Resources for the "one of" special needs student

Mississippi | Missouri (Photo credit: Kevin Saff)Moving to a small town was disconcerting, but finding out there were no children like D was even more so. No autistic students were enrolled at his level of cognitive difficulty.

 Indy is a veritable melting pot of disabilities and disorders, and every resource you could think of is represented somehow by their number. It made information easy to come by when you search. Here, even people are hard to find, and they are typically my favorite resources. People always seem to know something outside the manuals and tend to supply anecdotal guidance.

The first step after relocation is to find your local advocacy agency.
MPACT is the local equivalent to INsource back home in Indiana.
Here is where you find your most important resource, the law.

Determining placement here is a bit slow, so far. Children like D (severely disabled) must apply to the schools that are appropriate in the area in a fairly involved process with much testing and much discussion. We're waiting to hear now.

Rural areas are, understandably, lacking in my favorite resource; people. Take your support where you can find it. Schools and online resources are the best bet in a farm community.

What a Difference a Move Makes?

So, it's been a while. . .

Since last we talked, I've experienced multiple life changes, but the strangest one was to leave Indianapolis for , literal, greener pastures. We have returned to small, town USA in Missouri.

 First thing I noticed?

Special education here is run from the state. Now, I'm not saying it goes fast; but, already, I see a change in quality of service. Placement decisions must be justified in writing. They are made at the state DOE. Placement is by the numbers. Sure, that could become negative in a borderline situation, where you have a child who seems very abled needing more supports or a parent who really wants inclusion education with a more severe child. I can't be sure what that will look like over time, but the system I see is as well regulated as any I've ever seen.

Other thing I've noticed?

I haven't seen a single Bill or Tim here. Not one. Oh, the bliss.

There are no overpaid, power hungry directors of special education in my life at all! Just one nice lady who fills out applications and helps us work with the state and write an IEP. One nice lady. My heart just skipped a beat.

Do you know what a relief that is? Our lives, literally, felt embattled and under seige. We felt disenfranchised and disconnected from society by our son's disability. Now, I feel like all the other moms. I don't have to march on a school board or storm the state house. I can focus on what my kids need and what I want to do with myself.

The best advice I can give to parents in Indiana is MOVE...now.

RISE Special Services Q & A

Image by 姒儿喵喵 via FlickrMay 12th seems to be the magic day for parents of SPED students in the four townships, Beech Grove, Franklin, Decatur and Perry, to get answers. Here is my submission to the RLC PTA for the event.

1. What will the top down structure look like?
   
2. What voice will parents have in policy building, such as parent members of an advisory committee? 
3. What steps will be taken to insure transparency in policy building?
   
4. Will parent education, including information on law, teaching methods and advocacy for their student be a priority for the interlocal? If so, what mechanisms will be in place to deliver this service?
5. If parents have a dispute with specific administrators, who will be the mediator in order to avoid the complaint process provided by DOE? Will you institute a formal process to give parents access to objective mediation which will help the schools avoid expensive due process proceedings?
   
6. How will the interlocal improve staff and administration training across all environments, classrooms, bus transportation, etc.?
7. The school has been given orders of correction this year for violations of the individualized education plan for several students. What system of checks and balances, staff training and administrative supervision will you put in place to avoid this in future?
8. What definitive standards will be put in place to determine teacher and administrative performance?
   
9. Who will be the administrative staff of RISE Learning Center?
   
10. Will Administrative staff in all the townships receive extensive training and professional development through the new Interlocal? If not, why?

 If you live in one of these townships, you can submit your questions to RISE Special Services at 5391 Shelby Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46227 . 317*789*1650 Time and Location to follow.

The home/school connection and shooting the moon.

Image by Brandy Shaul via FlickrWhy are administrators required at case conferences? Simple. They commit funds and services. The end.

Administrators are the final authority on what can and cannot be implemented. Now, does the law say cost is not to be considered? Yes, it does, but the unspoken truth is that it is considered and will always be. That's why you have to have the admin present. Though the teacher is widely considered the primary representative,  his or her boss is the heavyweight.

And while parents hold directors of special education responsible for results in the classroom, school boards and superintendents squeeze them in the pocketbook more often than not. So what if we took the administration out of the picture? What would parents and teachers do if left to their own devices? Imagine a case conference with no politics involved.

Probably, teachers would do exactly what they wanted to do all along; write the perfect program for the student before them. What are they doing with an administrator's oversight? They are considering how best to meet the student's needs on the budget understood from the get-go. We all see the practical side. You have to know how much something costs, right?  You can't dream big on a budget.

Besides the obvious benefits of early intervention, there is a cost effectiveness to early investment in disabled children. Most development will happen during the school years, and the potential for development is the foundation for independence later in life. Clipping special education funding now will lead to larger bills in the future. It's the difference between 24 hour hospital care or assisted living with minimal assistance.

How do we get school districts on board?

We could do what we do now, and trust administrators to do the right thing. We could pass even more laws that we will weakly enforce. We could take a different road altogether, since what we're doing isn't working. How bout we take the administrator out of the conference till the end? And then his job is to get the desired services on his budget or broker some sort of solution with the family to keep impact on the child minimal.

We could put a premium on the parent/teacher relationship by removing external pressures to ensure that all recommendations are made in good faith and by the two or three most appropriate people in the child's life. Goal centered education should consider all the possibilities, and then break down the logistics. It's corny but true, that old saying; Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you land among the stars. Why not let our teachers shoot the moon?

Keep the ball moving.

Image by thoth188 via FlickrPerry Township schools are home to RISE Special Services, soon to change their name; and one hopes, their practices. This township is the gold standard, for how to get special education wrong. If you want to know what not to do, look no further. RISE is a shining example of how to move the ball without scoring actual points.

Testing Optional

A shortage of funds has led to a shortage of professionals in an era of massive student demand. This was the argument administrators used to justify the change to testing policy for disabled students. Unfortunately, this is also an excellent way to cut costs. Testing equals data on the student. Data equals information. Information equals power for teachers and parents to make recommendations regarding program, services and staffing. This testing no longer has a mandatory deadline of every three years, again due to a lack of psych staff in schools, according to administrators.

There is no doubt that school psychologists are overloaded. However, the removal of mandatory testing guidelines has the unique ability to drastically reduce the amount of services considered appropriate for a student, and that inevitably lightens the school's load. Parents can trigger re-evaluation, but many don't know that or take the school's recommendations that testing is not necessary.

Call me suspicious, but this sounds like a sweetheart deal for directors feeling the pressure from school boards across the state to cut back. And it comes with a consequence proof excuse to give the state DOE. It wasn't required.

Testing is only one benchmark to evaluate a student's progress, but it's the one most considered when discussing a change of program or placement, both can be expensive. This means a child could languish in a program that is no longer appropriate or miss out on a chance to include with normal peers for lack of data.

Perry Practices

By and large, parents of mildly disabled students notice nothing lacking in their child's education. Those who are easily included in general education usually have no trouble getting minor accommodations for their student. It's the other end of the spectrum that has a wrench in the works.

Besides oodles of administrative redundancy, Perry has an overall unfriendly way of dealing with parents. Lawsuits are way up, according to Bill Dreibelbis, but he's quick to point out  that we live in a sue happy society, and it's the nature of the beast. That's one interpretation, or we could be doing something wrong. The fact is that complaints with the state are up, too, and testing isn't automatic. Couple this with parent dissatisfaction with staffing discipline and training, and you have a perfect storm of malpractice. Of course, the motto seems to be that it's all good, as long as we keep the ball moving. Hitting the hoop is secondary.

Who watches the watchmen?

Image via Wikipedia

On February 24 of this year, the South Indianapolis Star ran a story on RISE Learning Center. In it, Anne Davis, who is the director of Indiana's Division of Exceptional Learners, was quoted. 

All parents want the very best they can have for their children. I believe that schools are doing the best they can to provide the best services for their students, but sometimes those two pictures don't match. Everyone comes to the table with the best expectations, but their perspectives change.

This is the woman who defines the state of Indiana's special education. She thinks it's okay, and schools are doing all they can;  except that it's not, and they aren't as a whole. Rise Special Services, soon to be South Side Special Services of Marion County, is chief among the offenders.

Parents can present evidence for how this happens, and have. Procedure gets a little devil-may-care. Parents don't know what's happening and when. Recommendations go unmade and testing undone. Then, the IEP stands with minimal services "offered"to that child. Anne Davis has a responsibility to see that IEPs like this are never written in the state of Indiana. That is best done through the training of administration on those same procedures and making it policy to get testing done as a matter of course.

This year, testing policy was loosened to allow schools to skip it, if it's not needed. It's often unneeded by a school's estimation. This was done, as so often is the case, because of a shortage, schools claim.  Testing puts documentation in the hands of parents and leads directly to program and service decisions. 

This year, Anne Davis also granted RISE Special Services' request for reconsideration of the findings in a complaint found for the family of the student allowing them to skip training for all administrators in Perry Township of Marion County and only train two administrators at the Learning Center.

Special education can be costly, but avoiding the expense now only leads to more expense and loss later, even if you ignore the loss of quality of life for students. We can continue to ignore parents, pretend they are being over-emotional basket-cases, or we can fix the problem, plan for the future and try to serve each individual.

Corrective actions at RISE Learning Center

In spite of the STAR report to the contrary, action against RLC is actually occurring. Our family filed a complaint in January. This snapshot of the complaint outlines the outcome of the investigation. Portions stricken from the report are changes made by Anne Davis at DOE at the request of Mr. Dreibelbis who asked for a reconsideration. He was, not surprisingly, granted one.

The change made to this corrective action will have far-reaching results, I fear. Instead of training all special education administrators, Mr. Dreibelbis need only train the few directly involved with the school itself on the grounds that this complaint doesn't prove systemic failure. If there were not already a collection of complaints in the archives, I could agree with him. However, there are more complaints, a fact Mrs. Davis decided to dismiss.

While families contend the school isn't doing the job it's tasked to do, Mrs. Davis goes on record stating that the school's vision of education and the parent's sometimes don't look the same. Job descriptions, however, should be fairly plain. Parents at RLC continue to contend that officials connected with the school are not doing theirs. Training is dismal among the teachers and staff, especially in the area of special ed. law.  Instead of responding to the demand for training, staff have been ordered that only teachers may have direct contact with parents. Wonder why?

Power to the mommies!

Image via WikipediaThere is no need to lie to an audience and pretend that the author of this blog is no reformer. There's no getting away from what I am. If there were a sign to carry about special education in Indiana, I'd be there holding it and singing We Shall Overcome till the cows come home. It's discouraging that this is so often a bad thing in social circles.

Reformers seldom win popularity contests. They make waves, and therefore they make enemies. If you don't believe it, ask a suffragette or civil rights protester of the sixties. To bring it into modern terms, ask a Libyan or Egyptian on the streets. These are extremes, but no less difficult is the life of the mom fighting for free and equal public education for a disabled child in today's world. Instead, moms and dads of the disabled have to be in it for the long haul. A revolution has a foreseeable end, not so with disability and education coming together.

The battle to provide services for children will be fought again and again, until our society prioritizes its most vulnerable. Before I had a child with autism, I would have assumed (did assume) that we had jumped that hurdle with disability. Now, I know better.

There is an unwillingness to "waste" money on educating kids who "can't succeed". So many in our culture never think that the problem isn't with the kid, or even the disability, but with our definition of success.

I wish I could say to parents it will get better, but I don't know that. What I do know is that to change society it will take outspoken, passionate advocates, and it will take time. Parents are the pioneers to reform because they have the most to lose. We have to embrace who and what we are. Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!

Related articles

• The Big Tests: The Special Case Of Special Accommodations (education.com)

Special education as a contact sport

Image by Getty Images via @daylife





http://www.indystar.com/article/20110224/LOCAL1803/102240317/Demands-critics-test-RISE?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey%3Af48f2095-f5c0-44c0-b9dc-26ad70f54877

The parents of RISE Learning Center took it to the media, and here are the results. It's a whitewash. Parents are complaining again. Silly parents. Their claims can't be substantiated, I guess. Oh, but wait, they were. Key facts were left out, again. Personal relationships were cultivated and friends called in to "talk it over".

Students in this building have been routinely bullied. We had the evidence. Our claim was a lack of supervision, and we could prove it. Students in the building lack vital services, speech in particular. Autism programs were not available to autistic students, until we seriously went to war. Complaints routinely came back in parent's favor, and orders of correction were issued.

This leads us to the most concerning part of the piece, the flip response of the Director of Special Education, Anne Davis, which I read to suggest that parents just want too much. Well, these parents think she stinks at her job. She's ignoring systemic problems and couching it in terms of economic crisis. If that is true, why was it happening before the crisis?

 Dr. Tim Smith, the center of the allegations, wasn't even mentioned, and why not? These parents have presented the state with AUDIO of him erupting at parents and staff in a conference. That isn't mentioned, but it's true. He leaves the school to sell real estate. It's not mentioned, but it's true. He can't write an IEP if you hold a gun to his head, also not mentioned, also true.

If Special Services is protected all the way up to the State Director, and even a record of lawsuits and orders of correction do not point out systemic failure on Indy's south side, what are parents left to do? I guess we could move to Illinois. That's popular lately.

Perry Township school board meeting

Image via WikipediaParents of RISE Special Services students have an opportunity on Monday the 14th to discuss the interlocal with the Perry Township Board. RISE will be changing from a joint service and supply to an interlocal. This change will result in a new board for special services students. The make up of that board is crucial to parents and students. The meeting will begin at 6 pm at Perry Township Education Center.

The most likely outcome, given the political climate, is a board made up of only the superintendents of the participating townships. A choice many parents find objectionable because of its lack of elected representation. Still others would like to see parents and advocates take a role on an advisory board.

Perry Board Emails as listed on MSDPT website:

• Rubie Alexander - ralex4806@aol.com
• Ed Denning- edenning@msdpt.k12.in.us
• Gwen Freeman - gfreeman@msdpt.k12.in.us
• Steve Maple - smale@uindy.edu
• Charles Mercer - cmercer@msdpt.k12.in.us
• Ken Mertz- kmertz@msdpt.k12.in.us
• Jon Morris - jmorris@msdpt.k12.in.us

Analyzing an IEP. . . for dummies.

Image by bestlibrarian via FlickrCase conferences. Much like the flu bug, they come every year like clockwork, and they can be about as much fun. Here is a quick list of things to watch for as you go over your draft.

• Make sure your draft of the IEP arrived a minimum of 24 hours in advance of your CCC.
• Note each person invited to prepare for possible requests to be excused (never the teacher or the agency rep).
• Double check that your previous concerns have been noted.
• Are the goals and objectives satisfactory, appropriate and thorough?
• Pay close attention to methods of measurement, descriptive documentation, testing, teacher reports. One method isn't enough.
• Services should be expressed as they will be delivered, ex. speech should be a weekly amount, not monthly.
• Written notes should contain all relevant information that fits nowhere else such as previous meeting notes, parent/school contact and special requests being discussed.

This list is, of course, not exhaustive. Give yourself plenty of time to go over the draft, as this is a legal contract with all that implies.

A personal note: our struggle with Perry Township.

Image via WikipediaOur family is in the complaint process, I think our situation is probably extreme. It all began four years ago when a fellow RISE Parent brought me in to their group. We became aware of glaring omissions and violations.

Being a mom and a reformer at heart, I got training from a group called Insource and anywhere else I could get it, and I started working to improve our school's services and IEP.  Four years later, here we are. Still fighting to reform an even more broken system.

And I am tired. I'm tired because my son matters. It's a truth. Every child in RISE Learning Center matters. They deserve protection and service, true humanitarian service, and each of us should carry the burden of these kids' challenges and obstacles in our hearts, but there are a few who just. . . well, they don't. It's not a mission. It's a job.

If you have the mission. . . 
Your thoughts are preoccupied with how to do better each day for these sweet souls. You set your ideals far beyond the demands of your pocketbook or your ambition. You want for them what you want for yourself.

We want opportunity. All kinds of opportunities are denied those housed in this building each day. Some are denied the opportunity to communicate. They have no system by which to speak their wants and wishes, nor are they being given one. Some are denied the opportunity to learn by being placed in programs inappropriate to their needs. Some have been denied peace because no one stopped the bullying and beatings. The mission is lost at RISE, and it's not coming back very quickly.

Parents have gone to the DOE, the superintendent, Dr. Little, even the boards. Nothing changes. Okay, maybe it gets worse, but that's not change worth having. Families withdraw their children from this system and go it alone when no remedies emerge.

Ours may be next. How long can we wait, let Darrel wait, for adults to get the mission? How much farther behind can these kids fall before we act to stop systemic corruption and ineptitude? How much more can parents be expected to do? If we have to sue the school, which most can't, it will wipe us out with no likelihood of recouping anything without wheelbarrows of proof that we aren't lying or overreacting or reaching or exercising a vendetta or all the other things administrators say to steal our credibility or divert attention from facts.

Efforts to discredit the parents of RISE have never stopped and likely never will, but one thing is certain we aren't backing down. We have the mission. Each one us got it handed to us in a hospital both on the day of our child's birth and the day of their diagnosis. The mission to serve our children as advocate, parent, interpreter and care giver is a reality of every single day.

To parents facing the unfairness and discrimination of education systems gone awry, I say, " Never give up. Never surrender. Your children matter." Guess I just need the reminder.

This is not a war.

Image via WikipediaAs you start work on your CCC, no one wants a war, but it would be a mistake to think of it as anything less than a legal proceeding. The Committee will write a legal document about the services your child receives, the school he attends and the methods used to teach him. It is a comprehensive legal document. It satisfies the requirements of a law.

What documentation should you keep?
Any communications in writing between you and the school staff are priority. This includes; progress reports, notes home, documentation of behaviors, and even emails or letters from school staff to parents. A good idea is to prepare a document just for your use to take notes during a conference. It can document which issues you wanted to discuss and which ones you actually got to discuss and the outcomes. It's always advisable to err on the side of caution. When in doubt, keep it.


And when it is a war?
This is where all that routine documentation works to your advantage.  Occasionally, parents and schools clash, and sometimes it can become a war of wills. Personalities get involved. Don't let that happen, if you can avoid it.

This is business! First rule of advocating for your child; it's strictly business. You have a professional position at the table as the primary expert, and you have a right to be there. If someone at that table patronizes or treats you rudely, that isn't professional. Likewise, you have to act professional as well.

Advocates make sure procedure is understood and followed. They are in that room for one person; the child. We aren't there to call names or be called names. We aren't there to stick it to the other guy. If you sense this in your motives, pull back and get an advocate. If you suspect someone else feels this way toward your family, do the same thing if you can. Some easy rules to follow when it hits the fan this way:  

• Keep phone calls to a minimum
• Ask to record conferences and meetings
• Conduct most discussion via email
• Organize all communications for later use as evidence

 

Special education mediation; how does that happen?

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeIt's pretty rare, but it can happen. The parents disagree with the school or the school disagrees with the parents. It's seldom that the school sticks so completely to its guns on a point of contention. It's oftentimes cost effective to give a family a compromise, so here's a word of caution. If the school is adamant and chooses mediation, take a long, hard look at your case. Step back and really look.

There's a reason they chose that way instead of being cost effective. They think the process will go in their favor. That means they may be right on target with Article Seven guidelines. In this case, parents should ask someone trained in the law. Mediation may be a waste of your time.

The school is run by people, and those people may actually think you have the wrong idea about your child's education. Here's where things get sticky. You know your child. More than anyone else, you've seen what he can do. You know how good the good moments are and how bad the bad. Parents are experts, best in the field, on one kiddo.  How far do you go?

If you've tried to work out the kinks and you're losing time on your child's education, go to mediation. If the situation is turning hostile, it's more than past time to bring in a third party who is objective and uninvolved. If you believe it's a safety issue, then do it without hesitation.

Mediation is never fun. Parents have the option because there has always been the chance they would need it. I can guarantee it's easier than due process, but that's about the only guarantee a family will get.

Related articles

• Procedural Safeguards The Series - Part VIII (specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com)
• What Is the Difference Between Mediation and Arbitration (brighthub.com)

Advocacy in today's school system

There's a burning need for advocacy in special needs education today. Areva Martin's book The Everyday Advocate highlights that need. Parents, overburdened emotionally and financially, are having to metaphorically take up arms in order to make the system run as it should for children.

One can't assume anymore that teachers and administrators are advocates for your child. The truth is they are employees of the system, and that system has cost management needs. Teachers go out into the work place with massive debts and a burning desire to teach. There is always a risk when they go out on a limb to recommend services in today's cost cutting environment. If you buck the admin too many times, you will certainly feel the sting.

Therefore, it's left to a parent to obtain an advocate or become one. The amount of time it takes to properly advocate for children is amazing. There are files to compile, phone calls to be made, negotiations to manage and research to be done. Parents must add this pile of tasks to an already growing stack of tasks they manage each day, and that's if everything manages to run smoothly. If it doesn't, one must prepare for mediation or due process.

School is not a cure. It's a minimizer. It minimizes the damage done to a child's mind by training that mind like an athlete trains their body.  It will play a crucial role in the coming years in educating parents to minimize at home. No doctor can have the kind of relationship with parents that schools have. Until we start taking our school's role in special needs treatment seriously and fund the programs, enforce the policies and train the staff, I'm afraid we will see an unorganized, failing system for years to come.

Getting a program

Image via WikipediaA program is the key. When folks start out on the road to a special education, it's important to know what you can expect. Good programs should contain three things: data, flexibility and room to grow.

But the greatest of these is. . . Data. It should produce tangible statistics on a child's progress.
From a parent's prospective, a program without data leaves you out of the loop on your student. It's the river from which all educational decisions flow. Not knowing the results of a child's day to day activities is the same as sitting in a dark room and trying to describe the furniture from memory. You won't remember it all, and it's likely you missed something on your first look.

A program with wiggle room lets educators change the pieces without sending an autistic child into shock from too great a change at one time. Structure can help with that. Administrators can sometimes suggest programs that can be adapted to a student's changeable needs.

 Long term thinking lets parents and professionals in the field look toward the future and plan for developmental milestones. Overall goals allow parents to choose a path most likely to get them where they want to go. Whatever your goal, you should think big, maybe bigger than you can expect. That's fine. 

Thinking big and long term could get your child the next best thing to your ideal. A non-verbal child would have an ideal long term goal: communication. So verbalizing communication is the goal, but should they learn to sign to communicate you got the next best outcome. The learning disabled child with Aspberger's might want to go to college. That goal could get them the best high school GPA and result in excellent job training, even if the ultimate goal of college doesn't happen. It's easier to prioritize steps to these goals once you have them, rather than cobble together a step by step program one priority at a time. The overall goal gives you room to grow your student's program, to expand their abilities.

Hair pulling moment

Sometimes I like to do a more personal post. Our family has struggled with behaviors in school for the whole school year thus far, and it finally culminated in a case conference. Personal note, I dread case conferences.


Conflict isn't an issue for me, but I get pretty wound up at injustices. One of my biggest frustrations is that I so often have to be the catalyst for change in my son's education. One would expect that to be the professionals in charge. Our boy needs a new program, and I'm usually the first one to say it. 

He needs data collection and new methods. He needs more one on one help to conquer out short term eruptions and move us past it. He needs focus. Unfortunately, it feels like so many experience the frustration of knowing individual plans, individual kids,  don't get individual focus.


Because I'm watching parents who are uninvolved and seeing their kids education continue in a rut, without results to back up the plan, I know it can happen. If parents don't become the catalyst, children slip through cracks in the system simply because it's policy not to rock the boat.


While self-advocacy is essential for families to learn, it's sad that they have to learn it. Isn't it? Shouldn't special education students have plenty of advocates to go round?

Transition Fair at Rise Learning Center.

This event is a great resource for all parents, but a must for those of us approaching the teenage years. It's run by a dear friend, Joni Atkinson. She's been doing this for 23 years and taught me almost everything I know about transition. Her Facebook explains:

The transition fair has a variety of different booths for parents of students both young and old to gather vital information for their student to be successful when transitioning out of school. There are people from Vocational Rehab, BDDS, SSI, Medicaid, Stress Centers, Supported living, Supported employment and the list goes on and on. This information is so vital to get out to all parents of students with special needs. Anyone that you know that could benefit from additional services should partake in this event. Everyone has a chance to meet people and develop a bridge of communication. Please spread the word to let everyone know that this event can be very beneficial. We will also have a spaghetti dinner that is $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for kids. Please rsvp asap!!!!

The Fair happens Tuesday October  26th at 5 pm.
5391 shelby here in Indy.

Related articles

• Transition and Learning Disabled Students (brighthub.com)

Schools are crunching the numbers in Perry Township.

Image via Wikipedia











Here in Perry the outlook is bleak. With the money crunch, there is a temptation to use money as a factor in case conferences. They cannot give in to this temptation though, because it would be wrong. Further, it violates a law. You know the one I mean.

Things to remember in a money crunch:

• Cost is never a factor-Never.
• Removing services should require as much data as assigning them.
• Documentation is king!
• Determine strategic goals, then discuss staffing.

October is the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year.  Fighting a recession is not a good reason to cause a regression. Write your goals before you write your checks.

A word on inclusion from Wisconsin

Image via Wikipedia

There are no comparative data available on special education students' academic gains, graduation rates, preparation for post-secondary schooling, work, or involvement in community living based on their placement in inclusive vs. non-inclusive settings. Therefore, an accurate comparison between separate programming and inclusive programming cannot be done.
The following is a brief review of a number of studies of various inclusive strategies. There are a number of reviews and meta-analyses that consistently report little or no benefit for students when they are placed in special education settings (Kavale, K.A., Glass, G.V., 1982; Madden and Slavin, 1983). However, in 50 studies comparing the academic performance of mainstreamed and segregated students with mild handicapping conditions, the mean academic performance of the integrated group was in the 80th percentile, while the segregated students score was in the 50th percentile (Weiner R., 1985).
Using this evidence, inclusion proponents claim that segregated programs are detrimental to students and do not meet the original goals for special education. Recent meta-analyses confirm a small to moderate beneficial effect of inclusion education on the academic and social outcome of special needs students. (Carlberg, C. and Kavale, K. 1980; Baker, E.T., and Wang, M.C., and Walberg, H.J., 1994-95).
Another study assessing the effectiveness of inclusion was done at Johns Hopkins University. In a school-wide restructuring program called Success For All, student achievement was measured. The program itself is a comprehensive effort that involves family support teams, professional development for teachers, reading, tutoring, special reading programs, eight-week reading assessments, and expanded opportunities for pre-school and kindergarten children.
In assessing effectiveness, a control group was compared with the students in Success For All programs. Comparative measures included:

• Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery (1984)
• Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty (1980)
• Student retention and attendance.

Comparisons were made at first, second, and third grades. Students identified with exceptional education needs were included in all comparisons. While assessments showed improved reading performance for all students, the most dramatic improvements occurred among the lowest achievers. In spite of the fact that these inner city schools have normally high retention problems, only 4% of the fourth graders in the experimental group had ever been held back one or more grades, while the five control schools had 31% who had failed at least one year.
There was a similar finding in the comparison of attendance rates. The research also found the best results occurred in schools with the highest level of funding. They concluded that when resources are available to provide supplementary aids, all children do better.
The primary importance of research on Success For All is that it demonstrates that with early and continuing intervention nearly all children can be successful in reading. Common practice in compensatory and special education is to identify children who have already fallen behind and provide remediation services that last for years (Allington and McGill-Frazen, 1990). Research on Success For All and other intensive early intervention programs such as Reading Recovery (Pinnell, 1991) and Prevention of Learning Disabilities (Silver and Hagen, 1989) suggests that there are effective alternatives to remedial approaches.
While researchers are cautious in their conclusions, there are some positive signs. In particular, students in special education and regular education showed several positive changes, including:

• A reduced fear of human differences accompanied by increased comfort and awareness (Peck et al., 1992);
• Growth in social cognition (Murray-Seegert,1989);
• Improvement in self-concept of non-disabled students (Peck et. al., 1992);
• Development of personal principles and ability to assume an advocacy role toward their peers and friends with disabilities;
• Warm and caring friendships (Bogdan and Taylor, 1989).

The final issue shared by proponents of inclusion relates to cost-effectiveness. A 1989 study found that over a fifteen year period, the employment rate for high school graduates with special needs who had been in segregated programs was 53%. But for special needs graduates from integrated programs the employment rate was 73%. Furthermore, the cost of educating students in segregated programs was double that for educating them in integrated programs (Piuma, 1989).
A similar study by Affleck, Madge, Adams, and Lowenbraun (1988) demonstrated that the integrated classroom for students with special needs was more cost-effective than the resource program, even though achievement in reading, math and language remained basically the same in the two service delivery models.

It is normally not my practice to cut and paste, but this information is hard to come by for parents. It's especially hard to find unbiased resources like the Wisconsin Educational Association Council who report just what is.