AP 215 – Inclusive Education

Background

The West Vancouver School District promotes an inclusive education system in which students with learning differences, and/or disabilities, are fully participating members in their school communities. All students in the District have a right to an education in a setting appropriate for their individual learning needs. The District recognizes the diverse abilities of each student and is committed to supporting those abilities through the provision of meaningful, high-quality educational experiences. The District will provide a continuum of programs and services designated to meet the unique needs and abilities of all students. The District will work towards removing barriers and providing appropriate educational assessment, support services, early interventions, meaningful consultation, and high quality instructional programs to ensure that West Vancouver Schools are inclusive, equitable, relevant, accessible and accountable.

Definitions

The following definitions outline West Vancouver Schools inclusive education structures and supports for students to ensure equitable access to high quality, meaningful learning for all children and youth.

  • Differentiated Instruction is a teaching approach that tailors instruction to meet the diverse needs of students in kindergarten to Grade 12 classrooms. The key components of differentiated instruction include (a) content: this involves varying what students learn, (b) process: this refers to how students make sense of the information, (c) product: this is about how students demonstrate their learning, and (d) learning environment: this involves the physical or social setting of the classroom.
  • District Screening/Intake Team: is a district structure that includes the school psychologists and Director of Instruction of Inclusive Education or designate. The purpose of this team is to review all school team requests for psychoeducational assessment and/or Ministry of Education and Child Care student designation status for the purposes of creating Individual Education Plans or Student Support Plans.
  • Inclusion: describes the principle that all students are entitled to equitable access to learning, achievement, and the pursuit of excellence in all aspects of their educational program(s). British Columbia promotes an inclusive education system in which students with learning differences, and/or disabilities, are fully participating members in school communities of their choice.
  • Inclusive Education: is a process of schooling that is about belonging, nurturing, and educating all children and youth, regardless of their differences in culture, gender, ability, class, and ethnicity.
  • Individual Education Plan (IEP): is a documented plan to ensure students with learning differences and disabilities receive the education and support they need to succeed. An IEP must provide accountability for (1) individualized goals, (2) the means to achieve goals, (3) support measures related to the needs of the student, (4) information about how support measures will be delivered and assessed (e.g. progress monitoring), and (5) responsibility (e.g. names of family members and all personnel on the student’s educational support team). Collaboration and engagement with parents/guardians are crucial, required components of IEP development to ensure alignment with the student’s and family’s needs.
  • Educational adaptations: are changes in the way instruction is delivered to help a student with learning differences/disabilities access the curriculum without altering the content. Educational adaptations can include the use of different teaching strategies, tools or materials.
  • Educational modifications: are changes made to the curriculum, instruction, or assessment methods to help students, with learning differences and/or disabilities, access educational content and succeed in school. Educational modifications change the actual material and performance expectations to better suit the needs of the individual student.
  • Environmental adaptations: are adjustments to the physical or sensory environment to better support a students’ learning and engagement. This can involve changes to the classroom layout, lighting, materials, equipment, noise levels, and/or seating arrangements.
  • Essential supports: are supports identified through psycho-educational, behavioural and/or medical assessments which are necessary for the student to access curriculum and participate meaningfully in the classroom/school setting.
  • Meaningful Educational Consultation: refers to the process of collaboration between educators, specialists, families, and students (as appropriate), with the goal of making informed decisions about a student’s educational needs, goals and supports. This process is particularly important when addressing the needs of students with learning differences and/or disabilities.
  • Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS): is an educational framework used by schools to give targeted support to students. MTSS recognizes the inherent worth of all students, empowers parents/guardians and is inclusive of all students in our classrooms, schools and communities. MTSS is a comprehensive, evidence-based approach that uses data-driven decision making to identify students who need additional support and to implement interventions at varying levels of intensity.
  • Response to Intervention (RTI): is an academic and social-emotional approach used to provide early, systematic, and appropriately intensive supplemental instruction and support to students who are currently, or may be at risk of performing below developmental, grade or age level expectations. RTI is a key component of the tiered MTSS support structure.
  • School-Based Team (SBT): is a school structure which includes a small group of educators, including the school principal or designate, a school-based learning support teacher, classroom teachers and other inclusive education district specialist staff (e.g. SLPs, BCBAs, school psychologists, school counsellors, etc.).
  • Special needs: is a broad term used to describe individual students who require additional instructional supports or educational accommodations due to physical, developmental, emotional, behavioural, or learning disabilities. These needs can vary widely in terms of severity and impact, and they may be temporary or lifelong.
  • Students with learning differences: encompasses the full range of learning capacities present in individual students in relation to differing social, cognitive, intellectual, and emotional activity, response, and performance domains. Rather than using a lens of disability which is indexed in particular forms of assessment that are compromised by cultural and knowledge bias, the term learning differences recognizes human variability and capacity.
  • Universal Design for Learning (UDL): is an educational framework that aims to create inclusive learning environments by providing flexible and diverse ways of teaching, assessing, and engaging students. The goal of UDL is to accommodate the diverse needs, abilities and interests of all learners, including those with learning differences and/or disabilities, by removing barriers to learning and providing multiple means of representation, expression and engagement.
  • Universal supports: are educational supports available to any student to foster inclusivity and participation in the classroom and mainstream curriculum. Universal supports are high quality, evidence-based instruction and interventions provided to all students in the general education setting.

Procedures

The District uses a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) to responsively, proactively and strategically support students with learning differences and/or disabilities. This framework includes a Response to Instruction-Intervention (RTI) model of support. Three tiers of support are included in this framework.

  • At the tier 1 level, the expectation is that classroom teachers will employ universal designs for learning and differentiation strategies to meet the needs of learners in their classroom. These instructional practices should be based on a regular cycle of preassessment, instruction and post-assessment.
  • The tier 2 level is assessed through SBT and involves supplementing the tier 1 support structures in the classroom with the increased intensity and frequency of targeted support including District Inclusive Education specialists.
  • The tier 3 level involves more formalized assessment as well as diagnostic information. At this level of intervention, a MoECC designation is usually made, and an IEP is collaboratively created.

The following procedures outline the MTSS inclusive education processes to support students with learning differences and/or disabilities in West Vancouver Schools.

1. Pre-Referral Activities

1.1 For students with medical diagnosis or supported child development early intervention services prior to arrival in kindergarten, the identification processes and early educational planning which has begun with the family and external support team transitions into the school environment under the guidance of the parents/guardians and District Inclusive Education specialists.

1.2 For students enrolled in West Vancouver Schools, the identification/assessment phase may begin in the classroom, as the teacher and school team observe exceptionalities in learning and behaviour in the school environment.

1.3 The classroom teacher collects data on the student’s learning profile, including their response to instructional, curricular, and environmental classroom adaptations and differentiation of instruction. This process should include consultation and collaboration with individual school-based and/or district inclusive education personnel.

1.4 If classroom-based differentiated instruction and/or interventions/adaptations are not sufficient to meet the student’s learning needs, the teacher may refer the student to SBT for discussion and consideration of possible student supports.

2. Referral Processes and the Role of the School-Based Team

2.1 The SBT will meet regularly to consider requests by teachers related to individual students learning needs, and to review pre-referral assessment data.

2.2 The SBT may recommend any of the following:

      • Extended consultation on possible classroom strategies (Tier 1 support);
      • Targeted individualized or small group support supplementing the classroom-based interventions (Tier 2 support);
      • Planning for and coordination of instructional support services in the school, including academic assessment and possible referral for psycho-educational assessment (Tier 3 support);
      • Access to additional school, District, community or regional support services.

3. District Screening and Intake Processes

The District Screening/Intake Team will review all SBT assessment applications and student referral packages to determine if they have clearly followed the MTSS-RTI model of support at the school level. The District Screening/Intake Team will notify the SBT indicating whether the student has been accepted for District-based assessment or whether further MTSS-RTI documentation at the classroom/school level is required.

3.1 When a student is accepted for any formal District-based assessments (e.g. psychoeducational or speech-language assessments, etc.), the respective District Inclusive Education specialist will:

i. Notify the school team of the decision to proceed, or not, with formalized assessment process.

ii. Identify the appropriate school-based personnel to notify.

iii. The assessor will then contact the parents/guardians for the purposes of an initial introduction and to obtain consent to begin the process of meaningful educational consultation.

iv. Written consent must be obtained prior to commencement of assessment process. The assessor is to send a letter to parents/guardians requesting written consent for the assessments. If a student is a ward of the Superintendent of Family and Child Services, the Superintendent or a social worker who is the local designate must provide written consent before an assessment can be made.

v. Verbal assent from the student is required prior to commencement of assessment.

vi. Once the consent and assent processes are complete, the assessor is to conduct the assessment.

vii. Communicate and interpret assessment findings to the parent/guardians and if appropriate the student. The District will provide a copy of the report to the parents/guardians. The District will indicate how the report will be made accessible to others working with the student.

viii. The report is property of the school district. Parents/guardians have been made aware of this in the consent process.

ix. Following the interpretation of assessment results meeting, the SBT may submit a District Screening Request form and related assessment data for the appropriate Ministry of Education and Child Care student designation status. The SBT is to ensure that the parents/guardians have given verbal consent prior to submitting the District Screening request form and assessment data. The SBT team is follow up with the parents/guardians to inform them of the student designation status and answer any related questions.

3.2 The SBT may submit an Inclusive Education Request Form to the District Screening/Intake Team at the parent/guardian request, to request a review of psycho-educational assessments provided by outside agencies. Assessment reports will:

      • remain in the student’s general school file for no more than three (3) years.
      • remain in Student Support Services’ files no longer than seven (7) years unless subsequent assessments have been completed.
      • not be disseminated to other agencies or districts without written parent/guardian consent.

4. Inclusive Programming and Placement

4.1 Parental/guardian consent is required for students to receive tier two or tier three educational services. This consent may be verbal or in written format to ensure that parents/guardians have been consulted and are involved in the educational planning to complement their child’s learning beyond the enrolled classroom context.

4.2 Inclusive education specialists will use current assessments completed by District personnel and/or reports from private registered psychologists, health unit professionals, and/or external agency specialists in considering programming options for individual students. These programming may include one or more of the following:

      • Adaptations to make the learning environment more accessible.
      • Alternate approaches to instruction and/or evaluation.
      • Use of adaptive/assistive technologies.
      • Provision of intensive, direct instructional tier two or tier three intervention.
      • Modifications to the curriculum content only when appropriate as approved by parents/guardians and IEP planning team members.
      • Provision of tier two or three inclusive education support services (e.g., speech and language therapy, occupational therapy or physiotherapy, counselling).
      • Assignment of targeted individualized support by an Educational Assistant under the direction of the classroom teacher and student’s Case Manager to help with the implementation of IEP goals.
      • Provision of specialized training and related educational consultation (e.g., Braille, orientation and mobility).

4.3 Individual Education Plans (IEPs) will be written and maintained for students with designations in identified MoECC inclusive education categories. IEPS must meet the requirements as outlined in Special Education Services: A Manual of Policy, Procedures and Guidelines, 2016. The IEP process must include an opportunity for the parents/guardians to have meaningful consultation.

4.4 MoECC Provincial Resource Programs (PRPs) provide outreach services to support educators, students and families to meet the needs of students with learning differences and/or disabilities. PRPs are multi-disciplinary teams of specialists who provide in-person and virtual support to school districts across British Columbia to support including case consultations, professional development sessions, and linking school and school district staff to regional and provincial resources and services. Schools may request PRP supports through SBT processes or direct consultation with the appropriate district inclusive education personnel.

References

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