I wasn’t able to see the committee this morning for some reason, it kept showing the screen ‘house room A’. But I’m glad to see these two bills. Disabled students must be heard. I think it’s worth mentioning seizures can be invisible. I had plenty of them in my school days that didn’t require medical attention but still disrupted my learning. So please pass them.

As a parent of a child who needs and uses augmentative and alternative communication in our public school system, I ask that the subcommittee pass HB2219 on to the full committee for consideration. This bill is intentionally broad in its wording to address two narrow issues affecting students and staff. First, it informs IEP team members (including the parents) about the need for specific training in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Second, it ensures that necessary training occurs in a timely manner. That's it. In my experience, training in this highly-specialized area often comes too late in the year, if at all. While federal and state special education laws and regulations require documenting assistive technology needs of the student in an IEP, there is no requirement that the IEP flag for the team training in supporting the AAC user. This lack of a simple indicator sometimes leads to a false sense of preparedness for teachers, staff, and even some early-career speech-language pathologists who might not have extensive training and experience with implementing and supporting an AAC system throughout the school day. Moreover, even if the IEP notes that AAC training should be addressed, it has been our experience that training occurred after everyone else gets settled in the routines of the new school year, leaving the AAC user behind from the very start. The broad language of this bill will allow school districts to make decisions about who provides training and what training is provided, as those operational aspects may differ from one district to the next or even from one school building to the next within a district. The bill does not require school districts to identify any specific individualized training needs in the IEP, as that too differs from one case to the next. Plainly stated, this bill only requires school districts to note an AAC training requirement in the IEP and to provide training at a time when it would be most effective for the student and the professionals who support that student. We thank the subcommittee for its consideration and the opportunity to start this conversation about a part of the disability community that is often overlooked.

Please support HB2219. Well meaning as our child's teachers have been, it has been an incredible struggle over the course of many years to get them training on how to *implement* use of the AAC device and modeling strategies in their classrooms,. Often is has been a month or more into the school year before any training is received, and most often that training has been operational (how to turn it off/on, how to add/delete words) with very little time spent - sometimes only 10-15 minutes - on implementation. And that's if training for our child's team happens at all - there have been years where it did not. This lack of appropriate training on AAC implementation has cost our child years in language development opportunities and contributes to serious difficulties she has in accessing the general education due to lack of belief in her receptive abilities because of her expressive language disorder. It is critical to ensure that ALL teachers - including specialists/elective teachers - who have a student that uses an AAC device receive training on how to use that device *before* the child enters their classroom (or as quickly as possible when it occurs mid-year).

Please vote YES on HB2219 It ensures that students can fully participate in educational activities without unnecessary delays in staff learning how to use the AAC device that a student uses to communicate. This training for staff in the AAC device ensures that AAC users receive uninterrupted and effective support regardless of changes in their educational environment. It is so important for students with special needs to know they can communicate with their teacher and then by extension with their peers since they are more fully integrated when appropriate. The Virginia Autism Project supports HB2219.