Introduction to Exceptionalities: Final Exam August 2, 2012

1. What are the 14 categories of disabilities in NC? The 14 categories as outlined in Policies for Governing Children with Disabilities are autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, developmental delay, serious emotional disability, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment including blindness.

2. What does LRE mean? LRE stands for least restrictive environment, which is the education of students with disabilities alongside those who do not have disabilities. This principle was formerly known as mainstreaming or the integration rule and is now referred to as inclusion. Least restrictive environment allows for students with disabilities to be educated to the maximum extent appropriate in a general education setting.

3. Describe the continuum of services for EC students? Schools are required to offer a range of services for exceptional children. The continuum of services moves from less to more restrictive or separate. The most typical and inclusive setting is general education followed by resource rooms, special classes, special schools, homebound services, and hospitals or institutions. Approximately 60% of students spend most of their time in general education settings, 20% benefit from general education and special classes, 15% are exclusively in special classes, and the remaining 5% are placed in a separate setting. Much like inclusion, the continuum of services allows for students with disabilities to be placed in the least restrictive environment.

4. What is inclusion? Inclusion involves the aforementioned least restrictive environment. Not only does it allow for students with disabilities to be educated to the maximum extent appropriate in a general education setting, but ensures that students are not removed from regular

education environments, unless, because of the severity of their disability, he or she cant be educated there successfully. Students with disabilities, under IDEA and the principle of inclusion, should have access to the general education curriculum and extracurricular and nonacademic activities. There are four key characteristics of inclusion: a. Home-School Placement: students attend the same school they would attend if they did not have a disability. b. Principle of Natural Proportions: holds that students with exceptionalities should be placed in schools and classrooms in natural proportion to the occurrence of exceptionality within the general population. c. Restructuring Teaching and Learning: requires general and special educators to work in partnership with related service providers, families, and students to provide supplementary aids and services and special education and related services. d. Age-and Grade-Appropriate Placements: inclusion favors educating all students in age and grade appropriate places. Inclusion also focuses on what a student is taught and learns, as well as, the methods and pedagogy that educators use. Ultimately, inclusion is intended to prevent isolation solely based on the presence of a disability.

5. Who are the required members of the IEP team? Under IDEA, the mandatory members of the IEP team are the students parents, a general educator, a special educator, a school representative who supervises or provides special education and knows about general education and school resources, a person who interprets the results of the students nondiscriminatory evaluation, any other person with expertise about the students educational needs, at the parents discretion, and, when appropriate, the student.

6. What are the 8 components required in IEPs? In order to comply with IDEA and ensure that the student will benefit from special education, a students IEP must include all of the following components:

a. The students present levels of academic achievement and functional performance. b. Measurable annual goals. c. How the students progress toward annual goals will be measured and when periodic reports the students progress will be generated. d. The special education and related services and supplementary aids and services. e. An explanation of the extent, if any, to which the student will not participate with student who do not have disabilities in the regular classroom and in extracurricular and nonacademic activities. f. Any individual appropriate accommodations that are necessary to measure the students academic and functional performance on state and district wide assessments. g. The projected date for beginning the special education, related services, supplemental aids and services, modifications, as well as, the anticipated frequency, location, and duration of each. h. A transition plan that must include measurable post secondary goals, a statement of transition services, and a statement that the student has been information of those rights under IDEA that will transfer from the parents to the student at age 18.

7. What is RTI (Response to Intervention)? Response to intervention is a means to determine whether any student, regardless of type of disability, needs more instruction. According to the text, RTI is a multilayered system for struggling learners that provides increasingly intense levels of academic intervention and assessment. There are three tiers: a. Tier 1: implementation of a high quality, universally designed general education curriculum for all students, with necessary supplementary aids, services, and supports. b. Tier 2: implementation of supplemental instruction to address specific student needs that arise in the course of Tier 1 instruction.

c. Tier 3: implementation of highly specialized instruction to meet intensive needs for a small group of students. RTI also involves the use of data to make decisions about instructional needs; this data is gathered through multiple, frequent assessments. RTI places emphasis on implementation of high quality educational interventions, which are called evidence based practices. RTI does not focus on singling out students who are different instead it asks teachers to implement interventions for all students. Put simply, response to invention ensures that students receive the instruction they need to succeed.

8. In NC what are the related services, which can be provided? Taken from the Policies Governing Services for Disabled Children: Related services means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special education. Related services include, but are not limited to, speech-language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation, including therapeutic recreation, early identification and assessment of disabilities in children, counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services, and medical services for diagnostic or evaluation purposes. Related services also include school health services and school nurse services, social work services in schools and parent counseling and training. Related services provide by the state of North Carolina include some maintenance of medical devices, audiology, counseling, assessment, interpreters, some medical services, occupational services, orientation and mobility services, parent counseling and training, physical therapy, psychological services, recreation, rehabilitation and counseling services, school health and nurse services, school social works, speechlanguage pathology, and transportation.

9. Which category of disabilities has the largest percentage of students? Learning disabilities are the most prevalent of all disabilities. Approximately less than half (42.9%) of all students with disabilities served under IDEA have specific learning

disabilities. Under IDEA a specific learning disability is a disorder in one or more basic psychological process involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written.

10. When you become a regular education teacher... are you responsible for the education of your students' with disabilities or are they the responsibility of the special education teacher? Explain your answer. Regular education teachers are most definitely responsible for the education of students with disabilities. Regular education teachers may work in conjunction with special education coordinators; however, every classroom will have a number of students with some sort of exceptionality. Because of this, general education teachers must be knowledgeable about exceptionalities and have an awareness of the characteristics and signs. Not only will differentiation be a necessity in the classroom, it is particularly important for students with disabilities. General education teachers may also be involved in the process of evaluation, or even diagnosis, of disabilities. Inclusion places students in the least restrictive environment and thus provides access to the general curriculum, therefore students have the right to not only be present in the classroom, but accommodated accordingly. In the most basic terms, all teachers should be prepared to educate a diverse population of students.