MEETING NOTES

State Interagency Transition Team (SITT) Meeting

Montgomery, Alabama - Alabama Industrial Training Development Center

December 1, 2016 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

16 Team Members in Attendance:

Joshua Echols- People First / Jeana Winter- APEC / Karen Jenkins- ADDRS
Nancy Anderson- ADAP / Kimberly Lewis- ADRS/CRS / Jewell C. Pitts- DMH/ID
Marli Word- GOOD / Naomi Scales- ACCS / Gwendolyn Brown-DR&R
Becky Fields- ALSDE/SES / Curtis Gage-ALSDE/SES / Leroy Miles-ALSDE/SES
Cynthia Augustine-ALSDE/SES / Susan Goldthwaite-ALSDE/SES / Susan Williamson- ALSDE/SES
Diane Jones-ALSDE/SES

05Visitors & Invited Guests in Attendance:

Suzanne Echols- Parent / Rebecca Hauser-ALSDE/SES / Clark Waggoner-ALSDE/SES
Carrie Rodice- Shelby County / Laura Partain- Shelby City

Welcome & Call to Order- C. Augustine

  • Participants introduced themselves.

Agenda-C. Augustine

  • The proposed Agenda (Attachment 1) was presented, reviewed, and approved without dissent.

Minutes- C. Augustine

  • The August 30, 2016 SITT Meeting Minutes (Attachment 2) was presented, reviewed, and approved without dissent.

Old Business- C. Augustine

  • ALSDE has taken the role ofcoordinating and facilitating the SITT meetings.
  • Review of 2016/2017 NTACT Capacity Building Plan (Attachment 3). Plan progress will be reviewed at next SITT meeting.

New Business-

  • S. Williamson, ALSDE/SES Transition Update
  • “Dream as big as they want to---that is what transition is.”
  • Presentation- Secondary Transition Framework for Services and Supports, Improving our Infrastructure for Secondary Transition (Attachment 4).
  • To improve coordination between agencies, review Infrastructure Graphic(Attachment 5) and share feedback on what may have been overlooked or needs to be added.
  • S. Williamson & C. Gage, Discussion of status and success of Regional Demonstration Sites and encouragement for SITT members to schedule on-site visits to Regional Demonstration Sites.
  • Group discussion, Successes and challenges with transition.
  • C. Augustine, Sub Committees—seek participation by SITT team members.
  • To develop By Laws/ rules for the SITT.
  • Respond to technical assistance (TA) requests. A Gmail account has been created to track TA requests-- .
  • Youth Transition Day—begin single statewide day and then moving towards multiple regional days.
  • Recommend updates and improvement to next year’s SITT Capacity Building Plan.
  • C. Augustine, Next Meeting – Propose quarterly meetings with two in Birmingham area and two in Montgomery area.
  • Survey will be sent to team members to identify meeting locations and dates.
  • Based on survey results team members will be notified of next meeting date and location.
  • Future dates and locations will be discussed at next SITT meeting.
  • Setting next meeting dates- review survey recommendationsand discussion or next meeting.

Agency Updates-

  • ADRS- In response to the Work Force Innovations and Opportunities Act(WIOA) a focus is on coordinating with school systems to form Transition Unlimited; VR counselor is serving every school in State; meeting with schools to see what services are needed and fill in the gaps; developing collaboration plan; College Prep Summer Experience program for 2017 (Attachment 6) for sensory impaired offered.
  • ALSDE/SES-- Phasing out Preparing for Lifeand replacing with an Alabama transition manual; working with APEC and parent focus groups to develop a parent transition manual; Transition Team Advocacy group is in progress; three parent focus groups are providing feedback for development of transition resources; the Transition in Alabama webpage within the ALSDE/SES website is up and running; Please submit, to L. Miles, events and photos that members may want to have posted to this webpage.
  • People First- next meeting features presentations by individuals with disabilities on challenges and helpful guidance for individuals with disabilities attending, or considering attending, a college.
  • J. Pitts acknowledged and praise the Opelika City Schools for hosting a very successful parent meeting that was very well attended.

C. Augustine- Request that following adjournment, members use the sign up on charts, posted on the walls, to sign up for sub committees and to provide feedback for Infrastructure Graphic; sub committees will meet separately from the SITT meeting.

Adjournment

1 | Page