Interview from the Perspective of a Special Education Administrator

I recently had an interview with an Early Childhood Behavior Intervention Consultant, continuing her studies of Special Education Supervision at Arkansas State University named Kelli Parson.  She was (is) phenomenal and definitely knows her job, which is why I asked for her help.

She informed that in her experience with early childhood special education, referrals come primarily as a result of a failed developmental or speech language screening.  A large percentage or referrals come from pediatricians or parents who have concerns as well. In public school, it is usually more the result of poor classroom performance that lead the students to her door.

As for the responsibilities before and after referral, in public school, she said the classroom teacher is responsible before referral and the special ed teacher takes more responsibility afterwards (once special education process begins), by giving the classroom teacher some direction and a plan to follow.

School administrator should be there in the school and classroom ensuring that the plans are followed and special education guidelines are followed, but time and other responsibilities sometimes take them away from this task.

Public Law 94-142, now classified as IDEA (which I didn't know when I interviewed her and she referred to the law but asked her and was immediately informed), gives all students with special needs some provisions or resources.  However, the needs of each student should be taken into account when making educational plans and programming for students with special needs.  (I am assuming this is where IEPs come in the picture.)

Ideally, she said that the parent(s) should be very involved from the beginning.  Federal law mandates that parents are notified in writing informing them of an upcoming conference.  A parent must give written consent before any evaluation is conducted.  Parents should be given a copy of their rights under IDEA.  Ms. Parson stressed the best case scenario is when the parent is an active and involved member of the students' educational team.

This is when I asked her my additional interview question about what was done about parents that are in denial?  when parents don't want to accept that their children need additional help?  Ms. Parson said, in fact, that sometimes this happened (about 40% of the time), but she found that most parents wanted to get to the root of their child's problem and felt "relief" that there was a diagnosis and plan in place so their child could move forward with their academics.  She has helped to foster this process for years so she has many ways to deal with both situations.  We didn't have time to get into those scenarios, but I'd like to further discuss that with her.

Overall, I felt she answered to the best of her ability and gave me the sufficient (and more) time I needed.

Her job is demanding, but she loves every minute of it.

-Amanda Patterson