November Update

(Coach Lindsey Daniels works with a teacher at our November Collaborative Institute)

Welcome to November!

Just a reminder about the title of this site: Students First. We are committed to using "student first" language and practice throughout our school system. We educate students who receive special education services. Our staff support students with disabilities. Our students are students first, and are not defined by categories or disabilities.

A core priority in practice in highly effective Districts and schools throughout the country, and in many excellent schools in Seattle, is to provide services that work in the best possible setting. For some students, direct instruction in a small group setting is the right model for making growth on a key IEP goal. For the same students, learning in the general education classroom with modified or adapted work, perhaps with the support of an additional adult, is the most effective way to make growth in another goal.

Focusing on service delivery helps us to truly provide more individualized instruction that is tailored to a student's IEP goals and objectives, and it means that we are providing access to the least restrictive environment. We provide integrated comprehensive services when our staff members--teachers, instructional assistants, and school leaders--work collaboratively to build schedules that support students in their individualized learning learning plans.

A key to providing services is continual progress monitoring and adjustment when necessary. If our students are not making progress toward their goals, we need to adjust the specially designed instruction--the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction--so that it is more effective.

Last week we held a second Collaborative Institute for school teams who are providing Integrated Comprehensive Services. We had teams from five schools, with instructional assistants, teachers, related service providers, and principals attending. Topics included: effective team building, collaboration and co-teaching, disability awareness and strategies that work, positive behavior supports, and developing powerful service plans for students. Professor Ilene Schwartz joined us for a day of training, with a focus on creating classrooms that support all learners.

As a District we are continuing our focus on training ALL staff in disability awareness and strategies to support all students. In particular we are expanding our professional development in autism spectrum awareness; we know that we are seeing dramatically increasing numbers of students who can thrive when we provide supports and services specific to social, emotional, and sensory needs.

Your teachers and principal are the first people to contact if your student is struggling to reach her/his goals. Each school also has a Consulting Teacher and a Supervisor, another level of support for students and families. See here for links to information about elementary and secondary consulting teachers and supervisors.

Finally, we lost a dear member of our department last week. Consulting teacher Neli Morillo has worked in Seattle Schools special education services for twenty years, and has been a consulting teacher with Middle Schools for more than a decade. Neli was a caring advocate for all students and a wise, supportive colleague. We will miss her deeply.

Thank you for sharing your students with us, and do not hesitate to contact our department directly with any questions or concerns at 252-0058.

Mid-October Update

Students at Work: This month our schools, staff, and students are settling into powerful teaching and learning. Special Education directors, supervisors, and consulting teachers conduct weekly learning walks to see evidence of a) ALL students having access to high-level curriculum (both materials and instructional practices), b) High Leverage teaching moves, c) differentiated instruction--instruction that is personalized to provide optimal learning for each student, and d) evidence of change leadership throughout the school.

At Hamilton Middle School, students are learning to be powerful readers and writers with the Readers and Writers Workshop models fully in place. All students are learning to be active, engaged, fluent, graceful readers! Here are some reading logs kept by students (a high leverage teaching move!) in a Hamilton classroom:

Community Partnerships: We also know that strong family/school partnerships are key to student success. This Saturday October 17th the Seattle Special Education PTSA and Seattle Public Schools co-sponsored a full day workshop titled Best Practices For Inclusive Schools. Families, teachers, community partners, and school leaders all attended and participated in this event.

Keynote speaker Dr. Elise Frattura speaks below about the history and future of schools, with a focus on the delivery of special education services:

Principal Henterson Carlisle talks about his school's approach to inclusive learning:


Many thanks to all who presented, and to our PTSA who worked tirelessly to make this a wonderful event!

Emotional/Behavior Services Project Launch: We are pleased to announce the launch of our review and restructuring of our services that support students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. This project is at the heart of our work. Read the external review of our services here. We will keep you updated on our progress.

Thank you for sharing the vision of Seattle Public Schools!

September Update

Thank you to all of the staff, families, and most of all students who have made this such an exciting new year.

A few highlights:

• We had our opening meeting of the Special Education Advisory and Advocacy Council. Thank you to all who attended and brought ideas, insights, and issues. The next meeting will be on October 6th at 7 pm. See here for more information.
• We also had our opening meeting of the Special Education PTSA. Thank you all for attending and for asking questions that will help to push us forward in our work. Check here for more information about upcoming events, including the October 17th all day family event, "Best Practices For Inclusive Schools" (with special guest Elise Frattura) to be held at the John Stanford Center!
• Remember that Integrated Comprehensive Services is not a "program," but rather a best practice approach to providing special education services to our students. If your student is receiving supports through the "ICS" model, please let us know how she/he is doing. E-mail Marni Campbell at macampbell@seattleschools.org.
• We are doing weekly learning walks to see how special education services are being provided for students in our schools. A Cleveland High School, all students were engaged in high level writing tasks using the Writer's Workshop model. Posted in the main office were purpose statements from the August professional development days that show how staff members are learning to model strategies that work for students!

Thanks to all of our teachers who are working to make classroom learning work for all students!

Integrated Comprehensive Services-Learning Together

School teams share ideas and insights at the Summer Collaborative Institute:






In their article "Leading Beyond Compliance: Integrated Comprehensive Services For All Learners," Elise Frattura and Colleen Capper write that "integrated" in ICS

"refers to the environments that all students, regardless of need or legislative eligibility, access throughout their day in school and non-school settings; that is, in these environments, students with a variety of needs and gifts learn together in both small and large groupings that are flexible in nature. A school then becomes a community where all spaces are for all learners and shared in a manner to provide the most synthesized instruction for each student."

The "comprehensive" in ICS

"refers to the array of services and supports in addition to a curriculum and instruction that is differentiated to accommodate various learning needs of children to ensure their school success."

We are taking the first step toward integrated comprehensive services this fall, with a group of Kindergarten and First Grade students assigned to schools close to home, schools where they can potentially stay throughout their K-5 or K-8 experience, schools where they will be truly integrated, learning the same curriculum alongside their peers, and where they will have services provided in the least restrictive environment.

40 Elementary and K-8 schools are ICS schools this fall, with the vision at ALL schools will ultimately provide integrated comprehensive services. ICS schools have received additional staffing, including Instructional Assistants, additional certificated staff, and Instructional Coaches, to help support a more integrated approach to special education services.

This week, August 17-21, over 150 general education and special education teachers, instructional assistants, related service providers, and principals are meeting at Madison Middle school for our K-1 Summer Collaborative Institute, and at West Seattle High School, for the Elementary-Secondary Institute. These institutes are designed to help school staff deepen their understanding about inclusive and integrated services and plan for the coming school year.

We have been thrilled with the turnout and the response to the Institute, with nearly twice the school staff joining us that we anticipated.

On Monday, August 17th, school staff and principals learned about various ways of structuring collaboration and co-teaching in the classroom, and explored their assumptions about teaching and learning.

Becky Clifford, Special Education Director, teaches to a capacity crowd about norms of collaboration:




School Leaders at the Elementary/Secondary Institute enjoy their time together at West Seattle High School:


Special Education Supervisor Geri Diaz facilitates a dialogue about co-teaching and collaboration:





On Tuesday, UW Professor and Director of the Experimental Education Unit Ilene Schwartz taught us about positive behavior supports and reviewed the building blocks of an effective instructional program in a school, which begins with a strong instructional program for all.

Staff members study together:



School Coaches Lindsey Daniels and Kristin Alfonso plan supports for schools: