2007/2008

Special Education Program

School Allocation

Workplan & Reporting

Handbook

For First Nation Schools

Special Education Program (SEP)

#113 – 100 Park Royal South

West Vancouver, BC V7T 1A2

Tel: (604)925-6087

Toll Free 1-877-422-3672

Fax: (604) 925-6097

The First Nations Schools Association (FNSA) and the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) will be responsible for allocating the Special Education Funding from the Department of Indian Affairs for First Nations Schools.

This handbook outlines the information for First Nations schools to access the Special Education Program Funding (SEP) allocated to them.

The amount of funding allocated to each First Nations school is described in a letter sent directly to each school.

Further information about the Special Education Program Funding is available by contacting the FNSA/FNESC office at (604) 925-6087 or 1-877-422-3672.

Program Summary

Funding available for school allocations:$7,427,290

Funding accessed through:Workplan

Deadline for Workplan:October 5, 2007

Deadline for the INACFirstNationsSchool Annual

Reporting Form:February 22, 2008

Deadline for Final Report:June 20, 2008

Description

The Special Education Program Funding is intended to support activities related to High Cost special education in First Nations schools. Activities for this initiative will fit into the following categories:

  1. Student Assessment
  2. Early Intervention Programs/Activities
  3. Individual Student or Small Group Programs/Services
  4. School Wide or Large Group Programs/Services
  5. Professional Development

Funding available to First Nations schools for special education initiatives is being distributed directly to schools using a formula that provides a “base plus per capita” amount. The funding available to your school is outlined in the allocation letter.

A description of the five categories and sample activities are provided in this handbook. Please feel free to adapt or modify the suggestions to meet your needs, or to combine several ideas, depending on the level of funding available. We also encourage you to combine funding from other sources and/or form partnerships with other communities, if appropriate, to increase the amount of money available for your initiative.

Please feel free to combine funding available in order to meet the needs of your school. For example, New Paths for Communities funding can be used in conjunction with the Special Education funding.

Accessing Funding

Since this funding allocation is based on a predetermined formula, formal proposals are not required to access funds. However, the FNSA requires that requests for funding be submitted in the form of a workplan. The format for the workplan can be downloaded from the FNSA website or filled out manually on the workplan provided. Workplans can be mailed or faxed (604-925-6097) or emailed ().

Funding Process

First Nations schools will be provided with 75% of their allotted funds upon receipt and approval of their workplan. The final 25% will be forwarded to schools upon submission of the FirstNationsSchool Annual Reporting Form.

Workplan Deadline

October 5, 2007 by 4:30 pm

Any schools that do not submit a workplan will forfeit this year’s funding. Any forfeited funds will be reallocated to schools that submitted workplans. Schools are welcome to apply for their allocations prior to this date. The October deadline is given for schools that require some additional time at the beginning of the school year.

Workplan Instructions

The special education program (SEP) workplan was simplified a couple of years ago. Instead of separate sections for each category of planned activity, there continues to be a generic section with a space to check the category the activity falls in. Please note that schools are not required to spread their allocations over four activities. The number of activities that use SEP funding in school workplans tends to vary from 1to 10 or more.

Section A: Instructions and Definitions

Sections B: SEP Activity Descriptions. Number each activity; place a check mark on the category (please check only one); and fill in the number of students, outcomes, performance indicators and data source columns. Descriptions and definitions of some of the terms in these sections are explained in the following section of the handbook. Photocopy additional pages if needed. Please make sure to provide a description of your initiatives in the space provided.

Section C: SEP Program Budget A budget must be completed for each activity. Please also complete the summary budget table at the bottom of this section.

Reporting Requirements

The FirstNationsSchool Annual Reporting Form is due February 22, 2008

This form is currently being revised by INAC, but will be available for download from the FNSA website at closer to the deadline.

Final reports on the SEP Workplan activities are due by June 20, 2008.

***NEW***

At the 2006 SEP regional sessions, the concept of using the Individual Education Plan (IEP) as way to document student growth was presented to participants. Feedback from the sessions indicated that the following charts were a logical way to collect the needed data and that this process would not create a heavy reporting burden for school staff. Although there is no collection of specific goals and achievements, the process of setting goals, the tools for measuring their progress and the documentation of their completion will provideevidence that progress is being made. FNESC/FNSA will then further aggregate all the school data and include the summary in the final report to INAC in July.

Student IEP Summary Chart

The first chart is intended to be a summary sheet that will be part of each IEP. It is a way to collect the information so that it can be easily aggregated for each school in June. It is intended to summarize the IEP to make the year end school summary easier to complete.

Some examples of goal areas:

Academic – Literacy

Academic – Numeracy

Behaviour

Social Emotional

Physical

Language/Communication

Life Skills

If a student does not achieve a goal/goals on their IEP, then the date of goal completion column would be shown as “did not complete” for that particular goal.

Student IEP Summary Chart
Goal Area / Tool for Measuring Progress / Date of Goal Completion

Student IEP Summary Chart Example

Goal Area / Tool for Measuring Progress / Date of Goal Completion
Academic (Reading) / PM Benchmarks / February 2008
Behaviour / Attendance chart/graph / April 2008

School Aggregate IEP Chart

The second chart is the school aggregate chart and will now be part of the SEP final report that is submitted in June. Data from IEP summary chart (above) will be summarized in the table below. Each broad goal area will be listed along with the number of goals set, number of goals achieved and the measurement tools used for each goal area.

School Aggregate IEP Chart
Goal Area / Number of Goals Set / Number of Goals Achieved / Measurement Tools Used

The timely submission of final reports is crucial to the continued success of FNSA/FNESC activities. Information provided through these reports is used to support submissions for future funding. Without evidence of program success, the FNSA and FNESC are extremely limited in our ability to access additional funding for First Nations.

Please ensure that reports are submitted by the deadline shown above. Schools that do not submit final reports will have their 2008/2009 allocations reduced by 25%.

This section is intended to explain the categories provided for Special Education Program funding and give some examples of activities and services that would fall within each category.

Student Assessment

Student assessments in this category are meant to include individual assessments to determine student difficulties and school wide assessments which are meant to provide data for longitudinal studies and give feedback to schools on program implementation.

  • Psychoeducational assessment costs: assessor fees, travel, meals and accommodation costs
  • Travel, meals and accommodation costs to take a student to a location for a specialized test/assessment
  • Purchase of testing materials to be administered by school staff e.g. Gates MacGinitie, Canadian test of Basic Skills, Canadian Achievement Test, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
  • The costs associated with providing in-school assessments e.g. teacher on call costs if a staff member is assessing students
  • Purchase of screening tools e.g. FAS/E screening tool, phonological awareness screen
  • Other costs associated with assessments/screening

Early Intervention Programs/Activities

Early intervention programs or activities are meant to address social and educational issues before the difficulties are manifested in the school environment. The integration of services is beneficial to the students and the schools. We encourage schools to explore other funding avenues such as Head Start, Brighter Futures and childcare dollars from Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).

  • Community awareness and prevention programs/events e.g. symposium on FASD
  • Early reading intervention programs
  • Oral language development programs/services
  • Parent engagement in school activities
  • Drug and alcohol awareness programs for youth
  • Early numeracy activities/programs
  • Early intervention and support for potential behaviour disorder students
  • Programs that promote emotional literacy

Individual Student or Small Group Programs/Services

This category is intended to address the needs of individual students requiring specialized services, or small groups of fewer than 10 students for whom specialized instruction or programs may be provided.

  • Hiring of staff to work with high needs students: e.g. attendants, teacher assistants
  • Hiring of a special education teacher or learning assistance teacher to work with individual or small groups of students.
  • Purchasing of materials/programs to address the individual needs of students or small groups e.g. reading materials, social skills curriculum, behaviour support programs
  • Purchase of augmentative devices, FM system and/or closed captioned materials for hearing impaired student (theoretically covered by Health)
  • Purchase of specialized equipment not funded by health
  • Speech and language pathology services
  • Occupational therapy
  • Counseling
  • Art therapy

School Wide or Large Group Programs/Services

This category is intended to include those programs/services provided to the school as a whole or to group of 10 or more students. The reason for this approach is to encourage the establishment of ‘best practices’ that address the high occurring special needs (e.g. learning disabilities and behaviour disorders) as well as the general school population.

  • Implementation of school-wide research-based reading program (this type of approach, although targeting all students, specifically benefits certain special needs students by enabling them to function appropriately in a classroom environment – i.e. reduction of behaviour issues)
  • Implementation of a school wide behaviour support program/philosophy e.g. Effective Behaviour Support
  • School bully proofing or violence reduction activities
  • Purchase of curriculum/materials for large groups of students e.g. high interest, low vocabulary books
  • Hiring of special education teacher or learning assistance teacher to work with large groups of students with special needs

Professional Development

This category includes professional development activities for school staff i.e. teachers, teacher assistants, volunteers, as well in-services and support activities for parents.

  • Attendance at conferences related to special education
  • Post-secondary courses related to special education (university or college) tuition, travel and accommodation costs if applicable
  • Consultant fees for the provision of community-based workshops or training: fees, travel, accommodation
  • Purchase of training materials
  • Parent and/or community education events or training
  • Honorariums for the inclusion of elders in community events

In order to show accountability and justify ongoing funding, it is imperative that schools use methods of measuring outcomes and are diligent in the collection, recording and reporting of data. Some of the headings on the workplan and reporting form charts may be confusing, so definitions and examples are being provided in order to clarify the terms. This list is by no means complete, so feel free to add to it or change it to meet the needs of your school.

Output:

An output is essentially the activity, program or service that is provided or implemented. In other words, what the funding was used for.

Examples

  • Program materials purchased
  • Training costs (professional development)
  • Assessment materials
  • Assessment costs
  • Community events
  • Professional services i.e. speech and language

Outcomes:

Outcomes are the consequences or results of the activity, program or service

provided. They can be immediate (short term), intermediate, or long term. Early

intervention activities, for example, will most likely have long-term outcomes

expected.

Examples

  • Improved reading levels
  • Improved social interaction with peers
  • Increased awareness of a certain topic due to training
  • Increased knowledge of Individual Education Plans
  • Increase in the number of books available to students
  • Improved math scores
  • Improved classroom management

Sample Outcomes from School SEP final reports:

  • Community support for FASD programs
  • Coordinated plan for service delivery
  • Decrease in behaviour problems
  • Fine/Gross motor skill development
  • Identify best teaching practices
  • Improved academic performance
  • Improved anger management
  • Improved attendance
  • Improved classroom management
  • Improved communication
  • Improved emotional literacy
  • Improved language skills
  • Improved life skills
  • Improved listening skills
  • Improved literacy skills
  • Improved social interaction with peers
  • Improved social skills
  • Improved student access
  • Improved word recognition
  • Increased comprehension
  • Increase support for staff/students
  • Increased awareness of topic area
  • Increased independence
  • Increased motivation
  • Increased opportunities for communication
  • Increased opportunities for inclusion
  • Increased participation
  • Increased readiness to learn
  • Increased reading levels
  • Increased resources
  • Staff more knowledgeable of IEP's
  • Staff more knowledgeable of subject area
Performance Indicators

A performance indicator is basically ‘the proof’ that shows you achieved the results. These usually take the form of something measurable such as test scores (quantitative), but can also be anecdotal (qualitative) in some cases.

Examples

  • Number of assessments done
  • Improved attendance (provide percentage/number)
  • Decrease in office referrals (provide percentage/number)
  • Improved behaviour reports from parents/staff
  • Informal or standardized test scores
  • Improvements in report cards
  • Number of Individual Education Plans
  • Attendance of staff/community members at training event
  • Number/amount of materials purchased
  • Decrease in referrals to other agencies i.e. counseling, treatment programs
  • Increase in the number of grade 12 graduates

Sample Performance Indicators from School SEP Final reports:

  • Attainment of goals
  • Decreased bullying
  • Decrease in office referrals
  • Decrease in referrals to outside agencies
  • Improved writing levels
  • Improved attendance
  • Improved concentration
  • Improved language skills
  • Improved reading
  • Improved self-esteem
  • Improved speech
  • Improved standardized test scores
  • Improved team building
  • Improvement in attitude
  • Improvement in behaviour
  • Improvements in all academic areas
  • Improvements in reports from parents
  • Increase in the # of IEP's
  • Increase in the number of assessments
  • Increase literacy skills
  • Increased parental involvement
  • Increased participation
  • More intrinsic motivation
  • More involvement in class discussions
  • More teaching strategies for classroom teachers
  • Student engages in play with peers
  • Students attain goals set by SLP
  • Students involved in regular classroom activities
  • Students reading more
  • Successful suicide interventions
  • Successful completion of courses
  • Tests show improvements in reading levels
  • Workshop attendance
Data Source/Collection Method

This section refers to how and from where the data was obtained. Good record keeping is essential in order to have useable data. Refer to the FNESC/FNSA Record Keeping Handbook for help in this area, or contact Lisa Ellis at the toll free line for support (1-877-547-1919).

Examples

  • Workshop registration sign in numbers
  • School attendance records
  • CTBS test scores
  • Parent surveys
  • Report cards
  • School office referral database
  • School records: number of psychological assessments done

Sample Data Source/Collection Methods from School SEP Final Reports:

  • Alberta Reading Diagnostic
  • Anecdotal Records
  • Art Therapist Report
  • ASSET
  • Attendance Records
  • BC Performance Standards
  • Behavioural Checklist
  • Better Home\School Relationship
  • Bracken
  • Brigance
  • Canada Quick
  • Canada Test of Basic Skills test scores
  • CAT-3 test scores
  • Celf
  • Connecting Math Concepts test
  • Counsellor Report
  • Curriculum based assessment
  • DIBELS
  • Early Language Assessment
  • Entry to Regular Classroom
  • Foundation Skills Assessment
  • Gates MacGinitie
  • Ginn 720 reading test
  • IEP assessment
  • Johns Reading Inventory
  • Key Math
  • Language for Learning Assessment test
  • Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing Program
  • Number of books signed out
  • Observation lists
  • Parent survey
  • Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
  • Phonological Awareness
  • Portage assessment
  • Pre/post Tests
  • Program evaluation
  • Read Well unit tests
  • Reading Mastery checkout
  • Report cards show improvements
  • School records
  • SLP Assessment
  • SLP assessment scores
  • Structure of Intellect
  • Student feedback
  • Student files
  • Student IEP's
  • Student Information Record System
  • Student portfolios

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