Friday, March 20, 2020 at 5:28:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Subject: Le#er from MSAD superintendent

Date: Friday, March 20, 2020 at 5:27:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Leigh, Vivien
To: Schools, Jeffrey
AEachments: image001.png, image002.png, image003.png, image004.png, image005.png, image006.jpg

State from Patricia Hopkins, Superintendent of Schools MSAD 11.

Like every district in Maine, MSAD 11 leadership and staff are working tirelessly to shift from
classroom-based instruction to offering remote learning opportunities. Communication has been
shared almost daily with families regarding the decisions of our school community around our food
service program, access to student laptops in grades 6-12, 10 days worth of enrichment learning
materials for PreK-12 (for March 23 - April 3), and strategies for ongoing communication. We were
able to distribute enrichment learning materials in hard copy form and/or digitally in grades PreK-12
to 92% of our families on Wednesday, March 18. Plans are underway to ensure that 100% of our
families receive these critical resources. It is important to emphasize that the materials distributed to
families do not include new learning. At this time, we are only able to provide families with
educational enrichment materials designed to help students retain their learning.

We have conducted a survey for families in grades 6-12 to understand internet accessibility and
reached out to each family by phone to understand the situation and discuss strategies for helping
them access the internet if the survey responses indicated that they had no home internet. We are
committed to supporting our learners during this unprecedented time period.

All staff in MSAD 11 have been asked to reach out to their students multiple times per week using
Google mail, Google Meet, and in some cases, calling families directly.

In order to provide services for all of our students receiving specialized services, we are bound to
follow strict federal guidelines and recommendations from the Office of Civil Rights. While we've
offered learning materials for all students this week, our specialists provided materials within our
learning packets or through online means that align to IEP goals and objectives as best as they
could within a 48 hour turnaround. It is entirely optional for families to continue learning while we, as
a district, reconvene and identify effective strategies for meeting the needs of all of our students. We
understand how critical this time period is for learners under normal circumstances and value every
day we have with them in our classrooms.

The Director and Assistant Director of Special Services are working collectively with their special
education staff and service providers to review every IEP, identify areas where alternate
accommodations and modifications may be necessary when working virtually, and developing a
schedule to reach out to families and convene virtual IEP meetings. It is critical that families are a
central part of the decision making process when transitioning any learning plan for our identified
students and this crisis is no exception. With 21% of our student population identified as receiving
special services, this is not a simple task.

Additionally, we are working within our statewide network of special education leaders to understand
which platforms will be most effective at supporting our learners and maintaining the health and
safety of our students, their families, and our staff and service providers. HIPPA has been softened
through the Office of Special Education (OSEP) and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Thus, we can
use platforms, that wouldn’t typically be allowed (such as Google Meet, Zoom, phone calls, etc.), to
reach students and provide special education and related services to students. As long as staff are
certified in their current position, they can provide services via an alternate modality (such as Zoom,

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Google Meet, phonecall, etc.).

We are currently exploring teletherapy with our speech pathologists. They will be participating in a
webinar on Monday, then meeting via Zoom afterwards.

It's important to understand that these platform options are being considered but we are not able to
transition immediately as any new platform will require training for staff and clear steps for access to
families. We are working rapidly to make collective decisions in the best interest of our learners
having had little to no experience working under conditions such as the ones we are all in now.

According to the DOE schools are not expected to meet the full service minutes in IEPs at this
time. When school resumes we will need IEP meetings to determine regression and extended
school year (ESY.)

We encourage any parent who has a question or concern to call the special education department
directly.

VIVIEN LEIGH, News Reporter

NEWS CENTER Maine | WCSH 6 & WLBZ 2

O: 207.828-6622 | M: 207-232-8520
Vivien.leigh@newscentermaine.com
Facebook @Vivien Leigh Journalist
Twi#er @vivienleigh6

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