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Agenda

Session 1 – Preschool

7:00 PM to 7:05 PM

Introductions/Opening Remarks

7:05 PM to 7:35 PM

Preschool Education Program (PEP)

7:35 PM to 8:00 PM

Comprehensive Autism Preschool Program (CAPP)

8:00PM-8:30PM

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Opening Remarks

Ms. Amy Cropp, Director,

Division of Pre-K,

Special Programs, and

Related Services

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Outcomes

Share an overview of special education services in MCPS

Inform participants of the continuum of special education services provided within the Preschool Education Program (PEP)

Provide information on the Comprehensive Autism Preschool Program (CAPP)

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Percentage by Pre-K Services in MCPS

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Preschool Education Program

(PEP)

Montgomery County Public Schools

Mary Rose Catena, Coordinator, Preschool Education Program

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Preschool Education Program

PEP provides a continuum of services to meet the needs of students with a range of developmental delays and disabilities that impact student ability to learn and access the prekindergarten curriculum.
Services range from regular early childhood settings to self-contained special education classrooms.
All PEP services follow the general education pre-K curriculum aligned to Maryland’s Early Learning Standards.
The overarching goal of all PEP services is to prepare students for kindergarten.

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PEP Itinerant Services

Services are provided in community preschools/childcare settings, or within MCPS Pre-K/Head Start classrooms.

Special education teachers and related service providers provide direct services to students in the regular early childhood setting.

Services are aligned to student IEP goals and are typically provided once or twice per week.

PEP Itinerant services are often recommended when a minimal amount of specially-designed instruction will meet the student’s needs in a regular early childhood setting.

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PEP Inclusive Pre-K

Services are provided in a fully inclusive general education Pre-K or Head Start classroom for students receiving special education services in their prekindergarten year.
General and special education teachers co-plan, co-instruct, and co-assess using co-teaching models which incorporate students’ accommodations, supplementary aids and services, and assistive/augmentative communication.
General and special education paraeducators support instruction in the classroom environment.
PEP Inclusive Pre-K services are typically recommended when the IEP team determines that a prekindergarten student’s needs can be met in a regular early childhood setting.

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PEP Collaboration

PEP and Pre-K classes collaborate to create an inclusive setting by creating heterogeneous groups of students with and without IEPs from their separate classrooms.

Students belong to either Group A or Group B and alternate weeks being instructed in either classroom.

Students are taught by both the general and special education teachers and paraeducators.

Teachers co-plan so instruction is mirrored in both classrooms.

PEP Collaboration services are typically recommended when the IEP team determines that a prekindergarten student’s needs can be met in a regular early childhood setting.

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PEP Pilot

PEP Pilot services, taught by a special education teacher and paraeducator, provide an inclusive opportunity for preschool students not in their prekindergarten year.

Non-disabled community peers attend PEP Pilot classes and create the inclusive environment.

PEP Pilot services are typically recommended when the IEP team determines that a preschool student’s needs can be met in a regular early childhood setting.

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PEP Classic

PEP Classic services, taught by a special education teacher and paraeducator, are provided in a self-contained special education classroom.

PEP Classic services are typically recommended when the IEP team determines that a student has multiple needs across various learning domains that, even with the use of the student’s accommodations and supplementary aids and services, cannot be met in a regular early childhood setting.

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PEP Intensive Needs Class (INC)

PEP INC services, taught by a special education teacher and two paraeducators, are provided in a self-contained special education classroom.

PEP INC services are typically recommended when the IEP team determines that a student has multiple needs across various learning domains that require significant adult support, and that even with the use of the student’s accommodations and supplementary aids and services, cannot be met in a regular early childhood setting.

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PEP Full Day

PEP Full Day services, taught by a special education teacher and two paraeducators, are provided in a self-contained special education classroom and provide significant opportunities for repetition and practice throughout an entire school day.
PEP Full Day services are typically recommended when the IEP team determines that a student has substantial, global learning delays across multiple learning domains that require significant adult support, and that even with the use of the student’s accommodations and supplementary aids and services, cannot be met in a regular early childhood setting.

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Comprehensive Autism Preschool Program (CAPP)

Montgomery County Public Schools

Dr. Susan Mason, Instructional Specialist,

Autism Services

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CAPP

The Comprehensive Autism Preschool Program (CAPP) provides intensive and individualized services for students ages 3–5 with autism or sometimes students who receive service under developmental delay. These students require a full day of evidence-based instructional practices and behavioral supports. To maximize independence in all areas of development, the focus in CAPP is to increase language, learning, and adaptive skills to provide access to a variety of school-aged services.

Currently we have 24 classes in 7 locations throughout the county

Our classes are located in neighborhood schools that serve all types of learners; however, students attending our program receive their instruction in classrooms without typical age peers and they are taught almost exclusively by special education staff members (the exception is that of art, music, PE and media)

Our students receive speech language, occupational therapy, and sometimes Physical Therapy (related services) as indicated on the student’s IEPs. SLP, OT/PT specialists may either provide services in the classroom, or take the child to a different location and work outside of the classroom. Sometimes these services are delivered in group learning settings and sometimes individually. Additionally, speech pathologists and occupational therapists etc. may provide a combination of in classroom vs. out of classroom services. All services are provided with only special education students.

Our students learn best when instruction is presented in an individualized way that often is not in context or in the naturally occurring situation and they need specific instruction to then learn to demonstrate the skills in other situations, or with different materials or with different staff members and/or peers).

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CAPP

Students may have significant needs in the areas of:

Adaptive skills
Behaviors
Communication
Social Skills

Students in autism services:

Access the Pre-K curriculum with significant modifications including identified instructional accommodations, supplementary aids and services, assistive technology, and related services as indicated on the child’s IEP

Our students have needs in communication, self-care (toileting,) and social situations –play skills, turn taking, interacting with others (including greeting adults and peers). Some have needs in fine motor skills such as cutting, drawing, coloring.

Adaptive skills or life skills such as toileting needs, self-care such as handwashing, independence

Behaviors are a result of lack of communication and vary from student to student. When students show behaviors sometimes it presents in harming themself, sometimes it is body dropping and crying, often our students have difficulty sitting for prolonged periods of time, they are not good at attending to instruction that includes a lot of language, some students push, hit, bite, others in the room. Again, the behaviors are a result of lack of communication abilities and we have a primary focus on teaching communication skills which then lead to better social skills.

Communication–students served in our program often are non-verbal. Some students have echolalia–they repeat back words or phrases they have heard either immediately or in a prior situation (such as repeating dialogue from a video). To help students gain language and communication skills many of our students need multiple ways of communicating. The student may use some words or approximations of words, some picture cues, gestures, vocalizations, etc. Staff provide annoying modeling and reinforcement so that students learn how to communicate and interact with others.

Social skills–establish motivation to interact with others-develop play skills

Our primary focus is on teaching foundational skills (such as matching, imitation, listening and responding to directions/instruction, answering questions, initiating and responding to greetings, production of and imitation of sounds and words). To help students gain language and communication skills. Many of our students need multiple ways of communicating and may use some words or approximations of words, some picture cues, gestures, vocalizations, etc. Social skills–establish motivation to interact with others-develop play skills

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CAPP

Instruction is provided individually and/or dyads approximately 4 hours per day.
Instruction is individualized based on IEP goals and objectives.
Group instruction is provided daily, as appropriate.
Students are included in lunch and recess with appropriate staff support
Students participate in art, music, PE, and media taught by their content teachers and with appropriate support from staff.
The teaching methods are based on Applied Behavior Analysis.

benefit from DTI more than traditional special education–that is, students in our classes require direct, repeated instruction that is presented in a highly systematic manner in order to acquire skills. In order to develop meaningful instruction, we rely on assessment tools such as the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program or the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills - Revised (ABBLS-R) both tools help us pinpoint the student’s needs skills such as visually understanding and problem solving to make puzzles or put shapes in a sorter, imitating motor movements with objects, or of another person, listening and responding to instruction/directions so they can perform a skill, conveying information verbally–expressing what they know/need/want through words or pictures, labeling common items/actions, filling in words in a song or rhyme or answering social questions such as what is your name, where do you live, requesting desired items, items needed to complete an activity, and/or asking for help, etc.,

Throughout the school day, students are taught almost exclusively by special educators and/or special education paraeducators. When students are in art, music PE, media, they are not with their typical age peers, but rather as their own class peers. Although the special is taught by a general education/content teacher, the students are supported by our program staff.

A typical day may look like,

arrival with staff members meeting students at the bus and walking with them to the classrooms

learning an arrival routine that includes taking off a backpack, taking out a lunch box and putting it in a designated place, hanging up the backpack, taking off a jacket and hanging that up.

toilet needs (diaper changes–use the toilet) as appropriate

work on handwashing

for some students breakfast is an option (title 1 schools)

In some schools students do an independent activity schedule prior to morning meeting

morning meeting

Arrival

Breakfast

Circle Time–morning meeting work on greeting, finger play songs/ imitation, day of the week, peer interactions

Centers–reading (encouraging interaction with books) Math (working on shapes, colors, number skills) Writing (working on learning to use writing utensils and trace or copy lines or their name

ART/Music/PE/Media–varies across the week

Individualized Teaching Time–dyad or triad instruction

Centers and Eureka Math

Recess

Lunch

Individualized Teaching Time–dyad or individual

Storytime–includes learning to listen to stories, identify pictures in a book

Good-bye circle

Dismissal routine

Busses

Students are taught by different staff members throughout the day and across the week.

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