Weekly Update 12/18/09
by Lynn Ahrens
December 18, 2009
Good Afternoon:
This will be the last blog of 2009. I hope this year has been good to each of you and your families.
Only a few items need to be mentioned today.
1. ESSDACK is planning a retirement planning workshop on Jan. 27, 2010 at 6:15 - 7:30. The address is 1500 E. 11th in Hutch. RSVP to Pam Misunas at 1-877-563-9566 or pamm@essdack.org.
2. The House of Representatives (federal level) has
introduced a bill on seclusion/restraint. H.R. 4247 has been sent
to the House Education and Labor Committee chaired by Miller,
D-Calif. Miller also introduced the bill. Some major points of
interest are: “the use of physical restraint or seclusion as a
planned intervention shall not be written into a student's
education plan, individual safety plan, behavioral plan, or
IEP”.
Another important part of this bill is: Protection and Advocacy
Systems shall have the authority provided under section 143 of the
Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of
2000 (42 U.S.C. 15043) to investigate, monitor, and enforce
protections provided for students under this Act. "P&A systems
are not part of government," Hunter said. "They exist because they
get grants from the government, and I don't know what ability they
have to enforce actions on local governments, on school districts."
This bill has not been introduced in the Senate. The House has
enough Democrats that it could be passed without Republican input.
We have a guideline in place in Kansas but not a regulation.
The state would choose the method used for training staff.
Only in very unusual circumstances would an untrained staff
person be able to handle an aggressive situation.
3. The U.S. Senate passed the omnibus bill with no increase in Special Education funds; however, our count is up by about 24 – many of the students are very young and severe.
4. Medicaid reimbursement has been cut by 10% across the board. This is a cut for us.
5. The new Memorandum of Agreement will not be part of this month's board meeting. It is just too short of notice and this board meeting is a teleconference meeting. The agreement, when settled, is retroactive.
6. Community Forum meetings:
January 20th - Barber County at Med. Lodge High School - 4:00
Feb. 3rd - Commanche County @ Coldwater High School - 4:00\
Feb. 17th - Stafford County @ St. John High School - 4:00
Feb. 24 - Harper County @ Chaparral High School - 4:00
March 3rd - Kingman County @ Kingman High School - 4:00
March 24th - Kiowa County @ Greensburg - Jan Case's room - 4:00
April 7th - Pratt County @ SCKSEC - 4:00
April 9th - Itinerants @ SCKSEC - 2:30
7. JOB-A-THON will be March 31st. Please remember this is part of our transition plan for compliance with the State.
The good news is that Mary, SLP for Kingman County, and Cheron, SLP for Stafford County and some of Pratt, are doing well. Cheron is back to work and out of pain. Mary will still have some recovery time to go.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I hope the next year is the very best one yet for you and your family!
Lynn and Ryan
