Skip to content

Educator Resources for Supporting the Whole Child

Learn from education experts & districts experiencing positive results with special education, 504, RTI and English learners

Learn more about Special Programs Management
Deep Purple Ghost Banner

In Texas, successfully serving the whole child isn’t only about general education, special education (ARD), response to intervention (RTI), Section 504 or English-learner programs — it means providing multiple supports in a strategic and confident way to the students most in need.

This resource center is designed to help your team do just that — build bridges across programs, roles and responsibilities to serve the whole child.

Table of Contents

Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD)

A high-quality Individualized Education Program (IEP) lies at the center of ensuring that students with disabilities receive an education tailored to their needs. And the cornerstone of an IEP consists of individualized annual goals, aligned with each student’s strengths and areas of need, that provide direction for appropriate instruction.

In this section:

  • Read the eBook on creating annual goals in your IEPs
  • Take the quiz to find out how well-versed you are in developing IEPs aligned to state standards

Watch the webinar to learn how progress measurement for each student informs whether or not FAPE is being provided:

Related Content

[Blog] 5 Strategies to Improve the IEP Process with Parent Participation

Explore how you can improve the IEP process with better parent participation.

Read the Blog

A look at the data:

Almost 40% of K-12 special educators reported spending 20% or more of their time on paperwork.

What impact does the amount of special education paperwork have on the precious resource of teacher time?

  • Almost 40% of K-12 special educators reported spending 20% or more of their time on paperwork.
  • This is the equivalent of a full educator work day or more per week spent on paperwork.

Source: Suter, Jesse C.; Giangreco, Michael F. (2009). Numbers that count: Exploring Special Education and Paraprofessional Service Delivery in Inclusion-Oriented Schools.

Section 504

Ever wonder if a 504 Plan is the right vehicle to use to address a student’s disability or if an IEP is the right option? You’re not alone.

Compliance with Section 504 isn’t as clear a path as compliance with IDEA — it isn’t about a piece of paper, like a previous IEP or medical diagnosis. Section 504 doesn’t give instructions on steps schools need to take to determine eligibility or make plans, and this gray area has been a minefield for educators. Do you know how the goals of 504 differ from the goals of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)?

In this section:

Watch the video series to get more familiar with the differences between 504 and IDEA:

Bring Clarity to Section 504

Related Content

[Blog] Understanding Section 504

7-episodes to learn how to address individual need, plug that need into a compliant process and make sure 504-eligible students are making progress.

Watch the Series

Response to Intervention

School leaders who implement RTI have a big responsibility ― to deploy a school’s full array of intervention resources to find and help struggling students. This goal comes with many moving parts. Key qualities for success in implementing an RTI model are 1) that schools pay attention to the details, 2) verify that records are complete and archived, 3) close gaps between current and best practices, and 4) keep offering timely professional development opportunities for staff.

In this section:

  • Read this eBook to learn how to ensure your RTI screening process is meeting expectations
  • Learn how to expand your RTI program to provide behavioral and social-emotional support with this blog post
  • Compare your feelings on RTI with those of your colleagues in K-12 education with these survey results

A look at the data:

RTI_MTSS process stats

Q: “If you could magically improve one thing in your RTI / MTSS process, what would it be?”

  • Once again, it’s clear that program effectiveness is top-of-mind. Why are students struggling? Is our program effective? Are we reaching students as early as possible?

Source: https://www.frontlineeducation.com/solutions/special-ed-interventions/insights/rti-survey-results/

English Learner/LPAC

The fast pace of LPAC meetings and English-learner (EL) reporting benchmarks during the school year can be overwhelming for even the most dedicated staff members, and that reality impacts students. Tight compliance timelines and the accompanying stress make it challenging to maintain internal best practices for identifying, reporting on, and planning for students, especially in spring and fall. The result is the potential for staff to feel underprepared both to collaborate across specialties and to use data to identify ELs who may need additional supports, like RTI or special education.

In this section:

A look at the data:

63% of Texas survey respondents said that spring was the most stressful month for staff supporting English learners.

Why?

  • Storing and reviewing STAAR, TELPAS and oral language proficiency test data
  • Managing end-of-year meetings
  • Collecting and reviewing subjective teacher assessment data

Source: 2018 Frontline EL/LPAC Texas survey.

Using Multiple Supports

Ever wonder how — in the face of rapid enrollment increases and a teacher shortage — other Texas districts are breaking down barriers to staff collaborating in support of the whole child? Here are some of their stories.

In this section, learn how districts are helping staff adopt a whole-child mentality by enabling agile cross-departmental coordination and communication between general education and special programs like 504, ARD, RTI and EL/LPAC.

In this section:

A look at the data:

13%, or 6.6 million students ages 3-21, are served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Should that number be higher or lower?

  • How has RTI impacted special education classification?

Source: https://www.frontlineinstitute.com/reports/special-ed-report/

Learn How a Special Programs Management Software Builds Bridges Across Programs, Roles & Responsibilities to Serve the Whole Child.

With so many claims on educator time, it is easy for student information and progress data to be unintentionally siloed. However, when that happens, the student’s support team aren’t getting a full picture of the whole child ― they are only seeing disjointed puzzle pieces.

Getting a true window into the needs of the whole child means expanding your view into all of the supports that student is receiving, including special education, RTI, 504 and English learner programs.

Using a common digital system connects educators to one another, so everyone stays on the same page, year in and year out, to identify and support students with special needs. And wouldn’t it be great if that system also integrated seamlessly with your student information system, helped you manage compliance with TEA and kept your district data extremely secure?

Learn more about Frontline Special Programs Management