MEMBERS PRESENT
Diann Schuffett, Michelle Gadberry, Mary Twohig, Connie Adams, Courtney Bishop, Allison Hardin, Jim Batts, Dan Florell, Amanda Crick, Stacie McCune, Kandy Stroup, Karen Tuerk.  Guest Tom Prout of University of Kentucky was introduced by Diann.

MINUTES
The minutes from the September 18, 2003 meeting were read and after one spelling correction were approved.  Connie Adams made the motion to accept and Amanda Crick seconded.

TREASURER'S REPORT
There was no Treasurer's report as Karen Beavers was not present.  Diann indicated that there was approximately $29,000.00 in account.

REGIONAL REPORTS

 REGION 1:  Amanda Crick mentioned the death of Carol Holcomb, a fellow school psychologist.  She also expressed a concern from her region regarding leadership hours available through KAPS.  It was noted that the State allows six hours per conference.

 REGION 2:  Stacie McCune reported that members from her region would be serving dinner at the Ronald McDonald House on February 21st from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m.  She asked if anyone wanted to join them to please let her know.

 REGION 3:  In the absence of the regional rep, Mary Twohig brought up the issue of Vocational Rehab asking for evaluations of high school students to be done by the school districts when they are no longer required because of new re-evaluation procedures.  Jim Batts indicated that there is no coordination at the state level with voc rehab.  He said we would need to dispel the myth that we are there to "serve them" as we are not required to do the evaluations.

 REGION 4:  No report.

 REGION 5:  Kandy Stroup reported that her region was dealing with ESL issues and hoped to have coordination through the Cooperative.

 REGION 6:  No report.

 REGION 7/8:  No report.  However the issue of how we are serving our members came up as well as where members are located.  There was a discussion of looking at regions to determine if realignment was needed to better serve members.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
 CONFERENCE:  Michelle Gadberry reported that the fall conference dates were September 15-17 with the conference to be held at the Holiday Inn North in Lexington.  The possible pre-conference speaker is Tom Kratochwill who will present on evidence-based interventions.  She had received confirmations from Rick Short and Steve DeMers who will present on other models for school psychology.  Other possible presenters:  Randy Kamphaus on BASC-2, someone from AGS on KABC-2 and KTEA-2, and a WISC-IV training.  Michelle will have the preliminary program in July.  If anyone wants to present, they are to let Michelle know now.  Other potential topics:  academics and panel discussions on reauthorization, No Child Left Behind, KAPS board, expanding roles, or legislature.  The possible theme of the conference - "Putting Children First".

 MEMBERSHIP:  No report.

 LEGISLATIVE:  Connie Adams passed around several articles and web addresses for members information.  They included:  NASP Public Policy Institute, NCLB Assessment regulations at ed.gov/nclb/freedom, NASP Announcements at NASP-ANNOUNCE, 24th Implementation of IDEA, KASA.org/capitol.  Connie stressed the need for everyone to be more active in letter writing to legislators.

 PUBLIC RELATIONS:  Courtney Bishop, along with Allison Hardin, will be handling public relations, taking over from Stacie McCune.  Courtney said she would e-mail everyone when school psychology month is determined.  She will be sending out a survey to members about the interest of items.

 LD ADVISORY REPORT:  Jim Batts discussed the LD tables.  He has done the tables for the WISC-IV with WJ-III and WIAT-2 and is working on the Stanford Binet 5 with WJ-III and WIAT-2.  He had hoped to have the UNIT done but he does not have the needed data; Bracken has said he will be sending.  The test needs to have a .8 reliability to put in the tables.  There was a discussion of why the WISC-IV was done only with the full scale score.  Jim asked if anyone would like another achievement used in the tables.  He felt that the tables will be used for maybe another two years.  He expressed concerns with the tables with regard to the lack of early intervention/detection.

 NASP DELEGATE:  Jim Batts reported that the NASP convention was in Dallas.  He noted that the convention had excellent preconvention workshops.  KAPS agreed to donate again to the Children's Fund - a Kentucky basket with Kentucky products.  He asked about sponsoring the 5K run with a cost of $150.00 and that was agreed upon. He also mentioned that NASP would be going to on-line elections.

 STATE CONSULTANT:  No report.

 NEWLETTER:  No report.

 ETHICS:  Dan Florell reported that he had applied to the NASP webmaster.  He indicated that he had updated the KAPS website last weekend.  He asked that regional reps sent updates for their regions.

OLD BUSINESS
 None

NEW BUSINESS
 LD CONFERENCE:  Diann reported that Joe Bargione of JCPS had asked KAPS to become a sponsor of the Learning Disabilities Association workshop given by Russell Barkley.  There were various levels of sponsorship.  Diann said she would contact Joe for more information and then e-mail board members the sponsorship options.  Board members could then give their response by e-mail.

 KAPS FUTURE ACTION PLAN:  The NASP State Association Planning Handbook, Follow-up Materials from the School Psychology Futures Conference, NASP Regional Meetings was reviewed.  Members discussed setting priorities for KAPS and making a one-year commitment to the priorities.  Outcomes and goals were chosen (please see attached document).  In March at the spring workshop, there will be a follow-up meeting with the general membership as to how to implement and the person responsible, etc.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:35 p.m.

Submitted by:
Mary Twohig
KAPS Secretary

February 6, 2004
The KAPS Executive Council met Friday, February 6th to get regional updates, hear Fall Conference plans and discuss the KAPS Futures Action Plan.  Here is a summary of what was discussed.  Page on down for notices of upcoming conferences and announcements that may be of interest to school psychologists.

REGIONAL REPORTS:

REGION 1
A concern was voiced about the limited number of Leadership Hours available at the Fall Conference.  Upon discussion, it was clarified that state procedures limit the number of Leadership hours allowable for any approved conference to six (6).  This would be true for the EBD Institute, CEC, etc.   It is possible that pre-conference hours could be added to the 6 and this is being looked at for the upcoming Fall conference.

Condolences to the family of Carole Holcomb, Christian County school psychologist, who passed away.

REGION 2
Region 2 folks are asking for volunteers from any region across the state to make and serve dinner at the Ronald McDonald House in Louisville (in the downtown area) on Saturday, February 21st from 4:00 to 8:00.  While originally planned as a Region 2 activity, more people are needed to help out.  The ingredients are all bought, but extra hands are needed.  If you want (or can) help, be in touch with Stacie McCune (Hardin Co) or just show up!  If all goes well, this may be expanded to the Lexington area and beyond.  Great idea!

REGION 3
There has been a question about how to handle/address Voc Rehab requests for assessments.  In some areas of the state, Voc Rehab has been very specific about what types of assessment are needing to be done.  Some points made during discussion:
Voc Rehab is needing to establish what the disability is (sometimes asking for DSM diagnosis) and information to help plan for rehab services and placement after graduation
Consider completing a more expansive re-evaluation as the last re-evaluation that will be helpful for college planning or rehab purposes
Concerns about sch psychs spending more time on re-evaluations/assessments at a time of budget cuts, etc.  Need to move beyond this role and expand to other services
Suggested that local districts talk with their area Voc Rehab offices to educate them about school services, assessment and to work cooperatively to achieve each other's goals

REGION 5
Although not officially a Region 5 KAPS activity, area school psychs assembled to learn more about ESL procedures, assessments, etc.  Thanks to Marti Ginter, CKSEC sp ed trainer/consultant, for organizing and coordinating.  Thanks to Susan Prout and Elaine Maggard of Fayette Co. for sharing and presenting an overview of practices used in their district.

Also, Region 5 boasts the highest number of KAPS members in the state!  Approximately 75 school psychologist in our region belong to KAPS.  Active involvement in KAPS is also noted as the last 2 KAPS presidents (and incoming new one) are Region 5 members!  Good going Region 5!
 

2004 SPRING CONFERENCE:
Diann Shuffet reported that the annual Spring Workshop will be held Friday, March 5th at The Stadium, in Lexington.  Kelly Powell-Smith, Ph.D. will present "Introduction to CBM and Its Use in Problem Solving".  There will be a lunch-time meeting (11:45- 12:45) held at the Stadium to discuss KAPS action plan in relation to the Futures Conference that was held by NASP last year.  Anyone wanting to hear more can purchase their lunch on-site and stay for the discussion/overview.  Registration is free to KAPS members.  You should be receiving a flyer in the mail this week.  Information has been sent out via email earlier.  Please be in touch if you have not received information.  All registration should be sent to Diann Shuffett, Fayette County Schools.

This workshop will focus on CBM as a tool for monitoring student progress and response to interventions as is outlined in current draft revisions to IDEA.  The session will cover benefits and essential features of CBM, comparison with CBA, as well as the actual “how to’s” for using CBM procedures in your schools. Dr. Powell-Smith has spent a great deal of her career focused on CBM and its application.  While being a sought after speaker she is also an associate professor in the school psychology program at the University of South Florida and a visiting faculty member at the Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University.

2004 FALL CONFERENCE UPDATE:
Plans for the 2004 KAPS Fall Conference are underway.  Mark your calendars now for September 15th-17th at the Holiday Inn North in Lexington. Possible pre-conference speaker is Tom Kratchowill on "Evidenced-based Interventions".  He will be speaking on how to decide what research-based interventions look like and how do we know what really works.   This promises to be a timely and important topic as we move into a period of emphasis on pre-referrals and early intervention, not to mention, research-based practices.

Other speakers already confirmed include:  Rick Shore on family and community integration and Randy Kamphaus (who will also be a keynote at the luncheon) on the new BASC-II.  Michelle Gadberry (KAPS Pres-elect and Conference Chair) is working on an expanded exhibit hall, sessions on the new K-ABC and K-TEA and another WISC-IV training for those who may have missed it last year.  Possible panel discussion may include topics such as No Child Left Behind and IDEA re-authorization.  She hopes to have a preliminary agenda on the KAPS website in July.

Call for presentations will be going out to members shortly.  If you have a presentation you think others would find interesting, please be in touch with Michelle in Jessamine County (mgadberry@jessamine.k12.ky.us).
 

PUBLIC RELATIONS:
Kentucky School Psychology Week will be held sometime in April.  Courtney Bishop and Alison Hardin will be emailing Superintendents once dates for a signing ceremony are confirmed and scheduled with the Governor.  Also, you may be getting a survey about possible KAPS items of interest for purchase.  Please let them know of your interest (and/or ideas) of items with KAPS logo that may be useful to you.  Ask them about current items available for purchase that you could pass along to administrators (e.g. Superintendents, Sp Ed Directors, Principals, Counselors) during School Psych Week!

Responding to a request from Joe Bargione, KAPS agreed to co-sponsor with LDA a dinner with Russell Barkley.  Dr. Barkley will be speaking at the annual LDA conference in Louisville next August.  The EC felt that this was a good way to further spotlight the KAPS organization, it's existence and purpose, as well as collaborate with agencies that promote services to children and their families.
 

LD ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
Through the reluctant leadership of Jim Batts, KDE now has updated tables for WISC-IV and WJ-III.  Your Directors should have received the mailing from KDE last Friday.  Please check with them if you did not receive (be sure to get the corrected version that does not have basic writing).  WISC-III and WIAT-II Tables were send out mid-January.  Due up next will be the Stanford-Binet V with both the WJ-III and the WIAT. Questions were asked about including the UNIT, but Jim reported that they have been unable to find validity studies with achievement measures.

Discussion was held about the WISC-IV indexes and changes.  Since the new Verbal Comprehension (VC) and Perceptual Reasoning (PR) only include 3 subtests each, it is not recommended that 15 point splits between the two be used to figure LD discrepancies (a better measure would include 4 subtests).  Suggestions were to use indexes to discuss Strengths/Weakness profiles and not for determination of LD.
 

NASP:
Jim Batts, NASP Delegate, reminded us that the annual NASP conference is coming up at the end of March/early April in Dallas.  There are excellent pre-conference workshops. You can register on-line.

If you are a  NASP member, then you may also vote on-line.  Heads up, our own Bill Pfohl, of WKU, is running for office.

KAPS authorized Jim to make a donation to the NASP Children's Fund auction on behalf of KAPS and will also help sponsor the annual 5K run held at the convention.
 

WEBSITE:
Our wonderful webmaster, Dan Florell, is trying to update the KAPS website by providing links to other area agencies (e.g. LDA) and upcoming trainings, etc.  If you have information that would be appropriate to post, please be in touch with Dan (dan.florell@eku.edu)
 

LEGISLATIVE:
Connie Adams and Jim Batts encourage all to be in touch with their local and state representatives as the Legislature is underway and crucial budget cuts and decisions that affect schools, education programs and the well-being of Kentucky children are being made.

Jim reported that KASA has been excellent to work with and if contacted, Jim will forward you their listserv that will provide legislative summaries.  Lots of changes are in the works, both statewide and federally.  Be informed and take action.
 

KAPS Futures Action Plan:
The remainder of the EC meeting was devoted to discussing and developing goals for KAPS Futures Action Plan.  For those who may not know, a School Psychology Futures Conference was held on-line throughout the country in the Fall of 2002.  The conference produced a set of broad themes and 5 outcome areas to address the needs of children, families and schools.  State organizations are being asked to formulate a Futures Action Plan organized around these 5 outcome areas which will be shared with NASP at a national level and with school psychologists across the state.

The EC identified 3 outcome areas (Improved academic competence for all children; Improved social emotional functioning for all children; more effective education and instruction for all learners) each comprised of several goals.  Current activities and future strategies will determined and will be shared during lunch at the spring conference.  As the plan is more formally developed, this information will be shared with KAPS members and, later, with NASP.  The idea is that this Action Plan will help to guide KAPS activities and focus for the coming year.
 

Upcoming workshops and trainings:

March 1st          Dealing with Dyslexia
            Presenter: Denise Gibbs, Ph.D.
            Sponsored by CKSEC
            Time:  8:00 to 4:00 (est)
            Where:  Four Points Sheraton in Lexington
            Costs: $35.00 (non-CKSEC members); limited availability
            Register: www.uky.edu/Education/cksechead.html
 

March 5th         KAPS 2004 Spring Conference
            Presenter: Kelly Powell-Smith, Ph.D.
            Introduction to CBM and Its Use in Problem Solving
            Time:  8:30 to 4:00 (est)
            Where:  The Stadium, 412 Sporting Ct. in Lexington

March 9-10th         Lucille Eber, Instructional Discipline
            WKU's South Campus/Carroll Knicely Conference Center
            Bowling Green, Ky.
            Contact Pam Goins, KDE for more information
 

April 12-14th          Choice and Changes Conference
            "Making the Difference"
            Includes speaker:  John Maag
            Where: Galt House, Louisville
           http://mhmr.chs.ky.gov/choices_conferences.asp
            Registration is $50 and will continue through March 19, 2004.
            Inquiries to Pam Goins, KDE
 

June 28-30th          Behavior Institute 2004
            Where:  Louisville Convention Center
            Speakers:  Rich Allen, William Jenkins, Robert Marzano
           http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/behave/misc/bi01.html
 

August 10th         Russell Barkley, PhD
            ADHD in Children and Adolescents:Nature, Diagnosis and Management
            Sponsored by Learning Disability Association (LDA)
            Louisville International Convention Center
            Cost: Individual $40.00; Group $25.00 per person
            www.lda.org
 

This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week.  Take a minute and perform a random act of kindness for someone.  It only takes a second and lasts a lifetime.  For more information and great classroom or community ideas, go to http://www.actsofkindness.org/

Well, I think that is all the news that fits!  I invite you to email questions, concerns at any time and I will post to the region.  It is a great way to survey what other folks may be doing and to glean new information.  Stay warm and healthy.
 

Kandy Stroup
KAPS Region 5 Representative