Transcript Slide 1

Parent Advocate’s Guide to Special Education
Bill Doolittle, National PTA Special Needs
Committee, Co-Chairman
Dr. James Pulos, National PTA Legislation
Committee Member
Elizabeth Rorick, Deputy Exec. Director,
Government Affairs and Communications
2014 Legislative Conference
Workshop Style
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Interactive
Inquisitive
There are no bad questions or ideas
Participant directed
Parking lot to hold ideas
Who are we ?
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Parents
Educators
Administrators
Clinicians
Policy makers
Concerned individuals
Others
Advocating for children with
disabilities
Your child
Parent
Educator
Others
Other’s Children
PTA Advocates
Volunteer parent advocate
Volunteer educator advocate
Parent information and resource center advocates
Issue group advocates
Paid advocates
Your LEA, Your state, USA and beyond
Advocacy Core
Your child
Educating yourself
Advocating for your child
Individual children
Parental request
Parental education and support
Parental permissions and wishes
Advocating for the child
Advocacy Core continued
Broader advocacy
Base advocacy knowledge
Identifying common areas of need and concern
Communicating common areas of need and concern
Identifying others with common concerns
Intermediate advocacy knowledge
Contacting decision makers
Contacting partners
Building coalitions
Getting to work
Advanced advocacy knowledge
Strategic planning
Systems change
NPTA Special needs committee
Background and History
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
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Main federal program authorizing state and local aid for special education
and related services for children with disabilities.
Requires states to provide a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) to
children with disabilities so that they can be educated to the greatest extent
possible along with all other children.
Created to help states and school districts meet their legal obligations to
educate children with disabilities, and to pay part of the extra expenses of
doing so.
Today, approximately 6 million children currently receive special education
services.
Background and History
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
2000s
2004: President Bush signed the Individuals
with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act, a major
reauthorization that worked to remove
the barriers separating special
education from general education.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Free appropriate public education (FAPE)
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to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability.
no cost to the parent.
meets state education standards.
consistent with your child's Individualized Education
Program (IEP).
What is Special Education?
• Set of services, rather than a specific place for
your child to go.
• The general education classroom is considered the
least restrictive environment or LRE for most kids.
• Most special education students spend the
majority of the day in general education.
• “Push in" or "pull out" support from the special
education staff.
What is Special Education?
• IEPs are mostly implemented in the general education
classroom.
• Besides instruction in general education, other options
for receiving special education services may be
considered
– special classes,
– special schools,
– home instruction, and
– instruction in hospitals and institutions.
Parental Involvement Provisions
under IDEA
• Create and preserve constructive relationships between
parents and schools.
• Ensure parent involvement in planning and decision making.
• Assist parents to develop skills they need to participate
effectively in the education and development of their
children.
• Support parents as participants within partnerships.
• Help overcome economic, cultural, and linguistic barriers to
full parent participation.
Parents have the right to…
• Informed Consent: Each LEA must obtain informed consent from
parent before conducting an evaluation.
• Notification: Must be notified early enough to ensure the one or
both of the child’s parents or guardians can attend IEP meetings.
Parents may request that IEP meetings are scheduled at a
mutually agreed upon time.
• Native Language: Have access to an interpreter if their native
language is not English.
• Alternate meeting mediums: LEAs and parents can agree to use
alternative means of meeting participation such as video or
audio conferencing.
Parent Resources
Parent Training Information (PTI) Centers
• Provide training, information and support to parents who have a
child through the age of 26 with special needs.
• Authorized in Part D of IDEA and are funded by the U. S.
Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs
(OSEP).
• PTI Center in each state --some states also have Community
Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs) which focus on reaching
underserved populations, including low income families.
Parent Resources
Parent Training Information (PTI) Centers
• Currently there are 104 PTI Centers, 32 of which are CPRCs,
which operate under a unified system to provide technical
assistance and resources for parents, family members,
professionals, and school personnel.
• PTI Centers assist parents in the development of their child’s
IEP, as well as assist parents in obtaining the appropriate
information about the range, type, and quality of programs
and services.
Individualized Education Plan
Individual Education Program (IEP): Title 34 CFR §321
• IDEA requires children to have an individualized education
program (IEP), in order to receive special education
services.
• The IEP includes information about a child’s present levels
of performance on various tests and measures and includes
information about goals and objectives, specifically how
the child’s educational problems will be addressed.
Individualized Education Plan
The IEP must be developed with input from:
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At least one of the child’s parents;
At least one regular education teacher;
At least one of the child’s special education teachers or providers;
A representative of the school district who is qualified,
knowledgeable, and authorized to commit the district to the
delivery of resources to the child;
• A qualified professional who can interpret the evaluation of child;
and
• Others at the discretion of the parent or the school district and,
where appropriate, the child with a disability.
Positive Behavior
Interventions and Supports
Where we are…
• Teachers report “uncivil” behavior is
increasing and is a threat to effective
learning (Skiba & Peterson, 2000)
• There is a link between general level
of disruptive behavior and more
extreme acts of violence (Skiba &
Peterson, 2000)
Hardwired vs Programmed
Which of the following do you think children are
born with as hardwired emotional responses?
1. Patience
2. Joy
3. Anger
4. Embarrassment
5. Sadness
6. Empathy
7. Surprise
8. Disgust
9. Gratitude
10.Fear
11.Forgiveness
Hardwired vs Programmed
Which of the following do you think children are
born with as hardwired emotional responses?
1.
2.
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11.
Patience
Joy
Anger
Embarrassment
Sadness
Empathy
Surprise
Disgust
Gratitude
Fear
Forgiveness
Jensen, E. (2009). Teaching with poverty in mind. ASCD.
Why Should We Implement PBIS?
• Problem behavior is increasing
• Educators often rely on reactive and crisis
management interventions to solve chronic behavior
problems
• Educators often lack specialized skills to address
severe problem behavior
• Teachers are being asked to do more with less
• Students have limited opportunities to learn social
skills and to receive feedback on their use
Special Needs Students
• Research shows that students with special needs are
more likely than students without special needs to
be involved in the school disciplinary process.
• For the 2009-10 school year, the out of school
suspension rates for all racial groups combined were
• 13 percent for students with special needs
• 7 percent for those without special needs.
Special Needs Students
• A staggering 25 percent of African-American
students with special needs were suspended
out of school at least one time in 2009-10.
It Doesn’t Make Sense!
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When a student can’t read… we teach.
When a student can’t calculate… we teach.
When a student can’t write… we teach.
When a student can’t behave… we punish?
What Happens if we don’t
Intervene?
• Three years after leaving school, 70% of antisocial
youth have been arrested (Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey,
1995)
• 82% of crimes are committed by people who have
dropped out of school (APA Commission on Youth
Violence, 1993)
Meaningful Differences
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Observed in homes in the 1960s
Professional vs. Poverty
11-18 month olds (in one year)
Language
Professional: hear 4 million words
Affirmative statements = 30 per hour
Poverty: hear 250,000 words
Affirmative statements = 6 per hour
(Hart & Risley, 1995)
Hart and Risley conclude…
• Thousands of hours of affirmative feedback are
needed in preschool to even begin to overcome
what child has learned about himself/herself in the
first 3 years of life (p. 188)
• To provide average welfare child with the amount of
weekly language experience equal to that of average
working class child would require 41 hours per week
of out-of-home experiences (p. 201)
Hart and Risley conclude…
• 1,100 more instances of affirmative feedback per
week to keep confidence-building experiences of
welfare children equal to those of working class
children (p. 201)
• 26 hours per week of substituted experience with
affirmatives for the welfare child’s experience to
equal that of the working-class child (p. 202)
School
• Punitive disciplinary approach
• Lack of clarity about rules, expectations, and
consequences
• Lack of staff support
• Failure to consider and accommodate individual
differences
• Academic failure
(Mayer, 1995)
What are our “common”
responses?
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Clamp down on rule violators
Review rules and sanctions
Extend continuum of aversive consequences
Improve consistency of use of punishments
Establish “bottom line”
Notify and confer with parents (Lombardi et al.,
1990)
School-wide Discipline Procedures
Classroom?
Minor Offenses
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MANAGED
In the……
1st Offense
-Verbal warning
-Re-teach behavior expectation
-Parent contact (optional)
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Behavior
ceases. No
further action.
2nd Offense
(Behavior violates the same NMS
Behavioral Expectation)
-Re-teach behavior expectation
-Assign low-level consequence
-Begin tracking form
-Parent contact with tracking form
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Behavior
ceases. No
further action.
3rd Offense
(Behavior violates the same NMS
Behavioral Expectation)
-Re-teach behavior expectation
-Assign low-level consequence
-Parent contact with phone or email
and
tracking form
-Parent conference/RTI meeting
Team Meeting
-Discuss student with team (same
behaviors in other classes?)
-Document in team meeting minutes
-Email tracking form to Inter. Specialist
-All team members participate in
conference if behaviors are common
→
Behavior
ceases. No
further action.
4th Offense
(Same Behavior)
-Referral to AP written in
IC
-Document in referral that
“PBIS steps have been
addressed.”
-Email tracking form to AP
Office?
Major Offenses
Write referral to AP in Infinite
Campus.
-Send copy of tracking form to AP
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AP determines course of
action or consequences
(In addition, student may be
referred to Counselor for
Scheduling changes and/or
involvement in other
interventions. Intervention
Specialist will be notified for
documentation to occur.)
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-Parent contact (phone/email)
-Hard copy of referral to student
(noted in IC)
-Link to referral sent to teacher
and
Sgt. Edwards
Typical Reactive Responses
• Zero tolerance policies
• Security guards, student uniforms, metal
detectors, video cameras
• Suspension/expulsion
• Exclusionary options (e.g., alternative
programs)
Problems of Being REACTIVE…
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Fosters environments of control
Reinforces antisocial behavior
Shifts accountability away from school
Devalues child-adult relationship
Weakens relationship between academic and
social behavior programming
• Research does not support effectiveness
What Doesn’t Work…
• Reviews of over 600 studies on how to reduce school
discipline problems indicate that the LEAST effective
responses to school violence are:
Counseling (talking therapies)
Psychotherapy
Punishment
Associated with INCREASED aggression, vandalism, truancy,
tardiness, and dropouts
(Elliott, Hamburg & Williams, 1998; Gottfredson, 1996; Lipsey, 1991, 1992; Mayer, 1995; Mayer & SulzerAzeroff, 1990; Tolan & Guerra, 1994)
What DOES Work…
• Same research reviews indicate that the MOST effective response to
school violence is a comprehensive approach that includes:
social skills training
academic restructuring
behavioral interventions
Ideas for Effective PBIS
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Invest in Prevention
• Teach, monitor, and reward before resorting to punishment and
exclusion.
• Focus first on the social culture of the school
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Efficient Organization
• Combine rather than add initiatives
• Work smarter – not harder
Ideas for Effective PBIS
3. Build “Systems of Support”
• Build different systems for different problems
• Build durable systems
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Administrative leadership is essential
5. Adapt the systems and practices to “fit” each school
• Self-assessment
• Different paths – common outcomes
6. Gather and use information (data) for on-going decision-making
Key components
• Problem behaviors have clear consequences
• Discipline is implemented consistently by staff and
administration
• Student behavior is monitored and staff receive
regular feedback
Source: PBIS.org
Responsiveness to Intervention
Academic Systems
Intensive, Individual Interventions
•Individual Students
•Assessment-based
•High Intensity
1-5%
5-10%
Targeted Group Interventions
•Some students (at-risk)
•High efficiency
•Rapid response
Universal Interventions
•All students
•Preventive, proactive
Behavioral Systems
80-90%
1-5%
Intensive, Individual Interventions
•Individual Students
•Assessment-based
•Intense, durable procedures
5-10%
Targeted Group Interventions
•Some students (at-risk)
•High efficiency
•Rapid response
80-90%
Universal Interventions
•All settings, all students
•Preventive, proactive
Key components
• Problem behaviors have clear consequences
• Discipline is implemented consistently by staff and
administration
• Student behavior is monitored and staff receive
regular feedback
School Wide Systems
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Common purpose and approach to discipline
Clear set of positive expectations and behaviors
Procedures for teaching expected behavior
Continuum of procedures for encouraging
expected behavior
5. Continuum of procedures for discouraging
inappropriate behavior
6. Procedures for on-going monitoring and
evaluation
Non Classroom Systems
• Hallway, cafeteria, bus, restroom
• Teaching expectations and routines
• Active supervision
Scan, move, interact
• Pre-corrections and reminders
• Positive reinforcement
Classroom Management
• Behavior management
Teaching routines and procedures – then MODELING and
PRACTICING them!
Ratio of 6-8 positive to 1 negative adult-student interaction
• Instructional management
Curriculum and Instructional design
Well-planned, engaging lessons = fewer opportunities for off-task
behaviors
• Environmental management
Set your classroom up to be successful!
National PTA Urges
1. Require the inclusion of a classroom-based
behavioral management plan that focuses on
prevention during the development of every
student’s IEP and 504 plan.
2. Require that both general and special education
teachers know how to respond to behavioral
problems with Positive Behavioral Interventions
and Supports (PBIS).
References
HTTP://WWW.PBIS.ORG
HTTP://WWW.PTA.ORG/ADVOCACY