Accessibility+Leadership

=Accessibility Leadership:=

Becoming an Advocate for Students with Special Needs in your School Community
As any library media specialist who is familiar with the AASL's //Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs// (2009) knows, two components of the school library program mission are "collaborating with educators and students to design and teach engaging learning experiences that meet individual needs" and "providing leadership in the total education program" (p. 8). Implicit in these mission statements is the idea that every student's learning experiences are valuable, and we as school librarians are devoted to making this happen. As leaders in the total education program of our school community, we can reach outside the library media center's walls and collaborate with the rest of our colleagues to ensure that all students, including those students with disabilities and special needs, are having engaging learning experiences. Some of the ways to be a leader in this area include:
 * Collaborating with general and special education teachers,
 * Getting involved in Response to Intervention, and
 * Participating in the IEP process.

__Building Collaborative Teams__
While collaborating with fellow teachers is a regular part of the school librarian's responsibilities, it is even more important in the context of working with students with disabilities. By partnering with a student's general education and special education teachers, the chances for that student's success increases because of the different talents you each bring to the table. As the school librarian, you have the **skills in information literacy**, the general education teacher will have more **advanced knowledge of the grade level curriculum**, and the special education teacher will have a **strong sense of how the individual student most effectively learns** (Noonan & Harada, 2007). Together, you can form a powerhouse of education for students with disabilities.

More specifically, partnering with special education teachers can help both of you do your jobs more effectively. By scheduling regular meetings with these colleagues, together you can evaluate the school's resources for accessibility, sharing each other's expertise. Collaboration with special education teachers is aided by the similar goals of the professions: we both advocate for students to learn information skills so that they will be successfully independent; we both strive to create environments that will encourage self-motivation, self-direction, and self-advocacy; and we both regularly engage in collaborative activities offering a unique perspective to the learning community (Jones, et.al, 2010). Working together is the logical answer.

School librarians and special education teachers can collaborate in a variety of ways, but the most essential (and perhaps, simplest) way is through communication. Farmer (2009) proposed five areas of shared knowledge that school librarians and special education teachers can use to better serve their students. These areas of knowledge include: Simply by sharing knowledge with each other in these areas, the school librarian and the special education teacher will be better prepared to help their students, which will ultimately increase student achievement. With this shared knowledge, more extensive collaborations can be developed, including research projects and co-teaching. These efforts are conducted as any collaborations are: with patience, planning, and communication.
 * special education learners and learning
 * relevant resources in a variety of formats
 * positive safe learning environments
 * formative assessment and its analysis and application
 * appropriate accommodations and interventions for specific students (p. 51).

__The School Librarian's Role in Response to Intervention (RTI)__
Response to Intervention (RtI) is defined by NASDSE (National Association of State Directors of Special Education) as "the practice of providing **high-quality instruction** and **interventions** matched to **student need**, monitoring progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals and applying child response data to important educational decisions" (as cited in Vandenbroek, 2010). But what does all that mean? At the heart, RtI is a way of ensuring that we don't wait until students fall behind to take notice. Instead, with RtI, we can proactively reach students on their level and adjust our teaching methods to their needs. In theory, this sounds great. In practice, many educators are struggling to make it work. But you can help.

Schools across the country are in the process of implementing Response to Intervention. Regardless of the building you are in, there is likely at least some discussion of RtI, if not full-blown implementation. The school librarian can (and should) play a key role in the success of this program. School librarian Alicia Vandenbroek (2010, p. 48-49) outlines some key steps you can play in support of your school's RtI implementation:


 * 1) **Be Understanding.** As with the introduction of any new school-wide program, there can definitely be a time of chaos before everyone gets the hang of it. Teachers may be overwhelmed by the paperwork associated with RtI and may not feel able to meet with you often.
 * 2) **Be a Support Base**. Part of RtI involves collecting data from students frequently to monitor how they are progressing. Ask your principal to see this data to get an idea of where some of the weaknesses are in the school community. Use the data to shape your library instruction. If the data shows students struggling in science vocabulary, you can incorporate science texts into your regular lessons: teach parts of the book with a non-fiction science text; practice using call numbers with materials from the 500s and 600s; instruct on note-taking by using a science-related database. Similarly, you can focus the resources you share with colleagues on science-related materials. By highlighting one area, you can improve student success.
 * 3) **Develop the Collection with Teachers in Mind.** Although this is likely already part of your collection development policy, a focus on helping teachers with RtI can boost your collection even more. Select teacher resources in areas you notice teachers needing extra support and select student resources that will support their interventions. Check out the page on Collection Development for suggestions in this area.
 * 4) **Use Technology to Differentiate**. The Internet is rampant with resources to encourage differentiated and/or tiered instruction. Make yourself familiar with the varied tools available that will allow students to create online book reviews, make their own digital booktalks, take notes during research, build story-boards, do concept-mapping, and collaborate with each other.

If you're feeling really proactive, take a lead role in your school's implementation of RtI. Someone has to be the team leader to make sure the program is successful, and as a central piece of the school community, there's no reason that person can't be the school librarian.

__The Individualized Education Program (IEP) and You__
We've all heard the term "IEP", especially for those of us already in a school setting. The **Individualized Education Program** is a written statement documenting the educational program that will fulfill the individual needs of a student. IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) requires that all students in special education programs have one. The first section below offers a crash course in the IEP, followed by ideas for how you as the library media specialist can get involved.

The IEP: What You Need to Know*

 * There are two **major purposes** of the IEP: to set reasonable learning goals for the student and to determine what services the school is responsible for providing to the student.
 * The IEP is developed by **a team of relevant school staff members and the student's parents** no less than 30 days after the student has been identified as needing special education, and is to be reviewed at least annually.
 * The IEP must include the following elements:
 * The student's current levels of academic achievement and functional performance.
 * Learning goals for the year, describing what the team thinks the student will reasonably be able to accomplish, and plans for measuring progress toward these goals throughout the year.
 * The special education (and related) services that the school will provide to the student and a schedule of how and when these services will be provided.
 * How the student will be included with or separated from peers without disabilities.
 * How the student will be included in state-wide assessments and if alternate assessment is required.


 * Summarized from the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities

The IEP: What You Can Do
As is noted in the second bullet point above, the IEP team is made up of a student's parents and **relevant** school staff members. Most often, this is assumed to mean the student's special education teacher, regular classroom teacher, an administrator who has the authority to commit resources, and any others with special knowledge of the child. However, in many cases, the school librarian can be very relevant to the special education services provided to a student, as they may be responsible for providing the materials or technology needed for the supports, modifications, or adaptations stated in the IEP. Participating in IEP meetings means that you can contribute suggestions for materials or assistive technologies that would benefit the student and how those materials would be used throughout a given school day (i.e. whether the student would come to the library or whether those materials could be checked out short-term or long-term). Being a part of the meeting (or at least reviewing the IEPs shortly after they're created) means you will be prepared in advance for your student's needs.

In addition to understanding the resources available, school librarians can also be beneficial to IEP collaboration in that they can suggest goals related to information literacy standards. Noonan and Harada (2007) advise that if the school librarian notices a student with an IEP struggling in finding materials in the online catalog, (s)he can suggest that skill become one of the student's IEP goals for the year (p. 135). Since many information literacy standards are closely tied to reading, writing, and communication skills (which will likely be dealt with in an IEP), building in IEP goals related to library skills makes a lot of sense. By collaborating with the IEP team, you can together determine the best route for embedding instruction related to the IEP goal into general education lessons, and who is best suited to deliver this instructional content.

__Works Cited and Suggested Reading:__
American Association of School Librarians. (2009). //Empowering learners: Guidelines for school library programs.// Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Farmer, L.S.J. (2009). School library media specialist collaboration with special education personnel in support of student learning. //Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 4//(2), 37-55.

Hopkins, J. (2005). Extending inclusive learning: Library and special education collaboration. //Library Media Connection, 23//(6), 17-19.

Jones, J.B. & Zambone, A.M. (2008). The power of the media specialist to improve academic achievement and strengthen at-risk students. Columbus, OH: Linworth Books.

Jones, J.L., Zambone, A.M., Canter L.L.S., & Voytecki, K. (2010). The forgotten partners in special education: Teacher-librarians. //Teacher Librarian 37//(4), 65-69.

Jouzaitis, V. (2004). Serving the needs of our students with LD in the school library. //School Libraries in Canada 23//(3), 34-38.

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (2010)//.// The short-and-sweet IEP overview. Retrieved from @http://nichcy.org/schoolage/iep/overview

Noonan, M.J. & Harada, V.H. (2007). Special education and inclusion: Opportunities for collaboration. In S. Hughes-Hassell & V. H. Harada (Eds.), //School reform and the school library media specialist// (pp. 131-143). Westport, CT: Libraries, Unlimited.

Vandenbroek, A. (2010). RtI: The librarian's fairy tale? //Library Media Connection//, //29//(2), 48-50.

//Page last updated November 2011 by Emily Ward//