September 2021 - Special Educator e-Journal
Table of Contents
- Special Education Legal Alert. By Perry A. Zirkel
- New Guidance Reaffirms Importance of Full Implementation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
- U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2021-22 School Year
- Biden Administration Extends Student Loan Pause Until January 31, 2022
- Buzz from the Hub
- Behavioral Progress Monitoring Tools
- Case Study: Defining Behavior
- Problem Behavior in Preschoolers
- Parents Guide to Problem Behavior
- Supporting Families with PBIS at Home
- Book Reviews
- Latest Employment Opportunities Posted on NASET
- Acknowledgements
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Special Education Legal Alert
By Perry A. Zirkel
© August 2021
This month’s update identifies recent court decisions illustrating the evolving COVID-19 issues and answers under various legal bases, including but extending beyond IDEA and § 504. For related information about these issues, see the various sections of perryzirkel.com
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New Guidance Reaffirms Importance of Full Implementation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) sent a letter to its state and local partners reiterating its commitment to ensuring children with disabilities and their families have successful early intervention and educational experiences in the 2021-2022 school year.
This letter outlines a series of question and answers (Q&As) as children and students return to in-person learning. The Q&As focus on topics to help ensure that—regardless of the COVID-19 pandemic or the mode of instruction, children with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in accordance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and that infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families receive early intervention services.
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U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights Announces Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2021-22 School Year
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced in a letter to school superintendents that it will administer a 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), marking the first time that OCR has conducted a CRDC, including all public school districts and their schools, two years in a row, for 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The additional collection will help advance equity at a time when the nation’s educational landscape has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and schools are receiving substantial new federal funding to address new and longstanding challenges. Data from the CRDC will inform ongoing decisions regarding additional support that schools, educators, and students need to succeed, and will also assist OCR in meeting its mission to ensure schools and districts are complying with civil rights laws.
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Biden Administration Extends Student Loan Pause Until January 31, 2022
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced a final extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections until January 31, 2022. The Department believes this additional time and a definitive end date will allow borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and defaults after restart. The Department will continue its work to transition borrowers smoothly back into repayment, including by improving student loan servicing.have print disabilities. Included is information about how such students can access textbooks, other instructional materials, and text-reader software at no cost, as well as how teachers can use this information in their daily instructional planning.
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Buzz from the Hub
All articles can be accessed through login:
- Try CPIR’s Mental Health Resources Page
- Long COVID under Section 504 and the IDEA: A Resource to Support Children, Students, Educators, Schools, Service Providers, and Families
- Anxiety in People Who Learn and Think Differently
- Panic Attacks and How to Treat Them
- 20 Tips for Supporting Team Mental Health
- Putting the DEC-Recommended Practices to Work in Parent Centers
- Just in Time Tool
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Behavioral Progress Monitoring Tools
The National Center on Intensive Intervention’s (NCII’s) updated Behavioral Progress Monitoring Tools Chart represents the results of the second annual review of behavioral progress monitoring tools by the Center’s Technical Review Committee. The Center defines behavioral progress monitoring as repeated measurement of targeted behavior for the purpose of helping educators determine the effectiveness of intervention programs for students in grades K-12 who have intensive social, emotional, or behavioral needs. (Posted 6/18/2014)
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Case Study: Defining Behavior
The IRIS Center’s Case Study Units provide faculty with realistic teaching scenarios for students to use. They are designed to strengthen a student’s understanding of the topic, as well as enhance their problem-solving skills while exploring new content. This case study unit is concerned solely with presenting a research-based strategy for defining behavior. Accurately defining behavior enables teachers to collect accurate information, design an appropriate intervention, and write behavioral goals and objectives for an IEP.
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Problem Behavior in Preschoolers
(Available in English and Spanish) | Useful to Parent Centers serving families of preschoolers with disabilities or who are exhibiting worrisome behavior problems.
This article from the Child Mind Institute provides guidance on how to know when 3- to 5-year-olds need help with behavior. While most children who are treated for disruptive behavior problems are school-age, there are signs that preschool kids might need help learning to manage their impulses and regulate their behavior. The article summarizes what many of those signs are, including:
- having more—and more serious—tantrums than typical kids their age;
- neing kicked out of preschool or excluded from play dates; or
Behavior that is disrupting family life and and putting serious strain on other family members.
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Parents Guide to Problem Behavior
When children struggle with their behavior, it can have a negative impact on everyone in the family. Parents know they need to respond, but they often aren’t sure what’s the best strategy, especially if a child is frequently acting out and nothing seems to work. This guide from the Child Mind Institute offers parents a comprehensive look at problem behavior. It covers a variety of topics, including:
- what may be triggering problem behavior,
- how to improve the parent-child relationship when it becomes strained,
- what to do if kids are struggling with behavior in school and
- how to get professional help if you need it.
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Supporting Families with PBIS at Home
This 8-page brief speaks directly to parents about how to use positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) at home, an approach used in over 25,000 schools as a highly effective way to build children’s social-emotional-behavioral skills and reduce challenging behaviors. The publication is a collaboration between the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and the Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR), and is a direct response to current stay-in-place policies and school closures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Book Review: The New One Minute Manager by Blanchard and Johnson
By Valeria Moyer
Abstract
The New One-Minute Manager is a guide to how to be an effective leader. The guidelines, or secrets as the author describes them, includes a three-step guide. They include providing one’s team with one-minute goals, one-minute praises, and one-minute re-directs. These secrets or steps can be followed not just in the business world but also in educational settings. The authors focus on providing insight to leaders on how to be effective and how to collaborate with their teams. Providing the reader with insight on how to follow the three secrets.
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Book Review: The Making of a Manager: What to do when everyone looks to you
By Samantha Seymour
In the first book by Julia Zhuo, she reflects on her experience working in corporate manager and becoming a young manager at the age of 25. Julia is one of the vice presidents of product design at Facebook, and she shares her experiences and learnings regarding her transition from being a personal contributor and employee at Facebook, to becoming a manager. Julia had to ask herself the important questions: what does a manager do? In this book she goes into detail about someone who has had no formal training learned very quickly how to become a confident manager and lead those around her. When Julia first started her role as a manager at Facebook, she had no experience under her belt and describes what her preconceived notions of a manager were. In the early days as a manger, she believed ger job as a manager would consist of holding meetings with the team and giving feedback on their performance. She believed a manager’s jobs were to have meetings with reports to help solve problems, share feedback about what is going well or what is not, and figure out who should be promoted and who should be fired. She believed those were the three things managers did and was unsure about all the other moving parts.
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Book Review: If You Don’t Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students! A Guide to Success for Administrators and Teachers
By Keishla Candelario
Connors, Neila A. If You Don’t Feed the Teachers They Eat the Students! A Guide to Success for Administrators and Teachers. Nashville, Tennesee: Incentive Publications, 2000. 144pp. $16.00.
“If You Don’t Feed the Teachers, They Eat the Students.” Inspired by her mentor, Neila A. Connors wrote this book to share the legacy of a belief system her mentor left behind. Her passion and inspiration for her work come from personal experiences and interactions with the people she has worked with through the years.
In this book, Connors gave her audience “basic and practical ways to be an outstanding administrator, with “FUN” sprinkled” (p.11). She used a dining experience starting from looking at the menu to paying the check as a step-by-step process for administrators or "head cooks” to reflect and become better leaders. Connors believes that education is a “serious business where educators can make or break a child’s day and impact their future” (p.12). To ensure that teachers feel support and positively impact a student's life, administrators must support and encourage teachers to take risks. She describes well-adjusted leaders as having the ability to care for others, desire success, handle stress, have good health, think logically, and have fun.
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Latest Employment Opportunities Posted on NASET
* Special Education Teacher- Under direction of the school principal and special education supervisor, the special education teacher provides direct instruction and instructional support to students with disabilities and works in collaboration with the general education teacher. Monitors and evaluates outcomes for students with disabilities. Assists in the development of Individualized Education Programs (IEP). To learn more- Click here
* Network Director of Mental Health- Reporting to the Managing Director of Programs, the Network Director of Mental Health will be responsible for leading strategy across DREAM schools to ensure the mental health needs of all students are met. This is an exciting opportunity for an individual who has extensive knowledge of best practices in mental health for students. To learn more- Click here
* Teacher III, Susan Gray School - Will independently lead the teaching team to plan, develop, and implement classroom instructional programs and activities, as well as, help in the development of individual educational program (IEP) for an inclusive classroom including typically and atypically developing children. To learn more - Click here
* [2021-2022] Literacy Intervention Teacher - Reporting to the Academic Dean, the Literacy Intervention Teacher will be responsible for providing tailored support to students that are reading significantly below grade level in grades K-2 through small group instruction (3-4 students) and push-in support. To learn more - Click here
* Special Education Teachers - Multiple Locations - BSI Solutions is currently seeking passionate Special Education Teachers with an interest in providing school-based services to students. To learn more - Click here
* Director III, Special Education Procedural Support- Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the nation’s 11th largest school division, is seeking a proven educational leader to serve as Director, Special Education Procedural Support in the Department of Special Services.Located in the Washington, D.C. region, FCPS serves a diverse student population of more than 189,000 students in grades pre-K through 12, 14% of which receive special education and related services under IDEA. To learn more- Click here
* Special Education Teacher - McLean County Unit District No. 5 is seeking Special Education Teacher who provides specialized instruction in order to meet the unique educational needs of students with disabilities, evaluates and assesses progress, in accordance with the student’s IEP, in a variety of settings. To learn more - Click here
* Special Education Teacher - STRIVE Prep is a Denver-based community of public charter schools that challenges every student to strive for college and thrive throughout life by helping them to discover and develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to succeed in college and beyond. We encourage you to read our 2020 Impact Report and learn more about what a career at STRIVE Prep is like here. To learn more - Click here
* Classroom Teacher- Work with students in various settings, develop and modify a therapeutically guided curriculum, generate reports to meet students’ needs, communicate with families, coordinate with therapists, and plan for teaching assistants. To learn more- Click Here
* Special Education Teacher- Provides instruction, directly and with the assistance of Education Assistants and Classroom Assistants, of students with developmental disabilities in education, vocational, functional and self-help, social-emotional, and behavioral areas. Instruction is enhanced by the ongoing collaboration with other team members (i.e. behavior department, parents, related services, etc.) in a multi-disciplinary approach. To learn more- Click Here
* Special Education Teacher- We're looking for exceptional Special Education Teachers for full-time positions in North View, GA for the 2021-2022 school year, from July 29, 2021 - May 24, 2022. These positions are 37.5 hours per week working with elementary-high school age students, with various degrees of cognitive impairment. TherapyTravelers is a mission-driven organization in the business of changing lives! To learn more- Click Here
* Special Needs Tutors - is seeking dynamic, state credentialed special needs teachers to tutor on our virtual platform teaching learners all over the world. This is a perfect second job to earn extra money from the safety of your own home. There is no minimum hourly requirement; all you need is a computer, reliable internet, a quiet space and willingness to teach. To learn more - Click here
* Full Time Director of Special Needs Ministry - The Director of Special Needs Ministry will provide oversight and leadership to five direct reports. This leader will be responsible to develop, oversee and implement a philosophy of ministry that shares the gospel, provides discipleship and creates a sense of belonging for those with special needs and their families. To learn more - Click here
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