Contract Addendum Special Education Handbook October 2006

Transcription

1 Contract Addendum Special Education Handbook October ) Special Education staff will receive materials and supplies yearly as appropriate to provide instruction identified on the IEP including expendable materials required by student IEP 2) Special Education teachers will be provided with the texts and teacher manuals provided for General Education students as needed for each Special Education student s individual learning level, modifications or accommodations. Special Education staff will be trained yearly on how to procure materials. If materials are not provided within two weeks, a written explanation for the delay along with a predicted timeline will be delivered. 3) At all levels, every effort will be made for certificated special education employees to act as IEP managers only for students they actively serve on a regular basis in accordance with state law. WAC at least 1 special education teacher of the student makes up part of the IEP team. Certificated special education staff may act as IEP managers for those students whom they do not actively serve but who are only receiving special education accommodations, or consultation support on a weekly or monthly basis, providing they contact any sped or gen ed cert staff who is in regular contact with that student regarding their programming. 4) Training, in an appropriately modified format, will be offered to Special Education certificated staff, when provided to General Education staff. On district in-service or LID days, itinerant certificated staff will be allowed in-service time to meet in separate professional groups to advance the practice of their profession in the best interest of students in the district. 5) General Education teachers will be provided with appropriate Special Education support and/or training for Special Education students placed in their classrooms. Relevant IEP goals will be made available to General Ed teachers having Special Ed students in their rooms. Due Process clerks may assist in this activity. 1. When Special Education students are placed for any portion of the day in the General Education classroom, the classroom teacher will be notified and provided a copy of the IEP or relevant IEP goals and objectives. If the teacher is expected to provide specially designed instruction or accommodations, he/she will have the opportunity to collaborate with the Special Education staff to discuss his/her portion of the implementation of the IEP at least monthly. (WAC , , ) 2. In the event an employee believes a Special Education student has been improperly placed in his/her class, the employee may request a staffing review with the team to discuss the program and placement. 3. For general education included students receiving Special Education instruction in the Gen Ed setting, every effort will be made to have a Special Ed staff October 2006 Contract Addendum: Special Education Handbook 1

2 member actively participating in that classroom for curriculum support for whatever amount of time is reasonable. 4. If a Special Ed teacher is in the General Ed class for student support, then Gen Ed teacher s class size remains the same as per contract. The special Ed teacher is there for support of included students. 6) Due Process clerks will be available in all buildings for use by the BAT team members for clerical, distribution of IEPs, scheduling of parent meetings and file assistance following an equitable formula. 7) Necessary non-teaching work assignments such as record keeping and due process paperwork shall be kept to a minimum so the certificated professional s time can be directed to working with the children directly. (SETF 1999). Every effort will be made to facilitate this through appropriate use of technology and goal banks. 8) Certificated Special Education staff will be trained in their professional service areas regarding staffing methods and formulas using the Workload Factoring Sheet, or Departmental factoring sheets within the 1 st month of school. EEA Special Education subcommittee member(s) or their designee will be part of this training. 9) At MIDDLE SCHOOL levels, every effort will be made to have 1 Special Education teacher assigned to each grade level for collaboration, modification and accommodations of curriculum, and common planning times. 10) Work Spaces a) Every effort will be made so SLP therapy rooms include water to meet standards for universal precautions and for use during therapy. b) Hand disinfectant, gloves and other items needed for disinfecting and universal precautions will be available whenever needed. Staff should contact the budget secretary (in each building or at Special Services) for gloves and their building custodian for spray disinfectants. c) Every effort will be made for itinerant Special Education staff to have an appropriate teaching/work station, with a desk, private phone, thin client and file cabinet. They will not be asked to teach or have their office space in closets, bathrooms, or other such undignified places that an average teacher in that building would not use. d) Every effort will be made for Special Ed teachers to have comparable physical size classrooms as their General Ed peers. 11) STAFFING FACTORS a) Staffing factors from the contract will be used to decide the amount of staff time in any given special education classroom. b) The total amount of Basic Skills or Learning support teacher and/or staff assistant staffing time allocated to a building is based on the total number of students who receive Basic Skills or Learning support in that building. c) CBC classrooms are staffed based upon their specific student enrollment in their classroom. Staff assistant time is also calculated specifically for this classroom and is not included in the building count of Basic Skills or Learning support student staffing counts. October 2006 Contract Addendum: Special Education Handbook 2

3 d) BD and HOH classrooms are staffed separately using their headcount ratios. e) Caseloads for Behavior Disordered, HOH classrooms and ECC (Early Childhood Center) classrooms will be determined by headcount f) High school special education program coordinators will not be staffed from the FTE cert teacher special education staffing at any building, but will be paid for from reg ed funding. The high school program special education coordinator provides i) all of the scheduling and counseling services to all special education students in the school, similar to the gen ed counselors and should be recognized as such. ii) In addition they are charged with providing transition services, iii) transfer IEP planning, iv) and coordinating work and graduation requirements for these same special education students. v) They coordinate, but do not evaluate, the special education teachers and staff assistants in their school. g) EXAMPLE of calculating Teacher staffing using Level of Need factors: h) If student class makeup is mixed levels for any Special Ed class, then each student s weighting factor shall be added together to determine the amount of teacher time needed for each classroom. i) Example for a mixed needs classroom: # of students Level of Need Staffing Factor Total Teacher FTE Generated 4 Level II Level III Level IV.15.3 Total j) In this example of a mixed level classroom a 1.02 FTE teacher (rounded to 1.0 FTE) could have 10 students of these varying levels. This would be their IEP caseload and their classroom head count. This staffing may vary depending upon the amount of classroom staffing time in the classroom. k) Rounding will occur this way. The generated time totals 1.25 FTE of teacher time; it would be rounded to 1.2 FTE. If it totaled 1.26 FTE then it would round to 1.3 FTE. 12) Staff assistant staffing factors: a) Using the STAFFING FACTORING FORMULA worksheet b) Learning Support, Basic Skills and CBC classrooms will add up the individual level factors for each student with all other students in the classroom to get the total staff assistant time for any given classroom. Students requiring individual (1:1 or 1:2) assistance will be excluded from this calculation. (WFF appendix 10A) October 2006 Contract Addendum: Special Education Handbook 3

4 c) Example for a mixed classroom: # of students Level of Need STAFFING Factor Total Hours of Staff Assistant time 4 Level II Level III Level IV Total hours d) In this example of 10 mixed level students, this class would generate 8 hours of staff assistant time. EX: When you have a 1:1 staff assistant in a class of 12 students, you add up the level of need of the other 11 students to determine the staff assistant time due to that class, excluding the 1:1 time and student. 13) Grade level, workday and class size limits may only be exceeded on an ongoing basis (trimester or yearly) when an employee provides written authorization to exceed the contractual guidelines for that period of the agreement and a supplemental contract is provided for that period and the specified overage. 14) If a teacher agrees to teach an additional section in a secondary setting instead of taking their daily prep time during the school day, then a supplemental contract is issued. a) Example: Special Education CREDIT RECOVERY is an additional class beyond the school day and would be paid in this manner with a supplemental contract. 15) Level of need rubrics will be explored and developed for future use by all special ed certificated teacher groups. ECC will use the CBC level of need rubrics. Basic Skills students will be counted as Level 1 students if they do not meet Level 2 or higher criteria using the CBC level of need rubric. 16) Motor Team and Speech and Language staff will not be required to do bus duty if they are itinerant staff for that building. October 2006 Contract Addendum: Special Education Handbook 4

5 17) Caseloads for Behavior Disordered, HOH classrooms and Preschool classrooms will be determined by headcount. 18) In team teaching situations, class size limits shall apply to the average student load of the team members. 19) For CHOICE FURTHER CONVERSATION WILL BE HAD ABOUT MOVING CHOICE FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL COUNT - The following is the proposed language that will be a starting point for the discussion. a) The IEP management and actual classroom head count shall not exceed 22 students per 1.0 FTE teacher and 2 staff assistants for assistance in community settings. The above staffing factors for students with differing levels of need will apply in calculating needed teacher time or additional assistant time. At all levels, every effort will be made for each certificated special education employee to act as IEP manager only for students they actively serve on a regular basis. 20) Letter of understanding regarding the following WASL section: a) A subcommittee was convened to review a method of accommodating teacher needs (ie video journaling assistance, substitute time, compensation those teaching students requiring the portfolio method of the WASL Spring 05 b) Sub committee recommendations will come back to the Special Education Bargaining committee for approval. c) Suggested committee members are: Director of Assessment, Director of Special Services, EEA President, WEA-Riverside UniServ Director, up to 2 others named by the District, up to 2 others named by the Association. 21) WASL/WAA SUPPORT FOR WASL TESTING REQUIREMENTS a) Special Education teachers will be assigned staff who will either substitute for them in their class or provide the accommodations required by the IEP's of those students taking state and district wide tests. b) The district will train all Special Education in the allowable accommodations for each test. c) Accommodations must be in practice on a regular basis for each student before testing for optimum results to occur. d) In addition, all appropriate Special Education staff will be trained on the allowable alternate assessments for the Special Education students. e) For those students requiring the WAA (Washington Alternative Assessment) portfolio method, regular data collection should serve as part of the portfolio requirement and additional staffing assistance for journaling will be provided as appropriate. Staff who are unable to fulfill portfolio requirements in a reasonable period of time should identify special complications presented by their enrollment/circumstances and request additional assistance/compensation from the appropriate Program Coordinator for CBC classes f) For those students in a mixed grade level special education classroom who require an Alternative test or Performance Testing, a sub will be provided so October 2006 Contract Addendum: Special Education Handbook 5

6 testing can be accomplished without negatively affecting the non testing students learning. 22) PLANNING TIME: a) As provided in the negotiated agreement, each full-time classroom teacher, including all Special Education teachers teaching grades Preschool - 5 shall receive a minimum of 240 minutes planning time per normal week to come from within the typical student day. (See Letter of Agreement for additional 90 minutes/week under the P-5 Planning Time Pilot.) b) As provided in the negotiated agreement, All itinerant staff will receive 150 minutes plus up to 90 additional minutes for a total of 240 minutes planning time per typical week, exclusive of any travel time between sites where classes meet, breaks, set-up/take down time (for itinerants) or WAC time. c) As provided in the negotiated agreement BD and CBC teachers must also be provided the opportunity for 240 minutes of planning time per typical week. If this is not possible, then pay will be issued for missed planning time. If this is to occur on an ongoing basis, then a supplemental contract will be issued. 23) Aggressive students/ Sexually explicit students a. Upon hire of a staff assistant the following must happen in a timely manner: i. CPI training by 2 nd week of employment ii. Behavior modification training and understanding of student s behavior plan iii. Training in appropriate documentation iv. Arm pads or body protection padding issued if student is physically aggressive such as biting, pinching, and hitting. b. When a student assaults a staff member, that member has safety recourse through i. that student s IEP behavior plan and any updates ii. immediate access to another, larger staff member or building security personnel iii. walkie-talkie where appropriate for safety concerns iv. recourse through legal options c. The district will make every effort to have adequate staffing for safety of all students and ALL STAFF. 24) District Wide meetings for special education staff: d. Department meeting for special education will be held on a monthly or bimonthly basis for all special education certificated staff members for collaboration and instruction as a special education teaching/support group for no more than 2 hours. e. BAT meeting are held for 1 hour each week and attendance of those assigned to that building is required, along with the general ed representative, and any itinerant special education staff who can attend depending upon the number of other schools assigned. f. Grade level meetings, specific general ed cross-grade curriculum meetings, or Integrated block meetings: in buildings where these meetings are held, the special education teacher has the option of attending, since they are not highly trained teachers in this area and cannot be held responsible for this subject matter. It is highly suggested that one special education teacher attend on a regular basis to inform the October 2006 Contract Addendum: Special Education Handbook 6

7 October 2006 Contract Addendum: Special Education Handbook 7