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Multi-Tiered Support System in action
YOUNGSTOWN
Despite criticism leveled during a recent school board meeting, district officials report special education is progressing in the Youngstown City Schools.
Lori Kopp, district chief of student services, said with the new Multi-Tiered Support System, problems are getting solved ahead of time or early on rather than later.
This system places a number of interventions and steps in place to help cut down on prematurely labeling students in need of special education.
“We were always putting out fires before,” Kopp said. “Now we are getting into the problem and helping by seeing what interventions are working and not working rather than putting a Band-Aid on it.”
Within each building are coordinators, supervisors and more who provide support to the teachers, students and staff helping special- education students.
“We have so many extra layers of support,” Kopp said. “It helps tremendously.”
Linda Yosay, Mahoning County Educational Service Center special-education consultant, echoed Kopp’s optimism about the system.
“Our coordinators are helping teachers by making suggestions of things they can be doing differently to either help identify appropriate students or provide intervention for other students,” Yosay said. “We just don’t want students labeled disabled if they’re not. Struggling students are not necessarily disabled.”
Currently, 23 percent of students in the district are labeled as in need of special education.
At last week’s board of education meeting, a district counselor said students in need are not getting the kind of support they should – and neither are the teachers.
City schools counselor Lori Sakacs said students with individualized education plans, or IEPs, aren’t getting the kind of special education they require.
She continued to say that teachers are overwhelmed with the amount of students with IEPs in their classrooms, sometimes making it tiresome to carry out a normal lesson plan.
“When the [school] reconfiguration happened, we neglected special education and tried to mainstream [students], and it’s not working,” she said during the board meeting.
The reconfiguration put students in kindergarten through eighth grade in schools closer to their homes to rebuild pride in the neighborhoods within the district.
Yosay, however, said Sakacs is misinformed.
Students that Sakacs may be seeing might be receiving interventions to keep them from being prematurely labeled as in need of special education.
“We have a number of research-based interventions put in place that involve students being included in the general-education classroom,” Yosay explained. “We could have an intervention specialist in the classroom for periods of time. We could have the classroom teacher providing intervention by consulting with the specialist.”
The overall referral process, which initially identifies a student who may be in need of special education, is very involved, Yosay said.
Kopp said the long process is done so the schools don’t over-identify students.
“Just because there are behavioral problems doesn’t mean a student is disabled,” she said. “We have interventions we put in place that are there to protect the child.”
The interventions aim to find the best learning practices for the student having trouble.
If a child is still unresponsive after an intervention phase and a disability is expected, Yosay said an evaluation with parental consent will take place and, hopefully, an IEP will be formed to outline how to best educate that student.
IEPs are roadmaps to instructional services and supports, Kopp explained. Each student’s IEP is re-evaluated every three years to see if his or her needs have changed or if special education is needed anymore.
Yosay said the special-education program is determined to keep students in their general-education classrooms as much as possible with appropriate supports in place.
“It’s our obligation to each child to give them every opportunity.” Yosay said.
All-in-all, Kopp said the goal of the student services department is to help each child and make sure he or she succeeds.
Yosay agreed.
“In doing that, we also have to support teachers,” she said.
The last facet of support goes to the parents.
“We want to help parents because sometimes they come to us and they just don’t know what to do,” Kopp said.
Kopp said the district is trying to ensure the right education goes to each parent to fully understand what is being done to help the struggling student.
“We are building relationships with people,” Yosay said. “That’s what leads to a better understanding.”
Yosay added it’s unfortunate when things are misrepresented. She also said parents, staff, community members and others seeking answers to questions regarding services to students can contact student services at 330-744-6968 or submit anonymously at youngstown.k12.oh.us/LetsTalk.aspx.
“We’re willing to talk with anyone with concern,” Yosay said. “I would rather talk to people and clarify.”
Kopp also suggested staff members contact their building principals with concerns.