This is thinking cluesive I'm Tim Vegas. I want you to do something for me. Take a few seconds and focus on the background noise. Go ahead. I'll wait. That's the sound of hundreds of educators, practitioners, families, policymakers and more. Attending the international early childhood inclusion Institute in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a conference dedicated to fully including learners with disabilities in early childhood education. I've joined numerous sessions today, focused on research, family engagement, facilitating systems change, and reflecting on how far we've come as a field to address the barriers to a truly inclusive early childhood education system. And here's my biggest takeaway from attending the conference. If you are in inclusiveness, which, if you're listening to this podcast, I'm pretty sure you are. There is much to be hopeful about concerning the state of inclusive education in the United States. For this episode, we are featuring my conversation with Meredith the lines and Autumn baloney professionals in Oregon, that are making inclusive education for young children a reality. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, I'm going to introduce you to our guests
Welcome back to Think inclusive, our podcast that brings you conversations about inclusive education and what inclusion looks like in the real world. Here's a little bit about our guests. Meredith wolynes has over 20 years of working in early care and education and is currently at the Oregon Department of Education in the office of enhancing student opportunities. Its primary roles have been a classroom teacher and inclusive childcare and preschools lead teacher in an early childhood special education classroom, itinerant special early childhood education teacher and home visitor, behavior specialist, trainer, and part time faculty at Portland Community College. Having co developed the building anti racist learning spaces training series and other trainings focused on equity and inclusion. She strives to support educators across the Early Learning diaspora to be their best selves. She is an Oregon registry certified trainer and has a master's degree in special education from Portland State University. Autumn Bologna's career spanning over 19 years is dedicated to supporting children with communication challenges and special needs. Her journey began in kindergarten through 12th grade public schools. For the past 16 years, Autumn has focused intensively on working with children from birth to age five and their families, as well as collaborating with staff and community providers who serve this population. Currently, Autumn serves as the Director of the early intervention early childhood special education program for the Linn Benton Lincoln education service district. In this role, she oversees and guides various aspects of special education and inclusive practices, leveraging her background as a speech language pathologist and lead teacher in early childhood special education settings. Autumn has a master's degree in Communication Disorders and Sciences from the University of Oregon, complemented by a professional administrative license from George Fox University. Before we get into today's conversation, a special thanks to the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute for collaborating on bringing more content focusing on inclusion in early childhood education. And now, my conversation with you with Meredith the lions in autumn Bologna, Autumn bologna and Meredith the lions, welcome to the thinking cluesive podcast.
Thanks, Tim. We're happy to be here.
Yeah. Very excited to be able to talk to you today about one of our favorite subjects,
which is inclusion, right and early childhood. childhood inclusion. Yes. To get us started, let's just introduce everybody. Autumn. Do you want to say your role and what you do?
I am the program director for the early intervention, early childhood special education program for Linn Benton and Lincoln County. So we serve 12 school districts and work with the children birth advisor knows that regions.
Nice Meredith. Yeah.
I'm Meredith felines and I am the coherent strategy specialist at the Oregon Department of Education. I work in the office that houses a number of different programs, supporting children with disabilities, early intervention, early childhood special education, our low incidence disabilities program, as well as our pre K to third grade Coordination Office and our early literacy initiatives. And so I have the good fortune of trying to achieve coherence across systems and to partner with our local programs, like autumns, to advance practices, policies, and overall focus on continuous growth and improvement across the stumps so that children experiencing disability can have equitable access to education, in the earliest years, fascinating,
very exciting and very important. If so, we're talking about Oregon, and autumn, you're part of one program in Oregon. So how, like how many programs are there in Oregon.
So they're right, we have the state agency that oversees early intervention, early childhood special education, and that's in the Department of Education. And then we also have a publicly funded preschools, Office of Childcare. All these other brilliant child caring agencies that are a part of the Department of Early Learning and care. So those are our core partners. And then at the local level, there are nine regions that provide services for children with disabilities. So like autumn mentioned, she her the program that she's in serves a number of school districts, school district regions, right is another way we break up regions. But each region really ensures that no matter where you live, you have access to high quality services for early for special education, birth to five and then supporting that transition into kindergarten in partnership with school districts.
Tom, did you want to add anything?
Oh, I was just going to share that through the nine regions, many of us in our program like three days subcontract to some smaller regions. So my agency serves three counties. But then we also subcontract to an additional two counties. And the structure in Oregon has really helped ensure that smaller regions have access to the services and to help alignment between an adverse to to system as kids transition into early childhood special education. I know many states have different processes for how they handle early intervention versus early childhood special education. But having a seamless system in Oregon has been really, I feel beneficial for the kids and families because they come into a system and then they remain in that system until they transition into school. And we're able to work closely with our school district partners as that transition happens. And it just gives us greater opportunity to to get to know the partners that we're working with the families that we're working with and the children that we're working with, so that there's a nice TAs from when they enter our program at whatever age that may be until they go into kindergarten.
Great, great. Before we get into more of the nuts and bolts of how programs work and and how Oregon serves all learners, why is inclusive education, especially in early childhood, important to each of you.
And yes, I have worked in special education for quite a long time. I started My career as a speech language pathologist and I worked in mostly changed 12 settings. And through through my experiences in special education, there's definitely been a wave of how services are provided, what services look like. I've been in early intervention since 2008. So that my primary workforce has been with children birth to five experiencing disability. And even in that time in that system, there's been a multitude of different service delivery models. And I've always held the firm belief that we're seeking out best practices at all times. And there certainly as as time has evolved, there are different models of what that scene is. But the research really points as to when children can be served alongside their peers. In really high quality environments, we see the greatest gains. And so as I've been working in this field, we definitely have stand up special education classrooms, in our in our setting, and we're really working hard with our partners to create more opportunities for children to be served in community settings and collaborating with our community partners. And what we've really seen is that the benefits for for the children experiencing the disability, as well as the benefits for the other peers in the classroom, and the strengthening of the teaching practices in the classroom. And we can really collaborate with the early childhood special education teachers alongside the general education teachers to create really robust and meaningful academic programs, it just what happens for those children as they get ready to transition to the next setting, which is kindergarten, is they are on a path to be in an inclusive setting. But while they're spending that time in that classroom, we see more gains in language, we see gains and access, we see gains and peer to peer relationships and play. I mean, just there are things that we don't see in a classroom that is siloed, with children that just have disability, we need everybody in the classroom for kids to be able to experience the full opportunity and growth that shouldn't be available to them. And the growth that we see in the teachers and teaching teams is also amazing. So it just I just have such passion for trying to build systems and build trans and help support community partners and help support my staff and making sure that they can support the classrooms to really be inclusive for every single child that walks through their door. Yeah,
well, and you know what I love about what autumn just said, is that it? Right? So we're talking about inclusion, which means all kids all the time, all in. But what autumn, I heard you say and what is exciting to me about kind of doing this work around inclusive education is that it gives everybody in the community an opportunity to shine and to thrive and to share their gifts, and to come together and to benefit and to belong. And so that that idea that everybody has this opportunity, right? I think as human beings, we all want to, to do something even from early, early childhood, right? We want to be a part of the group. And and so everybody what autumn, just shared really highlights. The, the gift of inclusion is that everybody gets that opportunity when we have inclusive education. And that's really kind of where my beliefs and why I think starting in early childhood is important. Because kids just naturally, like lean, they, they they don't care. We probably as adults care more. And I really want to kind of have kind of my answer or kind of anchor my answer in a story about a little boy. So I have had a lot of experience throughout my career in early childhood. As Ana mentioned, she's been in this field for a long time as of I and I started as a as a childcare provider. I was in an infant toddler teacher, and had two and a half year old group two and a half to like early threes. And it really all started this passion and belief and witnessing of what's possible started with a little boy named Ian and he gave my crew and he is like many two year olds love to climb, love to move love to be running around and in with His friends, but he wasn't talking. And so we partnered with this family to kind of think about that and understand why he wasn't using verbal language for communication. She got along in the group, the other kids made space for him. And he was doing doing things with the other kids. And he was also doing things differently than the other kids. And so as we kind of explored that with his family, we were able to get some services in place. And as he turned three, in this kind of beginning of this, this new year, the director came to me and asked if I could handle a kid with autism, and I thought, who she talking about, like, she is there a new kid, like what's happening, but she was just talking about this kid who had grown to love in my class, who had already like built an understanding around who I knew. But now he had this new eligibility that came with serve these different services. And so when she asked that question, it left me speechless, because I never considered not having him in my class. And I think that that's where our adult mind sometimes get in the way of fully including kids, these are kids, these are children in our community. These are family members. These are the future of our state. And we don't know what's possible for them. And so whether that is natural, or just by way of the experiences that I've had, I've been able to live the gifts of inclusion. Since very early in my career, and I pursued that I pursued. building more knowledge, more skills, I walked alongside special educators, speech therapists, and occupational therapists, to learn how to ensure that kids like Ian had a place in my classroom and could benefit from what was being offered there. And, and really, it has led me to this lesson like, the research is clear. Right? I think it's what in 15, to one, it may be even 100% of all of the research shows that inclusion of children with disabilities leads to better outcomes all of the time. And it's not just outcomes for those kids with disabilities, it's outcomes for their peers, it's outcomes for their families, it's outcomes for their community, for their teachers, we all do better when we are together, and we're all in. And so that's really, I think, why inclusion, and inclusion early on, when kids just naturally embrace difference. And they embrace curiosity, and exploration, when that's a part of the how we teach. If we start there, then the ripple effects of that are really powerful into into everyone's life moving forward.
Well, that's really encouraging to hear from, you know, representatives from the Department of Education, Oregon, and I'm wondering how the department and is prioritizing early childhood education is specifically around inclusive practices. You know, autumn, the you're, you're working with particular schools or districts in your region. Is the priority for inclusive practices, is that coming from the very top and filtering down to each of those regions? Or how does that work?
I think we've really seen a change, at least in the time that I've been working in this field. I have experienced a change in Oregon Department of Education and and the messaging that's coming down and more than that, the support that's coming down. So I think in the last several years, we've seen deliberate moves in the state to support our programs to support inclusion. So before it you may like as a program, we've always been working on it and like we're working with that community partners, we're working by ourselves. But when when the state is coming down and saying this is a priority, like we are prioritizing that kids are going to be served in inclusive settings. And we definitely see that in the early learning world. And the Oregon Department of Education grew through the creation, it used to be the Early Learning Division. And now it's the Department of Early Learning and care. So we've seen a lot of alignment across the state departments that they're setting up to support programs, not just early childhood special education programs, but to align what we're dealing with our community partners with headstart with preschool promise with, with the other programs that are serving children are CCR and are, so the programs that you know, that are helping make sure that their childcare opportunities. So Oregon is a is a childcare desert, we lack preschool opportunities. But when we can have a state body that's supporting the work that we're doing and helping us align, it makes the work that we're doing easier, it makes the direction clear. And it also gives us a place to go get support, like when when we feel like we're struggling with something or don't know, I really do. I don't know how often this happens in other states. But I really do feel like I think call Meredith at the Oregon Department of Education and say, I need some help with something, and that there are people there that want to and are eager to help me, especially when I'm working towards the same goals that they have for the state. And through that we've seen the other initiatives that they that they brought in and been able to participate in many grants that we've done for early childhood positive behaviors towards the work that we've done through the CTA. I mean, all of that has come through the state. So Meredith probably has better descriptions of all the alignment and the work that the state has been doing. But for me, the support has been. It's there and it's present. Yeah,
and I think that, you know, Oregon is lucky in that we have in early learning. Right, this was a priority of the last now that now our current governor, but also the last two governors for early education in particular. And we have whole Early Learning Systems strategic plan. So a plan that brings together every agency that serves children, it's called raise up Oregon, to prioritize the needs of children and families in this birth to five space. And as they transition to kindergarten. We see those priority priorities in in rule. In statute, we have recognition that student health and safety are the cornerstone of education and that that is is birth to graduation, and and sometimes beyond for those students with disabilities who who continue to be involved in our educational systems with IDA services. It prioritizes belonging and wellness. Early Literacy is one of the core initiatives of the governor and focusing on kindergarten transition as well as reducing and preventing exclusionary discipline practices and like autumn said, those priorities are shared across child serving agencies. So it's a whole system's effort, which is part of why I came to the department and part of why I really believe in the work it's because it's not just words, it's also these actions and investments. So at the same time that we created a whole systems plan and the these rules around creating wellness and belonging in our schools birth to 12th grade we also created significant amount of guidance and the legislature joined us in investing in education and prioritizing early education through the Student Success Act. And so we have some investments that really lead us forward in this work and center equity as we move.
Autumn you mentioned EA CTA. How How is that partnership between EA CTA and Oregon or is it the like how does that work?
Yeah, so I was not from Waliur with the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Gor are the programs that they had done and tell narratives reached out to me in 2019. I think she was new to the department at that time. And she brought knowledge that she had of the work that they had done. And and I was really looking at the indicators, and they were looking, where could it I don't know if they put out an RFP, but they were putting out some they would like they're interested in having some states be pilots for working on the indicators. And Meredith contacted me, we had worked together on some other projects that we've done, we've been really striving in our communities to get our positive behavior, instructional supports to fidelity. And Meredith said, your your community is strong your community works together, would you consider putting in an application that we, as the Oregon Department of Education could submit to see if our state gets selected? And it did, and it's, it's changed really the trajectory for what's happening for kids in our community. So we we submitted our application, it's just one of the counties that I serve, partly because of the relationships that that community members had. And at that time, I was an administrator, mostly of that program in Lincoln County, and, you know, the, coming in in 2019, we started the work in 2020. And, as we all know, COVID happen. So we had these great things, we're gonna be launching with this Early Childhood Technical Assistance, and improve our practices and improve our inclusion efforts for children in classrooms. And that we're all part of the world felon bar, man. So we, you know, we, we went through the webinars, we were a little unsure of how we were going to do this, and what it was going to look like, but what the big thing that the CTA started with, and what has really launched our community into working on inclusive practices together was they said, You do this together, you form a community inclusion team. And although we had a strong team, and we had really strong community members, and we worked well, together, we were we were focused on everything we were focused on, you know, how do we get busing for this? And how do we do this, and instead, we just said, we're going to take all those same things that we're focusing on, but really narrow it into inclusive, inclusive practices, inclusion, looking at what we're doing that is getting in the way of that, looking at what we're doing that's opening doors for inclusion, looking at how many, you know, we're putting out numbers right here, here's where we are, here's where we want to be how many kids are receiving their services in an inclusive setting. So it took our community inclusion team, from a community team to a team really focused on inclusion. And we use the preschool inclusion toolbox, driven by Erin Barton and Barbara Smith, as kind of our discussion points through our webinars with ACTA, to really look at policy and silicate practices. That first year because we didn't have open classrooms, we had more opportunity for certain, like joint professional development and our partners to really put in support and make sure we were ready for the next year when kids came in. And what we learned through our virtual lessons is we had to use many more visuals, and we had to send home visuals, because they're doing things with their parents at home. And if we want them to interact on a screen. So in some ways, it kind of normalized some under supports that we were utilizing in special education classrooms, to our to our general education partners, because it just became kind of an old practice of what we had to do to engage children. With this extra barrier. Every child had a barrier at that point. And in that year, I still don't quite know how, but we increase the number of children that were receiving their services in an in a community preschool in an inclusive classroom, virtually from what we were doing the year before. So that to me was astounding. It was a small increase. And boy the next year when we continued our work with ACTA, and we opened our classrooms back up, that's when we just we just saw big, big changes happening for our students. And we saw changes in our teaching practices. We saw greater collaboration between the early childhood special education teachers, the speech pathologist, occupational therapists, everyone going into our community sites, we were using the indicators to really look at our environments and set action points and develop goals for where we wanted to be, and be treated when we started our work with that data, or eta, excuse me. And when we ended, which it was supposed to be a two year cycle, but I think COVID Just made every timeline and plan just go a little bit haywire. So we got a little extra ta than we had put in.
Thanks. Oh, yes, I know.
The number of children receiving their services by 28% in our county, where we focused and sorry, that's, that's an emotional thing. For me, it was a lot of hard work. It was. Actually, I don't know that it was hard. Hard is the wrong word. It was deliberate work. It was work that our community partners came together and said, We can we can do this. And, and the things that ACTA was pointing out to us weren't necessarily hard. It was about reframing your mindset of what is possible, when you just say every single child that comes through that door has a place here, they have alarm gear, they're going to feel happy here, they're going to know that they're loved. And they're going to get experiences that every kid should be afforded, that every kid should have an opportunity to experience. And so it, it was pretty amazing to to feel and see that kind of change in our community in in preschool spots that already existed, we did not create more preschool spots. We just changed the number of children that were experiencing disability from receiving their education and an early childhood special education class with only children had disabilities, to experiencing their education with their community, with their peers. It it's still it's still something that's very touching to me. And I hope we can continue to keep these numbers increasing. Yeah,
absolutely. Well, and like, all this conversation has really reminded me a you like in this series, you spoke initially with Valerie Williams, from the Office of Special Education Programs. And what Adam just said about kids being welcomed, loved and that being visible, and intentional and deliberate was exactly what Dr. Williams reflected as a priority for her as she and her husband. Were looking for a preschool for her son. And so I just think that like, that is so critical. And you know, another thing Dr. Williams highlighted is there are a lot of federally funded technical assistance centers, ACTA being one of them. And so when I came to the department as autumn mentioned, I knew about ACTA because I'm kind of a nerd. This is like my, like, early childhood education, and especially inclusion is like my topic of choice. And so even when I'm not working, I'm always like, researching are like passionate about, like, how do we make the world better for kids? And right, how do we do that through this vehicle of education and early childhood and right, there's so many cool things that happen. So I knew about ACTA, and I brought that knowledge with me to the department, which then again, led to pursuing an opportunity that everybody was like, really out of No, and I'm like, No, let's do it. We are ready. We have this huge, beautiful plan that it's talking about equitable access for every child, before they enter kindergarten. We're ready. Oh, we need some help. So the opportunity to field test the indicators, which by the way, if you haven't seen them, check them out. They are the most comprehensive set of tools for early learning systems and what is unique about the tools at the classroom level, but all the way up is that they integrate culturally responsive practice trauma informed care, social emotional learning, and inclusion, right. They really explicitly and deliberately call out practices that are known to advance positive outcomes and fully embrace the gifts of children who have historically and are currently being pushed to the margins and not able to access and so I really can't say enough Good things about the indicators, I know that there are a lot of tools that people can use to in their continuous quality improvement efforts. But this tool, especially at the classroom level, really supports everyone involved in the care and education of children in that classroom, to see the value and the gifts that are those individual children and their families bring into the classroom space, if it's and to do it in a way that is intentional, reflective, and allows teachers to really take on their own learning and continuous improvement, which we know leads to positive change. And so being able to feel test that those indicators with the support of ACTA, during it time in the world was falling apart, has been a real gift and the you know, Autumn mentioned, and it's highlighted. Recently, the Office of Special or that Department of Education and the Health and Human Services Department released a joint policy statement on inclusion of young children with disabilities in preschool. And Oregon's community efforts were really highlighted, I think that that is the been the biggest learning is take time at that community level, to align, to look at not just your fiscal resources, but your human resources, and set a clear and intentional mission focused mission and vision for belonging of every child within your community. And that's what we've done. And, you know, Autumn highlighted the historic shifts, that that her the region that she oversees the county where this implementation started. They were really hoping for like 10% growth. It really like we were, we thought that was optimistic when when when I reviewed the numbers, I was like, crying, I showed up to their community team like speechless. I was like, so you guys need to have a parade like something like you should feel very proud. Yeah, every percentage point represents an individual child and a family. And that's huge. And so when we think about the impacts of our partnership with ACTA, and implementing the end, early childhood indicators for inclusion, we have seen an 18% growth. And we've, that's historic in the sense that, like, the federal data, since the least restrictive environment provision was started haven't shifted beyond five to 7%, over like 30 years. Right, you were right there in the line, we were right there at that federal, like space. And an Oregon also has has not shifted significantly. But this work is the work. And really it is about again, like I keep coming back to what have we learned and where will we move forward, it is in that collective partnership Partnering for the benefit of all, and I think that it has greatly improved our general supervision processes for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act at the department. And at the regional level, it is also right it prepares us to continue to improve and to really, as the recently released policy guidance to reaffirm and re it and reiterate our expectations around inclusion and ensuring that equitable access is available to children with disabilities across our state, even from preschool from right the early years moving into kindergarten.
Yeah, this is such an important such important work and And I love that. It was like, Sure, we will, we will receive this help from ACTA, but then also realizing how beneficial the technical assistance was, and the commitment by, you know, ACTA, and Oregon it was kind of like, like this perfect, you know, collaboration between all these different entities in order to make the progress that you did make. So I think one of the lessons that I'm hearing is that, you know, we are really better when we work with other people, you know, across organizations, across departments, across states, you know, the federal and the state level, and we're working together, it really, it really is beneficial. You know, it even goes down to the schoolhouse level when, you know, we're talking about collaborating between general education and special education, teachers, and, and other specialists, right, if we're all just doing our own thing, you know, we may have an impact, but it's not as big of an impact as if when we work together.
Absolutely. Well, and I think we can't forget, in early learning, the importance of our childcare workforce, we have a lot of children who attend, like their their regular education setting is within a child care, whether it's a center based or family and home base, and really ensuring that there's equitable access to the training support, and coaching supports, to be able to fully include a child with a disability to learn and grow as, as an educator in those spaces, is also of critical importance, because we know that the majority of those providers are women of color, and that centering equity, and anchoring all of this in our equity priorities, really allows us to lean in in ways that that we haven't before. And and think more broadly, about the environment that children with disabilities are beings being served in and educated within.
Yeah, I think your your comment about working together not forging a path on your own and then married and sharing, also, like what's happening in our care centers and our stand up home providers is that what the work with ACTA really helped us navigate is how how we align, mostly like our human resources, to create systems of support, so that we're working together. So within the work that we did with the CTA, we were really looking at coaches, coaching coaches, coaching classrooms, and teams. So when you look at a model where everyone is working on the same goal, and nobody is alone, nobody is there saying you have to do it on your own. There's a system of ag just like I said, in the very beginning, I think go now ask for help from the Oregon Department of Education for very specific things. And I have in this journey, both to ACTA, and to Meredith and to other people at the state. But now even our client, our classroom teacher in a community preschool has a system of supports that they can go to with their questions, they can go to the coach, they can go to the program coach, and some of those are our staff. Some of the staff have come out of childcare, resource and referral, some of that. So it's really has been a collaboration of everyone coming together. And and we've changed we've deliberately changed a model of how we are program provide services within our community settings, to ensure that there's greater systems of support, and then there's kind of a ongoing, like, what does the general education teacher bring? And what can they help support us in learning? And what can we bring and what can we help support them and learning? And it has we, because of the dramatic changes we've seen in the one county that we piloted with ACTA. We went a little rogue and just decided to without the support of the CTA, just because we were wrapping up our trial period with them. We just took this to our other two counties that we work with and said, We need to form a community inclusion team here on our own. And we started using the preschool inclusion toolbox as a way to pose the questions with those community partners with those preschool providers those classrooms and we are now trying to navigate and use the indicators and figure out where we can set up classrooms that will hopefully become demonstration sites for inclusion. Because this is the work we have to be doing. And because we know we have the support from the state, and because I still have relationships with people from etc, etc, even though our time has expired with them, technically, they're still there, I still know that I can reach out to the people that supported us. And they'll help us grow. And estate is now looking at aligning models to the work that we did. And we're getting support for our team and our other two counties and Linn and Benton Counties to do the same work. Because it can't, you can't stop in one place and say, Oh, I've we've made this great change, we have to say, and I'm going to continue to work in that county on a change. But where can we? Where can we spread it? Where can we push it? How can we bring in more partners? How can we change the thought and the process and the beliefs of the people that make the decisions of the people that run the classrooms of the people that hold the purse strings. Everybody has to be on board with thinking about things differently, so that we include everybody. And to me, it really doesn't matter if they've been identified with a disability if they're eligible for special education. I think there are so many kids that walk in classrooms that have experienced trauma, and they learn differently to their or they experience any sort of other discriminatory factors. And they enter our classrooms differently to so when we are ready for every child, when every classroom is ready for every child, the opportunities are endless for what they can experience. Mostly I think about the peer to peer interactions that they have. And it takes. Meredith and I had talked a little bit before about if you if we continue to silo children than we are teaching each child that they don't belong. We're teaching the typically neurotypical children that those children don't belong in our classroom. And like Meredith said earlier, kids aren't born with that kids are like, hey, this kid may not have words, but they want to play, they still want to play with me. So we the impressions that we have adults in the decisions that we make as adults, impact children from birth on. So when we set up inclusive environments, from the beginning, that's what they experience, that's what kids have grown, grow up learning is normal. That's what they their empathy for children, their patience for others, their every everything about resistance that we create, needs to be inclusive, we need to start that we need to start kids on that path. And we need to change our Workforce Center and our beliefs. And just every policy and practice we have needs to be related to how do we get kids with their peers? That I could go on and on? No, you know, I,
we as we are talking, there are so many stories, and I wonder autumn if you have any. Sorry.
You know, like, it's funny. It's funny, because that's exactly what I was thinking. How do you know? It can be my producer?
So I have so many stories. And I think the one that's really resonating with me now is because we just had a parent come in and do a little testimonial with us as we were at advocating for a little bit more funding from our legislators. So we've been doing some work around that. And we had a parent come and share their story with us. And this was a young girl who has worked down syndrome. And she was hooked in got hooked on with our program when her child was two months old. And we sent a speech pathologist and a developmental specialist to her house and they did the initial evaluations with the parent and the initial meeting and they started services with the family. So she experienced home visiting services with our program from just after birth until age three. And in Oregon, you know, I know some states have access to preschool for every child we do not currently have that in Oregon and that's I think that is will continue to be a battle I'm on my one of my friends is that I think when we will we can have preschool for every child and then it automatically creates settings where we can have a pretty safe preschool opportunities but where we don't have preschool for every child in there is a little bit more of an uphill climb and this child wasn't eligible for Headstart setting or didn't have access to a federally or state funded program. So they did end up in one of our early childhood special education classrooms, which we are using best practices there too. But it does mean they're surrounded every moment of their educational experience. They're surrounded by peers who are also experiencing disability. But to that the parent really shared in that setting, they had grown really comfortable with the teaching staff knew their child knew what their child needed, their child loved, welcomed when they came to school. So when they're going into their pre kindergarten year, there's an opportunity for them to go to their community, preschool, they live in a rural, small community. And the mom had a lot of fear about how is my child going to be received when she walks in the classroom? Or the staff gonna be ready for her? What what is this going to look like? And you know, we said, we work with community partners all the time, we're going to be there. And when they went to do their registration or their initial meeting, it just happened chance that the providers that we had assigned to that setting were the exact same providers that did her initial evaluation when she was two months old at home. So the same speech pathologist, the same developmental specialists. So for mom, that was a comfort like these, these peoples known our whole life plan, our whole life trajectory. And they worked really hard with the preschool before the first day to make sure that there were lots of supports in place. And those preschool providers, they are an amazing team, they embraced working with our staff, they brought forth all of their best practices they already know. And they really looked at like, what more can we do to include this child to make sure that this education room this space is hers, that she has ownership and care that she's not needing to ask people for help or to get help, or to, she can do it she you know, it was it was and I got to go and Jennifer there, it was amazing. The thing that really pushed from there is this kiddo went to kindergarten this past fall, and the kindergarten is in the same building as the preschool. And when her mom walked in for registration, the staff at the school were almost fighting for does your daughter get to be in my kindergarten classroom, they knew her they knew the family. They knew this, of course, that helped her be successful in a preschool classroom, they realized that they were very simple things that they could implement in their kindergarten classroom to make sure that she was successful. And the family felt welcomed them mom shared that like this community has come around us, they know exactly what we need. When she goes, we walk into the grocery store, and everyone knows who my daughter is, everyone knows who we are. Everyone embraces us. And every and every space that we go in, in our school is ready for her. And that's what inclusion does, that puts kids in their community setting in their community space from the get go. And it helps everyone around them every other community member, see what it can be, what helps those critters thrive and, and what support they need. It just that that story to me is like the picture of the difference between being an early childhood special education classroom, where she took a bus from her community, to a different community in a school where the community didn't know her, but the family felt really safe because all the staff did to us moving our staff into that community setting. And the family experiencing their community, the people that they see at the grocery store, the people that they work with, the people that they interact with on a day that they drive by and wave hello to in their car. That became their school community as well. And it just speaks volumes to this work, and how we can just change the trajectory for that family's life for that child's life. Yeah, yeah. So
Dr. Phil strain paired with our coaches, but also our community teams is really how do we move to embrace wet autumn just highlighted that, because you live here, because you're of a certain age, you belong in this classroom. You belong in this community, and you belong, you know, you belong, and that is just like, how do we get to that space? Because I know also right, there are some folks who hear stories like that and there are so many stories like that. And their first thought is, yeah, but not every child. And I think that When we come together, and what I've learned through witnessing this incredible community level community driven work for inclusion is okay, but why not? Like, communities, programs, individual providers, seeing and believing that because we're together, because we have this role and responsibility to care for children and to educate young children. Why not? Why can't we create a environment that supports every child? And I think that that is what gives me hope, is seeing that shift in real time. Right? It's been for many, especially for families, it's been a long time coming. But that shift and that readiness, not just in our state of Oregon, but also as we look to other states and learn with other states. That that simple shift in the question, okay, but why not? As you know, I even remember, when we first started this journey with Otto, like, there were a lot of, but how, uh, you know, and in other communities like, Well, yeah, but we don't have the resources and, and really being able to take advantage of some focused, intentional reflection time within the context of these kind of systems level conversations and saying, Who, where did that message come from? Let's write let's do some fact checking. Collectively, do you see it in your standards for your program, or in the federal standards for Headstart, or in the state state rules? Where does it say that we can't? And how do we get to? Oh, I think we can but of course, in a way that is fiscally responsible and make sure that also the adults are also cared for. And I just, I find that we're in a place where that that level of intention and deliberation is becoming more a part of practice. Not just in early childhood, where it it's built baked into the pedagogy, but also in in our early learning, k k three and N moving into K 12 system. So I think we have a lot of opportunities to really sit with that, that that question of why not? Like what you know, and it makes me wonder what are we miss? You know, I think it always comes back to me like Okay, so we can choose that no, but what what would we be missing? By doing that? What are the opportunities that that we missed? And I think autumn talked about that, like, what are the friendships that are art supported where what are the skills and teachers that are kind of cultivated and grown grown? Where are we limiting our ourselves by saying, but not that kid?
Stay tuned after the break the mystery question.
Okay, so here we go, mystery question. For either one of you and I will also answer if you were a boss of many, which maybe maybe both of you are would you want them to fear you or love you?
Ah I I think that's an easy automatic.
It's an easy one to but go ahead.
Yeah, definitely love me. Because I don't, I don't think you can have movement in fear. So if those are the two choices, they're there. I don't, I don't live in the belief that everyone needs to love me because I think as a leader, you sometimes need to make hard decisions that maybe aren't always everyone's favorite decision. All right, I do think as people fear you, you're not going to get that little extra, you're not going to get that really creative idea and then spin it like push your soul program your fold in a different direction a different positive thing. So Surreal love and just like when we're working with kids through love, you get so much more looping, you can do so much more, you can achieve so much smarter. So definitely, litre of love.
Meredith Yeah,
it's funny, because, you know, some people have this tradition of choosing a word of the year, to kind of anchor them in what they want to welcome in, and what they, you know, how they move through through the world. And Love just happens to be the word of the year that keeps coming up in this exploration of love. My, my father passed away this fall. And as a part of his eulogy, I really focused on the power of love, love is an action word. And just like autumn said, if if action is what you're hoping to achieve, then building a culture that's anchored in loving in, in building people's belief in themselves so that they can have space to love themselves. makes room for all of us to love. Right? It just, it's like ripples in the ocean in the water. Right? It it moves out of us. And, and really, I think that yeah, definitely love. Yeah, definitely love. Yeah. Is the path forward?
Absolutely. Totally. 100% agree. I just I think of as a parent, you know, I've I've three kids, and I'm constantly evaluating, you know, what, what I'm doing? Is it you know, Is it fear based? Is it love based? And as an educator, as well, it's the same type of thing, you know, you can rule your classroom with an authoritarian, so everyone is just scared to death the view, or you can nurture and, you know, have a safe and welcoming environment. And you're gonna get, you're gonna get people giving you the best that they can when that happens. So I think that was an easy one that might have been that might have been almost, that might have been the most easy question we've had so far. So. Excellent, excellent. Autumn bologna and Meritus. The lions, thank you so much for your time on the fake lizard podcast.
Thanks, Tim. We're super excited to be here. And thanks for giving the space and the opportunity to talk about inclusion.
That chime means it's free time. And it's going to be a real quick, free time because I have to get back to this amazing conference. Here's what I'd love for you to do. Take some time and download the policy statement on inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood programs. It's something that was talked about on the first day of the conference, and I think it's something that everyone needs to know. I'll put a link to the document in the show notes. Not gonna lie, it is big, 71 pages big. Something that I think is really useful. Is the State spotlights stories of how each state are making inclusive education a reality? Check it out, and ask yourself who you could forward this to and let them know it exists. That's it for this episode of thinking. cluesive think inclusive is written, edited, sound design, mixed and mastered by me to Vegas, and as the production of the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education, Original Music by miles credit, additional music from melody. Thank you to the EC TA Center for collaborating on this series of episodes regarding you Inclusive Early Childhood Education, and look out for even more episodes for next season. Thanks for your time and attention. Remember, inclusion always works
okay, let me let me close my door, because I think my dog is gonna want to know I
just set my dogs up with peanut butter. Because they loud, loud.
They must have set higher tech sound than I have because he's like, I can hear a little noise and I think it was the street noise from like, I was like, really? Because I don't hear anything. Yeah,
yeah. Well, it's, like you said, nice to have a professional audio person.
Well, I'm not new and listening to all your other podcasts. They all sound so lovely. I'm
sorry. Okay. All right. Yes, we are recording. Okay. I'll get going and start this. get the party started. Right. All right. MCIE
