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Role and Scope of Responsibility

Jessica Stone serves as a district-level Special Education Director with authority to oversee compliance, policy, and staff training.

Isabel Peña works as a School Psychologist, supporting students directly through assessments, behavioral interventions, and collaboration with site teams.

Perspective on Conflict Resolution

Stone views conflict as a systems issue, focusing on procedural correction and maintaining professional relationships.

Peña experiences conflict at an interpersonal level, emphasizing empathy, reflection, and separating work from personal life to avoid burnout.

Professional Development Opportunities

Stone facilitates structured professional development, including legal updates, CPI, and district trainings.

Peña reports limited access to meaningful PD, explaining that procedural updates are often shared without context or implementation guidance.

Training Background in Special Education Law

Stone’s legal understanding is largely self-directed, learned from district attorneys and webinars.

Peña’s knowledge stems from formal graduate training in school psychology and ongoing engagement with national and state-level resources.

Focus in the IEP Process

Stone ensures compliance, consistency, and parent engagement across the district.

Peña’s focus is on accurate eligibility determinations, behavioral plans, and ensuring that all staff working with a student understand their role in implementation.

Environmental and Contextual Challenges

Stone’s rural district faces staffing shortages and geographic barriers, requiring creative solutions to ensure equitable access to services.

Peña’s smaller school community allows for natural inclusion and consistent adult support, reducing student stigmatization.

Data Use and Interpretation

Stone uses student data to monitor progress and guide services aligned with IEP goals.

Peña analyzes assessment data to identify inequities and trends, noting patterns of disproportionate identification among specific student groups.

Leadership and Authority

Stone holds administrative authority to implement systemic change and ensure compliance at a district level.

Peña, without formal authority, relies on collaboration and advocacy within her team to address challenges and uphold student support.

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Student-Centered Focus

Both emphasize that all decisions within special education must prioritize the student’s individual needs, growth, and access to learning. They share a belief that meaningful IEPs and instructional practices are built around the whole child, not just compliance.

Communication and Collaboration

Both Stone and Peña stress that communication is the foundation of effective teamwork. They highlight the need for open dialogue among teachers, administrators, service providers, and families to ensure alignment and prevent misunderstandings during the IEP process.

Building Relationships and Trust

Each identifies relationship-building as critical to successful special education practice. Whether addressing parent concerns or coordinating services, both note that trust fosters collaboration, reduces conflict, and supports a more positive school culture.

Emphasis on Compliance and Accountability

Both interviews highlight the necessity of maintaining compliance with legal and procedural requirements. They agree that consistent documentation, follow-through, and adherence to policy protect both students and educators.

Recognition of Professional Growth Needs

Stone and Peña acknowledge that ongoing professional learning is essential. Each emphasizes the need to stay informed about changes in law, policy, and instructional practice to ensure high-quality, equitable support for students with disabilities.

Shared Implementation Challenges

Both recognize that challenges arise when communication, training, or staffing are lacking. They each describe situations where misunderstandings or incomplete procedures impacted service delivery, highlighting the need for clear systems and accountability.

Commitment to Collaborative Problem-Solving

Despite working in different roles, both see success in special education as a shared effort. They emphasize that effective outcomes depend on collaboration between general educators, specialists, administrators, and families who collectively advocate for student success.

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The interviews with Special Education Director Jessica Stone and School Psychologist Isabel Pena show how different roles bring balance to special education decisions, which benefits students. Jessica Stone ensures compliance, procedures, and staff training while Isabel Pena has more of a student-centered approach, focusing on behavior and emotional support. Together, these viewpoints create a more effective and collaborative approach to developing and implementing IEPs. According to The What and Why of Measurable Annual Goals course, effective IEP teams "draw on the unique expertise and perspective of each member to collaboratively design individualized programs" (Progress Center, 2024). These paired assignments made me value the team approach to supporting students with IEPs.

Reference

Course: IEPs: The what and why of Measurable Annual Goals | PROGRESS-NCII. (n.d.). https://courses-studentprogress.org/course/view.php?id=18

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My biggest takeaway has developed quite recently given that as an intern, I just received a new student about 12 weeks into the school year. This is because they went with an initial placement that was deemed to be inappropriate. I later found out that they made this placement decision just two weeks after the family immigrated to the US, not giving him enough time to acclimate and make a decision. I remembered reading Making Legally Sound Placement Decisions by Yell et. al, 2020 and the 5 common mistakes that were made for placement decisions, and that that was one of them. Watching it unfold in front of my eyes really allowed me to understand why there needs to be so much time and work put in to these decisions not only for the benefit of the student being placed, but also for those going to school at the incorrect placement receiving unjustified consequences in the form of behaviors.

Yell, M. L., Katsiyannis, A., Ennis, R. P., Losinski, M., & Bateman, D. (2020). Making Legally Sound Placement Decisions. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 52(5), 291-303. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059920906537

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I still have a few questions regarding "team" decisions, especially when it comes to LRE, accommodations, and modifications:

How can IEP teams establish clear and consistent parameters for accommodations? I see "as needed" in many IEPs, which seems vague and could lead to misinterpretation

When determining the LRE, how does the team balance a student's right to participate in general education with the need for significant academic and behavioral support. For example, a 6th-grade student performing at a K-1st grade level?

In what ways to school psychologists' assessments and academic assessments combine to make eligibility decisions?

Reference

Course: IEPs: The what and why of Measurable Annual Goals | PROGRESS-NCII. (n.d.). https://courses-studentprogress.org/course/view.php?id=18

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Organize and display Differences collected from EdData & CAASPP Alternative Assessment Websites

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Organize and display Differences collected from EdData & CAASPP Alternative Assessment Websites

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Our schools of choice are clearly drastically different sizes! My school has less total students than hers does students with disabilities. One of the bigger impacts of things like that is the impact each individual student has on campus wide data at a smaller school like mine. Any disciplinary response will be a larger chunk of the pie, as seen in the suspension and expulsion data.

Our assessment data seemed to vary slightly as well, with my school possessing a higher percentage of students meeting standards in all areas. Again, this can be attributed to the higher number of students at her school, as that is more entries to bring the average down. There is also more likely a better teacher to student ratio at schools with smaller numbers, as well as more opportunities for targeted interventions if needed.

Suspension wise, while I know that the numbers are somewhat skewed due to population size, I was shocked to see the percentage of students with disabilities suspended on her campus. Even reflecting on the percentages, that still feels high. It does seem to vary district to district in regards to approaching disciplinary action for students with disabilities.

Despite high number of students with disabilities, less than 11 qualified for the CAA, which implies a difference in program between the two schools.

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Organize and display Similarities collected from EdData & CAASPP Alternative Assessment Websites.

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Organize and display Similarities collected from EdData & CAASPP Alternative Assessment Websites.

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Realistically, there are not many similarities. There are drastically different population numbers with her school also housing a mild/mod or RSP program of some kind, due to the low CAA numbers. My school has an ESN population and total population that is almost 1/6 the size of her school. Our assessment data varies, as does the disciplinary data. The number of socioeconomically disadvantaged students differs by nearly 20% with her school also possessing low numbers of ELL students.

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Include comparisons to the State of California Data

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Include comparisons to the State of California Data

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Given the sample size of data, her numbers fall much more in line with the State as a whole. With my school having the ability to lower the student to teacher ratio and implement those targeted supports has given students more opportunities to succeed in their assessments. If only it was easy to set up every student in this manner, maybe the data would begin to skew my direction.

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My one question that is nearly impossible to answer, as someone who is working through this now and has sat in on transition meetings before, is how do you fully incorporate the wants and needs of a student with severe social and physical impairments due to their disability while also maintaining realistic expectations and placement moving forward? For nonverbal students, it can be hard to find a balance between topics and jobs of interest that also fit within the bounds of their abilities. Despite legal stipulations, there is still an element of realism that comes into play and that is one of the hardest questions to answer as an educator who wants nothing but the best for their students and their families.

Supporting Inclusive Practices (n.d.). Secondary transition webinar #7: Legal mandates.   [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aRw3-lFnWM