SPAN/FCSN Annual Meeting—DESE Update

December 4, 2020 Chicopee Public Schools Assessment Center

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 3

Randolph Public Schools

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ACCEPT Collaborative

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 5

01 Welcome and Ignite

02 DESE Updates

CONTENTS 03 New Information

04 Q&A 01 Welcome

Operate from confidence, QRWIURPIHDU

We're better together 02 DESE Updates

Improved COVID Help BinaxNOW Student Line Supports

Truancy Audit Team Guidance IEP Improvement Project: Early Adopters

• 19 schools and districts across the Commonwealth o Comprised of public schools, charter schools, regional vocational technical school, and approved special education schools • Schools and districts represent Massachusetts socio- economically, regionally, linguistically, racially and culturally o Rural, suburban and urban populations o High incidence IEPs

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IEP Improvement Project: Early Adopter Cohort

• Blackstone Valley Regional • Marblehead Public Schools • Carver Public Schools • Mashpee • Chelsea Public Schools • Medfield Public Schools • Clinton Public Schools • New Bedford Public Schools • Foxborough Regional Charter • Norton Public Schools School • Perkins School for the Blind • Groton-Dunstable Regional • Pioneer Valley School District • Quabbin Regional Public Schools • League School of Greater Boston • The Guild for Human Services • Lenox Public Schools School • Malden Public Schools • Waltham Public Schools

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 12 IEP Improvement Project: Stakeholder Engagement-Schools and Districts

• Abington • Hampden Charter School of • Marblehead Community Charter • Pioneer Valley Chinese • Acton-Boxborough Science East Public Immersion Charter (District) • • Agawam • Hanover • Martha's Vineyard Charter RCS Learning Center School • Alma del Mar Charter • Sabis International Charter • • Medfield Harvard • Sandwich • Amego School, Amego, Inc., • Medford Boston • Haverhill • Somerville • Milford • Bristol County Agricultural • Holbrook • South Shore Educational • Milton • Brooke Charter School • Ipswich Collaborative (SSEC) • Monomoy Regional School • • Center for School Crisis • JRI The Victor School Southborough Intervention and Assessment District • Southern Worcester County • Judge Baker Children's Center, • Children's Center for • Monson Regional Vocational Technical Communication • KIPP Academy Boston Charter • Mystic Valley Regional Charter • Southwick-Tolland-Granville • City on a Hill Charter Public School • Northampton-Smith Vocational Regional School District • School-Circuit Street • Lee Agricultural Spencer-E Brookfield • Collaborative for Educational • Sturgis Charter Public • Lexington • Northborough Services • Sudbury • Ludlow • Northern Berkshire Regional • Dighton-Rehoboth, • Sutton • Dr Franklin Perkins School, • Lynnfield Vocational Technical • Swansea • Fall River, Frontier • Mansfield • Norwood • Weston • Gloucester • Manville School • Old Rochester • Westwood • Granby • Paulo Freire Social Justice • Winchester Charter School Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education • Pilgrim Area Collaborative (PAC) 13

IEP Improvement Project: Stakeholder-Organizations, Partners and Advocacy Groups

• ARC of Mass or Affiliates Asperger/Autism • Massachusetts Association of Approved Private Schools Network • MABENE • Autism Alliance • MASERS • Braille Literacy Advisory Council • Massachusetts Advocates for Children • Bureau of Special Education Appeals • Massachusetts Families Organizing for Change • Burlington SEPAC • Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of • Chelsea SEPAC Hearing • Community Legal Aid • Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association • Decoding Dyslexia • MHLAC • Department of Children and Families • Massachusetts Organization of Educational Collaboratives • Department of Developmental Services • NESCA • Department of Youth Services and Special • Special Education Advisory Panel Education in Institutional Settings • Special Needs Advocacy Network • Department of Public Health • SPEDWatch, Inc. • Federation for Children with Special Needs • University of Massachusetts Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education • Justice Center of Southeast Massachusetts 14 • Guidance on Collecting MCAS-Alt MCAS Alt. Evidence Produced During Remote Evidence Instruction Collection • Guidance document has been posted

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03 New Information Serving English Learners with Disabilities During In- Person, Hybrid, and Remote Learning

New ESLWD Guidance Released This Week

Serving English Learners with Disabilities During In-Person, Hybrid, and Remote Learning can be found at this link. Developed for English learner education, special education, and general education administration and staff, and should be read and applied in conjunction with all other applicable guidance, including: x Initial Fall School Reopening Guidance x Comprehensive Special Education Guidance for the 2020-21 School Year x Remote Learning Guidance for Fall 2020 x Guidance to Plan and Provide Remote Learning for English Learners x Guidance for Supporting English Learners with Disabilities x Guidance for Courses Requiring Additional Safety Considerations for Fall 2020 x Career/Vocational Technical Education Reopening Guidelines.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 18 ELSWD guidance provides additional What’s information, key considerations, and teaching New in the strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic for in- ELSWD person, hybrid and remote learning that are critical to ensure that ELs with disabilities receive Guidance ELE services and special education services that meet their unique needs.

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• ELs with disabilities are entitled to receive both ELE services and special education services to ensure that they receive a free and appropriate public education (FAPE). • Districts and schools must adapt their ELE services and IEP services to account for in-person, hybrid and remote learning to ensure that EL students with Important disabilities receive appropriate and effective English Information language development and content instruction. • Teachers and parents/caregivers should actively collaborate and communicate regularly to support students’ access to the curriculum and to help students meet their English language proficiency and IEP benchmarks and goals. • There are no changes to requirements regarding progress monitoring and reporting.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 20 Key Considerations

1. Prioritization for in-person learning; 2. Special education evaluation process and consideration of the need for primary language and alternative assessments; Highlighted in the New 3. IEP Team process; Guidance 4. Organizing opportunities for staff collaboration and professional Are Six Key development; Areas: 5. Technology use and provision of training and support for parents and caregivers of ELs with disabilities; 6. Engaging families and communities.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 22 1. Prioritization for In-person Learning o ELs with disabilities should be prioritized for receiving in- person instruction during the 2020-2021 school year. o Parents/caregivers have the option to choose a district’s remote learning program for their child’s instruction if they prefer.

MassachusettsM h DDepartment off El ementary andd S Secondaryd EdE Educationd i 23

o DESE recognizes that, due to COVID-19 closures in March, annual review Team meetings, evaluations and/or parts of evaluations may have 2. Special been postponed. o Schools and districts will need to address the Education backlog of assessments and meetings while simultaneously addressing the need to meet Evaluation timelines for annual review Team meetings and evaluations for students who are newly referred Process and/or due for an evaluation. o Disability evaluations may not be delayed because of a student’s limited English language proficiency or the student’s participation in an ELE program.

24 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education How to Begin

• Once a referral is received, to understand a student’s strengths and needs, the district should review all existing relevant information in the student’s record, and that parents/caregivers may make available to the district. • Consider information from parents/caregivers regarding their children’s experiences during the spring of 2020, including primary areas of need, ability to access remote learning, and other information critical to meet students’ needs as schools reopen. • Use professional judgment in determining whether the existing data review provides sufficient information for some aspects of a student’s evaluation and, if not sufficient, develop a plan for completing special education assessments in- person or remotely. Decision-making should include collaboration among special education and ELE personnel.

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“Professional Judgment”

Professional judgment on decisions relating to remotely conducting special education assessments should take into account the following factors:

™ Referring to guidance of the relevant ™ Taking into consideration current professional organization(s) of the knowledge and circumstances of the evaluator conducting the assessment at student and making individualized the state or national level. decisions. ™ Consulting the assessment’s publisher ™ Consulting with the special education regarding technical/interpretive guidelines administrator. for remote administration. ™ Considering the use of alternative ™ Relying on evaluators as to whether an assessment tools to assess all areas of entire assessment or parts of an suspected disability. assessment may be conducted remotely. ™ Continuing to monitor for developments in the manner assessments can be conducted remotely and, as developments emerge, revisit earlier decisions not to assess, as

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education appropriate. 26 o IEP Teams must continue to conduct annual review Team meetings as they are due. o Parent involvement in the IEP process remains critical. o IEP Team members should use all available 3. The IEP Team data, including information from the parent or caregiver, to anticipate the student’s present Process areas of need and levels of need during re- entry. o IEP Teams must consider the language needs of the child as those needs relate to the child’s IEP. o Make available an interpreter for Team meetings, as necessary.

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More on IEP Teams

o An ESL teacher, or another participant(s) with knowledge of the student’s language needs, should have a role in IEP Team discussions. o Districts must meet the least restrictive environment requirements for ELs with disabilities. o Schools, districts, collaborative programs, and approved special education day and residential school programs must continue to issue Progress Reports at least as often as report cards or progress reports are provided for students without disabilities. Progress reports must be provided in the parent’s primary language.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 28 Identify ELE staff and special education staff to be included in the COVID- Identify 19 Response Team if the school or district has not done so already.

Schedule recurring times for staff communication and collaboration about Schedule ELs with disabilities to facilitate access to learning, including ELE, special 4. Organizing education and general education staff. Opportunities

for Staff Identify staff members who will be needed to support student learning as Identify Collaboration well as each staff member’s role in providing services. and Professional

Development Ensure all staff members using additional protective equipment are Ensure properly trained to accommodate children’s needs.

Provide adequate training time for educators who will provide direct Provide physical support to ELs with disabilities on the use of the additional protective supplies they will need.

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5. Technology Use

o Instruction and services provided remotely via a hybrid learning model must follow the guidance provided on remote learning. Similarly, learning and services provided in-person must follow guidance provided on full-time in-person learning while meeting the current health and safety requirements. o Determine what types of technology will be needed to support learning.

Holyoke Public Schools: https://www.hps.holyoke.ma.us/technology/ 30 Massachusetts Department ooff Elementar Elementaryy an andd Secondar Secondaryy Education Important Technology Questions to Ask

o For each student please consider the following questions: o Will any assistive technology or augmentative and alternative communication be needed? o Is there software that will be needed? o Are there features in the software that will enhance the learning experiences (e.g., closed captioning, reading aloud, accessibility in multiple languages)? o What training is provided to families to access and understand the technology? o Have staff determined what interpretation or translation services will be needed by families to successfully access and understand the technology?

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6. Engagement of Families and Communities

Schools and districts Schools and districts must maintain open should consider communication and technology that collaboration with provides for direct Valuing the home families when communication language and responding to the between the teacher encouraging parents to trajectory of the virus and family, such as maintain a language and making decisions through the use of a rich environment is a about the opening language line, so that way to engage families. and/or closing of school key information is buildings and settings provided in a timely and the learning models manner. to be used.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 32 Teaching Strategies

Keeping ELSWDs Engaged

ELs with disabilities typically require more in-person support in their daily learning than students in general. During remote and hybrid learning, the recommended strategies listed below can help teachers continue to provide ELE services and keep students engaged while providing appropriate and effective English language development and content instruction. *** Strategy #1: Define the focus of the educational approach. Strategy #2: Scaffold and break up the instruction and assignments in manageable parts to help ELs with disabilities to access and engage with the content. Strategy #3: Make your lessons as interactive and experiential as possible.

Strategy #4: Incorporate English language instruction into academic content lessons taking into account the student’s disability category and/or level of need.

Strategy #5: Create online breakout rooms to provide ELs with disabilities with peer-assisted learning opportunities. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 34 Define the Focus of the Educational Approach

o For a language focus: Develop language objectives from English language proficiency benchmarks and from the language that the student will need to know to access the content knowledge. Provide IEP services appropriate to support that content. o For a content focus: Content objectives should be developed from grade level standards and from IEP goals. Provide IEP services appropriate to support that content. o For a social/emotional focus: Keep in mind that school closure can be traumatic for all students; some EL students with disabilities may have regressed and/or may have developed new disability-related areas of need, e.g. anxiety. The use of supports in the student’s primary language may help lessen the impact of the school closures on ELs with disabilities.

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Scaffold and o Determine how scaffolding can be Break up the used to support learning. Instruction and o Determine additional supports that Assignments may be appropriate and/or into necessary. Manageable o How is ESL instruction integrated? o What other strategies could the Parts district use to support learning of content? How is UDL being used to support learning?

36 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education o Does content include authentic and engaging tasks, and purposeful scaffolding and interventions? Make Your o Are we using an asset-based approach? o Does the lesson include features such as audio, visuals, or video to further enhance Lessons As content and language mastery? o Is the lesson designed to promote experiential and interactive learning? Interactive o How can various strategies be used to pair peer models with ELs with disabilities to promote social interaction? and o Can we integrate explicit teaching of genres associated with remote learning and reentry that include the teaching of norms and school Experiential language? Identify culturally responsive and multi-sensory resources and materials to support learning. as Possible

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o If the district expects parents or caregivers to assist their student(s) with assignments, please consider that some parents or caregivers are limited English proficient and may need translations or interpretations to be able to effectively help their students. Incorporate English o Adopt an approach to provide meaningful access to content area instruction to ELs with Language disabilities that “involves three shifts for teaching: to focus instruction on (a) Instruction into accessibility, (b) meaning-making at the Academic Content discourse level, and (c) explicit teaching of the genres associated with schooling. These Lessons shifts can provide ELLs with greater opportunity to meaningfully engage in the curriculum.” See WIDA’s Focus On Providing ELLs with Disabilities with Access to Complex Language Bulletin published in March 2017.

38 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education • Planning instructional activities in which pairs of students at different ability levels or proficiencies work together on academic tasks in a Create Online structured fashion benefits ELs with Breakout Rooms to disabilities and their classmates. Provide ELs with • Partner work is an opportunity for all students to practice and extend what Disabilities with Peer- the teacher has taught during regular assisted Learning instruction. Opportunities • During remote learning, ensure ELs with disabilities know how to navigate the technology used and have access to learning supports for peer assisted opportunities.

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Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) Guidance

PreK to grade 3

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 40 Early Childhood Resources

• Developed by inter-disciplinary team - state organizations (e.g., Strategies for Children; YMCA Alliance), public school district administrators and Developmentally community-based early childhood and out-of-school time programs Appropriate • Provides health and safety guidance in Practices (DAP) developmentally : Guidance o setting up learning environments; o materials; and o play and learning PreK to grade 3 • Builds on the Massachusetts Preschool and Kindergarten Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Approaches to Play and Learning (APL) Standards (June 2015) • Resources are here: https://www.doe.mass.edu/sfs/earlylearning/resources/

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

DESE hosted recorded Zoom trainingDESE hosted recorded Zoom series Physically Distant – Still Connected: Designing Environments for Independence, Engagement and Relationships Lisa Kuh (Somerville PS, Early Childhood Director) delivered a two-part training session describing in-person learning opportunities for young children (PK-3) that meets the health and safety guidelines and responds to children’s developmental needs • Part I Recording: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/sDXzfalEwwq9x6RrMS7yAxf w5MmaNH4Ht_2dRZimt7n6lbXWBYMJ1JpSh2QjaaU.xrov3aaaKCI PTYDx • Part II Recording: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/KmUk1u9fIKUtPEBPZ- Qce7miOGOS4SLkZ1eSuN61BetG9lkEOk5RRbbuVMZrX0sZ.smqx IRezdlxkGrIN

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education 42 Q&A Follow Up

Q: Do you have any suggestions if a student is regressing because they are not attending remote school or services?

o Engage with family and student to identify and remove any barriers to access o Prioritize student for in-person learning o Team to consider COVID-19 compensatory and other services

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Q&A Follow Up

Q: What should we do if a service provider is out on emergency sick leave and not able to provide remote teletherapy?

o State regulations specify that districts "shall not delay implementation of the IEP due to lack of . . . personnel" 603 CMR 28.06(2)(d)2. ƒ Proactively plan for how coverage will work in cases of emergencies ƒ If there is a delay in implementation of the IEP due to the lack of personnel ¾ Immediately inform the parent in writing of any delayed services, reasons for delay, and actions that the school district is taking to address the lack of personnel; ¾ Offer alternative methods to meet the goals on the accepted IEP; ¾ Upon agreement of a parent, implement the alternative methods immediately until the issues are resolved.

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THANK YOU