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So what's next? This section of our presentation will highlight the activities schools and districts should be engaging in during the Spring 2001 term.
The Board of Education has determined that before IEP Teams can make new continuum service recommendations, the school must form a Least Restrictive Environment Committee. The job of the committee is to design a plan for transitioning to the new continuum. Committee members need to be familiar with the full range of service options available in the new continuum when they look at the school's current population of students with IEPs. The board's Getting Started document contains the specific items that must be addressed in the school's plan. Once there is a school plan, the principal signs a statement of assurance, which is sent to the superintendent and UFT district representative. Your school needs to have this plan before your IEP Teams can make service recommendations using the new continuum. In February 2001 the Board issued two memoranda addressing the new continuum. The first is Special Education Annual Review Information. The second memorandum, Revised Sections of the IEP Manual, describes how to write new continuum recommendations on page one and seven of the IEP. Movement of students to the new recommendations will continue through the 2001-2002 school year. All students with IEPs are expected to have new continuum recommendations by June 2002 for September 2002 implementation.
Members’ Questions
Question: Yes. I am a principal of a pre-K to 8 school. You've mentioned three types of teams so far. Can you clarify the relationship among the Pupil Personnel Team, the IEP Team, and the SBS Team? Alvarez: The School Based Support Team is composed of an education evaluator, school psychologist, and school social worker. The team's primary responsibility is arranging for and performing initial evaluations of students suspected of having disabilities, requested evaluations, and triannual evaluations. SBS team members also participate in IEP Team meetings in a variety of circumstances. With a very few exceptions, every school has the services of an SBS Team on either a full or part-time basis. Pupil Personnel Teams are standing committees within each school that assist teachers in identifying general education supports and interventions for students who are not succeeding. The principal and the UFT chapter leader mutually agree upon the members of the PPT. The referring teacher is an ad hoc member of the team. The IEP Team is the group charged with the responsibility for determining eligibility and making service recommendations for students with disabilities. The IEP Team is responsible for developing and revising the individualized education program for each student with a disability. The composition of the IEP Team varies depending on the task at hand. But the team always includes the student's special education teacher, at least one of the student's general education teacher if the student is or may be receiving instruction in the general education classroom, and the student's parents. I think we have time for one final question.
Question: Special education teacher at high school. Carmen, what involvement does the school leadership team have with the new continuum? Alvarez: The new continuum requires that every school have a pupil personnel team and a Least Restrictive Environment Committee. One of the most important functions of the PPT is the identification of additional supports and services not currently available in the school that students need in order to succeed in their educational programs. The LRE committee is charged with planning how the new continuum will be implemented in their school. This includes, but is not limited to planning the number and type of supplementary aids and services, designing or reconfiguring service delivery models, designing professional development and parent involvement activities, and ensuring that general and special education teachers and related service providers have common time to engage in planning for the students they mutually serve. The activities of the PPTs and LRE committees affect the entire school. They impact on the school's comprehensive education plan and on the allocation of school resources. School leadership teams participate in the development of the school's comprehensive education plan and in decision making about resource allocation at the school level. For these reasons, PPTs and LRE committees must be firmly linked to school leadership teams and membership should overlap.
This concludes our presentation on the new continuum. Please let us know what other issues you would like us to address in the future. We want to hear from you. Thank you. |
October 11, 2008
