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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016
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into value priorities as the year progressed. The more the team had the
opportunity to work with campus- and district-level staff and administration,
the more shared-value priorities became evident. Over time, these value
priorities became defined as 1) equal access to educational opportunities, 2)
teaching the whole child, and 3) general education first, special education
second. The team communicated these messages in all of their interactions
with others, and by the end of year one, they had begun to brainstorm how to
make the vision more apparent by hosting beginning-of-the-year professional
development sessions for campus teams, families, and students.
In order to support these new value priorities, the district and the
program had to alter certain systems and structures in order for the sensory
team to be successful. IEP meetings and their associated paperwork had to
be rethought, namely in regard to required attendance at meetings,
documentation of the schedule of services, and signature pages. In
considering assessment for students, time needed to be established for
collaboration both in conducting the assessment and preparing the results.
This meant significantly reducing the sensory team's caseloads so that team
members could service the same students. In addition, a system was
necessary for objectively determining the need for a skilled one-to-one aide
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