District 75: Our Special Needs Students

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District 75 Our Special Needs Students

• By Dorota Koczewska
• dkoczew_at_schools.nyc.gov

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Overview

• Classifications
• IEPs
• Testing Modifications
• Modifications and adaptations
• Catching students up

3
Students with disabilities educated in NYC public
schools

• 140,649 students
• Elementary level 79,334
• Middle school 27,754
• High school 33,561
• Data collected from Hehir, T., Figueroa, R.,
  Gamm. S., Katzman, L.I., Gruner, A., Karger, J.,
  Hernandez, J. Comprehensive Management Review
  and Evaluation of Special Education Submitted to
  the NYCDOE September 20, 2005.

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Students with autism educated in NYC public
schools

• 3628140,689 (2½ ) students are classified as
  having autism
• About 64 of students (2323) with autism are in
  general education classes for some part of the
  day
• 394 students spend 80 of the day in general
  education classes
• 7 students spend 40-80 of the day in general
  education classes
• 1922 students spend less than 20 of the day in
  general education classes
• 1305 students in self contained classes

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An overview of District 75

• Serves approximately 23,000 students
• Students exhibit moderate to severe disabilities

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Service placements for students in District 75

• School organizations
• Home instruction
• Hospital instruction

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More than 350 District 75 organizations

• Bronx
• Brooklyn
• Manhattan
• Queens
• Staten Island
• Syosset

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Classifications of disabilities within District 75

• Autism
• Blindness visual impairment
• Deafness hearing impairment
• Emotional disturbance
• Mental retardation
• Multiple disabilities
• Orthopedic impairments
• Other health impairments
• Speech language impairment
• Traumatic Brain Injury

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District 75 inclusive sites

• Approximately 155 inclusion sites in
• Elementary schools
• Middle schools
• High Schools

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Enrollment of District 75 students in inclusive
sites

• 1646 students included in regional
  schools/colleges
• 29.6 (488) students have autism
• Statistical increase of 94 students
• Comparing 2 sources of data
• Largest percentage of students among the
  classifications of disabilities
• Statistics provided by D75 Office of Data
  Management June, 2006

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What are some ways that teachers show you
respect?

• 1. Talk privately to students when a problem
  occurs.
• 2. Use a calm tone of voice, even when they
  are upset. (No yell)
• 3. Respect personal space
• (Don't touch, grab, eyeballing, crowd)

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What are some ways that teachers show you
respect?

• 4. Listen without interrupting.
• 5. Have a sense of humor.
• 6. Display student work around the
• classroom/school.
• 7. Prepare exciting lessons.
• 8. Let parents/guardian know student did a
  good job sometimes (see a balanced picture).

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What are some ways that teachers show you
respect?

• 9. Use student's name when talking to them
• 10. Be available during non-classroom times
• 11. Return work promptly
• 12. Talk sincerely - no sarcasm or eye rolling

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Practices and Systems for School-wide Positive
Behavior Support

• Practices (What)
• Select Define expectations
• Teach expectations
• Monitor expected behavior
• Acknowledge expected behavior
• Correct behavioral errors (continuum of
  consequences)
• Use information for decision-making

• Systems (How)
• Admin Leadership
• Team-based implementation
• Defined commitment
• Allocation of FTE
• Budgeted support
• Development of decision-driven information system

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Emotional Disturbance

• Emotional disturbance ... is defined by the
  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  (IDEA) as "a condition exhibiting one or more of
  the following characteristics over a long period
  of time and to a marked degree that adversely
  affects a child's educational performance --
• An inability to learn that cannot be explained by
  intellectual, sensory, or health factors
• An inability to build or maintain satisfactory
  interpersonal relationships with peers and
  teachers
• Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under
  normal circumstances
• A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or
  depression and
• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears
  associated with personal or school problems."
• Students with emotional and/or behavioral
  disabilities may exhibit
• Hyperactivity (short attention span,
  impulsiveness)
• Aggression/self-injurious behavior (acting out,
  fighting)
• Withdrawal (failure to initiate interaction with
  others retreat from exchanges of social
  interaction, excessive fear or anxiety)
• Immaturity (inappropriate crying, temper
  tantrums, poor coping skills) and
• Learning difficulties (academically performing
  below grade level).
• grade level).

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IEPs

• Continue to provide the student with access to
  the general education curriculum
• Meet the students other educational needs that
  result from the students disability
• Incorporate ongoing and regular assessment and
  review of service effectiveness

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Type and Intensity of Services

• Involvement and progress in the general education
  curriculum
• Related services
• Meeting IEP goals
• Special education setting (part-time, full time)
• Bilingual services

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Environment for services

• General education classroom-with supplementary
  aids and services (special education teacher)
• Self-contained special class, for part of the
  day, within neighborhood school
• Self-contained special class full time in a
  separate, specialized school

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Types of Related Services

• Counseling
• Hearing Educational Serivces
• Occupational therapy (OT)
• Orientation and Mobility Instruction
• Physical Therapy
• School Health Services
• Speech and Language Services
• Vision Education Services
• Paraprofessional

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Student staff ratios

• 1211
• 811
• 611
• 1214

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Testing Modifications

• Extended Time Time and a half
• Calculator usage in the classrooms
• Problems being read to students
• Specified number of minutes in one sitting
• Student may be isolated to avoid distractions

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Modifications and Adaptations

• Adapting Impact Mathematics to the special needs
  students.
• Increasing text size
• Making tables
• Adapting to various grade levels and abilities
• Differentiating

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Catching Students Up

• Students draw pictures to represent what is going
  on in a word problem
• Students write their own story problem for a
  number sense
• Use maps, diagrams, graphs, graphing organizers,
• Start with one-step world problems
• Break down math problems into steps
• Model problems and explain each step, think
  aloud, choose a strategy that works

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• Establish that students have the necessary
  background skills
• Utilize computers, calculators
• Use real-life problem solving to help students
  connect concept in higher math

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Sold Out
Alicia Keys new album As I Am is moving up the
charts to the top 20. The manager of FYE expects
to sell a lot of copies. The store has limited
space so not all of the copies can be put on the
display. On Monday morning the manager of FYE
store stocked a display with 40 copies of the As
I Am CD. A number of copies were sold by the end
of the day. On Tuesday morning the manager
re-stocked the shelf from the copies in the back
of the store. She doubled the amount that was
left in the display. At the end of the day she
sold the exact same number of copies as on
Monday. On Wednesday morning the manager decided
to triple the number of copies that were left on
Tuesday night. She sold the same amount of copies
on Wednesday as she had on each of the previous
days. At the end of the day the display case was
empty. How many CDs of As I Am did FYE sell each
day?
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How could we solve this?
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References

• Robert E. March, Ph.D. Kimberli Breen, MS, CAS
• www.successfulschools.org
• http//www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/
  policy/testacce.txt
• Special Education Services - Board of Education
  of the City of New York
• Power Point. Presented by Cathy Rikhey