Parents who have children with disabilities need to be aware of discipline procedures in school and your child's rights. In most cases, schools will follow the schoolwide discipline program for all students, especially with the more serious offenses (fighting, disrespect, stealing, etc.). Schools can suspend students with disabilities for up to a cumulative 10 days and still be in compliance of the Individualized Education Plan. After ten days, schools are required to take a closer look at the function of the behavior and the discipline methods. Schools may automatically complete a Manifestation Determination Review after ten days of suspension or they may look for patterns in the behaviors. If the school sees that the suspension has occurred for the same behavior, or several behaviors over a short period of time a Manifestation Determination Review is necessary.
What is a Manifestation Determination Review?
A Manifestation Determination is a review, where the school and parents meet to determine if the student's misbehavior is a result of his or her disability. It is only for students who have an IEP or a 504 Plan and it is intended to protect students that have a disability. If the misbehavior is found to be due to the disability, the school must develop a new behavior plan for the student. The IEP team must meet within ten days to develop a Behavior Intervention Plan. The purpose of the Behavior Intervention Plan, is to develop strategies to help the student with a specific behavior and to have an alternate discipline plan. If parents disagree with the decision of the Manifestation Determine Review, they have the right to appeal. Schools should provide you with those rights and inform you of the procedures upon request.
After ten suspensions, federal guidelines require that schools provide alternative services when a student can not attend school. This may be sending a packet home for the student, a teacher or related service provider visiting the student, or an alternative setting.
The most important thing to understand is that all students including those with disabilities are required to follow rules for the safety and well being of all students. However, in certain instances a particular student will need a more specific Behavior Intervention Plan. Best practice is to develop this plan prior to severe discipline actions as prevention. It is only required following a Manifestation Determination Review for a student with a disability.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
7 Stress Reducing Strategies for Dealing with Homework
Homework time can be a stressful part of the evening for the child and her parents. While homework should be challenging, it should not be stressful or anxiety provoking. If your evenings are filled with stress over homework, here are seven strategies that might alleviate some of the pressure.
1. Develop a specific homework time for each evening. The length of time should depend on the age and needs of your child. (Talk to your child's teacher to develop a good amount of time). If your child finishes early, use the remaining time to study for an upcoming test, practice sight words, math facts, or read a book. When he knows that he has an hour for homework no matter what, it will help eliminate the urge to rush through an assignment or lie about having homework completed early. If your child is consistently taking longer than the set amount of time, have a conference with the teacher to determine if the assignments can be reduced or altered.
2. Consider your child's needs. Many people recommend the homework time be right after school. That is good for some children, but other children need some time after a long day at school to relax prior to exerting the mental energy needed to do quality work. Other children will find it refreshing to have the homework completed right away and have a free evening to look forward to. Talk with your child and pick a good time that coincides with the family's schedule but is an alert time for your child.
3. Schedule breaks if needed. Some people do not have the staying power to complete a task from start to finish without taking a break. If your child needs a break, allow it. It may even be helpful to break the homework up and do a portion of it right after school and the other portion at a separate set time. Breaks can be an incentive as well (Ex. "If you give 20 minutes of hard work to finish your math, you can have a ten minute break before reading")
4. Help your child stay organized. Require that your child use an assignment book, notebook, and/or homework folder. This helps your child to see what needs to be completed and helps the parent to ensure that it is complete. Staying organized helps ensure that homework assignments come home and the completed homework gets back to school.
5. Keep good communication with the teacher. When a child knows there is a unified front with home and school, there is a greater chance for compliance. Parents who talk regularly with the teacher and know the assignments are often better able to help the child be successful.
6. Reward hard work rather than using punishments. Hard work should be rewarded with praise, free time, or other rewards that are meaningful to your child. Focus more on her effort, than the perfection of the homework. When habits are being formed, it will be easier if the child feels good about completion (even if it is an extrinsic reward for awhile). However, if your strategy is to punish noncompliance, children will dread the homework even more, possibly creating a bigger battle as years go on.
7. Stay positive. If he sees that you are frustrated, it will make him frustrated. Try to keep a positive attitude. When your child is frustrated, offer a break to allow him to calm down and try again in a better frame of mind.
Feel free to comment if you have any other suggestions that have been helpful!
1. Develop a specific homework time for each evening. The length of time should depend on the age and needs of your child. (Talk to your child's teacher to develop a good amount of time). If your child finishes early, use the remaining time to study for an upcoming test, practice sight words, math facts, or read a book. When he knows that he has an hour for homework no matter what, it will help eliminate the urge to rush through an assignment or lie about having homework completed early. If your child is consistently taking longer than the set amount of time, have a conference with the teacher to determine if the assignments can be reduced or altered.
2. Consider your child's needs. Many people recommend the homework time be right after school. That is good for some children, but other children need some time after a long day at school to relax prior to exerting the mental energy needed to do quality work. Other children will find it refreshing to have the homework completed right away and have a free evening to look forward to. Talk with your child and pick a good time that coincides with the family's schedule but is an alert time for your child.
3. Schedule breaks if needed. Some people do not have the staying power to complete a task from start to finish without taking a break. If your child needs a break, allow it. It may even be helpful to break the homework up and do a portion of it right after school and the other portion at a separate set time. Breaks can be an incentive as well (Ex. "If you give 20 minutes of hard work to finish your math, you can have a ten minute break before reading")
4. Help your child stay organized. Require that your child use an assignment book, notebook, and/or homework folder. This helps your child to see what needs to be completed and helps the parent to ensure that it is complete. Staying organized helps ensure that homework assignments come home and the completed homework gets back to school.
5. Keep good communication with the teacher. When a child knows there is a unified front with home and school, there is a greater chance for compliance. Parents who talk regularly with the teacher and know the assignments are often better able to help the child be successful.
6. Reward hard work rather than using punishments. Hard work should be rewarded with praise, free time, or other rewards that are meaningful to your child. Focus more on her effort, than the perfection of the homework. When habits are being formed, it will be easier if the child feels good about completion (even if it is an extrinsic reward for awhile). However, if your strategy is to punish noncompliance, children will dread the homework even more, possibly creating a bigger battle as years go on.
7. Stay positive. If he sees that you are frustrated, it will make him frustrated. Try to keep a positive attitude. When your child is frustrated, offer a break to allow him to calm down and try again in a better frame of mind.
Feel free to comment if you have any other suggestions that have been helpful!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy Holidays!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Welcome to the new year! Ten hours into 2009 and it feels remarkably like 2008 so far. I've been traveling and spending a lot of quality time with my family. The list of things to get accomplished around the house during my break is still sitting there (covered over with Christmas presents that still don't have a home) with only a few things marked out.
I wanted to keep you updated about what's new at School Psychologist Files:
Thanks for your support!
I wanted to keep you updated about what's new at School Psychologist Files:
- If you haven't seen the new filing cabinet design on School Psychologist Files, check it out. Thank you Paul King (my husband) for the awesome design and hard work. He has done all of the web design and programming for School Psychologist Files in his spare time.
- I had an article published at education.com How a School District Determines if a Student Qualifies for Special Education Services
- An all new edition of the School Psychologist Files Monthly Newsletter.
- An article on School Psychologist Files explaining Functional Behavioral Assessments and Behavior Intervention Plans
- Weekly Blog articles
Thanks for your support!
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