District ABA Advisory

Minutes – April 7/09
District ABA Advisory
Meeting called to order at 7:05 by Nancy Robins

 

Introductions

 

11 in attendance

 

We reviewed the minutes from the last meeting for new attendees and people who had missed them online.

 

Notes from the previous meeting will be in italics

 

Q Notification for parents about the placement of an ABA SW to their child’s posting in the summer.

 

A Anne and Christine Thomas from HR have talked about this and next summer following the posting process Anne intends to contact all parents those who receive ABA SW’s and those for whom the District is still trying to hire.

 

Question – my child’s ABA SW gets pulled to work with other children – recommendation – talk to the principal if you feel they are not being heard you should contact Ann Turner at Student Support as she and Rick noted that they wanted to know if principals and or IT’s do not seem to understand the ABA SW procedures

 

What about if your ABA SW calls in sick – you get the person on the spareboard who is next in line – are there any on the spareboard right now?

The advisory will ask the District if there are any ASW’s on the spareboard at this time.

 

Question to District – Is bumping triggered when a child moves from K to 1 if they do not have an ABA SW but the child has ASD.

 

Q Can ABA SW’s be paid for team meeting attendance?

 

A Yes if those meetings are held in the home during school time when students are for some reason not in school (very rare). Or at school after regular class hours with the principal’s permission. Meetings in the home after school hours can be voluntary by the ABA SW or at the parent’s expense.

 

We could be an avenue to provide extra info to IT’s that need explanations.

 

Parents of children entering K should ask for 15 hours of familiarization time to be conducted as early as possible.

 

Q The ABA Advisory has some reports that there are ABA SW’s working with children who do not have ABA Consultant’s working with the school program. This seems to lead to ABA SW dissatisfaction. Further it prevents children who would have ABA Consultant interaction at school from getting ABA SW’s since the demand still out strips the supply.

 

A The district will refer to the original November 2007 Home to School Collaboration letter outlining the need for children to be involved with ABA Consultants to have an ABA SW placed with them. The District will determine a method to identify those cases for whom this is not the case and will review that with parents and perhaps Consultants if a pattern appears.

 

Discussion – the ABA SW should let the district know if they are not supported by a Consultant

The response from the District is that “all these concerns are/will be handled sensitively!”

 

Question –

Is there a number of hours that ABA Consultants should see your child? Answer – it would be child specific and based on your program needs

 

Q It was requested to reduce turnover and provide more information to ABA SW’s the ABA Consultant names be placed on postings.

 

A This question has been raised with Human Resources and will be raised again.

 

The district will continue to follow up on this issue.

 

 

Q Where has the district’s thinking gone on the ability to compensate ABA Consultants for the time spent working on school behaviour at the school? Are there any professional services contracted to work with children in the school system?

 

A There are no other professional child contact services contracted in the district. Bargaining Unit work cannot be contracted out to outside suppliers. At the present time there is no ABA Consultation available through the district so Rick will go to the Superintendent and Executive Committee and ask for some funding to be set aside to pay for these services as they are not available from district staff. Based on the results of his request he may need to go to the Trustees, or upon receiving their response the ABA Advisory may decide to send their Executive to the Trustees to make this request.

 

The response from the District on this question –

No action on this item at this time… (timing is very poor e.g., budget concerns district wide)

 

Fast Forward

It is a computer listening program – it is supposed to be a brain driver to improve reading and auditory processing skills in children.

The district has recently bought this program and it is being used with some ASD kids

Nancy Walton had talked to Brad Bauman – to see if a study could be done to test its efficacy with ASD kids.

The district will be conducting their own research

more information will follow – Nancy Walton will follow up.

 

Mom in the district who was told by an IT that when moving into the district part way through the year it was too late to get an ABA SW. We will put a request in to the district to clarify this position for IT’s and principals as the ABA Advisory believes that parents could apply at any time. Also please advise new parents that the group exists.

 

Requesting teachers for next year – it seems to be principal specific whether or not you can be involved in that process.

 

IT – question there was situation in which an IT was working against an ABA Consultant in the parents opinion – that parent asked what she could do, the concensus at the meeting was that she should contact

– Ann Turner wants to know about any IT’s that are not working collaboratively with the team

 

Space – is there any sort of provision for space out of the classroom – answer – this seems to be school specific if space is available ABA Consultants can make a recommendation about removal from the classroom.

 

Question to the district

Is there a competency assessment planned for the ABA SW position to determine the appropriate market rate for the position?

 

Parent question – a few months ago the school asked me to sign a safety plan

Question to ask district – purpose? What is the parent’s obligation, what is the standard?

This parent’s proposed plan included “if he runs in to the street the Worker will not run into the street after him.” The parent felt like her son was being treated like a criminal.

Parent proposed functional assessment of behaviour and the IT did not seem to understand that concept.

 

Adjourned at 9:10