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Erika Witt
Doctor Elizabeth Testa
ADED 42292
October 3, 2014
School Personnel Interview Reflection: Intervention Specialist
There are several roles that the Intervention Specialist has in the school setting. One of
the largest ones is integration of students with special needs into the normal educational
classroom. Another is working with the IEP team, once a student has taken the appropriate
tests to be diagnosed, to write an appropriate IEP for the student. Third, the Intervention
Specialist works in a one-on-one or small group setting with students (students do this where
they are actually signed up for her class) in order to meet their needs when they cannot be
integrated into the normal education setting. The Intervention Specialist also works in the
regular education classroom as a co-teacher, supplementing the subject teacher for students
with special needs in their classroom.
The spectrum of students with special needs at this school was described by the
principal as mild to moderate. The process of referral is that the classroom teacher makes a
referral to the administration, there is lots of testing and observation of the student, and then
the Intervention Specialist can write an IEP for the student so they can be accommodated.
The most common method the Intervention Specialist uses in the school is integration
into the regular education setting. Other than that, additional time is largely used, and so is
having the test/assignment read to the student. The Intervention Specialist will also adapt tests
and assignment to accommodate students, but will first have to work with the classroom
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teacher to make sure they are not removing of the critical content/skills needed from the
assignment.
The community support did not seem like much an important part (in any corner of the
school, really, not just in relation to the special education). Besides that, the intervention
specialists, special education teachers, student with special needs and parents of students with
special needs make up the IEP team. It is this team that works together to ensure that the
needs of the student with special needs are being met. There is more frequent communication
between these channels than a regular classroom teacher might be in charge of (IE, having
weekly contact with parents in a special education classroom versus only contacting parents
when the student is failing in a regular education classroom).
As a teacher, I may not have a particularly hands on approach to the special education
aspects of the curriculum, but it is still important that I meet the accommodations of the
student cited in their IEP. This means that I will have to allow that student with the IEP extra
time, small group testing, and not force her to read aloud a lot while in class.