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Upon completion of a Master of Education in Administration I plan to become a Director in Special Education. I taught Special Education for 5 years and have been and Educational Diagnostician for the past two years.

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Exploration Option 1- Current Professionals Perspectives

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Exploration Option 1- Current Professionals Perspectives

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*Currently I have had to re-create a more detailed confidentiality statement for all ARD meetings to remind parents, teachers and administration of the privacy of these meetings and to prevent from speaking other student's names.
*Regularly monitor special education timeline for annual ARDS, Re-Evaluation and Initial Evaluation. With four different schools it is easy for someone to miss a timeline without proper monitoring.
*Recently held a training for each Campus Administration on STAARL Alt. policies and requirements, as there were a lot of principals recommending STAAR Alt for students who did not meet the requirements.
*Currently we may be facing legal issues with a 1st grade students parents. Due to some disagreements, we have had to involve our lawyer in a few ARD meetings, to ensure we are doing what is best for the student.

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By Christina A. Samuels

January 8, 2019

Samuels, (2019), writes an article pointing the flaws in special education why it is broken. The articles explores the lack of RTI and identifying special education students, lack of funds to support special education needs, reason general education teacher should be teaching special education and whether or not parents are receiving their rights in special education.

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Editor's Note: Associate Editor Christina Samuels covers special education. This analysis is part of a special report exploring pressing trends in education. Read the full report: 10 Big Ideas in Education.

The year was 1975, and President Gerald Ford was ambivalent about the law he was about to sign, guaranteeing that students with disabilities are entitled to education in the public schools. He said so in what was then an infrequently used presidential option-a signing statement.

No one could argue against the law's goals, Ford wrote. But the "Education for All Handicapped Children Act" was underfunded, promised too much to families, and was burdened by complex technical requirements, he said.

Fortunately, he said, the law wasn't scheduled to be fully implemented until 1978. "There is time to revise the legislation and come up with a program that is effective and realistic," Ford wrote.

That was optimistic.

Special education must move beyond a one-size-fits-all model, explains disability civil rights pioneer Judith Heumann. Scroll down for the Q&A.

Over 43 years later, others still hold Ford's concerns, and they aren't opponents of the law. Rather, people who have spent their professional careers or personal lives deeply involved in the cause of educating students with disabilities are the same ones who are troubled-publicly and privately-about special education as functional law and as a process intended to get students the education that they need.

What is now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was the culmination of decades of activism all over the country. Now that the law is here, it will take a revival of that same spirit to fix what is broken in the implementation.

And that implementation is broken in some fundamental ways. Here are a few: Children with disabilities aren't always identified for needs when they have them. When they are identified, what happens in the classroom is hit-or-miss. And, as Ford and countless school officials, advocates, parents, and teachers have said since 1975, there's not enough money in the law to accomplish all that it requires.

Let's take a look at the process of identifying children with disabilities, one of the underpinnings of the IDEA. School districts have to seek out and evaluate any child in their boundaries that may have a disability-a process that the special education law calls "child find."

But the process of identifying children with certain disabilities-dyslexia, for example-is exquisitely sensitive to human pressure and to public policy. After years of growth, the overall special education population dipped in the early 2000s. Why? It's not clear.

There could be a policy driver: The 2000s saw many schools adopt "response to intervention," an educational process intended to steer students to appropriate interventions before they fall too far behind academically.

But those same policies can also be used to keep children out of special education who should qualify for it. Texas was called out earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Education for failing to identify and evaluate its students properly, thus keeping its special education enrollment numbers artificially low. State officials say the price tag for providing additional special education services could be more than $3 billion over the next three years.

Another twist to the identification issue: Recent research shows that minority children are actually less likely than their white peers to receive special education services, upending years of other studies. The pushback against those findings has been fierce.

And then there is what happens once students are identified. Response to intervention was rolled out to schools with great fanfare and is now used in some form in more than 70 percent of school districts. But a major goal of RTI is to keep children out of special education-an acknowledgement that some children are receiving services who should not really need them, and that other students need extra academic help who aren't identified with a disability.

Does RTI work? One large study in 2015 showed that students in the program who were supposedly receiving targeted interventions actually performed worse than virtually identical peers who were not in an RTI process. RTI supporters say the problem is poor implementation that needs simplification.

But if RTI is currently too complicated for most schools to implement well, what does that mean for the teachers and principals who are working so hard to put it in place, or for the students who are enrolled in it right now?

And then, there's the money. Congress never funded the IDEA for the full amount that was authorized when the law was first signed. At that time, Congress estimated that it cost states twice as much to educate a student with disabilities as it does to educate a general education student, and the law authorizes the federal government to give up to 40 percent of that excess cost to states.

Congress has never come close to that mark; its $12.3 billion contribution in fiscal 2018 is more like 15 percent of the excess cost.

But we don't have a good idea nationally of how much is spent on special education, or if it's still correct that special education students cost school districts twice as much to educate. The last national spending numbers are more than 20 years old. And even if more money was poured into the system, would it flow to where it's needed? A 2014 report by New America, a Washington-based think tank, asserted that the out-of-date, complicated formula that the federal government uses to distribute money to states has resulted in small districts getting more federal money per student than larger districts, and shrinking school systems receiving more federal dollars than school districts that are growing.

Right now, advocates have been in something of a defensive crouch over the law, which is nearly 10 years overdue for reauthorization. A new Congress might have a new attitude, however. And when and if it picks the law up again, here's some questions that need answering:

* How much does it really cost to educate students with disabilities? The numbers often cited don't take into account changes such as the growth of students with autism or impairments such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the rise of inclusion, or the increasing availability of interventions outside of the formal structure of special education.

* Should special education be provided primarily by special education teachers? Most children with disabilities spend most or all of their time in the general education classroom. Given the chronic shortage of special education teachers, it may be time to make all teachers learn the fundamentals of what special education entails. This is already happening in some places. For example, at Syracuse University, any undergraduate student who wants to be an elementary teacher has to take coursework in inclusive education. Students are recommended for certificates in both general and special education.

* Special education comes with a long list of rights that parents have, but are those rights reasonably available to everyone? Advocates hailed the 2017 Endrew F. v. Douglas County School Board U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established more-ambitious expectations for special education students. But it's important to note that the parents in that case-like most parents-lost at every step of the process: at the administrative judge level, at the district court level, and at the appeals court level before prevailing at the high court. They had resources to carry on the fight that few parents possess. Schools and districts are afraid of lawsuits, even though they win the vast majority of them. But parents also have fears that their children are not getting the appropriate education to which they are entitled.

In the vast majority of cases, parents are not unreasonable, nor are special educators lazy. Everyone is working hard, and in good faith. But the landscape in 2018 is far different from the educational landscape in 1975.

The IDEA made a fundamental change in access to education for students with disabilities. Now it's time to make that access meaningful.

PERSPECTIVE

Q&A: How to Expand Special Education Services
Disability civil rights pioneer Judith Heumann has been at the forefront of trailblazing legislation to support people with disabilities, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, first passed in 1975, and the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. A former assistant secretary of education for special education and rehabilitative services, Heumann says the future of this country relies on valuing every child and adult. What will it take for the nation to have an "aha" moment about the state of special education?
The nation needs to recognize that education for all will not occur with a one-size-fits-all model. To get there, we must train all administrators and all teachers to teach all children. We must educate the average American that our ability to be competitive in the global economy rests on having a highly educated workforce, and we cannot afford to believe that any one group of children cannot benefit from a robust educational system. And finally, special education should not be seen as a place but rather a service.
How would you ensure that teachers have the training and support they need to be effective?
The U.S. Department of Education and state education departments need to ensure that appropriate standards (with accountability measures) are developed and implemented. States need to support teacher-preparation colleges that offer dual-licensure, that are taught by faculty who have successfully worked in inclusive classrooms, and offer meaningful clinical programs. Future educators should learn principles of universal design for learning, differentiated instruction, and co-teaching. Funding should come from the federal and state governments. Scholarships should be more available so that students are not fearful of debt that they will not be able to pay back. Additionally, one would know that the teacher programs are effective when administrators are satisfied with the people they are hiring and graduates feel they have the knowledge and confidence to work in diverse classrooms.
What are the federal, state, and local levers you would pull to effectively educate students with disabilities?
Quality education ensures a strong democracy. In our schools every day, we understand that students' lives are impacted not only by what is happening in the classroom, but by poverty, health care, safety, employment, and housing, for example.

We must develop high standards for administrator and teacher licensure, provide sufficient funding to support our schools, and provide grants and loan forgiveness for educators. We must work with local, state, and national businesses to understand the future of work and the kind of learning that must be going on in our schools every day.

We cannot afford to squander one child's life. Our efforts will be measured by reduced dropout rates, significant reduction of juveniles entering our prison systems, and ultimately producing a society where we have demonstrated the value of diversity in our communities. This means that no child or adult should be devalued because of disability or any other marginalizing label.

Published in Print: January 9, 2019, as Special Education's Future

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Editor's Note: Associate Editor Christina Samuels covers special education. This analysis is part of a special report exploring pressing trends in education. Read the full report: 10 Big Ideas in Education. The year was 1975, and President Gerald Ford was ambivalent about the law he was about to sign, guaranteeing that students with disabilities are entitled to education in the public schools.

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By Christina A. Samuels and Alex Harwin

December 5, 2018
This articles shows evidence of how the population of special education teacher has been decreasing throughout the years. The articles shows data to show why special education teachers are decreasing and what ways we can alleviate the situation.

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The number of special education teachers nationally has dropped by more than 17 percent over the past decade, a worrisome trend in a career path that has seen chronic shortages for years.

An analysis of federal data by the Education Week Research Center shows that while the number of special education teachers was dropping, the number of students with disabilities ages 6 to 21 declined by only about 1 percent over the same time period. And as a whole, the number of teachers in all fields has gone up slightly over the past decade, as has overall enrollment.

For the 2015-16 school year, which offers the most up-to-date data, there was one special education teacher for every 17 students with disabilities. That's more special education students per special educator than the overall teacher-student ratio, which has held steady at about 1 to 16 for the past decade.

Shortages Effects on the Ground

So how does this play out at the school level?

For Allison Oliver, a positive behavioral specialist for the 30,000-student DeSoto district in northern Mississippi, the shortage meant that during her time as a classroom teacher, she was responsible for classes of 18 middle school students with a spectrum of disabilities. Teens with emotional or behavioral disturbances, specific learning disabilities, or physical disabilities would all be in one class.

"Our numbers were packed," said Oliver, who was a paraprofessional before entering the teaching field.

From her perspective now as a person who works among several schools, Oliver said the problem isn't getting much better. "I have some teachers who are very strong special education teachers, but they get dumped on a lot. They get all of the severe children. They get all of the severe paperwork."

Angela Holstedt, a special education teacher in Wyoming who teaches in the early-elementary grades, worked in an elementary school where high numbers of elementary students would enroll or leave the school during the year. She said her caseload could sometimes swell to as many as 25 students, and she was also in charge of conducting academic evaluations for incoming students with disabilities.

This year she moved to a new district and a new school. The number of students she works with has been cut in half.

"It's a strange sensation for me this year, having a more reasonably sized caseload instead of just feeling that I'm overwhelmed," Holstedt said.

The shortage of teachers is only a part of a multifaceted problem. Walter Smith, the director of special education for the 3,900-student Elizabethtown Area district in Pennsylvania, said he has to scramble to find substitute teachers for special education classrooms.

"The sub pool is so small, and they can pick the [Advanced Placement] classes or the regular ed [classes]," Smith said. "They're making sub pay-why wouldn't they pick the easier gig?"

This situation stands in sharp contrast to previous years where the sub pool included prospective teachers, he said. "We had subs champing at the bit, trying to prove themselves, trying to get hired."

The employment figures come from federal data collected from every state. Personnel data is not required from the states in the same way that federal law requires other data, such as a count of children served and their disability categories. However, the data has been collected since 1976, and includes the number and type of personnel employed under the IDEA and whether those personnel are fully certified or qualified in their field.

The numbers can be used to study national employment trends. However, anomalies in the data make it challenging to make state-to-state comparisons, because the number of special education teachers reported in some individual states fluctuate dramatically from year to year in ways that are not fully explained. States and the federal government offer different explanations for why their personnel numbers have so many aberrations.

Quantity and Quality Shortages

Data problems aside, the federal statistics show that there's not only a shortage of teachers to contend with, but that there's also a "quality shortage." That term, coined by researchers, occurs when a relatively high percentage of special education teachers in a state are not fully qualified.

Nationally, over the past five years, on average nearly 95 percent of special educators have been identified as highly qualified. But in some states that number is much lower. In Kansas, for example, only around 70 percent of its special education teachers are classified as highly qualified. Colleen Riley, the state's director of special education, confirmed the figures, and cited the pressure of decreased school funding as one factor that makes it difficult to find highly-qualified educators.

"When funding is reduced, there are increased demands in every part of the educational environment and these demands are challenging for teachers," Riley said.

Leaders of teacher-preparation programs, those who have studied personnel shortages, and educators themselves cite additional factors when asked about the shortage: For example, fewer young people, particularly women are interested in entering teaching at all, let alone special education.

"The perception of education has changed so drastically. It's not really viewed as the profession that it once was," said Brittany Bales, a former special education teacher who is now a lecturer at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. and a member of the Muncie district school board. And special educators are a tiny slice of a shrinking pie: In 2015-16, only 7 percent of teachers who earned bachelor's degree in education majored in special education.

To lure people into the field, Ball State is asking its special education teacher candidates why they wanted to make that their focus. Universally, they say they have had direct experience with people with disabilities, either through their own families or through mentorship activities in their K-12 education, Bales said. So, the university is sending packets of information back to those high schools to share with their students, in an effort to keep those pipelines open.

Training and Retaining

Many districts are also turning to alternative-certification programs, which get teachers in front of students while they are earning their special education teaching credentials. The need is clear: Of public schools that said they had teaching vacancies, about 31 percent said they found it very difficult or were not able to fill their special education spots. That compares to 9 percent who said they had similar challenges filling general elementary spots. Only physical science and foreign language spots were identified as harder to fill.

Timothy A. Slocum, the head of the special education department at Utah State University in Logan, noted that the university's alternative-certification program has 47 students, the same as students enrolled in its traditional program.

The program is by no means an easy path for prospective special educators, he said. "It's a terribly difficult thing for the teachers to be in a special education classroom with no training and no idea of how to do that-and not only to navigate that but to be in a university classroom as well."

The university is revamping its offerings so that teacher candidates can take a blend of online courses where they can study on their own, and courses where they have direct, real-time interaction with an instructor.

Loan forgiveness or free tuition for special education majors might be one way to draw more people to the field, Slocum said, and he's working with state legislators to put such a program in place.

"Policywise it seems fairly simple to me," he said. "If you have the commitment you could just turn that on."

And just as important as maintaining a pipeline into the classroom is holding on to the teachers that districts already have, through thoughtful mentorship and professional development opportunities, said Bonnie Billingsley, a professor of education at Virginia Tech who has studied special education teacher retention. Special educators often feel they don't have enough support from administrators and colleagues. They also say they don't have the tools they need to do their jobs, or the physical space to do it.

Such problems are not universal, Billingsley said, but they come up frequently enough to put a pall on the profession. Principals and district administrators need to start thinking, "what can I do to make special education teaching a better experience in that school?

"I think these are all well-meaning people, but it may not be on their radar," Billingsley said.

Published in Print: December 5, 2018, as Shortage of Special Educators Adds to Classroom Pressures

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Shortage of Special Educators Adds to Classroom Pressures

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The number of special education teachers nationally has dropped by more than 17 percent over the past decade, a worrisome trend in a career path that has seen chronic shortages for years.

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Step 3: Pick one of the legal and ethical issues you identified during your Step 2 exploration. Write 1-2 sentences about the topic you selected and why. (1-2 sentences).

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Step 3: Pick one of the legal and ethical issues you identified during your Step 2 exploration. Write 1-2 sentences about the topic you selected and why. (1-2 sentences).

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During my exploration of legal and ethical issues in special education, I found the topic over the shortage of special education teachers appealing, as I have seen this issue personally.
The small charter school I work at is constantly battling to find and keep special education teachers due to lack of money and incentives.

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Researching Shortage of Special Education Teachers

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Researching Shortage of Special Education Teachers

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In my search under the Angelo State University Library, I found an article that examined long-term trends in the demand, supply, and shortage of special education teachers for 16 school years, from 1987/1988 through 2002/2003.

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Angelo State University - Library Online Resources

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Unauthorized use is prohibited; Usage may be subject to security testing and monitoring; Misuse is subject to criminal prosecution; No expectation of privacy except as otherwise provided by applicable privacy laws.

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Researching Shortage of Special Education Teachers

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Researching Shortage of Special Education Teachers

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When I performed my internet search I found an interesting topic by Billingsley & McLeskey (2008), who present evidence that the showed the lack
of well-qualified special education teachers, the instability of special education teachers in teaching positions and inadequate work conditions contribute to the research-to-practice gap. file:///Users/Admin/Downloads/How_Does_the_Quality_and_Stability_of_th.pdf

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The issues I found interesting is the topic on the decreasing number of special education teachers. Federal law requires that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restricted environment (LRE). Some of these environments are in a co-teach classroom with both special education and general education teachers and some require special education teacher with the assistance of an aide.

This issue poses a threat to my future as a director in special education because the number of students in special education grow every year. Although IDEA does not contain specific requirements for caseload and/or class size, the lack of special education teachers would make it difficult to provide the education for students according to their Individualized Education Plan (IEP). According to Texas Administrative Code 89.63 (2018),

“The instructional arrangement/setting is for providing special education and related services to a student in the regular classroom in accordance with the student's IEP. Qualified special education personnel must be involved in the implementation of the student's IEP through the provision of direct, indirect and/or support services to the student, and/or the student's regular classroom teacher(s) necessary to enrich the regular classroom and enable student success”.

As a Director in Special Education I would need to utilize my funds and resources to find special education teachers. I will also need to learn leadership strategies, people skills, and incentives to be able to keep those special education teachers.