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Summary Report of My School District by Rodney Sternhagen SPE 644 Special Education Law

Summary Report of My School District by Rodney Sternhagen SPE 644 Special Education Law. Rhinelander School District.

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Summary Report of My School District by Rodney Sternhagen SPE 644 Special Education Law

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  1. Summary Report of My School Districtby Rodney SternhagenSPE 644 Special Education Law

  2. Rhinelander School District • Located in the beautiful Northwoods of Wisconsin, the School District of Rhinelander serves nine surrounding townships and the City of Rhinelander. The District serves approximately 2,500 students in its three elementary schools, middle school, high school, elementary charter school and secondary charter school. • A secondary alternative education program and a variety ofvirtual opportunities are offered to the students, and the District has developed partnerships with those families who have chosen home-school education for their children. • Our schools offer area students exceptional academic programs, as well as athletic, cultural and community opportunities. As a result of an active community, outstanding staff, a comprehensive curriculum, and an emphasis on technology in the classroom, the School District of Rhinelander is proud to provide educational excellence to its youth!

  3. Strengths in the District • Assessment • District met the states Annual Measurement objectives targets for students with disabilities in reading and math • Percentage of students with disabilities who scored at the proficient and advanced levels on regular or alternate statewide assessment (3rd ,10thgrade reading and Math exceeded target and all but 2 grades exceeded the state average!

  4. Assessment and Law and Special Education • Definition of assessment - is the process of collecting information for the purpose of making decisions about students. The information collected may include text data, work samples, and the results of observations, interviews and screenings. Assessment in special education involves decision in several areas, including pre-referral classroom decisions, entitlement decisions, programming decisions, and accountability/outcome decisions (p.214)

  5. School Weaknesses • Graduation • Percent of students with disabilities graduating from high school with regular diploma (Source ISES). The percentage is 74.36% vs 68.62% but Target goal is 85% • Dropout • Percent of students with disabilities dropping out of grades 7-12. The percentage is above the State average and above the Target.

  6. Graduation and Law in Special Education How to Improve • The Improving America’s Schools act of 1994. • The federal role in education, however, continued with the passage of Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA) of 1994, a reauthorization and revision of the ESEA with a focus on implementing standards-based education throughout the nation. In essence, the IASA created a new framework for federal role in elementary and secondary education, a framework in which the federal government not only provides aid to schools serving economically disadvantaged students but extends federal support to the states implementation of local and state standards-based reform. (p. 147)

  7. Graduation and Law in Special Education Continued • Every student has the right to learn. • It is our collective responsibility as an education community to make certain each child receives a high-quality, challenging education designed to maximize potential, an education that reflects and stretches his or her abilities and interests. This belief in the right of every child to learn forms the basis of equitable teaching and learning. The five principles that follow cannot exist without this commitment guiding our work. Every student’s right to learn provides the overarching vision for Wisconsin’s Guiding Principles for education. To be successful, education must be committed to serving the learning needs of students from various social, economic, cultural, linguistic, and developmental backgrounds. For all students to have a guaranteed right to learn, schooling must be equitable (DPI website, Academic Standards, Every student has the right to learn, Guiding principal 1)

  8. Dropout and Law in Special Education • Table 1. Percentage of Students With Disabilities, Ages 14 and Older, • Who Dropped Out of School in 2001–2002 by Category of disability • Disability Percentage who Dropped out • Serious emotional disturbance 61.2% • Speech/language impairments 35.8% • Specific learning disabilities 35.4% • Other health impairments 32.7% • Mental retardation 31.2% • Deaf-blindness 27.3% • Multiple disabilities 25.9% • Traumatic brain injury 24.6% • Orthopedic impairments 24.3% • Hearing impairments 21.0% • Visual impairments 17.8% • Autism 17.6% • All disabilities 37.6%

  9. Dropout Prevention • An important resource on dropout prevention programs for students with disabilities is “Increasing Rates of School Completion: Moving from Policy and Research to Practice,” in the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET)’s Essential Tools Series. This synthesis of research-based dropout prevention and intervention programs offers examples of interventions showing evidence of effectiveness.17 An important intervention highlighted in the synthesis is Check and Connect. Check and Connect is a dropout prevention program known for its results in turning around dropout rates for students with disabilities. The program uses a systematic method of checking for off-track indicators such as course failures, tardiness, missed classes, absenteeism, detention and suspension) to determine which students are at risk of dropping out and then connecting with the students with academic support, in depth problem solving, and community assistance this program has show great success in middle school to ninth grade (p.6)

  10. Other Weaknesses Found within the School • School Age Educational Environment • Percent of students with disabilities ages 6-21 served inside the regular class less than 40% of the day. The district was at 8.11% and the state average was 10.01% but Target is to be at or below 9.7% • Preschool Educational Environment • There seemed to be some struggles at the preschool level there is intervention and IEPs being done but they struggle in expectations of growth.

  11. Education Environment Law • Least Restrictive Environment LRE • The LRE mandate ensures that schools educate students with disabilities in integrated settings, alongside students with and without disabilities, to the maximum extent appropriate. Least restrictive environment is not a particular setting. Moreover, LRE does not mandate either inclusion or mainstreaming. • In special education, this means that a student with disabilities has the right to be educated with students in general education environments (p. 270)

  12. Educational Law for Pre-School Age • Preschool Outcomes • Indicator 7: Percent of preschool children aged 3 through 5 with IEPs who demonstrate improved:A. Positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships);B. Acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (including early language/communication and early literacy); andC. Use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs. • Indicator 7Indicator 7 measures the percent of preschool children with disabilities aged 3 through 5 who demonstrate improved: (a) positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships); (b) acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (including early language/communication and early literacy); and (c) use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs. All LEAs with children aged 3 through 5 participate in this activity annually. • Beginning July 1, 2011, all districts participate in the collection of data for this indicator every year. Entry data is collected on all preschool-age children who initially enter special education in the district during the year. Exit data for all these children is collected when they exit from preschool programs or turn age 6. • - http://sped.dpi.wi.gov/sped_spp-preout#sthash.p3Gelsct.dpuf

  13. RHS Reflection • They excel and work hard on progress monitoring and the success has shown on the profile as a large strength where they exceeded both target and state average. • They are much above the state average with their graduation rate, but are below the target. They have put in a check and connect program that works on making sure the students are at school which increases the students graduation rate so they are taking steps to improve this area

  14. RHS Reflection continued • They are above the state average and the target on Drop out rate of those with disabilities. As I said above they have taken steps such as check and connect, mentoring, champs programs and tutoring programs to combat this weakness. This district is at about a 74% poverty rate and this staggering number could be a contributing factor to both the high drop out rate and the graduation number.

  15. RHS Reflection continued • They need to improve on getting more of the students with disabilities into more regular education classes. They are below both the target and the state average so improvement is needed. They are doing Common Core specific team meetings where both the special education and regular education teachers collaborate to make sure they are on the same page when teaching the skills classes. They also have team collaboration meeting weekly.

  16. RHS Reflection continued • They struggle showing growth at the preschool level which could lead to later issues in elementary, middle school and high school. This struggle could lead and contribute to the other struggles that have been listed above such as graduation, dropout, and increasing student transfer to special education!

  17. Sources, Statutes, and Case Law • The Law and Special Education, Mitchell L. Yell, 2012, Pearson. • Dropout Prevention for Students with disabilitieshttp://www.betterhighschools.org/docs/NHSC_DropoutPrevention_052507.pdf • DPI Website - http://sped.dpi.wi.gov/sped_spp-preout#sthash.p3Gelsct.dpuf

  18. Marian University School of EducationSPE 644 – Special Education LawAssignment 5 Rubric – School District ProfileName: Rodney Sternhagen Cohort: ON01 Comments:

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