Many schools are and have not been creative in how they plan or deliver instruction for children with special needs. Under ordinary circumstances that is a problem. Today lacking in creativity is the difference between students with special needs getting something from their education and getting literally nothing. I have seen a wide gamut of responses to this pandemic. I have students in private programs that are getting almost a replica of their day through zoom or google or similar platforms. I think that is the exception and not the norm, and I am not sure why learning cannot occur this way for many students who can engage with video content. I have students who receive 1:1 lessons with their teacher in 20 minute blocks through video conferencing to cover special education content and videoconferencing for group work as well. This means of delivering content has worked well, and in the main the student is continuing to progress. Those are the exceptional cases.
Navigating the World of Social Security
While I do not represent families through the maze of social security benefits, it is an important issue that needs to be a factor in transition planning. Navigating the world of such social security entitlement programs as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is a byzantine process for parents of children and adults with disabilities. It is challenging even for sophisticated or highly educated parents and requires tremendous amounts of time, patience, and fortitude. Yet, parents shouldn’t have to re-invent wheels as they enter this labyrinth and try to comprehend the variety of regulations that may or may not apply to their child. School IEP teams can provide a tremendous amount of support to both the student and the family by developing meaningful transition plans and goals that help shepherd the family through the process. In particular, schools must be actively involved early in the transition process in identifying and assisting students who are or may become eligible for SSI or SSDI.
Gender Identity and Special Needs
The Trump Administration’s February 2017 reversal of an earlier Obama decision ensuring that transgender students under Title IX should be allowed to use the school restrooms of the gender to which they identify has thrown school policies with regards to gender identify into flux. The February 22, 2017 “Dear Colleague Letter” stated that the earlier Obama position had wrested the primary responsibility of devising education policy from the states and local school districts. Despite its unhappy conclusion, the letter reiterated the need for protecting transgendered students from both bullying and harassment. It is highly questionable, however, if those words have any actionable meaning.
Comprehensive Transition Guide from OSERS–Bring It to Your Next Transition Meeting
The U.S. Department of Education in January 2017, just released a very comprehensive guide to transition services. Download Postsecondary-transition-guide-2017-3. Transition planning is one of the most vital functions of having an IEP for all students. An IEP is not an ends in itself, it is a means to an ends–called adult life. Too often schools take a very narrow and parochial view of their responsibilities to transitioning students. Trips to the grocery store several times a week and preparing meals the remainder of the week are too often the beginning and end of transition programming. I firmly believe that students need to master functional schools, but it cannot be one size fits most, and there has to be more content if a student is going to make a meaningful transition to adult life. Parents need to read this guide prior to their next transition meeting and bring it to the meeting to move the discussion towards outcomes and programs that the school will never offer, without significant advocacy from a parent, advocate or attorney. This guide will provide both the legal and conceptual framework needed to solidly ground those arguments. Good luck and keep advocating.
Stuttering and Related Disorders
It is difficult enough for young children to be faced with a significant speech impairment like stuttering. As discussed in this blog, the effects of stuttering are often co-morbid with other learning issues. Most children who develop a stutter in their pre-school years fortunately outgrow it. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders states that some 3 million Americans stutter. Stuttering usually develops between the ages of 2 and 6 while language skills are rapidly developing and a child’s linguistic, motor, and emotional capacities are lagging (the so-called Demands and Capacity Model). As a result, approximately 5 to 10% of children will stutter at some point in their lives. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association reports reports of remission rates vary from 6.3% all the way up to 80%. (The large disparity may reflect the manner in which data was collected.) Boys are affected 2 to 3 times as frequently as girls. Some data that suggest that African American children may stutter more frequently than whites. For those persons whose fluency does not resolve, stuttering can interfere with school, employment, and social milieus and lead to frustration, embarrassment, or anxiety. The worst cases can result in the creation of self-doubt and bullying. People who stutter know what they want to say. They simply can’t always get past the repetition of sounds or syllables or blocks associated with the disorder. Thus, diagnosis and treatment are imperative.
Best Cities for Persons with Disabilities
Where to live in future years is an issue never far from my mind especially living in Illinois that ranks close to the bottom for services for people with disabilities. Download Case-for-Inclusion-2016-FINAL-3. For families that do not have a loved one with a disability, it may be a matter of where we are raised or where our extended family remains. Others locate their homes based upon where the job is. Weather or access to seasonal outdoors recreation is paramount to others. But according to WalletHub, a personal finance social network, and as many of us know, families with members who have disabilities have a rather different set of criteria for determining where we want to live. WalletHub attempted to quantify which of the nation’s most populous 150 cities is the most “Disability-Friendly” by looking at three chief areas: economics, quality of life, and health care. From here, an additional 25 specific criteria were weighted and considered. And the winner is. . . . Overland Park, Kansas.
Realistically, none of us is packing up and moving to Overland Park this week as the result of this survey. But the survey does give each of us food for thought as we consider what is truly essential to us and our families. In doing their calculations, WalletHub ascribed different weights to each of their 25 criteria. Those criteria that were doubly weighted—employment rate for people with disabilities, percentage of persons with disabilities living below the poverty line, median earnings for people with disabilities, or cost of a doctor visit–are clearly important to all of us. Surprisingly, only two of the criteria related to education—number of special education teachers per 1,000 school-aged population with disabilities (ascribed full weight) or graduation rate for students with disabilities (ascribed only half rate, which I would personally rate much higher). Truthfully, each of us might measure the criteria differently based on our needs.
The meat of the survey comes not from the 25 different criteria, but the five indicators that each of a panel of experts identified as essential in determining how favorable a city is for persons with disabilities. Not surprising, many suggestions overlap with one another. Experts cite the need for:
- Medical care provided by professionals knowledgeable and sensitive to the needs of the disabled
- High level of personal care providers
- Community integration
- Private agencies to provide expert supervision of housing and day programs
- Strong advocacy organizations
- Accessible and affordable housing
- Employment First state
- State expanded Medicaid accessibility under Affordable Health Care Act
- Direct support work force
- Transportation
- Accessibility, accessibility, and accessibility
- And my personal favorite–well supported state and local public schools
It’s fun to know that Pembroke Pines, FL has the lowest percentage of persons with disabilities living below the poverty level or that Boise, ID can boast (or not boast) of having the lowest employment rate for persons with disabilities. But moving forward, and for determining policy, WalletHub has assisted in identifying discrete policy areas that need improvement. So, I need not leave my home town of Chicago, which rated 78 of 150 cities, nor should residents of Providence, RI (148), Anchorage, AK (149), or Worcester, MA (150) start packing. We simply are now clearer as to where to begin our community advocacy. These are serious issues for many of us that are not easily resolved, and may involve significant relocation especially, as we face ultimate issues like parental mortality and what location will help insure high quality of life for our loved ones with a disability.
When Your Child Has Dyslexia
Parents frequently tell me that their school districts refuse to recognize their child’s diagnosis of dyslexia. One school psychologist defines dyslexia as “simply a fancy word for a disorder that involves reading.” Other parents are told by their districts that dyslexia is merely an umbrella term for a reading difficulty or a medical diagnosis that is not relevant to specific planning for the child in his or her IEP. These parents are often frustrated and confused when schools won’t even insert the term “dyslexia” anywhere within the IEP. But guidance from the Department of Education makes it explicitly clear that dyslexia is recognized by the IDEA. An October 2015 “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education states: “there is nothing in the IDEA that would prohibit the use of the terms dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia in IDEA evaluation, eligibility determinations, or IEP documents.” Why is this letter so important for students with dyslexia, dyscalculia, or dysgraphia? Because calling a duck a duck may be needed not only to ensure that students with dyslexia are deemed eligible for special education services but also that they receive appropriate remediation for their dyslexia.
Self-Employment for Persons with Disabilities
Our recent series of articles on the employment rates and work challenges experienced by persons with disabilities paid only a glancing look at perhaps one of the most viable employment options for persons with disabilities—that of self-employment. According to the US Census Bureau, people with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be self-employed as persons without disabilities (14.7% compared to 8%). Although the challenges of creating and sustaining a small business may seem daunting to most of us, self-employment actually can make sound sense for many workers with disabilities. It really needs to be part of the discussion in the "transistion process" albeit typically it is not.
When Does an Assessment Test Become Obsolete?
The IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) pretty carefully lays out the ground rules for a special education assessment. Among the various regulations related to administering a case study evaluation are that assessments “are used for the purposes for which the assessments or measures are valid and reliable; are administered by trained and knowledgeable personnel; and are administered in accordance with any instructions provided by the producer of the assessments.” We bring this up because the fifth edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), one of the mainstays of cognitive testing for children, was released this past fall. So does the existence of a newer edition of such a standard battery render the previous edition of the WISC no longer valid? It’s a good question, because not even professional psychological organizations appear to agree on at what point a previous edition of an exam becomes obsolete. Moreover, as a practice point, we have won cases based on the fact the district knowingly or carelessly made decisions based on outmoded test instruments.
Why Companies Hire the Disabled
This post is the fourth and final in this series of posts related to employment for people with disabilities. Most of us are familiar with the grotesque inequities which confront persons with severe disabilities in sheltered workshops where due to federal waivers employers are allowed to pay sub-minimum wages of as little as 22 cents an hour. According to the National Disability Rights Network, more than 400,000 disabled workers are in sheltered workshops where they earn on average only $175.00 per month. These workers are segregated with other persons with disabilities and receive little to no training to enable them transition to more meaningful work. Many of these sheltered workshops are no more than daycare. However, different disability groups are tackling head on ways to change what some advocates deem outright exploitation of disabled workers in sheltered workshops.
Employment is also challenging for persons with moderate to mild disabilities who wish to engage in competitive employment. Whether because of outright discrimination or employer fear, persons with disabilities are often overlooked in the hiring process. But this situation may be slowly changing as different corporations are exploring ways to hire the disabled and creating win-win situations for everyone. What these corporations are discovering is that hiring the disabled makes sound business sense and is not merely an act of charity.
In 2007, Walgreens developed a goal to ensure that 30% of 800 employees at one of its high tech distribution centers would be employees with disabilities who would receive equal pay, equal jobs, and an inclusive work environment. The initiative was wildly successful and to its delight, Walgreens realized that this site operated 20% more efficiently than its other locations. As of 2012, Walgreens is now employing 1000 employees at its 17 distribution centers in the United States and Puerto Rico. One of its distribution centers now has 40% of employees with disabilities. Other major companies, such as Best Buy and Toys R Us, are likewise following this model to increase their hiring of disabled workers.
In the past few years, the Kessler Foundation has developed a “Transition to Work” grants program, which funds initiatives to develop programs that address the persistently high unemployment rates of the disabled, by providing grants to enable service providers and businesses to develop new ways to foster employment programs for the disabled. One such grant was made to the National Organization on Disability (NOD) in 2009. The NOD recognized that although well-meaning companies wanted to create a more diverse work force, they did not always speak the “same language” of the service providers for the disabled. “Success” was understood differently by potential employers and service providers. As a result, the NOD created the “Bridges to Business” program in 2009 to provide project management and oversight to help these two sectors work more collaboratively together to improve employment outcomes for the disabled. NOD worked closely with Lowe’s, which similarly to Walgreens was committed to creating a more diverse work force, was able to hire over 120 persons with disabilities and train 375 managers over an 18-month period.
The Federal government is ensuring that there are sound financial benefits to companies to hire employees with disabilities. For instance, employers must always maintain compliance with the anti-discrimination employment practices of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the hiring of employees with disabilities obviously protects against such litigation, lowering a business’ legal costs. Employers can also benefit from the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which is a federal tax credit program that can reduce an employer’s income tax liability by up to $2,400 per qualified new hire (individual from one of 9 targeted groups). Similarly, small business owners can apply for tax credits for expenses incurred creating eligible accesses for employees. Businesses of any size can deduct up to $15,000 per year for qualified expenses involved in the removal of architectural and transportation barriers to the disabled and elderly.
Employees with disabilities are loyal employees as demonstrated by their retention rate. The average turnover rate of employees with disabilities is 8% compared to 45% in the general population, thereby reducing the costs of hiring and training new employees. And the additional time spent training disabled employees can benefit all employees. The whole idea of universal design for learning—the concept that all students can benefit from the specialized instruction afforded students with disabilities in educational settings—can translate to employment situations. All employees, not just the disabled, can benefit from the specialized training and education afforded workers with disabilities.
Finally and harder to quantify are the intangible benefits a business can generate by hiring the disabled such as seen at Walgreens. Not only are the people with disabilities loyal employees, but their friends and families can also be loyal customers. All of us who advocate for and love our family members with special needs will certainly choose to patronize a business that supports employment of the disabled? The good will generated by the presence of disabled workers is simply good public relations for any business.
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