Fiscal Year 2023: September 1, 2022 – August 31, 2023
Dear Friends of LDA Minnesota,
For LDA, 2023 was a transition year. We made it through the pandemic and began fully transitioning to work and life again without the restrictions that Covid-19 had placed on our lives and work. It felt good again to be with people, but we still found we were adjusting to new ways of being together and delivering services. Federal pandemic funding had ended and yet we continued to face challenges and shifts in funding, staffing and delivering programs.
Our Teacher Preparation and Licensure Program formed a new partnership in 2023 with INDIGO Education. Together, we’re focused on building a trained special education workforce for charter schools statewide. INDIGO Education provides special education leadership to charter schools. Their history, expertise and values closely align with LDA’s programming and together we are excited to continue impacting students statewide. Five candidates completed the program and were recommended for licensure and a new cohort began with 36% of candidates identifying as Black, Indigenous or Persons of Color.
Like many schools in 2023, we had a hard time recruiting new teaching staff to our programs. Thankfully, we retained many of our teachers from previous years, but several schools requested more services during the year. LDA had several positions unfilled for part or all of the academic year. Though our programs were seeing great student achievement growth, this had a big financial impact on the organization. As we look into 2024, we anticipate more school partnerships and a need for licensed, trained teachers. Through our partners, we’re working together to increase teacher recruitment for these new positions.
All of LDA’s board and staff thank you for your continued support of our work. Whether we’re training new teachers, providing a diagnostic assessment to a child, or delivering a reading intervention to groups of students in schools, our commitment to our vision remains: All adults and children with learning challenges are understood, accepted, and empowered to achieve their life goals.
Best,
Martha Moriarty
Executive Director
Our mission: LDA Minnesota serves individuals, families and communities impacted by learning differences, equipping and inspiring learners to thrive and lead fulfilled lives.
Our vision: All adults and children with learning challenges are understood, accepted, and empowered to achieve their life goals.
Values:
- Quality: As a leader in the field, LDA stays abreast of current research and the needs of our community. We evaluate our work to ensure that our clients are making progress and we are exceeding their expectations for service delivery.
- Accessibility: LDA provides individualized educational services to under-resourced and underserved communities that would not have access to high quality services otherwise. We strive to offer information and services to all populations regardless of abilities.
- Outreach: LDA strives to be a resource for information in the community; we do this through our community partnership, advocacy efforts, and programs.
- Strengths: LDA believes all learners have strengths and abilities; we value, respect, appreciate, and recognize each unique life experience.
- Equity: LDA believes all learners can thrive. LDA strives to develop cultural competency and to eliminate policies, practices, attitudes and cultural messages that perpetuate disparities based on race, culture, ethnicity, ability, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or socioeconomic status.
- Self-determination: LDA believes that we all have the ability to learn and grow at any age. LDA provides services across the lifespan. We believe individuals with disabilities should have full self-determination by understanding their condition(s) and determining future goals.
- Justice: LDA stands with our community against racism, oppression and injustice and will work toward ending racial disparities that plague our systems, schools and neighborhoods. We know that traumatic events can negatively impact teaching and learning environments.
LDA Board of Directors 2022-2023
Jerry Golden, President
Cheryl Coombs, Treasurer
Craig Foss, Vice President
Paul Wallace, Secretary
Sherry Holtz, Past President
Cathy Borbos, PhD, MPH
Scarlett Ferguson
Catherine Lenagh
Michelle Mattison, LLMSW
Joy Spear
Pahoua Yang, PhD, LP, LICSW, MSSW
LDA Key Staff 2022-2023
Martha Moriarty Executive Director
Dr. Cathy Tutor, Program Manager & Faculty
Nichelle Williams-Johnson, Education Services Manager
Dr. Jennifer Christensen, Mentor Manager & Faculty
During Fiscal Year 2023, LDA directly served 1,644 individuals during FY 2023 (Sept. 1, 2022 – Aug. 31, 2023), of those served, 87% were children and families; 13% were adults; 77% were low-income; and 78% were people of color. LDA provides information, training, and resources statewide with direct services focused on the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
- Learning Connections, a 26-year collaborative partnership with urban schools, promotes learning success for children at-risk for reading and/or math failure. The Learning Connections Program is an academic intervention service that directly addresses the children behind Minnesota’s achievement gap statistics. During the school year 2022-2023, the Learning Connections Program served 319 students in grades K-12, approximately 85% of whom were low-income and 89% students of color. For students receiving reading or math interventions during the school year, 85 had at least two benchmark data points: 90% showed positive growth, and 66% exceeded expected growth expectations, narrowing their achievement gaps. Parents of participating students reported their child’s confidence has grown significantly and their child’s skills have shown improvement over the course of the school year.
- Assessment, Tutoring, and Executive Function Skill Building Services help individuals understand how they learn and gain strategies to improve learning. These highly specialized, personalized, and intensive services are tailored to meet the specific educational and vocational goals of children and adults. Educational assessment services are offered to persons age 5 and older, and include both diagnostic and informal educational assessments to identify and document academic strengths and weaknesses. Consultations with parents and adults are available to educate, support, and provide professional, objective interpretation of evaluations and reports and to assist in making decisions regarding specific needs. In 2022-2023, LDA provided individualized services to 80 individuals through online instruction:.
-
- 100% of tutoring students who completed 12 or more sessions achieved their target goal.
- 66% of assessment clients, who responded to a post-service survey, reported that they “strongly agree” that the assessment provided new information or skills, increasing their life opportunities. The remaining 33% indicated they “agree” with this statement. 100% would recommend the service to others.
- Learning Disability & ADHD Support Services provide adults with learning and attention challenges the knowledge, resources, and support to help them understand and manage their learning and attention challenges through weekly and monthly support groups, symposia, focused workshops, and consultations. In 2020-2023, 55 adults gained skills and resources to better manage their challenges and achieve their academic, vocational, and personal goals. Delivered online and in-person in FY2023, the majority of support group members responded to surveys rating the service as “very positive” or “positive (84% of respondents).
- Teacher Preparation and Licensure Program trains aspiring special education teachers for the Academic Behavioral Specialist teaching license. The program is approved by the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) and is the first alternative teacher preparation program to offer initial teacher licensure and special education licensure in Minnesota. Delivered in FY2023:
-
- The Program graduated its third cohort of teacher candidates, recommending five candidates for licensure in May 2023.
- 89% of the candidates were retained in the program, the average GPA was 3.7. A total of 22 candidates were enrolled in the program during the year, of those 36% of the candidates identify as Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC)
Financial Statements
ASSETS
| Current Assets | |
| Cash and cash equivalents | $440,973 |
| Accounts receivable, net of allowance | $63,811 |
| Interest receivable | $275 |
| Prepaid expenses and other assets | $23,846 |
| Total current assets | $528,905 |
| Property and equipment | $1,535,888 |
| Less: accumulated depreciation | ($569,414) |
| Net property and equipment | $996,474 |
| Total Assets | $1,495,379 |
LIABILITIES and NET ASSETS
| Current Liabilities | |
| Current maturities of long-term debt | $10,548 |
| Accounts payable & accrued expense | $15,432 |
| Accrued employee benefits | $35,363 |
| Accrued interest | $26,068 |
| Deferred revenue | $34,027 |
| Total current liabilities | $121,438 |
| Long-Term Debt (net of current maturities) | |
| Notes payable | $790,634 |
| Less: current maturities | ($10,548) |
| Long-term debt (net of current maturities) | $780,086 |
| Total Liabilities | $901,524 |
| Net Assets | |
| Without donor restrictions | $577,433 |
| With donor restrictions | $16,422 |
| Total Net Assets | $593,855 |
| Total Liabilities and Net Assets | $1,495,379 |
STATEMENT of ACTIVITIES
| REVENUES/GAINS/PUBLIC SUPPORT | |
| Program revenue | |
| Fees for Service | $175,799 |
| Gov’t Grants & Contracts | $370,667 |
| Total Program Revenue | $546,466 |
| Contributions | |
| Foundation, trust, corp grants | $142,815 |
| General Public support | $47,438 |
| Rental Income | $31,100 |
| Net assets released from restrictions | $81,108 |
| Total Public Support | $302,461 |
| Non-operating Revenue/Gains | |
| Interest Income | $13,704 |
| Tota non-operating revenues | $13,704 |
| Total Revenues/Gains/Public Support | $862,631 |
| EXPENSES and LOSSES | |
| Program Services | $940,029 |
| Support Services | |
| Administration | $87,138 |
| Fundraising | $32,254 |
| Total Expenses and losses | $1,059,421 |
| CHANGE in NET ASSETS | ($196,790) |
| Net Assets – Beginning of year | $774,223 |
| Net Assets – End of Year | $577,433 |
Total Cost of each major Program at LDA Minnesota
| Learning Connections | $342,862 |
| Teacher Prep & Licensure | $375,680 |
| Diagnostic Assessments | $114,873 |
| Public Education, Instructional & Support Services | $106,614 |