leadership in high schools

Approximately 78 students at the Hewes Center indicate need for mental health services this is out of a total population of about 110 students.  This number is astronomical by any school standard.  However given the fact that these students have “earned” their way out of their local public school – discipline referrals, failing academics, suspensions, absenteeism, truancy etc, this is not unusual for a BOCES alternative and special education setting. 

In light of the above need, we at the Hewes Center have solicited the help of the University of Buffalo, School of Social Work which has recommended two interns to our school program next year.  The recommendation requires that we in the BOCES interview the 2 candidates, provide a BOCES cooperative social worker for them and oversee a body of work that will allow us to chart how we find success for this student population.  Our two interviewing interns will be Jonathan Livengood and Kim Cofer.  Our cooperative social worker from within our BOCES who will oversee the work of these interns directly because of certification requirements is Yvonne Bisel.   Interviews will begin in early June. 

Today our center was visted by a team of educators from the Alleghany Limestone School district in the Cattaraugus County of Western New York.  This visit was prompted by an up coming Committe on Special Education meeting that has been called next week to seek placement for a 10th grade autistic male student. 

The essential question posed by the educational team was:

How does an educational team document via the IEP the social skills training that is mandatory for all autistic students without sacrificing academic time on task, through counselling and speech service pull outs particularly when the students who are at the higher end of the spectrum disorder show no indication of needing these services, but parents insist that the law demands it?

Here are some of the answers provided by the Hewes Special Education Team:

Social skills are embedded in the curriculum and are addressed throughout the day in every subject.

Social skills are practiced and taught through mandated counselling and speech services either as a push-in or a pull out.  Documentation for this service can be provided by using applied behavior analysis produced by the classroom teachers, speech teachers and counselors.  This data should then be reflected in all segments of the IEP in particular – the PLEP statement, the social, physical and management sections of the IEP;  in the area of needs and accommodations. 

For autistic students, 5 times a week of speech is mandatory but this is really for the severe student.  In recognition of the fact that autism is now considered a spectrum disorder education law has not changed to accommodate Regents Diploma Bound high school students who indicate no specific need for pragmatic speech development or social skills training.  In this scenario, the law has not caught up with what teachers observe in the classroom particularly when examining students with autism and asperger’s syndrome.  Until that time comes educators have to practice policies that are legally defensible and show full appreciation for the needs of autistic students. 

Some school districts seek a waiver from parents indicating that they have understood that in a given school day, removing the students five times a week from the classroom to provide a related service like speech/counselling/social skills training has the affect of delaying high school graduation for these students, so that instead of taking 4 years these students may take 5 or more because in the school day, there just isn’t enough time to get all the academics programmed in a school year. 

The above team visit has flavored the way we at the HewesCenter view our work in terms of documenting our educational practices with Special needs students.