Office of Specialized Services

1. Office of Specialized Services Case Manager Meeting April 2011

2. Agenda Overview Welcome Program Updates SSM updates Assistive Technology Promotion Completing cases for the remainder of the year Separate Day Placement Question and Answer ****Brief survey coming soon to your e-mail.

3. ShareWhat You Have Learned: With principals Policy changes School data Best practices With teachers Best practices in the classroom Strategies IEP development

4. eIEP Updates e504 Procedural Safeguards

5. Other Updates/ Reminders ESY: Webinar coming soon!! RTI: You can not use the lack of RTI implementation as a reason to deny an evaluation. You can collect RTI data simultaneous to evaluations being done. See memo from OSEP.

6. Assistive Technology:Updates

7. Assistive Technology • Change in Process for Assistive Technology • Transferring Equipment Between Schools • Returning Assistive Technology • Bookshare Membership • Assistive Technology Presentation via CPS University • (Using AT to Support Students in the LRE)

8. Current Process for Assistive Technology • Current Process: • School submits referrals. • Evaluation or Consultation completed • AT and/or AC Report written and finalized. • Equipment sent. • Staff/students trained. • Schools should be revising IEPs to reference assistive technologies and to include recommended assistive technologies in a goal in the area of need. • School staff take data on equipment usage to make decisions regarding effectiveness of the recommended tools.

9. New Process for Assistive Technology • New Process: • School submits referrals. • Evaluation or Consultation completed. • AT and/or AC Report written and finalized. • School staff meet to consider AT and to accept/reject recommendations. IEPs should be revised to reference AT and to include AT in a goal in the area of need. • School staff finalize IEP revision or IEP and send notification to AT and/or AC evaluator and myself. • Equipment Sent. • Staff/students trained. • School staff take data on equipment usage to make decisions regarding effectiveness of the recommended tools. (Sample data sheet provided.)

10. Assistive Technology Equipment • Transferring Equipment – all equipment must follow the student that it was assigned to. If the student is not using this, then it should be returned and removed from the IEP at a revision. (Transferring Assistive Technology Between Schools) • Returning Equipment – if a student graduates or leaves the district, then all equipment must be returned to the Assistive Technology Resource Center. (Assistive Technology Equipment Returns Memo)

11. What is Bookshare? • Bookshare Memberships are Free for qualifying students with print disabilities • Extensive collections of books and periodicals including: • K-12 textbooks from the NIMAC. • Teacher-recommended reading. • A large collection of children’s books and literature, even for young readers. • A wide selection of newspapers and magazines. • FREE assistive software for multi-modal reading (synchronized text and audio): • Victor Reader Soft from HumanWare • Read:OutLoud fromDon Johnston (PC and Mac).

12. How Can Teachers Help Students Get Accessible Books? • Register your organization for Bookshare: visit www.bookshare.org and select “Organizational Membership” under “Sign Up Today!” • Give students individual Bookshare memberships for unlimited reading at home. Log in; go to My Organization, select the Members tab, and find the “Individual Membership Form” button. • Find or request NIMAC textbooks. Log in to Bookshare and search for the textbook by title, author, or ISBN. • Request school books your students need at www.bookshare.org/contactUs and select “Requesting a School Book.”

13. Who Is Eligible for Bookshare?

14. Assistive Technology Presentation via CPS University • “Using Assistive Technology to Support Students in the LRE” will be available in CPS University shortly. • School staff can register and do the training at their convenience at their schools. • 1 CPDU will be available for completing the training, short quiz, and survey!

15. Promotion

16. eIEP Section 13: Promotion Action Required Review the promotion criteria for students in grades 3, 6, & 8 If the student will follow standard promotion criteria, there is no action. If the student will follow modified promotion criteria, promotion and Summer Bridge Program information must be completed for the student in IMPACT/SSM under the Summer Bridge selection by 3:00 p.m. on May 25, 2011. The Summer Bridge selection will appear in each student’s IMPACT/SSM profile beginning April 4, 2011.

17. Completing cases for the remainder of the year

18. Is there going to be Summer Assessment? Schools are responsible for completing their current case loads. School schedules of IEP meetings are due April 23rd to your SSA with barriers to completion identified. ONLY new cases that arrive over the summer (early childhood or due process) will be evaluated at a centralized location.

19. What do you need to do now? • Schedule all of your cases • Include any cases that are in the process of RTI and schedule those that will require an evaluation. • If any cases can not be completed based on this schedule, develop a solution. • Contact clinical managers for more clinical support (provide schedule as supporting documentation) • Schedule after school and Saturday IEP meetings, if necessary

20. Tracking this work We will continue to provide updates to CAOs about schools that are not on track to complete their cases. Schools that do not complete their cases by the end of the school year will be required to complete the cases themselves, using school-based funds.

21. Separate day placement

22. Who should go to separate day placement? • Separate Day Placement is an LRE decision. • When students are not making educational gains in the public school setting. • Educational gains include • Grades • Academics • Social • Behavioral • Communication • Other

23. Who should go to separate day placement? • Students whose needs are so severe that they can not be serviced in the public school. • Typically, a student will move through the continuum and the school will collect data to show that the student has not been successful at each level of the continuum.

24. Separate Day is NOT…. • Where you send truant students. • A permanent way to get a student “out” of the building. • An “emergency” placement. • Where you send students because they curse, are in a gang, come unprepared for class.

25. What do I need to do if I suspect that a student needs separate day placement? • If a student is up for a reevaluation within 1 year, consider reevaluating the student prior to moving ahead. • Contact your SSA at least 10 days in advance of IEP meeting. • Ensure the IEP is being implemented by all staff at the school. • Ensure that there is documentation that shows you have tried EVERYTHING to keep the student at the public setting. • If the student was not being successful, have you reconvened the IEP recently and added/changed service? • If something is not working, DO MORE OR DIFFERENT!! • Do you have clear documentation of the high quality behavior intervention plan (BIP) being implemented, and what works or doesn’t work?

26. Interventions: A Quick Review • Interventions are NOT(and should not be on BIPs) • The UDC • Separate setting • Interventions ARE(and should be included in BIPs) • Specific strategies that address specific behaviors.

27. How to Document Interventions:Use this template!!

28. Once you talk to your SSA and it looks like the IEP team will be making a recommendation for separate day placement…. • Gather documentation and data of the INTERVENTIONS that the school has done. • Not just what the student has done wrong, but what the school has done to address the behaviors. • Set an IEP meeting • Begin to DRAFT the IEP that indicates separate placement is the LRE.

29. For students who are in a cluster program classroom • Contact the program specialist of the low-incidence program informing them that there are some concerns and the school may be considering a more restrictive setting. • Confer with the city wide teacher assigned to the building to confirm if the school has adequately provided supplementary aides and services to support student in the least restrictive environment.

30. What to Consider when DRAFTING the IEP for Separate Placement • In a smaller, more structured and restrictive setting, will the student need a paraprofessional? • Start with the least restrictive supports as they move into the most restrictive setting. • The private school can reconvene to present evidence that the student does need paraprofessional support. • Consultation with general education teachers will no longer be necessary because there are no general education classes in a separate setting. • Minutes much reflect a separate setting. • 1725 for elementary • 1875 for high school

31. If you have questions about what a typical IEP for separate day placement looks like. • Call or email Erika Volpe or your SSA and ask for a review of the DRAFT IEP and provide you feedback. • Give the person at least 24 hours to review your request and reply to you.

32. IMPACT DATA ENTRY: Separate Day Sign Off

33. IMPACT DATA ENTRY: The Grid Sheet

34. At the IEP table: some tips • Do not discuss particular private placements. We can not guarantee a particular school. • School decisions are made based on • IEP • Slots available at sites • Distance from home • Remind the team, including the parent and student, that a separate placement in not a permanent placement. We work to reintegrate students to the least restrictive environment.

35. Separate Day School enrollment transfers with an out of district IEP • Be mindful that other districts may not have the array of services or settings that CPS has, so we may be able to meet the needs of the students in the public school. • Student must be enrolled in neighborhood school. Neighborhood must immediately request records from previous school. • An IEP meeting must be convened within 10 days of enrollment to determine if the school will • Adopt the previous IEP (IEP does not need to be rewritten on CPS document until next annual review/FIE) • The IEP needs to be revised • Or a new IEP must be reconvened pending the completion of an evaluation. ******See Bulletin 29: Students with Disabilities Transferring from Other School Districts.*******

36. Once the IEP team has determined that separate day is the LRE for a student… • Email Erika Volpe to tell her that the IEP has been finalized and the SSA has approved the placement. Erika will review the below documents: • Documents regarding interventions • Current IEP (completed for separate placement) • Current evaluations • Current medical records/physical

37. As we move toward an electronic system… • If the required documents are electronic • Erika Volpe can review them online and will begin the placement process based on an electronic review. • It is still critical that the entire student file be delivered to SSAS, but this will not slow the process. • If the required documents are NOT electronic • 2 options • Drive the file to SSAS for review by Erika • Scan the documents in, attach them to the student’s IEP and email them. Then drop the entire student file off to SSAS.

38. Big Changes for SSAS • As of spring break, SSAS will be located at 125 S. Clark on the 8th floor. • Next year, requests for placement at a separate setting will be done through SSM through the placement module. • More about this in the fall…..

39. Q&A