ARKANSAS INTERAGENCY COORDINATING COUNCIL
MINUTES
October 21, 2015
The State ICC meeting was called to order at 10:03 a.m. by Chair, Frances Black. Amanda Smith conducted the roll call. Twelve members/proxies were present which did constitute a quorum.
ICC MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair, Frances Black, Darnall School in Pulaski County; Traci Harris, DDS Children’s Services Assistant Director; Co-Chair, Karen Lange, Arkansas School for the Deaf; Kyle Thompson proxy for Larry Stricklen, DHS, Office of Finance & Administration HR Manager; Yvonne Greene, Arkansas Department of Education; Angela Traweek, Friendship Community Care; Robbie Lake, Proxy for Cecile Blucker, Division of Children and Family Services; Kim McCray Proxy for Shannon Loyd, Arkansas Department of Health and Infant Hearing; Tim Burbank, Faulkner Co. Day School; Angie Lassiter, Counseling Associates Family Support ; Camille Johnson, Division of Medical Services; Ratha Tracy, Proxy for Tonya Williams, Director of Division of Child Care & Early Childhood Education.
ICC MEMBERS ABSENT: Nina Scaife, Education of the Homeless; Dan Honey, Insurance Governance; Frank Vega, Division of Behavioral Health; Senator Stephanie Flowers, General Assembly and Brandy Parker, Parent.
STATE STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: Tracy Turner, First Connections Part C Coordinator; Amanda Smith, DDS Children’s Services/Interim ICC Coordinator, and Carol Parker, DDS Children’s Services Data Manager.
Minutes
The meeting was called to order by Frances Black.She welcomed everyone to the meeting. Members reviewed the minutes from the January 21, 2015 and the April 15, 2015 meeting. Frances Black called for a motion to approve the minutes. Corrections for the minutes were noted. The minutes were approved.
Motion# 1- A motion was made by Karen Lange to accept the minutes. The motion was seconded by Robbie Lake. The approval was unanimous.
Financial Report:
Traci Harris presented the financial report.
Initial Allocation FY’15: $1,832,357.38
Total Allocated in FY’15: $1,732,357.38
Remaining Balance: $100,000.00
Lead Agency Report:
Tracy Turner, Carol Parker, and Ravyn Hawkins attended the 2015 OSEP IDEA Leadership Conference July 27-29, 2015. The conference was held in Washington, DC. The purpose of this conference was to enhance leadership roles and to learn about evidence-based practices that will support participant’s ability to improve results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families.
Also, during the Leadership Conference OSEP announced that they would be restructuring to offer states more support and guidance. The new system includes five new areas in which their support will be delivered:
Performance Accountability
Program Accountability
Data Accountability
Fiscal Accountability
Customer Service
OSEP will provide multi-tiered levels of support to States as they work towards improved results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities by providing differentiated resources and evidence based information.
An overall approach has been developed that allocates the majority of OSEP’s monitoring and support efforts to providing support to States in the development and implementation of their SSIP’s, while devoting an appropriate level of resources to ensuring compliance. All components of accountability will be aligned in a manner that best supports States in improving results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities, and their families. Each state team will have a: State Lead, Performance Accountability Member, Fiscal Accountability member, Data Accountability member, Program Accountability Member, Customer Service member and an Assistant Division Director.
On August 31, 2015, Part C Administrative Staff and Betsy Ayankoya from the ECTA and DaSY Center; met with the SSIP Team to discuss updates regarding work with the State Systemic Improvement Plan. Arkansas Part C and Part B/619 program have partnered together to develop a Cross Sector Leadership Team.
The state held a State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) orientation webinaron August 19, 2015 to get all participants to become familiar with the group; a kick-off workday meeting was held on September 01, 2015, and a follow-up webinar regarding the Leadership Team was held on Tuesday, September 15, 2015.
Old Business:
Angela Traweek- Sub-Committee Chairperson, Karen Lange and Mary Kay McKinney of the Primary Service Delivery Model Sub-Committee met on September 30, 2015 and on October 8, 2015 to review the PSP model. They are requesting additional representation from the Department of Education, Teacher Licensing Department and a Parent to cross reference the current system to the proposed system to determine barriers and deficiencies. Traci Harris will assist in getting representation from these departments. Karen Lange- Sub-Committee Chairperson, Tim Burbank, and Larry Stricklen wrote a letter to support First Connections in getting DHS/DDS Administrative support in allowing the program to enforce the regulations and policies to ensure compliance.
Motion# 2: A motion was made by Robbie Lake to accept the letter, once needed corrections are made. The motion was seconded by Angie Lassiter. A decision was made to table the letter until a new DDS Commissioner is appointed.
New Business:
No New Business
News/ Events:
No news/events given
Local ICC Report:
Reports and handouts were given by Ron Copeland. Next Local ICC Meeting will be held November 4, 2015 at the Wilbur D. Mills Training building at 10:00am.
With no other items for discussion, Chairperson, Frances Black asked to adjourn the meeting. A motion was made by Karen Lange to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Robbie Lake. The meeting adjourned at 11:11a.m.
Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC) / 1