Description of the video:
Hi, welcome to our initial webinar as part of our Early Childhood Center webinar series. What it takes to implement effective, inclusive preschool services. What do we mean by effective and inclusive services? When we have four criteria. For the preschoolers with disabilities, we want those services, special education-related services, to be provided within the regular early childhood classroom settings and routines. There isn't pull out. Services aren't being delivered elsewhere. They are embedded within the regular preschool setting. Second, we want children receive the level and intensity of services and supports that match their individual learning needs. Just because we're looking at including kids with disabilities and regular classrooms. We also want to make sure that they receive the intensity of supports and services that we provide in special education. Third, we want to make sure that those regular education settings provide all the social and learning opportunities that are available for all children. We want children to be fully included as members of that classroom. And then finally, we want children to learn. It's important for them to be a part of the mainstream and have the opportunity to be fully included. And we want to ensure that they are also demonstrating substantial growth in their learning and development. Why are we talking about this? Some of you may have seen this before. It's called a scatter plot. And this is based on Indiana's data in which we chart the percentage of children receiving inclusive services. This is preschool-aged children. That's along the bottom axis, and along with the percentage of children who make substantial progress according to the federal outcomes that are state measures. Now, each dot in this scatter plot represents a school district here in Indiana. And when you look at this, you can see that many of our school districts provide services to well under half of all preschool-aged children with disabilities. This is a problem. When we look at how well our state does in comparison to other states. We are substantially behind and educate very few of our preschoolers with disabilities in regular education settings. Hi, I'm Michael Conn Powers. I'm director of the Early Childhood Center at the Indiana institute on disability and community at Indiana University. And I'm the first presenter in our series and I'll be talking about how we can go about adopting high-quality inclusive service models. And talk about some of the starting points to get new efforts underway. Before I start, just a little bit of background information. As you may know, the Early Childhood Center is one of seven centers at the Indiana institute on Disability and Community. The institute covers a lifespan for people of all ages with disabilities. We happened to attend to the beginning of that lifespan. A big emphasis at our center and in fact at all centers at the Institute is this notion of promoting research to practice. How can we take what we're learning and research and translate that into better practices and better services for all individuals with disabilities. I have three distinct goals over the next four weeks. One, I want us to imagine special education services and supports that not only foster the kinds of skills that we typically include in our IEPs, but also to think about the skills and opportunities that support children's membership and engagement, in home and community and regular early childhood settings. It requires a different skill set and it requires us to rethink how we provide services to give children the opportunities to develop those skills that support membership and engagement. Second, I'm going to introduce you to the field of implementation science that looks at how programs and districts make changes and adopt new practices and service models. And finally, using that implementation science framework, I'll make you aware of the initial steps you can take to begin to implement, and effect change in your local district. Now we also tried to reference our work with the Division for Early Childhood's Recommended Practices. And I've identified three practices there that get at the importance of leadership and advocating for policies and resources that reflect best practices in early childhood special education. And specifically with a focus on those policies and practices that support more inclusive services. Okay. So, we're going to think of this as a journey. And I want to share what our agenda will be for the next three weeks, with the fourth week being an opportunity for you to join us in a live forum and talk about some of the content I'm sharing today. And over the next couple of weeks after that. First, we need to think about our destination. We're looking at a journey. And in this designing of inclusive and high-quality and effective inclusive service models, we need to think about what that looks like and what that means. And so, I want to talk about that today as well as introduce that roadmap for change. Then in the next session, I'm going to talk about how we can prepare for that journey. What are the initial steps we need to take if we are serious about effecting change within our own school district and community. Then finally, I want to talk about how we can begin to design and implement a plan for change. It's not an easy effort to move from a program in which the majority of preschoolers with disabilities are served in segregated environments to one that's more inclusive. It takes a lot of work. Okay, let's get started. So, I want us to think about or maybe even rethink what our destination is, what is it that we want to create? Taking time at the beginning to really think through what is it that we want to accomplish? What is it that we want our program to look like as it relates to providing high-quality educational services for preschoolers with disabilities. Now the rethinking comes from the fact that when we look at what we've done over the past several years, well, you know what? We've been doing the same thing over the past. Well, I think I only show six years here, but it's probably closer to ten or fifteen years. Reality is that most of our preschoolers with disabilities are served in segregated preschool classrooms. Only about 30%, three out of ten children, have the opportunity to receive special education and related services within a regular early childhood program or classroom, or family daycare home. When I've shared this scatter plot in the past, I've had some educators and therapists say, wait a minute. There's quite a few of us that are making an incredible impact on these preschoolers with disabilities. Yeah, who were providing services that are in segregated, self-contained preschool classrooms, but they're making great gains. Is that's so bad? Well, first, there are important skills that children are not learning when they're served primarily on a segregated or self-contained preschool classroom. One, children aren't learning how to generalize the skills that we're teaching and them in the self-contained classrooms. To be able to use those skills out in regular everyday life, out in the community, or in a very busy and hectic classroom with 20 other preschoolers. And we know that generalization can be a challenge for many children with disabilities. And when we restrict and control the setting in which children are learning those new skills, makes it very hard for them to successfully generalize the skills that we've taught. Another thing, children not learning or not learning how to attend and learn and engage in a classroom with 20 other children. Many of our preschool self-contained classrooms have small class sizes. We do that for the good intention of being able to provide more individualized instruction. But the reality is, we're not preparing children to be able to learn and cope and manage themselves in a very busy and hectic kindergarten classroom of 20 to 25 other children. We're not giving them that opportunity to learn those skills. They are not learning how to function in a large group setting without them being always told what to do. They're not provided the opportunity to learn skills about how to follow directions during large group time with 25 other children. The opportunity to learn how to appropriately wait turns and share materials and make choices when there isn't the level of adult direction and supervision that they're going to get in a regular preschool or kindergarten setting. Also, there are several important opportunities that children miss out on. They miss out on the opportunity to develop friendships. Have the opportunity to develop friendships with children that they might accompany throughout all their school years. We restrict that. I don't know if you're familiar, but having friends is a very powerful intervention in and of itself. Research shows that when students with disabilities have good friendships, it helps contribute to long-term outcomes. Better academic skills, better high-school graduation rates, better adult employment status, greater chance for independent living, and so on. This opportunity for friendships and a membership gives them the time to be able to be a part of something that will help carry and support them throughout life. Finally, we might have unintended negative impact on families. Think about the messages that families might be receiving. When we meet with them during those case conferences, are brand new families coming into the system and their children are needing special education services. And they're asking about services occurring within the child's childcare or preschool setting in the community. And we're making the recommendation that that's not an appropriate one. What is it that families might be hearing? What impact does that have on families own perceptions and hopes and expectations for their sons and daughters. I'm going to borrow from the work of one of my colleagues, Dr. Katie Herron. She has a research project going on right now where she's talking to a number of families of young children, very young children with disabilities, asking about the expectations they have for their children as they get older and get a sense of what influences those expectations, their hopes and their dreams for their sons and daughters. And one of the things that we're learning, and we learn from research with families of, of older children, students is that we can have a powerful influence in lessening the kinds of expectations that families have when they hear that we're recommending that self-contained classroom. Because they think that their children will learn better or they're not ready for that regular preschool setting. That this will provide a much more controlled and careful setting to provide that intensive education that their sons and daughters need. Families may begin to think about what their children are and are not capable of doing and learning. They may be picking up on the fact that we have some negative connotations associated with the child's disability. Rather than looking at the wonderful gifts and strengths that each child brings to the situation. And what we can be doing and saying can nurture much more positive and ambitious expectations for families. Katie shares this quote and I'm going to, I'm going to borrow it. It's based on research that IV has summarized. And they found that when influential people in the child's life do not believe that their children have a potential to achieve a specific outcome. It is unlikely that the outcome will be realized. So, I want you to think about the impact that you're having on families. And i know unintentionally, but what is it that families hear? So I'd like to invite you to think of an alternative that rather than repeating our past journeys. And continuing to do what we've always done, in which we do serve the overwhelming majority of preschoolers in separate, segregated services. That maybe we rethink that. Perhaps we consider more inclusive service models instead that provide children and families the opportunities to expect more and learn more. Now, to do that, we've got some important things we need to attend to. We need to be able to identify early childhood settings and determine how those services, how we will provide services within those settings. And then knowing that we're going to be partnering with our regular Early Childhood colleagues, we need to be clear about our roles and expectations. When we do this, we begin to form a more clear and defined picture of the service models and practices that we want to adopt. It's an important first step. Let's go ahead and get started. Okay. First step is, let's think about the early childhood settings that we want to partner with and placing children with disabilities and providing special education-related services. In Indiana, we've seen three options. Public school base, pre-K programs, working with community partners, including preschool and childcare and Head Start. Let's talk about each of these. Ok. For a number of our school districts. They're already providing public school base, Pre-K, pre-kindergarten, or preschool services for children without disabilities. And so right off the bat, we have a natural partner in which we can have the conversation about including our children with disabilities in those classrooms and negotiating how we provide special education and related services within those settings. So that's a, that's an excellent place to start. Another place to start if that's not an option for you, is to partner with our community preschool and childcare programs. We have a very vibrant childcare system throughout the state of Indiana. In this map, I'm making you aware of the childcare resource and referral providers and service systems that exist in our state. This is a service system that is available to families and helping families find high-quality childcare. But it's also a good resource. And helping who might be some of the preschool and childcare programs in your own community with whom you might partner. Another resource that's offered. By our state's office of early childhood and out of school learning is the childcare finder. Again, this is a resource for families and helping them to find high-quality childcare or On My Way Pre-K programs. But this is a resource that you can use, again, to find high-quality early childhood programs with whom you might partner in your community. Finally, another important partner our local Head Start programs.Head start programslocated throughout the state.And Head Start has been around for decades.They are a high-qualitypreschool program that's availablefor childrenliving with low-income families.They have a strong history andstrong investmentin providing high-quality services.And they havea long-standing mandate to includeand serve children withdisabilities in their preschool classrooms.So they are and shouldbe a strong and willing partner.Now, with Head Start andpreschool and childcare programsthat I've talked about.There are many pluses,but, but there are also some challenges.And I want to make you awareof those challenges as you go abouttrying to find regularchildhood partners to work with.One, for some of these programs,some of the teachers may not havea lot of experience and training.and the perception that they havethe skills toeffectively care for andeducate children with disabilities.They don't have the same educationand training that you've had.And so they may be leery andfeel that they won't be able todo as good of a job.And what you'll bedoing is to provide them with a level ofassurance as well assupport and knowing that they can do that.Also, many of these programs may not have,if they have had children withdisabilities in their classrooms,they may not have had childrenwith more significant disabilities.So again, as you start to meetwith and develop these relationships,you need to also conveyyour role in providing the kind of trainingand support that will enable each ofthese programs effectively carefor and educate all young children.Next, we need to talk about the models,what are special education andrelated services going tolook like in one of those settings?And from our worklooking at successful programs.Here in Indiana, we've identifiedfour primary models forhow specialeducation-related services are provided.And I want to talk about each ofthose so that you have an idea ofwhat might be a model ormodels that would workfor you in your own community.Probably by and large,this is the most common model.We talked about, Push-in services.That's a term thatI think is unique to Indiana.And the idea is that asthe special educator orspeech and language pathologist,we provide serviceswithin that regular classroom,push those services into that classroom.So depending on the activity,whether small group orfree choice time or large group,we find the opportunity totake and work withthose individual children ontheir IEP goals and objectives andprovide the intensity andtypes of services that those childrenneed to acquire the goals from their IP.Now the strengths of this model are one,the folks that have the greatest expertiseuse the special educator ortherapist, are the onethat's providing the service.You're there in the classroomworking with the childand providing the servicesbased on that child's IEP.the downside that model is ifyou're the only one that's doing that,then there's not an opportunityfor the other teachers in that classroom tolearn about what you'redoing and what they could bedoing to supportthat child's learning and development.It, it doesn't buildthe capacity ofthe classroom teacher to take onsome of those responsibilities andlearn some ofthe intervention strategies and techniques.And so we run the risk of children beinga guest in that classroomrather than a full member.That the classroom teacheris responsible for.Another model that we see.And some districts around the state asthis itinerant or consultativeservices model.Here the focus is on providingtraining and technical assistance andsupport to the classroom teacher or teachers and giving them the know-how to be able toappropriate care foran educate children with disabilities.You're coming in as a consultant.You have expertise,you're familiar with the child,the child's IEP, and you're usingthat to share that informationwith the classroom teacher.So the focus now shifts.It is around buildingthe capacity of the classroom teacher toeffectively educate all ofthe kids in his or her classroom.Rather than on a push-in modelwhere you're takingthat responsibility now you're,you're sharing that responsibility.Plus what's nice about this model.Another strength is it provides sort of a,a relationship, aproblem-solving relationship.The classroom teacher knowsthat he or she is not alone,and then as questions or challenges arise.They know they have a partnerthat they can meet with to problem-solve.Now there are downside.There are downsides to this model also.One, it's not easy.This takes and requires a good dealof organization and interpersonal skills.You have to know how to bea good collaborative partner.You have to know how to consultwithout being bossy and directive.You have to look at this asa mutual relationship inwhich two brains are comingtogether to plot out the best strategy.Not you as the special educator,a therapist always in this role of,of telling them what to do and how to do it.And, and that takes a great deal of skill.Another downside or possible weakness.If this is your only Soul Strategy,there may be timeswhen an extra pair of hands oran extra pair of skilled handsare needed in that classroom.Both to model the interventionsthat are needed as well asto provide that support.So if you rely totally ona consultative or itinerant model,there may be times wherechildren on your caseloadare going to need a little bit more.A third model is co-teaching.In this model, your co-teaching there,both of you in the classroom who haveresponsibilities toward delivering education.It could be that your co-teaching,like in this picture whereit's team teaching,you're both leading a large group activity.And you're there either leading the activityor supporting the classroom teacherwho's leading the activity.Or maybe during free choice time,you take one of the centers.And that's the opportunity for you toprovide education or therapy.And you're doing that in the contextof the regular routines of class.And other children may be involved too.And in fact, maybe you'reenlisting the support of peersbecause peers can bea powerful interventionist also.So the strengths there,it provides a wonderful opportunityfor you to do push-in.But it's not just you takingthe individual child tothe corner and working just with them.You're working with a child.In the context of the overall classroom.You provide the opportunity to modelgood special education and related services,strategies and techniques foreverybody to see and learn.Children are getting the kindsof intervention and support that they need.And it's a great way toimprove the overall quality of the classroom.We have a lot we can offeras good educators and of ourselves.The weaknesses to this model, the downsides.Again, it can be difficult to implement.It does require a good deal ofcollaboration in a classroom.Teacher needs to feel comfortablewith you being a member ofher classroom and sharingsome of those responsibilities.And it does requiresome advance planning coordination.You can't just show up and kind of wing it.You need to have an ideawhat the lesson plan involves and,and what your role is going to be and, and,and the classroom teachersrole is going to bein order for this to be executed well.Finally, the, the last modelwhen we don't see this one very often,we've seen it ina couple of school districts.And, and it's whereschool districts tooka very strong leadershiprole and they decided,we're not going tohave special ed classrooms.We're not going to have regulared classrooms per se.We are going to have preschool classrooms.And those preschool classrooms arestaffed withearly childhood special educators.And the makeup of the classroom, again,less than half of the childrenor children with disabilities.And they're usually 20,there's usually 20 kids in that classroom.So it's a regularpreschool classroom in whichchildren with disabilities aremembers of that classroomand there's only one teacher,and that teacher is the teacher ofrecord andproviding special education services.And they are teaching all the children.In fact, they're wearing both hats,both the regular early childhoodeducator hat as well asthe special educator hat.Or major strengths of this model.It almost provides an ideal visionof how we might want early education to looklike and start to tear downthese artificial boundaries betweenregular education and special education.That is, we're creatingclassrooms that are universally designed.They work and striveto work for all children.And we put people inthose classrooms that havegood early childhood curriculum skillsas well as good special education skills.And so that children,regardless of if they'reidentified and on an IEP or not,have someone in that classroomthat has skill toprovide those multiple tiersof intervention and technical support.The challenges to that.It's it can be inexpensive model.It you know, it requiresdistricts to be very creativeabout how they fund it.And recognize that they're goingto be blending or braidingdifferent levels of fundingto support those classrooms.And what those days look like.So I think it's a,it's a great model.And one seriously look at.But you need to know thereare challenges that come with it.Once you've defined where andthe service models aremodels that you're looking at.You need to spend just a little bit of time.Especially you're using thefirst three of the four modelsfor providing services.You need to think about what your role is asthe special educator therapistsand with classroom teachersrole and spend some timein conversations with the classroom teacherto negotiate and make sure there'sa mutual and sharedunderstanding of those roles.Because now we're starting tolook at more collaborative service models.And while it sounds great,it's something that's hard.It takes a good deal of skilland it takes time to havethose conversations to meetand plan outside of class timeso that both ofyou have a clear sense of who's doing what.And what each canexpect of each other when,when you're in that classroom.So again,if you're talking about push-in services,you're going to probably be the primary teacherfor those children with disabilities.But it begs the question,what is it that youwant the classroom teacherto take responsibility?I mean, they areproviding a regular classroom experience,but are they going to be involved in that inthat child's education and helping themreach their IEP goals and objectives.If you're using a more consultative model,well, it's recognizing thatboth of you are consultants.In fact, you need to be thinking ofthe regular classroom teacheras a consultant toyou because one of the things thatshe has that you probablydon't have is an understanding of whata regular early childhoodclassroom should looklike and how childrenshould behave and function ina group of 20 childrenand what are typical expectations?Okay? And, you know,she's the primary teacher.And so again, within a consultative model,you need to be negotiatingthose roles and again,respecting what each otherbrings to this consultativepartnership and relationship. In a co-teaching,well now you're both primary teachers.And so there than the skill is that advanceplanning and preparation where you negotiate.You know, am I my leadingthe circle time andyou're supporting or is it vice versa?During free choice, where am I and who,am working with and whereare you and who you're working with?And so it takes a great dealof coordination and planning.And then, you know,if it's a one teacher modelwhere you are boththe regular education classroom teacherand the special educator.Well then some of these issues aremoot and you're the end all,you do it all.Okay, we've talked about thinkingabout our destination at this step.Thinking about where are yougoing to provide services?Who are you going to partner with?What the service model is going to look like?Negotiating roles,starting to think those through.Is going to be really important.In essence, you're startingto think about, alright,what are the programs and service models thatwe might want toadopt in our school district.And spending some time in thinkingthat through and starting toget into the nitty gritty is goingto help in bringingthe rest of the people on board andstarting to look at and explore change.I want to talk about andintroduce a roadmap for that change.And we'll spend more time talkingabout this roadmap in the next two sessions.But I want to, I want tojust touch on it here.So this roadmapinvolves stages of implementation.We, we borrow from a science calledimplementation science that looksat how well districts,agencies and programs adoptnew service models and adopt new practices.And they find that there'sa science for how that can happen.Very, very well.Now we borrow,this is not something we've created our shop.But we've borrowed a lot fromthe National Implementation Research Networklocated at the Frank Porter Graham Instituteatthe University of North Carolinaand Chapel Hill.And they have a wonderful website withlots of helpful materials and in fact,even some learning hubsthat talk about an implement,implementation scienceand bringing about change.And one of the projects that's been aroundfor a long time is there sits up model.And in that project they've lookedat the state implementation and scaling up.They work with states who areinterested in taking ona particular service modeland how a state can support change throughoutthe state and in supporting districtsto adopt new practices and models.And so these are the folks that,that we look to kind of help usunderstand how we cantranslate what they're learning.To perhaps look atour own changes here in Indiana.So here's the roadmap.I'm just going to give youa high-level overview andthen we'll get into more next week.It really looks atthe stages of implementation.You know that it's a,it's a long-term multi-year process.And, and the important,the first step is probably the mostimportant and I'll spend timetalking about it next week.And that's exploration.That's bringing all theright people together.You know, you've got a great idea.You've really started to spendtime thinking about andimplementing an inclusiveservice model that provideshigh quality education andrelated servicesto preschoolers with disabilities.But now we need to chew on it.We need to explore it.We need to bring people together and assesshow well will that model workand our school system?What is it that weare going to need to change?What is it that we're going toneed to bring into our system?Whether it's professional development,learning new strategies, orlooking at how we fund our programs.You're going to need to bring in leadership.So exploration is kindof getting our act together and,and truly looking atthe model and the practices we want to adopt.Once we've done that and wehave our eyes are wideopen where we're making informed decision.Then we need to startto work towards installation.And the idea there is,what is it that we do to begin toput the services and supports in place?Okay. Whether it's professional development,that's usually a big one.But it's all planning andinfrastructure and funding and leadership.What is it that we need to put in placeso when we start to move into implementation,we have all of our ducks in a row.In initial implementationthe idea there is,instead of doing this acrossthe district, perhaps we pilot,let's identify some initial school,buildings or preschool classrooms that wewant to try this first, let's try it out.Let's assess and let's learn from it.And then based on what welearn and the changes we make,we can look at full implementationacross the district.So I'll be talking more aboutthis over the next couple of weeks.I want to thank you all.There's my name and my email address, please.If you have any questions,you're welcome to email meand I'll be happy to respond.We will have two more sessionsand then at the end of this month,we will provide a timeto have a live discussion.And that'll be an opportunity for youto join me live andask questions or share some ofyour own stories and experiences. Thank you.
