A Committee on Special Education Year In Review... aka, I Am A Machine

Add glasses and this is surprisingly accurate.

As I bask in the glory of summer, I remember that this year was not all Zumba classes, bike rides, wedding planning, and watching TLC. As you may remember, this year was totally nutty-- my Committee on Special Education (CSE) chairperson was out for 9 months receiving chemo and I spent the year working with a district representative (which was fantastic); I single-handedly underwent a state ed. review; attempted to run Positive Behavior Intervention Supports like Check-in, Check-out; and of course, dealt with every day chaos and crisis. I'd be a big fat liar if I said I'm not enjoying the time off, that's fo sho.

Before school ended, I sat down and totaled up all of the stats for the Committee on Special Education meetings I've done during '11-'12. The results were all together staggering, nauseating, tiring, and awe-inspiring. Here are some fun facts...

• The meetings held for male vs. female students was 73 vs. 42. Our special education population at our building (and in the district) is disproportionately male and African American.
• We held 30 initial CSE meetings. Many of these meetings were kiddos that were being referred for services due to severe behavioral problems, and the students were recommended for more restrictive settings where their needs could be met, such as a Special Class. Five of these initial referrals did not qualify for services. 
• In a similar vein, we held 28 reevaluation meetings where a more restrictive setting was recommended. Many of these were for a Special Class, but others were a recommendation where a student moved from receiving only related services, like speech, to Integrated Co-Teaching services.
• We held 21 reevaluation meetings where changes were made to programming (adding or removing a related service, etc) or as part of a three-year reevaluation, in accordance with legal mandates.
• We declassified 8 students from special education services this year. One of them was due to chronic lack of attendance in school, thus not accessing special education services nor receiving appropriate instruction (he came to school four days all year).
• Although I had three full days of CSE meetings in March (on top of helping teachers with the Annual Review process for their caseloads), the biggest volume of CSE meetings came late fall, during the state ed. review. In November and December, I had a total of four meetings days, but they covered 30 kiddos. I'm getting hives just remembering... ugh.
• My building has a small population of preschoolers receiving special education services via the Committee on Preschool Education (CPSE). When they turn school age in kindergarten, we have to reevaluate their programs to see if they will transition into CSE services. We completed 4 CPSE to CSE reevaluations this year, two at the beginning of the year for '11-'12, and two at the end for '12-'13 (we got ahead of the game). 
• We amended 24 students' IEPs, making minor changes that don't overly affect their service levels. These included changing goals, fixing/cleaning up parts of the Present Levels of Educational Performance (PLEP), altering time durations for programming, and adjusting program modifications and testing accommodations. 

So, for those playing at home, that brings my Committee on Special Education meetings for the 2011-2012 school year to a whopping 115.

I am psychologist. Hear me roar.

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If Pancakes Increase Attendance, Call Me Aunt Jemima

Our district is on a big push to increase attendance, and with startling drop-out and graduation rates, rightly so! Attendance has implications in so many areas of school that targeting poor attending students in the lower grades is critical. If they don't have a strong school connection by the time high school comes around, it can be much more difficult to get students to come to school.

In our building, we have two initiatives going on right now to promote attendance, and they're really making a different. What's the game changer? Food. Remember how I suggested having snacks or a meal on family nights at school, to encourage families to attend? It works for kiddos too!

Our first, and most successful, endeavor thus far has been "Breakfast Club." We targeted first grade students who were "chronic" non-attendees, meaning that they have missed up to 19% of the days of school thus far, leaving us with about 15 students. For the month of February, they were invited to attend Breakfast Club on Monday mornings if they came to school, where they would get special breakfast treats (like uber large cinnamon buns, nom nom) in a special room with some of our Student Support staff. On the other days of the week, a mentor checks in with them in the morning to congratulate them on coming to school and gives them a sticker. If they came to school for the entire week, they got a regular sized candy bar on Friday. During February, we saw attendance at Breakfast Club climb from 4 students (who remarked the whole thing was "weird" as they sat and stared at each other eating muffins), to 8, then 11 for the last two Mondays.

In March, we are continuing the program, but have moved Breakfast Club to Tuesdays. Now, students must attend Monday and Tuesday to be invited to their special breakfast. As the school year closes up, the day of Breakfast Club will be moved one day later every month, ending in June with it being held on Fridays. Students will be expected to attend every day prior to Breakfast Club to be allowed to attend. So far, so good! The kiddos look forward to Breakfast Club each week, and on their way up to class, have stopped adults and even the principal to tell them about their special treats.

Our other, shiny and new, program is another breakfast party (who doesn't love breakfast food, I always say). In February, we tracked the homerooms to see who had the best attendance for the whole month. This was some serious business, as it involved algorithms and advanced math beyond my comprehending. We had to make sure that no class was being penalized for having 25 students vs. 6, and that the one kid who's come to school for 4 days this whole year didn't bring his whole class down. In the end, the person calculating did some fancy average of the days possible, days missed, and number of students in the class. One of our third grade classes came out on top and won a stellar pancake breakfast.

Mmm... green.

Right before St. Patrick's Day, they had their pancakes, and we went all out. We decorated the cafeteria with balloons and table cloths, set out place settings, got scented special pencils for each student, griddled up some flapjacks, and provided a myriad of tasty toppings. Not only did we have regular pancakes, but there were also chocolate chip and GREEN pancakes. If colored pancakes don't get a kid to come to school, something is wrong. Add in the fact that kiddos could top their pancakes with bananas, chocolate chips, green sprinkles, whipped cream, syrup, and chocolate sauce, you've got a recipe for perfect attendance (and diabetes).

We had a blast, and the kids did too. Their faces lit up when they came down to the cafeteria in the morning and they were giddy the entire breakfast. I'm sure that they went back upstairs and told evvvverybody how great the treat was, which will hopefully get some more kiddos enticed to come to school. I've got a whole box of food coloring waiting for them.


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Attendance Counts at the CSE Table

The new mantra and push in my district this year is "Attendance Counts." Last year, my principal organized an "attendance team" to combat chronic absenteeism at my building, but we were understaffed and overbooked with other responsibilities to be effective (plus I think only two of us were actually doing the work). Everyone at the district level realized the HUGE problem attendance is, but like our building, the district was not adequately staffed and prepared to deal with the problem. I referred a slew of attendance problem kids to the attendance office downtown, and little was done about it because one woman was trying to deal with the attendance problems of thousands of students. Sounds quite effective! (/saracasm)

Over the summer, the district hired some Attendance Teachers and developed a relationship with Hedy Chang, director of Attendance Works, who has worked extensively to improve attendance in schools in New York City. She will be the keynote at our district's "Attendance Counts Summit" in November. I will likely be attending the summit and will have more information to share then about the district's new attendance initiatives as they come into fruition.

As educators, we know attendance counts. Kids that don't come to school aren't exposed to curriculum, fall behind, get retained, drop out of school, etc. Not to mention what some of them get into when they're not in school (if mischief gets made in the hour after school ends, think about what happens when all the non-attenders are roaming around all day).

Attendance has important meaning to members of the CSE team, in particular school psychologists, who are making special education eligibility determinations for kids. Over the summer, I mentioned that I was assigned over a dozen cases to evaluate by one of the associate superintendents, because the students were all having varying levels of difficulty, had been retained several times, and were much older than they should be for the grade they were in (and were at risk of not finishing school by 21). The more I reviewed the records of these cases, the more I realized that many of them had been retained in the first place due to chronic attendance issues. Here's where an uncomfortable wrench gets thrown in: can we say that an underachieving student has an educational disability requiring special education services when they are not in school to have access to the curriculum? The NY State Part 200 regulations tell us:

A student shall not be determined eligible for special education if the determinant factor is:
      (i) lack of appropriate instruction in reading, including explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency (including oral reading skills) and reading comprehension strategies;
     (ii) lack of appropriate instruction in math; or
     (iii) limited English proficiency. [Part 200.4(c)(2); emphasis mine]

A lack of appropriate instruction basically means anything that has kept a student from getting a good education, poor attendance included. In short, if a kid is struggling in school but has a chronic attendance problem, we cannot call that student educationally disabled and eligible for special education services because they have not been exposed to appropriate instruction.

I had this scenario happen to me recently with two of those summer cases, and it's a tough situation to be put into. One case, Y, was a chronic attendance problem last year and received direct instruction in reading and math due to deficits. She was at least two grade levels behind and wasn't showing improvement through "intensive" interventions in a small group setting. When I tested her, she had a super significant discrepancy between her verbal and nonverbal reasoning, suggesting a verbal learning disability. Although her poor attendance was still concerning to us, we classified her as Learning Disabled (although mom refused to sign for services, which is another story).

The second case, P, was more sticky. P was absent for 50 days in 5th grade and 55 days last year in 6th. His history of absenteeism was significant throughout his school career, and he repeated 3rd and 5th grades. He actually started this year repeating 6th, but my principal moved him onto 7th due to his age (he's almost 15--good call). P teeter-tottered in the "strategic" range of academics, about one year behind, and he didn't receive any interventions. He scored within the low average range on standardized achievement and IQ measures. We didn't feel confident classifying him even though he was behind, because his achievement and IQ were commensurate and his poor attendance suggesting he hadn't had appropriate instruction. What a hard decision to make, especially for a kid who is having some trouble.

Have you had a CSE case like Y or P? How does your school or district deal with attendance concerns?

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