Non-Violent Crisis Intervention

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed., MLIS

I was reviewing some articles about special education service delivery and came across a list of current issues that are on the minds of SPED teachers and leaders. One of them was:

How should children with disabilities be disciplined when they pose a threat to school staff and to other students?

Teaching is an isolating activity; at least it certainly seems so at times. Between the bells, you are in a room with 15 students who are diverse in many ways. They have different intellectual abilities, some have physical disabilities that need special attention and some, if not most, have behavioral issues that affect the way your classroom is managed on a day-to-day basis. This behavior piece has always been my greatest challenge. What is the balance between discipline for a single incident of misbehavior and a consistent plan or approach for managing difficult behaviors among all of your challenging students?

Obviously, the latter is what you aim for. Once you have a consistent plan in place and everyone knows the rules, shouldn’t things fall into place and discipline become easier? It certainly can become easier, but there are always incidents of behavior that defy your classroom routine. Some students bring pain and emotional stress into your classroom that you cannot even imagine. The stress is like an overfilled balloon; it eventually needs to be released, and you are the only thing keeping the explosion from hurting that student or others in your care.

SPED teachers receive some specialized training in defusing tensions, but this never seems enough when a child explodes. When the explosion becomes a fight between two students, the instinct is to jump in and pull them apart. We know from our training, though, that this is the wrong thing to do. You could be injured, thus leaving no one in charge, and further injuries can happen. The procedure is always to get assistance. I remember when classrooms had no phones and we had no idea what a cell phone was.

A few years ago, we brought in a crisis intervention team to provide training for our teachers in handling just such events. We used a company called CPI; they sent a team to our district and managed a four-day seminar in non-violent crisis intervention including restraint training: how to touch or otherwise handle a student in crisis who needs to be restrained so he doesn’t hurt himself or others. It was one of the best investments we’ve made for our staff. It was so effective that we’ve expanded the training to our entire staff on a voluntary basis. We may even make it mandatory. One of the great things they provided was to give extra training to some of our own teachers in a teach-the-teacher model so we could do our own training after they left. We used a combination of city and grant funds (IDEA federal funds) to transport, house and pay the team for their efforts.

During the training, the word respect kept popping up, and it’s an important element in the training. If all parties are respected during an episode that requires physical restraint, the procedure is easier and certainly much safer. The word respect seems to calm people down somehow. Emotions can run high, especially among children who have few resources to manage them. Once the initial incident is defused and the child is returned to the classroom, teachers can work together to try to find out why it happened in the first place. It may be necessary to bring the parents in to see if there’s something in the environment at home that is causing problems. When the whole family is involved, problem solving can proceed more effectively.

Obviously, this is a greatly simplified description of how a school district can approach behavior management programs.

Some resources for finding solutions:

• CPI – Crisis Prevention Institute
• Handle With Care (another solution provider)
• List of Providers
• Restraint Training in Action – YouTube
• Emotional De-Escalation
• Top Ten De-Escalation Tips

Let me know how your school or district manages behavior.

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Grant Name: Ross Foundation Educational Grants

Funded By: The Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation

Description:  Giving on a national basis to advance the moral, mental, and physical well-being of children of all races and creeds; to aid and assist in providing for the basic needs of food, shelter, and education of such children by whatever means and methods necessary or advisable; to prevent by medical research or otherwise the mental and physical handicaps of children. Funding also provided for the research of pediatric diseases.

Program Areas: Disabilities, Early Childhood, General Education, Health/PE, Special Education

Eligibility: Private School, Faith-based, Other

Proposal Deadline: Ongoing

Annual Total Amount: $400,000.00 – $560,000.00

Average Amount: $1,000.000 – $15,000.00

Address: 1036 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620

Telephone: 585-473-6006

Email: info@dhrossfoundation.org

Website: The Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation

Availability: All States

SPED Teacher Burnout: Is it Happening to You?

Teaching can be a lonely job. That sounds counter-intuitive, as others surround you all day. For the most part, though, you’re in your classroom alone as ruler of the roost. If you’re lucky, you may have an aide, but your aide may not be the helper you need. Managing aides can be a full-time job itself (I’ll cover that issue in another article). We don’t like to talk about burnout for fear that it makes us appear out of control.

After some months in the classroom with a class load that can exceed what the law recommends, you start to feel frustrated. You’ve reported that you are out of compliance with your numbers, but no one seems to listen. Your administrators acknowledge your problem, but “budgets,” or “it’s only temporary,” are the responses you get to repeated alarms.

You stay late every night, reviewing student work or staying abreast of IEPs and reports from team meetings. You are a dedicated professional, but there’s a nagging feeling that you’re not happy in your job. Maybe it is not so nagging—maybe it’s shrieking.

Every teacher feels frustrated from time to time. Special Ed teachers are often responsible for medical issues with their students too. This is a huge responsibility. The students we see in our classrooms seem to have more and more complex issues as the years go by. This is not your imagination; it’s true. As medical science becomes more sophisticated, more premature children are saved at birth to be placed in public school settings with myriads of health problems. You love your kids, and you know the kids are not the problem; it’s always the grownups, and you can also sometimes point the finger at yourself.

These are the first signs of burnout: nagging emotions and feelings, loss of sleep, nervous tension, snapping at family members or teachers and administrators in your school. You’ve tried to network within your school to muster up some support, but other teachers have their own issues to sort out.

Fortunately, there’s help at hand. If your symptoms have grown to include a major problem like drug or alcohol abuse, your district probably has counseling available. Often called “employee assistance programs,” they can help to get you going in the right direction. Check out your health insurance policy; it will have other private options for mental health care. If your problems have become physical (stress takes a terrible toll on your body) get help now. You are not alone.

The first step is to sit down with your building principal and let her know you’re experiencing some stress-related health issues; can she suggest some ways to fight off burnout? She’s probably been there, so she will know what you’re talking about. Seek out other SPED teachers; they will be supportive and understand the unique challenges you face.

The Internet has become a rich source of support for many teachers. There are forums where you can anonymously share your stories and receive practical advice from teachers in your field. Some resources

I like:

• Ten Practical Management Tips
• Self-Compassion
• Schoolmentalhealth.org
• 10 SPED Teacher Burnout Issues
• Forum Support
• Warning Signs

Although this article is part of a blog series, I’d be happy to hear from you and even share some stories and practical tips for support. I’m a veteran, and I’m sure there is nothing you can say that could shock or offend. Leave a comment below, I’ll respond and we can start a dialogue. We are all better when we work together. 

Let me know how you’re doing.

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Grant Name: Foundation Grants

Funded By: Patterson Foundation

Description: The foundation provides resources to programs and to nonprofit organizations in the areas of oral health, animal health, and occupational and physical rehabilitation. Funds are granted for: Health and Human Services programs related to the focus areas that benefit economically disadvantaged people or youth with special needs; and Education as it relates to the focus areas, especially programs that increase the number of underrepresented people in the dental, veterinary, occupational health and physical health fields.

Program Areas: Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other

Eligibility: At-Risk/Character, Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Disabilities, Early Childhood, Family Services, General Education, Health/PE

Proposal Deadline: Ongoing

Annual Total Amount: $5,000.00 – $75,000.00

Average Amount: $500,000.00 – $800,000.00

Address: 1031 Mendota Heights Road, St. Paul, MN 55120-1419

Telephone: 651-686-1929

Email: information@pattersonfoundation.net

Website: Patterson Foundation

Availability: All States

Blended Learning in Special Education

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed., MLIS

Blended Learning Environments – Using technology and traditional SPED classroom instruction to facilitate learning.

There’s a buzzword that’s been gaining momentum in all education spheres these days: blended learning. Basically, (don’t wince—this is very basic) it is adding technology to existing classroom lessons to increase motivation and engagement in learning. It can include video, podcasts, streaming content from providers, interactive exercises, asynchronous and, increasingly, synchronous lessons. Grab one of those iPad labs the district is handing out; don’t be left out in the techie cold.

With blended learning, the student is the star with the teacher on hand for support. Some part of the lesson delivery is online using a learning management system (LMS) that includes a database to keep track of student assessment, attendance and achievement gains (the LMS does the heavy lifting). Assessment is just one way technology will facilitate student learning.

The shift to blended learning from a traditional special ed. classroom or resource room model should not be difficult. Traditional lesson planning strategies will overlap blended learning with a new way of looking at things. The best way to describe blended learning for a teacher who would like to understand the model might be to look at a blended learning lesson plan template. Can you select the lesson plan steps that will stay the same as your current plans?

Lesson Plan Template for Blended Learning Environments

1. Alignment with Common Core State Standards (CCSS):
   Standards-based instruction for special ed. students remains number one; objectives must be aligned to the standards you have selected in your timeline and skills rollout.
2. Objectives:
   In a special ed. model, you will be prepared to plan formultiple  Each student works toward his own goals. Students move continually forward, the pace is driven by assessment results that are part of the learning management system.
3. Data Analysis:
   The guiding light in instruction is the careful analysis of the data provided by the LMS and your own formative assessments.
4. Scheduling (blocking):

This is one of the challenges teachers face; the schedule and rollout of instruction for any standard will look very different at the elementary level from instruction in high school. In a SPED environment there are no heterogeneous groups, but lessons remain flexible so individuals can step out and move quickly through skills they grasp, while others will stay and repeat certain skills until mastery is achieved. You can arrange the class into somewhat flexible groups.

5. Setting:
   Blended learning provides multiple environments to reassure students and accommodate for different learning styles. One environment for learning will be online and technology based. You may have a small group with several learning environments: computer labs, tablet labs, teacher led lessons, special tutoring and study carrel assignments. All of these can be modified for a resource room.
6. Activities:
   You can use existing successful lesson plans, they can still access their thumb drives with the best lessons from past years. You will become expert in finding the lessons and activities that reach into the depths of your special students’ learning. Hands-on project-based learning can continue.
7. Timing:
   Within blocks and scheduling schemas, you may have different groups working through different skill sets at the same time. You can make learning one-on-one by adjusting students’ time in the various microenvironments according to different needs.
8. Assessment and Testing:
   Assessments are determined in the planning stage as markers to guide further learning. The goal for the teacher is to measure when students have met their objectives within a given standard.
9. Organization:
   There are many lesson plan templates that show how existing teaching styles can be honed and fine-tuned for the new special ed. blended learning model. Some resources include:

• Implementation Guide
• Budget Handbook
• Disable World Blog
• Conover Company grant – independent living
• Classroom Models
• Micro Learning Environments
• Awesome Resources to Help You Get Started

Your classroom may need to be rearranged to suit the needs of the learners. The school network specialist will need to keep the internet connection open. Your district may install its own learning management system through which students can access your classroom assignments; it will be useful for SPED classrooms too. This developing trend shows promise for security conscious administrators.

A new model for learning always suffers growing pains. There will be new ideas coming online all the time, but the promise of raising special ed. student achievement through blended learning is exciting. It pulls together all the effective strategies that educators have developed to manage standards-based instruction on a large scale, right down to the individual and his learning needs.

Other resources:

• 4 Opportunities in Special Ed Blended Learning
• iPads for Special Education
• Flipped Classroom
• Station Rotation, scheduling in blended learning
• Blended learning educational system and method – Invention

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Grant Name: Foundation Grants

Funded By: Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation

Description: Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation supports innovative projects that help youth with disabilities develop the leadership and employment skills they need to succeed, particularly for careers in science, technology and the environment. MEAF will also consider projects to create tools that help break down barriers to employment and increase job opportunities for young people with disabilities entering the workforce, including returning veterans with disabilities.

Program Areas: Disabilities, General Education, Professional Development, Science/Environmental, Special Education, Technology, Vocational

Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other

Proposal Deadline: 6/1/2015

Annual Total Amount: $400,000.00

Average Amount: $1,000.00 – $10,000.00

Address: 1560 Wilson Blvd., Ste. 1150, Arlington, VA 22209-2463

Telephone: 703-276-8240

Website: Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation

Availability: All States

 

 

Paraprofessionals in the SPED Classroom

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed. MLIS

Sometimes, an Ed Plan (IEP, Individual Education Plan) contains a mandate for a paraprofessional to accompany a child throughout the day (one-to-one aide). In Massachusetts the law states:

“Substantially separate programs operated by public schools shall limit class sizes to nine students with one teacher and one paraprofessional.”

So, there may be several paraprofessionals in a substantially separate classroom, the classroom paraprofessional and paraprofessionals assigned to a child whose Ed Plan requires it. The law is huge and complex, and some flexibility is built in to accommodate larger class sizes.

Classroom paraprofessionals in special education have historically been underpaid and hard to find. NCLB regulations have bolstered the federal 94-142 law by tightening regulations for paraprofessional training. A good discussion of these requirements would take another blog or two, but you can read more about this here. If you are a parent, and you are trying to secure a one-to-one-paraprofessional for your special education child, it’s often a case of be careful what you wish for. A good paraprofessional is a treasure for a child, her family, and a teacher. A bad one ……?

For a teacher, managing a classroom is sometimes the most difficult part of the job. Scheduling, behavior management, and routine activities must be carefully orchestrated. SPED children in particular, need a set routine. The good news is a one-to-one paraprofessional may work with other children in the classroom. If there is a group activity, the paraprofessional does not need to restrict her assistance to the one child in her care; she may pitch in and help the teacher with the group.

Many teachers have developed good rapport and excellent management protocols for paraprofessionals in their classroom. I have some resources for classroom management with paraprofessionals here:

• General description and responsibilities
• A handbook (pdf)
• Making the most of the paraprofessional experience
• Training and support of paraprofessionals (pdf)
• Case studies

The main goal that guides hiring decisions for paraprofessionals is staying within the intent of the IEP. Paraprofessionals come and go with frequency, and a parent may change her mind about the need for a paraprofessional if the classroom resources are sufficient to support her child without one. A well-meaning and well educated parent can be an asset for a classroom teacher. She can also throw a monkey wrench into a teacher’s well-crafted plans. Managing parents can be a full time job too.

I’m making this all sound impossible to orchestrate. “Regular” classroom teaching is difficult; special education management is an especially delicate balancing act because of legal realities. Experience will be the best teacher if you are patient. Learn about the law and IEP’s. If you are deft, you can arrange things so the paraprofessionals in the classroom are trained to pick up all the mundane duties leaving you with the fun part; the art of teaching.

If you find you have a difficult situation brewing with a paraprofessional, make sure your principal and district special ed coordinator are in the loop. Document every transgression, no matter how slight. Sit down with your aides often; evaluate them according to the rules in your district and state. Removing a paraprofessional is difficult, but if a principal is in agreement with your need to adjust your personnel situation, it will be easier to transfer one out. Also, your relationship with parents can help you guide your paraprofessional assignments through the IEP process.

• Guide to Writing IEP’s
• More about IEP’s
• How to request an paraprofessional (parents)
• Determining support needs

Add to our list of resources, help guide this blog, and tell me about your challenges. I may feature your class or school in upcoming blog entries.

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Grant Name: IWP Foundation Educational Grants

Funded By: Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation

Description: Giving on a national basis. The Foundation makes grants to organizations dedicated to serving developing innovative programs, disseminating ideas, or providing direct care or services for children with special needs, acute illnesses or chronic disabilities.

Program Areas: Disabilities, Early Childhood, Special Education

Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Other

Proposal Deadline: 12/31/2014

Annual Total Amount: $100,000.00 – $200,000.00

Average Amount: $1,000.00 – $10,000.00

Address: 4045 Sheridan Avenue, Ste. 296, Miami Beach, FL 33140

Telephone: 305-861-5352

E-mail: info@iwpf.org

Website: Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation

Availability: All States

The Five Most Common Reasons for SPED Referral

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed. MLIS

Over the years, the labels we use to describe special education students have changed. When I was in Special Education 101 (I’m really dating myself), we used to call developmentally disabled children retarded. Even worse, we split the kids into Mild, Moderate, and Severe categories. This was happening at the same time as “mainstreaming”. We understood that the least restrictive environment for all children was the way to go, but we muddied the issue by splitting kids into groups.

To some extent, we still do that. It’s important to be able find language to describe our children. We can’t provide special assistance if we can’t inform people about why it’s needed.

We’ve found there are five types of learning problems that students have that cause us to take a second look and refer them for special education assessment.

• Specific Learning Disability
• Intellectual Disability
• Autism
• Disorders of Hearing, Sight and Physical Disability
• Emotional Disturbance

I am guessing at the order, there are probably numbers to tell us which of these is the most common, but I don’t have them handy. It really doesn’t matter; these areas of concern have created a bureaucracy of support for special education that is costly and complex. The bureaucracy has developed because of Public Law 94-142, the legislation mandating the least restrictive environment for educational services.

Today, most disabled students can be helped in resource rooms, or classrooms that pull students out for a period during the day for special education. There are however, substantially separate classrooms for students with severe problems. These are the students who have a one on one aide that help them with toileting, physical therapy, and other services we must provide by law.

School Committees all over the country bemoan the cost of these provisions, but at the end of the day, it’s an investment in our future. All students need the best we can give, regardless of cost.

Another part of the law is the requirement that parents be part of the team that outlines the type and duration of any services their children will receive. Schools may have different names for the teams, but it’s usually called the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team. When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was reauthorized in 2004, there were changes regarding IEP team members. Parents must be included, but there are others invited to team meetings including the classroom teacher, district administrators and others who are charged with providing services. Meetings occur two times each year, and amendments are made to treatment plans (individual education plans). For instance, parents can request that their children have special equipment. A tool called “Kurzweill” is commonly requested. This software reads aloud for the student and assists struggling readers. Students may also have readers during testing.

I’ve talked a lot about behaviors in classrooms and the costs we incur in our efforts to help at risk students. We can’t forget about the students with the most serious disabilities. Even though we may have substantially separate classrooms for some, this does not mean marginalization. In modern schools, every attempt is made to pull these children into everyday activities in the community at large.

Do you have questions for me? My readers answer more questions than they pose, but I welcome your involvement in this blog.

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Grant Name: Serves Grants

Funded By: United States Tennis Association (USTA)

Description: Awarded to nonprofit organizations that support efforts in tennis and education to help disadvantaged, at-risk youth and people with disabilities. To qualify for a USTA Serves Grant, your organization must: Provide tennis programs for underserved youth, ages 5-18, with an educational* component OR Provide tennis programs for people with disabilities (all ages) with a life skills component for Adaptive Tennis programs.

Program Areas: Public School, Private School, Other

Eligibility: Disabilities, Health/PE

Proposal Deadline: 10/18/2014

Address: 70 West Red Oak Lane White Plains, NY 10604

Telephone: 914-696-7175

E-mail: materasso@usta.com

Website: United States Tennis Association

Availability: All States

Pre-Referral Strategies for Special Education

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed. MLIS

When I was in graduate school for learning disabilities XYZ years ago (years disguised to protect my vanity), I wrote a paper with the title “Overrepresentation of Minorities in Special Education.” It was a huge undertaking and the paper ended up asking more questions than it answered. The gist of my thesis was that behavior issues unfamiliar to the average middle class teacher were causing more SPED referrals for minority students than for others.

The professor took pity on me and gave me an A probably because I had the temerity to tackle the subject in the first place. As I was researching the topic, I realized one of the keys to success is to give teachers the support they need to identify and remediate difficult behaviors before the referral process is under way.

Since then, much has been written about the pre-referral process for students with behavior disorders. Teachers become frustrated with kids who are acting out. They have no way to mitigate behaviors before they escalate. In many cases, they don’t know how to set limits and provide options to students who are frustrated in their own right. Students have a way of behaving themselves into a corner from which there is no escape. Both teacher and student need strategies to de-escalate situations that can get out of control.

Many years after the ambitious paper was written, I have experienced difficult kids and have found ways to work with them to find viable solutions to problems. There are some wonderful resources available for teachers now, especially since the advent of the Internet (see the end of this article to find some of them). My favorite is a big red book called “Pre-Referral Intervention Strategies” by Stephen B. McCarney, Ed.D. There are hundreds of forms and checklists for teachers to use. The resources establish step-by-step behavior interventions that work.

Schools are developing a team approach to work through problems to prevent referral.

Team members:

• Work together to identify a child’s learning strengths and needs,
• put strategies into action, and
• evaluate the impact of the interventions so the child can succeed in the general education classroom.

Since public law 94-142 was implemented, the goal has been to mainstream children into the least restrictive environment, ideally the regular grade level classroom.

A team should include parents, psychologists, and other teachers who meet with the child in other classrooms, a special education administrator or behavior specialist. It’s not always possible to bring parents to meetings, but an interview with them is essential so you can know how they deal with behaviors at home. When strategies are finally developed, they work much better if they are delivered in a coordinated fashion at school and at home.

At a team meeting:

• A child’s strengths, interests, and talents are described.
• Reasons for referral are listed, including behavior and academic achievement.
• Interventions previously tried are discussed and if any success has been achieved. (Interventions may include accommodations, modifications, and behavior plans to try at home and in classrooms.)
• Interventions are shared to address immediate concerns.
• Interventions are carried out.
• Strategies are evaluated to see what works.

Here are some resources to help with developing a pre-referral team approach in your school.

Pre-Referral Intervention Manual
Strategies
RTI – Response to Intervention
Parents in the referral process
Other resources

As always, keep in touch and let me know how your school works with pre-referral teams.

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Grant Name: Family Service Community Grants

Funded By: Autism Speaks

Description: Autism Speaks seeks to directly support the innovative work of autism service providers in local communities across the United States. The focus of our Family Services Community Grants is three-fold: to promote autism services that enhance the lives of those affected by autism; to expand the capacity to effectively serve this growing community; and to enhance the field of service providers.

Program Areas:   After-School, Arts, Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Disabilities, Early Childhood, Family Services, General Education, Health/PE, Library, Math, Reading, Safe/Drug Free Schools, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, Special Education, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Technology, Vocational

Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Other

Proposal Deadline: 3/25/2015

Average Amount: $5,000.00 – $25,000.00

Telephone: 917-475-5059

E-mail: sselkin@autismspeaks.org

Website: Autism Speaks

Availability: All States

Steps You Can Take to Modify Behaviors and Prevent SPED Referrals

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed. MLIS

Last time I wrote an article about behavior and special education. Needless referrals to special education services are a reality in schools throughout the country. Teachers reach a certain boiling point with children who act out in their classrooms and all steps to modify their behavior have been taken.

Rather than just talk about it, I thought I’d gather some resources for you, material you can use to help you decide if a behavior is past the point of no return for you, and a special education referral is warranted. I’ll also share some solutions that may work for you.

You’ve used up your classroom tricks and devices to bring a student into your classroom community. The behavior persists; in fact, it is accelerating and troubles you to the point where you need to pull in some people who might be able to help.

This is the place to start. Ask your principal or department head to come in to your classroom and observe the dynamic that has developed in your classroom because of one or two students and their errant behaviors. Ask that they stay for an entire class session or at least an hour. Ask them to be truly honest about what they are seeing. Maybe your perceptions have been blown out of proportion, you’ve been frustrated for a long time now, things can appear worse than they are. This tactic takes a certain self-awareness. You are exposing your class, warts and all. Isn’t it worth it though, to get to the bottom of the problem?

It will help to have a checklist they can use to mark off observations they are making, and then try to find methods for remediation. A resource I have used for years is “The Pre-Referral Intervention Manual” by Hawthorne Educational Services. Now in its 4th edition, the book is chock full of checklists for modifying behavior that disrupts your class. They take it another step and provide solid strategies for modifying the behaviors so you don’t need to take it to the next step, a SPED referral.

A classroom behavior checklist can be found here:

RTI Coordinator’s Checklist

You can also find a great resource for becoming familiar with RTI (Response to Intervention). RTI is implemented on a district and building level. It’s a complete system for modifying behavior, but also academic interventions so you don’t lose sight of the real issue, the behaviors that have interrupted the learning in your classroom.

Are you high tech? There’s an app for your mobile device that can help you work through behavior issues. It’s a system called DOJO and it might just be what you are looking for.

Use a behavior management menu. Are your students getting enough sleep?

You may have LBD (Learning Behavior Disorder) students in your classroom that have already had an IEP (Individualized Education Program) written for identified behavior disorders. Once a student has crossed over into the domain of special education, the IEP should be developed in a way that provides teachers with real techniques and tools for managing the toughest problems. Analyze the IEP, maybe there are some things you should repair for the next meeting.

I found an “IEP Goal Bank” that has some great advice for writing effective IEPs. iPads are showing up in classrooms these days, there are APPS and other iPad resources that can help with behavior management. Teach-nology has an entire section on their wonderful website for behavior management.

This article will hopefully make you feel better. There are tools and resources that can help – you don’t have to feel alone any more. So, your first step is to call in the troops, have others in your school observe your class and give advice – they may recommend simple things you didn’t think of that would be very helpful. Your goal is to prevent referrals to special education, but you need to know that sometimes the best solution is just that, an IEP creates a legal framework for working with seriously impaired students.

There seems to be no end to the ways that students will choose to drive you crazy, but there’s help out there.

Let me know what you think, comment on this blog, do you have suggestions?

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Grant Name: Educational Grants

Funded By: The Ambrose Monell Foundatio 

Description: Giving on a national basis to improve the physical, mental, and moral condition of humanity throughout the world. Giving largely for hospitals and health services, scientific research, museums, performing arts, and other cultural activities, and higher and secondary education; support also for social services, research in political science, mental health, and aid to the handicapped. No grants to individuals 

Program Areas: Adult Literacy, Disabilities, General Education, Health/PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)

Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other

Proposal Deadline: 10/31/2014

Annual Total Amount: $9,000,000.00

Average Amount: $5,000.00 – $100,000.00

Address: c/o Fulton, Rowe, & Hart, 1 Rockefeller Plz., Ste. 301, New York, NY 10020-2002

Telephone: 212-245-1863

E-mail: info@monellvetlesen.org

Website: The Ambrose Monell Foundation

Availability: All States

The Many Faces of Autism

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed. MLIS

When I began my special education teaching career, the term autism really referred to one set of characteristics, a child with the stereotypical head banging and self-stimulation behaviors (hands flapping in front of the face). It was the severe problem that everyone could identify without much trouble, at least in schools. Doctors were beginning to identify a range of syndromes that fit in the term “autism”.

The word “autism,” which has been in use for about 100 years, comes from the Greek word “autos,” meaning “self” and describes conditions in which a person is removed from social interaction, an isolated self.

Autism usually appears during the first three years of life. Some children show signs as early as birth. Others seem to develop normally at first, only to suddenly exhibit symptoms when they are 18 to 36 months old. Autism is four times more common in boys than in girls. It knows no racial, ethnic, or social boundaries. Family income, lifestyle, or educational levels do not affect a child’s chance of being autistic.

Today, we have names for many different sets of behaviors, Asperger’s syndrome, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), pervasive developmental disorder or PDD, Rett syndrome, and childhood disintegrative disorder. There are arguments among professionals as to which disorders actually represent autism.

No matter how it is described or named, children afflicted with these groups of characteristics have a tough road ahead. Theories abound about causes of autism; there was at one time a theory that an autistic child lacked enough nurturing from his mother. Scientists aren’t certain about what causes ASD, but it’s likely that both genetics and environment play a role. Some genes have been identified as potential links to the development of autism in an individual.

One symptom common to all types of autism is an inability to communicate and interact with others. Some people with autism are unable to communicate at all. Others may have difficulty interpreting body language or holding a conversation. Other symptoms linked to autism may include unusual behaviors in any of these areas:

• interest in objects or special information – you may recall the film “Rain Man” where the autistic adult could barely function in social situations but had superb recall of details and performing mathematical calculations.
• reactions for sensations
• physical coordination.

Treatment for autism includes specialized training with behavior interventions, medication, or both. Each case is unique but it is thought that the most effective treatments include participation of the whole family. A specialist will come into the child’s home to develop specific treatments based on their observations of how the family interacts with the child and each other.  As children with autism enter school, they may benefit from targeted social skills training and specialized approaches to teaching.

We know that small numbers of children can eventually become socialized to a degree that allows them to move back into regular classrooms. An Asperger’s Syndrome child has a mild form of the disorder and may never need special education. He is the child who sits by himself at lunchtime or who shows no emotion during movies with animals that suffer or die. Many of the symptoms are so mild that the child is never identified.

In this blog, I will occasionally focus on a specific type of situation that children face when they are identified and recommended for special education services. The range of symptoms and educational deficits presented in classrooms are so complex, that training for teachers in the field has become the most important factor in determining positive outcomes for all students with IEP’s. Teachers may wish to divert from their education training to take a more clinical route, and select jobs in clinics and hospitals. Their training becomes more like that for a physician’s assistant and their interests may then become testing and assessment of special education in schools and other facilities.

It is a growth industry and there will always be a need for qualified and talented special education teachers. Today, with medical advances students arrive at our doors with a myriad of medical problems that in the earlier days would have killed them. An example of that is low birth weight and premature children who used to die in the first hours of their lives, but are now saved and brought into the community.

For more information about careers in special education, contact the Council for Exceptional Education.

Comment on the blog, let us know the status of special education in your schools.

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Grant Name: Ross Foundation Educational Grants

Funded By: The Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation

Description: Giving on a national basis to advance the moral, mental, and physical well-being of children of all races and creeds; to aid and assist in providing for the basic needs of food, shelter, and education of such children by whatever means and methods necessary or advisable; to prevent by medical research or otherwise the mental and physical handicaps of children. Funding also for the research of pediatric diseases.

Program Areas:   Disabilities, Early Childhood, General Education, Health/PE, Special Education

Eligibility:  Private School, Faith Based, Other

Proposal Deadline:  Ongoing

Annual Total Amount: $400,000.00 – $560,000.00

Average Amount:  $1,000.00 – $15,000.00

Address: 1036 Monroe Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620

Telephone: 585-473-6006

E-mail: info@dhrossfoundation.org

Website: Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation

Availability:  All States

Special Education and Compliance

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed. MLIS

In 1975, Congress passed Public Law 94-142 (Education of All Handicapped Children Act), now known as IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). In order to receive federal funds, states must develop and implement policies that assure a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to all children with disabilities. The state plans must be consistent with the federal statute. One of the tenets of the law provides that students who are found to have disabilities or special needs, must be provided education in the “least restrictive environment”. The law has created a large federal bureaucracy as most laws requiring compliance will do. School districts all over the country receive grants and special funding to make sure the least restrictive environment provision is met.

Large school districts have created special classrooms with complex equipment and specialists to meet most of the needs presented by students with IEP’s (Individual Education Plans). Students may spend part of their day in these classrooms, the rest in regular classrooms with their peers so they can be in a less restrictive environment, thus meeting the letter of the law.

In the recent past, students have been seen with increasingly complex medical and intellectual challenges. Medical science has improved birth outcomes for children with very low birth weight for instance; these children at one time would have died, but are now saved, some with complicated needs. The public schools are required to provide services for these children. Often, a child will need to be transported away from his neighborhood school to find a classroom that can meet his needs. You have probably seen small yellow buses in your town; that is what they are for, providing free transportation for special needs children to special services in their town, or a neighboring community.

The special education programs in schools are based on the rules and guidelines developed by the federal government.  These rules are established to protect special education students and parents and to promote the well-being of the students.  Because these rules and regulations are many, varied, and quite specific on a number of points, special education administrators as well as building principals must make sure that their schools conform to both the substance and the intent of these rules.  That is not always an easy job.

Many rules and regulations that administrators must understand revolve around special committees and IEP’s (Individual Educational Programs or Plans).  A program could be deemed non-compliant because all the required members of the committee were not present, or properly informed, or noted in the minutes of a committee meeting. By law, each child’s IEP must be reviewed on a regularly scheduled basis so all his needs will be met as he grows. Things change, and the committees are empowered to keep up with the changes by providing new services as needed.  Parents are heavily involved in this process; this is the intent of the law.

Another way a program might be found non-compliant is when parents are not afforded an opportunity for meaningful participation in the committee meetings. The parents might not have been notified of the meeting in a timely fashion or the meeting may have been set up at a time or place that was not mutually agreeable.  The parents might have disagreed with the committee and no meeting was set to reconvene.  The parents might have refused to sign or agree or disagree with provisions of new plans.  Any or all of these problems could have a school cited for non-compliance, especially if there is a pattern of this behavior.

The IEP itself can be the center of a host of other non-compliance problems.  This can happen if an IEP was not written to provide appropriate educational benefit to the student.  Maybe the goals and objectives were not set up so that they were measurable.  Perhaps the levels of academic achievement were not aligned with goals, assessments, or services provided.  Now, with the implementation of Common Core State Standards and new testing requirements, students may not have been provided with proper accommodations on exams so they can take them with their peers.

Being a special education administrator or a building administrator is a difficult job.  It is really challenging when you have to deal with the many compliance issues surrounding special education students in the form of IEP’s, and evaluation/reevaluation meetings.

This blog article is a very basic thumbnail description of some of the more basic provisions of a law that has greatly improved the academic environments for so many thousands of students. I will be writing more about this law, but I felt the need to provide this background material for you to absorb so you will understand complicated issues.

If you are a parent of a special needs child, I’d love to hear from you. How is your school district managing your child’s educational needs? Are you happy with the services your child receives? Comment on this or other blogs we provide.

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Grant Name: BWI Summer Reading Program Grant

Funded By: American Library Association

Description:  This grant is designed to encourage outstanding summer reading programs by providing financial assistance, while recognizing ALSC members for outstanding program development. The applicant must plan and present an outline for a theme-based summer reading program in a public library. The program must be open to all children (birth -14 years).  The committee also encourages innovative proposals involving children with physical or mental disabilities.

Program Areas:  Disabilities, Library, Professional Development, Special Education

Eligibility: Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other

Proposal Deadline:  11/30/2014

Average Amount:  $3,000.00

Address: 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2788

Telephone: 312-280-4274

E-mail: cjewell@ala.org

Website: American Library Association

Availability:  All States

Teacher Evaluation, Should SPED Teachers be Held to a Different Standard?

by Neva Fenno, M.S.Ed. MLIS

Last time we talked about summative assessment, the cumulative, usually annual, measures of student achievement. The annual part of the bargain seems to be changing, there may now be semi-annual online exams in some states, but the focus of this blog has been student evaluation over the past few weeks.

A larger issue, still evolving at the state and district levels, is teacher evaluation. The climate of paranoia over how we will all be evaluated as teachers has risen to a fever pitch. The main scary point has been the drive by education reformers to tie teacher evaluations to student achievement test scores. We all know the picture has only started to become clear for the assessment of special education teachers and students. Some of the biggest questions like “how can we hold special education students to the same standards as ‘regular'” kids are being asked and debated nationally.

We have learned to write specific IEP’s to try to use existing laws to our advantage while protecting our students from unreasonable testing requirements. We are actively aligning our curricula to Common Core State Standards and hope the process will be informative.

But what about the teachers? If we haven’t really ironed out student evaluation issues for special education, how are we going to fairly evaluate teachers? We all want to know how we are doing as we are compared to our peers in SPED classrooms.

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) has written some guiding essays to help us understand these complex questions. CEC’s ESEA (NCLB) Reauthorization Recommendations document has been crafted over the past 4-5 years by committees and focus groups entrusted with the task of sorting it all out. It does an excellent job of reminding us that it is possible to reconcile the missions of ESEA and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). CEC believes that blending the strengths of both IDEA and ESEA will result in policies that directly address the challenges confronting the education community. They stress everyone’s desire to create and nurture a highly qualified teaching staff to manage increasingly complex student needs.

What about our teachers? How can we measure their effectiveness in the classroom? Teaching is part science mixed with a big dash of art. The older I get, and the more truly gifted teachers I observe, the more the art part comes into focus. You know a good teacher when you see one; you feel it in the electricity in the classroom and the bright eyes of the students. Really great teachers manage their classrooms brilliantly and effortlessly to manage challenging behaviors so learning can occur uninterrupted. With a flick of a wrist and a raised index finger, you can watch 25 students suddenly shush and sit up straight with hands folded on the desks (how the heck did she do that?) It’s all about expectations, and consistent messaging from day one of each school year. The children eat it up, and prefer an organized classroom to “creative chaos.”

To address questions being asked by educators the CEC drafted “CEC Position Statement on Special Education Teacher Evaluation” I urge you to read it thoroughly because it is a sensitive approach to all teacher evaluation.

They took another step and crafted “CEC’s Special Education Teacher Evaluation Toolkit“. It helps us understand some of the more practical aspects of the process. Basically their message is that all teachers must participate in the planning process for implementing teacher evaluation systems. All evaluation systems must occur as a system, over time, with scheduled monitoring and a diverse collection of tools, not relying on any one measure to judge the merit of a teacher’s efforts.

Other discussions to get you started on the road to understanding directions we will all take in the years to come:

Huffington Post article

“ERIC National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality”

“Gotham Schools.org”

“Education Week Blog”

Don’t be silent, comment on this blog, what do you think, how will your district approach evaluations for special education teachers?

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Grant Name:  Foundation Grant

Funded By:  Patterson Foundation

Description: The foundation provides resources to programs and to nonprofit organizations in the areas of oral health, animal health, and occupational and physical rehabilitation. Funds are granted for: Health and Human Services programs related to the focus areas that benefit economically disadvantaged people or youth with special needs; and education as it relates to the focus areas, especially programs that increase the number of underrepresented people in the dental, veterinary, occupational health and physical health fields.

Program Areas:   At-Risk/Character, Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Disabilities, Early Childhood, Family Services, General Education, Health/PE

Eligibility:  Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other

Proposal Deadline:  Ongoing

Annual Total Amount: $500,000.00 – $800,000.00

Average Amount:  $5,000.00 – $75,000.00

Telephone:  651-686-1929

E-mail: information@pattersonfoundation.net

Website:  Patterson Foundation

Availability:  All States