The Department of Education released a Special Populations School Reopening Toolkit, and our team has broken it down into manageable pieces.
Case Manager Section
Before your child or student in
your care goes back to school, the case manager should be contacting you to see
if you and the student need any support or assistance. If you have not heard
from your case manager, it would be good to contact them.
Please practice talking with
your child, or the child in your care to remind him/her of the rules in the
classroom and school. Also tell them they may be in a new classroom, with a new
teacher and have new classes.
If the student will be working with
a new teacher or other adults, see if you can have them meet the person, before
school starts.
It is good to have the student’s
(your child’s) schedule before school starts. Print the schedule and talk to
the student about any changes and what their schedule should look like.
Make sure your case manager and
the teacher know if anything has changed with (your child’s) the student’s
health, or if the child is taken any new medicine. If anything has changed with
your child, please make sure the child’s health plan is current.
It may be a good idea to talk to
your child about having friends at school and help him/her start a good
friendship, with someone at the school.
Things to Think About
·
Know who your child’s teacher will be.
·
Know your child’s class schedule, and the classes
he/she will be in
·
Know important dates, such as school orientation and
when school will start.
·
Know if your child will have a locker. If they will
have a locker, please tell your child the code for their lock and show them how
to use it.
·
Make sure to speak with your child’s teacher, case
manager, and people who come to your child’s IEP meetings and know the dates
for the next IEP meeting.
·
Please make sure you and the teacher are present.
The IEP meeting should be scheduled, completed, and updated as soon as
possible.
·
Make sure you and the case manager are noticing
progress or growth with your child, and if you have any concern, speak with the
case manager and teacher.
·
You, case manager, and teacher will talk about if
compensatory services are needed.
·
Once information for your child has been reviewed,
including regression information, speak with the case manager to make sure your
child is getting compensatory services.
Questions to Ask
·
What are the dates of my child’s next IEP meeting?
·
Who all is involved in my child’s IEP meeting?
·
What does my child need to be more successful this
school year?
·
How can my case manager and I work together to support
my child?
Assessment Specialist (Testing Specialist)
An assessment specialist is a person that gives
test to students to show levels of growth and development. Students are given many different kinds of
tests to check all areas of development.
Things to Think About
·
Assessment
Specialist must complete any evaluations, reevaluations and yearly meetings as
soon as possible.
·
Assessment
Specialist should keep a record of any communication that they have with
parents.
·
Assessment
Specialist must share test results with lead teachers and parents.
·
Assessment
Specialist should write down and keep a record of any time that the students’
evaluation has been delayed. A note should be sent to the parent as well.
·
Any
person that provides a service for your child should share an updated schedule
with the principals and teachers.
Questions to Answer
·
How many assessments or test are needed for a reevaluation?
·
What types of assessments or test are given?
·
During Covid-19, my child will be working online. How will
they be reevaluated (tested)?
Best
Practices/ Guidelines
Parents, the virus changed the school year. If you ask the school for your
child to say goodbye to a favorite teacher, and celebrate 2019-2020 school
year, it may help reduce your child's worry about moving into the new school
year.
If
your child has a hard time with changes, they may need more help getting ready
for the new school year.
Things
to Think About
•
Here is a Story Book for
"When I return to school?" https://www.socialstories4kids.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Returning-To-School-During-COVID-19.pdf
•
If your child is blind or has
trouble with vision, ask their teacher if your child can get into the school
building a day before school starts to get used to where everything is in the
building again.
•
Ask your child's teacher for a
daily schedule for your child before first day of school.
•
You may want to talk about what
your child did during the virus with your child's teacher.
Things
to think about when talking to your child’s teacher
•
Was my child sleeping the same
hours like on school days?
•
Were there any changes in my child’s
energy? More? Less?
•
Did my child follow a schedule
five days a week?
•
Were there any changes in
medicine?
•
Other than the virus, were there
any big changes at home?
•
Did my child use their
communication tool every day?
•
Did you helping your child paying
attention? Did you help your child with their feelings?
•
How much did my child talk with
friends?
Questions
to Ask
·
What will my child’s schedule
look like?
·
Can my child come to the school
early to school to get used to the layout?
·
What supports is your classroom
offering to help my child not be worried about returning to school?
Supporting Mental
Health and Behavior Concerns
When students return
to school there may be feelings that need to be talked about with the Team.
Parents and/or guardians are the best people to let teachers know if students
need help.
Things to consider
·
If
a student needs “Counseling” services, a meeting should be requested.
·
Know
your student’s teachers and talk with them when you need to.
·
Know
your students case manager.
·
Discuss
any emotional or behavior changes with your student’s team.
Questions to Ask:
·
If
a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) needs to be finished, will they be
completed soon?
·
If
my child stays in school, what would be the behavior plan?
·
If
my child is virtual, what would be the behavior plan?
Pre-referrals
As
we restart the school year, this time off may have affected our children. The
Tennessee Department of Education has come up with a checklist to help
highlight any concerns you may have.
Things
to consider:
Preschool
• Regressive behaviors – for example, noticing
more screaming, pushing, and biting.
• decreased speech - not saying words that
they once used.
• increased anxiety - the child might be extra
loving to a person or object; the child may be afraid or nervous of others.
Elementary
• Poor attention/concentration
• Does not want to go to school
• Short-tempered, little things bother them
that normally wouldn't.
• Clinginess – Unusually loving toward family
or objects such as toys, stuffed animals.
• Acts out through yelling, pushing, hitting,
and biting.
• Complains about trouble breathing, aching
muscles or bones, or other physical pain.
• Trouble sleeping because of fears and
anxiety that cause bad dreams.
• Does not want to play with peers; would
rather play alone, away from others.
Middle
and High School
• Has trouble sleeping or wants to sleep too
much. The same with food, skipping meals, or overeating.
• Nervousness; Handwringing, foot-tapping, or
nervous ticks.
• Becomes angry with peers, argues and acting
out more, pushing, shoving, hitting.
• Physical complaints; complaints about
stomach aches, headaches, muscle pains, etc.
• Delinquent behavior; skipping school,
talking back, disrespecting authority figures.
• Poor concentration
Questions
to ask:
·
How will
these behaviors be addressed?
·
Will my child
have support to address their needs?
·
What will
happen if my child acts out at school?
Referrals, Initial Evaluations, and Re-evaluations
At the beginning of school intervention plans
should be in place and started as soon as possible. Referrals should be
reviewed by a team of teachers. The teachers should study all of information
about the students in order to make a correct decision about a disability.
Things to Think About
·
Initial
Evaluations,
students that were being evaluated before school was closed will be able to
pick up where they left off. The timeline will be extended to make sure it is
correct.
·
Reevaluations, Case Managers should let parents know within 60
days after school has reopened, if your child needs to be re-evaluated. Parents
will be asked to share information about their child that will be used during
this process.
·
Parents may request an evaluation your request should be
taken care of swiftly.
Teachers that give test to evaluate students
should complete these evaluations and reevaluations and yearly meetings as soon
as possible.
Questions to Answer
·
Will my child need a reevaluation if I just want to make
changes to their IEP?
·
My child’s initial or first evaluation was not finished
before my school closed, what are my next steps?
Compensatory
Services
If a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) was not given to your child, but WAS
given to the general education students, your child can get services to make up
for the services that were missed. What should happen?
Things to think About
·
The IEP team will find out if the school did not give
the needed services to your child while other students were learning.
·
Your child's performance should be checked.
·
A plan that determine how much skills were lost because
of Covid-19 should be created.
·
The IEP team must write decision on a form called
Compensatory Service Plan.
·
The service plan must say how the choice was made.
·
The service plan must be kept it in the student’s
file.
·
Your child may receive remediation services if
regression because of lack of instruction instead of compensatory services if
your child were getting learning services
Questions to ask
·
What was my child performance before and after?
·
What services will my child receive?
·
How often will my child receive the services?
·
Where and when will my child receive the services?
·
Can I receive a copy of the decision on the form?
Supporting
English Learners (EL) Students in the Classroom
It
is important to help the teachers, the students, and parents to give the
students as much help as
possible
when going back to school. Letting them know when school plans to restart and
getting
them
back into that early morning routine will help begin the process by reducing
stress and fear
of
going back.
Things
to consider:
Questions
to ask:
•
Will my child
have extra time for transitions?
•
What will it
look like for my child on the bus?
•
What will the
classroom look like?
•
How will my
child work with their EL staff?
