March 9, 2016 at 2:00 PM - Special Population Committee Meeting

Discussion:  Call to order at 2:05PM Staff: David Ludwig, Wade Fruhling, Deb Hericks

Discussion:  Co-chair discussed the statewide behavioral health services and committee updates. The committee is gathering information (needs and services) within each region across the state.

Discussion:  Co-discussed and Executive Director reviewed current discussions regarding the Nebraska Circle of Friends program.

Discussion:  The Special Education Law workshop was held this week. Legal sent out a survey and working to gather information. Discussions regarding frequency need to have a meeting of this type. KSB is working on having a student discipline workshop in June. Others types of training ideas Fair Labor Standards Act, new Board training, etc.

Discussion:  Executive Director is in contact with Rose Dymacek and working on the PEP Grant.

Discussion:  Executive Director reviewed some of the changes in the Master Service Agreement (MSA.)

Discussion:  Co Chair reviewed the SRS Tier Structure, increasing tier by 5%. Discussion was held regarding changing the Admin Fee as it has not increased in several years.

Discussion:  SPED Director reviewed that AAP. They spent a day with Michelle Borg testing the AAP site. Changes were mostly text related, and therefore easily fixable. Next steps will be to connect to the State’s data system.

Discussion:  Fruhling reviewed the Project Para stats. They have updated code on all web forms to improve security. They are developing a plan to meet all W3C accessibility requirements. Project Para Advisory Board will be held April 29. Does anyone have any suggestions that they would like Fruhling to pass on to them at this meeting?

Discussion:  Fruhling reported that they have made several important upgrades to the NSSRS reporting system. Data can now be pulled from expired forms as long as there is a recent exit date and exit reason. This solves a serious problem, and will result in more accurate data and reduces the staff time needed to complete the NSSRS report. Transfer reports now have an auto filled “Exit Date”. This ensures that the state receives exit dates and exit reasons for students who have transferred to another district. We have added “N/A” to column 52 of the NSSRS export file. MS Excel often drops off the last two columns of our export file because it doesn’t think there is any data located there. Placing N/A in the final row will prevent that from happening. We are currently working on a Generic Prior Written Notice form. We have developed a NSSRS training manual and are currently trying to turn it into a website with graphic illustrations. We believe that many districts have problems because they don’t understand the process and are unaware of the tools that are available. Improve training = Boost efficiency and accuracy. Working with Bellevue Public Schools to solve speed problem. SRS runs extremely slow on Bellevue’s network, but not anywhere else. Bellevue reports that only SRS is slow for them. All other sites seem normal. They are working with tech people from ESUCC, ESU#3, and Bellevue to address this problem

Discussion:  Fruhling discussed that they continue to maintain the ILCD Staff Survey site. Staff emails the data (along with a summary) to school districts upon request