The following is a summary of the 2018-19 school year for Haverhill SEPAC.
Haverhill SEPAC Website
• HaverhillSEPAC.com website created in September 2018.
• The website includes a resource page, with a number of links to information of value to parents, guardians, and caregivers of children with special needs. The resource page also includes videos.
• The website also includes a “downloads” page, which links to various downloadable files in English and Spanish. For example, there is the “Parents Guide to Special Education” from the Federation for Children with Special Needs and a PowerPoint presentation from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) regarding the use of restraints.
• All meeting topics, dates, and times are posted on the website, and a news section, essentially a blog on the website, publicizes the details of upcoming meetings.
Haverhill SEPAC Meetings
• Monthly meetings were scheduled throughout the 2018-19 school year with speakers at each meeting, including the first Basic Rights Training in several years. Most meeting announcements/flyers were translated into Spanish. A couple of the meetings were recorded and are available on demand.
• In order to be in compliance with the open meeting law, all meetings were posted with the City Clerk’s office well in advance of all meeting dates. In addition, meeting minutes have been posted on the Haverhill Public Schools website (http://www.haverhill-ps.org/sepac) and the Haverhill SEPAC website.
• For the first time ever, Haverhill SEPAC held a Basic Rights Training in Spanish. This training was in addition to the Basic Rights Training in English. In addition, the Spanish version was recorded and can be viewed anytime on the Haverhill SEPAC website (https://www.haverhillsepac.com/post/basic-rights-training-in-spanish-01-22-2019).
• In May 2019, a Haverhill SEPAC Resource Fair was held at Haverhill High School. More than 25 organizations reserved tables and more than 100 people attended the Resource Fair. Two local businesses sponsored the event, allowing us to buy tote bags, which were distributed to attendees. The event raised more than $300 for SEPAC, and the money has been deposited into a named account with the City of Haverhill.
Engagement/Outreach
• Besides translating as much content as possible, we reached out to schools to post flyers and publicize meetings.
• We started the school year with the goal of increasing the number of parents and others subscribing to Haverhill SEPAC’s email list. There were about 160 subscribers in September 2018. As of August 25, 2019, there were more than 600 subscribers. We sent out regular emails informing subscribers of scheduled meetings. If you have not already subscribed to Haverhill SEPAC email, please click here to subscribe.
• The number of “followers” to the Facebook group increased from 289 to 319 followers, as of September 8, 2019.
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