How School Leaders Can Support Related Service Providers and Teleservice During COVID-19by Andrea Bertone, Speech and Language Consultant, WI DPI As local educational agencies (LEAs) use different instructional strategies, including the provision of teleservices, in response to the ongoing pandemic, they must have individualized education programs (IEPs) in place for each student with a disability. These IEPs must be reasonably calculated to enable the student to make progress both in the general education curriculum and toward their IEP goals that are appropriate in light of the student’s circumstances. IEPs must be implemented as written, and IEP teams may want to consider including contingency or conditional plans as part of the IEP if the district has closed school buildings for general education instruction or if there is potential for school building closure in the upcoming year. IEP teams determine the services (including related services) the student needs to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE) based on their disability-related needs. FAPE can be provided to individual students consistent with the need to protect the health and safety of students with disabilities, their peers, and those individuals providing special education and related services to students. Teleservice means the application of telecommunications technology to the delivery of services at a distance by linking the practitioner to a student, parent, caregiver, or other service provider for assessment, intervention or consultation, often through related services identified in a student’s IEP. Teleservice may be provided virtually, online, or telephonically. Teleservice can be delivered as synchronous (when teaching and learning occur “live”, or at the same time), asynchronous (when teaching and learning occur at different times), or in a hybrid approach (a combination of synchronous, asynchronous, and in-person). The quality of services must be functionally equivalent to face-to-face service. SeeTeleservice Considerations for Related Services During the Current Public Health Emergency. Tips for School Leaders when Supporting Related Services via TeleserviceI. Make sure staff and students have the right equipment, technology, and access to the internet.The selection of videoconferencing equipment should include consideration of camera capabilities (e.g., pan-tilt-zoom and resolution), display monitor capabilities (e.g., size, resolution, and dual display), and microphone and speaker quality. Additional modes of real-time interaction such as screen-sharing, whiteboard, touch screen, and interactivity features (e.g., animations, games, and stamps) should be considered in order to increase student engagement (ASHA, n.d.). Network connection speed will impact the overall quality of video and audio clarity. Bandwidth is a measure of the information-carrying capacity of a communications channel. Experts report that 3MB is required for screen sharing. Network availability and reliability are also important factors, as are equipment maintenance, training, and upgrades. Secure transmission of information may be obtained through the use of encryption, hardware and software firewalls, and virtual private networks (VPNs). A VPN uses a public telecommunications infrastructure, such as the internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to a private organization's network. II. Provide training on platforms and strategies for family engagement.
In addition, administrators can support families and students by encouraging practitioners to set up orientation sessions prior to the provision of services via teleservice. Parents may need additional support in navigating websites, virtual software, or tools, particularly if these resources are in a language they do not understand. Try to meet with parents and students ahead of time to provide a technology overview before the provision of services. III. Encourage co-serving systems of support and ensure related services staff have time to meet collaboratively with their colleagues to co-plan instruction.
Administrators can further support related services staff to ensure they have time in their schedules to collaborate regularly with general education staff so that practitioners can continue to look for ways to link the services they provide to the classroom environment and curriculum. There is evidence-based support for integrating and embedding strategies into the students’ classroom and environmental routines (Case-Smith and Holland 2009; McWilliam and Scott 2001). The virtual learning environment is often the student’s home. Supporting students through the coaching of caregivers and across educational staff is an evidenced-based intervention strategy that has the potential to increase students’ functional skills through the opportunity of more frequent practice (Cheslock and Kahn 2011; Morris 2017). The following three activities support collaboration between general education and related service providers:
IV. When reviewing or revising IEPs or developing contingency plans, encourage staff to identify disability-related needs that continue to be relevant for the student and consider additional disability-related needs that may be new due to the pandemic.
If services were provided in a collaborative manner during in-person instruction, this method of service delivery may be appropriate to continue. Changing student schedules to individual therapy due to the public health emergency without considering student needs would not be appropriate. V. Support staff concerns around legal or ethical issues of providing services virtually.The confidentiality provisions of IDEA, FERPA, and Wisconsin’s Pupil Records Law (s. 118.125 Wis. Stat.) do not prohibit the delivery of special education and related services through the use of virtual technologies. In general, the use of a virtual technology simply for the delivery of instruction or services poses a low risk of inadvertent disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) from student records and that risk can be mitigated by simple common sense measures. LEAs must keep parents informed of how virtual technology will be used to provide special education and related services, and what steps the LEA has taken to protect PII. LEAs may also consider seeking consent from parents to provide services virtually (practitioners should check with their district regarding informed consent). Families who are bilingual or multilingual should be provided the same information in a language they can understand and in an equitable and timely manner. There is additional guidance around consent for telehealth services that should also be considered if the provider plans to bill Medicaid for the service to the student. Please review these important considerations and ensure they can be met atForwardHealth Update 2020-15. Additional privacy considerations may apply to students involved in group teleservice. Teleservice using video formats may allow household members to see other students engaged in the group teleservice session or to take screenshots of other students. It is important to communicate expectations with household members and students before engaging in video teleservice with students.
Practitioners should also ensure that group services via teleservice are provided using evidence-based practices and that the services meet the individual needs of all students in the group (ASHA 2020a). Technology should only be used that is accessible to all members of the group. VI. Work with IEP Evaluation Teams around conducting valid assessments in order to obtain the most accurate information.
If norm-referenced assessment tools are being considered, check to see if the test has been validated for teleservice administration (ASHA, 2020b). If a test has not been validated for teleservice administration, face-to-face administration may be an option. It is important to remember that any changes to administration done by the evaluator (in person or virtually) alter the validity of the instrument used and must be reported in the evaluation report. The reporting of standardized scores when administration has been altered is not recommended. Before administering a norm-referenced assessment with a student, it is important to consider the following:
For additional information, see ASHA’s“Considerations for Speech, Language, and Cognitive Assessment via Telepractice.” There are many ways that school administrators can support the delivery of related services via teleservice. Ensuring access, providing training, and supporting collaboration during this time can help school staff, students, and families navigate this switch to remote learning. For additional information, see the references below. References American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2020a. “Considerations for Group Speech-Language Pathology Treatment in Telepractice.”https://www.asha.org/Practice/Considerations-for-Group-Speech-Language-Pathology-Treatment-in-Telepractice/ ———. 2020b. “Considerations for Speech, Language, and Cognitive Assessment via Telepractice.”https://www.asha.org/SLP/clinical/Considerations-for-Speech-Language-and-Cognitive-Assessment-via-Telepractice/ ———. n.d. “Professional Issues: Telepractice.”https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Professional-Issues/Telepractice/ Case-Smith, Jane and Terri Holland. 2009. “Making Decisions About Service Delivery in Early Childhood Programs.” Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 40(4):416-423. Cheslock, Melissa A. and Sally J. Kahn. 2011. “Supporting Families and Caregivers in Everyday Routines.” The ASHA Leader 16(11).https://doi.org/10.1044/leader.FTR1.16112011.10 McWilliam, Robin, A. and Stacy Scott. 2001. “Individualizing Inclusion in Child Care: Integrating Therapy into the Classroom.” The National Individualizing Preschool Inclusion Project, funded by the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. Accessed October 14, 2020.http://www.uwyo.edu/wind/_files/docs/echo/ec-resources/ integratingtherapyintoclassrooms1.pdf Morris, Peggy. 2017. “The 6 Steps to Coaching Our Clients.” Accessed October 14, 2020.https://www.seekfreaks.com/index.php/2017/07/04/the-6-steps-to-coaching-our-clients. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. “COVID-19 Special Education Question and Answer Document.” Last modified October 8, 2020.https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/sped/pdf/Extended_School_Closure_ ———. “Teleservice Considerations for Related Services During the Current Public Health Emergency.” Last modified October 1, 2020.https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/sped/pdf/covid-teleservice-considerations.pdf
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Local Education Agencies (LEAs), or school districts, must make certain practitioners have the knowledge, skills, and training to utilize the designated platform for teleservice as well as training to select assessments and interventions that are appropriate for the technology. School districts can provide district or building in-services for staff to increase proficiency of platform use. Practitioners are encouraged to seek additional guidance from their national organizations for up-to-date information. See
IEP meetings are an opportunity for all staff to collaborate around the functional abilities of students in these new educational environments. IEP team members collectively identify student disability-related needs, generate or revise goals, and determine services using the
IEP teams should consider the individual needs of each student and review and revise IEP goals that cannot be implemented as written. The IEP can be revised through an IEP team meeting or through a contingency plan that is part of the IEP. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, these revisions can be made in an IEP meeting or with parent agreement, through the use of the Notice of Changes to IEP Without An IEP Meeting (
There are many types of informal assessments that can be administered via teleservice for students including observations, interviews, checklists, or rating scales (ASHA, 2020b). Dynamic assessment (i.e., test-teach-retest) would also be a form of assessment that could be done virtually.