April 2008 Archives

Readers who will be in New York May 9-11 should check out the Sprout Film Festival, a three day showing of films by and about people with disabilities.

The first day features "Including Samuel," a movie I didn't get a chance to see when it was shown in the D.C. area., unfortunately. The documentary, filmed by photojournalist Dan Habib, shows a family's efforts to involve their son Samuel, who has cerebral palsy, in every part of educational and social life. The last day of the festival will include a showing of "Autism: The Musical," which was recently broadcast on HBO.

Several other short films and documentaries look fascinating, like a 1970 documentary, "A Time for Georgia," about a girl with autism—I'd love to know what we thought of the disorder at that time, compared to now. "Fathers' Voices" is a short film on how men are affected by children with disabilities.

If anyone happens to catch any of these showings, feel free to leave a comment.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:48 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to put a hold on new Medicaid rules that would prevent schools from being reimbursed for providing certain services on behalf of some students with disabilities. But the Senate Republican leadership is urging its colleagues to reject the House measure, so the fight, for schools, is not over yet.

You'd know this already if you were on the e-mail list of the LEAnet, which describes itself as a "growing coalition of local education agencies dedicated to the protection and enhancement of school health programs." Gregory K. Morris, the executive director of the organization, has not let his keyboard cool off in days.

What does Medicaid have to do with schools? Since 1988, schools have been able to get reimbursement from the federal heath-insurance program for the poor for certain services provided to Medicaid-eligible kids with disabilities. Generally, these services would be for some types of therapies, like speech or occupational.

That's not changing. But what the administration would like to do is stop paying for certain administrative costs schools incur for managing the program, and transportation costs for getting a Medicaid-eligible child to school. That's not an appropriate Medicaid expense, the administration says. The change could save the government $3.6 billion over five years.

Schools officials, obviously, disagree. But the administration followed through on putting the new rules into effect--after a six-month moratorium to allow schools to prepare for the the change, the administration said. We're still in that six-month period, and as promised, school advocates are fighting hard to make sure those new rules never go into effect.

The House bill that was just passed would extend the moratorium until April 2009--well past election day. The thinking is that a new administration might have a more favorable stance on this issue, from the schools' point of view.

How will it turn out? Stay tuned...

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Nevada's first school exclusively for deaf and hard-of-hearing students is opening this fall in Las Vegas. The school will offer a bicultural/bilingual environment, with all teachers fluent in American Sign Language.

The school plans to start small, according to the article, and is opening only for kindergarten through 3rd grades. The school founders hope to improve graduation rates for students with hearing impairments.

Late last year, I wrote an article about a school for the deaf in California and a student who is deaf and also has severe additional disabilities. In the course of my reporting, I learned that schools for the deaf nationwide have been struggling with low enrollment. Parents have more options in the public school system, or they may choose to have their children use devices like cochlear implants that they believe make education in specialized schools unnecessary. It'll be interesting to see if this charter school manages to buck that trend.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Virginia wants to drop a state requirement that parents have to be notified before terminating a student's special education services.

Like many states, Virginia is in the process of aligning its state special education standards to the federal standards included in the 2004 Indviduals with Disabilities Education Act.The state says this type of notification isn't required in the federal standards.

The state gave an example of how this might work: If a student with a learning disability was receiving an hour of occupational therapy a day, the school would have to notify a parent if it determined the child only needed 30 minutes of daily therapy.

But, if the school decided the child didn't need any occupational therapy at all, dropping the service without prior parental consent would be fine. If the parent protested, the service would be maintained until the matter could be resolved through due process.

(More details on all the changes are available here.)

No surprise, this proposed change hasn't gone over well with parents. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, 3,000 comments have been filed with the state on this proposal, and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has said he's not in favor of that change. The state's largest district, Fairfax County, is neutral on the proposal. And least one member of the state's board of education says he was surprised by the idea.

"I've always been an advocate for parental involvement, but there must be some reason that people think this is the right time for no parent involvement," board member Gary Jones said in the Post article. "I'd be interested in knowing what the reason is."

I don't think this proposal will last very long.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 4:30 PM | Permalink | 7 Comments | Recommend

The RTI Action Network that I blogged about recently plans its first online chat with Stanley L. Deno, a professor at the University of Minnesota and an expert in curriculum-based measurement.

The chat is from 1 to 2 p.m. April 23, and no special equipment needed other than a computer with internet access. It will also be archived for later reading if you can't tune in during the day.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

My colleague Debra Viadero's article about the wide "achievement gap" between the smartest black and white students is a must-read, and free to non-subscribers.

New research into what is commonly called the black-white “achievement gap” suggests that the students who lose the most ground academically in U.S. public schools may be the brightest African-American children.

As black students move through elementary and middle school, these studies show, the test-score gaps that separate them from their better-performing white counterparts grow fastest among the most able students and the most slowly for those who start out with below-average academic skills.

The research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association last month. Gifted education is part of my beat at Education Week, so the topic will also show up in my blog. But I have to admit that the subject does have personal resonance, because I was tracked into gifted classes when I was in school. Unlike many other black students, however, I attended a school that was predominantly white. Did I have a chance to experience more "cognitively stimulating opportunities," to use the words of a scientist in the article, because of that?

An interesting question on a thorny topic, and the reader comments add some more food for thought.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Jim Gerl, at the Special Education Law Blog, has a recent post about a supposed 85 percent estimated divorce rate among parents of children with disabilities.

I've heard similar estimates before, but I've never been able to track down the research behind the claim. Others have raised the same question. I have no doubt that raising a child with a disability can put a unique strain on a couple. But there is some analysis that suggests that these children may not provoke the marriage-ending crisis that is popularly assumed. In 2004, Don Risdal and George H.S. Singer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, examined several research studies on marital satisfaction of families with and without children with disabilities. Part of their conclusions:

There is a detectable overall negative impact on marital adjustment, but this impact is small and much lower than would be expected given earlier assumptions about the
supposed inevitability of damaging impacts of children with disabilities on family well-being.

There's no question that some families are truly struggling, even if the overall effect may be small. And, in a country where around about half of first marriages for people under age 45 end in divorce (according to this report (pdf) from the U.S. Census Bureau), it's a certainty that educators will be working with many single parents of children with disabilities.

The PACER Center, a Bloomington, Minn.-based organization that offers a wealth of information for parents of children with disabilities, has created a fact sheet (pdf) on educating children of divorced parents that has good information for teachers and administrators as well.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Board Buzz, the blog of the National School Board Association, brings news of an upcoming audio conference titled "Special Education: What's On the Horizon?"

The conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST April 16, and includes some well-known special education law experts, including Houston-based school attorney Christopher Borreca and Allan Osborne, a principal and former president of the Education Law Association. Regular registration is $140, but some discounts are offered and for the price, you can gather as many people as you want around a speaker phone to hear the presentation.

Here's my prediction: Response to intervention is going to generate due-process hearings, and maybe even lawsuits, unless districts do a good job explaining the educational method to parents. There's already grumbling among some parents that the RTI process takes too long to get their children the specific extra help they need. However, I admit that I'm not going out on a limb: The Washington Post (registration required) and the Wall Street Journal have already written about this topic.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 12:51 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | Recommend

NCLD has brought together some of the best-known names in the field to serve on the Web site’s advisory council, including George Batsche, Judy Elliott, Doug Fuchs, and Naomi Zigmond (all of whom I've had an opportunity to inteview for a recent article.) The “Ask the Experts” part of the Web site, which already has some questions and responses, should be particularly helpful for those who would like direct guidance.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 11:46 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

I scoured the Internet to find other blog posts on the Council for Exceptional Children convention, which wrapped up last week.

Christine Southard's Blogspot delved into assistive technology and co-teaching.

Daniel McNulty, blogging on behalf of an assistive technology project in Indiana, talked about his own presentation on using iPods in the classroom.

Dorophoria found some sessions she liked, but complained that the titles of some presentations didn't match the actual content. Pat at Successful Teaching offers to share some of her notes on multicultural education of students with different learning needs, and reveals her sweet crush on "The Fonz"—actor Henry Winkler, who has dyslexia, was the keynote speaker this year.

Kate at Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs found a few sessions that interested her, but struggled to find relevance in the conference to the children she teaches, who have severe and profound disabilities.

I understand those concerns. This is the third CEC convention I've attended, and I always find it a rich source of story ideas. However, I'm not attending with a teacher's mindset. I understand how easy it would be to be overwhelmed if I went there looking for specific guidance on one small area of the special education world. Six thousand attendees, hundreds of sessions ... it's a lot.

I'm also surprised that the CEC itself didn't ask a squadron of attendees to produce a blog. The organization already has a blog; it would have been a great resource for the many teachers who can't afford to spend the time or the money to attend the event in person. Maybe next year?

If there are other blogs that I missed, or if you just want to share your own impressions of the conference, please add a note or link in the comments section.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Part of life is fun and games, but too few children with disabilities are getting that in the classroom.

Two professors presented compelling—and sad—research during their Friday afternoon session at the CEC convention showing that children with disabilities have only the barest of interactions with their typically developing peers in many classrooms, even when they are in "inclusion" settings. The few interactions they do have are negative, or completely task-oriented. The trend persists even in elective classes, where students with disabilities are often placed on the assumption that non-academic classes promote more personal interaction.

The only way to break down barriers is if teachers take an active role in facilitating connections among students, both of the presenters said.

Tina Stanton-Chapman of the University of Virginia talked about work that she has done with preschool students, where they act out stories that allow children with disabilities an opportunity to learn such skills as taking turns, listening, and using names to get the attention of friends. After those interactions, the children tend to play together more.

Erik W. Carter, at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, talked about a “peer buddy” program that a district has started between students with severe disabilities and a few of their typically developing peers. Having peer buddies leads to far more interaction among students than using a full-time paraprofessional, he said. Carter is the co-author of a book on this program, which you can read about here.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 3:42 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

There was a big crowd at a Friday morning panel on reaching childen with severe emotional needs through PBIS, also known as PBS or “positive behavioral supports.”

PBIS is another form of response to intervention. But, while the term “RTI” is often used to refer solely to academic interventions, PBIS is an intervention process for children with behavioral issues. As with RTI in the academic realm, all students in a PBS model are screened, and children who are believed to be at high risk for behavioral problems receive interventions that can hopefully nip such problems in the bud.

And, as with academic RTI, part of the challenge is creating a program at a school that is self-sustaining, and developing good interventions for children who are having the most difficulties. Coming up with good solutions is important—the same research cited by Thomas Hehir in his presentation earlier today shows that children with emotional and behavioral disturbances are still having the most problems in school.

Illinois, the focus of the presentation, has been working with PBIS for 10 years, and still struggles with issues of sustaining the program, said Lucille Eber, the statewide director the state’s PBIS Action Network.

Even with that experience, however, the state has had its own issues with implementing PBIS in some schools. Among the problems noted by Eber:

• Too low-intensity interventions for kids with the most significant needs;
• Habitual use of restrictive settings;
• High rate of undiagnosed mental health problems; and
• Difficulty in changing the routines of ineffective practices that are “familiar”

Eber told the group that the only way to create long-term change in schools is to create replicable systems and practices. Illinois and Kansas are working together on a project to develop a strong program for helping students with the most severe needs. Some of the solutions they have tried is increasing training of school personnel and prompting schools to assess their own work.

More information about PBIS as a nationwide initiative can be found here. The joint Illinois PBIS project has more information about the joint project with Kansas; scroll down the left and click on “tertiary demos.”

(Thanks to the Springfield, Ore. school district for the PBIS graphic.)

Posted by Christina Samuels at 12:30 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

A morning session with Thomas Hehir, a professor at Harvard and former director of the U.S. office of special education programs, was a bit of a lift. He started his presentation on “ableism”—the notion that our attitudes about disability are so negative that they distort the way we educate students—with the clear message that children with disabilities are doing far better today than they ever have before. In addition, special educators know much more now about good practices for learning disabilities.

What got my attention, though, was his statement that most of the gains have been made among white middle-income and upper-income kids. (He drew his conclusion from these studies.)

He thinks that many of the problems that remain are based on practices rooted in "ableism."

The goal is not to make children feel like something is wrong with them, nor to ignore their disability to the point where children are constantly struggling. You can read more about his conclusions in his book New Directions in Special Education: Eliminating Ableism in Policy and Practice.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Arizona State University professor Kathleen McCoy and Diane Bruening, the special education director of Chandler, Ariz. schools, teamed up for a presentation on ways to retain special education teachers.

They conducted a survey of teachers and administrators and no surprise, teachers do appreciate higher salaries and less paperwork. But a finding that was intriguing to both of them was how important “collegiality” was to teachers.

The presenters described principals who had no real idea of what their special education teachers do—to the point that principals were asking for central office staff to come in and do the evaluations of special educators because the principals felt ill-equipped to judge that they were seeing.

Their research led them to create a list of strategies that principals can use to improve relationships with their special education teachers. You can get this information from McCoy by e-mail at Kathleen.McCoy@asu.edu.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 10:01 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | Recommend

More from the Council for Exceptional Children conference in Boston...

A new provision of the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires that students receive a “summary of performance” when services end. The summary must include recommendations on how to assist the student in reaching post-secondary goals.

Every state is tackling this requirement in a different way, with predictably varied results. Virginia educators gave a presentation at the CEC convention on how they’re implementing this policy. The model templates available here give a good example of how a thorough summary of performance can look.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 9:59 AM | Permalink | 3 Comments | Recommend

Sadly, my Macbook and the wireless Internet at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center appear not to be on speaking terms, so I might not be able to post as frequently during the convention as I planned. I'll keep working on it.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

There’s something for everyone at the Council for Exceptional Children convention. This year’s session in Boston has drawn about 6,000 teachers, administrators, and parents to the hundreds of different seminars that will be presented over three days.

It’s no surprise that some of the largest crowds appear to be drawn to the sessions on response to intervention. The topic definitely has staying power. One session allowed audience members to talk about their own challenges with starting the process, especially at the middle and high school level.

Rowan University professor Sharon Davis Bianco, who led the panel, referred to a piece written by researchers Don Deshler and Doug Fuchs: “What We Need to Know About Responsiveness to Intervention (and Shouldn’t be Afraid to Ask.)” That piece, which has guided my own reporting, is only available for a fee online.

But this free document, published by the National High School Center, outlines many of the challenges and offers some suggestions for successful high school implementation. On this facet of RTI, educators in the field will have to work to create their own successes.

Posted by Christina Samuels at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Graduation day isn't seen as a time for celebration for many students with disabilities, says an article by the Associated Press.

During their public school years, children with disabilities are entitled to a menu of special services, such as music or occupational therapy, extra reading help and door-to-door transportation. The law also requires they be given an Individualized Education Program, a blueprint tailored to their needs with involvement from educators and parents.

It's a comforting safety net that often ends abruptly when students leave school. They might get help securing a job, enrolling in a technical school or giving college a try. But it's just as likely they won't, says Karen Leggett of Silver Spring, Md., who leads a group trying to improve the transition out of high school for students with disabilities.

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