McNeese –Small School Special Ed Referral process 11/13/15
Hi all. In this blog I talk about the Special Education referral process in my little school. To learn the school’s process for special education referrals I interviewed both the school principal and the special education teacher. A little background. My school really is small. K-12 we have about 30 students. We do have a Special Education Teacher on campus but, she is working as a general education teacher. We seldom have any special education students, let me revise that and say, we seldom have diagnosed special education students. There may be undiagnosed special education students which is why it is so important that teachers learn as much as we can about the subject and learn to detect problems early. The school’s principal told me the administration’s directive for special education is to mainstream special education students whenever possible.
Just last week during one of our teacher meetings we discussed a student that we might need to keep our eye on. How the process unfolds in our school is someone will notice something is not right with a student or perhaps the student is struggling in school. Our special education teacher says some of the signs that a student is struggling are: poor grades, emotional issues, violent, sullenness, prior diagnoses, laziness, etc. If a student is struggling we, as a school, try to help the student in house. We have a SST team (student success team) which will meet and formulate a plan for the student. Even for this informal meeting the parents are welcomed and encouraged to attend. Our superintendent takes charge of the IEP process, from the first indication a student may need help and throughout the process, either returning a student to normal curriculum, revising the student’s curriculum or some other intervention.
SST will try to find causes for the student’s struggles. Struggles may be caused by environmental issues such as a new move, problems in the house, sickness, language problems to name just a few. The team also needs to review the background of the child and look for past records of special education intervention. The team is looking for the why and from there they will suggest interventions. The SST will then suggest interventions such as accommodations, modifications or any other assistive tools or technology a student may need. Again, the parents are always encouraged to attend and the SST tries to schedule meetings that fit with the parents’ schedule. Alternative forms of teaching are tried before a formal IEP and during the IEP process.
Some alternative methods of teaching before and during an IEP are alternative testing methods such as oral exams, breaking lessons into mini-lessons allowing students to break tasks in to smaller bite-sized units, use reflection tools such as journals, and using revoicing/rephrashing with students such as ELLs. There may also be a need for assistive technology. The teacher will need to understand how to use these assistive tools for the best teaching benefit and so the teacher can assist with technical issues that may arise.
While the goal may be for every student to be mainstreamed it is not the most practical goal. There are many problems to settle. Liability if someone, student or worker, is hurt during an interaction. What if a student is violent or inappropriate around others? That student is not likely to be able to socialize in a healthy way with other students. Also students with severe mental or physical condition could not be cared for properly. My principals tell me of a former student who is severely handicapped. When this happened before the school had to pay for the cost of an in-house facility that specialized in this student’s condition. For me, I have to be honest and say I am not equipped to handle special education students yet. That is why this teaching program is so useful. This program is teaching me very practical tools and lessons that will help me be a better teacher.
Well thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week. Matteacher988
mathteacher988 