Special+Education

=**Special Education**= The education of students with [|special needs] in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, accessible settings, and other interventions designed to help learners with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community than would be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

Teacher Expectations in the Classroom
Teachers will receive student the first week of school for all students serviced through special education. These accommodations/modification are not optional, they are required for the students. If the teacher feels the accommodation is not appropriate or needs adjusting he/she needs to contact the contact special education teacher regarding his/her concerns.

Each year students serviced through special education have an Annual ARD meeting, teachers may be invited to the attend the meeting during their conference period. All teachers will receive a to complete for their student prior to the meeting, once teachers receive this notification they have 24hrs to complete form and return to contact teacher. A list of students and their contact teachers will be given to teachers by the special education teacher.

**Special Education Terminology**

 * **Annual, Review & Dismissal (ARD)**
 * ARD Committee **-**In Texas, the name for the IEP Team made up of a student’s parents and school staff who meet at least annually to:
 * decide whether or not the student has an eligible disability,
 * determine what special education and related services will be provided, and
 * develop an individual education program (IEP).
 * For more information, see the [|Commissioner’s Rules Guidance on ARD committee].
 * ARD Meeting - Annual review of a student’s special education program that includes an update of the student’s progress, a review of the current Individualized Education Plan (IEP), and development of a new IEP for the upcoming year.
 * **Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)**
 * Least restrictive environment (LRE) means that a student who has a disability should have the opportunity to be educated with non-disabled peers, to the greatest extent appropriate. They should have access to the general education curriculum or any other program that non-disabled peers would be able to access. The student should be provided with supplementary aids and services necessary to achieve educational goals if placed in a setting with non-disabled peers. Academically, a resource room may be available within the school for specialized instruction, with typically no more than two hours per day of services for a student with learning disabilities. Should the nature or severity of his or her disability prevent the student from achieving these goals in a regular education setting, then the student would be placed in a more restrictive environment, such as a self contained classroom within the current school, or a hospital program. Generally, the less opportunity a student has to interact and learn with non-disabled peers, the more the placement is considered to be restricted.
 * To determine what an appropriate setting is for a student, an team will review the student’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs, and consider the educational benefits from placement in any particular educational setting. With the differences in needs varying broadly, there is no single definition of what an LRE will be, and each student has an Indiviudal Education Plan (IEP).
 * **Individual Education Plans (IEP)**
 * Goals/Objectives - These are developed based on students level of achievement, State Objectives, Scope & Sequence and Curriculum. This is an individualized plan for students and they are only responsible for the goals/objectives listed on their plan, and they will receive grades based on these goals/objectives. Goals/Objectives progress is reported to parents/students every 6 weeks.
 * **Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)**
 * Takes the observations made in a Functional Behavior Assessment and turns them into a concrete plan of action for managing a student's behavior. A BIP may include ways to change the environment to keep behavior from starting in the first place, provide positive reinforcement to promote good behavior, employ planned ignoring to avoid reinforcing bad behavior, and provide supports needed so that the student will not be driven to act out due to frustration or fatigue. When a behavior plan is agreed to, the school and staff are legally obligated to follow it, and consequences of not following it should not be inflicted on the student. However, as with so many provisions of [|IDEA,] this may take a lot of vigilance, advocacy, and battling by parents to make sure that everyone who is to take these interventions into account does so in a complete and informed way.
 * **Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)**
 * Is an attempt to look beyond the obvious interpretation of behavior as "bad" and determine what function it may be serving for a child. Truly understanding why a child behaves the way he or she does is the first, best step to developing strategies to stop the behavior. Schools are required by law to use FBA when dealing with challenging behavior in students with special needs, although you may need to specifically push for it. The process usually involves documenting the antecedent (what comes before the behavior), behavior, and consequence (what happens after the behavior) over a number of weeks; interviewing teachers, parents, and others who work with the child; evaluating how the child's disability may affect behavior; and manipulating the environment to see if a way can be found to avoid the behavior. This is usually done by a behavioral specialist, and then becomes the basis for a Behavior Intervention Plan.
 * **Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance (PLAAF)**
 * The special education teacher will review all teacher reports on the student's strengths and weaknesses and develop a statement that will capture the student's needs and strengths.
 * **Manifestation Determination Review (MDR)**
 * A meeting which must take place within 10 days of a behavior infraction that would cause a student to be removed from their current placement in a public school for more than 10 days. That includes a suspension of more than 10 days. It is held to determine if the behavior is due to the child’s disability, whether the district has sufficiently addressed the issue, and whether an alternate placement may be appropriate for a child (with the agreement of the parents.)
 * **Eligibility of Services**
 * Learning Disability (LD)
 * Speech Impairment (SI)
 * Autism (AU)
 * Occupational Therapy (OT)
 * Other Health Impaired (OHI) - ADHD, ADD
 * Visual Impairment (VI)
 * Emotional Disturbance (ED)
 * Auditory Impaired (AI)
 * Intellectual Disability (ID)