New model aims to increase IEP students in general education classes

Benicia High School is in the process of changing its special education model to allow students with disabilities to have greater access to general education courses, according to a letter sent out by Dr. Carolyn Patton, the director of special services for the Benicia Unified School District.

Patton said a number of things influenced the district’s decision to move away from Benicia High’s current model, including the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District which stipulated that Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs) should give students higher standards in education. Another was the California Department of Education, which requires districts to increase the percentage of students who spend 80 percent of their day in the general education environment.

Patton said the district had also been looking into laws provided by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990.

“There’s always been an emphasis for kids to be in the general ed environment with correct support,” she said in an interview with the Herald. “Districts are supposed to start with that premise that if a student can be educated in general ed with support from the special education department, then that’s where they’re supposed to be.”

Currently, Benicia High’s special education department offers what Patton calls “parallel classes,” which offer the core subject areas of English, math, science and history at a style and pace geared toward students with IEPs. For physical education, arts and electives, students with disabilities would take them at the general education level with necessary support.

However, Patton said the model provided a number of challenges. One was the difficulty of hiring teachers with both single-subject and special education credentials, especially as more teachers in the special education department have been retiring.

“With the way credentialing is going in California and the shortage of teachers, we’re focusing on the expertise of our special ed teachers to be able to accommodate and, if necessary, modify curriculum for our kids with disabilities,” she said. “We want our general ed teachers, who have gone to school and have that singe-subject expertise, to be that expert and deliver the instruction.”

Patton said Benicia High’s administrative team and special education department had spent a few years looking at practices at other California high schools. One thing the school had been waiting on was the implementation of the new bell schedule, which contains a one-hour Access period, where all students are assigned a classroom for a period where they can meet with teachers, do homework and make up tests. With the new bell schedule set to go into effect for the 2017-18 school year, the district decided to move forward with the new model, where students would be assigned to their case managers during the Access period.

“They’ll be working with the case manager,” Patton said. “The case manager will be working with the general ed teachers to understand all the assignments to help a general ed teacher provide accommodations.”

Patton said case managers would then be able to work with their students to make sure they understand the assignments and help provide accommodations if they are unable to do them in the manner provided.

Another major shift, Patton noted, would be how case managers would be assigned to students. Currently, case managers have students at all grade levels on their caseloads for the entire duration of high school. Under the new model, case managers would have all students at a particular grade level and work with two general education teachers from each department at that grade level, e.g., a case manager with all ninth-graders on his or her caseload would work with two ninth-grade English teachers, two ninth-grade math teachers and two ninth-grade science teachers.

“Those kids will be clustered into those teachers’ classes, so they will specifically work on those accommodations with those teachers,” she said.

The model has also been in other institutions such as Dixon Unified School District and Freedom High School in Oakley.

Patton said specific accommodations could range from anything from a text-to-speech program to taking tests in another room. Support services will depend on a student’s IEP.

Patton also said that Benicia High will continue to offer resource classes in the areas of math, senior English, biology, U.S. government/U.S. economics and other courses based on students’ needs, although they may be phased out over time.

The school will continue to offer its Program for Effective Relations in Learning and its Functional Academic programs for students with emotional and cognitive disabilities respectively.
Additionally, the approval of a new course titled “Curriculum Support” is scheduled to be voted on at the June 15 school board meeting. This course would teach students with IEPs such skills as time management, self-advocacy, working on group projects, test-taking and note-taking.

“Whether kids need it or not will be determined by their IEP team, but it will be available for all students (with IEPs),” Patton said.

Patton said that curriculum support would take the place of directed studies, in which students utilize the period to do homework and discuss progress in other classes with their teachers.

“There’s no curriculum that’s actually taught in directed studies,” she said. “Kids come in and direct their own work.”

Curriculum support, however, will be more teacher-directed. As the new model aims to allow special education teachers to be aware of all assignments their students are working on at a particular grade level, curriculum support will allow time for teachers to pull groups of students taking the same English class, for example, aside to discuss a current assignment.

“They’re going to give them direction and help them through the assignment,” Patton said. “That’s the piece that adds a lot more support for our kids.”

“We’re purposely renaming it because we want to get away from directed studies being a time to just do what you want as a student, and to put a little more structure to it,” she added.

Patton hopes to have the model fully implemented in the 2018-19 school year. In the meantime, the district is planning to do a few things to get the community prepared, including informational meetings for parents and professional development training for general education teachers to discuss designing lesson plans with special education and English language learner students in mind. Patton said she will continue to monitor what the school board does regarding the new graduation requirements to see what options work for special education students.

Overall, Patton believes the new model will be beneficial for students with IEPs.

“I think they will be more ready to go on to a junior college and/or a four-year college out of high school,” she said. “I think they will gain a sense of higher expectations, both academically and behaviorally. I think they will see themselves more as regular ed students and be able to gain advocacy skills along the lines of ‘Even though I have a disability, these are the accommodations I need.’”

“They can say, ‘I can do anything my general ed counterpart can do. I just need to do it in this manner,’” she added. “If they can say that respectfully, they can move on to college and careers successfully instead of lowering their own expectations for themselves.”

Two parent informational meetings are scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m., Tuesday, June 20 and from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 21 in the District Board Room, located at 350 East K St. A third meeting is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 15, but a time and date have not been set. Additionally, the district will be sending home IEP addendums for parent signatures to give them the opportunity to discuss the changes with the administration over the summer.