Working with Aggressive Children

Frequently in my experience I have become involved with aggressive and violent children in the schools. Often times these children need to be removed physically from the setting to protect their safety or the safety of others. My district does not have a "restraint and removal" policy but goes with the "use your best judgement" plan. I am wondering how many other people are dealing with similar children, and what if any your district restraint and removal policies are. Do you have a "time out" room? How is it utilized? Have you had to restrain aggressive children?

FBAs and Parental Consent

We recently have been having a debate on whether or not parental consent is required to begin the FBA process. This includes all FBAs for identified students, regardless on whether or not they are being done as a manifestation determination hearing. In my district (though I suspect this varies ) we collect all the data we need for the FBA and develop the BIP and then have the parents in to review it and sign off that they approve it (or make edits as needed). We do not get formal parental consent to begin the process though. However, According to this letter-

http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/letters/2007-1/christiansen020907discipline1q2007.pdf

it looks like conducting an FBA is considered like an initial evaluation and thus is subject to all procedural safeguards.

So- what do you do in your district?

CSTs, ISTs, etc

I’d like to start a discussion around the theme of IST’s, CST’s, or whatever name they go by these days. In fact, I recently heard the name, Child Evaluation Team, used. One can almost deduce the philosophy of these meetings just from the name used which seems to characterize them. If we want a name, I think they should be called Instructional Support Teams (IST). We need to move away from the medical model (problem resides within the child – hence, the old name commonly used: Child Study Team) and think of the whole environment that surrounds the child. Anyway, I am quite interested to hear how other schools/districts handle the IST meeting and how it should be run in particular.

(submitted from a Long Island School Psychologist)

Welcome to Holland

My director introduced me to this essay about the experience of raising a child with a disability. I thought it was a great analogy. Perhaps you'll find it useful.

Welcome to Holland
by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome To Holland".

"Holland?!?" you say, "What do you mean "Holland"??? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy"

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills...Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned".

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things...about Holland.

Evaluation of dyslexia

There was recently a discussion on the NASP message boards regarding the evaluation of dyslexia and whether or not we should be involved with this, as School Psychologists. I think we should for two reasons: 1) Under the federal definition of an SLD dylsexia is listed, and 2) A lot of research shows that dyslexia is the result of a core deficit in phonological processing (e.g. sound-symbol correspondence, sound blending, etc) which we can assess on cognitive and achievement batteries. In my district, I had a reading teacher tell me once that we can't "diagnose" dyslexia because it is a "medical diagnosis" which seems strange to me What do you think? How do you do it in your district?

Type Type Baby!

If you've ever been under a mountain of school psych paperwork, you'll enjoy the following video!

Out of District Students

In the near future, I may be assuming responsibility for students who are currently in out-of-district placements. I am curious about your experience dealing with out-of-district students.

Do you conduct site visits?

How familiar are you with the programs that house your students?

Do you chair the annual reviews or is your PPS director the chair?

I am trying to get a sense of the responsibilities psychologists in other districts have, so I can begin to conceptualize my role. Please advise!