SPED Essentials

Hello Special Services Team!

Here comes the holiday season! Are you ready? I love the genuine beauty and time with friends and loved ones, but man it can be a busy time of year. If winter is your jam, enjoy the days ahead. I promise the colder days will eventually arrive.

This time of year, our leadership team is busy starting to think about next school year. We begin planning for transitions and upcoming needs by department. It is an ongoing process, and as you can imagine a bit of a task for a district our size. We appreciate all you do to help us with this by keeping your coordinators and facilitators in the loop on student plans and needs.

Speaking of students, I have had the pleasure of visiting many of your buildings this semester. Your work with our students is so important and I enjoy seeing the talent and dedication each of you have. The best part of those visits is hearing from the students. I love seeing the relationships they have with each of you. As you know, that matters, so kudos to you for making that a priority.

I want to take a moment to wish Deb Chappell all the best as we celebrate her upcoming retirement. She has been a valued member of the special service department, and we will all miss having her legal expertise. Thank you for your service, Deb. Enjoy your well-deserved travels and family fun!

In closing, I hope you take this fall break to rest and rejuvenate. Let's finish this semester strong!

Anjanette

Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well. - Voltaire

Special Education Teams,

Guess what time it is? Yes, is almost December 1 and we are preparing for our count. The attached information, “Let’s Talk Turkey” outlines your responsibilities in accurate and timely reporting of data to KSDE.

PLEASE NOTE: All IEPs or Reevaluations due through December 1st, as well as any that are scheduled prior to the 1st, MUST be finalized and attached in Synergy SE by the end of the day on Tuesday, November 28th. Any student who has exited SPED services (moved, met objectives, revoked, etc.) prior to December 1st must be exited in Synergy SE on the SpEd Docs tab as of their last date of service.

Please don’t hesitate to contact your SPED Coordinator, Chris Fluke, or Jennifer (Jenn) Miller if you have any questions about the Dec 1 count or your very important role.

We thank you for your work and wish you a great holiday season!

• Are you wondering where to start? Looking for additional resources to assist you with implementation? Check out the attached document!
• Videos, Support, Lessons, etc!

• Learn more about the learning targets and important vocabulary, possible tools to use during instruction, and find materials to help plan your specially designed instruction for students in math.
• Each standard is broken down by learning targets with examples for teaching each learning target. It is not necessarily sequential or a full lesson plan, rather ideas of how to break down a standard and teach it for intervention purposes.
• You can use the example given and switch out for other numbers to build the concept for the student. It also gives a look at how general education teachers are teaching these interventions in math MTSS time.
• These resource pages can be found on the math repository, under the specific standard. Reach out to your building’s special services instructional coach or math MTSS support specialists for more information.
• Access this link to connect to the Math Curriculum Content page.
• Schema Based Instruction (SBI) - Elementary (sharepoint.com)

• Attachment below provides an example of one for a kindergarten standard.

The Special Education Notices/Forms Page, located within the KSDE website, has been updated to include 17 new language translations for the Parent Rights (Procedural Safeguards), Notice of Meeting and Prior Written Notice Model Forms, Revocation of Consent-Particular Service Sample Forms, and Revocation of Consent-All Services Sample Forms.

The languages include Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Chinese, Chinese Traditional, Hmong, Lao, Nepali, Pashto, Pohnpeian, Polish, Portuguese-Brazilian, Russian, Somali, Swahili, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Previously, these forms were only available in Spanish and English.

Please follow the link to view the new additions:

https://www.ksde.org/Agency/Division-of-Learning-Services/Special-Education-and-Title-Services/Special_Education/Special-Education-Notices-Forms.

• The Prior Written Notice for Identification, Initial Services, Placement, Change in Service (PWN-ID) has changed in Synergy to assist staff with completing this paperwork thoroughly and accurately.
• Staff should be aware that all changes to the IEP should be reflected specifically in the PWN; “Adopt IEP dated 9/2/23” or similar statements without a list of changes does not meet KSDE's requirements.
• Please review the attached document below for additional guidance.

ESY Dates:

June 3rd - June 27th

ESY Locations:

Early Childhood - Harmony and Heartland

Elementary - Arbor Creek

Secondary - Chisholm Trail

Updated document attached.

Special Education / Resources (olatheschools.org)