School Administration
|
Administrative Procedure: Student Support Funding Allocation
|
|
EFFECTIVE DATE:
September, 2022
|
R
E
F
E
R
E
N
C
E
S
|
ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE CODE:
1.A.320
|
|
AMENDED DATE:
|
Policy Reference
|
|
|
Legal Reference
|
|
|
|
|
Border Land School Division provides student support funding based on the school profile and individual student needs. Border Land School Division provides a continuum of supports for the inclusion of students with special needs, and funding to schools supports the provision of these services.
Schools receive funding allocations to provide the supports needed for students with diverse learning needs receive inclusive educational programming, with additional funding to implement appropriate supports for students with disabilities and students with additional needs.
Student Services Funding Allocations
Schools are provided professional and paraprofessional staff based on the needs of the school and individual students. Professional staff means teaching staff, guidance counsellors, resource teachers, Reading Recovery Teachers, and staffing allocations for EAL, Newcomer support, and Smart Start support. The formulas below are used to determine base staffing allocations, with adjustments made to respond to student needs within specific schools. School teams are supported through consultation and collaboration with divisional staff, including coaches and divisional clinicians. Access to highly trained professional staff is essential to supporting student specific learning needs, and in providing support for classroom teachers to provide inclusive and appropriate education for all students.
|
Staffing allocated to schools: Student Support
|
|
Resource Teachers
|
1.0 FTE/178 students
|
|
Guidance Counsellors
|
1.0 FTE/400 grade 9 to 12 students
1.0 FTE/500 K to 8 students
|
|
Reading Recovery Teachers
|
.25 FTE * 20% of grade 1 students/4 or 5
|
|
English as an Additional Language staffing
|
.01 FTE x the # of students in years 1 to 4 of
EAL
|
|
Smart Start Teachers
|
Additional 20 half days per K class
|
Student Services funding units
Student Services funding provides schools with Units of support for the inclusion of students with diverse learning needs. Student services funding is allocated according to the following categories:
|
Inclusion & Intervention support (Tier 1 & 2)
|
K to 4: 4 units/50 students
5 to 8: 3 units/50 students
9 to 12: 1 unit/50 students
|
|
Lunch supervision
|
K to 8: 1 unit/60 students 9to 12: 1 unit/120 students
|
|
OT programming support (Tier 2)
|
K to 8: 1 unit/50 students
|
|
SLP programming (Tier 2)
|
K to 4: 1 unit/50 students
|
|
One-to-one support (Tier 3)
|
As per criteria below; assigned by Student Services
Manager in consultation with school teams and clinicians
|
|
Additional units can be considered depending on school needs and plans.
|
Allocations for Inclusion and Intervention (Tier 1 & 2) Support
Each school receives a base amount of units for inclusion and intervention support. This amount is used flexibly and responsively within the school to provide the supports needed for the inclusion of students with diverse needs and may include short-term intervention or student specific supports for needs related to high-incidence and moderate disabilities (such as learning disabilities), based on their Student Services School Plan and student specific planning processes.
This includes units for the implementation of speech therapy (under the supervision of a Speech
Language Pathologist), and an allocation for the implementation of Occupational Therapy programming.
The base amount includes an adjustment to respond to demographic factors (including a high prevalence of children in care, Indigenous children, EAL or Newcomer children). Schools may use this amount for professional staffing, resources, educational assistants, or other expenses related to student-specific programming and the provision of supports and services that students require to help them succeed.
Allocations for Intensive, Student Specific Supports (Tier 3)
Additional units are provided to implement intensive, student specific supports that are identified, documented, and evaluated in the student-specific plan. These units are to provide intensive assistance for individual students’ complex needs based on severe and profound disability.
Educational Assistants are valued members of school teams. Their main responsibility is to support classroom teachers in carrying out effective programming. Educational Assistants are assigned to teachers and classrooms, rather than directly to students.
While teachers teach students, educational assistants support their learning potential, working alongside and under the guidance of the classroom teacher. Educational assistants enrich students’ learning through positive reinforcement, use of learning manipulatives, and encouragement.
There may be students for whom one-on-one Educational Assistant support is necessary and appropriate. In these cases, comprehensive student specific plans are developed by the student specific planning team, which often includes clinicians to ensure the use of an EA will support:
To address the potentially harmful effects of excessive EA proximity, one-to-one EA support must be planned for and documented in the student-specific planning process. This process includes regularly scheduled meetings, including clinicians, to review the implementation of the plan, change the plan as needed, and to ensure there is adequate support and training in place at the school for the duties that have been assigned to support staff. For students with one-to-one support, multiple clinicians provide consultation to the school team, and the case manager supports the team to implement the recommendations that clinicians provide. The planning process must include planning for independence and social belonging.
Research tells us that the more complex a child’s needs are, the more need they have of continuous exposure to the most highly trained professional staff. Student support teams must be diligent in monitoring that the use of one-to-one support does not inhibit access to professional staff. Ongoing collaboration among professional staff with trained resource teachers, guidance counsellors, and clinicians, is essential to providing the best possible outcomes for students with disabilities.
Assignment of One-to-One Student Support (Tier 3) Units: Qualifying Criteria
|
Category
|
Criteria
|
Guidelines
|
|
Multiple, complex
needs
|
- The student requires intensive assistance and supervision throughout the day to benefit from instruction in the educational setting to perform activities and skills of daily living, and to participate in school and community.
- The student requires specialized support and student specific programming throughout the entire day for self-direction, daily living skills, behaviour, communication and academics.
- The student has a combination of extremely severe disabilities that result in multiple, profound developmental, behaviour and/or learning difficulties.
- The student has a diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder that is expressed in severe and pervasive difficulties in social interaction, communication, and a narrow pre-occupation with a fixed range of interests and activities. They have an intellectual disability with delays in adaptive skill development. The student expresses severe difficulties with managing change in daily routines, severe reactions to sensory stimuli, and persistent pattern of repetitive behaviours that are dangerous to self or others.
- Multiple clinicians are involved in developing the SSP, supporting the school team in implementing the SSP, and supports the school team in developing a system to monitor progress.
|
6 units
|
|
Safety
|
- The student exhibits profound emotional/behavioural disorders and associated learning difficulties requiring highly specific programming and intensive support services at school and in the community as a result of chronic, pervasive and consistent aggressive, impulsive and violent behaviour that affects home, school and the community.
- The student requires or receives a combination of statutory and nonstatutory services from Manitoba Education & Early Childhood Learning, Family Services, Health and/or Justice.
|
Multisystem Wraparound
plan is developed EBD 3
Application Units may be assigned
|
|
Multiple, complex needs
|
- The student requires intensive assistance and supervision throughout a significant proportion of the day to benefit from instruction in the educational setting to perform activities and skills of daily living, and to participate in school and community.
- The student requires student specific programming (adaptation and/or modification and/or individualized programming, beyond the usual educational programming provided for students with moderate disabilities.
- The student has a combination of severe disabilities that result in multiple developmental, behaviour and/or learning difficulties.
- The student has a diagnosis of an Autism Spectrum Disorder that is expressed in significant difficulties in social interaction, communication, a narrow preoccupation with a fixed range of interests and activities and may have an intellectual disability or delays in
|
3 units
|
|
|
adaptive skill development resulting in the need for assistance with activities of daily living during the school day. The student demonstrates persistent patterns of behaviour that interfere with their ability to learn and requires student specific programming (adaptation and/or modification) beyond the usual programming provided for student with moderate disabilities for a major portion of the school day.
• Multiple clinicians are involved in developing the SSP, supporting the school team in implementing the SSP, and supports the school team in developing a system to monitor progress.
|
|
|
Safety
|
- The student exhibits severe emotional/behavioural disorders and associated learning difficulties characterized by significant behavioural excesses or deficits which disrupt the student’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others, and daily functioning. The student’s physical, social and cognitive skills may be affected.
- The student requires specific programming and supports with ongoing formal interagency involvement.
- Behaviour Support clinicians have significant involvement in developing the BIP, supports the school team in the implementation of the plan and in monitoring progress.
|
3 units
|
|
Other
|
|
Variable
|
|
Consideration is given for allocation of units taking into account professional staffing and school needs.
|
Timeline
|
September to November
|
School planning team reviews fall class profiles to update the School Profile and School Student Services Plan
|
|
December
|
School Profile & Student Services Plan for the next school year is completed by school team and submitted to Student Services – must include list of intensive individual needs based on criteria above for the next school year
|
|
February to March
|
Allocations for next school year are drafted based on the criteria provided, using current data from
- School profiles and plans
- Submitted Student specific plans
- School data
|
|
|
• Conversations with clinicians and school teams
Before Spring break, the Annual EA survey is distributed
|
|
April to May
|
Draft allocations are sent to principals, who will review with their school team
Principals may discuss any unique situations with the Student Services Manager Allocations for next year are confirmed
|
|
May to June
|
Positions for the next year are planned – Considerations for recall to positions includes 1) the necessary skills, qualifications and ability to perform the work, 2) the continuity of the programming and the best interest of the student(s), and 3) seniority.
Change of assignment is at the discretion of the Division with the agreement of the school principal and EA. Qualifications and ability to meet the requirements of vacant positions are the main priority, with consideration given to continuity to programming and seniority.
30 day written notice of layoff to EAs
A letter (sent by July 7) is provides written notice to each EA of their recall date or permanent layoff (Schools receive a copy of this letter)
|
|
August
|
School principals phone EAs to confirm their recall date
|
|
September
|
Schools confirm with Student Services Manager the attendance of students who have received one-to-one allocation Allocations are verified
No EAs shall be hired for vacant positions until those laid off who, in the opinion of the Division, meet the requirements of the job have been given an opportunity for recall through placement or invitation to the interview process Positions are posted and hiring process is coordinated
|
|
Year Round:
New
Registrations
|
Transition planning must occur according to interdisciplinary protocols to support any student with additional needs (disability, child in care, EAL or newcomer)
If one-to-one support has been provided, the receiving school must gather specific information about what the support has been for (what tasks/activities/learning and what times of day)
This information, along with the information in the pupil support file, must be shared with the Student Services Manager so that services and supports can be coordinated Allocation adjustments may be made once a student specific plan is established
|