Tennessee Disability Day on the Hill- Tennessee Disability Coalition

Transcript

Marsh Naidoo (00:14):

Hi guys. Welcome to the Raising Kellan Podcast. My name is Marsh Naidoo and I blog @ raisingkellan.org where we curate resources for parents raising children with developmental delay and or disabilities.

Marsh Naidoo (00:33):

Today I am with Carol Westlake and Jeff Strand of the Tennessee Disability Coalition. And guys, we are gonna talk all things "Advocacy." Welcome to both Carol and Jeff.

Carol Westlake (00:48):

Thank you. I'm delighted to be here.

Marsh Naidoo (00:51):

Carol, the Tennessee Disability Coalition. What is it that you guys do?

Carol Westlake (01:00):

So the Disability Coalition tries to serve as a home for the broad disability community in Tennessee. We are an alliance of about 42 different disability organizations, some large, some and small that have gotten together to try to make a difference for all people with disabilities in Tennessee. So we do a lot of direct connection of people with disabilities to other people with disabilities, families to families to try to help provide support. But the real core of our work is to try to work in public policy and government affairs and try to make sure that Tennessee has the kinds of policies and programs that make it a good place for people with disabilities to live.

Marsh Naidoo (01:47):

What does advocacy mean to you, Carol?

Carol Westlake (01:52):

To me, advocacy means using your voice, having a seat at the table making sure that people understand your situation or the situation of those who you care about and trying to make positive change. I think it's very important. So advocacy can be self-advocacy, right? I mean, we try to teach folks with disabilities that all the time, sometimes it's easier to advocate for someone else than it is to advocate for yourself. And that's why sometimes partnerships really help, because I may advocate for you and you can advocate for me, and together we do better. But it really is that sort of speaking up, speaking out and working for positive change.

Marsh Naidoo (02:38):

Jeff, how does that tie into public policy and why is that important for public policy?

Jeff Strand (02:47):

Well, I think that's kind of the structure of how we idealize our government, that we elect people to represent our interests and they serve as a public servant on our behest or at our behest. So when we as advocates have issues that affect our daily lives, that's what our elected officials need to be hearing about because that's really essentially their role is to take the word of their constituents listen to advocates, and try to enact change based on that. I think when we get too far away from the needs of our population, and of our advocates is when we start to go astray with that model. So really in the idealized version of the way our democracy works, I think it starts at the grassroots. It starts with the advocacy and makes its way up to the public policy world.

Marsh Naidoo (03:43):

As far as the state of Tennessee is concerned I was extremely excited to hear civil state of the state address, especially regarding the public education reform. Carol, now your foundational background has been in sped, correct?

Carol Westlake (04:04):

That's correct.

Marsh Naidoo (04:05):

The formula was structured around the basic education plan. Can you educate us about that and what that entailed?

Carol Westlake (04:13):

Yeah, I can give you a little bit of background. I mean, I think one of the important things to know about it is that funding formula, which is how they figure out how much money to send to each school system is pretty old. It is well over 20 years old. So the times of change things are a little old fashioned. One of the most fundamental pieces of that funding formula is that it is resource based is what they call it, which is to say, let's take a look at student teacher ratios. How many students do we think are fair for a teacher at the fourth grade level, for example? So maybe we think that one teacher to 25 students is the appropriate amount of resources. So I'm gonna take a look at what is, how many students, grade students a school system has, and then I'm going to take a number of what I think a reasonable rate for a teacher is, right?

(05:07):

And then I do the math and then I spend that money. But the school system doesn't necessarily have to spend it exactly that way, but it's really sort of taking a look at pupil teacher ratios and other kinds of things to generate funding. One of the challenges of that is that it hasn't kept up with the realities of education. And it also sometimes unfairly punishes rural schools, for example. So if you happen to be a smaller district and you just don't have that many fourth graders then you end up with a whole lot less money, but you still need <laugh> money to run that school. And so really thinking about how you shift the money generation, how you divvy up the money as a funding formula to looking more at students themselves as opposed to those other kinds of resources is one of the things that they're trying to take a look at now.

Marsh Naidoo (06:07):

And so the proposed formula is a weighted system. So how does that work, Jeff?

Jeff Strand (06:19):

Yeah, so Carol's exactly right. The current system is a resource based, which is, like she said, based on student staff ratios and attendance. And it assumes that all students need the same things and that all students cost the same to educate. The weighted funding formula flips that around. So it looks at each student need and determines what's the cost of that. So there are a number of ways that this could work, especially for kids with disabilities. And we don't have all the details yet. The Lee administration, the General Assembly, have not released the policy details way down in the weeds type of thing. But there are a couple ways we could look at it. For kids with disabilities, we could look at it as tier based. So kids in special education based on the amount of services are considered to be within a tier one through three in a public school, three with the most needs, one with the fewest.

(07:13):

There's block funding just saying that all special ed students get this additional amount of money. There's diagnosis based. So kids with autism get this amount of money. Kids with developmental disabilities get this amount of money. And the one we really like is IEP and needs based. And that looks at the individual needs laid out in the iep, the accommodations, the services, that kind of thing, and assigns a cost to those needs. And that really most specifically gets at paying for what kids actually need. And so we really like that one. There is no silver bullet when it comes to how this should work. There are pitfalls of each of these options. There are benefits that some have and that some don't. So it's really about getting, balancing that, getting the best options that we can get for making sure that kids get their needs paid for and avoiding the deepest of the pitfalls.

Marsh Naidoo (08:15):

And correct me if I'm wrong, so we don't actually know when the implementation is going to happen, but we know that there is going to be a move to the weighted system

Jeff Strand (08:29):

That Yes. So they released a draft framework at the end of January, which just kind of laid out basics of what this is gonna look like. So they talked about there's base funding, and that's for things like teachers and infrastructure and curriculum. Then they have these weights that account for students with disabilities, students in rural areas students living in poverty and concentrated poverty and those in charter schools. And then they talk about direct funding for things like there's a high school in Nashville that has a bank in it, and they run an apprenticeship through the bank. Not every school needs bank money. So that school gets direct funding for the bank money and then some outcomes based funds on top of that. So they, they've laid out the general outline of what this looks like. The details have not been released yet. Rumor has, it should be this upcoming week. And then a rumor also has it that it might take a year or a couple years to fully switch out the Basic Education Plan for a new funding formula. This is complicated stuff.

Marsh Naidoo (09:37):

I can only imagine.

Jeff Strand (09:38):

Yeah, and it's a lot of money. So it's important to get this right. And if we're really only gonna do this every 30 years, it seems worthwhile to not rush, rush into implementing it yet.

Marsh Naidoo (09:50):

Carol the Tennessee early intervention is now no longer from zero to three, but now includes age four as well. And from a physical therapist standpoint, I can't tell you how exciting that is because that gives us an extra year to work with our kids to meet milestones and just another year of skill service and intervention that they can receive either at home or in the outpatient setting. Thoughts are on the Tennessee Early Intervention Program.

Carol Westlake (10:30):

So yes, that actually is very exciting. The original proposal to expand TEIS the Tennessee Early Intervention System from age, from cutting off at age three was to cut it off at age five, which would be kindergarten age. And so that was what people were pushing for. When the governor put out his in the state of the state and put out his budget proposal he proposed it to four years old. Nice first step. But what we're not done yet, so hopefully we'll get to five, because really making sure that in early intervention children have the best foundation they can up to that public school age is just so important. There have been some changes in the TE I S program up until a year or so ago, TEIS was operated through the Department of Education which always felt a little bit awkward because the Department of Ed doesn't really know that much about infants and toddlers.

(11:36):

<laugh>. And children from three to five were actually served in a program called six 19. So there was this where public schools were responsible for them, and yet, public schools don't run programs for three to five year olds. For the most part, Pre-K kind of helps a little, little, but then there you are. So they have moved the TEIS program from the Department of Education upon an administrative level to the DE Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities because kids in TEIS are at risk of developmental disability or have a developmental disability. And I think it's really a department that's much better suited to care for those kids. And moving that age up to four and then hopefully to five, is gonna make a huge difference, I think, in early intervention and in mitigating problems for young kids.

Marsh Naidoo (12:28):

What do we have to look forward to coming up on March the 11th? Jeff, tell us about Disability Day on the Hill.

Jeff Strand (12:39):

So March 11th is officially our disability advocacy day last year. On a similar day the House and Senate ran resolutions on the floor to establish the day officially in the state. And then we all wore our blue, I'm actually wearing my shirt from last year <laugh>. We sent out signs that were put up on elected officials door. They wore blue ties and buttons and whatnot. And then we lit up a number of landmarks across the state, the Korean Veterans Bridge and Nissan Stadium in Nashville the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid in Memphis several areas in Knoxville and Chattanooga, so all over the state. So this year we're doing it all again because it was so much fun last year. So we'll be lighten up these landmarks and just celebrating the end of our disability day on the hill months long process. So in the lead up to that, we're facilitating legislative meetings with advocates. And this March 11th disability advocacy day is really a celebration of all of their hard work over the last few weeks.

Marsh Naidoo (14:00):

For listeners to participate in the program, there's several ways that they can interact and stay on top of the message that you guys put out. One of them is to take teamwork to 7 2 6 90, and then you'll also set up Facebook groups for each region within the state of Tennessee. Any other ways that we can keep in the loop, Jeff?

Jeff Strand (14:30):

Yeah. So we've got until February 14th to sign up for a legislative team meeting which would put you in a group with people who are geographically close to you and have the same senator and representative, and we can facilitate those meetings. Like you mentioned, the Facebook groups are great. It's a nice entry point for especially folks who are new to the advocacy world to dip a toe in without having to cannonball into the deep end. So those are great way to catch up with folks who live in your region, hear what people are talking about, get tips, ask questions. The texting is great. And then following along on our socials we have a social media kit where folks can participate in disability Day on the Hill events show support for their other advocates and self advocates, and follow along with any of our news and updates and hopefully comedic quips from mine specifically. But yeah a lot of opportunities, a lot of entryway to be part of ddh. And then of course, you can always reach out to any of us individually and we can help you out.

Marsh Naidoo (15:41):

Carol, we've come to the end of our time, so to speak. So is there anything that I, any message that you would wanna send out? Should parents or any thoughts that you would like to leave us with?

Carol Westlake (15:57):

I would just like to say that telling your story, using your voice, meeting with your legislator, sharing information is so very critical. People who don't have the disability experience or who haven't thought about it, everybody knows somebody who has a disability, but you don't necessarily think about it in that sense. But being able to share the experience that you have as an individual with a disability or as a family member with policy makers makes all the difference because it's kind of like a light bulb going off in their heads. They don't think about what it's like until somebody shares about what it's like. And that makes people much more amenable to good policy. So telling your story, being out there, connecting with others, all of that is gonna make a more inclusive Tennessee for all of us.

Marsh Naidoo (16:51):

In Jeff's newsletter, there was actually a link up on the point that was discussed about the adults changing tables, which be, might not necessarily be our need at present, but there wasn't an understanding until I listened to Chrissy's video on you two and that it makes all the difference. It might not be about what your need is, but being open to the needs of those that are around you. And that's what inclusion is about. That's right. Creating opportunity by providing basic amenities. Right. What would you like to tell the listeners?

Jeff Strand (17:37):

I just kind of want to echo Carol's sentiment. I don't know anybody who has participated in advocacy, who has advocated for their needs or that of their family members who ended up regretting it. It can be scary to get started. The wheels of government and policy are very inertial. They seem to just be kind of moving on their own and without us, and it's hard to jump into that. But I think everybody who I've met who's engaged, even when they were hesitant at first, has found it to be really rewarding. And even when it's not advocating on behalf of one's own needs advocating for a better Tennessee is something that I think everybody can get behind. And I would encourage everybody who is standing at the edge of the pool, even if it's just dipping your toe in I say it's worth it.

Marsh Naidoo (18:28):

Guys, thank you so much for joining us today. And just to round off would you all kindly just give us your contact information?

Carol Westlake (18:41):

Absolutely. So I, I'll start. You can email me at carol carolw_@tndisability.org, and I am the most responsive to email, so please do that. You can also just go to our website, which is www.tn disability.org and get in contact with any of us there as well, Jeff.

Jeff Strand (19:09):

And you can email me about policy things, newsletter things,, at Jeffs_@tndisability.org.

Marsh Naidoo (19:21):

Guys, thank you so much for your time. Wishing you all an amazing March the 11th and look forward to working with you all in the future.

Carol Westlake (19:32):

Thanks for having us. It was

Jeff Strand (19:33):

Great. Yes, thank you.

Marsh Naidoo (19:35):

Thank you for listening along to the Raising Kellan Podcast where it is our goal to bring you content to help that parent raising a child with developmental delay and or disability informed of what's going on. There are plans in the upcoming months to bring your content related to advocacy on both a state and federal level. So stay tuned for those details. And you can follow us along on facebook or raisingkellen.org or on Instagram at raising_killing. Please subscribe to the podcast and as always, remember, get the top of your mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing off.