Exceptional Student Services News |
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Upcoming Events and Announcements |
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UPCOMING EVENTS
11/3 - Virtual Help Lab from 3-4:30 - log on after your site’s dismissal time to receive support from an ESS Specialist. Can be anything ESS related!
11/8 - Para PD - Virtual
**IF you are wanting to renew your certification and are wanting to use Professional Development hours from last year please email Shara Rose for an email confirmation to HR.**
11/15- ESS Curriculum Day PS-8th
11/19- November Census Verification Due
12/17, No School for Preschool - PD will be held at Support Services for ALL Preschool Staff (Paras, Facilitators and ESS Teachers from 8:15-11:15AM) **
ADE offers Math Office Hours:
Grade-band meetings are provided for all math teachers, including special education teachers! These grade-band meetings will include opportunities for networking, problem solving, and sharing different implementation models. Office hours are one hour long with an additional 30 minutes at the end for a Q & A session. Participants can earn one hour of professional development credit for each session attended.
Elementary Math Office Hours (Grades K–5)
Monday, November 1, 2021 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. with Q & A from 4:30–5:00 p.m.
Middle School Math Office Hours (Grades 5–8)
Tuesday, November 2, 2021 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. with Q & A from 4:30–5:00 p.m.
High School Math Office Hours (Grades 8–12)
Thursday, November 4, 2021 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. with Q & A from 4:30–5:00 p.m.
Please email Rob Hilliker with any questions.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Remember to refer to the electronic forms as posted on the website versus old copied you may have printed or made a copy of. We are constantly updating! One example this month is our Purchase Request Form, found on the Guiding Documents and Special Forms page.
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ESS Website Updates
Please know that we are in the process of updating our ESS Website. We are working to streamline each section of the website so that it is easier to navigate. We are working to streamline into the following categories for each section:
- Forms
- Procedures
- Resources
Please know this is a work in progress- if you have any suggestions or questions please do not hesitate to contact your Coordinator or Lead. IF you are not able to find something on the website - or notice a link not working, please also contact your Coordinator or Lead
Case Managers-
Please remember to invite your regional nurse if the student has a health plan or medical concerns where they would potentially need medical accommodations or services.
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National School Psychology Week November 8/12 2021
During the week of November 8–12, 2021 schools throughout the country will celebrate National School Psychology Week to highlight the important work school psychologists do to help students thrive.
This year's theme is "Let’s Get in GEAR." (Grow, Engage, Advocate, Rise). The theme’s acronym provides a challenge to grow both personally and professionally. It encourages us to engage in best practices and advocate for children’s access to mental health and learning supports. To rise implies resilience and renewal despite the challenges of the past. This has a particular resonance this year as we work to help students, families, and school staff emerge from the challenges of the past year and a half. When we get in gear, we move together. When one gear moves, the gears connected to it move as well. When we move together there is a positive synergy that builds and becomes greater than any single effort. We grow together, we engage critical systems, and we advocate and rise together.
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School psychologists are particularly skilled at assisting students and staff in growing and working together while shifting into different gears to meet the demands of school and life.
Getting in GEAR together can help us set goals for growth, engage in action steps, advocate for needs, and raise our voices in discussions to create the connections necessary for students to develop critical academic and social emotional skills.
The week of November 8-12th and every week, we are thankful for our Dysart School Psychologists for helping to get us in gear!
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Youth Mental Health First Aide PD Opportunity
Did you know that Dysart’s Mental Health Task Force formalized a plan last year to meet the requirements for the Suicide Prevention legislation SB 1468. The legislation went into effect at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year and mandates that all school staff who interact with students in grades 6 through 12 must receive suicide prevention training at least once every three years. One of these programs that meets this requirement is the 8 hour course Youth Mental Health First Aide. If you are interested in attending this course there are various classes that are offered this school year in the district (12/3/21, 2/4/22, 4/1/22, 5/26/22). Please sign up in iLearn if interested. Of note, if a class has less than 10 participants it will be cancelled the week before and all participants that had signed up will be encouraged to attend the next class that is scheduled.
Staff Resource from ADE : Enjoy Being an Educator Again
You listen to others all day long. Who listens to you?
Educators are often focused on others' needs, but not always their own. It's OK to ask for help. Taking care of yourself is another way to take care of your students. https://www.azeducator.org/
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Evaluation, Instruction, and Strategy Resources |
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A great resource for: Establishing Classroom Routines, Functional and Transition Routines, Independent Work, Social Stories, and Task Analysis
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You Be The Judge!
We had lots of feedback that folks enjoyed the “You be the Judge” last month. Here is another scenario for you to be the judge!
Did the district's IEP address the needs of 9th-grader with anxiety disorder?
A ninth-grade student, who had been receiving gifted services, developed severe anxiety disorder, performance anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder during the eighth grade.
After her grades dropped significantly, the student was hospitalized and received psychiatric treatment. Later, when the student refused to exit the car to enter the school building, the district issued a permission form for evaluation for special education and approved and implemented full-time homebound instruction.
The student's anxiety increased and, after another partial hospitalization, her parents enrolled her in a small private school specializing in serving students with emotional or learning issues. After an evaluation, the district found the student eligible for special education under the category of emotional disturbance. The evaluation results appeared to indicate that the student was in no condition to return to her junior high school anytime in the near future.
Nonetheless, the district developed an IEP that called for the student's return to school. It included a goal with objectives for anxiety-reduced school attendance, weekly group and individual counseling, and placement in the district's junior high school's emotional support class for English (Honors), reading, math (Honors), science and social studies. The IEP also called for the development and implementation of a transition plan from the student's private school, but did not provide details.
The parents refused to sign the district's placement notice and requested a due process hearing. An impartial hearing officer decided the parents were entitled to tuition reimbursement for the latter half of the student's eighth grade and full reimbursement for her ninth-grade year. The district appealed.
CHOICES:
- No. The district's offer of placement in the junior high school, where the student's anxiety problems arose, was not appropriate. Its IEP was not an offer of an appropriate program, but a "plan for a plan" and did not address her unique needs.
- Yes. It is clear that the district would have addressed the student's needs in an IEP by defining appropriate goals and objectives if the parents had enrolled her in the junior high school.
- No. The district should have offered the student homebound services since she had such anxiety related to attending school
ANSWER:
What the hearing officer decided: In Abington Sch. Dist., 44 IDELR 289 (SEA PA 2005), the panel affirmed the IHO's order directing the district to pay for the student's tuition costs, finding that there were no equitable considerations to persuade them that the parents were not entitled to reimbursement for their private placement. The parents paid for evaluations and support services, and cooperated in all respects with district representatives. But even after the student had experienced rapid deterioration in response to her phobia of school, the district's proposed placement in the junior high school and statement that it would develop and implement a transition plan without defining its parameters "was not a reasonable calculation for meaningful benefit in light of the then-known scope and severity of the student's specific form of ED." The panel affirmed the IHO's order, but added a directive to the district and parents to promptly convene an IEP meeting to develop a transition plan for the student's placement in the district's high school. So the answer is 1.
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Recognition from Arizona Department of Education:
In October, The Dysart ESS Department received an email and recognition from ADE regarding the district’s efforts and participation in Post Secondary Outcomes. Please read below:
Dear Exceptional Student Services Team:
The ADE/ESS Secondary Transition Team is honored to announce Dysart Unified District as an All-Star for the 2021 Post School Outcomes (PSO) data collection season.
From June 1 to September 30, 6,245 former students who graduated, aged out, or dropped out during the 2019–2020 school year were surveyed. This year, we acknowledged 104 PEAs as All-Stars, whose staff went above and beyond to complete all surveys to meet or exceed Arizona’s statewide participation rate goal of 80% and engagement rate average of 71.8%.
Our team recognizes the dedication and hard work your PEA showed to support the post school success of Arizonan youths. Your PEA ended the season with a 92.3% participation rate and 75.1% engagement rate. In the upcoming weeks, your PEA will receive a Certificate of Appreciation for your achievement.
Thanks to PSO data collection efforts like yours, Arizona achieved a statewide 78.7% participation rate and 71.8% engagement rate.
Congratulations on your successful 2021 PSO season!
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Students giving back!
Valley Vista High School STC classes partnered with the city of Wittman to help make community safety bags to hand out during Trunk or Treat and at their big community event in November. It was a great opportunity to apply the work skills that students have been learning about in the classroom. Way to go Monsoon!
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ESS Paraprofessionals in the spotlight!
Dr. Kellis spoke with one of our extraordinary ESS paraprofessionals, Norma Hernandez, to learn more about why she loves to work in Dysart! Listen here
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Looking Through Another's Lens Recognition |
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