Formal Change : Special Needs Youth

For this assignment, I interview a service provider for special education services. The service provider I interviewed, takes part in the educational team, and provide services. The service provider is developmental therapist. I was able to develop a better sense of the importance of inclusion. After interviewing the service provider, and learning her philosophy of inclusion I have was able to better understand the accommodations and modifications for special needs students.

Mrs. Alice McLoughlin-Doro is a Special Education teacher at Downers Grove South High School in Downers Grove, Illinois. The community is known for its excellent school districts. According to the 2010 census there were 47, 833 people living in Downers Grove with approximately 19,000 households and 13,000 families. The racial makeup of the school was reported to be 88% White, 3% African American, 5% Hispanic, 0.2% American Indian or Alaskan Native, 5% Asian, and 1.6% from two or more races. About 1.7% of families were below the poverty line. The school district report card reports the following racial/ethnic background for the school: 68.1% White, 10.3 African American, 11% Hispanic, 7.3% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, and 3.2% two or more races. The elementary schools, middle schools, and high school all perform very well academically receiving above state average scores on standardized tests. She has been working there for 10 years and is currently a Case Manager of 17 students, all with an IEP, all with different needs and goals in the LD department. She co-teaches two general education classes in English intervention, all freshman. Although she is a Special Education teacher, she works with all the students. She also teaches a READ 180, Tier 3 reading and english intervention. This is where we will be focusing on for this

San Bernardino City Unified School District houses one of the largest populations for students with moderate to severe disabilities within the Inland Empire. Over the past decade San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) has sustained an influx of students who qualify for a moderate to severe special day classroom (SDC) setting and special education services. Effectively educating youth with moderate to severe disabilities is not a simplex task, as it requires multifaceted skillsets involving various special education professionals. Developing and executing a service delivery model that targets student’s individual needs, while simultaneously supporting students in strides towards life long goals is crucial. Carmack Elementary is one of fifty-two elementary schools within SBCUSD that only provides educational services to students with moderate to severe disabilities grades kindergarten through sixth. The community surrounding Carmack Elementary has been deemed high-poverty, indicating a vast majority of students who attend Carmack are presumed as low-income status. Lastly, a vast majority of students who attend Carmack Elementary qualify for the free and reduced meal program offered through the district.

Lighthouse Project is a pediatrics mental health clinic that integrates therapies, such as play therapy, to assist children in overcoming problems at home and in school due to their disorders and disabilities. The staff at Lighthouse Project split their time between clinic-based work in their San Jose clinic and school-based work at various Gilroy school districts. At the clinic the staff works strictly with high functioning children, providing both individual and group therapy sessions, similarly, in the school-based setting they do individual and group sessions, however, the individuals worked with are both low and high functioning. The purpose of the Lighthouse Project clinic is to incorporate different programs to engage the child and improve abilities that are debilitating, this is done with programs at the clinic involving social skills development, sensory integration and sensory processing, as well as fine motor/handwriting skills. At the schools the purpose is to close or minimize the gap between how much the child can achieve on their own and what other classmates are able to achieve on their own, the basic ideology is to have the child be able to achieve specific goals that those in their grade level are able to do, such as by first grade the child should be able to cut out outlines on paper with scissor, however some of our children are unable to do so and instead can only manage to snip the paper. Our organization also works with other agencies and individuals.

I spent the days leading up to the first day studying each student, reading case notes, and profiles to better understand identification number they were given. Ironically, five of my students were learning disabled and I knew exactly how they felt. I took my own learning experiences and developed lesson plans based around sports, music, and entertainment, creating an empowering curriculum relevant to their knowledge. The day quickly approached and before I knew it I was signed over the responsibility of over 80 students, each with a different personality, and each with different obstacles and barriers. Ironically, five of my students were learning disabled and I knew exactly how they felt. I took my own learning experiences and developed lesson plans based around sports, music, and entertainment, creating an empowering curriculum relevant to their

I interviewed several service providers in my school, Stephen Knight Center for Early Education, that included the psychologist, special education teacher and a general education teacher. I interviewed Ms. Iris, the school psychologist, Ms. Kathy, the special education teacher, and Ms. Hilary, a general education teacher. Ms. Iris’ responsibilities include working with students who have social emotional needs. This can include behavior challenges, learning new social skills, managing grief, etc. She works directly with parents and teachers to provide resources regarding the child’s well-being, and ensure good attendance by setting up plans. Ms. Iris works with children in general education, counseling groups, and one-on-one situations, including special education minutes. Ms. Hilary is a general education classroom teacher. She is responsible for the well-being of her students academically, socially, physically and developmentally. Ms. Hilary also advocates for families and students to receive the support that they need to feel successful in their first years of school. Finally, Ms. Kathy is the staffing

After her time at the habilitation program, she moved to Colorado. Her first job in Colorado was at the Rise School of Denver, which “provides services to children with and without disabilities through an inclusive education model.” During her time at the Rise School, the executive director of Adams Camp reached out to her and provided a job description that immediately captured her interest. She rapidly transitioned into the Adams Camp environment and found her home. Jordan has the opportunity to serve 350 families every year in both Adventure Camp and other therapeutic programs that is offered by Adams Camp. But, it hasn’t all been an easy road for her at Adams Camp. She voiced, “With an aging population, we are tasked with creating age appropriate services for all. The other challenge is finding more empowering opportunities for our population.” Most people with developmental disabilities can live a long and fulfilled life, but their special needs vary by age. At the moment, Adams Camp prioritizes younger clients in order to prepare them properly for their futures. But because Jordan is so dedicated to improving the lives’ of others, she

Denise McKinley is from Tulare, CA. She attended College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA where she got her Associates degree in Social and Behavioral Studies. Currently she is attending California State University, East Bay where she is working towards her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology with an option in Social Services. She is participating in this program because she wants to educate the youth. She hopes to gain a new experience, by working with a different grade level. In the past Denise has worked with 3rd graders. Where she interned for Wilson Elementary School in Tulare, CA. Her goal is to educate and learn from the community in which she serves. Denise is looking forward to serving Washington Manor Middle School in San Lorenzo, CA.

The participants selected for this study will consist of both male and females 18 years or older. Specific ethic background is not a criterion in participant selection, therefore will not play a role in participant recruitment. Only individuals who have worked in or with the informal class reassignment program at Carmack Elementary will be selected to participate in this study. Carmack Elementary is a public elementary school, which is part of the San Bernardino City Unified School District. The San Bernardino City Unified School District is identified as a large public school district and is located within Southern California. Participants selected for this study will consist of special education teachers and special education school personnel.

Over the course of this semester, I have had a valuable experience observing the children in the special services classroom at Coulter Grove Intermediate School in Maryville, Tennessee. During this observation, I did not only spend time observing the developmentally and physically disabled children that went to the school, but also their neurotypical peers that were put in the classroom as “peer buddies”. Peer buddies acted as friends to the disabled children in the classroom in order to expose the children to those with different abilities and challenges to them. The special services department covers the whole school, but I concentrated my attention on the children in the lower grades. These children were mainly white, but there was one young African-American girl. While the racial divide was uneven, the divide between the genders was around equal. Since the special services classrooms concentrated on children who needed more attention than children who were developing normally, there were more teachers than there is in a typical classroom. The number of teachers in the room varied throughout the day, but there were usually three or four in the classroom at any given time. I spent most of my time observing in the classroom, but also spent time in the cafeteria and playground, which opened me up to even more opportunities observing neurotypical children. In this final application paper, I will summarize my observations and analyze how exactly they match up to what we have

Wy’east Middle School (Wy’east) is the targeted instructional setting for this paper. Wy’east is an urban middle school that serves grades six through eight. Wy’east is a Title 1 school in Step 5 of the school improvement process. Wy’east has a population of approximately 851 students comprised of 449 male and 402 female students. There are 18 different home languages spoken. Approximately 54% of the students qualify for the free and reduced-price lunch program. There are 84 students active in the ELL program (ELLs) and many more that have been exited from the program. There are 146 students in the Special Education program.

In order for students with disabilities to be working towards the same standards as their classmates, they need to receive appropriate accommodations and modifications. To identify how a student will access

The purpose of this Family and Community Engagement Assessment is to analyze my school’s current family and community engagement efforts as related to students with disabilities. When considering the NCLB subgroups, it is important to note that my school does not have any students that receive free lunch or would be considered economically disadvantaged. However, we have a considerably large, growing population of students that are categorized as disabled. 20% of our students have a disability, and this is a frequently discussed topic in my district, due to the number getting larger in recent years, implying that this target group of students are struggling academically at higher and higher rates (State of New Jersey Department of Education, 2014). Although the definition of a disabled student can be broad, the majority of our disabled students are those that have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) due to learning disabilities and receive related special education services of some sort. Our student learning problem involves very large class sizes in special education, including students with a wide range of ability levels.

The idea of children with disabilities, whether they be mild or severe has been a very controversial and misunderstood topic. In the past inclusion has brought about huge changes for not only the students, but also the parents and families of these children, and staff at schools. Teachers and education professionals were the first to really feel the wrath and intimidation of this dramatic shift in education. There were several different factors that were coming about that made it very difficult for schools and teachers, the unorganized mandates were strict and didn’t allow much time for change. “President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) into law in 1975. Since the original passage of the EAHCA, the law has been amended four times and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)” (Conroy, Yell, Katsiyannis, & Collins, 2010, para.1).

The modern classroom has many challenges that face it. Shrinking budgets, less parental involvement, higher expectations, and growing class sizes, just to name a few. If this list was not daunting enough you also have the special needs students that have an array problems in your classroom that need specialized attention, lessons and seating. There are many forms of diverse learners from students who suffer from ADHD to physical disabilities to students with autism to ones that are bullied in school. There are so many things going on in our students lives we sometimes forget they have lives, pressures and disabilities that affect their performance and attitude in our class that have a profound impact on how they learn. For this paper I