STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Created June, 2007
IDEA ensures that:
- Students with disabilities have meaningful access to the general curriculum through improvements to the individualized education program (IEP)
- Students with disabilities are included to general education reform efforts related to accountability and high expectations, which focus on improved teaching and learning
Role of regular education teacher
- At least one regular education teacher must be included in the IEP meeting if the student "is or may be participating in the general education environment."
- Play and active role in decisions regarding interventions, strategies, and appropriate school personnel to assist the student in the general education environment
- Implement all components of the IEP, as applicable
- Assist in the development of accommodations and modifications necessary to facilitate the student's success in the general curriculum
Accommodations
- Accommodations must be implemented as outlined in the IEP. Any staff responsible for the education of a student with a disability is also responsible for the implementation of accommodations outlined in the IEP.
- Accommodations should be utilized to minimize the impact of the student's disability in his/her learning and performance.
- Accommodations must also be outlined for state-and district-wide assessments.
Types of accommodations
- Accommodations may supplement or adapt the general education curriculum by adding content enabling students to achieve a deeper understanding or higher level of mastery than is called for in the curriculum guide.
- Accommodations may infuse content from an alternative curriculum in order to give students the prerequisite skills they may be lacking.
- Accommodations may select fewer objectives, deleting those for which the student lacks necessary prerequisite skills.
- Accommodations may include teaching parts of objectives, or steps leading up to mastery of certain objectives.
- Accommodations may include varying instructional approaches or altering assessment methods to reflect student strengths and compensate for weaknesses.
- Accommodations may include selecting objectives from an earlier grade level within the curriculum.
- Accommodations may include supplementing the general education curriculum with other instructional components such as Braille instruction, sign language, orientation and mobility training.
- Accommodations may include accommodating for skills that the student does not have and is not likely to quickly acquire.
- Accommodations may include replacing general curriculum with alternative curriculum that better meets the needs of students with severe disabilities.
Assessment accommodations
- Assessment accommodations should be allowed if it:
- Is used routinely by the student in the instructional environment.
- Is based on the student's instructional need.
- Doesn't give students with disabilities an advantage over other students.
- Doesn't change the nature of what is being tested.
- Cannot threaten test security or the integrity of the test.
Assessment accommodation types
- Types of assessment accommodations include:
- Administration accommodations -Changes in how the assessment is administered (read test to student, large print, Braille, etc.)
- Timing accommodations -Changes in duration, timing or scheduling of an assessment (extended time, multiple sessions, etc.)
- Response accommodations -Changes in the way students are expected to respond to assessment materials (use of scribe, word processor, calculator, etc.)
- Setting accommodations -Changes in location or physical environment in which an assessment is administered (individual, small group, etc.)
For the future
- Special Education law is requiring a move to more inclusion of special education students into regular education classrooms.
- Special education services will no longer be a separate place for learning for most special education students, but a set of services and supports designed to help individuals be successful in the general education environment.
- IEPs will begin focusing on general education curriculum with accommodations and modifications necessary to facilitate a student's success in the general curriculum.
- All teachers need to be prepared to have more special education students in the regular classroom.
If you have any questions concerning this presentation, please contact:
Erin Mades, Special Services Director
1444 Old Highway 66
Bourbon, MO 65441
(573) 732- 3293
[email protected]