Thinking Outside the Box: The New World of IDEA Reauthorization

1. Thinking Outside the Box:The New World of IDEA Reauthorization A CASP Perspective Brent B. Duncan, Ph.D., NCSP Immediate Past President California Association of School Psychologists

2. CASP Mission Statement "Our mission is to provide high quality educational and leadership programs, which establish standards of practice for school psychologists through legislative advocacy, professional development, communications, publications, ethics guidelines, and direct services to members, resulting in the growth and development of the profession, and successful outcomes for the children, schools and communities we serve."

3. What has been CASP’s response to the Reauthorization of IDEA? • What process have we engaged in? • What have we agreed to, and what have we accomplished? • What future activities ought we be engaged in?

4. IDEA/CASP Timeline (2002 - 2004) • July 1, 2002 - President’s Commission on Excellence released their report • August 9 -11 - 2002 CASP Board held our annual 3 day planning retreat in San Francisco; developed our “First Response” white paper • October 4 - 5 - Attended NASP Western Regional Training • October 23 - Decided to Co-Sponsor the California IDEA Summit • October 24 - 26 CASP Board held our annual legislative planning, affiliate leadership, and board Meetings; adopted a legislative plank regarding CASP’s role with respect to IDEA Reauthorization

5. Major Recommendations from the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education • Major recommendation 1: • Focus on results — not on process. • Major recommendation 2: • Embrace a model of prevention, not a model of failure. • Major recommendation 3: • Consider children with disabilities as general education children first.

6. IDEA/CASP Timeline (2002 - 2004) • December 2002 - March 2003 - developed board paper - Critical Constructs and Principles Regarding the Reauthorization of IDEA; adopted March 5 • January 18, 2003 attended IDEA Summit • April 9 - 12 - Attended NASP Convention in Toronto (on the day HR 1350 was being voted out of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce) • March - June, 2003 - Lobbied California members of Congress, and members of both House and Senate Education Committees together WITH members of California Coalition AND NASP Board and staff

7. IDEA/CASP Timeline (2002 - 2004) • July 2003 - October 2003 - Pause; Continued to lobby individual members of Congress and work with NASP on issues of mutual concern • Highly Qualified Personnel • Retention of Functional Behavioral Assessment, and discipline protections • Appointment of House - Senate Conference Committee • August 2003 - Lynne Aung appointed Ad Hoc IDEA Workgroup • October 2003 - Attended NASP Western Regional Training • December 2003 - Initiation of CASP California Futures Plan

8. As an organization, what have we attempted to do with respect to IDEA Reauthorization? • Leadership - for School Psychology and the Special Education Community • Legislative Advocacy • Relationship Building - Trust • Professional Development & Training

9. Legislative Advocacy • CASP must play an active role in the legislative process at both a federal and state level, assisting with legislation and regulations with an emphasis on the role definition of the school psychologist and the need for assuring our role in screening, intervention, and comprehensive assessment for students with learning and behavioral difficulties • School psychologists must be routinely available and involved at each stage in a 3 tiered (response to intervention) model

10. Leadership, Advocacy and Relationship Building • CASP must play well with others (build strong relationships and alliances, within California and nationally) • CASP must work with NASP regarding federal advocacy efforts • CASP must collaborate with the California Department of Education (including, but not limited to the Division of Special Education), ACSA, SELPAs, CTA, LDA, CARS, CASHA & other stakeholders • Collaboration only occurs through the development mutually beneficial relationships

11. Association of Educational Therapists California Advisory Commission on Special Education California Association of Licensed Educational Psychologists California Association of Private Special Education Schools California Association of Resource Specialists California Association of School Counselors California County Superintendents Education Services Association California Department of Education- Special Education Division California Association of Professors of Special Education California School Boards Association California School Nurses Organization California Special Education Hearing Office California Speech-Language-Hearing Association California State University, Sacramento California Teachers Association Commission on Teacher Credentialing Council for Exceptional Children Developmental Disabilities Area Boards - State Council Family Empowerment Centers Family Resource Centers Learning Disabilities Association - California Parent Resource Centers Parent Teachers Association Protection and Advocacy, Inc Special Education Administrators of County Offices IDEA Summit Member Organizations• California Association of School Psychologists • Association of California School Administrators• SELPA

12. Professional Development & Training • CASP should support our members by providing timely and accurate information, training regarding our changing role, and appropriate advocacy regarding the critical service school psychologists provide • CASP must provide training (pre-service/in-service) regarding the expansion of current skill base for our membership and others (parents, teachers, administrators)

13. What have we agreed to, and what have we accomplished? • Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization: Assessment and Identification - Learning Disabilities under IDEA • Funding • Funding – services for all children at risk of scholastic failure must be appropriately funded • Full federal funding of IDEA (40% federal contribution of the cost of special education) • Shared non-categorical funding for prevention and early intervention, and intervention-based assessment within general education • Adequate state support of IDEA, to reduce or eliminate “encroachment”

14. California IDEA Summit Statement on Funding (2/28/03) “There are some that believe that additional funding for IDEA should be put on hold until policy reforms can be put in place to address shortfalls in the delivery of special education services. That argument is extremely troubling for local educators, service providers and parents. Federal special education requirements are some of the largest un-funded mandates of federal education statutes…The shortfall in special education funding impacts the quality of services for both special and regular education programs.”

15. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Support for all Children – a unified educational system for all children at risk of academic failure • Children with disabilities are general education students first, and responsibility for their education is a shared responsibility between general and special education • School psychologists play an essential role in prevention, screening, early identification, appropriate intervention, progress monitoring, and the assessment of psychological processes and overt behaviors related to learning

16. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Scientific framework for assessment and intervention • Empirically validated practices must be employed for both assessment and intervention (Evidence-based interventions) • School psychologists play an essential role in the reliable measurement of interventions and educational outcomes

17. CASP must support the dissemination of high quality research regarding evidence-based interventions for academic and behavioral difficulties. • Under No Child Left Behind, the federal government will onlyinvest in educational practices that work-that research evidence has shown to be effective in improving student performance.

18. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Learning Disabilities • Specific learning disabilities are intrinsic to the individual, and persist across time • The current method for determining the severity of a learning disability (severe discrepancy between global ability and achievement) is problematic and controversial from both a theoretical and psychometric perspective

19. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Learning Disabilities • The current system has led to the misidentification of some children as learning disabled, and a delay in services to other children at critical points in their development • There is strong empirical support for a “3 Tiered,” sequentially layered process for screening, early identification and eventual eligibility under IDEA for pupils with learning disabilities

20. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Assessment • Assessment must be linked to state curriculum standards • Assessment must be linked to instructionally relevant intervention • All intervention efforts must include careful and continuous monitoring of progress

21. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Assessment • Comprehensive psychoeducational assessment is an essential part of the process for determining appropriate interventions for children who do not respond successfully to intervention efforts within the general education setting (Tiers 1 and 2) • Multi-source, multi-method assessment is essential for the assessment of learning and behavior problems (Norm-referenced, criterion referenced, curriculum-based assessment, skilled clinical observation, continuous monitoring methods, interviews and standardized procedures are essential tools, utilized by a skilled and appropriately trained school psychologist at different points in the assessment process)

22. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Eligibility • Eligibility for services under IDEA must be established using objective, empirically valid definitions • Data collected for determining eligibility must offer meaningful information for designing empirically supported interventions

23. Critical Constructs Regarding IDEA Reauthorization • Training • Appropriately trained and credentialed personnel are essential at all stages of assessment and intervention • On-going staff development for school psychologists, teachers and other support personnel is essential • School psychologists need to develop expertise in the assessment of underlying cognitive processes that support instruction and promote learning

24. Learning Disability Roundtablehttp://www.ld.org/advocacy/LDroundtable.cfm In keeping with the first federal special education legislation in 1975, the tenets of this approach are not grounded solely in research. They also emanate from the ideals of the society in which policy changes are advocated. The willingness to challenge the status quo in the face of this daunting reality demands not only cooperation and trust among stakeholders but also a commitment to using both clinical judgment and data in decision making about models for identification, eligibility, and intervention.

25. One limitation of using group data to make intervention decisions… • According to the Education Code of the State of California, “Each child is a unique person, with unique needs, and the purpose of the education system of this state is to enable each child to develop all of his or her own potential.” CA ED Code Section 33080 - Purpose of the educational system

26. What future activities ought we be engaged in? • We are in good hands, and we are headed in the right direction • The sticking points are always in the details - we must remain engaged, and contribute constructively as federal and state regulations are developed

27. The NCLB/IDEA Bottom Line: We’re Moving From: A Refer-Test-Place Service Delivery Approach To: A Problem Solving-Consultation-Intervention Service Delivery Approach Knoff, H (2003). Project Achieve Presentation Notes. NASP Convention (2003), Sheraton Centre, Toronto