Youth Advisory Committee Summary Minutes – April 24, 2007

Preliminary actions included the Designated Federal Official’s (DFO) call to order and roll call (accounting for all active members) and welcome to meeting other participants that included the YAC mentors and contractor. The DFO, Dr. Gerrie Hawkins reviewed the meeting agenda and transferred meeting leadership to Stephanie Orlando, YAC Chair.

Procedural Summary: 

The procedural workgroup updates were summarized. The YAC Chair reported on (1)  YAC adoption of its action plan for the FY 2007 with goals, timelines and ways to improve the functions; (2) Executive Team development of a project proposal form to streamline project planning and consideration of project time and effort before the workgroup begins working on a project that may not be feasible.; and (3) an outreach tracking form as a tool to track how products are used--the number of people (individuals/organizations) to whom YAC members give public information. For outreach/networking,  Michael Murray reported on a Disability History and Awareness project and also seeking to fulfill the YAC mission of looking into emerging issues by inquiring of NCD staff with regard to the process for sending out guiding questions to a wide range of youth organizations.

Policy Summary:

Gary Goosman reported that at the April 2007 quarterly meeting, NCD voted to accept the YAC benefits planning paper. The YAC made several recommendations which suggested actions for consideration by NCD that might also involve work to be done by other federal bodies such as the Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the Office of Special Education Programs, the Small Business Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, and the U.S. Congress. The paper included seven YAC recommendations backed by evidence-based support such as information gathered from the 2006 YAC Round table, relevant published literature, as well as personal stories obtained from other youth with disabilities. The issues for consideration in those recommendations affecting the lives of youth with disabilities in particular focused upon expanding the ages for federal data collection, benefits planning as part of the IEP process, training needed by key employees and adding tax incentives to employers, improving federal agency hiring practices, using cost of living adjustment in raising earnings limits when receiving certain benefits, producing reader and user friendly federal information, and considering a uniform federal definition of disability.

Carly Fahey reported that the workgroup took the time between the YAC approving the benefits paper and now to transition in new leadership. Andrew Philips passed the Workgroup leadership over to Carly Fahey. In March 2007, Carly became the second high school student in YAC history to lead a workgroup. Under her leadership, the workgroup is discussing involvement in issues of healthcare and aversive treatments. Any written document will include recommendations to NCD. 

Announcements/Comments: 

YAC members responded well when NCD asked for written comments on the post Katrina Emergency Plan, in late February 2007.

The meeting was adjourned by the DFO until August 14, 2007.