[FEAT BC Admin]

In this discussion area, please feel free to share your experience in implementing A.B.A. programs in the school system. We would particularly like to hear from those parents who converted their school teams to A.B.A. We’d like to hear the nightmares as well as the success stories.

Any insight that can be shared by school-based special education assistants to help parents would also be very meaningful.

Topic

[Dave Collyer]

Dang this forum board is archaic… no edits… blarg!

My point below… these arrangements were worked out with two District Admin Spec Ed Staff over the last two years. They are formalized and now reflect district policy. It has been a long process rooted back with some of the original FEAT members about 17 years ago who did need to battle.. who have had those people with whom they developed relationships with retire only to start the fight again and again going thru section 11 appeals etc… Now… it is POLICY. There is a formal process for developing a school based ABA program that reflects the home program… coordinated by the consultant hired by the parents in partnership with the District Staff and local school based staff.

[Dave Collyer]

"I am sorry but I do not agree with you all about a good District person because frankly the system has to change. Suppose there is a good person or two…..What if that good person moves on or retires? Who's listening then? "

Again take another look Ducky. The process has been formalized. Job description exists and is part of the CUPE local contract. Hiring policy and procedures are in place. Evaluation process for Consultant credential evaluations are in place.

[Dave Collyer]

Hi Ducky,

"What do you mean Parents have no rights? Have a look at this Dave:"

Uh… what? I don't think I said that we don't have any rights. Take another look. My point was that from my perspective Hewko does not necessarily give the parent the right to pick the SEA… the right to be consulted and the right to reasonable accommodation are spoken to in the Hewko ruling. Within the context of Hewko this includes the accommodation of the "home program" but this does not necessarily mean that home based staff need to be hired by the school. Yes we have the right (and obligation IMO) to advocate.

[Ducky Piyo]

P.S.

When I post this info it is to ENCOURAGE our Parents out there to not give up.

Conversations on the board like yours and mine will help the Parents do more research to see which path they want to take. These are necessary and healthy.

I am so glad you mentioned that these options for ABA were in place before Hewko. Exactly…so in a way it was limited to one way to get ABA.

Now there are more choices. I think the new parents are very fortunate to get to pick what they want for their child. I recall a time when there were no local ABA Consultants and nobody heard of Autism.

A common myth is that "fighting for your kids' right to ABA" means bringing guns or knives to the table". It can be a very reasonable and respectful experience.

Either way, lots of learning for Parents. Unless you have researched it and get first hand info, it is always going to be someone else's experience.

All the best everyone!

Piyo

[Ducky Piyo]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your opinion. Great sharing!!! :-)

This is exactly the kind of conversation that should be out there.

With informed choices Parents will know what they want to do with their own kids….not the school. I am sorry but I do not agree with you all about a good District person because frankly the system has to change. Suppose there is a good person or two…..What if that good person moves on or retires? Who's listening then?

What do you mean Parents have no rights? Have a look at this Dave:

STATEMENT OF EDUCATION POLICY ORDER
BC Ministry of Education
Governance and Legislation Branch D-96 November 4, 2008

Parents: have the RIGHT and responsibility to participate in the process of determining the educational goals, policies and services provided for their children.

They have a PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY to ensure that children are provided with the healthy andsupportive environment necessary for learning. They have a responsibility to help shape and support the goals of the school system and to share in the tasks of educating their young.

THE SCHOOL ACT says

[272] The School Act (the “Act”) allocates authority and responsibility among teachers, school boards, the Minister of Education, the Lieutenant-Governor in Council and PARENTS.

If Parents don't have rights then what kind of society are we in? It is our children and we are ultimately responsible for them and when they are 18, WE Parents are the one that will be there to see them transition to adult world.

These are our kids no matter where they are in the community. Parents will always have the ultimate right. I don't need to ask for permission, this is automatic.

If we are not confident of who we are as a Parent and our role, then who will help our children?

As I have said in previous postings, no offence to the people that are working their butts off and want a better future for our kids….but most of them have their hands tied because they have to answer to someone above them.

Your opinion is great to start a good and healthy conversation but we must be open to look at ALL THE OPTIONS of implementing ABA and not just one way…

Just as FEAT has not said Lovaas or highway. We FEATERs respect that there are families that practice differenty types of ABA programs.

As one of the other Surrey FEATers noted, not all Districts are interested in listening.

EXACLY..That's when you remind them of Hewko not wait for lady luck to give you someone that listens from the system.

There's a give and take here. I do not believe that the Districts out there will just give you ABA and someone just woke up and decided today's the day I will hand out ABA to my students. There were compromises and sacrifices. There's no free lunch.

I post this to share with all parents because often they think moving to one district works over another. That's what causes it to be even more difficult to advocate because divided we fall. Besides it is not fair to other districts to house more of the cross boundary students so as in a recent article, Surrey students are lacking so many services although the population of students are much higher than other nearby districts.

There is nothing wrong with sharing info so that parents make their OWN choice. I did not have the knowledge you all have so I hope to share so others do not make any wrong turns in their choice.

Only an informed choice is a RIGHT choice.

Thank you Dave.

Piyo

[Dave Collyer]

Hi Ducky Piyo,

Victoria School District has a very similar arrangement as to what the Surrey School board offers: CUPE ABA Therapist Job description and competency matrix for therapist and Consultant as well as a professional agreement "pledge" with specific requirements for the consultant, a parents therapists evaluation form and a requirement that an ongoing robust ABA program be in place in the home environment. The basic arrangements were in place prior to the Hewko ruling and have been formalized with consultation with key behaviour consultants over the last year… and in our situation the Hewko ruling had little to no real impact on our advocacy style and ultimately the supports put in place for our son. What did have an impact was the willingness of two key people within the District Spec Ed dept. to explore new options for our children and active positive advocacy with these two key partners.

SD68 has an ABA job description (two of them in fact) posted on their web site (ASD-Lovaas and one for ASD-Popard) and has had for years. I have also heard that North Vancouver also works in partnership with parents (or did? Fill us in North Van parents).

Anyway, my point is that Surrey is not alone and is not unique.

The Surrey College course offered to ABA Therapists is in addition to skills they already possess. They are not learning the ABA skill set on the job (well… we all learn on the job all the time… I hope). These therapists are already well versed in the ABA skill set and theory. I would suspect that the 1000 hours of previous exp. in ABA is meant to capture exactly that – skills have been developed over 1000 hours of supervised instruction and mentorship. In SD68 (Nanaimo) the requirement is 6 months of supervised practicum, In Victoria it is "1 to 2 years experience delivering an Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) Program to an autistic child under the direction supervision of a certified professional trained in Applied Behaviour Analysis". In my opinion these high thresholds for experience and skills captured by the "1000 hour" requirement are absolutely essential. We want skilled therapists in place. We do not want the district hiring people who say they have credentials (perhaps a college course in ABA and skills) but which in fact are dubious or developing after a short period working in a home program. Direct supervised application, mentorship, continuous feedback from the consultant and senior or lead therapist over an extended period of time is key… it is a key part of the "argument" to convince the district that bringing in an ABA Therapist and program is a good idea… the person has skills… it has been documented… they have depth… they are not new to the field… they are not being put in place on a whim… they have invested time and effort in developing skills… they are in fact professional.

From my perspective re. instructional control – Hewko only requires that the Districts demonstrate Instructional Control. It does not specify how this is to be done. Tread carefully when using Hewko as a tool to advocate for services. You need to know the limits of what was "won".

re. parents "right" to pick whom they want to have work with their child at school. In my opinion it is not really a specific right at all. It could be argued based on the Hewko ruling that there is an obligation on the part of the District to engage in meaningful consultation with the parents re. the program for their child and that the district is required to demonstrate instructional control BUT there is nothing that specifically grants parents the "right" that you mention. You have the right to be consulted in a meaningful manner. Thats it. It is a possibility that the District may already have a CUPE member in place who has the required skills and that this person could be assigned to your child as the ABA-SEA. In this case it would be essential that the consultant work actively with the SEA to ensure programs are delivered across environments and that instructional fidelity is maintained. It is completely possible that in this context that instructional control could be transferred into the school environment. In this context it would be very similar to hiring on a therapist to work with you at home… and this therapist already possesses skills… you would need to familiarize them with the specific aspects of your child's individual program but they would quickly grasp the nuances and under supervision quickly develop instructional control.

Anyway, we are into year 5 in the school system. Smooth sailing so far. District has hired from our home team 3 times as they cannot find ABA therapists with 1 year supervised ABA… awesome. It works. Keep it going people. Find key people within the Districts. Work with them to put systems in place. If they stonewall keep at it… as heavy as needed. Remember – carrot and stick.

[Ducky Piyo]

Hi there,

Thank you for the clarifications from other FEATers about ABA therapists working in Surrey.

Because of the Hewko case, a skilled ABA therapist is person that must have instructional control over the child and it clearly states that on the job training is no substitute for having basic training.

So I see the course is taken while the ABA therapist is working in the school.

Instructional control must be established with the child that has Autism BEFORE they work with them at school. This is how you build instructional control, rapport and trust between the adult and the student.

No other way to gain instructional control as you all learned from Langley that failed miserably. There was NO instructional control established and the child was ousted of the school. (Adults have no skills, punish the kid…what the?)

There are alternate ways to access ABA in schools and going through a college is ONE way to do it.

It is wonderful to know that the ABA therapist is hired BEFORE they have taken the Surrey College course.

Who on earth put that 1000 hours of ABA is required before a therapist can be hired in? I am not sure about you all but no where in the Hewko case can you read that 1000 hours is the requirement for instructional control.

Each Parent that advocates has the right with their OWN Consultant to determine what are the skill set required and WHO on their team can go in to the school.

I shared about Surrey in my posting in order to give informed choices to those that are asking, seeking and just entering the Autism scene now.

The ADVOCACY of Sabrina Freeman, Jean Lewis, Bev Sharpe, David Chan and David Marely (plus countless others) is what directly works to include our childrens' ABA program in school in ALL districts.

It is not because of idolatry that I and many others mention these people. This is because these Parents are the ones that fought tirelessly and did not gain as much as we did.

They certainly raised the bar when it comes to Advocacy and Selfless unsung heroes. We have to know our history ladies and gentlemen and ABA in schools did not happen because someone is lucky. A great price was paid whether you acknowledge or not.

Some of these parents left the public system, paid for private school and put in a pretty penny to fund the Hewko. This is not a stroke of luck or perhaps hoping someone would listen. This is PASSION for all Autistic kids!

Hewko IS a landmark case for all BC kids and not just for Abbotsford.

I appreciate your support for Surrey's ABA implementation but we are not all from Surrey and we have more options available now in all other districts. We can choose to move to Surrey or stay in our District, learn to use Hewko and be respected because we have rights!

Besides if we all move our kids to the districts that appear "open to ABA" then who is fighting for their own districts? ABA inclusion would be available for all districts if Advocacy is done RIGHT!

For those that did not get ABA in school most often because advocacy is not taught in any community groups other than Medicare for Autism NOW! events like the one tomorrow.

These are the real heroes. What is the chance of getting a district personnel to be open and listen to parents? Like a draw for a lottery ticket, one in a million.

Glad to know you appear to have a listening ear but outside of Surrey, there are success stories and it is because Hewko is used PROPERLY. A lot of groups mention Hewko but do NOT teach Parents how to use them.

This is why we have Medicare for Autism NOW! events to share the truth behind how to get ABA in the school.

I am a Hewko believer and this case has helped me time and time again. I have researched community groups and spoken to government and even Minister of Education. Nobody but Jean Lewis and David Chan would give me time in their day to help me. There is another but I prefer to keep their identity anonymous in order to respect their wishes.

That Parent overwhelmed me with emotion when they said, "you don't need to pay me back. I had help from other Parents. Your job is to help other parents behind you." Thank YOU! You know who you are :-) Love your heart!!!

Learn to use Hewko… I have more confidence and respect than I have ever had before in my life and it feels good because I did something about it = ADVOCATE !!

Thank you for reading my opinions.

Piyo

[Nancy Walton]

Thanks Dione,
I'd just like to add two things:

The Surrey School district will hire a therapist BEFORE they have taken the Surrey College course. The therapist can take the course while already working in the schools. There are thus two categories, the Interim ABA Support Work (without course work) and the ABA Support Worker (who has completed course work).

Secondly, the website for the ABA Advisory to the Surrey School district is

http://sites.google.com/site/abaadvisory/

What makes Surrey different from the other districts? We had someone in the district who listened to us and then allowed us to be part of building the ABA Support Worker program. We are very grateful to Rick Ryan for being brave enough to change the entrenched traditions of how the school system deals with children with disabilities.

[Dione Costanzo]

Hi Everyone,

As a Surrey parent I would like to tell you my perspective of how ABA is working in SD 36.

My son is in grade 2 and has had an ABA Support Worker full time since he entered the system in Kindergarten. His ABA SW is someone who had worked on our home team for almost 2 years before entering the school system.

In the spring before my son was to enter K, I went to an SD36 information session for Kindergarten parents. I met Rick Ryan, President of Student Services (at the time) who explained to me how the system worked in Surrey.

Kids with autism who are in home based ABA programs are eligible to request an ABA Support Worker for school. The requirements for an aide to become an ABA Support Worker are 1,000 hours of experience in home based programs under the supervision of qualified consultants, and they must also successfully complete the ABA Support Worker Program at Surrey College. The courses of this program are taught by experienced professionals and the curriculum was designed through collaboration of parents, professionals and district administration.
Here is a link to the course info:

http://www.surreycollege.sd36.bc.ca/programdetail.asp?programid=8

Note the next free info session is May 12 – tell your therapists!

Once these requirements are met an aide can be hired by SD36 with the ABA SW designation. These workers are in a different "pool" than the SEA's. This is a much smaller pool that has separate postings for assigning ABA SW's to kids that are in home based ABA programs.

SD36 does not offer any behavioral consultants. The consultant from the home based team oversees the school based ABA programs and is under employment of the parents.

As a Surrey parent who has greatly benefited from the work of parents before me, I am dedicated to paying it forward by helping to "feed the system". Many other families in Surrey as well hire and groom therapists to go into the school system as ABA Support Workers. We sometimes lose therapists off of our teams when they enter the school system with another child but it is worth it to strengthen the ABA community and have another child in the district receive appropriate support.

Support and acceptance by individual school administration can vary and I hear stories from Surrey parents about various struggles they have. Much advocating and "paving the way" is still needed in some schools.

The district administration is on board and has been since implementing the ABA Support Worker program a few years ago and watching how ABA works in the schools. They have been quite creative in working with individual cases to create appropriate learning environments for ABA kids.

There is an ABA Advisory in SD36 that works with parents and district administration on key issues that impact the effectiveness of ABA services in schools.

From what I understand, the districts of Langley, Richmond and Burnaby are not willing to listen to ABA parents, and it is possibly time for another lawsuit (?) in order to get a working ABA system into schools there.

I am not an expert in the SD36 school system but am happy to share my experiences, knowledge and contacts with anyone please email me at dionec@shaw.ca

Cheers,
Dione

[Mike & Jean]

Attention all parent-advocates:

The "Getting it Done" Advocacy workshop scheduled for this Saturday, April 30th by Medicare for Autism Now! is FULLY BOOKED. We are wait-listing people until Friday afternoon, in case of cancellations

Due to the exraordinary interest, we anticipate scheduling more workshops in the near future both in the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. Don't be disappointed – stay posted here and at http://www.medicareforautismnow.org for details on future workshops and other Medicare for Autism Now initiatives.

If you haven't already done so, please go to http://www.medicareforautismnow.org and sign the on-line petition. While you're there, check-out the message board to see who in this election campaign will publicly commit to supporting legislation to include autism treatment under Medicare. Share your own candidates' responses…but…do so before election day!

Questions about "Getting it Done" Advocacy workshop? Future workshops? Candidate responses? Other Medicare for Autism Now! initiatives?….contact us at mfanow@gmail.com

We're looking forward to a great workshop – see you all this Saturday!

Jean and David

[Author]

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