Transcripts – Resource Videos – Florida Inclusion Network

Least Restrictive Environment 2024-2025

Speaker 1:

[A logo of Florida Inclusion Network pops up]
Welcome to the Florida Inclusion Networks video series.

[The screen cuts to a few pictures of students in a classroom]
This video will highlight the least restrictive environment, LRE for students with disabilities.

[ The slide cuts to students raising their hands ]
What is the least restrictive environment?

[ The screen cuts to a slide with students cheering and high fiving, the speaker will now read from it ]
The Code of Federal Regulation, section 1412 of Title 20, indicates to the maximum extent appropriate children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities are educated with children without disabilities and special classes. Separate schooling or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only if the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.

[ Transition to pictures of students working on a group projects ]
The least restrictive environment is a principle in special education that ensures students with disabilities are educated alongside their peers without disabilities. To the greatest extent appropriate. This means that whenever possible students with disabilities should be included in general education classrooms and participate in the same activities as other students. LRE is not a specific place, but a guiding principle that shapes a child’s entire educational program. It is part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which mandates that schools provide necessary supports and services to help students with disabilities succeed in a general education setting.

[ The video transitions to a slide with text, the speaker will now read from the slide ]
A special thanks to the Florida Department of Education, division of Public Schools Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services.

[ Slide transition, the speaker will now read from the slide ]
A special thanks to Learning Systems Institute, Florida State University.

[ A logo of the Learning Systems Institute from FSU is shown ]

[ A slide is shown with text, the speaker will now read from it ]
The Florida Inclusion Network is an individuals with Disabilities Education Act funded state project by Florida Department of Education, division of K 12 Public Schools, bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services.

[ The screen fades to black and then shows the Florida Inclusion Network Logo on screen ]

ESE Administrator Best Practices in Supporting Students in the Least Restrictive Environment

Speaker 1:

[ Florida Inclusion Network logo pops up. ] Welcome to the Florida Inclusion Network’s video series. [ Transitions to scenes of a Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] This video will highlight Dr. Melanie Sanders sharing best practices on how the district has supported students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, and systems that have been created and implemented to support positive outcomes for students with disabilities.

Melanie Sanders:

[ Dr. Sanders appears, looking at the camera. Text at the bottom left reads, “Dr. Melanie Sanders, Director of Exceptional Student Education.” ] I’m proud of the work that Clay County District Schools has done over the last several years in building and sustaining capacity of teacher leaders and school leaders in order to positively affect the trajectory for our students with disabilities.

[ Transitions to scenes of a Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] We have been very intentional about our cross-departmental collaboration, the ESE department, working with other departments within our district, such as the Professional Learning Department, the Departments of Elementary and Secondary Education, as well as Title 1, ELL, and all other departments as well.

[ Dr. Sanders appears, looking at the camera. ] We strategically funded an inclusion specialist to really guide that work and help bridge the divide between general education and special education. [ Transitions to scenes of a Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] We’ve also been very intentional about utilizing technical assistance from discretionary projects like the Florida Inclusion Network in order to build our capacity at the district level, and then help our schools build their capacity to serve our students with disabilities as well.

[ Dr. Sanders appears, looking at the camera. ] Some of the professional learning that we have focused on throughout this work is the collaborative teaching and planning work between ESE and general education teachers, ESE teachers and classroom instructional assistants, and also our administrators, both at the school level and the district level.

As the Director of Exceptional Student Education for Clay County, [ Transitions to scenes of a Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] I try to really support our schools in several ways. First of all, I make sure that I attend our principal and assistant principal monthly meetings so that I can share important information about the best ways to serve our students with disabilities and to answer any questions that our school leaders may have.

[ Dr. Sanders appears, looking at the camera. ] I try to be as involved as I can in our district walkthroughs through our school improvement department and our professional learning department, walking side by side with other district leaders and school leaders to identify those best practices that are happening inside our classrooms. [ Transitions to scenes of a Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] We look for evidence of high-leverage practices, collaborative teaching and planning, and evidence of strong, specially designed instruction that helps our students do their best.

[ Dr. Sanders appears, looking at the camera. ] In 2022 we started an ESE Advisory Council that meets monthly [ Transitions to scenes a Junior High’s High faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] where we invite the community and families in each month to learn about various ways that they can help their children, and also to provide us at the district input and feedback on the best ways that we can support families as we plan for activities and professional learning for our teachers and our leaders.

In order to support our students with disabilities and all students, we have worked with all of our schools collaboratively to build their capacity in building a master schedule [ Dr. Sanders appears, looking at the camera. ] that is very supportive of our students with disabilities and the supports and services that they need to be successful.

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Speaker 1 [reading the on-screen text, ] :

A special thanks to Clay County School District and Dr. Melanie Sanders, Director of Exceptional Student Education. A special thanks to the Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, through federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B. A special thanks to Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University.

On Screen Text:

“The Florida Inclusion Network is funded by the Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, through federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part B”

School Leaders-Best Practices in Supporting Students in the Least Restrictive Environment

Speaker 1:

[ Florida Inclusion Network logo pops up. ] Welcome to the Florida Inclusion Networks video series. [ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] This video will highlight two school administrators at Lakeside Junior High in Clay County School District in Florida. These two administrators will share the significance of data discussions regarding students with individual educational plans and students without individual educational plans, with general education and exceptional student educators in a collaborative teaching partnership. Lakeside Junior High students with disabilities are thriving in collaboratively taught classrooms. Principal Dustin James, and Assistant Principal Hope Davis will share a few best practices that contribute to student success.

[ Transition to 2 individuals facing the camera. The text underneath the person on the right reads, “Dustin James, Lakeside Junior Principal.” The text underneath the on the left reads, “Hope Davis, Lakeside Junior Assistant Principal.” ]

Dustin James:

Lakeside Junior High serves a population of approximately 925 students. And it is comprised of seventh and eighth grade students here on our campus. [ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] 25% of our students are students with disabilities, having 75% students without disabilities. Our goal here is to reach every student and make sure that every student that walks through our doors and on our campus is very successful.

Hope Davis:

Here at Lakeside Junior, we support our teachers by helping them meet the needs of all of our students with disabilities by focusing [ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] on our support facilitation model. It goes back down to the foundation of how we support them through our master schedule. [ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] We ensure teachers have the appropriate amount of collaborative planning time so that they can collaborate and work together to make sure all of the students with disabilities needs are met.

We also do frequent classroom learning walks to ensure that we are able to give immediate feedback [ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] to all of our teachers, Gen Ed and ESE to ensure that we are helping coach them through the support facilitation model and how we support all of our students here at Lakeside Junior.

Dustin James:

[ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] I appreciate Ms. Davis bringing up the idea that we have many classroom walks to provide some subjective data [ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] and have conversations with our teachers to coach them through the cycle of a collaborative teaching approach.

[ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] We also provide data discussions and it really moves from subjective to objective. [ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] For example, this year we took the data from the FAST PM1 to PM2, and looked at our classrooms that were supported with our support facilitated teachers. [ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] It was interesting to see and provided great conversations when we were able to see that there were some classrooms supported with the same support facilitated teacher, but there was a wide array of growth within those classrooms.

Subjectivity moving to objectivity with the data allows us to have those conversations and ask the question, [ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] what might be different in a classroom that has growth of five points between PM1 and PM2? And a classroom that has an average of 12 point growth between PM1 and PM2, what’s the difference?

[ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] That objective piece and that data discussion is able to really help us to make data-driven decisions not just for this year, but for the next year to come so that all of our students can be successful in a classroom learning environment.

[ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] If I had one thing that I was going to share with administrators about our experience and collaborative learning in our classroom is to make sure that you’re inspecting the classroom of what you’re expecting out of the teachers. [ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] Many times we put a teacher into a classroom and we hope for the best, and we see them periodically. But what are we doing to make sure that, as Ms. Davis mentioned, we’re in those classrooms to see what’s happening? But also we’re looking at the data to find out when the rubber meets the road, [ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] which students are learning, and what can we do if they’re not learning at the level that we want them to? What can we do to make their achievement elevate to the level that we expect here at Lakeside Junior High School.

[ Transitions to scenes of Lakeside Junior High’s faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] Whether it’s a student with disabilities or a student without disabilities, having that collaborative approach, the students really get a two for one in the classroom. Having two educators in that classroom that are able to support that learning goes a long way to make sure that [ Transition to Dustin James and Hope Davis staring at the camera. ] every student here at Lakeside Junior High, whether with disabilities or without, are going to be successful and ready for the next level.

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Speaker 1 [reading the on-screen text, ] :

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Secondary Collaboratively Taught Classrooms Collaborative Teaching

Speaker 1:

[ Florida Inclusion Network logo pops up. ] Welcome to the Florida Inclusion Network’s video series. [ Transitions to scenes at Lakeside Junior High of faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] This video will highlight a middle school classroom where two teachers are providing instruction in a collaborative teaching partnership. This video is to highlight the significance of two teachers maximizing instruction to meet the needs of students. This classroom has two teachers that provide instruction. Both teachers are ensuring that all students are receiving instruction that allows them to master academic achievement standards. In a collaboratively taught classroom, it is imperative to view parody where both teachers are on equal status. In this classroom, you will view a few of the collaborative teaching partnership approaches, such as station teaching,

On Screen Text:

Station Teaching. A teaching method where a classroom is split into groups and students rotate through stations, learning the different materials using different methods.

Speaker 1:

alternative teaching,

On Screen Text:

Alternative Teaching. A teaching method where one teacher leads most of the class in a lesson and another teacher leads a smaller group in an alternative or modified lesson.

Speaker 1:

and one teach, one assist.

On Screen Text:

One Teach, One Assist. A teaching method where one teacher instructs the whole class and another teacher roams, helping individual students as needed.

Speaker 1:

[ Continues showing scenes at Lakeside Junior High of faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] For more information about the collaborative teaching approaches, please visit our webpage focusing on collaborative teaching partnerships at www.floridainclusionnetwork.com. This video was intended to capture the robust ways collaborative teachers partner to create a conducive learning environment for all students. Thank you for viewing and please contact the Florida Inclusion Network for more information. A special thanks to Principal Dustin James, assistant principals Hope Davis and Megan Alfano, faculty and students at Lakeside Junior High of Clay County School District. A special thanks to the Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services through federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B. A special thanks to Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University.

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Speaker 1 [reading the on-screen text ] :

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Team Teaching – Collaborative Teaching

[ Florida Inclusion Network logo pops up. ]

On Screen Text:

[ Transition to a drawing demonstrating Collaborative Team Learning. ] “Collaborative Teaching Approaches. Team Learning”

Speaker 1:

[ Transitions to scenes at Lakeside Junior High of faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] Collaborative teaching is a model used in Florida to provide in-class supports for students with disabilities. Training and technical assistance for this model is provided by the Florida Inclusion Network. When teachers teach together, there are a variety and a combination of approaches that should be used to provide specially designed instruction and intensify instruction in the general education setting. This video clip will explain the station teaching and teaming teaching approach. Team teaching is used when the lesson content can be presented to the whole group. Teachers may demonstrate different ways to use strategies or materials to solve problems in the math lesson. Specially designed instruction can be embedded into this approach when the ESE teacher uses strategies or techniques that are strategically planned to enhance the content for an individual student. The recommended use for the team teaching approach is occasionally.

The benefits of team teaching are that the tier 1 instruction is explicitly taught, in conjunction with strategies. It can be engaging and motivating for students to see the interaction between the teachers.

[ On screen text pops on the bottom left; “Barbara Amerson, General Education Teacher.” ] Often, teachers will use team teaching to present opposing methods for solving problems. [ On screen text pops on the right; “Karey Adkison, Special Education Teacher.” ] Team teaching requires that both teachers have a good grasp on the lesson content and that they are comfortable with each other. Teachers choose to use this approach when they want to model specific strategies for students to respond or engage in learning the material. In team teaching, teachers must be able to present the content equally well, so often this approach is used for introducing and explicitly teaching the content before gradually releasing students to independent work. Teachers must plan for their specific responsibilities with this approach. Team teaching along with the other five collaborative approaches can be a powerful way to provide specially designed instruction, as well as more intensive instruction for students with disabilities and their peers in a general education setting.

For more information and assistance, please contact the Florida Inclusion Network. A special thanks to principal and assistant principal, Elise Taylor and Debbie Chapman, fifth grade teachers, Barbara Amerson and Karey Adkison, faculty and students at S. Bryan Jennings Elementary School in Clay County School District. A special thanks to the Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, through federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B. A special thanks to Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University.

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Speaker 1 [reading the on-screen text, ] :

On Screen Text:

Station Teaching – Collaborative Teaching

[ Florida Inclusion Network logo pops up. ]

On Screen Text:

[ Transition to a drawing demonstrating Collaborative Station Learning. ] “Collaborative Teaching Approaches. Station Learning”

Speaker 1:

Collaborative teaching is a model used in Florida [ Transitions to scenes at Lakeside Junior High of faculties and students engaging in various classroom activities. ] to provide in-class support for students with disabilities. Training and technical assistance for this model is provided by the Florida Inclusion Network. When teachers teach together, there are six approaches that should be used to provide specially designed instruction and intensify instruction in the general education setting. Station teaching is one approach used to provide in-class support for students with disabilities. This video clip will explain the station teaching approach. Videos for each of the five other approaches are also available on the Florida Inclusion Network’s website.

[ On screen text pops on the bottom left; “Barbara Amerson, General Education Teacher.” ] Station teaching is used when teachers want to increase instructional intensity and provide differentiated activities to address student needs. [ On screen text pops on the right; “Karey Adkison, Special Education Teacher.” ] Specially designed instruction is easily embedded into the stations when the ESE teacher leads a group that has been strategically planned for that purpose. In station teaching student activities and groupings are designed intentionally and groups rotate through stations. For example, students who need a lot of support can meet twice with teacher-led groups and once independently for practice, whereas students who are on track with the concept may start with an independent activity, check in with the teacher-led station, and return to a different independent activity.

The number of stations varies depending on content, student needs, and the amount of oversight needed. The benefits of station teaching are that the small group structure allows students who need additional instruction or assistance to receive it with a higher level of teacher, student interaction and differentiated activities. Activities at stations are strategic and purposely planned to meet student needs related to student data, individual educational plan goals, and the content standard. The recommended use for station teaching is frequent. Teachers should carefully consider the independent activities to be used for station teaching to ensure that the groups do not rely on sequential material and students have the prerequisite skills for the work. Group membership should be flexible, informed, using student data. In addition, classroom rules and routines should be explicitly taught in practice so transition time between stations is minimal and the noise level is acceptable. The use of a timer is recommended.

Station teaching along with the other five collaborative approaches can be a powerful way to provide specially designed instruction as well as more intensive instruction for students with disabilities and struggling learners in a general education setting. For more information and support, please contact the Florida Inclusion Network. A special thanks to Principal and Assistant Principal Elise Taylor and Debbie Chapman, fifth grade teachers, Barbara Amerson and Karey Adkison, faculty and students at S. Bryan Jennings Elementary School in Clay County School District. A special thanks to the Florida Department of Education, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, through federal assistance under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B. A special thanks to Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University.

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Speaker 1 [reading the on-screen text. ] :

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What Administrators Need to Know to Support

[ A PowerPoint slide with a white background is shown. Florida Inclusion Network Logo appears on the top left. A QR code and a clickable link appears on the bottom middle. On Screen Text reads, “Collaborative Teaching, What Administrators Need to know.“ ]

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Collaborative Teaching, What Administrators Needs to Know. Brought to you by Florida Inclusion Network. Handouts to support this session may be found by using the QR code or by clicking on the link on the slide.

[ Moves to the next slide. Speaker reads from the PowerPoint. ] Our goal today is to share an understanding of the roles of the general education and exceptional education teachers, how they plan for collaborative approaches and specially design instruction, and ways that administrators can support teachers to maximize learning.

[ Moves to a new slide titled “Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA 2015).” The Speaker continues to read and summarize the PowerPoint content. ] Let’s start with education’s vision for all students. Every Student Succeeds Act ESSA 2015 says, all students must be taught the high standards. Schools must address needs of those at risk of not meeting high state standards, including the subgroup of students with disabilities. If the subgroup falls below the overall federal points index beginning in the 2021 school year, schools must develop a plan to address those subgroups. ESSA also emphasizes starting with the Universal Design for Learning, including technology which supports learning needs of all children.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004).” The Speaker continues to read and summarize the PowerPoint content. ] IDEA of course, establishes that educating students with disabilities in the general education classroom with appropriate aids and services must be the first placement considered by the IEP team. The least restrictive environment or LRE. This ensures students with disabilities are exposed to the same grade level high standards. Removal should only be considered if the student’s needs can’t be met with the use of aids and services. The students’ IEP team plans for the extent that they will be included.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “What is Inclusion?” The Speaker reads/summarize the PowerPoint content. ] The concept of inclusion considers the placement of students with disabilities in the general education classroom alongside same age peers without disabilities as an absolute and civil right. It is our job to find the right supports and appropriate amount of time for each student to be included. Florida lawmakers have included this language in the state’s definition of inclusion. Notice the focus on general education settings using universal education to teach all children and the technical assistance in best practices, instructional methods and supports.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “What is Research?” The Speaker speaks on the PowerPoint topic. ] 40 years of research supports inclusion with positive effects in multiple areas. Indiana University recently published a study in 2020 that provides evidence that students with disabilities in regular class placements perform significantly better than those who are not. The study follows statistically matched students from grades three through eight and found that 95% of students with disabilities perform significantly better on the state tests than those who are not in regular classes for 80% or more of the day. When you have a higher need students entering the classroom, you need to think differently about how students are supported. Two teachers working together allows you to meet more needs and spend more time in smaller groups. It helps all students, not just students with disabilities. Teachers who participate in collaborative teaching training through FIN will receive professional development and follow-up support that help them implement the six collaborative approaches taught during training.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “What are teachers learning?” The Speaker reads/summarize the PowerPoint content. ] Let’s begin with familiarizing ourselves with what teachers are learning about collaborative teaching. Here are the major areas of topics that are covered in both our face-to-face and webinar training. We talk about roles and responsibilities, the laws, the language and research. Means of effective communication and conflict management. The six collaborative approaches and specially designed instruction and instructional strategies along with the collaborative planning. The delivery of specially designed instruction is an essential part of effective collaborative teaching. Ensuring that students with disabilities receive their specially designed instruction with Fidelity is one of the primary purposes of collaborative teaching. We provide examples of specially design instruction in the training. However, specially design instruction is a much larger compliance-based topic for students with disabilities. Collaborative teaching is only one way that it can be provided. Universal design for learning is another in-depth general education training topic. Collaborative teaching cannot replace strong core instruction and will not by itself make up for lack of good tier one teaching. This is important to remember. So if these elements of effective collaborative partnerships, which lead to effective collaborative teaching, what evidence should administrators be seeking during classroom visits?

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Common language: Models.” The speakers discuss the PowerPoint topic. ] Let’s look at the entire continuum of service delivery models. It’s important to remember there’s a full continuum of placements that students with disabilities can have, and that this training is focused on the collaboration to provide in-class supports. However, collaboration is also important when providing supports for students in other placements across the continuum. Remember, 90% of students with disabilities do not have cognitive disabilities and they follow the general curriculum.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Roles and Responsibilities of General and Special Education Teachers.” The speaks on the PowerPoint topic. ] School and district leaders can assist teachers by defining and developing their roles in achieving the benefits of collaborative teaching. Collaborative teaching is a partnership of professional equals. One teacher is not the assistant to the other. Both teachers must be flexible and able to shift roles throughout the day and week. The graphic on the screen shows the distinction and overlap between the two teachers’ roles.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “The 6 Approaches.” There are 6 images that visually display what the 6 approaches are. ] The six approaches that teaching partners have available to use are shown on this slide. Each has considerations and a recommended frequency for use, but overall, they should be intentionally planned for and purposefully used.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Approaches and Intensity.” There are 2 tables that Whole Group Instruction and Small Group Instruction respectively. ] One of the biggest benefits to collaborative teaching is found in increased instructional intensity. Approaches using whole-group instruction are one-teach, one-assist team teaching and one-teach, one-observe. But these provide lower intensity and should be used less frequently. The approaches that involve small groups increase the intensity of instruction, providing students with more opportunities to respond and interact. A flexible approach to grouping allows students with disabilities to receive more repetition and practice through more instruction from the teacher in a small group.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Collaborative Planning”. The speakers discuss the PowerPoint topic. ] Research indicates that collaborative planning is one of the most essential ingredients for successful collaborative teaching, and it is the number one barrier to effective collaborative teaching nationwide. The secret to effective planning for co-teaching is to realize that face-to-face planning should be just a single component of the process. With this thought in mind, teachers may need to adjust their planning processes to use a three-part planning. Periodic planning or macro planning should be done every three to four weeks for an hour using a clearly articulated agenda to address specialized instruction as well as core curriculum content. Electronic planning is where we should be doing the bulk of our planning. The general education teacher has the primary responsibility here. The ESC teacher fills in the specially design instruction and specific strategies based on the plans of the general ed teacher. On-the-spot planning allows teachers to quickly touch base about day to day teaching matters using brief snippets of time.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “A Framework for Collaborative Planning” with a table showing how a macro planning agenda for an hour of face-to-face collaborative planning. ] Here’s a suggested agenda for the macro planning that should occur every three to four weeks for about an hour. After the long-term planning, daily lesson plans are prepared using electronic options, which easily accommodate asynchronous planning, and at the same time provide a record of teacher’s instructional design. On-the-spot adjustments can be made then in real time as teachers provide instruction to accommodate student needs or to respond to changes or adjustments in the schedule or pacing of instruction.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Who plans what?”. The speakers discuss the PowerPoint content. ] One of the most frequently asked questions regarding co-planning is who plans what? Typically, the general education teacher keeps most responsibility for planning based on the required curriculum, while the specialist focuses on the unique needs of students with disabilities and other struggling learners.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Plan with the 6 Approaches.” There are 6 images that visually display what the 6 approaches are. ] Just a reminder, the teacher’s planning should include a plan to use one or more of the six approaches to include the specially designed instruction for students with disabilities.

[ moves to a new slide titled, “Lesson Plan Content.” ] High quality lesson plans for collaboration includes the following. Lessons integrate both teachers areas of expertise. Whole group and flexible groupings are used regularly with a variety of collaborative approaches. Teachers use differentiation to meet the needs of all students. Both teachers share responsibilities for the various tasks leading to student success.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Tips for Common Planning Time”. ] One key support from administrators is ensuring that teachers have planning time on a regular basis, which may involve one or more of the ideas included on this slide. If common planning time is not built into the schedule, it can be a challenge for teachers to find time to plan and the partnership can become unbalanced and look more like a teacher para-professional relationship.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Providing Supports for Co-Planning.” ] These are some ways that administrators can actively support teachers for co-planning. It is important to be flexible and to communicate and brainstorm creative ways for the collaborative partnership to flourish.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Idea and Specially Designed Instructions.” ] Remember that the purpose of collaborative teaching is to provide special education services using in-class models of support. One part of special education services is the specially designed instruction or SDI. SDI is based on the student’s present level of performance and can include changes in content, methodology, or the delivery of instruction. It is deliberate, carefully planned and monitored frequently. It enables students to access the same curriculum as other students, and it draws on the expertise of the special educator. SDI requires the professionals clearly communicate about the core curriculum, content and its delivery as well as the student needs, and the specially designed instruction that will address those needs.

[ Moves to a new slide containing an image of a conceptual framework for MTSS. ] SDI can occur across the tiers and may even be provided at different tiers for the same student. For example, a student may struggle with reading, so that student requires SDI at a tier three level in a small group with direct instruction but is able to progress at an equal pace as their peers in math at tier one with the accommodation of having the word problems and instructions read out loud.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Characteristics of SDI.” ] To summarize the characteristics of SDI, it is intentionally designed to address needs related to the student’s disability. It’s direct and explicit changes are made to content, teaching methods, and delivery of instruction. It is purposeful and planned. It increases instructional intensity to provide access, and SDI is the reason that the ESC teacher is in the teaching partnership.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Reflections.” ] So far, we have talked about the laws and research behind collaborative teaching. We discussed the continuum of services and the six collaborative approaches for in-class supports. Along with the importance of planning for providing SDI and how administrators can support collaborative teachers. Let’s talk about some next steps that you can take.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “What Can You Do Now?” ] Things that you can do next. Consider building an inclusive schedule that supports students and teachers. Identify those potential teaching partners to support students with disabilities and in-class models, and then provide planning time and ensure that it is used well. It’s important to also train collaborative teachers within their first year of teaching. Some possible training topics include collaborative teaching, specially designed instruction in the inclusive classroom, differentiated instruction, universal design for learning or classroom management. You also want to actively monitor data that’s collected with your teachers to implement this process with fidelity. Then finally, don’t forget to celebrate successes.

[ Moves to a new slide titled, “Fin Contacts.” The Florida Inclusion Network admin email and website link is listed on the page. ]

Inclusive Scheduling Overview

Speaker 1 :

[ Florida Inclusion Network – Inclusive Scheduling logo shows up. ] Welcome and thank you for joining the Florida Inclusion Network for our inclusive scheduling overview. The Florida Inclusion Network is a [ Speaker begins reading from PowerPoint. ] discretionary project funded by the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act. Part B, our mission is to provide our students with disabilities the educational, social, and future opportunities as their peers by providing customized services and supports to schools, districts, and consultations to families.

[ Next slide on ‘Least Restrivtive Environments’ appears. ] The least restrictive environment is the placement in which an individual student with a disability can be taught and make progress in the general education curriculum to the maximum extent possible with students without disabilities. The least restrictive environment refers to the time that students with disabilities spend with their peers without disabilities. [ Slide Transtitions to ‘What is Incusion’ showing Sections for disability acts. ] In 2013, Florida lawmakers defined inclusion in Florida State statute as a student with a disability, receiving education in a general education regular class setting, reflecting natural proportions and age appropriate heterogeneous groups and core academic and elective or special areas within the school community. A student with a disability is a valued member of the classroom and school community. The teachers and administrators support universal education and have knowledge and support available to enable them to effectively teach all children and access is provided to technical assistance and best practices, instructional methods and supports tailored to meet the needs of students based on current research. [ Slide transitions to an image, a yellow circle containg serval white dots mixed with different varying colored dots. ] The concept of inclusion considers the placement of students with disabilities and the general education classroom alongside same age peers without disabilities as an absolute and civil right. This image illustrates all students learning together regardless of labels and atmosphere that promotes a sense of belonging, equality, acceptance and individual worth. Collaborative integrated services by education teams supports and adaptations within the general education, curriculum and settings. Highly effective research-based instruction and assessment.

[ Slide show transitions to an ‘Inclusive Scheduling slide’, speaker begins reading off of it. ] Inclusive scheduling is a team process to develop a school-wide master schedule that includes support for students in inclusive classrooms and other general education settings. [ Slide show moves to an organizer, showing 4 steps. ‘Student Data & Sceduling’, ‘Service Delivery’, ‘Student Achievement’, and ‘Increased Graduation Rates’. ] When educators begin with the end in mind graduation for all students with disabilities, we keep the focus on where students are educated and what they need in order to achieve learning goals and meet established targets. The inclusive scheduling process [ Slide goes back to the Inclusive Scheduling slide. ] results in a school master schedule that is responsive to individual student needs and maximizes student outcomes through the delivery of ESE services. In general education settings across the school. [ Slide moves forward and speaker begins to read from it. ] By scheduling students with disabilities first, the team ensures that supports follow each student not the other way around.

[ Slide transitions to the ‘Inclusive Scheduling CUE Cards.’ ] This inclusive scheduling Q card can be found on our website at the Florida inclusion network.com. [ Slide moves forward to ‘Inclsuive Scheduling Steps’, the speaker then reads the bulleted items. ] These steps listed here are the steps that you will need to take in order to complete the scheduling process. Step zero, getting started. Calculate and analyze school e. Step one, gather a scheduling team. Step two, gather and write student data. Step three, chart sticky notes by content area and level of support. Step four, regroup sticky notes. Step five, identify staff. Step six, reanalyze and regroup. Step seven, create a schedule for In-class supports the best scheduling is done collaboratively between general ed and special education teachers, school administrators, and other staff who will be implementing or supporting a schoolwide master schedule that benefits all students. [ Slide moves to ‘Step 0: Analyze school LRE data’ , showing how the data is analyzed. ] We began by calculating the schoolwide LRE data and analyzing the school’s LRE by making comparisons to district and state LRE rates and targets. This form is used to record and monitor the school’s LRE calculations before and after the scheduling process. It is also important to include ESE teachers in setting the school’s annual target for LRE. The conversations around setting LRE targets should always remain focused on students’ needs rather than percentages alone.

[ Slide transitions to the next step, ‘Gather Scheduling Team.’ ] Step one, we gather a scheduling team. A school-based team involves key individuals who represent various roles within the school, ensuring collaborative decision-making and buy-in the school administrator identifies and gathers the right people to form a collaborative scheduling team. As team members participate in the facilitated hands-on approach, they develop the know-how and capacity to replicate the process each year. [ Slide moves forward to ‘Step 2: Gather Student Data’, the speaker begins reading from the bulleted point. ] Step two, using each student’s IEP including current academic, behavioral, and other support data, the team will record student information such as FSA performance as well as related services, behavior, and other intervention supports on sticky notes. A sticky note is created for each student and color coded by grade level or area of need according to the goals indicated on their IEP. [ Slide moves forward to the next step ‘Step 3: Chart Sticky Notes by Content Area and Level of Support’, a drawing is shown of teachers charting sticky notes. ] Step three focuses on charting sticky notes by content area and level of support. The team will analyze and discuss each student’s needs and place students on chart paper according to their grade level subject area, and level of support or service delivery needed. As noted on the IEP discussions are focused on individual student needs and clustering students into classrooms to receive the appropriate type and intimacy of supports throughout the day or week.

[ Slide transtions to the next step, “Step 4: Regroup” the speaker begins reading. ] Step four, regroup. The team continues to discuss student needs based on IEP goals, assessment data, grade level expectation, and intensity of supports that may be needed. [ The next step is shown, “Step Five: Identify Staff”, the speaker begins reading the bulleted list. ] Step five, we identify staff after students sticky notes are clustered on the chart paper. The team identifies all available staff members who can provide varied levels of support throughout the day. [ Transition to the next slide, “Step 6: Re-analyze and Regroup”, the speaker begins readings. ] Step six, we reanalyze and regroup students with disabilities into classes with support based on current ESE staff allocations. [ Transition to “Step 7: Create a schedule for In-class Supports”, an image of pink and blue student sticky notes is presented. ] Step seven, the team identifies where and when ESE teachers will provide in-class services and support. Be sure to include common planning time for all collaborative teachers and staff. The resulting schedule of in-class supports will be the foundation basis for the school master schedule. The scheduling process is attendant to provide schools with information to ensure all students benefit from collaborative models of in-class supports schools as schedule students into general education classrooms. According to the supports indicated on the IEP, are creating schedules that allow support to follow the students rather than the students following the support.

[ Slide transitions to pictures of sticky notes, organizing where students are placed in the program. ] This example is of a secondary ESE teacher schedule Prior to the scheduling team, transferring the information to an Excel document. [ Slide transitions to an example of the same process as the sticky notes, but in an Excel spreadsheet. ] This is an example of an ESE teacher schedule. [ Slide transitions to another spreadsheet, showing the scheduling process overview. ] This is an example of a master schedule. Once the ESE teacher’s schedule had been developed, [ Slide transitions to ‘Re-calculate school LRE’ which shows the previously used LRE Data Review form. ] we then review the purpose of the process of recalculating the LRE to determine if the school is meeting their initial LRE targets. [ Transition to ‘Next Steps’ slide, the speaker begins reading the bulleted items. ] It is what happens after the schedule is created that makes a difference. School administrators must be ready to provide ongoing support to those teachers and other staff who are providing in-class services to students. Once ESE teachers are scheduled into classrooms throughout the week, they can identify who they need to collaborate with and assess needs for professional development and resources to support the teams. This may include strategies and approaches for collaborative teaching in the classroom, effective instructional strategies or classroom management and other behavior supports.

[ Slide moves forward to ‘Building Capactiy for Inclusive Scheduling’ an organizer with bulleted points is then read by the speaker. ] Initially, the scheduling process is facilitated by a person knowledgeable in the process. For example, your local FIN facilitator or district ESC staff. School teams learn by the process of watching and doing and then applying the steps. As future school master schedules are developed and adjusted, we use a train the facilitator model for this inclusive scheduling. Building capacity process. Building capacity may vary for districts and schools and schools depending on the number of schools in a district and the district level personnel available to provide support to schools. This graphic displays ways to consider rolling out the inclusive scheduling process and various district types.

[ Transtion to a ‘School Feedback’ slide, the speaker will now read aloud. ] We wanted to share feedback from a school. Thank you for all the support given in our transition to a push in inclusion centered model for ESE service provision. We are so thankful for the guidance and follow up calls. While it is a huge undertaking and transition, we are seeing the benefits every day. Our students are happier and more confident. Our teachers are learning new strategies from our time in their classrooms, and we have overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents who are seeing their students grow socially and academically. The support has been instrumental and we are so fortunate to have the Florida Inclusion Network as a resource, as we continue to reflect and refine our craft. [ Slide transtions to ‘Contact Information’, Get to know your local FIN Facilitators (www.floridainclusionnetwork.com/meet-the-fin), FIN Administration (www.floridainclusionnetwork.com/fin-admin or 850-645-7593), and Inclusive Scheduling CUE Card (www.floridainclusionnetwork.com/cue-cards). ] This information on the screen is information regarding how you can get in contact with local FIN facilitators across the state, as well as the FIN administration team, and we have a link to the inclusive scheduling cue card. To accompany your inclusive scheduling process, please complete the feedback survey. [ Transition to a ‘Feedback Survey’ slide, a link (https://qrgo.page.link/WDJvs) is displayed above a QR code. ] You have a link and you also have QR code. [ Slide moves forward, presenting a giant ‘THANK YOU’ graphic. ] Thank you for joining us for this inclusive Scheduling overview. Have a great day.

Disability Awareness Week Video: FIN and LeDerick Horne

[ Opening scene of a zoom meeting. Three Individual sits in the call with their camera on. ]

JaSheena Ekhator:

Okay, it is 3:30. We’re going to begin. Good afternoon. Thank you for joining the Florida Inclusion Network. First Facebook live event in collaboration with our guest, LA Derek Horn for our session to kick off Disability Awareness weeks in Florida. My name is JaSheena Ekhator.

Kelly Claude:

My name is Kelly Claude, and we are the executive co-directors of the Florida Inclusion Network.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Our project is funded by the Bureau of Exceptional Education Student Services, Florida Department of Education, individual with Disabilities Education Act. Part B. Our mission is to provide our students with disabilities the same educational, social, and future opportunities as their peers without disabilities by providing customized services and supports to schools, districts, and consultation to families. Disability history and awareness instruction was signed into law in 2008 in section 1003 .4205 Florida statute. It requires school districts to designate the first two weeks of October as Disability History and Awareness Weeks, and also promotes providing instruction for students in all public schools to expand student knowledge, understanding, and awareness of individuals with disabilities, disability history and disability rights movement. We would like to thank the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, Learning Systems Institute, Discretionary Projects across Florida, and our amazing FIN facilitators serve as stakeholders to enhance student outcomes in Florida. Kelly will now provide us with information about our special guest LeDerick Horne.

Kelly Claude:

LeDerick Horne was labeled with a learning disability in the third grade, but LeDerick defies any and all labels. He’s a dynamic spoken word poet, a tireless advocate for all people with disabilities and an inspiring motivational speaker and author. His workshops, keynote speeches and performances reach thousands of students, teachers, legislators, policymakers, business leaders and service providers each year. He regularly addresses an array of academic, government, social, and business groups, including appearances at the White House, the United Nations, Harvard University, the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, and the State Departments of Education across the U.S. His work addresses the challenges of all disabilities, uniting the efforts of diverse groups in order to achieve substantive systemic change. LeDerick is going to share his experiences and journey as a student with a disability and strategies and tools that assisted him to be successful while providing tips to teachers and families through his lens in a question and answer format.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Questions were provided to us prior to this event. The rest of our FIN admin team is on the Facebook Live page to monitor questions if applicable, and provide technical support. After the session, the video will be posted to our website at www.floridainclusionnetwork.com and LeDerick’s website at www.lederick.com. So LeDerick, can you give us a snapshot of your exceptionality and your experiences in elementary school?

LeDerick Horne:

Sure, sure. And first, thank you for the introduction and thank you for having me. [ All 3 speakers laugh ] Before we jump right into the questions, I’m excited to do this. It’d be cool if we were all hanging out in Florida together, but I’m glad we have an opportunity to talk.

JaSheena Ekhator [ Smiling ]:

Everyone Does.

LeDerick Horne:

You’re welcome. So, a snapshot of, what was the question again?

JaSheena Ekhator:

Okay. The question was, can you give us a snapshot of your exceptionality and your experiences in elementary school?

LeDerick Horne:

Yeah. So, when I was very, very young, I gave my parents, and this is sort of me quoting my mother, every indication that I was going to be a very bright young person and very, very verbal, could draw relatively well at an early age, and I did okay in kindergarten. My parents actually sent me to a private school town over from where I grew up where I live now. And I got through kindergarten with no problem, but struggled in the first grade and struggled so badly that I had to repeat the first grade. And then it was basically advised to my family that I should just be sent back to district because the school couldn’t provide the supports that it was apparent that I needed.

Then got to the third grade and early on in the year, the month of September, the teacher I had asked us to read out loud and I just couldn’t do it and I was struggling, and the class started laughing at me and it became this sort of scene. It’s one of those memories and I think all of us kind have those experiences. If any of us have ever lived with any degree of trauma, there’re these like big moments that show up in your life and you play them over and over again and that was a big one for me. I felt very, very embarrassed. I felt a lot of terror just knowing that I was going to have to read out loud in front of everybody and knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do it. And so, from that encounter, my teacher reached out to my family, and they recommended that I get evaluated. And the first label that I was given when I was nine years old was that I was neurologically impaired and that is apparently a fairly common label given to boys here in the great state of New Jersey, particularly of my generation. And yeah, I went to a resource room and then placed in a self-contained special ed class, and I was thinking about it.

I had to be transferred to a different school to be in this special ed class, and they did it in the middle of my third-grade year, so I was actually the only third grader in this building. I guess the urgency was so intense that I get that instruction. And I was fortunate in that I had a really great teacher. My father passed away a few months ago and in my garage are crates of his old belongings. My dad was a track coach and a physical education teacher, cross country coach, and so it’s like a lot of newspaper clippings and he also kept every water bill from the seventies. I don’t know what was up with that, but in there, every so often I come across my first special ed teacher, Ms. Yates, a handwritten note from Ms. Yates and a teacher’s note about my progress and how well I was doing, and Pops kept some of my old report cards and stuff like that too.

So, I think it was clear that I was able to do much better academically in Ms. Yates ‘s class. My LD has always affected my ability to spell, to read with a fluency and understand what I read. I also have a hard time just keeping numbers in my head, so mental math is very challenging. I’m also pretty easily distracted, but in Ms. Yate’s class and also with our paraprofessional Ms. Norcia, I was able to do a lot better academically, but because it was a self-contained classroom, I very quickly began to feel as if I was not as good as the other students in my school. And I was mainstream for just a few classes, but for the most time I was segregated off in the separate class with initiates in the other students with learning disabilities.

That was sort of my educational experience going through elementary school and it had its good and its bad elements. I think it helped me to really become a champion of inclusion because I’ve seen the other side of it and there’s this interesting dichotomy that I definitely think that the structure in which I had to be educated was less than ideal. But I also know that I had two educators, Ms. Yates and Ms. Norcia as teacher in the para who were remarkable. And I say all the time very openly, I still feel the love that those women had for me and the commitment that they had to educating all of us, but they unfortunately were sort of forced because of circumstances of the time to educate us within a really confining setting.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Well, thank you, thank you. And thank you for expressing your experience as well. What specific strategies supported you to be successful as a student with some of the learning challenges that you had with Mrs. Yates?

LeDerick Horne:

Yeah. So Ms. Yates, first of all, she was my champion, so she had just a high, very high level of expectation for me. Even when the class started a gifted and talented program, she pushed me to try that program. It didn’t work out well for me, but she pushed me to try to do that. She encouraged me to go to a mainstream class for science. I remember that, having to walk all the way down the hall to the other side of the building to go take a mainstream science class. So I think the first thing is her expectations were high, and I think that’s something that we have to have. It has to surround our kids. So families, educators, the school staff, the administrators, everyone should have very high expectations of students with disabilities, but she also would play games around vocabulary. I remember us doing the dictionary game where she would divide the classroom up in the two teams and everybody wanted me on their team. And she would flip through the dictionary and she’d just find a random word. She’d write the first letter on the board and she’d read the definition. If no one on the team’s got it, she’d write the next letter. Usually. I knew my vocabulary was so strong that if you gave me the first letter and the definition, I could say what the word was, but eventually you would see this word sort of unroll on the board, and it was just this fun way of helping us to build our vocabulary.

And then just a lot of drills, a lot of repetition. I remember many, many flashcards around math and trying to learn multiplication tables, and I think all that was very helpful. But more than anything, it was just sort of believing in us and to the best of her ability, creating a classroom environment that made us feel safe and secure and honored our intelligence. I could also be a real jerk when I was a little kid. I’ll say that too. If I ever felt like I had encountered a teacher that in any way was treating me less intelligent than I actually am. I remember us having, I loved the music class, and I remember they swapped out music teachers at some point, and there was this lady that was having us do this very, very juvenile kind of work, and we were all juvenile, so that makes sense, but it just seemed like it wasn’t a challenge.

She was like, this is special ed kids. And I just went toe to toe with her with breaking down the elements of a song, melody and rhythm and this, that and the other. And then eventually I knew everyone’s buttons. So I knew if I talked to Jamie about cars, he was going to talk about cars all day. And if I talked to Carl about girls, he was going to talk about girls all day, and I got a note sent home saying, LeDerick has turned to class against me. But I guess it was my way of, in a nonviolent way, lashing out against a much bigger system that I had sort of been thrust upon that had a low expectation for me that was unlike what I had experienced most of my time in Ms. Yates class.

Kelly Claude:

Well, I like what you said about high expectations, and so I’m going to read Florida’s statute because Florida has actually identified inclusion. And so in 2013, the Florida State statute, the legislature identified inclusion as a student with a disability receiving education in a general education, regular class setting, reflecting natural proportions and age appropriate heterogeneous groups in core academic and elective or special areas within the school community. A student with a disability is a valued member of the classroom and school community. Teachers and administrators support universal education and have knowledge and support available to enable them to effectively teach all children and accesses provided to technical assistance in best practices, instructional methods and supports tailored to the students’ needs based on the current research. So how does that resonate with your beliefs, and even some of your experiences with inclusivity?

LeDerick Horne:

What stands out there the most is the idea that educators are given the tools, I don’t remember the exact language, but in that statute, that educators are given the tools to be able to provide that inclusive education. I think that’s some of the challenges that I faced growing up, was any sort of interaction that I had with a regular ed teacher. They just didn’t know what to do and I think it’s some of the challenge or it’s a big part of the challenge that we experience now, all of us as being supporters of inclusive education is our teacher education, our teacher prep programs need to, given that inclusion is now the norm and what we all want to see, we need to make sure that every teacher knows how to educate every student. And much of that work, I think should happen in teacher prep programs, so who comes out of our colleges and universities.

But I also think that if we know that your average regular ed teacher is going to get two credits, elective credits that are connected to educating kids with disabilities, then the earnest really shifts to our school administrators to make sure they’re providing professional development, that they’re linking up with organizations like your own to be able to provide supports for those teachers so they can do a better job of educating everybody. I also think it’s part of what makes education fun. I’ve never been a classroom teacher, but I’ve interacted with enough teachers to know when you get the opportunity to not just have the same student all the time, and a big part of what I think makes inclusion works is collaboration, and you get to collaborate with your fellow teachers and you’re working together to try to provide the best educational and you’re learning from each other and you’re going to try and experiment. To me, that’s the kind of school I want to be in. And so yeah, that’s how that statute resonates with me.

Kelly Claude:
Excellent. Thank you.

JaSheena Ekhator:
Yes, that’s a beautiful statement because that is what we do every single day. We are out here serving our stakeholders so our students can have greater outcomes and to be in those classrooms where they are with their peers without disabilities. So thank you very much for stating that. How are your experiences in secondary school? I know we talked about elementary, but how is the transition from secondary now that you have been identified as having a student with a disability and with dyslexia? How was that experience?

LeDerick Horne:

So high school, right? [ JaSheena Ekhator nods ] High school was really challenging for me because I knew it was going to only be four years and then this was the end of school. So I think there were a lot of pressures working on me at one time. First was that I was expending so much emotional energy to pass for normal on a daily basis, going to school, and experiencing pretty clear signs of depression and anxiety, just not feeling like I had any of the skills needed to be able to survive in the adult world and in the adult world was getting closer and closer with every day.

And so it just became exhausting. I graduated from high school in 1996, and so there wasn’t too much talk around preparation for transition. And so the fear of either going into the world of work, still being in special ed, still knowing that I couldn’t read or spell or write or do math as well as I should, none of that was on grade level, but also continuously being promoted from one grade to another and graduation just coming. So I was afraid about what a career would look like for me. And then I certainly just didn’t think that I’d be able to go to college. I hadn’t really had any exposure to what college was besides what I’d seen in mass media. And so I just didn’t think I was going to be able to do well. And it left me with just a lot of fear that got more and more intense the closer I got to graduation.

So much so that I honestly got to the point where when I was in my junior year, I was suicidal because I couldn’t see a future beside beyond where I was. I was one of these young people that walked around and talked about not thinking I would live past the age of 25. I had stellar parents and a lot going for me, but there was just so much fear, so much fear. And I think the challenging piece was that I also did not have the language to express what I was afraid of, and I didn’t have a place in which to do that as well. And so the winter of my junior year, it became too much and I just had a breakdown. And at the time, I was the captain of our cross country team, and I quit that. I didn’t run track in the winter season.

I had a girlfriend, quit the relationship. I just stopped everything and I decided that I was going to spend all the time that I had just trying to figure me out. And that was several months of just intense time alone and thinking. And then I also spent a lot of time in my high school library and I had these great librarians that when I would come to them with very large philosophical questions around existence and where I fit in the world, they helped me find answers. And then I also remember, I don’t remember the guy’s name, but it was this neo hippie substitute teacher that would come in with Birkenstocks and Baldhead, plaid. And every time he was in the building, I’d find him, and we would talk about transcendental meditation and the nature of reality and all this stuff. I read a lot of Einstein and Malcolm X and Nietzsche and the Buddha.

And out of all of that, I just emerged just realizing that I was a valuable human being, that there was nothing innately wrong with me that we had to be very careful because the world is very skilled at pushing an identity on you. This is a big piece that I got from Malcolm X, that it is your responsibility to define yourself and to figure out what your own value is. And so I came out of that, just determined that I have a future. And I started for the first time talking real seriously about wanting to go to college. And initially going to a four year school was the plan, but my IEP team, they very, they listened to me and they said, start out at a county college. And then from there, after you get an associates or get enough credits, then you can transfer and go wherever you want to go. And so that was the plan. That’s what I did.

Kelly Claude:

That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So once you made that transition to the college setting, how did the support there work? What did you bring with you? What did you have to seek out? Was assistive technology a part of any of that? I mean, talk to us a little bit about that piece of your journey too.

LeDerick Horne:

It was this interesting shift that happened when I got to college, right? Because, okay, so there are a few things that happened and it’s like 2020, so I should mention this, right? So the racial dynamic and gender dynamic flip flopped, it was like all these girls with disabilities that were white when I was in school, it was like all black boys. And I also remember going into this disability support program with the same fear about having to carry a lot of shame about feeling like I was still going to have to hide myself. But this program is called Project Connections at Middlesex County College, and they still exist now. They’re still serving students now. They, from the very beginning, were just like, you’re going to be out about who you are. You’re going to celebrate who you are, we’re going to support you.

It was really my first experience in an inclusive educational setting. I’m an 18-year-old college freshman. It was really the first time I’d ever really experienced that because it was not only that for the first time I was going to use things like extra time or take my test outside of the classroom or audio books or any of that and again, this is 96, so windows had just really come into mass adoption so it was my first time being able to use a digital spell checker beyond what they told me my entire life was. If you don’t know how to spell it, just look it up, but you still need to know how to spell it to look it up, right?

Kelly Claude:

That never made sense. Any sense, right.

LeDerick Horne:

Yeah. And I was ready. I had done enough of my own work where I basically just whatever they told me to do, I did. I just worked the program and then went above and beyond. I went to office hours and tutoring and just, I did everything that I could, to listen to the staff work the program and be successful in college. So there are a bunch of things that they gave us. So the first was my counselor sat me down and explained to me what it meant to have a learning disability. And I think that for everyone listening, one of the key things that all of you can do is to ensure that your students actually have a clear understanding about what their label is. And that shouldn’t just be deficit based, just not knowing what they can’t do, but they should also be very clear about what their strengths are. So that knowledge itself and the research around self-advocacy really speaks about that as being one of the key components, the knowledge of themselves.

Also, as I said, I started connecting the gaps in my learning, the challenges in my learning with what tools I could utilize to help me deal with them. There was this sort of shifting of the educational environment and educational materials, so they played to more to my strengths and less of me feeling like I had to shift myself to conform to the educational system. And one of the big ones was that we had community. I had spent my entire education in little rooms with kids with disabilities, but no one acknowledged that. No one acknowledged that we’d all struggled with learning. We didn’t talk openly about it. To be in special ed was to be a second or third class student. And so it was nothing that any of us were proud of. But in college, it became a key and important part of my identity, and I’ve found my people, and we formed a club, and we would hang out and we would do community service. And it really helped me to set me up to have the career that I have now.

JaSheena Ekhator:

That is amazing. That is an amazing journey that you can channel all of what you were experiencing and able to be successful in the college setting and seeing those areas and where you had some gaps of being able to connect those gaps and being able to self-advocate for yourself and utilizing the tools that was made available to you. So that was very impressive. So thank you for sharing with Derek.

Kelly Claude:

I liked what you said about self-advocacy too, because I taught middle school and at that self-contained classroom and that self-advocacy piece and learning about the disability and being able to figure out what that meant in the bigger picture

LeDerick Horne:

And to understand that you’re entitled to have a quality education.

Kelly Claude:

Yea

LeDerick Horne:

You’re not putting anybody out by asking them for your accommodation or your supports. [ Kelly Claude nods and agree ] Theres generations of people who have fought very hard to make sure that we have these protections. And it’s just not the way it felt prior to college. It just kind of felt like I was, and again, I think the way I like to frame is there’s a politics, the placement. So when you put students in classroom at the end of the hall in basements or buildings or in portables, and I had to ride to school on a short bus, it all feels very augmented and in addition to something that was working fine until you showed up. And so I just didn’t feel like that in college. I felt like the supports were all built in. And I think so much of that, I mean, yeah, I worked hard and I deserve a lot of credit for putting in that effort. But I also, I was a part of a school that had embraced a philosophy around inclusion, and I was with staff members that used evidence-based supports to be able to provide us with the best education possible. And then at that point, it’s just on us. It’s like, how hard are you willing work?

Kelly Claude:

So get a couple of questions that have come in apparently. So Charlotte says, it sounds like you were very self-motivated, and how then do we reach those kiddos who really need help to get there?

LeDerick Horne:

So that motivation only went so far. There were plenty of times, and again, being fairly open with y’all, I also came from very, very dark places. So… statistically, I know I shouldn’t be here, and I know from research, what were some of the key factors that made a difference in my life? So, one is that I had two very active and involved parents. So my parents were not all that well versed on what it meant to have a kid with a disability, although I know that they worked hard to try to educate themselves, but more than anything, they had a high expectations for me. My father was also a teacher in the school district that I went to, and so I was always Mr. Horn’s son, but I know a lot of kids maybe don’t have that family support. So if you’re an educator and you’re listening to this, that means that we have to do all that we can to make sure that they get that support in the school, that we build a school environment that is as supportive as possible, and that’s also surrounding them with adults.

Family doesn’t mean necessarily blood. Surrounding them with adults who care and again, have those high expectations for them.

I also was involved in activities. I ran track and I ran cross country, and I’ve been running track since I was in the seventh grade, which meant I had a coach and coaches and team, and there were older students that were a few years younger on the same team when I was, so I was surrounded by people. And then, I could draw… and art for me, whether I realized it or not, was also a form of therapy. I was expressing in a way that I could how I was feeling. So another thing that I think is really important is that we need to, a lack of motivation is many times an indication that there’s an external problem, not an internal problem with the kid. We’re in some way not meeting that kid’s needs. But I also think that it’s important that all of us look out for our mental health. So particularly in this time, particularly when we’re dealing with an economic crisis where folks who don’t know whether they can pay the rent next month, and we’re also dealing with death and what have you, we need to be making sure that our schools have a well-integrated program around providing supports for our mental health, our emotional wellbeing for our students and for the staff because they’re dealing with all this stuff too.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Absolutely, yes. And that was my next question to you is what are some ways that you have managed that social emotional aspects, especially being that you have dyslexia? How do you manage that throughout the day and how do you really… help support others as well as move forward?

LeDerick Horne:

So, now how do I get through the day?

JaSheena Ekhator:

Yep.

LeDerick Horne:

So, this is part of the reason why like inclusion is important. It’s important all y’all do the best you can to get this right now, because I’m a grown man and I am still in many ways still fighting the battles of my nine-year-old self. I have a therapist and we’ve had to switch to Zoom, but I talk to somebody and still a lot of what I wrestle with are some of the traumas that I experienced going through school. So, I’m making sure that I’m taking care of my own mental health. I exercise regularly still, whether it be strength training or running or what have you. And I think that making sure I get enough sleep is really, really important, but I also have to turn off that little voice in my head at times when I’m struggling. Some of the biggest technology’s so great, I can speak out every email and the spelling is almost a hundred percent, and I can use text to speech to make sure I’ve written what I want and I can read just about any book because of technology.

And so a lot of those things I’ve done a good job with as an adult. Now my biggest issues are executive function. It’s just figuring out how to take all these dreams and ambitions that I have now that are very big, projects that I start and everything else, and breaking them down into small pieces. And then also as an entrepreneur, it’s about building the team, so getting the right people around me that can help me push, to do the things I want to do. We’re here talking now because I have an agent that put a bunch of alerts in my calendar and all the links and everything else, and I’ve had three or four alarms go off over the course of the day to put on your big boy shirt and log in on time. All that stuff is challenging for me. And so, I’ve had to learn how to use, primarily, technology but also the people around me to just sort of help me stay on task. So those are a bunch of the things that I’m using now, but tech has been a big part of it. My iPhone, my laptop have been really big for me.

Kelly Claude:

So, we have another question too in the chat that wants to.. Barry would like to know, what would you say to parents that tell schools not to talk to their children about their disabilities?

LeDerick Horne:

So of course, every parent, that’s your right, right? That’s your right. My opinion is I think it’s a mistake. I think it’s a mistake, and I think there’s a few pieces of it. One is it shouldn’t just be coming from the school. I think that the parents should, and I think there’s a lot there because we also have to ask why a family would not want to have that open conversation about a kid’s disability. And sometimes there’s a genetic component to a lot of this. So sometimes you’ve got a parent that has a disability, has maybe never been identified, that’s wrestling with some of these issues who may have even passed through special ed and had a horrible experience and they’re trying to spare their child that. So some of it is we kind of have to figure out what’s motivating the parent. But what I can tell you is that our kids are real smart and they’re going to start defining who they are and figuring out where they fit within the social hierarchy.

And as a parent, I would want, first of all, the information about my kid’s disability to come from me, but then I would also want that message to be supported by their doctor and every educator that they come into contact with. And then I just got off of a panel conversation a couple days ago, and one of the panelists on there also talked about the importance of finding, interacting with all the kids, their friends and the friend’s parents, and having a conversation about that kid’s disability to them, because ideally you want that conversation to be something that’s empowering, right? I grew up being called dumb and stupid and why can’t you read and all this other sort of stuff. And I think in really inclusive schools that they work because everyone’s talking the language of inclusion. We have a culture of inclusion that surrounds all the kids. And so yeah, I would actually encourage folks to have that conversation to talk openly about the experience. Silence is never golden. So to talk very openly about the kids’ label and to do it as early as possible in a way which is developmentally appropriate.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Thank you so much will Derek, for sharing that. I think that’s really an important statement and really it is about just a journey because we want students with disabilities and the families to know that there’s a learning difference. And so there’s just different ways of how you can manage and still be successful and think that’s really important for us to note that. And so I just loved all of those examples that you did provide because I think it’s really important for us to understand that we can really channel the things that we have within to really be the person that really we are. And we don’t have to let anyone define who we are. So, I just think that’s really important you said that. And I just think that just reinforces all the things that we’re doing across the state and the Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, so thank you very much for all of your thoughts and your statements regarding that. Who were some of your mentors coming along and doing this journey?

LeDerick Horne:

So beyond family, beyond mom, dad, and my grandparents. Some of the first ones would be art teachers. I had really great art teachers, some of which unfortunately I can’t even remember their names, but I remember all those faces. I remember them taking the time and encouraging my ability as an artist. I graduated from college with a degree in math, but I minored in fine art with an emphasis in painting. So, the art room was one of these amazing places for me and I’ll also just add that it’s one of the things that I worry about was worried about when we were all doing in-person schooling, but I also am really concerned that it’s one of the outlets that we’re going to lose now that we’re in this sort of virtual space for education is we need to make sure that arts, education, music, education, that the humanities are still available for our students. I was invited to Yale as a center on dyslexia creativity, and they did a conference. Harry Ani was there and he was talking about how the humanities helps to give, it helps us to put our oppression in context. It helps you to feel like you’re not the only one and how can you deal with this and what have you?

A bunch of art teachers. I remember having my last year of high school, I had an amazing math teacher. I told them just flat out my skills in math were low. I was going to county college, the SAT wasn’t going to be a big deal. I knew they were going to let me in, but that I was going to have to take a placement test and I wanted to score as high as I could on the placement test. But I said, look, I don’t know how to add fractions. I know how to do any of that. And I remember him taking me into the teacher’s lounge on his lunch with his brown paper bag sitting there eating a sandwich and then giving me extra tutoring and math. Coach McCluskey, my track and cross-country coach who was also a friend of my father’s and was just an awesome guy.

And then when I got to college, I kind of found mentors that supported the different aspects of my identity. So a guy I still care and love very much is Brother Bill Davis, who just wrote an excellent book on fatherhood called Baba and the Crew, where he talks about his experience of raising four children on his own. Brother Bill was a great guy and he’s the center of our community around here. Whenever there’s a Kwanza Festival or anything like that, you go to Brother Bill’s house or he’s the guy that gets invited out. So Bill Davis was very supportive.

Ben Jones, who was an art educator that I had at New Jersey City University and Ben Marshall, who was also a college professor who my skills were real low coming out of high school, so I had to take an entire year of remedial classes. But in there I learned how to write, I learned the mechanics of putting together a sentence and how to use punctuation and then crafting an essay and research papers. And then I began waking up in the middle of the night just realizing I could write poetry, but so much of it was around no longer being afraid of not being able was spelled. And so one of the first college level English professors I had was Ben Marshall. And I remember… I hope he gets to watch this; I still hear this guy’s voice in my head.

He’d give out homework and he’d be like, write an essay so you’ll write your little three-page essay, and he would walk into the class with his briefcase, he’d sit it down, kind of acknowledge us, give us the nod, say hello. And then he would open up that briefcase and he’d pull out the essays that he had graded the night before. And he would just flip through the pages and read a paragraph, wouldn’t say whose it was from, but it was this acknowledgement that this was what writing should sound like. And on the days where I got to hear one of my paragraphs, it was like, oh, this is great.

But again, think about someone who’s an auditory learner. I get to hear all these examples. That’s how the class starts, I get to hear examples of synthesis written well, of arguments being crafted well. And he took time with my early poetry to just write me really well-crafted critiques. And I can go on. I mean, I think I am successful in part, even now as an advocate, Bill Freeman, Bob Hall at the New Jersey Department of Education. These guys really kind of discovered me when I was a college student and really gave me my first shot.

So there are a lot of people I could think of, but I think the learning opportunity here is that I think a big part of why I am successful is because I have had mentors. And so one of the key things that I hope everyone gets from this, is it’s important that we give our young people, and particularly our young people with disabilities, we put them out in the world and allow them to have relationships with people that can help shape their vision of what their future can be, can help them to realize what their strengths and their talents are. And exposure is so key to that, just the more relationships and the more we can have our young people out there. And I know sometimes if you’ve got people with different kinds of disabilities that where you may think, okay, they need more and more support. There’s a desire to want to protect them, but you’re not protecting anybody by cutting them off from the world. It’s by allowing them to scrape a knee and they get a little dirty and even have to deal with some of the bullying and everything else. Learning how to deal with that is what makes us stronger.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Well, thank you for your wise words and thank you for sharing your mentors and the importance of what teachers are and it goes back to our definition on being a part of that school community and being part of your classes and so forth, and just being a vital member. Thank you very much.

Kelly Claude:

And I loved your example of what he shared and you being able to hear the examples of good writing. That struck me. That was strong, that was a good practice. And it kind of brought home to, we have a lot of work that we do around presuming competence regardless of evidence, a lack of evidence whatsoever. But just that belief in presuming competence of individuals of kids with disabilities and how important that is in daily practice in communicating that understanding. So how can you further that? How can we work together to, how can we give teachers the tools to be able to do that, something that’s daily for us?

LeDerick Horne:

Well, I guess there are many different approaches to it, but one of the first things that comes to me is it is around assumptions. So there’s just a lot that we assume in education. So my ability to spell is really severely impaired. I read on about a sixth grade level, and that’s been hanging pretty steady. I pick up a few words every year that I can spell from memory, but it’s not getting any better. But I know I’m a great writer and I think that there are a lot of people who if they had to see something that I wrote out in hand, with my hand, they would never take the time to decode what was on the page. And so I think some of it is around what we assume. So, I have a degree in math and I struggle with basic calculations, but I think some of this is, again, if you actually look, if you actually try to work the problem, some of your strongest mathematicians in history were horrible at basic math, that

Kelly Claude:

Theoretical,

LeDerick Horne:

Yeah, there there’s a different kind of mind that deals with higher order math. Turing who’s credited with inventing computer science. I was reading his biography and they were saying how when he was in college, it never let him keep score when people were playing games cause he messed up the addition. He just couldn’t keep track of it. And so it’s some of those things that we don’t think it should work, but it’s the way it actually is, the way that it works. And so if you can imagine, I think it’s for us all to imagine that even me as a special ed kid, I had a mind that was strong in the sciences and loved the art, all kind of different arts. And so I think it’s really important that we, and I think, and I know all of that was in my IEP, it was all within the documentation that was being generated.

And if someone had just looked with as open a mind as possible, I probably would’ve been in a very different sort of educational setting. So I think that just realizing that there are those of us out there that are good kids but can’t sit still, that maybe great mathematicians, even though they struggle with basic math, maybe the next great writer even though their spelling isn’t all that strong. And then there’s the larger sort of jump to make is, well, what are you going to be able to do out in the world? And we have no idea what the future holds.

When I do questions, sometimes folks will ask, what would you have said to your 12-year-old self? And the first thing is, dude hang in there, the iPhone’s coming all, [ All three speakers chuckle ] they’re stressing you out about cursive and handwriting and just hang in there and it’s going to be email. And none of that going to, so we don’t even know what the future is going to hold for this generation of students. But I think one of the things that we do know is that all of us will remember whether we went through a school that loved and cared and valued us. And if you’ve got that at your core and if you have those high expectations and if you give kids as many opportunities until they’re showing that they can’t do it, that’s the fuel that allows us to become healthy and happy and productive adults

JaSheena Ekhator:

Just love it. Love it. Thank you. Thank you. So families are always looking for ways to increase the learning of their child so what can you say to families that are listening today who have children with disabilities?

LeDerick Horne:

So I think I talked about exposure. I think that’s real key. Dad loved to take me to museums and again, audio visual, that sort of stuff. I watched a lot of educational television growing up, nature and National Geographic and all that sort of stuff. And even as a little kid, I had a very strong schema built around science because I was able just to soak in information that way. Some of the big advice that I give to families now is there’s like third strong literacy programs out there that have a long track record like Wilson and different programs like that that you can get your kid involved in that could make a real big difference in their literacy rate or what have you. I’m also a big fan of treating things that are difficult. They’re difficult. So I got a math degree even with all my learning challenges because I put a whole lot of time into math and I had a tutor every single semester, and I took advantage of every free tutoring service and what have you to be able to help me to do well.

And I think at all age levels, all grade levels, that’s something that our families should be looking for, just taking advantage of what resources are available. I think it’s also really important that our families understand what their rights are so they can really be strong advocates for their kids’ disability and then also understand all that they can about that disability. And some of that is there’s the medical model and there are the federal definitions, and we should all know that. But also I think we should all actively seek out examples of people who are both lived in the past or living now, and then also people in our community who also have that label and are out here living life well because our kids need those examples. They need both role models and mentors, so people who are kind of up on a pedestal and then also folks that they can see out in the community.

And then I also, I really think that parents are stronger when they work together. So my mother, who was my chief advocate as a kid, my mother describes the experience of supporting me as being very lonely, as if she was the only parent who had a kid with a learning disability. And for those of us with the hidden disabilities, that can be maybe a bit more challenging if you’ve got another family and a kid’s got a wheelchair, you can see them across the park. But I would really encourage families to do all that they can to seek out each other because it’s one of the aspects of disability culture is that we learn from other people with disabilities. And the same thing is true for the families of kids with disabilities. Oftentimes you figure out who’s the organization to connect to or what workshop to go to, or who’s the teacher in that building that can be an ally and a support by talking to other families.

I’m willing to bet that many of the families that connect to your network, it’s not just a Google search, it’s probably because they get referred from another family or what have you. So building that community I think is so key. So I would even say here, I don’t know all of who this is, like Facebook and whatever other platform. So there could be people from all over the world, but there are people making comments like take a look and see who’s talking and shoot them a message and be like, Hey, the question you asked is a question I have. You want to have a virtual cup of coffee and let’s just talk to each other because life is hard and there’s nothing that we can do that’s going to prevent life from being challenging. But none of us have to face those challenges alone. So seeking out other people, I think is important.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Excellent, excellent, excellent. And I think we have one last question because we have about five more minutes left. And it’s such a great discussion that we’re having,

LeDerick Horne:

It is!

JaSheena Ekhator:

We’re having a wonderful time. So thank you. And what would you like to say to a student with a disability?

LeDerick Horne:
So the big thing is you’re not alone and that you’re actually a part of a really great community of people. This year were celebrating, this is October, so there’s a lot of work around celebrating disability during this month. This is also the 30th anniversary of the ADA.

JaSheena Ekhator:
Yes.

LeDerick Horne:
And there’re just a lot of really amazing people all over the world, and particularly here in the US who fought very, very hard to make sure that you had rights that were protected to allow you to live up to your highest potential. And so not only do you have those protections, and feel free to use them and utilize them to the utmost, but also realize that yo, your part of people who fought. They’re fighters. and I don’t even know if we all realize how deep that goes.

The record in the United States for the longest occupation of a federal building was a group of protestors that were the ones that forced the 504 law to be enacted. The law that allowed us, the 5 0 4 sit-in, that allow us to not be discriminated against as people with disabilities. One of my heroes, and as I’m digging through my father’s belongings, he’s got newspapers, stacks of newspapers that trace Muhammad Ali’s career. Muhammad Ali was born with dyslexia. He didn’t graduate from high school with a standard diploma. He struggled with reading his entire life. Actually, him and his wife developed a literacy support program because it was such a big issue. And you can pick your disability. I mean autism, any mobility, you can go down the line. We are all a part of that legacy. Those are all our people, and we have the right to claim them.

And you’re a part of that legacy. And so it’s important that you see yourself as being an extraordinary human being because you are. And that as you move through the world, it’s important. That’s important that you not only stand up for yourself, for yourself, but that you also do it. Remembering that you’re still clearing a path for the next generation to come after you. I oftentimes say to young people with disabilities that you won’t have the luxury of just being a student. You’re also going to have to be a teacher and an activist because there’s still so much work to be done in our schools, but that we are beautiful people and we have so much to give to this world. And that you have to have find the courage to define yourself as someone remarkable, because you may not get that from the outside world, but it’s a key part of who you’re

JaSheena Ekhator:

Very well said. And thank you so much LA for being here with us today. I know Kelly’s going to close us out, but we just thank you for such a robust conversation around disability awareness and your life experiences, and hopefully this will be an inspiration for others as it is to us as well. So we just thank you very much for being here with us.

Kelly Claude:

Thank you. Thank you very much and for sharing all of this. It has. It’s been great.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Yes.

Kelly Claude:

And I just want to say to any of our listeners, to learn more about Disability Awareness Weeks, please go to the Florida Inclusion Networks, Twitter and Facebook posts. We have activities and resources developed by our fin facilitators and Broward School districts exceptional student education staff to support learning for all students. So there’s a QR code, there’s a link, there’s little activities, resources, articles, videos, things that they can pull from and just share with students for awareness and with each other. And we want to thank you, thank you, LeDerick, for joining us and being willing to be part of this. And thank you everybody who attended this collaborative event. And we will be posting the session on our website and again, the floridainclusionnetwork.com. And then Lader has going to posted on his as well, lederick.com. So thank you so much. We appreciate you.

LeDerick Horne:

This is great.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Great. Thank you.

LeDerick Horne:

We have to do it again.

JaSheena Ekhator:

Yes, we definitely do. Thank you. Have a great day everyone.

Celebrating Outcomes for Students with Disabilities

[ Florida Inclusion Network logo pops up ]

On-screen Text:

We need to let them test their boundaries…

Mira Gaitanis :

[ Transitions to Mira, sitting down ] I was born with a retinopathy of prematurity. It causes abnormal blood vessel growth in the area around the retina, so I can’t really see anything below my chin. When I wave my hand here, I can’t really see it, and so I have to turn my head certain directions to make sure I don’t bump into anything. I have a real bad habit of that.

Victoria Gaitanis :

[ Transition to Jason Gaitanis and Victoria Gaitanis (Mira’s parents)] I wouldn’t for a long time, let her touch a pair of scissors because she couldn’t really see what she was doing with them. I was afraid she was going to cut herself, and so one time, one of her early interventions sat down with me and said, so what’s your long-term plan for this no scissor approach? And I’m like, [ Transitions to Mira and her friends together at school ] you get this feeling where they’ve been through so much, there’s so many surgeries, there’s so many things going on. You want to protect them from everything.

Jason Gaitanis :

We have to create a safe space for them to fail, I think, [ Transition back to Jason and Victoria ] and allow them to have experiences with each other and with their siblings where they can test the boundaries of what they’re capable of, what they’re willing to do, what they’re willing to try, push their limits a little bit and then have it be okay if they try something and it doesn’t work.

Mira Gaitanis :

[ Transitions back to Mira ] People may see me differently because I have a visual impairment. Even if I start using a cane and I’m using my tools in public, people might see me a little differently, but that doesn’t necessarily matter because it’s [ Transition to group photos of Mira with her friends holding instruments ] important for me to just be me and accept that I have this visual impairment is a part of who I am, and it’s taken me a very long time to understand and realize that

[ Screen fades to white ]

On-Screen Text :

‘It’s just a small thing… but it’s so big for her’

Chris Miller :

[ Screen transitions to Chris Miller sitting down, a teacher at Mira’s high school ] The first thing and the most important thing to the student is that the student is accepted as the student is with whatever the student has or doesn’t have, and that [ Screen cuts to inside of one of Chris’s classes with students ] the teacher is willing to work with the student and do what needs to be done.

Mira Gaitanis :

We don’t really necessarily want to erase that concept of the disability rather than erase. We want to embrace it, have it become the norm, just like we are just all people. Over the years, [ Screen transitions back to Mira sitting down and talking ] I’ve kind of built up this person that I am. I’ve worked really hard with my eye doctors and they learned to layer contacts and glasses so I could see better than with just without it. [ Transition back into Miller’s class ] You saw also an orchestra. I have that pair of glasses that’s called a monocular inside of it so that I can have access to that material

Chris Miller :

When she needs something. [ Camera cuts back to Chris talking ] She’s very gentle in asking for it, but also you realize that it’s a very, very specific need. When she says, could I please have an enlarged version of this? It’s little things like that that teachers have to adjust to. It’s just a small thing, but it’s so big for her [ Screen fades to black ]

On Screen Text :

‘You have to ask the teachers to stretch’

Joe Burgess :

[ Screen cuts to Joe Burgess sitting down, Mira’s principal ] First of all, it starts with meeting with your feeder schools, so you have transition meetings and that’s really important. What did you do the past three years with this particular student to make them successful, or were there things that you did that were not successful so there’s no sense of repeating things that didn’t occur well? Also talking with the parents. Are there things at home that work well? You talk with some of the other teachers, if there’s a certain kind of success that’s happening in one room, we need to try to duplicate it in the other rooms, and sometimes that’s asking, you have to ask the teacher to stretch beyond themselves. Everybody does what they’re comfortable with, but what you’re comfortable with may not be what’s best for the student.

Mira Gaitanis :

[ The screen fades to white with black text, ‘It’s like a whole new chapter in my life…’ , Mira then appears on the screen ] I’m so excited that I’m going to be graduating. It’s like a whole new chapter in my life. I’ve worked so hard for these past 12 years just to get here and being able to graduate from high school. I’m actually going to go to FSU and do pre-law, and I have applied for scholarships there and there’s living Learning communities there that I just did interview for, and it’s for social justice, so I can do even more Speaking about the importance of inclusion and disability rights and just, I honestly feel I’m just really excited about this whole new chapter in my life and being able to just go and pursue a career in law and be able to help as many people as possible. [Transition to Mira, holding up her thumbs at highschool. Then fading into white to show the FIN logo ]