Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators: To What Extent does being on the Senior Leadership Team Influence their Role?
The emergence of the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) role in the United Kingdom represented an important development for addressing the need for additional support for special education teachers in ordinary schools (Winter & Kilpatrick, 2009). Although SENCOs are generally expected to closely collaborative with teachers in addressing the special needs of their students, there remains a lack of definitional clarity with respect to the precise role that should be played by SENCO in mainstream secondary schools in the U.K. today (Winter & Kilpatrick, 2009). The purpose of the proposed study is to determine to what extent being on the senior leadership team influences the role of SENCOs and in what ways as described further below.
Background
The need for a viable framework to address the learning requirements of special educational needs (SEN) students has been recognised for over a half century, culminating in the passage of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) (Powell, 2003). The SENDA mandates that disabled students must not be treated in any fashion less favourable than non-disabled students, and that reasonable accommodations must be made to ensure that all students have the opportunity to participate in learning activities (Powell, 2003). Because the SENDA authorises the use of mainstreaming...
Although the data gathering process remains a work in progress, the U.K. Department of Education made its views about the issue clear. For instance, in its section on the role of the SENCO in schools, the SEN code of practice emphasises the need for including SENCO as members of the school's senior leadership team: "The SENCO has an important role to play with the headteacher and governing body, in determining the strategic development of SEN policy and provision in the school. They will be most effective in that role if they are part of the school leadership team" (2015, p. 108). Moreover, pursuant to Professional Standards for Qualified Teacher Status Standard 2.6, "In order to seek advice, the
teacher will need to be aware of the role of the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator"…
