Event ID: 2535126 Event Started: 2/25/2015 8:00:00 PM ---------- >> "Please stand by for realtime captions." >> Robin, Mark. It didn't sound like anyone was there. >> I just a quiet. >> Hello everyone. >> Hello. >> This is Washington disability services in Branson Washington. >> Hello. >> Connie, welcome to our program. >> We will go ahead and mute. >> Mark, I went ahead and added the intervener tip sheet to the file download on. >> Good. >> This is Gail S Leslie. We do build these as hosted conversations on how you can go ahead and start your video pod. Even if it's just to stay --say hello for a while work these are more conversational and necessarily meant to be not in webinar format. Mark would be just presenting. So I am inviting you to turn on your cameras. And it allows is also to introduce ourselves and say where we are from. Every time we do one of these we get a lot of new faces showing up so it's nice to make connections with those new faces. >> It looks likes --like there is still folks diving in. >> --Dialing in. >> Well I think we can go ahead and get started. What do you think? >> Okay >> So again, welcome everyone to our conversation about the national child count. I guess everyone, there is a lot of camera shyness. I'm hoping more people might click on that share. The chocolate goes to those in the Hollywood squares. You know because we do have so many new people, you know, people who are new --newer. It would be nice to go around and say hello, introduce yourself. Say what state you're from. If that's okay I would like to do that. We have a pretty large group, which is really nice. I am data Leslie from NCDB . In your presenter for today's webinar, or hosted conversation. Mark schlock, from NCDB . By way of introduction I will start with Robbin . >> I don't want to jump in and introduce myself, but I would like to start the recording so people will catch this that are watching it later. >> Okay, good. >> I will do that right now. >> So but I will do, I will have Mark introduce himself. Then I will move through the Hollywood squares and asked people to share by introducing themselves. Then we will, I will try to catch people who are here, camera shy folks who are on the phone or driving in a car, you never know. To say hello and what state or project they are from. So Mark, why don't you start have sent you are running the show this afternoon. When we will do a quick go around. >> Okay. Good afternoon everyone. I am Mark schlock, at the office of in CD NCDB . One of my activities in NCDB is to coordinate the deadline child count --tran06 child count. I am glad you are all here. >> [indiscernible] tran03. >> Robbin . >> I am Robin board with that center on deaf and blind. I wear a few of different hats. One of them is helping with the deaf blind talk count. Hopefully I can answer a few questions if Mark cannot. Also assist with the Adobe room. We can go from there. >> Irene. >> This is Irene, program coordinator for the Washington state. Sitting here in the room with me is --, our new program specialist for the Washington state program. We welcome her. >> Welcome. That is great. Katie. >> Hi this is Katie, codirector with Nancy Hatfield with the Washington deaf blind project. >> And we are on a different site than Irene, we are logged in and Nancy is with me. I will mute now. >> Hello Nancy. So --tran08. >> There is a blank spot there. >> Sue ? >>*Six to unmuted. >> I will come back. Tony Toni . >> I am from Mississippi, the hearing vision project as we call it. I think that the project coordinator will be jumping on with us. Although I don't see her yet. We are in 2 different sites of course. I thought I might make mine go dark as well so I can eat and you won't have to watch. >> At 3:00 PM, great. >> Susan. >> I am Susan Bonner, project coordinator for the Missouri deaf blind project. >> Lisa. >>*Six. >> Now can you hear me? Okay, Lisa water from Oklahoma. >> And Mr. Morgan. >> I got a Mr. --I am Sam Morgan and newly with NCDB was the program director. A lot of you folks out there that are new to the project, we will hear from myself and Gail in the next 2 weeks. It would be nice to meet all of you. >> Kelly. >> Hello everybody I am Kelly Birmingham from South Carolina deaf blind project. >> Michelle. >> Good afternoon, from Illinois deaf blind services. >> Hello this is NCDB Cyral Miller. >> Hello Carol. >> Hello from Georgia. >> I will go down the phone list with the names here, and maybe you can speak up your hello and what state you are from. Deanna. >> Hello I am from Minnesota. >> Janet. >> I am from Denver Colorado Department of Education. >> Marianne. >> Nevada. >> Michael. >> I am from the Louisiana deaf blind project. >> And Michael is about two weeks into his new position, so welcome. >> I am only one week out to Mardi Gras, so. >> Molly. >> Molly McLaughlin from the New Mexico deaf blind project >> Nancy. >> Hi this is Nancy Hatfield from Washington state. >> And Nicholas and Cathy. >> Idaho project for children with -- >> Nice to meet you. Rebecca. >> With that,,*six. To get off mute. >> We will check back. Rose. >> South Dakota deaf blind project. >> Cyral, did you find Sue ? >> Teresa. >> Nebraska deaf blind project. >> William? >> I am Bill and I work with Molly at the New Mexico project for children who are deaf and blind. >> Is there anybody that I have missed that wants to say something? >> Hello Rebecca. Welcome. >> Sorry about that. Glad to join you. >> That Becca --Rebecca you with Kansas? >> Yes. >> Anybody attached to one of those numbers that I have missed? >> This is Linda --. I am also listening in by phone. >> Welcome Linda. >> I am with NCDB , like Sam. >> Thank you everybody. It is nice to have everybody to say hello. Now I will turn it over to Mark. >> Again, welcome. This is a big group. What I would like to do is share some basic information. And then we will open it up for questions, and sharing. A couple of things, when we get to the question and sharing, I know there are often questions that come up that are specific to a certain child. Because we are recording this, maybe you could hold off and call me. I just want to make sure that we are following confidentiality rules. Or, if you can phrase the question in an ambiguous way that would be fine also. I think we should try to maintain confidentiality. When we talk about specific issues. >> So, there are so many folks, and some of them are on camera and some are not questions should probably be posed to the chat pod. We will go down in order. I think that will make it fair for everybody in the phone call. >> Okay, basic information. First of all if you are not signed up for the national deaf blind child count group, we would really suggest that you do. We do disseminate quite a bit of information through the group. It is also a way to get some conversations going. Around issues within the forum. It's just a good place to find information about the child count. We would really suggest that you sign up if you haven't already. >> Okay, I guess the first piece of basic information is a change in the submission date. Because the beginning of May is a crazy time with ATR Dumay eighth this year, we are going to move the submission date to the 15th. I know it's not a lot of time but hopefully it some breathing room for you. Certainly you can submit before then if you already. We will certainly take the data. And if you have situations that test make it impossible to submit by May 15, please contact me. By phone or e-mail. We can negotiate an extension that meets your timelines and still lets us get the report in on time. So please, don't feel, do feel comfortable in asking for an it extension if there is an issue. We have done that in the past and we can do that, we always know there are situations that come up. >> As always, you can contact me for Robin any time via phone or e-mail if you have questions. That is what we are here for. Please feel comfortable doing that as well. >> All right. Those are some of the first the basics out of the way. For those of you who have not, who are new to the child count, that data is submitted as an Excel file. We can certainly accept format that are readable, by Excel. That is what we're looking for. We have had PDS submitted in the past and that becomes really difficult for us. Excel is what we are looking for, Excel spreadsheet. >> Again, there is a kind of template that we put up on the website for use. >> You don't have to use it. Don't worry about the order of the columns, as long as the columns in the spreadsheet are well labeled. We can move things around the way it is supposed to be. Don't worry about that. We find things come out of all kinds of interesting order from the different databases that are out there. We are used to working with that. >> Blank cells, missing data. You can do one of two things, take the time and into in 999 or 2. Are you can leave it back --blank and we can fill it in. We are used to doing that. That is not an issue for us. Critical data fields work you know the things that are most critical are certainly division loss and the hearing loss. We have to have those field in. And birthdate, if we can get it, is very useful. We use that to create a bunch of different variables. So that is also really important. >> This year, as you know, we are piloting intervenor services. A new data element in the job count. We know it is a pilot and we know there will be lots of --data. We expect that. We hope to get together either at the summit, or in similar types of drop-in sessions, to debrief the pilot of intervenor services. To get a sense of how people are gathering that information. So we can share different ways to get a hold of that information. Again, we know it is a pilot this year. Belts best --overly stressed about it. It will get easier and better as time goes on. >> Let's see. So what happens after we get the data? The first thing we do is clean it up again, it comes in to us and all different kinds of interesting formats. Anyway, we are used to seeing different things, so we cleaned it up a bit. We aggregate and analyze it. And what we do is put together a draft report, tables for you to look at and respond to. If things don't look right, if things are not consistent with what you think they should be, that is the time for you to get in touch. We will go through any discrepancies and try to work things out. We really want to make this as accurate as we can. We have a number of different decision rules that we use in terms of who was included and who is not in the --snapshot. >> Sometimes, we need to go back in and revise that a bit based on additional information that you provide after you look at the report. >> So that's also an important time. We try to do that in August. We get a final draft report to do SEP and late September for approval, dissemination and try to get it disseminated out by October 1. Those are the what happens between now and October 1. >> Again, this summer, if it works out for the summit, we hope to have a session and kind of reviews for the data elements. What things are not there that should be, what things are there that we don't need that we can get rid of. It has been a while since we had this discussion, I think it's time. So we are planning to do that this summer. As well as debrief the pilot. And maybe brainstorm some additional reporting options that you might find useful. >> That is kind of our plan for the near future with the child count. I think what I would like to do now is go ahead and open it up for questions, comments. And we will go from there now we are into the informal part of this. >> Nancy Hatfield has her hand up. Nancy? >> I had my virtual hand up. I just wanted to let you know about some of the discussion going on as were getting our first forms back. We have included the intervenor questions and of course we don't have that as a statewide recognized job description. We are finding some of the school districts, especially as were offering open in training, the districts are created this position and designating people as intervenors. They in no way have reached a level of proficiency or anything, where we would consider them highly qualified intervenors. But it is still valuable information for us at this stage can't to see how the districts are responding to I think the initiative. They are sharing about it and creating these job descriptions without any kind of state guidance. It is interesting. I am curious about other states that don't have official credentials for intervenors, if you're getting preliminary responses. Just more of a comment. >> I think that's probably a comment or issue that a lot of people will face. And actually it has come up previously. Who really qualifies as an intervenor the that we want to include in the count. >> This is Susan from Missouri. I am very surprised also, because there aren't, there's only 2 people I know who have gone through the intervenor training before. There are many out there that I was not aware of who are receiving one-on-one paraprofessional support in their local school district. They are also accessing from the department there high-cost need from the State Department to serve those students. It's kind of interesting information for me to have. And looking at those school districts on the road, who have support through the open hands open access modules. >> Kelly has her hand up. Kelly burning and >> This may be a silly question but I am fairly new. Bear with me. >> The audio was dropping in and out, is that just me quick >> How is that. >> Start again. >> This phone is not fantastic. I was saying this might be a silly question, I am fairly new. As we are updating forms or receiving the updated forms on students who are already on the senses as of December 1, for the child count, we are also having some new students come in the school district, they are revisiting. I have gotten some mixed information, my assumption would be that if we weren't aware of them as of December 1, and we are finding out about the students in January or February, then they would not go on the December 1 child count, we would hold them until next year? I have heard other things from other people. If were receiving students who are in the school system but not on our list as of December 1, do we count them with this year quick >> I would go ahead and count them. >> Okay. >> Carol has a question about how to deal with missing data. 999 is kind of a standard code for dealing with missing data. For a number of the items, there is the option, one for yes, 2 for no --I'm sorry zero know, one yes and 2 unknown. >> 999 works as well as -- >> That is a good question. It is certainly, well if we go with a definition that has been created through NCDB , then none of those is necessarily appropriate. Using the definition to identify who is qualified as an intervenor would be the way to go. >> Teresa. >> Mark, this is Robbin . There are a lot of people on --could you read the question. >> Sorry. Irene's question was our most common question qualifies it as an intervenor. The teacher of the dead --deaf, the OT, the PT? >> Teresa is adding a comment about intervenors as well. In Nebraska all of the paraprofessionals, all who are paraprofessionals, they are just included as paras. So that is the way it is counted. The district I am working with on OHOA understands it more. It might be cleaner. >> Cyral wasn't sure what needs to be restated? >> I wasn't sure, maybe it goes back to what Robin was saying, I wasn't sure what you are answering when you said use the definition of NCDB . >> The definition of an intervenor, that was included in the instructions that went out. For this new item, we included the definition that was developed through in CDB NCDB. And have guidance for who is an intervenor. >> Thanks >> More questions? >> So is the expectation that there will be a lot of variation, that that new item will be interpreted. >> I think we have to expect that to be the case this first year. Not only is the item new for many school districts and states, the issue, the term, everything is new. It's just going to take a while to start getting cleaner data. We know that is the case. It is just a message --messy data element for lots of reasons. >> We might expect over time that it will get better. We will be able to look at what change occurs and how people are reporting it. That the criteria for reporting it might become more recognizable. >> Exactly. That will be one of the things we will talk about this summer in terms of the briefing how it went this year, what needs to be changed in the instructions to make it more understandable to school districts that are filling it out. >> Teresa makes a comment, Mark I think it will mean many years because intervenor is not in any state laws or regulations in some of our states. Correct. >> Katie humans agrees with Teresa. >> Deanna in Minnesota, we only count intervenors who have gone through our training. We have been tracking and formally this information since at least 2007. >> They are ahead of the game. >> And so Deanna, this is Gail Leslie. What does the data tell you? >> 2007, that's six or seven years. >> This is Deanna. What the data has told us is we have seen the numbers I've intervenors arise, for the kids being served since 2007. As I said it's just an informal question that we include with our senses back. It's not included in the actual senses but a separate sheet of paper that we have included with it. It does very from each region in the state, depending on the district and things like that. We have sending --seen an increase overall. >> We are kind of up at the beginning, hopefully of a wave of increasing intervenor services across the country. A lot of effort is going into that right now. And it just seems to us, as well is OSEP that now is the time to start collecting baseline data to start tracking that. It is certainly the impetus for doing this. It is an important piece of information. But we also know it will be messy for a while. >> Rebecca from Kansas ask a couple of questions. I am glad you asked that Rebecca, part of why we get together in these informal sessions is for you to share amongst yourselves. In the state projects. The first question is what are some of the ways folks keep track of kids from part C to part B. And number two, perhaps it's a Kansas issue, how do folks with document vision and hearing with learners with severe disabilities which even ADRs are not possible? Anybody can jump into respond to those questions. >> [indiscernible-multiple speakers] >> Go ahead Susan. >> Susan from Missouri what we do, our children are all signed a student ID number when they enter the education system. It begins at first step in the part C. If I lose track of them in the transition, we have access to what the state calls Missouri state student ID system, something like that. We could find out what school district is now reporting that student and I can contact them and follow them that way. >> This is Rebecca. -- >> Any other ideas for keeping track of kids from part C to part be --B? >> This is Robbin . This might be a conversation we can post on the forum of the child count portion of the website. And see if there are others not on the call that can offer ideas as well. >> And Lisa has a question from Oklahoma. Does anyone have a secret for getting schools to return forms? >> William has his hand up. Are you going to share a secret. >> Yes. If you send them an e-mail, maybe a week or two before you're actually going to send out the census forms, there's a notable increase of forms that get returned from the schools. >> They may get an e-mail that it says we will send it out and maybe by out by this day. Give them a heads up so it's not just something they delete out of the e-mail as soon as it shows up. >> Good. Susan. >> Susan Bonner, you have your hand up. Did you want to add to that? >> No. I didn't press anything new. I was taking off my jacket. >> Okay. There are a whole bunch of responses. I think instead of reading them all the what we will do is take all of these and post them in the 4M. That way you can all go back --to the form and you can go back and read them as well. There are a lot of suggestions here. >> Toni . >> The smart thing is sometimes have too many steps to get back to where you are. Too many opportunities to do other things and you get lost. I wanted to returned back to Rebecca's question, she had a part to about children who are not able, the ABRs , maybe they have to be sedated for ABRs . This is a continuing issue for us in our state of Mississippi, because sometimes even after a ABRs has been done, we still get results that are incongruent with how the child is actually responding functionally. Then we can go that route, do a functional assessment, and base it on that. But we also have some of get a statement from the doctor saying this child has to be sedated in order to get an evaluation, either vision or hearing or both done. That puts the child at risk. So it is a constant challenge cop per child, as to what might need to be required. Those are some of the ways we have tackled trying to get, have a good child count, and adjust the needs of the child at the same time. Does that make sense? A roundabout way of saying all that. >> I think it's really important discussion. Medically some of the children are so challenged, that we have to keep asking ourselves how are we doing this, and figure it out. >> That sounds like an issue in and of itself, that needs to be part of a discussion. What to do about that and how to deal with that. >> There are a lot of good suggestions. >> There really are. We will capture all of these and share them in the forum on the child count group page. There are a lot of good sharing going on. That is great. That is really the power of having these informal drop-in's that people can share with each other. So thank you all for doing that. >> Cyral , are you part, is your online system separate. Are you part of a broader data collection effort that goes on in the state of Texas? >> We do the DI registration for kids --the printing house for the blind. And the deaf count at the same time, they are 2 separate systems because historically they were separate systems. My dream is to pull them together. That they are done at the same time. >> Thank you. >> --But they are done at the same time. >> Thank you. >> Thank you Nancy. I was about ready to ask that as well. Nancy Hatfield wrote in I would be curious to learn how those of you with an online census process address confidentiality concerns. >> Passwords. Is that at the district level? >> Got it. >> This is Toni . I have a little issue because we have 47 people on the phone. But they don't have the advantage to see what is in the chat bot --Todd. I know we will post it later, but if I was sitting on the line waiting, I would just think everybody is just looking at each other here. It is not enough information being shared. Can we do something more about that? >> Well, we can read them. I am not sure if there are any other option that we have. That is probably the only option right now, to share what is in the chat pod. >> We can certainly do that. >> We can go back up to Rebecca. She asked what are some ways that folks keep track of kids. There were some good voices, let's see, Cyral said I tried to find my kids before so I don't lose them. Sometimes I have to track them down with a a think they would to school. >> I will try to find these. Cyral said we have regional context that help us track down missing children and missing forms . >> Teresa said, Lisa I work with the TDI and teachers. They are better with forms. >> Kelly says we use an electronic census form that gives us great return rates. Then we follow up with phone calls. >> Nancy Hatfield, her state special director writes a letter, a cover letter that goes out with the census mailing. >> And those in South Dakota also indicated they do that as well. >> There was, Cyral said they had great success because of online . >> They managed confidentiality with passwords. And then, let me see if I can thread some answers for Rebecca's second question, which was perhaps it is a Kansas issue, how folks document vision and hearing with those with severe disability parents. ABRs are not possible . And Toni volunteered an answer . >> And Georgia, Carol says we use documented functional loss categories for children with multiple disabilities and difficult to test. Let's see. And I think that where the only answer to that one. Meanwhile California said they are having trouble accessing the call so they will view the recording. >> And then, Michelle this is a new question. Michelle asked do new students being added to your account require parent permission or signature for release of information? >> Thank you Gayle for reading those. >> Nobody is talking, the confidentiality for school-age kids, we have a nice document that our colleagues crafted --laws and while school districts don't need permission to get some of the basic information, to include those kids in the child count. I think she got a lot of that from the guys at NCDB . We have been sending that out regularly to school districts to inform that giving information about our kids. >> Teresa adds that I let each district decide that. Nancy Hatfield from Washington, we take new rules from education --educators without parental consent however we designate them census only and do not contact them without permission. >> And Kelly, there are a number of documents on the child count group page related to confidentiality. It looks at both --and parts C and part be --B. There is language in their about what kind of, in what circumstances is parental consent not necessarily a requirement. It spells lose out pretty well. >> I think an argument can be made that most, many projects could meet those requirements. >> This is Gail. Do other states have a mechanism? That they include with their census materials for new kids that talk about co---confidentiality. Or is that not frequent? >> I was just curious to the extent people were making up or including something that was an added explanation to get permission. >> This is Michelle. We had a challenge with our legal at --. They wanted something really explicit that the child count was mandated by OSEP . I tried to piece something together between the RSP. Our grant application, but there wasn't something like totally explicit like the FDA is required to perform a deaf/blind child count. We had problems getting a letter from the FDA saying the district must comply with our request. We are kind of in the Catch-22. Usually if the district knows us, if the families are familiar with us, we have no problem. It is the finding the new students where we come up with a catch. That is where we have gone to the point where we are requesting parent signature and making it a new referral for all of the new kids. That's how we have been dealing with the issue. Our counts have gone down probably at least by five students per year. That's what I'm guessing since FRPA . We have fewer early intervention providers. They want that for the --, balancing out. >> Let's see, Cyral . Let me start, Lisa asked that Oklahoma --how often do we need to get permission. At initial referral or each year? I would think it is the, if the informed consent or permission letter is phrased correctly, it would be just an initial referral. Cyral adds, we collect this data for the state Department of Education, they have access to student information without needing separate parent permission to collect the information. We do need permission to share the information beyond NCDB . >> And Sue, in Texas we have a standard form that has been vetted by agency lawyers, and must be present for the district older and validated on the response forms. >> I think what we have seen over the past couple of years is that each state is a little bit different. In fact districts within states, and agencies within states, different. --Differ. Overall issues of confidentiality are becoming more heightened. And we all have to be aware of that. >> Are there other questions? >> It looks like we --it looks like we may have. Smart typing going on. >> Multiple attendees are typing. >> It is 1:00 PM. Or 2:00 PM, 4:00 PM[laughter] . 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. So, anyway, thank you all for dropping in. A lot of good issues got discussed. Some good ideas but shared., We just the start of many things. Again, if you have questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch. That's why we, why you are here. >> We will try to organize this chat pod into some captured information, and you will find it in the child count, along with the link to the recording. >> Thank you to everyone for showing up. Thank you Mark for your time. >> I hope, especially people who are new to the census, that this was useful and understanding at least how it operates. What some of the issues are. >> This was a really big informal drop-in. [laughter] >> A little bit different than most of them. Thank you for bearing with us. It wasn't the typical procedure for these. Anyway, thank you all. >> I think this is a record-breaking attendance so far Mark. >> Bast year we did a national webinar informal drop-in. >> That is right. I meant in terms of the informal drop-in, this is our biggest so far. >> It is that time of year. >> Thank you all. >> Thank you Mark. >> Thank you Robbin . >>[Event concluded]