October 2008

Special Education in the Scottsdale School District

Hear the experts tell us how it works:

• Katy Cavanagh: Interim Co-Superintendent – Teaching and Learning
• David Peterson: Interim Co-Superintendent – Finances and Operations
• Lois Healey: Administrator – Special Education Services

Thursday, October 23rd
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Mohave District Annex, Kachina Room
8505 E. Valley View Road, Scottsdale 85250-6768

Laura Holgate has been sharing an updated calendar of meetings and seminars which would be helpful to parents of children with learning disabilities and/or are gifted. She’s found a clever way to share it us this year. Read on:

After some suggestions by readers and realizing information wasn’t visible to all of you, I updated the calendar. I hope you check it out. There are a lot of interesting things I have posted. Some are free and some with fees. Thank you to those who have notified me of upcoming events I wasn’t aware of.

Twice Exceptional (2e) Parent Group twoeparents@yahoo.com
Laura Holgate, Chair
Affiliated with Scottsdale Supporters of the Gifted (SSG)
http://azgifted.org/  and SEPACS http://sepacs.org/

You can view my calendar at:
http://ical.me.com/lauraholgate/Twice%20Exceptional

I received the following from Laura Holgate, chair of the Twice Exceptional (2e) Parent Group:

I was asked by one of my readers to provide information about financial and estate planning.  I asked Jason Cowans (who is a parent on the board of SEPAC) if he would be willing to write a short article regarding planning for a child with special needs.  I have attached the article he has written. 

I felt article contains some very useful information, and I know that Jason is very understated in sharing what he does for a living, while being an active member of our SEPACS for the past three (or is it four) years?  He provided Laura and her group with some very useful informaiton for parents of children with special needs, so I’m going to share it with you.

Planning for a Child with Special Needs by Jason Cowans, CFP®, ChFC

Fundamentally the two most important issues for planning for a child with special needs will fall under one of two broad categories: Financial or Estate issues. Often times the two become intertwined with one either hurting or helping the other. Everyone’s situation is unique and you should always work with a professional to make sure all aspects have been addressed.

Looking at the first issue, Financial. The two main focus points under this category will be Benefits and Shortfall of Benefits (ie Living Expense). Children can be eligible for either needs based benefits and/or means based benefits from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid (AHCCCS/ALTCS in Arizona) and various State run Disability Development agencies. Figuring how much or how many programs the children will be eligible for can often be daunting and frustrating. A great resource for parents to start at is Raising Special Kids (www.raisingspecialkids.org), they can guide parents to agencies that will provide specific benefits based on their child’s needs. This is when the Financial and Estate begin to start to affect each other.

Once benefits amounts can be determined, creating a cash flow worksheet can provide huge benefits because it will show what portion of living expenses will be covered by benefits and what amounts need to be covered by the parent’s current or future resources. This then begins the process of looking at lifetime care funding strategies and how to avoid any financial gaps down the road. Taking the strategies out to adulthood, parents can then consider potential Means based benefits their adult child may be eligible for. Means based benefits have income and net worth restrictions on them, currently the most an individual can have in their name is $2000. The monthly income levels vary per program and number of children, here’s the link to see their current guidelines: www.ahcccs.state.az.us/Publications/Reference/IncomeLimits/EligibilityRequirements.pdf

Now herein lies the problem, how do you receive benefits, yet stay under the absurdly low net worth restriction. This is when proper Estate Planning starts to have huge benefits. Here’s the example that has caused many a sleepless night for families: Two parents have two children, one typical and one child with special needs. Both children are equal beneficiaries on ALL accounts (eg insurance policies, 401k, IRA’s, home, etc). If both parents were to pass at the same time, you have just created a net worth issue for eligibility for the child with special needs, if more than $2000 is left to them. The other choice may have been to leave everything to the typical child and “disinherit” the other child to maintain eligibility for benefits. Now you are left hoping that the benefits will be enough to cover all needs for the child with special needs and some how the inheritance money will find its way back to them. Had proper Estate Planning been done, neither of these scenarios would have happen and all such problems could have been avoided.

Now getting into the second area, Estate. The main focus areas under this category are: Wills/Trust and Guardianship/Conservatorship. Without getting into all the details of Wills and Trust, the key differences are: Wills are public records and must go through probate court; Trusts are private records that are administered by a Trustee and have precedence over a Will. Now getting back to how to the previous example would have benefitted from proper Estate Planning. The parents could have named a Trust beneficiary for ALL their accounts. This would have kept the money out of either child’s name, thus keeping the child with special needs eligible for benefits. This leads to another issue, if the Trust was drafted and the language within it gave full rights to the assets at some age/date, which is very typical in a standard Trust, this windfall would then cause the now adult child with special needs to become ineligible for benefits. A solution to address this problem may be to have two Trust, one a standard Living Trust and the other a Special Needs Trust. The Special Needs Trust, has the same mechanics as a Living Trust, except it contains language that Federal/State agencies acknowledge to be working to address the issues of special needs eligibility, yet never giving the beneficiary full rights to the assets, thus never breaking the eligibility requirements.

Naming a Guardian/Conservator can be done the same in a Will or Trust. For simplicity sake the Guardian cares for the child/dependent and Conservator watches the money. The Guardian and Conservator can be the same person, different people, multiple people or you can also name a bank as Conservator for a fee, typically a 1% of total assets. When naming a Guardian the parents must consider is the Guardian in the same state as they are because Trust don’t necessarily function the same from state to state and State benefits each have their own rules and guidelines.

Again everyone’s situation is unique and you should always consult with an attorney, specifically one who deals in either Special Needs or Elder Care Law (Elder Care Law deals with the same Medicare/Medicaid eligibility requirements as Special Needs Planning).

The material presented is not offered as legal or investment advice. Examples are given for illustration purposes and are not sited as legal advice. You are urged to seek the advice of your tax advisor, attorney, and/or financial planner to understand your overall circumstances and planning. All material is presented solely as educational information and is not a solicitation or offer.

I’ve just finished uploading the meeting notes that Shauna took at our September meeting on Planning for your Child’s Special Life Needs.  You can view them, plus notes from all of our past meetings, by visiting the Meeting Notes page on the SEPACS web site.

Lois Healey, the Director of Special Education Services in the Scottsdale Unified School District is contributing a monthly column on our SEPACS website. This month she has submitted the following chart, SPECIAL EDUCATION-When Parents have questions and concerns, outlining the seven step process that parents can take when we have questions or concerns regarding the education of our children with special education needs. Most issues get resolved at the first level, our local school, and is always the best place to start.

Thanks, Lois, for your contributions!

You can also find this chart on our web site on our Local Resource Page.

Pam Murphy, President of the SEPAC, shared the following information with our Board of Directors, so I’m passing it along to you.

If you are interested you can find proposed moves of Special Education programs on the SUSD website.
 
Go to www.susd.org,
then click on Facilities Utilization Info and Updates on the right,
then read Revised Plan for Facility Consolidation – spec ed moves proposed are in there.

Or, click here: Revised Plan for Facility Consolidation.

The Special Education program location grid, for the Scottsdale Unified School district, has been updated for the 2008-2009 school year.  You will find it on our web site under Program Descriptions.

Here’s a quick reminder from the Scottsdale Parent Council. RSVP due tomorrow!

Scottsdale Parent Council invites you to:

Site Council Training

Please join us at the district Education Center for an overview of Site Based Leadership

October 15
Scottsdale Education Center
9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
3811 N. 44th Street Phoenix, AZ 85018

Workshop Facilitators and Topics

This initial training session will cover topics like:

District and State policy, Site Council by-laws, Tax Credit, Gifts/Vendors, Capital Override, and the School Improvement Process.

Facilitators include: Katy Cavanagh, David Peterson, Andi Fourlis, Ildi Laczko-Kerr, and Jackie Olson

Who should attend?
All P.T.O., A.P.T., P.T.A. Presidents, school Principals and school Site Council members, and other interested parents are invited to attend.

Please R.S.V.P. to Scottsdale Parent Council at president@scottsdaleparentcouncil.org by October 14, 2008

A couple upcoming meeting announcements from the Scottsdale Supporters of the Gifted. Any questions? Contact: ssg@arizonagifted.org.

SSG News – October 12, 2008

SSG welcomes all families and educators to join us at the events listed below. Come meet new families, see old friends. Update your knowledge on current issues regarding best practices for gifted children. All SSG events cost $5.oo per family and are free to educators. Attendance certificates available to use for professional development requirements.

“GIFTED but…” Marlo Payne Rice Thurman
OCTOBER 16, 2008 Thursday 6:30 to 8:30 Mustang Library Auditorium

Is your child gifted but with learning issues? The founder of the famous Brideun Learning Communities in Colorado will present ideas on how to successfully educate gifted and twice-exceptional students. Parents and professionals welcome!

Note: The previous night, 10/15, Marlo will be speaking to people interested in a school based on the Brideun model which is scheduled to open in Scottsdale in Fall 2009. For more information, go to www.az2e.org.)  

GENIUS COACHING -Guiding Your Child with Careful Listening and Effective Language
NOVEMBER 20 2008 6:30 to 8:30 Mustang Library Auditorium

Join Otto Siegel, M.Ed and Susanna Lange, authors of “Yes, You Are a Genius – Whether You Know it or Not” for a presentation on communicating effectively with your child. Learn to find the words that will motivate and encourage your child instead of creating barriers and conflict. Empower your child and yourself to overcome challenges created by giftedness.