A positive intersection of special education and regular eduction is essential. With models of inclusion embedded into most schools, there is much to think about as we develop our collective efforts to serve every child and family successfully.
Our team is looking at ways to grow this intersection with greater depth and impact. What can we do?
Scheduling
Developing a pattern of service delivery or student service maps is essential to deepening the intersection of special education and regular education. There needs to be a mostly seamless pattern that educators and students follow, a pattern that leads to regular good teaching and learning. It's best if this scheduling is completed by the start of the student year, and updated as needed throughout the year.
Fidelity to the Schedule
It's essential that there is fidelity to the schedule set. If teacher don't show up or allow their students to receive the services, the blend of special education and regular education is not going to work. Currently many schools do not cover special educators with substitutes, and I think this is a practice that should change in order to keep fidelity to the schedule. Further, testing and re-evaluations should not diminish current service therefore special educators who test students should have time set aside for that. As much as possible schedules should be met with consistent, thoughtful service.
Goal Setting
Students' IEP's have goals, and those goals should match the actual curriculum work set to create common goals for teachers and learners. There should be time to discuss the goals and set learning paths with students to reach those goals. The goals should be assessed regularly, and the curriculum and learning program should be revised to meet those goals.
Curriculum Planning and Implementation
Both special educators and regular educations should be involved in curriculum planning and implementation. Led by the goals set, all teachers should be thinking about how the curriculum can be designed, planned, modified, enriched, and personalized to help students meet their goals. Ideally special educators and regular educators would have regular shared planning times, and those times would be used effectively to look deeply at curriculum and learning events to best meet the needs of each student.
Communication
Communication protocols should be set at the start of the year so special educators and regular educators know how they'll coordinate their work with the best interests of students and families in mind.
Assistive Technology
Both special educators and regular educators should be well versed with assistive technology resources to help students utilize the best resources with regard to successful learning.
I know that better collaboration with special educators will be a step towards meeting the goal I have for deeper and better teaching. We need to effectively collaborate with special educators to effectively meet the needs of all of our learners. I think we can better our processes for collaborative work at our PLCs and student planning meetings to work towards this end. I will continue to think about this in the days ahead. I welcome your ideas.