COURSE DESCRIPTION

Inappropriate referrals to special education are costly and stigmatizing when placing students in special education programs.

In generating an understanding and explanation of the processes related to the special education referral and assignment of students, my research helped broaden the dialogue about the underlying challenges parents and teachers experience in this unfamiliar process. My findings were that both teachers and parents experience frustration, confessing the referral process as complex and involving inadequate teacher-parent communication and lack of shared knowledge.

These may be symptoms of what teachers report as inadequate training in special needs and special education referral and assignment processes. This lack of training is a potential risk factor for incorrect evaluations of students’ learning abilities, which may result in overrepresentation and or misdiagnosis of certain groups of students in special education programs.

Due to parents being uninformed regarding school procedures and parental rights, and placing blind trust in teachers, effective methods to inform and educate parents is warranted.In this training we will review a series of effective professional development and in-service training for teachers on the referral process.

Trainings include specific strategies for effectively communicating with parents and Teacher best practices about the referral process.

Training Subjects Includes:

• RTI training
• Referral Assignment and placement
• Parent Communication