This study was designed to investigate concerns with respect to the delivery of special education services in reserve schools, to identify the special needs of children attending these schools, and to study means of identifying and assessing children with special needs. The information obtained was used to develop a special education funding formula which would be more sensitive and responsive to the specific needs of Indian students in schools on reserves in Saskatchewan.<p> The study which was an exploratory field study involved two or more days of intensive discussion between the researcher and various groups of people on each of six reserves. At the conclusion of the study, a committee comprised of representatives of each band met with the researcher to review the findings and to make recommendations.<p> The study addressed three main areas of concern-the identification and assessment of special education students, the special needs of students in reserve schools, and funding arrangements. Results indicated that current procedures for identifying and assessing special education students are vague, costly, and time-consuming. As well, bands do not have easy access to the qualified personnel to do the identification and/or testing. It was also discovered that large numbers of students in reserve schools are handicapped because they are severely disadvantaged, seriously age-grade misplaced, and/or severely emotionally deprived. These categories of handicap, although not recognized by the the special education funding formulas, do interfere with the academic achievement and success of the students. Bands are experiencing problems with the current funding arrangements. Inadequacy of funds to cover the costs of delivering appropriate programming, lack of firm policies and procedures for accessing and allocating funds or to direct the process of delivering funds to the band level, and ineffective systems at the band level for administering special education funds are the chief problems.<p> It was recommended that the funding formula should consist of three components--a low cost component to offset the costs of programming for the mildly to moderately handicapped; a special needs component to cover the costs of programming required beyond what is provided through the low cost component; a support services component to cover the costs of education psychologists, classroom consultants, speech therapists, and other consultant services. As well, it was stressed that for such a formula to be truly functional, well-defined policies and procedures would have to be developed and implemented.

This study was designed to investigate concerns with respect to the delivery of special education services in reserve schools, to identify the special needs of children attending these schools, and to study means of identifying and assessing children with special needs. The information obtained was used to develop a special education funding formula which would be more sensitive and responsive to the specific needs of Indian students in schools on reserves in Saskatchewan.<p> The study which was an exploratory field study involved two or more days of intensive discussion between the researcher and various groups of people on each of six reserves. At the conclusion of the study, a committee comprised of representatives of each band met with the researcher to review the findings and to make recommendations.<p> The study addressed three main areas of concern-the identification and assessment of special education students, the special needs of students in reserve schools, and funding arrangements. Results indicated that current procedures for identifying and assessing special education students are vague, costly, and time-consuming. As well, bands do not have easy access to the qualified personnel to do the identification and/or testing. It was also discovered that large numbers of students in reserve schools are handicapped because they are severely disadvantaged, seriously age-grade misplaced, and/or severely emotionally deprived. These categories of handicap, although not recognized by the the special education funding formulas, do interfere with the academic achievement and success of the students. Bands are experiencing problems with the current funding arrangements. Inadequacy of funds to cover the costs of delivering appropriate programming, lack of firm policies and procedures for accessing and allocating funds or to direct the process of delivering funds to the band level, and ineffective systems at the band level for administering special education funds are the chief problems.<p> It was recommended that the funding formula should consist of three components--a low cost component to offset the costs of programming for the mildly to moderately handicapped; a special needs component to cover the costs of programming required beyond what is provided through the low cost component; a support services component to cover the costs of education psychologists, classroom consultants, speech therapists, and other consultant services. As well, it was stressed that for such a formula to be truly functional, well-defined policies and procedures would have to be developed and implemented.

Indiana School for the Blind has a regular academic program fulfilling the state's requirements, but adjusted to blindness. Only educable children are admissable and when a child is judged to be unable to benefit from the program, he must be rejected for admission or readmission to the school. Many children retained in the school are making minimal gains due to unmet needs for psychotherapy or for a special program designed for retarded or neurologically damaged children. The present study involves three known groups of mentally handicapped blind children, (1) those who have been rejected for even a trial admission at Indiana School for the Blind because they are judged unable to benefit by an academic program, and (2) those granted a trial admission but rejected for readmission as unable to benefit by the program, and (3) those enrolled in the school but not being served adequately by the present program. The numbers of children in these groups will be presented and their characteristics will be described, in order to understand the types of specific programs needed for the education, training, or care of these children and of the assumed population of multi-handicapped blind children of which they are a part.

This is a discussion of panelists from different universities who learned to navigate their institutes of higher education to create quality online special education certification programs to reach teacher candidates in rural areas. Each panelist will detail her university’s technology, process for approval, and financial incentives to create online programs.

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