The Ohio Schools are redefining their Special Education program and closing the gap in the achievement of students with disabilities. The Ohio schools believe that achievement gaps are not the same as ability gaps, and the education system is responsible for ensuring that high achievement is an attainable goal for all students. Furthermore, the Ohio schools has put forth that meaningful participation of students with disabilities in state assessment is absolutely essential if every child is to be assured access to challenging curriculum and appropriate instruction.
In 2001, the Ohio schools made a major shift in approaching students with disabilities by revising school policy to require students with disabilities to participate in state assessment. Now, content standards are the focus of instruction for all students in every classroom, and a variety of research-based instructional strategies are aligned with the content standards. A coherent array of interventions, supports and services are used to ensure the success of students with disabilities. The policy now is that assessment is a reflection of instruction and instruction is a reflection of assessment, creating a shared responsibility for the education of students with disabilities.
The Ohio schools’ goals for teaching students with disabilities are standards, capacity, and accountability. They will improve access to, participation in, and progress in the general curriculum, based on the Ohio academic standards, for students with disabilities. Encouraging others to consider students with disabilities as general education children first is the capacity goal — assuming they will achieve, rather than assuming they may not achieve. The goal of accountability is to increase the performance of children with disabilities on state and district assessments from which they previously have been exempt.
The Ohio schools developed the following strategies for improvement:
• Redefine special education at the state level to shift focus away from compliance and paperwork to standards-based instruction for all children.
• Implement a statewide monitoring system designed to assess district/educational compliance with federal and state law applicable to students with disabilities.
• Align the work of the Special Education Regional Resource Center (SERRC) network with the priorities of the Ohio schools, including No Child Left Behind, differentiating instruction, positive behavior support, reading/literacy, and progress monitoring.
• Maximize use of federal and state funds earmarked for children with disabilities.
• Develop and disseminate products, tools and services focused on improving results for student who are at risk, including students with disabilities.
• Use the accountability system to leverage change in policy and practice at the local school level.
The Ohio schools are focusing attention and energy on assisting all students to achieve high academic standards. They are preparing and supporting teachers and administrators to ensure that all students are taught what they need in order to succeed. They are adapting the public education structure in a manner to ensure all students will learn the Ohio schools’ academic standards.
This means fewer but more meaningful goals for all students, effective use of student assessment data and resources, a fundamental shift in focus from what is taught to what children learn, and allowing assessment to drive classroom instruction, which is rigorous and aligned to the standards.
The Ohio schools are creating a culture where each student feels valued and is given the ability and tools to succeed, including the students with disabilities.
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By: Patricia Hawke
Posts Tagged ‘Special Education Program’
Ohio Schools Closing the Gap for Students with Disabilities
March 7th, 2010Catholic Education – When It Comes to Learning Environment, You Reap What You Sow – Part 2
February 21st, 2010
I believe a Catholic education is better and less expensive than a public school education. Here are 2 salient reasons why:
1) Public schools must open their doors to all children by law. They must provide for the very brightest of students with excellent study habits, for the most disadvantaged of students with profound learning disabilities, for the most disadvantaged of students from low-income, government-dependent families, and for the most unlucky of students whose parents have horrific and destructive habits, including alcohol, drug and sex addictions as well as being sometimes unemployed, lazy and stupid.
If you think having to admit any and all levels of students raises a school’s average student SAT scores and associated test scores you are dead wrong.
Catholic schools are generally not set up to deal with students with extraordinary problems; they probably do not have, for example, a special education program and the staffing to support it.
Catholic schools do not have to admit any or all students who apply; they can test students and only admit those students without significant problems. This is why average test scores at Catholic schools will always be significantly higher than in public education schools.
2) Parents who send their children to Catholic schools pay all of the taxes that other parents pay to send their children to public schools, and they also pay the tuition required at Catholic schools, which is a significant investment that could amount to thousands of dollars more every year.
With this kind of monetary commitment from Catholic school parents, you can bet that when there is a problem with their child and the principal calls their parents, a parent is on the school doorstep quick time. Students get straightened out in a hurry by their parents.
Parents and teachers are generally both on the same page in Catholic schools, not allowing the student involved to play one against the other.
Catholic school parents know that if their child becomes a troublemaker because of attitude or behavioral problems, he or she can be kicked out of school or expelled in a heartbeat, and never be allowed to return.
Snotty, bratty, nasty, naughty, abusive, uncooperative children are shown the door so learning can continue to take place in a positive, upbeat, friendly, healthy environment. There are no guns, no alcohol, no drugs, no fighting and no filthy language allowed on campus. Period. Comply or be gone. Be good or be gone.
It is no revelation why the learning environment is more productive and the students are more protected from a liberal, secular progressive society that has all but eliminated God, discipline, accountability and manners from public school education. You reap what you sow.
Public school teachers and administrators cannot discipline children, cannot hold children accountable, cannot touch children and are required to practically parent and baby-sit some students, and we wonder why children do not perform as well in public schools.
(Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a 4-Part Article.)
Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley
By: Ed Bagley
5 IDEA Requirements for Independent Evaluations at Public Expense
January 16th, 2010
Are you the parent of a child with autism or a learning disability that needs an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE), to determine their educational needs or services? Have you heard that parents can ask special education personnel in their school district to pay for an IEE at public expense? This article will discuss the 5 IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) requirements for an IEE at public expense.
1. IDEA 300.502 under (b) (1) states that parents “Have the right under this part to obtain an independent educational evaluation at public expense if the parent disagrees with the evaluation obtained by the public agency.”
2. Special education personnel may ask why you disagree with their evaluation, but they cannot require you to give an explanation of what you disagree with. In fact I recommend not telling them what you disagree with, because they may try and limit the IEE.
3. IDEA 300.502 (b) (2) states “that if a parent requests an independent educational evaluation at public expense, the public agency must without unnecessary delay either; 1. File for a due process hearing to show that its evaluation is appropriate, or 2. Ensure that an independent educational evaluation is provided at public expense. . .”
4. IDEA 300.502 (5) (e) states “If an IEE is at public expense, the criteria under which the evaluation is obtained, including the location of the evaluation and the qualifications of the examiner, must be the same as the criteria that the public agency uses when it initiates an evaluation, to the extent those criteria are consistent with the parent’s right to an IEE.” Many school districts try and put a lot of criteria on parents for IEE’s at public expense. For Example: geographic, cost, name of evaluator must be on a list etc.
5. Except for the criteria in 4 above, school districts may not impose other conditions or timelines on the IEE at public expense.
The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has stated, that school districts may develop criteria for IEE’s at public expense; with these two exceptions.
a. The school district cannot make criteria, that prevent the parent from getting an IEE at public expense. For Example: If you live in a small town, with no available evaluators, and your district states that the evaluation must be done within 30 miles; it would be impossible for you to find an evaluator. Or the special education personnel make the cost so low that you cannot find anyone to evaluate your child. This may prevent you from getting the IEE at public expense, so stand up to special education personnel.
b. School districts must allow parents, to prove that their child’s circumstances are unique, and require a waiver of the criteria. For Example: If you feel that your child needs to be seen by a Clinical Psychologist, the cost is probably going to be more than a psychologist would charge. If you can prove unique circumstances, why your child needs to be evaluated by a Clinical Psychologist, then the school district is supposed to pay for the Clinical Psychologist. Whether a school district is willing to do that, without a due process hearing, depends on your school district.
Remember any criteria that a school district makes for an IEE at public expense must not prevent the parent from getting the IEE; and they must allow for waiver of criteria if the child’s circumstances require it. A good independent evaluation can benefit your child by determining their disabilities or educational and related service needs.
By: JoAnn Collins
