While not designed specifically
for one probe area, many of the strategies and interventions
identified and summarized in the Executive Summary for
Cluster IV (FAPE/LRE) and
Cluster I (General Supervision) are intended
to address suspension and expulsion rates. These same
strategies are also intended to improve overall performance of
students with disabilities on State tests, improve access to
the general curriculum and address disproportionality. Some of
the specific strategies that are impacting suspension and
expulsion rates are summarized below.
Suspension data indicate that
most out-of-school suspensions of students with disabilities
are for 2-5 days during the course of a school year. Also,
students who are identified as having emotional disturbance
receive a greater percentage of all suspensions compared to
the percentage of emotionally disturbed students in the
students with disabilities enrollment. See Appendices 23a and
23b.
Suspension data also indicate that vast majority of school
districts (74 percent ) have a long-term suspension rate of
students with disabilities of less than one percent. See
Appendix 44.
The Positive Behavior
Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
The Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
process focuses on creating and maintaining safe and effective
learning environments in schools. It is a data-driven,
research-based, approach to preventing and responding to
classroom and school discipline problems by creating systems
changes. Schools that adopt a school-wide PBIS approach
establish a full continuum of behavior supports to address all
needs, from restructuring the environment so that all staff in
all settings changes their approaches with all students to
reinforce positive behaviors to specific strategies to address
increasing intensities of problem behavior. PBIS was added as
a VESID-OMH collaborative in March 2002.
PBIS Implementation in New
York State
- A state-level PBIS
Leadership Team provides direction and support to ensure
maximum effectiveness and determine strategies for expansion
of PBIS capacity statewide. It includes representatives from
SED (VESID and EMSC), New York State Office of Mental Health
(OMH), and Families Together of New York, Inc.
- A Statewide PBIS
Coordinator, hired effective 5/5/03, is responsible for
providing leadership and support the to Regional PBIS
Specialists, assisting with expansion and support of the
PBIS teams, monitoring and evaluating statewide PBIS
practice and system outcomes, promoting family involvement
in the PBIS process, and establishing linkages with county
CCSI efforts.
- Six full-time Regional PBIS
Specialists are responsible for guiding, supporting and
evaluating school and district wide implementation of PBIS.
- A Statewide Director of
School-focused Family Support is responsible for the
coordination of family involvement within the context of
PBIS and for providing support and leadership to the
Regional School Focused Family Coordinators.
- Six full or part time
Regional School Focused Family Coordinators work as part of
a team with the Regional PBIS Specialists and are
responsible for supporting, increasing and supporting family
involvement and support in schools implementing PBIS.
- A national support team of
experienced PBIS implementers (OSEP Center on PBIS at the
University of Oregon and Illinois State and Oregon and
Illinois State Board of Education Emotional and Behavioral
Disabilities and PBIS Network) provides training and
consultation to the state-level and regionally based staff
to ensure state and local capacity building for training,
evaluation, sustainability and expansion.
- A Blueprint and Evaluation
Plan has been developed as a guide to ensure and evaluate
the effective implementation of PBIS in New York State.
School Support Projects
The Department has funded, in collaboration with the Office of
Mental Health, Department of Health and Families Together of
New York, Inc. the Mental Health School Support Projects to
provide services in approximately 40 targeted schools to
address the needs of children with significant behavioral
issues who are at risk of suspension, expulsion or placement
in special education programs out of the district. The three
components of the project are: integration of mental health
services, development or enhancement of family support and
training for families and education personnel.
Coordinated Children’s
Service Initiative (CCSI)
Effective September 1, 2002 legislation established a
Coordinated Children’s Service Initiative (CCSI) to maintain
children who have complex emotional and behavioral disorders
in their homes, schools and communities. It created a formal
structure that built on the current informal CCSI structure
that operates in 57 counties. It established a three tier
interagency structure to assure that services are
comprehensive and coordinated; required parent participation
at all levels of the system and provided for the blending of
funds across systems and the flexible use of funds to meet the
unique needs of each family.
CCSI Tier III (State Level
Team) is made up of family representatives and officials from
8 state agencies: Office of Mental Health; State Education
Department; Office of Children and Family Services; Council on
Children and Families; Division of Probation and Correctional
Alternatives; Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse
Services; Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental
Disabilities and Department of Health. CCSI focuses on child
and family strengths rather than punitive actions and is often
well received by families of children who have not
traditionally had good relationships with schools and has
resulted in improved outcomes. For example:
- Edward Williams Elementary
School in Westchester County saw a decline in suspensions
from 231 in school year 2000-2001 to 79 in school year
2001-2002.
- Highview Middle
School/Rockland BOCES recorded a decrease in out- of-school
suspensions from 250 days to 45 days from school year
1998-1999 to school year 2000-2001 and by 2001-2002 school
year, out- of- school suspensions had been reduced to 4
days. This benchmark was a direct reflection of the
increased parent participation from 30 percent in school
year, 1998-1999 to 94 percent in school year, 1999-2000.
- Hilltop Elementary
School/Rockland BOCES boasts a teacher attendance rate of
97 percent and an increase in parent involvement from 20
percent in school
year, 1999-2000 to 69 percent in school year, 2000-20001.
- Onondaga County estimated a
$1.04 million dollar savings in 2000-2001 by averting 88
residential placements.
NYC reported in its initial
evaluation of CCSI that 81 percent of the families served avoided
placements or the child was returned home.
Students with Autism and
Emotional Disturbance Grants
(See Cluster IV, FAPE/LRE, Table
FAPE.V of this Cluster for additional
details).
