PTA Special Education Committee: Special Education Flexible Service Delivery Model

Specialized Academic Instruction (“SAI”)Michael Keller, Ed.D., Director, Special EducationSpring 2014

Agenda What Do High Performing School Districts Do Well in

Special Education Programming?

Federal and State movement towards Results Driven Accountability State Performance Plan Targets- Least Restrictive

Environment

What outcomes do you want for your child?

It’s a Service, not a Place: Specialized Academic Instruction (“SAI”)

Other models Irvine Unified Travis Unified Redondo Beach Unified

Effective Practices in High Performing Districts

Inclusion and access to the core curriculum

Collaboration between special education and general education teachers

Continuous assessment and use of Response to Instruction (RtI)

Targeted Professional Development

(Huberman, M; Navo, M.; Parrish, T, 2012 in Journal of Special Education Leadership)

California State Performance Plan (Indicator 5)

Least Restrictive Environment Targets: 76% or more of students will be removed from

regular class less than 21 percent of the day No more than 9% will be removed from regular

class more than 60 % of the day; and No more than 3.8% are served in public or private

separate schools, residential placements, or homebound placements

Least Restrictive Environment Indicators of inclusion: Percent of time in

General Education (June 2013 CASEMIS):

Time in General

Education

Percent of Students

SPP 2012-2013 Targets

Difference

> 80% ~61% (n= 636)

76% (n=790) +154

< 40% ~20% (n= 208)

9% (n=93) -115

Public/Private Separate Schools;

Residential Placements, or Home/Hospital

Placements

~1% (n=8) <3.9% (n=40) 32

What outcomes do you want

from your child’s

educational experience?

How are we making program shifts as a District? Special Education Advisory Group (SEA-G)

Broad-based professional stakeholder group

Many perspectives on what works and what does not work in special education modeling and service delivery

We are comprehensively Assessing needs Establishing goals Designing an implementation plan Amplifying results

Where are we now?SEA-G Key Questions:

How do we effectively meet the needs of students with disabilities across the spectrum of mild to severe?

How aligned are systems across LAUSD (between schools and vertically from elementary, middle, and high school) in the areas of: Pre-Referral Process (e.g., RtI; SST) Special education service delivery: Collaboration, RSP, SDC,

etc. What are the district’s areas of need and what is working well

in our special education program design?

SEA-G Discussion Outcomes

Strengths Needs

• Regional ABA/Autism Programs

• Consultation from NPA (Autism Partnership)

• Collaboration between SLP and CDC

Preschool• Cross-level Student

Opportunities• Adult Transition

Program and Preschool Program• District and Site

Administrative Support• Collaboration at LAHS

• Feedback, both Qualitative and Quantitative

• System around program evaluation• Staffing/vacancies

• Professional Development: para-educator training, sped teachers, SLPs, School

Psychologists• Collaboration between general

education/special education• General Education professional development

on Special Education• ABA training for all

• Professional Modeling for IAs• Gen-ed buy-in on collaboration model at

LAHS• Right student in right intervention

• Mental health supports• Alignment of programs/services

Los Alamitos Unified School District:Two Key Prongs

Stodden, R. 2013. Special Education: A Service, Not a Place. The Special Edge.

Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI)- CDE, 2011 Instructional delivery model (service), not a “program”

Linked to measures of inclusion (% of time in general program)

Districts are obligated to offer full continuum of special education services, defined at the local level

Flexible service delivery model: Collaborative Models:

Consultation/collaboration in the general education classroom Co-teaching model School-wide intervention model Core with supplemental special education support model Intensive core program supervised by qualified specialist Intensive special education support in one or more areas

What might the shift look like in LAUSD? Preschool

Expand options to current SDC model Keep Regional Autism/ABA program

K-5 Change the language of RSP/SDC “placement designations”

New terms for flexible service delivery: SAI Collaborative-Inclusion Learning Center Co-Teaching

7-12 Co-Teaching Increase collaboration and co-teaching opportunities Increase opportunities for support in “a-g” college prep course sequence Meaningful vocational, independent living activities that link to Adult Transition Program

Adult Transition Program (ATP) Linkage to premier transition programming across Orange County Community college opportunities