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. 

This last week in April has been a tough one for me.  I received one letter of retirement, attended a good bye party for an aide who resigned to join the military, learnt of the mysterious operation of one teacher, toured a public school that is going to take students back from the BOCES, because the school has the staff and facilities to do so;   had to deal with an employee issue that was murky from the beginning and only got more so as the week progressed.  I feel battered and bruised.  The last issue is the most disconcerting.  However, some things are predictable I am told so we are all more learned the next time around. 

The student issue regarding the ability of a school district to educate its own, is actually very exciting.  Four special education classrooms fully equipped with staff, materials and dependable outcomes in terms of student exit at the end of high school are already in place within the component school.  Our Hewes Center has students that the district can educate and trade us.  Essentially we at the Hewes Center can return 4-5 students whose exit will be an IEP diploma and receive in return 8 students with the potential to receive High School Regents Diplomas ( one of the highest general education diplomas besides Advanced Regents) within 4 years.  This will be a win-win for the BOCES because we shall be able to curb the high drop out rate being experienced by this school district, improve the passing grades for graduating cohorts, increase college enrollments but most importantly help students navigate the road of success who otherwise would not have – students classified LD, high spectrum autism, ED, OHI would all fall in this category. 

Why is the Hewes Center poised at this time for such a  ready challenge?  We have 9 teachers who are now Highly Qualified and Certified Grades 7-12, in the core academic content areas whose committement to teaching, learning and students can pull this off with ease.  We have been working on this program plan for 5 years and every year we have grown this plan by recruiting teachers who are qualified, staffing the program with the right amount of paraprofessional support and infusing the classrooms with needed educational technology. 

The above plan will take effort and passion.  The teachers and staff at the Center are ready for this challenge.  The BOCES is living its mission….. After the tour of the 4 classrooms, debriefing about how this plan might work, selling the idea to the local school in terms of student outcomes, program qualification, drop out strategies and prevention, our next step will be a tour of our programs by the High School CSE chair and a Guidance Counselor.  One teacher has already visited from that High School and is impressed with what he sees and motivated by his role in this plan.  The other three teachers in the district know that the plan will take place and are inquiring about the students who will be returning.  CSE meetings have to be set within the next 7 weeks to plan for the return of these students and well as for the transfer of others to the BOCES.   We are stoked!

Lucy Studd, founder/initiator of NAMI, Chautuaqua County ( National Association for the Mentally ILL) will be visiting the Hewes Center on April 30 and May 7, 2009 to present on the topics of Depression and Bi-Polar Disorder.  The April 30  presentation will be for Aides and Teacher Assistants.  The May 7 presentation will be for Teachers and all Related Service Professionals.  The thrust of Lucy’s presentation will be a general understanding of both illnesses and how they affect daily functioning, reasoning and responses of students/clients.  Our staff at the Hewes Center will be able to develop an understanding of the instructional challenges faced by students who are diagnosed with these illnesses in terms of stigma and societal expectations which are blurred when one is not on medication or receiving therapy. 

The Tiger’s Tale, student newspaper of the Hewes Center will feature an article on NAMI and Lucy Studd after the student editorial board interviews her on April 30.  The Student Council of the Hewes Center has already endorsed NAMI and are de facto members of NAMI, Chautauqua County. 

Three of our teachers at the Hewes Center have been signed up for the Layered Curriculum professional development opportunity offered at St. Bonaventure University by Dr. Kathy Nunley.  They are Laurie Wilcox, Valorie DeLeon and Jamie Monaco. 

All these teachers are special education certified grades 7-12 and are attending a training workshop focussed on the knowledge that all educational programs are special.

There a three layers in this method, A, B and C.  A and B focus on higher thinking skills, problem solving, analysis etc.  C deals with understanding, information gathering and retention at the lower levels of student learning.  The layered curriculum was initially pioneered in high school classrooms but is adaptable to elementary and middle school as well.   

Go to her web site for many free instructional resources.