- Enrolled already designated-If a student with a designation enrolls in the school, that student is assigned to the caseload of a resource teacher -in my school, we have a primary resource teacher and an intermediate resource teacher -who works with the family, specialists, and classroom teacher to review/create IEP goals and helps support through either push-in or pull-out support.
- Transition to Kindergarten-We have the Ready, Set, Learn program at my school which is for young learners, ages 3-5, in the community to join in on with their family. It’s usually an event that is held over 3 days with performances and a visit from the library. Future students joining our school are encouraged to attend and kindergarten teachers are around to build relationships with families and their children. This usually happens in May.
The next step is attending our Welcome to Kindergarten event. All students registered for kindergarten in the fall attend an afternoon of stations, where they explore and demonstrate a variety of skills. Some of the stations we had last year were loose parts, fine motor skill cutting station, library station, and a nurse station. At this time kindergarten teachers and other teachers that volunteer to take part (usually the resource teachers and other primary teachers) are stationed at stations and watch over students to see if there are any prospective students that they may have concerns about. This takes place in early June.
Roughly a week later, the kindergarten teachers set up interviews with the family and child and get to know a little more about their future students. They ask about any concerns their parents have, special needs, emotional needs, etc. This information is collected primarily for class casting -dividing the new kindergarteners into classes that are balanced.
Usually, students with designations already have their designation by the time they are ready for kindergarten, according to the kindergarten teacher. If not, families are provided with information about specialists, which can be found here: http://www.vch.ca/public-health/children-youth-schools/school-health/vancouver-school-health-manual/children-with-special-needs-in-vancouver-schools . If the student doesn't attend kindergarten in the fall, the classroom teacher and SBT will work through RTI.
- Response to Intervention(RTI)- In the RTI model that we use the classroom teacher is responsible for working with the family to try to meet the needs of the student in class through differentiation and changing and implementing strategies and may consult with the resource teacher for strategies to use to help meet the child’s needs.
If these implementations are not enough, the teacher collects information from the family, observations, and student’s work and submits a Pre-referral intervention form (PRIS form) to bring the child to the school-based team (SBT) with the approval of the parent.
Once in Tier 2, the SBT meets with the teacher and a case manager is assigned. The SBT works with the teacher to collect information more rigorously used to collaboratively come up with new strategies to implement. If after about a month these strategies have not yielded results, the student is brought up again, more data is collected, and new strategies are implemented.
If a month later no strategies have not been helpful, the administrator, teacher, and SBT can ask for help from the District Learning Services staff and move on to Tier 3. In Tier 3 the district learning services staff work with teachers to come up with strategies and help teachers implement them. The SBT also enlist the help of specialists to help assess the student such to collect more information that will be used to build a case for a possible ministry designation. The duration of this whole process can vary.
For Identification Process 2 and 3 Above, classroom teachers or the resource teacher observe and collect data, the SSA(EA) might even do an ABC if there are behaviours, to make a case when they bring the student to SBT.
If the student reaches Tier 2, a qualified individual can complete an FBA or other school-level assessments.
In Tier 3, the SBT submit documents for the student to receive a designation, enlist the support of community programs, and start to craft an IEP.
Out-of-School Supports for Students with ASD
Behavioral Interventionist | Works under the guidance of a behavioral consultant, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, or speech and language pathologist to support their interventions similar to an educational assistant but outside of school |
Behavioral Consultant and Behavioral Analyst | · Assess and create behavior plan of interventions (BPI) · Train parents and behavior interventionist on how to implement BPI · Monitor progress of treatment · Help with some of the following: social skills, verbal behaviors, problem behaviors, and daily living skills · Conduct functional behavior assessments (FBAs) and support plans |
Speech and Language Pathologist | · Works with student who have communication (speech, language, written language, non-verbal communication, and augmentative and alternative communication technology) challenges. · Provides assessment, diagnosis, consultation, and treatment · Can help with oral motor skill issues Services available in the community at: Sunny Hill Hospital, Raven Song Community Health Centre |
Occupational Therapist | · Enable student participation in everyday activity by working on student’s ability or modifying the environment for better participation · Provides assessment, diagnosis, consultation, and treatment in play, dressing, feeding, school, printing, keyboarding, social skills · May suggest environmental modifications, for instance special seating, to set the student up for success or recommend exercises or activities to help student meet sensory needs · Services available in the community at: Sunny Hill Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health
|
Physical Therapist | · Works on mobility, physical activity, and improving and promoting functional independence · Helps student manage chronic condition and participate to their fullest extent · Provides diagnostic and assessment procedures and tools · May suggest activities and exercises to work on students physical ability · Services in the community: Sunny Hill, Vancouver Coastal Health |
British Columbia Ministry of Child and Family Affairs. (2017)
Responsibilities of the Teacher, SSA, Parents, and Student
Creation of the IEP
What is an IEP?
- An individualized educational plan is a document personalized for a student with special needs that outlines goals, adaptations or modifications in place, special supports, and tracking of goals
- Formalized plan of action that links assessment to programming
- A record of the educational program and is the basis of reporting
- Tracks student learning goals, objectives, and strategies
- Documents support services and relationship to school program
- Allows for parent input
Who is an IEP for?
- Students with a ministry designation that require adaptations or modifications AND
- Have received more than 25 hours of support service by someone other than the classroom teacher
- Name of student
- Student's date of birth
- Grade of student
- Name of school
- Student's picture
- Date of document
- Name of every person on the case (parents, teachers, specialists, resource teacher etc.)
- Student's personal profile-interests, learning preferences, what you need to know about me
- Student's learning profile- Personal, social, and intellectual strengths and stretches
- Core competency focus
- Universal supports (UDL/DI adaptations)
- Essential Supports -Personalized supported
- Supplementary plans: additional support services
- Core Competency-based goals -goal, objective, and instructional strategies
- Curricular Compentency-based goals -Learning standard objective, instructional strategies
- Additional comments
At my school, the first IEP is created in collaboration with caregivers, specialists, the resources teacher, and teacher working with the student. The resource teacher acts as the team lead, organizes the data (assessments, reports for designation etc.) and starts to build the IEP after discussing adaptations/modification and core competency goals with the specialists working with the student. The classroom teacher then works with the resource teacher to come up with curricular competency goals and with the EA to discuss what support will look like in the classroom. IEPs are stored in student files and on MyEd and are assessed formally twice a year. We don’t use SMART goals in our IEPs. We use the strength-based IEP.
Curricular competency goals are academic goals and core competency goals are soft-skill goals.
I found the following resources useful for writing these goals:
POPEY K-3 Core Competency Self-Assessment
References
British Columbia Ministry of Child and Family Affairs. (2017, August). A parent’s handbook: your guide to autism programs [PDF]. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/health/managing-your-health/autism/autism_handbook_parents_guide.pdf
BC Ministry of Education. (2016). Special education services a manual of policies, procedures, and guidelines [PDF]. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/inclusive/special_ed_policy_manual.pdf
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