Dustin Bradshaw EDL 647 Dr. Kenny Richards 2/16/17 Case Study: Closing the Gaps in Communication with Support Staff in the Moderate/Severe Special Education Setting, Introduction This study focuses on the support staff at Humboldt County Office of Education's specialized school, Glen Paul The schoo! is made up of a main campus in Eureka containing & classrooms with students’ ages ranging from 3 to 22 with moderate to severe disabilities. There are also 8 offsite classrooms with students of similar demographics in areas ranging from southern Humboldt to Arcata. All of Glen Paul's students come from various districts around Humboldt County, but are served by Humboldt County Office of Education. Every class contains a teacher and at least one classroom aid. Most classrooms though, have one teacher with additional (up to six) special circumstance instructional aids. In many of the classrooms the support staff has been there longer than the teacher. Some of the support staff members have 20 plus years more experience with children of special needs. The training to become a paraprofessional is minimal. Most of the training is done on the job. The job itself requires at least a high schoo! level degree and ideally some experience working in the school setting or with children, but the latter isn't always the case for new hires. Humboldt County Office of Education is actually desperate for support staff, so many new hires have less and less experience. Having good ‘support staff in a classroom is vital to making adequate progress for the students. As a teacher at Glen Paul, | know that if it wasn’t for the awesome team | work with the positive learning envirnment that the students enjoy every day wouldn't exist. The duties expected by the support staff vary from data collection, tolleting, behavior management, food prep and some jobs containing all of the above. Anoutsider looking in on the day may very well have a hard time telling who is the support staff and who is the teacher. The teacher takes care of the 1EP paperwork, scheduling, and creating activities for the students, along with also participating in, and helping with support staff duties. Overall atmosphere of Glen Paul is a positive environment containing employees who love working with this population of students. Even though the support staff and teachers work closely together throughout ail aspects of the day and required duties, there is still a known hierarchy between the two parties. The students also have an idea of who the “top dog” is when they're testing with behaviors. Not only are many responsibilities shared, but there is also a large difference in pay for teachers and support staff. Procedure ‘Though the atmosphere at Glen Paul is generally positive, | have heard some rumblings of discontent with lack of communication of student's goals, background knowledge of students, and also differences in pay. itis with this in mind, | decided to open a dialogue with staff to see if there is some truth to these rumblings beneath the surface. | developed a survey to get some general knowledge concentrating on level and quality of communication between teachers and support staff. The staff was given the survey and had a week to fill out and complete. There was also a section in which they could put their individual thoughts down that might have not been covered by the survey. | also planned a lass staff meeting scheduled in the coming weeks, where | would talk about any issues that seemed pertinent to address. Along with talking to my own staff, 1 sought out the union representative for the classified employees to get some understanding of issues related to those employees. FindingsAfter administering the survey, | found that the staff had mostly positive views concerning their relationship and belonging at Glen Paul. At the same time my hypothesis about substandard quality of communication was present. They felt that it takes too long for them to be given new goals after a recent IEP and get new information concerning student health and dietary issues. They also felt that the school didn’t do an adequate job of including them in certain events. After looking through the surveys, we had a staff meeting to have an open discussion of grievances along with what is going well. Most of the staff has a good idea of how the schoo! day works for the classroom teacher. Many of them. ‘understand that writing IEPs, behavior plans, and talking daily with parents is what the difference is between what teacher does and what a pare-professional does. They didn’t write down or speak on the subject of the discrepancy of pay. | did have a talk with some of the union representatives about how they felt they are being compensated for their work. Much like teachers unions, the classified union is always looking to better thelr members’ situations. They don’t necessarily fee! that the pay isn’t enough ‘as much as they feel the amount of work that is offered has changed over the years for the worse. The district has cut the amount of hours classified staff can work which affects benefits and retirement. ‘Many students require a one-on-one aide situation making great student to adult ratios. A person who is, a one-on-one aide doesn’t have as much job security as a classroom aide though. They have also cut the amount of classroom aides required for special day classes. Often times if a one-on-one is doing a great job then they can get promoted to the stable classroom aide position, but there aren't as many available anymore. Intern, when a student no longer requires this one-to-one service or even moves from the area then these employees’ positions can possibly be terminated. Many of the employees have become disgruntled about this because there are not too distant memories of pay being better and amount of support staff being higher. Conclusions| noticed that the support staff often takes on too much responsibility for the students’ progress toward their goals. They can get down on themselves with monotony of the structured day and how little progress can be seen with students with severe disabilities. Being on a campus with students who have moderate to severe disabilities can be challenging because of the moderate success that happens. It isa long fight to see the slightest improvements. Also, the survey allowed me access to the mindset that many of the employees have. | noticed that some of the issues that | have dealt with in the past are directly related to some of the grievances that they have vocalized with through this dialogue. Overall the process allowed me to get a chance to ease the stress that they were feeling by reminding them that the majority of these burdens falls on me. To help ensure that a higher level of communication is happening, | created communication binders that have all of the student's current information including goals, health needs, and current triggers for behavior. Because every student has an individualized learning program, this allows staff to just walk into the room and understand what is currently going on with each and every student. The staff members rotate which student they primarily work with daily to prevent burnout and frustration. The downside is that staff isn’t as aware of how that student was the day before, such as a bad day or even knowing to continue reinforcing recently learned skills. The binders are there to see the notes that the staff working before them was seeing throughout the day. it is basically ike a mini IEP. Like any other student the ultimate progress is made from many small successes. The binders allow the staff to see what small successes were accomplished and what new behaviors might have been observed so those can be worked on as well. The binders have added to the overall vision that | want for my classroom. It has not only brought peace of mind, but it has also helped staff to focus on the task at hand. Throughout the process of investigating, felt my conversations with support staff didn’t just help me in my understanding of where they are coming from, but it also helped with my relations! with my coworkers. Even though | can’t do anything about their pay or benefits, the fact that | was willing to sit and listen has helped our working dynamic. Overall, the process proved‘to me how important itis to really take the time to listen, and be willing to make changes when the people you are working with have legitimate issues. This process helped me to gain more success with my students and improve the relationships | have with my staff. Recommendations Having open communication with staff is vital to having a successful classroom. It really isnt just for the staff and their working conditions, but for the students who also have to work in that climate. When people have a platform to speak their mind it allows problems to be addressed early before they spin out of control. Based off of this experience, | will be looking for more ways in which my staff and I can have respectful conversations about how to improve the quality of the classroom functions. Iwill also be looking for ways to improve organization within the classroom. Itis important that staff rem: on the same page in terms of what is expected from students and what is pertinent information to know in terms of current health restrictions or requirements,