Darien Schools Amend Special Education Violations With New Development Program
by
Joseph C. Maya on Mar. 22, 2017
Summary: Article on the Darien school district's new measures to improve special education in their schools.
If you have a question or concern about special education law, school administration, federal standards, or the overall rights of a student, please feel free to call the expert education law attorneys at Maya Murphy, P.C. in Westport today at (203) 221-3100 .
Professional development and co-teaching are two topics of focus for the development of Darien’s new special education program. Dr. Shirley Klein, Assistant Superintendent for Special Education and Student Services, defined these goals during the Dec. 8 board of education meeting.
After giving an overview of the district's existing special ed program and the work in communication the new admin has accomplished, Dr. Klein outlined the administration’s areas of focus. “What we’ve begun is our self-study,” said Klein. “The areas that we are looking at are professional development (beyond what we have begun this year), scientifically-based multisensory reading programs, which is beginning with our OG [Orton-Gillingham] training, looking at the continuation of IEP [individualized education program] goal development and training, and also looking at and best practices in co-teaching.”
“Implementing best practices begins with professional development,” said Dr. Klein. “Our emphasis has been IEP goals and objective training.” Consultants have provided training and professional development including a sensory processing workshop for faculty and paraprofessionals led by occupational therapists, and a declarative language workshop for ELP providers. Elementary level faculty is this year participating in the Columbia Teachers College Reading and Writing Project workshops.
According to Klein, there was a “day one” district-wide was training session with a “psych consultant.” The first presentation the consultant gave was on “school avoidance.”
Creating consistency across the system while providing a continuum of services, along with effective communication, is the ultimate goal. K -12 special education faculty has been trained on the WJ4 Achievement Test and are now “confident in their ability to administer the assessment,” according to Klein. Also known as the Woodcock-Johnson IV, the WJ4 is a test of cognitive abilities.
Klein explained that the administration is looking at the effectiveness of all its programs, from co-teaching to resource rooms, collaborative and indirect consulting, and pre-referral practices including SRBI and its monitoring.
Said Klein, “Co-teaching is something we need strongly at. How we are determining the appropriateness of it, how we are determining effectiveness of it, also looking at student outcomes. How have they responded to co-teaching and what does their student performance look like?”
Currently at the elementary level there are co-taught classes at Royle and Ox Ridge. These classes are led by special and general education teachers together.
Vice-chairman Betsy Hagerty-Ross raised the question as to why there are only co-taught classes at two of Darien’s five elementary schools. She explained that when the board approved co-teaching at elementary, “We gave up 10 special ed aides for five special ed teachers. Each one of the elementary schools was supposed to have co-taught classes within each one of the schools.” Hagerty-Ross asked if there was a “philosophical change” made by the administration or if the decision to have co-teaching at only two elementary schools IEP-driven.
Klein responded that to her knowledge, co-taught classes are IEP-driven. She said she did not know the history of the decisions regarding co-teaching at the elementary schools but she would look into the matter.
District Superintendent Dr. Brenner added, “One of the things we need to do is take a comprehensive look at the whole co-teaching model, K -12. In that context, we’ll be back to you with recommendations. Whatever we do would be across buildings.”
Asked about the idea that classes at the elementary level might be scheduled to exclude students with IEPs. “It won’t happen,” said Brenner.
If you have a child with a disability and have questions about special education law, please contact Joseph C. Maya, Esq., at 203-221-3100, or at JMaya@mayalaw.com, to schedule a free consultation.
For continuous access to the legal world, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. We offer the latest updates on caselaw and legal news. In addition, informational videos are available for your convenience on our YouTube channel.
Source- Natalie Axton, Professional development, co-teaching among top special ed priorities, The Darien Times (Connecticut), Dec 2, 2015, at A1
