This month’s Bright Spot comes from Karen Butler, a Special Education teacher at Scarsdale High School, who recently participated in an RSE-TASC training on transition assessments.

What were students with disabilities able to achieve?

District-wide, students with disabilities are developing self-determination skills, primarily by helping each other.  Juniors and seniors who have disabilities are volunteering their time to meet with elementary-aged students, also with disabilities.  According to Ms. Butler, the younger students have become more knowledgeable and comfortable with who they are, and the older students are gaining confidence in talking about their disabilities and needs, as well as the strategies they use to manage or overcome them.  Ms. Butler noted that learning to advocate at a young age has helped students better advocate for themselves in college.

What practices or systems made this possible?

Mrs. Butler described a district-wide system where students help each other to develop self-determination skills.  Under the guidance of Resource Room teachers, juniors and seniors with disabilities volunteer and meet with a group of elementary-aged students at an event held at the elementary school.  They discuss their own experiences with having disabilities, sharing their strengths and passions, as well as their challenges and solutions.  The younger students are encouraged to ask questions.

This month’s Bright Spot comes from educators in Tuckahoe, Ossining, the Hallen School, SAIL at Ferncliff, Byram Hills, ARC of Putnam preschool and the NYSED Special Education Quality Assurance (SEQA) office, who attended the RSE-TASC training on Evidence-Based Practices for Self-Contained Settings.

What were students with disabilities able to achieve?

Participants in this three-day training implemented multiple evidence-based strategies between sessions and shared that, as a result, their students were able to increase productivity, increase time on task, increase appropriate classroom behaviors (thus reducing loss of instructional time due to removals from class), engage more appropriately at job sites, work more independently, and increase and improve social interactions with peers.

What practices or systems made this possible?

Participants learned about three powerful evidence-based practices:

1. Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA): Using multiple types of data to identify student specific goals and monitor progress toward attainment of the goals using Active Engagement Plans
2. Functional Communication Training: Using data to identify the function of the behavior and then teaching a replacement behavior that includes appropriate communication strategies
3. Self-Management: Teaching students to develop their own goals and monitor their own progress toward attainment