Families as Partners in Evaluating a Student
Identifying and Screening Students
-Begins when a parent, teacher, or other professional want stop consider whether a student is eligible for special education services
-Screening is just a brief assessment, not in depth
-When a student has a referral, it's a request for an evaluation
-Evaluation is deciding if the student has a disability and what their educational needs are
Implementing Prereferral and Response to Intervention Strategies
Prereferral: occurs when a parent, teacher, or other professional notices if a student is having trouble socially, academically, or behaviorally
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a prereferral practice that focuses on identifying, implementing, and evaluating interventions to help students
Key characteristics:
-Continous monitoring of a student's progress
-High quality, research based instruction and behavioral support
-Levels of more intensive interventions: as a students needs increase, the amount of resources and support also increases
Parent involvement in prereferral has become more common in recent years. Including parents in prereferral or RTI practices can strengthen the school's partnership with parents.
Initiating an Reviewing a Referral
-A formal referral is a request to school administrators for an evaluation of the student to see if they have a disability
Referrals happen prior to evaluations
-Schools that use RTI determine if the student needs special education services only after the student shows no progress with early interventions
-IDEA doesn't require parental consent for referral but some states and local educational agencies do
Notifying Parents and Obtaining Their Consent
Typically one member of the special services team is supposed to communicate with parents during the evaluation process
IDEA requires that parents are notified when the school proposes or refuses to initiate or change the students identification, evaluation, educational placement or services
Obtaining Parents' Consent
IDEA requires educators to secure the parents' consent for each evaluation, reevaluation, or special education placement
The book suggests using multiple forms of communication, as face-to-face communications are most effective in building partnerships and trust with parents
Collecting Data and Other Information
Parents should be involved in evaluation processes to help guide decisions
The book suggests multiple ways to create partnerships with parents and other family members:
-include them in decisions about the time and place of evaluation
-identify the aspects of the child's learning and development that need evaluation
-help gather information
-confirm and interpret results
By sharing the family story, expressing goals and strengths, helping administer evaluations, collaborating to construct portfolio assessments, and working with professionals to have a transdisciplinary evaluation, families will create effective partnerships
Person-Centered Planning
-Develops plans based on a family's expectations
-Uses the student's dreams, interests, strengths, preferences, and capacities as foundation for all decisions
-Often emphasizes inclusive educational programs and opportunities for the student that lead to more friendships and social activities
Discussing the diagnosis
-Consider how the family feels about certain labels, some may be more sensitive to labels than others
-Explain the diagnosis the most straightforward way possible
-Use non technical language
-Share resources with the families for more information regarding the disability
Identifying and Screening Students
-Begins when a parent, teacher, or other professional want stop consider whether a student is eligible for special education services
-Screening is just a brief assessment, not in depth
-When a student has a referral, it's a request for an evaluation
-Evaluation is deciding if the student has a disability and what their educational needs are
Implementing Prereferral and Response to Intervention Strategies
Prereferral: occurs when a parent, teacher, or other professional notices if a student is having trouble socially, academically, or behaviorally
Response to Intervention (RTI) is a prereferral practice that focuses on identifying, implementing, and evaluating interventions to help students
Key characteristics:
-Continous monitoring of a student's progress
-High quality, research based instruction and behavioral support
-Levels of more intensive interventions: as a students needs increase, the amount of resources and support also increases
Parent involvement in prereferral has become more common in recent years. Including parents in prereferral or RTI practices can strengthen the school's partnership with parents.
Initiating an Reviewing a Referral
-A formal referral is a request to school administrators for an evaluation of the student to see if they have a disability
Referrals happen prior to evaluations
-Schools that use RTI determine if the student needs special education services only after the student shows no progress with early interventions
-IDEA doesn't require parental consent for referral but some states and local educational agencies do
Notifying Parents and Obtaining Their Consent
Typically one member of the special services team is supposed to communicate with parents during the evaluation process
IDEA requires that parents are notified when the school proposes or refuses to initiate or change the students identification, evaluation, educational placement or services
Obtaining Parents' Consent
IDEA requires educators to secure the parents' consent for each evaluation, reevaluation, or special education placement
The book suggests using multiple forms of communication, as face-to-face communications are most effective in building partnerships and trust with parents
Collecting Data and Other Information
Parents should be involved in evaluation processes to help guide decisions
The book suggests multiple ways to create partnerships with parents and other family members:
-include them in decisions about the time and place of evaluation
-identify the aspects of the child's learning and development that need evaluation
-help gather information
-confirm and interpret results
By sharing the family story, expressing goals and strengths, helping administer evaluations, collaborating to construct portfolio assessments, and working with professionals to have a transdisciplinary evaluation, families will create effective partnerships
Person-Centered Planning
-Develops plans based on a family's expectations
-Uses the student's dreams, interests, strengths, preferences, and capacities as foundation for all decisions
-Often emphasizes inclusive educational programs and opportunities for the student that lead to more friendships and social activities
Discussing the diagnosis
-Consider how the family feels about certain labels, some may be more sensitive to labels than others
-Explain the diagnosis the most straightforward way possible
-Use non technical language
-Share resources with the families for more information regarding the disability
Application: This chapter highlights many topics that are important to my future career as a teacher. I will use a lot of these strategies to work with the parents and families of students going through the evaluation process. These strategies mentioned will allow me to build trusting relationships with the families I work with, which I think is one of the most helpful things to a family going through these processes.