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DCF HHS Advisory Committee Meeting. August 22, 2013, 9:03 a.m. DoubleTree by Hilton Tampa Airport - Westshore 4500 West Cypress Street Tampa, FL 33607

ROUGHLY EDITED REALTIME TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was created in realtime by a Certified CART provider for the purpose of communication access. It is not a certified legal transcript and may not be entirely verbatim. It is intended for use only as notes of the proceedings.

HRI CART Communication Access Realtime Translation 813.404.2488 (cell/text) www.HRICART.com

(First attachment to CART Transcript, page 35; second attachment, page 38)

P R O C E E D I N G S

CINDY SIMON: Can everybody please find your seats. Everybody, can we please find our seats. I think we need more chairs back there, so we'll wait while we do that. Okay. It's good to see everybody here. We're going to start the meeting in a second. Lira has some letters -- I'm sorry. Good morning, everybody, we're going to start the meeting in a second. Committee members, Lira has some letters she's going to be giving out to everybody for their information for later in the meeting. So I'm going to give a second for Lira to give it out, and then we'll begin. JUDY MARTIN: Cindy, can you speak again? CINDY SIMON: Okay. Am I coming through, Judy? They are passing these letters out. Are we done? Okay. Good morning, everybody. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Today is August 22, 2013. And this the quarterly meeting of the DCFHHS Advisory Committee for the Deaf and . Before I begin with the roll call, I'd like to remind everybody to -- when you introduce yourselves or whenever you speak, please say your name. Our CART provider is really good, but she doesn't necessarily know all of us. Also, please turn your cellphones off, as very often they can interfere with the system. Okay. First -- are we on the phone? I'm very excited to say that out of the two open positions, today we have Martha Knowles here, and I want to start with her. We all received a small biography about you, which is very impressive. And we'd like to give you a chance to introduce yourself to us and let us get to know you a little bit better. Martha. MARTHA KNOWLES: Hello. I'm Martha Knowles and I was born hearing. As you know, English is my first language. My work history. I met people all over the world because I help people through immigration. I'm more of a background person. Personally, when I know what I'm talking about, I like to speak up, but I like to sit back and listen initially. Anything else you need me to say? This is my first experience here, so I'm a little awkward and not sure what I'm doing here right now. CINDY SIMON: That's okay. And welcome! We're very excited to have you. And so we're going to call the roll for everyone else and have them introduce themselves and tell a little about themselves so that you get to know them as well. Okay. Marc Dubin was not going to be here today. He said he was going to try to join us by phone, but I guess he's not on the phone. Okay. Robert Fifer. 2

ROBERT FIFER: Hi, I'm Bob Fifer. I'm an audiologist at the University of Miami School of Medicine. My home away from home is in the Department in Pediatrics at the Mailman Center for Child Development. And I wear a number of different hats. I'm working with ACHA and Medicaid and EQHealth, and also on the national front with the American Medical Association with procedure codes and diagnosis codes. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. Kim Gaut. KIM GAUT: After that, this is going to be short and sweet. My name is Kim Gaut. I'm the director of the Deaf Service Center in Charlotte County. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Susan Herring unfortunately could not be with us due to the passing of her father-in-law. I know she's sorry to miss this meeting but some things just come first. I'm sure we all extend our condolences to Susan and her husband, Richard. Rick Kottler. RICK KOTTLER: Good morning. This is Rick Kottler. I'm the executive director of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services and for about, what, three hours more, I'll be the assistant chair of this auspices committee. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Thank you. And I guess that gives me the same three hours, huh? Lois Maroney. LOIS MARONEY: I'm from this area, I've lived in Sarasota. And I'm a licensed mental health counselor, past president of the Association of Late Deafened Adults. I was on there for 13 years as president. Right now I have a private practice in St. Petersburg. Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Lois. Judy Martin. JUDY MARTIN: Hi, I'm Judy Martin from Jacksonville, and I'm a member of the Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. And I am also representing the Hearing Loss Association of Florida. I'm retired, too. CINDY SIMON: That's what keeps you young, Judy. Terri Schisler. TERRI SCHISLER: Hi, I'm Terri Schisler. I'm a recent past present of the Florida Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. I also sit on the Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. And I'm from Pensacola. CINDY SIMON: And she's Vice-Chair of the Coordinating Council. Shana Williams unfortunately could not be with us here either. I'm Cindy Simon. I'm also an audiologist from South Florida. I also sit on the Coordinating Council and the Florida Academy of Audiology, the Tinnitus Practitioner Association, and my latest baby is working with misophonia and I sit on the ME board for the Misophonia Association. I'm said to say, I thought that Christine Ellis would be rejoining us on this committee. And since her appointment, she has received a job in another state and once more has to move out of town. So we will be addressing the search for another member in a little while. In the meantime -- let me get all my names -- Jeff McLemore. JEFF McLEMORE: Good morning. My name is Jeff McLemore. I'm with the Board of the Department of Children and Families. I'm a Human Resource administrator, and I've been serving on this project since October of 1992. Been with the Department for a little over 20 years. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Jeff. Lira Latimer. LIRA LATIMER: Good morning, everyone. I'm Lira M. Latimer, assisting the Advisory Committee. Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Well, that was short. Before we go to our audience, I'd like to introduce our service providers without whom these meetings could not be conducted. So Gayl could not be with us today; however, Kathy Bentley, who has sat in for Gayl before and does a great job, is joining us today for CART. Peter Pinera from Coda Sound is providing our audio. And as usual, he was early, had everything set up, and makes my life really easy when connecting. Our interpreters from Accessible Communication for the Deaf are Safina Allibhai, Rose Coleman, 3

Brenda Prudom and Chris Prudhom, Barbara Ledford, and Kristin Tompkins. And I want to check. Is there anybody on the phone? LIRA LATIMER: No one yet. CINDY SIMON: Okay. And it looks like we have a number of guests here today. So can we have the guests introduce themselves, please. DR. KAREN GOLDBERG: Good morning. Are you able to hear me? Is this on? I have a very loud voice. I'm Dr. Karen Goldberg. Hi, my name is Dr. Karen Goldberg. I'm a board certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at University of South Florida. I specialize in treating deaf/hard-of-hearing individuals. I'm the Chair of the Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Committee for the American Academy of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry. I'm, myself, having learned sign language later in my life, I still cannot sign and talk at the same time. But just happy to be here. This is the first time I've joined this meeting in the audience and just very eager to get involved with DCF and working with the kids in this community and throughout Central Florida. So thank you for having it here. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. VICKY FALES: Good morning, I'm Vicky Fales, the president of the Florida Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf from Dunedin. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. ALEX DeMONLIA: Good morning. My name is Alex DeMolina. I'm a parent of a three-year-old daughter who was born with profound hearing loss, and she has actually received two bilateral cochlear implants funded by Medicaid. JULIE CHURCH: Good morning. I'm Julie Church. I'm the director of the Family Center on Deafness in Pinellas County, have been involved in the Deaf committee here in Tampa Bay for 20 years. SHANNON SIMON: Good morning. I'm Shannon Simon. Sorry, I did not have a speech planned. I work along with Julie Church at the Family Center on Deafness, I started in January. I'm a case manager for children. JENNIFER BOGGESS: Good morning. My name is Jennifer Boggess and I'm a case manager and a Youth & Families Support Specialist for Family Center on Deafness and I work with the Deaf community here in Florida for 15 years now. MICHAEL YELAPI: Good morning. My name is Michael Yelapi. I work for Self-Reliance Center for Independent Living here in Hillsborough County. BARBARA PAGE: I'm Barbara Page with Disability Rights of Florida from the Tampa Bay area. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, everyone, for being here. RICK KOTTLER: This is Rick. A quick correction on CART. That's Michael Yelapi. That Y-e-l-p-i, I believe. MICHAEL YELAPI: Y-e-l-a-p-i. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Thank you and welcome, everybody. We're so excited to have you here and we look forward to hearing your comments later. Committee, I know you received the first agenda. And the other day they sent out an amended agenda. The rationale there is some of the items were marked items and you wanted to hold it off. I thought that the response from Assistant Secretary Stewart to our concerns as well as a couple of other letters which have come up and which you have in front of you might have needed a little more time than rushing it right after lunch, so I kind of moved it up to the morning. So if you all looked it over, we're going to hold elections, rather in the morning as traditional, for new business because I wanted Martha to have a chance, since this is her first meeting, to listen to us and get to know us. So while we're waiting, be thinking of who you want for your next Chair and Vice-Chair. I have Susan's nominations here. So do I have a motion to accept the agenda as amended? JUDY MARTIN: I move that we accept the agenda as amended. CINDY SIMON: Okay, Judy moves. A second? ROBERT FIFER: This is Bob. I second. CINDY SIMON: Lois? LOIS MARONEY: I wanted to ask something. Should I second first and then discussion, or she 4

seconded? CINDY SIMON: He seconded. But if you have something to say -- I know this went very quickly, so go ahead. LOIS MARONEY: I was wondering where will we get the public comments? CINDY SIMON: Well, public comments are from 11:00 to 12:00. LOIS MARONEY: And when is feedback on the public comments? Like us have something to say about it, when will we do that? CINDY SIMON: We can certainly do that after lunch under new business. If we're running early -- I may propose to think about this. If we find we're running early and can be done at 1:00, I may propose that we continue through lunch to finish. But that's going to be up to the committee and their desires. Did that answer your questions? LOIS MARONEY: Yes. I know I will have some comments and I just wanted to make them at the right time. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Judy. JUDY MARTIN: May I ask everyone to speak right into their microphones? I'd appreciate it. Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Next thing. Have you-all had an opportunity to read the minutes? Are there any corrections to the minutes? Do you want me to give you a minute to go over it? I know there were changes made early on when they first went out, but I'll be happy to wait a minute and then I'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes. Okay, I do have a motion to accept the minutes from the last meeting? JUDY MARTIN: I make a motion that we accept the minutes from the last meeting. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Judy. Second? Okay, Martha seconds. JUDY MARTIN: I'm sorry. Only people who were present at the last meeting may make a motion or second. MARTHA KNOWLES: I actually was there. CINDY SIMON: Yes, she was there. MARTHA KNOWLES: I was a visitor at that meeting. CINDY SIMON: What do Robert's Rules of Order say to that, Ms. Parliamentarian? JUDY MARTIN: Yeah, I'm just being very Robert's Rules of Order -- CINDY SIMON: Does it say someone who sat there but was not on -- JUDY MARTIN: I don't think that's probably proper. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Then may I have another person second? Okay, Terri. TERRI SCHISLER: I second. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. All in favor? Let the record reflect it was unanimous in favor. Okay, before we go on to the next item, you'll notice we don't have a compliance report here today, and I was informed that we did not need a compliance report at this meeting. I was not able to find anything anywhere which stated whether we had to have one at every meeting or whether there were specific meetings for compliance reports. So I was wondering if I could -- do I have the right to take the latitude to throw it out to this committee? I personally would like to hear a compliance report at every meeting, whether it be by Carolyn or her designee. How does the rest of the committee feel about this? Terri? TERRI SCHISLER: I would agree with you. And that was something that I had put on my notes to make sure that we were going to get that compliance report. I also had put in my agenda item request that if in the future we can get some of this information in a written form as well as verbally during the meeting, because it's very difficult to process the amount of information we have been receiving and then only have to go back to rely on CART rather than an actual written report. CINDY SIMON: Bob? 5

ROBERT FIFER: I second the idea of having a compliance report at every meeting. We are very much still in an advisory capacity and will be for the duration of life of this committee. It will be difficult for us to offer advice and guidance unless we know that there are issues that have arisen and what the issues are. And if there are successes, we need to know about that too. CINDY SIMON: So my question to all of you, if there's no other comment, is, do we need to make this a motion or can we direct Jeff to let Carolyn know that we need a compliance report at every meeting; and if possible, we would like to have the information in writing as well. We need to make a motion. Bob. ROBERT FIFER: I agree. I have enough concern about this, I would like to formalize it. Therefore, I make a motion that there should be a compliance report at every committee meeting of this Advisory Committee. CINDY SIMON: And Judy? JUDY MARTIN: I will second that. Do you mean written? ROBERT FIFER: I would actually prefer verbal, with handout if necessary, so we can have an exchange and communication -- effective communication back and forth. CINDY SIMON: So my thoughts had been verbal, but everyone would have the information in front of them written as well so it was easier to follow. Just like I give everyone copies of the letters that I do. So would you like to amend it to include the written information? ROBERT FIFER: Yes. I would like to specify a verbal report so we have a representative here before us, and appropriate handouts with sufficient detail that we can follow and have record of the information. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. Do we need to second the amendment? ROBERT FIFER: Yes. CINDY SIMON: Do I have a second? Kim seconds. Is there any other discussion on this? All in favor? Let the record reflect that it was unanimous in favor. Jeff, can we direct Carolyn for this? JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff McLemore with DCF. I will bring it to Carolyn's attention when I return to Tallahassee. I will leave it to her as the civil rights manager and subject matter expert for the settlement agreement to advise us on what her requirements are with regard to compliance reports. I know that she informed me that there would be no compliance report for this meeting, but I expect future compliance reports. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Thank you. Next item is to discuss the open position. We thought we had it filled with Christine and unfortunately, but happily for Christine, she cannot be with us due to her positive circumstances. I know -- I'm going to turn it over to you, Jeff. We do have two resumes in and one or two people I spoke to this morning indicated an interest in possibly joining us. So do we want Jeff to tell us about the two candidates? Do we want him -- do we want to see if anybody else applies and then put it out to all the members to look at and send their response back to Jeff? Or do you want Executive Committee to look at it? Judy. JUDY MARTIN: I would like to hear about the two candidates and have us discuss that now. As you know, it takes us a long time to get replacement on any board; and the more we procrastinate, the harder it is. CINDY SIMON: I agree. And if anyone else in the audience did want to apply for that position, I would suggest they do it in the next week. But, Jeff, why don't you tell us about the two candidates you do have. Yes, Lois, did you have something? LOIS MARONEY: Yes. Before, I noticed Michael -- INTERPRETER: Push the button. LOIS MARONEY: Sorry. Michael, they just asked if anybody else wanted to join and I know you expressed to me before an interest. I don't know if you still have it or not, but they just asked if anybody from the audience was interested. I noticed you were looking down. 6

MICHAEL YELAPI: Yes, I am interested. Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Thank you, Lois. And I spoke to someone else as well who indicated some interest. So why don't we take no more than five minutes to hear about the two resumes we do have. We will give our audience participants an opportunity over the next week to submit their interest and resumes to Jeff. And then does everyone want a list of who has applied and their qualifications? Yes. CINDY SIMON: So, Jeff, if you will share with all of us. And my suggestion, because we were told by the attorney from the Council that the Council doesn't necessarily have to appoint the individuals, although I am the current chair of the Council, so I will be well aware. I would suggest that we look at the applicants we get and select our top two or three and send a response back to Jeff, and then he'll tally from there. Jeff. JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. I wanted to make sure that it was the Committee's pleasure with regard to me discussing any particular applicant, so I will e-mail you the resumes that I have. I have two currently; Michael's, as he indicated his interest; and I have a Mr. Mariona. He was the gentleman that spoke to us in the May meeting. When I get back to Tallahassee, I will e-mail you out their resumes now that I understand that it's your desire to see them, and we'll provide you with any others I receive or review, and would ask that by a week from tomorrow I get some feedback from the Committee. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Thank you. Wow, we're almost on time. We're within five minutes! Okay. The next topic I expect to take some time, and that is the concerns that went to Assistant Secretary Stewart and the reply. I will tell you all that I was on a call on August 6th. I had repeatedly asked for someone to attend this meeting, whether by phone or in person. I have had great difficulty with that. You all have three letters in front of you, two of them are rather lengthy. I would like to suggest that we take five or ten minutes to give you an opportunity to read it and catch up before we begin this discussion. Does that sound about right to everybody? Why don't we take a few minutes to read it. Yes, Terri. TERRI SCHISLER: I was wondering how many of the committee members have already read at least the first two letters. CINDY SIMON: Yeah. So why don't we take a couple minutes, read it so that you're up to speed before we begin the discussion. JEFF McLEMORE: Madam Chair, this is Jeff. With your permission, I would like liberty to check the phone lines. CINDY SIMON: Oh, that's fine. Please do. LIRA LATIMER: Good morning. Is there anyone available on the phone lines? Thank you. JEFF McLEMORE: And Madam Chair -- Madam Chair, this is Jeff. I would like to let the Committee know that because no one announced themselves on the conference call, that doesn't mean that someone is not listening, because we had a couple signals from the box that somebody was dialing into the phone and we wouldn't be made aware of that. CINDY SIMON: Well, let me say for the record here that if anyone does come on the line, please feel free to interrupt us and introduce yourselves. But I've had many occasions where whoever was on the line, it was the wrong line they meant to be on. Judy. JUDY MARTIN: Yes. Could you take a minute to explain the chat room to Martha? MARTHA KNOWLES: I do understand about that. I do know enough to understand it. JUDY MARTIN: I apologize. MARTHA KNOWLES: No problem. CINDY SIMON: Is another two minutes sufficient for everybody? Okay. So I think the way I'm going to address this is, I'd like to read the response from Assistant Secretary Stewart into the record. This -- along with you, this is the first time I have seen this. And then we're going to have Rick explain the history behind the other letter, which we will ask to be put into the record. But they are rather lengthy to read into the record, so we have already given it to 7

our CART provider, Kathy, and you-all have had a chance to read it now. And then we will open it up for discussion. So here is the letter from the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families. "Dr. Simon: "After the May 2013 Advisory Committee meeting, I requested and received direct feedback from members of the Committee, as well as reviewed general Committee concerns with my staff. I took this step because I want to take a more active role in working with you to better serve the needs of this client population. As I mentioned in my previous letter, working together, the Committee and the Department have made tremendous progress towards improving DCF's services to those who are deaf or . "While I can't be with you today, I want to summarize what I perceive the major concerns of the Committee to be based on the feedback I received. They include, but are not limited to, the following: "Creating a unit to serve the needs of the Deaf or Hard of Hearing. "Placing deaf or hard-of-hearing children in foster homes that are accessible. "Recruiting more foster parents who can sign or are deaf or themselves. "Ensuring our website is ADA compliant and user-friendly to those who are deaf or Hard of Hearing. "I have gained a better understanding of the complexities of these issues as a direct result of our communications and of those with my staff. We look forward to being able to speak to each issue when the pending T.R. litigation is resolved. "We remain committed to ensuring compliance with the voluntary resolution agreement. I believe the best way to improve services to this population is for the Committee and the Department to work effectively together as a team during the voluntary resolution agreement period. Dennise and Jeff tell me that they believe the Committee is acting in good faith, and I can assure you that everyone in the Department is as well. "Sincerely, Scott T. Stewart, Assistant Secretary for Administration." [Please find attached a July, 8, 2013, letter to FCCDHH from Rick Kottler; and an August 21, 2013, letter to Roosevelt Freeman from Cindy Simon, Chair, FCCDHH] Rick. RICK KOTTLER: This is Rick. I promise no tirades today. You all know my feeling about this. And the initial thought process of sending a letter to the Council was -- number one, the council appointed us. So as far as I'm concerned, who we answer to is the Coordinating Council. I know, myself, I spent a lot of time putting my concerns on paper for the Secretary and Assistant Secretary. I know Shana did, and I believe Cindy did also. But that's as far as they went. So by presenting them to the Council, I felt that somebody outside of DCF needed to know what our concerns are. And they're still valid concerns. You know, the timeline doesn't jibe with, "Well, we can't talk about this because of the lawsuit," because we could talk about it before when the lawsuit was there. In my mind, it's very simply, "We're going to stonewall this until the settlement agreement is over and it will all go away." And I would disagree with the Assistant Secretary. I think this letter is exactly where my problems started and we're coming back full circle to tell me that we are -- where the Department is acting in good faith. I don't believe so. I just don't believe it at all. What I have somewhat taken comfort in is that the Coordinating Council agreed and has -- if you will see their letter, supports this contention. There are going to be other letters of support that I have been informed of. One is coming from Chris Wagner. Some of you know Chris, a dear friend and he's also the president of the National Association of the Deaf, and he will be writing a letter in support of this. I am not doing this to be antagonistic. However, I am an advocate. I have been an advocate for 15 years. And I'm not going to back down. I'm simply not going to. This is a problem, it's an identified problem, it needs to be dealt with. And telling me, "Well, we'll take care of it," I don't believe it. The problem is, I really don't care how many people sue the Department of Children and Families. No skin off my nose. But what happens is, in order for somebody to sue, they have to have had their rights taken away from them. The idea is to make sure that that doesn't happen in the first place, and we need to be vigilant. We are an Advisory Committee. If they don't want to listen to us, that's fine. But we can keep telling them and keep telling them and keep telling them. That's all we can do. And this was just the first step. And I think very strongly that the organizations represented on this Committee also need to take that step, and not just the National Association of the Deaf. The 8

Hearing Loss Association needs to step up and say, "We're worried about these kids. This is a valid concern." And again, that was my motivation for it, it was not just to be antagonistic. But there's kids out there who we have to take care of. Thank you. CINDY SIMON: All right. If I can ask Judy and Bob to wait one second. I want to give Jeff a chance, since that letter went first. And then after we hear that, we're going to go to Judy and then Bob. Okay? Jeff. JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. Rick, I understand your passion and I committed to this Committee in November of '92 that I would do everything that I could personally as well to move the cause of this Committee forward. And while it bothers me a bit that you used the word, "stonewalling," I know that as a result of my meetings with Scott Stewart, our Assistant Secretary for Administration, after he received feedback from the Committee directly, he is very serious about addressing these issues. You know, unfortunately the litigation -- with the litigation we've been advised by Legal that we can only comment so far. And I know, Rick, you may not believe this at this point, but I can tell you that in working with Assistant Secretary Stewart that the minute we can, these items will be addressed. At his direction, as a result of your feedback and that of the other Committee members, he has asked me to immediately review the feasibility of reinstituting a contract with an independent consultant. I'm in the process of doing that. And if we are able as a Department to do that, I would anticipate that that independent consultant, whoever that might be, would be back onboard with us, the Committee and the Department, for the November meeting. I will have to put a Request for Proposal out again, so I can't say who the independent consultant would be. But if we can make that happen, we will. And as I mentioned, I can tell you from my conversations with Assistant Secretary Stewart as a result of your feedback, he is very serious about not only addressing concerns of this Committee but about actually doing great things for this population. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Jeff. And I assume you are going to give Michelle Riske-Morris a chance to bid again? JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. When I do what's called letting the Request for Proposal, it would be up to her to put in a proposal. CINDY SIMON: But we can let her know, right, that it's there? JEFF McLEMORE: I can't as a Department recommend it. CINDY SIMON: All right. Judy, you're next. JUDY MARTIN: Thank you. Few things. First of all, I'm very glad to hear about that, Jeff, about seeking an independent consultant. Second, to Rick. I will have the Hearing Loss Association of Florida write a letter, our own Jacksonville chapter, and I will notify all the chapters in the state, there are 15, and ask them to write letters on the details. I'm not sure they all will, but we can certainly do that. And third, speaking with Terri this morning, we talked about not being involved really because it's not part of our daily life now. I don't deal with people who are deaf, I don't deal with children who are in the foster care system. I deal mostly as an advocate for people with hearing loss. So my question is, and I listened -- I've been here a long time and I listened and I've learned a lot, but will the compliance report help us see what's really happening? Will it help us to know that we're going in the right direction? Because otherwise we'll be getting people saying what's happening, but our compliance report is based on fact -- based on reports. That's all I have. RICK KOTTLER: This is Rick. And since I got the floor, I will say thank you very much. I think that bringing in an independent consultant, I'm a lot more comfortable with that. I think Michelle did a great job in the past. As far as the compliance reports, if those compliance reports are coming from the independent consultant, I would feel comfortable with them. Okay? You understand where I'm -- JUDY MARTIN: I do. RICK KOTTLER: Okay. CINDY SIMON: Judy, my understanding is a little different than that. I think when things come to Carolyn, she has reported things that they found out in the field that were being done incorrectly and 9

they have instituted corrective measures where and when they can and are able to. So I think what the compliance reports tell us -- and again remember, I know there are trainings out there going on, because I can be at a social event and a complete stranger tells me that she was just at a Deaf and Hard of Hearing training and it turns out she's an independent consultant as a social worker, we know it's going on. It's just not everybody follows what they're told, and we don't know for compliance unless the problems come up. So if there are specifics in those compliance reports, I think we can be confident those are things that were egregious problems and have come to the attention of the Department. So I'm pretty comfortable with it. JUDY MARTIN: That's okay. As long as we have them and we have actually a written report, that will be helpful. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. Did you want to answer her or go to Bob? Okay, Jeff. JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. One thing that I can assure the Committee is that Carolyn Dudley in her role as civil rights manager, her group is very thorough. And while they're a part of the Department, they provide significant oversight role with regard to monitoring. ROBERT FIFER: I have heard about the phrase "We can't discuss this because of litigation" for several months now, and I'm very concerned about that. The reason why is because the need is here and now. In the front of my mind I do not recall what the litigation is all about. I was probably told about it, but I'm on memory overload and I simply don't recall. But that's irrelevant to the point I want to make. There -- on the major items we have listed, these are things that on a practical basis need to be accomplished now, litigation or no. And I would submit, with due respect to Legal for DCF, if DCF were to engage in these efforts, it may help whatever litigation there is as far as standing in the court, if the litigation is what I think it is. But the potential for harm and continued harm, for children in particular, is there. We have the opportunity to offer experience and guidance because everyone around us, everyone around the table, is an advocate. We bring different things to the table, we complement one another from our experiences, our knowledge base, and our professional perspectives. Now is the time, and we have held a good foundation with the training, on teaching DCF employees about the needs of the deaf and Hard of Hearing, how to respond to those needs. But as time has gone, we have identified other areas that DCF didn't know about, and one of the greatest harms is not knowing what you don't know. As we have identified these issues, they are issues, they're very real issues that can cause mental health harm, to children in particular, if there is a communication barrier there and a child is placed in a home where there is no opportunity for that child to communicate, depending upon the child's age. And so I'm strongly suggesting the message be delivered to Tallahassee that we need to start on these issues now, litigation or no. I mean the period of silence for the litigation is nonsense when people have a potential to be hurt. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Bob. I can tell you from the first conference call I had that the attorneys on the line had said, "I can't allow them to talk about it." Now, that doesn't mean they don't have to be working behind the scenes. And everyone was reminded and Rick has said this many times, including in his letter, we are here because of these problems and because these problems have occurred and continue to occur. I do want to add a little more to the letter from Assistant Secretary Stewart. In my conversation on August 6 where he did not attend but Dennise Parker was there, Caroline Dudley was there, as well as Jeff McLemore and Lara Latimer. They actually identified eight areas of concern rather than just what was listed here. So they are aware of more. And I'm going to read what I was told and I hope I read them correctly. Again, let me tell everyone, they didn't receive very much from anybody on this committee. Two people, other than my original letter, sent in concerns. And I'm not sure what kind of a message that gives to them when that's all that respond. JEFF McLEMORE: Madam Chair, if I may. CINDY SIMON: Yes. JEFF McLEMORE: Sorry for the interruption. What I can tell you is that Secretary Stewart may have already received information from yourself and other Committee members, but I've been meeting 10

with him on a regular basis because of those meetings. CINDY SIMON: And I know you have, Jeff. But just for everyone's information, I wanted to tell you the eight areas that was identified to me from what they did receive. The first was the DCF Deaf unit to serve the deaf and Hard of Hearing. The second was to place deaf and hard-of-hearing children in accessible foster homes. Three was recruit foster parents who are deaf or Hard of Hearing. Four was the home was to be provided with appropriate aids, services, and interpreters. Five was that our website should be accessible and friendly for the deaf and hard of hearing. Six was improve trainings, but not only to DCF staff and their contractors but for foster parents as well, which would necessitate a different type. Seven was to allow for text messaging instead of phone calls, which was the only thing that was not told to me that was in the lawsuit. And the eighth was to establish an 800-number that was dedicated for use by the deaf and Hard of Hearing. So those were the eight concerns that were identified to me. And I in my letter also had a text-only area on the website without graphics for those with visual challenges and that the trainings would be separate for the contractors versus what foster parents get. Again, I requested people -- someone to be here besides Jeff, and once more we were not able. And I think that's where everybody's frustration lays. It's really difficult. I understand legal constraints. I'm hoping that all of this is going on behind the scenes regardless of what you're saying. But, Jeff, there was something that was mentioned which necessitated a change in my letter, and I think the Committee needs to know this. And can you please talk about that dedicated work group? JEFF McLEMORE: Yes, ma'am. I'll be happy to do that. This is Jeff. First, I wanted to address one portion of Rick's letter -- and I want Rick to know this personally. I understand the frustration that Rick and the Committee had with Mukweso Mwenene, our Family Community Services representative, addressed this Committee at two meetings. But I want to assure Rick and the Committee, he was not being insensitive with regard to speaking into the mic. I truly believe that he was -- that he was nervous with regard to his presentation. And if you'll recall, he was receiving some pretty challenging questioning. And I think it wasn't an insensitivity issue for him or a callousness issue with him, I think it was more of an issue of nerves. Because I've known him for many, many years and he is the best hearted man at DCF that I've worked with. During his presentation he mentioned the fact that DCF was going to have what he called a "task force" to be put together to look at the issues, many of which were on the concerns list that Cindy just discussed. When he said that, there were some Committee members here that wanted to be a part of that task force, and the Chair recommended that at least a Committee member be a part of that task force. I have -- because it was a source of frustration or what I perceived as a source of frustration on this Committee, I went back to Mukweso and the Director of Family Community Services to see if I could understand what he meant by "task force." In my mind from speaking to him, he wasn't referring to it as we would expect an independent review task force to be. He was talking about -- and I confirmed this with both he and his boss prior to coming down. He was talking about pulling in individual DCF employees to address specific issues that a particular program office was having. So I apologize if -- on behalf of him, if his word-use caused consternation. But there is no formal work group or task force that any of us could be appointed to. CINDY SIMON: Jeff, I understood you said that. And so that necessitated going back to the letter from the Council. Again, I will reiterate what was written by the Council. There is no one who knows this population that they can go to who is an expert. So if there is an issue regarding deaf and/or hard-of-hearing individuals, I would like to make it mandatory that there be someone appointed either from this group or a designee of the Coordinating Council that they will consult with so they can appropriately address those issues. I think that that would go a long way to making people a little happier here. Bob. ROBERT FIFER: Jeff, before you and Lira joined us, we had many meaningful conversations with 11

representatives of DCF. One of the things that came forward in those conversations is that there is no in-house expertise. I simply want to amplify what Cindy is saying. It would be the lost leading the lost if this were to be a task force completely within DCF. You've got to go outside and pull in people with experience, who live and work and know the needs of the deaf and Hard of Hearing, both adult and child. The needs are very different between adult and child, and that must be taken into consideration for every step of planning for intervention, assistance, guidance, counseling, support, education, training. CINDY SIMON: All right. Thank you, Bob. Rick. RICK KOTTLER: I appreciate your candor. We'll forever agree to disagree about him. And I'm very sorry, but when you come to a group and you're addressing a group of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals, there's rules that you need to abide by, and he couldn't do that. And at the same time he's telling us, "Well, we're going to fix all the problems they're having in the child care system." That doesn't give me a lot of confidence when you don't know enough to come in and address appropriately the group that we're dealing with, and then to tell me "We can solve all the problems." And that's -- that's when I walked out, said that's what got you into trouble the first time. And that message has to get back there, that this is what got DCF into trouble. We are not trying to be antagonistic to DCF. We're here to help. And if you don't want our help, that's fine, but you need our help, is the point. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Jeff and then Terri. JEFF McLEMORE: I hear you, Rick. And I tell you -- I can tell you I'm bringing that message back and I have no animosity towards anyone on this Committee. Mukweso did have issues of speaking into the mic, but I just want to you know it wasn't because he was deliberately trying to be insensitive. As I told you all in November of last year, I'm going to do literally everything that I can -- while I'm not executive leadership, I am in a position of management with the Department, and I truly believe that when Assistant Secretary Stewart says that each one of these concerns are going to be addressed or we will speak to each one of these concerns, that that's going to happen. Because as I said, I've been meeting with him on a regular basis since the last meeting. But I applaud your passion. I'm going to support this group in any way that I can, and I just want the Committee to know that. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. Terri. TERRI SCHISLER: I try to take everybody's word as the truth and being honest. And if you say that DCF is, you know, being honest and is taking -- fully intends to comply with the statements they made in the letters and your comments, then I'm going to take them at their word. However, I think what we're saying is that the evidence that we see shows that the efforts to this point have not been effective. So, you know, while I believe that you think you're doing the best you can and that you're working towards accomplishing those goals, there is still work that needs to be done. I have a list of comments that I can provide you where I can show you evidence that there's still work to be done. And, you know, when I joined this Committee, it had already been in progress for a while. The thing that was really glaringly obvious that caused me a great bit of problem was in going back and trying to review from the day the settlement agreement was signed to the point where the independent consultant had finally been appointed and that this Committee had begun meeting again -- I went through that whole almost -- actually over a year's worth of records and transcripts, and I was having a hard time finding -- rationalizing the fact that from January to approximately May when this Committee finally started meeting, that DCF had already created the training that needed to be done. And I applaud them for working, you know, proactively get the ball rolling. But what I saw a year later, that that training still was very deficient, that they were doing what they thought was the right thing to do and they were trying to make the changes that they thought were appropriate, but they were severely lacking at that point. Now we're two years now after that, and we're telling you there's still egregious errors and problems within the system. And if DCF feels -- and this is for me especially, what I am perceiving with the conversations the last three meetings that we've had and the letters exchanged back and forth, is that DCF feels that they've done the work because they've completed the task list and the settlement agreement and that there's no more work to be done. It appears that way. I'm not saying that it is. It appears that since they met the letter of the 12

settlement agreement, that the Committee here has no more role. And we've been told directly in communications that we don't have the authority to do some of the things that we feel are needed to correct the ongoing errors, omissions, lack of effective communication. So one of my comments that I sent in that I wanted to be addressed on the agenda, and it may be coming up in that last bullet that has a whole bunch of things in there, but I noticed on the website that there have been updates to the training or updates to policies and procedures. I'd like to know what those updates were. If something's been revised, I'd like that information to be shared with the panel. If you've made a change, well, that means you've seen something where there's room for improvement. If you've changed it, I'd like to know what you changed because we may have some input that would help you to make sure that that's complied with or whether that meets the requirement. But the lack of communication to the panel, to this Committee -- the lack of communication going to the Committee on a voluntary basis, is not happening. That for the most part the only information we've been receiving for the last year has been those compliance reports or the monitoring reports by the independent consultant. And there's this long string of information -- sometimes those reports went on for hours and there's never been one written document to have a summary of those findings. And that would be so beneficial not only for us, but for the Department. And if you have those documents, why aren't they being shared? Those documents should be able to be requested with a public records request. Why aren't they being shared with this Committee? There's no information coming to the Committee except the little bit of information we get every three months when we show up here. We don't feel that there is an open communication. It feels to me, personally, like you're only responding to direct questions. And this is before the lawsuit. This is before the current litigation. You're only responding to direct requests for information, and then it feels very reluctant. It appears very unwilling; that we're having to, you know, get to this point where we are frustrated beyond belief and that finally, now, we're beginning to see some response from DCF as a whole. But why do we have to get to this point? Why do we have to get so angry to make this happen? This is not an adversarial relationship. We are here willingly, voluntarily, to assist DCF to make the changes that are needed. We're here to help you. We're not here to make your life miserable. We're not here to point out the errors or the omissions or the failures to provide. We're not here for that. But they're still there. We're here to fix that, and you're not allowing us to do our job. Based on my research over the last couple weeks, it's been told to me that the settlement agreement is a voluntary agreement between two parties and that the only way the settlement agreement can be changed is if the two parties agree to change it. I would strongly request that that be done. You can voluntarily do these actions, like rehire an independent consultant, and we applaud you and that would be a great step. But I would love to see that this settlement agreement be extended, that this panel's work be extended beyond the current term, because I don't believe that in the next 12 months we're going to accomplish all of these goals. I don't believe that this is a simple problem, and I expect that we will still be needed a year from now. And we are here to help and we have lists and we've provided suggestions. I believe in the last meeting there was a comment made about a brochure, and Rick mentioned it in his letter; a brochure that we worked very hard to draft precise language, that it filled a need that was there. And I believe they said that brochure has not been used. Why? We'd like to know why you decided not to use a brochure that this Committee provided you. JEFF McLEMORE: Madam Chair, this is Jeff. Terri, I hear your concerns and I will certainly notate them. I know for myself, Lira, and everyone I'm working with, there is no feeling of animosity. And please forgive me, I don't remember being given a brochure since I've been involved. It must have been prior to me. If you can share that with me, we can confirm that it was prior to me, and I will go back and do everything I can to get that specific issue going. CINDY SIMON: Rick and then Bob. RICK KOTTLER: This is Rick. And I'm not going to beat a dead horse. What I'd like you to take back with you -- because, you know, I think we're all sitting here with the impression that DCF is going, "Well, we know this now. We can go our own way." Remind those people of the first six months that we started and we went through every page of your policies and procedures and almost every time there was a comment, there was from DCF staff, "Oh, we didn't know that," "Oh, we didn't understand that." And it took us literally six months to go through 13

those page by page. What we're talking about now is nothing different. It's a whole new world that has to be explored. And just remind them that that was the experience we went through at the beginning, and that experience is still here. DCF does not have the internal capability to understand the problems. Okay? JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. Rick, I will certainly do that. But, Rick, I have a question for you. The brochure was prior to me coming on board with this project? RICK KOTTLER: Yeah, I'm pretty certain it was. JEFF McLEMORE: Okay. If I can get that information, Terri, I'll be happy to get it moved. CINDY SIMON: Okay, thank you. I have just one quick comment, Bob. Jeff, I know we talked about having someone come back to discuss trainings again since Chris is no longer doing that. And, Terri, just so you know, I know you called various people, you know, running things by them when they made the original trainings and it went by the Council -- by the Committee before it actually went out for changes. I know we were talking about changes there, and twice you said that -- what's the person's name? JEFF McLEMORE: Denise Hunter. CINDY SIMON: Yeah, she wanted to come. Can we get her for the next meeting and maybe discuss training? JEFF McLEMORE: I will certainly invite her. CINDY SIMON: Can you try? JEFF McLEMORE: Yes, I'll invite her. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. JEFF McLEMORE: And I will also see if we can share our updates in the training now. I know they've been working on it, as I mentioned to the Committee the last meeting. CINDY SIMON: All right. Bob. ROBERT FIFER: Jeff, you're very much in the hot seat at the moment and I recognize that. It's not my intent and I'm sure it's not others intent to crucify the messenger. But by default, you have become our messenger. I would give almost anything that we would have a direct pipeline to the ears of the key decision-makers in Tallahassee right now to hear our frustrations. You've heard this theme many times over and you may hear it many times yet this morning over the next hour and a half before we dismiss or take a break. It cannot be stressed enough that DCF needs us. I think the term that would probably be most appropriate would be "benign ignorance." You don't know what you don't know. And that can be very, very dangerous, harmful, to people who need services. We were told early on that we are advisory only, we do not have any oversight authority. We have expressed frustration. Figuratively speaking, we have stomped our feet, pounded the table, and we have been heard on many occasions, and that helped move things along and get things done, and also pulled the reins back when the agency was starting to go down the wrong path in the training effort. Because there were several things about to happen in the training that would have been very inappropriate and we were able to redirect that to a direction much more appropriate. I recognize that we still don't have oversight authority by virtue of the settlement agreement. We are still advisory only. But my plea, and I make this with my anesthetic personality and degree of passion -- which don't be fooled, is very, very strong -- is that you deliver the same message with as much passion as what we're delivering this morning. That DCF cannot dismiss us and still survive this because there would be another federal lawsuit, I guaranty before it's all done. You'll be back where you are right now, even where you were three years ago before it's all done. You've got to have either our input or input of people like us to keep DCF on the correct track, to help the people with these special needs. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Jeff. JEFF McLEMORE: Madam Chair, this is Jeff. Thank you for the comments, Bob. And I do recognize your passion. I'm also not one to great emotion. The thing that I want to comment on with your comments there is that -- Cindy can attest, she's been on two calls now with our executive leadership -- we are bringing a strong message to the executive leadership. The Chair did directly to Assistant Secretary Scott Stewart on the conference call. And as I mentioned earlier this morning, as a result of the feedback, he is moving very quickly to do what we can 14

do given the constraints of our legal advice at this point to make sure that when we can, each of our concerns will be addressed. CINDY SIMON: It's 10:25. I know we're scheduled for a break at 10:30. Is there anybody else who wants to weigh in on this? Kathy, the two letters that we did not read into the record will be attached to this CART, will they not? The indication is yes, they will be. Jeff, I can't begin to tell you, I know that everyone has put you in the awkward position of "being there." We feel really strongly that the Department of Children and Families needs this Committee, needs this -- they have enough problems without adding these other issues, of which we have so many experts sitting here. Please utilize our expertise. I understand you're told that you can't do -- you can't talk about this by an attorney. But what we'd we request, that it be mandatory -- and the Coordinating Council requested that -- that you use someone from this Committee to be a consultant or advisors when issues come up with the deaf or Hard of Hearing or late-deafened or deaf-blind. I would like to hear from the Department that they are instituting such a policy, and I think that would show good faith. And if there's no other comments -- is there any other comments before we take a break? Okay. Poor Kathy probably really needs a break after all of this. Can I propose that since we have so many people in the audience, and we want to give everybody enough time for their public comments, that we take a 15-minute break rather than half an hour break and rejoin at 10:45. Is that all right with everybody? Okay. See you in 15. [Break from 10:28 a.m. to 10:48] CINDY SIMON: All right. Can everybody please take your seats. We'll be starting momentarily. Okay. Thank you, everyone, for returning so promptly. Before we go to public comment, I would just like to make a correction on the interpreters that we have with us. So I'm going to read the current list that I just received. Safina Allibhai, Brenda Prudhom Chris Prudhom, Heather Quinn, Kristen Wilber, and Tawnya Kelley. And thank you, all. I really know you're working your fingers off today. So with that being said, I'd like to continue on to public comment. And may I say how excited we are to have so many people here today. Thank you all so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to come and join us and possibly speak with us. So I'm going to go to the first comment. And you can come up to the microphone when I call your name, and I'm going to read your comment. The first one is Shannon Simon. And I'd like to say it's no relation to me. SHANNON SIMON: I don't know if you can read my handwriting. It's pretty horrible. CINDY SIMON: She's talking about concerns with no interpreter produced for two doctors' appointments, directions for jury? SHANNON SIMON: I utilized that as a rough draft but I did a more complete one here. So apologize. CINDY SIMON: Okay. SHANNON SIMON: Anyway, I'm Shannon Simon. Again, I work for the family Center on Deafness. JUDY MARTIN: Can you speak slower, please, for the CART provider. CINDY SIMON: Sure. Sorry. I get nervous. SHANNON SIMON: Okay. So again, I'm Shannon Simon. I work for Family Center on Deafness. I'm a new case manager, just to preface that. I started in January. At any rate, my experiences thus far, I work right with the clients, so I'm with the parents all the time in the community with whatever they need. They just come to me and they ask and I try to provide as best as possible. At any rate, I have a client that has a child who's nine years old and he's deaf and autistic, and both the parents are deaf. And they've been going to Directions for Living for their mental health. And from what I understand, that's funded partially or all of it is funded through DCF. That's where they send a lot of clients. At any rate, so they've been going there for some time. They had a doctor, they would show up. They knew to provide an interpreter because they knew the parents were deaf. So they had an established relationship. 15

Well, part way through, they would show up for an appointment and there would be no interpreter. I wasn't working at FCD yet, but they fill the appointment based on availability, it takes a long time to get an appointment at Directions for Living. You have three children per household, you just -- JUDY MARTIN: Too fast. JEFF McLEMORE: I had the same problem at first. So don't worry about it. CINDY SIMON: Okay. SHANNON SIMON: Sorry. So anyway, they show up for an appointment, there's no interpreter. With scheduling with other children in school, they prolong with the appointment. It was a complete disaster. You have two deaf and a deaf child -- slower again? With two deaf parents and a child that show up for an appointment with no interpreter. They proceed with the appointment as best they could, I guess struggling through the appointment. And then they go on to the next appointment and they complained about the fact there's no interpreter. So they showed up for another interpreter, they show up monthly, and there was no interpreter again. And the problem then -- I'm getting to my point -- is, this is funded through DCF, that's where they were told to go, through DCF to Directions for Living. There were some changes with the doctor. So you have two deaf, a child who's autistic. He's on medicine because he's so out of control. They're changing the medicine, the parents can't understand what's going on. That's the dynamic of the situation. So out of frustration and a need to help their child, they're like, "Okay, we're going to trust this doctor." They don't have a clue. And he just happens to be from another country. So even if they could lipread, it wasn't going to happen there. At any rate, that's just one situation that I can bring to light. Another one, more recent, recent like this week. I have a client that has Medicaid and her daughter lost the Medicaid. She's deaf -- mom and dad had deaf, child is hearing. 13 years old. I as an advocate, she calls me and I'm like, you know, call the number. It's there for you, utilize it. Call for your VP, it's fine. She calls and she calls, she can't get through. There's an actual deaf liaison at DCF. We have the phone number. Her name -- I call -- because I'm trying not to enable my client. I'm like, "You just call. You can do it." She's like, "Shannon, it's not working. Nobody is answering." So we call the deaf liaison. The phone doesn't even ring, it goes right to voicemail. I personally left fours voicemails and still haven't heard anything. She continues to call the 1-800 number, whatever DCF provide, the recording. She's frustrated, calling me, texting me. The point is, her daughter needs Medicaid. It fell through for whatever reason, and she just wanted to know why. Then a lot of people say, "Well, just go on the computer, use access." We've done that. She has had such great difficulty with that computer program that she just comes to me and goes, "Can you help me? Can you do it for me?" Well, I would love to spend all day with you and do it, but I can't. And I have done it with her, but I have other clients that have other needs. So again, point is, just the frustration because I'm on the front line, I'm going to their house, I'm sitting with them at my office for hours completing a form on access that she can't even understand, and I'm fumbling through it with her trying not to do it for her because that's not my job; and then also trying to help my clients that are both deaf with their deaf, autistic son in an appointment that's there no interpreter. I can't go interpret the meeting -- or the appointment, that's not my job. You're supposed to advocate for yourself. But the point is, that's the frustration. I'm on the front line and this is what I hear every single day or for the most part, unfortunately, and that's why I'm here, to advocate and let you know it's still happening, and this was Monday. CINDY SIMON: And Shannon, this exactly goes to the point of the compliance report. If these are DCF facilities, then we need people like you to give us their name. And, please, before you go, make sure Jeff and Lira has who it is as well as we have your contact information here, and this will be investigated. Rick and then Kim. RICK KOTTLER: A quick question. Have you filed a complaint with Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights? SHANNON SIMON: For which? 16

RICK KOTTLER: For either situation. SHANNON SIMON: The first one, I have not. And I'll tell you why. Because we went over and above this, and now he's at a facility that's right for him for the moment. And I actually -- this whole situation goes farther than just this one with the two deaf and the deaf, autistic child. Anyway, so the reason we didn't do anything with that is because we went over and above that. There was a bigger issue. He wanted to -- the parents wanted him go to NDA. We fought that out, so he's currently at NDA given the services that are best for him. So at that time, no, I didn't because I wasn't on staff then. But had the child not been in NDA three weeks ago, then this would have been a hotter issue. RICK KOTTLER: And I understand that, but I think in any situation that you come across, you need to do that. It's a very easy thing to do. And then you need to copy DCF with those complaints. Let them know -- because OCR has to know those things too. The other thing is, did you contact Sharon Pimley-Fong? SHANNON SIMON: No. For the bottom one, the most recent one on Monday, I actually e-mailed the supervisor and I got -- we're going to get her in there and sit down with the computer system with DCF. So I'm trying. I mean it's not fixed yet, but I have a tendency to go to the next higher echelon because I don't like the word "no." And so if it doesn't work, then I go above. RICK KOTTLER: I think Sharon should be your first point of contact, particularly in this neighborhood. But she's one of the best in the system as far as the 501 coordinators go. I honestly think she is the best. And she will handle it. If you call her up and let her know the situation, she'll make sure it's taken care of. And in the future, please file those complaints. SHANNON SIMON: Sure. Will do. Thanks. CINDY SIMON: All right. Kim and then Jeff. KIM GAUT: I just want to reiterate what Rick said. Especially in the Suncoast region, Sharon Pimley-Fong should be your first phone call whenever you get anyone coming in -- any deaf person especially, but deaf or Hard of Hearing, coming in and saying we were refused accommodations. Really, it will be settled very quickly. JEFF McLEMORE: I just wanted to say thank you to Rick and Kim. Sharon is a great resource. She actually works for Karen Dudley in our Civil Rights office locally, so she is exactly the point person. So if you contact her, as Kim has said, the situation will be resolved. CINDY SIMON: Thank you so much! And again for everyone, this is the point on a compliance report. If these things are not brought to the attention of the Department, we have no way of knowing. And to answer your early question, Judy, if we heard something like this and then we see it on the next report, we know exactly how accurate it is. So thank you for bringing it to our attention. The next person is Jennifer Boggess, B-o-g-g-e-s-s. And she writes, "Lack of use of certified interpreters, lack of competent and knowledge of deaf and hard-of-hearing needs on the front lines to comply." JENNIFER BOGGESS: That's correct. For the record, my last name is pronounced Boggess. Anyway, I have the same problem that Shannon does, I tend to talk fast when I'm nervous or when I'm passionate about something. As a Deaf adult going out and working with young children who are Deaf and saying the situation they're in, some of the situations incense me. It's very hard for these kids when they have no voice for themselves, especially children in the foster care system. I attended, a few years back, a townhall meeting in Tampa, and I believe it was hosted by the Independent Consulting, and I met Shannon Pimley-Fong there and made contact with her. I gave her feedback of what I was seeing, and she encouraged me to follow up with her if I had a problem. Since then, I had a child taken from an abusive home and placed in foster care with his grandmother. Now, the mother was negligent and abusive, could not communicate with him at all in any form of sign language. He is now living with a grandmother who has very, very minimal sign language skills with him. And only -- the only reason she acquired those skills was because she eventually was told she had to. And it was a long battle with the guardian ad litem group, who was a subcontract under DCF. And I went to a meeting where they asked me to come and advise them on deaf and hard-of-hearing issues 17

and why the lack of communication and language was so harmful for this child. And I spent three hours explaining this to them as a deaf professional, and I was brushed under the rug. The result of that meeting was that the guardian ad litem made excuses for the grandmother why it was inconvenient for her to learn sign language, why she didn't have to come to parent support groups or activities and services that were free for her. And I was left -- I'm sitting there and thinking, you know, my understanding of the guardian ad litem is supposed to advocate for the best interest of the child, not the foster parent. And I left that meeting incensed and I called and called and called the guardian ad litem. Finally I got a call back, and I went to a new meeting. I found out that the former case manager -- this was at Eckerd Community Alternative. And I found that the former case manager there and the safety inspector were no longer working there. I spoke again to the new case manager, the new safety inspector, and they had no idea about deaf and hard-of-hearing issues, about what needed to be done with this child, about how to advocate for this child. They're clueless. So my point is, as we see DCF and upper management at the level of Shannon Pimley-Fong, they want to help, they want to make changes, but it's not trickling down to the front lines where the people are directly working with these kids and making an impact on their lives. And that's where it needs to happen, and it needs to happen a lot quicker than it is. On the issue of interpreter certification, I've seen Directions for Living provide interpreters who are not certified. The interpreters themselves will go out and say, well, I have a QA, quality assurance, level of such and such. That's not certification. The QA tool is originally a feedback tool for sign language interpreters, to give them some feedback and tell them this is where you're performing now, this is where you need to be performing. It's not certification. And the subcontractors at DCF are hiring them because they're cheaper. They don't want to provide certified sign language interpreters in a position that affects a child's rights mentally, physically, emotionally, because they don't want to pay the money. I prove it when I tell that to a hearing person. I say if you are on trial for your life, go into court, would you rather have a prelaw student representing you or a bar-certified lawyer? Foster care places Deaf children in homes where there's no communication between the parent and child. How can the inability to communicate with your child and discern health issues, emotional issues, provide emotional and psychological nutrients not be considered negligent? I don't understand it, and I can't explain that to the people I try to help. How can DCF home safety visits be thoroughly completed if a neutral -- in other words, not a member of the family -- professional and certified sign language interpreter is not provided so that the worker can ask the child if they feel safe, cared for, and to ensure that no further negligent or abuse is occurring? Surveys are supposed to be distributed for quality assurance. The terminology and the high level of literacy required to effectively complete such survey is normally beyond the scope of comprehension for the average Deaf adult, let alone if that child has a language delay. Asking a foster parent or guardian who cannot communicate with that Deaf child to complete the survey on their behalf defeats the purpose. Hearing DCF workers' who attempt to call a Deaf person's video phone -- which, by the way, is technology that long ago replaced the TTY -- frequently will hang up while on hold to connect with the Video Relay Service because there's a recording that tells, "Please wait while your call is being placed." Many of these workers erroneously assume that that means that the phone service is having problems and they hang up instead of waiting patiently to be connected to a video relay operator who has to place the call for them. So we have DCF workers who are supposed to be calling Deaf individuals on their video phone and they hear a recording that says, you know, you have to wait for the call to be completed, and they misassume that it's the phone service. It's just you have to wait a little bit to connect to a video relay operator and they'll call about this. But they don't have the patience to do that. The Deaf person never gets a call back, doesn't get a message left. That's just the things I see. Like Shannon said, I've been working with the Deaf community here in Tampa Bay for 15 years and I see it, hear about it, and live it every single day. CINDY SIMON: Thank you so much for bringing that to our attention. Rick. RICK KOTTLER: First of all, thank you very, very much. 18

Jeff, would you do me one big favor? When you get the CART transcript, will you take her portion of it and provide it to Secretary Stewart? Because I want him to hear from somebody who is on the front lines saying the same thing that we're saying of the problems with the foster care system. I don't want him to think that we're just, you know, complaining just for a reason to complain. Here's somebody who is saying exactly the same thing, and it's happening right now. Okay? JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. Rick, I'll be happy to do that. And, Madam Chair, if you would, again, if I can get specifics from Ms. Boggess, either through you or directly to me, I can pass them on to Karen Dudley. CINDY SIMON: And again, I'm -- sorry, Terri. TERRI SCHISLER: I'd just like to follow up on part of your comments about the use of QA-level interpreters in some of these subcontract agencies. And just for the record, DCF has adopted a policy that only certified interpreters should be used in all cases, including those where these other secondary contract agencies are concerned. So there is no case when a QA interpreter should be used when it's regarding services from or by DCF. So those are very important -- that's important information that needs to be brought to their attention immediately when that's occurring. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Terri. And that's where I was going, that we have adopted those rules. So if you would provide, for Jeff or Lira, the name of the group that was doing that, it will be investigated. JENNIFER BOGGESS: I'd be happy to provide that. And I just want to add two more comments. Agencies like mine, Family Center on Deafness, we're out there. We're asked for that expertise and our feedback to these subcontracting agencies, and they choose not to take advantage of it. They're incompetent. They don't have the knowledge of the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, but they're ignorant enough to dismiss us and choose not to take advantage of our expertise. Just find that ridiculous. And the other thing I wanted to add was when I go to these agencies, I always bring cards for interpreting agencies that use certified interpreters. They're offered to them. I express my concerns. I don't see any changes. That's all I have. CINDY SIMON: Just so you know, Jennifer, we offer our expertise as well and we get the same response, so we too understand your frustration. Thank you so much. JENNIFFER BOGGESS: You're welcome. Thank you for hearing me. CINDY SIMON: Okay. The next person is Michael Yelapi. He did not write anything about his concerns, so I'll let him explain it. MICHAEL YELAPI: That's my stand so I can see in case I miss something. I want to make sure I have my notes accessible. Again, my name is Michael Yelapi and I work for the Center of Independent Living. I am the independent living coordinator. With that agency, we serve a variety of different disabilities: Wheelchair, mentally retarded, deaf. I tend to focus on the deaf and hard-of-hearing department, knowing that we are now the only agency in the area for Deaf services. Other agencies just recently closed, just several years ago, and so now it's a big, big need and we're the only ones. I'm proud of it and hopefully we'll see us grow, our agency. Anyways, before -- I guess it's been four years now. But before that, previously, I worked for the Deaf and Hearing Connection. I've been here in Florida for 20 years, and I have seen ongoing issues with DCF. Nothing has changed in my years here, so I'm sorry to have to inform you of that. 20 years it's been the same story. Same for DHC. I'm just so tired of fighting and advocating. And it's nothing new, so let me tell that you. So I'm here in the Tampa area, Hillsborough County, the same exact thing is happening. I'm happy you have this Committee. You're able to discuss and try to work out some of the issues you're having. I'm very happy to be involved. And hopefully I'll be joining soon. Related to the phone call situation that she just talked about, calling through an answering machine or seeing a message is full, it's very frustrating. People have come to me numerous times in my office and I suggest to them to go to the DCF office because they have VRI there. You know, what other way is there? I mean you call and you can't get through. So just go in person to DCF office and then have the VRI right there. When I first heard about VRI being set up at DCF, I was ecstatic, at first. And then after a while I 19

got a lot of feedback from the deaf and hard-of-hearing community here in Hillsborough County. And I asked them, "Do you like the VRI set-up there?" And they're like, "Hmm, I don't like that. I prefer to have an in-person interpreter than VRI." So I tried to explain to them it's your preference. So if you prefer a live interpreter, just write back and forth and let them know when your appointment comes due, have an actual interpreter there. And they're like, "No, no, no, no, no." And they're like, "Yes, we have VRI right here ready to go." They're like, "No, I prefer an actual live interpreter." So they were denied that service. The deaf and hard-of-hearing community have the right to ask for a live interpreter and not use VRI. Let me tell you about VRI. They're tired of problems with technology popping up. They can't hear it, there's something wrong with the VRI. So for me, it's not successful. Maybe in emergency it's effective, you can ask for a interpreter the last minute, maybe you have VRI for minuscule things, but in the Social Security office or the DCF office, I got a lot of feedback from the Deaf community about those things in Hillsborough County. I also want to let you know that before, like as I said, I focus on the deaf and hard-of-hearing department. I do a lot of case management services, especially for the deaf and Hard of Hearing. Reason being, some Deaf individuals do not read English, they're very behind in their education. Related to DCF, there are many Deaf people who come to me saying, "I don't understand what this letter means." The food stamps or Medicaid, "I don't understand what this is saying." And I have to explain -- I literally have to interpret for them what it means. And they come to me repeatedly. And they're like -- can I just ask you guys, please, to make it very simple for a deaf and hard-of-hearing person to read it? You know, sometimes the language is so technical, these huge words, and they're hard for them to understand if it's related to food stamps or Medicaid. I mean can't you change the terminology to make it layman's terms? I mean that's my request. Related to DCF, the hotline, the abuse hotline. I've been doing this for many, many years. What, 20 years I've been calling the abuse hotline and explaining the situation, whatever the case may be for the deaf person. "Well, you need an interpreter." I let them know well ahead of time before they actually go to see them. DCF, you know, the investigator or whoever is going to go, I let them know they will need an interpreter. "Okay, okay. Fine, fine, fine." Maybe a couple days later they go to meet them and they didn't bring an interpreter, meaning it's going to cause more of a delay for the situation. And I've already informed you well in advance, I requested an interpreter to go with them. And it happens repeatedly. With the survey -- so once you're done with the appointment, isn't that what the DCF worker -- they get the little feedback card? Many Deaf people come to me wanting me to help them fill out the survey form. I mean you need to modify it. I mean once you've made the appointment, and then they go out to fill out right there on the bottom, they leave, instead of the people coming to me over and over again having to help them. You know what I mean? I'm a little disappointed that there's not many people showing up here. I invited several Deaf individuals. And I don't know if there's something wrong with the promotion and they're not getting the word out, I don't know how you get more word out, or maybe they're just tired. You know, for many years we've been doing the same battle and it's just not worth it anymore to come. So -- it's not going to solve anything. So maybe they're just tired of complaining and they've given up. I mean that's just my -- you know, my perspective, my feeling, my observation. I'm sorry, I have three questions. Does anyone have any comments for me before I go that far? ROBERT FIFER: This is Bob. I have a question for you. When you talked about the difficulty in reading materials, was it manuals, letters, brochures? What was it where the reading level was too high? MICHAEL YELAPI: Okay, good question. I'm happy to clarify that for you. It would be something like eligibility for food stamps or Medicaid, if they get their denial letter or acceptance letter, how much they get, the specifics of deductions, that kind of stuff. ROBERT FIFER: Thank you. We had many conversations about reading levels on all these materials a couple years ago, and so this is obviously another area that needs attention still. MICHAEL YELAPI: Yes. No other questions? Okay, great. Let me ask you three questions. I was here last year, and I'm happy that no one is really fighting here today. So that's good, I like the formalities of it instead of just a bickering event. So that's nice, thank you. I did see -- I guess all day last year we saw a video. Was it a success? For the training for DCF. 20

I'm just curious what was happening with that video. Just wanted to clarify for me. Did you use the video? RICK KOTTLER: Michael, that is an entire training program that all DCF employees are required to go through now. But what you're telling us is basically some of them aren't getting the message. But this training program, you can go online, you can see it through the DCF website, but it's basically for employee education. MICHAEL YELAPI: Right. That's what I mean. I was just wondering if they've actually been using it for the staff training. Are they learning anything? I mean here we are after, and what's going on? I don't see anything getting solved. I know that before DHC had a contract with DCF and we did a lot of educating, constant educating of DCF. That was part of our contract. And nothing has changed. Nothing is new. There's no improvement. It's been forever. So I'm just wondering, what's going on? I mean something's wrong there. LOIS MARONEY: Sorry, [inaudible] MICHAEL YELAPI: That's okay. I have an interpreter here. LOIS MARONEY: Do you have some concrete ideas for what we can do with the letters? I also experience a lot of Deaf coming to me with food stamp letters and they don't understand it or they're thinking, "Oh, this letter doesn't apply to me. I already have food stamps," but they don't understand they have to reapply and then they lose their food stamps. So many experience it. And I keep trying to think, what can we do with these letters? How can we make them better? And I'm wondering if you have any concrete ideas for how to make it easier. You mentioned simplifying the language, but I do think that there's so many people with all different levels of understanding, so I feel like -- I have a few ideas myself but would like to know if you have any ideas; or if you don't, if you can maybe think about this a little bit more or get together with some of your Deaf clients and say, "What can we do to make this easier?" You know, if you saw a "call this number for more information," would you understand that? Do you know what I'm saying, Michael? Kind of interview your Deaf and find out what would help to make it better. Because part of this Committee has to give the answers to DCF on how to make it better, what we think will work. But this is a huge problems, the letters. MICHAEL YELAPI: So you want me to comment on that? Go ahead. KIM GAUT: I want to address some of your comments about training. I can tell you from my personal experience in the area where I live that DCF subcontractors are getting the training but they don't understand it, they really don't. You know as well as I do, if someone is not directly involved in the world of hearing loss, they don't understand, and overcoming their ignorance really is very problematic. DCF is providing the training and they've got to sign their agreements every year saying they've received that training and they've done this, that, and the other thing. But they may sit down in front of the computer and go through this, but they don't understand what's going on, and they make no effort to take it any further. Not until they actually get in trouble with something, and then they just poo-poo it by "These issues aren't really that important. We don't have any deaf and hard-of-hearing clients, why should we need to -- oh, they can lipread!" You know, they really don't give -- I'm talking about the subcontractors now. Because DCF has made the effort to put the training out there. What I don't see in my area, I don't see that that training -- that DCF has followed that training up with adequate oversight, that these folks that are actually the ones that are providing the services to our clients, that these folks are getting it, that they understand it past sitting down in front of the computer and signing their name to a little agreement and saying, "Yep, I took the training!" MICHAEL YELAPI: Every day -- let me tell you this. Well, almost every day I have Deaf individuals coming to see me asking for help with the online system for food stamps or applying for Medicaid because they don't know how to communicate through that avenue. And I feel like, is that really my job, to do that for them? It should be DCF's job. But I can't just shoo them away, I have to help them. I mean that's my passion. That's where my heart is at. I try to teach them as best I can, but -- I mean understand, I love the online system, don't get me wrong. But for these individuals, their limited English proficiency, I'm having to help a lot. And did someone else have a question? 21

ROBERT FIFER: Michael, the problem that you're seeing, is it mostly with the in-house DCF employees or the contractors? MICHAEL YELAPI: Hmm. I'm guessing both, actually. Yeah. Well, I'm not sure about the -- let me think about this. Is it a contractor? Probably both. ROBERT FIFER: Thank you. MICHAEL YELAPI: I can find out for sure, get more information later. I'll do some research back in my office. ROBERT FIFER: That could be worthwhile. I have sat through trainings in Miami for DCF employees, the in-house employees, and actually presented on the very broad range of characteristics of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and the broad range of their needs. And I can tell from firsthand experience it was an eye-opener for them because it's, "I never knew!" But I also recognized from my own experiences in another area that some of these things fall into the heading of "use it or lose it." And if you go through the training but you have no deaf clients for nine or ten months or a year or more, you do forget. And this was a problem with the intervention program in Florida for a long time in dealing with children who had hearing and visual needs. And the way that they -- I'm just throwing this idea out, possibly for later discussion. The way that they addressed that, that has worked more successfully, recognizing that that's a relative term, is to have a designated individual that if any child came in with hearing problems or any child with vision problems, this one case manager would take care of that child. And for some of the contracting agencies that don't deal with deaf and Hard of Hearing on a regular basis, I'm wondering if perhaps this idea may be worth considering or discussion, not today but at a later time. MICHAEL YELAPI: Michael: Okay. Great. Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Thank you again. MICHAEL YELAPI: Thank you for your time. And I send my resume to who exactly? JEFF McLEMORE: To me. MICHAEL YELAPI: And what is your name again? Sorry. JEFF McLEMORE: I'm sorry, Michael. Jeff McLemore. MICHAEL YELAPI: Thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it. CINDY SIMON: And thank you for taking the time to come join us and for all your comments. Again, everybody, if we don't know who's not following the trainings, the policies and procedures, we can't do anything about it. But if you let us know, we will have someone follow through on the compliance. They will know there is a problem. Also, we've discussed maybe doing some vignettes, different situations particular to specific offices, as part of training, which has been discussed and I'm waiting for someone in training to come discuss again. Martha. MARTHA KNOWLES: I'd like to add to his comments. He talked about people -- deaf people going into the DCF office and not having access to VRI or also even filling out the forms. I was talking with a co-worker yesterday at the Center for Independent Living, and we're located in Orlando, many deaf people have given up going into the DCF office. Instead, they come to our office and we help them with all of the forms and making the phone calls. CINDY SIMON: Anything else? Thank you. I think that's becoming a common story here. Anyone else? Okay. The next one is Julie Church with some questions. I'll let you ask it. JULIE CHURCH: As the discussion has gone on, my list has grown to like a whole page full of stuff. But anyway, I'm the supervisor of both Janet and Jennifer and I'm blessed, as you can see, to have a dedicated expert staff out there on the front lines. But they do get frustrated, and especially Jennifer who has been in the field for such a long time, and Michael also, who I used to work with, they see it day in and day out and it's not changing. And our kids are growing up and growing out of the system before any change is being made. I wanted to just expound on a couple of things that Shannon said and that Jennifer said. In the case of Shannon's client, the inability to have an interpreter to facilitate communication between the doctor and the parents resulted in this kid being Baker acted three times in one week. We had noticed, the staff had noticed a marketed improvement in his behavior and frame when he was on the right medications. And all it would have taken was to facilitate communication between the parents and the 22

doctor and this situation could have been solved. Instead, Shannon had to take it to a level where there were 14 individuals involved statewide, with five or six, seven different agencies, to try and get some help for this one individual. And this is just one case. And when a case worker may say it's nine or ten months before I come across a deaf person, in the Tampa Bay area they're coming across them every day. We have a huge population here and many of our deaf and hard-of-hearing people are in the system right now. I applaud the idea of getting somebody who's qualified to work with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals and placing them, working in the system with these families, not having to educate every single person who goes out to the home. Get one person, educate them in what they need to know, and save a lot of time and money. I am also the vice president of an organization called Deaf Service Center Association. And way back when, when I was on the Coordinating Council, I remembered some discussion of possibly contracting with the deaf service centers in different areas of the state to help facilitate training with people who are experts in the field. And I know my agency has never been contacted for that, I don't know about the other deaf service center directors on the panel. But if the Advisory Council keeps bringing up suggestions and the Department doesn't do anything about it, what's the point? The other thing I wanted to talk about was the interpreter who was a QA. This was a low-functioning deaf adult. This was somebody who did not have a good command of the language and probably should have been presented with a certified Deaf interpreter. This is a person who went out was a QA-1, which is the lowest level of quality assurance for interpreters. And as a result, my case manager at the time, who fortunately is a NIC-certified interpreter, had to take over the communication and left the interpreter there not doing anything. So these situations, they happen all the time but they're not getting better. And I guess that's all I need to say. Thanks. CINDY SIMON: Anybody? Yes, Kim. KIM GAUT: Yeah, I'd like to say one more time -- no, that's okay, Julie -- one more time that it's the independent contractors, the ones that are actually on the front lines providing the services that still don't get it. They still don't follow the rules. And like me, I'm a director of a deaf service center also, and when my services are offered to each one of these agencies in my location, they are refused because they don't need -- they've already had the training. But if there was somebody within the Department in each regional office who can specifically work with the subcontractors who gets it -- because there's plenty of people in Florida who know how to work with deaf and hard-of-hearing people, we're just not being utilized. JULIE CHURCH: Exactly. We all agree with you. And one other thing that I wanted to add, sometime this summer I was contacted by a Gail Hoffman who was supposed to be setting up some sort of consumer task force or training to test the various things on the website and the various access to the system. And soon after that I heard they were setting up the task force with a panel or whatever it was. Nothing every happened. And the last I heard on that was that there was a change in staffing and it was being postponed. What happened there? RICK KOTTLER: This is Rick. That's a really good question. I don't know. I think -- oh, what's his name. Hold on a second. Roosevelt Freeman. I believe he has transferred out, which is a direct supervisor, or is in the process of it, and I think that's where the change is coming. It's a supervision change in their office. Gail is with the Office of Civil Rights. She's the lawyer who has pretty much handled the settlement agreement. But I don't know anything more than that. Jeff, can you add anything to that? JEFF McLEMORE: No, Rick. This is Jeff. That's exactly what I understand, there's some relationship changes within HHS. JULIE CHURCH: Is it possible to get a timeline or some sort of commitment as to when that will happen? RICK KOTTLER: I can contact her and let you know. JULIE CHURCH: It seems like things like this get started and then gets put on the back burner, and that's one of the reasons things don't seem to change. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Julie. Okay. I have one more here, and this is someone who wrote 23

in. Lois, did you want to read this or do you want me to? LOIS MARONEY: I will read it. I received this in an e-mail and was asked, if the person did show or not show, if it would be read into public comment. "My name is Susan R. Cole, as a birth name and a well-known name all my life. I am Deaf since child abuse. I am not ashamed about losing my hearing. It was my daddy's responsibility even though he was a military father. He denied allegations. I never knew what caused it. My mother knew, but to defend my father, medicines caused hearing damages. "Changed from "medicines" to "illness," so on and so on, until my daddy was close to die. He asked me to forgive him about damaging my hearing. Gotcha! I got the answer! Not my fault happen to be Deaf. "A lot of battles with DCF. Weeks, months, hours wasting my breath to explain over and over to DCF officials that I am unable to find a job due to being ill, even more due to having PTSD, known as posttraumatic stress disorder, I suffer being abused since birth. "Even though I am so beautiful inside and outside, I care, cherish, and love everyone. You see, I have a daughter that survives oral cancer. She was 20 years old. Now five years cancer-free. I asked her if I could name her. She says no, she prefers to speak for herself. I respect her and her well-being. She finished her USF degree as speech pathologist to want working with cancer patients. However, Moffitt Cancer Center only wants MA degree; that disappointed her. She told me she could have gone back to school while working with patients, so moving on to work with children at Shrine's Children Hospital. Long enough to say. "My point is that DCF claims that they provide 'free' interpreters. What 'free'? I suspect DCF doesn't pay interpreters? I don't understand. There are many places like hospitals, schools, doctors, police, et cetera, that are providing. For example, two weeks ago I was ordered to go to Tampa General Hospital ER by my doctor. It was very serious and she gave me prescription. I went right there. They already had an interpreter. They processed procedures. "I was scared and I texted my psychologist and my sweet counselor telling them I am in serious condition. So my psychiatrist called Tampa General Hospital to find out what was going on with me. Then she texted me, telling me that I have a very dangerously low level of potassium. They kept me there for six hours and still I didn't have enough food stamps. DCF used to give me 200. All of a sudden, they gave me cut-down to 125. I am very thirsty. Oh, yes, I buy a lot of water packages, fruits and fresh veggies. All 125.00 is gone in two weeks. Then people feel so sad they share with me. "Now on August 8th there was a legal meeting with two legal interpreters. I stayed up all night because I am not always getting up so well and so pain. "Well, sometimes I bring up the attention that medicines charge a lot, not covered by Medicare, so friends help me pay them because of antidepressants. One of antidepressants can't change into generic but brand only. That helps me stay alert. I said around 2,000 a month; not every month, for a reasons. Collect anti-depressant receipts are about to reimburse people back. "Misunderstanding and miscommunication between DCF and Deaf/ are not very clear. Like one person pushes Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing clients to sign a form before a meeting starts. That is wrong." Like all kind of languages and subjects, we are lost of the planet. Excuse me. "Letters are not clarified to all of us. Letters look like all kinds of languages and subjects. We are lost of the planet. Can you tell us that if you read that letter, will help you understand this? I know, I once was a teacher of the Deaf children. I looked at children wondering how they understand when they grew up. That made me sad! I can understand better than what others are indifferent to those people who are basically educated? I feel sad! I am outrageous. "Know what? Just got another letter from DCF. They gave me only 125.00 on August 1 to August 31st this month. What happened from June 1st to September 30? Great! They wanted me to tie my hands up until you can free my hands." Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Lois, do you know this person? Can you explain her situation a little bit clearer to us? LOIS MAHONEY: As Michael explained, because a lot of Deaf don't have anywhere to go in Pinellas County, I see a lot of that and the story is the same. They get a letter about food stamps. They think "It doesn't apply to me" and they ignore it. Then I find out they have no money to eat, nothing. Their food stamps stop, they don't understand. 24

I say, "Bring the letter to me that you got from DCF." They bring the letter and I look it over. "You were supposed to reapply." "I didn't know that. Why do I need to reapply? I have food stamps." They don't understand. So I tell them to make an appointment, go through the process. So when they finally do get the food stamps, and it was a lesser amount, this person didn't understand why is it a lesser amount, requests a hearing. I also try to help this person to understand and request a meeting. And through the meeting, even with interpreters, they were still lost. I guess there's one form that you sign saying that you have interpreters. Well, before the meeting started, they signed the form. They were never explained the form. This person was never explained it. So when she comes to see me and she tells me, "I didn't understand the meeting" and she has forms, I say, "Do you see this form?" "I was told to sign it. It was before the meeting even started." "It said you were satisfied with the interpreters." But she wasn't satisfied with the interpreters that she had. And I've been saying this all along here that a lot of clients, Deaf, don't always understand the interpreters. And I think it's because the interpreter isn't the person to explain to the Deaf person in their language. The interpreters are communicating what the hearing person is saying. So she wasn't understanding. There was a total miscommunication, she wasn't understanding anything at all. And then finally it goes to a hearing. And before the hearing, I knew that this person still wasn't understanding and I wasn't understanding. And I asked Sharon please send me information, help me understand so I can help explain to her. So Sharon gets the information, sends it to me I took one look at it, and all I had to do was find one sentence and that person understood it completely. But here we had been going through all of these processes. So it leads me to feel that we need to have a Deaf unit. We need to have some people who truly understand the Deaf. Deaf people working with other Deaf. Because this clearly shows that all it took was just one sentence from me and then the person understood it. So this is it. This is something that happens again and again and again. CINDY SIMON: Thank you for explaining it because I didn't totally understand that from the letter. So I appreciate that. And I think we all know we've discussed issues like this before, and one of the suggestions at one point at a meeting had been that we should have someone that Deaf people call to, who will walk them through this, who will explain it, who will help them fill it out, who will help them get where they are. So even if we didn't have a Deaf unit, having specific people assigned that if you're Deaf, if you're , this is who you go to and they will get you through it. And I know we talked about this before. Rick. RICK KOTTLER: And not to belabor the point, but as we were just talking earlier about monitoring reports, this is something that's never going to hit a monitoring report because they always sign their name. Once they sign their name, it's done; it's in the file and nobody would ever know about it unless they came to you. And so monitoring reports are good, but they're not the end-all. CINDY SIMON: And then again, I would encourage if you know something like that happens, you need to write a letter of complaint saying, "I was told to do this and didn't know what I was signing," because if we don't know that, nothing can be followed up. To me, that's like bullying, and bullying is a bad buzz word nowadays. Anyone else? Is there anyone in the audience who didn't speak and would like to speak? Is there anyone who didn't introduce them -- MICHAEL YELAPI: Can I add one quick question. I was curious, does DCF hire Deaf individuals? I'm curious. Do you hire people who are Deaf at DCF? TERRY KNOWLES: I know one. MICHAEL YELAPI: Is anybody going to answer the question? Do you hire individuals who are Deaf at DCF? Maybe they could help the food stamp issue or Medicaid forms. I mean imagine if you hired them! How many Deaf people are there in the state of Florida working for DCF? I mean, wow, okay, all right. That I didn't answer my question. CINDY SIMON: We don't work for DCF, so I'm not sure if we can answer that. I don't know if Jeff knows the answer. JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. I don't know the specific number. I know that we do have deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals who work for the Department. MICHAEL YELAPI: So what do they do? You say "Department," but what do they do? Are they 25

investigations or help with food stamps or Medicaid or what do they do? I'm just curious. CINDY SIMON: I personally know one who is in charge of voc rehab. Oh, is that not part of DCF? FROM THE FLOOR: No, it's part of the Department of Education. MICHAEL YELAPI: Well, maybe you should start hiring more Deaf individuals there. It would help. I mean Deaf people will come to those when it's easily accessible. And they'll feel, "Oh, I get you. You understand me." I mean every day I deal with this in my offers and I'm obviously more comfortable than a hearing person. Just something to think about. JENNIFER BOGGESS: I have a comment. TERRY KNOWLES: I have a comment as well. CINDY SIMON: All right. Why don't we take two comments and then Judy, or do you need to talk now? JUDY MARTIN: No, I'll wait. CINDY SIMON: Okay. JENNIFER BOGGESS: Thank you. I appreciate that. I just wanted to add to what Michael said. It's a good point. You have Spanish-speaking individuals working at various agencies, you have other native language speaking individuals, why not hire deaf and ? Or in the situation that Lois was talking about, did they consider bringing in a certified Deaf interpreter who could have simply explained that to the individual that Lois was talking about? My other point that I wanted to make is, agencies like mine, we're working to empower Deaf people. When Michael says "It's not my job" or Shannon says "It's not my job," it's because our goal is to empower Deaf individuals. It's a violation of our rights as Deaf individuals not to be able to be empowered because there's a wall there preventing that. That wall needs to come down. It should have come down a long time ago. TERRY KNOWLES: My name is Terry Knowles and I'm from Orlando, Florida. I have a friend, female friend. She works in Tallahassee at DCF. She's been there for what, 20 years. Also, there's a file clerk that's been there for many years, it's been a while. And she's still working there in Tallahassee at DCF. So just for input. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Thank you. Was there anyone else in the audience, before we go -- Judy has the first comment, then Kim, and then Terri. JUDY MARTIN: This is Judy. You did ask if anyone else in the audience would like to speak. Did I hear there was a woman who has a child who has two implants? Is she here? FROM THE FLOOR: That's me. JUDY MARTIN: Would you mind telling us your story? ALEX DeMOLINA: Hi, thank you for the opportunity. My name again is Alex De Molina. My daughter Kiersta was born with severe-profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. I give much credit to the newborn hearing screenings, so at four weeks she was diagnosed. We decided to go on the path for the spoken language right from the start. We did our research on it. She was aided with hearing aids at four months. Due to her hearing loss, she heard like at lawn mower level, she was getting some gain with the hearing aids but not enough for spoken language. And we have had Medicaid through SSI and we were able to get our cochlear implant here in Tampa at USF Health. We've had a dynamic cochlear implant team. We actually started this whole journey down at University of my Miami with the Kids Hear Now foundation, and they told us about the Bolesta Center for auditory verbal therapy, and so we started with them; Kelly P. Gardner is our dB therapist. And they then went into USF Health. So Dr. Nancy Messano (sp) is our audiologist and Dr. K. Paul Boyette is our cochlear implant surgeon. When she was 16 months, we received her first cochlear implant. At that point in time we were pretty much told that ACHA does not approve two cochlear implants, so we were kind of stuck. Our cochlear implant team said try for it, go for it. In doing my research I worked with Disability Rights of Florida, and we actually, with the support of our cochlear implant team, submitted her application to ACHA for bilateral. Last November the application went in and we kind of lost where it was at. We had to track. We tracked it to EQHealth; they were absolutely wonderful in their support. And then from there it went up to Tallahassee. At this point in time, we again didn't know where it was going. We didn't know whether it was getting approved or where it was sitting -- you know, whose desk it was sitting on. So we actually found 26

a system of how they're approving cochlear implants. She had her surgery May 13th, and she just went bilateral on June 29th. Does anybody have any questions about it? JUDY MARTIN: I don't have any questions about it since I use a cochlear implant myself, but that's a wonderful story. And it goes to show what you can do by pursuing the path that's best for you and also pursuing -- not giving up. That's what I wanted to say, not giving up. ALEX DeMOLINA: Thank you. Just on a personal note, this was a decision for our family, that it was the right decision for us. I know it's not something for every family. And that's actually been my advocacy platform, options for parents and families, children who are deaf and . Thank you for giving me the time to share my story. JUDY MARTIN: You're welcome when come. CINDY SIMON: Congratulations on getting the second one and doing your research! ALEX DeMOLINA: Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Okay. I know Kim had a comment and Terri. We also have Chris Wagner here. Do you want him to speak first or do you want to make your comments first? You guys tell me. KIM GAUT: I just want to make one comment while we're still talking about training. I just want to make sure that everybody realizes that when we're talking about people who are deaf and , there's a great deal of oppression that goes on. We have people who have a hearing loss, whether they are the signing deaf or a hearing aid user, feel like they always have to capitulate, they always have to give in, because usually people try and force them to do what they want. So in many of these situations where people are made to sign forms or we go through different meetings with different interpreters and the deaf clients still don't understand, it's because they don't feel like they can speak up when they're not understanding. They don't want to look stupid, they don't want to feel stupid, they don't want anymore oppression, so they plaster the smile on their face and they go ahead. There really needs to be a lot more training at very initial point of communication, letting these people know that if they don't understand something, they need to speak up immediately, "I don't understand that technology." It's not the job of an interpreter to explain the terms of a form. It's the job as an interpreter to explain whatever that other person is saying in an effective language to each person. That's the job of an interpreter, is to facilitate communication. It's not their job to explain that form. You know, the person who's providing the service, it's their job to explain that form. And if that person who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing doesn't understand the terminology, they really need to be instructed at the get-go. "Whoa, stop right there. What does that mean?" And feel safe doing it. I don't know how we can accomplish that, but that's really at the crux of a lot of these problems where people cannot understand. They don't feel safe saying, "Hey, I don't understand this stuff." And then it just perpetuates the problem and pretty soon we got six, eight months in, still taking meetings with interpreters and nobody still understanding. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. TERRI SCHISLER: I did want to go back and follow up about the comprehension. The comment that was made that when you sign what's on the written page, then comprehension sometimes is immediate. When you hand a Deaf person a form, they may read it and be able to understand, but there's a lot of them that won't able to understand the written form. Even documents that we've adapted and said these are deaf-friendly, the language is appropriate, the use of terms is going to be more effective in the Deaf community, the minute you bring your hands up and you sign what's on the written form, there's comprehension. So a Deaf person should not -- we can't just depend on the fact we gave them a document, we gave them the information. If nobody has sat down and explained it with an interpreter present, we can't guarantee that there was any opportunity for understanding. So it's just so important to have the interpreter there. But again, the clarification though here is the role of the interpreter is not to explain the form. The role of an interpreter is to interpret the DCF staff person's explanation of the form. I've been sitting on this panel for two years now, and I still would never say that I'm on expert on DCF policies and procedures. If I were to be called to interpret, I would rely on the staff person to explain the terms and the procedures, not the interpreter, because we don't know your policies, we don't know your systems, we don't know your programs. There's no way that an interpreter can explain the 27

form on their own and be sure that it's accurate. That was one of the reasons why I asked for verification of the ASL videos that were explaining -- that are interpreting the force, translating those forms. You need to make sure that those videos were interpreted correctly because did that interpreter have any access to DCF staff members on questions and clarifications before he made those translations? If he didn't have any support from DCF, he was just strictly going on what the paper said, there could be some errors that are not his fault. He's an awesome interpreter and I looked at some of those videos, but he should have had support and there should be a verification that what those videos say are actually accurate. So anyway, that's just a little bit about the interpretation. Putting an interpreter into the mix just will -- it's the one thing that can make everything work. When you don't have a qualified interpreter, it's not working. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. I know, Dr. Goldberg, you had a comment. Do you want to make that before we go to Chris? DR. KAREN GOLDBERG: Again, my name is Dr. Karen Goldberg. I'm a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at USF, but we are setting up a deaf mental health program. In hearing the stories and comments today, I'm just really oppressed. Again, with what I have seen in my 15 years of working with the Deaf community is that mental health services are abysmal. They are -- they're just not there with direct communication between provider and patient, which is what I have made my commitment and my career to do, so that a Deaf individual can come and communicate with me directly. If there's any concerns, I always respect the patients and the parent; if they prefer an interpreter present, then I will provide it. Most people are pleased with my communication ability and a lot of the teenagers love teaching me new words, some of which are embarrassing. So I want to say that I understand DCF has a contract with New Directions. The new medical director there is a young man who just graduated from USF, psychiatry program, and I'll be happy to put him in a headlock and make sure he gets interpreters that are certified. Otherwise, I would encourage DCF to come talk with me, I would welcome it, and we will work out something where USF psychiatry and developmental pediatrics, whom I'm working very closely with, can start doing comprehensive evaluations on kids in this state. That has been my career commitment since I was in training at Emory in Atlanta, which has a very -- I think there's a wealth of Deaf community there and really was very fortunate to work with a number of professionals. So my commitment is to stay in the Central Florida area and to see patients here and to build a Deaf mental health coalition that is committed to providing culturally and linguistically affirmative intervention for deaf/hard-of-hearing individuals. So I welcome all of you. If you want me to leave my contact information right now so it's on this doohickey. FROM THE FLOOR: CART. DR. KAREN GOLDBERG: Doohickey/CART. You can always reach me at 813-974-8900. And you tell the call center person that you want to speak with me directly and they will get that message to me. You can also e-mail me directly, as most of my -- I'm just going through some of my e-mails now. Lots of parents, hearing and deaf, like to e-mail me directly about how things are going for the week. And that e-mail is [email protected]. And I thank you for permitting me to be here. FROM THE FLOOR: Can you repeat that? DR. KAREN GOLDBERG: Actually, it's my name without the last "g." They were too cheap to give it to me. It's kgoldber@health -- I do not envy your job -- @health.usf.edu. And I'll tell you a little secret. When you e-mail me, it comes to my phone. I don't know if I should share that secret. Scratch that. Thank you very much for having me here. Unfortunately, I need to leave because I have a meeting at USF at noon that I'm a little bit late for. I might stay because I want to hear Chris speak. Oh, and one other thing I did want to say what I'm shocked about with Florida State. I'm thrilled to have the Florida Coordinating Council and the Advisory Board at DCF. My good friend, John Gournaris, is now the head of the state of mental health in Minnesota, but I don't know if Florida has anything comparable to that. And I'm very excited to read this new mental health statement that came out by the National Association of the Deaf that has his handprint all over it, which was thrilling. And, you know, I wish there was a way that the state of Florida was so committed to 28

deaf mental health services or deaf health serves that they committed to having a Deaf professional at the head of it. So if there's any pull or power I have, that's what I would like to see happen. So thank you for letting me be here. I enjoyed seeing all of you and meeting all of you. CINDY SIMON: Thank you so much and thank you for your dedication. I know we have lunch scheduled but I did not want to short anybody in public comment. So I'm going to continue until we're done with public comment. And so the next person up is Chris Wagner, who I'm sure most of you know. CHRIS WAGNER: Good morning, good afternoon. My name, for those who don't know who I am -- I'm pretty sure most of you know who I am. I'm Chris Wagner. I'm the president of the National Association for the Deaf based in Washington, DC, and I'm a resident in Florida. So good to be here. I'm going to let the interpreters sign and me speak and not sign at the same time. This is emotional for me. Let me tell you why. My wife and I moved here 20 years ago. I don't have to repeat this to you, it's more for DCF staff and the Department of Children and Families. We moved here 20 years ago to start a life here in Florida, and we found out there's need for services in Florida. We fought and we fought. We fought to get the service here. We started Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. You know, we didn't need the Advisory Board, if you got the job done in the first place. My biggest concern is, you've been mandated to set up the Board to give advice to you for the last three years. Nothing's been done. Nothing! I go to your website; it's not accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing or the deaf-blind. It's not accessible. Why? Three years and nothing's been done. The Department of Children and Families have a responsibility to make sure that every deaf and hard-of-hearing person in the state of Florida have their needs being met. There's 4,000-plus deaf or hard-of-hearing students in K-12 in the state of Florida. Many of them are falling through the cracks. Some of that responsibility goes to the educational system, some of that responsibility goes to parents, families, as well as to the Department of Children and Families. That's a concern. My wife and I were seeing our son go off to college last week. Our daughter will soon be leaving. We talked about what should we become; a bastion of care to a deaf or hard-of-hearing child. There are a lot of children out there who are deaf or Hard of Hearing that don't have access. But as a deaf -- my wife and I are proud deaf parents of hearing children. My point here, your information is not accessible. I'm just appalled to see the letters that came to the attention of the Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. I was appalled by the fact that the Department of Children and Families, the foster care came up in DC because of financial issues in getting training for parents who wanted to become foster parents. I was appalled. You know, I'm an appointment member, the governor appointed me. I'm the chairman of the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. I'm appointed by the governor, he appointed me on the Council. I was appointed by the Governor to sit on the ADA group with Governor Jeb Bush. That shows that deaf and hard-of-hearing people are capable of doing everything. We have 3.1 million deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the state of Florida. We are one of the largest populations in the country. And so what, we have the worst service in the country for deaf and . Nobody can get together, get their act together and make sure every person, every 3.1 million people -- they're also taxpayers, they're also voters. They should have the same access as any other person. The action by the Department of Children and Family is clearly taking the human rights away from deaf and hard-of-hearing children. You take away access from language and culture by not providing what you're supposed to provide as ordered by the Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Justice. As president of the National Association of the Deaf, I strongly urge my Board and my staff that the bureau in Washington should take action; abundantly stern with them to get together with the department chapters, the Office of Civil Rights as we have the concerns that Florida has today, because -- and maybe has the responsibility for the 3.1 million deaf and people as well. My main question to the Department of children and Families people, what is the answer? All I read in the letter, there were all these instances, there were no answers. I'm sorry if I came here harsh, came a little bit late, but you know what, we've been here for so long, we've asked and asked for help. We've asked that the state take the responsibility, but no one wants to take that responsibility. So my point here is, like Dr. Goldberg mentioned about the mental health statement that we 29

made -- NAD, that's what I'm on -- that our organization put together. The agency set up mental health service, statewide coordinator for deaf and hard of hearing. That should help to push it through Florida next year through the support of you, the support of Deaf Service Centers Association, Florida Association of the Deaf, Hearing Loss Association of Florida -- all these organizations need to work together. And I expect the support of the Department of Children and Families to push that legislation, somebody who has the experience, somebody who has the understanding and the needs of every deaf or hard-of-hearing person. So again, I'm not asking you, I'm not begging you -- I'm telling you to do your job. I'm not talking to the Advisory Board. I love them all. I know everybody personally. Bob, good to see you from Miami and really I appreciate your dedication. It's important that -- you people are the experts. The Department of Children and Families has to take their advice, take their guidance and get the job done! The Governor relies on your input, your feedback, and it needs to be done because if it won't be done, I will make sure that the rest of the country puts their eyes on Florida. That unfortunate situation with the "stand your ground," I'll make a Deaf one. I will promise you, we will make sure everybody pays attention to the state of Florida, because I've been here 20 years and I still see children falling throughout cracks, I'm sure you do too. And Judy and Kim, everybody, the children are falling through the cracks. How much more can we take? It's not about, oh, money. No, we all have a responsibility. If a hearing child gets equal access, a deaf child should have the same access. Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Thank you, Chris. Extremely eloquent. And I hope we have all of that down. Any comments? No. I think you left everyone speechless here. That being said, it's 15 minutes until lunch. I want to give you guys a choice. We can take a 15-minute break, if you're not dying of hunger, and reconvene and finish a little earlier, or we can have a 45-minute lunch, unless you want me to go over and make it an hour lunch. What would you prefer to do? I will go with the majority. Judy. JUDY MARTIN: I would just like a break. I would like to check out. That's all I really need. CINDY SIMON: Yes, Rick. RICK KOTTLER: I think we have less than 45 minutes worth of stuff to do. So yeah, a brief break and then we can call it a day. CINDY SIMON: Is that agreeable with everybody? MARTHA KNOWLES: That's fine with me. CINDY SIMON: Anybody else. Jeff. JEFF McLEMORE: I'm perfectly okay with that. I will need a few minutes to get my things out of the room. CINDY SIMON: How much time does everybody want? 15, 20 minutes? 20 minutes. And we will reconvene at 12:35. Thank you. And thank you to all our guests. [Recess from 12:19 to 12:45 p.m.] CINDY SIMON: Okay. I have 12:45. We are going to reconvene. And we are going to update and hopefully some of the things we -- (put mic on). I'm sorry, we are going to update. And some of the things that -- oh, I guess I should call the roll first, shouldn't I? Sorry about that. I'm so anxious to keep going, because I really want to hear what Jeff has to say since it is website and that's come up so much. So when I call your name, please acknowledge if you're here. CINDY SIMON: Marc Dubin, are we on the phone? Are the phones still on? JEFF McLEMORE: Madam Chair, the phone lines are live. Would anyone on the phone like to identify themselves? CINDY SIMON: So no one there. Marc is out. Fifer. ROBERT FIFER: Yo. CINDY SIMON: Kim Gaut. KIM GAUT: Here. 30

CINDY SIMON: Susan Herring is out. Rick Kottler. RICK KOTTLER: I'm here. CINDY SIMON: Lois Maroney is here. Judy Martin. JUDY MARTIN: Yo. CINDY SIMON: Terri Schisler? TERRI SCHISLER: Here. CINDY SIMON: Shana is out. I'm Cindy. And we are good to go. I'm going to pass it over to Jeff. We're going to get that update on the website. JUDY MARTIN: And Martha is here also. CINDY SIMON: Excuse me? Oh, Martha! I'm so sorry! You know what, Martha, I had you on the very top of my list and it was down. I was telling people, going, "I'm so glad she's here," and then I didn't realize I didn't say that. Martha Knowles. MARTHA KNOWLES: I'm here. CINDY SIMON: Not forgotten. Just being looked at and appreciated. Okay, Jeff. JEFF McLEMORE: Thank you, Madam Chair. This is Jeff McLemore. I'll keep my update very brief as I know we want to move on to some new business. Much of what is on my list, as you know from prior discussion earlier, I can't speak to a whole lot of specifics because of the litigation. I want to kind of jump around a little bit from what's on the agenda from 1:00 to 1:30. I want to start with TTY issue. The reason that that is on the list is that Marc Dubin at the last meeting in May had indicated some specific issues with TTY use as it relates to our abuse hotline. And we did -- actually, we did a test while we were here and there was some lag time with regard to use of TTY. And while I know it's not the ideal form of communication, Marc had requested that we look to ensure that each abuse counselor had a TTY number at their desk. And I just want to let you to know that I should be able to send you an e-mail out, by the end of this month or early next month at the latest, stating that each abuse hotline counsel has done that, or we have done that for him, as I know we're working with the hotline management. The revisions to DCF policies/procedures, per Terri's suggestion I want to make sure as we modify any policy/procedure, that you guys get that prior to the quarterly meetings. And I'll do that in a blast e-mail so we won't be violating any public records law. To my knowledge, the only updates we've had recently are minor form charges, new logo, that type of thing. With regards to -- CINDY SIMON: Excuse me, Jeff. I have a question. Isn't that what we spent six months doing is revising that? And so I would think that other than logo changes, if there was such a revision, it would have to go through this Committee. JEFF McLEMORE: That is correct. That's what I'm saying, to my knowledge there is no substantial -- or substantive changes that need to be reported. Moving on. The text-friendly issue and kind of the DCF website issues, we've discussed them at length today. It is tied up in the TR litigation. I'm using "TR" because that's the initials of the minor that the suit addressed. So we are going to do, as I mentioned in May, everything that we can as per Legal's advice in terms of improving the website. But I anticipate that when the lawsuit is resolved, you'll see some significant movement very quickly on the website. CINDY SIMON: Excuse me, Jeff. I have another question here. JEFF McLEMORE: Yes, ma'am. CINDY SIMON: When you say "text-only," we're talking about having a page on the website that's text-only without graphics, such as Susan has been talking about? JEFF McLEMORE: Yes, ma'am. That's correct. CINDY SIMON: I wanted to separate that from the issue of texting to DCF personnel. JEFF McLEMORE: You're correct. Yes, ma'am. CINDY SIMON: Terri. 31

TERRI SCHISLER: Clarify for me the restrictions on discussing issues -- things that are related to litigation. I understand that there's things that you are not able to discuss during the time that the case is being litigated. I got that. And so, therefore, you can't discuss that with us. But if we were giving you information/recommendations on a topic that's been under discussion for the entire time the Committee has been here -- I'm just asking for clarification, aren't those things that we can continue working on? They were already addressed and suggestions had made prior to this case being filed. JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. Yes, Terri, that is correct. I'm not saying that we're not working on them behind the scenes. I'm just not at liberty to discuss our activities right now. CINDY SIMON: I just want to make it a little bit clearer, Terri. When I was on my first phone call with the office, the attorney was there and I specifically said if these are issues that happened prior to this lawsuit, why can't we continue? He said if it's in the lawsuit, we cannot discuss it. And that was the end of the conversation. TERRI SCHISLER: So you're saying the website is part of the litigation? JEFF McLEMORE: Yes, ma'am. That was a -- I'm not an attorney, but as I read the suit, there was some relief requested regarding the website. TERRI SCHISLER: Okay. Thank you. JEFF McLEMORE: And the last part of my update is, between May and now we've had no new documents from program offices translated for our website. I appreciate Rick's comments in his letter and his attachment to the letter outlining all of the core documents that we were required to do per settlement agreement. They have been translated or posted. And in reference to one of your comments, Terri, earlier, the gentleman that we had interpret those, he did have access to the Department employees and those were vetted by an interpreter at the Department in the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee. Don't know her name but I can get that for you if you'd like. I anticipate that -- I meet with the program offices at least every other month. And the State just started a new fiscal year, which runs from July 1st to June 30th, so I'll see some activity, I anticipate, I thought I would for this meeting, moving forward because we're in the new fiscal year and budget issues are not the concern, they came at the end of the state fiscal years. We are -- again, what we do and what I'm doing with the groups, just to let you know, is we meet with them and we let them know we have satisfied the settlement agreement in terms of what we're required to interpret and post. But now what we want to do is go further and any court documents that you identify at the program office that would be beneficial to have them translated in ASL and posted on the website, we are assisting them in finding the ones that haven't been interpreting. And then as I mentioned to Terri, we'll have them vetted prior to posting them. So I'm hoping at the November meeting I'll be able to come back to you and say we've had these additional three or four or five forms, whatever it turns out to be, from these program offices posted for your review. And, Madam Chair, that is the extent of my update. CINDY SIMON: Well, you had a couple of things listed here that I guess either I missed or we didn't hit. One was trainings. JEFF McLEMORE: I guess I didn't discuss trainings. As I mentioned, Dennise Hunter, who is my peer, she is the talent in training -- actually, training talent development manager, who's my peer. Could not be with us today but she wanted me to let you know she is finalizing the training and look forward to some communication from me to you guys regarding those, because obviously those will need to be moving forward prior to the November meeting. CINDY SIMON: One question. Prior to finalizing those trainings, do we not need to see what they are? And my other question is, the first time this went around, and I know you weren't here, we actually did a training as a meeting. I think that was very helpful because -- I think what someone else said earlier today about what you see online -- I think it might have been -- it was either Terri or Lois. What you see online, for me, I can't see these online things without listening to someone. That makes a big difference, having a person in front me that I can communicate with. So we could look at it online if it's available that way. However, if there's a way to run it through the Committee, I -- would everybody agree, would you like that? I think that would be advantageous. Bob. 32

ROBERT FIFER: Cindy, as I'm thinking back, when the training was demonstrated to us live, we saw a number of things in that meeting that needed to be changed, and we were able to point out and had a meaningful exchange with those in that training position to make training simplified, more effective, and significantly better than the version that we saw during the demonstration. CINDY SIMON: And that is exactly what I was thinking. So I really think we need to see that. And if it can't wait until the next meeting, I'm not adverse to seeing if we can have a special meeting sooner and see who can attend, and see it that way. But I think that's very important. Again, to do something without feedback from people on this Committee, it's defeating the purpose. JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. When I go back to Tallahassee, I will speak with Carolyn about that and Dennise Hunter about that and then communicate the message that they've given to me. The reason I say may need to be done prior to November meeting, is I seem to recall Carolyn saying that there's a timeline she has to meet for having the training. And again, this would be a refresher training to what you-all have already approved. We're required to refresh it. So I will report to you -- the Committee, all the Committee, so, again, that we don't violate any public records law -- in an e-mail with our status on it. CINDY SIMON: Again, if things have changed, things have changed in the field -- we don't know, maybe the refresher training is behind the times, for all we know. So if it has to be done on a timeline, if there's a special time and whoever is able to make it would make it, so that we can insure that appropriate input was given. I think that's essential. JEFF McLEMORE: Okay. While I can't commit that today, I will communicate our status. CINDY SIMON: Okay. The next thing I think you missed on here is discussing title II update and website. As you say, you can't. But that was -- Marc had that on his list, I know. JEFF McLEMORE: Yes, that's part of what I can't discuss right now. CINDY SIMON: So you can't. And the phone tree update? JEFF McLEMORE: Again, it was caught in the litigation. CINDY SIMON: The phone tree? JEFF McLEMORE: Yeah. I understand. CINDY SIMON: How about a litigation update, then, since you have it on here? Can we be updated on that? JEFF McLEMORE: Again, from what I'm being told, I do not anticipate the lawsuit continuing for an extended period of time; however, I cannot say how long that will be. But I personally was hoping for a relatively quick resolution. CINDY SIMON: Well, I'll tell you, once that lawsuit is over, the dams are going to burst open. Ay yi yi yi yi. Because everything that's been pent up is going to come out all at once on these issues. Okay. Any comment on Jeff's report, any questions? All right. Thank you, Jeff. So now we're to old business. Actually, I do have a question. When is it that we are reviewing those self-assessments? Is that the next meeting? JEFF McLEMORE: I wish I had Carolyn with us. I believe that she informed me that those aren't due until late 2014. So it will probably be the meeting after next, but I would have to clarify that with her. CINDY SIMON: Okay. I just wanted to keep on track and remember that. Especially with some of the comments that we heard today about simplifying forms, we need to look at that. JEFF McLEMORE: Sure. In keeping with the comment that Terri made earlier, that is an easy update for me to you guys in terms of me, you know, saying, "I got with Caroline. Here are the dates for the self-assessment that require things for the self-assessment. Here's when we anticipate getting it out to you for review." CINDY SIMON: Just make sure we have it in advance for review. Honestly, it's not so bad to have it two meetings in advance for when it has to be done because we've been known to worry over wording like dogs worrying over a bone. ROBERT FIFER: I like that analogy. CINDY SIMON: You just gnaw and gnaw on it. Would this be an appropriate time to do election of officers? You guys will be so glad to get rid of me! 33

JUDY MARTIN: Never, never, never. CINDY SIMON: Well, you're not rid of me, Judy. Okay, it is that time of election of new officers for the next meeting, for the next year, and I will entertain nominations for Chair first. Yes. RICK KOTTLER: This is Rick. I would like to nominate Terri for Chair. CINDY SIMON: Okay. I did have one other nomination. So how do we do this? JUDY MARTIN: You need a second. KIM GAUT: I'll second. CINDY SIMON: Okay, we have a second. I had this in an e-mail, and the individual is not here, for nomination. So can you tell me what appropriate parliamentary procedure would be? ROBERT FIFER: Question. This is Bob. In the e-mail, did the individual indicate interest in being nominated? CINDY SIMON: They nominated two other people. ROBERT FIFER: If the potential nominees are not here, then we would have to contact them first to be certain that they would be willing to accept the nomination. CINDY SIMON: No, no, no. This is what came to me, and the two people are here who she wants to nominate. ROBERT FIFER: Then we can proceed and throw their names into the ring. CINDY SIMON: So I'll throw their names, and you can accept or not accept. So we have a second with Terri. Susan wanted to nominate Judy for Chair. JUDY MARTIN: Thank you, Susan, I respectfully decline. CINDY SIMON: Okay. And so we have Terri on there as Chair. Do we do a vote now? Since I'm not really familiar with the procedure. ROBERT FIFER: We can do a vote. And it would be an affirmation vote as opposed to an election. CINDY SIMON: I think we need to do an affirmation vote. TERRI SCHISLER: Hey, hey, hey. I'm sorry. Terri, do you accept it? I think it would be appropriate for you to ask me. CINDY SIMON: I'm sorry. TERRI SCHISLER: I just like put you there because I'm on a vent here. With some reservations, I would accept the nomination. CINDY SIMON: I'm sorry. You know why? Because you were on my mind to nominate. All right. All in favor? Let the record reflect that it was unanimous. JUDY MARTIN: Do we have quorum? CINDY SIMON: Yes. I checked in advance. We do. Before we start the meeting I checked. So, Terri, you will be our next Chair. Have fun being both places. Okay. We're now up for Vice-Chair. Yes, Judy. JUDY MARTIN: Did Susan say she would be acceptable of being Vice-Chair? CINDY SIMON: Yes. JUDY MARTIN: Then I'll nominate her. CINDY SIMON: I asked Susan in advance, because I was going to nominate her, and she accepted it with reservations, but she did accept it. JUDY MARTIN: Then I move that we -- we have her being nominated and then we need a second. CINDY SIMON: So we have a nomination for Susan. Do we have a second? Rick. And Susan wanted to nominate Kim for Vice-Chair. Kim? No. Okay. So I know in advance that Susan has accepted. Can we all -- all those in favor of Susan for Vice-Chair. Okay, let the record reflect it was unanimous. So starting the next meeting, our Chair will be Terri, our Vice-Chair Susan. And I wish on you not having to write the letters that I had to write. TERRI SCHISLER: Thank you. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. Is there any other -- well, I do have one more piece of new business. Lira has taken a permanent position, and when someone is found to replace her will be leaving us. So I want to say congratulations, Lira. We appreciate everything you've done. We will miss you and good luck in your new position. 34

Yes, Jeff. LIRA LATIMER: Thank you. JEFF McLEMORE: This is Jeff. I just wanted to say that Lira has been of fantastic support to me. Being relatively new, this is my fourth meeting, she has been fantastic with logistics of setting up the meetings, making sure everything is going, the meetings rooms are running and travel and agendas. She's wonderful and I hate to lose her, but I recommended her for a full-time position in our training development. So she will probably be with us in November, but hopefully I will have her replacement, which has been a part time position, with me. And I anticipate that we will be training that individual, even with your travel voucher issues. So I hate to see her go, but it's a good new beginning. CINDY SIMON: Thank you. And in that, I want to say, Lira, if you're in training, now that you know all these concerns, you can join the group creating training and maybe have some more insight and help us out a little bit. Judy. JUDY MARTIN: I would like to call for a round of applause for Lira and for Cindy for jobs well done. [Applause.] CINDY SIMON: And Rick? JUDY MARTIN: And Rick. RICK KOTTLER: I've been a good boy. JUDY MARTIN: You were amazing today! CINDY SIMON: Thank you. Yes, Lois. LOIS MARONEY: Next meeting I can't attend, I'm so sorry, but my daughter is going to be giving birth that day. I asked her if she could switch the surgery date. She said, "Mom, no!" But anyways, maybe she'll go early. But it's a planned cesarean and it's a reserved date. I won't be listening in or anything. CINDY SIMON: I'm sure. LOIS MARONEY: I hate to miss these meetings, they're so important. But I would imagine everything is all set for November 7th, right? We can't switch the date. Okay. CINDY SIMON: But congratulations! And that's a good thing to miss for. Yes, Lira. LIRA LATIMER: This is Lira. I just wanted to give a brief remark. One, I wanted to thank you all for the opportunity to serve. It truly has opened my eyes to the need to serve this population. And I just wanted to assure you all that when the next person comes on board, even though you will not see me, I still will be assisting from afar. Thanks for the opportunities. CINDY SIMON: Okay. Thank you. And I just want you all to know. When I e-mailed your changes, she had it back to me in under an hour. It was that fast. And half the time when I spoke to Jeff on the phone, they were both there, which actually cut down time because I didn't have to do two phone calls. Okay. Does anyone else have any business, new or old? No. Okay. So our next meeting is going to be Thursday, November 7, 2013, in Orlando. You will not have to put up with myself or Rick in front of the mic through the meeting. I'd like to thank everyone for their hard work. I'd like to thank everyone for the support I got in this position this year. And liked to give special thanks today to our service personnel, to Kathy, to Peter, to all our interpreters from Accessible Communication for the Deaf. I want to thank Lira and Jeff for their support and for getting on the phone with me when I hate e-mails, or texting back and then I call you back. So I appreciate it. I'd like to remind everybody to fill out their travel information and turn it into Lira or you won't get your money back, and we want to get it there before she's gone. Your badges -- she'll pick up your badges and your name tags. And let's see. Did I forget anybody? I'll wish good luck to Terri and Susan. And that being said, do I have a motion to adjourn. ROBERT FIFER: Yo. JUDY MARTIN: Yo. CINDY SIMON: Bob so moves. Judy seconds. Have a great three months until the next time we 35

meet. (Meeting concluded at 1:09 p.m.; see attached two letters.) (The following two letters are part of this CART transcript record, by consent of the Advisory Committee:)

July 8, 2013

Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Dear Council Members,

First, I apologize for not being able to address you in person. Second, I wish to thank you for the opportunity that you gave me to participate in the Florida Department of Children and Families / US Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Civil Rights Settlement Agreement as a member of the Advisory Committee. In the following letter, I speak for myself, however I also feel I am expressing the sentiments of the majority of the committee.

I believe to start, the following bears repeating. “The mission of the FCCDHH is to serve as an advisory and coordinating body which recommends policies that address the needs of deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened and deaf-blind persons, as well as methods that improve the coordination of services among public and private entities and to provide technical assistance, advocacy and education.” As a member of the original council, we composed this mission statement with 2 primary objectives: to be the advisory body for any Florida public entities, such as DCF; and to be the leading advocates for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind and late –deafened in the state of Florida. The Advisory Committee for DCF, who represents you, now needs you as a council to fulfill your mission.

Attached for your information is a status report of the committee’s activities to date. As you can see we have made some strides in the area of policy and procedures; and education. During this time the settlement agreement dictated the actions of the advisory committee and DCF. This is no longer the case. Frankly, as I will explain, it seems that DCF’s intention is for the committee to meet quarterly and serve no particular purpose other than to satisfy the meeting requirements of the settlement agreement. We are frustrated and feel we are no longer being permitted to provide our expertise. For instance, we have had members who have worked to make signage and informational brochures understandable and legible to our deaf and deaf-blind constituency. None of it has been used.

Since last fall, we have questioned the accessibility of the main website, the Access website and the foster care program and have been stonewalled. After repeated discussions with OCR, they have convened meetings with respect to website accessibility. We have serious concerns as to the accessibility and the provision of effective communication with respect to the foster care system as a whole. 36

FCCDHH Letter

7/8/13

-page2-

DCF flat refuses to discuss the issues. However, since the settlement agreement says that DCF brings to the committee issues that it wishes to be advised on and not the other way around, OCR will not intervene. We received a letter at the May, 2013 meeting from DCF Assistant Secretary Stewart basically telling us to do as we are told. Those of you who know me can imagine how well that went over.

The following are my own concerns as I related them in an email to Assistant Secretary Stewart.

“1. My primary concern is that DCF Child Protective Investigators view a deaf individual’s civil right to effective communication as merely a temporary privilege that can be suspended at will. I submit to you the recent case of Miss Lillian DeJesus who on 4/29 and 5/1 of this year who was denied a sign language interpreter. I find no reason to believe that this is an isolated case. The reason that I am participating in this settlement agreement is that this is exactly what happened to one of my clients 13 years ago. After 10 years of waiting for justice to be served and 3 years of trying to mend a badly broken system, nothing seems to have changed. I do not have any faith that the on-going internal reviews will show anything but glowing reports on how well everyone in DCF is in compliance. Without independent compliance auditing, the fox is guarding the hen house, pure and simple.

2. DCF Website: For at least a year and a half, as best as I can recall, members of the advisory committee have pointed out that your website is inaccessible to deaf and deaf-blind individuals. I do not mean to imply in any way that I am an expert in this subject. However, instructions are in many cases in a language that is far above the average reading level of our clients. There is no text only option for deaf-blind consumers. The list goes on and on and all we hear is “we can’t do that”. Accessibility is once again a temporary privilege to be revoked when it is convenient. What will it take to get this done? Must I and all the other Deaf Service Center Directors and CIL Deaf Advocates file a complaint with HHS/OCR every time a client comes to us and asks for us to go online and file a renewal for their food stamps because they can’t navigate the system?? (This particular issue was brought up at the 6/7/12 meeting and nearly a year later, nothing done)

3. Foster Care: During the 6/7/12 meeting a discussion of the foster care system was initiated. We requested for the 8/30/12 meeting that someone from the foster care system attend and explain how compliance was being handled. DCF sent Mr. Mukweso Mwenene. In a word Mr. Mwenene provided the committee with a litany of “non-answers” to all of our questions. We requested that DCF provide someone better versed in the subject who could answer our questions. I complained, Dr. Simon complained as well as Dr. Williams, to no avail. DCF sent Mr. Mwenene back to the 11/15/12 meeting. It is important to note here that Attorney Caserta filed her lawsuit against DCF on 9/20/12. Mr. Mwenene began right where he left off. I would like to interject at this point that he had to be instructed no less than a half dozen times to speak into the microphone so that our hard of hearing members and the CART provider could hear him. This alone speaks to either his callousness or ignorance. If this man could not be sensitive to the needs of our committee members, how is he going to be sensitive to the needs of the deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the foster care program? He told us he understood the problems within the system and that he was creating an internal task force that would cure all of them. I wasn’t aware that DCF had such an in-depth level of expertise in the area. And then of course when we complained again, foster care became an off-limits subject. We’re told it was because of Attorney Caserta’s lawsuit. If the lawsuit was filed in September why did DCF see fit to send Mr. Mwenene in 37

November?? This issue with the lawsuit seems to be nothing more than a means to keep the Advisory Committee away from looking into the foster care system. DCF is stonewalling us and in my opinion is

FCCDHH Letter

7/8/13

-page3- no longer operating in good faith with the Advisory Committee and we as a committee are very aware of that fact.”

When asked by Assistant Secretary Stewart to elaborate on my above problems with foster care I responded as follows.

“The committee’s concerns with respect to the foster care system were delineated in the CART records for 8/30/12 and 11/15/12.

We are concerned that deaf and hard of hearing children are not being placed with appropriate foster parents. In the case of deaf children, we suspect they are not placed in language and cultural appropriate homes. In the case of hard of hearing children we would question the foster parents experience in dealing with hearing aids, assistive listening devices, and promotion of language skills to name a few. We were told that Hispanic and Creole children are placed in language appropriate homes, but could not be assured the same for deaf children. We are concerned that there are deaf children in group home settings and in foster homes that are not being provided interpreters and appropriate aids and services.

We are concerned that the Foster Parent Training Program has requirements that preclude deaf individuals from participating. It was noted that many of the deaf parents who wish to participate are precluded because of financial resources. We were asking for someone to walk us through the regulations so that we could pinpoint these barriers and try to find a way to overcome them. We offered to volunteer our time to review them and work with DCF on them and we were ignored. I spent my personal time visiting 2 contractors in my area to get an understanding of what was involved in the parent selection process and in the placement process. I reported this to the committee as best I could at the 11/15 meeting. We were looking for a DCF person to provide us with this information in a better level of detail and we were not provided that.

We are concerned that there is insufficient training for contractors and foster parents with regard to deafness, hearing loss and deaf culture. We understand that contractors are required to provide training; our concern is the content of that training. We viewed a training video in use that is appropriate for parents who are trying to determine their options for their children with hearing loss. This is informative but not an appropriate training vehicle for foster parents.”

To date I have had no response and am hoping that Assistant Secretary Stewart will respond by or at the next Committee meeting.

FCCDHH sent us to do a job and we are not being permitted to do that. The fact that we know of two situations recently where a DCF Child Protective Investigator has attempted to interview deaf individuals without interpreters leads me to believe that the mentality of the department has not changed. 38

It is time for FCCDHH to “advise and advocate”. We the committee, need you to echo our complaints and issues with DCF to Health and Human Services/OCR. If this situation is allowed to continue, this unique settlement agreement will become an utter failure; the problem will remain the same and the deaf,

FCCDHH Letter

7/8/13

-page4- hard of hearing, deaf-blind and late-deafened community will continue to be denied their basic civil rights by DCF. Again, these are civil rights, not temporary privileges that can be revoked at will. I urge you to act decisively and swiftly.

Thank you for your time and kind consideration,

Sincerely,

Rick Kottler

Member and Vice Chair, DCF Advisory Committee

Executive Director, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services of the Treasure Coast, Inc.

Second attachment to CART Transcript, on the letterhead of Florida Health, from Cindy Simon:

August 21, 2013

Mr. Roosevelt Freeman, Regional Manager

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Office for Civil Rights – Region IV

The Sam Nunn Federal Center

61 Forsyth Street SW, Suite 3B70

Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Dear Mr. Freeman:

The Florida Coordinating Council for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (hereafter referred to as the “Coordinating Council”) recently received a letter of concern (see attached) from Mr. Rick Kottler, a member of the Florida Department of Children and Families Advisory Committee for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (hereafter referred to as the “Advisory Committee”). For the record, Mr. Kottler was the first Chair of the Advisory Committee, as well as an original member of the Coordinating Council.

39

The Coordinating Council carefully considered the concerns addressed in Mr. Kottler’s letter at our quarterly meeting on August 8, 2013 and felt strongly that action on our part was imperative, both to reiterate and to support his findings, particularly regarding the failure of our foster care system. The Coordinating Council is directed in part, under F.S. § 413.271(3) which discusses the specific roles of the Council, “to serve as an advisory and coordinating body in the state which recommends policies that address the needs of deaf, hard-of-hearing, and late-deafened persons and which recommends methods that improve the coordination of services among the public and private entities that provide services…. The council is authorized to provide technical assistance to other state agencies.” (F.S. § 413.271(3)(b)). This “duty to act” was recognized by your office in 2010 in the Settlement Agreement with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), wherein the Coordinating Council was requested to identify qualified individuals to advise DCF as to specific areas where it believed effective communication with deaf and hard of hearing DCF clients and their families was not being provided.

The issue identified to be of greatest concern for the Coordinating Council was that of deaf and hard of hearing children being placed with foster families where they are without access to effective communication with their new families. This issue was already brought to the attention of DCF; however, DCF refused to discuss the Advisory Committee’s suggestions by saying it was part of a lawsuit and that they were not permitted to discuss the matter. It is a matter of public record that this issue was addressed with DCF prior to the filing of the referenced lawsuit. Specific details of the timeline can be found within Mr. Kottler’s letter.

The Coordinating Council is extremely concerned that children who have already been traumatized by their families and/or by being removed from their homes, will be further (and unnecessarily) traumatized by an inability to effectively communicate in their foster placement. It is unacceptable to put a traumatized child into a situation that could potentially increase or perpetuate their trauma.

Mr. Roosevelt Freeman, OCR, Region IV Page 2 August 21, 2013

According to Mr. Kottler, when the Advisory Committee initially spoke with a representative from DCF Foster Care, the Advisory Committee received no clear answers to any of the queries presented to the representative. The Advisory Committee requested to revisit this issue at their next meeting in order to allow a different representative to attend whom, hopefully, would be authorized to and capable of giving some clearer answers. Unfortunately, the same individual returned to the Advisory Committee to present a plan that was, simply, unacceptable. The Advisory Committee was advised that foster care had created “an internal task force” to address the problems and issues about which the Advisory Committee was concerned (see CART transcript of November 13 2012). Just yesterday I was informed that there was a misstatement, and no such internal task force exists. Therefore, we respectfully request that a member of the DCF Advisory Committee be named as a consultant to DCF for issues concerning their clients (at least in Foster Care) who have hearing loss.

Mr. Kottler voices the concerns of the Advisory Committee: Deaf and hard of hearing children are not being placed with appropriate foster parents, not being placed in language-appropriate and culturally appropriate homes. He questioned why, if Hispanic and Creole children are placed in 40

language-appropriate homes, the same could not be guaranteed for children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Damage will be further compounded if interpreters and appropriate aids and services are not being appropriately provided in the group and foster homes.

The Advisory Committee requested (1) that a member of the Advisory Committee be included on the internal task force (we have since been told there is no such internal task force) of DCF’s Foster Care; (2) that they include a committee member who understands and represents children who are deaf and hard of hearing to provide assistance in insuring a safe environment that includes effective communication modalities and appropriate aids. They also requested (3) training for foster parents that would teach them appropriate communication and service provisions for these children. The training that DCF has suggested is appropriate for parents looking for options for their own children with hearing loss, but hardly appropriate for training foster parents in the special needs of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. As of this date, an adequate training has not been created. Finally, (4) a dedicated Deaf and Hard of Hearing Unit was proposed in order to facilitate the understanding and communication needs of DCF clients in their preferred mode of communication and to assist them to navigate a system that is difficult to understand.

Please note that the issues raised by Mr. Kottler in his July 8, 2013 letter is not the first time these concerns have been expressed to DCF. These same issues, including recommendations for solutions, were contained in a March 6, 2013 letter sent by the Chair of the Advisory Committee to Secretary Wilkins and copied to Governor Rick Scott and Gail Hoffman of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Advisory Committee received a response to their letter which basically thanked them for their good work and which suggested that they continue to comply with the Settlement Agreement (previously referenced). All else was disregarded or stonewalled.

After due consideration of Mr. Kottler’s letter, the Coordinating Council has a number of extremely significant concerns: (1) We are very concerned about the effectiveness of DCF services being provided to children who are deaf or hard of hearing. We also remain concerned with (2) the ongoing struggle to make it clear that appropriate interpreters in the client’s (i.e., child’s) preferred mode of communication are to be used. We remain concerned that (3) the community of persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, and late-deafened continue to be denied their basic civil rights. (This appears to be in violation of current policies and procedures which provide that all appointments with individuals be in their preferred mode of communication and that, even if an appointment is

Mr. Roosevelt Freeman, OCR, Region IV Page 3 August 21, 2013 unscheduled, only a two-hour time window be provided to obtain an appropriate interpreter, whether live or remote.) It is unconscionable that any child being removed from an already difficult family situation suffer additionally as a result of their inappropriate foster placement.

“The mission of the FCCDHH is to serve as an advisory and coordinating body which recommends policies that address the needs of deaf, hard of hearing, late deafened, and deaf-blind persons, as well as methods that improve the coordination of services among public and private entities and to provide technical assistance advocacy, and education.” Within the boundaries of this mission, we feel that we MUST support the efforts of the Advisory Committee and specifically, those issues related to foster care brought 41

to our attention by Mr. Kottler. We ask that the DCF Foster Care, when faced with issues for clients who are deaf and hard of hearing, be required to consult with a member of the Advisory Committee or other designee appointed by the Coordinating Council, who understands and represents citizens who are deaf and hard of hearing in order to appropriately serve this population. Additionally, it is our recommendation that specific trainings be created and provided for foster care parents who are responsible for the care of children who are deaf and hard of hearing children. These training modules should be developed with the assistance of an advisor selected from the Advisory Committee to ensure appropriate and effective content.

The Coordinating Council appreciates the opportunity to advocate for all Florida citizens with hearing loss. Thank you, in advance, for your prompt action to this matter and for your consideration of our recommendations. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Cindy Ann Simon, Au.D. Chair, FCCDHH CAS/mgt Enclosures cc: Mr. Rick Kottler Ms. Gail Hoffman, HHS Ms. Esther Jacobo, DCF Interim Secretary Mr. Scott Stewart, DCF Assistant Secretary for Administration DCF Advisory Committee for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing