PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dontai Nottingham, Director of Government Relations at Eastside House
2:59:54
·
63 sec
Dontai Nottingham from Eastside House provided testimony on their experience with the Summer Rising program, highlighting both positive aspects and challenges, particularly regarding support for students with disabilities.
- Emphasized a shortage of paraprofessionals for students with disabilities, making it difficult to provide necessary support
- Recommended increasing funding for additional paraprofessionals in Summer Rising
- Suggested providing additional support and training for staff working with students with disabilities when paraprofessionals are not present
Dontai Nottingham
2:59:54
Thank you.
2:59:57
Good afternoon.
2:59:58
My name is Dante Nottingham.
3:00:00
I am the director of government relations with Eastside House, and we've had an operating summer rising for the past couple of years now.
3:00:06
And while we are grateful for the program, when we had many highlights, there have been a few challenges that my colleagues have experience summarizing, especially in consideration to students with disabilities.
3:00:20
A lot of our, you know, population who have disabilities have not gotten the full support.
3:00:27
There has been a lack of or shortage of paraprofessionals with working with students with disabilities, which make it a lot harder to provide the additional support for those students they need, and just recommendations is hopefully to increase the the funding for additional para professionals along working with summarizing, as well as providing additional support for staff when working with students with disabilities, when there are not prior professionals present in the program.
3:00:57
Thank you.
