Week 3: Jan 25-29

This week, we reviewed the 6 principles of IDEA which are:

1. F.A.P.E. (Free & appropriate public education)
2. Individualized education
3. Least restrictive environment
4. Non-discriminating evaluation
5. Due process
6. Zero reject or child find

It's interesting learning more about each specific part of IDEA, especially because we as teachers of course need to uphold these rights for special education students. The part that I think would be the most difficult and probably time-consuming is individualized education. However, this is where adapting and modifying comes into play. For example, instead of having students do 10 math problems, you could have students with special needs do 3 of their very best job thus they would still be challenged but not overwhelmed. 

An important court case that put FAPE to the test is the Mills case. This was a girl who was born to 2 deaf parents and they taught her how to read lips and communicate via sign language in order to do well in public educational settings amongst her peers. She worked hard and spent a long time at home with her parents going over homework to succeed in her class. Her parents knew the curriculum would get harder, so they wanted to get her a sign language interpreter. The interpreter said that the student wasn't using her, so the school stopped paying for it. The parents sued the school district to fight back to get the interpreter. It went to mediation, hearing, trial court, appeal court, and ultimately the Supreme court. The school district won the case because they don't HAVE to provide anything thats OVER appropriate education, since the student was at grade level and doing well. 

This further detailed that FAPE provides only what the child really NEEDS without cost to the family of the student with further needs. In addition, FAPE requires parent participation. 

We also learned more about Due Process through the Cedar Rapids case. At a younger age, this boy Garret became paralyzed from the waist down and thus needed a respirator in order to breather. The insurance money from the settlement of the accident was used in order to employ family members to take care of the boy and make sure he kept breathing through the night. However, when the insurance money ran out, the parents turned to the school to pay the cost of a nurse to be with him. 

Due process is needed when parents and schools don't agree. The ruling was that IDEA requires the school boards to provide full-time nursing services to students that with disabilities who need them during the school day. Next week, we will each take on the 5 major roles and do a mock trial court.

These are the 5 roles:

1. Hearing Officer
2. Parents
3. Superintendant 
4. Attorney for family
5. Attorney for school district 

We also further discussed Specially Designed Instruction (SDI), Related Services, Supplemental Aids and Supports (modifications and accommodations).

Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is basically trying to keep the student in their regular class. However, here are the steps for helping students stream in the regular classroom:

regular class

regular class + push services

pull-put less than 40%

self-contained

special school

home-bound services 

Our group report taught about Developmental Delays which vary from mild to severe. Basically there are 5 areas that this can affect: 

1. cognition
2. communication
3. adaptive behavior
4. social/emotional
5. physical/motor 

In order to receive funding, the student must be mildly disabled in 2 areas or severely disabled in 1 area. 

The earlier the detection is, the better. It is more prevalent in males than females. Females need to be as healthy as possible while pregnant in order to help their child avoid these developmental delays. They mostly can be noted because a child is not reaching their milestone markers that they should be at their specific age of what should be expected. 

Week 2: Jan 18-22

On Wednesday, we learned all about the history and case studies which formed the background of Special Education rights with federal and state laws. It was saddening to know that people with special needs; both mental and physical were kept in institutions until people knew more about how to best help them. Through case laws and vital court cases, people with special needs earned rights-especially in the public educational settings. Through Section 504 and the Rehabilitation Act, students with mental and physical disabilities were identified as students that needed accommodations made in order to help them learn and understand the curriculum. In addition, 504 gave people the right to sue for punitive damages if teachers or schools were neglectful. The government realized that the more they helped students with special needs earlier in their lives, the more money they would save in the long run from not ending up in juvenile detention centers or prison. Prevention and remediation are key with helping people with special needs, both cognitive and physical delays. Response to Intervention is a strategy that we talked about with providing extra services to those that need it on the first tier. On the second tier, providing after-school help and tutors can help students who need more assistance. Intense interventions; such as an aid, special aid teacher, behavioral contract, parent involvement, written plan, and an informed parent consent are the actions for students on the third tier.

On Friday, we learned all the details of students with Autism from the small group presentation. We were broken up into 3 groups: characteristics, teaching these students, and management strategies.

Characteristics:

• repetitive behaviors 
• social interacitons
• communication
•  no known cause nor cure
• varying degrees and effects
• sometimes tantrums and behavioral seizures
• best to catch early b/c early help with treatments. could be less-severe.

Teaching these students:

• incorporate repetition
• get to know them personally, their "likes" and talents
• patience, ask for assistance
• small solutions, helping them to learn
• parent communication, do what they do, they are a great resource!
• Heavenly Father knows best how to help his children, follow the Holy Ghost

Management Strategies:

• focus more on the HOW, more than the WHAT
• establish academic goals, more social, go from where they are
• motivate! keep on-task, show care, love, and respect
• distractions and changes with daily routine can stress them out, so be careful and SLOWLY transition from one thing to another

Week 1: Jan 6-15

I really didn't know what to expect coming into this class and learning more about this specific subject. However, I've already learned so much since our first day of class. I love that we'll be learning about how to advocate for children's right with the law. I don't know very much about Special Education laws and their rights, so it'll be interesting to learn more in order to help fulfill their needs and reach their academic goals as a future educator.

On our second day, we learned a lot about how to not only be successful in this specific class but also for all of our classes through college. We learned about staying ahead of assignments and introducing ourselves to our professors. A really wonderful way to solidify information is to meet in study groups and immediately review information directly after class. Retention is crucial in order to build upon what we already know and store this information in our long-term memory. We also learned how to read material in a way that helps our minds summarize information and make sure that we truly understand the concepts. 

On Monday, we talked about the idea behind our concept maps and talked about our readings and what we learned from each. We identified that all our readings could be connected to Christ's Gospel and everything else was simply an extension of that. After our discussion of the readings, we had a "vote with your feet" activity that brought up many statements and we had to choose whether we agreed, strongly agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed. It was the first time that I have thought deeply about some of these issues and situations, so it was very interesting analyzing each example and forming my own personal opinion. 

On Wednesday, we began discussing our own personal teaching philosophies and the different components that should be included in these statements. A hot topic up for debate was the role of teachers vs. parents and what our expectations are for each other. It really got me thinking and I have concluded that we need to form a team between the two in order to help each student in an individual level. 

Friday we were able to share the rough drafts of our teaching philosophies and I was able to see new and fresh perspectives and points of view. It's wise to break up the philosophy in different sections like classroom management, assessment, teacher's role, and teaching methods. We also began discussing different court cases which really helped students with special needs having equal rights in the classroom and the different types of law.