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After completing my Master's Degree in Counseling and Guidance, I intend on applying for positions within my district and outside my district. I would like to become a counselor in the middle or high school setting because I want to be able to help my students with their future goals.

(Google, 2018)

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I decided to interview Gladys Cisneros; she has been the counselor at Ed Franz Elementary for three years. I interviewed her about how she handles legal and ethical issues.

1. A current legal issue impacting the Judson Independent School District (JISD) counseling department is becoming familiar with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) laws. As a counseling department, the counselors are becoming more aware of the legal issues that might surround the needs of meeting the LGBTQ community.

2. Understanding the importance of confidentiality and maintaining records is essential in the counseling field. One way Mrs. Cisneros does this is by reviewing her records on a monthly basis.

3. It is vital for a school counselor to report suspected child abuse to Child Protective Services (CPS). According to American School Counselor Association(2016), counselors must be knowledgeable about the procedures and state laws on reporting child abuse and neglect.

4. Attending trainings provided by the district, watching videos, and staying updated with laws through reading materials are strategies counselors should participate in regularly.

5. It is important to take thorough notes and stay organized when speaking with clients/students because clients and parents have the right to take a counselor to court. Therefore, documentation is crucial for evidence if a counselor is summons to court.

(G. Cisneros, personal communication, August 20, 2018)

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After reviewing the National Education Association (NEA), I observed quite a bit of information and various articles regarding Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and Special Education. There are many students in elementary, middle, and high school who falls under Special Education. National Association Education specifically focused on the importance of reauthorizing the individuals with Disabilities Act, bill H.R. 1350.

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Detailed Summary
Highlights NEA Priorities

Read a more detailed summary of the IDEA reauthorization bill highlighting NEA's priority issues.

After nearly three years of bipartisan work, Congress has reauthorized the landmark federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The IDEA reauthorization bill, H.R. 1350, the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act, was approved by the House and Senate November 19 as one of the last actions by the 108th Congress. IDEA was last reauthorized in 1997.

NEA gave qualified support to the final reauthorization bill. Given its overall positive impact for students with disabilities and special education professionals, the bill's passage ensures no further delay in addressing NEA member needs in serving students with disabilities. Concerns, however, remain.

NEA was an insistent voice throughout the debate and negotiations. Early in the process, NEA successfully thwarted attempts to insert voucher programs in the bill. Through the consistent feedback from NEA members and state affiliate leaders, NEA focused several key changes on improved services and learning, rather than additional paperwork and process.

The resulting bill:

Significantly increases support for professional development;

Aims to reduce burdensome paperwork;

Provides new flexibility in meeting the "highly qualified" teacher requirements legislated in the ESEA/"No Child Left Behind" Act;

Simplifies and better balances discipline procedures while continuing to protect fundamental civil rights of students with disabilities;

Enhances educators' ability to provide early intervention for struggling students; and

Provides fair ways to reduce litigation between parents and schools.

Challenges remain, however. There is no extension on the timeline for meeting the federal "highly qualified" teacher provisions. NEA argued that special educators licensed according to state requirements should be deemed highly qualified according to the federal standard. While the reauthorization provides new flexibility not provided special educators under the original NCLB mandate, the "highly qualified" teacher provisions under the new law are problematic.

In addition, the legislation provides a seven-year timetable and a formula for achieving full funding of the federal share of special education, but without a guarantee to appropriate the funds. The funding issue remains on the table and is surely something the next Congress will need to address.

Materials explaining the new law will be available soon. The next step requires that the U.S. Department of Education develop regulations for implementing the new law. This rule-making process will be key to ensuring that supportive provisions written into the law are implemented effectively. NEA is already at work.

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Congress Reauthorizes IDEA; NEA Wins Key Changes

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Detailed SummaryHighlights NEA Priorities Read a more detailed summary of the IDEA reauthorization bill highlighting NEA's priority issues. After nearly three years of bipartisan work, Congress has reauthorized the landmark federal special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The IDEA reauthorization bill, H.R.

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The National Boards Association (NSBA) highlighted a variety of issues schools face. However, the topic of employment and labor stood out to me. NSBA highlights various laws that affects schools. They provide a list of cases under the tags of employment and labor, legal advocacy,  and school law resources.

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Employment and Labor | National School Boards Association

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Montgomery County Public Schools/Bill Mills: www.mcps.org Learn more about the major employment laws affecting schools.

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The legal and ethical issue I selected to explore is Special Education Laws. As a teacher who has taught and still teaches special education students, my knowledge about special education laws is minimum.

(Google, 2018)

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Your Hands are (not) Tied: School-based Ethics when Parents Revoke Special Education Consent
By: Rachel Stein and Jill Sharkey

https://easydb.angelo.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.397491531&site=eds-live

Stein, R., & Sharkey, J. (2015). Your hands are (not) tied: School-based ethics when parents revoke special education consent. Psychology In The Schools, (2), 168. doi:10.1002/pits.21814

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Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)

https://sites.ed.gov/idea/educators-service-providers/

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There are many legal and ethnical issues that surround Special Education. It is crucial for not only administrators and counselors to understand the laws, but it is also important for teachers to understand Special Education Laws. According to Stein and Sharkey (2015), a main issue with Special Education ethics is when parents deny Special Education services for their children. Besides learning disabilities, students face behavioral disabilities. If a parent denies Special Education services the behavioral child will not receive extra support like the Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP), which puts the teachers in a predicament. Unfortunately, schools legally do not have the ability to fight against the parent's decision. "Therefore, when parents make the decision to exclude their child with a disability from special education, schools have no legal recourse for fighting the decision, but instead must determine how to work with the student within the context of general education" (p.170). When a parent denies Special Education services, Response to Intervention (RTI) is an option. RTI provides academic support, behavioral support, and the ability to collect data. Data collection can possibly give the parent enough proof for reconsideration of Special Education for their child (Stein & Sharkey, 2015)

Information on the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) website can also be beneficial for educators. The website provides information on statue regulations and policy documents. More importantly IDEA provides resources for parents and educators to utilize like lesson plans, transitioning from high school to college, and behavioral suggestions. IDEA suggest to utilize positive behavior through Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS). PBIS provides positive behavioral reinforcements in the classroom, hallway, and restroom. According to PBIS (2018), " teaching behavioral expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. The purpose of PBIS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behavior is a norm" (para. 3). As an educator it is vital to understand Special Education ethics and laws and other options if parents deny their child's services.

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What is School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

School-wide PBIS is a multi-tiered framework to make schools more effective places. It establishes a social culture and the behavior supports needed to improve social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes for all students. PBIS is flexible enough support student, family, and community needs.

Foundational Elements of PBIS

The four critical features of SW-PBIS include:

Locally-meaningful and culturally-relevant outcomes

Empirically-supported practices

Systems to support implementation

Data to monitor effective and equitable implementation and to guide decision making.

Outcomes

Setting observable and measurable goals helps schools hold themselves accountable to creating the kind of place where every student succeeds. Schools select the outcomes to target based on data they find meaningful, culturally equitable, and centered on students' achievements or school-level implementation.

Practices

Schools implementing PBIS select, implement, monitor, evaluate, and adapt the evidence-based practices they use in their settings. Specifically, they invest in practices that are:

Defined with precision

Documented with how and for whom to use them

Documented with specific outcomes

Demonstrated through research to be effective

Because PBIS is not a packaged curriculum or intervention, schools implement the core features of evidence-based practices in a way that fits with the schools' cultural values.

When it comes to school-wide practices, all schools:

Document a shared vision and approach to supporting and responding to student behavior in a mission or vision statement.

Establish 3-5 positively-stated school-wide expectations and define them for each school routine or setting.

Explicitly teach school-wide expectations and other key social, emotional, and behavioral skills to set all students up for success.

Establish a continuum of recognition strategies to provide specific feedback and encourage contextually appropriate behavior.

Establish a continuum of response strategies to provide specific feedback, re-teach contextually appropriate behavior, and discourage contextually inappropriate behavior.

Systems

Schools invest in the administrative, professional, and organizational systems critical to sustain PBIS implementation. These systems create the ability to deliver Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 practices. They also serve as the foundation to establish

Teaming structures

Scheduling practices

Staff selection

Training and coaching procedures

On-going data-based problem-solving routines

Data

School-wide PBIS schools collect and use data to guide their implementation and evaluate outcomes. It is critical to consider the local culture and context throughout the decision-making process to ensure equitable outcomes for all students and staff.

Tiers of SWPBIS: Continuum of Support

The type and level of behavior support provided for any student must match the intensity of his or her needs. Student responsiveness to academic and behavioral supports must guide instructional and intervention decisions. Schools implementing PBIS school-wide must organize behavior support across multiple tiers which increase in intensity as students' needs dictate.

Tier 1 supports are delivered to all students and emphasize teaching prosocial skills and behavior expectations. Schools acknowledge appropriate student behavior across all school settings. Tier 1 PBIS builds a social culture where students expect, prompt, and reinforce appropriate behavior for each other. When implemented with fidelity, Tier 1 PBIS systems and practices meet the needs of 80% or more of all students' needs.

Tier 2 supports focus on students who are not successful with Tier 1 supports alone. Students receiving Tier 2 support require additional teaching and practice opportunities to increase their likelihood of success. Tier 2 supports are often successful when provided within groups. At this level, systems and practices are efficient. This means they are similar across students and can be quickly accessed. Schools monitor fidelity and outcome data regularly to adjust implementation as needed. The typical range of Tier 2 supports include:

Self-management

Check-In, Check-Out

Small group social skill instruction

Targeted academic supports.

Typically, schools deliver Tier 2 supports to 5-15% of the student body.

Tier 3 are more intensive and individualized. Schools use more formalized assessments to match interventions to the behavior's function. They create individualized plans incorporating the student's academic strengths and deficits, physical and medical status, mental health needs, and family/community support. Support plans emphasize:

Prevention of problem situations

Active instruction of new, replacement, and adaptive behaviors

Formal strategies to acknowledge desired behavior

Systematic procedures to reduce the likelihood problem behaviors are reinforced

Safety routines

Accurate and sustained implementation

Data collection procedures to measure fidelity and impact

Coordination of family, agency, and other systems of care.

Tier 3 supports target the 3-5% of students with the highest support needs in the school.

Why Implement School-wide PBIS?

Specifically, PBIS implemented school-wide is associated with the following outcomes:[1],[2],[3],[4]

Get Started...

To get started implementing SW-PBIS, identify a representative leadership team. This team typically:

Completes readiness activities like securing staff buy-in and evaluating data systems

Identifies relevant training and coaching resources

Develops an action plan to guide implementation of PBIS practices, systems, and data school-wide

Implements a contextualized approach to PBIS to match the school's values and culture

Monitors, evaluates, and adjusts implementation in an on-going way

To learn more about PBIS resources available within your state, contact your state coordinator.

[1] Sugai, G., & Horner, R. (2009). Responsiveness-to-Intervention and School-Wide Positive Behavior Supports: Integration of Multi-Tiered System Approaches. Exceptionality, 17(4), 223-237. doi: 10.1080/09362830903235375

[2] Waasdorp, T., Bradshaw, C., Leaf, F. (2012). The Impact of Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on Bullying and Peer Rejection. Archives Of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 166(2), 149. doi: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.755

[3] Simonsen, B., Britton, L., & Young, D. (2009). School-Wide Positive Behavior Support in an Alternative School Setting. Journal Of Positive Behavior Interventions, 12(3), 180-191. doi: 10.1177/1098300708330495

[4] Bradshaw, C., Koth, C., Bevans, K., Ialongo, N., & Leaf, P. (2008). The impact of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) on the organizational health of elementary schools. School Psychology Quarterly, 23(4), 462-473. doi: 10.1037/a0012883

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Topic Page: When schools implement PBIS, they start by implementing it school-wide. Three critical features - systems, practices, and data - work together to promote positive, predictable, safe environments for everyone in all school settings.

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American School Counselor Association (2016). ASCA National Standards for Students. Alexandria, VA: Author

Individuals with Disabilities Act. (2018). Educators and services. Retrieved from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/educators-service-providers/

National Education Association. (2017). Congress Reauthorize IDEA; NEA wins key changes. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/18745.htm

National School Boards Association. (2018). Employment and labor. Retrieved from https://www.nsba.org/advocacy/school-law-issues/employment-and-labor

Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports. (2017). What is school-wide PBIS?. Retrieved from https://www.pbis.org/school

Stein, R., & Sharkey, J. (2015). Your hands are (not) tied: School-based ethics when parents revoke special education consent. Psychology In The Schools, (2), 168. doi:10.1002/pits.21814