LAKELAND – “We don’t like to label our kids, we label the areas where they are not achieving their full potential – not the students as a whole,” said Julie Chorney, the director of teaching equality and staff delivery for Lakeland Catholic School Division (LCSD) during a regular Lakeland Catholic trustee board meeting on Dec. 21.
Chorney and Carol Rainey, coordinator of student learning services for LCSD, are involved with the division’s many supports that are being offered to students with a wide range of needs.
“We determine why they are at risk with diagnostic and then we provide ongoing plans to provide supports that match the student’s need,” Chorney explained to Lakeland Catholic trustees, noting that before assessments take place the term ‘at-risk’ is used as a broad and non-clinical definition.
The division uses a Collaborative Response Framework as a means to identify which supports and next steps are necessary for an individual student. The model is broken down into three parts: collaborative structures and processes, continuum of supports, as well as data and evidence.
“It's dynamic. All three elements are in play at all times supporting all of our students,” she said. “Continuum of supports helps us answer ‘What are the solutions?’ It's not always a circle, it’s back and forth and it's messy and amazing and it's making big waves for us.”
Student support is then approached through a tiered system. Tier one and two are in-classroom supports offered by teachers and student assistants. The first two tiers are a universal strategy intended to support all children in the classroom.
“When teachers see that students or groups of students require differentiated support in the classroom, then they move into tier two, and they can employ accommodation strategies and interventions within that classroom structure to support success,” Chorney explained.
“It is important that we know that our tier one or two classroom supports are firmly, properly, and appropriately in place because we want to be certain that students who are perceived as being at-risk are benefiting from sound supports at those levels before we determine that they need additional supports beyond level one or two.”
Tiers three and four focus on students who have been identified through assessment.
A benefit of this system is that students who do need specialized service professionals can have dedicated time with those providers when support is truly required, she noted.
When students undergo assessments, it helps diagnose mild, moderate, or severe needs and specific goals, objectives, and strategies that are then developed to support them based off their results.
Lakeland Catholic supports include individualized program plans, vision screening, specialized assessments, English as an Additional Language (EAL), the multidisciplinary team, Eastern Edge Low Incidence Team, student assistants, and specialized learning support grants.
Across the division, 383 students have individualized program plans (IPP). Rainey noted that the number of students with IPPs isn’t as telling as the number would suggest, and each students’ needs can vary drastically.
IPP may include specialized supports for educational needs, speech language needs, occupational therapy needs, behaviour issues or other specialized needs.
“The good news is that to assist school divisions with the lag in access to specialized assessments due to the pandemic, Alberta Education created a Specialized Assessment Grant,” Rainey told trustees. “We were able to apply for assessments for students that have had to wait longer than six months for assessment.”
So far this year, the division has submitted 33 applications for psycho-educational assessments and two applications for occupational therapy assessments.
“Even better news is that this grant will be extended in the New Year, and we are hopeful that we will be able to access more assessments... That's really helpful when it comes to our overall assessment budget,” she said.
LCSD has about 70 student assistants as well as a division psychologist, occupational therapist, EAL Lead Teacher, physiotherapist and several speech language pathologists and assistants.
Throughout the division, there are 177 students receiving specialized supports for speech and language, 66 receiving occupational therapy, two receiving physiotherapy, and 19 students seeing a psychologist.
Lakeland Catholic’s multidisciplinary team division-wide is supporting 264 students.
When it comes to speech and language support, Rainey noted students are seen typically beginning in pre-Kindergarten to Kindergarten and receive speech therapy until Grade 2, sometimes to Grade 4, and are discharged when they no longer need support.
At this time last year, the division had 200 students receiving speech therapy, this year the number has dropped to 177. Over last year and this year, 42 students have been discharged.
The number of LCSD students who fall under English as an Additional Language (EAL) programming is 258. Of those students, 61 are new intakes this year alone.
“Last year, intake was actually higher,” Rainey noted.
Complex communication
Currently, Lakeland Catholic provides complex communication support for three of its students that are seen by the division’s Low Incidence Team. Two of these students are hard-of-hearing, and one has low vision.
“It used to be that there's a whole team of people, all these different specialties, but it's just not there anymore. What we really need but don’t have is a complex communication consultant,” Rainey acknowledged.
The province has contracted Kathy Howery, who is a complex communication expert, to help jurisdictions with support for students with complex communication needs. Most frequently for students that don’t speak with their mouths, Rainey told trustees.
“She is helping build and enhance our capacity to work with those students,” she said.
Howery has visited Lakeland Catholic twice this year and will serve as a mentor for the division’s speech pathologists and assistants, as well as provide professional development for classroom support teachers.
“We have applied for and are receiving the Low Incidence Supports and Services Grant of $33,563.50 [from Alberta Education],” Rainey said. “Every penny of that... is going to be used to assist complex communication students.”
The funds will be used to continue work with Howrey, and for necessary Alternative Augmentative Communication Systems for students, in addition to student consultations.
Growing need for communication supports
The division also serves 14 Pre-Kindergarten students with a severe disability or severe language delay and one Pre-Kindergarten with a moderate language delay. These students qualify for various Alberta Education early childhood services (ECS) grants such as Program Unit Funding (PUF) or Jordan’s Principal funding.
In Kindergarten, Lakeland Catholic supports six students with a severe disability or severe language delay and another six students deemed having moderate language delay through ECS grants.
In the years ahead, Rainey and her team of staff are preparing for an increase in students with greater language needs.
“We have seen a definite increase in students coming to school in pre-Kindergarten with very complex communication skills,” she told trustees. So far, 19 three-year-olds have already been assessed and will qualify for funding next year.
Board trustee Vicky Lefebvre’s inquired as to why there is an increase of language delays for young children.
In response, Rainey said, “Nothing has been suggested. Obviously, some of the conversations are about too much screen time... but having said that there are children with the most complex needs that would have been in place regardless. Those are neurological situations. So, there isn't any one answer, but we have definitely seen an increase.”
Concluding the presentation Chorney added, “Collaborative response is helping us to organize the services and supports that we provide to students... Our goal is to ensure that as our students are running along that we are meeting them where they need and are ensuring that we have got the support underneath them and truly wrapped around them.”
