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Planning Entry to School

Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program-

Special Education

Planning Programs for Children/Students with Special Education Needs

Respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion are prerequisites for honouring children’s rights, optimal development, and learning.

Principle 3, Early Learning for Every Child Today, 2007

ELECT Education for All

1. Early child development sets the foundation for lifelong learning, behaviour, and health.2. Partnerships with families and communities strengthen the ability of early childhood settings to meet the needs of young children.

• Classroom teachers need the support of the larger community to create a learning environment that supports students with special education needs.

3. Respect for diversity, equity, and inclusion are prerequisites for honouring children’s rights, optimal development, and learning.

• Fairness is not sameness.• All students can succeed.

4. A planned curriculum supports early learning. • Successful instructional practices are founded on evidence-based research, tempered by experience.• Universal design and differentiated instruction are effective and interconnected means of meeting the learning or productivity needs of any group of students.

5. Play is a means to early learning that capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and exuberance.

• Each student has his or her own unique patterns of learning.

6. Knowledgeable, responsive educators are essential

• Classroom teachers are key educators for a student’s literacy and numeracydevelopment.

Accommodated, Modified or Alternative Program Expectations

• Personal and Social Development• Language• Mathematics• Science and Technology• Health and Physical Activity• The Arts

Activity #1

• Select one specific expectation in one/all of the program areas.

• Consider: What accommodation, modification, or alternative expectations could look like.

• Report back.

Effective Planning for Students with Special Education Needs

Research shows that effective entry-to-school planning occurs both at the community level and at the level of the individual child.

Planning Entry to School: A Resource Guide, 2005

Principles Guiding Planning Processes

• Focus on the Whole Child and The Family

• Collaboration• Sensitivity to Diversity• Clear Definitions• Responsiveness

Planning Entry to School: A Resource Guide, 2005

Early Learning Program (ELP) Students with Special Needs/Special Education Needs

Year One Guiding Principles

The shared goal of the ministries of Education, Children and Youth Services, and Health and Long-Term Care is to ensure that students and their families get the support they need to fully participate in the ELP.

Guiding Principles for ELP

• Transition Planning

• Collaboration

• Service Delivery

• Review of Services

Transition Planning

• Include students who are already receiving services within their community or who are on a waitlist to receive services within their community

• Occur early• Be coordinated by a designated individual

Collaboration

• Parents/guardians and relevant community service agencies should be invited by school / school board personnel to participate in transition and service planning.

• Collaboration should focus on the individual needs of students and supporting seamless service delivery.

Service Delivery

• Continuity of service• Expedient service• Optimizing outcomes• Supporting the child’s participation in the ELP• Supporting the continuum of special needs /

special education needs

Review of Services

• Involves the family and all relevant partners• Includes both formal and informal

communication• Takes place throughout the school year

Community and Local Decisions

• Who will provide services?• How will services be delivered (model)?• When will services be delivered?• Where will services be delivered?

Rethink, Repeat, Remove

• Transition Planning

• Collaboration

• Service Delivery

• Review of Services

Resources •Education For All: The Report of the Expert Panel on Literacy and Numeracy Instruction for Students With Special Education Needs, Kindergarten to Grade 6http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/reports/speced/panel/index.html

•Learning for All K-12 (draft)http://www.ontariodirectors.ca/

•The Individual Education Plan (IEP), A Resource Guidehttp://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/guide/resource/index.html

•IEP Samples, and other Special Education Resourceshttp://www.ontariodirectors.ca/

•Planning Entry to School – A Resource Guidehttp://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/planningentry.html

•Special Education, Ministry of Education website http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/speced.html