What is AAPAC?
The Ann Arbor Parent Advisory Committee for Special Education (AAPAC) is a group of parents and guardians whose focus is on supporting children in AAPS who have IEPs or 504 Plans.
Our Executive Committee members and individual Building Representatives and Alternates provide parents and guardians with a helping hand to go to anytime with questions.
Here is the AAPAC Brochure.
The Executive Director of the Office of Special Education is Dr. Marianne Fidishin. You can reach the OSE at 734-994-2318, or check their OSE Staff page for more ways to reach them. Here is the 2023-2024 organization chart that gives you some info about who to contact about what.
Here is the AAPAC Committee Report that Mary Duerksen gave to the Board of Education on June 28, 2017. It gives a thorough description of what AAPAC does.
Here is Melissa Epstein’s report to the Ann Arbor Board of Education from May 25, 2022.
Here is an IEP Team Contact Form for a parent or guardian to keep track of the names and contact information for their child’s IEP service providers. You can take it to IEP meetings to note service providers for the next school year, or to ask the special education teacher or case manager at the start of new school year. For contact information for OSE Assistant Directors, go to www.a2schools.org/Page/8746. For AAPAC Building Representatives, go to a2pac.wordpress.com/current-reps/.
Here is the list of self-contained classrooms for 2021-2022.
Board Reports
Here is the AAPAC Report to the Board of Education from their 2/24/2021 meeting.
Here is the board’s statement from the 5/26/21 Board meeting regarding the district’s decision on before and aftercare.
2023-2024 Meeting Calendar
In recent years our meetings have been online. At 6:15pm, we have conferences where families can talk with administrators from the school system’s Department of Special Education, with the meeting’s main program starting at 7pm. Each meeting will have a topic, to be announced! This is the tentative meeting schedule:
- Monday October 2
Topic: The in-class service model.
Topic 1: Meet Office of Special Education (OSE) Administrators and other District-level Support Staff
Each year we ask OSE to introduce themselves to parents. Dr. Marianne Fidishin, Executive Director of OSE will introduce the team. The team will provide an overview of their roles to help our students access the curriculum through coordination and support of building-level staff, as well as how they can be a resource for parents.Topic 2: In-Class Service Model – Update on Bringing Special Education Teachers into General Education Classrooms to Improve Inclusion and Outcomes for Students with IEPs
This portion of the evening’s presentation will provide additional information on the Secondary In-Class Service Model and some of the nuances that help support students’ success. - Monday November 6: When Do We Talk About the Birds and Bees? Presentation and Q&A
Dr. Suzi Naguib, Clinical Director & Founder Sunfield Center and Nicole Gegas, Doctoral Psychology Intern at Sunfield Center will help us answer the question, when do we talk about the birds and the bees? The presentation is designed to support parents in navigating honest discussions regarding sexual development, gender, and sexuality of their neurodiverse children.
- Monday December 4
- Monday February 5, 2024: Equity in Grading at the Secondary Level
Skyline Principal, Casey Elmore, will discuss the shift in grading at Skyline High School. The high school has implemented a new grading system based on principles from Joe Feldman’s book, Grading For Equity. Principal Elmore will also frame how students with IEPs or 504 plans can be evaluated, as outcome measures are individualized for students.
- Monday March 18 – Topic: Summer Options
Summer camps and other organizations that provide summer opportunities for, and who welcome children with disabilities in the Ann Arbor area will present information on available summer programs. This includes the Ann Arbor Public Schools Office of Special Education.
Here are a parent’s notes on the meeting:
- Ann Arbor Rec & Ed (Kate Porter)
Registration is open for their approximately 140 camps running this summer. Sports, arts and crafts, summer Olympics theme to some of the programs. Will be housed at Scarlett Middle School but programs all across the district. If a child has special needs they try to work with the district to have a TA with them.
Safety Town will be at Wines Elementary this year.
If you are registering a child who needs a TA, there is a spot on the registration sheet pertaining to if they have an TA and an IEP. They try to work with families to offer age flexibility – if your child is above the age of the listed age for a camp contact Kate directly to discuss: porterk@aaps.k12.mi.us
Her answer would suggest that even if a kid doesn’t have a TA during the school year it may be possible to request one for camp.
Kate is collaborating with Mott Hospital this year as they run two programs with hopes that they can start direct Red & Ed inclusive programing in 2025 – high school programming needs are also on her radar. She is open to talking to parents of high school kids who have 1:1 needs about volunteering at camps as well and to options around partial attendance (i.e. Monday/Wednesday)
No swimming lessons.
- Fowler Center (Nicole Lingnau)
Located in Mayville Michigan, week long over night camps and some weekend long overnight programs outside the camp seasons with all the typical camp activities (swimming, boating, hiking, arts and crafts, games, horse back riding). Have ability to make all activities adaptative (i.e. wheelchair track on a high ropes course). Large camp staff with overnight presence and with a week-long training staff before hand.
They have an open house for parents to come check it May 4thfrom 12-4pm (needs to double check the time), pre-registration for open house recommended.
Contact Nicole for more questions: nlingnau@mchsmi.org
- Peac — bicycle program (Kaleesha Foster)
Ypsi, Dexter, Detroit, Saline, New Boston locations
7 week cycling program for ages 5 and up – ability to adapt a cycle for most needs. First week is assessment, students develop a goal for the summer, and then they work towards that over the course of the summer. Ypsi, Dexter and Saline sites are twice a week, Detroit and New Boston sites are once a week. Start with agenda overview of the day, then the end there is a closing circle. They take adaptive bike donations at the Lincoln Park location Wednesdays 10-2 but she can always coordinate a different time.
kaleesha.foster@bikeprogram.org
- Ann Arbor Public Library (Tony DeRuiter)
Braille game codes are available from the library desk for the Summer Games – they also have ways to engage from home if you don’t have the ability to come into the library buildings. They’ve also been working with the literacy group to get de-coding books into their collections for reluctant readers.
- Ann Arbor Rec & Ed (Kate Porter)
- Monday April 1 – Q&A with Concetta Lewis, Assistant Superintendent, Office of Special Education
Vision for the Office of Special Education, plus a Q & A with the new Assistant Superintendent for Special Education, Concetta Lewis.
Ms. Lewis will present her vision for the OSE, and then she will be available to answer questions that were asked by families.
- Next meeting: Monday May 6
- Monday June 3
Please see our archives page for info from meetings in past years.
Last updated April 5, 2024
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