Developing Guiding Principles:
Why you need them for an educational program servicing students with ASD
What are guiding principles?
A cohesive set of beliefs, grounded in effective practice that govern actions of a group (http://www.timethoughts.com/goalsetting/mission-statements.htm).
Many organizations have guiding principles including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Campbell’s Food Corporation, REI, think MTV, Louisiana Health Care Redesign, and many more, including numerous public schools.
It is important to have guiding principles to govern programming for students with ASD in an educational setting. Guiding principles really help to guide adult behavior and attitudes when providing educational services and supports to students with ASD. The guiding principles serve many purposes, including:
· Creating a foundation upon which to build a program for students with ASD including belief systems and practices
· Providing common language and consistency across everyone that encounters the student in the school environment
· Providing a system of checks and balances to ensure we are actually doing what we say we are doing
· Assisting with appropriate intervention decisions founded on established, agreed upon beliefs and effective practice
· Addressing specific issues as they arise by continuously referring to the guidelines, staff behavior, and programming decisions
Guiding principles must be individualized for your school culture and the beliefs of your staff, families, and community. Developing guiding principles is an inclusive process and should involve those who will be affected by the principles.
Below you will find examples of guiding principles that may fit with your beliefs about supporting students with ASD however you should add other principles that may better reflect your school system.
DEVELOPING GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Select Principles and add your own
_____All decision will be informed by the law, the research, and the data.
_____Control the Controllables; Know what you control and control it (e.g. classroom environment & teaching)
_____Regular planning time and team meetings are essential for supporting students with ASD.
_____We make the program fit the child; Not the child fit the program.
_____All students with ASD will be given opportunities to integrate into general education settings for social and/or
academic experiences, regardless of perceived competency.
_____The general education curriculum represents an opportunity for integration and social learning; Skill proficiency is not
necessarily the primary goal.
_____Social Skills can only develop with social opportunities.
_____An appropriate, a functional communication system will be available and taught at all times, regardless of competency.
_____Students with ASD will always develop new behavior.
_____Implementing support strategies with fidelity changes behavior; Words may not always change behavior.
_____Students will be directly included in discussions that are related to them, not talked about in front of them.
_____Understand and work with the uniqueness of ASD, not against it.
_____Staff behavior is modeled, positive or negative.
_____Supports and Strategies must meet evidence-based practice standards; New or promising practices will be empirically
evaluated.
_____Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support plans and response scripts will be implemented as designed by a team
until the team, using data, makes changes to the plan.
Add your own:______
______
2. Action Plan for Implementation: Be sure to POST principles in all appropriate places.
WHO / Is Doing WHAT / By WHENSTART, 2013