If It Isn’t Written Down, It Didn’t Happen

1. If It Isn’t Written Down, It Didn’t Happen Kathleen Whelan-Gioia M.S., M.Ed. Education Specialist California Department of Education Diagnostic Center, South

2. Who am I?

3. Diagnostic CentersCalifornia Department of Education • Diagnostic Center, South • 4339 State University Drive • Los Angeles, CA 90032 • (323) 222-8090 • www.dcs-cde.ca.gov

4. Diagnostic CentersDepartment of EducationSpecial Schools Division • Locations • Northern, Central & Southern California • Cost • No cost to families or LEA’s • Services • Center-based Transdisciplinary Assessment • Field-based Assessment • Training & Consultation

5. Let’s Begin • How many of you are content at your job? • How many would rather be doing something else? • How many of you would rather be doing something else, for less money, as long as it gave you a greater sense of satisfaction?

6. Why is job satisfaction important? • Approximately 4,587 new Special Education teachers were hired in California during 2008-2009. • Over 30% will leave the profession within five years, for reasons other than retirement. Why? Center for Teacher Quality, April 2010

7. Is it a Simmer, or a Slow Burn? Some issues are: • Too little time for planning and collaboration • IEPs and related paperwork • Lack of understanding from general education colleagues • Lack of support from district office • Unsupportive principal Center for Teacher Quality, April 2009

8. Basically… Professionals who feel in control of work demands and their environments are more likely to experience self efficacy.

10. Documentation

11. A Funny Thing About Documentation…

12. IN GOD WE TRUST ALL OTHERS BRING DATA

14. Documentation for IDEA • Purpose: • To show that you have met legal requirements, including timelines, regulations, and the you have included parents in the decision-making process. • Typical Documents • Consent Forms • Parents Rights • Assessment Reports • Individualized Education Program (IEP) • Data Collection, work samples

15. Documentation of NCLB • Purpose: to ensure the academic achievement of all students, including students with disabilities, English Learners, and students from low socio-economic homes and minority students. • Typical Documents • Testing Results • Progress Reports • Benchmarks • Work Samples

16. Components-Documentation Regular, consistent documentation of skill acquisition for IEP goals and objectives Programming decisions are based on skill acquisition data Teacher communicates with parent as per IEP regarding skill acquisition Staff are trained in data collection systems

17. Professional Responsibility Your services are mandated by federal and state laws and regulations. Documentation and recordkeeping is mandated by law. Maintaining data supports TeamEfficiency and Student Progress.

18. Professional Responsibility When service providers/educators sign their contract, they are in essence agreeing to abide by specific procedures, practices and protocols dictated by the school administration. This is in addition to complying to the ethics of the profession and best practice standards established for the teaching profession. It is when these professionals choose not to follow these guidelines that personal liability may enter into the conversation.

19. Why should we monitor progress? • California Education Code (56362) says that parents of special education students are to receive progress reports on IEP goals at least as often as parents of general education students receive progress reports/report cards. • Monitoring progress and analyzing data supports collaboration among the IEP Team.

20. Why else should we monitor and document progress? According to IDEA, educators must: assess and ensure the effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities. Doing so substantiates that you are working on IEP goals as per the law. If you ever need to demonstrate that you are teaching to master IEP goals – you have documentation.

21. Progress Monitoring Is repeated practice to measure a student’s academic performance and in turn evaluate the effectiveness of instruction . Is conducted to (a) estimate rates of improvement, (b) identify students who are not demonstrating adequate progress and/or (c) compare the efficacy of different forms of instruction to design more effective, individualized instruction.

22. Record Keeping and Documentation • Document everything….conversations with team members, parents, administrators, advocates, phone calls, strategies, and interventions. • Lack of documentation is lethal; poor documentation is worse.

23. Let’s Set the Stage • IEP (Educational Benefit) • IEP monitoring • Collaboration with Gen Ed teachers • Parent communication • Progress documentation

24. Free Appropriate Public Education “Ensures access of the child to the general curriculum, so the child can meet the educational standards within the jurisdiction of the public agency that apply to children” sec 300.39(b)(3)(ii)

25. Least Restrictive Environment To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities are educated with children who are not disabled. Therefore… Must consider general education classroom as the first placement option with use of supplemental aids and services before exploring other options.

26. LRE + FAPE = Educational Benefit Students with disabilities have: • A right to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE), • In the least restrictive environment (LRE), • As described in the IEP to provide “Educational Benefit.”

27. Educational Benefit The student’s program should be “reasonably calculated” to result in Educational Benefit. Basically the IEP will become the road map which will enable the student • to have passing grades, • advance from grade to grade, • make progress toward meeting goals

28. Recording Student Progress Failure to make progress can be seen as a denial of FAPE Record and account for any lack of student progress If a student is not making progress, reconvene an IEP to address this issue Don’t let student progress go undocumented.

29. Bottom line… • Districts are responsible for: • Developing programs designed to provide FAPE for every child. • Providing programs that offer Educational Benefit. • Court opinion have held that school districts are the education experts.

30. Let’s Talk • What types of data are you seeing in your classroom? • What are you currently doing with your data?

31. Data can be used to show trends and growth over time.

32. What is an effective “Data Driven” approach?

33. Who, What, and When • Who – you, aides, classroom volunteers, or the students can self monitor. • What – portfolio, student file, check off list, various low tech to high tech systems. • When – minimum-weekly

34. Necessary Outcomes • Baseline or progress data can be tracked over time. • Results can be compare to specific criteria. • Progress and hurdles can be shared with parents, students, and IEP team members. • Data can dictate necessary modifications and supports. • Data results can craft new IEP goals.

35. It Is the Process, not the Forms So…. The following forms can be changed, modified and amended to your specific use. Customize as you wish. Share them with colleagues.

36. Let’s Look at Forms There are three categories: • Teacher/DIS generated to record data. • Gen Ed, DIS collaboration • School/Home Communication

37. Teacher/DIS/Related Services Forms

39. Coding Teachers often use different methods and idiosyncratic symbols to collect data. This can make interpreting the results difficult to follow, unless you are aware of the symbols.

40. Coding • Whatever codes you choose to use to record, they must be universal to your team in the meaning, use and interpretation • The objective is to recreate the dynamics of the instructional environment and /or lesson delivery on paper.

41. Additional Suggestions • P – physical prompt • PP – partial physical prompts • P+V – physical and verbal prompt • G – gestural • NI – not introduced • U – unable • * – unwilling • / – worked on with assistance • X – able to do independently

42. Some Suggestions • P/I, P/O – push in/pull out • Sm grp-3 – small group with 3 students • Ind – Individual • Goal #1,3 • DUR 20 – duration 20 mins • By whom – colored pens • Const. – consultation • Mon – monitor

43. Speech and Language Codes • GSM – General story mechanics • TT – turn taking • Rt – story retell • SS-Int – social skills lesson on initiating • Con – conversation

44. Example One example of effective coding may look like this: Sm gp-3, TT, Goal 1,3 30 mins, speech room, KWG

45. You will need the data from the past to record growth and to write future goals. Attendance Log DIS – Time Log Student Roster Log Book NOT GOOD ENOUGH

46. Behaviors Be sure to only record observable behaviors.

47. Behavior Forms Positive Environments, Network of Trainers (PENT)

48. Forms to document behaviors

49. The Power of Observation We are constantly relying on our skill to observe. Layer that skill with the demands of remembering. Add to that the details that can be naturally lost from the first observation to the time we actually record the information.

50. Test the Power