To meet the needs of students with special needs, the school offers a continuum of services and programs. These are aimed at handling the students at an individual level to ensure that their needs are closely attended to. The service delivery model used is the Consultation Model. Collaborative consultation is simply an interactive process that brings together diverse people with various expertise to provide a creative solution to potential mutually defined problems related to children with special needs. The outcome of this model is tremendously positive since it engages various teams of experts to arrive at a solution. It, therefore, offers a comprehensive and effective program aimed at helping students with special needs attain maximum constructive interaction with the rest of non-handicapped peers (Leonard & Haynes, 2010).
This model comprises of parents and teachers and further integrates relevant specialized services that are necessary to ensure that the needs of the students are met in the least restrictive environment. I realized that the model is characterized by high level of collaboration and consultation with the team to ensure that the needs of the students are fully met. The Consultation Model provides all the general educators with comprehensive guidance from the entire special education teaching staff. The model also facilitates service delivery, and this is achieved through the ongoing communication between the system’s special educators and the rest of the service providers.
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Roles/Responsibilities
Special Education Teacher
The special education teacher has a primary role to ensure effective education for all the exceptional students. These teachers have to be unique to enable them to fit in various roles within the special education environment. They are responsible for curriculum development and parent conferences. Further, they are responsible for pre and post testing of students by use of a group standardized test. Additionally, they are involved in the yearly review of children with special needs meeting that is often held by IEP committee to focus on special child progress and plan for future changes. These teachers are also involved in monitoring the IEP, undertake potential modifications and even accommodations (King et al., 2004). They are also responsible for interpreting various educational test results, and make potential recommendations to the IEP committee and further diagnose the potential strengths and weaknesses for the IEP.
General Teacher Responsibilities
A general education teacher has the responsibility of determining the nature of instructions, ensuring student support, and all other services that a student might need. Further, a general education teacher determines the student’s objectives and goals in addition to preparing lesson plans. They also tend to modify the entire school curriculum and determine student’s adaptation to suit any new student and evaluate their progress. Lastly, they involve a student’s parents while working closely with other core service providers (Leonard & Haynes, 2010).
Paraeducator Responsibilities
The primary responsibility of a paraeducator is to undertake specifically various tasks that have been assigned by a supervising teacher, and this often occurs under his or her direction. They also implement the teacher’s lesson plan while aiding students with their work. They further gather data on the student’s improvement, mark teacher-created test while maintaining records. They tend to enforce a management plan on student’s behavior and supervise these students outside the classroom. Lastly, they are a concern with aiding student’s personal care such as toileting and offer support and personal whenever needed.
Therapist
Therapists are primarily concerned with the role of enhancing student’s capability to learn within a positive learning environment. Further, they are concerned with the elimination of various potential problems that might interfere with a special child’s ability to profit to the maximum from instructions. Therefore, they are generally concerned with the provision of medical, physical and even developmental information in what can be termed as educationally relevant terms. Physical Therapy also various activities aimed at improving student’s large muscle control and balance which in the process promotes sensorimotor development and further enhance independence in a child’s functional mobility skills (Friend & Bursuck, 2002).
Administrator
Administrators also have a specialized role to play within the special schools. Their key role is the identification of students with special needs and communicates with their parents. Further, the administrator ensures that Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is fully implemented and also adhered to. Additionally, it is a requirement that all the staffs have to read and understand a child’s IEP and the administrators are responsible for keeping a documentation of the same. In the event training is required or even the need for a specific teacher resource, the administrator has the role to make sure that this is done appropriately.
The Family
The family has a primary role to play by creating a strain free environment that will enable the students with special needs to adjust and adapt to the new learning environment. They are responsible for proving family-centered assurance and love to their children. The family can help special need students develop realistic goals and further encourage them to develop their future educational plan. The family further collaborates with special education teacher, general education teacher, paraeducator and therapist in making critical decisions on programs, services, and even resources.
Roles of a Consultant
Consultants who are working with various special need students often engages in the diverse, comprehensive screening process. They often meet with parents of these students to gather information concerning the child and their family (Friend & Bursuck, 2002). They review the existing records of all the applicants to identify potential special needs and determine whether the school will meet that particular special need. They also maintain constant communication with teachers to identify students with special needs early. Further, they also communicate with various professionals who were engaged in performing a diagnostic evaluation to focus on the assessment results and further plan for interventions. Additionally, they maintain communication with professionals both within and outside the schools who offers diagnostic and therapeutic services to special need students. And further monitors the progress of these students through observation and even formal and informal assessment.
Identification of Challenges
It is a challenge to identify special students to be considered for the placement within the special education programs (Friend & Bursuck, 2002). The decision made to recognize a social student formally as special by the Identification, Placement and Review Committee has for years been an area of problem for the most parent with students who require special education. Additionally, most parents often fail to comprehend the used specialized language by all the school Board personnel’s and schools or even the entire process school and school Board make a critical decision.
Further, the decision made by the IPR committee often does not comprise decisions on specific services provided to a child with a special need. At times, it is difficult fob parent to have these critical issues discussed at the IPRC meeting since they are never a part of the larger team responsible for the formal identification and placement decisions to be made by IPR Committee.
According to Leonard & Haynes (2010), the other area of problem for most parents with children having “special education needs is their children’s Individual Education Plans” (IEPs). There is also a problem with the entire process of implementation of the individual plans. In most instances, the Individual Education Plan developed for children with special needs is ignored and never used as a useful document by a classroom educator (King et al., 2004).
Identification of Positive Outcomes
Research has indicated that the various available models that have been implemented within the special education tend to have a significantly positive academic and social impact for all the identified students with special needs (King et al., 2004). Further, special education placement has guaranteed a suitable and free public education aimed at all the students irrespective of their disability. This aspect has ensured a high level of equality in terms of accessing education for all the students.
Further, there is an individualized education program that is aimed at students with special needs has made it necessarily for all the school districts to provide ranges of educational experiences leading to effective one-to-one instructions.
Analysis/Reflection
I have come to understand the importance of service delivery models that are often used to support students receiving special education support. The Consultation Model is the cornerstone for a successful service delivery. A model that is effective will ensure a one to one service that is specifically aimed at addressing particular needs of students with special needs. I have come to understand that within these models, there are various teams that are involved to ensure the identified needs are management effectively. Further, I have come to understand the various roles played by various members of service delivery models to enhance special education support. My perception towards the service delivery models has been strengthened in that I have come to appreciate the role played by the model in delivering quality educational service to all the students with various special needs.
Conclusion
The essay has focused on the service delivery models that support students receiving special education support, in this case, the Consultation Model. The model is a vital instrument since it incorporates various groups of individuals playing different core roles to ensure that they provide quality educational services to all the students with special needs. The model is effective and can lead to the positive outcome regarding meeting the needs of these students.
References
Leonard, W. Y., & Haynes, E. (2010). Making “collaboration” collaborative: An examination of perspectives that frame linguistic field research . Retrieved from https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/.../1/leonardhaynes.pdf
Friend, M., & Bursuck, W. D. (2002). Including students with special needs: A practical guide for classroom teachers . Street, Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, A Pearson Education Company.
King, S., Teplicky, R., King, G., & Rosenbaum, P. (2004). Family-centered service for children with cerebral palsy and their families: a review of the literature. In Seminars in pediatric neurology 11 (1): 78-86.
