M2U4A2 - Pei Yi Liu
Special Education Referral Process
By Pei Yi Liu
Why do we need special education system?
Everyone is different, no one is the same in this world. For students who cannot acquire
knowledge successfully in the traditional classroom or who have physical, emotional,
learning, communication , behavior, or developmental disability, they need to customize their personalized learning program, which is also called the Individualized Education Program
(IEP). Thus, the goal of special education is to provide an individualized learning style for
these students who need extra help to meet their academic potential.
What is an IEP (Individualized Education Program)?
"IEP comes from the federal special education law or the individuals with Disability
Education Act" said Laura. In a word, IEP is a written document for parents, schools and
teachers to understand the students' future, present and past achievement, whether the
students achieved their academic goals, or what is the next need for the students to
overcome in the future. In this way, parents, schools, and teachers can have a big picture of how to develop and assist the students.
(From The National Center for Learning Disabilities)
What is Special Education referral process?
How do we determine a student who needs Individualized Education Plan (IEP) to assist
him or her? There are few processes for teachers, schools and parents to identify their
students or child. All the information is summarized from ProjectIDEA.
(http://www.projectidealonline.org/v/special-education-referral-process/)
Phrase I: Recognition
• When teachers find a student who has academic, social, emotional, behavioral, or
physical problem, then teachers needs to meet with parents to discuss the situation.
• Teachers need to gather all the long-term evidence such as classwork to confirm
the student's problem with parents. Teachers need to carry out a plan to cooperate
with parents to deal with those problems.
• After a period of time, if the problem cannot be solved, then the teachers can inform
parents or guardians to ask for help and get a school-based pre-referral team.
Phrase II: Pre-referral
• The pre-referral intervention in the classroom is to identify and monitor
whether students really need to apply special education service.
• The people who need to participate in pre-referral intervention includes
school teachers, parents or guardians, special education teachers, administrators,
other general education teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, and any other
adults involved in the education of the student.
• If after the interventions, the students still do not improve performance, then the
students will be referred for a determined assessment from a special education
service.
Phrase III: Referral for Special Education Evaluation
• School general education teachers, special education teachers, counselors, and
administrators, child's parents' or legal guardians, any other involved in child's
education will determine the referral of special education services.
• Once the referral for special education is provided, the school needs to get parents or
guardians to promise to begin the referral process evaluation.
Phrase IIII: Special Education Evaluation
• the school psychologist, special educator, general educator, parents or legal guardians,
related service providers, medical doctors need to gather together to evaluate the
student who need special education service 60 days after referral.
• The evaluation tools need to be acceptable and reliable.
Phrase X: Eligibility
• In 30 days the evaluation will determine if the child has a disability that impacts his or
her academic performance or the child needs special education service to assist his or
her academic process. If the child really needs this special education service, then
IEP team will be formed to develop an Individualized Education Program(IEP) for
the student.
• If the child does not meet the standard of special education service, but needs help to
access academic performance, the school needs to carry out a plan to support this
kind of student.
Phrase XI: IEP Meeting (IEP and LRE)
• The IEP is a legal contract between schools and parents that describe the special
education service.
• The contract should basically include students background information:
• student's weakness and strengths
• students' performance in the classroom and formal assessments
• the reasons for the student to require a special education service
• The date to begin the IEP and how long it will take
• IEP goals will update, monitor or review according to student's progress.
• Whether students need special assistive technology to support
• Whether students need special transportation
• Whether there is a desire to participate in extracurricular activities with non-disabled classmates
• The report for parents or guardians that addressed includes:
a. which specific subjects or areas need special education services
b. benchmark of current levels of academic achievement and Functional
Performance (PLAAFP) statements
c. learning goals every year
d. evaluation methods, updated every year
e. whether the student meets the annual goals
• A Behavior intervention Plan if necessary
• If students are older than 16 years old, the plans and activities will be modified.
• The signatures for all members included parents, Least Restrictive Environment
(LRE), schools, the IEP team and relevant people.
Phrase XII: IEP Implementation
• Once the evaluation is done, and signed by parents, schools and teachers. Then IEP
team needs to ensure the IEP is implement as intended.
• Schools need to provide valuable documents such as benchmarks and annual goals for discussion.
• The IEP document addresses the objectives for the schools and students to achieve.
Phrase XIII: Reevaluation
• Discuss the positives and negatives of the current IEP for the upcoming school year
• The IEP team can hold a formal evaluation every three years. If necessary, the IEP
team can evaluate frequently.
• If young children have developed without a speaking problem, then the IEP team will
free this student and file this document.
Interview with subject teachers and psychologist
In order to identify and monitor more about the special education system and
the referral process, I interviewed two teachers in my school. One is school
psychologist who has worked in America for 5 years. Another is a regular teacher
who works in my school. The interview questions are shown below.
School psychologist:
Q1: How is a student identified for special education referral?
"Usually it's the teachers that email me and point out a few things they think might be a
reason for special education referral. We then meet in person and go over what the teacher sees. Sometimes it's an ESL/comprehension issue, but a lot of the time they make good
judgment calls."
Q2: Who takes responsibility for the progress of the child before and after the referral?
"Our department does. We're called student services, and we work with students on a wide range of issues. For identifying students who have special needs, I ask the student a series of questions and observe their behavior over a period of several months."
Q3: What is the school administration's directive for special education?
"Unfortunately, our school "doesn't admit" special needs students, but it does make
allowances for emotionally disturbed students if the student can show improvement.
However, since it is a new school and ownership is in a race to make profit, we admit over
1000 new students every year. Some students who have special needs enter in anyways. We do have a lot of students who struggled in public school due to undiagnosed cognitive
deficiencies, and so it is on our teachers to figure out who those students are. We cannot make an official IEP in China, since when the students go to America for study in
Universities, it won't follow them. Our school's policy is to ask the students to leave. This is never an easy process. After talking with the teachers many of them feel like we have some students who have mild ADHD or ADD, and they come and talk to us about teaching
strategies for trying to teach these students. the teachers know the schools policy but out of their own compassion they want to try and teach those students anyways.
It's heartbreaking, but I do what I can. I'm a teacher, so I feel like it's my duty to try
and help these students, but also there's so little I can do.
We have done good work with students with emotional disturbances. Usually, we
can work with those students and through counseling and medication we can help those
students, since the nature of their problem can be temporary."
Q4: What provisions are made for students identified for special education?
"None, unfortunately. Their parents are notified and the student is told to leave. Our
school is viewed as one of the better schools in the area, and many parents lie on the
application form about any disabilities their children have. "
Q5: What is the level of parent involvement in referral process and special education?
"They should be told, but sometimes they are just told their child can't go to our school and there's no reason given. I've heard about parents getting violent upon being told their
child might have special needs. It's really sad how there's so little emphasis put on this in
China."
Q6: Are the parents usually supportive of the decision/the process?
"Some are, some aren't. It depends if we can help their child or not. For emotional
disturbances the parents tend to be very supportive. For everything else not really, since it means their child can't go to our school anymore.
Regular teacher: (same school, a private school in China)
Q7: What are the signs of a struggling student?
"Usually it's obvious but not always. They can't complete their work, they don't do
well on particular assessment types, or they exhibit behavior which could be associated with
some form of special needs. I had a student who could not answer a question if I asked to. She would look around at other students hoping for some information, to which they would
tell her the question in Chinese. This to me looked like a student who just did not
understand English, and so I made arrangements for her to be in ESL. That turned out to
be the wrong call; she was deaf but refused to wear her hearing aids. After a few months of counseling she wore her hearing aid, and turned out to be an amazing writer. I felt terrible after that and made an effort to study the different types of special needs and what behaviors they exhibit."
Q8: How can differentiated instruction be used to assist students who are struggling?
"We try to be as inclusive as possible, and this is the best way for students with
special needs to work. However, most of my differentiation practices are based around
English ability. I teach grade 11, and I have students who can't read or write beyond what a grade 2 student could, yet I also have students who are advanced enough in their English
comprehension they are able to tackle university level readings. With that in mind, I have to create lessons that are flexible enough to be useful for both. Sometimes this is practically
impossible, but I try. A lot of group work works well.
Q9: How do you determine if a student should be referred to special education services?
I observe their behavior in class, the kind of work they hand in, and I confer with
the student's other teachers. If I see something really out of the ordinary I go straight to the school psychologist, but I know his hands are tied for doing much aside from getting the
student kicked out. That's "the nuclear" option unfortunately. He's a good guy and he tries
to help the kids, but unless it's something that can be "fixed" (temporary) the end result is
the student gets kicked out. I don't start up paperwork with him unless I believe the student cannot pass my class due to their needs. It's not how it should be but it's what it is.
My reflection about "How do I help students who is struggling in my classroom?"
After interviewing two professional educators in my school, what I recognize is
"Every child is a tiny seed, each growth process is different, it depends on how much sun,
water, air and nutrient they get to grow up." Hence, teachers need to be qualified with
professional knowledge to use differentiated instruction for different needs students.
There are many differentiated instruction methods that teachers can use, however,
which one is effective for students, I think that is teacher's duty to apply it and observe it and reflect it on his or her teaching process. Using my class for an example, I have 60 students, 5 of them have mild ADHD problems, 1 of them has a behavior problem and 1 of them has a developmental disability problem.
What I do to help my developmental disability student is I put a "traffic light" on the
door, it shows three different targets with three different colors: (1) Green light: I totally
understand it and I can apply it. (2) orange light: I get there but still with some struggles.
(3) Red light: I totally need help and I can't understand it. When students leave the
classroom, they need to put their name card by the traffic light. It helps me to understand if
he understands or comprehends today's learning objectives. If he does not, as a teacher, I
need to observe him more and carry out a personal plan for him to achieve.
For my ADHD students, I read and research a lot of sources to understand their
difficulties and how to guide them. Among many ADHD teaching strategies, I chose few to
implement in my classroom.
1) Assign specific seat for them. I assigned student who has ADHD sit in front of me so I can observe him any time or I assign him or her sit with a quiet peer.
2) Provide more colorful videos, pictures or graphic organizer for them to
understand. Some of them have concentration problems, they cannot focus
on me for more than 10 minutes. Thus, I use videos to attract their attention.
3) Use a project-based learning approach. I design a small project for each
day's learning objective. They can output their understanding by doing
experiments, oral presentations, or making a play.
4) Integrate class projects or class work with technology.
For my behavior problem students, the strategy I use is
1) Be calm. I set up a cool down chair for my student who has a behavior problem or who has an emotional problem. I ask him or her sit there for a while until he or she is calm.
2) Listen and share. Then I listen to his or her problem and to analyze his problem or share my experience with him or her to guide him or her how to deal with
their problem.
3) Be encouraging. In the end, I encourage him or her and we make an
agreement in the classroom.
4) Compliment them when they do a good job. If he or she does a good job in the class, I compliment him or her immediately.
In sum, some ADHD students do not have obvious external characteristics, thus,
teachers face this kind of student in the classroom frequently, even if they are not identified. A professional teacher with the knowledge of special education can support to reveal,
diagnose, identity, and bring out the plan for students. That is why teaching is an important profession.
References
The National Center for Learning Disabilities.(2012, August 30). What Is an IEP?. Retrieved April 15, 2017,from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2XlAWcMAUk
Understand Special Education.com Understanding the IEP Process. Retrieved from http://www.understandingspecialeducation.com/IEP-process.html
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