March 2023 - Special Educator e-Journal

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Special Education Legal Alert

By Perry A. Zirkel

© February 2023

This month’s update identifies recent major court decisions that illustrate applications of Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to relatively novel situations.  For related publications and earlier monthly updates, see perryzirkel.com.

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    Buzz from the Hub

    All articles below and many more can be accessed through login:

    Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Pre-Employment Transition Services
    The account you create at NTACT will give you access to a wide range of transition-related materials, such as this FAQ on pre-employment transition services. The questions and answers are organized into categories for easy browsing and include: administrative, allowable costs, definitions, service delivery, and RSA FAQs.

    Talking to Kids About Sex and Dating
    Check out this suite of stand-alone articles from the Child Mind Institute, which rounds up resources on why it matters to talk to teens about sex and romantic relationships, and how to approach this sensitive topic. Dive into consent and how kids can confidently set and respect boundaries. The suite includes tips on how to help teens deal with unwanted attention, as well as warning signs of sexual behaviors that are concerning. Some DOs and DON’Ts are outlined to help teens make good choices as they enter their first relationships. Each article in the suite is also available in Spanish.
    Balloons lifting a winning ribbon.

    Sexual Health and Wellness
    PEATC, Virginia’s PTI, has developed a toolkit to help guide parents through discussing sexual health and wellness with their child with disabilities. The toolkit covers topics such as sexuality, self-care, relationships, social skills, and boundaries. Many additional factsheets and resource documents (including YouTube videos) are also available.

    Sexuality & Disability | 6 videos and articles to explore and share, as befits the person and the circumstances

    Sex education for students with disabilities | A more scholarly article from Law & Order, from 2006

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    U.S. Department of Education Announces More Than $188 Million from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to Support Mental Health and Student Wellness

    The U.S. Department of Education (Department) is announcing awards of more than $188 million across 170 grantees in over 30 states to increase access to school-based mental health services and to strengthen the pipeline of mental health professionals in high-needs districts. With funding provided by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), these investments help advance the President’s Mental Health Strategy, which directly implements his Unity Agenda priority to tackle the mental health crisis in our school communities. These grants will enable communities to hire approximately 5,400 school-based mental health professionals and train an estimated 5,500 more to build a diverse pipeline of mental health providers in schools. These investments will begin the important work of broadening access to critical mental health supports by increasing the number of health care providers in schools. These funds also will help with strengthening the pipeline of certified mental health providers who are ready to work in schools with the greatest needs. These competitive grants are the first in a series of awards the Department will make over several years and constitute the largest investment in school-based mental health this country has ever made.

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    U.S. Department of Education Announces First-Ever Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program Grants to Strengthen Teachers of Color Pipeline and Address Teacher Shortage

     The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced first-ever awards, totaling over $18 million, for the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program grants to increase high-quality teacher preparation programs for teachers of color, strengthen the diversity of our teacher pipeline, and address teacher shortages.

    The Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Program (Hawkins Program), named for Augustus F. Hawkins, the first Black politician elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from west of the Mississippi River, supports comprehensive, high-quality teacher preparation programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). A priority in President Biden’s FY 22 budget proposal, this year marks the first time the Hawkins Program has received funding since its creation in 2008. From the FY 2022 appropriation for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, Congress allocated $8 million for the Hawkins program. The Department is also using funds appropriated for the Hawkins Program in FY 2023 to bring the total for these grants to over $18 million.

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    Middle School Teacher and Support Staff Perceptions of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

    Emily Mazzant, Ed.D.

    Abstract

    This paper focuses on teacher and staff perceptions of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) implementation. MTSS implementation at the secondary level is a daunting task which includes many complex facets. Ensuring that teacher and staff insights are sought out and taken into account when implementing school-wide programming can increase program success and fidelity. Specifically, this study examines three research questions: (1) How do middle school teachers and school support staff perceive implementation of a Multi-Tiered System of Support? (2) How do these perceptions impact the buy-in and level of understanding of MTSS implementation? (3) In what ways do middle school teachers understand the MTSS framework? Utilizing a qualitative, single subject case study design methodology, this study sought to explore how teacher and staff understanding of MTSS can impact implementation. Results of this study indicate that districts should seek input from staff regarding program implementation and highlight the importance of professional development focused on MTSS.

    Key words: Mulitiered Systems of Support (MTSS), teacher perceptions, middle school, Response to Intervention (RTI), implementation

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    Education Law Into Practice

    A Special Section of West’s Education Law Reporter Sponsored by the Education Law Association

    ____________

    Longitudinal Trends of Judicial Rulings in K–12 Education:

    The Latest Look*

    by

    Perry A. Zirkel & Benjamin H. Frisch**

    © 2023

    Previous issues of West’s Education Law Reporter provided successive longitudinal analyses of the volume of litigation in the public elementary and secondary school context (hereinafter referred to as “K–12”) respectively ending in each of the prior three decades.[1]  These trend studies, like other such tabulations,[2] were based on the West’s Key Number System.

    The predecessor analyses revealed that on an overall basis the “boom” in education litigation

     

    *Education Law Into Practice is a special section of the Education Law Reporter sponsored by the Education Law Association.  The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or the Education Law Association. Cite as 407 Educ. L. Rep. 409 (2023).

    ** Perry A. Zirkel, Ph.D., J.D., LL.M., is university professor emeritus of education and law at Lehigh University and Benjamin H. Frisch, J.D., is a senior attorney editor with Thomson Reutters with the responsibility of being the primary classifier of Key Numbers for the Education topic.

    [1] Perry A. Zirkel & Brent Johnson, The “Explosion” in Education Litigation: The Next Update, 265 Educ. L. Rep. 1 (2011); Perry A. Zirkel, The “Explosion” in Education Litigation: An Update, 114 Educ. L. Rep. 341 (1997); Perry A. Zirkel & Sharon Richardson, The “Explosion” in Education Litigation, 53 Educ. L. Rep. 767 (1989).  For parallel analyses for postsecondary education, see Lee Dalton, The Volume of Higher Education Litigation: The Latest Update, 349 Educ. L. Rep. 877 (2018); Stacy Donoso & Perry A. Zirkel, The Volume of Higher Education Litigation: An Updated Analysis, 232 Educ. L. Rep. 549 (2008); Perry A. Zirkel, Higher Education Litigation: An Overview, 56 Educ. L. Rep. 705 (1989).

    [2] David Tyack, Thomas James, & Aaron Benavot, Law and the Shaping of Public Education 1785–1954 215–16 (1987); John C. Hogan, The Schools, the Courts, and the Public Interest 11 (2d ed. 1985); Michael Imber & Gary Thompson, Developing a Typology of Litigation in Education and Determining the Frequency of Each Category, 27 Educ. Admin. Q. 225 (1991); Michael Imber & David Gayler, A Statistical Analysis of Tends in Education-Related Litigation Since 1960, 24 Educ. Admin. Q. 55 (1988).

     

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    Acknowledgements

    Portions of this or previous month’s NASET’s Special Educator e-Journal were excerpted from:

    • Center for Parent Information and Resources
    • Committee on Education and the Workforce
    • FirstGov.gov-The Official U.S. Government Web Portal
    • Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals (JAASEP)
    • National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth
    • National Institute of Health
    • National Organization on Disability
    • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
    • U.S. Department of Education
    • U.S. Department of Education-The Achiever
    • U.S. Department of Education-The Education Innovator
    • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
    • U.S. Department of Labor
    • U.S. Food and Drug Administration
    • U.S. Office of Special Education

      The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) thanks all of the above for the information provided for this or prior editions of the Special Educator e-Journal

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