Special Education Manual 2011 - Colorado.gov · Special Education Manual !!!! Updated!November!2011! ! PAGE Introduction 4 Part B State Performance Plan Indicators 5-6 Individualized

Special Education Manual

Updated November 2011

PAGE Introduction 4 Part B State Performance Plan Indicators 5-6 Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

Mandatory Timelines 7 IEP Forms

Referral Review and Evaluation Plan 8 Consent to Evaluate 9 Notice of Meeting 10 Member Excusal 11 Cover Page 12 Participant Page 13 Present Levels 14 Evaluation Report 15-17 Determination of Eligibility Checklists 18 SLD Evaluation Report Guidelines 19

SLD Determination 20 SLD Agreement to Extend Time Limit 21 Prior Notice, Consent for Initial Provision 22 Goals / Objectives 23

Goal Wizard 24 Special Factors 25 Accommodations and Modifications 26 Assessments 27 Service Delivery 28 Least Restrictive Environment, Prior Written Notice 29-31 IEP Team Responsibilities

Case Manager 32 Related Service Provider/Special Education Teacher 33-34 General Education Teacher 35 Para-Educator 36

Parent 37 Student 38 Principal 39 IEP Amendment 40 Consent to Invite Agencies 41 Prior Written Notice 42 Release of Confidential Information 43 Revocation of Consent 44 Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) 45-46

Crisis Plan Considerations 47 General Steps 47

Suggested Crisis Plan Statement on Use of Physical Restraint 48 Suggested Parent Notification 49 Suggested Physical Restraint Required Documentation 50-51

Functional Behavior Assessment 52-54 Suggested BIP Communication Form 55

Mountain BOCES Table of Contents

Learning Media Plan for Student Visually Impaired/Deaf-Blind 56 Communication Plan for Student Visually Impaired/Deaf-Blind 57-58 Manifestation Determination 59-60 Transfer Student from within Colorado 61 Transfer Student from Another State 62 ESY Registration 63 Private School Service Plan (PSSP) 64 Charter School IEP Roles and Responsibilities 65

Transition Requirements 66-72 Flowchart 73

Post-School Exit Survey 74 Post-School Considerations 75 Summary of Performance 76-80 Summary of Performance Q&A 81

Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension 82-86 Written Expression 87-94 Basic Reading Skill 95-97 Reading Fluency Skills 98-99 Reading Comprehension 100-102 Mathematical Calculations and Problem Solving 103-107 Initial Evaluations 108 Triennial Evaluations 109 Clarification of…

Accommodations 110 Modifications 114-115 Extensions 116 Interventions 117

Recommended Protocol for Autism Spectrum Disorder Identification 118 Dispute Resolution Rights CDE 119-120 Mediation Services CDE 121-122 Request for Mediation CDE 123-124 Educational Environments for Children Ages 3 – 5 125-127

Mountain BOCES Introduction

In its capacity as the Administrative Unit for its ten member school districts, Mountain BOCES is responsible for assuring the Colorado Department of Education that our students who are identified as Special Needs and are supported by an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) are provided services in an appropriate manner and within the legal parameters of the Exceptional Children’s Education Act (ECEA) and the Individuals Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). To that end, Mountain BOCES is responsible for assuring district compliance with the State Performance Plan Indicators listed on the following page. This Special Education Manual provides a reference guide for district and Mountain BOCES staff to assure that the correct processes, timelines, and procedures are followed in the identification of students with disabilities and in the determination of appropriate services and support to improve the educational and functional outcomes for children with disabilities. This manual will be updated regularly as needed.

Introduction The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 established a requirement that all states develop and submit to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) a performance plan designed to assure the state’s compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the law and to improve the educational and functional outcomes for children with disabilities. State plans must encompass baseline data (where available), projected target goals, and activities to achieve those goals. States are required to submit an annual report to inform OSEP and the public detailing its progress toward accomplishing those goals. State Initiatives Intended to Drive Improvement on Multiple Indicators

• Continuous Improvement and Monitoring Process (CIMP) • Transition Leadership Institute and Regional CADRE • Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) • State Professional Development Grant (SPDG) • Response to Intervention (RtI) • English Language Learners with Exceptional Needs (ELLEN) • School District Accreditation

Indicators

• Indicator 1: Percent of youth with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) graduating from high school with a regular diploma

• Indicator 2: Percent of youth with IEPs dropping out of high school • Indicator 3: Participation and performance of children with IEPs on statewide assessments:

• Percent of districts with a disability subgroup that meets the State’s minimum “n” size and that meets the State’s Annual Yearly Progress targets for the disability subgroup

• Participation rate for children with IEPs • Proficiency rate for children with IEPs against grade level, modified and alternate academic

achievement standards • Indicator 4: Rates of suspension and expulsion:

• Percent of districts that have a significant discrepancy in the rate of suspensions and expulsions of greater than 10 days in a school year for children with IEPs; and

• Percent of districts that have: (a) a significant discrepancy, by race or ethnicity, in the rate of suspensions and expulsions of greater than 10 days in a school year for children with IEPs; and (b) policies, procedures or practices that contribute to the significant discrepancy and do not comply with requirements relating to the development and implementation of IEPs, the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports, and procedural safeguards

• Indicator 5: Percent of children aged 6 through 21 with IEPs served: • Inside the regular class 80% or more of the day; • Inside the regular class less than 40% of the day; and • In separate schools, residential facilities, or homebound/hospital placements

• Indicator 6: Percent of children aged 3 through 5 with IEPs attending a: • Regular early childhood program and receiving the majority of special education and related

services in the regular early childhood program; and • Separate special education class, separate school, or residential facility

Mountain BOCES Part B State Performance Plan Indicators

Mountain BOCES Part B State Performance Plan Indicators

Indicators

• Indicator 7: Percent of preschool children aged 3 through 5 with IEPs who demonstrate improved: • Positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships) • Acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (including early language/communication and early literacy) • Use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs

• Indicator 8: Percent of parents with a child receiving special education services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities

• Indicator 9: Percent of districts with disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education and related services that is the result of inappropriate identification

• Indicator 10: Percent of districts with disproportionate representation of racial and ethnic groups in specific disability categories that is the result of inappropriate identification

• Indicator 11: Percent of children who were evaluated within 60 days of receiving parental consent for initial evaluation or, if the State establishes a timeframe within which the evaluation must be conducted, within that timeframe

• Indicator 12: Percent of children referred by Part C prior to age 3 who are found eligible for Part B and who have an IEP developed and implemented by their third birthdays

• Indicator 13: Percent of youth aged 16 and above with an IEP that includes appropriate measurable postsecondary goals that are annually updated and based upon an age appropriate transition assessment, transition services, including courses of study, that will reasonably enable the student to meet those postsecondary goals, and annual IEP goals related to the student’s transition services needs. There also must be evidence that the student was invited to the IEP Team meeting where transition services were to be discussed and evidence that, if appropriate, a representative of any participating agency was invited to the IEP Team meeting with the prior consent of the parent or student who has reached the age of majority

• Indicator 14: The percent of youth who are no longer in secondary school, had IEPs in effect at the time they left school, and were: • Enrolled in higher education within one year of leaving high school; • Enrolled in higher education or competitively employed within one year of leaving high school; • Enrolled in higher education or in some other postsecondary education or training program or

competitively employed or in some other employment within one year of leaving high school • Indicator 15: General supervision system (including monitoring, complaints, hearings, etc.) identifies and

corrects noncompliance as soon as possible but in no case later than one year from identification • Indicator 16: Percent of signed written complaints with reports issued that were resolved within the 60-day

timeline or a timeline extended for exceptional circumstances with respect to a particular complaint or because the parent (or individual or organization) and the public agency agree to extend the time to engage in mediation or other alternative means of dispute resolution, if available in the State

• Indicator 17: Percent of adjudicated due process hearing requests that were adjudicated within the 45-day timeline or a timeline that is properly extended by the hearing officer at the request of either party or, in the case of an expedited hearing, within the required timelines

• Indicator 18: Percent of hearing requests that went to resolution sessions that were resolved through resolution session settlement agreements

• Indicator 19: Percent of mediations held that resulted in mediation agreements • Indicator 20: State reported data (618 and State Performance Plan and Annual Performance Report) are

timely and accurate

Mountain BOCES IEP Related Timelines

Mandatory Timelines

• Annual Review – Once every 365 days on or before the previous annual date • Triennial Evaluation – Once every three years on or before the previous initial or triennial IEP date

• Initial Evaluation and IEP Timeline

• Initial Eligibility Evaluation – Receipt of parental consent to evaluate begins the timeline, which is indicated by the date on the bottom of the form: “date consent received by District/Administration.” This date begins the 60-calendar day timeline to complete the evaluation report. If this date is not entered, the 60-day timeline begins from the date the parent signed consent. This evaluation MUST be completed within 60 days.

• Development of Initial IEP – The initial IEP MUST be completed within 90 calendar days from the date the initial consent to evaluate is received.

• Part C to Part B Eligibility Determination and IEP development (if qualifies) need to occur by the child’s

third birthday.

• Preschooler with a Disability Label • A child cannot be 6 on December 1 and have the Preschooler With a Disability (PWD) label. • Any child, regardless of whether in preschool or kindergarten, cannot have PWD label on • December 1 if that child is 6 years old.

• Resolution Session – 15 calendar days after request for Due Process • Suspensions – Up to 10 cumulative days before Manifestation Determination should occur

(Services must be provided beginning on the 11th day of removal from school.)

• Transition IEP – On or before age 15 and not later than the end of 9th grade

• Transfer – Must complete transfer process within 10 days from when the student comes into the district, and decide whether to accept or reject incoming IEP. If a transfer IEP is rejected and a new IEP is required, one must follow the IEP compliance guidelines based on the type of IEP to be written. This may require a meeting if there are significant changes in interim services from the services in the received IEP.

• If an IEP is overdue

• Annual – Hold a meeting as soon as it’s discovered overdue. • Triennial – Hold a meeting as soon as it’s discovered overdue. If a year or more has passed, the IEP

process must start from the beginning with the Response to Intervention/referral process. • These overdue dates DO NOT set the guideline for future meetings. The ORIGINAL IEP dates must be

used in order to calculate the dates of subsequent meetings. • Any meeting that is overdue requires you to inform your special education secretary why the meeting is

late in order to ensure accurate reporting on CDE reports.

Purpose: To document the Response to Intervention (RtI) process, reduce unnecessary assessment, and ultimately to refer a student suspected of having a disability when the building problem-solving team meets to determine the course of evaluation Usage: When a parent or a school team or staff member refers a student

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Referral Review and Evaluation Plan

Who Can Refer for Special Education? • Only an agent of the school or a parent may initiate

a referral to special education. Other interested parties must work in collaboration with either the parent or the school.

• Identify the specific reason for referral so the evaluation planning team understands the scope of the concern.

Do We Have to Accept a Referral? • Once a referral is received, the team must either:

• Accept the referral and conduct any additional evaluation when necessary.

• Reject the referral detailing the decision on the Prior Notice of Action form (PWN).

Instructions • Fill out the required elements in the form. • The Date of Referral can be the date that the

school district received a request to evaluate from the parent, or the date that the building problem-solving team determined the need to refer the student for evaluation for possible Special Education services.

• Describe how the parent was informed of the child’s referral; include the date the parent was informed.

• Reason for Referral contains explanations from the building problem-solving team or parent or both regarding why the child is being referred for evaluation.

• Review of Existing Information: Check all that apply and attach all relevant documents.

• Evaluation Plan: Write evaluation questions that will guide the choices of evaluation tools (i.e., What level does the child decode at? Where, when, how often does the behavior occur and how severely?). Check yes or no indicating whether additional data is required, list the areas to be evaluated, and identify the procedure, method, or sources of information that will be used.

• Finding of the Referral Review and Evaluation Planning Process: One choice must be checked to determine if the referral is appropriate, sufficient information and data exist to determine eligibility and inform the IEP process, or additional evaluation data are required.

• All Referral Review Participants of the meeting list their names and provide date of meeting.

• Remember the requirement is now to conduct a focused evaluation that is sufficient to identify the needs of the student. We are no longer required to engage in a comprehensive evaluation in all domains.

• Current hearing and vision screening results and health histories are no longer required, unless there is a specific concern identified by the Evaluation Planning Team.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Consent to Evaluate

Purpose: To obtain consent from a parent to evaluate or re-evaluate a child Usage: Required prior to beginning any evaluation for special education

Directions • Complete this form after planning the evaluation

with your team. • You may only select one of the following:

• To evaluate – for initial evaluations when the team needs additional data

• To re-evaluate – for re-evaluations, including triennial and others, when the team needs additional data

• No additional data needed – for any evaluation when there is sufficient existing information to make eligibility determination and inform the development of the IEP

• Be certain the parent checks the appropriate box above their signature.

Areas to be Evaluated

Identify the general areas that will be addressed in the evaluation and the procedures to be used. Do not list specific evaluation instruments.

Initial Evaluation Considerations • Do not proceed with an initial evaluation without

parental consent. • Document reasonable efforts to obtain consent

• Regular mail • Phone call • Signed receipt mail

• If a parent does not provide consent or fails to respond, the district may initiate dispute resolution (but is not held in violation if they choose not to do so).

• The process cannot proceed without consent. • The date signed consent is received begins the

60 calendar day timeline for completion of the evaluation.

Re-Evaluation Considerations • Date re-evaluation consent is received for

triennials and special evaluations • Document reasonable efforts to obtain consent.

• Regular mail • Phone call • Signed receipt mail

• Proceed with the evaluation if the parent fails to respond.

• Triennial evaluations MUST be completed by the three-year due date.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Notice of Meeting

Purpose: To provide parent (and potentially other staff) written confirmation of a scheduled meeting to consider special education matters Usage: All meetings pertaining to the special education process (including IEP, Eligibility, Manifestation Determination, change of placement)

Directions • Standard practice is for the parent(s) to receive

notice 10 business days prior to the meeting. • Most meetings are scheduled via the phone and

confirmed through written notice. • A single notice for an Eligibility Meeting

allows for the shift into an IEP Development Meeting after the eligibility determination has been made.

• Use the notice to invite participants to other types of meetings such as Manifestation or BIP planning meetings.

• Identify participants by title only, not by name. • You may only invite outside agency

representatives to a meeting for which you have signed parental authorization.

• As a rule of thumb, only invite required participants to the meeting.

• If less than 10 days notice is provided, have parent show consent using their initial and the date.

Participation Options • In person • By telephone or video conference

Participants

Essential Members (not “required”) • Parent • Student (if appropriate, especially transition)

Required (staff can serve in multiple roles) • Special Education Teacher or Speech

Language Pathologist • Special Education Director or designee who

can allocate district resources • General Education Teacher, if student is in

general education classes • ELL Specialists, if the student is LEP • Relative to eligibility determination,

specialized staff to explain evaluation results Optional • Other related service providers • Community Service Agencies

Principals and counselors do not have to be listed on the notice of meeting, do not have to attend the entire meeting, and do not have to be excused.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS - Member Excusal

Purpose: To provide flexibility for parents and schools in holding IEP meetings Usage: All invited participants must attend the meeting in its entirety. The Excusal Form is for any invited member who will not attend the meeting in its entirety.

Overview • Because of the minimal number of required

participants, the IEP Team Member Excusal will not be necessary in most situations.

• Only invite the necessary participants! Then you will not need to excuse people.

• You may NOT excuse the Special Education Director or designee.

Optional Participation Options • In person • By telephone or video conference

Directions • Must be completed before the meeting and signed

by the parent indicating their agreement. • Members who are unable to attend and whose

area of specialization will be discussed or modified need to complete the narrative sections.

IEP Team Participants Essential Members (not “required”)

• Parent • Student, if appropriate, esp. transition

Required (staff can serve in multiple roles)

• Special Education Teacher or SLP • Individual able to interpret evaluation • Special Education Director or designee • General Education Teacher of student, if the

student is or is likely to participate in the general education program

• ELL Specialist, if student is LEP Optional

• Other related services providers • Community Service Agencies (must be invited

for Transition students, per parent’s consent in writing on the Permission to Invite Agencies Related to Transition).

Principals and counselors do not have to be listed on the notice of meeting, do not have to attend the entire meeting, and do not have to be excused.

Purpose: Provides necessary data elements for State and Federal Reports and a quick glance document for staff and parents Usage: For both eligibility and IEP meetings; if the meetings are combined, only one Cover Page is required.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Cover Page

Eligibility Meeting Types • Initial Eligibility Meeting – First Eligibility Meeting

Only • 3 Year Re-evaluation – Every 3 Years • Special Evaluation – Other Evaluations

Requires new permission to evaluate

Date of Initial Consent for Services – The date that you received the signed initial consent for special education

IEP Meeting Types • Initial IEP – First IEP Meeting Only • Annual Review – Every 365 days • Amendment – IEP Meetings between Annuals • Other – Transition, change of placement, and other

IEP Meetings • N/A – Check if student did not qualify

Dates of Meetings • Next Eligibility – Every 3 Years • Next IEP Review – Annual Date • Initial Consent for Evaluation – Date you received

consent to evaluate • Initial Evaluation Completed – Date you finished the

Evaluation Report • Initial Eligibility Determination – Date of the First

Eligibility Meeting • Postsecondary Goals – Date by which transition must

be addressed: before the age of 15 and not later than the end of the 9th grade

Student and Family Information • Unit/Faculty of Attendance – List only if placed out of

district • If there is an Educational Surrogate Parent, Mountain

BOCES would make the assignment.

Purpose: A record of who actually attended the IEP meeting and that the parent(s) received the Parent and Child Rights in Special Education Procedural Safeguards Notice Usage: For eligibility and IEP meetings

Procedural Safeguards

The Procedural Safeguards booklet is provided once per year. Make sure the parents check Yes. If they check No, take time to answer any questions. Make sure to always have a copy of Procedural Safeguards on hand! The Procedural Safeguards booklet is also provided when: • Obtaining initial Permission to Evaluate • Due Process is requested • Disciplinary change in placement is considered

(including Manifestation Determinations) • Upon any other request

IEP Participants (required) One person may serve in multiple roles. • Special Education Teacher or Speech Language

Pathologist for student receiving only speech/language • An individual who can interpret evaluations (may be

the same person as above) • Special Education Director/Designee (may be a

special education representative) • Bilingual Specialist for LEP students • General Education Teacher of the student or one

currently assigned to teach in a classroom of the same age/grade of the student (only if the student is or may be participating in the general education program)

Other Potential IEP Meeting Participants • Required to invite parents • Students as appropriate (required to invite transition

age students) • Related service providers may attend • Community service agents must be invited per parent

authorization Participant signatures only indicate their presence at the IEP meeting. If a party does not want to sign, the case manager or other party can document their presence. Special education teachers and related services providers can sign for the special education director or designee. However, you will require administrative approval through your district in order to allocate resources. Principals and counselors do not have to be listed on the notice of meeting, do not have to attend the entire meeting, and do not have to be excused.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Participant Page

Purpose: Summarizes the team’s understanding of the student and serves as a foundation for determining goals, services, accommodations, modifications, and other supports required to lead to meaningful educational benefit Usage: Required for all IEP meetings

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Present Levels

Student Strengths, Preferences, Interests

List relevant strengths, preferences, and interests of the student to maximize and support educational programming.

Educational Performance Summary

Summarize critical results from the most recent evaluation. You can update this with general information from progress monitoring or outside evaluation data considered as appropriate.

Transition Assessment Process

Effective transition planning requires strong and ongoing transition assessment. The process need not be a set of formal assessments but should be of a nature that provides objective information necessary to assist the team in developing Measurable Post-School Goals, planning for services, and connecting students to agencies.

Student Need

This section should specify how the student is affected by disability as it relates to the educational environment.

Purpose: To summarize the information that was used to determine a student’s eligibility. For SLD determination, the results should identify the specific area of SLD in which the student has a disability: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading fluency skills, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, mathematical problem solving. Usage: Required for all Eligibility meetings

Data MUST Include these Legal Requirements • Observation of the student in the environment in which

the student is experiencing issues; the information should be quantitative, not anecdotal.

• Standardized assessment results (CSAP, NWEA, etc) and an indication of where the student’s scores fall in relationship to same grade peers in that building/district.

• At least one of the measures should also reflect a comparison to the state/national benchmarks or norms.

• Evaluation results should list the interventions that the student received as part of the RtI process and the ongoing progress monitoring scores that tracked the student’s performance during the interventions. The progress monitoring data should be reported in relationship to the gap analysis and goal of the intervention.

• It is the responsibility of the multidisciplinary team to determine if the interventions that were provided to the students were evidence based and implemented with fidelity (i.e., they was implemented as designed with attention to the consistency of the who, when, where, and how often of the intervention).

• Include a summary of any information from outside sources provided by the parents.

• Supporting documents should be scanned to be attached to the evaluation report: TCAP, NWEA, progress monitoring graphs (Dibels, Aimsweb, behavior, and classroom), outside reports brought in by parents.

• Provide a summary interpretation of the results in brief paragraph form.

• The evaluation should not include any recommendations relative to eligibility or special education placement. This will be determined at the IEP meeting by the team after review of the information presented.

• AVOID just listing test scores; provide the team’s interpretation of the scores. If there is a feeling that the test scores in total need to be a part of the report, have them scanned into the IEP as an addendum.

Completion of Report • Record the data that the evaluation was completed on the

line provided on the report form. This date concludes the evaluation process and must be within the 60-calendar day timeline from the date that consent for evaluation was received by the district.

• The evaluation report should be provided to the parents prior to or at the eligibility meeting.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Evaluation Report

Sophia is a fourth grade student that was referred for evaluation because of concerns for her performance in reading and math. Sophia was referred following provisions of interventions in both math and reading. The student was observed on October 22, 2010, during a small group guided reading instruction with the fourth grade teacher. Sophia was reading a 3rd grade level text. Her rate for self correcting for meaning was 1 of 10, indicating that she was not self correcting. Her decoding errors rate of 49% impacted her understanding of the passage as demonstrated by her inability to participate in the group discussion following the reading. She was observed to on task 98% of the time during this period, she responded immediately to teacher direction, she did not engage in fidgeting behavior, her book was appropriately placed for her vision, and she did not appear to experiencing eye strain. Assessment data results indicate the following: CSAP Reading and Writing March 2009 score at the 12% when compared to district peers CSAP Math March 2009 score at the 10% when compared to district peers NWEA Oct 10, 2010 score at the 21% in reading for understanding NWEA Oct 10, 2010 score at the 21% in applying thinking skills NWEA Oct 12, 2010 score at the 18% in number sense, data analysis, computation INSTRUCTION AND INTERVENTION: In the area of reading, Sophia receives instruction from a licensed teacher in the general education classroom using Houghton Mifflin research based core reading program for 90 minutes each day. In addition, during guided reading Sophia is grouped with four students who have similar struggles with decoding. The classroom teacher provides additional, systematic, explicit instruction and practice in decoding multi-‐syllabic words. Sophia has received this support 20 minutes per day, three times per week for the past 10 weeks. A problem solving team meeting was held on May 2, 2008, and an RtI Plan was developed. As a result of this plan, Sophia receives an additional targeted intervention in reading fluency for 25 minutes three days per week by a licensed reading specialist. She has received this support over a 20-‐week period dating back to last spring. Regression was noted over summer break.

In math, Sophia receives general instruction in an elementary classroom taught by a licensed elementary school teacher. Math instruction utilizes the Everyday Math curriculum, which uses several research-‐based strategies, including a concrete-‐representational-‐abstract instructional sequence, teaching within authentic contexts, and building meaningful student connections. In addition to classroom instruction, Sophia has received targeted instruction in number sense over an 18-‐week period dating back to last spring. A licensed teacher has provided this instruction. This instruction has been provided 30 minutes per day, three days per week, and has focused on progressively developing skills in counting; skip counting, combining and portioning number; and developing the concepts of place value. This instruction is supported in research through the use of structured language experiences, the use of mathematical games, monitoring and charting student progress, as well as research supporting the importance of developing number sense as a foundation to development in math. Instruction was interrupted by summer break and regression was noted due to this lapse in instruction. RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION: In reading, Sophia’s progress has been monitored biweekly using Oral Reading Fluency probes at the third grade level. She has shown an average increase of .5wrc per week, significantly below the ambitious goal of 1.1 wcpm per week for 4th grade students to close the gap with peers (based on national norms). She has improved decoding closed and open syllables (from 50% to 70% accurate), but still struggles with other syllable types and multi-‐syllabic words. In math, response to intervention has been monitored using MAP assessment and timed curriculum-‐based measurement every other week focusing on adding and subtracting numbers up to 30. During the 8 weeks of instruction in 4th grade her average growth rate has been .35 digits correct per week. While no norms are available for comparison for this measure, similar measures suggest an ambitious growth rate in 3rd grade would be .5 digits correct per week, and in 4th grade 1.15 digits correct per week. This growth rate does not suggest a rate necessary to bring Sophia to grade level standards in a reasonable amount of time. MAP scores from 3rd grade indicate a growth of 3 points from Fall 2007 to Spring 2008. Typical growth for students at her skill level result in an increase of 9 points. It must be noted that Sophia had received only two weeks of the targeted instruction at the time of spring testing. Family was provided a copy of the state’s policies regarding performance data and general education services with registration packet at the beginning of the school year.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Determination of Eligibility Checklists

Purpose: The record of Eligibility Determination meeting decisions Usage: Required for all Eligibility Determination Meetings

Overview • There is a determination checklist for each

disability recognized by Colorado. They are similar in format except the specific area related to the disability.

Exclusionary Factors • If the team determines that the evaluation is not

sufficiently comprehensive, you must complete additional evaluations and reconvene the eligibility team. The timelines for completion do not change.

• Determine if a student can receive reasonable benefit from general education programs and services alone. During the evaluation, considering grades, test scores, observation, interviews, and work samples will help to document this determination.

• Students whose academic challenges can be reasonably accounted for by a lack of instruction in Reading or Math or by a limited English Proficiency cannot be identified as having a disability.

• Lack of Appropriate Instruction must be determined by an analysis of the instructional program previously provided to the student. It must be determined whether the student received instruction that is research-based, and whether the student’s instruction was consistently delivered.

• Limited English Proficiency consideration require careful evaluation planning following appropriate models to determine if the learning difficulties are a result of the Limited English Proficiency.

• It must also be demonstrated that the student was in attendance and available for instruction (i.e. high rates of absence, returning from home school status).

Disability Criteria • Use caution when checking boxes regarding

disability criteria, as they vary by disability. Often more than one box must be checked.

• Due to the additional regulations, the Determination of Eligibility of SLD (through the Rtl model) is the only checklist that requires determination members to sign and indicate their agreement with the decision.

• Documentation should be attached.

The purpose of the report is to summarize the information that was used in determining a student’s eligibility for a Specific Learning Disability (SLD). This category of disability can only be determined by the RtI process per IDEA and ECEA rules. The results should support the specific area of SLD in which the student is being evaluated for a disability: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skill, reading fluency skills, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, mathematical problem solving. Data must include • Observation of the student in the environment in which the student is experiencing issues. Information from

the observation should be quantitative, not anecdotal.

• Standardized assessment results (CSAP, NWEA, etc) and an indication of where the student’s scores fall in relationship to same grade peers in that building/district.

• At least one of the measures should also reflect a comparison to the state/national benchmarks or norms.

• Evaluation results should list the interventions that the student received as part of the RTI process and the ongoing progress monitoring scores that tracked the student’s performance during the interventions. The progress monitoring data should be reported in relationship to the gap analysis and goal of the intervention.

• It is the responsibility of the multidisciplinary team to determine if the interventions provided to the students were evidence based and if the intervention was implemented with fidelity, i.e., it was consistently implemented as designed regarding who, when, where, and how often.

• Include a summary of any information from outside sources provided by the parents.

• Supporting documents should be scanned in to be attached to the evaluation report: CSAP; NWEA; progress monitoring graphs (Dibels, AIMSweb, behavior, and classroom).

• Provide a summary interpretation of the results in brief paragraph form.

• The evaluation report should not include any recommendations relative to eligibility or special education placement. This will be determined at the IEP meeting by the team after review of the information presented.

• AVOID just listing test scores; provide the teams interpretation of the scores. If there is a feeling that the test scores in total need to be part of the report, have them scanned into the IEP as an addendum.

Completion of report • Record the data that the evaluation was complete on the line provided on the report form. This date concludes

the evaluation process and must be within the 60-calendar day timeline from the date that consent for evaluation was received by the district.

• The evaluation report should be provided to the parents prior to or at the eligibility meeting.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Specific Learning Disability (SLD) Evaluation Report Guidelines

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Agreement to Extend Time Limit for Completion of Evaluation for a Specific Learning Disability ONLY

Purpose: For use in circumstances when the Multidisciplinary team needs additional time to complete evaluation of a student with a suspected Specific Learning Disability; used for Specific Learning Disability ONLY Usage: There should be very few instances in which a team makes this request. The request should be approved by the District Special Education Administrator prior to sending this to the parent.

Instructions/Directions • Notify District Special Education

Administrator of concern. • Fill out required elements in the form and

give to the parent to sign and indicate consent for refusal.

• If the parent refuses, the eligibility meeting must be held within the 60-day timeline.

• If the form is not returned, the eligibility meeting must be held within the 60-day timeline.

Examples of when this may be used: • The student is absent for a significant

amount of time during 60-day timeline. • The parent’ request for evaluation does not

allow for the full implementation of RtI interventions.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Prior Notice and Consent for Initial Provision of Special Education

Purpose: For initial consent for the general provision of special education and related services Usage: Required the first time a student is found to be eligible for special education and prior to the development of the IEP; also required upon transfer, if the original is not found

Overview • Permission to place a student in special

education is required the first time a student is found to be eligible.

• After consent has been received and services begun, in order to withdraw a student from special education, a parent needs to provide a Notice of Revocation of Consent.

Instructions • Describe the reason why special education is

being proposed, e.g., “The student was found to have a disability and is in need of specially designed instruction and related services."

• Describe the documentation, records, and other information used in making this decision, e.g., “This proposal is based on the Eligibility Meeting and Evaluation Reports dated 10/3/2008.”

• Briefly describe what general education services were considered and why they were rejected.

• Describe any other factors that were part of the decision to propose special education and related services.

IEP Development • An IEP need not be developed prior to obtaining

written consent for the provision of special education. If your team will be combining Eligibility Meetings and IEP Development meetings, then you might consider drafting some elements of the IEP prior to receiving signed consent.

• Once the district receives the signed Consent for Provision of Special Education from the parent, the IEP must be completely developed within 90 days of receiving Consent for Evaluation

Purpose: Goals (and objectives when appropriate) identify the progress-monitoring tool used to evaluate the effectiveness of the student’s special education program. They do not represent a scope and sequence or identify a curriculum. Rather, goals should identify ambitious annual measurable outcomes related to the needs of the student. Usage: Annual measurable goals are required for all students. Objectives are only required for students taking alternate assessments aligned to alternate achievement standards (District Alternate, or CSAP-A). .

4 Goals/Objectives Options

1. Create/Update Goal and Objectives – Allows both goals and objectives to be completed with two goals per page and no room for progress statements 2. Create/Update Goal and Objectives/Progress – Allows goals and objectives to be completed with one goal per page, allowing room for progress statements 3. Create/Update Goal Only/Progress – Allows goals (only) to be completed with one goal per page, allowing room for progress statements 4. Create/Update Goals Only – Allows goals (only) to be completed with two goals per page and no room for progress statements

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Goals / Objectives

Transition Considerations • Check the area(s) to which this goal pertains. • At least one annual goal must show direct,

specific, and genuine linkage to the PSGs. Best practice is that each and every annual goal directly, specifically, and genuinely links to the PSGs and is supported by a specific transition service.

Area of Need • Should be connected to broader headings of need

in Present Levels Section. Measurable Goal • From X to Y by when, e.g., “Jenny will increase

{verb} her reading {area} from 65 to 98 Words Read Correctly per minute on a 4th grade passage {when is assumed to be a year, unless otherwise specified}.”

• Must lend itself to progress monitoring. Unit of Measurement • If you write your goals/objectives as presented, the

Unit of Measurement is built into the goal. • In the example above, the unit is WRC per minute. • It defines the Baseline Data point (65 WRC).

Standard, Benchmark, Access Skill • List the broad category of Educational Standard,

Expanded Benchmark, Access Skill, or Key Component.

Baseline Data Point • A number representing exactly where the student

is currently functioning, not your educated guess. • If you do not have a baseline data point because a

goal was developed for which you have no current data, conduct a baseline assessment within the next few days.

Evaluation Method • Identify what method you will use to monitor

progress on the goal. Progress Report (Describe how…) • List how (in writing, at a meeting) will parents be

informed of progress and how frequently. Reporting Progress • Use the 4 reporting key categories. • Must include actual data point consistent with the

unit of measurement and baseline data point.

Student’s Name Verb Noun (Instruction Area)

From X (Baseline)

To Y (Target)

By When (This Year)

Reading

Math

Spelling

Behavior

Time on Task

Self-‐Help

Life Skill

Toileting

Goal Wizard Wizard

StudentName

Verb

Noun

Academic Area

From X Baseline

To Y

Target

By

When

Student will VERB then NOUN from X to Y by date.

John will increase his reading from 32 to 69 Word Read Correctly per minute in Grade 4 material by his next annual review date.

Purpose: To call attention to a variety of additional services and documentation requiring consideration by the IEP team Usage: Required for all IEP meetings

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Special Factors

A. Behavior Intervention Plan • Students whose behavior interferes with

learning require a BIP. • The need for a behavior plan is not limited to

just students identified with SIED. B. Blind or Visually Impaired • Teachers of the Visually Impaired are qualified

to mark Yes. Requires a plan.

C. Deaf or Hard of Hearing • Teachers of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing are

qualified to mark Yes. Requires a plan. D. Deaf-Blind • TVI and DHH are qualified to mark Yes.

Requires both plans. E. Health Care Plan • School Health Personnel maintain health care

plans on students. Work with your staff to determine the appropriate answers.

F. Limited English Proficiency • Using the appropriate school personnel—

bilingual or second language staff—address how a student’s English learning needs will be met.

G. Assistive Technology (AT) • Students needing assistive technology must

have their needs addressed. AT can range from low tech—picture schedules—to high tech devices. Make sure the team can commit district resources prior to the IEP meeting.

H. Special Transportation

• Special Transportation is required when general transportation offerings are not sufficient to deliver the student to the school to receive their educational program. Work with your administration on committing this resource.

Purpose: Accommodations and Modifications are central to supporting a student with disabilities. ESY is a special education service that is available for those students who have demonstrated issues regarding regression and recoupment. Usage: Accommodations should be considered for all students with IEPs. Modifications may occur for some students. ESY Determination is required for all students. If you are going to postpone the ESY determination, you may use the IEP Amendment Process, if the parents agree.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Accommodations and Modifications

General • Accommodations support accessing the curriculum

that is based on the same standards and expec-tations. They fall into broad categories of adapting instructional strategies: • Adaptation of materials • Adjusting the mode of presentation • Grouping • Format • Environmental adaptations

• Modifications necessitate changing curriculum and are extensive in that they significantly alter the scope or content.

• Be thoughtful when choosing accommodations / modifications, it is not intended to be a laundry list.

Extended School Year Determination • ESY services support students who experience

extraordinary difficulties with losing skills during school breaks and the time to regain those skills is significantly more than their peers.

• ESY services are intended to maintain current skill levels, not to teach new skills. • Documentation of regression is achieved

through conducting IEP Progress Reports before and after a break.

• Recoupment is determined by monitoring progress using the IEP Progress Reports each week after return from the break until the student has recouped the skill.

• Other factors are checked Yes when a student’s IEP team determines that the “predictive factors” are critical to the determination for ESY.

• ESY services are tied directly to the student’s specific goals/objectives that are linked to regression/recoupment issues.

• Documentation supporting the regression and recoupment is required.

Purpose: To document participation in State and District-wide assessment programs Usage: Required for all IEP meetings

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Assessments

District Assessments • Students must either take the District Assessments

(those offered across the district), or an alternative must be available.

Decision Considerations for Alternate • Does the student have an IEP? • Evidence of a Significant Cognitive Disability • Student is working on the Expanded Bechmarks /

Extended Evidence Outcomes (alternate standards). • The IEP team must meet to review annual assessment

data and determine the student’s eligibility for each content area.

State Assessments • Check how the student will participate in the

assessments. • Provide justification for Co-Alt and list any Co-Alt

Accommodations/Adaptations. • Check the standard accommodations the student will

require for TCAP administration. These must be marked on the test. NOTE: The accommodations list on the page in SEAS is not current. Please type in accommodations to be used in the Other Allowable Accommodations section. These should be in alignment with CDE Accommodations Manual.

• If the student is taking an alternate assessment, you must explain to the parents the difference between the assessments and the impact of the differences.

• The scribe accommodation can only be used by students who are physically unable to write and regularly use this accommodation more than 80% of the time.

• Check with the district DAC for specifics on allowed accommodations.

Purpose: To document a commitment of district resources toward addressing the needs of the student Usage: Required for all IEP meetings

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Service Delivery

Service Delivery Statement • Describe the nature and location of the services to be

provided to the student. • Clarify confusing items (such as services provided at

a frequency other than weekly). • Inform parents that services follow the school

calendar and may be missed for special events in the school community. Include the statement on all IEPs.

Services Table • Specialized Instruction Area – a brief description of

the area to be provided, e.g., Reading, Math, Writing, Academics, Safety, Access to the Curriculum, Articulation, Environmental Modification, Behavior Management, etc.

• Services Provider – list the provider’s title (not name).

• Dates – Generally these dates span a year. However there are times when services are expected to change during the year (such as changes between schools) and dates can be staggered.

• Frequency – Enter hours in decimal format for one frequency (day, week, month) only.

Every Service Delivery Statement should have following statement: “Services will be provided according to the school calendar with the exception of student absence, snow days, teacher work days, parent/teacher conferences, assemblies, and any other days identified as non-contract days on the school district calendar”.

Purpose: To provide a simple method of addressing the Prior Written Notice components within the IEP Usage: Required for all IEP meetings unless one chooses to use the separate Prior Written Notice form

Recommended Placement in LRE • Summarize your decision process as a team

for why the selected placement option is appropriate, including reasons for not choosing other options.

• You must discuss at least two options. List

options in plain language (Resource Room, Day Treatment). Check appropriate boxes.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Least Restrictive Environment and Prior Written Notice, page 1


Educational Environment (6-21) Choices • General education class 80 percent of the time or more – Report children

who receive special education and related services in the general education classroom for 80 percent or more of the time. (These are children who receive special education and related services out of general education classroom for less than 21 percent of the time).

• General education class no more then 79 percent of the time and no less than 40 percent of the time – Report children who receive special education and related services in the general education classroom for no more than 79 percent of the time and no less than 40 percent of the time.

• General education class less than 40 percent of the time – Report children who receive special education and related services in the general education classroom less than 40 percent of the time.

• Separate school – Report children who receive their educational programs in public and private separate day school facilities. This includes children with disabilities receiving special education and related services at public expense for greater than 50 percent of the time in public or private separate schools. This may include children placed in (a) public and private day schools for children with disabilities; (b) public and private day schools for children with disabilities for a portion of the school day (greater than 50 percent), and in general education school buildings for the remainder of the school day; or (c) public and private residential facilities, if the student does not live at the facility.

• Residential Facility – Report children who receive their educational programs in and live in public and private residential facilities during the school week. This includes children with disabilities receiving special education and related services, at public expense, for greater than 50 percent of the school day in public or private residential facilities. This may include children placed in: (a) public and private residential schools for students with disabilities or (b) public and private residential schools for children with disabilities for a portion of the school day (greater than 50 percent), and in separate day schools or general education school buildings for the remainder of the school day. Do not include students who receive education programs at the facility but do not live there.

• Homebound/Hospital – Report children who receive education programs in a homebound/hospital environment. This includes children with disabilities placed and receiving special education and related services in: (a) hospital programs or (b) homebound programs. Do not include children with disabilities whose parents have opted to provide home schooling and who receive special education at the public expense.

• Correctional Facilities – Report children who receive special education in correctional facilities. This data provides a census of all children receiving special education in: (a) short-term detention facilities (community based or residential) or (b) correctional facilities.

• 18-21 Program – The community is considered a general education environment.


Early Childhood (age 3-5) General Education Services

• Document time students ages 3-5 spend in an integrated education preschool program for per-pupil funding purposes: √ If appropriate, check “integrated education program”. • Record number of hours per week the student spends in the program.

Educational Environment Speak with the parent to determine if the child attends a childcare setting or other general early childhood

program in the community for any part of their week. General Early Childhood Programs (GECP)

include: o District preschool <= 50% nondisabled peers o Private preschool o Group child care o Head Start

Determine the percentage of time a child is spending in a general early childhood program: 1. If the child spends any part of an 8-hour day in a GECP, use one of the first three Educational Environment

categories for ages 3-5. 2. Determine if the child attends any other GECP during the day other than district provided. 3. Add the number of program or service hours the child receives from the district to the number of hours (if

any) the child is attending any other GECP (this number is the denominator). 4. Subtract any service hours or time the child received from the district, which are in segregated (pull-out)

settings (this number is the numerator). 5. Divide the total number of hours in #3 by the number of hours in #4.


Overview of Prior Written Notice • The intent of PWN is to afford parents the

opportunity to initiate Dispute Resolution procedures PRIOR to a school implementing or changing special education programming for a student.

Components of PWN • The body of the IEP contains the description of

what is being proposed, the information that the proposed IEP was based on.

• Documentation of the other options considered and why they were rejected. Other options might include: • Different placements on the continuum of

services • Different levels of services

• Any other factors influencing the decision. Special Considerations • If there is not consensus, or the parents are not

in agreement with the decisions made by the IEP team, it is strongly recommended to complete and send a full- page Prior Notice of Special Education Action.


CASE MANAGER Preparation for the IEP Meeting

Monitor to ensure that all pre-‐conference activities are successfully completed within required timelines.

Determine the date/time/location of the IEP meeting far in advance of the due date with parents and other necessary team members.

Carefully determine the needed participants for the IEP meeting, and try to limit the participants to those truly needed for the meeting.

Prepare written notice to the IEP team with separate notice to parents (and student as appropriate) a minimum of 10 days prior to the meeting.

Check with parents to see if they have information to include in the IEP. Inquire about the Medicaid status of the child with the parent or SIS system (if the district is doing

Medicaid billing). Ensure time allocated for IEP meeting is sufficient. Prepare an agenda for the meeting. Arrange accommodations for parents or staff as necessary (e.g., interpreter, translator, phone or

video conference). Provide a draft copy of the IEP to parents for their review prior to the meeting.

During the IEP Conference

Start the meeting with introductions of all IEP team members. Assure that all required participants are present. Have the parent complete IEP Team Member

Excusal Form if necessary. Assure that the student’s interests and plans for post high school are considered by the IEP Team. Conduct the meeting by following an agenda and process based on the purpose of the conference. Facilitate the completion of the IEP document. Distribute copies of the completed IEP to parents, teachers, and related service providers at the end of

the IEP meeting (may be in draft form). The IEP that is developed will go into effect following the meeting. Changes or additions can be made

through the amendment process.

Implementation of the IEP Distribute an IEP summary sheet or enter information into the SIS system, as appropriate, to inform

all teachers and support specialists who have a responsibility for the education of the student. Monitor to ensure that all services delineated in the IEP are delivered. If services cannot be

implemented within ten days, contact the special education director or designee. Coordinate all meetings related to IEP reviews and amendments when necessary.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – IEP Team Responsibilities

RELATED SERVICE PROVIDER /SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER

Preparation for the IEP Meeting

If this is a conference to determine eligibility, compile performance data (SAP, NWEA, DIBELS, AIMSWEB, etc. and attach documentation (i.e. chart, graph), relevant samples of student work, and other information appropriate to determine the student’s potential for learning, rate of learning, and need for specialized instruction and/or accommodations.

Review the current IEP data to determine extent of mastery of annual goals. Assess current achievement levels and progress toward achieving Colorado Standards and IEP goals. Observe and document the student’s learning in the classroom environment. Identify student’s talents, hobbies, and other interests through interviews and inventories. Consider student’s educational needs in relationship to the general education curriculum. Consider the appropriate assistive technology support needed to assist the student in working

independently. Consider special factors that may impede the student’s learning. Compile data on the student’s attendance and class participation. Compile data on levels of English language proficiency for students from a non-‐English language

background. Compile data on native language proficiency on students who are English Language Learners (ELLs)

who are receiving bilingual services. Confer with general educators, other special education providers, and parents as needed. Develop brief written summary reports or notes.

During the IEP Conference – If you are an invited participant

Share data regarding the student’s present level of educational performances in relationship to the general education curriculum, including progress toward IEP goals.

Describe student’s learning style, behavior, and attendance, as well as other relevant data regarding the student.

Assist in identifying supplementary aids and services the student may need to be successful in the general education classroom environment and elsewhere.

Assist in identifying the assistive technology that will support the student’s independence in the classroom.

Make recommendations regarding annual goals. Make recommendations for accommodations and modifications that will allow the student to be

educated in the least restrictive environment, avoiding a laundry list of options, develop a concise and relevant listing.

Review the allowable accommodations to be considered for the administration of any assessments (classroom, district-‐wide, and state).

Implementation of the IEP

Review the IEP and understand your responsibilities for implementation. Communicate with other service providers, including general education teachers, on a regular basis. Implement the IEP: provide instruction, services, and consultation in accordance with the IEP. Document service delivery as appropriate. Assess, review, and document on the student’s progress toward goals. Prepare progress reports with supporting data. Implement the appropriately identified assistive technology, accommodations and modifications for

the student.


Establish and maintain effective and positive communication with case manager and with parents as appropriate.

Inform case manager if the need for an IEP amendment or review is identified.

GENERAL EDUCATION TEACHER


If the purpose of the conference is to determine eligibility, compile records, samples of student work, and other information relevant to determining the student’s potential for learning, rate of learning, and need for specialized instruction and/or accommodations.

Review the current IEP. Observe and document the student’s learning in the general classroom. Identify special factors that need to be addressed to support the student’s learning. Help identify the assistive technology that will support independence for the student. Share data with the case manager on student progress toward achieving IEP goals, including student’s

participation in classroom activities. Suggest positive intervention strategies, supplementary aids and services, program accommodations

or modifications, and supports for school personnel that may be necessary for the student to benefit from specialized instruction.

Prepare a brief report of the student’s current performance in relationship to the general education curriculum and include information regarding behavior and attendance patterns.

During the IEP Conference

Share data regarding the student’s present level of educational performance in the general education curriculum and the general education classroom environment.

Provide data on the student’s behavior and relationships with peers in the general education classroom.

Make recommendations for annual goals that relate to the progress of the student in the general education curriculum.

Assist in the determination of positive behavior interventions and strategies for the student as appropriate.

Share data regarding the effect of accommodations provided for the student in the general education classroom during the previous school year.

Make recommendations for continuation of those accommodations. Implementation of the IEP

Review IEP for implications on classroom instruction. Provide accommodations and modifications in accordance with the IEP. Collaborate with the special education teacher, related service providers, and other teachers about

meeting the student’s needs and implementing the IEP. Establish and maintain effective and positive communication with the parents. Assess the student’s progress on a regular basis. Inform the case manager if the need for an IEP amendment or review is identified.


PARA-EDUCATOR


Keep anecdotal records or chart data as instructed by the teacher. Provide data feedback to the teacher about modifications/accommodations and other educational or

behavioral strategies used in the classroom. Observe student and share information about student behaviors in and outside of the classroom with

supervising teacher. Assist the teacher in gathering documentation such as assessment data, work samples, observation

data, and reports from general education teachers. During the IEP Conference

Participate in the IEP conference if instructed to do so by your supervising teacher. Implementation of the IEP

Support the student with disabilities with activities as assigned by the teacher. Support the student in the use of technology in the classroom as assigned by the teacher. Employ interventions, modifications and accommodations to meet the needs of student under the

direction of certified school personnel. Provide support and offer information and data to the teacher regarding the student’s response to

strategies that have been used in instruction or behavior management. Maintain and protect student’s right to confidentiality.


PARENT


Work with the case manger to determine the date and time for the IEP conference far in advance of the due date for the meeting.

Review the current IEP or if the purpose of the conference is to determine eligibility, review any evaluation or assessment data submitted in advance of the conference.

Review the most recent progress reports from teachers. Think about the skills you would like your child to master by the end of the year. Formulate a vision of the future with your child. Notify the case manager regarding any additional information (e.g., evaluation reports, previous IEPs

or other reports, procedural safeguards, etc.) that you would like considered. Decide whether other family members or experts will attend the conference and notify the case

manager in advance of the IEP meeting. During the IEP Conference

Ask the case manager to review or explain parent rights and due process procedures, if necessary. Share information about your vision for your child’s future, including interests and goals for post high

school. Share your expectations for the year. Identify your child’s strengths and interests, including the types of activities your child enjoys at

home and in the community. Share information about your child’s relationships outside of school. Discuss the types of behavior support strategies that are effective at home and in the community. Share relevant information about your child’s medical and personal care needs. Ask questions to clarify any reports or information regarding your child. Ask IEP Team members to clarify, explain, or give examples for any information presented that may

be unclear. Make recommendations regarding annual goals.


Review the IEP document to assure that all decisions made at the conference are documented. Establish and maintain positive communication with the case manager, teachers, and related service

providers. Monitor your child’s progress toward meeting goals. Assist your child with homework assignments and ask the teacher what can be done to help your

child with school work. Participate in parent training programs to enhance knowledge of relevant educational issues. Contact identified community agencies and resources for additional support, as necessary.


STUDENT


Think about school activities you enjoy and activities you like to pursue. Think about educational goals (e.g., college, career, job placement). Share any concerns or questions with parents or teachers. Identify the assistive technology options that are most beneficial in supporting you in doing your

schoolwork independently. Identify accommodations that are helpful and those that were not useful. Decide if you would like to share anything specific at the IEP conference.

During the IEP Conference If transition goals and services are being considered, students must be invited to attend IEP meetings. If the student is unable to attend, efforts must be made and documented to assure that the IEP Team considers the student’s interests and plans for post high school.

Share information about your vision for the future. Share your expectations for the year. Identify your strengths and interests, including the types of activities you enjoy at home and in the

community. Ask IEP Team members to clarify, explain, or give examples for any information presented that may

be unclear. Make recommendations regarding annual goals. Share information you have on interests and skills that you have via structured assessments or

interviews that impact potential post high school options. Identify the accommodations provided in class that are the most helpful and the least helpful. Discuss the assistive technology that you find effective for your use in classes and on assessments to

create further independence. Identify how you will self-‐advocate or what support you need in order to self-‐advocate.


Advocate for your needs with all staff in the school. Work with teachers, para-‐educators, related service providers, and your parents in order to improve

achievement and meet goals. Utilize the assistive technology that is effective for you. Utilize the accommodations/modifications are helpful and effective. Work with counselors and parents to understand the criteria for promotion and grading. Tell parents and teachers about problems encountered and request assistance as necessary. Indicate to parents and teachers which accommodations/modifications are helpful or ineffective.


PRINCIPAL Preparation for the IEP Meeting

Ensure the necessary arrangements for designated staff have been made to attend the IEP conference.

Share with case manager comments on student performance, behavior, and attendance. Ensure that all pre-‐conference activities are completed in accordance with required

timelines. During the IEP Conference

Help the team make decisions about resource allocation. Contribute information to the IEP conference discussion.


Monitor service delivery commitments, the implementation of IEPs, and the progress of students with disabilities in the general education curriculum.

Periodically review the schedule of support services staff assigned to the school. Utilize local school resources to provide appropriate services; contact the special education

director or designee if additional resources are needed. Provide professional development opportunities for general and special educators and

paraprofessionals as necessary. Ensure that all students with disabilities have current IEPs. Ensure that copies of IEP summary is distributed to general education teachers for students

with disabilities in their classes. Ensure that IEP progress reports are completed for each student. Ensure that parents have access to school personnel who can answer questions related to

their child’s IEP and progress toward meeting goals.


Purpose: To document changes to an IEP between annual reviews Usage: Only for minor changes and only in situations where the parent and district agree to the changes and it is not necessary to hold an IEP meeting

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – IEP Amendment

Overview • IEPs can be changed between annuals by either

reconvening the IEP team or using the IEP amendment form.

• This form should only be used to make relatively minor changes, such as changes to: • Goals/Objectives • Service Hours • Accommodations/Modifications • Related services like Special Transportation • Documenting ESY Determinations

• In general, do not use the IEP Amendment form to make significant changes in placement including the elimination of related services.

2. Justification • Discuss the changes with the parent prior to sending the

form home. • Describe the current IEP. • Document the proposed changes. • Include the rationale for the changes and upon what

information the change is proposed. • Identify other options that were considered and why they

are rejected. • Identify any other factors influencing the decision. • Complete the Case Manager information and sign as the

Special Education Director designee. • Obtain parent’s signature. • Notify the IEP team after receipt of the parent’s signature.

If the parent does not agree, a meeting must be held to review the proposed changes.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Consent to Invite Agencies

Purpose: To obtain consent to invite community agencies to a transition-aged student’s IEP meeting Usage: Annually obtain consent to invite agencies who are likely to provide or pay for services for this student either currently or as an adult.

Overview • Before inviting an outside agency to a

student’s IEP meeting, you must obtain written parental consent. This consent authorizes you to share confidential information about a student, specifically that the student has a disability.

• Parental consent for outside agencies must be obtained for every meeting; it is not valid for the full school year.

• Permission is not required for the following agencies: Department of Human Services (DHS), Division of Youth Corrections (DYC), or parole officers, if the student has current involvement with these agencies.

• Permission is not required for School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP) because they are part of the school district.

• If the student is not transition-age, use the Permission to Release Confidential Information when inviting an outside agency.

Instructions • Identify the relevant agencies. • Work with the parent to ensure that they

check the Yes/No box for each invited agency and sign/date the form.

• Once you have the signed form back, you may invite the agencies.

• Each agency must receive a Notice of Meeting addressed to them.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Prior Written Notice / Prior Notice of Special Education Action

Purpose: To provide Prior Written Notice (PWN) to parents of proposed changes to their child’s education plan. Parents can take this as an opportunity to initiate dispute resolution procedures prior to the initiation of a change or service when they do not agree with the proposal of the district. Usage: Whenever the district is proposing or refusing something and only under the direction of your district special education administrator

Overview of Prior Written Notice • Prior written notice is a legal concept that

has been part of special education since 1997.

• Prior Notice of Action should be in the

parents’ hands at least 10 days prior to implementing the proposed change, unless the parents have agreed to the change.

• If there is not consensus or the parents are

not in agreement with the decisions made by the IEP team, it is strongly recommended to complete and send a full page Prior Notice of Special Education Action.

• The intent of the PWN is to afford parents

the opportunity to initiate Dispute Resolution procedures PRIOR to a school implementing or changing special education programming for a student.

Components of PWN • A description of the action • A statement about why it is being proposed

or refused • A description of the information that was

used to arrive at the decision, which may include Cumulative File Review, grades, discipline reports, CSAP / TCAP and other assessment, IEP, Eligibility Determination, or ELL assessments

• Documentation of the other options considered and why they were rejected

• Any other factors influencing the decision • How to obtain information about their

procedural safeguard • Signature of school official who can be

contacted When to use this form? • Prior written notice is embedded in the

following forms and need not be completed separately: • IEP • IEP Amendment • Prior Notice and Consent for Evaluation • Prior Notice and Consent for Initial

Provision of Special Education and Related Services

• Only use this for other situations such as: • Changes of placements • When parents requests things in writing

that are being refused • Refusal of a proposal such as to refer,

evaluate, or for a specific service • Involve your District Special Education

Administrator

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Release of Confidential Information

Purpose: To request information from outside entities and to obtain consent from a parent, legal guardian, or student/child to authorize the named agency to send/disclose protected health information and/or educational information and/or receive/use protected health information and/or educational information Usage: As required (Information obtained through a release of information is bound by that specific release and may not be released as part of the student’s educational record.)

Directions • Enter the month, day, and year that this

authorization will expire. • The date must not go beyond one year past the

date of the signature. • Check all appropriate boxes that apply

indicating which provider is authorized to send and which provider is authorized to receive protected health and/or educational information.

• Enter the name and address of the provider who

will send or receive requested protected health and/or educational information.

• Enter the name and address of the school district

sending or receiving the requested protected health and/or educational information.

• Obtain parent, legal guardian, or student

signature for the authorization to be valid. The date of the signature must be entered.

• Have a copy of this form scanned into the

student’s official file in Leadville. • Understand that the authorization is only valid

for the purposes checked or stated in the form. • It is recommended practice that the school

district/program automatically give the parent, guardian, or student/child a copy of the form after it has been signed, whether or not it was requested, so the individual will have a record of the authorization.

Purpose: To be used when parents no longer wish their child to receive special education and related services, even though the child still qualifies for services. Usage: Serves as Prior Written Notice to the school district

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Revocation of Consent

Instructions/Directions • Provide Notice of Revocation of Consent form to

parents wishing to end special education services. • If mailing, send by registered mail and enclose a

pre-addressed return envelop. • Write in the date received by the district at the

bottom of the form. • Once the Notice of Revocation of Consent is

received from the parents, fill out the other 2 pages in the packet, Prior Written Notice of Revocation of Consent, and give it to the parents.

• Discontinue special education and related services on the date that the Notice of Revocation of Consent is received by district.

• If the parents do not send in the Notice of Revocation of Consent, special education related services must continue to be provided.

Prior Written Notice of Revocation of Consent

Purpose: To document the use of positive behavior supports and other function-based strategies that address the needs of a child whose behavior impedes the child’s learning or the learning of other students. This is true for any student identified with any disability, not just SIED. Usage: Used for only those students where it is checked as a special factor and used to develop a plan and give guidance to discussion and decision-making needs to be shared with any people and kids at anytime. A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) must be created after a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) conducted by the IEP team with support from the school psychologist and school counselor.

Sources of Information

Document all sources of information that were used in developing the behavior plan (e.g. interview, observations, checklists, academic assessments, record reviews). Information will be obtained from multiple sources.

Strength-Based Profile What do we have to build on? Document the student’s strengths and interests. Include factors such as academic strengths, current community supports, hobbies, talents, and special interests.

(FBA) Summary Statement This hypothesis is developed after the completion of the FBA. It is based on current data, observations, interviews, and background information. The statement includes the setting where the behavior occurs, antecedents to the problem behavior, a description of the problem behavior (what it looks like), and the consequences that support the behavior.

BIP Strategies/Outcomes Worksheet • Setting Event Strategies: These strategies are

designed to prevent the child’s problem behavior from occurring, make the behavior irrelevant, or reduce the likelihood that the problem behavior will occur (e.g. getting student to school on time, non-verbal prompts for appropriate behavior, environmental arrangements: lighting, movement around space).

• Antecedent Strategies: These preventative strategies address the events that seem to trigger the problem behavior. An antecedent is an immediate predictor of the problem behavior (e.g. set routine, problem-solving contracts, plans for self-advocacy).

• Behavior Teaching Strategies (Alternate Behaviors): These strategies designed to make the problem behavior less efficient in gaining the reinforcing consequences described in the FBA Summary Statement (e.g. teaching the child an alternative behavior, direct instruction of adaptive social skills).

• Reinforcement Strategies (Consequences): These strategies make the problem behavior less effective. Strategies for supporting the desired behavior should be based on the student’s need (avoid or obtain). Strategies for extinguishing the problem behavior should not compete with the function-based support for the desired behavior.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), page 1

Purpose: To document the use of positive behavior supports and other function-based strategies that address the needs of a child whose behavior impedes the child’s learning or the learning of other students. Usage: For use only those students where it is checked as a special factor. A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) must be created after a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is developed.

Crisis Intervention Plan: If the student displays unsafe behaviors, a crisis intervention plan that focuses on prevention, positive supports, and de-escalation techniques should be developed. It is used to protect the student or others from serious injury, safeguard physical property, and to deal with acute disturbance of the learning environment. The team should determines specifically when the plan will be used, include frequent moments to evaluate if the steps in the plan are producing positive changes in behavior, and include a schedule for phasing out the plan. It should detail chronologically who and when individuals (e.g. parents, classroom teachers, principal) will be part of the crisis plan. Parental input and notification is needed for the crisis plan. The crisis plan must also be in compliance with district and state policies and should support the school or district safety plan. If the potential exists for the use of physical restraint or the involvement of law enforcement, that should be clearly stated here.

Evaluation: Describe the ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the plan including how the progress will be monitored, the criteria for success, the person responsible for monitoring progress, and a follow-up meeting date.

Contextual Fit: Describe how the plan is designed specifically for the environment in which it will be implemented including the skills, resources, budget, and impact of time constraints that may affect the ability to implement the plan with fidelity.

Communication Plan: Identify who needs to be notified and who needs copies of the plan. Indicate how contact will be made, who will be responsible for making contact, and the date and frequency of contact. Identify who will communicate revisions and updates.

Team Members: Record the names of members of the planning team.

Parent Provided a Copy of Plan: • A parent should always receive a copy of the most

recent BIP. Check this box when the parent receives a copy of the plan.

• It is best practice to keep parents involved in development and modification of BIP.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), page 2

Crisis Plan Considerations

• Only use to

o Protect the student or others from serious injury o Safeguard physical property o Deal with acute disturbance of the learning environment

• If all options are found to be ineffective, and the student’s behavior severely limits his or her learning or socialization or that of others, then a more aversive intervention might be necessary to reduce the behavior. It is important to consider all positive interventions before considering punishment as an option.

• Punishment does not address the function of the behavior.

• This component would still implement proactive and positive interventions to continue to teach the

student alternative skills, even in the midst if a crisis or emergency.

General Steps

• Define what is a crisis.

• Describe the intervention procedures to be put into place including who will be involved.

• Identify the resources needed to implement the plan and agree on the procedures for documenting the

use of the crisis plan. • Be sure the crisis plan is in compliance with district policies and mandates regarding procedures that

reduce behavior.

Suggested Crisis Plan Statement on the Use of Physical Restraint

Restraint may only be used in those situations when staff members have determined that a student is a danger to himself/herself or others. School staff members only use physical restraint as a last resort and only when all efforts to implement schools’ preventative/de-escalation techniques and positive behavioral interventions have failed to curtail the student’s dangerous behavior. The school utilizes Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) and non-violent crisis intervention techniques. School personnel are trained in Crisis Prevention Institute techniques in accordance with CRI standards, and these techniques are reviewed with staff members annually. The CPI training includes de-escalation and physical restraint techniques. Physical restraint shall last only as long as necessary to calm the student and to ensure that the student can demonstrate control and agree not to be a threat to self or others. Staff members shall not restrain students in areas of the building that may pose a threat to the health and safety of the student. All staff members involved in the restraint are responsible for monitoring the physical well being of the student during and after restraint, including but not limited to breathing, pulse, color, and signs of choking or respiratory distress. If there are enough staff members available, one person who does not have to be involved in the actual physical restraint of the student will be assigned responsibility for this duty. School staff members have also been trained in Medic (Pediatric) First Aid in case a staff member or student is injured during a restraint. Staff members are required to report injury, bruising, or death that occurs as a result of a restraint to the District Administration or local law enforcement, pursuant to Colorado State Law. Staff members will always process the incident with the student involved as soon as possible after the restraint has ended in an attempt to avoid a reoccurrence of similar problems in the future. In addition, all staff members involved will review the appropriateness and effectiveness of the restraint as soon as possible after control and stability have been insured. Administrative review will occur within 48 hours of the occurrence. This internal review will carefully assess any injuries or bruising that occurred. Law enforcement will be requested when staff members perceive that safety is seriously compromised and/or that the student requires greater intervention than school staff can provide. When physical restraint is used, parent/guardians will receive verbal notification on the day of the occurrence. Written documentation of the incident will be completed within 36 hours of the occurrence and will be forwarded to the parent/guardian. All incidents of physical restraint are documented on a District Occurrence Report form (included on next page). Although few students require physical restraint, permission to restrain must be secured for all students where there is an anticipated potential for restraint to be used.

Suggested Parent Notification Crisis Plan Statement on the Use of Physical Restraint

Restraint may only be used in those situations in which staff members have determined that a student is a danger to himself/herself or others. School staff members only use physical restraint as a last resort and only when all efforts to implement the school’s preventative/de-escalation techniques and positive behavioral interventions have failed to curtail the student’s dangerous behavior. The school utilizes Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) and non-violent crisis intervention techniques. School personnel are trained in Crisis Prevention Institute techniques in accordance with CRI standards, and these techniques are reviewed with staff members annually. The CPI training includes de-escalation and physical restraint techniques. Physical restraint shall last only as long as necessary to calm the student and to ensure that the student can demonstrate control and agree not to be a threat to self or others. Staff members shall not restrain students in areas of the building that may pose a threat to the health and safety of the student. All staff members involved in the restraint are responsible for monitoring the physical well being of the student during and after restraint, including but not limited to breathing, pulse, color, and signs of choking or respiratory distress. If there are enough staff members available, one person who does not have to be involved in the actual physical restraint of the student, will be assigned responsibility for this duty. School staff members have also been trained in Medic (Pediatric) First Aid in case a staff member or student is injured during a restraint. Staff members are required to report injury, bruising, or death that occurs as a result of a restraint to the District Administration or local law enforcement, pursuant to Colorado State Law. Staff members will always process the incident with the student involved as soon as possible after the restraint has ended in an attempt to avoid a reoccurrence of similar problems in the future. In addition, all staff members involved will review the appropriateness and effectiveness of the restraint as soon as possible after control and stability have been insured. Administrative review will occur within 48 hours of the occurrence. This internal review will carefully assess any injuries or bruising that occurred. Law enforcement will be requested when staff members perceive that safety is seriously compromised and/or that the student requires greater intervention than school staff can provide. When physical restraint is used, parent/guardians will receive verbal notification on the day of the occurrence. Written documentation of the incident will be completed within 36 hours of the occurrence and will be forwarded to the parent/guardian. All incidents of physical restraint are documented on a District Occurrence Report form (included on the next page). Although few students require physical restraint, permission to restrain must be secured for all students where there is an anticipated potential for restraint to be used. _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Parent Name (printed) Staff Name (printed _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Parent Signature Notification Date Staff Signature Date

Suggested Physical Restraint Required Documentation Form

Date: ________________________ Time: ________________________ Student(s) involved: __________________________________________________________________________________________ Staff Member(s) involved and job title(s): _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ 1. Description of the precipitating incident leading to the physical restraint (Please include all positive,

constructive, non-physical methods used in an attempt to control the student’s behavior and de-escalate the crisis.)

__________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Reason for the restraint: Danger to self _____ Dangers to others _____

Further explanation (if not sufficiently explained above):

__________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. Description of child’s physical, emotional, behavioral condition prior to restraint: __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Details of the restraint:

Time began: __________ Time ended: __________ Total time student was restrained: __________ If restrained longer than 15 minutes, please explain why:

__________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Detailed account of the restraint (Include the specific techniques used by staff to gain physical control of the

student and a description of the student’s physical, emotional, and behavioral condition during the restraint.) __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Description of the student’s physical, emotional, and behavioral condition following the restraint: __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Injuries received by student(s) or staff member(s) or damage to property (Include actions taken to assess or

treat.) __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Description of restraint debriefing: _______________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 9. Notifications:

a. Date and time student’s parent or guardian was notified (No later than the end of the school day that the restraint occurred):_______________________________________________________

b. Staff member who provided notification: ___________________________________________ c. Date and time written report was given to (or mailed) to parent or guardian (No later than 36 hours

after restraint occurred): ___________________________________________________ d. Report to Police Department necessary? Yes _____ No _____

If yes, please explain: ___________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________

e. Reported to District Administration by: _________________________ Date:______________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Staff member completing form (please print) Building Principal (please print) _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Staff member completing form signature Date Building Principal signature Date

Mountain BOCES Functional Behavior Assessment

Adopted December 2008

Student __________________________________ DOB ______________________ Grade _________ School __________________________________ Teacher(s) ________________________________ Parent(s)/Guardian _________________________ Phone(s) __________________________________ Planning Meeting Date _____________________ Follow-up Meeting Date _____________________ Team Members Please star the case manager. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Strengths and Abilities of the Student Include academic skill levels, special interests, talents, etc. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Significant History Include significant information about the student (e.g., educational disabilities, medical diagnosis, previous history of trauma, etc.). You may attach additional pages. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Behavior(s) of Concern Give specific examples of behavior(s). Star the behavior of greatest concern. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Family’s Perspective How does the family view this behavior? Are there language or cultural differences which impact this behavior? Does this behavior occur in other settings? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ History of the Behavior(s) of Concern When did the problem(s) first appear? _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What accommodations and/or interventions have been tried? Results

Functional Behavior Assessment

Student __________________________________ Date _________________ Data Collection Describe the frequency, duration, or latency of the behavior of greatest concern. (Mark N/A if not applicable.) Frequency: _______________________________________________________________________ Duration: _______________________________________________________________________ Latency: _______________________________________________________________________ Is the behavior of greatest concern harmful to self, others, or property? ___ Yes / ___ No If yes, please explain. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Baseline data collected from _______________ to _______________. Date Date Triggers (Antecedents and Setting Events)

Indicate the conditions that predicted the occurrence / nonoccurrence of the behavior of greatest concern. Behavior is most likely to occur… Behavior is least likely to occur…

When?

Where?

With whom?

Under what circumstances?

Behavioral Outcome

What does the student seem to achieve by using this behavior? Select one predominant outcome for the behavior of greatest concern.

Attention Power / Control Approval of Others / Acceptance / Affiliation Justice / Revenge Gain Access to Objects or Activities Escape / Avoidance of a Task or Event Self-Gratification / Sensory Stimulation Escape / Avoidance of Attention Protection Other: _________________________

Effective Re-enforcers What things seem to be perceived as positive by the student (settings, events, activities, objects, gestures, privileges, words and phrases, edibles, particular people, etc.)?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Suggested Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) Communication Form

This form is suggested as an option to use in communicating a BIP to district staff who have a potential role in supporting a student. It is meant to minimize the information that needs to be communicated in order to make the plan effective. Student’s Name:__________________________________________________ Effective date of the plan:___________ Behavior being address: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Staff responsibility: Environmental set up (seating, lighting, etc.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Set up strategies (reminder of expectations on entering room, preset hand signal for needs, etc.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Behavior teaching (social skills class, structured classroom opportunities to succeed and or practice skill with adult guidance/ oversight, etc.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reinforcement (rewards, ignored, etc.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CRISIS PLAN SUMMARY (key elements of plan, cool down procedure, isolation procedure, contacts, assistance request, restraint, law enforcement, etc.) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Case manager/ Contact for plan: _________________________________________________ Phone___________________ E-‐mail________________________________________________________________

Purpose: To identify the student’s primary literacy mode Usage: To document the selection of the student’s primary literacy mode and a possible secondary literacy mode.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Learning Media Plan for a Student Who is Identified as Visually Impaired or Deaf-Blind

1. Current/Recommended Literacy Modes State both the current literacy modes as well as the recommended modes. Learning and literacy modes defined by Colorado School Laws with CDE guidance: • Auditory Mode: any method or system of

achieving literacy that depends upon the auditory senses, including the use of readers, taped materials, electronic speech, speech synthesis, or any combination of above.

• Braille: tactile mode including any method or system of achieving literacy that depends on the sense of touch such as, but not limited to, real objects, tangible symbols, tactile letters, tactile cueing, tactual sign language and Braille.

• Print enlargement/Visual mode with optical enhancement: any method or system of achieving literacy that includes optical aids to enhance comprehension of printed material electronic enlargement of printed materials, books and textual material printed in large print, and any combination of the above.

• Regular print: any method or system of achieving literacy that depends upon the comprehension of regular-‐sized printed material. This visual mode includes any method or system, which depends upon the sense of vision aids such as real objects, pictures, visual communication symbols, sign language, and print.

2. Justification Explain why specific modes were chosen based on both child’s eye condition as well as input from parents, child, and service provider.

3. Implementation Explain how these chosen modes will be implemented throughout the school day.

4. Integration Explain how the student’s instruction in selected lit-‐eracy mode will be integrated in educational activities.

5. Competency Levels Describe the expected competency level for each selected communication mode that is expected by the end of the IEP period.

6. Plan Specify the date for each instruction to begin as well as the amount of time that should be spent on each as well as the responsible service provider.

Purpose: To identify the student’s primary communication mode and supports Usage: To document the discussion of the five communication factors in The Communication Plan Form

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Communication Plan for a Student Who is Identified as Deaf/Hard of Hearing or Deaf-Blind, page 1

1. Language and Communication

A. Mark student languages. Provide a

description of the use of the languages. B. Mark all of the student’s communication

modes and describe when each mode is used.

C. Describe supports needed of school. • The communication plan allows the IEP team

to get input from the parents about home communication information. It also allows the parent to be involved in strengthening communication at home and school and improves their level of confidence.

• Action plans in each category should be filled

out completely to provide accurate information to all persons involved as to the details of the communication plan.

Purpose: To identify the student’s primary communication mode and supports Usage: To document the discussion of the five communication factors in The Communication Plan Form

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Communication Plan for a Student Who is Identified as Deaf/Hard of Hearing or Deaf-Blind, page 2

2. Adult Role Models and Peer Groups Explain the need for adult role models and peer groups for the student. Offer suggestions regarding support organizations; provide further guidance on learning strategies for staff to implement, and provide a written guide for peer interactions.

3. Educational Options All available educational options in the administrative units should be discussed. Statewide options can also be discussed before official placement is made. The IEP team may contact CDE for information for parents about other options. Document the options discussed in this area.

4. Specialist Accommodations

All specialists should be proficient in and be able to accommodate for the student’s primary communication mode or language.

5. Access to Activities

Provide solutions for outside of classroom communication: announcements, hallway socialization, extracurricular activities information, fire drills/alarms, etc. These solutions may include amplification options, assistive devices, or possible changes in staff procedures.

Purpose: A meeting held within 10 school days of any decision to make a disciplinary change in placement for a student. A disciplinary change in placement occurs when a student is removed from his or her current placement for 10 consecutive days due to a violation of a school code of conduct or is subjected to a series of removals. Usage: The parent and relevant members of the child’s IEP team determine if the conduct in question was caused by or had a direct or substantial relationship to the child’s disability or if the conduct in question was the direct result of the failure to implement the student’s IEP.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Manifestation Determination, page 1

Instructions

Removals that constitute a pattern: • They total more than 10 school days in a school year. • The child’s behavior is substantially similar to the

child’s behavior in previous incidents that resulted in the series of removals, and

• Additional factors such as length of each removal, the total amount of time the child has been removed, and the proximity of the removals to one another.

• District Special Education Administration must be

notified prior to the Manifestation Determination meeting.

• Prior to the meeting, gather student records including attendance, grades, discipline records, Special Education records, and school behavior contract. Also include FBA and BIP if they exist. Attach and file with the manifestation form.

• These records are to be reviewed during the meeting and summary captured on page 2 of manifestation forms. Any informal relevant information from staff, parents, and the student should also be captured in the summary.

• Once all the information is reviewed, the team answers the questions in the Finding of Manifestation section.

• If the misconduct was not a manifestation, an IEP change of placement must be written to document how comparable services will be provided while the student is removed from school.

• All team members sign the form once a decision has been reached. If there is a dissenting opinion, that is written on a separate sheet of paper and attached to the Manifestation Determination.

• Submit the Manifestation Determination forms and all

supporting documents to the Leadville office.

Purpose: A meeting held within 10 school days of any decision to make a disciplinary change in placement for a student. A disciplinary change in placement occurs when a student is removed from his or her current placement for 10 consecutive days due to a violation of a school code of conduct or is subjected to a series of removals. Usage: The parent and relevant members of the child’s IEP team determine if the conduct in question was caused by or had a direct or substantial relationship to the child’s disability or if the conduct in question was the direct result of the failure to implement the student’s IEP.

Instructions

There are 3 entities who decide whether the behavior in question is a manifestation: parent, school, and administrative unit (special education director or designee). Going into the meeting, it is assumed that a behavior is not a manifestation of the student’s disability. There should be evidence directly linking the behavior to the disability, and/or there should be a clear pattern of the same behavior.

Participants as follows: • Required: General education teacher (if

student is receiving services in general education classroom), special education teacher/provider, special education director or designee.

• Crucial, but not mandatory: Parents,

student (if 15 or older), school psychologist, building administrator, school counselor.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Manifestation Determination, page 2

Purpose: To define service delivery for students transferring from a district within Colorado Usage: Upon receipt of enrollment of a student with a disability from another district in Colorado. Mountain BOCES recommends that transfer paperwork be completed upon receipt of IEP from previous school but no longer than 30 days after enrollment.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Transfer Student from within Colorado

Instructions • Make sure IEP records have been requested from

the previous school. Exchanging educational records between districts does not require a signed permission of the parent.

• Check with the Special Education secretary to see

if the student’s IEP is in SEAS. • If an IEP is adopted, include dates and attach this

form to the adopted IEP.

• If IEP is not accepted, then develop an interim service delivery description and complete the table. • Document notification of the IEP team. • Obtain parent permission to implement

Services. • Make certain the parent checks the appropriate

boxes.

• Submit the entire file received and the transfer page to the Leadville office.

• Services must begin within a reasonable time in

order to continue a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Depending on the nature of the services, they could begin that school day. If adequate staff is not available to begin services within a reasonable time, bring the IEP team together and produce an interim plan for meeting the student’s needs.

• Additional demographic information will be

required to count the student for funding. • If a signed initial consent cannot be located, a

prior notice of consent for initial provision of special education and related services must be completed and signed by parent.

Purpose: To define service delivery for students transferring from a district outside of Colorado Usage: Upon receipt of enrollment of a student with a disability from district outside of Colorado. Mountain BOCES recommends that transfer paperwork be completed upon receipt of IEP from previous school but no longer than 30 days after enrollment.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Transfer Student from Another State

Instructions • Transfers from another state require a higher

standard of review. • Make sure IEP records have been requested from

the previous school. Exchanging educational records between districts does not require a signed permission of the parent.

• Indicate whether the evaluation, eligibility

determination, and IEP meet Colorado’s educational standards.

• If you do not accept the eligibility, then you must

conduct an Initial Evaluation. Complete the Service Delivery Statement and table to be used on an interim basis until the Eligibility meeting is held and IEP developed (if appropriate).

• If you do not accept the goals, objectives, etc., you

must schedule IEP meeting to change.

• Make certain the parent checks the appropriate boxes. Obtain parent permission to implement services.

• Submit the entire file received and the transfer page

to the Leadville office.

• Services must begin within reasonable time in order to continue a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Depending on the nature of the services they could begin that school day. If adequate staff is not available to begin services within a reasonable time, bring the IEP team together and produce an interim plan for meeting the student’s needs.

• Additional demographic information will be

required to count the student for funding. • If a signed initial consent cannot be located, a prior

notice of consent for initial provision of special education and related services must be completed and signed by parent.

Page 1

Overview • If the child has a healthcare plan, the Case

Manager must obtain a copy of the plan, and it MUST be attached to the completed form.

• The Case Manager needs to ensure that the parent

signatures are completed throughout the form.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – ESY Registration

Purpose: To obtain parental commitment for ESY attendance and all necessary and pertinent information required for ESY enrollment Usage: After a student has qualified for ESY and prior to attendance in the ESY program. Parents and staff complete this form for students who have qualified for ESY.

Overview • Parent and case manager fill out the forms

together. If the parent checks “no” for ESY attendance, no further information is required.

• If the parent checks “yes” for ESY attendance,

the entire form must be filled out completely. No part of this form is considered “optional.”

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Private School Service Plan (PSSP), page 1

Purpose: This form is used when a student is determined eligible for Special Education and is enrolled in a private school by the parents. Usage: To arrange services for the student within the private school

Overview • If parents refuse permission for Special Education

placement in the public schools, they may opt to have a Private School Service Plan if they have enrolled their child in a private nonprofit school that meets the CDE definition for a school. At the point in the eligibility process when the parents refuse consent for services through an IEP, the staff should explain the option of the PSSP and notify the District Special Education Administrator and give the parent the district Special Education contact information. The District Special Education Administrator will contact the family and schedule a time to create the PSSP.

• The district determines how best to provide the

services. If using a related service provider, the provider must be CDE licensed. All of the following may participate in the development of the plan: District Special Education Administrator, the parent, private school representative, private provider, and public school representative.

Instructions/Directions • Using the eligibility meeting information, fill out the required

elements in the form and the disability information. • Fill in the private school and public school attendance area

information. • The parents initial and date that they understand their child’s

disability determination and that they elect to enroll their child in a private school.

• Determine the goals/objectives using the student’s needs and evaluation data.

• Determine the Accommodations and Modifications based on the student’s needs.

• List the type of service and name of the service provider, frequency, allotted funding, and location of the services.

• All participants sign. • A copy of the plan is distributed to all participants, and the

original is sent to Leadville to be scanned into SEAS with a copy of the eligibility determination.

CHARTER SCHOOL IEP ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Children with disabilities who attend public charter schools and their parents retain all of the rights and protections of the IDEA. An administrative unit must serve children with disabilities attending charter schools in the same manner as the administrative unit serves children with disabilities in its other schools, including providing supplementary and related services on site at the charter school to the same extent to which the administrative unit provides such services on the site to its other public schools. In Colorado, how an administrative unit provides special education services is based on the service delivery/funding model that is negotiated between the charter school and its authorizer. There are several service delivery models: • Insurance Model Under the insurance model, the charter school pays an “insurance” premium to the administrative unit to provide all special education and related services for children with disabilities attending the charter school.

• Contracted Model Under the contracted model, the administrative unit passes through to the charter school its share of special education funding and the charter school hires or contracts with third party special education service providers to provide special education and related services for children with disabilities attending the school.

• Combination/Modified Insurance Model Under the combination/modified insurance model, the charter school and its authorizer negotiate responsibility and funding for special education and related services. The charter school may hire some of its staff and negotiate with its authorizer for the administrative unit to provide some services.

Responsibility for the referral, evaluation, and IEP process are determined by the service delivery model negotiated by the charter school and its authorizer. However, the same referral, evaluation, and IEP requirements apply to children with disabilities attending charter schools. Additionally, an IEP for a charter school student must contain a statement that specifies whether the child shall achieve the content standards adopted by the school district in which the child is enrolled or the charter school institute; or whether the child shall achieve individualized standards, which would indicate that the child has met the requirements of his/her IEP.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Charter School IEP Roles and Responsibilities

TRANSITION REQUIREMENTS

Age appropriate transition assessment process used to develop the post school goals

Assessment data serve as the common thread in the transition process and form the basis for defining goals and services to be included in the Individualized Education Program (IEP). When a student is 15, but no later than the 9th grade, an age-appropriate transition focused assessment process must be used to identify post-school goals. This ongoing process includes both formal and informal methods of gathering data related to the student’s given interests, preferences, aptitudes, and abilities as they relate to and align with the skills needed for the student’s given area of interest. Also, the demands of current and future employment, educational, living, and both personal and social environments are considered. The assessment process evaluates all data to formulate decisions regarding the development of the transition/post-school plan; it is not the administration of a single assessment instrument. Types of transition assessments include behavioral assessment information, aptitude tests, interest and work values inventories, intelligence and achievement tests, personality or preference tests, career maturity or readiness tests, self-determination assessments, work-related temperament scales, and transition planning inventories. Transition-focused assessment is not required for eligibility and may not require parental permission to administer. Any assessment process should be identified in this section of the IEP. Measurable Post-School Goals are written for students who are age 15 (but no later than the 9th grade). These goals identify dreams and plans for the future including work, academics, and adult living. It is critical that the student participates in the development of his or her measurable post-school goals. Measurable post-school goals must indicate what the student “will do” after graduation or exiting school district services through attainment of the maximum age of service provision (age 21). Measurable post-school goal statements should be written as complete sentences with an established timeline and observable (countable) outcome. Measurable post-school goals are required for two domains: postsecondary education and/or training and employment. A post-school goal for the domain reflecting independent living skills is required “when appropriate” based on the individual needs of the student as identified through the analysis of the age-appropriate transition focused assessment. Post-school goals are generally understood to refer to those goals that a child will achieve after leaving secondary school (i.e. high school), and are not the annual goals used to pursue annual academic, behavioral, and adult living skills. Rather, they guide the annual goals toward desired post-school aspirations. Measurable post-school goals are the cornerstone of effective transition planning and are written before the annual goals are developed so as to guide the planning process. Without a clear direction for post-school living, working, and learning, a comprehensive plan reflecting a coordinated set of activities designed within a results-oriented plan cannot occur. As teams design post-school goals, adherence to the following must be complete: • The Post-School Goals reflect an outcome NOT a process • Must be measurable (observable and defined) • Should reflect a real intent or plan (not simply stating the hopes and desires of a student but an intentional plan

to achieve the goal) • Must reflect the student’s interests and preferences • Must utilize assessment for development

Sensitivity to the student and his/her family’s cultural, racial, and ethnic value systems must be considered in the development of the Post-School Goals. The family structure, personal resources, and familiar cultural norms are potential elements of scrutiny and consideration when developing the Post-School Goals and will guide the rest of the IEP. Examples and Non-Examples of Post-School Goals can be found in the Exemplars section of this manual.

COMPLETING SECTION 8 To accurately complete the Section 8 of the IEP, the guidelines in the transition requirements section are essential and required. For each portion of Section 8, the components of transition planning and services have been listed separately in order to provide specific courses, services, and agency connections. Each of these components must be completed entirely so it can be used and implemented by school, family, and agency professionals. An appropriate description of the agency connection necessary including contact information, and steps for students/parents and the school to ensure the student is connected to the appropriate agency. Note that, although course of study and transition services are required, agency connections need only be identified if the agency is likely to pay for or provide services within the next 12-month period of the IEP. If agency connections are not required, a short explanation indicating why is suggested. Planned Course of Study A course of study can include course titles and description of how the courses will lead to the acquisition of Post-School Goals. The course of study should: • Promote skill acquisition and movement toward the Post-School Goals • Indicate multi-year high school plan (current status to anticipated exit date) • Reflect the student’s preference interests • Be related to student’s needs • Must be more specific than just completing graduation requirements • Should pass the stranger test (e.g., would someone unfamiliar with the student completely understand the

courses necessary to facilitate a meaningful and effective transition-focused class schedule?) • Should be clearly transferable (e.g., can another school build a schedule based on the information in the course

of study?) • Reflects skills (rather than course titles) to be obtained through courses (e.g., skills to develop a résumé may

be found in English III) • Provides a clear description of course needs resulting in the attainment of a diploma (or other completion

document and the Post-School Goals Transition Services and Activities Instruction is one component of a transition program that the student needs to receive in specific areas to: • Complete needed courses • Succeed in the general curriculum • Gain needed skills

Transition Services and activities may include related services, community experiences, and services related to employment and other adult living objectives such as acquisition of daily living skills. Related services include: • Transportation • Developmental, corrective, and other supportive services including:

• Speech-language pathology and audiology services • Interpreting services • Psychological services • Physical and occupational therapy • Recreation, including therapeutic recreation • Social work services • School nurse services • Counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling • Orientation and mobility services • Medical services

Community experiences are one component of a transition program that is provided outside the school building or in community settings. Examples could include: • Community-based work experiences and/or exploration • Job site training • Banking • Shopping • Transportation • Counseling and recreation activities

Employment and other post-school adult living objectives are components of a transition program required to achieve desired Post-School Goals. These objectives could range from services leading to a job or career to those that support activities done occasionally, such as registering to vote, filing taxes, renting a home, accessing medical services, filing for insurance or accessing adult services such as Social Security Incomes (SSI). The acquisition of daily living skills describes one component of a transition program that may be considered “if appropriate” to support student’s ability to do the routine tasks of adulthood. These may include: • Preparing meals • Budgeting • Maintaining a home • Paying bills • Caring for clothes • Grooming

For each portion of Section 8 that refers to Transition Services, the IEP Team must consider the aforementioned components while also including in the IEP documentation what the school (or adults in the student’s life) will provide for each Post-School Goal Domain. There MUST be at least one Transition Service for each Post-School Goal Domain; however, it is possible that a number of the Transition Services components described above might apply to more than one Post-School Goal. The description of these services need not be duplications of the services outlines on the special education services page, but should include those services specifically designed to help the student move toward the attainment of his/her Post-School Goals. Examples can be found in the final section of this document, Exemplars. Agency that may provide transition services in the coming school year The IEP Team must identify any potential adult service agencies that are necessary to facilitate transition to the implementation of Post-School Goals. These agencies may find or provide transition services or supports in the coming year. Prior to inviting any agencies, the school must obtain prior written consent from the parent. Once an agency connection has been identified and the school has obtained the appropriate written consent to invite the agency, invitations to the appropriate agency should be extended. If a representative from agency is unable to attend, the school must ensure the parent/student understands the need to connect with the agency. Since actual eligibility for services from most agencies each require unique intake processes, schools must make an effort to assist parents and students in compiling the necessary eligibility information. It is recommended that if an adult service agency’s involvement is essential for the effective transition of a student to his/her Post-School Goals, the following information must be documented. • Agency name • Agency role (description of potential services) • Agency contact person, including name, phone number, address, and e-mail, if possible • A description of steps taken to involve the agency in the IEP planning process • A description of next steps the student and family should pursue in order to become eligible for services

Again, if an adult service agency is NOT currently needed due to the student’s age, current needs for such services, or other factors, a simple description reflecting why agency connections are not necessary should be indicated. Examples of this documentation include: • “[Student name] is not currently eligible for services related to this Post-School Goal at this time.” • “Student and family have been informed of agency connection and potential benefits of eligibility and services

but decline to pursue services at this time.”

• “Student is too young for services from adult agencies at this time.” Exiting the System A student can exit the system for a variety of reasons. A student exits special education upon graduating from high school with a regular high school diploma or upon reaching the age of 21. A student may also exit special education if, upon re-evaluation, it is found that the student is no longer eligible for special education. When students exit school on their own volition, prior to a formal exit, they are considered to have “dropped out” of the system.

EXEMPLARS

Post-School Goal EXAMPLES and NON-EXAMPLES Post-School Training Goal • NON-EXAMPLE: Something in emergency medical services.

OR • EXAMPLE: William will attend an Emergency Medical Technician training program and work for the fire

department, hospital, or ambulance service. Post-School Education Goal • NON-EXAMPLE: Go to some program in computers.

OR • EXAMPLE: Tanya will attend college full-time at the XYZ Community College and obtain an associates

degree in computer networking. Employment Goal • NON-EXAMPLE: Something in computers.

OR • EXAMPLE: Josh will work as a computer technician repairing computers or developing and maintaining

computer networks. Independent Living Skills Goal • NON-EXAMPLE: On my own.

OR • EXAMPLE: Mike will maintain his own apartment by independently paying bills on time, making meals,

buying groceries, and maintaining sanitary conditions. More… • After leaving high school, Paul will enroll in the two-year community college. • After graduation in the fall semester of 2012, Jane will attend the Lake Forest Culinary Arts School. • Upon graduating from high school, Thomas will work part-time in the food service industry. • After high school, Paulette will work full-time in her community; she would like to pursue a job in retail. • After high school, Roger will work part-time with support. • In the fall of 2012 after graduation, Eric will use the local public transportation system to get him from home

to work and back. • In the fall of 2012 after graduation, Annette will prepare a meal for herself independently once per week. • After graduating from high school, John will independently manage his own checkbook, bills, and budget. • After receiving her diploma, Mary will live at home with her parents until adult services resources can be

acquired; during this time she will not work. As an example, if a student were to have a Post-School Goal for Education/Training: “Amy will attend XYZ Community College after graduation to study nursing,” the IEP might contain the following service statement:

During the course of the next year (IEP period), the special education staff will provide Amy with resource class support for language arts and writing. Specific skill development will target decoding of large medically related terminology, utilization of context cues in reading to increase reading comprehension, as well as effective use of dictionary or online resources. The school nursing staff will teach Amy to self-administer her own Insulin and provide job shadowing experience and support related to the nursing profession. During the course of the school year, through coordination by Amy’s case manager, Amy will have the opportunity to visit at least three different nursing stations within the local community hospital. Amy will also be accompanied to the XYZ Community College Disability Access Center to attain accommodations for her Accu-placer (college entry) exams, as well as to determine supports for attending college. The Disability Access Center has also agreed to provide a campus tour to orient Amy to the campus and its resources. With appropriate releases from Amy and her parents, Amy’s case manager will provide copies of her most recent assessment data and IEP so The Disability Access Center may provide instruction in riding the local RTD as well as instruction in reading/interpreting the local bus maps.

The example above is designed to reflect the transition services for the Post-School Goal of Education and Training only, and it illustrates instructional services, community experiences and the acquisition of daily living skills. It is important to note that no single transition services component solely aligns with any one single Post-School Goal.

Linking Post-School Goals and Annual IEP Goals Provided by Julia Lang, Transition, Roaring Fork School District

Post-School Goals A post-school goal is “generally understood to refer to those goals that a child hopes to achieve after leaving secondary school (i.e., high school)” (IDEA 2004 Part B Regulations, §300.320(b), discussion of Final Rule p.46, 668). • A Post-School Goal (PSG) is not the process of pursuing or moving toward a desired outcome. • A PSG must be measurable. • A PSG must be a clear goal for the next step (12-24 months after the student’s high school graduation but not

their dream life in 5, 10, or 20 years).¹ Annual IEP Goals Annual goals are “statements that describe what a child with a disability can reasonably be expected to accomplish (e.g., master some skill or knowledge [not an activity]) within a twelve-month period in the child’s special education program.” (Source: Retrieved June 15, 2006, from http://www.calstat.org/iep/6_reading.shtml). • Annual IEP Goals are skills needed for improvement. • Annual IEP Goals are skills needed to reach PSG! • Annual IEP Goals must link to the PSG (at least one…why not all?) • Annual IEP Goals must have a verb/action word that you can see.¹

Examples of Linking Post-School Goals with Annual IEP Goals • PSG = Post-School Goal, Post School Goal, Post School Outcome • AG = Annual IEP Goal

Education Training Domain • PSG Example:

Upon completion of high school, John will enroll in courses at Ocean County Community College. • AG Example:

Given Ocean County Community College information, John will demonstrate knowledge of the college’s admission requirements by verbally describing these requirements and identifying admission deadlines with 90% accuracy by November 2007.

Note that there would likely be less specificity in the Post-School Goals articulated by younger students than those in their last years of high school. John’s goal could be made more specific by including a phrase such as “will enroll in the general Associates Degree program at…” • PSG Example:

Allison will obtain a four-year degree from a liberal arts college with major in Child Development. • AG Example:

Allison will increase algebra skills as measured by pre- and post-tests, by an increase of 30% by March 15th, 2012. Allison will demonstrate the organizational skills of using a planner to record her homework assignments for all classes every day.

It is not necessary to specify the student’s major for the goal to be measurable; however, increased specificity in Post-School Goal statements (when the student articulates this information) can improve the relevance of services provided during high school. • PSG Example:

After graduation, Rolanda will participate in an in-home or center-based program designed to provide habilitative and vocational training with medical and therapeutic supports.

• AG Example: Given a board displaying four choices of classroom and community topics (e.g., instructional activities, work-based instruction activities, locations in the school, movies, music, locations in the community, people), Rolanda will use a pointer affixed to a head-piece to select (with 80% accuracy) the activity or item in which she wants to engage.

• PSG Example:

In the first autumn after high school, Jodi will enroll in courses (non-degree) at Gaston Community College. • AG Example:

Jodi will improve her reading comprehension scores by one grade level through daily instruction using high-interest reading materials, such as the newspaper, teen and young adult women’s magazines, school-approved websites, and short stories for adults by April 1, 2012.

Employment Domain • PGS Example:

John will work in an on-campus, part-time job while in college. • AG Example:

John will be able to report three possible occupations for part-time employment, based on the results of career assessments through career counseling with the guidance counselor.

• PGS Example:

After college, Allison will have a career in the field of early childhood education. • AG Example:

Allison will describe the similarities and differences of various early childhood careers in a two-page essay after conducting four structured interviews of employees in the field of early childhood—including a professor, a childcare director, and a preschool teacher—during the fall semester of this IEP.

• PSG Example:

In the future, Jamarreo will be a self-employed welder. • AG Example:

Jamarreo will achieve mastery (95% or better accuracy) of welder safety skills by completing an orientation course on welding safety by March 15, 2012.

Independent Living Domain • PGS Example:

Upon completion of high school, Lissette will utilize public transportation, including the public bus and uptown trolley.

• AG Example: Given travel-training situations, Lissette will demonstrate sitting quietly and refraining from talking to strangers while utilizing public transportation at least two out of three opportunities.

• PSG Example:

Upon completion of high school, Jeremy will independently prepare for work each day, including dressing, making his bed, making his lunch and accessing transportation.

• AG Example: Given the ingredients for a sandwich and task analysis, Jeremy will follow the steps to make a sandwich with 90% accuracy by June 2012.

• PSG Example:

Upon completion of high school, Paulo will play soccer in a recreational soccer league at the YMCA. • AG Example:

Paulo will complete the YMCA application by writing his personal information in the spaces provided with 90% accuracy by January 2012.

PSGs and Annual IEP Goals may be written to include more than one domain (educational training, employment, independent living). Both Education Training and Employment Domains • PSG Example:

After graduating from high school, Jason will enroll in a four-year college to obtain his undergraduate degree in history and education in order to become a high school social studies teacher.

• AG Example: Through participation in the district’s teacher mentor program, Jason will write an essay about his expectations for his future career, including statements of a goal, 3 or more negative aspects of teaching, 3 or more positive aspects of teaching, and a summary statement of the mentor program experience with 80% or better accuracy in grammar and spelling by March 2012.

----------------------------------------- ¹ Resources Cited: NSTTAC Web-based Training Materials, September 2007 Colorado Department of Education Summer Institute, June 2008, JonPaul Burden, Triangulating Annual Goals with Post-School Goals, State Standards and Industry Skill Competencies PowerPoint Presentation

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Post-School Exit Survey

Purpose: To gather contact information from exiting students for future follow-up data collection Usage: Required for all students 16 years or older with an IEP who are exiting secondary school

Overview

This is a federal requirement which helps school districts and CDE to answer the “so what” question regarding secondary education, special education, and transition services. Understanding the relationships between services and outcomes continues the improvement of services for all students.

Instructions • Complete the following survey stressing the

need for the most permanent information. • Explain that a follow-up survey will be

conducted one year from exiting the secondary education system.

• The signature section is optional; however, best practice is to have both the student and parent sign the form indicating notification that they may be contacted the following year for a follow-up survey.

• Assure the student and parent that the completion of the follow-up survey is important and meaningful to education in Colorado.

• It is suggested that the exit survey be completed with the Summary of Performance process.

• If a student exits by means other than attainment of a diploma or aging out, the exit survey will need to be completed without the Summary of Performance process.

• For students exiting the education system during the school year, it is recommended that this form be completed within 30 days after the student leaves.

Purpose: To identify intentional post-school outcomes and the required course of study, transition services, and agency connection that are necessary to prepare the student to achieve the post-school goals Usage: Required for IEP meetings for students turning 15 years old in that IEP year but not later than the end of 9th grade.

Mountain BOCES IEP FORMS – Post-School Considerations

Projected Graduation • Identify a projected graduation/completion date. • List type of documentation the student will receive

(Regular Diploma, Certificate of Attendance, or other that your district offers).

Post-School Goals (PSGs) • PSGs represent the reason for special education—the

“what for.” What will they actually do after leaving the educational system?

• All Transition Age Student IEPs are required to have a PSG in Education/Training and Career Employment.

• When appropriate, identify an Independent Living Skills Goal.

Course of Study • General education classes, special education classes,

and extra-curricular activities that will lead to attainment of the student’s PSGs

• Should indicate a multi-year high school plan • Should consider student interests and needs in

identifying the course of study • Should be more detailed than “student will complete

graduation requirements” • Should be able to be interpreted by another school

Transition Services • Transition services are a “coordinated set of activities”

leading toward measurable postsecondary goals. Activities are not annual goals; they are the things/steps/actions that should happen to help the student achieve their postsecondary goals.

• The activities should include what the adults will do and demonstrate coordination between general education, special education, related services, family, student, and outside agencies/services or supports.

• Services could include related services such as transportation, physical and occupational therapy, psychological services, speech/language, etc., and must be related to the PSG.

Agencies • Identify any community agencies that are likely to

provide or pay for services for a student during that IEP year.

• Provide the agency name, their role, and personal contact information, giving the family guidance on how to access the services.

• Must have a signed Consent to Invite Outside Agencies from the parent prior to inviting agency.

Age of Majority For students who will turn 20 during the next year, inform of transfer of rights and when services will end. Services end the semester in which the student turns 21 or at the end of the preceding school year, if the DOB is in the summer.

Part 2: Summary of Performance based on age appropriate abilities, assessment, and the student’s post high school goals.

Functional Performance

Area of Strength

Area of

Limita-‐tion

If marked strength or limitation, describe functional capacities and how they may relate to post high school

performance in work, community, or educational settings.

Social, Interpersonal, Behavior or Skills (interactions with others, emotional or behavioral issues related to learning and/or attention)

Independent Living Skills (self-‐care, leisure skills, personal safety, personal hygiene, transportation, banking, budgeting)

Environmental Access/Motor and Mobility Skills (assistive technology or other special accommodations)

Self-‐Determination and Advocacy (ability to identify and articulate learning strengths and needs, ability to ask for assistance with learning and independence)

Self-‐Direction (ability to follow and understand directions (written or verbal), complete tasks, work independently, ask for assistance when necessary, use feedback to improve or correct work performance, initiate work activity)

Communication (speech/language, augmentative communication)

Career and Vocational (career interests, career exploration opportunities, job-‐training opportunities)

Work Tolerance and Work Skills (capacity to meet the physical and psychological demands of work and to learn and perform job tasks)

Additional important information and considerations that can assist in making decisions about disability determination and needed accommodations (e.g., medical problems, family concerns)

Part 3: Recommendations to Assist the Student in Achieving Measurable Post High School Goals: This section presents recommendations to the student, family and others utilizing this form for accommodations, adaptive devices, assistive services, compensatory strategies, and/or support services, to enhance access and participation in post high school goals. (These recommendations do not obligate any post high school agency to such recommendations.)

Recommendations to assist the student with achieving measurable post high school goals Post High School Goal

Recommendations to Assist the Student in Meeting Post High School Goals

Agency(s) Contact Information: name and/or title, phone number, address, or e-‐mail (include both agencies currently contacted and those that may need to be contacted)

Employment

Education

Training

Independent Living (where appropriate)

Part 4: Associated Relevant Documentation Summary List student documentation attached to and provided with this summary (important documentation might include most recent triennial IEP, assessment documentation, psychological reports, aptitude results, interest inventories—any documentation related to eligibility or associated with attainment of post high school goals).

I have received a copy of the Summary of Performance and have reviewed its contents with the primary Special Education Provider. __________________________________________ __________________________________________ Student Signature Date Parent Signature Date

Part 5: Student Input (Recommended/Supplemental Information): Review these questions with the student prior to completion of the Summary of Performance. (Questions may be read to the student and written by teacher as accommodation if necessary). A. How or in which area(s) does your disability affect your schoolwork and school activities such as: (check all that apply) Time Extra-Curricular Grades Relationships Assignment Projects Communication on Tests Mobility Activities Please describe how: Other (please describe): B. What supports or accommodations have helped you to succeed in school? (check all that apply) Adaptive Extra Time Audio Teacher Alternative Study Equipment Tests/Assignments Books Notes Assignments Hall Other (please describe): C. What supports or accommodations do you feel you will need to achieve your goals after high school? D. If you believe that you will need services, supports, programs, or accommodations: Have you and your family made a connection with the agencies (other than your current school) that can help you with these needs? Will you need help to obtain any needed services, supports, programs, or accommodations after you leave high school? E. What strengths and needs should future employers or teachers know about you as you enter the college or work environment? Student Signature: ______________________________________ Date: _____________________

SUMMARY OF PERFORMANCE Q. For which students is the Summary of Performance required, and when should a Summary of Performance be

provided? A. Students who are receiving special education services when leaving high school and who are leaving due to

receiving a regular diploma or by reaching the maximum age of eligibility are required to have a Summary of Performance.

Q. Do students who receive a GED require a Summary of Performance? A. No, only those students who leave high school with a regular diploma or by reaching maximum age of eligibility

require a Summary of Performance. Q. Do students who have been staffed out of special education during their senior year prior to graduation or who

have dropped out require a Summary of Performance? A. No, if special education services have ended prior to the student leaving the high school setting with a diploma or

by reaching the maximum age of eligibility, no Summary of Performance is required. If the special education student drops out, no Summary of Performance is required.

Q. Is the Summary of Performance part of the IEP? A. No, the Summary of Performance is NOT a part of the IEP; it falls under the section of IDEA 2004 that

determines the need for re-evaluation prior to exiting special education. Q. Can the student’s current IEP be the Summary of Performance? A. No, as stated above, the Summary of Performance is not regarded as the IEP and is clearly identified as a separate

process from the IEP. If the Summary were intended to be part of the IEP, it is likely the reauthorization would have included it in the section of IDEA 2004 pertaining to IEP content. It is the current interpretation by CDE that this must be a separate document from the IEP.

Q. Who needs to be present when reviewing the Summary of Performance with a student and his/her family? A. The primary service care provider (case manager), the student and the parent are the only people required to

review the Summary of Performance. This does not need to be a formal meeting, but documentation that the Summary has been provided should be obtained. This can be done by collecting signatures on the Summary of Performance. (The CDE recommended SOP form includes this).

Q. Are new assessments required to complete the Summary of Performance? A. No, IDEA 2004 clearly indicates that schools have NO obligation to provide assessment solely for the

identification or eligibility for other agencies or services not related to K-12 education. Q. If a student has not met all their IEP goals/objectives, does this influence the Summary of Performance? A. No, the Summary of Performance is provided when the student approaches the termination of his/her Free and

Appropriate Public Education and therefore is based on the attainment of the diploma or the reaching of maximum age of eligibility (the student’s progress on IEP goals and objectives is not a factor).

Q. What is the process for students who receive a Certificate of Completion, a modified diploma or leave high

school, without documentation and do so prior to reaching the maximum age of eligibility? A. Students who leave high school under the circumstances above must have an eligibility review meeting to

establish the change in placement. A student may continue to qualify for special education, but refuse to continue services and therefore leave the high school setting. It is important to note that for these students FAPE has not ended and they may return to continue special education or regular education services until age 21.

Q. Is a Summary of Performance required for students who are expelled? A. No, students who are expelled and have an IEP are still entitled to FAPE and therefore shall not receive a

Summary of Performance until they have either received a diploma or reached the maximum age of eligibility. **Please note the following flow chart to help visualize the documentation and processes required under various circumstances that students with IEPs might encounter when leaving the high school setting.

ORAL EXPRESSION AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Definition and Implications (Oral Expression) Oral expression pertains to the use of words and includes the ability to formulate and produce words and sentences with appropriate vocabulary, grammar, and application of conversational rules. Children’s oral expression skills are essential to their learning and academic success. Oral expression problems in students may result in literacy problems (ASHA, 1980). Furthermore, these children may not perform at grade level because of their struggle with reading, difficulty understanding and expressing language, and the fact that they may misunderstand social cues. Oral expression is about the student’s ability to express ideas, explain thinking (critical in math), retell stories, and contrast and compare concepts or ideas. Characteristics (Oral Expression) The following may be exhibited by those children who demonstrate oral expression difficulties: • Difficulty with grammatical processes of inflection, marking categories like person, tense, and case (e.g.

the “s” in jumps marks the third-person singular in the present tense), and derivation, the formation of new words from existing words (e.g., acceptable from accept)

• Learning vocabulary • Difficulty formulating complete, semantically and grammatically correct sentences either spoken or written • Difficulty explaining word associations, antonyms/synonyms • Difficulty with retelling, making inferences, and predictions

Definition and Implications (Listening Comprehension) Listening comprehension refers to the understanding of the implications and explicit meanings of words and sentences of spoken language. Listening comprehension often co-exists with difficulties of written language and in the auditory processing of oral information. Children with problems processing and interpreting spoken sentences frequently can experience difficulties in mastering syntactic structures both receptively as well as expressively. Although some children appear to perceive and interpret the words used in spoken sentences, they may not be able to grasp the interrelationship among the words in the sentences. Difficulties with listening comprehension should not be mistaken for difficulties or deficits in Central Auditory Processing. Characteristics (Listening Comprehension) Children experiencing listening comprehension difficulties may exhibit the following: • Difficulty with following directions for seatwork and projects • Difficulty remembering homework assignments • Difficulty with the understanding oral narratives and text • Difficulty answering questions about the content of the information given • Difficulty with critical thinking to arrive at logical answers • Difficulty with word associations, antonyms/synonyms, categorizing, and classifying • Difficulty with note-taking or dictation

Assessment (Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension) The classroom teacher may screen for those students who are at risk of having oral expression and/or listening comprehension difficulties by referencing norms for oral expression and listening comprehension acquisition (see chart following progress monitoring/interventions). The Speech Language Pathologist should be the one to assess and determine any deficits in these two areas. The use of standardized tests provides the Speech Language Pathologist with valuable information regarding the student’s communication skills in specific areas. However, we must realize that standardized assessments may be one component of an assessment process. The use of non-standardized or informal assessments, dynamic assessment, behavioral and pragmatic observations in the “natural environment” (outside the classroom), as

well as spontaneous and structured language sampling also provide important information that standardized tests by themselves may not. Some common assessment tools used for assessing oral expression and listening comprehension skills are: • Preschool Language Scale-3 (PLS-4) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4 (CELF-4) • Braken Basic Concept Scale-Revised (BBCS-R) • Comprehensive Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition (CREVT-2) • Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT-4), • Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language, Third Edition (TACL-3) • Test of Language Development, Fourth Edition (TOLD-4)

For students who are Spanish speaking the following assessment tools are criterion-referenced or standardized in Spanish: • Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised, Spanish • Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition, Spanish (CELF-4 Spanish) • Preschool Language Scale, Fourth Edition (PLS-4 Spanish Edition) • Spanish Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test-II (Spanish SPELT-II) • Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody (TVIP) • Test of Phonological Awareness in Spanish (TPAS)

The Speech Language Pathologist should be culturally sensitive when selecting and using assessment tools being administered to second language learners. The use of standardized assessments may not be appropriate with second language learners. It is the responsibility of the Speech Language Pathologist to validate the assessment instrument being used to the population for whom it was criteria-referenced or standardized. For a comprehensive reference of assessment instruments for monolingual English speakers or bilingual students, please refer to the Directory of Speech-Language Pathology Assessment Instruments, 2007. Intervention and Progress Monitoring (Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension) The Speech Language Pathologist can provide both direct and consultative services in collaboration with the classroom teachers, resource teachers and interventionists in developing intervention strategies that will include explicit skills training in the areas of oral expression and/or listening comprehension as key to some students’ access to the curriculum. Providing structured opportunities for students to participate in social interactions—such as giving them “helping” roles or having them “talk through” an activity involving a successfully learned skill—reinforces oral expression skills. Working on beginning, middle, and end to organize narratives, as well as in the retelling of stories, fosters oral expression development. The direct teaching of listening strategies is important to improving listening comprehension. Particularly effective is cuing the student to keep their eyes on the speaker, make a picture in their head, ask for clarification, and internalize directions by repeating them to themselves. Demonstration is essential with students of all ages. An example of progress monitoring of an oral expression and/or listening comprehension intervention would be correct identification of picture cards of specific targeted vocabulary being taught. The desired result should be that the student’s correct labeling/identification of the target vocabulary increases with each collection of data to be analyzed (progress monitoring). The target intervention needs to be systematic and explicit in its delivery and progress monitoring.

Norms for Oral Expression and Listening Comprehension

Oral Expression Listening Comprehension Kindergarten Speaks intelligibly Comprehends 13,000 words Uses 1,500 words Understands opposites Retells a story or event Follows 1-2 step simple directions in

sequence Takes turns during conversation Listens to and understands age appropriate

stories Sentences should be mostly grammatical Recognizes meaning from tone of voice and

facial expressions First Grade Tells and retells stories and events in a logical

order Comprehends 20,000 words

Express ideas with a variety of complete sentences

Understands months and seasons

Uses most parts of speech correctly Remembers information Asks who, what, where and why questions Follows 2-3 step directions in sequence Stays on topic and takes turns in conversation Gives instructions Second Grade Uses increasingly complex sentences Follows 3-4 oral directions in sequence Clarifies and explains words and ideas Understands direction words for location,

space, and time Gives 3-4 step directions Answers questions about a grade-level

story or theme correctly Uses oral expression to inform, persuade, and

entertain

Opens and closes conversation appropriately Experiments with vocabulary Third Grade Summarizes a story accurately Listens attentively in group situations Uses content area vocabulary Understands grade level material Explains what he had learned Expresses well-developed time and

number concepts Varies verbal and nonverbal behaviors

depending on the audience (more formal to teacher than with peers)

Fourth Grade Understands some figurative language Listens to and understands information

presented by others Participates in group discussions Forms opinions based on evidence Makes effective oral presentations Listens for specific purpose Identifies main ideas and supporting details Asks clarifying questions Chooses vocabulary appropriate to the message Uses listening skills to understand

directions Uses grammatically correct speech Fifth Grade Makes planned oral presentations appropriate to

the audience Listens and draws conclusions in subject area

Maintains eye contact, uses gestures, facial expressions and appropriate voice during group presentations

Distinguishes fact from fiction

Summarizes main points Reports about information gathered in group

activities

Middle School Presents ideas effectively in discussion with a

wide range of audiences Recognizes stylistic elements such as tone of voice and body language

Uses a wide range vocabulary for different purposes

Uses figurative speech Defends a point of view High School Supports a point of view using various forms of Self-evaluates oral presentations

persuasion Incorporates materials from a wide range of

sources (newspapers, books, technical materials, etc.)

Recognizes a speaker’s point of view, purpose, historical and cultural context

Selects and presents a focused topic Analyzes and synthesizes materials presented orally

Experiments with stylistic elements Uses language to solve problems Websites (Oral Expression/Listening Comprehension) American Speech-Language Hearing Association:

www.asha.org/public/speech/development Language Development in Children:

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/language_development.shtml References (Oral Expression/Listening Comprehension) American Speech Language Hearing Association (2007). Directory of Speech-Language Pathology Assessment

Instruments. Rockville, Md. American Speech Hearing Association (1999). Guidelines for the Role and Responsibilities of the School-

Based Speech-Language Pathologist. Rockville, Md. American Speech Hearing Association (1980). Language Learning Disorders: Ad Hoc Committee on

Language/Learning Disabilities. Rockville, Md. Birth through Kindergarten/Colorado Communication Guidelines, 2007. Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-4, Psychological Corporation, Harcourt Assessment Company,

2003. Colorado Content Standards for Language Arts. Brace, J. Brockhoff, V. Sparks, N. & Tuckey, J. First Steps Speaking and Listening Book second Edition by

Judy Brace, Department of Education and Training in Western Australia, 2007. Brace et al. First Steps Speaking and Listening Map of Development, second Edition, Department of Education

and Training in Western Australia, 2007.

WRITTEN EXPRESSION A disability in written expression is an identified problem related to the writing process. Like reading comprehension, written expression develops through a progression of several interconnected skills and processes. To fully understand learning disabilities in the area of written expression, it is important to differentiate the “transcription” component from the “generational” component (Berninger, 2004). Transcription involves the basic writing skills (BWS) of production of letters, words, and spelling. The generational component, or composition, “translates ideas into language representations that must be organized, stored, and then retrieved from memory” (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007, p.238). BWS are specific to written language, whereas composition processes involve oral language and thought. It is, therefore, critical to address both BWS and compositional components in understanding written oral expression disabilities. The first part of this section, Written Expression: Basic Writing Skills, covers the foundational skills of transcription—handwriting and spelling. The second part, Written Expression: Composition, focuses in generational components of composition-capitalization and punctuation, word and text fluency, sentence construction, genre-specific discourse structures, planning processes, and reviewing and revising processes.

Written Expression: Basic Writing Skills (Transcription) Just as letter identification, phonemic blending, and decoding problems constrain reading comprehension, so do handwriting, phonemic segmenting, and spelling affect written expression (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). It should be noted that the two processes are not completely parallel. To produce written work, letter forms and written words must be retrieved from memory during the writing process. Before children can give attention to planning, organizing, and constructing written pieces, they must first automatize basic writing skills, including handwriting fluency and legibility and spelling. Handwriting and spelling difficulties can have serious, negative consequences for written expression, including a result in misinterpretation of the writer’s meaning, producing negative perceptions about the writer and the quality of the written work, interference with the composing process because the writer’s memory resources are overloaded with penmanship and spelling, and most importantly, student avoidance of writing, which further constrains writing development (Fletcher, Lyons, Fuchs, & Barnes). Definition and Implications (Handwriting) By the end of first grade, typically developing children can name all the upper case and lower case alphabet letters presented in random order and can write dictated letters in both cases accurately from memory. The skill is an integration of orthographic codes (the form of the letter) phonological codes (the name of the letter) and graphomotor codes (output). The automaticity of letter retrieval and production had the biggest affect on beginning writing development and is the best predictor of written composition fluency, content, and organization. Automatic letter formation and retrieval must be intact before students can attend to composition. Definition and Implications (Spelling) Spelling is referenced in the definition of dyslexia adopted by the International Dyslexia Association’s Board of Directors in 2002 and is used by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “Dyslexia is…characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities” (Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003). Spelling is highly related to both reading and writing development. A solid research base shows that learning to spell enhances the reading and writing of all students. If spelling is not explicitly taught, spelling achievement can drop significantly while reading comprehension stays at an average level.

Learning to read and spell words follows a similar course of acquisition and depends on the same knowledge about the alphabetic system and memory for the spellings of specific words. In other words, spelling and decoding are linked by phonological processing. However, the two processes are not quite the same. Like beginning decoding skills, spelling abilities are predicted by a student’s ability to map speech sounds to letters and letter clusters and knowledge of letter patterns (Berninger, 2004). However, competent spelling involves more than the skills identified above. It also involves understanding specific, rule-based letter patterns, known as orthography, and understanding morphology, or the meaning of prefixes, roots, and suffixes. Phonology and Spelling: Making the connection between phonemes and graphemes requires an awareness that all words can be segmented into individual sounds or phonemic awareness. It is this awareness that allows the reader to discover and decipher the alphabetic code (Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003). Spelling is intimately related to reading because speech sounds are linked to letter and need to be translated into print. Orthography and Spelling: After children have developed a secure understanding of the relationship between letters and speech sounds, they develop an understanding of spelling conventions. For example, final /k/ is spelled ck after a short vowel (i.e. brick), with a k after a vowel team or consonant (i.e., book, milk), and a c in multisyllabic words like tarmac). Shankweiler and his colleagues found that high school students’ skill in representing individual phonemes with letters and letter clusters coincided almost perfectly (correlation of .95) with the ability to spell whole words. Morphology and Spelling: An awareness of morphemes or meaningful units is called morphological awareness. Morphemes can include prefixes, suffixes, Latin roots, or Greek word parts. In written language, morphological awareness involves linking sound with a meaning unit, not a letter. An example of this is the ability to distinguish the derivative missed from the base word mist. Morphology also involves understanding spelling rules for adding suffixes to base words, for example doubling the final consonant in hopping or dropping the silent e in hoping. Poor spelling abilities hamper the ability to function as an adult. Liberman (1985) and her colleagues found that adult poor spellers limited their writing to words they knew how to spell correctly. The National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, School, and Colleges reported that employment applications that are poorly written or poorly spelled will be rejected 80 percent of the time. Characteristics (Handwriting) Dysgraphia is a neurological disorder characterized by poor handwriting, with poor spelling as a secondary characteristic. People with dysgraphia often have fine motor problems that specifically affect written language (Levine, 1994). Students with a disability in this area have slow, laborious, and often illegible handwriting. Spacing between words, spacing between letters in words, alignment, letter size, and errors in proportion and formation are all affected (Graham, Struck, Santoro, & Berninger, 2006). This exists despite thorough instruction and ample time to practice letter formation outside demands of spelling or the writing process. There are three common forms of graphomotor dysfunction:

1. Difficulty recalling the sequence of strokes needed to form a specific letter. 2. Use of the larger muscles of the wrist and forearm rather than the smaller muscles of the fingers to form

letters.

3. Finger agnosia, in which a student has to visually monitor the location of the writing instrument because the fingers do not report their location to the brain. A person with agnosia may have an awkward, fist-like pencil grip, placing the thumb over the fingers thus preventing the fingers from moving the pencil easily. (Wolf, 2005)

Characteristics (Spelling) Spelling errors characteristic of people with specific learning disabilities are rooted in faulty phonological processing, as well as poor morphological awareness. Louisa Moats found that 90% of errors in spelling could be identified in the following categories:

1. Inflected ending omission (i.e., dressest for dresses) or substitution (i.e. “dropt” for dropped) 2. Misplacement or omission of /l/ and /r/ (i.e., “backboard” for blackboard or “fog” for frog) 3. Omission of non-salient consonants, including in consonant blends (i.e., “sip” for slip or “med” for

mend) 4. Vowel errors (i.e., “maet” for met); within-class consonant substitution (primarily fricatives: /f/ and /v/-

i.e., “baf” for bath--/th/ and voiced /th/, /s/ and /z/, /sh/ and /zh/) 5. Weak syllable deletion (i.e., “xplak” for explicate)

Assessment/Progress Monitoring (Handwriting) This area of disability cannot be diagnosed solely by looking at a handwriting sample. A thorough assessment includes writing self-generated sentences and paragraphs and copying age-appropriate text. The examiner must assess not only the finished product but also the processes involved, including pencil grip, fatigue, cramping, or tremor of the writing hand, handedness, and fine-motor speed (International Dyslexia Association, 2007). An example of a handwriting assessment is the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (Harcourt). Normative information is available and the assessment can also be used to monitor progress as a result of intervention. This test takes 2.5 minutes to administer the rate score and more time is given to produce a complete sample for scoring the five quality categories (legibility, form, alignment, size, and spacing). Both manuscript and D’Nealian handwriting styles can be assessed. Assessment (Spelling) To analyze spelling for phonological and morphological errors, Moats recommends using a comprehensive sample of words, including words of high and low frequency, real and nonsense words, words of one to four syllables, words with inflected endings (i.e., suffixes –s, -ed, -ing, -er, -est), and words generated both to dictation and in spontaneous writing. Include potentially problematic phonological features, such as liquids (i.e., /l/ and /r/), consonant blends, multisyllabic words, words with unaccented schwa syllables (i.e., happen), and non-syllabic or unstressed inflected endings (i.e., suffix –ed as in walked or slammed). Some assessment instruments are identified below: • Process Assessment of the Learner, second Edition (PAL-II): Diagnostic for Reading and Writing,

(Harcourt). This is a comprehensive instrument that thoroughly assesses handwriting fluency and legibility, spelling, and composition skills. It can be administered multiple times to assess student progress.

• SPELL Spelling Performance Evaluation for Language and Literacy (second Edition). Computer software scores and analyzes errors for students Grade 2 – adult.

• Test of Written Spelling (TWS-4), Sopris-West • Weshsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-II): Spelling and Written Expression • WJ-III: Spelling sounds • Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT 3): Spelling

Intervention (Handwriting) Effective writing instruction focuses on (a) legible and automatic letter production; (b) spelling; and (c) composition (word and text fluency; sentence construction; genre-specific discourse structures; planning processes; and reviewing and revising processes) (Berninger & Amtmann, 2003). Children in kindergarten and first grade should receive explicit, systematic instruction in letter formation and in associating the shape with the name of the letter. Work must always begin with the formation of individual letters written in isolation. Alphabets need to be practiced daily, often for months (international Dyslexia Association, 2007). After almost two decades of research in handwriting instruction, Graham (1999) has found no evidence between the legibility or handwriting speed of students who used manuscript (the D’Nealian alphabet) makes the transition to cursive writing any easier. For students with LD, research examining the effectiveness of different scripts is “nonexistent” (Graham, 1999, p.84). Graham advises teaching students with LD traditional manuscript before cursive. But he cautions that teachers who insist on a strict adherence to any particular model “are likely to frustrate not only themselves but their students as well” (Graham, 1999, p. 84). Intervention (Spelling) Teaching students how to segment words into phonemes helps them learn to spell because sounds and letters are related in a predictable way. Phoneme awareness instruction, combined with explicit instruction connecting phonemes to alphabetic letters significantly improves early reading and spelling skills. After students have well-established phonemic awareness, they need to learn to relate the sounds to letters as they spell words. Phonics instruction teaches how letters of written language map to the individual sounds of spoken language. It teaches students to use these relationships to read and spell words. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is required. Orthographic letter patterns used to spell many complex and irregular words must be taught as well (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). At the most basic level, systematic instruction explicitly teaches letter-sound relationships in a clearly defined sequence. Struggling students also need substantial practice in applying knowledge of these relationships as they read and write. Students also need opportunities to spell words and to write their own stories with words that include the letter-sound relationships they are learning (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001). Progress Monitoring (Spelling) One type of CBM for spelling is correct letter sequence (CLS) using dictated, grade-level word lists. Another way to progress monitor in spelling is total number/percentage of words spelled correctly (WCS). Although CLS requires more time to score, it is more sensitive to student improvement (Hosp, Hosp, and Howell, 2007). One source for standardized spelling lists is AIMSweb Spelling-CBM. Provided are 33 alternate forms for each grade 1 – 8. They are intended to be used for benchmarking grades 1 – 8 and progress monitoring any age. The ABCs of CBM (Hosp, Hosp, and Howell, 2007) gives explicit instruction in the scoring of curriculum based measures in spelling, whether administering dictated lists of words or scoring words spelled correctly within timed student written passages. The following are assessment tools or include assessment strategies that may be used to monitor student progress in spelling: • Process Assessment of the Learner, 2nd Edition (PAL-II): Diagnostic for Reading and Writing, Harcourt.

[See description above under “spelling/assessment.”] • SPELL Spelling Performance Evaluation for Language & Literacy (2nd Edition), Learning by Design,

Software for Grade 2 – Adult. Scores and analyzes errors.

• Spelling Inventories (inform instruction by categorizing words according to a sequential patterns arranged by complexity): Bear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (2000). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

• Ganske, K. (2000). Word journeys: Assessment-guided phonics, spelling, and vocabulary instruction. New York: Guilford Press.

• Spellography (Sopris-West).

Written Expression: Composition (Generational Skills) Definitions and Implications Like reading comprehension, written expression develops through a progression of several interconnected skills and processes. This section focuses on the generational aspects of written expression—capitalization and punctuation, word and text fluency, sentence construction, genre-specific discourse structures, planning processes, and reviewing and revising processes. Characteristics Difficulties in executive function and language hamper the composition component of written expression (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). In addition to weak skills in handwriting and spelling, poor writers show problems in generating text. They are more likely to have shorter and less “interesting” essays, produce poorly organized text at both the sentence and paragraph levels, and be delayed in their acquisition and/or use of declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge about writing. Furthermore, “poor writers are less likely to revise spelling, punctuation, grammar, or the substantive nature of their text to increase communication clarity” (Hooper et al., 1994, p.386). There is some evidence that, after accounting for difficulties in handwriting and spelling, there is a subgroup of children whose difficulties in written expression are restricted to composition. Students typically struggle in one or more of the following areas: capitalization and punctuation; word and text fluency; sentence construction; genre-specific discourse structures; planning processes; and reviewing and revising processes. The following are specific indicators of a disability in written composition that are summarized from several sources: • Word Omissions (e.g., They ran to a bus. vs. They ran to the bus.) • Word order errors (e.g., I and my mom were here.) • Incorrect verb and pronoun use (e.g., We is running fast. Me and him are here.) • Subject-verb disagreement (e.g., The monster have five eyes.) • Use of simple, rather than complex, sentence structures – particularly at the middle and high school levels • Word ending errors (e.g., He laughing. vs. He laughed. He is dyslexia. vs. He is dyslexic.) • Lack of punctuation and capitalization • Discrepancy between oral and written language • Problems with cohesion (e.g., lack of transition words to link ideas) • Problems with coherence (e.g., poor sentence organization and intra- and inter-paragraph organization) • Word-retrieval problems (e.g., use of vague or general words—thing, stuff, good—instead of specific or

precise vocabulary (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007; Hooper et al., 1994; Wakely, Hooper, de Kruif, & Swartz, 2006)

Assessment and Progress Monitoring Thorough assessment of written expression must include an analysis of basic writing skills (skills of transcription), as well as compositional (generational) skills. Work samples should be carefully examined for the above errors.

Examples of Assessment Instruments: • Process Assessment of the Learner, Second Edition (PAL-II); Diagnostic for Reading and Writing,

(Harcourt). This is a comprehensive instrument that thoroughly assesses handwriting fluency and legibility, spelling, and composition skills for students for Grades K – 6. It can also be used to reveal error patterns in older, remedial students, but standard scores will not be generated.

• Test of Written Language, Third Edition (TOWL-3) (Pearson Assessments). This test assesses capitalization, punctuation, spelling (ability to form letters into words), vocabulary (word usage), syntax (sentence combining), grammar, and story construction.

To monitor progress, timed writing CBM can be administered individually or to a group using grade-appropriate story starters. (AIMSweb provides 125 story starters across grades 1-8.) Scoring writing CBM commonly includes three procedures: • Total words written (TWS) • Words spelled correctly (WSC) • Correct writing sequences (CWS)

Other scoring procedures may be applied, such as number of long words/characters per word; number of different words; number of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.; correct capitalization; correct punctuation marks; words per sentence; and number of complete sentences. (The ABCs of CBM, Hosp, Hosp, and Howell, 2007) Interventions Successful instruction draws clear linkages among oral language, reading, and written language. As in reading-related skills, effective instruction for students with disabilities in written expression must be systematic, explicit, and intensive (Lyon 1996b). Classroom-level instruction that involves Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), developed by Graham and Harris (2005), has been shown to be significant in improving writing performance for students with learning disabilities (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007). Comprehensive instruction includes intervention at all levels of generational composition, including: • Mechanics (capitalization and punctuation) • Word (grammar, including more mature synonyms, antonyms for verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) • Sentence Construction • Paragraph Construction • Multi-paragraph essays

Websites with information on research and instruction • The Access Center: http://www.k8accesscenter.org/index.php • Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High School. Graham

& Perin, 2007. Addresses 11 strategies to help fourth – twelfth grade students improve their writing. http://www.all4ed.org/files/WritingNext.pdf

References (Written Expression) Armbruster, B.B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001). Put Reading First: The research building blocks for teaching

children to read, K-3. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy. Ball E.W., & Blachmn, B.A. (1991). Does phoneme awareness training in kindergarten make a difference in

early word recognition and developmental spelling? Reading Research Quarterly, 26(1), 49-66. Berninger, V.W. (2000). Development of language by hand ad its connections with language by ear, mouth,

and eye. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(4), 65-84. Berninger V.W. (2004). Understanding the “graphia” in a developmental dysgraphia: A developmental

neuropsychological perspective for disorders in producing written language. In D. Dewey & D. E.

Tupper (Eds.), Developmental Motor Disorders: A Neuropsychological Perspective (pp.189-233). New York: Guilford Press.

Berninger, V.W., Abbott, R.D., Jones, J., Wolf, B.J., Gould, L., Anderson-Youngstrom, M., et al. (2006). Early development of language by hand: Composing, reading, listening, and speaking connections; three letter-writing modes; and fast mapping in spelling. Developmental Neuropsychology, 29(1), 61.

Berninger, V.W., & Amtmann, D. (2003). Preventing written expression disabilities through early and continuing assessment and intervention for handwriting and/or spelling problems: research into practice.

Berninger, V.W., Winn, W.D., Stock, P., Abbott, R.D., Eschen, K., Lin, S.-J., et al. (2007). Tier 3 specialized writing instruction for students with dyslexia. Reading & Writing, 20(3).

Carlisle, J.F. (1987). The use of morphological knowledge in spelling derived forms by learning disabled and normal students. Annals of Dyslexia, 37, 90-108.

Ehri, L.C. (2000). Learning to read and learning to spell: Two sides of the same coin. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(3), 19-36.

Fletcher, J.M., Lyon, G.R., Fuchs, L.S., & Barnes, M.A. (2007). Learning Disabilities: From identification to intervention. New York: Guilford Press.

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Wakely, M.B., Hooper, S.R., de Kruif, R.E.L., & Swartz, C. (2006). Subtypes of written expression in elementary school children: A linguistic-based model. Developmental Neuropsychology, 29(1), 125.

Wolf, B.J. (2005). Teaching Handwriting. In J.R. Birsch (Ed.), Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills (2nd ed., pp. 413-438). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

BASIC READING SKILL Definition and Implications Learning to read is not like learning to speak. The human brain is hard wired to learn spoken language, and it is therefore a naturally occurring process (Shaywitz, 2003). Typically, simply exposing hearing children to spoken language allows them to acquire and produce speech. Learning to read, however, is not “natural” for children. It has to be explicitly taught; exposure to text and print is not enough for the majority of the population. In 1997, the National Reading Panel (NRP) was established in order to assess the status of research-based knowledge, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read. The NRP identified 5 components to reading instruction that are essential for a student to learn to read. These 5 components are also referenced in IDEA 2004 and the Federal Regulations. The 5 essential components are phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. For most of the student population identified with learning disabilities, a breakdown occurs in their basic reading skill (BRS). BRS difficulty includes problems with phonemic awareness and/or phonics. That is, students struggle to identify individual sounds and manipulate them, to identify printed letters and the sounds associated with those letters, or to decode written language. It is also typical for these students to struggle with spelling or encoding. However, it should be noted that not all students with encoding difficulties have BRS difficulties. It should be noted that in reading research and in clinical contexts, a breakdown in basic reading skill is frequently referred to as dyslexia. While schools tend not to use this term, instruction and intervention should align with the underlying need for BRS acquisition. Characteristics and Assessments The ability to understand letters and the sounds they represent is a prerequisite skill for reading comprehension. While many people think that learning phonics is something children should learn in kindergarten and 1st grade, many students do not, particularly if phonics has not been taught systematically and explicitly. Difficulty in decoding words impacts the ability to comprehend text and may be misidentified as a disability in the area of reading comprehension. Therefore, educators should carefully plan how they will assess a student’s reading abilities. At the kindergarten and first grade level, it is best to assess whether students can identify letters, as well as consonant and short vowel sounds, through teacher-made or formal assessment. If letters and sounds are not mastered, the student’s phonemic awareness should be assessed. “Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to notice, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds—phonemes—in spoken words” (Shaywitz, 2003, p. 51). For example, can the student identify that the word “cat” has 3 distinct sounds: /c/ /a/ /t/? Can they blend those sounds together to make one word? Assessment tools for both of these areas (phonics and phonemic awareness) include the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) and Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE). The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Early Skills (DIBELS) is also an effective tool. There are many informal assessments that can be conducted as well. At the upper grade levels, assessment should start at higher skill levels and then funnel down to the more basic skills. Therefore, it is recommended to start at the reading fluency level. If students cannot decode sentences fluently, then word level reading should be assessed. Teachers should determine if students can read words in isolation from a list. If a student is not able to do this accurately, then assessment should address single syllabic words, and then vowel sounds. Many older students with BRS deficits have not mastered their vowel sounds, and those who have tend to struggle to decode multi-syllable words. Formal assessments for these skills include

the Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency (TOSCRF), Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF), TOWRE and DIBELS. If older students have not mastered their consonant and vowel sounds, it may be prudent to assess their phonemic awareness. Many of these students don’t understand that words are made up of individual sounds that can be segmented and blended. The CTOPP can be used with this age group as well. Work samples should also be examined. Many students who struggle with BRS write using simpler language in their writing than in their oral vocabulary (typically 1-2 syllable words), and often jumble the letters in the words. They may have the correct letters but in the wrong order. This is indicative of difficulties with sounding out what they are writing and relying heavily on their visual memory on attempting to spell. When examining work samples, educators should look for patterns. Does the student have any words or vowel patterns they can spell or use consistently? Do they consistently use all of their short vowel sounds correctly? Do they understand the “magic e” rule? Work samples are extremely informative about concepts students have mastered, as well as those they have not. The Colorado Department of Education also provides assessment flowcharts in accordance with the Colorado Basic Literacy Act. These provide basic frameworks for how to assess reading abilities at the different grade levels. For more information see the following website: http://www.cde.state.co.us/action/CBLA/index.htm. If students do have the skills to decode at grade or age level accurately, but not fluently, then this may not be a basic reading skill issue. Reading fluency skills are addressed following basic reading skill. Intervention For all students with basic reading skill deficits, instruction must be systematic, direct, and explicit. Instruction must be targeted to the student’s unique needs and focus on areas of skill breakdown. Systematic instruction progresses from simple to complex and follows a predetermined scope and sequence for instruction. Time should be built into lessons for independent practice and review of previously mastered skills. In addition, because every year that student misses out on grade level reading, they also miss learning grade level vocabulary, all reading interventions need to include enriched language experiences. These include listening to, talking about, and telling stories (Shaywitz, p.262). A key component of effective intervention is the provision of ample opportunity for practice. Students with BRS deficits need significantly more practice on skills in order to be accurate and fluent with the skill. Teachers need to teach to mastery, not just accuracy. Students who have breakdowns at the phonemic awareness level should be taught how to segment and blend words. Lessons should be brief (10-15 minutes per day) and should have two or three focused activities. In Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS), Module 2, Louisa Moats provides the following guidelines for teaching phonological skills: • Build proficiency at segmenting and blending individual phonemes in words with two or three phonemes. • Gradually move through the developmental progression of task difficulty. The object is to ‘roam around in

phonological space’ at the appropriate level of difficulty. • Emphasize oral production of words, syllables, and sounds. After hearing sounds, children should say

them, paying attention to how the sounds feel when they are formed. • Always show children what you want them to do [model]. Do one together, and then let the child do one. • Give immediate corrective feedback. For example, if the child gives a letter name instead of a sound, tell

him or her the difference and elicit the correct response. • Think ‘multisensory’: Use concrete objects—such as fingers, chips, blocks, coins, or felts—to represent

speech sounds. Inject movement into the activity. • Letters to reinforce awareness once children have the idea. Phoneme awareness, reading and spelling are

reciprocal; each benefits the other. (Moats, p.19)

There are many reading programs that incorporate these guidelines. As Sally Shaywitz explained, “the specific program chosen from among them is far less important than the provision of systematic, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics and then teaching children how to apply this knowledge to reading and writing” (Shaywitz, p. 263). When teaching phonics, all of the rules around systematic, explicit and direct instruction continue to apply. There are many ways to teach phonics as well, however, it works best if there is a daily routine at the beginning of each reading lesson. Again, Louisa Moats provides recommendations from her LETRS Module 7 for what the routine should include: • Set up a goal and purpose for the lesson. • Review what has been taught, with the goal of accurate and fluent response. • Identify and isolate phonemes: Listen for sounds, pronounce sounds, and use oral-motor cues to enhance

speech sound awareness. • Teach alphabet names, sequence, and letter formation, until they are known. • Link the sound with its symbol: Introduce a new sound-symbol concept or association following a planned

progression. • Apply phoneme-grapheme associations to reading real and nonsense words. • Extend to word study: sorts, chains, maps, families. • Spell by sound-symbol association: say word, segment sounds, spell, check, then say word again • Recognize and spell irregular (‘memory’) words. • Use speed drills as necessary to increase fluency in well-learned skills. • Write words, phrases, and sentences to dictation. • Read decodable sentences and books for fluency and meaning.

(Moats p. 19-20)

While interventions for BRS deficits tend to result in more rapid success with younger children, there is ample research to show that older students can learn these skills and become effective readers with the right instruction. It is never too late to teach someone how to read. Progress Monitoring Progress Monitoring should occur at the student’s instructional level and should be specific to the skills they are being taught. However, periodic benchmark assessment should occur to compare student performance with that of peers. Curriculum Based Measures (CBM) are well researched and can be used to monitor student’s progress toward mastery of concepts. CBM were developed to permit frequent assessment of student growth on targeted skills. They also help to guide instructional practices and determine when changes in intensity, duration, or intervention are needed. Tools that can be used to monitor progress in BRS include DIBELS, AIMSweb, Monitoring Basic Skills Progress (MBSP), and other Curriculum Based Measures (CBM). **Websites and references are provided at the conclusion of Reading Comprehension for all three areas of reading.

READING FLUENCY SKILLS

Definition and Implications Reading fluency refers to the ability to read words accurately, quickly, and effortlessly. Additionally, fluency skills include the ability to read with appropriate expression and intonation or prosody. Fluency therefore relies on three key skills: accuracy, rate, and prosody. Reading fluency can and should vary, even for skilled readers, depending on the type of text (narrative, expository, poetry), familiarity with the vocabulary, background knowledge of the content, and the amount of practice the student has had with a particular text or type of text. Fluency comes from many successful opportunities to practice reading (Lambert, 2007). Fluency is a necessary but not sufficient component for comprehension. It is, however, the bridge that links accurate word decoding to comprehension (Rasinski, 2004). The ability to read fluently allows readers to free up processing “space” so that they can comprehend, make connections to the text, and acquire new vocabulary. Typically, students who cannot read fluently show a significant lag in reading comprehension skills as well. Characteristics and Assessments It is important to understand the difference between a basic reading skill (BRS) deficit and a reading fluency deficit. Students who struggle with fluency typically present in two distinct profiles. The first includes students who struggle with accuracy, rate, and prosody; the second includes those who struggle with rate and prosody only. Students who struggle with reading accuracy should be assessed for possible BRS deficits. Typically, these students need instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics, and therefore the fluency interventions alone will not result in as great an improvement. Students who only struggle with reading rate and prosody (how fast they read and if they read with expression) are those who truly have a fluency disability and will benefit most from fluency interventions. Typically these students will also struggle with any rapid automatic naming tasks such as identifying colors, letter names, numbers, names of familiar items and so on. Fluency deficits may compound other reading deficits. Disfluent readers are exposed to significantly fewer words than those who are strong readers. If these skills are not remedied early, the cumulative lack of exposure to words becomes extremely challenging to reconcile. Students who are struggling to read are less motivated to read, reducing exposure to vocabulary, a critical element of reading comprehension. As a student progresses through school, a breakdown in fluency can make it extraordinarily difficult to keep up with the intensity and high volume of reading required for secondary and post-secondary education. There are many assessments that can measure reading fluency. Again, it is important to attend to accuracy while conducting fluency measures. If a student struggles with accuracy, it is important to assess the underlying basic reading skill. Some examples of assessments that measure fluency or that include fluency measures are • Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE) • Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF) • Gray Oral Reading Test-4 (rate and accuracy scaled score combined) • AIMSweb progress monitoring measures • Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) • Qualitative Reading Inventory-4 (QRI-4) • Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI).

Intervention and Progress Monitoring The earlier reading fluency intervention is provided, the more likely it is that students will respond. “Once serious fluency problems have developed, they can be resistant to remediation” (Spear-Swerling 2006). Joe Torgesen and his colleges have found that reading fluency is the hardest area to improve when intervention has not occurred early enough. This is not to say that fluency cannot be improved, rather that early identification and intervention are most likely to result in complete remediation. It is important to note that when intervening for reading fluency, an overemphasis on rate alone can have a detrimental affect on overall reading ability. Direct, explicit instruction is required for students to improve all three components of fluency: accuracy, rate, and prosody. Reading rate develops as a function of efficient decoding skills, opportunities for successful practice, and learning to read with expression (Rasinski, 2004 B). A good fluency intervention program includes frequent opportunities to practice reading. According to the National Reading Panel, guided oral reading in small groups is sufficient for “typical” children; however, it should not be the sole technique for teaching fluency to students with an identified disability in this area (NRP, 2000). Teachers should model reading fluency, students should work in pairs, and chunking or phasing should be explicitly taught. Other strategies include simultaneous oral reading, reader’s theater, and having students chart fluency rates as they improve. J.J. Pikulski and D.J. Chard identified the following nine steps to building fluency in their article, Fluency: Bridge Between Decoding and Reading Comprehension:

1. Develop orthographic/phonological foundations (phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, phonics). 2. Increase vocabulary and oral language skills. 3. Effectively teach high-frequency vocabulary and provide adequate practice. 4. Teach common word-parts and spelling patterns. 5. Effectively teach decoding skills and provide adequate practice. 6. Provide students with appropriate text to assist in building fluent reading. 7. Use guided, oral repeated reading strategies for struggling readers. 8. Support, guide, and encourage wide reading. 9. Implement appropriate screening and progress monitoring assessments. (Pikulski & Chard, 2005)

There are numerous tools available to monitor fluency. As listed above, AIMSweb, DIBELS and other Curriculum Based Measures are available with multiple forms that allow frequent administration. The key to progress monitoring fluency is to do the frequent monitoring at the student’s instructional level (student can read accurately with 95-100% accuracy) but to benchmark at least 3 times per year at grade level. The progress monitoring will be sensitive enough to show growth and gain as a result of instruction, and the benchmarking will help to keep the ultimate goal in mind. **Websites and references are provided at the conclusion of Reading Comprehension for all three areas of reading.

READING COMPREHENSION Definition and Implications A disability in the area of reading comprehension affects a student’s ability to understand and make meaning of text. The RAND Reading Study Group defines comprehension as “the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language” (RRSG, 2002). Reading comprehension is a complicated set of processes that has been studied relatively little compared to the other areas of reading. In spite of the lack of research on reading comprehension only disabilities, there is consensus that all students with any type of reading disability benefit from direct, systematic, explicit instruction in reading comprehension skills and strategies. It is most common for students to have basic reading skill (BRS) deficits combined with comprehension deficits, and/or fluency deficits. If this is the case, it is critical to instruct on the basic skill deficits, as well as the comprehension deficits. Although it tends to be more unusual for a student to have a comprehension only deficit, this can occur. A reading comprehension deficit assumes that basic reading skills are intact and that the student can read fluently without errors. Students with a reading comprehension disability are typically not identified until the shift occurs from learning to read to reading to learn. In most cases, this is around the third or fourth grade. Characteristics Reading comprehension encompasses a multi-faceted set of skills. First and foremost, children with this deficit may have more basic struggles in the area of oral language including new vocabulary development. In Overcoming Dyslexia, Sally Shaywitz determined that a child learns about seven new words per day, which amounts to three thousand words per year (Shaywitz, 2003). If students struggle with acquiring oral language, this will certainly impair their ability to comprehend written language. Typically students who struggle in this area use smaller words and need significantly more exposure to new words. These students may also be challenged by how to form sentences. Their ability to understand what makes a complete sentence and what order to put words in may be impaired. For students with breakdowns in language comprehension, phonological processing is often intact. Nevertheless, a student must be able to understand oral language before they can comprehend written language. If there are gaps in listening comprehension, it is likely there will be gaps in reading comprehension as well. While gaps in oral language are often a contributing factor to reading comprehension, not all students with reading comprehension disorders have oral language deficits. Another area that can affect comprehension is working memory. The demands of reading new information, holding on to it, connecting it with previously learned information, and applying the new learning can be overwhelming for some students. In addition, it is significantly more difficult for students with working memory deficits to learn new vocabulary introduced in a novel setting than when it is directly taught. There are also several other processes that must occur for a student to comprehend well. These include the ability to infer, monitor comprehension, and be sensitive to story structure. To make inferences the student must draw conclusions from text or “read between the lines.” Comprehension monitoring is the one of the most important and effective strategies used by effective readers. It requires the reader to “identify inconsistencies in the text, gaps in understanding, or the need to seek information from other parts of the text” (Catldo &Cornoldi, 1998). Students who are poor readers do not stop when they are confused by text and will not check for understanding during the reading process. Finally, story structure sensitivity is an important contributor to reading comprehension. Each genre in literature has its own distinctive linguistic style and structure clues. Understanding the implications of story titles, paragraph beginnings and conclusions, bulleted points, and use of illustrations, for example, fosters stronger comprehension of text. Poor readers do not attend to these details.

Assessments Unfortunately, there are not assessments for accurately measuring all aspects of reading comprehension. As was noted in the RAND Reading Study Group Report:

Currently, widely used comprehension assessments are heavily focused on only a few tasks: reading for immediate recall, reading for the gist of the meaning, and reading to infer or disambiguate word meaning. Assessment procedures to evaluate learners’ capacities to modify old or build new knowledge structures, to use information acquired while reading to solve a problem, to evaluate texts on particular criteria, or to become absorbed in reading and develop affective or aesthetic responses to text have occasionally been developed for particular research programs but have not influenced standard assessment practices. Because knowledge, application, and engagement are the crucial consequences of reading with comprehension, assessments that reflect all three are needed (RRSGR, 2002).

The easiest aspect of comprehension to measure is that of vocabulary. Two common assessments are the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Test of Word Knowledge (TOWK). A Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) should be consulted to rule out speech/language impairments if deficit in expressive or receptive language is suspected. The SLP can also be very helpful in assessing any area related to vocabulary development. Example of assessments for passage comprehension (typically retell and inference) include the • Diagnostic Assessment of Reading Second Addition (DAR-2) • Qualitative Reading Inventory-IV (QRI-IV) • Developmental Reading Assessment 2 (DRA-2) • and other Informal Reading Inventories

Passage reading fluency assessments that are related to reading comprehension include the AIMSweb Maze CBM or other CBM maze passages. Intervention and Progress Monitoring In spite of the fact that assessment tools are limited for identifying specific reading comprehension deficits, there is good news about reading comprehension interventions. Both specific skills instruction and strategy instruction have been shown to result in very positive outcomes. As the name implies, specific skills instruction includes direct instruction on improving the skills required to be a successful reader and can include vocabulary instruction, instruction on how to find the main idea, fact finding and making inferences. Teachers should model and coach students in these skills. Instruction must be explicit. Strategy instruction is “viewed as [instruction on] cognitive processes requiring decision making and critical thinking” (Clark & Uhry, 1995). This includes instruction on activating prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, and understanding how to read for different purposes. Regardless of the type of intervention, in order to be effective, comprehension instruction must be explicit, systematic, and provide multiple opportunities for practice. The National Reading Panel outlined the following seven categories of text comprehension instruction that have a solid, established scientific basis:

1. Comprehension monitoring, where readers learn how to be aware of their understanding of the material 2. Cooperative learning, where students learn reading strategies together 3. Use of graphic and semantic organizers (including story maps), where readers make graphic

representations of the material to assist comprehension 4. Question answering, where readers answer questions posed by the teacher and receive immediate

feedback 5. Question generation, where readers ask themselves questions about various aspects of the story

6. Story structure, where students are taught to use the structure of the story as a means of helping them recall story content in order to answer questions about what they have read

7. Summarization, where readers are taught to integrate ideas and generalize them from the text information

(National Reading Panel, 2000) While many of these strategies are effective in isolation, they are far more powerful and produce greater effect sizes when used in combination in a multiple-strategy method. As with the area of assessment, there are significantly fewer progress monitoring tools available to measure the specific areas of comprehension. AIMSweb and Ed Checkup do have maze progress monitoring tools that measure overall comprehension. Websites with information on research and instruction (Reading/Literacy) • The Access Center: http://www.k8accesscenter.org/index.php • Center on Instruction: http://www.centeroninstruction.org • Colorado Basic Literacy Act: http://www.cde.state.co.us/coloradoliteracy/cbla/index.htm • What Works Clearinghouse: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/ • National Reading First Technical Assistance Centers:

• The University of Texas at Austin Center for Reading Research and Language Arts: http://www.texasreading.org/utcrla/

• Florida State University Florida Center for Reading Research: http://www.fcrr.org/ • University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning: http://reading.uoregon.edu/

References (Basic Reading Skill, Reading Fluency Skills, and Reading Comprehension subsections) Cataldo, M.G., & Cornoldi, C. (1998). Self-monitoring in poor and good reading comprehenders and their use

of strategy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 16, 155-165. Clark, D.B., & Uhry, J.K. (1995). Dyslexia: Theory and practice of remedial instruction. Baltimore, MD:

York Press. Moats, Louisa C. (2005). Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling: Module 2 The Speech

Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness. Longmont, CO: Sopris West. Moats, Louisa C. (2005). Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling: Module 7 Teaching

Phonics, Words Study, and the Alphabetic Principle. Longmont, CO: Sopris West. National Reading Panel (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read, an

Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. Washington DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Pikulski, J.J., & Chard, D.J. (2005). Fluency: Bridge between decoding and reading comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 58(6), 510-519.

Rand Reading Study Group (2002). Reading for Understanding Toward an R&D Program in Reading Comprehension. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

Rasisnski, Timothy V. (2004). Assessing Reading Fluency. Honolulu, HI: Pacific Resources for Education and Learning.

Shaywitz, Sally (2003). Overcoming Dyslexia: A new and complete science-based program for reading problems at any level. New York: Vintage Books.

Spear-Swerling, L. (2006). Children’s Reading Comprehension and Oral Reading Fluency in Easy Text. Reading and Writing, 19, 1999.

MATHEMATICAL CALCULATIONS AND PROBLEM SOLVING Definition and Implications The federal and state statutes identify two specific areas of math disability. Mathematical calculation includes the knowledge and retrieval of facts and the application of procedural knowledge in calculation. Mathematical problem solving involves using mathematical computation skills, language, reasoning, reading, and visual-spatial skills in solving problems; essentially, it is applying mathematical knowledge at the conceptual level. Math disabilities have not been researched as extensively as reading disabilities. In a recent analysis, it was approximated that between 1996 and 2005, reading studies outnumbered mathematical studies by a ratio of 14:1 (Berch & Mazzocco, 2007). As a result, defining a math disability is somewhat challenging. Terms that have been associated with math disabilities include “developmental arithmetic disorder,” “dyscalculia,” and “specific mathematic disability” (Fletcher et al. 2007). The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) divides math into two categories: content strands and mathematical processes. The content strands include:

1. Number and operations 2. Algebra 3. Geometry 4. Measurement 5. Data analysis and probability (NCTM, 2000)

These areas can be more simply thought of as mathematical learning. Because of the diversity of skills required for these 5 areas, it is difficult to clearly define a construct or set of characteristics for students with a math disability (Berch & Mazzocco, 2007). The area of mathematical processes in NCTM includes:

1. Problem solving 2. Reasoning and Proof 3. Connections 4. Communications 5. Representation

These more closely align with mathematical problem solving disabilities and can be thought of as the doing of mathematics. Typically, students with a mathematical calculation disability struggle in the area number and operations of the content strand. Students with a mathematical problem solving disability will often have problems within the category of mathematical processes. There is considerably more research available in the area of mathematical calculation than in the area of mathematical problem solving. There is some evidence suggesting two subtypes of students who have disabilities in mathematics. One is a subset of children with a math only disability, the other had both math and reading disabilities. It is known that when reading and math deficits co-exist, both areas tend to be more severely impaired than when occurring in isolation. In spite of the fact that relatively little research has been done in the area of math in general, a disability can have significant implications for students. “Mathematics, like literacy, is a primary method of communicating thoughts and ideas in our world…Without appropriate level of competency in mathematics, students will find it

difficult to manage many important aspects of their lives such as budgeting; purchasing; practicing household tasks involving measurement including cooking and dispensing cleaning supplies, pesticides and medication; planning for retirement; and so forth” (Allsopp, Kyger & Lovin, 2007). Poor comprehension and achievement in mathematics can also limit students’ career opportunities. Characteristics and Assessment The most commonly identified deficit in the area of mathematical calculation involves number sense and operations. Characteristics of students who have difficulties in calculation can include an inability to consistently identify written numbers and poor association of written numbers with the concrete representation of a quantity (number sense). Operations include the ability to understand calculations such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. This involves not only the ability to follow the procedures but to understand the meaning of the operations. Developmentally, in most areas of mathematics, learning begins by using concrete materials, then moving to representational or semi-concrete drawings, and finally proceeding to abstract levels that use written symbols to represent mathematical constructs (Allsopp, Kyger & Lovin, 2007). Therefore, students with poor number sense may have the ability to add by counting on their fingers but may not have moved to a more abstract and fluent stage of having memorized their math facts. Conversely, a student who has memorized their math facts may not understand operations at the conceptual level, and this gap can impede future success in mathematics, as well. Teachers should assess for both the procedural and conceptual level of understanding in all areas. Students with mathematical problem solving disabilities that include the inability to identify important information; filter out unimportant information; and determine necessary steps in problem solving. An additional area of weakness can include metacognition or the inability to monitor one’s own learning. Students with poor metacognition may not be able to evaluate their own work or implement strategies needed. Students may also have a passive approach to problem solving. For these students, math is just a series of rote actions with no purpose other than to attain a right or wrong answer. They do not easily activate previously learned strategies or knowledge. Students with mathematical problem solving disabilities tend to use simple strategies such as counting fingers when adding or counting each number rather than “counting up” (starting with the bigger number and counting from there) or retrieving memorized math facts. Diagnostic mathematical assessments include both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced measures. Error analyses and student interviewing may also be very informative in determining specific areas of deficit and mastery (Fleishman & Manheimer, 1997). Curriculum-based measures are particularly helpful for monitoring progress. Textbooks may provide assessments that can provide useful information, as well. Examples of norm-referenced mathematical diagnostic assessments are • KeyMath3, which assesses the understanding and application of critical math concepts and skills from

counting through algebraic expressions • Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test, 4th ed., which provides both a screening assessment and a full

diagnostic test • Early Math Diagnostic Assessment (EMDA), which is designed to screen/assess students Pre-K through

grade 3 Of course, numerous broad achievement test batteries sample components of mathematics (often computation and reasoning/application/problem solving) in conjunction with other skill areas. Common examples are the Wide Range Achievement Battery, 4th ed. (WRAT IV), and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement III (WJ-III). Progress Monitoring Curriculum-based measures (CBM) for math include early numeracy, computation, and concepts and applications, with most of the research/technical work being done with computation (The ABCs of CBM, Hosp,

Hosp, and Howell, 2007). Estimation measures are also now being developed. Early numeracy measures include missing numbers, number identification, oral counting, and quantity discrimination. Computation measures usually include specific skills within the curriculum, such as multiplication facts. Concepts and applications taps various math skills related to specific curricula. Scoring of CBM for Math typically involves a determination of correct digits (CD) rather than correct problems. Another similar measure is the Monitoring Basic Skills Progress (MBSP), which provides a sampling of a year’s curriculum, and thus it differs for each grade level (Fuchs, Hamlett, & Fuchs, 1990, 1994, Pro-Ed). For the secondary level, CBMs addressing concepts and applications tap mathematical skills taught in the upper grades, such as measurement, time, and graphical interpretation. Math’s Mate is another tool that contains curriculum-based measures in all areas of math for grade levels 5-10. It consists of worksheets to be completed weekly followed by a test at the end of each month. Foegen (2006) cites several progress-monitoring options for general mathematics at the middle school level. These include estimation, facts, and concepts-based measures. High school content areas such as algebra are being studied and tools developed. Currently, there are some measures for algebra basic skills, foundations, and content analysis (Foegen, 2006). Curriculum-embedded progress monitoring would also be appropriate for secondary students. Tools are available from several publishers, including: • AIMSweb • AAIMS (Algebra Assessment and Instruction – Meeting Standards) • Yearly Progress Pro (McGraw-Hill).

Interventions Research on effective math interventions is emerging but lags behind that found in the reading area (Fletcher et al., 2007). Some general research-based practices relating to math instruction have been identified below. CRA is an intervention for mathematics instruction that research suggests can enhance the mathematics performance of students with learning disabilities. (See the Access Center: www.k8accesscenter.org, which is endorsed by the U/S. Office of Special Education Programs. The CRA instructional sequence consists of three stages:

1. Concrete In the concrete stage, the teacher begins instruction by modeling each mathematical concept with concrete materials (e.g., read and yellow chips, cubes, base-ten blocks, pattern blocks, fraction bars, and geometric figures).

2. Representational In this stage, the teacher transforms the concrete model into a representational (semi-concrete) level, which may involve drawing pictures; using circles, dots, and tallies; or using stamps to imprint pictures for counting.

3. Abstract At this stage, the teacher models the mathematics concept at a symbolic level, using only numbers, notation, and mathematical symbols to represent the number of circles or groups of circles. The teacher uses operation symbols (+, -, ×, ÷) to indicate addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

The CRA instructional strategy of progressing from concrete to representational to abstract is cited as being effective (Fleischner and Manheimer, 1997). This practice involves teaching students first at the concrete level—for example, learning that multiplication is just repeated addition using objects such as toothpicks or

blocks. From the concrete, students can then start to generalize and apply this knowledge to representations of concrete items such as images of a yard with a fence for learning how to find area. Using the representation, students can identify how many squares fill the space. Finally, students can then move into abstract conceptual knowledge application in order to become more fluent. Fluency in math includes both accuracy and rate with the ultimate goal being able to apply mathematical understandings in relevant, authentic ways. An example is applying the formula for area (length x width) to determine how much tile is needed for a bathroom floor. In this example, memorized formulae, as well as math facts, are abstract concepts but highly valuable in terms of building fluency toward solving the problem. If a student doesn’t understand the practical application of why the formulas work the way they do, they are less likely to retain the information or generalize it. Practice is a critical instructional component for supporting struggling learners. In this case, ample practice opportunity does not mean skill drills. While many teachers provide students with timed worksheets for practicing day after day, this is, in fact, negatively correlated with improving outcomes. Drill practice creates a lack of interest in students and typically results in frustration and anxiety (Allsopp, Kyger and Lovin, 2007, p.146). Practice opportunities should be varied, motivational, and whenever possible should occur in authentic contexts. For example, rather than doing paper and pencil activities around measuring perimeter and area, students can measure tiles on a floor or the area of a bulletin board, window, or desk top. Combining these activities with a specific purpose—for example, how to rearrange the classroom or design a new bulletin board—enhances the authenticity and meaning of these activities. It also shows students how mathematical concepts can be generalized to other life activities. The following are important to remember when planning practice for struggling learners (Allsopp, Kyger and Lovin, 2007, p. 147).

1. Practice activities involve mathematics concepts and skills of which students have already demonstrated initial understanding.

2. Practice activities provide students with multiple opportunities to respond using the target mathematics concept or skill.

3. Practice activities match students’ levels of understanding (e.g., concrete, representational, or abstract) 4. Practice activities are designed to complement students’ unique learning characteristics so that students

can best demonstrate their understanding. Students’ responses (e.g., writing, speaking, drawing) are not significantly affected by their disability.

5. The teacher provides directions and models how to perform the task required by the practice activity before the students begin.

6. The teacher continually monitors students as they practice, providing corrective feedback and positive reinforcement for accuracy and effort.

7. Practice activities include a process for measuring individual student performance. 8. Subsequent instructional planning is based on the degree to which students demonstrate mastery of the

concept or skill being practiced. Other research-based strategies that have been demonstrated to improve mathematical outcomes for students are identified below: • Structured Language Experiences

Students are encouraged to use their own language to describe their mathematical understandings. This practice helps students develop and improve mega cognition (important to problem solving) through talking, writing, drawing, or performing.

• Structured Cooperative Learning Groups or Peer Tutoring For struggling learners, the activities should be highly structured with clearly defined tasks.

• Progress Monitoring Students’ Mathematical Understandings Progress monitoring should be used to provide students with immediate tangible feedback about their learning; provide teachers with data for making instructional decisions; and help students with setting goals and enhancing metacognition. Progress monitoring data should also be used to communicate with parents regarding their child’s progress.

• Maintenance of Mastered Concepts and Skills Because memory is sometimes an area of difficulty for students with math disabilities, it is important to periodically review previously learned concepts and skills. An effective practice is to provide 5-10 minutes of daily “maintenance” time that could be done as a warm-up activity at the start of each class period.

(Allsopp, Kyger and Lovin, 2007) Websites with information on research and instruction in math • The Access Center: http://www.k8accesscenter.org/index.php • Center on Instruction: http://www.centeroninstruction.org • Colorado Math: http://www.cde.state.co.us/coloradomath/index.htm • National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM): http://www.nctm.org/ • What Works Clearinghouse: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/

References (Mathematics) Allsopp, D.H., Kyger, M.M., & Lovin, L.H. (2007). Teaching Mathematics Meaningfully. Paul H. Brookes. Berch, D.B. & Mazzocco, M.M.M. (2007). Why is Math So Hard for Some Children? Paul H. Brookes. Fletcher, J.M., Lyon, G.R., Fuchs, L.S., & Barnes, M.A. (2007). Learning Disabilities: From Identification to

Intervention. New York: Guilford Press. Fleischner, J.E., & Manheimer, M.A. Math Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities: Myths and

Realities. School Psychology Review, 1997, 26:3, 397-413. Foegen, A. (2006). Monitoring student progress in algebra. Presentation at the annual Pennsylvania Technical

Assistance Network conference: University Park, PA. Hosp, M.K., Hosp, J.L. & Howell, K.W. (2007). The ABCs of CBM: A Practical Guide to Curriculum-Based

Measurement. New York/London: Guilford Press.

Utilize progress-monitoring data already gathered for

intervention monitoring in each academic area.

Utilize RtI progress monitoring available and gather data from the

classroom teacher in all other academic areas (DIBELS<

Benchmarks, unit tests, grades).

Was the student being process monitored in all academic areas on the RtI plan?

Initial Evaluations *Please note that observations of the child in his/her learning environment will also need to be included in the

educational data report for students with a suspected Specific Learning Disability.

Answer the following questions and complete the steps involved:

Review the student’s RtI plan and gather all progress monitoring.

Triennial

Can you answer the following questions using your current data?

1. What is the child’s current level of functioning in relation to peers?

2. Does the student qualify for a Specific Learning Disability?

3. What educational interventions and academic supports are needed?

4. What might be the student’s skill-related IEP goals?

5. What services may be needed? 6. What is the appropriate educational

placement for the child?

Is student significantly discrepant from peer performance (i.e., 2+

GAP)?

YES NO

If you can answer the above questions with your current

progress monitoring data, no other assessment is needed.

Conduct a classroom observation. Summarize all

information in your educational data report.

Include any relevant information obtained from the

classroom teacher as well (e.g., DIBELS scores,

Benchmarks, Adams 50).

If you cannot answer the above questions,

conduct the appropriate

assessment and include it in your

report (e.g., CTOPP, WJ-III subtests,

TEMA).

Start CBM in that area and consult with

School Psychologist.

Summarize gathered

information in educational data

report.

If you still need further assessment information in order to answer the

questions to the above left, conduct the appropriate assessment and include it in

your report, along with a classroom observation.

NO YES

Information from District 8

Triennial Evaluations

*Please note that observations of the child in his/her learning environment will also need to be included in the educational data report for students with a suspected Specific Learning Disability.

Answer the following questions and complete the steps involved:

At least 6 weeks prior to the student’s IEP meeting, please answer the following questions and complete the

steps involved:

Does the student currently receive academic support, accommodations, or modifications as a result of having an IEP?

NO YES

Utilize progress-monitoring data already gathered for goal monitoring in each

academic area (Portfolio).

Gather data from the classroom teacher in all

academic areas (e.g. CSAP, Scantron, work samples,

unit tests, grades).

Can you answer the following questions using your current data?

1. What is the student’s current level of functioning in relation to peers?

2. What educational interventions and academic supports are needed?

3. What are the student’s skill-related IEP goals?

4. What services are needed? 5. What is the appropriate educational

placement for the child?

If you can answer the above questions with your

current progress monitoring data, no other

assessment is needed. Conduct a classroom

observation. Summarize all information in your educational data report.

If you cannot answer the above questions,

conduct the appropriate diagnostic

assessment (e.g., DAR, WJ-III subtests,

SDRT).

Is the student being successful without the use services

provided on the IEP?

NO YES

Discuss the need for an IEP with

multidisciplinary team at Eligibility

meeting.

Discuss the need

to revise the student’s IEP.

Discuss the need to create

an RtI.

Information from District 8

Version 3

CLARIFICATION OF ACCOMMODATIONS, MODIFICATIONS, EXTENSIONS, AND INTERVENTIONS

February 17 2010 This document is not meant to be all-inclusive. There are many inventive A/M/E/Ts that educators can develop beyond what is listed here.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Accommodations are changes in HOW a student accesses information and demonstrates learning. They are used in the classroom instruction and in assessment. It is important to keep in mind that accommodations do not substantially change the content, instruction level, or expected performance. Accommodations level the playing field to provide equal access to students. These are options that general education teachers utilize and document as part of the delivery of core curriculum instruction.

GENERAL READING

Use of rubrics to meet assignment demands Use of color highlighting Use of outlines to organize (written/oral) information

Use of books with key words marked

Time adjustment for assignment completion Use of a tracking aid (ruler, index card) Provision of alternative way to present verification of knowledge of the material

Use of magnifying bar

Frequent checks for understanding (frequency______) on task directions, instructional goals, and required process for work completion

Provide large print books

Opportunity to correct errors provided Use books on tape Use essay or short answer assessments to assess divergent thinking

Use reading pairs/live reader

Provide career research opportunities Illustrate/visually present vocabulary Other: Chart missed words Color code vowels

SPELLING Use word frames Post misspelled words Describe visual examples Keep a misspelled word notebook Allow use of audio recorders Use learning partners for spelling Use of study aids/manipulatives Group words with same patterns Provide bulleted information Make a dictionary Practice skills using electronic devices Allow use of spell-check tool Provide graphic organizers Color code vowels Use small group instruction Other: Exempt from reading aloud before peers Discuss comprehension

MATH WRITING/WRITTEN EXPRESSION Provide materials in larger print Ask student to write every other line Provide vocabulary definition cards Post a chart of letter information Use tactile numbers and signs Provide hard copy of class notes/assignment Use a raised number line Provide different colors of paper Use concept related songs Talk assignment through with student prior to

student beginning Use a calculator Discuss and post synonyms Provide fewer problems on the page Use pictures to simulate the writing Break story problems into smaller parts Use a story starter Use graphics or illustrations Use content outline with major points in bold Use manipulatives to move from concrete to abstract

Use graphic organizer to plan composition

Use math charts Use a dictionary and thesaurus Use computational aids Use visual instructional aids Use graph or vertically lined paper to organize and align numbers in correct column

Allow practice (drafts?) for large writing activities

Use peer partners Describe criteria for content and mechanics Provide fact tables Give topic sentence and ask for details Allow oral reading or story problems Post a proofreading checklist Verbalize key words Use activities for writing groups Post key words Allow extra time for written/oral responses Group the operations Allow use of keyboard/computer Remind student of operations Use dictation/recording Allow use of manipulatives Other: Space or block out problems to reduce clutter Give examples SOCIAL STUDIES Give flash cards for practice Provide content outlines, study guides, or

overhead copy Other: Highlight instructions on lab sheets Provide large print materials

HOMEWORK/ASSIGNMENTS Use recorded text or books on tape Display examples/models Use enlarged or tactile drawings Break assignments into smaller parts Use video to support text Allow oral or recorded responses Provide equipment with Braille and large print

markings Sequence the steps in a task by numbering them Use a note taker Give instructions in small steps Allow lectures to be recorded Provide written and verbal instructions Provide content vocabulary cards with graphics Allow extra time to complete assignments Use lab partner

Check that assignment is written accurately in planner

Other:

Give due date reminders Allow use of an aid such as computer GIVING INSTRUCTION Other: Maintain eye contact with student Make directions clear and simple

PRESENTING CONTENT Break multiple commands into step by step instructions

Present an outline or notes before lecture Check for understanding before beginning Tape the lecture for student’s review Ask student to repeat instructions Use handouts, overhead Repeat instructions slowly whether requested or

not Speak clearly and slowly Have a daily assignment notebook Paraphrase frequently Give instructions verbally and in writing Preview vocabulary Vary your voice, tone, and pitch Use more audio/visual materials Circulate to assist Use cooperative learning groups Provide a recording of instructions Provide laboratory/hand-on/experimental activities

Other:

Use self-checking methods Make sure copies are clear TESTING (INCLUDING QUIZZES Write clearly Allow extra time Allow the student to your teacher notes Option to take verbally Highlight the text Provide reading assistance Other: Allow use of notes, study guide, textbook Allow use of a scribe

NOTE TAKING Review material prior to test Give lecture outline to complete during lecture Provide test questions prior to exam Provide copy of lecture notes Provide study guide Give a copy of lecture notes with key words omitted

Change test location (a more quiet area, ex)

Give list of key words, phrases, names Allow computer to take test Allow student to copy a peer’s notes Give test in more than one administration Model note taking Other: Provide a note taker Other:

BEHAVIOR Set clearly defined standards and expectations

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

Assign preferential seating

Seat near teacher’s desk Make direct eye contact Seat in front of room Take frequent breaks Surround with “good role models/helpers” Remind students of rules periodically Seat away from high traffic areas, doors, and windows

Monitor closely during transitions, and prepare for transitions

Avoid frequent changes in schedule/routine Employ teacher proximity Seat close to the board Other: Reduce unnecessary visual stimuli/clutter Post daily routine in writing and in a visible location

SUPERVISION AND DISCIPLINE

Include opportunities for physical activity Remain calm. Do not debate/argue with the student

Use checklist to mark completed tasks Have pre-established consequences for misbehavior

Use earplugs/headphones to minimize noise Enforce rules of the classroom consistently Allow student frequent breaks Administer discipline fairly and without

harshness Use a study carrel Administer consequences immediately Allow student to transition ahead of class Avoid ridiculing and criticizing publicly Other: Other:

ENHANCE SELF-ESTEEM EQUIPMENT/ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY Find ways to encourage students Calculator Ask, “how do you feel about how well you…?” Recording device Other: Computer Study carrel

SPECIFIC TO SPEAKING TASKS Headphones Give extra “wait-time” to answer Magnifying device Give hints Single word scanner/recorder reader device Allow notes and other visuals for reports Interpreter For discussions, divide into small groups Electronic dictionary/thesaurus Use active listening Amplification device Note taker

Pencil grips Earplugs Text-to speech converter Place marker Other:

MODIFICATIONS

Modifications are changes in WHAT a student is expected to learn and/or demonstrate. They do alter the content or lower the standard or expectations. Modifications can allow for meaningful participation and enhanced learning. Instead of leveling the playing field, it changes the game. Utilization of modifications takes the support of the student to a higher level and should be used AFTER the use of accommodations. These can be utilized as part of the core curriculum delivery or at a more targeted level of support.

GENERAL READING Encouragement on self-advocacy to meet specific learning style needs

Divide multi-syllable pairs

Change in instructional setting (change_________________________________)

Use small group instruction

Preferential instructional grouping (instructional grouping________________________________)

Other:

Modified number/kind of tasks required (describe:________________________________)

Modified physical space (describe:________________________________)

SOCIAL STUDIES

Monitored peer interactions (describe:________________________________)

Use flexible scheduling/assignments

Instructional materials and methods matched to student’s interests and level of skill

Use instructional aids on assessments

Specific cues (verbal/non-verbal) provided to increase student’s opportunity to respond

Substitute projects for written assignments

Task-specific praise and encouragement is frequent (how often?_____________) and explicit

Other:

Alternative ways to complete homework provided Supplemental assistance provided HOMEWORK/ASSIGNMENTS Modification in amount of guided practice provided Allow extra credit Modification in amount of independent practice Assign special projects or give

alternative/shorter assignments Use of motivational strategies (self-talk, goal-setting, etc.)

Other:

Tiered Lessons that challenge students at their readiness level

Alternative Assessment Other:

TESTING INCLUDING QUIZZES CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT Evaluate daily work and participation in lieu of tests Have a pre-arranged cue for the student to leave

the room Reduce number of exams Allow student to sit on a T-stool, balance ball,

or stand while working Use more objective items and fewer essays Other: Reduce reading level of test Give take home exams BEHAVIOR

Substitute an assignment Use private signals for reminders Other: Assign a safe place for “cooling down” or

“regrouping” when student becomes frustrated Use signals for transitions in advance

ENHANCE SELF-ESTEEM Other: Praise immediately for good behavior and performance

Other:

EXTENSIONS Extensions take learning beyond the usual boundaries by offering differentiation techniques or supplemental material. Extensions take a student to a deeper level of understanding of the concepts covered in class.

GENERAL

Pre-assess to determine individual points of entry Determine student’s learning style (___________________________________)

Compacting Curriculum so a student can move through at a faster pace

Interest Inventory (___________________________________)

Use open-ended questioning techniques to encourage higher level thinking

Tiered lessons that challenge students at their readiness level

Alternative Assessment Use essay or short answer assessments to assess divergent thinking

Provide learning contract (independent study with accountability)

Use open-ended questioning techniques to encourage higher level of thinking

Provide career research opportunities Other

INTERVENTIONS Accommodations and modifications are NOT interventions. Interventions are supplemental DIRECT INSTRUCTION that addresses specific skills and concepts. RtI requires a demonstration of the use of, and the quality of, interventions in determining if a student qualifies as having a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) by a review of the data from the intervention and the analysis of the gap between that student’s performance while participating in the intervention relative to grade level peers. It has to be demonstrated that the student’s lack of progress is not due to other factors, such as the overall curriculum, cultural, or environmental factors. • Interventions are directly linked to screening, diagnostic and /or progress monitoring types of assessment

data. • Interventions are expected to be research/ evidence based, systematic, and explicit. • Interventions will vary according to need and student response. • Interventions can be provided within or outside of the general education setting persons in various roles.

** Tier 3 interventions need to be provided by certified personnel. Tier 1 or Tier 2 interventions/support can utilize volunteers, paraprofessionals, fellow students, and parents.

• Intervention is not a place or a program. • Ongoing progress monitoring must be a part of the use of any intervention.

GENERAL BEHAVIOR Instruction in study strategies, such as COPS, FIST, SQ3R, RAP, etc.

Develop a contract for specific behavior

Instruction for organization: in time management strategies, such as prioritization, self-check, and planner use.

Hold confidential conference and/or discussion on behavior develop self monitoring plan

Instruction in strategies for test taking Provide a Behavior Improvement Plan Include positive reinforcement and incentives

Instruction/modeling on assignment completion Social skills training Instruction in strategies for coping with failure, misunderstanding, mistakes, etc.

Individual and/or group counseling

Use of additional checks for student accountability (check in/check out, etc.)

Other

Frequency and duration for any intervention represents increases intensity of any intervention

ACADEMIC SPECIFIC Provide a Learning Contract (independent study with accountability) Lexia

Math lab – Title 1 math with specific skill reteach Reading lab / Title 1 literacy with specific reteach Read Naturally Phonemic training Early Literacy Training HELPS

Other

Mountain BOCES Recommended Protocol

for Autism Spectrum Disorder Identification The intent of this document is to provide some guidance on the identification of students as autistic. It not intended as a mandatory guide. The information in this protocol has been developed by a team of school psychologists based on their training in best practice. The concepts of building level capacity / district level capacity / BOCES level capacity to do this work need to be established. It could be the evaluation is done locally with a BOCES level review team or autism specialist for confirmation. Use of a specific screening instrument to help the problem solving team/parents identify if the referral is appropriate prior to a referral for an evaluation is made. Prior to formal assessment (done to determine if a full assessment is warranted):

Social emotional questionnaires with Autism scales completed by teacher(s) and parent (e.g., BASC, informal Autism questionnaire, ASDS, Conners)

Evaluation to include: • Multiple structured observations by School Psychologist, Occupational Therapist (OT), Speech Language

Pathologist (SLP), Teacher • Parent interview (with the recommended interview form—ASDS Worksheet—attached / CAR-2) • Child development questionnaire (ASQ-3) • Sensory profile completion and evaluation (school and parent) by an OT • Language evaluation with emphasis on pragmatic language by an SLP (PLSI, CELF) • Completion of ADOS by an individually trained Psychologist or a team-trained group. Use ABBLS by a

trained team. • Review of academic performance: CBMs, benchmark and summative assessments

• Team conference and completion of CARS-2 Parent interview (with the recommended interview form—ASDS Worksheet—attached / CAR-2)

• Child development questionnaire (ASQ-3) • Sensory profile completion and evaluation (school and parent) by an OT • Language evaluation with emphasis on pragmatic language by an SLP (PLSI, CELF) • Completion of ADOS by an individually trained Psychologist or a team trained group. Utilization of

ABBLS by a trained team. • Review of academic performance: CBMs, benchmark and summative assessments • Team conference and completion of CARS-2

** Adaptation for Asperger’s Identification: • GADS – Gilliam Asperger Disability Scale • ASDS – Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale • ADOS module ¾ for verbal students • SCQ – Social Communication Questionnaire (formerly called the ADI Screener)

Documents

Special Education Manual 2011 - Colorado.gov · Special Education Manual !!!! Updated!November!2011! ! PAGE Introduction 4 Part B State Performance Plan Indicators 5-6 Individualized