The State Education Department’s Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities has undertaken several initiatives to identify effective practices in schools that have resulted in improving the quality of education for students with disabilities and increased achievement of students with disabilities. The purpose of identifying effective practices is to encourage districts to learn from each other and assist each other in improving their practices and/or procedures that result in improving the performance and achievement of students with disabilities.

For further information about these programs, you may click on the title below or locate them on the statewide map.

Links to other effective practice sites are also listed.

Effective Practices in Instructional Programs for Students with Disabilities

The review and selection process utilized to identify effective practices in instructional programs included a request for nominations, a review of written nomination applications and on-site observations and interviews. Instructional programs/practices were evaluated based upon their demonstration of quality indicators that included evidence of positive results in raising academic standards, research-based practices that demonstrate effectiveness and availability of professional development.

Effective Inclusion Programs

School districts participating in the New York Partnership for Statewide Systems Change Project 2000 are moving towards more inclusive practices. The Systems Change Project is a collaborative effort of the New York State Education Department's Office of Special Education Services/VESID and Syracuse University's School of Education, Teaching and Leadership Division. The primary goal of the Systems Change Project is to help selected districts develop, implement, and evaluate their own systems change process toward quality inclusive educational opportunities for students with significant disabilities in their home schools and classrooms.

Effective Practices in Prereferral Strategies

.  This section of effective practices is under construction.

Quality Assurance Verification Districts

Each year a number of school districts are identified through VESID's Quality Assurance process as meeting or exceeding most or all of VESID's strategic plan goals based on 14 indicators (key pieces of data). These indicators include the performance and participation of students with disabilities on statewide examinations, drop out rates, graduation rates, classification and integration rates. The review includes a desk audit of LEA application submission (including verification of KPI data), discussion of practices which helped achieve results and a review of the history of parent complaint issues. Regional Associates verify the data with districts and identify any potential effective practices that the district feels have contributed to their results. These districts are identified as Quality Assurance Verification Districts.

Effective Transition to Adult Services
Effective Practices in the Provision of Transition Programs and Services for Secondary Students

Using national research on transition, a Transition Quality Indicators Self-Assessment Instrument was developed to provide districts with a self-assessment tool to identify key components needed for planning and implementing transition programs and services. By developing these key components, districts are better able to prepare secondary students to successfully live, learn and work in the community as adults. Districts can identify areas of excellence and need within these components. Those districts identified with areas of excellence will be available to provide technical assistance and information to other districts statewide.

.  This section of effective practices is under construction.

Partners for Children Effective Practices in Collaborative School-Based Mental Health Services

Twelve partnerships were identified as a result of a two-part process involving a proposal review by teams made up of Partners for Children member staff and family members and interview process. In addition to describing their partnership, proposal writers were asked to demonstrate how their practices demonstrated effectiveness in at least three of the following areas: improved academic performance, increased parent participation, increased student attendance, decreased numbers of behavioral difficulties, increased percentage of students with disabilities, reduced referrals to CSE, decreased drop out rates for general and special education students, reduced placements in out-of-district residential programs, and increased utilization of transition planning for youth returning to the school from residential placement. Successful partnerships were then invited to an interview conducted by a team of Partners for Children representatives. Each school partnership was asked five questions and was provided ten minutes to answer the questions and engage in dialogue. This process resulted in the selection of grant recipients who will be provided funding to mentor other school partnerships wishing to replicate their best practices.

School - Community Collaborative Models

The Task Force on School-Community Collaboration is co-chaired by the Executive Director of the Council on Children and Families and the Commissioner of Education and includes the commissioners or directors of the Department of Education, Council on Children and Families, Office of the Advocate for Persons with Disabilities, Office for the Aging, Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, Division of the Budget, Office of Children and Family Services, Division of Criminal Justice Services, Department of Health, Department of Labor, Office of Mental Health, Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives, Commission on the Quality of Care for the Mentally Disabled, and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance.

The Task Force is designated as the administrative forum for creating the policy environment for local innovations and reforms that bring together the educational and human services systems. The scope of the Task Force's responsibilities is broad and focuses on issues such as technical assistance and training; innovative methods for collecting data and exchanging information; identification and dissemination of effective models of collaboration; and policy, budget and administrative reforms.

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