SEPAC Meeting Report, April 20, 2004
Updated May 28, 2004 by Bonnie Marshall
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Dear SEPAC Members:

I had planned on discussing the following two questions at our SEPAC Meeting, Tuesday night, but the "legal discussion" ran till 8:30 p.m. and I was obligated to assist the Superintendent's office regarding the school vote.

Previously, I indicated that an investigation of the below areas would occur.  In addition, Special Education Team Leaders were directed on April 16th to review the matter and take appropriate measures to rectify.  Since my last report, I offer the following:

Question:
Several parents have witnessed that the inclusion classes are not grading accurately.  The same test is repeated several times in order for a child to get a passing grade.  This area needs to be investigated.

Answers:
1.) It is certainly not the practice of the Department to repeat the same test so students can receive a passing grade.  Having said that, it appears that there have been instances of this happening.

2.) In many respects this is more of a General Education question and concerned parents of both general and special education students should request to meet and discuss the matter with the building principal.  In addition, special education parents should also call the matter to the  Special Education Team Leaders' attention and request that she/he be present at the meeting with the building principal.

3.) I have requested to be on the Agenda of the next entire principals' meeting to discuss this issue and formulate a corrective action.

4.) I have placed this matter as an agenda item for discussion at next weeks Elementary Principals' Advisory Committee meeting.

Question:
Teachers and parents want more help in understanding and implementing strategies/methods in dealing with preventing behavior occurrences.  A suggestion was to have a behavioral specialist who could help all teachers (not just for Autism).  Another suggestion was team level training meetings, especially for General Education staff (art teacher, librarians). 

Answer:
This request was discussed at our May 19th monthly psychologists meeting.  Toward that end, it was the consensus that the best strategy for addressing this issue would be to offer In-service Workshops this summer and fall to both teachers and parents. 

Four psychologists all expressed a strong interest in facilitating these workshops.  I plan on identifying two presenting psychologists by next week and meet with Mary Ward to work out arrangements to offer a series of joint (e.g., parent and staff) workshops this summer that will focus on preventing disruptive behavior, including presenting fictitious case studies with accompanying strategies and/or behavioral techniques.

Question:
In 1-12-1 classes - mainstreaming is restricted because of scheduling.   This should not be a factor when allowing a child to be mainstreamed in certain areas.  This area needs to be investigated further.  

Answer:
While NCLB and the State Standards of Learning have raised the bar relative to academic rigor and student expectations, nothing has changed relative to disabled students' right to be placed in the LRE (e.g., procedures to assure that, to the maximum extent appropriate, students with disabilities are educated with non-disabled students and the removal of disabled students from the regular education environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in the regular classroom with the use of supports and services cannot be satisfactorily achieved).  So, while the general education classroom curriculum may be on the average getting more rigorous, it does not prevent disabled students from accessing the program.  Thus, the answer to this question, I believe lies in the general education teachers' capacity to effectively work with learner variance through differentiated instruction.

Toward that end my strategy is as follows:

1.  Target first Art, Music and Inclusion Teachers, both Special and General for participation this summer in a series of In-service Workshops on differentiated instruction (presently we are offering such workshops for grades 3 through 6 Inclusion Teachers via Dr. Edward Pieper, implementing the University of Kansas Learning Strategies). 

2.  Continue workshops this fall in conjunction with Dr. Jaeger, principals and Cecilia Rumsley (SETRIC Coordinator, BOCES).  Focus would be on core subjects and/or teachers (e.g., Reading/ELA, Math, Social Studies) and Inclusion teachers.   

Regards
Dr. Raymond Healey
Assistant Superintendent, Special Education & Student Services