Interview 1: Special Education Process

Interview Questions

            I would start off the interview just by talking about how they were, how school/teaching/school was going for them. Talk to them about what I am doing in school and my plans. Then, I would transition by talking about the SED course and talk about wanting to learn by talking with people who have been involved in the process with how students receive services. I would reassure them that all names, schools, other personal information and answers would be left anonymous. To begin the questions referring to the special education process, I would start by letting them know I have been introduced to the process and I have read about the different steps, but wanted to know more of the “ins” and “outs” of the process from different perspectives and what their thoughts were about the process.

·         What was your initial thought when introduced to the process?

·         In what ways have you been involved in the process? Teacher? Parent/guardian? Or seen the process from both sides?

·         How was your overall experience in the involvement of the process?

·         How do you approach making the decision to make referral?

·         What benefits or barriers do the students face when going through the process?

·         What could use improvements?

·         What changes would you want to see in the process?

·         What are your thoughts about inclusive vs mainstreaming classrooms?

·         What tips would you suggest to a new general education teacher in order to help them understand the process and to help the student to be successful in the classroom?

Hello Kelly,

I spoke with you earlier about meeting with you to talk about the special education process and your involvement and your thoughts.  I have read about the different steps and I have been introduced to the process, but wanted to know more of the “ins” and “outs” of the process from different perspectives. Here are some of the questions I had for you.

*All names, schools, other personal information and answers would be left anonymous.

• What was your initial thought when introduced to the process?

• How was your overall experience in the involvement of the process?

• How do you approach making the decision to make referral?

• What benefits or barriers do the students face when going through the process?

• What changes would you want to see in the process?

• What would you say your philosophy of special education? Mainstreaming? Inclusion?

• What tips would you suggest to a new general education teacher in order to help them understand the process and to help the student to be successful in the classroom?

Sincerely,

Gabrielle

Introduction: The main purpose of the interview was to learn more about the Individual Education Plan (IEP) and to learn more about the interviewee’s perspectives and knowledge of their experience with the special education process. The person I interviewed was pretty knowledgeable when it came to Special Education Services but she wasn’t as well versed when it came to the specifics and details of an IEP meeting. I interviewed Kelly Williams, she is Social Worker in a small, rural Maine district. She works mainly in the primary and middle schools (Pre-K to 8^th grade) and works as the main connection that the parents have with the school district. I know Kelly personally because it is a small community and pretty much everyone knows everyone, which in some cases isn’t always the best in some situations. In both Kelly’s and my case, it worked out for the better because she knew of my history working with students, helping out in both sports and academic settings. She had asked me last year to watch her grandson who has severe disabilities because she knew my background. In the past year and a half, I have become fairly close with Kelly, and her grandson Elijah. Because of her grandson, Elijah, she was introduced to the Special Education process 23 years ago. Her son Mark, was affected by a tornado when he was only six years old and had some minor head injuries that he has struggled with ever since. When Mark and his wife had their first son, he was born with Cerebral Palsy and mental retardation. Elijah’s mom was not able to be a part of his life due to drug and alcohol problems, so Mark was left to deal with custody battles while taking care of his son who was dependent on him. Long story short, Kelly helped Mark out with the legal aspects of thing from birth including the special services required. Mark always looked to Kelly because of his head injury that happened when he was younger, he never trusted himself to always make the decision or feel comfortable and confident in himself to do so. So, Kelly has been a part of the process for over 20 years now as a guardian, and as a social worker for closer to 10-15 years. She is currently taking courses that deals more with all of the specific details of the legal rights when it comes to IEP. She knew the basics of most of it from her personal experiences but there have been some changes that have been made since she last learned about everything. I messaged Kelly to see if she would be available for me to interview her afterschool so we could discuss more about her background of the Special Education and IEP process from both personal experience and from the Social Worker perspective. I emailed her an overview of the purpose, followed by some questions for her to think about for when we meet. I interviewed Kelly Wednesday, September 28^th after school in one of the conference rooms where some IEP meetings take place. The conference room is off from the main lobby, as we were talking, there was a buzz outside the door but not too distracting, Kelly and I talked for an hour about the tedious process that comes along with Special Education and IEP process.

Findings: Kelly talked about her initial thoughts when it came to the IEP process. At first she was overwhelmed because her first involvement with the process was as a guardian and someone who her son, Mark, could rely on to be sure Elijah would be provided with the proper care and services required. They knew he was only going to developmentally be a toddlers age and mentality and that he would be nonverbal. From the Social Worker perspective, Kelly wanted to make sure that the parent(s)/guardian(s) are involved and that their concerns were addressed. She would make a point to talk with the parents before the actual IEP meeting and go over the basic concept of what would be taking place during the IEP meeting/process. She makes an effort that the parent understands and ask any questions related to the special education services. When I asked Kelly about the referral process and how it may put teachers or administrators in an awkward position when or how to bring it to the parent’s attention, she mentioned the multitier approach. The different levels helped with initiating the referral process and that for evaluation and observations from the general education teacher and the Student Assistant Team (SAT) helped determine what special services may be needed. The SAT is a starting point to form the student’s base and build a foundation to look back on. They take notes on what interventions and/or accommodations that might need to be made as well as help with the parent’s involvement. In most cases, by the time students reach 3^rd and 4^th grade there would typically be an IEP in place or already have an idea of what is supposed to be on the IEP. When I asked her about her personal experiences with Elijah and his IEP, they knew from birth that he would need special education services. They waited until he was 6 to actually put him in schools and the family knew what services he would need and the school was very good with providing him the one on one attention he needed. Whereas, for most Ed Techs the ratio of teachers to students is one teacher to 3 or 4 students. Personally, for Kelly, she never really had any bad experiences with the process until it was time for high school transitioning to postsecondary because she knew college wasn’t in the picture, she was focused on finding a MR program that would meet Elijah’s needs. He needed a program that he felt comfortable with but also having the one to one caretaker, the main problem with this was that they gave her the paperwork that had to be filled out within the next 60 days due to age and the transition period, but they didn’t get the paper work until later and it was postmarked two weeks prior. This was a stressful period because they only four weeks to find another placement that he liked, had the services and one on one he needed and was in their area. Luckily, she found two different programs, but one had 2-3 people to an adult, so she went with the only other option. When we talked about what other problems there were, what could be changed or improved we started talking about standards based and what that means to the Special Educators. She talked about the students would struggle with standards based diploma because of the challenges that arise with having the students meet the required standards. Also, despite testing, the lower level of each students’ ability to reach every standard is going to be challenging not only for them but the Special Educators as well. Next year, when the district is all Standards-Based, she said how the school and herself would probably be getting many calls about why their student didn’t graduate. One thing she did mention, which is what interested me was what she would change or improve about the process, which was to make a parent friendly document or something that breaks down the entire special education and IEP process for parents and for parents who might also have a disability. Another piece of advice she gave was for general education teachers to be more involved, ask questions (respectfully, of course), and not to assume diagnosis. As general education teachers, it is important for us to be involved in the process and be aware of what is going on.

Discussion: One thing to help the IEP meeting to go smoothly is to keep a positive and open mind when the meeting is going on. This can really help the student to have the overall best outcome from the IEP meeting. If both the parent(s)/guardian(s) and the school come to the meeting with their concerns, then go from there and hopefully they can come up with the appropriate requirements and services that will best benefit the student. Due to the fact that an IEP meeting is geared towards discovering what struggles the student has and what accommodations and resources are needed, it is important to emphasize and address the strengths of the student. Everyone in the meeting needs to remember that they are talking about an actual student and not completely dehumanize the student, especially if they are present at the meetings. Using appropriate language during a meeting can make difference for the student’s mentality and make a difference for them in and out of the classrooms. Another aspect that needs to be taken into consideration when going through the IEP process is the language used. It is important to understand the background of the families as well because if the parents have a disability then it would be important to make accommodations in order for the parents to understand what is going on during the special education process. One of the most surprising things I found out when talking with Kelly was self-advocacy from the students. There was a situation where a student was not given her proper accommodations for assessments, but she knew what accommodations she needed and stood up for herself to make sure she got them. She referred back to her file and IEP and brought it back to the teacher to show her that she was allowed to have extra time and the test read aloud to her. This goes to show how important self-advocacy is and the fact that the parents need to be able to advocate for their children who are unable to advocate for themselves.