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Upcoming Coalition Activities
September 28th -
Conference Call
Starting
September 29th - Review of proposed revisions on River-VA
Developing
comment on the proposed revisions
November 1st -
Meeting
The proposed revisions to
the Regulations Governing Special Education Programs for
Children with Disabilities in Virginia can be found at:
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/VA_Board/Meetings/2007/sep-itemA.pdf
Virginia Coalition for Students with
Disabilities
Conference Call
Friday, September 28, 2007
12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m.
Agenda
Introductions
Board of Education Meeting Review
SSEAC Meeting
Coalition Meeting, November 1st
Coalition Participation/Membership
Development of Public Comment
Discussion of Proposed Regulations
Other Items
To join
the conference call, please dial toll-free B
1-866-295-5950 - Code 9927541#
Internet
Review and Discussion of Proposed Revisions
The Coalition will begin a
section by section review and discussion of the proposed
revisions on River-VA starting Saturday, September 29th. To
join River-VA, an internet
group/listserve, send a message to
River-Va-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
You do not need to have a yahoo e-mail
address to join the group.
River-VA is a discussion
group/listserve for advocates of
students with disabilities in
Virginia.
Development
of Coalition Public Comment on the Proposed Revisions
The Coalition is seeking
students, parents and other advocates who are willing
to
work
together to draft comment on the proposed
revisions to the
Regulations.
If you are
interested in assisting with this please
contact Cheryl Ward at,
cward@endependence.org.
A series of conference calls will be scheduled for
the development of comments from the
Coalition.
Virginia Coalition for
Students with Disabilities
Meeting
Thursday, November 1, 2007
10:00 a.m.
Resources for Independent
Living
4009 Fitzhugh Avenue in
Richmond
Doug Cox
Assistant Superintendent
Judy Douglas
Director of Special Education Dispute
Resolution & Administrative Services
Melissa Smith
Coordinator of Administrative Services
all speakers are joining us from the Virginia
Department of Education
to discuss
the proposed revisions to the Regulations
Governing Special Education
Programs for Children with
Disabilities in Virginia
Lunch will be
provided
Please RSVP by contacting
Cheryl Ward. For more information about the November 1st
meeting or to RSVP, please contact Cheryl Ward at (757)
461-8007 or via e-mail at
cward@endependence.org
COALITION
DESCRIPTION
The Virginia Coalition for
Students with Disabilities
was formed in 1994
to address issues
impacting students with disabilities and to promote
educational rights and opportunities for
students with disabilities in Virginia. The Coalition
includes individuals and organizations
that have expressed a desire to work together to improve
education opportunities. A
commitment to working together is all that is required
to be involved with the Coalition.
The Coalition maintains an internet listserve/group
that was initiated through a grant
from the Virginia Board for People
with Disabilities to provide training and information on
the amendments to IDEA in 1997. The grant project was
titled River. River was chosen
as a title to represent tributaries, streams and creeks
of advocates from throughout
Virginia gathering together to form a strong River to
affect change. When the internet
listserve/group was formed, we started to call it
River-VA and the name has stuck.
The grant ended years ago, but River-VA
has lived on.
The Coalition and River-L are facilitated
by
the Endependence Center in Norfolk.
The
Endependence Center has no ownership of
the Coalition, merely the ability to
facilitate meetings and communication. For instance,
the Endependence Center pays
for conference calls and meeting refreshments. However,
all organizations and
individuals have an equal say in Coalition activities
and decisions.
Coalition participants
are individuals and organizations who express a
willingness to
work together with other advocates by joining in
Coalition discussions, meetings or
decisions. An email list is maintained of organizations
and individuals who have
expressed an interest in Coalition activities. There
are no dues or membership to be
involved with the Coalition.
Coalition decision making
is a collaborative process of the people who have
expressed
an interest in working together.
Development of positions:
Any document distributed as a position of the Coalition
will
be developed by a group of Coalition participants and
circulated to all people on the
Coalition email list. The following process shall be
used:
-
Any participant or group of participants
can decide to draft a document for consideration of the
Coalition. The document will be drafted by a group of
participants who self-identify themselves as wanting to
be involved in that process.
-
Notice will be sent to all participants
that a document is being drafted identifying the key
contact participant responsible for drafting the
document.
-
The draft document will be sent to all
participants in order for them to have the opportunity
to say that the document will or will not be sent from
the Coalition. The time frame for responses will be
determined by the group of participants that developed
the document. In no case shall the time frame be less
than 48 hours.
-
If more than 50% of the participant
responses are unfavorable to the draft document, the
document may not be published under the name of the
Coalition.
-
Documents that receive a favorable
response from the participants will be distributed to
all participants in order to have an opportunity to sign
on to the document. This step can be omitted if
Coalition participants agree that this step is not
needed due to time constraints. If this step is to be
omitted, a request to omit this step must be included in
the statement that goes out with step 3 above.
-
The document will be circulated
throughout the community under the name of the Coalition
with the names of those participants who proactively
offered their support for the document. The names of
participants will not be included if there is agreement
to omit the process for sign-on.
Meetings of the Coalition
will be announced to all participants at least three weeks
in
advance or in the case of specially called meetings, as
soon as possible. Special meetings
may be held at anytime
by any five participants as long as all participants are
notified of the
special meeting 24 hours in advance.
Special meetings must include a conference call
option for
all participants.
Communication of the Coalition
will be primarily through e-mail. Regular mail and fax will
be
used only when a participant does not have e-mail access.
This statement of procedures was agreed to by the
Coalition participants on February 17,
1994.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
The Virginia Board of Education will have their
regular monthly meeting on Wednesday,
September 26th. The Board
is expected to take the formal step needed to put the
proposed
revisions to the Regulations into a process that will
result in the eventual public
comment period. The Board has a
general public comment period at each of their regular
meetings,
including the meeting on September 26. This is not a public
hearing on the
Regulations. However, the public is free
to present comment on any education item at
any Board meeting.
More information about the Board meeting can be found at
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/VA_Board/Meetings/2007/sep26agenda.pdf
The State Special Education Advisory Committee
has the proposed revisions to the
Regulations on their
meeting agenda for October 25-26 when they meet in Lynchburg.
More information about the SSEAC meeting can be found at
http://www.pen.k12.va.us/VDOE/Instruction/Sped/AgendaSSEAC10-07.pdf
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