Special education is any program within the education system that caters to students with physical, emotional or mental disabilities. Every public school is required to provide for students with disabilities by law at no extra costs to their families. The special education is meant to ensure that the students are academically equipped to compete with their non-disabled counterparts as wells to compete with them in the professional field. For students to qualify for the special education program, they must have an impairment or disability that impedes their educational performance this is in regard to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Murphy, 2005).
The purpose of special education is to ensure that the students that need special education receive education equitable to other students in the regular education system. Special education is a sector of the education system that has long been ignored (Fish, 2008). There are many myths and misconceptions that are associated with the provision of special education, its dissemination and the students that qualify for the special education program. People often think that special education students are physically impaired or have a severe form of brain damage. However, the scope of special education covers not only the acutely disabled but also those that only require the special services offered by the special education program. There is a need for people to understand that physical disability does not necessarily mean diminished mental capacity. The students with physical disabilities have the ability to go through the same education system as regular students the only difference is that they need special services. However, there is a large disparity between the numbers of regular student who graduate with a standard secondary school certificate contrasted with the quantity of disable students.
Demographics of a school
Located in Baltimore Shady Springs Elementary School the school boasts of having an eighty-one percent reading proficiency and an eighty-two percent math proficiency. It has a rating of A- in diversity based on ethnic and economic diversity as stated by both parents and students. The school has a student body of six hundred and twenty-nine with seventy-six percent of them receiving free or reduced lunch. it has a sixteen to one student to teacher ratio. The school has grade one to fifth with the largest majority of students being African American about sixty percent, eight percent are Asian, fourteen percent are Hispanic and fourteen percent are Caucasian. The school is located in Rosedale whose most population is comprised of people in the upper middle class they are moderately educated and the residents are typically distributed between all ages. The school has 51% male students and 49% female students. The school has students from median household income in Rosedale CDP is $66,129 per year. The school performs poorly compared to other elementary schools in the area. Female students perform better than male students especially in math proficiency. The school is funded by the state government. It is located in an area where the people are mostly Caucasian and they speak English in their homes. The school has an Open Door School Age Child Care Program which is meant to provide an affordable before and after care, kindergarten, part-time, drop in care and full time services. It provides services for children between the age of five and the age of fifteen. It is in compliance with the federal laws that allow for very public to have a special needs program or at least to have facilities that cater for students with special needs. It has a special education program as required by the federal government legislation for every public school. The second standard is involved in the description of the demographics of a school, it requires the administrator to sustain a culturally and instructionally sound program.
Interview with a professional
During the interview for this assignment, Mr. Hernandez a special education instructional team leader stated that some decisions in his department were made through a consultation process where all the stakeholders were involved and were allowed to air their opinions. The specialized curriculum office involved the custom curriculum educators, the school psychologist, the discourse or dialect advisor, the vice principals and the group pioneer, in this case, Mr. Hernandez. However, staffing decisions are made based on the number of service hours provided to the students. Other decisions such as the teaching caseload and the teaching schedules are made by the special education team leader. The team leader also makes decisions such as the meeting dates but with the consultation of the teachers to make sure that they are available. He sets the agenda for the meetings (PAWLEY & TENNANT, 2008).
His school implements full inclusion by the county requirements. Students go through the regular education system where the students with mild to moderate disabilities go through the day-long program provided for the regular students. Only the students with severe disabilities are excluded from the general program. They go through a system tailored to their specific needs but with the goal of achieving the standard diploma (PAWLEY & TENNANT, 2008).
The school treats students with Individualized Education Program’s, and 504 plans are treated like any other student. If they have a behavior plan, then that plan is followed first. If the plan is formulated after the pan is incorporated in their current class schedule thus enabling them to have an average school experience like any other student within the school. For Individualized Education Program students the school closely monitors their behavior to determine whether they are making any progress (Murphy, 2005). The team leader attends all the Individualized Education Program meetings as the monitor and the controller. However, the case managers for the students facilitate the meetings (Fish, 2008).
What I learnt from this interview was the need for a more integrated approach to the provision of special education to the special needs children. This approach will allow students to have a more personalized experience with their teachers and case managers as well as allow the case managers to tailor the educational experience to the particular needs of the students (PAWLEY & TENNANT, 2008). It also provided insight into the need for more staff to reduce the current workload of the teachers and case man-eaters. The staff would also include an assortment of behavior specialists and psychologists to evaluate each case of Individualized Education Program and come up with a care plan for behavior modification. The interview also highlighted the various activities that go into ensuring a successful special education program in a full inclusion school. It requires the cooperation of both the regular and special education students as well as the collaboration of staff from both sides of the school programs. This is in agreement with the first standard of the ISLLC which allows that the lead educator should facilitate the provision and implementation of special education in line with the achievement of the school’s vision. (McCarthy, Shelton, & Murphy, 2016).
Service delivery
There are various service delivery models available for schools that have both regular and special education programs. Some schools follow the inclusion model where all the students go through the same education system and mode. The same teacher teaches These students. However, the teachers are also equipped with the skills to tailor the education curriculum to suit the needs of the special need students. This type of model enables the students to have an all-inclusive learning experience in addition to learning how to relate to other students. In this case, the school acts as a model for the outside world. Inclusion could also mean schools that handle students with various types of disabilities, for instance, a school that handles students with different types of mental disabilities, or schools that deal with deaf, blind and physically challenged students. On the other hand, the students suffer due to the lack of tailor-made education system that is offered in a self-contained model. The inclusion does not cater for their special needs. The self-contained model refers to special education schools that are specifically for students with certain disabilities such as schools for the deaf the blind or the physically challenged. In these schools, the curriculum and the school systems are customized according to this particular disability. These teachers are trained to handle these students, and they have specialized in how to teach and deal with their specific disabilities. The other model is the provision of specialized classrooms for the disabled students. They go through the same education system; they attend the same classes, but they go through their specialized classrooms in the afternoon that are tailor-made to their disabilities. It also works the other way around where the students attend their special schools but attend regular schools on specific days. This happens in schools where they intend to introduce the students into the mainstream school system. It gives the students the opportunity to test their social skills in mainstream schools, learn how to relate to normal students as well as experience the mainstream curriculum. The provision of a suitable service delivery model is in line with the third standard where the leader ensures the management of the education facility to the benefit of the student.
The service delivery models are all aided by specialists in different fields depending on the student’s disabilities. The school psychologists deal with a student with mental disabilities and assist the teachers in formulating their teaching plans for the different disabilities. They also assist in helping them deal with other students especially those who have trouble adjusting to the school system and students with emotional disabilities. Speech pathologists assist with deaf and dumb students as well as students with disorders such as autism. They assist the students in learning how to communicate with w other students sand in understanding what other teachers teach at the school. Speech therapists help teachers formulate the teaching model that each of these students will understand thus customizing the teaching models to their specific needs. General educators assist special educators in the formulation of learning models for specials students that are similar to those of regular students. This is a major step towards ensuring the smooth transition for special education students to the mainstream school system. The ISLLC standard applicable here is the fourth standard which requires for the collaboration of all faculty members (McCarthy, Shelton, & Murphy, 2016).
IEP meetings
Individualized Education Program meetings are attended by the parents of the students, at least one unique instructor, one school locale delegate with information of both the general training and exceptional instructions framework. A specialist that deals with the students who can interpret the student’s evaluations., the student also attends the meeting (Fish, 2008). The ISLLC standards provide that the meetings should evaluate the student's present level of performance. The student's annual educational goals, modifications that the student can be provided with by the school to allow his continued academic growth, an assessment of whether the support and services given by the school are suitable for the student’s needs. The meeting should also include an evaluation of whether the transition plan for the student into high school is suitable and whether it is effective.
In the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6fcIqUHz8Q. The Individualized Education Program discussed the students’ academic and functional performance as well as his social skills. The meeting also included an evaluation of the student’s ability to take tests as well as well as the improvement of his behavior, social and motor skills. The meeting also covered the students need for individualized support and services and any adjustments that would be required to his program. This is all by the standards set by the ISLLC for a typical Individualized Education Program meeting. The sixth standard requires that the teachers should cater for the student and caregiver’s wellbeing (Murphy, 2005). The standards also allow for the attendance of guests or the remote attendance of guardians or other stakeholders, parent are allowed to request the postponement of the meeting if they are unavailable (McCarthy, Shelton, & Murphy, 2016). The meeting also included an evaluation of whether the students had achieved all these goals that were set for that year (McCarthy, Shelton, & Murphy, 2016). He was applauded for those that had been achieved and a discussion ensued on what could be done to help him achieve his goals for the next year.
References
Fish, W. (2008). The IEP Meeting: Perceptions of Parents of Students Who Receive Special Education Services. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education For Children And Youth, 53(1), 8-14. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/psfl.53.1.8-14
McCarthy, M., Shelton, S., & Murphy, J. (2016). Policy Penetration of the ISLLC Standards. Leadership And Policy In Schools, 15(2), 221-230. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2015.1093149
Murphy, J. (2005). Unpacking the Foundations of ISLLC Standards and Addressing Concerns in the Academic Community. Educational Administration Quarterly, 41(1), 154-191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0013161x04269580
PAWLEY, H. & TENNANT, G. (2008). Student perceptions of their IEP targets. Support For Learning, 23(4), 183-186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9604.2008.00392.x
