March 11, 2021- Ask an Attorney

 DOES A DISTRICT HAVE TO OFFER ESY? 

As this month promises warmer temperatures and longer days, it is apropos that we start with a question about extended school year services, commonly known as ESY.  A reader from a small school district writes that her district has not provided ESY programming in the past and wonders if this is okay or if districts are required to have programs.

 Whether a student requires ESY to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is a determination made by a student’s IEP team and is not dependent on whether there is an ESY program in place at the student’s school district. This illustrates a phrase we often hear in special education, that student needs drive programming and services.

 In our post last month, we talked about the standard to determine whether a student needs ESY. To be proactive in making individualized ESY determinations, IEP teams should use data and ask the right questions. While progress monitoring data is always critical, it is especially important for the regression/recoupment analysis, which is the primary reason for ESY eligibility. This analysis involves two main considerations: (1) whether the student shows inordinate regression when school is not in session; and (2) whether it takes an extraordinary length of time for the student to recoup the skills that have been lost. Teams should ask whether the student required reteaching of skills after a break to the extent that their ability to progress toward existing IEP goals was hindered. For students with more significant disabilities, teams should also consider whether a student’s progress toward developing critical life skills would be interrupted by a break in educational services.

If a team determines that an individual student requires ESY, a district must provide those services. One way to do that is to design an in-district program tailored to the needs of the student. But small districts may also meet this obligation by seeking out programs run by public special education cooperatives or private therapeutic day schools. And districts of all sizes should remember that even if they have an ESY program, individual students may need more or less support to receive FAPE.

CAN THE REMOTE LEARNING OPTION BE ENTIRELY ASYNCHRONOUS? 

Our next question is about everyone’s favorite subject, remote learning. Our reader asks, “May a school district provide only asynchronous learning when it has resumed in-person instruction, and a student has chosen to remain remote either full or part-time?” As we start to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, and districts plan to get more students back into school buildings, many administrators are asking to what extent they will need to continue offering remote options and what those options need to look like. At this time, the Governor’s Order requiring school districts to provide remote instruction based on parent request remains in effect. And the Illinois State Board of Education has not withdrawn or revised its initial guidance for remote learning, which includes, at all grade levels, real-time synchronous instruction with the interaction between the teacher and students. While that guidance may change as we approach the summer and next fall (some states are already moving in this direction), at this time, cutting remote programming or limiting it to asynchronous-only, may invite a challenge. And for students with 504 plans and IEPs, that challenge may be difficult to defend given the ongoing obligation to provide FAPE. Accordingly, we recommend that school districts continue to offer remote learning programs that include various modalities.

 ASK an ATTORNEY

Please continue to send us your questions. We look forward to answering.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE -ACTION NEEDED March 19, 2021

 IAASE LEGISLATIVE UPDATE - Action Needed

The Senate Education Committee scheduled for March 9th was canceled and has been rescheduled for March 23rd at 1:00 pm.  There are several important bills of interest to IAASE members being heard by the committee.  SB 0517 is an IAASE initiative sponsored by Meg Loughran Cappel.  For many years we have advocated for an equalized funding system in Illinois that reflects that districts with students with significant needs and associated high costs receive equalized reimbursement whether the students are placed in public school settings or private placements.  Although this has been a legislative priority for IAASE for well over a decade, the disparity continues. We have submitted several legislative proposals, making steady advancements in recent years and we have learned much about strategy from our experiences. This year, we decided to introduce a bill that takes an important step forward into opening up the use of the line item on the state budget that historically has been solely for private tuition reimbursement.  SB 0517 equalizes reimbursement for districts for students placed in either a public day or private day school and reflects the follow-up commitment from the General Assembly after Evidence-Based funding became law several years ago. While there are additional steps to take in the process of moving to a fully placement neutral system, we believe that it is a reasonable step towards that goal.  Witness slips filed for March 9th do not carry over, so please click here to fill out a witness slip as a PROPONENT of this bill.  

IAASE opposes SB0531 which changes the school code to provide that a student whose 22nd birthday occurs during the school year is eligible for special education services through the end of the regular school term (rather than being eligible for services only until the day before his or her 22nd birthday).  While we agree that more services should be available for young adults with disabilities we do not believe that extending services past the 22nd birthday is the solution and we certainly don’t think this should be mandated without funding.  Please click here to fill out a witness slip as an OPPONENT of SB0531.

We are very concerned about SB1821.  This bill is extremely problematic as it amends the Children with Disabilities Article of the School Code to provide that eligible students who reached or will reach their 22nd birthday between March 17, 2020, and the end of the 2021-2022 school year shall be afforded the option of extending the student's eligibility through the end of the 2021-2022 school year to provide the student with an opportunity to participate in post-secondary transition activities and services and pursue the goals under the student's most recent individualized education program. It requires each school district to provide written notification of options, including the required waiver of compensatory services claims, to each student to whom these provisions apply or to the student's guardian or designated representative within 30 days after the effective date of the amendatory Act. It included a required written notification form and would be effective immediately.  Please click here to fill out a witness slip as an OPPONENT of SB1821.

Other bills scheduled for the committee that you may be interested in are SB0559/HB3022, SB0634, and SB2071.  SB0559/HB3022 allows private special education facilities to bill school districts for services a month in advance.  Districts would be entitled to a refund at the end of the school year if a student was not actually enrolled for any of the days that the district pre-paid for.  SB0634 extends interscholastic athletic eligibility through age 22 for students with disabilities.  Our legislative committee believes that there could be unintended consequences of this bill and that the extended time from age 18-22 is for transition services, not continued participation in high school athletics.  SB 2071 changes licensure requirements for school social workers by providing that an applicant who (i) has earned a master's degree in social work from a regionally accredited institution of higher education and (ii) holds a valid license issued pursuant to the Clinical Social Work and Social Work Practice Act may obtain a social worker endorsement on an Educator License with Stipulations. An applicant who satisfies these requirements is not required to complete an Illinois-approved educator preparation program but may be required to fulfill other criteria established by rule of the State Board of Education. 

The full committee agenda is here and we encourage you to review all of the bills and make your voice heard on those that you see as consequential to your organization and/or your students.  If you are represented by any of the committee members, it is also important to contact their offices to share the potential impact of these bills.  

If this isn’t enough, the House Education committees are both meeting on March 24th.  The Elementary & Secondary Education: Administration, Licensing & Charter School  Committee meets at 2:00 pm.  You may be interested in HB 38 which is about interviewing minority teacher candidates.  Our concern with the bill is that it only excludes the shortage area of ESL.   The Elementary & Secondary Education: School Curriculum & Policies Committee meets at 8:30 am and there are several bills on their agenda of interest to IAASE.  We encourage you to submit a witness slip as a PROPONENT of HB3706 which is the companion bill to SB0517, our equalization bill.  Other bills in committee that IAASE opposes are HB3022, HB2748, HB3324, and HB3817.  Again, we ask that you consider the impact of these bills on your district and cooperative and consider filing a witness slip with your position.

The legislative committee is made up of the elected officers, plus representatives from each of our regions.  Please feel free to contact us if we can be of service to you.

Judy Hackett, Co-chair jhackett@nsseo.org

Melissa Taylor, Co-chair mtaylor@bths201.org

March 16, 2021- Resiliency, Mindset and a Positive Culture

Resiliency, Mindset, and a Positive Culture: The Important Considerations for Our Classrooms and Districts in 2021. 

By:  Lisa M. Harrod

For those of us in leadership positions during 2008-2010, we remember the uncertainty of our budgets, hiring practices, and all the lessons learned. At the time, I was Assistant Superintendent and a National Education Consultant working with districts on auditing SEL and Academic curriculum and reshaping culture and climate. Those of us in the field of special education saw a large increase in the number of students diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and other social-emotional needs. We spent our resources on additional social workers, who at the time in some states were a high-vacancy area and other mental health professionals. We watched our curriculum and programming include a stronger focus on character education, lessons on wellness, and attention to an individual’s mental health. Professional development in these areas began to spike. Families were exhibiting hardships that none of us could have predicted.

Now in 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, we are working on scenarios and planning for what the fall may look like. Leadership is critical to the success and sustainability of our districts, and all the work we are doing with our teams to plan is being done with great hope but also great uncertainty. It looks different in every state, but one thing remains constant..our ability to collaborate and plan what is best for our students and staff. We pull from our experiences a decade ago to help us move forward.

Reflecting on the leadership during 2008 on and now in 2021 and beyond, we look at all of the shifts that have occurred and how we can provide continued high-quality education for all of our students, moving forward on plans to create opportunity in challenge, and building classroom connected communities during remote learning. At the heart of this emerges resiliency and reviewing climate and culture. Leading with questions from superintendent’s on whether we have the climate and culture we want to have. One of the toughest and hardest questions we can ask ourselves. How we can become even more involved in our classrooms? How can we become facilitators during a time where school social workers and psychologists are in high demand? Do we have the staff members in place to sustain the level of support needed over the next few years?

If there is ever a time to rebuild or strengthen our climate and culture in our schools and districts…. now is our golden opportunity. We have adjusted, modified, adapted…and our students and staff have done the same thing. Engaging in critical conversations about resiliency and how we can build up our ability to “SnapbackTM”. When I facilitate lessons in our unit district, I talk to students and staff about a rubber band and its ability to “snapback” under intense pressure. We use specific examples and then let the students discuss issues they are facing and how we can show resilience in our response. We talk about the future and challenges they may encounter and keep this at the forefront so it can be continually talked about. Helping our students and staff members insulate themselves from stress is a powerful and on-going life lesson.

These conversations set the table for expectations of gratitude, a positive mindset, and kindness across the district. It is a unified effort among our educators, support staff, and specialists in achieving an environment we are proud of. There are so many unknowns in our world right now, opening discussions about resilience is a foundation that will reap many benefits in combating and overcoming concerns about motivation and achievement. These conversations have catapulted our use of Mindset and Mindfulness as an important supplement to our curriculum and we have set the stage in our community asking them to partner with us in these efforts. There have been so many benefits to the work in these areas and they certainly prepared us for what we never could have seen coming this year. I did not see the importance of combining resilience, mindset, and reflecting on climate and culture when I began my career in education.

Building our resilience is a life skill and one that can change the trajectory for our students and staff, helping to insulate all of us from all the stressors in our lives. My hope is that by seeing the importance of this topic and reflecting on our climate and culture, we will be more prepared for 2021 and beyond. For those of us that are reading this and have worked to obtain the climate and culture we worked so hard on, I hope we can be mentors and collaborate with those who may reach out for the beginning steps. Every decision based on what is best for students is why we are all here.

Here's to celebrations over challenges!

Lisa M. Harrod is the Superintendent of Manteno CUSD No. 5 in Manteno, Illinois, and the CEO of Leveraging Excellence, A professional development company. 

March 9, 2021- Legislative Committee Update

 IAASE LEGISLATIVE UPDATE - FILING WITNESS SLIPS

This year’s legislative session in Illinois is extremely active and the IAASE legislative committee meets weekly with our government relations specialist, Shannon Miller Bellini, to review bills that impact our students and our work.  

This week, there are two important bills of interest to IAASE members being heard in the Senate Education Committee.  SB 0517 is an IAASE initiative sponsored by Meg Loughran Cappel.  For many years we have advocated for an equalized funding system in Illinois that reflects that districts with students with significant needs and associated high costs receive equalized reimbursement whether the students are placed in public school settings or private placements.  Although this has been a legislative priority for IAASE for well over a decade, the disparity continues. We have submitted several legislative proposals, making steady advancements in recent years and we have learned much about strategy from our experiences. This year, we decided to introduce a bill that takes an important step forward into opening up the use of the line item on the state budget that historically has been solely for private tuition reimbursement.  SB 0517 equalizes reimbursement for districts for students placed in either a public day or private day school and reflects the follow-up commitment from the General Assembly after Evidence-Based funding became law several years ago. While there are additional steps to take in the process of moving to a fully placement neutral system, we believe that it is a reasonable step towards that goal.   

The second bill is one that IAASE opposes.  SB0531 changes the school code to provide that a student whose 22nd birthday occurs during the school year is eligible for special education services through the end of the regular school term (rather than being eligible for services only until the day before his or her 22nd birthday).  While we agree that more services should be available for young adults with disabilities we do not believe that extending services past the 22nd birthday is the solution and we certainly don’t think this should be mandated without funding.  

One way to support the work of the legislative committee is to file witness slips for committee hearings representing your respective district or special education cooperative. The Senate Education Committee meets on March 9th at 1:00 pm.  You can click here to see the agenda and file a witness slip on behalf of your district/cooperative. It’s a great way to make your voice heard.  If it’s your first time, follow this handy guide for instructions. 

The legislative committee is made up of the elected officers, plus representatives from each of our regions.  Please feel free to contact us if we can be of service to you.

Judy Hackett, Co-chair jhackett@nsseo.org

Melissa Taylor, Co-chair mtaylor@bths201.org

IAASE Update March 2, 2021

 

March 2, 2021

The snow is melting and spring is coming. 

This week's post from the Newsletter and Publications Committee will be quick.  

First, we hope that you took the time to have your voice heard with HB40. If not, it is NOT too late!  HB 40 was first introduced last year and would allow students in Transition Programs to continue being served past their 22nd birthday. IAASE opposes this measure because:

• It is an unfunded mandate and will cost approximately $20 million per year in state and local funds.

• It exceeds the federal IDEA requirements.

Please let your Member of the House of Representatives know that you oppose this dangerous measure by sending a message through our action center at the link below.

 

Tell the House of Representatives to Oppose HB 40

NEWSLETTER & PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

Co-Chairs:

Tarin Kendrick, Executive Director of Niles Township District for Special Education 

Nicole Maxwell, Student Service Coordinator in the DeKalb CUSD 

Previously this committee sent out quarterly newsletters. However, IAASE’s current focus (continuing with Dr. Rubenstein’s example) is to provide our members weekly, relevant information to keep them informed. The IAASE Counsel, Franczek, will provide information twice per month. Please be sure to use the Ask an Attorney feature if you have a burning question. Additionally, IAASE Board members will provide updates and we would also love to hear from our members, YOU. If you have any ideas that you would like to see on this blog or are a blogger and would like to share please reach out. 

Have a great week!

Nicole (nicole.maxwell@d428.org)

Tarin (tkendrick@ntdse.org)