Inclusive Placement Opportunities for Preschoolers: A Systems Approach to Preschool Inclusive Practices

1. Inclusive Placement Opportunities for Preschoolers: A Systems Approach to Preschool Inclusive Practices

2. A project of the Virginia Department of Education and the Training and Technical Assistance Centers of Virginia

3. Planning for inclusive practices

4. So …what does the term “inclusive” mean to you?

5. Inclusive: • Means coordinated efforts between general and special educators to meet all or some of the student’s individualized educational program (IEP) in the general education classroom with same-aged peers. • Refers to the process of placing children with disabilities in the same classes or programs as their typically developing peers and providing them with the necessary services and supports (Winter, 1999).

6. What does inclusive really mean? • A value to support all • Children who have disabilities attending preschools with “typically developing peers” • Collaboration • Supporting teachers • Policies in place • Sharing responsibility for all • Facilitating friendships • Teaching within the routine • Natural proportions

7. What inclusive practices are NOT • Dumping students with disabilities • Grouping by ability level • Cutting back on special education services • Expecting ECE staff to teach without support • Identifying children by their disabilities • Isolating children with disabilities

8. Is inclusion a good idea?

9. Rationale for inclusive practices • Legal • Philosophical • Moral, ethical and social • Educational

10. Separateness in education can … • Generate a feeling of inferiority as to (children’s) status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. This sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn … (and) has tendency to retard … educational and mental development. • Chief Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education

11. SEC. 612 State Eligibility. (5) Least restrictive environment. “(A) In general. To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.”

12. Least restrictive environment Section 612(a)(5) “a state shall not use a funding mechanism by which the state distributes funds on the basis of the type of setting in which a child is served that will result in the failure to provide a child with a disability a free appropriate public education …”

13. Continuum of alternative placements Sec. 300.130 Least restrictive environment. “(a) General. The State must have on file with the Secretary procedures that ensure that the requirements of Secs. 300.550-300.556 are met, including the provision in Sec. 300.551 requiring a continuum of alternative placements to meet the unique needs of each child with a disability.”

14. Note related to LRE for preschoolers • The requirements apply to all preschool children with disabilities who are entitled to receive FAPE. Public agencies that provide preschool programs for preschoolers without disabilities must ensure that requirements are met.

15. Note related (cont’d) • Public agencies that do not operate programs for preschoolers without disabilities are not required to initiate such programs solely for LRE but alternative methods are required such as (age-appropriate settings): • Part-time integration (Head Start, VPI, kindergarten) • Placement in private school/preschool • Locating classes at elementary schools • Providing services at the location where the child is presently enrolled

16. IDEA reporting requirements • Educational environment • Children attending a regular early childhood program OR • Children not attending a regular early childhood program OSEP 2007 Child Count Data

17. Self-actualization Self-esteem Belonging and Love Safety Physiological

18. Self – Actualization Pursue inner talent Creativity fulfillment Belonging – Love friends family spouse lover Self – esteem Achievement mastery Recognition respect Safety Security stability freedom from fear Physiological Food water shelter warmth

19. Moral, ethical and social rationale • The right thing to do • Acceptance of others

20. Educational rationale • Opportunities for play and social interaction • Role models • Higher expectations • Developmental gains

21. Educational rationale • Students with disabilities make equal or greater gains in all areas of development (Worley, 1995) • Students with disabilities in inclusive programs show improvement in cognitive, communication, social and emotional areas (Power-deFur, Bricker, & Orelove, 1997) • Quality of work from students without disabilities unaffected; may improve slightly over time in inclusive classrooms (Salisbury, Brookfield, & Odom: DEC presentation, 2004)

22. Positions of national organizations • Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Early Childhood (DEC) • National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

23. Think about it … • Picture 2 classes: • One with 8 children with disabilities, most children use only 1-2 word phrases. What would a free choice activity look like? • The other with 12 children without disabilities and 4 with. What would that look like?

24. How will inclusive practices benefit: • Teachers • Children with and without disabilities • Families of children with and without disabilities • Administrators

25. Challenges to inclusive practices • Organizational • Typically developing children most often in settings such as Head Start, community and family day care, religious centers • Children without disabilities in self-contained settings administered by the LEA

26. Challenges to inclusive practices • Philosophical • Differences in ECE and ECSE approaches

27. Do you want good health?

28. Basic beliefs regarding children • All children can learn • All children deserve the opportunity to be educated with other children their age in communities • All children can participate in inclusive preschools if they are given the appropriate support

29. Basic beliefs about staff roles • We are all good teachers, therapists and administrators and we can be better if we change to use best practices and we all work toward a common purpose or vision • For each child to receive a quality inclusive education, we will need to make an individual as well as a group commitment to work together as a team. We are experts in our field but none of us is an expert in inclusive practices.

30. In order to change, it is necessary to: • Believe that change will benefit you and others and see the consequences of change as positive • Share your perceptions, beliefs, needs and wants and have them understood and respected • Realize that change is accompanied by risk, fear and possible failure and be willing to take risks

31. Collaborating programs plan for inclusive practices by: • Developing a mission statement • Developing collaborative policies • Holding regularly scheduled planning meetings • Using a collaborative team approach for planning • Providing an ongoing comprehensive and coordinated staff development process • Maintaining natural proportions of children with disabilities in classrooms

32. Successful inclusion takes: • Changes to: • Staff roles • Family school collaboration • Program policies • Ways children’s social relationships evolve • Classroom environment • Discipline practices • Instructional practices

33. Staff works as collaborative teams by: • Having clearly delineated ECE and ECSE staff roles and responsibilities • Holding regularly scheduled meetings during school hours to discuss classroom issues regarding ALL children • Developing and monitoring IEPs • Using a collaborative team approach

34. Quality environments are provided when: • Clearly defined activity centers are accessible to all children • Developmentally appropriate and age-appealing materials are accessible to all children • A consistent schedule includes developmentally appropriate daily routines

35. Staff plans and uses developmentally appropriate curriculum by: • Focusing on children’s interest, community • Incorporating age-appropriate goals and concepts • Incorporating developmentally appropriate hands-on activities • Developing and posting weekly lesson plans

36. Staff fosters children’s social relationships by: • Modeling appropriate interaction with children • Using materials, groupings and planned activities to promote friendships between children • Using naturalistic strategies to facilitate social relationships • Using individualized programs to increase pro-social behavior

37. Staff fosters children’s self-control by: • Developing and posting clear rules for the classroom • Ensuring that all adults in the class implement the class rules in the same way • Using positive guidance techniques • Developing individual behavior management programs for increasing self-control for children with intensive needs

38. Staff individualizes group instruction in daily routines by: • Incorporating instruction on age-appropriate goals and concepts • Providing a large block of free time • Conducting smooth transitions • Making sure all children participate • Embedding learning opportunities • Using routine-based assessment

39. Change … • Is a process that takes time • Is about individuals, their attitudes, beliefs and actions, not about programs, materials and technology • Is highly personal, viewed differently by each participant and requires personal growth • Requires facilitators who are courageous and flexible

40. Preparing for the shift in service delivery: developing the team • Participants: ECE and ECSE, administrators and staff, related service personnel, parents, community agency representatives • Purpose: to conduct tasks to initiate preschool inclusion and improve services for all children

41. Major goals of the team • Determine options for inclusion • Gain support of key stakeholders • Identify barriers to inclusion • Learn about best practices in ECE and ECSE • Organize the development of a mission statement • Develop an action plan to address needed changes in policies, service delivery and staff training

42. Steps involved in organizing a planning team • Recruit members and start monthly meetings • Educate members about inclusion • Visit model sites • Have committee members identify concerns and barriers to inclusion

43. Activity:Identifying the barriers to inclusion • Volunteers, please: • Identify concerns you have about preschool inclusion • Describe barriers which exist to providing a quality inclusive preschool program • Record the responses on the action plan form

44. Break

45. Tasks of the team Task 1: Gain the support of top officials • Presentation • Brochure Task 2: Review the pros and cons of preschool inclusion options

46. Inclusive options • Full inclusion • Part-time inclusion • Reverse inclusion

47. Activity

48. Full inclusion • Enrolling natural proportions (10-12%) of children with disabilities full-time with same-aged peers without disabilities in neighborhood settings

49. Neighborhood settings • Head Start • Even Start • Title 1 • LEA-sponsored 4-year-old programs (VPI) • High school vocational child care • Community-based preschools/child care

50. Full inclusion can be supported through a: • Collaborative model • Consultative model