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Alyssa Klein: Hello, everyone! We are excited to update you, our special education, Lead Agency, which is county and tribal nations,

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Alyssa Klein: Vocational Rehabilitation Services and State Services for the Blind leadership on regional meetings that will be coming up in 2024 for Employment First Minnesota, otherwise known as E1MN.

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Alyssa Klein: First, we will introduce ourselves, your state level E1MN Coordinators.

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Alyssa Klein: I am Alyssa Klein from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, otherwise known as DEED.

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Holly Sunderman: Hi, I'm Holly Sunderman from DEED as well.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): I am Cole Sorensen from the Department of Human Services.

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Kara Tempel: And I am Kara Tempel from the Department of Education.

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Alyssa Klein: Our agenda for this presentation is to go through some reminders about what E1MN and the Minnesota Transition Framework are, and then give you more detail about the regional E1MN meetings that will be held in 2024.

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Alyssa Klein: So let's start with a review of E1MN and the Minnesota Transition Framework.

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In the fall of 2023,

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Alyssa Klein: leaders from our three agencies, MDE, DHS, and DEED,

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Alyssa Klein: presented on E1MN to special education administrators at the MDE Special Education Directors Forum, to county supervisors at the Minnesota Association of County Social Services Administrators, or MACSSA, meeting,

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Alyssa Klein: and to VR managers at a statewide VRS meeting.

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Alyssa Klein: On this slide we have the link to the Special Education Directors Forum recording. You can view that twenty-minute presentation by going to 1 hour, 29 minutes, and 40 seconds into the presentation.

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Alyssa Klein: At this link you will also find the presentation slides by selecting "Info" from the menu at the lower right of the player window.

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Alyssa Klein: Because our leaders explained E1MN in that forum, we won't go deep into it for today's presentation. But we will have a few high-level reminders next.

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Alyssa Klein: So what is Employment First Minnesota, or E1MN?

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Alyssa Klein: E1MN is an unprecedented collaboration between our three state agencies, DHS, MDE, and DEED.

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Alyssa Klein: Our mission is to work together to deliver a more seamless and timely support system for youth and adults with disabilities. We want people to get the services they need, when they need them.

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Holly Sunderman: The Minnesota Transition Framework was created out of E1MN to set common goals across our agencies in serving all youth with disabilities across our system.

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Alyssa Klein: The framework graphic has four concentric rings, with the youth in transition at the center;

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Alyssa Klein: topics that support the transition to adulthood, such as independent living and employment as the second ring;

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Alyssa Klein: key elements like guiding principles and shared practices in the third ring; and then, finally, our goals are highlighted in the outer ring of the visual here.

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Alyssa Klein: Those goals are to:

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Alyssa Klein: Align common values, systems and best practices;

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Alyssa Klein: Facilitate coordination of services and supports;

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Alyssa Klein: Promote collaborative partnerships with youth, families, and professionals;

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Alyssa Klein: Ensure consistent transition planning expectations for youth and families.

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Alyssa Klein: Another way to think about the framework is that it sets the "North Star" for all of us to work towards.

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Holly Sunderman: E1MN and the transition framework is all about how we collaborate. This slide reviews who the primary partners are in this work.

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Holly Sunderman: Besides the most important people, which are the youth and their family members, the following professionals need to be partnering to make transition services most effective for our system.

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Holly Sunderman: First, is school staff, which includes both special and general education staff.

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Holly Sunderman: Next are vocational rehabilitation staff, which includes those from Vocational Rehabilitation Services, or VRS,

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Holly Sunderman: and State Services for the Blind or SSB.

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Holly Sunderman: Next are waiver case managers from counties and tribal nations. Then

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Holly Sunderman: lastly, are the service providers that we may contract with to deliver transition services.

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Holly Sunderman: This slide has a graphic representing all these roles, with the youth in the center and each of the other roles surrounding them.

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Holly Sunderman: The 2023-2024 school year is our first year in bringing school districts and charter schools fully into the E1MN effort.

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Holly Sunderman: This year is about informing, educating, and engaging leadership, such as yourselves from education, counties and tribes, and VR, as well as the staff that you supervise.

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Holly Sunderman: We are working to create and support an infrastructure for system-wide education and communication-

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Holly Sunderman: this includes statewide regional meetings that will begin in February.

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Holly Sunderman: The regional meetings are a way to coordinate across our agencies, to bring together and share best practices for serving youth and transition.

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Holly Sunderman: We are asking you as special education, county and tribal nations, and VR leaders to recognize and embrace your role in driving the system change we want to make through E1MN.

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Holly Sunderman: We ask that you partner and coordinate with your leadership counterparts at schools, counties and tribes, and VRS and SSB. That you message information about E1MN and the Minnesota Transition Framework to your staff

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Holly Sunderman: and ask that they participate in the upcoming regional meetings. And that you seek support if and when you need it.

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Holly Sunderman: So let's talk more about the E1MN regional meetings.

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Holly Sunderman: We put this graphic together to emphasize the levels of collaboration that are key for E1MN.

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Holly Sunderman: It shows a pyramid with four levels.

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Holly Sunderman: Let's start at the bottom.

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Holly Sunderman: At the State level, those of us here from DEED, MDE, and DHS work together as an E1MN Planning Team.

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Holly Sunderman: This team works regularly on state level interagency initiatives and are the technical assistance providers to all of you across the E1MN system.

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Holly Sunderman: The regional work will be the state level E1MN planning team convening meetings that include school, VRS, SSB

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Holly Sunderman: and waiver staff to learn and share best practices for forming and sustaining strong E1MN local teams. This is the second level of the pyramid.

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Holly Sunderman: On the third level, E1MN local teams include a school district or charter school, the VRS/SSB staff and waiver staff that support the students in that district or charter school.

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Holly Sunderman: Finally and most importantly is the person level which is at the top of the pyramid.

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Holly Sunderman: The work we do at the state, regional and local level to partner all leads to the right people being at the table to support people with disabilities, and for the right services to be provided to them.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): In 2024 we currently have two rounds of E1MN regional meetings scheduled.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): The first round will take place in February.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): We have divided the state into six regions. The regions and the dates are listed here.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Note that these are all virtual, and are scheduled from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Also note that after reviewing these regions and dates that we will show you a map of the regions.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Region 1 is Northern Minnesota.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): This meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 13th.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Northern Minnesota includes the roughly 30 counties, 6 tribal nations, along with all of the school districts and VRS/SSB teams within those regions

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Region 2 is Central Minnesota, and will take place on Wednesday, February 14th.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): This region includes 11 counties and 1 tribal nation.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Region 3 is Southern Minnesota and will take place Thursday, February 15th.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): This includes 38 counties and 3 tribal nations.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Region 4 is Hennepin and Carver Counties and will take place on Tuesday, February 20th.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Region 5 is Anoka and Ramsey Counties and will take place on Wednesday, February 21st.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): And finally, Region 6 is Dakota, Scott, and Washington counties along with 1 tribal nation, and will take place Thursday, February 22nd.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Here is a map that shows the regions that were described in the last slide.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): It is a map of Minnesota showing counties and tribal nations which has been color coded to show the regions of the state.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): North is in blue. Central as this orange area. South is pink.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): And then we have the 7-County Metro divided into 3 as follows: Hennepin and Carver Counties, Anoka and Ramsey Counties, and then Washington, Dakota, and Scott counties.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): When we send out the registration, you will see the counties, tribal nations, and school districts that are included in each region listed out in text format to help people identify which regional meeting they should attend.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): The second round of meetings will take place in April and May and here are the regions and dates for those.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Again, all meetings will be scheduled from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Region 1 which is Northern Minnesota, will be on Tuesday, April 23rd. Region 2, Central Minnesota, will be on Wednesday, April 24th.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Region 3, Southern Minnesota, will be Thursday, April 25th. Region 4,

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): Hennepin and Carver Counties will be on Tuesday, April 30th. Region 5, Anoka and Ramsey Counties, will be on Wednesday, May 1st. And finally, region six, Dakota, Scott, and Washington Counties will be on Thursday, May 2nd.

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): But this won't be all...

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Cole Sorensen- DHS (he/him/his): There will be more meetings planned in the next school year, likely starting in October, and you will get advanced notice of those as well.

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Kara Tempel: We encourage you as local leaders to attend and help in the formation of your local E1MN team.

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Kara Tempel: In this slide we list the possible school staff, VRS and SSSB staff as well as waiver staff we hope will attend these meetings. From the schools and districts, the roles include administrators,

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Kara Tempel: high school and age 18 to 22 transition program staff from both general and special education, IEP case managers and 504 coordinators,

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Kara Tempel: work coordinators, counselors, social workers, school nurses, and others involved with supporting youth with disabilities.

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Kara Tempel: For VRS and SSB the list includes managers, counselors, Pre-Employment Transition Services Representatives, and E1MN Liaisons.

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Kara Tempel: Finally, for the waivers the list includes supervisors and managers, waiver case managers and E1MN Employment Liaisons.

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Kara Tempel: So, to summarize the information you need to know about the E1MN regional meetings: All meetings will be virtual to make them easy to access, for all participants throughout the state.

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Kara Tempel: Attendees will include school and school district VRS, SSB, and county and tribal waiver staff.

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Kara Tempel: We will discuss specific topics at each of the regional meetings. At the first meeting in February we will review E1MN and Minnesota's Transition Framework. Additionally, we will discuss E1MN Local Team development.

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Kara Tempel: There is a new page on the Disability Hub website that reviews all of the roles that schools and districts, VRS/SSB, and county and tribal waiver staff have in serving you with disabilities. The web page is linked in the slide, and we encourage you to review it prior to the meeting.

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Kara Tempel: In the second meetings in April and May we will review youth outcome data across our agencies to allow local teams to identify and acknowledge their strengths as well as the disparities and their plans to address them moving forward.

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Kara Tempel: We will also unveil an E1MN Local Team Transition Assessment for teams to complete. This assessment will allow teams to select and implement a transition framework strategy for the 2024-2025 school year.

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Kara Tempel: As we mentioned at the beginning of this video, presentations were delivered to leaders in special education, counties, and VR this past fall at the Special Education Directors Forum. The E1MN team has assembled a list of all of the Community Transition Interagency Committees, or CTICs, that are currently in operation, and we identified 23 CTICs that meet across the state.

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Kara Tempel: CTIC leaders were invited to and participated in a meeting on November 15th 2023 to learn about the upcoming work and for us to get feedback from them. We hope CTICs can add E1MN to their meeting agendas to help support the work.

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Kara Tempel: Finally, there will be broad communications coming out to all audiences in January 2024 through our interagency listservs and communication channels, including information on how to register for the regional meetings.

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Kara Tempel: If you have any questions about E1MN or the upcoming regional meetings please complete an E1MN Request Form linked on this slide. Thank you all for watching, and we look forward to seeing you at the regional meetings.