MEETING TOMORROW!

David Tylicki is returning to speak with Decoding Dyslexia Park Cities parents about facilitating students’ smooth transition from high school to college. Mr. Tylicki has spent over 25 years working in higher education and is currently a Senior Learning Specialist at SMU’s Disability Accommodations and Success Strategies (DASS) program. Mr. Tylicki’s presentation will focus upon the cultivation of one critical skill: self-advocacy. As he will demonstrate, skillful self-advocacy does not depend on innate personality traits or talents; to the contrary, it is a skill that can be learned and developed. 

Mr. Tylicki’s presentation will also provide useful information about how college-level disability offices work, expectations for communication, and disability-related documentation. While this meeting will focus on students with dyslexia, parents of students without learning differences will also find the information helpful and are invited to attend. Even parents with younger students will gain helpful insights from Mr. Tylicki regarding early steps to mastering self-advocacy.

Please click here to RSVP or visit ddpc.org for more information.

Parking near the Clements Center can be challenging, so plan to arrive a few minutes early. Two-hour parking is available one block away from the building on Hyer Street and on Grassmere Lane. If possible, please plan to carpool or take advantage of the nice weather and walk to the meeting.

SUPERINTENDENT SURVEY CLOSES TODAY

As you likely are aware, HPISD's current superintendent of schools will be leaving at the end of this school year, and the search to find his replacement has begun. Leaders of Decoding Dyslexia Park Cities and the HP Literacy Coalition met with the superintendent search firm last week and felt like students with learning differences were very well represented by the parents who participated.

While no system or selection process will ever be perfect, we are thankful to be included in the conversation. As parents with students who learn differently, we are a unique group, but also a large group that should be well represented within our district. With that thought in mind, we encourage every parent to complete the search firm's survey regarding what you would like to see in the new superintendent of HPISD. If you are unsure about what feedback you could provide, feel free to reach out to the DDPC leaders about what was discussed during the focus group and what we're hearing from parents of students who learn differently. The survey will close at 11pm TONIGHT!

It's estimated that one in every five students has dyslexia, and this number does not include other learning differences or disabilities. It is very important that your student be well represented in the search for a new superintendent and in all things happening in HPISD.

MEETING RECORDINGS

Over the years, we've received numerous requests to record and publish what is shared at our monthly meetings. While we would love to make the information available to every parent in HPISD, at this time we will not be doing so. At our meetings, parents and speakers often talk about personal experiences they may not want shared publicly - student details, obstacles, heartaches, educator disagreements, etc. We want to honor everyone's privacy so that our parent meetings will continue to be a safe space for people to share openly.

Please know that much of the information shared at the DDPC meetings is already available on the ddpc.org website and within our Parents Only Facebook Group. We hope our community will utilize these resources and attend the monthly meetings in person whenever possible.

Parent leaders of DDPC can be reached by email at decodingdyslexiaparkcities@gmail.com, and you can also reach out to your campus liaison (listed here) using Directory Spot.