***Education News Parents Can Use.***

**Transcript from the November 15, 2005 edition of *Education News
Parents Can Use* (www.connectlive.com/events/ednews/).**

This show features Assistant Secretary John H. Hager and Deputy
Assistant Secretary Troy R. Justesen from the Office of Special
Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), as well as interviews
with educators, community leaders, parents and a student.

Please stand by.

\>\> We\'ve got large challenges here in America.

No greater challenge than to make sure every child receives a
first-class education in America.

\>\> Hello, everyone, welcome to the November edition of \"Education
News Parents Can Use.\"

This month, we observe a very important milestone in education, the 30th
anniversary of the law now known as the *Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act*, or IDEA

We have seen much progress in the last three decades.

Thanks to IDEA, the majority of American children with disabilities are
now being educated in their neighborhood schools and in regular
classrooms alongside their non-disabled peers.

High school graduation rates and employment rates among youth with
disabilities have increased dramatically.

And post-secondary enrollments among people with disabilities continue
to rise.

Recently, with the passage of the \"No Child Left Behind\" act, a new
era in special education has begun, one that doesn\'t seek to meet
minimum requirements, but rather embraces increased academic achievement
and real results for every child, including those with disabilities.

For the first time in our nation\'s history, states are required to
establish high standards in reading and mathematics for students with
disabilities, and districts are being held accountable for reaching
annual yearly progress goals for all the students they serve.

As Secretary of Education Margaret spellings has said, \"No child left
behind and the new IDEA have not only removed the final barrier
separating special education from general education, they have put the
needs of students with disabilities front and center.

Special education is no longer a peripheral issue.

It\'s central to the success of any school.\"

Tonight, we will discuss how these two landmark education laws have made
schools stronger for all children, students with disabilities, and
regular-education students, and we\'ll explore how families can ensure
the best quality education for their children.

So let\'s get started.

Our first guest is John Hager, the assistant secretary for special
education and rehabilitative services.

Mr. Hager is the former lieutenant governor of Virginia and also served
as that state\'s director of homeland security.

Welcome, John.

\>\> Thank you.

\>\> Looking back over the last 30 years since the passage of IDEA, what
kinds of changes have you seen that have benefited students with
disabilities and helped ensure their access to what the law calls a
\"free appropriate public education.\"

\>\> We\'ve seen tremendous changes over the 30-year span.

Before IDEA, many children were denied access to education and to the
opportunities to learn.

And today, through IDEA, we have some 200,000 students being served by
early intervention services, infants and toddlers, and over 6.5 million
students served through special education throughout the country.

Originally, it was about physical access to the educational system.

And now it\'s more about curricula and instructional access, leading to
opportunities for excellence for our students.

It\'s very exciting to see the developments that have happened over the
years and to take into account the fact that now our students are part
of the general education classroom.

They\'re no longer in separate rooms, in separate buildings, but
they\'re part of the mainstream instruction.

And so, the whole IDEA process leading to excellence for our students
has come a long way.

\>\> I want to take a moment to invite the audience at home to join in
our conversation.

If you have a question or comment, please call us at 1-888-493-9382.

Back to you, John.

Many in the disability community have hailed the *No Child Left Behind*
act because it holds states and districts accountable for helping all
students, including students with disabilities, to meet high standards
of achievement.

How is this law different in its approach for students with
disabilities?

\>\> That\'s the beauty in the law.

It\'s not really different.

It treats all students the same.

Of course, NCLB is about accountability for schools and accountability
for students, and it takes the special education students and
disaggregating the data, so we can also see how those special education
students are performing, so states can no longer hide the performance of
special education.

It\'s part of the accountability process.

That\'s the beauty of NCLB, because it shines that bright light on
special education in a way that\'s allowed us to be constructive about
the progress and the high expectations and the educational achievement
of students with disabilities.

\>\> Last year\'s reauthorization of IDEA helped to further align the
intent of this legislation with the key goals of *No Child Left Behind*.

How will these changes help further the goal of establishing a
world-class education for students with disabilities?

\>\> It brought IDEA in line with NCLB.

In fact, NCLB is mentioned 23 times in the law.

It\'s that alignment and compatibility that brought the two laws
together that\'s the big change in IDEA

We now, as I say, have the accountability that we need under NCLB, but
at the same time, IDEA allows us to achieve the general education
standards, along with high expectations and the assessment process, with
the accommodations and services that each individual special education
student needs under IDEA.

\>\> The new IDEA extends the \"highly qualified teacher\" regulations
to include special education teachers and paraprofessionals who work in
the classroom.

How will this benefit students with disabilities?

\>\> H.Q.T., highly qualified teachers, for teachers and
paraprofessionals is the same as it is under NCLB, another alignment.

This is what students need, it\'s what parents expect.

That their children are taught by teachers who have the skills and the
training, particularly with scientifically based standards used today in
our instruction curricula, so that they know how to work with special
education students and those students benefit from having this
highly-qualified nature of the teachers teaching the core academic
subjects.

\>\> Earlier this spring, secretary spellings announced the details of a
new *No Child Left Behind* policy designed to help states better assist
students with disabilities, yet ensure they have the flexibility needed
to raise student achievement.

Can you tell us more about the policy and why it is good news for
parents of students with disabilities?

\>\> The secretary\'s flexibility initiative is designed to focus on the
needs of each individual group of special education students.

There\'s a 1% group of the most severely cognitively disabled, who have
a set of regulations that governs their needs and progress with
alternate achievement standards and tests.

There is a 2% group that\'s been announced of students who don\'t learn
at quite the same pace, but who can achieve grade-level standards.

We\'re working on the regulations for that group.

Then the rest, some 70%, 7% of all students, can be integrated into the
general education classroom.

We\'re focusing on the specific needs of these individual students so
that they can have their own high expectations and so that the
instruction provided to these students can be done in a way that\'s
tailored specifically to them.

\>\> OK, well, we\'re out of time for this segment.

Thank you so much for being a part of tonight\'s discussions, and good
luck on the 30th anniversary celebration of IDEA later this month.

To learn more about the topics discussed tonight, including the recently
reauthorized IDEA legislation, visit the department\'s Web site at
www.ed.gov.

And, as always, if you have any questions, call us at 1-800-usa-learn,
or e-mail your question to nochildleftbehind@ed.gov.

Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to visit public school 29 in
Yonkers, New York.

While it serves a large disadvantaged and ethnically diverse student
population, this 2005 *No Child Left Behind* blue ribbon school award
winner is ensuring that all students, regardless of race, economic
stature, or disability, are given the tools they need to excel.

Let\'s take a look.

\>\> Excellence and equity, that is the theme and focus of public school
29 in Yonkers, New York.

With an incredibly diverse student population, including almost 1/3 of
its students qualifying for special education, and many of them
autistic, P.S. 29 has maintained a commitment to high expectations for
all of its students.

That commitment, and a performance record to back it up, helped to make
it a *No Child Left Behind* blue ribbon school.

\>\> We believe that every person should be challenged to their optimal
level of achievement, and we really believe that we should raise the bar
continuously as children learn and achieve.

We do not minimize efforts for any child, and we do not lower standards.

\>\> In addition to high expectations for all, P.S. 29\'s success rests
on accountability measured by testing all of its students, including
those with special needs, and on a culture of inclusion that recognizes
each child\'s uniqueness and value.

\>\> Every human being on this earth has some area of their lives that
they need support with, that need enhancement, need encouragement with.

Now, one of the ways we do that at school 29, encouraging achievement
for our special children, is having them recognize that not only are
they special, but others around them are special as well, and that each
of us needs support to encourage and enhance our growth.

\>\> The school has built a new addition to help provide services to its
special needs students.

But in both academic classes and extracurricular activities, disabled
and able-bodied students work side-by-side and Learn from one another as
well as their teachers.

And every student has an individual academic instructional services
plan, designed by a faculty team to ensure that each child has the tools
he or she needs to succeed.

\>\> The academic instructional plan helps me to assess where my
students are when they come in at the beginning of the year to see who
can be mainstreamed, Who can\'t, to see where I\'m going to start them,
what grade level, and what kinds of curriculum they\'ll use in the
classroom.

\>\> The teaching staff at P.S. 29 is another key component to its
success with all students.

All of the teachers have masters degrees, some are pursuing doctoral
studies, and there is a rigorous, ongoing program of professional staff
development.

\>\> As a regular ed teacher, our staff development has been absolutely
wonderful.

Our autistic teachers share with us every week.

We meet once a week on Wednesday mornings.

Our O.T.P.C. staff, even our psychologists speak to us. We have
congruence meetings, we hear all about autistic children, what autism
is, and how we can meet the needs of these special-needs children.

\>\> Finally, even the majority of P.S. 29\'s disabled students
participate in the standardized testing process to measure their
progress and success.

Most of them are given minimal or no test modifications.

\>\> These children want, more than anything, to be like everyone else.

And, by holding them to these high standards, they feel they are like
everybody else.

And, it\'s hard for them, but they work twice as hard.

The success rate has been quite high with them, and they are just
thrilled to death.

\>\> P.S. 29 in Yonkers is clear Proof that the principles of *No Child
Left Behind* can work with a very diverse student body, that has an
unusually large percentage of children with special needs.

Overall, the school\'s test scores in math and reading are significantly
higher than those in schools with similar demographics.

But best of all, the performance gap between students with special needs
and all the others is shrinking every year.

\>\> My son is able to do math on his level.

He\'s two classes a day mainstream, his reading, his vocabulary, his
sentences, his ability to interact with other Kids which was a far cry
when he first started here.

\>\> Many of these children will go on and will accomplish and will have
jobs and will have careers.

People will say, \"Look at what happened, look at what this child did.\"

\>\> To help us learn more about how schools, parents, and communities
are working together to ensure that students with disabilities meet high
standards and achieve academic and career success, we have four special
guests with us tonight.

I\'d like to introduce them to you now.

Marilyn Walder is the principal of P.S. 29 elementary school in Yonkers,
New York, the school profiled in the video we just watched.

Joe Giannantonio \-- \"Joe G.\" to his students \-- is a special
education teacher at P.S. 29 who works especially with students
classified as autistic.

Rachel Quenemoen is the parent and technical assistance team leader for
the national center on educational outcomes.

Rachel has over 25 years of experience as an educational sociologist and
herself is the parent of a child with special needs.

And Lee Alderman, who beat the odds to become valedictorian of his 2001
high school graduating class at Cardozo high school in Washington, D.C.,
despite his mild form of autism.

He recently received his bachelor\'s degree from St.

Mary\'s college and is working in the medical field.

Welcome to all of you.

Marilyn, this year 100% \-- 100% of your fourth graders tested
\"proficient\" in math and reading, and your school was recently honored
by the U.S. Department of Education with a *No Child Left Behind* blue
ribbon award.

How do you achieve academic success for all of your students while also
meeting the needs of such a large special education population?

\>\> We do it as a village.

We\'re in the village on behalf of each and every child.

We build first based on an academic instructional program.

Every child in the school has a profile where we focus specifically on
that child and that child\'s needs.

Of course, we look at several variables.

We look at socioeconomic situation, gender, all these things come into
play, especially academic levels, where they are when they enter, and we
do a lot of assessments initially.

\>\> What are your biggest challenges?

And how have the *No Child Left Behind* act and IDEA helped you to
overcome these challenges?

\>\> One of our biggest challenges is time.

Time is very essential.

And you have to be able to give all of our staff is involved in this
effort in terms of giving of themselves fully.

IDEA has assisted us, along with *No Child Left Behind*, because it\'s
streamlined the process.

Many of the specifics they\'ve shared with us on the expectations, we
certainly have those high expectations.

We place those on paper.

There are many specifics they have required of us as a school, as a
nation, and that has helped us tremendously.

\>\> One of your teachers told us that the inclusion of children with
disabilities \"puts general education children at an advantage.\"

What does she mean?

How does mainstreaming special education students into general education
classrooms benefit all children?

\>\> To begin, we are involved with a global society.

Our children must be prepared to compete, not only here in America, but
across the world, with many differing people from many different
nations.

So, it\'s very important to recognize that a school must be a microcosm
of the world and students learn to negotiate and work that world
successfully through experience, through a reality.

Our children are involved, our special education children, are involved
in every aspect of schooling.

The physical plant is designed with every child in mind, so severing
accessible to every child.

We build a culture where everyone is accepted, everyone is a member, and
respected as a vibrant member who brings something to the table.

\>\> 1/3 of your student body requires some form of special education.

How do you safeguard against over-identifying students as needing
special education?

\>\> What we do to begin we do what we call a spurt.

We look at every child with the A.I.S. form.

And, we take into account where they\'ve come from, what they bring to
the table.

We meet as a team and discuss that child, that child\'s needs, support
the family\'s needs, parents are involved in that process.

We look at that.

And, we work with them on \-- we make sure we\'re educating the whole
child, developmentally.

That\'s how we do that.

\>\> As principal, what steps have you taken to encourage the parents of
special education students to be involved in their children\'s
education?

And, why is that so important?

\>\> It\'s vital.

I always say the p in partnership belongs in parents, in terms of being
a part.

We need that, because the parents go home in the evenings and follow
through as educators as well on a day-to-day basis.

We bring parents in for parent meetings, P.T.A. meetings, but we have
special meetings for our special ed parent, monthly.

Then we also team each, both regular ed and special education parents,
meet to recognize they have many similarities, many similarity, and they
support each other.

We are there as a part of that process, encouraging, enhancing, offering
epic program, every parent involved with children, many programs that
support the needs of our children.

\>\> OK, thank you so much.

We have a telephone call, but the person that the question is being
asked of as not yet been introduced.

The person that\'s going to answer the question is Troy Justesen, the
deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education And
Rehabilitation Services and director of special education programs.

Troy, thanks for being with us.

Caller, please go ahead with your question.

Caller: yes.

I wasn\'t aware I was on.

With yesterday\'s decision by the Supreme Court that the impetus for
burden of proof to say that I.E.P. wasn\'t done properly and a child
with a disability wasn\'t receiving the proper education, they
individually require was put on parents in due process hearings as
opposed to the school district.

Now we know that people, parents with a child with developmental
disability or a disability, often times are tapped out, resource-wise,
and the school districts are basically large businesses that can afford
and do in fact have very high-powered attorneys.

How that would be something equitable and fair to these families.

\>\> Thank you so much for your question.

Troy?

\>\> That\'s a very good question.

I want to take a step back before we talk about the Supreme Court
decision, which is Schafer versus Weiss and the opinion was offered by
the court yesterday.

It was a majority court opinion and it\'s consistent with long-standing
civil action practice.

That is, whichever party brings the case, Doris, must have the burden of
proving their case in order to make an action effective and one that the
party would prevail on.

But, these are very rare cases.

And, we hope through our work at the Department of Education, to work
more closely with state agencies and local schools to eliminate the
confrontational and litigious nature that some school districts have
felt and some parents have felt throughout the country.

That\'s our work and part of our work here tonight, to send that
message, that we want these incidents to be very few and very rare.

\>\> OK, thank you so much, Troy.

Caller, thank you so much for your call.

Let me come back now to Joe G., who is a special education teacher at
P.S. 29.

As an experienced special education teachers, tell us how students with
special education needs can be integrated into classroom activities with
regular education students.

\>\> One practice I find helps, when I receive a new student to the
class room, I look over his I.E.P., look at the special alert, see if
there\'s any medical issues, allergies, things of that nature, medical
issues, and then I will put the rest of it aside.

I\'ll put it on the side for a little while, I want to get to know this
child, find out his unique abilities, hi likes or dislike, which way I
can reach him the best.

I\'ll find the strength, because all of us have our strengths.

I\'ll utilize that strength.

Aisle pair \-- I\'ll pair him with other people in the classroom who can
help him out in one area, while he can help in another area.

\>\> That works well?

\>\> It works very well, I think.

\>\> Tell us about your yearlong project, \"Trout in the classroom.\"

How do you balance hands-on projects like this with the important need
to assess special education students and ensure that they are meeting
rigorous state standards in core subjects like math, science, and
reading?

\>\> I don\'t feel there\'s a need to balance it.

I think the \"Trout in a classroom\" acts as a tool for achieving the
standards.

I utilize the program in math, in science, creative writing, there\'s so
many avenues that we go through that you can take it.

\>\> Explain it to me again, trout in the classroom, sounds like a big
fish to me.

\>\> It\'s a program where we take 200 brown trout eggs and we nurture
them in the classroom from about mid October until end of May or June,
at which point we release them back into the New York state watershed
and during that time, our interaction with the tank and everything helps
us \-- enables us to learn about water cycle, water parameters, why
it\'s important to keep water clean, and we take it in very different
avenues.

We\'ve used it as a creative writing exercise, as a computer training
activity; there are very many ways that we can use it in order to
actually be a tool.

\>\> But, it\'s definitely hands-on?

\>\> It\'s hand-on, definitely.

\>\> What are your biggest challenges teaching autistic and other
special education students, and how do you meet these challenges?

\>\> One of the biggest challenges is, like I said, I look for an
individual strength in all the students.

In my class of, right now, I have seven students; there may be four
different reading groups or three different math groups, so the
challenge is to create a classroom atmosphere where all those needs can
be met.

You need a lot of it is classroom management.

I like to use the term if I\'m not at my full potential one day,
students will learn by accident.

I have a lot of things there; I keep a lot of things going on at once.

That way I can hit every child in some certain manner every day.

That\'s how I try to do it.

\>\> Thanks so much Joe.

Rachel, let me turn to you.

You have a daughter who was born the year the IDEA or the education for
all handicapped children law was enacted, and you relied on that law to
help make a difference for her throughout her schooling.

Very briefly, tell us your story.

\>\> With all the celebrations this year and the ones coming up, I
think, in the next month or so in IDEA, it\'s hard not to rejoice in the
30th birthday of our oldest daughter who was born with Downs Syndrome 30
years ago.

It\'s, the law was a wonderful event to happen coinciding with her
birth.

We had seen what was happening prior to that and didn\'t want that for
our child.

But, perhaps the more important thing was we had a mentor in the shape
of a principal in an elementary school who saw every child who came
through his door as a learner.

Right after I got home from the hospital, he called and said,
congratulations on the birth of your baby.

I think we can show what high expectations and hard work can do for a
child.

He meant hard work for us, hard work for his staff, hard work for Alma,
and hard work for himself.

He was that great instructional leader who got every kid to the content.

\>\> And it all paid off.

\>\> It paid off.

\>\> Your daughter did an amazing job of transitioning from school into
the world of work, where she lives almost completely independently.

Correct?

\>\> She lives with some community supports, yes.

She does very well.

\>\> From your experiences, tell us what an effective transition program
should look like.

\>\> Transition starts when you come home from the hospital or when
you\'re first identified, but it has a lot to do with what we do for all
our children.

Early on, we built on her independence, the support she was getting in
school, so her understanding of the way the world works, her ability to
communicate effectively, to grow up with her peers, with the same
experiences to go through that project-based learning they were talking
about, that\'s all part of transition.

\>\> Your work involves assessment and accountability issues related to
students with disabilities.

Tell us a little more about it and what your research has found
regarding student achievement.

\>\> The National Center For Education Outcomes has been going on for
years now.

Early on, the founders emphasized you treasure what you measure and
measure what you treasure.

We were part of the push to make sure we knew how all children were
doing in the challenging content we expected of them.

And the really good news is that we have good data now and we\'ve been
able to shift to saying instead, well, what is happening, when in fact
we do see the 100% proficiency schools like we know the Yonkers school
has been experiencing.

What research thus far is showing us is that high expectations, like
that principal long ago talked about, and a thoughtful mapping of the
curriculum so every child is getting good instruction in the content
expected for every child are key.

That isn\'t terribly surprising, but the wonderful thing is now we have
data that shows that that works.

\>\> Lee, let me ask you a question.

You faced learning challenges, but you were able to succeed in school,
you were valedictorian of the graduating class of 2001 at Cardozo senior
high school here in Washington, D.C., what was the secret of your
success?

\>\> A lot of teachers motivated me and told me if I tried hard, I could
reach my potential and achieve a lot of things, if I worked at it and
never gave up.

\>\> And you believed them?

\>\> Yes, to a certain extent.

\>\> Well the proof is in the pudding.

What were some of your most difficult challenges in school and how did
you overcome the obstacles and find success?

\>\> One of the biggest challenges was getting used to the environment,
both academic and social.

The academic was dealing with the harder work and more rigorous classes.

The social environment involved avoiding the negative impulses of
dealing with public schools, and concentrating mainly on my work and not
going out with the crowd and doing all kinds of other things.

\>\> Now from your viewpoint, how does bringing students with
disabilities and general education students into one classroom, what we
call mainstreaming, how does that work out?

\>\> It allows the students to get used to diverse environments while
still getting the special needs that he or she needs.

\>\> You also graduated recently from St. Mary\'s College, and you\'re
now working in the medical field.

Tell us about what you are doing now and about any future plans you have
to continue your education.

\>\> Right now, I\'m volunteering at Washington Hospital Center in
Washington, D.C., where I do a number of experiments including
extracting D.N.A. from blood.

And, currently, I\'m enrolled in a graduate study program at Morgan
State University in Baltimore, Maryland and plan to get my masters in
chemistry.

\>\> All right.

Congratulations to you, lee, keep up the good work.

\>\> Thank you.

\>\> Lee, Marilyn, Rachel, and Joe, we are out of time for this segment.

We appreciate you joining us this evening and for sharing such valuable
information.

Earlier this month, we had the opportunity to visit Oak Park Elementary
in Overland Park, Kansas, to see how this small, suburban school on the
outskirts of Kansas City is using a system called \"positive behavioral
supports\" as well as a focused approach to reading to help all
students, including those with special needs, find success.

Let\'s watch.

\>\> Among its many innovations, the *No Child Left Behind* act, for the
first time, includes students with special needs in requirements for
testing, reporting, and progress accountability.

Research has shown that many students referred for special education
really just lack reading skills, the gateway to learning all else.

This can cause behavior problems, which, by themselves, get in the way
of learning and in the end often result in students being misdiagnosed
or misclassified.

Oak Park Elementary School in Overland Park, Kansas, has taken steps to
end that vicious cycle by making improved behavior a school-wide
objective, by strong reading instruction, and by working to mainstream
as many of their special education students as possible.

First, the school adopted a program called positive behavioral support,
or P.B.S.

\>\> We think that it\'s important that all expectations across the
school are the same from the time they reach kindergarten until they
reach sixth grade.

We felt the positive behave system was the way to do that, to make sure
all the rules are the same, so the kids know that from the time they
come in until the time they leave, the rules are not going to change,
and this is the way it will be for every student and staff member.

\>\> P.B.S. stresses positive rewards for good behavior rather than
punishment for bad behavior.

There is a school-wide P.B.S. team to implement it, and the entire
curriculum contains elements that stress the way desired behavior really
works for students while problem behavior really doesn\'t.

\>\> Our five expectations for the Oak Park students are to be
cooperative, be peaceful, be responsible, be respectful, and be safe.

Before a teacher would start a reading game or reading theater or any
type of activity where there is a lot of movement, we would remind the
students of our five expectations, like they need to be peaceful, they
need to use their inside voice.

They need to respect the classrooms around, their right to learn, we
have no right to interfere with that, that they need to be cooperative
in their groups, and that they need to be responsible for their part of
the team or part of the group.

\>\> I think that all kids like to behave and like to be good.

Sometimes it just takes longer for others to get the hang of that.

But, once they notice that other kids are being rewarded, they will stop
the behavior that they\'re doing and they will often straighten up and
think, well, if I do this, I will get to do something special, because
I\'ve been following the directions.

\>\> The second element in Oak Park\'s program to improve the education
and performance of all its students is a strong emphasis on effective
reading instruction.

\>\> At Oak Park, we use a variety of programs and these programs may
include small intervention programs such as k pals or early
interventions in reading.

We use teachers, support staff, as well as parent volunteers.

\>\> Finally, Oak Park makes every effort to mainstream as many special
education students as possible, using a system of intensive academic
supports to help them make the transition to the traditional classroom
environment.

\>\> When they are in the mainstream of school, it\'s for their
self-esteem.

They are part of that community, they are supported by that community,
they feel a part of the classroom, they participate in the general ed
curriculum, they participate in the same standards that everyone else
does, same curriculum, because they have the same assessments that
everyone else does.

\>\> As we have mainstreamed over the years, students are staying in the
classroom more and more.

They\'re feeling more success because they\'re interacting with their
general education peers.

They\'re working in small groups with these peers.

This is a real benefit.

\>\> Oak Park\'s emphasis on positive behavior supports, effective
reading instruction, and mainstreaming seems to be paying off.

Referrals for special education are down, while reading scores for
special education students are way up.

And, its academic outcomes and attendance rates for all students meet or
exceed the averages for the district and the state.

\>\> Oak Park elementary has set up the best environment and the best
support that I could ever ask for in making my son a better person for
our society and to learn to the best of his ability.

\>\> For tonight\'s last segment, we have three guests who are working
to help parents navigate the special education system and access the
resources and services their children need to be successful.

Let me introduce them to you now.

Troy Justesen is the deputy assistant secretary of the Department of
Education\'s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Troy is also the acting director of its Office of Special Education
Programs.

Welcome back.

\>\> Thank you.

\>\> Jennifer Gill is the principal of Oak Park Elementary in Overland
Park, Kansas, and one of the architects of its highly successful
positive behavioral supports program.

And, Connie Hawkins is the executive director of the Exceptional
Children\'s Assistance Center in Davidson, North Carolina.

Welcome to you all.

Thank you so much.

Troy, let\'s start with you.

How are *No Child Left Behind* and the recently reauthorized IDEA
legislation working in tandem to close the achievement gap for students
with disabilities?

\>\> To recap what John Hager said in the opening segment of tonight\'s
discussion, IDEA and the NCLB are two statutes not developed in
isolation.

Both Congress and the administration recognized we have a great
opportunity to mesh the two laws together.

One building upon the other.

The *No Child Left Behind* is a systemic school-wide, district-wide, and
state-wide accountability system to improve schools for all children.

The IDEA is the support system behind that, making sure that both
parents and children with disabilities receive the individualized
instruction they need to benefit from the outcomes *No Child Left
Behind* is building for us.

Those are the successes we have on both those statutes.

\>\> We have a caller from Alaska, please go ahead, thank you for
calling.

Caller: thank you for making this program possible.

Today, we\'re challenged with a growing population of special needs
students throughout the nation.

It\'s my understanding that special ed teachers must be highly qualified
in all areas, reading, writing, math, science, etc.

Does the Department of Education have a process, a program, and
financial resources in place to help school districts meet the demands
of growing communities of special ed students and the hiring
requirements for special ed teachers?

\>\> Troy?

\>\> That\'s a good question.

The department understands this is a challenge.

A challenge across the country, not just in special ed, meeting the
requirements for highly-qualified special ed teachers, but also for
general education teachers in this country.

It\'s a profound challenge the secretary has embraced; it\'s a challenge
that both Congress and the administration are hoping to build a national
system of highly qualified special and regular educators in this
country.

Yes, the Department of Education recognized that we need to make those
investments to help support what we call personnel development to help
support individuals that want to enter into the field of education to
meet these standards and meet the challenges we\'re going to be facing
across this country.

\>\> Alaska, thank you so much for your call.

Troy, how are parents of students with disabilities empowered under
these two laws?

And, what are their rights and what are their responsibilities?

\>\> I wish we had all night to talk about that question alone, that\'s
such an important question.

I think what is important for parents to understand is that the IDEA has
been around, as we\'ve talked about, for 30 years in various forms.

We have the opportunity to implement the lessons we\'ve learned over
these 30 years, to build on the successes that organizations and parent
groups have to provide direct information to parents.

The department sponsored parenting information in centers throughout the
country.

Connie is an example of North Carolina\'s expertise.

We have at least one in every state; some states have more than one,
where parents can access information on all the educational programs
their children can benefit from.

\>\> What are the steps parents need to take if they suspect that their
child has a problem or disability, and why is early Intervention to
important in this process?

\>\> The first thing parents need to understand if they have a child
with a disability or that they think may have a disability, most
important message is to ask questions.

Ask as many questions of as many people as they can.

Call the local school system, even if your child is an infant or
toddler, talk to your doctor, ask for help, ask for resources, ask for
your local school to help put you in touch with programs and services
that serve children.

I\'ll talk about infants and toddlers, what you call the early
intervention program.

This is a vision that\'s been an essential part of the IDEA, and that\'s
that we invest in programs and information for infants from birth
through age two, before they go to school, an essential part of the IDEA

That provides evaluation services, direct services to the children,
their service providers, and their family.

We intervene early and children have a better outcome.

\>\> What do parents need to know about individual educational programs
and how can they best work with schools to make sure the educational
needs of their child are met?

\>\> Individual Education Programs, I.E.P.\'s, are a document that
describes the best special education and regular education and other
services that a child needs in a given academic year at a given grade
for them to be able to progress and perform well and learn as they move
through their childhood into adulthood.

The I.E.P. is an essential document developed with parents and others,
schoolteachers and other professionals to better serve children each
year.

\>\> How common is it for children to be misdiagnosed as having a
learning disability, and what steps can parents and educators take to
reduce that occurrence?

\>\> That\'s a good question.

Congress and the President, both bodies realized that
over-identification in some cases for children with disabilities is an
area in which we need to make greater investigation.

The new IDEA has particular attention on children who may be
over-represented, disproportionality, we call it, because of ethnic or
cultural backgrounds or other circumstances.

These are indicators that the *No Child Left Behind* act builds upon,
making sure we provide services directly to each child in his or her
regular education classroom, whether they have a disability or not.

In other words, early intervention services and direct services in the
classroom are essential to identifying children at risk, but only those
children who need special education services.

\>\> I do have one more question.

Briefly, where should parents go if they have difficulty navigating or
understanding the special education system?

\>\> As you said at the beginning of the broadcast, and I\'m sure we\'ll
show at the end of the broadcast, department\'s website is a good place
to start.

Talk to your local schools, talk to parents of other children with
disability, and don\'t be afraid to ask questions.

We at the department and state agencies and schools are here to serve
kids.

That\'s our dedication.

\>\> Thanks.

Jennifer, let\'s turn to you.

Congratulations on such an impressive school.

Tell us more about positive behavioral supports and how you are
implementing it at Oak Park Elementary.

\>\> We started this program three years ago when he received a grant.

There are two components, one is the positive behavioral system, and the
other is intervention in reading.

The positive behavior system is basically that all rules apply to
everybody front door to back door.

Staff uses the same language; so all students are hearing the same
words, as they hear what it looks like and sounds like for each
expectation at each location in the building.

As we go through the year, we watch for students to meet those
expectations, and when they do, they\'re rewarded with a ticket system.

That ticket system, they can make choices as to how they want to
celebrate their successes with that system.

\>\> OK.

Data from your school indicates that your use of P.B.S. and your focus
on effective reading instruction has resulted in a reduction of special
education.

What\'s the reason for your success?

How do you explain that?

\>\> I think the reason for the success is the teamwork and the staff.

The staff is dedicated to the fact that no child will not be successful,
that\'s their mission and how they\'ve dedicated themselves to their
profession.

They feel everybody will be successful and the teamwork with parents,
student, and staff together is sure that will happen.

If there\'s a situation where a child is not meeting the expectations we
expect for them, we\'ll intervene early and try to come up with
interventions, strategies, anything to help that child be successful.

\>\> You said positive behavioral supports is an intervention that helps
students in the academic middle find success and feel supported.

What do you mean by that?

\>\> What I mean is that those students in the middle, those who are
always prepared to learn, motivated to learn because you ask them to do
it, those are the students that don\'t get their efforts acknowledged
and not for any other reason than they just are so stable and secure
they just are always doing the right thing.

This system is really set up to every time they hit an expectation, they
get rewarded for it.

Our hope with that is that those students then that know that they\'re
doing the right thing and they just do it because it\'s the right thing
to do, they\'ll take advantage of that and become leaders and be good
role models for the other students.

\>\> Thanks so much.

Connie, let\'s turn to you.

Tell us about the mission of the parent training and information centers
across the country and how they help parents of students with
disabilities.

\>\> First of all, there are a lot of parents trying to figure out how
to move to Yonkers and Oak Park.

The parent training and information centers were started under previous
parts of IDEA

As a way for families to get information about the confusing process of
special ed.

It\'s a law, it\'s a bureaucracy, it\'s a process, and it\'s confusing.

Our mission has changed a little bit.

When we first started, it was explaining the law.

And now, we are doing a whole lot with explaining what some of the good
practices are.

Most of the parent centers are doing workshops on positive behavior
support.

Overall, our mission is to give parents the knowledge and skills they
need to, the term I like to use, is to be effective consumers of good
information for their child, but also to, as one of our principals
earlier said, p for partnership is parent.

Sometimes that\'s a little skill building with communication.

\>\> Parents of children with disabilities make up 70% of your staff.

What sorts of unique challenges do the parents of students with
disabilities face, and how can parents work with schools to best meet
these challenges?

\>\> I\'m also going to say on the parent training center part of my
staff, they make up 81%.

All staff member who are working on the parent center directly with
families are parents of children with disabilities.

That\'s because it\'s one of those things we trust each other.

We\'ve all done I.E.P.\'s, if you call one day and say I\'m frustrated
with my child, one of us is going to go, yeah, we understand that.

It\'s a camaraderie.

I think, a lot of times, our biggest frustrations are a difference in
expectations between our expectation and the school\'s expectations for
our child and also understanding the process.

\>\> A key part of ECAC\'s mission is \"improving the lives and
education of all children through a special emphasis on children with
disabilities.\"

How does this work?

\>\> I think our two schools today showed how that works.

When schools are educating their special ed students very, very well
with high expectations, research-based practices, kids doing really
well, all kids in the building are doing well.

Our schools are an example.

When all children are being served well, kids are being educated.

\>\> What steps can the parents of children with disabilities take at
home to help boost literacy skills and improve behavior?

\>\> First thing, know what\'s happening at school and troy mentioned
asking questions.

I think that the really important part.

One of the roles the parent centers do is understand what the questions
are.

We have to understand a lot of families may not be good readers
themselves or even good readers don\'t know the components of reading.

So knowing what\'s going on at school, how you can reinforce it at home,
and actually just creating a language-rich environment for your kids.

One of the things that\'s also important is that expectation piece.

We\'re starting to understand that even children with severe
disabilities can make progress in literacy.

\>\> Your \"parent info line\" received over 17,000 requests for
information last year.

What are the most common inquiries from parents of children with
disabilities?

How can we make the answers and related material more readily available
to parents?

\>\> The overarching call is the special ed process.

Things aren\'t going well, I\'m having trouble communicating, how do I
ask the question, how do I refer my child and ask for testing if
something is going on?

But, if we look at topics, behavior is number one and they don\'t come
from schools having positive behavior support programs, they\'re coming
from other schools.

The things that are changing is parents are asking more than they did
before, what is good instruction?

What should I be looking at in the curriculum for my child?

That\'s fairly new.

The other, always, because it\'s one of our roles as parent centers is
the legal process, what do I do if I disagree.

\>\> Here\'s a final question for all of you. What is the most important
thing parents of children with disabilities can do to ensure their child
receives the best services possible to succeed in school?

\>\> We have a workshop on our I.E.P. workshop and I guess, everybody
has heard that I.E.P. stands for individualized education program.

Our I.E.P. stands for informed, effective parent.

I think that\'s what parent has to do.

Not every parent will be the parent on the school team.

Not every parent is going to be the parent that\'s there every day.

But, every parent cares about their child.

It\'s learning how to involve parents and get them \-- making the
family, I think the language came earlier, making the family feel
welcome and part of the team.

\>\> Jennifer?

\>\> I think it\'s important for parents to know they\'re part of the
team.

We\'re all part of the same team because what we are wanting is the
success of that child.

If we all do our jobs, that will happen.

\>\> Troy, finally?

\>\> I think in addition to what these two ladies said, it\'s important
to understand that everyone is involved in the best outcome for the
child.

And the best outcome for the child is a happy, healthy adult, who
happens to live where they choose, doing what they choose to do and
having a society that embraces that, that embraces differences of all
kinds and truly embraces what it means to have a disability in this
country.

We\'ve made great successes in our public school systems and now we\'re
building on where to go in the future.

\>\> Thank you all for being part of our discussion.

Before we close, we want to review some of the important resources that
were discussed this evening.

To locate the nearest parent training and information center in your
state, visit www.atalliance.org.

And for information and fact sheets on a variety of special education
topics of interest to parents and educators, visit the department of
education\'s Web site at www.ed.gov.

While there, visit the \"Education News\" site and look under the
\"Parents\" section for information on tonight\'s guests, schools, and
organizations, as well as links to many additional resources on
tonight\'s topic.

The Department of Education\'s website also has a new feature especially
for teachers.

It is called \"Teachers Ask the Secretary.\"

This easy-to-use feature helps teachers get answers on a wide range of
subjects \-- teacher quality, professional development, state academic
standards, and more.

To find out more, visit www.ed.gov/teachersask.

Finally, if you have any questions about tonight\'s topic, please call
us at 1-800-usa-learn, or e-mail your question to
nochildleftbehind@Ed.gov.

Thank you for tuning into \"Education News Parents Can Use.\"

We will take a break for the holiday season and we will return in
January to discuss \"Improving Access to College: Preparing for
Education Beyond High School.\"

Please join us on Tuesday, January 17, at 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

For the U.S. Department of Education, I\'m Doris McMillon.

Good night.

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