Emily Moog

Spec Ed 420
Spec Ed Meeting

I met with Brittany Ashbaugh, special education resource room teacher of Woodland

Elementary in the Puyallup school district. We discussed one student in my classroom with a

social emotional, occupational therapy, and speech and language IEP. This student meets for

30 minutes twice a month in the resource room and more frequently with the speech

pathologist. His needs in the resource room are limited but still important. During social and

emotional work, he follows the We Thinkers primary focused program. He learns how to follow a

group plan, how to be part of a group, and how to be a flexible thinker.

When accommodating this student in the classroom, teachers should incorporate visual

aids to better understand tasks and expectations. He needs frequent check-ins for his

developmental delay. The instructions for a task can be confusing or easy for him to forget. His

teacher should repeat those directions and have him repeat the directions back to you. This will

also give the student practice repeating words to advance his speaking abilities and

enunciation. He will have an IEP meeting in December to discuss his advancement and a

meeting the following year for reevaluation.

The process of evaluating students with social and emotional IEPs looks different for

each student. In his case, Brittany may pick a difficult situation for him to work through in his

mind. He would think of scenarios that would effectively solve his hypothetical problems. The

check-ins in the classroom also look different from students to student and depending on the

type of IEP. There are data sheets given to the teacher that show goals of each student and

whether or not they are reaching those goals. It is easier to find data for graphing results with

academic IEPs but the process is more creative and individualized when working with social

and emotional IEPs.

 At Woodland Elementary, RTI comes far before any referral takes place for IEPs. There

are many opportunities for students to receive the help they need to succeed without being

pulled out. The school counselor made an RTI triangle for behaviors that the school follows. In

regards to academics and referrals, a strategy meeting is held between the speech pathologist,

the occupational therapist, the grade level teachers, the assistant principal and the principal to

come up with a plan, and to later discuss the success of those strategies. There are meetings

each morning between teams to decide on making referrals for Special Education. Parents are

heavily involved before this point, and would be involved in those meetings as well for final

decisions.

Evaluations in the social emotional resource room are on a rating scale for parents,

teachers, and students to fill out. Academic IEP students will do assessments to test whether

there is a discrepancy between cognitive and academic scores. If a student has an average IQ

but is testing lower in learning situations, it may be a learning disability. All of these evaluations

and assessments monitor the individual progress.