowing in the program
•We will check to see what was said about accepting EIBI people at the information session
•Nancy W will check into the answers for both of these questions
A question was asked about challenging the course material for the ABA SW course – it was explained that there is no equivalent course work and that a challenge option will not be available In some Surrey College courses a challenge option is available, Sonja informed the Executive Committee that there is a fee of half the tution to do this and that the pass rate is extremely low and therefore she will not be offering this option for the ABA SW course work. .

 

Transfer for the 2 portions of the Sept. course which are the same as SETA will be allowed, with a reduction in tuition for those students who already possess the SETA credential.

 

Should an equivalent course be found the College would review other transfer options however at this time, it is believed that there is no course offering an 80% material match.

 

November letter from the District to Parents

•We plan ask Rick to update the letter with regards to having to notify annually as to the requirement to need an ABA SW and clarify positions that may have changed.

In July we will send a note to Rick Ryan reviewing the items that might need clarification for us for September.

 

FYI

Vibrating timers are available through Different Roads to learning

 

 

Next meeting is scheduled for Tues Aug 12th an email will be sent to members to determine availability for that date, it may be subject to move.

 

Motion to adjourn by Nancy Walton seconded by Louise Witt

Adjourned at 8:56

 

Dal will be bringing snacks for the next meeting.