Special Education
Professional Development
Training
I. Confidentiality
II. ADHD
III. Response to Intervention
IV. Problem Solving Teams (PST)
V. Special Education Process
Confidentiality
Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR
Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the
privacy of student education records.
The law applies to all schools that receive
funds under an applicable program of the
U.S. Department of Education.
• FERPA gives parents certain rights with
respect to their children's education
records. These rights transfer to the
student when he or she reaches the age
of 18 or attends a school beyond the high
school level. Students to whom the rights
have transferred are "eligible students."
Provision of Copy of Records
• Parents or eligible students have the
right to inspect and review the student's
education records maintained by the
school. Schools are not required to
provide copies of records unless, for
reasons such as great distance, it is
impossible for parents or eligible
students to review the records. Schools
may charge a fee for copies.
Amendment of Records at
Parent’s Request
• Parents or eligible students have the
right to request that a school correct
records which they believe to be
inaccurate or misleading. If the school
decides not to amend the record, the
parent or eligible student then has the
right to a formal hearing. After the
hearing, if the school still decides not to
amend the record, the parent or eligible
student has the right to place a statement
with the record setting forth his or her
Release of Information
• Generally, schools must have written
permission from the parent or eligible
student in order to release any
information from a student's education
record. However, FERPA allows schools
to disclose those records, without
consent, to the following parties or under
the following conditions (34 CFR § 99.31):
•
School officials with legitimate educational interest;
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Other schools to which a student is transferring;
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Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
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Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
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Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
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Accrediting organizations;
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To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
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Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
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State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to
specific State law.
• Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory"
information such as a student's name, address,
telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and
awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools
must tell parents and eligible students about directory
information and allow parents and eligible students a
reasonable amount of time to request that the school
not disclose directory information about them. Schools
must notify parents and eligible students annually of
their rights under FERPA. The actual means of
notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin,
student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the
discretion of each school.
• For additional information or technical
assistance, you may call (202) 260-3887
(voice). Individuals who use TDD may call
the Federal Information Relay Service at
1-800-877-8339.
U.S. Department of Education
• Please print out the linked form. Sign the
Confidentiality Agreement and turn in to your
SPED Lead Teacher’s box. One MUST be
signed by each employee each year.
• Each Shelby County Board of Education
Employee must sign a form each year (i.e., bus
drivers, counselor, etc)
• Any visitors (college students, agency, etc)
must sign this form as well prior to observing in
a class.
• Thanks!!
Destruction of Records
• All of the student’s special education records
are to be maintained until the student exits the
school system. Once the student exits, the
records are to be maintained for five years. At
all times, records are to be kept in a locked
area and kept confidential. Once the records
have been maintained for the five-year period,
contact the Special Services Center for the
procedure to destroy the records. Records
may not be destroyed without parent
notification and when destroyed, they myst be
burned or shredded.
•Attention Deficit /
Hyperactivity
Disorder
Characteristics
What is Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD)?
Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder is
a neurological disorder. Students with
ADHD demonstrate significant
impairment related to inattention and/or
hyperactivity and impulsivity compared
to average children of the same age.
Diagnostic Criteria for ADHD
• The following symptoms are listed in the
DSM-IV and a re used to diagnose ADHD.
At least six of these symptoms must be
displayed in a number of settings, persist
over six months, and must have been
observed prior to age seven in order for
the diagnosis to be made.
Inattentive Symptoms
• Fails to give close attention to details or makes
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careless mistakes in school work or other
related activities.
Has difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or
play activities.
Does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
Does not follow through on instructions and
fails to finish schoolwork, chores, or duties
Has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
• Avoids, dislikes, or reluctant to engage in
tasks that require sustained mental effort
• Loses things necessary for tasks and
activities
• Is easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
that are usually easily ignored by others
• Forgetful in daily activities
Hyperactivity Symptoms
• Leaves seat in classroom or in other situations
in which remaining seated is expected.
• Runs about or climbs excessively in situations
in which it is inappropriate
• Has difficulty playing or engaging in leisure
activities quietly
• Is ‘on the go’ or acts as if ‘driven by a motor’
• Talks excessively
Impulsivity Symptoms
• Blurts out answers before questions have
been completed
• Has difficulty awaiting turn
• Interrupts or intrudes on others
Identification Rate in
Shelby County
• Lee vs. Macon made systems review eligibility of
minority students in the categories of Mental
Retardation and Emotional Disturbance because of
overrepresentation.
• Since that time, the number of students has increased
in the area of Other Health Impairment (OHI),
specifically of attention.
• The State Department is monitoring our numbers in the
OHI category due to disporportionality and they will
continue to monitor until the percentage decreases.
Percentages per Disability Categories
in Shelby County
(2009-10 school year)
Category
#
Autism
Category
#
%
260 13.87%
Other Health
Impaired
316
16.85%
Developmental
Delay
208 11.09%
485
25.87%
Emotionally
Disturbed
110
Specific
Learning
Disability
Speech
Language
Impaired
273
14.56%
Hearing Impaired
%
5.87%
15
0.80%
116
6.19%
Traumatic Brain
Injury
9
0.48%
Multiple
Disabilities
60
3.20%
Visually
Impaired
9
0.48%
Orthopedically
Impaired
14
0.75%
Total
Mental
Retardation
1875 100%
Accommodations
• Various accommodations can be utilized
by all teachers for students with deficits
in attending.
• Many of these accommodations can be
used at all levels of Response to
Intervention (RtI) {Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier
3}.
Getting Students’ Attention
• Use storytelling
• Clearly signal: “Everybody…Ready…”
• Model excitement and enthusiasm about the upcoming
lesson
• Use eye contact (students should be facing you,
especially when direct instructions are given)
• Color is very effective in getting attention. May use
color to highlight key terms.
• Use visual signals
• Vary your tone of voice: loud, soft, whisper
• Signal students auditorily: ring a bell, use a timer, play
music
• Theatrics may spark an interest
Focus Students’ Attention
• Project your voice to be
heard clearly by students
• Be aware of competing
sounds in room (air
conditioning, humming of
fluorescent lights).
• Be aware that it is not
that students are not
focusing; they are
focusing on
EVERYTHING!!!
• Use hands-on
presentations /
demonstrations
• Use a laser pointer
• Use visuals (pictures,
diagrams, manipulatives)
• Ask students to illustrate
key points
• Use cloze method (class
notes with key terms
missing)
• Explain the purpose and
relevance of your lesson
Accommodations for Seat Work
• Seat student near a
“study buddy” or a good
role model
• Increase distance
between desks
• Allow extra time to
complete work
• Assist student in setting
short-term goals
• Give clear, concise
instructions
• Cue student to stay on
task (private cue / signal)
• Pair written instructions
with oral instructions
• Use contracts, charts,
and BIPs for on-task
behavior
Accommodations for Seat Work
• Give assignments
one at a time to avoid
work overload
• Chunking – give
assignments in
smaller chunks
• Reduce amount of
homework
• Use buff colored
paper instead of
white
• Take tests in a quiet
environment
• Be aware of lighting –
can cause a glare on
white paper
Maintaining Students’ Attention
• Move around the classroom to maintain
your visibility
• Be PREPARED and avoid lag-time in
instruction
• Use direct instruction techniques
• Use motivating games and computer
programs for skill building and practice
• Use cooperative learning groups
Planning and Organization
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Provide organization rules
Provide student with homework assignment book
Supervise writing down of homework assignments
MODEL planning and organization by your classroom
and actions
Send daily / weekly reports home (you can also set up a
blog for the students and students’ parents to view
daily)
Allow students to have an extra set of books at home
Encourage learning of keyboarding skills
Do not penalize for poor handwriting if that is an area of
concern
Regularly check desk and notebook for neatness
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Behavior
Allow students to stand
at times while working
Supervise closely during
transition times
Praise appropriate
behavior
Prompt appropriate
social behavior either
verbally or with a private
signal
Praise compliant
behavior (we know that
students should be
compliant at all times,
but we know there are
those who need
encouraging!)
• Provide immediate
feedback
• Ignore minor,
inappropriate behavior
(when acceptable)
• Acknowledge positive,
appropriate behavior of
nearby students
• Monitor social
interactions
• Encourage cooperative
learning tasks with other
students
• Provide lessons on social
skills
Any person who does not
recognize talents as well as
weaknesses that make
children with ADHD / ADD
different, will find it
difficult to be supportive.
Alice Mae Smith
Response to
Intervention
Best Practices
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA) requires a research based program to
be used in reading before identification. The
goal of the Response to Intervention (RtI) model
is to address deficits as soon as the
interferences of learning are noticed instead of
waiting for the students to fail. It is important
to utilize the interventions in Tier Two to be
able to correctly identify what program a
student needs and / or to totally remediate the
deficit.
Alabama’ s RtI Framework
• Two documents for download at
alsde.edu (special links)
– Response to Instruction: Alabama Core
Support For All Students
– A Problem Solving Team Process
Problem Solving Teams (PST)
•An Overview
Questions ???
•
Screening questions
1. What are some examples of universal screeners?
2. What areas must be screened?
3. When do you screen?
Screening: What and When
• Screen basic math and reading skills
• For K-3 students, ALL students should be
screened 3 times per year.
• For grade 4-12 students, schools could:
– Screen all students (as in K-3)
– screen all entering students
– complete a records review and then
“screen” students below a designated
level
System-wide intervention criteria
• School systems will need to determine the
screening outcomes which will result in
intervention consideration and referral to one
of the problem solving teams.
– If score is below ___ then student will be
reviewed by the appropriate problem
solving team
• Could choose “arbitrary percentile score”
• Could choose score which predicts success
on high stakes test like ARMT or ASGHE
Screening and Progress Monitoring
• Need to select a screening tool which
also has some useful progress
monitoring tools “built into their
package”
• Progress should be monitored weekly
• Incorrect progress monitoring tool use
is a “deal breaker”
• Shelby County’s process:
http://www.shelbyed.k12.al.us/intranet/forms/internal_use.htm
Questions ???
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Tier questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Define Tier II and Tier III.
Who would be in Tier II?
Examples of class set-up for Tier II
Amount of intervention times for Tier II
Intervention strategies for Tier II
How long in Tier II before you move to Tier
III?
7. What does Tier II look like?
8. How is Tier III different from activities in Tier
II?
Elementary Tier Model (K-3)
Plus
Special Education ? %
Tier 3
Tier 2
Tier 1
Intensive
Intervention
60 minutes
5%
Intervention
30 minutes per day
in the classroom
Comprehensive Core
90 minutes per day reading
60 minutes per day math
15%
80%
Academically, what should Tier 1
include for elementary students?
• MINIMUM of 90 minutes in reading and 60
minutes in math of uninterrupted core
instruction
• NRP and NMAP suggest a combination of
whole and small group differentiated
instruction
• The five big ideas from the NRP and
critical benchmarks from NMAP!
Tier 2 for elementary students….
• Additional small group instruction
• Best when provided by classroom
teacher
• At least 10-12 weeks in duration**
• Frequent progress monitoring
• May need additional rounds of Tier 2 if
“adequate progress” is being made
• May need to move to Tier 3 if “inadequate
progress” is being made
Tier 3 for K-3 students
• Intensive intervention
• Does not replace or supplant (Tier 1) but
may replace Tier 2
• Designed to meet identified student
needs in math, reading, and behavior
• Student will miss something
– Decide what will be missed
– Schedule for success!
• Who might provide this intervention?
– Title I; reading, math, or behavior interventionists;
SPED; Para; Classroom teacher, etc
Grade 4-12 Tier Model
Plus
Special Education ? %
Tier 3
Tier 1
Intensive
Intervention
classes
5%
Differentiated
Tier 2
15%
strategy instruction
in content classes small
group-intentional groupings
Core instruction=Strategy
instruction in content classes
whole and small group
80%
About Grades 4-12 Tier 1
•Students learn how to learn
•Strategic teaching in ALL classes
•Some time for students to work with peers daily in
ALL classes
•Encourages student engagement
•Students become active participants in the
learning process
•Students “make their own meaning”
About Grades 4-12 Tier 2
•Differentiated strategic teaching
•Teacher explicitly models strategies with students
and scaffolds as needed
•Opportunities for peer-tutors and heterogeneous
grouping (weaker with stronger and teacher rotates
among groups)
•Opportunities for homogeneous grouping (weak
come together and teacher works with that group)
About Grades 4-12 Tier 3
•Intensive intervention classes for students who
need them (math, reading, and behavior)
•Reading – Word-level interventions and
comprehension interventions
•Math – Computation and problem solving
interventions
•Behavior- small group sessions/classes
•Scheduling options
•Grade specific intervention times
•Acceleration block
Questions ???
•
Intervention questions
1. Intervention strategies for Tier II
2. Examples of Tier III interventions
Some ideas from K-3 Intervention Research
Scammacca, N., Vaughn, S., Roberts, G., Wanzek, J., &
Torgesen, J. K. (2007).
• All of the effective Tier 2 interventions included
training in:
– phonological awareness
– decoding, and word study
– guided and independent reading of
progressively more difficult texts
– writing exercises
– engaging students in practicing
comprehension strategies while reading text.
An intervention study illustrating
effective Tier 2 options….
Early Interventions in Reading
(Torgesen and Mathes, 2005)
• 120 lessons, 40 minutes, 3-5 students
• Mathes, et al 2005 study ….
– Excellent gains after 91 hours of instruction
– Only 1% of the students were reading below the
average range (30th percentile)!
– Intervention students had steeper rates of
improvement than typical readers on word
reading, passage fluency, and phonological
awareness.
• Published by SRA
Responsive Reading Instruction
(Denton and Hocker, 2006)
• 40 minute lessons; 3 students
• Mathes, et al 2005 study ….
– Excellent gains after 91 hours of instruction
– Only 7% of the students were reading below the
average range (30th percentile)!
– Intervention students had steeper rates of
improvement than typical readers on word
reading, passage fluency, and phonological
awareness.
• Published by Cambrium Learning
Tier 3 Literacy Interventions
• No standard treatment protocols at this
level….one size will not fit all!
– Word-level interventions
– Comprehension/Vocabulary interventions
Word-level Interventions Emphasize
(Simmons & Kame'enui, 2004)
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Phonemic awareness (prerequisite skills)
Letter sound correspondence
Regular word reading (using decoding skills)
Regular word reading in text (lots of text!)
Irregular word reading
Advanced word analysis
– All six syllable types
– Prefixes and suffixes
Comprehension/Vocabulary
Interventions Emphasize
Magnificent seven (Pearson, et al., 1992)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Making connections to prior knowledge
Inferring and predicting
Asking questions
Determining important ideas and
summarizing
5. Visualizing
6. Synthesizing and retelling
7. Monitoring and clarifying understanding of
text and vocabulary
Examples of Tier 3 Word-Level Interventions
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LANGUAGE!
Read 180
Failure Free Reading
SRA Reading
Wilson Reading System
Fast ForWord
EdMark
Power Up – Building Reading Strength
Examples of Tier 3 Math Interventions
• Voyager Math
• SRA Math
• Fast Math
Questions ???
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RTI and SPED eligibility questions
1. When should referral be to SPED?
2. What must SPED look for in RTI information
before accepting a referral?
When should referral be to SPED?
•
When the process has been followed with
consistency and documentation shows
the need for more intensive interventions.
–
Some valuable documentation forms
• Forms used by Shelby County Board of
Education:
•
http://www.shelbyed.k12.al.us/intranet/forms/internal_use.ht
m
One more thing …SPED after RTI?
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LRE will be impacted!
How will we use inclusion?
Need for DIRECT services
Intensive, intensive intervention if
Tiers did not result in success!
– Probably some 1:1
– Must have homogeneous grouping if not 1:1
• Ongoing progress monitoring
• BASC 2-SOS should be administered prior to
referral to Special Education.
• If attention or behavior is the area of concern,
the SCBOE Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)
must be developed and implemented.
• http://www.shelbyed.k12.al.us/instruction/spec
ialeducation/forms.htm (BIP forms are located
at the bottom of the page on this link)
• Make sure that there are appropriate
interventions listed for each area of
concern
• Have the administrator review the
plan prior to referral for Special
Education
Special
Education
Process
Completion of the Referral Process
• If PST interventions have been
ineffective, a referral to SPED may be the
appropriate next step. Contact your
school’s REM chair
• A Referral process will be completed in
full in SETS by the REM chairperson
• BASC 2-SOS will be completed within a
week prior to referral to SPED (for
comparison purposes re: initial BASC 2SOS)
Timelines for Completing
SPED Process
• Eligibility Process – 60 days to complete
testing.
• 30 days to have REM meeting
• 30 days to hold IEP meeting if student is
eligible for Special Education services
• If the student is not eligible, refer the
student back to BBSST for
accommodations.
• Please refer to the REM powerpoint for
additional information.
• This will prepare YOU for any type of
participation in the Referral process.
• This powerpoints also states what is
mandatory for a referral to be accepted
and what will prevent the team from
accepting a referral.
• Reminder:
– Print out the Confidentiality agreement, sign
& date it
– Refer to the REM powerpoint
– Print out evaluation and turn in with the
Confidentiality agreement