Education for all

Why do we send our children to school?

As parents, school is a place for them to learn agency outside of the family unit. We expect school to teach academics and prepare them for adult life.

Children should learn that all humans have the ability to learn, and school is where learning can happen. School should be a place where the student feels some sense of belonging. Their experiences at school will color their self image, regardless of disability level. Children should have some positive and enjoyable experiences at school.

How do you know if a student would benefit from time outside the general education classroom?

In general education, each grade level has specific academic content, that assumes and requires mastery of previous grade levels. Behavior standards assume executive function, emotional regulation, the ability to process and respond to multi step instructions.

A student receiving special education services requires some type of accommodation and/or modification to be able to access and participate in the classroom.  Often, school districts don’t have enough supports for some students to meaningfully participate.

For a student who struggles with behavior standards and to access academic content, full time Inclusion in general education may not be the best experience.

A kindergarten student who can’t sit through circle time or becomes dysregulated won’t exactly grow out of these behaviors. Depending on if there’s any intervention or support, the student may learn coping techniques, and alternative ways to access learning environments. The student may also learn that these type of situations are something they can’t do. If the student is unable to participate or access and understand what is happening in the general education classroom, that isn’t inclusion.  For some students, school becomes a place where they are literally taught that they are less able.

What can a self contained classroom or program offer students?

Smaller class sizes, sensory and physical safety, flexible pacing and individualized instruction. More access to special education teachers and specialized programming.

Special Education is a service not a place.

DESE tracks educational environments.

What percentage of the school day does the student spend in a general education classroom?

Full inclusion is 80-100%

Partial is 40-79%

Substantially separate is below 40%

Districts should have options to accommodate students who require partial or substantially separate services. Northampton’s profile is here.

• NPS has a lower than average substantially separate/partially included rate (4.2% compared to the state average of 13%) and a lower out of district placement rate (3.2% compared to state average of 6.1%). This looks great for inclusion targets on paper, and also reflects the situation that our internal specialized programs are left small and invisible.
• At the High School, with the 90-minute block schedule, a student who has Learning Strategies falls below the fully included metric because that class is 25% of their day.
• A student in GOALS, whose only extra class choices are general education classes that are at best marginally accessible, will spend ten minutes in the class and then get unstructured time, which can be more than an hour at the High School.

What special education environments are available in Northampton?

Programs at JFK and NHS:

ALP (Alternative Learning Program)

• Students with social-emotional and acute behavioral disabilities.
• Standard or slightly modified curriculum paired with intensive emotional regulation and behavior stabilization.
• High or highly fluid inclusion (often core academics).

ASD (Autism Program)

• Students on the Autism spectrum.
• Specialized instruction focusing on sensory regulation, social communication and structured environmental predictability.
• Varied profiles. Some students are fully included with support, others spend more time in the ASD room.

GOALS (Good Outcome with Active Learning Skills)

• Students with significant intellectual impairments and/or global developmental delays.
• Highly modified curriculum, focusing on functional academics, communication and life skills.
• Low inclusion, mostly specials.

Note: This is my summary of the programs. I’m a parent and former SEPAC board member, not a district employee. Unless linked, I found no references on our district website.

Elementary Programs:

RISE Reaching Independence through Structured Education

RISE-UA (Reaching Independence through Supported Education with Universal Access sensorimotor supports.

These programs are new, and in progress. More details are needed, but there are descriptions here.

My concerns and suggestions.

Welcome all our programs into the school community.

Substantially separate classrooms and programs are generally unknown and undervalued in our district. There should, at minimum, be descriptions on the district website, and the euphemistic acronym names should be changed, particularly for RISE and GOALS.

Supports in self contained programs, and all special education services, should be trauma informed.

The new RISE programs rely on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and Natural Environment Teaching ABA (NET). If the district is going to use ABA, we need documented trauma-informed behavior standards.

This should look like trauma informed ABA, which is an actual change in how ABA views a response. This means looking at the behavior and asking: Is this child’s nervous system currently overwhelmed? How do we restore a sense of safety before we expect them to perform a task?

This should also mean natural data collection instead of drills and elimination and reduction of rigid token economies and compliance-based reward tracking.

Northampton should establish a collaborative Special Education Behavioral Standards Workgroup, with district BCBAs, behaviorists, and trauma informed staff, including social workers, counselors, teachers and paraeducators, as well as SEPAC parents, advocates and community members.

Educational pathways for all students.

Programs should have accessible direct instruction to teach students at their current instructional level with appropriate interventions. This means there should be different and meaningful pathways to learning, so some students work on catching up and others work on functional academics. The third grade “reading cliff” marks a barrier for many special education students for the remainder of their time in school. This should be communicated to families. Our programs should be built around purposeful progressions so students build the skills needed for the next academic stage and adult life.

Mandate Community Based Instruction (CBI)

Community Based Instruction should be a component of all programs at all grade levels. Under Massachusetts law, these community experiences are required starting at age 14, but students across all grade levels, including kindergarten, benefit from generalizing skills in natural settings.

Students  should also be included in school events and field trips.

More info: https://adayinourshoes.com/community-based-instruction-cbi-iep-goals-data-collection/