Special Education Vocabulary: Accommodation

The law says that a school has to "accommodate" a student's disabilities. Do you know what that MEANS? Technical jargon can get in the way of understanding your child's rights.

What is an accommodation? The long list of technical terms in special education can be daunting to some parents. And since accommodation is one of the most basic terms, I thought I'd take a little time here to make sure you could find a clear, concise definition...

Schwab Learning has one of the best explanations of the term accommodation that I've come across on the Internet:

Accommodations provide different ways for kids to take in information or communicate their knowledge back to you. The changes basically don't alter or lower the standards or expectations for a subject or test. Through the child's Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan, classroom accommodations are developed formally.

Their page goes on in other places to explain (correctly, I might add) that an accommodation is a change in the student's classroom learning environment so that the student has better access to the educational process.

Accommodations can be simple. If a child's disability has to do with their hearing or vision, one of the simplest accommodations is usually called preferential seating. Johnny can't see very far or hear very well so we move him to the front of the room - closer to the blackboard and to the talking teacher. And in some cases, accommodating a child's disability with a change in their classroom learning environment as simple as that one makes a huge difference in how well they do.

Some other common accommodations include:

• Extended time - a child with a disability may be given extra time to take a test or complete an assignment.
  
  

• Oral testing - if we want to know whether a child with a learning disability knows who the first president was, we can ask him and let him tell us instead of writing down our question and having him write down his answer. After all, if he knows who the first president was he should get credit for that. And if his disability interferes with his ability to write, that's a fair accommodation to make.
  
  

• Assistive technology - a child with a vision problem can listen to a story on tape instead of reading it from a book and a student with dysgraphia may benefit greatly from using a word processor instead of a pencil.
  
  

• Peer tutoring - simply assigning a classmate to help a disabled student "get it" can be powerful.

Parents should distinguish between these two ideas. Accommodations do not change what is expected of a student in school; they only change the way the student gains access to learning. Modifications actually change the curriculum and expectations placed on a disabled student. But we'll leave that piece of vocabulary, modifications, for another day...

What is Down Syndrome?

Also known as trisomy 21, Down syndrome (or Down’s Syndrome in the UK and many countries) is the most common genetic cause of mild and moderate mental retardation.

March 21 is celebrated as World Down Syndrome Day. The reason that date was picked seems obvious to those familiar with the condition. Chromosomes come in pairs. Humans have 46 pairs of chromosomes in the genetic code that tells their bodies how to develop and function. But people with Down syndrome (DS) have a third chromosome on their 21st set of chromosomes. So to celebrate the genetic uniqueness of people with DS, Down Syndrome International has picked March 21st (the 21st day of the third month) as World Down Syndrome Day.

While the most common form of DS involves a genetic condition called trisomy 21, about 10 percent of DS cases are the results of other slightly different genetic conditions. DS genetics itself is a more technical discussion than can be dealt with here.

A number of physical traits are often observable in DS children at birth. Among them:

• poor muscle tone
• a unique facial shape that includes flat facial features and a small nose
• epicanthic folds on the eyes
• an almond shape to the eyes
• abnormal ear shape
• a large tongue
• joints that extend beyond normal range
• shortened than average limbs
• a deep crease across the palm of the hand
• extra space between the big toe and other toes

DS children and adults are at high risk for a number of medical conditions. Heart defects and problems related to the stomach and esophagus are not uncommon. Sleep apnea occurs often in those with Down syndrome. Difficulties in the lower digestive tract (including bowel obstructions) are also common, as are ear infections.

The cognitive functioning of children with DS varies greatly. One of the most controversial issues within the DS communities is the validity of the various tests used by school psychologists to measure cognitive functioning (the term "intelligence" tends to be avoided these days in the context of such tests). Because DS children tend to have reduced verbal skills, many parents and advocates do not feel such tests accurately measure the cognitive abilities of a DS child. That said, some adults with DS have pursued their education to the level of obtaining college degrees (admittedly usually with some level of accommodation for their disability) and the vast majority of DS children will learn to read, write, and perform basic math operations.

DS raises a number of educational issues. There is often a wide gap between the ability DS students have to understand ideas and their ability to express those ideas. Speech therapy is a common part of education for students with DS. Regular occupational therapy is also commonly used to help address delays in both fine and gross motor skills. The most controversial and emotional issue that has to be resolved in the educational environment is the extent to which a DS child is educated with non-disabled peers their own age. DS students usually experience delays in their emotional and social development and these delays lead to a wider and wider gap each year between the social abilities of a DS student and those of their same-aged peers. Whether it is called mainstreaming or inclusion, educating DS students in the general education classroom with their chronological peers has both advantages and disadvantages that must be weighed in each year's IEP meeting.

The quality of life for people with DS has improved tremendously in the last century. At the start of the Great Depression the average person with DS lived to be all of nine years old. Today individuals with DS often live into their 50's. And while life for a DS person a couple of generations ago often involved institutionalization and the isolation and loss of independence that comes with it, today individuals with DS often live happy, relatively independent lives that include marriage and a job. The 1996 film Duo pictured many of the challenges of life with DS today (and featured a leading actor with DS).

A few Down syndrome links:

• NDSS - National Down Syndrome Society.
  
• NADS - National Association for Down Syndrome.
  
• Down's Syndrome Association of the UK.
  
• Canadian Down Syndrome Society.
  
• Down Syndrome at kids Health Dot Org.

What a Special Ed Teacher Needs...

Note: Visit my education blog, The Green Cup.

A friend of my is taking a graduate classas part of a degreee program in school administration. She recently told me she had to interview a special education teacher and turn in the interview as part of an assignment. The interview had one questions. It asked about the sort of support and participation a special education teacher needs from a principal in order to create and implement individualized education plans (IEPs) for their exceptional students. Below, with some minor editing, is the answer I gave her...

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The principal is the single most important special educator in any school. I need them to realize that. I think mine does at my current school.

One of the most profound indicators of support I see from a school administrator is participation in IEP meetings. I have worked as a special educator at four schools now. One of my principals in the past refused to even attend IEP meetings, much less chair them as required by law. They wanted to falsify the paperwork to make it look as though they’d been present during the discussions and they wanted me to participate in the fraud. The lack of value for disabled students and for the processes mandated by IDEA that such actions communicate to me as a special educator made it difficult for me to respect the leadership of that individual in any realm of school governance. I need to see an administrator take charge of the process and make an effort to ensure that we as a school are doing our best for our exceptional students – individually, one student at a time. My current principal does that.

I need my principal ensure that my schedule allows me time to carry out non-instructional tasks like monitoring students I don’t actually teach and planning with teachers with whom I co-teach. My current schedule allows that. Without the time to monitor students, it becomes almost impossible to determine whether their IEPs are succeeding.

I need my principal to communicate to the general education staff a level of expectation regarding the school's exceptional students. I feel that I am personally responsible for the educational success of every student in my school whether they are eligible for services under IDEA or not – personally, but not solely responsible. I need my principal to create an institutional environment that imparts that sense of responsibility to the general education staff at my school. The principal has to make sure that the general education teachers feel responsible for the educational success of exceptional students. Otherwise, those students will fail. My current principal is pretty good at that.

Those are the primary issue I see regarding a school administrator’s role in helping to create and implement IEPs.

Special Education Vocab: Least Restrictive Environment

The law says that your school system is obligated to educate a student with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (LRE) possible. Do you know what that MEANS?

What is LRE? The long list of technical terms in special education can be daunting to some parents. And since LRE is one of the most basic terms, I thought I'd take a little time here to make sure you could find a clear, concise definition...

The Least Restrictive Environment Coalition has one of the best explanations of the term least restrictive environment that I've come across on the Internet:

The Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) is defined as the educational setting where a child with disabilities can receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) designed to meet his or her education needs while being educated with peers without disabilities in the regular educational environment to the maximum extent appropriate.

Their page goes on to look at a number of related questions about LRE and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), LRE and Section 504, etc.

Least Restrictive Environment is really a pretty simple concept. Any child (disabled or not) should be given an appropriate education. A child with a disability should be educated with its non-disabled peers. Sometimes a child's disability means that what's appropriate for the disabled child is different from what's appropriate for the non-disabled child. And, sometimes, the differences between what's appropriate for the disabled child and what's appropriate for his or her non-disabled peers means that the child with a disability has to be taken out of the general education setting in order to receive an appropriate education. Among the easiest examples to understand, a child with orthopedic impairments who is bound to a wheel chair may receive physical therapy during some of the time each week that his non-disabled peers spend in the gym for physical education.

The point is this, if a child with a disability is going to be removed from the regular education environment where his non-disabled peers are being educated, there needs to be some rationale, some justification as to why it needs to happen. And that justification needs to be articulated individually for each segment of time where the child is being removed: a justification for removing the child from reading and/or language arts, a justification for removing the child from math, a justification for removing the child from physical education, etc.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that separate educations could not be equal education. The ruling's initial affect was to end racial segregation. But eventually the courts applied the ruling to disability rights. Thus Least Restrictive Environment is a civil rights issue for people with disabilities. In a nutshell, schools cannot segregate students with disabilities from the non-disabled peers except when the separation is essential for an appropriate education...