ARP Dollars: Unlocking Equity for Students with Disabilities Through Effective Program Design, Priority Setting, and Teacher Voice

Presented by Simone Hall, Policy Specialist, Center for Learner Equity; Lauren Krempecki, Program Manager, Center for Learner Equity; Erin Mote, Executive Director, InnovateEDU; and Dawn Campi, Teacher, PS/MS 29x (NY), and UFT Representative
Moderated by Barbara Pape, Director of Policy and Communications, Learner Variability Project, Digital Promise

Sponsored by Digital Promise

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Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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The recent federal American Rescue Plan (ARP), passed into law by Congress, provides an unprecedented investment in education, giving schools and districts access to funds to address the needs of students more holistically. In this recorded edWebinar, we share actionable recommendations from the Center for Learner Equity’s recent resource, The Rising Tide that Lifts All Boats: Investing Stimulus Dollars with an Equity Focus, and discuss several specific strategies that districts, schools, and educators should consider to optimize the positive impact of ARP stimulus dollars on students, especially those with disabilities.

Watch this edWebinar to better understand:

• The requirements and limitations for the various ways that funding is earmarked
• The timeline for obligation of fund use
• The importance of blending established and emerging research and a dose of creative thinking to optimize spending
• How spending with an equity focus can be transformative for all students
• Ways to prioritize the suggestions in the companion document to fit the needs of your student body

This recorded edWebinar will be of interest to teachers, school and district special education or student services coordinators or directors, and school and district leaders of all grade levels.

About the Presenters

As an integral member of the Center for Learner Equity’s policy team, Simone Hall monitors and analyzes legislative and regulatory developments at multiple levels of government related to students with disabilities in charter schools. Prior to joining the Center, Simone worked in the policy shop of a small business advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. In this role, she helped build the organization’s federal and state policy agendas. Before that, she worked in her university’s Office for Students with Disabilities as a notetaker and aided students in their classes by taking notes that provided them with helpful study tools. Simone received her bachelor’s degree in communications and political science from Florida Atlantic University and master’s degree in public policy (MPP) from The George Washington University.

Lauren Krempecki is a program manager at the Center for Learner Equity (CLE), responsible for a portfolio of projects in support of CLE’s mission to ensure that students with disabilities are able to fully access and thrive in public schools. Lauren believes that developing coalitions of schools and support organizations can help build the capacity of schools to do this important work. Lauren has managed projects in a diverse set of schools, from large urban school districts to independently run charter schools. She also has experience as a special education liaison, special education teacher, and a paraprofessional in schools in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Lauren holds a Bachelor of Science in elementary and special education from Temple University.

Erin Mote is the executive director of InnovateEDU and co-founder of Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School (LAB). She leads InnovateEDU and its major projects including the development of Cortex, work on data interoperability, an urban education fellowship to diversify the teacher pipeline, and supports for LAB’s growth. She has spent much of her career focused on public service and expanding access to technology in both the United States and abroad. Her work spans private sector collaborations and groundbreaking initiatives with Intel, Cisco, Google, and Mozilla, as well as work with leading U.S. government technology partnerships. Erin served as the founding chief of party for the USAID Global Broadband and Innovations Alliance and has worked on numerous projects with the U.S. Department of State and the White House. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children and bleeds maize and blue as a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Dawn Campi has been a teacher for almost 24 years, spending her entire career working for the New York City Department of Education in the South Bronx by Yankee Stadium in a Title I school. Over the years, she has taught sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews, and even the children of former students! Throughout her years of teaching, she has been part of the School Leadership Team, the Measures of Student Learning Committee, curriculum planning teams, Special Education and ENL planning teams, the PTA, the Safety Committee, and also the Dean of Students for grades K-2. Currently, she is the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) Chapter Leader Representative in her school, in which she lobbies for teachers’ fair and equal rights. Dawn is a graduate of Fordham University, where she was awarded two scholarships and earned two graduate degrees in both general and special education.

About the Moderator

Barbara Pape is the policy and communications director for the Learner Variability Project at Digital Promise. She has 20 years’ experience in strategic communications, writing, and policy analysis, primarily in education. Previously, she served as the executive producer of the award-winning Teaching & Learning conference, sponsored by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, where she developed content and oversaw outreach and communications. As a writer, she has written for numerous publications, including Harvard University, the National Education Goals Panel (U.S. Department of Education), and Parents magazine. Barbara also served as editor and publisher of the first electronically delivered education newsletter, the Daily Report Card. She served on the Advisory Board of the Kennedy Center’s Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education Committee, serves as a judge for the Milken-Penn Graduate School of Education Business Plan competition, and is on the Boards at the Education Writers Association and Potentia. She earned an Ed.M. at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and launched her career as a middle school language arts teacher.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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Digital Promise was created with the mission to accelerate innovation in education to improve opportunities to learn.