Questions to ask?

Have I reached out to my child’s teacher?

Has the teacher brought my child to the Student Support Team?

Have I reached out to my child’s guidance counselor or assistant principal?

Has my child been recommended for tiered intervention supports?

 Student Support Team

When students are suspected to have a disability, they are discussed and supported through the pre-referral team process.  Students can be referred to the student support team by teachers, guidance counselors, or parents in order to discuss a concern a person has with the student.  A team is established at each building and may include an administrator, school psychologist, general education teacher, and a guidance counselor.  Additional staff are often invited to the meeting depending on the concern brought forth to the team.  These staff includes a reading specialist, ELL teacher, OT, PT or S/L Pathologist.  The student's academic history is presented along with their current level of performance in school, and relevant background information.  The team meets in order to review the information that has been gathered around the student's progress and discuss tiered interventions that have been attempted by the teacher (s).  Goals are set regarding intended outcomes for progress.  Steps are outlined in order to meet the set-forth goals.  Steps are individualized and may include accommodations, in-class support, extra help after school, online interventions, observations by additional staff, behavioral support plans, Math/ELA tutoring services or an intervention that will be implemented and monitored.  The parent of the student is contacted prior to the meeting in order to discuss information regarding their academic history and concerns that have been raised.  The team then sets a follow-up meeting, typically 6-8 weeks later to discuss the student’s response to the steps/interventions.   Follow up from this meeting includes continued monitoring, additional steps/interventions or a referral to special education testing. 

Assessments are carried out in areas of suspected disability.  Depending on the areas of suspected disability that a student presents with, various evaluations could be completed.  Psychological evaluations are carried out by school psychologists throughout the district.  These assessments include evaluations in the areas of attention, executive functioning, cognitive abilities, social-emotional functioning, visual-spatial skills, social abilities, memory, and functional behavior.  Achievement or academic evaluations are completed by special education staff members.  Special educators complete assessments in the areas of math, reading, writing, and comprehension.  Speech and language evaluations include articulation, expressive and receptive language, and a student’s ability to articulate their thoughts.  Additional assessments may be proposed to evaluate visual and fine motor, gross motor, vision, and need for assistive technology to be completed by individual specialists in these areas.