2015 Election Disability Issues Survey

Dr. Elizabeth Hallmark
For School Board

1. What do you propose to do to make sure the social/emotional needs of children in schools are met?

Since Rochester has one of the highest poverty rates in the state and our extreme poverty rate is growing, it’s clear that conditions such as trauma, grief, as well as racism impact children’s academic success. We must not only increase the number of social workers and mental health counselors in schools, but work to create social structures in schools where children are responsively supported, staff are versed in social emotional learning methods, and there are consistent anti-racism trainings.

2. What are your ideas to improve the availability of “school to work” opportunities in our community?

This is an area that I know little about but I’m eager to hear ideas from the local community as well as those from communities beyond Rochester who are having success creating school to work opportunities. I can commit to learning more about all businesses that currently provide work training, and push for programming in schools that is more compatible and attractive to employers of those with disabilities.

3. Will you work to ensure that students who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or Deaf-Blind receive qualified interpreters? How will you go about doing this?

Rochester has such a large pool of interpreters from the NTID community that it should be easy to replace any poor performing interpreters. The best approach to assuring better interpreters is to make sure the district institutes regular evaluation of interpreters that includes student feedback.

4. What will you do to ensure that students with disabilities as well as students in general are seen as individuals and not data generators?

I am very concerned about the high stakes testing mania linked to Common Core that mandates some students be subjected to general tests and others to the Alternate Assessment according to randomly selected percentages per school/district. Much work needs to be done to create better assessments that can tell the real story of what students can do or need further work in. I will push for more teacher input on these changes and advocate for shrinking or even delinking the degree that state test scores are currently required by the state. Since the APPR is severely flawed and drives assessment-driven teaching, this is where we must start to challenge the state. I look forward to this fight.

5. What will you do to ensure that the IEP process is more interactive and both student and parent friendly?

The district has been cited for numerous violations in special education and IEPs so this is an area that is high priority. Students and parents must have access to clear and recurring processes for understanding and updating IEPs. I will collect specific examples from families who have felt intimidated or shut out of the process, and push the Executive Director and Program Administrator of Special Education to address these issues. We need a more streamlined structure between departments that enables collaboration and accountability with these problems.