Special Education Program Analysis

THESIS STATEMENT Disability labels are used by many professionals as an important unit of the special education process. This is mainly in large regard to how it is conducted in the United States. However, the ordered mandate use of disability labels has been criticized by many parents, schools, and child advocacy groups around the country which have strong concerns due to the unintended, latent, negative repercussions that tend to come from disability labeling (Bernstein, 1976). Disability labeling identifies informative definitions which are used to determine eligibility requirements for education(Bradley, Danielson, Doolittle, ,2005).

This method is called Response to Intervention, or RtI, which is a three-tiered intervention with universal supports at tier one, and more targeted supports at tiers two and three (Franklin et al., 2012). Some school-based interventions employ universal supports in tier one, while others use tier two and tier three supports to provide more targeted intervention and prevention services to children who are identified as at-risk. A study by Cheny, Flower, and Templeton (2008) revealed that RtI is an effective method for identifying students at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders and at preventing these disorders. RtI methods help school officials to identify students who are at-risk for developing disorders early and providing these students with resources to prevent them from

Secondly, an RTI approach has the potential to reduce the number of students referred for special education services while increasing the number of students who are successful within regular education (Dobbins, Kurtts, Rush, 2010). Since an RTI approach helps distinguish between those students whose achievement problems are due to a learning disability and those students whose achievement problems are due to other issues such as lack of prior instruction, referrals for special education evaluations are often reduced (Dobbins, Kurtts, Rush, 2010). RTI techniques have been favored for reducing the likelihood that students from diverse racial, cultural or linguistic backgrounds are incorrectly identified as having a disability (Fletcher, Vaughn, 2009). Finally, parents and school teams alike find that the student progress monitoring techniques utilized in an RTI approach provide more instructionally relevant information than traditional assessments (Buffum, Mattos, Weber,

The students that attend this treatment center are students that cannot attend a regular school setting. The program is established to provide clinical, therapeutic, and educational services to children who experience psychiatric disorders and or are on the autism spectrum.

I spent my fifteen hours observing two special education classrooms at Sulphur Intermediate School. One focused on math and the other on reading, though many of the children I observed worked in both classrooms. The students were in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. Most of the students had mild to moderate disabilities and simply needed extra help in reading, math, or both subjects. They did not stay for the entire day, but rather came for certain periods. During this time, they primarily worked on worksheets designed for the special education classroom as well as working on achieving their goals for accelerated reading. There were a few students who came in for an hour with work from their general education classroom and needed extra help completing their work. There were two students who had more severe disabilities, but they worked with paraprofessionals and did not do the same work as the rest of the class.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law enacted in 1990 and reauthorized in 1997 and 2004. It is designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities by ensuring that everyone receives a free appropriate public education (FAPE), regardless of ability. Furthermore, IDEA strives not only to grant equal access to students with disabilities, but also to provide additional special education services and procedural safeguards.

Thesis: To master the job of a Special Education teacher, it is important to have the right skills such as teaching, communicating, and patience.

Classroom Observation Reflection Abrar Hilal University of Oklahoma Tuesday, February 12 Classroom Observation Reflection Special Education Classroom Report The special education classroom that I observed, included the main teacher, two teacher assistants, and ten students with Developmental Delays. The main teacher uses technology to aid the students to learn easy and faster. A smart board is present in the classroom, but the teacher doesn 't use it often as she prefers to use her own handouts and her specially created activities. I think this is effective as she can modify activities better and so that the students benefit from that personalized touch.

Started the new school year at Triton this fall and I am amazed by the staff and specialists that we have for the children to reach their needs and goals. We have teachers, paraeducators, behaviorists, speech therapists, and occupational therapists. They are all here working together as a team to help these young individuals succeed. Most of the individuals didn’t make it in a traditional school setting because they escape school, get suspended, having erratic behaviors that most teachers can get physically hurt if they are not properly trained. The Ventura County Office of Education provides training and refreshers for CPI training for Nonviolent Crisis Intervention.

At Meachem, there is a student who is punished for leaving the classroom on his own accord, yet when he acts out in class, the teacher will often send him into the hallway. This sends the student a mixed message on appropriate and inappropriate behavior. A way to integrate best practice in this situation is to sit down with the student and teacher and establish ground rules for appropriate behavior. One should also explain to the teacher that a child cannot be reprimanded for behaviors that the teacher is instituting. Additionally, a check in/check out system with a peer mentor may be beneficial to the student in helping them achieve daily goals, such as calming down when upset or completing class work.

Specifically, youths produced significant changes on subscales measuring conduct problems, inattention/hyperactivity, somatic complaints, high-risk behaviors, and interpersonal relationships (Weiner, Schneider, & Lyons, 2009). Encouraging results were also found in an EBP Pilot Program conducted by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in conjunction with The Mental Health Services and Policy Program at Northwestern University. The study found that adolescents in foster care receiving SPARCS were half as likely to run away, and one-fourth less likely to experience placement interruptions compared to a standard of care group. Youths displayed significant improvements in intrapersonal distress, somatic symptoms, interpersonal relations, social problems, and behavioral dysfunction in Youth Outcome Questionnaire (YOQ) scores. In the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index score, adolescents showed a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms such as re-experiencing, avoidance, and hyper-arousal post intervention (Northwestern University,

Part of the evaluation of my program will be done through the psychological evaluations and testing that will be done at the beginning and end of the program. Once the adult or teenager has been referred to the program they will begin by being tested and evaluated to see what type of counseling will be needed and an estimated length required for counseling. With counseling being the main focus of this program the obligation is to be sure each individual receives the counseling that best fits them. The impact of the human trafficking has on a person varies; no two victims are the same. For a victim to be able to move past the trauma we must discover the counseling that will help them the most. We will be able to analysis the evaluations and track the progress of the victim and be confident the

Understanding the history of special education and its impact on individual lives provides educators and families with a positive perspective on student’s academic and social achievement. Special education services were almost non-existent and with the passage of Public Law 94-142 everything changed. As the law continues to evolve, the rules and regulations become more prevalent. Handicapped and disabled students educational careers can now include reading, language arts, math, live skills training, vocational readiness, and various work training programs. Society has significantly become more understanding and aware of people with disabilities since the establishment of Public Law 94-142.

Have you ever think about the similarities and differences between Regular Education and Special Education? Regular education is the term often used to describe the educational experience of typically developing children. By the other hand, Special Education programs are designed for those students who are mentally, physically, socially or emotionally delayed, which places them behind their peers. As you can see, these two provide an example of different types of education. We can find differences such as their educators, academic content and methods of teaching, but we can also find similarities in their academic content.

Classroom management is a term used by teachers to describe the process of ensuring that classroom lessons run smoothly despite disruptive behavior by students. It also implies the prevention of disruptive behavior. It is one of the most difficult tasks or aspect of teaching for many teachers. This single skill has heavily contributed to teacher stress and burnout (Gordon, 2002, Jepson & Forrest, 2006), overall teacher efficacy(Caprarait al., 2003; Edwards it al., 2002), students achievement and teacher performance in the classroom (Edwards it al. ,2002; Milner, 2002; Pavlov, 2007), and has commonly been a major concern of principals regarding new teachers (Principal Perspective, 2004; Williams).