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A Report on Public Perceptions of
Special Education in
West Virginia
Prepared by
AEL, Inc.
for
The West Virginia Department of Education
Office of Special Education
June 2002
CONTENTS
Part I Introduction and Key Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Part II Detailed Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Part III System Improvement Recommendations from
Focus Group Interviewees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Part IV Public Hearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Part V System Improvement Recommendations from
Participants in the Public Hearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Part VI System Improvement Recommendations—A Combined List
from Focus Groups and Public Hearings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Appendixes
A: Focus Group Schedule
B: Invitation Letter
C: Focus Group Registration Form
D: Focus Group Registration Confirmation Letter
E: Statistics—Focus Group Invitations
F: Statistics—Breakdown of Focus Group Schedule
G: Statistics—Breakdown of Focus Group Attendance
H: Public Hearing Questions
I: Coding System for Focus Group Transcripts
J: Public Hearing Announcement
K: Public Hearing Sign-In Sheet
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PART I: INTRODUCTION AND KEY THEMES
Introduction
As part of its planning process, the Office of Special Education of the West
Virginia Department of Education collects data on the impact and effectiveness of special
education programs. Late in 2001, the Department wanted to compare public perceptions
of strengths and public concerns about special education to data they had gathered on
system performance. The Department also sought public input on suggestions for
improving the system. The Department selected focus group interviews as the
methodology for obtaining input and decided to hold a series of focus groups facilitated
by a neutral third-party organization. Department staff developed a series of questions
and prompts designed to extract information that would guide discussions to be useful
extensions of prior work.
In January of 2002, the Office of Special Education contracted with AEL to
conduct 38 focus groups to document people‘s experiences with special education
services and to solicit ideas for improvements. Focus groups were scheduled in each of
the eight Regional Educational Service Areas (RESA). Within each region RESA staff
provide support and technical assistance to groups of school districts. Together the
RESAs cover all 55 counties/school districts in West Virginia. Working through the
RESAs provided access to representative participants in programs across the entire state.
Four focus groups were scheduled in each RESA and participants were invited to
join groups of stakeholders with similar roles in the educational process. Separate focus
groups for parents, students, regular education teachers, and special education teachers
1
were held in each RESA. In addition, focus groups were scheduled in Charleston for
superintendents, county special education directors, principals, and Parent Educator
Resource Center (PERC) staff.
County special education directors nominated potential participants from their
service areas and sent lists to the State Department of Education, which issued invitations
to participate to all individuals nominated by the directors. The target size for each focus
group was 8 to10 participants, so the first 10 people from each role group who responded
were scheduled as participants. The state then issued letters confirming participation to
each person accepting the invitation.
To enhance an individual‘s ability to attend the focus group meetings, the state
provided funds for substitutes to release teachers, for child care for parents, and for travel
expenses of participants. Confirmation letters described the financial support and
indicated that RESA special education coordinators would assist those applying for
reimbursement.
Focus Group Process
Focus group leaders received a series of questions and prompts from the Office of
Special Education to guide focus group discussions. Participants were told in advance
the categories of discussion but not the specific questions. The same five questions were
asked of all groups. However, the prompts were designed to fit the different windows of
understanding and experiences expected in the stakeholder groups.
2
A total of 198 people participated in 31 focus groups, with at least 3 focus groups
held in each RESA region. They included
special education teachers (63 participants in 8 groups)
regular education teachers (61 participants in 8 groups)
parents (49 participants in 8 groups)
students (14 participants in 3 groups)
parent Education Resource Center (PERC) staff (8 participants in 1 group)
special education directors (2 individual interviews)
principals (1 individual interview)
superintendents (none attended scheduled group)
More detailed descriptions of meeting schedules and group composition are
provided in Appendixes F and G of this report.
Beginning February 11, 2002, focus groups were conducted by AEL, Inc. using
staff and contractors experienced in focus group facilitation. A court reporter was present
at each meeting and provided a full transcript of the discussion.
Analysis
A system of coding was developed and applied to the transcripts. The coding
identified and created a basis for aggregating comments in relation to the major questions
used in the focus groups. The comments of each focus group‘s participants were first
merged with those of like stakeholder groups from other RESAs and then with responses
from all groups. References to the stakeholder group, the RESA, and the transcript page
where the comment originated were maintained throughout the process, enabling tracking
and analysis of individual comments in the context of the full discussion.
3
When the coding was complete, individuals who coded the transcripts and some
of the group facilitators met to share and compare themes and issues identified in the
transcripts. They discussed themes that were consistent among groups, looked for
potential differences based on geography and/or stakeholder role, and provided additional
insight to the coded comments as the analysis process began.
The comments of the coders and facilitators were used to sort the coded
discussions in the 2,385 pages of transcripts. The analysis of discussion and comments
from the focus group participants identified major themes. These major themes were
categorized into 28 detailed themes that are described in detail in Part II of this report.
The analysis includes distinctions—where they exist—among the perspectives of
parents, regular educators, and special educators. Because participant confidentiality was
assured, the comments included in this report refer only to participant role and group and
do not include names or counties.
Comments of participants from a variety of groups and roles are included together
where applicable. Small numbers of participants made comparisons of experiences
within groups based on geographic differences impossible. Likewise, comparing
responses of parents, regular education teachers, and special education teachers with
those of students, principals, special education directors, and PERC staff was not useful
because of the small numbers of participants. Also, because there were so few
participants who had experience with gifted programs, the report focuses on students with
disabilities. Finally, while the analysis revealed differences in service levels and
satisfaction within RESA regions, it did not clearly identify differences among RESA
regions.
4
Key Themes
This report is organized around four main questions provided by the Office of
Special Education:
1. To what extent are students receiving the special education and related
services they need?
2. To what extent are students with disabilities included in regular classrooms?
3. How are parents involved in the education of students with disabilities?
4. How well are students with disabilities being transitioned into, through, and
out of public schools?
The report provides details of themes that surfaced in each of these areas. Across
all areas, several key, overarching themes emerged:
The experiences of special education students vary considerably across
counties, schools, and classrooms. The quality of their experience appears to
depend largely on the leadership of local administrators, the attitudes and
training of regular educators, the time and resources available for special
education services, and the involvement of informed parents.
Great strides have been made in the inclusion of students with disabilities in
regular education, though special education is still widely viewed as ―special‖
and separate. Special educators feel that once children are identified, they are
often seen as ―their‖ students and treated differently from the rest of the
student body.
Collaboration with non-school entities is essential to support the development
of students with disabilities. This is especially true for identifying and
5
transitioning young children into public schools and for transition planning to
prepare teenagers for their adult lives.
6
PART II: DETAILED THEMES
The following themes surfaced in the focus groups and present a composite of
responses from all role groups. Themes were derived from major issues addressed in
focus group discussion. Each theme is supported by representative quotations from
group participants. While a hard and fast rule was not applied, themes included in this
report distinguished themselves through frequency and intensity of response. In general,
a topic would have been identified more than a dozen times in the transcripts to warrant
inclusion as a theme. While the frequency and intensity of responses indicated the
importance of topics, it should be recognized that not all individuals had the same
viewpoint regarding each theme. The differences of opinion are captured in the narrative
following each theme and the quotes are identified by the stakeholder group of the
respondent (parent, student, regular education teacher, special education teacher, or
PERC staff). Names and locations are not used, because the invitation to the focus group
(see Appendix B) promised participants that their individual responses to questions
would be confidential.
Question: To what extent are students receiving the special education and
related services they need?
Theme 1: The availability and quality of services vary considerably across
counties, schools, and families.
Overall, interviewees characterized special education and related services as
uneven, ranging from excellent to inadequate or inappropriate. Some, such as this parent,
praised their schools: ―Since she got to school, she‘s learned so much. She‘s come a long
way. I‘m thankful that she had good teachers and good schools and people who cared.‖
7
Both parents and professionals agreed that disparities exist among schools and
counties. ―Kids that have needs where the county provides that service, they get it,‖ a
regular educator said. ―But if the county doesn‘t provide a service, oftentimes they‘re
shoved into a different program or lost in the cracks.‖
Interviewees identified several factors that influence the availability and quality of
services, one of which is the population size of the county. ―As far as these tiny little
counties like mine are concerned, it‘s really difficult to get physical therapy or
occupational therapy,‖ a special educator said. ―There‘s just not the personnel. They
don‘t want to come to our counties.‖
Another factor interviewees noted was the leadership of school administrators. ―If
you happen to have a good administrator at your school, I think the kids are going to get
quality services,‖ a parent said. ―If you don‘t have a good administrator, who does not
want these kids in school, they‘re going to find a way to get rid of the kids. If they‘re in
high school, they push them out of school so they quit. In elementary schools, they make
it so miserable parents transfer or do something else with the kids.‖
A special educator said that lack of oversight and accountability undermines
quality: ―I teach [students with] severe and profound mental impairment, and it‘s been
my experience in the last 10 years that no administrator has ever come in to check the
curriculum I am teaching. They don‘t know what it is I‘m supposed to be teaching and
wouldn‘t be able to recognize if I were teaching the right thing.‖
Many parents and professionals agreed that students whose parents are informed
and exercise their rights are more likely to get the services they need than those who
don‘t. ―I think you really have to be willing to fight for a lot of things,‖ a parent said.
8
―My parents are raising my nephew, and they actually had a lot to say. I think it‘s the
parents who speak up that actually get some things. That‘s really not right either. Why
aren‘t these children whose parents don‘t speak up being serviced in the same way?‖
Some said that family income is a factor. ―We have four different areas that feed
into our school,‖ a special educator said. ―We can tell where the kid comes from. We
have a lot of – I guess what we would call country kids . . . that they have a bad home life
or that they‘re poverty-stricken or that they‘re carrying a lot of baggage with them.‖ This
educator indicated that these students were more likely to suffer from the effects of
isolation, lower expectations, and fewer services.
Theme 2: The process for determining eligibility delays needed services for some
students.
When a student experiences difficulties in school that may be related to a
disability, West Virginia requires the formation of a student assistance team (SAT). A
school administrator, counselor, special education representative, teacher(s), school
nurse, school psychologist, and social worker (or attendance director) review the
student‘s performance and suggest interventions—particularly instructional—that might
assist learning and avoid a special education placement. If interventions are suggested,
tried, and found to be ineffective, the student may be referred for testing as the next step
toward placement in special education. Focus groups gave the SAT process mixed
reviews.
While some interviewees found the referral and eligibility determination process
in their schools and counties to be efficient, many others said the process can take months
and sometimes years, delaying the delivery of services that students need. Parents and
9
regular educators expressed concerns about timeliness more often than special educators
did.
A cause of delays in some counties is a shortage of psychologists and other
evaluators. ―The psychologists are always understaffed,‖ a regular educator said. ―I feel
sometimes we‘re a little behind in identifying children who have been referred for special
education. Sometimes the process takes a year. And so if that‘s a special ed child, they‘re
not getting the service they need because it‘s taking too long to get them identified.‖
―Sometimes it takes several months,‖ a parent agreed. ―And sometimes it takes a
year or two because the caseloads are so high.‖
While some interviewees shared positive experiences with the SAT process,
others said it caused unnecessary delays in some cases. ―SAT may have suggestions or
not,‖ a regular educator said regarding children she has referred. ―Then you wait two
weeks. Then you have another meeting. Then you go into the possibility of testing the
child. It kind of aggravates me because, as a teacher of 27 years with training in Learning
Disabilities (LD), I feel I‘m going into this having done everything I can possibly do for
this child already. Now he‘s going to sit in my class for two more weeks and feel more
frustrated with himself.‖
The same teacher described a student for whom it took three months to get
testing: ―Now he‘s on medication. He has gone from making 20s to 90s. I get real teary
about this kid because we‘ve gone from base one to a very successful child. But it could
have happened last year.‖
Parent participation can speed up or slow down the process, interviewees said.
―Sometimes the problem is that the parent just doesn‘t take the time to get us the
10
information we need or we have to chase them down to get a signature on a paper,‖ a
regular educator said.
Some parents feel cautious about having their children identified and labeled.
Others may not understand the reports. ―A lot of folks can‘t read the report,‖ a principal
said. ―And they are too embarrassed to come to us and say they can‘t read the report.‖
Theme 3: Eligibility guidelines allow some students in need of services to fall
between the cracks.
Many interviewees expressed concern about students they described as the ―gray
area‖ children—those who need extra help but do not qualify for special education or the
accommodations required by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These
include ―average‖ students who have occasional learning problems, children with mild
learning disabilities, and children with difficult-to-diagnose learning problems. This
concern was raised most often by regular educators.
―I find that it‘s those middle children who just don‘t make the numbers and
maybe don‘t qualify for 504,‖ a regular educator said. ―I think right now it‘s almost
impossible for the kids in our school system to even make it into special education. It‘s
very frustrating for a classroom teacher to know that this child . . . just needs a little extra
help, and it‘s not there.‖
―PL94-142 (the original federal legislation that required special education for
students with disabilities—1975) stated at the very beginning, ‗all children have the right
to an equal education,‘‖ a regular educator said. ―Special ed is not fulfilling that for those
children that fall just a little above.‖
―It‘s hard for educators to identify these children or be able to adapt to them,‖ a
parent said. ―I know they don‘t have an IEP [Individualized Education Plan], but I think
11
they need to be identified somehow and an adaptation made. I think special ed should
branch out just ever so slightly more to where they adjust for those children also.‖
Theme 4: Developing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that effectively meet
student needs requires adequate time and the participation of all parties. Full
participation by all stakeholders in the Individualized Education Plan process is
important.
Nearly everyone felt that the IEP is essential to providing students the special
education and related services they need. They felt that an effective IEP needs to be a
team effort that involves all parties.
Most of the parents and students who attended the focus groups participate in the
development and monitoring of IEPs on a regular basis. Some reported positive
experiences using the IEP process to get the services students need. ―I felt with our son‘s
IEP we had a little bit more control—that we could call an IEP meeting whenever we felt
a need,‖ one parent said. Another said, ―When I say we have an IEP meeting, we do. We
have a team.‖
But many parents said that, at least in the beginning, they found the IEP process
confusing, intimidating, and sometimes overwhelming. ―I know in the early years, there‘s
nothing positive to be said about your child, and it absolutely rips you deeply,‖ a parent
said. ―At the first IEP meeting, my son had just been labeled with autism. There must
have been 15 people there—intimidation, you know—plus me, who doesn‘t know
anything, or they think you don‘t.‖
Most of the regular education teachers who attended the focus groups also
participate in IEPs, although the quality and extent of their participation varies. ―I‘m
invited to the IEPs as a regular education teacher,‖ said one teacher who is satisfied with
the process. ―For all the students I have this year, I will go in and consult on and help
12
write their IEPs for next year. I think it really helps having the regular education teacher
in there.‖
But many regular educators said they didn‘t have enough time for meaningful
participation in IEPs. ―We weren‘t all there at the same time,‖ said a regular educator.
―We just were pulled in and out on our planning period.‖
Some special educators also felt pressed for time to monitor and develop IEPs,
which impacted how well they were able to design and monitor the services the students
needed. ―I don‘t want to do it in the hall while I‘m watching through the window and
maintaining my classroom,‖ a special educator said. ―I‘m out here in the hall with the
student because I don‘t have enough time to do it. That is not a committee meeting.‖
Both parents and professionals felt that more time and training for IEPs would
help. ―You could write an IEP in a federally correct manner in an hour,‖ a special
educator said. ―You can check every box you‘re supposed to and put modifications down,
and it‘s correct federally. But is it going to give that child exactly what that child needs?
That takes a lot of thinking.‖
Theme 5: Many Individual Educational Plans are not fully implemented due to
lack of time, services, and sharing of information.
Interviewees reported that what‘s written in IEPs is not necessarily what students
actually get. ―It‘s a matter of time and support and the services we can deliver for
everybody,‖ a special educator said. ―The IEP is a good document when I get time to do
IEPs. Do I actually meet everything on those? I would say no.‖
The effectiveness of an IEP depends in large part on how actively it‘s used and
revised when needed. ―I think we do a great job with IEPs and we get them started and
13
we send them out and then that‘s it until the next IEP. And sometimes that‘s not working,
and I think we need to be actively intervening all the time.‖
―I think the IEP kind of gets stuck in the homeroom,‖ a parent said. ―The
information is not shared enough. I think that is where it breaks down.‖
Time is another big hurdle in implementing IEPs. ―I feel that the students are
receiving services to the best of our ability to give them,‖ said a special educator. ―I
worry about the time, because we don‘t have time to really do what we need to do.‖
Time is a concern to regular educators as well. A Parent Educator Resource
Center staff person said, ―A common complaint we get is, the teacher will say, ‗I have 25
kids and seven of them have IEPs. I don‘t have time to implement these IEPs.‘‖
Theme 6: Counties’ shortages of related services professionals affect availability
and provision of services.
People said that many students do not receive the amount of occupational therapy
(OT), physical therapy (PT), speech therapy, and counseling called for in their IEPs. ―I
feel like we‘re getting related services, but there‘s a ‗but,‘‖ a parent said. ―The school
system contracts for OT, and so you have OT services based on their availability at the
school. Say your child needs OT twice a week; that‘s not what you get. Our OT is at our
high school one day per week, so you can only get that OT one time per week. It‘s the
same way with PT. The PT only comes one time per week. My son‘s doctor
recommended two to three times per week. In order for him to get the physical therapy he
needs, we have to take him to the facility to get his PT. I know many other parents are
doing the same thing.‖
14
Some interviewees blamed the shortage of school therapists on low salaries.
―There‘s just no way to compete with the fees they are receiving in outpatient rehab or
hospital rehab,‖ a special education director said.
Some saw the problem as more than financial, because even when counties have
the money for these services, some are unable to find qualified people to provide them. A
regular educator from a rural county said, ―There is nobody, really, who wants to work in
our county. Nobody wants the job, and if they get the job, they can‘t keep it because they
can‘t do the work.‖
Theme 7: Assistive technology has great potential but is often underutilized.
Interviewees generated a long list of devices and adaptations being used in West
Virginia schools. These include communication boards, special keyboards, touch screens,
talking calculators, calculators with large numbers, textbooks on tape, voice recorders,
braillers, squeeze machines, power wheelchairs, and large-size tools and chemistry
equipment.
Many interviewees felt that more could be done with assistive technology. People
spoke positively about counties that have assistive technology teams to provide
information and consultation around a student‘s particular needs. ―I have two physically
handicapped students in computer electronics,‖ one special educator said. ―They do not
have very good fine-motor skills, but with the assistive technology team and our
physically handicapped teacher going in with them, they were able to get all the things
they need to be successful in that field. We‘ve had great success. I have seen the dragon-
speaking device and I‘ve seen the magnetic tools and the big tools. I‘ve seen a lot of it,
and it‘s been very successful for our students.‖
15
In other counties, however, interviewees expressed frustration about the lack of
technology support for individual teachers and therapists. ―We don‘t have a tech team in
our county,‖ another special educator said. ―So we‘re kind of on our own trying to
investigate which approach to take.‖
Training is key to the successful use of assistive technology. ―All of this student‘s
equipment was delivered the summer before,‖ a special educator said. ―So the teacher
had time to get used to it and figure out how it works, the regular ed teacher had time to
look at it and see how it works, and then they trained the student.‖
A Parent Educator Resource Center staff member raised a concern about students
not being allowed to take equipment and devices home with them. ―The committee
decides, yes, the child needs a communication device but they can only use it at school;
they cannot take it home. And inevitably, we get calls from a parent who says, ‗How can
I reinforce it at home and how can my child communicate at home the same way he does
at school if he can‘t take it home?‘‖
―I had to put my son‘s communication device on my homeowner‘s insurance,‖ a
parent said. ―But some can‘t afford homeowner‘s, you know.‖
16
Question: To what extent do students with disabilities participate with non-
disabled students?
Theme 8: Inclusion is often viewed as beneficial to students with and without
disabilities.
Both parents and educators had many positive things to say about the benefits of
inclusion. ―I found that, if the kids are integrated more, it does more for their self-
esteem,‖ a parent said. ―They learn better because they want to do better. They want to
keep up with their peers.‖
An elementary school teacher felt that multi-age classrooms are ideally suited for
inclusion: ―Because every child is developmentally placed in the classroom, no child sees
any other child as dumb or real, real smart. They just know that each child has a different
gift, and if you need to use someone else‘s mind for something, you‘re allowed to
because we work together as a team. One of my rules is none of us is as smart as all of
us.‖
The same teacher described another way inclusion benefits students without
disabilities: ―I had a parent write a letter thanking me for allowing children with physical
and mental disabilities to be included in the room, and it was from the parent of a child
who is now labeled gifted. She said it added so much to their life at home because when
they go out and they see a person in a wheelchair, their child does not react in any way,
but will go up and talk to the person.‖
Several regular educators said that modifications they developed for special
education students benefited all their students, and one provided this example: ―One year
I had a child who needed special assistance in language and spelling. It was written in his
IEP to give him next week‘s spelling words the weekend before so his parents could
17
practice with him. So I made 25 copies instead of one, and every child could go home on
Friday afternoon with those words. Well, that benefited everyone.‖
Some interviewees expressed reservations about inclusion, however, because they
felt that students often aren‘t getting what they need academically in the regular
classroom. A parent said, ―I would like to see my son in learning disability for every
class, but they say you can‘t do that.‖ A special educator said, ―We have no self-
contained program, so my kids are involved in everything at school, but they sit in the
(regular) classroom a lot with nothing to do. If they‘re not with me, they‘re just sitting
there.‖
Theme 9: Modifications are widely used to support students with disabilities in
regular classrooms.
Regular and special educators described numerous modifications they employ to
support students with disabilities in regular classes. These include pre-teaching, re-
teaching, reading tests aloud, adapting the length of assignments, adapting grading scales,
and providing extended time for tests and assignments.
Many teachers talked about using modifications that do not single out students in
special ed. ―I am now using a sound system in my classroom for a child who has
difficulty focusing on the teacher‘s voice because he has difficulty filtering out other
sounds,‖ said a regular educator. ―There are small, non-intrusive speakers in each corner
of the classroom, and I wear a mic when I teach, and then my voice is amplified. That
benefits everyone in the classroom, not just this student, and I don‘t think anyone in the
class really knows which student it‘s there because of.‖
Using modifications is a new experience for many teachers. ―It used to be that all
special ed was self-contained,‖ said a special educator. ―The regular teachers did not have
18
any dealings at all with special ed students. So they‘re an older generation of teachers,
and they have an older mind-set. But you‘re also dealing with special ed teachers who
have not worked with modifications either because they have been pretty much self-
contained.‖
Several special educators described ―winning over‖ regular educators on
modifications. ―Modifications are not always popular; I think there‘s a need for a whole
lot of P.R.‖ one special educator said. Another described a student who needed
substantial modifications: ―That teacher was petrified. But now he loves that boy to
death. He‘s one of his best students.‖
Theme 10: Special education students are not always viewed or treated as full
and equal members of their schools.
Special educators frequently reported that even when their students are included
in regular education, they are still viewed as the special educator‘s students. ―We
shouldn‘t have to beg to place our students [in regular classes],‖ a special educator said.
―If we think that they are able and the committee decides that they are able to do regular
education, why should we have to go in and ask a teacher to allow them in their
classroom? Then in the lunchroom, they tell you what your student did in their class
today—it‘s ‗your student.‘‖
―The regular ed teacher does not see those children as their responsibility, and
they are,‖ another special educator said. ―I think that‘s where the problem lies.
Sometimes I think the regular ed teachers think they‘re only supposed to teach those kids
that are average and above.‖
Many parents felt that inclusion in regular education was treated more as a
privilege than as a right. One parent described a situation at her child‘s school: ―The other
19
teachers did not want this teacher‘s students in the lunchroom with them. Well, the
teacher‘s feelings were hurt so bad. She was about ready to just say, ‗We‘ll eat in the
classroom.‘ I said, ‗No, we‘re not.‘ The principal agreed with the other teachers. But we
went to the Board over it and had it settled. And the children are in the lunchroom.‖
Special educators said they have to pick and choose which regular educators to
place their students with if they want the experience to be successful. Sometimes they
have to pull a child out of a regular class who could have succeeded with a different
teacher. A former special educator who now teaches regular education explained, ―One of
the struggles I had as a special education person was . . . you had teachers who you knew
your kids would be okay with . . . but you can‘t put them all in the good teacher‘s class.
So you end up pulling kids who you probably wouldn‘t have pulled. You can‘t put them
all in eighth-grade English because you can‘t have 15 LD students in one teacher‘s
class.‖
Theme 11: Many students with disabilities are included physically but do not
participate or feel socially included in regular education settings.
Many interviewees said they were concerned about students with disabilities who
are physically present in regular education but do not fully participate or feel socially
included. ―Some of the kids get made fun of, and they‘re treated differently,‖ a gifted
student said about students with disabilities. A high school student with physical
disabilities described being snubbed by some of her non-disabled peers: ―It feels kind of
upsetting. And I thought, fine, be like that if you want to. They‘re ignoring me. In middle
school, they were hanging out and talking to me. Since they‘re dating, it‘s kind of hard
being friends with them. It‘s weird for me in high school.‖
20
Many people felt that inclusion is easier and more successful in elementary school
than it is in higher grades. ―I really pushed to get my autistic child in a mainstream class
with a full-time aide,‖ a parent said, ―because I know if those kids start with him in
kindergarten it‘s going to help the process. My fifth-grade daughter is in a class with an
autistic child now, and so they just accept him. He just sits there, and they jabber all
through class. But, you know, he can do the work. And they just accept him . . . I think it
depends how much they are in a regular classroom.‖
Some efforts to integrate students with disabilities have enhanced their social
standing. ―We had the autism class last year at our school, and it was wonderful,‖ a
regular educator said. ―They taught the autistic kids to deliver [hand carry] our daily
announcements [to classrooms across the building]. The regular ed kids looked forward
to it every day because they were hilarious . . . it created an environment of acceptance
because they [regular education students] were able to see some strengths [in the autistic
students].‖
Theme 12: Placement in regular education classrooms varies according to the
student’s disability type. Students with learning disabilities are more likely to be
included in regular classrooms, and students with severe intellectual impairments and
those with behavioral disorders are least likely to be included.
Interviewees consistently described students with mild disabilities as the most
likely to be included in regular education. ―To me, I don‘t even think of inclusion as
being LD students,‖ a regular educator said. ―They‘re just kids.‖ A math teacher pointed
out that being in special ed doesn‘t mean being in special ed for everything: ―For many of
the special ed kids I get in class, their disabilities are not math disabilities. The way I look
at them, they‘re not special ed kids, they‘re in there because they all can learn Algebra I,
and it‘s okay that way.‖
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Although there are numerous exceptions, students with severe disabilities are the
least likely to be included. Students with severe intellectual impairments or behavior
disorders are often placed in self-contained classrooms. ―Children who have conditions
that have left them profoundly retarded remain in a classroom with a specific assigned
teacher,‖ a regular educator said about her school. ―They do have lunch in the lunchroom
with other students, but they do not attend music classes, art classes, PE, or parties. About
the only socialization that those children do have is in the interaction in the lunchroom.‖
Some students are sent to self-contained classes that are not in their home schools.
A special educator said: ―So the kids that get identified as BD [Behavioral Disorder] have
to leave all of their friends and their community and be bussed out of their community to
a different school. The same thing happens in our county when a child is identified as
having a severe or profound mental impairment. They don‘t get to go to school with their
friends that they grew up with.‖
Some regular educators are particularly concerned about having students with
behavioral disorders in their classrooms. One teacher said, ―My worst case scenario is
that child who cannot behave or has behavior problems in the regular classroom. LD
problems or moderately impaired kids—you can overcome those problems. But it‘s the
child that can‘t attune that‘s causing all of the disruptions. It‘s really a BD child—I think
they‘re the worst case.‖ Another regular educator said, ―I feel that what‘s happening with
the BD students is interfering with the whole school‘s environment. I don‘t think it‘s fair
to the BD student, and I don‘t think it‘s fair to the regular students as well.‖
22
Theme 13: The degree and quality of inclusion are highly influenced by local
attitudes and leadership.
Attitudes are a driving force—positive and negative—for including students with
disabilities in regular education. When asked if the general classroom is considered first,
one special educator responded, ―We were a little confused about the way your question
was stated because that‘s probably not the way we speak about it. When we go to an IEP
meeting, we start with the student‘s test scores and their needs and build on that
assumption. We don‘t start by thinking of the classroom as foremost. The first thing is the
student‘s needs.‖
On the other hand, a special educator at another school responded, ―Our kids start
at regular ed and they come down to special ed. When I first started at my school eight
years ago, it was like, ‗So your student is coming to me during science.‘ Now they say,
‗My student is going to you for help with reading.‘ It has completely flip-flopped.‖
Many felt that school administrators have a powerful effect on how well students
with disabilities are included. ―I think the administration for the school sets the tone for
everybody else,‖ a special educator said. ―If you have an administrator that‘s not going to
accept or promote inclusion, none of the teachers are either because it takes extra effort.‖
―The administrator kind of makes it or breaks it,‖ said a Parent Educator Resource
Center staff member. ―We have such wonderful principals out there who will go beyond
the extent of what a normal administrator would do. Then you have some who just don‘t
care and don‘t monitor and don‘t oversee their schools the way they should. So there is a
breakdown with that administrator‘s experience, or practice, or beliefs, or values they
already hold.‖
23
The attitude of the classroom teacher is also critical. ―It all depends on how the
classroom climate is set and how the classroom teacher deals with any child with any
different ability,‖ a parent said.
Theme 14: Educators need time and support to work together on implementing
inclusion successfully.
Most interviewees felt that successful inclusion hinges on the quantity and quality
of support provided to students with disabilities in the regular classroom. This requires
ongoing collaboration and communication between regular and special educators. One
special educator said her positive relationship with regular educators came from ―week
after week, month after month, my stopping by and asking, ‗Do you understand? Do you
need anything else?‘‖
Another special educator expressed concern that staff turnover in special
education disrupts effective collaboration: ―What concerns me is that so many people are
leaving special ed. You‘re not going to have the situation where someone has been at the
school and teachers feel comfortable trusting their judgment. It takes a while to develop
that level of trust and relationship.‖
Collaboration is frequently undermined by inadequate funding and staffing of
special education positions. Many echoed one regular educator‘s comment: ―At my
school, I guess the most important positive aspect is our special ed teacher and how well
she works with everyone. I guess the only negative is that there‘s just one of her, and her
time is so limited.‖ Numerous parents agreed. ―I know these special ed teachers are
loaded. They‘re covered up.‖
Many special educators reported feeling that they‘re stretched too thin. As one
put it, ―Right now I don‘t have a planning period. It was either take a planning period or
24
take care of kids who needed services. And I‘m not going to leave them without the
services. I spend my planning period with an extra class.‖
Peers, aides, and volunteers are often used to support inclusion. While many
spoke positively about these situations, several expressed caution. ―I can put my best
students with a high school student and tell them what they need to do,‖ said a special
educator. ―But the ones that need the most help—that‘s where I should be.‖ A regular
educator gave an example of a peer being used inappropriately: ―She [the special
education student] threw an incredible tantrum. They pulled another student out of my
classroom and had her go sit with her. She doesn‘t know what to do with the child. I
don‘t know what to do with that child. How can you give this situation to another student
who doesn‘t know what to do?‖
Theme 15: Regular education teachers need more training in disabilities and
special education.
The single concern that both parents and educators raised most often was the
special education training and experience of regular educators, even though this issue was
not specifically included in the probe questions. ―I think that our number one problem is
education for teachers,‖ a parent said. ―I know it was for my daughter—the teachers who
had never had a special needs child in their room.‖
―I think what is really lacking is the education of regular education teachers for
special ed,‖ a regular educator said. ―I wasn‘t trained in West Virginia. I was trained in
Virginia, and we had a great deal of special education in our training. I‘m doing
inclusion, and I‘m constantly having to teach other teachers what is MI (Mentally
Impaired), what is LD (Learning Disability), what‘s happening, and how to deal with
25
these students. I think the regular education teacher needs more education on what is a
special education student and what their needs are.‖
―I‘ll go back to pre-service,‖ a regular educator said. ―We‘re missing it already.
It‘s hard to change people who are already there.‖ Another regular educator said, ―I think
at the college level you should tell people, ‗if you don‘t have the heart for the needs of
those children, then you need to get into some other line of work.‘‖
In-service training for veteran teachers is also crucial. ―There are some teachers
that would say no all the time,‖ a regular educator said. ―But the child has a right to take
driver‘s ed and the child has a right to take STEPS, so the teacher has to take them. But
they‘re not being trained to take them. I think that‘s the big thing—they‘re not being
trained.‖
―She (the regular educator) is scared. She‘s frightened,‖ another regular educator
said. ―How will I know how to do this? What do I do?‘ I think we need to make sure that
all regular ed teachers have in-service in the special needs area before those students are
placed in the room.‖
Theme 16: Extensive paperwork takes time away from teaching.
Both regular and special educators expressed concern about the volume of
paperwork required for special education students. ―I think they (the special educators)
are overwhelmed with paperwork,‖ said a regular educator. ―A lot of the time is taken
from teaching the child because of the paperwork. I know if you‘re going to go to court
(and sometime or another every school ends up in some type of mediation or something),
you need that paper trail. But there has to be a better way. I don‘t understand why we
have so much paperwork.‖
26
―They just keep adding,‖ a special educator said of the paperwork. ―They‘re not
taking away when they add; they just keep adding. The Medicaid billing was something
that was thrown on us last year. And now it‘s more monitoring.‖
While everyone felt that accountability is important, some interviewees felt that
paper reporting doesn‘t assure that students get what they need. ―I‘d like to have
something where they could just drop in because they would catch some [regular
education] teachers who are not doing their jobs,‖ a special educator said.
Some said the same was true for special educators. ―I‘m surprised at the number
of special ed teachers who do not do their jobs,‖ a special educator said.
Question: How are parents involved in the education of students with
disabilities?
Theme 17: Students whose parents get involved in their education are more likely
to get the services they need.
Both parents and teachers emphasized the importance of regular communication
in assuring an appropriate education for students with disabilities. They especially noted
the need to be involved in formal IEP meetings, as well as more frequent informal
conversations. A parent of young twins said, ―We had a meeting before the actual IEP
[meeting]. I called it a pre-IEP meeting. There are so many things involved, such as
whether they needed psychological testing and what else would be needed. Then we gave
it about a month to six weeks, and then went back and had the actual IEP [meeting]. So
there has been a lot of talking time, and I think that‘s important.‖
A parent of a middle school child stressed the power of meeting face-to-face with
regular educators: ―I think it is the parents‘ responsibility to make sure they get to meet
every teacher and tell them the very important things about their child and the most
27
important things that are on the IEP. I think the parents need to be involved in letting that
teacher know about the child themselves.‖
A regular educator agreed that involved parents help ensure that the IEP is
followed. ―If there are active parents, the IEPs are being followed. If there are not active
parents, then until it comes around in the next year, it‘s not being followed.‖
Many interviewees gave examples of parents being strong advocates for the
placements and services they feel are best for their children. A regular educator described
one parent who challenged a decision to place her child away from her home school: ―We
didn‘t have special ed at all, and a parent was the one who got angry and said ‗I will not
move my child.‘ She dug her feet in and wasn‘t going to move to another school. Her
child had been going there for three or four years and finally got tested, and that‘s the
reason. It‘s kind of sad for other parents who didn‘t do the fighting and had to move
rather than staying with their peers they grew up with.‖
Others expressed concern about students without involved families. ―You have
some strong parents, and the system does bend over backwards to accommodate that
parent,‖ a Parent Educator Resource Center staff person said. ―But we all know that a lot
of our parents—from poor families, or less educated families, or whatever the reason—
are not really involved. I do not believe the system picks up and takes care of those
students.‖
Theme 18: Like most parents, the parents of special education students are more
involved during elementary school than during middle and high school years.
Both parents and teachers felt that parent involvement was important throughout
the school careers of students with disabilities, but acknowledged that it commonly drops
off after elementary school. ―I think it‘s the nature of the way parents in general are.
28
There is much less involvement between elementary and middle school, but even more
marked when you get to the high school level.‖
―By the time they reach middle school, the parents stop coming, which is just like
in regular education,‖ said a special educator. ―I‘d be lucky to have 40% [parent]
attendance at an IEP meeting even though I talk to them on the phone a lot and ask them
to come and be part of the process.‖
A woman who is a regular educator and the parent of a student with disabilities
said, ―By the time they get to middle school, there are parents who simply don‘t show up.
A lot of times they‘re fed up and frustrated. In their eyes they don‘t see a lot happening.
Some of them just have so many personal problems they have a hard time getting
involved—income, family problems, whatever. I think the main reason is probably
because of frustration by that point.‖
Theme 19: School and county practices affect parent involvement.
Interviewees reported wide variations in efforts by the school and county to
involve parents. At one end of the spectrum, a special educator said, ―Our school is not
really that open to parent involvement. We don‘t have a big welcome mat. We have a list
of parent volunteers who are to be at these parties, and that is just about who is
welcome.‖
At the other end are counties that take a countywide approach to parent
involvement. ―It‘s essential that in any county you start at the preschool level with an
emphasis on family involvement and that, as you change from one site to the next site,
you have teachers . . . who are going to reach out and say, ‗The connection is between the
29
schools so that it‘s really a county focus that families are important and that is how we‘re
going to involve them and keep them involved.‘‖
There was also variability in how well parents are informed about their rights. As
one regular educator said, ―Most parents don‘t know they can file for due process. They
don‘t have a clue they can do that. They [administrators] don‘t want them to know they
can do that.‖
On the other hand, a special educator felt that a lot of attention is paid to parent
education. ―We always give them a copy of Parent Rights before the meeting. But also,
my principal sits in on all the meetings, and she‘ll say, ‗This is what we think. If you
disagree with it, we can change anything on the IEP. This is just a draft. If you don‘t like
it or if you want to think about it, we‘ll reconvene and start the meeting over at a later
date.‘‖
Flexibility in meeting times affects parent participation. One parent said, ―You
don‘t ever have after-school meetings. You might get them at 7:30 in the morning when
they‘re there. Trying to work out a meeting is always an issue because they‘re not going
to stay after school or after work. Parents take time off work to come, and that‘s the only
way to have meetings.‖
Other schools are much more flexible about connecting with parents. ―We‘re very
flexible about our meeting times,‖ said a special educator. ―I‘ve met at 6:00 p.m. When I
know there‘s a ball game going on and there‘s going to be a principal there, I‘ll schedule
the meeting at 6:00. And I‘ve had meetings at 6:30 in the morning before parents go to
work.‖
30
Some teachers visit parents at home. A special educator said, ―In general, if the
parents don‘t show up at the IEP meetings, most of us go out and meet with the parents
and take the IEP to them.‖
Theme 20: Information is not readily accessible to many parents.
Both parents and teachers agreed that it‘s important for parents to be informed. ―I
think a parent really has to educate yourself on a lot of things,‖ a parent said. ―Not just
what your rights are, but what your child‘s disability is. That gives you a lot more to say
in what you present at your IEP meetings.‖
But many parents said the information they need is hard to come by. ―Anything I
read I had to get on my own,‖ a parent said. ―I had to do my own research. They [school
staff] had provided me nothing in terms of what to expect or what to read or how to
prepare. It was really never laid out for me. They really gave me no guidance.‖
Some of the information that is provided is not in understandable language.
―Sometimes our special educators who are in those meetings say ‗this is the test data‘ and
they use these great big words. Since I am a primary teacher, I will say in one- and two-
syllable words, ‗Now she really means… ‘ It‘s not parent-friendly.‖
Sometimes the information resources are available, but parents don‘t know about
them. ―Information is there,‖ a parent said. ―As far as making sure someone realizes it is
there, it is a little hard.‖
Sources of information that focus group participants had used included Parent
Educator Resource Centers, West Virginia Parent Training and Information, West
Virginia Advocates, and the West Virginia Learning Disability Association. Parents also
31
said that much of what they‘d learned about special education they learned from other
parents.
Theme 21: The special education process is intimidating to many parents.
Both parents and teachers commented that IEP meetings and other aspects of
special education are intimidating to many parents. ―I think even with the best teachers,
the parents are very intimidated,‖ a regular educator said. ―They‘re afraid to sign
anything. Everything is like a legal, binding document that‘s going to guide their child for
the rest of their education. I think it is very intimidating.‖
Some said the process is difficult for parents because the focus is often on their
children‘s deficits. ―I‘ve had parents tell me that they were apprehensive to come in
because every time they were there, they were told about what their child could not do,‖ a
special educator said.
Another special educator said: ―I think we sometimes stress the bad behaviors,
and we don‘t call if the behavior improves. Or for a child that‘s good all the time, that
child needs to hear that, too, and the parents need to hear that. So that‘s one thing I try to
do.‖
For some parents, negative feelings can be tracked back to their own past
experiences in school. ―Some people had a very negative experience with school,‖ a
regular educator said. ―They have a bad attitude because they have a bad feeling about
school. And then suddenly their kid‘s there, too, and that carries over to the child.‖ A
special educator said, ―I had one parent who wouldn‘t walk into the building because the
current principal had been his social studies teacher and had failed him.‖
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Theme 22: Most disagreements are resolved without resorting to due process
hearings.
Both parents and teachers talked about the importance of having constructive
relationships in which everyone focuses on what‘s best for the student. A regular
educator said, ―I‘ve found that the best experiences I‘ve had with special ed students are
where the parents are involved and supportive of the child, and the teacher‘s working
with the child and supportive of the program.‖ A special educator said, ―Even with
parents you have sometimes been locking horns with, it can really be a help when
everybody sees that you really have the child‘s best interest at heart.‖
Some people said that educators don‘t always have all the answers, so it‘s
important that everyone work together as a team. ―If you ever hear a teacher say, ‗we
don‘t know what to do,‘ that‘s okay because sometimes we don‘t know what to do
either,‖ a parent said. ―That‘s when you get the parent, the principal, the phys ed teacher,
the special ed director, anyone you can ask—you get them together and that‘s when you
work as a team.‖
Most focus group participants had little or no experience with formal due process
hearings and viewed them as a last—and not very desirable—resort. ―Our county really
goes to the furthest limit to avoid due process,‖ a special educator said. ―I think the parent
usually gets the services once they push, especially if they come in with an attorney.‖
A parent said, ―When you hit due process, your child is held without services until
it is resolved. I always try through the parent center to go through the steps of the teacher
and the principal, then the special ed director and the superintendent before I ever involve
the State.‖
33
Question: How well are students with disabilities being transitioned into,
through, and out of public schools?
Theme 23: Interagency collaboration is key to identifying and transitioning
young children.
Interviewees described both positive and negative experiences with transitioning
young children into public education, which many attributed to how well the
organizations worked together. Special educators mentioned a variety of agencies they
work with, including county health departments, doctors‘ offices, Birth to Three
programs, Head Start programs, behavioral health centers, and home visiting programs.
One parent described a highly successful collaboration in her county called
Operation Tadpole. ―That is a birth-to-five network. We meet every week for an hour and
a half. After that, we have face-to-face meetings with our parents who are transitioning
from Birth to Three to either Head Start, preschool special needs, or regular pre-K. We
have the people at the table together—including the psychologist and the special ed
specialist—for a face-to-face meeting. We share programs. Like we have one child in our
pre-K special needs program in the morning who goes to Head Start in the afternoon.‖
Others expressed concern about interagency collaboration in their counties,
particularly between public schools, Head Start, and Birth to Three programs. ―The
majority of my students come through the Birth to Three program,‖ a regular educator
said. ―That‘s been in bad shape the last few years. We‘ve not had good referrals. We‘ve
not had adequate assessments. The kids have not had adequate services. But that‘s being
remedied with the new program that‘s being put in place beginning this summer.‖
―We have a hard time communicating with Head Start and with centers that work
with children under three, getting them to refer to us, the school system,‖ a special
34
educator said. A special education director said, ―I‘m not having a whole lot of success
with those transitions being made in a timely manner. I feel like it‘s a breakdown on their
end, because I can get a referral for a child to schedule a face-to-face meeting, and that
child will be turning three in a week. I‘m like, you guys, where were you 90 days ago?‖
Theme 24: Transitions involving young children should be developmentally
appropriate.
Several teachers stressed that services and transitions for young children should
be appropriate to their developmental levels. ―We expect our four-year-olds to all know
the same thing, and five-year-olds to all know the same thing,‖ a regular educator said.
―Particularly at that age, I think we‘re not using developmentally appropriate practices,
because all children are not the same, and we expect them to be. We put extra pressure on
those children, and they can‘t handle it.‖
―In my county, if a child is in preschool handicapped, most of us feel the
progression should be from preschool handicapped to the pre-K class, then to
kindergarten,‖ a special educator said. ―A lot of times, they‘re going straight from
preschool handicapped to kindergarten. So many of these children are missing the extra
socialization time, time to develop, time to grow. And then they‘re going on and they‘re
winding up being held in kindergarten.‖
―I would like to see a larger window for deciding where a child is going to go,‖ a
regular educator said. ―We transition our children from preschool right into the regular
kindergarten or some other kind of service, and I would like to see a longer period of time
given to make those determinations.‖
35
Theme 25: Advance visits and meetings improve transitions into middle and high
schools.
Many teachers and parents commented on the challenges of transitioning from
elementary to middle or high school. ―It was difficult for me when my daughter went
from elementary school to middle [school],‖ a parent said. ―They‘re like in a little cocoon
when they‘re in elementary school. All of a sudden you feel like they‘re going to the big
kids‘ place.‖
One of the biggest changes for students in general—and for students with
disabilities in particular—is going from having one teacher to several. For included
students, this means that more regular teachers need to understand each student‘s
disability and IEP, and special educators need to cover more classrooms.
Interviewees felt that advance visits to the middle school and meeting the middle
school teachers helps students make the transition. ―I take my kids in the summer and
show them their lockers,‖ a special educator said. ―And then I go around and help make
up the schedule. And then we go around and, if the teachers are in their rooms before
school, I introduce them. I usually tell them I will be there the first day. I can do all that
because I only have a couple of kids that move up at a time.‖
Pre-orientations also help. ―We have an orientation about three days before school
starts, when the parents come with their child in the evening,‖ a special educator said.
―They go through their schedules. We teach them how to work their lockers. This is the
information all seventh graders are given the first day of school. They get it ahead of
time. They walk through the schedule and meet the teachers so they‘re a little more
comfortable on that first day of school.‖
36
Theme 26: Transition planning begins by age 14 for most students with
disabilities, but the quality of the experience varies.
Interviewees generally expressed that transition planning from school to college
or work happens for most students when they turned 14, but that the nature of the
experience varies greatly depending on the teachers and schools involved. One parent
described her positive experience, ―We have a transition coordinator who works with the
special needs students. And he has been fantastic in getting our special ed kids involved
in a lot of different things—vocational schools, college, the Rehab Center. He even goes
out to different places throughout the state and gives in-services to high school teachers
and administrators as to what they can do to help kids once they hit 14.‖
But many parents—more so than teachers—expressed concerns about the
transition process. ―It‘s non-existent,‖ a parent said. ―I have yet to come across a 14-year-
old and up that the team actually planned transition services. They come in with the
transition part of the IEP already filled out and have their little pat answers that they
check. I have begged for mapping—let‘s find out from this child where they want to be
as an adult. Let‘s find out from mom and dad what goals they have for this child as an
adult. And the more complicated the child is, the more critical it is. But this is all we do;
we provide career awareness and driver‘s license application info. And that‘s it. I cannot
get anyone to budge on that.‖
―Planning process? There is no planning process,‖ another parent said. ―They dot
their I‘s and cross their T‘s, but that‘s the extent of it. I had to fight tooth and nail to get
my son in real jobs because they (Vocational Rehabilitation) have their own training
program that‘s one-size-fits-all. I don‘t agree with that. One size does not fit all.‖
37
Theme 27: Some students leave high school without the vocational and life skills
they need.
Many educators voiced concerns about increased academic requirements and
declining opportunities for developing vocational and life skills for students with
disabilities. ―We are offering so little for the technical and occupational,‖ said a regular
educator. ―I know one of the things our special ed department is saying is ‗we‘re killing
these kids‘. There‘s not even anything that they can actually take anymore for them to
graduate, and they have to take this in order for them to graduate, and we don‘t have the
modified classes in order for them to pass.‖
―They‘re less likely to cut a class that‘s going to benefit your regular ed students
and prepare them for college than they are to prepare a child who‘s not going to college
for a job,‖ another regular educator said. ―That seems kind of strange to me, because the
ones that can go to college can make it and the ones who can‘t go to college have no
other option.‖
―I always felt that the more I can do with them with the stove, with the
refrigerator, with the washer and dryer, those are transition skills that we need to teach
them that we are not teaching them,‖ a special educator said. ―We‘re so focused now on
achievement and academics that we‘re not giving them the skills they need.‖
Interviewees did have positive things to say, however, about school-to-work
programs that are available to some students. ―We have a program called Job Skills
where we take MI, LD, and BD students out every Tuesday morning to a job site,‖ a
special educator said. ―They‘ve worked at Hardee‘s, McDonald‘s, the Tourist Center, the
college. They‘ve worked everywhere. They go out and get real-life work experience, and
38
our MI teachers go out and monitor them. A lot of kids get summer jobs at places like
Hardee‘s because they worked there during the school year.‖
Theme 28: Programs and services appropriate for adults are scarce in many
counties.
Parents and teachers said programs for adults with disabilities—especially
employment programs—are lacking in many communities. ―Unfortunately, the only
vocational program in our county right now is a sheltered workshop,‖ a special educator
said. ―The trend for the last 30 years has been to place students in competitive or
supported employment locations, and nothing like that exists for the severe and profound
population in our county. I would guess that other counties that are as rural as we are
suffering the same thing.‖
―I would love it if Vocational Rehabilitation would take a lot more responsibility
as far as supported and competitive employment,‖ another special educator said. ―They
know the sheltered workshops are out there. We keep sending state and federal money
into the sheltered workshops, and they‘re not being tapped to move people into
competitive sites.‖
One special educator explained how her students have to work their way up
through several programs, ―They have the sheltered workshop, they have Voc Rehab, two
colleges, and the skills program. I explained to my kids before we go in, because some of
my LD kids are very high, that you‘re going to have to sit through the sheltered workshop
and work your way up, which is very insulting to a lot of kids.‖
Even when appropriate jobs and training programs exist, transportation can be a
huge barrier, especially in rural counties. ―With the job opportunities when they get out
of high school, one of the biggest drawbacks around here is transportation,‖ a regular
39
educator said. ―I know there are times that they could be working in custodial
maintenance-type things. But unless you‘re a non-working parent who can run them back
and forth all the time, it‘s almost impossible.‖
40
PART III: SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS FROM
FOCUS GROUP INTERVIEWEES
After the focus group interview transcripts were analyzed for general themes, they
were reread for specific recommendations on improving the special education delivery
system. The following suggestions and recommendations for improvements were made
by the focus group participants. They represent the range of ideas expressed, not a
consensus among the participants, and aggregate around the detailed themes identified in
Part II.
Question: How can special education and related services be improved?
Theme 1: The availability and quality of services vary considerably across counties,
schools, and families.
Strengthen state, county, and school oversight of special education services;
provide state monitoring to assure that corrective action and mediation
agreements are implemented, that related services and assistive technology are
being provided, and that illegal suspensions and expulsions are prevented.
Improve teacher in-service training.
Improve local leadership by providing training for administrators on special
education regulations and issues.
Educate parents about their children‘s rights in special education.
Do a better job of identifying students with emotional disturbances, providing
them with appropriate services, and distinguishing them from students with
behavioral disorders.
41
Theme 2: The process for determining eligibility delays needed services for some
students.
Enforce the time limits for the assessment and identification process.
Develop better methods of early identification of students with learning
disabilities and better ways of providing appropriate support.
Streamline the Student Assistance Team process; Eliminate or shorten the
modifications period when a disability is apparent or when the regular education
teacher has already tried all appropriate modifications (especially when the
teacher has a background in special education).
Meet parents at their level of intellectual and emotional understanding.
Professional staff in the education system must understand that some parents are
reluctant to have their child labeled.
Theme 3: Eligibility guidelines allow some students to fall between the cracks.
Provide more educational support to students who do not meet eligibility criteria
for special education or 504 services.
Theme 4: Developing Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that effectively meet
student needs requires adequate time and the participation of all parties. Full
participation by all stakeholders in the Individualized Educational Plan Process is
important.
Provide training to all parties about the purpose and requirements of the IEP.
Write the IEP as a team instead of prior to the meeting; include short-term,
attainable goals; focus on individual strengths (not just weaknesses); take enough
time to do the IEP well.
42
Make it easier for parents to participate in IEPs; hold IEP meetings during hours
when parents are not working; enable parents to participate in meetings from
work via conference calls.
Make it easier for regular educators to participate for the entire meeting, rather
than moving in and out of the meeting. Provide substitute teachers to cover
classes during IEP meetings
Provide more time for special educators to work with all parties to develop a
meaningful IEP. Provide extra planning periods for special educators and/or
substitute teachers to fill in for them when they are pulled out of their regularly
assigned classes.
Theme 5: Many Individualized Educational Plans are not fully implemented due to
lack of time, services, and sharing of information.
Make sure that all parties have and use the IEP.
Provide sufficient time for regular and special educators to communicate with
each other and implement IEPs as written.
Provide sufficient and equitable resources (e.g., textbooks, supplies, computers) to
special education classrooms.
Provide year-round schooling so students can maintain and further their skills.
Encourage all parties to request meetings as needed to revise IEPs.
Theme 6: Counties’ shortages of related services professionals affect availability and
provision of services.
Improve recruitment and retention of psychologists, counselors, occupational
therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists. The shortage of these
support personnel is most pronounced in rural and border counties.
43
Require graduating therapist to have training in developmental needs of
preschoolers.
Hire more school nurses to meet the ratios required by state law; amend state law
to specify ratios for students with special needs.
Provide support and incentives for teachers to become certified in special
education and/or obtain multiple certifications.
Look at characteristics other than seniority to recruit, establish, and maintain a
qualified teaching staff.
Require special education substitutes to have training in special education.
Theme 7: Assistive technology has great potential but is often underutilized.
Provide training and technical assistance to teachers and therapists on assistive
technology; one good model is a county technical assistance team.
Provide opportunities for students, parents, and teachers to try out devices prior to
purchasing them.
Overcome liability issues that prevent some students from taking their devices
home.
Question: How can efforts to include students with disabilities in regular
education be improved?
Theme 8: Inclusion is often viewed as beneficial to students with and without
disabilities.
Provide diversity and disability awareness training to regular education students
and regular education teachers.
Start inclusion in preschool and primary grades.
Reinforce that placement in a regular classroom is to be considered first.
44
Provide more self-contained and alternative programs for students who have
serious difficulties learning in the regular classroom and for whom inclusion has
not been successful.
Theme 9: Modifications are widely used to support students with disabilities in
regular classrooms.
Provide training and technical assistance to special and regular educators on
making modifications.
Whenever possible, incorporate modifications that benefit all students and do not
single out special education students (e.g., giving all students their spelling words
for the next week on Friday, so they can practice at home over the weekend).
Make all schools accessible to people with physical disabilities.
Theme 10: Special education students are not always viewed or treated as full and
equal members of their schools.
Provide diversity and disability awareness training to regular education students
and regular education teachers.
Provide training and hold expectations that all regular educators will teach
students with disabilities in their classrooms. In the short term, however, many
special educators say it‘s important to pick and choose those regular educators
who are most open to inclusion and dedicated to helping special education
students succeed. But this can result in a disproportionate number of special
education students being assigned to those teachers‘ classrooms.
Theme 11: Many students with disabilities are included physically but do not
participate or feel socially included in regular education settings.
Increase interactions between students with and without disabilities through
programs like peer mentoring.
45
Provide integrated after-school programs for socialization and tutoring.
Allow differential grade requirements that enable students with disabilities to
participate in extracurricular sports.
Theme 12: Placement in regular education classrooms varies according to the
student’s disability type. Students with learning disabilities are more likely to be
included in regular classrooms and students with severe intellectual impairments and
those with behavioral disorders are least likely to be included.
Allow all students to attend their home schools, regardless of their disabilities.
Provide more training and technical assistance in positive behavioral supports for
special and regular educators.
Hire inclusion specialists to help more severely disabled students succeed in the
regular classroom.
Theme 13: The degree and quality of inclusion are highly influenced by local
attitudes and leadership.
Provide training to administrators and educators on the value of inclusion and
practical strategies for implementing it.
Theme 14: Educators need time and support to work together on implementing
inclusion successfully.
Provide more time for regular and special educators to communicate and plan for
their students through extra planning periods, common planning periods, and/or
the use of substitute teachers.
Use team teaching in which a regular and a special educator share responsibility
for all students in the classroom.
Reduce class size so that regular educators have more time to support special
education students in their classrooms.
46
Hire additional special education teachers to provide sufficient support to special
education students in regular classrooms.
Utilize aides, volunteers, and peers to support students with disabilities when
appropriate, but not in situations where the expertise of teachers is needed.
Theme 15: Regular education teachers need more training in disabilities and special
education.
Provide better pre-service instruction on disabilities, special education, and
inclusion for regular education majors; make teacher preparation programs five
years long and require all teachers to be certified to teach students with mild
disabilities.
Provide better in-service and continuing education opportunities focused on
disabilities, special education, and inclusion for regular educators.
Theme 16: Extensive paperwork takes time away from teaching.
Reduce paperwork requirements to those that are essential and meaningful.
Provide aides and/or clerical support to allow special educators to spend more
time with their students and less time with paperwork.
Computerize IEPs as has been done in RESA VI; Provide laptops for special
educators.
Question: How can efforts to involve parents in the education of students with
disabilities be improved?
Theme 17: Students whose parents get involved in their education are more likely to
get the services they need.
Adopt practices that welcome and support parent involvement.
47
Assure that the needs of students who don‘t have involved parents are equally
addressed.
Theme 18: Like most parents, the parents of special education students are more
involved during elementary school than during middle and high school years.
Adopt practices that welcome and support parent involvement.
Theme 19: School and county practices affect parent involvement.
Develop local administrative leadership that supports parent involvement.
Provide flexible times when working parents can visit the school and meet with
teachers; offer multiple means for communication (e.g., notes, phone calls).
Support parents in helping their children learn at home (e.g., a preschool teacher
sends home books and cassette tapes for parents to use with their children).
To enhance parent involvement, require parents who receive welfare to attend
parenting classes at their children‘s school.
Theme 20: Information is not readily accessible to many parents.
Provide information to parents in understandable language and multiple formats
(brochures, workshops, a statewide information clearinghouse, the Internet, one-
on-one advice) about their rights and responsibilities in special education; many
interviewees say written information is not enough.
Encourage parent networking; many parents say much of what they learned about
the special education system and its operation they learned from one another.
Make sure parents know about their Parent Educator Resource Center and other
supportive resources.
48
Theme 21: The special education process is intimidating to many parents.
Focus on student assets, not just deficits; be sensitive to the fact that parents and
students spend a lot of time hearing about what the students cannot do.
Create a welcoming, non-hierarchical meeting environment (e.g., meet at a round
table; take time and don‘t be rushed).
Provide support people to parents to help them understand and negotiate services
for their children and resolve disputes.
Theme 22: Most disagreements are resolved without resorting to due process
hearings.
From the start, encourage all parties to work as a team in the student‘s best
interest, so they are able to successfully resolve differences; ensure that all parties
understand special education requirements and that parents understand their
rights.
Question: How can transitions into, through, and out of public schools be
improved?
Theme 23: Interagency collaboration is key to identifying and transitioning young
children.
Encourage strong local collaboration to identify and serve young children with
special needs among pediatricians, public health departments, Birth-to-Three
programs, Head Start, behavioral health centers, and home visiting programs;
publicize successful collaborative models such as Operation Tadpole.
Encourage timely referrals (90 days in advance) of three-year-olds transitioning
into public school programs.
49
Theme 24: Transitions involving young children should be developmentally
appropriate.
Transition children from preschool handicapped classes to a pre-K program prior
to transitioning them to kindergarten, so they have a little extra developmental
time.
Theme 25: Advance visits and meetings improve transitions into middle and high
schools.
Have middle school teachers come to elementary schools to meet and talk with
students who will be transitioning.
Schedule visits during the spring or summer for students to become familiar with
their new school.
In addition to the regular orientation, provide a pre-orientation meeting to the new
school for students with disabilities and their parents.
Theme 26: Transition planning begins by age 14 for most students with disabilities,
but the quality of the experience varies.
Use a meaningful process (e.g., personal futures planning, mapping) for transition
planning that involves the student, parents, teachers, and others who are
concerned about that student.
Employ transition coordinators to facilitate the process.
Engage adult service providers (e.g., Division of Vocational Rehabilitation,
behavioral health centers, and other community agencies) in planning and
arranging for services after high school.
50
Theme 27: Some students leave high school without the vocational and life skills they
need.
Reduce certain academic requirements (especially math) to enable more special
education students to graduate with a regular diploma; allow more vocational and
life-skills instruction to count toward graduation requirements; allow students to
attend voc-tech schools prior to their junior year, especially if they‘re the age of
high school juniors.
Expand community-based school-to-work programs that help prepare students for
employment.
Theme 28: Programs and services appropriate for adults are scarce in many
counties.
Expand the availability of community programs for adults with disabilities,
especially in the areas of supported and competitive employment and
transportation.
51
PART IV: PUBLIC HEARINGS
An Additional Step
Organizing 38 focus groups represented a tremendous effort by the Department of
Education‘s Office of Special Education to seek public perceptions about its services.
However, the Department felt that the nominating process and the daytime schedule for
the focus groups may have excluded people who would have liked have to provided input
to the Department‘s planning process. In an attempt to include those voices and allow
individuals to self-nominate their participant in the process, a series of evening public
hearings was proposed.
The Public Hearing Process
In May of 2002, in an effort to obtain additional public comment, the Department
engaged AEL to conduct three public hearings on its behalf. As noted in this report, AEL
facilitated the focus groups in the first phase of the Departments‘ effort to gain
information about public perceptions.
The hearing schedule was set by the Office of Special Education. Dates, times,
and locations of the hearings were
1. Tuesday, May 28, 6-8 p.m., Capital High School, Charleston
2. Wednesday, May 29, 6-8 p.m., Mountaineer Conference Center, Beckley
3. Friday, May 31, 6-8 p.m., Holiday Inn, Fairmont
52
More than 5,000 flyers announcing the public hearings were mailed by the
Department of Education, Office of Special Education. They were sent to a list of
individuals and organizations that included
newspapers (every news paper in the state received the announcement for
inclusion in their community calendar and public service announcements)
principals and faculty senate chairpersons (every principal and faculty senate
chair at each of the state‘s 800+ schools received the announcement)
superintendents of each of the state‘s school districts
individuals nominated to participate in the focus groups (the list contained the
names of 900+ parents, students, teachers, special education teachers,
superintendents, principals, local special education directors‘ and PERC staff)
West Virginia Advisory Council for the Education of Exceptional Children
(mailing directed to each individual council member)
Part C Interagency Coordinating Council (mailing directed to each individual
council member)
Packets of the announcement were sent to the following groups for distribution through
their networks:
Parent–Educator Resource Centers (there are 39 centers serving the state)
local special education directors (there are 57 directors serving the state)
West Virginia colleges and universities
West Virginia School Psychologist Association
West Virginia Parent Training Center
Mountain State Parents CAN
53
West Virginia Advocates
West Virginia School Boards Association
Mountain State Family Alliance
Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The Federation of the Blind
West Virginia EA
West Virginia AFT
The Office of the Secretary of Education and the Arts
The meeting announcement invited the recipient to attend, requested that
recipients post the announcement where other stakeholders and organizational
representatives would see it, and asked recipients to pass the information along to other
agencies and interested parties in their personal and professional networks. A copy of the
announcement is contained in Appendix J of this report.
The format of the public hearings was designed to gather testimony from large
numbers of participants at each site. Individuals would be asked by the AEL hearing
officer to address the same questions that were used in the focus group discussions. The
hearing officer would indicate that other topics, while important, would not be
appropriate for the hearing and should be discussed with representatives of the
Department at the state or local level. The focus of the hearings was to gather input on
specific topics that would provide a basis for a report to the Office of Special Education
and use for planning by its steering committee.
Individuals testifying would be asked to identify themselves and indicate the
stakeholder group(s) they represented. They would be asked to limit their comments to
54
three minutes and to address question(s) of interest to them. This format would allow
individuals to address issues that concerned them and/or issues that would indicate
success and progress and to make recommendations for changes to make the system more
effective. The department hoped to gain as much information as possible through the
process.
Because attendance at public hearings is difficult to predict, a fallback plan was
designed, in case of any hearing attracted only a small group. The fallback plan was to
move away from three-minute presentations and convert the meeting to a focus group,
replicating the activity of the original 31 groups. Attendees would discuss all of the
questions and provide their perceptions of strengths and concerns they see in the special
education system. During the discussion they would be asked for their recommendations
for improving the system.
Attendance at all three public hearings was light – a total of 24 people
participated. The break down of attendance is as follows:
1. Charleston—6 participants
2. Beckley—12 participants
3. Fairmont—6 participants
Participants were asked to sign a registration log as they entered the hearing room
and to identify the stakeholder group they represented. The following is a record of the
stakeholder groups in attendance based on participant sign-in sheets:
superintendent—1
special education director—1
parent—9
55
assistant principal—1
regular education teacher—4
special education teacher—7
special education advocate—1
West Virginia Birth to Three Program—2
Parent Education Resource Center coordinator—1
nurse—1
physical therapist—1
CIMP Steering Committee member—1
project director West Virginia PTI—1
The number of stakeholder roles represented exceeds the number of attendees, because
many participants indicated they played multiple roles in the lives of special education
students.
The Hearings
Attendance patterns triggered the engagement of the fallback strategy, and the
focus group format was used in the public hearings at all three locations. A court reporter
was present at each meeting to capture the discussion, and a full transcript of each
meeting was made. To ensure that no potential participant would be left out, an
interpreter was present at each hearing to provide support services for hearing-impaired
attendees. In addition, to assist any potential participant who was visually impaired, the
questions being addressed in the hearing were available in Braille. No participant at any
site needed the services of the interpreter and none required the Braille questions.
56
Analysis
The transcript of the proceedings was reviewed against the coding system
developed for the focus groups to identify themes and suggestions for system
improvement strategies. The information gleaned from the process was compared to the
results of the original 31 focus groups.
The themes drawn from attendees at the public hearings were consistent with
those identified in the initial series of focus groups.
Key Themes
The comments, concerns, and recommendations for system improvement from both
the public hearings and the original focus groups came out of discussions around the four
main questions provided by the Office of Special Education:
To what extent are students receiving the special education services they
need?
To what extent are students with disabilities included in regular classrooms?
How are parents involved in the education of students with disabilities?
How well are students with disabilities being transitioned into, through, and
out of public schools?
Information gathered at the public hearings was consistent with the following
overarching themes that emerged from the initial focus groups:
The experiences of special education students vary considerably across
counties, schools, and classrooms. The quality of the experience appears to
depend largely on the leadership of local administrators, the attitudes and
57
training of regular educators, the time and resources available for special
education services, and the involvement of informed parents.
Great strides have been made in the inclusion of students with disabilities in
regular education classrooms, though special education is still widely viewed
as ―special‖ and separate. Special educators feel that once children are
identified, they are often seen as ―their‖ students and treated differently from
the rest of the student body.
Collaboration with non-school entities is essential to support the development
of students with disabilities. This is especially true for identifying and
transitioning young children into public schools and for transition planning to
prepare teenagers for their adult lives.
No new themes emerged in the public hearings. The reader should refer to Part II,
where the 28 detailed themes of specific concern and interest to the focus group
participants are listed.
The public hearing participants did, however, provide additional
recommendations for system improvement.
58
PART V: SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS FROM
PARTICIPANTS IN THE PUBLIC HEARINGS
The following are recommendations for strategies to improve the special
education system in West Virginia. They were suggested by participants in the public
hearings conducted by AEL on May 28, 29 and 31, 2002, on behalf of the State Office of
Special Education. They represent the range of ideas expressed and do not represent a
consensus among participants.
The themes referenced here are identified in Part II of this report. The
recommendations for improvement made by participants in the public hearings are sorted
according to the themes they impact. Some themes listed in Part II are not included here
because suggestions from participants in the public hearings did not impact all themes
identified in the initial 31 focus groups.
Question: How can special education and related services be improved?
Theme 1: The availability and quality of services vary considerably across counties,
schools, and families.
Publicize information about ―best practices‖ in special education.
Theme 4: Developing Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) that effectively meet
the student needs requires adequate time and participation of all parties. Full
participation by all stakeholders in the Individualized Educational Plan process is
important.
Incorporate information and recommendations from outside experts (e.g.,
physicians, psychologists) into the IEP when available.
59
Theme 6: Counties’ shortages of related services professionals affect availability and
provision of services.
Improve recruitment and retention of qualified psychologists, counselors,
occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists, especially in
rural and border counties; provide more student internships for pre-service
teachers in special education. (new)
Require graduating therapists to have training in the developmental needs of
preschoolers.
Hire more school nurses to meet the ratios required by state law; amend state law
to specify ratios for students with special needs.
Question: How can efforts to include students with disabilities in regular
education be improved?
Theme 8: Inclusion is often viewed as beneficial to students with and without
disabilities.
Reinforce that placement in a regular classroom is to be considered first.
Theme 15: Regular education teachers need more training on disabilities and special
education.
Provide training and support to teachers to meet their students‘ health-related
needs (e.g., blood sugar monitoring). Offer or require training for teachers in first
aid and CPR.
Question: How can efforts to involve parents in the education of students
with disabilities be improved?
60
Theme 19: School and county practices affect parent involvement.
Provide and require all educators to receive training in family-centered practice
and support and how to implement those activities.
Establish a special education council in every county, mandating that a majority
of members should be parents and youth in special education.
When parents are divorced, make sure both are informed about and have access to
their children‘s records.
Question: How can transitions into, through, and out of public schools be
improved?
Theme 23: Interagency collaboration is key to identifying and transitioning young
children.
Provide needed intensive services early on, because it‘s more effective and saves
money in the long run.
Amend state law to include immunization requirements for three- and four-year-
olds entering public school programs.
Theme 24: Transitions with young children should be developmentally appropriate.
Make developmentally appropriate kindergarten mandatory for all four-year-olds.
Theme 25: Advance visits improve transitions into middle and high schools.
Offer home visits by teachers when students are transitioning.
Theme 26: Transition planning begins by age 14 for most students with disabilities,
but the quality of the experience varies.
Employ transition coordinators to facilitate the process; have a transition class
during the final semester (in addition to earlier efforts). (new)
61
Hire a state-level transition coordinator to provide training, resources, and
consultation to county programs.
Comments and Recommendations
Several people expressed concern about the scheduling of the public hearings on
the night of high school graduations in the Fairmont area. They also expressed concern
about the short length of time between the receipt of the meeting notice and the meeting
date. They thought participation in the public hearings would have been larger if the
dates had been different and there had been more lead time between the invitation and the
event.
62
PART VI: SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS—A
COMBINED LIST FROM FOCUS GROUPS AND PUBLIC
HEARINGS
The following is a combined list of suggestions and recommendations for special
education system improvements made by the focus group and public hearing participants.
These comments represent the range of ideas expressed and are not a consensus among
the participants. The recommendations are aggregated around the detailed themes
identified in Part II of this report.
Question: How can special education and related services be improved?
Theme 1: The availability and quality of services vary considerably across counties,
schools, and families.
Strengthen state, county, and school oversight of special education services;
provide state monitoring to ensure that corrective action and mediation
agreements are implemented, that related services and assistive technology are
being provided, and that illegal suspensions and expulsions are prevented.
Improve local leadership by providing training for administrators on special
education regulations and issues.
Improve teacher training.
Educate parents about their children‘s rights in special education.
Do a better job of identifying students with emotional disturbances, and providing
them with appropriate services, and distinguishing them from students with
behavioral disorders.
Publicize information about ―best practices‖ in special education.
63
Theme 2: The process for determining eligibility delays needed services for some
students.
Enforce the time limits for the assessment and identification process.
Develop better methods for early identification of students with learning
disabilities and better ways of providing appropriate support.
Streamline the Student Assistance Team process; eliminate or shorten the
modifications period when a disability is apparent or when the regular education
teacher has already tried all appropriate modifications (especially when the
teacher has a background in special education).
Meet parents at their level of intellectual and emotional understanding.
Professional staff in the educational system must understand that some parents are
reluctant to have their child labeled.
Theme 3: Eligibility guidelines allow some students to fall between the cracks.
Provide more educational support to students who do not meet the eligibility
criteria for special education or 504 services.
Theme 4: Developing Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) that effectively meet
student needs requires adequate time and the participation of all parties. Full
participation by all stakeholders in the Individualized Educational Plan process is
important.
Provide training to all parties about the purpose and requirements of the IEP;
write the IEP as a team instead of prior to the meeting; include short-term,
attainable goals; focus on individual strengths (not just weaknesses); take enough
time to do the IEP process well.
64
Make it easier for parents to participate in IEPs; hold IEP meetings during hours
when parents are not working; enable parents to participate in meetings from
work via conference calls.
Make it easier for regular educators to participate for the entire meeting, rather
than moving in and out of the meetings. Provide substitute teachers to cover
classes during IEP meetings.
Provide more time for special educators to work with all parties to develop a
meaningful IEP; provide extra planning periods for special educators and/or
substitutes when they are pulled out of classes.
Incorporate information and recommendations from outside experts (e.g.,
physicians, psychologists) into the IEP when available.
Theme 5: Many Individualized Educational Plans are not fully implemented due to
lack of time, services, and sharing of information.
Make sure that all parties have and use the IEP.
Provide sufficient time for regular and special educators to communicate with
each other and implement IEPs as written.
Provide sufficient and equitable resources (e.g., textbooks, supplies, computers) to
special education classrooms.
Provide year-round schooling so students can maintain and further their skills.
Encourage all parties to request meetings as needed to revise IEPs.
Theme 6: Counties’ shortages of related services professionals affect availability and
provision of services.
Improve recruitment and retention of qualified psychologists, counselors,
occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists. Shortages of
65
these support personnel are most pronounced in rural and border counties.
Provide more student internships for pre-service teachers in special education.
Require graduating therapists to have training in the developmental needs of
preschoolers.
Hire more school nurses to meet the ratios required by state law; amend state law
to specify ratios for students with special needs.
Provide support and incentives for teachers to become certified in special
education and/or obtain multiple certifications.
Look at characteristics besides seniority to recruit, establish, and maintain
qualified teaching staff.
Require special education substitutes to have training in special education.
Theme 7: Assistive technology has great potential but is often underutilized.
Provide training and technical assistance to teachers and therapists on assistive
technology; one good model is a county technical assistance team.
Provide opportunities for students, parents, and teachers to try out devices prior to
purchasing them.
Overcome liability issues that prevent some students from taking their devices
home.
Question: How can efforts to include students with disabilities in regular
education be improved?
Theme 8: Inclusion is often viewed as beneficial to students with and without
disabilities.
Provide diversity and disability awareness training to regular education students
and regular education teachers.
66
Start early with inclusion in preschool and primary grades.
Reinforce that placement in a regular classroom is to be considered first.
Provide more self-contained and alternative programs for students who have
serious difficulties learning in the regular classroom and for whom inclusion has
not been successful.
Theme 9: Modifications are widely used to support students with disabilities in
regular classrooms.
Provide training and technical assistance to special and regular educators on
making modifications.
Whenever possible, incorporate modifications that benefit all students and do not
single out special education students (e.g., giving all students their spelling words
for the next week on Friday, so they can practice at home over the weekend).
Make all schools accessible to people with physical disabilities.
Theme 10: Special education students are not always viewed or treated as full and
equal members of their schools.
Provide diversity and disability awareness training to regular education students
and regular education teachers.
Provide training and expectations that all regular educators will teach students
with disabilities in their classrooms. In the short term, however, many special
educators say it‘s important to pick and choose those regular educators that are
most open to inclusion and dedicated to helping special education students
succeed. But this can result in a disproportionate number of special education
students being assigned to those teachers‘ classrooms.
67
Theme 11: Many students with disabilities are included physically, but do not
participate or feel socially included in regular education settings.
Increase interactions between students with and without disabilities through
programs like peer mentoring.
Provide integrated after-school programs for socialization and tutoring.
Allow differential grade requirements that enable students with disabilities to
participate in extracurricular sports.
Theme 12: Placement in regular education classrooms varies according to the
student’s disability type. Students with learning disabilities are more likely to be
included in regular classrooms and students with severe intellectual impairments and
those with behavioral disorders are least likely to be included.
Allow all students to attend their home schools, regardless of their disabilities.
Provide more training and technical assistance in positive behavioral supports for
special and regular educators.
Hire inclusion specialists to help more severely disabled students succeed in the
regular classroom.
Theme 13: The degree and quality of inclusion is highly influenced by local attitudes
and leadership.
Provide training to administrators and educators on the value of inclusion and
practical strategies for implementing it.
Theme 14: Educators need time and support to work together on implementing
inclusion successfully.
Provide more time for regular and special educators to communicate and plan for
their students through extra planning periods, common planning periods, and/or
the use of substitute teachers.
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Use team teaching in which a regular and a special educator share responsibility
for all students in the classroom.
Reduce class size so that regular educators have more time to support special
education students in their classrooms.
Hire additional special education teachers to provide sufficient support to special
education students in regular classrooms.
Utilize aides, volunteers, and peers when appropriate to support students with
disabilities, but not in situations where the expertise of teachers is needed.
Theme 15: Regular education teachers need more training in disabilities and special
education.
Provide better pre-service instruction on disabilities, special education, and
inclusion for regular education majors; make teacher preparation programs five
years long and require ALL teachers to be certified to teach students with mild
disabilities.
Provide better in-service and continuing education opportunities focused on
disabilities, special education, and inclusion for regular educators.
Provide training and support to teachers on meeting their students health-related
needs (e.g., blood sugar monitoring). Offer or require training for teachers in first
aid and CPR.
Theme 16: Extensive paperwork takes time away from teaching.
Reduce paperwork requirements to those that are essential and meaningful.
Provide aides and/or clerical support to allow special educators to spend more
time with their students and less time with paperwork.
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Computerize IEPs as has been done in RESA VI; Provide laptops to special
educators.
Question: How can efforts to involve parents in the education of students
with disabilities be improved?
Theme 17: Students whose parents get involved in their education are morel likely to
get services they need.
Adopt practices that welcome and support parent involvement.
Assure that the needs of students who don‘t have involved parents are equally
addressed.
Theme 18: Like most parents, the parents of special education students are more
involved during elementary school than during middle and high school years.
Adopt practices that welcome and support parent involvement.
Theme 19: School and county practices affect parent involvement.
Develop local administrative leadership that supports parent involvement.
Provide and require all educators to receive training in family-centered practice
and support and how to implement those activities.
Provide flexible times when working parents can visit the school and meet with
teachers; offer multiple means for communication (e.g., notes, phone calls)
Support parents in helping their children learn at home (e.g., a preschool teacher
sends home books and cassette tapes for parents to use with their children).
Establish a special education council in every county mandating that a majority of
members should be parents and youth in special education.
To enhance parent involvement, require parents who receive welfare to attend
parenting classes at their children‘s school.
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When parents are divorced, make sure both are informed and have access to their
children‘s records.
Theme 20: Information is not readily accessible to many parents.
Provide information to parents in understandable language and multiple formats
(brochures, workshops, a statewide information clearinghouse, the Internet, one-
on-one advice) about their rights and responsibilities in special education; many
interviewees say that written information is not enough.
Encourage parent networking; many parents say that much of what they learned
about the special education system and its operation they learned from one
another.
Make sure that parents know about their Parent Educator Resource Center and
other supportive resources.
Theme 21: The special education process is intimidating to many parents.
Focus on student assets, not just deficits; be sensitive to the fact that parents and
students spend a lot of time hearing about what the students cannot do.
Create a welcoming, non-hierarchical meeting environment (e.g., meet at a round
table; take time and don‘t be rushed).
Provide support people to parents to help them understand and negotiate services
for their children and resolve disputes.
Theme 22: Most disagreements are resolved without resorting to due process
hearings.
From the start, encourage all parties to work together as a team in the student‘s
best interest, so they are able to successfully resolve differences; ensure that all
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parties understand special education requirements and that parents understand
their rights.
Question: How can transitions into, through, and out of public schools be
improved?
Theme 23: Interagency collaboration is key to identifying and transitioning young
children.
Encourage strong local collaboration to identify and serve young children with
special needs among pediatricians, public health departments, Birth-to-Three
programs, Head Start, behavioral health centers, and home visiting programs;
publicize successful collaborative models such as Operation Tadpole.
Provide needed intensive services early on because it‘s more effective and saves
money in the long run.
Encourage timely referrals (90 days in advance) of three-year-olds transitioning
into public school programs.
Amend state law to include immunization requirements for three-and four-year-
olds entering public school programs.
Theme 24: Transitions with young children should be developmentally appropriate.
Transition children from preschool handicapped classes to a pre-K program prior
to transitioning them to kindergarten, so they have a little extra developmental
time.
Make developmentally appropriate kindergarten mandatory for all 4-year-olds.
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Theme 25: Advance visits and meetings improve transitions into middle and high
schools.
Have middle school teachers come to elementary schools to meet and talk with
students who will be transitioning.
Schedule visits during the spring or summer for students to become familiar with
their new school.
Offer home visits by teachers when students are transitioning.
In addition to the regular orientation, provide a pre-orientation meeting to the new
school for students with disabilities and their parents.
Theme 26: Transition planning begins by age 14 for most students with disabilities,
but the quality of the experience varies.
Use a meaningful process (e.g., personal futures planning, mapping) for transition
planning that involves the student, parents, teachers, and others who are
concerned about that student.
Employ transition coordinators to facilitate the process; have a transition class
during the final semester (in addition to earlier efforts).
Engage adult service providers (e.g., Division of Vocational Rehabilitation,
behavioral health centers, and other community agencies) in planning and
arranging for services after high school.
Hire a state-level transition coordinator to provide training, resources, and
consultation to county programs.
Theme 27: Some students leave high school without the vocational and life skills they
need.
Reduce certain academic requirements (especially math) to enable more special
education students to graduate with a regular diploma; allow more vocational and
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life skills instruction to count toward graduation requirements; allow students to
attend voc-tech schools prior to their junior year, especially if they‘re the age of
high school juniors.
Expand community-based school-to-work programs that help prepare students for
employment.
Theme 28: Programs and services appropriate for adults are scarce in many
counties.
Expand the availability of community programs for adults with disabilities,
especially in the areas of supported and competitive employment and
transportation.
Comments and Recommendations
Several people raised questions about how representative the focus groups were
of parents and teachers in general. They were also concerned that the scheduling
of the focus groups during the day prevented some working parents from
attending.
Several people expressed concern about the scheduling of the public hearings on
the night of high school graduations in the Fairmont area. They also expressed
concern about the short length of time between the receipt of the meeting notice
and the meeting date. They thought participation in the public hearings would
have been larger if the dates had been different and there had been more lead time
between the invitation and the event.
A number of people expressed interest in reading the report on the focus groups
and forums.
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