Special Education In-service for Substitute Teaching Assistants

1. Special Education In-service for Substitute Teaching Assistants 2011-2012 Mat-Su Borough School District Student Support Services Welcome from Lucy Hope, Director

2. Agenda • Overview of special education in Mat-Su • Overview of special education law: IDEA; Individuals with Disabilities Education Act • Overview of disabilities

3. Who’s who…. • Introductions: Your name, Why are you subbing? School(s) you are working in Programs you have worked in

4. Related Services • Speech Language Pathologists • School Psychologists • Occupational Therapists • Physical Therapists • Audiologists • Vision and Hearing Specialists • Sign Language Interpreters • Assistive Technology Specialists

5. CONFIDENTIALITY • Protection of Records, • Disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to children with disabilities • Parental Access to Educational Records • Parental Consent for Release of Records

6. MSBSD Special Education Policies and Procedures • Are one and the same as……… • Alaska Special Education Handbook

7. DEFINITIONS • Special Education: • Related Services • 504 Plan • Accommodations • Modifications Is: specialized instruction, Is: required for a child to benefit from special education

8. The legal and political aspects of Special Education Series of federal public laws regarding children’s entitlement to a Free and Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment • 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act • 1987 Preschool Handicapped Act • 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act • 1997 IDEA Amendments of 1997 • 2004: Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act

9. BASIC CONCEPTS • FAPE (free and and appropriate public education) • Ages 3-21, suspended or expelled students, students in correctional facilities, private schools, home schools, charter schools, district and state correspondence schools. • LRE (least restrictive environment) • to maximum extent appropriate

10. IDEA Disability • Must meet eligibility criteria as defined by law under fourteen disability categories • Must adversely affect education performance • Must substantiate requirement for special education and related services

11. IDEA Disability Categories • Specific Learning Disability (about half of all students with IEPs): 1174 students • Speech Impaired: 428 students • Early Childhood Developmentally Delayed: 301 students • Other Health Impaired: 238 students • Emotionally Disturbed: 154 students • Cognitively Impaired: 100 students

12. Other disability categories:Low incidence disabilities: • Autism: 78 students • Multiple disabilities: 52 students • Hard of Hearing/Deaf: 19 students • Visually Impaired: 6 students • Deaf Blind: 1 students • Traumatic Brain Injury: 6 students • Orthopedically Impaired: 12 students

13. Childfind • Early childhood, school age children enrolled in the district, school age children not enrolled in the district Interventions Must be attempted in regular education before a referral to special education is made…. Commonly called “RTI” in our district (Response to Intervention)

14. Referral and Evaluation • Must be completed within 45 school days of the date parent signed consent to evaluate. Reevaluations • Must be conducted every three years Exit • Only for reasons allowed by state regulations

15. IEP • Individualized Education Program • Consists of 13 sections, defined by state regulations. • iPlan is our software, forms on iPlan come directly from Alaska Special Education Handbook. • Developed by team

16. IEP Meeting: Required Participants • Must be invited • Parent • Student after age 14 • General Ed teacher • Special ed provider • District representative • Anyone knowledgeable about evaluation conducted • Must attend: • General Ed teacher • Special Ed provider • District representative

17. IEP Alignment From Evaluation………………… to PLAFFP…………………………. to Goals & Objectives………… to Services…………………………. to Placement

18. Placement: based on IEP following it’s completion • LRE (to what extent is the child being educated with typical same age peers???) • Not where the child is educated, but with whom….. • Should be enrolled in their attendance area school or as close to home as possible. • Team must consider continuum of options. • Justification must be written if services are more restrictive than fulltime services in general education classroom.

19. Implementation of IEP • Must be implemented within 45 days of receipt of consent to evaluate • Upon proposal of IEP, regardless of any disagreement. If consensus cannot be reached, district must provide Prior Written Notice of its proposed IEP.

20. Transition Services • Into Preschool • 90 days prior to 3rd birthday, children in Infant Learning Program have Transition meeting in their home • Process of evaluation begins • By age 16 • Transition Plan required for every student, addressing the purpose of IDEIA: “to prepare for employment and independent living”

21. MSBSD Programs Early Childhood (ages 3-5) • Itinerant • Headstart • Center Based preschool (2 or 4 days) Elementary (grades k-5) • Itinerant • Resource • Intensive resource • Regional programs for ED and Deaf students, and ABA programs

22. MSBSD Programs Middle School (grades 6-8) • Itinerant • Resource • Intensive resource • Self contained High School (grades 9-12) • Itinerant • Resource • Intensive resource • Self Contained • Next Step Transition K-12 Special Day School

23. Houston High School

24. Su Valley Junior/Senior High School

25. Wasilla High School

26. Colony High School

27. Palmer High School

28. Glacier View School

29. Alternative Schools

30. Correspondence School

31. Charter Schools

32. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) • AYP: Adequate Yearly Progress…measured by annual Standards Based Assessments • District is at Level 4 • Schools are at different levels For more info go to www.eed.state.ak.us • SWD: Students with Disabilities • A subgroup, specified in NCLB • Performance of this subgroup includes all students in district with IEPs, grades 3-10.

33. Alaska Statewide Assessment • Grades 3-10 • Terra Nova (NRT) • Standards Based Assessments (CRT) • Grade 10 • High School Graduation Qualifying Exam (CRT) • SWD MUST take assessments: • without accommodations, or • with accommodations, or • Participate in an Alternate Assessment All are decisions Made by IEP team

34. Alaska Statewide Assessments • All accommodations specified in the IEP must be administered during the assessments. • SSS Records Specialist, will work with case managers so you know which students have which accommodations.

35. Alaska Statewide Assessment • After 10th grade administration of the HSGQE, if a SWD has failed a subsection, the IEP team may recommend a • Modified HSGQE • Nonstandardized HSGQE • All of these need to be approved by DEED. • Submission of these requests is coordinated by SSS, Records Specialist • Upon approval, info will be sent to case managers.

36. Extended School Year • Eligibility under three categories: • Regression/Recoup-ment • Self-sufficiency • Emerging skills • IEP meetings annually determine eligibility for ESY • IEP Amendment meetings must be held, to determine skills to be addressed in ESY

37. Special Education Attendance • Required to be taken daily • Paper/pencil, in addition to iCue attendance at your school • Mark each day you are scheduled to see a child (i.e. positive attendance) • Submit at the end of each quarter to Records Specialist

38. Working Files • Must be locked • You are responsible for confidentiality • Must contain current iep, this year’s progress notes, and any other confidential information about that child that you want to keep

39. Thank you! • Please enjoy the rest of your day…. • Please fill out questionnaire about future topics