Episode 48: We're All In, Are You?

Transcript

Arthur: Welcome to the Inclusion Think Tank podcast, where we talk about inclusive education, why it works and how to make it happen. On today's episode, I welcome my guest, Fred. Fred is the chief executive officer of New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education, which is now All In For Inclusive Education, and has been leading the organization since 2014.

In our conversation today, Fred, shares the exciting news about our transition from New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education to All In For Inclusive Education, what that name change means and what you can expect from the organization going forward.

Arthur: I would like to welcome everyone back to a new episode of the Inclusion Think Tank podcast brought to you by New Jersey Coalition for Inclusive Education. I am happy to welcome my guest Fred, back to the podcast. Fred, thank you for joining me today.

Fred My pleasure Arthur, glad to be back.

Arthur: So, Fred, you are joining me today for a very special episode of the Inclusion Think Tank podcast to announce some big news.

So before we get into that big announcement, can you briefly give an overview of the history of NJCIE? And can you speak about how the organization started and its mission and, things about how many school districts we are currently working with in the state of New Jersey?

Fred: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for asking. So roughly 30 years ago TASH developed a number of subdivisions of groups in different states, and they were different groups focused on inclusive education.

And in New Jersey, a group of professors, parents, administrators, nonprofit leaders came together to kind of start getting the conversation about inclusive ed rolling in New Jersey and the parents were working to get their kids included, which most of them were successful. And they kind of universally found from districts that there was a need for training, there was a need for experts, the districts that were willing but had done this before.

They needed somebody to show them how to include students, especially those with more significant disabilities, especially with more significant support needs appropriate for them.

Fred: So the group started sourcing experts to provide training for schools. A few years after that, they decided to incorporate into a nonprofit. That first executive director was a guy named Rick Ebinger. He led the coalition for two or three years.

And at that point, the coalition was a fledgling nonprofit and really needed additional support. Quickly after that, Paula Lieb took over and built the organization into a small nonprofit supporting about 20 school districts here. Give or take, maybe 25.

Fred: I took over in 2014. In 2016, we did a large project in Newark, which eventually led to getting a state grant with Montclair State, University of New Jersey, Department of Ed that was called the New Jersey Inclusive Ed Technical Assistance Project.

A few years later, they split our one project into two projects with Montclair State's Center for Autism and Early Childhood Health, taking over the pre-K side and us taking over the K-12 side. And the ground was renamed the New Jersey Inclusion Projects.

Over the course of the last five years. We've seen a large number of requests come in for support out of state and, we have gotten to a point where we're flying people around the country to provide support in different states, and it's come time to make some changes.

Fred: So as you can tell by our two Zoom backgrounds, we are in the process of rebranding. We'll be moving from a state-based branding NJCIE to a national type of branding, which is All In for Inclusive Ed.

The name All In for Inclusive Ed, actually came from an advisory group that we started around this move, and the name was created by Paula Kluth, who was gracious enough to allow us to use the name for this now national entity.

Arthur: That’s really great. I didn't know about that with Paula. It's great. So, yes, we are transitioning from NJCIE to All In For Inclusive Education, which is really exciting. And we've been talking about it over the last few months and I've been in some meetings with you all, and it's really exciting to see where this is taking us outside of the state of New Jersey and across the country.

And can you share a little bit about what this transition means and what states we're expanding to and what services will the organization be able to offer to these other states where we are expanding?

Fred: So, it’s really recognition of what we're doing to a certain extent. Right now, we're supporting over 100 to 130 school districts here in and out of New Jersey or schools in Pennsylvania, in Vermont, in Nevada.

And we also have plans to open specific chapters of the organization in Arizona and Oklahoma. In addition to that, we're talking to folks in other states. And the interesting thing about all of this is that it's all being driven by demand. We really have not spent any money marketing. We have not done any real significant outreach out of state.

Fred: The need for us to move to more of a national footprint is really just based on the outreach we're getting from the community. The folks in Arizona reached out, the folks in Oklahoma, reached out to people from Georgia, reached down. So it's it's it's being driven by demand, which is super interesting.

Arthur: Yes, that is really impressive because of the work that we've done here in New Jersey.

People are hearing about us. I know that I've been with the organization for a few years now and just attending our conferences that we have here in New Jersey to see all of the people that show up for that is really impressive to see. And I find that even more impressive that I talk to people at this conference and they say, Oh, I know your voice, you're the host of the podcast.

That's happened to me a few times. It's fun every time that happens.

Arthur: within, say, the next six months or to the next year, what are some of the positive changes or additions that we can expect to see as we transition to All In For Inclusive Education?

Fred: There will be an increase. Well, first off, we'll be moving to a new website and a new website location, and we're really looking to expand the number of free offerings that we provide each year.

We're looking to make resources more available and more readily available on our website. The interesting thing about this conference is the last conference we had, there were 500 people who registered. There were administrators from across the tri-state area attending; folks from Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut. So we've seen a lot of growing interest in the conference. And it's it's a little bit unique.

There are other conferences that dabble in administrative and instructional practices around inclusive education, as part of a larger specialist conversation. But our conference is the only one that I've seen that really does a deep dive into how to make inclusion work.

Fred: How do you develop an inclusive school board districts from the scheduling, from the programmatic side, from the from the staffing side, all the way down to how do we modify for students who have significant support needs or how do we modify materials and provide interventions for students with dyslexia?

I have not really encountered conferences out there that really focused on making inclusion work as it’s sole goal.

Arthur: Yes. So I thank you for joining me for this big announcement. For those of you watching or listening to the podcast, who listen to it often, stay tuned. We will be making some announcements throughout additional episodes about what we have going on at All In For Inclusive Education

And Fred, thank you so much for sharing this great news with everyone and we will stay tuned for all that is to come,

Fred: Thank you Arthur, my pleasure, and looking forward to strange new worlds. So thank you for having me. We're very much looking forward to expanding across the country to have a greater impact, you know, push for and advocate for more inclusive education across the country and inclusive education, done well.

Arthur: Yes. So thanks, Fred. And you have a great day

Fred: Thanks.

Arthur: We thank you for listening to this episode of the Inclusion Think Tank podcast. This podcast is brought to you by All In for Inclusive Education. Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Stay tuned for new episodes of the podcast premiering every two weeks.

We're all in. Are you?