Annual Review with New Team

This morning we had an almost two hour annual review with the new middle school team. Here are some updates from staff:

Teacher:

• Great transition
• In reading and math he participates about 1/2 the time.
• Polite
• Hard to redirect or reteach, especially in Math. 
• Not working on a ton of academics, mostly focusing on social skills, staying safe. 
• 60-70% of time he's on task.
• Lots of walks around the school.
• Working on being "Flexible thinkers".
• He's mentally and emotionally "Done by noontime". After 12 pm, the rest of the day is "Behavioral Management". 
• Discussed the idea of changing schedule to 7:45-12:35 every day. 
• Overwhelmed with large groups
• Hold off on adding in UAs (Unified Arts)
• Uncomfortable with other children
• Has not organically used other children's names
• Defaults to adults 
• Working on how to be appropriate during periods when behavior escalates.
• Has ability to advocate for when he needs a break.
• Coping well, even in the absence of mechanisms he had available in previous years. 
• Discussed importance of MCAS vs Alt in regards to graduating

Counselor: 

• Increased independence with lunch (Going in line, getting own tray, bringing back tray). Continues to eat lunch in her office. Would like to see him eat in the cafeteria eventually. 
• Has social skills group with two other students. They interact well.

Speech:

•  Couple refusals when not expecting to go.
• Working on relationship building
• Needs lots of cueing
• New goal: Holistic, bigger picture view of events and situations.
• Wants to do 1 of the 2 weekly 30 minute sessions with a peer to work on conversational skills. 

PT:

• Seems overwhelmed even in the hallway
• Functional skills for his school day are there. 
• Vocationally and physically will be able to participate in work.
• Transition goals to other settings than just pull out such as gym.

OT:

•  Sensory seeking behaviors to self regulate
• Teach him sensory skills he can do independently such as heavy work

Important Updates:

1. Continue with "Shorter School Day". Modify to be 7:45-12:35 each day. Every other day (Red Days) will be in 1st block with three 8th grade peers. 2nd semester consider adding in a UA in the morning, with a para. 

Goals:

1.  Math: 1-2 step equations; integer work; test taking strategies
2. Written Language: Topic development; utilizing and including supporting details, paragraph structure
3. Reading: Fluency; active reading strategies; meaning from text
4. Counseling: Age appropriate peer interaction; social awareness
5. Speech: Receptive/Expressive skills, descriptive skills, semantics, main idea and details from written and oral stimuli
6. PT: Generalization of skills across all settings
7. OT: Increasing sensory strategy awareness and use, technology use, functionality of handwriting

We also discussed the importance of him taking the MCAS, if we have any hopes of him graduating. In the past, I was told from his previous teacher that children can pass with the MCAS Alt if teachers show that they know certain things sufficiently. This morning I was told that is not the case. If a child does not take the MCAS, they only get a Certificate of Completion. I am going to spend some time in the next few days researching this. They did say that if he fails the 10th grade MCAS (Which is the one they need to pass to graduate), that they give them three tries. If they fail all three times then the teacher can make up a portfolio which the state may accept instead. They said that is totally different than the MCAS Alt though. They did try to drop direct PT services today, because he's not getting gym with his shortened school day. It would also be too overstimulating for him. The teacher is going to talk to the gym teachers to see if there is a time that the gym is free that she can bring just her class there to practice PT skills. I'll update more when we get his IEP.  They're going to conduct a new FBA and make a new Behavioral Intervention Plan. Much in his previous one is no longer valid at this school.