Contact Person: __Michael O Neill______Discipline/Area: Disabled Students Programs & Services
Proposal Name / Students With Learning Disabilities
Brief Description
(one or two sentences) / To identify students’ learning disabilities, provide academic accommodations and instructional program recommendations in the same semester the student requests evaluation under the California Community Colleges Learning Disabilities Eligibility Model.
Years on Priority List
(5 points) / Seven (7) years
What will be achieved?
(10 Points) / This proposal will provide an additional full time Learning Disability Specialist/Instructor to assess students who are either self referred or referred by faculty to determine if the student qualifies as a student with a learning disability. This additional position will enable another 80 to 100 students each year to be assessed for learning disabilities. This will eliminate the wait list for this service and help in preventing students from dropping out of the college due to a learning disability not being identified in time to provide them academic accommodations.
Justification: Why should this be done?
(20 points) / SEE ATTACHED SHEET
College Goals and/or Objective(s) & Student Learning.
(30 points) / Goal 1: Achieve student success by placing the needs of learners first.
- Ensure that the student’s earliest experiences with the College are positive, nurturing and focused on student learning and academic success
- Create/implement a plan to increase the success rates of students in basic skills, career technology education, and general education courses.
- Throughout the organization, hire, develop, support, and empower employees who take an active role in student learning and success.
Student Learning
Students with unidentifiable learning disabilities fail more courses and are more likely to dropout or fail out of college. This proposal would enable 80 to 100 more students a year to be assessed for learning disabilities, receive appropriate academic accommodations and services, and be less likely to fail or drop out of college.
Does this proposal fulfill a mandate? / Yes:In order for DSPS to report a student as having a learning
disability. The disability must be verified by a Learning Disability Specialist. The Learning Disability Specialist must be certified bythe Chancellor Office and must administer the DSPS Learning Disabilities Eligibility Model as required.
Does this proposal address a safety issue? / NO
Will this proposal benefit other areas of the college? / YesA larger number of students with learning disabilities would be identified prior to dropping or failing classes or dropping or failing out of college.
Will this proposal impact or require accommodations from other areas? / NO
How will your proposal be achieved?Action plan summary: include primary steps, timeline for implementation, and who is responsible. / WHAT
Recruit and hire a Learning Disability Specialist / WHEN
Recruit in Fall/Spring 2008/2009 for employment in the fall semester 2009 / WHO
Director of Student Health & Disability Services
Assessment process: How will you determine that your proposal has been successful? / This proposal will be considered successful when every student, either self referral or referred by faculty to determine if they qualify under Title 5 as a student with learning disability is assessed in the semester referred.
Resources Required: facilities, equipment, software, staff, etc. (include cost estimate) / Faculty: / Cost: $90,000
Classified
Equipment:
Facilities/other:
$90,000
Comments of Dean or supervisor
Suggested Prioritization
(from division) / #2 in Student Services
Contact Person: __Michael O’Neill______Discipline/Area: Disabled Students Programs & Services
Dean: ______
____dnr______
Dr. Diane Ramirez
Vice President Student Services
# 5Justification: Why should this be done?
Research indicates that 10% of the general population has some form of a disability that impacts a major life function such as learning. 42% of the students served by Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) have identified learning disabilities. This data suggest that based on 10,000 students enrolled at College of the Desert 1,000 could have a disability and 420 of them could be learning disabled. Currently students with identified learning disabilities amount to less than half that number. In a given year DSPS staff see one hundred or more students who are either referred by instructors or self referred, who do not complete the learning disability assessment process. Of this number, about 50% do not initiate the process once they are aware of the wait for testing, which can be one semester or longer... Of the remaining students 35% of those who are wait listed or initiate the process do not complete the assessment and 25% fail there classes on dropout of the college. The non-evaluated learning disabled students may account for some of the following percentage: 36% of all Math 57 students dropout, 56% of those students who repeat Math 57 do not succeed. The learning disabilities assessment process averages 20 hours per student. To access all of the students referred each year would require between 3000 to 4000 hours of faculty time. Since the testing process generates FTES a significant number of FTES are lost yearly due to the lack of a second Learning Disability Specialist/Instructor in DSPS. Faculty referrals have increased 30% in the last year. Referrals from the nursing programs have increased close to 50%. The delay in assessing students for learning disabilities frustrates both students and faculty and contributes to the drop out rate