5. Prior to a referral for special education services, what are 3 things you would do for a student in your class who is experiencing social/behavioral difficulties?

First, the child needs to see a therapist. This will weed out students who are truly having problems with developmental disability from those who are having other problems, including temporary problems. Secondly, the therapy results need to be reviewed by the teacher, the parents and the student. Thirdly, a detailed IEP needs to be written up and tried with the student.

6. What inspired you to teach the developmentally disabled student? While I was student teaching, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to take a developmentally disabled student aside to help him with a particularly difficult problem that he was having trouble understanding. When I was able to show them a different way to approach things and they "got it." At that time, I knew that I had chosen the right field for sure.

7. Is your school's referral process working adequately? Is it timely and efficient? Happily, my school's referral process is very systematic and effective, while being timely and fair. It is a democratic process while being helpful to the student.

What is your role in the eligibility determination meeting? Who are the required members of the IEP team? The following are at the eligibility determination meeting: the special education teacher, the child's current classroom teacher, other general education teachers school psychologist and any other specialists, the school administrator, parent and the child ("Step 5:, " 2009).
9. On a scale from 1-5, with 1 being low, how involved are you in the IEP meeting? Luckily, this rates at about a 4. The school district where I work considers that the general education teacher is on the front lines in terms of determining the student's needs. The general education teacher is as central to the intervention as the therapist since they observe the student the most in the classroom environment.

Works Cited

Barnett, D.W., Daly III, E.J., Jone, K.M., & Lentz, Jr., F.E. (2004). Response to intervention:

empirically-based special service decisions from single-case designs of increasing and decreasing intensity. The Journal of Special Education, 38(2), 66 -- 79.

Step 5: the iep meeting. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.understandingspecialeducation.com/IEP-meeting.html.