Resources for Special Education Leaders and Related Services Professionals

Many special educators agree that online speech therapy is a viable option, but are skeptical that it will work in their schools. This eBook dives into the myths surrounding the online delivery of speech therapy and arms you with the facts about an effective and efficient option for augmenting your programs. A must read for administrators, staff, and parents.

Online occupational therapy helps schools address therapist shortages, provides greater flexibility, decreases travel time, and reduces distractions and missed classroom time. But what does it look like? How does it work? And which students can be served online? Highly qualified and experienced occupational therapists answer these questions and many more in this ebook.

School districts around the country have responded to a nationwide wakeup call for greater access to behavioral interventions and mental health services for their students. Evidence shows that this commitment to multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) improves both student and school outcomes. However, this commitment comes with challenges including capacity, skyrocketing caseloads, an overwhelming demand for assessments, a lack of specialized expertise, and scheduling conflicts. Online access to highly qualified mental health professionals helps districts realize returns on their investment in mental health. Learn how.

Foundational studies show that kids who receive early childhood services achieve higher cognitive, language, and motor milestones when compared to delayed or at-risk peers who don’t receive these critical services. There just aren’t enough of these valuable clinicians to go around, and as a result many vulnerable young learners are at risk of falling behind — before they even start school. Teletherapy can overcome geographic and staffing obstacles by connecting children, parents, caregivers, and educators with convenient and flexible access to experienced professionals, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists (OTs), social workers, and psychologists. Learn how in this new ebook.

Ever rising rates of ASD combined with overburdened school systems and high state standards for language and communications skills have created an even greater sense of urgency for educators and families to find the best strategies to help students with autism reach their potential in the classroom and in their lives. This eBook provides practical advice from one of autism’s greatest advocates.

Instilling a sense of fun can help create a life-long love of reading. We know that early language and literacy skills form the foundation for success throughout school. But how can adults help those pre-readers develop a love of reading? In this eBook, Dr. Shari Robertson shares strategies for involving young children in reading, and making the experience stress free for kids and adults alike. Ideal for parents, teachers, early interventionists, and SLPs!

As the number of school psychologists shrinks, many districts struggle simply to meet compliance requirements—sometimes at the expense of providing broader services that help the general population of students and overall school climate. Relieving overburdened school psychologists from exclusively focusing on testing would give them more time to address student behavior, mental health, and school climate issues. Remotely delivered social-emotional and behavioral assessments—especially for students in virtual schools and in rural and remote locations—have become more prevalent over the last few years.

Despite decades of legislation and a focus on inclusion, there has only been a small increase in the percentage of students who spend 80% or more of their day in the general education classroom relative to the amount of work that has been done to improve this measure. What’s more, students of color are disproportionately represented in special education programs and have higher rates of suspension and expulsion than their white peers. This new paper based on a webinar by the same title by Dr. Frances Stetson explores issues of inclusion and cultural proficiency, addresses audience questions, and equips educators with a set of worksheets and resources to create culturally responsive classrooms and help struggling learners.

Expert tips from Julie Weatherly that can save your district a fortune Innocent mistakes and casual remarks can turn into a big legal headache for your district. In this paper, Julie Weatherly, Esq. provides must-read advice for everyone on your staff involved in developing and implementing IEPs. Practical advice, real-world cases and sample scenarios will help you and your team develop strategies to avoid common errors.

In 2015, more than 30,000 special education leaders, teachers, parents, and related services professionals registered for our professional development webinars. Throughout the year, we explored the need for change in education: change in the ways we manage classrooms, change in the ways we collaborate with families and our peers in general education, and change in the ways we support our students’ mental and emotional needs. After each webinar, we sat down with experts like Dr. Marty Burns, Dr. Barry Prizant, Dr. Frances Stetson, and more to discuss top questions from the audience. This new paper combines these conversations in one downloadable resource.

Though online therapy has become an established option that helps school districts around the country serve their students with special needs, many educators have questions about how online speech therapy, occupational therapy, and mental health services actually work. This new guide answers the questions we hear most frequently as we talk to districts about new ways to access high quality services, alleviate high caseloads, and improve transparency and efficiency. This is a great resource to share with your colleagues who are unfamiliar with online therapy.

Consultations, meetings, assessments, planning, reporting and myriad other tasks comprise a therapist’s workload. This white paper by education leaders and workload experts Barbara Moore, Ed.D, CCC-SLP, and Judy Rudebusch, Ed.D, CCC-SLP presents the case for taking a workload approach in managing resources that benefits staff – and student outcomes.

Over $100 billion is spent on special education annually, and various policies and mandates have increased this cost at the expense of investments in general education. Yet statistics continue to show discouraging results for students in special education. Based on a talk by Peter Bittel, co-founder and CEO of the Futures HealthCore, and Dr. Nicholas Young, Superintendent of South Hadley Public Schools, this white paper presents practical strategies for superintendents for staffing, service delivery and budgeting to create meaningful change in their districts.

The STOIC framework empowers general educators, special educators, and related services professionals with behavior improvement strategies for the whole school. STOIC can be effective with students of all ages.

Evaluations can cause confusion and consternation in any special education department. Not only is the sheer volume overwhelming, a number of myths persist that lead to additional work, legal issues, and communication problems with parents. This infographic separates the facts from the fiction about evaluations for you and your team.

As technology in the classroom has evolved over time (does anyone else remember waiting their turn to use the sole Commodore 64 in the back of the classroom?), so too have options for the least restrictive environment. Today, assistive technology, augmentative and alternative communication applications, and the online delivery of special education services equip students better than ever to work alongside their peers. Learn all about it in our newest infographic.

This infographic is a companion piece to our white paper by the same name. Julie Weatherly, Esq. describes some common dos and don’ts for your staff. This is a great resource for everyone on your school IEP teams.

Online therapy is becoming increasingly common across the country and districts look for new and flexible ways for their students to have access to qualified Speech-Language Pathologists, occupational therapists and school counselors, as well as to better balance caseloads for existing staff. This infographic answers common questions that educators, clinicians and parents have about this delivery option and all of its possibilities. Feel free to share with your colleagues!

A student’s emotional, social, and academic health are all interrelated — at the individual level, class level, and even the school level. This collection of writings by Dr. Lori Desautels focuses on neuroanatomy and the science behind strategies that help students —and those who work with them — to better understand themselves and their needs, and to prime the brain for learning.

Trying to modify behavior in the typical reactive mode has not proven effective. Students who need help the most benefit least from discipline as usual. The Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS) model does just that. Collaborative and Proactive Solutions are described by Dr. Ross Greene in his influential books The Explosive Child, Lost at School, and the recently released Lost and Found. This resource kit is a companion piece to Dr. Greene’s webinar with PresenceLearning “Lost and Found: What Works (and What Doesn’t) for Behaviorally Challenged Students”. It provides you and your staff with the materials you need to implement CPS, including the Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems (ALSUP), a problem solving plan, strategies for drilling down into problems with a student, a…

Resources to create culturally responsive classrooms and help struggling learners Helping at-risk students to achieve is a challenge for every educator. To truly help our most vulnerable student population, we often need to dig into our school culture and ask some tough questions. This resource kit includes materials from Dr. Stetson that assist educators in creating culturally responsive classrooms and provide strategies for working with struggling learners.