A. Supports/Interventions For The General Education Student: The Pupil Personnel Team (Ppt) Intervention Process

     Pupil Personnel Teams (PPTs) are school-based committees to identify services and interventions for students having academic, physical or social difficulties. These are services/interventions that can be begun and provided without the involvement of the Committee on Special Education (CSE).

Services the PPT may recommend include, but are not limited to:

• Educationally related support services
• Reading intervention
• Remedial instruction
• Behavioral support
• Social skills program

     The PPT process is not meant to supercede the CSE process; despite the PPT process, a parent may refer his/her child for a special education evaluation by the Committee on Special Education at any time, and the PPTs cannot be used as a precondition for referral by responsible school staff.

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     When a student is recommended for decertification from special education, support services may be provided for up to one additional year to help the student transition from the special education program to a general education classroom. Declassification support services must be indicated on the IEP that recommends decertification.

Declassification support services may include, but are not limited to:

• Services that provide instructional support or remediation
• Instructional modifications
• Individual and/or group speech/language services, and
• Individual and/or group counseling.

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II. Special Education Services/Supports

     If referral to special education is indicated, the student must be evaluated by the Committee on Special Education. Based upon this evaluation, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is created for the student by an IEP Team (including a parent). The following are services, supports, and/or placements that can be specified upon the student’s IEP.

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A. Related Services And Supports

     Whether placed in a general education class or special class, students with disabilities may be provided with the following additional services as long as they are specifically identified on the student’s IEP.

1. Related services are developmental, corrective and other support services required to help a student with a disability benefit from instruction in the general education curriculum in general education classes.
   Related services may include, but are not limited to:
   • Counseling
   • Hearing education services
   • Occupational therapy
   • Orientation and mobility services
   • Physical therapy
   • School health services
   • Speech/language therapy
   • Vision education services, and
   • Other support services, e.g.
     • paraprofessional support services (e.g. a special transportation paraprofessional for a child whose behavior is hazardous on the school bus, or an Orientation and Mobility paraprofessional to guide a student who is visually impaired)
     • sign language and oral interpreters, and
     • Cued Speech Transliterators (which are necessary to transmit the spoken message into Cued Speech—a manual and spatial representation of English sounds and lip movements).
2. Other support services which can be provided to children throughout the full range of placements in the Continuum (i.e. from general education classrooms to segregated special classes) include, but are not limited to:
   • Assistive technology devices
   • Specific instructional practices
   • Behavior intervention plans
   • Instructional adaptions
   • Curriculum modifications
   • Adaptive physical education
   • Travel training; and
   • Toilet training.

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B. General Education With Special Education Teacher Support Services (Formerly Consultant Teacher and Resource Room)

     Special Education Teacher Support Services are specially designed, supplemental instruction provided by a special education teacher. That teacher may work directly with a student with a disability to support participation in a general education classroom, and/or indirectly with the student’s general education teacher to adjust the learning environment and/or modify and adapt instructional techniques and methods to meet the student’s individual needs. Special education teacher support services may be provided for as few as two hours a week and as much as 50% of each day.

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C. Collaborative Team Teaching

     In Collaborative Team Teaching classrooms students with disabilities and general education students are educated together, by a full-time general education teacher and a full-time special education teacher who collaborate throughout the day. The special education teacher in the class works to adapt and modify instruction for the students with special needs. The general education teacher is responsible for assuring the entire class has access to the general education curriculum.

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D. Twelve Month School Year Services

     Students with disabilities educated in any setting may be provided with extended school year services if the IEP determines they are at risk of substantial regression during the summer months.

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E. Transitional Support Services

     Transitional support services such as consultation and/or training may be provided for a short period of time to staff working with students with disabilities as they move from self-contained settings to less restrictive classrooms.

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F. Transition Services

     For students at age 14 and updated annually, the IEP Team must develop a statement of the transition service needs that focus on the student’s course of study including long term adult outcomes and diploma objective. The team poses the question of what the student’s life will be like after high school, and what transition services s/he needs to make it as independent and fulfilling as possible. Transition services are required services for children beginning at age 15 (or younger if the IEP Team determines necessary) to help a young person develop skills to move from school to post-school activities, including but not limited to post-secondary education, vocational training, competitive employment (including supported employment), continuing or adult education, adult services, independent living or community participation. The coordinated set of services must be based upon the individual student’s needs, preferences and interests

Transition services may include, but are not limited to:

• Instructional activities provided to achieve a stated outcome
• Community-based experiences
• Post High School educational services
• Independent living skills or supports
• Acquisition of daily living skills
• Adult Services

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III. Special Class Services

     In Collaborative Team Teaching classrooms students with disabilities and general education students are educated together, by a full-time general education teacher and a full-time special education teacher who collaborate throughout the day. The special education teacher in the class works to adapt and modify instruction for the students with special needs. The general education teacher is responsible for assuring the entire class has access to the general education curriculum.

     Special Class Services serve students with disabilities whose needs cannot be met within the general education class, even with the supports described above. They are services provided in a self-contained classroom without non-disabled students. They may be provided part-time or full-time, and in community school districts and high schools or in specialized schools.

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A. The Following Environments Deliver Special Class Services:

• General Education Part-Time and Special Class Support Part-Time
• Special Class Full-Time In Community School Districts/High Schools
• Special Class Full-Time In Specialized School (District 75)
• State Supported/Operated Schools and SED-Approved Non-Public Schools
• Home/Hospital Instruction (Temporary)

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B. Description Of Special Class Service Delivery

Students will no longer be categorized as needing Modified Instructional Services (MIS) or Specialized Instructional Environments (SIE) as they currently are under the old Continuum, but some children will continue to require more individualized and structured, self-contained settings. Students must be grouped for these self-contained special class services by similarity of educational needs. Students in restrictive settings all or part of the day MUST have access to the general education curriculum and will be subject to the same state and city standardized tests (some with accommodations), unless their IEP says otherwise. Special classes may contain students with the same disability or with different disabilities as long as they have similar education needs. Generally, the greater a student’s academic and/or management needs, the more adult supervision he/she will need, so staffing intensity varies by student needs.

Below are descriptions of the Special Class by maximum sizes and staffing ratios, stated as number of students to number of teacher(s) to number of paraprofessionals. These descriptions are very general and broad; it is important to visit the class your child is offered to make sure it is appropriate for your child (see Implementation section below).

1. Special Class Ratio 12 students : 1 special education teacher (elementary and junior/middle school); 15 students : 1 special education teacher (High School)


2. This is a placement for students whose academic and/or behavior management needs require specialized/specially designed instruction that can best be accomplished in a self-contained setting.

    

3. Special Class Ratio 12 students : 1 special education teacher : 1 paraprofessional


4. A placement for students requiring specialized instruction that can best be accomplished in a self-contained setting and who require additional adult support due to academic and/or behavioral management needs that interfere with the instructional process.

    

5. Special Class Ratio 8 students :1 special education teacher :1 paraprofessional


6. A placement for students whose management needs are severe and chronic, requiring highly individualized instruction and intervention, intensive behavior management, and adult supervision.

    

7. Special Class Ratio 6 students :1 special education teacher : 1 paraprofessional


8. A placement for students with very high needs in most or all areas – academic, social, physical development and management -- who require intense individual programming, continual adult supervision and specific behavior management plans for aggressive, self-abusive behaviors.

    

9. Special Class Ratio 12 students : 1 special education teacher : 4 paraprofessionals (one paraprofessional for every three students)


10. A placement for students with severe and multiple disabilities, needing a program primarily of training and treatment, including training in daily living skills and the development of communication skills, sensory stimulation and therapeutic interventions.

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Implementation Of The New Continuum

Complete transition to the new Continuum will take several years. Because the Board has decentralized the process, giving a great deal of the implementation responsibility to the individual school districts, it’s likely to look different in each of the New York City school districts. However, as the Board of Education transitions from the old Continuum to the new Continuum families of students with special needs are protected by certain important rights – over and above the due process rights described in the Laws section of this website. Those additional rights include:

• Remaining in the school or district where s/he is now receiving services. If your child’s CSE recommends that your child receive services in a different school or different district, you have the right to have your child remain in his or her current school and school district until he or she graduates to the next level (e.g., elementary to middle school, middle school to high school). This is a right that all children have, whether they are regular or special education students.
   
• Requirement for Appropriate Placement Outside of District. Although the Board is trying to move children back into their neighborhood schools or local districts, if the CSE is not able to offer your child an appropriate placement in your district, they must offer an appropriate seat in another district.
   
• Pendency or Stay-Put. The right to “pendency” or “stay put” refers to your child’s right to remain in his or her current educational placement during any due process proceedings (e.g, conflict resolution, an impartial hearing, mediation, appeal, or a court proceeding).
  • You have the right to pendency in your child’s current educational placement during the transition to the new Continuum. Therefore, if your child is in an old Continuum placement, such as a MIS or SIE class or resource room, and is recommended for a new Continuum placement, he or she may remain in the MIS or SIE class or resource room at his or her current school until the dispute is resolved.
  • You also have pendency to 12 month or extended year services. Therefore, if your child had 12-month or extended year services before the change in the Continuum, and the Board proposes to reduce your child’s program to the regular school year, your child would have pendency in a 12 month school year placement if you pursue due process to contest the removal of 12-month school year.
  • In addition, if your child is receiving a certain kind of service, and the CSE recommends that those services be reduced or changed, your child should continue to receive the original level of services during any due process procedures.
  
   
• Functionally Grouped Special Education Services. When the Board provides special education or related services to a group of children at one time (either in a separate class or grouped service), those children must be grouped together based on similarity of levels of academic or educational achievement and learning characteristics, levels of social development, levels of physical development and management needs, and not their specific disability catagories. You have the right to information about the levels of the other children in the class(es) to which the Board proposes to assign your child.
   
• Right to Visit a Class Before Consenting to Placement. You have the right to visit the class your child will be in and receive information about the academic, learning levels, physical and social development and management needs of the other children in the class before you agree to change your child's placement to that class or group of services. However, since most districts haven’t yet created new placements under the new Continuum, and are unlikely to do so until they can determine how many children will require which services and placements, you may not be able to see the class in which your child will most likely be placed in September. Even if you consent to a new Continuum placement now, you do have the right to have your child return to his or her last placement if you request a hearing or otherwise invoke due process after seeing the new class next fall.

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