Identifying Special Education Needs: Considerations in an Era of Disrupted Learning

Presented by Sarah Brown, Ph.D., Executive Director of Professional Learning, Illuminate Education, Inc.; and Wendy Stuttgen, Ed.S., NCSP, Literacy Consultant, St. Croix River Education District (MN)

Sponsored by Illuminate Education

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Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation. Get a CE Certificate for this edWebinar Learn more.

After more than a year of disrupted learning, research shows that larger numbers of students will not meet traditional grade-level benchmarks when they return to learning this fall. This will make it more difficult to determine when students require special education services to get back on track versus when Tier 1 instruction or Tier 2 supports need to be intensified.

But how do you develop a process to navigate this “new normal” when it remains uncharted ground? In this recorded edWebinar, Drs. Sarah Brown and Wendy Stuttgen provide guidance on how to ensure students receive the instruction and interventions they need while reducing unnecessary special education referrals and potential over-identification. The practices used by the St. Croix River Education District serve as a real-world example. Tune in to learn:

• How and when to conduct universal screening to identify class- or school-wide academic needs
• How to interpret screening data to guide Tier I instruction and identify students in need of Tiers 2 and 3 interventions
• The role of progress monitoring in determining the effectiveness of Tier 2 interventions and when they should be intensified
• Considerations related to suspecting disabilities for low-achieving students this fall

Screening and progress monitoring will be more important than ever this coming school year as you work to close learning gaps. This recorded edWebinar provides valuable steps and insights to successfully navigate special education referrals this school year.

This recorded edWebinar will be of interest to K-12 teachers, school and district leaders, school counselors, and school psychologists. 

About the Presenters

Dr. Sarah Brown is the executive director of professional learning at Illuminate Education. Her work focuses on implementing MTSS at multiple levels of the education system and improving systems to support high achievement for every student. Before joining the Illuminate team, Dr. Brown led special education and MTSS implementation for the state of Iowa as a bureau chief at the Iowa Department of Education.

Wendy Stuttgen, Ed.S, NCSP is a literacy consultant for the St. Croix River Education District (SCRED), which services six school districts north of the Twin Cities. She is also a local certified trainer/facilitator for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS), which has received accreditation from the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). Prior to these roles, Wendy worked as a director of special education and school psychologist and has been on faculty as an adjunct professor in the School Psychology Graduate Program. Wendy is passionate about providing evidence-based literacy instruction to students, and she firmly believes that all children can learn to read if provided systematic and explicit instruction. She recently co-authored a children’s book with her daughter to help both children and parents understand dyslexia and what evidence-based literacy instruction looks like. The book is called Daisy Describes Dyslexia & How She Learns to Read.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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Illuminate Education partners with K-12 educators to equip them with data to serve the whole child and reach new levels of student performance. Our solution brings together holistic data and collaborative tools and puts them in the hands of educators. Illuminate supports over 17 million students and 5200 districts/schools.