14:07:18 >> Perna: Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us today, the hottest day in the history of heat for an air conditioned, hopefully where you are, Raise your voice on special education. My name is Laura Perna. I'm going to quickly go over our accessibility and Zoom functions today starting with my own audio description. I'm a white woman with 14:07:39 short brown hair. I've got big blackhead phones on over my head. I'm wearing a gray V-neck shirt and my background is blurred out but still full of bright reds and blues and oranges. I'm not in my regular room, but it is a very interesting room visually. 14:08:07 So for today's call, we do have closed captions. You can give us a shout in the chat if you need any assistance turning those on or adjusting the size. We are using breakouts today, and if you had requested that the captions follow you into the breakout room, they will do that. We will also be screen sharing a couple of websites, but 14:08:34 we're not doing any polls today. As always, we ask that you stay muted until we prompt you to unmute for breakouts or question and answer. That will help with the sound quality for everyone. If you have any questions about either the material that we're covering or any tech -- technical questions, feel free to use the chat box to ask. 14:09:03 You can also send us an e-mail at txdisabilities.org -- I'm sorry, info@txdisabilities.org and I'll be keeping an eye on that e-mail as well if you're having any issues with chat. We are recording today's session so you can review and share. I'll be sending that out hopefully later today, but possibly in the next 14:09:29 couple of days in a follow-up e-mail. And finally, we want to reiterate that we understand that even though we're well into Zoom existence, that plenty of folks are still not Zoom experts, in addition not everyone is an expert on advocacy or the issues that we're talking about today. And that's totally fine. We encourage you to 14:09:56 ask questions in the chat, ask questions of each other, ask questions of us, or if things are just getting overwhelming and you need to get off the call, take a step back, do that. Take care of yourself and your own well-being. We'll be around whenever you can jump back in. And on our end, we'll try to cool it with the jargon, explain 14:10:09 abbreviations and try to make sure we don't lose anyone. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Jolene for today's session. 14:10:37 >> Foster: Hello. I'm Jolene sanders Foster, the advocacy director. I'll do my audio description. I am currently in a really poorly lit office space under the stairs here at CTD. And this is the first time ever that I've joined Raise Your Voice from CTD's office. And my background is some wooden planks, I don't know what you would 14:11:00 call it. Let's see. It looks like shiplap, natural wood, and then you can see the stairs going up to our second floor as I mentioned. I am currently sitting under the stairs. I am a white woman with long, brown hair and black-rimmed glasses and I'm wearing a green short-sleeved shirt. So first of all, thank you all for 14:11:33 joining today. And unfortunately, our very special guest representative Mary Gonzales was unable to join us due to having to travel today to be at an appropriations hearing tomorrow that was scheduled last week, but we do have another special education celebrity with us, Mr. Steven Aleman, senior policy analyst at Disability Rights Texas 14:11:55 and one of our favorite partners in special education advocacy. So today we're going to talk a little bit about what is -- we'll give a little bit of background about special education and how we got to where we are right now, as well as what some perennial issues are. We'll talk about special education funding and then I will share some 14:12:24 opportunities for action in -- within the next couple of weeks. There will be two back-to-back public education hearings, and they will be welcoming public comment on a number of different issues that we'll kind of go over. But first I want to just start welcoming Steven Aleman. Thank you for joining us. And just kind of start 14:12:46 with, you know, I think some of us may be familiar with this, and this is not news, but some of us may not, so just as, you know, some background, special education has been one of our biggest priorities advocacy areas for a very, very long time, for many of our partner organizations, some of them are on here right now I can see. In Texas, 14:13:15 we do -- we are still trying to kind of recover and retrain and rethink and correct, you know, over a decade's long practice of delaying or denying access to services by implementing an arbitrary cap on the percentage of students who can be enrolled and served in special education. And then as well as not kind of complying with what's 14:13:44 referred to as maintenance of effort and funding special education at the level that is required by law. I'm going to leave all that fun budget stuff to Steven Aleman. We will be talking about some policy issues, but the biggest probably area that we -- that we spend a lot of our special education advocacy on is within the budget. And 14:14:09 not just the budget, but also ensuring compliance with federal law. Texas is still kind of in time-out with the federal government for -- you know, for multiple violations with the individuals with disabilities education act or IDEA, and that's largely due to funding and also identifying eligible children. So with that, Steven, 14:14:37 if you wouldn't mind kind of explaining, you know, where the -- where the budget process is. And maybe some of the problems that we've had with funding and how you were -- Steven was on the special education funding allotment committee -- I'm probably getting the name wrong -- that was formed two sessions ago, and that committee 14:14:52 came up with some really great recommendations. And Steven, if you want to kind of highlight some of those. And some of the recommendations that you have, maybe opportunities and challenges when we're talking about the budget this next coming session. 14:15:20 >> Aleman: Sure. Thank you, Jolene. And just a quick description. I'm Hispanic male with a white shirt on in my office this afternoon. And I'm happy to join you all. I probably know or recognize many of you, but so many boxes on the screen, I can't tell all who's in attendance today. But talking about special education, we could, 14:15:47 of course, go on and on all afternoon with the issues and challenges and policy questions that are before the state, but just starting on the money side of things, there's two big issues with regard to special education in Texas. They're related, of course, but one is how much do we spend. And the other is how do we spend it? And so let 14:16:13 me start with the bigger question about how much do we spend. And this goes to a federal requirement under our federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and a provision that doesn't get a lot of attention from advocates and -- because it's really not a day in and day out special education issue, but 14:16:43 it is fundamentally important for our system. And in IDEA, there's a requirement known as maintenance of financial support, and I know not to use too much jargon and lingo today, but that is the description of a federal requirement, maintenance of financial support, that the state asks that -- states spend a bear minimum 14:16:49 from year to year on special education and students with disabilities. So that's the big picture, how much are we spending? 14:17:14 Well, it's come to light, thanks to advocacy efforts by Disability Rights Texas, my organization, coalition of Texans with disabilities and other advocates that we as a state collectively were not even meeting the minimum floor requirement of the right amount of money for students with disabilities in our public schools. That has 14:17:41 been brought to the attention of the federal government. The federal government has determined that the state in the past has underfunded special education, and sadly, that is, of course, not much of a revelation to all of us that we're not spending enough, but it is something that we have to focus on because fundamentally of course, 14:18:05 without resources, how can students with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education? So the amount we spend and the budget process does affect what we do focus on typically; that is, the provision of services and the least restrictive environment for students with disabilities. So we've determined and it's been acknowledged 14:18:36 now by the state and recognized by the federal government that we're not spending enough money on special education. Well, the consequence of that from the federal government standpoint really is something that we have to be focused on because what it means is that from a federal standpoint -- and it kind of is an illogical, in a way, 14:18:59 solution or response, but it is the way that the federal government manages IDEA, when they -- when the federal government learns that a state has underspent its own dollars on special education, the answer from the federal government is to take away the equivalent amount of federal aid for students with disabilities. And so if 14:19:16 Texas spent a couple million dollars less than it should have out of its own pocket of students with disabilities and that comes to the attention of the federal government, then they're going to reduce a couple million dollars from our federal allocation for students with disabilities. And so we are on the cusp of that happening now in 14:19:41 Texas because of past underspending on special education. So in terms of one takeaway, in terms of advocacy and awareness of an issue, is that we have to press the legislature in the coming session to ensure that we're investing the right amount of money for students with disabilities. Of course, I know that we're all advocates in 14:20:09 many different areas, and this theme of the state not spending enough is, again, sadly, nothing new to any of us. But it's one more issue we have to tend to at the legislature, which is the bottom dollar. And people with disabilities, kids with disabilities being short-changed once again. And that the state has to put in the right amount 14:20:40 of money into the system to assure at the very minimum, that we're meeting the federal requirements, again, what's referred to as maintenance of financial support. So that's one big issue. And as I said and frame this about how much do we spend? But correspond ently, Jolene, is another issue which how do we spend what is budgeted. 14:21:03 And this goes to the finance system in Texas for public schools, which, again, all of us know has been in the news over the years, has been attempted to be addressed by the legislature, and for those of us who follow public education in particular, we know that two sessions ago a major school finance reform bill was passed, referred to as 14:21:32 House Bill 3 or HB3, which did do many things to improve the state's investment in public schools. But one of the things that did not happen in that major piece of legislation was any sort of revisioning how we support our public schools in serving students with disabilities. And Jolene alluded to this, but to sort of kick the can down 14:21:58 the road, so to speak, the legislature created a temporary advisory body to look at the special education allotment system that is how does the state send money to school districts for students with disabilities. And it may come as no surprise to you, but like a lot of our aging facilities or aging programs, the funding formula for special 14:22:29 education has been around for about three decades without any substantial revision. And so the allotment advisory committee that Jolene alluded to made some pretty substantial recommendations about how that formula and allocation system by which the Texas Education Agency sends money, billions of dollars to public schools, should be updated 14:23:02 and improved to make sure that resources get to students with disabilities. So that is now, again, on the table. Not just the amount we spend for students with disabilities, but the mechanism or the allocation system that we -- how we spend that money and we want to make it a wise investment, an effective investment. Now, 14:23:27 I mentioned the -- and Jolene mentioned the allotment advisory committee. That committee met with perfect timing just as COVID was entering the scene in all of our lives in 2020, and so the work of that committee was somewhat cut short, although there is still a quality report that that group produced, but because of COVID overshadowing 14:23:57 everything else, it really did not receive any attention at the legislature. So to resume that work and to keep that momentum up, a different group was appointed. This time of primarily of lawmakers and it is called the Texas Commission on Special Education Funding, and that group is meeting currently, and began its work 14:24:26 earlier this year and is made up of three state Senators, three state representatives and an appointee by Governor Abbott. It's a seven-member group, and it is focused on many questions, but it's our recommendation that they focus primarily on this mechanism by which the state distributes public school aid for the benefit of students with 14:24:53 disabilities in a way that reflects what we all want, quality special education services and a mainstream environment. So we are just ready for folks to become engaged on that big picture, making sure we're investing in the system, but also on that critically related question of how do we best spend those dollars, give those dollars 14:25:16 to schools to support students with disabilities. So it's not just the amount, but the manner in which we spend that money. So Jolene, that's my sort of introduction and overview to special education finance issues in Texas right now. And with that, I'll pause and I know that we have our special guest who's been able to join us now. 14:25:44 >> Foster: Thank you so much, Steven, and thank you so much, representative Dr. Mary Gonzales, just an outstanding advocate for students with disabilities. We appreciate you joining. We know you have such a busy schedule, and we thank you profusely. Referring to kind of what Steven was talking about, the sort of charge for the Texas 14:26:10 special education funding commission that you are on, what -- and, of course, your role on public -- the House Public Education Committee, what are maybe some challenges -- and even some opportunities that folks might want too be aware of as we're thinking about funding. I think one thing for me that comes to mind is how, you know, we 14:26:23 fund based on placement rather than service array. I don't know if you can kind of talk a little bit about some of that, maybe -- or some other challenges or opportunities that you see. 14:26:42 >> Gonzalez: I can talk about challenges all day. No, but thank you for having me. For those that don't know me, I'm Mary Gonzalez. I'm really honored to be here talking to y'all. I think one thing that is going to impact special education funding and special education advocacy as a whole that we need to consider and prepare for 14:27:03 is a huge turnover of legislators. And so I think for a long time so many of y'all had been great about building relationships and creating greater awareness and understanding of what's happening, but now with such -- really so many folks leaving, and you can look at the special ed finance commission as an example of that. 14:27:27 So I'm on it, but also chairman Huberty's on it, he's leaving. The chairwoman of the commission isn't part of the legislature, so you just have a lot of turnover and/or new people involved in a lot of the processes. And so I think so few folks truly understand not only the ways in which we do special ed funding, but also some of the 14:27:42 revolving or things around it. Like, for example, federal law that says that we should have our students have access to as much of the education system as possible. And so that's the challenge. 14:28:06 The opportunity is to create greater awareness, to help people break out of their silos of understanding, but when we know that public policy takes so long to make, making sure that we're intentional about creating that greater awareness is really important. So I'll give an example: I think there's two ways special education finance commission 14:28:29 can go. The way I would like for it to go is very much in line with the way the public school finance commission went. So the public school finance commission met, it had this great report, the report was able to create transformative change. Was it all the change we needed? No. But did it take a huge step in creating at least 14:28:51 6 billion more dollars for public education? Yes. So could we have a commission that does transformative change? Yes. Now, could it also be a commission that, for example, there was one even before that that wasn't able to get as many outcomes, so I think our message should be, we want it to be transformative. 14:29:13 And so if we want it to be transformative, what are the strategic ways for that to happen? One thing I will say is because there is such a limited level of understanding and there's so many things that we could possibly address, everybody who cares about special education really being repetitive and saying the same thing is a key -- 14:29:32 should be a key effort, because we want to say this is what we need. Because what happens, it's like if you give legislators too many things in a buffet, they don't know what to do. We don't know what to do. So we're just like -- so -- but if you say this is the one thing, then create that tunnel vision for policymakers that this 14:29:50 is the only thing we have to do. And granted, while we should do more than one thing, I wish politics worked differently sometimes. But I want to be honest about our opportunity here to pick one or two great things and make sure those things happen. 14:30:19 >> Foster: That's really, really great advice. So what, if any, kind of impact do you think -- I mean, obviously COVID has impacted special education, right? But in terms of, you know, we see teachers leaving, we see LSSPs or, you know, school psychologists leaving. You know, we have a number of vacancies in special education 14:30:41 has been hit really, really hard. Would that -- I mean, what if any, I guess, impact do you see moving into this next legislative session kind of based on those shortages? Is there an opportunity for teacher retention funding? 14:31:01 >> Gonzalez: I think because we are in such a moment of crisis, there is opportunity for special education of educator funding. I think that that's going to be a part of a larger teacher shortage bill, but making sure -- here's -- I'll give an example. HB3 in its original draft really left out special education, and thank you to all 14:31:24 of y'all who made sure that we had -- you know, I had that amendment to crease the way just a little bit, which added $85 billion, but we have to make sure in any sort of teacher shortage workforce bill that there is an additional -- or different components that address special education which has its own unique needs. Do I think there's 14:31:45 an opportunity? Yes. Do I think that even in today's economy we're going to see increased revenue opportunities? Yes. So let's make sure -- again, I think the most important thing I can tell the coalition, the group, right, of folks who come together is to make sure that there is United voice in what you're saying. Because the one thing 14:32:07 that stops legislature -- I'll give a great example I like to use all the time when I talk to young people. We have polling that demonstrates that Texans across the ideological spectrum are frustrated with accountability in assessment, Republicans and Democrats alike are tired of the STAAR test. We hear it all the time. So if we 14:32:28 know that it's politically popular to have policy change in this area, why has there not been policy change? And my -- from personal experience, when we have those conversations, one of the main reasons is because there's so many options, no one knows where to land. Well, should we do this kind of testing? Should we do this? How 14:32:51 do we get rid of this? So when there is one answer -- and this is why the public school finance commission was so important, it really gave us the how to do it -- the one answer. And so when there's one answer, it really does create a less likelihood -- or a greater likelihood for something to be accomplished and less likelihood for it 14:33:14 to be ignored, invisible or go completely off the rails. So that would be -- I think that's critically important. And the only other thing I will say, it is critically important that this messaging starts now. So the only reason that we did get the HB3 passed in the end is because of conversations around school finance literally started 14:33:35 in July. You heard teachers talking about school finance, you heard folks talking about it on the campaign trail going into November. I mean, you even heard the Lieutenant Governor talking about it, if you remember back then, he had a different way of addressing it, he had the $5,000 across the board teacher pay raise, but nonetheless, 14:33:55 when school finance had never really been an interesting topic, it was already being talked about prior to November. And I think that's really critical that it start to -- and y'all are so well connected. You have special education teachers everywhere, and so if every teacher were to make sure that they're having conversations with their 14:34:12 legislature, if every family was, you know, make a phone call. Like we could do -- we could plant that seed now so that in January it's already blooming. And so that's really important. 14:34:28 >> Foster: I think that's such an excellent example of assessment and accountability, I think some of us on here we've kind of seen that as well with, you know, having so many different -- I like how you said a buffet of options and just not really knowing where to start. 14:34:35 >> Gonzalez: I mean, that happens to me all the time when I go to real buffets so I can totally emphasize. 14:34:39 >> Foster: Right. And you want a little bit of everything but you only have so much capacity. 14:34:41 >> Gonzalez: Exactly. 14:35:10 >> Foster: So aside from the budget, what are some other policy issues, maybe that have been a priority for you or you worked on or maybe perennial issues or something outside of the budget around special education that I don't know if you can even give us a sneak peek of what we could look forward to in the next legislative session. 14:35:28 >> Gonzalez: That's a great question and a little bit difficult to answer, in this moment in time, it's been a long time since we're going to have a brand -- well, let me go back. We technically have a newer chair of public education in the House and we're going to have a brand-new chair of public education in the Senate. You have two folks 14:35:48 who never worked together, you don't know what their agenda is, and we don't even know for sure if they'll stay in their positions going into next session. So that creates -- so much of the agenda is established by the chairs that it's really hard for y'all. But here's what I do know: I would look and lean on the current leadership, like 14:36:06 the Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House. Look at those interim items, those are things already that they have in their head. So today I went through the interim items for the public -- house public education committee and things that I think that y'all could really start to beat the drum on is teacher workforce, I think there's 14:36:26 lots of concerns there. And there's lots of common sense solutions, specifically around special education. Like here's the thing: Some of the solutions for the teacher workforce issue would be nice to be accepted more broadly but we can't for lots of varieties of reasons. But we can say in the context of special education, 14:36:47 we can do it. Like, for example, when it comes to retirement, when it comes to a lot of different areas that we could just focus on these little shifts for special education. I also think on accountability and assessment, the speaker did add accountability and assessment on his interim charges and the learning loss 14:37:06 or learning gap that exists because of COVID, I think those three areas, if you were to have -- again, I hate to sound like a broken record, although I am that person that likes to listen to the same song over and over again, but to really be focused and everyone saying these are the things that we want. Because I would argue, again, 14:37:23 when it comes to learning loss, last session we knew it was an issue, but we didn't have any significant learning loss legislation, and that's mostly because we just didn't know how to address it because the buffet was too big. 14:37:53 >> Foster: Something that comes up I feel like every session and we kind of have already anticipated we might see is school vouchers, education savings accounts and -- whatever that it is called. And oftentimes what we've seen is kind of using students with disabilities to get a foot in the door for that. Can we expect that again this 14:37:55 next legislative session. 14:38:15 >> Gonzalez: You can completely -- yes. The answer is yes, yes, yes. And I think -- I'm really passionate -- obviously, and y'all know this, I've been really passionate over if last decade of my life in public service to make sure there's equity in education, specifically on school finance. I take it really seriously. 14:38:37 And for me, living in a rural community, what scares me the most about this -- the voucher program, even for special education, while we want to give our special ed kids everything, the economies of scale just don't align. Like in a rural community, A, we can't get the same amount of funding, but, B, when you do make that investment, 14:38:58 I would like for all my families to have access to those investments as opposed to just a singular family. And I think it's really important because -- especially when you start to look at the intersections of identity for folks. And if you look at Spanish-speaking families or if you look at family whose are low income or, just all these 14:39:08 different things, then it really -- the voucher programs tend to create more ineequities. 14:39:29 >> Foster: Absolutely. And you bring in a really great point of, you know, underserved or unserved populations, rural families, Spanish-speaking families, immigrant families. And I think that's really valuable to keep in mind when, you know, we're thinking about how we're going to allocate money and also as well as -- well, what 14:39:34 kind of access would there be or availability of, you know, some other opportunity. 14:39:54 >> Gonzalez: And I think what's really devastating, maybe is the wrong word, but the difficult thing is I do feel that my colleagues who are advancing vouchers for special education do do it with, like, a good heart, to be honest. I think they're thinking this is the best way to serve special education. And so I think helping them 14:40:21 understand, like, that's -- we're glad that you're an ally and wanting to support us. Let's talk about what we want, what we need, what we're seeing and what -- and so I think -- you know, I think helping them align their intentions with the actualities of what's needed is really important. And if I can be so blunt, sometimes as legislators 14:40:37 or policymakers, we think our solution's the right solution, so it takes a little bit more time to get it -- and especially on sensitive issues like special education or even school safety, we know that's going to be a thing. 14:40:38 >> Foster: Yeah. 14:40:47 >> Gonzalez: People -- of course, I'm glad my colleagues and I care, but caring in a way that listens to the community is really important. 14:41:09 >> Foster: Yeah. I like how you said that, caring in a way that listens to the community. And, you know, you mentioned before, and we've kind of talked about interim charges and one of our first, when we returned after -- you know, this summer to our Raise Your Voice session was on interim charges. We know there are two 14:41:32 hearings coming up in public education on the 25th and 26th, and actually I can go ahoed and share my screen for those of you who may want to see what kinds of issues will be heard. This may be an opportunity for those of you on this call to provide public comment, whether there is in person or in writing, and we're going to share as 14:41:49 well how you can provide that comment. So we know not everybody is from Austin and lives right down the street from the capitol, but that doesn't mean that, you know, you don't have a voice. So we will share that opportunity, but let me -- 14:42:09 >> Gonzalez: And can I share the best thing about interim charges is that you don't have to show up to testify. I mean, I think everybody should show up because we should know your faces, but I also think -- so why do we have interim charges? We have interim charges so the staff can write an interim committee report. And sometimes staff 14:42:29 are grateful to have it in writing because they can copy and paste your recommendations if they really want to move them forward. So if -- I will say three things: If you want to get involved in the interim charges, then testifying is important, but not the -- written and/or oral testimony. And then I would say a follow-up with the staff 14:42:50 to say, I submitted testimony. I want to follow-up, do you have any questions. And then I would send the same testimony to the leadership office, so the speaker's education person, the Lieutenant Governor's education person, because what you really want to do is for that to be in the interim charge's report. Because once 14:43:04 it's in, then you can point to it and say, during the interim charges report during when you testified during session. Jolene, you're on... 14:43:32 >> Foster: Yeah. That is really -- that's really great advocacy advice and it's important to hear from, you know, lawmakers like you and these helpful tips to really maximize our advocacy efforts. We know that sadly the hearing that happened the same day as the Uvalde tragedy was cut short, and that there will be -- that will 14:44:00 kind of pick up again on the 25th. Is there -- in terms of -- I guess -- I mean, I know that not everyone -- I was trying to watch from D.C. so I didn't catch everything, but in terms of where that will pick up, is it going to be an opportunity to just -- you know, to start from scratch kind of address -- you know, hearing on all of these 14:44:04 issues or is it going to pick up where it kind of left off? 14:44:26 >> Gonzalez: Yeah, that's a great question. To be honest, I haven't gotten much guidance on it. And I'll be also transparent with y'all. I went to the committee hearing, but Steven knows this, I had a horse accident. For those of you don't know, I'm a farmer. So I actually had a severe concussion and I couldn't stay in the committee 14:44:46 room because of the fluorescent lights, so I actually was there but was struggling. Here's how I would take moving forward, though. Just start fresh. Everyone was a little bit all over the place because of what was going on with Uvalde, so just -- if you didn't testify, testify. If you did testify, then I would just supplement 14:45:10 with written testimony already. So don't feel obligated to go again. Again, because what's most important for these hearings is less to the legislators -- I mean, we're important, but really the staff. The staff are the ones who need to hear what you want in the committee report and/or -- here's the other thing I will say about interim 14:45:27 committee hearings. Okay. Let's work backwards. Pop quiz, Steven, I'm going to pop quiz you, too, Steven and Jolene because y'all are there. When is the first day to file bills early? Da, da, da. 14:45:31 >> Aleman: It's around early December, late November. 14:45:56 >> Gonzalez: I think it's November 15th this year. Let's just go with that date. So then if you work backwards, it takes approximately 60 days for leg counsel to draft our bills. If you want any piece, it has to be early filed. Everybody waits until January or February. No, don't wait that long. Make sure your bill is filed November 15th. 14:46:20 And it means by September 15th, you have to have your bill already in Leg counsel being drafted. But you don't just put it in the first day. So you have to start really developing it now with your legislative colleague to get it drafted, to get it out the door and ready by November 15th. And here's the other thing I will say: Drafting 14:46:38 and filing are two different things. So let's say you have a bill idea and you want to get it drafted to take it to a legislator to potentially file, but you maybe don't want them -- you maybe don't want them to draft the bill for you. If you need help, my office will help you draft the bill, and which don't have to be the ones who file 14:46:56 it. We can just give you the draft then and then you can go shop it to whoever you want to file it. And then we can just share that file with the office once you've determined who your author is. The best advice I can give you is if you know what legislation you want to have drafted, let's get it drafted now. My staff will do that for 14:46:59 you. 14:47:21 >> Foster: That's amazing, and that's a great opportunity. And just for those on the call who aren't familiar with leg council or legislative counsel, these are kind of the attorneys who put all the language together. So I'm not an attorney, I did not go to law school, I was actually saved from law school by public policy and 14:47:43 advocacy, but, you know, you don't have to know kind of all the -- where things are in statutes and, you know, all of the legal jargon, which is what I think representative Gonzalez was talking about. If you go to the office and you're like, hey, I have this idea, you know, start having those conversations now. So it looks like -- we 14:48:06 won't go through every single one of these, but these are just opportunities, this would be on the 25th, July 25th of house public of education will be meeting at 9:00 a.m. And you can see, we've kind of talked about, you know, public school finance, accountability and physical management. This will all be heard, and there is -- let me 14:48:31 see if I can scroll down. And we'll share this information as well, but here's some information about in-person witness registration if you plan to go and provide, you know, comment in person. You can also watch, if you're unable to attend on this link, and then you can also electronically submit comments. Again, we'll send this information 14:48:55 to you folks if this is something that -- any of these topics here are something that you feel passionate about. In the interest of time, I'll move on to the second hearing notice for the 26th, if I can. Maybe. Hold on one second. 14:49:18 >> Gonzalez: While you look for that, Jolene, can I say another idea before I forget because my brain forgets things. The other thing I would recommend is making sure that whatever bills you're trying to advance, that you're not the only ones advocating for them. So making sure -- and I'm going to use public school finance as the example. 14:49:43 It was interesting that session was how multiple Chamber of Commerce had public school finance on their legislative agenda. And so maybe using some of those relationships that you have, so maybe getting the -- or a faith-based organizations to add some of your agenda items or maybe adding some of the teacher unions to add some of your 14:50:09 items, or maybe having even the Chamber of Commerce, or -- I think we can be really creative regarding who could help support who are outside of the educational space your agenda items, because I think that helps people conceptualize both special education and our young people who are kids with disabilities very differently. 14:50:12 And helps us honor our goals together. 14:50:30 >> Foster: Yeah, I think that's a really great point, because we have so many stakeholders, you know, and I think at least in the work that we've done, that often makes things, you know, a little stronger when we have different perspectives from people wearing very different hats. One thing that comes to mind that I -- you know, 14:50:50 we all know is kind of the big elephant in the room is school safety. And, you know, there are a lot of advocates, there are a lot of stakeholders involved in that, and I think that that's excellent advice to our advocates here on the call is to -- you know, to partner with these different folks that you wouldn't 14:51:01 typically think are -- you know, it's not a student or it's not a family member or it's not a teacher. I think that's really meaningful advice. 14:51:22 >> Gonzalez: And I'll give an example. This is ironic, I do a lot of motorcycle club legislation as well. I -- I have a high school friend who's president -- hey don't call it motorcycle club, but what we ended up doing is they brought me the legislation. I said we need more than motorcycle clubs at the table. So then I started to 14:51:42 build a coalition of folks, law enforcement, businesses. So here's my also suggests shun or recommendation or support. If you have a bill and you're like, Mary, I want to get the Catholic Bishops involved but I don't even know how, great. Let me help you with that. Or Mary, I want to get the Chamber of Commerce or whatever it is, let me 14:52:10 help you if you don't have the in, and we can think about it collectively. What I mostly hope is that you know out of this conversation that I want to support and help and if you give me action items, I like to complete them, but -- so please, please don't ever hesitate to ask. 14:52:34 >> Foster: Thank you so much. So just for those of you who maybe are interested in some of these other issues, these will be heard on July 26th in house public education. Again, there's information at the bottom on how you can testify, how you can watch the live stream, and also how you can submit public comment. So some of these issues -- 14:52:55 and this is a really interesting one, identifying and examining efforts to ensure that parents have a meaningful role in their children's education. That's been, you know, kind of pushed to the forefront since last -- the last legislative session and participating in their child's education, making choices. And, 14:53:17 you know, this is something where we see as an opportunity. I think maybe it wasn't the intention necessarily, but it would be a window into, well, let's talk about how parents of students accessing special education have opportunity for meaningful participation as well. And then, you know, this one, examining partnerships between K 14:53:37 through 12 and higher education, you know, I think a lot of times when we talk about special education, we just think, you know, K through 12, but we also -- you know, we have that 0 to 3 population and then we have those transition-aged youth and we want to make sure that they have meaningful access to postsecondary opportunities as 14:53:43 well. So this is something that interests some of the advocates on here... 14:54:06 And thin monitor and analyzing state policy on curriculum and structural materials used in public schools. Some of you may be aware, we've talked about this, I believe, in one of our Raise Your Voice sessions during -- that we held during the legislative session regarding kind of prohibiting the teaching of certain things in social 14:54:34 studies curriculum, and representative Gonzalez, you were fierce and just such -- you and Representative Talerico, such a great tag team on this issue, it's unfortunate that some of these things have been implemented and limiting certain kind of education. We have concerns about the intersectionality about all the different populations, 14:55:00 but that might -- you know, that might be something that interests some of you. It is worth noting that all written testimony or handouts need to be e-mailed to the clerk by July 20th, so even though, you know, the hearing is not until, say, July 26th, if you're going to submit those things, you want to send those to the clerk by 14:55:24 July 20th. And, again, we'll send -- we'll put in the chat as well like how you can do this. We'll send links for the -- these hearing notices so you have this information. Representative Gonzalez, you have been so extremely generous with your time and have always been a champion for students with disabilities and their family members 14:55:34 and other stakeholders. I'm wondering if you mind maybe answering a few questions, if some folks. 14:55:54 >> Gonzalez: That's fine can I say one thing about regarding the partnerships for K through 12, so you know that the commission -- Texas higher education coordinating board just released their 6530 new plan. It was very still invisible on people with disability in higher education. One of the things I think you could utilize and you 14:56:15 should talk to Dr. Gary van Deaver and we're going to have dinner tonight so I'll plant the seed with him, community colleges redoing their funding formula. There is no incentive for higher education to be inclusive of kids with disabilities. This also can go back to their high school experience as well. So if we were to think through 14:56:24 how can we incentivize financially inclusivity, I think that's something we could consider as well. Not to give you more work. 14:56:47 >> Foster: No. I think that's excellent. And I don't know, you may or may not be aware, but I'm on that postsecondary opportunities for people with IDD under the Texas higher education coordinating board, and I'm glad you mentioned the 60 by 30 plan, because there's not -- there are not enough voices at that table and that's a huge population 14:57:13 that we are not considering in how to meet that 60 by 30 goal. So I think that's a great, great point. So I'm going to stop sharing, and if folks have questions that you would like to ask either in the chat or just feel free to raise your hand or unmute yourself, if there are any questions, whether it's, you know, about the budget, 14:57:31 school finance, any other particular special education issues or maybe, you know, questions for clarification, I'd like to open it up. 14:57:40 >> Gonzalez: Also, I can keep talking because I love just talking. I had way too much coffee. I'm kidding, it was a joke. 14:57:42 >> Foster: No, no, please do. 14:58:04 >> Gonzalez: What's the word on the budget deficit in general. Tomorrow appropriations committee hearing. Comptroller Hager is going to give an overview of the budget. But let me just say revenue deficit what? We are going to have more revenue. Whether we look at the economic stabilization fund which is going to have nearly $30 billion 14:58:30 in it. I mean, we have to spend it. Like 30 billion -- don't even get me started, it's a whole other Zoom conversation, but we'll have funding. And so, again, we need to make sure that the funding is strategic and intentional, because -- yes. So there is -- I don't predict we'll have a deficit. I do predict that we will have extra money. 14:58:53 The only caveat I will say is I think we have to really be cognizant of the spending cap issue because of what's happening with the border wall -- the border security operation lone star, it's going to give us spending cap issue, and then additionally the supplemental is going to also impact us this year. So money we have and don't have, 14:59:02 all issue going in. But we do have -- we're not going to be in -- well, I'm not going to say never, I don't predict that we'll have deficit numbers. 14:59:09 >> Foster: Thank you. That's really helpful. Are there any other questions for -- 14:59:32 >> Gonzalez: The only other thing I will say, oh, I forgot. Is we still have billions of dollars of federal funds. TEA says they have a plan, they don't have a plan, so if there is something we should be pushing on for federal funds, now is the time to push specifically on the Governor for something on that issue. 14:59:59 >> Foster: That's excellent. Thank you so much. I know we're coming up on time. And so I want to make sure that, you know, we have an opportunity to thank our amazing sponsors who have -- who make this possible so we can have brilliant folks like Representative Gonzalez talk to us, and I know you can go on and on and on because you're 15:00:11 so passionate about this, and we do appreciate this. You've been an incredible ally for us. And I'm a big fan of TED. 15:00:14 >> Gonzalez: I'm a big fan of TED. 15:00:25 >> Foster: He offers lots of comic relief. Thank you so much, again, for joining us. And I think I'm going to kick it over to Jennifer Toon. 15:00:37 >> Gonzalez: I will say one thing, I was sincere about offering bill drafting, coalition building. Please reach out to my office. I'm going to put contact information in the chat, but please, please, please. 15:00:43 >> Foster: Thank you so much. All right, Jen. 15:01:09 >> Toon: Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. I just wanted to say that we wanted to thank our sponsors, AMjem, AstraZeneca, we work for health, touch of class, shield healthcare, Gilliad scientists and our top sponsors, United Healthcare, Amerigroup and Superior Health Plan, and we also want to remind you that our 15:01:31 next Raise Your Voice session will be July 25th and we'll be talking about medical canvas. We hope to see everybody here. And, again, thank you, everyone, for joining us today, and Representative Gonzalez, what an honor and privilege to share space with you. Thank you so much for joining us today.