We invite parents to learn more about the BFCCPS Parent Advisory Council

The mission of the BFCCPS PAC is to work for understanding of, respect for, and support of all children with special needs in the BFCCPS community. To that end, the PAC will work to: 

1. Promote a network of parents of children with special needs and provide a forum to share information and discuss matters of concern and interest for children with special needs; 

2. Advise the Director of Student Services and the Board of BFCCPS on the operation and development of special education programs, parent and teacher training needs, and help to develop policy (when appropriate) including providing reports to be integrated into regular reports and plans sent to the Department of Education: 

3. Promote communication between BFCCPS members, local, State and National organizations, council and groups that support children with special needs; 

4. Promote communication and programs within the community to encourage understanding, acceptance, and inclusion of children with special needs; 

5. Provide informational forums to parents, educators, students and professionals involved with children with special needs.

The General Membership shall be open to any member of the BFCCPS community, this year's Co-Leaders are Michelle Harrington & Lydia Kirchthurn.  The official byLaws of the PAC can be found here. 

Want to get involved? Email us at  PAC@bfccps.org.

Extended School Year 2023

Extended School Year is for students with IEPs who are identified as needing support during the summer to prevent substantial regression. Prior to vacation, families of eligible students were sent an email with a link for registration. ESY will run July 10- August 10, Monday-Thursday, 9:00-Noon. If you received an email about ESY Registration, please take a quick minute to click the link in that email to register your child. If you have questions about ESY, feel free to reach out to Renee Gallo, SSO Director.

May is Better Speech and Hearing month! We would like to share some facts that may interest you.

• As many as 5% of school-age children are believed to have a language disorder. This makes language disorders some of the more common childhood disorders. (understood.org)

• Dyslexia is common among kids with mixed receptive-expressive language issues. (understood.org)

• Almost 15% of school-age children (ages 6-19) have some degree of hearing loss (https://www.hearingloss.org/)

• The prevalence of later talkers is 10-20% of 2 year olds. (asha.org)

• By the first grade, roughly 5% of children have noticeable speech disorders. (asha.org) . 

• Speech language pathologists and audiologists are professionals that are specially trained to assist people with speech, language, and hearing deficits. 

Here are a few links for more information: 

https://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/

https://www.asha.org/public/early-identification-of-speech-language-and-hearing-disorders/

https://www.asha.org/slp/schools/prof-consult/norms/

Tufts University has been provided with a grant to research and educate on the topic of Autism. They are offering a two-part SEPAC workshop.  

The first part will be a brief survey regarding IEPs and Autism:

"If you or your child (ages 3-22) qualifies for an IEP under the designation of autism in the state of Massachusetts, we want to hear about your experience for our brief online study! Does your IEP have everything you would like it to have? How was the process of getting an IEP?"

The second part will be informational on one of these topics:

(1) Developing relationships and sexuality in developmental disabilities; 

(2) Preparing for transition for autistic youth; 

(3) Building strong IEP goals

Please indicate interest below by filling out the contact information and topic preference.