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by Mary M. Annett
Hundreds of school-based clinicians gathered on Nov. 13 and began their Convention experience together at "Schools Forum 2003: Exploring Solutions for School-Based Practice." The two-hour session included a discussion of the No Child Left Behind Act as it relates to students with disabilities, featuring two representatives of the U.S. Department of Education. The forum also included updates on key activities and issues, as well as roundtable sessions, during which clinicians discussed common issues and concerns.
Updates on ASHA Activities
Participants were welcomed to the forum by ASHA President Glenda Ochsner and President-Elect Larry Higdon, who pledged a continued focus on schools issues in 2004. Kathleen Whitmire, ASHA's director for school services, facilitated the forum.
Celia Hooper and Kate Gottfred, ASHA vice presidents for professional practices in speech-language pathology and for governmental and social policies, respectively, also addressed their peers, with updates on the activities of the Executive Board (EB) and ASHA's governmental relations staff on behalf of school-based members.
Hooper said the EB is committed to continuing the schools focused initiative into 2004, working under the purview of ASHA's focused initiative on reimbursement to develop guidelines on "under the direction of" for school clinicians, and continuing ongoing literacy initiatives. She also announced the creation of ASHA's new online Literacy Gateway (see p. 17 for more information).
Gottfred went over key legislative and regulatory issues, including implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and the newly created Schools Finance Subcommittee of the Government Relations and Public Policy Board. She also discussed issues in the proposed 2004 Public Policy Agenda of interest to school-based clinicians, including:
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Direct access—Gottfred encouraged school-based members to advocate for clinicians to be able to bill Medicare directly for their services. If Medicare grants direct access, she said, Medicaid and private insurers would likely follow suit, and all clinicians' work would be valued more.
- Highest qualified provider—While highest qualified provider standards currently vary by state and setting, ASHA continues to push for consistent standards nationwide and across settings.
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Doctoral shortage—Gottfred said this issue is critical to all clinicians because "we need to determine our own destiny with our own research and our own teaching."
No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was addressed from national, state, and local perspectives.
SLP Joan Mele-McCarthy, special assistant to the ED's assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, and Susan Rigney of the ED's Student Achievement and School Accountability Program, offered a federal perspective on this key education law.
"I'm thrilled to be in the Department of Education and to represent speech-language pathologists," Mele-McCarthy began. "I just want you all to know how highly regarded we are in the field of education."
Under NCLB, Mele-McCarthy said there is a focus on stronger accountability for results for all states, with full inclusion of all students. The law emphasizes the importance of teacher quality, and Mele-McCarthy said it requires all special education personnel to meet the personnel standard requirements set forth by IDEA.
For students with disabilities, Mele-McCarthy said, "It is up to the IEP team to determine not if the child will participate in assessments, but how the child will participate."
Rigney reviewed the three ways in which students with disabilities can participate in state assessments:
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take the standard assessment without accommodations
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take the standard assessment with appropriate accommodations, as determined by the IEP team
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take an alternate assessment
"States have a lot of flexibility in determining what alternate assessments look like," Rigney said, but she explained that all alternate assessments must be aligned with state standards, yield scores in reading and mathematics, and be designed and implemented for use in meeting "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) requirements.
Under NCLB, when a school fails to make AYP two years in a row, it enters into the "school improvement" phase during which parents can choose to transfer their students to higher-performing schools, Mele-McCarthy explained. The following year, students are eligible for supplemental educational services, with priority for students from low-income families.
"Supplemental services provide an opportunity for speech-language pathologists to use their skills and knowledge to help all students," she said. "Take advantage of this opportunity to show what you know and how highly qualified a provider you are."
Members of ASHA's member advisory group on NCLB also shared their thoughts on the law.
Monica Ferguson, coordinator of state improvement grants for the Utah State Office of Education, and Lissa Power-deFur, head of the Virginia Department of Education's Office of Student Services, addressed NCLB from the state perspective. Ferguson said that NCLB standards provide contradictions for students with disabilities, and that there are too many unanswered questions. She stressed the need to support or refute assumptions about NCLB's impact on student learning, and for each clinician to "make yourself an active participant in the conversation." Power-deFur urged members to make contacts in their states and check out their state Web sites to find out more local information about NCLB.
Ellen Estomin and Barbara Moore-Brown each shared experiences they've had in their respective school districts with implementing NCLB. Estomin, who works in the School District of Pittsburgh, expressed concerns that, while the lowest-income, lowest-achieving students have the highest priority to exercise school choice, their parents are often harder to reach.
Moore-Brown of California's El Rancho Unified School District expressed how disheartening it feels to meet state standards and hit all growth targets, but not make AYP. "It's a catch 22," she said. "To be eligible for special education you have to be achieving below grade level, but you must be tested at your grade level for NCLB."
It was clear that NCLB must be an ongoing topic of discussion for school-based clinicians, if they are to ensure that the law fairly considers the needs of students with disabilities. As Rigney said, "No Child Left Behind is putting real pressure on for collaborative decision-making. Your point of view needs to be heard as states develop assessments."
The forum concluded with an opportunity for clinicians to gather for roundtable discussions, where members shared and brainstormed together on issues such as literacy, fluency, culturally and linguistically diverse students, NCLB, workload analysis, salary supplements, cochlear implants, reimbursement, and classroom acoustics.
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