It looks like there is talk about yet again threatening to eliminate the AEA system in Iowa. The difference is that it appears to be something the Republican controlled House, Senate, and Governor could make happen this year.
I feel like I have a unique perspective on this issue as I have been a special education teacher, district administrator, and AEA Special Education Director in Iowa in the last 30 years. In all of my experiences I worked closely with my local AEA and had some excellent experiences as well as those that were frustrating. What I want to be very clear about, is that the last thing we should do is dump the AEA system and think that private entities and/or districts are going to be able to offer the services that are currently provided by the AEA system.
AEAs are primarily a source of support for special education with about 80% of their services falling into this category. That support includes birth to 3 services, speech language pathologists, challenging behavior, autism consultants, compliance support, entitlement evaluations to determine student eligibility for IEPs, assistive technology, deaf and hard of hearing services, and OT and PT support. Most everything they provide is required by federal law, so these are not things we can just choose not to do anymore.
Many of the people I have worked with through the AEA system are talented, hard working advocates for all students. It was a privilege to lead the special education team and I learned an enormous amount about how the AEAs can be even more effective in the 4 years I served as Director. I think the AEA system would welcome a chance to reinvent itself, as my experience was that they were always looking to do things better.
I have no issue with the questions around the achievement for students with disabilities in our state. The gap is very large and there is ample evidence to question whether the services we provide might actually cause achievement to be less than if the student didn’t have an IEP. The question of whether or not we are providing effective special education services in Iowa schools is an excellent question to ask. To answer that question we need to do a deep look at our current systems and determine what is working and what is needed and the best possible way to effectively implement those pieces that are missing.
We need to take a year to really do a comprehensive program review of our AEAs, not some outside entity who will not take the time to really speak to schools, families, students, and AEA staff. This should include a pervasive look at all relevant data, focus groups with shareholders from staff to parents, observations of people doing the work, conversations with current and past students, and analysis of other relevant pieces such as staffing and licensure issues. If we don’t do this and just dump the current system, I guarantee that our state will not be able to provide the legally required services in all districts in Iowa, which will likely lead us to advocacy group engagements and due process events that will put us on someone else’s plan to get better.
I lived through this in Cedar Rapids with the DOJ agreement around restraint and seclusion. We had a strong plan in place where restraints/seclusions had been reduced by over 75% and we had reduced our student population in off-sites from over 300 to around 70. The DOJ wrote the plan, including some inane things like not being able to block a student from leaving a classroom through the door when they are escalated, and the district now has to place all these critical resources into documentation of a plan that I still believe strongly will result in more students in more restrictive settings with overall disruption to the general school environment increasing instead of decreasing.
We assume we know what works with special education, but the reality is that most of these things are assumptions and do not take into account the situation in which we are currently functioning. We need to determine the things that will have the most leverage for positive change in the state and then support those things adequately. For example, there was a study done in Arizona 10 years ago which identified the six things correlated with districts that were able to achieve a reduction in their achievement gap for students with disabilities. Arizona Article.pdf
The six things were….
1. A culture of high expectations for ALL students and a student-first mentality
2. Highly effective teaching strategies in the general education classroom
3. Frequent data collection for use in decision making
4. The use of data analysis to provide interventions and enrichment
5. Core instruction in the general education classroom as much as possible
6. Effective leadership
None of these things that have the biggest impact are what special education teachers do in special education classrooms. Number one is the way people think about students with disabilities in the building. If I was planning an overhaul of our system and this is the evaluation data I received I would make sure the AEA system supported these 6 things in the future or that districts had this support in some other way if AEAs were no longer present.
And, what are those things in this current world that are not being addressed by AEAs that would be helpful instead of some things they are currently offering? When I was the Director of Prairie Lakes AEA we started a school for students with challenging behaviors in partnership with Spencer CSD because this was a critical area of need for our districts and we had the expertise, knowledge, and staff to support a program like this. How can AEAs help with the critical staffing shortages we are facing? How do we make sure there are true partnerships between the AEA and the districts they serve; that it isn’t the AEA “expert” coming in and telling them what to do with no understanding of the very valid barriers the school faces?
I have seen the movement of the AEAs when it comes to special education over the last 20 years. There were days in the past where compliance was the focus and results took a back seat. I remember when the Chief at PLAEA asked me if I was interested in coming to the AEA as Director and I said “I can’t work for the AEA, I am always in trouble with them!” I can tell you from my experience this has changed and the results we get with students are the primary focus of the work for the AEA system.
Let’s begin now to really evaluate the current AEA system, determine the results we believe are most critical, and then plan the best way to design those services in Iowa that will be most beneficial to schools, families, and students. Perhaps the review would determine that one of the missing pieces is adequate support for districts with students who have very challenging behaviors and that piece of the system needs to be completely reimagined. Or maybe providing PL to teachers with coaching support would be a service to make a priority. Mentoring around special education for leaders could also be a critical piece of the work. Again, just because it isn’t perfect now does not mean it should go away.
But please, please do not make a rash decision about AEA services and leave districts in even more of a struggle to do what is legally required (and what is necessary and appropriate) then they are currently living. Our schools, families, and students expect and deserve better.
