CHAPTER 16: The Professional School Counselor and Students with Disabilities

1. CHAPTER 16:The Professional School Counselor and Students with Disabilities Transforming The School Counseling Profession Fourth Edition Bradley T. Erford

2. Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities Since the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975, education has made great national progress in serving students with disabilities However, these students still face barriers to successful school and post-secondary outcomes

3. Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities The most common disabilities affecting more than 90% of students receiving special education are: Learning disabilities Emotional/behavioral disorders Mild intellectual disability Language disorders Other health impairments including AD/HD. Students with disabilities struggle with academic achievement, and frequently receive inadequate education services. Dropout rates range from 15% of students with visual impairments to 56% of students with emotional/behavioral disorders.

4. Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities (cont.) When these students become adults, they have lower rates of post-secondary educational involvement and higher rates of unemployment and underemployment. Despite a long history of poor outcomes in the academic arena, students with disabilities are capable of positive school and adult outcomes. In the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA), Congress emphasized the importance of education results for children with disabilities, and their right to participate in and contribute to society. Through IDEA and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Congress mandated the delivery of special education to students with disabilities.

5. Serving Students with Disabilities Students with disabilities are capable of becoming, and expected to become, contributing members of society. To achieve these ends, Congress mandated the delivery of special education and related services in the IDEA. The professional school counselor has many roles and potential responsibilities as a member of the multidisciplinary team responsible for developing and implementing special education programs and services. ASCA asserts that school counselors need to take an active role in student achievement and advocate for student needs.

6. Serving Students with Disabilities (cont.) Owens, Thomas, and Strong (2011) made suggestions for how professional school counselors can support students with disabilities Provide classroom guidance Consult and collaborate with staff and parents Advocate for students Contribute to the school’s multidisciplinary team Collaborate with related student support professionals Provide assistance with developing academic and transition plans

7. Federal Legislation Education Laws Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) Provides federal funding and requires states to guarantee a free, appropriate, public education to students who need special education and related services because of an eligible disability. Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

8. Federal Legislation (cont.) Civil Rights Laws Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) Provides no federal funding, but does mandate programs receiving federal funding under other laws may not exclude an individual with a disability from participating in the program. Also requires individuals with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to allow them access to these programs. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) Extends protection from discrimination because of disabilities to all public and private schools (religious schools excluded).

9. Major Differences between IDEA and Section 504 IDEA Focus: educational remediation Attempts to address gaps in skills or abilities by assuring appropriate services Eligibility limited to specific list of disabilities Section 504 Focus: prevention of discrimination Attempts to level the playing field for students with disabilities in order for them to achieve at their ability level Eligibility not limited to specific list of disabilities

10. Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) Provides that eligible students receive “special education,” which is defined as “specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals, and institutions, and in other settings…” (IDEA, 2004). Requires documentation that nearly all disabilities affect educational performance.

11. Handicapping Conditions under IDEA Autism Deaf-blindness Deafness Developmental delay Emotional disturbance Hearing impairment Intellectual disability Multiple disabilities Orthopedic impairment Other health impairment Specific learning disability Speech or language impairment Traumatic brain injury Visual impairment including blindness

12. IDEA (cont.) When a student is determined eligible for services under IDEA, the school system is required to provide Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). The law uses the word “appropriate,” not “best,” therefore IDEA does not require optimal programming, only appropriate programming that enables a child to make reasonable educational progress. The requirement under law for school systems is to educate students, not rehabilitatethem.

13. Special Education Process Identification Request for evaluation Screening Multidisciplinary team reviews records Notification and Consent Written consent from parent for all areas to be assessed Assessment Tests administered in non-discriminatory manner Eligibility Determination Determined by multidisciplinary team IEP Development Team creates individualized program to address academic and related issues Implementation Team determines LRE and services are initiated

14. Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act A student is eligible under Section 504 if he has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. All students found eligible for services under IDEA are qualified under Section 504 because they have a substantial impairment of a major life function – learning. A student is also qualified under Section 504 if he/she has a record of having such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment. Eligibility under Section 504 is not limited to a specific list of disabilities.

15. Section 504 (cont.) Schools receiving federal funding are required to comply with Section 504. Although there is a clear overlap with the term “special education” in both IDEA and Section 504, in practice students who require only accommodations and support are served under Section 504. Section 504 is a civil rights statute that addresses discrimination in access to programs and services, not remediation of learning.

16. 504 Plan Services Provided Counseling services Physical recreational athletics Transportation Health services Recreational activities Special interest groups/clubs Referrals to other agencies Employment of students

17. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Defines access to and confidentiality of student educational records. Parents have the right to control access to academic records until the student is 18 years of age, at which time the rights are transferred to the student. It is important that records are in a safe, locked location and that only approved individuals have a key.

18. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Three issues of particular importance to professional school counselors regarding FERPA: Parents have a right to inspect and review all educational records, and to decide if the school may share the report in the future. Any personal confidential notes a school counselor may have must not be shared with anyone at any time, or it will be deemed an education record and be placed in the student’s record. The parent has the right to challenge what is in the school records and to have anything that can be proven to be inaccurate or misleading removed.

19. Related Services for Students with Disabilities under IDEA and Section 504 Services include: audiology counseling early identification and assessment interpreting services medical services occupational therapy orientation and mobility services parent counseling and training physical therapy psychological services recreation rehabilitation counseling school nurse services social work services speech language services and transportation • IDEA defines related services as “transportation, and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as may be required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education.”

20. Related Services The following three service areas are often performed by professional school counselors for students with disabilities: Counseling services: focus on needs, interests, and issues related to various stages of student growth. Parent counseling and training: can help parents enhance the vital role they play in the lives of their children. Rehabilitation counseling services: generally includes assessment of student’s attitudes, abilities, and needs; vocational training; and identifying job placements.

21. Transition Services under IDEA 2004 According to IDEA, “transition services” means a coordinated set of activities for a child with a disability that: is designed to be within a results-oriented process, is based on the individual child’s needs, and includes instruction, related services, and community experiences. Beginning with the first IEP when the child is 16 years old, and updated annually thereafter, each student’s IEP must include: measurable postsecondary goals, the transition services needed to achieve those goals, and a statement that the child has been informed of his/her rights under state law, once the student reaches the age of majority.

22. Support Services for Children with Disabilities which May Involve the Professional School Counselor Advocacy Assessment Career counseling Clinical case management Clinical support Collaboration Crisis intervention Decision making Discipline and manifestation determination Dropout prevention Direct services Individualized Education Programming (IEP) IEP team membership Parent counseling and training Positive behavioral support Referral Safekeeping confidential records Self-determination training Transition program planning

23. Providing Services to Support Students with Disabilities Responsibilities of a professional school counselor can be divided into the following four categories: Development and implementation of a response to intervention (RTI) process Collaboration on the multidisciplinary team Providing direct services to students Supporting students indirectly by providing case management, consultation to teachers, and training parents

24. Developing and Using Response to Intervention (RTI) RTI is a multi-tier approach to help students in both general and special education who are struggling academically and behaviorally through early identification and support. Learners experiencing academic and behavioral problems receive interventions at increasing levels of intensity to address problems and return their learning trajectory to normal levels. Early interventions are provided by school personnel from various disciplines

25. Developing and Using RTI (cont.) Professional school counselors assist in the RTI process by: Providing all students with a standards-based guidance curriculum. Analyzing academic and behavioral data to identify struggling students. Identifying and collaborating on research-based intervention strategies that are implemented by school staff. Evaluating academic and behavioral progress after interventions. Revising interventions as appropriate. Referring to school and community services as appropriate. Collaborating with administrators about RTI design and implementation. Advocating for equitable education for all students and working to remove systemic barriers.

26. Positive Behavioral Support Three primary occasions that require the provision of “Positive Behavioral Supports” under IDEA: The development of school wide systems of support Professional school counselors serve on the school improvement team Helps provide staff development activities Provides assistance for student well-being Positive behavioral support to individual students Professional school counselors collect information for Functional Behavioral Assessment Positive behavioral support after a serious behavior Professional school counselors aid in development of the Behavior Improvement Plan

27. Positive Behavior Support School-wide systems of PBS Prevention and increasingly intensive tiers for student behavior is often called Positive Behavior Support (PBS) or Positive Behavior Intervention Strategies (PBIS) These comprehensive behavior management systems are very effective, decreasing office referrals by 50% for problematic behaviors

28. Positive Behavior Support The U.S. Dept. of Ed. (2005) offers seven major components to effective school wide systems: An agreed-on and common approach to discipline, A positive statement of purpose, A small number of positively stated expectations for all students and staff, Procedures for teaching these expectations to students, A continuum of procedures for encouraging displays and maintenance of these expectations, continuum of procedures for discouraging displays of rule-violating behavior, and Procedures for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the discipline system on a regular and frequent basis.

29. Multidisciplinary Team Responsibilities Assessing Students with Disabilities: Functions of the Professional School Counselor: Carry out and/or interpret functional behavioral assessments. Interpret educational skill assessments. Carry out and/or interpret curriculum-based assessments. Explain psychological testing. Carry out and/or interpret counseling assessments. Carry out structured observations of the student. Carry out a student records review. Help stress the need for assessing student strengths. Assess peer attitudes toward students with disabilities. Collaborate with others using portfolio-, performance-, and curriculum-based assessments.

30. The Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) Process Information obtained during the FBA process is used to develop strategies to: prevent the occurrence of the behavior, and substitute more appropriate behaviors when similar conditions arise. The steps in the FBA process include: Identifying and describing the problematic behavior. Identifying the conditions and settings when the behavior does and does not occur. Generating a hypothesis regarding the “function” of the behavior to the child. Testing the hypothesized function of the behavior by manipulating the environmental antecedents and consequences.

31. Assessing Students with Disabilities Professional school counselors may assess students with disabilities along a wide range of areas: Observable behavior The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), part of the Achenbach System of Empirically-Based Assessment (ASEBA) by Achenbach and Rescorla (2001) assesses nine observable behavior areas. Social, emotional, and behavioral functioning Many other instruments are available to measure these specific areas. Most of the survey instruments used by counselors to describe how a student perceives the situation (rather than evaluating or diagnosing) only require training on the instrument. Measuring the attitudes of students without disabilities toward students with disabilities to find out how much cooperative and beneficial interaction affects students with disabilities is also helpful to professional school counselors in order to develop a positive attitude toward these students.

32. Assessing Students with Disabilities (cont.) Behavioral Assessment Due to changes in IDEA in 1997, when a disciplinary action results in extended periods of removal from school (e.g., suspension), the IEP team must meet within 10 days to: Formulate a functional behavioral assessment plan for developing an intervention plan, or Review and revise a behavior intervention plan, if one already exists.

33. The Behavior Improvement Plan (BIP) Process Used to provide information to educators and parents to address the student’s target behavior. Steps include: Identifying ways to prevent or minimize the occurrence of the behavior. Provide appropriate methods to change the behavior. Assist the student in building more appropriate behaviors to meet the same function as the inappropriate behaviors.

34. Implementing the FBA and BIP Processes Effectively Identify the case manager responsible for overall management. Describe expected outcomes and goals for the plan. Identify the problem. Conduct the FBA. Identify expected outcomes/goals. Develop interventions. Identify barriers to plan implementation. Specify the interventions used to achieve the goals. Specify person/people responsible for specific interventions. Specify a review date. Implement BIP. Collect follow-up data on the effects of the BIP. Review data and modify the plan as necessary. (Sugai et al., 2000)

35. Positive Behavioral Support to Individual Students When a student’s behavior interferes with learning, the IEP team must consider the need for a targeted intervention comprised of strategies and support systems to address disruptive or problematic behavior in children with disabilities. In order to address the specific target behavior, this involves: the completion of the functional behavioral assessment (FBA), and the development of a behavior improvement plan (BIP). The FBA/BIP process has also been used to successfully reduce disruptive classroom behaviors in students with mild disabilities.

36. Positive Behavioral Support after a Serious Behavior According to IDEA, FBAs and BIPs are required in connection with disciplinary removals for drugs and weapons offenses, for offenses involving serious bodily injury, or for any combination of school removals totaling 10 days. The IEP team must meet within 10 days to conduct the FBA and formulate a BIP. If a behavior plan already exists, the team must review and revise. This process follows the same series of steps, but is less preventive in nature.

37. Collaboration and Group Decision Making The professional school counselor must be a supportive member of a group decision-making process whose goal is to enable a student with a disability to learn. A primary task of the professional school counselor is to help the multidisciplinary team understand the whole student, especially the individual assets of the student that are sometimes not readily apparent in paper reviews. Professional school counselors should consider whether peer tutoring or some other available services would address the student’s needs without labeling the student with a disability. However, no student may be refused the opportunity to receive special education under IDEA when qualified.

38. Manifestation Meetings Manifestation hearings are multidisciplinary team meetings convened because a student has been excluded from school for disciplinary reasons for 10 or more days during one school year. The meeting must occur within 10 days of the student’s removal from school. The purpose is to determine whether the student’s behavior was caused by, or had a direct and substantial relationship to, the student’s disability. If it is decided the behavior was caused by the student’s disability, the student is reinstated with all information related to the disciplinary issue removed from the discipline record and cumulative file.

39. Manifestation Meetings (cont.) If it is determined the student’s disability did not cause the behavior, the student may be suspended or expelled unless the team finds one of two situations occurred: the student’s IEP was not implemented OR the team determines that the IEP did not provide the student with a FAPE.

40. Manifestation Meetings (cont.) Rules of Continued Education: Under IDEA, if a student with a disability is removed from school for more than 10 days, the student must continue to receive programs and services that will allow her to progress toward meeting the goals on the IEP. Under Section 504, if the problem behavior is not a result of the student’s handicapping condition, then the student may be excluded, and there is no requirement for additional educational services.

41. Manifestation Meetings (cont.) A student’s behavior may relate to a disability and still result in removal from school for 45 school days if: the student is involved in a drug offense, the student is involved in a weapon’s offense, or the student’s behavior inflicted serious bodily injury. During these meetings, the professional school counselor is responsible for helping the team better understand the nature of the student’s emotionally or behaviorally based disability.

42. Determining Need for Counseling Services for Students with Disabilities When considering individual counseling for a student, the professional school counselor should work with the family and staff to construct a list of social, emotional, or behavioral issues and concerns affecting the student’s educational performance. A review and prioritization of this data can help the team to: Clarify the problem Identify ways to involve parents and other staff Recognize the need for implementation in multiple settings Reveal the extent of the needs and the impact on types and amounts of services needed It is important for the professional school counselor to help the team remain focused on the purpose of school counseling for children with disabilities—to enable the student to learn.

43. Typical Areas Addressed by Counseling Goals Anger management Stress/anxiety management Respecting authority Following school rules Self determination/life planning Career awareness/vocational development Coping skills Frustration tolerance Interpersonal skills Family issues regarding post-school outcomes Self esteem

44. Counselor Concerns about Providing IEP Services The IEP team, not any one individual, determines what services the student is to receive. In certain cases, professional school counselors may disagree with some components of the IEP, however they must follow the IEP as written until it is changed. Under the 2004 provisions of IDEA, nonsubstantive changes can be made to the IEP without another meeting. It is important for professional school counselors to limit their role and assure they do not perform activities outside of their area of qualifications.

45. IEP Development: Writing Counseling IEP Goals Goals are intended to establish what the IEP team, along with the parent and child, think the student should accomplish in a year. IDEA requires goals to address all areas of identified needs in academic and functional skill areas which may include: Adaptive skills Classroom behavior Social/interpersonal skills Self-determination Vocational skills IDEA specifically requires the IEP team to consider: The strengths of the child The concerns of the parents for enhancing the education of their child The results of the initial evaluation or most recent evaluation of the child The academic, developmental, and functional needs of the child Goals focus on the student’s expected achievement in one year’s time and are generally written in broad, measurable terms

46. IEP Development: Writing Counseling IEP Goals (cont.) Each annual goal should include five components: Direction of change desired Deficit or excess Present level Expected level Resources needed The direction change is either: increase (e.g., social skills, impulse control) decrease (e.g., hitting, temper tantrums, days absent) maintain (e.g., attention span, attendance)

47. Evaluation Procedures IEPs must include evaluation procedures and schedule for determining, at least on an annual basis, whether the goals and objectives are being achieved. The evaluation procedure selected must be appropriate for the behavior or skill in question. Some evaluation procedures that might be used for different objectives include: Direct observation Formal or informal assessments Permanent products The frequency of data collection should be determined by: The importance of the objective in question. The amount of additional staff time that it takes.

48. Specifying IEP Services IDEA requires that the IEP include a statement of the special education, related services and supplementary aids and services to be provided to or on behalf of the child. The IEP must describe: the student’s participation in regular education programs; a list of the projected dates for the initiation of service; and the anticipated duration of the services. At the IEP meeting, the team will determine: The frequency and intensity of counseling sessions. Whether the services will be provided individually or in group sessions. Whether the service is delivered directly or via consultation with another staff member or parent.

49. Individualized Transition Program Planning IDEA requires the IEP team to create a transition plan for a student with a disability by the time the student is 16 years old; Section 504 has no transition requirements. Students, as well as representatives of other programs involved, must be invited to the IEP meeting when transition plans are discussed. The transition plan is intended to address all areas of the student’s post high school life, including: Education Career Independent living Recreation Community involvement

50. Individualized Transition Program Planning (cont.) Professional school counselors can help the team by: Assessing student career interests Developing appropriate transition goals Providing resources and connections to adult services as needed Helping the student with personal adjustment, self-concept development, self-determining training, career exploration, and job coaching Since a transition plan focuses on the individual’s present needs and preferences, assessment is required (many times provided by the counselor), such as: Interest inventories Interviews of the student and parents Review of work history and work habits Review of progress towards graduation and postsecondary acceptance Self-determination assessment Other information specific to the student as needed