Navigating NYSED Special Education Resources: A Comprehensive Guide

This article provides a comprehensive overview of the special education resources available through the New York State Education Department (NYSED). It aims to guide educators, administrators, families, and other stakeholders in understanding and utilizing these resources to support students with disabilities effectively.

Introduction

NYSED is committed to ensuring that all students, including those with disabilities, have access to a high-quality education. To achieve this goal, NYSED provides a wide range of resources and support services designed to promote the academic, social, and emotional growth of students with disabilities. These resources encompass various areas, including Individualized Education Program (IEP) development, professional development for educators, support for students experiencing homelessness, and strategies for creating inclusive and equitable learning environments.

Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness

Enrolling and retaining preschool children experiencing homelessness presents unique challenges. Families in temporary housing often move frequently, disrupting a child's access to consistent educational experiences. State-administered prekindergarten programs offer a crucial opportunity for young children to develop their social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Recognizing this, state-administered prekindergarten programs have specific responsibilities to identify and support children experiencing homelessness.

McKinney-Vento Act

Pursuant to the McKinney-Vento Act, children experiencing homelessness must have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education. Districts must ensure that these children receive the educational services for which they are eligible, including preschool programs administered by the district. The McKinney-Vento Act requires districts to develop, review, and revise policies to remove barriers to the enrollment and retention of students in temporary housing, including preschoolers. Each district is required to appoint a McKinney-Vento liaison to serve students in temporary housing.

Addressing Enrollment Challenges

Children in temporary housing may encounter difficulties in accessing Pre-K programs, such as full classes or long waiting lists, especially if a child’s family moves mid-year. To address these challenges, districts are encouraged to explore funding sources, such as Title I3 or McKinney-Vento grants, to cover the cost of additional staff members to increase class sizes to 19 or 20 Pre-K students.

Transportation

School districts are required to provide transportation for children who are homeless to attend a state-administered prekindergarten program that they enrolled in or registered for before they became homeless. For further information, please refer to the 2019 memo from the New York State Commissioner of Education.

Identification

All state-administered prekindergarten programs must identify and report data on the housing status of children enrolled in their program, using a Housing Questionnaire.

Professional Development Resources

NYSED offers a variety of professional development resources to support educators in providing high-quality special education services. These resources cover a wide range of topics, including IEP development, instructional strategies, assessment, and creating inclusive learning environments.

IEP Development

Several professional development packages focus on enhancing the quality of IEPs.

Creating a Quality IEP: This package provides the materials needed to provide professional learning on creating a quality IEP.
The Educational Benefit IEP Reflection: This training package is intended to build awareness that student growth should be reflected across multiple years of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs).
Developing Measurable Goals in the IEP: This training is designed to help participants gain skills to develop measurable goals in the Individual Education Program (IEP). Participants will learn the regulations related to goal writing, how to develop observable language for the goal, and how to determine the specific components that measure progress in the goal.

Specially Designed Instruction (SDI)

A suite of training packages focuses on the development and use of specially designed instruction (SDI) for students with disabilities.

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Next Steps with Specially Designed Instruction: This training package is the second in a suite of trainings on the development and use of specially designed instruction (SDI) for students with disabilities.
Specially Designed Instruction for Distance Learning: This training provides guidance and recommendations for providing SDI when engaging students in distance learning through online, hybrid, and other remote instructional delivery formats.
Specially Designed Instruction for Administrators: This training is intended to further develop administrator’s knowledge of SDI and how SDI should be designed and developed based on individual student need to address their learning barriers.

Understanding and Implementing Effective Instructional Practices

Several professional development resources focus on enhancing educators' understanding and implementation of effective instructional practices.

Explicit Instruction: This training package is intended to support participants’ knowledge of explicit instruction and teachers’ abilities to effectively implement explicit instruction.
Instructional Matching: This is an introductory Professional Development Package on instructional matching. Participants will be able to identify and differentiate between skill-based, fluency-based, and performance-based interventions.
Vocabulary Instruction: The presentation explains embedding explicit vocabulary instruction into primarily Tier I instruction.

Science of Reading

A series of training packages focuses on the Science of Reading (SoR) and its implications for literacy instruction.

The Science of Reading: Foundational Skills: The purpose of this training is to help participants gain a greater understanding of what the Science of Reading has determined to be the foundational skills that are needed to become a proficient reader.
The Science of Reading: Phonological Awareness: The purpose of this training is to help participants gain a greater understanding of the Science of Reading; specifically, what phonological awareness is and how crucial this skillset is to the foundation of reading success.
The Science of Reading: Phonics and Word Recognition: The purpose of this training is to help participants gain a greater understanding of the Science of Reading; specifically, what phonics and word recognition is and how crucial this skill set is to the foundation of reading success.
SoR Fluency for Reading Success: This training dives deeper into one of the key instructional areas of reading: fluency.
Comprehensive Literacy Curriculum Review & Selection Process: Evaluating Alignment with the Science of Reading (SoR): This training was developed to provide participants with essential information necessary for preparing for and conducting a review of their district’s current literacy curriculum.

Assessment

Several training packages focus on assessment practices.

Assessment Essentials Part 1: This training package is the first in a two-part series of trainings based on assessment and provides participants with foundational knowledge vital for academic assessment.
Assessment Essentials Part 2: Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM): This training package is the second in a two-part series of trainings based on assessment and builds upon foundational assessment knowledge and skills learned in Assessment Essentials Part 1.
Test Accommodations: This training was developed to promote the understanding and appropriate use of test accommodations for students with disabilities.

Consultant Teacher Services

This training is designed to help participants understand how to use consultant teacher services to support the participation of students with disabilities in the general education classroom and curriculum.

Progress Monitoring

The purpose of this 2-day training is to provide participants with an overview of what progress monitoring for academics is and how to implement this practice with individual students.

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

NYSED promotes the use of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) to provide a framework for addressing the diverse needs of all students, including those with disabilities.

Understanding Intervention: Overview of Tiered Intervention in Schools: This is the first part of a package designed to support schools in (a) identifying how academic interventions are used in schools, (b) understanding the elements of high-quality intervention, and (c) matching interventions to student need.
Tier 2 Supports for Youth: This professional learning package contains the content and materials that are designed to help teams develop the capacity for an effective and efficient continuum of tier 2 supports for youth.
Reading-Tiered Fidelity Inventory (R-TFI): This package contains 3 modules: Introduction and Establishing the District Level Team; The School Leadership Team; and the Grade-Level Team. It is designed to facilitate the implementation of evidence-based literacy practices for all learners. The training is anchored to the Reading-Tiered Fidelity Inventory (v. 2.0; R-TFI), and instruction on its administration is threaded across the modules.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)

NYSED supports the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to create positive and supportive school environments.

PBIS Tier 1 Team Training: This professional development package is intended to be an additional training that can be used in conjunction with the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Tier 1 Team Training.
Family and Community Engagement within Tier 1 PBIS: The goal of this professional development is to support an educational organization (EO) with family and community engagement within their Tier 1 PBIS.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

NYSED recognizes the importance of social and emotional learning (SEL) for all students and provides resources to support its implementation.

Promoting Social and Emotional Competence: Developed by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL), Promoting Social and Emotional Competence is consistent with evidenced-based practices identified through a thorough review of the literature. The series of five modules (1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4) were developed to describe and address the social-emotional needs of young children. Within the context of creating environments in which children can be successful, the Pyramid Model is a Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework that supports the implementation of the practices needed to promote young children’s social and emotional competence and efficiently address challenging behavior.
Targeted Skills Group (TSG): Each Educational Organization (EO) involved in the Targeted Skills Group (TSG) will examine their internal policies, procedures, practices, and data patterns/trends regarding the use of restraint and timeout utilized on students in their care. These materials were designed based on input gathered during focus groups with program administrators, TA providers, early educators, and family members about the types and content of training that would be most useful in addressing the social-emotional needs of young children.

Addressing Trauma and Crisis

NYSED provides resources to help schools address the impact of trauma and crisis on students.

Understanding the Impact of Trauma and Crisis: This package describes the ways in which a public health crisis, school crisis and/or types of civic unrest may be significant sources of stress and/or trauma for the students whom we support. Additionally, it explains the biological, cognitive, emotional and behavioral effects of trauma on student development and the ways they in turn affect a student’s academic and behavioral functioning in the classroom.

Alternatives to Exclusionary Discipline

NYSED promotes the use of alternative approaches to discipline that lead to improved student outcomes.

Alternatives to Exclusionary Discipline: This two-day training package, designed for building level administrators and teachers, is intended to help participants understand that exclusionary practices have significant short and long-term negative effects on academic, social-emotional, health and wellness, and family outcomes of students and that there are alternative approaches to discipline that lead to improved student outcomes.

Cultural Responsiveness and Equity

NYSED is committed to promoting cultural responsiveness and equity in education.

Family Engagement: This package provides a foundational overview of Family Engagement, its importance, and the Six Essential Features of Family-School Collaboration.
Communication and Culture: This professional development training is designed to introduce educators to concepts of communication and culture that impact the ways educators and educational organizations (EOs) interact with families.
Cultural Responsiveness-Sustaining Education Framework: This package is intended to introduce participants to foundational elements of cultural responsiveness and explore the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework.
Equity, Culture, and Socio-Cultural Awareness: Educators will come away understanding concepts of equity, culture and socio-cultural awareness in EOs.
Values, Equity, and Services for Students with Disabilities: This training package contains materials that explore values as an element of culture.
Creating a Welcoming and Affirming Environment: One of four high leverage principles identified in the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE) Framework.
Fostering High Expectations and Rigorous Instruction: Fostering High Expectations and Rigorous Instruction is one of four high-leverage principles identified in the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE) Framework.

Special Education Quality Assurance (SEQA)

SEQA conducts the State Performance Plan (SPP) 13: Secondary Transition compliance review in the Fall of the school year a district is scheduled for monitoring of SPP Indicator 13 (in accordance with the six-year monitoring cycle). The purpose of this training is to review key concepts of this compliance review to ensure districts are developing individualized education programs (IEPs) for students aged 15 and over that meet SPP Indicator 13 compliance requirements. Districts are required to complete this training the school year prior to undergoing this review.

Supporting Transition to Adulthood

Transition from school to work requires a variety of supports and collaborative efforts among education and workforce programs. No one institution or organization can provide the full range of services that may be required to serve youth with disabilities. The New York State Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) is responsible for coordinating services for New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, Prader-Willi syndrome and other neurological impairments.

Key Areas of Focus

Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP): This training is an introduction to the FBA/BIP process.
Function-Based Thinking: This training is focused on function-based thinking.
Quality Special Education Services: This training was developed to promote the recommendation and implementation of quality special education services for all students with disabilities.

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