Summary of Services Provided by Tri-County Special Education Association
Mission Statement:
Tri-County Special Education Association provides a comprehensive array of specialized services on behalf of its member districts, enabling students who have, or are at-risk of, disabilities to achieve age-appropriate outcomes and to be meaningfully included in the life of their schools and communities. Tri-County supports its member districts by providing related services to students enrolled in special education programs; by offering professional development and consultation services to educators and family members; by collaborating with district personnel to implement effective educational programs for diverse learners; by identifying and providing access to educational resources; and by forming partnerships with outside organizations that enhance the range and quality of special programs, improve outcomes for students and families, and promote cost-effective service delivery. Services are grounded in the practice of collaborative problem solving and are organized around the values of diversity, creativity, individualization, and integrity.
Description of Services:
Related services are provided for the purpose of assisting students with disabilities to benefit from special education programming (34 CFR 300.34). Tri-County provides reliable access to high quality related services of the following types: psychology, social work, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and assistive technology. Related services are delivered as either direct or consultation services and are documented on the individualized educational plans (IEPs) of students with disabilities. Direct and consultative services may be provided to students without disabilities in a manner consistent with local priorities and the schedules of service providers. Examples of specific services include student evaluation, intervention, data management, problem solving, access to specialized resources, identifying and accessing assistive technology needs, planning for transitions to new educational settings or to adult life, family involvement, and community awareness or outreach.
Administrative services are provided for the purposes of maintaining the integrity and the effectiveness of special education programs and related services. Administrative services include program planning and evaluation, data management, problem solving, identifying and providing access to specialized resources or educational programs, considering and accessing assistive technology, teaching and implementing special education procedures, striving for consensus, leading professional development, providing technical assistance on specialized topics, leading educational innovation in collaboration with district personnel or related services providers, building and maintaining community partnerships, and community awareness or outreach.
Professional development and technical assistance includes workshops, consultation services, informational documents, and collaborative planning activities designed for the improvement of instruction. While many of these activities target educators, many professional development and technical assistance activities are designed for the benefit of parents and community members.
Leadership services meet the purposes of (a) identifying and adapting educational innovations to local circumstances and student needs, (b) forming and maintaining community partnerships that expand and strengthen the array of specialized services provided to member districts, (c) insuring collaboration and inclusiveness, and (d) evaluating outcomes associated with educational innovation.
Unique Features Benefit Districts:
Strategies for Meeting Service Goals:
Vision-Setting:
During the spring of 2009, district superintendents and Tri-County personnel answered questions about Tri-County’s services. Additional themes emerged from these discussions.
Flexible, collaborative, supportive, effective, current or “cutting edge,” and empathetic are the adjectives most frequently used to describe Tri-County’s services. Superintendents and service providers stress the importance of providing specialized information and offering problems-solving services in a professional, individualized, empathetic, and supportive manner. With regard to service types, Tri-County’s strengths include the following:
The following services are expected to become increasingly important in the future:
It is anticipated that some services will be needed less frequently in the future. Examples include conducting traditional student evaluations, 1:1 counseling, benchmarking, and attending or leading problem solving team meetings. Therapists anticipated providing less therapy in a 1:1 manner within a separate setting. Speech-language pathologists anticipated providing less direct service to students in middle or high schools.
A common vision emerges. Tri-County Special Education Association helps districts provide effective and legal educational programs that enable students to do the best they can given their individual circumstances. In addition, Tri-County helps family members to feel both supported and satisfied with district services. Program recommendations and service delivery methods arise from research-based practices, but are selected and adapted to the individual circumstances of the people, districts, and communities.
Organizational Structure:
Tri-County Special Education Association is governed by an Executive Committee that meets eight times per year and an Association Council that meets once each year. The cooperative maintains offices in three locations, one in each of McLean, DeWitt and Logan counties. A website, www.tcsea.org, explains all services and provides contact information for all of Tri-County’s service providers. Included on the website is an electronic version of the Tri-County Special Education Association Policies and Procedures Manual, updated in 2008. A copy of the procedures manual is available to all Tri-County employees, district speech-language pathologists, and district administrators.
Financial Stability:
Funding for Tri-County Special Education Association is through a combination of federal, state, and local sources. Federal sources include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Flow-Through, Preschool, and Discretionary grants. State sources are limited to personnel reimbursement. Local sources include district payments of membership fees, called assessments, and district contractual payments. Finally, Tri-County receives Medicaid reimbursements for allowable expenditures of local dollars. Tri-County adheres to the cost accounting procedures allowed by the Illinois State Board of Education, operates under the management of an Executive Committee, publicly reports an annual audit, and implements the internal controls necessary to maintain fiscal integrity.
Mission Statement:
Tri-County Special Education Association provides a comprehensive array of specialized services on behalf of its member districts, enabling students who have, or are at-risk of, disabilities to achieve age-appropriate outcomes and to be meaningfully included in the life of their schools and communities. Tri-County supports its member districts by providing related services to students enrolled in special education programs; by offering professional development and consultation services to educators and family members; by collaborating with district personnel to implement effective educational programs for diverse learners; by identifying and providing access to educational resources; and by forming partnerships with outside organizations that enhance the range and quality of special programs, improve outcomes for students and families, and promote cost-effective service delivery. Services are grounded in the practice of collaborative problem solving and are organized around the values of diversity, creativity, individualization, and integrity.
Description of Services:
Related services are provided for the purpose of assisting students with disabilities to benefit from special education programming (34 CFR 300.34). Tri-County provides reliable access to high quality related services of the following types: psychology, social work, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech-language pathology, and assistive technology. Related services are delivered as either direct or consultation services and are documented on the individualized educational plans (IEPs) of students with disabilities. Direct and consultative services may be provided to students without disabilities in a manner consistent with local priorities and the schedules of service providers. Examples of specific services include student evaluation, intervention, data management, problem solving, access to specialized resources, identifying and accessing assistive technology needs, planning for transitions to new educational settings or to adult life, family involvement, and community awareness or outreach.
Administrative services are provided for the purposes of maintaining the integrity and the effectiveness of special education programs and related services. Administrative services include program planning and evaluation, data management, problem solving, identifying and providing access to specialized resources or educational programs, considering and accessing assistive technology, teaching and implementing special education procedures, striving for consensus, leading professional development, providing technical assistance on specialized topics, leading educational innovation in collaboration with district personnel or related services providers, building and maintaining community partnerships, and community awareness or outreach.
Professional development and technical assistance includes workshops, consultation services, informational documents, and collaborative planning activities designed for the improvement of instruction. While many of these activities target educators, many professional development and technical assistance activities are designed for the benefit of parents and community members.
Leadership services meet the purposes of (a) identifying and adapting educational innovations to local circumstances and student needs, (b) forming and maintaining community partnerships that expand and strengthen the array of specialized services provided to member districts, (c) insuring collaboration and inclusiveness, and (d) evaluating outcomes associated with educational innovation.
Unique Features Benefit Districts:
- Reliable and sufficient access to specialized services, in the amounts necessary to meet IEP needs of students with disabilities, provide for effective special education programs and prevent unnecessary failure among children with learning difficulties. Results include smooth and uninterrupted service delivery, parent satisfaction, increased time for building administrators to address systemic needs, and eliminating chronic staff shortages.
- Access to service providers having expertise in the public schools and who make decisions according to the expectations found in special education policy at the federal, state, and local levels. Benefits include program integrity, mentorship and technical assistance for district personnel, and problem-solving intervention that reflects best practices of each discipline.
- Cost-effective services, relative to purchasing them through medical providers or to hiring full-time personnel when only part-time is needed. Results in good stewardship of public funds.
- Up-to-date information about effective, research-based, practices and access to cost-effective resources (e.g., curriculum materials or technology supports) associated with increased student achievement and improved social learning. Through partnership, districts also have frequent access to professional development opportunities specially designed or selected for their needs.
- Collaborative, flexible services allow districts access to a wider variety of specialized services than would be possible without partnership, collaboration, or sharing resources and ideas.
- Inclusive services that reflect the circumstances, values, needs, interests, and abilities of local students, educators, parents, and communities.
Strategies for Meeting Service Goals:
- We provide support services; member districts provide special education programs.
- We collaborate with one another, with district personnel, and with colleagues.
- We schedule our time flexibly in order to most effectively implement the services most needed by our students. In general, special education services are the highest priority but preventative and early intervention services are also very important.
- We share resources in order to expand options in a cost-effective way.
- We provide the services that districts cannot as reliably provide for themselves and the services that allow district personnel to concentrate on student instruction.
- We practice service-oriented leadership and encourage one another to lead or follow the lead of others based on individual strengths, experiences, and interests.
Vision-Setting:
During the spring of 2009, district superintendents and Tri-County personnel answered questions about Tri-County’s services. Additional themes emerged from these discussions.
Flexible, collaborative, supportive, effective, current or “cutting edge,” and empathetic are the adjectives most frequently used to describe Tri-County’s services. Superintendents and service providers stress the importance of providing specialized information and offering problems-solving services in a professional, individualized, empathetic, and supportive manner. With regard to service types, Tri-County’s strengths include the following:
- Providing support for Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation at the building level.
- Providing a wide variety of direct services to students and families—whatever is needed.
- Building positive relationships with educators and family members.
- Delivering professional development and technical assistance on a wide variety of topics.
- Analyzing and interpreting data.
- Engaging in creative problem-solving and practicing service-oriented leadership.
The following services are expected to become increasingly important in the future:
- Professional development necessary for implementing and adapting current practices.
- Support for RtI implementation, especially at the level of intensive and individualized intervention and coordinating the set of RtI services in collaboration with district personnel. Speech-language pathologists anticipate providing more intervention support for the development of phonemic awareness, phonics, expressive language, and basic literacy skills to students in small groups or in classrooms.
- Data analysis, display, summary, and interpretation, including increased progress monitoring associated with the direct services provided by Tri-County personnel.
- Social-Emotional Learning and related support services. These might include functional assessment and behavior management planning, social skills instruction, social work services for students and families, linking families to community services, consulting with teachers about social behavior, providing counseling in small groups, and supporting building-level implementation of school-wide systems for improving social-emotional outcomes among children (e.g.,PBIS). Increased use of progress monitoring is anticipated.
- Working collaboratively to co-treat, co-teach, assess student needs in well-coordinated and trans-disciplinary ways, and engage in student-focused problem solving.
- Consultation services for supporting students with autism or behavioral difficulties.
- Inclusive therapy services delivered within a problem-solving context.
It is anticipated that some services will be needed less frequently in the future. Examples include conducting traditional student evaluations, 1:1 counseling, benchmarking, and attending or leading problem solving team meetings. Therapists anticipated providing less therapy in a 1:1 manner within a separate setting. Speech-language pathologists anticipated providing less direct service to students in middle or high schools.
A common vision emerges. Tri-County Special Education Association helps districts provide effective and legal educational programs that enable students to do the best they can given their individual circumstances. In addition, Tri-County helps family members to feel both supported and satisfied with district services. Program recommendations and service delivery methods arise from research-based practices, but are selected and adapted to the individual circumstances of the people, districts, and communities.
Organizational Structure:
Tri-County Special Education Association is governed by an Executive Committee that meets eight times per year and an Association Council that meets once each year. The cooperative maintains offices in three locations, one in each of McLean, DeWitt and Logan counties. A website, www.tcsea.org, explains all services and provides contact information for all of Tri-County’s service providers. Included on the website is an electronic version of the Tri-County Special Education Association Policies and Procedures Manual, updated in 2008. A copy of the procedures manual is available to all Tri-County employees, district speech-language pathologists, and district administrators.
Financial Stability:
Funding for Tri-County Special Education Association is through a combination of federal, state, and local sources. Federal sources include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Flow-Through, Preschool, and Discretionary grants. State sources are limited to personnel reimbursement. Local sources include district payments of membership fees, called assessments, and district contractual payments. Finally, Tri-County receives Medicaid reimbursements for allowable expenditures of local dollars. Tri-County adheres to the cost accounting procedures allowed by the Illinois State Board of Education, operates under the management of an Executive Committee, publicly reports an annual audit, and implements the internal controls necessary to maintain fiscal integrity.