In November 2010, people with disabilities, federal officials and advocates marked the 35th anniversary of IDEA.  Passage of the 1973 federal law guaranteed students with disabilities the right to a free, appropriate public education. 

Because of IDEA, America’s 6.7 million infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities are able to achieve educational levels that were not possible prior to the law’s enactment.  Before the law was passed, millions of students with disabilities were denied access to a public education.  Until 1969, for example, one state statute made it a crime for parents to insist that a child with disabilities be allowed to attend school if the superintendent denied access.  Today, 57 percent of students with disabilities spend at least 80 percent of their day within the regular school environment.  In 2007, nearly 60 percent of students with disabilities graduated high school with a regular diploma, compared to 32 percent 20 years earlier.  Even given these successes we need to keep working to maintain those rights and to expand educational opportunities for children with disabilities.

In October 2010, President Barack Obama signed two significant pieces of legislation for people with disabilities. 

“Rosa’s Law” changes references in federal statutes from “mental retardation” to “intellectual disability.”  Rosa’s Law is named after 9 year old Rosa Marcellion, who has Down Syndrome.  Her family worked to have the words “mentally retarded” officially removed from the health and education code in their home state of Maryland. 

The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act will make it easier for people who are deaf, blind or living with a visual impairment to take advantage of modern technology, from more accessible smart phones to closed captioning on the Web.  This new law was passed to ensure full participation in technology for Americans with disabilities.  It establishes new safeguards for disability access to internet based and digital communication technologies.

What do parents need to know about transportation? 

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes transportation within its definition of “related services.”  This means that students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) have the right to receive special transportation services if it is needed.  Transportation and assistance may be provided to a child whose disability requires the child to:

1. Go to and from school

2. Travel between schools

3. Move around inside of school buildings or around the school grounds.

Some students with disabilities need special equipment such as separate or adapted buses, lifts, and ramps.

Jenny uses a power wheelchair to get around her school.  She has an IEP.  She needs ramps to get around safely inside the school and on the school grounds.  This need is included in her IEP.  Her IEP also includes the need for a bus with a wheelchair lift.  The school provides the bus which also picks up all the children in her neighborhood. 

Who decides if a child needs transportation services?

A child’s IEP team, which includes the parents, decides whether a child needs transportation services.  This is based on an assessment.  The school will arrange transportation if the IEP team decides that a child’s disability prevents him or her from:

1.  Using the same transportation as children who don’t have disabilities

2.  Going to and from school in the same way as children who do not have disabilities

Monty is a second grader.  Monty’s disability makes it hard for him to pay attention.  He has a poor sense of direction and poor problem solving abilities.  At his IEP meeting, the team decided that it would not be safe for Monty to travel to and from school.  He became lost twice on his way to the bus stop near his home, and was once picked up by the police after he missed the bus and wandered into traffic as he tried to get home. The IEP team included door-to-door transportation as part of his IEP.

A child’s IEP includes transportation as a related service.  Will the parent have to pay for this?

No.  The school must pay the cost of transportation services included in an IEP.

Jonah is a preschooler whose parents both work.  He attends day care in his neighborhood.  Jonah was screened by the public school and found to have a disability.  His IEP states that he is to receive speech therapy twice a week at his neighborhood school.  The school provides a bus to take him between his day care setting and the school where he receives therapy.  There is no charge for this service. 

Do all students with disabilities have the right to transportation?

No.  Only students with disabilities who need transportation services and have them included in the IEP receive them.

If transportation services are not in a child’s IEP, the child will be treated like all other children:

1.  If the school transports students without disabilities, the child with a disability will travel with them

2.  If the school does not provide transportation to students who don’t have disabilities, the child with a disability will not receive them

Sally has a disability but does not need special transportation, and it is not included in her IEP.  Her family lives less than one mile from school.  The school district does not provide transportation to students living less than a mile from school.  Sally will walk to school or the family will arrange another way for Sally to travel to and from school.

Do most children with disabilities need special transportation?

No.  Most children with disabilities are able to use the same transportation system as their classmates who don’t have disabilities.  Sometimes just adding special equipment or aides to school buses is all that is required for a student with a disability.

Carol has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  Sometimes she acts without thinking.  She rides to school on the bus with her neighborhood friends.  Carol’s IEP includes a positive behavior plan to help her learn to follow bus rules.  The bus driver and the bus aide received training to carry out Carol’s behavior plan.  They are responsible for putting the behavior plan into action as part of the IEP.

My son goes to private school.  Does he still have the right to transportation?

It depends.  Yes, if the IEP team placed your son in private school in order to receive special education and determined that he needed transportation based on his disability.  It would then be written into his IEP, and transportation would be provided.  However, if you placed your son in a private school as a matter of personal choice, the rules are different. 

Information from Alliance ACTion

From the Pacesetter – Winter 2011 bulletin:

A new study from the Consortium on Chicago School Research identifies “strong parent-community ties” as one of five essential supports for school improvement. 

“This research identifies parent and community involvement as necessary for improving schools,” says Heather Kilgore, director of the Minnesota Parent Center.  “It’s one more study that shows how important strong parent-school involvement is,” she says.  “Educators and parents can work together to help improve children’s learning.”

The long-term study of many schools in Chicago sought to find common strategies that improved school performance.  According to Organizing Schools for Improvement:  Lessons from Chicago by Anthony S. Bryk, the research identified “five essential supports for school improvement” that must be in place for classroom learning to improve.  Schools that were strong in all five areas were 10 times more likely to improve than those that were not.  Five essential supports for school improvement cited by the study are:

Strong and organized curriculum and guidance for teachers

Quality teachers who work together to improve teaching

Strong parent-community-school ties

A student-centered learning climate

School leadership that drives change

“This study shows that schools must reach out to help parents support their children’s learning, understand their students’ home culture and community, and access resources in the community,” Kilgore says.  “If schools are to improve, working with families is a necessity.”

Last week was Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week

Custody Relinquishment – What do you need to know?

Some parents are faced with a very difficult decision, they must choose to either keep their children at home without the means to give them the mental health and supportive services that they need or have their child placed in the child welfare and or juvenile justice systems to obtain mental health services. (1)

For youth placed in the child welfare system 52% will reunify with their caregivers, 20% will be adopted, and 10% will emancipate or age out of foster care.(2)

More than 1/3 of homes seeking to adopt a youth with special needs back out because of their prospective child’s emotional, mental or behavioral problems.(3)

Of youth who age out or emancipate from the foster care system, ¼ are incarcerated within two years and only ½ graduate from high school.(4)

Research on youth who emancipate from foster care suggests a nexus between foster care involvement and later episodes of homelessness.(5)

The majority (80%) of youth in foster care have developmental, emotional, or behavioral problems6 and yet, of this majority, less than 1/3 receive mental health services. (6)

Bottom line, placing a child or youth in the foster care system for mental health services can create more risk than it does supports. We should never ask parents to make such a decision.  

 “I believe that if my adoptive parents and I had better supports in our home, I could have stayed there.  Instead I was moved around and wound up homeless when I was 18 and still in high school.” – Eric Tennessee, Foster Care alumni (age 26)

Make a Change Today:

• Educate your legislators, and policy/local decision makers to support policies that keep families together
• Engage children and youth in community activities and services before they enter foster care

• Reach out and develop supportive, caring relationships with youth and their families

 

(1)United States General Accounting Office. Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Federal Agencies Could Play a Stronger Role in   Helping States Reduce the Number of Children Placed Solely to Obtain Mental Health Services. Washington D.C.: United States General Accounting Office, 2003.

(2)http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report16.htm.3/16/2011

(3)http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/barriers/family_3.htm#barriers  3/30/10

(4)Time for Reform: Aging Out and On Their Own. (2007). Kids are Waiting Fix foster Care Now. The Pew Charitable Trusts.

(5)Fernandes, A. L. (2007). Runaway and Homeless Youth:Demographics, Programs, and Emerging Issues. Washington D.C.: Congressional Research Service.

(6)http://www.cwla.org/programs/bhd/mhfacts.htm 3/30/09

 (7)Austin, Lisette. (2004) Mental Health Needs of Youth in Foster Care:  Challenges and Strategies. The Connection, 20(4).

Inclusion is the practice of educating all students’ together – students with disabilities and students without disabilities – regardless of their abilities or readiness.  It is more than placing students with disabilities in a room with their peers without disabilities.  With true inclusion, students with disabilities can access the general education curriculum, classrooms, and typical school activities.  Rather than having the student go to a segregated setting for specialized instruction and support, the student receives these supports in the general education setting.

Inclusion Is:

All students learning together regardless of labels

An atmosphere that promotes a sense of belonging, equality, acceptance and individual worth

Collaborative, integrated services by education teams

Supports and adaptations within the general education curriculum and settings

Highly effective, research-based instruction and assessment

IN OTHER WORDS….IT’S GOOD TEACHING!

Inclusion IS NOT:

Expecting all students to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same way

Dumping students into general education classrooms without supports for students and teachers

Educators working in isolation

Students always grouped by ability

Watering down curricula:  Most students will aim for a standard diploma

WE CAN’T AFFORD TO WATER DOWN OUR CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION!

Who Benefits from Inclusion?

For students with disabilities, inclusion will:

Improve social and communication skills

Increase academic achievement

Allow participation in more school activities

Foster the development of relationships with peers without disabilities – beginning the process for life long natural supports

Students without disabilities will:

Learn more from the strategies used to support students with disabilities

Learn to understand, value and advocate for people who have disabilities

Find new friends and life opportunities

Be able to explore natural leadership opportunities

Educators will:

Become more skilled in teaching all students

Learn to share responsibilities for educating all students

What does the Law Say?

Both No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provide guidance on how to educate students with disabilities.  Neither law specifically mentions inclusion.  Instead, the laws say students with disabilities should be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) and should have access to general education curriculum and settings.

Highlights from NCLB:

All students are held to high standards

Emphasis is placed on implementing research-based, effective, educational programs and practices

All teachers must be highly qualified in the subject areas that they teach

Accountability measures increase for schools, districts, and states

All students with disabilities are included in accountability measures

For more information about NCLB please visit the Department of Education’s Web site:  http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml

Highlights from IDEA:

IDEA has a strong preference for educating students with disabilities in regular classes with appropriate aids and services.

The general classroom must be the first placement consideration by the IEP team

Students with disabilities should be removed from the regular educational environment only when the nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes, with the support of supplementary aids and services, cannot be achieved satisfactorily.

For more information about IDEA, please visit the Department of Education’s Web site:  http://idea.ed.gov/

Accessing the General Education Curriculum:

Students with disabilities must have access to the general education curriculum.  Students with disabilities access the general education curriculum through:

Differentiated instructional methods

Unique accommodations and support to enhance learning and ensure participation in statewide assessment

Curricular modifications

Alternate assessments

Each student’s IEP provides details about the supports and services that the student receives and indicates necessary accommodations or modifications.

What’s the Difference Between Accommodations and Modifications?

Accommodations: 

Change how students are taught and demonstrate what they have learned

Modifications:

Change what students are expected to learn and demonstrate

What Else Makes Inclusion Work?

Ongoing support from the principal and other administrators

A school culture that values and embraces diversity

A comprehensive plan for inclusion that allows for flexibility and continuous improvement

Flexible approaches to teaching and learning

Instruction and assessment adapted for different kinds of learners

Collaborative, job-embedded professional learning opportunities related to inclusion and effective instruction

Mainstreaming vs. Inclusion?

Old Beliefs:  Mainstreaming – Student with disabilities performing at or near grade-level could learn in the general education classroom with minimal support.  Students had to “earn” their way in.  General and special education teachers engaged in few collaborative opportunities to support the needs of students with disabilities. 

New Beliefs:  Inclusion – Students with disabilities are not required to perform at a specific level of mastery before they can become full members of the general education classroom.  General and special education teachers work together to adapt to and provide for the needs of all students. 

Some Instructional Practices that Support Inclusion:

Differentiated instruction

Formative assessment

Universal design for learning

Multi-sensory instruction

Visual supports

Cooperative learning

Flexible grouping

Integrated curriculum

Scaffolding

Tiered lessons

Collaborative teaching

Accommodations and modifications

Positve behavioral supports

Assistive/instructional technology

Peer supports

Successful and meaningful transition services are the result of careful planning.  This planning is driven by a young person’s dreams, desires, and abilities.  It builds a youth’s participation in school, home and community living.

Transition planning helps to prepare young people for their futures.  It helps them to develop skills they need to go on to other educational programs after high school.  It builds skills to live, work, and play in the community.  It helps to build independence.  Youth learn important adult decision making roles when they participate in this school-based planning.

Must transition planning be a part of the Individualied Education Program (IEP)?

Transition planning is required in the IEP for students by age 16.  Many students will begin this planning at age 14 or earlier so that they have the time to build skills they will need as adults.  Parents should feel comfortable asking for transition planning to start earlier than age 16 if they believe it is needed.  Transition planning, goals, and services will be different for each student. 

Transition services include instruction, community experiences and building employment skills.  They include post-school adult living objectives and, if needed, daily living skills, training and functional vocational evaluations.  All of these services must be provided in a manner that is sensitive to a student’s cultural background and native language.

Transition services are based on a student’s strengths as well as needs.  They consider a young person’s preferences and interests.  Activities that are part of transition services must be results-oriented.  This means that they are focused on building specific skills.

Must students be involved in transition planning?

Schools are required to invite students to participate in the IEP meetings whenever transition goals or services are considered.  Transition services are a required component of IEPs for students age 16 and older, and should be routinely discussed at IEP meetings.  These services may become part of discussion and planning as early as the IEP team finds is needed for an individual student.  (Some states require transition planning beginning at age 14.)

What if my child does not attend his or her IEP meeting?

If a youth is unable to participate in his or her IEP meeting or chooses not to attend, school personnel must take steps to ensure that the youth’s preferences and interests are considered in developing the IEP.

The best transition plans are those that help youth achieve their dreams and aspirations.  Youth should be included in all aspects of planning and goal setting, and encouraged to participate at IEP meetings  This participation helps keep team members focused on the young person’s individual needs and desires.  It also helps the youth to develop the skills for making decisions and becoming a self-advocate.  Preparing a young person for his or her role in transition planning helps them to become knowledgeable members of the IEP team.

How can I be sure that the IEP meets my child’s transition needs?

Transition services begin with age-appropriate transition assessments.  They include student and parent interviews, interest and skill inventories and other tools. 

In order for an IEP to meet a student’s transition needs, both parents and school personnel participate in the assessment.  The school does this through assessments and observations.  Parents do it through day-to-day knowledge and talks with their child about their goals and dreams.

Answering the following questions may help guide how parents and students prepare for and participate in an effective IEP meeting that is focused on transition planning:

What does the young person want to do with his or her life?  What are his or her dreams, aspirations, or goals?  They youth’s answers should be incorporated into all aspects of transition planning.  If a young person is non-verbal or has difficulty communicating, parents can still use their knowledge of their child to be sure that transition planning and services reflect the youth’s preferences and choices.

What are the young person’s needs, abilities and skills?  Parents should be familiar with how much assistance their child needs or does not need to accomplish tasks.

What are the outcomes that the youth and parents want?  Parents and their child should bring suggestions to the tranistion planning meeting.  Suggestions might include the kind of services, actions, or planning they believe is needed to achieve desired goals in the transition section of the IEP.

Will the young person attend the transition IEP conference?  Parents can help by encouraging thier son or daughter to attend.  He or she will be invited.  Together, parents and youth can prepare for the meeting.  If the youth does not attend, parents may represent their desires and wishes.

How do young people develop self-advocacy skills?  Parents and school staff should encourage self-advocacy in young people.  Staff should direct questions to the youth, even when it is the parents who may provide answers.  It is important to encourage young people to have and state (by any means available to them) their own opinions.  It is important for students to understand their disability and to ask for the accommodations they may need.

What are the programs, services, accommodations, or modifications the young person wants or needs?  Parents and their youth need to think about and be clear on what they want or need.  IEP team discussions address these topics, but often parents and young people have had conversations at home that will be useful in planning.

What kinds of accommodations will students need when they go on to higher education or employment?  Parents and youth need to think what accommodations will be needed after high school and how the youth will obtain them.

Who will be responsible for what part of the transition planning the IEP?  It is wise for parents and youth to know who is responsible for each transition goal.  Each task should have a specific timeline that is included in the IEP.

Should the educational and transition programs emphasize practical or academic goals?  Does the young person need a combination of both?  This will depend on the goals of each individual student.

What are the community-based training opportunities the school provides?  Parent and their child should decide how much to participate in those activities. 

If a student plans on going to college, is he or she taking the courses needed to meet college entrance requirements?  When will the young person graduate?  What kind of diploma option is the best choice?

Are work experience classes appropriate to each employment goals?  Research suggests that youth have more successful employment outcomes after high school if they have had hands-on, work-based learning experiences as students.

Who will attend the IEP meeting?  Parents and the youth should become familiar with the roles and function of team members.  They should also know what community agencies might be present (vocational rehabilitation, etc.).  Parents may request that a specific community agency be invited to the IEP meeting if the youth is or may be using services fron that agency.  Becoming familiar with adult service systems or agencies now can be helpful in making future decisions.  At times parents may want a family member, friend, or advocate to go to planning meetings with them for support or to take notes.

Parents and youth will want to have a copy of the daily school schedule each quarter or semester.  It is important to have information on all classes available so that their child can participate in selecting classes and the scheduling process.

A final tip:  Parents will need to start thinnking about their child’s legal status before he or she turns 18.  If a youth is not able to make informed decisions about major issues (medical treatment, living accomodations, finanical arrangements, etc.), the family may need to learn more about guardianship or conservatorship.

IDEA 2004 requires that students be notificied at least one year in advance of the rights that will transfer to the student upon reaching the age of majority (becoming a legal adult in that state).  These rights include being the responsible person for planning and agreeing or disagreeing with services in the IEP.  It is improtant that parents understand what this means for them and their role in planning.  The age of majority is 18 in most states.

By learning as much as possible about the options avialable for transition planning, a parent can ensure that their young person’s rights are protected while they are learning the skills needed to develop independence.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan vowed Tuesday to abolish the so-called “2 percent rule” that obscures an accurate portrait of the academic needs of America’s students with disabilities.

In prepared remarks at the American Association of People with Disabilities Gala in Washington, Duncan declared that students with disabilities should be judged with the same accountability system as everyone else.

“I just want to say—here and now—for the record—we are moving away from the 2 percent rule,” Duncan said. “We will not issue another policy that allows districts to disguise the educational performance of 2 percent of students.”

Instead, he said, “We have to expect the very best from our students—and tell the truth about student performance—so that we can give all students the supports and services they need.”

Since 2005, the Education Department has used its regulatory authority to permit states and local school districts to effectively shield certain test scores of students with disabilities when determining adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Specifically, proficient scores for up to 2 percent of all students in the grades assessed can be reported using alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards. It states that without appropriate alternate assessments available schools have been allowed for purposes of AYP to use a proxy—counting as proficient the scores of that 2 percent of students, regardless of how they actually performed.

That proxy has masked the kind of information that educators need in order to identify areas that can be targeted with resources to help students with disabilities achieve their academic potential.

The department will continue to allow states with approved alternate assessments to use these assessments consistent with the regulation until new, improved assessments are developed.  It will no longer permit the use of the proxy rule.

The secretary pledged to maintain the “highest expectations for every child in every classroom today. That’s the understanding we bring to our work in reauthorizing federal laws impacting people with disabilities.”

“Whether it’s the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Workforce Investment Act or the Americans with Disabilities Act,” Duncan said, “the Obama administration stands with you and I remain your champion, your advocate and your servant.”

He added, “Please know that I will always challenge myself and others to measure our success in terms of all children—not some children—and all people—not just some people. Equality and inclusion are at the heart of the American ideal. They represent our common hopes, our highest aspirations and our deepest values.”

Editor’s Note—Click here for a blog post on Secretary Duncan’s visit Monday to Beers Elementary School in Washington, D.C., to get a close-up look at one school that is successfully integrating students with disabilities into the school culture.

The Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities (MPCDD) supports the position of banning seclusion, prone restraints or other methods of restraint that can cause suffocation.  This information is highlighted in the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) report, “School is Not Suposed to Hurt.”

Seclusion or Forced Seclusion means removing the student from an educational environment, confining the student in a room or area, and preventing the student from leaving the room or area achieved by locking the door or otherwise pysically blocking the student’s way, threatening physical force or other consequences, or using physical force.  The term does not include placing a student in time-out.

Prone restraint is when an individual is held face down.  This type of restraint has the potential to suffocate the individual being restrained.

Manual physical restraint means use of physical restraint techniques that involve physical force applied by a teacher or other staff member to restrict the movement of all or part of a student’s body.  Manual physical restraint may only be used when there is an imminent and significant threat to the physical safety of the student or others.  Teachers and staff who implement this method must be trained in the appropriate application of such techniques. 

Time-out means to place a student who has displayed a well-defined and articulated behavior in a less reinforcing environment (with supervision) for a period of time. 

The Council also supports requiring school districts to use evidence-based best practices such as poitive behavior supports when addressing children’s behavior.  In the rare instances when such methods do not appear to work, the Council advocates that the student’s IEP team be reconvened and the continuum of supports be reviewed. 

The Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities (MPCDD) is a federally funded, 23-member, consumer-driven council appointed by the Governor.   It’s mandate is to plan, advocate for and give advice concerning programs and services for persons with developmental disabilities that will increase their opportunities for independence, productivity, and integration into communities.

We are very lucky in this county to have a very energetic and effective People First St. Charles Chapter.  This active group of approximately 35 adult self-advocates meet to promote self-advocacy, training, quality of life and equal rights for people with developmental disabilities in St. Charles County.  They meet twice a month to tackle issues at a local and state level.  During the months of March and April they will be making several awareness presentations to area cities and school boards regarding including people with disabilities in our communities.  This awesome program is funded by the Developmental Disabilities Resouce Board (DDRB) through a grant to F.A.C.T.  They are one of 22 chapters affiliated with the state People First Organization.  The state organization is funded through Missouri Developmental Disability Council with technical and administrative support from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Institute for Human Development, University Center on Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. 

If you are interested in joining this group call Susan Newton at 636-949-2425 ext. 266 for information.