Interview 2: 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.

1.      What was your initial thoughts of IEP?

2.      Did you feel overwhelmed when creating lesson plans?

3.      How have you been involved in the meetings?

4.      Overall experience from the process as a new teacher?

5.      What are some challenges you face as a new teacher with the process?

6.      What are some improvements or changes you think would make the process better?

7.      How often do you communicate with the special education teacher or advisor about students who require additional help?

8.      How did you familiarize yourself with the process so you could keep up with the student and what was going on during the meetings?

9.      What are some examples of accommodations you have made for students?

a.       Did you find it challenging to come up/make accommodations for the students so they were still able to meet the standard?

10.  How has the school helped you through/prepare you for the IEP process?

Hello Dave,

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 thoughts of IEP?

·         Did you feel overwhelmed when creating lesson plans?

·         How have you been involved in the meetings?

·         Overall experience from the process as a new teacher?

·         What are some challenges you face as a new teacher with the process?

·         What are some improvements or changes you think would make the process better?

·         How often do you communicate with the special education teacher or advisor about students who require additional help?

·         How did you familiarize yourself with the process so you could keep up with the student and what was going on during the meetings?

·         What are some examples of accommodations you have made for students?

o   Did you find it challenging to come up/make accommodations for the students so they were still able to meet the standard?

·         How has the school helped you through/prepare you for the IEP process?

Sincerely,

Gabrielle

Introduction:  The main purpose of the interview is 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 is a secondary general educator. He teaches 10^th, 11^th and 12^th grades history in a small, rural Maine public school district.  I know Dave because we went to school together and we have stayed in close contact since then, especially, how we are both in education. Dave was introduced to the special education process when he was in college. Although, his focus in college was secondary history, he had a minor in special education, therefore, Dave was exposed to the whole process when he was in college working towards his minor in special education. He is in his first year of teaching and so far, he hasn’t had too many complications with the special education process. Dave has a total of about 80 students spread out between six different classes and of those students about 25 of them have an IEP or a 504 plan. There are half of those students who have an IEP while the remaindered have 504 plans. He learned a good amount of information from attending college and taking courses, until this year he has finally been able to implement some of the strategies he learned into his lessons. Dave already knew that I had done one interview with a social worker about the special education process and I mentioned that I would have to do another one towards the end of the semester. I called him up and asked if he would be willing to meet with me for the second interview. Thankfully, we have stayed in close contact over the years and he was willing to meet with me over Thanksgiving break. Once he agrees to meet, I emailed the questions to him as well just to give him some time to think about his answers. He had to prepare for the upcoming week of classes and because we are still very close he said I could just stop by his classroom for the interview. Dave and I spoke about what he has been doing in the classroom and how everything was going in his first year of teaching up to this point. I segued into the questions related to the process by introducing the purpose of why I was conducting the interview, from there we discussed more about the special education process and his personal thoughts and experiences. I did remind him that everything is confidential, all names, and schools will be changed. For the next hour, we talked and at the end of the interview, I thanked him again for taking time out of his break and prep time for the interview.

Findings:  Dave talked about her initial thoughts when it came to the IEP process. Going into his first year as a teacher, he thought it was a good process and helps to keep students up to date. Unfortunately, he feels as there is too much paperwork and it’s good to refer too, but its bad because your spending so much time filling out the paper work and that he felt “bogged down through bureaucracy and that sometimes all the paperwork can take away from the students.” Although he has had experience with his courses and student teaching, he still feels overwhelmed when creating the lesson plans. As a general educator and a first-year teacher with 3 U.S. History classes, a Government class, Military History class as well as an AP History class, he finds it to be a lot of work to create the lessons. Dave’s overall experience with the IEP process hasn’t been terrible, he says there is potential. There isn’t always a parent or student present during the meetings, which can make it challenging to have the most successful outcome from the meeting. He mentioned from talking with one of his students, he knows that the lack of parental support at the meetings isn’t helping improve the student’s situation. Other challenges he faced was that an overall attendance of the IEP meetings were lacking, not just from parent(s)/guardian(s), but from the students and other general education teachers as well. The only person who is present at all the meetings is the social worker as the administrator representor, the special education teacher or supervisor, and sometimes a general education teacher, student and the student’s case worker. Dave’s role as the general educator when he attends the meeting, is to discuss how the students is performing in his class. Also, he tries to have good communication with his students to see how they’re doing and is making sure they are getting the assistance they need so they don’t fall behind. He has noticed that the student with an IEP, who also is involved in sports is more likely to come talk with him, ask more questions to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to so they stay eligible and sometimes ask to go to a different environment where they know they will have less distractions. Dave tries to inform students when he knows they have an IEP meeting because they don’t always know. One of the improvements he thinks the school could do better with is to change the timing of the IEP meetings because most of them re scheduled during the middle of a school day. This can make it hard for parents to take a half or full day off from work so they can attend their child’s meeting. It is also hard for the teachers too, the school is already tight with its availability of substitutes, let alone having a sub come in for just an hour so more general education teachers can attend the IEP meetings as well. Another improvement could be to have the students more involved, we know the student should advocate for themselves and be involved in the process, but it makes it hard when they aren’t even aware they have an IEP meeting that day. The students are always busy with school so they might forget about the meetings or lose track of time, if there was a way of emailing the students or informing them so they know they have a meeting that way, Dave thinks that this could be a start of improving the students experience. Overall, he notices that there is a lack of involvement from the parents as well as the students. Dave talked about his communication that he has with the special educator, which is sounds like he has a good relationship with them. He said he talked with them about three to four times a week to check in with his students to see how they are doing and sometimes even to find guidance. This is Dave’s first year teaching, so there is still much to learn, but he takes advantage of seeking advice of what might work best with specific students, more so the one with more detailed IEP. As of right now, there is only a few students that he has that has a detailed IEP and he sometimes looks to the special education advisor for assistance to help make accommodations for the specific students. He talks with other general education teachers as well about different students. If there are students who need or require extra time, Dave struggles to find a common time or the lack of motivation from the students to make better use of their time. The students have an academic support period every day which they are supposed to seek help from teachers if they need to, but if that teacher is already helping one student they don’t really have the time to help other students. Because Dave is in his first year of teaching he didn’t really know what to expect when it came to the special education process, so he just played it by ear and based some things off from his special education courses from college as well as talking with other teachers. Some of the adjustments and accommodations he has made for his students is the amount of work load, extra time to complete work, more 1 on 1 assistance, and allowing them to go to another environment that they will be more productive in. Some of the struggles he has with making accommodations is that he isn’t exactly how sure or understands how much leeway he actually has especially since everything is switching over to the standards. Dave said, even when he thinks his is breaking down the standard without changing it or losing the concept he still feels like it is much too complicated for students even if they don’t have an IEP. When he read  a standard to me and broke it down, I was still confused and that is coming from a senior in college, how is he supposed to break down the standards so 10^th, 11^th and 12^th graders will understand them. He found that he benefitted from teachers being very understanding and talking with him. Also, the school does tell the teachers when meetings are, which is good so the teachers can do their best to make the meetings. Dave felt as he is doing the best he can but still feels he struggles to really make the standards work for students with IEP.

Discussion:  Overall, Dave mentioned a couple of the ways that could help improve the special education process. According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act 2004 (IDEA) requires public schools to assure that parents of students with disabilities have the opportunity to participate in IEP meetings (Weishaar, P.M., 2010). I did not think to ask Dave how the school keeps both the parents and students up to date about when the meetings are. Either way, there should be more of a desire to participate during the meetings and the rest of the IEP process. A solution that could help improve attendance is to have strengths-based IEP focus during the meeting. Often, teachers use negative terms that come from their professional training to describe the child’s characteristics. For example, teachers may refer to dysfunctional families, or use terminology such as emotionally disturbed, mentally retarded, learning disabled, and so on (Weishaar, 2010). Strengths-based meetings gives teachers a chance to refocus their perspectives and really think about the terms they are using during the IEP meetings. It is important for the teachers, school and/or other school professional to talk with the parents when they are planning an IEP meeting. Also, this helps to let the parents know that their thoughts are valuable and it’s important for them to share their child’s strengths as well. By doing this, it can help encourage parents to participate and attend more IEP meetings if they feel that they are just as important as everyone else attending the meetings. Plus, parents don’t want to waste time out of their work day and students don’t want to come to the meeting to hear everyone is pointing out the “weakness” of their student. Both the parents and student’s attendance would increase if the school had strengths-based focus IEP meeting. The parents and the student know why they are at the meeting, it’s important to focus on the student’s goals and priorities now and in the future. Discussing what the student can do and what you want the student to be able to do can help focus the IEP meeting by talking about skills that may be useful to reach their goals (Weishaar, 2010). This goes to show that informing the parents about the IEP meetings and emphasizing that their voice is just as important can help improve the overall outcome of the meeting, especially when they use strengths-based meeting plan.

Reference:

Weishaar, P. M. (2010). Twelve Ways to Incorporate Strengths-Based Planning into the IEP

          Process. Clearing House: A Journal Of Educational Strategies, Issues And Ideas, 83(6),
          207-210.