Fort Bend ISD plans to continue a program implemented last year that uses teaching teams to integrate special needs students into general education classrooms where possible.
Known as a collaborative teaching program, FBISD’s initiative teams a general education teacher with a special education teacher who teach a classroom together. Special education students comprise up to one-third of the students of such classes.
Deena Hill, executive director of special education for FBISD, said her team plans to track the progress of students participating in the program.
“What we’ll do now is we’ll be following these cohorts over the next couple of years to monitor the effectiveness,” Hill said.
Northeast ISD, located near San Antonio, has had some version of the collaborative teaching model for almost 20 years, and it has gone through several revisions through that time, said Kristen Williams, NEISD’s special education director for curriculum and instruction. NEISD has co-teach classrooms on most of its school campuses, excluding magnet schools, she said.
“What we know is that a higher number of our students are moving on to secondary education, post-high school, that student outcomes are improving,” Williams said. “In addition to those academic growths, what we’ve seen is significantly more inclusion in the sense of peer and social involvement with their classmates without disabilities.”
Inclusion has a significant effect on behavior, Williams said. If a child with behavioral issues is placed in a classroom with students who model appropriate behavior and expect that same conduct from each other, they are more likely to emulate those appropriate behaviors, she said.
Hill said 27 percent of special education students who were observed in 2015-16 spent more time in general education classrooms during the programs inaugural year.
“We want to see kids spend less time in special education [classrooms] all day, and so we’re right where we need to be,” Hill said.
According to state law, special education students are assigned to a committee that tracks the student’s performance along with his or her needs. Known as an admissions, review, and dismissal committee, the panel is composed of the student’s parent, a general education teacher, a special education teacher and varying numbers of school administrators and staffers. ARD committees meet at least once per year.
“Part of what the [ARD] committee has to do is determine what is the appropriate educational setting for them and what, for that child, is the least restrictive environment—the least restrictive educational setting,” said Dawn White, a coordinator for Education Service Centers, a nonprofit organization that provides training and technical support for teachers.
