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  • This Is Who We Are and What We Do: A Case Study of Two Districts Exemplifying Inclusivity

    This study investigated districts that are positive outliers, that is, districts that have implemented inclusive education in a particularly robust and effective way. Two questions guided the research: (1) What are the experiences and viewpoints of district personnel and community members in exemplary districts? (2) How do district personnel and community members in exemplar districts perceive the community’s influence on inclusive education for students with significant cognitive disabilities? Interviews in two exemplar districts revealed that implementing an inclusive model of education for students with significant cognitive disabilities is not only feasible but results in positive outcomes for all students. Further, strong system-level practices and policies made an inclusive approach successful, but the specific policies and practices differed somewhat across districts as these were grounded in the particular district context. The particularity of context points to another key finding: that attentiveness to the community–in particular, enacting an inclusive model with community buy-in–proved essential in each district’s experience.

  • Supporting the AAC User in the Classroom

    How can we effectively include learners with complex communication needs in general education with their classroom peers? What does it look like to support emerging communication skills embedded into school and classroom routines? Cross-disciplinary team (e.g. general education teachers, special education teachers, related service providers, family members) collaboration is key for planning and supporting success. Learn how an Ohio team collaborated to support a student who uses AAC in general education and how they included his voice in the process.

  • Paraeducator's Roles in Supporting Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PreK-12 Settings

    This study involved efforts to elicit the perspectives of paraeducators who were enrolled in an online professional development course at one university. Using the Council for Exceptional Children standards for paraeducators, this study sought to identify the extent to which CEC-defined practices were in use. The study administered a researcher-designed survey to gather data, followed by interviews with selected survey respondent. This study appears to demonstrate the value of training and experience as ways to promote paraeducators’s development of practices that align with CEC standard. The training received by these paraeducators, judging from the interview data, however, was not systematic. Additional research into the effectiveness of training in cultivating mastery of the practices specified in the CEC standards seems needed. In fact, given the relatively small body of related studies and the large numbers of practicing paraeducators, the need for such research seems urgent.

  • TIP #31: Teaching PBIS Tier 1 School-wide Behavioral Expectations to Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

    Students with significant cognitive disabilities can successfully participate in and benefit from PBIS Tier 1 when it is made accessible. These expectations can be taught to students through the use of universal design for learning, accommodations and modifications, systematic instruction in natural environments, and strategies for generalization. This TIP illustrates how these components could look for individual students.

  • All Means All…Maybe: MTSS Policy and Practice Across States in the United States

    MTSS has been implemented in school districts across the United States to counteract entrenched policies that resulted in the exclusion of students with disabilities and other learning challenges from general education curricula and classrooms. The MTSS framework, in theory, offers individualized support to all students. This needs-based approach makes MTSS potentially useful for all students, including students with complex needs or with moderate or severe disabilities. Almost no evidence speaks to the extent to which (or ways in which) SEAs are encouraging the use of MTSS to address the needs of students with moderate-to-severe disabilities or to increase the extent to which these students are included in general education classrooms. This study attempted to fill this gap.

  • How Preparation Programs for Moderate-Severe Disabilities in Ohio Incorporate High-Leverage Instructional Practices

    This study addresses the incorporation high-leverage practices or HLPs into higher education programs for preservice and practicing teachers who receive preparation in inclusive education at Ohio colleges and universities. Data were collected through four types of research activities: (1) a survey of Ohio faculty members from educator preparation programs, (2) focus-group interviews with Ohio in-service special education teachers, (3) an analysis of syllabi from Ohio educator preparation programs, (4) and focus-group interviews with Ohio parents. Findings suggest, overall, that responding faculty and institutions of higher education are inconsistently teaching HLPs. Those faculty and instructors who incorporated HLPs more consistently tended to include the easier-to-teach HLPs. Because the ability to use HLPs may be an important prerequisite to competence and comfort with inclusion, this inconsistency represents a serious setback for Ohio students with significant cognitive disabilities. Based on the findings, the report makes recommendation for both practice and research.

  • TIP #29: Creating Communication Opportunities and Tracking Progress

    Teaching and tracking communication opportunities present some challenges, as communication is not as simple as answering a question correctly or responding to typical assessment strategies. It is unique to the individual and requires informed communication partners (adults, peers, families). The tools in this TIP can help teams identify and capture those opportunities to ensure growth in communication skills.

  • TIP #30: Behavior is Communication

    Behavior is often an attempt to communicate. Behaviors that are challenging often result from communication failure. Reframing what is viewed as an interfering behavior to be a student’s attempt to communicate, provides more positive options for intervening by teaching the student more effective means to communicate their wants and needs. This TIP includes an animated short video that demonstrates this concept.

  • TIP #28: Social Support for AAC Users

    Students with complex communication needs who are using or are beginning to use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) benefit from social support from peers and adults. This TIP describes circles of social support and the many communication strategies that the AAC communicator might use with partners who know them best. It also describes strategies that the AAC communicator may use with less familiar communication partners. Being able to use a variety of strategies helps the student communicate in many types of situations for different purposes.

  • Inclusive Education Roadmap (IER)

    The Inclusive Education Roadmap (IER) is a series of tools, guidance, and processes to be used by state, district, and school teams to build an inclusive system of education. The IER unpacks the complexities of how to create, expand, and sustain inclusive education systems.

  • Video #1: Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PBIS Tier 1

    This series of short videos present the primary components of school-wide PBIS and shares strategies for making each component accessible to all learners, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • Video #2 Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PBIS Tier 1: Leadership and Team Data

    This series of short videos present the primary components of school-wide PBIS and shares strategies for making each component accessible to all learners, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • Video #3: Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PBIS Tier 1: School-wide Expectations

    This series of short videos present the primary components of school-wide PBIS and shares strategies for making each component accessible to all learners, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • Video #4: Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PBIS Tier 1: Creating Inclusive Acknowledgement Systems

    This series of short videos present the primary components of school-wide PBIS and shares strategies for making each component accessible to all learners, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • Video #5: Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PBIS Tier 1: A Classroom Intervention

    This series of short videos present the primary components of school-wide PBIS and shares strategies for making each component accessible to all learners, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • Video #6: Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PBIS Tier 1: School-wide Expectations - A Teacher Example

    This series of short videos present the primary components of school-wide PBIS and shares strategies for making each component accessible to all learners, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • Video #7: Including Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities in PBIS Tier 1: A Classroom Intervention - Teacher Example

    This series of short videos present the primary components of school-wide PBIS and shares strategies for making each component accessible to all learners, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • TIP #26: Making Universal Supports (Tier 1) within a Schoolwide Positive Interventions and Supports More Accessible for All Students

    This TIP provides recommendations regarding actions that schools can take to make participation in universal behavior supports accessible and meaningful for all students, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • TIP #27: Including ALL Students in Schoolwide Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports

    This TIP provides examples of ways teachers and PBIS teams can plan for accessible PBIS instruction across all tiers that includes students with significant cognitive disabilities.

  • TIES Center Report 106:A Literature Review of School-WidePositive Behavioral Interventions and Supports for Students with ExtensiveSupport Needs

    A Literature Review of School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports for Students with Extensive Support Needs (TIES Center Report #106)

    This report presents the findings of a literature review to summarize the current literature on School-wide Positive BehavioralInterventions and Supports (PBIS). This multi-tiered framework offers a continuum of supports to address the behavioral needs of all students within a school. Research indicates that PBIS effectively promotes positive student outcomes and improves school climate and culture. However, little is known about the involvement of students with extensive support needs (ESN) and the effectiveness of PBIS for these students. Students with ESN include students with significant cognitive disabilities. This report also presents implications for practice and future research initiatives.