October 29, 2025 Meeting Minutes - Moving with an IEP, PDA, SNAP, PEAL CENTER Pop-Up
- PALS
- 23 hours ago
- 6 min read
PALS Meeting Minutes
October 29, 2025 9:30 a.m.
Virtual Meeting using Zoom
Open Forum
Open Forum allows participants to share experiences, ask questions, and provide resources in a mutually supportive setting.
Moving with an IEP
Often we hear from families looking to move to the Pittsburgh area and researching the area school districts. Below find a combination of our conversation during this meeting and some points in conversations outside of this meeting.
Public and Private Speciality Schools in the area (including but not limited to):
Public School Districts within Allegheny County with Map, Butler County and Map, and Washington County with Map. Most people looking into Fox Chapel also look into places like Upper St. Clair, Mt. Lebonan, Cranberry, Mars, and Marshall Township in the North Allegheny School District. The Allegheny Intermediate Unit also has a list of what they call Special Education Schools. There are also private schools like The Watson Institute, River Academy of Excellence (PALS frequently collaborates with River Pediatric Therapies and River Academy of Excellence, see meeting minutes from April 2022), ACLD Tillotson School, Pressley Ridge, The Children’s Institute Day School, Pace School, Wesley K-8 and Wesley High School.
IEP Prep:
If your child has an active IEP in place legally the incoming school district would need to adhere to that IEP until a new IEP is put in place. Generally, school districts want to preform their own educational evaluation and prepare a new IEP. Remeber, although IEPs are valid for one year; you can call an IEP meeting at anytime. Therefore, you should consider requesting an IEP meeting before leaving one school district for another; arriving with a recently crafted IEP.
Providing ample parental notes beyond the standard questionnaire during the evaluation process is always a good idea. Remember all the support you provide at home that impacts your child's educational success. Make sure everything you want evaluated is written down, I.g. math, reading, writing, executive functioning, behavior, etc. Remember, public schools are not built to be proactive; they are reactive. Even with the Child Find law, schools are reactive and it’s best to keep that in mind and push when needed, using their language. Keep in mind, it is what is in the best interest of the child in the realm of what is a Free Appropriate Public Education.
Most families start each school year with a fresh binder to keep a child’s classwork/homework, assessment information, progress reports and report cards, current IEP, anything coming home from school, and communications between home and school. Even if you communicate face-to-face or over the phone, always follow it up with an email covering the bases of what was discussed. Parents often joke about boxing up the past year’s binder at the end of the year. You never know when you might need to look back at something. When moving to a new school district the classwork/homework and assessment contents of the binder maybe helpful to express what staff at the new school are reading in the IEP.
A big draw for families moving from out of state is PH-95. Pennsylvania's PH-95 program does not count parental income in eligibility, if you haven’t heard about it, you can find some information in our May 2017 meeting minutes; there are two cover pages of pdfs, you will want to click on the top one. There is a shortage of professional service providers in the entire state. It seems that the further you get from a city the more difficult it is to find providers to fulfill waivers for specialized care. Most families have service coordinators that help them through all of these processes. Here are some go to(s) from our Resource page that will be helpful wherever you end up.
PDA
Since starting the conversation about PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance or more positively referred to as Pervasive Drive for Autonomy) a few months ago (May 2025 and April 2025), we have heard from more families looking for help. We are working on hosting an online meeting with Dr. Bethany Ziss after the new year. Dr. Ziss is well known in the Autism community especially when it comes to PDA. The goal is to organize this meeting in advance with a RSVP requirement to maximize participation. This will ensure there is space for all who want to attend, including families, service providers, educators, physicians, and anyone else in the community supporting someone diagnosed with PDA. Updates regarding this information session will be included in our newsletter. Please share this information with others, letting them know they can Subscribe to the newsletter in the footer of any PALS website page.
If you know of any PDA advocates, service providers, or other support services in the area, please email us at palsfcinfo@gmail.com or go to the Contact section of the Home Page. We will include the information on the PALS Resource Page.
Additional PDA Resources:
A FEW IMPORTANT THINGS WE DID NOT GET TO IN THE MEETING
Latest News on SNAP
The Allegheny County Department of Human services (AC DHS) Office of Developmental Supports (ODS) sent the following in two recent messages:
The newest information and rules about SNAP (formerly food stamps) can be confusing. This page on Allegheny Connect offers details about what has changed and how to get support. https://connect.alleghenycounty.us/food-transportation-and-other-essentials/#snap
There is updated information on the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (PA DHS) webpage at www.pa.gov/agencies/dhs regarding SNAP benefit interruptions.
Additionally, they offered this important reminder “If you are receiving SNAP, please remember that you are still responsible for completing renewals and reporting any changes to your income, contact information, or the people living in your home during the shutdown. SNAP recipients should also remember changes mandated by the federal government that will take effect November 1 and report their work, schooling, or volunteer participation to DHS.”
Food banks are warehouses that receive food and distribute it to food pantries. Food pantries then give that food directly to people in need. There are also other food distributions that are in many communities often at faith-based organizations.
Other food resources can also be found on this page and at https://pittsburghfoodbank.org/find-food/get-help/
For detailed information about locations to find food resources near you visit https://findfood.pittsburghfoodbank.org/s/?_gl=1*15d4mc*_ga*MTA5MTUwODAxNC4xNjY5ODQ4ODY3*_ga_8GM9BCSSR0*MTY2OTkzOTc1OC4zLjEuMTY2OTkzOTc2MS41Ny4wLjA.&_ga=2.266474574.1377455219.1669939758-1091508014.1669848867
Just Harvest offers SNAP and other helpful resources at https://justharvest.org/get-help/resource-links/
United Way 211 https://search.pa211.org/ Allows food resources searches by zip code. Provides opportunity to search, chat online and call a resource navigator. Food Resources include Free Meals, Formula / Baby Food, Food Pantries / Banks, Grocery Assistance and Home Delivered Meals.
PA Navigate https://pa-navigate.org/search_results/15236 “Free or reduced-cost help starts here! PA Navigate connects Pennsylvanians with health and social care services in their local community. Find help now with food, housing, utilities, transportation and more by entering your zip code.”. Food assistance includes Emergency Food, Food Delivery, Food Pantry, Help Pay For Food and Meals.
PEAL CENTER 10/21/25 Pop-Up Webinar:
Understanding the Impact: What Potential Changes at the Federal Level Mean for Students with Disabilities
The PEAL CENTER hosted a impromptu webinar on October 21, 2025 to address how ongoing changes at the Federal level impact students with disabilities.
Click on the Zoom link below to watch the webinar recording.
If you have any feedback or questions, PEAL CENTER would love to hear from you.
Please take a moment and complete the feedback survey: www.tfaforms.com/5160031
Additional Resources for this Webinar from PEAL CENTER
-Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Information
-Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Information
-Rehabilitation Service Administration (RSA) Information
-National Down Syndrome Congress - Informational Letter Sent October 2025
Moving with an IEP
Additional Resources
Thank You River Academy of Excellence and John's Funky Inflatables
PALS hit the 2nd Annual River Academy of Excellence Trunk-or-Treat event on Saturday, October 18, 2025 with decorations by John's Funky Inflatables.
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PALS Calendar of Events
PALS shares notices for many in-person and virtual events from local, regional, and national organizations, including webinars, support groups, research opportunities, and activities for children and teens. Updated weekly, the PALS Calendar is a valuable resource. Please email your additions to palsfcinfo@gmail.com.
Next Meeting: November 19, 2025 9:30 a.m. Virtual Meeting using Zoom.
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