Special Education - Placement, Is Inclusion Best?

The IEP is written and now there should be some discussion about placement. What options are there and what is best for your child? Those are the questions for the team. Like the IEP, the placement decision is very important to the success of your child. IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is very specific about what should be provided to students with disabilities. IDEA says that your child should be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE) where they can make effective progress. Below we will look at some of the options available for placement of students with disabilities.

LRE - Least Restrictive Environment

What does that mean? Well, historically kids with disabilities were segregated from attending school with their typical peers. They were either kept at home or sent to "special schools" or they were put in basement classrooms and weren't allowed to socialize or participate with everyone else. Plus, they weren't taught what everyone else was taught, like math and science. Education Reform changed that and subsequently IDEA was reauthorized in 2004. IDEA says that students should be educated in the least restrictive environment with the services and supports necessary for them to make effective progress. Whenever possible children should be with their typical peers and attend their neighborhood schools. They are to be provided with the same curriculum and are required to maintain the same standards for academic requirement. The terms mainstream, integration, and inclusion, are the new catch phrases to define when kids are provided LRE.

Inclusion

There are many placement options, so what does that mean for your child? When you start to talk about placement, the first potential option should always be the class where your child would be if they didn't have a disability. The team should consider what accommodations, services, and supports your child would need to be successful in that environment and then provide for them on the IEP. If it is determined that your child will not make progress in the regular education classroom, other options can be considered. The goal should always be full inclusion. Inclusion is not a specific place but the pursuit to include students in classrooms and in environments with typical peers to the maximum extent possible through out their school day.

Partial Inclusion

Some students will be provided with what is termed partial inclusion. Perhaps they attend some regular education classes but go into a separate classroom for math or reading. Maybe they attend a resource room or academic support class once a day to assist with all academic subjects. Whatever it looks like, it should provide for the students needs and assist with their effective progress.

Substantially Separate
Some students will need to be in classrooms with small number of students and specialized teachers. This is a substantially separate setting. The goal should be to transition or integrate out of that classroom and into the regular setting as much as possible. The benefits of socialization and peer interaction experiences in a regular setting have to be balanced with the benefits of academic success and progress in the smaller setting. A lot of IEPs have a mix of both to allow for the unique needs of students with learning disabilities but need social experiences to develop socially.

Out of District

Some students attend school in private schools or collaborative schools that specialize in working with students with specific disabilities or sets of needs. This should always be considered a last resort and only when all other options have been tried and been unsuccessful. It is important to balance the needs for a student to be provided with what they need as well as the opportunities they miss by not being educated in their neighborhood school.

Special Education Teacher Jobs - What You Need to Know When Interviewing!

The job of teaching has changed over the years. Teachers have more to do than just teach today. The training for teachers is ongoing throughout their career. This is especially true for special education teachers. Special Ed teachers are teachers, advocates, knowledgeable about various disabilities, experts at creating special education lessons and at writing IEPs (Individual Education Programs). Special education teacher jobs are in high demand because one other thing a special ed teacher needs is dedication to doing everything they can to aid their students in reaching their full potential. If you are looking into a special education career there are some things you need to know in order to make the cut in this field.

You will be asked a number of questions during an interview for a special education teaching position. This means you need to be as familiar as possible with the questions and answers you will be presented with so you can be confident in your answers.

Here are some things you will need to be prepared for in a special ed teaching job interview.

Complete understanding of IEP and CSE: You will need to be sure to be ready to answer questions about IEP and CSE meetings so you can answer with confidence any question that is thrown at you. You must also know about the service and support options in your school district offers.
Show your expertise in special education lessons: Even though all teachers adjust lessons to their students' needs, special ed teachers are required to adapt lessons to suit various disabilities and students. This means you must be an expert at individualize lessons and instruction for each student you teach.
Show your knowledge of disabilities: Since there are so many disabilities that appear in the special educational venue, you need to be familiar with as many as possible during an interview as well as in the classroom. Special education teacher jobs are easier to get if you have the knowledge of disabilities such as speech disorders, autism, emotional disorders, physical and mental handicaps and other disabilities that are categorized in your school district.

Besides the above knowledge requirements, you will also need to know about utilizing your support staff and make sure you mention you work well with your coworkers. When you really want to succeed in getting one of the special teaching jobs in your area, you need to remember to behave as an advocate for special ed children, understand the scope of special education teaching and you absolutely must be willing and able to go beyond the unique needs of the students you will be teaching.

How to Ensure That an Effective IEP Is Developed and Implemented

What frustrates parents the most about dealing with the school in relation to their special needs child?

When parents call me to say that they need help to advocate at a school meeting, it is because their child's educational needs aren't being met at school and they don't know what they can do to change things. When I ask the obvious question; does your child have an Individual Education Plan in place? They say 'Yes, but it is not being followed'. And THAT is what frustrates parents. They've followed the process of requesting an IPRC meeting to identify their child as exceptional and to determine the correct classroom placement, which finally led to the development of the IEP. The IEP is a document...a plan that should guide teachers on the steps to take in order to meet the educational needs of the student. So why is the student still having so much difficulty at school? You can't MAKE a teacher teach a certain way, or provide the modifications and accommodations that are in the IEP. So what is a parent supposed to do?

Perhaps the reason that the IEP is not being followed is that it is too general - it is not specific to the individual student. Perhaps it was processed in isolation as part of a procedure rather than being developed with input from a multidisciplinary team of professionals with each of the student's needs as the focus of the IEP.

I suggest that the parent request an IEP meeting to include all the key players, which is anyone who can provide input and suggest teaching strategies and accommodations to meet the needs of the child. The principal, because ultimately the principal is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the IEP; the classroom teacher and the educational assistant, because they will be the ones providing the teaching and the accommodations that are in the IEP; the special education resource teacher because he or she is the lead person in the development of the IEP; if the child has motor skills difficulties make sure an occupational therapist attends; if the child has language difficulties make sure a speech and language pathologist attends; if the child has behaviour difficulties make sure a behavioural consultant attends, if the child has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make sure someone from the ASD support team attends, and so on....

At the meeting, the first step will be to clearly define the strength and needs of the student. Then go through the IEP step by step to make sure each need is thoroughly addressed, and that the goals and expectations are specific and measurable. Make sure that any equipment accommodations are readily available and can be provided immediately. Identify who is responsible for what service and how often. And finally, request that all school staff who have dealings with the student, are aware of the accommodations in the IEP.

At the end of the meeting, schedule a follow-up meeting in one month to evaluate what is working in the IEP and what is not working. This is not to evaluate the student per se, but rather the effectiveness of the IEP and whether or not it is being implemented successfully. Make the necessary changes to the IEP, and schedule another follow- up meeting in one month. Do this as many times as is necessary.

Multiple Intelligences - Educational Success

Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences has been grasped by the education community as a wonderful and meaningful way to acknowledge, "We are not all the same, we do not all have the same kind of minds, and education works most effectively for most individuals if... human differences are taken seriously." (Gardner, 1995)

Today's education is riddled with funding issues, dropped music and art classes for economic purposes, and problems with lower test scores. Why aren't new teachers using Howard Gardner's "Multiple Intelligences" as a tool to reach as many students as possible?

The Multiple Intelligences are: Auditory, Kinesthetic, Visual/Spatial, Intraspective, Interspective, Logical/Mathematical and Linguistic. Gardner suggested three more intelligences-Naturalist- Natural Environment, Spiritual/Existential- Religion /Philosophical, Moral- Ethics, Humanity, Value of Life.

These last three "intelligences" are more difficult to assess, but have been recognized in people who have improved the quality of life for others.

Human differences, our uniqueness, offer valuable contributions to society. There is creativity in everyone. Studies have found that after the rigors of raising a family, or after retirement, latent talents have been discovered, and these talents were present throughout life, but not encouraged.

It is up to parents and teachers to provide intelligent environments. Many were educated with teachers and parents who did not encourage cultural diversity, and did not say they could draw a purple tree, or sing an off- beat song. They did not ignite their imaginations, and give them quiet time to process the world's wonder and its' opportunities. No, multiple intelligences was not stressed in the teacher education classes, or spoken in the Pediatrician's office. School systems, so caught up in fiduciary problems, don't even think about getting to the root of education, which is really teaching, tailored toward the child. The IEP's (Individual Educational Plan) rarely include assessing the "talents" of the child and then incorporating that learning style into his curriculum.

To teach using the Multiple Intelligences, students should be sitting at tables of six. If there are desks, they may be arranged in a group of six. The chairs or desks, should have space underneath for book storage. Each table or group is a team. The room is like a corporation "brainstorming" room. The teacher chooses the captain (facilitator), recorder, materials leader, for each group and the jobs will rotate around the group.

The responsibilities of the captain will be to keep the table's students on task, and will be in charge of reporting the results of the final project. Another student will record who is doing what task for the project. This helps the teacher grade an individual student on the project. Each table will become a "team," and create a team name. The teacher guides the class through the steps of the lesson, and the material's student at each table will be the only one getting up for the supplies needed for the lesson. Each student's talents will be used within the group.

Establishing stations- A student who is strong musically, and weak numerically, should be taught numerical and logical skills through music, and not by numbers alone. Math stations should provide headphones with songs including math formulas, etc. There should be an art station, writing, listening, organizing station (housing materials), and any other to encourage learning.

Finally, education using the multiple intelligences will be addressing apprenticeships, so a student will get a chance to explore a trade or profession that works within his or her intelligences. This is not to track a person into a trade, but the right apprenticeship will feel natural, and most likely bring the student into a field that will bring many years of joy since it was tailored toward his or her skills and abilities.