Which of these strategies are being implemented effectively by your colleagues and administration.

Running Head: Clinical

Special Education Administrator Interview

Tracy Sampson

SPD-520

GCU

Dr. David Burrage

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Running Head: Clinical

I Interview Dana Floyd, she is a Special Education Administrator for Selah school district. I met

with her today March 10,2017, at her office. I ask her 9 questions, 1. The rights and responsibilities of

individuals with exceptionalities, parents, teachers, and other professionals, and schools related to

exceptionalities, 2. Identify the role of families, community members, and school professionals in the

educational process, 3. Any issues, assurances, and due process rights related to assessment, eligibility,

and placement within a continuum of services, 4. How the individual upholds high standards of

competence and integrity and exercises sound judgment in the practice of the professional, 5. How the

individual addresses ethics in advocating for appropriate services, 6. How the individual uses verbal,

nonverbal, and written language effectively in communicating with IEP team members, 7. How the

individual utilizes models and strategies of consultation and collaboration, 8. How the individual

addresses concerns of families of individuals with exceptionalities and strategies used to help address

these concerns; and 9. How the individual uses group problem-solving skills to develop, implement, and

evaluate collaborative activities.

1. The rights and responsibilities of individuals with exceptionalities, parents, teachers, and other professionals, and schools related to exceptionalities?

“Under IDEA we are mandated to provide a free and appropriate public education, so FAPE and for

every student we have to determine what their least restrict environment is. So, our rights and

responsibility as a district is to ensure that procedures are followed per federal mandates and state

mandates and ensure that students are being served where its most appropriate for them. Also, to

ensure we have a continuum of programming that meets the needs of any and every student with

special needs. So, in the Selah school district we provided a continuum from birth all the way to the

age of twenty-one and that’s our responsibly that the district provides services from birth to twenty-

one. So, there are two sections, there is part A, part B and part C. So, part C are our babies, so we

serve here in the Selah school district we serve babies from birth to age two and they don’t have a IEP,

they have a IFSP, which is a family, that we do with the family. So, we have what we call a FRC, which

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Running Head: Clinical

is a family resource coordinator and we also have an educator and then our other related services

providers, like speech and OT; and all those folks support that program. So, right now have about

twenty-five students’, babies in the program. Then those students when they turn three they have to

have a IEP. So, by three IEP and if we don’t meet that deadline we could be in trouble because it’s a

100% we have to meet that deadline. Then our little babies graduate into Part B, which is IDEA and

they then go into our three-year-old program, so we start right from the beginning all the way up to

age twenty-one. We also have a resource class rooms, we have specialized learning which a lot of

people called self-contained. So, in each building we have all of those services, as well as our related

services, so those are our rights and responsibilities is to provide that. We also provided 18-21

program, so students walk with their class and this is our lower incident students, students with

significate disabilities and they go to 18-21 which is house here in this building; and we helped them

with vocational skills, getting them jobs, getting them hooked up with community services. Our

responsibilities to ensure every student gets free and appropriate public education but they also are

educated so that they can advocate for themselves and be as independent as possible no matter what

their disability is, when they leave our schools. As for parents their responsibilities would be to ensure

that their child, that they attend their child IEP and that they follow due process measures, so if the

district does something they disagree with they have due process rights and basically other

professionals the same thing, it basically falls into the same thing. So that’s the rights and

responsibilities of everybody on the team” (Floyd. D, personal interview, March 10, 2017).

2. Identify the role of families, community members, and school professionals in the educational process?

“Well under special ed, under IDEA the role of the family and the community member is

basically to determine what the best possible services are for their student. So, that’s part of the

IEP team, everybody is a huge component of that team. So, their role is to attend annual IEP

meetings, everyone involved. So, here in Selah we ensure that general ed teachers, special ed

teachers, school psychologist, school counselors, parents, all attend the IEP meeting for that

student; that’s a piece of the education process is to ensure that and to ensure that students are

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Running Head: Clinical

getting not only an appropriate education but accesses to general ed, so all students should have access

to core and they do. So, all of our students are general ed students first, so we always start them at the

general ed level and then we look at the least restrict environment through that process but we want to

make sure that their education is appropriate and also getting that contact with the core” (Floyd. D,

personal interview, March 10, 2017).

3. Any issues, assurances, and due process rights related to assessment, eligibility, and placement within a continuum of services?

“All parents have the protection under IDEA and can follow due process procedures if they feel

that the district is not doing what’s best for their child, that is their right and it is related to

assessments, eligibility and placement. So, for an example, a student is referred to special ed we

have twenty-five school days to consider that referral. So, that doesn’t mean, if a parent said I

want my child to be evaluated we go out and evaluate, we have to actually take some time to

collect data, observe the student and decided whether or not that evaluation is appropriate. Once

the team decide the evaluation is appropriate, we have 35 days to evaluate the student; so, it’s

really a 60 days’ process. So, then if the student is eligible under IDEA then we move forward with

consent for placement and IEP etc., parents is a part of that. If the child is not eligible but the

parent disagrees with the evaluation then the parent can ask for what is called an independent

education evaluation (IEE), at public expense. So, the district can either file due process and say

we stand behind our evaluation100 % or the district can say yes, I will pay for the IEE; that is

typically the process for that. We then give the parents some options or evaluators, parents get

to choose the evaluator and then the district reimburses the parents for that. The district does

not have to follow the recommendations for that evaluation, we just have to consider it. Often

times the district will see recommendations from an outside Dr. as really a benefit to the student

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Running Head: Clinical

so, we typically go for some of those recommendations if its within reason. Under the eligibility

piece, once they are eligible the districts meet, we discuss placement and that always has to have

a parent involved, we can’t place a student without the parent and we do give parents options.

So typically, what we do after the student is evaluated we meet as a school based team without

the parent and discuss any recommendation that we would want to provide to the parent, the IEP

is written but it’s only a draft we never ever give a parent a finish IEP, that would be consider

predetermination, so we want to stay away from predetermination. So, we do give the parent a

draft IEP in advance, a week before the meeting and we tell the parents it’s a draft and write all

over it, have fun with it, come back to us and we will talk about what you would like to see for

your child. The parent’s responsibility is to provide meaningful input and the district helps make

the decisions about what is best for the student because we are the experts but we want to listen

to what parents have to say and we want to definitely be able to incorporate their input into their

child’s program” (Floyd. D, personal interview, March 10, 2017).

4. How the individual upholds high standards of competence and integrity and exercises sound judgment in the practice of the professional?

“That’s an expectation that I have for all of my teachers, we want to uphold high standards for

our students and we want to treat them with respect and always exercises sound judgement in

the practice. The students are held at a very high standard in Selah because we know they can do

it and when a student knows they are being held at a high standard they typically rise to the

occasion. As far as competence and integrity we ensure that our staff is always receiving

professional development in order to maintain a competence level so they can be the best

teacher they can be, so before we implement, we teach is first. So, it’s very important to me to

have professional development upfront so that way teachers can maintain that level of

competence that they need in order to provide services to students” (Floyd. D, personal interview,

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Running Head: Clinical

March 10, 2017).

5. How the individual addresses ethics in advocating for appropriate services?

“Our teachers definitely understand what’s ethical and what isn’t ethical. The Selah school district I

created a procedural manual for the district with our attorney for special ed. We were able to put

together a manual that’s pretty nice, and it gives teachers an idea of everything that is written

accordingly to the WAC, nothing is made up, everything is ethical. So, I wanted to make sure when

teachers are addressing student needs, parents need, all that, that they have something at their finger

tip that they can access, that is completely abides by Washington state laws. So, that’s how we

maintain that piece. In advocating appropriate services my teachers definitely know what they can

and can’t advocate for and we talked about, I never put a no on anything. So, if they have student that

they really feel they need a 1:1 we have actual forms that collect data, so when they come to me and

say this student needs a 1:1 and here is the information. So, I think of it a head of time, so we have

forms to request 1:1. So they have to go through a process and in that process, goes to the IEP team

and the parents get to provide input on that. They don’t advocate unless there is data that shows

that’s what the student needs and that’s our procedure here in Selah” (Floyd. D, personal interview,

March 10, 2017).

6. How the individual uses verbal, nonverbal, and written language effectively in communicating with IEP team members?

“Again, this falls into how I communicate, the procedural manual is one of those areas I always

provided PD, I attend IEP meetings when I can, and I always review IEPs, and I have a review form that

I use, that gives teachers feedback on their IEP. So, I always remind them what a goal is, how its met,

is it measurable. This is another piece of my communication with teachers. I also communicate

through mend Randoms on a regular basis regarding any changes in the legislator, in the law. I’ve

done online power point trainings to all the teachers and staff in the district, I present at different

staff meetings. I’m always out. CSL, which is a Plc, and our teachers communicate through that

process as well. I meet with school psychologist every Monday and meet with my teachers every third

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Running Head: Clinical

Thursday” (Floyd. D, personal interview, March 10, 2017).

7. How the individual utilizes models and strategies of consultation and collaboration?

“So again, we use the CSL Model for consultation and collaboration for teachers. We also use SST,

which is a student study team and every building has a SST and they meet weekly and talk about kids,

talk about data, talk about which students needs more support. We also have intervention teams. We

are a RTI district so we function that way as well. For consultations and collaboration, we do a lot of

different models. I meet with my staff, I have 95 staff but I oversea and evaluate 35. I meet with them

on a regular basis, usually once a month to discuss and collaborate with them about issues in the

district, concerns, and evaluations, IEP. I also, attend IEP meetings and again we use, when we talk

about models we use Washington state WAC, and everything is in our procedural manual” (Floyd. D,

personal interview, March 10, 2017).

8.How the individual addresses concerns of families of individuals with exceptionalities and strategies used to help address these concerns;

“I address them quickly and I meet with the family, usually if they already met with the principle at

the building and they don’t feel like their need were met then I will meet with them. I will mediate if

need be, in a situation and bring the family and the team in to discuss. I offer different strategies to

the family or different options, sometimes it could be counseling, it could be anything in the district

because part of FAPE is providing family counseling, so just all of those pieces. It’s just making sure

that the family feels like their needs are being met” (Floyd. D, personal interview, March 10, 2017).

9. How the individual uses group problem-solving skills to develop, implement, and evaluate collaborative activities?

“Well, we do our SST, CSLs and we meet so regularly that we are able then to develop and implement

some of the things we come up with. I’m a firm believer in making decision with the team’s support. So,

getting everybody’s feedback and input is always critical in order to ensure we are doing the right thing

here. In Selah. SO, Every Monday morning I meet with the school psychologist, ever third Thursday I

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Running Head: Clinical

met with all of my related service staff. So, I’m constantly meeting with them and collaborating with

them and coming up with ideas in order to implement. For IEP meetings just making sure that my

teachers have an agenda, and the parents get the agenda in advance and the parents are allowed to add

whatever they like to talk about on the agenda, so anything they want to discuss. SO that’s how we

collaborate. We keep the door open for mutual ideals and input. Through the agenda piece I think that is

really important way to solve some of our problems we might have, so we give it to the parents a week

in advices and parents will write in their concerns, so we talk about parents’ concerns and how do we

address this at the meeting, just be prepared before going into a IEP meeting, being prepared, being

ready, that’s what I always tell my staff you always need to be prepared. So, I implemented the agenda

piece and of course give it to the parents in advance the IEP draft so they can add any input that they

want to. It really makes a meeting go smoothly and everybody feel like a part of the team” (Floyd. D,

personal interview, March 10, 2017).

My reflections

I have learned a lot about special education in Selah school district in how they, communication,

and collaboration. How important it is to have a good relationship with the parents and coworkers. How

Selah goes about getting the parents involved. I didn’t know about giving the parent a draft of the IEP a

week before and how that helps with the IEP meetings to run smoothly. That there are so many

programs and services to help special education students, from birth to 21 years. How the district has

programs for 18-21 and that they even help the students find jobs. Also, they have a SST, which is a

student study team and every building has a SST and they meet weekly to discuss any issues. I find it

pretty awesome that the administrator goes out of her way for her students and teachers. That she

even created a procedural manual to make it easier on her teachers and so that they can make sure they

are ethical and follow the Laws with regards to student and families. Also, the administrator talk about

always be prepared for the IEP and always have agenda; and give that agenda a week in advance to the

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Running Head: Clinical

parents. When your prepared ahead of time it helps with making the meeting go smoothly and get to

the discussion at hand. Also, knowing what the parents think ahead of time can be beneficial, so the

teacher can come up with ideas or options to address any concerns of the parent at the meeting,

instead of getting back to them; their concerns can be answered right then and there. Knowing all this

information is truly helpful because once I’m a teacher I will have some of the information I need to

better communicate and collaborate with parents, so that I will give my students the best quality of life

and education they can have. I’m proud of all the work Selah has done to ensure their students not only

get a fair and appropriate education but making sure that the students can advocate for themselves.

Also, the work the district does for professional development so their staff can maintain the best

education to provided their students. I also, realize there is still so much for me to improve on and to

know. I also have information that can help me be a better teacher and what is expected of me, IEP

team, students and parents.

Reference:

Floyd. Danna, personal interview, March 10, 2017

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