Franklin Crowder
Educator/Aspiring Administrator
SPECIAL NEEDS STUDENTS NEEDS & STAFF
An education leader promotes the success of every student by acting with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner. An education leader represents all students enrolled in the school building that he or she leads. The focus of student services includes all academic, social, and support services that provide for continuous growth and improvement. As a potential education administrator, they will need to exhibit and reflect on their work in student services with experiences and activities to ensure that the school is in compliance with federal and state regulations.
IEP & 504 ANNUAL/ADDENDUM MEETING
Before my participation in this program, I have attended very few IEP or 504 meetings. Having the opportunity to sit in and participate really made me appreciate this experience more. When comparing these two points in my career, I can truly say that my point of view now is quite different. Some of the responsibilities that I observed with my mentor included: taking responsibility for school compliance; providing and promoting leadership to all stakeholders involved, ensuring teachers implemented the IEP as written, and communicate/cooperate with parents. Some of the main thoughts and practices that I gathered were:
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It is important to communicate regularly with special education teachers and parents of children with special needs. When an administrator is present in the classrooms and throughout the school, they have a better ability to become more aware of the happenings in the classroom and determine how further support can be utilized.
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Be proactive; instead of talking with teachers and parents when problems arise, it is important that administrators get involved in the tough cases early to head off problems. Open lines of communication are vital in this instance as well.
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It is important to take precautionary steps in dealing with any knowledge deficits that may exist with teachers and staff. Administrators need to plan for in-service or continuing education for teachers or staff members who need additional training in the IEP process.
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Principals must always take care to thoroughly understand and properly follow the requirements of state policies. This is important not only to protect the principal from disciplinary action, but to ensure every special needs child receives appropriate services. This needs to also be communicated to ALL teachers within the building.
THERAPEUTIC DAY CAMP SERVICES
Therapeutic Day Treatment (TDT) is a combination of psychotherapeutic interventions combined with evaluation, medication education and management, opportunities to learn and use daily skills and to enhance social and interpersonal skills and individual, group, and family counseling offered in programs of two or more hours per day.In our county's TDT program, they provide interventions and therapy services, in both the school and home, that are designed to successfully address a child’s mental health, emotional, and behavioral issues that create a barrier to learning.
Over the summer, I had the opportunity to attend our school district's TDT Summer Camp. This camp lasted for eight weeks and used several different techniques and approaches to help students learn various social skills. Some of these approaches involved: competitive games, role-play, and other various psycho-educational activities.
PROJECT DISCUSSION: CESSATION OF SERVICES
During the course of my Internship experience, my mentor principal and I had the opportunity to discuss many facets of how our school remains compliant with state and federal regulations in regards to Special Education. I noticed that our school has many students that come from single-parent households with different custody issues.
As I reviewed Virginia Law, the procedures that are followed in Dinwiddie County mimic what the state has decided in such a situation. Specifically, if both parents have the legal authority to make educational decisions for the child, and if one parent revokes, in writing, consent for the child to receive special education and related services, the LEA must terminate services, even if the other parent has consented or is willing to consent for the child to receive special education and related services.