Studentdirected IEPs and 504 Plan Meetings

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Student-directed IEPs and 504
Plan Meetings

• Claudia Lowe, B.S.L.,J.D.

Interest-based Technical Assistance
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Introduction

• Claudia Lowe, B.S.L., J.D.
• Related history
• IBTA
• Educational Strategist Consultant
• Transition Specialist Transition Coach
• Conflict Mediation Coach
• Speaker and writer

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Agenda

• Define student-directed IEPs and 504 plan
  meetings
• Identify the infrastructure for student-directed
  IEPs and 504 plan meetings
• Identify tools to facilitate student-directed
  IEPs and 504 plan meetings
• Identify benefits of student directed-IEPs and
  504 plan meetings

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The program must be

• Disability appropriate
• Age appropriate
• School culture appropriate
• Proceed with care and caution

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Primary attitude of

• Im okay, youre okay

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There needs to be

• An infrastructure for success
• You just cant teach the student about
  student-directed IEPs and 504 plan meetings, you
  have to also teach the school

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Student-directed IEPs and 504 plans are

• Where the student and his/her needs are the
  primary focus
• Where the student is an active participant and
  takes on a leadership role
• Where the student has the answers and the
  direction the IEP/504 team needs to take to be
  effective and appropriate

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Infrastructure for success

• Demystification-the student is provided ongoing
  accurate information about their disability, not
  anyones interpretation, but accurate information
• The student has a caring and compassionate
  liaison or co-advocate such as his/her counselor
  or case manager

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Infrastructure for Success

• Define and understand self-advocacy and
  self-determination so the student understands it
  and knows how to do it
• IEP and 504 team members need to be knowledgeable
  in the purpose and process of IDEA and Section
  504 as well as the disabilities that impact
  learning

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Self-advocacy and
Self-determination

• Self-advocacy focuses on the ability to stand up
  for one-self and to help other people with
  disabilities stand up for themselves by speaking
  up, speaking out, and speaking loud.
• Self-determination is a call for shifting power
  from the system to the individual, allowing
  people to choose how they live and to be
  supported in ways that facilitate their
  preferences.
• (from Self-determination and Self-advocacy
  Shifting the Power, Rebekah L Pennell,
  UNC at Chapel Hill)

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Purpose of IDEA (1997)

• special education law, is
• to ensure that all children with disabilities
  have
• available to them a free appropriate education
• that emphasizes special education and related
• services designed to meet their unique needs and
• prepare them for employment and independent
• living, and to ensure the rights of children with
  
• disabilities and parents of such children are
  protected.

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Purpose of Section 504

• is to empower individuals with
• disabilities to maximize
• employment, economic self-sufficiency,
  independence, and
• inclusion and integration into
• society through comprehensive
• and coordinated state-of-the-art
• programs of vocational
• rehabilitation, independent
• living centers and services,
• research, training, demonstration
• projects, and the guarantee
• of equal opportunity.

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Infrastructure for Success

• Understand and know how educational provisions
  serve as a continuum to the students future
  (CAMS)
• IEP and 504 team members should know and
  understand group process and group dynamics and
  team building

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Infrastructure for Success

• Help students to get comfortable with knowing how
  to talk and write about themselves in a positive
  and receptive environment one that is
  supportive, not critical, patronizing, limiting,
  or condescending

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Infrastructure for Success

• Students should and need to be able to talk about
  their rights with knowledge and conviction
  Constitutional, Section 504, IDEA, and ADA
• Practice, practice, practice with role plays and
  ongoing dialogue

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Infrastructure for Success

• Be the students champion, a role model, a
  resource person, an effective problem-solver, a
  believer in the student, be a hero
• You need to know what the potential responses
  will be before the student is engaged in the
  IEP/504 process

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Infrastructure for Success

• Student needs to understand all components of IEP
  and 504 plan design and implementation
• Have pre-meetings, do not assume that all team
  members on are the same or correct page
  regarding the student

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Infrastructure for Success

• Provide an audience that will give confidence
  and boost morale
• Use helpful and informative language
• Student and team members need to accurately
  understand the concept of strengths and weaknesses

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Infrastructure for Success

• Access to the curriculum also means access to
  independent living and employment and further
  education (CAMS)
• Students needs a support system, in and out of
  school
• Start a LEAD program in your school, classroom,
  or community (www.ldcan.com)

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Teach the student

• What do you need to do right now for yourself?
• Sometimes we need help even when its a burden
  or a perceived burden to someone else.
• Students need help and reinforcement in asking
  for help interdependancy goal

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Tools to facilitate the process

• My future plans
• These are my disabilities
• Formal definitions of these disabilities
• Assessments define my unique needs and strengths
  as
• The type of learning environment

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Tools to facilitate the process

• I do well with a teacher who is
• One-on-one teachers report
• Students report
• Students behavior support
• Students PLOPs
• Students draft goals

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Tools to facilitate the process

• How goals can be met
• Invitation to participate
• Students introduction and agenda
• Collaboration
• Collaboration
• Collaboration

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Benefit to teachers

• ?
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Benefit to parents

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Benefit to students

• ?
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Websites

• www.section504online.com
• www.talconline.net
• www.ClaudiaLoweJD.com
• www.myleadgroup.com
• www.ldcan.com
• http//cactechassistance.tripod.com
• www.findingcommonground.teach-nology.com

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Educational Strategist and Consultant

• Counsels students and their families on
  educational strategies and provisions for an
  appropriate IEP or 504 plan and Transition plan
  based on the students unique needs, individual
  learning and work styles, strengths, abilities,
  talents, and potential.

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Favorite Quotes

• If you wouldnt do it to an adult, dont do it
  to a child. Rick LaVoie
• Children do well if they can. Ross
  Greene
• I am not your response. Claudia Lowe

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Workshops

• K-12 CAMS for Students
• A one-day workshop that can be presented to
  students, teachers, or parents on how to
  effectively use K-12 CAMS for school work, home
  work, and to make educational progress.
• Presenters Claudia Lowe, B.S.L., J.D. and
  Cathy Manus, E.S.
• "If You Don't Teach Me the Way I Learn, You Are
  Not Teaching Me" A one-day workshop with
  facilitated discussion and simulations to acquire
  skills and strategies to educate and engage
  students with disabilities that impact learning.
• Presenters Claudia Lowe, B.S.L., J.D. and
  Cathy Manus, E.S.

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K-12 CAMS

• K-12 CAMS Fact Sheets
• Attention/Concentration
• Reasoning/Processing
• Memory
• Executive Function
• Interpersonal Skills
• Emotional Maturity
• Coordination/Motor Function
• Communication
• Reading
• Writing/Spelling
• Math Calculation/Application