Your Special Education Classroom: Assessing Staff Needs and Optimizing the

Classroom Framework

Marcia Rohrer, Nannette Samson and Laurie Goforth Rodriguez, Dickinson ISD

Checklist for the 10 Critical Components [ PDAS: VII]

Teacher: ____________________ Class: _________________________ Observer:__________________________

Date: ____________________ Start Time: ____________________ End Time: _________________________ *DNA – does not apply **NA – needs attention

1. Physical Arrangement [ 2] [ PDAS: II, IV, VI, VII, VIII ] YES NO DNA NA

a. Areas are clearly defined for different types of activities and subjects

b. Areas are labeled in a way that students, staff & visitors can easily understand

c. Physical arrangement takes into consideration individual student needs

d. A transition area is used when changing subjects or leaving the room

e. Areas are arranged and furniture secured with safety in mind

** Overall appearance of classroom is organized, clear of clutter & appears orderly.

2. Organization of Materials [ 2] [ PDAS: II, III, VI , VII ]

a. Materials are organized by subject and how/when they are used

b. Storage areas (closets, shelves) labeled indicating what is stored there

c. There is an appearance of order and neatness

d. Materials are readily available for the day’s lessons/activities

e. Materials are stored and furniture arranged safely

3. Schedules [1, 2] [ PDAS: I, II, III, IV, V, VI , VII ]

a. A classroom schedule is posted and easily read from across the room

b. Each student has a personal, daily schedule available to use

c. The format of each student’s schedule meets the needs of that student

d. Student’s schedules match the information in the IEP

e. A current schedule is readily available for each staff member

f. Secondary only: campus bell schedule is posted / followed:

4. Visual Strategies [ 1, 2, 3] [ PDAS: I, II, VI , VIII ]

a. Visual strategies are being used

b. Visual strategies are readily available is various locations of the classroom

c. A “schedule within a schedule” is being used during specific activities or subjects

5. Strategies to Promote Positive Behavior [ 3,5 ] [ PDAS: II, III, VI ]

a. A data collection system is in place and data taken regularly on all IEP objectives

b. There is a plan to follow when disruptive behaviors occur

c. Positive behaviors being reinforced by staff

6. IEPs, Lesson Plans and Data Collection [ 1, 3 ] [ PDAS: I, II, III, VI ]

a. Lesson plans reflect goals and objectives in the student’s IEPs

b. Lesson plans are easily accessible to staff and substitutes

c. Data is being taken routinely in order to measure growth on IEP objectives

d.. Lesson plans follow the district scope/sequence, department or subject level.

7. Systematic Instruction [ 3, 4 ] [ PDAS: I, II, III, IV , VIII ]

a. A variety of instructional strategies are being used throughout the day

b. Student individual work stations are being used to promote independence

c. Student’s sensory needs are being addressed throughout the day

d. Rigor-the appropriate level of rigor was evident in planning and instructional delivery

e. Relevance-instruction was relevant as evidenced by active student engagement with the lesson

f. Relationships-The teacher demonstrates respect towards and professional relationship with the students

YES NO DNA NA

g. QAR- lessons clearly demonstrate the question-answer-relationship framework for comprehension instruction

h. There is evidence of direct instruction of vocabulary relevant to the lesson

i. There are leveled materials and resources available and utilized for the lesson

j. Student dialog and various grouping strategies were utilized during the lesson

k. The teacher used higher order (i.e. Bloom’s level applying, analyzing, evaluating, creating) questioning strategies during instruction

l. Students used graphic organizers during the lesson, or the teacher used a graphic organizer during instruction

m. Relevant multi-media and visuals were utilized during instruction

n. There was evidence of document, technological, or quantitative literacy during instruction

o. The teacher used write-to-learn instructional strategies in help students think through key concepts of the lesson.

p. The observed lesson was primarily in Quad A instruction: acquisition (awareness,, comprehension, application level knowledge in one discipline)

q. The observed lesson was primarily in Quad B: Application (awareness, comprehension, application level knowledge across disciplines or in real-world

r. The observed lesson was primarily in Quad C: Assimilation (analysis, synthesis, evaluation level knowledge in one discipline)

s. The observed lesson was primarily in Quad D: Adaptation ( analysis, synthesis, evaluation level knowledge across disciplines and in real-world predictable or unpredictable situations)

8. Communication Systems and Strategies [ 2, 3, 4 ] [ PDAS: II, III, V ]

a. Communication systems are available to students throughout the day (if needed)

b. The classroom teacher and the SLP are collaborating

9. Communication with parents/Staff [ 6] [ PDAS: V ]

a. The teacher communicates in a meaningful and routine way with parents

b. The teacher communicates with general education staff routinely

c. The classroom teacher engages in professional and collaborative communication with the campus staff, SLP and other related services staff as necessary for the success of the student

10. GATOR Stations [ 3,4] [ PDAS: II, III, VI , VII ]

a. RED sign in folder: correct forms/evidence of use

b. CBI folder: updated manual/forms for CBI

c. Medicaid folder: updated procedure/forms

d. IEP folder: students’ updated IEPs/PLAAFPs/testing /data collections

e. Health folder: updated health information included

f. Schedules folder: classroom, student, staff schedules are current/included

g. Inventory folder: inventory forms for technology, instruct. materials, furniture are updated

h. Emergency info folder: Classroom, campus, district emer. procedures are updated, included

i. Parent Communication folder: evidence of parent communication system in place

j. GATOR Station is set up and easily visible COMMENTS:

Created by Nannette Samson and Marcia Rohrer, 2008 Revised by L. Goforth Sept. 2011 Iovannone et al: Six Core Elements 1) Individualized supports 2) Visibly comprehensible Environment 3) Systematic Instruction 4) Curricula Content 5) Functional Approach to Problem Behavior 6) Parental Involvement

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Dickinson ISD Low Incidence Disabilities (LID) Classroom Staffing

Special Programs Year-at-a-Glance Planning checklist

This is a timeline for how to implement this process at the beginning of the school year and to use for

staffing determinations the following school year. The first year you do this, you will need to have

teachers do needs assessments TWICE. The first time will be to establish your baselines, the second

time will be to determine future staffing levels.

August / September

Conduct administrative overview for special education leadership staff FIRST (your coordinators, department chairpersons, ARD facilitators, assessment)

Conduct administrative overview for district / campus admin staff

Provide training to your LID teachers – this training should require the teachers to actually complete the needs assessment forms on all of their students – do NOT reveal any staffing levels as you will develop your own that is unique to your district

o Deadline for needs assessment forms / classroom summary form – Sept. 30 October / November

In order to get a “feel” for what works in your district, conduct walk-throughs on your “A” “B” and “C” classrooms at each level (elementary, middle, junior, high school). You are the only one who can “judge” an A, B or C classroom. We use the 10 Critical Components checklist. Note the following: # of students, types of disabilities, experience level of the teacher and paras, working relationship between the teacher and paras, classroom facilities.

A – excellent classroom B – average classroom C – needs improvement # students Types of disabilities Needs assessment pts # staff (ex. 1 T 2P) Experience level of staff

Doing this chart will give you an idea of how to design your staffing scale.

Things to ask…does the number of adult staff in the room have any correspondence to the A/B/C determination? Does the experience level of the teacher equate to an ability to manage a higher needs assessment total?

December

Reminders to teachers to send new needs assessment as students enroll / qualify to coordinator

Spot check by sending in a 2nd rater to look at needs assessments (Diags, LSSPs, ARDCFs, coordinators can do this – and to really understand the process, the director should do a few as well)

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January / February / March

When you start this process depends on when your staffing proposal is due. Generally speaking, teachers who know their students need 10 minutes per student to complete the N.A. form.

You need minimum of a week to put the classes together.

We use eStar Frontline as our Special Education electronic ARD system. We are able to pull all the information needed for staffing from the program once the teachers have put in the Needs Assessment numbers. Prior to having this system to pull all the info electronically we used small colored sticky notes on poster size sticky note chart paper to allow us to “build” classes based on student needs, characteristics, etc.

The process: 1. Teachers complete the following:

needs assessment for each student they service (if there are 2 or more service providers then they meet together to complete the form for that student so all parties have input into the information)

place needs assessment number in the eStar (eSped ARD forms) on the Student Information page at the bottom in “Other 1” cell

complete classroom summary form and save send each needs assessment and the classroom summary form to the campus

ARDCF so they can confirm they have one for each special education student on the campus

2. Central office staff (coordinators, ARDCFs, whomever you choose) complete the following:

If using an electronic system:

Move all classroom summary forms and needs assessments to a central location. We use Google Drive with a folder called LID/Needs Assessments. In this folder is a folder for each campus and in each campus folder is another folder for each person completing needs assessments on that campus. They are placed in the appropriate folder. The only individuals that have access to this folder are the Director and the individuals placing the info into the main folder.

Have your eSped coordinator create a report that includes the following: Local ID, First Name, Last Name, current Age, current Grade, Needs Assessment #, Primary Disability, Secondary Disability, Next years’ campus, Next years’ sped program, Next years’ Instructional Arrangement, Current Campus, Current sped program, Current Instructional Arrangement, Home address

You can then easily sort the report in excel into a multitude of ways. We sort by next years’ campus.

On your excel document keep an “all” tab sorted by Alpha – this should be a list of every student in special education in your district

On the excel we then create a tab for each campus as well as one for evaluations in progress. Copy and Paste the “all” page to each page and then delete all the info except that campus on that tab

Build your classes by dividing them into programs and/or teacher units if you prefer on each individual tab for each campus

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If not using an electronic system complete a sticky note for each student and put them on the campus poster. Campus poster is marked with current classes and sticky notes are placed under the class the student would be going into.

Info on the sticky: name, disability, needs assessment #, current grade/next grade

We used specific colors for zoning purposes, new evals, out of district transfers 3. Build the classes

Consider… grade / age levels, disability types, gender, # students per class (rule of 10)

4. Review your class builds I invite the related services staff to look, principals, ARDCFs, LSSPs, SLPs…while

we are building classes, staff can come in and look. They can add notes, etc. 5. Check your campus equity

If you have centralized programs, check against other similar campuses Balancing ARD numbers, administrative staff time

April / May

Write your draft copy of your staffing proposal. Categories that I use: o Overall trends in the department (e.g. sped student counts from year to year, changing

nature of disabilities rates, notes by department – Speech, assessment, etc.) o For example:

year AU ID SI OHI ED LD

2011 126 70 149 92 46 297

2014 167** 137 193 113* 70 258*

+ 41 +67 +44 +21 +24 -39

o Individual Campus recommendations

For example:

Add LID teachers o KELE – gain 1 FTE (SAILS) o JSES – gain 1 FTE (SAILS) o CRES – gain 2 FTE (SAILS)

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o BCES – gain 2 FTE (SAILS) o MJH – gain 1 FTE (START)

o Individual Department recommendations: Related Services

OT – increase part-time OT to full time (from 105 days to 200).

o 186 OT students (increase of 56)| All LID classrooms get OT

support (Support also provided in general education

classrooms) | OTs supervise Assistive Technology equipment &

services | 6 AT student (high AT needs) | We are seeing an

increase in ARD requirements to utilize tablets (iPads) for

assistive technology.

PT – no increase requested, # of students in w/c has only increased by 2

August

Walk through all of your classrooms to do a visual check of the classrooms…students move over the summer as well as enroll… adjust staffing as needed.

** >> This timeline is if you do your special ed staffing in late April / early May. If you determine staff earlier than that, you will need to adjust the checklist accordingly << **