[0:54] Aye, staff.

[0:59] Me, staff, or staff Morgan? You. Sorry, I didn't realize that I had a sign in. They were making it and I, I couldn't remember my password. So, then I had to look it up and then I had to wait for a code. So sorry, guys, that's on me. New system here.

[1:24] I was just looking to see.

[1:28] Oh, there's Ashley and she's in charge today. Morning.

[1:34] Hi, this is Carl. Just so you know, it didn't require a pass code. It told me it was going to require one in Christa's reminder.

[1:42] And so I went and found it and then it didn't ask for it. So I don't know.

[1:54] Was that the case for everybody?

[1:58] Yep. Same.

[2:03] It's just monitoring the Department of Health employees to make sure they don't get in too easy.

[2:12] Well, are we ready for me to begin or should I wait a minute still?

[2:22] I think we can probably go ahead.

[2:24] Hey, great.

[2:26] We'd like to welcome everyone to the August 11th to 2026 Newborn Hearing Screening Advisory

[2:32] Committee meeting.

[2:34] I am Ashley Sorensen, I'm co-chairperson of this committee, I'm also the parent of a

[2:40] DHH Child and I'm an Eddie Parent Consultant and I would like to call this meeting to order.

[2:47] It is now 9.05 a.m. on August 11th, 2026.

[2:55] This meeting is being held virtually by Zoom with an anchor location of 195 North, 1450

[3:05] West, room number 3032, in Salt Lake City, Utah, 84116.

[3:16] In compliance with Utah's

[3:18] open meeting laws, this meeting is being recorded in its entirety. This recording

[3:25] is classified as public record. The following individuals are in attendance.

[3:33] Chris, are you able to help me with that?

[3:36] Yep, I can do that.

[3:37] Thank you.

[3:38] Uh, Christopher Badger and myself.

[3:41] Stephanie McZicker, Carl White, Ashley Swanson, Alexis Wait, Annette Stewart, ASL interpreter

[3:48] D.D., Aubrey Ogden, Brittany Chandler, Erin Zinkin, Farah Bitter, Holly E. Zell, Jacinda

[3:56] Merrill, Jennifer Jackson, Kevin Baird, Lara Wait, Max Citesinger, Nicole Pilling, Sarah Williams,

[4:06] Sarah Cordingly, Stephanie Morgan, Tanya Paxton, and Todd Hussman.

[4:12] Great. Thank you, Chris. And we welcome any visitors or interested persons at this time.

[4:19] Are there any that we need to introduce? No.

[4:25] Okay. As a courtesy to everyone participating in this meeting, at this time, we do ask for

[4:31] all cell phones, pages, and other electronic devices to be turned off or changed to silent

[4:38] mode. Please keep your microphones on mute, and if you wish to speak, go to the Zoom toolbar

[4:45] where it says reactions and press raise hand. Committee motions and votes will be recorded

[4:53] in the minutes and we will now proceed with the agenda.

[4:57] We sent out the May 12th, 2026 minutes.

[5:01] Is there a motion to approve the minutes?

[5:08] This is Carl White, I'll make a motion to approve them.

[5:11] Thank you, Carl. And a second.

[5:15] This is on your text in a second.

[5:17] Okay. Thank you both.

[5:20] The minutes for May 12th, 2026 meeting are approved.

[5:25] Does anyone have any public comment,

[5:31] okay?

[5:32] Moving on to membership, we have one new committee member whose name is Dory Noll.

[5:38] Unfortunately, Dory is sick today, so we'll have to have her introduce herself another

[5:43] time.

[5:45] And we still have open seats for a family physician and a public health nurse.

[5:50] So if you have anyone for either of those, please let us know.

[5:55] and now, let's see, next we would like to turn the time over to Sarah Williams from the Disability

[6:03] Law Center who is going to share with us about a language and communication plan project she has

[6:10] been working on and I'll just real quick say that Aubrey and I as parent consultant and Eddie have

[6:16] gotten to work some with Sarah already a bit and she is awesome and so we're excited to hear from her

[6:22] today.

[6:26] Great. Hi. Thank you so much for that introduction. It's been great to work with both of you as well

[6:30] and I was really excited when I was invited to present today with this group. I know there's just

[6:36] decades of experience and perspectives and I hope that I can contribute something meaningful. So

[6:43] I do have a presentation I'll share in a minute. It's going to go over that language and communication

[6:49] plan project, but it's also just going to do, we're going to kind of have an overview of

[6:55] the federal laws that are behind the language and communication plans. So just double checking,

[7:01] do I have about 50 minutes an hour? Is that still a good amount of time? Okay. All right,

[7:08] sounds good. I'm going to see if I can share my screen.

[7:17] Okay. Let me know if you can see

[7:24] that slide and not my slide notes.

[7:27] We can read it.

[7:28] Great.

[7:30] Okay.

[7:33] All right.

[7:34] So I'll just start with a brief introduction.

[7:39] So like was mentioned, I am at the Disability Law Center

[7:43] and I'm an equal justice works fellow there.

[7:45] So we'll kind of explain both parts of that.

[7:48] Starting with the Disability Law Center.

[7:50] So if you're not familiar with the DLC,

[7:54] We are Utah's protection and advocacy agency for individuals with disabilities and a little

[8:02] bit of background there.

[8:03] Every state has a P&A designated by federal law requires that every state have a P&A.

[8:12] And then each state designates a nonprofit agency or law firm to serve as that P&A.

[8:21] So ever since that law was put into place, it's been the DLC, and we're coming up on 50 years.

[8:29] So the DLC is kind of the enforcement for a lot of those federal civil rights and disability-related laws.

[8:37] So there's lots of different focus areas that I've listed here, and they are hosting me for two years as an equal justice works fellow.

[8:47] So that is a nationwide fellowship, like I mentioned, two years that allows the fellow

[8:53] to design a legal project designed to focus on kind of an underserved population.

[9:01] So I designed my project to focus on deaf and hard-of-hearing children.

[9:07] I started last September, right after Labor Day, so I'm coming up on one year and my overarching

[9:15] One sentence mission statement would be that the project is designed to ensure that every deaf and hard of hearing child in Utah can fully access and fully participate in their educational setting.

[9:29] So I've been working on that through I would summarize it in four different approaches.

[9:36] Obviously, there is the individual representation piece, working with parents, families, one-on-one

[9:42] through different administrative processes, IEP meetings, all of those kinds of things.

[9:48] There is the policy piece, which is where that language and communication plan comes into

[9:55] play.

[9:55] That's been a huge focus.

[9:57] And then there's just outreach, education, traveling around Utah, kind of seeing how services

[10:06] are provided in different regions of the state, and then of course having workshops and presentations

[10:12] where I can.

[10:13] And then the last piece, which I've been really working on this summer, is the self-advocacy

[10:18] materials piece that I, it's so important to me, it really drives the rest of the project

[10:25] to ensure that parents and families understand these rights,

[10:29] because they'll be with that child throughout their whole journey,

[10:35] educational journey, and much longer than I will be doing this fellowship.

[10:39] So that's a little bit about the Equal Justice Works project that I'm doing,

[10:44] and a little bit about the DLC.

[10:47] So it's kind of been like a little bit of a sprint.

[10:50] I get two years to really focus on this niche area

[10:54] and I've loved it. It's just been fantastic and I've met the greatest people over doing it.

[11:01] So, with that, oh, a tiny bit more just about why this project. I won't go into all of these

[11:13] different experiences, but these are some of the places that have really shaped this project.

[11:21] but probably the most impactful was my time at the Texas School for the Deaf. I just worked

[11:28] there for one summer. I went to the University of Texas hook-um, if anyone here, is also

[11:35] a longhorn. And the Texas School for the Deaf kind of like Utah, they do a summer program

[11:42] and it's for open to any Deaf and hard of hearing children, child across the state. They can come

[11:49] and do science camp, driver's ed camp. They have lots of different programs, regardless

[11:54] of your communication modality, regardless of pretty much anything other than being

[12:02] deaf or hard of hearing. So my job was to be a communication specialist and that just meant

[12:09] that I connected those hard of hearing students who didn't sign with those deaf students who

[12:15] only signed and all of the in-between there and just facilitated connections and friendships,

[12:22] and it was very impactful to me to see the variance in social abilities, academic levels across

[12:32] a group that was all the same grade level, and what struck me was how much that depended on the

[12:38] resources of that child's home school district. And so trying to ensure, as I'm doing this project

[12:47] now, trying to raise that equity in the services that these students can get wherever they are going

[12:56] to school, whatever district they're in. My project is not focused on any or promote any one type

[13:05] of modality or communication or language, communication method or language, but I love the

[13:14] ADA where it just requires effective communication. That's the focus. So, okay, enough about me.

[13:23] Like I mentioned, we're just going to go over some of these federal laws. The big three that

[13:29] overlap and are the foundation for deaf and hard of hearing children in schools

[13:35] and then I will get to those language and communication plans. So let's just

[13:41] start with these introducing these three laws. Section 504, the Rehabilitation

[13:48] Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is often forgotten in schools I

[13:53] found and the individuals with Disabilities Education Act. I don't know if this

[13:59] This is a very competitive bunch, but I just, I want to know just your familiarity with

[14:06] these laws, and so I have just a little pop quiz.

[14:10] If you guys would be so kind as to use the chat, let's see if I can, I don't know if

[14:17] I can see the chat right now because I have all of this other stuff up, but I just want,

[14:22] I have like five questions and want to know just your familiarity and comfort levels and they're they're not crazy

[14:30] There's no prize. So if you want to just throw and wait the answer is go for it in the chat. I don't even think I can see it

[14:38] So, okay

[14:40] Which law was specifically created to govern special education start with just nice and easy one?

[14:54] Okay, well, I really can't see the chat. So

[14:57] Um...

[14:58] I...

[14:59] I guess...

[15:00] But you know, we're getting I-A-D-E-A. That is correct. So, okay, which two are primarily civil rights laws?

[15:19] Got. Responses coming in. ADA and 504. And ADA. That's correct. ADA and 504. Do we have anyone who wants to try to order these laws from

[15:37] oldest to newest for us, which was passed first, second, and then third.

[16:01] So we've got a couple coming in, ADA, 504, IDEA. Carl says 504 was the oldest, then IDEA,

[16:11] and then ADA. Carl, you got it. That's absolutely correct. 504, 1973, IDEA. Well, it was IDEA's predecessor

[16:21] or education for all handicap children act 1975 that later became IDEA and then the ADA was

[16:28] passed in 1990. That one it feels a little less intuitive to me but that is that order. Which law

[16:36] or laws require a free appropriate public education or a fake?

[16:47] We're getting lots of IDEA.

[16:56] IDEA and actually Section 504 require our FAPE. That one's a little bit tricky. People often forget

[17:03] about that. With Section 504, we'll talk about that a little bit later. And then last question,

[17:10] if a child doesn't qualify for special education, which law or laws may apply still?

[17:16] So

[17:26] we're getting 504 and ADA, 504, 504, ADA?

[17:33] Great, that's absolutely correct.

[17:36] Okay, good job everyone.

[17:39] Yeah, those are, we'll kind of go more in depth on all of that in a little bit here,

[17:45] but just to kind of get you warmed up.

[17:48] So we'll start with the ADA Insection 504, the Civil Rights Laws, as you all correctly

[17:55] identified, helping, at least for me, understanding a little bit of the history behind these

[18:00] laws really helps solidify kind of their place in my mind.

[18:04] So we're going to briefly just touch on some history here.

[18:07] So if you think back to the Civil Rights Era, Martin Luther King, Jr., a hallmark of that

[18:13] era was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And Title 7 of that act, it prohibited employment discrimination

[18:23] on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. But we're missing a really

[18:31] important category. Disability was not a protected class in this Civil Rights Act. So various disability

[18:41] community's rally together, and in 1973 we had the Rehabilitation Act passed, which Section 504 of that Act prohibited disability discrimination in all programs receiving federal funding.

[18:58] So the focus was on equal access to government programs or programs that the government pays for, and that was pretty landmark legislation.

[19:09] but it was expanded even more so in 1990 with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

[19:17] It is interesting the ADA focuses on equal opportunity, which is different than equal access

[19:25] in some interesting ways, but the ADA applies to more institutions

[19:35] that public and private. So it broadens these protections. You have Title One for employment.

[19:42] Title Two covers public entities like schools. We'll talk about Title Three's private commercial

[19:48] entities. Title Four is telecommunications. If you're thinking about video relay services or

[19:56] I'm blanking on the phone, the TCC or anyways. And then Title Five is miscellaneous. But

[20:04] But both of these apply to schools.

[20:07] The main takeaway I want you to remember here is that these laws, ADA and 504, are fundamentally

[20:13] the product of the civil rights movement.

[20:15] They are fundamentally anti-discrimination laws, anti-segregation laws.

[20:22] This is rooted in the 14th Amendment, equal protection under the law.

[20:28] So deaf and hard of hearing children have the right to participate in and receive all the

[20:33] benefits of programs, services, and activities of these public private entities, and so that

[20:42] equal opportunities really emphasized.

[20:45] And here this is just a picture of the capital crawl.

[20:47] If you are not familiar with this amazing civil protest, you should definitely look that up.

[20:57] The IDEA passed in 1975 is our special education law, so I think that the roots of this are

[21:06] very interesting as well.

[21:09] This, as I'm sure you all are very well aware, the IDEA focuses on each individual child

[21:16] and making sure they can make appropriate progress in their circumstances.

[21:21] So it is grounded in that same idea of equal protection under the law, but it also has

[21:27] really strong roots in the promise of due process that's found in the 14th and 5th amendments.

[21:35] So due process is this idea that you should have a fair opportunity to defend your interests

[21:42] when the government tries to take an action against you.

[21:48] So, think about, like, I think the easiest example is a criminal trial, right?

[21:55] You know, the government, we really value life, liberty, property, these fundamental freedoms.

[22:03] And so if the government is going to take away your freedom, perhaps put you in prison or jail,

[22:09] then there is lots of procedures and rules that the court must work through before they can

[22:16] take that freedom away from you. So with special education, as you know, it's very procedural.

[22:28] There's lots of procedural safeguards and things that schools have to make sure they're doing

[22:33] properly to ensure that a child can't just be excluded or denied of an education because

[22:41] that's exactly what was happening in this case was the case that essentially propelled

[22:49] Congress to ultimately pass the IDEA so children were being denied or kicked out of schools

[22:56] because their disabilities were considered too severe, things like that, and so essentially

[23:04] that's the background for IDEA focuses more so on each individual child.

[23:12] So going to FAPE, a lot of you know FAPE, a free appropriate public education, is the promise

[23:20] of the IDEA, every child, every eligible child is entitled to that fake. But it's also something

[23:30] that is part of Section 504. The confusing thing is that in it says it's called FAPE, under Section 504 as well,

[23:38] however there are different standards of FAPE depending on what you're talking about, so I'll put both

[23:45] of them up here. One, under, I guess, and the reason I set it up with the history

[23:51] first is to kind of shed some light on this. The way I like to think about it is with

[23:57] the IDEA, we're looking inward, we're looking at that child, are they making appropriate

[24:03] progress based on their unique needs and circumstances, whereas with 504, we're looking side to side.

[24:10] is my child's with the disability, is the school addressing his or her needs as well as they're addressing the non-disabled peers' needs.

[24:21] So it's that civil rights and equality that comparison.

[24:27] And the Americans with Disabilities Act doesn't specifically address schools.

[24:34] It doesn't like have specific provisions for public schools.

[24:37] it applies to all of them, but it doesn't discuss fate, but it does use that same comparative

[24:43] analysis like Section 504 due to that Civil Rights Foundation.

[24:48] So I will touch briefly on the specific provisions in these laws for deaf and hard of hearing

[24:54] children.

[24:54] I'm sure you're also all very aware, so we do have, under the special factors section of

[24:59] the IEP, those factors for a deaf and hard of hearing children.

[25:04] these four listed here and then under and I'm not going to go too much into those

[25:14] because we will talk about them in a minute more with the language and

[25:19] communication plans but those are specifically for the deaf and hard of hearing

[25:23] children at schools that are eligible for an IEP and then here we have three very

[25:30] very important principles found in the ADA that apply to deaf and hard of hearing children,

[25:37] whether they're on an IEP or not.

[25:40] So, under the ADA, effective communication requires that the childs can understand others

[25:50] and can be understood well enough that they have the same opportunities as their classmates

[25:56] at school.

[25:56] So there's the receptive communication piece

[26:00] and the expressive communication piece of that.

[26:03] So when you have effective receptive communication,

[26:07] that student can understand multi-step directions.

[26:11] They can follow classroom discussions, process the lectures,

[26:15] understand facial expressions, tone, body language,

[26:18] and participate in conversations with their peers and the teacher.

[26:23] And then when that expressive communication is effective,

[26:25] the students can ask questions when they're confused they can contribute to

[26:29] class discussions, interact with friends and peers, advocate for themselves and

[26:34] show what they know. And these, of course, are not just for classroom settings

[26:40] but extend to the full school day field trips, sports clubs, assemblies, lunchtime,

[26:48] all school activities. And then primary consideration is also a really

[26:52] important piece. So when deciding which communication support to provide the child,

[26:59] schools have to give primary consideration or a very strong weight to

[27:05] parent and child's preference. So most of the time, if you have expressed a specific preference,

[27:15] the school should, and we're talking about public schools, they should honor that preference.

[27:21] they can refuse to in certain situations if it's extremely expensive and the district

[27:27] looks at all their money, if having that specific support would fundamentally change the

[27:32] whole program or more common if another option would work just as effectively for that child

[27:39] and they have to look at, you know, complexity of the conversation up play, you know, the

[27:45] length of the conversation taking place, there's a lot of different things they need to think

[27:50] about when determining if this other support would work just as well.

[27:54] And then auxiliary aids and services, ADA just goes into quite a bit of what may be

[27:59] considered auxiliary aid or service interpreters have to be qualified, and there's some specific

[28:05] requirements if you're using video relay interpreters, things like that.

[28:08] So here it is on one slide, kind of the specific deaf and hard of hearing provisions.

[28:13] So moving now to the language and communication plans, I think I'm going to set the state

[28:20] by just talking about the current process of how things are working in Utah

[28:24] and what's changed recently as well. So,

[28:29] those I-I-D-E-A special factors we just talked about,

[28:35] those are required for the team to

[28:38] in theory discuss. So, on IEP forms in Utah,

[28:43] it's formatted like this. Typically, it will say,

[28:47] will state those for those for required pieces and then there'll be a check box either

[28:54] the child doesn't have communication needs or the child does and they were addressed

[28:58] in the AEP. Where or how or by who or when it doesn't really say and we just check

[29:06] that box and then we're in compliance. And then those ADA factors are special considerations.

[29:15] they are not operationalized anywhere.

[29:20] It's up to parents or the school to know

[29:25] if you're a parent and you know about that, that's great.

[29:27] And you can bring that up at your meeting if you feel like that's relevant.

[29:32] And if not, then hopefully the school will bring it up.

[29:35] But there's no formal formality for that.

[29:39] Typically because Section 504 and ADA are quite similar in most regards,

[29:44] except for Section 504, it doesn't have this effective communication piece.

[29:49] Typically accommodations will be written into like a 504 plan if the cell is not an IEP

[29:54] and then they might include some of those accommodations that the ADA would require.

[30:00] There.

[30:02] So, that's the current process. What I see often in IEP meetings is, you know, when

[30:09] we have a deaf or hard of hearing child, the IEP team can get quite large for these students.

[30:17] This is an example of who may be present. The agenda teacher, special education teacher,

[30:24] you have your principal. There may be an audiologist, a teacher of the deaf, SLP, your interpreters.

[30:31] So it can get quite large. What I often see is because you have various service providers,

[30:38] they'll each kind of say their piece, share their data, and then they may be excused. They may say,

[30:47] but they kind of say their piece and then they're done. So there's a lot of work happening in silos,

[30:53] and we don't often get the full picture of that child's communication and

[31:00] language where they're at. Often times I see that with, you know, the audiologist

[31:06] and the speech language pathologist. One focuses a lot more, not exclusively, but a

[31:13] lot more on that expressive piece, the speech, right, and the audiologist focuses a

[31:19] bit more on that receptive and so but and they work there so but there's sometimes just

[31:25] siloed and so they don't often work together as well as you might hope. And so the other

[31:33] piece that I think is really important to note is some recent changes in policy and legislation.

[31:40] So up to last year, are Utah schools for the deaf and blind?

[31:48] They were providing services across the state for deaf and hard of hearing students.

[31:54] And for most districts, that was completely free of charge.

[31:59] If there was a few districts like the biggest districts in Utah would contract and pay for services,

[32:05] but the majority of districts would just welcome in USDB, they would provide services, and the

[32:11] district really didn't have to think too much about it. So starting as of last school year 2025 to

[32:18] 2026, that changed. So now all districts in Utah must pay for every minute of services they receive

[32:29] from the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind.

[32:33] So, and that is a lot of, there's a lot of expertise there

[32:38] that many districts they cannot find.

[32:41] They could not provide that in-house.

[32:44] There are some close to Salt Lake granite.

[32:46] For example, they have their own teachers at the Deaf.

[32:49] There's a few that have, they do have their own in-house providers,

[32:53] but the majority cannot find that.

[32:55] this is kind of happening at the same time that we've seen in the past several years different

[33:01] university programs be cut for whether that's interpretation or interpretation or teachers of

[33:08] the deaf that deaf ed piece those there's been a shortage there so a few different things are kind

[33:14] of compounding to where I think there could be there's some good and some bad I think one positive

[33:25] of this is that district accountability increases, right? Sometimes they just saw those children

[33:32] as, oh, that's USDB's kid, that's their, that they deal with that. And now as they are paying

[33:40] for all of those minutes, they're, they're thinking a little bit more about that and they're responsibility

[33:45] to provide faith.

[33:49] On the downside, of course, those are cost concerns and when cost drives all the

[33:55] decisions that can be very harmful to the student. So there's some increased scrutiny there.

[34:04] So and I am given the ability of my fellowship and just kind of ability to focus on this right now

[34:13] and something I am doing just out of curiosity really is monitoring those contracts from before this

[34:24] change last school year and this upcoming school year I'm interested to monitor and see how districts

[34:31] change in the services that they're requesting and paying for for these students as that's now a

[34:37] cost concern so okay um so now for language and communication plans what are these how do they work

[34:48] So, a language and communication plan is a document that is part of the IEP when there's

[35:00] a deaf or hard-of-hearing child, the language and communication plan would be an extension

[35:05] of their IEP.

[35:08] Also, language and communication plans in a few states, and what I would want for Utah

[35:12] certainly is for this to also be part of 504 plans for deaf and hard-of-hearing children,

[35:17] because all of that ADA foundation absolutely applies.

[35:23] So it has several different things.

[35:26] And it really, really, it is a benefit for all parties involved.

[35:32] The parents and the teachers have an advocacy tool to point to.

[35:37] It's designed to be accessible, easy to understand.

[35:41] Sites the law at the bottom, so you can see why, you know,

[35:44] So this is not adding lots and lots of extra protections, but it is ensuring that the

[35:52] floor is there and shows you where that's coming from.

[35:56] It operationalizes those laws.

[35:59] So for teachers working with children with a slow incidence disability and these districts,

[36:07] maybe the teachers meeting the first deaf person they've ever met and it's the students

[36:12] sitting in front of them.

[36:13] So it's an easy-to-reference tool for teachers so that they have something to, for a daily

[36:19] implementation, they can easily look out and say, okay, my closed captions are on, you

[36:24] know, when we do small groups, the child's going to be here and et cetera.

[36:30] And for service providers, you'll see, I'm going to show you the language and communication

[36:34] plan how that helps service providers kind of bring their data together to develop a shared

[36:39] understanding and then for districts helping them say student focus and really have data

[36:46] to back their decisions as they determine services for deaf and hard of hearing children

[36:51] that are in compliance with federal law. So this is a little bit redundant here but just to show

[36:57] a little bit of the flow, the team fills out the language and communication plan. It would be

[37:03] The biggest burden would be the first time you fill it out and then it is referenced

[37:10] and updated as a team after that on an annual basis or if the team has a second IEP meeting

[37:18] requested by the parent, you could revisit it of course.

[37:21] So they're developing that shared understanding, increase on a daily basis, sorry, access increases

[37:29] is on a daily basis with the implementation, the student and the parent engagement in

[37:35] the meetings and in the classroom at school, the parent engagement of the meeting, I see

[37:41] increasing in positive ways as they're able to articulate better their child's needs

[37:46] and where they're at and the student, you know, these ADA and 504 protections, they are the

[37:53] The child has those their whole life, not just after, not just until they graduate.

[37:59] And so if they are able to really articulate and understand why they need what they need

[38:04] and express that, I think this builds great self-advocacy skills.

[38:10] The, of course, we would, with that, improve mental health safety and belonging.

[38:16] There is a safety portion of the language and communication plan you'll see to ensure

[38:21] that they have access to those emergency communications and then finally literacy and language outcomes

[38:27] improved. Now with that the language and communication plan is not like a reading intervention.

[38:34] So this is a secondary outcome but still one we would expect to be directly correlated with

[38:40] obviously an increase in access to your education. So there are 15 other states that currently require

[38:49] language and communication plan. And I have talked to most of them and really gotten a sense of

[38:59] what's worked well, what has been a challenge and implementation, and how they've brought this

[39:07] change about in their states. It's interesting. Some of it kind of seems like regional, it kind of

[39:14] there's like a east coast and then kind of a southern and anyways but yeah so

[39:27] this is who currently requires it there's another about six six-ish states

[39:32] that have it as guidance or optional and I didn't talk to a few of those and they

[39:39] said well no one ever uses it because it's not required and the parents

[39:44] don't know about it. So it's just a nice idea, but it's in these states where this is actively

[39:51] shaping conversations and changing lives for these kids. So here is a bunch of different

[40:00] states language and communication plans. I've studied and looked at them all. If any of you are

[40:04] really wanting to nerd out about this, I have a 50 state survey I can share with you that has links

[40:11] to all of these plans that has the states that some of them have it. The majority have it in

[40:16] statute. Some have it as regulation. You can see the language that they use to pass it. I mean,

[40:23] we can talk. We can talk a lot more if you're interested in some of that. And so I call, I've called

[40:29] this the Frankenstein plan where I've taken based on feedback from these states and from research

[40:37] the best pieces and made a model plan for Utah.

[40:39] So I'm going to share that with you now.

[40:42] I am happy to send you all a copy of this after I can send that to Ashley

[40:48] and make sure she gets it out.

[40:52] So it is a five page document and I'll just highlight a few pieces of each page.

[41:00] So of course there's just the background student information.

[41:05] The language communication needs portion here, it is so important, especially from what

[41:14] I've heard, so this is a great moment where the full team comes together and talks about

[41:22] how that child is actually communicating throughout their day at home during instruction and

[41:27] instructional settings. I really like it because no one person can pre-fill out this plan because

[41:34] no one person is with that child the entire day. It really requires the team to come together,

[41:40] including the parents that at home piece is so important. And sometimes I think that parents

[41:50] are often overwhelmed with with different diagnoses, the medical side, the social side, you know,

[41:56] the education side and I think I've seen sometimes the temptation to hand over that authority to

[42:07] experts and experts are so important but also I want to parents to feel like they're

[42:13] are a crucial piece of this because they are so that at home portion is so crucial. Then on the

[42:20] The second page it continues, this is the communication modes.

[42:24] So there's a few more obviously communication modes that they would highlight to get

[42:31] a full picture of this child.

[42:34] I want to talk about this question here, the first one underneath the table, what data shows

[42:42] that the students' language and communication modes are an effective way for the student

[42:45] to access information, communicate with people and participate in different settings.

[42:48] So this is kind of a larger systemic issue I'm seeing that the language and

[42:56] communication plan doesn't totally tackle, but assessments that are used to

[43:02] measure a child's language and communication. There is, I'm seeing just not

[43:11] just in Utah, but across the country as I've been searching for some

[43:14] some standardization, some what who can administer different tests, who's qualified, where

[43:23] those people are in Utah.

[43:25] This is a challenge to get good data on a student's language and communication modes.

[43:32] I'm sure many of you are actively studying and thinking about this all the time.

[43:37] I would love to talk if you have more ideas on this.

[43:40] But at the very least, this question provides a space for documentation of any test that were used or

[43:49] observations or input from team members if there weren't tests used, but at least it's

[43:54] we know what we're making our decisions based off of.

[44:00] So kind of like the smallest step to a bigger systemic issue there, but

[44:07] And then this second piece, what support do family members need to communicate effectively with the student?

[44:13] I think this is important to have a little accountability moment here, too.

[44:17] If last IEP meeting, if the child primarily uses American Sign Language,

[44:23] and last meeting, the family said we're going to start taking an ASL class with the Center and Center.

[44:33] Then great, then this is just a follow up, okay, how is that going, what are some barriers

[44:39] to attending?

[44:40] Can we help?

[44:41] How can we support that at-home piece of the language and communication development, right?

[44:47] So, okay, and then this second section where we're going through the services, hearing technology

[44:54] and visual auditory accommodations.

[44:55] So, here, um,

[45:00] You know, I have gotten feedback and I think it's valid feedback that is this duplicative? If the child has an IEP, is this duplicative of the IEP in that you, of course, are going to be writing down the services and accommodations? And the answer is yes.

[45:15] The Language and Communication Plan is designed to be the first part of the IEP meeting as it takes you through their needs where they're at the services and accommodations that they're needed because of that and then these other considerations that will have.

[45:32] It allows for focused, concentrated conversation on this language and communication piece that then when you go through the IEP later,

[45:41] It will be very, very easy and to write the rest of the IEP, but also the language and

[45:51] communication plan, as I mentioned earlier, is designed to be a very accessible, easy

[45:56] to reference tool for the teacher where they can glance at this in a moment and see what

[46:02] is needed on a day-to-day basis.

[46:04] So a little duplication, yes, but I think it's worth it.

[46:07] And there's this hearing technology piece that that's applicable to the student and self advocacy here measuring how independent is that student or yeah student independence really more so then the advocacy how independent are they how can we help them with that with their technology I won't go too much into this accommodations piece you will see here.

[46:31] This is where I thought primary consideration is coming in the ADA piece there of where

[46:37] there's primarily provided based on the preference of the student with these disabilities.

[46:44] And if not, then that's going to become a conversation about an alternative that is just

[46:49] as effective.

[46:51] And then here is those considerations about direct communication and instruction with staff

[46:57] and peers.

[46:59] This is the last page here, so I think this is one of the most important, continuous communication access,

[47:07] going through the child's entire school day, so not just that instructional period,

[47:12] but the incredibly valuable peer interaction and social learning that can happen

[47:21] in lunch time, passing periods, extracurriculars.

[47:28] And then this is that safety piece.

[47:31] So some schools have

[47:35] in their language and communication plan,

[47:36] like a list that the team has to go through

[47:40] that says like, okay, so what if the teacher is absent?

[47:44] What if there's a substitute?

[47:46] What if there's what's your plan for a fire drill?

[47:49] what's your plan for an earthquake and and I thought wow that's really thorough but as I was

[47:57] I understand concerns and hesitations of school district to they see it as liability liability

[48:03] liability so what I'd seen a few other schools do that I thought was was quite good still was

[48:11] just a plan to ensure that the student can access those emergency alerts from the school

[48:17] whether that's, do we make sure that the alarm has a visual aspect to it, that the lights

[48:22] are flashing or that the student has, I know one student who has a watch that will buzz

[48:30] or vibrate or let him know if there's something happening, so are there just been considerations

[48:34] of those emergency communications.

[48:37] And then finally, this LRE piece, just ensuring that the team has discussed the full spectrum

[48:44] of placements there and if there were any issues. So it's not like you are writing the placement

[48:52] here, but you're ensuring that those thoughtful conversations happened. And then the last two

[48:57] pieces are just a glossary of terms. Again, the point is to support districts in providing

[49:04] faith that they feel like they have tools, not at all to the exclusion of USDB expertise but to support

[49:13] districts. And to support USDB really, who I'm seeing, especially in these rural districts,

[49:21] are stretched so thin. There's one teacher of the deaf I saw that covers five districts.

[49:27] And maybe she has a small caseload, but she's driving day after day, and oftentimes what I'm

[49:35] seen is when children then are put on 504 plans, the teachers of the deaf, they are they prioritize

[49:44] other students more so and the districts don't have the tools to potentially support those

[49:51] on 504 plans or know how to do that. So the glossaries, just those terms that were highlighted in blue,

[49:58] you can click on those links and they'll take you to the glossary term. So there's that understanding.

[50:05] So right now, I'll just close by saying a very recent update on this. As of Friday,

[50:11] there was a Utah State Board of Education meeting and the board voted on a opt-in pilot program

[50:22] for these language and communication plans, and they unanimously passed that proposal. So this

[50:28] This is after nine months of working through advisory councils and talking to different

[50:35] stakeholders.

[50:36] We have a really great coalition of parents that has helped.

[50:40] If you want to go, I would encourage you to go listen to on August 7th, Friday 1-130.

[50:48] This is on their USBE YouTube.

[50:50] You can go and listen to the public comments that were given in support of this on Friday

[50:55] and there.

[50:55] I think it will really get a good sense of why families are fighting for this and really

[51:04] supporting this across Utah.

[51:07] So I'm quite excited about that.

[51:10] I think my focus now is again on that parent education piece and showing them how these can

[51:18] be a tool.

[51:20] There are some districts that have already committed to piloting.

[51:25] There are many more districts that have expressed an interest in doing this, and I believe

[51:30] Dr. Leah Voorhees will be presenting to them probably around September to give more information

[51:36] and to kind of explain more of how the pilot will work, and so we expect more will opt in

[51:41] after that.

[51:41] And then even for districts who don't opt in, if parents want to bring this to a meeting and ask their team to use that, we've, there's was a mother who did that in Southern Utah and had great results with her team voluntarily considering using this.

[52:03] And so, um, and there are a few questions in the chat.

[52:09] Okay.

[52:10] Sally Ormsby is asking, do charter schools have to follow 504 ADA and IDEA guidelines?

[52:17] Okay.

[52:18] So, I'm not an expert on charter schools.

[52:21] I do know that ADA definitely applies to public charter schools, private schools.

[52:28] It depends on if they're religiously affiliated.

[52:33] Five or four, it's always going to be if they are receiving federal funding or not.

[52:39] Most charters do, as my understanding, so that would apply to charters.

[52:45] The IDEA and charter schools, I can't confidently answer that question.

[52:52] I can definitely look into that and get back to you, but my gut is that, yes, this would

[52:57] apply to charters, but there may be some nuance to that that I'm not fully equipped to talk about.

[53:04] Thank you. Yeah. And we have a couple other questions here.

[53:10] Kanye is putting in our charter school had to follow the guidelines.

[53:14] That would be my, yeah. And then Shannon has, how will the opt-in work, can the school district ignore

[53:22] an opt-in? Certainly yeah a district can choose to opt out well the districts

[53:28] essentially are opted out until they opt-in so when they were this this went

[53:36] through the USDB Standing Committee before it got to the full board and

[53:42] Dr. Boer he's she sent out kind of an survey to gauge interest in this and she

[53:48] said the majority of districts were interested in having a tool like this.

[53:54] So, yes, the districts can say we're not interested in doing this.

[53:58] The idea is that we will collect data from this pilot that can be used to determine how

[54:05] effective was this or the things we can adjust and ultimately to make it a state requirement

[54:10] is certainly the goal, but wanting to, I think the pilot will reveal just a lot of good information

[54:17] as to how we want to do that and if anything needs to change.

[54:20] Okay. Then we have another question from Sara,

[54:23] cordonly, cordonely. Are there considerations for auditory processing

[54:29] disorder? She's noticed a significant decrease in the

[54:33] services since the change in USDB providing services

[54:37] that the district has to pay for. Interesting. I hadn't heard about

[54:42] decrease. When I started this project, I had never heard of APD, but I've learned a lot since

[54:48] starting. And that has been a big conversation with these language and communication plans.

[54:55] As far as the pilot goes, they, my understanding is that they're going to use

[55:00] more rigid definitions of deaf and hard of hearing. This was a conversation in some of the advisory

[55:06] councils. We saw it was it was a challenge to get this even to be considered for deaf and

[55:15] hard of hearing. And so we decided to do kind of a foot in the door approach. And our hope is that

[55:21] we'll get great results from this pilot to where it can be ultimately broadened. For example,

[55:28] to 504s. And I think APD could, I'm not an expert on APD and I've learned there's lots of

[55:36] differing opinions I think a lot of the accommodations and services certainly will benefit those APD

[55:43] kids. I also think that there may be more that the language and communication plan doesn't do that

[55:49] these APD kids need. So and the states I talked to only one state Louisiana had an LCP that was

[56:02] very broad to the point where it was for a deaf and hard of hearing children, children

[56:08] with APD, children with autism, and it was a 14-page plan to include all of those types

[56:17] of disabilities. And they passed it, but the language of the statute said, all districts

[56:24] must use a language and communication plan, not the one that we all created. And so,

[56:31] So, district said that is way too complicated.

[56:34] We're going to make our own two-pager, and thus a lot of the value was lost.

[56:39] They have a beautiful model plan that is inclusive and I think has the potential to help a lot

[56:44] of kids, but in practice, the districts are like, are not, are not having it.

[56:50] So, that was a long answer, but it's a complicated question, and so this is where we're starting

[56:55] is just with the deaf and hard of hearing children.

[56:57] What I've been telling parents who have children with APD is send them, send them, send them to the Disability Law Center and we will work on those individual cases and I think there are

[57:11] parent groups that are, it sounds like that are starting to form and I'm encouraging them to look at legislation that's happening in other states and what maybe able to be modeled in Utah.

[57:21] And I hope that the process and the path that I've used for getting these language and communication plans to where they are could be a model for other other groups if that makes sense.

[57:41] This is Stephanie McClicker.

[57:45] Thank you so much for coming here and sharing this amazing project that you have done. We're so grateful that you chose and Utah to do it in.

[57:55] I had a question, have any of the other states or jurisdictions that have utilized a language

[58:01] communication plan? Does anyone have any data that they've published that shows the efficacy

[58:06] of these that can help in terms of arguments for it?

[58:12] Yeah, that's a great question. I've asked that in my interviews and there's not anything

[58:17] perfectly polished like I would want. The closest that I've seen Connecticut is

[58:24] just, Connecticut is interesting. They, and let me see if I can, yeah I know

[58:34] I'm pretty sure this was Connecticut. So they passed theirs in 2012. They revised

[58:42] it two times since added an emergency communication plan brought in it to

[58:48] 504s. They've really seen great benefits from this and actually they have a

[58:53] commission under the governor's office right now that is starting to measure or

[59:00] is trying to like now gather data from the past decade plus of using this. So I was

[59:06] in communication with Terry bettered a parent there and an attorney there who was involved

[59:14] with that and I'm waiting to hear back on what they are collecting so that's awesome.

[59:21] That's awesome.

[59:22] And can you say one more time how people on this committee if they have wished to support this

[59:29] suffered or attend any meetings or whatever, what would they do?

[59:36] Yeah, great question. So right now, there was so much effort and focus to get this through

[59:46] the state board and I'm like, wow, and now it's Tuesday and I'm like, okay, so now I think

[59:51] the focus would be to educate parents, have parents reach out to their special education

[59:57] director is not who is making these.

[1:00:00] These opt-in, opt-out decisions to express an interest in this, and I hope that their district

[1:00:05] will use it, or to at least encourage them to bring them to their IEP or 504 meetings. I am

[1:00:15] working on at the same time these self-advocacy resources, a video series, different kind of like

[1:00:23] IEP, meeting sheets, and resources like that.

[1:00:28] If you, my goal is to create these resources

[1:00:31] and then kind of just travel around Utah

[1:00:34] to ensure that they get into the hands of these parents.

[1:00:37] So reach out to me if you'd like me to do a presentation

[1:00:42] or speak with a special education director or a group.

[1:00:47] You can certainly, I mean, there's lots of those pieces

[1:00:51] of my project like I mentioned earlier the individual representation as well when that's needed.

[1:00:57] So I need to probably have a shorter answer to that but really bottom line is I am here and I have

[1:01:06] this funding for one more year as of September and so I just want to do as much as I can in that time.

[1:01:13] So if you can think of anything where I might be able to educate help or support parents and

[1:01:20] families just reach out. I'll make sure that my email and phone number are passed to Ashley.

[1:01:29] Awesome. Thank you so, so much. I think Carol has that.

[1:01:32] Stephanie, this is Carol White. Sarah, could you clarify just a little more for me? I think I understand

[1:01:39] but maybe not. So the opt-in opt-out happens at a district level, right? It's not at a parent level.

[1:01:46] So, if a district opted out and a parent wanted to have a communication plan, is there

[1:01:54] still an option for them to do that through the IEP meeting?

[1:01:57] Could they request that to happen even though the district has opted out?

[1:02:02] Yes, there's no law that says you can't use a language and communication plan.

[1:02:09] IEP teens may push back and say, we've never done this before, we don't want to use it.

[1:02:18] And responding to that, I would say, well, this is just organizing the things that the

[1:02:26] district is already required to do.

[1:02:29] Considerations are already required to make.

[1:02:31] So I would encourage parents to explain what this language and communication plan is.

[1:02:37] Well, and maybe I could draft a short letter of introduction to it or something.

[1:02:40] But yes, a district will essentially, all districts are opted out until they opt in.

[1:02:51] So there's not like a, I've opted out therefore no parents can use this, no IEP teams can use it.

[1:02:58] If a district opts in, my understanding is that the IEP teams then must use it for every deaf and hard of hearing child.

[1:03:04] But if parents know about it and they want to approach their district or their team and say, could we just try this?

[1:03:09] then, of course, there's nothing that says that they can't do that.

[1:03:14] Okay, one more question.

[1:03:16] So, hearing loss,

[1:03:21] deaf or hard of hearing children is, as you indicated, a low incidence condition.

[1:03:27] And there are a fair number of children who are deaf or hard of hearing,

[1:03:34] mostly hard of hearing, of course, who have difficulty qualifying for an IEP

[1:03:39] because they're doing so well.

[1:03:42] They often qualify for a 504 plan,

[1:03:45] but even there, there are many children

[1:03:47] who don't have 504 plans

[1:03:49] who would benefit from a communications plan.

[1:03:53] Is there an option for parents for those children

[1:03:57] who are not on an IEP, not on a 504 plan

[1:04:01] to have this communication plan

[1:04:04] a part of the consideration for their child's education?

[1:04:08] If the child is deaf or hard of hearing, I will say that the definition of disability

[1:04:14] for ADA in 504 is very broad, very inclusive.

[1:04:19] I would challenge a district's decision to not provide, at the very least, a 504 plan

[1:04:27] to a deaf or hard of hearing child.

[1:04:30] If they're needing any kind of accommodation, even sitting in the front, that's something

[1:04:35] that's provided to them because of Section 504 and because of the ADA.

[1:04:41] So I think with the pilot, the reason they didn't include 504s specifically with the pilot

[1:04:48] is because ADA and 504 are administered at a district level.

[1:04:53] There's not like statewide monitoring of that in the same way that IEPs are tied to federal

[1:04:59] grants and so the state has to monitor that.

[1:05:02] So, as far as the state administering a pilot, it's easiest to do via IEPs, but I agree

[1:05:08] with you, Carl, especially because I'm seeing overburdened teams just pushing these kids

[1:05:17] onto 504s before they're ready, and so I want them to be using the language and communication

[1:05:24] plans for 504 kids more than anything.

[1:05:26] And so, again, I would say if parents can and may require some parent education or may

[1:05:36] require some attorney education to just explain that these 5 or 4 and ADA rights still apply.

[1:05:46] And an ADA, which is, again, so overlooked in public schools, but has these effective communication

[1:05:52] provision and primary consideration provision.

[1:05:58] That's tricky in how it interacts with an

[1:06:01] IEP team's decision and your primary consideration, but it still exists. You still have to do it.

[1:06:07] So all that to say, I would challenge the idea that the child doesn't need a 504 and if they're using

[1:06:17] this communication plan, they are operating on ADA and 504 standards, which should apply to

[1:06:26] all deaf and other hearing kids. Great. I keep having one more question, so one final one.

[1:06:35] Everything you've talked about applies to all of Part B, right, so it's ages 3 through 21.

[1:06:42] As long as there's an IEP in place, then this all becomes applicable.

[1:06:48] What about Part C and IFSPs?

[1:06:52] Is there a way to do the language and communication plan with those IFSPs?

[1:06:59] That's a good question.

[1:07:00] I haven't fully thought through.

[1:07:02] The one thing I have thought is how valuable this would be at that first transition meeting

[1:07:07] involving that part C person and passing them on to the IEP team, how valuable would that be to have that

[1:07:17] PIP person helping fill out all of those considerations for the team to build on. I think that's where this should start at the very least with that transition meeting.

[1:07:31] So, as far as the zero to three in those very early years, I am not sure.

[1:07:38] And I would like to speak with, especially with those of you who work in that space,

[1:07:44] as I'm developing my educational resources for parents.

[1:07:48] I want to better understand all the decisions parents are navigating in those first three

[1:07:55] years and how to win an appropriate time to be talking about ADA, IDEA 504 and how maybe

[1:08:03] you all can help me in connecting parents with these resources at that early stage.

[1:08:10] So Coral, maybe maybe I should set something up with you, it sounds like.

[1:08:14] This is Stephanie.

[1:08:16] I met Sarah a few times and I'm really excited about all of this.

[1:08:20] And then recently I received an article from God, I think I can't remember.

[1:08:26] I was just talking about how part C could have a language plan, some sort.

[1:08:34] And it's a little bit more informal.

[1:08:37] And so I was talking to our superintendent, Michelle Tanner, about how this could help families.

[1:08:42] And I don't have all the puzzles in the pieces in place yet.

[1:08:47] but I think this could be something really beneficial

[1:08:50] for families when they're ready,

[1:08:53] and they can talk about how they include language

[1:08:57] and their kids like, and what does that look like?

[1:09:00] So I would be happy before that article on

[1:09:02] to this committee, we want to look at that.

[1:09:06] And I think there's a lot of room for discussion with this

[1:09:11] and how we can help these kids that are not as cool yet.

[1:09:17] Great. Thank you, Stephanie. That would be great.

[1:09:23] Carol, any more questions?

[1:09:26] No, but I want to say thank you for a great presentation.

[1:09:29] I mean, I've been dealing with 504 and IDEA and ADA for almost 50 years now, and I learned a lot.

[1:09:38] So thank you so much for taking time to do it and organizing it so well.

[1:09:43] And I think it can have huge impact for our children. Thanks.

[1:09:49] So I thank you too as a parent and of a child who wasn't on an IEP and now is on a 504.

[1:09:57] As you know, Sarah and I have had some conversations.

[1:09:59] This is a topic of great interest for us parents.

[1:10:03] So thanks again for being here and I know in the comments there's been several people

[1:10:06] too in the chat saying how great your presentation has been today.

[1:10:10] So thanks for being with us.

[1:10:13] Okay, because we are trying to stick to time here, we are going to keep moving on.

[1:10:18] We're actually going to do a quick update from Aubrey Ogden and I, the Eddie Parent Consultants.

[1:10:23] So I'm going to let Aubree's try to screen share here.

[1:10:30] Perfect.

[1:10:35] Let's see.

[1:10:36] Okay, there we go.

[1:10:37] All right, so we are going to, so again, Aubrey Ogden and I are the Utah Eddie Parent Consultants.

[1:10:49] So we just want to give you guys our brief updates since our last meeting until it's

[1:10:55] you know kind of how things are going on our end.

[1:10:57] In the month of June and July and August, you can see the number of both initial contacts

[1:11:03] and birthday checking calls that Aubrey and I have made to families in the state of Utah.

[1:11:08] So that's kind of interesting June. We had 39 calls July 34 calls. We have noticed a slight dip in August to 21 calls.

[1:11:17] We've been doing a little bit of kind of background search on that to try to figure out why that number if it's just summertime or what's happening with different

[1:11:27] providers here in the state. That's something like I said, we're looking into right now for August, but that's a great number of families that we are being able to provide outreach to right now in Utah.

[1:11:39] This summer, we have been really busy with activities, and we have co-hosted with PIP and

[1:11:47] our current volunteer network to host 17 activities throughout the state.

[1:11:52] These activities were field trips, ASL in the park, art in the park, carnivals at USDP

[1:11:58] campuses, and then play dates at families homes.

[1:12:04] and then we have one more activity coming up just to wrap up the summer down in Utah County

[1:12:11] at a splash pad on the 29th and so as you can see these are some fun pictures from the summer.

[1:12:21] It's been a super fun summer. I've been able to attend a few in person myself

[1:12:27] and then we're busy now with connecting with PIP to host a fall activity. We have a few ideas

[1:12:35] floating around, nothing concrete yet, but it will most likely be in Salt Lake or Utah County,

[1:12:42] but we'll have a flyer out as soon as we know, so watch for our official flyer when it comes out,

[1:12:49] and that will go out on our professional email list so if you get our emails you'll be able to

[1:12:56] get that flyer.

[1:13:00] We also just sent out our latest issue of the Eddie Parent Newsletter. We sent out

[1:13:06] in English to 965 email addresses and in Spanish to 169 email addresses and again just as a reminder

[1:13:16] we sent out this email newsletter to families of deaf and hard of hearing children every other month

[1:13:22] So the next issue will go out in October, and as always, if you are not receiving that,

[1:13:28] please let us know, and we will make sure to get you added to that list.

[1:13:35] As always, we are always looking for more parents to join our Parent-Rolling Tour Network

[1:13:41] meeting, our network. The parents get a help plan and attend events, connect with other families,

[1:13:48] help monitor our group me and then be a spotlight for our newsletter.

[1:13:55] And so we

[1:13:56] actually had a few new parents join this last time and it's been amazing. And it's

[1:14:02] just again a great opportunity to help parents with deaf and hard of hearing

[1:14:05] children kind of volunteer and get back to the community. And so we have a new

[1:14:12] parent volunteer network flyer. So if you would like to we are asking people to

[1:14:17] this up in the office or to share it with a parent that they know would be great for the network.

[1:14:23] And if you'd like a copy of that, you can reach out to us or Krista can send it out.

[1:14:29] And then also we have a group meet that we just started up over the summer. We're still trying

[1:14:35] to get that up and going, like getting parents involvement on that. Now that summer is done, we're kind

[1:14:42] of going to pause with hosting play dates. Families can still do that, but we're going to use it as a

[1:14:47] more of a support place, so each month we'll do a prompt for families to respond back like

[1:14:54] just like tips and tricks and having families connect that way.

[1:15:01] When we still are doing our youth or young ambassador program as well, so this is for deaf and hard of hearing teens and young adults. We're kind of targeting ages 14 through 25. We invite these youth to come and attend these events. This has been a great fun thing. I've talked to you guys about this before, but we found that the families of these young kids who have been recently diagnosed have a great time getting to talk to these older kids.

[1:15:30] the parents want a glimpse of what the future might look like for their child.

[1:15:34] And so to be able to have this contact with these youth and young adult ambassadors

[1:15:40] has just been really a really fun thing to watch. The parents asking questions,

[1:15:44] what's your life than life? Were you bullied? Were you able to do sports? You know, all the questions.

[1:15:52] And so we're trying to provide some fun ways. We've done some fun things. Sometimes we have

[1:15:58] raffles at our events.

[1:16:01] And so if the parents go and ask questions,

[1:16:04] one of these people, they can get extra tickets

[1:16:07] for the raffle.

[1:16:08] And so we're just kind of helping

[1:16:09] to create those conversations and connection between them.

[1:16:13] And we would love for you again.

[1:16:15] This is a great one.

[1:16:16] If you have a setting where you might have

[1:16:19] some teens or young adults coming into your office,

[1:16:21] we'd love for you to encourage them to be an ambassador for us.

[1:16:25] And we're looking for all language modality kids

[1:16:27] who represent all different types of deaf and hard of hearing experiences.

[1:16:36] And then this is just our new flyer that we've have for us, if you'll see,

[1:16:42] it has a new Department of Health and Human Services logo on it as well, but

[1:16:47] this is just our contact information, and so if you have any questions or want us

[1:16:52] to reach out to any parents, please reach out to us. We're also very active on

[1:16:58] social media. We share a post every day. I have a listening spoken language, ASL, a spotlight,

[1:17:05] of a deaf and hard of hearing individual, or just tips and tricks on there. We also share

[1:17:11] event flyers on there. So if you have like an event that's family-friendly that you'd like us to

[1:17:16] share, send them our way and we'll post them on our social media as well.

[1:17:22] Okay, and that is our

[1:17:25] little plug for what we're doing right now. I now want to turn the time over to Carl White who

[1:17:30] can give us an in-champ update. Thank you. I'll be very brief. So we're deeply involved now in

[1:17:39] planning for the 2027 eddy conference that will be held in Bellevue, Washington. I want to make a special

[1:17:45] note that usually that conference starts Sunday evening and this year in 2027 it will start Monday evening.

[1:17:54] So there's a slight shift in schedule just so that, as you plan, Utah is always a great participant in that conference.

[1:18:02] So be sure to make a note that it starts on Monday evening instead of Sunday evening this time.

[1:18:08] But then it will be the same type of schedule as we've always had.

[1:18:11] The call for abstracts for presentations and posters is now open.

[1:18:16] Again, Utah has been one of the most active participants in those papers and posters and things.

[1:18:22] and we hope you will do that again.

[1:18:25] The information for how to apply for those

[1:18:28] is at eddyconference.org

[1:18:31] and look forward to more of those papers this coming year.

[1:18:39] Also want to let you know that there will be a new issue

[1:18:42] of the journal of early hearing detection and intervention

[1:18:46] will be released at the beginning of next week.

[1:18:49] And so that is a free journal that has a lot of great information in it that you can download by going to jedi at usu.edu.

[1:19:01] And that's all I have for today.

[1:19:03] Okay.

[1:19:04] Hey, you're Carl.

[1:19:07] This is Stephanie.

[1:19:08] Sorry to interrupt here.

[1:19:11] Do you want to talk about that you are currently searching for host sites, so the CNB conference

[1:19:18] that looks like the next one shouldn't be moving forward, right?

[1:19:22] Yes.

[1:19:23] We are planning on another CNB conference in 2027.

[1:19:27] That was a little bit up in the air for a while, but we can confirm now that it will be held

[1:19:32] in September 20 to 7. And we are looking for host sites. So there is an application again

[1:19:38] on our website that people can go to if they are interested in being a host site. Thanks, Stephanie.

[1:19:48] Thank you, Carl. Okay, so for some future updates, we're going to have Shelley Lawrence in November.

[1:19:56] Shannon's going to be working with Craig Buckman and Renee and Katie are going to

[1:20:01] We're working on hearing aid fitting barriers and Shannon's going to be working kind of in to reach out to them on that.

[1:20:09] Does anyone have any additional future updates?

[1:20:16] Okay.

[1:20:17] Then can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting?

[1:20:28] This is Sally Ormfield. Move to adjourn the meeting.

[1:20:31] Thank you, Sally. And a second.

[1:20:33] This is on the second.

[1:20:36] Thank you.

[1:20:37] So, it is now 10.23 a.m. and this meeting is adjourned.

[1:20:44] Thank you everyone. We thank you for being here and participating.

[1:20:47] The end of November.

[1:20:49] The end of November.

[1:20:50] Yeah.

Newborn Hearing Screening Advisory Committee

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