1. Individualized Education Plans VS. Response to Intervention EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

2. PRO’S Creates an opportunity for teachers, parents, school administrators, related service personnel, and even students to work together to improve educational results for children with disabilities. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

3. The Basic Special Education Process Under IDEA Step 1. Child is identified as possibly needing special education and related services. Step 2. Child is evaluated. Step 3. Eligibility is decided. Step 4. Child is found eligible for services. Step 5. IEP meeting is scheduled. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

4. IEP’s measure progress as well as provide services to students who have learning disabilities Step 6. IEP meeting is held and the IEP is written. Step 7. Services are provided. Step 8. Progress is measured and reported to parents. Step 9. IEP is reviewed. Step 10. Child is reevaluated. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

5. How teaching and accommodations promote a child’s growth who has learning disabilities The child's special education teacher contributes important information and experience about how to educate children with disabilities. Because of his or her training in special education, this teacher can talk about such issues as: how to modify the general curriculum to help the child learn; the supplementary aids and services that the child may need to be successful in the regular classroom and elsewhere; EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

6. Promote growth cont’d. how to modify testing so that the student can show what he or she has learned; and other aspects of individualizing instruction to meet the student's unique needs. Beyond helping to write the IEP, the special educator has responsibility for working with the student to carry out the IEP. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

7. He or she may: work with the student in a resource room or special class devoted to students receiving special education services; team teach with the regular education teacher; and work with other school staff, particularly the regular education teacher, to provide expertise about addressing the child's unique needs. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

8. Special Factors To Consider Depending on the needs of the child, the IEP team needs to consider what the law calls special factors. These include: If the child’s behavior interferes with his or her learning or the learning of others, the IEP team will consider strategies and supports to address the child’s behavior. If the child has limited proficiency in English, the IEP team will consider the child’s language needs as these needs relate to his or her IEP. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

9. OHI Factors cont’d. If the child is blind or visually impaired, the IEP team must provide for instruction in Braille or the use of Braille, unless it determines after an appropriate evaluation that the child does not need this instruction. If the child is deaf or hard of hearing, the IEP team will consider his or her language and communication needs. This includes the child’s opportunities to communicate directly with classmates and school staff in his or her usual method of communication (for example, sign language). EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

10. Augmentative devices If the child has communication needs, the IEP team must consider those needs. The IEP team must always consider the child’s need for assistive technology devices or services. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

11. IDEA 2004 requires that an IEP must be written according to the needs of one student IEP’s must include the following: the child's present levels of academic and functional performance measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals how the child's progress toward meeting the annual goals are to be measured and reported to the parents special education services, related services, and supplementary aids to be provided to the child EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

12. to include cont’d. Schedule of services to be provided, including when the services are to begin, the frequency, duration and location for the provision of services Program modifications or supports provided to school personnel on behalf of the child Explanation of any time the child will not participate along with nondisabled children Accommodations to be provided during state and district assessments that are necessary to the measuring child's academic and functional performance EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

13. to include cont’d. Additionally, when the student is 16 years old, a statement of post-secondary goals and a plan for providing what the student needs to make a successful transition is required. ( this transitional plan can be created at an earlier age if desired.) IEP's also include other pertinent information found necessary by the team, such as a health plan or a behavior plan for some students. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

14. Cons of RTI One criticism of the RTI method suggests that RTI is really a means for limiting access to Special Education services. The intervention model puts the focus on individual teachers to prove that they have done everything possible in the classroom before the child can be assessed. Because the RTI model is often implemented across years, assessment and classification of a student can be unreasonably delayed or never provided when each new year the student has a new teacher and a new RTI plan. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

15. Critics charge that requiring an extensive and lengthy paper trail prior to evaluation of a child is primarily used as a bureaucratic means for delaying that evaluation. They point to the fact that the cost of special education services is a powerful incentive for districts to systematically delay services to as many children as possible as long as possible. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

16. An additional criticism of this program is associated with the model that it replaces Because the RTI model only results in evaluation of the most critical failures in the regular classroom, students in Special Education classrooms are less likely to succeed generally. The previous model which addressed discrepancy cast a net to students who could be said to possess areas of relative strength and were more likely to benefit from services. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

17. Emotional Cost Another con of RTI, if interventions don't work, or aren't implemented correctly/consistently a lot of time can be wasted, and the student slips farther behind peers. This leads to the student having a lowered self esteem, feelings of stupidity or worthlessness. The ramifications reach far into the future! EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

18. PERSPECTIVE If there are no accommodations for students with learning disabilities, then that will lead students into failure. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

19. KEY (or bottom line) What do we as educators, need to know in order to shape our students instructional experiences so they are able to learn, most effectively and most efficiently? EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

20. “On a positive note” or “The format of an IEP after the RTI process!” For certain students, as an ESE team develops an IEP, evidence from the RTI process may provide greater clarity, more specific data, and increased focus for developing strengths and needs, writing measurable present levels of educational performance and annual goals, and measuring progress toward goals. Because the RTI process takes a considerable amount of time during the students year, the IEP process is working on guidance that incorporates RTI concepts into the writing of IEP’s. EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha

21. References U.S. Department of Education, July 2000, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) regarding Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) for children with disabilities, including preschool-aged children. http://www.ritap.org/rti/about/faq.php http://www.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html Response to Intervention (RTI) vs. the Discrepancy Model, 2007, LDinfo Publishing, http://www.ldinfo.com/rti.htmhttp://www.ldinfo.com/rti.htm EEX 5051 Nelson & Rocha