Celebrating Student Voices and Insights === [00:00:00] ​ Aleia Mastroianni: Hello and welcome back to SpecialEd, IEPs, 504s, Oh my: Conversations with DCSEAC. Today's episode is a very special one and we are really, truly excited to share it with you for the first time. We are featuring student voices on our podcast. This podcast has always been about connecting parents to information and resources and understanding within Douglas County School District. In the past, you've heard from district staff members, DCSEAC board members, but today you'll hear directly from the students themselves. So what makes this even more meaningful is that this idea came from the students. Several students told us that they wanted to be featured. They wanted parents to hear from them, and they wanted to share their experiences. We are so honored and grateful for their willingness to speak up and be part of this conversation. We also wanna send a huge thank you out to our [00:01:00] students who are actual listeners of our podcast. This is the dream come true, and we hope that listening about all the thought and love and work that goes into special education lets these students know how much we love them and the incredible addition they are to our school communities. Our goal today is simple, to celebrate student voices, to highlight their strengths and give parents a glimpse into their daily school experiences. All right everyone. We're really excited. Today we are here with Maria, who is a member of our Bridge program. We're actually meeting at Legacy. We pulled her out of her shift at the Legacy Cafe. We will link that in our show notes. If you haven't been to the Legacy Cafe, please come. It's amazing. Bridge programming is for our students who are 18 to 21, who have special needs and are served by an IEP. It's a really wonderful program. Hi Maria. Maria: Hello. Aleia Mastroianni: I'm gonna start [00:02:00] with something fun. Maria: Okay. Aleia Mastroianni: Maria, we couldn't do this record yesterday. Why not? Maria: Yeah, I was at the Capitol to, for protest. Uh, for Medicaid. Yeah. So when I was like supporting Medicaid, um, through protesting and a lot of them, Medicaid is being cut Aleia Mastroianni: That's right. Maria: All over the United States and people won't get any services if they get cut like healthcares like, um, doctors, hospitals, and also therapy stuff like PT, and OT and speech. And home supports as well. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, you're so knowledgeable and you're 100% right. It's been scary. There have been major, major cuts. And these are things that children and adults rely on to survive. I love your political activism and it's not just once you've been politically active for a really long time, which is exciting to see someone so engaged in helping support your own community. Maria: Yep. Aleia Mastroianni: [00:03:00] Yep. Maria: I mean, tomorrow I'll be going to caucus. To support uh, um, United States Senator? Aleia Mastroianni: Yay. Look at that. And you're a voter now. Right? Maria: Yes, I am. I love that. I, my oldest just turned 18, so the next election will be her very first election, which I'm excited. Oh, that's pretty cool. Aleia Mastroianni: I'm excited for that. Maria: That's nice. Aleia Mastroianni: I'm gonna jump over and ask a little bit about Bridge programming for our parents who don't know what it is. This is your second, and last year. What have you liked about Bridge? What is it? What are some of the cool things that you've done? Maria: One thing I like about Bridge is going on the job sites. Like last year I've been going to volunteer job sites at the hair salon. Task Force and Parker Library. Aleia Mastroianni: What? That's awesome. Maria: Yes. I also went to the childcare. Aleia Mastroianni: I love that so much of Bridge is about that. It's about getting out of a classroom and getting out into the community. And I know there's a real job training focus [00:04:00] as well. Maria: Yep. And then this year I'm doing an internship job at the Legacy Cafe. Aleia Mastroianni: Yay. How is that? Do you like it? Maria: Liking it so far. Aleia Mastroianni: What kind of things do you do at the Legacy Cafe? Maria: I do like cashier stuff, like greeting and giving them orders. I also done smoothie in . Mm. And also ticket calling. Aleia Mastroianni: Nice. Yum. Maria: Yes. Aleia Mastroianni: I might just have to buy a smoothie if you guys have smoothies. That sounds, oh, Maria: yeah, we do. Aleia Mastroianni: It's a whole big kitchen back there too. I feel like it's a pretty legit setup with a whole coffee cappuccino machine. Maria: Yes. Aleia Mastroianni: What days are you guys open? 'cause it's not always traditional hours, so people might need to be careful about when they show up, Maria: They'll be opened, um, Monday through Thursday from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm um, for the students in the bridge program would be coming at and starting at 8:30 am. Because it starts at eight and then we have to like clock in and clock out. And [00:05:00] we can go get ready for work. Aleia Mastroianni: Amazing. Maria: Like one and a half of the group goes to morning shift and another half goes in the afternoon shift, but the 7:30 am to 8:30 am, it was just like two job coach slash EAs just working at the cafe. Aleia Mastroianni: That's wonderful. So job coaches and EAs are those adults that are help supporting your learning. Maria: Yes. Aleia Mastroianni: That's a great segue 'cause I was gonna ask you, Ms. Maria, as someone who's about to graduate out of your time in public school, I'm sure there's been tons of amazing adults that have helped you access your education. Do you have any memories or specific things that you remember where someone was really able to help you access what you needed or help you get to the education that you needed? Maria: When I first came to DCSD from, ' cause I was from Bulgaria. Aleia Mastroianni: Nice. Maria: I was born from Bulgaria and then I did, went to Stone Mountain School is my elementary. Aleia Mastroianni: I'm sure that was a crazy transition though, to come from a [00:06:00] different country and come to a state and a whole new system. Maria: Yes. Aleia Mastroianni: I'm sure that was overwhelming. Maria: I think I started in fourth grade. Aleia Mastroianni: Wow. Yes. That's amazing. Maria: Yes. And now I'm graduating from DCSD. Aleia Mastroianni: Look at you. You did it. Maria: Yes, Aleia Mastroianni: you did it. When you came from Bulgaria, did you speak any English or were you also trying to learn English while you were here? Maria: I was learning English when I get here. Aleia Mastroianni: Wow. Maria, that's intense. Maria: And it takes me a long time to learn English. Aleia Mastroianni: Uh, it would take me forever to learn how to speak any other language. Maria: Yes. Aleia Mastroianni: Wow, that's really impressive. And it must have been intimidating and overwhelming a little bit, Maria: right? Aleia Mastroianni: Did the school, help you and support you not only learning your education, but also learning a whole new language? Maria: Yes. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, good. Maria: In middle school I did take ESL. Aleia Mastroianni: Okay. And ESL is English as a second language, so it's, Maria: yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: Instruction that's meant to help support people who are learning a language. Correct? Yep. Do you think it was [00:07:00] helpful? Maria: Yes, but sometimes long learner. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh yeah. Yes. It takes a while. Yeah. It's hard to have compassion for yourself, but you are like, Hey, I'm a girl from a completely different country. I'm coming to a new family, I'm learning a new language, and I'm learning to negotiate my physical disability. You were doing a lot. Sort of, kind of superstar status, I would think. Alright, just one last question 'cause I don't wanna keep you away from your shift for too long. As a veteran now of IEPs and special education, do you have anything you would tell parents who have a kiddo who has an IEP? Any advice that from the student perspective that you would share with parents? Maria: If student who has IEP or special edu cation systems, parents should be patience. Yes. Patience, patience is important 'cause you never know how brain is working. Aleia Mastroianni: I love that. Maria: Yes. And how long [00:08:00] Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: The parent or the external person can't see how hard that individual is working. I love that. That's wonderful. Maria: And go attend parent-teacher conference and IEPs. Aleia Mastroianni: Mm-hmm. Maria: If you want more like support of their learning and stuff, Aleia Mastroianni: And what about as you were older, did you get to be part of that IEP process? Maria: Yes. Uh. I started in high school to be part of my own IEP meetings. Aleia Mastroianni: If a child has the cognitive ability, they're the best person to have in that room talking about how they learn and how they wanna be supported. You, you are the best expert on you. Maria: Mm-hmm. Aleia Mastroianni: Just because I asked you all the questions today, if there was anything you wanted to ask me, if you had any questions, and it could be about anything. Maria: How long have you been doing for podcasting? Aleia Mastroianni: That's a great question. We just started this podcast this school year. October was our very first one, and since then, I think we're at [00:09:00] 23 or 24. We're really proud of ourselves because we feel like it's all really important information that every parent could use and would be useful. That was a great question. Awesome. If you have any more you can ask. Maria: Um, have you been in DCSEAC for longer than Aleia Mastroianni: I have been. I joined the board I think the end of 2019. So in that school year, and then the whole world went crazy. All of a sudden we had COVID. I've been on the board for a really long time. But it's, it's really been awesome. It's made me feel really good. Just sort of like you going out and advocating and protesting and standing up for your rights, it gives you that feeling that you did something. And me being able to be on DCSEAC and help other parents, just like parents helped me, makes me feel like I'm doing something. So it feels good. All right. I think we did it. We did a whole podcast. Thank you so much for being with me, Ms. Maria. Maria: Well, thank you so much. Aleia Mastroianni: Alright everyone, I am very excited that we have another [00:10:00] student with us. His name is Carson. Carson: Hello. Aleia Mastroianni: Yay. Thank you Carson for being here. Carson is in elementary school and he is served by our mild mod program, so we're excited to hear a different perspective. When we speak with Chloe and Matthew, they talk about the SSN classroom and how they come into their general education classes, but most of their time is spent in their SSN room. But Carson, most of your time is spent in your general education classroom. Right? Carson: Right. Aleia Mastroianni: That's awesome. When you do get services to help support you, how does that happen? Does that happen by having an EA in your classroom or do you leave your classroom for that? Carson: Uh, so after recess I leave to go with my healthcare worker. So I use this check-in sheet to do it and it's sent to the counselors. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, that's awesome. Is it a check-in for your emotions? Carson: [00:11:00] Yes. And, uh, how I'm feeling for the day. And so, um, we do that first, then we do activities. I like to go outside and play football. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, that's awesome. So it's like a little break and a check-in and to make sure you're feeling good. Carson: Yeah. I used to be at two, but now I'm at one. Back then it would be one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Aleia Mastroianni: Okay, so now you just do it once a day? Carson: Yeah, in the middle of the day. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, that's super smart. So, Carson, can you tell me about someone, a teacher or an aide at your school who you feel like really helps you get through your day? Carson: Catherine Gray. Of course. Aleia Mastroianni: Yes. Your check-in person. That's amazing. Carson: And you wanna know something cool about her? So basically her husband, uh, Mr. Gray is what she calls him, um, and he's the mayor of Castle Rock. Aleia Mastroianni: What? Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: That's amazing. Look at that. So they're both in public service. Carson: [00:12:00] Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: That's wonderful. I love that you have that special person and relationship to help you feel like you have an anchor at school all the time. Carson: Yeah. It's something really cool that I like. Aleia Mastroianni: What is something that helps you when you feel like your schoolwork is getting really hard? Carson: So I can't use this at all, even though I listen to appropriate stuff. I use this tool, music. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, I love that. And you, but you can't use that at school? Carson: No, they said I can't. Aleia Mastroianni: Bummer. Yeah, I used to, was allowed to in fourth grade, but now I'm in fifth grade, so I can't really. Can you do it when you're with Mrs. Gray? Are you guys able to listen to music to calm down? Carson: Yeah, we are. Um, but um, I just choose not to, I prefer to do it when I'm working on stuff. Keeps me focused. Aleia Mastroianni: I love that. Well. You never know. Sometimes there's an accommodation that you can make. We could look into it, where you can have earbuds at specific times when like Carson: [00:13:00] Yeah, I do all the time. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, do they let you, do they let you play music through them or no? Carson: No, I just use them for like Aleia Mastroianni: to block? Carson: For iReady. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, got you. Gotcha. Carson: Yeah, Aleia Mastroianni: Well, you never know. If it really does help you and as you keep moving through school, 'cause my daughter has that accommodation, she's the same as you where she really gets antsy if she doesn't have music playing in her ears, especially if it's quiet and everybody's working. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: And she has really serious ADHD. Carson: Same. Aleia Mastroianni: Yeah. That's like my daughter and she has to have music playing. And we got an accommodation for her that she could wear her earbuds and play music. As long as the teacher was like, all right, this is the time where you're silently working. And it really does help. Moving forward we can look at that, especially as like you keep going on through school and classes are crazy. Carson: It also helps me when I'm at the park practicing my football or with my friends. Shout out to Brady Williams. He is the nicest friend. So is [00:14:00] Basil from my school and my old friend Rafael, he's Puerto Rican. Aleia Mastroianni: Yeah. Carson: And he moved away. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, bummer. Carson: Which was really sad for me. 'cause me and him had a really great connection and it still makes me very sad to say. Aleia Mastroianni: Friendships are so special and they can be so hard to build. So when you find that special person, Carson: it's gonna be hard. Like especially when you're so young in elementary school. Who knows, you can move to the same middle school as them. Aleia Mastroianni: Yeah. Carson: But high school, but college makes it all different. Aleia Mastroianni: That's true. College splits us all up in weird ways. Carson: But it makes it really hard to, um, find each other in life again. Aleia Mastroianni: It really does. I like that you bring up friendships because it's the way to make it work, right. Like without friendships. It's just so hard. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: And they can be hard to build. I think that when you have some type of neurodivergence, like ADHD [00:15:00] or autism, or sometimes if you feel like, oh, I'm different. It can make it hard to find friends. But also I think when you find that friend mm-hmm. You become like true, real friends. Carson: Especially new people. Also my friend Basil, who I just told you about. I just said he was my friend. So he basically is always here with me on my ups and downs. My highs and lows. Like when I'm really sad, he's always there for me to make me feel better. Or me also, when he's very sad about something, I help him too. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, I love that. Carson: And so that's when I stepped in and I was like, Hey, basil, you wanna play football with me? Instead, we could practice field goal kicking at the kickball field on defense. I, every day at school I practice kicking. Aleia Mastroianni: That's awesome. Carson: And we use the fence as the field goal. Aleia Mastroianni: Mm-hmm. Carson: And then every time we would hit the top bar, we [00:16:00] would move the tee back. We're so close to grass. It's like the length Aleia Mastroianni: Wow. Carson: Of a real kickball field. Aleia Mastroianni: What I love about this is you're bringing up the importance of recess or free time. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: That's where you're able to not only decompress from school. But that's where those relationships and friendships are built. Carson: And also let the energy out. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, a hundred percent. You gotta move, right? Carson: Yeah. And so when it comes to work time, you can do it. And then, your pressure builds all up again. And then you can let it all out at recess. Second recess. Aleia Mastroianni: And for our families, once we go to middle school and high school where there isn't recess, I think it becomes even more important when we talk about those breaks, like how you had with Mrs. Gray, where you're like, if we don't have recess, I gotta have time to like take a breather even. I think for our parents out there Hey, don't be afraid to write that into their IEP to say I'm gonna need a break, when we leave that elementary school environment. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: So I have one last [00:17:00] question for you. Carson: Okay. Aleia Mastroianni: If you could tell a grownup one thing about how you think kids learn best. What do you think you would say? Carson: If I would ever to become a person, like a helper, like Ms. Gray, um, I would say music is the best thing unless if you're, they're using it well, and at certain times it would help too. Like you said, Aleia Mastroianni: I love that: music is such a powerful tool. And it's not bad. For a lot of people, that's how they regulate. Carson: I would also say people, everyone should maybe have breaks if they want to. Not forcing, but if they are a little tired of work, maybe they could take a break to do something, like a quick break to play a little games. Or do a little activity like four corners. Or silent ball or, yeah. Anything. Aleia Mastroianni: Find a way to build breaks. Carson: Like in the classroom community. Aleia Mastroianni: And then everyone will perform better. Like the break is, is not [00:18:00] lost learning, it's actually getting everyone's brain ready to learn again. Carson: Yeah, Aleia Mastroianni: I love that. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: Alright, well since I asked you a lot of questions, if you had a question you wanted to ask me, and you don't need to have one, but if there was something you were curious about or wanted to ask, you can ask me anything you'd like. Carson: Um, I was wondering if I could have like music in class? Like the district could talk to my school. Aleia Mastroianni: I think that the answer is yes. I would say I'll talk with your mom. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: Um, but whether or not that's allowed to be written into an IEP Carson: mm-hmm. Aleia Mastroianni: My answer is yes. There is a way to say, "this is really what supports my kids' learning, and it would help him focus better. " As long as you can show that that accommodation would help you focus better, and then I am sure you would be, but you just be responsible with it. You could really have it established with your teacher. Here are the times when I will have music. Here's the time when I won't. If they ask me respectfully that, "Hey, this is time for no more music [00:19:00] right now." You say, okay. But I think that it absolutely is something, and I love that you identified the thing that helps you learn better, and I think that that sounds like a beautiful accommodation. So yes, I think we can work on getting that done. What a beautiful question. Carson: And that's when responsibility comes in handy for the kids, because Aleia Mastroianni: Very much so. Carson: It's their choice to either use a good way by listening to appropriate stuff. Aleia Mastroianni: Mm-hmm. Carson: Or listen to the teachers like the times where they can and cannot. Aleia Mastroianni: Exactly. That they can learn how to responsibly use that. Carson: But if they don't then that's a hundred percent way to get a ticket to no. Aleia Mastroianni: And that's a great life lesson, right? We're like, here's how it works. Gotta follow the rules. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: Alright, Mr. Carson, you gave me some of your time on a Sunday. I so appreciate that. I appreciate you coming in. I know that you wanted to share your social media, you can go ahead and do that 'cause I check with your mom, so he's allowed to share. Carson: [00:20:00] So, hello guys. Um, so I'm a pretty popular YouTuber with over 50 something subscribers, almost 60. My YouTube channel name is Keepboza so, uh, keep and then B and then OZA. All together. And that's my channel. I mostly make like, funny stuff trending stuff or Roblox videos. Aleia Mastroianni: I love that. All right, sir. Well thank you so much. I appreciate your time and we're excited to add you to our podcast. Carson: Yeah. Aleia Mastroianni: Alright, thanks Carson. Carson: Bye. Aleia Mastroianni: Bye. Okay, today we are thrilled to be talking with two amazing middle school students, Matthew and Chloe. Hi Matthew. Matthew: Hi Aleia. Thank you so much for letting us come on here. And hello to everyone. Thanks for joining us for today. Aleia Mastroianni: Expert Podcaster. I love it. And [00:21:00] hi Chloe. Chloe: Hello Aleia. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. We are really, truly so excited to have you and can't wait to get this episode out. We thought today we wanted to hear from you guys, from your voices, and so I have just a few questions that I'm gonna ask. There are no right or wrong answers. You can answer as much or as little or not at all. I'm gonna start with Chloe. Let me ask you, Ms. Chloe, what is something that you like about your school day? Chloe: I like consumer families because we get to cook. yes. We're cooking today. Aleia Mastroianni: You get to go to Consumer Families class. I loved that class too. When I went to school. Let me ask you, Matthew, what's something that you like about your school day? Matthew: Okay, so something I like about Sagewood, my favorite thing about Sagewood is the staff. Especially, we have a SSN teacher who is amazing here at Sagewood, which is [00:22:00] Laura Anglemyer and Ms. Aleia, you talked to Ms. Anglemyer too? Aleia Mastroianni: I did. And she is truly amazing. Matthew: She is amazing. If you are asking me personally, like are you in her room every single day? Aleia Mastroianni: Mm-hmm. Matthew: No. We are in, out going to gen ed, like for example, like choir. Mm-hmm. We get to go to gen ed and get that experience. If that makes sense, you know? Aleia Mastroianni: How do you get to go out and visit those classes? Do you go by yourself or does someone come with you? Matthew: So, let me explain this to parents. For us, we do have an EA. We also have peer partners and I don't know if you are asking me like, what's a peer partner? We have peer partners from gen ed. They come to our classroom and like say like, hi, welcome, like, how's your day? All that stuff. Right? Aleia Mastroianni: Yeah. Matthew: Most of the classes we don't have a peer partner [00:23:00] for that class. But some we do, but some we don't. Aleia Mastroianni: Let me ask you, Chloe, do you get to work with peer partners as well? Chloe: Yeah, I have. Um, one of my peer partners is Leah and Mason . Aleia Mastroianni: And what does your peer partner do with you? Matthew: That's a good question. Chloe: So they help us, for example, Parker, she helps me with the digital design. She helped me sketch into the computer. When we're having to do stuff for our stations, so for example, let's say Matthew, he has a robot building station. Aleia Mastroianni: Wow. Chloe: Then his peer partner helps him. Last year I didn't have one. But this year I did because I don't have PE anymore. Aleia Mastroianni: That's awesome. So when you go to your class, you get to have help and assistance from a peer. You don't necessarily always have to have help from an adult. Matthew: Normally we will have teachers [00:24:00] everywhere, but not everywhere. Not every time. For us as students, we have in a classroom, we have a teacher, we have an assistant who's with us. So that assistant helps us with ever task. Aleia Mastroianni: Nice. Matthew: For example, like say we go to PE and we're like doing the Pacer. We can say, Hey, Ms. Bla, or Mr. Bla, can you help me with this task? Aleia Mastroianni: So that sort of segues nicely into my next question. How does your SSN classroom help you do your best learning? Chloe: I like having Matthew here because like the day that hard, like he, like he knows that. I know he's here for me and I'm here for him even when he not here. I'm not here. For, Hey Matthew, what's two plus two? Matthew: That's four. Chloe: See like you need to know specifics, but [00:25:00] my real wanna be major is is vet. 'cause I love pets. Aleia Mastroianni: I love that you want to work in veterinary and it's cool to know that there are opportunities here and in high school that can help train you and get you ready for a career in veterinary services, which is awesome. Matthew: I want to give a big shout out to teachers across districts. Aleia Mastroianni: Mm-hmm. Matthew: Thank you for giving our education and making our minds even better and getting our knowledge with learning our careers. If that is something you want to do and go into a career that's called a career pathway. Something where you choose a career. I don't what you did Miss Aleia, but what did you do exactly? Aleia Mastroianni: I was a theatre major and I actually went on and taught theatre at the high school level for seven years. Chloe: Well then you quit. Aleia Mastroianni: I did. I eventually had to quit 'cause I had three children with special needs, so that's what I had to switch over [00:26:00] to doing. Matthew: And for my career, my major is teaching. I always wanted to be a teacher. And what basically that means is we have students with special needs Aleia Mastroianni: mm-hmm. Matthew: With delays. Um, Ms. Aleia, can you get parents what those delays or Aleia Mastroianni: Sure. Matthew: Disabilities are? Aleia Mastroianni: Yeah. And there's lots of different disabilities. Yes. Some of the different learning disabilities we have are dyslexia, dysgraphia. We can have intellectual disability. Autism is a big one. ADHD is a big one. Matthew: Aleia, can you give a big definitions, how can I have my child be served by special education or services around their community. Aleia Mastroianni: That's a great question. I could talk for hours and hours about it. I'll give two quick answers. If you want your child to be served by special education within the school district, the very first thing you should do is contact your school and say that you would like a special education evaluation. Matthew: Advocating, right? Aleia Mastroianni: [00:27:00] Yeah, advocating that will trigger your team to go and do an evaluation to see if your child qualifies for special education services through the school district. The second, when you ask for communities supports, my number one recommendation would be to reach out to Developmental Pathways. Matthew: You explain what Developmental Pathways, 'cause I know my mom worked with Developmental Pathways. They also sponsor your Shining Stars at DCSEAC? Aleia Mastroianni: They do. They are the main supporter of DCSEAC. That's a great question Matthew. Developmental Pathways is the local connection, what is called as a CCB or a community center board. What is Matthew: that? Aleia Mastroianni: All that means is that there is a state program called Medicaid, and that's a program that provides money to serve people with disabilities and the way to access that money and those services and things we call waivers, you can't do it directly yourself, so instead of calling Medicaid, you call Developmental Pathways, and they're the one that. Matthew: [00:28:00] Way to Aleia Mastroianni: exactly Matthew: have your Medicaid Aleia Mastroianni: to access your Medicaid benefits. Matthew: Also, you run also, the Affective Needs support groups. Aleia Mastroianni: I do. Matthew: Can you give me an example of what do you do for Affective Needs? In our district, Aleia Mastroianni: Oh my goodness, Matthew, it's like I planted these questions, they're perfect. So thank you Matthew, for asking. That's a brilliant Yes. So Affective Needs is our other center. So we have SSN is our center-based classroom. Affective Needs is for our students who have social emotional disorders, so big behaviors, trouble regulating those emotions. We run a support group where we get to talk to other parents and it's absolutely fabulous. So my last question, tell me about the friendships that you're able to build through your SSN classroom ? And I know, Chloe, you already spoke to this a little bit, but how meaningful is it for you to be able to have friendships in this SSN classroom. Matthew: Just like me. Chloe: So Sophia, what I like to do with her is we play tag out at recess and Sophia, she will tag me [00:29:00] back right, when I turn to run that way. I met Matthew at Multisport. Matthew: If you don't know what that is, I'll explain it more. Chloe: Or Miss Aleia can link it. Aleia Mastroianni: Oh, you guys are experts. I love this. I will link the multi-sport link. It's through the local rec center and it's adaptive sports. So I will link that in. And that is where Chloe and Matthew and me, I met you guys. Chloe: so You met my mom in the coffee shop? Aleia Mastroianni: Yeah. I met Chloe's mom through elementary school. But okay, we interrupted. So tell us a little bit about the friendships that you've built in SSN. Chloe: The friendships I built with Sophia from like having like some classes with her, like the classes really loves being with her in is, drama? Definitely drama because like drama, you get to dress up, you get to costumes, prop makeup. I like also consumer families. And the reason why I really love consumer families is [00:30:00] I go be with Matthew. Aleia Mastroianni: Matthew, tell me a little bit about the friendships that you've been able to build in SSN, what that meant to you. Matthew: Okay. Going back to Chloe said, friendships are great and I love them. And just building connections through meeting, like at shops or sports or stuff like that. Well, I know you for like years now. Yeah. So it's so crazy that now I'm still friends with you. Aleia Mastroianni: We like to talk about it on our podcast here. We call it Our Forever Friends or Our Forever Peers. Matthew: Yes. Wasn't it that in the Center Based program? Aleia Mastroianni: Yes, it was. Matthew: If you guys wanna go watch that, I will recommend that to watch. Aleia Mastroianni: Matthew's the perfect hype man, so thank you. There's something really special about our SSN peers because we're gonna be forever peers. We grow through this program together. You don't have to be alone. You have people who are like us and can understand what we're going through. And I think it's the same for all of us parents too. Huh? You notice how, I'm friends with your moms, because we're walking the same path, and [00:31:00] so we get to support each other. It's crazy. Which is awesome, right? Matthew: I wanna also give a big shout out to Aleia and her team. Aleia Mastroianni: You guys are sweet. Matthew: We love you, and Aleia, thank you so much for letting us come on. But I also would love to introduce what Chloe said previously, multi Sports If you don't know what that is. Aleia, can you please link this in our show notes too? Aleia Mastroianni: I absolutely will. Check out the adaptive programs at rec centers if you want another great place to meet families, meet peers that are going through the same thing, those adaptive programs are really wonderful place to make connections. Chloe: But what I would, would recommend if they're already in middle school, don't keep your kid because they're already gonna be missing it. So like just try to do it right when they're in, um, elementary. Aleia Mastroianni: Mm. So start sooner rather than later. Chloe: Early. Like really early. Early, early. But not when they're in preschool. Aleia Mastroianni: Before we finish, you can ask me questions. You [00:32:00] don't have to ask anything, but if there's anything you'd like to ask, what would you like to ask me? Chloe: If you could get my mom on here, what do you think you would get my mom to say? Like, is it hard like to have two brothers and me only and or is it hard to have to make dinner most of the time, part-time. Like what would you ask? Aleia Mastroianni: That's a very sweet question. What would I ask your mom? I would probably want to hear her story. I'd wanna hear how she entered the world of special education, because all of us parents have the same experience of realizing, Hey, my kiddo's learning a little bit differently. And we all have this process of trying to find help and where did we find it? Where did we find community? I know that your mom is fantastic about building community with other parents, so I would probably ask her about that and say, how did you find that and how does the community of other parents help you? Because your mom is fantastic and [00:33:00] super interesting. So I would love to have her on the podcast. Chloe: You should tomorrow. Aleia Mastroianni: Tomorrow? I don't know if she's available tomorrow, but I'd love to talk with her. That would be super fun. So now Matthew, if you had anything to ask me, what would you ask me? Matthew: Okay, so can you give all listeners, what is DCSEAC and how do you guys serve us as students in our district? Aleia Mastroianni: That's a great question and I'll try and be brief. We're what's called the Special Education Advisory Committee. So we are a group community, we're a committee, we're a group of parents. All of us have kids who are served by special needs programming here in the district. Our goal is to get information out to parents. We also get to talk with the leadership in our district, so if we have concerns or problems or questions, we get to meet with them about how they deliver special education to you guys, and we can say, Hey, we've noticed X, X, X, and they'll listen to us and always work to try and make special education better. Chloe: Are you like a home time mom, or like a, or [00:34:00] do you have to go to the, a business? Do you guys, did you make a business for that company? Aleia Mastroianni: That's a great question. All the parents on the board, some have jobs where they work outside of the home. Some have jobs where they work inside the home. DCSEAC, we don't get paid for. It's free. Matthew: What? Aleia Mastroianni: It's a volenteer... Matthew: so wait. So you don't get paid to be a advisory committee to our district? Aleia Mastroianni: Um, no. There is no payment involved. So we all do this because we love it, because we care. 'cause we wanna advocate for our kids. We don't have a physical building that we go to. Matthew: Physical building like. Do you guys, where do you guys meet as a advisory committee? Chloe: Up probably like park or like home. Aleia Mastroianni: Good ideas. We rent space from our local libraries, which is another great service. They allow you to reserve space. All of our board meetings are at the public library in a meeting room and all of our meetings with the district, we're lucky that they allow us to use a room at the Legacy campus. And so that's where we meet. Matthew: Do you guys have socials. Do you [00:35:00] guys like DCSEAC? Like social media. Aleia Mastroianni: We do have social media. We will link it to this episode, but we have a Facebook page, a TikTok page, an Instagram page. Matthew: You guys are everywhere, Aleia Mastroianni: and a YouTube channel, so please. Follow our socials, follow our podcast. It helps us get information out to parents. Outro --- Aleia Mastroianni: What a wonderful experience it is to hear directly from our students. We are incredibly grateful to each of them for sharing their voices today. Their confidence, honesty, and pride reminds us why this work matters so much. When students ask to be part of the conversation, it tells us something important. It tells us that they want to be seen, valued, and heard. To our parent community, we hope that this episode brought you smiles, encouragement, and a meaningful glimpse into the student experience in our schools. If today's episode meant something to you, we would love for you to follow the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And please consider sharing this with another parent. The more we share information and lift up voices together, the stronger our community [00:36:00] becomes. Let's walk this path together. It's way more fun with friends. Thank you for listening, and thank you for supporting our students and thank you for being part of SpecialEd, IEPs, 504s, Oh my: Conversations with DCSEAC. We'll see you next time. Matthew: Bye bye. I love this podcast. I want these mics so badly. I want these. They're too bad, Matthew. Aleia Mastroianni: Alright, let's end this recording. Thank you guys.