"I's" have it
IFSP
What is and Individual Family Education Plan?
This is plan created to define early intervention services for families with children from birth to age five, who have been identified from birth with a disability. Often this is based on a medical model of disability at first and will transition to an educational model as need indicates and children reach school age.
General Education Classroom
What is the classroom of peers without disabilities?
A classroom of this nature is one in which typically developing peers meet their educational needs. The teacher in this classroom may or may not be specifically trained in the field of special education, though they may have taken courses or had professional development pertaining to it. This is a classroom which can be equated to that found in the mainstream of public education.
Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
What is the nearest environment to the general education classroom in which a student with a disability can have their needs met along with those without a disability?
Under IDEA students must be placed in the least restrictive environment possible to meet there needs. Thus, creating an inclusive learning environment for all students. This mandate by the IDEA does not mean that all students with disabilities must be placed in a traditional classroom. It does mean that students with disabilities are to be placed in school settings which are as close to a typical setting for a student without disabilities in which they can be supported to reach their educational goals. The determination for placement is determined in a coordinated effort of the team responsible for compiling the students individual education plan, which include but are not limited to the students family, educators, and service providers.
Instruction specially designed to meet the needs of a student with disabilities.
What is special education?
Education that is designed to meet the special abilities and unique needs of exceptional children. It is a combination of academic, life skill development, and therapies needed for students to become as independent as possible, taught in the LRE, as required by IDEA. These goals are implemented through the development of an IFSP or IEP depending on the age of the child and whether they are of school age.
Screening & Response to Intervention (RTI)
What is a developmental test used to determine if further evaluation is needed in order to address a concern? & What is a systematic approach to identifying and addressing students with special education needs?
A screening may be done as a prereferral test to see if there is a possibility of a child having a disability. Vision and hearing screenings, and developmental checklists, are forms of screenings that may be used to provide information which may lead to more intensive testing should it be warranted. Under IDEA prereferral are not mandated. However, screenings can help to identify those children who have or may develop a need for special education services and those will not.
Response to Intervention is a multi-tiered approach to identifying students who may needs special education services. It consists of a evidence-based instruction and assessments from which data is collected which leads to information about academic growth and provides indications as to whether and what kind of interventions might be needed. RTI can also function as a service which can augment a child's educational needs in manners which helps them to improve in their educational abilities to the point were specialized education service are not needed or warranted, thus acting as a preventative measure.
It is important to not that RTI may not be used as a measure to deny or delay special education services to a student in need.
IEP
What is an Individual Education Plan?
This is plan written specifically to address educational goals and services the student will receive and how they are going to be carried out and evaluated. The plan is based on the child's current level of achievement and criterion is set on consideration of mastery of goals. This is a flexible document in the sense that changes can be made as progress is made or as necessity warrants as procedural guidelines dictate. This is a mandate if IDEA for children requiring special education.
Resource Room
Where does a student go for part of the day to receive specialized instruction?
Specialized instruction can be implemented in the classroom for some students. This is not the right fit for about 20.7% of students who need more specialized instruction and may spend outside of the regular classroom setting. These students may spend 40% to 79% of their day in the regular classroom (Heward, 2017 p. 27-28)
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
What is an approach to learning that creates materials and lessons inclusive of all students?
In creating an inclusive classroom one approach to instruction is through UDL. Lessons and materials for learning are created in such a way that they meet the needs of student with a disability in addition to being accessible to all students in the classroom. Instead of changing the curriculum or making adaptation solely for the student with a disability, activities and lessons materials are made and presented to accommodate the unique learning needs of the disabled student but the same materials also benefit the educational needs of the other students in the classroom.
Content students should know and be able to do by the end of a grade level.
What are state academic Standards?
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been adopted by most states in the US and many states have enriched these standards by augmenting them to fill in gaps that may seem to have been overlooked or needed more clarification in the eyes of the states Department of Education. In which case the CCSS were not lessened by any extent, but added to.
The premiss of creating the standards is to ensure that each student in the U.S. is at or above the benchmark set by each standard at the completion of the designated grade level. The standards are a guideline for these benchmarks and leaves the creation and implementation of curriculum up to the school districts and teachers to decide how to teach the content.
Multifactored Evaluation (MFE)
What is the process of tests and observation conducted by a multidisciplinary group of people to determine if a child has a disability and to what extent special education services may be needed?
This is a testing process that requires parental consent which involves evaluating all the areas in which possible disabilities may exist. The testing may include but is not limited to: standardized tests, behavioral analysis, observation, health and wellness assessments, parental questionnaires, speech and language assessment, cognitive testing, adaptive behavior analysis, in additional evaluation which may deemed necessary to ensure all pertinent information is gather to provide enough information to determine if special education and an IEP is needed.
The assessments use and the process use in their administration must be free of bias. It may not be conducted in manners which are discriminatory of race, gender, culture, or language. Interpreters and testing materials in the students native language may need to be implemented to ensure that the results of the assessments are conducted in a non-discriminatory manner.
If the MFE results show that special education services are needed an IEP is created, the student is placed in the LRE, special education and related services commence, IEP goals are reviewed periodically but no less than once a year and the student is then reevaluated utilizing MFE at least every three years.
IQ
What is an Intelligence Quotient?
The IQ test is deigned to be a measure of a child's learning abilities. It is used in part to determine if a child has an intellectual disability. Children who score below a 70 or less than 2 standard deviation point below the norm in combination with a low scores on adaptive skill test are considered to have intellectual disabilities.
Separate Classroom
What is the room in school a student may spend part or all of the school day in to work with a special education instructor?
14.6% of students may spend less than 40% of their school day in a regular classroom. These classrooms are located in the school setting so there are opportunities for peer interactions and socialization and learning alongside students without disabilities. For some this may be the least restrictive environment. (Heward, 2017, p. 27-28)
Accomodation
What are alterations to the way content is taught or assessed to meet the needs of an exceptional student, without changing the content of the material being delivered or what is being tested for?
It is important to realize that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the assessments that are associated with its implementation include those of students with disabilities. It is therefore imperative that appropriate accommodations be made for students to demonstrate their knowledge through valid alternate means, as this will be factor in whether or not the student and the school has meet the benchmark for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) set forth by the state on a yearly basis. There is also an Annual Performance Report (APR) which is compiled by the states Department of Education and Public Welfare and is then presented to the U.S. Department of Education to show data that demonstrates that states are complying with mandates for children with disabilities and results for special education.
Children whose abilities differ from the the norm to the extent that specialized instruction is needed to meet their educational goals.
Who are Exceptional Children?
Exceptional children is an inclusive term given to represent children who are both gifted and talented, those whose abilities are well above the norm, and those who have difficulty with learning, speech and language impairments, physical disabilities, sensory integration issues, behavior problems, in addition to other conditions which impede a child's cognitive, social, or practical life skill development.
The word Exceptional is used because of the limitations of other terms meanings. An impairment would indicate a diminished capacity or loss of a bodily feature. A disability is the result of of the person's inability to engage in tasks or activities that they otherwise would have been able to accomplish because of an impairment. A handicap exists when the disability creates problems with learning, mobility, social interactions and the like when engaging in the environment, but may not exist in all or impede function across all areas. Children who are at risk are those whose have a high propensity to develop a disability due to factors such as environmental or socioeconomic issues, birth related issues or other environmental considerations.
According to U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). Digest of Education Statistics, 2016 (NCES 2017-094), Chapter 2. there were 6,555,000 children and you between the ages of 3-21 years served under IDEA between 2013-2014. This is roughly 13% of the school age population recorded across 13 categories of disabilities listed by the federal government.
Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)
What is information gathered to ascertain reasoning as to why problem behaviors are occurring and develop ways to improve them?
This is a tool use to help identify and remediate problem behaviors which interfere with a child's ability to function cognitively, socially,adaptively in their environment. Once a problematic behavior(s) have been identified strategies can be put in place to help the student to be more successful in their environment. FBA can help to ascertain whether the strategies are effective or they need to altered. Positive Behavior Support (BPS) strategies may be put into place to enhance positive behavior and diminish negative ones.
A support system may be individualized through an IEP, but may also be implemented school wide in what is called a Schoolwide Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (SWPBIS). This system supports students in need in addition to providing support to the whole student body to enhance social and academic success for all.
IDEA
What is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?
The IDEA is a set of laws which governs and provides the legal guidelines pertaining to early intervention and special education services for children with disabilities from birth to twenty-one years of age. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is closely connected to the IDEA and governs the civil rights of those with disabilities. Children who may not meet the requirements for special education under IDEA may meet the requirements for assistance under Section 504.
In conjunction with IDEA and Section 504, the federal government mandates that all children children with disabilities are entitled to Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This education must be at no cost to the family and must be designed to meet the individual learning abilities of the student. It is through the creation and implementation of an IEP that these educational goals are put into place.
Separate School
What is a school facility specially designed to meet the needs of special education students, under the guidance of special education teachers and staff?
Like the separate classroom, students who receive support in a separate school setting need more time in a specialized environment to meet their educational needs. The 3% of student who are in this type of environment are supported for more than 50% of their day outside of the typical school environment. (Heward, 2017, p.21-28)
Assistive Technology (AT)
What are devices other items or systems, used to assist those with disabilities to complete a task or to improve functionality?
Example: A pencil grip to help hold a pencil, an articulation pad to enable those who can speak to communicate verbally, computer programs that assist in learning opportunities. Under IDEA all public schools must take into consideration the assistive technologies of students with disabilities. In the development of a students IEP these devices must be considered in relation to whether or not they would helpful or necessary in being able to provide the students with FAPE.
Special services provided for children with disabilities from birth to age three/ or age five in PA with developmental delays.
What is Early Intervention?
Early Intervention is a program funded by IDEA. This program is mandates that services be available for children from birth to age three who need intervention because of a medical or physical disposition to develop a delay or a diagnosis of a developmental delay speech and language, cognition, physical ability, or social emotional development. Under IDEA state which receive funds for EI services must also provide services for those under three years who are considered at risk fro developing a disability due to biological or environmental risk factors. Under the Early intervention program there is a mandate that children between the ages of three to five years be provided with preschool services and be provided with the same special education services as those in school age programs.
Transition time
What is the process of moving from one level or time frame to the next?
Though assessments are taken periodically, annual reviews are conducted and reevaluations are conducted every three years, there are specific transitions times where vigilance in the IEP process may be increasingly warranted. These times may be when transitioning from an IFSP (medical/educational model) to an IEP (educational model), from pre-K to Kindergarten or school-age program, from the time the student turns 16 in preparation to adult life and the transition from school to a non-school environment.
Annual reviews, and transitions give families, and service providers the opportunities to take a hard look at the student's IEP and make make modifications as needed. A parent can, however, request a review at anytime deemed needed.
As with the inception of the IEP, the plan must include short term objectives and all goals must be measurable, with parameter for meeting them addressed. All accommodations and services needed for the child to meet these goals must be included with the duration, frequency and location listed. How the student will be assessed and by whom must be included with benchmarks explicitly listed for each area that the student disability adversely effects them.
ID
What are Intellectual Disabilities?
Children with ID have been referred to by many different words over the years. Many of these are now considered derogatory. Rosa's law passed in 2010 created the means to refer to those with subaverage intelligence levels to be referred to as intellectually disabled. The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) defines those with ID as having the condition originate prior to the age of 18 years, and having significant limitations in both intellectual and adaptive behavior in the areas of social, conceptual, and practical adaptive skills. The IDEA's definition is similar but adds that there is an adverse effect on a child's educational abilities.
Residential School
What is a place where students with special education needs live and receive care and educational service from specially trained teachers and staff on a daily basis?
A setting of this nature may be public or private. Fewer than 1% of students have disabilities of the nature which require support on a 24 hr. basis in a residential setting. (Heward, 2017, p. 27-28)
Supplemental Aids and Services (SaS)
What are supports provided in a LRE which enable students with disabilities to participate to the greatest extent possible in an educational setting with students without disabilities?
Like assistive technology, these are goods and services which enable students to participate in FAPE to the greatest extent possible in the LRE which are not necessarily designated as AT. There are a multitude of services which can be provided depending on the students disability. Related services may be needed to for the student to be able to engage fully in obtaining IEP goals and special education. Transportation to and from separate school facilities, occupational or physical therapy, or to a career and technical education center in which a student may be learning a skill to be applied in a realistic life situation with the help of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services.
Wrap around services which combine home and school services may be needed. A Behavioral Specialist Consultant (BSC) helps to create a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) which includes Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and is implemented by a Therapeutic Staff Support (TSS) person who works one on one with a student in school, at home and in the community to help them meet the goals of the IEP or IFSP.
Special education and implementation of other services that are "based on peer-reviewed research to the extent possible" (Heward, 2017).
What is Scientifically Based Instruction?
In 2004 the IDEA research based evidence be use to support the use of special education services being provide to those students with IEP's. There should be large enough body of evidence supporting the validity of the treatment or teaching practices used by the students providers to constitute best practices.
Parent and family
Who are the most important people in a child's life?
Research shows that increased parent/family involvement in a child's life has a positive effect on the students cognitive and social skill development in an academic setting. Effective parental involvement leads to higher academic achievement, higher graduation rates and greater success in the workplace after graduation. In many ways this is no different for students with disabilities as it is for those without disabilities. However, there must be the added consideration of the additional stressors that a parent or family may face in having to care for a child with disabilities.
Building an effective and home and school connection which is culturally and linguistically responsive as well as takes advantage of a multitude of means of communication strategies can greatly enhance the educational wellbeing of an exceptional child. So much so, that through IDEA, Congress recognizes and mandates that parents and families be key components in the education process for their child.