March 26, 2012
11:00am-12:00 pm
Dial 301-644-4002 or X44002
Conference ID 45281
Special Education
Presented by:
Dan Martz, Director of Special Education and Psychological Services
Ann Hammond, Supervisor of Psychological Services
Lea Woolsey, Special Education Supervisor of Instructional Programs
Linda Chambers, Special Education Supervisor of Compliance
Frederick County Public Schools
2011-2012
Directions to Participate in the IEP Team Chairpersons Audio Conference
Step 1:
Convene your schools’ registrants in your chosen audio conference location.
Dial in from your single (1), school based location from the single (1) phone at the time specified on the invitation (March 26, 2012 before 11:00am)
301-644-4002 or X44002
You can dial in no earlier than 15 minutes prior to the conference start time.
Step 2:
Enter the Conference ID from the invitation, when prompted: 45281
Step 3:
Once dialed in, please press the mute button on your phone.
You will be able to hear the audio conference and follow along with this resource, but during audio conference please do not unmute your phone unless prompted to do so.
Time at the end of the conference will be available for questions. (11:45-12:00)
E-mail your questions to at any time during the audio conference.
Step 4:
If you are in a group, or want to work hands free use the speaker option on your phone.
Step 5:
To leave the conference, hang up your phone.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the FCPS second quarterly IEP Chairperson Audio Conference.
Please follow along during today’s audio conference with the resource attached to your confirmation e-mail.
This resource is also located on InsideFCPS on the Special Education Website at: .
The resource is entitled “2ndIEP Chairpersons Audio Conference”.
At times during the conference we will be unmuting phone numbers of the conference to share their insight to scenarios.
We encourage participants to e-mail questions during the interactive portion of audio conference beginning now to , questions will be answered beginning at 11:45am.
Your feedback is valuable. As a registered participant in this audio conference you will receive a follow up evaluation form via e-mail.
AGENDA(Today’s audio conference will focus on the topics below)
- Parents as Collaborators in the IEP Process
- IEP Chairpersons Understanding the IDEA Core Principles in Leading Effective Teams via Interactive Scenario Review
- Compliance Corner
Points of Clarification in regards to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Written Requests for Evaluation
FCPS Process for Withdrawal of Parental Consent for Services
Interactive Scenario Review
The achievement of students with disabilities hingeson the collaborative effort put forth by the IEP team, with meaningful parent participation before, during and after the IEP process takes place. The process actualization is transparent in the classroom, as the IEP is implemented in practical instruction daily. Knowledge of The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the foundation of this successful collaboration. There are 6 core principles that this Act is built upon. Committing these principles to memory and implementing them in your work as an IEP chairperson is valuable in making sound decisions that support student learning.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Principles Outline
Principle #1
Zero reject: All students with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) (34 C.F.R. 300.121 and 300.122; Timothy W. v. Rochester School District, 1989).
Principle #2
Nondiscriminatory evaluation: Assessment of students with or suspected of having a disability must be fair (34 C.F.R. 303.323).
Principle #3
Individualized and appropriate education: Students with disabilities must receive individualized services to provide beneficial education (34 C.F.R. 303.323)
Principle #4
Least restrictive environment (LRE): To the greatest extent beneficial, students with disabilities should be educated in a typical setting with students who do not have disabilities (34 C.F.R. 300.550[b] [1] and [2]).
Principle #5
Procedural due process (safeguards): Schools and parents hold each other mutually accountable; these safeguards also provide dispute resolution procedures (34 C.F.R. 300.507 [a] and 300.508 [a] – [c]).
Maryland Procedural Safeguards Notice January 2010
Principle #6
Parent participation: Parents and students with disabilities are partners with educators in decision making about students’ education (34 C.F.R. 300.345).
Scenario review….
The following scenarios include statements that parents and professionals should nothear at IEP meetings. Our goal today is to determine the core principle(s) of IDEA that were breached and how the IEP Chairperson could rectify the concern in real time during the meeting.
Read the scenario and determine which core principle(s) of IDEA were breached.
1. Here’s the scenario.
Lisa is an energetic 6 year old with communication and cognitive delays, previously served successfully in an inclusive preschool setting. At the start of Lisa’s IEP meeting, her parents were happy to learn that the professionals at their daughter’s new elementary school seemed to have collaborated effectively with their previous preschool teachers. However, when discussing the setting for her special education services, the educators were reluctant to place Lisa in a general education kindergarten setting. “Because she’s new to kindergarten and to the school,” one teacher said, “let’s see how well Lisa does in a resource room or self-contained classroom setting before we place her in a more inclusive setting where she may be overwhelmed.” Lisa’s parents were disappointed, because they strongly believed Lisa benefitted from being educated with her typical peers and previously had been successful in this type of setting.
Which IDEA principles were breached?
Zero reject
Nondiscriminatory evaluation
Individualized and appropriate education
Least restrictive environment (LRE)
Procedural due process safeguards
Parent Participation
Interactive Share: Which were breached?
Think about how you could rectify the concern as the IEP Chair.
What could you do to turn this IEP meeting in the right direction as the IEP Chairperson?
- NOTES:
Interactive Share
Points to consider when formulating your response:
- Specialized, individualized service is not specific to a location.
- Inferring the student will need a more restrictive environment is an assumption.
- The IEP meeting should include a comprehensive discussion of the availability of strategies for supporting Lisa in the least restrictive environment.
- Responding to the teacher’s comment could include,” Although I appreciate your concerns for Lisa’s success given the new challenges she and all of the other new students will experience in the kindergarten classroom. I have no doubt that if we put our heads together about ideas for strategies to support her, we’ll feel confident in providing Lisa the opportunity to start off in the kindergarten classroom.”
Scenario review….
Read the scenario and determine which core principle(s) of IDEA were breached.
2.Here’s the scenario.
Yolanda is an 8th grader whose IEP meeting started off congenially until it came to addressing IEP goals-when Yolanda’s parents noticed that her proposed reading goals were nearly, if not, exactly the same from the previous school year’s IEP. When her Dad asked why, the special educator explained. “I don’t know what else to try with her. She has not improved this year even after I’ve tried every strategy to help her attain her goals and nothing works.”
Which IDEA principles were breached?
Zero reject
Nondiscriminatory evaluation
Individualized and appropriate education
Least restrictive environment (LRE)
Procedural due process safeguards
Parent Participation
Interactive Share: Which were breached?
Think about how you could rectify the concern as the IEP Chair.
What could you do to turn this IEP meeting in the right direction as the IEP Chairperson?
NOTES:
Interactive Share
Points to consider when formulating your response:
- At times, teachers continue to implement strategies that are familiar rather than investigating different research based strategies with other staff and experts in their district to meet student need.
- Systematic progress monitoring of strategies used with students yields progress reporting and determination of what is working and what is not on an on-going basis.
- As the IEP Chair, consider asking the teacher to review the strategies that have been tried with the student at the meeting and sharing specific progress or lack thereof, how long they were implemented and evidence that illustrates effectiveness of use and document in the IEP team meeting notes.
- Ask the teacher at the meeting if they have discussed this challenge with other professionals to see if they have suggestions…if not done, recommend it is and reconvene.
- This allows for the parents’ concerns to be validated and better yet intervention determined to meet Yolanda’s needs.
Scenario review….
Read the scenario and determine which core principle(s) of IDEA were breached.
3. Here’s the scenario.
Jeff is a 9th grader with an Other Health Impairment. He has an IEP. He has a discipline record including 9 days of suspension this school year for incidents including vandalism or destruction of property, refusal to obey school policy, classroom disruption, fighting, disrespect, and verbal/physical threat to a teacher. Jeff’s IEP provides him a human reader and extended time and 15 minutes weekly away from general education in resource to receive his accommodations. An IEP progress review meeting begins for Jeff including Jeff, his Dad, his special educator, and English teacher. The Assistant Principal, the IEP Chairperson, is also in attendance. He has a referral for Jeff from the previous day involving a lunch room fight Jeff participated in that the Assistant Principal has not yet processed. The IEP meeting convenes with academic progress shared. Jeff is failing all of his classes this semester. He has missed 40% of the school days this term. The English teacher shares that attendance, lack of focus and poor behavior are impacting Jeff’s English 9 grade. The school staff informs Dad and Jeff that he needs to start coming to school and display responsible classroom behavior when he attends and that the referral waiting for Jeff because of yesterday’s lunch incident could very well determine that Jeff needs to go to Heather Ridge. Dad sits quietly with a puzzled and concerned look on his face. The IEP team reviewed changes to the current IEP including an increase in service to make up work Jeff has missed when absent or suspended.
Which IDEA principles were breached?
Zero reject
Nondiscriminatory evaluation
Individualized and appropriate education
Least restrictive environment (LRE)
Procedural due process safeguards
Parent Participation
Interactive Share: Which were breached?
Think about how you could rectify the concern as the IEP Chair.
What could you do to turn this IEP meeting in the right direction as the IEP Chairperson?
NOTES:
Interactive Share
Points to consider when formulating your response:
- Students with disabilities cannot be suspended beyond 10 cumulative days in a school year without consulting with the Director of Special Education.
- The goal is for all students to learn replacement behaviors and participate in instruction with non-disabled peers for learning to the extent possible.
- As the IEP Chairperson consider saying; “Clearly Jeff is struggling to learn, I am certain that together we can get to the bottom of this and work to develop a program that will help Jeff to learn, let’s talk about it.”
- After a thorough review of the student’s progress or lack thereof and data that supports it; including behavior impacting learning. Consideration for intervention to teach replacement behaviors should be discussed such as Functional Behavioral Assessment to determine if a Behavior Intervention Plan should be developed.
- Incorporation of the parent and student inclusion in the discussion of the data should occur, be documented in the notes, and clearly documented in the present levels of Jeff’s IEP.
- Once student’s needs are discussed thoroughly the draft IEP should be adjusted accordingly.
- The IEP team including the parent should determine what interventions could be implemented into Jeff’s programming and reflected in his IEP to encourage his participation in learning.
Scenario review….
Read the scenario and determine which core principle(s) of IDEA were breached.
4. Here’s the scenario…
At an IEP annual meeting for a student, the parents entered the conference room and the formal portion of the IEP annual began in regards to their high school student. The family had been concerned with this student’s math skill and shared it at the meeting. The teachers confirmed that the student continued to have difficulty with math problem solving in both math and science class, despite intervention support from the general and special educator. The special educator responds during the meeting and states, “Great news! We have a book that has tons of IEP goals in it including math. We picked a few of them and entered them onto the IEP and the IEPs all done. I’ll read the goals and then you can sign here.”
Which IDEA principles were breached?
Zero reject
Nondiscriminatory evaluation
Individualized and appropriate education
Least restrictive environment (LRE)
Procedural due process safeguards
Parent Participation
Interactive Share: Which were breached?
Think about how you could rectify the concern as the IEP Chair.
What could you do to turn this IEP meeting in the right direction as the IEP Chairperson?
NOTES:
Points to consider when formulating your response:
- Special Educators are seemingly always pressed for time so any strategy that can save time is valuable, but…
- The individualization of a student’s IEP is in relation to the student meeting or not meeting standards, and the goals and objectives should be developed as a team based in formal and informal assessment data
- The parent participation was cut out at this point, reengage them to participate
- The bank of goals is a productive place to start, but ensure meaningful conversation including the parents to work as a team to determine the most appropriate goals.
- A simple, “I think we all can agree how important it is to work as a team for the student. Other IEP team members have important things to share about this student and, like you, we would like to work together to develop the best IEP goals we can.”
Scenario review….
Read the scenario and determine which core principle(s) of IDEA were breached.
5.Here’s the scenario.
Dan is a 6th grader who loves science. He has a specific learning disability in reading decoding and comprehension and a speech impairment. The IEP meeting included the special education teacher, the general education teacher, the speech/language pathologist, and Dan’s Mom, and everything was going very well. After developing the IEP goals based on the state standards and Dan’s progress, they determined Dan should receive 1 hour of speech/language services to meet his academic goals. However, the IEP Chairperson was not present at the meeting, nor was anyone designated, as required by IDEA. As the meeting was winding down, the special education teacher said, “ I need to check with the Principal before determining the recommended level of speech/language services for Dan” and left the meeting room to get the principal’s signature on the participation page of the IEP team meeting notes.
Which IDEA principles were breached?
Zero reject
Nondiscriminatory evaluation
Individualized and appropriate education
Least restrictive environment (LRE)
Procedural due process safeguards
Parent Participation
Interactive Share: Which were breached?
Think about how you could rectify the concern as the IEP Chair.
What could you do to turn this IEP meeting in the right direction as the IEP Chairperson?
NOTES:
Interactive Share
Points to consider when formulating your response:
- IDEA mandates procedural safeguards to include a representative of the school system who is qualified to provide or supervise special education resources and is also knowledgeable about general education curriculum and school resources.
- This designee or IEP Chairperson is responsible to ensure appropriate special education services are provide to the student and to supervise and commit resource for those services listed on the IEP.
- The IEP meeting should include all required members before proceeding.
- In planning the IEP meeting, educators should ensure that everyone required to attend are invited and attend.
- Remember that the IEP Chairperson or designee is the ultimately responsible to supervise, facilitate and ensure that appropriate educational services are provided for the student.
Compliance Corner
Points of Clarification in regards to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Written Requests for Evaluation
Please ensure that all school staff is aware of the following information:
- If a parent puts a request for evaluation in writing for any suspected disability, school staff must hold an IEP screening meeting. A written request may constitute a formal letter, an informal handwritten note, an e-mail, etc. Remember the date the written request is received begins the 90 day timeline for initial eligibility. The date the parent signs the Parental Consent for Evaluation (SE: 2) begins the 60 day timeline for initial eligibility (Remember the initial eligibility timeline is 90 days from written referral and 60 days from parental consent; whichever comes first). School staff would bypass the SST process and go directly to an IEP screening meeting. The written request must be shared with the building administrator or special education staff immediately upon receipt.
- Federal law, IDEA, states that the local school systems must evaluate students in all areas of a suspected educational disability at no costs to the parent. ADHD is included as a suspected educational disability under Other Health Impairment and FCPS will evaluate for this suspected educational disability. We cannot require families to get an outside diagnosis from a physician, however we do accept outside medical diagnosis shared the by the parents. FCPS follows the IEP or 504 process for ADHD just as they would for any other suspected educational disability.
- Students are often supported best when there is a collaborative effort between home and school. School staff can continue to share contact information of outside resources with parents.
Should you have any questions please discuss with your special education team leader or designated Central Office Special Education Coordinator.