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PRESCHOOL INCLUSION: BUILDING COMPETENCE AND CONFIDENCE TO INCLUDE

EVERYONE AND EXCLUDE NO ONE

Tracie Dickson, OSEP, US ED Barbara J. Smith, University of Colorado Denver (ECTA)

Mary Louise Hemmeter, Vanderbilt University Rosemarie Allen, Metro State

Inclusion Institute, May 2016

Federal Policy Statements

Expulsion and Suspension in Early

Childhood Settings

Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early

Childhood Programs

Presentation Overview

•Overview of Federal Policy Statements

•Resources and Future Federal Activities

Federal Policy Statements

•Issued joint policy statements on matters of

pressing concern to all early childhood

programs regardless of setting or funding

stream

•Creates a common language and vision for

States and local programs to work from across

settings and funding streams

Federal Policy Statements: An Dynamic

Approach to High Quality Inclusion

•HHS/ED are taking a dynamic approach to ensuring

that young children have access to high quality early

learning programs.

•That approach integrates high quality inclusion, family

engagement and decreasing disparities.

•Announcing new Family Engagement Policy Statement

•Together these Policy Statements will help to ensure

that comprehensive services along with family

engagement leads to better outcomes for infants,

toddlers, young children and their families.

Federal Policy Statement

Purposes

•Raise awareness;

•Provide recommendations to early childhood programs and States;

•Highlight early childhood workforce competencies and evidence-based interventions and approaches;

•Identify free resources to support States, programs, teachers, and providers; and

•Identify free resources to support families in fostering young children’s development in inclusive settings, social-emotional and behavioral health, and relationships.

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Resources http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ecd/child-health-

development/reducing-suspension-and-expulsion-practices

Tools and Resources

•Policy Statement

www.ed.gov/early-learning/inclusion

•Resources for States

www.ed.gov/early-learning/inclusion

Inclusion Resource Links

•https://elc.grads360.org/#Supporting

•http://www.ectacenter.org/topics/inclusion/de

fault.asp

•https://pdg.grads360.org/#program

Questions?

Tracie.Dickson@ed.gov

Overview of the Pyramid Model

Mary Louise Hemmeter

Vanderbilt University

Presentation: Inclusion Institute May 2016

Big Emotions

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Social Competence (Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015)

• Children reported to have better social skills such as sharing, cooperating, and helping other children in K are:

– More likely to get a college degree and have a full time job

– Less likely to be arrested, use drugs or be on a waiting list for public housing

Risk and Protective Factors

Outcome

Negative: Vulnerability

Positive: Resilience

Protective Factors

Environmental

Within-Child

Familial

Risk Factors

Environmental

Familial

Within-child

LeBuffe and Smith, 2009

Our Focus….

• Adopting a posture of support:

– Supporting all children

– Supporting all families

– Supporting all teachers and providers

• Promoting confidence and competence

The Context

Young Children with Challenging

Behavior: What Do We Know?

What Teachers Say…

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What Families Say

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

POLICY STATEMENT ON EXPULSION AND SUSPENSION POLICIES IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

SETTINGS

2015

Pillars of Prevention

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The Need for A Comprehensive Approach: Positive Behavior Intervention and Support Models

The Pyramid Model: Promoting Social-Emotional Competence and

Addressing Challenging Behavior

Universal promotion: All children

Secondary prevention: Some children

Tertiary intervention: Few children

Key Social-Emotional Skills

• Confidence

• Capacity to develop good relationships with peers and adults

• Concentration and persistence on challenging tasks

• Ability to effectively communicate emotions

• Ability to listen to instructions and be attentive

• Ability to solve social problems

What do children do when they don’t have each of these skills?

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If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to swim, we teach.

If a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to drive, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to behave, we...

…teach? …punish?

Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as we do the others?

From: Tom Herner (NASDE President), Counterpoint, 1998, p.2

How is what we do different (or the same) when a child has a disability?

The Pyramid Model: Promoting Social-Emotional Competence and

Addressing Challenging Behavior

Universal promotion: All children

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

- Benjamin Franklin

“Every child needs one person

who is irrationally crazy about him.” Uri Bronfenbrenner

“Parents need to know that we care before

they care what we know”

(Klass, 1997)

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Walter Gilliam

“I’ve never seen a case where a child was expelled from a preschool or child care program when the teachers and parents knew and liked

each other. I’ve never seen it once.”

The Pyramid Model: Promoting Social-Emotional Competence and

Addressing Challenging Behavior

Universal promotion: All children

CLASSROOM SCHEDULES

TRANSITIONS

PEER SUPPORT

LARGE GROUP

The Pyramid Model: Promoting Social-Emotional Competence and

Addressing Challenging Behavior

Secondary prevention: Some children

Teaching Social Skills and

Emotional Competencies

The Pyramid Model: Promoting Social-Emotional Competence and

Addressing Challenging Behavior

Tertiary intervention: Few children

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Individualized Intensive Interventions

• Comprehensive interventions across all settings

• Assessment-based

• Collaborative team

• Skill-building

INDIVIDUALIZING FOR CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES…

Pillars of Prevention

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Status of Pyramid Practices in EC Classrooms

TPOT study n=50

Efficacy study n=40

Distance coaching n=33

Mean Range Mean Range Mean Range

Environ-mental items

6.0 3-7 5.05 3-6 6.34 4-7

Red flags 3.0 0-11 3.75 1-10 2.13 0-7

Percent of indicators

39.1% 14% to

73% 38.24%

16% to 74%

39.87% 14% to

66%

Practice-Based Coaching

Teacher Implementation of Pyramid Model Practices

Effect Sizes X Wave

Wave 2 d = .59

Wave 3 d = 1.14

Wave 4 d = 1.52

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Observations of Target Children’s Social Skills

Figure 2. Mean frequency of positive social interactions during 60 min observation session across waves for Cohort 1 target children whose teachers were in the intervention or control condition. An average of the frequency of positive social interactions for the 2 to 3 target children in each classroom was used to derive the means reported for each group at each wave.

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

Wave 1 Wave 2 Wave 3 Wave 4

Intervention

Control

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Access to Behavioral Supports Associated with Lower Expulsion

14.3%

8.0%

10.3%

No Access On-Call Access On-Site Access

Access to Behavioral Support Staff

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The Promise, The Challenge

The Promise, The Challenge

Program Wide Implementation

So, what do we need to do…

• Develop program policies that reduce the likelihood of suspension/expulsion

• Make a program wide commitment to all children

• Support teachers: – Coaching and support in the classroom

– Reduce stress

• Engage with families around promotion, prevention and intervention

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So, what do we need to do…

• Develop process around behavior support for children with the most persistent problem behavior

• Provide access to mental health consultants

• Use data to track program incidences, behavior support planning, implementation etc.

Leadership Team

Family Engagement

Program-Wide Expectations

Supports for Pyramid Model Practice Implementation

Systems to Identify and Respond to Individual

Child Needs

Continuous Professional

Development

Data Decision-Making Examining Implementation and Outcomes

Outcomes Associated with Program Wide Implementation

• Improvements in classroom quality

• More intentional instruction around social skills and emotional competencies

• Better relationships with families

• Decrease in problem behavior, increase in social skills

• Decrease MH dollars spent on intervention

• Decrease turnover

Fox Friends’ Teacher Notes

Dear Cameron,

We have loved having you in our classroom this year. It has been so much fun watching

you grow this year. You are such a special and amazing person. You have taught us many

things this year. Some of the lessons we will keep in our heart are:

1. Names are merely suggestions and really changing your name or adding an animal

to it makes things much more interesting.

2. Sometimes you just need a hand on your back to make scary things less scary.

3. Four minutes is just the right amount of time one needs to get ready to do a new task.

4. Anything can become a drum.

5. There’s no obstacle that a little love and patience cannot overcome.

We will miss you, Cameron, but we will have you in our hearts.

Clear eyes, full hearts

Fox Friends

Thank you!!