Public Policy Affinity Group

The Public Policy Affinity Group will not be meeting anymore. Instead, policy issues will be addressed as appropriate within each of the other Affinity Groups. 

Joint Meeting of the Think College Vocational Rehabilitation, Public Policy, and Student Credentials Affinity Groups
Date: August 12, 2020
Summary: At this session we welcomed three guest speakers, Mary Hauff, advocate and parent from Minnesota, and Lauren Bruno and Jennifer Cremers, University of Iowa REACH program, will share an overview of the program’s use of WorkKeys as a tool to increase access to evidence-based credentials earned by students with ID.

Crossover Affinity Group meeting with the Vocational Rehabilitation and Student Credentials groups
Date: April 1, 2020; November 6, 2019, August 7, 2019

Special meeting about (IPEDS) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
Date: May 7, 2019
Summary: At this meeting with TPSIDs, Frank Smith and Meg Grigal from the Think College National Coordinating Center, explained proposed changes to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the impact this would have on inclusive PSE.
Recording of IPEDS meeting and a summary document can be found here.

Congressional and State Legislative Sessions
Date: January 17, 2019
Summary: During this call we discussed the new Congress, your new State legislative sessions, the Higher Ed Act, what to anticipate in the coming year, and some new material we have developed.
Talking points on HEA reauthorization.

Vocational Rehabilitation
Date: September 13, 2018
Summary: We discussed how to influence policy at Vocational Rehabilitation to better support inclusive postsecondary education. 

Reauthorization of the Higher Education Opportunity Act
Date: February 22, 2018
Summary: At this meeting, we discussed the pending reauthorization of the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act, and considered the following questions: What does that mean for TPSIDs created under the law and others that have inclusive higher education programs for students with intellectual disabilities? What can you do? Who should you be talking to about your programs? What are you hearing in the field about HEOA? 

CUNY TPSID Consortium
Date: November 30, 2017
Summary: Invited guest, Chris Rosa, Interim Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, City University of New York, spoke on behalf of CUNYs TPSID consortium on how they are moving forward to influence their legislature on behalf of all the programs.

Kickoff Meeting
Date: June 8, 2017
Summary: At the meeting we reviewed the purpose of the Public Policy Affinity Group, previewed materials being developed for the Project Directors meeting, and heard from Martha E. Mock, Ph.D. Director, Institute for Innovative Transition at the University of Rochester and Margo Vreeburg Izzo, Ph.D., Program Director, The Ohio State University Nisonger Center about their experiences with public policy related to inclusive higher education in their respective states.

Email Denise Rozell with your ideas!