From local concern to state law

Amber Ballard saw a problem affecting students with disabilities and decided not to accept that nothing could be done.

The Norwood City Schools board member worked with district leaders and OSBA’s legislative team to develop a proposal that ultimately became part of Ohio law. She joins OSBA President Mary Cleveland to explain why students receiving services beyond their traditional graduation year were being counted unfairly, how that affected school districts and what the new law means for students and families.

Amber also shares what she learned about advocacy, persistence and the power of one person choosing to step forward.

For more resources, training and advocacy updates from the Ohio School Boards Association, visit ohioschoolboards.org.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

The following program is the presentation of the Ohio School Boards Association.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Sometimes someone sees something that they think isn't fair and they decide to do something about it. My guest today not only identified a problem, but she was able to get Ohio to change the law. I'm Mary Cleveland, president of OSBA. And let's report to the office. My guest today is Amber Ballard of Norwood City Schools. Welcome, Amber. Hi, Mary.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

I am so excited to have you here today. I want before we get into deep, I want you to talk a little bit about who you are and how you got to being on the board for Norwood City Schools.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I'm elected to office, obviously, for Norwood City Schools, Great Oaks technical campuses, and Southwest Region for the state of Ohio. I'm probably the weirdest board member you'll ever meet. Not only am I an elected official, but I'm also a circus performer. Have been for almost 20 years. I work as a pharmacy technician and a sign language interpreter. So my background specifically is with disabilities, ADA services and accommodations, as well as working with the public in so many different aspects. And I think it's lent itself really well to knowing what my district needs, knowing what kids need, and just being able to serve my community in a way that is going to be productive. And that's why I got into all this.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

I love it. Well, and I am excited to talk about today's topic because it does touch something personal to me as well. Let's talk about House Bill 455. What is it?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

This fight started a few years ago. We were going through report card season as many districts do, and we noticed some pretty intense discrepancies with our graduation rate and how it was being impacted. We lost an entire letter grade that year. And we started digging into the numbers. Like, where are these coming from? What is happening? And we figured out that it was related primarily to deferment. For those who are not familiar, deferment is basically where a student might need additional services beyond graduation. This could mean that they go into a day program or assisted job training. These are students usually with more severe level IEPs. Not your average IEP student, maybe they need reading help or math help, things like that. That's a standard IEP that we could provide for any student. But a child who may need a little bit more care, and the state requires that we pay for those services. And at the same time, if we pay for those services, those kids were never considered graduates. Because in order to be considered like a graduate, you had to be looped into your four or five-year class cohort. And because those students continue services through the age of 22, they can't be considered graduates. So my superintendent, another board member, myself decided to take this up to the state level and say, hey, we've got a problem, and we know that this is something that will affect smaller schools in a way that big schools like Columbus or Cincinnati or Cleveland, like they could eat those numbers and it doesn't affect them at all. But if you look at the number of schools in the state of Ohio, right now we have about 611 schools, public schools in the state of Ohio. Um, roughly two-thirds have less than 2,000 students in their district. In that number, most of them, that would mean roughly 150 or less graduating students in a class. My school district being a small one, we had about 100 students that year. So when we lost seven to deferment, it impacted us an entire letter grade. And I realized that if you had, for example, uh 50 students in your graduating class, which some of our more rural districts definitely do, each graduate holds a 2% impact on your grade.

unknown 4:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

So if you go to a large district with 500 students, that's a fifth of a percent of their impact. Um, but your funding is tied to it, and your your families that go searching for a district look at the report card and they say, Oh, that's a low graduation rate. I don't want to send my student there. I don't want my child in that district. They're not a successful graduation rate for my goals for what I want my student to achieve. Parents don't know what the report card is or how we grade on that report card. And some districts are so frustrated with how often the the criteria was being changed, and it's like as soon as we figure out where the finish line is, it's moved on us again. Um, what House Bill 455 did overall, like not just my section that I helped pin, but the overarch was it went in and removed redundancies. They pulled out a lot of the duplication process, things that teachers and administrators were having to do over and over and over again to just meet those minimum requirements to satisfy the report card. Um so pulling out some of the stops that were getting in the way, the red tape, um, really helped streamline or will help to streamline what the districts are about to do. Um, but my portion specifically, I said we need to do something for the students who have deferred because these kids deserve a diploma. They worked just as hard, if not harder in some aspects, to get here.

unknown 6:08

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

Um their teachers, their aides, their families, they've earned this. So when you consider them non-graduates, you're telling them they don't count. Um and so I sat down and was told basically, well, it's that's the report card. There's nothing you can do about it. It's not the right thing to tell me. Um I will I will find a way. Um so I did. I dug into the Ohio Revised Code, and according to the graduation portion in the revised code, you basically have two standards. You can either meet standard A, which is you have met the requirements of your high school and satisfied all of your credits. Criteria B is that you've met the honors criteria and you graduate with an honors diploma. There's nothing in between. And so these students kind of fall in between the cracks. Right. So I rewrote the Ohio revised code.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Um I love this.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

I just said, I'm gonna change how you report to the report card, and that's what's gonna be different. It basically has a caveat for section A that, well, if you meet the requirements under your IEP, well, then you've met the requirements of your school. Right. So you are a graduate, and now that gets to protect the funding to allow that student to go up through school or the additional programming or whatever that looks like for that student's needs.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Maintain their ability to graduate with a real diploma and apply for jobs that require a high school diploma. Many of these students go on to become productive members of society. And that's ultimately the goal of any student that we have, whether you're in technical education or standard education. The goal is always being a productive member of your society. And these students want to do that just as much as any other graduate.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Absolutely, absolutely. And I can speak to that, you know, as a parent of a now adult with special needs. Um, I remember, you know, when he was graduating high school, that whole, you know, should he stay to age 22? And as any parent, you know, you want only the best for your child, so you want to make sure that they get as much education as they possibly can. To your point, so they can be productive in society. You know, and I'm for ever grateful for that, but I know many parents really don't understand it from the parent side of it. Can you talk a little bit about it from the parent's point of view?

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Well, a child's first advocate is their parent. Absolutely. I mean, you know how that is. You're always fighting for the meeting, for the accommodation, for the service, for the next best thing that is going to make your child more acclimated to their environment, whether that is learning a trade, whether that is just getting up every day and being able to be social with their peers. Like we don't know what that might look like. And each student has their own individual battles that they are facing in a school setting. And to put more hurdles in front of a parent, it can be very exhausting. Um, as an interpreter, I work specifically in the deaf community. So getting interpreter services, seeing parents struggle to just say, I want an interpreter provided, and they give them a microphone. Right. Or they give them an interpreter once in a while for an IEP meeting, and that's about it. Like, that's not the accommodation, that's not the need, and it's not the best outcome possible for that student. So as educators, it's our role to be the next best advocate behind the parent. The parent says, hey, I need this for my student, or I am trusting you to give me the best options for my student. Then we take that and decide, yes, we're going to support this family, yes, we're going to bring resources forward, yes, I'm going to go do the extra effort to find additional resources that we may not have. And yes, I'm going to fight with the state to make sure we can afford to do it. Because that's the main battle is the cost of things. And we are realistic that that is always going to be a challenge. Who's going to pay for it? Families can't pay for these services out of pocket. But we as a state have an obligation to provide these services to our students and to the families that trust us with their students, especially our most vulnerable ones.

unknown 10:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Well said. Well said. When we think about the future now, you know, you've gotten the law passed. Yes, thank you. Um, that is an amazing feat in and of itself, you know, to be sitting here in front of someone who said, Well, you know what, I'm gonna take on the state and then win. Um, and we've all been celebrating you for doing this, you know. We have to say thank you. And I know a lot had to do with how it was impacting your district in terms of its size, but even for uh districts like mine that are a little bit larger, it was still an impact.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

As you look forward, what's next for Amber?

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Oof. So first I I want to take you back a second because there's some there's some key people in that role.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Um, so this was definitely something that has been on my mind for a long time. My superintendent, we went to the state house, we talked two people at the state level for this, and then I'm like, I don't even know what to do. How do what is my next step? How do I make a law? How do I even bring this forward? Right. Um Terry Gibson at the Great Oaks, he's also in a small district, and he's like, hey, well, if you want to, there's a deadline. Um, you know, submit your questions to the legal department OSBA, they'll help you figure out what you need. And so he kind of encouraged me to do that because they were facing similar issues with these kind of things. And if he hadn't reminded me of that deadline, um, but that was two years ago, and I got my team, um, Christina Chesson and Miss Havlin, like our special ed coordinator and our curriculum director, and I showed them what I had written and I was like, help me work this. Um, I want it to be legally binding. I want it to be the I want the language to be consistent. Right. I want this to be impervious.

unknown 12:18

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

I don't want the state to come and pick this apart. I don't want them to edit a word, basically. I'm like, I want what I want. Right. Help me make that happen. And and these ladies, to their credit, did such an amazing job making sure that it met all of our legal criteria, checked with our legal team, making sure everything lined up. It went to the legislative committee, it passed the legislative committee with full support, it went to the delegates assembly, it passed the delegates assembly with full bipartisan support. Then it went to the House. This process took over a year to get to the House, and it passed. I want people to know that this is realistic, but it is a patience game. Right. And just waiting and waiting and waiting. They would attach it to a bill, and that bill would go through some things and fall apart. They'd hold it. But they liked my part, which I had hope. I'm like, it's gonna go, I don't know when, but it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Finally, it got stuck on with House Bill 55, which was really comprehensive in what it does for education. And I was very happy that Representative Byrd was kind of spearheading that, and he was already working in this vein. Um, so it is not a one-person show. It is not something where you can do this in a vacuum. You can have an idea and you can present it, but you need a team behind you.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Um, it finally went to the Senate this year, so it's taken two years to get there. It passed on July 10th, and the governor signed it, or excuse me, it went in June 10th, and the governor signed it on July 10th. Um, this goes into effect for this school year. So I want people to know they can start reporting these kids in with their graduation numbers starting this fall. It goes into effect officially in October, and I love that this school year is gonna change how every district in the whole state, especially those three-quarters of the small schools that take up that 611, are gonna be able to report realistic numbers for how their students actually graduate through. Because graduating delayed does not mean you didn't succeed, it doesn't mean you didn't graduate. I'm tired of seeing incompletes for these kids.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

And I'm tired of seeing how it impacts districts. So I'm very excited to see what is next for that. And while I'm waiting for that, because again, it's a waiting game. Yes, I don't know. I've got a few things that are in my mind of there's always a problem, there's always a next thing, there's always something you want to change. So it's about choosing my battles. Um, and I've I've got a few things running in my head that I might want to work on. Um, yeah, we'll see. I I don't know. I really don't.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Well, I can't wait to see what that is. Um, but let me ask you this was there ever a point while you've been waiting or while you were waiting that you think thought it might not happen? No. Love that.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

And and the simple reason was because they kept my wording.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

They kept that part. So if anybody goes to read this House bill, this is under section eight of the bill. So it's one of many. It's a long bill, it's a big bill, and people might say, why is it so large? It's like it's it's not large to be bureaucratic. It's actually large because it eliminates a lot of things that just didn't need to be there. Right. It cleans up a lot of the reporting system. Um, so it it's in there, it's section eight, but they kept it. And I just when they didn't take it apart, I was like, oh, I've got something. When I have bipartisan support in the state of Ohio on a on a piece of a bill, especially one that supports kids with disabilities, wow. Uh no, I was like, nobody's gonna say no to this. You you're not gonna say no to this, and that's why I wanted it written the way I did, is because I wanted nobody to be able to read it and say, well, that doesn't make sense. There, this is dumb. We don't need that. I wanted everybody to say, you know what, that is logical legislation. We should have this. It is a part of this bill, and it needs to stay in. And every step of the way, it stayed in.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

So, so what should every Ohioan know concerning this so that you know we get it beyond the schools? So, so why should any Ohioan care? And what does it say about advocacy?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Advocacy can start with one person saying this isn't right. Advocacy can start with one parent saying, I need more for my child. Advocacy can start with one teacher saying, My students deserve better. Advocacy doesn't make anybody better, it doesn't make anybody stronger than, or uh anything that is like unique, except in the fact that you're willing to fight. Everybody's willing to say, look, oh, they'll take care of it, they'll put it off, they'll do it, somebody will do it. Be somebody, step up. You can do it. I didn't think that I could write a piece of legislation, and here I am a couple years later saying I did write a piece of legislation that impacts the whole state.

unknown 17:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Because you just have to care enough to put in the time.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

And that's that's the challenge. You have to be willing to put in the time. Um, but any parent out there who's saying, I want more for my child, how can I do it? Your district, if they're not aware of this coming, talk to your district. Don't let them tell you, oh yeah, your student could go ahead and graduate right on time. You don't have to worry about these deferred services because they're worried about their budget or they're worried about that reporting. It's not going to apply anymore. They can send your student for these additional services without fear of retaliation from the state or being dinged in any way on their graduation numbers.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

So when we talk about, and you've touched on this, but as we look at um how schools were handling it prior, talk a little bit about what that view looked like in terms of being penalized for allowing their students to stay until the age of 22.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

I think a lot of districts were scared. Um, to be honest, I think many of them were trying to figure out how do we get these students to graduate in that five-year window? Like we'll push it out a year, but realistically, we can't take these hits. We're we're getting budget cuts and budget cuts and budget cuts from the state level. We're being told by leadership that, oh, we support children and we support education and we're gonna fight for your child. Like, I feel like you're fighting my child, I don't feel like you're fighting for my child.

unknown 18:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

And this legislation fights for your child. Right, it gives you the ability to say, no, it's in the Rohai's code that my child is supposed to get services, and they're entitled to those services, they're protected, and they count as a graduate with a real diploma at the end of the day. That's what this is doing. And if it messes with the state budget, well, it's better than a stadium.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Agreed. Well, as we start to come to an end, Amber, I want you to talk a little bit about um when you were doing this. I know that you um OSBA had a little bit of a part in this. And being that this is we're here in OSBA at OSBA, um, can you talk a little bit about a little bit more about how that part came together?

SPEAKER_01 19:45

So I reached out to the legislative office for guidance on, you know, hey, if I'm gonna put this into the revised code, what's what's gonna help make me successful in attaining that? Um so I received guidance from their office and how to write it, how to make sure that it fit in with the current guidelines, and how to word the changes that I need to make to the revised code. So if anybody is out there in a school district who wants to make a change or wants to go about writing, you know, a statement of interest in making a change, talk to the legislative team at OSBA. Um the ladies that are there are absolutely phenomenal. They know their stuff, they're willing to help, and they want us to be successful. So they're gonna advocate for you and for your district and for our students. That's our main goal every day is what can be successful for our students. So if you need help making it that, making it happen, reach out, their team will do it.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Love that. Well, again, thank you so much. Here at Report to the Office, one thing we constantly say is that public education belongs to all of us. I do have one final question for you. What gives you hope?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

What gives me hope is being able to grow up take your time. This is a lot. Being able to grow up in my own district and go back and serve it. Being able to see kids grow up in a district that one day they will hopefully serve. That gives me hope.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

I love that. I love, love, love that. Well, Amber, I'm gonna say thank you, thank you, thank you for what you've done for generations to come as it pertains to our students with special needs. I want to thank you for what you do every day for our students in the ASL population, and I want to thank you for being a board member at Norwood as well as Great Oaks. You are making a difference in a very, very big way. And now you can say you've actually got a chance to change the law. Thank you. Thank you. And I want to thank you for joining me today on Report to the Office. And as I always say, please go out and advocate for our students. Thank you.