Mickey Losinski

Litigation and Students With Disabilities A Persistent Concern

Special education litigation remains a volatile area with significant practice implications. A review of the 2010 case law in the Special Educator identified discipline (manifestation determination, seclusion and restraints, harassment), evaluation/RTI, and postsecondary transition as specific areas of concern. School administrators should keep abreast of these developments to ensure that the rights of students with disabilities are observed, educational benefits are attained, and potential liability is minimized.

A Meta-Analysis of Video-Modeling Based Interventions for Reduction of Challenging Behaviors for Students With EBD

The current study examined the use of video modeling (VM)–based interventions to reduce the challenging behaviors of students with emotional or behavioral disorders. Each study was evaluated using Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC’s) quality indicators for evidence-based practices. In addition, study effects were calculated along the three main categories of VM-based interventions (VM with other as model, video self-modeling, and video-feedback) using a response rate (calculated from visual analysis) and the percentage of non-overlapping data. None of the 12 included studies met all the quality indicators set forth by CEC. Overall effects were large for reducing challenging behaviors, though results should be taken with caution due to the small number of studies. Finally, implications for practice and future research are presented.

An Examination of Preservice Teachers' Intentions to Pursue Careers in Special Education.

An understanding of one’s intention to pursue a career related to special education is crucial yet there is limited research in this area. This study examined factors that influence teacher candidates’ intention to pursue a career in special education by surveying 214 preservice teachers. Data were analyzed using path analysis to capture the complex relationships. Results revealed that interest/commitment and outcome expectations of the special education careers were the two most important predictors of preservice teachers’ intention to work in special education–related careers. Special education teaching efficacy only has an indirect effect on their special education career intention via two mediator variables (i.e., special education outcome expectations and career interest/commitment to children with special needs). Preservice teachers’ personal and work experiences with individuals requiring special services directly influence their interest and commitment to serving individuals with special needs, and thus indirectly impact their intention to pursue a special education career.

A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Improve the Compliance of Students with Disabilities

The current meta-analysis examined the evidence for interventions to improve compliance of students with disabilities in school settings. Experimental investigations that investigated compliance or non-compliance and took place with students in a school setting who were between birth and 23 years old were evaluated using the Council for Exceptional Childrens (CEC) guidelines for evidence-based practices. Summary outcome measures utilized were percentage of non-overlapping data and the between-case standardized mean difference (BC-SMD). Results found a variety of interventions to be generally effective with regard to study effects, but not in compliance with CECs standards. Only one intervention could be described as potentially evidencebased for improving the compliance of students with disabilities in school settings: High probability command sequences. Implications for future research are presented.

Meta-Analysis of Psychopharmacologic Treatment of Child and Adolescent Depression: Deconstructing Previous Reviews, Moving Forward

The proliferation of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) in the 1980s led to increased use of antidepressant medications for children and adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Since then, there have been 18 reviews of this literature with nine being meta-analytic. Many of these meta-analyses suffer from several methodological problems: did not statistically compare medication efficacy, included only randomized placebo control trials, calculated response rate rather than risk-difference and odds ratio, were conducted prior to the 2009 publication of the PRISMA meta-analyses standards, rarely addressed publication bias, and failed to conduct metaregressions to account for moderator variables. The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to address each of these limitations. Results indicated SSRIs were the most effective class of medication with Sertraline having the highest response rate and Citalopram having the lowest response rate. Overall, Nefazodone had the highest response rate of any medication regardless of class, although there was a relatively small sample size (n = 39). When examining publication bias, only SSRIs had statistically significant positive findings. In terms of moderator variables, RCTs and open-label trials predicted response rate, as did age and gender (females).

Who Is the "Parent"? Guidance from Case Law on Parental Participation in the IEP Process.

T EA C H IN G E xc ep ti on al C hi ld re n , V ol . 48 , N o. 3 , pp . 14 4 – 15 0. C op yr ig ht 2 01 5 T he A ut ho r( s) . D O I: 1 0. 11 77 /0 04 00 59 91 56 05 80 0 Johnny is an 11-year-old with acondroplasia (a common cause of dwarfism) but is not receiving special education and related services. His parents are divorced but have joint custody. Johnny resides with his father. During his fifth-grade year, Johnny began exhibiting disruptive behaviors, such as refusing to turn in assignments, putting his head down, and occasionally threatening to have teachers fired—resulting in disciplinary actions including in-school suspensions, verbal reprimands from the principal and time-outs. His teacher maintained that Johnny was more than capable of completing his assignments but was simply refusing to work. In December, Johnny’s behaviors escalated to the point that school staff met with the father to develop an intervention plan. At the meeting, the father reported that Johnny was seeing a therapist and had a mentor assigned by Little People of America. In order to avoid any conflict between the parents, the school did not invite the mother to the meeting. When the school mailed the behavior plan to Johnny’s mother, she requested that Johnny be tested for learning disabilities and behavioral issues. At a meeting to discuss the evaluation, the mother disputed the father’s statement that Johnny had a mentor or was seeing a therapist. The district then created an assessment plan and presented it to the parents. Initially, the father refused to consent to the assessment, and the principal informed the mother that the school district would not conduct an assessment unless both parents consented. After a prolonged time (98 days from the date Johnny’s mother asked for assessment), the district held a meeting with the father to discuss their conclusion that Johnny was not in need of special education and related services. Once again, the mother was not included in this meeting and eventually filed for due process for failure to conduct a timely evaluation and to assess Johnny in all areas of suspected disability. In ruling for the mother (Val Verde Unified School District, 2014), the independent hearing officer stated that the joint-custody order did not stipulate that mutual consent of both parents be obtained when making educational decisions. Therefore, even though Johnny lived with his father throughout the proceedings, his mother was able to consent to special education evaluation without the father’s consent. In framing the decision, the hearing officer clarified that matters of determining the “parent” for educational decisions is the jurisdiction of the divorce courts. Further, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2006) definition of a parent applies to both divorced parents unless a custody decree or state law states otherwise (34 C.F.R. § 300.30). Finally, in the event the joint-custody order does not explicitly state that both parents must agree when making educational decisions, either party, alone, is legally able to make educational decisions. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2006) definition of a parent applies to both divorced parents unless a custody decree or state law states otherwise (34 C.F.R. § 300.30).

Therapeutic Art: Integrating the Visual Arts into Programming for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Mental illness is a concern in the United States, with current estimates indicating that 13% to 20% of children experience a mental disorder in a given year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). In addition, nearly 22% of children have experienced more than one traumatic event in their lives that has negatively affected their development, decreased school engagement, and increased subsequent risk of mental illness (Bethell, Newacheck, Hawes, & Halfon, 2014; Heim & Nemeroff, 2001). Calls for schools to embrace and expand their role in treating the mental health issues of children have always existed but have been increasing in recent years (Forness, 2011; Kutash, Duchnowski, & Green, 2015; Maag & Swearer, 2005). For example, Kutash et al. (2015) suggested that increasing parental involvement and enabling more seamless interagency cooperation are paramount, as is improving school practitioners’ capacity in mental health literacy. Building the capacity of school practitioners to provide mental health services (e.g., counseling) to students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), which we define here as all children with transient or chronic mental health issues, has been discussed by researchers for decades (e.g., Maag & Katsiyannis, 1996). For example, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has defined mental health–related service responsibilities for school professionals in the following areas: (a) School psychologists can provide psychological testing and identify and manage psychological services for students with disabilities (34 C.F.R 1300.34(c)(10)); (b) counseling services provided by qualified social workers, psychologists, or school counselors in an effort to promote academic, personal, and social development (34 C.F.R 1300.34(c)(2)); and (c) social work services that can include group and individual counseling services for the child and family (34 C.F.R 1300.34 (c)(14)). More recently, the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) has provided financial incentives to state education agencies to implement research-based mental health training programs and expand school-based counseling and mental health programs (20 U.S.C. 1 4104(b)(3)(B)(ii). One approach potentially well suited for schools to address children’s mental health issues, particularly those dealing with trauma, is the use of visual arts as a therapeutic agent (Kornblum, 2012). Froeschle and Riney (2008) indicated that art therapy activities can counter incompetent social skills such as those witnessed in students with EBD and autism spectrum disorders, be implemented in schools with few supplies, facilitate active participation in counseling, and help students who are antisocial refocus on constructive activities. In addition, for more than a decade, the American School Counselor Association (2012) has advocated for and extensively written about using the visual arts in counseling with at-risk youth to increase resilience, improve school engagement, and reduce dropout rates (Stepney, 2009). Although the use of the visual arts therapies as intervention components specifically designed for students with EBD in school settings may not enjoy an established empirical research base, there is a great deal of literature in other fields that would suggest that it may be both cost and clinically effective for individuals with a variety of mental health issues (Schweizer, Knorth, & Spreen, 2014; Slayton, D’Archer, & Kaplan, 2010; Uttley, Stevenson, Scope, Rawdin, & Sutton, 2015). As will be discussed later in this article, the visual arts also lend themselves to being infused into larger cognitive-behavioral interventions (e.g., pleasant activity scheduling), which have considerable support for children with mental health issues (Cuijpers, Straten, & Warmerdam, 2007; Maag & Swearer, 2005; Reinecke, Ryan, & DuBois, 1998; Ung, Selles, Small, & Storch, 2015). For example, when working with a student dealing with a trauma, a school counselor could work with the student to schedule times throughout the day to engage in art creation. As Cuijpers and colleagues (2007) discussed, increasing the frequency of pleasant activities and positive interactions with the environment can result in significant improvement in depressive symptoms. In this article, we propose that there are two types of visual arts therapy: (a) art-in-therapy in which the creation of art is part of the psychotherapeutic process and (b) art-as-therapy in which the creation of art is considered therapeutic in itself without requiring further psychotherapeutic context for it to have a corrective effect. We will ART AND SPED

The Use of Aversives in Special Education: Legal and Practice Considerations for School Principals:

The use of aversives as a method for behavioral intervention in U.S. public schools has been a persistent concern and often subject to litigation, particularly among students with disabilities. The use of aversives (restraint, seclusion, and corporal punishment) have been supported in some cases due to their perceived necessity to keep children and youth with disabilities from causing harm to themselves or others or as a pedagogical method for behavior change. However, research strongly supports the need for less use of aversives and instead a critical focus on the use of multitiered systems of support to prevent the escalation of behavior that may result in the use of aversives. This article provides a review of 173 legal cases from 1997 through 2016 that ruled on the use of aversives in public schools for children and youth with disabilities. The authors provide legal implications to schools that use aversives, as well as an alternative framework for school principals in lieu of using restraint, seclusion, and corporal punishment as methods for behavior intervention.

Deep Pressure Therapy Doesn’t Reduce Stereotypical Behavior, Function-Based Interventions Do

Abstract Repetitive and restrictive behaviors are one of the core components of diagnosing a child with an autism spectrum disorder. These behaviors may take the form of repetitive motor movements or vocalizations, often referred to as stereotypical behaviors. These behaviors can impede the child’s educational and social opportunities, and have thus become a target for intervention. A variety of interventions have been used to reduce stereotypical behaviors with varied success. One of the most oft-used interventions is deep pressure therapy (e.g., weighted vests), a practice that enjoys substantial anecdotal but little empirical support. Conversely, interventions based on functional behavior assessment (FBA) have been shown to reduce these behaviors, but may not be used frequently within schools. Therefore, this chapter will provide a brief overview of stereotypical behaviors and compare these two intervention approaches, with a clear preference for FBA-based interventions due to their stronger empirical support.

Informed Consent and Functional Behavioral Assessment: An Examination of Federal Guidance for School Personnel

According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) amendments of 2004, if the misbehavior of a student leading to a disciplinary exclusion is determined to be a manifestation of the student’s disability, the school is required to conduct a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and implement a behavior intervention plan. FBAs must also be conducted any time a student is placed in an interim alternative educational setting (for no more than 45 days) for violations involving weapons, drugs, or serious bodily injury. FBAs may also be conducted in a more proactive manner. This process may occur under “consideration of special factors” under IDEA (2004) in the development of an individualized education program (IEP) for a student with a disability. Specifically, the IEP team must consider the use of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) to address behaviors interfering with the child’s learning or the learning of others (Section 614 (d) (3) (B)). Indeed, there is a relatively ample research base suggesting that interventions based on FBA procedures are effective in reducing the challenging behaviors of students with disabilities (Gage, Lewis, & Stichter, 2012; Losinski, Maag, Katsiyannis, & Ennis, 2014) and are recommended as an individualized intervention within a multitiered system of support (MTSS) framework (e.g., PBIS; Lane et al., 2007). One persistent concern among practitioners regarding the implementation of FBAs for students with disabilities involves whether parental consent is necessary before its completion. The Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS; 2009) stated that FBAs are generally considered an individualized evaluation when used to determine if a child is, or continues to be, a child with a disability (see 34 CFR 1300.301–300.311). Therefore, parental consent is required for an FBA to be conducted as part of the initial evaluation or a reevaluation (34 CFR 1300.300(a) and (c)). What is not as clear is whether informed parental consent is necessary in situations in which FBAs (a) are dictated in the discipline provisions (i.e., development of an FBA), (b) are used to determine the nature and extent of the special education and related services that the child needs, or (c) when used as a schoolwide Tier 3 intervention. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the consent requirements regarding FBAs in light of federal letters of guidance.