Student Affairs Program Review Update - DSPS
2010-11
(Report Due: November 17, 2011)
Program/Service Description: Include Description/Mission Statement/Number of Years at COD/Benefits/Contact (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean – from AUR)
Description: The Office of Disabled Students Programs & Services exists to ensure access and accommodations for individuals with disabilities to participate in college as well as to consult with faculty and staff to support their role in providing these services.
Mission Statement: Disabled Students Programs and Services at College of the Desert is committed to providing equal access to a community college education for students with disabilities. Through the utilization of specialized instructional programs and disability related support services, DSPS encourages and fosters student independence and assists those students in attaining their educational and vocational goals.
Number of Years at COD: Since 1971
Participants in the program/service receive the following benefits:
DSPS provides students with access to adaptive hardware and software training and specialized courses in the High Tech Center. Employment services, counseling and specialized courses are provided for Workability III students. Finally, students are provided with adapted Physical Education and accommodations and support services which include but are not limited to the following: priority registration, note taking, test accommodations, academic advising, disability related counseling, tutoring, ASL Interpreters, real time transcription, electronic textbooks.
Contact Person/Title:
Dr. Nathan Church, Director, Student Health and Disability Services Phone 760-776-7385
Mr. Adrian Gonzales, Interim Vice President, Student AffairsPhone 760-773-2590
Population Served: Include Number/Eligibility (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean - from AUR)
Number of Students Served: 587
Student Eligibility:
Students’ must have a professionally verified disability that lists a major life function that is impacted. During the year a total of 587 unduplicated students were served including 200 Workability III students funded by the CA Dept. of Rehabilitation.
Total Student Contacts: 12,065 – duplicated counts
Number of Student Development Courses : 24 Sections
Students Enrolled in DSPS Courses: 782duplicated enrollments
FTES Generated: 27.98 (credit and non-credit)
Program Requirements from outside agencies (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
The Implementing Guidelines for the Title 5 Regulations for Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS) represent the consensus of the Chancellor’s Office regarding interpretation of the regulations. The Guidelines are designed to provide technical assistance to college staff in administering DSPS programs. They provide guidance to the colleges in their legal and fiscal responsibilities to DSPS and students with disabilities. This document includes the Title 5 Regulations for DSPS (Title 5, California Code of Regulations, Sections 56000-56076), which were rearranged, updated or repealed in November 1992.
Article 1. General Provisions and Definitions
56000. Scope of Chapter
56002. Student with a Disability
56004. Educational Limitation
56005. Support Services or Instruction
56006. Determination of Eligibility
56008. Student Rights
56010. Student Responsibilities
Article 2. DSPS Services
56022. Student Educational Contract
56026. Support Services
56027. Academic Accommodations
56028. Special Classes Instruction
56029. Special Classes Course Repeatability
Article 3. Reports, Plans and Program Requirements
56030. Reporting Requirements
56032. Physical Disability
56034. Communication Disability
56036. Learning Disability
56038. Acquired Brain Impairment
56040. Developmentally Delayed Learner
56042. Psychological Disability
56044. Other Disabilities
56046. DSPS Program Plan
56048. Staffing
56050. Advisory Committee
56052. Evaluation
56054. Special Projects
Article 4. Funding and Accountability
56060. Basis of Funding
56062. Provision of Support Services or Instruction
56064. Direct Excess Costs
56066. Comparable Services
56068. Indirect Administrative Costs
56070. Revenue from Special Classes
56072. Allocations; Reports; Audits; Adjustments
56074. Accounting for Funds
56076. Other Resources
Program/Service Outcomes(source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean –from OAC Coordinator)
OVERARCHING PROGRAM LEVEL OUTCOMES
STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICES
1 - PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND RESPONSIBILITY
Students utilizing this program/service will demonstrate an ability to:
  • display habits of intellectual exploration, personal responsibility, and physical well being.
  • develop individual responsibility, personal integrity, and respect for diverse people and
cultures.
  • value and accept people with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds and abilities.
  • understand ethical issues to make sound judgments and decisions.
2 – SELF-AWARENESS, SELF-UNDERSTANDING, AND SELF-ADVOCACY
Students utilizing this program/service will demonstrate an ability to:
  • evaluate their own knowledge, skills, and abilities.
  • display three components of an effective self-advocate:
  • Self knowledge.
  • Define their own needs.
  • The ability to get what they need.
  • develop realistic goals.
  • appreciate the value of feedback.
  • adapt to challenging situations.
  • recognize that knowledge is the key to self-advocacy.
  • teach the people around them.
3 – SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND INDEPENDENT LEARNING
Students utilizing this program/service will demonstrate an ability to:
  • identify and utilize services, programs, and resources to become life-long learners including,
but not limited to:
  1. Study/Learning Labs
  2. Supplemental Instruction
  3. Computer-aided tutorials/instruction
  4. Learning Communities
  5. Student Development Courses
  6. Tutorial Assistance
  7. Counseling Services
  8. Special Programs for Student Success
  9. Admissions and Records
  10. Business Services
  11. Financial Aid
  12. Scholarship information
  13. Career/Transfer Services Resources

PROGRAM/SERVICE SPECIFIC OUTCOMES
DSPS
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES/STUDENT SERVICES OUTCOMES
  1. DSPS students will demonstrate independent use of appropriate services and resources including: accommodations, DSPS courses, adaptive computer equipment available in the High Tech Center and the Adapted Physical Education Programs.
  2. DSPS students will identify their disability and associated educational limitations and will be able to articulate their adaptive strategies to overcome those limitations.
  3. DSPS students will develop and utilize self-advocacy skills to access educational programs and opportunities.
  4. Students who utilize DSPS Services will complete their Individual Educational/ Vocational goals as described in their Student Education Contract..

PROGRAMS AND SERVICES ASSESSMENT SCHEDULE

Cycle I / Comments
Assessment / Report & Discuss / Implement Changes
DSPS / 09/SP / 09/FA / 10/SP / AR Completed
Cycle II / Comments
Assessment / Report & Discuss / Implement Changes
DSPS / 10/FA / 11/SP / 11/FA / AR Completed
Cycle III / Comments
Assessment / Report & Discuss / Implement Changes
DSPS / 12/SP / 12/FA / 13/SP
Cycle IV / Comments
Assessment / Report & Discuss / Implement Changes
DSPS / 14/FA / 15/SP / 15/FA
Results from most recent Assessmment from schedule above– (state SLO assessed and results of assessment)
NEED ASSESSMENT RESULTS FROM ASSESSMENT REPORT LOCATED ON THE “WAVE”
RESOURCES
Staffing for Program/Service: Include Funding Budget Level/Current Staffing Level
(source: Faculty/ Dir/Coord/Dean)
Funding/Budget (10-11) Total Funding $1,144,356
Categorical/Restricted 408,498
General Fund 383,423
WorkAbility III 232,380
ARRA/DOR Grant 18,712
Use format below
Current Annual Funding/Budget Level:
Categorical/Restricted
Salaries & Benefits$
Discretionary Costs
Equipment
Student Financial Aid Total:
Overall Staffing:
1 – FT Director (shared with Student Health Services and Student Psychological Services, 1– FT Employment Specialist, 1 – FT Instructor, 1 - FT Learning Specialist/Instructor, 1 – FT Technical Support Specialist, 1 – Adjunct Assessment Specialist/Instructor, 2 – PT ISA’s, 2 - FT counselors, 1 FT Senior Office Assistant, 1 PT Senior Office Assistant, 8 – Contract ASL Interpreters, 1 PT– Contract Staff (Captioning/Trans)
50 PT Student Workers including Office Assistants, Proctors, Mobility Aids & Note-takers.
Complete information and delete info above.
Position / # / Full/part time / Funding Source
Director / 1 / Full Time / 60% District/40% SHS
Facilities (source: Faculty/ Dir/Coord/Dean)
1) List of all facilities (Please indicate if any of these were added last year): For the first time in the history of the program, all of DSPS was housed within the same facility within the new Cravens Student Services Center in a single suite of offices, a conference room, High Tech Center and proctored exam area. This has improved the efficiency and communication within the program tremendously.
2) Assessment of adequacy of current facilities:
The new facilities in the Cravens Student Services Center have been an amazing boost to the program. A rarity in disabled student services is to have a facility that was designed specifically for these services. As a result we have a facility which fully integrated professional offices within a complex with a High Tech Center, a proctored examination area, as well as a reception area and a conference room (shared with the rest of the campus. Any new facility presents its own unique challenges. We have some service delivery issues with our waiting area outside the office in the corridor and have some less than optimal space utilization in the two rooms off of the High Tech Center but have had an otherwise very positive experience in the new facility.
Equipment and Supplies (source: Faculty/ Dir/Coord/Dean)
The High Tech Center is an instructional laboratory that houses 25 workstations for students.
It is used both in the instruction of specific DSPS courses as well as provide an open laboratory for DSPS students. There are a number of pieces of adaptive equipment that are included with most work stations including scanners to digitize text and almost two hundred software programs that provide students with learning and visual disabilities the opportunity to access text and web-based materials, along with a copy machine. There is also a Braille printer, several CCTVs and tape recorders available for student check out. Printers are available to support limited student printing in the High Tech Center. There are two stationary, ceiling mounted projector and a portable projector.
All staff had workstations complete with printers. A high speed multifunction copier/printer/fax is centrally located in the office.
We struggled toward the end of the year to have adequate printer cartridges and printer paper, due to the budget constraints.
Summary- Narrative Interpretation (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
Evenduring these fiscally austere times, DSPS has managed to find creative ways to maintain high quality services to students with disabilities, allowing them to be more successful academically than the general student population. Through partnerships and collaborative efforts, we have been able to expand our dwindling resource base to maintain our services and programs. We have successfully and happily transitioned to providing our services to students in the DSPS suite of the new Cravens Student Services Center.
COURSE INFORMATION
(Complete only if Applicable)
Changes Implemented as a Result of the Assessments (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
No course assessments scheduled for this year.
Student Success Data (source: Office of Institutional Research)
Subject = DSPS / 2007_08 / 2008_09 / 2009_10 / 2010_11
Student Success Rate: / 70.3% / 66.7% / 68.0% / 57.3%
Retention Rate: / 84.8% / 85.0% / 80.3% / 78.9%
Note: Above rates are for the DSPS credit classes only.
Success rate is the percent of students who earned a grade of A, B, C, or Cr/P in course out of total enrolled in course at census. Retention rate is the percent of students retained in course until the end of the term out of total enrolled in course at census.

Resources:

Staffing (source: Research Office)

Summary - Narrative Interpretation (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
There were significant innovations attempted throughout the year in the instructional program. Several sections of courses, limited to 8 students, were offered by placing them in our small instructional room in order to keep the main lab available to students as Open Lab. We also moved all courses to morning time slots to maximize the match in Open Lab between the times that students want to use the facility and the time that the Lab is available to them; that is, in the afternoon and early evening hours. Students were appreciative of this additional lab time that was made available to them. By redesigning elements of the WorkAbility III contract, we have been able to add Open Lab hours in those evening time slots as well as to provide hours on Friday for the first time in over three years. We have also been able to provide some computer-based career development tools for students to keep them keep up with the new digital frontier that exists for web-based career searches.
GOALS/ACHIEVEMENTS/CHALLENGES
Program/Service Goal Summary for year: 2010-11 (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
  1. Increase outreach activities to Spanish speaking disabled students/families in the Coachella Valley. We added 4 student workers that are bilingual. This significantly improved our ability to communicate with families of our new incoming students, in particular.
  2. Create strategies to better track and support academic success for DSPS students, especially first-year student cohorts over their first and second semesters at COD. We developed an excellent relationship with the IS staff and engaged in Informer training that allowed us to create data sets that include cohort data.
  3. Explore strategies to better serve disabled students at the three branch campuses of the College. We have established Office Communicator stations on both the Eastern Valley Campus and on the Mecca Thermal Campus in conjunction with Student Health Services and Student Psychological Services as well as other cooperating offices that will allow us to provide Skype-like communications for students at both campuses.

Program/Service Achievements 2010-11 (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean - from AUR)
  • Secured a $30,000 Grant from the McDonnell Familiy Foundation to keep the High Tech Center hardware/software infrastructure current.
  • Secured an $19,000 extension of the ARRA Grant to extend the Business Linkages Program
  • Secured a 5 year TRIO DSPS Grant of $1,100,000. (the grant focuses on the transfer success for students with disabilities, who are first-generation and financially disadvantaged)
  • Director accepted invitation to serve as the Program Chair for the 2011 CAPED Convention
  • 100% of sign language interpretation needs were fulfilled
  • Staff attended training sessions at the High Tech Center Training Unit in Cupertino
  • Continued specialty course in the High Tech Center offerings
  • Created additional small module based instructional model allowing the larger instructional area to be used as Open Laboratory for the DSPS students
  • Moved all classes to the morning hours making more prime time afternoon hours available to students in Open Lab
  • Were able to purchase a UbiDuo (assistive device for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing students) through the WorkAbility III redesigned contract
  • Were able to purchase a 2 new work stations through the WorkAbility III redesigned contract
  • Were able to purchase supplies through the WorkAbility III redesigned contract
  • Were able to provide evening and Friday through the WorkAbility III redesigned contract

Program/Service Challenges (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
Fortunately for DSPS students, the College has largely backfilled essential services in DSPS that would have been eliminated given the $400,000 plus reduction in State categorical funding for DSPSthat occurred last year. This year we experienced even further reductions, especially in the Deaf/Hard of Hearing P2 Allocation from the State, due to a change that was made in the funding formula State-wide. As a consequence, we lost a full-time clerical position. We are still adjusting our work loads to account for this loss. Change wording, sounds like supplanting.Some of the immediate impacts of this loss on general office coverage have been off-set by the half-time clerical coverage for the TRIO SSS-DSPS Grant and the fact that the programs are co-located in the DSPS office suite. The budget reporting, WorkAbility III contract invoicing and MIS data entry functions still have not been distributed effectively. Given the ongoing State and Federal budget crisis, it will become increasingly difficult for the College to backfill the funding reductions that have occurred. In order to ease this burden, DSPS will have to learn how to conduct its business very differently, looking to innovative ways to achieve a much higher level of efficiency while providing the same levels of academic and personal success for our students. What we did this year was to implement a new WorkAbility III Contract that was designed to anticipate a leaner DSPS operation. The has resulted in, for the first time with this Contract, the ability to purchase equipment and supplies as well as to fund travel/conference expenses. We have also been able to increase the staffing and hours for the High Tech Center. Because of the increased load on counseling, Paul Maag’s role in alternative text services are greatly reduced, including a cessation of faculty training and support. In addition, resources to support the technology infrastructure of the High Tech Center are largely gone and the ability to provide effective assistive software/hardware and training for DSPS students would have begun to suffer were it not for the $30,000 McDonnell Family Foundation Grant. The demand for computer-distributed testing for specific courses has placed an additional demand on technology resources at the worst possible time. We expect this demand to continue its growth. There have been a number of times that exams have been delayed due to the unavailability of adequate computing services. All this demand on the technology infrastructure comes at a critical time when important advances in some of the most heavily utilized software/hardware interfaces are opening unprecedented capacities for students with various disabilities. The demands on Learning Disability Testing have continued to press available resources (the typical waiting period for testing is a semester, placing students in jeopardy of taking course in the meantime, without appropriate accommodations that they may be eligible for, placing the College in a legal position of risk for not providing services).
Program/Service Objectives/Goals for current year: 2011-12 (taken from last year’s PRU; Source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
  1. Design a new service delivery model that is efficient and yet could be expected to achieve same or better student academic and personal success outcomes.
  2. Translate the data report capabilities, especially cohort data, into a program of monitoring student progress and providing the basis for strategic notifications of important campus processes and deadline.
  3. Redesign policies and procedures to support this new efficiency model.

Program/Service Objectives/Goals for 2012-13 (source: Faculty/Dir/Coord/Dean)
Implement the new efficiency model.

Completed by:Nathan Church