Catherine Whitcher, M.Ed

What’s next for Special Education?

Permanent distance learning plans in all IEPs? I hope so.

Technology supports in all IEPs? I hope so.

Appropriate IEP goals that prepare students for the real world? YES!

It’s finally time to get rid of the 1980’s version of Special Education that we see in so many schools today.

Teachers want old school IEPs gone. Parents are ready to toss the old versions out the window. So now here’s our chance.

Special Education has fallen apart. Our awesome IEP teams are trying to hold it together. Let’s put back the pieces that matter, get rid of the out dated excuses at the higher up levels, and finally help all students be prepared for this new normal.

That’s exactly what we’re doing as Master IEP Coaches across the nation. Enrollment for the next mentorship is open. Start Here to Learn More: www.masterIEPcoach.com

Triggers. We usually think of the word "trigger" as a negative. We get triggered and the result is anger or meltdowns. Especially when we are discussing Special Education, behavior plans and supporting a child in a successful school day.

Today, we're going to reframe the word "trigger" into a good thing. Something that you need. An action your child might be craving because it will help this new confusing world feel just a little bit easier.

Resources: www.iepchecklist.com www.masterIEPcoach.com

Triggers. We usually think of the word "trigger" as a negative. We get triggered and the result is anger or meltdowns. Especially when we are discussing Special Education, behavior plans and supporting a child in a successful school day.

Today, we're going to reframe the word "trigger" into a good thing. Something that you need. An action your child might be craving because it will help this new confusing world feel just a little bit easier.

We've heard a million times how this disruption of routine has upset everyone, specifically students who thrive in routines. We can't get the old routines back, just yet, but we can break down what the routine did, what purpose it served, and work together to implement a trigger. Not a full routine, a trigger.

Remember, when this crisis started and everyone was posting cutesy rainbow colored scheduled with breaks and work time, all while making a homemade dinner from scratch. This was going to be their new routine. It didn't work. At least not...

Crisis Schooling is Exhausting for Special Needs Parents & IEP Teams

Listen for 3 steps to help special needs parents & IEP teams

Become part of the solution as a Master IEP Coach www.masterIEPcoach.com

Crisis schooling exhaustion is real.

It's not just you, your routine (or lack of routine) or something that you can just figure out and then it goes away.

Think back to when you've had other changes in your life forced into your daily routines.

Maybe it was a move, a marriage, a divorce, a death, a job change, special needs challenges or a surprise medical diagnosis ... whatever it was, it was exhausting. But it was different. You knew the exhaustion was temporary and you either had survived this type of life change before or you knew someone who had gone through it. In fact, you or that someone you know probably came out stronger on the other side.

Here's the huge difference of what is happening right now. You and your children or students have been forced into a huge change, it's exhausting, and we don't know when it will end. We don't even have specific examples of how people have survived this in the past because schools have NEVER been shut down like this before. 

I'm not...

Should we really be following our state recommended "distance learning" minutes? Probably not.

Our reality in our special needs community is that we don't take breaks from learning in the same way as others. 

Our "recommended minutes" for learning will never be less because we are always striving to reach that next milestone that our peers have probably already mastered.

Less minutes with a worksheet or working on official academic benchmarks can actually mean MORE time for reaching new milestones and generalizing our skills. 

More IEP Help: www.specialedinnercircle.com

Become a Master IEP Coach: www.masterIEPcoach.com

There are always debates happening in special education and with the current pandemic, the arguments are getting louder and louder.

I'm going to skip over the obvious frustration of what's going to happen when we get back into school. Compensatory education? ESY? We will have plenty of time to tackle those issues when the time comes.

Right now we have to really think about what is happening today, in your house, in your virtual classroom. 

I've posted several times the recommended minutes of "school at home" from the IL State Board of Ed on my blog and social media sites. It's important for people to see that successful school is not sitting at a kitchen table for 6 hours, crying your way through worksheets.

Today somebody called me out and stated that I am sharing dangerous information. She thinks it's irresponsible that I let people know it's okay if we, as a special education TEAM, decide to do less than the recommended minutes. She thinks I'm promoting LESS learning for...

"It would be foolish to assume that services written for a school setting could be done at home with the same intensity, but that IEP paperwork we worked so hard to create doesn't have a clause to adapt for what is happening right now during the Covid Crisis... which is where the bad advice floating around Facebook is starting to focus."

IEP Help: www.specialedinnercircle.com
Become a Master IEP Coach® www.masterIEPcoach.com

When you've been in the Special Education community for over 20 years, you know when something big is brewing. You can feel it in your bones. You can see the lawyers starting to try and get ahead of what's coming and then comes the parent advocacy groups marching right behind.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a special needs sibling and I'm truly grateful for the lawyers and the parent advocates that paved the way for my brother, who is 42 with Down syndrome, to get an education in the public school system.

But, the negativity and the tension between school and special needs families is why I became a Special Education Teacher... I knew in my gut at 10 years old that there had to be a better way.

I only lasted a few years in the system as a teacher, not because I didn't like the classroom and not because I got burnt out. I left, by choice, because I LOVED finding creative solutions between schools and parents, even in the toughest situations.

And here we are, right now, in probably...