|
Educational Support
This section devoted to sharing information and resources regarding the exceptionalities of all student learners. The goal of education is to inspire a child to be a life long learner. Educational Supports can only strengthen and enrich this process. Supports like assistive technology and related services or resources like understanding due process procedures and post secondary transition planning can make the difference in appropriate IEP development. This section only taps the surface of the resources available on the internet but offers families, students and districts a starting point for beginning the meaningful discussions around meeting the needs of diverse learners.
All Ohio school districts are required to provide a free appropriate public education [FAPE] for children with disabilities in accordance to the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Education Act and the Operating Standards for Ohio Schools Serving Children with Disabilities. The Office of Exceptional Children has developed a new website link that provides all forms and documents that districts and families may need called EdResourcesOhio.org .
- Accommodations are changes in how a student accesses information and demonstrates learning. Accommodations do not substantially change the instructional level, content, or performance criteria. The changes are made in order to provide a student with equal access to learning and equal opportunity to show what he or she knows and can do. Accommodations can include changes in the following:
- presentation and/or response format and procedures
- instructional strategies
- time/scheduling
- environment
- equipment
- architecture
Additional resources are:
- ADA [American with Disabilities Act] gives federal civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications.
- Alternative Assessment in Ohio is designed for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. The alternate assessment is a collection of evidence that shows student performance. This collection of evidence documents grade-level content but reflects an alternate level of achievement for each individual student.
- Assistive Technology
- Assistive Technology Device is defined as any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability.
- Assistive Technology Service is defined as any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device.
- AT links:
- Bullying Guidelines The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) offers a variety of bullying prevention resources for families, schools and communities. These resources include a model anti-bullying policy and related presentation materials, online training, Web information and onsite workshops. Districts can take advantage of these tools for help in meeting their legal requirement to establish a policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation and bullying.
- The State Board of Education's Model Anti-Harassment, Anti-Intimidation and Anti-Bullying Policy
- Anti-bullying Policies: Promoting a Positive School Climate (PowerPoint)
- Fact Sheet for School Personnel (PDF) –
- Fact Sheet for Parents of Teens (PDF)
- Fact Sheet for Parents of Young Children (PDF)
- Differentiated Instruction is to recognize students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preference in learning and interests, and to react responsively. Differentiated instruction is a process to teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in the same class. The intent of differentiating instruction is to maximize each student's growth and individual success by instruction is to maximize each student's growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is and assisting in the learning process
- Disability Catagories - IDEA identifies 13 Disability Catagories under which children ages 3-21 maybe be found eligible for services.
- Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3 that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The Autism Scholarship Program for 2010-2011 begins July 1, 2010, and continues through June 30, 2011.
- Cognitive Disability means significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
- Emotional Disturbance means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
- An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors;
- An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;
- Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;
- A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; and
- A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
The term includes schizophrenia. It does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.
- Hearing Impairment means impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness. Deafness - means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, and that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
- Orthopedic Impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.), impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.), and impairments from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).
- Other Health Impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia, and adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
- Specific Learning Disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of mental retardation; of emotional disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
- Speech or Language Impairment means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
- Traumatic Brain Injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, or by other medical conditions, including but not limited to stroke, anoxia, infectious disease, aneurysm, brain tumors and neurological insults resulting from medical or surgical treatments. The injury results in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries, as well as to other medical conditions that result in acquired brain injuries. The injuries result in impairments in one or more areas such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
- Visual Impairment including Blindness means impairment in vision, that even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
- Discipline - The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) contains safeguards to keep children with special needs from being victimized by school disciplinary measures.
- Due Process is a requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that sets forth regulatory basis for a formal set of policies and procedures to be implemented by schools and districts for children in special education programs. Due process is intended to ensure that children with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education. These policies and procedures are typically described in a school district's procedural safeguards statement and local policies. Procedural safeguards are sometimes referred to as parent rights statements
o NICHY – the due process hearing, in detail
- Extended School Year [ESY] services are special education and related services that are provided by the school district beyond the traditional school year, usually during the summer. Your school district should provide.
- Modifications are changes in what a student is expected to learn. The changes are made to provide a student various opportunities to participate meaningfully and productively along with other students in classroom and school learning experiences. Modifications might include changes in the following:
- instructional level
- content
- performance criteria
- Related Services help children with disabilities benefit from their special education by providing extra help and support in needed areas, such as speaking or moving. Related services are developmental, corrective and other supportive services that are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education.
- Section 504 is a federal law designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Section 504 provides: "No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . . .".
- Transition helps students with disabilities to prepare for transition from high school to the adult world there are a series of pathways IEP service providers follow. The IEP team will incorporate a defined transition plan into the IEP beginning at age 14, which will become more extensive as the student reaches age 16. Once begun, transition planning drives much of the IEP. Assessments, goals, services, courses of study, post secondary education, employment and training are some components that contribute to the development of transition plans. Here are steps the IEP team will follow:
- The IEP team will discuss future planning and develop a vision of immediate and postsecondary life plans.
- Age appropriate transition assessments will become a part of the academic achievement and functional performance descriptions.
- A statement identifying future plans after high school will be updated annually.
- Proposed coursework for secondary school will be a part of the IEP and reflect the immediate post school goals.
- Measurable postsecondary goals in employment, education, training and when needed, independent living, are supported by aligned annual IEP goals.
- Transition services areas, needs and activities, service providers and timelines for service delivery are identified and reflected in the IEP.
This emphasis on long term transitional planning and services should assist each child to reach their highest potential. Transition Checklist Form B [pdf]
Summary of Performance
Upon graduation from high school, students served by an IEP are provided with a Summary of Performance [SOP]. This document briefly summarizes each child's needs and strengths and identifies supports that will be of value to find success in adult living, education, training, and employment.
- Twice Exceptional is a word used to describe students who are identified gifted and also have disability identification.
- Universal Design for Learning helps educators meet the unique needs of a diverse classroom
|
|
